Well, it's a remarkable thing,
isn't it? God's ways of dealing with His people, causing His
people to be glorified in Him. And for Him to be glorified in
us, verse 12, is a remarkable verse, isn't it? that the Lord
Jesus Christ, this is the end result of God's activities in
His Church, the end result is that the Lord Jesus may be glorified
in you and you in Him according to the grace of our God and the
Lord Jesus Christ. What a remarkable thing that
God, the Almighty God of this universe is going to be glorified
in little groups of people gathered like us. Churches like this Thessalonian
church gathered out of that world, out of that pagan world of religion,
out of that idolatrous Jewish religion. They were gathered
initially out of a synagogue of Jews there. And the Lord brought
them through, as we've seen again and again, he brought them through
this and has led them to this place where they are continually
beset by persecutions and tribulations that they endure. So often we
ask, why the trials, why the persecutions? I remember when
I came back from India, my prayer before I came back was, wouldn't
it be wonderful if this Gospel, which is such a liberating Gospel,
an honouring of God gospel, such a biblical gospel. If it would
take root amongst the people who claim to be God's people,
there would be just, I was just so excited about the prospect,
if I was going to come back here, the prospect of seeing revival,
of seeing the Lord honoured, and yet Our history, like the
history of the Thessalonians, has been a history of trials
and tribulations and persecutions. And it's an extraordinary thing,
isn't it, that there the God of this universe comes and reveals
himself, and the wicked hard hearts of men are revealed in
their opposition to the glorious Gospel. And it's always been
so. I was going to read this Hawker
comment at the beginning so Norm wants to adjust the tape if we
can later on. But when the Apostle says that
he and his faithful companion in the ministry gloried in the
churches of God, let the reader recollect that no more can be
meant than that of that holy joy that the Lord blessed them
with His grace. It was a constant maxim of Paul
that no man should glory in men, 1 Corinthians 3.21. And therefore
he did not tell the church in this place that their good deeds
or their zeal, no, nor their faith, and love as their acts
were subjects of his glory. He only meant to say that the
Lord's blessing upon them opened a source of giving glory to God
and he rejoiced in their progress in grace. I beg the reader to
remark with me how Paul interprets the Lord's blessing upon his
church, a sure token of the Lord's displeasure to their enemies. And I beg the reader to remark
it rather, because the same holds good in all ages of the Church,
depend on it. In whatever congregation of the
Lord's faithful people, the Lord's cause prospers, while the Lord
manifests His favour thereby to them, This becomes his frown
upon those who oppose them. David was so convinced of this
that he made it a subject of prayer that the Lord's countenancing
him, the Lord's shining his face upon him, his enemies might behold
it and hang their heads. Show me, he said, a token for
good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed because
thou, Lord, has helped me and comforted me. Psalm 86, 17. Reader, do bring this decision,
for it is the Lord's own decision, upon scriptural grounds into
practice, for forming righteous judgment in the present awful
day. While the great and glorious
truths of the Gospel are frittered away through the land, as flimsy
subjects supply the place of preaching God's electing love,
Christ's redeeming grace and the Spirit's regenerating mercy,
while places which our forefathers of blessed memory occupied were
those precious truths whereon was founded all the hope and
joy and comfort of their truly regenerated souls, once were
continually heard, now resound with daring denials of Christ's
finished salvation and the final perseverance of the saints."
Look and see where God owns and blesses His Word and where the
congregations are among whom conversion work and confirming
work are going on. This will be the way to discover
what the Apostle here calls the manifest token of the righteous
judgement of God. The Lord has engaged to honour
them who honour Him. 1 Samuel 2.30. And we may reasonably expect
to behold God's electing love manifested in the assemblies
where God's electing love is faithfully preached. And Christ's
redeeming mercy felt and enjoyed where redemption by His blood
is insisted on as the sole cause of salvation. And God the Spirit
does and will awaken sinners dead in trespasses and sins where
He sends His faithful servants to preach to the congregation
as the Prophet sent by Him did to the dry bones in the valley,
whose whole movement, breath and life can only come from His
sovereign power. Ezekiel 37, this will be the
way to decide where righteous judgement is formed, not from
conclusions drawn from numbers, but from conclusions drawn from
the real work of God upon the heart. O the high favour of the
God of all grace manifests to that real congregation of Zion,
called by what name soever it may be among men. whom the Lord
shall count when he writes up his people, that this and that
man was born there." So that was Paul's rejoicing at this
Thessalonian church, wasn't it? The Gospel had come. God had
come and brought the Gospel to them, and that Gospel had come
in power and much assurance. And the testing of that faith,
which we looked at last week, those trials of that faith had
been the means by which God grew them in grace and knowledge of
Himself, and grew them in love for each other, and grew them
in faith, patience in faith. And so this sentence begins,
which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. What's the manifest token of
this righteous judgment of God? That their faith in the midst
of trial, persecution and tribulations, their faith grows exceedingly. And the love every one of you
toward each other abounds and abounds, and they glory in the
churches of God because of their patience and their faith in all
the persecutions and tribulations that you endure. The persecutions
come and the tribulations come, but these people endure. Not
only do they endure, but they thrive in love and faith and
patience in the midst of all of that. What a remarkable way
for God to grow His people. And Paul looks upon them and
he knows what's going on. He's had the reports from up
there, and as he said in 1 Thessalonians 3, he said, Now we live that
you do, if and you do stand fast in the Lord. What opportunities
persecutions and tribulations give for the saints of God to
grow and to love each other. As we experience trials ourselves,
we have the comfort of our brothers and sisters around us as they
experience trials. We pray that our looking to the
Lord and bringing them to look to the Lord is a cause for them
to grow and to be nurtured and to be comforted. We actually
need each other. We lean. We lean on the Lord
Jesus and His work in our lives causes us to lean on each other. It's a tested faith, a tested
faith. But Paul goes on to say it is
a manifest token. It is something that's evidenced
amongst you right now. It's something that you can perceive. There is a work of God that can
be seen. It's exercised by trials and
tribulations and persecution. to reveal, as Abraham's trial
did, reveal that God is faithful. God is faithful to all that He's
promised. God is faithful to His eternal
covenant and God is faithful and God will provide. He will provide. It is the root
God's eternal being and God's eternal covenant of degrees.
It leads to faith and love. We're the root, the root from
which the faith that God's elect springs from is God himself.
God is love. God is faithful. And where he comes and takes
up residence and where he sets himself to be revealed, there
is amongst his people love and faithfulness. And Paul is thanking
God. He's bound to thank God for them. They're born from above. They've
turned. Turn to God. Turn from idols. Turn to God from idols. And Paul acknowledges in this
letter and in the previous one that this is purely the work
of God the Holy Spirit. He makes alive the dead. The Gospel comes and there's
life. It comes with power. There is
sight. with his blindness, sight to
see the Lord, to see that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of
God, to see that that man born in Bethlehem, crucified outside
on Calvary's tree, is both Lord and Christ. And his death wasn't
a failure, his death was a magnificent victory, a sin-atoning, God-propitiating
victory. Where there is sight, there is
a sight to see God. Where there is sight, there is
a sight to see us as we are. Where there is life, there is
feeling. There is a stony heart removed
and a heart of flesh given, a heart that is the heart, that precious
heart of God beating, as it were, inside the body of a sinner. And there is wisdom. Where there
is life, there is wisdom. And where there is life, there
is growth. There is growth. A building is
built on a foundation. A life where there is healthy
roots, there is life in the branches. And it increases with all the
increase of God. Where God begins a work, God
carries on that work. And there is, as Simon showed
us a few weeks ago, there is a growing in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. To grow in grace is to grow down
and to put roots down deep and to see God high and lifted up. And it's the fruit of God's work,
isn't it? It's the fruit of God's righteous
work in the hearts of His people. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. It's the love that He brings
to us. We love Him because He first
loved us. It's the fruit. Christ, His blood,
His righteousness is the sole cause, is the sole cause of these
people being counted worthy. What a remarkable statement from
God. A righteous judgment of God that you may be counted worthy. So the gospel came to them with
power and in much assurance. The truth was revealed and the
truth was acknowledged. You don't have to make decisions
about the truth. The truth just is. They heard the shepherd's voice. It came with much assurance in
their lives. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians
1 verse 4, he says, knowing brethren your election of God. Knowing their election of God. The shepherd sent his ambassador. The ambassador came with the
shepherd's voice, and hearing the shepherd's voice, they fled
from the voice of strangers and joined themselves with the Lord
and his people, delighted to be rescued. to be delighted to
be rescued from this present evil world, delighted to be rescued
from the judgement of God that must fall upon sinners. He's
delivered us, says 1 Thessalonians 1, he's delivered us from the
wrath to come. So it's a manifest token. It
means that there is a revealed evidence, a proof, a demonstration,
a verification of the truth. And wasn't it the Lord Jesus,
if you read His Upper Room Discourse, He promised His people again
and again, His disciples and those who would come after Him,
that they were going to be persecuted. They would actually count it
as if they were doing God's service in killing the apostles. And He goes on again and again
to say that throughout the Gospels that the way they treated Him
is the way they'll treat us. It's a manifest token. It's something
that's been proved, something that's revealed and been proved. It is, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians
when he came, speaking of the way he was and speaking of his
speech, it's remarkable how he describes himself He says, My
speech and preaching was not with the enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. It's that same word, manifest
token. A demonstration. He was in weakness,
in fear and in much trembling. It was a demonstration of the
spirit and power that he was looking for. Chapter 2, verse
5, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but
your faith should stand in the power of God. And there is another verse I'd
like you to turn to that's given me much thought for a long time. You know the famous verse in
Philippians 2.13 that's used all the time. It says, Now work
out your salvation with fear and trembling and those who want
to put God's people to work and work and work. Use that part
of the verse in Philippians 2.12 and then they forget fairly quickly
what the next verse says, for it is God which works in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. One of the things that I think
is becoming more and more clear to me as I go through life and
through the scriptures and see Verses like this one that we're
looking at in 2 Thessalonians, he's saying the persecutions
and the tribulations, they are pursued is what persecutions
mean. To be under tribulations means
that they feel as if they're crushed and squashed. And it
says that there they are, having these things happen to them,
and they are enduring. And so what he's saying to us
in this verse, I believe, is that this is the righteous judgment.
These persecutions and these trials are the manifest token
of the righteous judgment of God. The fact that they are,
as a congregation and individuals, undergoing persecutions and tribulations
is a manifest taking of the righteous judgement of God. And that same
word is used when people talk about work out your salvation
with fear and trembling. I think much of it in Paul's
experience was that he brings the Gospel as an ambassador of
Christ and he preaches to all that will listen wherever a door
is opened. He's anxious to preach the Gospel
but he knows that when he preaches the Gospel there is going to
be this dividing amongst humanity. The same sun that melts the wax
hardens the clay. As with the Thessalonians, as
with the Philippians, as with us, the people who reject the
Gospel are people often that we love and care deeply for.
Paul comes and writes these letters knowing that these people, the
people he's writing to, are suffering those trials and persecutions
from people within their families, from people that they have loved
and worked with, from people who have witnessed their character
over years. In the Philippian situation it's
the same. I think as people go on in the
Gospel we more and more become conscious of the awesome judgment
of God, the awesome righteous judgment of God. that He saves
by grace, 100% by grace, 100% by the work of His dear and precious
Son. And damnation is 100% the work
of man, always 100% the work of man. So when men stand before
Him, they are without excuse. God is righteous and God is just. If we turn back in Philippians,
We find the Philippians in chapter 1, verse 27, the Philippians
underwent similar trials to the Thessalonians. The towns are
not too far apart from each other. And he says in verse 27, only
let your conversation be, only let your life be as becometh
the Gospel of Christ. that whether I come and see you
or else be absent, that I may hear of your affairs, that you
stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for
the faith, the faith, the truth, the truth of the faithfulness
of God in the face of the Lord Jesus, the faith of the Gospel,
There is just one faith of one gospel. And in nothing be terrified
by your adversaries. You have adversaries. To own
Christ is to have enmity with the world and with Satan. In nothing be terrified by your
adversaries, which is to them an evident token. The God gathering His people
together, He says, God the Holy Spirit says, it is to them an
evident token of perdition, but to you salvation and that of
God. The gathering of God's people
together as He gathered them in Jerusalem and built walls
around them that He grew and grew and grew. And there were
God's people around God's throne worshipping in those tokens that
reminded them of the Lord Jesus Christ and on the outside were
those who were cast away. And in verse 29 He says, For
unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on Him. Believing is God's work. but
also to suffer for His sake. Having the same conflict which
you saw in me and now hear be in me." Paul came there to Philippi
and was sent to jail and was sent out from that town with
all sorts of disturbances, but with tokens of the grace of God
in that jailer and others there in Philippi. God gathering His
people together is an evident token, evident token of perdition. The Roman Catholics had one thing
right, that there is only salvation in the church. The only thing
that they had wrong is that their church is not a church, not owned
by God, never was owned by God, never will be owned by God. If
God's going to save people, he'll take them out of there like he'll
take them out of all sorts of other idolatry. But God will
gather his people together and it's an evident token. And part
of the evident token is like the Philippians and like the
Thessalonians and like all of God's people throughout time,
they are going to suffer trials and persecutions, tribulations. But there is for God's people
in these things, according to these remarkable words, a manifest
token of the righteous judgment of God. There are things that
Christians know, there are things that believers believe, and because
they believe them, They know them. We know that verse in Romans
8, 28. We know that all things work
together for good. We might not always know it in
our hearts, but we will be brought by God to know it in the reality
of Him having worked all things for our good. John's first letter
is just chock-a-block full of we knows. They're all through
it. We know Him if we keep His commandments,
believe on Him. We know that this is the last
hour, the last tick of the clock because the Antichrist, many
Antichrists have gone out into this world. We know that when
He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He
is. We know we have passed from death
to life because we love the Brethren. We know we are of the truth and
shall assure our hearts before Him. We know He abides in us
by the Spirit which He has given us. You know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And what it
is to confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is to confess
that Jesus Christ sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins, that he actually really did take away the sins of his
people by him absorbing the wrath of God. So it has fallen on them
perfectly and completely and they have died and they have
resurrected and they are with Him and He is a perfectly successful
substitute is what it is to declare that He has come in the flesh.
That's what He came in the flesh for, to die, to live that we
might live, to die the death that we deserve, to take the
punishment that we deserve, to raise, be raised victoriously
because we are justified. perfectly just in the court of
God because of his dear son. We know these things. We know,
we know, we know we have had these things revealed to us.
I don't know how they are revealed in the hearts of other people,
but God's people are taught by God and they know things. And
they know, they know that there will be, there will be a time
when the Lord will come. and rescue his people. But in
the midst of that time and before that time, there is a time where
his people are going to go through these trials. In 1 Corinthians
he says, chapter 11 verse 19, he says, for there must be also
heresies, heresies among you, that they which are approved
may be manifest among you. What a remarkable thing. The
God to reveal, to make manifest among you who's right, must bring
heresies. And heresy is simple. The word
means to choose. I will choose. I will choose
the character of God that I like. I will choose what parts of God's
word that I will like. I will choose. I will choose. That's all it means. They make
a choice. God's people are led by God. But that, like these trials and
persecutions, is a manifestation of the righteous, the righteous
judgement of God. Isn't that wonderful? Don't you
take comfort? I do often, and not as often
as I ought to, but I take comfort, I take great comfort from the
character of God. One of those books that I'm very,
very fond of is the Attributes of God by Pink. They're little
short chapters, only about 18 or 19 of them, and they just
give you, with a lot of Bible, just the attributes of God. It's
a wonderful thing to contemplate, isn't it, that the God of this
universe is love. The God of this universe is light. The God of this universe is absolutely
sovereign. The God of this universe is absolutely
unchangeable. He moves everything and nothing
moves Him. He is light and in Him there
is no darkness at all. He speaks truth, extraordinary
truth in His word. And all of his attributes, all
of his attributes have one place where they are centered and all
the rays center on that one event. All of God's attributes, all
of God's glory is just wrapped up in one person. on one rugged wooden cross, in
one time, outside that one city, witnessed by maybe a million
people, not all seeing at that time, but there in Jerusalem
and its surround. All of God's attributes are so
gloriously revealed in His dear Son. We had it in that bulletin
last week, didn't we? The quote from that lady whose
pastor went to see her when she was dying. She says, I'm resting
in the justice of God. I'm resting in the justice of
God. I rest in His justice to my great
substitute, that He would not let him die for me in vain. The justice of God is our claim
before the very throne of God. He is just. Righteousness and
judgment are the habitation of his throne." The Lord Jesus in Hebrews 1 is
described as having loved righteousness and hated wickedness. The Lord
is righteous in all of his ways. It's a righteous manifest token
of the righteous judgment of God. He's righteous in all of
His ways. He's righteous in sending the
persecutions. He's righteous in the tribulations.
