Praise thy first, this knowing
if I love thee, thou must have loved me first. That's good. Thank you. Solid, solid. Second best love. I know what the Lord said, that
we would look at Genesis 25, but we'll look at that Sunday
morning, or the death of an old believer, Genesis 25. But something
made me think of this verse this week. We're going to look at
this chapter. Verse 1, 2 Thessalonians 2, 1,
he begins, We beseech you brethren. Chapter 13, we're bound to give
thanks always to God for being brethren. Chapter 3, verse 1,
finally, brethren. This is written to those whom
God loves, those who were chosen by God, and those who have been
begotten and born of God, children of God, sons of God, called brethren
in the family of God. And because God, verse 16, our
Father, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God is even our
Father, God the Father of His people. So the purpose of this
message, and I hope, I believe, Every message is to declare the
truth, glorify our God by declaring His Word, and to comfort God's
people. Like he tells me, tells the servant
to do, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, God's people, and
to compel or urge those who are not. to believe, come to Christ. So, comfort the brethren. Comfort
the brethren. I want to comfort you by God's
Word, through God's Word, with the wonderful facts that God
loves you and He chose you for the foundation of the world to
be saved, to be like Christ. And nothing and no one can stop that. Verse 16 says, Now He,
God, who loved us, that's the brethren, not everyone, you know
that, but the brethren, His chosen ones, and have given us everlasting
consolation, in spite of all the troubles, tribulations, the
consolation, the eternal consolation far exceeds these life conditions. And he has given us a good hope,
a wonderful hope, how? Through grace, not at all grace,
through sovereign electing mercy and grace, through God's sovereign
saving grace. Now how can I know? That I am
a child of God. How can I know that God loves
me? How can I know, can I know for
sure that I have been chosen by God? Because if He chose me,
He loves me. That's why He chose me. How can I be sure? Can I know
that for sure? Verse 13 tells us. We are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God had from the beginning chosen you. You're
beloved of the Lord because He's chosen you to save you, to salvation
through, now here's how you know, through sanctification of the
Spirit. That is, the Holy Spirit has
set you apart from other people. has set you apart from the world. As our Lord said, they're not
of the world. Praying to the father about his children. They're
not of the world. Even as I'm not of the world.
He said, I sanctify myself that they might be sanctified. Set
apart. Alright? By the Spirit of God.
And, this is what the Spirit does. This is how He sets apart
God's people. Belief of the truth. which He did by calling you,
verse 14, by our gospel. And I'm not going to forget to
quote the rest of it. To the obtaining of the glory,
that is to behold His glory, to be made like into His glorious
image. to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the blessed redemption
of the sons of God. Alright. When He calls us by the Gospel,
the Holy Spirit gives us faith. This is how we know we are loved
of God. He calls us by the Gospel. You may know you are one of God's
elect Calling. Peter wrote this. He said, give
diligence to make your what? Calling an election sure. You don't know you're elect except
by your calling. You can't see the book. You can't
see your name written there. The Lamb for the blind. But you
may know that it's there by your calling. If he's called you by
our gospel, Paul called it the gospel, not this other one, which
is not the gospel, but the gospel, our gospel, the one that we pray
at most times. This is how he sets apart his
people. You may know you're one of God's
elect, that God loves you, and that Jesus Christ came to redeem
you if you've been called by the gospel. You've heard it?
The gospel only goes to those that are God's sheep. He said,
My sheep, hear my voice. The gospel only is sent to those
whom God loves and God has chosen. Of course, we see that in our
Lord when He walked through the cities, didn't He? He would pass
by all of Jericho and pass by the whole city. He would not
do things in one city because He had no sheep there. Right? And He sends His Gospel wherever
His people are. If we hear the Gospel, and we
believe it, and we receive the love of the truth. We receive
the truth, and not just receive it or believe it, but love it. Or rather Him. Him. The Holy Spirit sets us apart.
