Amen. We're turning to 2 Thessalonians chapter number 1. Welcome you again. Thank you for joining with us. And for those who join with us in our church car park and those who join with us online, we welcome you in our Savior's precious name and encourage you to share our broadcast if you are at home. And we also encourage you to take the time at the end of the meeting to pray along with us at the throne of heavenly grace. So do not just turn off and go about your business, but please join with us around the throne of grace. Second Thessalonians, the chapter number one, and we'll read the chapter together. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth, so that we ourselves glory in you, in the churches of God for your patience and faith, and your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure, which are a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer, saying, It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power and he shall come to be glorified in his sins and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day. Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and to fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. May God bless even the public reading of his holy and precious word. Let me quickly remind you at the commencement of the message this evening of just some of the prayers that the Apostle Paul has already prayed when he comes to write to these individuals And he has written to, within these epistles and letters, either them as individuals or as a collective body of God's people. I remind you that for the Roman believers, he had asked God in prayer that they might be like-minded one toward another, and that they might be filled with joy and peace in believing. Romans 15, the verses five and 13. is the reference for that particular prayer. Paul then prays for the Corinthians that they would come behind in no gift and that they would be confirmed on to the end. And he does that in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 7 and 8. O pray for the Ephesian saints that the eyes of their understanding would be opened. That they would be able to comprehend the wonders of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so be strengthened by the Spirit as to experimentally possess all their possessions purchased for them. by Christ. He would pray concerning the Philippian believers, that the love of those believers might be regulated by knowledge. And then, with regard to the Colossians sins, that they might walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. Colossians 1, the verses 1, or the verses 9 through to 12. Now whenever we collate or bring together the prayers of the Apostle Paul, I would think that we would have to admit that rarely are these petitions ever uttered and ever made the burden of public prayer. In seasons of prayer such as this, we pray generic prayers, we pray general prayers and really never get to the matters that the Apostle Paul prays about in these prayers that he has already prayed for these individual assemblies of believers. But I trust that as we have went through these prayers, that at least it will give us a template, it will give us examples of prayer and how we should pray, and how we should pray effectively one for another, and for the church of Jesus Christ as a whole. Now as we noted a few weeks ago, with last week being our week of prayer, when it came to the Thessalonian believers, Paul has already prayed for them and he has prayed concerning two things. He has prayed about their sanctification and he has prayed about their preservation. And we saw that in the words of 1 Thessalonians the chapter 5 and the verse 23 and the very God he said the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ. Now, I have heard people praying along those lines and I thank God for that because it shows that our labors are not in vain, that God would sanctify us, that he would make us holy, that we would die on to sin and live again more and more on to righteousness. When one such prayer is found, or sorry, another such prayer of the Apostle Paul that he prays for the believers is found here in second Thessalonians chapter number one and the verse 11 and 12. Wherefore also we pray always for you that and so he says we pray that here's the the very substance of their prayer that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm told that the literal translation of the verse number 11 goes something like this. For which also we pray always for you that you may count worthy that you may be counted worthy of the calling of God and may fulfill every good pleasure of goodness and work of faith with power. Now we need to remember the context in which Paul utters these words in prayer. These believers were being hotly assailed by their enemies and they were passing through a time of great affliction. They were passing through a great fight of affliction within their lives. So nobly had they conducted themselves under severe pressure by enemies without that the Apostle Paul takes these Thessalonian believers and he holds them forth as an example to other churches on how they ought to respond in the times of persecution in which they were going to face. Because if you know anything about the history of this time, during this period, the Roman Empire would go through 10 different emperors and each emperor would inflict a severe persecution on the saints of God as those persecutions developed and as they were cultivated during the reign of those ten particular emperors before the Roman Empire And so Paul is setting these individuals in Thessalonica, he's setting them forth as an example to other believers in how to respond during the times of affliction and persecution. Look what he says there in verse 4. So that we ourselves glory or we boast in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye You see, brethren and sisters, how we live and how we respond to what is going on within our lives can be held forth as an example, as a template for other believers to follow. And therefore, in the times of trouble and trial, may we find ourselves proving God and therefore setting forth a good example to others who