2 Thessalonians 1 We saw last
time that it's God's righteous judgment right now to overrule
persecution and to overrule tribulation to make His people worthy for
the Kingdom of God. He does that because our only
worthiness is Christ. And so, as troubles come and
persecutions come, God's ruling that to make us, to grow us in
faith in Christ, to trust Christ to save us. He's growing us in
patience to wait on Christ till He delivers us. And as He delivers
us, He grows us in hope, knowing, reassuring us that all God's
promises are yes and amen in Christ, that He has delivered,
is delivering, and shall deliver. So all of that's God's righteous
doing right now for His people. Tonight we're going to see God's
righteous judgment when Christ returns. When Christ returns,
He will justly repay His enemies. He will justly repay His enemies,
and He will justly give His saints rest with Him in glory. All in justice. It's a righteous
thing. Look here, verse 6. Seeing it
is a righteous thing with God, to recompense tribulation to
them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with
us. 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. who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified
in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe in that
day. And the reason is there in the
parentheses, because our testimony among you was believed. Our subject
is a righteous thing with God. A righteous thing with God. We're
going to see God's righteous judgment upon the unbeliever.
We're going to see God's righteous judgment upon Christ in place
of his people. And then we're going to see God's
righteous judgment toward all who believe in that day. First
of all, for the unbeliever. Those who trouble God's saints. God gives righteous trouble.
It gives righteous trouble. Verse 6, seeing it as a righteous
thing with God to recompense. That word is to repay. To repay. To recompense tribulation to
them that trouble you. To recompense trouble to them
that trouble you. Now we saw last time, and you
know that God is righteous. He's righteous. He only works
righteousness. Everything God does is righteous.
Now in this world right now, you that believe, are often troubled. You're often troubled by those
who know not God, who believe not on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even if somebody's not directly persecuting you, even unbelieving
family, unbelieving friends, they trouble you because you
want them to know the Lord. But they're speaking specifically
here of those that trouble us with persecution and slander
and all sorts of trouble. But it's a righteous thing with
God right now to recompense trouble to them. And He's going to protect
His people right now. The same Lord, the same Christ
who stood between The Pharisees and that woman caught in adultery,
He's standing between His people right now and those that would
trouble you. He will come between us and He'll
give you rest right now, but in the Day of Judgment, it will
be God's righteous judgment to give them that trouble His saints
Just trouble. Just tribulation. Tribulation
that is just. Now, knowing this, knowing that
right now He's the one that's going to save us from trouble,
and knowing that the day of our Lord is coming, and vengeance
belongs to Him, that's why God's saints don't take vengeance right
now. I asked Adam to read Psalm 94. You see there, to whom belongs
vengeance? To our Lord, to whom belongs
vengeance? That's what the psalmist was
praying. And he was depending on Him. And that's what Scripture
tells us. Look over at Romans 12. And we
need to know this. The saints at Thessalonica needed
to know this. They were suffering a lot. And
it's just our knee-jerk reaction in our flesh. Our sinful nature
wants to take vengeance. We want to recompense. We want
to repay. We want to render trouble for
trouble to them that trouble us. But in our new man, the Lord's
teaching is don't do it. Vengeance belongs to the Lord.
Look here, Romans 12, 19. He says, Dearly beloved, avenge
not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written,
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. See there, I
will recompense, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if
thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink.
Isn't that what Christ did for you and me when we were hungry
and thirsty? When we were His enemy, when we didn't love Him,
and we didn't want anything to do with Him, what did He do for
us? He came and clothed us in His righteousness, and fed us
this gospel, and gave us the water of life. So He says, if
your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink.
For in so doing, I shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be
not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. overcome evil
with good. Deuteronomy 32.43, the Lord said,
Their rock's not like our rock. That's what our enemies say.
You ever heard that? You declare the gospel to them
and they'll say, Well, that's not my Jesus. They say that. Their rock's not like our rock.
But here's what our rock said. He said, Rejoice, O ye nations,
with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants.
