I look forward to what the Lord
has for us this afternoon as well. Brother Cody, you come
on in. Tell us the Gospel. Good evening. You can open your
Bibles with me to 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. This morning we looked at the
importance of believing the truth. God has given us His Word, and
He has declared unto us the truth. The message we considered was
six stubborn statements, and I'll do a brief recap. The first
of which statement said either God Almighty is either totally
sovereign in all things, or He's not sovereign at all. The second statement was either
man, all of man, all men and women, either man is born into
this world completely dead in sin or he's not. The third statement is either
God elected a people unto salvation and they shall be saved or he
didn't. The fourth statement is either
Christ died for the elect and it is finished or he failed. The fifth statement is either
God the Holy Spirit quickens all of God's people to life and
faith in Christ or he doesn't. And the sixth statement is either
all of God's people will persevere to the end or they won't. We were confronted with these
six stubborn statements, these six glorious gospel truths. And for our message tonight,
I would like to follow up with these six statements that we
considered this morning. What say we to these things?
Has God given us faith to believe these things? Has God given us
faith to believe the truth as He declares it in His Word? Here
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, look with me at verse 11. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. 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 of the truth." Now this morning we did
not read verse 13. Well, verse 13 is a glorious
verse, isn't it? I believe that I am looking at
a bunch of sinners whom God has caused to believe the truth. If we believe the truth, it's
because God caused us to believe the truth. And for that reason, like the
Apostle Paul, I am bound to give thanks. I'm bound to give thanks
always to God for you. God has done for you what He
has not done for everybody. You're a special people. He said
so. God has revealed to you the truth. He's caused you to know the truth,
receive the truth, believe the truth, and love the truth. God's done that for you. And
I give him thanks. Oh, if God has done that for
you, I can't tell you how I give him thanks. Because by nature,
we do not believe the truth. None of us. Look at verse 8 here
in our text. And then shall that wicked be
revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received
not the love of the truth. that they might be saved. By
nature, that's all of us. We do not receive the love of
the truth. I mentioned it earlier, religion
is full of lies and we believe them. We believe them. Until God reveals to us the truth,
we will believe a lie. A damning lie. And that's why
this is so important, so important. We must believe the truth. Christ said, ye shall know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. Most people believe that God
loves everybody. They believe this, they just
assume this is true because some preacher somewhere said it. Please understand what I'm about
to say. Don't believe me. Forget I'm even here, I'm just
a voice. Like John the Baptist, I'm just a voice crying in the
wilderness. Believe the Word. I'm going to show you the Word.
I pray God will show you the Word. Believe the Word. Christ said, don't believe me,
believe the works that I do in my Father's name. They bear witness
of me. Don't believe me, believe God. Believe the Word. Okay? People believe God loves everyone
because a preacher said it. God never said it. God never. And the verse they'll probably
say is John 3.16. Turn with me there. John 3.16. John 3 verse 16, For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. God so loved the world. God does not love the whole world. That's not what it says. God
does not love the whole world. He loves the whosoever's that
shall believe on him. You see, this verse is not to
tell us that God so loved the whole world He gave His Son.
That's what I said earlier. Christ didn't die for everybody and
hope that somebody will be saved. He died for the elect and they
shall be saved. This verse is meant to show us
the extent of God's love for His people. He gave His Son.
He sent His only begotten Son in whom He's well pleased. so
that, in order that, his people shall believe on him and be saved."
That's why. Look at verse 14. And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, in order that, whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have eternal life. Turn over a couple
pages to John chapter 6. John 6 verse 37, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. God loves his people. His chosen,
particular, peculiar people. And all whom God loves shall
see the Son. If God loves you, you're going
to see Christ, the Son of Man lifted up. You're going to say,
my Lord and my God, mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. We shall
see Him and believe on Him, but we'll never believe that. We'll
never believe on Him until God in His grace enables us to see
Him. Isaiah 45, 22, Most people believe that Christ
died for everyone. That's just not so. That's just,
it cannot be written more plainly. Christ himself said in John 10,
verse 15, He said, I lay down my life for the sheep. In Matthew 25 we read about the
goats that are going to be on his left hand. He's going to
say, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. And he's
going to say to the sheep on his right hand, come on, come
in, come in. He laid down his life, not in
weakness, but in power. He said, I have the power to
lay it down. I lay it down in myself. And I have the power
to take it again. He laid down his life in love.
