Holy, Just, Blameless

Context: God's Sovereignty and Marks of a God-Owned Ministry

0:05 Let's turn again this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

0:18 Now just briefly to put in its proper setting the text that we will consider in our consecutive study of the letter of Paul to the church at Thessalonica, let me remind you first of all of the larger context of the verse that we will be considering this morning, verse 10 of chapter 2, the larger context is the contrast of chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1 is Paul's paragraph of praise in which he attributes all of the success of the ministry that he and his associates had at Thessalonica to the sovereign grace of God and to the mighty work of the Holy Spirit.

1:10 Back to God and in tracing it back to God he traces it back even to the eternal purposes of God when he says in verse 4, knowing brethren beloved your election of God and then the gospel came in power and the work of grace was wrought in the Thessalonians and so the great lesson we learn is that the gospel has success only so far as God is pleased to give it success and that shuts us up to him for all. So we have the apostle vindicating the character of his ministry and his associates and we have some very practical matters set before us as to the kind of ministry by which God accomplishes his eternal purposes so that in chapter 2 you have the marks of a God-owned ministry and it's in that larger context that we must study each verse in chapter 2 for the minute you begin to wrench the truth of chapter 2 away from the truth of chapter 1 you will end up with a wrong concept of how the gospel succeeds and you will feel well if only I can be the kind of person I ought to be and if only we have the kind of ministry we ought to have then we will automatically have success. No this is not so.

2:35 We must always remember that no matter how faithful or pure or zealous or devoted the servant is to God. The servant of God is all blessing must come from the living God so that when he works all the praise and the honor is brought back to him. But if you simply hold chapter 1 without chapter 2 you will be lopsided and without much concern as to whether or not your life and your ministry as a father, a mother, as a neighbor, as a work companion, as a student, whatever your ministry is and the circle of that ministry is. If you don't come to grips with chapter 2 you will be making the truth of chapter 1 a hammock in which to rest and to draw content from your lack of fruitfulness. To draw a spirit of contentment where there ought to be disturbance. Though chapter 1 is true, chapter 2 is equally true. Now setting verse 10 in the more limited context of those marks of a God-owned ministry up until last week we considered what we might call the masculine marks of a God-owned ministry.

3:46 Boldness, no fear of man, no flattery, no drawing the ministry from any other source but truth. No fear of the face of man and then last week we saw those very tender feminine characteristics mentioned in verses 7 and 8 where Paul says we were gentle among you as a nurse cherishing her children. And then he says. We were affectionately desirous of you willing to impart not only the gospel but our very own lives because you were dear unto us.

Genuine Holiness: The Mark of a True Minister

4:20 Now this morning we come to verse 10 in which the apostle declares ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. What is the next mark of a true minister and a true ministry? We could summarize verse 10 under this very simple general heading. It is the mark of genuine holiness of life.

4:56 Genuine holiness of life is the mark of a true minister and of a true ministry. As we seek to understand now what that means. May we once again pause in a moment of silence. Thank you.

5:09 And we ask God by the Holy Spirit to instruct us out of his word. Oh Lord we confess to thee that left to ourselves we neither understand what true holiness is nor will we ever be able to attain it but we believe by the grace of thy spirit we may not only understand what true holiness is but we may become holy men and women fellows and girls to the praise of thy glory. And to the commendation of the gospel that we seek to communicate to others. Lord instruct us now as we open up thy word through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now may I ask you a very simple question. Are you a true minister?

6:08 Are you a true minister? As a parent are you a true minister? Are you ministering your parental duties in a biblical way? As a neighbor seeking to bear witness.

6:21 Are you a true minister? You fellows and girls in school are you a true minister to your classmates? Well if you would ask that question of the apostle Paul he might then ask another question and say what constitutes a true ministry? And if you understood his first letter to the church at Thessalonica you should be able to say well according to your own words Paul one of the marks of a true minister is genuine holiness.

6:54 He is a witness to the holiness of life. Notice what he says. Ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly better translated righteously and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. You say pastor why do you use the term genuine holiness?

