I would encourage you to follow
in your own Bibles as I read again this evening the first
chapter of Paul's second letter to the Church of the Thessalonians,
2 Thessalonians 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy,
unto the Church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to give thanks to
God always for you, brethren, even as it is meat, for that
your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of each one of you
toward one another abounded. so that we ourselves glory in
you, in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in
all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye endure,
which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God,
to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God,
for which also ye suffer, if so be that it is a righteous
thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict
you. And to you that are afflicted,
rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven
with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance
to them that know not God and to them that obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus, who shall suffer punishment, even eternal
destruction, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of
his might. when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed,
because our testimony unto you was believed in that day. To which end we also pray always
for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and
fulfill every desire of goodness, and every work of faith with
power. that the name of our Lord Jesus
may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace
of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I mentioned this morning
that in the light of the disrupted nature of our congregation or
complexion of our congregation today, in the light of the family
conference, we would suspend our consideration of our normal
studies in the prophecies or in the life of the prophet Elisha
in the evening, and I fully intended to just have a two-message series,
but I'm convinced now that I must at least carry it over to next
Lord's Day morning and possibly next Lord's Day night. I make
no promises on these matters. I only got half as far as I had
hoped to get this morning. But in the light of the pressures
that are upon us as people living in this world, though not of
it, I suggested that we as the Lord's people need to come again
and again to this great doctrine of the second coming of Christ
and in the light of that doctrine to bring all of our present trials
and afflictions into proper focus. And there are few chapters in
the Word of God more rich in their teaching concerning this
great and wonderful and climactic event that will come at the consummation
of history when the Lord Jesus himself returns. This morning
in our study we had time simply to open up, to unpack some of
the passages or some of the segments of this passage of scripture
under the general heading of the nature of the event anticipated. And we discover together that
the return of the Lord Jesus in this passage is described
by this very pregnant phrase, the revelation of the Lord Jesus
in verse 7. It literally means the unveiling,
the uncovering of the Lord Jesus. And then the apostle goes on
to use three parallel prepositional phrases which underscore certain
dimensions of that glorious coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
will be an unveiling from heaven with the angels of his power
and in flaming fire. And we concluded this morning
with the corporate conviction I trust that this coming, referred
to in verse 10, when he shall come, is nothing less than the
visible, bodily, personal, and glorious return of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Now we move on tonight to consider
in the second place the consequences of this event described For in
this passage, we not only have the nature of that event which
is anticipated, but we have some of the major consequences of
that event described. And the consequences of this
event are described basically in terms of two categories of
people and the different consequences which the one event will have
in respect to those two categories of people. Now if we were speaking
topically on the subject of the second coming of Christ, The
only responsible thing to do would be to underscore that the
second coming of Christ will be cosmic in its consequences. That is, it will influence the
entire cosmos. We read in Romans chapter 8 that
the earthly creation will be affected by the events surrounding
the return of Christ. Similar words are given to us
in 2 Peter 3. But because it is my purpose
basically to open up this passage and to bring others into it only
so far as they elucidate the teaching of this passage, let
us concentrate our attention on the consequences of this event,
particularly as those consequences terminate on the first category
called the people of God, and then God willing, next Lord's
Day morning, on the second major category, those who are not the
people of God. What then are the consequences
of this event, described as the unveiling of the Lord Jesus from
heaven, in the power or with the power of His angels, And
in flaming fire, what precisely will those consequences be to
the people of God? Well, as we attempt to answer
that question, will you notice, first of all tonight, the specific
identity of the people of God, and then we will consider the
anticipated blessings of the people of God in the light of
the Lord's return. In this passage, in which the
Apostle describes the consequences of the unveiling of the Lord
Jesus for the people of God, he is very careful to give us
a rather comprehensive description of who the people of God are,
so that none will have any grounds to question whether or not these
blessed consequences are coming to him. Now will you notice in
the first place that the identity of the people of God in this
passage is given to us in verse 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy
unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. When the Apostle describes the
Church of the Thessalonians, he describes them as a congregation,
a called-out assembly, who are in vital spiritual union with
God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. As the
Apostle writes his letter and thinks of the peculiar nature
of the Church of the Thessalonians, He thinks of them primarily and
supremely as a company of sinners who have been brought into nothing
less than vital union with the living God and with His Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. So he describes the people of
God in this very forceful language, those who are in, that is, in
vital spiritual union with God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. In other words, the great blessings
that will come to the people of God at this event are blessings
that come to the true people of God, and those people are
only such as have been brought into vital spiritual union with
God the Father, and vital spiritual union with His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is nothing so tragic as
to see people who've made a decision, who've gone through the motions
of becoming Christian, who cling yet to a basic pattern of selfishness
in self-indulgence, but who go to church a sufficient number
of times where there is a sufficient measure of truth to pacify their
consciences and to see them with a semblance of rejoicing in the
return of the Lord. And generally it's in terms of,
well, when things get too hot, the Lord will come and just whisk
us all away and take us out of this mess. My friend, these great
anticipated blessings of the return of the Lord, the unveiling
of Christ, are blessings which will come not to every Tom, Dick,
and Harry, and Susie, and Helen, and Patricia, who have merely
named the name of Christ, They will come only to those who are
in vital, living, spiritual union with God, the Father, and with
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, their specific identity
is given to us in verse 3. We are bound to give thanks to
God always for you, brethren, even as it is meet or necessary,
for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of each one of you
towards one another aboundeth, so that we ourselves glory in
you in the churches of God for your patience and faith." Do
you see the true identity of the people of God? They are not
only in vital spiritual union with the Father and with His
Son, but they manifest the fundamental graces which are the inevitable
fruit of that union. Whenever there is vital spiritual
union with God the Father and with His Son, that union is never
a barren union. It is always productive of growing
dynamic expressions of the graces herein mentioned. Notice those
graces. They are three. Faith, He says
that your faith groweth exceedingly, love, the love of each one of
you toward one another abounds, and then patience or steadfastness
even in the face of opposition. You will remember in the parable
of the sower, when our Lord describes those that receive the word into
good soil, He describes them in the gospel of Luke chapter
8 with this language, These are they who, having received the
word into a good and honest heart, bring forth fruit with patience."
No one, no one, man or woman, boy or girl, has any ground to
believe he has savingly embraced the word unless he is bringing
forth fruit with patience. with endurance in the face of
opposition, opposition from his own remaining corruption, opposition
from the world, the flesh, and the devil. For you remember in
the parable of the sower, it was the sun of opposition that
revealed the shallowness of the response of the stony ground
here. He seemed to have something until
the withering influence of the sun of tribulation and persecution
arose, and then it was revealed he had no root in himself. And
so the apostle is very careful in this passage. While speaking
of the tremendous blessings that will come to the people of God
at the unveiling of the Lord Jesus, to make it abundantly
clear that these blessings are not to come to everyone who's
made a profession, to everyone who, having made a profession,
brings forth a little fruit for a little time. No, no. The mark
of vital saving union with the Father and with His Son is this
manifestation of the fundamental graces which are the inevitable
fruit and the necessary accompaniment of that union. And then thirdly,
their specific identity is given to us in verse 10 by the names
with which they are called or by which they are addressed.
When he shall come to be glorified in his sake, and to be marveled
at in all them that believe. They are identified as saints
and as believers. And this word saint literally
means holy ones. But it emphasizes not so much
holiness wrought in them by virtue of the process of sanctification,
but the basic concept of holiness is separateness. separated by
God unto God and His service. And so the Apostle says, when
He comes it will be with the purpose of being glorified in
His holy ones, those who have been separated unto Himself and
to His purposes by His own amazing grace. And they are described
further in verse 10 as those that believed. Those who have
believed and continue to believe the testimony of God in Jesus
Christ as given to us in the Word. Now that's the specific
identity of the people of God. So when we discuss tonight the
consequences of this great event for the people of God, we're
not talking about everyone who bears the name Christian. Everyone
who has made the profession of becoming a Christian, or everyone
whom others may regard as a Christian, we are speaking only of those
who are found within the framework of the specific identity of the
people of God in this passage. those who are in vital union
with God and with His Son, those who manifest the fundamental
graces which are the fruit of that union, those who can be
legitimately designated as saints and as believers. Now, how in
the world did they get into that position, whereby they could