That's why he gave himself. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And everyone's not his friend.
You know this, we're born into this world enemies with God.
The carnal mind, the natural mind that we're born with, Scripture
says enmity with God. We're born His enemies. He's
got to make us to be His friend. That's what it is to be reconciled
to God. He makes His enemies His friends. John 13 verse 18, He said, I
speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen. The Lord
knoweth them that are His. Praise God, He knows His own.
He knows us by name. Our names are written on His
hands, in His forehead. Naturally, we believe that there
is some goodness in us. Even now, don't sometimes think,
man, I did a good job there. I really knew what I was doing.
Oh, no. Oh, no. There's none good, no, not one.
You know, you can get somebody to admit, yeah, I've sinned.
I've done some wrong. But at the end of the day, I'm
a pretty good person. That's just not so. That's just
not so. Our good does not outweigh our
bad. There is no good. There's no good. Jeremiah 13
verse 23 says, Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Or the leopard
his spots? If so, then may ye also do good
that are accustomed to do evil. You see, it's impossible. It's
impossible for us to do good. There's one good God. God alone
is good. Sin is not just what we do, it's
what we are. Christ did not die merely to
set an example for us to follow, though He did. He is the example. Absolutely He is. But that's
not why He died. He died to put away our sin.
And He put it away. As far as the east is from the
west. So far hath He removed our transgressions
from us. Now, by nature, we don't believe
any of this. None of it. Foolishness to us. That's what it is. We believe
that God has done all He can and the rest is up to us. But
praise God, that's just not so. If that's the message I had to
declare to you, we all have no hope. I pray God has sent me
with good news. The next line I have is Jesus
paid it all. We just sing it. Either he did or he didn't. He
did. He paid it all. Apart from God's grace, we do
not believe the truth. We do not believe the truth.
God sends strong delusion that we should believe a lie and we
believe a lie. We just go about living our life, loving ourself,
trusting in ourself, believing in ourself, no concern for our
soul, no thought of God. You know, that's as far as we
can get on our own. As far away from God as possible.
That's where we take ourselves. But God. But God. Look back at our text. 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13. 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 of the truth. For what God has done
for His people, for what God has done for His people in saving
them and making them new creatures in Christ, We are bound to give
thanks. Bound to give thanks to God.
How I rejoice to know that God saves sinners. He still saves
sinners. If we're still preaching, He's
still saving. That's why we preach. Because
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. To save them that
believe. Now this morning, after the message,
a young lady come up to me crying. And it caught me off guard. I'd
never had that happen before. And I knew immediately that her
tears were not tears of sorrow. They weren't sad tears. They
were tears of joy. And we just stood there for a
moment, embracing one another. We just stood there hugging like
we'd never hugged before. She didn't wanna let go, and
I didn't wanna let her go. She didn't say anything, I didn't
say anything. And then she said, I love you. I said, I love you too. And then she said, with tears
running down her face, I found myself believing. That's why we preach. That's
why we preach. Paul said, For Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. You mean
to tell me God is able to save a sinner through the foolishness
of preaching? You better believe He is. You better believe He is. If
He wasn't, I wouldn't be saved. Neither would you. You know, it's such an honor
to be asked to stand and open God's Word. This is life eternal. You know, the scriptures end
with saying, Lord come quickly. Why do we want Him to come? Because
He's revealed Himself to us. He saved us and our hope is not
in the things of this world. It's all going to be burned up.
