Untitled Sermon

love. This is my love. It's what I know.

He's a lamb. He's a spy. He's my love. My world. He's on.

This is my love.

He's a spy. Go. Sing verse 2 again. If your world's fallen, call upon his name. When my world Let's stand together. He's my love. He's a spy. We continue our study in the book of 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Father, as we're turning, Lord, and different things going on. It's exciting to see your hand opening doors and different ministries that are

coming forth. Different opportunities to minister the truth, to share our faith, to possibly lead others to Christ. Lord, that's a desire of our hearts. So bless as these new opportunities come to pass. Continue your blessing of the different ministries that are already going on and just let all the leaders in those ministries continue on faithfully and steadfastly,

Lord. Bless us now as we come into your word, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's look at, let's read these 18 verses in chapter 3. We're in the process of finishing up the book. Finally to chapter 3. And no, we won't finish it today. But let's read the 18 verses so we can keep them in context as we go through. Paul writes in verse 1, Finally, brothers, pray

for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as we are. rapidly and be honored just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will

continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you receive from us. For you yourselves know how to do it. And you know how to do it. We know how you ought to follow our example.

We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. Even when we were with you, we gave you this rule that if a man will not work, he shall not eat.

We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy. They are busy bodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. And as for you brothers, never tire of doing what is right. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him in order that he may feel

ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. As we finish

this up, as we finish up chapter 3, I urge you to remember the context in which it's been written. And anything in scripture that you read, matter of fact, anything that you read, you should always take it within the context in which it was written, especially the scriptures. As we look at this chapter, the thing I want you to remember is this is part of the section where Paul has been writing concerning the coming of the Lord. That's his emphasis. That's the emphasis

of both 1st and 2nd Thessalonians is the coming of Christ. And so as we come into this section in chapter 3, it's not disjointed. It's not taken away from the emphasis that Paul began writing about. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we study this, I want you to keep that in mind. Chapter 1, they were all, they've been concerned because since Paul's

visit, and he told them that the Lord was coming, and in 1st Thessalonians, he told them about the coming of the Lord that was going to happen before the day of the Lord, before the day of Christ, before the time of the tribulation. Now in time has passed, and persecution's gotten heavy. The Roman Empire's coming down hard, and the people have thought, boy, have we missed it? Have we missed the rapture?

On top of that, there's been a forgery, a letter that supposedly came from Paul that's been circulating as coming from him, and stating that very fact, that the rapture of the church has already happened. The day of the Lord has come, and they're in the midst of it. And so Paul writes this entire epistle to correct that. And he starts off in chapter 1, exhorting them not to get frustrated just because of circumstances. He says, don't let

the circumstances dictate how you act, how you respond, how you feel. Understand and grab onto the fact that God is working in the midst of those circumstances, that He's in control. And no matter how things seem to be, and how tough the persecution is, God is working to increase your faith, to grow your love for one another, and He said to make steadfast your perseverance, chapter 1. And those are the three things as we're coming down to the end. I mean, we're in

the last days, and the Lord's coming is very soon. Those are the things we need to keep in the proper perspective, not to let the circumstances frustrate us. Now, I had a very frustrating week, a very frustrating couple days this weekend, and it's very easy to become discouraged unless you literally take time to set your focus on the Lord and realize the things that Paul wrote in chapter 1. God, in the midst of this, is working to increase my faith, to grow my love for the brethren, and to make steadfast my perseverance, my hanging in there until the end.

And it's only as you take time to do that, to set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth, that you don't get frustrated. I mean, it's not easy being a Christian, in spite of what people say. It's a struggle. It's a battle. You're wrestling against an enemy who wants to pull your focus away from the Lord. And so, Paul writes in chapter 1, regardless of the circumstances,

don't get frustrated. God's working. And he's working in, and he's working through you. Chapter 2, he then wrote to correct their eschatology. Knowing that, that God was working, Paul said, okay, now, let's look at your eschatology. The day of the Lord hasn't come because three things have to happen first. First, there has to be the falling away. He said, the apostasia,

the departure, two-fold application to that, I believe. A departure from the faith, a move away from that that has been handed down, and we're going to talk about that heavy today. A moving away from the doctrine that has been delivered once for all to you, and then a second application of that, a departure. Before the last days come, before this day of the Lord comes, there has to be a departure.

