6 Realities To Strengthen The Believer
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord,
1. You were loved by God.
Galatians 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
2. You were chosen for salvation.
2 Thessalonians 2:13b … because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
John 15:16: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit…
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
John 6:37
3. The Holy Spirit is taking the sanctification journey with you.
2 Thessalonians 2:13b … because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Sanctification
ἁγιασμός - hagiasmós: holiness, purification;
the effect of consecration; sanctification of heart and life.
What is sanctification?
The process by which the Holy Spirit makes you more like Christ.
4. Your faith is in the TRUTH.
Salvation is not received in passivity, but followed with activity.
Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;
How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
2 Corinthians 8:1-2
The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is the necessary confirmation that my faith is genuine.
2 Thessalonians 2:14 whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
5. God has called you and continues to call you.
Eph 1:17-18b
17 …that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling…
6. God is going to share His glory with us.
2 Thessalonians 2:14 whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph 1:18b-21
… and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.