This time I invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter three. I'll read verse one to verse five. If you're using a pew Bible, that can be found on page 1,176. Actually, during the sermon I will open up to Lord's Day 52, so if you wanted to keep that handy during the sermon, that would be good. I will not read it after the reading of God's word. I'll hold off till later. We turn our attention to Paul's letter to the church in Thessalonica, the Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter three, beginning at verse one. Let us now hear God's word. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you. and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Thus far the reading of God's holy word made his blessing upon the preaching and teaching of it. Friends in Christ congregation, Paul's letter to the Thessalonian church is a very encouraging letter. I think the Apostle Paul had a joy about him when he wrote the Thessalonians. because God was doing a great and mighty work among those people. Indeed, he was working through the churches that the Apostle Paul ministered to, but the Thessalonians, I think, were very close to his heart. Paul's affection for them is very noteworthy because they set a great example to churches and Christians in that generation and in subsequent generations, even today. When you read these letters, You feel, you sense the affection of Paul, but you also come away with, wow, these Christians were living in the grace of Jesus Christ. Especially under severe trial. That's what's significant. That's why Paul has such affection for them. Because of the context in which they received the word of God and believed it. The easy thing for them would have been to reject it and not be persecuted. But they accepted it with believing hearts and they lived it amidst great affliction. That's noteworthy, isn't it? That's noteworthy. They received and believed the word of God under great persecution and affliction and we see this in chapter one of his first letter to the Thessalonians. By the power of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Word of God, they received the Word and believed it wholeheartedly. And they became examples to churches like Macedonia and Achaia of their expression of faith, hope, and love. Faith, hope, and love. These three were manifested in the life of the Thessalonians. Paul then comes to the end of his letter, 2 Thessalonians, and he requests of them prayer. Prayer of intercession. He gives them words of promise. And then he concludes this short little section with his confidence in the Lord that he has for them. He is confident in the Lord what they will do, how they will respond to his teachings and the commands that were set before them. But Paul doesn't end there. He then ends praying for them. So he begins asking for prayers of intercession and he concludes interceding for them in prayer. As we work through this passage of scripture, we're gonna see how the prayer of Jesus, the sixth petition in the Lord's prayer is significant and related to our text this evening. Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver or rescue us from evil. Paul's asking the people to pray in that same way. First, prayers of intercession. Look with me in your Bible. He says, finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. Pray for us. Plead to the Father on our behalf. Because there are two pressing matters. First, Paul asks the church that they pray that the word of God may speed ahead and be honored, or literally be glorified. This word speed ahead is the word for run, that the word of God may not just run, but run quickly, run speedily, finish the course, and be glorified. Paul is praying, or asking the Thessalonians to pray that the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, speedily, quickly runs its race throughout every tribe, tongue, and nation. Let us Christians pray that the Word of the Lord, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, spreads quickly throughout the world so that people everywhere hear and believe This message, what is this telling you about the apostle Paul? What does this teach you, tell you, show you about this apostle? What is his main concern? What does he desire most of all? He wants the gospel to go forth. Whatever the cost, whether his life or the life of another messenger of Christ, he wants the gospel to spread and spread quickly. And so what we learn about the Apostle Paul is that he had a sense of great urgency. A sense of urgency. that the gospel goes forth and many hear the word and turn from idols like the Thessalonians did to the true and living God. To see people's lives changed. Where is our sense of urgency? Where is our sense of urgency? Do we have one? Oh, Paul is being too idealistic. Paul, he's the apostle, he can get away with saying something like this. No, I think that should be the desire of every church. I think this should be the desire of every Christian. Is the urgency in your heart and mine. It's one thing The desire to see loved ones or family members who do not know the Lord to come to know him. Another thing to believe and feel the same way and to actually do it. To pray and to take action. I pray. that the word of God would speed along quickly, run its race quickly, and God use me. Give me that sense of urgency. Give me that sense of urgency to have an eye out, be intentional in who my neighbor is, be intentional on who my neighbor is who does not know this crucified and risen Lord. and let me meet them where they're at. Meet them where they're at and bring the gospel of grace. Paul then requests prayer from the church that the Lord would deliver them from evil and wicked men or literally