Well this is a heavy topic, isn't
it? I remember hearing some years
ago about two preachers, I think it was Machain and Banar in Scotland
and they used to meet on Mondays after their services on Sunday
and one of them asked the other what he had been led by the Lord
to preach on and he said he'd been led by the Lord to preach
on hell, And the other man, who was a good friend of his, said,
did the Lord grant you the grace to preach with tears? The people that we are reading
about here who stood in opposition to Paul and these Thessalonian brethren
have spent most of 2,000 years deeply, deeply aware of the fact
that they had stood opposed to the God of all grace. And they
had, as these verses say, they had not obeyed the Gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ and they didn't know God. And the people
who are doing the persecution and causing the tribulations
here are actually religious people, aren't they? Moral people, apparently zealous
people, believing that they were serving God. We looked last time at verse
5 about this manifest token, this evidence evident activity
of the righteous judgment of God that you might be counted
worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you also suffer. And God displays His character,
doesn't He? He displays His character in
the preaching of the Gospel. He displays His character in
the saving of His living people. He displays His character in his dealings with those who stand
opposed to him. You see in verse 6 it says, in
verse 5, it's the righteous judgment of God and it's a righteous thing,
verse 6. It's a righteous thing with God. It's a righteous thing from God's
perspective. It's a righteous thing in a sense
from God's side to recompense tribulation to them that trouble
you, to them that crush you, to them that oppress you. It's a righteous thing of God
to reconsent tribulation to them. And it's a righteous thing for
God, in verse 7, to give those who are troubled Rest with the
apostles. Rest with them. When the Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They'll be
punished, righteously punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. Our God is a righteous God. Everything God does is right. Everything God does is perfect. Everything God does is just. God is righteous. God is light. He sees all and there is no darkness
in Him whatsoever and so when He comes to these matters of
righteous judgment, He is righteously judging on the basis of having
absolute perfect knowledge, perfect knowledge of the hearts and the
intents of the hearts. God is love. God is holy. is the righteous judgment of
God. It's a righteous thing. It's a righteous thing to repay,
to recompense. Remember what Romans 12 and Hebrews
10 I think says the same thing. He says, I will repay. Wait. We are not to take judgment and
vengeance into our own hands. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay. He will recompense. He says in Deuteronomy, their
foot shall slip in due time. They think they stand, but they'll
slip. at a time of God's perfect choosing. And this is the time, isn't it,
the end of all things is when all things will be revealed with
absolute clarity. This world doesn't seem to provide
justice to God's people. They're often in a minority,
they're often in tribulation like these people, they're often
persecuted, they're often weighed down, weighed down by their own
sins, weighed down by this world that they live in. But one day
the Lord Jesus will be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels
and He'll come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them. He
will be vindicated. And we must again remember again
and again that our God is not like us. One of the great criticisms
of God of human thinking is, you think that I'm altogether
like you. He's not altogether like us. His vengeance is not like our
vengeance. God's vengeance is a righteous
vengeance. It's just and it's right and
it will on that day be seen to be right in everyone's eyes. Satan and the demons and all
of the reprobate who go to hell will be there to acknowledge
that God is just. God is just in sending people
to hell and is exactly the same justice, takes his people to
heaven. It's a revelation of righteousness. This flaming fire, Mark 9 talks
about this fire that is never quenched and a worm that never
dies. I often quote those verses in
John 8 verses 21 and 24 where the Lord Jesus is speaking to
these people who looked as if they were following Him and hanging
on his teaching and some of them looked as if they were believing
on him. And he said of them, he said
in verse 21, I go my way and you shall seek me and you shall
die in your sins and where I go you cannot come. And verse 24,
he says, I said unto you, I said therefore unto you, that he,
that shall, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe
not that I am he, you shall die in your sins. What a horrifying
thing to think about, to die surrounded by your sins. To die there, lying before you,
is the very reason for where you are. So often people want a debate.
debate the character of God and debate these things. I've been
very struck by that verse. If you turn back a couple of
pages in John's Gospel, in John 3, verse 19, it says, this is
the condemnation, this is the verdict. that light has come
into the world and that men love darkness rather than light because
their deeds were evil." Some of our translations translate
that to be, this is the verdict. The evidence is in before the
court of the just and holy God. The evidence has been in, the
evidence has been weighed, all the witnesses have been called.
It's no longer a time for debate. The judge has his cap on. The judge has made his judgement. This is the condemnation. Light
has come into the world and men love darkness because their deeds
were evil. A testimony of our own hearts,
if we have been regenerated, is a testimony of the fact that
Romans 5 is exactly right, isn't it? Therefore, as by the offence
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, verse 19,
for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. We were made sinners in the Garden
of Eden when we sinned in our father Adam. We have not only
a problem with the sins of our own lives, we are born shapen
in iniquity. This is the verdict. And so God's punishment, God's
punishment is just, and the punishment here is a just punishment. You'll
see that they did not know God, they did not obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ, They did not, in verse 10, they did
not believe the testimony, the testimony of God's people. They
did not believe the Gospel, they would not believe the Gospel,
and they would not believe God, they would not believe Christ,
they would not heed His warnings, they would not take note of the
manifest token. I remember a few weeks ago we
spoke about Philippians chapter 2 and the working out your salvation
of fear and trembling and for Paul I think verse 28 of the
previous chapter is so powerful, isn't it? The gathering together
of God's people is an evident token to them on the outside
of their perdition. They wouldn't believe the testimony
about God. They wouldn't believe the testimony
that Christ is the righteousness and holiness of God. They would
not believe the testimony about the truth of the Scriptures. That famous verse that's quoted
several times in the New Testament, Habakkuk, talks about the just
living by faith, but the justice compared in that verse to those
whose soul is lifted up in a man. To look at it, God says, watch
and see. Behold his soul which is lifted
up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith. They go about the men of this
world, all of the children of Adam until grace arrests them. They go about trying to establish
their own righteousness and not submitting to the righteousness
of God. They don't believe the declarations of heaven. They don't believe the declarations
of creation. They don't. They have calloused
their hearts against the evidence that Romans 1 says that God has
made plain to them, and they understand, and they suppress
the truth. They hold down the truth in unrighteousness,
and they call God a liar, and they will not trust Christ, who
is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the door, and they
won't go in through the door. When God brings in flaming fire
this everlasting destruction, it is a just, it will be just. God's character will be perfectly
vindicated. His holiness demands that he
cannot just wink at sin, he cannot take rebellion lightly, he must
And He will deal with all of the sin eternally in all of creation. He must be a just God and a Saviour. You see, God is eternal, so His
justice is eternal. And if people die in their sins,
they can never pay ever. They think that by their righteous
activities they're in some measure obeying the law of God, but the
law is spiritual. And Romans 7 says that we are
carnal, sold unto sin, we are slaves to sin, and the wages
of sin is death. And we can't satisfy God's holy
law. God must punish sin everlastingly. And there's an everlasting punishment
in verse 9. It's an everlasting punishment
from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. That's the deceitfulness of sin,
isn't it? The deceitfulness of sin causes
people trapped in it to hide from the only place of hope,
to hide from the only place of refuge. Think of Adam and Eve
in the garden. What was their first activity?
There was one place and one person who could solve their problem.
And where were they? There they were, hiding from
God. They'd stitched their own robe
of righteousness out of fig leaves, and they're hiding from God. And such is the nature of all
of us. What a remarkable thing saving
grace is. What a remarkable word salvation
is. To be saved from ourselves. To be saved from Satan. To be saved from the curse of
the law. To be saved by God. I used to remind the children
that I was looking after At school in India in the dawns when you've
got 25 teenage kids they can get away with blue murder with
someone who's as old and decrepit as I am. But I used to be very
struck by Romans chapter 1. What a shocking thing it is.
