11/18/07 - Saints Triumphant - 2 Thess. 2:13-17

THE TIMELINE OF SALVATION
- Chosen from the beginning
- Called through the gospel
- Given glory in the end

As the prophet Jeremiah was about to start his ministry he was probably a little apprehensive. He was a fairly young man at the time and he knew what the people of Israel could be like. Jeremiah was a scared, he was frightened, he was discouraged about what might happen during his ministry. And so the Lord came to him and said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations… Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you” (Jer. 1:5,8). The Lord assured Jeremiah that he did not have to worry about what would happen in his life. First of all, because God had chosen him long before he was born, and secondly, the Lord promised to be with him and rescue him in the future. With those two bookends of the Lord’s love on one side and the Lord’s promise on the other, Jeremiah didn’t have to be discouraged about anything that would happen in between.
The Lord gives us this same kind of encouragement today in our sermon text. Through the words of the apostle Paul writing to the congregation in Thessalonica, the Lord lays out for us the timeline of our salvation. We have been chosen from the beginning. We are called to faith through the Gospel in our lives. And we will be given possession of his glory in the end. The Lord reveals these words to us for the same reason he spoke to Jeremiah: he wants to assure us that with his love and his power and his promises spanning the past, present, and future, there should be nothing in this brief and fleeting life of ours that should discourage us. Listen to these words of Paul, “From the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that is, belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel for the possession of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the timeline of our salvation. And the Lord has revealed it to us for our encouragement and our joy and our comfort.
Being chosen from the beginning is a comforting thought, isn’t it? You were chosen by God from the beginning to enjoy the triumphant life in heaven with all that saints of all times. But from the beginning of what? The beginning of creation? Well the book of Ephesians tells us that God “chose us in him before the creation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). So before this universe even existed God chose you. Before time began God specifically picked you. Talk about a timeline! When God chose you he did so before a timeline could even begin! God has chosen you from eternity for eternity. This was obviously long before you ever did anything good or bad. This was long before you were brought into this world. And so the Lord chose you not based on what you did or what you were going to do or what kind of person you were going to be; he chose you based on his mercy, on his love. There was no reason for him to choose you from eternity except that he wanted to do it.
When a husband and wife adopt a child from overseas, they oftentimes don’t see a picture of the child, they never meet the child until the day they pick him or her up as new parents. But if you would ask any one of those couples if they loved that child on that very first day, they would all say yes. Why would they say yes? They never saw the child, they never met the child, the child had done nothing to earn their love or motivate their love or prompt their love. The only reason those parents immediately loved that child is because they wanted to. They made a conscious decision to love that child and to call that child their own. That is what the Lord has done for you. He made a conscious decision to love you. From eternity. He chose you not because of anything in you, but because of the love in him.
God chose you. He also called you. The timeline of our salvation continued when we were called to faith through the gospel. And that’s the only way he calls people to faith. The gospel - the good news about what Jesus has done for us on the cross to save us from our sins - that is the only way God has promised to call us. Everything about our salvation must go through that funnel. There is no salvation without Christ, and the only way people can know about Christ is through the gospel. And understand that Scripture doesn’t say we have to make the decision or we have to choose to come to faith. No! It is very clear in the Bible that God chose you and he also called you. You are passive in this whole process. The Lord is the one who does all the work. From beginning to end and everything in between.
And that is exactly the reason why you know you have been chosen. That’s always a popular question: how can I be sure that I have been chosen? Well, do you believe that Jesus is your Savior? If you answer “yes” then you can be absolutely sure you have been chosen. Remember the timeline: God chooses and then he calls. Your faith is a guarantee that you have been chosen from eternity and will be in heaven for eternity. That’s not just my opinion or my insight. That’s precisely what the Word says in Ephesians chapter one. If you ever want to grasp the connection between God’s choosing from eternity and God’s calling to faith in time, read that gospel-packed portion of his Word at the beginning of the letter to the Ephesians.
The third and final point on our timeline of salvation today is right at the end. God chose you at the beginning, he called you through the gospel, and he will one day give you possession of his glory in heaven. The NIV says that we will “share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” What an experience that will be! To share, to take possession of the glory of the Lord himself! The glory that covered Mt. Sinai, the glory that filled the temple, the glory that destroyed sinners it its presence, the glory that will accompany him on Judgment Day… we will share in that glory because the Lord will give it to us.
