The sermon delivered by James Lundquist focuses on the faithfulness of the Lord as outlined in 2 Thessalonians 3:3-5. It highlights how God's faithfulness is a source of comfort and assurance for believers, establishing and guarding them against evil. The sermon explores various scriptural references that emphasize God's longstanding faithfulness and His role in salvation. It explains how believers are established by the Lord, which involves being firmly set in one direction, akin to repentance. The sermon encourages growth in obedience and love for God, fostering a trajectory of spiritual growth. It differentiates between trials that test faith and being overcome by the evil one, assuring that God's faithfulness prevents the latter. The importance of prayer is emphasized, particularly in directing hearts into the love of God and the patience of Christ. The speaker commends the church for their faithfulness and encourages them to continue abounding in love, obedience, and prayer.

Our sermon text for today is 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 3 through 5. I'll begin reading in verse 1. Finally brethren, pray for us that the Word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one, And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

Let's pray. Our God, we thank you so much for the privilege it is to consider your word now. Would you please strengthen our brother as he comes forth to just to deliver the many things you've taught him this week and the weeks prior God that you would bless his efforts. God, would you speak through him? May he be your mouthpiece this morning and may your word be glorified among us.

May the By your spirit may convict us of sin and righteousness this morning God and make us more like Christ God we desire to be more like Jesus When we leave this place than when we came it's by the powerful name of Jesus that we pray amen Now we get a look at his word. And looking in verses 3 through 5 is where we're focused. And last week, last week we had Paul, Sylvainus, and Timothy coveting the prayers of the Thessalonians for the brethren, for the success of their preaching, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it had with them." And just like the Thessalonians, we've experienced this. We've experienced a life-changing truth of the gospel. And just as they were exhorted that this would run exponentially, the word used last week, exponentially, that it would grow exponentially in the region, we've seen this and we pray for this as well.

And we want those same things, so we pray the same prayers. The same prayers and Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy were also covering the prayers that they would be delivered from the opponents of the word of the Lord, from unreasonable and wicked men without faith. And then after verse 2, where we start this week, there is a but. Verse 3 starts with a but. It's a clear contrast, what they're laying out is a clear contrast between the unreasonable and wicked and unfaithful opponents of the gospel and our faithful Lord.

That's what we're going to look at this week. Our trustworthy and faithful Lord. I've titled this just straight from the text. It's an easy title. Many of you probably could have easily come up with this and said this is what it will be, but it's the faithful Lord.

The Lord is faithful. Let's pray again. We prayed a lot this morning. Let's pray again. Our dependence is totally on God for this.

Our God, our dependence is totally on you. It's totally on you that the word of God would sound forth faithfully. It's completely dependent on you that the word of God would be heard well, God. It's totally on you, completely on you that our hearts would be directed towards you, towards your love for us, that we would see you faithful, we would see you true, that we would have confidence in you God. This is your word.

Would it be honored this morning in the way it is spoken and the way it was heard. Oh please help us. In Jesus name, Amen. I've broken this out, This is up just very simply in verses three, four, and five. Each of them are their own sentence even.

And that's not often you get Paul just to have just very short sentences. But they are three sentences. And we're going to start with verse 3, the Lord is faithful. Let me read it. Verse 3, but the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.

But the Lord is faithful who will establish you and guard you from the evil one." And this verse, I'm just going to break this verse up into its three simple parts. The Lord's faithfulness, our faithful Lord will establish us, and our faithful Lord will guard us from the evil one. So the first one, the Lord's faithfulness. When we think of the Lord's faithfulness, faithful, When we see this word in Scripture, it means true, it means can be relied on, worthy of trust, he is trustworthy. That's all wrapped up in the faithfulness of the Lord.

He is faithful. I want to read several scripture verses here just to hone us in on just his faithfulness and everything scripture has. In the study this week when preparing you're looking at all the cross references and then you're looking up all the verses that have the word faithful or faithfulness in them and of all the scriptures I looked up in 3, 4, and 5, this had the most, talking about the Lord's faithfulness. So I want you to really see the weight of scripture on how much is declaring the faithfulness of the Lord. I'm going to start in Deuteronomy 7.

You don't need to turn to any of these, but they're fairly short. Deuteronomy 7.9. Therefore know that the Lord is your God, He is God, the faithful God. Psalm 36 5, your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Psalm 37 3, Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. I love that. Feed on his faithfulness. When you look at this feeding on his faithfulness, Dig into that part of it.

It means graze on his faithfulness. Devour his faithfulness. Feed on his faithfulness. When I saw that, it reminded me of Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

Feed on his faithfulness. Graze on his faithfulness. Devour his faithfulness. That's our foundation. Feed on that.

Lamentations 3, 22 and 24. Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed, because His compassion's fail not. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in him." We have Galatians 5.23, the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Lord, the fruit of God is all wrapped up in Galatians 5. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, patience for KJV people, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And at least three of these are in here. You have love, love what we'll talk about in verse 5, we have long suffering in verse 5, faithfulness here in verse 3. This is God. This is who He is and since our complete dependence is on the Lord isn't a great comfort to know that the Lord is faithful. That should be a great comfort to us because our total dependence is on Him.

