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Turn with me, please, to Paul's second epistle to the Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. This evening, I would like to, in our brief time together, consider a topic with you that is not a light topic, it is not a subject that we should ever approach in a light-hearted fashion.
I don't think it should ever be the subject of humor. It is a subject that we honestly don't like talking about very much, but we need to talk about, and that is the wrath of God against sin and what happens to those who remain outside of a faith relationship with Jesus Christ.
Paul addresses this, and he does so with some rather strong words here at the beginning of his second epistle to the Thessalonians, beginning at verse 3 of chapter 1. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each of you toward one another grows ever greater.
Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment, so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which, indeed, you are suffering.
For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted, and to us as well, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he comes to be glorified in the saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed.
For our testimony to you was believed. To this end, also, we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we see in these words an exhortation to the church at Thessalonica, a report that Paul gives, that we ourselves, the apostolic band, speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.
And so there is the statement that the apostle makes to the church, we understand that you are in the midst of persecutions and afflictions. You are enduring them, and because of that we speak proudly of you among the churches of God.
These people, because of what they were going through, were an example to others. Because of their perseverance, the apostle would say to someone else who maybe wasn't undergoing perseverance, or was just starting to experience that, look at how God has been faithful to the Thessalonicans in what they are undergoing.
Now we don't know exactly what kind of persecution they were experiencing. Was it persecution from the state? Was it persecution from the Jews? Was it a mixture of these things? We aren't specifically told.
But we know that they are undergoing persecutions and afflictions, and clearly, when we look back at 1 Thessalonians, there was the discussion there of the Jewish opposition that was coming against the church at that time.
We certainly know that the apostle Paul experienced a great deal of that kind of opposition as well. And so there is persecution and affliction. And notice Paul's statement, verse 5, this is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering.
Now that seems to strike us as a little bit of an odd language. God's righteous judgment is seen in what? Well, in their perseverance under affliction. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God.
Now obviously we do not make ourselves worthy by suffering, but clearly when someone perseveres under suffering, what do we see? We see that the faith that they have is a divine faith. Remember, Jesus did say, he who endures to the end shall be saved.
We need not fear these words because why does anyone endure to the end? Why does any person, why does one person endure and yet another one does not? Remember just a few months ago, I preached that sermon, the blessings of apostasy from 1 John chapter 2 and the fact that it is in persecution and affliction that those who are not truly of us go out from us.
There is a pruning, a purging that takes place in that. And so there is a righteousness to God's judgment even when he allows persecution and affliction to come against his people because it sanctifies them.
It demonstrates who they are. It proves their worthiness of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering. That is, they are suffering for the sake of the kingdom of God. When the kingdom exists in our hearts, when we are under the lordship of Christ, when we have a completely different orientation as to what is important than the world has, there is going to be conflict.
Conflict. We can't just go along with the world when we live under the lordship of Christ. We can't experience continual friendship with the world when we are actually living under the lordship of Christ.
And so those who suffer do so for the kingdom of God. I hope most believers, when they do experience suffering, realize that there is a reason for it and there is a goal. And certainly we have seen that people are willing to suffer all sorts of things for something that is extremely important to them.
I mean, you turn on the television and maybe you catch a Packers game and you see these guys and they're down the front row and they're at Lambeau Field and it's two degrees and they don't have any shirts on.
But they're sitting in such a way that they spell out Packers, unless they didn't graduate from high school and then they spell something else out and the TV catches it and everybody laughs about the fact they can't spell Packers right.
But they're suffering. I can guarantee you something. They are suffering, but what they're suffering for doesn't really have long-lasting benefit. Maybe five seconds on the TV screen and it's for a football team and yeah, they're the champions this year, but three years from now, they could be like the Cardinals.
So it's just the way it is. So people will suffer for all sorts of things. We have the calling to suffer for something that's eternal. Something that has true and abiding worth that lasts beyond our lifetime.
But I'm starting to preach, I apologize. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
So here we have a description of those who are bringing persecution against the church. They're described as those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Now what does it mean that they do not know God?
I mean, didn't Paul say in Romans chapter one that all men know God and they suppress that knowledge? Well, yes, he did say that. But you have to allow for different contexts. And the person who is suppressing the knowledge of God is the very person who does not have a relationship with God, does not experience his loving-kindness, does not experience his mercy and his grace, and hence is described as not knowing him.
Because there is this rebellion, a state of rebellion against God. And so they do not know him, they do not have a relationship with him. They may claim to. I mean, there is certainly religious persecution of Christians, but they do not have true knowledge of God.
They do not have a relationship with God other than one of rebellion. And they're also described as those who do not what? Look again at the word that's used here, because if I hadn't read this text, if you and I were just talking and I was referring to someone who I had proclaimed the gospel to, and they did not embrace it, what would be the natural terminology?
They did not believe, they did not accept, they did not submit to. Here is the term, obey. One of the reasons I wanted to point to this passage is that with all the gospels running about in our lands today, and there are many, in light of the fact that right now there's a great deal of discussion, even in the media, about the nature of the gospel, and there are many people who are saying, look, the old time gospel isn't for the modern world.
You can't get modern people, post-modernists, secularists, who are all around us, to even listen to the old time gospel. You crusty, recalcitrant people who are sticking with the old ways, you are turning yourselves into dinosaurs.
In fact, an article came out just this morning. I saw it in, working through my RSS feeds, that means Pastor Fry will see this sometime over the next few weeks as it shows up in the printed media, but I saw it this morning and it's an article about how religion is going to come to extinction in, and it listed, nine major countries.
That these scholars have come to the conclusion that, and if you looked at the nine, list nine, they are the most secular nations in the world today, such as Norway and Denmark and places like that. And if you just follow the graphs, follow the lines, religion is going to become irrelevant in those nations, according to this study.
And people will say, look, that's happening here too. It's happening more slowly, but it's happening here too. You've got to come up with a gospel that speaks to modern people. And so there are certain things in the gospel that modern people are not going to believe and they don't want a God that is wrathful.
And so you need to stop talking about these things. It's an immediate turn off. Well, obviously, if we believed that the church is built on the basis of our reading studies and figuring out what is acceptable and what is likable to people, if we believe that that's how the church is built, then these would be considerations that we would want to think very clearly about.
We obviously don't believe that. We believe that the church is built by the spirit of God and by the proclamation of the gospel. But these people would tell us, you don't proclaim a gospel that needs to be obeyed.
We need a gospel that makes people feel good, that makes people feel included, that does not challenge, that does not convict. The Apostle Paul, writing to encourage believers, described those who would receive retribution, those who would pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, as those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
That means the Apostle viewed the gospel as a command. Is there an invitation? And certainly there is an invitation to life, there is an invitation to forgiveness. We can use that term. But when we limit the gospel to only that, we're not walking in the path of the Apostles.
There is a command, as Paul said on Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17, God commands men everywhere to repent. And when we present the gospel as a mere, mere, notice I affirmed that there are invitational elements to the gospel call, come all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.
That's an invitation. But if we limit the gospel solely to that, we remove the command element and words like this become empty. Obey, what obey an invitation doesn't make any sense. There is an imperative, a command to the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
And all men are called to obey. That means there's some there's some substance to it. And may I suggest that that substance would include the fact that it's our Lord Jesus. Kudios, Lord, bow the knee before him.
And then we have these words. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from it's literally away from the face of the Lord. Away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
When he comes to be glorified and his saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed for our testimony to you was believed. Now would not dare, especially with only about five or six minutes left to me to try to open up the entire topic of the doctrine of hell.
But I would say. That as we think about it and we have to think about it, it's not something we want to think about, but we do have to think about it, it is presented to us in scripture that we need to recognize the foundations upon which it is built.
It doesn't just exist all to itself. And I think one of the reasons we have so many people who deny it today is they look at the doctrine of hell and if they really haven't been instructed much about it to begin with.
It's just sort of one of those unspoken things, and so it's where it fits in and why it's necessary. It seems so far removed from the loving God who sends Jesus, but I think. As we look at these words, there is a penalty.
To be paid. For rejecting God's greatest revelation of himself, and that is the gospel, the gospel is the incarnation, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is God's self attestation, his self testimony.
This is the way he's chosen to glorify himself in the greatest way. And when someone rejects that, refuses that. There is a penalty to be paid. It is a tremendous offense to the glory of God and those who remain in that state, when we think about someone who dies in rebellion against God.
Why is it that we assume that they stop sinning when they die? It's not about that. Most objections to hell are, well, how can you how can you punish somebody for eternity for stuff they only did for 60 years?
Well, what makes you think they somehow become a saint after they died? What makes you think their heart is all of a sudden cleansed and now they're just filled with love for God and remorse for what they did?
Remember, even the rich man. His concern was for his current suffering. He didn't hear any remorse on his part for how he lived. And in fact, I would suggest to you that one of the greatest elements of eternal punishment is that when God removes his hand of restraint, which restrains the madness of man now.
I don't think God has to do anything to torment souls in hell. You take someone who's created in the image of God, let him consume himself and his hatred of God, and that's all the suffering you need.
What makes anybody think that unless a heart, a soul is changed by the grace of God, that any one of those people is all of a sudden going to stop sinning? Makes no sense. That's why I notice it says they will pay the penalty of eternal destruction where?
Away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. You see, there has to be a. Division made. A separation made so that, in essence, these who did not obey the gospel, they go to where it is fitting for them to be, that is, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
We want to be there because we are right with him. And so that's why we are there, it's fitting for us to be there, but they don't want to be in that presence. And so there is in the final analysis that that final judgment, everything is as it should be.
That is, those whose hearts are passionate for God and love are in his presence where he desires them to be and where they desire to be and those who do not desire to be in his presence, they are removed from they are away from.
The presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, which they detest, that's going to happen on that day when he comes to be glorified in his face. And to be marveled at among all who have believed for our testimony to you was believed.
He comes to be glorified in his saints on that day. Remember, Titus chapter two, what's the purpose of the coming of Christ to redeem a particular people unto himself, zealous for good deeds. The triune God is glorified in one particular way, and that is in the redemption of undeserving sinners.
And so he will come and he will be glorified in his saints on that day. And even after all our hymn singing and all of our prayers and all of our Bible reading, we're still going to marvel. To say that to be marveled at among who?
All who have believed. Only seen, we've only seen a part. We will marvel when we finally see the reality, the fullness, the greatest dreams we have ever dreamed will not come close to the reality of our coming king.
And so. In the midst of encouraging the believers. To remain strong and to persevere. You have these words, these reminders of the the justice of God, that it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you.
Why? What did Jesus say? Don't be surprised the world hates you. Hated me first. Why does the world hate the gospel? Why does the world hate the Christian faith? Because they are creating the image of God and they are in rebellion against him.
And so here you have these tremendous words. And they're sobering words. They remind us we should never think lightly upon these subjects. But neither can we simply put them off to the side and act like they don't matter.
They were a part of even the exhortation of the apostles of the afflicted church to recognize there is a day of judgment coming. And outside of being in him who is the just one. There will be harsh penalties.
For not knowing God and for not obeying his command.