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Paul Asks Prayer For the Word to go out and Rescue from Evil 2 Thess. 3:1 - 5 Pt. 2

December 11, 2022 Speaker: Jim Galli Series: 2 Thessalonians

Topic: Sunday AM Passage: 2 Thessalonians 3:1–5

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­­­­LSB 2 Thessalonians 3:1 - 5

1 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; 2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, who will strengthen and guard you from the evil one. 4 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. 5 And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. .

First let me say thank you from Pam and myself for allowing us to have a Sunday off over thanksgiving holiday. We got to spend it with our kiddo's in The Dalles on Columbia river and in Scotts Mills north and east of Salem, and we had a fine time which included brief visits also with our children who live in Sparks, both going and coming home again. Those visits are important.

This morning we look again to a passage that we began before the holiday together. And by way of reminder to get us back up to speed, Paul here asks the Thessalonian christians to pray for him. But not for his needs or well being, but he asks them to pray that the Word of God delivered through Paul and those with him will have an effect independent of the speaker.

Paul understands that the logos, the Word of God has power to effect God's purposes independent of the speaker. It is the very words of God that causes increase in the Kingdom of God and decrease in the kingdom of Satan. The speaker doesn't matter, the words matter, and as in creation itself, the Word of God actually makes things happen.

When the Word of God quickens dead men to life and forgives their sins through faith in the completed work of Christ on the cross and they are transferred from death to life, Satan's kingdom to God's kingdom, God is glorified.

Paul reminds them that is what transpired when he walked into Thessalonica. It was the Word of God spoken by Paul that turned the world upside down, both there in Thessalonica and everywhere else that Paul had already been and was hoping to get to.

And not just Paul. Anyone can take that message and the very words will cause action and reaction, both positive and negative.

Paul said as much to the Romans too. From Romans, the tenth chapter;

13 for “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things!” 16 However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Ro. 10:13 - 17

The words accomplish God's will, God's desire, God's good pleasure, God's purposes. But the words require a vehicle. A speaker. “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things!”

Paul was quoting from the scroll of Isaiah. Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

God uses men to proclaim, and we made rather a fuss about the fact that the talent and charisma of the speaker really don't add anything. The Words are what accomplishes salvation and growth to maturity, not the talent and charismatic good looks of the speaker. In fact sometimes those other things get in the way.

Billy Graham had Hollywood good looks and dressed like the models in GQ magazine but in heaven we'll find out that only the folks who heard the words and the Holy Spirit truly saved them will be there from all of those crusades.

But we would also remind you that the Word of God is a two edged sword. It saves some and it slashes others to pieces. And thus the second part of Pauls request;

2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith.

What happens when the Word of God cuts and slashes perverse and evil men who have neither faith nor fear of any God? When God's words precisely state that what men love to do is evil? When the book defines activities that men love as sin?

It's pretty simple. Evil fights back. Evil goes to war against God and His word, which is impossible to change or win, but then evil takes the war to the people who belong to the God of the book.

This week, our governing authorities who we are to respect and obey, that's our default according to our own book, declared that marriage is no longer bound to the design and clear teachings of God in His book.

The United States of America stated, God is wrong, His design is wrong, His book is wrong and we are going to set ourselves above God and fix it. If you think that isn't what happened, think again.

We have marriage according to the United States Congress and for now the Supreme Court and the President are all unanimous. Marriage according to the United States vss. marriage as clearly defined by God the Creator who owns everything.

The two definitions are in clear conflict with each other. Either God is right and the United States is wrong, or vice versa. Who will win the conflict?

Well, we know who will win the conflict, but the mess in the middle is worrisome to put it mildly. Paul faced identical dilemma's. That's exactly why he asked the Thessalonians to pray; 2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith.

Evil people who hate God and His book, and His rules, ultimately can't get at God, but they can get at His people. It was messy for Paul. I read you his resume last time we met. Beatings without number. He'd lost track of how many times he was beaten to a pulp.

It was interesting that just a few days ago service was refused to a group of christians who promote God's definition of marriage at a restaurant in Virginia precisely for that reason. They promote biblical marriage between one man and one woman for life. Turned away at a restaurant. Service refused.

Christians came to this land in order to get away from that exact problem. They sought a refuge from evil and perverse men. And they built a society that tolerated different ideas. We from the first wanted a society where pluralism could express different and opposing ideas without fear of recourse and consequences.

And compared to other places on the earth we had a cake walk here for 250 years. It was a unique period in all of 2000 years of christendom. For 250 years it has been easy, and christians didn't have to think much about when to obey the government and when they might be required to actually dis-obey their rulers.

