to 2 Thessalonians. In the New Testament there are
five books that start with T and they are in consecutive order. The first two are 1 and 2 Thessalonians,
and the second two are 1 and 2 Timothy, and the fifth one
is Titus. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Our text will also come out of
this chapter. We begin with verse 1 in chapter
2. Now we beseech you brethren by
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering unto
Him." Now if you read that statement in verse 1 and leave out the
italicized word it would be the word BY. Here's how it would
read. The second BY. Now we beseech
you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our
gathering together unto Him." You wonder why that's important,
I'm sure. Because many groups under the Christian
flag tell us that Christ will come before the tribulation of
the end times, as they call it, and remove believers out of this
world before things go to pot. But this statement, if you leave
out the word that was supplied by the translators And by the
way, this is the only translation that will tell you when they
supplied words and when they didn't. I'm not saying there's
no other translation than the King James, but I'm telling you
this is an honest translation. But if you read it without that
second by, it speaks as if these two events are one and the same. by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our gathering together unto Him." It seems to me that in this book
God's people are not delivered from trouble but they are enabled
to endure troubles. I might have a faulty view of
what Christianity is but I do believe that's how it happens.
And I do believe that that's been my experience. And what
about you? You missed all the troubles and
the trials and the tribulations? I don't think so. If you are,
you're different than anybody I've ever known. And Paul says these words for
this purpose in verse 2. that you be not soon shaken in
mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by
letter, as from us." Somebody sending a letter claiming to
be from Paul. "...nor by letter, as though
it were from us, And the gist of that letter that
Paul is here denying is that the day of Christ is at hand
and he's telling them it isn't. Let no man deceive you by any
means for that day called in verse 2 the day of Christ that
day shall not come except there come a falling away, an apostasy
first, and that the man of sin be revealed
the son of perdition, namely the devil himself. I don't know how we could see
him any more revealed, but I suppose there must be more, for the clock
still ticks and time still stands. Here's what the devil does, verse
4, who opposes and exalts himself upon all that is called God, above all
that is worshipped, so that he, Satan, as God, sits in the temple
of God, showing himself that he is God. Don't you remember, remember
you not, that when I was still with you I told you these things and now you know. What withholds? You know that
which withholds. That word literally means restrains. You know that which restrains
or else the devil would have come at the very beginning in
a far greater way than he ever has or did before. But here we're
told that he is being restrained. Now you know that he restrains that he might be
revealed in his time. That's in God's time. concerning
the revelation, the exposing publicly the devil himself. All right, verse 7, for the mystery
of iniquity, which is what we've just read about, the mystery
of iniquity does already work. Only he who now hinders will
hinder until he be taken out of the way. namely the Spirit
of God. And then shall that wicked one,
or just 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. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie." No man can be saved by believing
a lie. "...that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Now that's an awful section of Scripture, isn't it? But look how bright it becomes
immediately at the end of that statement. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning, from eternity, 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. Those two verses will be our
text. Let me finish the chapter. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether
by word or our letter or epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which has loved us and has given us
everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts and establish you in every good word and work. All right, let's take our songbooks. Now if you'll let me go back
and turn with me again to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Our text is found in 2 Thessalonians
2 verses 13 and 14. Now before we begin,
let us bow for prayer together. Lord, thank you for this opportunity
of joining together in this place. Thank you for your holy word. Thank you for letting us possess personal copies of the holy scriptures. not dependent on someone else
to tell us what to believe, but finding with our own eyes and
our own souls and our own heart an understanding what this book teaches about you, God Almighty, God All-Wise, God
everywhere present, the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, to whom in that covenant in old
eternity you gave to Christ a people which you called your elect. You gave us to your Son, that
he might stand in our place, our room, place, and stand as
our sacrifice, as our surety, as our representative. So complete is this oneness between
Christ and the people whom you gave him, is that what he does
they are said to have done. What He suffered, they are said
to have suffered. And what He accomplished, they
are said to have accomplished. Lord, this is amazing indeed. Nowhere else in all of this whole
earth for as long as she has stood Nowhere can there be a substitution
like the one of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. What He did, His people did in
Him. What He merited, His people merit
in Him. What He accomplished is given
to them as if they accomplished it. all in your free mercy and
sovereign grace. Lord, we beg for your presence and for your blessing upon your
Word this day, not only here, but everywhere in this whole
world where the truth of Christ is being proclaimed. We beg in
Christ's name, Amen. Let's look first at verse 13,
2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We're told in that statement, this statement now is addressed
to a congregation of whatever size, I have no idea, at Thessalonica,
and that Paul is telling this congregation of believers that
God has chosen you from or before the beginning, from the beginning,
before time ever was. God chose a people for Himself
whom He entrusted and gave into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ
who is completely in Himself and in His work, in His blood,
in His death. He is the whole of that covenant.
