In these morning hours, we're dealing with the First Thessalonians, a book that Paul wrote to a young church in which he deals with the great fundamentals of the Christian faith and life and hope. And as we saw yesterday morning, he points out how they have come to know the Lord, that they've come into the marvelous truth of grace and truth in Jesus Christ, so essential to our Christian faith. They immediately, after they accepted Christ, manifested their lives in that they were saved. He knows that they are elects of God by the transformed life that they have. And then having brought them to this point of serving the Lord and having a testimony even up and down the highway there that went through Thessalonica, he also points out how they're looking and waiting for his son from heaven. and more or less a complete panoramic view of what the Christian life is all about. Now in chapter two, he deals with the subject of service. Chapter three, we're going to see sanctification. Chapter four, the surety of our resurrection and our security in chapter five in the time of God's wrath. But today is serving the Lord. Now, Paul had done a very remarkable thing. You come into a city, a large city, where there wasn't a single Christian as far as we know. He'd gone to the Jewish synagogue where they were steeped in their Jewish faith, and in three weeks' time he had won some of them to Christ, both Jews and Gentiles, and also raised terrible opposition and persecution. And the result was that he had to leave and leave them behind. And here they were, a young band of Christians without a New Testament had been written yet. And they were floundering somewhat because of their persecution, and yet they were standing true to the faith. Now, later on, Timothy went and encouraged them and came back. Paul wrote this first Thessalonian letter, which he answered some questions that Timothy couldn't answer, at the same time gave us his joy at having their faithfulness in God and also set forth some of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Now, Paul went into this town. What was the secret of his success? How would you like to go into a town where there wasn't a Christian, and in three weeks' time establish a church that would continue after you left, even though there was great persecution for them? Well, here we learned the lesson that Paul gave us. In chapter two, he says, for you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you is not in vain. In other words, we just didn't go through a lot of show and didn't produce anything. But even as we had suffered before and were spitefully treated Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God with much conflict, much contention. I remember he had gone first and after responding to the call to come to Greece to Philippi, and there he encountered terrible opposition and was thrown in prison, you remember, he and Silas, and a painful beating, and they were in prison there till midnight when suddenly an earthquake loosed them. And as a result of this, they were able to lead the jailer and his family to Christ, and this started the Philippian church to which he later addressed the letter to the Philippians. It was a painful experience. I think a lot of Christians, having gone through, I'll say, well, next time I'll be a little more tactful and not arouse so much opposition. But that wasn't Paul's approach. He went there and boldly preached the gospel. Now, I think we have to bear in mind that boldness doesn't necessarily mean without tact. There's a right and a wrong way to do things. And even though the Christian faith is controversial, we shouldn't be needlessly controversial. And of course, Paul avoids that. But on the other hand, we have to face the fact that truth is divisive. When you preach the truth, it divides your audience, because some will believe and some will not. And that was true there, and it's always true. It is true in Christ's priest as well. He didn't win them all either. And even Judas Iscariot was not one, though he'd heard hundreds of Christ's sermons. So he was bold. Now, the word in the Greek, which this epistle was written in, is an eighth syllable word. It means bold in the sense of speaking out. And we have to bear in mind that we have an obligation to express our testimony for Christ. Now, I'm sure there are some Christians that don't do much about it. We're genuine Christians. But we don't win many people to Christ by a silent testimony, even though it's necessary for us to lead and demonstrate our Christian life of what we do. they need to know the gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose again and that people can be saved by trusting in him and that's what he preached and of course the Jewish faith was one of legalism where they were attempting to defend their faith before God and demonstrate by their works what they were and be seeking salvation by works because that's orthodox Jewry even today and he had to teach this new doctrine of grace and of course they were particularly incensed because Some of the Gentile converts to Jewish faith had now followed Paul, and they resented that very much that they were losing these people that they thought they had won to the Jewish faith. Now he goes on in the next few verses to explain what he didn't do. Now the Christian life has some negatives. I don't think you have to be careful not to be too negative. I once heard a preacher say the Bible is never negative. I guess he hadn't read his Bible very