Title: THE END OF THE MATTER
Author: JR
Last saved by: Andrew Nugteren
Company: URBANINITIATIVES

HOLDING ON WHILE OTHERS FALL AWAY
2 Peter 1:1-11   2 Thessalonians 2:1-14 (text: verses 12-13)
Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, when I read that story of Elijah, after he had faced down those four hundred priests of Baal on Mount Carmel and then been hounded by the wicked Jezebel, in his depression under the juniper tree in the Negev and he cried out to God, "Lord, I'm the only one left, take me," I can understand him. Sometimes it's hard to keep going. Sometimes it's hard to maintain your conviction that you're in the right, when apparently everybody else is going in the other direction, especially when you seem to be in a minority and when some from your own 'party', for want of a term, seem to be turning about and falling away. 

And Christians can feel like that today. The era in which Christianity shaped Western culture may well have gone. And a good deal of that has been lead by the Church, or connived in by the Church. So now you have the Episcopal Church of the United States ordaining homosexual bishops; and the Canadian Anglican, John Spong, who wants to restore integrity to the Church but denies its most basic tenet – God! You have evangelicals or Reformed people denying eternal punishment, promoting the doctrine of universalism, that all everywhere will be saved, regardless of what they do with Christ; or even that non-Christians may be saved if they live like Christ. I quote there Clarke Pinnock, who still wants to be regarded as an evangelical. Faith in Focus had a little snippet in its latest edition in which a poll conducted by George Barna found that only 9% of Christians in the United States who claim to born again hold to basic biblical doctrines of evangelicalism. 

The apostle Paul was concerned that the Thessalonians might feel the same way – for different reasons, but the same sort of possibility of doubt is with them. They had believed in Jesus Christ. That was a new religion so far as the pagan world was concerned. And because they denied the pagan gods and refused to call anyone Lord but Jesus Christ, Christianity wasn't received too well. Furthermore, it was a religion that claimed to grow out of the religion of the Jewish people, yet the Jews hated it. And these Christians who had been converted in Thessalonica were not the intelligentsia. They were, in the main, ordinary working men and women. So it would not have been hard for them to take a step back and think, "Well, are we right? is Christianity right? or have we made a big mistake?" 

Add to that that Paul has also talked about an apostasy, a great falling away from the faith. "How will we be sure that we will not fall away from the faith and end up being destroyed as both the leaders and the followers of that apostasy will?" So Paul wants to guard against this fear. He wants to show them why they should not think this way about themselves. He wants them also to see how greatly different is the destiny that Christ has for them so as to stir them up to gratitude. "Because you know the terrible end of the wicked and the glorious destiny that Christ has in store for you, therefore, continue to hold on to the truth. Don't you fear that deluding influence," Paul says, "Don't you fear judgement, I don't fear that you will get entangled in this coming falling away. We, Silvanus, Timothy and I (who wrote the letter), we don't fear for you. About you, Thessalonian Christians, we can only give thanks that you are beloved by the Lord." 

But think about the Thessalonian Christians reading that and hearing that "You are beloved by the Lord." Is that the answer? or was that the question? Were they loved by God? How could they and how could Paul know they were loved by God? I want to say three things. 

1.	GOD HAS CHOSEN AND CALLED THEM
Listen, verse 13, "But we should always give thanks to God for you brethren beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation;" and verse 14, "It was for this he called you through our gospel." The first thing Paul said that we need to understand about our salvation is that it is of God. The Thessalonian Christians should not fear that they would be deluded so as to believe what was false and therefore be judged. They should not fear the appearance of Jesus' coming that would slay the Lawless One because they were – and we also, congregation, are – chosen by God from the beginning for salvation. 

This is what makes our salvation so certain. It is God's work, not ours. And this is an old doctrine. Way back in Deuteronomy chapter 7 before the Israelites went over the Jordan into the promised land, Moses said to them, "Listen, the Lord did not set his love on you or choose you because you were more in number than any of the other peoples of the world. No. As a matter of fact, you were the fewest. But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh." 

People of God, that is where our salvation comes from. It's God's work and therefore it's a perfect work. And because it's God's work and we, each one of us, are saved because he chose each one of us individually from the foundation of the world, it doesn't matter if we're in a minority. 

Of course, we might ask questions about that. Why is it that so often, apparently, there are so few who believe? I don't know the answer to that question. But remember Elijah; because God came along and said, "Hang on a minute Elijah, I've got seven thousand others in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal. 

