Second Thessalonians chapter
one is where we are. We'll actually finish this chapter
out today. I pray you've been reading this.
I know I say this every week. I pray you've been reading. I
pray you've been reading. I pray you've been reading. And sometimes it just seems,
OK, pastor's going to tell us we need to read scripture. But
if we're not reading scripture. Let me ask you this, are we actually
living out our faith? I suppose, no. If we're not reading
scripture, not only we're not living out our faith, we're not
empowered to do so. I mean, we can live without sin.
We can live kind lives, we can live lives that are sacrificial,
given to our neighbor. We can live lives where we actually
have affection toward each other and good deeds and good works.
We could even pray, but the heathen do those things. Unbelievers
do those things. The benevolent do those things
to no effect. So it is not the doing of these
things that sets us apart in intimacy with God. It is the
scripture alone that sets us apart with intimacy with God.
Friends, as Protestants, as Baptists, we we don't just hold to Sola
Scriptura as a historical pillar of past. But we hold to Sola
Scriptura as the regulating principle, as the authoritative power, as
the point of pivot for our lives from death to life. From our
day, from burden to joy. From every moment of temptation
to victory. Without the word of God, we have
not fulfilled the living out our faith this week. We have
not lived by faith if we have not lived in the word of God.
We have not walked by faith. If we have not lived, have we
not? Because if we have not been in the Word of God this week,
yesterday, the day before and the day before that and so on,
if we're not in the Word of God tomorrow, we are not walking
by faith. For it is through scripture that
we find the authority to do so. It is through scripture that
we find the teaching, the doctrine. that affects our lives, that
affects our change, that affects our hearts and minds. It is through
the reading of Scripture that we see the ability of God's transforming
power that Paul so eloquently discusses in Romans chapter 12.
As we renew our minds on the person of Jesus Christ, on the
things that He has taught us, on the power that He has given
us, and on the authority that He holds. Friends, reading our
Bible is not about preparing for a study. It is not about
seeking understanding of theological positions. Reading our Bible
is not about actually knowing how to teach others and disciple
each other. Reading our Bible is spending
time with the Lord Jesus Christ. Reading the Scripture is sitting
down at the table of true bread and living upon that bread. Reading
the word of God is the only hope we have, and if we are not doing
that as a staple of our days, we are failing to see the fulfillment
of our Christian life. We're failing. And some of us will go, oh, I'm
just an awful Christian, I'm an awful believer, I'm an awful
disciple, I'm an awful. Well, if you were reading your
Bible, you wouldn't feel that way. Because the Bible would actually tell
you, if it were up to you, you would be an awful follower. I
am an awful follower of Christ, but by the grace of the Lord
Jesus, in His Word, God establishes truth in my heart that we might
not sin against Him, that we might strive for endurance, that
we might continue in the way of faith. And what we have on
our hearts and minds this day, we will share with those who
come in line with us during this day. What we have stored away
in our hearts this week, we will be able to expound upon and deliver
to those dead ears that so desperately need to hear hope. We cannot
give that which we do not have. We cannot be that which we are
not. But through the power of scripture, church, we are. Christ's. And Christ is ours. And we have all good things in
Christ, we have our faith, we have our understanding, we have
wisdom, we have peace, we have knowledge, we have worship. As we see this text here in chapter
2 of 2 Thessalonians, look at verse 11 and 12. Here we see in the ESV to this
end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of
his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work
of faith by his power so that the name of our Lord Jesus may
be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of
our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Church, I'm not sure if you read
that this week. But if you read that this week
and you actually read it with some kind of cognitive desire
to understand it, it caused you to stop and to wonder. Is this
a possibility for me? Is this a reality for me? Is
this something that Paul wishes for me? Is this something that
is certain for me? Where is it in my life that I
would be made worthy of the calling of God? How is it that I, as
an individual, am going to fulfill every desire, every resolve,
every resolution for doing good? How is this active in my life
this very day, that every good work of faith is fulfilled by
the Lord in His power? You ever think about that? See,
oftentimes we miss these things. We want to see the instruction
that says, Speak this way, act this way, walk this way, look
this way, breathe this way. There you go. That's what we
want. We like the negative context of the didactic. We like the
teaching of scripture. In other words, that tells us
what not to do. Don't get drunk. Don't use the
Lord's name in vain. Don't be angry when you go to
bed. We like those things. Okay, I'll
be angry until I go to bed. I'll drink just enough wine not
to make Jesus mad. Just enough. A little bit more,
He's mad. A little bit less, He's pleased.
Well, I'm not going to lie, but I'm not going to tell the truth
either. I'm just not going to say anything. You see, we love that type of thing. Why? Because it puts the power
in our lives. It gives us the divine so-called superhero nature
that we think we're walking okay with the Lord. But when we get
to something like this, when we get to that, and it's not
here that we see it. It's not necessarily a command.
This is a prayer. Paul prays that God would make
the Thessalonians worthy of his calling. and that he would fulfill
every resolve they have for good and every work of faith by his
power. You might say, well, so that's
a prayer. So God's saying, Paul is saying, God's going to do
that. And if God doesn't do it in my life, that's God's problem.
But see, we could go there if this was the only place that
we see such teaching. But we see it all the way through
the first letter. We see it in other places that
Paul taught. He says, walk in a manner worthy as a command.
Do this. Walk in a manner worthy of your
calling. Peter would say walk in a way to make sure that your
election is certain. It's a commandment. And so here's
the commandment to walk in righteousness, to walk in holiness, to walk
in striving, to walk in faith, to walk in endurance. And yet
we are not able to do that, which we've been commanded, but God
is able to affect those things in our lives. So for us to say
the desire is not there, as we'll see in a moment, is to say that
Christ is not there and we are not in him and he is not in us.
