from back to 2 Thessalonians
2. I was looking over some of my
old notes that I had preached from this the last time, and
I had 14 pages of notes. I thought that's a little too
much. So I rewrote it. I rewrote the whole thing, and
I didn't use too much of that. But I looked back at that, and
I thought, that's a lot of notes. I don't remember. I don't know
how long I preached from it. I only have four pages. I cut 10 pages out. I titled the message, We have
much to be thankful for. We have much to be thankful for.
We are bound to give thanks. That's what he says. We are obligated.
That's what he's saying. We are obligated to always give
thanks to God. And the reason we're so obligated
is that we are debtors of the grace of God. Debtors to the
grace of God. We know that salvation from sin and from death, sin shall not
have dominion over you. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. Death has no dominion over you. And we know that salvation from
these is of the Lord, from Alpha to Omega. We have no doubt about
that. We have no doubt, zero doubt. Salvation is of the Lord from
beginning to end. It is the Lord who loved us before
we loved Him. Before He loved us and made His
love known to us and shed abroad His love in us, we didn't love
Him at all. We had zero love for God. None. Not until He should have
brought His love in our hearts. It is the Lord who chose us. Chose us. You're mine. Sit down
and think about that sometimes. Get off to yourself. Nobody can
bother you. And meditate on this fact, this
truth. God chose you. You're mine. He called you by your name. He said, I've called you by your
name, thou art mine. Before my mother and father named
me Jonathan Darrell Chapman, the Lord named me. He already
gave me the name. And they're sitting around there
saying, what do we want to call him? What do we want to name
him? What do we want to name our son? I'll tell you what you're going
to name him. You're going to name him what God named him.
back when He chose me in Christ before the foundation of the
world. And He redeemed us, He bought us, He purchased us. That's
one of the things that I think of when I think of you. This
congregation, this church, you are a purchased people. The Lord
has made me an under-shepherd over a purchased people, purchased
now by the blood of the Son of God." Purchased by the blood
of God. And He's called us, called us
by His Spirit, called us by the Gospel. And He's still calling
us. You know why you came back today,
this evening? He called you back here. He did. He called you back here. Lord willing, we'll be back here
Sunday. We're back here because He's still calling us. He's still
drawing us. He's still wooing us. He's still
bringing us to Himself. And then someday, He'll take
us home. He'll call us home. And it's of the Lord in the new
birth. He's regenerated us. Born of
God. Sons and daughters of God, born again. And all the glory of salvation
and all the praise belongs to Him. It says in Psalm 96.8, Give
unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. And that is all of it. All glory
belongs to Him. All of it. Now, we will see in
these verses 13 through 17, mostly getting down to verse 16. We
dealt a little bit with the other ones earlier. But he says here
in verse 13, we are bound, it is our duty to give thanks to
God always for you, brethren, beloved of God. You are the beloved
of God. We are bound to give thanks.
Always giving thanks to God for His mercies, for His grace, for
each other. You know, we don't thank each
other for coming here, but we do thank God that He's brought
us here and has made us a family. He's made us a family. We're
part of the family of God. And we thank God who loved us,
and we thank God who chose us. You know how many people there
are? I mean, we don't know that number, but that God has passed
by. It says He'll have mercy on whom
He'll have mercy, and whom He will, He'll harden. He hardened Pharaoh's heart,
and yet He let Pharaoh harden his heart by leaving him to himself. I know that God could have easily,
just as easily, left me alone. Instead, he called me, chose
me, called me, loved me. Loved me when he knew everything
about me. As you've seen some people, he
got married and a few months down the road, it's
like, why didn't you show up earlier? Who's this? But there's nothing that I will
do, or you will do, that God doesn't know about. You know
what I'm saying? There's nothing I'll do that
He doesn't know and that He hasn't already taken care of. There's
not a sin I'll commit that my Heavenly Father hasn't already
put away. Just like when David committed adultery and then had
her husband, or she was his husband, killed, Nathan the prophet said,
you're the man, you're guilty, but God has put away your sin.
You will not die, God's put it away. And He put it away by grace,
for no other reason than grace. No other reason. We thank God
who loved us, who chose us, who called us. You know, a thankful
heart is a regenerate heart. It's a heart that's been born
of God. A heart that's truly thankful. And we thank God for
the means, He says here, through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. He set us apart. That's what
sanctification is. It's to be set apart, it's to
be considered holy, it's to be made holy. You know, in the new
birth, it is said that we are created in righteousness and
true holiness. That we are made partakers of
the divine nature in the new birth. He made us holy. He set us apart. He made us holy
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's given to us a new heart,
a heart that loves Him, a heart that loves the truth. It says
over in the latter part of this chapter that God sent in them
a strong delusion that they believe a lie, that they might be damned.
Why? Because they received not the
love of the truth. They didn't love the truth. They
loved the lie, and so God gave them all of what they wanted.
He let them drown in it, drown in delusions. We are the work
of the Spirit of God. I like what that leper said to
our Lord. He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me... And
I used to misquote that. I used to say, you can make me
whole, but that's not what he said. You can make me clean. That's sanctification. You can
not only save me, listen, you can not only save me from the
damning power of sin, but you can save me from the reigning
power of sin. You can make me clean. You can
wash me. That's what David said in Psalm
51, wash me throughly inside and out, and I shall be whiter
than snow. There must be the sanctifying
work of the Holy Spirit that goes along with our election
of God. And belief of the truth. Belief of the truth. Faith is
the evidence of our election. Election itself is not salvation. It's unto salvation. And the
evidence of our election is the work of the Holy Spirit, sanctification,
and faith. You believe God. You believe
God. If God has chosen a man, loved
a man, called a man, that man or that woman is going to believe
God. You're going to believe God because I can tell you why
you're going to believe God, because you can't help it. When God grants faith
and repentance, it happens. It happens. Just like when He
commanded the light to shine in the creation, what happened? It shined. There was light. Let
there be light, and there was light. And when He commands the
light of the gospel to shine into your heart that gives the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that light's going to
shine, and you're going to see, and you're going to believe,
and you're going to repent. You know, one thing I've learned,
I've learned this over the years. I don't have to try and start
defining what faith is. I don't need to define what repentance
is. If God gives it to you, you'll
have it. If he gives you repentance, you
will repent. And if I start defining it, then
you start trying to see if it matches up to what I say. Do
I feel bad enough? Have I cried? Do I mourn? But
I tell you what, if from the word of God, he says, repent
and believe the gospel, if the Holy Spirit has a hold of you,
you'll repent. And you'll know what it is by
the fact that you're doing it. I tell you, where we get in confusion
is where we try, when preachers like us stand in a pulpit, we
start trying to define the life out of it. You know what it is to believe
without me trying to define it. You know what it is to believe.
You know that. And I don't need to complicate
it. So every one of God's children,
they are the work of the Holy Spirit, they are born of God,
and they believe the truth. They believe God. They believe
it. When they hear it, they believe
it. When they hear it, they believe it. Whereunto, he says in verse 14,
whereunto He called you by our gospel. He called you. He's still calling you. He's
called you. He never stops. He never stops. It's a continual calling. But
He called you. That's personal. He is personal. I don't, it's over in Samuel,
I think most of you know the story where God calls Samuel,
he goes to bed, and God calls him, he runs in there to Eli,
and Eli said, well, you know, it wasn't me, go back to bed.
And then he calls him again, and he goes back to Eli again,
and Eli's, no, it wasn't me, you know, I'm paraphrasing. You
know, go back to bed, but the next, if it happens again, You
say, here am I. Then the Lord called him. The
third time the Lord called him, Samuel said, here am I. It was
a personal call. And it came to him. And listen,
it's a call to come to Christ, first of all. It's a call to
repent. That is, to change your way of
thinking of God and Christ and of yourself. It's a powerful
call. It's an effectual call. It's
a call that arrests you, and it'll bring you. The Holy Spirit,
through the preaching of the gospel, brings the sinner to
that call. He or she responds to it. When
others walk out the door unimpressed, you respond to it. He said, whereunto He called
you by our gospel, He called you in power, He called you by
grace, and you answered His call by receiving and following the
Lord Jesus Christ, bowing to His Lordship. We have a Lord. We have a King. that we bow to
and follow after. You became followers of the Lord.
As Paul said in 1 Thessalonians, you became followers of us and
of the Lord. Now this calling is to the obtaining
of something. He says there in verse 14, to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. You have been called out of darkness
into His marvelous light. You've been called out of ignorance
into knowledge of Him. You've been taught of God. He's
not left you alone. All thy children shall be taught
of God. And you've been called to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are made partakers of His
glory just as we were partakers of darkness. in evil, in sin,
in wickedness. We are now partakers of His glory
and of righteousness and truth and all that belongs to Christ.
