Jesus was the giver of double blessings

JESUS WAS THE GIVER OF DOUBLE BLESSINGS
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
2 Thessalonians2:16-1716
May our LORD Jesus
Christhimself and God our Father, who loved us and
by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good
hope, 17
encourageyour hearts and strengthen you in
every good deed and word.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
A COMPREHENSIVE BENEDICTION NO. 3179
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1910.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,AT THE METROPOLITAN
TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, who has
loved us, and has given us everlasting consolationandgoodhope through
grace, comfortyour hearts, and establish you in every goodword and work.”
2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17.

[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon the same text, are Sermons, #1542,
Volume 26— FREE GRACE A MOTIVE FOR FREE GIVING; #2363,
Volume 40—COMFORT AND CONSTANCYand #2991, Volume 52—
WHAT WE HAVE, AND ARE TO HAVE—— Read/downloadallthe
sermons, free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.]
ALL through his epistles, Paulis continually expressing his best wishes for
the friends to whom he writes. The Christian should be a well-wisherto all
men. No cursing should evercome out of his mouth, but his lips should always
distil blessings evenupon his enemies—andmuch more upon his friends.
Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, it should be a part of our religion to be
desiring the bestof blessings forour fellow men. As the high priest of old
blessedthe people, so should those whom God has made to be priests and
kings unto Himself—a privilege that pertains to all saints—exercisethe
function of blessing the people by desiring goodthings for them! The blessing
invoked in the text is very comprehensive, but although there is much to
crave, there is much more to acknowledge withgratitude. Blessings already
securedin the covenantare the foundation of a rich expectancyfor the supply
of all our present needs. We may reasonablyhope that God will do in the
future what He has done in the past. Hence the apostle speaks veryplainly of
what God the Fatherand our Lord Jesus Christ have alreadybestowed—and
then he couples therewith the kindest wishes as to the future of his friends at
Thessalonica. With as much brevity as possible, I shall first speak onthat
part of the text which contains two positive facts. And then upon that part of
it which expresses two holy desires. I. The 16thverse contains A VERY
CLEAR STATEMENTOF THE TWO POSITIVE FACTS. Paul, writing
concerning believers in Christ at Thessalonica andeverywhere else, says,
“Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, who has
loved us and has given us everlasting consolationand goodhope through
grace.” Fromthis we gatherthat every true believer—everyone who rests
upon Christ and is savedthrough the effectual working of the Holy Spirit—is,
at the present moment, first of all, the objectof the love of God—”who has
loved us.” So, my friends, Paul does not speak of God as though we were
strangers to Him and He is a strangerto us, but he says, “who has loved us.”
Concerning this matter, he does not speak as one who was in doubt—with

mingled hope and fear— but he says positively, “Our Lord Jesus Christ,
Himself, and God, even our Father, who has loved us.” He is quite sure of it!
He is certainthat these people to whom he is writing, and all believers in
Jesus, are the objects of divine love! Will you turn that truth of God overin
your minds, dear friends, making a personal applicationof it at this moment?
If you are now trusting in Jesus Christ, God loves you! That He should think
of you is something! That He should pity you is more. That He should bear
with you and have patience with you is no small thing—but think of God
loving you! That infinite being whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain,
whose years are eternal, whose existence knowsno limit nor shadow of a
change—He loves you and yet you are, compared with Him, nothing—yes, less
than nothing and vanity! Could you conceive ofan angelloving an ant? Could
you imagine one of the seraphs being in love with the gnat which dances in the
sunbeam? It would be wonderful condescensionfor the august spirits to love
such insignificant creatures, yet it would be only one creature loving another
creature!And betweenone
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2 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 56
creature and another, the distance cannot be as greatas betweenthe Creator
and the createdone! That God, the eternal, infinite, almighty I AM, should
actually condescendto love us, who are but as worms compared with Him and
who are but as things of yesterday, soongone, oh, ‘tis strange, ‘tis passing
strange, ‘tis amazing! Yet though it exceeds marvel, it does not, thank God,
exceedbelief! But were it not that God has, Himself, revealedit, we might
have cause enoughto suppose it to be impossible that the Lord Jesus Christ
and God, even our Father, should have loved us! Being spokenof in the past
tense, I infer that the love which God has for believers is no novelty. He did
not commence to love them yesterday. Brothers and sisters, we believe that as
many as have been calledby grace have been the objects of a love that never
knew a beginning! Long before the stars were lit, or the sun’s refulgent ray
had pierced through primeval shade, the heart of deity had fixed itself upon
the chosen!The prescienteyes of Godhad seenthem when as yet they were
not—and in His book all their names were written, which in continuance were

fashionedwhen as yet there were none of them! They were not merely
foreknown, but they were fore-loved! They were the favorites of His heart, the
dear ones of His choice. He “has loved us.” Fly back as far as you will—till
time has not begun, the work of creationis not accomplishedand God dwells
alone—itwas still true of all believers, even then, that “God, evenour Father,
has loved us.” Is it not marvelous that we should have been the objects of a
love that has been so constant? For, as there never was any beginning to it, so
there never has been a period in which that love has growndim towards those
who were the objects of it! The river of God’s love has gone flowing on in one
undiminished streameven until now! He “has loved us.” He loved us when
our father Adam plunged us into the ruins of the Fall. He loved us when He
spoke the first promise in the Gardenof Eden, that the seedof the woman
would bruise the serpent’s head. He loved us all through the prophetic days
when He was writing the book of love upon which our delighted eyes were
afterwards to gaze. He loved us when He sent His Son, His only Son, to live
our life and to die our death! He loved us when He exaltedthat Son of His to
His own right hand—and in His person exalted us there, too, and made us to
sit in heavenly places togetherwith Him. He loved us when we were little
children, in the weaknessofinfancy hanging upon our mother’s breasts. He
loved us when, in the follies of our youth, we seemeddetermined to destroy
ourselves while He was determined that we should be saved. He loved us when
we loved not Him. He drew us with the cords of a man and with the bands of
love—and now, even at this day—we can, eachone of us, look up to Him and
say, “Abba! Father! You are mine and I am Yours by the Spirit of adoption.”
Yes, we can saythis! We canlook back all along our past lives and right
beyond our birth into eternity past, and we can thank Him that we can truly
say, “God, even our Father, has loved us.” Now, my dear brothers and sisters
in Christ, you must not be satisfiedunless you can speak about God’s love to
you in the same positive terms as those which were used by the Apostle Paul.
Neverrest contented if you do not know that God loves you! Give no sleepto
your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids until, by a living faith, you have been
able to read your title clearto this love of God! It may be that you have lost
the sensible presence ofthat love—thenask for divine grace to searchuntil
you find it again. You may be savedand yet you may not be happy, but you
ought never be content unless you are certainthat you are saved—andthen

such certainty will infallibly bring you peace and joy. If now your full
assurance has departedand your faith is under a cloud, come and knock
againat mercy’s door and cling to the posts thereof, looking up at the
crucified one. Turn your tearful eyes to Calvary, trusting afresh to Him whose
wounds will give you healing and in the crimson lines of whose agoniesyou
must read your acceptance. Go there, I say, and be not content till you can say
with Paul, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even our Father, has
loved us.” This is the first positive fact which is here mentioned. There is
another fact which is equally positive—”andhas given us everlasting
consolationand goodhope through grace.”It is absolutely certain that God
has given His people this double blessing. What a delightful blessing this is,
“everlasting consolation”!There is music in the word, “consolation.”
Barnabas was called“the son of consolation.” No, more than that, it is the
name of one who is far greaterthan Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is called
“the ConsolationofIsrael.” But God is here said to have given this blessing to
His people in a very specialform—”everlasting consolation.”A man goes to
work to make money and, after toiling hard for it, he gets it and it is a
consolationto him. But it is not an
Sermon #3179 AComprehensive Benediction3
Volume 56 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 3
everlasting consolation, forhe may spend or he may lose all his money. He
may invest it in some company (limited or unlimited), and very soonfind it
vanish! Or he may be compelledby death to leave it. It cannot be, at the best,
more than a temporary consolation. A man toils hard for knowledge. He
acquires it. He becomes eminent, his name is famous. This is a consolationto
him for all his toil, but it cannot last long, for when he comes to feelthe
headache or the heartache, his degrees and his fame cannot cheerhim. Or
when his soul becomes a prey to despondency, he may turn over many a
learned tome before he will find a cure for melancholy. His consolationis but
frail and fickle—itwill only serve to cheerhim at intermittent seasons—itis
not “everlasting consolation.”ButI venture to say that through the

consolationwhichGod gives to His people, they are unsurpassedfor their
endurance! They can stand all tests—the shock oftrial, the bursting out of
passion, the lapse of years—no, more—they caneven endure the passageto
eternity, for God has given to His people “everlasting consolation.” What is
this “everlasting consolation”? It includes a sense ofpardoned sin. A
Christian, when his heart is right, knows that God has pardoned his sins, that
He has castthem behind His back, and that they will never be mentioned
againsthim again. He has receivedin his heart the witness of the Spirit that
God has blotted out, as a thick cloud, his transgressions and, as a cloud, his
sins. Well, if sin is pardoned, is not that a consolation? Yes, and an everlasting
consolation, too—onethat will do to live with and that will do to die with—
and that will do to rise againwith! Oh, joy! My sins are pardoned! Now do
what You will with me, my God! As my sins are put away, You have given me
“everlasting consolation.” This “everlasting consolation”also gives an
abiding sense ofacceptancein Christ. The Christian knows that God looks
upon him as he is in Christ and, inasmuch as God put Christ into his place,
and punished Christ for his sin, He now puts the believer into Christ’s place
and rewards that believer with His love just as if he had been obedient unto
death, as Christ was!It is a blessedthing to know that God accepts us and to
be able to sing, with Hart— “With my Savior’s garments on, Holy as the Holy
One”— and this is a consolationwhich is abiding. It is, in fact, everlasting!
Now let sickness come—theconsolationstill abides. Have we not seen
hundreds of believers as happy in the weaknessofdisease as they would have
been in the strength of hale and vigorous health? Let death come—the
consolationstill remains. Have not these ears often heard the songs of dying
saints as they have rejoicedbecause the love of God was shed abroadin their
hearts by the Holy Spirit? Yes, a sense ofacceptancein the Belovedis an
“everlasting consolation.” Moreover, the Christian has a convictionof his
security in Christ. God has promised to save all those who trust in Jesus. The
Christian does trust in Him and he believes that God will be as goodas His
word and will save him. He feels, therefore, that whatevermay occurin
providence, whateveronslaughts there may be of inward corruption, or of
outward temptation, he is safe by virtue of his union to Christ— is not this a
source of consolation?Why, some of you might freely give your eyes to know
that you are saved! It would be a goodbargain for men even to be lame or

