God-centered Resolve (2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 Jeff Kliewer)

We are gonna be treated this morning. I wanted to say good morning as people filter in and find a seat. While you're doing that, one other announcement that I wanna make real quick is if you don't know, I'm gonna keep reminding you until I have everybody here on our church center app.

That is gonna give you everything you need to know about our church. All the events, the signups, because that spring picnic's coming up, we need to have you sign up for that. Different signups that you can give through the app.

All the information about small groups and Bible studies are happening throughout the week. All that information is at the church center app. You can download the app, search for Cornerstone Church, put a little bit of information in, and then you're in.

So feel free. Jeff's sermon notes are also up there. So we are excited to hear from the Stones Cry Out this morning. They're gonna begin our worship service.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8, 31. Thank you so much. What a great job you guys did.

Amazing. Amen, God. I could see some of the moms singing with the kids. I think you've heard them practice this at home. To be able to give these kids the gospel message in song is something that I think they can carry with them during the day so effectively.

And Kathy Appleton, thanks so much. Did you guys see the little piano player that walked out? I think it was the second song was. No, you're not a little piano player. Psalms says, but the Lord of hosts, him shall you honor as holy.

I think how appropriate that passage is for what we just saw for the pure faith that you can see for children when they sing praise to the Lord. I have some announcements I want to bring to your attention.

Next Sunday, after the second service, we are having a fellowship luncheon. Please stick around, plan to stick around. Some of the details will be in Jeff's Pastogram, but there will be food, a certain amount of beverages.

You can bring stuff. But please come after second service, probably around 12-ish, I guess we'll start, depending on how long pastor preaches, right? Okay. This is a little bit of an advanced warning, but I want the women to know about this, to be planning for it, maybe to be signing up for it.

The women had just gone out to Sight and Sound and saw the David. And I don't know if that's what drove them to this, but the women are gonna have an outing in about three weeks on May 14th. They're gonna go back out to Lancaster and they're gonna tour the Biblical Tabernacle, an amazing opportunity for the women.

There'll be a sign-up, I guess, on the app. See, I can say app, okay. There'll be a sign-up on the app, Jeff's Pastogram will give you direction. Women plan for that. One of our missionary families is coming into town in a couple of weeks, on May 8th, so please come back for sure on that Sunday.

They're gonna give us a brief overview of their ministry in Portugal, and continue to think about, pray about our baptism in June. For those of you who desire it, we are gonna hold a class late May to prepare you for it.

Let myself, Pastor Jeff, know, for those of you who are not necessarily going to be baptized, wherever, we still haven't decided the venue, but come and celebrate with us. We're considering having a little bit of a hymn sing along with it, so it'll be a time of rejoicing, but rejoicing with those who are proclaiming their faith in baptism.

Please come back tonight for our prayer meeting. We're getting a really good group turning out. It's an awesome time in prayer, six o 'clock here at the building. The men have the apologetics class, the women's the precepts, growing deeper in their faith and in their spiritual walk, who are small groups, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

I do need to make an announcement, or to let you folks know, that we have been praying for a couple of weeks now for Fred Murray, who had a horrific accident on a bicycle. Friday, he went home. He went home to the Lord, and so he's in a glorified body now.

Bonnie will be going through that period of time, our prayers for her support, but also for the entire family who may not know Christ, that even through this period of time, they may have understood the importance of making that decision, that all-important decision.

Prayer for the Moore Family, Evangelism, and Church Discernment

Let's turn to prayer. Father God, we lift the Moore family to you, rejoicing that Fred is completely healed, and he's with glory, he's in glory. For Bonnie, who knows that her life mate isn't with her now, but is in a much better place, we support her, Lord, in that time of grief, and for the entire family, we pray that through this, there would be a way that they would hear the true gospel, and also turn, so we lift that family to you, Lord.

Father, this past week, we had so many come here, were invited, heard the word. Pray, Father, that that seed that was planted would have grown into a plant of faith. We pray, Father, that they heard, that they professed.

We pray, Lord, that there would be continuing support for them. Pray for those who made the invitation to neighbors, friends, family, coworkers, that they would have, Lord, they would feel the need to follow up and to encourage, and if there is new faith, to disciple them.

