We'll take your Bibles and turn
with me to 2 Thessalonians 1. And we'll be looking at verse
7 as our text. 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 7, "...and
you who are troubled, rest with us." And that's the title of
my message this morning. Rest with us. Rest with us. Let me ask you this morning,
is there anyone troubled? Is there anyone troubled this
morning? Are any of you troubled? Like
these in Thessalonica, these were troubled folks. These were
people of God who were persecuted in their time for worshiping
the Lord Jesus Christ, for hearing the message of the Gospel that
you will hear this morning. They were persecuted. Is there
any in trouble this morning? Now, we all know that troubles
are common to every man. Everyone in this building has
experienced trouble sometime in your life. Everyone has experienced
trouble, and they all spring from this one root, and that
is sin. Sin, you can trace every trouble
back to its root, and the root of trouble is this, sin. When God created the heavens
and the earth, and He created man, He said, Behold, it is very
good. There was nothing wrong with
God's creation when He created man. Man was perfect and happy
and holy. But when Adam sinned, when Adam
transgressed against God and rebelled against God, God says,
Cursed is the ground for thy sake. You see, the ground yielded its
strength for Adam. But because of the curse, trouble
came. Trouble came into the world.
I was working in the yard yesterday, or the other day, and I noticed
this. The weeds and the thorns grow faster than the grass. Have you ever noticed that? You
go out and work in a yard, you'll notice that you didn't tend to
the weeds. You didn't plant them. You didn't fertilize them. You
didn't feed them. But the weeds grow faster than
the grass. And so it is with trouble, my
friends. So it is with trouble in every
one of our lives. It grows faster than the blessings. Trouble always comes up. If you're
not in trouble today, this is my statement, wait a minute.
Just wait a minute and you will be in trouble. I promise you. You will be. Troubles are common
to men. Job said this, man that is born
of woman is of a few days and full of what? Trouble. He says also in that same book,
in Job chapter 5, he says that man is born into trouble as the
sparks fly upwards. It's natural for man to get into
trouble. It's natural for us. Troubles
are always abounding. Jesus said God makes His sun
to shine upon the good as well as the evil and His rain to fall
on the just as well as the unjust. Everybody has troubles. But I'll
tell you this, there is one trouble that is common to every one of
us this morning. You may have different troubles
in your life than I have at the particular time in my life. But
there is one trouble that comes to every man, and that is the
trouble of sin. Every man is born in sin. Sin is our trouble. We are born depraved, carnal. We see the law of God, we know
the law of God that is written in our hearts, but we are not
subject to it, neither indeed can be. The carnal mind, that's
what we're born with, a carnal mind that only thinks about us
and ourself, me, myself, and I. Imagine if everybody obeyed
the law. What a wonderful place this would
be, wouldn't it? But because we are born into
sin, the only thing we think about is ourself. And we don't
care what everybody thinks. We just think about me. What's
good for me? Dear friend, the pains of this
life and the griefs that we experience in this life cannot compare to
the trouble of sin against God. The Word of God says that God
is a consuming fire Have you ever burned leaves? Have you
ever seen a big pile of leaves out there? Has any dried up old
leaf ever resisted the flame? No, my friends, and neither will
the sinner resist the justice of God. God is a consuming fire. He is just and He is holy and
He must punish sin. That's trouble, my friends. That's
trouble. Our nature is as dried leaves,
and God's justice is as flame of fire, and it will consume
us. All men by nature are at enmity against God. Listen to me, you who know not
God and believe not His Son, do you know this, that God is
against you? God is not for you. God is against
you. This is not my word. This is
God's Word. He Himself says He's against
you. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. And seeing that He is righteous
and must recompense sin, can't you see that it's just righteous
for God to punish sin? Isn't that just good? It is. It's right. It's righteous. And
every one of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. My friend, Jesus Christ, He came
the first time meek and lowly and a servant. But as our Scripture
reveals in verse 8, this Lord Jesus will not come the second
time in that manner. He will come in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the
gospel of Jesus Christ. I want you to flip very quickly
to Revelation. We're not going to stay here
very long, but Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20 and
verse 11. Actually, let's just read verse
12 for time's sake. It says, "...and I saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which are written in the
books according to their works." Did you notice that? Both small
and great. Small and great. On that day, my friends, it matters
not who you were in this life. Doesn't matter. People now may possess power. They may possess authority. They
may possess respect in their community. They may be the people
that are looked up to and admired by men. They may be educated
people, but my friends, in that day,
it will matter not what you were in this life. It doesn't matter
what office you held, or what position you hold, or what titles
you have. My friends, in this day, Jesus
Christ will come and He will level all men before Him. And everyone will stand before
Him and be judged of Him. Every one of you. Everyone under
the sound of my voice. You will stand before Christ
and He will not care what office you held in this world. Or what
you did in this life. Other than this, did you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope? That's it. Everything
else will mean nothing. Both kings and peasants, presidents
and citizens, rich and poor, young and old, it doesn't matter. I just heard about that Polish
president this morning who died in the plane crash. My friends,
Jesus Christ did not care that He was president of a nation.