He's righteous in the trials. He's righteous in all the results. He's righteous in all His ways. You see, the afflictions of God's
people are not punishment. God punished his son as our surety. He can't be just and punish twice
for the same crimes. The crimes have been dealt with
completely. The afflictions of God's people
come from a father who loves, from a father who is manifesting
things in the midst of our trials that could not be revealed if
there weren't trials. What a remarkable thing we have
manifestly seen reveal is how people love the truth. We pray for God's mercy on them,
we pray that their backsliding will be healed freely. If you
go down to chapter 2, there is this deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish because they received not the love of the
truth. It's all very well to acknowledge
the truth about the sovereignty of God and you can acknowledge
the five points of Calvinism, you can acknowledge particular
redemption and total depravity and all those things, but God's
children love the truth. That means they will not have
anything to do with those who stand opposed to those things. They love the truth and the love
of the truth is revealed in trials. in testings that we might know
that He who is our foundation is sure and firm and true and
is absolutely sovereignly ruling all things right this very moment
for His glory and for the good of His people. He might chasten
his children as sons, and it says, the chastening of the Lord,
that we should not be condemned with the world. He'll chasten
his children to bring them back to his ways. But isn't it wonderful
what this verse says? It's a manifest token. All of
these struggles and your enduring of them in love and faithfulness
is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that you might
be counted worthy. Worthy. Isn't that a great word? It means worth, doesn't it? It
means merit, value, fitting, fitted for heaven. worthy, made
worthy by a righteous, righteous God, worthy of the kingdom of
God. The Lord Jesus gives us some
wonderful descriptions in the Gospels of the people who are
worthy. It's wonderful how the Lord revealed
His glory, revealed His grace, and revealed His beloved being
brought to Him, that they might be accounted worthy to obtain
the world, that new world to come and the resurrection from
the dead. So the worthy have no merit of their own. This was all by grace for the
Thessalonians, wasn't it? I love the story of the Prodigal,
it's in Luke Chapter 15, but it's a glorious, glorious story.
And you probably remember the terrible insult that he did to
his father. He said to his father, I wish
you were dead. Give me what's coming to me when you die, and
give it to me now. Be you as a dead person to me,
but let me have all the goodies." Then he left. And he wasted it all, and he
ended up with absolutely nothing, sitting in a pig pen, wishing
he could eat the scraps of the pigs. He had his fun, and this
is where he ended up. And then he recited and he thought
back to what life was like in his father and he says in Luke
15, 19, he says, I'm no more worthy. This is his practice
in his little speech he's going to make to his father. I am no
more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of your hired
servants. And he finally got back to the
father, and there was the father where? The father was there on
the hill, waiting for him and running to him. A glorious picture
of a father who delights for his children to come back to
him. And he brings them back. He brings them back through trials.
And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and in thy sight. God's children are not playing
games with sin. I have sinned against heaven
in Thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called Thy son."
And then we have this glorious but, one of the glorious buts
of the scripture, but the father said. So he took almost no notice
of the boy's pleading, did he? He says, but,
but, and then he gave all these instructions. Bring forth the
best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes
on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and
let's eat and be merry for this. my son." You see, he was always
his son, wasn't he? He never ceased to be his son.
This, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and
was found and they began to be merry. They were merry and the
self-righteous religious son was enraged. That's exactly what
happens when God draws his little ones to himself. The world is
enraged. They have no merit of their own.
They are humbled. They are humbled, aren't they?
