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What can God’s people do in a reprobate age?

2 Thessalonians 2:1-17

 

There is no question about the fact that we are living in a reprobate age. Ours is a generation under the judgment of God. The spirit of antichrist is so thick in this generation of will-worship religion that you can cut it with a knife! Read the first chapter of Romans and tell me that I am mistaken! The marks of divine judgment, — Spiritual Blindness (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12) — Moral Perversity (Romans 1:27-28), — Self-Serving Chaos and Rebellion (Romans 1:29-32), are evident throughout our society.

These things are the results of what the Spirit of God calls “will-worship,” putting man in the place of God (Colossians 2:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:4), freewill, works religion, religion that debases the character of God and exalts the dignity of man. The more thoroughly convinced men are that salvation depends upon them the more vile they become!

In the light of the fact that we live in such a dark, dark day, this question weighs heavily on my heart: What can I do? What should I do to serve my generation by the will of God? What can we do to serve God our Savior and the souls of eternity bound sinners in this apostate generation?

What can God’s people do in this reprobate age? If we could outlaw abortion, shut down the peddlers of pornography and smut, banish all drugs from our culture, and eradicate sodomites from the world, it would not move our generation one step closer to God. Our problem is much deeper than these things. These things are only the branches. The root is in the wicked heart of man. Nothing can deliver us from the judgment of God but the free and sovereign grace of God, electing grace, redeeming grace, regenerating grace.

Yet, there are some things we can and must do in this reprobate age. In these days of wholesale apostasy, in these days of spiritual darkness, famine, and utter perversion, we can give thanks to our God for his electing love by which we have been and are preserved from the delusions of freewill/works religion of antichrist (vv. 13-14).

We who have been taught of God must stand fast in the traditions, not in the traditions of religious custom and superstition, but in the traditions of Holy Scripture and gospel truth. Let others say and do what they will, for those of us who have experienced grace, hesitation, shifting, shirking, shrinking, evading, and compromise would be treason to the Son of God! We must stand fast in the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ (v. 15).

I will tell you something else we can do. We can pray, like Habakkuk of old. —— If God is pleased to work his works of grace in this age, he can. And if it is his purpose to do so, he will do so in response to the fervent prayers of his people. “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8). — We might well pray the prayer of Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3:2). “O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid. O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make known. In wrath remember mercy!” — There is yet a remnant, chosen of God and redeemed by Christ, who must be saved. Let us plead with God, putting him in remembrance of his covenant (Isaiah 43:26), that he might have mercy upon some, even in this Day of Judgment.

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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