will pass through such valley experiences within their own personal lives. The world is looking on, but the believer is looking on as well. And may we be found to be faithful in these days. And so Paul, he reminds these individuals that He is now praying for them with regard to all that they are passing through. Now Paul reminds them in the verses 6 through to the verse number 10 that God will deal with those who are presently troubling them. Not only that, but that he would exonerate them at the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ returns, Paul reminds them that their persecutors will be punished while they will be richly rewarded and fully vindicated. God will recompense, verse six, he will recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. You know, that's something for the child of God to remember when they're being persecuted, when they're being troubled by the ungodly. Soon, the tables will be turned, and our mourning will be turned into joy, and their joy will be turned into mourning. You know, there is a terrible pessimism among the people of God nowadays, and I'm convinced that one of the reasons is because we are so short-sighted. We're so short-sighted in our view of things. We fret and we get worked up about the onward march of wicked and unreasonable men, and rightly so. The Christian ought to be concerned about the advancement of sin within our society. And yet when we find such things happening, and we find ourselves in such a state, Well then we need to do what Asaph, the psalmist, did when he found himself, if we could kind of phrase in such a tizzy, with regard to the prosperity of wicked and unreasonable men. We need to take ourselves into the sanctuary of God and we need to understand the end of the ungodly. What is their end? But eternal destruction. Eternal destruction. And so for a brief period of time, these individuals were being troubled, no doubt about that. But Paul takes him into the future and he reminds him that the judge is coming and he's going to come in flaming fire and he's going to take vengeance on them that know not God and those that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's going to punish them with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. And also, He's going to come and be glorified in His saints. In other words, He's going to come to punish those wicked and unreasonable men that were troubling these saints of God, and He was going to glorify, and He was going to reward, and He was going to vindicate His blood-bought people. And brethren and sisters, that hasn't changed. God's purpose, God's plan has not changed. Those who trouble us today, if they are unrepentant, will meet the same end as those who were troubling the Thessalonian believers and those saints who will be vindicated from that particular city. the city of Thessalonica, on the day of Christ's return, we too will be vindicated along with them, and we will find our reward on that great day. And so, there's no need to be so disheartened or discouraged, for thank God, God will see to it that all of our enemies will be brought under his Now when we consider the plight of these believers, the persecution and the tribulation that they were enduring, we would think that the most logical or the most natural petition that Paul would offer in prayer was that they might be delivered from such. If you see an individual going through a time of trouble, a time of suffering, a time of sorrow, the natural response for us is that we would just love them to be relieved from such trouble. We would want them to be delivered from such trouble. We certainly don't want to see brethren and sisters going through times of suffering and sorrow and sickness. And so the natural, the most logical prayer that you and I would automatically pray in such times is that they might be delivered from the trial. And yet that is not what Paul prayed for. Instead, he prays for something greater. Because he prays that in the midst of their persecution and tribulation that they might be counted worthy. That they might be counted worthy of their calling of God and that what they were passing through might be used by God to fulfill his good pleasure in their lives. Those were simply the petitions that Paul offered and they're found here in the verse 11 and we want to consider them briefly as we before we get down to prayer. And so I want you to think about the first petition that is prayed here. And that petition is found in the words that our God, in verse 11, would count you worthy of this calling. Now the calling that Paul refers to, many commentators have various views concerning it. It can, first of all, refer to our calling in the gospel. Our calling on to Christ. You'll know by now that the effectual call in the gospel is that whereby the sinner is called out of darkness and into the glorious gospel and light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're called out of sin. and we're called on to Jesus Christ. This calling is elsewhere described as a heavenly calling, a holy calling, a high calling. And so the Christian must come to appreciate the tremendous position that we now occupy. We're being called out of darkness and into the marvelous light of the gospel. And so it can refer to our calling in the gospel. Others suggest, not only is this referring to our calling in the gospel, but it is what we are called to after receiving the gospel. I don't know how you think of the Christian life, but I wonder, have you ever thought of your Christian life as a calling? Because that's what it is. It is a vocation. It is a vocation. It is a calling. God has called us in the gospel, and as a result of that, we have been called to live for him. We have been called to represent him. This is our calling in the world as believers. The Christian life is a calling, as I've said, and thereby it denotes that there is a work for us all to do. Not only that, but there are duties for us to perform, and there are responsibilities for us to fulfill as those who are called of God. And the way that we perform our work, and the way we perform our duties, and the way we perform our responsibilities as Christians, will see to it as whether or not we are worthy of such a calling. In Christian life, They must, as I said, be looked upon as a vocation. It is the Christian's job to live a life in this sinful world that is worthy of the call that we have experienced in the gospel. Really, Paul was praying here that these individuals would be worthy to bear the name of Jesus Christ. He did not want these believers to bring reproach on Christ. He did not desire that they would dishonor his name by their conduct or by their conversation. And so he prays that they would be counted worthy of their calling on to Christ. And as I've said, this prayer of the Apostle Paul reminds us of the tremendous privilege and the responsibility that lies to our hand If we bear the name of Jesus Christ by calling ourselves Christians or Christ's ones, then we are to live a life in a way that honors the Lord and reflects well on his name. Now you may ask then the question, how will I know that I am walking in a worthy manner as a Christian? How will I know? Well, there are three New Testament passages of scripture that identify, that I identify anyway, that we can assess whether or not we are walking worthy of our high calling in Christ Jesus. We're turning to those passages just now. Ephesians chapter number four. Ephesians chapter four. and we'll read the opening three verses here. Ephesians chapter four, Paul writes, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. And so he is writing here what he is praying for to the Thessalonians. concerning the Thessalonian believers. He's saying this to the Ephesian believers because this is true of every child of God. There is this need to walk worthy of the vocation or the calling wherewith ye are called. How is it done? With all loneliness and meekness. Verse two, with long suffering, with forbearing one another in love. endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And so Paul identifies that the person who walks worthy of the Lord will exhibit these particular traits in their lives, that they will be lowly, that they will be meek, that they will be long-suffering, that they will forbear others, and that they will endeavor and nurture unity among the brethren. That is the marks, or those are the marks of a person who is walking worthy of the calling or the vocation wherewith they are called. Now, whenever you come to a list in scripture, you can also look at that list on the other side of the coin. And so Paul is writing here about those who walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called. Well, let's look at the opposites of these particular words, because whenever we do that, then we come to understand what it is for a person not to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called. These will be the marks of the person who is not walking worthy. So what's the opposite of being lowly? Well, the opposite of being lowly is proud. Being proud. What's the opposite? of meekness? Well, it's arrogance. What's the opposite of long-suffering? Well, it's simply being short-tempered. What's the opposite of forbearing one another in love? It is a person who is impatient with others. What is the opposite of those who endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace? It is those who want to cause division among the saints of God. That is a person who isn't walking worthy of God. And so the question is, which list best summarizes how we're living tonight, on the last Wednesday night of the month of September, the year 2021? Are we walking worthy of the Lord? Philippians chapter 1 is the next passage, Philippians chapter 1 and the verse number 27. Only let your conversation or your manner of living be as one that becometh the gospel of Christ and that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your fears, that ye may stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Here's an individual who's living a life that is becoming the gospel, that is worthy of the gospel, that lives up to the gospel. And what are they doing? They are individuals that stand fast. They stand fast in one spirit. with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Here we have this idea of unity again, and this idea of working together with those of the household of faith. And this is the mark of one who is walking worthy. The third passage is Colossians chapter one, the verse number 10. Verse number nine, for this cause, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. And so we have Paul speaking once again about walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patients, and longsuffering, and joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. in life. A life that is worthy of the calling of God in the gospel is a life that is marked by fruitfulness in good works, an increase in our knowledge of God, an individual who is patient, who is long-suffering, who is joyful, and who is thankful. I think I could summarize what a worthy life is by saying that such a life is a life which pleases the Lord in all things. One preacher put it like this, a worthy walk is a walk in humility, a walk in purity, a walk in contentment, a walk by faith, a walk in righteousness, a walk in unity, a walk in gentleness, a walk in strength, a walk in patience, a walk in love, a walk in thankfulness, a walk in light, a walk in knowledge, a walk in wisdom, a walk in truth, a walk in fruitfulness. Summing it up, a worthy walk is a walk like Jesus Christ. A worthy walk is a walk like Jesus Christ's. Now how well do we come up to that ideal? I'm not asking you tonight how is your Christian walk compared to the walk of another Christian in this assembly. I'm asking you as I'm asking myself, how is our walk compared to Christ's walk? If ever there was one who walked worthy of their calling. It was most certainly the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, brethren and sisters, whenever you think about it, a great trust has been placed upon every one of us who lay in the name of Christ. What is that trust? That we walk worthy, that we walk worthy of our calling as a child of God. How are we faring? We need to remember that God will bring us to account for the fulfillment of our calling someday. And so we must live in light of that day. And oh, then we need to pray for grace and for strength and for the help and the assistance of the Holy Spirit to discharge the obligations of our calling as a Christian. that I would live a life worthy of this great calling, this calling to be a Christian. This is what Paul prays for here in this first petition. The second petition is that God would fulfill all good pleasure fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power. In simplest terms, really what Paul is praying for here is that what God has commenced in the life of these believers would be advanced and brought to its full completion and that it might be done with power. Not human power, but another power. I don't need to remind you that really all that God does in our lives is based on his good pleasure. The good pleasure of his goodness. That's why God does anything for us and in us. The good pleasure of his goodness. Remember, it was because of God's good pleasure and of his goodness that he created us. Revelation 4 verse 10 and 11. The 4 and 20 elders fall down before him that sat upon the throne it says and worship him that liveth forever and ever and they cast their crowns before the throne saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure and for thy pleasure they are and they were created. And so all that God has created was for his pleasure. Not only did he create us for his pleasure, but he converts us for his good pleasure. Ephesians 1 verse 5, having predestinated us onto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. According to God's good pleasure, He has adopted us, He has justified us, He has adopted us, and He has brought us into the family of God simply because of His good pleasure. That was the motivating force, that which motivated God, His good pleasure. Not anything in I, not anything in you, but simply His good pleasure. And He also continues His work in us. because of his good pleasure. Philippians 2 verse 13, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. His good pleasure. All that happens to us subsequent to our conversion continues to emanate and to proceed out of the good pleasure of God's goodness. It is because of God's goodness We are being conformed more and more to the image of Jesus Christ, and it is because of his good pleasure and of his goodness that we will find ourselves in heaven itself. Paul is praying here that the work of salvation, and I speak of salvation in the broadest of terms and senses here, that that work would be complete and effectual. And I'm bringing all together, I'm not just speaking of our justification, I'm speaking about our sanctification and our glorification, speaking of salvation in the fullest of terms, that that would be brought to its complete and effectual end, that God would fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power. Now, as I've said, for that to happen, for God's good pleasure to be fulfilled in our lives. And his good pleasure is eventually to make us like Christ and to bring us eventually to glory. For that to happen, there is a power that it must be outside of ourselves for that to occur. Remember, it not only takes omnipotent power, almighty power, to bring us into a state of grace, It also takes omnipotent power to maintain us in that state of grace. We are kept by the power of God. Nothing but almighty power can preserve us until we safely reach our journey's end. But thank God that power has been made over to us by our God. And so these are the petitions that God would count us worthy of this calling as a Christian, and then that all that is left post-conversion, that all that is left of the good pleasure of God's goodness would be fulfilled in our lives by this omnipotent power. Now let me give you just a brief comment on why Paul prayed these petitions. Look there at the verse 12. For there we find the purpose for which and why he prayed these prayers, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him. You know, really that's the only motivation behind, or should be the only motivation behind everything we pray for, an actual fact behind everything that we do. that our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in us and us in him. He doesn't pray that these things would occur, that the Thessalonian saints would be glorified, that they would be lauded, that they would be praised, but rather he prays for the fulfillment of these petitions so that Jesus Christ would be glorified. And really, that is the ultimate motivation in any prayers that we ought to utter, that the Lord is glorified in the answering of such petitions. But the natural man seeks to advance his own interest. The chief and the highest end of the Christian is to glorify God. Man's chief end is to glorify God. and to enjoy Him forever. In everything that we do, in every prayer that we utter, there must ever be always a single eye, a single eye to the glory of God, and an iam to magnify Jesus Christ. As 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31 puts it, whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And that was Paul's motivation. I pray these petitions so that God may be glorified in you. May God be glorified in us as we live lives that are worthy of this calling. and as God works in us by his power, the work of faith and the work of his good pleasure and of his goodness. And so let us walk worthy of this calling and let us see the fulfillment of God's good pleasure in our lives because by it, God is glorified. And surely that's what we want, God to be glorified by our living, by our example, by our lives. Oh may God count us worthy of the calling to which he has called us to as being his people in this crooked world. and in this perverse world. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts this evening. Let's bow briefly in prayer. Father in heaven, take thy word, bless it to our souls, we pray. And oh, for a life that is, a life that is worthy of the calling that we have in Christ Jesus. Oh, help us to live God-glorifying lives. We offer prayer. in and through the Savior's holy and precious name. Amen and amen.