All right, let's look at 1 Thessalonians, chapter
2.
And we will be looking at verses 10
through 12.
I don't normally like to take a text
this small, but we're obligated to do so
because of all that is in this text.
So let's read it.
Paul says, you are witnesses and so is
God.
How devoutly.
And rightly and uprightly and blamelessly we behave
toward you believers, just as you know, how
we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each
of you as a father would his own
children so that you would walk in a
manner worthy of God, worthy of the God
who calls you into his own kingdom.
And glory.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, I thank you for this great privilege
to be here tonight and to speak from
your word.
But Lord, all is vain.
But how well I know all is vain.
Unless your spirit helps us.
Unless you strengthen us.
Not only the speaker, but also the hearers,
Lord, that you would open up our ears,
that we would hear, that the spirit would
so work, Lord, giving grace that we would
be transformed even by the things that we
see in this text.
Lord, calm our hearts.
Settle us to speak your word boldly and
clearly for your glory, for the sake of
your people.
In Jesus name, amen.
In chapter two of First Thessalonians, we have
been dealing with a great problem that turns
out for our benefit.
And that is this.
After Paul had left the city of Thessalonica,
people were coming in and the people that
were there and they were accusing Paul of
many things.
You need to understand that in the time
of Paul, there were traveling teachers that were
abroad everywhere.
Philosophers, religious men, pagan Jews, they were everywhere.
And most of them had a very, very
poor reputation.
And so it was easy to put a
bullseye on the back of Paul and say
that he was a man just like all
the others who lacked integrity.
And so in their accusations, I'm sure it
did great damage to Paul.
I'm sure it hurt him.
But in the end, it comes out for
our benefit and the benefit of the church,
because while Paul is defending himself.
He sets before us some of the characteristics
of a true gospel minister, a true minister
of Christ.
Now, you may think right now, well, he's
going to talk about a minister of Christ
and I'm not a preacher.
So maybe I should have stayed home where
it was warm.
Not at all, because there is a sense
in which all of us are ministers of
Christ.
Then there is another sense that a minister
of Christ has authority.
And there is a sense in which all
of us have some sort of authority over
others.
You may be a father, a mother, a
teacher, you may work at a job where
you have authority over others.
And as Christians, we each are brought into
a relationship, one with the other in which
we must interact.
And at times we must submit and at
other times we must exercise authority.
So this passage deals with all of us.
Now, having said that, I can say this,
if you want to know how Paul defended
himself.
How he could be bold as a lion.
One word, let's make it two, personal integrity.
Another word we could use is Christ likeness.
Paul constantly throughout chapter two to answer all
these arguments, all he says is this, you
know my life, you saw me.
Enough said.
Now, isn't that amazing?
I know that as I've read through this,
I so want to be a better man.
I want to be a man of greater
integrity, a man that is more faithful, a
man that does the small things consistently and
correctly.
Because in the end, those are the things
that add up to our approval before other
men.
And silence is also all the objections of
those who would come against us.
Listen to me.
There's nothing more important in this day in
Christianity than we walk in Christ like integrity.
You know that there's every kind of preacher
and every kind of minister out there today,
huge ministries claiming all sorts of things.
You also know the number of people that
seem to every day fall and lose their
testimony.
And because of that, the name of God
is blasphemed among the Gentiles.
How important is it to have integrity?
And those of you who work in what
is called the secular world or you're going
to the university.
Or you're with unbelieving family members, what is
the thing that's going to set you apart?
It is the gospel message, but that gospel
message.
Is shored up and confirmed by the way
that we live.
And let me say this also before we
go into our text, don't whine.
About any sacrifice you have to make in
the name of integrity.
It's demanded of you by our Lord.
And if you have to go the extra
mile, did he not command you to go
the extra mile if you have rights and
you're not for the sake of integrity allowed
to use them?
Did he not already teach us these things?
It comes down to integrity, brothers and sisters,
Leonard Ravenhill used to say everybody's wanting to
give us a new definition of Christianity.
What we need is a new demonstration and
not all these things of as I was
bombarded with while I was in Norway, not
all these things of false signs and wonders
and claims to miracles that never happen.
No, but a godly, godly life and that
godly life is not just doing the big
things.
It's doing the little things, because if you
don't do the little things, God will never
entrust you with the big things.
That's why Paul said that he had already
been approved of God, tested and approved, and
yet God was also always testing him and
approving him.
Do you want to be used of God?
Do you want to be a means through
which people come, if not to accept the
gospel, at least to respect it?
Then you and I, all of us, we
must walk in integrity, in integrity.
Now, in verse 10.
Paul says regarding himself, regarding his character, his
ministry, he says, you are witnesses.
This is the sixth time in chapter one
and chapter two that Paul is going to
call them to the witness stand.
And then in the next verse that comes
up, he's going to call them to the
witness stand again, seven times.
Now, what does that tell us about Paul?
That he was bold.
I mean, I'm hearing echoing in Paul's words,
I'm hearing the words of Jesus Christ, which
one of you convicts me of sin?
Now, Paul, of course, would have never said
that because he knew that he was just
a man.
And like us, he had frailties and problems
and weaknesses, but he was so consistent in
his devotion to Christ.
He was so consistent in his service to
other people that he could call them to
witness when everyone was coming against him.
And he could say, you know, you lived
with me, you saw me, you know what
I did.
Now, I think something needs to be said
here.
I'm bringing it up from what I know
in past experiences dealing with countless ministers over
the last 30 years.
Notice that Paul, because we're also in the
context of talking about authority, Paul never used
his position as the grounds for his authority.
