Let's turn our scriptures to
2 Thessalonians. As I said, 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 is just a remarkable, clear, poignant and weighty description
of this world, a weighty description of our Creator and our Redeemer
and His activities in this world. Despite all of the things that
we might see going on around us that cause us distress, the
one thing that 2 Thessalonians and the rest of the scriptures
make it abundantly clear is that God sits sovereignly on a throne. And He does rule and reign over
all things. In verse 13, after talking about
the delusion, the shocking delusion that this world, this religious
world lives under. Deceived and then in judgment. Deceived by Satan and then in
judgment. by God sending them a strong
delusion. But he turns, in verse 13, that
we've been looking at this last little while, he turns to his
people, and this is one of the great buts of Scripture, but
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our Gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether
by word or by 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
hearts and establish you in every good word and work. The Blessed Holy Spirit has promised,
hasn't He? He's promised, and He's faithful
to His promises, that He will lead His people into all truth. And so where truth has fallen,
the truth about God, the truth about man, the truth about judgment,
the truth about the Lord Jesus, has fallen in the streets, we
have to say, that in judgment the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn. We are dealing in these passages
with heavy, heavy things. But I would like to spend a little
bit of time looking at verse 16. I'll just look at a few brief
things in verse 16 because it's just, in the midst of all of
this, in the midst of what these Thessalonian believers were going
through, he speaks of the love of God, the everlasting love
of God for his particular people, and the manifestation of that
love. in everlasting consolation that He gives people. They don't earn it, they are
given it, and good hope through grace. looks around and he looks and
he sees that there's only one hope for people. There's no power
or strength in man to create anything, to sustain anything
spiritually, to overcome the enemies, to be protected from
the lies, to draw near to God. He must do it. He's called them,
he says in verse 14, he's called them to himself by his gospel
and he's called them with a purpose, the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 15 he then says these
things to them to stand fast. Knowing, if you turn down to
verse 3 of the next chapter, you'll see that God will cause
them to be established and God will cause them to be kept from
evil. He says, stand fast and hold
the traditions, but He knows, He knows that it's going to be
God Himself. And He says in verse 16, Now,
Right now, there is a present need for these Thessalonians. Now, there is a present need
for God's children all the time. There is always a now for us. Now, our God. Our God. I just love the description of
it. I can't go into all the details of the Greek, but the way it's
outlined is that we are to understand that Jesus Christ is God. Isn't that a nice thing to hear?
I love saying that. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is the creator of
this universe. Jesus Christ is the sustainer
of this universe. a man in heaven right now, very
much like us in so many ways, representing us, and he makes
the sun to shine, he makes the wind to blow, even in the most
chaotic of events, the twirling of a tornado, He has His way
in the whirlwind. He is God, isn't it? And now
our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, the
three members of the Trinity are all involved. in the salvation of our people.
And what have we done? Now our Lord Jesus Christ and
God, even our Father, has loved us. We can understand why God
speaks of being merciful to all of his creation. He talks about,
as a father pitieth his children, so he pitieth us. He speaks of
lots of extraordinary emotional activity towards His people,
but this is the crowning glory of them all. He hath loved us. He hath loved us in such a way
that it is perfect and complete and everlasting. In all the troubles
and trials and the sins of commission, the sins of omission, it's so
easy for us in our flesh to lose sight of the fact that God loves
His people. God loves His people as He loves
His Son. He loves them infinitely. He
loves them eternally. He loves them unchangeably. He
loves them knowledgeably. He loves them powerfully. He loves them purposefully. God has united his people to
himself by cords of love and by bonds, bounds of affection. He just loves. And we need to
bear in mind that he has a particular people he loves. He has loved
us. And in the Thessalonian letter
it's very clear who the us is, isn't it? In the normal course
of grammar you would have no question about it. You set this
as a task For a student at school, if Angus's class was asked in
an English lesson, who does the us represent? Who does this collective
pronoun represent in this particular letter? And you would go back
to the start of it and see it was Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus
under the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a particular people. He has loved his people. He loved
us. His love rests on, His love delights
in individuals. His love rests in a church made
up of singular bodies of believers all scattered throughout time
and throughout this world, but He loves them. He loves us. There's nothing lovable in us
by nature, nothing done by us. that is lovable. God's love is
a holy love. His love for us. It's a fountain, isn't it? It
is like this great fountain as big as the oceans you can imagine,
and it flows with love for His people. It flows and flows and
flows, and flows to His people. You
turn in your Bibles just for a brief minute and look again
at Ephesians 1 and those remarkable words that you know so well that
we just need to keep reminding ourselves in this world. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according, verse 4,
as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself. We should behold him without
blind before him in love, in love having predestinated us
according to the good pleasure of his will, predestinated us
under the adoption of children. This is the spiritual truth,
isn't it? The fact that God loves us is an astounding thing for
the children of God. They have been brought to spiritual
life. They've been brought by a new
birth to see what they really are. In light of the cross, in
light of the Spirit's work, they have been brought to see what
they really are. They've been brought to see how
deceitful this world is. They've been brought to see how
futile all their religious activities are. Our God wounds and He heals. He kills and He makes alive.
He casts down and He lifts up. For God's children, the love
of God is an extraordinary, amazing thing, because they see that
in their flesh they are wretched men. If God loves everyone, you
don't need any spiritual discernment whatsoever to believe that He
loves you. If Jesus died for everyone, you
need absolutely no input from the Holy Spirit to turn around
and say that He died for me. Universal love is meaningless
love. Universal love achieves absolutely
nothing. It's like universal redemption.
It just doesn't achieve anything. It dishonours God in all of His
characteristics. Spurgeon likened them to a bridge
that doesn't grow right across the river. It doesn't reach to
the other side. If God loves people and they
end up in hell, what on earth has His love achieved? If the death of Jesus for people
means that they end up in hell, what on earth did the death of
Jesus achieve? love for us. He has loved us. The Scriptures are always particular
about the love of God. And because He's loved us, we
use those personal pronouns regarding Him, don't we? We say, Our Lord
Jesus Christ and God, Our Father. Faith looks to and takes the
Lord Jesus Christ as our possession. The Scriptures are full of the
people of God saying, He's my Redeemer, He's my friend, He's
my husband, He's my Lord, He's my Christ, He's ours. Faith takes him in our arms and
holds him. Ours is a possessive pronoun,
isn't it? What is ours are things that
belong to us. I love that picture of Simeon,
the story of Simeon in the temple. He took the Lord Jesus to himself
and he says, now your servant can depart in peace. I have seen
thy salvation. He has loved us, no conditions. He has loved us when we fell
in Adam. He loved us when we were born. He loved us before
we were born again. He loved us when we were born
again. He loves us exactly the same when we fall. And He loves
us exactly the same now as He will love us in Heaven. His love
cannot because God cannot change. But here in these verses we see
a manifestation of that love and there are just two elements
of it that are laid out here before us and they are beautiful
to consider and we'll just look at them briefly. He says firstly
that they have received that we have been given everlasting
consolation and good hope through grace. It is interesting, isn't it?
It's one of the things that is so clear, doesn't need to be
other than just explained, isn't it? Is that those who need consolation
are those who are troubled. Only the troubled need comfort
and consolation. These Thessalonian believers
have been troubled by all the things that God's children have
been troubled with throughout history and throughout time. Firstly, they are troubled They're
troubled like all believers, they're troubled by the sin that
entangles them and this world that entices them, and they're
troubled again and again by the assaults of Satan. hardly ever
seen clearly for what they are, except through the light of the
Gospel. But only broken-hearted, troubled,
persecuted, cast down by sin and circumstances, only the troubled
need consolation. And only the troubled, the troubled
of the Lord, will find that the Lord Himself has the consolation
to meet their soul's troubles. They have nowhere else to go.
They have been shut up to Him. The Thessalonian letter in chapter
2 just reminds us that so many are lulled to sleep. Religion
tells them again and again, peace and safety when there is no peace. And they live in this world where
there is a promise of God that sudden destruction will come
upon them. If this present world and this
present religious world doesn't cause us distress and deep concern,
then we need to be concerned. We need to be concerned. Amos
6. says, Woe to them that are at
ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria, that mountain
where that idolatrous symbol was set up by Solomon's son Rehoboam,
which are named chief among the nations. And then in verse 6
of that chapter it says, that drink wine in bowls, and anoint
themselves with the chief ointments, but they are not grieved, Amos
6.6, they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Woe, woe to them, woe to them. The psalmist in Psalm 119 verse
136 says, His tears are like rivers of waters run down mine
eyes, because they keep not thy law. God's children are distressed. The saved in Jerusalem in Jeremiah
and Ezekiel's day were those, according to Ezekiel 9 verse
4, who grieved and lamented over the wickedness that was happening
in that religious city around that temple. Lot lived in Sodom
and he grieved and lamented over what was going on. vexed in his
righteous soul by the wickedness of the lives around him." And
as I was saying to Norm a little earlier, it's remarkable isn't
it, that night those angels came to Sodom and there was lot and
he brought them into his house and the man of Sodom wanted to
commit homosexual rape with these angels, and the angels blinded
the men outside. And the next morning, when it
came time for those angels to take those four people out, they
took four out, one in each hand. And Lot's wife turned back, but
there wasn't another single person in all of that city and the cities
around with those extraordinary events happening. that thought
that there was any danger to their souls whatsoever. None
of the friends of Lot, none of the friends of his daughters,
no one. None of the friends of those
people who were blinded outside Lot's door and had those remarkable
things happen to them. You see, it's only a spiritual
life that causes people to see these things. They are the mark
of the Lord in Ezekiel 9. They are marked by God. because
they grieve and lament. They grieve and lament because
God has done a work in their lives. You see, they are the
ones that need comforting. They are the ones that need everlasting
consolation, everlasting comfort. The persecutions and the tribulations
that we saw at the beginning of this letter are a manifest
token of the righteous judgment of God. God is righteous in bringing
this judgment. And in that persecution, God's
people need consolation. And in these letters we see again
and again that they have received consolation because they look
away from themselves and they find that their God is sovereign,
that he rules and he's returning. And in 1 Thessalonians 4.18 he
says, comfort one another with these words, comfort one another
about the fact that whatever we see in this world is not the
end of things. There is an end of things when
all things will be wrapped up and all things will be seen clearly.
They are getting consolation again and again from the fact
that our Redeemer reigns in the midst of abominable religious
apostasy and all the immorality that flows into the world from
religious apostasy, our sovereign God reigns. And our substitute
has borne all of the sins of all of his people. They were
laid on him and he bore them away. And our sins can't be in
two places at once. And God in these letters continually
reminds us, flee to the refuge. You only flee to a refuge when
you know that there is a need of a refuge. Everlasting consolation. The everlasting consolation that
Paul talks about in these verses is the love of God. The one he
loves, he loves to the end. the everlasting consolation of
the character of our God, the everlasting consolation of the
promises of our God. As I said earlier, verse 3 of
the next, just down a few verses in chapter 2, chapter 3, verse
3, it says, but the Lord is faithful. In fact, I love the way it is
in the original, faithful is the Lord. He makes promises and
He keeps promises and His promises cover all of what is happening
in this world. There is the everlasting consolation
of the fact that we are bound up with the Lord Jesus so intimately
and so intrinsically that we are as one and He says, because
I live, you shall also live. And then there is in these letters
an incredible encouragement into the consolation of fellowship
in the church. He says in 1 Thessalonians 5.11,
he says, comfort yourselves together. I don't know about you, but I
have witnessed over the years brothers and sisters go through
enormous trials for the sake of the Gospel, paid what seems
to me to be very, very dear and heavy prices, and yet Paul again
and again sees that this is a sign that should cause him,
in the midst of anything that troubles him, no matter what
persecution he's suffering, it should be a cause for him to
be thankful to God and comforted. You see, in verse 1 Thessalonians
3, he says, Brethren, we were comforted over you in all our
afflictions and distress. Paul was with them in the same
afflictions and distress. But we were comforted by your
faith, for now we live. that you stand, if you stand
and you will by the grace of God, you stand fast in the Lord,
comforted together, everlasting consolation, everlasting. I love that word, everlasting. And the second manifestation
of this love of God is good hope through grace. everlasting consolation. We need to be consoled because
of the world that we live in. We need to be consoled because
of the religious apostasy that brings so much trouble and persecution
to the saints of God, while the rest, according to 1 Thessalonians,
are saying peace and safety to each other and gathering others
to themselves and all joining hands together and saying peace
and safety. and God's children see through
the Word of God, by the Spirit's power in their lives, they see
a completely different world altogether. So we need consoling
and good hope, a good hope. We have consolation now and good
hope for the future. The scriptures remind us, don't
they, Romans 8.28 and so many other passages, that whatever
the future holds, whatever the future holds, according to the
word and promise of God, it will be good for us, good for us in
our Lord Jesus Christ and good for us in God our Father. We have a good hope. We only
have a hope in things that we can't see. And what's the hope? The glorious hope that God's
children have when He comes. Verse 12 of this
book. He says that the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in Him according
to the grace of our God. He shall come, verse 10, to be
glorified in His sight, and admired, amazed, wondered at in all them
that believe, rescued from the wrath to come, secure in the
arms of the Lord. So many around them, so many
around us are dying, dying under a strong delusion, believing
a lie. As the scriptures say, dying
with a lie in their right hand. The right hand is figured as
the right hand of their power. The right hand of what they see
is their strength. And they're holding a lie. We have a good hope. A good hope
in the resurrection. A good hope in grace. A good hope in the covenant of
grace. A good hope in the God who promises
and keeps his promises. A good hope because our God is
as good as his word. What's he saying? Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. In the world you
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world." It doesn't look to this world's eye, and it doesn't
look to our fleshly eye so often to see that he has overcome the
world, but that's what he said. That's what he's promised. That's what he's done, brothers
and sisters. Good hope. Good hope through
grace. In fact it says in the original,
a good hope in grace. Grace is there a noun. It's a reality for God's people. Jesus says in John 17, And now
I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I
come to Thee, Heavenly Father. Keep them, Holy Father, keep
them through Thine own name, whom Thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have
kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that
the scripture might be fulfilled." We have a good hope that these
scriptures might be fulfilled. And in closing I'd just like
to think about why. Why does God do it this way?
Why does God so arranged things in this world. Rammenstein makes
it very clear that he does it to reveal the glories of his
character to all creation. One day we will see that all
of this has transpired, that God's name, God's character will
be revealed. He does it to we, his people,
in their journey through this world, from this world. He wants his people to be reminded
again and again and he does so in very many extraordinary and
marvellous ways for which we will be thankful by grace. that we don't belong here. This
is not our home. We are people from another place
and we are people passing through. We have a new home. We have a
city whose foundations are of God." He does it to bring his own into
situations where their love for each other is deeper and stronger. And they need the comfort, they
need the comfort of the Gospel. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
says your God. The warfare is finished. But
here in this world, he leaves his people in these situations,
that in these distresses like Paul suffered, seemingly throughout
his life, he looked around and he found comfort. He found comfort
in God doing what he had promised, knitting his people together,
binding them together around the truth of the Gospel, causing
them to suffer tribulation and persecution and it says, it's
a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that you may
be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you suffer. And he creates needs, whatever
their needs are and needs he creates. He provides in such
a way that he gets glory and his people get good. And he does
it in such a way that we might find that we are loved by him. Loved by him and brought by him
by his sovereign hand like those angels took the hand of Lot and
his daughters and led them out of Sodom. He loves his people. He must manifest that love in
His people. The love of the hymn writer wrote,
Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment
made, And were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man
a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above would drain
the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though
stretched from sky to sky." The thing that was remarkable as
I looked up the words of that hymn today is that it was written
It was found written, according to the fellow who transcribed
it for us, it was found penciled on the wall of a patient's room
in an insane asylum, after he'd been carried away to his grave. God's children are in all sorts
of places in this world. None of them are outside His
love and His tender care. None of them are outside of His
consoling hand. None of them are going to be
robbed of the good hope we have in grace for the future. Let's
pray. Now, Heavenly Father, we thank
you again for your word. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
that it's true and your words that we read in your scriptures
are signed and sealed by the blood of your dear and precious
son. We praise you heavenly father for his everlasting and infinite
love, for his bride and his everlasting and infinite love, for your glory
and your holy name our father. that He came to the cross and
bore our sins and bore the shame and bore the wrath that we so
rightfully deserved and He bore it away. Heavenly Father, help
us by Your grace and Your Spirit's work in our lives to see this
world as Your Scriptures show it to really be, Heavenly Father. and help us by grace to walk
through this world looking again and again to He who is the author
and the finisher of faith. Our Father, we find it difficult
to thank You for tribulations and persecutions, but there will
come a time in the midst of them when You will reveal something
more of the depth of Your love and something more of the power
of Your truth and something more revealed of the deceitfulness
of this world that you and you alone have rescued your people
from. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
for redeeming love, for everlasting consolation, and for good hope
in grace. We thank you that these things
are the birthright of all of your children. Help us to hold
on to them. Help us to hold on to Him, Heavenly
Father, who promised and is faithful. We thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen.