Amen. Well, as we come this evening
to this end of this second epistle, we just have the last three verses
to consider this evening in this third chapter. So chapter three
of the second epistle of Thessalonians and reading verses 16, 17, and
18. Now, the Lord of peace himself
give you peace always, by all means. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with mine
own hand, which is the token in every epistle, so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. These last three verses really
form the benediction of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians and
of course as we read it today we can consider it as the benediction
to ourselves and not only a benediction but also his prayer for the Church
of Thessalonica and our prayers that the Lord would indeed be
with us and bless us And so what a favour it is to have the end
of this epistle with this benediction. And he starts by saying, now
the Lord of Peace himself give you peace always by all means. And what a blessing it is when
God does give peace. We live in a troublesome world. We don't live in a peaceful world.
We live in a world where there's strife and war and oppositions
and yet there is a great and glorious peace. and the Lord
Jesus gives to his church, to his people. We don't always live
there, but it's a great blessing when we know something of the
peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful mercy it is
to realise that the Lord Jesus Christ died upon that cross at
Calvary to take away the sins of all his people, so they may
be blessed with peace And of course we just have glimpses
of peace on this earth, but we can look forward to that time
in glory where there is nothing other than peace. Everything
in heaven is peace and joy. It's a wonderful thing to consider,
to meditate upon, and here the Apostle desires therefore Now
the Lord of peace, he is peace, he is peace himself. Give you
peace always by all means. The Lord knows what means he
uses in our lives to bring us peace. We're thankful we have
a God who does give peace. And what a blessing it is when
the Lord grants it to us and we walk before him in the light
of his countenance. And then he says, the Lord be
with you all. Well, that surely is a wonderful
desire. I'm sure it was a desire of the
Apostle Paul. I'm sure it's a desire that we
have for one another. The Lord will be with us each. The Lord be with you all. right
through our life and bring us at last safe home to glory if
it is his holy will. There is a very lovely hymn 631
which we read the Lord himself be with you all to teach you
his own will and guide you safe from every thrall to Zion's heavenly
hill. It's the leading and the direction
of the greatest Saviour. The Lord be with you all. And he tells us, be with you
to unfold his grace and prove his truth divine, unveil the
glories of his face and make his counsels shine. And the last
verse is, the Lord be with you to the end and land you safe
above, a long eternity to spend in singing God is love. Well, the Lord be with you all. That was the Apostle's great
concern and desire. And what a mercy if the Lord
grants it to us. The Lord will be with us, each
one of us. We need the Lord to be with us.
We need the Lord to watch over us. We need the Lord to take
care of us. We need the Lord to control our
minds, to control our thoughts. And so what a blessing it is
to have an expression like this, the true living desire of a living
soul, the Lord be with you all. And then he says, the salutation
of Paul with mine own hand. Now we understand that the epistles
were written or rather dictated to secretaries who wrote it down
but the Apostle signed them off. He signed them off as a letter
from himself. Therefore he tells us the salutation
of Paul with mine own hand, he signed it himself, which is the
token in every epistle, so I write. He wanted people to understand
that it was in actual fact his writing, the writing that the
Lord had given to him. And therefore he says, which
is the token, in every epistle, so I write. And then he comes
finally and says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all. the grace, the free, unmerited
favour of God. He desired to be upon all those
that he had written to, and you may remember he started by saying,
Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians,
in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace unto you
and peace from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
writing to those who were in Christ, those who knew God as
their Father and who rejoice in the glorious Gospel. Surely
that hasn't changed. We today desire to know this,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the favour of God, to know the
blessing of God in our own souls, not something which is just a
theory, but something which God comes and grants to his people,
the evidence that they possess the wonderful favour of divine
life, that life which will never be taken away. Once God has given
life, it is eternal life. It's the wonderful gift of God. And what a privilege, therefore,
if we have received it, and we receive it through His favour,
through His grace. We can never say, well, I deserved
God to take notice of me. We'd all have to say, I did not
deserve any favour. I did not deserve God's mercy. But what a blessing it is to
understand the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as the Apostle
says, be with you all. And surely that's what we desire
for every one of us here tonight, that we may all know this wonderful
grace. And that grace is expounded in
thinking that Lord Jesus Christ died upon that cross at Calvary
in order to take away our sins in order to redeem our souls,
so that we can come and say tonight, what a wonderful and glorious
Saviour we have, what a wonderful Father, what a wonderful Spirit,
and we can rejoice surely in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then He comes and says, Amen. Amen, of course, means very simply,
so be it, so be it. And as we've gone through these
two epistles, may we be able to say, so be it. We bless God
for the wonderful truth it contains, and we can go on our way rejoicing
tonight and thankful to know we have a great and glorious
God in heaven who looks upon us and doesn't deal with us as
our sins deserve, and that one who's gone to repair a place
for us. And if He's gone to repair a
place for us, He will come again and receive us unto Himself.
And where He is, there we shall be also. And not just for a week or so,
but for eternity. Well, may God bless His Word.