The Greatest Sermon of the Apostle Paul - J Vernon McGee - FULL Sunday Sermons

Now, this morning, our subject is the greatest sermon of the Apostle Paul. If you were asked today to choose what you consider to be the greatest sermon that the Apostle Paul ever preached, which sermon would you choose? May I say, there would be many from which to make a choice, for we have recorded quite a few of his messages, not all of them. And I'm confident that in a congregation this size, where so many of these messages are outstanding, that there would be a difference of opinion.

I'm sure that some of you would go back to the very beginning, right after his conversion, when, in the city of Damascus, it says that Paul preached that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. For that's the thing this man had found out on the Damascus Road, and in his conversion, he'd found out that this man had died for him on the cross, buried, and rose again. And he was a witness. I'm confident of his death, and he tells us that he saw the resurrected Christ. So Paul became a witness to this glorious thing that's known as the gospel. And from the very beginning, even into Damascus, he began to present it. He never brought a message but what he did not mention the death and the resurrection of Christ for sinners. And, yes, at Damascus, he brought his first message.

Then there would be those of you, I'm sure, that would want to go to the island of Cyprus, where Miss Alexander is working today. Well, that's where Paul began his missionary labors. He'd been assistant pastor of the church in Antioch under Barnabas. Then he and Barnabas went out as missionaries, and Paul immediately became the spokesman for the group. And on the island of Patmos, he preached in such a way that Sergius Paulus, the Roman official of the island, was converted, and Elymas, a sorcerer, was put to flight.

Then maybe you'd like to follow him to the Antioch in Pisidia. You'd like to follow him to Antioch of Pisidia, in the synagogue, where I personally think that Paul brought one of the great messages that you will find in the New Testament. He so presented the gospel that it was the means not only of the beginning of one church, but many churches sprang up in that entire area.

Then maybe some of you would want to go to the 15th of Acts, to that great council in Jerusalem, where the other apostles were. And Paul stood up, and by his presentation there, he brought these men, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to see that men were to come to Christ not through the Mosaic law, but entirely apart from it. And men were saved by the grace of God, simply by faith in Jesus Christ.

And I know many of you'd want to go to Athens, out under the Areopagus, Mars Hill. A friend of mine in the ministry said, "You know, the first thing I did when I got to Athens, I went out to Mars Hill and took my Testament and I stood up there and I read Paul's sermon." And I asked him, I said, "Well, how'd you feel?" "Oh," he says, "it was a wonderful experience for me." I said, "Did you read it in Greek?" He said, "No, I wouldn't have understood it. Nobody else would. I read it in English." Well, I said, "Paul preached that sermon there that day in Greek to the intellectuals of the Greek world." A message in which he brought to their attention the living and true God, who is the creator, the one, the one who began it, the one who is bringing this creation to judgment. And then he presented to them the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because Paul never preached without presenting the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for sinners. That was a great message.

Then maybe some of you would want to go to the school of Tyrannus in Ephesus, where for a space of two years Paul had an influence that I believe no other man has ever had. For he's standing, yes, at the very throne of Satan himself, and he's preaching a gospel to a pagan world, a cultured world, but a pagan world. And he had a tremendous effect, so that churches began to spring up in that entire area. That was the most effective period, I'm sure, of the ministry of the Apostle Paul.

Perhaps you'd want to go back with him to Jerusalem and stand with him, yes, on the steps after he's arrested, as he pleaded with his brethren, told of his experience, and presented Jesus Christ to them as the Savior. Perhaps you'd want to go with him into prison and then be brought before, first of all, Felix, in chains and bonds. And you stand before that man and hear Paul reason with him of righteousness and temperance and of judgment to come. And that man trembled and sent Paul away. And he said, "This fellow didn't come here to defend himself, he came here to convert me." And that's the reason Paul was there. He never defended himself. He preached a sermon in order to present Christ.

He stood before Festus, and I believe one of the most beautiful messages that's ever been given. And I personally don't like that term "beautiful" being given to a sermon, but if there's one sermon that can be called beautiful, it's that message that Paul brought before Agrippa. It's considered in literature today the finest thing that's ever been presented when Paul stood there in bonds and chains and looked up at that king and said, "Said I wish, King Agrippa, that you not only almost, but all together, that you were a Christian, like as I am, but not have these bonds on you." I wouldn't wish these bonds and chains on anyone. That was a great message.