Identifying Genuine Holiness: Horizontal and Vertical Verification

7:13 Well because Paul hints in this verse that there is such a thing as a genuine holiness and by inference that there is such a thing as a spurious holiness. That Paul's holiness of life was genuine is indicated by these first two phrases. Ye are witnesses and God also. How is true holiness to be identified?

7:40 Very simply Paul would tell us by this mark. It can be verified both horizontally and vertically. Ye you people amongst whom I walked and talked and lived. For a period of time.

7:56 Who saw me at my best and at my worst. Who saw me in all the different circumstances of life. You people with whom I was identified with this tender love of a nursing mother to her own child. You people of whom I was affectionately desirous.

8:13 For whom I labored and toiled in the cause of the gospel. You people will remember and will bear witness to the fact that my life was a holy life. But not only. Do you bear witness?

8:27 For you can only see my actions. But the one who knows my motives. The one who knew my thought life. The one who knew what I did when I was out of your sight.

8:38 That one. Even the living God. He is a witness that I walked amongst you as a holy man. So the essence then of genuine holiness is that conduct conformed to the will and law of God in the presence of men.

8:55 And in the sight of God. You see there are many as there were in Paul's day so in our day who claim to love God. They claim to have inner heart devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul speaks about them in Titus when he says they profess that they know God.

9:17 Oh yes they profess to have a heart acquaintance and a heart love for him but he said in their works they deny him. You see. That does not consist in fits of feeling and wisps of emotion. And in inner attitudes and dispositions that never break out into the conduct of the life.

9:39 Some regard godliness as a mere state of mind a fit of feeling and some wisp of emotion. Whereas the scripture teaches that true holiness is a thing that can always be seen. Our Lord said in the seventh of Matthew. By their fruits ye shall know them.

9:58 Well the only thing I can see as a human being is the conduct of my fellow men. I cannot read the heart. It's only God who can say I the Lord search the heart I try the race. The scripture says man looketh on the outward appearance and it's right that he should.

10:16 And so our Lord says looking on the outward appearance by their fruits ye shall know them. He repeated that in the twelfth of Matthew. And so Paul could say of his outward conduct in decorum amongst these people. You are witnesses to the fact that my godliness was not a mere mirage.

10:36 It was not a mere thought that resided in my mind or a feeling in my heart. You watched me in all the circumstances of the intimate relationship that I had with you for that period of time and you people are witnesses of my Holy life and of my holy conduct. But, he says, not only are you witnesses, God also. Indicating that true holiness has not only a horizontal relationship, but a vertical relationship.

11:07 It touches not only what men can observe, but that which only the living God can observe. And I mentioned earlier what those things are. Man could watch Paul's actions, but God alone knew the main spring that produced those actions, namely the motivation of the heart. Many times a righteous deed, as we view it, is an abomination in the sight of God because of the motivation which prompts it.

11:38 That's why the scripture says that the plowing of the wicked is sin. God's commanded a man to work and to plow his field. But because...

11:47 Because the thing that motivates him is not the glory of God, but his own selfish ends. God says a right deed is an abomination because the motive is wrong. That's the whole truth of the first 19 verses of Matthew 6. Sure, the Pharisees pray, and they give, and they fast.

12:04 God commands all of that. But because their motivation is wrong to be seen of men, it makes an abomination out of their religious practices. But the Apostle Paul is able to say with an unblushing voice, God also is witness that not only were my deeds holy, but my motives, my thoughts, my actions in secret. My actions in all places, all to be able to say, fully conscious of the truth of the 139th Psalm that one of the men made reference to in his prayer this morning.

12:39 Thou knowest my down-sitting, my uprising. Thou understandest my thought to follow. There is not one word in my tongue. But, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it all, together thou hast beset me behind and before laid thine hand upon me.

12:55 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall thy hand hold me. Thy right hand shall lead me, if I say, surely the darkness shall cover me.

