The Sovereignty of God and Prayer - 7

Well, our text for today in 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 1 through 5, serves as something of a bridge between chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 2 concludes Paul's section that is primarily doctrinal instructions. Chapters 1 and 2 had a lot to say about the second coming of Christ. It had some things to say about the doctrine of election and other areas of instructions that Paul gave to the church in order to help them with their understanding of truth. It was very important for their growing in grace. And now in chapter 3, he's going to come to a number of exhortations.

We might call them practical exhortations, but they really are very strong. He's going to come to a series of rebukes and corrections which need to be made, some activity going on in the church which should not be taking place in a body of Christian believers. And he's going to have to deal with that as the founder of the church and as an apostle of Jesus Christ. But before he gets there, he prepares the way with the section that is before us in which, first of all, he requests the Thessalonian believers pray for him in verses 1 and 2. And then in verse 5, he prays for them and their growth in grace.

In the middle, he has some other things that we'll talk about in a moment, but here we have five verses and three of the five, in one way or another, deal with prayer. And that, after closely following Paul's declaration in chapter 2, verse 13 about the sovereignty of God and salvation. I think it's interesting how Paul puts these two things together without blinking an eye, without an explanation, without trying to tell us how it is that God can be sovereign on the one hand and we need to pray on the other hand.

That seems to be a problem with some people. If God is sovereign, why should I pray? Somehow that didn't bother Paul. Paul believed that God is sovereign in every area, including salvation. In fact, if God isn't sovereign in everything, he's really not sovereign.

Sovereign means everything when it's properly understood. And so Paul said in verse 13 of chapter 2, but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth. Finally, brethren, chapter 3, verse 1, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for not all have faith. Do you see the connection here?

God has chosen you before the foundation of the world and having done that, he is going to infallibly bring his chosen ones into union with Christ and into heaven that cannot fail. So brethren, pray for us that the gospel may run swiftly, that the gospel may have its intended effect, that opponents of the gospel will not be successful in stopping the gospel. Does that seem like a contradiction to you? But if it does, and I'm sure all of us have probably entertained thoughts like that at one time or another, it surely was not a contradiction in the mind of the apostle Paul. And so therefore we need to pay attention to what he tells us here as he brings together these two elements, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, and here particularly the element of prayer. And these elements have perplexed some people, but he brings them together in the very same context and shows us how they are not opponents, one of another.

They are friends, one to another, by the perfect design of God. And so today the sovereignty of God in prayer, the prayers of God's people as a divinely designed component of his sovereign purposes. In verses 1 and 2 we see prayer needed for gospel success. In verses 3 and 4 we see prayer answered in persevering faith. And in verse 5 we see prayer offered for enabling grace. Prayer needed for gospel success. Finally, brethren, Paul says, pray for us. This shows us something of the prominence of prayer in the mind of the apostle Paul.

Finally, finally, brethren, and finally in the original language carries the idea of something like for the rest, as for what remains. We've already dealt with a number of things, but there are still some important things to deal with. And so for the rest of what remains that needs to be said, I begin with prayer. There are other things as well, but I begin with prayer that must be included in the things that must be said before this epistle can be considered complete. That tells us of the prominence of prayer.

It's prominence. Finally, it's necessity. You pray. Finally, brethren, pray for us. Along with the Thessalonians' need to be prayed for, they also needed to pray for others.

You see what Paul is saying? They needed to be prayed for, and Paul had prayed for them. In fact, he closed out chapter 2 with a prayer for them. Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. That's a prayer that Paul prayed for them.

But now he comes right back and says, as it were, I have prayed for you now. You pray for me. You pray for us, the missionary team.

We need your prayers as much as you need ours. Prayer is necessary. It is necessary for worship.

It is necessary for spiritual growth. Even if we don't understand the connection between God's sovereign, unchangeable, unopposed, unstoppable purposes and how our prayers figure into the accomplishment of those purposes, we don't even need to understand that connection if we understand that prayer is part of our growth and development. Prayer is our worship to God. God tells us how He wants to be worshipped, and there are a number of elements in how God wants us to worship Him. But one of the most important ones is He wants us to pray to Him. And that in itself is enough reason to pray, isn't it, brethren? If Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth and the one who saved our souls, says, Now I want you to worship me by praying to me, then what else do we need to know? And we bow our hearts and we say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And we worship God in prayer. And we learn that as we do that, as we are faithful and obedient in prayer, that this is one of the means that God uses to bring about growth and grace. We know that we are commanded to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

How does that come about? Well, like so many things, there's a divine element, there's a human element. On the divine side, God works in our lives. God enables us to grow.