well. I read the New Testament just for fun to see what it said. And I found that one-third of the exhortations were negative, and two-thirds were positive. And that's a pretty good balance, I think. I was involved in a Bible conference in Indiana one time, and they had a lake next to their conference grounds, and they tried to regulate the swimming on it. So they had a big sign, had a big word, no, about seven, eight feet high. Then they listed ten things that they weren't supposed to do. We finally took the sign down. This is telling the truth, but it was entirely negative. and they tried to find another way to communicate the same thing. But Christianity isn't just a series of negatives. We aren't spiritualists by not doing certain things. And sometimes people are very proud of what they don't do, you know. They think a little bit better than other people who do them. On the other hand, the Christian life is a positive life. But here, Paul, first of all, says what he didn't do. There are certain things that a Christian shouldn't do if he's going to have a good testimony for Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul tells us here. She said, first of all, he said, for our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. But I see the enemies of Paul were accusing him of all sorts of things. They accused him of teaching doctrinal error. And Paul says, no, I didn't teach error. They said that he was deceiving them. He knew better, but it was deceiving them. He said, no, I was not deceiving you. We have to be careful not to deceive people. in connection with the gospel. And then he said there was no uncleanness, there was no sin, there was no hidden motives here as he preached the gospel to them. And I think it's very important that we preach the gospel plainly and without these things it shouldn't be true. I one time heard an evangelist, he was a pretty good evangelist, but the last night of his message he asked everybody to get out their handkerchiefs and wave them in the air and and blow away their sins. Well, it wasn't exactly hygienic to say the least. But I thought to myself, that's a trick. The Bible is saying about taking your handkerchiefs out and waving them in the air. He could probably truthfully say he had a hundred percent response from the audience. But it didn't mean a thing. We don't want to deceive people into making some awkward show of the gospel that doesn't make sense. And Paul said, I didn't deceive you. I didn't have uncleanness. I didn't preach error. And notice what further he tells us. As we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who test our heart. In other words, the message wasn't something that Paul had derived from his studies. It was something that God had entrusted him with. And the idea was he trusted him to deliver it to other people. And that's what he was trying to do here. is the God-entrusted message. And when they spoke, they didn't do it to please men, but to please God. Now, I suppose it's perfectly all right to be pleasing when we preach the gospel and do it in a winsome way. And there's a right and a wrong way to do even that. But we don't have our ultimate motive pleasing men. There are too many sermons these days that send people out feeling real good, you know, because the preacher has been so kind. and don't really preach the truth. Our goal is not to have people speak well of us. Our goal is to have people speak well of God and his message in the gospel. And that's what, of course, he had done. Then in verse five, he said, For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness God has witnessed. Now, it's very easy to flatter people. He could have come to these Thessalonians and said, I'm so grateful you're such good Jews and have followed your religion so faithfully. People as good as you often know about Jesus Christ. He didn't say that. He said that apart from the grace of God, there were lost sinners, even though they were Jews, even though they came to the synagogue, even though they tithed, even though they did the other things that people should do that are serving the Lord. He said, you're sinners. You need to be saved by the grace of God. And that's rather condemning, you know. People don't like to hear that. Remember one time I was asked to preach in a church that I suppose was somewhat liberal in this theology, and I spoke on the three crosses, you know, Christ in the middle, and the two on either side, and how one of them got saved and one of them didn't. And one of the leaders in the church after he came up, you would preach on that. He just didn't like the idea that somebody was lost and needed to be saved. So we encounter problems sometimes, and while we shouldn't be needlessly controversial, Our goal is not to please men. The question is, what does God think about it? And he didn't use a cloak of covetousness. Now, he told them they could tell he wasn't flattering them, but they couldn't tell what his motives were. So he appealed to God that his message was not designed to make money for him. In fact, he didn't take any money from them at all. As he makes clear, he paid his own way, as it were, in that church, just to avoid the charge of being there for the money that was involved. And so it wasn't covetousness that motivated him. And that, of course, should be our goal as well. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when he might have made demands as apostles of Christ. Now, he could have come in and said, well, after all, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. You've got to listen to me because I am such a superior person. That isn't our method in the gospel, is it? We're not preaching ourselves or who we are or what we are. We're preaching what Christ did. And what Christ offers people to trust in him. And that's what Paul was trying to do here in the Thessalonian group. And then in verse seven in the following, he turns from the negative to the positive. You see, there should be a positive aspect to our message. He said, we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children, so affectionately longing for you, We were well pleased to impart you know in the gospel of God, but also our own lives because you've become dear to us. Now here's a picture of a nurse caring for a baby. Now if she's a professional nurse, obviously she'll follow the skills of her trade to care for the baby. But this is a special situation. This nurse was taking care of her own children. So beyond all the natural standards of nursing care, She loved the baby and wanted to do something for it because she was the mother. And Paul said, that's the way I felt about you. I wasn't just trying to be an efficient preacher. I loved you. You were my search of children. And I wanted to treat you gently. That's a very important word, isn't it? To be gentle in our Christian relationships and as we preach the Word of God. And that's what Paul did. In fact, he tells them he loved them so much. and desired so much to impart the gospel, he'd be willing to die for them. But I see his detractors had said that Paul had left because he wasn't interested in them. He had no real regard for them. He just abandoned them when there was opposition. And so they tried to make the most of his absence. And of course, they'd made it impossible for him to come back. And so we have this fact here. But Paul said, I'd have been willing to stay and die for you. And of course, ultimately he did die as a martyr. But he had a lot of work to do yet. He hadn't written the New Testament epistles that he wrote. We think of a Thessalonian epistle as the first one. Galatians written about the same time, but others epistles had to come later, and he had a great missionary work to do yet. It wasn't God's will for him to be martyred. Sometimes it's God's will for us to be martyrs of the sand and to die, and thousands of martyrs have been killed in our twentieth century all over the world. There's been a terrible time of slaughter of Christians in many nations. In fact, I think there are more martyrs in our twentieth century in any previous century, even the first century, because there's so many more Christians who have died. But sometimes it's God's will for us to avoid this and to leave a place of danger in order to continue our ministry. And that is Paul's case here. But he tells him he'd rather he'd be willing to die for them. They were so dear to him. And that's remarkable because he only knew them for three weeks. It wasn't a long time attachment, but Paul loved the people to whom he ministered. And that's so important if we're a preacher or a teacher, not to treat people like bumps on a log or just people with a name. We should love them as people, and we should manifest our desire to help them in every possible way as we minister the Word of God. That's what Paul did here, of course. But you remember, brethren, Now here he's pointing out the proof for all this, our labor and toil for laboring night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preach to you the gospel of God. And I see Paul didn't have the day, he didn't have electric lights, and when darkness came, they went to bed. That was the normal thing. But they could stay awake, they could get a little lamp, you know, and Paul had stayed awake. Many a night, he had tried to lead someone to Christ, help someone in their spiritual problems. Many a night he spent in prayer. It wasn't just daylight hours for Paul. They knew that he had labored long and hard in that church. And love manifests itself at work, you know. It's not just the sentiment. It's what we do about it that really counts. And Paul demonstrates this. He said in verse ten, year witnesses and God also. how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe. It's very important if you're a preacher or teacher of the truth that you emulate in your life the same qualities that you're trying to produce in other people. And sometimes that isn't true. It's possible for preachers to preach beautiful sermons that too aren't too beautiful in their personal lives. And sometimes preachers are failures because of that. It's true also for ordinary Christians. that their lives do not measure up to what they teach. It's difficult sometimes when you preach the spiritual riches of Christ to measure up in any way to that high standard, but that should be our goal. And Paul said, you saw me, you saw how I lived and how I lived the gospel that I preached and how devoutly and justly or righteously and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believed. You see, he had a testimony in his personal life, just as he saw in the testimony. It's a changed life that comes when a person is a real Christian. Then finally, in verse eleven, he brings the positive side to a close. As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you unto his kingdom and glory. Now, I remember he'd used the illustration of a nurse before. Now he talks about a father dealing with his sons, whom he loves. And