To see the lack of endurance, to see the continual walking
after sin, to see that there is no desire at all in our lives,
it is one of two things that is a problem. We are so starved
with intimacy from the word of God that we cannot even hardly
hear the spirit of God anymore or we are not filled with the
spirit to begin with. to which when either of those
things come to our minds, we repent of those things. We change
those things. Why? Because God has effected
powerfully in our lives for us to do so. We come to the place
of going, it is not I who live, but Christ who lives within me.
And I walk by faith in the One who loves me and gave Himself
for me. Christ effectually gave His life for me that I might
walk as a product of His glorious power. That I might become a
reflection of His nature. And this is what Paul's saying
here. He's praying that these Christians would walk worthy
of the calling of God and fulfill every desire for good in every
work of faith by the power of God. He is praying that God would
do that in the life of these people. And he starts out when
he says, verse 11, to this end. What does he mean by that? To
what end? To the end of everything we see
in the beginning ten verses. To what end? We ought to always
give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith,
listen, is growing abundantly. Is that walking in a manner worthy?
Absolutely. And the love of every one of
you for one another is increasing. We thank God for that. So you
continue to walk in that. I'm praying that that will continue
to walk because that is showing that you live a manner worthy
of the kingdom of God. Therefore we boast about you
because you walk in a manner worthy in the churches of God.
Why? For your steadfastness of faith
in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are
enduring. This is evidence of God's righteous judgment that
you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God. Now let
me explain something to you as a reminder. Being worthy of the
kingdom of God is not something we do. It says that. It says that God
establishes our worthiness. How is that? Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God establishes
your worthiness to enter his kingdom because of what Jesus
has accomplished on your behalf, which is righteousness as a human
being. See, we misunderstand the gospel
when we think that it's all about the cross. The cross is the apex of the
gospel. But the cross is worthless if
Christ was not human and lived perfectly for 33 years. You see, the good news is not
the cross. The good news is the life of
Jesus worthy of the cross. as a substitute. That's the good
news. The good news is that Jesus substituted
worthy as a worthy substitute for our sin. That means he is
righteous and glorious. It is not a mysterious, divine,
mystical God being that died on the cross. It is a human being.
that died on the cross. A perfect man, fully man in every
way, every attribute, every thought, every focus of his eyes, every
breath in his lungs. He was a human being just like
you and just like me, except that he was holy and righteous. And in the fullness of Christ,
all deity dwells. I'm going to use it in the past
tense because he is eternal. In the fullness of Christ, all deity
dwells. So therefore, not only was Jesus
completely and fully and all human, he had a second nature
which was fully divine. And I don't know if those teachings
are on the church website or what, but there we learned that
we did 15, 16, 17 weeks on the attributes of God. We did we
did a little series on the Trinity. on Tuesday nights. I'd highly
encourage you to go listen to these things. It's a lot. It's heavy on your heads. You
might have to, you know, if you've never studied them before, you
might have to listen to them several times. And then you get the,
you get the verbiage and all of a sudden you're like, okay,
I can get this. This is a mystery. We're not going to explain it,
but understand that God establishes our worthiness through Jesus
Christ from his incarnation, from his life, from his death,
from his resurrection and his ascension and his glorious priesthood
eternally that continually propitiates for us this very day. We are
worthy because God is satisfied in his righteous judgment against
us as sinners, and he's declared us saints. So don't misunderstand me as
I try to apply this text to think that I'm saying that we have
to become worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Friends, we are never
going to be able to become worthy of the kingdom of heaven, but
God makes us worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Now, here is the difference
in this letter. It would be different if Paul
were talking to the Corinthian church, wouldn't it? Paul, when
he talks to the Corinthian church, the same types of people, the
same types of circumstances, they go in under suffering and
chains and they plant a church, they preach the gospel. And then
in the preaching of the gospel, people come to hear. And that
hearing is effectual unto salvation. And God justifies them in Jesus
Christ and regenerates them and all of these things. And regeneration
precedes faith. And everything in between is
beautifully orchestrated. And the Christians of Corinth
reveal themselves true Christians. But all of a sudden something
happens, doesn't it? A lot of their number begin to
live with unrepentant sin. A lot of their number begin to
live in paganistic ways. A lot of the people of Corinth
versus lived in starkly contrasting ways of the majority of people
in Thessalonica. What did it look like? Well,
in Corinth, they lied about each other. They worshipped in pagan
temples. They visited brothels. They allowed
incest. They were divorcing each other
for pure pleasure. And the list goes on and on and
on. They were arguing over which
apostle was greater, which one of their baptisms was most impressive,
what pastor that they used to sit under. I mean, these are
the arguments of the Corinthian church. And so Paul's letter
to them was starkly different. Paul's letter to them was you
need to turn from this. And you need to trust in Christ
crucified and you need to understand that if you don't stop being
divisive, I'm going to come down there and we're going to straighten
this out if I have to come with a rod. And by the Lord's grace, God
preserved His church. He preserved his church. They
were abusing the gifts. Everybody wanted to be impressive.
So they began to learn to try to speak in tongues. They began
to interrupt worship services and prophesy. And then when someone
would say, well, that's not what the apostles teach, then they'd
start to question the apostleship of Paul. But were the Corinthians worthy
of the calling of God? Yeah, just as much as the Thessalonians
were. only by Christ. But what's the
difference? If I am royalty and I live in
a place of state where I have to always be on presentation,
you know what I'm talking about? And I live in a place where I've
got to talk to dignitaries and kings and I'm a child of a king
and I stand around. I can't come down in my underwear
for breakfast. I can't spit on the front steps
of the castle. I can't have my pants hanging
down, my boxer shorts puffed out, which is the style these
days. I think if more dads did that for
a couple of weeks, their sons would pull their pants off. Son,
we're just going to be like you. You know, I can't do these things
because it's not a good expectation. It's not a good image of someone
who is in the king's family. So act in a way which reveals
a worthiness of your placement, act in a way which reveals the
worthiness of your adoption. You're not a you're not a homeless
anymore. Quit living like it. You're not a sinner anymore.