maimed if they did but enter into life. The Christian knows that he is secure—
beneath the shield of the divine omnipotence he laughs at the rage of hell,
feeling that no fiery dart canever pierce that sacredprotection! Are you
rejoicing in this everlasting consolation? Ifnot, you should seriouslyquestion
whether you know what true religion means. Do you find that your losses
make you wretched? Do bereavements in your family make you murmur and
complain? Are you never happy? Does not joy ever come into your spirit? Do
you always hang your head like a bulrush? Have you no peace ofmind, no
sacredmirth? Do the bells of your heart never ring? Do the heartstrings of
your soul never sound out the music of grateful praise? Then gravely question
whether you canbe a child of God, for concerning the children of God it is
written, “God, even our Father, has given us everlasting consolation.” Iam
sure there are many here who, if they were to speak from experience, would
say, “Well, we are very poor, but we are rich in faith, and faith makes us rich
toward God. We have not anything to spare, yet surely goodness andmercy
have followedus all the days of our life. We are sick in body, yet our
afflictions are so sanctified that we rejoice in deep distress. We are ridiculed
and slanderedby the ungodly, but we rejoice that we are counted worthy to
suffer anything for Christ’s sake. Yes, Godhas
given us everlasting consolation!” John Bunyan said that the man who wears
the flower, “heart’s ease,”in his bosom need not envy a king! And that is a
flowerwhich the Christian always wears in his buttonhole—or if he does not
always wearit there, it is his own fault, for God has given it to him—He has
given unto us everlasting, unchanging, unfading, inexhaustible fountains of
consolation! Another thing which God has given us is “goodhope through
grace”—ahope, a goodhope—a “goodhope through grace.” Whatis the
Christian’s hope? It is a hope that he shall be preserved in this life by God’s
love and kindness. A hope that when he comes to die—for die he must unless
the Lord shall come first—he shall have all sufficient grace to be able to play
the man in the last solemn article. He has the hope that, after death, his soul,
outsoaring sun, moon and stars, shall enter into the realm of spirits and be

with Christ! He believes that the day shall come when his very body, though it
has become foodfor worms, shall be quickenedand calledby the voice of the
archangelfrom its bed of dust and its silent sleeping place. He believes that
those bones of his shall live againand that his soul and body shall be reunited
and that, when the Lord Jesus shallstand at the lastday upon the earth, in his
flesh he shall see God! So he sings with Toplady— “These eyes shallsee Him
in that day, The God that died for me! And all my rising bones shall say,
Lord, who is like unto Thee?” This is the Christian’s hope, that he shall then
live, world without end, in the perfectionof enjoyment! That he shall have all
spiritual joys in communion with Christ—and all joys that shall be suitable to
his new and spiritual body as he shall walk the goldenstreets and forever
praise the love which brought him into an existence of perfectbliss! This is the
Christian’s hope and, consequently, the thought of death does not alarm
him—rather, he looks forward to it with joy! As the toil worn laborer does not
dread the eventide when he shall put off his dusty robes, but longs for the
night that he may rest in his bed, so the Christian, when he is in his right
mind— “Longs for evening, to undress, Thathe may restwith God.” He is
willing to put off the cumbrous clay of his body and commit it to the purifying
earth, that he may, as a disembodied spirit, depart to be “with Christ, which is
far better,” expecting that, afterwards, body and soul togethershall be forever
gratified with Christ! This is the Christian’s hope and it is a goodhope. It is
goodfor what it brings us, but it is especiallygoodfor that upon which it is
grounded. The reasonwhy the Christian expects this eternal happiness is
because Godhas promised it to him and has given him an earnestof it. He has
heaven in his heart even now. That is to say, he has within him the beginning
of that life which shall, in due time, become the heavenly life. In olden times,
when men bought an estate, it was customary for the sellerto give to the
purchaser a tuft of grass anda leaf from one of the trees on the land,
signifying that the purchaserthen had what was calledseizin of the property,
and they were proofs that it belongedto him. And when God gives true faith
in Christ and enables a soul to have peace with God through the precious
blood, this is the earnestof heaven, a foretaste ofits bliss and sure evidence
that heaven is, indeed, ours. I trust that there are many of us who have this
earnestand feelcomforted by it. We have a goodhope because it is founded
upon God’s promise in His Word and upon the witness of the Spirit within

our heart that we are born of God! And it is saidto be a goodhope through
grace. Ah, friends, there is no goodhope except “through grace.” Youcannot
have a goodhope through merit. If anybody expects to have a goodhope
through baptism, he is very much mistaken! Baptism is simply the testimony
of a goodconsciencetowardGod— it cannot give any hope of heaven. If we
were to build upon such a foundation as baptism, confirmation, the Lord’s
Supper, or anything of the kind, we should be sad losers, forthere is nothing
in all these things put togetherto make a Christian’s hope! Normust we build
our hopes on our prayers or our tears, or on anything that we can do, for if so,
it will be a sandy foundation and when the time of trial comes, it will give way
under us. But to have a goodhope through divine grace—sucha hope as
this—that I, a poor unworthy sinner, have been invited by God to put my
trust in His dear Son, and that He has promised that if I do, I shall be saved!I
do trust in Jesus and, therefore, if God has promised truly, I shall be saved—
this is indeed a foundation on which I may build without fear! Is not this, my
brothers and sisters, the top and bottom of the Christian’s hope, that “Christ
Jesus came into the world to save
sinners,” and that whoeverbelieves in Him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life? You do believe in Him and, therefore, you can saythat you do
possesseternallife! I do solemnly declare that if I have ever at any time begun
to say in my own mind, “I shall be saved, for I have preached the gospel, I
have experiencedsuch and such enjoyments, I have drawn near to God in
secretprayer”—ifever I have talked to myself like that, I have soonbeen led
to see that if I had not something infinitely better than all that to trust to, I
would be resting on a broken reed. But, oh, to come to Jesus just as one came,
at the first, saying— “Nothing in my hands I bring— Simply to Your cross I
cling. Naked, come to You for dress. Helpless, look to You for grace. Foul, I
to the fountain fly— Washme, Savior, or I die!” This is, indeed, to have a
“goodhope through grace.” Now letus take these two statements, look at

them again, and then lay them up among our choicesttreasures.The one
statementis that God has loved us. O Christian friends, do try to drink in that
greattruth of God! Do not be satisfiedsimply to hear the words repeated, but
get them right into your very spirits—”Our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and
God, even our Father, has loved us.” O you angels, you have not even in
heaven a greaterjoy than this—to know that God has loved us! The other
statementis that God “has given us everlasting consolationandgoodhope
through grace.” So we cannotbe without consolation. Whateveryour trouble
may be, my dear Christian friend, though you may have lost your dearestone,
though your property may have melted as the snowflake melts into the sea, yet
God has given you eternalconsolation—andwhateveryou may have to fear
concerning the future, you have a hope that is broader than your fears!—
“This is the hope, the blissful hope, The hope by Jesus given! The hope when
days and years are past, We all shall meet in heaven!” As I turned this text
over, I could not help pitying those who have no hope, no goodhope through
divine grace. When I openedmy letters this afternoon, on coming back from
Liverpool, the first one I opened was to tell me of the death of one with whom
I spent a very happy day about a fortnight ago. He seemedto me to be in
perfect health when I spoke to him, then, but now he is gone to his eternal
rest. The next letter I opened came from the deaconof a church in
Devonshire, to saythat one of our students, who was settledthere as a
minister, had been suddenly takenill and had just died. I did not care to open
any more letters, just then, for fear that I would read of somebody else being
gone. But I thought, “Well, both of these dear brothers have served their
generationby the will of God, and they have fallen asleep, and it is well.” I
could only look forward with hope to the day when somebodywould read just
such a letter about me—and could only trust that they would be there to say
of me what I could say of these brothers—”Blessedare the dead who die in the
Lord.” But what a sadthing it is to live in this world and to have no hope! It
would have been better not to have lived at all than to live without a “good
hope through grace.” Ido not really know how some of you manage to live. I
know you have your troubles—troubles at home and troubles in business—
and I cannotmake out how you manage to put up with this poor existence
without the hope of a better one! Knowing what we do about a future state, if
we had not a goodhope concerning it, we really might wish that we had never

been born. And we sometimes wonder how some of you canbe so easyand so
carelessaboutthe unknown state when you, perhaps, know that you will soon
be in that state and also know that if it is not a better state than this one, it will
be a very sad thing for you to have had an existence atall! Oh, “seek youthe
Lord while He may be found! Call upon Him while He is near.” A goodhope
can be had through divine grace and that grace is free even to the chief of
sinners! If we come to God on the footing of divine grace, He will never castus
out. Oh, that we might all have this infinite treasure of a “goodhope through
Grace”! II. Now I can spend only a few minutes upon the secondpart of the
subject in which we have TWO GOOD WISHES, TWO HOLY DESIRES.
The first part of the text has told us what God has given us.
The secondpart tells us what we ought to desire God to give us—”Comfort
your hearts, and establishyou in every goodword and work.” I pray God for
those who are about to be baptized and also for you who have long made a
professionof your faith, that you may get the first blessing, namely, divine
comfort. May Godcomfort you! It is a bad case whena Christian is not
happy, when he is not full of comfort. I know it is treated by some people as
though it were a very insignificant matter whether a Christian is happy or
not, but I am sure it is an exceedinglyimportant matter that he should have
comfort. A wretched, miserable Christian is, to a greatextent, an injury to the
church, and a dishonor to the cross of Christ, for worldly people will pick out
such an one and say, “That is what your religion does for a man!” Now,
genuine godliness gives peace andjoy. In its first beginning, when a man is
under a sense of sin, it does make him wretchedto feelhis sin, but when the
soul is obedient to the command of Christ and trusts in Him, it gives him joy
and peace. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” --and for a Christian
not to have this fruit of the Spirit is to libel Christianity! When one’s heart is
sad, it is not always best to show it. “Whenyou fast, anoint your head and
washyour face, that you appear not unto men to fast.” Even if you have some
sorrow of heart, tell it not at once to your neighbor, who may have quite
enough trouble of his own to bear without having yours added to it! Do,

