Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 22 that's in your spiral gospel
hymns in book. Let's all stand together. Hymn
number 22. We were ruined by the fall. Adam's sin defiles us all. We, as by our birth, we deserve
the law's great curse. Helpless, hopeless sinners we. Never can our souls retreat. ? But the blessed Son of God
? Came as man in flesh and blood ? He fulfilled the law's demands
? And in death stretched out his hands ? On the cross of Calvary
? Christ redeemed and set us free ? In the time which God
had set ? The Spirit came for His elect ? To regenerate and
call ? From the ruin of the fall ? By His power and by His grace
? We were born for God's own praise ? Now your purpose we
fulfill ? ? Saved according to your will ? ? Sing this song
of joyful praise ? ? For the glory of your grace ? ? Blessed,
holy, triune God ? ? Hear our praise through Christ our Lord
? Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to continue our study
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. If you'd like to open your Bibles
there with me. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Let's ask the Lord's blessings. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, what hope and comfort we have in being able to sing
that hymn to you in praise and to thank you for your electing
grace. Thank you for your redeeming
grace. Thank you for your regenerating
grace. Lord, we know that our salvation
is of the Lord and that there's no way that you can fail to accomplish
the salvation that you've purposed, that you fulfilled, and that
you now execute in the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray
for your spirit to come in power this morning. We pray that you
would enlighten the eyes of our understanding. We pray that you
would give faith to our cold hearts. Lord, that you would
forgive us for such a worldliness and and such unbelief that remains
with us. Lord, in this hour that you would
point us to Christ, that you would cause us to set our affections
not on the things of this world, as we often do, but on the things
above where Christ is seated at thy right hand. Thank you
for your word. Lord, Use it as a double-edged
sword to divide and to heal, to wound and to make alive. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. In our text this morning in 2
Thessalonians, if you'll look with me at verse 11, The apostle Paul says, wherefore
also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy
of this calling. Now, just in the first 11 verses
of this epistle, this is the second time that the Lord has
spoken to us about being counted worthy. How is it that those
who are by nature so unworthy could be counted by God as being
worthy. And the clear and short answer
to that is by the worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ to be
found in him. Now we know that from the first
time that this is mentioned in verse 5 that the Lord is speaking
to us about the persecution that we will experience in this world. Believers are by nature at odds
with this world. The Lord said they hated me,
they're going to hate you. In this world you will have tribulation,
those who love Christ will suffer persecution. We're at odds with all the values of this world. Particularly we are at odds with
the religious values of this world. And so he tells us in
verse 5 that this conflict that you have with the
world is the manifest token. You see that in verse 5? This
is the manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that
you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God. Now that's
the first time that he mentions being counted worthy of the kingdom
of God. The clear teaching here is that
those who forsake the gospel because of persecution are not
counted worthy of the kingdom of God. And those who remain
faithful in spite of persecution are counted worthy for the kingdom
of God. And the obvious question now
is who makes those who remain faithful different from those
who give up on the gospel and forsake the gospel because of
this conflict that they have with the world and with men.
And we know the answer to that question is he made us to differ. That's why the Apostle Paul now
in our text says we pray. You know how oftentimes we've
heard someone say, well, you know, there's nothing left to
do now than pray. And the truth is the only time
that we really do pray is when there's no place else to go. When we are left with no, nothing
to do but pray is the only time we really pray. And so, prayer
is our complete dependence upon the Lord and we are dependent
upon him to make us worthy. If we are to remain faithful
in spite of the conflicts and persecutions of this world over
the gospel, he must keep us faithful. And so, He must provide for us that which
we cannot provide for ourselves. We call it the perseverance of
the saints. Believers persevere to the end. But another way to phrase the
perseverance of the saints is to call it the preservation of
the spirit. And it's only by the preservation
of the spirit that the saints will persevere. And so that's
what we pray for. Oh Lord, keep me. Lord, I want
to be found worthy of the kingdom of God. And if I'm going to be found
worthy, you're gonna have to keep me. I looked up this word
worthy, and the first time it's mentioned is in Genesis chapter
32, if you would turn with me there. You remember what's happening
in Genesis chapter 32. Jacob, a clear picture of the
church and of the believer versus Esau, which is an unbeliever,
has just left Laban's house with his family and his herds and
his wives and his children. And he's coming back to the land
that the Lord instructed him to return to. And he hears that
Esau's coming with 400 men. Well, you know how Jacob and
Esau parted when Jacob left, he was fleeing from Esau because
of having deceived him. and taken the birthright from
him. And now, Jacob assumes that Esau
is out to destroy him, to get revenge. And so, Jacob is afraid. He divides up his family. He
says, well, if Esau kills all of one side, maybe the other
side will escape. And he sends to his brother gifts.
