READ 2 Thessalonians 3:3

In verse 3 there is a wonderful promise.  Claim it and make it your own. “But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.” Isn’t that a fantastic promise?  Think about this, though. Promises don’t mean much unless you claim them and make them your own.

1.  Know that God is absolutely faithful.

In the Greek text, the word, faithful, comes first.  Faithful is the Lord.  The emphasis is upon what God is like.  The God that we serve is faithful. He is a God who is absolutely, utterly dependable.

I have found God faithful in my life.  Have you?   The Bible says in II Timothy 2:13, “If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.”  God is a faithful God.  He can be nothing else but faithful.  You can depend upon God. 

I Thessalonians 5:24 says, "Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it."  He is faithful.  

Listen to Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”  Our God is faithful.  You can depend on the Lord.  He will never let you down. 

Sometimes people will let you down.  In fact, people who love you, even your own family, will sometimes let you down.  Friends will sometimes disappoint you.  They won't be faithful.  People are frail.  People are weak. At our best, none of us are as faithful as we ought to be.  But Paul is not commending you to your friends or family, he is commending you to your Heavenly Father, and faithful is the Lord!   

2.  What Does God Promise?

A.  God promises to stablish you.  "Who shall stablish you..." 

The word, stablish, means to absolutely strengthen.  It means that He will provide all the support that you need.  He is the faithful One, and the One who establishes you.  That's what He does on the inside. He makes you strong inwardly.  

B.  God promises to guard you. 

He also does something on the outside.  "…He will keep you from evil (the evil one).”

God promises to protect you.  He promises to take care of you.  He promises to keep you from the evil one, who is Satan.  The devil is real.  The Bible says there is a devil -- a personal devil.  The Bible teaches he is the evil one. He wants to do harm to God's people, but the Bible says that God is faithful and that He will stablish you and guard you from the evil one. 

In the Old Testament, Satan came into the presence of God, and God said to the devil, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” (Job 1:8). 

Satan said, “Doth Job fear God for nought?  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?”  

Did you know you have a hedge around you?  That's what the Bible says.  You are hedged around.  

What happened to Job?  Satan asked permission to touch Job.  This is one of the mysterious providences of God, the overall work of God, some of the strange work of God that we may not always understand. But the point is that God has a hedge around you, and the only way Satan can get to you is that he has to ask permission from God to get inside that hedge.  

That is what happened to Simon Peter.  Jesus said, “…Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31). Satan had to get permission.  So, for reasons that will ultimately only be known in eternity, God allowed Satan within that hedge.  

Sometimes the Lord allows the devil to sift us or allows the devil to get into the hedge because there are things in our lives that ought not be there, and He wants to get rid of it.  The fact of the matter is that Satan is actually God's garbage man.  God lets the garbage man in to sometimes take stuff out of our lives that ought not be there.   

But there's another way Satan can touch you.  There's something you can do.  You can get outside God's hedge of protection.  Ecclesiastes 10:8, “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” 

There's a sense in which God keeps us and then there is a sense in which we keep ourselves.  The Bible says we are to keep ourselves in the love of God.   If you break the hedge and go outside of God's protective care, the Bible says a serpent will bite you.  

The good news is that if you will stay in God's protective care, only by permission can the devil touch you. What a wonderful promise. 

Claim this promise for yourself, "But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil."  What a promise!  God can be completely depended upon!

Your Friend and HIS,

Pastor Abbott

MEDITATIONS

1.  How does God’s faithfulness help us to embrace His promises?

2.  Is it possible for God to fail you or me?  Explain.

3.  How does God use trials to sift sin out of our lives?

4.  Explain God’s hedge of protection as you understand it.  Is it possible to step outside that hedge?  Explain.