Turning your copy of the scriptures
to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 as Brother Jesse has
already read to us this morning. As it's on our heart and minds,
I want you to think about a word for a moment as we begin. I want
you to think about the word rejection. What does it mean? What does
it mean for you to think of rejection in your own life? I mean, if someone you have a
relationship with is in your life and then they tell you,
I don't like you anymore, that's rejection. If you have need of
a liver or a pancreas and your body takes it and does not assimilate
it and it no longer works, it rejects it. It's like a cancer. How hard is rejection in this
life? How difficult it must have been
for the God of creation to place Himself amongst His creation,
and yet His own people did not receive Him, but they rejected
Him. As we think of rejection in our
own lives, we often come upon our petty thrones with self-reflection,
intrinsic depression, considering exactly how bad life may be for
us, and how sad it is for us, and how unworthy it is for us
to suffer in such a way, and yet we don't often contemplate
in comparison the suffering and the rejection of Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now throughout all the ages of
humanity, throughout all the history from Adam until the Day
of Judgment, Rejection shall be one of those things that we
as human beings most despise, most fight, most pray against. For we'd rather
be ugly, dumb, and sick than rejected. We'd rather be poor
and homeless than alone. But friends, consider the rejection
of Jesus Christ. Now consider, as Jesse read,
those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus. Consider the reality
that they are rejected by God. It might make us ponder why people
come to tears when considering the reprobate and the lost. Because
friends, we know what justice looks like. We know what righteousness
is. We know what vengeance truly
stands for. We know what wrath brings. Sadly
in our world though, the smug stand and scoff, justice, God,
Bible beaters. No matter what we scoff at, no
matter what we refuse to believe by the works of unrighteousness,
we know everyone who hears the sound of my voice, or whoever
hears the sound of my voice, is guilty before God. And if it were not His mercy
through Jesus Christ the Son, we would be condemned before
God. Whether we want to believe it,
we can tell ourselves in our bedtime stories that it's a myth,
that it's false, it's not true. But friends, telling yourself
that something is not real does not remove the consequence thereof.
I can believe that I do not have cancer, I can speak that I am
wealthy, I can stand around as though I am not aging, and all
three things shall come to pass with their consequences no matter
what I believe. Much like the crazy people who
somewhat believe that the options of life include superheroes.
I shall be Superman, some would say. I'm going to be Spider-Man. That would not be my pick. I'd
be like Shark-Man or something. And many of a crazy people have
attempted to show they had supernatural powers and strapped a cape upon
their backs and said, watch me fly to the ground. You did fly, buddy. You made
it to the ground. And every fiber of their being
before that plummet, knew that they truly could fly. Much like people, as we sit here
today and some people say, well, who is that he's talking about?
I don't know, but I'm sure there have been many in history who
thought they had superpowers to their own demise. And you
might think it's insane or a little crazy or absolutely ludicrous
for someone to be in that state of mind, but brothers and sisters,
even those who may be here as enemies of the cross, let me
implore you that you too have such superpower visions of grandeur. For you believe that if you hold
to an unbelief, that it gives you the power to fly away from
the judgment of God, and there is nothing, no matter how hard
you try, that will escape you from God's judgment. And the souls of some very intelligent
people as they stand and have sat with me throughout the years
and have argued, but I just do not believe that this could be.
My answer to them is, that is a lie from your own heart. You
know better or you would not have this conversation with me.
I have spent zero time searching for Bigfoot. I have spent zero
time looking for Nessie. The Sasquatch and the Leviathan,
whatever they may be or have been, are not interesting to
me. I have never contemplated the
fact that Darth Vader exists in reality, for he does not. He is the figment of a man's
imagination. Very creative, I might say. I've
never seen debates debating whether or not the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles exist. But the mere fact that people
hate a mythical God proves He has a bearing on their soul. Proves it. Well, that's crazy
reasoning. Then stand before me in God's presence and let
me hear your argument. Friends, rejection by God is
to be feared. Whether you receive Him or not,
if He does not receive you, you will not be spared. And that
is just. As we think about this text today
in 2 Thessalonians, last week we looked at this and we saw
that Paul was divinely obligated inside of his soul, and that
apostles were obligated divinely to praise the Lord and thank
Him for the work that He's done in their lives. So in the same way sometimes
unbelievers have a superhero complex, sometimes we believers
have a superhero complex. We believe that in our own way,
in our own thoughts, in our own life, and in our own actions,
we can actually employ a secular, worldly, physical righteousness
that pleases God. That we can get our lives together.
