2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse
13 and 14 Paul says but we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you brethren beloved of the Lord
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief in the truth where
unto where is that to? that's to the truth where unto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. This chapter in scripture is
a wondrous chapter for those who know Christ and who are believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's also a chapter that
is used extensively, especially the first part of this chapter,
the first four or five verses, by religionists to try to set
up some scheme of eschatology of the things of the last days.
Now there is no doubt that our Lord has inspired Paul to speak
of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. and things that will
precede it and things that will follow it. There's no doubt about
that. Men see terms like the man of
sin revealed or the son of perdition and they automatically get all
vexed and wonder what that means. Those terms could actually apply
to any and every sinner born of Adam. They are all sons of
perdition just as they are by nature children of wrath even
as others. They are all indeed men of sin. There's no question there. Most of the stuff that's being
spoken of here is taking place today. Taking place today. The last days don't begin somewhere
in the future. The last days began when our
Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, was born into this world. The last days are what is commonly
called by theologians the Gospel Age. The age in which we live. John made that clear in 1st,
2nd, and 3rd John. He said, we are in the last days. And if you will look at what's
going on in the term used in these last days or last times
in scripture, you'll find that you can find it going on right
now in this word. Men, look at that passage here
that says a man would stand in the temple of God and call himself
God. And if they say, oh, that ain't
happened yet. Well, if you check the reformers, they thought it
happened in Rome. They thought that the Pope was
the Antichrist, and he is one of them, but he's part of the
Antichrist system. But so is every other religionist
that doesn't know and trust in the merits alone of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're all part of an Antichrist system. Does anybody act like God in
the church? Does anybody set themselves up
as God? No, they don't get up and say,
I'm God. They don't. but they take to
themselves and for themselves the attributes of God the things
that the Bible says God does they say we do scripture says
men are saved by the will of God not the will of man but the
will of God but men say we're saved by their own will they
will to choose God they will to choose God Our scripture right
here said, God chose whom he would save before the foundation
of the world. And men say, we choose God. We
choose God. So they're taking the power of
God and applying it to themselves. They're saying, I'm God. They're
not saying it vocally. They're not saying it verbally.
They're not being overt about it. They're not saying, I'm God.
But if they take the attributes of God and apply them to themselves
and put God on hold when they run the show, then they're God
and He's not. It's that simple. And if that's
the situation, I've always wondered the hypocrisy of those who say
that they are saved by their free will, by their choice, and
by their decision. Why in the world do they pray
to God to save anybody? Why don't they pray to the person?
If it's His will that does it, why don't they pray to Him? Don't
they pray to Him? But the first verses here speak
of those whom God will send a strong delusion to. You mean God acts
like that? He says He hides the truth. from
the wise and the prudent, and reveals it unto Baal. No man
knoweth the Father, but the Son, and no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. That's
what the scriptures say, and that was our Lord thanking God
for doing that. I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and the prudent, and revealed them unto Baal. He thanked God
for that. And now Paul thanks God for something else. There's
a lot of thankfulness going on here. I must admit, being eating
with some of the finest folks you ever seen last Thursday and
eating way too much food. But I enjoyed every minute of
it. I was thinking about being thankful when I looked at this
message. Because Paul gives thanks here.
Paul has declared the sure effects. and the sheer existence of Antichrist. And when I say Antichrist, I'm
not talking about one man, I'm talking about a system of theology
which gives man glory and takes the glory from God. The system
which says Christ did not actually save anybody but made salvation
only possible, that's Antichrist or Antichrist. Our Lord is, through
the inspiring Paul, has declared the sure effects of these men
and his followers and their predetermined end, how this is going to end
for them. They are going to perish. Christ is going to speak them
dead with the word of His mouth. And it is these whom God said
He sent a strong delusion that they will believe a lie and damn
them for believing the lie that He gave them the strong delusion
to believe. This is God operating in the world. This is God Almighty,
not the God of man's imagination. And he also talks about, and
what we're going to look at this morning, is the sound and unchangeable
estate of those who are in Christ Jesus because of free and sovereign
grace. And it's all because of grace. There's no doubt about that.
Every believer knows that his or her flesh responds positively
to the doctrines and practices of Antichrist religion. Our flesh
responds to that. It's our natural religion, the
one we're born with. Free will, self-deifying religion,
everybody likes to believe they're God. I believe they have that
kind of power. They also know that they would
have remained as they were as a wholesale adherence to the
natural and carnal religion if left to their own devices. We
know that. If God didn't intervene in our behalf, if God didn't
interrupt our career, we'd stay where we are. Barney, you say
you go to hell if you can, and if you can, you will, my friend.