Again we do nothing. We were chosen, we were called, and we will be given. We are nothing but recipients of God’s love in the past, his power through the Gospel in the present, and his promise of glory in the future. We have been given everything! And he doesn’t ask us to pay him back. He doesn’t expect us to work it off in any way. He simply wants us to enjoy these blessings, to thank him for what he has done for us on the cross and out of the tomb, and to praise his name for all that he has done.
And so with God’s love, power, and promises securing our salvation for all time and eternity, I am surprised at the way we act sometimes. Aren’t you? I am surprised at how often and in how many different ways we become discouraged in our lives. And about the most trivial of things! As each of us gets older we notice that our bodies and our physical health don’t get any better. And you lay in your bed feeling terrible or you limp or ache or throb and you become discouraged, don’t you? And by “discouraged” I mean that you lose focus, become upset, feel weighed down, you lack the hope and the joy and the comfort that you normally have. But why should that ever happen? What is your health for the short time you are on this earth compared to your salvation secured from eternity for eternity?
Maybe it’s your car that gets you discouraged. It never runs well, it always needs work, you’ve dropped hundreds and even thousands of dollars into it over the past few months. It is not dependable and it’s draining your budget. But what are car problems compared to your salvation secured from eternity for eternity? Maybe it’s your job that discourages you, or your boss or your coworkers or your neighbor or your homework or your spouse or your children or me or life in general. Some days are just bad days. Everything seems to go wrong and you’re in a bad mood the entire time. But why? Why should you ever be discouraged about anything? Why should you ever be in a bad mood? What are those things compared to the eternal joy already taken care of? And that isn’t just an unfortunate side-effect of our sinful nature, it’s in direct opposition to the Word! The Lord has told us that he has chosen us, called us, and has given us the promise of glory in heaven so that we would be comforted and at peace, so that we could be joyful and thankful at all times in every way. And so when we become discouraged, even about the smallest of things, we are actually saying, “Lord, I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but that’s not important to me right now. Your love and your power and your promises and all of the comfort they bring just aren’t enough to outweigh the frustration and stress I feel right now. I can’t be happy. I can’t be joyful. I can’t be thankful because this or that or him or her or this entire day isn’t turning out the way I want it to.”
And it’s so easy to have that attitude, isn’t it? Because your salvation isn’t tangible right now. You weren’t there when God chose you, you didn’t feel the power of the Holy Spirit working your heart through the gospel, you have yet to experience the glory of the Lord in heaven, and so it’s easy to forget! It’s easy to let the most important things slip from your mind in the heat of the moment. And the most trivial things, the things that shouldn’t matter at all suddenly are what matter the most to you at that time and in that place. That’s a sin against the very 1st Commandment. “You shall have no other gods.” How? Well, when you become discouraged you have forgotten about what God has done for you and have put your health or your vehicle or your job or your relationships above your relationship with God and the salvation he has won. The joy of eternity is overshadowed by the passing pleasures of what you want to happen right now. Discouragement isn’t just a fault or an imperfection; discouragement is anti-gospel.
Of course, that’s why the Lord did everything for us in the first place. Because he knew we would not be able to do it on our own. He knew we would get sidetracked. He knew we would forget. He knew we would get discouraged. Remember what Paul says in Romans, “All of sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We are not worthy, we cannot earn it, we will never deserve it. No matter how hard we try by ourselves we cannot reach the glory of the Lord on our own. And so God gave us the promise of sharing in his glory for all eternity. “He called you to this through [the] gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He saw what we would do. He saw who we would be. And so he fixed the problem before it ever started. He chose us from eternity despite of what would happen. He called us through the gospel no matter how hard we fight against it. He promises us glory in heaven regardless of how often we forget about that and get discouraged in this life. This is our God. This is our Lord. All merciful, ever loving, overflowing with patience.
And so “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” This blessing from the apostle Paul to you will help you on your way. Strive to remember God’s love and fall back on the encouragement he gives you through Scripture. Remember his mercy and review the timeline of your salvation. So that whatever happens, whatever troubles you run into, whatever discouraging things might occur in this life, they won’t affect you in the least. Because you will remember that you have been chosen from the beginning, you have been called through the Gospel, and you will be given possession of the glory of the Lord in Paradise forever. That is your salvation. That is what leads to eternal life. That is what makes this life worth living.
Amen.

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” - 2 Thess. 2:16-17