When He comes, He will bow down before Christ and be judged,
just like everyone else. Just like everyone else. Nothing at that day shall be
hid. You know, there are sins that
we all have, I imagine, that you would not even want to tell
your closest loved one about. I'm sure there are things about
ourselves that we would long to remain hidden from the eyes
of everyone that we love dearly or everyone else. But I'll tell
you this, in that day it will be exposed before Christ and
you will be judged. You'll be exposed. Knowing then that we have all
sinned. that if Jesus Christ, hear me
very carefully, when Jesus Christ judges, if there is one thought, one motive, one action of sin
in your life, if you never did anything wrong, if you lived
a holy life and all you did was think about a sin, or think about
lying, or have the intent to lie, my friends, you will be
judged and you will be damned. Knowing that we have all sinned
then, knowing that we have all fallen short of the glory of
God, can you not see the trouble? Can you not see the trouble that
sinners have before God? Do you not see this trouble?
Does this cause you any concern? It should. It should. If this causes you concern this
morning, where then will you go for rest? Where then will
you hide yourself from the Almighty? In what do you take refuge this
morning? What is your hope to stand in
that day, my friends? What are you resting in? I see
people walking around and they think everything's alright. They're
just smiling. They're having a good time. They
don't have anything. They don't care for the things of Christ. They're
just walking around. Why? They have a refuge. They
have a resting place that they're resting in. They're holding on
to something. Holding on to something. I know
some of you this morning will leave here. and dismiss everything
I say. That man, he's just yelling. He's just up there. I know God's
up there and God will be good to me. God's not like that. I don't believe in a God like
that. I believe in a God of love. He loves everybody. Surely, if
I just do my best, if I just am sincere in what I'm doing,
surely, surely, He'll be okay with me. I don't doubt your sincerity. I don't doubt men are sincere. You remember the false prophets
that worshiped Baal and Elijah came to them? Those people were
sincere. These people, they called out
to their God and they cut themselves. expecting their God to answer.
They were sincere. But my friends, if you go away
from this place, not accepting this, not seeing this, you are
sincerely wrong. You're sincerely wrong. You will leave this place, and
if you're trusting in anything, if you're trusting in your religion
as your refuge, You say, well, pastor, I've made
a profession of faith. When I was a kid, I was baptized.
I did all those things. I'm alright. My friends, it matters
not what you did. Do you believe now? Do you rest
in Christ now as your only hope? If not, you are under a false
refuge. I've heard people say this. I've
known Jesus all my life. I tell them, that's too long.
That's too long. If you've known Jesus all your
life, that's too long. My friends, you must first come
to know who you are and bow before Christ, seeing Him as your only
hope. Anyone that believes in Jesus
Christ plus something. There's a lot of people who believe
in Jesus Christ plus something. And they're resting in that.
They're resting in what they did. I believed in Jesus and
now I'm just trying to walk the narrow path. I'm just trying
to do the best I can. And surely God will accept me.
Isaiah said, you've made a covenant with death and with hell. And
God says, I've disannulled your covenant and it's no good. Anyone
that is not on the foundation of Jesus Christ alone shall be
cut off. I declare to you that there is
only one refuge. One. There are not many ways
to God. There is only one way to God. I tell you, there are not many
gospels. There is only one gospel. Only one. And His name. is Jesus Christ. Only by faith in Him alone will
you withstand the wrath of God, my friends. Will you be able
to stand in that day of judgment only by Him? And you know what
He says? He says this, to you who are
sinners, to you who are the worst of sinners, He says, Come unto
Me, you that are heavy laden. Are you heavy laden with this
trouble of sin? Are you burdened with your sin
and your guilt? He says, come unto Me and you
shall find rest unto your soul. I tell you who are troubled with
sin, come and rest with us who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the sweet rest of coming
to Christ. Come and see His person. See
His person that He who is God, blessed forever, came to earth
to be a man. And He united Himself with humanity
so as to be our federal head and representative. You know,
Adam was a federal head. Adam was a representative and
he represented all of us. But when Adam died and he had
committed spiritual rebellion against God, so did we. He represented
everyone here. Well, I don't like that. It doesn't
matter what you like and what you don't like. God set Him up
as a federal head, and He is a federal head, and He is our
Father, and in Him we all died, the Scripture says. But God has
set up another federal head. God has set up a burner at Him.
One that has come in the person of a man so that He might represent
you. God, when He chose a people,
He also determined how those people should be saved, and it
is by a representative. And Jesus Christ is that only
representative. He's the only representative
God, manifest in the flesh. Is there any here who would go
to God? Then my friend, let this be known
unto you, there is only one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. That's it. There is no other
refuge for the souls of men. None. See His person. And see His work as our representative. How that He came and fulfilled
the law of God in perfection. And merited the righteousness
that we fail to merit. Every one of us has failed to
merit any kind of righteousness whatsoever. Yet He, as the God-man,
merited righteousness. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by His faithfulness. But His righteousness was not
enough. Because sin, as I told you before, God is just and holy,
and He must punish all sin. How then can God be just and
save any of us? How is that possible? Through
this man, Jesus Christ, who God imputed all of the sins of His
people onto Him. And when He died, He died in
our stead, in our place. So that we may rest. Rest from all work! Rest from
all worry and pain and trouble! My friends, we who believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, when God sees you, He sees His Son. And when God gives glory to His
Son, He'll give it to you as well. Is that not glorious? In that is perfect rest. You that are without Christ,
come and rest with us. Come and rest with us. There
is rest to be found in Christ. There is no other rest. There
is no other rest. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall find rest unto your souls. In Christ there is
rest and safety. In Christ, there's forgiveness. There's pardon. There's mercy. There's mercy
for sinners. He, my friend, is the cornerstone
of the foundation of the church of God, and all who rest on Him
shall be saved. He that believeth on the Lord
Jesus Christ and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. These are not my words, my friend. These are the words of the living
God. And now, in the remainder of
the message, I want to speak to us who do believe. You who
do believe. You that have rested with us.
Paul says, rest with us still. We still need rest, don't we?
We that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we still need His rest. We still need His rest. When you came to Christ, you
that believe, answer me this. Did things get easier? Did the
troubles just go away now? Are we just, when we rest in
Christ, does that mean that our life, that we float on flowery
beds of ease, that we just sail through this life with no problems?
Is that how it is? Is that your testimony? It's
not mine. When I came to Christ, everything
got worse. Everything got worse. The troubles began to abound
greater, and they were more magnified. The troubles that I experienced
before were troubles that everybody experienced, but now then that
I came to Christ, everything else seemed to be amplified.
Why is that? Well, I want to go over several
troubles that we have as believers in Jesus Christ, and I want it
to show us that there's rest from these troubles. First of
all, the trouble of self. Anybody got trouble with self? Anybody have trouble with self?
If you believe in Christ, you have trouble with self. I'll
tell you what, if you don't have any trouble with yourself, then you don't
know Christ. That's easy to see. You don't
have any trouble with sin, you don't know Christ. You don't
know Him. Trouble with self. Before we came to Christ, there
was no trouble with self, was there? Self was everything there
was. I noticed this as I was thinking
about it this week. I noticed that before I came
to Christ, there was really no trouble unless somebody interfered
with what I wanted to do. Have you noticed that before
you were saved? As long as everybody was going along with what I wanted
to do, then there was really no trouble. But when somebody
interfered with what I wanted to do, then it seemed like there
was trouble. But it wasn't my fault. It was
their fault. I saw that everybody else was
to blame but me. But when I came to Christ, something
happened. Something changed in me. I saw something that I didn't
see before. I knew something about myself
that I didn't know before. I know this, now that I've come
to Christ, that I have a sin nature. And that sin nature doesn't
need reformation. That sin nature will not reform. That sin nature will not get
better. It will only stay evil continually. Paul says, that we who believe,
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these two are contrary one to another. Do you
experience that? Do you know that? You do if you're
in Christ. There are two natures now. Believer,
do we not long to be righteous? Is that not your longing? Or
are you just trying to do good? I don't want to just do good.
I want to be righteous. I want to be holy. I want to
serve God with everything in me. But yet there's a nature
in me, something struggling. against what I want to do so
that I could not do what I would. And I know this is your trouble
too, my brothers and sisters. But I want you this morning to
come apart from your struggle and rest with us. You who are
troubled with self, rest with us. In this, your flesh is already
dead. Everything that evil nature tries
to do, all of the sin that it is and that it does, my friends,
it has been taken care of by the blood and righteousness of
Christ, and you, my friend, are free from its persecution and
condemnation. Rest with us. Don't worry about
that flesh. Fight against it. Struggle it.
Battle it. Stand against it. It will not
rule over you. Rest with us in this. Reckon
yourselves to be dead unto the flesh, but alive unto God. Oh,
that's comforting. That's comforting to know that
my flesh shall not stop my salvation. Praise God. Rest with us, believer,
that there is therefore now. When? Right now. When? Right now. And now? And you just keep on saying that.
