Our scripture reading, we turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Back up just a few verses to verse 15 of chapter 2. where you see an exhortation followed by the words, you know, now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and so on, comfort your hearts. And we see those words right after an exhortation to stand fast. We start with that chapter two, verse 15, and then read on into chapter three. Therefore, brethren, stand fast. and hold the traditions which he hath been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Finally, brethren, pray for us. that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you. Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing, And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Now the Lord of peace himself gives you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all. the salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle, so I write, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen. So far we read from the holy scriptures this afternoon, and the text we consider is verse 16. Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always, by all means. The Lord be with you all. Dearly beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, when we look at the epistles of Paul and see the way they began and the way they ended, And then when we take a look at our worship services, the way that they begin and the way that they end, we can see similarity. When Paul began this epistle, he said, grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Similar blessing is spoken at the beginning of our worship services. Grace unto you and peace. And then as we get to the end of the epistle, we see that he says, now the Lord of peace himself give you peace, always. by all means, the Lord be with you, and then ends with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And one could look at other epistles of Paul similarly and see how he begins the epistle and how he ends the epistle. And we take note specifically how in both places he makes a reference to peace. Peace. Similarly, in our worship services, we typically say grace, mercy, and peace. Peace. And then at the end, we have that reference also to peace. Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace. People, when they would see one another, would speak words of greet one another, and sometimes when they went part, they would speak words of peace, shalom, as in the Hebrew. Of course, we know that when a blessing is pronounced, like in the worship service, when the blessing is pronounced upon God's people, that's not a mere wish. but we understand that God gives peace to his people. Even as we just sang just a moment ago, we wait to hear what God will say. Peace to his people. He will speak. He speaks to us peace. and the spirit works in us, and by the spirit, we also experience peace. It's important for us to remember that, too, when we hear grace, mercy, and peace, that we don't just think, well, that's the typical words at the beginning of the worship service. Or at the end of the worship service we use different words at different times at the end of the worship services. One of them says the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And that as we hear that that we're also mindful that Christ gives us peace. In whatever difficulties we face, we do have a peace that comes from God. We have a peace that comes from the Lord of peace, or literally, the Lord of the peace. He is the one that gives us abiding peace. We have peace in our soul, peace in our heart, And we are thankful to God for that peace. And it's our desire, it's my desire, that the Lord would give you that peace. I mean, as Paul, as he ends a letter, the second of the two letters to the Thessalonians, he says, now the Lord of peace himself give you peace. And indeed, it is my desire for this congregation. that the Lord of Peace would give you peace always, by all means, that the Lord would be with you. And we know that the Lord, your God, will guide you, even as he has in the past, that he will be with you and that he will grant you that which you need. We consider this passage under the theme, the Lord of Peace giving peace. We consider, first of all, the peace. Secondly, the source, the fact that it comes to us from the Lord of Peace who gives it to us. And secondly, the fellowship as it ends with the Lord be with you. That he not only grants us, he grants us peace, he is also with us. The Lord of Peace himself is with us. the Lord of peace, giving peace, the peace, the source, and the fellowship. This letter was written to the Thessalonians who were persecuted. Right after that, Words at the beginning, grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's verse two of the beginning. Then in verse four it says, so that we ourselves glory in you and the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. So this is a word that was spoken to a church where there were persecutions, tribulations, and he spoke of their patience and their faith in all the persecutions and tribulations that they endured. And there were those that were speaking things falsely. And in chapter two, he makes a reference to that. In chapter two, verse two, he says, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. And then we have 2 Thessalonians 2 has quite a bit of instruction about the end times, about the apostasy, about the coming of the Antichrist and so on. Christ isn't going to come at any moment. There are things that God tells us are going to happen before the final coming of Christ. And there's going to be strong delusion. In that same chapter, he talks about that there will be strong delusion. God will send strong delusion, and many will believe a lie, those that have pleasure in unrighteousness. And then in verse 15, and that's where we started, in chapter two, verse 15, he says, now stand fast. Stand fast and hold to the traditions. And then, and you see this, this would be a fascinating to study too, in going through epistles of Paul to see how he'll give an exhortation, and then he'll make a reference to the grace of God. God giving us the grace that we need. He says in verse 15, stand fast, hold the traditions which you've been taught. And then he goes right from that to, now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our