13:12 The darkness and the light are both alike to be. But a man has something of the sense. of the omniscience and the omnipresence of god searching out all his thoughts and his actions in secret as well as in public and can say this god is witness how wholly righteously and unblameably we behaved ourselves that's biblical holiness that has reference not only to man but to the living god now just as there are people who think well holiness consists in just a feeling in the heart i say in my heart i believe in christ and love him and serve him no matter how shoddy my life that's all that matters so there's some who are very meticulous to make sure their lives are above reproach you read the 23rd of math jesus said of the pharisees ye indeed appear what beautiful unto men within what man cannot see what only god could see within he said you are full of dead men's bones and all unclean now we must understand dear people that true holiness the mark of a true ministry whether as a parent a friend a classmate no matter where we stand as

14:34 believers we stand as ministers of christ into this truth there must be this inseparable relationship always found in true holiness where not only do men bear witness to our conduct but the living god can bear witness to the purity of our motives and our thoughts notice how the apostle paul draws those two together in acts 24 16 when he says herein do i exercise myself to have what a conscience void of offense towards god and towards man the two relationships he said i put myself under rigorous spiritual discipline to have at all times a conscience void of offense vertically horizontally and just as i shun any act or deed that will cause my brother to stumble or bring reproach to the name of christ so i am just as earnest to keep the temple of my mind free from the stain of any impurity of thought impurity of motive i'm just as zealous to have the temple of my mind and my thoughts and my motives unblasened unblusenable before my god as i am that the walk of my feet in the conduct of my hands be blameless before the eye of my fellow men

16:00 he ties those two things together in second corinthians four one where he says as we have received this ministry we faint not but we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty notice the hidden things of dishonesty the things that are out of sight of men not walking in the presence of an evil spirit not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. See? He said, you want to see whether my gospel is true or not? Look at me.

16:37 See what it's done for me. I commend my gospel to you as you people. See the power of it in my life. That's what he could say.

16:45 And he said, I do that in the sight of God. In other words, I'm conscious not only that my deeds are such as bring glory to God, but the motives that prompt them and the thoughts that attend them.

Self-Examination: Are You a True Minister?

17:05 Has your conscience been at work as I've just sought to lay out the principle in those first two phrases? Ye are witnesses, and God also. I fear that some of us are not true ministers, because we cannot say to those to whom we're ministers, you are witnesses. Of my holy life.

17:27 How can you say that to your children, parents? When you profane the Sabbath? When you leave this place having lifted up your voice in praise to God, and when someone is led in prayer thanking God for this holy day, and you go back and in your home spend this day like any other day of the week, with no serious attempt to sanctify the Sabbath,

17:52 profaning this holy day. When you know and your children know, that you're continually cheating the Lord and failing to give him his due portion, the tenth that is his by right,

18:06 when there is no jealous guarding of your TV, you allow things to come over into the minds and hearts of your children that are utterly canceling and nullifying everything that the Sunday school teacher has sought to place in that mind in the 45 minutes that they have them, and in the brief time that I have them here, and you are cooperating with the devil, you allow the devil to just purge from the mind every thought of God and of holiness and of truth. Dear parent, unless you can say to your children, gather them around the table and say, you children are witnesses of the genuineness of my holy life, you're not a true minister as a parent. You're not a true minister as a parent. For that's the mark, the indispensable mark of a true ministry, a holy life.

19:01 When they hear the arguments, and the dissension between you as a husband and wife,

19:08 they hear the unbridled burst of temper to them that are never rectified by apology, never rectified by gathering the family together and crying out to God for corporate cleansing and forgiveness.

19:24 One of the most searching passages in all of the pilgrim's progress is that one where he's in the house, beautiful, and he's questioned as to the state of his family. And they ask him if he has children and a wife, and he said, yes. And they say, why have they not come on pilgrimage with you? And he said, well, I've pled with them, but they wouldn't come.

19:44 Now, notice what they said to him then. But what could they say for themselves? Why they came not? Christian, why my wife was afraid of losing this world and my children were giving to the foolish delights of youth.

19:57 So by one thing and by what another, they left me to wander in this manner alone. Now, notice the question she asks him. Charity asked this question. Get it.

20:07 But did you not with your vain life dampen all that you by words used by way of persuasion to bring them with you? What a question? She's saying, Christian, sure, you pled with them. Sure, you earnestly entreated them.