And I believe that that is secondarily and vaguely related to the departure of the church. Before the day of the Lord comes, the church must depart. It will, there will be a departure from the mainstays of the Christian faith that have marked the church down through the century, down through the centuries. There will be a departure from that, an apostasy, a moving away from that faith, and at the same time, a departure of the true church, as the true church is removed. Then and only then can

the day of the Lord come, can this final time come, called the day of the Lord. Secondly, he says, and there must also be a removing of the one who hinders this son of lawlessness. And that is another emphasis on this removal of the church that is filled with the Holy Spirit. And that you are the only reason, you, as a believer, are the only reason things have not gone completely to hell. That's it. Only the believer

in this world is the only thing, with the Holy Spirit indwelling the church, is the only thing that keeps us going into total depravity. I mean, we're moving that way on a downslope in a handbasket quickly. But without the church, it would be totally that way. So, the Holy Spirit in you is hindering that from happening and he must be removed. That was one of the second things that Paul said.

And then, thirdly, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the man of lawlessness must be revealed. And that will happen as the falling away, the departure, the removal of the hinderer happens, then the son of perdition will be revealed. So, Paul seeks to correct the eschatology, this last day's understanding in chapter 2. Then we come to chapter 3. In chapter 3,

he asks them to pray for him, and he in turn prays for them. And so, this is a chapter, the beginning part of the chapter of prayer and actually that Paul is demonstrating as he says, verse 4, they have a confidence in the Lord. Paul says, we have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. And he prays, may the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and into Christ's perseverance. And we've dealt with that

over the last several weeks. This is all again dealing with the coming of the Lord. All of this is tied in together. So now, as we come in to this last section in chapter 3, your study Bibles may have a paragraph and then a heading, you know, a different heading like we're going into a different topic. He's going to emphasize something different than he's been emphasizing

in these first five verses, but it's not disjointed. It's not different. He's not saying like, you know, well, this is, I've been talking about Uncle George, and now we're going to talk about Aunt Lily. Something totally unrelated. He's talking about this still in regards to the fact of the coming of the Lord. That Jesus is coming soon. So as we look at these last verses, remember that it helps

keep you in proper perspective. That we continue on in this perseverance, in Christ's perseverance until the Lord's return. That we keep ourselves, that God direct us into the love of God. That that love of God just fill us, just overflow us as we're waiting for the Lord's return. Now, as we come to verse 6, Paul begins dealing with a serious problem that was happening

in the Thessalonian church. I have a feeling it was happening all over the church in the first century, but it wasn't restricted to the church of the first century. And I call it rapturitis. Rapturitis. See, if you're pre-tribulational, in other words, if you believe that Jesus is coming for his church before the tribulation, you know that the rapture of the church is going to happen

before the tribulation. If you believe in a rapture of the church, and you're pre-tribulational in that belief, then there's a real tendency to move into an attitude called, that I call, it's a fryism, rapturitis. And I believe Paul is writing to warn against that or to correct that. Rapturitis. What is rapturitis? Well, because they were expecting the Lord's return

at any moment. Because they were anticipating that he could come just at any instance, they had a problem with what the NIV here calls idleness. Verse 6, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle. Who is idle. NIV. If you're reading King James, I think they use disorderly there. They use it in

verse 6. In verse 7, For you know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle or disorderly when we were among you. Down in verse 11, they use it again. We hear that some among you are idle or disorderly. They are not busy. They are busybodies. So there's a problem with idleness or disorderliness. Back in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 14, same word, but in King James

it's called those who are unruly. Warn those among you who are unruly. But it's the same word. It's the same emphasis here. So in English we see the word idle. Idleness, disorderliness, and unruly. Idleness, the Greek word as defined in Thayer's lexicon defines this as of soldiers marching out of ranks and out of step. They are neglectful of duty. So to get an idea of what this

word is talking about, imagine a column of infantry marching. And you know, you try and get as precision as you can in step and all. And you've seen some of the precision drill teams and all. Imagine that kind of precision and then a bunch of goof-ups in the back kind of you know, strolling along out of step. It just makes the whole column look disorganized.

It makes everything even though you've got the front half is marching together, the back half is unruly or disorderly. That's what the word is implying. There's an unruliness or a disorderliness in this church regarding their waiting for the rapture. And in essence, in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 14 it's expounded upon that it means they were unruly. Unruly in word and deed.

