This message is for the Lord's
people. This is a message that only God's
saints will be able to enter into. And that's who Paul's writing
this to. He had said there, he spoke of
there in verse 4, 2 Thessalonians 1 and verse 4. He said, We ourselves
glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and
faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. Now watch what he says about
that. He had his patience and his faith
in the midst of all their persecutions and tribulations. And he said,
verse 5, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment
of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God
for which ye also suffer." A manifest token. That means a manifest
evidence. A manifest token. It's a manifest
token of the righteous judgment of God. When you think of the
judgment of God, don't only think about that day of judgment, the
final day of judgment. Everything that comes to pass
in this world is God's doing. It's his providence. He's working
it. And it's all according to God's righteous judgment. It's
what is best and right for his people. That's what he's doing
in this world. Everything he's doing. And he
says here, you being able to endure these persecutions in
patience and faith, looking to Christ, finding all you rejoicing
in Christ, continuing in Christ, this is a manifest token of the
righteous judgment of God. It was his righteous judgment
to send you to trouble, And it's his righteous judgment to make
you endure patiently and in faith and continue in love. This is
of God, he's saying. And it's a manifest token. And
it's that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God
for which you also suffer. False preachers claim that God's
people never suffer. They prosper in this life. They hear everything in this
book wrong. They hear everything in this book as carnal, applying
to this life. And it's always upside down for
the carnal man. They preach, if you do this,
that, and the other, then you're going to be prosperous in this
life. Well, doesn't God say, that he will prosper his people
that believe him and follow him? Yes, he does. But it's not carnal
prosperity. It's spiritual prosperity. And
that's why a false religion will condemn you if something bad
happens. It's, oh, you did this or you
did that or some sin, what have you. But listen to David. Look with me at Psalm 73. David
saw wicked men prospering while David was suffering. He said
in Psalm 73, 3, Psalm 73, 3, he said, He said, I was envious at the
foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Carnal prosperity,
that's what he saw. For there are no bans in their
debt, their strength is firm, they're not in trouble as other
men. They're not in trouble like God's people, that's what he's
talking about. Neither are they plagued like
other men. Therefore pride compasseth them
about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment. You know,
When the carnal man, especially a carnal religious man, when
he prospers, he thinks that's certainly an evident token he's
being blessed by God. God said to the people, the brethren
in Thessalonica, the evident token was that they were suffering
and able to endure patiently and believe while they suffered.
But look, there's the prosperity of the wicked. Verse 12, he said,
Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They
increase in riches. Verily, I've cleansed my heart
in vain and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long
I've been plagued and chastened every morning. Jeremiah had the
same thoughts. Jeremiah said, in Jeremiah 12.1,
he said, Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee.
Yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. See, righteous
judgment, we're talking about righteous judgment. And Jeremiah
is saying, let me talk about the judgments of what you're
working in this world. He said, wherefore doth the way
of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy
that deal very treacherously? That was carnally speaking, that's
what he saw. But in our text, the Spirit of
God teaches us that the believer's suffering is reason for great
consolation. Read it again, 2 Thessalonians
1, 4. Your patience and faith in all
your persecution and tribulations that you endure are a manifest
token of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. This
is God's righteous judgment toward His saints right now. and what
he's bringing to pass in this world right now. He's doing what's
best for us. He's doing what's right for us.
He's doing what's needful for us. You know the only way you're
going to be counted worthy of the kingdom of God is through
faith in Christ who made you worthy. So what's God doing by
these sufferings? He's growing you to trust Christ
only. That's the evident token of his
righteous judgment. He's strengthening patience to
wait on Christ alone. He's strengthening your hope
in Christ alone. The manifest token, the evident
token that God has saved us and is saving us and shall continue
to save us is when, come what may, even persecution and suffering,
you keep trusting Christ, keep hoping in Christ, keep rejoicing
in Christ, and you're not turned back. That's God's righteous
judgment, to sin the suffering and to sustain you in faith in
the midst of it. That's all the righteous judgment
of God. Now, first of all, know this, that God does all things
in righteousness. Everything God does, he does
it in righteousness. Psalm 145.17 says, the Lord is
righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. If it's
coming to pass in this world, it might be sinful, it might
be treacherous, it might be deadly, but it's coming to pass because
God is working righteousness through it, and He's doing it
according to His holiness, and He's doing it for the good of
His people. You can mark that down. Think about the righteous
judgment of God. And God elected us by His grace. It was by grace, not based on
anything in us. But it was the righteous judgment
of God and it was based on a righteous work. His election was all of
grace, not based on any good or evil in us, but it has to
be due to a righteousness. You gotta have a righteousness
to enter God's presence. and it was based in a righteous
work, but it's not our righteousness, it's the righteousness of Christ.
