Our Entrance Was Not in Vain

The Apostle Paul's Fear of a Vain Ministry

0:05 I would invite you to turn with me this morning to Paul's letter to the church at Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians, as we continue our studies Sunday mornings in this very practical and instructive letter, 1 Thessalonians. We have completed our studies in the first chapter and will begin this morning a consideration of chapter 2.

0:35 Try to put yourself in the place of a farmer. A farmer. He's gone out early in the spring, faithfully plowed and fertilized his fields.

0:48 He has sowed them with the best of seed, spent many a day, long into the shades of evening, cultivating, caring for that crop. As the summer is about to move into fall, the harvest time is coming, there's a freak weather condition that results in a devastating hail storm. And all the labor of those days. The days and months and hours and the sweat and the toil is ruined in an hour as the hail comes and utterly flattens and ruins his crop.

1:23 And he thinks of all the labor from spring until harvest time and he writes over the whole business, all was in vain. I've spent my labor for naught. Think of a young woman who has conceived in her womb and carried that light next to her heart for the full term. Has entered in to labor and all that's involved with it.

1:50 And instead of the joyous response of a mother's heart when she hears the first cry of that newborn infant, the doctor has to tell her that the child is stillborn.

2:03 All those months of preparation, all the heartache and the physical discomfort and the pain of labor and she writes over the whole thing. All was in vain. Think of engineers, mechanics and military advisors who've pooled all of their mental and intellectual resources and they've planned and produced an airplane that's supposed to make a significant contribution to the defense of our nation. And everyone's gathered for its maiden flight and it's 20 feet off the ground and something goes wrong and it crashes and is utterly disintegrated.

2:38 And they write over all those hours, those man hours of labor and of thought and of planning. Oh. Was in vain. It's a terrible thought, isn't it?

2:49 For the farmer, for the mother, for the engineer, for the mechanic. The thought that labor and expenditure of energy and interest in time should all come to naught when the end in view is not realized and when everything that was moving toward that end suddenly looks like fool's play.

3:09 And it's just that thought that the apostle captures as he speaks to the church at Thessalonica in the first verse of chapter 2 of 1 Thessalonica. For yourselves, brethren, know that our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. As Paul looked back over his weeks of labor at Thessalonica and the events that have transpired, what delight it brings to his heart to know that he does not need to write over all that expenditure of labor, both in the preaching of the gospel and in the closet of prayer and in soul agony. It brings him great.

3:49 Delight to know that he does not need to write over this. All was in vain. He had said in chapter 9, verse 9 of chapter 1, that wherever he went in northern or southern Greece, as we would say today, Achaia and Macedonia, he said, wherever I go, people there report what manner of entering in we had unto you. They tell us that we obviously had a successful.

4:19 Fruitful entrance. But he says now in chapter 2 that not only do people elsewhere know that our entrance was not in vain, but he said, you to whom I minister, you are equally conscious that our entrance in unto you was not in vain. And as I began to study this passage, I was struck with something that I'd never realized in the same way before, that the apostle Paul had a tremendous fear and apprehension. Lest his ministry should be a vain ministry.

4:54 The same apprehension the farmer has, lest all his labor should be in vain. The mother, lest all her labor should be in vain. The engineer, lest all his labor should be in vain. The apostle Paul had that same tremendous concern that his labors in the gospel should not be in vain.

5:15 And so I want you to think with me this morning with 1 Thessalonians. 2, 1 is our text of Paul's fear of a vain ministry. Notice in the first place that this was a great fear to him mentioned not only here, but in other passages of the word of God. First of all, let's think of the word vain.

5:37 What does it mean when we say something was in vain? He spent his life in vain. A woman labored in vain. A farmer labored in vain.

5:47 What do we mean? Well, we mean that the labor, the effort was fruitless. It was without effect. It was futile.

5:55 It was unavailing. They tried to save his life by artificial respiration, but in vain. Their effort was in vain. It was futile, fruitless.

6:06 It did not attain the desired end. Now, the scripture teaches us that the apostle Paul had a tremendous fear, lest his ministry should be fruitless. Lest it should be fruitless. Lest it should be fruitless.