If you please, and then go stand with him, yes, down on the beach, down from the city of Ephesus, as he preaches to the elders of the church. What a tender scene, concluded in a prayer meeting where they knelt there upon the sands. Always he presented Christ, and he presented him in his death, and in his burial, and in his resurrection. That was the gospel that this man presented to the Roman world. And I think if you picked any one of these messages, you'd pick a great message.

But if this morning I may be permitted to choose, I would choose none of these. I would go to Thessalonica and I would take a message that he gave there. You say, "Well, I've read the epistle to the Thessalonians. I've read the book of Acts account, the history of it. I don't recall any message given." Yes, there was, but it's not in writing. It was in walking. It was not an exposition, it was an experience, the experience of Paul there among those people. It was not a profession that he made, but the practice of the man's life. It was not that which he gave by his lip, it was that which he gave from his life. It was not his words, it is his works. And Paul, if you think he was in disagreement with James, may I say to you that he took his text from the epistle to James in this sermon. We're talking about one he did not speak, but he practiced. And his text was, "Faith without works is dead." It was not his testimony by his word, not his lip, but his life. It wasn't his tongue, not the tongue in his head, it was the tongue in his shoes that was the preacher in this particular case.

And my beloved, may I say to you this morning that every one of you here today is a preacher, and that you are preaching by your life some message. And that doesn't make any difference whether you're saved or unsaved, you're a preacher. I remember when I was pastor out here in Pasadena, that down the street from the church lived a family: a mother, a son, and a daughter. The daughter was converted first, and then the mother. The boy was an alcoholic, a drunkard. He was more than just a boy, he was a grown man. And the daughter and mother asked me if I would talk with him. And he came into the study. He was drunk, so drunk he barely could stand up. And I told him, I talked with him very plainly. I called him a drunk, I called him an alcoholic to his face, I called him a bum, I called him a disgrace to his father and to his mother. His father's name, for his father was dead, and to his mother, but he was breaking her heart. He agreed to everything I said until I said to him, "You know, after all, you're a preacher." And he got to his feet and wanted to fight. And you know, I had to physically push that man down back into the chair and hold him there. He says, "You're not going to call me a preacher." He didn't mind being called a bum. He didn't mind being called a drunk, but he didn't want to be called a preacher. Says, "I'm no preacher." And I said, "Yes, you are. I said, you are preaching by your life some message. Every man, every woman, every person here, you're a preacher. And you're preaching by your life, you're preaching a message. You're telling out to somebody something today. You can't help it, because this matter of influence, you and I live our lives one into the other. I'm living my life into you right now, and you're living, giving your life into me. Can't be otherwise. And today, our lives are a sermon."

Emerson, the Unitarian of New England, said, "What you are speaks so loud I can't hear what you're saying." A young boy came forward in a meeting of Dwight L. Moody. And Dwight L. Moody was a great student of human nature, and he wanted to know why man accepted Christ, so he'd know how to approach them and be a better soul winner. And he took this boy, and he said to him, he said, "Young man, what was it that I said that caused you to accept Christ?" The boy looked at him in amazement. Said, "Mr. Moody, it was nothing that you said. It was my mother's life that caused me to make the decision."

May I say to you this morning, what kind of a message are you preaching? You're preaching some sort of a message. In California, you can't help it. You have to be a preacher. Well, you listen to this. In a book that came out some time ago by Dr. Bernard Bell of Chicago, title of the book was "Crowd Culture," and honestly, it was a better book than the title sounds like. He made this statement: "The 87 million Americans," and it's more now, "but the 87 million Americans who are associated with some religious body make no real religious impact on American life." And he says, "All that the church has become is a promoter of a respectable minor art, charming if it happens to appeal to you. Its only moral function is to bless whatever the multitude at the moment regards as the American way of life." I'm afraid that's true. Never has there been a time when we've had so many church members. I wonder where they are when I go into public gatherings. Coming back on the Super Chief the other day, I sat in the dining room. Everybody's drinking cocktails. Today, everybody, if there was anybody on that train with the exception of myself, didn't have one. I don't know who it was. My point was, well, looks like in the train of several hundred, there ought to be two or three Christians get on the train. Looks like that there ought to be some sort of a message given today by the lives of believers, and they're making no impression today.