He never argued from his position and then
demand authority from others.
For example, he never said, I'm an apostle
and as an apostle, you must obey me,
respect me, follow me without question.
He never did that.
Now, I've in my many years in the
Christian life, I've seen ministers do that.
I've seen all kinds of people do that.
I'm the pastor.
It doesn't matter what flaw you see in
me, I am the pastor.
And the Bible says you must respect the
pastor and you must be under the authority
of the pastor.
Paul never plays that game.
Also, Paul never points to his miracles.
He never points to his success in ministry
as grounds for why they ought to accept
him as genuine.
And yet, isn't that what's being done today?
For the most part, I can't be wrong.
The minister of a church of thousands of
people might say, I can't be wrong.
Look at all these people following me or
others who might be so bold to say,
I can't be wrong.
There's signs and wonders, even though I would
say that none of them are ever proved.
Paul never did that.
And if anyone had the right to, who
was it?
It was Paul.
Also, another thing that I want to point
to, Paul never spoke about some undetectable inward
sincerity as the reason why everyone should listen
to him or consider him genuine.
Now, what do I mean by that?
Throughout the years, I've seen ministers who had
many outward flaws and people would come to
them and address their outward flaws.
And they would say, you can't judge me
because you can't look into my heart.
Paul never pulled that on anybody.
Why?
Because he was a godly man, he was
a devoted man, and he never had to
do that.
He said, look at my life, look at
my life.
Now, another thing that Paul never did, and
a lot of so-called ministers will do
that.
He never said, I am a servant of
the Most High God and I'm not accountable
to you.
He never did that.
In order to demonstrate that he was genuine,
that his ministry was valid, do you know
what he did?
He pointed to his behavior.
Hebert says something that I find very interesting.
He said, Paul not only believed the gospel,
he behaved the gospel.
He lived the gospel.
Now, let's just sit for a minute and
think about that.
Isn't that a really powerful way of looking
at it?
Not only believed the gospel.
He behaved it.
I like that even better than saying he
obeyed it or he lived it.
He behaved it.
His behavior was marked by the gospel.
Now, I want us to go on, he
said, you are witnesses and so is God.
Now, we need to treat this really quick
because this is the second time in this
chapter that Paul has called God to witness.
Now, before we look at Paul's intentions, I
want you to look at some other things.
Now, some of you are young Christians and
may be quite naive.
And believing so many of these great claims
of supposed great men.
So I need to warn you, one of
the things that charlatans and false teachers and
all sinners will quickly do is use the
Lord's name in vain.
They will call God to testify.
Why?
Because they don't fear God.
Some of them don't even believe God exists.
So when a man says to you, I
call God to witness that I am a
godly man.
It can mean nothing.
Because the man who is speaking that may
be a man who does not fear God
at all.
So when we look at Paul and Paul
says, I call God to witness when he
does it, it has credibility.
Why?
Because when you looked at his life, you
saw that he feared God.
He honored God once again.
To call God as our witness is a
powerful thing, but if our life doesn't back
it up, it's absolutely meaningless and turns into
even blasphemy.
Do you see how little power there is
in confessions and declarations, and do you see
how much power there is in a godly
life?
Now, make no mistake, Paul has written over
and over again about the necessity of proclamation,
and he's going to do it again.
But the one thing that I want you
to see is all our proclamation, all our
profession, all our confessions, all the declarations that
we make are meaningless unless we behave them,
we live them.
And now you younger believers, I want you
to understand something.
I've been a Christian longer than some of
you have been alive.
And as I'm preaching this, a fire is
in my heart to want to be not
smarter, even though that would be good.
Not more knowledge, even even though knowledge is
important, my desire is to be behaving.
As I ought to, there is the key,
there is the goal, you see that.
OK, so here we see he is, you
are our witnesses and so is God about
what?
Now, look at this, how devoutly and uprightly
and blamelessly we behaved.
Now, I want you to notice something, just
look down here, devoutly, uprightly and blamelessly, those
are adverbs, OK?
Now, I'm going to give you a grammar
lesson.
Adverbs modify what?
A verb and a verb describes what?
Action, something that is being done.
Adjectives modify a noun.
OK, now that I've said that, we can
look at this text.
Paul does not give us three adjectives describing
some secret and undetectable sincerity in his heart.
Paul gives us three adverbs to describe his
action, his behavior, and again, he's throwing that
at the forefront, isn't he?
Do you want to know why I'm genuine?
OK, let's look again at my behavior.
I behaved among you devoutly, uprightly and blamelessly.
Behavior, behavior.
Now, before we go on, you could take
this sermon and turn in a certain direction
and ruin everything.
What do I mean?
By looking at behavior as something that flows
from primarily your understanding of biblical principles and
the strength of your will to submit your
life to them.
Please don't think I'm teaching that.
But this behavior flows out of knowing Christ,
being united with Christ.
Intimacy with Jesus Christ, it flows out of
knowing the gospel.
Yes, the Bible has rules and principles and
commands and all sorts of things, but it
is not a ethics driven religion.
It is not just about you screwing up
your will really tight and then going out
and doing these things.
But it's looking, beholding Christ being transformed by
him, his spirit moving in you so that
these things become realities.
Do you see the difference?
And there is a difference, a tremendous difference.
Now, I want us to look here, he
says, first of all, devoutly and uprightly.
Now, we're going to look at all three
of these, but we need to look at
these two in particular together.
Why?
This phrase was used quite often in the
Hellenistic world, the Greek world.
