2 Thess 2:15-17, So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 
	We have just concluded an intense consideration of the 1st chapter of 2 Thessalonians. We have seen that, although it is short in length, it is full to capacity with all the aspects of our Christian walk on this earth. We also noted that this is a prophetic work, as fully indicated in the reading of this 2nd chapter. As a reminder, we need to realize that prophecy, in scripture, is to be seen as the very practical application of God’s truth in our lives today. We are given a glimpse of that which is to come in order that we will understand, to some greater measure, how the Lord needs to affect our lives today. What we are shown is for the purpose of causing us to seek the Lord to accomplish whatever is necessary in us this day. 
We do not worry about the future. We know Who holds that in His hand and we trust Him to do that which is His will in accordance to His plan and purpose. In line with that knowledge and trust, we seek after the Lord to deal in our lives to bring us into greater and greater obedience to His will and His purpose. This is where we find ourselves as we reflect on the current passages of this chapter.
	The Apostle Paul commands his readers not to get caught up in speculation and the deceit of false teachers who had proclaimed that the day of Christ’s return had already happened. This was causing great strife in the church of Thessalonica, as they were afraid that they had missed it. Paul spends a good portion of this 2nd Chapter giving forth the prophecy of what must take place before the second coming of Christ. In doing so, it is for the purpose of the reader’s greater confidence in the Lord and the greater depth of their commitment to the life that they now have in Christ Jesus. 
Paul had already experienced this need within the early church. He faced it on his missionary journey to Cyprus, as recorded in Acts 13:6-12. And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for thus his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him, and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? "And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time." And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. 
	Paul is warning these Thessalonian Christians against allowing those false teachings to flourish in their midst. It is at this point that we read his directive, So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings  we passed on to you… It follows the earlier command of verse 3, Let no one in any way deceive you,… These are strong words that demand immediate commitment and obedience.  This highlights something that many in Christendom have not as yet approached in our walk in the Lord’s life. There is an extreme seriousness that is before us at this point, and it may well be time to give earnest focus to some absolute realities of what is involved in this life that we have in Christ.
	Immediately, even the words absolute reality, are attacked by the spirit of this age. We are taught that there is not a true black and white in life, that it is not as simple as good and bad. We try to broaden, what we call, the gray areas, in order to make a more comfortable place and a wider path for our feet to tread. As much as we try to fool ourselves, there is no wide and easy path in the Lord. As Jesus tells us in Matt 7:13+14, "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. 
As we approach these absolutes in God, over the course of how ever long it takes us, we will be clinging vitally to the Word of God. We need to do so with the intense prayer and desire that what God has for us as His people, will not be watered down and weakened in the same manner as we seek to live our lives. We look for ways in which we can be comfortable and find acceptance in the feeble and half-hearted manner in which we stand before God and before man. We try to get the best of both worlds, holding on to those things that are a part of the old nature, while seeking to gain greater measures of our new nature in Christ. 
	We must draw near to this entire life that we live in Christ with the utmost earnestness and seriousness and commitment. This is an area of crucial concern and consequence in the light of Christ. I approach this entire truth with dread and foreboding in the manner which I live before the Lord. To preach forth the matters of this gravity and obligation before the Lord puts us at such an abyss of severance that I do not really know if I have the courage, in Christ, to even approach it. I have been calling forth to the Lord with the prayer of Isaiah 6:5, Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined!, Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips;, For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
Even in that prayer, I question whether this is just me being pitiful, or do I really and absolutely desire for God to press that hot burning coal against these lips to deal with me to the extent necessary that I am entirely unto Him. I see visions of that abyss. I see just some of the cost of declaring His Word in the absolutes of Christ’s holiness. I have voiced the prayer and the statement that I don’t want anything of me, but all of thee in my dealings with Your people, Oh God. But how unconditional is that cry? There are things in my life that are not pleasing to the Lord, that have no place before Him, as is true in all our lives. I know it and He knows it, but I don’t know if I am absolutely prepared to face the expense required to give them up completely. 
	How easy it is to say this word, commitment. How many times we actually fool ourselves with our pseudo-commitment to the things of God. We play the part. We say the words. We truly know the concepts and the dogma, but do we have the courage to desire the absolute fullness of the blessing of God. If we do, it means that we can cling onto NOTHING of this age. There is no half-way house in the Lord. There is no compromise in Christ. It is either Christ or nothing. Has the Lord brought me, brought us, to that point of complete obligation to Him for this life, or are we still vacillating, choosing the things of God some of the time and the things of this world some of the time? 
	We have our time tested tricks and gimmicks that attempt to by-pass this full commitment. Among them are first; that we become complacent, not really caring one way or the other. Things are fine as long as there is no further effort required on our part. Second, does it really matter one way or the other? I know I am saved and I am trying to do the best I can, so what more do I need to do? Our third trick is, I have heard this all before. It didn’t really register then, why should it register now. Fourth, who cares anyway? I live my life and let others live their lives. If there is a problem, they will have to deal with it. Fifth, I already know this. The Lord is at work in my life, so what more is there for me to learn. Or sixth, among many others not delineated here, I have been a Christian for more than 40 years and you think that you can teach me anymore than I already know. Listen again to the Apostle Paul, Let no one in any way deceive you… this includes ourselves. We are the greatest deceivers in our lives. We hold onto all these reasons and excuses so that we do not have to face what is actually essential for the full blessing of God to be our life. 