Lord, we are in awe of the blessings that you have given us here at this local church here in Mount Laurel. But, Father, we do pray for wisdom and for discernment. We pray for love and compassion. As we're increasing in numbers, we give you the glory, God, it's for your kingdom, but we pray, Father, that we would be always discerning, aware that the evil one will send wolves in sheep's clothing.

So, Father, we ask for your wisdom and discernment, but Lord, we need your love, your compassion. We pray for our missionaries who are out on the field facing these issues every day. Protect them, their word.

And for those, Lord, within our fellowship that need your prayer support for sickness, illness, for bereavement, Lord, we call on you. Lord, we think of those throughout the world that are suffering physical conflict or faith persecution, protection, Lord.

And for those who are believers who are being persecuted, we pray, Lord, for your Holy Spirit to bring them into a realm of endurance and standing true to your faith. And so, Lord, this morning now, as Pastor Jeff will come and talk to us about endurance out of 2 Thessalonians, anoint him with your Holy Spirit to speak the words and prepare our hearts.

We pray these things in your name, amen. Stand with me, please, as we sing.

It says in the chorus, the one that never changes, the one who rose in power, the one who reigns forever. And we can sing to him that one true God because he redeemed us. We celebrated his resurrection last week, and that should be an exciting time every week for us, that he has risen from the dead.

Let's sing together. The true of God and son of man Who in tempted righteous brings us back to life again First the curse, then rising crush the servant's head The true of sacrifice of his life laid with failure Father's joy was provide majesty

Pastor Jeff, to come and open God's word and speak what the Holy Spirit has given him to speak on, I hope this next song is your prayer. I hope the Lord opens your eyes and opens your hearts to the things that he has in store for you.

As he opens his holy word, we know that this is the truth planted deep inside of us. We just have eyes and ears to open, to listen to the message, not from him, but from the Holy Spirit, from God and God alone.

Today in our eyes

A Prayer for Rootedness, Perseverance, and Faithful Obedience

So Father, this morning we want to open by, Lord, make us rooted and grounded. Lord, having done all to stand, stand firm thus in the Lord, not carried away with the error of lawless people. We will reap if we do not give up.

Love bears all things, endures all things. Suffering produces endurance. Keep alert with all perseverance. The one who endures to the end will be saved. Lord, make us steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

In Jesus' name, amen. The church has been persecuted throughout the 2 ,000 years of our existence, but it often comes in waves. So in the Roman Empire, there were 10 great waves of persecution, culminating in the persecution under Diocletian at the start of the 4th century.

Around the time of the Reformation, there was another great outbreaking of persecution against the church. In the 1550s in particular, when Bloody Mary became the Queen of England, there was a bishop in London whose name was Edmund Bonner.

He was a bishop from 1539 to 49, and then again from 53 to 59. And he was violently opposed to the Protestant Church. At that time, there was a pastor whose name was John Ruff, and he led a church underground.

Now, that doesn't mean physically under the earth, but in hiding, they would meet, and often the Roman Catholic Church would capture some of them. In fact, in all, 22 of his church were captured and tortured.

Here's the story of three of them. One was Thomas Hinshaw, only a young teenager, but so zealous for the gospel, preaching in the streets that he himself was captured and brought and put in the stocks and kept overnight by the bishop.

The Bishop Bonner then sent his deacon to try to convince him to stop preaching this Protestant gospel and to return to the Roman Papist Church, but he refused to do that. And so in a fit of rage, Bonner took him out into the garden and caused him to kneel down in front of a bench, and he took a rod made of birch wood and beat him mercilessly, so long until he ran out of breath, not the man being beaten, but the man doing the beating.

The young man, Thomas Hinshaw, was unflinching in persecution. That is endurance. He never turned from the gospel. A second was named John Willis. He was scourged at the hand of Bonner, and returning to the church in which they were, his wife showed up.

Now, this was a young man and just recently married. His wife was nine months pregnant, and she came and pled with Bonner to release her husband. He refused to do it. And so he learned that she was not only nine months pregnant, but was already experiencing contractions.

