Held Steady by God

I'll turn your Bibles, please, to the book of 2 Thessalonians. Our preaching will be from verses 16 and 17.

Though I'll read from verse 13 to the end of verse 17 to get some flavor of the context.

So 2 Thessalonians 2, beginning of verse 13, if you please stand for the reading of God's Word.

This is the Word of God. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the

Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the

Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our

Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.

Now the text for this morning. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

God bless the reading of his Word and now its proclamation. Please be seated and let's pray once again.

Heavenly Father, I pray, Father, that the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, would be pleasing insight.

O God, our Redeemer. I pray, Father, the same for all of us who hear this Word of God, that it would be faithfully, that it would be clearly proclaimed, and that it would have its way with those who hear it this day, those who you have sent to this place.

So Father, do by your Spirit that which we as people are incapable of.

Open our hearts to your Word. May it grow, may it take root there and grow and flourish into much fruit for the

Gospel of Jesus Christ. To the honor of your name, Father, for we ask it all in Christ's name and for his sake.

Amen. What I read to you just a moment ago is now the second time in these two letters that the

Apostle Paul has appealed to God on behalf of the saints in Thessalonica.

So from God the Spirit, inspiring the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonicans, and by this word that God by his

Spirit has maintained through the Apostle to us here today. It's now the second time in much the same way that he has pronounced a blessing upon the

Thessalonians as he did in 1 Thessalonians. I want to read that to you, and you'll hear the similarity between what was in 1

Thessalonians and what I just read a moment ago. Now may our

God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the

Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our

God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. You heard the similarity there between what

I just read from 1 Thessalonians and a few moments ago in 2 Thessalonians. You'll notice, you can do this for your homework when you get home later this afternoon, but if you read both letters you're going to see that these prayers, as similar as they are, are also similar in the context and the flow of the

Apostle's thought in both letters, because both are preceded by moral and ethical demands of the gospel upon believers in Jesus Christ.

What then shall we do? And as he lists some of those out, he then goes into this prayer.

Now may our God and Father himself, or in 2 Thessalonians, now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself. And both of these prayers, you'll notice also, are followed by a finally.

Finally, brothers, in the one and just finally in 2 Thessalonians.

There's another similarity in these prayers, that both of them call upon the Son and the

Father as the only source of strength by which sinners can accomplish his will. The Lord Jesus Christ, in holy concert and perfect harmony with the

Father, who establishes our hearts. It's the outflow of the heart that is in view here.

The outflow of the heart. Scripture calls heart the seat of your thoughts and your intentions.

And it's the heart that God establishes. It's the heart that he molds to his thoughts and his intentions.

And this is the Apostle's prayer for the Thessalonians and for us. That our hearts be established by God, the only one who can establish, can strengthen, can put our hearts in place.

And by that, we'd be able to know his will and do his will, and he would, through us, accomplish what he would have us to do here on earth.

It's F .F. Bruce who calls what I read in 2 Thessalonians, now may our God, now may our

Lord Jesus Christ himself, he calls it a wish prayer. A wish prayer. And that's accurate to some extent because the form of the verb, may our

Lord Jesus Christ, or in 1 Thessalonians, may our God and Father, it's in a form called the optative.

And all that means is it's a wish. It's a wish. So may our

God. But in apostolic usage, and the way I want you to hear this this morning, it's not a wish the way we usually think of a wish.

It's something much, much more to that than that. Now in these days, as the holidays are approaching, we hear many wishes.

I wish you a Merry Christmas. And even in our common usage, we wish many things upon people and some good things.

I wish that you would prosper, have a long life, may your marriage be happy, I would wish that upon you. I wish you a good and long and comfortable retirement.

Those sorts of things. May you be blessed with long and comfortable and happy days, and your children be blessed.

We've all received and given these kinds of wishes, haven't we? Well, Paul doesn't just wish for the

Thessalonians to be established by wishing on a star. He doesn't just wish that God would establish their heart in every good work and word.