Whenever you heard the phrase devoutly and uprightly,
what was being said is this devoutly referred
to one's relationship with God or the gods
and uprightly referred to one's relationship with men.
And when people used it, they would say
basically this, I am living according to the
will of the gods and I am also
obedient to the laws of men.
Now, of course, if Paul is using these
terms, it's not with reference to the pagan
gods, but the one true God.
But the idea may be here with him.
Why?
Because he's already called God and men to
witness.
And then he uses this popular phrase in
Hellenistic in the Hellenistic world that refers to
I'm right with God and I'm right with
men.
I'm submissive to God and I'm submissive to
the laws of men.
Now, that's just something for you to know.
And it's quite interesting.
But I want you to understand something.
It is kind of picking at things.
Why?
Because in reality, biblically.
Devotion to God and righteousness are always linked
together in the Bible.
And there's no such thing as a separate
devotion to God and a separate obedience to
the laws of men, all true righteousness flows
from our relationship with God.
And if we are righteous before God that
is submitting ourselves to his commands, we will
be righteous before men.
But I want you to see that Paul
maybe has this idea again that he's not
only living his life to please God, aware
of God's demands and seeking to please him.
But Paul is also deeply concerned about what
men say about their laws, about doing things
right, not only before God, but also before
men.
Again, that gets us away from this super
spiritual idea that so many Christians have.
I'm accountable to God.
I'm not accountable to you.
I've heard it like I'm accountable to God,
I'm not accountable to the church, I'm accountable
to God, I'm not accountable to anyone else,
I'm accountable to God, I'm not accountable to
the laws of men.
All that is just super spiritual jargon.
That's unbiblical.
I want us to look just really carefully
for a minute at Second Corinthians 821.
I'm just going to read it to you.
He says, For we have regard for what
is honorable, not only in the sight of
the Lord, but also in the sight of
men.
Sometimes if you're going to obey God, you
must disobey men.
But generally, you and I should seek not
only to honor God, but even to honor
men.
And when we can honor their laws, so
many people today think that being obedient to
God and being radical in the Christian faith
means that you're going to just stand against
everything on the planet.
That's not true.
In one sense, we should be a quiet,
peaceable people seeking to submit our lives, even
to the king.
Even the Christians were told in the New
Testament to this terribly vile Roman Empire, submit
in every way you can, except when submission
to the laws of men will cause you
to disobey the laws of God.
Now, he says here in verse 10, You
are witnesses and so is God.
How devoutly.
Now, the word can be translated piously or
religiously, and don't look at that bad.
Today, so many people have this negative view
of the word religion.
Well, you shouldn't because the word is used
in the New Testament.
OK, and what what Paul is saying here
is that I acted in the way you
would expect a religious man to act.
He's saying my life was bent toward God
and bent toward spirituality.
It was bent toward eternity and not the
temporal, toward the holy and not the profane.
You see that he was a spiritual man.
This has been very convicting for me.
Not that I want to put on some
robe of spirituality that's false.
But the idea is that his, well, let
me put it this way.
His disposition was Godward.
You see that?
And his words were God centered.
And his life, his deeds were God honoring
and God fearing.
There was this, I don't want to say
mystique, but there was this thing around Paul
that you saw that he cared about heaven.
He cared about God.
He cared about eternity.
He was a man who was always thinking
this way.
Now, let me say two things that are
very important.
The difference between devotion or being devout and
being a fanatic.
OK, Paul was not a fanatic.
He was devout.
And what is the difference?
The fanatic separates himself from all common activities
and common conversations.
You can't even laugh around this person without
getting a stern rebuke.
He separates himself from all these common conversations
and activities in order to be spiritual.
But the devout man is spiritual in the
midst of all these common activities.
Do you see the difference?
And common conversations so that he can he
can talk to you at length about Hebrews
chapter 11.
And for the most part, his conversations in
his life are going to be related to
Christ and God.
But he can also laugh with children.
He can also talk about things that are
just things of this world that God has
given us that bring us delight.
He finds joy in everything.
He doesn't have to separate himself to look
spiritual.
He is spiritual so that even when he's
in a common conversation, he still looks like
a spiritual man, even though he may be
laughing to the point of falling out of
a chair.
He's so happy.
Do you see?
We're not talking about fanaticism.
We're talking about being devout.
And I think it's very, very important we
understand this.
Now, another thing that I want you to
see is that Paul was devout, not just
in his ministry.
But I believe he was just as devout,
just as spiritual when he was making tents
or working with leather or whatever the scholars
think he was doing.
That in his whole life, he was spiritual.
And yet a babe in Christ could come
up to him.
And he didn't take this spirituality of his
and just make them look temporal and low.
I hate that.
Have you seen that?
People that are so spiritual, if you even
talk about the sun or the stars or
some beautiful thing you saw, they seem almost
offended.
Don't be that way, at least not around
me, because I won't tolerate it for your
own sake.
I'll rebuke you.
Don't be that way.
Now, another thing I want to tell you
about devotion.
So many people today say, you know, this
person is so heavenly minded that he's no
earthly good.
Well, I would say in America today we
have just the opposite problem when you were
so earthly minded, we're no heavenly good.
Yet I want to give you an illustration
from history that I think will be helpful.
His name was Frank Lombok.
Frank Lombok, in his diary, if you can
ever find it, buy it.
In his little diary, you see that his
greatest aspiration was to have one day on
this planet of uninterrupted thoughts of Christ.
That was his aspiration.
That was his life goal.
