In Paul's second epistle to the
Thessalonians, in the first chapter, we read of one of those passages
where the return of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of time
is spoken of, and a solemn reminder of the division that will take
place. between the sheep and the goats
on that last day. Paul says to the Thessalonians
in verse 3, We're bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
as it is meat, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and
the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth,
so that we ourselves glory in you, in the churches of God for
your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations
that ye endure, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment
of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God,
for which ye also suffer. seeing it is a righteous thing
with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and
to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming
fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe, because
our testimony among you was believed in that day. Wherefore, also
we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy
of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness,
and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. seeing it is a
righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble
you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming
fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power. Those that know not God and that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says, shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of his power. There's a solemn
warning and a very real warning. And to those of us, those of
you, who know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus will, shall, be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. He shall come
again in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not
God. And they shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
Everlasting. Yes, the day is coming when we
will all stand before an everlasting God, an eternal and everlasting
God, who exacts punishment according to His righteous nature. Just
as He is everlasting, so His judgment is everlasting. You
will either dwell with Him for eternity, world without end,
everlastingly because you'll stand before him as righteous
through the blood of his own son or you will be separated
from him punished with an everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of His power, because you're
full of sin, full of rebellion, you know Him not, you've not
received and obeyed His gospel, you've not believed His gospel. This is what Paul means by obeying
it, you've not believed it. You've not believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You've not followed Him. You've
not cared for Him. You've dismissed Him. You've
dismissed the message regarding Him. You've denied it. You've trampled it underfoot.
You've trampled His blood underfoot. And if that's what you've done,
then you will be judged with an everlasting destruction. Because
if that's the state you're in, and that's the state you remain
in, then you can never enter into the presence of God. For
he does not change. And if you don't change, then
that will be your state everlastingly. You shall be punished with everlasting
destruction. But some, faced with the solemnity
of such words, and they are solemn words, that this judgment is
for eternity. that hell is never ending. They are solemn words. Some faced
with such a message question whether the Bible, whether the
scriptures, whether God in the scriptures really means what
he says when he says that this judgment is everlasting. Is hell
really eternal? Is this judgment really forever? So some conclude that there can
be no hell whatsoever. They dismiss the Bible passages
which speak of this destruction, which speak of the fires of hell,
and claim that God will annihilate the wicked. That they'll just
be brought to an end. And there's no everlasting and
eternal judgment. Because to them, to think of
this, does not fit with their ideas
of God. So they deny what God says of
himself. They want to believe in a loving
God who couldn't possibly continue to judge and punish the wicked.
But in so doing they rip that loving God of his righteous judgment,
of his righteousness and his justice. They make these passages of none
effect. Others say, well, there is a punishment. There is a judgment. These scriptures do speak of
that. But the word everlasting doesn't
mean everlasting in the way that we might think. It simply means
a very long time. And they would have us believe
that on this day when God divides the sheep from the goats, those
that know God and those that know not God, that those who
are sent into destruction are sent there for a time, a very
long time perhaps, but a time, a finite time. And that at the
end of that time, when the righteous, when the saved, when the elect
are gathered in with God in glory and when these are punished at
the end of a period, at the end of a time, a thousand years or
many thousands of years, however long they declare it to be, at
the end of what they call this everlasting time, God then reconciles
all as one. Even the wicked in hell are then
gathered in and restored with the elect and restored together
so that all are saved and none are punished everlastingly. They
will have us believe, therefore, that verses like this which speak
of an everlasting destruction do not mean everlasting and do
not mean eternal. They simply mean a very long
time. Because again, their idea of
God is such that they cannot believe, they will not believe
in a just God. They want to believe in a God
that brings everything right for everyone in the earth. The trouble with that is that
the scriptures don't say that. We read that these shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power. Everlasting. Not for a period,
not for a time, not for a very long time, but everlasting. And
the same word everlasting used to describe this here is used
to describe many other things in the scriptures. We read of
everlasting destruction. We also read of everlasting fire,
everlasting punishment. We also read of everlasting salvation
and everlasting life, everlasting righteousness and everlasting
gospel. and an everlasting God. An everlasting God. Now if you're going to take the
word everlasting and question whether it means everlasting,
you must do so consistently. If this destruction of which
Paul speaks is not everlasting, then is the salvation of sinners
everlasting? Is everlasting life everlasting? Is the everlasting God everlasting? Either everlasting means everlasting,
or it means finite. And if it means finite, then
it can mean finite wherever you read the word everlasting in
the scriptures. Now let us look at a few places
in the scriptures which speak of everlasting. Firstly, as I
said, there's a day coming when we must all stand before the
everlasting God. The everlasting God. Now you
will find countless references in the scriptures to the fact
that God is everlasting. I am that I am. In Revelation,
Christ speaks of himself being the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the ending. In Genesis 21, we read in verse
33, and Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba and called there
on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Right at the
beginning of time in Genesis, Abraham, one of the patriarchs,
knew that God was everlasting and worshipped him as everlasting. In countless places in the Psalms
and elsewhere we read of God in this sense, in Isaiah. Isaiah
has this to say in chapter 40. Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint
and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Hast
thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God,
the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, faint if not,
neither is weary. He's everlasting. This world
upon which you stand was created. There was a time when it wasn't.