And now he pours out his heart to the Lord to help him. And in Genesis chapter 32 at
verse nine, and Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God
of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidest unto me, return
unto thy country and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee.
When we go before the throne of grace and prayer, We remind
the Lord, if you will, of those precious promises on which we
stand. The Lord said, I'll put words
in your mouth. What are the words that he puts
in our mouth? The word of God. And so we recount the promises
that God has given. And that's what Jacob's doing.
He's saying, Lord, this is the only hope that I have is that
you've made this promise to me. I have no other ground on which
to stand. And then in verse 10, he says,
And this is the first mention of the word worthy in the Bible.
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of the
truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my
staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I've become two bands.
Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother and from
the hand of Esau, for I fear him. lest he will come and smite
me and the mother with the children. And thou saidest, I will surely
do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which
cannot be numbered for multitude. Lord, the only plea that I have
is the promise that you have made. I cannot look to myself
and find anything in my faithfulness that would require you to bless
me. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy
of any of your blessings. I'm not worthy of the truth that
you've revealed unto me. I'm completely dependent upon
your grace if I'm going to be made worthy. If I'm going to
be accepted by God in his kingdom, Lord, it's not going to be based
on my worthiness. It'll be based on yours. You remember that Roman centurion
that came to the Lord and had a servant whom he loved that
was dying and he pleaded with the Lord to come heal his servant. or to heal his servant, and the
Lord said, I will come to your house. And the centurion said,
oh, no, Lord. He said, I'm a man of authority. I say to this man, go, and he
goes. I say to another, come, and he comes. I understand authority.
and I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof. I'm not worthy for you to come
into my house. I know that you have all authority
and I know that your word is sufficient. Only speak the word
and my servants shall be healed. And the Lord stood amazed and
said, I've not seen such faith in all Israel. So faith in God
is cannot be separated from one's own sense of unworthiness. Lord, I'm not worthy of the blessings
you've shown me. I'm not worthy of the truth that
you've revealed unto me. There's nothing in me that would
cause me to be worthy for the kingdom of God. The prodigal who wasted his inheritance
on riotous living and found himself feeding swine. Scripture says
that he came to himself. The Lord put him in his right
mind. And what did he say? I will go
to my father's house and I will say to him, I am not worthy to
be called thy son. Make me one of the least of thy
servants. Or just put me in the back of
the barn. I'm not worthy. Of course, with that spirit that
God had given to him, when he did return home, his father was
waiting for him and lavished him with kisses and put a ring
upon his hand and shoes on his feet and a robe of righteousness
and killed the fatted calf. You see, that's the grace that
God gives. He makes us unworthy and then
he makes us worthy. These two things cannot be separated.
When the Lord came to the River Jordan where John was baptizing
and told John the Baptist to baptize him, what did John say? Oh Lord, I'm not worthy to unlash
your shoes from your feet. Now, the lowest servant in the
household would have been the one at the front door with a
basin of water and a towel to wash the dirty feet of anyone
who came into that house. And John says, I'm not worthy
of that. Lord, you're the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sins of the world. Who am I? I need to be baptized of thee.
While the Lord say to John, he said, suffer to be so that we
might fulfill all righteousness. My baptism is necessary for the
salvation of God's people. You know, I was thinking about
what John said. Because the scriptures, when
it reveals Christ in the fullness of his glory and worthiness in
the book of Revelation, it says that his feet are like fine brass
brazen in a furnace. And we know that's a picture
of the fiery wrath that fell upon the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who had the body of a man on Calvary's cross. And John said, I'm not worthy
to unlatch the shoes from off thy feet. When we preach Christ,
what are we doing? We're unlatching the shoes from
off his feet. We're showing his glory and his
worthiness as the one, the only one who has feet as fine brass
brazen in a furnace. To the contrary, our feet are
of clay. Even the seraphim who were not
sinners were creatures who had to take two of their wings to
hide their feet. Our feet are our connection to
this world. And I'm thinking where our feet
are so dirty and his feet are so perfect. Preaching is the uncovering of
the feet of Christ and And I feel so much when I stand before you
like John the Baptist, Lord, I'm not worthy to unlatch the
shoes from off thy feet. All I can say is behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. If we're to be worthy for the
kingdom of God, it will be by his worth and his worthiness
Nothing in us left to ourselves. What are we worthy of? Death
and hell. That's what we're worthy of.