We can act a certain way, speak a certain way, dress a certain
way, fix our hair a certain way, wear the right kind of glasses,
put on the spiritual cape. That we can come to God all dressed
up as though there's something for Him to go, wow. I mean to
tell you, if you had not come before me, I don't know what
I'd have done. I see who you are now. Whoa!
I should bow before you. And as crazy as that sounds,
that's what self-righteousness is. It's an insane dilemma. that our human condition, even
as believers sometimes think, that prepares us for the statement
to hear Christ say, well done, thy good and faithful servant.
When the Bible teaches that the only way we stand just before
God is that Jesus Christ the righteous took our sin debt upon
Himself and God the Father in His righteous judgment judged
Christ guilty of sin and gave His righteousness to us. That is the only way we stand
before God. And the beauty of God's creation,
as He made birds to reproduce after their own kind and do what
birds do, as He made worms to reproduce after their own kind
and do what worms do, in the same way He created His children
with a new heart and a new mind and the righteousness of Christ
in them, that they will do that for which they've been created.
to do, which is to display the glorious, creative, miraculous
grace of God as a new creation. It is not I who live, Paul says,
but Christ who lives within me. So that we have no boast. It
is by faith alone. What does it mean? We believe
that Christ is it. We need nothing but Christ. We
have nothing but Christ. We love nothing but Christ. We
desire nothing but Christ. It is only Christ. It is all
of Christ. Christ is everything. Christ is my everything. Not my sports. Not my hunting. Not my money. Not my job. Not
my prestige. Not my reputation. Not my children.
Not my spouse. Not my stuff. Not my statement
in life. Not my health. Not my age. Or
my youth. Or my beauty. Or my ugliness.
Or whatever it might be. All of that is nothing compared
to Christ. Christ is everything. Paul says
to the Philippian church, to live is Christ. And to die is
far much gain. Is that the way to live this
morning church? You know why? You know why? Because sometimes
when we see this text, sometimes we think, we really do think,
that when we suffer in this life, we actually are rejected by God. There's not a week, I'm not kidding,
no exaggeration, there's not one seven day period that does
not go by that somebody, sometimes in this congregation, but somebody
comes to me and says, Pastor, I feel like God has left me because
I'm suffering. I feel like that God is rejecting
me because I have pain in my life, I have problems in my life.
Well, this text here teaches us differently. I've heard a pastor locally make
comment that so many pastors seem to preach on suffering too
much. Well, if we preach the Bible
the way God commands it, then we preach it as God brings it
up in the Bible. And so when God brings it up
in the Bible, we bring it up in our mouths, and it comes to
your ears, and we're blessed by it. It's called exposition.
Paul didn't write a fortune cookie to the people of Thessalonica,
he wrote a letter. He didn't write a proverb on
a pigeon's little ankle, whatever you call that thing, foot, and
send it in there for them to have a little party on some kind
of fortune. He wrote them a letter and then
he wrote them another letter. And in this letter is teaching.
We call that doctrine. And in this teaching we learn
who God is, which is eternal life according to Jesus in John
17. We call that theology. It is not an academic pursuit.
It is worship in spirit and worship in truth. So to not learn Christ
is to hate Him. To believe in Christ is to settle
down and put away all the cares of the world, to not escape with
the things of the flesh, but to escape in the presence of
God, who through His Word shows us His face through His Son.