he said, I dealt with you as a father, deals with his beloved son, and how he charged them as a father does his own children. And what his exhortation is that they had worked worthy of God. Now he doesn't mean that they're worthy of salvation. Nobody's worthy of salvation. But it's the picture of a child born in a royal family. You and I belong to a royal family. Now, when a child is born in a royal family, he's under special discipline and stress to act like that, you know. You have to live in keeping with the kind of family you're in. And that's true of a Christian. In other words, we should walk in a manner that's worthy for a child of God. And that, of course, is a high standard of life that all of us should emulate, as Paul sits down before us. Now, in verse thirteen and following, He deals with some of his reactions to all this. He said, for this reason we also thank God without ceasing. Because you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the Word of men, but as is in truth, the Word of God which also effectively works in you who believe. Now, you notice how often he says he prays for them and prays without ceasing. Now, that doesn't mean he prays twenty-four hours a day. But you know it's very easy when we have a prayer request to remember a day or two and then forget it. And I'm afraid we all are guilty of that. Paul again and again says, I prayed without ceasing. Here he had had all these missionary journeys. He had so many churches on his heart, so many individuals for whom he was concerned, and his prayers continued for them and for these Thessalonians. He wanted them to know that they weren't out of mind or out of heart, that he still loved them and was praying continuously for them. And that's what he tells us he's doing here. And he thanks God that when they received the Word of God as he preached it, they received it not as an opinion of men, but as it was in truth, the truth of God. And of course, that's what we preachers are trying to do, who are trying to present not our own views, but what the Bible teaches and what God teaches, the truth of God has to be presented. And they received it that way, and it effectually works in those who believe. Then in verse fourteen he tells us how well they received it. And he tells them, For you, brethren, became imitators of the church and God which are in Judea and Christ Jesus, for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from their Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they do not please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they would be saved, so as always to fill a measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. Now you see, the church in Judea had gone through all this. They had accepted Christ, and now they're under terrible persecution. And the Jews are especially incensed that the gospel went to Gentiles, and it's hard for them to adjust to that idea. Now today we have anti-Semitism, against the Jew, but this was the reverse. This is anti the Gentiles, you see. And so they were especially in the sense that the gospel, which they were heard from the Christians, was also being extended to Gentiles on an equal basis. And this disturbed their pride and their background. So he says here, persecution here, because there's the same situation here, they were especially in sense that some Gentile converts to Judaism had been one to Christ and were now leaving that Jewish background in order to accept this new doctrine of grace and salvation and hope in Christ. And so this was the same thing. He said, you're going through the same experience, and it's just the same as happened to other people. I think it's well for us to remember that when we have troubles, and we all do of one kind or another, that we're not alone. There's many, many others that are going through exactly the same experience, as Christ himself said, in this world you shall have tribulation. It's perfectly normal for a Christian... in a world that's dominated by Satan and unbelief for a Christian to run counter to the tithe and therefore encountering opposition and difficulty in this present world. Most of us don't know much about tribulation, don't know much about persecution as far as that's concerned, but these early Christians did. It was very important. Their families were divided, their friends were against them, and so it was not easy at all to be a Christian and to lead a Christian life. And so the whole attitude of the unbelieving world, especially the Jews, forbidding them to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, he says God's wrath is going to fall on them because of their prejudice against the Gentiles and their prejudice about giving the gospel to them. And so in due time, God was going to judge them for it. But now he also had to face the fact that these false teachers, those that opposed him, were accusing him of Not coming back because he wasn't concerned about them. And he didn't really care to be there. And so in verse seventeen he said, But we, brethren, have been taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoring more eager to see your face with great desire. Therefore he wanted to come to you, even I, Paul, time and again. But Satan hindered us. We have to realize that Christian life is not an easy life. In fact, it gets too easy. Look out. You may be going downstream instead of against the tide of evil in the world. And Paul said he was having this problem. And these false teachers, of course, were