But any more than I as your pastor or Conley as your pastor would wish that upon you, we pray for it, and we pray to the only

God who's able to accomplish that. Paul prays that God would bless the Thessalonians by establishing their hearts, by strengthening their hearts, by steadying their hearts.

Not wishing upon a star, he's exposing his heart's desire for them. He's exposing God's heart's desire for them.

He would pray what God would have for them. You see, in Christ Jesus, our

Lord, the blessings of God are not just wished upon us. They are conferred to us.

Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning? Is your faith in Him? Then the promises of God that are accomplished by and through Jesus Christ are not just something that the apostle

Paul would wish for you, or that I or Conley would wish for you.

They are, by the authority of the Word of God, promises that are conferred to you.

They are yours in Christ Jesus. So it's not just going to God and saying, oh,

I hope He does this. The apostle Paul is signing off this section of his letter and communicating by the

Holy Spirit and the living Word of God to us this day the confidence that you must have that God has indeed done these things for you.

He's done them through the Lord Jesus Christ and for His people. So I want to look at this short blessing, these two verses.

We're going to look at it in three parts. And the first part I want you to see is who is appealed to.

We'll go through that fairly quickly because the names of God that are in there stand pretty plain for us, but we need to address that.

Who is appealed to in this wish prayer of the apostle?

And second, what is the basis of the appeal? What does Paul give the Thessalonians and through this living

Word us as the basis for this appeal that God would establish their hearts? And then exactly what is appealed?

What is it that Paul would have God to do or see done in Thessalonica?

We could even say here in Sunnyvale, California amongst the saints here gathered. Who is appealed to?

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father. It is God who is appealed to.

The original language has a pronoun that's thrown to the front of the sentence. Himself our

Lord Jesus Christ. May He. It's Himself. It's to exemplify, it's to amplify the idea that it's

Jesus Christ who is being appealed here. May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our

Father. You know, the apostle Paul, of course, never shied away from calling believers in Christ to order their lives according to the gospel of Christ.

Verse 15, which we preached last week, is one of those where he calls upon you, the believer in Christ, to order your life according to the word of Christ.

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.

This is your responsibility. Now we covered this last week, and I'm not going to repeat very much of it, but understand that we do have this responsibility to do that which

God, by establishing the heart, makes possible for you to do. To live morally and ethically exemplary lives, excellent lives, according to the word of God.

He says, so then, brothers, stand firm. Hold your ground. Like the house at the end of Jesus' Sermon on the

Mount, the house is built on the rock, the foundation of God's word. The one where the storm and the wind and the rain comes, and the house stands against it all and survives it all.

Stand firm in that way. That's your responsibility. Hold to, grasp onto, don't let go of the truth of God.

Implement it throughout your life. That's from last week, and that's verse 15, and that's your part.

And now verse 16, as Paul gives this blessing, now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our

Father, can we just simplify and say, do this as we do our part.

It is God who establishes the heart and makes it possible. In the original language, as I said, himself comes first, the emphasis thrown to Jesus Christ.

Who is being appealed to is Jesus Christ, and Paul often calls him Lord and calls him just Lord. The Lord says this, so the

Lord has done that, trusting us to know that he means Jesus Christ. But here he gives the full name in this appeal, the

Lord Jesus Christ. Lord means master. Lord means one who's to be obeyed.

But here it means even more than that. In the wish prayer that Paul has here, he names the one who can do anything, the one in whom all authority and power of God has been vested.

You know, in his humanity, Jesus Christ healed lepers and blind eyes.

In his humanity, Jesus told the man with the lame legs, take up your mat and walk, and he walked.

In his humanity, he healed and cast out demons.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ who can do anything. Raised dead, stilled the storms. He knew thoughts, he multiplied bread.

In his humanity, he did this, and now risen and ascended to his Father's side, free of the constraints of human flesh, his power is still at work constantly in and for his people.

That's the Lord. This is the Lord being appealed to here to establish your heart, not just wishing upon a star, but something that the

Lord of all creation, he who called it into being, is called upon to do for his people.