What kind of sermon are you preaching where you work? And don't think they're not watching you. What kind of a sermon are you preaching where you go to school? And don't think they don't know. What kind of a sermon are you preaching today with a crowd that you run with, the social gathering? Boy, do they know you. What is the, what's the sermon you're preaching today? The greatest sermon the Apostle Paul ever preached was his life. And it was a very effective sermon. It is the thing that had the tremendous influence in Thessalonica.

Now, will you listen to him for just a moment? For this morning, I want you to listen to the Apostle Paul. He was, he's defending himself, to be sure, because there were enemies following him around, criticizing him. But here's what this man could say: "What a life he had." Will you listen to him for yourselves? "Brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain." The word "vain" is empty. Paul says, "When I came to Thessalonica, I wasn't just like a vacuum that had come into town." And so many Christians are like that, non-entities, make no impression at all, colorless individuals. One liberal writing not long ago of the Apostle Paul called him "pestiferous." Paul, you bet, that's all right, I'll take it. You knew when he came to town, you knew when he entered a group, you knew the impact that man was making. He's making it for God. Someone else has said that any time Paul came to a town, they either had a revival or a revolution. And if you'll check up on his missionary journeys, they had one or the other. He never left a place just like it was. His entering in, he says to the Thessalonians, "It was not an empty sort of thing, wasn't in vain." Our Lord says, "You're salt in the earth." Salt irritates. Paul was an irritant on these open wounds and this old flesh of ours filled with sin. He says, "You're light in the world." And men love darkness rather than light when their deeds are evil. And they didn't like Paul coming around because Paul was light. And Paul was in Thessalonica less than one month.

Let me give you the inspired history of Paul's coming to Thessalonica. I think it'll help us appreciate him. Listen to this now: "When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ." Paul says when he writes the Thessalonians later, "My coming to you was not an empty sort of thing." In fact, Paul's coming to Thessalonica is one of the greatest success stories that you've ever read. I've tried to visualize how some of our modern, sleek Christian magazines that are so up-to-date, how they would record this because I'm sure that all of them would want to write this up. May I give you this morning, and I'm doing this, I hope that you understand, in a fair, friendly spirit. If Moody Monthly wrote this up, and I'm confident they would all write it up, they would have this headline: "Paul Opens New Work in Thessalonica." The King's Business would have to have a little California color and would say, "What One Man Did in Three Weeks." Christianity Today, that standing on its tiptoes to be intellectual, would come out with this kind of a headline: "The Fortuitous Concurrence with Theological Implications of Paul Preaching on Eschatology in Thessalonica." And then they would have an article on that subject, whatever it means. Now, Christian Life would not be satisfied with anything that was prosaic. They would say with their headline, "Paul Does It Again." An Eternity magazine, that has the idea that there may be something there that doesn't meet the eye, why Paul was run out of town in Thessalonica. And the Christian Century, the mouthpiece of liberalism today, would have this headline: "Local Council of Churches Say Paul Disturbed the Ecumenical Movement in Thessalonica." And the Christian Beacon would come out with this headline: "Modernism in the Synagogue at Thessalonica." These are things, I'm sure, that would catch the attention of all of the modern journals today. But may I say to you that this was a success story. And since Paul preached this sermon that had such a tremendous effect, and it's his life, you may be sure it's an orthodox sermon, and it has three points. Will you listen to the three points?

He was like a mother first to the Thessalonians. Second, he was like a father to the Thessalonians. Third, he was like a brother to the Thessalonians. And this is not something we've made up. Will you listen to him? Verse 7: "But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse." And the word for nurse is nursing mother. "But we were gentle among you, even as a nursing mother cherisheth her children." He was first like a mother, and he comforted them. Second, he's like a father to the Thessalonians. Notice verse 11: "As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children." And as a father, he charged them. And then he was like a brother. Notice verse 14: "For ye, brethren," he calls them brothers, "he's a brother to them." And he challenges them, he comforts them, he charges them, and he challenges them. And it's all with his life.

Will you listen to him? First of all, he was like a mother to the Thessalonians. Listen to him: "But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention." The thing that impresses us here is he was bold. And the word for bold in the Greek has to do with speaking. Paul, in his presenting of the gospel, did not play down anything. Now, he'd had a terrifying experience in Philippi, which he reminds them of. And you would think that after that terrifying experience, where actually his back was laid wide open, nothing put on there, and at midnight he sings in silence, shamefully entreated, so much so that when even the officials of the town saw the injustice they had wrought on a Roman citizen, they tried to hush it up and shush him out of town. Paul says, "Not on your life, you don't do me that way. I'm a Roman citizen. You've mistreated me awfully, mistreated him shamefully," he says, "I was mistreated." Now, you would think on the way over to Thessalonica, he and Silas and Dr. Luke and Timothy would get together and have a pastoral meeting. They would say, "Now, we got to be more careful here in Europe. These Europeans are civilized, apparently, here in the Roman Empire, but my, they're brutal and they're rough. And so we've got to use a little more tact when we get to our next place. And when we present Christ, we'll just sort of slip up on it. We won't do it the first Sabbath day, we'll wait the next one, and then we'll do it gently. We'll be very careful." Paul says, "When I got to Thessalonica and went into the synagogue and got up to preach to you, you know, I pull no punches. Boldness, I presented Christ to you with boldness." You see, a man's experience can affect his ministry. Dr. George Truett, the late Dr. George Truett, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, that is today the largest Baptist Church, and I guess the largest church in the world, 12,000 members. He's the man that founded that church and built it. Dr. Truett, as a young preacher, went quail hunting down near Cleburne, Texas, with the chief of police in Dallas. And going through a fence, he didn't have his shotgun on safety. The trigger caught on the barbed wire fence on one of the barbs, shot the chief of police. And so excited Dr. Tru, he fainted dead away. If he had not fainted, he could have saved the life of the chief of police. But the chief of police just bled to death there. When Dr. Tru came to, the chief of police was dead. He never got over that. And if you've ever heard him preach, and as a young theological student, I used to go every Sunday to hear him, hear him for the inspiration that he had. Said, but that man never smiled in the pulpit from that day till his dying day. He never smiled. It so affected him, it had such a tremendous effect upon him. You could well understand that the experience of the Apostle Paul in Philippi would cause him to change his tactics as a missionary. But he says, "When I came to Thessalonica, it looked like I hadn't learned anything, for I boldly declared unto you the gospel."

Now, somebody's going to say, "But you said that he's a mother here." Well, that's what he says, that he's like a mother to them. But is boldness the thing that characterizes the mother, or shouldn't that be the father? No, sir, I disagree. Oh, I know they say today that women are the weakest sex, and I know that they get on a chair when a mouse goes by. You know, I think that's put on. It's well known today that they'll endure more suffering than a man. They exhibit more courage than a man. And Paul is speaking here as a mother. That a mother will protect her child as no father or man will. Paul's using the right terminology here, if you don't mind. And I think it's interesting that in this day in which we live, we've had a great deal of publicity about these men who are training to go out, yes, into space. But when they sent the first live thing up, isn't it interesting? They sent two little monkeys, and they were females. I guess all the man monkeys ran off. I think it's interesting that it worked out that way. May I say to you that when he speaks here of courage, he means exactly what he says, that it's with boldness that I declared unto you the gospel.

And then he says, "with contention." And the word is actually *agon* in the Greek. We get our word by transliteration, agony. And it can be either conflict on the inside or on the outside. Many scholars feel like it's the inward conflict that was going on inside the Apostle Paul. Others feel like it was the outward opposition that he was having personally. I think he means both. When he says that I preached unto you the gospel, and it was with contention, there was a storm going on within me, and there was a storm going on outside of me. I did not let circumstances or my own condition affect the preaching of the gospel. One.

Then he says something else here, and I want you to notice it. "For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor of guile." When this man Paul said that he had done this with agony, this is the man that says, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." This is the man that now says that when I preached the gospel to you, I didn't do it with deceit. And actually, the word means error. It has to do with the content of his message. Paul's message was not adulterated. Paul did not attempt in any way to play down the gospel by mixing it with something. It was not with error. He says, "It's not with uncleanness." Now, that word is sensuality. It's true, but it also has to do with the intent, not the content of the message, but the intent of the message, that is, his motives. Paul says, "When I came, it was not with uncleanness that I preached to you. My motives were right in preaching the gospel. I was not motivated by greed. I was not motivated by something that didn't appear on the surface." Then he says, "And it was not with guile." That means he did not use wrong methods. His motives were right, his methods were right. Paul did not lower the standards of the gospel and of the ministry to accommodate the prejudices and passions of the old nature of people. Oh, if today fundamentalists would pay as much attention to the second chapter of First Thessalonians as they do to the fourth chapter. I saw the correspondence that a party carried on with the religious broadcaster. This party challenged the religious broadcaster because of questionable methods that were used, absolutely false statements being made. And this party blatantly, in writing, said, "We're doing this for a very worthy cause." Paul says, "I don't stoop to do that sort of thing. My methods are right. I don't deceive people in presenting the gospel to thee."

