Living in an Unreasonable World

Living in an Unreasonable World June 7, 2020

2 Thessalonians 3:1 – 5

We live in interesting times, even perilous times. The Bible says that such times would come. But we often live with the expectation that the bad things mentioned for the future from the first century are still in the future. Surely they would not happen in our lifetime! Yet here we are, today, living in the middle of a global pandemic, a pestilence, as it is called in the Bible. We have been told to stay home. We’ve been told to practice social distancing. We’ve been told that churches, especially, cannot meet together, because that will cause people to get sick. But at the same time, we have been encouraged to gather in massive protests, by of all people, our chief medical officer! How unreasonable! How absurd! We are living in an unreasonable world, filled with wickedness.

2 Thessalonians 3:1 – 5

This has been a very challenging time for Christian churches. Many of us rent our meeting places, and have not been allowed to use them for months. Even those churches that own their facilities have not been meeting, due to government orders not allowing more than a handful of people to gather together in any one place. Yet today, with very restrictive orders in place for churches, the government is allowing, encouraging and even joining in massive protests, as Prime Minister Trudeau did this past week. We are living in a world of unreasonable and wicked men, people who are opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray for me, you pastor, and for pastors across this land, that the word of the Lord many have free course and be glorified.

I. Pray for Freedom to Proclaim the Gospel

  1. Pray that any obstacles to the proclaiming of the gospel would be removed.
  2. Pray that God’s word would glorified!
    1. The gospel is a glorious gospel! It is truth, freedom and life!
  3. Pray that the word of God would be able to be freely preached everywhere to the glory of God

II Pray for Pastors

  1. Pray that those who preach and teach the word of God would be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men (because not everyone has faith in Jesus Christ)
    1. The word rendered “unreasonable” is from the Greek word, (atopos) meaning, out of place; then absurd, unusual, strange; then improper, unreasonable, wicked. It is absurd to hinder the preaching of the gospel, the very Word of Life!
    2. It is absurd to be wicked. To be wicked is to be opposed to almighty God, our omnipotent Creator, who is the very source of life, itself!
  2. Enemies of the preaching of the gospel and those who cause trouble to the saints are unreasonable and wicked men.
    1. They oppose the teaching of the true gospel, oppose those who believe the true gospel, and thus oppose even Jesus Christ.
      1. These are those who belong to the one “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:” 2 Thessalonians 2:8 You cannot fight almighty God and win!
      2. These unreasonable and wicked men are those to whom God shall send “strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2Thessalonians 2:11,12

III. Unreasonable and Wicked

  1. It is unreasonable not to have faith in Jesus Christ
    1. It is unreasonable to place your trust for eternity in anyone or anything but Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
      1. It is unreasonable to trust that something came from nothing, rather than that everything came from an eternal, omnipotent, uncreated cause, almighty God! The Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 For there to be a beginning, there must be a cause; the cause cannot cause itself, so it must be eternal, infinite, outside of space and time. God fits all these criteria. It is absurd to believe that the thing created itself!
      2. It is strange and unreasonable logic to claim that the thing with design created itself by a series of fortuitous accidents without an intelligent designer! The Bible says, “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?” Isaiah 29:16
      3. It is completely unreasonable and wicked to believe that a man can save himself, creating his own destiny or reality without God. Such belief is idolatry, putting the created thing above its Creator!
  2. It is wicked not to have faith in Jesus Christ, whom God has declared is the ONLY way to be saved. Again, the Bible says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
    1. It is wicked to believe that a man who cannot even meet the standards of perfection necessary to live forever can save himself apart from God
      1. God says that ALL have sinned. Romans 3:23
      2. God says that ALL are under the penalty of death, because all have sinned from the very beginning. The Bible says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” Romans 5:12
      3. God says that no matter what a man does, his works are not good enough to save himself, but are instead wicked and filthy. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6 Wicked!
    2. It is wicked to ignore what God says about Himself.
      1. God says that those who choose to ignore God have no excuse, because everything He has made show intelligence and design, clearly declaring a wonderful and powerful Creator. The Bible says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” Romans 1:20
      2. God has always told mankind about Himself, through the prophets and the apostles, and even through His own Son, Jesus Christ. God “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” Hebrews 1:2
    3. It is wicked to refuse the salvation of God that He has given as a free gift to all who will put their faith in Jesus Christ, God’s own Son.
      1. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 It is wicked to reject such a wonderful gift!
      2. The Bible says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Ephesians 2:8 It is wicked to reject the grace of God
      3. It is wicked to turn down such a marvelously simple thing, the simple gift of salvation from a loving and almighty God. Salvation is simple! When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas what he had to do to be saved, they answered him, “… Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” Simple! Wicked to refuse! Unreasonable and wicked to turn down and oppose!
      4. It is very wicked to turn down a gift given by God! The Bible says that God, Himself, gave this gift. Jesus Christ the Son of God said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
        1. Jesus clearly said that it is wicked and condemned by God to turn down His gift. “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18 Wicked and unreasonable men!
    4. It is only because of a lack of faith in God that people are unreasonable and wicked
      1. Without God, people are corrupt in all their thinking. God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
      2. Without God, people do not have wisdom God says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10
      3. Without God, human beings are unreasonable and wicked.
  2. God is faithful, and no matter what powers might come against you, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, God Himself is faithful and will establish you in place in eternity. He will keep you from being overwhelmed by evil.
    1. The one who trusts God says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4
  3. It is reasonable and good to be confident that if you have truly put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have everlasting life that no one and nothing can take away.

Don’t fear unreasonable and wicked men. They are lost. Without Christ, the are under the condemnation of God, bound for hell and eternity in the lake of fire. If you’ve put your faith in Jesus Christ, if you believe that He died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day, your faith is reasonable and righteous! You have eternal life, will meet Jesus when he comes for us. In a moment, in a twinkling of the eye, you will be made like Him! Continue in your confidence, trusting God to keep you from evil and in His will. Pray for one another, that the word of God would be glorified and many more lost souls thereby saved.