God looked to him, he looked to him alone, and it was righteous
judgment when Christ suffered the cross. That's where we see
how righteous God is, how everything he does is holy. He willed by
no means clear the guilty, and all his elect are guilty. So
we're gonna have to die under that law. But not only that,
when Christ went to the cross, he's the spotless lamb of God
who laid down his life by going to the Father, spotless, holy,
without sin, and submitting to the Father to make him sin for
us. And God would not pour out the
righteous judgment that we deserve on Christ until he made him bear
our sin. He said, I'm righteous, and all
my works are righteous. And the Lord laid on him the
iniquity of all his people and made him sin for his people.
So he manifests God's righteousness. God would not judge him until
he was made sin for us. Then he made him a curse. He
made him bear that righteous judgment of God. He said in Psalm
22.1, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He knew why. He said that for our benefit.
And a few verses later, he said, but thou art holy. That's why
you're holy. And Christ satisfied that righteous
judgment. He satisfied it. He declared
God just and he justified his people and for that reason, Because
of Christ's obedience, it was just and right for God to send
you the gospel and give you faith to trust Christ. He came and
he granted you repentance from the dead works of trying to make
ourselves righteous and make ourselves holy and gave you faith
to rest in the Lord Jesus. That was righteous for God to
do that. That was his judgment to do that because he made him
sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So in righteous judgment now,
God will not impute sin to His people. Because in Christ and
by Christ, we don't have any sin to impute. He's bore it all
away. He bore it all away. And God
will not pour out justice a second time on anybody for whom Christ
died. That's His righteous doing. In all His works, He's righteous.
And He will not pour out judgment a second time because it's satisfied
toward His people. And so, He sent you the gospel. He called you. He regenerated
you. He gave you faith to trust Him. He sanctified you into Christ.
And now, as God sings, do you sin? I know you love godliness. I know you want to please God.
I know you don't want to sin. I know you're looking for the
day you'll be free from this body of death and there'll be
no sin anymore. But did he sin? Well now, because
of Christ's righteousness, it is the righteous judgment of
God to say, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and
their iniquities, their sins and their iniquities, I'll remember
no more. You see, that's what Christ meant, you know, the Pharisees
judging everything by these eyes and by these ears. And that's
why the Lord said, judge righteous judgment. If you got, you see
God being righteous and just to come and give you faith and
to trust Christ and it's all due to the righteousness of Christ
in whom you are complete. So, judge righteous judgment. If a brother falls, what's the
righteous thing to do? Pick him up. Turn him back to
Christ. Help him to rest in Christ and
walk and follow Christ. Be merciful to him. Help him.
Why? That's the righteous thing to
do. That's what God did to you. That's how come He called you.
And He keeps doing it for you. And that's the righteous thing
to do. He's the rock. His work is perfect. For all
His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is He. So now,
in righteous judgment, God gives us persecution and He gives us
tribulation to keep us trusting His Son alone to do the saving. That's God's righteous judgment.
It was His righteous judgment to leave us in this body of death.
And it was His righteous judgment to leave us in this world full
of sinners. And it's His righteous judgment
to take His hand off and give permission for ungodly men to
do what they will do and what they want to do and persecute
His people. But while He's doing that, He's
teaching you and me who believe Him. He's teaching us. He never
leaves you. He never forsakes you. He's teaching
us our faith and our hope and our patience. And anything we
do in perseverance is of God and not of us. That's what He's
teaching us. And that's growing you to trust Christ more. that's
growing you to trust Christ more. Look at verse four again. I just
want to read it because I want you to get this in your heart.
The beginning of 2 Thessalonians 1.4, the middle part, he says,
we're glorying in your patience and faith in all your persecutions
and tribulations that you endure, which is a manifest token of
the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. Now, I said
it awhile ago, you know it's only by Christ's righteousness.
Only through faith in Christ, trusting Him to save you and
present you to God. It's only His righteousness by
which we're going to be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God.
If that's the case, brethren, and that is the case, we're going
to have to be turned from trusting ourselves. We're going to have
to be turned from putting our hand to this work of righteousness
and this work of sanctification. We're going to have to be turned
from being our own wisdom. We're going to have to know Christ
is the one alone who's going to present us to God. And so
God, in His righteous judgment, uses persecution and tribulation
to grow us in faith and hope and love. That's what He's doing.
