2 Thessalonians 3. We'll see where we get to. I
hope to maybe finish this tonight. We'll see. Titled the message, The Lord
is Faithful. The Lord's faithful. He's faithful
to keep us. You know, Paul said that all
men have not faith, but the Lord's faithful. He's faithful to keep
us and to bring us through and to bring us home. The Gospel, when it comes in power, Touches
every area of a believer's life, whether you're at home, work,
here, or wherever you are. It touches your life. I heard Henry say this once, it
makes a husband a better husband. It makes a wife a better wife. It makes an employee a better
employee, an employer a better employer. And even as others are slackers,
the believer is of a different character. The believer is of
a different character. And Paul deals with this a little
bit in the closing part of this. But he says in verse 1, finally,
he's going to draw this to a conclusion, and what he's going to deal with
is no less important than all the other things he has dealt
with. And he says here, finally brethren, and this is so important, and
when we say this to one another, We say it with the utmost sincerity. Pray for us. What I just did
a few minutes ago, I read the Word of God to you and I prayed,
went before God, going before the throne of grace and asking
Him to bless us, to be with us, to teach us, to instruct us, What an awesome privilege and
responsibility it is to call upon the Lord, the God of creation. When you look out into the sky
and you see all those stars that sprinkle the sky, you look upon
this earth and creation, that God is our God. He's our God. And He's the one I just called
on. And there is no other God beside Him. No other God. Samuel said, God forbid that
I should sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you. It would be a sin against God
for me not to pray for you and for you not to pray for me. It'd
be a sin against God. Our Lord Austin went apart to
pray. And there were times that he
prayed all night. He lived in an attitude of prayer
constantly, constantly. The Scripture says, and this
is something you want to get a hold of, the fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. I don't desire your money, I
don't desire your belongings, whatever you have, but there
is one thing I do desire from you. Your prayers. Your prayers. Spurgeon owed much of his success
in that his church prayed for him, held him up before the throne
of grace. You know, Paul said in one place,
no man is sufficient for these things. I'm not sufficient for
this. The most educated man on this
earth is not sufficient for this. And God can take the most uneducated
and make Him sufficient to do this, to preach the gospel in
the power of His Spirit. Let us never take lightly the
awesome privilege and responsibility of going before God Almighty,
going before God. Now note what Paul requests prayer
for. The first thing he does, and
I want you to notice the order in which Paul puts this. First,
it's the Word of God, it's the Gospel. Secondly, it's himself,
but he put the Word of God first. He put the Gospel first. He says
that the Word of the Lord may have free course, that it would
run freely, that you, his people, would enjoy
the gospel, that you would be able through the gospel to grow
in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it
would not be hindered, that the Lord would be pleased to remove
the hindrances that would keep the gospel from being a blessing
to you and enabling you to grow. that it would have free course,
that the Lord would open doors for the preaching of the gospel.
You know, that ought to be a prayer of ours here consistently. It ought to be. That the Lord
would open doors, like right now we're on the radio, that
He would open doors for us to send the gospel out and to preach
the gospel. And notice here, and then he
says here, and that the word of the Lord may be glorified,
that it be honored. that all the time that God gives
us here together, that the gospel will always be honored, that
the gospel will be held in the highest esteem, that we will
not grow cold, that we will not grow lukewarm, that we will not
grow indifferent, but we will always have a fervent love for
the gospel. And it takes first place over
everything. over everything. And when the Word of the Lord
is glorified, truth is preached. See, when the Word of the Lord
is glorified, some things happen. It's not just people raising
their hand going, whoo-hoo. That's not glorified. I'll tell
you what it is. When the Word of the Lord is
glorified, truth is preached. Truth is preached. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is lifted up. His name is magnified, given
to the Lord the glory that do His name, the Scripture says.
Well, when the word of the Lord, which is the gospel, is glorified,
the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted up, and when He's lifted up,
you are fed, you are edified. And He said, pray for this. You
know, I know, I'm in this flesh, I live in this world, I know
mostly what we pray for, Lord bless, give me a job, give me
this, give me that. Our minds are so much on ourselves.
But that God would give us the grace and the maturity to pray
for spiritual blessings, spiritual things. That His word, that the
gospel be glorified here. Christ be lifted up, church edified,
and listen, And sinners will be saved. Sinners will be saved. Sheep will be brought into the
fold. Now he says in verse 2, Well,
it says here that it'll have a free course and be glorified
even as it is with you. He said, the same way it is with
you, pray that it be that way also in other places. Paul was
at Corinth. Pray that it be that way at Corinth.
Pray that it be that way in Lexington. Pray it be that way in all these
other places where the Lord has a local church. Pray that the
gospel have free course in those men. Pray for those men. They need our prayers as much
as I need your prayers. Hold them up. I tell you, son,
there's nothing that Satan would love more than to take down one
of God's preachers. Take him down. Now he says here, now he speaks
of himself in verse 2, "...and that we may be delivered from
unreasonable and wicked men." He put the gospel before his
own self. He put it before himself. But he says, pray that the Lord
will deliver us from unreasonable, that is, absurd and wicked men. And the wicked men he's talking
about is not mafia figures. He's talking about religious
people, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. That's what he's talking
about. Because all men have not faith,
not everyone, He's not saying that not all men have not faith. He's not talking about just all
men out there. He's talking about all men who claim to have faith
do not have faith. All who claim to be called of
God to preach are not called of God to preach. And not all
men who claim to believe the gospel actually believe the gospel.