And it is the only way through which God can speak, through
the Son of God, these last days. And the only way we hear the
voice of the Son is to see the text of Scripture. Friends, suffering is not a statement
of rejection. Let's look at this text, starting
in verse 5 through verse 8. This is the evidence of the righteous
judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom
of God, for which you are also suffering. Since indeed God considers
it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to
grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. when the Lord Jesus is revealed
from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance
on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus. Let me pray. Fathers, I consider
the text here before me, Lord. It is not ample time in the world,
in my life, to justly do that which is completely done for
these first century Christians. But Lord, by Your providence
and Your glorious mercy, You have given us this text to study
every day. So Father, let this be a primer, a pinnacle where
we might take it in, not just this moment, but tomorrow and
the next day, and study and learn and grow and worship therein. Father, I pray that as I speak
that Your Word would do its work and that those who sit before
me, Lord, would be satisfied in Jesus, surrendered to Jesus,
Lord, sustained by Jesus, sanctified by Jesus. And Lord, that those who do not
know You would come to know You through the hearing of Your Word
this day. And Father, that everything that
we are, would reflect the power of Your righteousness, even our
suffering. Lord, remove me from this equation
this day, except that my vocal cords work that which You've
intended to say. By the grace of Your mighty power,
by Your glory, in the name of Christ, Amen. We see God's judgment
here in verse 5, the righteous judgment of God. Now, I have
been accused, at times, throughout the last 12 years especially,
of being a hellfire and brimstone preacher. Those people who call
me that have no idea of what they're talking about. How many
of you, just by a show of hands, have had a stint in a fundamentalist
church? Okay, there's a couple. I am no hellfire and brimstone
preacher, am I not? No. Not by any approach of the imagination. For a hellfire brimstone preacher
talks about the judgment of God, which is right and good to preach
on, and then that's the end of it. In some sense, and I know
this is a fallacy in itself, because I don't know every guy
that preaches like that, and I have not heard all of them
throughout all of history, but in a large population of these
pastors, most of them love to preach that God is angry and
condemning, and that's the end of it. The good news of Jesus
is not found in Christ, but in works. The good news of Jesus
Christ is not God's mercy in our wickedness, but rather our
transformation before God's holiness. Friends, if the text is preached
correctly, we are to see the righteous judgment of God. So
as I approach it here, it would be very easy for me to stomp
the pulpit and break the other side off, or whatever. and to
get really excited in some animated way about how vengeful God is
and how worthy He is to be vengeful, which is a good sermon. And so
let's go ahead and get that out of the way and understand that
when we see the righteous judgment of God, we will know that that
is true. Is it not? What is righteousness
anyway but absolute perfection? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. Why three holies? Why not just
one? Because the emphasis in Semitic
writing, when you saw it twice, it was of most importance. When
you saw it three times, it was of absolute importance. Nothing
was greater. So if God is holy, that's true
in itself. If God is holy, holy, then oh
boy, you better pay attention. But to have the tertiary expression,
that means three, it is of greatest import. And God not only is holy,
but commands perfect holiness out of everything. Out of every
one of us, God commands that we be holy for He is holy. And
anyone in this life that is not perfectly equal to God in their
righteousness is worthy of His justice. How much do you have
to steal if you rob somebody to become a thief? How much deceit
has to be in your heart to call you a liar? Do you have to say the lie or
can you just want it? How much greed, how much do you
really have to want and desire of other people's stuff to be
called covetous? How much is too much before you're
greedy? How about murder? Well, I've
never murdered. Yes, we have. We murder any time we feel ill
in our heart toward our brothers and sisters or toward another
person. And according to the New Testament, we murder. The
heart of a murderer is the heart of someone who hates someone. So that we're guilty of murder
even though we don't perform the act. Gossip is an expression
of murder. We talk about someone else outside
their presence. It is murder. So who is guilty? We're all guilty. God, if He
were not righteous, He would let it all go. You know why?
As the old saying goes, thick as thieves. It's like my grandmother
Tiffin used to always say, you cannot have your nose broken
in a bar. It's impossible. I never understood
that. Because I've heard of many stories
where people have been beat up in a bar. and their nose broken.
To which she would see their black and blue eyes and their
crooked nose and say, that did not happen in a bar. You did
not get your nose broken in a bar. Why? I don't know. I never got
a chance to ask her exactly what she means by that, but this is
what I think she means. What else do you expect? That's what you get in there.