They were making their own rules. They were making their own rules. So in other words, there were evidently several Thessalonians in this church who were just simply sitting around waiting for the rapture to happen. They weren't working. They just disengaged themselves. They weren't involved in their regular practical responsibilities of life. Like work, like carrying on

the evangelism of the Great Commission, they did not see any purpose in telling anybody else about the Lord. Why? You know, the Lord's coming soon. You know, He's going to be here any moment. What's the use? What's the use of doing anything? Jesus is coming soon anyhow. It was evidently this attitude that was permeating this church. And as I mentioned, it wasn't only

a problem of the first century church. It wasn't only a problem that they had during Paul's day. Even recently, we've read of different groups who, in the light of anticipating the Lord's return, have sold everything that they have and they all put on white robes and they go up on top of mountains and wait for the Lord to come back. They disengage. They pull themselves

away from the practical activity of work, from the practical activity of daily life and from the activity of propagating the gospel. They're not sharing with anybody anymore. They withdraw into their little holy huddle and separate themselves while they're waiting for the last days to occur, while they're waiting for the rapture of the church to occur. This has been a mark of several recent cults even. Jonestown.

That's what Jonestown was all about. The world is evil and we're the only ones that have the truth and we're waiting for the Lord to come so we'll separate ourselves. And we'll not only separate ourselves from this part of society we'll move to a whole other section of the world and wait for the church there wait for the Lord's coming there and things got so crazy and out of hand in that separation that you know the story they all ended up killing themselves, taking their own lives. Waco was the same kind of thing. A separation. Society

is evil and rather than seeing as the gospel says we're to go out into it as light and as salt and to tell people about Jesus and seek to bring them into the kingdom of God, they separated themselves in Waco. And they got over a million rounds of ammunition and they were holding out for Armageddon waiting for these last days to occur. Unruliness. People making up their own rules. Disorderly.

Out of step with the norm of the church. Not with what you basically think the church ought to be but what the word of God says the church should be doing. The function of the church according to the word of God. They were out of step with that. And I made mention a couple weeks ago that this has become almost epidemic. There have been other religious activities

in this country and around the world where people in these cult groups associated with last days, with the apocalypse, with the appearing of the Lord. There have been many suicides and even murder suicides as a result. So the governments of the world are concerned about this and even our government. I mentioned a couple weeks ago is establishing rules within the judicial system guidelines to define what a cult is. So

their idea is to hopefully stop this kind of stuff before it happens. And one of their determining factors that I mentioned was a church or a group that has an emphasis on last days events or the soon coming of the Lord or the soon coming of Armageddon is one of the marks of a cult. Now you can't honestly study scripture just like this verse by verse, chapter by chapter and not see that that's the bulk of the New Testament. I mean Jesus came fulfilling the prophecies.

of the Old Testament and he went and ascended to heaven and said he was coming again and then the rest of the New Testament is filled with the promises regarding his coming and the emphasis and the exhortation like in 2 Thessalonians to let the Lord grow your faith through the circumstances let your love continue to grow and persevere as you're waiting for the day of the Lord, as you're waiting for his coming. And so as we continue to talk about that I mean we have all the earmarks according to the federal government of being a cult because we're anticipating the Lord's return. We have an emphasis on that and there's a separation that's really coming in our society very soon. It's happening right now where all of this is concerned

and you need to know where you stand on it because we are not immune from this attitude that Paul's dealing with here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. We are not immune to rapturitis. But as we get into this let me just put a parenthesis here and warn you. Let me give you two cautions. Two cautions regarding these last days. Two different attitudes that I believe are

associated with these last days. Two different attitudes to be aware of, to be warned about and just to be aware of that you're not taken by surprise that you're not deceived concerning the days ahead. First of all, right now there is a major emphasis overall in the body of Christ on unity. There is a major emphasis in the body of Christ on unity, on coming together. And it sounds good.

