The Refuge
As Paul closes out this letter of encouragement to the Thessalonians, he leaves them with this great assurance, it is God who calls them, and it is God who will faithfully preserve them to the end. They can rest in His sovereign pleasure, knowing that He loved them from before the foundation of the world, called them by His grace, and will sustain them until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is one gift in my life that is unparalleled by anything else, and that is the gift of grace which the Lord of Heaven bestowed upon me many years ago. He called me forth from the domain of darkness, awakened me to the depravity and ruin of my own life, and planted within me a steadfast love and new affections to know Him. I had given myself over to utter defilement, with my fist lifted toward the heavens as though my life were my own. But His grace reached me in my darkness. His Word spoke to me in my ruin, bringing my dead spirit to life and opening my eyes to see my poverty before Him. Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is infinite in love and power; Who is able to change the heart of the most corrupt sinner, of whom I am the foremost.
My prayer is that the Lord Himself has called you to such a great salvation. What does this mean? It means that He has drawn you to Himself with sweet cords of love; His irresistible grace has turned your once stubborn heart to long for Him and His truth. From before the foundation of the world, while you were still helpless, despairing, and dead in your sins, He loved you with a great love, a love too great to be conceived or fully expressed; a love unsought, unasked for, and wholly undeserved. This love became manifest to you as the Holy Spirit moved upon your barren heart, awakening you to see the salvation found only through the death and resurrection of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
O may the grace of God quicken your spirit to understand the depths of God’s great love, displayed when He sent His Son to die upon the cross for sinners. This love is so inconceivable and so great that even the most violent of all enemies, death itself, cannot stand in its way. Today, may your heart behold the Son of Man dying upon the tree. May you see the blood, the sweat, the tears, and the agony as His mortal body bore the wrath of God against sin. There upon the cross, the spotless Lamb of God suffered in the place of sinners, that those who believe in Him might have life through His death and resurrection.
God is faithful and is able to do far more than we could ever imagine. Take Manasseh for example. His life had become a horror of wickedness, and violence and death marked his reign as king of Judah. Because of his great rebellion, the Lord brought judgment upon him, and he was taken captive by the commanders of the king of Assyria and carried away to Babylon. Yet in the midst of his ruin, God awakened him. Manasseh humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and cried out to Him for mercy. The Lord heard his prayer, come to him in his darkness, and restored him again to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. The man who had once bowed before idols and had been responsible for the death of many was brought low before the holiness of God and came to know that the Lord alone is God.
Those of you who have not come to Christ, will you come today? Will you give Him all of your heart as He conforms your will to be in agreement with His? He will separate you from the false pleasures of this world. He will not leave you, but will carry on the work of purification until you are formed into the likeness of Christ. He will preserve your whole spirit and soul and body, blameless until He comes in all of His glory, taking you into His kingdom where there will be no more pain or suffering. He will not allow His saving grace to fail, nor will He abandon you to the dominion of sin. “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”