16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 (ESV)
A SERMON DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1888.
The third point, with which I close, is this. WHAT DOES PAUL MENTION IN HIS PRAYER AS PLEAS? He mentioned several facts for the strengthening of the faith of those for whom he prayed, and gave arguments which they should use while pleading with God for others. Let us speak of these arguments very briefly, there are six of them.
First, Paul says that Jesus is ours. He is asking for comfort and establishment, and he begins his prayer, “Now, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.” Do, if you can, get the sweetness of this expression, “Our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why did not Paul say, “The Lord Jesus Christ”? Why did he not say, “My Lord Jesus Christ”? No, here is a plural possessive pronoun, “Our Lord Jesus Christ.” Is it so, then, that God has given us the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to be ours? Can we not only call His blood ours, and His resurrection ours, and His kingdom ours, but is He Himself ours? Oh, can we get a grip of Him as “My Beloved”? Is He my Husband, my Covenant Head, my Jesus, and my all?
Come, then, beloved, I was going to say that you hardly need pray for comfort, because you have it already, you have it in Jesus. Here is a solid mass of the pure gold of comfort in the fact that Jesus Christ Himself is yours. You are Christ’s, but Christ is also yours. As the husband belongs to the wife, and the wife belongs to the husband, so there is a mutual possession between Christ and you who are believers in Him. Are you poor, then? What! And yet Christ is yours? Do you say that you are helpless and friendless? How is that when you can say, “Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself”? No, here is a well opened in the desert for you, come and say to it, “Spring up, O well!” Sing ye unto it, drink of its living water, and fill your earthen vessels to the full. There is comfort enough for all saints in “Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.”
The second plea in Paul’s prayer is that God is our Father, “Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father.” I have already shown you what a mine and mountain of delightful consolation lies in the fact that the God who made the heavens and the earth, the omnipotent and unchangeable JEHOVAH, is “our Father.”
Do not think that this is a mere metaphor, that God is only set forth to us under the image of a father. There is no doubt that He is our Father, it is a matter of fact, if we are trusting His Son. “Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.” We have been begotten again by God, our new birth is from His power and His divine energy, we belong to His family, and shall never be cast out of it. Dear friends, what a plea this is in prayer! “My Father, wilt thou not comfort my heart? My Father, wilt thou let thy child despond? My Father, wilt thou not relieve me in the hour of my distress? Jesus Christ, my Lord Jesus Christ, do this for me, and great God, my Father, fail not to cheer my heart.”
Then the apostle goes on to remind us that God has loved us. Kindly look at the text, and remember it, “God, even our Father, which hath loved us.” You do not expect me to preach from those words, do you? “Which hath loved us.” I cannot comprehend this truth, I can very well understand God pitying us, as we pity a beggar in the streets, but God’s loving us always deprives me of the power to explain it. There was nothing in us to love, there was everything in us loathsome, and nothing lovable, yet the Lord loved us ere the world began, He has loved us without bound, so as to give His only-begotten Son to die for us. Is not that a powerful plea in prayer? “Lord, comfort my heart; stablish me in every good word and work, for thou hast loved me, therefore go on to love me. If You have given me Your love, surely You will not deny me the comforts of Your face, and the consolations of Your word.”
Then Paul adds, “Who hath loved us, and hath given us.” God has given us much, and all His past gifts are pleas for more gifts. Men do not plead so. The beggar in the street cannot say, “Give me a penny today because you gave me one yesterday,” else we might reply, “That is the reason why I should not give you anymore.”
But when dealing with God, this is a good plea. “O flowing Fountain, thou hast long been flowing, flow on still! O blessed Sun, thou didst shine yesterday, shine still today!” God loves us to make His past mercies arguments for obtaining future blessings, so the apostle says, “God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us.” But what has God given us? God has given us “everlasting consolation.”
Catch at that expression, for it reminds us of everlasting love, the everlasting covenant, the everlasting promises, everlasting redemption, and the everlasting heaven. Men nowadays clip this word “everlasting” round the edges, we do not, we take it as we find it. That which is everlasting lasts forever, be you assured of that. And God has given us consolation which will last us in life, and last us in death, and last us throughout eternity. Well, if He has given us “everlasting consolation,” we may well plead that He would graciously enable us to lay hold upon it, that our hearts may be comforted and cheered, and that we may be established in every good word and work.
More to come. May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
His Word Today 