The Beginning Point of Salvation

Transcript

GR 43
7/07/1974
The Beginning Point of Salvation
2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
Gil Rugh

Second Thessalonians, chapter 2. I'd like to pick up with verse 13. We’ve taken some time in our study of the first part of chapter 2 because of its prophetic significance and really it’s formed the heart of what Paul had to say. It was the occasion for the writing of the letter so that they would properly understand events surrounding the day of the Lord, the second coming of Jesus Christ to earth, the great tribulation that will precede His second coming and so on.

Now with verse 13 he switches from that subject and we’ll address them on more personal matters regarding conduct and so on, through the remainder of the book. You note the contrast though that verse 13 begins with ’but'. So it’s not unrelated, it’s simply switching to address them on related matters, but he won't be talking any more about specific prophetic events.

The 'but' is the contrast then, with verses 10 to 12. Verses 10 to 12, he talked about those who will be in the tribulation and will respond to the ministry of the anti-Christ. And these are described as those who are perishing because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false in order that all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. But we should always give thanks to God for you. So he contrasts to those, now we focus our attention on you and this is an occasion for Paul to rejoice and give thanks. Same kind of a statement to begin discussing as we had over in chapter 1 verse 3, same basic statement. We are always to give thanks to God for you brethren, now in verse 13 the same thing. We should always, or we ought always to give thanks to God for you brethren. There it was regarding their growing in the faith and their growing love. Here he backs up even beyond that to a prior point, preceding their love, preceding their growth in faith. We ought to give thanks to God. Verse 13 then, we ought, and again we talked about this in verse 3 of chapter 1. It denotes being under obligation to be bound by a certain duty or necessity.

Paul, as we find as we examine the prayers of Paul through his writings, always are marked by a strong element of thanks. And part of it comes from what he reveals here. He felt it was his obligation and duty to be giving thanks to God, and you’ll note it’s not for what he is getting personally. It’s not just that God’s provided in this area or God gave me what I was hoping I would get. Here it is regarding these other believers and he says I’m bound and I have an obligation to be giving thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord. And that ah, is a good thing for you to take note of in your prayer time, giving thanks to God, a central part of your giving thanks ought to be for other believers. We ought to be offering thanks to God for other believers, what God is doing in their life. You know sometimes our prayer lives are just a reflection of the selfish will that we Christians live in. We have a hard time being thankful because we’re so focused on our self we’re trying to think, now who could I be thankful for and everything I’m thinking of revolves around me. Paul has focused on other people here, other believers. So we’re giving thanks to God for you, brethren, who are beloved by the Lord, and beloved by the Lord or loved by the Lord is our word agape here. So God's love for them is an agape love. It's in the perfect tense. We have perfect to denote something that began in the past but has its impact continuing in the present. So, brethren who have been, and
as a result, are loved by the Lord. Because God has loved them in the past, He now loves them in the present. So His love is a love that began in the past and continues in the present, so Paul says we should always give thanks.

So Paul got down to pray and couldn't think of something to be thankful for? Always give thanks for the Thessalonians, because he ought to always be thanking Him for them anyway. It's not, now Lord I thank you for the Thessalonians, the work you've done in their life. Amen. Never mention them again. Paul had no problem about giving thanks for a convert more than once. Rejoicing over what God had done and what he was doing in them, but he goes back to the beginning here. The reason for his thanks was because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. Interesting how Paul puts it. I have always to give thanks to God for you brethren, and I take it it's in contrast to those in verses 10 to 12. As we noted, for which Paul couldn't give thanks, because their whole character of life is evil and wicked. They have rejected the truth, they have rejected the God that Paul loved. In contrast he has the Thessalonians, and Paul says I had always to be giving thanks to God for you. Why? Because God has chosen you. Not because you have come through and persevered and come to the point of trusting Christ. I ought to give thanks to God for you because He saw fit to choose you, and that's what marks you off as different from those in verses 10 to 12. Because if God hadn't chosen you I wouldn't have anything to be thankful for in you either.

