2, the book of 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Well let's read the first three
verses and then we'll skip down and read the last three verses
of the chapter, the first three and the last three. Now we beseech
you brethren Brethren here are the people of God, those that
have been bound together, joined together by faith, living faith,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are brethren. sisters in
the Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is coming back
to the earth. He that shall come will come
and will not tarry. He will come back. This same
Jesus that you saw taken up into heaven will come again in like
manner. He is coming again. We beseech you brethren by the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him. The Lord's people will be gathered
together unto him at his second coming. They shall be caught
up together with him in the clouds and they shall forever be with
the Lord. And in verse two, that you be
not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor
by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ
is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any
means. Let no man deceive you by any
means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first, except there be a great rebellion in the earth against
God, and that man of sin be revealed the son of destruction. And then
down to verse 15, therefore brethren stand fast and keep a strong
grip on everything that we've taught you. Hold the traditions
which you have been taught whether by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ, verse
16, Himself. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God, even our Father, He is our Father if we're saved,
if we're in Christ, if we've been spiritually resurrected,
if we've been regenerated by the Spirit of God, then he is
our heavenly father. We do not believe in the universal
fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. We must be in Christ
for God to be our father. We must be believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ for God to be our father. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ
himself and God even, our father, which hath loved us, which hath
loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts, establish you in every good word and work. I felt drawn by the Spirit of
God to these verses today, and I trust that the Lord has a timely
message for each one of our hearts that we shall find it in these
verses today. Now, the Thessalonian church
had been disturbed, been greatly disturbed by the predictions
of different persons that the day of Christ was at hand. Now,
beloved, there has always been those who have fixed dates for
the end of the world and by their fanaticism have driven many into
the lunatic asylums and disturbed the peace of many, many, even
of the Lord's stable people. Some of this kind had worried
the saints at Thessalonica, and the apostle urged them in verse
2 and he prays for them again in verse 16 and 17 but he urged
them in verse 2 he said that you be not soon shaken in mind
or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by a forged letter
as that the day of Christ is at hand let no man deceive you
in verse 3 by any means. Let no man deceive you by any
means. Now his prayer in the verse 16
and 17 are blessed. He says, 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."
His prayer is emphatic. He cries to the Lord Jesus Christ
himself and to God, even our Father, to comfort their hearts
and that by such consolations they may be so confirmed that
nothing may cause them to cease from their every good work or
from every good word and work. Now perhaps during their fright,
and I know this is the case, having read this book, having
meditated upon it, some of them had ceased from their duties
as believers, not only as believers in this world, but also they'd
ceased from their responsibilities and obligations in this world
as far as their duty toward their families, toward working and
maintaining their families. They believed it to be vain to
go on with anything because they believed what they were told
that the day of Christ was right at hand. They believed that the
end of the world was coming as far as they were concerned and
therefore they quit their jobs and they give themselves over
to preparing themselves to leave this world. They wanted to be
ready and they didn't want to be occupied with anything that
was secondary and so therefore they gave up their work and their
duties and their responsibilities in life and just sat back and
was waiting for the Lord Jesus to come from heaven. And they
felt that when the day of Christ was so near at hand, therefore
it was that it would be the wrong thing for them to do, to go on
and concentrate and to give themselves over to providing an existence
in this land. Now many, beloved, are the discouragements
that we come across in this world. And right at this time, the world,
or this particular nation of ours, I believe is on the verge
of a panic. I believe it would be very possible
that we would slip into a time when we would find that men's
hearts would fail them for fear of what is coming upon the earth.
And when people would be greatly disturbed and moved by the rhetoric
and by the propaganda and by what we hear to news media and
from the news media concerning the Y2K problem and what's about
to happen in this nation. And for an example of that, I
want to just read just a little bit to you, some information
that came across my hand this week. And I trust that the Lord
will give us some understanding. I neither endorse what I'm reading,
neither do I deny that there's a possibility that these things
will come to pass. But in order to prepare your
hearts for what might, for the eventuality, what could very
possibly happen in this nation, I want to read these things and
also then to bring the message that I feel that the Lord has
placed on my heart this morning. Now, we've been told by the news
media various things, and then there's various things we haven't
been told, so much that we haven't been told. But government officials,
it was said by Senator Bob Bennett, who's the chairman of the Senate
Y2K committee, he says, government officials will all lie to us
about Y2K, but I'm thankful there aren't as many people lying to
us as there used to be. And then in the way of introduction
of what I want to give you here, there's a Michael Harden, who
is the president and CEO of Century Technology Services, and he's
the author of two Y2K books. And recently he was speaking
at the World Future Society meeting, and comparing the approaching
Y2 crisis and the public complacency toward it, to the yellow fever
epidemic that struck the Mississippi Valley back in 1878. Now the deadly disease by mosquitoes
broke out on the Gulf Coast and slowly worked its way up the
river to Memphis, Tennessee. The people in Memphis knew in
advance that the epidemic was coming. They knew approximately
when it would arrive. They knew that it would kill
them. The government and the media
said, don't panic. Everything will be all right.