accusing him of not being interested and not being there. But he says, I had to be taken away from you, and I couldn't come back because the devil had literally broken up the road in front of him so he couldn't get through. And I see if Paul had gone back, he'd either been assassinated or thrown in prison. And he wouldn't have accomplished any good thing there in Thessalonica. As far as we know, he never went back. Perhaps Timothy and Silas went back, as we learned, but not Paul. He never was able to come back. But he looked forward to the time when he'd see them at the rapture, you see. This was a living hope with him that Christ might come any time and that he would be rejoined, Christians, all over the world if he had led to Christ and prayed for, and instead of him coming to them, they would go together into the presence of God. And so that was his anticipation, even though he never got back to Thessalonica as far as we know. And then he goes on in verse nineteen to say, What is our hope, our joy, or crown rejoicing? Is not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming? For you... our glory and joy. You know, one of the blessed things about the Christian life, you lead people to Christ and have influence on them, is that someday we're going to be in heaven. And we'll see the results of our preaching the gospel there in the lives of those who are in heaven because they trusted the gospel that you preached. And those of us who preach, even if we're not great evangelists and haven't led thousands to Christ, are no doubt going to have some in heaven that are there because of us. I've been in the ministry a long time, and periodically I get a letter from someone that perhaps I knew twenty, thirty, forty years ago. I may tell how, somehow, I influenced them at that time and enabled them to start out in the Christian life. Those things are very rewarding, aren't they? Because often you don't know. I've had people write, you know, in such service, twenty years ago I got saved. I didn't know that. And so you have to learn from these. When you get to heaven, we're going to see the results. of our soul winning. Now, soul winning is more than personal testimony. That's important. We win people through prayer. That's why we have to have prayer meetings. And we win people through our money, through our sending others to preach the gospel. We're going to have a part in the great work of God insofar as we've participated in it. And when we get to heaven, this is going to be our real triumph, our real joy, that there are people there who have trusted in Christ and are saved because of it. Now you notice he have an expression here, as we have in every chapter about the coming of the Lord. This is a little bit different. It's even, he's going to, our hope, he says, what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ as his coming, for we are his glory and joy? The word for presence is often translated coming. You see, if a person's present, he has to come. And parousia is the word that's used. And it means that we come and then, therefore, we're present. When the Lord comes, we're going to be present with him. And that's what's going to happen. Now, it's going to be a wonderful experience for Christ to come. I can't understand people don't get excited about it. I think it's a wonderful, wonderful anticipation. You know, my dear old mother lived to be over a hundred and When I'd visit her out in the West Coast, I'd always tell her as far in advance as I could that I was coming because she looked forward to that. She would count the days till I came, and then we'd have a time of fellowship, and we'd be a couple of days at least together. And she looked forward to my coming because she loved me. Now, if we love the Lord Jesus, we're going to be looking forward to seeing him face to face. And what an experience that's going to be. You know, you and I can have wonderful fellowship with Christ right now. We do that in our private life, in our churches, in our prayer meetings. We're very conscious of His presence and He can speak to our hearts through the scriptures and through guidance. And we can speak to Him, sort of like being on the telephone. But it's not the same as seeing a person face to face, is it? If you really love a person, you not only want to communicate with them, you want to see them, don't you? And I can't understand how people who say they believe in Jesus Christ and believe in his coming are not excited at the prospect of seeing Christ in all his beauty and glory. And the point, of course, is it could happen any day. Any day might be this exciting day of seeing the Lord. Now, I'm sure we appreciate God and love him now to some extent. But you know, it's going to overwhelm us. When we see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we're told in First John, when we see him, we're going to be like him. You see, our bodies are going to be transformed. If we're dead, we're going to be resurrected. If we're living, we're going to be transformed. We won't have a sin nature anymore. We won't have anything in our bodies that will offend a holy God and will be comfortable in the presence of an infinitely holy Savior. But how overwhelming it's going to be when we see Christ. to realize that this is the person who died on the cross for our sins and rose again. How could such a wonderful God stoop to being so low, not only to become a man and live among men, the limitations of men, but to die on the cross for our sins and take