It's been a little while since
I've been here. Good to see you folks this evening. Speaking
of being friends, I'll tell you a little story about this young
man, your pastor and his wife. We fell in love with them over
a picture of the two of them in the airport flying to California. They hadn't even gotten here
yet. I'd never even met him. And we just fell in love with
those two right there. Just, oh, we could hang out with
those guys. We could barbecue together. And
we did. It was good to meet them. And I've just been good friends
with him ever since. Thank you, brother. Thank you for the honor. and a privilege to once again
stand before God's people. Can I assume that you are here
tonight for the same reason the folks in rescue come out once
a week in the midweek? We need to hear about something,
don't we? We spend most of our lives in this world, this valley
of death. This valley is a shadow of death
to God's people. But we spend most of our lives
out in that world, don't we? We don't get to spend much time
here worshiping. Our friendship is wonderful.
But worshiping with you is even more wonderful. It's beyond words. It's beyond what we can put in
words, isn't it? When I told Kathy that Marvin
was having a conference and we were going to have to bypass
going down to the beach, putting our feet in the Gulf of America,
in the water, we're just going to have to go to a conference
instead. She goes, oh yeah, let's go, let's go. Wonderful how the Lord works
things out. Well, we come together to worship, don't we? That's
what we're here for tonight. Listen to these words of 1 Corinthians
1. Paul, writing to the Corinthians,
writes these words. He says, unto the church. Now
remember, Paul was inspired by God to write these words. He
says, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them
that are sanctified. in Christ Jesus, to them who
are sanctified, not in themselves, not in something they have done,
but in Christ Jesus, called, called, called to be saints. Let's take those two words out
of there because they're in italics, which means they were added by
the translators, and let's read it the old-fashioned way, called
saints. We can call each other saints.
Saint Gabe. Almost got a little ring to it,
doesn't it? with all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours,
grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what we're here tonight
to do, isn't it? To find a little peace in these lives that we
have, this world that we spend so much time in, A world that
wasn't so bad at one time, right? A world that everything was going
pretty good for a while. And then the Lord showed us what
sin was. And everything blew apart. All
this world that we walked through is nothing but death to those
who don't know Christ. Why is that important to you
and I? Because knowing Christ, first off, knowing sin, we see
what we deserve. And knowing Christ, we see the
grace of God in loving for his people. That's what we come here
for, isn't it? To hear about our Savior. who
loved us and gave himself for us, that he would spend an eternity
with us, praising his name. Praising his name. I'd like to
ask you to turn tonight, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians 2.
And I want to bring three points for you. And I believe these three points
are defined by the word of God. the word of the Most High in
a very clear, clear way. In 2 Thessalonians 2, now the
first point I want to make is a word of peace. Our Lord tells us in Isaiah
40, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. And that's, like I said
a moment ago, that's what we're here for, to be comforted. So
I have a, my first point is the word sanctification. Now, I know
your pastor has pointed, has preached on these words many,
many times, and I've got nothing new to say, but to God's people
who walk through this valley of the shadow of death with everything
going on in the world around us, needing something to satisfy
us, to give us peace in the sin that dwells within us, sanctification
is a word that jumps out. It simply means this, it's a
big word, it means this, it means made holy. Made holy. It means to dedicate something
to holy use. To set it aside for holy use,
to be made holy. Now, to be made holy, would that
not suggest that it wasn't holy before? That's me. That's me. To be made holy means that you
weren't holy before and you had to be made that way. And the
first step in bringing a dead unholy sinner to salvation is
for them to be brought to know the depth of their sin, the depth
of their death, the depth of what you deserve before a thrice
holy God. the depth of our depravity, dead
in trespasses and sin is how the scripture describes it. We
sin because we are sinners by nature. 1 Timothy 1 verse 15 says this,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world Here's our first part of comfort,
to save sinners. He didn't come into the world
to save the righteous. The righteous don't need a savior.
There was a day when every one of us walked in this world thinking
we were pretty righteous. Oh, what a good little boy Johnny
is. And from that moment on, I thought I was okay. Listen to what Paul says after
he tells Timothy that Christ came into the world to save sinners.