6:19 Lest it should be without effect. Lest it should be futile. Lest it should be unavailing. And let's look at three instances, other than the one we have here, in which he expressly states his tremendous fear that his ministry might be in vain.

Paul's Fear of a Vain Ministry in Other Epistles

6:33 Turn to the third chapter of this very letter. Chapter 3.

6:41 And he says in verses 4 and 5, For verily when we were with you, we told you before that ye should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass, and ye know. For this cause. When I could no longer forbear, knowing that you were suffering persecution, fearing that the persecution might be getting the best of you, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain. As Paul was providentially removed from the Thessalonians, the thought that disturbed him was this.

7:18 Those new Christians, those little baby Christians are undergoing tremendous pressure. And the more he thought about that, and the more he thought of what persecution always does, either driving people's roots deeper into the Lord, or moving them away from their profession of Christ, and causing them to fall away, for this is always what persecution does. Our Lord had mentioned it in the parable of the sower. Tribulation and persecution arises.

7:42 They fall away. The book of Hebrews is filled with it. Or, it simply strengthens their faith. And not knowing, Paul was so apprehensive that all of his labor might have been, spent for naught, that persecution might have come along and swept away all the fruit of his labor, that he specifically commissions Timothy to go down to those people and find out how they're doing to bring back a report so that he might know whether or not his labors were in vain, fruitless, futile, or if they were fruitful and successful.

8:14 Notice, he did not judge the fruitfulness of his ministry only in terms of its beginning. He had no doubt about the beginning. He was there, and he saw them respond. The gospel came in power.

8:26 They turned to God for their idols. But he viewed either a vain ministry or a fruitful ministry in terms of the long haul, the continuance of people in the ways and will of God. Then, in Galatians chapter 4, we have another instance of the apostle's tremendous fear that he should have a vain ministry. Galatians chapter 4,

8:54 and the problem basically here was that people who had been saved by the grace of God had been listening to some of these Judaizers who came and said, now that's all right, you believe in Christ and you found forgiveness. That's fine. Paul took you as far as he could take you, but we want to take you on to something better. We want you to have not only Christ and forgiveness and salvation, but we want you to have the law of Moses with all of its trappings, special feasts, special Sabbaths, all the rest.

9:19 And so Paul says in Galatians 4.10, he observed days and months, and times and years, I'm afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. He said, I came preaching to you people that in Jesus Christ all the ceremonial law was swallowed up. He fulfilled it.

9:41 Everything that was typified by the special feast days has been fulfilled in Christ. Everything typified by special holy days, the day in which you'd celebrate liberation out of Egypt, the day in which you would proclaim liberty to your servants. Days, jubilee days, and all the rest, he said, having Christ, you have the fulfillment of all of those things. Therefore, don't go back to the types and shadows.

10:08 You have the reality. That's the gospel Paul preached, that having Christ, you had all of this. Now when he hears that they're not relinquishing Christ, but they're simply holding on to Christ, trying to, and going back to some of these things, he says, if that happens, he said, all of my labor is in vain. He says, I fear.

10:29 I'm afraid of you, lest I bestowed upon you labor in vain. He feared that his ministry might be a vain ministry. Now will you turn to Philippians 2, and we shall see another instance.

10:43 Now stick with me. You're wondering, well, what's all this have to say to me? Well, you be patient now.

10:51 You can't build a house on air. You've got to lay a foundation.

10:56 All right? Philippians chapter 2. And he says in verse...

11:00 Beginning with verse 14. And do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. He's saying, you people must go on in holiness. You must go on.

11:30 You must go on in your adorning of the gospel so that your lives are so radically different from the world about you, as radically different as a light in the midst of inky black darkness. That's my longing. And in the midst of that darkness, not only do you shine by your life, but you are zealous to proclaim the word of God. And he says, if you fall short of that, I feel I've labored in vain.

11:55 If your lives do not adorn the gospel in holiness, and your lives are not marked, by zeal to proclaim the gospel, Paul says, when I stand before the Lord in that day, all my labors, all my efforts, all my tears, all my sweat, all my blood, all my stripes, all my imprisonments, vain, empty, nothing, fruitless.

