I'll turn again with me in God's Word to 2 Thessalonians 3. And we're looking particularly at these first five verses of the chapter. And there is here mutual prayer. Paul is asking that the Thessalonians would pray for him, but he's also giving us at least a hint of what he is praying for them. So let's consider, first of all, the prayer request that Paul asks for. And particularly, it is for the advancement of the gospel. Look at there what it says in verse one. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you. He's got the picture here of a racetrack, an Olympic race, an athlete running. And it is the word of God that must run. Paul's desire is that the word of God will go forth quickly, that it will be fast and not hindered by any hurdles. He's praying for the spread of the gospel. And he's asking the Thessalonians to pray for them. And by implication, he's asking us to pray for the advancement of the gospel in our day. Paul's desire was that the gospel might go forth widely. As Paul saw it, there was a whole empire of people, a whole world of souls, many people in many cities, in many countries, and they all need to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only hope for everlasting life. And how many of them had heard of Christ by this point? Relatively few. And Paul felt it was his duty not to confine his ministry to one place, but as an apostle sent out by Christ, he was to go from city to city. He went, of course, to these cities and these countries, not simply as a box-ticking exercise. I've preached in Philippi, I've preached in Corinth, I've preached in Athens. They've had their chance and they've heard it. Paul wasn't like this because his desire here is not only that God's word might run or speed ahead to these places, but also that it may be honored in verse one. That God's word might be truly honored by those people who hear it. And he adds to that, as happened among you, that God's word would be honored in other places as it was honored in Thessalonica. Now think about what we've learned about these Thessalonian Christians over the past several months. Think, for example, of chapter one of 1 Thessalonians and verse six, where it shows us how the word was received. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction. with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So although there was hardship and although there was persecution, they received the word with joy, a joy that only the Spirit of God can work in the soul of man. In verse 9 of chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. This is how the word of God was honored among the Thessalonians, because they repented. They listened to the gospel and they acted upon it. They received it by faith. And so they knew they could no longer serve their idols in temples made by the hands of men. They could no longer serve made up gods for their own pleasure, for their own sakes. No, they had to turn to the living God, the only true God. and they were to worship him, the one who had made them, but also the one who redeemed them. In chapter two of 1 Thessalonians and verse 13, it tells us this, and we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. The Thessalonians did not simply hear the words of Paul and just say, well, that's Paul. They heard Paul's word, his preaching, as the word of God. In other words, when Paul gave a command, they weren't just looking at Paul and saying, well, why should I obey you? They were hearing through Paul's command the voice of God. And they knew that God was commanding them. When they heard Paul give a promise, they knew that Paul had no power to fulfill that promise. But they knew God did. And Paul was speaking on behalf of God. And so there was a certainty to the message. The preached word is the word of God. And that's how they received it, humbly and with faith. They didn't sit back. as sometimes we do and wait for the minister to impress with something interesting before we pay attention to what's said. No, there was a consciousness that when the preaching occurred, it was God speaking through the mouth of his ambassadors. And then in 2 Thessalonians 1, we see also how the word was received by them subsequently, that when the first epistle came to them, they responded to in faith, that they were growing in faith, their love was growing, increasing. It was this exponential growth because the word of God was received enthusiastically by the Thessalonian Christians. That's in chapter one, verses three and four. So when Paul here now in chapter three, verse one says that the word of God may be honored as happened among you, He is praying not simply that he may be afforded more opportunities to preach the gospel to more people in more cities. He's not simply praying for bigger audiences in his congregations. He is praying that the Lord would be pleased to bless the word as it is preached. That it would bring faith. That the Lord would use the preached word to raise the dead. to bring dead souls to life in Jesus Christ. Paul is praying that Christians who hear the word preached might grow in their faith, that their roots may go down deeply into God's word, that they might be nourished. Paul is praying for an enthusiastic response and very similar to what we'll consider this evening, Paul is praying or asking for prayer that there might be a hunger and a thirsting after righteousness. Pray that the word may speed ahead and be