TRUTH FOR A TROUBLED CHURCH

COUNSEL FOR A PROPAGATING CHURCH #3 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

The church at Thessalonica was an aggressive church. They were actively engaged in the matter of reaching others with the gospel. They were proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ. They were busy in the building of the church.

When it comes to building and construction, you need a set of blueprints. Blueprints are detailed scaled drawings that describe how the building should look when it is completed. Blueprints are guidelines to instruct the builders from the foundation to the finishing touches.

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Does a contractor that is building a house look at the blueprints at the beginning of the week and then proceed to build the house without looking at the plans all week until the next week? Does he not carry the blueprints with him and check everything he does by the blueprints making sure he is not building something wrong. Blueprints are very important to the success of a house being built right? How much time do builders take studying the blueprints for what they are building?

Paul is now going to exhort them as well as us to follow the blueprints in the building of the Lord’s church.

I. THE FOUNDATION UPON WHICH WE BUILD (13,14)

Shanghai, the largest city in China is facing a unique problem due to ongoing development. City leaders have decided to drastically decrease the construction of new high-rise buildings

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because the weight of steel and concrete is causing the city to sink.

Parts of Shanghai are sinking at the rate of one and half centimeters a year. Engineers say the cause is a massive building boom, which has transformed the skyline of the city over the past several years. Shanghai is already home to the tallest building in China.

Shanghai is built on a drained swamp, and the city is gradually sinking below the level of the nearby river. Though the construction of new skyscrapers will be curtailed, the problem may be irreversible because so many buildings have already been built or are under construction.

The foundation of any building is important. Our Lord emphasized that in one of His parables where he emphasized against building on the sand and exhorted us to build on a solid foundation.

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The foundation on which a church should build on is the redemptive plan and program of God.

A. BELIEVERS ARE CHOSEN BY GOD (13)

“But we are bound to give thanks alway 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”

1. WHY DID GOD CHOOSE US? It is seen in the words "beloved

of the Lord.” Many people find it difficult to believe that anyone could love them. We hide our sin from ourselves, and from others. "How could God love me since I do not even love myself?" God loves you and I because of who He is, not because of who we are (John 3:16).

The why of God's choice of us is His love. God chose us because He loved us. The

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wonderful thing about the love of God is that God who knows everything knows everything there is to know about you and I, and yet He still loves us.

You never have to doubt whether or not God loves you. God proved His love by letting His Son Jesus die on the cross for your sins. So, He chose us because He loves us.

The original act in our salvation was with God, not with man. When God chose us to salvation, He did not choose us because we were lovely. He did not choose us because He saw something in us that He did not see in others. But He chose us because He loved us!

2. WHEN DID GOD CHOOSE US - "From the beginning chosen you."

Ephesians 1:4 puts it this way, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." Before you were ever born God chose you. Before you were ever born God set His love on you.

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Charles Spurgeon said, "God surely must have chosen me before I was born because He never would have chosen me after I was born." Why did God choose us? Because he loves us. When did God choose us…“from the beginning”

3. WHERE DID GOD CHOOSE US – “chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world," (Ephesains 1:4).

Election is the sovereign act of God whereby He chose IN CHRIST JESUS for salvation all those who would believe. God chose IN CHRIST. God chose believers in Christ unto salvation.

4. WHEREBY DID GOD CHOOSE US - “through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth”

a. THROUGH DIVINE

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SOVEREIGNTY - "through sanctification of the Spirit"

The word “sanctification” means to be set apart. He is talking about that setting apart work of the Holy Spirit. You come to Christ because you are convicted of your need of Christ. You are only convicted of your need of Christ by the Holy Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit enables a person lost in sin to understand the truth of the gospel. The ministry of the Spirit is not to convict of sins (plural). The purpose of the ministry of the Spirit is not to make us realize what awful sinners we are. That may be a part of the process, but that is not the point. What the Spirit desires to impress upon an unsaved person is the one fact that he is not saved because he has not believed. The Holy Spirit must bring a person to the place where it is realized that the one obstacle standing between the lost soul and eternal salvation is lack of faith in Christ.

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b. THROUGH HUMAN REPSONSIBILTY - "belief of the truth..."

The second way whereby God chose us for salvation is through "belief of the truth." This is the human side of salvation. God places responsibility on the individual to believe in the death of Christ for salvation.

It takes two simultaneous actions for salvation to occur: 1) the ministry of the Holy Spirit and 2) the execution of our faith in the finished work of Christ.

Dwight L. Moody, the founder of Moody Bible Institute used to say, "The whosoever wills are the elect, and whosoever won'ts are the non-elect."

B. BELIEVERS ARE CALLED OF GOD (14)

“Whereunto he called you by our

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gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Your salvation was ordained in eternity past. It is wrought out in the present. He says that he called you by our gospel. The wonderful call of God to a lost person is done through the gospel.

I am reminded again how the Apostle

Paul is jealous for the gospel. In Galatians he pronounces a curse upon anyone who does not preach the true gospel. He believed in preaching the gospel.

One of the tragedies of Christianity in our day is that there is so little clear preaching of the gospel. The gospel has an essential place in the program of God. People are saved only as they hear the gospel and respond to it in simple faith.