He's the Lord, and he's the Lord Jesus. Jesus, the name of humanity, the name of the human that God became in Jesus Christ.

When God the Son cloaked himself, when he left his Father's side and took on humanity. Jesus, the name given to the

Son of God. As the angel told Joseph and Mary, you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from his sins.

This is the Lord Jesus. Jesus, the name given to the Son, the one who proved that when

God so loved the world, he didn't just wish to save them, but he did in fact save them by the life and the work of Jesus whom he sent.

Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. The Lord Jesus is appealed to in this wish prayer, if we can call it a wish, of the

Apostle Paul. So it's the Lord Jesus, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his full name that's appealed here.

Christ, of course, means Messiah. You remember back in John 2 where the temple delegates sent to John the

Baptist, and they asked him, are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah? They were looking for the one who would redeem Israel and bring about the kingdom of God.

The disciples on the Emmaus Road after Jesus Christ's crucifixion, not knowing they were walking with Jesus, they told this stranger, who of course was

Jesus, that they'd hoped it was him who would be the Messiah, the Christ, who would redeem

Israel and bring about the kingdom of God. Well, they were right that he is the

Christ. They were right that he is the Messiah. They were wrong that the cross spelt failure.

He's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Christ. As Jesus himself plainly said at his trial, when they said, if you are the

Christ, they demanded of him, if you are the Christ, tell us, are you the Son of God? And he said, you say that I am.

In other words, yes, you've said it and it's true. He was and he is.

And this is the one appealed to here. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ.

Think of the whole name as we go on about our business, as you go to God in prayer, as we say in Jesus' name.

Remember that Jesus' full title is Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Master of all.

Jesus, the Son of God, God the Son who became flesh and took upon that name, the

Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah, who shall save his people from their sins.

And God our Father. To both and to one. Paul can easily name in 1

Thessalonians, God first. Now may our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Thessalonians, our

Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. It makes no difference which comes first because they're both equally God. The Son is not the

Father and the Father is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Son. They are three persons of the one, indivisible, unified

God. And so Paul can easily slip and say the Lord Jesus and God the

Father or the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father or God the Father and Lord Jesus. It just doesn't make any difference because they're both equally

God. All that it means to be God, Jesus the Son, God the Father and God the

Spirit equally have amongst themselves. To both and to one, he makes the appeal.

Not one and the same, they're eternally distinct persons of an indivisible

Godhead. This is who's appealed to here. As we think about our hearts, the inner person, your thoughts and your intentions, your motives, the new heart that God gave you.

This is who's appealed to to establish it. This is our Lord Jesus Christ and God our

Father. And the last thing I want to say before we move on here is did you notice the pronouns there? Not just we appeal to that Savior God person out there.

We don't appeal to this Father figure, creator of all. The pronouns are so important.

Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our God and Father.

It was after he was resurrected, remember when he was speaking to the women at the tomb in John chapter 20? And he said,

I'm going to my Father and your Father, to my

God and to your God. It's through Jesus Christ that he becomes not just the

God out there, holy and separate and distinct, which he is, but because of faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ and because of his work on the cross, his answer for your sin, we can say our

God and Father, my God and Father. As Galatians 2 .20 says, the same apostle who wrote these letters to the

Thessalonians, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

So on what basis do you come to God? On what basis do we rely upon his promises?

What does Paul begin this great wish prayer with the name of God?

God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How do you come to him?

Well, first and foremost is faith. Without faith it is impossible, please God. And where does faith lead but to believe his word?

And doesn't his word say that God just doesn't wish upon us these things that he promises, he does them.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

As we go through these verses, understand this, that God didn't say, well,

I love this world and I hope they get saved and I'm going to stand here in heaven and see what happens and let them go on about their business and see if one should bump into salvation somehow.

No. God sent his Son. God loved the world and God did something about it and he accomplished what he sent his

Son to do or we should say Jesus Christ sent what the Father sent him to do. He loved the world so much that he sent his only

Son. Whoever believes in him should not perish. In other words, the God to whom Paul sets this prayer is a

God who acted upon and brought about what he wishes. You and I can wish many things and good things.

