Well, as we come once again to God's Word, may I invite you to turn with me to Paul's first epistle to Timothy in chapter three and verses one to five. Sorry, did I say first Timothy? First Thessalonians. I'll pause the first epistle to the Thessalonians in chapter 3 and verses 1 to 5. I trust that we are there. Let me read those first five verses. Well for the sake of context let me just backtrack a bit and begin from chapter 2 verses 17 right through to verse 5 of chapter 3. But since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person not in heart. We endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face because we wanted to come to you. I Paul again and again. But Satan hindered us. What is our hope or joy or crown of busting before our Lord Jesus that is coming. Is it not you. For you are our glory and joy. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother, and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ to establish and exalt you in your faith. that no one be moved by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction just as it has become, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter has tempted you and our labor would be in vain. May we once again seek the Lord's help as we understand this passage and apply it to our lives. our blessed God and our Father in heaven, we thank you for your truth, that you, the God who can not lie, and whose promises are always fulfilled, and whose will is carried out in all the nations and through the various operations of your grace. We pray that even now, as we turn to these verses, that you might demonstrate to us once more that you are a God who desires the very best from those who identify with you and who call upon your name. That the life to which you have called us is not some kind of entertainment that we just cost through life as those who are surrounded by everything that is pleasant and everything that is to our convenience and everything that is full of excitement and nothing else. And if that were to be so, we would be happy and glad to receive such from your hand, but we know that this is a life of sacrifice and a life of self-denial, a life where we are called upon to take up our cross and daily to follow after you. And whatever form that might take, Give us the grace to gladly follow after you. And we ask this for the sake of your son, our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, the subject that I would like to address you on this evening is the discipline of self-denial. the discipline of self-denial. And we are going to see that illustrated in the life of the Apostle Paul, and not in a way that you would ordinarily expect. And yet, it is something that is so evident here, as it is evident in the life of the Apostle Paul. Now in his great writing, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin devotes a section to what he calls the life of the Christian man. which you'll find in book three, and it extends from chapter six to chapter 10. It's a section that is wonderfully practical of how the Christian life is to be lived. And one of the subjects that Calvin addresses in this section in a chapter entitled, The Sum of the Christian Life, The Denial of Ourselves. It's a topic that I would like to draw your attention to this evening. Calvin begins this chapter by saying the following words. Let this be the first step that a man depart from himself in order that he may apply the whole force of his ability in the service of the Lord. I call service not only what lies in obedience to God's Word, but what turns the mind of man, empty of its own carnosense, fully to the bidding of God's Spirit. And by self-denial Calvin meant every way in which we turn from our will to embrace God's will for our lives. in every way in which we forsake a worldly self-interested life and a selfish mind to love and advance only the glory of God. That is a life of self-denial. Forgetting ourselves, we seek and long only to do God's will. And that is the life of a Christian. Now the discipline of self-denial or dying to self is never portrayed in scripture as something that is optional for a child of God. The Bible makes it very clear that dying to self is the reality of the new birth. No one can come to the Lord Jesus Christ unless they are willing to see their old lives crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ and they begin to live anew in obedience to the one who has called them to himself. And so Christ serves sinners and he serves them to himself that not only are they given the injunctions to a life of self-denial, but he himself is an example of how to live such a life. He is our perfect example of how to live such a life. Now the truth that those who are in the flesh live unto themselves and those who are in the spirit live unto the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be disputed. And I think you have come across many instances of people who live only for themselves and whatever it is that they are called upon to do for the sake of others, they dare not go down that route. Because they are full of themselves and anything that will disturb their convenience, anything that will disturb their peace, anything that will rob them, of the thrill of life so they think they would rather have nothing to do with that. So Christian self-denial can be defined as a willingness to forego a willingness to give up, to relinquish, to sacrifice any ease, test, earthly comforts and conveniences, earthly honor. It is to quit our temporal interests and enjoyments and even life itself for the sake of Christ and for the sake of his people. From the moment that a person comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is expected