The ones that God loves, the ones that God chose before the
foundation of the world by the truth. This is how you know them. They believe the truth and they
love the truth. Most people are deceived. Most people believe lies. Look
at verses 9 and 10. It says, him speaking of the
spirit of wickedness, the mystery of iniquity, apostasy, antichrist,
the spirit of antichrist, false religion, false gospel that's
after the working, verse 9, after the working of Satan. Satan is
behind it. With all power and signs and
lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish. All deceivers, they're completely
and totally deceived. And because they receive not
the love of the truth that they might be saved. And even verse
11 says, for this cause, because they reject the truth, turn away
their ears from the truth, they do not love the truth, but rather
hate the truth. Stay with me now. God sends them
strong. that they should believe a lie,
and be damned to believe not the truth. You see that? They have pleasure in unrighteousness. Self-righteousness is unrighteousness. It's not just open iniquity.
Self-righteousness to God is the worst thing of all. So, he
said that most people are deceived. They believe lies. They believe a false gospel.
They don't receive the love of the truth. They reject it. They
reject God. They reject Christ. They reject
His Word. They don't love the truth. They
rather hate it. They don't believe. And so God sends them strong
delusions. They see things. They experience
things. Lots of phenomena. Lots of this
and that and the other go on. And they believe it. They believe
everything and anyone. But you know it. In Isaiah chapter 6, go over
there. Isaiah 6. And I'm just being
honest in God's Word, and we don't spend all our time about
false religion. But in Isaiah 6, look at this. This is, it sounds like 2 Thessalonians
2. The Lord told Isaiah 6-9, He
said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand
not. See ye indeed, but perceive not. The Lord said, Make the heart
of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. Shut
their eyes. Shut their ears. Harden their
heart. Then said I, Lord, how long?
He answered, until the city is bewasted. Until the end. Until it's over. That was the
answer. Verse 12. And the Lord hath removed
men far away, and the great forsaking as apostasy. That's what all
of them are going to tell us here in 2 Thessalonians 2. The
complete forsaking of the truth. Not yet. But God, but yet, in
it, in the midst of this great apostasy attempt, and it will
return, make what? Back to God, to the truth, and
be eaten, the truth will be eaten. A teal tree, an oak tree, a solid,
rooted, grounded, whose substance is in there, the root of the
matter, the castor leaves, the fruit, the holy seed, that's
the substance there of Christ. Right. Go back to our text. And
in Isaiah 66, the Lord said He would choose their delusion.
This is the exact same word, nothing is changed. That He would
choose their delusion. I told you I thought of this
scripture. I went into a business the other day. A place I do business
quite a bit. And the young man that was waiting
on me began to ask me, he said, do you like to hear about and
read about aliens?" I said, what? He said, astronauts, aliens,
you know, and all this. Well, astronauts interest me.
He said, well, there's a special on Wednesday night. And this
fellow, I know for a fact he claims to have some kind of religion,
some kind of Christian religion. He wanted me to watch this show
on Wednesday night that the astronauts that landed on the moon claimed
they saw ships and avians and all this sort of thing. And I thought of these verses.
God sends them strong to believe a lie. People won't believe anything
but God. They'll fall for anything, anyone,
anything anybody says. Anything, any hoax, that is,
what's the word? Any kind of lie that's told,
any kind of sensational story, somebody's going to believe it. Before long everybody believes
it. Hoaxes receive any deception,
all delusions, and they won't, but they won't give a thought
to God's plan. You can't get people to read
this book. You can't do it. Jesus Christ
is God. And He walked this planet. And
every word that came out of His mouth was an eternal revelation. Truth. Wisdom from above. Amazing wisdom. Refuting every
error. A revelation of things unknown,
mystery. Everywhere. Do men and women
study him? No. Not interested. Isn't that proof of man's utter
hatred of the truth? No. I don't want to know that.
But they'll believe anything and everything. And the biggest
deception of all, are you with me? The strongest delusion of
all is religion. because everybody was dead in
false religion. He said, two biggest lies ever
been told. God loves everybody and Christ
died for everybody. He said, ain't neither one of
them sold. Didn't he, Dad? Didn't he, Mom?