And He's making us know the only way we persevere in faith is
by the power of God. You see, when Paul says, we glory
in you, he wasn't just glorying in them, he was glorying in what
God was doing in them. And that's what we glory in.
When a believer perseveres, looking to Christ only when he still
has all his hope in Christ and he's patient and he endures and
there's rejoicing in his heart. It's an evident token from God
to his saints of salvation by the Lord. When you believe Him,
and you continue to believe in Him, and you continue hoping
in Him, and you continue in joy and love toward one another,
for Christ's sake, it's an evident token, God saved you. Let me show you that, Philippians
1. I don't have any assurance from most of the things
that men called evidences. But this one right here, this
one right here, Paul's saying the acid test is going to be
when you still are following Christ alone all the way through
the storm. That's, you know, we saw the
other day, there must be heresies that they which are approved
may be made manifest. That's just another way of saying
that. It's how God's gonna show those he's approved. Now look
here, and it's a token you've been saved. Look here, Philippians
127. Only let your conduct be as it
becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you
or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand
fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the
faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries. which is to them an evident token
of perdition. That's an evident token of their
condemnation. But to you, of salvation and
that of God. You see that? You see that? For unto you, now watch, it is
given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sake. That's given to you, brethren.
It's given to you. And what God's doing through
that is He's making known those He's approved, those He abides
in, those He has saved, is saving, and shall save. Because He'll
send you something so bad there ain't no way you'd get through
it if it wasn't for Him. And that's what He's doing. So understand.
Understand, faith, patience, endurance, it's not of us, it's
of God. That's why it's a token to us
of salvation. Have you ever been in such a
peril that nothing you could do to remedy it, nothing you
could do to get out of it, nothing you could do to bear up in it,
and yet God brought you through it and made you rejoice that
God did it and made you rejoice in how he sustained you and kept
you all through it? Have you ever been through something
like that? then you know what Paul's talking about. You know
it's a manifest token that it was only by God's grace. It was
only by God's power. I didn't do it. I couldn't do
it. God did it. That's when you know
it's manifest. When you can honestly say that
from your heart, I could not have borne up under this. That's
God. That's God did that. Remember
when the Lord called Paul, and all God's people are going to
suffer this. Acts 9. Acts 9. All God's people are
going to go through this. He just said, it's given to you
to suffer. Look here at Acts 9 and verse
15. This is what the Lord told Paul
when he called him. We think about, you know, young
preachers especially think about when the Lord begins to call
them and they begin to be put in ministry, they just think
about all the good things. Don't think about this right
here. If God calls you to preach the gospel, He's calling you
to suffer, and you're going to suffer. Christ Jesus was a man
of sorrows acquainted with grief, and He don't have one saint that's
not a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. You can mark that
down. Look here, this is what he told Adonais to tell Paul.
In Acts 9.15, he said, go thy way. He said, he's a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he
must suffer for my namesake. He must suffer. Look at Acts
14. Acts 14. Now that's true of all
God's saints. And after the Jews rejected Paul,
and they rejected the gospel, and they stoned him and left
him for dead. They thought they had killed
him. You know, a preacher will go through some suffering and
he'll start to murmur about the things he's suffering. And we
all do this. Every preacher I know has done
it. We try to do it to one another, not to you. But we do to one
another. We'll talk about how hard these
things are. Paul was, they took up giant
rocks and threw them at Paul and just beat him with these
stones to the point Paul was unconscious and they thought
he was dead. I've never borne anything like that. But look
what he did. Acts 14 verse 22. He got up and he went forth confirming
the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in
the faith, exhorting them that we must, through much tribulation,
enter into the kingdom of God. That's what God taught him through
that. God taught him to go forth and teach the brethren, look
to Christ, persevere in faith, looking to Christ and trusting
him. Because that's what God taught him through that. And
he taught him, we must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom. There's going to be more. There's
going to be some suffering. There's going to be some suffering.
In righteous judgment, it's God that's going to keep us. Only
God can keep his people. It's going to be God that keeps
us. How's he going to do that? In Colossians 2, Paul said, rooted
like a big old oak tree, rooted deep roots run down into the
earth. You know how those roots are
made to go deeper into the earth? By storms. Hard storms come. Rains come down. But it makes
the roots of that tree, they keep growing deeper and deeper
and deeper and firmer and firmer. Paul said, you're going to endure
being rooted and built up in Christ and established in the
faith. That's how the Lord's doing it.