I mean it sounds good. Let's all come together in Jesus. Let's all put aside denominational differences. Let's all put aside doctrinal differences and let's come together in the name of Jesus. Let's come together in Christ. And unity is emphasized but let me warn you, let me caution you it's a man-made unity. It's man seeking to bring about unity by exhorting us to put aside

doctrinal and denominational differences. Now let me, that's not scriptural. That's not a biblical idea that man generate that. That man put that together. You see we were simply told to love the Lord and go bring others into the kingdom. That's it. The commission, the great commission, you and I have not been called on to go out and bring the church together in unity. We have been

sent out by Jesus Christ to what? Make disciples, teaching them everything I have commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That's it. We have not been called as a church to go out and unify the church. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. And if the church is doing what it's called to do, if it's seeking to follow the Lord and love the Lord,

and go and bring people to Christ, the unity is automatic. It's a work of the Holy Spirit. When you seek to generate that on your own, when you seek to manufacture that kind of unity, the only way that we can do it from man's point of view is by saying that denominational differences and doctrinal differences are bad. And that we need to put those things down and come together in Christ.

Now let me give you a comparison as to why that's wrong. One of the analogies that God gives us in his word concerning the church is he calls it what? The body of Christ. And he goes to great lengths, Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians, he goes to great lengths to show that not all of us are the same part, right? We're different parts. And we should not feel any greater than or

any less than because we're a different part. Not everybody is an eye. Not everybody is a hand or a foot. And we should realize that each part is separate and distinct and very necessary Now as you realize that the body functions naturally Okay? I don't have to sit here and think, boy, you're a long way from the foot, you know? I need to bring down all these distances

and differences and bring us together. I don't have to do that. Why? Because if the body's functioning as the body should, the hand isn't concerned about the hand. The hand simply functions as being a part to minister to the whole. It doesn't have to be told, to come and be a part. I don't want to, we shouldn't have to all come under one tent. We are. We're already under the blood of Christ.

We're already one in Christ. We don't have to all come together for a unified time of prayer all the time. And this is what's going to bring us together. We don't all have to come together under promise keepers. And that's what's going to all bring us together under Christ is all the men coming together in promise keepers. Promise keepers has been good to ignite a fire in the hearts of

men. But the more, I just caution you and warn you that there's a real emphasis there, not so much on reaching out in evangelism to the unsaved with the gospel of Christ as there is an emphasis on unity. Unity. Let's bring the body of Christ together. And the idea there is that as you bring the body of Christ together and as it functions as one, it's going to reach the rest of the world

because of its unity. That's not taught here. We are taught simply to follow the Lord, to love one another, and to reach out to the lost with the gospel of Christ and the Holy Spirit. We are one in the spirit. Absolutely. We believe in the unity of the body and the spirit of Christ. Absolutely. And I am one with my other brethren of other denominations who function as a

separate part of the body. And when you get down to this unity at the cost of doctrine, you're in dangerous territory because that's the foundation of a one world church. And I believe that as we are in the last, that the church, needs to have, is not to sacrifice doctrine for the sake of unity. Because that's deception. That's deceitful. We have been entrusted with the doctrine.

It has been handed to us. We are to take the things that we have learned, the doctrine that we have learned, and impart those things to others. We are to faithfully guard that that's been entrusted to us. We've seen that in 1 Thessalonians, very intensely. And you see it elsewhere in Scripture. You don't compromise doctrine for unity. It's because of doctrine

and our love for the Lord that we are united. But we can be separate in our unity. We can have separate functions and be separate in our... It's only when one thinks that they're better than the other, or that the other is less than, or that the other is unnecessary, that you have dysfunction in the body. When I think, boy, it should be nice to have a belly button on my

hand, you know, instead of a thumb. Stupid thumb. I wish I were a belly button. No, that's wrong. Or everybody should be a belly button. You know, we all need to come together and be belly buttons for the Lord. That's when it's wrong. That's when it becomes disjointed. So watch out for this unity, at all costs. Unity at the expense of doctrine. 2 Thessalonians

chapter 2, he talked about the deception that was coming that would deceive even if possible the very elect. Now I believe that contextually, in context, it's talking specifically about the Jews because they are the elect of God scripturally. As you go through Scripture, wherever it talks about the elect, it's always referring to the Jews, to Israel. But secondary application, you are elect.