What else do you expect, beloved, if God is righteous? He's not
like a thief. He's not going to let other thieves get away
while He convicts murder. He's not going to let murderers
get away while He convicts liars. He's going to convict and find
guilty all sin. And God is not one of these guys
that hates sin and loves the sinner. God is not going to pour
judgment out on murderer. He's going to pour judgment out
on the murderer. God is not going to take all the lies and boil
them in a pot. He's going to bring justice upon
all the lying tongues and people that they're attached to. And
you might say, well that is not good. Why is it not good? It
is perfect. It is perfect. As we'll see in
this text today. This is evidence of the righteous
judgment of God. This judgment according to Romans
1 is here. and His coming. For God pours
out His wrath, His judgment, on all humanity, all those who,
what? Suppress the truth by acts of
unrighteousness. So God poured His judgment out on Jesus Christ,
and God will pour His judgment out on the world, and God forever
will pour His judgment out on those who do not believe. God's
judgment, as we know according to Romans chapter 8 verse 1,
therefore now there is no what? Condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus. So that's the good news. We are
in Christ Jesus, don't have to fear the judgment of God, because
we've been given what? Forgiveness. Jesus Christ has
propitiation. He satisfies. That word means
satisfies God's judgment. Jesus Christ objectively, subjectively
actually, has become propitiation. Jesus satisfies the judgment
of God because Jesus satisfied the righteousness of God in two
ways. How? He satisfied the righteousness
of God in that He lived wholly, perfectly as an actual human
being. Fully man. And then he satisfies
the righteousness of God according to Romans chapter 3, because
God forgave me. And I'm not holy. And neither are you. We are not
holy. So how does Jesus satisfy the
righteousness of God in that? Because God forgave us of our
sin, and He cannot forgive us of our sin, except something
righteous pay for the justice. So Jesus Christ satisfies the
righteousness of God in His forgiveness and forbearance. So what about
those who do not believe? Well, there is no justice toward
them, right? Here is the debt. Here is the
payment. I don't want your money. I don't
want your payment. Guess who still owes the debt?
I do. Jesus Christ pays for judgment.
The righteous judgment of God then does not come to His people. Though we may experience a taste
of what it may be like as we suffer in this world, though
we may experience some of the heartaches of a brokenness and
a fallenness and a sinful nature, though we experience temptation,
we may have a small little glimpse of what God's wrath may be, but
it's not God's wrath. The suffering, I said this a
couple of weeks ago, and it's just a philosophical idea to
think about. It's not explicitly written in
Scripture, but the greatest suffering that's found on this earth, even
for the wicked, is heaven in comparison to the eternal judgment
of God. I was thinking about my brothers
and sisters over in Kabul, two of whom have lost their lives
in the last seven years. One shot by sniper fire as she
walked out of a humanitarian aid office, and the other one
was found dead in their hotel room. And I thought to myself, what
would I do in situations where I was captured and tortured for
the sake of Christ? How horrible it must be, not
just to be tortured, but how horrible it must be for those
families who come to the faith of Christ in those areas that
are hostile and they take their children out and they say, if
you do not renounce Jesus, we're going to take the heads off of
your babies. Well, this is a really fun, loving sermon. What do you think the Thessalonians
were experiencing? People talking about them? Flaming them on Facebook? You think somebody unfriended
them or sent them a nasty note or egged their house? Put a flaming
bag of poop on their porch? That's for the kids. Pay attention.
No, these people were dying for their faith. These people were
losing everything for their faith. They were going to jail for their
faith. They were losing their houses for their faith. They
were losing their children for their faith. And none of this suffering is
worthless, as we'll see. None of this suffering is justice
in comparison to the vengeful, righteous judgment of God. Even
if the unbelievers receive this type of treatment. Friends, it
is not judgment. If we put a man to death for
his crimes, it is not justice. God's judgment is displayed in
His people through the suffering, like Jesus Christ. This is the
point that I'm trying to make. Jesus took on the suffering in
His flesh. Jesus what? Received the wrath
of God. Literally. physically. He suffered
the wage of sin, which is, say it, death. The wage of sin is
death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
So then, if we are seeing that the suffering of Christ on the
cross, death and suffering, is a display of the righteousness
of God and the judgment of God, which is what it was. God judged
Jesus Christ, who had no sin, as guilty of sin. And if Paul says that I pray,
in Colossians, I pray I may fill up what is lacking in the suffering
of Christ in my flesh, that is, my flesh, for your sake, for
the body. And the Scripture is replete
in the New Testament about how when we suffer, we suffer as Christ
suffered to a degree that we might experience suffering in
that way, so that we what? Identify with Christ. Are you
following me? So that suffering in this life, no matter how heinous
or hard, identifies us in a small, little, tiny, microscopic way
with the macrocosmic reality of Christ and His suffering under
the justice of God. Our suffering identifies us in
a very tiny way with the suffering of Jesus Christ, who suffered
for the sake of the righteousness of God. There you go. That's
the argument. That's the truth. 1 Peter 4, we see this, for it
is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and
it begins with us, that what will be the outcome for those
who don't obey the gospel of God? So in other words, Peter
would argue, if God's judgment, temporally, if suffering comes
even to the people of God, what shall it come? What shall be
the outcome of those who disobey Christ? What shall be the outcome of
those who live in unbelief? I said, well, why? God's judgment
does not come to His people, but rather judgment is displayed
in suffering to identify with Christ. But here's something
we need to understand. People like to ask the question,
why, why? These Thessalonians, why, Lord, why, Lord? They didn't
ask this question. They probably did in their hearts, but we don't
see a record of that. They probably did. We all do. Why am I having
to go, what are you trying to teach me? That's one of the biggest
wrong questions. What are you trying to teach
me? Or do we really think God is that small? Do you think God
is like the gods of Greece, where He's trying to teach us small
little lessons about life through our suffering? Can He? Absolutely.