He says this, he says, of whom I am chief. Now Paul had been,
he had been regenerated long before this. It wasn't like he
was talking about this before regeneration. God had already
met him on the road to Damascus. God had already blinded him with
the light of Jesus Christ. the truth of God's word. So when Paul says, of whom I
am chief, I can hear every one of God's children saying the
same thing. You noticed I didn't need to
point my finger out there when I talked about sinners. I'm the
one. I don't need to point to anybody
else. I have enough sin in myself to deal with than to worry about
anybody else. I'm here tonight to worship with
you. I need a savior. I hope there's some here tonight
who do as well. I hope there are. If you're not troubled by
your sin, then you don't need a savior. That's a tough thing
to pray for your loved ones, especially those little ones
that we think are so cute. God trouble my children with
sin. God troubled my great-grandchildren
with their sin. Where we came from, folks, is
always before us. David wrote this, he said, my
sin is ever before me. This is a man after God's own
heart. My sin is ever before me. Paul says, of whom I am chief. Folks, that'll never get any
better until the Lord takes us out of this world and we stand
in the presence of the Almighty. I was telling some folks here
the other day, I grew up in a church, I grew up going to, I don't know
what kind of religion it was, they called themselves Baptist,
but I don't know what they preached, Death. I was dead. I never heard
anything. But I do remember some things.
And some of the things I would hear is, you can just do better
if you'll just do this. If you'll just turn yourself
over to God, you'll be so much better. And then I heard a minister
tell me, it doesn't get any better. You got to keep coming back to
him all the time. You don't come to Christ once,
you come to him every single moment. And he was right. I come
to him all the time. I get out of bed, I'm coming
to Christ then. I get up and go to work, I'm
coming to Christ then. I'm taking a shower and all of
a sudden in my mind I go, Lord, forgive me. Forgive those thoughts. Forgive those thoughts of John
Reeve being better than he is. Lord, humble me. Lord, humble me. To be absent from this body is
to be in the presence of the Lord for those that he died for. And as long as we walk in this
life, the spirit will war with the flesh, but that's only to
a quickened spirit. One who's been made alive. One
who was once blind, but now they see. One who the Lord turns the
light on and we see God Almighty in the face of His Son, the Lord
Jesus. You know what that is? That's
being born again. That's what God was talking about to Nicodemus.
You must be born again. The light must be turned on.
That's what I mentioned a moment ago about Paul. The light was
turned on. He saw the glory of God in his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it blinded him to all the things
of the world for a time, didn't it? Listen to these words from
John chapter three, verse three. Jesus answered and said unto
him, speaking in Nicodemus, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth." Who's in control of the wind?
God. He's in control of everything.
We can't see where it's coming from. You folks have had a lot
of wind around here lately, haven't you? I've seen broken trees all
along the freeway coming over here. I was just like, wow, it
just snapped. That one snapped in half. What happened to that?
But can't not tell whence it cometh. Thou hearest the sound
thereof, but can't not tell where it cometh and where thereof goeth.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit. That's grace. Notice who's doing the saving.
Salvation is of the Lord. Are you with me in 2 Thessalonians? The Spirit of God has set a people
apart, sanctified them, made them holy to be the recipients
of his grace, and this was done before the world was ever created.
Look here with me at verse, I gotta get there first, don't I? Sorry about that. There's my
marker. Look at verse 13, if you would.
2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Now I want to stop there for
just a moment. Beloved of the Lord. You know, the world loves
to say this, Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. I thought about
this after the Lord called me out of darkness. I thought, well,
scripture says that he doesn't love everybody. Does he love me? Does Christ love me? Loved of God. If you loved your
child, would you let them run down into
the street? If you could stop them, wouldn't
you run down and stop them? Well, why would anybody think
less of God? If he loved the whole world,
wouldn't the whole world be saved? But we know that's not true,
don't we? In Ephesians chapter two, it says you're saved by
grace. Not of works. A gift of God,
not of works, lest men should boast. We are saved by grace. God doesn't love everybody. He
says, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Our Lord says
here, he inspired Paul to write these words. He says, beloved
of the Lord. So he's speaking to a specific
people. He says, because, and now he's gonna tell us why you
are loved of the Lord. Because God hath from the beginning. That means before anything was
ever created. I want you to think about this
for a minute. Consider these words. Consider this just for
a second. From the beginning, God has loved a people. If he's
loved that people from the beginning, could it not be also true that
everything that was created, everything that has happened,
every single thing that's happened in history is so that those loved
people would come to him? That's hard to think about, isn't
it? 9-11. Did you know that 9-11
was purposed by our God? Just as everything is purposed
by our God. He rules it all, folks. He either
controls every speck of dust, every breath that we take, or
he's not God. That was another thing that I
learned quite quickly that I didn't hear in the other churches. The
God that this man is speaking about in this Bible controls
it all. Nothing can stay his hand. You
know why that's good news to a sinner? Because a sinner knows
that they can mess it up pretty quick. Pastor Gene once asked
me to go and change the toilet out. I said, brother, I'm not
very good at those kind of things. I can drive a truck really well.
