GOD CHOSE YOU TO BE SAVED
November 19, 2006
END TIME 3 / SAINTS TRIUMPHANT
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ:
As you heard these words of our text, you probably already picked up the feeling of encouragement. You probably already noted the fact that Paul asked for prayer and praise for these believers. There is a reason why these are encouraging and prayerful words. This is Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians and he had to address some things that were misunderstood in the first letter. What was misunderstood in the first letter was Judgment Day. Paul wrote that the Judgment Day of the Lord’s return was close at hand. Some felt it was so close that they quit working and sat back waiting for the Lord to return. Paul had to write to them and remind them it wasn’t quite that close.
There would be signs that would precede the coming of the Lord on Judgment Day. Some of those signs would be the fact that there would be wickedness and evil in the world. Some of the signs would be the fact that there would lawless men. There would come the anti-christ and those who would try and lead astray believers in the church. Then the words of our text begin. Paul had given them the warning. Now Paul needs to encourage them and remind them that even though these things would happen and even though the church of God before the end of time would decrease rather than increase, (true believers would even be hard to find) God would not forget them or forsake them. Paul was truly recalling the very words of Jesus himself. When Jesus was with his disciples, before he left them, he said to watch for his coming again. He said: "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible" (Matthew 24:24). Jesus warns, yes, in the last day there will be those who seem to be Christ or prophets who try to deceive God’s elect.
Near the beginning of our text we have those words: God chose you to be saved. That is the comfort and encouragement that is ours no matter what happens in this world. No matter how many attacks come against the Christian church, whether by men in the world or whether by Satan himself, God has still chosen you to be saved. We are going to use these words of Paul as our theme:
GOD CHOSE YOU TO BE SAVED.
I. We stand firm in God’s teachings,
II. We pray with faithful confidence.
I. WE STAND FIRM IN GOD’S TEACHINGS
Paul, of course, is not present with the believers. He is separated from them. Because he is away from them, his communication with them is by letter. Paul writes this letter to them to encourage them. Paul writes to these believers thankful that they are believers. Verse 13: "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord." Paul realized that he was not alone. There were believers in many different areas and even in some of the places he had visited where churches were started. So Paul was thankful for brothers loved by the Lord. He goes on to describe their life of faith. "Brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying (meaning to set apart as sacred or holy) work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth." Imagine that! Paul was reminding them that they did not go out of their way to find God. They did not go out of their way to choose to be believers, but God chose them to be saved. These believers are now loved by the Lord. Paul tells them how they are saved--by the work of the Holy Spirit: who led them and guided them into the truth. This truth is found solely in God’s word. God chose them, set them apart as sacred or holy. The Holy Spirit poured out faith in their hearts through the living, enduring, and true word of God.
Where did that word of God come from? Paul writes: "He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is through the preaching that Paul had done. It was through the gospel message: that Christ had been raised from the dead that they were saved. You have to remember also that this generation was the first generation following the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In a sense, this was almost a new teaching--of Christ who rose from the dead. Before this time and up to the time that Christ came, lived, died and rose again, people looked ahead to when he would be born. Now Christ had been born, lived, suffered and died and rose again. This was the message that Paul proclaimed. This was the power of God’s word that worked faith in the hearts of these believers at Thessalonica. Paul was thankful for them. Paul reminded them not to give up that faith. God loved them and called them and made them holy by the Holy Spirit.
God led them into all truth. These believers were going to be attacked by evil ones: those who stood opposed to God’s Word and those who would introduce heresies into their Christian church. In verse 15: "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." Of course, some of them heard Paul preach and some had read Paul’s letter or heard it read to them. He says to hold fast to those teachings: Christ lived, died and rose again; and, to hold fast to those teachings that they were saved by grace and grace alone. Then if that were not enough, he finishes this section in chapter 2 reminding them that they would be able to stand firm, not because of the strength that was within themselves. They were going to be able to stand firm, not because of the strength of someone else. But they were going to be able to stand firm and hold fast to the teachings by the strength and power of God himself. "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope." All of this is an introduction to his prayer and blessing at the end. Paul is saying: "Remember God loved us. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for us. Remember the One who gave you eternal hope and divine encouragement." "Now may they both encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." Paul was getting back to his first thought, wasn’t he? He was saying that God chose you to be saved. Paul reminded them once again that they did not choose for themselves the path of eternal life. It is impossible, because they were born in the world sinners and as the very enemies of God.