The Doctrinal Ground of Paul's Fear

12:20 He feared this, not only now, but in the day when he would stand before his God. Now, what conclusion do we draw from these passages, which clearly state Paul's great fear of a vain ministry? Is this the same Paul, deeply convinced of the truth of divine sovereignty, that the Lord will save his people? Yes.

12:40 He's the one who had spoken in chapter 1 of this same letter, knowing, brethren beloved, of God your election. He said, the fact you received the gospel was proof, not that I was clever, but that God has sovereignly chosen you. Here's the same Paul, convinced of the doctrine of divine sovereignty and election, and efficacious grace, the surety of God's purposes, the one who could, stayed as he did in 1 Corinthians 3, God alone gives the increase, and yet, he's concerned, lest his ministry should be vain. Paul never had this, take it or leave it, I've been faithful, that's all that matters attitude.

13:18 Put little hyphens between that, that's all one phrase. See, he didn't have this, I've been faithful, you take it or leave it attitude, that so many have. God is sovereign if he makes me fruitful, fine, if he doesn't, fine. No, no.

13:31 Paul was joyful when he was fruitful, he was sad when he was unfruitful, and he was apprehensive when he wasn't sure whether or not his ministry was going to be fruitful. Therefore, if we profess to be Bible Christians, following the apostolic pattern, as Paul says, be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ, then we must have the same attitude that Paul had. We must not only follow Paul through chapter 1, where he attributes to the salvation of the Thessalonians, to the electing, distinguishing love of God, I hope we followed him through that, but we must follow him now into chapter 2,

What Constitutes a Vain Ministry: The Word Received as God's Word

14:12 where he shows a practical, pastoral concern, lest his labors should be a thing of naught, lest they should be in vain, lest they should fail of their desired end. And that brings us to our second area of thought this morning. Having seen from the scriptures, Paul's great fear of a vain ministry, let's consider together, Paul's understanding of what constitutes a vain ministry. How would he know whether or not his ministry was in vain?

14:40 Would he check his Nielsen ratings? Is that how he'd know? Well, I'm up there in the top ten. I must be all right.

14:46 I guess I'm not ministering in vain. Well, you see, that's how an advertiser checks whether or not his investment is in vain. He gets the programs that have the highest Nielsen ratings, and then he makes sure that he spot adds there, and then they check what age is, oh, it's a tremendous science, and then they know whether or not it's in vain, or whether it's fruitful. They watch their sales graph.

15:07 Before and after they went on the Ed Sullivan show or some other show, and if they see some appreciable difference, that's how they measure. Now, how does the Apostle Paul measure? How does he know? He says, I fear, lest my ministry should be in vain.

15:20 Well, how did he know when it was and when it wasn't? What was his rule?

15:24 What was his standard? How did he judge it? Was it purely subjective? Did he say, well, I'd like to think so, therefore it must be?

15:31 How did he judge? Would you be able to see and be able to answer? How would you judge? How do you know whether the ministry of this church is in vain or not?

15:39 How do you as a Sunday school teacher know if your ministry is in vain or not? How am I as a pastor to know whether or not my ministry is in vain? How are you as a parent going to know whether or not your ministry is in vain?

15:51 How are you going to know? You say, I just kind of hope everything turns out all right? Is that what Paul did? Just some kind of wishful?

15:57 How do you know? Well, let me give you what I feel is the key of the issue, the key issue, and then we're going to expand it from the scripture, and I'm quoting here basically, but I've added something to my quote to make it a little more precise. The great object of the Christian teacher is, now follow closely, to bring men to the enjoyment of the blessings of Christianity by leading them to understand, believe, and obey the truth as it is in Jesus. What's the great object of the Christian teacher?

16:30 To bring men to the enjoyment of the blessings of Christianity. All of them. Forgiveness, joy in the Holy Ghost, peace of conscience, holiness of life, expectation, all those great blessings, that's the goal of the Christian teacher. The grand object is to bring men to the enjoyment of the blessings of Christianity.