Stop living like it. You're not in bondage anymore.
Stop. Living worthy. The Bible gives
us the ability to understand that we can live as worthy people
and a reflection of worthiness. It's not an establishment of
worthiness. Do you know the difference? God establishes our worth through
Jesus Christ. We just exemplify. And even when that happens, it
is the work of God. So to what end, then, is Paul
praying? Paul is praying to this end. that they were suffering, that
they were worthy to suffer, that they were enduring, that they
were persevering, that all of the suffering and trials that
they were going through were the plan and the purpose of God,
that all of this was proof of their acceptance by God, that
God would bring them rest on the day of judgment, that God
would vindicate them. Even though they were mocked
and rejected by the world, one day the world would look upon
them and see that they were vindicated. They were right. that God's judgment,
which are true at all times, would reveal them as his children
and to their enemies. He would reveal that they were
objects of divine wrath. To this end, Paul prayed that
Jesus, to what end? To the end that Jesus and they
would be glorified before all the world to the praise of the
glorious grace of Jesus Christ, the Savior. So to this end, Paul
says, we always pray for you. Now, I contemplated about just
teaching on prayer this morning, about doing a whole sermon on
praying. What are some things that we
see there? And I realized that I did that more in 1 Thessalonians,
as Paul continually talks about praying two or three times there.
So not to re-preach another sermon on prayer, there is a time for
us to reflect on that which we've already learned from this first
letter. What is it that we see significantly about just this
very phrase? We always pray for you. Several things as a reminder.
Number one, prayer is something that is happening continually
in the life of God's children. The problem in our culture is
that we have established a Oh, what is it? We have established
an essence of prayer in posture. We have established a place of
prayer. We've established that we pray at certain times, we
pray in certain ways, we pray in certain postures. Friends,
this is not found in the scripture. The command to pray is praying
at all times without ceasing. When we see depictions of Paul
and the disciples and Silas who are locked up and they're praying
and their hands are down and they're doing like this, this
is not true. No one in first century prayed like this. No
one prayed like this. This was not a posture of prayer
in practice in the first century. People prayed in the first century
like this. They prayed like this. Eyes open,
mouth open, hands up like this. That's how the Pentecostals got
this right. They prayed this way. Where did this come from? Catholic
monasteries. Where did praying before meals
come from? I don't know. Is it prayer? Thank you, Lord,
for this food and the nourishment of our bodies. In Jesus' name
I pray. Amen. Is that prayer? No, that's like having a rubber stamp
with a signature on it. I'm writing checks. I'm making law. You know why there's no stamp
with the president's signature on it? Because it's not his words. Would you imagine? Stamp, stamp,
stamp. And I'm not making fun of prayer,
but you can say that prayer if you're really praying. But are
we really praying? Are we talking to God? Have we stopped for a
moment and asked for God to take note of what we're about to say
from our hearts? Well, friends, you hear me say all the time
that we should pray more than we ponder. Friends, we're not
going to pray effectually if we're not in the Word of God
every day. You cannot do it. The Spirit of God, we won't even
know the Spirit of God is praying for us if we're not in the Word
every day. We won't understand how to pray. Why do we text so
much? Why do we think so much? Why
do we talk to ourselves so often? Because we're consumed with our
own lives. We're consumed with our own selves. We're consumed
with our own answers to the world's problems. Our own commentary
and our own pundit minds. We want to actually hear ourselves
talk more than we want to hear God speak. As a culture. And sadly, many Christians are
the same way. It's easy to fall trap to such
things. We ought to pray always. We ought to be praying without
ceasing. We ought to be praying. When we find a thought in our mind,
we ought to take it captive and we ought to pray about it. One of my children asked, I was
texting someone who asked for a prayer the day before yesterday. And I voice texted back, because
when you're driving, you're not supposed to text, but you can talk. So
I hit the thing, voice texted, praying for you now. My child
says, are you really? Yes, I am. Really. Good lesson. I can pray. Can you not tune
me out and think about anything right now? Do I have to stop
beside the road and close my eyes and bow my head and, oh
Father, I come before you now and pray for the thing that I
just had. I mean, why do we have to do
that? Why do we have to all of a sudden get an appointment with
God through prayer? I don't know who was telling me, I think it
was at your house the other night, you were saying there was a guy that used
to pray King James prayers, using thee and thou and lordeth and
things like that. I mean, we don't have to pray
that way. That's a show. We can talk. If I saw you in, oh, you wouldn't
see you in Walmart. I will never see any of you in
Walmart because I don't go there, never have, won't do it. But if I saw you
in a coffee shop, And I said, hey, how are you doing? Hey,
we're busy. We're walking. Just that's it.
I don't have to go. Hey, brother, come here a minute.
Hey, brother, so and so. I'm James. And I want to say
hello this afternoon. It's really nice to see your
face and your eyes and ears and your mouth. I mean, we get to
it's too it's too complex. We talk to God because he's always
listening. We talk to God in prayer in a
continual way, just like we would talk to someone if they called
us on our phone or texted us. And I'm not saying we should
do it flippantly or very informally in the context of thinking God's
the big great buddy upstairs. That's not what I'm saying. But
in our practice of prayer, it needs to be continual. We need
to stop putting parameters on prayer that aren't biblical.
