2nd Thessalonians 1 9 who shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of his power who shall be punished
is verse 8 those that know not God those that know not God now
we think of People and you know the deep
dark places of the earth and those poor wretches, you know
Had never heard of God and they don't know anything about it
Scriptures don't speak that way The scriptures say that no man
is without excuse even the very Sky and earth and mountains and
water and all the things that God has made leave men without
excuse his eternal power and Godhead can be seen in those
things and You're not gonna know the gospel by looking at a beautiful
sunset, but you can know that God is God and you can bow to
him and he'll send you more light. That's Romans chapter one. We're
gonna read a few verses from that chapter. Knowing not God
is not ignorance. It's rebellion. I'm gonna say
that again because it's important. When it says,
those who know not God shall be punished with everlasting
destruction, you might think, well, that's pretty extreme,
seeing that how can you punish them for something they don't
even know? Knowing not God is not ignorance, it's rebellion. Let me read that to you, or turn
to Romans 1, if you would, please, with me. This is what Paul is talking
about in 2 Thessalonians 1, 8, when he says, He refers to those that know
not God Romans 121 Because that when they knew God
they glorified him not as God Neither were thankful But became
vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened
Knowing not God is not knowing anything about him. It doesn't
mean they don't know anything about him. I The very heavens
declare the glory of God, the psalmist said. It means they
refuse to glorify him as God. They know not God. They became
vain in their imaginations. They made up their own gods.
That's clear from the beginning of the scriptures, isn't it?
And in modern day religion, they make up a Jesus in their mind
that wants to save everybody if they'll just let him It's
not the sovereign Christ of the Bible, it's an idol. Look down
at verse 28 in Romans one. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, they didn't like to retain him
in their knowledge because they don't like him. They hate God,
that's our problem. And God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers,
backbiters, haters of God. You can't hate somebody that
you don't know. So that's not the know that we're talking about
in our text. They knew God, but they glorified
him not. They refused to give God glory.
They knew God, but they still made themselves God. That's what
happened in the garden, and that's what's happening in most so-called
churches this morning, when they deny the truth of the sovereign,
eternal, effectual Christ of the scriptures. Despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding,
covenant breakers without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful,
who knowing the judgment of God, they know that they're responsible
to God. To know the judgment of God is
to know God's judgments. I don't know how to say this right,
so I'll just say it the way it popped into my head and you'll
understand what I mean, I think. They know how God does things.
They know God's thinking, his judgment, his judgment on things. And they know that they which
commit such things are worthy of death. They have a conscience. Every man's born with a conscience.
And so they know this is evil. But they not only do the same,
but have pleasure in them that do them. You see what it means
to know not God? The fool hath said in his heart,
no God, no God, no God. You can't reject somebody that
you don't know in a sense. You can't say, no God, unless
you know God to some extent. It is an intellectual understanding
of who God is, the way he judges matters, and that you are sinful
before him. That's what it said there. They
know that. They know that they, which commits such things are
worthy of death. They know they deserve it and they still do
it and delight in those that do it. So don't think this is like the
ignorant, you know, whoever out in the deep, dark edges of the
world that just, oh, the poor things just never have, no. We're born into this world hating
God, the God that made the skies. And I'll tell you this, when
the Lord Jesus is revealed, we hate him even more. If you
hear of the Christ of this book that will save you or damn you
at his will, not yours, you're gonna hate him worse than you
do the somewhat unknown God that created the universe. The only
thing that men hate worse than God's law is God's grace. Look what we did to him when
he came down here. That's how we feel about God. So this biblical definition of
this matter in our text of knowing not God, we just read it. When
God says to the reprobate in Matthew 7, 23, I never knew you,
he's not saying he didn't know everything about them. He made
them, he created them. He knows every molecule in their
body and every hair on their head, but he said, I never knew
you. That's the sense in which we don't know him either. We
hate him, we despise him. He's saying, I never loved you,
you were never mine. In the same sense in Romans 8,
it says that those whom he did foreknow, there are those that
he did not foreknow and never knew in that sense, with regard
and with acceptance and with approval. And same with us, we
reject him, we despise him. It's not a matter of ignorance,
but a matter of affection. a matter of desire, or in this
case, a lack thereof. It's the same with those who
know not God. God has no regard for those who trust themselves
and not him, and they have no regard for God either. That's
the definition here. The bad news for those sinners
is that God not loving them and them not loving God both means
everlasting destruction for them. That's the verse nine of our
text. Them not knowing God, no God
for me. They didn't like to retain God
in their knowledge, why? Because they're God in their
mind and heart. That's destruction for you. And
God not knowing you, same thing, destruction for you. It's not
gonna be a problem for God. We need to understand that. So-called false preachers in
religion are begging sinners and saying, oh, God's just hurting
so bad for you, and he's just crying in the corner waiting
for you to do something for him. Not so. It's not gonna be a problem
for God putting sinners in hell. It's not gonna be a problem for
him. He does it on purpose. But I'll tell you this, he delights
to show mercy to sinners. You come to this God, the sovereign
God, and beg for mercy instead of trying to impose your will
on him, say, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. That's
how sinners are saved in this book. Who shall be punished is also
those, verse eight, who obey not the gospel. Those punished
with everlasting destruction are those who obey not the gospel.
The reason for the one is the other. They obey not the gospel
because they hate God and his son. The gospel command is not,
here's what you need to do to be saved. The gospel command
is look to Christ and what he did to save sinners. Why would a sinner choose to
be judged based on what they do rather than on what Christ
did? Why would they do that? And they
do. Oh, Jesus died for you, but you've
got to do this. You've got to do that. You've
got to do the other thing. Why would you want to be judged
based on what you do rather than on what the Savior did? Very
simple. It's a question of who gets the
glory. Man is an absolute genius when
it comes to getting glory, robbing God of his glory. I accepted Jesus as my personal
savior. That's most people's testimony
or what I call bragimonies. Isn't that what they say? Is
that how you would define your salvation? I accepted Jesus as
my personal savior? We just read Jonah. Our brother
just read, he said, salvations of the Lord. He said, I don't
know about you, but the Lord lifted me up out of the belly
of hell. He raised me up. Salvations of
the Lord. Where we read there in Romans
121, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Why
not? Because of what we read in verse
30 of that same chapter. They're back biters, they're
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things.
It's our pride. Satan whispered in the garden,
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. You'll decide
what's right and what's wrong, not God. That's why we hate God, because
we are determined to be God, inventors of evil things. Evil
things such as salvation by our own will and our own works. That's
the evil things we invent. Read the book. It's all through
Cain. It started with Adam, didn't
it? I've got a problem before God,
I'm naked before God, I'm guilty before God, what am I gonna do
about it? I'm gonna sew some fig leaves together and make
an apron. and hide my name, then I won't
be naked before God anymore. Yes, you will. Unless and until
God covers you the only way a sinner can be covered, by the precious,
innocent blood of a savior, of a victim, of a substitute. That's Christ. And then he says, from the presence
of the Lord, they're gonna be destroyed from the presence of
the Lord. Believers can endure anything
in this world if the Lord is with us. If he's present with us, we can
endure anything. There's nothing that God cannot
get you through. I can do all things through Christ. which strengtheneth me. But what
our text is talking about is destruction with no countenance
of God to comfort, to encourage, to give hope, and no glory of
his power to deliver. If God spared not his own son
for his beloved elect, how in the world does a sinner think
that he will spare you who murdered his only begotten
son. What is our hope and joy as believers? His presence, his power. None of that for the lost, none
of that. Verse 10, when he shall come
to be glorified in his saints, when he shall come, that's when
it's gonna happen now. We see the injustice in the world.
We see what the psalmist of Psalm 73 saw, that the wicked and the
evil men, they seem to prosper. Not on this day. It's everlasting destruction
if you hate God and his son. Nobody hates the Jesus of religion. It just wants to save everybody
if they'll just let him. But you got to come to terms
with the God that's revealed in this book and his son who
sits on the throne. When he shall come to be glorified
in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe because
our testimony among you was believed in that day, in that day, he
will come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired
in all them that believe in that day. When our Savior was betrayed,
He spoke of glory, didn't He? What does it mean when He shall
come to be glorified in His saints? When He was betrayed, He spoke
of glory. Listen to John 13.30. Christ
then having received Judas, It says, he then having received
the sop, went immediately out. That was Judas. The Lord handed
him the sop. And he said, whoever I hand it
to, that's the one that's going to betray me. And Judas went
immediately out and it was night. And therefore, when he was gone
out, when Judas had gone forth to betray him, as the Lord knew
that he would, told him before, maybe before he even knew it,
that he was going to. and he went out to betray the
Son of Man, and we know what happened after that, all also
by God's design. It was the Lord's hand and counsel
that determined before that all that be done. Therefore, when he was gone out,
Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified. Glorified. And I'm leading up to something
here now. He's talking about his crucifixion. Now I'm betrayed
into the hands of wicked men, as he told his disciples several
times before. That was when Simon said, no,
Lord, be it far from me, this shall not be. He told them what was gonna happen,
and he did so several times in the scriptures. Now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him in himself and shall straightway glorify
him. That's a lot of glorifies. And it all pertains to the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord went to the cross,
he spoke of glory. In John 17 one, these words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour is come. You recall in the scriptures
how several times his enemies tried to kill him, but it says
he passed through the midst of them and they couldn't touch
him because his hour had not yet come. Now he says to the
Lord, his father, the hour has come. You know what the next
word is? Glorify. Glorify thy son, that
thy son may also glorify thee. Again, God's glory is Christ
crucified. What Christ accomplished on Calvary
is the glorification of God in all of his attributes, his justice,
his strict righteousness and holiness is seen there in that
he could not spare even his son when our sins were found on him,
his love, Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved us and sent his son to be the sin offering for our sins. All of the attributes of God
are glorified at the cross, his great love and mercy towards
sinners. And what's happening in our text
is the result of that same act of sacrifice of the Lamb of God. It's the culmination of that. In other words, God is glorified
in Christ crucified, and in the results, the consequences of
Christ crucified. When he shall come to receive
the purchased possession, when he shall come to take possession
of those that he bought on Calvary. So, That's the day he's gonna
be glorified in his saints. We're gonna see the Lamb of God.
What did John see when he got a glimpse into heaven? Behold,
the Lamb of God sat on the throne and all of
heaven sang worthy is the Lamb. They could have sang worthy is
the King and it would have made perfect sense, wouldn't it? But
they sang worthy is the Lamb that was slain. That's God's
glory. And when he comes to be glorified
in his saints, it's the same. So all of the glory of God is
wrapped up in Christ crucified. And God forbid that we should
glory save in what? The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice it says to be glorified
in his saints, his saints, that's sanctified ones, that's holy
ones. How did we become sanctified
in the sight of God? The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. How sad and evil the idea that
Christ crucified is an offer that man is to accept or reject. Sad because so many believe that
lie. And those who entertain this
idea now, those who believe in the false Jesus of freewill man-centered
religion, they are they which glorify Him not as God. That's
the problem with that, you see. to say that Christ did everything
to try to save me, but it's all up to me. It's all up to me.
You're glorifying yourself as God. It's not all up to you.
It's all up to him. That's what God means. That's
how David defined his God in the Psalms. He said, my God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. He
hadn't given you a chance to do what you please. He does what
he pleases. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. That's God. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
is not an offer to sinners. It's an offering to God for sinners
that he might be just and the justifier of them which believe
in him. Them that believing, not being
those who accept him, but those who look to him and what he did
for all of their righteousness and salvation by his grace. By
grace are you saved through faith. The next phrase in our text is
this, to be admired in all them that believe. Those that believe
are those who know who he is and what he did. Faith just has
one object, it's Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and God shall be saved. Saving faith has one object,
it's Christ, and you can't separate what He did from who He is. This
means to be admired in all them that believe, it means to be
wondered at. We're gonna see the Son of God coming for us
like He said He would. I go to prepare a place for you.
He went to the cross to make sure that there was a place for
me and you if you know Him in glory with Him. And he said,
if I go and prepare a place for you, I'm coming again, I'm gonna
receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you may
be also, not that you'll have a mansion on the hilltop, that
you'll be where I am, that's heaven. To be wondered at, to be had
in admiration. You think about what's gonna
happen once we, you know what we're gonna do when we see him?
we're gonna start singing. That's what the scripture says.
They sang a new song when they saw him. Like the Israelites
at the Red Sea, we're gonna stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. They saw the Red Sea parted,
we're gonna see the heavens parted. And the Son of Man come and plumb
save us. And what did they do when they
saw the salvation of the Lord? They sat down on the far banks
of the Red Sea and sang a song of glory unto the Lord. And that's
what we're gonna do. What a marvelous sight to see the salvation of the Lord.
We're gonna marvel at Him. We're gonna finally know as fully
as it can be known that salvation's a person. Oh, Simeon looked at a little
baby and said, my eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord. I'm
ready to go. That's when you're ready. What
a marvelous sight. And they sang, and we will sing,
on the banks of paradise worthy is the Lamb. Worthy. Paul associates their hope, those
who believe, he associates the glory when he says here, when he shall
come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them
that believe, we're gonna rejoice in him alone, sure enough then.
And Paul associates that hope with faith in the testimony of
the gospel. You see that in it? Faith in
the testimony of the gospel. By grace are you saved through
faith. Ephesians 2.8, and that's not
of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Those that believe the testimony
of Christ. We'll see, he'll get glory in
them and they'll glory in him. Salvation's of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. I wrote
that in my notes and our brother read that in Jonah chapter two. Salvation is of the Lord and
the means of salvation, the preaching, the hearing, Faith are of the
Lord. Boasting is excluded. This is
why he's glorified and he's marveled at because he did it. And we will be amazed forever
that he had mercy on such a worm as us. Verse 11, wherefore also
we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of
this calling. Now it gets personal, doesn't
it? His saints, he's gonna be glorified in his saints and all
them, he's talking about the whole church worldwide, those
that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, all of them. Now, he
says, I'm praying for you that you'll be in on that by the grace
of God. We don't just preach generalities,
do we? We don't just believe in the
depravity of man, the total depravity of man. We cry, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. Well, I believe in total depravity. That's good. You can't deny it in the scriptures. The Lord didn't heal people that
were gonna get better on their own. We're hopeless and we're helpless
when it comes to salvation. He said to his disciples with
men, it's impossible. It takes a miracle of God to
save a sinner. It's one thing to believe in
the total depravity of man. It's another thing to take your
place guilty before God. You, I'm the sinner. It's my fault. I crucified the
Lord of glory. The apostles preached that, didn't
they, in the book of Acts? They said, you killed the Son
of, you murdered the Prince of life. And they said, what in the world
are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? They owned
it, they acknowledged it. That's what we did. Wherefore also we pray always
for you seeing that this is such a matter of eternal consequence
Everlasting destruction or glory in the Lord Jesus We pray for you Seeing what's
at stake We pray for you all the time all the time If we don't do that, it's because
we just simply don't know what's going on. Just as Paul counted not himself
to have apprehended, but pressed toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus, he dared
not to count those he loved to have apprehended, but pressed
their cause before the throne of King Jesus. May we have the
grace to do that God counting you worthy of this
calling That he may find you worthy know that he may count
you worthy If God counts you worthy of this
calling you know what that is that's what happened on Calvary
That's what this whole passage is about what Christ did on Calvary. Christ's glorification in the
cross is your worthiness. Our glorying in the cross is God's work in us to lay hold
of him who is our salvation. and that God will fulfill all
the good pleasure of His goodness." Do you know what that is? Do
you see what Paul is praying for them? Seeing that those that