father, which has loved us, and so on, comfort your hearts and establish you. So he says, stand fast. And then he says, now our Lord Jesus Christ himself establish you. Similarly, in the passage that we look at here in chapter three, there were exhortations, a number of them, right before this. And then, now the Lord of peace himself give you peace, and so on. So that's a little bit as far as the context here. How many speak about peace wrongly? We're very familiar with that. Many people, their thought of peace would be that sinful practices go on and people are walking in sinful practices, holding to false teachings. You don't say anything to them. At least they're coming to church. I think, well, they're coming to church. You can say, well, he may be here, but do you see what he's doing? Or have you heard about what this person's doing, or that person's doing, or the position this person holds to? And there isn't any discipline. They want there to be peace, and peace means that there's no discipline. Well, that's contrary to the very form We just read this morning, ordination of elders and deacons, where it says with regard to the work of the deacons, to admonish those who behave themselves disorderly. And it says that they are to discipline the impenitent and to receive the penitent again into the bosom of the church. Discipline the impenitent, and receive again the penitent, those who are truly sorry for their sin. And elsewhere later on in the form it makes a reference to that again. Take heed that purity of doctrine and godliness of life be maintained in the church of God. Purity of doctrine godliness of life be maintained, take heed. And that all of us have a calling with regard to that, even though it's mentioned with regard to the work of the elders. But many people, that's not, they would prefer there not be any discipline. In fact, when people talk to somebody who's walking in a sin, they're accused of being the one that's disturbing the peace. when what they're doing is they're going to somebody that's walking in a way of error, and they're desiring that that one be, they turn from their way of sin. Even as the very chapter we read was talking, talked in a number of places about those that walk disorderly. Not according to the instruction that they've received. And that peace, having peace did not mean that there was no, discipline of these people, but they were to be disciplined. Were to be endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and one who shows a love for the truth when going to a brother who's in error, whether with regard to what he confesses or what he practices, and to strive to show them from the word And when one is erring, it says here, you know, count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Brotherly admonished. And it's very important that we constantly remember that term. Genuinely brotherly admonished. Certainly there is to be disciplined in the church of Jesus Christ. Many are contentious. Man by nature is depraved, and he doesn't know the way of peace. Romans 3 speaks about the natural man, and it says, they have not known the way of peace. It says about sinful man, his mouth, verse 14, his mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known? They haven't known the way of peace. There's no fear of God before their eyes. Man by nature is violent, contentious, and that was actually a quote from Isaiah 59, where we read verse eight, Isaiah 59, verse eight. The way of peace they know not, and there's no judgment in their goings. They have made them crooked paths. Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Shall not know peace. We talk about depraved man, and we are always to remember that we ourselves have a depraved nature. When we talk about violence and being contentious, well, we have an evil nature, too. But God works within us so that we have a sorrow for sin. And those who have a sorrow for sin who turn away from sin to God, and look to God for forgiveness and deliverance, that believers have peace. Ephesians 6 verse 23 says, peace to the brethren, to the brethren. We talk about peace, you can mention centrally peace with God, One has peace with God and does not fear what God will do. Somebody that walks impenitently in sin, they're not going to have that peace. The thought of going through a day, going through day after day, What is God going to do to you? A person that knows, knows they're violating what God says, know that they know what God says and they've decided, I'm not gonna do that. Or they know that God says something is wrong and they say, I'm gonna do it anyway. I know what's wrong. I know God says no. I want to do it. I'm going to do it anyway. And then you don't have peace. As you go through, you wonder, what is God going to do to you? Trying to put it out of your mind, the child of God who comes to God and confesses his sin with sorrow, has peace with God, and one who has peace with God is not afraid. We know God chastens in love. We may at times wonder what is going to happen, and there may be times when we experience chastening in different ways because of sins, but we know the one who's chastening us loves us. We don't fear he's gonna destroy us. We know he loves us. We know he cares for us. We know we're disciplined by our loving father. We can speak of peace in the sense of peace in the family, peace in the church. We desire that. There may be times we don't, there's some friction with a certain member of the family or a certain member in the church, and we desire there to be peace. We endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. If somebody's going to continue to walk in sin, Well, we have to continue to go with them. And it's very, very sad when somebody that we love continues to walk in a way of sin. We still try to be a faithful witness. We're mindful of the fact, of course, that the body of Christ is our family. And when we talk about our family, well, who is our family? You know, you are family. We're the same family, same father. And we have true unity in Christ. And the scriptures speak of peace in the sense of a state of well-being. The Hebrew word shalom. also has the idea of peace in the sense of well-being. In 1 Thessalonians 5, there we read about the God of peace sanctifying us. So we're sanctified by the God of peace. That's 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23 that speaks of that. Now the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. So that's how the previous epistle, that's toward the end of the previous epistle to the Thessalonians. So one has peace in the sense of their state of well-being and now looking at it from a spiritual point of view. He sanctifies us. So we talk about that we're justified by faith and have peace with God. And also in the sense of the fact that the God of peace sanctifies us. Which of course is contrary to the whole idea of what we already mentioned about the idea of peace where sin is tolerated. Then the words, peace be unto you, we read of those words, peace be unto you at times when people are worrying or fearful. Like when Jesus was going to depart and he says, let not your heart be troubled You believe in God, believe also in me. And that's John 14, verse one. And then in verse 27, he says, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. one having peace, not fury, trouble. That same idea is seen in Philippians 4. We often look at that verse too about when it says, be careful for nothing. We're not to be anxious. Philippians 4, verse 6, be careful for nothing, but in everything, in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the God of peace, or the peace of God, rather, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds. through Christ Jesus. Pray, and the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds. Don't be anxious. Don't be worried. Now, all of this serves to bring out, of course, that to have peace, we're to look to God. He's the one that gives peace. The very text we consider is speaking of that. That the Lord of peace is the one who gives peace. Many claim to have peace when they're apart from God. When they hear what God says, then they feel convicted. and they hear what God tells them they're to do or what they're not to do, and they know they're doing the opposite of what they're supposed to, they feel convicted. Well, they don't want to be where they're going to hear the word of God proclaimed, not proclaimed truly, where the truth is proclaimed. They may find some people that will tell them there's nothing wrong with what they're doing. Well, they'd rather be over there. They'd rather be where somebody is telling them what they want to hear. And then they feel like they have peace there. Although what they're hearing isn't true. It isn't reality. But there are those that would want to go away. and then say, oh, it's better away. And they say they have peace. But the scripture says in Isaiah, you can find this in more than one place, there's no peace except the Lord unto the wicked. In the prophecy of Isaiah, you read that in Isaiah 48 and also in Isaiah 57. No peace. No peace to those who refuse to repent, as we already mentioned. No peace for those who reject Christ. Christ is the one who gives us peace. Well, what about those who turn away from him? or those who may say, Lord, Lord, and do not what he says, as Jesus himself said. Why do you say, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? That there are many, of course, that will say that. Outwardly, they'll call him Lord. then they're rejecting the one who gives peace. Anyone who has peace, true peace, gets it from the Lord of peace. Now that's referring to Christ. The Lord of peace himself give you peace by all means. The Lord be with you all. Of course, it's referring to God, Christ is God. Sometimes we read of the God of peace. There's a number of passages like that in Romans 15 and 16 and 2 Corinthians 13, for example, there's a number of places where we read of the God of peace. Here we read of the Lord of the peace. He's the one that established peace. He's the one that reconciled us to God. How is it that we have peace with God when we're such sinners? Christ reconciled us to God. He offered the perfect sacrifice, the sinless one, the righteous one. He offered that perpetuatory sacrifice. He laid down his life for his sheep. he reconciled us to God. And that's the way the scriptures speak. Sometimes people say God and sinners reconciled, that God's reconciled to us, we're reconciled to God. We know it in the scriptures, it will refer to us being reconciled to God. He established that peace, he reconciled us, And he also grants peace. And you've experienced that too in your own life, times when you may have been troubled or afraid. Maybe a health concern. Maybe you have one at the very moment. Maybe you've had one. and been worried. Maybe it's been a financial. Maybe you have a financial concern now, or maybe you have. Or times when you've been persecuted. People have made fun of you or mocked you. Or at times when somebody very close to you goes in the way of air and you try to talk to them and they don't turn. Different things that we can worry about. Sometimes we worry about, sometimes we're troubled, sometimes we wonder what's going to happen. And God gives us peace. We look to God. With prayers come unto God, prayers and supplications, we make our requests known to God and God gives us peace. Sometimes a brother or sister in Christ has spoken to us, comforting words. And that we've been thankful for the word of God spoken through a brother or sister. that God gives us peace. It may continue for a while that we have a fear or we're anxious or we're troubled, yet we look back and we can see how God indeed did give us peace. We may have had a long night or more than one, but God has given us peace. And there are those two who are, we don't know who there may be, who at the very moment is trying to find, wanting to know somebody who holds to the truth. And is troubled because people they know say there's errors in the Bible, and yet you can't really know what the truth is. And what a comfort for them to have somebody explain to them that the Bible is the infallibly inspired word of God. And that there are those that teach it, that teach that. And they really hold to it. The Lord of the peace gives peace. Those who are blessed by our Lord have peace. And we started, we talked about that briefly. The blessing of God spoken by Christ, our high priest, that our high priest laid down his life for us, our high priest also blesses us. Even as when he was ascending and he had his arms up and he ascends, He blesses us, the consciousness that he blesses his people. That's what we hear when we hear the benediction. We hear Christ speaking the blessing and knowing that when Christ says, peace be unto you, fear not, peace be unto you, that he gives us peace. When Christ speaks, that's the word of God. And when he says, peace be unto you, the spirit works and gives us peace. We receive grace. Mercy and peace. One who receives grace, one who is shown mercy, has peace. God lifts up his countenance upon us. He makes his face shine upon us and he's gracious to us. He lifts up his countenance upon us and gives us peace. That word of blessing, that was the words that were given to the priest to say, makes a reference to grace and peace. Lift up his countenance upon you and be gracious unto thee, or rather make his face shine upon thee that God's face shines on you. He's gracious to you. You know he's favorably inclined to you, that he loves you. He lifts up his countenance, his face, upon you and gives you peace. abiding peace. The Lord of peace himself give you peace always, by all means, always, by all means, or in every way. Not a peace that then changes with your outward circumstances. Now, that's quite something to think of that, to think that it doesn't change when our outward circumstances change. We can find that, you know, we can be quickly afraid, quickly worried. Things, if we get what we consider to be good news, oh, then we're at peace. We're, everything seems to be okay. We're so relieved. And then if something is not what we would want it to be very quickly, we can be troubled and worried and anxious. Our situation changes and we see how we can go up and down. The spirit does give us an abiding peace. And we do recognize that's true. Even no matter what may happen in our life, We know we do have peace with God. We knew that we're serving our Lord Jesus Christ. And our mind is to be stayed on him. One is in perfect peace when his mind is stayed on God. And we are to continue to turn our thoughts to our God who is with us. And we turn to that in the last place, that we have fellowship with God. The God who is blessing us is with us. It's not that he's giving, that he's blessing us, he's giving us peace while he himself is apart from us. But he himself is with us. The Lord of peace, who gives us peace, is himself with us. We have peace knowing God is with us. In fact, mentioned this before too, but how hearing someone say those words at times, when we're worried, when we're afraid and somebody that we love, somebody that we know, recognizes, that were worried, were afraid, and they say, the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you. And we're thankful that a brother or sister said that, and directed by saying those words, directed our thoughts, because our mind was on whatever the problem may have been. And now, hearing that, we start to think on the fact that our Lord is with us, that this did not happen by chance, that it is before ordained, and that the God who is with us, loves us, and will grant us the grace we need. As he said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee. And that we hear those words to us in our trials, that God says, my grace will be sufficient for you. Knowing the Lord is with us, we have peace. We read in John 14 about how Jesus spoke about, let not your heart be troubled when he was about to depart. And then he says, my peace, I leave with you. He also spoke about how he would come again. He would come by the spirit. And of course, it's also the case that he will one day return. bodily. And of course we know that when we die we go to be with Christ our Lord. We have fellowship with God and we have fellowship with one another. We have true abiding fellowship and Thankful to God for that. Thankful for the fellowship that we've had. Thankful for the communion that we have together. That we are truly united in Christ. And my family and I, my wife and I, my family and I are very thankful for the saints here. We're thankful for the unity that we have together. We're thankful for the blessings the Lord has given to you. Blessings the Lord has given to you in your generations. Thankful to God for the children here and the young people. It's been a great, great joy to be able to labor in the midst of this congregation and to see the children grow up to see the children grow spiritually, the grace of God upon you, to have you over the times we've had together in the home, too, with young adults, have been a great joy. We're thankful for your friendship. And it is our desire, my desire as your pastor, which ends today, as a pastor, but not as your friend, that the Lord of peace would give you peace, that he'd give you peace always by all means, that the Lord would be with you all. And I am confident that the Lord will be with you and he has raised up faithful men who serve here in this congregation and he will give strength to them for the work. I have no doubt about that. It has been a great joy to labor with the men that I've had the privilege of laboring with in the consistories and in the councils of this church. It has been indeed. And pray that the Lord will continue to uphold you, thankful for the fellowship that we together have with our God, Thankful for the fellowship that we have together as friends. And that fellowship, that friendship will continue. May the Lord of peace himself give you peace always. By all means, the Lord be with you all. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God and our Father, we're very thankful, O Lord, for thy grace, thankful for the mercy that thou dost show to us. We are thankful for the grace that thou dost give to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Lord, strengthen us as this congregation now goes forward in the confidence that thou wilt lead them. We are thankful for the blessings that thou hast given to this church, the thankful for the blessings that thou dost give to our federation of churches, thankful for the unity that there is in the body of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. May we glorify thee, may we magnify thy great and holy name in all that we do, and may we, in all that we do, may we do it heartily, may we work heartily, out of soul, to thy glory, knowing that we are privileged to serve the Lord Christ. In his name we pray, amen.