And pacified by these assurances, most of the people believing
that the government would never let something like that happen,
stayed in the city and 55% of the population died. And the
city of Memphis was de-established as a political entity and was
not rechartered for 14 years. Could Y2K, this man said, be
our latter-day version of that yellow fever epidemic? With the
great majority of the people either disbelieving the crisis
or believing that the government will intervene to save them from
the disaster. Now, let me go on here. We are now in the year 1999 and
moving rapidly toward the turn of the century. And the mainstream
media has finally discovered this crisis a year late. And he goes on to say that There's
apathy and complacency regarding this. He says, Americans love
quick, easy, painless solutions to big problems, and being very
optimistic, Pollyanna-type people, most Americans believe that there
simply must be a silver bullet solution. And Y2K fears are subsiding. The poll shows that Americans
concerned about major Y2K problems dropped from 48% last June to
34% at the year of 1998. Now the strategy on the part
of the government, big business, the banks and the media, is to
talk some about Y2K while playing down its implication in order
to defuse a panic. instead of warning the American
citizens of the potential severity of the Y2K problem and encouraging
urgent personal and business preparation as is presently happening
in Great Britain. The Clinton big business banking
strategy is to avoid panic at all costs, discourage preparations,
and even blame those encouraging preparations for the coming crisis. This strategy virtually guarantees
that there will be a panic in America in the second, third,
or fourth quarters of 99 or early 2000, and that that panic will
then be blamed in Operation Skategoat fashion on those who have been
warning of the crisis and people selling preparedness products
such as generators food reserves, precious metals, water filters,
and retreat properties, and et cetera. It is odd that adding
to the apathy and complacency, now get this, are many pastors
and even church denominations who are warning their people
not to be concerned about Y2K, not to stock up on food or other
preparedness items, and to simply trust God and do nothing. There are noticeable exceptions
in the religious community, such as Pat Robison, Dr. James Kennedy, Dr. James Dodson,
and a small minority of pastors who have sounded the alarm and
encouraged their people to be prepared, if for no other reason
than to help people in the community. But the majority of pastors have
either ignored the problem, downplayed it, or actually attacked it,
those that are sounding the warning. Now, the Y2K scenarios are debatable,
and some are not. Some of them are debatable, some
of them are not. There are many areas of the Y2K
which are debatable, will or won't. The power gird go down,
or to what degree? Will or won't air transport,
the global positioning system, telecommunications go down? Will
or won't various government agencies, including the U.S. military,
go down, or to what degree will their mission be impaired? All
of these can be hotly debated. with low or no damage proponents
on one side and high or total damage proponents on the other
side. Now, however, while there are
some things debatable, this particular individual says, there are several
aspects of Y2K which in this writer's opinion are not debatable. Now listen to this. He says they
are virtually guaranteed The financial, number one, the financial
system and the economy are going down in the worst crash since
1929. The U.S. economy and financial
systems are hovering like a giant air balloon losing altitude just
above the horizon, and Y2K is headed for it like a giant heat-seeking
missile or smart bomb. They shall collide in the second
or third quarter of 1999, and great economic pain will follow. Number two, one-third to one-half
of U.S. businesses will not be Y2K compliant,
which will result in the greatest rash of bankruptcies, personal
and business, mass job layoffs, and bank closures in the year
2000 since the 1930s. Number three, Bill Clinton and
his socialist comrades will use Y2K to seize a great deal of
power and control over the people, ushering in martial law and declaring,
with executive order, state of national emergency. Now, number
four, the political left will use Y2K as an excuse to attack
the political and Christian right, accusing them of participating
in the panic. a planning of violent attacks
in the midst of crisis, of being dangerous millennial cultists
who wish to usher in the millennium and the second coming of Christ
with a series of terrorist attacks, who wish to use the Y2K crisis
for a Christian takeover of America, and who wish to profit from the
crisis. Already, such attacks have begun,
orchestrated in the media, pushed by the leftist Southern Poverty