rescue them, rescue them from evil and wicked men who are actually doing Satan's bidding The word will always run into resistance, but it's not bound. Messengers of the word will always find themselves being attacked constantly in spiritual warfare. Even the Christian, him or herself, will find themselves in daily resistance coming from the evil one. Paul says, pray for us, because we are like sheep to be slaughtered. An evil and wicked man want to destroy us. Satan wants to destroy us. Satan wants and desires to destroy your pastor, your leader. Me, Pastor Zanima and Brummel, Pastor Malin, if he could snuff us out, he'd be quite happy. Oh yeah. If he can take out the leaders through wicked men, evil men who have bad intentions, who want to destroy the faith of the people, what do you do? You go to the leader. You cut off. The head. Now we know the head of the church is Christ and Christ sends servants, under shepherds. If you can cut off the head of the under shepherd. Paul says pray. Pray that the word spreads quickly and pray for us that we would be rescued from evil and wicked men. Deliver us from evil, oh Lord. Deliver us from evil. Oh, I can talk about pastors, but what about you? What do you think Satan and evil men are gonna try to do with you, Christian, when you want to share your faith? You ever find yourself, when you're in that situation, when you're sharing your faith and you're investing your time, investing resources, investing your life in another person? What happens? Does the spiritual warfare get Less intense or more intense? Well, I dare to say it gets more intense. Because Satan wants nothing of that. He doesn't want you engaged in that activity. The world doesn't want you engaged in that activity. In fact, they will accuse you of hate speech, right? Pray. Paul leans on prayer. He leans on prayer. He has a sense of urgency. There's a fervent desire and a sense of urgency to see the word spread and he knows that the word is not bound and that it will spread throughout the world so that God's name is glorified as it was glorified and honored among the Thessalonians in the way they showed and demonstrated faith, hope, and love. And in the meantime, congregation, pray for us that God would deliver us. God would deliver us. If I can throw in an advertisement, every second Wednesday of the month we have prayer meeting and we pray for this very thing. We pray for this very thing. Lord, may your word go forth from this place by your people, whether from the pulpit or our lives. May the word go forth. May our desire be to see the word of the gospel change hearts and lives. Pray. Long ago, congregation, the prophets foretold the day when the light of the word of the Lord will come to them, to the Gentiles, to the nations. They will hear in turn from idols, worthless idols, to the true and living God. And there is a day when they will say, it is said, let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. Well, how can they praise if they do not hear? How can they praise if they do not hear? Pray. Pray and take action. Put feet to your faith. Like I like to often say, put feet to your faith and get busy. Get busy. being a witness, being salt and light for the Lord, trusting in his spirit and his strength. Second, words of promise. Words of promise. Now in your notes, I think applying the word is like last. I'm actually going to put that in the second point, so I apologize for that. Words of promise. Look with me at verse three. He asks for prayer, those two matters, important matters. Then he says, that some do not have faith, verse three, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one, or evil. While many men are without true faith in the gospel, God is faithful to keep his people in the faith. He strengthens the spirit of a man and a woman to fight the good fight of faith. When undergoing trial, severe affliction, He strengthens. He strengthens us for the battle, a battle that is seemingly too fierce to fight. He strengthens. When you want to throw in the towel, look to Jesus in faith. When you want to throw in the towel, Continue to trust in Him. When you want to throw in the towel, know and take heart that His promise is sure and certain, that He is faithful to guard you and protect you, to keep you. These are different words that can be translated for the word guard. Guard us against the evil one. The catechism asks, what does the sixth petition mean? Look with me in that Forms and Prayers book. Lord's Day 52, question and answer 127. It talks about the sixth petition, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, or from the evil one. Now many Christians scratch their head at this particular petition. Why do they scratch their heads about this one? Why would we pray to God, lead us not into temptation? I thought God doesn't tempt anyone, nor can he be tempted. Why would we pray lead us not into temptation? Why? Does God lead us into temptation? No, but he places us in situations where there is great affliction and trial, and God tests us in those things. whereas Satan tempts us in those situations. God doesn't tempt us to sin. In fact, I don't have time to look at it now, but Matthew chapter 18, verses seven and nine, woe to those who tempt others to sin. Rather, in the pressures of life, God refines our faith As in fire. The devil, on the other hand, tempts us to deny God and to forsake faith in the Lord. That's why the second part of this sixth petition is crucial. But deliver us from evil. But deliver us from evil. Our Lord Jesus Christ, after he was baptized, what does it say? In Mark's gospel, it says this. After he was baptized, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by who? By the