Turn with me if you would now
to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. And let's read verses 11 and 12. Wherefore, also, we pray always
for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and
fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work
of faith with power. That the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ may be glorified in you and you in him. according to the grace of our
God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe this is a very appropriate
text to observe the Lord's table with. What a privilege it is. This table is a great privilege. It's a wonderful gift that our
Lord has given to us. We. Observe this table in heart
every time we gather together, we observe this table in message,
but our Lord has given us something. To tangibly remember him, and
it's a great privilege. When we observe this table, we
observe it number one in commandment. Our Lord told us to do this.
He said, as oft as you do it, do it. He gave us this and then
he commanded us. So we observe it in commandment. We observe this table in remembrance. He said, do this in remembrance
of me. There's only one thing to remember
concerning our salvation. Broken body shed blood. We remember
him. This is the tangible way that
involves our senses. He gave us something that involves
all of the senses of our body for us to physically in our body. Remember what our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ accomplished for us in His body. We remember it
in the body. The purchase He made with His
own body to buy our souls back. That's what this was. He bought
our souls back. He redeemed us back to God. A payment had to be made and
He made the payment. He bought our souls back. So
we do this in commandment, we do this in remembrance, and we
do this in confession. In this we're saying, he has
united himself to me, and he has united me to him. That's
what we're saying in this. When we partake of this table,
we are united. I in Him, Him in me. And that's what verse 12 says.
It says that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified
in you and you in Him. Him in us, us in Him. That's what we're confessing.
Through His accomplishment. By His grace, by His free gift,
He has broken down the middle wall of partition that was between
us. There was a wall of partition
keeping us from God. And He has broken it down and
made us to be one. We are completely united. I'm in him. He's in me. That's
what God's people say. I'm in him. He is in me. My hope before God is total union
with him. This is my only hope before God.
Total union with Christ. Complete union with Christ. His union with my death. In my union with his life. Total
union with him. Now the Apostle Paul said that
he was praying something for the Thessalonians, three things
specifically, and he names them in verse 11. And these three
things declare the salvation that we're confessing. He prays
for the work of the Father. the work of the Son and the work
of the Spirit. Verse 11, he said, wherefore
also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy
of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness
and the work of faith with power. He said, I pray God might save
you start to finish. That's what he just said. I pray
God might save you start to finish. That's what I pray for every
person here. I pray God might save you start to finish. Now he started the work and you
have to finish it. No, I pray God might save you
start to finish. Every step, every word. I pray
your salvation includes all the fullness of the Godhead. I pray
it includes all the work of the Godhead. That's what we see in
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see all the work of
the Godhead, all the fullness of the work of the Father, the
work of the Son, and the work of the Spirit. Now, what was
the work of the Father? In our salvation, what did God
our Father do for us? Verse 11 says, wherefore also
we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of
this calling. He said, I pray God would count
you worthy of this calling. Now, if you have the center margin
in your Bible, you see that the word count means vouchsafe. He said, I pray God will vouch
for you. I pray God will vouch for you.
I pray God has put his name down to be the surety for you. I pray God the Father chose you.
That's what he's saying. I pray God chose you. I love
how the word this right here is in italics. It was added by
the translators. And what he said was, I pray
God would count you worthy of calling. I pray God would consider
you worthy of calling, worthy to be chosen. What does a man
or a woman have to be to be worthy of being chosen? You know, God
chose a people. And he said, I pray God would
consider you to be worthy of choosing. What does a man or
a woman have to be to be worthy of being chosen. Who did God
the Father choose to call? Go with me over to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26, For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not
to bring to nothing things that are. that no flesh should glory
in His presence. Who did the Father choose? He
chose sinners. He chose lowly, wretched sinners. Those who deserve nothing more
than to be despised. Those who are not And that's
what we are, isn't it? We're not. We're not. That's what we confess before
him. That's what we confess before everybody else. We get on television
and confess we're not. We're not. We're not wise, we're foolish.
We're not mighty, we're weak. We're not noble, we're base.
We must decrease. Oh, I tell you, brother, I'm
pretty low. Well, we need to get a little lower. We must decrease. We must decrease. That's who
God the Father chose. That's what it is to be worthy
of this calling. You have to be not. You have
to be not. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto us. Not by works of
righteousness which we have done. The world is ready to run up
to the Lord, crying, this is what I've done, this is what
I've done, this is what I've done. God's people are trying
to holler as loud as they can. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done. Not. Not. Our flesh does not
glory in your presence. Paul said, I pray God would make
you that worthy. I pray God makes you not. Because that's who the Father
chose. And we confess before him, that's what we are. Lord,
that's all that we are, we're just not. Go back to 2 Thessalonians
1. Verse 11 says, wherefore also
we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of
this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness. Oh, he said, I pray God will
fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness. The work of
God, the son, the Lord Jesus Christ. in our salvation. His work was to fulfill all the
good pleasure of God's goodness. Fulfill all the good pleasure
of God's grace. God the Father chose who the
work would be for. And God the Son fulfilled the
work. He fulfilled all the good pleasure
of God's goodness. Whatever it pleased God to do,
Christ fulfilled it. Whatever it pleased Him to do.