May I say to you, this is something today that the church and the ministry needs to take a fresh and a new to its heart, the methods in which the gospel is presented. He never sent out an SOS that he'd be off the air next week when he had money in the bank. How tragic that is today, and how people are carried away by that sort of thing, whereas another cause that may be lots more worthy and may need help more, but they don't use that method. But some party said, "Oh, one dear little lady said to me in San Diego the other night, Dr. McGee, I just don't send to you. I send to the other one because they always say they're desperate, and you've never said you were desperate." Well, I said to her, "I won't say we're desperate until we are, but my needs as great as the other need." Paul says, "I do not stoop to use low methods just because it happens to be Christian work."

Listen to him: "But as we were allowed of God, and the word allowed here means approved, tested." Paul was no neophyte. Paul says, "The thing that was uppermost in my mind was to please God. But as we were approved of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts." Paul was no man-pleaser. He never sought popularity. He never preached with the idea, nor did he attempt to live with the idea, "What will men think?" His whole point was, "What will God think about this?" And my friend, it would revolutionize the church in Southern California if today the members of the church, everything we did, we don't do it well, now, we mustn't do that because somebody might not approve it, and we can't do this because somebody doesn't like that, but that our conduct might be, we're trying to please Him. It had turned us upside down.

My beloved, now will you listen to him? Because this man's using the blue litmus paper of God, and not the red litmus paper of man, to test his conduct. Listen to him: "For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness." God is witness. Paul never flattered a prominent person. He never played up to the rich. He never buttered up a person in order that somehow or another he might get in with him or get along with him. And unfortunately today, friends, most of us are subject to flattery. In fact, all of us are. The most disarming thing in the world is flattery. And honestly, that's the way the devil always comes. If you notice, he's never made a direct attack. Didn't in the Garden of Eden, it was with flattery. And you remember when these came to the Lord Jesus, they came to him, the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians. They'd gotten together and they said, "We know that you are a teacher and you teach the truth." Oh boy, what would you say in a case like that? I'll be honest with you, I have never yet in my ministry learned what to say to flattery. I don't know to this day. But if I'm standing depending on the truth and criticism comes, I know what to say. But I don't with flattery. Our Lord said to them, "Ye hypocrites." That's what he said. Our Lord said that. Paul said, "When I came into your midst, I didn't use that weakness of yours." And how many people get to us today because of flattery.

Then he says, "I did not use a cloak of covetousness." Now, covetousness here could mean money. But the sin of the ministry is not money. And I honestly don't think it ever has been. This is a cloak of many colors. The cloak of covetousness is a cloak that covers up covetousness. But you can covet many things. You can covet honor, fame, popularity, position. Those are things that you can. Paul says, "I, when I came to Thessalonica, I was not looking for anything for myself, not a thing." Wonderful to be able to say that, isn't it?

Now, will you listen to him? "Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ." Paul never sought position or honors. You can buy preachers today by the dozen by giving out honorary degrees. My alma mater has broken down all opposition. It's a liberal college. It's broken down all opposition. Every time a preacher for the past 25 years has popped up to criticize the school, the next year they give him a degree, and that zips up his lip. Paul says, "Will you listen to this?" Paul says, "When I came to Thessalonica, I was not looking for any honors at all. I did not want honors. I wasn't looking for position. I wasn't seeking glory from men." Oh, what a, what a sermon this is, my beloved.

