The title of our lesson this
morning is Pray and Trust the Faithful Lord. We're going to
begin in verse 1, chapter 3. Finally, brethren, pray for us
that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified
even as it is with you. God's word reminds us again of
the importance of prayer. A child of God must pray. have to pray. This is the way
we talk to our Heavenly Father. It's very important to the spiritual
life of a believer to spend time in prayer. It's important for
us to praise God for who He is in prayer. Just praising for
who He is. It's important to thank God in
prayer. Our prayers should be heavily
weighted with thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful
how the Lord's blessed us, it's important to be thankful in prayer.
And it's important to pray for one another, to hold one another
up in prayer. If we're not going to pray for
each other, who is? It's important for us to pray
for one another. And here, Paul specifically asked the church
at Thessalonica to pray for him. And I would humbly ask the same
thing of you all, that you pray for me. Pray for the other men
who stand here to preach. Pray for our teachers every week.
Pray for pastors and preachers in other places, like Paul says
at the end of the verse, that pray the Lord that would bless
them, even as He's blessed us. It's very important for us to
pray for our pastor and our teachers, because no man is sufficient
for these things. We need prayer. We need the Lord
to hold us up. I've been asking all of you for
several weeks to remember to pray for our children and our
teachers in this week of Bible school we just had. Our teachers
can't teach and our children can't hear unless God enables
them. It's important for us to pray
for them. Brother Roy tells me often, I pray for you every day. And you don't know how much of
an encouragement that is to me when I'm in my study to know
somebody's praying for me. Believe me, I need it. Every
once in a while, Kendon will tell me, I pray for you. That
means a lot. I mean, that's a blessing and
a comfort to my heart. And there are several areas that
you can pray for God's preachers and our teachers. The first one
is this. Pray that the Lord will bless
the pastor and our teachers while he studies. If he's God's servant,
I can tell you this. He's working in the study. Pray
for him as he's studying. Pray that God will give an understanding
of the Scripture. You can study the Scripture.
You're not going to understand it unless God gives you an understanding.
Pray that God will give him the message for the hour. Pray that
God will give him the message that God has for you. You're
not going to get it any other way. Second, pray that the Lord
will enable your pastor to preach. Pray that God will give him the
gift of preaching. Look back in Ephesians chapter
6. Pray that God will give him the boldness to tell the truth. In Ephesians 6 verse 18, praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for all saints, and for me, and
for me too, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may
open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the for
which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly
as I ought to speak." Pray that God will give me the boldness
to speak as I ought to speak. And we think, well, nobody's
as bold as the Apostle Paul. He's so bold. Yeah, he is. But he needs fresh supplies every
day, doesn't he? We need fresh supplies, every
blessing of the Lord, every day. Pray that the Lord will enable
your pastor to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit and
not in the weakness of his flesh, because his preaching is not
going to do anybody any good otherwise. Pray that God will
give him the gift of preaching. Third, pray that the Lord will
give him a hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. Pray
that the Lord will give him a hearing. Fourth, pray that the Lord will
keep your pastor faithful. And you say, well, he preaches
the gospel. I know. I know he does. But pray that
he'll continue to preach the gospel. Pray that he'll continue
to be faithful. That he won't get off on a tangent.
We've seen it happen. Pray that God won't let it happen
again. And fifth, pray that the Lord will keep him safe. That
he'll provide the things that are necessary to keep him safe.
Isn't that an awful good prayer for our missionaries? They're
often in dangerous situations. Pray that God will meet their
need. Pray that God will keep them safe. And this is a two-way
street. I pray for you every day. Every day I pray for you. Well,
I hope you pray for me, too, that the Lord will bless us.
And pray that God will bless His Word. Pray that the Lord
will remove every obstacle So that the gospel will run well.
So it will flow free. Paul says it will have free course.
Last week a storm came through and blew a tree down. There's
a log or something across the creek out there. Eric and I were
out there looking at it and said we've got to get that thing out
of there eventually. Because you know what will happen
if you leave that thing there long enough? It's going to catch
debris and that's not going to flow freely. We're going to have
a mess. We need to get rid of that obstacle so that creek will
flow free. Pray the Lord will do the same
thing in our midst. He'll remove every obstacle so
the gospel will run well. It'll flow freely and powerfully. And here's a good prayer. Paul
says, pray that the word of the Lord would be glorified. Now,
the word of the Lord he's talking about there is the gospel. The
gospel that concerns our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that the gospel
be glorified. Well, now, how's the gospel going
to be glorified? I think of three things, which
actually I picked up from John Gill. The gospel is glorified
when the gospel is preached in reference and it's heard in reference. Now, this is not talking about
preaching a doctrinal position. This is not talking about believing
a doctrinal position. The Gospel is preached in reference
when it's preached as the Word of God that concerns the Son
of God. Now that can only be done in
reference. How can we speak of things of the Lord and not do
it referently? Secondly, the Gospel is glorified
when it's believed and loved in the heart. When we believe
Christ in the heart, we love Christ, His Gospel is glorified. Third, the gospel is glorified
when sinners are saved by it and the saints walk in it. When
God's pleased to save one of His sheep, the gospel is glorified
in it because He saved them through the preaching of the gospel.
And when His people walk in it, when they walk in the gospel
and don't bring reproach upon the gospel, the gospel is glorified.
So pray that the word of the Lord be glorified. In verse 2,
here's another matter of prayer for us. and that we may be delivered
from unreasonable and wicked men. For all men have not faith. Now pray that the enemies of
Christ and the enemies of the gospel don't carry the day. Pray
that we don't become entangled and ensnared by them. And pray
that others in our town don't get entangled and snared by their
damnable heresies. Pray that we be delivered from
the enemies of the gospel. Whether it's false prophets or
whether it's just people out in the world that hate religion
of every kind. Pray that we be delivered from them. And here's
why we need to make this a matter of prayer. All men, most men,
don't have faith. They don't believe Christ. Now,
we know all men don't have faith. We who believe only have faith
because God gave it to us. It's a gift of God. That's the
gift that he gives to his elect, the gift of faith. And if we
don't have faith, it's because we're not God's elect. Isn't
that what our Lord said? You believe not. Why? Because
you're not of my sheep. If you were of my sheep, I'd
give you the gift of faith. But Paul here is talking about
more than the fact that all men don't have faith. We know all
men don't have the gift of faith. What he's talking about specifically
here is this. He's speaking of the enemy. It's
gotten into the church. Now, I don't mean the church,
the body of Christ. I mean the enemy that's gotten
into the local church where Christ is preached. And Paul's saying
we need to pray that we be delivered from these wolves who have crept
in unawares. They're wolves in sheep's clothing
and they're seeking to devour the sheep. Pray that we be delivered
from them. Sheep are pretty defenseless
against wolves, huh? We need the shepherd to protect
us. Pray that he protect us. And this is what Paul's saying,
why this is such an important topic of prayer. He began asking
for prayer for himself, asking for prayer for God's preachers.
Then he warns us, all men don't have faith. All men who appear
to preach don't have saving faith. And those men will not be faithful
to continue preaching the gospel because they're in it for their
belly. That's true in the pulpit. And it's true in the pew. Everyone
does not have saving faith. Everyone who professes to have
saving faith does not have saving faith. Everybody that fills the
pews and fills the pulpits don't have faith. All men have not
faith. All men have sin, but all men
don't have faith. All men have the ability to pretend,
but all men have not faith. And that's very sobering, isn't
it? That's so sobering. And that will make a believer
ask what the disciples asked. When the Lord told them, one
of you twelve is going to betray me, what did they say? Lord,
is it I? We hear this, all men have not
faith. All men who profess faith don't have true faith. Well,
that makes us ask, Lord, will I fall away? Lord, do I have
a false profession of faith? Do I not have true love for Christ
in the heart? Well, look what Paul says immediately
here in verse 3, to comfort, to calm those fears. But the
Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from evil. All
men have not faith, but the Lord is faithful. All men who do have
faith have weak faith, but the Lord is faithful. How do I know
I won't quit? Because the Lord is faithful.
That's why. He won't let you. How do I know I won't be apostate? Because the Lord's faithful,
I would be apostate, but the Lord's faithful. He'll stop me
from doing that. Paul says, pray for us, brethren.
How do I know my prayer will be heard? The Lord's faithful. The Lord's faithful. If the Lord's
faithful, ought not we expect him to hear our prayer and answer
it? We sure should. And our confidence is never in
us. Never. We may have done everything
right, but that's not our confidence. Our confidence is not in anything
about us. Our confidence is always this. The Lord's faithful. Now that
makes us confident. Now I want you to turn to a couple
of scriptures. Just look back a few pages, one page probably.
1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23. And the very God of peace, Sanctify
you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
That's a good prayer. How do you know that's going
to be answered? Look at verse 24. Faithful is he that calleth
you who will also do it. That's our confidence is he who's
called us is faithful. He'll do it. Look over 2 Timothy
chapter 2. Verse 13, if we believe not, how often
do we do that? How often do we not believe? We're ashamed of ourselves. It's
just, it's horrible. We do believe not. Well, if you
believe not, yet he abides faithful. He cannot deny himself. He will
be faithful. Look at 1 Corinthians 1. I want to drive home this point.
