Evidence of God's Righteousness

As you turn there, I will read verses 1 through 12. We will preach Lord willing through verses 1 through 10 of this opening of the letter.

A reminder that 1st and 2nd Thessalonians are among the earliest, if not the earliest, of Paul's writings.

And you recall also that Paul spent three Sabbaths, so as many as four weeks at the most, in Thessalonica before he moved with Timothy and Silas on down to Athens and from there to Corinth.

And from Corinth where he wrote this letter, the first letter, following Timothy's report back to him on how things were going in Thessalonica and some of the questions that they had.

So these are among the earliest of Paul's writings. 2nd Thessalonians coming, most scholars believe, just a few months after 1st

Thessalonians. So in very short order, we have this second letter. And it is going to cover many of the same themes that we see in 1st

Thessalonians. Eschatology, meaning end times, the Lord's return and what that's going to look like and what that's going to imply, the ramifications, the consequences of it, are more prevalent in 2nd

Thessalonians, though they were touched upon, albeit in some less detail, I would say, in 1st

Thessalonians. So these two letters really obviously go together. No doubt that they were written by the

Apostle Paul, written very early in his missionary career, and 2nd

Thessalonians written rather soon after 1st Thessalonians. So with that brief introduction, if you please stand for the reading of God's Word, I'll read 2nd

Thessalonians and verses 1 through 12. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.

To the church of the Thessalonians in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Grace to you and peace from God, our

Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness in faith, in all your persecutions, and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering, since indeed

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the

Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the

Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our

Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our

God and the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless the reading of his word.

And now, if it be his pleasure, the proclamation of his word. If you would please be seated. Let me begin with a question.

When I read those verses to you, what did you expect me to preach to you?

Or let me ask a different way. What did you hope I would explain to you?

Now, if we had thought bubbles with words in them, I would bet that what

I would see is thought bubbles coming up and say, explain to me about Jesus's return, and what it means to be eternally destroyed.

I want to know about what it means that Jesus Christ is coming with these angels, and to be glorified in his saints, his return.

How that's going to look. And perhaps, if you're willing to say so, or let that thought bubble tell me so, you'd say, and I also want to know when that's going to happen.

Because this life is hard. And I want the Lord Jesus Christ to come. We all want him to come.

Even so, come to the Lord Jesus is how the scripture even ends. But this is hard.

I'm a sojourner here. I'm a stranger here. Come, Lord Jesus. And I want you to tell me, pastor, preacher, explain to me how

I can know. So I just know how long this is going to last. My trials and my afflictions. Do any of you think that way?

And when I read this, do you want me to explain those things to you? Well, Lord willing, I will give some explanation of those amazing and somewhat hard to understand verses about the

Lord's return. But the apostle Paul's main point, might surprise you, is a little different than that.

I gave a short explanation, and then we're going to get on, and we're going to circle back to verse three, and speak about the afflictions that the

Thessalonians are enduring, and what those afflictions are really about, and how we can frame those afflictions that we suffer here in this world.

Be they medical afflictions that many of us suffer with, be they persecutions that many of us feel from our family or co -workers, the afflictions that this world brings upon us.

What do they mean? What are they about? I call this message

God's Righteous Judgment. It's from verse five.

We have three words to begin verse five. This is evidence in the original Greek. It's just one word, evidence.

And that word is in a form that we call the nominative, and we're not going to go into any more lecture than that.

Nominative simply meaning here's the subject of the sentence. Here's the subject of what follows.

In fact, that subject goes up. So we call it a genesis. It looks two ways. It looks up to the afflictions of verses three through five, and it looks down to the rest.

What is the point of this passage? What am I going to explain to you today? That your afflictions are evidence of God's righteous judgment.

This is what it says here. This is evidence. One word in the Greek. It's a noun. This is.

Those two words are supplied, properly supplied by our translators. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God.

Brethren, when you suffer afflictions, when you suffer hard things, you are suffering what is ultimately by God intended to show his righteous judgment.

His righteousness in judgment, we could say. The God of all the earth is the judge of all the earth.

And when we are persecuted, when we have difficulties because we are

Christian, because we stand true to Christ, just as it was with the

Thessalonians some couple thousand years ago, it's evidence of God's righteous judgment.