But still, it is true that that's the way it often appears and I don't know why but it is a fact and it has been a fact so often in history. Think about Abraham in Canaan when he was first called. Think about Elijah. Think about the righteous in 600BC when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and the Jews were hauled off into exile in Babylon. Think of the number of the faithful at the time of Jesus' birth. Just Joseph and Mary, Zacharias and Elizabeth. Joseph was a carpenter, Zacharias just an ordinary priest. Think of the faithful at Jesus' death, three women and the apostle John around the cross. Now no doubt there were others on the outskirts of the crowd. No doubt there were others who couldn't look, gone home utterly bewildered. But still, it was down to that sort of number. And at Pentecost there were a whole one hundred and twenty waiting for the Holy Spirit. 

However much we might ask our questions, that is how God does work for some reason. Paul knew that they were loved by God and that, because they were chosen by God from the beginning – before the beginning actually – God would not send the deluding influence on them. Rather, he would preserve them in the truth and they would be saved. 

Furthermore, Paul knew that they were chosen by God in eternity because also in time, when Paul visited Thessalonica, they were called through the Gospel. Now when Paul says that they were called through the Gospel, he doesn't just mean that they heard him preach, but that through the Gospel, through hearing it, God by his Spirit called them to believe. Paul had said this to them in his first letter, in the first chapter. He says, "We know God has chosen you, for our Gospel did not come to you in word only but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in full conviction." The Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit had really penetrated their hearts. It had broken down their prejudices against it and they'd put their faith in it, and in he whom the Gospel is all about, in Jesus Christ. 
And so it has in you, people of God. And we should therefore believe that since God has brought us to believe it now, over against all the prevailing opinion of the world, why should not the Gospel command our hearts and our allegiance in the future? 

But Paul goes on. He says, "Apart from the fact that we believe in response to the Gospel, there is further evidence in the lives of the Thessalonians why they should not fear, why they should believe they will not fall away with the rest of the world, by which they may be assured in their hearts that they really were chosen by God and called by his Gospel to salvation. So secondly,

2.	THEY WERE HOLY AND BELIEVED THE TRUTH
In other words, they were completely unlike the people involved in the Apostasy. Well, by definition, of course they were different; they believed and did not fall away. They had not been deluded into believing in the lie, they still believed the Gospel. 

You see congregation, this is not a bad question: how do I know that God has chosen me? For our name, the names of those whom God has chosen are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, Revelation chapter 20. But that book is in heaven and we don't have access to that book. We're not given access to the deliberations of God's mind, his decisions, his plans for the world; or as the theologians call it, his decrees, or the secret counsel of his will. But we are given access to this book on earth. And John says, in that same book of Revelation, "Blessed is he who heeds the prophecies written in this book." I know that is a promise that particularly applies to the promises of the book of Revelation, but the whole Bible's in the book of Revelation! The book of Revelation is only a summing-up. 

So Paul says, "We should always give thanks to God for you brethren beloved by the Lord because God has chosen you from the beginning of the world for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." In other words, there is no salvation without sanctification and faith in the truth. There are things in our lives then, which flow directly and necessarily out of salvation and by which, if we see them in our lives, we may be assured of our faith and of the fact that God has chosen and called us. 

And Paul had seen these things in the lives of the Thessalonians. 
#	They were sanctified by the Spirit. The leader of the apostasy was not just a man who did not believe; he was lawless. He opposed God. He exalted himself against God. He was a deceiver who took pleasure in wickedness. And none of those things were true of the Thessalonians. Paul constantly gave thanks for "their work of faith, their labour of love, their steadfastness of hope," chapter 1 of the first letter. They were an example in all of these things to all the other churches in Greece. Instead of opposing God and exalting themselves, they suffered at the hands of their countrymen for "turning to the true God and serving him," the first two chapters of the first letter. And in respect of sexual and economical, financial, morality, yes, Paul had some concerns. But by and large they lived in those matters as they ought to as well, chapter four of the first letter. He only exhorted them to "excel still more." They were sanctified by the Spirit. 

#	They had faith in the truth. The leader of the apostasy was going to come with lying miracles and his followers would be taken in by those lying miracles because "they did not receive a love of the truth." That is why they didn't believe the truth; rather they believed what was false, verses eleven and twelve of our chapter this morning. But that was not true of the Thessalonians. The proof of the pudding is always in the eating. And that's a Bible doctrine too: "By their fruits ye shall know them." And we are to bear fruit through the heat of the day and over the long term despite the cares of the world. Think about the parable of the sower. And so these Thessalonians did. They had clung to the faith despite persecution. 

