In his sermon titled 'The Fondest Farewell,' Jason Dohm discusses 2 Thessalonians 3:16-18, emphasizing the powerful benediction of peace and grace pronounced by Paul at the conclusion of his letter to the Thessalonian church. Dohm explains the significance of Jesus as the 'Lord of Peace,' providing five reasons: His divinity, Messianic title, promise of peace, designation of followers as 'sons of peace,' and His sacrificial death securing peace. The sermon highlights that peace is a gift for believers, available in every situation, and achievable through seeking Jesus' presence. Paul authenticates his letters by adding his signature, ensuring their validity. Dohm encourages believers to pray for peace, rest in grace, and appreciate the authenticity of scripture. He concludes with a call to non-believers to experience the grace and peace offered by Jesus.

Turn in your Bibles to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3. Often we refer to worshiping God and our relationship to God on Wednesday nights and running and pursuing the Lord with intensities. I just want to thank you, Taylor, for leading us this morning. I pray that your hearts have been at least sparked, if not burning, for the Lord. But thank you.

It's so, so helpful. May we continue applying with just great fervor and intensity in our hearts as we continue worshiping God. Second Thessalonians 3, 16-18. Hear the word of the Lord. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always, in every way.

The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle so I write the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all amen let's pray oh Lord God there's such a privilege to worship you We find our hearts home and purpose when we are worshiping you. And Lord, as we continue to do that by earnestly listening. I pray that we would hear you. I pray that we would see you clearer.

I pray that we would see ourselves and therefore treasure you all the more. I pray that the truth of this text would be powerful to us this morning through The preaching that Jason will bring to us and may it be done in Your power not in his strength or wisdom We pray that you will help him in Jesus name. Amen. So this is not part of the sermon, just to give you a sense of where we're headed next since we just have one wrap up sermon next week and we'll be completely done with 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. We're going to spend the four weeks after that in four different Psalms, some of the early Psalms.

Trying to settle on that now. Since there are 150 Psalms, hardly anybody preaches exegetically through the Psalms. I mean, how many years would that be? A lot of years. So we're not doing that.

But we've thought from time to time when we're between books, because the Psalms are so precious, there's so much to be gained there. Let's go and just have a smattering, and then we'll go on and we'll preach through some other books, and then we'll interject some more Psalms at some point. So we'll do that for four weeks, and then we're going to embark on Paul's letter to the Philippians. So there are two Macedonian churches. The church at Thessalonica and the church at Philippi.

And as James and I were talking about where we should go next, we just decided We wanted to stay on the Macedonian Church track just a little while longer. And then after that, our thought is we'll try to find an Old Testament book to go to. We're thinking about a couple. If you've got any great thoughts, get them to us quickly because we're going to try to set a roadmap that really takes us out a good ways into time. So here endeth the introductory comments.

The title of the sermon this morning is The fondest farewell. If somebody writes me a letter, it's fine by me if they want to close it in expressing their desire that God would pour out peace and grace on my life. I'm going to consider that a very fond farewell. And the end of this letter is just dripping affection. Just imagine, have you ever ended a letter like this when you would say goodbye, and by the way, I really desire that God would just drown you in peace, and would just give you a great outpouring of grace.

You can end your next email to me that way. That suits me just fine. I'll call that a fond farewell to your email. And so it is with the text that we're in today. Paul is pronouncing a blessing.

He's pronouncing benediction. He is expressing desire that God would give them peace. That's verse 16. He's validating the authenticity of the letter. That's verse 17.

And then he's expressing the desire that God would pour out His grace on them. That's the final verse of the whole letter. That's verse 18. I say Paul, not to exclude Silvanus and Timothy, but just in verse 17, he narrows it down to himself. So That's the only reason I say that.

This is a wonderful ending to a wonderful, affectionate letter. It's the perfect way to end the things that we've been studying, the things that Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have been putting before the Thessalonian Church. So we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, we read these things And we want in on them. We want your peace.

We want your words. We want your grace. So the things that these authors express a desire that you would give to the Church at Thessalonica, we pray for an outpouring on ourselves. That we would have such a knowledge of your peace, and your words would dwell richly in our hearts, that Your grace would be the starting point and the ending point with us. We wouldn't have hope in anything else but that You are a God who pours out grace on His people.