The first mention of these afflictions that the Thessalonians are going through is in verse three.

We ought to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you is increasing.

Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith, and here's the key, and in all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.

For what does the Apostle Paul give thanks? Because they are growing abundantly.

The prefix of that word abundantly is hyper. They're growing super abundantly. They're super growing in the face of the afflictions and trials.

Now, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that the word of God came to you, and you believed it in the midst of much affliction.

In other words, as they were hearing the gospel, and as the Holy Spirit was working in them to believe the gospel, they were hearing it and believing it in affliction, in the persecution, the beginning of those persecutions, which they are now in 2

Thessalonians still enduring. And Paul says that they're growing abundantly, super abundantly, super growing.

You know, it's the hard times that make us grow, are they not? Like the athlete or the bodybuilder, it's when you strain those muscles and you push until they hurt, and you eat the right things so that you have the right building blocks in your body to make more.

It's the strain and the effort and the hard times that lead to the growth. Now, I use that as an example because the apostle

Paul so often in other places uses the athletic metaphors to describe the

Christian life, growth in Christ, and what it means and the strain that it takes. We could also read, we're not going to read it now, but for your homework, if you want to read in Acts chapter 8, where you read of the persecutions that this same apostle who wrote this letter when he was not yet an apostle, but was still the

Pharisee Saul, was persecuting the church and persecuting the church horribly by his own later testimonies.

And in the midst of that persecution, what happened? Well, the people were dispersed out of Jerusalem, and as they were dispersed out of Jerusalem by these persecutions, by these afflictions, they proclaimed the gospel everywhere they went.

They gospelized everyone they saw. Why aren't you home in Jerusalem? I can't be in Jerusalem anymore.

They hate me there. They're going to kill me there. Why? Because I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're willing to give up your home and your family, maybe even your life for that?

Yes, let me tell you about him. And we read in Acts chapter 8 how the word of God multiplied in the midst of these afflictions.

And so the apostle Paul says here to the Thessalonians that he gives thanks to God, not because they're having afflictions, but because in the midst of the afflictions, they're growing super abundantly.

You'll recall from 1 Thessalonians how those three times he said, keep doing these things that you're doing that are good, even as you are doing.

And one of the references is to brotherly love in chapter 3, verse 7. Continue in brotherly love just as you are doing.

And apparently, I mean, obviously, clearly from the scripture, the persecutions and the afflictions could not shut off that spigot of brotherly love.

If you think of a faucet and the stopper is closed, that sink is filling with this beautiful characteristic, showing brotherly love to one another, growing abundantly in the image of the

Lord Jesus Christ. This is what he gives thanks for. Now, we're calling it evidence of God's righteous judgment.

And we will come to that, but I don't want you to miss that, yes, the afflictions that we endure are for our good, and the afflictions that we endure grow us in holiness and sanctification.

They're intended by God that way. 1 Peter 1 and verse 3 has much to say about this, and I'll read this, and I won't comment very much on it, but just to make sure that we understand that growing in the

Lord through affliction is a fully orbed kind of an activity. Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while it is necessary. You have been grieved by various trials.

These are the afflictions. These are the persecutions, same as the Thessalonians were enduring. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

So what does affliction do for us, for the Christian? Well, it grows us.

It burnishes us, as it were. It makes us shine the more. We always think of the metaphor that is so often used of the dross being removed.

Silver refined seven times, as the psalmist would say. And every time the silver cools, the dross, the detrius, would rise to the top and they take it off.

And the next time they heat it up, what is it? It's more pure. It's more silver.

And so, clearly, the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul elsewhere would agree with him 100 % as we are burnished, as we are going through the flames, the crucible of this world, and suffering those afflictions.

God means it for your good, no matter how hard they are. You're being refined, refined like silver seven times.

Your faith, which is more precious than gold, to an inheritance undefiled, undefilable, we could say.

It's all for our good. Do you suffer persecution? Do you suffer affliction in your own soul, from those outside of you, whatever it may be?

