SPEAKER_02: From his jail cell in Birmingham, Dr.
SPEAKER_02: King penned a letter.
SPEAKER_02: And in it he asked, he lamented, that justice too long delayed is justice denied.
SPEAKER_02: And though I may disagree with some of Dr.
SPEAKER_02: King's theology, his mournful observation continues to echo today, ringing in our ears and resonating in our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: What Christian among us here this morning hasn't at one time or another looked up into the sky and asked, How long?
SPEAKER_02: Oh Lord?
SPEAKER_02: How long are you going to permit injustice to endure on the earth?
SPEAKER_02: How long will unrighteousness be allowed to remain here among us?
SPEAKER_02: How long until sin and Satan and even death itself will be finally cast into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: How long?
SPEAKER_01: Until you come and make things right.
SPEAKER_02: That was the question of the prophet Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_02: He writes, Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?
SPEAKER_02: Or cry to you violence and you will not save?
SPEAKER_02: Why do you make me see iniquity?
SPEAKER_02: And why do you idly look at wrong?
SPEAKER_02: Are our days much different than his?
SPEAKER_02: Has three thousand years of human progress wrought righteousness in its wake?
SPEAKER_02: Has all of our scientific expansion brought about sin's eradication?
SPEAKER_02: So it seems as if sin and debauchery creep ever more boldly into every aspect of life.
SPEAKER_02: And everywhere that righteousness is proclaimed and practiced seems hard-pressed.
SPEAKER_02: Not that we should be surprised.
SPEAKER_02: Paul warned Timothy, did he not?
SPEAKER_02: All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
SPEAKER_02: But still I open up my phone and I scroll Twitter and I see a video of Christians in Nairobi standing and singing in what was the charred remains of their church building, and I ask, how long?
SPEAKER_02: It's a natural question in the face of injustice.
SPEAKER_02: It's a natural question in the face of persecutions, both great and small.
SPEAKER_02: If you've ever asked that question, you are in good company.
SPEAKER_02: But if you've ever asked that question, I want you to know something else.
SPEAKER_02: This is why eschatology is such an important part of our faith.
SPEAKER_02: It is an anchor, it is a ballast that holds us steady when storms are surging.
SPEAKER_02: To look forward to the blessed hope of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It is the very encouragement the Apostle Paul gives to these Christians in Thessalonica, a church that was well acquainted with injustice.
SPEAKER_02: Do you remember the story of how the church in Thessalonica was founded?
SPEAKER_02: You can read it in Acts chapter 17.
SPEAKER_02: The Apostle Paul, fresh off of his earth-shaking release from the Philippian jail, is shewed away by the magistrates and arrives in Thessalonica, a major city, kind of a blue-collar city.
SPEAKER_02: It's the Pittsburgh of the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_02: Paul walks in and he does what he always does when he gets to a new city.
SPEAKER_02: He finds the synagogue and he goes there to share the gospel with his brothers in Judaism.
SPEAKER_02: That Jesus is the Christ, that he had to die, that he had to be raised for the forgiveness of our sins to make atonement for us.
SPEAKER_02: Can you just imagine the Apostle Paul there with the scroll of Isaiah in one hand sharing the gospel?
SPEAKER_02: And Acts says, some of them were persuaded.
SPEAKER_02: And along with a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women, things are going great in Thessalonica.
SPEAKER_02: But then the Jews hear about it, and the Jewish leaders get jealous.
SPEAKER_02: Paul and his gospel success has to be stopped.
SPEAKER_02: So they take the honorable route, they whip up a good old-fashioned mob.
SPEAKER_02: They start a riot.
SPEAKER_02: They go around and they drag Jason, who is a leading member of this brand new fledgling church, and some of the other believers who, I'll remind you, have been Christians for all of three weeks at this point, and drag them through the streets before the judge.
SPEAKER_02: And the judge forces Jason to pay a bond, to pay some money, to extort this financial remuneration out of him to pay for this mob he did not start.
SPEAKER_02: And then they force the Apostle Paul once again to pack his bags and hit the road.
SPEAKER_02: And so now you have a church that's a month old.
SPEAKER_02: No deacon meetings yet, no pizza parties yet, but they have already had a riot, mob violence, unjust imprisonment, financial exploitation, and unfair forced separations.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, they know about injustice in Thessalonica.
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't get easier for them from there.
SPEAKER_02: In the 18 or so months that have elapsed since Acts chapter 17, and Paul writing the passage we're going to read this morning, he's written two letters to the Thessalonians that shed a little light for us on what life was like as a Thessalonian Christian.
SPEAKER_02: And not only did they have all of the regular distress and affliction and hardship and suffering that every human being has to go through, they were also subject to very intense persecution as Christians.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, it was so severe in Thessalonica that by the time Paul writes this letter, a false teacher had showed up and was trying to confuse them in eschatology and began to tell them, hey, all of this stuff that you're suffering, this is the eschatological tribulation.
SPEAKER_02: The day of the Lord is here and you are in it.
SPEAKER_02: And things were so bad that they believed him.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they knew about persecution.
SPEAKER_02: They knew about affliction.
SPEAKER_02: They knew about hardship and danger and disease and distress and famine.
SPEAKER_02: They knew about hard times.
SPEAKER_02: They were immersed in injustice, but it hadn't broken them.
SPEAKER_02: If anything, it had just fanned the flame stronger.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to Paul's commendation of them in his prayers in verse 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_02: We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers.
SPEAKER_02: As is right.
SPEAKER_02: Because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.
SPEAKER_02: And even though their faith had made them the targets of scorn and shame, they continued to trust in their God and proclaim Jesus to the world.
SPEAKER_02: Despite all of the difficulties and the hardships they were actually facing, they continued to grow in their love for each other and to practice their hospitality with each other and to open their homes and their hearts towards each other.
SPEAKER_02: And in the midst of all this painful persecution and surrounded by injustice, they nonetheless endured day after day.
SPEAKER_02: But you have to know that on a quiet night in Thessalonica, they would sit in their room and ask, How long, Lord?
SPEAKER_02: Why is God permitting this injustice?
SPEAKER_02: Is this suffering ever going to end?
SPEAKER_02: How can I endure to the end?
SPEAKER_02: And Paul addresses those unarticulated questions in his message to them in verse five.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read together now.
SPEAKER_02: This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.
SPEAKER_02: 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, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
SPEAKER_02: To this end we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Paul offers to these beleaguered Thessalonians and to us here today three encouraging reasons not to lose heart as you wait for Jesus' justice to come.
SPEAKER_02: The first reason he gives is that their perseverance is proof.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says, This is evidence.
SPEAKER_02: What is evidence?
SPEAKER_02: Well, this is looking back at everything you just prayed for.
SPEAKER_02: Their endurance in the face of trials, their faith, which is growing abundantly despite the difficulties, their love, which is ever increasing and deepening and widening, their steadfastness, that they're clinging fast to Christ despite all of this, that is proof.
SPEAKER_02: It's evidence.
SPEAKER_02: It's exhibit A, B, and C in God's courtroom.
SPEAKER_02: Well, evidence of what then, Paul?
SPEAKER_02: He says, evidence of the righteous judgment of God.
SPEAKER_02: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't all of this evidence against the righteous judgment of God?
SPEAKER_02: We're down here being faithful.
SPEAKER_02: We're down here practicing love and doing the one another's.
SPEAKER_02: We're down here enduring all this injustice and affliction and suffering.
SPEAKER_02: And when Paul writes to them in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, they're grieving around the graves of saints that they love, wondering if God has abandoned them and they'll miss the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: How does any of this give testimony to God's righteous judgment?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's because when Paul is using that phrase, the righteous judgment of God, he's not referencing God inflicting punishments unfairly, it would seem, on the Thessalonians.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Paul means by this word, the righteous judgment of God, he's speaking about the verdict that God is going to render on that day regarding the Thessalonians when Jesus comes back.
SPEAKER_02: That's clear in the second half of the verse.