Now, if anybody would qualify for being so
heavenly minded that they're no earthly good, it
would be him.
Do you know what Frank Lombok did?
He taught the entire Philippines to read.
And if you mention him today among educators
in the Philippines, they'll know exactly who you're
talking about.
He taught all the islands of the Philippines
to read.
So I guess he was heavenly minded and
I guess he was earthly good.
As a matter of fact, this earth could
do well with a few more spiritually minded
people, don't you think?
People who think deeply and consistently about God,
but it doesn't draw them away from common
people, but it leads them to common people
as a blessing, not as a scourge.
So Paul said that he was, of course,
devout.
He says how devoutly and then he says
uprightly, uprightly, righteously in the Bible refers to
conformity to a standard that he conformed, of
course, in the New Testament, always he conformed
to the standard of God's nature and God's
law.
Now, need to be careful here.
I know what some of you are thinking.
No, we're justified by faith.
Of course, we're justified by faith.
We can only stand before God justly, righteously
through faith in Jesus Christ.
But Paul is using this term with regard
not to sinless perfection, but is it simply
a description of the way he lived?
He lived as a man who knew God's
nature.
He knew God's law and he sought to
be and walk conformed to it.
And that's the way you and I need
to be.
And not only again did Paul live according
to the laws of God, but Paul also
would have been considered exemplary.
In the eyes of the pagan moralist.
In the laws of Rome.
There was only one thing that brought him
in conflict with Rome.
Now, what do you think about this?
Now, I know sometimes that I know that
there are Christian activists and there are Christian
politicians and there are Christian all kinds of
things.
But if there was ever a time to
rail against the government, it was when Rome
was the government.
Notice that Paul was not brought into conflict
with the government for anything other than preaching
Christ crucified and raised from the dead.
Because Paul knew something, the only way to
turn the powers that be is through the
preaching of the gospel.
Oh, how much in the last century have
we seen so many Christian movements and moral
majorities and everything else trying to change the
world, change the country, change the government?
Has it gotten better?
Absolutely not.
It's had no impact.
What will have an impact?
Preachers preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, Christians
living the gospel, behaving the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
What will have an impact?
You, you will have an impact.
Never underestimate the power of a godly life.
Never underestimate the power of a sincerity.
Of a sincerity and a sincere faith in
Christ.
OK, so he also lived uprightly and then
he lived blamelessly, blamelessly.
Now, that, again, does not mean sinless perfection.
But it did mean this, because he was
so concerned and so given to live in
according to God's law and to live according
to the laws of men, even his worst
critics could not find, could not get a
hold of him.
They could not find something and say, aha,
here we'll get Paul.
He's greedy or here we'll get Paul, he's
immoral or here we'll get.
No, they couldn't.
They couldn't get a handle on him.
Even though they scrutinized his life.
Now, that reminds me of somebody else and
I'm just going to to read it to
you.
Just just listen to me and you'll figure
out where it is when I read it.
Then the commissioners and the sand traps begin
trying to find a ground of accusation against
Daniel in regard to government affairs, but they
could find no ground of accusation or evidence
of corruption in so much as he was
faithful and no negligence or corruption was to
be found in him.
Then these men said, we will not find
any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless
we find it against him with regard to
the law of his God, that's the way
we must be.
That's the way you university students must be.
No professor ought to get a get a
grip on you because you're lazy or because
you don't do your work or your homework.
If you're employed, no one should be able
to grab a hold of you and have
something wrong with you because of what you're
doing wrong on the job.
When I was pastoring in Peru, this man
came to me and he said, you know,
pastor, I'm being persecuted, persecuted in my faith.
And I knew a lot about this man.
I counseled him and everything else.
And I looked at him and I said,
no, you're not being persecuted in your work
because of Christ.
You're being persecuted in your work because you're
the laziest human being on this planet.
You see.
We start talking about Jesus, and yet we
live in a way that doesn't show any
power of Jesus, it would be better that
we just keep our mouth shut.
If you're going to be in the university,
be there for Christ, not just witnessing on
the quad.
But doing your homework for Christ, doing your
studies for Christ, if you're working at a
job, honoring your employer for Christ.
You see, so that they can't get anything
against you except the gospel, the gospel.
Now, let's go on.
We've taken too long here.
He says, you are witnesses, and so is
God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we
behave toward you believers.
Now, there's a lot here.
I'm going to skip over it, but I
want you to look at the word believers.
Now, I want to teach you something that's
very important.
Sometimes when something becomes a title, it loses
its meaning.
And when you hear it, you're not really
understanding what you hear.
Let me give you an example.
Satan.
When you hear Satan, you think personal name
of the devil.
You don't realize that the name means accuser.
Every time you hear Satan, you ought to
realize he's an accuser.
That's what it means.
That's what it's telling me.
That's the meaning of the title or devil
adversary.
He's an adversary.
But see, when you call him Satan and
devil and you don't think about the real
meaning, it just loses everything, doesn't it?
He becomes almost like a cartoon character.
Also, the case with, he says, you believers,
you just think a Christian.
But but this is a present tense participle,
and it's extremely important.
He's saying the ones who believe the ones
who go on believing, he's not saying like
a noun believers.
He's using a participle.
And he's saying that believers are those who
go on believing that they are always trusting,
rolling upon, holding onto, clinging to Christ.
And I want to be encouragement here for
maybe a weaker saint, even though there are
moral tests with regard to assurance of conversion,
the great test is this.
That you are so convinced that you have
no hope, but Jesus Christ, that you continue,
you go on trusting and believing only in
him.