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Now how does Paul know that these
people are chosen? Because through the preaching
of the gospel they have become believers and followers in our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so he writes this with confidence
that he knows this to be the case. Through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. But preacher doesn't everybody
believe the truth. I once thought that was a good
possibility, but I no longer hold that position. I've seen
the truth hated so badly, so vehemently, that people, if they
could, would kill the messenger. And I've been on the bloody end
of some of that, and I'm telling you that's exactly
the case. if you take nothing but the bare
gospel with you and go to any church in this county ninety
nine point nine percent of the time you're not going to have smooth
sailing you're going to meet with repercussions and in many
places they ain't going to give you time to say another sentence
you're gone that's the state and status of today's religion
so this statement tells us God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit. Now, sanctification
is a part and parcel of salvation. Nobody is saved that is not sanctified. Hebrews 10, 14. Let's see if
I can find that quickly. I hadn't planned to go to this
reference, but if you want to turn to it, I'm not going to
wait for you. Hebrews 10, you should remember this when
I get to it, here it is, verse 14, for by one offering, Hebrews
10, 14, by one sacrifice, one offering, Christ has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. When He died, His people are
sanctified just like that. They're as holy as they'll ever
be. There ain't nothing to this notion of progressive sanctification
or progressive holiness. It's the work of Christ on the
cross and it's the work of God the Holy Spirit to teach us this
and convince us of it. else we could never believe it.
It just doesn't make any sense to the human mind. Why does it
have to be free? Because God said it's free. It's
free why? Because the price has been paid
and it's been paid in full. And any religious soul winner,
any preacher, anybody, anywhere that starts telling you about
God and they tell you what you need to do has already left the
truth. I hope you found a little track
in your bulletin this morning. Do or done. That's the description of all
the religion of this whole wide world. It's one of two things. It's either something you need
to do or it's God's already done it in Christ. That's all there
is. I don't care how many names,
denominations, religions, I know there's a bunch of them. But
I'm telling you there ain't but one true gospel and those two
words tell us it is DONE! Done forever. Been done a long
time ago. If y'all don't quit pulling my
chain, I ain't gonna never get to this verse. Let me read you verse 14 again. Whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. First thing I want to do, and
I wrote these down now so I may not be able to read them correctly,
but I have got it on paper. Here are some biblical statements
regarding this precious, God-honoring, Christ-exalting, precious gospel
of electing grace. I'm going to give you the reference,
but I'm just going to read a phrase out of that sentence or out of
that verse. So if you want to jot the scripture
down, I suggest you do that. All right, the first one comes
out of Matthew 24, verse 22. For the elect's sake, those days
shall be shortened. talking about the days of suffering
and death and all kinds of difficulties in this life and in this world
because of Christ and the gospel. Same chapter verse 24 says, if
it were possible they would deceive the very elect. But guess what? It ain't possible. It's not possible. Chapter 24,
verse 31, Matthew, "...the angels shall gather together His elect." Luke 18, verse 7, "...shall not
God avenge His own elect?" you mean to tell me he would
send his son to Calvary to die for his people and then let him
lose them? That would be idiotic! But turning to Romans chapter
11 Romans 11, may I read to you
verses 1 through 6. I say then, I still heal paper so I'll wait
another little bit. I say then, has God cast away
his people Could he do so without dishonoring
his son? Absolutely not. God forbid, for
I also am an Israelite, Paul is referring to himself, of the
seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast
away his people which he foreknew. Know you not what the scripture
says of Elijah? You remember him? How he makes
intercession to God against Israel saying, Lord they've killed your
prophets, dig down your altars and I'm left alone and they seek
my life, it's all over. But what says the answer of God
to Elijah? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men, not counting women and children, 7,000 men who have
not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. We might get lonesome once in
a while and say we're the only one, but I'm telling you, you're
not. If all God's doing is what we're
seeing, He ain't doing much. But I firmly believe I don't
have any choice but to believe. God's doing everything He pleases.