to deny himself. And that is how it has been from the very beginning. You will recall that Abraham, when he was called, God called him to leave his father's house, to leave everything that he was so used to, he was so familiar with, the comforts and the securities of family and friends, and to go to a place that he had never been to, that God was going to show him. Moses, when God called him to lead the children of Israel, he had to leave the comforts and the luxuries and the security of Pharaoh's house. And to identify himself with his downtrodden people. With the whole world right before him and all the entrapments of a comfortable life, he had to leave all that behind him. That's the life of self-denial. The Lord Jesus Christ, the supreme example of self-denial, when he became incarnate and lived a self-denying life here on earth, there is something that he had abandoned. Something that he had to let go of in order to lower himself. and come to live in this world which at best we can refer to in comparison to heaven as junk. And he came and lived in this world. So when he taught his disciples about true discipleship, he wanted them to understand that if any of them was hoping to become a Christian without self-denial, he might as well abandon the idea of becoming one. Because it was a matter of sacrifice. We know that our Savior's supreme act of self-denial is what we see on Calvary. When he did not hold on to his life, he did not hold on to his glory, he did not hold on to the state of supreme exhortation that he was entitled to. And he laid down his life, not for good people, but for sinners who deserved nothing, nothing but the judgment of the almighty God. So self-denial was something that marked the life of our Savior and it must be the life that should mark all those that he calls to himself. And one such person in whom we see this spirit and discipline of self-denial is the Apostle Paul. He was devoted to God and his godly example, as we shall soon see, illustrates to us what it means to love others and to prefer others before ourselves. In the closing verses of chapter two, Paul had just been speaking of his strong desire to visit the Thessalonian believers. He is the one that established this church in probably a month. of preaching Sunday by Sunday in the synagogues and elsewhere as the Lord provided the opportunities and soon enough a little band of believers began to meet some that were saved from their life of idolatry. and the church was constituted and it was not too long after that that Paul had to be forcibly hounded out of the city because of intense persecution that erupted and there's hardly any place where he went where people were not after his blood. And so Paul speaks after he had left He now narrates how desirous he was to visit these new believers back in Thessalonica whom he had to leave abruptly. And he expresses the disappointment and the frustration of his repeated efforts to do so. He had such a deep personal and godly interest in these people. And here in these opening verses of chapter three, the apostle Paul lays bare his life once again and the state of his heart towards these believers and the restlessness that he experienced in mind and heart that were prompted by the several hindrances to his immediate return to Thessalonica. And that begins to communicate to us how he was so attached to these people. Notice what he says in verse 17, but since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face. Yes, we wanted to come to you. I pour again and again. But I was hindered by the devil. I was hindered by Satan. And then he says to us in chapter 3 that he undertook to do one thing and that is to send Timothy back to Thessalonica to go and find out how these new converts were doing. And in this singular act of sending Timothy back to Thessalonica, we see the self-denying love that the apostle Paul had for God's people. And before we look at elements of his self-denying love, let us first of all establish the unendurable pain that was brought upon the Apostle Paul by the separation from these believers in Thessalonica, an abrupt separation. And we know it was abrupt because he says in verse 17, when we were torn away from you, And it's a very strong forceful word that he uses there. It's the language of a little boy, a little girl that is so attached to the mother, so attached to the father. And the father's job entails that he has to be away from home sometimes for a considerable length of time. And he has been at home for several days. And the girl, the boy, knows daddy is about to go. And as he picks up his bag and is walking towards the vehicle, and the child clings to the mother, clings to the father, and would not let go. And not only so, their tears dreaming down the eyes of that little one who does not want the father to go. And the mother goes and pulls the hand of the child. Daddy has to go, kicking and screaming and shouting. The child stands there and sees the father drive away. Torn away. Unwillingly. Something so undesirable. It happened. It was unendurable. And Paul felt the pain and is not pretending about this to just make them feel good about it. No. See how he begins chapter three. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer. Not only does he say that here in verse one, he repeats the same words in verse five. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer. I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. The question is, what is it that the Apostle Paul could not bear any longer? What is it that Paul could not stand for that long? Well, he had been forced to leave these relatively new converts alone and when his companions, he and his companions were forcibly driven out of the town, Paul had made tremendous, Paul had made efforts out of his tremendous concern for their spiritual welfare to come back and visit them. and to see how they were doing in their faith. But as we have read in chapter two, he was unable to go back. And this troubled his heart and disturbed his peace of mind. And that's why he says, when we could bear it no longer, He was so concerned of these believers succumbed to the persecution and social pressure that they daily faced in this pagan city as the tempter made inroads among them and caused them to abandon their commitment to God, which Paul and his colleagues had so recently persuaded them to make. How are they faring? And the more the apostle Paul thought about this, the more painfully intolerable his concern and anxiety became and he could bear it no longer, he says. And the verbal participle that is translated as bear it no longer, basically means to hide by covering. To conceal. It gives you the idea of keeping something down in an airtight container. It also means to bear up against. It means to endure. It is used in 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 12. 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 12. There is some presidential candidate who would have said 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 12. If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. We bear up under this demand. We endure it. In chapter 13 and verse 7, in the same epistle, 13 and verse 7, love bears all things. And the idea that we are getting here is that for some time Paul, trying to keep down, trying to suppress this tremendous concern for the Thessalonian believers, he was hoping that a way back to them might be opened up soon, but when it did not, he could no longer hold himself, he could no longer bear this pressure of godly consent and it burst forth and it became unendurably painful to bear. That is what he's saying here. When I could not bear it any longer, What did he do when he could not bear this any longer? He sent Timothy back. And that is where we are going to see the unselfish, self-denying love of the Apostle Paul that was prompted by this godly concern. the unselfish, self-denying love prompted by this godly concern. So a decision has to be made, a decision needed to be made, a resolve needed to be carried out and immediately or else the pain would just grow intolerably strong. So someone had to go back. If Paul is hindered, and we don't know how he was hindered by Satan himself, if Paul will not go back, someone has to go back. And to establish whether the Thessalonians were faring well and encourage them and strengthen them in the faith. And so Timothy has to go back to Thessalonica from Athens. Now I want you to observe two very important things here in the unselfish, self-denying love that was prompted by Paul's godly concern for these believers. Firstly, the attitude with which Timothy was sent back to Thessalonica. the attitude with which Timothy was sent back, we can say it was an attitude of uncomplaining delight. The attitude of uncomplaining delight. Paul says in verse one, Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone. We were willing. The NIV and the New American Standard Bible say we thought it best. We thought it best. The New King James Version and the King James Version use the phrase, we thought it good. There was a willingness, there was a readiness, there was a compelling desire to send Timothy back and this resolve was determined to be the best course of action. And certainly the heart and the mind thought it to be so. That's the best course of action and therefore there is no grudge at all. In fact, Paul says that is the only way we could release the pressure that we could no longer bear. Send back someone and Timothy is sent back. So that is the attitude. willingness and the desire and the heart is at peace that this is the best course of action. Secondly, the great cost or sacrifice involved in that decision. The great cost and sacrifice involved in that decision and there are three things We need to observe there. First of all, the deep emotions experienced. The deep emotions experienced. And Paul uses a very strong word to describe the cost involved in sending Timothy away. To be left. Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left. behind. We were willing to be left behind. And that phrase could mean abandoning. We were willing to be, so to say, abandoned. It's the same word that is used in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 31. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. There is a physical separation, a physical move. But not only that, there is also the emotional detachment. to begin to form a new family and loyalty with the woman that God has given to you and you don't keep running back to mommy and daddy. How many teaspoons of this ingredient, does my wife need to put in this cake when she's baking for me, how many diapers should we have, and this and that, and every moment that there's a decision to be made, you make a beeline back to your parents, there is no detachment, there is no abandonment. and biblical parents who know what it means to leave and to cleave, that is why sometimes they shed tears. It's as if it's a loss, but it's not a loss. It's a game. Someone has now left your nest and they are beginning a life with another individual and the two are forming a new family unit and you can at best just watch from afar and thank God that they have become one in the flesh just as you, their parents are. And that is the word that the apostle Paul is using here. leaving one's loved ones. And it's also the word that is used when you are bereft of those that were