That was because our government recognized it had a lane in civil matters where it needed to weild authority for the protection of it's people, and that lane was seperate from the church's authority in moral matters given to it by the authority of God's revealed truth. We stayed in our lane and the government stayed in their lane and it was pretty easy.

Last week the government usurped moral authority in stating what is and isn't marriage in direct and clear opposition to the crystal clear design and teaching of God's authoritative revealed truth. United States vss. God.

How will the latest mischief affect the church? It's too soon to tell, they haven't taken over my bank balance or taken my property yet. But it was telling that the Mormon Church and much of the more progressive liberal thinking churches who claim to be evangelical actually supported the bill.

The moral majority has evaporated. We take our moral temperature quite often in this land. It's called voting. And we can observe readily that folk who will hold to the teachings of this book as authoritative and God breathed are now so diminished as to be a laughable minority. Soon to be a wacko fringe.

And that will only be for about 5 minutes and then those folks will be considered as dangerous people who only bring harm. Dangerous outcasts not at all unlike how the Nazi's painted the jews.

Why am I going here this morning? Is this really a necessary conversation? Well, in fact it was quite normative to Paul in the first century AD. Paul said pray that God's word will have it's effect. And pray for us when that happens. Because whenever that happens, we get beat to a pulp. Times without number.

1 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; 2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith.

It's formulaic. The word advances into Satans realms and takes territory away from Satan in advance of God's kingdom, and for His glory, and we get beat up. Pray for the word to advance and pray for our rescue when it does.

That request is as basic as the prayer that the Lord commanded His disciples to pray. The Lord's prayer is an echo of what Paul just asked the Thessalonians to pray for. Jesus taught;

9 “Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done On earth
as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’] Matt. 6:9-13

Lead us not into testing, but deliver us from the evil one. Is there an echo in the room? That's what Paul just asked the Thessalonians to pray for him. It is a prayer for the kingdom, the authority of God to reign on earth, to advance, and when it does, a prayer for needed sustenance and deliverance from evil.

1 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; 2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith.

The Lord's prayer is designed to be prayed by people who are divorced from this world and it's culture and who are consequently completely reliant upon God's provision and protection. Right down to and including the very bread necessary to survive another day. Pretty foreign to us. But, I remind you again, our nation just declared war on God and claimed higher moral authority than Him.

Paul's prayer request seems odd to us. We're doing very little to advance God's agenda, His kingdom, His authority to reign as opposed to Satan, in this world. We're experiencing little or zero opposition. We're merely trying to live comfortable lives in a land that was for 200+ years very user friendly to God's stated morality. We don't need to identify with Paul's request or subsequent need of rescue. Totally foreign to our experience.

I've got two observations to make about what I just stated. Shame on us. And; Fasten your seatbelts.

Paul's request has been normative for true christians for 2000 years. The United States was a curious anomaly in non stop beatings and persecutions by perverse and evil men. We're either about to join that normative group, or, like the mormons and liberal christians, we'll have to make deals with the devil in order to try to prolong the anomaly.

That's our introduction. Paul shifts gears after vs. 2. Slightly. He shifts his emphasis from prayer for his rescue and survival in a hostile world that Satan rules, to us. What can we expect in that world. How do we survive normative christianity in a hostile Satan controlled world?

3 But the Lord is faithful, who will strengthen and guard you from the evil one.

Is there comfort there for us? The chicken hearted? The fearful who will perhaps for the first time need to bravely and boldly embrace persecution? Yes. Yes there is.

Is it the comfort my greedy heart desires? Something like, Please God, can I just live a quiet dignified life unperturbed. Can I enjoy my fire place and can my retirement savings not run out before my time does, and can I please be healthy and secure and at ease.

I don't see any of that in verse 3. 3 But the Lord is faithful, who will strengthen and guard you from the evil one.

The Lord is faithful. What guarantee is that? For me? Well, I see sovereignty in that verse. God is God. He is Lord. Of everything. And He is faithful. What does that mean. He's sovereign. He loves me. And His book says; If God is for us, who can be against us. Ro. 8:31

We win. God wins, and we are His. Ultimately, we win. But we should remind ourselves that christians have died at the hands of evil and perverse men for 20 centuries.

Jesus said; Luke 21: 18 Yet not a hair of your head will perish. (a sigh of relief) but that was verse 18 and vss 16 and 17 say; 16 But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, 17 and you will be hated by all because of My name. 18 Yet not a hair of your head will perish. Luke 21:16-18

Not a hair of your head will perish without my sovereign permission and protection.