devil. He ate or drank nothing for 40 days and 40 nights, having been sustained by his trust in his Father in heaven, that his food was God's word that sustained him. He didn't succumb to the devil and his schemes and empty promises. Jesus overcame the devil's fiery darts and deceptive schemes because he loved his father and obeyed his father's will above all things. God delivered him from the evil one. The sixth petition is a prayer to trust in our Father's strength and power to rescue us in times of temptation to sin, temptation to deny God, temptations in times of doubt and struggle, so that we overcome the devil's schemes and temptations to sin. So now if you have... Lord's Day 52 open, congregation, what does the sixth petition mean? And lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil means we are so weak that we cannot stand on our own for a moment. And our sworn enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh never stop attacking us. And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong by the power of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not be defeated in this spiritual fight, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory. It is a prayer for God's strength and power of the Spirit to endure temptation. And there are three things I want to point out here in this particular point, words of promise, the ways in which God is faithful, the way in which God establishes and guards you. We pray the Sixth Petition because only the Lord defeats the spiritual forces of evil in your life. We are helpless to combat these forces when we are just flesh and blood. And so what do we look to? We look to spiritual tools, spiritual armor, those things God has given to us as gifts to fight the good fight of faith and to resist temptation. God delivers us through his means, his word and spirit. God who is the creator and maker of all things in the spiritual and visible realms is the one who has dominion over all of these things. And since he's the creator of all these things, he is the one that can only provide you with those things that are necessary and needed to defeat them. But we look to ourselves. We look to flesh and blood. We look to ourselves to defeat this. If I only have enough knowledge, and knowledge is good. If I can only muster up enough strength and will, things are important. But if your eye is off Christ, if it is off those things God has given you and me to fight the good fight of faith, we will lose the battle. Second, we pray the Sixth Petition because only the Lord provides the way of escape from temptation. Only the Lord provides the way of escape. Turn with me in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 10. Verses 11 to 13. In the previous verses, Paul speaks of those in the Old Testament who gave themselves over to temptation and sin and fell in the desert. They disobeyed because of unbelief, we learn from the book of Hebrews. and they were destroyed, says the Bible. And verse 11, now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Those are extremely comforting and profound words. Notice this, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. In other words, you are not alone. Right? You know how many people live life thinking they're the only people who are suffering with a particular issue? I remember I was asked to give my testimony, shortly after I became a Christian, I was asked to give my testimony. And I was naive to think that I was the only one who suffered with these things or struggled with these particular sins. That I was the only person that had this particular testimony and story. And so I gave my testimony to the congregation. I think it was during a worship service, the pastor called me up, I gave my testimony. And after the service, I had at least a dozen people come up to me and express the same struggle, the same temptation. And that was a turning point in my life that I realized like, wow, I'm not alone in this. I'm not alone in this. How many of you feel alone in your temptation when you struggle with temptation to sin? Whether that be doubting God or wanting to live a lifestyle contrary to God's word, or even just afflictions, physical trials, and how you struggle in your very soul, your spirit, during physical trials, like, God, where are you? Where are you? I've been crying out to you. Where are you? I need you. How many feel alone in those situations? You're not. I'm not. Which then, makes me think, okay, if I'm not alone in this, if there is, as Paul says, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man, God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. What are those things that God gives us? He gives us his word, the Bible. He gives us the sacraments. He gives us prayer and he gives us fellowship. He gives us the very people who struggle with the same temptations that we do. So that we come alongside each other, sometimes grabbing each other by the lapel and saying, hey, come on, let's go. Let's pray together. Let's talk about these issues together. Oh, but pastor, now you're wanting me to be vulnerable and I can't show weakness. Well, you know what? That's okay. That's okay to be vulnerable. God gave us the gift of the church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, Life Together, speaks about how blessed, we don't realize how blessed we are to have a church community that assembles together. He says that we take it so for granted that we are so blessed with a church community that can enjoy fellowship and share in these sufferings, in these temptations together. So that by God's grace and strength, we can defeat them in the power of Christ. But think about this, you have brothers and sisters in this world who