How many of them can we accomplish? Especially when it's just good wishes for people's lives, hoping that the marriage is happy, hoping their retirement is secure, hoping your college is successful.

Mostly what we can do is express a good wish and hope that that makes them feel so good that it lasts for a while and it helps them to accomplish that which we wish upon them.

But the point is, we don't ultimately have the power and the wherewithal. God does. And what

God promises, he accomplishes. God so loved the world, he did something about it and accomplished that love in and through Jesus Christ.

This is who's appealed to here. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ and God our

Father. And there's a basis for the appeal. And I've really given much of it away already.

God accomplishing what he says. You've been given something already that proves the validity of the prayer.

Who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace. God accomplishes all his purposes in his word.

His word does not return to him void, but it accomplishes that for which he sent it. That's Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 11.

And what do we see here? We see that God's love gave us what we need here in this world as we await the

Lord Jesus Christ's return. Who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope.

And here's what we need. Here's what the Thessalonians needed in order to accomplish God's will. All those ethical demands that came first.

And then after this prayer in both 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, finally brothers, and then another list of ethical commands.

It's not just do, do, do. We cover that in verse 15. You are to stand firm.

You are to hold on to the word of the truth of God. But it's God who works in you to will and to work for his good pleasure.

You have the responsibility to do. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's

God who accomplishes your doing. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 8 quotes the psalmist from Psalm 68 and says,

When Christ ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. And here are two of those wonderful gifts that he gave to men.

Comfort and hope. You might recall that Thessalonians needed comfort because they were so mixed up about the return of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Had they missed it? What about their loved ones who were in the grave?

What was going to happen to them? Were they just going to stay in the grave? They had all these misunderstandings and we're not going to repeat them all here, but they needed to be comforted regarding this return of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And by being comforted, being steadied, he says, do not be alarmed.

We don't want you to be unsteadied by these things. We don't want you to be shook by these things. Because the comfort of God is meant to help us carry on in this life as we await

Jesus Christ confidently, sure that he will return whether we see it in our lifetime or not.

If we're stirred up, if we're lacking this comfort, which could easily translate into confidence in God and his word, it's going to be very difficult if not impossible to do his will because we're distracted by these other things.

Paul told them not to be shaken in mind or alarmed, rather be comforted with an eternal comfort.

Here's something God gave. God gave us eternal comfort and good hope.

This word gave means at a point in time. There was a moment where he gave this to you. Do you know this comfort?

Do you know this hope? It's a gift of God and it comes with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God does more than place a good wish upon you. Again, doesn't say, well,

I hope they do well. Let's see what happens. That would be the man of James 2 .16, the faithless man who sees someone in need and says to him, well, go in peace.

Be warm and filled. I hope you find a warm coat somewhere. I hope you find some food so you don't starve on the street.

But, you know, I'm just wishing that upon you and I have nothing to do to help you actually accomplish it.

No, that's not God at all. Clearly, that's not God. He gives eternal comfort.

Excuse me. Comfort that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, has shed

His own blood for my soul. Comfort that your sins have been forgiven. Comfort that the Lord will never leave you or forsake you.

This is the kind of comfort we need to carry on in this life. This is the kind of comfort that makes all the effort to lead the morally and ethically good life that the

Scriptures would lay out for us worthwhile and worth all the trouble and worth all the repression of my own inclinations and my own agenda.

Comfort comes from the same word group where we get encouragement. It means to, it supplies the need of the moment.

What they needed was encouragement about the Lord's return. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

Lord in the air and so always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

Here is strength in this life. The sure and certain knowledge that the next life is assured.

It's a comforting thought for you. And as we go through the struggles of this day, the persecutions that the church is enduring now and in all likelihood will continue and accelerate.

How do we anticipate those? The same way the smaller things.

With the comfort that God has given you. The comfort that you have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The comfort of knowing that your sins have been forgiven. The comfort of knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ will return and not miss a single one of us.