You have been chosen. Ephesians chapter 1, you have been chosen, elected by God. Romans chapter 8, as called by Him. So secondarily, I believe that there's a warning there to the church as well, because the stuff that's going on is very deceptive. Satan is an angel of light. Makes stuff sound good, but you've got to weigh it out regarding the Word of God. So that's

one of the attitudes to be cautioned about. Second attitude, and that attitude's dealt with, Paul deals with it to Timothy, Peter deals with it in 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude deals with it very heavily in Jude. Contend for the faith once entrusted to you. The second attitude is the one that Paul's talking about here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, and that's this area of rapturitis. There's going to be an

alternate attitude, this area of just almost a slothfulness. Why do anything? I mean, if you believe that the Lord's coming, and He's coming soon, why worry about anything? Let's go party, you know? Let's charge the cards up, and let's just go out and have a party, because the Lord's coming soon. And disengage, and why work? Well, let the church take care of us, you know? If we need something,

we'll just call on the church, and they'll take care of us. And Paul deals with this in this section. He deals with this area of idleness, of disorderliness, in this chapter. And I believe he admonishes us four ways, and that's what we're going to be looking at over the next couple of weeks, is these four admonishments regarding idleness. First of all, he's going to deal,

he's going to admonish us with the command of the Word of God, heeding the command of the Word of God in verse 6. Secondly, he's going to deal with us concerning idleness by using his own example in verses 7 through 10, using his own example in verses 7 through 10. Thirdly, he's going to deal with it in the need for the church, and this is where you have in your bulletins the title of this is loving one another. But the church should be dealing with this idleness through church discipline, through church discipline, and that's true love. Love

is discipline. The writer of Hebrews talks about that in chapter 12. You are loved by the Father, and you know that because he disciplines you. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. When we don't discipline our children, when we just let them go with no boundaries whatsoever, we are telling them we don't love them. Now the world teaches a different gospel. They say, if you love them, let them

go. Let them do what they want. Just let them have their own things. No boundaries at all. No discipline at all. Again, one of my greatest sources that I love to read is comics strips. I shared that last week. If you don't get a traveler for any other reason, and there are many reasons I know, but get it to read Walnut Cove. Walnut Cove is a cool comic. Top one right there.

You can get it opened up, read it, and just give it to somebody else. That's fine. If you don't want to read the rest of the travel. But read Walnut Cove. Last couple of weeks, he's been dealing with this idea of no discipline. A no discipline policy in a school. And he's dealing with it very satirically. A lot of satire in there. Very sarcastically. But he's

nailing it on the head. You know, the kid knows how to use this no discipline policy. Well, you're going to damage my psyche, you know. So discipline's out, and affirming is in. And so we affirm, and we look for the positive in everything. Listen. A child left to himself will die. A child left to himself ends in depravity. Discipline is necessary. Whom the Lord loves

he chastens. He disciplines. And so discipline is necessary. Discipline is necessary within the church. We're going to talk about that. And it's the responsibility of the church. Not just the pastor and the elders. It's the responsibility of all who call themselves the church. All of us are responsible for church discipline. All of us are responsible to help guard

against this idleness. Against this unruliness. And we'll see that in verses 11 through 15. And then fourthly, the fourth that admonishment we're going to look at is the enabling presence of God in verses 16 through 18. God's enabling presence with us helps admonish us regarding idleness. So let's begin today just by looking at the command of the Word of God

in verse 6. We're just going to look at one verse. I'm sorry. Well, we'll kind of look at a couple others, but mainly dealing with one verse. Paul says, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 6, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command

you, brothers. Now notice that word command. The major emphasis of 2 Thessalonians is the coming of the Lord. A secondary emphasis is Paul's prayers and his asking for prayer. And another secondary emphasis in this epistle is the command of the Word of God. The commands of the Word of God. Look back up in verse 4 here, just a second. Paul says, We have confidence in the Lord

that you are doing and will continue to do what? The things we command. Same word. Same word in the Greek. Verse 6. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers. Look down in verse 10. For even when we were with you, we gave you this, and it's NIV, it says rule. It's the same word for command. We gave you this command. If a man will not work,

he will not eat. Down in verse 11. We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy. They are busy bodies. Verse 12. Such people we command. So there are the commandments of the Word of God that help to keep us from idleness. And Paul is emphasizing these commands. He is commanding us concerning this idleness. Now the word command in the Greek means a military order that's

handed down from a superior officer to his subordinates. It's a military order handed down from a superior officer to his subordinates. And Paul considers the church an army. He illustrates the church often in Scripture as being an army. Ephesians chapter 6. You are to what? Put on the armor of God. You are to wield the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God

as you are as though you were in an army. Paul tells Timothy as a good soldier not to become engaged again in the things of the world but to stand firm as a good soldier. He talks about fighting the good fight. So the idea of this military term Satan himself gets strongholds and we, the weapons of our warfare he says are not carnal but are mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds. That's military language.