20:25 But could it be that your life canceled the full effect of your words. And now, notice Christian's answer. It's beautiful. Indeed, I cannot commend my life.

20:36 For I'm. Conscious. to myself of many failings therein. I know also that a man by his life may soon overthrow what by argument or persuasion he doth labor to fasten upon others for their good. Yet this I can say. Some of us will go the first part and will say, oh yes, I agree with that. I've had lots of failures and I can't commend my life. But he doesn't stop there. Notice what he says. Yet this I can say. I was very wary of giving them occasion by any unseemly action to make them averse to going on pilgrimage. Yea, for this very thing they would tell me I was too precise, and that I denied myself of things for their sakes in which they saw no evil. Nay, I think I may say that if what they saw in me did hinder them, it was my

21:28 great tenderness in sin. Sinning against God, or of doing any wrong to my neighbor. That's it. That's it. Why were his family offended? Not because of inconsistency, but because of the strictness of his life, because of his self-denial. They said, we don't want that kind of a life. And there's all the difference in the world between my children saying, I don't want daddy's God.

21:58 It makes him too precise. It makes him too tender to sin. It makes him too careful how he works. It makes him too meticulous to be honest in the shop with his neighbors in the home.

22:10 It makes him too sensitive to sin. He's always asking mommy to forgive him when he's been irritable. He's always asking us children, I don't want that kind of life. I want to be able to sin. I don't want that kind of life.

22:24 If your loved ones and relatives are rejecting the way of salvation because of that, then beloved, take heart. But if they are rejecting it because they see such inconsistency, claim it to keep it holy, and you desecrate the Sabbath in their very presence, Lord, with thy substance and the firstfruits of all thy children. And you don't. Week after week goes by. You don't give the Lord his portion. Your children don't. Your relatives don't. You're not honest and upright in your business dealings. Oh, no. You don't shave to love one another. You're not quick to ask forgiveness when you've wronged neighbors, loved ones, children. Or

23:24 if you've wronged your children, you're not quick to ask forgiveness when you've wronged yourself. If you have been wronged and they ask forgiveness of you, you're not quick to grant forgiveness. Beloved, these are the flies that stink in the apothecary's ointment spoken of in Ecclesiastes 10. As a few flies in the ointment of the pharmacist maketh it to stink, so a little folly among him that is reputed to be in wisdom. Beloved, I preach these things and have to.

23:59 You and family sitting before me week after week can woe be unto me, but at least in some small measure, it isn't true. You get the point that the apostle's driving? Ye are witnesses.

24:17 Why are your relatives not too interested in your God? Is it because it makes you too strict? Too tender of conscience? Too careful to please God? If so, then hallelujah. That's the reproach of Christ. Don't be discouraged with that. Rejoice. But if it's for other reasons, some of us ought to be found. I'm not going to be found. I'm not going to be found on our faces crying to God for mercy, crying to God for mercy. On the other side of the coin, there are some who may be failing in the second area. We're careful to keep everything in ship shape on the outside, even before our closest associates. But we can't call God to witness upon the genuineness of our holiness. For though we can call men to witness perhaps to our purity of life in external conduct, we cannot call God to witness to thriving after purity of thought. Can you call God to witness this morning that you're just as careful to keep your thought life pure as you are to keep your external life free from scandalous sin? Can you call God to witness that you're just as careful to cry to him to root out the first strivings of anger and retaliation as you are to screw the lid on any outward burst of temper and ill will?

25:39 Can you call God to witness that you're just as careful to cry to him to cultivate within you the grace of true humility as you are careful to take upon you the language of humility in the presence of others? Beloved, some of us are weighed in the balances and found wanting because we lack either one or two or both that the apostle could declare to the glory of God. Ye are witnesses. And God is.