So thank You for the text. God, what a refreshing text and I pray that you would come by your Spirit among us to refresh our souls in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, three verses. They're very distinct, so I don't think it makes sense to do it any other way than to just take it verse at a time.

So let's begin. I'll read verse 16, follow along, and then I'll talk about it. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 16. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always, in every way, the Lord be with you all." In this verse we have peace from the Lord of Peace. So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks.

It's peace, Lord. Peace from the Lord of peace. My opening comment on this verse is in the form of a question. If you wanted to state this more comprehensively than it is stated, How would you go about that? In other words, you want to be stronger than our authors are being in verse 16.

How are you going to pile up the words more than they've piled up the words. If anyone anywhere can give you peace, it's the Lord of Peace. Whoever that is, if peace has a Lord and you need peace, that's where you're going for peace. The Lord of Peace has got to be the source of peace. And may you have peace always.

Not a minute or a second or a millisecond that you don't have peace. May you have peace always and in every way, from every angle, in every circumstance. So here's what's being sought. Total saturation in peace. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are seeking, on behalf of the Thessalonian believers, total saturation.

Okay? You're over your head, in a sense, drowning in peace. We think drowning is bad, but drowning in peace might not be so bad. Sounds okay to me. Now, some commentators attach this to the preceding section about dealing with the disorderly.

In other words, dealing with the disorderly is going to involve some level of disruption in the peace in the church. So I get the logic, and I suppose it's legitimate, of course, to say this is in the context of that. But if you just turn back one page to how he ended the first letter, 1 Thessalonians, and you look at 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23, we see almost exactly the same words, or at least very similar. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. And there, that's not coming out of dealing with the disorderly at all.

And so I'm okay with tying it to the context. It's always appropriate to tie one verse to the preceding verse and say these have a connection. I have no objection to that, but I'm just saying, hey, when we look back at how he ended the first letter, it's not the same context, but it's almost exactly the same desire that is expressed that God would pour out peace on these people. Maybe it's the overall circumstances that the Thessalonian Church finds itself in, both in the context of the first letter, in the context of the second letter, in the context of what we saw in Acts chapter 17, where there's an uproar and people are being drugged before the civil magistrates. And in the first letter it says that they're enduring intense persecution.

Maybe we can hook it to that. They're in a time of great turmoil. And so it's extra appropriate for the authors of this letter to pray that the church would be saturated, would be drowning in peace. But in a world where we're always contending with the world and the flesh and the devil. Is there a time when we don't need peace?

Is there a church where you couldn't express the desire that God would saturate that church in peace? So we live in America. We are not in a time of direct, intense persecution. In that sense, we're nothing like the Thessalonian Church. But I think if Paul wrote us a letter, he might say this anyway, because we are in the same world.

We have the same flesh. We're the enemy of the same devil. So we might not have the same political turmoil around us. I just want to make the argument, we need peace as bad as these Thessalonian believers needed peace. Has there ever been a day when you said in your heart, the Lord of Peace can take the day off today?

I've got my own today. I'm doing okay on peace today. So I don't think we should isolate verse 16 and say this is wonderful for a church that's in a particular time of persecution, but I'm not sure what it has to do with us. I think it has everything to do with modern-day Christians even in peaceful America. You might have noticed it is getting less peaceful.

Let's Consider this wonderful title, Lord of Peace. This is Jesus. When you see Lord, capital L, little o, little r, little d in the New Testament is overwhelmingly almost unilaterally used of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the title for Him. So this is talking about Jesus.

Jesus has laid claim to being the source of peace for His people. The Lord of Peace. Now what makes Jesus, and Jesus specifically, the Lord of Peace. Why do we give Jesus that title? I want to give you five reasons that I think are so well grounded in the New Testament.

Number one, first, Jesus is God. No controversy there. Not in this room anyway. And God has always blessed his people with peace. In other words I'm saying this is not new.

This is not new to Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. Jesus is God and God has always blessed his people with peace. Listen to Numbers chapter 6 verses 22 through 26. This is Numbers 6 starting in verse 22. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.

Say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and what? And give you peace, Numbers, Numbers chapter 6. God has been desiring that a pronouncement of peace would be given over his people since Numbers chapter 6 and probably earlier.

And who is supposed to pronounce it? Okay? Hello? Okay. Moses, God tells Moses, say to Aaron and his sons, say to the high priest and the priest, you pronounce this.

Now when New Testament Christians think of priests, should we be thinking of the Catholic priest, the white-collar, no, a thousand times no. We should be thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our priest. He is our mediator. The priests of the Old Testament point to Jesus.

So even in Numbers chapter 6, we sort of have a shadow of what we have in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Jesus desiring to be the peace of his people and have that pronounced over his people. Maybe our authors were drawing from Numbers chapter 6. It sort of sounds like it. Secondly, Jesus as Messiah has this as a prophetic title.

Jesus as Messiah has this as a prophetic title. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. Listen to this. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. You'll recognize it instantly.

For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Clearly, a prophetic verse about the Messiah, God's promising to send a redeemer, and he throws out titles for him. The list closes with the Prince of Peace. Jesus is marked out as the Lord of Peace in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6.

Third, Jesus promised to give peace to his people. Jesus promised to give peace to his people. Jesus promised to give peace to his people. Listen to the Gospel of John chapter 14 verse 27. This is John 14 verse 27.

Jesus says, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid.

So Jesus promises, it won't do to just say, he was talking to the twelve here, he's promising to give his peace just to the twelve. No, no, no. This is right on the heels of him saying, I'm getting, as soon as I leave, my Father is sending the Spirit. Okay, so if you're going to isolate this just to the 12, then you would have to isolate the giving of the Spirit to be a helper and a comforter and the indwelling presence of God. You have to say that's just for the disciples too.

I don't think we want to go there. So this is a promise for me today. What Jesus says in John chapter 14 verse 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. He is the Lord of Peace and he promises to give his people peace and then he explains something about what that means. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

This is one of the things it means to have the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Peace. Fourth, Jesus calls his followers sons of peace. This is an interesting one that came up in the cross references, as I looked up the cross references this week. This comes from Luke chapter 10 verses 5 and 6. In Luke chapter 10 verses 5 and 6, Jesus is sending out the 70.

So you'll recall in the gospels there's a point in his ministry where he sends out the twelve to preach and teach and then later on he sends out a bigger number. He sends out seventy. This is in the sending out of the seventy and he says to them in Luke 10 verses 5 and 6, but whatever house you enter first say peace to this house and if a son of peace is there your peace will rest on it if not it will return to you. I'm not sure I fully understand that verse, but I do know this. I do know that it's calling his people to impart peace really on his behalf.

I think that's clear in that. And it calls his followers sons of peace. When you go into a house say peace be to this house. Okay and if a follower of mine is there but that's not what he says. If a disciple is there but that's not what he says.

If a son of peace is there, the peace will remain there. If not, it will return to you. In other words, his peace is for his people. And his people here are called something specific. They're called sons of peace.

If Jesus Christ is the Lord of peace, and Jesus Christ is your Lord, there's a math formula that makes it mean that you have to be a son of peace. Fifth, Jesus died to secure it. So first, Jesus is God and God has always blessed his people with peace. That was number six. Second, Jesus as Messiah has this as a prophetic title.

That was Isaiah 9. Third, Jesus promised to give peace to His people. That was John 14, 27. Fourth, Jesus calls His followers sons of peace. That was Luke 10, 5 and 6.

Now finally, fifth, Jesus died to secure it. Jesus died to secure this peace. Please turn with me now to Ephesians chapter 2. We are going to make Ephesians chapter 2 well-worn. It's our memory text for the quarter, and I'm actually going to be reading from a little bit following what we recited this morning.

But obviously what we recited this morning has to do with salvation by grace alone through faith alone so we don't boast. It has to do with being joined to Christ by His grace. But I'm going to actually pick it up in verse 13. Ephesians chapter 2, 13 through 16. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So this is Paul writing to a Gentile church, the church at Ephesus, and he's saying, you used to be far off, but you've been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has secured you a place near to God. Verse 14, For he himself, Jesus Christ, is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. And that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity." So Paul the Jew is writing to a Gentile church and saying, we used to be two, but Christ's shed blood has given Jews peace with God and has given Gentiles who trust in Him peace with God. So Jews who trust in God have peace with God.

Gentiles who trust in God have peace with God through Jesus Christ and it breaks down the wall and it makes us one body in Him. What Paul is teaching is that Jesus Christ and His death has secured the peace for Jews, has secured peace for Gentiles, and it gives us two kinds of peace. One, the most fundamental kind of peace with God, but secondly, another kind of peace with every other Christian. It makes of the two, one. There are no longer two.