If you can, you will. If God don't stop you, you will.
You will. Humanity by nature cannot help
but succumb to the notion of personal merit or deity as it
was the first lie and eventuated in the fall of man. It is a lie
that is intoxicating to the flesh and is the driving engine behind
religion that will be destroyed at the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Since this religion is our natural bent, and we are
not only incapable but also unwilling to change, nothing short of a
power outside ourselves, beyond our paltry capabilities, a power
with supernatural, sovereign, unstoppable, effectual strength,
nothing but that can extract us from our doomed insatiable
affinity for all things satisfying to the flesh. Nothing but God
will do. Our text begins with but. We
know that when you see the word but, it means that what was before
the word is opposite to what comes after the word. I read
a story of an interpreter at the UN one time, was interpreting
a man speaking a foreign language, and he was talking about a fellow
that was having the interpreter interpret for him. And the guy
said, don't worry about anything this guy said, but every time
he says the word but, you tell me what he said just before that
and what he said just after that I don't know what he's talking
about but this is how it begins but God's gonna kill all those
God's gonna wipe out those who would be God, God's gonna do
away with the son of perdition and the man of sin He's gonna
do away with those who love not the truth, He's gonna do away
with those who He has given delusion to believe a lie, they're goners
they're goners but somebody else is not going to be the same situation.
Therein is the blessed interruption in our hopeless and hapless career.
Martin Lloyd-Jones said almost every declaration of the gospel
begins with the word but, or the two words but God. Almost
every one. The difference between our former
and present estate can only be an attribution of thanksgiving
to our God who but it in. to our lives. Paul says that
we are bound to give thanks. We are bound or supremely and
absolutely obligated to give thanks to God because what follows
can only be attributed to God for the believer had nothing
to do with what took place and though we owe nothing, listen
very carefully, we owe nothing to God legally. Jesus Christ
handled all and answered all legal questions before God when
He died on Calvary's tree. He answered the law's demands.
He satisfied the law. He satisfied justice's demands.
All things legal are taken care of. You don't owe anything God,
but you owe Him something. You're bound to give thanks unto
God. That's what He said. Christ settled
that on Calvary unlegally, but we owe God the debt of gratitude.
That's something we seem to have lost in this day and age. People
are grateful. Everybody seems to be entitled.
Nobody's grateful anymore. And there's nothing more disdained
and should be in this world than an ingrate. That was almost like a cuss word
when I was a kid. Somebody called me an ingrate.
That means I wasn't grateful. That means I was about to get
a slap across my face. We owe God something. A debt. An eternal debt of gratitude
and we are bound to pay it. Not by law, but by love. He first gives thanks to God
for the brethren themselves. We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, but brethren, for you brethren, the children
of God are thankful for their brothers and sisters in Christ.
They're thankful for them. That's a sure statement. If you're
not thankful for your brothers and sisters in Christ, maybe
they're not your brothers and sisters in Christ, or maybe you're
not a brother or a sister. We are bound. We owe this to
God to give thanks for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Be thankful. Our Lord said so many times,
and we have to be reminded because we're not. Be ye thankful. The children of God are thankful
for their brothers and sisters in Christ. I can't tell you how
many times brothers and sisters have called me on the phone. I said, oh I wish there was a
place, a church nearby and I could go and hear the gospel and be
with the brothers and sisters in Christ. Can't tell you how
many, I get calls every week. People all over this United States
and this world. I've got calls from far away
as Germany and England. People call me and say, there's
no Grace Church here. I'm all alone. You're not alone. Look around
you. There ain't many of us, but there's
some of us. Be thankful. Be thankful. David, when he was running from
his son who wanted to kill him, couldn't meet with God, couldn't
meet with God's people, he was running. He said, as a heart,
as a young deer, as a fawn, the young did, panteth after the
water brook, so panteth my soul after the old God. My soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God?" When do people come and appear before God? In public
worship, when they come together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Paul said, I'm thankful for y'all. I'm thankful for y'all. They
are brethren because God has birthed them into his family.