Components of True Holiness: Holily, Righteously, Unblameably

26:12 Well I hurry on now to answer the question, what constitutes true holiness? Having asked, and I trust sufficiently answered the question, why use the word true holiness, the answer being, you've got both perspectives-the horizontal, the vertical. Now the next question is, what constitutes true holiness? And the apostle tells us, notice, how holily and righteously and unblameably we behave saved ourselves among you that believe now the word holily the best i can discern speaks primarily of piety with reference to the living god we might say it speaks of the discharge of the first table of the law as the little introduction to the shorter catechism says what do the first four commandments teach the answer is our duty to god what do the last six commandments teach our duty to our fellow man and when paul says how holily this word seems to refer primarily to the discharge of the first table of the law he said when i walked amongst you people you are witnesses and so is god that i walked as a man who was seeking to love the lord my god with all my heart mind soul and strength i walked as a man to whom god his claims his

27:40 person his law his glory was the supreme passion of my life do your children see that you're holy not that you go around with your eyes in the sky all the time but do they see in all the press and pressure and responsibilities is it getting through to them beloved that to you only one thing matters the will of god the glory of god the honor of god how holily we behaved ourselves among you how righteously that would seem to refer more to the second table of the law what is righteous living it's living conformed to the revealed will of god paul said you not only saw me as a man seeking to love the lord my god with my whole heart but you observed me and my companions as men seeking to love you our neighbors as ourselves righteous living is living conformed to the revealed will of god in all its breadth and length and length and length and length and length and length but summarized so beautifully in the words of our lord jesus the second commandment is like unto it thou should love thy neighbor as thyself as paul had already indicated he said when we stood amongst you people knew we just weren't out to discharge some so-called duty and give you a

29:03 little gospel and run on he said we were among you not only giving you gospel but giving our very life's blood we gave ourselves to you you were become dear to us we got involved with the involvement of life and death and death and death and death and death and death and death and death and and he says you people saw it you knew it we walked amongst you righteously notice how these two things are joined as the very purpose for which god will save a people through the lord jesus in the prophecy of luke chapter one these two words are brought together and joined here as they are in thessalonians luke chapter one zacharias is speaking under the inspiration of the holy spirit and he says in luke chapter one seventy four and seventy five that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear how in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life you claim to be a christian saved by christ this is what he saves his people for that they might live before him in holiness and in righteousness that we might be able to say to our wives our husbands our children our work associates our neighbors ye are witnesses

30:28 god also how holy and how righteously we behaved ourselves among you and then what's the result of that in the next word and unblameably when a man is walking in holiness and righteousness then he walks in an unblameable par the word unblameable means no just cause for censure no just cause for reproach sinless perfection is nowhere taught in the scripture and anyone who tries to find it there has got to put it there first but beloved this attitude that since we cannot be perfect we shall be content with a shoddy life is nowhere taught in scripture

31:20 for the scripture that teaches Any man who says he's without sin is a liar, says in Luke 1, 6, of two holy people living under the Old Testament, they were blameless, walking in all the ordinance and commandments of the Lord. The apostle Paul says even in his unconverted state, Philippians 3, 6, as touching the righteousness of the law, blameless. He said, my outward conduct was conformed to the law, so you could find no point, no place where you could point your finger. Now, if you touch my heart and my motives, he says in Romans 7, he had a lot to be blamed.

31:54 He said his heart was full of covetousness, and he never knew it until the Holy Spirit shined into his heart. But he says his life was blameless. And in Philippians 2, 15, the scripture calls every Christian to a blameless life, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Unblameable. Doesn't mean sinless.

32:21 But it means that when it's obvious that I've not acted righteously, I not only confess it to my God, but to those who've seen my unrighteous conduct, so that though I must stand amongst my children as a sinner, confessing my sins of impatience, I stand among the blameless,

32:40 if my confession has been genuine and honest to the Lord and to them. See? That's what it means. That when I've been irritated with my boss, and he knows my profession, even though he's had 25 pounds of irritation to me, day after day, and I've just shown a little ounce to him, I go to him and I say, Mr. Boss Man, I sinned.

33:05 You know my profession as a Christian. I want to ask you to forgive me.

33:10 I'm blameless. I can open my mouth and witness to him, and he can't point his finger. That's what it means to be blameless. In the shop, in the home, in the neighborhood.

