Jesus Comforts and Establishes Our Hearts
4/10 Reading Portions: Leviticus 14; Psalm 17; Proverbs 28; 2 Thessalonians 2
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4/10 Reading Portions: Leviticus 14; Psalm 17; Proverbs 28; 2 Thessalonians 2
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father,
who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
COMFORT
There has been in the last several decades a movement among some churches to go out of the way to make unbelievers feel “comfortable” in church. Their attempts at adjusting worship services to look so much like the world to attract the “unchurched” has been justified in their minds because most of these lost ministers have heard the gospel message, but do not themselves know the Gospel Master. They do not know that true love is eternal because Jesus Christ, who loved us, is love (1 Jn 4:8), for God is eternal (Rev 1:8). They do not know true comfort because Jesus, who gave us eternal comfort, is the God of all comfort (2 Cor 1:3). They do not know the truth and joy of good hope through grace because Jesus is the only hope for a lost and dying world (Rom 15:13), for He alone is good (Mark 10:18). Only the gospel-saved believer may know eternal comfort. It’s because we know the God of all comfort, the Lord Jesus Christ. Though the world may crash around us, we have comfort because we have Christ. Though we suffer hatred from the world, tribulation in the world, and persecution by the world, we know comfort because we know Christ Jesus. Even if Satan comes “with all power and false signs and wonders” (2 Thess 2:9), eternal comfort clings to us like a warm garment because we have put on the Lord Jesus Christ and are clothed with His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21). And though the wicked will be deceived by “a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false” (2 Thess 2:11), our hearts are comforted in, by, and through Jesus Christ, as He establishes our hearts in every good work and word for His glory. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
The fleshly comforts that attract
The lost and worldly dead,
They’re vanity, and that’s a fact,
Apart from Christ who died and bled.