honored. It's not enough for the word to be simply heard with the ears. It must be responded to with faith. And so Paul here is requesting prayer similar to what the Lord taught us to pray. Your kingdom come. It's very easy to rattle off that as a phrase. your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But Paul is asking that they might truly pray for that, that the kingdom would come as the word goes forth in power. And it's important not just to pray for that in general, but to pray specifically. Notice what Paul says in verse three. Finally, brothers, pray for us. He's asking that the Thessalonians would pray specifically for Paul, Silas, and Timothy. These are ministers that you know. These are men who are serving God, preaching the gospel. Therefore, you should pray specifically for them, that when they preach, the word of God may speed ahead and be honored. And so friends, we should learn from that, not just to pray generally. It's so easy to pray generally. to rattle off phrases that we know. But we should pray specifically for people that we know, particularly for ministers. Of course, you have a duty as a congregation to pray for me as your minister and to pray for the preaching of the word. I'm thankful that you do do that. I know that many of you are praying for God's word as it's preached Sabbath by Sabbath. But let's all be exhorted to do that. praying that God's word would speed ahead in Airdrie, that more and more people might hear it, that we would have a bigger audience in a sense, that we'd be able to reach more people and offer to them the message of hope that the word of God gives us, to preach Christ and him crucified and his unsearchable riches. But it's important not just to pray for a bigger audience or for more to hear, but also that that word would be honored. Pray that God's word might be honored here in Airdrie, that there might be a response, that there might be an enthusiastic response, that people might turn away from their worthless idols. And how many idols people have in this world? They're trusting in all sorts of things to keep them safe, all sorts of things to give them pleasure and comfort. But not God, not Christ. They're looking in the wrong places for satisfaction. They might be looking into a bottle of drink in order to drown their sorrows, to get rid of bad feelings of shame, rather than going to Christ who can forgive them. They might be looking to entertainment on TV, something just to take away the feelings of pain, something to momentarily change the topic, to take their mind off it. They might be looking to all sorts of things, their wealth, security for the future, laying up for themselves treasures on earth rather than laying up for themselves treasures in heaven. But we should pray that the word of God might be honored as it was among the Thessalonians, that people in Airdrie would turn away from their dead idols and turn to the living God. that they might receive the word preached, not just as our ideas, as things that we're trying to say, but they would accept it as the word of God, that they would hear it coming with power, that there would be new life. I wonder, friends, do you desire this? Do you desire it for Airdrie, for this congregation? Do you desire it more widely throughout the world, to the ends of the earth? Do you pray for it? Your kingdom come, Jesus taught us to pray. And therefore we should be praying for the word to go forth speedily and to be honored. But that's not the only thing that Paul asks for prayer for. Look at verse two, connected to it he says, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men for not all have faith. He's praying for deliverance. And not just deliverance for deliverance's sake, but for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the kingdom. Remember the athlete running around the racetrack. Paul is saying the word of God is running. Pray for it to be able to run quickly, to make a new record, if you like, a new world record, to get around the lap as quickly as possible. But we all know what happens in hurdles. When there are hurdles placed on the track and the athletes have to jump over them, it slows them down. It impedes them. And Paul is saying here that in this race course, where the word of God, where we are desiring it to run ahead speedily, there are hurdles along the way, particularly these wicked and evil men, these persecutors. and these heretics, and all sorts of evil people who try to hold back God's word from going forward. The Thessalonians were well acquainted with such persecutors. Throughout these epistles, we've seen that they knew what it is to face persecution, people who don't want the word of God to have an impact on society. And so they seek to destroy the church and to oppose the gospel. Paul is telling us that not all have faith. Not every person has faith. With faith, it is possible to please God. But without faith, it is impossible. Without faith, we cannot please God. And so we should not expect that every person we give the gospel to will give us a favorable hearing. We shouldn't expect that everyone will respond with enthusiasm like the Thessalonians, even if we're praying for that, even if we're very diligent in praying that God's word would speed ahead and be honored. No, not all have faith, and not all will have faith, and there will be evil and wicked men. And so Paul asks the Thessalonians to pray for deliverance for