I already mentioned Romans 8:31. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? But I didn't mention vs. 36 in the same paragraph, same discussion. 36 Just as it is written,
“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were counted as sheep for the slaughter.”

We cherry pick the part we want to hear and ignore the part we don't want to hear. God's sovereign purpose has allowed christians to die for His name for His glory for 2000 years. Buyers Beware. Trusting Jesus can be deadly. But only in this world . . .

Not a hair will perish until God allows it. For His ultimate purposes and His magnificent glory. God is faithful to protect me in regard to the promises of eternal life with Him in glory. Down here, in Satan's kingdom, all bets are off. The only guarantee is God's love, God's ultimate salvation, and God's sovereign will toward His purposes and glory.

This world can kill me, and it might, but I'll be back, in a glorified body, with Jesus who will depose the current ruler of this world and set up His glorious kingdom. And we will rule with Him, for a thousand years, on this earth, and then we will be with Him when He destroys this world and creates a new heaven and a new earth.

That's God's agenda, and I have a secure place in it. What happens here and now is only consequential in whatever eternal things His word accomplishes through me. The other stuff I wished for is actually kind of lame when you consider the big picture. We win. Bigtime. No matter what Satan brings and God allows in the current fight.

There's actually more hope in vs. 3. God is sovereign. God is faithful. who will strengthen and guard you from the evil one.

Two more promises for us chicken hearted fearful folk. God will strengthen me in the moment. You read Foxe's Book of Martyrs and you'll find story after story of ordinary people who faced evil and perverse men and persevered unto death with extraordinary faith that God supplied for them in the moment.

Paul was one of them. So was Peter and virtually all of the other apostles except perhaps John who may have succombed to old age in exile, alone, on the isle of Patmos.

The promise isn't that you won't perish, it is for the strength you'll need to perish, if that's what God requires.

The second promise in vs. 3 is for endurance in your salvation. God is faithful. who will strengthen and guard you from the evil one. We are kept. By God. Guarded. Protected from the evil one. This is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. God causes us to persevere.

Satan wants me. He can't have me. I belong to God. Satan can't touch a hair on my head without permission from God who owns me and keeps me and protects me until the day I exit this world and see Him face to face.

Satan can sift us in the sifter, but we are wheat. We won't blow away with the chaff if we belong to God. And those of us who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, have that promise. In the day, in the hour, God will strengthen us and He will guard us. Keep us. Protect us.

There is a clear delineation here of the physical life and the spiritual life. God protects my salvation, my oneness, my spiritual connection to Jesus. That relationship is gaurded for eternity. However, if it please God's purposes for His glory, my physical life in the here and now can be taken. But even that, only according to God's sovereign good will and purposes.

Peter says it this way. Same idea, same promise; 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

The next verse, Vs. 4 is most appropriate in a week where we've watched as many who claim to be christians made deals with the devil to align themselves with a bill that claims the United States has moral authority greater than the Creator of all things.

4 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command.

Faithfulness to sound doctrine. Faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus.
Oops. Oopsie. Ouch. You mean we can't make deals with the culture. Bend the book a little bit. Find a 3rd way. Make a deal with the devil so the culture won't be offended by God's book. Bend a little and compromise and make a little deal so the world won't hate and persecute us?

Paul knew very well that in the face of hatred and rejection and persecution and losing everything, our default is to try to compromise somehow. Accomodate the culture.

And honestly, even the faithful true church has tried to do that in America. Pluralism. We've embraced pluralism. Perhaps to a fault. Definitely to a fault. Hey, you want to be an abomination to God, a stench in His nostrils, knock yourself out. I believe in the free will of mankind to sin. You're free to sin.

The church has already been too silent. I'm guilty. It's like we took a lesson from John the baptist. Tell Herod he can't have his brother's wife. Go to jail. Get your head chopped off. Maybe we just won't bother Herod. Leave sleeping dogs lie. After all we believe in pluralism. Live and let live. Do we really have to stir up a hornets nest and get stung to death?

Paul said he was confident these folks would continue in what he had commanded. What exactly did Paul command? Well, to begin with, it was Jesus command that Paul was following. In the great commission in Matthew 28 Jesus says;

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt. 28:18b-20

What did Jesus command? The whole book. All of it. In the sermon on the mount Jesus says;

17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Not one jot or tittle removed from the complete revelation of God. That's what Jesus commanded and that's what Paul commanded and that's what we will hold on to for dear life. Every jot and tittle is God breathed and authoritative over men. Every word.