Law Center and Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment. And so after reading these things,
thinking on these things, and knowing it to be my responsibility
as a pastor of this church to be out in front the best I know
how to be and the best I can, I felt very much persuaded of
the Lord to read and to bring this message this morning, read
these things, bring this message to you out of 2 Thessalonians
chapter two, trusting that the Lord would prepare our hearts
for the eventuality of whatever might occur. None of us know
anything about tomorrow. We know that tomorrow is in the
Lord's hands. The Bible says, boast not thyself
of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day might bring forth. I do not want to be a pessimist,
neither do I want to be an optimist at this time. I want to be a
realist. And I do not know whether these
things will happen or whether they won't. I'm sure that there
are things coming that we don't know anything about. We can read
what we read, we can check off if any of these things do occur,
and we can check them off. But beloved, our souls must be
prepared for any and all eventualities. And this is exactly what the
Apostle Paul is dealing with here. He tells these Thessalonians,
I don't want you to be deceived by any means. It doesn't make
any difference. If somebody comes to you and
says, this letter that says that Christ's coming is immediate,
This letter is from the Apostle Paul. He said, I don't want you
to be deceived by it. I don't want you to be shaken
by it. I don't want you to be disturbed by it. I want you to
remember what you've been told and I want you to hold fast to
that, what you've been told. I do not want you to become disturbed
and for you to panic. Now I do not want anyone to take
what I'm saying this morning as a signal to go out and to
make a run on the bank or to store up food or to do anything
of the kind. I believe that if you're a mature
individual And if you know in your own mind your obligations
and responsibilities, I believe that you're fully capable of
making whatever decision based on what you hear and what you
know that should be made. and if you feel obligated you
feel that's what you want to do is prepare yourself then I
would say amen you have that right and you have every right
to do that even as a believer you have every right to do that
but I do believe this morning that what we must do is focus
in on what the word of God says and that we must be ready now
I realize that our government somebody described our government
as being like a all-star football team that is running plays that
were designed by chimpanzee. Well, that may be exactly the
truth. It may be the truth. But I want
us to know this morning that God is in control. and that while
you and I live in this world, and the children of this generation
are shrewder than the children of light, that you and I have
a refuge, you and I have a place that we can go in our hearts
and in our souls, and to that place we must go. And we must
cast ourselves upon the mercy and the goodness of our God. Therefore, Paul would have these
beloved brethren here to be calm in spirit that they might diligently
persevere in the Christian life in spite of what might be the
threat for the second or third quarter of 1999 or for the year
2000 and I believe that that which frightens us from our Christian
duty that it cannot be a good thing and if you ever get up
some morning and you say well I think we better give up this
praying business I think we better give up this business of really
trusting in the Lord and begin to prepare ourselves and get,
as it were, our pea shooters out and buy more ammunition and
get ourselves prepared to defend ourselves and to defend our homes
and to defend our food and our way of life, then, beloved, I
believe that that has moved us away. The threats and the panic
of those around us has moved us away from where we really
ought to be. Now true comfort establishes
us, remember this, in every good word and work. that if we're
right with God and if things are right with us we're going
to continue on in the good word of our God and in those works
which he has spelled out in the holy word that will cause us
to glorify his name. Now while this prayer was very
useful for the Thessalonians I believe it's very instructive
for us also. And there's something here for
us in this present hour. And while we look at it, may
the Spirit of God lead us all into a personal enjoyment of
the love of God and the gifts which that love bestows upon
the people of God. How wonderful it is to know in
your heart that God Yea, Christ and even God our Father hath
loved us, and that we're loved of God, that we're the people
of God, and we belong to Him. And oh, that that love of God
might be shed abroad anew. The scripture says the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is
given unto us. And may it be shed abroad anew
this morning in our hearts. Now, beloved, to hear of the