We couldn't do it without Him. Without me, said Jesus, you couldn't do nothing. But on the other hand, we pray and in our prayers as we recognize our neediness, as we recognize our insufficiency, as we confess our sins, as we review the gospel, as we claim again the promises of God, as we reach up to God in prayer, what are we doing?

We are growing in grace. Now, there's another reason. Here's two reasons without any understanding of the connection between what God has purposed and what God is going to accomplish through prayer.

If we know that God has determined that He will be worshiped by His people through their prayers and God has determined that He's going to use our prayers to bring us to greater maturity in growing in grace, then is there anything else we need to know but to just say, Lord, teach us to pray and help me to pray? Isn't that enough? Surely it must be. And so the prominence of prayer and the necessity of prayer and the fellowship of prayer, what I have called in my notes the reciprocity of prayer. There's a big word, isn't it? But it's just simply this.

I've already touched on it. Paul says we are praying for you. Now you pray for us.

It goes both ways. Some Christians act as if, oh, if I could just get the prayer of some great saint, some prominent person, some spiritual bigwig, as if there is such a thing. If I could get the prayers of a person like that for me, then surely my prayers would be answered without any thought that the person that you are appealing to for prayer needs your prayers as much as you need theirs and that you have as much responsibility to pray for them as they have to pray for you and they have as much need of your prayers as you have need of their prayers. There is a fellowship in prayer. There's a reciprocity in prayer. We need to pray for one another and it goes both ways.

And there is this commonality that's involved in this fellowship of prayer. Excuse me, because what Paul is teaching us here is that all of us are equally in need of prayer and all of us are equally qualified to pray. Do you need prayer more than Paul? No. Does Paul need prayer more than you? No. We're all equally in need of prayer.

Agreed? We're all equally in need of prayer. And, and this is the part that not everybody has laid hold of, we are all, if we're children of God, if we're born-again children of God, we are all equally qualified to pray. You're not going to get any better results getting the preacher to pray for you than to, say, get your husband or wife to pray for you or some other fellow believer to pray for you.

I'm no more qualified to pray for you than the weakest saint who will pray in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are all equally qualified to pray and we all equally need prayer. So let us be busy before the throne of grace, praying in the fellowship of prayer as we uphold one another before the Lord in prayer, the nature of prayer. Notice the requests of prayer. What does Paul ask them to pray for specifically?

And it's the last part of verse one and verse two. Pray that, number one, the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you. And number two, that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for not all have faith. Paul's two prayer requests are, number one, for the success of the gospel and number two, for the protection of gospel messengers.

Two requests that obviously are joined together in some part, but they do have separate elements that need to be considered in their separateness. And so Paul asks two things. Number one, pray for the success of the gospel. Pray that the gospel may, in different translations, say spread rapidly or similar words, but the Greek word is literally run. The translations that have run have got the most literal rendering of the word here.

Pray that the gospel may run. And my translation adds in italics swiftly because swiftly is not a separate word to modify the word run, but it really is included in the idea of run. This is run like a runner, run like somebody who's running a race.

That's the word that is used. So obviously the idea is to run quickly, to run swiftly, to run successfully. Pray that the gospel will spread rapidly is the request of Paul in regard to the gospel and its present tense. So pray that the gospel may be running rapidly, may be spreading quickly, and not only spreading quickly but joined to it may be glorified just as it is with you. And again, present tense, that the gospel may be spreading quickly and that as it is spreading it is being glorified wherever it goes. And for it to be glorified means for it to be highly esteemed, respected, valued for its effects in the lives of men, valued for what it is able to do, valued because it is, as Paul puts it in Romans chapter 1, the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And Christians understand that, right? We understand, at least in part, maybe not as full as we ought to, but we understand the value of the gospel. We know what it can do. We know what it did for us and is continuing to do in us.

And we have seen what it has done in the lives of others. So yes, we glorify the gospel. We honor it. We esteem it.