But the Lord said in his parable of the four, where the seed is
sown, he said, if a man didn't have root in himself, He won't
endure. He'll endure for a little while
and then he'll fall away. The root's Christ. If the root's
holy, the lot's holy. The root's Christ. So it's only
by the grace and power of our Lord Jesus that we're going to
continue. It was only by his power we first
believed. It's only by his power we continue
believing. He's gonna use persecution and
tribulation to teach us that, to teach us it's by His grace,
to teach us it's His power that's making us continue in faith.
That's how He grows you in faith in Him. You know, let me see. Let's say you got a chair. And
this chair, it looks like it might be a little unstable. And
you sit down in it and the thing just collapses and you fall over.
Well, what'd you learn from that? I can't sit in that chair. Well,
it's that simple. When the Lord sends the trouble,
and we try to look to our wisdom, and we fail, He makes you know,
I can't lean to my own understanding. Christ is my wisdom. When He
sends you to trial, and you try to do what's right, and He makes
you see that iniquity and sins mix with everything you do, then
you start realizing a little more, I can't trust my righteousness.
I have to trust Him. He's my righteousness. And on
and on it goes, everything. I don't have power. I can't trust
my power. He's my power. He's my strength. Listen to 1 Peter 4.14. Listen
to this. Peter said, if you be reproached
for the name of Christ, happy are you. Be happy. Why? For the spirit of glory and of
God resteth upon you. On their part, He's evil spoken
of. On your part, He's glorified.
That's what the Lord does. He makes you see. It's only by
the Spirit of glory resting upon me. and he makes you glory in
the Lord for what he's done for you, his power. He makes you
confess your utter weakness. How is it on their part he's
evil spoken of? How is that? Do the men just
cuss God and blaspheme his name? Well, they do. But usually, if
men can get through a little trouble, They talk about how,
oh, if it wasn't for my faith, if I hadn't have been strong,
if I hadn't have done this, if I hadn't have done that, that's
evil speaking of God. But He makes you glory in Him.
He makes you say, I'm utterly weak. It wasn't by me, it's by
Him only. This is what the Lord told Paul.
I won't have you turn there, but you know, He said, Paul,
he said, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made
perfect in weakness. You know what that means, you
get that. We're going to see Christ's strength most when we
see we are totally weak. Paul said, most gladly therefore,
all glory in my infirmities. And this is something the Lord's
making us learn to do too. When trouble comes and we suffer
and we're slandered or any other kind of tribulation that comes,
you're learning to thank God for sending it. And glory in
the fact that God used this to remind me I don't have any ability. I don't, I am a, I am a sinner
being saved by the grace of God and he's reminding me his grace
is always sufficient. And Paul said, and I glory in
my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest on me. In
other words, I acknowledge my inability to do anything so that
all the power is Christ resting upon me. You know, when men are
glorying in their ability and their power and their strength
to do something, the power of Christ is not resting on them.
Because the only way you know your inability is by the power
of Christ making you know it. Peter called it the spirit of
glory and of God resting on you. Christ fulfills all prophecy.
And here's what the prophet Isaiah said. This is what the Lord said
he would do. He said, the Lord will create
upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies
That is, upon every one of his people, individual, and upon
all the assembly he's assembled, he gonna create a cloud and a
smoke by day and shining a flaming fire by night. For upon all,
the glory shall be a defense. That's Christ, our glory. He's
the defender, he's the defense. Peter said, rejoice, the spirit
of glory rests on you. So in the face of persecution,
in the face of tribulation, God grows us in faith and patience.
He turns His saints from trusting anything or anyone and makes
us trust Christ our Savior to deliver us and makes us patiently
wait on Him to deliver. Psalm 130 verse 6 says, the Lord
executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. That's speaking of His people.
We become oppressed. Our own sinful nature sometimes
is the oppressor. The devil can be the oppressor.
Ungodly men can be the oppressor. False religion is the oppressor.
But this is what he brings you to know more and more. The Lord
executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. It's what Paul was saying in
Romans 8.36. He said, for Christ's sake, we're killed all the day
long. We're counted as sheep for the slaughter. was helpless
as sheep. He said, no, no, we're not like
a helpless sheep. We're not going to be counted
for the slaughter. Why? Because in all these things,
we're more than conquerors to Christ that loved us. He's the
power in righteous judgment, using this school of affliction.
And that's what it is. It's school. Next time we suffer, this will
be a good thing to remember. Well, God's just taking us to
school again. It's the school of affliction.