That is the great evidence, above all other
evidences, you're believing, trusting, holding onto, rolling upon
Christ.
Do you see that?
Another thing that I want you to see
here is that Paul is saying that he
lived, behaved devoutly, uprightly and blamelessly toward you
believers.
Now, he did that toward all men.
That's why his accusations couldn't, the accusations couldn't
stick.
But here's what I want you to see.
And Paul says this in the first chapter.
Paul not only lived unto God.
But he lived unto believers.
Never forget when you start talking about loving
the Lord, your God with all your heart,
soul, mind and strength, it's always followed by
a second part, isn't it?
Maybe to a degree lesser.
But nonetheless, important, what is it?
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Paul lived for the glory of God, but
he also lived for the benefit of believers.
And I'm not just talking about ministry.
I'm talking about the way he behaved.
Why did he act devoutly?
Because he loved believers and wanted to be
an encouragement, not a stumbling block to them.
Why did he live uprightly?
For the same reason.
I have heard fathers and it's wrong, it's
wrong, wrong, wrong.
But at the same time, there's there's something
in it of good when I've heard fathers
who never cared anything about the church and
they were drunks and everything else.
But their firstborn comes into the world.
And what do they do?
They say, for the sake of that child,
I've got to straighten up.
Now, one sense that's idolatry, it is.
And if you're living for believers more than
you're living for God, that's idolatry, too.
But the point is, and we don't think
about this enough, I'm sure you don't, because
I don't.
Why do we live righteously for other believers
who are looking at us?
Why do we try to be more godly
because of our children who are looking at
us?
There's nothing wrong with that.
Don't think there is.
I've heard super spiritual people say there is,
but they're just well, there's super spiritual.
They're not biblical.
You do this for others to try to
be an example, not a hypocrite, not hiding
something, but genuinely trying to live a certain
way is to be an influence, a godly
influence.
Now, he goes on and he says this,
verse 11, just as you know.
You know what he's doing again?
He's saying what you know.
Perfectly conforms to what we're saying.
What we're saying perfectly conforms, precisely conforms to
what you know about us.
Isn't that amazing?
That's boldness, and that's boldness that comes from
a righteous life.
You know, some of you aren't parents.
You better not be until you get married.
Do you know when the saddest thing as
a parent is when you see sin in
your children that is a perfect reflection of
your own sin?
That is one of the saddest things in
the world, but let's amplify that.
It's the same way with other believers.
You know, whether you like it or not,
you have an influence and it's powerful.
But is it for good or is it
for evil?
Now, let's go on.
He goes, just as you know how we
were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each of
you as a father would his own children.
Now he uses I want you to look
at this.
He uses three participles, their present tense, exhorting,
encouraging and imploring.
And this indicates to us that this was
Paul's constant and consistent activity.
Do you see this?
It exalts preaching here.
Now, I'm not doing it because I'm a
preacher.
I'm doing it because it's in the Bible.
What Paul was saying is that he dedicated
his life to exhorting, to comforting.
You see, and to urging, to charging.
You see, here's what you need to understand.
I need this.
I it's yes, the word of God.
You need to study it.
You must study it yourself.
But you need to understand is you not
going to make it in the Christian life,
not being committed to a church where you're
hearing preaching that is full of not just
teaching, teaching is not enough.
But exhortation, moving you, comfort, comforting you.
And urging.
Urging.
Now, another thing that I want you to
see is Paul heaps these three terms together,
and I think it's very important.
It would be like something like, you know,
that a child of yours is now grown
up and is fixing to make a horrible,
horrible decision.
And you pray with your wife and you
go out the door to go visit your
child, your son, your daughter, whatever your wife
sends you off with her prayers.
When you come back after talking to that
child and your wife says, well, you know,
what did you say?
Well.
You know, I mentioned it to him.
She would go, what you did, what?
Well, I mentioned it, I brought it up.
You brought it up.
This is this is this is catastrophic.
This decision is going to affect everything in
their life.
And you're telling me you went over there
and you brought it up.
She expects you to come back to the
house saying, I exhorted, I pleaded, I begged,
I beseeched, I urged in a part you
cannot be neutral in preaching.
Pedantic, you can't you can't just treat it.
It's common.
Why?
Every person in there has only their next
breath.
God has brought people providentially into a certain
place who knows what's going on in their
life.
That one of them could be one step
away from hell or one of them could
be one step away from making a tragic
decision.
And if there is no such thing as
that, there is still just the fact of
what the Christian life is.
This is about eternity.
It's about heaven.
It's about hell.
This is not about getting your best life
now.
This is important.
It's nothing more important than this.
And so Paul is just talking this way,
I exhorted you, I pleaded with you, I
urged you, I comforted you.
I did whatever I had to do.
Why?
Because this is so important.
Now.
I want to say something here, I want
to I want to read from John Calvin
on exhorting, and I think this is very,
very good.
Calvin says he shows with what earnestness he
devoted himself to their welfare.
When a preacher exhorts you, pleads with you,
and not just in a pulpit, but especially
because cowards can do it from a pulpit.
But it takes a brave man to do
it face to face with you in counseling.
He's thinking about your welfare when he does
that.
You see that that's what Calvin says, he
shows with what earnestness, earnestness, earnestness, he devoted
himself to their welfare.
For he relates that in preaching to them,
respecting piety towards God and the duties of
the Christian life.
It had not been merely in a perfunctory
way, superficial, careless, unconcerned.
But he says that he had made use
of exhortations.