love of God is sweet. It's very sweet to hear the love
of God, and especially when you're in a very difficult situation,
and when times are trying, and when there's so much uncertainty
around us, and when the clouds are on the horizon, and we know
the storms of life are about to break open upon us, it's very
comforting to hear of the love of God and to know that God is
a God that doth truly love his people. To be enabled to believe
it by divine grace is most precious. You cannot just believe that
God loves you, you must believe it by divine grace. Only grace
can teach our hearts that God truly does love us. But to enjoy
it in all that we could, is paradise below the skies. Now I want to
talk to you briefly this morning about three things. First of
all, let us notice this blessed fact in our text in verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God even our Father which hath loved us I want to talk
about that blessed fact that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God, even our Father, hath loved us. And then, second, we'll
say a few words about the manifestation of that love. He has given us
everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. And then
thirdly, I want to say a word about the prayer which Paul based
upon this love and its manifestation, that God would comfort our hearts
and establish us in this world, in the midst of this present
crisis, with every good word and work. First then, this blessed
fact, our Lord Jesus Christ, himself, and God even our Father,
which hath loved us. Now then, as I think upon this,
brethren, the love of God is a theme that is fitter for solitary
contemplation of each person than for public utterance or
explanation of that love. I believe that the love of God
is to be felt It cannot be explained. I thought to myself, how would
I explain to these people this morning so that it would affect
their heart to the point where they would not panic and to the
point where they would not be shaken and troubled how could
I best tell them about the love of God? Well, in 1 John 3 and
verse 16, John said, hereby perceive we the love of God, because he
laid down his life for us. Now, beloved, it's past all doubt,
that God doth truly love us if He laid down the life of His
Son on our behalf. God would only give His Son to
die for those that He truly, with all of His heart, loved. and he loved his people from
eternity. Who can speak of the love of
God? Well, 1 John 4 and 10 says, herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave
his son to be a satisfaction for our sins. Now that's love. And so lay aside your love for
God. And let's not think about that
this morning. Let's think about his love for
us the fact that God loves us that Christ and God the Father
have loved us now beloved if you can get this fixed in your
mind it'll settle your heart it'll settle your soul whatever
comes whatever comes These predictions, if they come to pass, or if they
don't, if we go through 10 or 15 years of depression in this
country, before it ever gets back on track, before the country
gets back on track, whatever happens, while it won't make
any difference, If we've got this fixed in our hearts, that
God loves us and that we belong to him. Now then beloved, there
is not a word or set of words that can utter the meaning of
the love of God. The hymn writer tried and he
said it this way. He said, speaking of the love
of God, he said, could we with ink the ocean fill, and were
the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, those stretched from sky to sky. So you see, beloved,
it would be impossible, really, for anybody to set forth the
love of God like it should be set forth. But we'll do our best. You may go round about, make
a long definition of it, and still not define it, and he who
never felt it in his heart will still be a stranger to it, You're
going to be a stranger to the love of God. You go out of this
place and say, the preacher talked about the love of God, that God
hath loved us, and that this should be a stay to our hearts
in the midst of trying and difficult times. But I never felt the love
of God. And if you never felt the love
of God in your own soul, then, of course, it ain't going to
be any help to you, whatever you hear about it. You must feel
it in your own soul. Love must be felt in the heart.
It cannot be learned from a dictionary. You can't go home, get your dictionary,
say, I'm going to look up the word love and I'm going to understand
it. The Bible says God hath loved
us. Drink that truth in, if you will.
One writer said, take these words and lay them under your tongue
and let them dissolve like a wafer that's made with honey till it
sweetens all your soul. God hath loved us. Now, beloved, if we can believe
that, surely. Now, I know that some might say,
well, I always believed that God pitied us poor people, that
God had pity for us. Well, I believe that's true.