The point Paul is trying to make is this. It is true, Christianity is about maybe at a particular point in time, particularly if you have become a Christian from a non-Christian environment, you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But Christianity is not just a once upon a moment thing. It's not a fly by night thing. It has ongoing consequences in our lives. There may well be a point, a decisive point in time when we are first convicted and we put our faith in Christ and we confess him as our Lord. If we have been born in a Christian home and born into the Church, it may not come quite like that. But still there must come a growing conviction that I belong to Jesus Christ, I believe in him. His God, his father is my God; he is my maker and he rules me as he rules the world and he has my destiny in his hand. And that results in a life-long commitment and a certain kind of lifestyle. 

And Paul says, "This is all true of you Thessalonian believers. Through all of this persecution you've clung to the faith, you've given yourselves to living holy lives. That's the work of the Spirit of God in you. That's a mark of your election. That shows that you really have been called by the Gospel." 

And brothers and sisters, this is one of the ways we may know too. We're not saved by our godly living. That would be a pretty unsure foundation for our faith because sometimes we doubt and we know also that our holiness is a pretty tarnished article often. Nevertheless, faith and holiness charactise our heart's desires. They are the general drift of our lives. 

And it's not just Paul who tells us this. Peter spoke about this very clearly in those verses that we read from him too. Peter talks about adding to our faith certain moral qualities and then he says, "For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore brethren be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you, for as long as you practice these things you will never stumble. In this way the entrance to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be abundantly opened to you." 

Do you find these things in your heart, people of God? Not the perfection of them. The Thessalonians didn't have that either. And notice how Peter puts it here. He doesn't expect perfection either, but he says, "If these qualities are yours and are increasing." They're not perfect, but you're growing in them. They are the desires of our hearts: to cling to life in Christ by faith and constantly to struggle against the temptations that the devil plagues us with; then you may be assured by that. 

And this, of course, answers the charge that was thrown at the apostle Paul and which he answers in Romans chapter six and which charge was thrown at the Reformers again in the 16th century. We are saved by Christ's righteousness being imputed to us, just credited to our account by nothing that we have done at all, as an absolutely free gift. But that's not the only thing God does. He works in us as well. He causes us to be born again, to be sanctified by the Spirit. His grace is free, sure, and it's had by faith alone, but it's not cheap. Not only did it cost Christ a lot, it can be very demanding upon us too. It demands that we strive to be like our master, that we grow more like our father in heaven. And if the sincere and persistent desires for that are in our hearts, then we should be thankful for that and we should be assured. 

And then finally
3.	THEY WERE DESTINED FOR GLORY
"It was for this he called you through our Gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ," verse fourteen. Paul has said a lot about glory in these letters. In chapter two, verse twelve of the first letter, he had exhorted them to "walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his kingdom and glory." He speaks about this wonderfully in Philippians chapter three as well where he says, "Our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory." 

In his resurrection body, the Lord Jesus was no longer confined by the limitations of flesh and blood. He was still truly human; he ate and drank as in the past. But at the same time he could appear or disappear at will, without coming through the door. Now I'm not sure we will have the ability to do that in our resurrection bodies, but we will be perfect. We will then share fully in the divine nature ethically, morally speaking. All the effects of sin on the world will be gone for us: the sadness from our hearts, the worry from our minds, the sickness in any form from our bodies. And I suppose there are some of us particularly who will be looking forward to that. 

But listen to the fate of the wicked.
#	Verse three, "The man of lawlessness is … the son of destruction." That is, he's destined for destruction. 
#	Verse eight, "The Lord will slay him with the breath of his mouth when he comes." 
#	Verse 10, "Those who follow him will likewise perish." 
#	Verse 12, "And they all who do not believe the truth will be judged." 

But, says Paul, "we have been chosen from the beginning, and now called by the Gospel for salvation, through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth, that we may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may share his glory." That congregation, is the reason God caused you to be born where you were, to whomever you were, and brought through all the circumstances of life that you have been brought through and to hear the call of the Gospel as you have, that you would gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

How grateful we should be, shouldn't we? We could have been left in our sins to be deceived by the lie, to be judged by the Holy One, to perish in "eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord." But instead, what is our lot? It is glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

So Paul says, "You should not fear that you will miss out on that, for some of that glory is already growing up within you, the glory of the perfect moral nature of Christ, the glory of the same complete trust that he had in his God and father. Some of that is growing up in you." As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, "As we with unveiled face now, with minds enlightened by the Spirit, behold in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being bit by bit transformed into the same image, from glory to glory." 

People of God, that is what God is doing in us. Therefore, we should not doubt. We should be assured. 									Amen.

John Rogers, Reformed Church of the North Shore, 22^nd February, 2004