16:51 Now, how do you do it? By leading them to understand, that's the head, believe, faith, and obey, working out into life, the truth as it is in Jesus. And, whenever men who profess to understand, believe, and obey the gospel, act in a manner which gives reason to think that they do not really understand, believe, and obey the gospel, then the Christian teacher has reason to fear that he has bestowed labor upon them in vain. You follow it?

17:30 What's the goal of the Christian teacher? He's gotten some wonderful truths that have gripped his heart, and so now he's sort of got to have a mental and spiritual burp to sort of get it out of his head. Get it out of his system and then feel better? Is that the goal?

17:42 Is that my goal as a pastor? Just to have, and I don't mean to be a reverend, but a spiritual burp every Sunday morning? Something's built up pressure in my heart, and so I come and give it out to you? Is that the goal?

17:52 Is that the goal? Get this thing off my mind? Get this thing out of my heart so I feel better? And when I feel better, I can relax and feel, well, my ministry's not been in vain.

18:01 I've delivered. Is that Paul's goal? No. The goal of the Christian teacher, whether it's a mother and a father, a father with their children, a Sunday school teacher with his pupils, a pastor, a teenager witnessing to a classmate, no matter where anyone assumes the role of a Christian teacher, the goal is this, to bring men into the enjoyment of the blessings of Christianity.

18:25 How? By seeing them understand, believe, and obey the truth. So, when you've given out the truth, and they profess to understand it, and profess to believe it, and profess to obey, and profess to obey it, but there are some clear indications to the contrary, you feel what? I've labored in vain.

18:47 What's the goal of that farmer when he goes out in the spring and hooks up his plow? His goal is not just running around putting on miles on his tractor to prove how well his tractor runs. Certainly his goal is not simply to empty out his gas tank there so he can fill it up again. Certainly his goal is not simply to turn up some earthworms so his boy can go fishing.

19:07 And certainly it's not just to stir up the earth so the birds can get some of the grubs. No, that's not his goal. His goal is there at harvest time. And when he goes out with the plow in the spring, he's got in mind moving out later with the corn picker, moving out later with the combine, moving out later with his hay wagon.

19:26 That's what he's got in mind. And all of the labor in the spring and through the summer has this end in view. And if he fails at that, he feels his labors have been in vain. So what's the goal of the Christian teacher?

19:39 To see people enjoying the blessings of Christianity. Understanding, believing, and obeying the truth so that the truth is embodied in the life. And if he doesn't see that, he feels his labor is in vain. Now, specifically, what's involved in this?

19:58 And we don't need to use our imagination. And this is what is so thrilling to me again. To see the beautiful harmony and symmetry of the Word of God. Paul himself answers this question for us.

20:10 Will you turn to 1 Thessalonians 2 again? And we're going to consider the specific ways in which Paul understood of vain ministry. In general, we've considered. Now, specifically, what would constitute a vain ministry?

20:28 Well, you'll notice in chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Paul begins a thought, then he digresses, and he never picks it up again until verse 13. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the... I'm sorry.

20:40 We've got chapter 2, Thessalonians 2, for yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you that it was not in vain. But even after we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. Then he digresses to vindicate the way in which he preached the gospel, and he never returns to the matter of how they received it till verse 13. Now, notice the chain of thought.

21:08 If we read verses 1 and 2 and then drop right to 13, we were... We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.

21:16 Verse 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, we were bold to speak it when you received it. Ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually works also in you, that ye may believe. Why could Paul say our entrance in unto you was not in vain?

21:48 Here's the first thing. Because when they received the word from his mouth, they received it as the very word of God. Paul, how would you have judged your ministry to the Thessalonians as a vain ministry? His answer would be this.

22:06 I would judge my ministry vain if I came as an appointed messenger of God, spoke in the name of God, the very word of God, and people received it as anything less than that. I would feel that my ministry was vain. If they praised me, if they complimented me, if they did a thousand things to me, I would feel I had ministered in vain unless I saw that they bowed before the authority of the word of the living God.