He always has. He did when He spoke here to
Elijah, a man that God greatly used, a brave man. My soul, He
stood at the proclaimed words that would have gotten anybody
else killed. But it wasn't His time, it was
God's time. Verse 5, "...even so then..." Now the
time to which Paul has referred is many centuries before the
present time in the book of Romans, but now he says, "...even so
then at this present time..." and we can say today with full
assurance This time in the year 2011 there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. God still has people that he
reserves for himself. Verse 6 adds, and if by grace
then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if
it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is
no more work but let me tell you what's happened in today's
religion they use the word grace they speak of it very highly
but they have redefined it they will not tolerate the definition
of that word given in this book What kind of definition? Well,
here are two little words for openers that gets to the heart
of the whole matter. Grace must be free. We cannot earn it. We cannot
merit it. And it's not only free, it's
sovereign. God gives it to whomever He pleases. Not when we gang up and have
a big prayer meeting and say, we're going to get God to do
this. My soul, you've got the wrong
God. The God of the Bible, the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, if there's one thing
true about Him, it's this. He does not need to change. And
more than that, He has never changed. I'm the Lord, Malachi
3.6, I change not. And that's the reason you sons
of Jacob, you sinners are not consumed. That's our safety. That's our security. God cannot
and will not change. Well, I don't know where I got
to. Did I finish reading that? Thank you, Sir Craig. Let's go back to our text now
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Our first point was to prove
the doctrine of election by the Holy Scriptures, and that is
but a mere sample. There are plenty of other scriptures,
plenty of other passages that declare this precious, wonderful,
glorious doctrine. Second thing is this. Election
is absolute It can tolerate no corrections, no erasures, no
additions. It's complete. It's absolute and totally unconditional. There are not conditions attached
to free and sovereign grace. when the Lord calls a man by
His grace, I mean when He truly, I don't just mean calls him by
the outward ear, but when God speaks to the soul. There ain't
but one outcome, friends. That person has to come to Christ.
You look in Matthew 9 when Matthew was sitting there just greedily
collecting this tax money for the Romans and getting a cut
of it for himself. And the Lord Jesus And Matthew
wrote these own words now. I'm sure they're right. Our Savior
passed by His booth, and in the biblical record, here's all that's
recorded. Our Lord looked at Matthew and
said, Matthew, follow Me. And Matthew got up and followed
Him. Now that's real difficult, ain't it? It is for me and you. It's impossible. But it's not
for God. Thirdly, election is eternal. It's from the beginning and it has no end. Here we are in time bordered
by eternity on two sides, but God's electing grace has always
been and will always be There can be no time when it isn't.