So God has chosen you. The word for choosing here is not the word we usually have for election, but the idea is of course that of election as we will note in a moment. It's in aorist tense to denote the point in the past. That's how precise the Greek language was with the perfect tense, something had happened in the past continues into the present; here is the aorist tense. Something that happens at a point in the past. God has chosen. So a number of you are here on Saturday afternoons laboring over Greek and getting more of an appreciation for it. Here we have an aorist middle, and in the middle the subject does something for or to himself. So God has chosen you for Himself would be a literal translation. Has chosen you for Himself from the beginning. So the word translated to choose basically means to take, to choose, to prefer. God has chosen you for Himself. So the point in the past--God has chosen the Thessalonians. Now you note—He has chosen you when in the past? From the beginning. From the beginning God has chosen you for Himself, and you can see we're talking about the doctrine of election although we're not using the word we usually think of. It's a related word in importance, when God has chosen them for Himself from the beginning, we’re talking about the fact He has elected them. Look over in 1 Thessalonians in chapter 1 verse 4. For Paul, the doctrine of election was one for which he thanked God, we see here in his prayer of thanksgiving. When he wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians he had to mention their election by God as well. And we talked more in detail about election when we were in chapter 1. Verse 2, we give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith, your labor of love, steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you. The word choice there is the word election. The standard word we think of for election in the New Testament. Knowing brethren beloved by God, His election of you. Interesting, it didn't cause Paul any lack of sleep. It caused him to be thankful that God had chosen them because he understood that if God hadn’t chosen them, because of their sinful condition, they would have never chosen God. So Paul would have had nobody to be thankful for. So, he's thankful that God was gracious, and merciful, and chose them.

Now in 2 Thessalonians 2, we are told that God chose them from the beginning. And I take it, this expression carries back not to when they first trusted Christ, because they trusted Christ God chose them. So the beginning here is the beginning of their faith. No, that's not what it is. Look over in 1 John chapter 2. 1 John's toward the back of your bible, getting near the book of Revelation. 1 John, chapter 2 and verse 13, where we have this same expression from the beginning. 1 John 2:13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him, Christ, who has been from the beginning. In writing of Christ, he talks about Him as being from the beginning. Now, regarding Christ being eternal, we cannot go back to a beginning for Him, but the expression denotes going back before creation. Before the beginning of our world there was Christ and back then God had chosen. At that point in time, He had chosen them in the past, in or from the beginning. Now look over in Ephesians. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Ephesians, chapter 1. Many parallels in Ephesians chapter 1 with the material here. We're just going to pick up one or two this evening. Ephesians, chapter 1 tells us when election has transpired and parallels what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians.

Ephesians 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, just as he elected us in Him before the foundation of the world, just as He chose us in Him when, before the foundation of the world. I was chosen by God and that choosing took place before the world was ever created. God chose Gilbert Rugh to believe in Jesus Christ and that was settled from that point for all eternity. Now right away, for some people the first thought that comes to mind and is probably true of all of us at one time or another--well then, why bother? If we've been elected from the beginning, we're elected from the beginning. If you're elected you make it, if you're not elected you won't make it. So why should I witness to my neighbor? If God elected them, they'll be saved, if He hasn't elected them, they won't be. Well, we know just from saying that it wasn't Paul's attitude because he was the one who had been at Thessalonica to preach the gospel.

We'll talk about God using the means in a moment, but look over in Revelation 13. Verses we've looked at before, but I think are important because they answer one of the basic questions regarding election. And that is our testimony, our evangelistic efforts, and I don't know where you are regarding the doctrine of election, but that's one of the greatest encouragements to me in evangelism and personal witnessing. It takes the burden off of me and puts the responsibility the only place it can be, on God. So I don't go off thinking that it depends, stands or falls on me whether people get saved or not. It depends on God. All I can do is go out and do what God told me to do. Share the word. What God does with the word and the life is up to Him. Revelation 13, we're in the tribulation here. Those on earth are in the 7-year tribulation, who are worshipping the anti-Christ. Verse 8 and all who dwell on the earth will worship him, the anti-Christ; everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life, in the book of life of the lamb who has been slain. And here we are told that the names are in the book of life from the foundation of the world.
If you have a King James bible it connects from the foundation of the world to the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But grammatically, it's better as the New American Standard has it. Names being written from the foundation of the world are in the book of life.

Look over in chapter 17 in Revelation though, there's no question on this passage. Chapter 17, verse 8. Chapter 13 verse 8 and chapter 17 verse 8. And the beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will wonder, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. Fact of the matter is, that the names are already in the book of life.

And when we talk about the doctrine of election, we're only talking about how they got there, but scripture makes clear the names are already there. So if you’ve been evangelizing because you're convinced that there’ll be a new name written down in glory, we can be glad for those who got saved in spite of our ignorance. That's not the way it is, there are no new names written down in glory. I still like the song. I just reinterpret it as we sing it. You know in the back of mind, say no there's not but they're all there anyway, they're all there. They're all there, so you don't believe in election, you believe in the fact that God foreknew who would believe. Alright, that's not the scriptural position, but all right, the names are still already in the book of life and you're not going to change that. So to use that as an argument against the of the doctrine of election is to misunderstand what the scripture says in other places. The names are already in the book of life. How can that be if they haven't believed yet? Well, very simply. God has elected them, and everybody who is elected will believe. There is no chance here. There is no possibility that some will believe and some will not when they've been elected. All the elect will believe. So God put their name in the book when He elected them. Because His election is their guarantee of their believing. He doesn't have to wait and see if His plan is going to be carried out. They're already there. They've been there before the foundation of the world.

We're going to be talking about the doctrine of election and its detail in Romans chapter 9. Very simply, without exploring the scriptures involved, the basis of God's choice is in Himself. God did not choose you on the basis of what you would do. He sovereignly chose you because He wanted to. And you say, that's quite arbitrary. Yes, it is, but that's the way it is. I'm saved because God chose me. He did not choose me because I would believe. I believe because He chose me. And, if I hadn't been chosen, I wouldn't have believed.

You say, therefore, God is responsible for those who don't believe. Not at all. He's responsible for those who do believe. Those who don't believe are responsible for their lack of belief. Keep in mind when we talk about election, we're dealing with a group of condemned people who have rebelled against God, we are sinners, we're not dealing with innocent people who don't stand a chance. We are dealing with sinners who have rejected God. Now from this group of people, who have rejected God, God is so loving, so merciful, so gracious, that He has chosen to save some.

So it helps put it in perspective. You keep in mind we're dealing with justly condemned sinners, not poor innocent people. We're dealing with those who are sinners. And it's just an evidence of God's love and mercy.

If that causes you a problem, you come on Sunday morning and study Romans chapter 9 with us. I like the way Paul deals with it. People question him, he simply says, who are you. I just can’t wait to get to this passage. Paul says, God says this is the way it is. Who are we? These poor, pitiful lumps of clay saying to the potter, why did you make me like this? Be careful, the potter will step on you. I mean that’s the relationship. He’s the potter with the clay. Alright, I do not want to do Romans chapter 9 tonight.

Back to second Thessalonians chapter 2. So I take it, this is the beginning point for salvation. The choice of God. It occurs in what we call eternity past. Because it goes back before the creation of the world. So as far as we’re concerned it goes back to a timeless expanse, because when we precede the creation we have no time line, we have no knowledge of that period, and so we call it eternity past. Before God created the world, He had determined those he was going to save for Himself. Alright, God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation. This is the purpose for which God chose them, for salvation. Unto salvation, God chose them to be saved, to experience the salvation that He provided in Christ.