That's why you don't hear believers responding to the truth of the
gospel of God's sovereign grace in election and in particular
redemption. You don't hear believers saying
that's not fair. Only an unbeliever would speak
such. The believer knows that he doesn't want what's fair.
Lord, don't give me what I deserve. Don't give me what I'm worthy
of. I'll be separated from God for all eternity in the devil's
hell if you give me what I'm worthy of. And now the Lord is telling us
in our text that perseverance, the verses between the ones we
read in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, chapter one, speak of the
revelation that the Lord's gonna make of himself from heaven,
and that our hope is to be found worthy of his appearing, and
be found worthy of the kingdom of God. If we're to be found
worthy, it'll only be in him. Terminate of revelation. Genesis,
the passage we just read of Jacob, is the first mention of worthiness
in the scriptures. And if you turn with me to Revelation
chapter four, we'll see one of the last references
to the word worthy in the Bible. Chapter four, verse 10, the four
and 20 elders. Now that's prophetic language,
apocalyptic language of the church. The church is made up of what?
The 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament and the 12 apostles
in the New Testament. And so the 24 elders is all of
the elect of God, all the Old Testament saints and all the
New Testament saints brought together. So this is the whole
church now that John sees in heaven. and the four and 20 elders
fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him
that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before
the throne saying, what? Thou art worthy. Thou art worthy. Lord, you get all the praise
and all the glory. The only reason we're here, the
only reason that you found us worthy for the kingdom of God,
which is what the apostle Paul is praying for the church at
Thessalonica that you would be found worthy, that you would
be kept to the end. And now the church is praising
him, Lord, thou art worthy. You get all the glory. To receive
glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things
and for thy pleasure, for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Lord, you made everything for your glory. And I saw on the right hand of
him that sat upon the throne a book written within and on
the backside sealed with seven seals." And we looked at this
recently. There's been some discussion
about what this book is. It is the book of God's decrees. In order for the purpose of God
to be revealed, this book must be opened. It can also be understood
as the Lamb's book of life. in which the names of God's elect
are written and in order for that book to be opened and for
those in it to be saved, that has to be opened. It could be
understood as the Bible. The Bible is a hidden book. It's
sealed. Only by the power of God and
only by the Spirit of God can we understand what God is saying. And can we see the glory of Christ
in God's Word? And so John sees the Lord holding
this book. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book? Who's worthy? Lord, I'm not worthy of the least
of my blessings or of the truth which you've revealed unto me
is what Jacob said. Who's worthy to open this book?
and to loose the seals thereof. And no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. No one was worthy. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders said unto
me, weep not. Behold, look. That's what that
word behold means. Look, John. the lion of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, he hath prevailed to open the
book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld and lo
in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and the And
the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain,
having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits
of God sent forth unto all the earth. And he took the book out
of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when
he had taken the book, the four beast and the four and 20 elders
fell down before the lamb. having every one of them hearts
and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the
saints. Here's our prayer. Lord, make me worthy. Lord, if
I'm gonna be worthy, you're gonna have to do it. I've got nothing
else. Prayer is what we do when we
got no place else to go. Here's the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, verse
nine, saying, thou art worthy. Thou art worthy. Oh, might the
Lord make us worthy. He's worthy because he's God. He is the fullness of the Godhead. He is the creator and sustainer
of all of life. He holds our lives in his hands
as God. He's Lord over the living, the
spiritually alive, and the dead, the spiritually dead. Men pride
themselves in talking about making Jesus Lord of their life. You
can't do something that God's already done. He is Lord. He's Lord. whether men want him
to be or not, he still reigns sovereign and for that reason,
he's worthy. When God causes you to see him
seated upon his throne and having sovereign rule over you and being
able to do with you whatsoever he wills, you will find yourself
falling down before him and saying, Lord, thou art worthy, thou art
worthy. He's worthy because he's sovereign,
he's worthy because he's all-powerful, he's worthy because he himself
is the eternal, infinite I AM, the unchanging God, the immutable
one. He's worthy. He's worthy because
he's holy. He's holy. That word holy means
set apart, I heard a man say one time, the simplest definition
for holy is other. And I thought, that's a good
definition. He's other than we are in every way. When we see
him, we come to this conclusion, there's nothing in me that's
like him. Nothing. He is altogether holy. He is altogether other than me. And for that reason, he's worthy.