And He will render vengeance to His adversaries and will be
merciful unto His land and to His people. You see, we're going
to see here the vengeance that He's going to render to them
that trouble His saints, to those that do not believe on Christ,
those that meet God without a righteousness. The vengeance He will render
to them. We deserve that same vengeance. But He had mercy on
us. And He still has mercy on us.
So, if you ever get to that point where you feel like rendering
vengeance, you go read that Psalm 94 again. Think real hard. Read Romans 12 again. And wait
on the Lord. Toward the unbeliever who troubles
God's saints, God's vengeance shall be righteous. He said there
in verse 6, 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 6, seeing it is a righteous thing
with God, that's our subject, a righteous thing with God, and
it's a righteous thing with God to recompense, to repay Tribulation
to them that trouble you. Look at the second part of verse
7. He says, 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. God our Father has put all judgment
into the hand of the Lord Jesus. All judgment is His. Isn't this
amazing that the very One who came and saved His people and
to satisfy justice for us, now all judgments given to Him, the
God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, all judgments His, and the very
One who is the Savior who is the advocate for His people before
the Father. The righteousness of God with
His people is the one men are despising and rejecting and they
are persecuting God's saints because of them. And that's the
very one who is going to be the judge in that last day. But toward the unbeliever, he
should be revealed in flaming fire taking vengeance. and flaming
fire taking vengeance. And His vengeance will be just.
It will be just because they know not God and do not obey
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is that? To know God is to know Him as
holy. And when you know Him as holy,
you know yourself as nothing but a sinner. and to obey the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is to repent from everything
about ourselves. That means to have a changed
mind concerning everything about us and everything about God is
to see ourselves as sinful, as wicked, as iniquity, as in no
way being able to bring a work of righteousness to God and make
ourselves accepted. No way able to make ourselves
holy before God or keep ourselves in holiness before God. It's
to know that salvation is of the Lord so that we repent from
ourselves entirely from all the works of righteousness of trying
to make ourselves righteous. From all the works of trying
to make ourselves pure and holy. From all the works of sin and
rebellion. It's turning from ourselves entirely
and from this world and from everything in it. and trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ, calling on Him for mercy and resting
in Him. This is all in the heart, in
the inward man. But you see, it's righteous for
God. And be sure to get what our text
says. God saves and God damns in righteousness. He saves and
He damns in righteousness. All His works are righteousness.
Now from eternity, I touched on this Sunday, from eternity,
God's election of grace, though it was not based on any good
or evil in us, it was based on a work of righteousness. It was
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was all in His righteousness.
For God to receive sinners like us, there's going to have to
be righteousness brought in. We're going to have to be made
perfect to be accepted of God. So that election of grace wasn't
because He saw something in us, but what He saw in Christ. And
who Christ is. He's the righteousness of His
people. But also from eternity, God did not arbitrarily predestinate
men to hell. Not arbitrarily. God doesn't
arbitrarily pour out vengeance on anybody. Sinners earn it by
their sin, by not believing on Christ. God's hatred of sinners,
His hatred of the wicked every day, is due to man's own sinful
rebellion. God's salvation and God's vengeance
is righteous. His salvation of His people is
righteous in the righteousness of Christ and His vengeance,
His justice upon sinners is righteous due to the sinner's sin. He does
everything in righteousness. He doesn't just damn somebody
to hell for no reason. Would a judge on the throne be
just in a court of law here if he just took a man off the street
and just sentenced him to prison? For no reason? You'd say that
wouldn't be just. God doesn't send men to hell
for no reason. The cause of salvation is God's grace by Christ's righteousness,
by giving us faith in Christ. The cause of condemnation is
man's sin. In Scripture, condemnation always
has a because attached to it. Condemnation always has a because
attached to it. That's why I hear it's called
a recompense. He's repaying sinners for something
they earned. the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God's eternal life. You see, men earn condemnation,
they earn death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Christ Jesus our Lord. And here, He's recompensing what
they earn because they know not God and obey not the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said, here it is to obey.
He said, this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom
He sent. Look over at 2 Thessalonians
2 and look at verse 10. I'm trying to show you this.