John the Baptist was declared by God to be the greatest born
of a woman, the greatest born of a woman. And he said of the
Lord Jesus, He it is. They said, you are an amazing
character performing these things and preaching these amazing sermons.
And are you the Christ? And he says, no, I'm not. He
said, He it is who is coming after me, is preferred before
me. whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose." They are
people who have no merit of their own. They are people who are
brought to a place of deep, deep humility. I love what the Roman
centurion, the Gentile, said. He was described as the Lord
of having great faith. In Luke 7, he says, Lord, trouble
not thyself. He has a servant who's dying
and he's in desperate need. He says, trouble not thyself,
for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. for
wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto you, but
say in a word and my servant shall be healed." The Lord says
this is great faith, so He acknowledges His place, doesn't He? He acknowledges
the absolute sovereignty of God and that He has absolutely none.
He acknowledges the great ability of God. Just say a word and He
knows His place. He's in a sovereign's hand. He's totally unable and totally
unworthy. God's children are made such
by the Spirit of Grace. They are brought with weeping
and supplications. He sends his people out. He sent
Paul out and he sends his Thessalonians out and he sends his people out
always. He sends them out as lambs, as
sheep amongst the wolves. And he describes the worthiness,
the challenging worthiness in Matthew Chapter 10. I might just
look there briefly, I'm nearly finished. In Mark chapter 10 he says, I'm
sending you forth as sheep amongst the wolves. And he sends them out to places
where they will find people who are worthy. In verse 11, going
back a bit, he says, in whatsoever city or town you shall enter
inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till you go hence. He talks about a house that is
worthy. They just received the ambassadors
of God and accepted them into their place. Going down to verse 28, the worthy
walk as their Saviour did. Is it enough for the disciple
that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord? If they
have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more
shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore, for
there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid
that shall not be made known. He calls them to preach and to
speak, and to fear not them which kill the body but are not able
to kill the soul, but rather fear Him which is able to destroy
both body and soul in hell. There is a true and right fear
that God brings in to His worthy people. There is a true and a
worthy confession. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. There is an acknowledgement,
a tough acknowledgement of what it is to live in this world. But whosoever shall deny me before
me and him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I have come to
send peace on the earth. I have come not to send peace
but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance
against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he that taketh
not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that
finds his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for
my sake shall find it. And he that receives you, receives
you, receives me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth
him that sent me. They're just promises from God,
are they not, brothers and sisters? They happened in the Philippian
church, the Thessalonian church, all the churches that were planted,
they happened again and again and again. God sends these trials
and in those trials there is a manifest token of the righteous
judgment of God that you may be counted worthy for the Kingdom
of God for which you also suffer. And it's a righteous thing with
God. He'll righteously recompense
tribulation and we'll look more at this in the following weeks.
And to you who are troubled, see it's a righteous thing, a
righteous manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that
His people will have rest. You can see it there in verse
7. And to you who are troubled, rest. Rest with us, a release. It means a relaxation of tension. There will be With the brethren,
with God's people, there will be a sense where all of these
things which seem so contradictory to human wisdom and understanding,
contradictory to how you would think the great king of this
universe would work his purposes, His ways are way, way beyond
our ways and beyond finding out. We just rest. He brings His people
through these trials to rest in His wisdom and His judgment
and His righteousness. It's a manifest token of the
righteous judgment of God that you'll be counted worthy and
you'll be brought to a place of rest. It's extraordinary, that word
literally means to give up. It means to give yourselves up
into the hand of a sovereign God. If He brought His Son into
this world to do and die for His good pleasure and for His
people and to save them from their sins, and He did it through
trials and persecutions, and he took his church through it
in all these years. He's got good and glorious purposes. And we like the Thessalonians,
we'll have by the grace of God opportunity to look back and
we will see that it's a manifest token of the righteous judgment
of God. to gather his people together
around the Gospel, to cause them to stand in the midst of extraordinary
trials, that they might see that all the power rests in the hands
of our great God. to show us what we are, to show
us what we've been rescued from, but most of all to show us the
glories of our Redeemer and His faithfulness to His people. He
is faithful. He finished that first letter
didn't He? He is faithful and He will do it. You see they'll
endure the trials and persecutions. He is faithful and He will do
it. Let's pray.