We just continue in 2 Thessalonians
and it's just remarkable. Paul comes to prayer. He says, Now our Lord Jesus Christ
himself And God, even our Father, which hath loved us and given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and establish you, strengthen you in every good
word and work. I couldn't help but spend some
time today just recently looking at John Chapter 14. I thought we might read some
of John 14 because this is just remarkable, isn't it? Here Paul
is writing to these Thessalonian believers. He's just written
one of the most, by the hand of the Holy Spirit, one of the
most sobering passages in all of the scripture, sobering in
its reality and sobering in its reality for these Thessalonian
believers in this world where Satan, under the sovereign hand
of God, He's given such extraordinary reign to deceive the world, and
to deceive the world with power and wonders, and deceive the
world with religion. And then he says in this verse
13, in this passage, he says, but we are thankful. And the
Lord Jesus Christ has asked these questions, hasn't he? We are just so thankful for the
way the Holy Spirit actually guided the hearts of the apostles
to ask questions and led our Saviour to declare His glory
in John 14 on that night when He was going to face all these
forces of darkness. All of them arrayed against him. John 14, he says, let not your
heart be troubled. And of course, the immediate
context is that Peter is going to deny him three times. having boasted about how strong
he is and how much better he is than others and how powerful
his mighty will is, he's now going to be promised that he'll
deny. But the Lord says, 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, and if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I
am, there you may be also. And whither I go, you know, And
the way you know, Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither
thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. If you have known me, you should
have known my Father also. And from henceforth you know
him and have seen him. Philip said unto him, Lord, show
us the Father, and it will suffice us. Jesus said unto him, Have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. And how sayest thou then, Show
us the Father? Believe thou not that I am in
the Father, and the Father in me. The words that I speak unto
you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me.
He does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works
sake. Very verily I say unto you, he
that believeth on me, the works that I shall do, he do also,
and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto
my Father. And whatsoever you shall ask
in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son." Here we have in 2 Thessalonians Paul at prayer. What a remarkable statement from
the Lord Jesus. Whatsoever you shall ask in my
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the
Son. And if you shall ask anything
in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter. that he may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him. For he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you
comfortless. I will come to you. Yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me. Because I live, you shall live
also. At that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me." and I in you. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,
Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and
not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, If any man love me, he will keep my words. and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with
him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but
the Father's which sent me." These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance. whatsoever
I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard
how I said unto you, I go away and I come again unto you. If
you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the
Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you
before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you
might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much
with you, for the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing
in me, but that the world may know that I love the Father,
and as the Father has given me commandment, even so do I arise. Let us go hence." He goes out
to do battle on our behalf with the Prince of Darkness. to establish
manifestly everlasting righteousness. He's gone. to that place, to
send that Comforter to us. Now, I wonder Paul can say with
great confidence, can't he? He said, now our Lord Jesus Christ,
verse 16 of 2 Thessalonians 2, and God, even our Father, which
has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word
and work. In the meats. In the midst of
the troubles that these Thessalonians had, in the midst of the promise
of troubles for the Church of God, people of the Lord in this
world, until the very end, here is just one of the most remarkable
passages of Scripture. I love in verse 13 how it begins. It begins, God's foundation is
sure, isn't it? God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. It begins with the love of God. Brethren, beloved of the Lord. In the next verse, he calls his
people to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. From beginning, from the foundation
of the world, secure and certain in the love of God, to the end,
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why he prays, doesn't he? He says, now, our God, comfort
you and comfort your heart. Establish you. He's given us
everlasting consolation. Everlasting comfort is the other
word, isn't it? Everlasting comfort and good
heart, good heart through grace. Comfort your heart. Comfort your
hearts. The word implies, as we've just
read in John 14, to come alongside. To come alongside. If the Lord
Jesus is alongside, the world can do its best. Satan can roar
and slither if the Lord stands by the sides of these people. They'll find comfort, they'll
find everlasting consolation, they'll find good hope through
grace, they'll find themselves established. You see down in
verse 3 of the next chapter he says, how's this all going to
happen? The Lord is faithful who shall
establish you and keep you from evil. There's a wonderful principle
of prayer that's throughout the scriptures. And I suppose one of the wonderful
emblems of it is that the people of God pray God's words back
to him. You might recall Isaiah 43, verse
26, the Lord says, put me in remembrance. Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. Put him in remembrance. We put him in remembrance as
Paul does here, doesn't he? He lays out before us his character
and his promises. What do we put him in remembrance
of in Isaiah 43, 26? We put him in remembrance of
the previous verse, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgression
for mine own sake and will not remember Thy sins. He says the same sort of thing
at the beginning of the book, doesn't he? He says, Come now,
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. It's a common theme in the scriptures.