so close to you, separated from them by death. And obviously the word has definite emotional content. It expresses a sense of desolation, a real sense of deprivation that Paul experienced as he said goodbye to Timothy. And as he watched probably from the show, the ship disappearing in the far distant horizon and he realizes, oh, I'm abandoned as it were. I've been left behind. Deep emotions, experience. But secondly, the solitariness endured. The solitariness endured linked to this being left behind is the emphatic solitariness. We were willing to be left behind at Athens. Alone. Alone. Poor is prepared to be left alone. If I were to ask how many of us enjoy being alone, or there are moments when we need to retreat from our close friends, even from our spouses for the purpose of reflecting and praying and seeking the mind and the will of God over a matter, there's nothing wrong with that. but to live in life as a person who wants to be left alone forever. No, I don't want anyone around me. Leave me alone. I enjoy it better when I'm alone. There's something wrong with you. Especially if you're a Christian who thinks I enjoy life better alone. then you don't understand what it means to belong to God's family. God created us to be social beings. The very first thing that God did not find pleasant when he had created this universe, this world, is the fact that man was alone. It is not good for man to be alone. because we are social creatures created in the image of God who enjoys Trinitarian fellowship, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we are to reflect something of that and the need and dependence upon one another. And Paul is prepared to endure being alone, undesirable though it might be, remember it is being done for the sake of the Thessalonians. But also observe the place of this solitariness. It is no other than Athens. It is one thing to be left alone in familiar territory surrounded by so many other people that you know hi there and you can't walk 500 yards without meeting a dozen number of people that know you. This is Athens. that missionary ground which was the intellectual and philosophical capital of the world with many cynical people who were ready to mock at the gospel that the apostle Paul preached. And Paul did not relish the prospect of working alone in such a hostile place. but he realized it was necessary for Timothy to go for the good of the Thessalonians and he remained alone in such a city. But thirdly, notice the highly valued companion whose company was being surrendered to the Thessalonians. We sent Timothy, our brother and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ. You know, there are certain individuals in your life that you can dispense with without feeling the pain, isn't it? And to some extent, in a rather ungodly way, you even comfort yourself with good riddance. I mean, I couldn't put up with him for much longer, so I'm glad he's out of my life. We couldn't say that about Timothy. Here is a co-laborer in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Timothy, about whom the apostle Paul would say, is my beloved son in the faith. I have no one else like him, a dear brother, a co-worker in the gospel. He regarded Timothy very highly and often spoke of him in words of singular tenderness and beauty. In your own time you can read Philippians chapter 2 verse 19 to 22 and see and read and hear for yourself the glowing tribute that Paul pays to one young man, Timothy. And so when facing such a grim prospect, Paul sent to them one whom he valued so highly. Recognizing the dire need that the brethren in Thessalonica had for someone to go and encourage them and Paul being willing to deny himself the valuable presence and support of such a young man in order that the Thessalonians may have his ministry. And do you see what is happening here? A great example of self-denial. Here is a man so involved with the needs of others that he's willing to surrender his lawful liberties in order to minister to others. He's willing to relinquish his hold on Timothy and the desirableness of the company of Timothy for the sake of others. What does this mean to you and me? How can this apply to you and me? Well, you see, sometimes we become so preoccupied with our own needs. We become so preoccupied with our own comfort. And we are unwilling to be inconvenienced in order to minister to others. If that is your spirit, if that is your attitude, if that is your life, then you are not exhibiting a life of self-denial. You are not. Someone has said the greatest test of the depth of our devotion is not primarily what we do with that which God clearly labels as sin, but how many lawful and legitimate privileges we are willing to sacrifice as believers for the sake of others. And Paul would rather the Thessalonians had the ministry of Timothy than hold on to him and enjoy his support and the advantages of his presence and company. This was no small sacrifice of personal convenience and comfort on his part. left alone in such a place by sending the very best away from you. That Timothy may go and obtain reliable information about the Thessalonians and how they were doing in the faith, he was willing to be left alone at Athens. Well, let me conclude then with three points of application. Self-denial for anyone of us begins at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where self-denial begins from. There can be no self-denial without the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The evil monster of self in us had to be crucified with Christ on the cross before we could ever begin to live a full life in true self-denial. The love of Christ has manifested and realized in the cross. constrains the Christian from henceforth to live not unto himself but to live unto the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his life. Take the cross away and no man, no woman, no boy, no girl can live such a life of self-denial with any reasonable and God-honoring devotion, never. Secondly, Christian self-denial is founded upon a supreme attachment to a higher interest than our own. And that interest is the glory of God and the good of others. So to deny yourself from a supreme regard to a higher interest than your own is to possess the spirit of the gospel. It is to manifest the true spirit of our savior who denied himself all the liberties and all the privileges and everything that heaven entailed and he lowered himself and came to live here in this world and subject himself to all the indignities, to all the blasphemy, to all the humiliation at the hands of the very people that he had come to save. and he was ready to put up with all that. The principle which should regulate our conduct both toward God and toward man is that of renouncing your ease. renouncing your profit, renouncing your honor, renouncing your advantages when they come in competition with the highest interest of your soul, the glory of God and the good of others. That is how we are to live. My third practical point is this, and it is to answer the question, what does self-denial look like? What does self-denial look like? When your wishes are crossed, when your advice is disregarded, when your opinions are ridiculed, and yet you refuse to let anger arise in your heart or try to defend yourself, You are practicing self-denial. Now many of us are prepared to suppress all that begins to build up when you think you have given a very lofty opinion about something and everyone shakes their head and says, no, no, no, we cannot take that. Do you storm out of the meeting offended and, I'm out of here. And you give them your back and you never return. When you lovingly and patiently stand face to face with folly, and spiritual insensitivity and endure it as Jesus did, you have died to self. That's not easy, isn't it? It's not easy. Furthermore, when you are content with any food, any money, clothing, society, solitude or interruption by the will of God and you know that it's the providence of God that has brought you to where you are. I say this not in any disparaging way, not in any demeaning way. There are so many things that Americans take for granted, so many. It has taken hundreds of years to get to where you are now, and things have just been so rosy all throughout that Those especially that are younger cannot remember of any moment when houses did not have central heating. And so these things, we become so familiar to them and we take them for granted. And the moment there is a slightest inconvenience, We are agitated. We are restless. We begin to lose our patience. We are being rushed to the emergency room because our blood pressure has shot up. What's the problem? The air conditioning is not working at all. That's the problem. And elsewhere in the rest of the world, They live without air conditioning from 1st January to 31st December. I'm not saying those are not important things. I'm saying if providence takes you into circumstances such as these in the will of God and you are content with it, it is a spirit of self-denial. Furthermore, when you never care to draw attention to yourself or elevate your own good works or desire commendation from others, you are dying to self. And that is what the Lord was always indicting the Pharisees for or against. Self-praise and receiving praise from others and commending themselves to others and all that Drawing attention to themselves and wearing long robes and taking the most elevated seats in the synagogue And offering long prayers so that they they can be held in high esteem But when you care never to draw attention to yourself, not to elevate yourself by self praise or desire, commendation, and if it is withheld, you are offended, then you have not died to self. One more but one. When you can honestly rejoice with a brother who has prospered and his needs have been made and you never feel any envy, though your needs are greater and still unmet, you have practiced self-denial. It's a hard thing to suppress our envious and capricious spirits. We always wish it was me experiencing that and not him, not her. And lastly, when you can receive correction and reproof from one less in stature than yourself, and humbly admit he is right with no resentment or rebellion in your heart, you have died to self. You have died to self. If God could use a donkey to rebuke a wayward prophet Balaam, he can use anyone to rebuke us. You don't look at someone's touch and say, Who do you think you are to speak to me like that, even though you know they are right, but because they are beneath who you are to be the ones standing up to your face and saying, you are wrong. You can't talk to me like that. Never even try to do that. And that's why our friends across the divide, the charismatics have even taken it to the extreme. Never touch the Lord's anointed. Doesn't matter how false their preaching is. Don't touch the Lord's anointed and you adopt such a spirit, you have not died to self. The last question that I can leave with you is this. Are you dead to self? Are you dead to self? Have you taken up your cross and are daily following your Lord Jesus Christ and enduring all that stands in your path of obedience to the will of God? Have you done that? at great cost, great pain, but you do it gladly, delightfully, without complaint. If that is your spirit, it's the spirit of Christ and may God intensify that in you to his praise and to his glory. Amen. Let us pray.