It is lively preaching of the gospel when
persons are not merely told what is right,
but are pricked by exhortations and are called
to the judgment seat of God that they
may not fall asleep in their vices.
For this is what is properly meant by
exhorting.
But if pious men.
Whose promptitude or responsiveness Paul so highly commends
stood in absolute need of being stimulated by
stirring exhortations, what must be done with us
in whose sluggishness of the flesh does more
reign?
Paul saying if these Thessalonians who were exemplary
in the Christian life needed exhortation, how much
more us who are sometimes sluggish.
And here, let me put it in modern
vernacular, some people need comfort and some people
just need to be kicked in the pants.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Some people need to be comforted, consoled and
freed from condemnation.
Others need a fire built under them.
And that's what preaching is about.
That's what preaching is about.
Now, that exhortation may manifest itself in a
different way.
When I preach, I wear my heart on
the sleeve, not everyone's going to exhort the
same way.
But in that preaching, when you come here
on Sunday and Wednesday, you need to look,
listen for the exhortation.
What should I do when I leave here?
Not just what did I learn, but what
should I do?
How should I change?
Exhortation.
Now, and then he says encouragement, I love
what Mounts says here.
It's just beautiful.
He defines this as to exercise a gentle
influence by words.
It is used of the Jews who consoled
Martha and Mary when Lazarus died.
It's also used to describe the ministry to
the faint hearted.
In this same book, in First Thessalonians 5
.14. But listen, listen to me.
I'm talking to you in a pastoral manner.
Men of God can be wrong.
They can, we all know that.
When they comfort, receive it.
And when they kick.
And when they urge and when they push.
Ask yourself, why?
Why is this preacher talking like this?
Why is my pastor counseling me this way?
He's hurting me.
There may be a reason he may be
trying to save you.
Let's have none of this silly American thin
skinness here, you see.
So he says here, exhorting and encouraging and
imploring.
Now, I wish they'd put the literal translation
here instead of imploring.
It literally means witnessing, witnessing.
Now, how can I best describe this?
It's like in the preaching and in the
counseling.
And this applies to you also when you're
counseling people or when you're dealing with your
children, that you want to be a fixed
point.
An immutable testimony with regard to the truth
that when they look at you, when they
hear you, they're hearing this immutable fixed point
testimony about who God is, about the need
of man, about the joys of those who
walk in righteousness and the pain of the
sinner.
You need to stand up and testify.
That's what the preacher does.
I testify if you go that way, it's
a way of destruction.
I testify that the righteous are blessed no
matter what they suffer.
I testify that the way of the sinner
is hard.
And it's testifying not merely because you've studied
it, but because you've seen it.
You've seen it, you can pull up from
history, your own history, countless cases, you can
go into the Old Testament with countless cases.
Look at King Saul.
Look at the life of Samuel, look at
the life of his sons, look at the
difference between the righteous king and the unrighteous
king.
You're constantly testifying, you're a testimony.
So they see this when they look at
you, when they hear you.
Now.
He goes on.
Imploring each one of you, the commentary written
by way, he says, each one of you
one by one, and that is the emphasis
here.
That Paul said, I didn't just take care
of you from a pulpit.
I took care of each one of you
one by one.
Shepherd calls this house to house visitation.
There are things that cannot be done in
a pulpit, there are things that cannot be
done in a pulpit.
So if one day one of the elders
shows up at your door.
It's because there are things that cannot be
done in a pulpit.
Or if you see yourself struggling in spite
of many sermons, you may need yourself to
ask, can I speak personally with an elder?
I need help.
Do you understand me?
Not only is it wrong to lock the
door.
When counsel is coming to it, it's also
wrong to sit there wallowing.
And not looking for aid.
That's why God has given elders, as Paul
said, it wasn't just a mass evangelistic thing
in his life.
No, he said each one of you one
by one as a father would his own
children.
Now, we don't have much time, but I
want you to look at something he's already
referred to himself as well.
He's used the metaphor of a nursing mother
and that there we see gentleness, protection and
nurturing.
Just just bring everyone in and cover them
with the feathers of your wings.
But now he's changing it.
It is the.
Instruction and exhortation of a father.
You need both, you need both of those
things, you don't you do not need to
be coddled all the time.
Some of the things that have most saved
my life have been kicks in the pants
from brothers who loved me and did not
fear me.
You see that you need the same young
people, you need the same wisdom was not
born with you, neither will it die with
you.
We not only need coddling and nurturing and
comfort, but we need fatherly, authoritative instruction, not
from a man and his own agendas, but
from a clear proclamation of the word of
God.
OK, now.
He says here.
Employing each one of you as a father
would his own children now notice that when
it talks about in verse seven, a nursing
mother tenderly cares for her own children and
then as a father would his own children,
that repetition is not coincidence.
You see the point he's getting to.
He's getting to this idea of I cared
for you.
I didn't just walk up and say I
love the church.
But I love each and every member of
the church, and I cared for you as
my own is what he said, and he
uses the word children, which would indicate both
his endearment to them, how much he loved
them and also their immaturity, their immaturity.
Sometimes we all need to be dealt with
as children because we act like children.
And don't think that this type of instruction
and exhortation is limited only to the elders.
There is another sense in which we ought
to exhort one another.
We do.
We need to comfort those who are faint
hearted.
We need to exhort.
We need to do both and you need
the wisdom to know when to do one
and when to do the other, and that
wisdom is not going to come by you
simply laying a Bible under your pillow and
hoping it seeps through your head.
That wisdom comes so that the whole body
can exhort and encourage one another only to
the degree that we're all studying the scriptures.