be called saints and believers? whereby they were united to the
Father and to the Son, whereby they bring forth the fruits of
that union, whereby they can be truly called what they are. Well, from the divine perspective,
Paul says in chapter 2 and verse 13, it's because God had set
His love on them from the beginning. We are bound to give thanks to
God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. for that
God chose you from the beginning unto salvation. And, oh, we can
very easily lose sight of some of these precious truths that,
in a very real sense, form the very rationale for our coming
together as a people many years ago. And we must never grow silent
on our conviction that if anyone is numbered amongst the people
of God from the divine perspective, it is because they were loved
of God from eternity. They were chosen from the beginning
unto salvation. And the apostle is not at all
embarrassed to write to young believers and to permeate his
letters with the concept of free and sovereign electing grace. This is no truth to be pushed,
as it were, under the carpet and to be kept there and once
in a while brought out for theological debate or discussion. The apostle
brings it right into the heart of his prayer life. And he says,
we're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren. And then
he brings it right into the center of his pastoral concern for the
church and reminds them that if they are numbered amongst
the people of God, If they are part of that group that will
be blessed at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven
with the angels of His power inflaming fire, it is because
God loved them. It's because God chose them and
He wants their hearts to be fanned with new dimensions of love to
a God of free and sovereign grace. But from the human standpoint,
they are numbered amongst those people because they believed
the gospel. And he's not at all to attribute
their standing in that category because they believed. Look at
verse 10 again. He gives this little parenthesis,
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, to be marbled
at in all them that believed, because our testimony unto you
was believed. And then he goes back to his
theme. He comes to be marveled at in that day. He says you are
in this category because you believed our testimony. Now notice
carefully. He didn't say you're in this
category because you felt a special word from God telling you you
were elect. He doesn't say you're in that
category because a promise leaped from your own heart into your
consciousness. Are some of you listening to
me now? He says you're in that category because our testimony,
that is the objective proclamation of the gospel, was believed. You see it? They're not in that
category because something leaped up from within them. But something
came objective to them, the testimony of God's truth in the Gospel. And when you read Acts 17, you
see what that testimony was. It was simply preaching from
the Scriptures the truth concerning the Lord Jesus. And you will
never be numbered amongst the people of God until you believe
that testimony. And you say, Pastor, here you
go back to that same old note again. That's right, I have no
other message. Until you believe the testimony of God concerning
His Son, that Jesus is what He claimed to be, and He came to
do what He said He came to do. And he now lives as a risen Savior,
having been crucified for sinners, and sincerely and earnestly offers
himself to you in the gospel, saying, Him that comes to me
I will in no wise cast out. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." Now, my friend, do you fit that
category, the people of God? Can you say, sitting there tonight,
that in spite of your sins and dullness and all of your hang-ups
and problems and remaining perversity and all the rest, you have something
more than empty religion? You know what it is to be in
union with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. This
is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God
in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Do you know anything of
what it is to have a living, vital spiritual union with God
and with His Son? A union that is producing in
you right now these cardinal graces, increasing faith, increasing
love in the face of opposition, so that they are being produced
with steadfastness, not with perfection. Not with equal intensity
at any given point in your Christian life? We all have our valleys
and our mountain peaks, our dry periods and our fruitful periods.
I'm fully conscious of all of that. I try to guard the language,
but I bear down upon the issue. Is there growing faith? Growing
love? In a context of steadfastness? If not, my friend, you have no
grounds to believe you're part of this number. And can you really
be called a saint and a believer? Has your professed experience
of union with God and with his son set you apart unto God? Not perfectly, but as the basic
purpose and bent of your heart, you gladly acknowledge, I'm not
my own. I've been bought with a price.
Therefore, I want to glorify God in my body, which is his. Well, you see, the consequences
of this event that are described as the portion of the people
of God are consequences which will be exclusively the portion
of the true people of God. And so their specific identity
is underscored in this passage. But now let's move on to what
I trust will be ravishing to our hearts if we fit that description
What are those specific anticipated blessings? I suggest that the
text sets three before us. First of all, the cessation of
all affliction of every kind. The cessation of all affliction
of every kind. Now here, I want to give you
a little bit of the background of what was happening at Thessalonica.
That church came to birth, as it were, in the dust and smoke
of open opposition to the gospel. You can read the record of it
in Acts chapter 17. Paul's stay was very brief, only
three weeks, because things got so hot he had to leave town.