33:22 That's the mark of a true ministry. Now notice this little phrase he puts in there. I want to touch it before I leave. I want to touch it before I leave and come to another area of truth in the verse.

33:30 He said, among you that believe. Now why did he put that there? He said earlier that he was among them as a gentle nurse, cherishing her children. And he was willing to impart not only the gospel, but his very own soul.

33:47 You see, verses 7 and 8 refer primarily to the initial contact that Paul had in communicating the gospel as he came in and his associates, as the shock troops, so to speak. And the gospel was preached. The dominant note of what we call initial contact of the gospel is the involvement of love. But then when God saves some people and you begin to live close together, and you get close enough to see each other's warts and molds, and crooked ears and crooked noses, then you see, beloved, the ministry will stand or fall on the basis of how real the truth you're communicating is demonstrated in your own life.

34:29 So he says, we were this among you that believe. The involvement of love, the initial necessity for the initial thrust of the gospel, and here the blameless holy life for the continued success of the ministry of the gospel. What a testimony to have, as Paul did here, that he had a threefold witness to his holy life. Man, his own conscience, and his God.

Source of True Holiness: Union with Christ

35:01 What a witness. What a witness. Now, some of you are asking, say, well, that standard's so high. It's out there.

35:08 It's beyond us. Unobtainable. Wait a minute. Paul was not an angel.

35:12 He was a fallen son of Adam, redeemed by grace. Oh, but you say he was an apostle. But all the way through, notice he doesn't use the first person. He doesn't say I.

35:22 He said we. He had some associates, and he was talking about them. A man like Timothy. Timothy, naturally timid, fearful, needed some encouragement to have some courage, and his conduct was too blameless.

35:37 But what's the source of true holiness? And you'd never get it in the English rendition, but in the Greek, there's a little hint of what the source is. If I were translating this literally, I would translate it this way. For ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and blamably we were made among you.

35:57 There's a passive version. The word here, not we became, but we were made. Well, made by whom?

36:06 Paul, how were you made that way? Well, he would tell us. I am what I am by the what? By the grace of God.

36:16 You see, what Paul is talking about in verse 10 is the fruit, which can only grow when there is the root of vital union with Jesus Christ. You'll never be able to say with Paul, Paul, ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves. To you can say with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me in the life which I now live in the flesh.

36:49 I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The only source of this kind of a holy life that is more than the Pharisees, satanical externalism that looks good, but lacks purity of motive and thought and intent, a holiness that touches the intents and motivations of the heart and reaches out into the life, is the fruit of union with Jesus Christ. As we read in Philippians 1, where Paul prays for the church at Philippi, that they may be filled with the fruits of what? Of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ.

37:32 Unto the glory and praise of God.

37:38 You see, most of us have a concept of Christianity that never makes us despair that the standard is just playing too high until God performs a miracle. You don't need a miracle to pack a few facts in your head about a man on a cross and about a few bad things you've done and to say, well, I'm all fixed up. God has juggled up the record books and I'll live a pretty nice...

38:00 Listen, there are lots of unsafe people who live as good as many of us do. They don't cheat. It worked. They're very honest.

38:06 They don't curse. They don't swear. They come to church.

38:11 But they're not holy people. They can't call God to witness that their motives are the glory of God. That they're just as jealous to guard their thoughts as they are their deeds.

38:25 You see, this is the kind of life that only a miracle man or woman can live. One who's been joined to Christ and by virtue of union with Him, His death is our death. His life. His power.

38:38 Life.

38:40 And these fruits grow only on the root of vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Principle: Power of Truth and Purity of Vessel

38:49 As I seek to bring this to a practical conclusion this morning, may I set before you one or two very searching and they have been to me, I believe, valid principles that are here in the text. Will you listen carefully now?

39:08 As a general rule, the power of truth will be in you. Will be in direct proportion to the purity of the vessel communicating it. You just let that sink down in. As a general rule, the power of the truth, the truth that you're ministering to your children, to your neighbors, that's being ministered in this church from this pulpit, the power of the truth will be in direct proportion to the purity of the vessel communicating it.