It wouldn't be much of a comfort if your total dependence was on me. That would be a horrible comfort. It would be a horrible comfort if our dependence was on our jobs, on our spouse, on our children, even on our church. But our great comfort is because the Lord is faithful. That's what Paul, Sivanus, and Timothy are doing here.

They are comforting the Thessalonians, and through them, God is comforting us, letting us know of his great faithfulness. When we think of the faithfulness of God, we can't go too far before we start thinking of salvation. An evidence, a huge evidence of the Lord's faithlessness, His grace, and His mercy toward us is in salvation. We saw that back in chapter 2, verses 13 through 17, that we've been meditating on here for several months. But let me just step through this a little bit more on God's faithfulness and salvation.

We saw up in verse 13 that God from the beginning chose you for salvation. I'm stepping through. I want you to see just how faithful God has been for a very, very, very long time. He chose you from the beginning for salvation. So before you existed, before the world existed, before there were any stars, and there are some people that there are, believe it or not, there are debates on when God actually chose you.

Do you actually choose for salvation when Adam was born, or when Adam was created, or when he sinned, or lived before? It really ultimately doesn't matter to me which side of that you fall on, but God chose you a long time ago. God chose you a long time ago. You weren't even born yet. And God says, I'm going to be faithful to you.

I'm going to be faithful to you. And then, so that's before the beginning, then in Genesis 3 he voices that promise and says, I'm going to save a people. And this is how I'm going to do it. I'm going to save a people. So before time began, before the beginning, he chose you for salvation in Genesis 3, then he voices that and has that written in Scripture and says, alright, I'm going to save people.

And then throughout the Old Testament, we have lots of types and shadows and prophecies to remind us of his faithfulness, that he is going to save us through a Messiah. There is going to be a Messiah. And so he continues to show his faithfulness throughout scripture. And then in Matthew 1, an angel comes to Joseph and tells him that by the Holy Spirit Mary will bring forth the Son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins." He's faithful. You've seen how faithful he has been for a mighty long time.

And Then he sends the Savior into the world. What does Jesus do in his faithfulness? 2 Corinthians 5, He, God, made him Jesus, God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So in his faithfulness, he sent Jesus and in Jesus faithfulness, he stayed faithful and took our sins. And it doesn't end there.

It doesn't end there. 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So he shows us how to be saved through the work of Jesus and it doesn't even end there. His faithfulness doesn't even end there. He didn't just save us and leave us to save.

He could have because he said, look how glorious I am. I saved them. And look, and they're going to be with me for glory forever. But no, he doesn't stop there. 1 Corinthians 1, 9.

God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. See all that? He is faithful. He has been faithful forever and ever. And then he says, and then he brings us into the fellowship of Jesus Christ.

We are called his brethren. We are called his children. We are joint heirs with Christ and we will reign with God forever and ever. This is your faithful Lord. The Lord is faithful.

Take comfort in how faithful the Lord has been to you forever. Forever. Once saved, the Lord never leaves us nor forsakes us. That's Deuteronomy 31 and Hebrews 13. God is the same.

He has been faithful forever. The Lord is faithful. The next part of The verse is, the Lord is faithful who will establish you. Our faithful Lord will establish us. Not might, not if you are this or that.

No, because of the work of Jesus, our faithful Lord will establish us. He will place us firmly. He will turn us resolutely in one direction. Look at the word established. That is sitting there.

He will turn us resolutely in one direction. What does that sound like? Repentance. He will establish us. He will fill us.

He will cause us to repent. He will set us steadfast. When you look at this establishment, this isn't the first time we've seen to establish us, from Paul, Svanus, and Timothy. But when you see this, I want to be established by the Lord. He will do it, so it is a good thing I want to, because you're going to do it.

But boy, do I really want that. When we see that, He will place us firmly. He will turn us. He will turn me. He will turn you resolutely in one direction and set us fast because he is trustworthy and can be relied on to do this.

Back in chapter 2, verse 2, Paul, Silvanus, Timothy told the Thessalonians not to be soon shaken. And then in chapter 2, 15 and 17, they were exhorted to stand fast, and then Paul, Savaenus, Timothy prayed for them to be established, not to be soon shaken. Hey, stand fast, pray for you, and then they tell us, and the Lord will do this. The faithful Lord does the establishing. He will do it.

We've told you not to be shaken. We've told you to stand fast. We prayed for you to be established. And now we're telling you, the Lord's going to do it. The Lord will establish you.

The Lord is faithful to establish us in the Gospel, in His Word. He is faithful. He will do it, and he has done it. This is the Lord's doing. The Lord is faithful to establish us against unreasonable and wicked men.

The Lord is faithful to establish us against false doctrines such as the Lord had already returned. The Lord is faithful to establish us against false doctrines such as the Lord had already returned. The Lord is faithful to establish against those trying to shake our faith and lead us from the truth. And the Lord is faithful to establish us against disorderliness, idleness, busy-bodiness. We will see that next week.

The Lord is faithful to establish us and do these things in us as Christians. We are set firm in Christ. Colossians 3, your life is hidden with Christ in God. This is the Lord's doing. This isn't our own resolve.