They are brethren because he's adopted them by the purpose of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this adoption is a result
of eternal loving. Eternal love. We are bound to
give thanks to you, brethren beloved. Beloved. Nobody can really define
God's love. Men have tried, I've tried. I've
not done a very good job. I've been trying for 40 some
odd years and I still haven't done a very good job. But if
God loves you today, He's always loved you. And He will always
love you. And He will never put you in
hell if He's loved you. It's that simple. We don't worship a God who loves
a person until the end of time and because that person rejects
Him, has rejected him, then starts hating him enough to put him
into an eternal hell where flames lick his wounds for all eternity. Where the worm dieth not and
the fire is not quenched. That's not love. Love don't do
that. I know, because I love some people. And the people I
love, if it were up to me and my love were capable, my love
had power, my love was able to perform something, if that were
the case, nobody I love would ever perish. Nobody I love would
ever suffer. But I'm not God and my love don't
work. But whoever God loves, he says,
he says, thanks be unto God. We're bound to give thanks. Be
you thankful that you can see your family you can see your
brothers and sisters in Christ they are beloved of the Lord
and the thanksgiving is centered finds its source in one of the
things that religion not only refuses to give thanks for but
also vehemently opposes the election of loving grace we are bound
to give thanks to thee to God brethren beloved of the Lord
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation Chosen
you to salvation. Who make a thing to differ from
another? And what has thou thus not received? How is that difference
declared? Is it declared in your personal
righteousness? Is it declared in your religious
activities? Is it declared any other way
but this way? In eternal election. Eternal
election. people would be pleased, religion
would be pleased, and they would even accept you if you never
talked about election. If you never talked about it,
if you never mentioned it, they'd get along with you fine. In fact,
people have actually told me that. Some members of my family
have actually told me, you know, if you wouldn't talk about this,
you would be okay. But you see, nobody knows about
election unless it's preached. And our Lord said, if you were
of the world, the world would love its own. But you're not
of the world, but because I chose you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you. Now how in the world does the
world know that you have chosen of God? How can they know? Who told them? You must have. If the world hates you, you must
have told them that. That's the way the word comes
out, through the priest's word. But this Thanksgiving is centered
in electing grace. Why did I not remain in my awful
condition? Why did that which once was normal
and palatable and pleasurable to me become a discomforting
thing? How did that happen? The difference is that God chose
me to salvation before the foundation of the world and I had nothing
to do with it and I had nothing that would recommend me to Him
whatsoever. He did it because He would. and
there's no use to try to figure it out. He does not give account
of his matters. It was impossible for me to continue my former
course because unlike those whom God has sent a strong delusion
that they would believe a lie, unlike those who do not receive
the love of the truth, God had before the world selected me
for salvation. That's what this says and we're
to give thanks for that. The elect love this truth and
the non-elect disown it and hate it. It's that simple and I've
experienced and so have you. when you told somebody the truth,
they said, well that ain't fair, that ain't right, that ain't
my God. I know, it's not your God, it's my God. It's the God
of Scripture. It's the God of Scripture. Those
who by no effort of their own have been rescued from the fiery
pit rejoice in electing grace, while those who sit in the temple
and show themselves to be God, believing that they hold salvation
in their hands, their will and their decision discount election
altogether. But here, The believer is obligated,
bound to give thanks to God for electing love. Bound to do it. The next thing that Paul gives
thanks for unto God is that it all came to fruition in a particular
way through sanctification of the Spirit. Now this may be applied
to the eternal separation of the elect under Christ, but since
that is covered by the act of election, this rather refers
to the Spirit taking the things of Christ and revealing them
to the believer that he's been made holy by God. You see, this
is the beauty of the gospel. It's not some offer. It's not
some barter. It's not some way you bargain
with God. The gospel is a declaration that
something has taken place and what has taken place was effectual.
What had taken place was an absolute success. It's good news. It's
good news that Jesus Christ has come into this world to save
sinners and he's accomplished the salvation of his people by
his substitutionary sacrifice. The gospel is good news because
it has nothing for you to do. It's a declaration of what has
been done and accomplished by Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree.
The Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Word, takes
that Word and reveals Christ to His people. And they see,
not that they can be something, they see that they have been
saved and redeemed and bought. by Jesus Christ, and that's good
news. That is the only good news. God has made us to be in Christ,
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He's made His
people holy. This, for which thanks to God
is bound to be given, this holiness is a result of electing grace,
not the cause of it. It's through sanctification of
the Spirit. The next thing Paul gives thanks for is belief in
the truth. Belief in the truth. This is no doubt also means love
for the truth. This assures us that faith is
not a product of the flesh as it is likewise a thing for which
Paul gives thanks for God. God thanks him for it. So thank
God for it. God did it. God did it. Faith. What is faith? Simply,
it's belief of the truth. Belief of the record that God
has given us concerning His Son. And faith is a gift of God. That
means it's given to you. And think about a gift, if it's
really a gift, it's because you've received it. People send me a
gift for Christmas and I don't get it. It ain't a gift. Because
I didn't get it. You have to get it for it to
be a gift. So many things received that
our works or will is no part of obtaining. That's what our
Lord said. By grace you are saved through faith and that not of
yourselves. It's a gift of God not of works lest any man should
boast. For you are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus and two
good works which God has before ordained that you should walk
in them. That's a done deal. And we're to be thankful. We're
bound to give thanks to God. Oh Lord, thank you for faith.