Also, the Bible says, like as a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Pity is one degree
below love, I believe, and it's not love. Neither does it say
God has had mercy on us, but thanks being to God, there's
some of us here who have obtained mercy. We were sinners, lost,
hell-bound, hell-deserving sinners, and God had mercy on us and brought
us out of spiritual death into spiritual life, translated us
out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear
Son. Surely He had mercy on us. Now, it's quite understandable
that the good and gracious God of heaven is merciful to his
creatures. It rains on the just as well
as the unjust, or the unjust as well as the just. But it's
for a greater thing that he should love them, that God should love
his people. And I'm here to caution you this
morning. If you take hope in the general
mercies of God, you're going to be in trouble. You say, well
I just hope, I just believe somehow or other God's going to be merciful. Somehow or other, I believe that
even our government will be merciful if hard times come. Well, let
me warn you, beloved, that the milk of human kindness does not
flow in the veins of government officials. It does not. And I
want you to be aware of this, that if you trust in the general
mercies of God, you're not going to be helped and you're not going
to be comforted and established in the difficult days that lie
ahead for us. It is the mercy of God in Jesus
Christ that we must trust in. God's saving mercies in His beloved
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And to hope in the general mercy
of God will not get you into heaven. It's hope in the specific
and the particular mercy of God that is in Christ Jesus. And you cannot go to heaven apart
from being in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, a love
is a feeling vastly more to be valued than just mere hoping
in the general mercy of God. Merciful, a man may be to his
beast, but that does not mean that he loves that beast. Merciful
has many a man been to his enemies, for whom he has had absolutely
no affection whatsoever. But God does not merely pity
us, have mercy upon us, but he loves us. And he gave his son,
and I know he did. The Bible says he did. He gave
his son to be a satisfaction for our sins. And beloved, that
spells it out. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not also through
him freely give us all things? If God gave his Son for you,
is there anything else that he would not do for you that needed
to be done? Now, beloved, you can be assured
of this, that God is going to intervene and undertake for his
people. He will give you strength day
by day to stand up and to face life and whatever it is God will
give you strength to face it and to endure it. God hath loved
us and truly the Lord has a complacency in his people and he sees them
in Christ and I believe that this is so merciful that God
is so merciful that he does pity us and that he does do good to
his people But more than that, He has loved us, and you know
how you look upon your own children. And this will kind of help us
with this, I believe. Well, don't they seem a part
of us, our own children? They seem a very part of us.
You love them as you love yourself. And your thoughts of them do
not differ from your thoughts about your own welfare. I'm getting
at something here. Our children are intertwisted
or intertwined with our very being. Now God also has united
us to himself by cords of love and bonds of affection and he
thinks of us as he thinks of himself. Now beloved this is
important to see when you wake up some morning and trouble is
brewing there's a great panic in the land and there's a run
on the banks and the cash is run out and the great inflicted
times are coming on the land then it's going to help you to
believe that God loves you like he loves himself just like you
love your children like you love yourself they're part of you
And we are members of the body of Christ. And Jesus Christ hath
loved us, and God the Father. Now he made the heavens and the
earth, and I'm less than a speck. Yet, He loves me. The nations
are as a drop in the bucket. And the isle, He taketh up the
isle as a very little thing. The islands, a very little thing. But He loves us. He loves His
people. It is His eternal arm that has
held up the universe in all ages. You believe that? His eternal
arm that has held up the universe in all ages. And we do fade as
a leaf. We've been dying ever since the
day we were born into this world. But He loves us, and He always
will, and He'll continue to hold up the universe. With His great
infinite heart, He loves even me. As a God, He loves me, divinely
loves me. Hath loved us, the apostles said,
yet we're so insignificant, somebody says. We're so frail, we're so
foolish, we're so sinful, we're so ungrateful. were always provoking
and so willfully obstinate in returning to our old sins again
and again, and therefore were so deserving of being abhorred,
rejected, and forsaken of God, but yet he pledged himself. that
he loved us and that he will not forsake us and that we may
boldly say the Lord is our helper and that we need not fear what
man shall do unto us. Now we sometimes think of his
love to the early believers and to the early saints without any
great wonder. We say, well, there wouldn't
be any wonder the Lord loved them. All of those apostles and prophets
and his love to the martyrs and the confessors and the patriarchs,
no wonder the Lord loved them because they were a special breed
of people and they were outstanding Christians. They were super Christians. but that our Lord Jesus Christ
himself and even our father should have loved us is an amazing thing
indeed do you agree that he should love us? well of course we're
made out of the same thing those early confessors and and apostles
and martyrs patriarchs were made out of we're made out of the
same thing they were men that were sinners they failed in their
lives like we have in ours but nevertheless the Lord loved them,
and He loved us for the same reason. He loved us because He
loves His Son. Everybody that's in His Son,
God loves. God cannot help but love His
own Son. And to be loved of God, one must
be in His Son. Now I'm gonna hurry here, and
we're gonna close in just a moment. But the manifestations of this
love, let me say two things here. First of all, a word about this
everlasting consolation. And then a word about this good
hope that God has given us. You see, things may not work
out for us. They may not work out. I mean,
things may get really bad, and there may be some of us that
will not make it through. There may be great turmoil in
the land. There could be somebody that
would panic, that has their finger on nuclear weapons. and there
could be devastation throughout this nation and other nations
of the earth. We may not make it through. But
beloved, let me say this to you, that our God has given us manifestation
of His love in that that He has given us everlasting consolation. regardless of what happens, and
we have a good hope through grace. First of all, God's love has
given us an everlasting comfort, and we have it regardless of
what happens. We have everlasting comfort.