Christian, seek to get the comfort of which the apostle here speaks. Is there
ever a position into which you and I canbe castwhere there is no comfort for
us in the divine promises? There is, in God’s word, a key to open all the locks
of trouble in Doubting Castle!If we will but turn over the sacredpages, we
shall find there a promise exactly suited to our case. Do you lack comfort,
Christian? How canyou while there is a mercy seatto go to and one there
whose ears are always open to hear your petition and to relieve your trouble?
Do you lack comfort while you can pray? Surely it must be neglectof prayer
that makes your burdens so heavy. How canyou be without comfort while
your Savior lives? If Jesus Christ still bears your name upon His heart, that
should be enough for you! Is it not really a comfort to think that the Father,
Himself, loves you? My Father, who is in heaven, knows my needs— ought not
that to cheerme? Midst darkestshades, if I feelthat He is with me—yes, even
in the valley of the shadow of death—if His rod and His staff comfort me,
what have I to fear? Yes, Christian friends, you have abundant ground for
comfort, so be not content unless you enjoy that comfort! May God, even your
Father, put you and keepyou in a comfortable frame of mind! I would say
especiallyto young Christians—Do not imagine that as soonas you become
believers in Christ, you are to castawaythose cheerful looks and those bright
eyes of yours. God forbid! If you were happy, before, be far happier now! You
need not have levity—that is to be avoided—and the pleasure which consists
in sin should be no pleasure to you, but now your joy should be deeper as it is
purer, more lively as it is more sound! “And establishyou in every good
word and work.” These are the two forms of establishment in gooddoctrine
and in goodpractice. When a Christian receives goodwords, the devil would
like to drive them from him and to drive him from them. It is one of the
masterpieces ofSatanto try to spoil our faith. If he canlead us to believe
falsely, he will the more easilylead us to actfalsely. So may God “establish
you in every goodword.” You cannot help noticing, if you look upon the
spiritual firmament just now, how like it is to what the natural firmament was
the other night. It is said that there were thousands of shooting stars visible
within an hour! And I might almost say that if you look out into the Christian
world, you cansee thousands of shooting stars within a minute! I do not know
what new error we shall have within the next 24 hours. There are some people
who are so fond of novelties that they have advancedpretty nearly every form

of error that our poor imagination can conceive of, yet they seemto be
studious to make fresh ones!We have new “isms” and “ites” ofall sorts, but
old fashionedtruths of God, which we thought would never have been
doubted, are, nowadays, contested!An age of greatreligious activity is pretty
sure to be also an age in which error is active and, therefore, it is the more
necessarythat we should pray for believers that they may be establishedin
every goodword! I should like you who are members of this church not only
to believe the truth, but to know why you believe it and to be so sure and
certain of it that you cannotbe shakenfrom it! I would have you be not like
the dry leaves in autumn, which are carried awayby the first wind because
they have lost their vitality, but like the greenleaves in spring which will bear
the Marchwinds and cannot be torn off because their sapis flowing in them
and they are fresh and vigorous. I would that you were always able
to give a reasonfor the hope that is in you with meeknessand fear. The faith
which we have has been handed down to us by martyrs’ hands all along the
ages—notthrough the corrupt church of Rome—but down along the line of
martyrs and confessors who have sealedtheir testimony with their blood! And
that testimony is still with us this day! SearchGod’s word and if we teachyou
anything that is inconsistentwith it, then rejectus as we would have you reject
all false teachers!If we set before you anything which is of our making, and
not of God’s making, castit to the dogs and have none of it! But if it is God’s
truth, be establishedin it. Garner it in your soul. Hold it fast as for dear life
and never let it go! Believe that the truth of Godas it is in Jesus, is worth the
blood which martyrs have shed in its defense—andwill be worth all that it
can possibly costyou in holding it! May you be establishedin every good
word—not merely in some goodwords—but in every goodword! Believe all
the truths of God. Many Christians, alas, believe only one truth or so. One
man gets a hold of the doctrine of predestination and he is like a child with a
doll—it is the entire world to him! Another man gets a hold of the doctrine of

human responsibility and he looks at it, as Luther says, “like a cow at a new
gate.” He stands staring at that and can see nothing beyond it! But I would
have you see all the truth and be always readyto receive anything that God
has revealed!Be you steadfast“in every goodword.” But the blessing
invoked by the apostle is that you may be establishedin every goodwork as
well as in every goodword. Alas, there are some Christians who like the Word
of God very well, though they do not like the work—but unless our godliness
extends to our daily work, it is not godliness atall! May you, brothers and
sisters in Christ, be establishedin every goodwork!May there be the good
work of holiness in all the relationships of life! May you be the bestof sons,
the bestof daughters, the best of parents, the bestof husbands, the best of
wives, the best of employers, the best of employees!Wherever your lot may be
cast, may you be establishedin every goodwork in all the relationships of life!
Then, in this Christian church, may you work in prayer, may you work in
teaching, may you work according to the ability which God has given you—
and may you be establishedin it! If there is any goodwork which you have
not yet attempted, but to which you are calledof God, may you have grace to
enter upon it and, once engagedin it, may you never take your hands from the
plow till you have finished the task that Godhas sent you! O beloved, I can
pray this prayer from my heart for every one of you! May you who have
served the Masterfor years, still be kept serving Him! Oh, may none of you
turn your backs in the day of battle! May you be faithful unto death and so
obtain the greatreward! May the grace whichhas helped you forward up to
now, impel you forward till your hairs are gray and until you throw
yourselves back upon the couch of death to sleepwith God! So may you be
establishedin every goodword and work! Every Christian ought to be a
member of the establishedchurch—I do not mean the church which is
establishedby the English law—but the Church which is establishedby God!
Oh, to be establishedby divine grace—tobe establishedby knowing what we
believe, by practicing it— and by being establishedin that practice! These
apostolic goodwishes I leave with you—may you inherit them! But
remember that we must first come to Christ, or these goodwishes will be only
wishes. We must first trust the Savior, or else these blessings cannever be
ours! May divine grace bring us to Jesus and keepus at His feet—anddivine
grace shallhave the praise forever and ever!

BARCLAY
May the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and who gave us, by his
grace, eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and make you strong OR
every good deed and word.
In this passage there is a kind of synopsis of the Christian life.
(i) It begins with God's call. We could never even begin to seek God unless he had already found
us. The whole initiative is with him; the ground and the moving cause of the whole matter is his
seeking love.
(ii) It develops in our effort. The Christian is not called to dream, but to fight; not to stand still,
but to climb. He is called not only to the greatest privilege but also to the greatest task in the
world.
(iii) This effort is helped continually by two things. (a) It is helped by the teaching, guidance and
example of godly men. God speaks to us through those to whom he has already spoken. "A
saint," as someone has said, "is a person who makes it easier for others to believe in God." And
there are some who help us, not by anything they say or write, but simply by being what they are,
men whom to meet is to meet God. (b) It is helped by God himself We are never left to fight and
toil alone. He who gives us the task also gives us the strength to do it; more, he actually does it
with us. We are not thrown into the battle to meet it with the puny resources we can bring to it.
At the back of us and beside us there is God. When Paul was up against it in Corinth, he had a
vision by night in which the Lord said to him, "Do not be afraid...for I am with You" (Acts 18:9-
10). They that are for us are always more than they that are against us.
(iv) This call and this effort are designed to produce two things. (a) They are designed to produce
consecration on earth. Literally in Greek a thing which is consecrated is set apart for God. They
are meant to set us apart in such a way that God can use us for his service. The result is that a
man's life no longer belongs to him to do with it as he likes; it belongs to God for him to use as
he likes. (b) They are designed to produce salvation in heaven. The Christian life does not end
with time; its goal is eternity. The Christian can regard his present affliction as a light thing in
comparison with the glory that shall be. As Christina Rosetti wrote:
"'Does the road wind uphill all the way?'
'Yes, to the very end.'
'Will the day's journey take the whole tong day?'
'From morn to night, my friend.'
'But is there for the night a resting-place?'
'A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.'
'May not the darkness hide it from my face?'