22:38 So, what constitutes a vain ministry? Oh, now listen carefully. We're getting into the realm, I trust, where you see the practical application. A vain ministry is any ministry in which the word of God is communicated and is received as anything less than the word of God.

22:59 Now, do you see what this means as a pastor? Then we'll apply it to a teacher, to a parent. What is it to minister the word of God in a vain way? To have people regard it as a message of human origin, a message of human authority.

23:14 Therefore, they don't necessarily believe the promises. They don't necessarily submit to the commands. They don't necessarily tremble at its threats. They don't necessarily reach out and enfold its wisdom.

23:27 They just toy with it like they would any other word of man. As some of us on the retreat this week were reminded by Mr. Atwell, this was one of the great contentions that Luther had with Erasmus. Erasmus would say, Luther, Luther, all the time, all the time, you're concerned about truth and propositions and the rest, and you act like such a bull-headed creature as though your opinions mattered so much.

23:51 And he wrote back and said, Erasmus, my opinions are worth just as much as yours are, nothing.

23:58 But the word of God is everything. Is everything. Is everything. And oh, beloved, I speak now not from the standpoint of describing Paul's feelings, but I think from entering in a little bit to Paul's feelings.

24:14 When the word of God comes from this pulpit week by week, how do you receive it? When it comes with its commands, do you really believe the God who made me and the God who redeemed me is telling me what to do? Therefore, knock over a thousand barriers to do it. If I've got to reconstruct the habits of time,

24:45 the Lord God of heaven has spoken. I must obey. The issue's not even debatable.

24:53 Beloved, do we receive the word that way? Not because I give it, but whoever gives it, whoever, whoever stands in this pulpit and opens up the scriptures and expounds the words of God.

25:08 Frankly, I don't believe, I don't believe that too many of us have caught this idea.

25:14 When passages can be quoted from this scripture dealing with such practical issues as husbands taking the rule and headship in their homes and some of you men don't do it. And when women are to take the place of submission and make the home the place of her ministry and you don't do it? Beloved, God has spoken in His word. When He says, children, obey your parents, honor your father and your mother and you don't do it.

25:42 You don't believe that's the word of God.

25:46 That's just some cranky preacher's opinion, but beloved, it isn't. It's the word of the living God. It's the word of the living God. And my ministry is in vain unless the word I communicate from God is received as the word.

26:04 It's not only true of the commands, it's true of the promises, true of the threats, true of its wisdom. Do we believe that God knows best how to order our homes, our church, our society? As we considered God's pattern for the discipline of the local church and how the table of the Lord is to be hedged up by the discipline of the church and when we considered how the doors of the church are to be opened in the declaration of confession of faith in baptism, some of this jarred some of our long time prejudices and our long time thoughts but did we sweep all of that away and say, is that the word of God? God has spoken.

26:44 I must obey. Is that our attitude? To the extent that it is, then my ministry has not been in vain. But to the extent that it isn't, my ministry has been in vain.

26:57 You Sunday school teachers and those who sit beneath them, has the ministry of your Sunday school teacher been in vain to you? You fellows and girls, has the ministry of your parents been in vain when they've sought to enforce the principles of scripture in the home? Have you regarded it simply as the crazy ideas of your old-fashioned parents? Or have you respected the word of God?

27:25 I know something of the delight of what it is to, even in the area of discipline which I don't delight in, to show my children from the word of God that if daddy's going to mind God, he's got to spank. He's got to discipline. He's got to say no.

27:40 So look my own children in the eye and have them thank me and know that I do it because I do it. Because I love them. It's the word of God.

27:49 Do you do that with your mom and dad, kids? Do you thank God that they're applying His word in the realm of the home, in the realm of discipline? Well, you can apply it in all the other areas. I simply want to state the principle and give enough application so that you see how very relevant it is.

What Constitutes a Vain Ministry: Adorning and Proclaiming the Word

28:05 When would Paul feel his ministry was vain? In the first instance, he'd feel it was vain when the word of God was received as anything less than the word of God. Secondly, turn to Philippians chapter 2, that passage we looked at briefly to see his concern.

