and may God instruct us from
His Holy Word. And now once again we'll turn
to the second epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians and the
second chapter and this evening we'll read verses 11 to 13. That's the second epistle of
Paul to the Thessalonians chapter 2 and reading verses 11 to 13. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, Beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief in the truth. Well, we see the Apostle here
writing to the Thessalonians. He draws that difference and
that those who are right and those who are wrong And he speaks
in these terms and verses 11 and 12, speaks about those who
have a strong delusion and believe a lie. We only have to look around
the world today, do we not? To see so many who are deceived. We should remember that the great
adversary of our souls, the devil, is a great deceiver. Right in
the beginning, he deceived Adam and Eve by the cunning way that
he asked the question whether God had spoken to Eve that she
was not allowed to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. You see, he knew how to attack
her. And my friends, he knows today
how to attack you and me. So this is the statement the
Apostle says in warning the Thessalonians. Well we're thankful if God has
opened our eyes, our spiritual eyes, to see that which is of
God, that which is right and holy and right, and that which
emanates from the devil. We know the devil is the father
of lies, and he will do all he can to deceive the church of
God. And those who are deceived, there
is a very, very solemn outcome. And the 12th verse tells us that
they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. And again we can see, can we
not, very clearly in this statement, the sad state of the majority
of mankind who believe not the truth. And by that, of course,
the apostle means not the word of God, because the Lord Jesus
says, thy word is truth. God's Word is true. And yet,
if you ask people today, do they believe the Bible? Many will
say no. I don't believe the Bible, I
just think it's an account, an historical account, and many
of the accounts are fictitious. Well, what a blessing it is if
God has given you and me faith, living faith, to believe the
truth of God. And he does give faith, and as
you well know, the 11th chapter of the Hebrews speaks so very
clearly about those who were given faith, and they were given
faith to believe. It's not something that you and
I can produce ourselves. But what a mercy, an infinite
mercy, If God has given us faith to believe, to believe the truth,
and not be therefore left to those who, as we read here very
clearly, it says, they all might be damned. That's all that believe
a lie, all that are deluded about the things of God, they shall
be damned who believe not the truth. It's a very solemn consideration,
isn't it? And it should make us very zealous
in our desire to spread the Word of God, zealous to give away
the Word of God, the Bibles, because as the Word of God is
true, if the great and glorious light of the Gospel shines in
to the heart of those who read the Word of God, what light that
would be, eternal light and what a blessing. So it is a wonderful
privilege for us in the day and age in which we live to be able
to distribute the Word of God and may we earnestly pray it
may be used for the saving of many souls. to be delivered from
damnation, to be delivered from the evil heart of unbelief, and
to be brought through living faith to believe the truth and
to have pleasure in righteousness. The ungodly have pleasure in
unrighteousness. What a difference between righteousness
and unrighteousness. And what a blessing and favour
if God has given us a desire after righteousness and to find
it a pleasure, not a pleasure in unrighteousness, but a pleasure
in righteousness. Well, the Lord knows our hearts. He knows the situation which
exists. But we must remember that those
who are lost, their great sin is they believed not the truth,
but had pleasure in unrighteousness. And the result is they will be
eternally damned. What a sad, sad position. But here we are, warned and spoken
of it by the Apostle who was obviously Concerned about the
Thessalonians He wrote to them as the Church of God, but there
were many who of course did not believe and then we Come to the
13th verse where the Apostle says, but we are bound to give
thanks All the way to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord
Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. What
it's like, isn't it? From one bad side to one amazingly
good side. And so we have this wonderful
truth. But we are bound to give thanks. And we are bound to give thanks
to God. for those who do believe, for
those who've been brought to a knowledge of the truth, and
especially as we look at ourselves, to realise that there was nothing
good in us that deserved to be brought to this position. But
to be able to come and say tonight, but we are bound to give thanks. There's no other way. We must
give thanks to God for those we know who are called by grace
and he explains who they are brethren beloved of the Lord
beloved of the Lord and then he tells us because God from
the beginning chosen you to salvation that's why we read the 15th chapter
of John where the 16th verse tells us ye have not chosen me
but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever
ye should ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."
Well, what a glorious truth it is, and what a wonderful blessing
it is if you and I can look into our hearts and confess humbly
before our God, not in me, We've not chosen God, but through his
grace, his unmerited favor, he has chosen us. Chosen us before
time began. What a great mystery and yet
what a wonderful truth and what an amazing blessing. And may
we each know and have the evidence in our heart that God has indeed
chosen us, and we read in Ephesians in the first chapter of the fourth
verse, according as he has chosen us in him, in Christ, safety
in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Well, my friends,
what a great truth it is and what a blessing it is that we
have such words to be able to read tonight. But we are bound
to give thanks all the way to God for you. Brethren, beloved
of the Lord, to be loved of our God is so humbling. It's amazing, isn't it, to think
that the ruler of the universe, the creator of all things, has
loved us, loved the Lord, so needful, so necessary, and yet
so wonderful and so glorious. Because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation, the saving of our soul, safe we are
then, safe in the arms of Jesus. How comforting this is to the
true believer, through sanctification of the Spirit. It is the Spirit
that sanctifies, it is the Spirit that blesses us with desires
after holiness, to be separated from the poor things of time
and separated unto our God, union with the Lamb, from condemnation
free. sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. Well, may God bless us to believe
the whole word of God from Genesis to Revelation. Wonderful privilege
to have it. But my friends, we need to believe
it is the word of God. And as we read it, to believe
we are reading the very words of God. And so the Apostle said,
we refer to the 15th chapter in John, we have that wonderful
high priestly hair in the 17th chapter, in the 17th verse, where
the Lord Jesus says, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word
is truth. What a mercy it is therefore
to have God's truth, that you and I can read, and not only
read what a blessing it is, if the Lord comes and applies his
word to our heart, so we have the indisputable evidence within
ourself that we are born again of the Spirit, not because we
were good, not because we deserved it, but because the Lord God
Almighty loved us with an everlasting love. Well may God bless us and
help us to think upon these great and wonderful words.