4 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command.

This verse speaks of faithfulness to God's revelation both in ease and in difficulty. All we've ever known was the ease. The word continue to do the commands is the key in that verse.

But there's a second word in that verse that speaks volumes. Paul says he has confidence in them. He basically says, I'm not worried about you folks as to whether you'll do the right thing or not. Where does his confidence come from?

He had confidence based on their fruitfulness and tenacity in the face of difficulty. Paul is confident because it is obvious that these folks are elect. Chosen by God. They're the real thing.

In his first letter immediately after his greeting in 1Th 1 vs. 2 Paul says this;

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father, 4 knowing, brothers beloved by God, your election, 5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance;

That is the evidence that inspires confidence. Power and love and fruit in the Holy Spirit to effect eternal consequences. Paul can say I'm confident that you're going to continue in your obedience to the Lord's commands because I've witnessed tangible evidence of your real faith. Real christians will continue in the truth in tough times as well as in ease.

I don't have this same confidence in the christianity I see in our land. What I see is a perfect storm approaching people who are at ease, who have always been at ease, and who think the whole purpose of God is to find them a good parking spot at the mall.

5 And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. .

Obedience to sound doctrine in difficult times brings the heat of God's love. The flip side of that is patently obvious. Disobedience brings spritual death

What does the sign say out in front of this old stone building? St. Marks Episcopal church. You can go back in history during the reformers and read the doctrine of the Anglican church and you'll find that it is rock solid.

That book of common prayer that is sometimes in the pews is used to this day. Mostly doctrinally sound. But in the early modern era, actually in the industrial revolution, the main line denominations in our land began to back away from the book.

They said the church cannot survive the modern world as it is. No modern person who can push a button and have a lightbulb light up a room is going to believe that a donkey spoke to Balaam in the book of Numbers chapter 22. And that same thing is true of all of the miracles. Moderns won't believe Jesus could speak to the wind and make it hush. We have science now for heavens sake.

So they went about demythologizing the bible. Liberal christianity. Not to be confused with political liberals. Liberal christians wanted to liberate the bible of it's miracles for it's own good. Update christianity for modern times. And the power left. And the people left. Dead christianity.

Vs 4 and vs 5 have a direct connection.

4 And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. 5 And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. .

It's the church that continues in sound doctrine, even in the midst of difficulty that experiences the Love of God and the steadfastness of communion with Christ. Obedience to the Word of God is what brings the heat of love and the motivation for steadfastness.

In John chapter 8 Jesus said; “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The heat of love, the knowing, intimately, comes from continuing in obedience, in difficult times.

When the church departs from the word, Christ departs from the church. It's as simple as that.

Webster's dictionary has chosen the word of the year as it does every year. They single out a single word each year that they say has generated more query's than all others for word of the year.

In 2020 the word was pandemic. No surprise there. In 2021 the word was vaccine. Also no surprise.

In 2022 the word is gaslighting. What does gaslighting mean. We've had the word for a long time.

In 1938 a play was written about a man who wants to convince his wife that she has gone mad. He does it by installing a device that makes the gas lights in their house go brighter and dimmer.

She keeps wondering why she is seeing the lights go brighter and dimmer and the husband denies that they are. Eventually he convinces her that what she thinks she's seeing is only in her mind, it isn't reality, and therefore she is insane. Gaslighting.

If you believe we had a pandemic, by real definitions of a pandemic, you were gaslighted.

If you believe the vaccine's did more good than harm, you may have been gaslighted. Maybe not.

If you have the Disney channel in your home and you find that incrementally you have found yourself to be more accepting that sodomy in all of it's forms is somehow not only normative but the folks who engage in it are all charming lovely people who are not doing anything sinful, just living their normative lives, you have been gaslighted by Disney.

They don't make any bones about it. They have clearly stated that their objective is to incrementally make LGBTQ+ people more acceptable and to promote inclusiveness for every progressive agenda that embraces those life styles. Disney see's that as their own personal agenda.

If you think that I am mean and hateful of those folks by clearly teaching and warning what God has said in His revealed word about those choices, chances are you've been gaslighted. By Disney. By Corporate America. By Joe Biden. By a majority in congress. By the entire media. By Satan's cosmos.

Gaslighting is a real phenomenon. How do we avoid it? Well it turns out the only real source of true truth the world has is the book in your hands. Absolute benchmark truth. Those truths should flow in our veins. The most loving thing anyone can do is teach these doctrines that warn of God's wrath against this and every other sin.