There's only one. There is one body. In fact, when we come to our observance of the Lord's Supper, one important element of the Lord's Supper is that we're breaking the bread. We're one loaf. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

We are one loaf. We are one. How did that happen? Jesus shed His blood. That's how that happened.

Now what exactly is this peace that Jesus, the Lord of Peace, gives to us? Let's try to get a handle on that. Matthew Henry can help, as he usually can. Here's what Matthew Henry says, peace with God, peace in their own minds and consciences, peace among themselves, and Peace with all men. So I think he's nailed it.

But I didn't think that at first. When I first am reading this, I think this is wonderful, I have to quote it, but then I start to struggle. Here's why. I'm reading it. Peace with God.

We're right here in Ephesians 2. It says Jesus' blood has given us peace with God. I get it. Matthew, Henry, I'm with you. Peace in their own minds and consciences.

We've already been to John 14, 27. My peace I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. Okay, peace in mind and conscience. I got it.

Matthew, Henry, I'm tracking with you. Peace among yourselves. Back to Ephesians 2. We are one now, there is no wall of separation between Christians. We are one, like it or not, you are one with all other Christians.

You should like it, I like it. Peace with all men. That's a struggle for me. Because I've read Matthew chapter 10, right? Where Jesus says, don't think that I've come to bring peace on earth, but a sword.

He also said that about peace. So in what way is God giving us peace with all men? Because we know that the gospel can be very disruptive in some of our most valued relationships. The Gospel can be a barrier between you and your unregenerate spouse, or between you and your unregenerate parents, or between you and your unregenerate children, or between you and your unregenerate friends who used to be your dearest friends, the gospel can separate you from them. That doesn't sound like peace.

But then I started reflecting on my time at the abortion clinic yesterday. You might have noticed if you've been out there that it's not all peace out there. People have all sorts of hand signals for you and honking that's not friendly honking and yelling out the window. Occasionally you know plastic water bottle will come out the window or something like that. It's just not feeling very peaceful.

Or you'll be out there and people will come out to confront you over even being there. Okay, it's not always peaceful. So how do we reconcile these things? And I thought, you know what? I don't have any war in my heart towards the people who are giving me hand signals at the abortion clinic.

No war in my heart towards them. If anything, it is compassion and pity. It makes me think, you know what? How is that not me? How am I not the mocker?

How am I not the enemy of God? How has God been so kind to me, but hasn't revealed Himself to them yet? Oh God, pour out Your kindness on them. This is the sense in which the Lord of Peace makes His people at peace with all people, like Paul says in Romans 12, as much as it depends on you, live at peace with all men. Be peaceable with all men.

When we have the ability to do that, Because those who are in Christ, when they're thinking rightly, aren't protecting turf. Because I'm dead. I'm dead. Christ is living in me. I don't have to be defensive.

Because I'm property of Jesus Christ now. I don't have to defend turf anymore. I don't have to live a defensive life anymore. I'm a dead man. Praise God I'm a dead man.

Praise God it's Christ now living in me. Paul is expressing his desire that the Lord of Peace Himself gives this peace. And what is the frequency? What's the frequency? Always.

All the nanoseconds and seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and decades and centuries and millennia. Always. And how is he asking for this peace to be given? In every way. Peace from every angle.

Peace in every circumstance. Peace in every relationship. In every way. What do we learn from this? That the peace purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ is available to us all day, every day.

Now this is a spectacular truth that is being unfolded before us in this verse. The peace that Jesus purchased for me by shedding His blood is available to me all day, every day. If it wasn't, then they had no business expressing this desire that God would give it to them always. And that this peace can come from every angle and into in every circumstance, in every relationship, coming from every direction, you should seek it. Because it's being sought here, it teaches us as the Lord's people to seek it.

I can say that's not my experience, every second of every minute of every day. Is that how you're experiencing peace? That's not my experience So what's the takeaway for me? Seek it Paul and Sylvainus and Timothy are seeking it on behalf. They're They're expressing the desire that God would saturate them in this peace, teaching us to seek this peace for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters.

If we're going to emulate Paul and Silvanus and Timothy here, we're going to begin to seek that God would saturate our brothers and sisters with His peace. Now, Paul has just said all that about Jesus and his peace. And then he says, the Lord be with you all. Now, that's different. It's an additional blessing being sought.