Goodness, it can be when there is no such thing as time. The fourth thing is this. Paul says to this group of believers,
God has chosen you to salvation. God has chosen Election then is not wholesale,
it's individual. God may call a husband and not
the wife. He may call the wife and not
the husband. He may call the husband and wife
and not their children. I know people believe that if
they pray hard enough and they do whatever they do hard enough
that God will just give them nobody but believers in their
house. And if they do, they're fake. They're not real. God saves whom
He pleases. And there is not such a thing
as household salvation. never has been and is not now
and never will be. Ah preacher, surely you don't
mean we shouldn't pray for our children. I didn't say that. God help us to do so. We can't go back to this unholy
ungodly religion and just tell people if you will Get up out
of your seat now while we sing softly this closing hymn and
come take the preacher's hand. God will save you. That ain't
so. Or tell a man with a lot of money
if you'll start tithing, God will save you. No, he won't. He won't. You can give it all to him. He
doesn't even turn his head, not for a moment. I'm telling you,
God saves whom He pleases. And the people that He saves
are the same people that He gave to Christ in the covenant. Finally, election produces glorious
results. Number one, wherever it's found, it brings joy to the believing
heart. It's a subject not for being
sad, it's a subject to be happy and glad. Psalm 65, verse 4, blessed is
the man whom God chooses and causes to approach unto Himself. We choose Him, why? Because He
first chose us. You go back to that standard
and where is that standard found? First John chapter 4 verse what? Come on students, 19 What's in that verse? We love
Him. Why? Because He first loved us. Now if you take that standard
to every single issue, you have it solved. It just all
of a sudden, it just, man, I couldn't see that. Look at there. How
wonderful. How glorious this is! I grew up in religion that took
all the credit for ourselves and sent in all the glowing reports
we could to get counted and get in that annual volume of whatever
you call it. And I know from experience that
this church was in the same boat. And God delivered us. Praise
His name. ELECTION PRODUCES GLORIOUS RESULTS! Joy to the heart! Number two, ELECTION GLORIFIES
GOD! How do you know? Preacher, how
do you know? Everything God does glorifies Himself or He ain't
going to do it. Look at one little scripture
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, I think it's starting at verse 26. If
you don't want to turn, I'll just read it to you. Chapter 1, 1 Corinthians, verse
26, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called there was an old king in England
a hundred or so years ago this was her favorite verse 1st Corinthians
1.26 and in that verse she said was her favorite word it is the word Im not many without the Im it would say not
any she delighted in the difference
in those two words. If it said not any, she could
not be saved because she was mighty, she was royalty. Verse 27, but God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. I'm sorry to confound to confound the wise, and God's
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world and things which
are despised has God chosen, yes, and things which don't even
exist, which are not, to bring to nothing things that are, that
no flesh should glory in His presence." Now that's a statement
of fact This is who God is that no flesh should glory in His
presence. So everything He's done, everything
He's planned and purposed, all of His grace and gospel in our
Lord Jesus Christ is fitted to serve this end. No flesh should glory in God's
presence. Thirdly, election promotes humility, honest
to goodness, gospel humility. Paul wrote to the Corinthians
again, he said, what do you have that you did not receive? Do
you have anything I mean that God looks upon with favor. Do
we have anything that we didn't receive? Is anything
original with us? Well, yes, as a matter of fact,
it is. It's a little tiny word, but it's awfully big. It's spelled
S-I-N. Sin. That's mine. That's yours. Not God's. What do you have that you did
not receive? And if you received it, why do
you boast as if you didn't? Fourthly, this precious, glorious
truth of electing grace provides comfort in trials. All things,
Brother Parker quoted that this morning, work together for good.
How does it go, Edward? All things work together for
good to them that love God, and by nature we don't love Him,
to them that love God, and to them who are the called according
to His pleasure. That, my friend, is comfort. Everything working together for
the good of his children. And in that same light, I'm going
to turn to Romans chapter 8, just a second. In fact, there are two verses,
I believe, in Romans 8. Maybe just one, let's see. Well,
I just tried to quote you one, so I won't rescue that one again. But in Romans chapter 8, the
same chapter, in verse 31, this glorious truth that God
chose a people in Christ to whom he gave to his dear son for him
to redeem them, call them, save them, and marry them as his bride. Verse 31 of Romans 8, what shall
we then say to these things? This whole matter How do we respond? What is the right, correct response
for believers? Here it is. If God be for us, who can be against us? It doesn't
matter who's against us if God is for us. Honestly. What shall we then say to these
things? if God be for us, who can be
against us?" Reading our chapter, our text
in 2 Thessalonians 2, "...but we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Holy Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ.