2 Thessalonians (2)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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May 31, 2017

Comfort for the Persecuted (2)

2 Thessalonians (3)

00:00: 🎵Music🎵
00:40: That was putting the truth of Psalm 19 to music.
00:48: The Lord delights in hearing his word read, proclaimed, and sung. Amen. Let's pray again.
01:02: Father, as we now open your word, we ask that you would enliven it to us.
01:08: We know, Lord, the letter itself kills, but the Spirit gives life. And so we pray the
01:13: Holy Spirit would take this word and enliven us, our God. May you quicken us, enable us, our
01:19: God, to be more devoted to you, more informed of you and your ways, and that we be better Christians as a result,
01:29: Lord, of opening your word before us today. And so help us. We pray for perhaps that one
01:35: Lord who is far from Christ, that you would reveal Jesus Christ in all his glory today, and that that one would believe on him.
01:44: And then again, we pray for your people, Lord, that are in need. We pray once again for Ross, that you would help him, even as he prepares for this big examination this week, as he finishes up his semester at seminary.
01:57: Help him, Father, with all the pressure and stress he's experiencing.
02:03: And help him to recall our God and to do well as he serves you in this way.
02:08: And help those, Lord, who are grieving again for Brad's sister, Wendy, and her grief, and others,
02:16: Lord, who are heavy -hearted this morning. We pray, our Lord, as we consider the salvation that is given to us in Jesus Christ, that we might be encouraged and strengthened, our
02:27: Lord, to live before you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Last Lord's Day, we began our study of the second epistle of Paul to the church at Thessalonica.
02:42: In the first of these three chapters of this epistle, the
02:48: Apostle Paul set forth reasons for encouragement for Christians who had been suffering for their faith and for their commitment to the kingdom of God.
02:57: That's the substance of chapter 1. And so after Paul had expressed thanksgiving for their faith, love, and endurance in their afflictions, that is, their tribulation, verses 3 and 4, which we addressed last week,
03:12: Paul then pronounced that the end and purpose of God will be accomplished in bringing an end to their persecutions by judging their persecutors.
03:28: And then Paul set forth the great glory that their suffering for the kingdom would bring to them, as well as bring to the
03:34: Lord, on the day when Jesus returns. And then Paul concludes this first chapter by expressing a voiced prayer for power and for glory to be granted to these
03:48: Christians. I want to again read the first chapter of this epistle, and we're reading from the
03:53: ESV version, the English Standard Version. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the
03:59: Church of the Thessalonians, and God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our
04:06: 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.
04:21: And 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.
04:33: 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
04:43: 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
04:52: Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
05:01: 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
05:12: 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.
05:24: 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
05:35: Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the
05:41: Lord Jesus Christ. Last week we spoke of the common experience that all
05:48: Christians encounter in this world. They undergo afflictions, and we pointed out how that word here in chapter 1 is a general term, which suggests all manner of difficulty and hardship that we encounter.
06:04: God has called us to enter the kingdom of God through much tribulation, and the Greek word for tribulation is the same as what's translated here as afflictions.
06:14: And so this is the nature of the Christian life. Afflictions come to us in many and varied ways.
06:21: These Christians were suffering persecution, which is one specific form or kind of affliction, but there are other kinds.
06:28: We all encounter it. Some of us have been afflicted these last few weeks with this terrible, terrible chest cold.
06:35: That's an affliction. Not persecution, but it's a form of affliction that we encounter. And last week we emphasized this very important spiritual truth that the absence of afflictions in one's life is no indication of God's favor.
06:51: But this is an assumption that so many people of the world and so many people in churches have, that somehow if I'm not experiencing afflictions, that means that I stand in favor with God.
07:04: And the reverse is also believed to be true. If I am enduring afflictions, dealing with afflictions, it must be because I'm not in God's favor.
07:15: And we pointed out how that is a wrong understanding of the way of God in history.
07:21: And Paul is setting that forward here. It is the enduring of afflictions while growing in faith toward God and increasing in your love for the brethren.
07:31: These are the indications of God's favor. Not the absence of afflictions.
07:39: And the presence of afflictions is no indicator as to whether or not God's favor is upon you.
07:47: And so, when you exercise and exhibit steadfastness of faith through your afflictions, and your love for God, your love for one another increases through your afflictions, that is the evidence that God's favor rests upon you.
08:04: And that's what Paul declares here. It is very easy, but very wrong, to think that we assess
08:10: God's favor of us based on what is happening to us. We have to dispel that idea.