Go with that. Dad said, you could have heard
people's jaws hit the floor. What do you mean? This is the
biggest hoax perpetrated, I keep trying to come up with that word,
on the human race, by Satan himself, religion, the lie, and everybody
in religion believes that. Until God reveals the truth to that person. Until God says, you're coming
after the wrong men. I'm going to reveal to you, me,
my son, my word. You're blind, you're deaf, you're
dumb, you're ignorant, you're lame. I'm going to give you life. And you have to be quick. I asked
Brother John Cheesler, Jr., I had to read him tonight, and he said,
Let's read Ephesians 1 and 2. And I said, John, do you know
what I'm preaching on tonight? He said, no. He thought it was
Genesis 25. He read Ephesians 1. That's this. Same thing. And 2. Oh my. That man of sin, verses
3 and 4 here, says, let no man deceive you. They were troubled
by preachers and false letters and so forth that Christ today
and Christ was soon. And he tells them, no, much time
has to take place. This gospel's got to go all over
the world. Our Lord already said that to them. They forgot that. The gospel's got to go all over
the world. And he said there's got to be
a falling away first, a great apostasy. falling away from the
truth. Falling away from the truth.
The truth is proclaimed everywhere, and there is a general, large,
widespread rejection of it. Apostasy all over the world.
And he said in verse 3, that man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition, who, verse 4, opposeth and exalted himself above all
that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God,
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. And every man, well, I'll give
you just two, John Calvin, John Gill, two of the greatest and
wisest theologian preachers ever, whose wisdom no man could repute,
like Stephen, just like Stephen of old. Both of them say, without
doubt, Matthew proved, that this is not talking about one man.
Not talking about one man. Everybody's looking for one man
to rise up. His name has six, six, six. How obvious would that
be? Satan's not that obvious. They all agree, and this tells
us that this is a general spirit of apostasy. John said
it in 1 John 2, he said, even now there are many antichrists.
He said you've heard that antichrist shall come. He said even now
there are many antichrists. It's the spirit of apostasy is
what it is. A man is often referred to as
a body of apostasy. of people. Not one man. But religion, what this is, is
the religion of man. The religion of man's free will
that exalted itself as God. Right? That opposes everything
that's God and sets himself up as God. In other words, man calls
Man attributes to man what only belongs to God, free will. They
say things like this, God wants to and can't. That means he's
not able. But man is able. Man has a free
will and he's able to do what he will with God. That's exalting
man in the place of God, isn't it? That is anti-Christ. And religion
that says that Christ died for everybody, universal atonement,
is anti-Christ. It's saying that the blood of
Jesus Christ doesn't put away sin. That your free will and
acceptance of that blood, what you do with that blood is actually
what makes it effectual. That's anti-Christ. That takes
away from the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the power of His
blood. The effectualness of his blood.
That's anti-Christ. This is not mere error in doctrine,
people. This is rebellion. This is anti... And it started
in the garden. He said, Satan is behind this. The wicked one. And with all
coward signs and lying wonders. Do you remember in the garden?
Do you remember how it started? He's lies. He says he's the father
of lies. You remember how it started?
The first thing he did was put a question mark on God's Word. Had God said it? Did he really
say that? And isn't that what that's wholesale
now? Everybody's putting, is that
really God's Word? What makes you think it's God's Word? How many people here know
that actually believe this is God's Word? I'll tell you. I've got it right here, somewhere. Somewhere. I can remember it. Remember it. Back in 1990, they
did a poll of 10,000 clergymen, which 7,700 of them responded
to it. They asked questions like, do
you believe in the virgin birth of Christ? Most did not. But they asked these clergymen,
7,700 all over the country, out of 10,000 responded. They asked
them, do you believe that this is the Word of God, inerrant,
infallible Word of the living God? It was 92% of Episcopalians
said no. 87% of Lutherans, Luther Martin, Lutherans
said no. 67% of Baptist, good Bible-believing
Baptist, no. And on and on it went. Do you
believe this is work? Don't you? Every word of it? Do you? God has chosen you to believe
the truth. Believe it's work. Satan said,
have God sent? He said, you won't die. Didn't
he? God said, don't do that, you'll
die. Satan said, you won't die. Flat denying the Word of God.