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The preaching of the gospel is God’s means for realizing in time what God had planned in eternity.

“to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ-” What begins in grace will conclude in glory.

II. THE FACTS BY WHICH WE BUILD (15)

“Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”

There are certain facts that every builder must know and build with. In building the church ……

A. WE BUILD WITH A STEADFAST MIND – “stand fast”

The story is told of a young boy who grew up on a ranch where his father raised thoroughbred horses. It was a common sight for

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the boy to watch the young thoroughbreds being trained to jump obstacles and race with their long, easy strides. However, because the young thoroughbreds are overly-sensitive and high-spirited, the heart of the boy grew fond of an aged, retired thoroughbred that had been pushed aside and given little attention. The boy took on the responsibility of feeding, bathing, and taking the horse on gallops around the ranch. One day as the boy was brushing the shiny coat of the horse, a potential buyer was walking around the ranch. When he came upon the aged thoroughbred he said to the boy, "I bet your horse doesn't run fast anymore does he?"

The young boy stopped brushing and looked up with pride saying, "No sir, my horse doesn't run fast anymore, but he does stand fast."

When I think of the one distinguishing characteristic that set apart Christians in the early church from the brand of Christianity we see today it is the fact they knew how to "stand fast."

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1. TO "STAND FAST" MEANS TO LIVE WITHOUT RETREAT

I read recently the best lumber for building comes from trees that have weathered many difficult storms. In much the same way, the lives that make the greatest impact are those who when the winds have ceased from howling and the waves have grown calm are still standing victoriously at their post.

2. TO “STAND FAST” MEANS TO LIVE WITH RESOLVE

During World War 2, the British soldiers had a motto: "R.F.A." This meant ready for anything. Before conflict ever arrived they had determined to keep on standing fast.

Paul may have summed it up best when he wrote in Ephesians 6: 13-14, "...and having done all to stand. Stand therefore...". We

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need some Christian that will live with determination.

B. WE BUILD WITH A STEADFAST MANUAL.

“hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”

The word for “traditions” means that which is handed over or handed down. This is not the tradition of men but the content that Paul and his gospel team taught when they were in Thessalonica. The team handed over divine truth to the Thessalonians for their possession and protection.

If they hold fast what they have taught they would not be shaken in mind or troubled (2:1).

Paul tells them to hold the truth fast . The tendency in our day is always to be looking for something new and different. There is need to realize that truth is not new. H. A. Ironside used to

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say, “What is new is not true, and what is true is not new.”

III. THE FUTURE TOWARD WHICH WE BUILD (16,17)

“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 stablish you in every good word and work.”

It is a future filled with “good hope through grace.”

Paul fully realized that though he might teach them and exhort them, ultimately God must work within the individual by His grace to bring about His will. Paul knew that if his teaching and exhortation was to be effective, it had to be accomplished with God’s intervention. Notice how Paul builds towards the future, and it is this future that he prays about.

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A. HE PRAYS THAT THEY MIGHT BE ENCOURAGED BY GOD

When Paul was with them, he encouraged them individually as a father does his children (1 Thes. 2:11). He sent Timothy to encourage them (1 Thes. 3:2).

He taught them about the Rapture of the church in order that they might encourage each other (1 Thes. 4:1). To calm their fears, he explained the Day of the Lord to them (1 Thes. 5:11). However, Paul was fully aware that the God was the God of all comfort.

God is a great specialist in encouragement. He knows exactly how to give it!

God is the God of all comfort. He’s completely sufficient and adequate for the experiences of life.

Some people think of God as a power, but He's a Person. Some think of Him as a force, but He's my Father.

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There was a little girl who fell in love with the story of "The Three Little Pigs." Every night she demanded that it be read to her. But the parents thought of their tape recorder, and they recorded the story, and they taught their little girl how to turn it on and off. This worked for a couple of nights, but then one evening she brought the story book to her father and said, "Read it to me." "Honey," he replied, "you know how to turn on the tape recorder, don't you?"

"Yes," she answered, "but I can't sit on its lap." Oh, how good it is to have a living, loving Comforter, on whom we can rest and in whom we can find shelter.

B. HE PRAYS THAT THEY MIGHT BE ESTABLISHED BY GOD – “stablish you in every good word and work”

The word "establish" means to fix, make fast, to set. Paul wants to make the Thessalonians stable and firm.

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It is God who establishes, but He uses people to accomplish His work. A great need in our churches is for Christians who will take time to establish the younger believers. Individual discipleship is so important.

Paul was concerned about two aspects of their Christian life: their word and their work, their saying and their doing. If our walk contradicts our words, we lose our testimony. Our "walk" and our "talk" must agree.

A lot of us are good at talking but not good at walking. Paul wants their walk to match their talk.

Our lip and life, talk and walk, "word and work" must match each other. Most of us are more talk than walk. We need more walk than talk.

Conclusion

As we wait and are busy about the work of the Lord may we remember the foundation

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upon which we build, the facts with which we build, and the future toward which we build.

God wants us to run with the gospel, not walk. It is one thing for the gospel to walk and it is another for it to run. We should each have a burden to spread the gospel widely. The Gospel is effective when we share it to those without Christ. The gospel is not effective if we do not share it.

Let us arise and be out the Master’s commission!

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