'You cannot miss that inn.'
'Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?'
'Those who have gone before.'
'Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?'
'They will not keep you waiting at that door.'
'Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?'
'Of labour you shall find the sum.'
'Will there be beds for me and all who seek?'
'Yes, beds for all who come.'"
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)
EVERLASTING CONSOLATION
Dr. W. A. Criswell
2 Thessalonians 2:13-18
5-25-58 7:30 p.m.
Now, we turn to the second Thessalonian letter, the second chapter. And last Sunday, we left off
at the twelfth verse. And this evening, we begin at the thirteenth verse, and let’s read to the end
of the chapter. Second Thessalonians, the second chapter, beginning at the thirteenth verse: 2
Thessalonians 2:13, reading to the end of the chapter. Now, we have it? Second Thessalonians –
almost toward the end of your Bible – Second Thessalonians, the second chapter, the thirteenth
verse; now together:
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 of the truth,
Whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by
word or our epistle.
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.
[2 Thessalonians 2:13-17]
And the sermon tonight has been divided in two parts. I could not encompass it in this one hour.
It is entitled Everlasting Consolation, para klēsinaiōnian. You could translate it "eternal
comfort" or "eternal encouragement."

"God, even our Father,who loved us, and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, hath given us
everlasting consolation" – eternal comfort, forever encouragement – "and good hope through
grace, may He comfort your hearts" – same word again: parakaleō, comfort, encourage, console
– "may He encourage your hearts and stablish you–establish you in every good work and word"
[2 Thessalonians 2:16-17].
Now, we have a context here that gives it meaning from the seventh verse of the first chapter of
Second Thessalonians to the twelfth verse of the second chapter [2 Thessalonians 1:7-2:12]. Up
until we began reading at the thirteenth verse, that section is dark and full of foreboding and
judgment and damnation. It is a revelation of final anarchy and persecution and the revelation of
the man of sin and the Antichrist [2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, 7-10]. It is dark indeed. The coming of
our Lord is called the blessed hope [Titus 2:13], but it is preceded by terrible judgments and
awful, awesome outpourings of the wrath of Almighty God [2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, 2:11-12].
And Paul describes those final days: the working of the mystery of evil [2 Thessalonians 2:7],
and the delusion that God shall send upon men who turn aside from the truth of the gospel [2
Thessalonians 2:11], and the damnation that awaits those that believe not the truth [2
Thessalonians 2:12]. These things are dark in the extreme.
Then Paul turns from this holocaust of the final judgment and the visitation of the Lord. He turns
to the glorious gospel of hope and of comfort to those who trust in Jesus and who believe in His
grace and His mercy [2 Thessalonians 2:13-14]. All of this is in keeping with the whole outlook
of the Apostle Paul: in the midst of realism – stark truth, dark tragedy – he is also wonderfully
confident and optimistic.
So, I say, in this context, having spoken of that terrible day – these awful judgments when the
world shall be given to iniquity and Antichrist shall be revealed [2 Thessalonians 2:3], and men
shall follow a delusion and a lie [2 Thessalonians 2:11-12], and God pours out the judgments of
His vials of wrath upon unbelieving and godless humanity [Revelation 16:1] – in the midst of
that, having spoke a little of that, immediately he says, "But we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord" [2 Thessalonians 2:13]. Then he speaks this
passage that we have read of comfort and fearlessness and consolation and encouragement for
those who in that dark time face the future in the brightness of the glory of the promise and
presence of God [2 Thessalonians 2:13-17].
Now, my first observation is this: that that is always the true mark of a Christian and that is
always the hallmark of the faith of the Son of God. It is always ebullient and glorious and light
and optimistic. Doesn’t deny the mystery of iniquity. Doesn’t deny the damnations of God. It
doesn’t deny the judgments of the Almighty. It is stark realism in describing the human heart, the
future of humanity, the destiny of this world – just as black as ink.
But, I say, the hallmark of the true Christian faith is this: that in the midst of the judgments and
the damnations and the delusions and the mysteries of the working of iniquity and the final Day
of the Lord, the Christian is always filled with hope and with optimism [1 Peter 3:15], with the
light and the glory of the promised presence of God. That’s the mark of a true Christian.
John Wesley was a precise, educated, learned, theological Oxford don, and he came over here to
America to convert the heathen Indian. And he failed miserably and was on a boat to go back to
England in despair and in frustration. And while he was on that boat going back to his homeland,
there came a storm on the North Atlantic that threatened to sink the ship to the bottom of the sea.

And the people were terrified, and John Wesley was terrified. He was as frightened and as scared
as any other of the passengers on the ship.
There happened to be on that boat some Moravian missionaries. And in that storm, in the dark
and the wind and the waves when everyone thought that life was lost and the ship would
certainly sink, John Wesley watched those Moravian Christians. They were absolutely
undisturbed. They were unafraid. They looked at the waves. They heard the wind. They saw the
prospect of immediate death, but they were vibrant and triumphant and victorious in the Lord.
And John Wesley sought them out and said to them, "I am not a Christian. I have never been
saved, for a saved man would not be afraid like I am. A Christian man wouldn’t cower before the
storm." And it was the Moravian Christians that led John Wesley to that saving faith in Christ
that made him forever fearless and unafraid.
That’s the mark of a Christian. In the midst of the storm and the stress and the judgment and the
tempest and the turmoil of God, his face is a light and his heart is lifted up [Mark 4:35-41; John
16:33; Acts 12:6]. I have been tryingas I prepared this sermon, I have been trying to recall a
sermon – I mean a story in a sermon – that I heard years ago; and I can’t quite call it out of the
years of my memory. But it went something like this.
Back yonder there was a time – and it’s a historical thing – there was a time when the whole sky
above America was filled with falling stars and comets. It was an awesome sight, and the people
thought that the world was coming to an end. And down there in some Georgia village, the
people called one another and they were crying and wringing their hands in despair. This awful
thing: the world was coming to an end and they were scared and afraid and trembled in terror.
And now this is the part that I can’t quite remember because it had a wonderful turn that I cannot
remember, but it was something like this. There was an old colored saint who lived in that town,
and he arose and saw the stars falling and saw the streaks across the sky and heard the people cry
aloud in terror that the end had come. And that old colored saint gathered his family together and
was waiting there in glory and in triumph and in expectation.
They said to him, "Why aren’t you afraid? Look at the sky!"
And he said, "Brother, the end of the world means my Lord am a coming. I’m getting ready to
meet Jesus in the sky."
Oh, my soul, that’s the hallmark of a child of God [Psalm 46:1-3]. When the stars fall and the
heavens shake, the sun is dark and the moon is blood, then the Christian lifts up his face. This is
the day of our final triumph. Our redemption draweth nigh [Luke 21:28].
That’s Paul. That’s Paul. Describing the darkest hour that this earth shall ever face: "We are
bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren" [2 Thessalonians 2:13]. Then he writes that
wonderful passage of encouragement and consolation [2 Thessalonians 2:14-17].
Now, I have a second thing and that is this. We need the admonition, and the intercession, and
the encouragement of the Apostle [Paul]. He prays for them: "We’re bound to give thanks to God
for you [2 Thessalonians 2:13]. . . Therefore, brethren, stand fast in the traditions, the teachings,
the doctrines that you’ve heard by word and our epistle" [2 Thessalonians 2:15].
Then he prays: "And our Lord Jesus Christ, and God Himself, our Father, who loved us and has
given us this everlasting encouragement and good hope, comfort your hearts – encourage your
hearts – and establish you in every good word and deed" [2 Thessalonians 2:16-17].

Now, we need that. We need that. All men need encouragement. We cannot live without it –
bruised and buffeted and bereaved and defeated. We need encouragement.
I have just seen the record. I’ve never heard it. But Dr. Truett preached in this pulpit a wonderful
sermon entitled "The Need for Encouragement." And they made a record of it and sold it for
years in the Baptist bookstores. And the title of that thing appealed to me when I saw the
advertisement: "The Need for Encouragement."
God does not delight to see His people with their heads hanging down like bulrushes, dismayed
and discouraged and defeated [Hebrews 11:6]. When our spirits sink, the waters have come in
even unto the soul. God doesn’t delight to see His children in misery and unhappy and dismayed
and disappointed and in despair and defeated. In fact, God can’t use us when we’re that way
[Matthew 17:14-20].
Do you remember old Elijah standing in triumph on the day of the sacrifice at Mount Carmel? [1
Kings 18:24-46] Then the next day, when Ahab told Jezebel what he’d done [1 Kings 19:1],
Jezebel said, "Yes, and God do so to me, crack my head off, if by this time tomorrow I haven’t
got you just like you slew those prophets of Baal" [from 1 Kings 19:2]. And it scared Elijah to
death; and the Book says, "And he ran for his life" [1 Kings 19:3].
And he ran clear down to Beersheba, left his servant there, and went a day’s journey into the
Negev – into the desert – and found him a juniper tree and sat down under a juniper tree and
said, "Now, Lord, let me die. Let me die. I’m no better than my fathers. I want to die too. This
whole thing is lost" [1 Kings 19:4].
And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree, and an angel came and touched him, said,
"Elijah, awake, eat" [1 Kings 19:5]. There was a lunch, a dinner, a breakfast on coals of fire: "Eat
and drink." And there was a cruse of water at his head [1 Kings 19:6]. Then he lay down again
and the angel touched him again, said, "Elijah, eat and drink." And he ate and drank a second
time [1 Kings 19:7]. Then the angel said, "Elijah, get up." And Elijah arose, and he went forty
days and forty nights through the desert until finally he came to Sinai, to Mount Horeb [1 Kings
19:8].
And there in a little cave, the Lord came to him and said, "Elijah, what you doing here?" [1
Kings 19:9] And Elijah said, "Lord, I have come to the end of the way. I preached my best and
prophesied my best. I’ve done my best; and Lord, they’ve slain Thy prophets, and I’m the only
one left. And they built Baalim and they worshiped gods. And I quit. I’m beat. I’m discouraged.
I’ve given up. That’s why I’m here" [from 1 Kings 19:10].
The Lord God said, "Listen, Elijah. You stand there and watch Me." And Elijah stood at the
mouth of the cave and the Lord called a great wind – shook the whole earth. He wasn’t in that.
That’s just nothin’ to God. That was just tiddly winks. Then as Elijah stood there, the Lord made
a great earthquake and turned the whole earth upside down [1 Kings 19:11]. That’s mumblepeg
with God. That’s not anything with Him. Then after that, the Lord caused a burning, furious fire
to pass by him [1 Kings 19:12]. Why, for God to make a sun, it’s an incidental thing with Him.
Then there was a still, small voice, and it said, "Elijah, what you doing here?" [1 Kings 19:12-
13]
And Elijah said, "I’ve come to the end of my way. I can’t preach any more. I’m discouraged, and
the Spirit of prophecy has left me, and the children of the Lord are slain, and I’m the only one
left – nobody but me. And Thy cause is lost in the earth" [from 1 Kings 19:14].