It's not exactly the same thing, but surely it's related. Isn't it related? I think it's this. I think it's the replaying of Mark chapter 4 in our lives as the Lord's people. What happens in Mark chapter 4?

They're in a boat. And Jesus is asleep, but no one else can sleep. Because the boat is being furiously tossed by the wind and the waves. And they wake Jesus up and they say, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Jesus, don't you care?

We're perishing, don't you care? It's easy to be in the air conditioning and read that and say that question is absurd. That just tells us that we're outside the boat that's not being furiously tossed by the wind and the waves. When you're in the boat, It seems like a more rational question, doesn't it? Like, don't you care what's happening to this boat?

What does Jesus do? He rebukes the wind and he says to the sea, peace, be still. Calm. I believe what we have in this verse is our author saying, May Jesus be in the boat with you. May Jesus be in the boat with you.

May Jesus's presence be with you. The same Jesus from Mark chapter 4 when they thought He didn't care and the boat is about to be swamped and Jesus says, peace be still. He just has the ability to take the verge of disaster to utter peace by just speaking peace into the situation. That's what it means to be the Lord of Peace. Mark chapter 4 is what it means to be the Lord of Peace.

And these things, we should have, we should invite Spurgeon back to preach on Mark chapter 4. And he would take us from this physical reality and what it pictures. I do believe it's legitimate to say, there's a physical reality here and yes Jesus did that in time and space and it's glorious on its own but we should consider what that means for us that The man in the boat with them could just speak the words and the waves stop tossing the boat and the winds go silent. Jesus has many titles because Jesus has many things to his people. Here's another title, Matthew 1 verse 23, Emmanuel, God with us.

God is with us. It's a title. Just like the Lord of Peace is a title, just like the Prince of Peace is a title, Emmanuel is a title. God with us. And if God is in the boat with you, You are one word away from the boat being still.

That's where you go for relief. Jesus says this in John chapter 16 verse 33. Jesus in John 16 verse 33, These things I have spoken to you, That in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

So here again, in John 16, 33, Jesus says that our peace is in Him. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. That's where Christians get their peace from. It's not a false peace. It's the real peace that Jesus has purchased with His own blood.

There's only one place for the Christian to get it and that is Jesus, the Lord of Peace. The other thing this tells us is that you can have it in the middle of tribulation. Did you get the second half of that verse? In the world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

The peace that is being spoken of here in the New Testament is not a peace that means absence of tribulation in life. It means abiding peace in the middle of all the tribulation. That's how we can reconcile this with Matthew chapter 10 where Jesus says, do not think that I have come to bring peace but a sword. In the middle of all of the relational turmoil that can be brought into your life by just embracing the Gospel, you can have peace right in the middle of it. Do you have relational peace with your unregenerate dad?

No. Do you have the peace that's being spoken of here in 2 Thessalonians 3. Yes, you can have it in abundance. You can have it always. You can have it in every way.

We should seek it. We should seek the Lord for it. What a comfort these things must have been to read. Think if you're a Thessalonian believer, you haven't been a believer for very long, your spiritual parents have been whisked away prematurely, they didn't plan to leave that fast, so much was left unsaid. But Now they're gone and they're reduced to writing short letters to you.

Instead of being there all day, every day teaching, giving you a living example. They didn't plan that. That wasn't welcome in the sense that they would have rather had them present. They're being persecuted. The exclusivity of the gospel is causing all sorts of problems for the church in Thessalonica.

Paul says peace, always and in every way. He expresses his desire that God would saturate them in peace. Moving on to verse 17. By the way, If you just go to Bible Gateway or somewhere where you can search by word, just search on peace, go to the New Testament instances and just look at the usage of peace in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you find Jesus saying, peace, peace, peace, peace be to you.

Go in peace over and over and over again so our authors in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 are just following in Jesus' footstep. Jesus was pronouncing peace very often in the gospels. Verse 17. The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle. So I write.

If you're taking notes on the handout, signing off. Signing off. Signing off is a term that you use if you're involved in a radio transmission. You get to the end of the conversation and you're indicating we're done, you would say signing off. Literally, this is a letter, not a radio transmission, but he's literally signing off.

He's bringing it to a close with his signature. This section of the letter was written by Paul himself. He says, with my own hand. Now this was fascinating reading this week. Because I did not really understand what I think verse 17 teaches and expresses.

