So that's 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 and verse 16. 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. Amen, may the Lord bless these
few verses to us. There is, I think, a parallel
or a pattern present in the Apostle Paul's letter to the Thessalonians
that I think resonates with all of us at one time or another. They, the Thessalonians, were
being tried and even persecuted, which is just a particular form
of trial. And understandably, the believers
there wanted that to stop. No one likes to have trial. No one likes to be persecuted. No one likes to be going through
those difficult experiences. And understandably, they wanted
them to stop. And a bright light for them on
the near horizon was that they believed, they understood that
the Lord's return was imminent. They longed for the blessings
of heaven that Paul had told them would come with the return
of Christ and they latched on to the idea that the Lord would
soon come to judge their enemies, vindicate their faith and release
them from the trouble of their day. And I wonder if perhaps
that in some respects sounds familiar. Because don't we all
sometimes think that it would be better if we were not here? If the Lord would just come,
if the Lord would just finish it all up, deal with this world's
sin and take us away to glory. I doubt that there has been a
generation of the Lord's people in history that has not thought
that thought in their own age and hoped for that outcome. Or I doubt that there hasn't
been a believer who at some time felt that this would be a good
time for the Lord to return, thinking to themselves, I've
had enough. I don't want to go on. I wish
the Lord would come and take me away. And if we've not had
that thought personally for ourselves, I suspect that we have from time
to time thought it for others. However, as we've seen in this
chapter, Paul had to tell the believers there in the city of
Thessalonica that there were some things that must yet take
place before the Lord comes again. Return he will, but it shall
be according to his purpose and plan and timing. Now, on the
Lord's Day we've been thinking about the Old Testament saints
and their anticipation of the coming Messiah. those believers
of Isaiah's day must have yearned for the soon arrival of the coming
king, the one that Moses had spoken about, the one that David
had spoken about, the one who had been anticipated in the words
and in the writings of the prophets, the great Joshua, if you like,
the captain of the Lord's host, coming with power to smash down
the walled cities of their persecutors and bring in his glorious kingdom. The Old Testament saints longed
for that coming Messiah and yet when the Saviour did
come it took his disciples a long time to realise that the kingdom
that he was bringing in was not an earthly political kingdom
but a heavenly and a spiritual kingdom. And those same disciples,
they too, persecuted as they were by the Romans and by the
Jews and by idolatry and by false religions and by economic hardships,
by being strangers and aliens and refugees, pretty much, wherever
they went, they too were just as eager for the second coming
of the Lord as the Old Testament believers had been for his first
coming. And things haven't changed. Every
age longs for the Lord's return, the end of sin and the glory
that will follow. And here I just want to make
a little application. Sometimes this longing becomes
urgent. Such at times when we see our
brothers and sisters perhaps struggling in the twilight years
of life or coming close to their deaths and deteriorating in health
and we think to ourselves how wonderful if the Lord would just
come and take them away. How kind that would be. And yet again, we must pause
and remember that there is a fullness of time to every appearance of
the Lord and an appointed time for every saint. The Lord told
his disciples in John chapter 14, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I
am, there ye may be also. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you, nor as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And I think
Paul was using the Saviour's framework when he wrote as he
did about the love of God and that love for these troubled
souls in Thessalonica. That's what we've been thinking
about, especially in chapter two of this little book, this
little epistle, about the election of grace, about God's free gift
of salvation, the call of the gospel, the comfort that comes
with faith. None of us know when the Lord
shall return. not for us as individuals, not
for the church as a whole. We do know the certainty of both
of these being a reality, but still, until that time, we must
face the world and its troubles, not upon the basis of physically
escaping from them, but by spiritual faith, enduring through them,
overcoming them, and proving the faithfulness of God in them. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in me, says the Lord. And this is what Paul says too.
When the Lord's people face trouble in the world, our comfort is
found in trusting God's love. in leaning upon his grace and
his kindness, in remembering his sovereign goodwill for his
people. And it is why the apostle now
ends this section of his letter as he does, with a prayer for
the believer's comfort. He's just said in this little
reading, 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. And I just draw your
attention to the fact that Paul said, now, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was speaking not merely
for himself or his fellow preachers. He was speaking for them and
the Thessalonians. And he was speaking for all the
Lord's people. The true church of Jesus Christ
down through the ages. He was speaking about our Lord
Jesus Christ. No generalities here, no universality. This is specific, this is particular,
this is our Father. And this blessed, intimate, family
relationship is the ground of our peace and our hope and our
comfort as believers. and I reject the notion of universal
love. God's love is covenant love,
family love. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us. God's gift of
love is coextensive with God's gift of grace. Our Saviour is our very present
help. our ever present help in time
of trouble, no matter what happens and what our personal trial is. And just on that, does not the
scripture supply sufficient examples to cover most eventualities of
what our troubles might be? For some, like Samson, it was
death in captivity. For Daniel it was exile and servitude. For Job it was bereavement and
abandonment and illnesses beyond our comprehension. And I'm always
filled with admiration for the little girl stolen away from
home and brought as a handmaid to Naaman's wife. For some today
it's cancer. or heart disease or simply old
age or any number of problems. We still lose children. We still
suffer loss and endure great pain. We know what shame is and
disappointment. And maybe we wish the Lord would
come. And maybe we wish the Lord would
avenge our hurt and take us home and bring in the new heaven and
the new earth. And yet Paul returns to our gospel
hope. Our loving God knows what we
are going through, and he strengthens us accordingly. In him, in him,
we have everlasting consolation. Now, we anticipate that in glory,
we will enjoy everlasting consolation. But everlasting consolation begins
now on this side of eternity, just like everlasting life begins
now on this side of eternity. Our consolation is not the absence
of trial, but the grace sufficient to endure that trial and overcome. It is the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ with us throughout that trial. It is peace and joy
experienced through trusting him in every situation and circumstance. And what does Paul mean by good
hope through grace? It's that hope that we have because
of the grace of God in Christ. It's the promise of grace won,
secured and bestowed, accomplished at the cross and applied by God
the Holy Spirit, by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for
us. It is knowing that no matter
what befalls the Lord's people, his children in this world, me
and you, we shall never have to pass through a trial alone. He shall never leave us nor forsake
us. It is confidence that every goodness
will be ours in that moment of greatest need. And someone might
say, well, Christians suffer just like everyone else. and
I agree that they do. Our brother and our sister, Mary
and Malwin, are living through, right now, perhaps the greatest
trial of their lives as regards pain, weakness and humiliation. But I have no doubt that they
have consolations and comforts in their souls that we have no
knowledge of. because their heavenly Father
and their best friend has given them everlasting consolation
and good hope through grace. and even now he is comforting
their souls. So let me encourage you to keep
listening to these gospel promises as much and as often as you can. Keep listening to Paul's encouragements
and keep believing in the Lord's promises. You and I are storing
up treasure in heaven each time we are reminded about these truths. We are laying up riches in heaven
because for a time and a day that we will need them in the
future when we will hear preaching no more and we will be able to
read God's word no more. The Lord will not leave us comfortless. He will come to us. So may the
Lord bless these thoughts from the ending of this little chapter
and encourage us as doubtless the Apostle Paul's letter encouraged
the Thessalonians in their time of trouble. Amen.