This is the Lord's doing. He is faithful to establish us. We are established in Christ. He is our chief cornerstone, our solid rock, our strong tower. That's what you're established in when you're established in Christ and his faithfulness.

Our faithful Lord has secured us with his sacrifice. Look at what you're established in. Look at that. Our faithful Lord establishes us. The third part here is, our faithful Lord will guard us from the evil one.

Our faithful Lord will guard us from the evil one. Once again, He will guard us from the evil one. Guard. He will keep us. He will save us.

He will watch us. He will have an eye upon us. He will keep us from being snatched away. All of those terms are used for guard in Scripture. He will keep us.

He will watch us, He will guard us, He will save us. And these words, He will keep us, He is faithful to guard us from the evil one, are words that are just echoed from Matthew 6, from the prayer that Jesus taught us, and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Just as Jesus taught us, just as Paul, Sylvanias, and Timothy are teaching us, pray and trust that he will do this. That he will guard you from the evil one. Let me caution us on one thing.

It's one thing to be counted worthy of this calling we saw in chapter 111, or be worthy of the kingdom which we've all saw. It's one thing for that, right? Through persecution, be counted worthy through persecution, through trials, through the testing of our faith to produce patience and to perfect us. It's a completely other thing to be overcome by the evil one and our faithful Lord will not let that happen. He will not.

Do not confuse the two. Do not confuse the persecutions that come upon us, the sufferings that we may have, the trials we may go through, for Jesus to build our patience, to perfect us. Don't confuse those things with being overcome by the evil one. You are not being overcome by the evil one. When God is conforming you to Jesus Christ is what he's doing and perfecting us.

Don't confuse those two. Death, like for our brothers and sisters in the Middle East and probably other places and in history past, Death has come from evil people. People have been killed by evil people, but that doesn't mean that God isn't faithful. Just because horrible things happen to you, including death, by the hands of evil people doesn't mean the evil one is overtaking you and that God is not faithful. Because unless the Lord returns, we're all going to die anyway.

We're all going to die anyway, but immediately after that last breath, we're going to see amazingly just how faithful our Lord is. We are going to see so much clearer just how faithful our Lord is. Don't confuse those two. We will be with the Father forever because of the faithfulness of Jesus to keep and save us. He guards, He watches us like a shepherd.

I know these verses are familiar to you, but please turn to John 10. John 10, all of John 10 is about the good shepherd, the faithful shepherd. When it comes to guarding us and keeping us and not being overcome by the evil one, I want you to really look at verses 27, starting in verse 27. Make these verses very familiar to you. I know that these words come out of my mouth maybe once a week at least, whether it's at the nursing home, whether it's preaching to myself, whether it's talking to my family, whether it's in evangelism and other places.

Just look at these. Verse 27 of John 10, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.

I and my Father are one." Church, be, have these words ready for you. You will doubt. There are times when I easily confuse the persecutions or especially the trials to being overtaken. There are times when I doubt that the Lord is really being faithful when you're dealing with your own sin or other sin in your family or other things going on in the world but the Lord is faithful. Look at this.

Look at this in verse 28, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. That means no one will. No one. Verse 27, my father is greater than all. All means all.

God is greater than all. God is greater than the evil one. God is greater than Satan. No one, no one, not anybody, nothing, not even yourself, is able to snatch you from the Father's hand. He is faithful and is He who keeps you forever and ever.

He is faithful. You are His. You are His forever. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are saying to the Thessalonians, no matter how bad the persecution gets, no matter how many obstacles are put in the path of the gospel no matter how many unreasonable and wicked people come along hating you for the gospel even if the evil one Satan himself like with Job comes against you know this The Lord will faithfully establish and guard you from the evil one. Know that.

Know that. Rest in that. Love that. Cherish that. Have that on your mind continuously.

The faithfulness of the Lord. And We've seen this true in our own lives, in our own church. We've seen struggles, we've seen sorrow, we've seen sickness, surgeries, unemployment, church discipline, but the evil ones never overcome us. And the evil one will never overcome the Church of God. Churches may come and go, I'm not prophesying that this church will dwell here forever, But the faithfulness of God will not allow his church to fail, to be overcome.

Jesus was faithful even to death. The enemy conquered. He will not leave us to ourselves to be overcome by evil. The Lord is faithful. The Lord's faithfulness to establish and guard us is Him preserving us.

Preserving us, persevering, the perseverance of the saints, no one will snatch us from Him. The Lord is faithful. Verse 4. Verse 4. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you.

We have confidence in the Lord concerning you both that you do and will do the things we command you. Since the Lord is faithful, that's the foundation for these last two verses. He started well with the Lord is faithful. Since He is faithful, our confidence, our trust, our certainty is completely in the Lord because he's faithful. He's faithful.

And Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy have confidence, not in their missionary capabilities, not in their language skills, not in their apologetics. They don't have confidence even in the resolve of the Thessalonians, but in the faithfulness of the Lord to establish and guard His people as well as cause obedience. As well as cause obedience. Let's not be afraid of that word obedience. I'm thankful that today in leading us in corporate prayer, Gary wasn't afraid of using the word obey.