The Lord found us poor, He found us wretched, He found us bleeding
to death, undone, miserable, and He came to us with encouragement. came to us with comfort. He said,
he whispered in my ear, whosoever believeth is not condemned. Whosoever
believeth is not condemned. Yes, when we were enabled to
see our Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute, suffering in
our room instead, our sins being forgiven, our sins being put
away for his name's sake, there was consolation indeed in that. Consolation indeed. You see,
beloved, if sin has been taken care of, if God has handled the
sin matter, then I don't really have anything to fear. Whatever
happens in this life, however I go and make my exit out of
this life, I have nothing to fear if the sin problem has been
dealt with and taken care of. Now, whatever your idea about
that, it doesn't make any difference to me. I know that hearing is
love, not that we love God, but that God sent His own Son to
be a satisfaction for our sins. God has been satisfied in regard
to my sin, and my sin has been paid for in the full. And I have
consolation in that. I have comfort in that. Let what
will happen to this old body. Let what will come upon us. God
has given us this consolation because our sin, the sin problem,
has been dealt with. And I tell you this, I don't
know what you fear. I do not know what your first
and major fear. Oh, I know. Many, many people
think and feel, well, especially if they're young people, they
have absolutely no fear of anything. but I'm going to tell you this
there's one thing that you ought to fear and that is you fear
Him who has the power to cast you both body and soul into everlasting
hell fear Him is what the Bible says now you can fear the panic
and you can fear all the other turmoil and the things that are
coming on the earth but you better fear God and if you come to fear
God you don't have much reason to fear the rest of it if you
fear the Lord. If you fear God, the fear of
man will be a secondary thing to you. And I'll tell you this,
in order to have confidence toward God, one must know that his sin
has been put away. That his sin has been blotted
out. That God has taken care of his sin. Because if you die
in your sin, you're going to hell, you're going to face God,
and you're going to be cast away into everlasting burnings, into
that place where the smoke rises up forever and ever, and there's
no rest neither day or night. I'll tell you, fear God. Well,
this is great consolation. And since that day that the Lord
spoke consolation, comfort to our hearts, showing us what He
had done with our sin, how He had dealt with it in the person
of His Son, we've had many sorrows. many trials, many difficulties,
but the consolation is always followed on the heels of trouble. And the greatest delight of all
is that this consolation is not for a day or for an hour. This
is everlasting consolation, and it covers everything. right even
to the day of our glorification. Now other sources of comfort,
my friend, now you believe what I'm telling you, dry up in this
world. Have what you will. I mean have
as much security as you can possibly muster. I mean you hoard it up
and you put it all in the shelves and you have it all marked and
labeled and how long the shelf life will last and all of it.
But I'm going to tell you, sources of comfort, as far as this world
is concerned, will all dry up. There'll come a day when it won't
be of any help to you. But I'm talking about an everlasting
consolation. Do you understand me, brethren,
sisters in the Lord? I'm talking about something that
far exceeds all of the security and the comforts that you can
find in this troubled world. I'm talking about everlasting
consolation. Now, there are those who have
had the consolation of God for many years, and they can testify
that whom once he loves, he never leaves, but loves them to the
very end. Now brethren, wouldn't you rather
be armed with that than you would with a 300 Winchester Magnum?
on the day when panic breaks out, wouldn't you rather? He
who loves us will love us to the end, and we don't need to
be frightened in our hearts and begin to take up arms. Somebody
said, there's gonna be a run on ammunition, and you better
go out and buy some. You better buy some more. You
better make sure that you have plenty of ammunition. My brother,
let me tell you something. My friend, let me tell you something. That if this world gives way,
and if all of these problems materializes, and panic erupts,
and people begin to move out of the cities into the suburbs
to take over, and to steal everything that we have in our homes, and
they're hungry, The masses, the crowds of people may not be so
in Montana like it is in other places. But I'm going to tell
you this, it ain't going to do any good for you to have ammunition.