know not God, they don't know God, they refuse to acknowledge
God. They refuse to give Him glory
as God. And they reject the gospel. They
won't obey the gospel, the simple, plain gospel. It's not complicated. It's Christ, the simplicity that's
in Christ. And they refuse and it's everlasting
destruction for them. But for those that lay hold of
the gospel, for those who receive the love of the truth of the
gospel, by God's grace, faith's not of yourself, it's the fruit
of the spirit. Christ is the author and finisher
of faith. By his grace, you believe the
gospel, it's glory. Christ is gonna be glorified
in you, and you're gonna be glorified in Him. Seeing the consequences,
seeing what's at stake, I pray for you all the time. That what? For God to fulfill all the good
pleasure of His goodness. You remember what God's goodness
is? You remember what the Lord said
to Moses in Exodus 33, 19? Listen to it carefully. Moses asked the Lord, show me
your glory. And the Lord said to Moses, I
will make all my goodness pass before thee. And I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. God's goodness has to do with
having mercy on sinners. He's good if he don't. Oh, but
how good, how good to have mercy on sinners. I'll make all my
goodness pass before thee. And what Paul is praying for
here is that God will fulfill that purpose to have mercy. on the vessels of mercy, that
you would be in on that. The good pleasure of his goodness
is to have mercy on sinners in Christ. Salvation is God doing what he
promised he would do. Paul is expressing his prayer
for this church that they would be in on that. The faith of these believers
that Paul was bound to give thanks to God for, he thanked God for
it here too. Look at it. And the work of faith
with power that God would fulfill the work of faith. The work of faith is not something
you do. Faith is not a work. If you have
faith in Christ, you renounce all your works. Isn't that what
Paul did in Philippians chapter two? When he believed on Christ,
he said, everything I've ever done, my religious heritage,
my earthly heritage, all of my good works, I count them but
done and lost that I might win Christ. Faith's not a work, it's
the opposite of works. So who does this work of faith?
He says it right there that God would fulfill the work of faith
with power. God working faith in his people,
in his sheep, is an act of his power, not your will. God fulfills the work of faith. Christ is the author and the
what? The fulfiller, the finisher of our faith. The one who gave us faith in
himself, worked it in us and must fulfill that work. The word
fulfill means to consummate and to bring to realization. He will
finish the faith that he authored in us, making him the author
and the finisher. Listen to Philippians 1.3, I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Look at the parallel
to our text in this. "'Always in every prayer of mine
for you all, "'making requests with joy for your fellowship
"'in the gospel from the first day until now, "'being confident
of this very thing, "'that he which hath begun a good work
in you "'will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.'" Our
text is talking about that day. And he's praying there and here
that God would fulfill the work of faith in you so that when
he comes, you'll be among those that believe and rejoice in him,
marvel at him, wonder at him, worship him. In verse 12 in our text, that
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you
in him, according to the grace of our God, and the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see how that our glory is
tied to his. Isn't that marvelous? Because
Christ, in all of his glory, offered himself on Calvary, glorifying
God. The hours come, glorify thou
me that I may glorify thee. That's what happened. That's
what happened. and our glory is tied to his.
Our glory is because of his. Jesus Christ is glorified in
saving you, in redeeming you, in dying for you, in coming for
you, and you're glorified in him. Whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate, and whom he did predestinate, them he
also called, and whom he called. Them he also justified, in whom
he justified. Them he also glorified. We're
glorified in him, and he in us. You know, it's a pretty sure
thing when your glory is tied to his. If he's glorified, so will we
be that believe on him by his grace. That's a wagon you wanna hitch
on to right there. It's according, listen, it's
according to the grace of our God that we're in on that. According to the grace of our
God and the Lord Jesus Christ. If his glorification has anything
to do with me, being glorified, or you being glorified, it is
according to the free, electing, sovereign, distinguishing grace
of God and His Son. He's glorified because He's worthy. Why am I glorified then? Because
He's worthy. And because He's gracious. Amen, let's pray.