SPEAKER_02: All of this is evidence of the righteous verdict of God, what he will declare, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.
SPEAKER_02: Now notice that Paul does not deny any of the real injustices that they are enduring.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't water down any of their afflictions, he doesn't sweep any of their grief under the rug.
SPEAKER_02: It's real suffering.
SPEAKER_02: The God who sees every sparrow that falls from the sky knows every ache of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: He has seen every sleepless night of anguish.
SPEAKER_02: He has heard every cry you've made in your affliction.
SPEAKER_01: And he cares.
SPEAKER_02: Don't forget for even one second that when Jesus came face to face with the grief of Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus, he wept.
SPEAKER_01: He sees it all.
SPEAKER_01: And he cares.
SPEAKER_02: Notice also that Paul doesn't deny that this is injustice.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't deny that they are suffering for the sake of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Now it is true that sin and sickness and disease and death and grief and affliction, that thorns and sweat, all of those things are endemic to all of humanity.
SPEAKER_02: All have sinned, all of us get the curse.
SPEAKER_02: That is true.
SPEAKER_02: But it is also true that Christians are persecuted for their righteous acts.
SPEAKER_02: Paul doesn't just look at them and say, yeah, things are tough, but what did you expect?
SPEAKER_02: Aren't you a wretched sinner?
SPEAKER_02: That'd be a convenient cop-out to explain it away, but that's not what he does.
SPEAKER_02: He places their affliction squarely in the persecution category.
SPEAKER_02: They're suffering because they're Christians.
SPEAKER_02: And yet their faith isn't faltering.
SPEAKER_02: Their love is actually growing.
SPEAKER_02: They're continuing to endure.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul says, that's the proof.
SPEAKER_02: That is the evidence that on the day that God comes and renders his righteous verdict about you, you will be found worthy of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: So how does all of that show evidence of worthiness of the kingdom?
SPEAKER_02: Well, because growing faith, deepening love for God and his people, continued persecution, perseverance in the midst of persecution, all of that is just the fruit of genuinely regenerate hearts.
SPEAKER_02: That's where it comes from.
SPEAKER_02: They are the evidence that God has actually done a work in you, and he is now working in you, and that on the day that Christ Jesus comes, he will be faithful to complete the work that he began in you.
SPEAKER_02: And if all of the affliction you face and the injustice and the trials and the suffering and the grief and the persecution, if all of those things can't extinguish that, then it is evidence that it is truly and genuinely the work of God in you.
SPEAKER_02: Do you remember the parable Jesus gave of the sower and the soils?
SPEAKER_02: All Paul is doing here is saying, hey, if the thorns can't choke it out and the sun can't bake it out, then this is the good soil.
SPEAKER_02: And God is going to get his harvest.
SPEAKER_02: So give glory to him for the grace of granting you that his gospel would take root in your heart.
SPEAKER_02: And so, in a funny way, what's actually happening here is in the midst of all of their trials and hardships and afflictions, Paul is redirecting their attention away from the things that are happening around them to the things that are happening within them by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: Look to see what God is doing, even here.
SPEAKER_02: Now, a couple points of quick clarification.
SPEAKER_02: First of all, Paul is not saying that enduring persecution in and of itself makes you worthy of God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Nor is he saying that persevering through affliction is itself a salvific act.
SPEAKER_02: He's merely saying it is the evidence of salvation.
SPEAKER_02: The only thing that makes you or I or anyone worthy of the kingdom of God is the righteous holy blood of Jesus Christ and his righteousness counted to us in our place.
SPEAKER_02: No amount of good works, no amount of good deeds, no amount of endurance can earn your entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Only through Jesus Christ may you be found worthy of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: But those things are, by the grace of God, actual, real, tangible evidences of the supernatural work of God in your life.
SPEAKER_02: What Paul is saying is when you look in the midst of your hardest and darkest and most distressing days and see that there is genuine faith in God and trust and hope and love in those moments, that you're the real deal.
SPEAKER_01: And that when Christ returns, he's going to count you worthy of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: So let us never make the mistake of confusing those things which are the assurance of our salvation with the grounds of our salvation.