We respect it. And Paul says, pray that that may happen in other places even as it did with you. You who have been changed by the gospel, you who understand the power of the gospel, you who therefore value it and honor it and are glorifying it in your treatment, your reception of it and your attitude toward it, now pray that it may have a similar effect in many other lives, that as it spreads, it will not just be a matter of the gospel being proclaimed. We live in an amazing day.

In Paul's day, the only way the gospel could spread is if messengers took it and spoke it. Today, we can mail it. Today, we can broadcast it. Today, we can put it on the internet.

We can saturate the world with the gospel, but it's not just enough that the gospel be proclaimed. It also must be glorified in the lives who hear it. It must be honored. It must be valued. It must be believed.

It must be received. Pray, says Paul, that that may be accomplished. And here we are right back on the horns of the dilemma I mentioned earlier. On the one hand, God's sovereign purposes. You were chosen and him before the foundation of the world. It's impossible that the elective God should ever fail of heaven. God is going to sovereignly and divinely assure that everyone that he has given to Christ shall make it safely home. So, says Paul, pray, pray for the success of the gospel.

Pray that the gospel may be glorified. Does that seem contradictory to you? It didn't to Paul. Who needs to adjust their thinking? Whose thinking do you think is most likely correct? Yours or Paul's?

If you don't, if you find that contradictory and Paul obviously didn't. Adjustment time. The renewing of your mind. Adjustment time.

Whatever adjustments you need to make, here's a place to make one. This is not a contradiction. This is all part of God's glorious design. So pray for the spread of the gospel and its welcome reception and pray for the protection of God's messengers as they go to proclaim it. Pray that they may be protected from the enemies of the gospel. Paul knew a little bit about enemies of the gospel, didn't he?

Little bit, tongue in cheek. Paul knew a great deal about enemies of the gospel. He had encountered more of them than he could possibly count. I mean, personally had felt the opposition and the persecution and the beatings and the various forms of vicious opposition that came to him because of enemies of the gospel. But Paul wasn't unique in that if enemies of the gospel seemed more vehement against Paul than against others, it's only because of Paul's greater zeal than others. But the enemies of the gospel are out to oppose all those who speak the gospel, even all those who believe the gospel, all those who identify with the gospel of Christ. Enemies of the gospel described in my translation as unreasonable and wicked men.

That word unreasonable could be translated perverse men. It has the idea of behavior that is out of place. That's interesting, out of place. Is the behavior of those who are enemies of the gospel out of place in a fallen world that is out of proper relationship with God?

Well, in a sense, they're right in their place, aren't they? So out of place has to do with out of the place where they belong in relationship to God Almighty. They have stepped out of the bounds.

They have stepped out from under His authority. They have stepped out of His commands, His revelation. They are out of place. They are unreasonable. They are perverse. They are behaving in a manner that is totally incompatible with the God of glory and with His word. They are unreasonable men. They are wicked men.

That word could also be translated evil, but has the idea of active malice and destructive actions. The behavior that is out of place and their behavior is out of place in almost every area of their life, I would have to say in every area of their life. But the behavior that is out of place that Paul is concerned about in connection with the gospel is the behavior that actively and maliciously opposes the gospel and opposes it by opposing the messengers of the gospel. That's reality, folks. That was reality in Paul's day. That's reality in our day.

And you need to understand this. If you don't understand the truth of this, then you need to get an adjustment in your thinking so that you can think like God wants you to think. Think as God tells us to think, and He tells us that these enemies of the gospel are those who what? Who do not have faith.

That covers a lot of people. Of course, He's not using faith in the way that politicians use it. People of faith, whether it be faith in Allah or faith in Buddha or faith in Confucius or faith in whatever, religious people of all kinds, He's talking about the faith in the God of the Bible, the faith in the Bible that God has given, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's eternally divine Son who came to earth and died on the cross, faith in the gospel of Christ. He's talking about born-again believers. So basically what He's doing is dividing the whole population of the world up into two categories. On the one hand, you have those who are people of faith in the right biblical sense of the term, true saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And on the other hand, you've got everybody else. And Paul is indicating that everybody else is an enemy of the first group. Everybody in the second group is an enemy of those in the first group. They're enemies of the gospel. They have no faith in the gospel.

They cannot appreciate the potential of God's word and of the life-changing power of the gospel. They will therefore be hostile to God's people, some more openly than others. Not everybody acts that way in an outward manner. Some do, some don't. Thank God they don't all. But they are all hostile in some level, sometimes mildly so, sometimes strenuously so, largely so. But they're all hostile until they become, by the work of God's Spirit, believers.