And coming to have the mind of Christ
now.
I want us to go down now to
Paul's goal, verse 12.
What was his goal?
Oh, my, what a goal.
So that you would walk in a manner
worthy of God who calls you into his
own kingdom and glory.
Paul exhorted and encouraged and implored.
Why?
So that they would be very smart now.
So that they would know a lot of
stuff.
No.
So that they would walk.
Peripateo, pateo means to walk.
Peri is a prefix that that kind of
indicates around.
To walk around, it's about a lifestyle, a
way of living, not just when you come
among the brothers and sisters in Christ, but
all the time in the church, outside the
church, everywhere you are.
He's talking about the walk of your entire
life.
Now, there's important things to point out here.
One, the Christian life is not static.
It is not static.
That means it is not immutable.
It is not unchanging.
The Christian life is the dynamic.
It is changing.
And what does that mean, particularly with regard
to sanctification?
You and I are supposed to be advancing.
We're supposed to be progressing.
We're supposed to be becoming more like Jesus.
Do you see that now that we all
go through periods of dryness?
We all go through the John 15 pruning
and discipline and everything.
But you should be moving.
In fact, many would say you are moving
either forward or backward.
But also, I want you to realize this,
the Christian life is not static, it's dynamic,
but it's not a glorious run.
There's a walk of endurance, one foot in
front of the other.
Oh, yes, there are times when we may
run a little bit.
But don't kid yourself, every attainment of more
Christlike virtue is a battle, hard won through
walking, through studying, through praying and through going
through the fires of discipline.
Yes, you will not.
You will not advance in the kingdom or
in Christlikeness apart from that.
Now, he says that you would walk in
a manner worthy of God, literally that you
would walk worthy of God.
And what does that mean?
That you would walk in a way that
corresponds.
To who God is and that which is
due him, that you would walk that way,
what a high calling, there is no higher
calling.
Now, don't pull the glass half empty on
me here, I'm not saying this so that
you now will look in the mirror and
go, I'm so far away, we're all so
far away.
I said, well, Brother Paul, you've been walking
with Christ for 30 years, you're closer than
I am.
Listen, right now, at least for all of
you that are seated, I'm closer to the
sun, S-U-N, than all of you,
aren't I?
I'm at least, what, a meter higher than
all of you here.
I'm closer to the sun than you.
But we're both so far away, it really
doesn't give me any bragging rights, does it?
What you've got to realize is this.
Yes, it's a far away goal.
But it's the goal that's been given to
us, not for discouragement, but for encouragement.
For he who began a good work on
us will complete it.
He will do it.
He will give us advance in this life
and then one day we'll step over into
glory and we'll see him as he is
and we'll be transformed to be like him,
not because we have the power of virtue,
but he himself inherently has the power to
transform our lowly bodies to be conformed to
his majestic person.
Look, this is something discouraging.
I say, wow, let's keep walking.
Let's keep walking.
Now, he says, so that you would walk
in a manner worthy of God.
I want you to go just quickly, hold
your place and just jump over to Ephesians
for a second.
This is too good to miss, Ephesians 4,
verse 1.
He says, therefore, I, the prisoner of the
Lord, implore you to walk in a manner
worthy of the calling with which you have
been called.
You see, we're called to walk in a
manner worthy of God.
We're called to walk in a manner worthy
of this calling that we've been given as
sons of God.
To be conformed to the image of Christ,
walk worthy of it.
Now, here's the point that I want to
make to you.
A great thing has been done for you.
A great title has been laid upon you.
You've been given the greatest of all callings.
No one has a calling like this.
If some coach came to you in high
school and says you have all it takes
to be the greatest Olympic wrestler or boxer
or runner that's ever lived in history, what
would that do to you?
Wouldn't that encourage you to train every day?
You think, man, how many people get to
do this for the Olympics?
What is the Olympics compared to your calling
that you would be a manifestation of the
grace and power and life of God?
You've received the highest calling of anyone.
That's why Spurgeon said, I would never stoop
to be a king.
And that should encourage you.
Not only have you been called, not only
is it the highest calling ever given to
a human being or an angel, for that
matter, but it's going to happen.
That's the exciting thing.
It's going to happen.
You are going to get there.
I'm going to get there.
You're going to get there because of him,
because of him now.
But I want you to look, if you
look, he says that we should walk in
a manner worthy of our calling and for
one, then go to 17 for 17.
So I say this and affirm together with
the Lord that you walk no longer just
as the Gentiles also walked in the futility
of their mind.
All right.
You're to walk like him.
Stop walking like the Gentiles.
Which basically means stop walking like those who
do not know God and who are living
for vain idols.
Stop it.
You know, I love saying that because so
many so few people say it.
Sometimes you just need someone to walk up
to you and say, stop it.
Just stop.
Oh, OK.
Stop.
And then he goes on in verse 22
of four that in reference to your former
manner of life, you lay aside the old
self, which is being corrupted in accordance with
the lust of deceit.
Lay it aside.
Your old life is like rotten clothing, the
way you used to live, your old behavior.
Put it off of you like the plague.
Twenty four and put on the new self,
which is in the light, which in the
likeness of God has been recreated in the
righteousness and holiness of the truth, dress yourself
in Christ.
That's how you that's how you live in
a manner worthy.
That's how you walk worthy, no longer walk
as the Gentiles.
Put off that old lifestyle and do what?
Put on Christ.
How can you put on Christ?
Look at Christ, study Christ, cry out that
Christ's character and virtue would be made more
and more yours.