And the Lord God said to Elijah, "Listen, Elijah. I’m not dead. The Lord God still is alive and all
power is in My hands. I can shake this earth. I can burn up this earth. I can blow it away in a
storm, in a tempest. And listen, Elijah, you’re not the only one that’s left either. Up there in that
little country where you’ve been preaching, I’ve got seven thousand that haven’t bowed the knee
to Baal. Now, Elijah, get out of it. Snap out of it. Stand up, Elijah. I’m sending you back. There’s
work to do. You go up there to Damascus, in Syria, and anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. You
go over there to Samaria and you anoint Jehu to be king over Samaria. And Elijah, you find
Elisha and anoint him to be a prophet to carry on the work of the kingdom ’til I come. Elijah, get
up and go back" [from 1 Kings 19:15-18].
That’s what God says to all of His discouraged Christians. Then, when we think we are alone,
you just don’t know. Over here and there and there and there, they are God’s anointed and God’s
elect. There, there, and He knows them by name. I may not. He’s got His own. And He has work
for us to do, and He can’t use us when we’re down and when we’re discouraged and when we’re
defeated.
The Christian is to be up. "Let not your hearts be troubled" [John 14:1]. He said in the day of His
cross, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" [John 14:27]. Not you, not you. He
said again, "Be strong and of a good courage. I am with thee. Fear not" [from Joshua 1:9]. He
said, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and I say rejoice!" [Philippians 4:4] Don’t let your hands hang
down and your knees be feeble. Stand up and rejoice in the confidence and in the encouragement
of God.
Now, in just this moment remaining, may I point out to you the basis of his encouragement?
Somebody may not like this, but oh, brother, this is the foundation of the Book and our hope.
Listen to it: "We are bound to give thanks to God for you . . . We prayour Lord Jesus Himself,
and God, even our Father, who hath loved us and given us this everlasting encouragement and
good hope . . . that He comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good work" [2
Thessalonians 2:13-17].
For, because, why? Where are the encouragement and confidence for a Christian? Listen to it:
"Because God hath from the beginning chosen you – chosen you – to salvation through
sanctification, the Spirit and belief of the truth, by the gospel of and the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ" [2 Thessalonians 2:13-14].
He bases it – our hope and our confidence and our encouragement – he bases it upon the elective
purposes of God. God cannot fail. God cannot be defeated, nor can He be turned away from the
great sovereign purpose that He hath in the earth through you, through you. "Because God hath
from the beginning chosen you" [2 Thessalonians 2:13]. The elective purpose of the Lord carries
through. It never fails.
What is the basis of the Christian hope? A succession to seize His throne? No. An election? No.
A new legislative assembly? No. New laws? No.
The basis of the illimitable, immeasurable eternal hope of the Christian lies in the elective
purposes of God. He lives. He reigns. He is omnipotently sovereign, and God shall bring to pass
His purposes in the earth. He will not be discouraged nor shall He fail ’til He hath set judgment
in the earth [Isaiah 42:4], ’til He rules from the river to the ends of the earth [Zechariah 9:10], ’til
the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He reigns
supreme and alone forever and forever [Revelation 11:15]. "God hath from the beginning elected
you" [2 Thessalonians 2:13].

Think of that. To that little flock in Thessalonica – just a little band of feeble Christians in a
Roman world of brutality and godlessness and darkness and heathenism – Paul saying to them,
"God hath elected you, little flock [2 Thessalonians 2:13]. It is His good pleasure to give you the
kingdom, little flock [Luke 12:32]. Weak lambs, God hath chosen you. Be of good courage.
Comfort your hearts. Lift up your faces. God hath chosen you."
Oh, what it is to be in the elective will and purpose of the Lord. However the day, whatever the
fortune, we are in Him, and He is in God [1 Corinthians 3:23], and the whole world shall turn for
His elect into victory and triumph and glory both now and forever [Romans 8:16-18, 35-39]. "No
good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly" [Psalm 84:11] – that love and trust
Him.
The world is yours. And in the fortunes of life, if He takes it from the earth before He comes – to
face that future in glory and in triumph, to live like a Christian, and to die like a child of Jesus,
unafraid, in the glory of the hope and the presence of the Lord.
While we sing this appeal tonight, somebody you, to give his life in trust to Jesus, would you
come? Somebody you, put your life in the fellowship of the church, would you come? A family
you, however the Lord shall say the word and open the door, would you come? Would you
come? Put your life and your home together in Jesus and in this church.
I cannot say the word of appeal. God has to say it. If I make the appeal, let it fall to the ground. It
is dust and ashes. But if He makes the appeal, would you listen to the voice of the Lord? God
opening the way, the Spirit leading to Jesus and to us – by baptism, by confession of faith, by
letter, by consecration of life – however God shall say the word and lead the way, would you
come? To be a Christian, to live and to die in the hope of Jesus, and to share with us in this
blessed and glorious ministry, would you while we stand and while we sing?
JAMES DENNY
THE THEOLOGY OF PAUL
2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 (R.V.)
THE first part of this chapter is mysterious, awful, and oppressive. It deals with the principle of
evil in the world, its secret working, its amazing power, its final embodiment in the man of sin,
and its decisive overthrow at the Second Advent. The characteristic action of this evil principle is
deceit. It deludes men, and they become its victims. True, it can only delude those who lay
themselves open to its approach by an aversion to the truth, and by delight in unrighteousness;
but when we look round us, and see the multitude of its victims, we might easily be tempted to
despair of our race. The Apostle does not do so. He turns away from that gloomy prospect, and
fixes his eyes upon another, serene, bright, and joyful. There is a son of perdition, a person
doomed to destruction, who will carry many to ruin in his train; but there is a work of God going
on in the world as well as a work of evil; and it also has its triumphs. Let the mystery of iniquity

work as it will, "we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord,
for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation."
The thirteenth and fourteenth verses of this chapter are a system of theology in miniature. The
Apostle’s thanksgiving covers the whole work of salvation from the eternal choice of God to the
obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the world to come. Let us observe the several
points which it brings out. As a thanksgiving, of course, God is the main subject in it. Every
separate clause only serves to bring out another aspect of the fundamental truth that Salvation is
of the Lord. What aspects, then, of this truth are presented in turn?
(1) In the first place, the original idea of salvation is God’s. He chose the Thessalonians to it
from the beginning. There are really two assertions in this simple sentence-the one, that God
chose them; the other, that His choice is eternal. The first of these is obviously a matter on which
there is an appeal to experience. These Christian men, and all Christian men, could tell whether it
was true or not that they owed their salvation to God. In point of fact, there has never been any
doubt about that matter in any church, or indeed, in any religion. All good men have always
believed that salvation is of the Lord. It begins on God’s side. It can most truly be described from
His side. Every Christian heart responds to the word of Jesus to the disciples "Ye have not
chosen Me, but I have chosen you." Every Christian heart feels the force of St. Paul’s words to
the Galatians: "After that ye have known God, or rather were known of God." It is His taking
knowledge of us which is the original, fundamental, decisive thing in salvation. That is a matter
of experience; and so far the Calvinist doctrine of election, which has sometimes an
unsubstantial, metaphysical aspect, has an experimental basis. We are saved, because God in His
love has saved us; that is the starting point. That also gives character, in all the Epistles, to the
New Testament doctrine of election. The Apostle never speaks of the elect as an unknown
quantity, a favoured few, hidden in the Church, or in the world, unknown to others or to
themselves: "God," he says, "chose you," - the persons addressed in this letter, -"and you know
that He did." So does everyone who knows anything of God at all. Even when the Apostle says,
"God chose you from the beginning," he does not leave the basis of experience. "Known unto
God are all His works from the beginning of the world." The purpose of God’s love to save men,
which comes home to them in their reception of the gospel, is not a thing of today or yesterday;
they know it is not; it is the manifestation of His nature; it is as eternal as Himself; they can
count on it as securely as they can on the Divine character; if God has chosen them at all, He has
chosen them from the beginning. The doctrine of election in Scripture is a religious doctrine,
based upon experience; it is only when it is separated from experience, and becomes
metaphysical, and prompts men to ask whether they who have heard and received the gospel are
elect or not-an impossible question on New Testament ground-that it works for evil in the
Church. If you have chosen God, you know it is because He first chose you; and His will
revealed in that choice is the will of the Eternal.
(2) Further, the means of salvation for men are of God. "He chose you," says the Apostle, "in
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." Perhaps "means" is not the most precise word
to use here; it might be better to say that sanctification wrought by the Spirit, and belief of the
truth, are the state in which, rather than the means by which, salvation is realised. But what I
wish to insist upon is, that both are included in the Divine choice; they are the instruments or the
conditions of carrying it into effect. And here, when we come to the accomplishment of God’s
purpose, we see how it combines a Divine and a human side. There is a sanctification, or
consecration, wrought by the Spirit of God upon the spirit of man, the sign and seal of which is