There will come a day when this world as you see it now will
be no more. When God will come in judgment.
and burn it up and bring in a new heaven and a new earth. But that
God that made this world, that God that sustains this world
and that God that will bring this world to its conclusion
is without beginning and without end. As Paul also mentions in
Romans, the end of Romans, but now is made manifest and by the
scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. What
is made manifest? now to him that is of power to
establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept
secret since the world began but now is made manifest and
by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment
of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience
of faith. Is this revelation of the mystery,
the gospel of Jesus Christ, has it been made manifest to you? Has it been made manifest to
you that the everlasting God made this world, made you, and
sent his son to die for sinners such as you? Did He come for
you? If it's been made manifest to
you, you will know that this God is everlasting. Because the first realisation
of truth that man has when God begins to enlighten him is to
show us what we are by nature as sinners and who and what God
is. God shows us His nature. He shows
us His eternal power. He makes known His eternal power
and Godhead even in the creation around us. As we see elsewhere
in Romans, Paul there was concluding his letters to the Romans where
he speaks of the manifestation of this mystery, the revelation
of this mystery. Earlier in Romans, at the beginning
of Romans, he speaks of the wrath of God being revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The revelation of this
wrath, the revelation of this judgment to come, the revelation
of this judgment now, as it sounds in our hearts, that we know before
an almighty and a righteous God that we're sinners before him.
There is a revelation of this wrath Because that which may
be known of God is manifest in them, in men. For God hath showed
it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. So that they are without excuse. We know, and you should know,
even through creation around you, that there is a God. His eternal
power and Godhead are made known in these things. They sound out
a message to you every day. Every day you wake up and go
out of your door and see a sky above you and the sun in the
heavens, every night when you see the stars in the firmament
and the moon shining, every day when you breathe the air, every
day when you look around, the creation around you, the night
sky, the sun, is shouting out a message unto you that the everlasting
God, the eternal God, lives and reigns on high. He's the one
that made you. He's the one that sustains you.
He's the one that gives you breath to breathe. He's the one that
makes your heart beat. And He's the one who is from
everlasting unto everlasting before whom you must stand. before whom you must give an
account. Here you are in the world in
which he's placed you and one day you will stand before him
and he will say, what have you done with your life? I made you
and I placed you upon this earth and what have you done? What
have you sought to do with your life? I gave you life to walk
before me. and to commune with me as your
Maker and your God, to worship me, to seek me out. And you cared not for me, you
cared not for my ways, you cared not for my things, you cared
not for my Son, you cared not for my Gospel, you took all that
I gave you, the life you have. the food and the water I give
unto you in this world, the creation around you, you took all that
I gave you and you used it for your own glory, your own ends
and your own pleasure. To you life was something to
be grasped here and below, to seek out what you could gain
here and below and to entertain yourself here and below and you
never sought me. Is that what God will say to
you? that you never sought Him. You
never saw your life as being in relation to Him. You never
saw your life as being something that He gave you to be used for
His honour and His glory. But you took all that He gave
you and used it for your own ends, your own desires, to fill
your own lusts. And yet every day He causes the
sun to shine and the moon to rise up and the stars to shine
in the darkness. He causes the creation to send
a message to your soul. If you will but see and hear
that there is a God before whom you live, a God before whom you
must stand, a God to whom you will answer, an eternal and an
everlasting God, a God without beginning and without end. Isaiah speaks of this God, who
sent his Son into this world to redeem lost sinners such as
you, who gave everything to deliver dead fallen sinners from the
wretchedness of their sin, the depravity of their iniquity,
to reconcile them, to show them the truth. He gave his Son And Isaiah, prophesying of the
coming of that son into the world, says of this God, for unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince
of Peace. Isaiah speaks of the child that's
born, the Son of God, and describes Him as God, for that's who He
is. In speaking of the Son, He speaks
of the Father. His name, the Son, shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. This God is everlasting. Does everlasting in these contexts,
in this description of God, mean temporary? Did he have a beginning? Will he have an end? When the
scriptures speak of God, when Isaiah speaks of the Son of God
here and describes him as the everlasting Father, does he just
mean for a long time? Or does he mean everlasting?
