Watchman Radio Hour

David Schultz: Welcome to the Watchman Radio Hour. Coming to you from Portland, Oregon here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Schultz, your announcer.

The Watchman Radio Hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here's our speaker, Alex Dodson, to bring you this week's message from God's word.

Alex Dodson: Our scripture reading for today is 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, beginning to read in verse 1. Let us hear the word of God.

You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God, we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you.

On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed. God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the Bible that you've given us. We thank you that it's your infallible word and that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says. And now, O Father, as we come to study your word, we pray that you will send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

Today, one of the greatest needs is integrity in ministry. This can apply to different areas of ministry. We need integrity in how we handle our finances. Do we sell our mailing lists for profit? Are we open to our donors about how their donations are being spent? Are we good stewards of the funds entrusted to us? Do we seek bigger salaries for ourselves to keep our lifestyles? All these are important things.

But integrity in preaching is where we will concentrate today. Do we preach with integrity, or are we seeking to please men and not God? Do we use our preaching to manipulate people? Do we preach the prosperity gospel to get people to give to us and our ministry, telling them if they give, they will also get?

Is the prosperity gospel really biblical? Didn't Jesus tell us to deny ourselves and take up the cross? Does not the Bible teach us to make sacrifices for the gospel? Do we preach to bring glory to God or ourselves? Paul defends himself and his companions against all of these.

In our text for today is 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verses 5 and 6. Again we read, "You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed. God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else."

Today we need integrity in ministry. This message is mainly to preachers and to the church itself. The church is weak because much of what it does lacks integrity. Preachers accepting large salaries and making few sacrifices doesn't help. The prosperity preachers proclaim a gospel that is far different than the message Jesus and the apostles preached.

All of these things weaken the church. If there is to be a true revival, it needs to come to the church first, and this is what we need to pray for. Now, let us see in the first place that they did not use flattery. Again verse 5 says, "You know we never used flattery."

They preached the gospel not to please men but God. They preached the cross of Christ, no matter what men thought. They told people they were sinners and in need of salvation. They showed them their true condition. John Calvin writes, "For neither at any time." Paul has good reason for repeating so frequently that the Thessalonians know that all he is saying is true.

Our surest proof is the experience of those with whom we are speaking. This was of the greatest importance to them, for Paul's only object in referring to the integrity of his behavior is to gain greater respect for his teaching with a view to establishing their faith. This is a confirmation of the previous sentence.

For those who want to please men must take the shameful course of stooping to flattery. Those, on the other hand, who are truly and earnestly intent upon their duty will keep a good distance from all appearance of flattery. Leon Morris writes in his commentary, "It is not flattery in the sense of fair but insincere words."

Rather, it denotes something like cajolery, the use of acceptable speech with the purpose of lulling another into a sense of security so that one may obtain one's own ends. Paul emphatically repels this idea. Matthew Henry writes, "He avoided flattery. Neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know."

He and his fellow laborers preached Christ and him crucified, and did not aim to gain an interest in men's affections for themselves by glorying and fawning and wheedling them. No, he was far from this. Nor did he flatter men in their sins, nor tell them if they would be of his party, they might live as they listed.

He did not flatter them with vain hopes, nor indulge them in any evil work or way, promising them life and so daubing with untempered mortar. They preached with integrity, not flattery of men. Today, many water down the gospel in order to flatter men. Preachers fail to tell men of their sins.

They preach sermons that please the ears rather than convicting men of sin. Today, why is so little said about sin from our pulpits in the land? We don't have the powerful preaching that once pervaded this land when men were told that they were great sinners and were invited to a great Savior.

Jonathan Edwards preached his great sermon, *Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God*, to bring his congregation to the point where they would see their need for God and his salvation in Jesus Christ. He was not a flatterer but a preacher of the truth. George Whitefield traveled up and down the colonies telling people they needed to be born again in order to be saved.

When they heard him preach, people came under great conviction of sin and multitudes fled to the Savior. Many congregations today hear so little of sin. How could they ever come under conviction? The sermons affirm them in their sin rather than telling them to flee from the wrath of God.

What we need today is men like John the Baptist, who told his congregation, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." Instead of telling people they are all right, preachers need to tell their congregations that they are sinners in great danger and calling them to repent at once and turn to Christ.