We see what Jesus says we should pray in the context of our prayers.
We should recognize God's holiness. We should recognize His authority.
We should recognize our intimacy with Jesus through Jesus Christ
that God is our Father. We should recognize His authority
that His will is done on heaven and on earth. And we should know
that in all things He will provide all needs and all timing with
His sufficiency and through His grace. And we can count on that
so we can ask for that. We need to pray in a sense of
forgiveness because we've been forgiven much. We need to pray
so that we understand that we are actually justified before
God through Jesus Christ, the righteous, that our righteousness
is not our own, so that we always have sin to confess to the Lord. But in doing all this, it's not
a formula. It's not the right incantation.
It's not the right magic words. Paul says he prayed always to
this end. And his prayer was continually,
continually that this would take place for these Christians. And the main thing that he's
talking about here is that God would make them worthy of his
kingdom. Now, think about this for a second. How many hours did Paul spend
thinking? and wondering. How many times
did you wake up in the middle of the night going, I wonder
how the Thessalonians are doing? Oh Lord. Do you say Oh Lord often? Do you say Oh God often? Do you
say Father a lot? Well, hopefully that's because
it's common amongst your tongue to be talking to the Lord, to
talking to the Father, talking in prayer and continually. As
we see these thoughts moving through, channel them from your
own mind and channel them to the Lord. And I don't mean that
literally. It's talking about in practice. I'm worried about all this. Father,
I pray that you would have your hand in this. I pray that you
would have your will in this, that you would do these things,
that you would work this out. You ever know not what to pray?
People say, hey, you pray for me. Will you pray for me? Will you pray for us? Absolutely.
I have been praying for you. I don't know how to pray for
you in this circumstance. I mean, I had this past week. I don't know
what to pray. I know some things that I have been praying, but
I don't know what to pray. Church, we need to always be
praying. Paul was praying for God to make
them worthy. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23,
it says, Now may the God of peace himself, listen to this, sanctify
you completely. Sanctify you completely and may
your whole spirit and your whole soul and your whole body be kept
blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does
that mean? There are some people in antiquity
that would argue that that was a sinless perfection that was
possible inside the life of a human being on this earth. Now, I can
argue that, or I can concede that I can see a visible sinless
perfection. I think that we can grow up enough
to where the ills of the world don't shine out from us. That
we can have pleasant attitudes, that we'll stop stealing, lying,
killing, murdering, all this stuff. We can stop being materialistic. We can do those things, but it's
not just that. It says your whole spirit and
soul and body. There's never going to be a time
when temptations are not knocking on the door of our mind. tapping
us on the shoulders of our bodies. And yes, there are there is the
power of Christ, as John would write in his first epistle, these
things are written that you may not sin. What's to keep us from
sinning when we're tempted? We have that opportunity and
the power and the authority then to go to the Word of God and
say, Lord, you are my sufficiency. I don't need this. I don't need
that. I don't need to consume this. I don't need to observe
this. I don't need to hear this. I don't need to go there. I don't
need to have this in order to be fulfilled. For Christ is my
full joy. But yet Paul is praying that
they be found, that God would make them worthy. This isn't
new. We know, as I've already said
this morning, that God makes one worthy through Jesus Christ.
We know that God is the effectual agent agent, excuse me, and obedience
and faith. We know that all works are carried
out in God. John three. We know that these
things have been prepared beforehand for us to walk in Ephesians chapter
two. We know. And so here Paul is prayed that
the lives of these Christians produce. And I'm going to say
this word lightning. I don't mean it. And don't imply
me with some of these apologists who do it. that the lives of
these Christians would produce evidence of God's working. Evidence
of God's working. What does Jesus say? They will
know you are my disciples because you have love for one another. So someone that says I'm a disciple
of Christ and he hates me, he's a liar and the truth is not in
him according to John. I just can quote the English
of all scripture and rebuke people. They get mad. I say, why are
you mad? God said it. Well, you don't question my faith.
I'm not. Jesus did. Jesus said, they'll know you're
my disciples because you have love for one another. You don't
love me. Ergo, you are a liar and you do not practice the truth
according to the Bible in three different places that I can think
of right now on the top of my mind. And if I look down at the
bottom of my notes, I could probably find 25 other ones. You see, so we're not looking
to make ourselves worthy. I think Paul is praying that
the lives of these Christians would produce the evidence of
God's work. What in the world would cause them not to? The
fact that they were going to jail, losing their lives, losing
their property, leaving their loved ones going, I mean, being
persecuted and run out of town. The fact that the very thing
that they thought that they knew would give them eternal joy was
now causing earthly pain. The very idea that there is a
good possibility that a lot of people when pressed will fall
away. But friends, I don't believe that Paul was afraid that the
Christians of Thessalonica would fall away because he says that
their testimony had gone before them and that they were proud
of them and that they praise God for them and that their love
for each other and their faith and their endurance and their
perseverance and their passion and their zeal and their holiness
and their prayerfulness and their intention toward each other was
so prevalent that it had passed through all of Macedonia and
Achaia. Now, that's before there were
most people could even write. That was before any telecommunications,
before any tweeting and Instagramming and Snapchatting and Facebooking. I mean, people know what's going
on in our world because it travels immediately. Time and space have
been eliminated in communicating things, which is a terror in
a lot of ways, but it is also beneficial. But just like with
anything, do you know when the bicycle was invented and began
to be mass produced that the people of many areas actually
passed laws against the ownership of bicycles? You know why? Because they knew that now that
young men could get on wheels and get to another place faster,
they would find sexual temptation and debauchery just that much
more accessible. And there are large arguments where people
say, well, you know, young men, if they're walking around the
farm, they can't walk too far. People live a good distance. Now we're
going to cut the time and the distance out between them to
run around and try to find ladies. Serious. Don't buy your son a
bicycle. He'll lose his soul to the devil.