Three times in Romans chapter 1 God says that he gave them
over. He gave them up. What an appalling
judgment of God. A righteous and just judgment. In verse 28 he says he gave them
over to a reprobate mind. Turning the Bible quickly to
Job chapter 21. The scriptures are just so clear
in their teaching about the nature of what it is for man outside
of the grace of God. In Job 21 he describes them. He says, Wherefore do the wicked
live? Job 21 verse 7. to the wicked live, and become
old, and yes, are mighty in power. Their seed, their family, is
established in their sight with them, and their offspring before
their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear,
and neither is the rod of God upon them. Their cattle are doing
well. Their bull genders and fails
not. The cow calves and doesn't lose her calf. Calf is not off
her calf. They send forth their little
ones like a flock and their children dance. They take the timbrel
and the harp and they rejoice at the sound of the organ. They
spend their days in wealth. and for them death is just but
a moment, and in a moment they'd go down to the grave. And what do they say, verse 14? Therefore they say to God, depart
from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty that we
should serve Him And what profit should we have if we pray to
Him? That was put on the front page
of tomorrow's newspapers in this land. The people of Australia
would generally say amen to that, wouldn't they? We are saying
to God again and again as a nation, get out of my life. Give me freedom. What is the Almighty? that we
should serve Him and what profit should we have if we try to Him. Such is us. Such is us, isn't it? Turn over
to Isaiah. We'll just have one more. They'll come that day, they'll
come that day of the vengeance of the Lord, isn't it? And they
shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the
earth for the fear of the Lord and the glory of His Majesty
when He arises to shake terribly the earth. In that day, A man
shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which
they made each one for himself to worship. They'll cast them
to the moles and the bats. There'll come a day when all
will be seen to be dross. They'll cast it away for themselves
from these presents. And from the glory of His power,
the glory of His power, people want to be free from His presence. And from the glory of His power,
the glory of His power is that power that allows Him in His
sovereignty. It says in Hebrews 1, He sits
on that throne and He upholds all things by the word of His
power. He sustains this universe. He
allows us to sit on seemingly stable things because they are
upheld by the word of His power. And the moment, in a moment,
all He has to do is say a word and all of what seems stable
and secure will be removed. 2nd Peter says the heaven and
the earth which are now by the same word, by this word The power
are kept, are kept, 2 Peter 3, 2, are kept in store. They are
reserved. He is reserving this world at
the moment, reserving it unto fire against the day of judgment,
of perdition of ungodly men. He's sustaining it and he's reserving
it. and he's constraining it. People say, I had a fellow say
to me the day before yesterday, look how bad things are. And
he's talking about Iraq and it's horrible the things that are
going on over there. It is, this world is a mess and
it's always been the same. But if we looked at our scriptures,
we would be amazed at how good it is. We would be amazed at
how good it is. The only reason it's not infinitely
worse than it is, is because God is restraining it. He restrains the wickedness of
men. He restrains their wrath, the
wrath of men shall praise Him, and the remainder He restrains. That's what hell is, isn't it?
It's a removal from His presence and a removal from the glory
of His power. No light. Outer, utter darkness. The worm never dies. The fire is never quenched. He turned to Luke's Gospel. Again and again, it is the Lord
Jesus in the scriptures who speaks most about hell, because the
Lord Jesus in the scripture is the only man, the only man who's
experienced hell. Chapter 13, verse 24, he says,
Strive to enter in at the straight gate. Many, I say to you, will
seek, and they shall not be able to enter. And the master of the house has
risen up and has shut the door and you begin to stand without
and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us and
he shall answer and say unto you, I know not whence you are. And then he shall begin to say,
they shall begin to say, we have eaten and drunk in your presence,
and you have toured in our street. But he shall say, I tell you,
I know you not. I know you not whence you are. Depart from me, all you workers
of iniquity. And verse 28 is a remarkable
verse, isn't it? And there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust
out. Part of the weeping and gnashing
of teeth and part of the everlasting vengeance of God is that not
only are they dying in their sins, but somehow according to
these verses and in Luke Chapter 16 in the story of the rich man
and Lazarus, a similar thing is expressed to us. They actually
are aware of the glory of the saints of God in the presence
of God. Isn't that not what those words
say? They're weeping and gnashing
their teeth. It will be over, what they have done. And it will
be just. Luke chapter 16 says, there's
this great gulf that's fixed. Fixed by God, fixed by His justice,
fixed by His holds, fixed by sin that must be punished. How do we escape? How do you
escape? No matter how much we talk about
the horrors of hell, it's never as bad as it has been for Cain
and those who have, in their multitudes, died in rebellion
against God. How do you escape? is a wonderful description of
salving faith, isn't it? They believe the testimony of
the apostles. Believe the testimony of the
apostles. That's the rest with us of verse
7. That's what it is to be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God. Believe what the Bible says. Believe what the apostles said
about the Lord Jesus Christ. He came from heaven's glories. He came as a man to fulfil all
righteousness before God's holy law. He came as a man that he
might go to the cross to condemn sin, that he might go to the
cross to be made sin for us, that he might go to the cross
to bear the curse that we deserved, to bear our condemnation, he
went to the cross. for all those that God the Father
gave him before the world began. Paul has a beautiful description
of this testimony in Acts chapter 17, we've read it several times,
but it's just a simple, simple declaration of the Gospel, a
summary, a beautiful summary of the Gospel that they preached. He reasoned with them out of
the Scriptures, in verse 2, and then he openly, he demonstrates
and proves from the Scriptures that Christ must, needs, have
suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus,
whom I preach unto you, is the Christ. According to the scriptures,
this Christ must need, this Christ necessarily, as a matter of necessity,
promised and purposed in the eternal covenant. A necessity
promised and purposed and outlined for us in picture and type and
prophecy and word from God from all the scriptures, from Genesis
to Malachi. a necessity, a necessity that
He come in time, a necessity that He fulfill all of those
promises, fulfill all of those types, He be the reality from
which all those shadows were drawn. He came in time. He came as a must needs to achieve
a result. He came with a necessity to finish
a work. He must needs have suffered and
risen again from the dead to show that God is satisfied, that
God is just and the justifier of them that have faith in the
Lord Jesus. that this Jesus, this Jesus and no other Jesus,
this Jesus who must necessarily have come and suffered and risen
and achieved all that he set out to do, this Jesus whom I
preach unto you is Christ. That's the testimony. That's
the testimony, isn't it? It's expanded and added to and
illustrated, but they had the same tune, they had the same
message, all of them together. This Jesus, this particular Jesus,
the Jesus preached to Paul and Peter and the apostles, is the
Christ. He fulfilled all of what the
Old Testament said that he was going to be. We love Isaiah 9,
don't we? People sing it at Christmas time.