That's not going to do you any good. And what good is it going
to do you to in some way or another ward off the first ten or fifteen
or the first twenty what good is that going to do you my friend?
I'll tell you what you need to get this anchor you need to have
everlasting consolation because those people if they're hungry
they're going to have what you've got and they will take it and
believe you me there'll be enough of them to take it and you might
as well get your soul anchored you might as well bottom out
right now this morning on everlasting consolation, because this little
petty stuff that you and I can drum up and put together will
not be able to hold us in that day. Now then, we stand upon
a firm foundation in our Lord, not on the sifting sand of creature
obedience and faithfulness, but upon the eternal rock of a work
which Christ has completed. And I'll rest in that. I'll rest
in that. We have also this consolation,
Romans 8 and verse 28. If you've never memorized that
verse, you ought to get busy and memorize it. We know, and
we know, that all things work together for good to them that
love God. And we know. Now you say, well
Preacher, you know I've never really put that to the test.
Never really put it to the test? Well, what good is a scripture
that you never put to a test? And I'll tell you this, maybe
things never got bad enough with you where you looked at that
verse and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God. Well, it may not be very long
before you'll be able to put that verse to the test and know
that God does work all things together for good to them that
love God and to them who are thee called according to His
purpose. and you may come down to where
you have to rest just on that alone that God loves his people
and that all things will work together for their good next
we have also this consolation that even though we sleep in
the dust for a while even though we suffer physical death yet
he has said I will that they also whom thou hast given me
be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. That's what
God said. I will that they be with me where
I am. That's my will. Now you rejoiced, brother. You
rejoiced, sister, that it was the will of God. Even your sanctification,
that God from the beginning had loved you and chosen you to salvation. That was his will. You rejoiced
in the will of God. but will you also rejoice in
that day when you know that the final breath is coming to know
that he said I will that they be with me where I am to behold
my glory There comes a time when we must rejoice in the will of
God, even if it means separation of our soul from our bodies.
We must come to the place where we worship God and where we will
give our hearts over to His will. I will. I will. You see, I love
the will of God. I love the will of God. I have
a flesh nature like everybody else. And my nature is a nature
that's rebellious toward God and His ways. The old nature
is rebellious. But there's a part of me that
acquiesces fully in the will of God. God's will. Whatever it is, that's what I
want. The will of the Lord be done
on earth as it is in heaven. How many times you said that?
That disciple's prayer. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Is that good enough for you?
The will of God, is that good enough? Even if it means that
it's all over, that it's done as far as this world is concerned.
Are you going to be like old Lot's wife? Are you going to
turn back and look at this whole world and turn into a pillar
of salt? Are you going to do like Lot,
linger? Linger? The angels hasten him, but he
lingered. He lingered. He lingered. What
a word. We find in the word of God. He
lingered. Oh no, my friend. God said, I will that they be
with me. Those that you've given me, that
they be with me. Where I am, that they may behold
my glory. Is that all that bad? Is that
bad? No, my friend, that is not bad. That's glory, that's glory, and
it's coming to the Lord's people in that time. Now to give you
all the consolation which God has given you, I'd need a whole
lot more time than what I have this morning, and I suppose it
would occupy the rest of our life if we were to go into the
Word of God. Everlasting consolations are
not to be spread out before us and be done with in one sermon. everlasting consolations we must
pass on now quickly and I'm going to close just I'm not going to
say a word about the third thing he's given us good hope consolation
for the present hope for the future good hope through grace
now the hope when days and years have come and gone and they're
all past that we'll all meet again in heaven hope hope that
we'll all meet in heaven. The hope that whatever the future
may be, whatever, it is full of bliss for all God's elect. Now you see, the Bible exhorts
us to be strong, does it not? In the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. To be strong in the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the hope that whatever
Whatever the future may be, it is full of bliss and blessing
for God's elect that we're going to a place where we shall never
be touched or molested in the world to come. The future is
a future of bliss, the hope of immortality. for our souls, and
of the resurrection of our bodies. For when Christ shall come, we
all soul that sleep in Jesus shall come with him. This is
our hope, and this is a good hope, for it is based and founded
on a very good foundation. Now a fanatic's hope will all
pass away. And that's what I call, now listen
to me, You come out to my place, you'll probably find I got a
few extra cans, stuff around. I might even fill up a extra
propane tank. I might even cut up, split a
little extra firewood. I might do that. I might do all
that. But a fanatic's hope, and I'm
not gonna get fanatical about all this. It'll pass away. a fanatic's hope will pass away.