You think of the prayers. Think of the prayers of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah goes to prayer and what does he do? He just reminds God
of his character. He reminds God of his promises.
He reminds God of his history. He reminds God of the fact that
he has promised to bring these people back and to establish
them forever. He reminds God that God is God. And God is God
for His people always. One of the wonderful examples
of it is in 2 Samuel when Nathan comes to David and he brings
him this remarkable message about David having a kingdom. He says
in 2 Samuel 7, 16, and thy house and thy kingdom shall be established
for ever before thee, thy throne shall be established for ever.
According to all these words and according to all these visions,
so did Nathan speak unto David. Then David goes to prayer. Then went David the king in,
and sat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and
what is my house that thou hast brought me hither to? And this
was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but thou hast
spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come,
and this And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? And what
can David say more unto thee? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy
servant, and for thy word's sake and according to thine own heart
thou hast done all these great things to make thy servant know
them. Wherefore thou art great, O Lord
God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside
thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And
what one nation in earth is like thy people, even like Israel,
whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a
name, and to do for you great things and terrible, and for
thy land, before thy people, which thou have redeemed to thee
from Egypt from the nations and their gods. For thou hast confirmed
to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever,
and thou, Lord, art become their God, and now, O Lord God, the
word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his
house, establish it forever, and do as thou hast said. I love the intimacy of the relationship
that the people of God and the Scriptures had with their Saviour.
How they were, they walked alongside Him, and they walked with Him,
and they knew His character because He revealed Himself to them. As Psalm 28 verse 9 says, save
thy people, bless thine inheritance, feed them also, and lift them
up forever. People would say, well, why pray
for things that God's promised to do? Isn't it good to pray
for things that you know for certain are going to happen?
Isn't it? It's a good exercise, isn't it,
when we're at prayer, to go back to God and to remind Him of His
character. remind him of his promises, which
is what Paul is doing here. The Thessalonians are not learning
any new information here. He's reminding them again and
again. He's reminding them of God's
work of grace in their lives, God's call upon them, God's gospel
to them, God's work in their lives, and in the very The letter
that they held in their hands and had read before them, they
had another testimony of the grace of God, didn't they? The
provision of God for them. They had no New Testament scriptures
and they had these letters and they'd been troubled and disturbed.
and discomforted, and now they have this letter, and Paul outlines
the reason why things are like they are. God is absolutely sovereign. And God in judgment and in justice
and in grace and mercy is working all things, all things for the
good of His people and all things for the good of His character,
so that He will be seen to be righteous when He judges. He'll
be seen to be righteous when He saves His people. He is a
faithful God. Paul finished his life, doesn't
he? There, abandoned by so many, the sword about to remove his
head from his shoulders, and he says, they've all, so many
have abandoned me. And he says, but, but the Lord
stood with me. The Lord Jesus, verse 16, himself,
And God, even our Father, which has loved us and given us everlasting
consolation and good heart through grace, comfort your heart through
grace and establish you in every good word and work through grace. Our hearts are the very essence
of our being, aren't they? If we are comforted, if we are
comforted by God, if we have Him in our hearts walking alongside
us and walking with us and coming to our side and coming to our
aid, if we are comforted in our hearts, The world can throw at
us what it likes. Satan can be as crafty and scheming
as he wishes to be. And God's people, in the midst
of all of that, will have, as promised, everlasting consolation. And they will have their hearts
comforted by God. Comforted to know that He has
loved them. Comforted to know that He has
from the beginning chosen them. Comforted to know that the sanctification
is the work of the Spirit. comforted to know that the grace
of God has brought them to not just know and hear the truth,
all of the people in those churches, that synagogue in Thessalonians,
they all heard the same gospel. The belief, the truth, is a grace,
gift of God. It's the means by which He calls
them. It's the means by which they'll
obtain, as verse 14 says, obtain, have in their possession as a
sure and certain guarantee of their future the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. As we read in John 14.27, the
Lord Jesus said, please, I'll leave with
you. my peace, my peace I give unto
you." And just to make sure that we get the fact that when the
Lord Jesus gives, he's not giving like the world gives. The world
gives to take something in return. The world gives and we find the
gifts that the world bring to us might be sweet for a little
while, but there's so much bitterness associated with them and they're
so easily taken away. We gather So many things together,
don't we? And the proverb says that the
richest just take wings like a bird and they fly away. You
can take wings like a bird and fly away. Tomorrow, tonight,
all of what we own can be worth nothing. Because it's only worth
what someone's prepared to pay for it. It has no real value
in a lot of ways, does it? It has this tantalising image
of something that's solid, and yet it can be taken away. My
peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid. His comfort is His presence,
isn't it? His comfort is the comfort of
His promises. His comfort is the character
of our God. that He is the God of peace.