Now, how did He accomplish this? Through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. So He chose us in the beginning for salvation, and this salvation is accomplished in two parts. Or two ingredients in it. For sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. So the means that God would use are sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

The word sanctification, we’ve talked about it before, means to set apart, to consecrate The idea I take it, we’re talking about the initial work of the Spirit in our life when He sets us apart for God. Some have gone off on a study of sanctification in this passage, but I think he’s primarily talking about our initial sanctification. The work of the Spirit in setting us apart. In other words, what happens? God chose me for Himself and at the proper time the Spirit functioned to set me apart for God.

Look over in 1 Peter verse 2. 1 Peter going to the back of your bible, almost to 1 John again. 1 Peter chapter 1. Next time you write a letter to a believer, try to do what Paul or Peter does. First sentence or two, address them as those who have been elected by God and so on, and then go on, and chances are you’d get a response back from them. They won’t even remember the rest of what you wrote, but they'll want to talk about the matter of election. Peter does the same thing. Verse 1, the end of the verse. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, so on and so on, who are chosen, elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, note, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. I take it, that’s the same work we’re talking about in 2 Thessalonians 2. It according to, chosen according to, the foreknowledge of God. We discussed that word in Romans, chapter 8, being equivalent to foreordained. Not simply knowing beforehand, but ordaining beforehand.

Since you’re in chapter 1 you can look at verse 20 where Christ is said to be the foreknown before the foundation of the world. It wasn’t simply that God looked ahead and knew that Christ would die, because Acts chapter 2 tells us God pre-determined that Christ would die. So the word means to foreordain. Then it’s by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, again it’s the Spirit’s work now that set us apart. God has chosen us, and now in time the Spirit sets us apart.

Connected with this, the sanctification by the work and faith in the truth. Here comes our faith. Now many people think that this is where it begins. We believe, and God looking down the expanse of time saw that Gil was going to believe, so he chose him. So it starts with faith, and God chooses, and then the Spirit works. Huh-uh. God chooses, the Spirit works, I believe. And the order is the same, always. God chooses, the Spirit works, I believe. Without the work of the Spirit there would be no salvation. There is no salvation, and it’s faith in the truth. You'll note in verse 10 when we read those verses, those who are not saved are not saved because they refused the truth. Now we, who are saved are those who have faith in the truth, and I take it truth refers to the word of God, ultimately refers to Jesus Christ and the work He has done. Jesus said that I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by me. He is the truth. It also said that God’s word is truth as well. So it’s faith in the truth in the revelation God has given and in particular revelation concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. So the Spirit sets us apart and it’s true. This process will also involve faith.

Now again, it doesn’t do any good to ask the question, what if one of the elect don’t believe? Will he be saved anyway? I mean what can I say, yes or no? That's one of those questions. Do you beat your wife regularly, yes or no? I mean, there is no answer. The elect will believe. It’s not possible to frustrate God’s purposes. And because God has elected them, then the elect will believe by the work of the Spirit and the faith in the truth, and they always go together. We talked about this somewhat last week in considering 1 Peter, the end of chapter 1, the first part of chapter 2. We're told we’re born again by the word of God. Again we see the truth present. We see the Spirit present. We even talked about the ministry of the Spirit in John chapter 16 and His work is essential if salvation is to occur, and the truth must also be present.