And then, will you listen to him now? He comes to the positive side. This has all been negative. Listen to the positive: "But we were gentle among you, even as a nursing mother cherisheth her children." Picture in the Greek is a picture of a mother bird up over her little birdies, feeding them and protecting them and taking care of them. All the gentleness of the Apostle Paul, tender as a woman. It's interesting the kind of man God chooses. When God was ready to tell his people he was through with them, they were to go into captivity, and the end had come for that time, it was a tough job, it was a tough assignment. And today, oh, I tell you, I would pick Jimmy Hoffa, he'd make a good one to go and tell them. Need a tough man to give a tough assignment. But God doesn't choose as we choose. God picked the tenderest man. He had a woman's heart. He's the biggest crybaby in scripture, Jeremiah. Jeremiah says, "I can't talk without weeping." God picked a man that the message he gave broke his heart. God says, "I have to have that kind of man so they'll know how I feel about it." And so God sent Paul, the Apostle, with the tenderness of a mother to let men and women know that God had a mother's heart.

But wait a minute, that could be the sign of weakness. Now he goes on, briefly, let me just hit high points. "So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." Listen to him: "For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God." The proof that this man had this kind of a heart, he worked night and day. He was no paid nurse. He didn't belong to the preachers' union. He worked night and day. A young preacher came in to see me some time ago from a neighboring town. He'd been a student of mine. He said, "I've been in this place three years, and," he says, "I'm preached out, I'm empty." Easy to find out what's wrong when a man says that. I wish all of them were that easy. I said to him, "How much time do you spend in the study?" Well, he says, "What do you mean?" I says, "How much time do you really spend as a preacher in your study?" Oh, he says, "Uh, well, I guess maybe a couple hours a week. I have to get up my sermon, one sermon on Sunday." I said, "Do you mind if I tell you that that's the reason that you're run out?" I said, "Dr. G. Campbell Morgan once said that you and I ought to spend the first 10 years of our ministry 8 hours a day in the study, 5 days a week." I said, "You know, I thought that was good advice, and I followed it, and it was so good, I can't put that much time in, but I have to spend hours in the study." And I said, "If Dr. G. Campbell Morgan had to spend that kind of time, you'll have to spend maybe more. You got to work night and day." Paul proved that he had a mother's heart by the fact he gave himself to the ministry God had called him to.

But wait a minute, he's not weak. He's not effeminate. He's very, he's robust, he's stern, he's firm. Listen to him now, he's like a father. "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe." Holy, careful discharge of his duty to God. Justly, careful discharge of his duty to man. Unblameably, that doesn't mean they didn't accuse him, they did, but no charge could be maintained. We're living in a day when a holy life has fallen on evil days. We don't hear much about it anymore in the church. We think it's a sort of a form of weakness. We today to be viral Christians and not live a holy life. That's a sign of weakness. May I say to you today that the sign of strength is a holy life. And we need today consecrated common sense in the church as we've never needed before. We need integrity and honesty today. I remember hearing years ago as a young preacher, Bishop Moore of the Methodist Church at Winona Lake, and he said, "If the Methodists were only afraid of sin as they are of holiness." And I thought at the time, well, you could take in more folk than the Methodists if we today were as afraid of sin as we are of the subject of holiness. Today, a holy life is what Paul's talking about.

Then will you listen in verse 11: "As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children." Exhorted, that word's not what we think it means. It's *parakleō*, it's the same word used to speak of the Holy Spirit as a comforter. It means one called to the side. It means an attorney. It means one who entreats. It means one who presents evidence to bring conviction. And Paul says, "I exhorted you." He says, "I came in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction." Then he says, "I comforted." And the word comfort is not our word comfort, it's the word persuade. "We came to persuade you." And when he says, "we came and charged you," in that word there's a note of severity and a note of discipline. My beloved, that which is absent today in the church. The Wall Street Journal picked up something after the Korean War that others had passed by. We lost more men in the Korean War by death than in any other war we've ever fought, according to the number of men involved. And more men collaborated with the enemy. And they made an investigation. The collaboration ran as high as 30%. And they found out that it was not due to brainwashing. And they found out that the high mortality rate among American soldiers, prisoners, which was 38%, was the highest rate in any war. It was not the result of inhuman treatment by the Chinese Communists, and that doesn't mean to explain them away at all or to excuse them. But the Wall Street Journal said it was due to a lack of discipline on the part of the American soldier. A few years ago, an American missionary leader said, "Frankly, it's the conviction of many of us that the greatest contribution which Christian institutions in the homeland can make lies in the cultivation of a spirit of discipline and of submission to the Lord and to those under whom they serve." Without being unduly pessimistic about present-day trends in evangelical circles, we sometimes feel that there is a very superficial emphasis in many quarters, with the result that the young people tend to think more of what they can get rather than what they can give. They cannot be too frequently reminded that the Christian life is the life of a soldier, and that it necessarily involves discipline and hardship. May I say to you that the Apostle Paul knew what discipline was, and he preached discipline. He said it was the thing that was essential.