He is the God who says, I will never, never, never leave thee,
nor forsake thee. Therefore we may boldly say,
says Hebrews 13, the Lord is my helper. I shall not fear. I will not
fear what man will do to me. We are comforted by the very
character of God. We are comforted by his providences. We are comforted by his provision. We are comforted by a gospel
that declares it is all done. We are comforted by a God who
knows the end from the beginning. We're comforted by a God who
will establish you, as the next phrase says, establish you. It
means to strengthen you. It means in the midst of all
of what we've read about and studied in Chapter 2 and all
of those grievous things that should cause us to be so thankful
for the Gospel, We are to be established, to be strengthened,
and not be carried away with diverse and strange doctrines,
says Hebrews 39, for it is a good thing that the heart be established
with grace. Established with grace. Established
with the grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul longs
for the churches, longs for the brethren in the churches, the
people that he loves. He longs for them to be settled
and established. He longs, when he's going to
Rome, he longs to see the Romans. He longs to see the believers
there, many of whom he hasn't met. He longs to be with them.
He says, I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual
gift to the end that you may be established. He begins that
letter, in remarkable ways, and he finishes in remarkable ways,
and it's all about the faith. Established and holding on to
the faith as we looked at a couple of weeks ago. He finishes the
letter in Romans 16, 25, it says, And now is revealed, and now
is revealed in the Gospel. All of what those Gentile people
never understood, strangers and alienated from the promises of
God and the covenants of God, without hope and without God
in the world, and now the Gospel has come to them with power.
And as the Gospel comes, Satan comes along and sends his messages
and as Paul says to the Ephesians, he longs for the perfecting of
the saints and he looks to God. The God who sends these ascension
gifts, our Lord Jesus sending these gifts for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the
faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man,
a complete man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ. That's what he's so excited about
with these Thessalonians, isn't it? In 1 Thessalonians 3, he
just says that this is life, that you stand firm, you stand
as one, you stand as soldiers on duty, you stand side by side,
supporting and encouraging each other, edifying. and to the measure
of the fullness of Christ, that henceforth, this is the reason
for this establishment of the Church and the establishment
of the Church around the preaching of the Gospel, the preaching
of the sovereign, unchangeable, eternal, infinite grace of God,
that henceforth, we henceforth no more be children tossed to
and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine and by
the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive." When you go back and look at that chapter
2 of 2 Thessalonians, the earlier part of it, you are just confronted
with a situation which is beyond the hope of mere mortal man,
beyond the hope of intelligent man, beyond the hope of knowledgeable
man. We are in a place where establishing
the people of God and being strengthened is a divine gift of God. And he longs for those people
to be established. He's praying and he prays with
confidence. You'll be established in every
good word and work. God wants His people to be strengthened. Love desires what is best for
its objects and remarkably in the providence of God and in
the love of God for His beloved brethren, His children, the chosen
ones, He has chosen for them to go through these extraordinary
trials that He might established them
by grace, that they, in the midst of those trials, would have evidence
upon evidence of the faithfulness of God to His word, the faithfulness
of God to His character, the faithfulness of God to His promised
love, His infinite eternal love for them. establish them in every
good word. The good word comes before the
good work, doesn't it? It's every good word of God,
it's the gospel, it's good doctrine, it's the good tidings of good
things. The gospel is good news in the
midst of the darkness that he's spoken about earlier. Is the
gospel good news to you? I need the gospel. I need to
hear the gospel of the glory of God. I need it all the time. I need continually to hear the
Lord Jesus say, it is finished. I need to hear God say in the
midst of what I know that lies in my heart, and I cry, O wretched
man, again and again, to know that God has loved and predestinated
all things. There's almost nothing in many
of our lives that works out as we wish it to do, but everything
in the lives of God's children works out exactly as our God
has ordained, perfectly, perfectly. Perfectly, moment by moment,
that scroll that the Lord Jesus took in Revelation 4, He took
that scroll and He unloosed its seals. It means that all of the
events of everything in this universe is His and moment by
moment it's unrolling. he comes back, and then it'll
still unroll, because it goes on forever, for his glory and
the good of his people. He is returning. The essence
of the letter is that the Lord's coming back. He's coming. This trial and these troubles
are just for a time. The gospel is good news. It's the word of truth, and it's
the power of God. The scriptures are given by the
inspiration of God and they are profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
2 Timothy 3.16. God establish you. God strengthen
you in the gospel. I spoke to Simon yesterday, I
think it was, about 2 Corinthians 3.18. It's a remarkable promise
of God, isn't it? But we, all, with open face,
beholding as in a glass, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord
are changed. into the same image from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Gospel reveals
the Lord Jesus in His true character and in His beauty, in His glory. in the magnificence
of His being, it reveals Him revealing the character of God,
and especially as He hung on that cursed tree, bearing the
wrath of God, revealing to us every character of God in the
most poignant and remarkable way that could ever be done. There's no better way of revealing
the glory of God than in the face of the Lord Jesus. There's
no better way. God didn't have a plan B. This is the best. Best for His
glory. Best for the good of His people.
And we have those remarkable promises, don't we, that we read
in John 14. I'll send the comforter. I'll send the comforter. God's
servant Paul planted. As he says in 1 Corinthians 3.6,
Apollos watered and God gave the increase. All of God's servants
want for that, don't they? They want for it to be seen as
clearly as anything that the comfort that the hearts of these
people have and the establishment of them and the everlasting consolation
and the good hope are all divine activities of God. God is faithful. He will do it. Our job as ambassadors
is to declare His character, declare His message, declare
His glory, declare Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and wait. Wait. That's what he goes on
to say. Wait. Wait, and He will do it. In verse 5, the next chapter,
he says, into the patient waiting for Christ. It's a patient waiting,
but it's not patient waiting without hope, is it? It's a patient
waiting with a good hope. It's a patient waiting with an
everlasting consolation. It's a patient waiting comforted
in our hearts, a comfort and a waiting, a patient waiting
established in every good word and work. We have the love of
God communicated to us in everlasting consolation. We have here a promise
of comfort. He is called the God of all grace,
and he's called the God of all comfort. It's our joy in the
Holy Spirit that Paul delights in those Thessalonians. They
have joy in the midst of all of these trials. We have a good
hope, a hope that maketh not ashamed, and a hope which is
an anchor. for the soul. An anchor for the
soul. An anchor holds on to a rock. The anchor is thrown out of ourselves
to hold on to something, to someone outside of us. Lead us to a rock
that is higher than us. And God's children rejoice in
hope. It's the God of hope. Here we
have these remarkable verses. The Lord begins His reminder
to these Thessalonians with love. and He finishes with glory. In
the midst of it we have remarkable promises from God. Isaiah 61.10
says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be
joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation. He has covered me with the robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. For as the earth
bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things
that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord will cause
righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. For Zion's sake I will not hold
my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until righteousness
thereof go forth, and brightness and salvation thereof as the
lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy
righteousness, and all kings thy glory. And thou shalt be
called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. And thou shalt also be a crown
of glory, in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the
hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be turned
forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be turned desolate,
for thou shalt be called Hepzibah, and thy land Beulah. For the
Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be made For as a young man marrieth a
virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as a bridegroom rejoices
over a bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. I have set
watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their
peace day or night. Ye that make mention of the Lord,
keep not silence. Give him no rest till he establish
and he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Amen. Let's pray.