And there was a recalcitrant bunch of unbelieving Jews who
stirred up a bunch of unbelieving Gentiles and made them their
lackeys to disrupt things there in the emerging church. And apparently
that persecution continued right on to the time when Paul wrote
this letter to them. They were going through it. You
read of this in chapter 2 of the first letter, just to show
you that I'm not spinning this out of my own head. Chapter 2
of 1 Thessalonians, verse 14, For ye, brethren, became imitators
of the churches of God which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus. For ye also suffered the same
things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews.
who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out
us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men." He says,
you're having it just like the churches in Judea. As they had
opposition from the unbelieving Jews, you're getting it from
your own countrymen, Jews and Gentiles, as the record shows. Now then, as this pressure is
brought to bear upon them, what are they to do? What is held
out before them as the ground of their consolation and continued
stability in the midst of all of these afflictions that are
coming upon them? Does he hold out the hope that
they may yet live to see such a manifestation of the power
of God through the gospel that there will no longer be persecution
of believers? Does he hold out that hope? I
suggest there is not one place in the New Testament that that
is ever held out as the hope for suffering Christians. that
a glorious hour is coming when the Lord will come with such
power through His church that the church and its influence
will be in ascendancy over the universe and evil and evil men
will be so restrained as to be virtually non-existent in their
influence. Now some very good and godly
men say that they see in Scripture such a vision. Well, I say, bring
forth one clear passage from the New Testament which asserts
it, and I will begin again to seriously consider that position
which I now, after many, many years of wrestling with it, formally
and publicly reject as unscriptural. And it's the first time I've
ever said that publicly. For some of you know a little
bit more, we're talking about the latter-day glory theology.
evangelical, post-millenarian, eschatological perspective for
some of you theologians. Now you just chew over that mouthful,
but that's what we're talking about. For the rest of you, forget
I even said that, all right? But you see, the apostle does
not give them comfort by holding out the hope that there would
be this great blessing of the overturning of opposition, or
the Christianizing of society, or the overthrow of the opposition
by political Christian action? No, no. He says, and look at
his language, after reminding them of his thanks to God for
their perseverance in these graces in the face of opposition, he
says this, Verse 4, So that we ourselves glory in you in the
churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecution
and affliction which ye endure, a manifest token of the righteous
judgment of God to the end, that ye may be counted worthy of the
kingdom of God for which also ye suffer, if so be, now notice,
it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction
to them that afflict you, and to you that are afflicted he
will recompense rest with us at the revelation of the Lord
Jesus." Now, I confess, until I studied this passage in the
original, I always read it as though it were a command. And
to you that are afflicted, rest with us at the coming of the
Lord Jesus. No, no. The word rest is connected
with the word recompense. Notice the connection now. God
will recompense affliction to them that afflict you at the
revelation of Christ, but at the same revelation of Christ,
he will recompense rest with us to all the people of God. And so the great anticipated
blessing of the return of the Lord for the Christian is the
cessation of all affliction, of every kind. This word, rest,
and it's apparent that most of the commentators understood its
more literal rendering, but it would have seemed almost out
of place. We could translate it literally, relaxation or relief. Relaxation or relief, that's
the way it's translated, relief, in other passages in the New
Testament. And so the apostle holds out to these believers
as their great hope that the moment the Lord Jesus is unveiled,
unveiled in the manner in which we considered this morning, unveiled
from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire at
that instant, every afflictive pressure upon the child of God
will be utterly and eternally removed from the Christian. Now obviously in the context,
he's referring primarily to the opposition from human beings
that came to them because they were Christians. But when we
look at this word, plipsis, the general word for tribulation,
The general word for affliction, we find that the scripture teaches,
though not every Christian may bear the brunt of a focused,
concentrated persecution from the hand of haters of the gospel,
affliction and tribulation are to be part and parcel of every
Christian's experience. Jesus said in John 16, 33, in
the world, ye shall have tribulation, same word in
the original. He shall have affliction. Furthermore, we read in Acts
14.22 that when the apostles went back to visit all of the
churches where they had originally preached, they had this message. They went back to the churches,
assuring them that through much, same word, affliction, tribulation,
they must enter the kingdom of God. They didn't go back and
say, now that they're converted, let's really fill them with the
vision of the triumph of the gospel, that the day is coming
when everything that opposes the gospel here on earth will
be put down through the power of... No, no. They didn't do
any such thing, my friend. That's why I say, I stand to
reject that teaching, because it places a false focus of hope
before the believer, They went back through the churches saying,
in spite of the mighty movements of the Spirit in apostolic times,
in spite of the fact that it is estimated that one in twenty
became Christians under the Roman Empire, we must, through many
tribulations, enter the kingdom of God. The same apostle then
says, you see, in that context, it's a righteous thing, he says,
that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God. Any professed
believer who doesn't suffer tribulation and affliction proves himself
unworthy of that kingdom into which no one enters but by the
path of tribulation. Now, we don't enter because of
our tribulation. I've been preaching on justification for 12, 13 weeks
for you who are visiting with us. I've made it abundantly plain
week after week. We enter only on the grounds
of the work of another, but coming to rest on the work of another,
he places our feet into a pathway that has as part and parcel of
its pavement, affliction and tribulation. Now you see what a wonderful
thing it is in the midst of this, knowing that no matter what life
may hold, in its periods when things governmentally and sociologically
and economically and ecologically and everything else are at their
best, as long as we are in this world order as it is, Christian,
mark it down, tribulation and affliction are going to be your
bosom companions. Mark it down! Sometimes greater,
sometimes lesser. Sometimes more patent, other
times more latent. Sometimes more visible and obvious,
sometimes more subtle. But mark it down! Your rest does
not come till the revelation of the Lord Jesus. But the moment
the revelation comes, the rest comes. Now do you see why a persecuted
people often are the ones who have the most glowing, burning
vision of the return of Christ, because it makes them hold loosely
to things as they are here, and makes the heart burn for that
glorious day when the Lord Jesus will come, and you that are afflicted
rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus. Well, that's
the first great anticipated blessing of the people of God, the cessation
of all affliction of every kind. But secondly, their great anticipated
blessing is the glorification of Christ in them. Look at verse
10. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints. Now, some would translate it
to be glorified among his saints. I prefer the translation and
the thought conveyed by the idea, he comes to be glorified in his
saints, in his holy ones. You see, because at his coming
The work of redemption in His own will be complete, both in
the body and souls of His own. He cannot be fully glorified
in them until His work is completed upon them. You see, we are the
mystical body of Christ. The scripture says we are so
united to Christ as the head is joined to its body. Christ
is the head. The church is his body. Every
believer is a member of that body. But oh, we're not a pretty
sight much of the time here. We're bent and tortured often
and hindered and harassed. with a body that Paul calls the
body of our humiliation, Philippians 3 and verse 20. A body that he
likens to a tent that he longs to shed in 2nd Corinthians 5. And surely our souls still afflicted
with remaining sin in which the flesh lusts against the spirit
Our souls, in which there is still that remaining propensity
and inclination to evil, they're not pretty, are they? And much
of the glory of Christ is obscured in His body in its present situation. But when the unveiling comes,
the moment there is the voice of the archangel and the trump
of God, and the veil is pulled away, and Christ is manifested,
According to his first letter in chapter four, these bodies
of humiliation will be fashioned like unto his own glorious body,
and every last vestige of sin will be purged from the souls
of living believers, and the previously purged souls of dead
believers will join their now resurrected and glorified bodies. And what will happen at that
precise moment Christ will be glorified in His saints in a
way that was utterly impossible prior to the unveiling. Because
then, in the language of John, though we are now the sons of
God, it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is. if we have stood back and beheld
the transformation of a sinner here and now. Let's take a specific
instance. We'll not take names, but describe
an individual. Here he has been ruining his
body by addiction to alcohol and by a profligate, loose, amoral
life. His soul is being defiled by
thinking thoughts commensurate with his animal passions. And
when the grace of God reaches in and lays hold of that individual,
we see that body now presented to God as a living sacrifice.
We see temperance in the use of all foods and drinks and meat
and everything that goes into that body. We see temperance
in the exercise of its physical appetites in terms of eating
and sexual drives and the desire for relaxation and pleasure and
recreation. We see a body in which Christ
is glorified now And we shake our heads and as we behold the
activities of that body touched by the grace of God, we see what
a mighty Savior Christ is. And we see what He's done in
the soul, from a man whose soul caused his mouth to spill out
all forms of uncleanness and bitterness, invectives and cursing
and swearing and blasphemies and filth. We see the change
in the soul reflected in his speech, in his appetites. He wants to read the word, be
amongst the people of God, where once he was bitter and harsh
and sarcastic and callous. He's now tender and sensitive
and gentle. And we stand back and say, what
a monument to the power of Christ. Christ is glorified in that man's
soul and body. But my friend, all that he has,
God says, is just a little down payment of the best that is yet
to come. So the transformation which occurs
in him, body and soul, is called an earnest, a down payment. That's
all. And he is sealed by the Spirit
unto the day of redemption. That's why the Bible says we
are saved in hope. That is, the moment we are wrought
upon in saving grace, we are saved with a perspective that
says the best is yet to come at the unveiling of the Lord
Jesus. Now, think of it for a moment.