him, for Silas, and for Timothy. from these wicked men, men who would seek to do them harm. Paul was well acquainted with persecution. He knew what it was to be beaten, to be whipped. He knew what it was to be stoned and left for dead. He knew what it was to fear men. He also knew what it was to face heretics, men who would stand up in the church and oppose the gospel. He spoke, remember we thought about it in chapter two, about the man of lawlessness. the Antichrist, someone who at the time of Paul was still to be revealed. But as we thought about it, we saw that the seeds of Antichrist's theology was present at the time. That spirit of the Pharisees, the legalism, the dependence upon ceremonies, that was very much present in the time of the New Testament. These were wicked and evil men without faith. And they were hurdles for the gospel because they were misleading. They were taking people astray into a false gospel. And the same happens today. There are many ways in which that happens. And we can think particularly of the man of sin himself. And we thought of that with the papacy and about that false teaching in Roman Catholicism. It's a way of leading astray. It's a hurdle. in the race track of the gospel, because there are wicked and evil men who do not have faith, who are holding back the gospel. There's a blindness, there's a darkness, there's a leading astray, because not all have faith. And so in our prayers, as we pray, your kingdom come, we're not only praying for gospel advancement, but we're praying for deliverance. Deliverance for God's ministers and for his people. as they're opposed by many people in this world. But we see also that this prayer is mutual. Paul asks for prayer, but he also, he gives prayer to God. We've seen that throughout Thessalonians. How many times does Paul just turn to prayer? He's writing a letter And he seems to not be able to hold back his prayers. It just bursts out, doesn't it? He offers up a prayer at appropriate points for them. And there's a sense here, a prayer, specifically in verse five, but I think implied in verses three and four as well, as he is giving them words of consolation. Verse two says, not all have faith. Verse three says, but. The Lord is faithful. And that's a play on words there, isn't it? Not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful. Friends, every time you run into someone who does not have faith, and someone who seeks to oppose the work of the gospel, someone who laughs at you or mocks you, someone who makes your life difficult, remember, the Lord is faithful. This is a hurdle. Yes, it's impeding the gospel running forward, but the Lord is still faithful. And nothing can change that. No matter what you're going through at this time, the Lord is faithful. And notice Paul's confidence in this. The Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. Paul is certain of this fact. It's not just that the Lord might establish you, that he might guard you. No, he will do it. It is certain God will care for his people. First, he will establish you, he tells them. That is, he will strengthen you so that you may persevere in the faith. You see, we think, how are we to run the race of life? How are we to get on our way to heaven? How can we be sure that we'll make it there in the end? Well, true believers cannot fall away utterly. True believers can and do backslide, that's true. True believers do go up and down in the Christian life. Graces can ebb and flow. And there are times that we find ourselves in the wrong place. There are times that we find ourselves languishing and suffering and spiritually weak. But a true believer cannot fall utterly away because God has promised to establish them, to make them strong, to give them, well, he has given us, hasn't he, a solid foundation that no one can touch. He will keep us. And that's the second part. He will guard you. Not only will he establish you, but he will guard you against the evil one. Who is your greatest enemy? It's not someone at your workplace who makes your life hard. It's not someone in the home. It's not someone in the wider family. It's not even this wicked culture all around us. The greatest enemy that we have is the evil one himself, Satan. the enemy of our souls, the lion that prowls around seeking to devour us, every opportunity he could take to lead God's people astray. And yet, why should we fear him when we have such a promise as this? Paul is confident he, that is the Lord, will guard you against the evil one. Think of Psalm 121. We'll sing it at the end. Where over and over again the psalmist is saying about how God keeps or guards Israel. I think it's eight times in the psalm it's used. And it goes through how he keeps your foot from sliding and so on. He keeps you in all these different ways. But it comes to the climax when it tells us that he will keep your soul. He will keep you henceforth and forever. He'll keep you from now even to eternity because such is the way that the Lord guards his people. He can guard us not just physically, not just giving us safety and traveling, but he guards our soul as it travels through this life to the life to come. And so friends, the question for us is are we trusting God with our souls? Are we trusting him to establish us and to guard us from the evil one? Look what Paul is saying here. The Lord is faithful. He will do these things. You have a promise here in the word of God. When you