baptism, the entrance of the natural man into the new and higher life; and coincident with this,
there is the belief of the truth, the acceptance of God’s message of mercy, and the surrender of
the soul to it. It is impossible to separate these two things, or to define their relation to each
other. Sometimes the first seems to condition the second; sometimes the order is reversed. Now
it is the Spirit which opens the mind to the truth; again it is the truth which exercises a
sanctifying power like the Spirit. The two, as it were, interpenetrate each other. If the Spirit stood
alone, man’s mind would be baffled, his moral freedom would be taken away; if the reception of
the truth were everything, a cold, rationalistic type of religion would sup, plant the ardour of the
New Testament Christian. The eternal choice of God makes provision, in the combination of the
Spirit and the truth, at once for Divine influence and for human freedom; for a baptism of fire
and for the deliberate welcoming of revelation; and it is-when the two are actually combined that
the purpose of God to save is accomplished. What can we say here on the basis of experience?
Have we believed the truth which God has declared to us in His Son? Has its belief been
accompanied and made effectual by a sanctification wrought by His Spirit, a consecration which
has made the truth live in us, and made us new creatures in Christ? God’s choice does not
become effective apart from this; it comes out in this; it secures its own accomplishment in this.
His chosen are not chosen to salvation irrespective of any experience; none are chosen except as
they believe the truth and are sanctified by His Spirit.
(3) Once more, the execution of the plan of salvation in time is of God. To this salvation, says
Paul, He called you by our gospel. The apostles and their companions were but messengers: the
message they brought was God’s. The new truths, the warnings, the summonses, the invitations,
all were His. The spiritual constraint which they exercised was His also. In speaking thus, the
Apostle magnifies his office, and magnifies at the same time the responsibility of all who heard
him preach. It is a light thing to listen to a man speaking his own thoughts, giving his own
counsel, inviting assent to his own proposals; it is a solemn thing to listen to a man speaking
truly in the name of God. The gospel that we preach is ours, only because we preach it and
because we receive it; but the true description of it is, the gospel of God. It is His voice which
proclaims the coming judgment; it is His voice which tells of the redemption which is in Christ
Jesus, even the forgiveness of our trespasses; it is His voice which invites all who are exposed to
wrath, all who are under the curse and power of sin, to come to the Saviour. Paul had thanked
God in the First Epistle that the Thessalonians had received his word, not as the word of man, but
as what it was in truth, the word of the living God; and here he falls back again on the same
thought in a new connection. It is too natural for us to put God as far as we can out of our minds,
to keep Him forever in the background, to have recourse to Him only in the last resort; but that
easily becomes an evasion of the seriousness and the responsibilities of our life, a shutting of our
eyes to its true significance, for which we may have to pay dear. God has spoken to us all in His
word and by His Spirit, God, and not only some human preacher: see that ye despise not Him
that speaketh.
(4) Lastly, under this head, the end proposed to us in obeying the gospel call is of God. It is the
obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul became a Christian and an Apostle, because
he saw the Lord of Glory on the way to Damascus; and his whole conception of salvation was
shaped by that sight. To be saved meant to enter into that glory into which Christ had entered. It
was a condition of perfect holiness, open only to those who were sanctified by Christ’s Spirit;
but perfect holiness did not exhaust it. Holiness was manifested in glory, in a light surpassing the
brightness of the sun, in a strength superior to every weakness, in a life no longer assailable by
death. Weak, suffering, destitute-dying daily for Christ s sake-Paul saw salvation concentrated

and summed up in the glory of Christ. To obtain this was to obtain salvation. "When Christ who
is our life shall appear," he says elsewhere, "then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." "This
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." If salvation were
anything lower than this, there might be a plausible case to state for man as its author; but
reaching as it does to this immeasurable height, who can accomplish it but God? It needs the
operation of the might of His power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the
dead.
One cannot read these two simple verses without wondering at the new world which the gospel
created for the mind of man. What great thoughts are in them-thoughts that wander through
eternity, thoughts based on the most sure and blessed of experiences, yet travelling back into an
infinite past, and on into immortal glory; thoughts of the Divine presence and the Divine power
interpenetrating and redeeming human life; thoughts addressed originally to a little company of
working people, but unmatched for length and breadth and depth and height by all that pagan
literature could offer to the wisest and the best. What a range and sweep there is in this brief
summary of God’s work in man’s salvation. If the New Testament is uninteresting, can it be for
any other reason than that we arrest ourselves at the words, and never penetrate to the truth
which lies beneath?
On this review of the work of God the Apostle grounds an exhortation to the Thessalonians. "So
then, brethren," he writes, "stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by
word, or by epistle of ours." The objection that is brought against Calvinism is that it destroys
every motive for action on our part, by destroying all need of it. If salvation is of the Lord, what
is there for us to do? If God conceived it, planned it, executes it, and alone can perfect it, what
room is left for the interference of man? This is a species of objection which would have
appeared extremely perverse to the Apostle. Why, he would have exclaimed, if God left it to us
to do, we might well sit down in despair and do nothing, so infinitely would the task exceed our
powers; but since the work of salvation is the work of God, since He Himself is active on that
side, there are reason, hope, motive, for activity on our part also. If we work in the same line
with Him, toward the same end with Him, our labour will not be cast away; it will be
triumphantly successful. God is at work; but so far from that furnishing a motive to non-exertion
on our part, it is the strongest of all motives to action. Work out your own salvation, not because
it is left to you to do, but because it is God who is working in you both will and deed in
furtherance of His good pleasure. Fall in, the Apostle virtually says in this place, with the
purpose of God to save you; identify yourselves with it; stand fast, and hold the traditions which
ye were taught.
"Traditions" is an unpopular word in one section of the Church because it has been so vastly
abused in another. But it is not an illegitimate word in any church, and there is always a place for
what it means. The generations are dependent on each other; each transmits to the future the
inheritance it has received from the past; and that inheritance-embracing laws, arts, manners,
morals, instincts, religion-can all be comprehended in the single word tradition. The gospel was
handed over to the Thessalonians by St. Paul, partly in oral teaching, partly in writing; it was a
complex of traditions in the simplest sense, and they were not to let any part of it go. Extreme
Protestants are in the habit of opposing Scripture to tradition. The Bible alone, they say, is our
religion; and we reject all unwritten authority. But, as a little reflection will show, the Bible itself
is, in the first instance, a part of tradition; it is handed down to us from those who have gone
before; it is delivered to us as a sacred deposit by the Church; and as such we at first regard it.

There are good reasons, no doubt, for giving Scripture a fundamental and critical place among
traditions. When its claim to represent the Christianity of the apostles is once made out, it is
fairly regarded as the criterion of everything else that appeals to their authority. The bulk of so-
called traditions in the Church of Rome are to be rejected, not because they are traditions, but
because they are not traditions, but have originated in later times, and are inconsistent with what
is known to be truly apostolic. We ourselves are bound to keep fast hold of all that connects us
historically with the apostolic age. We would not disinherit ourselves. We would not lose a
single thought, a single like or dislike, a single conviction or instinct, of all that proves us the
spiritual posterity of Peter and Paul and John. Sectarianism destroys the historical sense; it plays
havoc with traditions; it weakens the feeling of spiritual affinity between the present and the past.
The Reformers in the sixteenth century-the men like Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin-made a
great point of what they called their catholicity, i.e., their claim to represent the true Church of
Christ, to be the lawful inheritors of apostolic tradition. They were right, both in their claim, and
in their idea of its importance; and we will suffer for it, if, in our eagerness for independence, we
disown the riches of the past.
The Apostle closes his exhortation with a prayer. "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God
our Father which loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and stablish them in every good work and word." All human effort, he seems to say,
must be not only anticipated and called forth, but supported, by God. He alone it is who can give
steadfastness to our pursuit of good in word and deed.
In his prayer the Apostle goes back to great events in the past, and bases his request on the
assurance which they yield: "God," he says, "who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good
hope through grace." When did God do these gracious things? It was-when He sent His Son into
the world for us. He does love us now; He will love us forever; but we go back for the final
proof, and for the first conviction of this, to the gift of Jesus Christ. There we see God who loved
us. The death of the Lord Jesus is specially in view. "Hereby know we love, because He laid
down His life for us." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins." The eternal consolation is connected in the closest
possible way with this grand assurance of love. It is not merely an unending comfort, as opposed
to the transitory and uncertain joys of earth; it is the heart to exclaim with St. Paul, "Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
that loved us." Here, and now, this eternal consolation is given to the Christian heart; here, and
now, rather, it is enjoyed; it was given, once for all, on the cross at Calvary. Stand there, and
receive that awful pledge of the love of God, and see whether it does not, even now, go deeper
than any sorrow.
But the eternal consolation does not exhaust God’s gifts. He has also in His grace given us good
hope. He has made provision, not only for the present trouble, but for the future uncertainty. All
life needs an outlook; and those who have stood beside the empty grave in the garden know how
wide and glorious is the outlook provided by God for the believer in Jesus Christ. In the very
deepest darkness, a light is kindled for him; in the valley of the shadow of death, a window is
opened to him in heaven. Surely God, who sent His Son to die for us upon the Cross; God, who
raised Him again from the dead on our behalf, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly
places, -surely He who has been at such cost for our salvation will not be slow to second all our
efforts, and to establish our hearts in every good work and word.