Then will you notice now, very briefly, verse 12: "That ye walk worthy of God who hath called you into his kingdom and glory." Paul said, "I want you to walk worthy of the calling you have." He said to the Ephesians, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, as a prisoner I beseech you that you walk worthy of your vocation wherewith ye have been called." My beloved, called a child of God into the kingdom and glory. And the glory is not yet appeared. We are today in the kingdom and patience of Christ. The glory is yet to be revealed. And in this day, we are to walk worthy. Down here, Lord Baldwin, Prime Minister, went to the late Prince of Wales when he wanted to marry the American divorcee whom he later married. And the world fell for that. "I want to marry the woman I love." But I like, my beloved, what this man, Lord Baldwin, said to the Prince of Wales: "Because of who you are, you can't be like the other man." Oh, what a challenge! Oh, what a call! Because of who you are. Paul says, "I beseech you that you walk worthy of God." I challenge you to walk worthy of Him.

And then he speaks of the supernatural of the Word of God. "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because that when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." There are two factors in the preaching of the Bible: one is in how it's preached, and the second is how it is received. People say, "I want to hear a good preacher." But are you a good receiver? How do you receive the Word of God? The Thessalonians received it as it was indeed and in truth the very Word of God. It had its effect upon them.

Now, in closing, Paul was like a brother. Listen to him: "For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews." He challenges them now. Now, because the churches in Judea had suffered and had gone through the fires, he says now to this new church in Thessalonica that started in a period of persecution, he says to them, "Suffering is the cement that's going to hold you together." The church is becoming unglued today. And men are praying today for revival. And there are some that are daring to say today that it's going to take a great tragedy to bring revival to the church. They'll have to be persecution. May I say, I go along with that. I see no signs of revival in America or anywhere today in the church. It's never been at such a low spiritually as it is today. It never has made such a front before the world, but it's at a low spiritual ebb today. There will not be revival until the church is brought together by suffering. And that's the thing that brought the church in Thessalonica together. And Paul now can say, "You're my brothers. I have suffered, you know about it. You have suffered. We are brought together now as brethren."

The life of the Apostle Paul was his greatest sermon. You are preaching a sermon. You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day by words that you say and deeds that you do. Men read what you write, whether faithless or true. Say what is the gospel according to you. And then Annie Johnson Flint put it like this: "We are the only Bible the careless world will read. We are the sinner's gospel. We are the scoffer's creed. We are the Lord's last message, given indeed in word. What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?" Richard Max will change the figure of speech a little and put it like this: "In this great day of radio, with broadcasts flying to and fro, we know the air is full of sounds, with words and music it abounds. Yet not one bit of it we hear without a speaker for the ear. And all of us are stations too, broadcasting things we think and do. Our thoughts of hate, of doubt, of fear, of love and courage, faith and cheer. The good or bad, the weak or strong, our thoughts go forth both right and wrong. If someone could and should invent receivers, catching thoughts as sent, would you be satisfied? Be proud to have them magnified out loud? What you, what would you think? What would you do if people could tune in on you?" You're a preacher. You're a radio station. Why, you and they are tuning you in all the time. What are you broadcasting? What are you saying? What is the gospel according to you?

Shall we pray? I'm not this morning going to ask for any visible sign for anything. I have brought a message today to believers. I hope you will receive the word as the Thessalonians did. They received it as it was indeed the Word of God. If you receive it that way, that's all we'll ask. And we do not want you to say it by an uplifted hand or anything. It'll just be proven by your life. A lady came rushing up to a preacher at the end of the church service as he stood outside shaking hands with the people. She said, "Is the service over? The sermon over?" He said, "No, just beginning." As he watched the people walk away. Will you receive it as it is indeed and in truth the Word of God?

Our gracious, loving Father, God, seal to our hearts that which is true today. That which is not true, may it be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor, the wind will drive away. But that which is good seed, may it fall on good ground and may it bring forth a harvest, even a hundredfold, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.