Whatever that glory is, I cannot put it into words. I live on
this earth just like you. My vocabulary for heavenly things
is very limited. You remember when Paul went to
the third heaven? He said, I saw things that were
unlawful to utter. Now he didn't mean it was illegal.
He said that there's no words, we have no vocabulary for it.
I have no vocabulary for it. There's just no words for it,
what I saw. And here, when we speak of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, it just transcends anything we
could have ever seen or have ever thought of. Look over in
Romans chapter 8. In verse 18, for I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us, not to us. It's not that we're just going
to be spectators. We're not just spectators. the
glory that's going to be revealed in us. We're going to be partakers
of that glory, whatever all that is. I mean, it's beyond me to
tell. But he said, I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So we've been called by the grace
of God, called by the gospel, of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we've been called to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you and I, if God would
give us just a glimpse, just a glimpse of this glory, I think
it would enable us just to drop these little play pretties we
have, you know, we're so obsessed with, and we go after, and you
just drop it. for that glory that's in Him
and we'll be partakers of. Now this being so, verse 15,
this being so, stand fast, that's a military term, stand fast,
hold your ground, hold your ground. Be firm in the faith, nothing
wavering as the way James said it, nothing wavering, solid. because you stand on the solid
rock. Christ isn't moving. And if that's been so, I shouldn't
move. If the foundation is sure and
firm, then you and I should be able to be sure and firm. Hold
your ground. And it gives us something here
in verse 16 to be thankful for. First of all, let me get back
here. God has given us through the Lord Jesus Christ, God who
has loved us. Let me read this. Now our Lord
Jesus Christ himself and God, even our father, which hath loved
us. There's something to be thankful for. I can't imagine, he so have I hated.
What if it had been written, John have I hated? It could have
been. It could have been. which hath loved us, and hath
given us everlasting consolation." We have an everlasting comfort
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I always have something.
to find comfort in in Christ. We always find comfort in Him.
If we don't find comfort in Him, it's our fault. It's never His
fault. It's mine. The flaw is in me. It's never in Him. If I come
here and I'm not fed, there can be a point where it's
my fault if I'm not studying or if I'm not feeding the sheep.
But if I'm feeding the sheep, if I'm studying, if I'm doing
my job, and if you come here and you're not fed, that's not
the Lord's fault. That's our fault. That's our
fault. Not being prepared. Not being
prepared to come to the house of God and worship. Not preparing
the heart before you even get here to worship. There is preparation that takes
place in worship. There's preparation that needs
to take place. Preparation of the heart. Preparation of the
mind that takes place to come here and receive the Word of
God. You know the best way to go to... Somebody invites you
to eat. You know the best way to show
up at their house? Hungry. Show up hungry. Don't sit down and eat an hour
beforehand and you get there and say, Really? I'm not that
hungry. I'll just pick, pick, pick, pick. No, sit down hungry. It's the best way to come here
would be hungry. But here's something also to be thankful for. We have
a good hope, he says here. He's giving us an everlasting
consolation and good hope through grace. Good hope. You know, most people have a
hope. that when this is all over, everything's going to be all
right somehow or another. They have some kind of hope that
everything's going to be fine. But that's not a good hope. Just
because a person has hope doesn't mean they have a good hope. They
could have a false hope. There's a lot of people have
a false hope. But I tell you what, a false hope will keep
people going until they realize that it's a false hope. But it'll
keep them going. Even a false hope will. But it
won't open that door to glory. It won't do that. But here's a good hope, and it's
a good hope through grace. And it's a good hope because
it's real. It's real. It's not false. The hope we have
of salvation, the hope we have of forgiveness, the hope we have
of acceptance and pardon and understanding God's presence
accepted is real. It's real. And then it's a good hope because
it's of God. God has given it to us. He's
given it to us by grace. He's given it to us through His
Son. We have a good hope through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a good hope because
it's established on the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's
not a good hope because I straightened up and I don't do this or that.
No, it's a good hope because the whole of it is based on Jesus
Christ, His blood, His righteousness, His person. He's my hope. That's what Paul writes to Timothy
in I think it's 1 Timothy. And he speaks of Jesus Christ,
our hope. Our hope is a person who is God
in the flesh named Jesus Christ. And then it's a good hope because
it fades not away with time and trials. Trials cannot destroy
this hope. Actually, I believe it makes
us grow stronger. Because it makes you look to Him more and
more and takes your heart and your affections off of these
things more and more. And it sets them on things above.