That's military terms that Paul is talking about. So Paul looks at the church. He sees the church descriptively as an army. And an army must obey orders or there is no order. If an army does not obey orders there is disorder. There is unruliness. It becomes disorderly. And we see this often the admonishment in Scripture. And so the army must obey the commands of its leader. And you say

well this is Paul. This is just a Paulism. This is Paul saying I want you to do that. Now look at verse 6. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I command you. Down in verse 12. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying in his stead. As if Christ were here I command you as being him. As being on authority from him. This is a command

Paul says from God. This isn't Paul's idea. Or this isn't an insignificant suggestion that we can take or leave. It's just as if Jesus himself were saying it. And he calls us to obedience. He calls us to obedience as unto the Lord. Now I know there are some who don't like that word. They look at it as legalism. Placing us under the law. Last week we looked at John chapter 15

verse 10. About how to keep yourself in the love of the Father. That you be in that love as I have been in that love. Jesus said. And this is how you remain in that love. By obeying the commands I have given you. This is how Jesus said in John chapter 8. That he knows that we love him if we keep his commands. If we're obedient to him. David a couple weeks ago when he taught mentioned that

obedience. Knowledge plus obedience equals joy. You know what to do and you're obedient to it. You have joy. When you know what's right and you fail to obey. You're going to have conflict. You're going to have disorderliness. You're going to have this idleness. Why? Because you're making your own rules. And so there has to be you have to come to the mindset.

That obedience to Christ isn't something awful. It's the key to joy. It's the real key to life. It's following what he commands. And there's a warning. That if you fail to heed the commands of the word of God. You can drift into this idleness. And so he says we command you. And what does he command us to do? The last half of verse 6. To keep away from every brother who is idle and who

does not live according to the teaching you receive from us. What does he mean keep away from every brother? Well hang on to that because we're going to talk about that later. We'll talk about that next time. The thing I want you to see here is every brother who is idle and who does not live how? According to the teaching that you receive from us. Maybe the translation

you're reading says who doesn't live according to the tradition. Who doesn't live according to our tradition. You say that's tradition. That's not the word of God. Well the word itself in the Greek means the transmission of a precept. The transmission of a precept. Now what's a precept? It's an action based on a certain belief. You have precepts in math and geometry. They're

something that is based on the understanding of something else. This is always true because it's based on this. Your postulates and all of that are based on this. That's what a precept is. It's an action based on a doctrine. And so Paul says to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the precepts you receive from us. You can't

get away from doctrine. You can't be a Christian and not have doctrine. If you set aside the doctrine you're no longer, you're not a brother. It's that simple. Because our lives in Christ you are a Christian based on the doctrine of salvation. Based on the doctrine of redemption. Based on the doctrine of propitiation. Based on the doctrine of reconciliation.

What the Bible teaches about those things. Not just because you think you are. Not just because you're born in a Christian town. Not just because you do good stuff. It's based upon the doctrine that's been entrusted to us. About who Jesus is and what he's done for us. And you can't set that aside. If you do it leads to idleness and Paul says keep away. Keep away from

every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching, to the doctrine, to the precepts that you have received from us. And here he's specifically referring to the precept concerning labor. The precept concerning labor. Working. Physical labor. It's that it's that down to that base foundation here regarding labor. Working. Now you say well that's really

insignificant isn't it? Nothing in here is insignificant. There's no insignificant part of that. There's no verse that's insignificant. There's no period or comma that's insignificant. Well what in the world does it have to do with me and the church today and laboring and working? Well let me throw something at you. Did you realize this precept of labor, this

precept of working has been handed down from the beginning. You can go back into Proverbs and you find admonitions concerning labor. Concerning work. Go to the ant you sluggard. Consider his ways. What does the writer of Proverbs want us to do with that? Have you ever thought about that or just like me it's kind of fun just reading it. Go to the ant you sluggard

and you think am I a sluggard? You know I don't want to be a slug. What's he asking? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever considered an ant? Look at that thing there. Nice. They're nice to consider if they're away from your house. But the next time you have an opportunity to watch an ant colony work watch them. Because I mean if you could get down