face temptation, temptation that's very strong, very persuasive, maybe a temptation that in a sense matches up with inner desires in your heart, fallen desires, are you trusting that the Lord will establish you and guard you? When persecution comes, suffering, difficulty, trials, are you trusting in the one who will establish you and who will guard you? Or do you think that you're on your own? Do you think that God may have dealt graciously with you in the past, but now you have to stand on your own two feet, all on your own? No, God doesn't leave us behind enemy lines all by ourselves. No, the Lord establishes and guards us. Take this as a promise. Paul doesn't just have confidence in what the Lord will do. He also has confidence in verse four, about them. He has confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. In one sense, we could say this is a confidence in the Thessalonians themselves. He has a confidence that they will respond right to the word of God. They are obeying, they will obey. No matter what Paul may have to tell them to do, they will respond obediently and with faith. In many ways here, Paul is opening up, isn't he, into what comes next. And we read it earlier in the rest of chapter three. It's one of the main points Paul is writing this letter. to rebuke them for their idleness. And we'll come to that next week, God willing. But he's opening up to that. He's saying, I'm confident that when I write to you and when I command you and the Lord to do something, I know you'll do it. I know you'll respond. Was Paul here simply having confidence in the Thessalonians? Well, no, that's not exactly what he says. Look at verse four more closely. and we have confidence in the Lord about you. Paul's confidence was in the Lord. The reason he knew that these Thessalonians would obey his commands, that they would obey the scripture, that they would obey his preaching and his letters, is because Paul was confident in the Lord himself. Where God has begun a good work, he will carry it on to completion. Where a work of grace has started, it doesn't end there, but it continues. And so Paul is sure that where God is at work, therefore God's word will be received. And there's very much that sense even today, I feel it myself at times, when you know you have to tell someone something. It's something that they're not doing right, something they should do differently. And you know almost beforehand how they're going to respond in one sense, and you don't infallibly know. But if someone is someone that God has begun a good work in, and they're responsive, they're already obeying God, they're already trying to live their life according to God's word, but in this one area they have fallen, there can be a confidence at times That when you do rebuke them about that, or when you do encourage them to change, that they're going to respond obediently. That's what Paul has here. There's a confidence in the Lord. You are doing and you will do the things that we command you to do. Because they are people who respond in faith. Paul doesn't just leave it there. He prays that it would go further. And that's where verse five takes us. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. And these are the two places that we want to end with. These are the two places we want to go to. May the Lord direct us all today to contemplate more the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ. What is the love of God that he's speaking of here? It's not our love for God. We're not to be thinking, here just about how much do I love God. That's something that we can consider from time to time, but it's not what he's asking. May you instead be directed to see how much God loves you. Christian brothers and sisters, may you today consider God's love for you. Think of 1 John chapter three, verse one. See what kind of love the Father has given to us. that we should be called children of God. Quite literally, where does this love come from? What world or what planet does this love come from? It's not common love, it's not the type of love we see around us. This love is otherworldly. It's from a different place. Something we've never experienced before. That we, sinful men and women and children, could be called sons of God, adopted into his family? What kind of marvelous love is this? Or think of John 3, 16. God has so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. To give his son, the son of his love, the son who from eternity was in perfect communion with the Father and the Spirit, there was perfect love and joy. And God so loved that he gave his son. Or think of Romans 8 verse 32. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not with him also graciously give us all things? God did not spare his son. Jesus willingly went to the cross, but God didn't go easy on him on the cross. God didn't say, well, this is my son. I don't want to hurt him. I don't want to make this a miserable experience for him, so I'll just hold back a bit of my wrath and curse. Now we're told explicitly, God did not spare him. He poured out on his son the full wrath and curse of God, due to us for our sins. Why? Because of God's love. He who did not spare his own son. gave him because he loves. Do we not today need to be directed back time and time again to the love of God for his people? A love that doesn't spare his own son. He gave him up for us. And how often our brains think of everything else but the love of God. How often this concept, this warmest most wonderful concept of the scripture gets foggy in our brains. We're left perhaps thinking God doesn't love me or God couldn't possibly love me. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God. But if you're here today and you're not a Christian, you also should think about the love of God. You also, we're praying, God might direct your hearts to the love of God. Because where is the best demonstration of love? It's the love of God in Christ, one who willingly laid down his life to die on a cross. There's no greater love than that. Here is love. Consider it. Consider what moved God to send his son to die on the cross. Consider why that had to be. There had to be something terrible in order for Christ to have to die. And surely when you consider your sin, when you consider how many times you've disobeyed God, when you consider the twistedness and the iniquity in your heart, surely then you see why the cross was necessary. May the Lord direct your heart to the love of God and to consider that love. And then also may the Lord direct your hearts to the steadfastness of Christ. This steadfastness of Christ is how Jesus patiently bore with his suffering. He endured even to the end. He knew what was coming. He knew what was ahead of him, and yet he set his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem. The cup of God's wrath was placed into his hand in the garden of Gethsemane, and yet He was willing to drink it to its dregs. He was willing because he knew it was necessary for our atonement. And so we can think of various passages that speak of the steadfastness of Christ. Hebrews 12 verse two, who for the joy sat before him, endured the cross, despising its shame. He endured the cross. How many hours was he hanging there between heaven and earth, despised by men and forsaken by God? And he endured it. He endured it, looking ahead to what was to come, the joy set before him. Or think about the next verse, Hebrews 12, verse three. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, in that you may not grow weary, or so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted." He endured hostility from sinners. At the cross, that was evident. As he was led to the cross, he was mocked, as he had the purple robe and the crown of thorns. as they blindfolded him and struck him and said, prophesy, who struck you? As the people at the foot of the cross mocked him, look, he's crying to Elijah. He trusted in God, let him deliver him if he delights in him. And yet Jesus endured all of this. And think about who Jesus was, the son of God, the judge of the living and the dead, the one who has power to condemn The one who has the power to sentence to hell forevermore. And yet he did not use that power as he was on the cross. He humbled himself and he endured with steadfastness this hostility. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. But instead he prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And think of Hebrews 13 verse 13. about this steadfastness or endurance of Christ. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. And this is the lesson for us. May the Lord direct our hearts to the steadfastness of Christ so that we might follow his example, that we might go out to him and endure the reproach that he endured. We're not to be secret Christians Think of Nicodemus, who was a secret Christian for a long time. He came to Jesus by night. He didn't want people to know. He didn't want them to know that he was asking Jesus questions, that he was concerned for the new birth, concerned about his soul. No, he wanted to come privately. And he kept quiet until the resurrection. But let us go outside the camp to Jesus. to the place of his reproach. Let us be willing to endure hostility from men because of the steadfastness of Christ, the one who establishes us, who gives us strength that we may withstand. Don't be a secret Christian, but nail your colors to the mast. If you're at school and you're a Christian, don't hide it away. Don't hide it away and just pretend that you're not a Christian. Let it be known. It's hard to do, but let it be known. In the workplace, it doesn't get any easier, does it, to let people know you're a Christian. Just let it be known. You're a Christian first and foremost. And yes, you may become the butt of the jokes. You may have to suffer reproach. But may the Lord comfort your hearts and establish them. May the Lord direct you to the steadfastness of Christ. And in a sense, even this last section is really part and parcel of the first. This section began with the prayer, your kingdom come. May the word of God advance, may it run, may it speed ahead, and may it be honored. But connected to that is this very fact. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And Paul here has confidence that not only would the gospel advance, but that amongst the Thessalonians, the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Why? Well, it's really that verse three that answers it all, for the Lord is faithful. And so it is for us, friends, we're praying that the gospel will go forth in Airdrie, in our other congregations, in our presbytery, Now we're praying more and more for the Gambia, that God's word would run ahead there, but pray also that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, that the Lord may establish us and direct our hearts to him in grace. Amen.