I can back it up. I can park it. I can load it.
I can take it down the road. But every time, I just told you
a little bit ago, Every time I try to do something in construction,
I have to pay somebody else to come in and fix it afterwards.
He says, John, just go do it. Sure enough, I broke a bolt.
It's still broken to this day. Thankfully, the other one's tight
enough that the person sitting there doesn't have to worry about
it. And they all know it's broken, so they're One of our greatest comforts
in this world to a sinner is to know that Christ has worked
it all out, every single bit of it. Salvation is of the Lord,
period. If John had anything to do with
it, it would get messed up. It'd get broken. I'd break a
bolt. I'd do something wrong. Salvation is of the Lord. So
we see here back in our text of this verse 13 of Thessalonians
chapter 2, we were chosen. He had chosen you from the beginning
to something. What? To salvation. Great news to a sinner. Awesome
news to a sinner. Wait a minute. You mean I'm not
gonna get what I deserve? No Why? Because Christ took it
for me. That's why Somebody once said
that you could sum up the gospel in one word in that substitution
the scapegoat Our Lord laid down his life And as God, the very
God that I was just describing to you a moment ago, the one
who works it all out according to his purpose, if he lays down
his life, is it not gonna accomplish what he laid his life down to
do? He says there, you were chosen. You were elected. You were predestinated. You were chosen unto salvation
through what? Sanctification. sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. We were set apart by the spirit
from all creation to be made holy, to be made and without
blame, as it says in Ephesians chapter one, without blame before
him. You know, let me read that for
you. I think I have that on my next page of notes here. I think
I do. Right there. Yep. Ephesians 1 verse 4, according
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. See how good the news gets for
a sinner? Right there. holy and without blame. But did you notice that this
setting apart, this being made holy was not an act of man? It
wasn't like that religion that I'd heard all my life. If you'll
just turn yourself over to God, if you'll just come down here
to the front and pray the little prayer, if you'll just get into
the waters of baptism and do that, if you'll worship on Saturday,
And they could say whatever they wanted to say, if you'll, if
you'll, if you'll, and it meant nothing until the Lord told me
that I could do nothing about it. Do you know if God left me right
now to myself, I'd go right back to what I was before. I'd go right back to it. thinking
more highly of myself than I really am. You know, one of the things
that I love most about your pastor, he's one of the most humbled
men I've ever met. And I know it's not because of
anything he's done. I know it's because God has humbled
him. And you can see it. You can see it. It has nothing
to do with us, this sanctification. We can't do it to ourselves.
Every time we try to do something, we just mess it up. We're mixed. We have so much
sin in us, from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet,
that everything we do is tainted with it, even our good works. Paul himself says this, he says,
I can't do, and I'm paraphrasing it, I can't do what is good,
and when I do good, it's still full of sin. No, we can't do anything about
this. Salvation is of the Lord and the Lord alone. Turn over
to Hebrews chapter 10 for just a moment. I'll try not to bounce
around too much between verses. Look over at Hebrews chapter
10 with me for a couple of verses over there. Hebrews 10, beginning at verse
10, we read these words. By the which will, by what which
will? Well, back up to verse nine.
Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second by the which will we are sanctified,
set apart, made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of
God." You know, I don't understand why the Jews want to start taking
up sacrifices again. We see right here in God's Word,
just as clear and plain as can be, they must take that New Testament
and totally throw it out, not even read it. Because it says
here, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins,
sat down forever at the right hand of God. It's done. It's
finished. Those for whom God died were
made righteous in his son, the Lord Jesus. Look at verse 13,
from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,
for by one offering, verse 14, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Set apart. Can the dead do anything? Could
Lazarus get up and say, I'm coming, Lord? If it hadn't been God doing
something in his heart, doing something to wake him up, doing
something to give him life, he was dead. And to prove that he
was dead, he had been in the grave for four days. His body
had begun to stinketh. Lazarus could not make a decision
to live. God had to give him life. He
was wrapped in his clothing, in his burial clothing. Yet he
came to the Lord. You ever think about that? That's
pretty amazing stuff. You talk about a miracle. Here
comes a dead guy, and he's still wrapped in his burial clothing.