It's right here in scripture, the commands right here that you have confidence in the Lord that you do and will keep doing the commands of the Lord. The faithful Lord causes people to repent, right? He causes us to repent, to believe the gospel, gives us new hearts with new affections to do and keep doing the commandments of the Lord. Paul, Sevinas, and Timothy are commending them for their obedience. They are commending them for their obedience because they see they are abounding more and more and they are abounding more and more because of their obedience.

Because of what God has done for them, given them new hearts, that cause them to desire to obey, because they see the ways of God are right, and they are now abounding more and more. 1 Thessalonians 4, we saw obedience and abounding more and more tied together in 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 and 2. That may just be like me, just one page over from where we're at. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 1 and 2, Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should Abound more and more, just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus." Abounding more and more is connected to obedience.

It's connected. And Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are really just teaching what Jesus taught us at the at the end of Matthew, Matthew 28. We know Matthew 28 from the Great Commission, but let me read Matthew 28, 19 and then 20. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And here's what you do, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age.

Amen. The obedience of the Thessalonians is evidence of God saving grace on them and his faithfulness to them, and they are abounding more and more in their obedience. They've just been taught the things that Jesus said to teach. That's what Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are doing, teaching them the whole counsel of God. And to obey these commandments that are beautiful, evidence of God's faithfulness and salvation is filling us with the Holy Spirit.

He does that. His saving grace is on them. His faithfulness is to us. And it's demonstrated by the faithful, obedient, fruit bearing Thessalonians here. And Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy have thanked God for this, for this work in the Thessalonians, and then have spent a lot of time commending the Thessalonians for these evidences of God's grace upon them, for these evidences of the fruit of the Spirit upon them.

Let me go through a few. Back in 1 Thessalonians, we saw that the Thessalonians became followers of godly men and the Lord. That they received the word in much affliction. They obeyed God No matter what's going on. They have the joy of the Holy Spirit.

They're examples to other believers. What's that example? The example is not to just keep doing what they're doing, but to still obey the goodness of God. They have faith towards God. Their faith towards God has gone out.

The Great Commission, the testimony of others, is saying, look at the change in these people this is amazing it's not just them deciding okay how do we act different no it's the Word of God that's governing their life they've turned to God from idols they are waiting for Jesus they have welcomed the Word of God as the truth of God. In chapter one of 2 Thessalonians we see in verse 3 their faith grows exceedingly. Back to the faithless of God just for a moment. Faithfulness of the Lord. The Lord is faithful.

We are being conformed to Jesus. Therefore, part of fruit is becoming more faithful as Jesus is faithful. Conforming to Jesus equals more fruit, more evidences of grace, more faithfulness, more trustworthiness, more obedience even. Continuing in what they have been commended for, Their love abounds toward each other. They are obedient to God's commands here in this verse.

And they are abounding more and more as they obey and as they have confidence in the Lord that they will continue to obey. Listen to scripture on this. Psalm 119, 86, all your commandments are faithful. Continuing in Psalm 119, verse 138, your testimonies which you have commanded are righteous and very faithful. Very faithful.

This is an area of progressive sanctification. We talk about obedience, this is definitely an area of progressive sanctification. Jesus definitely did all the work, right? He did all the work. Hear me carefully here.

He did all the work. He obeyed perfectly. We could not do that. He obeyed perfectly in our place, a substitutionary sacrifice, and it is his obedience that keeps our salvation. It's because of his righteousness that no one will snatch us from his hand.

Because of the work of Christ, because of his bloodshed to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, to clothe us in His righteousness, to cast sin as far as the east is from the west, that is why we can stand before God holy. Because of the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. But we want to be conformed to Jesus so we want to grow in obedience. We want to grow in our obedience. Romans 8, for whom he foreknew who God foreknew those are those he's going to choose for salvation, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

We are being conformed to Jesus and that includes his perfect obedience. Don't let anybody tell you that obedience is not a part of the Christian life. The world today wants to just bristle and they rebel at that word when that word is especially tied to Christianity, but that's a sweet word. Without the obedience of Christ, we would not be saved. We are being conformed to Christ, so we are being conformed to being obedient as well.

Romans 5 19, for as by one man's disobedience, that's Adam, many were made sinners, that's us, So also by one man's obedience, that's Jesus Christ, many will be made righteous. So because the Lord is faithful, he has established them, he guards them. The fruit of the Thessalonians is abounding more and more as they follow the righteous commands of God and are conformed to Jesus. Paul, Sivanus, and Timothy are saying here, we have confidence in the Lord that your trajectory is good and that it'll keep going this way. You're going to keep going this way, Thessalonians, because we have a faithful Lord.

And we know He's going to keep doing this. We know He's going to keep conforming you to Jesus. We know He's going to keep sanctifying you. In verses 6-15 that we'll see next week, they're going to challenge them. They're going to tell them, here are some things in the church that are not going well.

There's idleness, there's busy bodies, there's disorderliness, but we have confidence because of our faithful Lord that you will listen to these commands and you will abound more and more. You will abound more and more. You have confidence that God will care for his church. Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, I say the same things about you. I am thankful for you.

I am thankful for how God is using you. And I want to spend some time commending you in the Lord. As a church, we've been together for five years. Some of us have been in church together longer than that. But as Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, we've been here for five years.

And there's a lot I can commend you for, But I just want to use verses 1 through 5 here as a guide to encourage your obedience. Your obedience that you would abound more and more and be conformed to our faithful, righteous, obedient Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I commend you in your prayers. I commend you in your prayers for the church, for each other, for Jason, that the Word of the Lord would run swiftly and be glorified just as it is in you. I commend you that the Word of God runs swiftly.

It's running swiftly in nursing homes, at the abortion clinic, in our homes, in Youngsville, in Lewisburg, in North Carolina, United States. It's running swiftly from here and other churches around the world such as Antioch Baptist. I commend you for that. I commend you for your prayers for protection against unreasonable and wicked men. Let's just take the abortion clinic for an example.

Your prayers for protection from unreasonable and wicked men such as the security guard that lies about us, that tells people he's a Christian and he is far from it, and doesn't even know the evil that he's allowing. That we'd be guarded from those Saturday chores people, that the fence wouldn't hinder the spreading of the good news of the gospel and saving people's lives for protection for the pregnancy support center to go next door that that evil that the unreasonable and wicked people would not overcome that, and that it would be allowed to go forth, empower, and save more people. I commend you that the word of the Lord has sounded forth from here and runs swiftly Malawi, Youngsville, our homes, our workplaces, where work takes us. I've heard wonderful stories of how the word has run swiftly from here on vacations, has sounded forth on vacations. How it's sounded forth in adoption agencies, how it sounded forth in birthing centers, how it sounded forth in hospitals when we have people in the hospital, how it sounded forth in grocery stores at Walmart and in our neighborhoods.

I commend you. I commend you. This is a trajectory I fully have confidence in the Lord that will continue. I commend you for standing fast. Chapter 2, verse 15, and being established in the Lord for holding the truth of the Gospel, that Scripture is sufficient for you, that you are able to be corrected and directed by the Word of the Lord, that you are responsive to the Word of God, and show a trajectory that this will continue.

I have confidence in the Lord we will continue this way because the Lord is faithful. And it is He that does the establishing. It is He that does the guarding. Confidence in the Lord in this verse leads to us understanding our dependence on the Lord, which leads to prayer. It leads to prayer that we see in verse 5.

You read verse 5, this is a prayer. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. Now May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. This is a prayer. It's not the first time Paul, Sylvainus, and Timothy have inserted a prayer throughout these two letters.

But they do because they want to continue to demonstrate that their confidence is not in themselves. Their confidence is in the Lord. Their trust is in the Lord. Their trust is in our faithful Lord. May the sovereign Lord, may the Lord who is sovereign, who rules all, controls all, that's who our dependence is on, may the Lord, may our sovereign Lord direct your hearts, may he direct, may he guide, may he make straight, may the sovereign Lord guide your hearts, may he make straight your hearts, direct.

Also means that he may he remove all hindrances. May he clear the way for us to keep progressing. May he clear the way for us to keep moving in sanctification. So may the sovereign Lord direct, may the sovereign Lord guide, may he make straight, may he remove all hindrances and clear the way for our hearts to completely trust in his faithfulness, for our hearts to completely be dwelling in the love of God and the patience of Christ. That's what we have here.

We know without God directing our hearts we would have no hope. We know that. For our heart on its own is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. As I've already talked about, God's faithless in salvation, we know that it's the Lord who changes and directs hearts. It's not us.

It's not our resolve. It's not me saying, OK, today is the day. I'm just going to make it happen. It's the Lord. Fall on His mercy.

Fall on His grace. Fall on His faithfulness. He is the one who will establish and guard you from the evil one. He's the one who will direct your hearts. Have confidence in that.

It starts with salvation. Ezekiel 36 26. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." He gives you a heart that he molds, that he shapes, that he directs, that he conforms to Jesus, that now has affections for God. At one point we had, I had.

At one point I had no affections for God. I had none. And That was the same for all of you. Whether you really remember it or not, whether you were saved later in life, as some of your testimonies show, you could really see that line of when I hated God, whether you have that line or not, at one point we all were enemies of God and God gives us a new heart that he molds and shapes and conforms to Christ and gives us affections toward God. Just think on that for a little bit.

What do you believe now that you've been saved for a while? What do you even believe now that you didn't believe five years, ten years, maybe twenty years ago? Definitely if you can remember before you were saved, if you had a life before you were saved, that was definitely when you can look and say, boy, that was wicked. And if you're not thinking that way, think that way. Think that way.

Your heart was desperately wicked, even if you can't remember it being that way. Praise God that God would constrain your heart if you can't remember that, that he would maybe give you parents and constrain your heart to be generally honorable, right? A generally obedient person, but your heart was still selfish and that is still wickedness. But think on that. What are you convinced of now that you weren't then?

What are you convicted of now you weren't then? What's been added? What's been added to your non-negotiable list over the years is God has molded and shaped and directed your heart, in your family life, in your schooling, in your vocation, How you work, where you work, what you do, where you live, where you go to church. What about believing the doctrines of grace? All of these, I can look back and see how God has shaped and molded me believing the doctrines of grace.

That was almost 25 years ago now for me and Rebecca. That's as clear in my mind as anything of when that just hit me upside the head and the humility I had to have because my parents believed it, but I didn't. And, Dad and Mom, You're right. Thanks, praise be to God. But look how God has directed your faithful Lord has directed you all these years to mold and shape you and direct your hearts.

Since the Lord is faithful, He is for us. He is for you. And he wants you to flourish. He does. Since he is faithful, then believe he will direct your hearts rightly.

Believe that. He will direct your hearts rightly. And we will go gladly in the way he directs. So whether it's a physical change, an actual change that we have to make in our lives, whether it's a change in our doctrine, a change in our family direction, a change in activities, a change in our affections, rooting out those idols, no matter what it is, trust them that he will establish you in his righteousness, in his faithlessness, and he will direct your hearts. Deuteronomy 5, 29, oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments that it may be well with them and with their children forever.

Matthew 6, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So God directs the hearts and he directs us to treasure Jesus, to love his commands because they are very faithful as we saw and you will abound more and more. Now in this verse there are two specific ways that God is praying, that Paul, Sphatis, and Timothy are praying for God to direct our hearts. We want God to direct our hearts in everything and there are two specific ways which I think really sums up everything that we could possibly talk about. It's into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

Let me take both of those separate. Into the love of God. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. Now is this to direct our hearts to love God more or to follow the love God demonstrates towards us? Let me say it another way, is this to direct our hearts to God's love for us, that we will see his love for us more clearly and then cherish him more, or for our love of God to grow more?

To quote Jason, the answer is yes. The answer is yes. It's both. It's all wrapped up here in directing our hearts into the love of God. So, God's love for you.

Everything starts with God. That's where it starts. Everything starts with God, including our love for Him. 1 John 4, 19, We love him because he first loved us. Ephesians 2, 4, and 5.

But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace we have been saved. So may the Lord remove all the obstacles and direct our hearts with a clear path to completely cherish, to completely know, and completely love the love of God. That does endure forever. No one will snatch us from his hand. Persecutions, trials, suffering, sorrow.

Once again, they're not from a God that doesn't love us. It's not from a God. These persecutions, these sorrows, these trials are not from a God dispensing wrath upon us. It is not. The Thessalonians had turned from idols.

They had turned from idols that they had to constantly appease and everything that happened to them, they're wondering, oh did I not please my God this time? Is this happening? Am I sick? Do I not have food? Was this person saying a mean thing to me?

Did all those people die because I didn't appease this God enough that he would favor me with something? That's what they had turned from. This is not how the living and true God treats us. That is not. Because of the work of Jesus, we will not know even one drop of wrath.

What we will know is the complete love of God, the complete forgiveness of God, the complete faithfulness of God. That's what we know and it's not because we appease God to make that happen. It's because of the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. It's because of His blood spilled. It's because of His body broken.

It's because He took on the complete wrath of God for us and drank it all down to the drugs, that we won't know any of that. We will just know the love of God, the favor of God. We will know his love and cherish his love and live with him forever. He is faithful. He is establishing us.

He is guarding us. He is directing us in his love. So God's love, see how sweet and precious God's love is? His love, because of His great love for us, it then directs our love back to Him. Matthew 22, 37, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." So, do you want to love God more?

You want to. I do. When you see what all God does, you want to. So, what do you need to do? Love as God loves.

May God direct you into the love of God so that we can love as He loves. The more we understand His love, the more we will be directed to love others as He has loved us with grace, with mercy, with loving our enemies even, so that the gospel would run swiftly and save others even. The love, the giving love that he has, giving love that he has. Think about it. He has given us Jesus and his Holy Spirit.

Can you think of anything? Try. Dare any of you to come up to me afterwards. Come up to me with something that God could do more for us than giving us Jesus and the Holy Spirit that would demonstrate His great love for us? Is there anything more that you need, Church?

Anything more that I need to convince me that God loves me and that God is for me. Then he gave us Jesus Christ, his only son, and then fills us with the Holy Spirit. That he is faithful. Is there anything more? Be directed into the love of God.

Understand His love for us. He is faithful. Proverbs 4, keep your heart with all diligence. Out of a love for God, his love for you. Keep it, guard it.

He will guard it, he will help you. You want that new heart that God's giving you to be kept with all diligence. Proverbs 23, hear my son and be wise and guard your heart in the way. Fruit demonstrating our love for God, that's what we want. That's the gospel running swiftly.

That is showing a dying world how much God loves us and our love for Him. Fruit that is demonstrating our love for God, the obedience that we abound more and more loving His word, loving to pray, loving to show and demonstrate our complete dependence and confidence is in the Lord Himself. May the Lord direct you into the love of Christ and may the Lord direct your hearts into the patience of Christ, into the patience of Christ. So just as before is this about us just just learning more about Jesus patience with us or us growing in the patience of Jesus? And the same answer is yes.

It's the same answer. It's yes, patience. The NIV says, growing the Lord direct your hearts into the perseverance of Christ. ESV says into the steadfastness of Christ. The word here for patience also says not swerved from a deliberate purpose.

You can't have this patience, this perseverance, this steadfastness not being swerved from your purpose unless you've been established. He wants us to be established and we can't have this unless we're established. We can't be established unless God saves us and we're not saved without a faithful Lord. Impatience, let's talk about this word patience. It's often thought of just awaiting.

Just wait, just sit, just stand there and just wait. Be patient. But that's really not what is here. Steadfastness, not being swerved from your purpose. Does that sound like waiting?

Being steadfast, I am not going to move to the right or the left. This is my path. And I'm not going to be swerved from the purpose that I have to glorify God forever. What's the chief in a man? I'm not going to be swerved from my path.

I'm going to be steadfast with foundation of the chief cornerstone, the solid rock, my strong tower. It can be waiting at times, but don't think of it as exclusively. Patience is exclusively just waiting. I'm just waiting to see what happens. Move forward with confidence.

Move forward with confidence in your faithful Lord. He's going to clear the path to direct your hearts in the right way to go. Jesus' patience or long-suffering, his steadfastness, he was not swerved from his purpose, was he? He was not swerved, and he was long-suffering. Perfect, perfect long-suffering, perfect patience.

1 Timothy 1, 16, For this reason I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. So Jesus longsuffering, learn his longsuffering, learn how he was steadfast, learn how he was not swerved from his purpose, be thankful because of that you're saved and then use that as a pattern. Use that as a pattern not to be swerved, to be steadfast. And may the Lord direct our hearts into learning more how patient Jesus is, especially over our sins. Think of that for eternity past.

He knew that he was going to die for your sins. Look at the patience. Let's walk through this patience of Christ here. I'm going to save the people. God chose you from the beginning to save and He's saying, I'm going to save those, I'm going to save those sins, and He's not going to be born for another thousands and thousands of years, and I'm going to save Him, and I'm going to walk through, and while I'm saving people, I have to be around these people.

I see all the wickedness that's happening in this world. There's still people rebelling. Those people are going to hell and they're rebelling but I'm still long suffering because I'm going to save him and him and her and her. And then he comes to earth and he lives amongst the sinful people. What kind of long suffering is that?

And then he takes on sin, who knew no sin, and he dies, and he raises from the dead, conquers sin and death, and he's not done. He's not done. So a couple thousand years after that, we're born and we sin. And Jesus is still patient and steadfast in His purpose in saving people. He's been so long suffering with our sin And he continues to be, since he's not here, since he hasn't returned, completely trusts that he hasn't returned, he sees more people he's going to save.

He's continuing in that steadfastness. And Jesus is also now patiently, actively waiting for when he can come and claim his bride. He is doing that. Jesus' patient and steadfast work clears the path for our hearts to be directed to God. We can grow in our patience, in our long suffering, in our steadfastness, and not be swerved from our purpose to glorify God, to love Him with all of our hearts, to help the gospel run swiftly because of his pattern, his example, him filling us with the Holy Spirit, him directing our hearts, him establishing us, him, Jesus, guarding us from the evil one.

To sum up this, sum up this, John MacArthur puts it this way. He's a great summation here. This is what Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy long to see in the lives of God's people. An increasing affection for God, an increasing love for God, an increasing desire for God's honor and God's glory. At the same time, increased endurance, that's another word for patience, increased endurance, increased strength, so that you become as steadfast as Christ against temptation, against trials, against suffering, against disappointment, against sorrow, whatever it might be.

That's spiritual growth, spiritual development, getting stronger and stronger and stronger and able to endure more difficult challenges, more difficult temptations. And that only happens because you have a faithful Lord who establishes you. Just kind of a summary statement here on May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God by F.F. Bruce. Our love for God is the effect of the outpouring of God's love into his people's hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Where does he get that? He gets that straight from Romans, Romans 5.5. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. God has poured out the love and caused us to love and pour that out into us through the Holy Spirit. Then about our patience, here's my summary here maybe on this patience part.

May the Lord direct your hearts into the patience of Christ. Our patience, steadfastness to not swerve from our purpose to love God and glorify God with all of our heart and to wait for his return while we endure persecution, hardship, sorrow is grounded in Jesus' patience, is grounded in Jesus' steadfastness to not swerve from his purpose and endure wrath and for us now to wait for his return as he waits to come and claim his bride. Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, I thank God always for you brethren. Beloved by the Lord for his faithfulness in directing our hearts into the love of God and the patience of Christ. I have three applications and they follow one, two, and three pretty much verse three, four, and five.

Number one, pray as Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy have done. Pray for our faithful Lord to establish and guard us from the evil one. He will do it. You want prayers of faith. You want prayers that you can see exactly what the Lord is doing.

Pray that prayer. It says here, He will establish you. He will guard you. So pray for that. Pray for it and watch.