08:17: I came across a good presentation of this principle in a commentary by Greg Beal, who is a professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia.
08:28: And here is how he introduced chapter one of 2 Thessalonians. What makes a person happy?
08:35: Money? Beauty? Popularity? Such things may bring temporary pleasure, but not long -lasting happiness.
08:45: Unfortunately, our culture too often defines happiness by the rolling tide of circumstances that flow in and out of our lives.
08:53: When we prosper materially, we are happy. And when we do not, we are unhappy.
09:00: Even many in the Church believe that faithfulness to God brings a reward of material blessings and happiness, and that God withholds blessings in response to unbelief.
09:12: That is so common a doctrine in supposedly evangelical churches. But is happiness a pleasure arising primarily from good material circumstances?
09:24: Paul tells Christians in chapters 1, 3 -12 what should ultimately drive them and give them pleasure and happiness.
09:32: What motivates believers is also that for which they should be thankful. At least, verses 3 -4 and perhaps 3 -9 provide the basis of the initial thanksgiving at the beginning of verse 3.
09:48: If we can plumb the depths of the basis of thanksgiving, we will uncover the root cause of right and good passions.
09:57: There are principles set forth in chapter 1 that is extremely important and foundational to a lively Christian faith and experience which we should understand and embrace.
10:12: So again, in short, what should cause us most satisfaction is when the grace of God has been operative in us through all of our afflictions so as to produce growth in faith in Him and increase in our love for the brethren.
10:30: And this is what led the Apostle Paul to be so grateful for this church at Thessalonica as we read in verse 4.
10:38: 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.
10:51: This is what pleased Paul about this church. Well, let's now move on in our study considering verses 5 -12.
11:01: And again, within the context of this chapter, I've got a brief outline there. We have verses 1 and 2, the initial greeting, salutation.
11:11: And then verses 3 -12, which we began last week, we have this courage, or we might even say encouragement for suffering saints.
11:19: And there are three divisions within this section. Thanksgiving for faith, love, and endurance and tribulation.
11:26: We addressed that last week. And today, Lord willing, we'll address B, judgment on persecutors and glory for saints.
11:34: And then lastly, the two verses, prayer for power and glory. And so, after Paul's initial thanksgiving for faith, love, and endurance, he addressed
11:44: God's judgment on persecutors and glory for the saints. Verses 5 -10.
11:51: He declares that this is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God. Again, verse 5.
11:57: This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also are suffering.
12:05: 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
12:15: Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
12:21: God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. In our
12:29: English translation, verse 5 begins with the demonstrative pronoun, the word this.
12:37: A pronoun, of course, always refers to someone or something within the context. And so the pronoun reflects its antecedent.
12:47: Someone or something that is referred to elsewhere in the sentence. And here the word this doesn't refer to that which he writes afterwards, but rather this is referring to what he has already written beforehand.
13:02: It's a pronoun that refers to all that went before in verse 4.
13:08: And therefore, we might answer the question, what therefore is evidence of the righteous judgment of God?
13:15: Well, this is. The fact and manner that God enables his people to endure their afflictions is evidence of the righteous judgment of God.
13:25: You see that? When God helps us, gives us strength, sustains us through our afflictions, that itself is evidence of the righteous judgment of God in history.
13:39: Of course, God is righteous in all of his dealings in history. The scriptures are full of statements to this effect.
13:46: The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Psalm 19. We just sang a hymn based on Psalm 19.
13:56: We may say to our God, righteous are you, O Lord, and upright are your judgments. God is right in all of his ways.
14:04: And indeed, the Lord is righteous in all his ways, gracious in all his works. And so the psalmist could write seven times a day,
14:11: I praise you because of your righteous judgments. God is righteous in all of his dealings in history.
14:20: But the righteous ways of the Lord are not always apparent to us. In fact, I would argue that most of the time they are not apparent to us, but rather they are obscure to us.
14:32: Again, afflictions cause us to be blinded really to the purposes of God.
14:39: And so through human observation and reasoning, it might be rather easy to conclude that the Lord is not righteous in all his ways in the history of this world.
14:48: And that's how the world views God. In men's group last week, I was reminded of a comment that Tom Hanks made in some film he made.
14:57: He was asked what he thought of God, and his comment was, I think God has a lot to answer for.
15:05: And that's how the world views God. Look at the world, the history of the world, and how can you declare that God is righteous in all his judgments when you look at what's unfolding?
15:16: And that's how the world views God. We must recognize and acknowledge that our knowledge of the righteous way of God is largely a matter of faith, because he tells us his ways are righteous in his word, and we believe him.
15:32: We believe his word, even though our human observation and human reasoning, because it's governed by a fallen heart and limited perception, says that it doesn't seem that way.
15:47: We believe that all of his ways are righteous because he tells us so, and reveals himself so in the scriptures.
15:56: We believe what the word of God says concerning God, and the Holy Scriptures declare that the
16:01: Lord is righteous in all his dealings, and so we believe it. So, it's a matter of faith.
16:07: Even though we may not see a great deal of evidence with our physical eyes, as interpreted by our limited and faulty reasoning.
16:20: And so, if we look out at the world and the history of the world as it unfolds, we interpret the world through our own finite reasoning, which is governed by our fallen hearts, and so evidence of God being righteous in his ways in history may scarcely be perceived by us.
16:38: And so we may conclude quite easily that this world is a chaotic place, with little that falls out in history that suggests a good and righteous
16:47: God is controlling history. And yet that's how the scriptures present our God, is it not?
16:54: But evidence does exist of the righteous judgment of God. There's evidence. And Paul reasons here in chapter 1 the manner in which the
17:05: Lord enables his people not only to survive tribulation, but to thrive spiritually through their tribulation, is itself evidence of the righteous judgment of God.
17:18: This is what he's declaring. Paul declared that the purpose of the Lord, that the purpose the
17:25: Lord called his people to suffer affliction, so that they would show forth that they were worthy of the kingdom of God, of which they are citizens, for which they were also suffering.
17:37: And so Paul wrote of their suffering, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.
17:45: And so the reason they were suffering was because of their belief and their adherence to the kingdom of God, over which
17:51: Jesus is king. They believed and proclaimed that Jesus was Lord, and that God had inaugurated his promised kingdom, when
18:00: God the Father raised his Son from the dead, and gave him kingly authority over all the world.
18:06: Jesus said, All authority is given me in heaven and earth, and we believe that. The advocacy and proclamation of the kingdom of God, however, was an offensive message in the first century, and it's offensive today, equally, when we preach the kingdom of God.
18:25: And that's really at the heart of the gospel. Not just to have your sins forgiven, but we proclaim the kingdom of God, the gospel of the kingdom.
18:34: And so the advocacy and proclamation of the kingdom of God was an offensive message then, and it is now, in that it confronts people everywhere, that if we're not obedient citizens within the kingdom of the
18:46: Lord Jesus Christ, we're under his wrath. And so it confronts people. Those who fail or refuse to believe on Jesus as Lord will be judged and damned when
18:56: Jesus returns. And that's not a message that people like to hear.
19:05: We read of the reaction and rejection of the kingdom of God in the account of the evangelization of Thessalonica by Paul and Silas and Timothy, Acts 17 .5
19:15: and following. The Jews, who were not persuaded, becoming envious, because they were receiving so much response by the people, took some of the evil men from the marketplace,
19:27: I love the King James language, certain lewd fellows of the baser sort,
19:35: King James reads, gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.
19:44: But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason. And some brethren to the rulers of the city cried out,
19:49: These who have turned the world upside down have come here also. They've come here too. And Jason has harbored them.
19:56: And here it is. These are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another
20:01: King, Jesus. That was at the heart of their message, the gospel of the kingdom of God.
20:08: Jesus is King, not Caesar. There is a kingdom of God over which
20:13: Jesus has been enthroned. And all people everywhere should believe on Jesus as Lord, as King.
20:20: And those who fail or refuse will receive damnation and vengeance when he returns one day.
20:29: And so Paul was arguing in chapter 1 that the righteous judgment of God was evidence in the perseverance of these
20:35: Christians through their persecutions. God brought them to their affliction so that they may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God.
20:44: Now that's an expression that we might feel kind of awkward reading and thinking about. Being worthy of the kingdom of God?
20:51: How can that be? Now of course no one is worthy of the kingdom of God when he first enters the kingdom.
20:58: It's all a matter of God's mercy and grace when he brings people into the kingdom. His entrance into the kingdom is not due to merit on his part, but rather due to the merit of Jesus Christ on behalf of his people.
21:11: And King Jesus comes and conquers us and we surrender because he held out for absolute, unconditional surrender.
21:20: And so there was no merit on our part of entering the kingdom. He brought us in because he conquered us by his grace and subdued us.
21:31: And so entrance into the kingdom of our Lord is not due to our merit. But after we have entered the kingdom through faith in Jesus as Lord, over the course of the time the
21:39: Lord enables his people to grow into a worthiness of the kingdom which has been so freely granted to them.
21:47: He causes them to become worthy of the kingdom as they live for the kingdom and as they endure in faith when suffering for the cause of the kingdom.
21:57: And so that's one of the purposes of afflictions. Because the Lord is making us as Christians over the course of time increasingly worthy of the kingdom which he has so freely bestowed to us by his grace.
22:14: In fact the idea that the Lord makes his people worthy is a rather common idea in scripture. This is the work of God sanctifying his people enabling them to become worthy.
22:26: And so we read, for example, God enables his people to be worthy of God himself. 1
22:32: Thessalonians 2. We read this in our first study, 1 Thessalonians.
22:38: Paul wrote, You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behave ourselves among you who believe.
22:45: As you know, how we exhort and comfort and in charge every one of you as a father does his own children. For what purpose?
22:51: Here's the purpose clause. So that you would walk worthy of God. Imagine that.
22:58: Walking worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. He calls us by his grace, by his mercy and then wonderfully he enables us to walk in a manner worthy of him.
23:12: We read, he enables his people to be worthy of his calling unto salvation. This speaks of God's effectual call.
23:20: You and I were going along, Paul reads in Ephesians 2, just like all the rest, Satan was our master, we were in his kingdom doing our own will, our own way, and then
23:29: God intervened and caused us to become alive through his grace. He called us to salvation.
23:37: It was an effectual call, not just an invitation, but a summons which the Holy Spirit made effectual to us and we responded in repentance and faith.
23:46: Well, after he calls us by his grace and mercy, he makes us to be worthy of that calling which we received.
23:54: And so we read later in the first chapter of this epistle, 2 Thessalonians, verse 11, it's in our passage today.
24:02: He enables his people to be worthy of his calling. Therefore we also pray always for you that our
24:08: God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and work of faith with power.
24:17: Thirdly, he enables his people to walk worthy of the Lord Jesus. First, he was worthy of God the
24:22: Father, to walk worthy of the Lord Jesus. Is that possible? Yes. Colossians, Paul said, for this reason we also, since the day we heard of it, he's talking about your faith in the
24:34: Lord Jesus and your love for the saints, these twin evidences of salvation, since the day we heard of it, we do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom, spiritual understanding, and here it is, verse 10, that you may walk worthy of the
24:50: Lord, fully pleasing him. Are you walking worthy of the Lord?
24:55: That's a legitimate question to ask, fully pleasing him. You can do so,
25:01: God has given us the means through the knowledge of his will and of course through the power of the
25:07: Holy Spirit. Fourthly, he enables his people to walk worthy of the gospel. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
25:19: So that's the goal, that's the standard ultimately to which we strive.
25:26: And then here, again, fifthly, he would have his people become worthy of the kingdom of God of which they are citizens.
25:33: 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.
25:40: And we become worthy of the kingdom of God when we endure in faith in the
25:45: Lord Jesus through our afflictions and our love for the Lord, our love for the brethren increases through our difficulties.
25:54: In this way, we become worthy of the kingdom of God that he so freely granted us.
26:01: One described it this way, this kind of life is a life of patient, joyful discipleship, even in the face of life -threatening abuse of those hostile to the faith.
26:11: Such lives are sure evidence that God's judgment is right. It's happening all over the world today, isn't it?
26:19: The people of God are suffering, but they continue to believe. You see those people lined up and assassinated, executed, as they're kneeling on the beach, dozens in a row, men.
26:34: You know, the option is given to them. We'll let you live if you denounce Jesus Christ and give glory to Allah.
26:43: And they go on their knees and they receive that which they know is coming. It is an evidence of the righteous judgment of God as he conducts himself in history and at the end of the age when
26:57: Jesus returns. But the perseverance of the saints by the grace of God is only partial evidence of the righteous judgment of God.
27:07: For we see in verses 6 -10 further evidence of God's righteous judgment will be manifest when the
27:14: Lord Jesus returns to deliver his people and to punish their tormentors.
27:22: Again, our passage reads, This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God. And then a purpose clause,
27:29: So that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.
27:36: And that initial preposition for carries the idea of advantage for the advantage of the kingdom of God.
27:46: This is what suffering brings. 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
27:58: Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
28:05: God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And so one day the
28:11: Lord is going to bring an end to the suffering of his people. But then the suffering of those who cause his people to suffer will begin and will continue into eternity.
28:23: This is one of the most fearful passages you can find. We read in verses 6 and 7 that God regards himself to be just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us.
28:43: It's righteous for God to do so. And there's precedence in the Old Testament. This is consistent with the way of God through history.
28:54: For example, long ago when God initially called Abram out of the Ur of the Chaldees to go to a land,
29:00: God promised the land. And God promised Abram that he would be his God and he would bless
29:06: Abram. God said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house to a land that I will show you.
29:14: I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, make your name great. You shall be a blessing. And here is this well -known statement.
29:22: I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you. Two peoples, two destinies.
29:30: God promised he would bless the one who blessed his people. He would curse the one who cursed his people.
29:36: Now most Christians regard this promise to Abraham as a promise to the physical descendants of Abraham.
29:44: In other words, Jewish people. Because they are physical descendants of Abraham. And it's often, you'll hear it all the time, that say our nation,
29:56: America, can only be blessed of God if we continue to support Israel as a nation.
30:03: And by the way, don't misunderstand. I want us to support Israel. I'm in favor of Israel.
30:08: But it's wrong to apply this promise as though this promise is referring to ethnic
30:14: Jews, especially when it's referring to the political state of Israel. Because that's not what
30:20: God was promising. God said of the Jews, they argue, I will bless those who bless you.
30:27: I will curse him who curses you. And so they will advocate, even if you're a Christian, you better bless the
30:35: Jew or you won't be blessed of God. You'll be cursed of God. But the promise of God to Abraham was not strictly to his ethnic descendants, his physical descendants, but rather to his spiritual descendants.
30:51: People of faith. The people that are in covenant relationship with God through faith.
30:57: They are Abraham's descendants. They are the Israel of God, according to scripture. We are children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ, Paul declares in Galatians.
31:09: We are as Isaac was, a child of promise. So you as a Christian were promised by God the
31:15: Father to his son Jesus in eternity. Christians are children of promise.
31:21: And it's to these children of Abraham, God says, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.
31:30: And this is indicated even here in Genesis 12. For right at the end of God's pronouncement to Abraham, he says,
31:39: In you, Abram, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And so we see the blessed ones,
31:45: I will bless those who bless you, apply to Gentile nations, of all the families of the earth will be blessed.
31:53: And so it's a promise to the spiritual descendants of Abraham. In other words, people of faith, who have saving faith, as Abraham had saving faith.
32:04: I will bless those who bless you, I will curse him who curses you. And we would say that this is the same principle played out in 1
32:12: Thessalonians 1. It is a righteous thing for God to afflict and torment those who afflict you.
32:19: I'm going to curse them that curse you. I'm going to bless them who bless you. Now, we know that God manifested justice in history.
32:29: But also we know that God doesn't always manifest his justice within history.
32:36: Much justice is missing in history. But at the end of history, full justice will be administered to all the world, over all the events of history.
32:48: There's not one act of injustice that's ever been perpetrated since the day that Adam ate of that fruit, that's not going to receive a just payment.
33:00: Justice will be rendered for every sin in history. It will either be rendered to those outside of Christ, it will be rendered to those in judgment and eternity in hell.
33:12: Or that act, that sin, will be paid for wholly and fully by the death of Jesus on the cross on their behalf.
33:20: But every act of sin, every act of injustice in history will be dealt with justly because God is righteous in all of his ways and all of his judgments.
33:30: But we don't see that playing out within history. It would seem that many get away with great acts of injustice in this world, in this lifetime.
33:41: But we know as Christians that this is not the end of all things. Commonly today, of course, you hear people perpetrating some great act of injustice upon innocent people and then they take their own life thinking that they're going to escape any consequences for their action.
34:00: Not so at all, of course. We understand that they'll give an account before the Lord on the day of judgment.
34:07: Then the Lord Jesus, upon his return, will render full and complete justice. His people will be delivered from all of their afflictions even as all of their tormentors will suffer
34:17: God's vengeance. And so again, when will this take place? Paul declares in verses 7 and 8,
34:24: When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
34:31: God and on those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. What a day that will be.
34:39: People will be crying out. They'll want mountains to fall on them rather than face the Lord Jesus. But when the
34:46: Lord Jesus returns, he'll deliver his people from oppressors. And then there's payback. And he's going to pay back those according to their dealings with his people.
34:58: We could actually turn in the Old Testament and find God's intention to render justice in this prophecy of Isaiah.
35:07: Here it would seem that justice is not being manifested clearly. Justice is turned back.
35:14: Righteousness stands afar off. Truth has fallen in the street. Equity cannot enter. So truth fails and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
35:25: Sounds like some places in today's society, doesn't it? Then the
35:30: Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor.
35:39: And therefore his own arm brought salvation for him. His own righteousness it sustained him.
35:45: For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, a helmet of salvation on his head.
35:50: He equipped himself as a warrior to go to battle against his enemies. He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, was clad with zeal as a cloak.
35:59: According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies.
36:07: The coast lands, that's a euphemism for Gentile lands.
36:12: The coast lands he will fully repay and so shall they fear the name of the
36:17: Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the sun. In other words, over the whole world.
36:23: When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. There you have again the idea that the
36:30: Lord himself will bring justice because this is who he is. And of course, when the
36:36: Lord returns, he'll be revealed from heaven. I remember as an unbeliever, 19 years of age, reading this passage and it scared the bejeebies out of me.
36:48: It scared the hell out of me. I might put it that way, literally. The Lord used this passage to bring me to Christ.
36:56: Now I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
37:07: His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written and no one knew except himself.
37:14: He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen that would probably be angels and us.
37:26: Clothed in fine linen, white and clean heaven followed him on white horses and now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron and he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty
37:41: God and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written king of kings and lord of lords and then
37:48: I saw an angel standing in the sun he cried with a loud voice saying all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven come and gather together for the supper of the great
37:56: God that you may eat the flesh of kings the flesh of captains the flesh of mighty men the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all people free and slave both small and great.
38:11: Now notice how the enemies of his kingdom are described he'll inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of the
38:20: Lord Jesus. We're back in 2 Thessalonians 1. We often set forth the gospel as God's offer of salvation to the world and we should.
38:32: There's nothing wrong in that. Offer sinners Christ. Every sinner. Come to Christ for salvation.
38:41: But there is a sense in which the gospel of the kingdom is not an offer to be saved from sin but rather it's a command to be obeyed.
38:49: The gospel is an imperative a command. Believe the gospel. And we can tell anybody in the world that's your responsibility.
38:59: Believe the gospel. It's a command. And vengeance is going to come upon all those who obey not the gospel.
39:07: See it's not just unbelief it's disobedience because they refuse to obey the command of God.
39:14: Believe the gospel. And so when we present the gospel of the lost we should do so with the imperative that they have a responsibility not just an offer that they can take or not take you know and choose at their own time but God calls everyone everywhere at all times to repent and believe the gospel to obey the gospel.
39:40: And so the force of the command is found frequently in scripture. Repent and believe the gospel.
39:47: Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you receive the gift of the
39:53: Holy Spirit. That's not an offer that's a command. And in Acts 17 Paul stood up and these were before Gentile unbelievers in Athens.
40:05: And after he declared that God had made them all he declared there would be a day of judgment.
40:13: And although they were idolaters Paul declared to them God put up with this nonsense this foolishness long enough.
40:21: Verse 30 Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
40:27: The gospel is a command to be obeyed. And a refusal or a failure or a neglect to obey is rebellion.
40:39: And the Lord is going to bring vengeance upon those we see in 1
40:44: Thessalonians 1 upon those who do not obey the gospel. Peter spoke about the judgment of God occurring within and among the people of God.
40:54: It's time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
41:04: The gospel is a command repent and believe on Jesus. He's commanded all people everywhere to repent and believe on Jesus Christ.
41:13: To fail or refuse to believe the gospel is disobedience to God's command. And it will damn unbelievers on the day of judgment.
41:23: Again, 2 Thessalonians 1a He will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
41:32: God and on those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ.
41:39: Look at God's punishment of those who afflict His people in verses 9 and 10. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the
41:49: 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 believe because our testimony to you is believed.
42:01: And so the day of the Lord when Jesus returns will be the day of all days. It will bring to us our full and final salvation but it will bring the horror of God's vengeance on those who do not obey the gospel.
42:15: And John wrote of the terror that the world would face. He speaks of the day of the Lord and the present tense in order to heighten its importance and to give weight to its severity.
42:25: And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the
42:42: Lamb. There is a paradox. The Lamb, a gentle animal is not offensive in any way and yet here we read of the wrath of the
42:53: Lamb. For the great day of His wrath has come. Who is able to stand? And that is a rhetorical question implying no one is able to stand.
43:04: The future day of the Lord was foreshadowed in the Old Testament in a number of places. God brought the day of the
43:10: Lord to pass upon Edom, upon Egypt, upon Babylon, and upon Jerusalem.
43:17: And Zephaniah speaks of a prophecy of Babylon being the instrument of the
43:23: Lord to bring His judgment upon Jerusalem in 587 -586
43:29: BC. But that manifestation of the day of the Lord within history portended the final judgment of God when
43:39: Jesus Christ returns. The final full of the day, the day of the Lord. And so what we have is a picture, a metaphor of what it will be like at the
43:49: Second Coming. And here we have God's words. Zephaniah 1, verse 2.
43:55: I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land says the Lord. Now he's talking about Babylon destroying
44:01: Judah and Jerusalem, but again it speaks further than that to the Second Coming. I will consume man and beast, and I will consume the birds of the heaven, the fish of the sea, the stumbling blocks, along with the wicked.
44:14: I will cut off man from the face of the land says the Lord. Be silent in the presence of the
44:19: Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice. He's invited its guests.
44:27: And it shall be in the day of the Lord's sacrifice I'll punish the princes and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
44:34: In the same day I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
44:41: The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the
44:47: Lord is bitter. There the mighty men cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers.
45:07: And I will bring distress upon men, and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the
45:12: Lord. And their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like refuse. And neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the
45:21: Lord's wrath. But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land.
45:31: And so the day of the Lord will be a day of great distress for the world of unbelievers, even as it will be a day of great deliverance for the
45:39: Lord's people. And that day is coming. And, in fact, there's expressions, of course, in the
45:46: New Testament, in particular, May God send the Lord Jesus soon to bring an end of history, a manifestation of the righteous judgment of God.
45:58: In 2 Thessalonians 2, 9, we read that unbelievers will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the
46:06: Lord and from the glory of his might. The punishment of eternal destruction is not a statement of the annihilation of God's enemies.
46:17: And there are numbers of people that want to believe that. If I could be candid, I wish the Bible taught annihilation.
46:24: In other words, after the judgment of God, people cease to exist, rather than the scriptural teaching of an eternal, unending, everlasting punishment in hell.
46:37: It's just horrendous to even contemplate it. But, even as we say that, we know it must be just, or God wouldn't do it.
46:48: But there are those who teach annihilation, that after the judgment, they argue, oh, they'll suffer for a while, but then their punishment will come to an end, and they will cease to exist, they'll be annihilated.
47:00: I believe Seventh -Day Adventists teach that doctrine. But there are others, too. There are even some among evangelicals that advocate annihilation.
47:09: But the scriptures don't teach that. And this word destruction, in this context, does not suggest that either.
47:16: Here are the words of William Hendrickson, a solid Reformed commentator, on this passage. The attention is once more focused on the cruel individuals who, in their hatred of God and of the gospel, make life hard for sincere believers.
47:30: They are such people as who will pay the penalty of everlasting and he puts in parentheses actually never -ending destruction.
47:40: The very fact that this destruction is everlasting shows it does not amount to annihilation or going out of existence.
47:48: On the contrary, it indicates an existence away from the face of the Lord and the glory of His might.
47:55: While everlasting life manifests itself in the blessed contemplation of the face of the
48:00: Lord, sweet fellowship with Him, and in closeness to Him, a most wonderful togetherness, which is the cause of God's vengeance, is the very opposite.
48:09: Just as the blessing of Esau consisted in this, that his dwelling would be away from the fatness of the earth and away from the dew of heaven, so the punishment which all the persecutors of God's people will suffer will be everlasting existence away from Christ, banished forever from His favor.
48:29: And so the word destruction is used a number of times in places in the New Testament, and I quoted some.
48:36: Here are the comments of Thomas Manton on the word destruction. Again, a 17th century
48:42: Puritan. In all these places, by destruction is meant eternal damnation, called sometimes perdition or destruction, sometimes corruption, meaning thereby not an abolition of their being, but of their well -being.
48:58: Annihilation would be a favor to the wicked, then they wish they never had a being, or might presently cease to be.
49:05: No, the substance neither of their souls or body is not annihilated, but shall be upheld to all eternity by the mighty power of God.
49:15: It's a destruction and loss of all their felicity and happiness, no happiness whatsoever.
49:22: And so verse 10 speaks of the return of the Lord Jesus on the day when the damned will begin to suffer everlasting destruction, in which
49:30: He will be glorified in His saints. And by the way, verse 10 depicts a general judgment of all mankind, not a separation of a thousand years between the judgment of the righteous and the judgment of the unrighteous, but a single separation, vengeance upon His enemies, salvation for His people.
49:49: Matthew Henry wrote of the fate of the damned on that day, to such persons as are here mentioned, the revelation of our
49:55: Lord Jesus Christ will be terrible because of their doom which is mentioned in verse 9.
50:00: Here observe first, they will be punished. Those sinners may be long reprieved, yet they will be punished at last.
50:07: In other words, they may escape much in this life. Their misery will be a proper punishment for their crimes, and only what they have deserved.
50:15: They did sin's work and must receive sin's wages. And second, their punishment will be no less than destruction, not of their being, but of their bliss, not that of the body alone, but both as to body and soul.
50:31: And third, this destruction will be everlasting. They shall be always dying and yet never die.
50:39: Their misery will run parallel with the line of eternity. The chains of darkness are everlasting chains, and the fire is everlasting fire.
50:47: It must indeed be so, since the punishment is inflicted by an eternal God, and that has always been the defense of everlasting punishment, because sin has been against an everlasting
50:58: God. And so, in everlasting punishment, you could never pay your debt to an everlasting
51:05: God through a finite period of punishment. And then fourth, this destruction shall come from the presence of the
51:14: Lord, that is, immediately from God Himself. Here God punishes sinners by creatures, by instruments, but then
51:21: He will take the work with His own hands. It will be destruction from the Almighty, more terrible than the consuming fire, which consumed
51:29: Nadab and Abihu, which came before the Lord. It shall come from the glory of His power, from His glorious power.
51:36: Not only the justice of God, but this Almighty power will be glorified in the destruction of sinners, and who knows the power of His anger
51:44: He is able to cast into hell. Well, we have more comments there.
51:50: We don't have time to deal with because of the time. But Manton talks about the great punishment itself, and how people will then be fully aware of their great loss, which must be one of the most horrendous basis of torment on the part of people who suffer the vengeance of the
52:13: Lord. What they forfeited, that was so freely offered to them, even commanded of them, through their neglect and their rebellion, they refused to believe on Jesus as their
52:26: Lord, and this loss is irreparable. Paul concludes this chapter with prayer for power and glory for these
52:34: Christians. To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of His calling.
52:40: He said that God was making them worthy of His kingdom earlier through their endurance of suffering.
52:46: Here he's praying that God would make them worthy of His calling, and may fulfill every resolve for good, and every work of faith by His power, for what purpose?
52:55: So that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our
53:01: God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul prayed for these Christians. He was always praying for them, and he prayed specifically that they would endure and live in a manner worthy of their calling.
53:17: May the Lord enable us to understand and embrace the worldview that the scripture set before us here.
53:27: May He give us the great grace to glorify Him in all of our afflictions. May we love
53:32: Him, for we know that our afflictions are coming to an end, and that we're going to be forever blessed in His presence with glory that we can't even fathom or imagine.
53:45: And those that have caused difficulty and torment for the Lord's people are going to receive their just due.
53:52: May the Lord give each of us fresh grace to live for Him. And for anyone here that has failed, perhaps, or disobeyed in believing the gospel, we would urge you to flee to Christ, who alone is able and willing to save to the uttermost.
54:14: There is no sinner in this room so far from Christ that He will not save him if he comes humbly and trusting, bowing the knee to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
54:27: Is that not right? Why would anybody forfeit such a privilege and opportunity that is afforded so freely in the gospel?
54:37: And this day will come into remembrance if you refuse or fail on the
54:43: Day of Judgment. There will be a sense of remorse and regret. Why didn't
54:48: I respond? Why did I resist what was so freely set before me?
54:56: May the Lord not allow that to happen to any one of us. Amen? Let's pray. Thank you,
55:02: Father, for your word. Thank you, our God, for the instruction that we receive. Thank you,
55:09: Father, for the glorious promises that are ours in Jesus Christ. And we look forward to that day,
55:15: Lord, when all of our difficulty will come to an end and a day when we will no longer be plagued by our own sin, but we will be saved fully and completely through Jesus Christ.