Know that God's working good in you. Know that as you suffer afflictions, and as you go through them by faith in Christ, as you look to his word and his spirit for the strength to endure, that God is and will grow you more and more, perhaps even abundantly, super growth, as we have for the

Thessalonians. This is why he boasts about them. Psalm 17 verse 2, excuse me, tells us, admonishes us to let others praise you.

So here's the Thessalonian church going through this, and in a praiseworthy way, and who praises them?

Do they write out and say, hey, Paul, see how good we're doing? No, not at all. Paul sees it. He hears about it from another emissary who went there, presumably

Timothy, who went a second time to Thessalonica to see how they're doing. And when he hears back this report, all

Paul can do is give thanks to God and boast about them. And certainly when the apostle

Paul boasted about them to the other churches, he didn't, you know, breathe on his fingernails saying, you know how we do this, see how good

I am? Certainly not. He says, look what God has done. Look what God is doing.

Do not be afraid of the persecutions and the trials and the sheer difficulty of living a

Christian life in this society around us. It's for your good.

It's a burnishing. It brings out more of Christ in us.

It grows us in his image and particularly back to 2 Thessalonians and the subject of all this.

What are those afflictions that are being brought upon them? Well, we're going to talk about how they're for your good.

But the apostle Paul more specifically to the Thessalonians tells us this is evidence of God's righteous judgment.

Do you understand that when you're being afflicted, setting aside for a moment the good that afflictions do and the strain that we go through and how that grows us, it makes us stronger in the

Lord. That's all true. But set that aside for a moment. It's also something else.

It's as if it were in an evidence in a courtroom. It is evidence of something. It is proof of something.

It's proof of God's righteous judgment. You think of Perry Mason when he walks up to the judge.

I want this entered exhibit A into evidence or whatever it is. Here's exhibit

A. What's exhibit A of God's righteous judgment? That you are suffering persecution.

That you are suffering afflictions. That all of us are. It proves

God's judgment. It's evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God.

What does it mean to be worthy of the kingdom of God? It's going to come up later in this letter where he says, live a life worthy of your calling.

Be worthy of that for which Christ has called you to be. Now, why are we worthy to stand before God?

Well, we're not. Why are we able to stand before God as we pray virtually every Sunday? Because of Christ.

We come before God on his merit because of his worth. We know that. And yet the apostle poets say, you need to become worthy.

And you become worthy. You prove that you're a kingdom citizen. You prove that God is working in you and through you by suffering through the afflictions.

It's evidence of the righteous judgment of God. And it accomplishes that. It shows our worth of being kingdom citizens.

It shows that we truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and will follow his ways no matter the difficulties we have to endure.

And in verse six, he goes on, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you.

Now, we rarely see that in this lifetime. And as we go on in this section of 2 Thessalonians, we're going to see you're not likely at all to see it in this lifetime.

That's not what the apostle Paul's point is. As we build up the afflictions, know that God knows them, that God keeps them as it were in a book, though a book's not mentioned here.

That's my little metaphor. That God knows them. He considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you.

And this is one way that your afflictions are evidence of God's righteous judgment. God will judge those who afflict us.

Eventually, God will make all things right in this world when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, which we have towards the end of this passage.

God considers it just, the judge of all the earth. He whose name in many ways is justice will repay with affliction those who afflict us and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us.

And when does this relief come? And here's that eschatological note. Here's that key that so many of you with those thought bubbles, if we indeed have them, would be saying, this is what

I want to know about. This is what I need to be confirmed in and come away with.

The Lord Jesus Christ returning. When does this relief come? Well, again, not likely in this time.

Vengeance is the Lord's. I will repay, which means not only that we do not gain vengeance for ourselves, as is easy to teach, but it means that we need to wait on the

Lord. Wait patiently on God. Knowing that the trials on the one hand are for a good, but knowing that the trials build up evidence of his righteous judgment.

Does that not make our trials and our afflictions somewhat easier to endure? At least to understand that they have purpose and a purpose that is beyond what we normally think.

Of course, it's growing us in the likeness of Christ. So we endure persecutions for his namesake. Yes, absolutely.

But also that we're building up evidence. We're, as it were, prosecuting attorneys and going to the judge with more and more exhibits that prove one thing over and over again with this building warehouse full of documents on this one point.

God's righteous judgment being shown in all this. He will grant relief, but when?

How hard it is to not take vengeance for ourselves. How hard it is to hold back our lips from giving a rebuke, from answering back in a harsh way.

You know, a long time ago when we were preaching through the book of Ephesians, it says, no corrupt word proceed from your mouth except what is good for necessary edification.

And one thing I said then, I think I've repeated it before and I'll say it again now. If we have to preface something we're saying with,

I'm just saying that you ought not be saying what you're about to be saying because you're usually taking revenge.

When we have to give that modifying factor, I'm just saying, no,

I'm just vengeancing myself. I'm just refusing to endure for Christ's sake.

I'm just going to answer in a way that he never did. And my patience with waiting for him to come and grant me my relief is gone.

So when we say, I'm just saying, we're denying everything that is said here, that Jesus Christ will come and he will make it right.

He says, to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.

There will come a time when Jesus Christ will return. He will come back as it says in Acts chapter one and verse eight, when the angel told the apostles, he will return, you'll see him return in the same way that he left.

He left on a cloud, he rose up to heaven, he's going to come back with the army of heaven behind him.

The Lord is coming, he will be revealed from heaven and that's when we get our relief. That's when we are relieved from all afflictions.

That's when every tear is wiped away. There's no more sorrow because the

Lord has come and made all things right. That's the new heavens and the new earth. He'll be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

God and on those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what will that be, brethren?

What's the main subject of this passage? That nominative that we started with that took us back up to verse three and explained those afflictions and now going through verses five through 10, it's evidence of God's righteous judgment.

That's the main point. That's the subject of everything that follows, that God's judgment is righteous and it will happen.

In flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our

Lord Jesus. There's some question whether those who do not know God or those who do not obey the gospel are one or two groups.

I take them as one group. I take them as one group because if you do not obey the gospel, you cannot know

God. Why do they not know God? That's the first phrase. Those who do not know God, why do they not know

God? Because they do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Jesus said so clearly,

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. He said in John chapter six that all who the

Father has given me will surely come to me. They will be, as it were, taken by the Holy Spirit and handed to the

Lord Jesus Christ. But there's only one way to know

God and that's by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's by faith in what he has done in his life, in his death, in his resurrection.

Those who do not know God do not know God because they do not obey the gospel of God. Do you know

God? So many people will say, yes, I know God. And then we have to probe a little bit.

We have to probe a lot, don't we? And finally, what do you mean by God? Do you mean

God with a capital G? And if you do, how are you defining God? Do you mean

God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Do you mean God, the triune

God, Father, Son, Spirit, all equally God, all equally omnipotent, all equally omniscient? That is

God, the eternal Father, God, the eternal Son, God, the eternal Spirit. God, the Son who became flesh and never ceased to be

God. Is that what you mean? Well, that's what the gospel is. Obey the gospel to know

God. You need to know Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ says you don't come to the Father except by faith in him.

And how do we know him? By faith that God alone can give. And what's the content?

What are the propositional truths? It's this gospel, it's to obey this gospel. God commands all men everywhere to repent and to believe this gospel.

And that is knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done in his life, death, and resurrection.

So then that's turned around by faith in Christ, by repentance for your sins, that you know

God by obeying the gospel. The apostle Paul says that God's righteous judgment is going to be shown when he brings vengeance upon those who do not know

God because they disobey the gospel. Inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

God do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is evidence of God's righteous judgment.

God is righteous and just. And how can it be just to cause such suffering?

We're speaking of eternal suffering here. Well, we can put this in very many ways. But in the simplest way, it sounds almost crass and I don't mean it that way, of course, because he's warned you.

It's like Micah 6, 8. He has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to love mercy and to act justly and to walk humbly with the

Lord your God. Now, it sounds like a very simple three -step way to sanctification and growth in Christ and such, and it is.

But there's another way to look at that. He has shown you because he's merciful. He's shown you by the word of the prophets.

He's shown you by putting and having his word through the prophets put in print in our own language.

So we can say because he's a beautiful, loving, caring God, he has shown you, oh man, what is good.

But we can look at it another way. He has shown you, oh man, what is good.

As a rebuke, how is it you disobey this gospel when he has shown you the heavens declare the glory of God.

The firmament shows forth his handiwork. The apostle Paul says in Romans 1 that what can be known of God can be seen of God just in that by looking at the heavens and the earth.

He has shown you, oh man, and therefore your disobedience, your disbelief, your rebellions are on your own account.

They are, in fact, we could call it exhibit B in a pile of evidence of God's righteous judgment.

He has shown you, oh man, what is good. And this is why he's righteous. This is why he inflicts vengeance to those who do not know

God. Because he's been righteous, because he's been merciful, because he has shown in the life and death of our

Lord Jesus Christ, because of the scripture that we have that tell of it.

He goes on and says, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence and from the glory of his might.

When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among those who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

Eternal punishment. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction.

We've spoken of this several times. It's an amazing term. When you think about it, what is eternal destruction?

It's eternally dying. It's like the flaming bush that Moses saw in Exodus chapter four.

He said, I need to go see this thing. This bush that is on fire, it's flaming. And yet what?

It's not consumed. The fire could still be burning today and that bush would not be consumed.

This is sort of what the apostle Paul is giving us here. This is the warning we can give to you who do not know the

Lord Jesus Christ because of your disobedience to the gospel. This is what awaits. This is exhibit

C, an evidence in this pile of evidence of God's righteous judgment. The punishment of eternal destruction.

The punishment of eternally dying away from the presence of the Lord, from the glory of his might.

I want to give the most serious warning to you who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. What the apostle

Paul says awaits you, God's righteous judgment upon you.

This is eternal suffering. And I believe that that eternal suffering is part of this evidence, this subject that the apostle

Paul has here back in verse three of God's righteous judgment. To glorify

God in our lives of holiness now, when they will marvel because faith in this life, be it ever so great, cannot convey to us the wonder of seeing

Jesus as he is. We're going to marvel because the evidence of God's righteous judgment on believer and unbeliever, on the righteous and on the wicked, on the good and the evil is going to be displayed in a way that will bring together all the strands, all the questions, all the hardships, all this will be overwhelmingly put on public display.

And the eternal destruction of the wicked, and the wicked are those who disobey the gospel, do not know

God because their disobedience to that gospel will be eternal evidence of God's righteous judgment.

And I believe there's a sense in which the sins for which you refuse now to repent will be ever before you.

And each time a frame of that movie, as it were, is passed before your eyes, you will know that God's judgment on you is righteous, that it is right, even as you suffer eternally this destruction.

God will be glorified in his saints and he'll be glorified in your destruction. If you do not believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ, if you do not put your faith in him. And while suffering, you will be eternally conceding

God's righteousness and the righteousness of his judgment that you are rightfully condemned.

I wanna give a couple of examples of this, both from scripture, both from the book of Luke. I want you to understand that this eternal destruction, that the

Apostle Paul speaks of, is a cognizant, live destruction that is eternal.

It's a reunification of the soul and the body. And we spoke about that earlier in 1

Thessalonians. We'll have a chance to come back to that later in this letter. But there's reunification of suffering, of soul and body, and cast into eternal suffering.

And during all that time, each moment of suffering, each sin remembered, evidence of God's righteous judgment.

And you will be agreeing in that suffering, it is deserved eternally.

Let me give my two examples of that. The first is the thief on the cross.

The thief on the cross next to Jesus Christ, he's dying the same horrible death as the innocent one next to him.

This is the one who rebuked the other thief, the other thief is calling out against Jesus and blaspheming him and torturing him with more words as he hung on the cross.

And this one, this thief on the cross, he says, do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong.

A sinner dying the same death that Jesus was, a death that any rational person would look at and say, that is not deserved by anyone.

Just execute him if he did something wrong. No need to torture him like that. Anyone would look at a cross and say that is not deserved.

And there's this condemned man dying this horrible death. And what is he doing?

He's justifying God's justice. Here's this man who's a thief condemned to death next to Jesus Christ.

He's justifying God's justice. He's saying, as it were, that God's righteousness is seen in this judgment.

He's saying this is evidence of the righteousness of God's judgment. Miserable sinner, his sin exposed to him by proximity to the sinless one who is

Jesus, his perfection unearthing the other man's corruptions.

And I say this because his words are forever recorded. And Jesus held those words in high regard and said, today you will be with me in paradise.

So this is a live man in history who, while suffering this horrible death, this taste of hell, this taste of what eternal destruction must be like as the

Romans kept you alive and suffering as long as they could. And what is he doing? He's justifying

God's justice. He's saying my suffering, he's calling out to the sea, saying our suffering is evidence of God's righteous judgment.

This is a live man in history, brethren, who did this. If you're suffering the eternal destruction of one who, when

Jesus Christ returns, does not know God because you disobey the gospel, what the thief confessed will be your eternal confession.

Except the thief, at some point, bowed his head and died when they broke his legs. You will not.

Second is the rich man Lazarus in Luke chapter 16. The rich man who daily walked mercilessly past poor

Lazarus as the dogs licked at his sores. Now, whether it's a parable, as some people say, or an actual account, as other peoples hold, the rich man ends up in Hades.

You recall this? He's in Hades and he looks up and he sees Abraham. And who's in Abraham's bosom but Lazarus, the one he had ignored for so long.

Excuse me while I turn there. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.

And at his gate laid a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw

Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out,

Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.

For I'm in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner bad things.

But now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. And besides all this between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross from there to us.

And he said, then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house. For I have five brothers so that he may warn them lest they also come to this place of torment.

Do you see this man in Hades? Whether it's a true account or a parable, because Jesus would not send something untrue or misleading.

And what is he doing in his suffering? He's seeing his sin. And in seeing his sin and calling out to Abraham, begging him to let

Lazarus go and warn his five remaining brothers. He's justifying God's judgment upon him.

This is evidence of God's righteous judgment. And of course he's, excuse me, let us warn them that they don't come to this place of torment.

But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. Let them hear the gospel.

Let you hear the gospel. Do you hear this gospel? Only by the gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ and faith in him can you know God and all others will justify

God's righteous judgment forever and ever, even as the rich man here in Luke chapter 16.

No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. He said to him, if they do not hear

Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone, even if someone rise from the dead.

No one will say, I don't deserve this. If you do not obey the gospel and know

God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in your suffering, you will not say,

I don't deserve this. I didn't do that much wrong. Every frame of sin be played before your eyes and every scream will be evidence of God's righteous judgment and your deserved eternal suffering.

Will you not come to the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you not believe this gospel and repent of your sin?

Because then those sins are upon Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 day one, he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin in order that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

In other words, your sins, instead of being replayed before you through eternity and each frame of that long, long movie being a piece of evidence of God's righteous judgment.

Instead of that, it was put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Your sin became his sin and he suffered for all of it.

I would plead with you to repent this day. I would beg of you to believe this gospel of salvation.

I would tell you, believe what the apostle Paul says here, that when the

Lord Jesus Christ returns, there is no more choice. There's no more affliction for us and there's eternal affliction for the rest.

Will you not believe this gospel? Will you not put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? The apostle

Paul gives thanks to God that the Thessalonians are bearing up under the afflictions and during the afflictions growing abundantly, we could say parenthetically, into the image of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Continuing in all the things they complimented in 1 Thessalonians and was so encouraged to see in them.

And all of this, if you are one who afflicts the Christian, what you're doing, you think you're being clever?

You think you're showing your sophistication? No, you're building up evidence as it were in a courtroom, confirming that God's judgment of you when that judgment comes is righteous.

And that same righteous God, that same God of all righteousness, by your faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, should you believe this gospel and repent, puts it on Jesus Christ.

Again, for we who are in the Lord Jesus Christ, your afflictions are for your good. They are burnishing you.

They're driving out the dross and they are building up evidence that God was righteous in what he put on the

Lord Jesus Christ and God is righteous in having given you the Holy Spirit and put you on the path to the image of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that we would all grow in him, that in our afflictions we would do, as the apostle

Paul says here, and just grow super abundantly as the hard times flex our muscles and build them up spiritually.

Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you again for the day that you've given us and for this time that we have together.

I pray, Father, that in all things the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified amongst us and that you,

Father, would be pleased to continue to grow us into his image for we ask all this in his name. Amen.