Cling to him, abound in your unity with
him.
Now, I promise this is the end.
He says so that you would walk in
a manner worthy of God who calls you
into his own kingdom and glory.
Now, this is very unusual.
He calls here is in present tense.
And there's a great debate on if Paul
wants it to be a true present tense,
because there's all kinds of different present tenses.
Paul, usually when he uses the word called
as verb, it's usually aorist referring to a
moment in time when God called you, bam,
just like that, or he'll use it in
a perfect tense that God called you in
the past in a moment of time.
But that carries on through until today unchanged.
But here it's present tense, and if it
is present tense, a true present tense, then
what he's saying is, listen to me, believer,
God is constantly calling you and wooing you
to draw nearer to his kingdom and his
glory, that it might become a greater reality
in your life.
He's constantly calling you come, come, enter in,
enter in, go deeper, go higher, enter in,
go deeper, go higher, constantly, constantly, constantly, and
not just through the preaching of the word
and not just through the scriptures, but in
circumstances of life.
You know, when you get astray and you
start looking at other things instead of service
to him.
And all of it turns to rot in
your gut.
You know, there is a real sense that
when Adam and Eve fell, those curses were
also great demonstrations of mercy.
Because he said this, basically, Adam, you're going
to work in futility and the sweat of
your brow.
And so every time Adam went out there
and it was futile and worthless, it was
God calling him, Adam, Adam, come to me,
come to me.
All this is futility.
In childbirth, a woman would experience pain.
And it's at that moment God is saying,
you're fallen, you're fallen.
Come to me.
Every affliction, everything that doesn't go right, everything
you get that turns into gravel in your
gut is God calling you to come further
into his kingdom.
Now, says this, who calls you into his
own kingdom and glory.
Now, what is the kingdom?
The kingdom is the sovereign rule of God
in its degrees and variations.
I have to say it that way, because
there is a real sense in which God's
kingdom has come in Christ.
There's another real sense in which God's kingdom
is coming as God's providence is working in
the world and more and more people enter
into the kingdom and more and more people
go deeper into the kingdom.
And then there's another sense in which God's
kingdom is yet to come and it will
come when Christ returns the consummation of all
things, the new heaven and the new earth.
And that is probably Paul's idea here, because
in in First Thessalonians, it's primarily saying this
one of the greatest.
Now, listen to me.
One of the greatest, greatest incentives to walking
in a manner worthy is that he's coming.
And this earth so corrupt and broken is
going to be rolled up like a scroll
and there's going to be a new heaven
and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
That your life is coming, it's coming to
live for him now, live in service, live
dedicated to him, do not try to grab
a hold of this world, but wait, serve
in this world, enjoy the grace of God
in this world.
But your incentive must be Christ returns and
sets everything right.
That must be your incentive.
We don't preach on this enough.
I know I do not preach on this
enough.
Why should you walk?
What is the incentive for for turning away
from what you can see and turning to
what you cannot see like Moses in Hebrews
11?
What is the incentive?
There's a new heaven and a new earth.
There's a new king.
There's the consummation.
This is not your home.
What he has prepared for you, I has
not seen, ear has not heard.
Tongues of men or angels could not even
begin to reach the foothills of the Everest
of what he has prepared for you.
So don't grab a hold of this stuff
now, says he calls us into his own
kingdom and glory, glory and kingdom are related
together with the same pronoun and the same
article.
And it indicates that the two things are
directly related to one to the other.
And this is what is glory.
The glory of God is a manifestation, a
manifestation.
And I love this of this person.
I don't know if you've studied much about
different kings down through the ages or anything,
but even the Catholic priests, they wear these
glorious robes and all these things.
Why?
Because underneath they're just skinny legged little men.
And so they wear all these great robes
with big, broad shoulders and hats made out
of gold and all sorts of things.
That's their glory.
They have to dress in an external glory
because they don't have internal glory.
So if they want to show you glory,
they've got to get all dressed up.
That's why God says his glory is him.
He doesn't have to dress up, he emanates
glory, he is glory.
It is the manifestation of his person and
all his excellencies.
Now.
How's this kingdom and glory related together just
this way?
Well, first of all, he calls you into
his kingdom.
That means to submit, to come.
And bring yourself into greater, greater submission to
his lordship.
He calls you into his glory, which means
he's calling you to come closer and closer
to see more of his glory and then
to reflect more of his glory.
Now, how do they relate together?
Brother and sister, the more you and I.
Submit ourselves.
To God's reign and rule.
The more we will see his glory and
the more we will reflect, do you see
that?
Oh, dear brothers, we we shine so dull.
Now, don't be sad, be encouraged, we could
shine more, the more we submit.
To his rule, his reign, his commands and
his providences in our lives, what he's doing
with our life, you know, that we don't
like right now.
I wish he'd hurry up here, I wish
he wouldn't do this or I wish he'd
give me that when we just be quiet,
trust in him and submit ourselves to his
rule, the more we reflect his glory.
Now, one last thing, he says that he
calls us into his own kingdom and glory.
Do you know what he's saying?
He's not calling you into a lesser kingdom
and he's not calling you to a lesser
glory.
He's calling you to his kingdom.
The highest kingdom, and he's calling you to
his glory, the highest glory, oh, brothers and
sisters in Christ.
Isn't this encouraging?
It's not like some cults have it, you
know, you'll be trapped on level three.
Or you'll have to stay here on Earth
while the really good guys get to go
to heaven.
That's not what the Bible teaches, the smallest
saint is called in to the very same
kingdom and the very same glory.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer.