Why don't we turn in our scriptures
to 2 Thessalonians. I want to speak tonight on verse
16, but I think the thing that's
always wonderful in the scriptures is to put it into the context.
If you actually look back at the context of what the Thessalonians
have been going through, as we've been looking at, you'll see why
why this prayer of Paul's is so precious. It says now, verse
16, now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all
means. The Lord be with you all. And then Paul signs the letter
with his own hand, which is the token in all of his epistles.
And the reason he does so is to verify the fact that this
is the genuine article of his, not the forged ones. And then
he finishes with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all. Amen. But let's go back to verse
1. He actually, in verse 15 of chapter 2, he says to the brethren,
you stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught. Whether
by word or our epistle, now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and
God, even our Father, which has loved us and has given us everlasting
consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your heart and
establish you in every good word and work. Finally, brethren,
pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course
and be glorified, even as it is with you. And that we may
be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have
not faith, but the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep
you from evil. And we have confidence in the
Lord touching you, that you both do and will do the things which
we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts
into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Now we command you, brethren,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves
from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the
tradition which you received of us. For you yourselves know
how you ought to follow us, for we behaved not ourselves disorderly
among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but
wrought with labour and travail night and day that we might not
be chargeable to any of you. Not because we have not power,
but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us. For even
when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would
not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some
which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such We command
and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they
work and eat their own bread. 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. Yet count him not as an enemy,
but admonish him as a brother. And in that situation, where
they're called to stand fast, they're called to withdraw themselves,
to have no company with others, to stand in the midst of opposition
from outside and from inside. It's remarkable, isn't it, that
Paul, after having written to them, he now expresses this prayer,
Well, it's a great word, isn't it? Peace. The Lord of Peace. Paul, in the
midst of the trials that the Thessalonians are going through,
appeals to them to ponder their God as a God of peace in 5.23
of the previous Epistle, he says, the God of
peace himself sanctify you wholly and I pray God that your whole
spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a remarkable word peace
is. What a remarkable, remarkable gift of God. It is just the most wonderful
thing, isn't it? It is the grand object of the
Gospel. In fact, in Ephesians 2 the phrase
is, He is our peace. In a world of trouble, He is
our peace. Our peace, He is our reconciliation. He is the one that brings peace
from God. He's made peace. He's the King
of Salem and He's the King of peace, according to Hebrews.
Paul says in Philippians 4, he says, the peace of God which
passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. the God of peace, Hebrews 13,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant. make you perfect. It's remarkable, isn't it? The
God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work, in every good
work, to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in His sight through Jesus Christ. to whom be glory forever and
ever." This world talks much of peace, but the peace of God,
the peace of God that passes all understanding, the peace
of God that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ and flows into the
hearts of God's people is a remarkable thing. And peace, of course,
presupposes that there is a situation of trouble. and anxiety. And so often we find ourselves
lacking peace because we actually bring the things from the past
into our lives and we think about them. And what on earth can they
do to us now? It's finished. You forget what's
behind and you think about the things that are here and into
the future. And so often our peace is to
us taking the things of the future and bringing them into our lives
now. And so fragile is our peace that
this blessing, this prayer of Paul's is very, very real. It's interesting how the Lord
gives you lessons that you I've been looking at this for some
days now and I felt like the most unbelievable hypocrite there. I was sitting down trying to
write about the peace of God and study it from the scriptures
and yet we had a situation on the farm that was just extraordinarily
troubling and I was just so anxious and I thought, you're a hypocrite,
here you are, you're trying to write about the peace of God.
And eventually, in desperation yesterday, I was working here
in the library to sort of get away from it all. I said to the
Lord, look, you've just got to sort this out. It's ridiculous
how hopeless we are, aren't we? We have to be dragged kicking
and screaming to the throne of grace and we ought to go there
far more willingly and far more often. But the Lord uses all
of these circumstances to teach us and it was just remarkable.
I went home and I actually dealt with the situation with the people
over in the shed and it was amazing. All of what I was concerned about
was not real for a start. All of what I was troubled about
wasn't real. And I went down there and it
was as if the Lord had actually made a way in miraculous, what
He does is miraculous, isn't it? He'd made a way through these
stormy waters that I could walk with peace. and he could make
his wayward child see yet again that he is faithful and all of
my anxieties were groundless. Such is the case, isn't it, so
often. I don't know about you, brothers
and sisters. I've experienced that so many times. And it's
just, once again, in the troubles and the trials of life and the
things that we're anxious about that lie before us is an amazing
opportunity for God to reveal himself as gracious and as faithful. So Paul, no doubt anxious about
his Thessalonian brothers, those people that he was just with
for that very, very short time, he writes to them and he prays
for them. And here in the midst of these
trials, as Purjan said, our infirmities will only make space for the
display of Divine Grace. They do, don't they? I love what
someone said about the publican who was praying at the temple
with the hypocrite, the Pharisee beside him, bragging about all
that he had done and how much better he was, and it says that
the sinner The sinner who called out for God to be propitious
to him, for God to look upon his sacrifice and have mercy
upon him, he said he stood afar off, he stood afar off so that
there would be a field of grace laid out before him. The Pharisee
up there boldly and proudly We're brought near, aren't we? We're
brought near and we're reconciled to the children as children of
God. He's our Father, according to
2 Thessalonians 1.1. The God who is our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. See, we don't come to a harsh
judge to be condemned. We don't come to a stern ruler
to be avoided. We come, brothers and sisters,
as beloved children to a kind and tender Father. And in 1 Thessalonians
1 verse 2 he says, Grace unto you and peace from God our Father. And as I said earlier, the peace
flows to quieten the troubled waters, the troubled waters of
what we are fearful of, the troubled waters of our conscience. That's why that piece is so precious. There's nothing between my soul
and my Saviour. And in proclaiming the Gospel
we want to keep reminding people that for God's children there's
nothing between. There's nothing between. There's
that famous verse in Isaiah 26 which is remarkable. It says
in Isaiah In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have, right now, we have a
strong city. Salvation, if you have a look
at the next, salvation will appoint walls and bulwarks. The Lord
Jesus has a strong city and he provides and appoints the walls
and the bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou will keep
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he
trusts in thee. Trust in the Lord forever for
in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. It was really fascinating,
I looked up that phrase, perfect peace, in the original. What
it means is peace, peace. Peace that comes from the peace
of God. Peace through peace. You keep him in perfect peace,
in shalom, shalom. He draws his people to walk close
with him, to live with him, to live under the Lord. And that's
why he says to the Thessalonians in 2.15, he says, stand fast
and hold the traditions, stand fast, the everlasting consolation
and a good hope through grace. in the peace, in the midst, as
I said earlier, the midst of needing to withdraw from those
who were disorderly, the peace in the midst of dealing with
those who stood in fierce opposition, peace in the midst of those who
would forge Paul's letters to deceive these people, peace in
the midst of the false teachers who were telling lies about the
return of the Lord Jesus. See, to be at peace, to be at
peace and to have God's peace is to see His sovereign hand
in all events, in all circumstances, and especially the ones that
bring discomfort and concern and consternation and helplessness. Then, in the midst of those storms,
His peace flows like a river. Then God's children will be,
as David said, they'll be led beside the still waters, they'll
be lying down in the green pastures of His Word. Peace that comes
from realising that He is all and in all and I am nothing. That He is perfectly good and
perfectly faithful and I am sin and emptiness. It's peace, isn't
it, that passes all understanding. He is our peace with God and
the world will never understand it. He is the peace of our consciences
and only God's children will know that He is the peace of
our consciences. And He is the peace with one
another in the church. He is the one that caused these
Thessalonians to stand together in the midst of all of these
trials. Peace comes from walking in the
light, not wandering around in a fog of unbelief and in the
yes and no gospel. So the gospel is a revelation
of who God is. It's a revelation of His character. It's a revelation of Him in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's the revelation of what He
is doing, what He has done. It's a revelation of Him as it's
revealed in His Word. That's why peace Peace must come
from Him drawing His people back to what He says about Himself
and what His promises are in His Word. There is in this world
so much that people cling on to for peace, don't they? You'll
find that so many have their peace, their refuge in a refuge
of lies, a refuge in their own righteousness and their own wisdom
and their own abilities. But we, the children of God,
find that we are settled. We are settled on the truth of
the Gospel, and all the forces of hell and humanity in this
world have battered against that edifice of the glorious truth
of who our God is, and they've battled against it continually,
and it stands as secure as it ever was. The Lord's foundation
is secure. It is a nail fixed. It is an
anchor. It is a foundation that stands
firm, which is why in our church we have the simple, simple task
of not wanting to invent anything, just to simply faithfully declare
who our great God is and what He does. What is revealed is
sufficient for us. What God says is sufficient for
us. His divine power has given us
all things that pertain to life and godliness. The fear of man
brings a snare, but the fear of God that He works in the hearts
of His people to draw him to Himself is our peace. And the truths of God minister
peace to God's children. Whether it's doctrine or prophecy,
all of what God says here in this book is on the side of his
people. Everything in this book advocates
for us, his children, and it can't be any The Thessalonians
were troubled about his coming, his return. It's interesting, isn't it, how
often the Church through the years has been troubled about
issues of the Lord's return. But if you glory in His first
coming, you won't be troubled about His second coming. And
if we are raised to sit with Him in heavenly places now, does
it really matter whether we are with Him here or with Him there? Why should the physical realisation
of a spiritual reality be cause for concern for a believer? And
yet the Church has been assaulted by it throughout the years. The Lord is at hand. There is a promise from God that
He will never leave us nor forsake us and His timing in His return
is perfectly set and fixed and it cannot ever be but for the
good of God's people. See, His truth, the truth of
the Gospel, the God of peace, He's the Prince of Peace, as
Isaiah calls Him in Isaiah 9. It's the peace of God, but here
He calls Him the Lord of Peace. The divine truth is revealed
by our Lord Jesus in His glory, in His glory on the cross, in
His glory in His association with His people. They are the
cause of our rest. Our rest is in Him. Our rest
is with Him. Our peace comes from Him. And He's the one that establishes
our hearts. We're not going to be tossed
around, as Ephesians 4 says, with every wind and change of
doctrine. We just need, by the grace of
God, to fix our eyes on Him and all of those storms will come
and they will go. Peace be unto you, says the Lord
Jesus as He leaves this world. Let's turn again closely to our
text because there are some beautiful things in it. He says, in verse
16, he says, now. I love that. He says, now. For God's children there always
is a now. We live now on his blessings. We might have had times of peace
in the past, but we live now upon Him. We don't find our confidence
in the things that we've experienced in the past, we live in peace
now in Him. be glorious thoughts of peace
in the future, but we live right now. For Thessalonians and for
us, there is a now. It's so important, isn't it?
We can't base our faith on things that have happened in the past.
We base them on who He is. Who He is, He who doesn't change.
Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace. Lord of Peace
himself. See we may be refreshed. We may
be refreshed by our prayers and we may be refreshed as we read
the scriptures and we may be refreshed by our communion with
the saints and we are and it's a delightful gift of God to his
people. But it's he himself who is our
peace. It's his presence, it's his person,
it's him alone, gives you peace. I love that word, doesn't it?
He gives you peace. He doesn't offer peace. He doesn't
hold it out there for you to get for yourself. Whenever the
scriptures mention God giving something, always there is a
giving from God and there's only a giving when there's a receiving.
You read the scriptures, you'll find everywhere where he says
he gives, his people receive. It's lovely to think of the Lord
Jesus at the Last Supper. What a remarkable evening it
must have been. What remarkable events must have
been going through His mind. And in John 4, 14-27, He says, peace I leave with you,
my peace. You think of what was happening
in his life. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world give I unto
you. The world gives to take away
again. The world gives to get something
for itself. He gives to give of himself. I give unto you, let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." What was going
to happen to those disciples for the next three days? They were going to go through
the deepest of deep trauma. You think of it, every single
one of them promised great things to the Lord that night and every
single one of them failed badly. For the next three days they
were going to spend their time hiding, and hiding with legitimate
fear. If that's what the religious
leaders in Pilate can do to the Lord Jesus, who are they to stand? They had a real and genuine need
to fear their lives. And in the midst of that they
had Judas, who was an esteemed apostle until that night. Not
only had he betrayed the Lord Jesus, but he'd met a gruesome,
gruesome end. And there they had, as I said,
given up everything from Him. They had staked their eternal
destiny. They had staked everything on
Him. And here for three days it must
have looked extraordinarily dark. If that's what's happened to
him, what's to become of us? John in Revelation weeps, doesn't
he? He weeps when no one's found
to open the scrolls. No doubt in those three days
these disciples wept and yet little Jesus says, peace, peace
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. What remarkable, remarkable peace
the Lord Jesus brings into the hearts of these people by His
presence and by His victory and by His ongoing work in fulfilling
those promises. Don't let your hearts be troubled,
He says to them. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I go to the cross to
prepare a place for you. I go to heaven pleading, pleading
my wounds, pleading my righteousness. And I will come again and receive
you unto myself." Which is exactly what happened those few days
later. But there is, there is A wonderful sense of peace, isn't
it? I'll receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may
be also. See, it's peace in his presence.
It's peace with him. To go back to our Thessalonians,
they were unsettled, weren't they? They were persecuted from
the outside. The Jews, which believed not,
they were moved with envy, according to Acts 17, and they stirred
up the whole crowd, and they pursued Paul, and they would
have pursued these believers. They are troubled, and Paul says
that they're going to be troubled, but they'll have rest with us.
In the midst of those troubles, they'll have rest with the apostles. I am with you, and all the evil
that is done unto you is done unto me," said the Lord Jesus.
And you are bearing it for my name's sake. He says of the Thessalonians
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5, he says, that
you may be counted worthy, counted worthy of the kingdom of God. for which you also suffer. It's a righteous thing with God
to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. They are troubled by the Jews
on the outside, they are troubled by the false teachers on the
inside, as we've seen so often, and they are troubled again by
the disorderly people in the within the church, disorderly
in doctrine and disorderly in life and they were told, they
were told to withdraw themselves from them. It's not an easy thing,
it's not an easy thing to stand for the Lord and have that as
a cause of withdrawing from people when so much of what our Christian
life is about is in terms of reaching out to people. But there
are people here, that would have been a trouble for so many people
to withdraw have no company with him that he might be ashamed."
So you have no company with them but you still love them and care
for them and you don't count them as enemy. If you reckon
that's easy, if you reckon that's not a cause of trouble, in the
midst of all of that, this peace that Paul talks about is a precious
peace. There is a peace, of course,
that Paul speaks of, which is the peace of false religion and
false teaching. In chapter 5, verse 3, the world,
and the religious world especially, is saying peace and safety. The false teachers throughout
the scriptures are calling people to have peace where there is
no peace. The false teachers at the fall
of Jerusalem are in there saying, this is the place, you come and
join with us in Jerusalem, this is the place of peace. And God
is saying, there is absolutely no peace in this place. The false
teachers are always, always saying, peace and safety. And it's interesting
in that verse, chapter 5, verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians, for when
they shall say peace and safety, and I worked, I was trying to
rack my brains, who are the they? Who are the they? And you go
back and you look again and again and the first reference to them,
to the they, is back in chapter 4 verse 12. It speaks of the
believers that you may walk honestly toward them that are without. The ones without are the ones
that are saying peace and safety from each other. My brothers
and sisters, I long for you to have peace with God. But if it's
peace with God, He'll give it to you. And if it's peace from
God, no one will take it away from you. If it's the peace that
men give to other people, give to each other again and again
in religion all over the world, they're all gathering together
to say, peace, everything's okay, everything's fine, don't you
worry. That peace is a shallow, shallow peace. That peace is
a peace that is disrupted by the preaching of the Gospel and
the peace that we have is enhanced by the preaching of the Gospel.
We love to talk and to honour Him who is our peace. And we cannot talk about the
peace of God without briefly in closing talking about the
fact that there is no peace with God. There is no peace with God
without the shedding of blood. There is no peace with God. In
Ephesians chapter 2 it says, you remember, you Ephesians,
you remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh,
who are called the uncircumcision by them which is called the circumcision
by the Jews in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you
were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
strangers from the commonwealth of covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in the world. But now, But now, in Christ
Jesus, you who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who has
made the both one, and has broken down the middle wall of petition
between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinance. for to make in
himself the two one, new man, so making peace, and that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. Peace, the peace offerings in
the scriptures are peace offerings that are offered with blood,
often again and again and again. See, everything comes, everything,
every gift, every little bit of peace we have, every blessing
we have from God is a blood-bought blessing, and we daren't think
of them. without thinking of his precious,
precious blood. See, his blood has purchased
his church, Acts 20. Through His blood we have propitiation
by His blood. We are justified by His blood.
We have redemption through His blood. Our consciences are cleansed
by His blood. We are sanctified by His blood,
Hebrews 13. Our election is through the sprinkling
of His blood, 1 Peter 1. We are set free from sin by His
blood. We are brought nigh as we read
here. We are brought near by His blood. Colossians 1.20 says we have
peace through His blood. See His blood has made us nigh. His blood has made us near. You are sometimes far off. You
are made nigh, made by Him. You are made near by the blood
of Christ. Made near. That's the peace of the Church,
isn't it? That He draws us by His Gospel to Himself. And if He draws us to Himself,
then He draws His people to be next to each other, near, near
to God, and near to each other. Near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be, for in the person of His dear Son I am as near
as He. Dear, so very dear to God, dearer
I cannot be, for in the person of His dear Son I am as dear
as He. And just in closing, I love how
comprehensive Paul is in his prayer. Do you see what he says
in verse 16 of 2 Thessalonians 3? Now the Lord of peace himself
give you peace, personally himself give you peace, always by all
means. Isn't that lovely? give you peace
always, by all means, because there are just so many different
circumstances that we will go through where we need peace.
And He, in sovereign grace and mercy and love to His own, has
a multitude of means to meet all the multitude of our needs
for peace. He makes peace. He is peace. He gives peace, always, by all
means. That's what the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Be with you all, isn't it? When
He's with us all, He's with us in grace. He's with us to bring
peace. Let's pray.