You're not dead. Man's not dead in sin. Isn't
that what he said? You're not dead. You'll be as
God, choosing. You'll have free will. That's the error. That's the rebellion. That's
anti-God, anti-Christ, saying man is God. God is not God, but
man is. That's over all the world. Here
it is, got it right here. 87% of Methodists, 95% of Episcopalians,
88% of Presbyterians, 67% of Catholics. 1 Thessalonians 2, look over
there. 1 Thessalonians 2. Now this is how you know God loves
you. and that you're one of his elect. All right? 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says,
For this cause also we thank we God without ceasing, because
when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you
received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the
word of God. God's word. We believe that with
all our heart. No, we don't disbelieve, we don't.
God's proven to you. How do you know you're one of
God's elect, that God loves you and you're one of His elect?
You receive the truth of God's Word and you love it. Not only
just believe it, you love it. You love the truth. You love the truth. You don't
just believe it, you love it. You love it that much. I sat down to read the other
morning, and the thought went across my mind, oh, how I love
God's Word. And I opened the Bible, and it
fell open, honestly. It fell open to Psalm 119.97.
David said, oh, how I love thy law. Honestly. I mean, it's just
very, very witness with my spirit. David said, oh, how I love thy
law. It's my meditation all the day. There was a time when I
did not like this guy. Did you? There was a time when
he gave me no thought. Do you love him now? God loves you to death. I ain't
joking you. Alright. But you love God's Word. You love the truth. You love
the truth of how God chose the people. Far from arguing against it,
you begin to argue for it, don't you? You believe the truth of God's
Word, you hear and receive and believe the truth that God is
God, the God of truth, the God of truth, the living and true
God, he's called in 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1, he says, you
turned from your idols. No, 1 Thessalonians 1 says, you
turned from your idols, turned to God from your idols to serve
the living and the true God. Remember, our Lord said, this
is eternal life. These are the ones that have
life. These are the ones that God loves. These are the ones
that Christ died for. These are the ones that the Spirit
of God regenerated. These are the ones that worship
God, that believe and know the living and true God. God who
is God, and Christ from his sin. Living and true God. God who
is God. Sovereign. Sovereign. Most people don't
even know what that means. God reigns and rules. Most people
don't know what it means, and when they hear it, they don't
want to hear it. They don't like it. But He likes it. He loves
it. You can't get enough of it. That's His will. That He worked
with all things according to His will. Not man's will. God's
will. What do you think about that?
You don't just like it. You love it. Those that love
God's will. We have some men that pray all
the time. Thy will. Do things according
to your will. Thy will be done. in earth as
it is in heaven. You love him. You love his will.
You love his choice. And we say that's him. It's not
that I could choose thee, or that I could not be. This heart
would never have chosen thee. It would still refuse thee. Hence,
I'm not chosen. Right? The story of every chosen child
of God is how God chose them. Isn't it? Ask Paul. Ask Abraham. Go back further. Ask Abel. Abel,
why do you believe in Canaan? Ask Jacob. Ask Jacob. Do you love sovereign election
Jacob? Do I ever. I was running. I would have sold
the birthright. The only reason I wanted it was
for my own selfish reasons. He chose me. He laid hold of
me. Life? Life? Do you love sovereign mercy and
grace? Do you love sovereign keeping,
restraining, wrestling grace? That's a good term, isn't it?
Wrestling grace. Oh my, do I ever. I love God. I love the truth. You
see, it says some people don't receive the love of the truth.
But God's people do. They love the truth. They don't
just believe in their head. That's what the hard man believes. Love the truth of who God is.