28:24 Now let's see specifically what he was afraid of. Philippians 2 and verse 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings.

28:41 In other words, what you do in the will of God, do it cheerfully. Why? That you may be blameless and harmless. Or you mean the attitude with which I do something has something to do with a blameless, harmless, pure witness.

28:54 Precisely, Paul says, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke. Nobody able to have a just cause of censure. Oh yeah, people may make up things, but nobody would have any just cause to say, uh-huh, this is what he professes. Look at it.

29:11 When the boss gives him something to do, he grumbles and fusses like the rest of us. When his mother or her mother tells him something to do, look, he professes to be a Christian, he grumbles and squawks just the way he does. Just the way I do. So they have a just cause of rebuke, of censure.

29:26 Paul says, you Philippians must seek to so apply the Christian ethic to every area of life that you will be utterly blameless and harmless. He doesn't say sinless. But the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of life. With Christ that I've not run in vain nor labored in vain.

29:55 What's he saying? Two things. He says, oh, if you people as a result of my preaching and my writing do not so live before the world that there's no just cause of pointing the finger and then for that world and to that world reach out the message of life, he says, I feel I've labored in vain. What was Paul's idea of a vain ministry?

30:18 Not only was it this idea, if they receive the word of God as anything less than the word of God, but now follow, he takes it a step further here, if they do not adorn the word of God in every detail of life and then communicate the word of God with zeal to others, he says, I feel I've failed. I've failed. All he says, you may receive it as the word of God and you may say, wonderful, Paul, we just love the message you give us, but he said, listen, if it doesn't touch you in the practical areas of life where you live before the world, whether the world is your unsafe children or your unsafe husband or wife or your unsafe neighbors or work associates or schoolmates or classmates or playmates, it matters not.

31:02 He said, if wherever you touch the world, you do not touch it as light and darkness, the line is clear, the actions, the attitudes, the thought patterns, the reactions, everything different, black and white, really different. He said, if this is not the end, I've labored in vain. And, if in the midst of that world you're not holding forth the word of life, zealous to proclaim the saving message, I've labored in vain. That's the goal Paul had in mind, that wherever he went and the word of God was received, it would then be adorned and then proclaimed.

31:41 And he said, if that doesn't happen, I've labored in vain. I've labored in vain. And again, beloved, I speak now as one who can appreciate a little bit of Paul's heart. Let's look back over the past year.

31:52 We've heard a lot of sermons, been in a lot of Bible classes, been in a lot of Sunday school classes. Let's ask ourselves this question. We say, yes, the word that I've received from the pulpit, from the class, I've received it as the word of God. All right, now, if so, here's the next question.

32:09 Has it made me a more blameless father before my children?

32:14 Do they have less cause today of questioning the reality of my Christian experience than they did a year ago? Maybe a year ago, I was notorious for my than you know, you put the blank in there. Whether it's irritability, selfishness, quickness with words, cutting corners on how you kept the Lord's day, you just fill it in. Can you look back and say, well, by the grace of God, there are fewer areas that my children can point the finger at today than a year ago.

32:49 You ought to be conscious of this. Paul said, you people know that my entrance was not in vain. You ought to know whether my ministry to you over the past year has been in vain or not. Can you point, to discernible areas in your life that have undergone the transforming power of the word of God?

33:05 If not, my ministry has been utterly in vain. And all the hours of preparation and study and prayer and preaching and pouring myself out have been utterly in vain. And I look back over them like a mother who's come to the birth and born a stillborn, lifeless child.

33:26 You should be able to know, your wife, your children,

33:31 whether the word has made you more blameless. If it hasn't, beloved, you've heard in vain and I've ministered to you. That's pretty certain. I ask myself, this is a preacher.

33:43 Here I am, laboring in the word and in doctrine, and I say, I believe it's the word of God. Has it done something in my life that makes me able to say in the presence of my own family,

33:55 sitting in a service like this, this morning,

33:59 yes, the word of God has not been in vain.