That changes everything. Now they have faith. Now they value the gospel. Now they honor the Lord of the gospel. Now they're involved in the spread of the gospel.

They honor it and esteem it and glorify it. But until they come to faith in the gospel, they are, to some degree, great or small enemies of the gospel. Should we be surprised that we have enemies in this world? Should we be surprised to find out that this world is no friend of grace to help us unto God?

Sometimes Christians have this naive idea. Well, I'm honest. I work hard. I don't cheat. I don't steal. I pay my taxes. I'm a good neighbor. Surely everybody's going to love me.

Wrong. How does your life compare to Christ's? Are you as good as He was? Are you as righteous as He was? Are you as sinless as He was? Are you as helpful to those around you as He was?

Oh, none of us would claim that. And yet they hated Him. They persecuted Him.

They were hostile to Him. And He said, if they've hated Me, they'll hate you also, because you are identified with Me. You are followers of Me. So why should you be surprised if what Jesus said will happen, happens? Pray, pray that as we endeavor to proclaim the gospel, that the enemies of the gospel, which are many, which are many, and they are determined, but they can't do any more than God allows. God's got them all on a leash, and He can hold them back. Pray, pray, pray that the enemies of the gospel will not be successful in their opposition to the gospel. How do you reconcile that to the sovereignty of God?

You don't need to reconcile it. Just pray. Just pray. There are a lot of people who are opposed to you.

The world is largely hostile to God, and therefore to those who belong to Him. So understand that. If you haven't understood that till now, understand that now. Expect opposition. Don't be surprised when it comes. Be willing to suffer for it. If you can't take it, if you can't take it, you're going to be a pretty sorry follower of Christ. Ask God to give you a backbone. Ask God to give you courage. Ask God to give you the willingness to stand graciously.

Yes, by all means. In a Christ-like way, how did Christ suffer? Meek and lowly, but with strength and courage and determination.

That's what we all need. So these are, what did we call them, the prayers that are needed for gospel success. Number two, prayer answered in persevering faith.

We see how this works out in the lives of people. Verse three. But the Lord is faithful. He said not all men have faith in verse two, but the Lord is faithful.

And there's a play on words there. There's a connection which I will not take time to talk about now. But not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things that we command you. Prayer answered in persevering faith. Faith, first of all, in the character of God. Faith, secondly, in the activity of God. And faith, thirdly, in the children of God.

First, in the character of God. God is faithful. God is faithful. God is trustworthy. God is reliable. God is sure. God is unfailing. If God made a promise, we don't have to wonder if he's going to keep it. He will.

Why? He's faithful. A hundred percent faithful. He never fails, never avoids a responsibility which he has taken to himself and declared to us in his word. God is faithful. When we understand that, that changes everything.

Yes, there are many enemies who oppose. Oh, dear, dear, dear, I'm going to go hide in a cave and wait till the Lord comes. No, get out there in the world and take your stand for the Lord Jesus Christ and you can do it. Why?

Because God is faithful. I don't know if I want to get married and have children. The world has gotten so bad. Would you be surprised if I told you I had thoughts just like that before I had any children? I'm kind of amused by them in a sense now. I'm thankful to realize that two things. Number one, the world wasn't as bad then as it is now.

I thought it was as bad as it would ever get. It's gotten worse now. But number two, God gave us four lovely daughters and all of them have grown up to embrace Christ. They're all Christians. They all love the Lord. The Lord has given them all Christian husbands.

They are all all three of the four are now raising their own children, their grandchildren. And how did they do that with the world being as awful as it is? The Lord is faithful. The Lord is faithful. You don't need to go hide in a cave. The Lord is faithful. You don't need to say, I don't know if I can bring up children in this world.

You can't. But God can. The Lord is faithful. The Lord has made promises to his people.

Claim them. Faith in the character of God. Number two, faith in the activity of God. This God who is faithful will establish and guard you, Paul tells us.

This is interesting. It's it's it's almost surprising the first time you read it, you read about Paul's request for their prayers for him in verses one and two. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you. And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. Who will establish? And we expect him to say at this point, who will establish us and guard us from the evil one?

Because that's what he's been talking about. But he suddenly turns and he says, the Lord is faithful. Who will guard you? Who will establish you and guard you from the evil one?

You see. Your prayers for us to accomplish these things that I'm asking you to pray for. The success of the gospel and protection of gospel messengers are also things that you need. And I'm praying for you and we're praying to the same God and the same God who's able to answer your prayers for us is able to answer our prayers for you.

And I'm concerned about you, too. I have faith in the activity of God that he will establish and guard you. He will establish or could be translated, strengthen you, strengthen you and the inward man so that you can stand up to the opposition that comes your way. He will guard you. That means protect or preserve you.

He will preserve you. Question. Do we believe in the perseverance of the saints or the preservation of the saints? T-U-L-I-P. Do we believe in the perseverance of the saints or the preservation of the saints? Answer.

Both. And one, the perseverance of the saints depends upon the preservation of the saints. The only reason the saints persevere is because God preserves them. God protects them. God guards them. That's how they persevere.

But we have a responsibility to persevere, don't we? But God will strengthen you. God will guard you and keep you from evil or from the evil one. It could be translated either way because the Greek word, the form could be either neuter or masculine. It's spelled the same way in this particular case.

So there's no way to know which one is meant. God will guard you from evil. Yes, he surely will. God will guard you from the evil one.

Yes, he surely will. That's connected together. The evil that comes your way is being prompted by the evil one. And God is God's got it all under control. God's got the evil under control. God's got the evil one under control. Satan is only the unwilling servant of Jehovah.

God's got him on a leash and God just yanks a leash whenever he needs to to accomplish his purposes. It's the same ambiguity that you find in the Lord's Prayer. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from what? Evil or the evil one? Both, either one.

It can be translated either way. Will God answer that prayer? Yes, he will.

Yes, he will. God will strengthen you. God will guard you.

God will protect you from the evil one. So there's faith in the character of God. There's faith in the activity of God. And that's why Paul can say he has faith in the children of God.

Verse four. And we have confidence concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you. We have confidence concerning you.

But I left out a very important phrase, didn't I? It's not we have confidence in you. It is we have confidence in the Lord concerning you. Our confidence is not in you because you're weak like we are. You're frail like we are.

You're fallen sinful sons of Adam like we are. You wouldn't keep yourself saved for one day if your salvation depended upon your performance. But I have confidence in you because I have confidence in him. I have confidence in the Lord concerning you because I know God will do what he's promised to do for his true children. I don't have confidence in your inherent power to do right or your strong determination to do right. Just think of, think of Peter. Lord, if all else forsake you, I will never deny you.

Not me, not me. How many hours later had he denied the Lord to a peasant slave? How's that for courage?

No wonder he was ashamed and should have been. But don't be too hard on Peter. You aren't any stronger in your flesh than he was. Your confidence is not in my determination.

Come on down here and make a decision. Bow at the altar and determine that you're going to do better this week. That won't work.

That won't do it. But bow before the God of heaven and ask him to strengthen and help you and guard you and preserve you and keep you. And then if you'll keep your eyes on him, he will do that. He will do that. Paul said, I have confidence in the Lord concerning you.

Why? Because he sees evidences of God's grace at work within them. He believes he knows them to be the children of God. He has traced their changed heart, their changed lives, their walking away from their idolatry and walking away from their community. How difficult that must have been. But it takes courage. It takes sacrifice.

It takes willingness, if necessary, to stand alone. And they had to walk away from all of that in order to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw the change in their lives. He saw immoral people becoming moral and walking discreetly and chastely in their walk in the world. He saw all these changes in their life, which he knew good and well couldn't be attributed to their self-reformation. They didn't turn over a new leaf. They didn't clean up their lives and all these things suddenly happened.

He knew better than that. He knew there was only one explanation for the changes he saw in their lives. The grace of God worked powerfully in their lives. God had claimed them. God had called them.

God was working in their lives. And if that's true and I see evidence of it, then I believe. I believe you're truly God's children. And if you're God's children, then I have confidence that you're going to do right. Not perfect, but right.

I have confidence in that. And what is it that Paul expects them to do? This is interesting that we would call doing right. Let's see, the last part of verse 4. That you do, that is you are now doing, even though I'm several hundred miles away from you and can't observe this firsthand, but I've heard reports of it, that you are now doing and will do in the days to come the things we command you. A little turn there. Paul's getting ready for some pretty strong commands. We read them as we read the rest of chapter 3.