They love his glory, love his honor. They love his word, the
truth of it. And they hate, they will say,
if you love God, and you love God's truth, you will say with
David, I hate every falsehood. I hate everything that brings
my God down. I hate everything that blasphemes my God. I hate
everything that takes away from the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ. I hate everything that contradicts
God's truth. If you love God, it's not a matter
of semantics either. It's not just an error in doctrine. It's to love God. You'll say with Paul, when you
hear the truth, you know it's God's truth, you'll say with
Paul, let God be true and every man a liar. From then on, you
won't believe anything man says. You'll call it foolishness. That's what 1 Corinthians 1 said,
that had not God made foolish the wisdom of this world, that's
what you'll see. And you'll be called a fool for Christ's sake. I had a couple of ladies actually
come out the door Sunday morning and tell me, oh I'd love that.
One lady said, oh how I'd love that. I said, well you must be
an elect lady then. That's what 2 John says.
Four times in the first two verses, you love the truth, you love
the truth, you love the truth. unto the well-beloved, the elect
lady. Gaius. I said, you must be Gaius.
You love the truth. You love the truth. Most people
don't. If you love the truth, you receive
a love of the truth. You believe and love that Jesus
Christ is the way. You believe with all your heart
that He is the way. This is a quote that was in the
Roanoke Times, 1996, by Billy Gray. It is anti-Christ. Now listen to me. This needs
to be said, because he's denying what Jesus Christ said. And the
whole world esteems him. He's the most famous and love
preacher on the planet. He said, and I'll give you a
copy, I fully adhere to the fundamental tenets of Christian faith for
myself and my ministry, said the Reverend Billy Gray, but
as an American, I respect other paths to God. That's Pantai Christ. Christ
said, I am the way. Though we, or an angel from heaven,
or in this case, from Winston-Salem, preach any other gospel, then
go to heaven. And everybody that follows him
will. Christ said, I am the way. Didn't he? No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Do you believe that? People try
every way, don't they? He said, I am the truth about
anything in Him are here all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
The truth. The truth. The life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath no life. To love, to believe Christ
is to believe and love the truth. To love the truth is to believe
and love Christ. To love His righteousness You
can't be self-righteous and love Christ for that reason. You can't
do it. You can't do it. You love his
blood. You know and believe that the
blood of Jesus Christ is what redeemed your soul, not your
acceptance of it. Sacrificing the God that Christ
made is what God accepts on your behalf. You not only believe
that, you're glad that it's so. You hang your soul on that. I earn a doctrine here. See this,
it's so. Oh no, we all believe the same.
No we don't. No we don't. This is what he's
saying here is a widespread apostasy. And there's going to be a tenth.
You read it with me and Isaiah said a tenth. Even now at this
present time, Paul says, there's a remnant according to this.
What? The election of grace. Who elected who? God elected
the people. When did he do it? Before the
foundation of the world. He put the brother to pray. He thanked
God that he had chosen the people. How many people are thanking
God for choosing the people before the world began? All of God's
people are. None of the rest aren't. And it's not to reluctantly see
it and reluctantly agree to it. But it does say that, so I guess
it must be. I don't know. Like I said, it's Jacob saying
it. He hasn't chosen them. Braham. I'm a demon from Mary
Magdalene long ago. Peter, James, John. Scripture
says, Let those that love thy salvation, let such as love thy
salvation say the Lord be with them. All the elect of God receive
the love of the truth. Receive it. Receiving is not
accepting. Receiving means you're a recipient
of it. By grace you're saved through
faith. None of you say that's right. It's again, you're a recipient
of this, of the goodness of God. It's the goodness of God that
led you to repentance. God was real good to you to make
you repent. But you wouldn't have done it. You wouldn't have done it. God
was real good, real good, oh the goodness of God, that he
would make us and cause us to come to Christ. Blessed is the
man who now chooses, causes, yes makes, causes us to approach
Him in Christ. So to believe the truth, to love
the truth, is to glory in Him. Glory in Him. And let me close
with this. Whenever you love something,
you don't have to love the truth. The love of God's Word, the love
of God's God, the love of Christ, who He is, what He did. Whatever you love, you live for. You live for them. You have a
wife and a husband. You live with them. You love
that person. You live with them. They are,
in a sense, your life. Right? A husband loves your wife.