It's an eternal comfort. We have it now. You must have it now as we glory in our salvation.

We have it now as the Holy Spirit who is also called our Comforter leads us in this life. We have it now as we believe we will always be with the

Lord beginning now and then forever when He returns. And when we're with the

Lord, when we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. What then?

Always look into Jesus. Comforted now as we see Him portrayed as crucified. That's Galatians 3 .1.

And comforted in glory when we see Him like He is that's 1 John 3 .2.

This comfort that God has given is an eternal comfort. An eternal consolation of your soul.

One that gets us through the hardships in this day and one that we will have forever and ever as we see

Jesus face to face and always have that comfort of knowing this is the one who brought me from there to here.

From the moment God gave you faith to believe you were given comfort in Christ that will never fade away.

Do you know this comfort? Do you have the Lord Jesus Christ? You and I may feel it less at one time and more at another time but that's us.

That's because we're changeable. That's because we're mercurial. That's not God. God has given this to you the moment you believed in the

Lord Jesus Christ. In those times when you were shaken in mind or alarmed at things going on around you this is a good appeal to remember.

To the comfort of God that scripture says is eternal and unfading. Never loses its power to comfort because the basis of the comfort lives forever.

What's the basis of that comfort? Our Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation that he has won.

That he brings you to God the Father. That you can now approach the throne of grace and there find help in the time of need.

And it says more than just coming up to the throne of grace we can boldly enter. Not swaggering in but confidently and bold because Jesus Christ has gone to the cross and answered our sins.

That's a good appeal to God our Father on the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ and the comfort that he has given never fading.

Your comfort is Jesus Christ the salvation he won on the cross the peace of God that you have with him.

That's Romans 5 .1. Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Your comfort is the empty tomb the resurrected

Lord Jesus Christ. Your comfort is found in Romans 6 .5 for if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Do those scriptures comfort you? Do they settle your heart down? God has given you this comfort.

It's a working of the spirit. It's a mysterious working of the spirit in each believer's heart. And we have comfort in the scriptures themselves just reading the words of scripture and as Jesus said let these words sink down into your ears as he told the disciples in one spot.

Let the comfort of God infuse you. And those days when you're stirred up when you're worried about the economy you're worried about jobs you're worried about COVID all these things seem to come at you.

Think about God. Think about Paul who calls upon the

Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father to answer this prayer to do

God's will through his people. Find comfort in the word of God and see if that doesn't remove from you all the stirrings and all the things that distract.

This eternal comfort. He doesn't just say comfort eternal comfort that once given will never ever be taken away.

And good hope. Now hope will one day go away. We have a good hope now.

Hope is important again as we go through this life as we await Christ and his return. We need to hope.

We need to have some confidence in the future. The confidence comes from God. The confidence we have is what

God's word says. We don't know the day but we know Christ will return and that's a good hope.

A true hope. Romans 8 .24 .25 though says that we're not going to have this hope forever.

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see we wait for it with patience. What does he mean there?

Very much what he's telling the Thessalonians here. We have a good hope. But someday we're going to see the object of that hope.

If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you will one day see him. You hope for him now? When you see him will you continue to hope?

No. There he is. You will see the object of your hope. It will be fulfilled.

The hope he means is our ultimate redemption. Our translation from this ever -changing world to the

Lord's presence. Why is it a good hope? It's a good hope because it comes from a good

God. It's a good hope because it's based upon the good work of a good Savior. It's a good hope, brethren.

It's a good hope because it is true. It is factual.

The God who gave us these things has assured these things by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore your hope is not based on a wish like a wish list the kids make out sometimes for presents.

No. It's a true and certain and factual hope. It's based upon history.

The Lord Jesus Christ did rise from the grave. He did. He was resurrected on the third day.

Your hope is not based upon a vapor but on the Word of God and on historical fact.

Do you have these gifts that the apostles praised for? Do you know the comfort of the Lord's salvation, the good hope that it brings to you?