It is the same for us. God chose us to be saved. We, like everybody else in this world, are born as enemies of God. We are born into this world with hearts darkened by sin. With hearts darkened by sin there can only be one result--lives filled with sin. In the midst of a sin-darkened heart and a sin-filled life, God chooses us to be saved. That is God’s grace: His undeserved love for us that he saves us -- in spite of our sins and ourselves. God loves us in spite of our lovelessness. Paul also wrote to Timothy: "God has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time" (2 Timothy 1:9). God chose us even before we were born. Paul says even before we would recollect time, God chose us to be saved. The only thing we have left to do is stand firm in God’s teachings. We can’t decide to be saved because God has made that choice and decision for us.
Now we can decide to stay in the faith God has given us and the love Jesus has shown us by standing firm in God’s teachings. This is still a challenge in our life, in this day and age, in our generation. Almost 2,000 years ago Paul wrote this letter, and he said there would be wicked times and evil men. The church is going to be under attack. We have progressed farther down the timeline toward the end of the world, Judgment Day. Christianity today is still under attack. The teachings of God and his word are still under attack. We could think of a long list of those things that have been tossed out by our society as no longer sin or even offensive. Even those things that according to common sense don’t seem to be right have been cast aside. A few examples--we have big decisions and votes in state after state concerning accepting same-sex marriage. We have votes and big decisions in Supreme Courts concerning putting unborn children to death. Those seem to be easy common-sense decisions. But our society has twisted them around. God makes it clear, and people are not willing to believe in common sense concerning the natural order of things or life’s value. How much less is the world inclined to believe when God tells them what is right and wrong. God says sin is still sin. Therefore God has chosen you to be saved to show the glory of God. We show the glory of God when we stand firm in God’s teachings. We honor God by hearing his word, because faith comes by hearing. We honor God by believing God’s word and not what the world’s words. In 2 Peter: "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16). Peter saw the majesty and the glory of Christ after he came back to life. We have seen the majesty in the glory of Christ in the revelation of his word to us. We also are eyewitnesses to his majesty. You may remember at the time of Jesus’ resurrection the lie that was spread around by the Roman government. The Roman soldiers were told to be sure and tell everybody that the disciples came and stole the body of Christ. They didn’t want it known that Christ had been raised from the dead by his own power, by the power of his heavenly Father. Still today, there are those who shy back from that truth that Christ has been raised from the dead. We are reminded here it is not a myth or cleverly invented story. The resurrection of Jesus is the truth, the very foundation and teaching of our Christian faith.
How do we hold fast to God’s teaching? The same way we do anything in this life. If we want to fix a piece of our machinery, we get out the owner’s manual. If we want to fix our car, we almost have to check the owner’s manual to fix a flat tire nowadays. We study that and we learn about it. How do we hold fast to God’s teaching? Get out the instruction manual--God’s word. We can read the Bible and we study it. There we find that there are no mistakes in all Scripture. In it there are no lies, in it there are no fables or myths. God’s word is the truth. In Psalm 119, the long Psalm right in the middle of the Bible talks about God’s Word and describes it in all different ways and repeats the description of it over and over. The Psalm writer says: "Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD, do not let me be put to shame" (Psalm 119:29-31). We have the synonyms: laws and statutes, meaning God’s word. As we hold fast to them we are not put to shame.
When we hold fast to the word of God and stand firm in God’s teachings, we are reminded very clearly how God chose us to be saved. God chose us to be saved so that we can enjoy this life on the firm footing of God’s word and in the power of his salvation. With that background Paul now says we can pray and ought to pray with faithful confidence.
II. PRAY WITH FAITHFUL CONFIDENCE
Paul was encouraged that these believers were still believers in the congregation at Thessalonica. This city was a metropolis with lots of false gods and religions and lots of things for people to do besides going to the synagogue on the Sabbath Day. Yet, after Paul had preached there, the Gospel took effect. After he left, the Gospel continued to grow. Paul was encouraged, and now he asks for their mutual support: "Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you." He says, "Pray for us as we still continue on the missionary journeys that God’s word would be spread and honored, just as it was with you." What a blessing and joy for Paul to see that these believers still honored God’s word. God’s word still grew among them as they gathered together for worship.