How? As Christ loved the church. He
gave himself for her. His life was given in the service
of her. Right? They're your life. Alright? Christ is not just a
sideline. God's people, those that know
Him and love Him, He's not just a sideline partner, he is life. He's your husband, he's your
wife. I was talking to a lady the other
day and she said there's two things you don't bring up, religion
and politics. I said well politics maybe, but Jesus Christ is my
life. I can't live a day, I can't go
a day without talking about it. It's not just a subject or a
topic that you bring up. Like I say, don't bring up your wife
around me. Well then I won't be around you.
Right? And that's what I had to tell
that person. That we spend time with people who Christ is their
life. We don't have anything in common with anybody else.
If you love somebody, all right? If you love somebody, that's
who you talk about. If you love something, that's
what you talk about, isn't it? There are things that we all
are involved in, and things we all wrongly say, I love this,
I love my truck, or I love this fish engine. We say those things.
Don't make each other an offender for a word. We all say that,
I love my shih tzu, or something like that. We do, we do, we share
our affection on the fans. And so you talk about it. Whoever,
your kids, you love your kids. You talk about it. If you love
Jesus Christ, you talk about it. You talk about it. Whoever you love, you look forward
to being with. You can't wait. You must wait.
And that's the whole chapter here. He says, We beseech you
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together
with Him. The whole first epistle to the Thessalonians and the
second epistle is comforting God's people saying, Christ is
coming. Just wait. Be like those that
wait on Him. You're those that wait on Him.
That's what it said in the first epistle. He says, you turn to
God from idols to serve the living and true God, and wait to wait
for His Son from heaven. The world's not waiting on Him.
The world doesn't want Him to come. The world likes this world,
doesn't it? Not nice people. They can't wait
to be done with sin. They can't wait to be done with
this world. They can't wait to be like Jesus
Christ. They can't wait to be with Him,
to see Him. and done by this present evil
world. Right? If I said to you, and
it's true, Jesus Christ is coming very, very soon. Maybe tonight. Maybe tonight. It just may very
well be that Jesus Christ is coming tonight. I'm not trying to be dramatic,
sensational. It's true. How does that make you feel? How does that make you feel?
The thought that Jesus Christ might come against all of us,
all of this, every bit of it is dissolved, and Christ is going
to... How does that make you feel? If you love him, you say, even
so, come quickly. Come quickly. You look forward to it, and you
wait for it. You wait for it. So he says,
Brethren, oh how we thank God for you. God loves you. You're beloved of God. Because
He's from the beginning chosen you for salvation. He sets you
apart. His Spirit sets you apart by belief in the truth. He called
you by our gospel, the only true gospel, to be with Christ in
Noah. Blessed be his name. All right,
stand up. Our Lord, oh how we thank you. Thanks be unto God for every
good and perfect gift, for every spiritual, all blessings and
heavenly things in Christ. Most of all, thank you for that
unspeakable gift. We don't rightly understand,
we just don't. We don't appreciate this a little
bit, Lord, we have a little A little inkling, a little knowledge,
a little faith, a little appreciation. Oh my, how more thankful we ought
to be. But we do thank you as much as
life would be. We thank you. Thank you for your
Word. What would we do without your
Word, Lord? Where would we be? We'd be in darkness even as others.
Thank you for choosing the people, for revealing your Son to them,
the way, the truth, the life that they might Lay hold of Him,
and believe Him, and trust Him, and look to Him alone. What a
blessed people who look to Christ alone. They'll be saved. They
that have the Son have life. Thank you, Lord. Lord, be pleased
to do this for some others in our midst. Open their hearts. Open their
ears. Deaf ears. Blind eyes. To see
themselves. To see this the perishing world,
the vanity of it, see their desperate need of Jesus Christ. We pray,
our children, others, our brothers already pray, we pray again.
We pray for your sovereign, electing, saving grace upon others, for
your glory, for the praise of the glory of your grace. We ask
this and give thanks in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.