Does He? Yes, most definitely. But what's
the overarching purpose of God allowing suffering, and actually
not just allowing, I'm going to stop using that word, God
purposing suffering in the lives of His people? God brings it. Let me go ahead and just say
it. He brings it. When Job lost it all, God sent
Satan to him and told him what to do. And gave him the power
to accomplish it. Wow! Revelations chapter 6, we
were there this past Tuesday. You can listen to it on the church
website. But folks, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the devil. Not
salvificly, but authoritatively. Why? What is He going to try
to show you? What does He show you? He shows you a small taste of
the wages of sin. What does Peter say? The one
who suffers in the flesh is free from all sin. Is that true? No.
What does it mean? God uses suffering to sanctify
us. God uses suffering in this world
to make us more like Christ. It was through suffering that
Christ learned obedience. It was through suffering that
Christ was glorified. It was through suffering that
Christ propitiated. It was through suffering that
Christ paid the penalty for our sins and redeemed us. It was
through suffering. It was through death. And this
is the work of God. God's judgment does not come
to His people, though it has begun. God's judgment is displayed
in the suffering of His people, temporally. But most importantly,
we need to understand about God's righteous judgment is that God's
righteous judgment is righteous. What does that mean? Always right.
And if something's always right, it's always good. Now for you
philosophers in the room, the divine command theory comes to
play. If you don't know what that is, that's awesome. Is something good because God
does it? Or is God good because He does good things? The Bible
says that God is the great I Am, and all that He does is righteous,
so that the Scripture is the authority for our understanding
of God, so that if God says His judgment is righteous, then it's
righteous. and we see the righteousness in it. Praise God, He's immutable.
That means He does not change. So that His righteous judgments
from before the world began and then after it's gone will continue
to be the same. God has forever and always judged
things rightly. So the suffering of the church
is right. That's what I'm trying to tell
you. For this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God
Look at this. Why is it right? Look at that
comma there. It's not in Greek, but in English
there's a comma. That you may be considered worthy of the kingdom
of God for which you are also suffering. Why is it right? Because
our suffering shows us that we're worthy of the kingdom of God.
Where do you get that? Right there. And then also other
places. 2 Peter 7, and this suffering,
this affliction, this trial, so that the tested genuineness
of your faith, isn't that what it does? The tested genuineness
of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes
when it's tested by fire. The genuineness of your faith
is tested that it may be found. What? That your faith may be
found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation,
that means at the coming and the revealing of Jesus Christ
in the last day. Peter would even say in chapter
4 verse 12 of his first epistle, Beloved, do not be surprised
at the fiery trial when it comes upon you, to test you as though
something strange were happening to you. Listen to me, friends.
If suffering causes you to walk away from God, you were never
with Him. If pain in this life causes you
to walk away to sin, then you're not in Christ. Wait a minute.
That was a very dogmatic statement. If suffering in this life causes
you to go back to sin, to remain in sin, and forsake the gospel,
friends, you're not in Christ. There's no such thing as a backslidden
Christian. What's a backslidden Christian? All of us. Before we get out
of here today, hey, where do you want to eat? I don't care.
Let's go there. I hate that place. Then the argument starts. Then
we're sinning. Why do my children never do what's
right? I don't know. They take after
you. Oh, they know that? They take after you. Well, if you were a better dad.
Well, if you were a better mom. And then there's a fight. That fury
that comes up inside of you when somebody says something that's
not correct on Facebook and you've got to fix it. There's like 60
gazillion people on there and you're going to fix every one
of them. and you're angry, and you're trying to be righteous,
and let me just point them in the right way, and they say,
you're a fool. Well, let me just be gracious. You're a moron.