I mean, that was one of the arguments. So with every good thing, the
heart of man is going to find wicked ways to use it. This testimony of these people
were clear evidence that God was working in them because they
did not give up. They did not stop and he wanted them to continually
to live, especially in their affection for their enemy, especially
in being intimate with each other in the face of persecution, that
they would not take their own personal interest over the interest
of their brothers and sisters. There are warnings, church, I
want you to hear this. There are warnings in scripture
about those who profess Christ, but have no light. This is the
message that we have heard from Him. That's pretty explicit.
That's pretty direct. That's pretty dogmatic. This
is the message that we have heard from Him. Who is Him? That's
1 John 1. Jesus Christ, the righteous,
who comes from God, Messiah, God with us, Emmanuel. God comes
in human flesh and says, this is the message of God. He is
light. He is holiness. He sees all things. He shines
all things. He exposes all things. He's righteous and true in all
of His judgments. And there is no darkness in Him. So if we
say we have fellowship with the light, but we walk in darkness,
we lie. Friends, this warning, Hebrews
chapter 6 is a warning. Hebrews chapter 10 is a warning.
There's warnings everywhere because amongst the people of God there
are so many who will profess Jesus as Lord, who will confess
Jesus as Lord, who will believe in their heart that Jesus is
Lord from a cognitive point of view, and they will sit around
and they will live apathetic, contradictory lives, And say,
well, you know, God's still working on me. He is working on all of
us. Sanctification is a continual process that will never be fulfilled
until the day of glorification. It will never be perfect. Even
if we are the most perfect thing that ever walked second to Jesus,
we will still be so far from the glory of God and all of our
righteousness. It will look like wickedness. The gospel is that
in the midst of that reality, Christ stands us into the perfect
essence of his righteousness immediately. That means that
God sees us through Christ's word and we are as holy as God
is holy. As perfect as God is perfect.
As righteous as God is righteous, he does not see us as a secondary
righteous bunch of people, he sees us as a reflection of the
fullness of his purpose, of his value. God's holiness is an intrinsic
display of his internal, of his intrinsic worthiness. There are warnings, church. Paul
is praying that this church would continue to live, to show the
worthiness of the kingdom of God. There's warning against
those, I've already said, who profess Christ, but have no life.
There are warning against those who seem to shine as Christians,
but have no life. Second Peter 1 10. Therefore,
brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.
If you practice these qualities, you will never fall. John would argue that there is
no burden with being obedient to Christ. Some brothers and
sisters around the world have latched on to an incredibly good
message about the grace of God, but they've done so to the demise
of the work of God. The work of God in grace builds
evidence. builds a reflection, builds a
glorious picture. The work of God in his grace
builds a people who reflect the greatness of his name. That's
the whole point. You see the end of this. There are great responsibilities
for the believer. Church, we have great responsibilities.
We cannot. I remember my grandmother always
telling me and I never really understood that. Because when
somebody, and my mom can attest to this too, when you can't do
that, oh, really? Even if I didn't want to do something,
being told I can't supposes that it's not possible. And I argued
and still do, it is possible. I can do what I want. If it's
within the probability of reality, I can do it. I can. I can. And then one day it sort
of hit me. It's not about I can't or that you can't is that believers
don't because they don't have to. Do you get that? We don't live in
continual sin because we don't have to. And because we don't want to.
So to live in continuous sin and say, well, I really don't
want to, but I have to. That's a mistake, that's a mess. Well,
I'm struggling. Great. You know how much counsel
I do a week? 20 hours. Or more, some weeks. And the answer is always, be
in the Word of God, be in prayer, be accountable to the body. Simple.
But yet it's so hard. Because we want the temptation
to go away. We want the stress of it. That's the judgment day,
y'all. We're looking for that day of
rest. It is coming, but it is not going to happen here. That's why so many Christians,
when they get into their old age, 80, 90 plus, even younger
than that, I mean, heck, there are days that I feel like, Lord,
Jesus, come now. And I think about all those people
that I know that are going to go to hell if He does. I'm like, okay. Have you ever prayed for God
to take your life? Not because you were suicidal. I've been
there. But you ever prayed for God to take your life because
you just were ready for the fight to be over? And you knew there
was a greater thing awaiting for you and if the Lord killed
you this day, oh man, what a joy it would fill your soul. And
then the Spirit of God goes, and how selfish is that? Because
you've got a lot of things. You have a lot of responsibilities
that you need to continue in. Friends, we have responsibilities
as believers. We have to walk in the light
and strive to honor the Lord in all things, to do all things
for the glory of the name of Christ. In all things, whether
you eat or drink, do them to glorify the Lord. This is the
essence of our obedience. This is the purpose of it. This
is the purpose of our striving. This is why John even implicates
the idea of confessing our sins to one another. Some churches
have taken that so literally they put chairs up front. Everybody
comes up and tells all their sins and people just, you know,
like not going to happen. Sometimes you've got to tell
somebody. Hey, pray for me on this because this is a problem. Paul prays for these Christians. to be kept as worthy citizens
of the kingdom of God. And it will happen. Do you know
why? Because it is the will of God
and Paul prays in the will of God. Do you know if you pray? The Lord's will be done. And
it is the Lord's will that what you pray is done. It will be
done. It is done. It is the Lord's will that the people of God live
in righteousness and holiness and strive for perfection. It
is the will of God that people live as the people of God. It
is the will of God. And I had this conversation earlier
this morning with somebody. It is the will of God that all Christians
be intimately involved in a local body of believers. It is the will of God that we
read our Bible. It is the will of God that we
grow in holiness. It is the will of God that we saw that in the
last letter. This is the will of God for you.