	Ezra knew what was required in order to rebuild and to dedicate the temple of God that had been destroyed. Ezra 10:10+11, Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. Now, therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives." There was no manner of bringing into God, anything from this world. Even to the point of the wives that they had taken from among the nations. They were to be completely separated, severed from those alliances and completely and wholly dedicated to God and the things of God and the people of God.
	We know this from the New Testament, especially in 2 Cor 6:16-18 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty. 
There is a relationship that is ours as we separate ourselves from the things of this world and dedicate our entire beings to our Lord God Almighty. Notice in this charge, there is no area of compromise, nothing that gives exception, no extenuating circumstances. We are not even to touch anything that is unclean, least we forfeit that blessed family fellowship with God. The question before us, in my heart, is how much do we value that relationship with God? How much does it mean to be a child of God, a member of His family on this earth? Does it mean everything to us, with no exceptions, no gray areas, no concerns for the things of this earth, or is the attraction of this age so strong and so powerfully embedded in our hearts  that we are willing to forfeit rather than seek whole-heartedly after the fullness of our promised blessing in God?
	Please do not misunderstand. We can be Christians without the fullness of the blessing of God. We will know that He loves us and He will give us blessings in our lives. In Christ, we are saved from eternal damnation and we will find benefit in our limited fellowship with Him. He will even be blessed with us occasionally as we offer Him our sacrifices of love and praise on Sundays and at times during the week. But there is a full blessing, the true and complete blessing that was given to Abraham, passed down through the ages and generations, and fulfilled in Jesus Christ that can be ours, if we desire it with all our heart and mind and soul. It requires, however, all our heart and all our mind and all our soul. No area held back. No contingency plan. No dabbling with this age and the things of this age. No other source of power of life - only the Holy Spirit. No other lord of our lives - only the Lord Jesus Christ. 
	This is an absolute in Christ, a relationship that brooks no interference, no other domination, no other divestiture of our resources. There is no room for a casual sin, an addictive sin, a habit of behavior, a thought of lust or of self-exultation. There is no other power, no other focus, no avenue of self-satisfaction or earthly delight. It is Christ and Christ Alone. Period! Singlely, Eternally, Whole-heartedly, and Willingly. 
	As we read in Heb 4:12-16 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. 
There is nothing outside the realm of our relationship in Christ, if we choose Him, Alone. In Him, we find the mercy and the grace necessary to overcome all the trials and tribulations of this age. In Him, we find the strength of deliverance from all the addictions of this world that seem to have such relentless grips on our lives. Alcohol, drugs, pornography, lust for money, fame and power. We dare not try to give God any excuse, even those excuses with which we delude ourselves that we cannot help ourselves. Each time we lift the bottle, each time we view the trash, each time we seek after the glory of this age, we deliberately and decisively and forcefully declare that we prefer the things of this world to the blessing of God in Christ Jesus. We cannot expect God to fully bless us in our deliberate disobedience and lack of concern for Him and His holiness.
	This is the point of decision. This is the point of division. This is where there comes that separation, the separation that Christ encountered as recorded in John 6:61-66, But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? "What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before?  "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father." As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore. The only manner, in which we can have that full and complete and perfect relationship of oneness with and in the Son, is as the Father grants that relationship. He will not grant that perfect oneness to anyone who, in any way, places anything of this age above the glory of Jesus Christ. He will permit nothing to interfere with the full glorification of His Son, Who willingly gave His life in order to redeem men unto God. That perfect sacrifice is the means by which God’s blessing is to be poured out, in all His liberality, upon those, to whom the Son’s life is everything.
	As we prepare our hearts to go on with this consideration next week, Lord willing, let us hold each other up before the Lord of Hosts with the prayer that He will work in such measure as to make His life, this complete and full relationship in Christ, our one heart’s desire, individually and corporately. Let us stand together that the Lord will establish Himself Alone as the very core of our hearts and minds and souls, to such an extreme extent, that there will be nothing, absolutely nothing of this world that will hinder anyone of us from committing our everything to Him for His perfect and full blessing. The heart of Joshua 23:6-11, is to be the heart with which we choose to live before God and before man. Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, in order that you may not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. But you are to cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out great and strong nations from before you; and as for you, no man has stood before you to this day. One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you. So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God. Amen
It is in that diligent, urgent, unbending, and uncompromising heed to love the Lord Our God that we have our life in Christ, in Whose righteousness and guidance and holiness we now live. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. Amen

Today’s benediction is found in Ps 68:32-35, Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; Sing praises to the Lord, Selah. To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times; Behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice. Ascribe strength to God; His majesty is over Israel, And His strength is in the skies. O God, Thou art awesome from Thy sanctuary. The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people. Blessed be God! Amen