Okay, now you're aggravating me. You're an idiot. Bah! All
caps. See what I mean? So we're all
backslidden. We all slide back down in the
flesh every now and then, every single day. The question is,
are you sufficiently satisfied in the righteousness of God through
Jesus Christ? And if so, friends, when we suffer, we're not going
to escape suffering either way. We turn to Christ rather than
the world. We turn to Christ rather than
the flesh. We find our joy in submitting and surrendering and
being satisfied in the glory of Jesus Christ and know that
our suffering is not worthless. We're tested. Why does it have
to be that way? Name me one uber wealthy person
that ever gets on Oprah and cries. The little show used to be on,
Maury Povich, remember that? Those talk shows used to get
on and talk about all the trash that's going on in their lives.
I don't know who this is, they stole my dog and they killed
my goat and I'm on Judge Judy. You ever think you'll see Bill
Gates on Judge Judy? You ever think you'll see a congressman,
or a president, or anybody on a talk show, on Jerry Springer,
or whatever it might be, slinging chairs because they can't get
the title to the car correct, or the paternity test correct?
No. Why? Because they don't fall
prey to that kind of stuff. They just walk away because they've
got everything they need. The same is true for people who
don't suffer, because they don't ever seek after Christ. Sometimes
suffering in the life of an unbeliever brings them to Christ. What do
you mean? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You just said heresy. No, I didn't say that it saved them. It draws
them. God breaks us sometimes. Did
God not break Saul when he saved him? Did God not... I am tongue-tied
today. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Did God not break all the apostles?
Did He not martyr them all? John, he lived, but he lived
in isolation, exile. Friends, we are not rejected
when we suffer. It is actually here proof that
we're considered worthy of the Kingdom of God. Worthy. What about Acts? Where's that
in Acts? Where they said they counted
it, Acts chapter 5. And they were arrested for preaching
Christ. And they were beaten. Forty lashes minus one. And they
were thrown in jail. And then they let them out and
they said, we charge you not to what? Preach Christ. And what
do they do? They go out in the courtyard
of the jail and preach Christ. And the scripture says there,
then they left the presence of the council and they were rejoicing
that they were counted worthy of what? Huh? Suffering. Worthy to suffer. Friends, the writer of Hebrews
says that God reproves His children, that discipline comes to make
us stronger. But why does suffering come for
strength? What's the point of that? Friends,
name one thing that causes strength that doesn't hurt. How do you become patient? By
living in impatient issues. How do you become strong in your
arms? By resisting them to tear. How does your back and your core
get stronger? By doing exercises that cause those muscles to be
damaged. So that they are stronger when
they're healed. That's what muscle growth is.
You didn't know that, did you? You think things just grow? No, they
tear up and they heal bigger. Marriages. I'm scared of these
people. I've been married 87 years and
never fall. Liar or weirdo? Which one is
it? Senile, maybe. I don't know.
You've just forgotten those first 40 years. I mean, you know. What
is it? What makes us strong in our relationships?
Getting along, fishing with the guys, always having a good time?
No. Suffering, pain, relationship conflict, then what? Healing,
forgiving, intimacy happens in those situations. Friends, our
suffering expressly grows the intimacy with Christ for His
people. Quit trying to escape it. Quit
trying to think that it's an issue of rejection of God. It's
not. But what about if your suffering comes not just in these issues
that just seem to be normal suffering, what if our suffering comes from
other people who hate us? Which is where the Thessalonians
were getting most of their suffering. What does the Bible teach us
about the righteous judgment of God in that situation? Verse
6, you're suffering for the kingdom of God because you're worthy,
and this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God. since indeed
God considers it just, righteous, to repay with affliction those
who afflict you." The Scripture, as we see, vengeance is mine,
saith the Lord, I will repay. And that's reiterated and alluded
to several times in the New Testament. God will repay with greater affliction
those who afflict us. What should our heart be toward
those who hurt us? This is where the rubber might
start not hitting the road for some of us. What should our heart
be toward those who are waiting for the justice of God forever? Broken. For our neighbor who
hates us and causes us pain, we should pray in brokenness
that God would restore them, or God would save them. For those
who... make false accusations against
us for those who cause us pain and harm, we should pray that
God would bring them to righteousness through Jesus Christ. And that
even if it was through our suffering that God would bring them to
faith. What should we do for those who
attack us nationally? For those who sit in high places
and govern wickedly? We should pray that God bring
them to salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul tells Timothy, honor the
king. Honor the emperor. Do not speak ill of them. Friends,
many Christians have a lot of repentance in their lives right
now that's due from the wicked maligning murder that they have
used on social places and on TV and on radio because of how
they speak to the nation's leaders and those who seek the office
of those positions. Speak evil of no one. What should we do? Pray, because
once they die, once the Lord returns, there is no escape for
them. There is no second chance. There is no purgatory. There
is no working off their wickedness. Christ alone is their justification. And if they do not believe upon
Him this life, there is no hope for them forever. God's judgment is right in all
things. God's repayment is His justice. What's it going to look like?