What? Your sanctification. How's it going to work? It is
the will of God that you suffer. And are tempted. And have to
fight a fight. It is the will of God. So that
we are sanctified in Christ. It was the will of God that Satan
was sent by the will of God to touch the life of Job and to
take everything he had and to crush him and to take his help
from him so that God would be glorified because God was the
creator and the sealer of the heart of Job. So God is glorified in it. What is it that Paul prays?
He prays Several things, let's break them down individually.
God would make you worthy. Of his calling. And may fulfill
every resolve for good. And every work of faith by his
power. Let's look at that for a second. Each of these could
be a whole sermon in themselves. But in this argument, here's
what I believe the scripture is teaching. To fulfill every
resolve for good. If we were to take the King James
and we were to put some pronouns in there to show which of these
things belong to whom, it would probably be best read like this,
and that he by his power may bring to fulfillment your every
resolve prompted by goodness and your every work resulting
from faith. Let's look at it. What is Paul
praying? He's praying that God would complete
what he started. That God would complete it. He
is faithful to complete that which He began. God will do that
which He started. Has He not already taught them
that? He who began a good work is faithful
to complete it. Paul is praying, Lord, complete
in them every good desire for good. The resolve. If you resolve, if you have a
resolution, I will. That's a resolution. I'm resolved.
I remember in 2005, I resolved to gain a hundred pounds. Because
every year I'd resolve to lose a hundred pounds and I always
gain more. So I thought, well, let's just
reverse psychology. And I said, I resolve my New
Year's resolution is to gain a hundred pounds. Bring the Krispy
Kreme on. Here Paul says that all this
resolve, this desire, this growing root of motion and movement and
urgency for good, that God would complete it. So here right now
we're already off the hook of self-reliance, are we not? We're
done. God will complete what He started,
which results in the endurance of His people until the end.
Preservation of the saints. It's not just the pea and tulip. It's not just the pea and tulip. It is a theological position
that is necessary. It's a theological truth that
is explicitly taught in the New Testament and in the Old Testament. What are you talking about? You,
beloved, because God has sealed you by the Spirit, because you
have heard by the will of God through the Spirit with ears
that hear the good news of Jesus, and because you have believed,
you will remain in Christ. Not because of you, but because
of Christ. Paul tells Timothy that even
when we're faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. God cannot deny himself. The
idea of one of the characteristics of God's attributes is he is
faithful. So God, who does a beginning work, is faithful to do an end
work. It doesn't mean we live in unbelief
and God's just going to keep growing us in unbelief and one
day we'll just be believers. That's not how that works. There's
a striving. There's a responsibility. There's
a culpability. There is a clear call and command to believe in
the gospel. And the evangelism is not good
news is not. Well, I hope you call. The evangelism
is here is the call, believe it. And let the Lord do his work. Every resolve for good. And here's
something that we often don't recognize. Is that everything
that we desire, if we truly desire it, proves itself. Does it not? You know, the difference that
I'm going to play on words here, don't get philosophical and argue,
don't get forensic. If we really, really believe
something or we really, really desire something to the point
that we'd like to accomplish it, is it truly a desire if we
never act on it? It can be. But if we say we love
the Lord Jesus with all of our heart, mind and soul, if we say
we love our neighbor as ourselves, if we say we love Christ, are
we not going to do the things that effectually reveal our love?
Are we not going to serve? Are we not going to give? Are
we not going to pray? Are we not going to do the things
that the Bible clearly shows is the natural fruit of the supernaturally
transformed man? Yes. So if we resolve, there's
always an application. If we resolve for good works,
then there will always be the fruit of good works. Does that
mean that it's never going to see some bad works? Absolutely
not. We're going to see some bad things
in the midst. Just like I had to throw away two of five tomatoes
last night. It broke my heart. They put caps on. There were
little white caps. I knew it was going to get called little
moldy caps. That's sad. I didn't throw the whole bowl
away. We're going to see sin in our lives from time to time.
But the overarching practice, the overarching striving, the
overarching desire, the overarching resolution is that we live for
the glory of God by His power, because it is the will of God
that we do so. And when we submit ourselves
to the power of God through prayer, He produces good works which
He prepared before Him for us to walk in. And we stand in the
light that the world may look and say, wow, God has done these
works. God has done these things. You
know the guy or the gal, the person that you've known your
whole life, and they were always awful, they were always bitter,
they were always angry, they were always cantankerous, they
were always addicted, they were always punching somebody or stealing
something or slicing a tire. And then they're saved, and you see them, and the first
thing you think they're going to do is complain, and they say, God set
my heart free, and next thing you know, they're preaching,
and they're sharing their faith, and you're like, wow. Instead we
go, there's evidence. What happened to you? I'm a new
man. That's what happened to me. Christ
recreated me, became something else. You know that guy. Was that not supposed to be the
same for all of us? Because we pray. We maybe we don't see it
because we're not praying for it. Brother Jesse and I, we talk
most a few times a week, but there's not a week that goes
by we don't talk about the pastoral needs of this church. And it's
interesting just as elders who are continually full-time working
in and for the body of the church, we're doing what we have to do
for your joy and for your growth and prayer. But it's amazing
just with our conversations, sometimes one of us will remind
the other, you know what, we need to pray more about this
instead of talk about it. This person's not getting it. We've
counseled with them, we've taught with them, we've gave them books,
we've slapped them. We electroshock therapy them, whatever we could
do. Set them on fire tomorrow and see if they like that. I
mean, we just need to pray. It's not just pray, it's powerful
pray. Prayer affects all of this. So
sometimes in our own lives, the reason we can't see the fruit
of it is because we're not praying for God to continually fulfill
what he started in us. And the reason we say such odds
with seeing lack of fruitfulness in each other's lives is because
we fail to pray for each other. I mean, how much worry do we
sit around and go, I wish so-and-so would have joy, I wish so-and-so
would be in church, I wish so-and-so would read their Bible, I wish
so-and-so would reconcile this relationship, I wish this marriage
would come better, I wish this health would be better, I wish
their attitude would be better, I wish their desire for ministry
would be better. Oh, what can we do? Let's have
a class. Let's talk about it. Let's do this. Let's do that.
Let's put somebody in their life. How about we pray about it and
see if God will affect their lives supernaturally so that
when it's all said and done, it'll say, Hallelujah, what a
program. But we say, Hallelujah, what
a Savior. And that was my sermon to myself.
I hope you all enjoyed it. There's always action. If there
is a true desire for good, all things will take place in the
will of the Lord to see his people come to a place of right living. Back to the beginning of where
I started the service, where is this right living learned
and lived through and from the word of God and amongst his people? What is exactly What are the
exactly are these good things? Well, every work of faith by
his power. Now, let me tell you what pops
into my mind when I read that. The very first time I ever read
that. To him who knows to do right and does not, this is sin. And from the same apostle. Anything
that does not proceed from faith is what? Sin. So I believe that
in some way This work of faith by His power, every work that
we do is a work of faith. All things that we desire to
do as Christians that are good is a work of faith. It's a gift
of God and His grace to do these things in our lives. Like we'd
see the Old Testament prophets say that the righteousness of
man is like filthy rags. How is that so? Because if we
do good deeds, they're not righteous, are they? Not except we're believers. If you look at even. The Jews
of Jesus Day and they prided themselves on walking in obedience. They prided themselves on doing
what was required according to the law of the Old Testament,
they prided them and they obeyed it fully. It wasn't, don't think
that the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees were these people who partied
all night and looked pretty on Sunday or Saturday. And partied all week and did
all this crazy stuff and had these secret casinos, these underground
sin trains or whatever. No, they lived their faith fully
every day. Jesus even says if your righteousness
is not that greater than that of the Pharisees, you cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. But their works were not righteous
because they were not done in faith. They were not done in
a way where they were, number one, knowing that it was not
them that was accomplishing it. It was faith in God through Jesus
Christ to accomplish the work. Secondly, knowing that it was
not the word that they trusted in, but Christ that they trusted
in by faith so that they would not become haughty and arrogant
in their righteousness. So that we do what we do, every
work of faith by his power, God will complete all these things
that we do. All the living is a work of faith. Paul would say to the Church
of Colossae, for this I toil, struggling with all what? His energy that he powerfully
works within me. Now, think about that for a second.
Paul prays that this church would be filled with all the power
of God. Does that sound familiar? That's
the church of Colossae. Now we're in the church of Thessalonica.
Do you know where that comes from? Ephesians 3. He prays that
same prayer for the church of Ephesus. I pray that you may
be filled with all the power, with all the fullness of God.
That you may understand what is the breadth and height and
depth of the love of God. And then with all power and understanding
and wisdom you fulfill the living of this life for the sake of
the glorious name of Christ, to the praise of His glorious
grace. And so here we see all of this coming together for the
Thessalonians and the prayer of Paul. And it's obvious it's
already happening. So Paul is praying that God would
continue to do the work. Friends, this is a very, very
pastoral prayer. It's a prayer that I pray several
times a day, not only for me and for my household, but for
us as a family. Because believe it or not, though
my household is one of my first priorities, friends, it is not
an eternal priority. It is temporal. It will cease
to exist. But we, together as the beloved bride of Christ,
we are eternally bound as a family. This is the point. The family
was created for the church, not the other way around. Paul is praying this, not so
that these people would stay in the faith, not so they would
be, quote, ready for the kingdom of God, not so that they would
prove that they are even in the kingdom of God, but to reveal
Christ is preparing them for the presence of the Father and
for the personhood or the citizenship of His kingdom and that they
are worth it. They are worthy because all of
the work of Jesus Christ is all of the work of them and their
lives. You see that? It is not I who
live, Paul says, but Christ who lives within me. Man, that Paul's
a strong guy, man. They beat him up and he's still
preaching. I'm not preaching. Christ is preaching. Man, Paul,
man, he's so resolute. He was arrested and hated and
spat upon and he just prayed and the doors fell off the jail
and he stayed in there so he could minister. Man, I wish I
could be strong like Paul. Paul says, I'm nothing. I'm frail.
I'm weak. I can barely stand and speak.
I can't hardly even pray. I pray, but the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified alone empowers me to be the man that I am. It
is not me, it is Christ. Church, we must live so that
the world sees Christ in us, not us. What good is a people who can
say, look what I have done? What good is it for people to
say, I love Jesus so much, I do this way, I walk this way, it's
no good. I do nothing, but Christ does
it all. But it's not a sit on our hands
as we see. Paul says that I toil, I labor, I struggle, but I do
so with His energy, with His power, and His work in me. Here's
the prayer. God is able to do all things
related to salvation. He will expose all parts of His
glorious grace, including the evidence of salvation, because
He created us to be those people for whom He loves and has given
His love, for whom He died. God is able. to bring prayer
into our lives. God is able to bring a desire
for the study of the Word. God is able to bring joy in the
midst of suffering. God is able to cause us to endure. God is able to create delight
for Him and His people. God is able to open our mouths
and to share the gospel that we say we don't understand, which
is a lie. God is able to give us devotion. God is able to produce
the actions for He has created us for that end and to that purpose. The other way around. For that
purpose and to that end. God is able to fulfill all that He
decreed for the people of Jesus Christ. Why? Why does it matter? Why does it matter? Beloved,
look at this. Look at this. Oh, I'm in Timothy.