It was a common practice of the day to dictate a letter. You're speaking and a secretary is writing, taking down your words as you say them, but at the end, in the last few sentences, you take the pen and you write the final greeting in your own hand. So it might be a long letter. You're dictating, someone's writing the whole way, but you get to the very end and you do that yourself. One, to personalize it, and two, to authenticate it.

So if I get a letter from my mom, my mom has this loopy, sort of unforgettable handwriting. If I see a piece of paper and I see that on it, I know within a nanosecond, Carol Dome wrote that. Most people have a distinctive handwriting. So nobody's going to be able to fool me about letters from my mom. Like, hi, this is your mom, send me all your money.

Wait a minute, that's not the loopy handwriting. I'm not sending all my money. I know it authenticates her letters. It's an unmistakable mark. Which would explain what is said here, which is a sign in every epistle, so I write.

So the commentators, a lot of them, point back to historical letters. For instance, Cicero was a Roman philosopher and politician that lived, I think, about a hundred years before Christ. So this is before Jesus even, and they have preserved letters from Cicero that all change hands in the last few sentences. So just during this time period, people were often doing this. Which is a sign in every epistle so I write.

The NASB instead of sign renders that word distinguishing mark. This is a distinguishing mark in all my letters. It distinguishes it as mine. It's an authenticating mark that this is really from Paul. And this is very appropriate within the context of the letter.

Look back in chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and how it begins. Now brethren concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us the implication perhaps being that there were Letters that were not authentic that were representing themselves as being from Paul, but not from Paul Or by letter as if From us So now Paul here at the end says, you can tell when a letter is from me. It's the loopy handwriting at the end. It's my handwriting. It's my handwriting that you've come to know and instantly recognize.

That tells you the letter is from me. Now let me give you a barrage of verses to show how often Paul says something like this. I'm just going to give them to you fast and furious. 1st Corinthians 16, 21. So this is the last chapter of 1st Corinthians.

This is the end of the last chapter. The salutation with my own hand, Paul's. The salutation with my own hand, Paul's. Galatians 6 verse 11, this is the last chapter of Galatians, this is about halfway through that final chapter. See with what large letters I have written to you by my own hand.

Colossians chapter 4 verse 18, this is the last chapter of Colossians, this is actually the final verse of Colossians. The salutation by my own hand, Paul, remember my chains, grace be with you. Amen. Philemon verse 19, there's only one chapter so it's just Philemon 19. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand.

So he's teaching them to recognize his script, And he's signing off his letters. He's taking the pen for the last few sentences of the letter to authenticate it and to personalize these letters. Now this one is not Paul, but it's Peter and I think it's intensely interesting. It's 1 Peter It's 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 12. This is in the last chapter of 1 Peter.

By Silvanus, Our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand." 1 Peter was written by Sylvannus. Was it the same Sylvannus? We don't know for sure, but my guess is it was the same Silvanus. First Peter came to us through the hand, through the secretarial work, or the taking of the dictation of Peter of Silvanus. It could very well be true of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians as well.

You have to connect dots to get there, but I thought that was very interesting that Peter acknowledges Silvanus as the one through whom he wrote 1st Peter. Okay, verse 18. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, last verse. Verse 18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amen. If you're taking notes on the handout, what we need most, grace. Filling in blanks, need grace. What we need most, grace. As Just like 1 Thessalonians, the letter begins with grace and peace, and it ends with grace and peace.

A few comments. First, every single letter that Paul either writes or co-writes ends this way. Within a very few words. In other words, you might have one extra word here or one last word here, but they're all essentially identical. Every single letter that Paul writes or co-writes, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and second Thessalonians, First and second Timothy, Titus, Philemon.

It pains me to stop there because Hebrews ends with exactly these same words. But it doesn't say that Paul wrote Hebrews, so I'm going to restrain myself. I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but the letter ends with the same words. And the only other letter in the New Testament that ends that way from another author is Revelation. The last words of the Bible are almost these words identically.

And John wrote that. And in every case except for Romans, it's the final verse. In Romans, the last few verses are a benediction just fully praising God. So we'll forgive them for departing in Romans. That's a good reason to depart.

But in every other letter, it is the last words of the letter. So when Paul writes to the Lord's people, when Paul writes to me, or to you if you're in Christ, he wants the final word to be grace. What does that tell you? Tell you. God, through Paul, wants the final word of every letter to you and to me.