That's the one thing that I do constantly pray, Lord, I pray,
and I do, I pray that the faith I have and repentance is genuine. I pray that constantly. Don't let me fool myself. The heart is deceitful above
all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Well, I know
my heart. That's the last thing you know
is your heart, that all natural heart. And I pray, I pray that
the faith that I have, and I pray that the faith that you have,
I do pray, I pray often. Lord, I pray that the faith we
have is genuine, it's real. Because listen, all men have
not faith. All men and women who claim to
believe, do not believe. Not all of them. Their greatest
enemy was coming from, some of them were coming out of people
who claim to believe. And that's what he's talking
about here. There are many more false preachers
than there are true preachers. There are many, many, many, many
more false preachers carrying this Bible than there are true
preachers carrying it. And pray that the church, the
body of Christ, be delivered from these men. Satan is so subtle. He will do
whatever it takes to keep our minds and hearts off of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Whatever it takes, He'll use
it. If God allows Him, He'll use it. But, there's good news
here. There's good news. The Lord is
faithful. The Lord whom you trust, The
Lord who came into this world and took upon Him flesh and went
to the cross and died for sinners. The Lord who called you by His
grace. The Lord who called you, as Paul said earlier, by our
gospel. He's faithful. He's faithful
to keep you. He's faithful to protect you. I tell you, as I get older, And
me and my youngest son was talking about this today a little bit.
We were talking about the wickedness of this world and the sinfulness. And we were talking about some
different things that were going on. And as I get older, I really
appreciate and I'm thankful that the Lord is faithful to protect
me and to keep me. What would it be like if we didn't
have that? This is how I know that people
who are spiritually dead are dead. They are spiritually dead
because they don't deal with reality. To think that I can
protect myself? To think that I'm such a macho
that I can handle myself? No, it's the Lord that keeps
us. He even keeps the wicked. He even keeps them until it's
time for them to take them out of here. Now the Lord's faithful, even
though men are not. He'll keep His own, not one sheep
will be lost. And you have to understand the
heavy persecution they were undergoing at this time. They were undergoing
heavy, heavy persecution. And Paul said, the Lord is faithful,
He'll keep you. Not one sheep will be lost. He will in His time deal with
these unreasonable men. He'll deal with them. After He has used them to accomplish
His purpose in you. I tell you, men and women, they
think they're just out here freewheeling and they don't realize they're
under the power and control of God Almighty. And He's using
them to serve His people. To either correct them, teach
them, instruct them, guide them in different directions that
they don't even realize it. They don't even realize it. You
know, the people out here that are rich and they own great businesses
and they employ a lot of people, it may be that a company can
employ 10,000 people and there might be two sheep there. And
that's the reason why they have that employment. That's the reason
why they have those great riches. And a couple sheep needed a job.
You believe that? I do. I do. God will let a man
be rich and wealthy and just employ his sheep so that they
can make a living. The Lord is faithful, He'll keep
you. Not only will He keep you, listen, He says He will establish
you and keep you from evil or the evil one. Satan has no power
over you at all. I don't fear him. I fear God. I have a reverent
respect for God. Satan has no more power than
anybody else on this earth. He can only do what he's allowed
to do. He comes before God and God said, where you been? He
said, I've been walking to and fro up and down the earth. It's
not that the Lord didn't know where he was at. He's just making
him own up. And he says, I've been walking
to and fro down the earth. Then they got to talk about Job.
He knew Satan wanted Job, my servant Job. And then he let
him, you know the story there. He lets him touch all that he
had, but he can't touch his life. But before he does that, what
is it that Satan says to God? You put a hedge about him. You
have put a hedge about him, and I can't touch you. That's what I, you know, often
when I pray for my grandkids, I say, Lord, put a hedge about
him. Put a hedge about him. Keep them. He's the only one who can. Satan
will not destroy the work of God. God will keep you till He's ready
to take you home. It says in Philippians, He which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop it. It is God whom we look to to
keep us. It's not God and me. It's not
me and God cooperating. We're in this together and we're
working it out. He's keeping me like a parent
would keep a baby. And He's the only one who can
keep. Not only can He keep you from Satan, He can keep you from
falling. Falling away. Apostasy. You know,
we live in a day of apostasy. We live in a day of apostasy. But the Lord can keep you from
apostasizing. Because I tell you what, if He
didn't, we would. We would. In Jude 1.24, "...Now
unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present
you flawless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Unto Him is the one we look to,
and He's the one we thank and give praise to. And Paul says
in verse four, our confidence is in the Lord concerning you.
You notice he didn't say our confidence is in you. I know
you can do this. I know you can do it. You know,
it's like a, like a coach before you go out to play a game. I
didn't come on. I know you've been working hard. I know you
can do it. No, you can't. You can't even get out the front
door. You don't even know where the front door is. He says, our confidence is in
the Lord concerning you, that you'll do this. Not in your ability to keep yourself,
but his ability. He will enable you to do these
things. These things I've written to
you. Our Lord said this, and this is something we need to
learn. Without me, you can do nothing. You are totally inadequate. That's why the world doesn't
like this message. Don't tell me I'm inadequate.
I mean, I might be inadequate, but you don't have to tell me.
Don't tell me I'm inadequate. Don't tell me I can't do it.
Don't tell... No, you can't. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. You're totally helpless. But Paul said that
through Christ, he said, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. There's nothing I can't do in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says in verse five, the
Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. The Lord direct your hearts into
loving God. that you would grow in this grace
of love, that you would grow in love to one another. And I've
learned this over the years. My love to you is the response of my love to
God. I don't love you any more than
I love God. If I truly love God, I'm gonna
love you. If my love grows toward the Lord,
it's gonna grow towards you. That's how it's gonna grow. Now
he said, the Lord direct your hearts. Salvation is a heart
work. We're not just sitting in class
here and you're getting a lecture. You're not getting a lecture.
You're getting the word of God. If you're being taught, if you're
really being taught, you're being taught of God. The Lord directs your hearts
into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ,
looking for Christ, waiting for Him, patiently waiting for Him. Someone said this, the least
thing done in real love is the greatest and the greatest thing
done without love is nothing. Nothing. The whole law is fulfilled
in this principle of love that is shared abroad in the heart
by the Holy Spirit. And there's patiently waiting
for the Lord's return. You know what that shows? It shows this, that you really
do believe God. If you are patiently waiting
on the Lord, This shows you really believe. You don't wait on somebody
you don't believe in. No. You know, in the Scriptures
they say, where is His coming? Things remain as they are since
the beginning. Where is His coming? You say, He's coming? Where is
it? It's been two thousand years now. Where is His coming? He's
coming. He's coming. Just wait and see.
Just wait and see. He's coming. The believer really looks for
Him to return. The believer doesn't know when.
I don't know when. You don't know when. But I know
this. He's going to. I fully expect
the Lord to return. I fully expect it. He's faithful. He said He would, wouldn't He?
He's faithful. Faithful to His Word. He said He would. He'll
be back. He'll be back. But now Paul turns here and he
deals with some things that need to be dealt with. He deals with
some slackers. He deals with some people who
are taking advantage of the Lord's sheep. There's some slacker freeloaders,
busybodies he calls them. There's some busybodies. There will always be flies where
there's food. You can just count on it. And
there's always going to be slackers and busybodies where they can
take advantage of the Lord's people because the Lord's people
are a giving people. They are. They are gracious. They are kind people. And Paul's
going to deal with this. And this is so important. This
is so important. There were some there who, they
wouldn't work. They wouldn't work. They were
lazy. They took advantage of the generosity
of the sheep. And you'll always have them.
You'll always have them. They'll always come in. They'll
always take advantage. And Paul wants them to know that
when someone like this is around, or some or many or however many,
he's saying this, that you don't need to support them who will
not work. You support them who are in need. But if a man or
woman won't work, He said, don't let them eat. Don't let them eat. Don't support
them. Don't let them take advantage
of you. Now, after saying that, He says this in verse 13, Because
you can carry that too far. You can carry that, because there
could be somebody who really is in need, and then you throw
him in the same category as the slacker. And so Paul says, but
you, brethren, don't be weary in well-doing. Don't let that
wear you out. I'm not going to do that no more. Last time I
did that, they took advantage of it. He said, don't think like
that. Every opportunity is a new opportunity. And it's a different situation.
And that's how you handle it. You handle it one at a time,
one opportunity at a time. Don't let others who have bad
motives harden you toward all. For there are some who truly
have need, they truly have need. And he says here in closing, now the Lord in verse 16, Now
the Lord of Peace Himself, if we have any peace, any real peace,
that's of God, the Lord gave it to us. He's the Lord of Peace. He's the Prince of Peace. Now
the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace always by all means,
that He'll give you peace whatever trouble you're going through.
And they were going through some very difficult times. They lost
their jobs. They'd lose their homes. And
they were in a bad, bad situation. But he said, I pray this. Here's
what I pray, that God will give you peace. Now, non-believers say, I don't
want peace. I want my home back. But the believer to the believer,
Paul says, this is what you need. You don't need your home back.
You need peace. You need the God of peace to
be with you. You need the God of peace to
walk through the water. When He says, when you go through
the water, I'll be with you. And the fire, it will not kindle
upon you. It won't burn you. That's what
we need. In the time of trouble, if I
lose my home, I don't need my home back. I just need the Lord
of peace to be with me and give me peace through whatever He's
putting me through. Because my real home is not here.
My real home is with the Lord. It's with the Lord. And He says
this, and I say this to you, and the Lord be with you all.
When you leave here in just a few minutes, the Lord be with every
one of you. He be with you all.