and have the perspective of an ant. I mean they move along the ground and about the only thing they can sense I think is the ant in front of them. Okay. They move along in lines and stuff and they come. Let's say they got this big loaf of bread or piece of bread that they're going to move and they come up there and this one ant. It's kind of like they're fiddling around with it and the bread moves you know

and you almost want to help them and take it and carry it over there. But each little ant will rip off a little piece and he'll start back and he'll go back to the hill and he'll go down in the hill and he'll deposit it wherever they deposit that stuff and then he comes back and he's in line again to get another little piece. And if you're the ant I mean it'd be real easy to look at this from a human ant perspective and say boy is this insignificant you know. What am I doing?

What possible purpose and function and blessing do I have to this colony because they're looking at a huge slice of bread and all I get is this little insignificant chunk. And often that's how we feel isn't it? What purpose do I have in society? What function do I have? I might as well just do nothing. What purpose? I mean I'm just a little small little speck in this

huge world and what significance what purpose do I have? But that ant if he keeps going they get that whole slice of bread in the hill finally. That's why God wants us to consider the ant because they keep working regardless of the perspective because they have the right attitude. Their function is to work and they're going to work and they'll work together and they'll get things done and God calls us to consider the ant.

But see labor, the idea of labor is way back even before that. Do you realize that labor was created before the fall? I think a lot of times as Christians we have an idea that work is part of the judgment of the fall. You know we have to labor because of sin. Adam fell and working is a result of that and it's a drudgery and all that but labor was instituted

before the fall of man. God created Adam, created Eve and put him in the garden to tend it and to work it and that was before the fall. Work was created by God for us intended for our joy and it was a pleasure to work. I see a lot of smiles. I did first service too. A pleasure to work. You know we live for retirement. I can't wait to quit working. Time to retire and kick

back. But God created you to work. He created you to have enjoyment and pleasure in labor but sin spoiled not the purpose it spoiled the results. It spoiled the pleasure of working. That's why when you get saved and you come to Christ there's the admonition to in whatever you do do it heartily how? It's unto the Lord and not unto man knowing that it's from him that you receive your reward.

As you do that the joy returns. The joy returns in your labor because you realize you have purpose and function in the Lord in this. It's not just to go and make a paycheck. It's to tell people about Jesus. It's to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ to steadfastness. It's a ministry. God gives you an opportunity to labor and as you do it heartily unto him the joy returns.

No matter what your particular area of labor is. You realize we'll work in heaven. There's going to be labor in heaven. Every time the curtain is pulled back in scripture and we see activity in heaven it's active. Angels flying around with wings over their eyes and wings over their feet and wings flapping around and they're crying holy holy holy bringing fire from the

coals. Coals of fire from the altar flying back and forth. You see the elders and all of the multitudes around the throne in Revelation and you see them casting crowns down and crying holy holy holy and moving in this attitude of worship. Worship is active before the Lord. You're going to be working the millennial kingdom. As the church as a Christian you have been called

not only to rule with Christ or not only to reign with him but to rule. That has an idea of authority given to you to rule to work in the kingdom. Jesus talked about the faithful servants and those that he entrusted with his goods and stuff. The master entrusted his servants with the goods and when he came back he received the goods back from his servants and they had taken and invested and gained more and Jesus said to them. He commended

each one of them except the last one who just kicked back and did nothing. Ties into this. He said to them he commended them and he said well done good and faithful servant because you have been faithful in the little things I will put you in charge of much. Some of the translations say in charge of many cities. So during the millennial kingdom they'll be work

they'll be labor. God created you to work. When you're not working you are joyless because you're not fulfilling a function for which God created you. That's why a lot of people when they retire they die quickly because their function one of the purposes that God created them for is over and they find no purpose in the rest of life. And they just kind of fold up and die.