Paul also knew that not everybody was going to appreciate the Gospel preaching, the message of salvation. So Paul adds, "Pray for us, brothers." Paul tells why: "Pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith." This is after Paul’s second missionary journey. His first missionary journey he was kicked out of almost every synagogue he went to, because he preached that Christ had been raised from the dead. Before he went on any missionary journeys, when he preached in Damascus for the first time, he had to be let over the wall at night to escape his enemies. When he went back to Jerusalem, the Jews did not want to hear about Christ raised from the dead. Paul was forced to leave and go back to his hometown. So Paul knew they were wicked and evil men. The original has unreasonable men; they have nothing to do with what is right. Paul faced such unreasonable men both outside the church and inside the church because of his Gospel preaching. So Paul is asking for their prayers and Paul will pray for them. Paul knew they were wicked and evil men because not everyone has faith. In the next breath he says: "But God is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you…."
Paul writes: "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." Satan would come and attack the Lord’s church but the Lord himself would strengthen and protect them. There would be false teachings and misunderstanding of Paul’s preaching. The blessing here is that Paul didn’t just say, "Pray for me and I will pray for you." He doesn’t say that. Our text says: "We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command." Paul was confident that as he asked for their prayers, they would pray and continue to pray just as he would continue to pray for them and all the other saints. If that were not enough, he adds this blessing at the end of this section in verse 5: "May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance." Paul didn’t want these believers to look to their own strength, but to look at God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. It was God’s love that sent his Son to die for their sins. It was Christ’s perseverance that brought him to this earth and caused him to die on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.
Confidence and boldness is ours. Even though we as Christians and believers like Paul and these people of Thessalonica realize in all humility we do not deserve to be chosen or to be saved. But the Lord has done that. So, now because God has chosen us to be saved and called us to share in the inheritance, he strengthens us and encourages us in our faith. Yes, we do come before the throne of grace in humility realizing we don’t deserve to come. But we also come before God’s throne of faith with boldness and confidence knowing that he invites each and everyone of us to pray to him. We come in boldness and confidence, not only knowing that he asks us to come and pray to him, but knowing that he promises to hear us. Our heavenly Father also clearly guarantees an answer to all of our prayers. The writer to the letter to the Hebrews says: "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). We get back to that word grace again, don’t we? We may not always really, truly need all the physical things that we think we need and for which we pray. But we always need to understand God’s grace. We always need to remind ourselves of God’s great love for us. We come to God’s throne and he gives us grace!
As we talked about last week, we mention it again this week to pray for others. We have the example here. Paul was always praying for the other saints. It took him a long time to pray for the saints, because there were four missionary journeys with 20 plus congregations that began. So he knew lots of believers. It would take him a long time to pray for all of them, but he did. In boldness and confidence he comes and asks them to pray for him. Pray for those things that are truly important. We also have an example of one of Paul’s prayers from Ephesians: "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe" (Ephesians 1:18,19a). This is a good prayer because it is from Scripture, and a great prayer for us to remember. We can pray for the Lord to open up our eyes to see the riches that are in store for us in heaven. We can pray for the Lord to open up our eyes to understand that heaven is our inheritance. He has guaranteed it and provided heaven for us through the blood of Jesus, his Son, our Savior. Then we pray for strength and courage. The shortcoming of our society today is that many of the things that we see on TV or hear on the radio or read in the paper are meant to rob us of courage. The underlying purpose of the media and news sources, whether they want to admit it or not, is to strike fear in the hearts of men. Then people have to turn to them. There is always some new fear on the horizon. For a time people are worried about that new fear, whether it is mad cow disease, bird flu or global warming; and the list does not stop. There is always something new. So there are many in this world that live lives of fear, go to work, come home at night and lock themselves in their houses hoping nothing bad happens.
The Lord says now you and I as believers have boldness and confidence, because we stand confidently on the truth of God’s teachings. Then we can pray with faithful confidence knowing that God has everything under control, even though we do not know the future. God has everything under control and says that he will return on the Last Day and take his people to heaven. What more can we ask for? We have the present and the future. We pray for boldness in our journey into the future. In 1 John: "And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming" (1 John 2:28). Notice how John uses the words, "dear children." God calls us his children. See how much God loves us. God has chosen you to be saved and share in the inheritance in heaven. God has given you the insight to know the glory of the Gospel of Christ: sins forgiven.
We have truly been set free from the fear of death, the power of Satan, and the grip of sin. God chose you to be saved. There are lots of frightening things in this world that the world would make seem even more frightening. God takes all those frightening things and says to us, "God chose you to be saved." This truth gives us boldness and confidence to come before his throne of grace and to always stand firm on God’s word of truth. As Peter writes: "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever" (1 Peter 5:10,11). And we agree! Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on
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Saints Triumphant / End Time 3 readings:
DANIEL 12:1-3; HEBREWS 10:11-18; JOHN 5:25-29