SPEAKER_02: The Thessalonians didn't have it all together, my friends.
SPEAKER_02: They were a little bit of a mess.
SPEAKER_02: Their eschatology was pretty wonky.
SPEAKER_02: Paul had to write them multiple letters about it.
SPEAKER_02: Things are going awry in the life of the church.
SPEAKER_02: There are some of them who are lazy slacker loser villains who won't get a job and they're living in somebody's basement, mooching off their friends.
SPEAKER_02: They weren't perfect, but they were genuine.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_02: So don't lose heart just because you're in the midst of trials or affliction or hardship or injustice or persecution or grief.
SPEAKER_02: Remember that it is the evidence that God has saved you by his grace and his mercy.
SPEAKER_02: And in those days, look to Christ and find confidence in the evidence that he has been, is, and will do his work in you.
SPEAKER_02: And then trust in his promise.
SPEAKER_02: And each day that you see your faith growing stronger, your love growing deeper, your faithfulness remaining, give glory to God.
SPEAKER_02: Spurgeon, whom I am going to quote multiple times today, be prepared.
SPEAKER_02: Was himself afflicted with distress and hardship.
SPEAKER_02: He writes, I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages.
SPEAKER_02: Would that we could all learn to see our afflictions so joyfully.
SPEAKER_02: So the first reason that you should not lose heart in the midst of affliction is that your perseverance is proof of God's work in you.
SPEAKER_02: The second reason Paul gives is that you know justice is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: When the Lord Jesus Is revealed from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Paul reminds us that when Jesus returns, he has promised to repay to everyone exactly what they are due.
SPEAKER_02: This is justice, true justice, perfect justice.
SPEAKER_02: God is just because God is holy.
SPEAKER_02: He is transcendently distinct from anything that ever could have been corrupted.
SPEAKER_02: He is ethically perfect in all of his ways.
SPEAKER_02: He is intensely pure in his very essence.
SPEAKER_02: We do not say that God is holy because he perfectly conforms to an objective standard of morality.
SPEAKER_02: No, anything that is truly moral is such because it conforms to his perfect holiness.
SPEAKER_02: He is the objective standard.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, his every act is always righteous, and his every judgment will be justice.
SPEAKER_02: He could not but do justice.
SPEAKER_02: He is the holy and sovereign Lord, the righteous judge from whose court there is no higher appeal.
SPEAKER_02: And he promises that he is going to judge.
SPEAKER_02: Solomon in his dedication to the temple is praying to God, predicated upon the idea that God is a righteous judge.
SPEAKER_02: He asks, then hear from your heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: These two aspects of God's justice we refer to as his retributive justice and his remunerative justice.
SPEAKER_02: He is a God who will judge the guilty.
SPEAKER_02: And he is a God who will reward the righteous.
SPEAKER_02: And we see both of those promises here in our passage.
SPEAKER_02: To those who reject the gospel and reject God and persecute the righteous, he has promised punishment.
SPEAKER_02: And to those who trust in God and believe the gospel and endure to the end, he promises rest.
SPEAKER_02: But make no mistake, everyone will have to face the justice of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And he will repay everyone righteously.
SPEAKER_02: Wrath for rebellion or rest for the redeemed.
SPEAKER_02: And let's not beat around the bush here.
SPEAKER_02: This message is genuinely terrifying for unbelievers.
SPEAKER_02: Verse six says that he will repay affliction for affliction.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus loves the church.
SPEAKER_02: His bride, whom he bought with his blood.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, you can say whatever you want about me.
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't bother me.
SPEAKER_02: Got thick skin.
SPEAKER_02: That's what the Marine Corps gave me, bad ears and thick skin.
SPEAKER_02: Just let it roll off.
SPEAKER_02: But if you abuse my wife, if you attack my wife, then the gloves will come off.
SPEAKER_02: Because I love her.
SPEAKER_02: And she is precious to me.
SPEAKER_02: And I will not let it go unnoticed.
SPEAKER_01: Christian, you are precious to him.
SPEAKER_02: He bought you.