In other words, you just go on out if you want to and buy one
of these $4,000 generators. You go on out if you want to
and buy one of these solar systems that's already prepared. They
got it ready for your house, Mike. All you gotta do is $21,000
and they'll give you a solar system that'll function. You
don't need any electricity. They got it all ready. These
people have. Selling it. You think some of
these people are not going to make money on all this? They're
going to make an awful lot of money on all this. I'll tell
you, a fanatic's hope is going to pass away. It'll pass away. But the hope of a true believer
is good because it is founded in truth and is founded in grace. Yea, their hope is a good hope
in grace. A good hope in grace is what
the Greek here says. A good hope in grace. And I don't
want a fanatic's hope. I want a Christian's hope. I
want to act like a Christian. And you know what? Back in about
1960, I got to thinking. And I got to thinking a lot about
it. And I kind of set for my goal to be around in the year
2000. Kind of set that for my goal.
You say, well, I'm just going to try to stay around to year
2000. And you know what? It's upon us, really. It's come
upon us. We're not too far off. But you
know what? My hope is the same today as
it was then. All the hope I got is a good
hope in grace. That's all I got. I don't have
anything else. And I don't want anything else.
Now, if I trust in my own wisdom, Bible says, a man trusting his
own heart's a fool. That's what the Bible says. You
better trust in the Lord with all of your heart. That's Amy's
favorite verse. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. Lean not to your own understanding. All thy ways acknowledge Him.
He'll direct your steps. Wait on the Lord. Trust Him.
And the comments was that some pastors are telling their people
to trust in the Lord. Well, pray God, if you can, to
give me some insight into what on earth would be better advice
to tell people than trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Now I'm telling
you that this morning and let the fundamentalist right-wingers
say whatever they want to say about it. I tell you, trust in
the Lord. Don't have a fanatic's hope. Have a hope based and bottomed
on the Word of God. Don't be self-deceived and blind. Don't base your hope on anything
you can see. base it on the unseen God. What does the Bible say about
Abraham? Was it Abraham or was it Moses
that that he survived or as seeing him that was invisible? Which
one of them was it? Well both of them I suppose did
it but maybe it was Moses that that he lived his life as seeing
him that was invisible And that's what we have to do as the Lord's
people. Well, there's so much more. I guess I could maybe preach
another sermon here, but I think I'm going to give it up. It's
a good hope through grace. And if you got this good hope
through grace, it'll comfort your hearts and it'll establish
you in every good word and work. It'll keep you on track. it'll
keep you on track. And you won't lay aside your
religion and say, I'm going to go join this bunch of men that's
coming down the street. They got guns and clubs. And
I'm going to go join with them. And I'm going to take up arms
against this mob. And I'm going to do this, and
I'm going to do that. Well, you just be a Christian.
And if you've got this hope in your soul, now you say, well,
preacher, it's easier for him to talk about this. And I realize
that. I realize that. And I know that
there will be committees that will want your participation
if things go from bad to worse. And I'm going to tell you something.
If these people that are offering all of this propaganda on what's
going to happen in this country, if they're right, your life and
my life will never be the same again after probably September
of this year. Never be the same again. and
I just want you to know that and there will be people that
want you to join join this committee and that committee and it'll
be a great trial because they're your neighbors see they're your
neighbors and they say well if we just all get together we can
stop this much down here at the corner oh sure sure you can but
whatever you do you be a Christian you be a Christian let the peace
of God rule in your heart let the word of God Call the shots. You be a Christian. You be a
Christian. And this good hope and this everlasting
consolation, comfort your hearts, will establish you in every good
word and work. May the Lord give us wisdom,
discernment, be able to rightly divide his word, stay on him,
be faithful unto death. Be faithful. Father, we thank
you for this privilege we've had this morning. Thank you,
Lord, for these dear souls and for your wisdom and your discernment. Thank you, Lord, for giving us
that measure of comfort and hope that we have in our God. Help
us to be established. Scripture says, if you believe,
you will be established. So help us to all get a good
grip on your word, what we've been taught, what we know is
the truth, and just stand right there and to be faithful and
loyal to thee. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.