How did I get there? So that So that verse 12, the
name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you. You see that? The name of the Lord
Jesus may be glorified in you, and I'm going to add this so
you can understand it and that you may be glorified in him. So that the name of the Lord
Jesus may be glorified in you and that you may be glorified
in him by the Lord's grace. Maybe I'll preach that again
this again next week. According to the grace of our
God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So. That the name of the Lord be
glorified and we be glorified, I want you to think about this
for a second. Paul tells the Church of Corinth
in 2 Corinthians, And we, with all unveiled face, beholding
the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image
from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord,
who is the Spirit. Remember what I said earlier? that we're not a sub-sect, sub-contracted,
reduced, holy people in Christ. But we are of the same essence
of his righteousness. And don't read into what I'm
saying here. We know where we stand. God views us as we are
exactly holy as he is holy. Because that is the standard.
So for God to save us to a reduced standard would be worthless. So we stand completely. Righteous
before God, but our lives are far from it in application, so
as God has called us. To be worthy and made us to be
worthy through Jesus Christ. Therefore, our lives then, by
His power and His might, prepare us to continually look like that
worthy group. And Paul understood this well.
2 Timothy is a precious letter for a pastor. Especially, I believe,
when I'm at the end of my life. Whether I die suddenly or whether
I have illness, whatever it may be, there's sometimes I wonder
if I'm not close. The second Timothy. Is a pastoral heart written to
this young pastor. And Paul says a lot there, and
it's dear to me. But he says in chapter four, verse eight,
henceforth. There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, will award me on that day, and not only me, but also
to all who have loved His appearing." Now let's go back to 2 Thessalonians.
Look at verse 10, chapter 1. When He comes on that day, in
order to be, that's the point of His coming, glorified in his
saints. And to be marveled at among all
who have believed. You know what that looks like? When we love something, we marvel
at it. When something strikes us as
beautiful, the reason we like it is because it holds an affection.
Nobody hates the beauty of the mountains and go, look how pretty
that is. I hate it. That's crazy talk. Oh, this tastes like trash. I love it. It's the best pecan pie I've
ever had. I hate it. See, these are contradictions.
If we marvel at Jesus, if we're in awe of his majesty, we love
him. He's returning that we may glorify
him in that way. But it's a mutual glorification. We are not worthy to be marveled
at. We are not worthy to be glorified.
We are not worthy. But Christ has made us worthy.
Beloved, you are worthy because of the love of God for you. What in that makes me want to
sin against him? I think sometimes we would obey
more or we would live righteously more if we knew our loved ones
who had passed on could watch us than if we know that God is
watching. I don't want a great grandpa to
see me saying these things. I better stay straight. God has
loved me and he shouldn't and he loved me to the cost of his
son who bore my sin and the punishment of my sin. Lord, I don't want
to sin against you. And Lord, by your power, I will
remain. John 17, if you know anything
about John, the gospel, you know that that is his high priestly
prayer. He says in verse 10, all mine are yours, talking to
God the Father. All mine are yours and all yours
are mine. And I am glorified in him. Beloved, think about that.
Think about that. That we belong to God. And God gave us to the son. And
he will never cast us away even when we sin. Because we are his. And he is
mine. That's what Paul is trying to
relay to these Thessalonians in verse 12. so that the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you be
glorified in him. What's that going to look like? We'll talk about more next week.
But think about these things in closing. How is it possible? By the grace of our God and the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. It's just an unmerited
favor that God places upon us, that gives us so that we are
Christ's and Christ is ours. And if you are in Christ, then
you're mine. And if I'm in Christ, then I'm yours. Is Paul yours? Is John yours? John is mine. John lived for
me. and for my joy. Paul is yours. James is yours. Peter is yours. Jesus is yours. What's this mean? Friends, the
same work that God has done in the apostle Paul, he has done
in you. And the work of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ in the life of
Paul through the history of this text is ours to embrace as the
work of God for us. Paul's writing was written to
his hearers, but it is mine for my joy, for my power, for my
instruction. My life is for you to look at. Your life is for me. We are in
Christ. So if we see our lives together,
we ought to look identical to Christ. We are His body. We are
going to share in His glory. Jesus is not going to have a
glowing head and a dim body. He will stand with all of His
body and say, I'm glorified. We share in his glory. We share
in his life. We share in his suffering. We
share in his death. We share in his glory. All that
he has done and in whom he has worked and will continue to work,
we belong to each other. The church is for each other. The work of God through Lorraine
Bettner, the work of God through John Owen, the work of God through
Jonathan Edwards, the work of God through Pete Smith, whoever
that might be. If he's in Christ, his life is
observable, if his writing is there, it is for us. We are Christ's by the grace
of God. Beloved, be encouraged by this
truth. Let's pray. Father, there is many opportunities
in this moment for all of us to tune out and
to move about our day. And I pray by your Holy Spirit,
Lord, that you would seize us into this place. You'd freeze
us into this thought for days and weeks to come. That we are
worthy of your kingdom because of Christ. Who has saved us because
of your love, not because of us. In spite of us. Help us to live as a people who
display this perfect and pleasant and glorious picture of Your
worth. And help us to strive in all
Your power, to trust in all of Christ, and to be intimate in
the Word of God along with You, that prayer and devotion and
affection and endurance in the toil, the suffering, the
pain and the joy, that we look forward to that day of rest,
which is ours in Christ Jesus. Lord, bring those who hear these
words to salvation through Your power, that they may have everlasting
life with You to display Your glory and to glory in Your grace. In Jesus' name.