The Jews honored honest labor. They required all their rabbis to have a trade. Jesus was a carpenter. Paul was a tent maker. They could not be a rabbi if they were not schooled in a trade and I think if you're wanting to be involved in a ministry, in full time ministry somewhere, it is good for you I know there are a lot of people here in ministry that are involved

in ministry and they work a full time vocational job and you'd love to just say boy we want to bring you on staff and pay you so you don't have to work outside of the ministry anymore because they're so necessary they're so needed and to be able to have more time to do that it'd be great but I think it's great for everybody involved in ministry to have another occupation for a season at least. I drove a school bus for eight years when I came into pastoral ministry to supplement my income and I benefited from that in more ways than one. It's necessary. Labor is good. Work is good. And the

Jews honored honest labor. The Greeks on the other hand despised manual labor. We talked about this in 1 Thessalonians. The Greeks despised manual labor and they left it to their slaves. And so because of this Greek influence of a negative attitude towards labor plus their wrong, the Thessalonians wrong ideas about the Lord's return it led them to this idleness

or to this unruliness. And this attitude was obviously affecting other believers because Paul had referred to it in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and 5 he told them to warn those who are unruly. Warn those who are idle. Tell them it's not from the Lord. Warn them because there's some judgment coming against this area of idleness, against unruliness.

But it evidently didn't stop it because it's evidently still a problem and Paul is writing here in this epistle hopefully to help correct that. Now Paul understood that there would be special conditions affecting people's ability to work. Physical handicaps, different family situations and all that would arise where work was concerned. And I think that's why he wrote what he wrote in verse 10. Look at verse 10 real quick.

He says, For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule, if a man will, not work, he shall not eat. Let me read that again. Even while we were there with you, we gave you this rule, if a man will not. If a man is not willing. If he's not willing to work, he shall not eat. You see evidently there were many who were able, but they weren't willing. And that's true

with a lot of our Christian walk. You have to be willing. There has to be a desire to follow. A desire to be obedient. And Paul said many were evidently able, but they weren't willing to work. And this idleness caused an unruliness or a disorderliness. And it affected others. Sin always affects other people. And sin is never static. In other words, sin doesn't just stay there, but

it grows until it finally consumes all that it's infecting. That's why Jesus calls us to deal radically with our sin. Now each of us probably has an area where Satan gets a little toehold in every now and then. Thought life, actions, attitudes, habits. Maybe the words you say, some of the things that you do. And unless we seek to deal with those, unless we seek to identify those,

confess those as sin, and forsake them, it will grow. That's why pornography is so bad. And it affects men more than it does women. And it's so bad because those thoughts are there. Once you see it, it's there. And you can call it up at any time. And Satan gets such a foothold with that, guys. And it's not just static. It won't just sit there and you call up a picture every now and then.

It begins to permeate your entire thinking. Why is abuse so high? Why is sexual abuse so high? Why is the abuse of women so high right now? It's because that particular area of sin has gone unchecked. And men abuse women. Because that's how it's consumed them. And they think that's a lot of what they want. You can't let the sin just be there because it grows.

Idleness grows. This disorderliness grows. And it affects other people. And he says in verse 11, which we'll get to in a week or two, it becomes, this idleness turns into a busybody-ness. If one is idle, he says, he eventually becomes a busybody. Now what is that? And could I be one? And if we have busybodies, what do we do with them? And is it really that important? Because to us, see, you know,

we've got the idea of busybody. I mean, initially it just sounds like a gossip or something. And if I gave you two words, a murderer and a busybody, well, in your own mind, in your own way of thinking and relating, you'd go, murderer, busybody. Murderer, important, big thing, big sin, busybody, eh. And yet it evidently was destructive enough that it could destroy

an entire church. All because of idleness. All because of this wrong attitude at the time close to the Lord's return, where that emphasis is strong. We're not immune to it. What is it? Am I one? Could I be one? How do I deal with it so that I'm not? We'll talk about that in the next couple weeks. Read through this section. Pray about it. Ask God to show you different things concerning this.

Ask God to just show you, am I being idle, Lord? Am I willing to be obedient to you? Am I willing to follow the commands that you've given me? I know I'm able to, Lord, but am I willing? That's a key. That's a key to your Christian walk. That's a key to your steadfastness. That's a key to your joy. Let's stand together.

We're going to have a time of prayer this afternoon. After we have our agape feast. But if you need prayer right now, maybe you can't stay and you just need prayer or something. The brothers will come forward and they'll be available for prayer. And if you need prayer for healing or prayer for a situation you're dealing with or prayer for wisdom, you need whatever. Prayer for the brothers

are going to be here to pray with you. And if you can, if you can come back, be ready to eat about 1230, we'd love to have you. And then be with us for Koinonia at 130. It would be a blessing. Father, I thank you.