I've heard people say God just arbitrarily, randomly predestinated
men to hell. No, He didn't. In eternity, election
is grace. It's an active work of God electing
His people and choosing them in Christ because of Christ's
righteousness. But His condemnation of men is
going to be because men fell in Adam, and men come into the
world corrupt, and men pass through this world rejecting him. They
earn the wages of sin, which is death. Look here, 2 Thessalonians
2.10. It says here, here's why. God,
just look at the second part there, 2 Corinthians 2.10. Because
they received not the love of the truth that they might be
saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
to believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
And that includes the unrighteousness of man's own works, his own best
religious works. Look at John 3. I just want to
show you real quick. I want you to get this point
because you're going to hear men say things that I just randomly,
arbitrarily predestinated them into hell. I said to you before,
whatever you look at in this book, let this be the touchstone.
Is it holy? Is it righteous? Because when
it comes to how God does anything, is it righteous and holy? Because
that's the only way God does anything. Now look here. The Lord says it. John 3.18.
He that believeth on Christ is not condemned. This is Christ
speaking. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he
that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this
is the condemnation. Here it is right here. Light
is coming to the world. Amen. Love darkness rather than
light. because their deeds were evil. Because everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest it should
be reproved. That's what Christ said. That's
why men are condemned. We fell in Adam, we come into
this world dead in sin, and we love our sin, and we love darkness,
and we won't come to light. And for that reason, meet God
without Christ. And for that reason, God will
recompense. He will pay the wages of sin,
which is death. I'm telling you, if you've not
believed on Christ, if you're sitting here now and you haven't
believed on Christ, fall down at His feet. I'm talking in your
heart, broken hearted, fall down at His feet and beg Him for mercy. And cast all your care on Him.
This day's coming. This day we're talking about
in our text is coming. And we're going to stand before
God. Faith in Christ is obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Get what I said. Faith in Christ is obeying the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Believing on Him, trusting Him,
putting it all in His hand and counting Him to be your only
acceptance with God. That's what it is to obey the
gospel. Now, in that day, back in 2 Thessalonians 1, in that
day, Christ's just condemnation. The
punishment will be everlasting destruction. Verse 9. They should
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Everlasting destruction
means when we pass from this life and we die, it won't be
the end of our being. If we don't have Christ, it will
only be the end of our well-being. but it won't be the end of our
being. We're eternal souls and we're going to live eternally
somewhere. The first resurrection is the resurrection of Christ.
All His people arose in Him when He arose. And then in the new
birth and regeneration, He raises us to newness of life to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you took part in that
first resurrection, This second death he's talking about here
won't have any power on you. Let me show you that in Revelation
20 and verse 6. Christ's resurrection and then
being resurrected in newness of life and regeneration, that's
the first resurrection. And if you partake of that by
God's grace, and it will be God's grace only, but if you partake
of that and believe on Christ, this second death, this everlasting
destruction won't have any power on you. Watch this. Revelation
20 verse 6, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection. On such the second death hath
no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with Him a thousand years." You know what that thousand years
is? It started when Christ came in these last days. And those
that are born of Him and given faith to behold Him and see we
arose in Him in that first resurrection, They are made priests unto God
by the blood of Christ, and we've been reigning with Christ ever
since He called us to faith. And that thousand years is not
a literal thousand years, it means a set, definite period
of time. This gospel age will last a set
period of time until Christ's return. Now watch this, Revelation
21 verse 8. But the fearful, and unbelieving,
and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers,
and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death. Do you see that? The second death,
our text says, back in 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, the second death,
it says, it is everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power. Now, it certainly will be that
when Christ comes, the presence of the Lord and the glory of
His power will work this. He will work this by His presence,
by the glory of His power. But I want you to understand
something of what this death, this living death will be. The
call of man is enmity against God, hates God. Ever since man
fell in Adam, man comes into the world with a mind that hates
God. And after Adam's sin, when they heard the Lord speak in
the garden, what did they do? They hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord in the trees. They hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord. They didn't want to be in the
presence of the Lord, so they hid themselves. Sinners go through
life desiring to be free from the presence of the Lord. Listen
to Job 21.8 if you want to look at it. Job 21.8 Sinners go through
this life, unregenerate sinners. They don't want to be in the
presence of the Lord. Job 21.8 Look at this. Their seed is established. in
their sight with them, their children and their offspring
before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth and
faileth not, their cow calveth and casteth not her calf. They
send forth their little ones like a flock and their children
dance. They take the timbrel and harp and rejoice at the sound
of the organ. They spend their days in wealth
and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore, they say unto
God, depart from us. 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 unto Him? You see that? You've experienced
this, brethren. And for a preacher, you can just
be in the same room with somebody. When they find out you're a preacher,
you can feel the enmity. They don't want to be in the
room with you. They don't want to have anything to do with you.