A little turn there. He expects them to do what he has commanded them. He expects them to obey the words of the apostle Paul because he knows that those words are the words of Almighty God. He knows himself to be an inspired apostle of Christ. Forever away with this idea that the words of Christ are divine words and the words of Paul are man's words.

Wrong. If you're responsible before God to obey the words of Paul, then they must be the words of God. So here's a testimony to Paul's apostolic authority. And here's a testimony to authentic Christianity. You claim to be a Christian.

How will we know? When you obey, how did Jesus say we show our love for him? If you love me what? Keep my commandments. Paul is essentially saying the same thing. If you love Christ, keep my commandments. I'm an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and my commandments are as authoritative as his commandments.

And somebody would say, put that in your pipe and smoke it. Because that's what Paul says. And we've got to understand the truth of that. And so what have we had so far? Prayer needed for gospel success, verses one and two. Prayer answered in persevering faith, verses three and four. We see how the answer to these prayers are being worked out in the lives of the Thessalonians. Number three, prayer offered for enabling grace. And here we're right back to the conundrum again.

Paul has already expressed absolute confidence that they're going to do what they're supposed to do. So now he prays for them to be able to do it. Is that a contradiction?

No. Verse five, this is a prayer. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. He's offering prayer for enabling grace. That they might, number one, be enabled to benefit from the love of God, and they might be enabled, number two, to benefit from the example of Christ. How many people talk about the love of God and admire the love of God to a certain degree? And yet, from all evidence of what's going on in their lives, the love of God hasn't affected them at the street level at all.

Something wrong with that. Oh, how I love Jesus, but I don't seek to please Him. I don't follow His commandments. I don't live like He would have me to live.

But I love Jesus. I doubt it. I doubt it.

I doubt it. But if you do, you will be enabled to benefit from this wonderful truth, this great and glorious love of God. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.

Direct means make away by clearing away the obstacles, and there's a lot of obstacles in our hearts, but we pray that God will clear them away as He shall. And so it's a prayer for supernatural enabling, a prayer to grow in their understanding of God's love for them to such a degree that it grips them, it motivates them, it causes them to love God in return and want to please Him. Paul said it elsewhere, the love of Christ constrains me. It binds me.

It compels me. And that's what Paul is praying here for them. May you be enabled to understand the love of God to such a degree that it will affect the way you live.

It will empower you to do what's right. Enabled to benefit from the love of God and enabled to benefit from the example of Christ, the last part of verse 5, and into the patience of Christ. That could be translated into the perseverance of Christ, into the persevering endurance of Christ. It's talking about Christ's earthly endurance, Christ persevering faithfulness. How much opposition did Christ face?

A whole lot more than you and I will ever face. Did it stop Him? No. Did it keep Him from the cross? No. Did it divert Him away from doing His Father's will?

No. Have an example of persevering faithfulness now. Let that example of Christ's faithfulness teach you how to be faithful. You be similarly faithful as Christ was faithful. You see it in Christ's earthly endurance and His persevering faithfulness. So may that example apply to your life and enable you to serve the Lord. Here's the way that John Frame translated that phrase. May the Lord incline your hearts to a sense of God's love and to endurance that Christ alone inspires. May the Lord incline your hearts to a sense of God's love and to endurance that Christ alone inspires. Let me draw a few lessons before we close. I see first of all a lesson in how to approach people with corrections that you believe need to be made in their lives. And we all have to do that at times and we all hate to do it, don't we? But here's Paul showing us how it should be done. Verses 1 through 5 of chapter 3 are the introduction to the corrections that he's going to issue in the rest of the chapter. They're not pleasant.

They're not fun. He's got to do it. Verse 6, But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. And on it goes from there. This is the stuff we wish we didn't have to deal with.

So how does Paul prepare for that? Five verses of prayer and praise and encouragement to gain a receptive disposition for when he gets ready to spank them. Some people seem unable to confront or correct at all. That's people like that.

Some of you are like that. You need to ask God for help. Some parents find it very difficult to correct their children. That's your responsibility, but it's so hard, particularly as they get a little older. I can't do that. I've got to be their friend. They won't like me if I do that. So you fail one of your primary parental responsibilities. You've got to learn how to do it. It's not fun.

It's not easy, but it needs to be done. But then there are others who have this overly correcting spirit, overly critical spirit, and they just tell everybody off and they blunder in without any preparation and make a mess of things. So learn from Paul. Here's the master, the apostle, the example to us.

Not the perfect example. That's only Christ. But learn from Paul as to how this ought to be done. Paul prepared the way before he corrected them, but then he did not neglect to correct them. He did not avoid this unpleasant task, but he approached it in a very wise manner.

Learn from that. Go thou and do likewise. I see a lesson here for effective evangelism. For evangelism to be effective, the gospel's got to be proclaimed. By all means, we understand that, don't we? Surely we do. If we don't believe and understand that, then there's something terribly wrong with us. We understand that. The gospel must be proclaimed. But let's not forget this important component for it to be effective.

Listen to me. It must be undergirded with prayer. To send out gospel messengers and to fail to pray for them is very foolish.

To spend thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars on missions and fail to pray for the success of the gospel is very wasteful. Most of you know what a mighty evangelist Charles Spurgeon was. Incredible man. I love to read about Spurgeon. I love to learn from Spurgeon. Spurgeon was very influential in my coming to understand the doctrines of grace. Spurgeon was, to the surprise of some people, a five-point Calvinist and was one of the most effective evangelists that the world has ever known. And someone was visiting his tabernacle one day through the week, and he was showing them around, and he said, Do you want to see the powerhouse? And they thought he meant the furnace that heats this massive building. And he took them down to a basement room and he said, While I preach, 600 men pray here in this room. And people write volumes about how eloquent was Spurgeon and how intelligent was Spurgeon and how this was Spurgeon and how that was Spurgeon.

And Spurgeon would say, No, no, no, no, no. That's not what made me effective. When I look to the basement, look to the prayer room, that's what made me effective. When missionaries come to us and ask us to help them, and they ask for prayer, and I think sometimes we foolishly think that's a gimmick. They say prayer, but they mean money. Please offer prayer for me, but they really mean please give money to me. I can't go without money.

But maybe some of them misunderstand it that way, and for them it's a gimmick, shame on them. But for those who understand it properly, no, they need prayer more than they need money. They do need money, but they need prayer more than they need money. When they ask for our prayers, they're asking for us to give what is the greatest contribution we can give to the success of the gospel. Yes, we can contribute out of our checkbook, but what's more important and more effective is we can contribute with our prayers. Again, shame on us that we should drop our checks in the offering plate, but fail to uphold them in prayer.

We need to pray for us that the gospel will spread and be glorified even as it was in you. My final lesson has to do with intellectual skepticism. People can find something wrong with nearly everything in the Bible, and so some people like to make a big deal, a big contradiction out of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, and I can't put these things together so I can't believe the Bible or I can't believe this or I can't believe that. And I would just like to point out that in most cases there's no contradiction unless we make one, and our sinful hearts are quick to do that. Who was it that said our hearts are an idol factory?

They are. Our hearts are also an unbelief factory. We can manufacture all kinds of reasons and justifications not to believe. If you haven't learned by now that there are a lot of things in the Bible that on the surface don't make good sense, they don't seem to to us in our present condition, but if we will accept by faith what God has revealed, then number one, it doesn't have to make sense, it really doesn't, but number two, it will start making a whole lot more sense than it did before. And I'm not talking about a faith that grabs on to extraneous thoughts, to traditions, to things that are unconnected from the Bible, and because I believe those, then I have faith.

No, you don't. That's nonsense. When you're believing what God says in His word, then it is true. God is always true. If you don't believe what God has said, then you're wrong. God is true. Man, if he contradicts God, is the liar.

It's never the other way around. And therefore, like a humble little child, accept by faith what the Bible says, and don't try to make contradictions out of it to avoid what it says, but accept what it says and move forward. And in time, God may just make some of those things click in your mind so that they are no longer contradictions, but even if they are until you get to heaven, so what? What does God call upon you to do? To understand everything or to believe what He has given? All it takes is the faith of a child to get you into heaven.

And some of you may miss it because you don't have a simple, humble, childlike faith. Ask God to make a way. Ask God to direct your hearts. Ask God to remove the obstacles and to bring you to a heartfelt faith. Father, teach us Thy ways and show us Thy paths, we pray. Amen.