Our confidence is this, the Lord's faithful. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 8. Who shall also confirm you unto
the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. How's that going to happen? God
is faithful. by whom ye are called unto the
fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." He's faithful. One more scripture, 1 Corinthians
10. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. I know those temptations
and those trials are common to man. I know that. But when it
happens to us, a lot of times we feel like this thing's going
to overtake me. It's going to overflow me. It's too much for
me. But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will,
with the temptation, also make a way to escape that you may
be able to bear it. How do you know you're going
to be able to bear this trial? God's faithful. He is faithful. Our confidence is in him. And
because God is faithful, first of all, Paul says he will establish
you. He's faithful. He's going to
establish you. He's going to establish your
feet upon the rock so that you shall not be moved. God will
establish you in faith. He's given faith to his people.
And He'll cause it to grow. He'll establish it and strengthen
it. He'll establish your interest in Christ. Every week, y'all
keep showing up. Why is that? God's established
your interest in Christ. You'll keep seeking Him. You'll
keep being interested in Him because He established your interest
in Him. The longer you go, the less interested
you become in yourself and your own doings and your own thoughts
and your own ways. You become more and more and
more interested in Him. Tell me of Him. He'll establish
your interest. He's faithful, so He'll establish
your peace and your comfort in your heart. God's faithful. He'll establish your walk so
that it's after Christ. Now, would you like to be established
like that? I'd like to be established like that. I grew up watching
men and women who were established. faithful in the Gospel. And I
remember being a boy and I'd watch them and I'd think, boy,
I'd like to be like that. Would you like to be established
like that? Want me to tell you how that happens? Always it happens
through the Word of God. God establishes His people through
His Word. No other way. The means that
God uses to feed His sheep and to strengthen and to establish
His people is His Word. What did Peter say to the newborn
babes? To every believer, you desire
God's Word. As a newborn babe, you desire
the sincere milk of the Word. Why? That you may grow thereby. That you grow stronger, more
established and strengthened. The Word of God is the seed.
God causes His people to be born again from that Word. And God
uses the same Word to cause his people to grow in faith and become
established. If you want to be established,
be where God's word brings, because this is the means he uses to
establish his people. He's faithful to honor his word. And second, because God's faithful,
he will keep his people from evil. Now, you know good and
well, this does not mean God's going to keep you from sinning.
You're going to sin as much as you ever did. You'll think you're
sinning more, it's just that now you're going to notice it,
you know, once you've been born again. You've got a new nature
that hates sin. You think you're sinning more
than ever. So God's not going to keep you from sinning. We'll
never escape sin in this life. As long as we're in this flesh,
we're never going to escape it. Well, that's kind of depressing,
isn't it? But in spite of our sin, the
Lord's faithful to keep His people from being overcome with sin,
to be overtaken by it, God's faithful. So sin will not reign
in your members. It's not going to do it. He's
going to reign and he's faithful. He's the king. He will reign.
Sin is not going to reign anymore. God's faithful to keep you from
the damning power of sin. He's faithful to keep you from
the condemnation of sin because Christ already suffered that
condemnation. God's faithful. You're not going
to suffer that if Christ died for you. Satan. And false prophets, that's scary
business. Now I'm telling you, that's scary
business if you've got any sense whatsoever. God's faithful to
keep you from being overcome by them. He's faithful. And this
is a fear I think every believer has. What a fear. That I'll fall away from Christ.
What's my confidence that I won't? He's faithful. See that? He's
faithful to keep you from falling. And our Lord will enable you
to keep His commandments. Look at verse 4. And we have
confidence in the Lord touching you. You notice he doesn't say
we've got confidence in you. We've got confidence in the Lord
touching you. That you both do and will do
the things which we command you. Our confidence in believers is
not us. It's not anything about us. A
believer will do anything. Now, I'm telling you, start putting
your confidence in even a believer. They'll do anything. Don't put
your confidence there. Our confidence is in the Lord.
He will keep His people from falling and present us faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. This is what
He's going to do. And the Lord will enable His
people to obey His commandments. Now, this commandment that Paul
is talking about here It's not the law. It's not the mosaic
law. It's not the ceremonial law. Christ obeyed the law for
his people. The law's got nothing to do with
any believer. Absolutely nothing. The law's
not your rule of life. The law's not, you know, a guideline
for you to keep. You've got nothing to do with
the law. Well, then what commandment is
Paul talking about here? He's talking about the commandment
of the gospel. What's the commandment of the gospel? Repent from your
sin and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the commandment of the Gospel. And God's going to give that
heart to all His people. Repentance is a gift of God and
faith is a gift of God. He's going to give both. The
commandment of the Gospel is to worship Him. God gives all
of His people a heart of worship. We're commanded in the Gospel
to love Christ and to love one another. That's not our nature. God's going to give a new heart
that loves Him and loves His people. He gives us a heart of
love. We're commanded in the gospel
to pray, to pray for one another. The Holy Spirit leads us in prayer.
We're commanded to forgive one another as God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. That's the royal law. And God
puts that heart in every believer. This is the work of God. Well,
the gospel is not an invitation, is it? The gospel is a commandment. It's a commandment from God to
believe Christ. And this is God's commandment
to every generation, to every dispensation. There's only been
ever one commandment. The commandment didn't used to
be the law and that failed. So now the commandment is the
gospel. Now it's the commandment of faith.
No, the commandment to every generation. Every dispensation
has been this commandment. Believe Christ. Love Him. Look
to Him. That's been the commandment to
every generation. And we think, well, the ability to obey the
commandment of the gospel and follow Christ, that's not in
my heart. That's not in the heart that
I was born with. Here's the comfort. The Lord's going to direct your
heart. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. The
Lord, who is faithful, is going to direct the hearts of His people.
Look at verse 5. And the Lord direct your hearts
into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. If the Lord's begun a good work
in you, He's going to perform it. He's going to finish it.
Look back at Psalm 57. 57th Psalm. Verse 1, Be merciful unto me, O God, be
merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the
shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, and to these calamities
be overpassed. Why is David confident in that?
Why is he confident in trusting in the shadow of his wings? Verse
2, I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all
things for me. If He's begun a good work in
you, He's going to finish it. Everything that's required of
you, Christ has performed it. And He's going to keep performing
it. And the Lord's going to direct the hearts of His people into
the love of God. He's going to direct your heart
to love Him. And that has to be the work of
the Lord, doesn't it? He's got to direct our hearts. He's got
to give us a new heart that loves Him. Because the one we're born
with doesn't love Him. The mind and heart that we're
born with is enmity against God. And this is the work of the Holy
Spirit, to direct our hearts into love. Because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by who? The Holy Ghost, which
is given unto us, Romans 5. And that direction of our hearts
into love, you've got a heart that's bent towards love, that
loves. Well, then that heart will keep
the royal law of love. If you love Christ, See, all
this hangs on love. If you love Christ, you're going
to believe Him. Those that you love, you believe
them when they tell you something. If you love Christ, you're going
to love His people and you're going to serve His people. If
you love Christ, you're going to put the needs of others ahead
of yourself. You're going to put them ahead of you because
you love the body of Christ. If you love Christ, the Holy
Spirit will direct you to pray. Now look at Romans chapter 8.
I think this will help you. It
helped me many times. Most of the time. I don't know
how to pray. I don't know what to ask for.
This will help you. Romans 8 verse 26. Likewise,
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, But the Spirit himself, I know that says
itself, but the Spirit did not be added to him. The Spirit himself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts, he knows what's the mind of the
Spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. God's Spirit is going to direct
us to pray according to his will. He will. Secondly, the Holy Spirit
will direct our hearts to patiently Wait for Christ. We're going
to wait on Christ to save us from sin. We've got to wait on
Him. He's unenabled. So we'll wait on Him. We'll wait
on Him to deliver us in times of trial. And we will wait on
Christ to return. If you love Christ, you patiently
wait for Him. You're expecting Him. You're
looking for Him. You're patiently waiting on Him. He hasn't come yet, but I know
He will. I'll patiently wait on Him. Who else are you looking for?
What else are you looking for? What else do you want? I love
no one but Him. I want no one but Him. Then I'll patiently wait for
Him. I'm going to wait on Him to come because He is my heart's
desire. If God saves you, this is one
thing you long for. You long for Christ to return
so you can be with Him forever. That's what you want. That is
your heart's desire. You're going to have that heart's
desire. If Christ died for you, He's faithful. He will come back
and gather you to Himself and take you to be with Him eternally. You're going to have your heart's
desire. The Spirit is going to make that your heart's desire
and then Christ is going to give it to you. because he's faithful.
Pray and trust the Lord he's faithful. Alright, I hope the
Lord bless that to you.