If Christ receives the measure of glory he receives just from
the lives he's touched here, and as I look out into your faces,
And as an elder and your pastor, having heard and known the testimony
of God's grace to you, I can think of the life history of
a number of you just sweeping my face over this congregation.
And in my heart, it would be easy for me to slip behind the
curtain, get on my knees by a chair and say, Oh, Lord Jesus, I glorify
you for the transforming power of your grace and start naming
you who sit here right now as living monuments of the power
of Christ. Oh, my friend, the best of us
here, what a mess we still are. With our aches and with our pains
and with our bodily infirmities and with our remaining sin, what
will it be when in a moment of time we are made like Him, body
and soul, perfectly conformed to the image of our glorious
Christ, what will happen? He will be glorified in His saints. Now, the Scripture says the angels
desire to look into these things now. What will they do when they
see the full display of the work of Christ in that day? You talk
about a hallelujah chorus. What will we do when we look
upon one another and we see in each other not a dim reflection
of Christ, but a full-armed reflection of His moral image? We will all
be caught up in a great chorus of praise, glorifying Christ
for what He has done in us. and what he has done in all of
his people. Now you see, for a true Christian,
that's no little part of his true hope with respect to the
return of the Lord, because as much as a true Christian longs
to get all these monkeys off his back in terms of affliction
and tribulation, a true Christian would not escape tribulation
at the expense of the glory of Christ. There is something more
precious to a true Christian than his own comfort. And that which is more precious
than his own comfort is the glory of Christ. That's why he's willing
to suffer rather than deny Christ. That's why he's willing to undergo
hardship rather than deny Christ, because there's something more
precious than his own skin. It's the honor of Christ. Well,
what a wonderful thing to know. that my highest good and his
highest glory are not enemies in the scheme of redemption,
but God has joined them. When he comes, there will be
rest for us, perfect rest from all afflictions, but perfect
glory to our Redeemer for a perfected redemption. Does your heart leap
within you with that thought, my friend? If so, it's only because
grace is wrought upon you. Well, in the third place, the
anticipated blessing of the unveiling of the Lord is not only this
cessation of all affliction, the glorification of Christ in
them, but notice, the admiration of Christ by them. Verse 10,
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled
at in all them that believed." Now, the word literally means
to marvel, that is, to view with glad astonishment and grateful
wonder, usually leading to praise. Let me try to illustrate. There's
a difference, you see, between being shocked at something and
brought to wonderment. Here a kid for six months has
entertained hope that come his birthday, he's going to get a
baseball bat that he's been longing for. I know one young man that
I'm sure that could be a very real hope. He eats, drinks, sleeps
baseball. Come the baseball season, I won't
look in his direction lest I embarrass him, but he's here. And here
the little kid's been entertaining this hope now for months, and
every time they go to two guys as a family, he stops by the
supporting section and he says, hey dad, that's the bat I want.
Oh, that feels good in my hand. That's the one I want for my
birthday. And so he's got all his hopes there for his bat.
Come his birthday, and they have their little family celebration
remembering his birthday, while the time comes for the cake to
be brought out in his presence, and he opens up all the little
presents, And then comes time for his big present from mom
and dad, and he expects something to be brought out about 32 inches
long and in a box about three and a half inches square, at
least three and a half inches along the sides. And instead,
he's told, we can't bring your present to you. You've got to
go to it. It's in the family room. And
so the little fellow runs down the stairs or through the hallway,
throws the door open, and when he does, suddenly he stands there
and goes, and what does he see? Not a bat, but he sees a beautiful
10-speed bike that he thought he'd never get until he was at
least 13 years of age. Secretly, he'd been longing to
have one of them, but he never had the courage to even break
his mind to his parents. It seemed too far beyond anything
he could ask of them. And when he finds that the very
thing he had secretly nourished a hope for, far beyond his bat,
which may cost five or six bucks, he knows these things cost at
least a hundred dollars. He didn't have the courage. He
felt it would just be out of place to even ask for it. What
does he experience when he stands there? He experiences wonderment,
amazement, Now that's something of the flavor of this passage. When he comes to be wondered
at, to be marveled at in all them that believe, so that when
the Lord Jesus returns, and I've already suggested some of this
in looking at that element of glorified in them, His saints
will behold and experience that which goes far beyond their fondest
expectations. And when they experimentally
feel and know what it is to be glorified, and when they experimentally
know what it is to look upon the face of the Savior whom they've
loved unseen, They'll be like the little boy who on his birthday
got far more than he ever could wish or hope or ask for. And
we'll be left breathless. And as soon as we're able to
catch our breath, all the attention will be focused upon the one
by whose gracious work all of this has come to pass. Even the
Lord of Glory, who for a season was willing to come to the dark,
damp confines of a little Hebrew maiden's womb, who was willing
to pass through the humiliation of a natural birth amidst the
groans and sighs of her mother, of his mother, who was willing
to be dependent upon the breast of that little maid for his nourishment,
who was willing to learn his ABCs and come through every stage
of human development, who was willing to be subject to scorn,
to mocking, to ridicule, and ultimately to the shameful death
of the cross. Then by His mighty resurrection
entered a new phase of His redemptive work when He went back to the
right hand of the Father, shedding all of His humiliation, leaving
it here. But the glorified God-man went
back to carry on that work of redemption by His intercession
and by the sending of the Spirit until He would gather all of
His sheep from all the nations of the earth. Then by covenant
faithfulness secure them in a state which they now experience. Surely,
my friends, what could we do? What shall we do? What else would
be fitting in that hour when we actually look upon this one?
But to admire him, to marvel at the magnitude of his grace
and the glory of his person. Well, you see, these are the
anticipated blessings that Paul holds forth for suffering Christians. Do they strike a note, a chord
of yearning in you? Do they cause you to say with
John the seer, even so, come, Lord Jesus! Now the apostle indicates in
this very passage that when the child of God is a heart that
burns and yearns for these anticipated blessings, it will have a very
practical effect. So he closes this very section
with a prayer for the believers. Look at the language of verses
11 and 12. To which end? Or as one has translated, with
a view to which we pray. That is, in the light of these
great blessings that I, Paul says, and Silvanus and Timothy
anticipate with you, the saints of God at Thessalonica. In the
light and with a view to which blessings we pray for you. And
what do they pray? that our God may count you worthy
of your calling and fulfill every desire of goodness and every
work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus may
be glorified in you and he in him according to the grace of
our God and the Lord Jesus. He says, in the light of the
blessings that will be ours, this is what we pray for you.
Nothing less than this is worthy of people who are the heirs of
such blessing at the unveiling of the Lord Jesus. Nothing less
than a life. that is worthy of our calling,
a life that somehow answers to the magnitude of the grace shown
to us in our being called into union with the Father and with
His Son. And practically speaking, that
means that there would be the fulfilling of every desire of
goodness, that is, that the implanted principle of holiness and life
would have its full sway in everyday experience. And also, the impulses
of faith as they express themselves in the everyday conduct of the
Christian would be attended with power to do what faith desires
and dictates. And what will be the result of
this? Though the Lord Jesus will not be fully glorified in his
saints until his unveiling, listen, he says he is to be glorified
in part here and now, that the name of the Lord Jesus may be
glorified in you and he in him, and all of this by what? By the grace of God, according
to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, I
started this morning by speaking of the practical problems that
we face, all of us living in this particular area of the country
at this particular point in history. And I said that it's only as
this biblical perspective becomes part and parcel of our spiritual
reflexes that we have a proper perspective on life. And I close
on that very note because that's where the Apostle closes, you
see. He does not give all of this so that the people of God
can now go off and have a prophetic congress and try to dissect Daniel's
beast right down to every toenail and every horn and write books
that somehow line up all the events and circumstances of the
Lord's return in the place of Russia and China and the Middle
East. Oh, my friend, we are not to
be concerned with such issues. Our attention is to be focused
upon these great blessings. Whatever affliction I now have,
whatever affliction may yet come, all that afflict me will be afflicted
when He is unveiled. And when He comes to be the afflictor
of all who afflict me, then I shall have cessation, rest, relaxation. I shall be done. Soon I will
be done with the troubles of this world. There's a lot of
good theology in some of those old spirituals. Soon I will be
done with the troubles of this world. And my friend, if you
hope to be done with them now, I don't care how noble your hope
is for Christian action or Christian conquest, it is a hope that is
a variance And there I stand until someone
can exegete these passages and tell me that this was not the
apostolic perspective. There I stand. And I hope you stand there as
well. And if that's our perspective,
then surely, with all our hearts we want to glorify Him, waiting
in the gas line, so whenever Nelson's cussing, we don't cuss. And when people get together
and all they do is grumble and complain, we can't trust the
president, we can't trust the oil tycoons, nobody's honest.