39:45 Some of you will perhaps remember when I was preaching in the first chapter, there was one phrase I didn't expound. I sneaked over it. I didn't understand it then, but I think I do now. Will you look back to chapter one and verse five?

40:00 To me, Paul was shifting gears in the middle of the stream, just like the phone must have rung toward the end of the verse and he lost his train of thought and when he picked up his pen, he started off in right field somewhere. But now I think I understand what he's saying. Notice, for our gospel, that's the message, came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among you. See it?

40:35 The gospel came in power, as you know what manner of men we were. He joins them, indicating that the measure of power was commensurate with the holiness of the life that brought it. Some of you are praying for your unsaved children. Why are they still unsaved from the human standpoint?

40:58 Don't you run and hide behind the sovereignty of God. Could it be that the gospel that they hear has not come in power because you and I cannot say to them, as you know what manner of man, woman we were among you? You see what that does to me as a preacher? If it weren't for the sense of the call of God, I'd quit.

41:30 Because I see that some of you have been able to withstand what I believe as a pure gospel week in and week out, year in and year out. You can't say the preacher talks over our head, the preacher talks off to the corner of the building, I look you in the eye, I seek to pour my heart from eyes in my mouth. And yet I can't say that the gospel has come to you in power. It's just been tons of verbiage.

42:06 Oh, you say, don't browbeat yourself. Beloved, I've got to. When I face a text like this, I've got to do something. And I've got to ask God to show me where the inconsistencies may lie that keep the word from coming with power.

42:21 That's the general rule, dear ones. So you want power? We're all praying for power? We want to see God manifest His power?

Illustration: Vessels of Honor and Dishonor

42:28 He's going to do it through holy lives. And holy living means in those circles of everyday experience being able to say, I walked holily, justly, and unblameably before those who saw me. We read this morning in second Timothy chapter two that in a certain house there are vessels of honor and dishonor. And then Paul says to Timothy in verse twenty-one, if a man therefore purge himself from these, the vessels of dishonor, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and what's the next phrase, meet, fit, equipped, prepared for the master's use.

43:11 When the master comes into the house and he wants to pour out his choicest wine to a guest, and he wants to pour out his choicest wine to a guest, what kind of vessel does he use? Does he go to the kitchen cabinet and find that old plastic glass that the kids chewed on, like some of the ones we have? Beth just loves to chew on the glasses, the plastic ones, that is. And it's all sort of scalloped along the edges and beat out and cracks in it.

43:36 Is that what he goes to pour out his choicest wine to his friend? Oh, no. He says to his wife, Dear, we've got special company today. I want you to reach back in that china closet. She pulls back the nice glass, She pulls back the nice glass, and she takes out one of those fine pieces of crystalware, and she takes a nice soft linen cloth and she polishes it until it sparkles, and then she draws forth the choicest beverage to set before the guest in the choicest vessel. Now that's what Paul says to Timothy. You want God to take the wine of the gospel of life and set it before men. You've got to be a vessel meet, fit for the master's use.

44:14 You've got to be a vessel meet, fit for the master's use. He's not going to take that wine, the gospel of life, and set it before men. You've got to be a vessel meet, fit for the master's use. He's not going to take that besmirched vessel.

44:20 He's going to take the pure vessel. To quote some of the most famous words of Robert Murray McShane, some of you perhaps have heard them before. They're quoted in many places, and the reason they are is they're worth quoting, and so I make no apology for quoting them this morning. Listen as I read.

44:38 Quote, How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his saber clean and sharp. Every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember you are God's sword. His instrument.

44:51 I trust the chosen vessel unto him to bear his name in great measure. According to the purity and perfectness of the instrument will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. That's it Bill.

Application: Blamelessness for All Believers

45:14 Likeness to Jesus. That's why the first requirement for a teaching elder is what? The bishop. The bishop must be, what's the first word?

45:24 Blameless. Blameless. With all my heart I seek to walk before you people blameless. Not faultless.

45:37 Not sinless. But blameless. And I know some of you think I'm too strict. I don't mind that sense.