And it's so whether they're your biological family, your children,
it don't matter. And if you start speaking the
gospel to somebody, you've experienced it, they'll change the subject,
won't they? They don't want the presence of the Lord. And you
represent the presence of the Lord to them when you start speaking
the truth. And when Christ returns, this is how depraved the human
heart is. When Christ returns, He said
they're going to try to run from the presence of the Lord. He
said in Isaiah 2.21, they'll go into the clefts of the rocks
and the tops of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord and for
the glory of His majesty when He arises to shake terribly the
earth. But in judgment, when Christ
comes, Here's what Christ is going to work. He's going to
give sinners what they have wanted all their life. Be careful what you want. Man
wants to go around boasting of his free will. What men are saying
is, I'm free from God to do what I will. God doesn't tell me what
to do. That's what men are saying. Be careful what you will. Be
careful what you won't. Because one day, if you meet
Him without Christ, He will give you what you want. And that's
what He's going to do. Right now, they say, depart from
us. You know what He's going to say
in that day? Christ said, then I'll say to them, depart from
Me. apart from My presence. You cursed
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,
and these shall go away into everlasting punishment." Now
our text says they'll go away from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power. Christ is the glory of God and
He upholds all things right now by the word of His power. He's the brightness of God's
glory, the express image of His person in opposing all things
by the word of His power. That's what Hebrews 1.3 says.
2 Peter 3.7 says, The heavens and the earth which are now by
the same word are kept in store. He's holding everything in store
just like He did before the flood. And it's reserved under fire
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Now
listen. That presence that carnal man
doesn't want to be in. They don't want the Lord's presence.
They don't want His power, His glory. They don't have anything
to do with it. But that presence and power is
benefiting even unregenerate carnal men right now. Right now. Because he's restraining the
hell that's in natural man's heart all over this world right
now. He's restraining the hell in
man's heart. You can get debating, you know,
where is hell? What is hell? Hell is the carnal
man's heart. And hell will be God casting
men out from the presence of His glory and from the power
of His restraining hand so that they can really have the vent
of their will. And everybody can. Oh, there'll
be a great gulf fixed and they won't be able to come to where
God's saints are. But in hell, men won't have that
restraining hand upon them now. They're going to have a will
that's free and find out just how bad that'll be. Do you imagine
being someplace where everybody in that place could do whatever
came to their mind? Right now, surely the wrath of
man shall praise thee in the remainder of wrath shalt thou
restrain. You look into this world right
now, unregenerate men, they blame God. Well, if a good God, why
does He let so many bad things happen? We see wars and murders
and all these terrible evils committed. Man commits that. That's out of man's heart. And
if it comes to pass, it's only because the Lord permitted it,
because He's working it together with everything else to work
His will, to glorify His Son and save His people. But hell
will be a place where sinners are cast out from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of His power, where they can
do what they will. One reason it's called the Lake
of Fires is because without the restraining stability of Christ's
presence, it's a place as unstable as water,
a burning water, because of the hell of men's wicked hearts.