And when that happens, your hope, your expectation just grows. It grows. And it's a good hope because
it's established also on the Word of God. We have His Word
on it. And God has honored His Word above His name. We have
His Word on it. "...Come unto Me, all you that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." I have
His Word on that. "...Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." I have His Word on that. And
that gives me hope. Do you expect God to do what
He said He would do? Do you expect God to do that?
Well, that's what hope is. That's the definition of hope
in the Word of God. It's not a wish. It is a full
expectation of God doing just as He said He would. And then it's a hope that can
be explained. That's what it says on 1 Peter, it says, be
ready to give a reason for the hope that's within you, if anybody
asks you. And you know what? You can take
them to the Word of God. You can take them to the Word
of God and explain the hope you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it's a hope, listen,
it's a good hope through grace because it's a hope that makes
not a shame. It makes not a shame. Look over in Romans chapter 5,
I wrote that down, I can't remember now what it was. Romans chapter 5, in verse 5,
okay, there it is. Let me read verses before, let
me go back to 3. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed. We will fully realize what God
has promised. Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. But
the hope that we have in Christ makes not ashamed." It is written
over in Job 6.20, they were confounded because they had hoped. In that
particular scripture, they had hoped to find some water, but
when they got there, the brook was dried up. That's what he's
saying. And there are going to be many
who are going to stand before God. We've preached in Your name,
we've cast out devils in Your name, we've done many mighty
works in Your name. There are going to be many who
hope to enter heaven. And they're
going to be confounded, they're going to be confused, because
He's going to say, depart from Me, I never knew you. Because
their hope was never established on Jesus Christ, who is our hope.
The only hope God has ever given is Jesus Christ. It's not Christ
plus. It's Christ and Christ alone. And then it's a good hope because
it's... And here's what makes it a really good hope. It's all
of grace. I didn't have to do this, this,
and this in order for me to obtain it. It's all of grace. God has given me. God has given
some of you. He has given us a good hope of
the resurrection from the dead. He's given us a good hope of
acceptance. He's given us a good hope of
forgiveness. He's given us a good hope that
when all this is over, we're going to be with Him. And He's
given it to us by grace. by grace. If He hadn't given
it to us by grace, every last one of us would have lost it
today. I guarantee you we would have thought something, said
something, done something that would have destroyed this hope.
But it's of grace and it can't be destroyed. You and I can't
destroy it. And then last of all, He says
here, let me read verse 16 going with verse 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
and God even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given
us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts." They were, listen, they were, they were shook up. There were false prophets, preachers
coming in there. They were under heavy persecution. Heavy persecution. Which we've
never known. We've never known it over the
Gospel. Not what they were going through.
And he said, God comfort your hearts. As a pastor, just like what Tommy
and Jane are going through right now, they're both in the hospital,
both having to go through what they're going through. The greatest
thing I can say is, Lord, comfort their hearts. Because humanly
speaking, I cannot do that. I cannot reach in there and comfort
their hearts. I can sympathize with them, I can talk with them,
and they may find some comfort in that, but for God to give
them peace in the midst of a storm, only He can do that. He can give
real comfort in the darkest of nights, in the hardest of times. That He comfort your heart and
establish you in every good word and work." Don't get weary. Don't
faint in well-doing. Don't quit. Don't get weary. May the Lord Jesus Christ and
God, even our Father, comfort your hearts. May the Lord impress
upon your hearts what great things He hath done for you. Oh, that He would do that tonight
when you go home. that He would impress upon your heart what
great things He's done for you. Loved you, chosen you, redeemed
you, called you, and He's called you to the obtaining of the glory.
You know, the Lord said this over in John 17, He said, let
me go over there, I'm not going to try to quote it, because I'll
mess it up. John 17, let me see if I can
find it. Look in verse 24. This is part
of this glory. John 17, 24. Father, I will that
they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that
they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou
lovest Me before the foundation of the world. He said, Father,
I want them to be with Me, and I want them to experience the
glory of Your presence. the glory of paradise. May God comfort your heart with
that. When the nights grow long and it's painful, we have something
to look forward to. I tell you what, I was talking
to Paul when I was at the conference and he was telling me, you know,
that Henry is, you know how tough he's having it. But he said,
I tell you, they're the two happiest people you could ever know. Two
of the happiest people you would ever meet right now. And yet
they're going through such difficult times. And when I visited Jane
and Tommy, he was so upbeat, so thankful, and not a word of
complaint. Not a word of complaint. And may he establish every good
work you and I do by faith. May he establish it. Establish
it. We have much to be thankful for,
don't we? We have much.