Following on, and it was for this, and I take it he’s talking about salvation ultimately, and unto this He called you, so you’ll note here’s the call explained. We noted ah before, we note call in Paul’s writing, always refers the affectual call. It was for this he called you, how? Through our gospel. So you see what has happened. God has chosen us before the foundation of the world, and now in time, He is working to bring us to Himself. The Spirit sets us apart, we believe in the truth He calls us through the gospel, He calls us through the gospel, and again keep in mind this call that Paul talks about is the call that always results in salvation. We call it the affectual call. And He called through our gospel. So again there’s no hope, or no possibility that anyone will ever be saved apart from the presence of the word of God. It’s the further development of the truth at the end of verse 13. Because He calls the elect through the gospel. So the question, well what about the heathen, what about a person in a far-off remote jungle land who is one of the elect and a missionary didn’t get there in time? Again, it’s one of those questions that is unscriptural. God didn’t elect anyone like that because the missionaries do get to the elect in time, and that's why they get there. God has elected those so the gospel must be presented to the elect so that the elect might believe as a result of the Spirit’s work in their life. And thus, experience the salvation of God as provided, so it was for this He called you through our gospel, and I present the gospel. You as a believer present the gospel why? Because God uses the gospel to call the elect and the elect respond to the gospel because the Spirit works in their life.

My understanding of Ephesians 2:8 and 9 is that it fits with this. That we’ve been saying that by grace you have been saved through faith and that faith is not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, lest any man should boast. I believe because the Spirit was at work in my life, otherwise I wouldn’t have believed. I’m totally sinful. I'm totally depraved. I never do good.
I never seek God. I never have a righteous thought and yet I believed in God. Why? Because of the work of the Spirit in bringing me to that place, and He used the gospel to do it. So I present the gospel. Why? God will use it to save the elect.

So you see, God has ordained a means as well as the end. The end is the salvation of the elect. The means, the presentation of the gospel. I don’t need to get all bent out of shape because of God's election. Why should I get up and preach? I mean, He's elected. Shucks, I wanted to be in on it. I wanted to be the one who did it. What am I saying? If it's not a result of my persuasiveness, I'm not going to tell anybody. Well, you big baby, don't tell anybody. That's not the issue. The issue is God has ordained the means as well as the end. The means—the presentation of the gospel, the end is salvation, and He is in control of both. You know, that takes the pressure off. This may, depending on where you are as a believer, if you're not a believer it may be really upsetting. It sometimes, causes us to squirm a little bit about witnessing. But believe me, it takes the pressure off. I don't have to begin to worry, get all twisted up as I witness to my friends and my family. All I have to do is present the gospel as clearly as I can. And I want to do that because if I present the gospel, that's what God wants me to do and I want to be pleasing to Him. We've mentioned 2 Corinthians 2 where God is pleased when the gospel is presented. Now the work of salvation—that's His work, and whether people believe or not, that's His doing. That's why people at Indian Hills can get saved without an altar call. Can you believe it? You can be saved without an altar call. Why? Because God’s working in their heart using the word and, that's what it takes. The presence of the word, used by the Spirit, results in the salvation of the elect. It gives you a great freedom.

I present the gospel; the person doesn't believe. I still have compassion and concern, but I don't go home thinking I'm a failure, that if I had been a better salesman, that if I had pressed the point a little harder. Now what if that person may go over the brink and out into eternity without Christ because I didn't do it right. Now that makes for some good emotional preaching, but it's terrible theology. I'm glad it is because I'd be scared to death to witness if I thought eternity hung on me. What a terrible thing if God would put men's destiny in our hands. If people would be saved or not saved on the basis of what we would do. How would you like your salvation to depend on me? I might be home watching the football game and you wouldn't get saved. That would be a great way to do things, wouldn't it? Well, we can be thankful God hasn't done it that way, and thus He is the one responsible. He is the one glorified in the whole process.

All right, He has chosen—He has called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Called you that you may gain, or obtain, the glory. Look over in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, uses the same word. 1 Thessalonians 5:9, for God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Here when he talks about obtaining, same word, only they translated obtaining. The glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, still talking about our salvation, because our salvation involves sharing in His glory, and the forgiveness of sins, His righteousness provided for me, and so on. So He called us through the gospel so that we would obtain glory. Because He had elected us, chosen us, and thus ordained that we would obtain the glory.