We seize the opportunity to witness and say, yes, and why is that
so? We say because honesty, the glue
of any society, is gone from our whole society. You don't
trust the president because you lie. Don't you? Are you perfectly
honest in your income tax? Seize the opportunity to witness
to people, turn their complaints in upon their own consciences. And why do we do this? That we
may glorify Christ while we are yet here. Buying up the opportunity,
seizing time by the forelock, all the while having our strength
constantly buttressed and intensified by that great longing and great
hope that He shall be unveiled. And when He is unveiled, it will
be from heaven with the angels of His power in flaming fire. And for us, rest Christ fully
glorified in us, Christ admired and magnified by us, and that
for all eternity. If you're an unconverted man
or woman, my friend, your future is a gloomy, foreboding, frightening
thing, isn't it? When you stop long enough to
think about it, that's exactly what it is, isn't it? Frightening,
gloomy, foreboding. My friend, you don't need to
stumble through life dreading. This hope can be yours, even
as it is ours. in Christ. And how did we get
into Christ? Not for any worth in us, but
the testimony of the gospel came to us. Christ saves sinners. Christ receives sinners. We believe
that testimony. We ventured upon Christ and we
found him to be true to his word. And having come to him, we have
found rest. Oh, that you'd come to him, my
unsaved friend. Oh, that this night you would
cast yourself upon his mercy. And child of God, whatever, whatever
afflictions are upon you, whatever trials are your portion now or
in the future, will you not come back to this chapter again and
again and again and let the world laugh at us? Let the world say,
ah, those Christians, they have no sense of mission and destiny
for the now. It's all pie in the sky. My friend,
a little bit of history completely locks that argument in the head.
No one has done more good for the world that now is than those
who've lived most fervently for the world that is yet to be.
Jesus said, while we have these perspectives, we are the light
of the world and the salt of the earth. And when the church has been
most otherworldly, it has been most powerful in its influence
upon the world. So don't be bullied away. from
what people call your pie in the sky by and by religion. That's pretty good pie we've
looked at tonight. May God fill our hearts with holy lungs so
that our prayer will indeed be even so common. Lord Jesus, let
us pray. Oh, our Father, At times we catch
just a little glimpse. Our eye seems to perceive, as
it were, a little glint of the glory that awaits the sons and
daughters of the Almighty. And when we do, we know in such
moments that it would take a glorified body and a glorified spirit to
gaze upon it even for a moment in all of its splendor. Oh, how
we thank you that the best is yet to come, and oh, that we
may be nerved with that strength that comes by your grace to so
live as to glorify the One who has brought such hope into our
hearts, even Our Lord Jesus Christ, Father, amidst our present afflictions,
help us to feed upon this hope. May the words, when he shall
come, burn in our hearts. May the truth of the glorious
unveiling of the Lord Jesus constantly be with us. and regulate all
of our conduct and all of our perspectives, all of our actions
and reactions. And, O God, we do yearn tonight
for those who have no such hope, but who could possess this hope
in Christ if they would but believe. O God, constrain them to faith. Constrain them to turn from their
sin and their pride and their objections and their doubts,
and oh, that they may embrace the offered Savior, even in this
place tonight. Receive our thanks for this day. Receive our thanks for your presence. Surely, if here and now these
little down payments of your glorious presence can give us
such joy. We understand a bit more what
your word means when it says in thy presence is fullness of
joy. Hasten the day when that which
we now eye from afar will be ours in experience. Hear our prayer. Forgive us for
our weakness and our sins and our vacillation, our earthiness,
O Lord, forgive us. Hear our cry and may the blessing
of your presence rest upon us as we part from this place and
from one another, we pray through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.