Many pulpits today are silent in calls to repentance. After all, Jesus came preaching, and this was his message: "The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel." Now let us see in the second place that they did not use their ministry to conceal covetousness.

Again, verse 5 says, "You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed. God is our witness." They preached the gospel not for material gain. They didn't preach to enrich themselves materially. They refused to do that. They preached and asked nothing in return. They did not manipulate people to give to them.

John Calvin writes, "When he adds, nor a cloak, literally occasion of covetousness, he means that in teaching them he had not sought any personal gain. The Greek word means both occasion and pretext, but the former sense suits the passage better, so that occasion of covetousness means a snare to trap them."

I have not abused the gospel, he is saying, for the purpose of gaining any advantage. Human cunning, however, has so many labyrinthine recesses that greed and ambition are often concealed in it. He therefore calls God as his witness. Leon Morris writes, "The second thing which he disclaims is a cloak of covetousness."

The cloak is the giving a reason which is plausible in itself, but which is not the real reason. It is only a pretext. Covetousness is more than the desire for money and denotes the attitude of eager seeking to have more. While it is often shown in the desire for money, it is the spirit of desire in its most general sense, self-aggrandizement.

Solemnly calling God to witness, Paul disavows any such motive. He had not sought anything for himself when he evangelized the Thessalonians. Matthew Henry says, "He avoided covetousness. He did not make the ministry a cloak or a covering for covetousness, as God was his witness."

His design was not to enrich himself by preaching the gospel. So far from this, he did not stipulate with them for bread. He was not like the false apostles, who through covetousness with feigned words made merchandise of the people. Many times Paul would work for a living as he preached rather than receive money from the people he was reaching.

This was especially true when first going to preach to a people. At other times, he would receive support from established churches, but he did not preach in order to gain money. This was not his motive. Now let us see that today's prosperity gospel denies the cross. Today, in many churches, a prosperity gospel is preached.

Many ministries call on people to give in order to get blessed by God. Most of the times, what is given goes to the ministry that preaches the message, and ministry leaders do profit as a result. Yet is the prosperity gospel the gospel that Jesus and the apostles preached? Did not Jesus call on us to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow him?

In Matthew 16:24 and 25, it says, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up the cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.'"

In Matthew 10:37 through 39, it says, "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

The prosperity gospel teaches us to give to get. It does not teach the cross. This kind of gospel produces weak Christians. We are to give of ourselves, not because we want to get, but out of the love for Christ who gave himself for us on the cross. In Romans 12 and verse 1, it says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship."

Our whole life is to be offered in sacrifice to God because of his great mercy toward us. David is the great example for us to follow. We read in 2 Samuel chapter 24 and verses 18 through 25, where it says, on that day Gad went to David and said to him, "Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."

And so David went up as the Lord had commanded through Gad. And when Araunah looked and saw the king and his men coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" "To buy your threshing floor," David answered, "so I can build an altar to the Lord that the plague on the people may be stopped."

Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take whatever he pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O King, Araunah gives you all of this." Araunah also said to him, "May the Lord your God accept you."

But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." And so David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid 50 shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there, and he sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.

And then the Lord answered prayer on behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped. Franklin Graham, in his book about Bob Pierce, founder of both World Vision and Samaritan's Purse, gives Dr. Pierce's view of the kind of board members and employees that they should seek, and he mentions this very text that we just read about David.

He says, "The year Dr. Pierce says, 'The year I founded Samaritan's Purse, our total budget was $12,000, and $2,000 of that was from an insurance policy that I cashed in in order to get it started. There has been no year since that the Lord hasn't enabled me to give 20 to 30 percent of whatever income I had.

It was a joy to give to the limit, and that's the kind of men and women we want with us, Franklin. If they don't believe in us enough to want to give, give cheerfully and much, then they're not the people we want with us. That's how it has to be if we're going to stick to our purpose for being.

We want people who will give as that Samaritan gave, without expecting to be repaid.'" This is contrary to what some TV preachers are teaching, exploiting people to get them to give by telling them, "You give your dollar to God and he'll give you back two dollars." That's the wrong reason for giving altogether.

According to the Good Samaritan story, I believe it's the wrong reason by every biblical injunction. We ought to give to God because we love him, and it ought to cost us something. Like that time when David made up his mind to erect an altar to God at a certain place, and he went to the owner of the threshing floor.

You know that story in 2 Samuel, and he wanted to buy the place. And when the owner heard what David wanted it for, he offered it for nothing. But David said, "Will I offer unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing?" and he paid the price. Today, preachers and pastors accept high salaries to finance their lifestyles when they should be making sacrifices for the sake of the gospel.

So many preachers refuse to take up the cross and deny themselves. The church is weak because of the weakness of many of its preachers. Now let us see in the third place that they did not seek the praise of men. Verse 6 says, "We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else."

They sought the praise of God, not men. They were not seeking applause for themselves. They were seeking to obey God and bring him glory. John Calvin wrote, "Paul mentions two faults here. In stating that he was free from them, he warns us that the servants of Christ should have nothing to do with them.

Thus, if we would distinguish between the true servants of Christ and those who are false and servants so-called, they must be examined by this rule. And all who would serve Christ aright must also regulate their endeavors and actions according to the same rule. Where greed and ambition hold sway, innumerable corruptions follow, and the whole man turns to vanity.

These are the two sources from which stem the corruption of the whole of the ministry." William Hendriksen writes, "Their aim, moreover, had never been to seek human fame, whether from the Thessalonians or from anybody else. And this in spite of the fact that they were in a position to make weighty claims with respect to themselves being Christ's apostles, commissioned to represent him and therefore invested with authority over life and doctrine."

Leon Morris wrote, "Paul's third disclaimer is of any seeking of glory from men, whether the Thessalonians or any other. This is a repetition of what has already been said in verse 4, with this difference: that before he was denying that he directed his preaching to serve the ends that men approve, whereas now he is thinking of his own inner state.

He was not looking for the satisfaction that comes when one's work is praised." Matthew Henry writes, "He avoided ambition and vainglory. Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you nor yet of others. They expected neither people's purses nor their caps, neither to be enriched by them nor caressed and adored and called Rabbi by them.

This apostle exhorts the Galatians not to be desirous of vainglory. His ambition has to obtain that honor which comes from God. He tells them that they might have used greater authority as apostles and expected greater esteem and demanded maintenance, which is meant by the phrase of being burdensome, because perhaps some would have thought this too great a burden for them to bear."

Paul and his companions sought the praise of God, not the praise of men. They did not seek the applause of the people they had come to reach, but they sought to humble themselves before God to carry out his command to preach the gospel to the lost. Preachers today need to humble themselves before God and others.

Those who seek their own glory or the glory of their ministry are not pleasing God. In Isaiah 66:2, it says, "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." Those preachers who seek to build great monuments to themselves do not please God.

Those preachers who exalt themselves in the eyes of their congregations do not please God. God wants humble servants who will seek to please and obey him. Revival not only will bring ordinary Christians to their knees but preachers as well. We need a revival that will sweep the nation and bring us all to our knees before him.

When true revival comes, the prosperity preachers will be silenced. When true revival comes, those who exalt themselves will weep. When true revival comes, those who preach with false motives will stop. When true revival comes, the church will be cleansed, and the true gospel will come to the fore, and men will seek the Lord.

Let us pray that the Lord will not tarry, but will come soon in power to our land. In Psalm 85 and verse 4, it says, "Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us." In Psalm 85:6, it says, "Wilt thou not turn again and quicken us, that thy people may rejoice in thee?"

In Psalm 85:9, it says, "Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land." May the glory come again to our land. May the church and its preachers and then the whole of the nation turn back to the Lord, and may God bless our land once again.

Our Father in heaven, we come before you today asking your forgiveness for our great sins. We have sinned from the highest to the lowest. Preachers have sinned. Ordinary Christians have sinned. The nation as a whole has sinned. Our sins are piled up to heaven.

We pray, O Lord, that you will send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power and bring this nation, its preachers, and its church, and its people as a whole to their knees, they may turn back to you in repentance and weeping and follow you as the Lord of this nation. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

David Schultz: We hope this week's broadcast has been a blessing to you. If you have any questions about Mr. Dodson's message, please write us. You may email us at info@watchmanradio.org.

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