Have eyes to see it happen. To place us firmly and to turn us resolutely in His good direction. Pray it. It's not, okay I'll pray this prayer but God's going to do it anyway, so why should I pray? Well, part of the reason why we pray is so it just reminds us, and it's preaching to ourselves, it would be this prayer, so that we're reminded, hey, let me look for where God's being faithful.

Let me look for where he's establishing me and other people. Let me look for where he's guarding us from the evil one. And then let me praise him for his faithfulness. Number one, pray for our faithful Lord to establish and guard us from the evil one. Number two, number two, a question.

How is your trajectory? How is your trajectory? Remember verse 4 was about, and we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and we'll do the things we command you. So what's your trajectory? What's your trajectory?

Do you want to abound more and more? Once again, let me be clear, I'm not talking about for salvation. To obey for salvation, you have to do this to keep your salvation. Jesus, the word, the Savior, the Jesus, what's your trajectory to abound more and more? To abound more and more, false and inattentive, yet positive, salvation like Jesus.

For work, to save, to keep. I don't know, I guess you just think you're going down a road more. You're down more and more. Also there is an affinity of thousands of lords that as a church, their trajectory will be continued so they live. And this letter is to the church.

And although they're committing to church, we know from this letter, the previous verses and the verses that come, there are individuals in the church that there aren't a bounty more and more. Or maybe they're just things, just like all this. We need some areas to be refined. And Paul says to me, hey, church, here's a big area. And we know there's other areas.

He's committing to the church. There are individuals that have sinned. And some lean towards false doctrine. That can happen in the church. The individual, though, Be honest with yourself.

How is your trajectory? Be honest with yourself. A saying that I say regularly is you can't limit the observation of yourself to yourself from a pastor. If you're having trouble with that, ask your spouse, children, ask your parents. What do you see?

If you want to abound more and more, you'll ask others. You'll ask others to help you. Brothers, let's help each other. Sisters, help one another. Brothers and sisters in Christ, help one another.

Be very honest. Prayer. Have your trajectory in prayer. Your love of scripture to the point of obeying, even if it means changing your trajectory. You can look back and see how you've changed your trajectory.

I can look at every family here easily. There's no problem. It won't take me any time at all. I can look at every family here and I know how God's changed your trajectory in some way. And you could attest to way more than I've seen or know.

But how's your trajectory in your family life, in your schooling, in your work, in your church life cadence, in loving the brethren, in trusting the faithfulness of God. There are those here that have no idea what I'm talking about. You don't know what it is to have a faithful God. You really don't. You think you do because things may be going well for you, you think, but you don't.

This faithful God is a holy God. You cannot have any sin before Him. You can't have any. And you're a sinner. And you can't stand before God.

And you need the righteousness of Jesus Christ in order to stand before the Holy God. You need to believe in Christ alone that Christ's blood was shed. His perfect blood was shed and his body broken, taken on the wrath of God that he didn't deserve, but he did to save sinners. He must believe that and repent and turn steadfastly toward his good ways, his faithful, very faithful ways. Then you will know this faithful God.

You will know what it is to be established. Right now, whether you know it or not, if you are not His, if you have not believed and repented in Christ, you are trusting your own works, you are trusting to be established in your own strength, in your own resolve. You're trusting your work, you're trusting your mind, you're trusting your parents, you're trusting your church, you're trusting the world to establish you. And that's where you have your confidence and that will fail you. And you may not see it.

And you may not feel the weight of that failure like other people have seen. But when that dying breath comes, it will be too late and you will see the complete failure of that confidence. So I implore you, believe and repent today. Know this faithful God and abound more and more. Know this faithful God.

Abound more and more. And then the third application, make verse 5 a regular part of your prayers. Make verse 5 a regular part of your prayers. Make verse five a regular part of your prayers. I commend you, church.

I commend you, Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, how scripture affects your prayers. Let me give you some examples that we hear on Sunday and Wednesday mornings. Here are some examples of your prayers that are full of scripture that we have studied. What about 1 Peter 2? How often do we hear somebody praising God for calling us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

That's because the word of God has affected you and is directing your hearts into the language of God and praising him. What about from Ezra 6 and Nehemiah 12 praising God for the Lord making us joyful. What about 1st Thessalonians 5 for God to comfort the faint-hearted and uphold the weak. I command you church for this And verse 5 is another section to lean on. Use this scriptural language, this use of scriptural language that shows a belief in the sufficiency of scripture and preaches truth to yourself and will encourage you and build you up.

And God uses scripture to establish you and guard you and direct your hearts into His love and into the patience of Christ. Where you will know that no one will ever snatch you from His hand. That you know if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. You will know these things and your heart will be directed into his faithfulness as sovereign, redeemer, community church. The Lord is faithful.

He is faithful in establishing and guarding us, and he is faithful in conforming us to Jesus in obedience, and he is faithful in directing our hearts. Let's pray. Our faithful God, thank you for being faithful. Thank you for showing us your faithfulness. Thank you for your word that just shows us how faithful you are.

Our confidence is completely in you. Thank you for directing our hearts. Oh, oh the horror of what it would be if I directed my own heart. Thank you God. Please direct us more into your love that we would love others and to the patience of Christ that we would be so long suffering as well.

You are such a faithful God. Thank you, amen.