What did it please God to do? What did it please Him to do?
This is one of my favorite, I guess I say that about every other
message, don't I? This is one of my favorite portions of Scripture.
Get ready to fall in love with some Scripture. Go with me over
to 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel 12, verse 20. And Samuel said unto the people,
Fear not, you have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside
from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your
heart. And turn ye not aside For then
should you go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver,
for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased
the Lord to make you his people. He said, fear not, you've done
all this wickedness. Fear not, the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great namesake, because it hath pleased the Lord
to make you his people. That's what it pleased him to
do. It pleased him to make some sinners his people. How did the
Lord make us his people? That was his good pleasure. How
did he fulfill it? What did it take? What was He
pleased to do to redeem us to Himself? Go over to Isaiah 53. It pleased the Lord to make us
His people. How did it please the Lord to
do it? Verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased God. All the fullness
of God. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit. It pleased God the Son. It pleased God to bruise Christ. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. That's what we're confessing.
Thank God it pleased the Lord to bruise him. I'm the one who
deserved the bruising. But it pleased God the Father
to bruise Christ for us. It goes on to say, He hath put
him to grief. He made his soul an offering
for sin. Why? Why would God do that? Why
would it please the Lord to make His own Son a sacrifice for sin? The reason is because verse 4
says, He bore our griefs. He carried our sorrows. I believe
and pray one day we enter into that and appreciate it as we
ought to. I pray one day in glory, he causes
us to truly see this is what I did for you. He bore our griefs. He carried our sorrows. Yet we
did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. I wouldn't have done for me what
he did for me. I'm not that nice. We still esteemed
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. Everything we were supposed to
get was upon him. And the end of verse five says
with his stripes were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. That's all we've done. That's
all we do. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed,
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. That's
such a holy thought to me, as our Lord stood there before Pilate,
all of those accusations being brought against him, and he opened
not his mouth. And they spit in his face, and he opened not
his mouth. And they ripped the hair out of his beard, and they
opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened
not His mouth. He was standing there as us. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He
was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he'd done no violence,
neither was any deceit found in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. You know, we just sang the song,
How Can It Be? How can it be? How can this be? How can this
be? Here's the answer. It pleased
the Lord. It pleased the Lord. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. God seeing the travail of his
own son's soul is satisfied. Satisfied with the punishment
we deserve. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great. And he shall divide
the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors." That was the good pleasure of his
goodness. That was the good pleasure of his goodness. that Christ
would fulfill all those things for us, and He did. He did, and
that's what we're confessing. He fulfilled it all. Go back
with me to 2 Thessalonians 1. Verse 11 says, Wherefore also
we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy
of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His
goodness and fulfill the work of faith with power. He said, I pray God the Father
chose you. I pray God the Son redeemed you. And I pray God the Spirit will
effectually produce a work of faith in your heart. Ephesians
2 verse 8 says, By grace are you saved through faith. The Lord truly does a work of
faith in his people. He causes them to look to Christ
and believe on Christ. Acts 16.31 says, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That is something that
men throw around. You believe on Christ? Oh yeah,
I believe on Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast your all on Christ. Everything
you are, get rid of it. All your hope in the work of
Christ alone, cast it all on Him and thou shalt be saved. And that's what we're confessing
in this. When we partake of this, we say, this is my only hope
before God. What plea do you have to enter
into my kingdom, the broken body and the shed blood of my Savior? That's our only plea. That's
our only plea. I believe Him. That's what we confess. I believe.
I believe because the Father chose me to believe. I believe
because the Son redeemed me to believe. And I believe because
the Spirit has quickened me to believe. My salvation is of my
Lord. I believe. I believe. In Him, I see all the fullness
of my Godhead bodily. I see the entire complete work
of salvation in the broken body, in the shed blood of my Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 12 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 and the Lord Jesus Christ. As we partake of this, let's
remember that. Let's remember that. In this
great salvation, this amazing salvation, our Lord has wrought
an amazing work. And in this great salvation,
His name is glorified. In this, his name is glorified.
What is his name? Savior. You call his name Jesus
because he is going to save his people from his sins. And that's
what he did. And in this great salvation,
his grace is glorified. Thank God for grace. That's the
free gift. And that gift was sufficient.
And in this great salvation, we are glorified amazingly enough. I in him and him in me. We are glorified in him. He is
glorified in us. He has conformed us to his image.
through His own suffering. And you know what God's people
cry to that? To God be the glory. Great things He's done. That's
what we remember in this. To God be the glory for all of
His grace, all of His kindness, all of His mercy that He's given
to us. Alright, Brother Stan, you come
up and read for us.