So she said to him, "'Unless you let us go, I'm going nowhere. "'I'm gonna have this baby right here and right now.'". And the bishop let him go. So all he had to do was say in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But the last of the three, named Cuthbert Simpson, was put to death and martyred for the gospel. Few professors of Christ possess more activity and zeal than this excellent person. Those are the words of John Fox.

Anybody here familiar with Fox's Book of Martyrs? All of these stories that I'm sharing today came from Fox's Book of Martyrs. You can actually get it for free online. Just go to Bible Study Tools and look up Fox's Book of Martyrs.

And it's important to do this from time to time, to read the stories of martyrs who have given their lives for the gospel. Well, Cuthbert Simpson. I won't share the details of the torture that he underwent because there's children in the room, but he suffered greatly on the rack and in ways that I won't describe.

What I will describe is what he said before being put to death. He said this in his own words. I commend you all to God and to the word of his grace with all those who unfeigned, who unfeignedly call upon the name of Jesus, desiring God of his endless mercy through the merits of his dear son, Jesus Christ, to bring us all to his everlasting kingdom, amen.

I praise God for his great mercy shown upon us. Sing Hosanna to the highest with me, Cuthbert Simpson. God, forgive my sins. I ask forgiveness of all the world and I forgive all the world. And thus I leave the world in the hope of a joyful resurrection.

These were the words of a martyr who had been beaten and tortured mercilessly and then died for the sake of the gospel. Now, notice his words. They sound a lot to me like Stephen, the first martyr. Father, forgive them.

And Jesus, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He was not cursing those who were persecuting him. He was asking for God to forgive them. And in all of these things, he never broke. He endured to the end and he continued to confess Christ even at the cost of his own life.

Even the wicked Edmund Bonner took note. He said these words. You see what a personable man he is. And then his patience, I affirm, if he were not a heretic, he is a man of the greatest patience that I have ever seen.

Thrice in one day, he has been racked in the Tower of London. And in my house, he felt sorrow. And yet never I saw his patience broken. The words of the persecutor. Where does endurance like that come from?

Where does perseverance in the Christian life come from? How do you overcome the afflictions and the pressures of this life? The answer is not what the world says. The world will tell you it comes from willpower.

It comes from within. Look inside yourself. Look in your heart. You can do it. The strength is with you. The power is in you. Find your authentic self. Dig deep. You need the eye of the tiger. This is the world of the message.

This is the message of the world. But the truth is that power like this, to endure to the end, will not come from you. This is a God-centered resolve. A power that comes from God only. It is not by strength nor by might, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Today, we are going to learn from 2 Thessalonians chapter one. A lesson that all of us will need, and already do need. A reminder to some, but to all of us, we need to hear 2 Thessalonians chapter one.

The Christian life requires strong resolve, but a resolve centered on God, not on willpower. So let's read it. We're gonna read 2 Thessalonians, opening the book. I was gonna try to just take it one verse at a time, you know, MacArthur style, but the problem was, I noticed that this whole unit, from verses one to 12, flow together, and you only get the sense of what Paul is saying when you take all 12 verses together.

The thrust of this passage is God-centered resolve. We have to see that they're under persecution. Here's the context. The Thessalonians are now being attacked. They're being persecuted. Some of them thrown in prison, maybe some martyrs, at least losing their jobs.

Being kicked out of the trade guilds. They're suffering persecution. And so Paul is now writing to them. It's about three months after his first letter. He's writing from Corinth around the year 51 AD.

And he's writing to build them up, to strengthen them, that they would endure persecution. But what I want you to notice as I read these 12 verses is that Paul will mention the name of God or God's son, 18 times in 12 verses.

Every single verse mentions God. This is no mere willpower to endure. This is God-centered thinking. A worldview that has God not just on the margins, as in I prayed a prayer to accept God, and now I live my life and do the best I can.

No, it's thinking of God all day long. Centering your life on him. And so let's read. 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 and 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, in flaming 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 all 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.

Amen. Notice first, as we look at God-centered resolve. Notice the example of the authors. In chapter one, verse one, it says, Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Paul is writing to them to encourage them and to build them up in their most holy faith that they would have endurance under persecution.