34:07 Then has it made me more zealous to proclaim the word. A year ago, there was no neighbor to whom I was witnessing. But thank God, during this past year, I've made efforts to get to know that neighbor. I've taken him out with me somewhere.

34:22 I've gone here. I've invited him over. I've made some effort. I've put some cracks in the Christmas cards.

34:27 I've given him a booklet. I've been holding forth the word. Beloved, listen. Has all the word you've heard this past year made you one more bit zealous to hold forth the word?

34:36 If it hasn't, I've labored in vain. Your Sunday school teachers have labored in vain. All of this has been vain labor. Unless it results in adorning the doctrine and making you more blameless and making you more zealous to hold forth the word of God.

34:53 That's the only conclusion I can come to from this passage. Paul says, do this or else I will have no cause of rejoicing. I'll have cause to have a broken heart.

35:07 And when you check the book of Thessalonians, you see that all of these things were true then. Paul says, the gospel came to them in power. They received it as the word. Then they so adorned it that these young Christians, it says, they became examples to all the believers all over that whole area.

35:22 And then he says, from you what? Sounded out the word of the Lord. They were lights. They were holding forth the word.

35:27 Everything that Paul talks about here was beautifully exemplified in the life of the Thessalonian church.

Illustration of Production and Application to Personal Life

35:35 See, my dad's production control manager for Schick Electric Shaver and they've recently made an addition that has just about doubled their floor space. It fit about 50 football fields in the operations. It's a huge operation.

35:49 They make hair dryers now as well as shavers and they turn out the shavers maybe at the rate of 8,000 a day. And I forgot how many hair dryers. You wonder where there'd be that much hair to dry and that many whiskers to cut.

36:01 And he's production control manager. He's in charge of the whole matter of production so that when the steel, raw steel comes in those front doors from the big semis and then the whole production scheme is set up and there are the punch presses that punch out things and other things that work on it. The whole end is that the other end of the operation shavers will be placed in boxes and shipped out to distribution points and all that planning from the first door all the way down all the assembly lines and all the different stages and all the rest has as its great end turning shavers off that last inspection line putting them in boxes and shipping them out. That's the end.

36:40 Now can you imagine what it'd be like to have all of this operation but somewhere near the end of that thing shavers are going to be getting turned out but instead you were turning out weed diggers or something else. It'd be ridiculous and the whole operation and all the man hours. Well, beloved, that's what the church is about. That's what this is all about.

37:00 Why do you come here week by week if you're a Christian? You see, the whole end is this, that as the raw material of the word of God comes in that that material by the operation of the spirit and the reflection of your own mind and your own God enabled repentance and faith and response to the word will be able to have as its end product at the end of the assembly line out here a holy life and a zealous involvement in proclaiming the gospel and if there's all this input week in, week in, week out, week in but no output something's being done in vain. Something's being done in vain. So I must ask myself and you must ask yourself has the entrance of the word been vain or can I say

What Constitutes a Vain Ministry: Walking in Christian Liberty

37:44 as Paul did for you yourselves brethren, no. That our entrance to you has not been vain. And then I just touch on one other thing in closing where Paul indicates his understanding of a vain ministry that passage in Galatians and I can only mention that time will not permit me to expand it. Here he says in verse 11 I'm afraid of you lest I've bestowed upon you labor in vain.

38:13 Now what was his fear here? His fear was that they would not walk in the liberty wherewith Christ had set them free. Paul knew follow closely now to the extent that they got involved with all the details of the Jewish ceremonial law washing at a certain time keeping a certain day observing a certain feast the more people get involved with uninspired details or details that are not the will of God for them for this was no longer God's will for his people in Christ that was done away the less they will be involved with what is truly the will of God and they would get so involved with keeping these little details you know what happened?