It's called Outer Darkness because Christ's light's not there. cast
out of His presence, cast out of His power, and there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth, weeping and wailing and gnashing
of teeth. And worst of all, there'll be
an everlasting sight of what men could have had, an everlasting
sight of what they could have had and what they can never have. He said in Luke 13, 28, there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see...
He's talking about the rich man in hell. There'll 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. You think about a, it'll be like
a, I've used this illustration many times, but it'll be like
a prosecuting attorney who put a whole bunch of wicked men in
prison and then him getting sent to that prison himself. Right
there with them. You imagine the false preacher,
you imagine the father, the mother who knew the gospel but did not
teach it and would not preach it to those under their influence.
Imagine them being in a place where now all the restraints
are off and those that they wouldn't teach see what they could have
had and they can vent their venom upon that one who would not teach
them. Now, let's talk about God's justice
upon the Lord Jesus. And the reason it will be just
for God to have mercy upon His people and freely give His elect
eternal life is because everything I just talked about in that second
death is what Christ bore on the cross. You don't think I'm
sitting here telling you all about the wickedness of hell
and the evil of hell just to try to scare the hell out of
you, do you? I'm telling you because that's what Christ bore
on the cross. You want to see something about
the justice of God, Look to the cross and you'll see the hell
Christ bore, the second death, that living death He bore for
His people. He bore the sin of His people.
And because He did, God made Him a curse. Oh, we don't understand
what that means. He made Him a curse for us. That's
what He did for all His elect. Unregenerate men gnashed on Him
all around the cross. They gnashed on Him with their
teeth. The devil and all the wicked angels that we can't see,
they gnashed on Him, they tried to unleash hell upon Him. But
worse than all of that, worse than all of that, brethren, is
the flaming fire of God's vengeance that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ
in the place of you and me who believe. Psalm 22. Let's look there real
quick. Psalm 22. In three hours of darkness, He
bore the fire of God's wrath. He was cut off from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of His power, brethren. Psalm
22.1, He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? That's the second death. And
here's why He did it. Verse 3, But Thou art holy. And
bearing the sin of His people, Christ said about Himself in
verse 6, But I am a worm and no man. Look at verse 14, I'm
poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, it's melted in the midst of my bowels. My
strength is dried up like a partridge, and my tongue cleaveth to my
jaws. Thou has brought me into the dust of death. Look at Isaiah
53.8, Isaiah 53.8. Was Christ alive when He was
bearing all that? Yes, He was. You see, this second
death, it's a death alright, but it's a living death. And
Christ suffered that living death on Calvary's cross. Look at Isaiah
53 verse 8. It says there in the second part,
He was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of My people was He stricken. But here's the result in verse
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. That doesn't mean
God just took some sort of wicked delight to do that to His Son. It means He satisfied the justice
of God. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. That's what it means. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. I said there's a because attached
to man's condemnation. There's a because attached to
God's salvation of His people too. And here it is. Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide
the spoiled with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto
death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore
the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. What do
you accomplish by that? He satisfied divine justice.
He purged the sins of all His people. And He accomplished eternal
redemption for us. When He had by Himself purged
our sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Look at Hebrews 9. Here's what He accomplished by
it. Hebrews 9.12, the second part
there says, by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now we're
talking about judgment, brethren. We're talking about you coming
into judgment. You're going to die, and then you're going to
face judgment. But look at what it says in verse
26. Hebrews 9.26. Hebrews 9.26 He says there, Now once in the
end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after
this one judgment. That's the point there. One death
and one judgment. So Christ was once offered. He
was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that
look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto
salvation. Your judgments accomplished,
child of God. Now that's why I'm urging those that don't believe
to believe on Him. The only way you can is if the
Spirit of God comes and gives you a heart. But He does that
for everybody He's satisfied justice for. And you're going
to do it through this Word. You're going to hear a preacher
one of these days. If you're His and He did that for you one of
these days, you're going to hear me preach. And you're not going
to hear me, you're going to hear Christ. And not only are you
going to hear Christ, you're going to obey Christ. You're
going to fall down and believe on Him if you're His. I guarantee
it. So lastly, back in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1. What will His return mean for
you that are looking for Him by faith? It says, to all them
that look for Him, what's it going to mean for you that are
looking to Him? What's He going to repay you? He already bore
the recompense that we deserved. God paid Him the wages we had
earned. Now what's He going to give you?