And he's worthy not only because of who he is, but he's worthy
because of what he accomplished. He's worthy because he's the
lamb that hath prevailed. He's the one who has been successful
in satisfying God's justice and in fulfilling God's law and putting
away the sins of his people. And so he's worthy. We bow before
him because of who he is and because of what he has done. in the fullness of time. Well,
even before time. He's worthy because he's the
lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He's worthy because
he entered into an eternal covenant promise with his father to be
the surety of his people. What is a surety? A surety is
one who has done everything. We were talking about this recently.
And in real estate, we speak of a surety as a down payment
of a promise to buy a piece of property. But if you decide after
making that surety payment that you don't want to buy the property,
you just lose your surety. That's not what surety means
when the scripture speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ being our
surety. He didn't just make the down
payment, he made the full payment. It's paid in full and there's
no backing down. And so he's worthy of our praise
because he's already paid the debt for our sin in full. He's worthy. Paul said, oh, I
pray that you'd be found worthy of the kingdom of heaven, the
kingdom of God. He bore our sins in his body
upon the tree and put them away by the sacrifice of himself.
He satisfied justice and fulfilled the law. Oh, how worthy he is. He rose from the dead. He ascended
into glory. He's seated at the right hand
of God right now. He's worthy, worthy of our praise. Lord, I'm not worthy, but you're
worthy. There's a word that is in my Bible. In my Bible, there are, in the margins of
the text, the publishers of this Bible have have put words to
describe the truth that's being made. And
there's a word here that unless you've read 17th century Puritans or unless you're
a fan of William Shakespeare, chances are you never heard this
word before. It's a word that's no longer used in the English
language, it's obsolete. But it's a good word, it's full
of meaning. I was talking to Angus Fisher
the other day in Australia and I said, Angus, I know you know
this word and he said, yeah. I said, in the British culture,
do they still use this word? He said, nobody uses it, nobody
uses it. It's the word vouchsafe, vouchsafe. And in my Bible, go back with
me to our text, where it says, count you worthy, count you worthy. The word there is vouchsafe.
So what does that mean? Well, you know what the word
vouch means. If you vouch for someone, and you have your reputation
as good, then the person that you're vouching to for that person
will say, well, based on the word of so and so, I accept you. I accept, you know, you've been
vouched for. And we know what the word safe
means. It means to be secure. And this
is a word that would have been part of our vocabulary a few
hundred years ago. Bounce safe. And it's the word
now that's being translated in our English Bibles, count you
worthy. The thing about you, you have
a voucher to enter into a place and that voucher gives you the
right of access. We're talking about being made
worthy. for the kingdom of God. And we
all know that there's a lot of scamming going on now as a result
of the internet and you hear stories, perhaps it's happened
to you, where someone has bought a voucher to an event only to
find out when they get to the gate that that voucher was no
good, it was a counterfeit. If the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is not your vouchsafe, if you paid anything at all for your
voucher into glory, you're gonna find out when you get to the
gate that it's a counterfeit. You can't pay for this voucher.
You can't be safe with a voucher that you've earned or that you
bought. A very wealthy man has bought all of the vouchers to
this event and you can't buy it from him. He must give it
to you. And this word vouchsafe not only
means you have to be vouched for by Christ and that only then
are you safe, but it also has a very large connotation of grace
in it. So vouchsafe means that we have
received freely. We have received freely by God's
grace. through the vouching. You see,
the value of being vouched for is not in the vouchee. You vouch
for somebody to me and I trust you, my faith is not in the vouchee,
it's in the voucher. What a glorious word, vouchsafe. It's a good word, isn't it? And
that's what we have in Christ, that he has vouched for us before
the Father and that we're safe only in him. And only then, only
then can we be found worthy of the kingdom of God. Let's take a break.