45:45 I know some of you feel I'm a bit old fashioned. I don't mind that. And I know some of you think I'm a bit too unbending and inflexible on certain principles. And I don't mind that.

45:55 But beloved, if there is conduct in my life that is not befitting the word of God, you have an obligation to come to me and speak to me. And I want you to come. Because I want this message to be a powerful message. I want the gospel I preach to be a powerful gospel.

46:16 And it cannot be unless the life through which it comes is blameless. In a few short weeks we'll be considering who we're going to set over us as God appointed church officers. The requirement for every elder is that he be blameless. Blameless.

46:41 No just cause of censure. Of every deacon that he be blameless. God put that requirement there. I did.

46:49 Why? Well you see why. Because these are the ones through whom the truth is in a peculiar way mediated to us. And that truth will not come in power unless it comes through a pure vessel.

47:02 But the requirement though intensified for elders and deacons is not exclusively for them. For God says to every believer that ye may be blameless and harmless. You students. You just let the other kids know that you've got the same standards they've got for your social life.

47:20 You just let them know that you'll snicker at the same jokes they snicker at. You might as well shut your mouth about ever talking to them about the Savior. They don't want to hear it. They expect something different from you.

47:31 At work, with our neighbors, the truth will have no power unless it comes through the Holy Spirit. Unless it comes through the Holy Light. We mentioned Elmer last week, the instrument in Ernie's life. Remember when Ernie spoke on the faithful witness taking the principles from Elmer's life?

47:50 Remember what was at the top of the list when he went up to the mountain that day and tried to find out what did Elmer have that I need? Remember what the first one was? The power of what? Of a Holy Light.

48:01 This man Elmer, there on that construction crew with the fellas cursing and telling their dirty jokes and taunting him day in and day out. And the thing that frustrated them. They could find no chink in his armor. They could find no crack in the vessel.

48:15 It shone brilliantly. Holy, just, unblameable. And it convinced all of those men, not that they wanted to be Christians, but that the Christian life was a powerful, transforming experience. And if they ever had what Elmer had, they'd sure be a world different from what they were.

48:35 That's the conviction that my children ought to have and yours. My neighbors! If I ever become what he is, I'll be radically transformed. It's the testimony I've borne to my own dear mother for years.

48:51 I knew if I ever got the real thing, it sure would make a powerful difference in me. And it'd make me something like my mother. Your kids say that? About you?

49:04 Can they pray, oh God, may Daddy's God be my God. May I know God the way Daddy does. Not may I learn to talk about Him the way Daddy does. Or talk about Him the way Mommy does.

49:19 But God, may I know you, so that I'll live like Daddy lives. That I'll pray like Daddy prays. That I'll be careful to live a holy life like Daddy does. That's the mark of a true ministry, beloved, if we don't have that packed up shop.

Conclusion: A Holy People for God's Glory

49:37 No, no reason for the Trinity Church to even pray that God will bless its outreach. The passion of God's heart is to have a holy people. And I trust that this day shall find us crying to Him that He will make this happen. That He will make this stand.

49:55 Ye are witnesses. And God also, how holily, justly, and unblamefully we behaved ourselves among you. That's the mark of a true minister. And of a true minister.

50:10 May God grant that we should be stamped with that mark. Let us pray. Lord, we confess that the world is too much with us. We have imbibed its insensitivity of conscience, its carelessness regarding Thy holy law.

50:35 And we pray that Thy word will so be attended with the power of the Holy Ghost. That we'd be given no rest by Thy Spirit until we too can say by the grace of God. Ye are witnesses and God also of the genuineness of the holy life. Hear us, Lord, lest all our preaching and teaching be nullified by our shoddy living.

51:05 Hear us in our cry. Lift up the light of Thy countenance upon us. Where Thy word has smitten, there is true acknowledgement of sin and need. May that same word encourage by fixing the eye of the smitten soul upon Christ and Christ alone.

51:27 Hear us in our prayer and dismiss us with Your blessing and bring us back together tonight to feast upon Thee. And to gather about Thy Son from whom we may draw afresh. Amen. Grace and strength to live to Thy praise and to His glory.

51:43 Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.