Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1096
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17.
THE Thessalonians had been much disturbed by the predictions of different persons that the day of Christ was at hand. There always have been pretenders to prophetic knowledge who have fixed dates for the end of the world and, by their fanaticism, have driven many into lunatic asylums and disturbed the peace of others. Some of this band had worried the saints at Thessalonica. The Apostle, after beseeching them not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled by such follies, went on to beg them not to be deceived by forged letters or pretended prophets and then prayed for them that they might possess abiding consolation which would keep them calmly persevering in holiness.
His prayer is singularly emphatic. He cries to the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and to God, even our Father, to comfort their hearts, that by such consolations they may be so confirmed that nothing may cause them to decline from any holy enterprise or testimony. Perhaps, during their fright, some of them had ceased from service, reckoning it vain to go on with anything when the world was so near its end. Therefore Paul would have them calmed in spirit that they might diligently persevere in their Christian course. That which frightens us from duty cannot be a good thing—true comfort establishes us in every good word and work.
It is an ill wind which blows no one any good. We owe to the needless alarms of the Thessalonians this prayer, which, while it was useful for them, is also instructive for us. And I pray that while we look into it we may be led into deep thoughts of the love of God and not into thoughts only, but into a personal enjoyment of that love, so that this morning the love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. To hear of the love of God is sweet—to believe it most precious—but to enjoy it is Paradise below the skies! May God grant us a taste this morning.
I shall first call your earnest attention to the blessed fact recorded in our text, that “our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, loved us.” Then we will dwell upon the past manifestations of that love—“He has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace.” And then we shall dwell for a while upon the prayer which Paul based upon this love and its manifestation, “that God would comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.”
I. First, then, dear Brethren, let me ask your hearts, as well as your minds, to consider THIS GLORIOUS FACT—“Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, has loved us.” I cannot help repeating my frequent remark that the love of God is a theme more fit for the solitary contemplation of each person than for public utterance or explanation. It is to be felt, but it never can be uttered. Who can speak of love? In what language shall we sing its sweetness? No other word, nor set of words, can utter its meaning. You may go round about and make a long definition, but you have not defined it—and he who never felt his heart glow with it will remain an utter stranger to it—depict it as you may.
Love must be felt in the heart. It cannot be learned from a dictionary. “God has loved us.” I want you not so much to follow what I shall have to say upon that wonderful fact as to try and think over this thought for yourselves. God has loved us! Drink into that Truth of God! Take the Word, lay it under your tongue and let it dissolve like a wafer made with honey till it sweetens all your soul. God has loved us! Let me remark that it does not say, “He pitied us.” That would be true, for, “like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.” Pity is one degree below love and often leads to it, but it is not love—you may pity a person whom, apart from his sufferings, you would heartily dislike. You cannot endure the man, yet you are sorrowful that he should be so pained.
Nor does the text declare that God has had mercy upon us. I could comprehend that, yes, and bless God forever, because His mercy endures forever. It is, to my mind, quite understandable that the good and gracious God should be merciful towards His creatures—but it is a far greater thing that He should love them. Love is a feeling vastly more to be valued than mere mercy. Merciful is a man to his beast, but he does not love it. Merciful has many a man been to his enemies for whom he has had no degree of affection. But God does not merely pity us and have mercy upon us, He loves us! Neither can this word be bartered for that of benevolence. There is an aspect under which God is love to all His creatures because He is benevolent and wishes well towards all things that He has made, but Paul was not thinking of that when he said, “God has loved us, and given us everlasting consolation.”