So then, brethren, an application on the basis of this, it's not a matter of—give up, God’s doing it all, you don’t have any responsibility. On the basis now of understanding this basic bible doctrine, then brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught. Stand firm, that’s what it means. Stand firm. As he’s writing to believers, believers in persecution, telling them not to be moved, in light of recognizing that God has chosen you, and called you that you would obtain the glory. Stand firm. I mean I realize that I’m immovable, that gives me confidence to stand. It’s when I begin to question that I begin to waiver. But I recognize I’m immovable; then I stand firm. Hold to the traditions that you were taught. Now this causes some problems on occasion because often it’s used by people who want to encourage and promote traditions of the church. They'll turn you to verses like this, and there are related verses, and say, see. You're told the whole thing’s a tradition, and a tradition of our church is this, so if you want to be biblical, hold to the tradition. Well, you can see the problems that come from that since every church has its own tradition. We'd have a little bit of confusion although every denomination is convinced that its traditions are the scriptural ones.

The word basically means to give over, to give over traditions you have a strong, firm hold on. The traditions that you were taught, whether by word or by letter or mouth. Paul says whether you got it orally from me or whether I wrote you a letter. What are the letters of the apostle Paul as we have them? They’re the scriptures. So the tradition Paul is talking about is the revelation we receive from God. It’s nothing to do with the tradition that was passed down from the reformers, or the church fathers, or anything else. It has to do with the revelation that Paul got from God, and passed on to them. They were responsible to have a masterful grip on it and that would give them the stability that they needed.

Incidentally, in Galatians, chapter 1, Paul does the same thing. He tells them that he passed on to them what he received from God. Then he gives a warning about those who pervert it. Galatians 1:12, for I neither received it from men, nor was I taught it, but I received through a revelation of Jesus Christ, so that’s the source of his material.

All right, just to wrap with these two closing verses. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself is God our Father, and God our Father is the one who has loved us and has given us eternal comfort and good hope. Eternal comfort and good hope are given by grace, so He has given us by grace eternal comfort and good hope. Now that just connects what we just said about election, because God chose you totally apart from what you were or what you would do, it's called grace, and God has given us eternal comfort, comfort which is good for now and will endure for eternity, a hope which sustains
us now, and will again be good for all eternity. A good hope and an eternal comfort by His grace. Continue to comfort and strengthen your hearts, and this is put in the form of wish; comfort and strengthen.

He wants them to be realizing this. It’s Paul’s wish for them that they be enjoying and experiencing the comfort and strength that God provides in every good work and word. He realizes the endurance of the Thessalonians depends on the work of God as their salvation did. And this should encourage them, that their comfort and strength will come from God. So they ought to be looking for it, and that’s where you and I ought to be looking for it. You look for it in other believers, and it comes to a degree, but if that’s your total source you get discouraged and you get disappointed. But it's God who comforts and strengthens us, so I have sufficient comfort and sufficient strength to handle any situation. I don't stand here saying that I look forward to any situation, but if God would bring me into it, I have the assurance that He is sufficient to comfort and strengthen and thus give me the endurance to endure until He alleviates it, or calls me to go home.

Let's pray together.
Father, we thank you for your word, Lord, for your love for us. Lord, even for the truth of the doctrine of election, that you've chosen us from the beginning, Father indeed, it ought to be humbling to us to realize what great love you've showered upon us. Lord, we who were rejecting your love, we who were disinterested, unconcerned yet you loved us anyway. Lord, you chose us in spite of what we are. Lord we thank you that you love us so much, Lord in order that now we may love you, our love being a result of the work you've done in our lives. Lord, we pray that we will be rejoicing in the fact that you've called and chosen other believers as well. This might be a source of encouragement and comfort to us. Lord, we recognize that you have called us to obtain the glory of Jesus Christ, that this might serve to strengthen us, that we might stand fast and have a masterful grip on the revelation that you have passed on to us in the word, in order Lord, that we might endure as faithful testimonies for you, that we might be enjoying the comfort and strength that you provide that enables us to do every good work, to give every good word, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.