Our hope is that one day we shall see Him as He is. And that we shall be just like
Him. That we shall stand in the presence of His glory. That's why we preach. You know, today's been maybe
the best day of my life. When it's confirmed what God's
been pleased to do, my soul, my soul, what do we say to this? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord,
ye that know Him. Who can tell how much we know
Him? I certainly can. I can. You say, well, if you
believe in election, why do you preach? Why do you bother preaching? Because the dead must hear the
voice of the Son of God and live. Because sinners are going to
hear Him speak through His Word and they're going to fall in
love with Him. That's why we preach. That's why. We are bound to give thanks to
God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. I'm bound
to give thanks to God because of what He's done for you and
what He's done for me. We've not done anything. I've
not done a thing. And I don't deserve what He's
done for me. We've just received the good
news. That's all. We've just... We
did nothing to earn it. The wages of sin is death, that's
all I've earned. But praise God, the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ as Lord and he's been pleased to bestow
that gift to us. Unworthy, wretched sinners. All we've done is receive what
God has graciously done for us. The end of verse 13 says, God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. God sanctified us. He
set us apart back in eternity past, if we can call it that.
He made us to be holy in Christ. And He's given us faith and caused
us to believe on Christ, the truth. He said, I am the way,
the life, and the truth. The way, the truth, and the life,
I don't even remember. He said, no man cometh unto the Father
but by me. He's the only way. There's no other way. He's the
straight and narrow way that leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it. He is the truth. In a world full
of lies, He is the, capital T, truth. And in the world of death,
you just consider this world, all it is is death. Everything
that's born dies. People, plants, animals, everything. It's born and it dies. Christ
is the life. He came and He died, but He didn't
stay dead. Our God's not dead. He's not
dead. Our God's not the God of the
dead. He's the God of the living. He's made the dead to live. We worship the living God, the
way, the truth, and the life. Christ is our life. Christ is
our life. Look here at verse 14. Whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. God has called us by his gospel. We must hear... How should...
I'm going to misquote it up. Just turn with me to Romans chapter
10 real quick. Romans chapter 10. And I'll tell you this, my heart's
desire is what Paul said in verse 1. He said, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. That's my desire for you. That's
the only thing that matters. You know, everything else just
don't matter, that we might be saved. That's all that matters.
Well, look here in Romans chapter 10, verse 10. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Verse 14 How then shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. God has called us by his gospel. He has given us an ear to hear
His Word. Verse 17 says, So then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now as I
studied this, I just could not help but think of Zacchaeus.
God called him by his Gospel too. Turn with me there to Luke
chapter 19. Luke 19, verse 1. And Jesus entered and passed
through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named
Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was
rich. This man, Zacchaeus, he was a
publican, tax collector, and he was a rich man. He was a sinner. He was a sinner. He had this
world's good, but he had a problem. Look at verse 3. And he sought
to see Jesus who he was and could not for the press because he
was little of stature. There's a song that says Zacchaeus
was a wee little man. He was a wee little man. He was
short. He couldn't see. That's a good
picture spiritually. No matter how rich we are, no
matter what we think we have, spiritually speaking, we are
all wee little men and women. That's all we are. I love how
it says he could not, we can't. Whatever it is, spiritually,
we can't. We can't. Look at verse 4. And he ran before
and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to
pass that way. You know, I couldn't help but
think of blind Bartimaeus. He heard that Jesus of Nazareth
was coming by. So what did he do? He started
crying. Oh, he started crying. I hope that we have all come
here tonight for this same reason, desiring to see Christ. And I
pray that there's a cry going on in these hearts that we might
see Him in the heart. Believing what He said, where
two or three are gathered there, am I in the midst of them? Believing
that He's in our midst. I believe he's in our midst.
I really do. Look at verse 5. And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus. He called him by name, and that's
what he does. He said, Zacchaeus, make haste
and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. That's how God calls sinners
to Himself. He calls us by name. He says,
make haste. You just leave everything right
now. You come down. He comes to us, and that's what
He does. And His call is effectual. Look what happened in verse 6. And He made haste and came down. He called Him. He says, Zacchaeus,
come down. He come down. That's the way it works. He came
down. I've heard this mentioned before,
that in religion they might say, oh, well, when Jesus is knocking
at your heart's door, he just keeps on knocking until you finally
open it and let him in. That's not how it works. That's
a pathetic Jesus is what that is. That's what Paul called another
Jesus. That's what Paul called another
gospel, which is not another. It's a lie. That's all that is. God does come to our heart's
door. And here's what he does. He doesn't stand there and knock
and just hope we open. Scripture does say, behold, I
stand and knock. But you know what? He knocks the door down.
Lock, stock and barrel. He comes in because today he
must abide at our house. Just like he did for Zacchaeus.
That's what he does for all his people. Well, I don't want that kind
of God. No, I'm going to have to let him in. Let God? Oh, you're going to let God? What fools, we worship the sovereign
God. When God knocks our door down
and enters in, I'll tell you this, if He's not done that for
you, if He ever does, you're going to be glad He did. Look
at verse 6 again, He made haste and came down and received Him
joyfully. Joyfully. God's people received
Christ joyfully. We're glad He did. Are you glad He knocked you down? Now is the accepted time. Behold,
now is the day of salvation. Right now. How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation? We won't. There is no escape. Verse 7. And when they saw it,
they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be guest with
a man that is a sinner. The Pharisees never could rejoice
in our Lord's presence. Never. You know why? They never had a need of Him.
The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Christ
said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
They said, doesn't he know this man is a publican? Doesn't he
know this man is a sinner? The problem is they didn't know
themselves to be sinners. The problem is they didn't know
Christ is the friend of publicans and sinners. We have a friend. What a friend we have in the
Lord Jesus. I found a friend. Oh, such a friend. He loved me
here. I knew him. That's a friend.
whom having not seen, we love. He loved us ere we knew him.
He drew me with the cords of love and thus he bound me to
him. That's love. That's God's love.
God's love doesn't try to save. God's love saves. God's love
doesn't try to bring us to himself. God's love marries us. Christ
married us. He married us. You can't get
any closer than that. Verse 8, And Zacchaeus stood
and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I
give to the poor. And if I have taken anything
from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. When
God saves us, we're sorry. You know, religion is nothing
but a big show. It's a facade. When God saves us, here's what
we cry. I acknowledge my transgressions. I really do. And my sin is ever
before me. We don't think like that until
God reveals to us that's what we are. Until He breaks us. A broken spirit and a contrite
heart, that's what God will receive. That's the acceptable sacrifice
to a holy God. We must be broken. Zacchaeus
was broken. God makes us to know we're sinners
and we're not proud of it. We pray, God, be merciful to
me, a sinner. I need your mercy. Verse 9, And Jesus said unto
him, This day is salvation come to this house. Praise God. This day is salvation come to
this house for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. For
the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Christ came to seek and save
that which was lost. Have you ever been lost? If we've never been lost, we've
never been found. And that means we're still lost.
You know, it's a blessing when God reveals to a sinner that
we're lost. That means we've been found. Praise God. Amazing grace, how
sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but
now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. Turn back to our text. Christ causes the deaf to hear.
He causes the lame to walk. He causes the blind to see. That's
our Lord. He doesn't try. Our Lord never
tried to do a thing. Not a thing. 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13 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 of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which
ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. 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, and establish you in every good word and work. I don't know your heart. I don't know your heart. But
God does. One of the scariest things I've
ever heard anybody say is, only God can judge me. God knows my
heart. If only we knew. Scriptures say our heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God
knows it. God knows it. That ought to give us pause. I don't know your heart. I don't
know if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or not. But I know this. You're a sinner,
and I'm a sinner. Christ is the Savior of sinners.
I don't know much, but I know this. Eternal life is in Christ.
Salvation is knowing Christ, being found in Christ, not having
our own righteousness, but having Christ in His righteousness. He that hath the Son He that
hath the Son hath life." I pray God has given us faith to believe
on the Son. I pray that this day salvation
is come to this house. Amen. Let us pray. God our Father, how we thank
Thee for saving sinners. Lord, we praise your holy name. We confess what we are. Our sins
are ever before us. But oh, how we rejoice to read
in your word that Christ came to save sinners and that he got
the job done. Father, thank you for redemption,
for salvation in him. I pray that each soul here might
find a need within their heart of Christ and his mercy and his
grace. May we be found in him. Lord,
have mercy upon us for Christ's sake. Amen. Thank you, Brother Cody.