This is glorious. He wants us to know that grace is the foundation of our being brought from darkness to light, but so far from being the end of it that grace is our only hope for the present and the future. Okay, so I've probably been walking with the Lord for 30 some years now. I don't know what the exact math is. 30 some years.

Grace needs to be the last word of every letter to me, as much today as on the day I was saved. I only have one hope for the present, and I only have one hope for the future, and that is that God is full of grace. And He gives it so freely to his people. Second, notice the last phrase. This one is actually different from 1st Thessalonians in one word, be with you All.

Be with you all. He wants to make sure, Paul wants to make sure, that this expressed desire that God would pour out His grace applies to everyone. Every single believer. So there's not the believers that are in favor and God because they're in favor wants an outpouring of grace on them and then there's some other believers in the doghouse remember we just came from dealing with the disorderly. And there's a sense in which Paul and Silvanus and Timothy had taught that there are some believers who have firmly established bad, unchristian patterns in their life, and there's a sense in which they should be in the church's doghouse.

But that doesn't mean they're exempt from grace. That's actually a sign of God's grace that he hasn't left them to just drift off into more and more bondage to sin. But he actually puts this in place as a mechanism of grace to bring them back. So there's not Christians who are in the doghouse and Christians who are out of the doghouse, you get grace, you don't get grace. No, no, no.

Grace be with you all. Finally, Paul punctuates it with, Amen. May it be so. May God be pleased to make it so. May God be pleased to send you peace.

Every minute of every day, in every way, in every circumstance, in every relationship, may God pour out His grace upon you and give you the liberty to believe that not only did God's grace bring you to salvation but it is a sure hope for today and until the day you die. May God be pleased to make it so in our own hearts. Amen. Four applications. Number one.

Are you praying to the Lord of Peace that He would give you peace always in every way? If not, I think our text teaches me to start. Shouldn't be bashful about praying that based on the text that we have before us today. Are you praying to the Lord of Peace that He would give you peace always in every way. That is an expressed desire from the authors of this letter, that God would do that.

He would saturate them in His peace for the Thessalonian believers and to us, if you're among the Lord's people. Jesus has secured it. His blood is shed once for all. It's been done in the past. He said it is finished.

He is the Lord of it. Why are you not asking Him for it? You're in a boat that's being thrashed around by wind and waves? If you're the Lord's, then He's in the boat. And it's not right for you to say, Lord, don't you care that I'm perishing?

You should ask him for the word. Set these things still. Number two, How about for your brethren? You know anyone who's in a boat that's being thrashed around? If you don't come to me, you can draw on my list.

Pray for your brothers and sisters. Pray to the Lord of Peace that God would give them peace always in every way. It would be a blessing if you would pray for your elders that. We'll pray that for you. Let's pray that for each other.

Number three, praise the Lord that we have authentic authoritative letters. Paul authenticated this with his loopy handwriting or whatever. His distinguishing mark is on this letter. Paul did write this. God did inspire Paul to write this in the very particular powerful way in which he inspired the writers of scripture.

Very different than me being sort of inclined towards something. This was so much more precise and powerful yet. God did that and we have it and it's a gift from God. These are the words of God. We should thank him.

Lastly, number four. You who are in Christ, Christ, rest in grace. Rest in grace. We've all been around to know that we're not allowed to translate that into our brains into we don't have to obey. That's not what I'm saying.

I'm not saying rest in grace, which means you don't have to obey. Just saying rest in grace. It means when you don't obey, the God of grace brings His people back. Rest. God is full of grace towards His people.

If you're not in Christ, we who are in Christ appeal to you today. If you only knew what it was like to be in the grace of God, if you only could taste it for a minute, for a day, you would lay down your arms. You would stop prosecuting this war of insanity against a God who is only good, and you would run to Christ for mercy. God, I thank You for Your grace. Oh God, fill us with Your grace.

Let us rest in Your grace. Let us trust in Your grace. I thank you for your peace. We know your Word is so clear, there's only one place to get it. The Lord of Peace.

What a precious title. Who could ever deserve that title more than the Lord Jesus Christ who has made the two one, reconciling both to a holy God. Thank you for the glory of the letter that we've studied, but especially the glory of these last three verses. We couldn't want a fonder farewell. Thank you God for the preciousness of the words you've given to your people all of them in Jesus name, Amen.