2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 - Because He First Loved You

Today, we are in the last five verses, about five verses or so.

In 2 Thessalonians 2, we've been walking through this book where Paul and Silas and Timothy, they're writing to these believers that have really been going through it. They've been encountering persecution.

They've had people telling them that, you know, they missed Jesus' return. And so now there's nothing left for them, but like judgment and all that kind of stuff. And so Paul writes to encourage them to let them know, this is not the end.

This is just run of the mill persecution that comes against the people of God, because we follow the son of God, who suffered and died in our place. And so we, as we follow him, we also experience some suffering. But that's not the end.

And that there will be reward in the end. He lets them know about what the end times will kind of entail.

And he lets them know first about kind of like the spirit's role in the church and how he is preventing that day of the Lord from coming yet while we are doing the work of God in reaching people during kind of this church age, if you will, that we

are seeking to build up the Bride of Christ. We're going into the hedges and highways and compelling them to come to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

There, I'm borrowing from a couple of different Bible stories and accounts of Jesus and how he kind of talks about some of that.

So as he's going through, he lets him know, OK, you guys aren't seeing right now this man of lawlessness, this son of perdition that Jesus talked about in Matthew 24, that Daniel spoke about in his prophecies. I'm telling you guys about him now.

John would later write in Revelation more about this person, the beast and the false prophet, these that will be seeking to subvert the entire world and to turn them against the Lord and God.

Basically backing up that particular claim of those that refuse to worship God, they won't just be indifferent to the Antichrist and to this worship of Satan's false messiah. Instead, they will wholesale believe that.

And so Paul here has been telling them all about this. But then he says in verse number 13, where their attention needs to be. He says, okay, this is what God's Spirit is saying will happen in those end times.

He says, but you're not there.

So verse number 13, but we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, loved by the Lord, because from the beginning, God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

He called you to this through our gospel so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.

Man, what a great set of verses that I don't know about you. I haven't necessarily been worried about whether or not Jesus is coming back right now, or if I missed the boat.

It's not really one of the fears that I have, but still these words of comfort spoken by the Apostle 2,000 years ago, it resonates with me. So let's look at some of these verses, and hopefully get some great strength for our day.

First, in verse 13, we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, loved by the Lord. He lets him know, God's not indifferent to you. You're not like in the scales of God's love and his family.

He's not weighing whether or not you're going to be a part of his kingdom. He says, you are brothers and sisters that were part of a common spiritual family.

He says, if you think that I'm a Christian, if you think that I'm a child of God, then I am telling you that you are my brothers and sisters. We are all part of this family.

And he says, not just are you like God's kids, but you are God's kids and he loves you. He says, you are loved by the Lord. What a comfort to know that God is not angry with us.

He is not against us. He is for us. I love both the song The Blessing of the fact that his favor, as it was on the Old Testament priest, now is priest in part of Christ priesthood.

His favor is upon us. And for a thousand generations, our children and our children's children, his presence goes before us and behind us and around us and within us. And he is for us.

And what a wonderful comfort that that is. That, man, we can never over exaggerate God's love for us. His love is beyond description.

His care for us, his pursuit of us is beyond anything that we could ever describe. Today, don't worry if God loves you, even in your failures, even in your hard life circumstances, don't doubt that you are loved by the Lord.

Well, why would we say that? Why can we say that we are loved by the Lord, that that can't be doubted? Because of the very next phrase of what Paul says.

He says, because from the beginning, God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He says, he lets them know, because you did not start your salvation process. God did.

When we were far away, when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We love him because he first loved us.

This precious doctrine, what's often known as predestination or election, is not meant to be like something that you argue with people over whether or not perhaps an unsaved person is saved.

It is for the saved individual that they would know, I am a child of God, not because I am good enough or I did enough things or I prayed the right words and the right prayer. It is realizing that God saved me. I did not save myself.

So when you're worried about, am I really a child of God? Well, we realize my salvation, it wasn't up to me. I can't earn it.

I can't lose it. It is something that God does. God is the one that adopts.

God is the one from Romans chapter eight in verse twenty eight that he predestined us. It is from Ephesians chapter one where God has.