That's completely all the way around, all the way down to his
feet. Then the Lord said, loose him. Take him off. Cut him off. Let him go. He came forth when the God of
all creation called, when the Spirit gave him life, that he
would hear the irresistible, effectual calling of the Lord
Jesus. And that's exactly where you
and I were when the Lord called us dead in trespasses and sin. But how then were we made holy? And that brings me to my second
point, justification, another word that brings comfort to God's
people. Not only were we called, not
only were we made holy, not only were we made righteous by the
one who knew no sin, that was made sin for us, that we would
be made the righteousness of God in him. How? How was that done? And there's a word that describes
that, it's called justification. Sin cannot be in the presence
of the Most High. He who is holy cannot even look
upon sin. It must be punished. His justice
must be satisfied. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. Hebrews 9 verse 22, and without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Turn over to Romans chapter three,
if you would. The sin-tainted blood of man
can never wash away our sins. Men will spend an eternity trying
to wipe away their own sin, and it won't cleanse one spot, not
one. The justice of God must be met,
and it must be met perfectly, for he is perfect and holy. An imperfect man cannot do it.
So how then? How can one be made holy? How
can one be justified before a thrice holy God? Look at verse 23, if
you would, with me at Romans chapter three. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Do you know that's what
the mark of the beast is? 666. Perfection is 777. 666 comes up short of 777. That's what this is telling us
right here. Being justified freely for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Even your goodness is mixed with
sin. That's what Paul was saying.
And come short of the glory of God. Verse 24, and being justified
freely by his grace. How are we saved? By grace you
are saved through faith, through belief, believing the Lord's
Word. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is the boasting
then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, nay, but by the
law of faith. Therefore we conclude that man
is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. We are justified by faith in
him. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
justification. We don't put any trust in our
faith, we don't put any trust in our works, in what is in this
flesh, but in whom our faith looks to. That's why your faith
can be as small as a mustard seed. That's why your faith can
be so weak. And yet it is who your faith
is in. We trust him and him alone. We
turn it all over to him. We have no confidence in our
own flesh. Look over Philippians 3, 3, if
you would. Philippians 3, 3, just after
Ephesians. In Philippians chapter three,
we read these words in verse three. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. That's everything, folks. That's
our thoughts. I don't have any confidence in
the strength of my faith. My confidence is in the one my
faith is in. It's in Him. It's in the Lord
Jesus, God Almighty in the flesh. He is our justification. Our
sins were laid upon Him. He who knew no sin was made sin
that we might be made the righteous of God in Him. Look over at Acts
13 with me, a couple of verses over there, Acts 13. Look at verse 38, Acts 13, verse
38. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified
from all things from which ye could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Our Lord bore our sins in his
own body. He took our sins into the grave.
He is the just and the justifier that we read in Romans chapter
three of him which believe in Jesus. He paid the debt of our
sins, the sins that were laid upon him. He is our mercy seat. Verse 24 tells us there, What did I do? I got lost there.
It was Acts 13, wasn't it? I'm going to go on. We were justified
freely at no cost to us, but what cost was it to the Son of
God? He who is God was manifest in the flesh. He humbled himself.
He set his glory aside. Did you know the Lord Jesus got
down on his knees? He took his own clothes off.
This is the majesty. This is the glory of God. His
son, the Lord Jesus, took his clothes off, got down on his
knees, and washed the feet of his disciples. Does that boggle anybody's mind?
Did me. For the first time in my life,
I'm hearing about one who deserves to be called God and he gets
down on his knees and washes the feet of his creation. What
a wonderful God. What an amazing God, what a merciful
God. The very ones who deserved His
wrath. Why would He do that? Because
He took His own wrath on Himself for them. That's the love of
God. Remember I talked about, would
you let your child go play in the street? Christ isn't gonna
let any of His people go. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And he came to do what? Started
the whole message with this. He came to save sinners. I see heads bobbing up and down.