You just wonder how many people have the apostolic testimony
associated with it. Unto us a child is born and a
son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder. The
government of what? The government of this entire
universe shall be upon his shoulder. What else is upon his shoulder?
As the great high priest, all of the names of all of the children
of God are on his chest and on his shoulder. He rules all things
for their good and for the glory of his Father. government be
upon his shoulder, and his name, his name should be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace. And his throne, he sits on a
throne. His throne is established with
judgement and justice forever. everlasting throne and the zeal
of the Lord will perform this. This is not a God. This is not
a Christ. This is not a Jesus who came
and tries. This is not a Jesus who tries
and fails. This is not a Jesus who died
for people who end up in hell. He must needs have suffered and
risen again from the dead. This Jesus is the Christ. I'd like us to look for a little
while at some of the psalms. I've spent some goodly amount
of time over this last little while looking at the psalms and
if you go to the psalms and you read the psalms and read them
as if you were being on that amazed road with those two disciples
and they said to him, tell us about Psalm 16. Who is it in
Psalm 22 and what would he have said in all the Psalms? He said,
that is me, that is me again and again and again. The great, great exchange, the
great, great substitution of the Gospel is that God made him
who knew no sin to be sin for us. So he bore the sins of his
own, didn't he? He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree and he bore them. The scapegoat had the sins of
God's people laid on it and the sins of God's people were laid
on it while it was alive and it was taken away. Those sins
were taken away. You see, when he was on that
cross, he was bearing the sins of all of God's children and
he was bearing them and living a living death. and a living
curse and he was bearing real sins. God doesn't play I pretend
with sin. He doesn't play I pretend with
declarations about his precious son and his work on the cross.
And the Lord Jesus was there. So that's how we escape, don't
we? We escaped because the Lord Jesus
had flaming fire taken vengeance upon Him. The Lord Jesus was
punished with everlasting destruction. The Lord Jesus was punished and
cut off from the presence of God and from the glory of His
power. He had to bear all of hell's
wrath in our place. And he cries out, doesn't he?
Again and again in the Psalms we hear the Lord Jesus crying
out, how long, how long, verse, chapter, Psalm 13, how long will
you forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long will you hide
your face from me? The Psalms not only give us the
anguish of the Lord Jesus, they give us glorious pictures of
a faithfulness, a perfect faithfulness to God to the very end. on that cross, bearing the wrath
of God, bearing the scorn and indignation, the spitting at
men, flogged and beaten unrecognisably. And yet, again and again, like
Psalm 13, verse 5, he says, but I have trusted, I have trusted
He was shut off from the presence of God, and yet he says, but
I have trusted in thy mercy. I have trusted. Psalm 16, verse
10. It says, for you thou will not
leave my soul in hell. He suffered the hell of God's
wrath. His soul was going there, but
he wasn't going to stay there. You will not leave my soul in
hell, neither will you suffer, your holy one, to see destruction. Psalm 22 is a famous psalm, isn't
it? He says, My God, my God. My God, my God, why? Why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring,
he took the flaming fire of the vengeance of the wrath of a holy
God. He was punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of
his And he calls out again and again to God, Preserve me, Psalm
16 verse 1, Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust. Continually he's suffering this
wrath, the righteous judgment of God upon him. a cursed death. Cursed is everyone
that hangs upon a tree. He's redeemed us from the curse
of the law by being made a curse for us. And again and again in
the Psalms, He shows us, we are shown why He suffered that wrath. Because He really did bear our
sins. They really were His. Well just
read a few of them, that they are just remarkable. He says
in Psalm 40 verse 12, for innumerable evils have compassed me about,
mine iniquities have taken hold of me so that I am not able to
look up. They are more than the hairs
of mine head, therefore my heart fails me." Psalm 38 verse 4 he
says, mine iniquities have gone over me. Psalm 18 he says, I
have kept myself from mine iniquities. Throughout His life He kept Himself
from them, and on the cross He was made sin. Psalm 69 verse 5, O God, thou
knowest my foolishness, my sins are not hid from Thee. What an exchange. For you know,
you believers know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that through
His poverty you might be rich. What poverty our Lord Jesus suffered. What poverty. Psalm 22 He says, our fathers trusted
in me, they trusted in you to deliver them. And then what does
he say of himself? This is poverty, this is to be
for poor. Psalm 22 verse 6, but I am a
worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. Thou hast brought me into the
dust of death. And yet in the midst of that
poverty, in the midst of that, here was our Saviour, perfectly
faithful. That's the sanctification, that's
the holiness without which we cannot see God. He says, I will
declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation,
I will praise thee. He was cut off from the land
of the living. He was cut off from the land
of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken, and it pleased the Lord to bruise him." It satisfied
the justice of God. Man and Satan were let loose
on our Saviour to do to do what they would with Him, and yet
it was God, it was our God who punished Him with absolute perfect
justice, with absolute perfect holiness. Sin must be punished. If there is just one measure
of the sinfulness of sin, then that is to see the Lord Jesus
on the cross. We have no other way of knowing
what sin is. And what an exchange, what a
reward. Just look down at verse 10. Him having suffered all that,
as 1 Thessalonians 1.10, He delivered us, He rescued us, He delivered
us from that wrath to come. And when He comes, He'll be glorified
in His saints. and he'll be admired in all them
that they would believe." These are just momentary sufferings,
aren't they? These tribulations last but for
a moment. They are light tribulations. The saints of God suffer now
persecution and tribulation and they're crushed and beaten down. and God uses it to count them
worthy, to make them fit and right. Because you are sons,
God sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts and we cry, Abba,
Father, we are joint heirs with Christ. We rest and we will rest
with the apostles. We have the same rest as them
because God's children have the same precious faith as them. He's gloried in His saints, glorified
in His saints. That's the great glory of our
Lord Jesus, isn't it? His bride, beautifully robed
in His righteousness. No sin, no spot, no blemish. and to be admired. That's the
great gift of the grace of the Gospel, isn't it? Is that God's
children have the opportunity to admire the Lord Jesus. It means to wonder and to marvel
in astonished amazement at Him, to be admired, to be amazed at
His character. To be amazed at His love, to
be amazed at His grace, His truth, to be amazed at all of the revealed
character of God, which is shown so clearly on the cross. That
God is holy. and he must punish sin. That
God is just. And when the Lord Jesus cried
out, it is finished, God had declared that it is finished. He was put to death because of
our sins. He was raised because of our
justification. will be amazed. We ought to be
amazed and wonder and admire again and again that faithfulness,
that faithfulness unto death in those circumstances with all
of the holy wrath of God being poured upon him, all of the scorn
of men and the evils of Satan bearing down upon him, and there
he was, trusting God to the very end. That's the faithfulness
of the saints, God. That's the faithfulness that
we need. It's His faithfulness. The life
we now live in the body, we live by the faithfulness. What remarkable faithfulness
for us to be amazed at. See, believers believe the testimony. They believe the testimony of
scripture about the Lord Jesus. They believe the testimony of
the apostles. It's a simple description, isn't
it, of saving faith. To all them that believe, they
believe the testimony. May God cause us to believe the
testimony, to find it life, to find it life eternal. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that you would cause us to gaze in wonder at your dear and precious
Son, Heavenly Father, help us to have something of the realisation
that you alone can give by your Spirit of what our Lord Jesus
suffered. Father, we can't. In this flesh,
With all of these infirmities we can but just scratch the very
surface of the wonders of what happened on the cross and that
extraordinary transaction when your Son bore our sins and bore
your infinite, holy, just wrath upon them. until they are gone
and your justice, your holy justice is satisfied. When you say enough,
it is finished. and all of God's children are
perfectly robed with the righteousness of your dear and precious Son,
and have no sin, and therefore now there is no condemnation
for them that are in Christ Jesus. O Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the testimony of the apostles. We thank you that you have brought
that testimony to us and revealed it in manifest tokens again and
again. And we pray, Heavenly Father,
that you would find us continually with our eyes fixed on your dear
and precious Son, the author and the finisher of faith. Help us to find our rest in Him,
to find Him perfectly trustworthy in all the circumstances of our
lives. Work these things in us, Heavenly
Father, for His glory, that He might be admired and He might
be seen as glorious in us and in this world. We pray in Jesus'
name. Amen.