38:58 They were forgetting the great law love your neighbor as yourself and they were backbiting and they were fighting each other but in the midst of it they stopped to look at their watches to say uh oh sundown's come we gotta keep such and such a holy day see the more people get involved with details that God has never imposed upon them the less they will be involved with the great things God has imposed upon them the less they will be involved loving him with a whole heart loving the neighbor as oneself and Paul says if that happens if people cast off the liberty of Jesus Christ a liberty not to license but a liberty to love God and serve your neighbor he said I've ministered in vain if being set loose from the bondage of the law it's not a liberty

39:42 that leads to the service of God and the service of humanity he says I've labored I've labored in vain and so again I've labored in vain and so again when the word that we say we receive is not loosing us more and more to be lovers of God and servants of our fellow men something's wrong if we're content to simply be at the right place at the right time and do the right thing and we're involved in the little nitpicking details but we miss the great and weighty matters of the law of God why then to that extent the ministry's been in vain so how do we summarize Paul's understanding of a vain ministry as he preached and labored his goal was to see the word received as the word of God

Personal Application to Parents, Teachers, and the Congregation

40:26 men loosed to the true liberty of the service of God men adorning the life of God and holding forth the word of God and continuing in that course with increasing measure until the day of Christ and if that was not realized he felt his ministry was in vain let me talk to all you young people I'm going to talk to you what a privilege I don't know if there's anything I'd count a greater blessing in life than to be able to say to my children for you yourselves children know that my entrance in unto you as a father

41:09 was not in vain to be able to say to my children you yourselves know that my ministry and life as a father has borne fruit you've received the word of God by which I've sought to govern your lives and your home and having received it you've been loosed to the service of Christ and you adorn the likeness of Christ and you're concerned about proclaiming the word of Christ what greater joy what else could a parent ask for than that I don't care if you've got orange crates for dresser drawers and barrel slats for a bed beloved you're living in a little court this side of glory if you can say that

41:54 as a parent you young people can your parents say that of you or is their ministry to you in vain is it in vain is it has it been in vain has it been in vain has it been in vain I speak to all of you who've heard your Sunday school teacher year week in and week out teachers who take the one day of the week that they'd like to maybe just kick the traces and have a day of relaxation they end up having to spend some of the hours of it preparing that lesson for you has it been in vain or have you received the word of God as the word of God from their hands from their hearts has it been in vain has it been in vain has it been in vain I speak to all of you who are under my

42:38 spiritual responsibility as an under shepherd of God can I say you yourselves know brethren that my ministry to you has not been vain you've received the word of God as the word of God it's made alterations in your life in your thinking in your conduct you're adorning it your life is more blameless today than it was at the beginning of 1967 more blameless at the close you can open up your mouth and witness with greater authority in your place of business because people have seen a change in your home mom and dad and brother and sister and wife or husband they've seen a change could I say that would to God that I could

43:23 I believe I can in some measure but oh I'd long to be able to say it in greater measure of all of you of all of you for with Paul I fear a vain ministry beloved I'd rather go out and go to work for Schicks where I can see shavers coming off the end of the production line than simply have a spiritual burp every Sunday for the rest of my life wouldn't you wouldn't you oh may we make it one of our goals for the coming year that the ministry of the word to us will not be in vain but that we'll determine when we come to Sunday school class when we sit about our family devotions

44:07 when we hear the word of God wherever we hear it we're going to receive it as the word of God its promises to be believed its commands to be obeyed its threats to be feared its wisdom to be embraced oh for such an attitude to be obeyed to come upon us and cry to God that embracing it will adorn it and be more and more blameless be more and more zealous to hold it forth to walk more and more in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free now how can that come to pass the only way it came to pass at Thessalonica for Paul says our gospel came not in word but in power pray for the Holy Ghost to bring the word of God to your heart with power and then plead the promise of God one verse that has the word vain in it

44:52 maybe you've thought about it and I haven't put it in it but it's the word of God and I haven't put it in it and this gives me a little hope 1 Corinthians 15 58 therefore be ye steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that what your labor is not in vain in the Lord and as we plead for the Holy Spirit to empower the ministry of the word to our neighbors to our children in our Sunday school class in this place then we plead the promise that this ministry would not be vain then by the grace of God we'll see people receiving it as the word of God adorning that word propagating that word living in the blessed liberty of that word

45:36 and we shall know that we have not ministered in vain may the Lord bless to our hearts this portion of his holy word that we may receive it as the word of the living God let us pray