In Christ, God says through His Word, all His promises in Jesus Christ are yes and amen.

They are affirmed. God says emphatically, yes, these promises of my Son are yours now and forever.

And God says to you, amen, let it be according to your faith, as He told the woman that I read about this morning in Matthew chapter 9.

Now, Paul's prayer is not just a wish. It's based on fact. It's based in reality.

The God who loved us by sending His Son to die for us also gave us in Him eternal comfort and good hope.

And that's what sees us through these times that we live in today. And even if the times were not as tumultuous as they have been in the last couple of years, we could still say this hope is what sees us through the times that we're in.

Whether the times be fat or want, whether it be plenty or less than plenty, whatever they are,

God has given in Christ these to the believer. So that's who's appealed.

Our Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. And the basis of the appeal is that God has given these things to you.

And what's the substance of the appeal? What is it that Paul specifically asks for? He says, now may

He, and here we go, comfort your hearts. Once there's comfort again, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

I think of hearts being comforted. I immediately went, I'm going to read some of these verses out of the opening chapter of 2

Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul, the same Apostle, writes, Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that you share in our sufferings. As you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Pretty clear that comfort is the point there. And now he says,

May the God of all comfort give you comfort. The target is the heart, the inner person, the seat of our thoughts and consciences.

The idea is for us to assimilate in the core and the depth of our being, of our very soul, what

God has given. Comfort is good, but comfort must be taken up.

It's not like a gift that's on the ground that's going to do you any good if you don't pick it up and say, Well, this is mine. It was put there.

We can't look and say, Well, there's the comfort of God that he's given to me in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then circle around it and leave it there and keep it inert, as it were.

You know, the crying baby who needs comfort finds it when he's taken up from the crib and held close to his mother's chest.

And if he still cries, he doesn't realize that help is now at hand, that he's been picked up, and so distraught he may be that the journey from crib to mother hasn't even been noticed.

It's not until he recognizes that he's been saved from that dream or soon have his belly filled that he's able to live out the comfort that his mother has brought him.

The comfort God has given you is much the same way. It's something to be taken up. It's both a gift. It's something that's given to you, something you have.

It's something that only God can give to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. But something needs to be picked up and lived out as well.

That would take us back to verse 15. Our responsibility to stand firm, to hold to the traditions, to make use of the comfort that God has given.

Comfort in the original language is a compound word. It has para and it has kaleo.

Para kaleo is the word comfort. Para means to come alongside, and kaleo means simply to call.

But this word kaleo, to call, originally meant, long before Paul's time, to call someone to oneself.

So it was like a summons, unofficial summons from a greater to a lesser. And the word put together actually has a meaning, has a sense of the personal presence of someone who can console and cheer.

You know, in Christ, there's so much more than just God's good wishes and thoughts.

In Christ, you have the accomplishment of what God would wish upon His people.

In Isaiah chapter 40, verses one and two, it starts out, it says, comfort, comfort my people.

Is that my thoughts and prayers are with you? No, he goes on, he says, speak tenderly to Jerusalem.

That is, speak from my heart to my people. So before, he says, comfort your hearts.

The heart is what's in view here. Isaiah 40, speak tenderly, speak from the heart to my people.

Cry to her that her warfare has ended and her iniquity is pardoned and that she is received from the Lord, Lord's hand double for all her sins.

You know, the greatest discomfort you can have is to have sin before God that you have to answer on your own.

And many people come and think that, well, my sins haven't been that many.

And I look at the Ten Commandments and I haven't done the, you know, I've never killed anybody. I never murdered.

I haven't done the big ones. I haven't committed this. I haven't failed over here too many times.

And you've all heard this. Some of you have thought that. But you know, the

Bible doesn't grade your sins from the bad to worse or anything like that.

Sin is sin is sin is sin. And God has planted eternity in your heart.

God has made you as a sentient being able to know just by looking within at the way

God made you with the image of God inside as all humanity has that you will one day give an answer to God.

Are you comforted by the fact that you haven't sinned the really big sins? Let me take away your comfort.