He means everlasting. He has no beginning, he has no
end. As the psalmist in Psalm 90 tells
us, Lord that has been our dwelling place in all generations before
the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou
art God. From everlasting unto everlasting. There's no end. Psalm 106, he concludes, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, and
let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord. Do you know
this God? This everlasting God? Well, we will all come to stand
before this God. We'll either come to know Him
through God-given faith, through His Gospel here below in time,
or on that day of which Paul speaks in 2 Thessalonians, when
Christ comes with His angels in vengeance. We will stand before
Him that day, and we will meet with He who is from everlasting
unto everlasting. And His pronouncement against
us will be one of two things. If we know Christ, this Child
who was born, this Son who was given, the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace, if we know Him, if we've come
to know Him through the Gospel, then He will come unto us with
eternal life, eternal salvation, to bring us unto eternal joy.
But if we know Him not, Then as Paul tells us here in Thessalonians,
our end will be eternal destruction. We will never dwell with God,
we will never dwell with the saints, we will never dwell with
his people. We will be judged forever. Paul is not the only one that
tells us this. Repeatedly in the Gospels, Christ
speaks of that which is to come. says in Matthew chapter 18. Woe
unto the world because of offences. For it must needs be that offences
come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. Wherefore
if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them
from thee. It is better for thee to enter
into life halted or maimed, rather than having two hands or two
feet to be cast into everlasting fire. Everlasting fire. Forever on. In Matthew 25 we read, of the last judgment, the king
shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch
as ye have done it unto the one of the least of my brethren,
ye have done it unto me, in response to those who say unto him it
is coming. When did we not do this and when
did we not do that for you? Well, you didn't do it for my
children. You didn't do it for these. You
didn't clothe them when they were naked. You didn't feed them
when they were hungry. And as much as you didn't do
it for them, you didn't do it for me. Then shall he say also
unto them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was unhungry,
and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me
no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took
me not in. Naked, and ye clothed me not.
Sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall I also answer
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or a first,
or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister
unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying,
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the
least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. in verse 31 it speaks of the
son of man coming in his glory and all the holy angels with
him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before
him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one
from another as a shepherd divided divided for his sheep from the
goats and he shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats
on the left Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
come ye blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. But those who were
set on his left hand, he says, depart from me ye cursed into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Oh,
how final is this judgment. How certain? What is true of
one is true of the other. If this is not everlasting, this
fire, then that into which the saved go is not everlasting either. Here we see the sheep divided
from the goats. Is it everlasting for the one
and not for the other? Or everlasting for both? These
shall go away into everlasting punishment. Depart from ye, cursed
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
Not only do they go into everlasting fire, but they go into the same
everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.
There's no distinction. Do you imagine that the devil
and his angels will be restored in the end? Or will they be judged
forever? Yes, there's everlasting fire,
there's everlasting destruction as we see in 2 Thessalonians.