And He's winning us from self. He's winning us from this world
and from all things in this world. From the carnal to the eternal.
That's what He's doing. I'll show it to you quite a bit.
But go to 2 Corinthians 4. We just got to look at this because
it's what Paul said it's about. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 17. Paul said our light affliction
2 Corinthians 4.17, our light affliction, which is but for
a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, We have a building of God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens, and for in this we groan earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.
How does God make you more earnestly groan to be with Christ and to
be in glory with him? How does he make you have more
of a thirst and hunger for Christ alone? Paul said that's what
these lot of afflictions are working for us. That's what they're
working for us. and righteous judgment. Here's
what God does. You know, when trouble comes,
I don't care who you are, I don't care how long you've been in
the faith, when trouble comes, you're gonna sin. You're gonna
sin. You're gonna sin inwardly, and
you more than likely gonna sin outwardly too. It's just fact. But God keeps on working in you
to bring you to that fountain that's open for sin and uncleanness. That's what he keeps doing. And
He keeps making you know, I've forgiven you for Christ's sake,
I've had mercy on you for Christ's sake, because in Christ you're
righteous and holy and perfect and complete, and I receive you
and rejoice in you. That's what He keeps making you
know. He keeps making you come to Christ the fountain, plunge
in Christ the fountain, trust Christ the fountain who washes
us from all our sin. Go to Revelation 7. Don't you
see this? Remember when John was given
this view of the saints in glory? And there's a great multitude
out of all nations, countries, and people in tongues standing
before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes
and palms in their hand. Now, picture them there in glory
standing before the throne. But let me say something to you,
brethren. This is a picture of you and me as we're going through
this life, too. And he told John who these are.
Revelation 7 verse 14. He said to me, these are they
which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they
before the throne of God. They're there before His throne
because they're washed in the blood of Christ. And they serve
Him day and night in His temple, and He that sitteth on the throne
shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more. Neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any
heat. For the lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall
feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters,
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." That's going
on through all this trouble. That's what Christ is doing.
He's keeping you washing in the blood of the Lamb. Because He's
in your midst. He's leading you to that fountain.
And He's wiping away your tears. So brethren, you continue looking
to Christ. Console one another with Christ.
That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1. He said, when we suffer, it's
so that we can console one another with Christ. I'm sitting here
telling you what I'm telling you because I was consoled by
Christ when I went through this. And when you go through this,
you're going to be consoled with Christ so you can console your
brethren with Christ. That's the purpose of it. He
said there in verse four, or verse three, he's the father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God
of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the
comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as
the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ. And then this is what it's teaching
us down in verse 9. We had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God which raised the dead, who delivered us from so great a
death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver
us. And we saw Thursday, Peter learned it, and all his saints
are learning it. The God of all grace, who called
us to his eternal glory. After you've suffered a while,
He'll make you perfect, he'll establish, he'll strengthen,
he'll settle you. You'll go a little while, some
more trouble will come, and you'll suffer a little while, but he'll
eventually make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle
you. And it'll keep going on like
that, over and over. And all the while, He's making
our old man, we're seeing it's perishing day
by day, but He's making that new man be renewed and grow up
into Him and be rooted and grounded in Him. So more and more, we
just trust Him. And one day, this whole suffering
will be over. and He will, in perfection, perfect
you, establish you, and settle you at His throne in glory. And
it will be said fully of you what the elder said to John,
these are they that came out of great tribulation and washed
their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and they're before the
throne of God forever. And that's when God, for the
last time, wiped every tear away from our eyes. These things are
needful. They have manifest token of salvation. Let's go to the Lord. Father,
thank you for this word. Lord, thank you for the trials
and the troubles. You only do what's right. You
only do what we need. You only do what It's best for
us to keep us trusting Christ alone and looking to nothing
or no one else. We can't murmur against that. We can't complain against that.
Who would complain against that which is doing us the most good?
Thank You for these afflictions. Thank You for them as much as
we thank You for the joyous seasons of peace and spiritual prosperity. All of it is prosperous and we
thank You, Lord. Be with us today, we ask You.
Help us to see what You're working for us throughout our life and
keep us looking to Christ. Be with those that are suffering
right now, Lord, and we trust by Your righteous judgment You'll
work this for them. You'll eventually bring them
through it. You'll show them one more time what a gracious,
just, right God You are to do this for Your people. Thank you
for your dear son. Thank you for consoling us with
him. Keep us looking always only to Christ. It's in his name we
ask it. Amen.