I'm actually going to turn over there real quick just because I want to make sure that I phrase this correct, that we are predestined to be adopted as sons. Verse number four in Ephesians one, he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

From Revelation chapter, it's either seven or seventeen, that we were written in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the world. From John chapter six, that everyone that the father has given the son will come to him.

John chapter ten, that Jesus' sheep, they know his voice and they will hear him and they will follow him because God has placed us in the hand of Jesus and no one can take us out of our father's hand.

So here, there is this comfort to the child of God of if you have placed your faith in Jesus, if you have believed in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, then you know that you are a child of God always and forever. And what a wonderful truth that is.

We've been singing a song at Tabernacle over the past couple of weeks. The song Trusting God. It's got some lines in there from Fanny Crosby's song Blessed Assurance.

Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine. He's been my fourth man in the fire time after time. I'm an heir of salvation.

I've been washed in his blood. And what he did for me on Calvary is more than enough. So, I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail.

Even if, as 1 John 3 says, even if our hearts fail us, God is greater than our hearts, that the redemption that we have through him, man, it is everlasting.

So Paul encourages these Thessalonian believers, and he says, realize that you don't have to worry about if you have earned your place with God, it was never earned. It was given that God made you his child. He adopted you.

He birthed you by the Spirit into his family. He has loved you. He has set out this path for you from all eternity past.

And so there is no need to worry about your standing with God. It is secure in what Jesus has accomplished. Verse number 14, he called you to this, this salvation through our gospel so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He says Jesus was the goal of everything that was happening. It's not whether or not your works line up. It's simply that Jesus and his glory, that is what is being accomplished through your salvation.

Verse number 15, he says, So then brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote.

Here standing firm, not being shaken, not turning away from Jesus, but continuing to believe in him, to follow the way of Christ, even in persecution, to worship only him, not the Roman emperors, not the Greek gods, not following all of the Jewish

commandments, but instead standing firm in this gospel. And here holding to the traditions that they were taught by the apostles. These are not just random traditions.

So there are some groups that I've seen that have said, okay, no, no, no, no, no, you should follow traditions. Because here Paul commands them to follow in the traditions that they were taught.

The difference is that the traditions that these believers were taught, these were gospel traditions. This was the tradition of who Jesus was. This was the tradition of what the Holy Spirit had instructed the early church to do.

This was not a tradition like, hey, I really think we need to have like baptisms for the dead or something like that. These or traditions of this is what you need to wear to church. That's not the kind of traditions that Paul was talking about.

It was the tradition of the gospel of Jesus. So he says, stand firm in that. Don't waver in it.

People are going to try and bring in things to upset your Christian faith. Don't let it just remain steadfast in everything that you're doing. Pardon me.

Verse number 16, May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.

So now there's this direct prayer that he prays, that he says, God has loved you. He has given you eternal encouragement that you know what your everlasting state with God is because of the word of God.

He's given you good hope by grace that because God's grace has been a part of your life, you can know that his grace isn't going to return in vain. Instead, it gives you hope for today. What's the line from Great is Thy Faithfulness?

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside.

And there this God, the one that gives encouragement and grace and hope and love, he says he will encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.

He says for what you do, for what you say, for even who you are, like what you think on the inside, God is going to strengthen and embolden and enable you in all of these ways. I don't know what you're going through right now.

I know for myself, I need some of that encouragement. I need some of that strengthening, where I'm just calling on God and being like, Lord, you see the desperate needs that there are. God, you see the opposition that there is.

God, you see the joy that could be. And God, I need some of that joy. I need some of that strength.

I need some of that boldness to do what God wants me to do. For you today, whatever you're going through, realize that God will encourage your heart. God will strengthen you for every good word that you need to say.

And God will strengthen you in every good work. Why? Because it is for His glory that we are saved.

He is the one that initiated our salvation because He loves us and He cares about us and He wanted to rescue us. So, don't worry about what your status with Him is. He loves you and that will never change.

He is the one who is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the God who does not change. And so, we can rely and rejoice in Him.

Thank you for tuning in today. Hope that would be an encouragement to you.

And looking forward to diving into the beginning of 2 Thessalonians 3 tomorrow, where Paul, after he praised this prayer request for them, now he has a prayer request of his own. And I definitely echo that prayer from Paul.

So, looking forward to learning about that with you tomorrow.