Let me make you downright frightened. Because your sins are not graded that way.

God is infinitely holy. And every sin against His holiness is an infinite insult against His person.

And that insult against Him requires an equal answer.

And there's only one answer to that. If you have not this answer that I'm going to give you in a moment, do not be comforted.

Do not think you're going to go into God's presence because you know you will go into God's presence. But don't think you're going to go there and come away saved.

It's Jesus Christ. It's the cross of Christ where God's wrath was poured out upon Him.

His infinite fury at your sin and mine. His infinite fury at your so -called small sins and that other guy's big sins as we call them.

Take away those gradations and just call it infinite fury at sin.

Infinite fury at sin. And when Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 5 -21 became sin for us,

God poured out the wrath upon Him due for the sin that He became. Your sin and mine.

And only by faith in that work on the cross is this comfort yours.

If you have not Jesus Christ, do not leave here comforted. Do not leave here comfortable.

Do not say, well that was a good sermon and I enjoyed the lunch or anything like that. Leave here in terror for your soul.

And know that that can only be expiated by turning from your sin and to Jesus Christ and His cross and that alone.

And put your faith and your trust and your hope in Him. And God will return and give you an eternal hope.

Isaiah 40, what I read, that was to the people of Israel who had been sent off captive to Babylon.

Their city ruined, their temple destroyed. But when their sin had been covered, when

God had forgiven it, He calls out comfort. Comfort my people. And He speaks tenderly, speaks from the heart to them.

Our word for comfort, the personal presence of someone who can console and cheer you.

Who is that but Jesus Christ? Who does Paul appeal to? Now may our

Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This is when the angels sang to the shepherds in Luke 2.

Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom He is pleased. Peace, goodwill, comfort, if you will.

Comfort my people, says your God. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father comfort your heart and establish them.

The word established comes from the word where we get steroid. It's sterizo. It means to establish, to make strong, to make firm.

You are to stand firm on the word of God. Yes, that's your responsibility. It's God who establishes your heart and makes it possible for that.

Now there's all one and the same message from one and the same God. How is this comfort yours?

By Jesus Christ, whose birth elicited that heavenly chorus, proclaiming that God's pleasure has been made final in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Where is this comfort yours? It's by Jesus Christ's personal and near presence.

He says in Matthew chapter 18, where two or three gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.

Christ here now, literally here now with us by His Spirit, His personal,

His close presence. As in Mark chapter 10, verse 49, when He walked on this earth, some people turned to that blind man who had been calling out to Jesus saying,

Son of David, Son of David, have mercy on me. And he's far away and he's walking away. But no, Jesus hears him and the crowd turns to the man and says, take heart, get up.

He is calling you. This is prayer of Kaleo. This is comfort.

This is a summons to come to the comfort of God. To repent of your sin and put your faith and your trust and your hope in Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Then to know this gift of God, this eternal comfort and this good hope. Excuse me.

Get up. He is calling you. Well, the resurrected Lord is no further from you this day than He was from that man in Mark 10 when

Jesus Christ walked on this earth. And He's no less concerned for us this day than He was for that man who called out to Him.

You know, the resurrected Lord came to this same apostle Paul who wrote this letter to the Thessalonians and said virtually the same thing.

He said, take heart, as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.

Know that God has given what He promises. That in Jesus Christ He has accomplished everything

He sent Him to do. Know that this isn't just a wish that you'd feel good about things.

It's a true comfort by the near and personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

It's a real and a good hope because it's based on fact and it comes to you from a good and real

God. The good comfort God has given by His love and through His grace has to travel from head to heart that nine -inch journey that is soft and so difficult.

The apostle's prayer is for exactly that. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ and God our

Father who has loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this word that You've given us.

We thank You for the eternal comfort, the good hope that we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

I pray, Father, that this hope, this comfort that we have would sustain us as we await

Christ and His return, would keep us in Your ways, Father, and live in lives that would bring honor and glory to Your name and prove our faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In His name we pray. Amen.