How simply, one is tempted to say, it all ends-good works and good words; are these the whole
fruits which God seeks in His great work of redemption? Does it need consolation so wonderful,
hope so far reaching, to secure patient continuance in well-doing? We know only too well that it
does. We know that the comfort of God, the hope of God, prayer to God, are all needed; and that
all we can make of all of them combined is not too much to make us steadily dutiful in word and
deed. We know that it is not a disproportionate or unworthy moral, but one befitting the grandeur
of his theme, when the Apostle concludes the fifteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians in a tone very
similar to that which rules here. The infinite hope of the Resurrection is made the basis of the
commonest duties. "Therefore, my beloved brethren," he says, "be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour: is not in vain
in the Lord." That hope is to bear fruit on earth-in patience and loyalty, in humble and faithful
service. It is to shed its radiance over the trivial round, the common task; and the Apostle does
not think it wasted if it enables men and women to do well and not weary.
The difficulty of expounding this passage lies in the largeness of the thoughts; they include, in a
manner, every part and aspect of the Christian life. Let each of us try to bring them. near to
himself. God has called us by His gospel: He has declared to us that Jesus our Lord was
delivered for our offences, and that He was raised again to open the gates of life to us. Have we
believed the truth? That is-where the gospel begins for us. Is the truth within us, written on hearts
that God’s Spirit has separated from the world, and devoted to a new life? or is it outside of us, a
rumour, a hearsay, to which we have no vital relation? Happy are those who have believed, and
taken Christ into their souls, Christ who died for us and rose again; they have the forgiveness of
sins, a pledge of love that disarms and vanquishes sorrow, an infallible hope that outlives death.
Happy are those to whom the cross and the empty tomb give that confidence in God’s love
which makes prayer natural, hopeful, joyful. Happy are those to whom all these gifts of grace
bring the strength to continue patiently in well-doing, and to be steadfast in every good work and
word. All things are theirs-the world, and life, and death; things present and things to come;
everlasting consolation and good hope; prayer, patience, and victory: all are theirs, for they are
Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
Thessalonians 2:9-16 Don't Believe the Lie
Rev. David Holwick S Baptism of Jennifer Valenti
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 20, 2012
2 Thessalonians 2:9-16
DON'T BELIEVE THE LIE
I. Some people will settle for less than the truth.
A. How gullible would you have to be?

During a trial in Boston, Juanita Konold-McIntosh, age 55,
testified on behalf of her husband of 15 years, Eduardo.
He was on trial for fraud, but she said she was still devoted
to him and hoped they could turn their lives around together.
Juanita had just heard the government introduce solid evidence
that her husband, to her surprise, was not an Air Force
general;
that he was not legally married to her (because of a
still-valid earlier marriage);
that the reason he had spent only one night a week with her
during their marriage was not because he was on secret
intelligence missions;
that the reasons for thousands of dollars in and out of her
bank account during their "marriage" was to serve his
real family and various scams;
and that the reason she had not heard from him during a
four-month period in 1994 was because he was in prison.
#17189
1) I guess people will believe what they want to believe.
a) Truth doesn't have to enter into the picture.
2) Unless you consider yourself a Christian.
a) In that case, truth is supposed to matter a lot.
B. The greatest deception of all won't be by a husband.
1) It will be by the Antichrist.
2) He will deceive multitudes of people.
a) He will be very good at it, even supernaturally good.
b) The irony is that is exactly what they will want.
3) Will you be one of them?
II. Experience isn't enough.
A. One of the stumbling blocks in faith is that God is invisible.
1) We can't see him.
a) The Bible says he is spirit, not flesh.
2) But we want to believe in tangible things, things that
are solid.

a) That is why some little kids who have come to this
church have thought I was God.
b) They didn't intend to be heretics, they just saw me
do all the talking.
B. How can we believe in invisible things?
1) Often, we believe when we see something happen.
a) A prayer gets answered.
b) Something unusual or unexpected happens, so we
believe that a power is behind it.
2) Stupendous stuff is important.
a) It was a chief element in Jesus' own ministry.
1> Healings, walking on water, supernatural knowledge.
2> After Peter experienced a miracle first-hand, he
fell on his knees and proclaimed, "Lord, go away
from me; I am a sinful man!" Luke 5:8
b) The apostles continued it.
1> In 2 Cor. 12:12, Paul says signs, wonders and
miracles mark true apostles.
2> Fortunately, these things happened repeatedly in
Paul's own ministry, because some Christians
doubted his credentials.
C. God does not have a monopoly on "wow."
1) Aaron's staff became a snake - but so did those of Pharaoh's
magicians. Exodus 7:8-12
2) Moses recognized the problem.
a) The sign of a true prophet is that his predictions
come true.
b) But true predictions are not enough - false prophets
can also be true sometimes.
In Deuteronomy 13:1-3, Moses says:
"If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears
among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or
wonder,
and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes

place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods
you have not known) "and let us worship them,"
you must not listen to the words of that prophet or
dreamer...."
1> So it has to come true, AND it has to jive with
what God has already revealed.
2> Just keep in mind that an awesome experience,
something that seems really supernatural, could
still be false.
III. The Antichrist will be able to wow people.
A. He will be able to perform miracles.
1) Several passages in the Bible confirm this.
a) In Revelation 13, the Antichrist or his supporters
call down fire from heaven, and make statues speak.
2) Here in 2 Thessalonians 2:9, Paul calls them counterfeit.
a) This doesn't necessarily mean they are fake.
b) They will really happen, but they will be false.
1> They will pull people away from the one true God.
B. Would you be swayed by him?
1) Many believe in God because of a "wow" event.
2) But there is always someone else promising the latest "wow."
a) Evil might be behind it.
3) You must look beyond the raw experience to the spiritual
basis behind it.
IV. God can help you be deluded.
A. This sounds shocking, but it follows the logic of this passage.
1) Verse 11 says God sends a delusion SO THAT they'll be
deceived.
a) It would appear that God doesn't allow them to believe
but covers their eyes.
b) It is more accurate to say God deludes those who have
already rejected him.
2) It only applies to those who are already perishing. 2:10
a) They are perishing because they refuse to believe

the truth about God. 2:12
b) They are perishing because they prefer wickedness.
B. God does not want to trick anyone.
1) However, he will confirm what you insist on choosing.
2) God uses sin to punish the sinful.
a) Romans 1:24-28 teaches the same principle.
b) If people want to lust, God will give them over to it
whole-hog.
c) If they don't want to believe in God (Rom 1:28) he
will let them have a depraved mind.
1> It is similar to the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.
2> After he hardened it himself enough times, God
stepped in and did it for him.
3) Choosing sin is a sure-fire way to end up being spiritually
deceived.
a) You will also end up being condemned. 2:12
V. It should be different for true believers.
A. Paul was confident of the status of the Thessalonians. 2:13
1) He uses the language of predestination - they have been
chosen from the beginning.
2) They confirmed it by believing in God and the gospel he
had presented.
B. We need to stand firm. 2:15
1) We stand firm by holding to the teachings of the Bible.
2) The early church did not have the New Testament yet, so
people like Paul passed it on orally, and in letters
like this one.
a) We are so familiar with the Bible (at least we think
we are) that we become jaded with it.
b) Maybe it doesn't seem like anything special.
c) If this is so, it is probably because you have distanced
yourself from it, or never really got into it.
1> The good news about Jesus has content.
2> You need to know what you believe.

C. When people believe nothing, they'll believe anything.
1) Comedian Steve Martin once joked, "It's so hard to believe
in anything anymore.
If it weren't for my lucky astrology mood watch, I wouldn't
believe in anything."
Ravi Zacharias speaks with great insight of the modern
difficulties surrounding belief.
He writes in his book JESUS AMONG OTHER GODS:
"Philosophically, you can believe anything, so long as you
do not claim it to be true.
Morally you can practice anything, so long as you do not
claim that it is a 'better' way.
Religiously, you can hold to anything, so long as you do
not bring Jesus Christ into it."
#19543
2) The Antichrist will have a field day when he comes to
America.
a) He will stand for power and drama and lies.
1> People will eat it up.
b) Will you?
=====================================================================
====
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#17189 “She Believes What She Wants To Believe,” by Randy Cassingham,
News of the Weird internet newsletter; original article from
the Boston Globe, Boston Globe, January 15, 2002.
#19543 “Hard To Believe,” by Jill Carattini, A Slice of Infinity: Ravi
Zacharias International Ministries; September 14, 2003;
http://www.gospelcom.net/slice/
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=====================================================================
====
Copyright © 2018 by Rev. David Holwick

Challenges to Believers in View of the Day of
the Lord (2 Thes. 2:13-17)
Introduction
In strong contrast to the future of the perishing as just described in verses 10-12, Paul and his
team give thanks for the drastically different and glorious future of the Thessalonian believers
now described in verses 13-14. Here the believer’s future is described both from the standpoint
of God’s sovereign activity and man’s personal responsibility. In these verses we see a beautiful
balance that is so often missed as theologians discuss the issues of God’s sovereign election in
salvation versus man’s responsibility. In these two verses the apostle shows us the necessity and
fact of both in man’s salvation. The unfortunate tendency is man’s bent to swing the pendulum
from one extreme to the other so that the whole of God’s truth is not only missed, but one side is
blown out of proportion into such a grotesque caricature that the other side is completely
overshadowed. Scripture teaches both truths and this passage among others is one of the proofs
of that fact.
Can we understand it? Not really, for the more profound a truth is, the greater the difficulty finite
man has in understanding it. What is needed is the humility to face this as a part of our own
finiteness. For what is the Bible? It is the divine and special revelation of the mind of an infinite
God, which means the human reader is often brought beyond the limits of his own intelligence,
beyond his capacity of comprehension. Unless we come to recognize that our own wisdom and
intelligence are not enough, we will continue to distort what Scripture teaches on such difficult
issues. We must be ready to listen to God’s greater wisdom. Jesus alluded to this when He
prayed to God, “you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to
little children” (Luke 10:21). Too often men take the position of the wise and seek to use or
apply their own human logic to these difficult concepts of Scripture like divine sovereignty and
human volition, the trinity, and the divine/human natures of Christ united in one person. As a
result, they end up either rejecting, or misinterpreting, or distorting the plain teaching of the
Bible on these truths. They become as gods and act as though they have become God’s
instructors. But may we be reminded of the words of Isaiah.
Isaiah 40:13-14. Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor?
Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it
that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? (NIV)
Consequently, having assured these believers that they were not then in the Day of the Lord and
having contrasted their glorious future with that of the unbelieving world, the apostle returns to
matters at hand in verses 14-17, namely the present danger of failing to hold to what they had
been taught so that they might find their comfort and strength in that truth for fruitful living in
this present world. In this we see the necessary balance between prophecy and practical Christian
living.
Paul was a balanced Christian who had a balanced ministry; and we see evidence of this as he
brought his letter to a close. He moved from prophecy to practical Christian living. He turned