That tells me there's some sinners here thinking to themselves,
I'm so glad to hear this. Needed to hear this after working
in the world all week long. After going to school with all
the kids around me all week long, I need to hear about this savior.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, God purposed to save a people unto himself,
and if God purposes it, can anything deter his purpose? We have a sign over the walkway
at our church. Brother Mike Loveless, one of
our artists in our congregation, he made a sign. I don't know
how he got the thought, but it says, If your God is trying, your preacher
is lying. Come hear the truth. If God has purposed it, can anything
deter his purpose? If anybody says yes, even your
own will, then your God's not no God at
all. If so, you could not call him God. But we're talking about
the God of scriptures. Not a little God who is waiting
or wanting, but the almighty, the all-powerful. All power in
heaven and earth and under the earth are his to rule. Who or
what can stay his hand? Turn over to John chapter 17,
and I'll try to bring this to a close here in a moment. And
while you're turning there, allow me to read Romans 8, verse 29
and 30. For whom he did foreknow, we
talked about that, those that he knew from before the world
was, those that he had determined to say before the world was,
from whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to become
to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, not only that, but
whom he did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called
them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified. That brings me to my last point,
glorification. If there's no confidence, if
there's no righteousness in our flesh, how is it we are glorified? What in us could deserve any
glory? Colossians 1 verse 27 tells us
plain and clear, Christ in us, the hope of glory. Our glory is not in what we do.
Our glory is not in what we are. Our glory is not in anything
that we have that is in this flesh, but what is in our spirit. It's a heart matter. Salvation
is a heart matter. We're all going to get rid of
these bodies one of these days. One of these days either we're
gonna go into the ground and become dust or the Lord's gonna
return and we'll change in the twinkling of an eye, he says. Our glory is in him, Christ who
dwelleth in us. Have you noticed people say you've
changed? Have you noticed in your conversation
that Well, let me give you an example of it. Kathy and I came
to know the Lord at different times, five years later. And
during that five years, we were riding our motorcycles up in
Canada, in what's called the ice fields. And there's a just,
if you've ever been to something that God has created, Yosemite,
I don't know, pick anything you want, Yellowstone, Yosemite,
anything, the ocean. And you just looked at it and
you said, or the clouds, wow, look what God's created here.
The body, isn't it amazing? And you sit there and you thought
to yourself, look what God's created here.
Well, I was, we stopped and we were looking at the ice wall. There's a thousand foot thick
ice shelf on top of a 2000 foot cliff. So you've got the rock
cliff, and then you've got a deep turquoise blue another 1,000
feet above that. And it's just amazing. And I
said, wow, look what God's made. She understands it now. She didn't
then. The point is this, that those
around us know the difference. All of a sudden, we're giving
him all the glory for everything. The scriptures you read, he that
glorious, glory in the Lord. That becomes part of our life. And people around us know it.
What is my glorification? It's nothing in his flesh. It's
the Lord I serve, the one who gave himself the one who made
me sanctified, the one who justified me before God, the one who redeemed
me to God Almighty. My children know who my God is. Tell them all the time, see what
God has made. See what he has done? We glory in him, just as
we see in the words of 2 Corinthians 10 verse 17, but he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. When you hear one speak as yourself,
ask yourself this question, who is glorified? And the answer
will reveal who their Lord is. I made a decision. I walked the
aisle. I gave myself to the Lord. Where
is the glory in those words? It's in the man. But when you
hear a man speak of these words, God became a man to save his
people. And I am so undeserving of it,
yet he is merciful and gracious to me. Where's the glory there? It's all to him, is it not? The very God-man that laid down
his life, when you hear one speak about that, is it all about you
or is it about him? I'm washed in his blood and his
blood alone. The very God-man that took it
up again because he is God. The very God-man that is sitting
on his throne right now, ruling as he will, saving whom he will.
Did you know every time the Lord spoke of his death in scriptures,
every single time he spoke about being risen the third day. Where is the glory in the words
of I? There is none. Do you see your
glorification in Him, in Him alone? It's in Him just as all
things are in Him, of Him, and for Him. All glory is His and
He will not share it with another. Are you with me in John chapter
17? Let's read a couple of verses here and then we'll bring this
to an end. Look with me if you would at verse eight. Our Lord
speaking, praying to God the Father on behalf of his people
says this, for I have given unto them the words that thou hast
given me, that thou gavest me, and they have received them and
have known surely that I have come out from thee. that they
have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them, I pray
not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for
they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine,
and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are one. Now look over, if you would,
at verse 20. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word,
that they may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou gavest me I
have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. Folks, sanctification is in Christ. We are made holy in him. Justification
is in Christ. The justice of God was met by
him. God provided himself a sacrifice
and he was satisfied with that sacrifice. That's why Christ
is sitting on his throne today. Glorification is in Christ, Jesus
the Lord. We give him all the glory, the
glory in calling us, the glory in saving us, and we give him
the glory in keeping us.