Thank you for faith. Because without it, no man's
gonna see God. Without it, no man's gonna please
God. No man. The next thing Paul gives thanks
for is a calling. This could also be called a naming. It's a calling, and this does
not refer to the general call used in the preaching of the
gospel to every creature, but the effectual employment of the
general call to the hearts of the elect. I preach the gospel. And I call on you to trust Jesus
Christ. I call on you to come to Christ.
I call on you to believe on Jesus Christ and I can't do anything
for you to make that happen. But God can take that same gospel
and implant it in your heart and in your mind and in your
soul and bring you to the Lord Jesus Christ by teaching you
who Christ is. That's the effectual call. And
it says we're to give thanks to God for calling us Jesus calls
us over to him. The word where unto is a further
assurance that the believer's knowledge and understanding is
all of God and all that God has done for them is revealed in
the truth as they are called by the gospel. He says this where
unto you are called by our gospel. Where unto? What? What are you
called to? You're called to the truth. You're called to Christ.
Christ is the way, the truth, and life. You're called to truth.
The truth. I know we have people talking
about my truth. I hear that phrase used more
and more and more. If people have an idea or notion
that's particular to them or if they have a perversion or
a craziness or you know, or they're loco on some level or something,
they say this is my truth. It's not truth. Maybe you're
sickness. but it's not your truth because
there ain't but one truth and that's Jesus Christ and he's
the truth and anything that's not in Christ or of Christ is
the lie it's that simple it's the lie called by our gospel to what? to the truth it's also
revealed that predestinating purpose precedes all understanding
all knowledge and all faith Paul uses the personal possessive
pronoun, our, to distinguish what he preaches and what the
elect receive, as opposed to the other gospels, which are
really no gospels at all. There are those who stand up
and say, we preach the gospel. Listen to them, and get a hold
of this book here, see if they're telling you the truth. Because
this book is the gospel. Everything else is not. Paul
said, if any other man come to you, any, I don't care if he's
an angel from heaven, If an angel came down here, and angels don't
have wings, I know people say, angels don't have wings. Angels
are created beings. Cherubim have wings. Those creatures
that cry holy, holy, holy every day, they have wings. They have
six of them. And they fly day and night and
cry holy, holy, holy unto God. But there's no indication of
creatures and angels having wings. But if an angel came down here,
an angel came down here, maybe he'd be bright and shiny. I don't
know, maybe it'd have a glow to it, who knows, an aura. But
if he came down here and preached to you, Paul said, if he preached
to you any other gospel than that which I preached unto you,
let him be anathema maranatha, accursed when the Lord comes.
Any other gospel. And then just in case you didn't,
he says, let me repeat myself. If I, or an apostle, or a disciple,
or a preacher, or a teacher, come to you with any other gospel
than that which I preached unto you, let him go to hell. Let
him be accursed. How narrow is this? It's plumb
narrow, my friends. There is a gospel to be preached.
We know Satan has his emissaries. They're called angels of light
and ministers of righteousness, but they're false teachers. false
apostles. Finally, the end result of all
that God has done for the elect is what God is again to be thanked
for, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the obtaining. The word obtaining
is a weak interpretation as it can suggest acquiring by one's
own endeavors. The word means to possess a thing
that is purchased. That's what it means. The glory
possessed is the predestinated glory of the saints. Their glorification
is their union with Christ. And that's an eternal union.
For whom He did divorce, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He
also called. Whom He called, them He also
justified. Whom He justified, them He also glorified. That
glorification was purchased by the blood of Christ and given
into the possession of every saint. and will be fully revealed
and manifest in Christ's return when he comes again we'll be
able to see that glory we can't see it now our flesh gets in
the way but I'm looking at a bunch of glorified saints that's what
he said glorified saints thanks be unto God who loved us chose
us saved us made us holy, gave us faith, called us, and glorified
us. To Him be glory forever. Brethren,
if you're going to be thankful, God says you're bound to be thankful
for this. Bless us to understand that we're
praying in Christ's name.