Right now is no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ
Jesus. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit, rest in this. Second of all, we have
trouble with trials and circumstance. Trials and circumstance. I know
that many of our troubles come as a result of our own sin. Isn't
that right? Most all of our troubles come
as a result of our own sin. That which a man sows, he shall
also reap. Believer, don't think for a moment
that God is going to alleve our consequences of our sins. We
should not presume that at all. Remember David when he committed
the sin with Bathsheba? God said of Nathan the prophet,
He said, The God hath put away thy sin. Isn't that good? But notice, he did not put away
the consequences of his actions. He lost both of his sons and
he lost his kingdom as a result of his sin. Can you not think
of the sins in our lives that we have reaped the consequences
all of our life? Some sins we reap the consequences
all of our lives. Many times our sins and our troubles
cause us grief. But sometimes circumstance causes
us pain and trouble, doesn't it? Job. What did Job do to deserve the
trouble he got? Nothing. Nothing. The troubles
came upon Job for no reason of his own. And sometimes circumstances
come upon us that are not caused by us, but they come in anyway. And they cause us great pain
and discomfort, so that we may begin to doubt and fear and think,
God has left me. How many times have you thought
that, believer? Oh, God's left me now. There's no way He can
possibly love me now. Come and rest with us. Come and
rest with us in this, to know this, that God is the author
of all of our troubles and circumstances. The same God that sent His Son
to die for you is the same God that has brought in your troubles.
Whatever trouble you're facing now, know this, it comes from
the hand of God. My friend, is there anything
to escape God's attention? Can there be anything that God
does not have control over? No. God controls everything in
our lives, even our troubles. Our God is in the heavens and
done whatsoever He had pleased. Psalm 115 verse 3. Recognize
and rest, my dear friends, that God is the author of our troubles,
and know this, that all of our troubles have a purpose. Troubles don't come on us for
no reason. How many times do we think that?
Well, I don't know what this is. All of a sudden, for no reason,
it just come on me and I, woe is me! How many times I say that
a lot? I only know that because I'm
saying it myself. I don't hear it of you, but I
hear it of myself. Yet we must know that God is
not doing this to be vindictive. He has a purpose. Believers,
does anybody want to grow in patience and faith? Does anybody
want to grow in these graces? Guess how that happens? Guess
how that happens? You want to be patient? You know
what you're praying for? Trouble. Trials. You want to grow in faith? Guess
what you're praying for? Troubles. And when troubles come,
we say, well, where did that come from? I only prayed for
faith and patience. I didn't pray for trouble. Yes,
you did. Glory, my friends, Paul says,
not only in the fact that Jesus Christ has justified us, not
only the fact that we can approach before God, but Paul says in
Romans chapter 5, glory also in tribulations. He's not saying glory in the
pain of it. The pain hurts. The troubles
hurt. But my friend, glory in the results
of it. Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope, and hope faith maketh not ashamed." My friend,
is there any that want a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is
there any that long to be a voice of the gospel to those around
you to be a light in this world. And my friends, for that light
to grow brighter, it must go through troubles and tribulations. Jesus said, in this world you
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world. Come rest with us with this,
that God is using this for your good. All things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. You believe that? Rest with us in that. And very
quickly, troubles of persecution. This church was going through
persecution. And my friends, if you tell people
the truth, I want you to expect something. I want you to expect
rejection and hatred. You tell them that God has chosen
a people from before the foundation of the world. You tell them that
Jesus Christ died for those alone whom God has chosen. You tell
them that the Holy Spirit is going throughout all the earth
and calling those elect people, and they'll hate you for it.
Why? Because they want salvation to
be of man. They want salvation to be of the will of man. But
it is not! It is the will of God! And when
you say that, get ready. because they're not going to
like it. It's okay. Rest with us. It's okay. Expect
persecution. Expect persecution from those
that you love the most, my friends. I love my children. You know
who causes me the most grief and pain in the morning getting
ready for church? The ones I love the most. They cause me great persecution. They don't intend to. It's their
nature. It's what they were born with.
It's what I was born with. My family was always in trouble
trying to get ready for church. And I thought it was everybody
else. Really, I was the root cause of all the trouble. I was
persecuting them. And my friends, you tell your
friends and family the Gospel and they will despise you for
it. They'll despise you for it. Tell them the truth. Declare
to them the gospel, but do it anyway. And rest in this. God will cause the results. And lastly, rest in the trouble
of death. Friends, every one of you and
I will face this trouble. We will die. And death is a very scary thing. But for us who believe, it really
shouldn't be. Death is nothing more than to
usher us into the presence of God. When we stand on the banks
of the chilly Jordan and the coldness of death lie on our
brow, my friends, rejoice and rest in Christ alone and you
shall be ushered into eternity to be with Him forever. Death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, but
where is my sin? It's gone. Come rest with us." No matter what happens, Paul
said this, I am persuaded that neither life nor death nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What then have we to
fear? Come and rest. And you that do
not believe, my friends, believe today. Don't wait. Come and rest with us. There's rest to be found in Christ. I pray that God would bless this
to our hearts and that he would give us rest for our souls. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.