But Paul himself has modeled this for them. Five times he received the 40 lashes minus one. He had been stoned and left for dead. He had been shipwrecked on multiple occasions, whipped and scourged, beaten.

Everywhere he went, a riot followed. He would go to a city and be rejected and move on to the next. This was not the sign that God was displeased with Paul, but rather God was pleased with Paul. The suffering was a part of his mission and he lived out endurance faithfully till the end.

Silas likewise was an encourager. He was faithful to the end, never quit, suffered greatly right at Paul's side, suffered many of the same things. And Timothy, what do we know about Timothy? Well, in 1 Timothy, Paul had sent him back to Thessalonica to see how they were doing and he brings a report back which greatly encouraged Paul.

But this was Timothy. He was available to do whatever it was that Paul asked of him. As a young man, he saw Paul stoned and left for dead. And he became a believer even as a teenager. Some of you, young people, kids, teens, you believe and that faith is a gift from God.

Timothy is a model for you. Paul says, don't let them look down on you because you are young, but rather you set an example of faith for others. Timothy, even as a young man, was a believer. But here's the great thing about Timothy.

He gets saved and begins to travel with Paul. The year's about 51 AD when we read 2 Thessalonians. But all the way until 97 AD, when he breathes his last breath, he never stops enduring. He was faithful to the end.

He became the pastor in Ephesus. And when Paul died before the destruction of the temple in 70, Paul was gone. The weight of the church was shifted to Timothy's side. To Timothy's shoulders. He was the prodigy that Paul passed the baton to.

And he remained faithful. He persevered right through to the end, which raises a question for us. How will we persevere? Where does perseverance, endurance come from? Well, that's what this chapter is for.

So Paul, Silas, and Timothy, they model it and now they call them to it. But they don't say, dig down deep, here's where they go. First of all, look at the second half of verse one. To the church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Right away, Paul directs their attention, not to himself, but to God. Not to themselves, but to God. Who they are, not in and of themselves, but in God. In Christ. You will never find Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus talking about being in their founder.

A Muslim is not in Muhammad and a Buddhist is not in Buddha, but we are in Christ. We have union with him. He died the death that we deserve and rose. We were raised with him into newness of life and now we are in him and he in us.

By the spirit. Now notice the emphasis here, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason Paul says and the Lord Jesus Christ is to underscore that Jesus himself is God. He is a divine person.

The Israelites and all the Jewish people, they would understand that there's only one God. You remember the Shema of Israel, Deuteronomy 6 .4? Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Every Jewish person recited that every day of their lives.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. But Paul is teaching that Jesus is in fact God in the flesh and that's the emphasis that we have, which is why he often begins his letters this way. To emphasize that Jesus is God.

The church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 8, verse six, Paul will use the Shema as a starting point but he will declare the deity of Christ under the title Lord.

So it says, yet for us there is one God. Sound like the Shema? The Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist. And one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Paul's theology and where he begins now is to elevate Christ at the right hand of the Father, declaring him to be God. And that is why in verse two, grace to you and peace comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1 Thessalonians, he had already said grace to you and peace. Here he emphasizes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do the Thessalonians need grace and peace? Well, from verse four, we're learning it's because they're enduring persecutions and afflictions.

But grace and peace come from God. From the Father. You will not be able to make it to 97 AD, if you're Timothy, unless God is with you and in you. You will not be able to endure faithful to the end, holding on to the faith in the midst of persecutions and afflictions on your own.

You need grace. You need a good Father. And so this blessing, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is taking the attention off of us and our willpower. And this is so important.

It is teaching you and I to have a God-centered worldview. You see the repetition already? In verses one and two, he's already mentioned the Father twice. And the Lord twice as well. So in verses three and four, he says, we ought always to give thanks to God for you.

God-centeredness is a thankful disposition. It's thanking God. When you wake in the morning and when you lay down at night, to give thanks for what he has done for you and how he's cared for you for yet another day.

He says, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Faith is enduring. Paul is happy about this. He's heard good news.

Their faith is remaining. And let me tell you this about genuine faith. If young person you have been born again, genuinely, your faith is indestructible. Genuine faith is indestructible. It's only false faith that can be destroyed by persecution.

Now, sometimes false faith looks like genuine faith, but the testing of it proves it false. Matthew 13, parable of the soils. When the sun beats down, it demonstrates that the plant withers. It was never genuinely faith.

It was a false faith. But genuine faith increases even in persecution. That's what's happening in verse three. Persecution has come and yet their faith only grows. Can't snuff it out. You can't destroy it.

Their love only grows. And Paul writes to say in verse four, therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God. He's proud of them. He tells other churches how their faith is an example of endurance in the midst of persecution.

He's proud of them. And here he's writing a letter to them to let them know how he boasts to others about them. So they're to be encouraged and to hear Paul say, I'm pleased with you. You're doing well.

Your faith is remaining even in the midst of persecution. Great job. That's an important lesson. It's a lesson about our father in heaven. What is our father like in heaven when we're suffering affliction?

The words for persecution and affliction here in verse four are diagmos and flipseson. That's just for free. Just threw that out there in the Greek. Persecution, diagmos means to be chased like a dog.

That's how I remember it when I was taking Greek. Diagmos, you're being chased by a dog. You're being persecuted. There are people who are after you. They're trying to get you. Well, that's what was happening to the martyrs.

And it might be your boss, or it might be somebody in your family who hates your confession of Christ. It's to be persecuted. Flipseson though, affliction, refers to any kind of pressure that you're under.

So Paul will say, we are hard pressed, flipseson. We're pressed, we're under pressure. But not crushed, persecuted, but not destroyed. In this life, there will be times when you are afflicted. And it may be a daily experience.

Although God does grant us periods of relief and rest as we look to him. But life very often feels like a pressure cooker. Pressure from your job and from your family, from the responsibility. Sometimes it will feel like the weight of the world is upon your shoulders.

You're being afflicted. But the God-centered child of God looks to God in this and God is making your faith increase by it. Now here's what he wants to say to you this morning. I'm proud of you. Look at it in verse four.

Therefore, we ourselves boast about you. We tell others about your faith. None of you, I think, have met my father, except my wife, have met my father, but he's a funny man. He has a great sense of humor.

One time, I flew back to Florida and I took an Uber to his house. Only I forgot the address, so I just put in the Moe's Deli, the Moe's Southwest Grill, right quarter mile from where he lived. So I got dropped off there.

And I got out of the Uber car and I had my suitcase and I was walking from Moe's to his house and he saw me coming in the distance. And I had my suitcase like a traveler, you know, like the old guy with the knapsack over his shoulder.

I'm just walking home. And so my dad came out of the house and he went like this with his pants and then he started running. And he ran to me and gave me this huge hug and he said, the prodigal has come home.

He just saw me coming. He thought it looked like a scene from Luke 15 and he was playing around. But the reason I tell you this story, this is important. I talked to my dad on the phone once or twice a week and almost every time I talked to him, he'll say this to me, son, I'm proud of you.

You're doing the kingdom's work. I'm proud of you. I hear my earthly father say that. And it does something to my heart, to warm the heart and to strengthen me and to help me endure. But then he always follows it up with a little joke.

And the joke you won't get unless you understand this. John Piper said that he never tells his kids, I'm proud of you. Because he wants to emphasize that it wasn't him that made them as they were. So nothing for me to be proud of, it was grace.

I get that point. But my father says, Jeff, I'm proud of you. Then he always follows it up with, I don't care what Piper says. For some reason, when he hears Piper, he thinks of the Scottish accent for some reason, which Piper doesn't have, but the name Piper.

In any case, he's emphasizing the point, I'm gonna say I'm proud of you every day that we talk on the phone. Because you need to hear that. I don't care what Piper says. Now, by the way, I still like Piper.

He's erred in some things. I'm not trying to bash Piper here. But the point is, our Heavenly Father in this verse is reminding us. He boasts when your faith increases in the midst of suffering. Now, this gets to the main point in verse five.

And we're moving along here. It says this, what? What is the this? It's increasing faith and increasing love in the midst of persecution. When you're growing, when your faith is growing, even though you're under pressure.

When a loved one dies and you cling closer to God. Okay, this is evidence, you need to hear this, of the righteous judgment of God. Why are we concerned about the righteous judgment of God? Because you're a child of God and you're wondering, God, if I'm your child and you love me, why am I suffering?

Why do I have to endure this persecution? I think of my father, the most godly man I know. And yet for 10 years, he sat by his wife, my mom, as she's deteriorated with Parkinson's. And now she's trapped in this body and can't speak and recognize.

Why does he endure that if our father loves us? Where is the righteous judgment of God? Why these afflictions? Lord, why are we still suffering here in the body? If you haven't wrestled with this question yet, you will.

But good news, this is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God. You wanna know what it is? That you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering. Now that does not mean he's making you earn something or making you pay back something that you owed because Jesus paid it all.

He satisfied our sin debt in full on the cross. What this means is that he is fitting you, he's conforming you to the ethics of the kingdom. When you are born again, you are gold. You're made new, valued and treasured.

But guess what? There's still dross on your flesh. Gold with dross is treated in a certain way. It's put into the fire and the furnace heats that gold and the dross melts away and what emerges from the fire is pure gold.

That's what he's saying in verse five. Now, you need to hear this. In the sufferings of this life, the afflictions, the persecutions, these pains come upon you. And the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

The natural human man-centered reaction to that is to blame the person who's persecuting you. It's to blame the circumstance and it's to become undone and depressed and inward focused. But the hope of these words is God-centeredness.

When you, like Paul, are thinking of God at every verse, you stop saying, why is that guy doing this to me? And you turn upward, God-centered in your afflictions, in your persecutions and you look to God and you trust him for what he's doing in that storm.

And what is he doing? He's conforming you. That pressure is his good gift to you even though it doesn't feel good. There's a purpose in it. That diagnosis that was scary when you got it was God's purpose to conform you into the likeness of God.

God-centeredness is the key to joy. It's the key to endurance. If you look at the circumstances, it's overwhelming. You can't endure. But when you turn your eyes and look full in his wonderful face, face, your faith is strengthened, you can endure.

And a supernatural external work happens in you. He conforms you. This is why, according to verse five. Now there's, in the remaining verses, Paul will oscillate between this thought of what God will do in us and conversely, the justice that he will bring on those who do persecute.

So where is justice? Well, Edmund Bonner, who abused and murdered these Christians, he himself will be afflicted. It says in verse seven, unless he had repented before he died. It says in verse seven, sorry, verse six.

Since indeed, God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. God will be just. There's coming a day of judgment. Then it goes back to us again in verse seven and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us.

When? When, you ask? The pressures of this life, they just seem like they never stop. One hit comes after another. There's no rest for the weary. When? He's telling you when. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.

He's coming again. He's coming for us and when he does, he will rescue us out of these sufferings, these trials. They do have an expiration date. When you're in the midst of this life and the pain and the struggle, it feels like it will never end.

But we're being told there is a day of rescue coming. These struggles are not forever. There will be a day when he will rescue us. He'll snatch us, rapture us out, and catch us up to himself. Then it says in verse eight, referring conversely now to those who do not know God, in flaming fire, the angels, he makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.

These mighty angels in flaming 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 punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

The idea here is that grace had an expiration date. The offer of the gospel was made. But having rejected, time ran out. They did not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And at the second coming of Christ, he comes in wrath and in judgment.

Verse nine is a sobering verse, isn't it? It's the reality of hell. It says they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction. Now, this is not an annihilation where the person just becomes nothing, but rather a destruction that goes on and on eternally.

Because it says that in this destruction, they're put away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. You and I were made to worship God and to be with him. So hell is the opposite of that.

It is to be put away from him. The horror of burning fire and outer darkness, these physical images and realities, the worst part of it is to be away from God. And that is the fate for all eternity of those who do not know him.

There will be justice one day. We don't see it now. Doesn't it seem like the wicked prosper? You see the rise of this one world totalitarian government on the horizon, which by the way, next week we're gonna talk about.

It can't happen until the restrainer is taken out of the way. It's on God's timetable, but you can see that everything is teed up for it right now. It can happen. It seems like the wicked prosper, but there's coming a day of judgment.