Instead of righteous tribulation, Christ is going to give us righteous
rest. Look here in verse 7. And to
you who are troubled, rest with us. While He's giving that righteous
tribulation to them that trouble you, He's going to give us rest. Rest with us. When He shall be
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. Look at verse
10. When He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to
be admired in all them that believe in that day. child of God right
now. When men of this world trouble
you, think about that last day and think about how Christ is
going to give His people rest and just rest in Him right now.
He said, come into the stronghold till the indignation be overpassed.
You just rest in Him, trust Him, and He'll give you rest right
now. And He'll bring Satan under your feet shortly. But be assured
of this, in that day when He returns, He's going to give you
rest. And it's righteous and just for
Him to give you rest. He bought it. He paid the price. Peter said, Rejoice in as much
as you partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory
shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy.
What did Paul say in Colossians 3, 4? When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall you appear with Him in glory.
That's it, brethren. The unbelieving is going to be
cast out of His presence and from His presence and from the
glory of His power, and you're going to be ushered right into
the full presence and the full glory of our Lord. And you're
going to glory only in Him. He's coming to be glorified by
you. That's what it means. He's coming
to be glorified by His saints. He's coming to be admired by
all His saints. We admire Him now. We glory in
Him now. But in that day, we're going
to do it in perfection. What do we see in Isaiah 45?
It said, In the Lord shall all Israel be justified, and in the
Lord shall all glory. He said, I'm not going to share
my glory with another. He's coming to receive from us
the glory that belongs to Him. We're going to say with that
host of heaven what John saw Him say in Revelation 7.12. They
said, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. Now listen. He said, if you're children,
then you're heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ, if so be that you suffer with Him, that we may
be also glorified together. I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the
glory which shall be revealed in us. John said, it don't appear
what we shall be, but we know this. When we see Him, we're
going to be like Him. We're going to see Him as He
is and we're going to be like Him. And here's why. Was this cause
of something we did? Is this cause of some works we
did? And all these, you know, that
men are preaching? No. Here it is, the parentheses. Because our testimony among you
was believed. That's it. God in his grace He
sent the Gospel to you. He sent the Spirit of God to
you. He gave you a heart to believe Him, to hear Him and believe
Him and trust Him. And it's all simply by His grace
in Christ's righteousness because He gave you the faith to just
trust Him, believe Him. What's our testimony? What is
it? Christ has finished the works.
Christ is all. God's made Him all to His people. He is wisdom. He is righteousness. He is sanctification. He is redemption. That's all you need. That's what
He is to His people. Our testimony is Christ is salvation. And you believe in Him. When
He sent that Gospel to you, He gave you faith and you believe
in Him. So just rest in Him now. Whatever persecution comes, whatever
trouble comes, It's to grow us to trust Him more so that we'll
be counted worthy of the Kingdom. And He'll give you rest right
now, but when He comes, He's going to give you eternal rest.
And He's going to bring you to see Him so fully and be like
Him so fully and be without sin so perfectly that you're going
to glory in Him and admire Him in perfection. That's what He's
bringing His people to do. That's why He saved His people.
So live every day. Live every day with every moment. Don't you just, I wish we could
do this every moment, looking for Christ to return. Anything
you see that It makes you think. And that's how, you know, when
something happens in the Lord's people, some odd thing occurs,
or something in Scripture happens, you know, that we're looking
for in the Scripture. The Lord's people, they don't
run and hide. They don't want to run from His
presence. The Lord's people are saying, Come, Lord. This is how
the book ends. He which testifieth these things
saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. And this is what the Bible
says, even so, come Lord Jesus. So I hope that's a blessing to
you, brethren. I hope that you that don't believe
will believe, and you that believe, I pray you'll just rest in Him,
leave vengeance to Him, and know we have a good hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, Brother Adam.