Good morning. As you find your
seats, we'll open this morning's hymn, this morning's service
with Hymn 21 out of the spiral-bound hymnal. And let's stand together,
please. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast, God my Father chose His own in the person
of His Son, and ordained that I should be one with him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. God's holy law and retrieve me
from the fall. Christ in love so willingly stood
as my great surety. For my price he offered blood
to appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and He brings us to the Lamb. By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Be seated, please. Good morning. I do love that
hymn. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to 2 Thessalonians, we're going to be in chapter 3 this
morning. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. The Bible speaks of two covenants.
We just sang of the covenant of grace. And then there is the
covenant of works. The glorious mystery is that
the covenant of grace is infinitely older than the covenant of works.
The covenant of grace goes all the way back to What we're just
saying, eternity passed, and God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit promised to one another to save a people. That's the covenant of grace.
The covenant of works is what God gave to Adam when he required
obedience of him lest he die. Adam wasn't able to keep that
covenant. You and I can't keep that covenant. We are dependent
on the covenant of grace for all of our salvation. The difference
is the covenant of works goes something like this. If you believe,
God will save you. The covenant of grace says God
has saved you and you will believe. The covenant of works goes something
like this. If you repent, God will forgive
you. The covenant of grace goes like this. God has forgiven you
in Christ and you will repent. He's gonna make sure of it. The
covenant of works goes something like this. If you serve God,
he'll bless you. The covenant of grace says he
has blessed us and we will serve him. What a difference. It's a difference between life
and death. It's a difference between Eternal judgment and
eternal life. Could not be anything more necessary
than for the Lord to give sinners grace. And that's our hope this
morning when we come together that the Lord will reveal Christ
to us and cause us to flee in faith to him and cling to him
for all the hope of our salvation. And that we will be free from
the rigors and the curse of the law. Can't keep it, can't keep
it. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our merciful heavenly Father,
thank you for that sure promise that you
made to your son, that he made to you, that the Holy Spirit
entered into, and the fulfillment of that promise now, as you give
faith to your elect, cause them to see their redemption in thy
dear son. Lord, we pray that you'd be pleased
this hour to bless your word by your spirit, Forgive us for
our unbelief. Cause us, Lord, to find our rest,
our hope, our strength, our joy, and all of our salvation in the
glorious person and accomplished work of thy dear son. For it's
in his name we ask it. Amen. What a wonderful blessing it's
been to studied these letters to the church at Thessalonica
and this morning we're going to come to the end of the second
epistle that the Apostle Paul wrote to this little persecuted
band of believers that were in a city called Thessalonica. I
hope and pray that the Lord has been pleased to not just give
us some eyes to look back at a historical event, but that
he has given us eyes of faith to look to Christ and to see
ourselves in this church. I suppose that we could say that
the theme to these letters is found in chapter one at verse
seven of 2 Thessalonians, when Paul says, to you who are troubled,
rest with us. These believers were troubled.
They were persecuted. They were troubled by their own
flesh. And now in the end of this second
letter, he's going to expose some troubles that were going
on in the church. And the solution to all of our
troubles is to find our rest in Christ. It's the very simple
answer to every problem, but it's an impossible thing to do
apart from God's grace. Looking to Christ, resting in
Christ. It's the one thing needful and
it's the one thing effectual in giving God's people who are
troubled rest. And yet it is the one thing that
they cannot do. They cannot do. They're completely
dependent upon the Lord's mercy and grace enabling them to rest. to open their eyes and to reveal
Christ to them and enable them to come in faith to Him and rest. Oh, how hopeful we are that the
Holy Spirit will be pleased this morning to bless His Word. Wonderful
words of encouragement to those whose spirit is willing but whose
flesh is weak. Does that describe you? If God's
given you faith in Christ, I know you have a willing spirit. I
know that you can say with the Apostle Paul, to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. I
have this man of sin, this man of death that's always about
me and wearying my soul. He's wearying my soul. And so
Paul closes this letter, notice with me in verse 13 of chapter
three. But you, brethren, be not weary
in well-doing. Oh, I need to hear those words. How quickly in our struggle to
be faithful, we find ourselves wearying. We find this word weary
is most often translated in the New Testament, faint. We find
ourselves fainting and how we need a word from God to admonish
us, to encourage us, to speak hope to our hearts. You brethren,
be not weary in well-doing. How we want to be able to say
with the Apostle Paul, I have fought a good fight. At the end
of our lives, I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge shall
give unto me, and not me only, but all those who love his appearing. Lord, don't let me be weary in
loving the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. how prone I am
to wander, how prone I am to leave the God that I love. Lord, I need, I need this word,
be not weary, be not weary in well-doing. What we're doing
right now is well-doing. We're come together to worship
God and yet Oftentimes we find ourselves
sitting here in our bodies and our minds being somewhere else.
Is that not your experience? We want to worship God as we
ought but we find it so difficult. We want to pray as we ought but
we find ourselves like those disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane
when prayer was most needful. And the Lord came back and said,
could you not pray with me for one hour? And that's when he
said, the flesh is weak. Spirit's willing, but the flesh
is weak. Watch, watch. How we desire to resist temptation, but how Easy it is for us to
succumb to it. And so our Lord says, you brethren, be not weary in
well-doing. We have so many examples in the
scriptures of believers getting weary. I already mentioned one,
the apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was late, they'd
eaten dinner, they were tired. They needed to be in prayer with
our Lord. Pray with me, pray with me. Oh,
it was his darkest hour. And they kept falling asleep.
Why? Because they were weary. Their
bodies were weary, their minds were weary. They had taken in
so much that night. There was so much more left to
do. They were tired. Elijah, after that wonderful
experience on Mount Carmel and the destruction of the prophets
of Baal, had Jezebel after him and he was weary. And he ran
back to the mountain of the law, and he asked God to kill him.
Lord, just kill me. He said, I'm the only one left.
I'm the only one that's serving you. I'm the only one that's
been faithful. What did the Lord say to Elijah?
Oh, Elijah, I have 7,000 men in Israel who have not bowed
the knee to Baal. You're not alone in this. You're
not alone in this. I know you feel alone. easily that spirit of loneliness,
thinking that no one really understands, no one's experiencing what I'm
experiencing, just accentuates our weariness, doesn't it? Accentuates
our thoughts of just giving up. The Lord said, there hath no
temptation taken you, but such as is common to men. God is faithful. God is faithful. He will not
suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but
will with these trials, with these temptations, provide the
way of escape that you might be able to bear it. The Lord
didn't say, I'm not gonna put more on you than you can bear.
If he didn't put more on us than we could bear, we would never
need him. He said, I'm gonna provide in that weight, in that
trouble, in that weariness, the way of escape. And we're gonna
see from Hebrews chapter 12 that the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is that way of escape. He's the one thing needful in
our time of weariness. Wednesday night, we looked at
the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 21. Paul had already written
the book of Romans and the book of Galatians, which is the clearest,
the clearest declaration of how the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled
the law. And yet in Acts chapter 21, he
had been accused so often of being lawless. and he finds himself
back in Jerusalem amongst the other disciples. And they're
accusing him of being lawless. And in his weariness of these
accusations, he agrees to take a Nazarite vow, which was an
Old Testament law that Christ had already fulfilled. But he
was so weary. of the accusations that were
being made, that he agreed to do it. He knew better. God stopped him. He wasn't able to fulfill that
commitment that he made. A riot broke out and he got arrested. But you see his weariness. Oh, these accusations are not
true. You're accusing me of being an
antinomian. You're accusing me of being lawless.
And so he wants to prove to them that he's not. And he does the
very thing that he knew he shouldn't have done. Why? Because he was weary. Jacob, 130 years old. Joseph's gone. He assumes that he's dead. And
his sons come to him and say, we've got to take Benjamin. We've
got to take Benjamin back to Egypt. Or this man, who was Joseph,
is not going to let us have anything if we don't take Benjamin back.
And what did Jacob say? Jacob said, after walking with
God for 130 years, Jacob said, all these things are against
me. He said, everything's piling up against me. I said, Joseph's
gone and now you want to take Benjamin and I, and Jacob's going to die at 147,
17 years later. And the best 17 years of Jacob's life was when he was
the father of the Prime Minister of the
most powerful country in the world living in the land of Goshen.
He didn't know that, he couldn't see that. He was so tired, he'd
suffered so many disappointments. Turn to me to, I want you to
see how this is common among believers to be weary. Let's don't pretend that we don't
Get weary. Turn with me to Psalm 73. Psalm
73. I want you to see David of all
men. Psalm 73, look at verse two.
But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. I see these unbelievers
living their lives. They're not in a conflict in
their lives. They're not wearying over their
flesh. They're just living their lives,
happy go lucky. They don't go through the struggles
I go through. Why can't I be like that? Look
at verse four. For there are no bands in their
death, but their strength is firm. I live every day in the reality
of death. And in every day, I find myself
having to call out and seek the Lord's mercy and grace. reminded
of my own sinfulness and my own worthiness to be condemned to
hell. And I understand the gravity
of this thing called death. But the unbeliever doesn't live
that way. They don't think about it. They just go about, look what
he says, there's no bands in their death. Their strength is
firm. They don't live with this weary
struggle between the flesh and the spirit. They're not in trouble as other
men, neither are they plagued. And notice the word other is
not there. David's saying they're not in trouble like I am. They're
not plagued like I am. They don't have this struggle
between the spirit and the flesh like I have. Therefore, pride can pass them
about as a chain, violence covers them as a garment. Go, move down
with me to verse 13. Verily, I've cleansed
my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency. For all the
day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. You see why God says to his children,
but you brethren, he's not talking to the unbeliever, he's talking
to the brethren, but you brethren, be not weary in well-doing. Don't quit, don't give up, don't
give in. I know that I want you to notice
something. We're preaching right now. and I'm identifying with
you, I experienced this, but these are not the struggles in
detail that we need to be sharing with one another. We don't need
to be pulling each other down into our, not only will it be a discouragement
to your brother if you start sharing with him in detail what
some of the struggles are that you have, But the biggest problem
is they can't help you. They can't help you. Men love to use other men as
a priest. Priestcraft is very popular among
men in religion. Well, I'll just, you know, get
it off my chest. I'll confess my sins to you.
Don't do that. It's not gonna help you. That's
a false sense of relief if you think that by sharing your sins
with someone else, that that's helped you. Look what David says, verse 15. If I say, I will speak thus,
behold, I should offend against the generations of thy children.
If I If I share these struggles one-on-one with someone and expose
to them my dirty laundry, all it's going to do is be a stumbling
block to them. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me. I didn't have any place to go.
Who do I share this with? Who do I confess this struggle
with? And the answer is in the next
verse. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood
I their end. And in understanding their end,
I understood my end. But I took it to the Lord. I
took it to him. He's the only one that can help
me. Be not weary in well-doing. Go back with me to our text. Let's read quickly these verses
together to understand this verse in the context of what the Lord
is saying to the church. Verse six, now we commend you
brethren in the name, we command you brethren in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourself from every brother that
walketh disorderly and not after the traditions which you received
of us. For yourselves know how you ought
to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you,
neither do we eat any man's bread, for not but wrought with labor
and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to
any of you, not because we have no power, but in order to make
ourselves an example unto you to follow us." Now, Paul's saying,
I've heard that there are those amongst you who are being disorderly,
and they're being idle. They're not working, they've
become weary in well-doing and they're taking advantage of the
graces and the kindness of the other believers. Paul said, when I was among you,
I could have required you to support me full time. That's
what God, but I didn't do it. He was a tent maker by profession,
he said, I worked on the side so that you would not, I did
it as an example to you. Verse 10, for even when we were
with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither
should he eat. Now there's God's welfare system
right there. If a man's not able to work,
that's one thing. Person's not able, We ought to
gather together and do what we can to help them. But I think
about that woman who broke open the alabaster jar and what the
Lord said about her, he said, she did what she could. She did
what she could. And that's what the Lord's saying,
do what you can. And if a man's able to work and
he doesn't work, he ought not to eat. For we hear that there are some
which walk among you disorderly, working not at all but are busybodies."
Oh, they're sowing discord among the brethren. Instead of being
responsible and working and providing for themselves, they're just
causing problems in the church. Now them that are such we command
and exhort by the Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they
work and eat of their own bread. Mind your own business and work. You know, you think about it,
work was given to Adam in the garden before the fall. Now I
know that there's a weariness in work now as a result of sin.
We labor by the sweat of our brow and we find thorns and thistles
in our labor. But work was given to Adam to
tend the garden before the fall. Work's a blessing from God. What
the Lord's saying is don't be weary in being responsible. You know how difficult it is
to get up and go to work every day. But there's no reason for that
to be going on in the church. But you brethren, you see the
context now, but you brethren, be not weary in well-doing. And
if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man
and have no company with him that he may be ashamed. A believer,
let me ask you this, how many times have you said something
you shouldn't have said and you were met with silence on the
other end. And that person's silence rebuked
you and corrected you more than they had tried to speak a word
of rebuke to you. Whether they had tried to correct
you and gotten in a confrontation with you over something you said,
they just didn't say a word. What am I saying? That's probably
the best response that we should have to one another because we've
all said things we shouldn't say. We've all, rather than hiding
a matter of the brethren, we've exposed it, which we shouldn't
have done. Let us meet one another with silence when that happens. And what'll happen was the believers
will become ashamed and they'll be corrected by that silence. That's all the Lord's saying
here, that he may be ashamed. Don't engage in that. Don't be
a part of that. We've all done it. We've all
done it. Oh, how fragile the local assembly
is. You know, the Bible speaks of
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in two places. Not two places in the Bible,
but the church exists in two places. There's the eternal church,
the invisible church, all of God's elect chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Not one can be added to
that church, not one can be taken away from that church. That church
is perfect in Christ and that church will be gathered together
in its entirety one day in glory. That's the Lamb's book of life. That's God's God's church role
in heaven, we can't see it. And then there's the local church.
And the local church is, the local assembly is so different
from the eternal church in many ways. First of all, there's tares
among the weak. There's unbelievers in the local
assembly. And then those who are believers
remain sinful. The church, the local assembly
is very fragile and it's not eternal, it's temporal. They
don't last long. The local churches don't last
long. God raises them up for a little
while and then they're gone. When you look at it in the large
picture. What am I saying? Brethren, well-doing
is protecting the fragile state of the church. God is rebuking
these men in the church who are disorderly, and they are idle,
and they are busybodies, and what's God saying? But you, brother,
but you, brother, you don't be weary in well-doing. The well-doing that you can do
is protect and value the local assembly, that it be not, in
every letter that Paul wrote, he addresses every church with
these schisms that take place. It's common. Lord, don't let
me be a part of it. Don't be weary in well-doing. Verse 15, this is important.
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all
means, the Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with my
own hand, which is the token of in every epistle. So I write
what Paul's saying there in verse 17 is, there were letters being
circulated amongst the churches that were counterfeits. And they were saying that the
apostle Paul wrote this letter and they hadn't. Paul opens this
letter by saying, you know, don't believe all these letters that
are going around. Because when I send you a letter, Paul had
a very distinctive signature that he used at the end of his
letters. And that's all he's saying. This
is my own, I'm signing this letter in my own hand. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Let us not be weary in worship, in prayer, in seeking
the Lord. These are all well-doing. Let
me show you, turn with me to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter
18. I think it was Martin Luther
that made this quote when he said that prayer is not overcoming
God's reluctance, it is laying hold of God's willingness. Prayer is not overcoming God's
reluctance, it is laying hold of God's willingness. And yet
prayer is a labor that we get weary in doing, don't we? We
do. And that quote from Martin Luther
is important because I have heard people take Luke chapter 18 and
think that the Lord is likening himself to this unjust judge. But in fact, he's contrasting
himself to this unjust judge. He's saying that if an unjust
judge is gonna finally give in to the pleas of this woman, how
much more your heavenly father who loves you and desires only
that which is good for you. In other words, if this woman
was persistent in seeking relief from this unjust judge, how much
more we should be persistent in going before our Heavenly
Father because prayer is not, it's not overcoming the reluctance
of God, it is taking hold of his loving willingness. Now let's
read this together, look. Look at chapter 18, verse one.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always
to pray and not faint. The word faint is the same word
that's used in our text, weary. So the Lord's saying men ought
always to pray and not faint. The Lord doesn't answer your
prayer the way you want it, don't quit. No way. Prayer is not for the purpose
of changing God, it's for the purpose of changing us. And it's
in the process of prayer that the Lord sets our hearts and
prepares them for the answer that he has for that prayer. So the Lord saying, keep asking,
keep knocking, keep seeking, don't stop. There was in a city a judge which
feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a woman in
that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine
adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterwards he said within
himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this
widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming
she weary me. The Lord's not likening himself
to this unjust judge, he's contrasting himself to this unjust judge. And the Lord said, hear what
the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his own elect
which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with
them? I tell you that He will avenge
them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man cometh, shall He find faith in the earth?" I think about
that verse all the time. When the Son of Man cometh, is
He going to find faith in the earth? As it was in the days
of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son
of Man. When destruction came, there were only eight that were
saved. Lord, I don't know. where you're gonna find faith
in the earth, but I need you to find it in my heart. Lord,
if I'm gonna have faith when you come, you're gonna have to
give it to me. I'll be weary, I'll quit, I'll follow after
my flesh. Oh Lord, keep me, keep me. What is the means by which the
Lord keeps us? Well, turn with me to Hebrews
chapter four. There's lots of passages we could
look at that speak of not fainting. Don't faint
in worship. Don't faint in prayer. Don't
faint in the ministry of the needs of the brethren. Seek to
do good unto all men, especially those of the household of faith.
It's a labor. It's a labor to give yourself
in the needs of your brethren. We're all so selfish by nature
and yet the Lord said don't be weary in well-doing, this is
a good work, it's a good work. So how do I overcome this temptation
to be weary? In Hebrews chapter 11 the Lord
tells us about some saints in the Old Testament. And if you
go back and read the account of their lives, you'll find that
every one of them got weary. Every one of them were on the
verge of quitting. Every one of them did things
that were shameful. They were men of like passion,
just like me and you. And their lives in so many ways
were a mess. But when the Lord presents them,
In Hebrews chapter 11, none of those things are mentioned. None
of them. All that's revealed about them
is their faith. They believed God. And the Lord's
taking notice. All those other inconsistencies
of their lives, all those other weary things were covered by
the blood of Christ. What was held up? The fact that
they did not become weary and well, in other words, they didn't
quit. They were faithful to the end. God gave them that faith. God gave them that strength.
And now the Lord's using them as an example for me and you
who become weary and well doing. And look what he says in Hebrews
chapter 12 at verse one. Wherefore, wherefore, in light
of the fact that we have all these examples in the Old Testament. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset
us." What is the sin that doth so easily beset us? Weariness,
unbelief, unbelief, that's the That's the sin that besets us. And let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. And here's the answer, brethren.
Here it is. And it's always the answer. It's
the simple answer. It's the clear answer. It's the
indisputable answer. And yet it is the impossible
answer. For you and I cannot do this
apart from the grace of God, looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of, notice the word our is in italics. Yes, he's the author and the
finisher of our faith, but he's the author and finisher of faith.
If we're gonna have faith, we're gonna have to look to the faithful
one. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that authored that
faith as our surety in the covenant of grace. He's the one that will
keep that faith faithful to the end. And so in our weariness,
the Lord's solution is very clear and very simple. Look to Christ.
Look to Christ. He didn't give up. Oh. who, for the joy that was set
before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God. We have an advocate
with the Father. My little children, I write these
things unto you that you send not, but if any man send, we
have an advocate. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. We have one seated at the
right hand of God. Look to him. Look to Him in all
of your weariness and all of your, He is the way of escape
that we may be able to bear it. There's no other solution. It's
not a matter of, you know, try harder, grit your teeth, pull
yourself up by your bootstraps, you know, do something, you know,
step up your religious activity. You know, sure we ought to pray
more, sure we ought to have private worship and be more faithful
in public worship. But it's looking to Christ, it's
looking to Christ and how faithful he was, how perfect he was and
how able he is to fill these earthen vessels
with a treasure that the power might be of God and not of us.
Paul said, when I'm weak, then I'm strong, for his strength
is made perfect in my weakness. Here we are, here we are. For consider him that endured,
verse three, such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. You've not yet been put to death
for your faith. That's what that next verse means.
You've not yet suffered unto blood. You haven't had someone take
you and burn you at the stake yet. And so as difficult and
weary as you might be, the Lord knows He's the one that suffered
weariness right up to the shedding of His blood, that He might keep
us and enable us in our time of need, in our time of need
with His grace. Amen. Brethren, brethren, you,
be not weary in well-doing. Look to Christ. All right, let's take a break.