cannot assemble like this. Yeah, so let's not take it for granted. It's okay to be vulnerable. It's okay to share your hurts with one another. Another point of application under the second point, words of promise. We pray the sixth petition because only the Lord brings us victory, as the catechism notes. The Lord brings victory. So that we may not be defeated in the spiritual fight, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory. There is victory in Jesus. Those who are in Christ have overcome the world. It is your faith that has overcome. Victory in Jesus, my savior forever. He bought me and sought me with his redeeming love. He loved me ere I knew him. His love for me assures me that I am his and he is mine. And I think I just botched the end of that song. But if you ever get the chance to hear that song in a church in the south side of Chicago, It is fascinating. Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. Can we do that one day? Maybe on a Sunday we should do that. Pastor, you're in rare form tonight. In our trials and temptations, we look to Jesus and we encourage each other to look to Jesus. Brother, sister, let's look to Jesus together. Let's pray together. Let's pray together. Confidence in the Lord, lastly. Verse four and five, and we have confidence in the Lord about you that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Here in these two verses, we have packed man's responsibility in God's sovereignty. Man's responsibility in God's sovereignty. In verse four, he has confidence in the Lord. Now, in those days when letters were written, it was not uncommon for the author to say something like this. I have confidence that what I have written, you will do. It was not uncommon, and Paul follows the same pattern here. He has confidence, but his confidence is in the Lord because he has observed, he sees the fruit of their faith, the work of the Spirit in their lives. By God's grace, these Christians were obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. And such confidence in the Lord has been confirmed by their genuine faith, their ardent hope, and their genuine love for one another. They weren't passive Christians, they were active Christians. They weren't sitting on their hands, they were putting their hand to the plow and loving and having great hope in the coming of Christ. And in the meantime, loving one another. Paul knows that apart from the Lord, we can do nothing. And so he intercedes now on behalf of the Christians so that their obedience is directed by the Lord. So on the one hand, he has confidence in the Lord that they will do what he commands them because he sees them bearing fruit by the Spirit. But now he's gonna pray for them. He's gonna pray for them in verse five. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness or hupomone, the patient endurance of Christ. The patient endurance of Christ. Paul prays that the Lord directs their hearts to God's love in Jesus. Oh Lord, Direct our hearts to your love for us. To direct means to make straight or put in the right place. May your love be put in the right place in our hearts. I think of the hymn writer. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Take my heart, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Lord, I'm prone to wander. I'm prone to leave the God I love. Direct my heart to Your love. Your love for me that is in Jesus Christ. Your love that was demonstrated for us in that while we were yet sinners, You sent Christ to die for me. that in love you predestined us for adoption to yourself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of your will, O God, to the praise of your glorious grace, with which you have blessed us in the beloved. And the apostle John writes, and this is the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. It is the love of God that captures our hearts, that captures our hearts to hear the word, receive the word, obey the word, love the word, and direct our lives according to that word. but he also prays that the Lord will direct their hearts to the steadfastness or patient endurance of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus suffered in the flesh, just as Jesus suffered on the cross, he patiently endured the sufferings and death. The love of God that keeps us and guards us is also the love of God that keeps us and helps us to patiently endure our trials, and enables us to persevere against these temptations, against these temptations to sin, and rebel, and give in to the devil's schemes. Congregation, we are the church militant. That means we are the church that fights the good fight of faith. We fight in the strength of God, in the power of God, and in the victory of Jesus. A church that fights the good fight of faith against the spiritual forces of evil until the day Christ calls us home or comes again to destroy all wickedness and evil. And He gives us, He gives us, congregation, the right to execute judgment with Him even over the angels. as we read from Psalm 149, as we hear the Apostle Paul speak of, that we judge even the angels in heaven. I can't even fathom what that is like, or what that even looks like. Turn with me in your hymn book to 244, a mighty fortress is our God. As the accompanist come forward to lead us in this hymn, I wanna read stanza one. A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper, he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal. And then verse four, and that word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth, the Spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth. Jesus is on your side and he fights the battle for you and me. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. Let's stand to sing the