from the negative (Satan’s lies) to the positive (God’s truth), and from warning to thanksgiving
and prayer …
Paul’s emphasis was on the truth of God’s Word in contrast to Satan’s great lie which Paul
discussed in the previous section …79
The Believer’s Positionand Deliverance
(2:13-14)
2:13 But we ought to give thanks for you always, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because
God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in
the truth. 2:14 He called you to this salvation through our gospel, so that you may possess the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Thanksgiving of Paul and His Associates (2:13a)
“But we ought to give thanks for you always.” In characteristic fashion of a man who understood
the grace perspective of life, the apostle again gives thanks to God for the Thessalonians (see 1
Thes. 1:2, 2:13; 3:9; 2 Thes. 1:3) whose very salvation was, of course, the result of the love of
God. But as in 1:3, the apostle expresses this as a constant moral obligation that arises out of the
nature of God’s saving grace. As in 1:3, he again combines the present continuous tense of
opheilo, “to owe, be indebted,” with the adverb pantote, “at all times,” to stress the point of our
obligation to recognize the gracious and loving work of God in the salvation of men.
The apostle then describes them literally as “brethren, beloved by the Lord.” To do this he used
the perfect passive participle of agapao, “to love.” The participle is appositional (an explanatory
equivalent) to “brethren.” As brethren, they are “beloved by the Lord.” Contextually, this is what
we would call an intensive perfect because it stresses being loved as an abiding state resulting
from past action. As believers in Christ, having been loved by God in the past, we are the
constant recipients of God’s love in the present (see Rom. 8:39). Whatever has been done for us
in Christ springs from the eternal love of God, but as God’s children we continue to remain
recipients of that love. It was at the cross that God proved His love for sinners (Rom. 5:8).
With the word “because” (hoti, used here as a causal conjunction, “because, since”), Paul
described the stages of salvation as the outworking of His love.
God’s Sovereign Activity in Salvation (2:13b, 14a)
(1) He chose them from the beginning for salvation (2:13b). In this statement, as it springs
from God’s eternal love, we see the ultimate cause and source of our salvation in Christ—divine
selection. “Chose” is from the verb aireo, “to pick, take,” but in the middle voice it means “to
choose.” The form of the verb (an aorist indicative middle of past action) plus the words, “from
the beginning,”80 point to the pre-temporal choice of God which the apostle usually places
alongside their historical call (vs. 14). This choice was not on the basis of their love for God (1
John 4:10) or any merit on their part, but because of God’s love for them. The middle voice (an
intensive middle, “he chose for or by Himself) stresses this truth. The next clause, however, will
expand on this. The words, “for salvation,” express the purpose or goal. What is stated here is
said in contrast to those who are perishing because they have no love for the truth (vs. 12). Thus,
Paul states that the goal is salvation for those chosen by the sanctifying work of the Spirit and
belief in the truth, the gospel. “Salvation” is soteria, “deliverance, salvation.” But again, the New
Testament teaches us that our salvation in Christ has three phases or aspects. The past, saved
from the penalty of sin, the present, being delivered from the reign and power of sin, and the

future, being in the presence of God throughout eternity. This salvation is a matter of present
confidence, enjoyment, and future anticipation in contrast to those who will go through the Day
of the Lord.
(2) He sanctified them (set them apart) by the Spirit (2:13c). Exactly how God chose them for
or by Himself is now amplified. First, it was “through the sanctification by the Spirit.”
“Sanctification” is the Greek hagiasmos from hagiazo, “to consecrate, set apart, sanctify.” It
carries the idea of a “setting apart” from the secular to that which is holy or reserved for God’s
special purposes. In this there is the present, progressive sanctifying work of the Spirit designed
to bring believers to spiritual maturity and conform them into the character of Christ. But in the
context here, Paul refers to the preliminary work of the Spirit to illuminate, convict, and lead a
person to faith in Christ (cf. John 16:8f; Acts 1:8; 16:14; 1 Pet. 1:2). This reminds us of the
principle that we may (and should) sow and water the seed of the Word, but ultimately, it is God
who brings the increase or enables the seed to germinate and sprout up in the heart of those to
whom we witness.
The second means God uses is “faith in the truth.” This will be covered below under “Man’s
Responsibility in Salvation.”
(3) He called them to this salvation through the Gospel (2:14a). Literally, the Greek text
reads, “unto which (referring to salvation, the main idea of verse 13) He called you through our
gospel.” “Our gospel” naturally refers to the message about the person and work of Jesus Christ.
This is also “the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (1:8). In verse 13 Paul spoke of God’s pre-temporal
choosing of the Thessalonians for salvation. Here he speaks of the actual work of bringing them
to Himself by calling them through the message of the gospel. “Call” is aorist of the verb kaleo,
“call, invite.” The aorist tense looks back to the time when the missionaries visited Thessalonica
and they heard the gospel in what the missionaries preached.
(4) He gave them the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2:14b). “So that you may possess the
glory of our Lord Jesus” points us to the ultimate goal—sharing in the glory of eternity with the
Lord Jesus. Here we see what began in His past eternal councils finds its ultimate fulfillment in
eternity future. However, as seen in 1:10, sharing in the glory of Christ will begin with His
parousia when He comes with the church to be glorified in His saints (see also 1 Thes. 5:9).
… What begins with grace always leads to glory. This is quite a contrast to the future assigned to
the lost (2 Thes. 1:8-10). Believers already possess God’s glory within (John 17:22; not the past
tense in Rom. 8:30— “glorified”). We are awaiting Christ’s return, and then the glory shall be
revealed (2 Thes. 1:10; Rom. 8:17-19).
When sinners believe God’s truth, God saves them. When they believe Satan’s lie, and reject the
love of the truth, they cannot be saved (2 Thes. 2:10-12). Being neutral about God’s truth is a
dangerous thing. It has tragic eternal consequences.81
Man’s Responsibility in Salvation (2:13d)
As pointed to above, this is brought out in the words, “… and faith in the truth.” As the God who
ordained the end and chose us for salvation and the possession of the glory of Christ, so likewise
He has ordained the means as it pertains to man’s responsibility. This responsibility is linked, of
course, to the sanctifying work of the Spirit. That responsibility is faith in the truth as it is found
in the gospel message of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Repeatedly, the apostle has
referred to the personal faith of the Thessalonians (see 1 Thes. 1:3 with 1:9; 2:13; 2 Thes. 1:10).

God’s election in no way bypasses the need of personal faith in Christ. These two must be held
in balance.
It is dangerous to engage in idle speculation about divine sovereignty and human responsibility.
Both are taught in the Bible. We know that “salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9), and that lost
sinners can never save themselves. We must admit that there are mysteries to our salvation; but
we can rejoice that there are certainties on which we can rest. We must not use the doctrine of
election to divide the church or disturb the weak, but to glorify the Lord.82
The Believer’s Practice andResponsibility
(2:15-17)
Hold Firmly to the Truth (2:15)
2:15 Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions that we taught you,
whether by speech or by letter.
Paul now turns to a practical responsibility that flows out of all that has been said in verses 1-14.
They are called on to stand firm (1) because of the glorious deliverance that awaited them at the
coming of the Lord (2:1), (2) because of the false teaching that had disturbed them (2:2-3), and
(3) because of Satan’s working of error and the tragic future of those who had not believed the
truth (2:9-10).
“Therefore” is ara oun. Ara is a coordinating or inferential conjunction, “so then, consequently,”
but here it is strengthened with oun, another conjunction (inferential and transitional) meaning
“therefore, then.” Ara points to the inference drawn from the preceding context and oun to the
transitional focus or exhortation that should result.83
Even though they were not in the Day of the Lord and could never be because they had not been
appointed to wrath, but to deliverance (1 Thes. 1:10; 5:9), still they, as all believers in the church
age, are living in a time when the mystery of lawlessness is always at work. In this regard there
is a present danger of deception and a growing apostasy (1 Tim. 4:1f; 2 Tim. 3:1f). Thus,
believers must stand firm and hold on with a strong grip to the truth Paul and his associates had
taught them. With the words “stand firm” we have the call for stability in contrast to being
shaken or disturbed (2:2). With the words “hold on to the traditions …” we have the means to
maintain the needed stability.
Both “stand firm” and “hold on” are in the continuous present tense and the imperative mood,
the mood of command. In this context, where some had been shaken from their composure (2:2),
it carries the force of “begin and continue to stand firm and hold on.” The verb “stand firm” is
steko, “to stand,” but it is used figuratively in the sense of “standing firm” or “being steadfast.” It
calls for believers to become spiritually stable because of the many and strong winds of false
doctrine that always blow across the landscape of human history (see Eph. 4:14). The means for
stability is found in the command to “hold on.” “Hold on” is the verb krateo, which first means,
“to be strong, mighty,” hence, “to rule, be master, prevail.” From this it came to mean “to hold
on to something strongly or tightly so that it cannot be lost or taken away.” The focus, of course,
is on the object to be held tightly, “the traditions that we taught you” because this provides the
source of stability like a sailor clinging to the mast of a ship in rough seas.
“Traditions” is paradosis, which is literally, “a handing down” or “passing on.” The verb form,
paradidomi, “to hand over,” and its noun cognate, paradosis, should not be taken lightly. They do
not mean tradition as it is often understood in modern English in the sense of mere human

Jesus was the giver of double blessings

Jesus was the giver of double blessings

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