For those of you who were here Tuesday in our Revelation reading,
in Revelation chapter 6 we see the voice of the martyrs under
the altar. the blood of the martyrs under the altar. Who are those
people, these Thessalonians, who died for the sake of their
faith? Our brothers and sisters in Kabul, our brothers and sisters
in Asia, our brothers and sisters all over the world, our brothers
and sisters who may have even been killed right here. Of all ages,
of all times, those who die for the faith, those who bear the
cross of Christ for the sake of their faith, they will receive
justice. When? On the last day. On the
revelation of Jesus Christ. God will grant relief to us.
Look right here. What until then? When is it going
to happen? I don't know, but look at verse
7. God in His mercy will grant relief to you who are afflicted
as well as to us. You see that intimacy there? He's writing to the Thessalonians
and He says, God will grant you relief. And God will grant us relief.
So we share in the suffering. Friends, if you're a believer
in Jesus Christ, no matter what you're experiencing, you're not
alone. The whole of your body. That's
why Paul uses the image of a human body to talk about the body of
Christ as a local assembly of believers. That when one of us
suffer, we all suffer. If my hand is hurting, I'm hurting. I'm not able to just pop my hand
off, sit it over there, so it doesn't affect. We feel the pain
of that. When it's healed, we feel the
results of our healing. Friends, as the body of Christ,
together, we rejoice with those who rejoice, we weep with those
who weep, and we, at the same time, are always glad and joyful
in Christ. We know that then there will
come a time where God will bring some relief. When is it? Well, sometimes it's temporal
here. It's temporal. Sometimes this season we get
through it, we're stronger for it. We get through this suffering,
we get through this persecution, we get through this hatred, we
learn. Even if it doesn't reconcile or we're not healed, the suffering
is diminished. But ultimately, the relief is
granted when? when we are restored to our bodies,
when we see the Lord face to face, when we come to the presence
of God for all of eternity, and we are with our Savior, there
will be no more tears, there will be no more fear, there will
be no more pain, there will be no more suffering, there will
be always peace. Are you ready for that? But for those who do not believe,
when the Lord Jesus is revealed, From heaven is when that relief
will come. Friends, our prosperity preaching,
the prosperity preaching of this day, let me just say this, is
not just an error. It's a wicked sin from the mouth
of Satan. Pastors who tell you that God
wants you healthy, holy, and happy at the world's ways are
evil, unbelieving serpents. And they take that false gospel
that is no good news and they purvey it into a place where
people are suffering physically so that they can rape them of
their resources and get high hog wealth off of their pain. Moving right along. What should we do about that?
Pray that God would close the doors of such places. Silence
the mouth of such people. And save them. Save them. God will grant relief. It tells us that the suffering,
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it says that our light momentary
affliction prepares us for an eternal weight of glory that
is beyond all comparison. As we look to the things that
are unseen, rather than the things that are seen. Friends, the pain
of suffering prepares us for glory. In Romans chapter 8, which
everybody in this room probably knows it, we see all of the suffering
that the outcome of it is that God is glorified in it and God
is working in it. God is working in our suffering
to the point that when we are suffering so badly that we don't
even know how we ought to pray, the Spirit of God prays for us.
How does that work? It's a mystery. We're not to
see the evidence of the prayers. We're not to see the reality
of the prayers, but yet we are to see the evidence of those
prayers. The working of God through those prayers. How it looks and
what it means. It's a mystery. The Spirit blows
where it wishes. He's not going to tap us on the
shoulder and be like a comic book and tell us exactly how
it's going to work. The Bible teaches that God causes
all things to work together for good for those who love Him and
are called according to His purpose. And the end result of that is
glorification. And the latter few verses, listen
to this, the latter few verses, and it goes back to the beginning
and then we're finished, of Romans chapter 8 says, For I am convinced
that neither life nor death, height nor depth, angels or demons,
principalities or powers, and all sorts of things, depend on
what translation you have, nor anything else in all of creation
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now listen. Your suffering proves you are
not rejected by God, but rather proves you are loved by Him because
in suffering our sanctification results in our loving Him more
because we take all these idols out of our lives. We long for
Him greatly. So God's suffering is what makes
us righteous? No. Christ's suffering makes us righteous.