There's everlasting punishment. Verse 46, And he shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. This destruction into which the
wicked enter is described as fire, destruction, punishment,
everlasting. speaks elsewhere of being under
everlasting contempt. The contempt, the fury, the wrath
of God is set upon the wicked everlastingly. In Jude, we read,
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how
that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels
which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,
he have received in everlasting chains under darkness, under
the judgment of the great day. When they will be put into everlasting
fire, they'll never escape this. And Isaiah 33 speaks of everlasting
burnings. Hear ye that are far off what
I have done, and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The
sinners in Zion are afraid. Faithfulness have surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with
the devoured fire? Who among us shall dwell with
the everlasting burnings? As there's everlasting fire reserved
for the devil and his angels, into which the goats on the left
hand will be divided. Oh, there may be those that claim
these things are not everlasting, that God will restore everything
in the end. but it's the same everlasting
God who speaks of this in the same way that he speaks of the
everlasting life and salvation he prepares for his people either
God himself is finite and salvation is finite and the gospel is finite
and the covenant and the kingdom to come are finite or those things
are eternal and everlasting and so is this yes there's an everlasting
judgment to come Do you bury your head in the
sand and pretend it won't be? Or have God opened your ears
to flee from the wrath to come? For there are those whose ears
are opened. There are those who do hear.
Hast thou not heard? Hast thou not seen? Hast thou
not known? Have you not heard of these things?
Isaiah asks, do you not know? Has I not heard that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the creator of the end of the earth, faint if
not neither is weary? Do you not know that he gives
power to the faint and to them that have no mighty increase
of strength? Even the youth shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up
with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
Yes, there are those who are brought to here, and they're
brought to here of an everlasting salvation. A deliverance from
this which comes upon the wicked. A deliverance from this fire,
this destruction, this contempt, this punishment, these chains,
these burnings which come upon the wicked. There's a salvation. There is salvation which is everlasting. And it's made known through an
everlasting gospel. God is just. He's everlasting, and He's everlastingly
righteous and good and just, and it's because of His justice
that the wicked cannot stand in His place. But as well as
being just, He is merciful and loving, and His great glory in
the Gospel is His purpose to save and deliver a people, even
though they deserve the destruction that may come upon others. Even
though they are just as wicked by nature as others, this God
loves the people in His Son. And He created this world in
order to redeem that people and show forth His glory in His Son. that His Son was willing to come
into the world to deliver that people from this destruction,
to deliver that people from this judgment, to show mercy and love
unto them, and to display this mercy and this love in contrast
with that which justly comes upon the wicked. We cannot truly understand the
love of God in Christ, and what it is to be saved, except we
see that which there is to be saved from, and that which God
justly brings upon the wicked. If the destruction which comes
upon the wicked were not everlasting, then the wonder and glory and
mercy of God in delivering his people and bringing them into
everlasting life and salvation would not be comprehended in
the same way. The glory of this salvation is
seen in the eternal nature of God. The everlasting nature of
this salvation. It's because the judgment that
we deserve is everlasting. that the salvation from it is
so great. We're everlastingly saved. Everlastingly
saved if we know the gospel and know what God did in his son
to save this people. In order to deliver them from
that destruction, God had to give everything. He had to give
his son. His Son had to suffer the judgment
that the wicked would suffer. He had to suffer the same fire,
the same destruction, the same punishment, which you and I deserve
because of our sins, and which we will pay if we know Him not. But the punishment which Christ
suffered, that eternal fire, that He endured at the cross. That eternal destruction which
came upon Him as it comes upon others brought for His people
an everlasting salvation. Isaiah mentions this salvation
in chapter 45. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord with an everlasting salvation. He shall not be ashamed
nor confounded, world without end. The end of the Gospel, the
end of the suffering of Christ and the death of Christ, is to
bring a people, Israel, into salvation, into the presence
of Almighty God, into an everlasting kingdom, with an everlasting
salvation. Everlasting. World without end. There's no end to it. What Christ has wrought, he's
wrought forever. It's not temporary. It's not
there for a time which can perhaps be taken away. God doesn't save
a people for a period and then take it away. They can't lose
it by their own deeds. Once he's saved them, he's saved
them forever. It's everlasting. Because the
salvation he has wrought for them. brings them in Christ everlasting
life everlasting life At the end of his prophecy, Daniel
says this in chapter 12, And at that time shall Michael stand
up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people.
And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since
there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time thy
people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written
in the book. And many of them that sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlast in life. and
some to shame and everlasting contempt. Some to everlasting
life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Everlasting life. In Matthew we speak of the same
thing. We read of the same thing, Matthew
19. Verse 27, Then answered Peter
and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all and followed
thee. What shall we have therefore?
And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which
have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit
in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. and everyone that hath
forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or
wife or children or lands for my name's sake shall receive
an hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life everlasting
life John repeatedly speaks of this life in his gospel, for
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Verse 36, he that believeth on
the Son have everlasting life, and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. In the book of Acts we read also
of everlasting life. Acts chapter 13. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But
when the Jews saw the multitude, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. And in preaching to the Gentiles,
calling Romans, declaring the gospel unto those people in Rome
also. speaks in chapter 6, but now
being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have
your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. For Jesus Christ our Lord. What have you wrought in your
lifetime and for what will you be rewarded? The wages of sin
is death. All our lifetimes, all our works,
all our doing is sin. And the wages of it is death.
But God in Christ, in mercy in the gospel, have given a gift
in Christ unto his people, which is eternal life. This eternal
life comes because of that everlasting righteousness which Christ brought
in for his people. Again, Daniel, in his prophecy,
looks forward to this righteousness. 70 weeks are determined upon thy
people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and
to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and
prophecy and to anoint the most holy. He looked forward to the
coming of Christ. He looked forward to Christ coming
on that day to Jerusalem where he was led outside of the city
and nailed to a cross and lifted up before the world for all men
to see as he entered into the darkness when God laid upon him
the sins of his people and he bore those sins and in bearing
them he drank of the cup of God's wrath against those sins, as
God judged them according to righteousness, according to the
righteousness of God, and in taking away those sins, in blotting
them out, Christ brought in the righteousness of God for his
people, an everlasting righteousness. Psalm 119 speaks of God's righteousness,
the righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding
and I shall live. What understanding is this? The
understanding that looks in the Gospel to the Saviour upon the
cross as He brought in the righteousness of God for His people, as He
shed His blood in their place, as He suffered the everlasting
fires of God's wrath, that they should know everlasting salvation
in Him. because they in Him, clothed
in His blood, are clothed with an everlasting righteousness. An everlasting righteousness.
This everlasting righteousness brings that salvation, that life,
that glory from which the saved sinner can never be removed. As Christ says of His sheep,
They are in His hands and they cannot be plucked from His hands.
They shall never perish. He divided His sheep from the
goats and the sheep for whom He laid down His life will never
perish. They will know life eternal in
Him. Righteousness and everlasting
joy and consolation forever. in his letter to the Thessalonians
that we've read from in the next chapter, chapter 2, Paul says,
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which
have loved us and have given us everlasting consolation and
good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you
in every good word and work. He's given us everlasting consolation. Because that consolation is to
be found in Christ, the everlasting God, the mighty God, the everlasting
Father. Christ is ours if we know Him
in the Gospel. And all God's sheep, all God's
people who are delivered from the wrath to come have Christ
forever. He is their righteousness, He
is their joy, He is their consolation. Do you know this consolation?
Do you know what it is to be in Christ and to have Christ?
Do you know Him as the eternal God and everlasting Saviour who
brings everlasting joy, as Isaiah says? Chapter 51, therefore the
redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head and they shall
obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Sorrow and mourning shall flee
away. You see, sinners in this world
may dwell in this world and fill themselves with all the world's
riches and all the world's pleasure. They may eat, drink and are merry
for a time. They may make the most of living
for the day. They may live their lives to
the full because they only have one life, they tell us. They
may seem joyful and happy now. but their life is brief, and
soon they will stand before their Maker whom they despised, and
cast out, and would not hear, and had no time for. And what
comes, what follows, is everlasting destruction, and everlasting
misery and sorrow. But the believer who's brought
to know Jesus Christ in this world may suffer, He may be mocked
and ridiculed by others for his love of the Gospel, and his love
of Christ, and his love of the things of God. He may be mocked
when he comes to worship, and mocked when he reads his Bible,
and mocked when he speaks of his Saviour, and mocked when
he speaks of everlasting, everlasting salvation, the everlasting God. and everlasting destruction,
though the world around may mock and scoff, they may say, surely
you don't believe in hell, surely you don't believe in everlasting
destruction, surely you don't believe in God, and they may
bring persecution and ridicule and hatred upon his head, and
here in this world he may know sorrow and loneliness as a consequence,
but it's brief. But for a moment it's a light
affliction and it brings ultimately everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning
shall flee away. and everlasting joy shall be
upon their head. They will come with singing unto
Zion. The redeemed of the Lord shall
return. The redeemed of the Lord. Redeemed! How are they redeemed? Through
the everlasting gospel. The everlasting gospel. God's
message unto man of good news in Jesus Christ. Yes, man's a
sinner. Yes, you and I have rebelled. Yes, we've turned from God and
gone our own way. And yes, if we stay in that way,
then we will know and taste of that destruction to come, which
is everlasting. But God delights in showing mercy. God in His character is love
itself, and His love is displayed and known in Christ and Christ
alone. And God makes known that love
in His gospel, which is preached from the beginning of the world.
As soon as man sinned, as soon as Adam sinned, as soon as death
and sin entered into this world, God made known what He'd do,
that He would slay a sacrifice in the place of sinners. He'd
slay his own son. He'd take the judgment that sin
had brought in and instead of bringing it down on this one,
he'd bring it down on Christ. And he'd slay Christ in the place
of the sinner. And he'd wash that sinner in
the blood of his own son. And through his son, He would
deliver the sinner from death and bring him into everlasting
life. Everlasting salvation with an
everlasting righteousness. He's made known this gospel from
the beginning of time. From the beginning of time. He
preaches it throughout all time that sinners might know and rejoice
in the everlasting God. has brought in everlasting life.
In Revelation John saw an angel fly in the midst of heaven having
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth
and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people saying
with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour
of his judgment is come. and worship him that made heaven,
and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.' And there
followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
that great city, because she made all nations drink of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed
them saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast
in his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the
presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor
night, who worship the beast and his image, and who receiveth
the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus. I heard a voice from heaven saying
unto me, Write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.
And I looked, and behold, a white cloud. And upon the cloud one
sat, like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown,
and in his hand a sharp sickle. Yes, there's an everlasting gospel.
an everlasting gospel established upon an everlasting covenant
that covenant made between Father, Son and Holy Spirit before ever
the world was founded that everlasting covenant which you will read
of in many places a covenant where God purposed to save his
people by offering his own Son who he sent forth as an everlasting
priest to offer up an everlasting sacrifice in the place of his
people in the everlasting gospel. People who as a consequence walk
in the way everlasting. Psalm 139 verse 24. They walk in an everlasting way,
journeying through this world, seeking another country, a heavenly
country, a place where they will dwell with God forever, seeking
an everlasting kingdom. This way everlasting, sixly,
leads to an everlasting kingdom. Psalm 145, 13. Daniel 4, 3. An everlasting kingdom that God
has prepared for his people, where they will dwell with the
Lamb of God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and dwell
forever. Spared the judgment, spared the
wrath, spared God's fury, because he set his love upon them. In Christ. an everlasting kingdom
in which they will rest in everlasting arms where they will fear no
evil where there will be no more sorrow where there will be no
more tears where there will be no more sin, death or destruction
where there will be no more fear where they will know peace and
joy forevermore They've been born along on that everlasting
way by the everlasting arms of God. And in the end on that last
day, separated from the goats, led into eternal life and eternal
glory in an eternal kingdom, they will rest forevermore in
the everlasting arms of God. As we read in Deuteronomy, There
is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the
heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The Eternal
God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He
shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy
them. The Eternal God. thy refuge. Israel then shall dwell in safety
alone, the fountain of Jacob shall be on a land of corn and
wine, the heaven shall drop down due. Happy art thou, O Israel,
who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. The shield
of thy help And who is the sword of thy excellency? Thine enemies
shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their
high places. Happy art thou, O Israel, O sinner. Art thou part of Israel? Art thou happy? Do you know this
salvation? Do you know this Gospel? Do you
know this everlasting life and righteousness? Are you resting
in the everlasting arms of God? Has He delivered you? Or will
you bumble on in the darkness? Will you stumble on in the darkness? Refusing to listen. Refusing
even to listen to the speech in the creation around you. which
declares God's eternal power and Godhead, burying your head
in the sands. And will you come to stand before
him on that day when he will pronounce everlasting destruction? Oh, may it not be. May you come
to know by God's grace something of his everlasting gospel, the
everlasting covenant, everlasting salvation from an everlasting
God that leads to an everlasting kingdom. everlasting joy, everlasting
consolation, everlasting peace and glory in Christ, who is the
mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting Father. Amen.