this place of shame and pain and suffering as it became our offering for sin? You see, we just can't really enter into this fully. When we see him, I think we're going to rejoice in the presence of the Savior. But then as we look around, if we can get our eyes off the Savior, what are we going to see? Are we going to see our loved ones in Christ? You know, as you get older, more and more of our friends and dear ones are on the other side. And I think it's perfectly normal to miss them. I don't think the Bible says we shouldn't be sorrowful for those that have gone on. Now, we can rejoice in the fact that they're in the presence of the Savior. And we rejoice that they're not suffering all the problems of this life, which might have been very real to them before they died. We can understand all that, but just the same. We're going to see them again. Well, how rewarding that's going to be to have family circles broken down here, husbands and wives separated by death, and now joined together in heaven again. It's going to be a wonderful, wonderful experience. And that's what Paul, of course, gives to the Thessalonians later on in chapter four. This is our hope. This is our comfort every day that possibly this will be the day when loneliness will be gone forever, when sin and struggle and pain and difficulty are going to be gone forever, tears are going to be wiped away forever, and we're going to rejoice forever and ever in the presence of God and with our loved ones in Christ. It's going to be a wonderful, wonderful spiritual and physical renewal as we meet all our loved ones there. You know, a lot of churches just don't preach about the coming of the Lord. I think they leave out a very important greeting in the Christian life. What is Christianity without hope? Expectation for the future. And that's true in our lives and experience as well. We shouldn't just be living in the present. Christianity by its nature is a faith of three tenses. It has historical background. Christ died for our sins. He rose again. Our salvation was something accomplished in history. And then there's a lot of truth to be learned in the Bible from the history of the Bible, the fulfillment of prophecy. And then there's the present tense when God works in our hearts. And we experience growth in grace and the knowledge of the Lord and get thrilled by God's presence, miracle-working power in our life. But then there's hope. And Christianity without hope is not genuine hope. And I can't understand how people can live short-sightedly just thinking about this life, preparing for this life, And if they're Christians, not thinking about life eternal, it goes on forever and ever. After all, our life in this world is just a brief moment in time. It's going to issue into the timeless eternity that's still future. Forever and ever, we're going to be in the presence of the Savior. And that's, of course, what Paul is offering these Thessalonians. And he's saying that one of the things he's looking for is he goes to that future time. And the Lord comes and he's in the presence of God. He's going to look around. Here are the souls that he was partly responsible for because he preached the gospel and they came to Christ and were gloriously saved. He said, this is our real compensation. Now, he never got a big salary. In the ministry, in fact, didn't take any at all. He usually earned his own way by making tents. But he never was a wealthy man in this world. But how wealthy he was in spiritual fruit and lives been changed by his ministry and by the wonderful hope he had. of having fought the good fight, he's going to be crowned as a victor over the human problems that we have in this life. So Paul is looking forward to that glorious future and that glorious time. Now in the next chapter we're going to deal with another aspect of the Christian life. You see, salvation of course comes first. You don't even get started until you're saved and born again. Now there's service for God as Paul illustrates in his own life and the hope that comes within people for Christ And now in chapter three, sanctification, the call to present tense holiness in anticipation of a perfection someday in the presence of the Savior. That's what we're going to have tomorrow in chapter three. Now we're going to go into prayer, and I trust that you'll enjoy that period as well. We're grateful for your coming. Evening hours, we're going to dedicate, of course, to great prophecies of the Bible. Tonight I want to deal with prophecies about the future world government, because I think we see signs for its preparation in our world that all point to the conclusion that the rapture of the church could be very, very soon. Shall we pray? Our Father, how grateful we are for the many faithful ones in this congregation this morning who are interested in the things of God, who love the Lord Jesus. We pray that as we study together this week that this may grow and be enhanced and become more understanding. and that we may respond to the truth and translate the truth in our own life and testimony before God and before men. And so guide in this series and may the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to accomplish in us that exciting hope that is ours as we face the present and the future in anticipation of what God may be about to do. We come to thee now with all our needs and many of us have precious needs. We know that you are God who can help us, can comfort us, can meet our needs. You never leave nor forsake.