But the suffering in our life makes us righteous? No. But it
cleanses us of unrighteousness in our flesh. And here's the
thing. If I live to be a thousand years
old, and by the time I'm 999, I've memorized the entire Bible
in seven languages. I can exegete things in the middle
of sentence no matter where I am and I live so piously that I've
not even said the word sin except to read it out of text. Not even
contemplated what sin would be. Let's just say that it was possible.
Do you know the day that I die, I'm still, or the day before
I die, I'm still so far away from the glory of God that I'm
worthy of judgment. It is only the righteousness
of Christ that makes me worthy of the kingdom. And you too. But the moment my life ends,
and the moment I stand before my King, all of His holiness,
holiness, holiness, righteousness, righteousness, righteousness
is mine. And I'm counted worthy. Do not be mistaken, beloved.
Jesus will inflict vengeance upon those who do not know God,
and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Suffering is not a sign of rejection,
but God's reception of His people. Christ suffered as we do. We are sanctified, identified,
measured and glorified out of our suffering so that it's worthy,
it's worth something. And suffering is a small sign
of hope for us that we will receive relief, that we will receive
restitution, that we will receive glory. But it is a grand image of vengeance
for those who do not believe. Did you hear that? You think this life is bad? It's
heaven every day in contrast to the justice of eternal God. If we do not believe on Jesus
Christ, this is your best life now. And for those who are in Christ,
we rejoice fully. For He took the suffering on
His body. He took the cross so that we
could be forgiven. I want us to just sit in reflection
for a few moments as we prepare for the Lord's Table. For those
of you who are members of our church, the Lord's Table is here
as we partake it together. For those of you who are guests
here, the Lord's Table is open for you as your conscience bears
witness. But I pray that we take seriously
what this represents. Nothing magical about this. Juice,
some type of bread, wheat product, cookie, I don't know what it
is. Why do we do it? Well, there's
two ordinances that we have in our church. The ordinance of
baptism, which is a symbol of burial, death and resurrection.
A symbol of what Christ did and how we identify with Him. It's
a symbol of hope for our future in that we will be raised to
the newness of life forever, eternally in the resurrection.
And the other ordinance is the Lord's Table. The Lord's Table, in the days
of Jesus, was not something that was supposed to become a sacrament.
It's not a distribution of grace. It doesn't have power. We don't
believe that the body and the blood of Jesus is transformed
here. It is a symbol and a sign of what Jesus has done to afford
us redemption and forgiveness and salvation. And we take it
and we do these things in remembrance of Christ's body which was broken. In remembrance of His blood which
leads to the remission of sin. So I pray that you take the table
in a worthy manner. and that you think about it,
and that you celebrate it, and that you rejoice in it, that
it's to remind us that the Gospel is not just some story that we
hold on to. It's a person who suffered in
our place, and who took the wrath of God for us, and God raised
to life that we have hope that there is an eternal life waiting
for us. Father, as we've heard Your Word
this morning, we praise You for it. Lord, though some of us may be
looking for something else, God, we have been given the bread
of life through Your Scripture, which is evidence of the bread
of life who is Jesus Christ, who gave His body for us. who told us in John's Gospel
to not labor for the food that perishes. Do not labor for this
world. Do not love it. Do not live for
it, but to labor. That means that we are to work
for the bread that endures to eternal life, Father. And the
glorious beauty of it all is that we could work every second
of our existence and never reach it. But Father, in our inability
to reach, you have reached down and picked us up and transferred
us from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom
of righteousness. And you've done so perfectly
and effectually and certainly through Jesus Christ and His
life and His sacrifice and His death and His burial and His
resurrection. Lord, we are free. We are free
from the judgment that so much should be ours. We are free from
the bondage to sin. We are free from the consequence
of death. We are free to righteousness.
Help us to be your slaves to righteousness and to joy. And
as we contemplate this moment, the blood and the body of Jesus,
let us forever be grateful to the praise of Your glorious mercy
and grace and love and kindness in Christ and for the sake of
Your name and in His name. Amen.