SPEAKER_02: You are more deeply cherished by the God whose love is always holy and always perfect and always infinite than you will ever understand.
SPEAKER_02: He loves you.
SPEAKER_02: And he will not allow even one ounce of affliction that you endure on his name's sake to go unanswered.
SPEAKER_02: He has promised that one day he will dry every one of your tears, but not before he promises in Psalm 56, 8, to keep them in his bottle and write them in his book.
SPEAKER_02: And that means that those who have spoken words of rage to his children because of their faith will hear from the lips of Jesus words of wrath.
SPEAKER_02: That means everyone who has abused or abandoned or attacked his saints will be cast into utter darkness away from his presence forever, Paul says in verse nine.
SPEAKER_02: They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, unending torment.
SPEAKER_02: It should sober us to remember that the person in Scripture who spoke most often of hell was Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_02: And his words, these red letter words in your Bible, reveal a terrifying reality.
SPEAKER_02: He says in Matthew 5 that it is the hell of fire.
SPEAKER_02: He says in Mark 9, it is the unquenchable fire, no respite, no relief.
SPEAKER_02: The worst affliction and pain and torment you've ever felt eventually came to an end, but not so this punishment.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe the clearest and most full depiction of it comes from John and his revelation, where he writes that they will be tormented with fire and sulfur, and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night.
SPEAKER_02: Reflecting on the reality of hell, the Puritan Thomas Watson writes, the wicked in hell shall be always dying but never dead.
SPEAKER_02: The smoke of the furnace ascends forever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, who can endure to be ever upon the rack?
SPEAKER_02: The word ever breaks the heart.
SPEAKER_02: Eternal destruction.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says this punishment means they will be cast away from his presence.
SPEAKER_02: They will be separated from God by an unbridgeable chasm for all eternity.
SPEAKER_02: That they will be away from the glory of his might.
SPEAKER_02: They will be removed from the fountain of all that is good and pure and beautiful and holy and righteous.
SPEAKER_02: All that brings joy and light and peace will be forever and eternally distant from them.
SPEAKER_02: And his presence to them will only be wrath.
SPEAKER_02: Words fail to capture the horror of what awaits those who reject God and reject his gospel.
SPEAKER_02: But there is one word which is appropriate.
SPEAKER_02: Justice.
SPEAKER_02: And herein lies the incredible promise of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That Jesus Christ came to rescue you from his own wrath.
SPEAKER_02: This place of eternal torment, of wrath, of justice is where each and every one of us rightly belongs.
SPEAKER_02: Each of us was born a child of wrath.
SPEAKER_02: Each of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: And if God is holy and just, his righteous judgment for each and every one of us must be guilty.
SPEAKER_02: For him to say anything else would cause the God of all truth to become a liar.
SPEAKER_02: Were he simply to ignore our sin, it would cause the God who is thrice holy to embrace in his essence corruption.
SPEAKER_02: No, we are guilty.
SPEAKER_02: All of us, each and every one of us, guilty.
SPEAKER_01: We deserve wrath.
SPEAKER_01: We deserve justice.
SPEAKER_02: But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: How could God set aside his justice to make alive sinners?
SPEAKER_02: The answer is he doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: Not one drop of God's righteous wrath against your sin will be held back.
SPEAKER_02: No, every last measure of it is poured out on Jesus Christ at Calvary.
SPEAKER_02: The righteous God, the Holy One of Israel, comes to be the sinless, spotless Lamb who in your place receives all of the just condemnation that you deserve, and so God's justice is satisfied.
SPEAKER_02: How can eternal destruction be satisfied?
SPEAKER_02: Because the Alpha and Omega came and drank it down.
SPEAKER_02: How can wrath and torment and punishment be satisfied?
SPEAKER_02: It's through his wounds that we've been healed.
SPEAKER_02: So when we sing Jesus paid it all, this is the all.
SPEAKER_02: Spurgeon remarked on the necessity to understand hell in order to grasp the magnitude of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: When men talk of a little of hell, it is because they think they have only a little sin.
SPEAKER_02: And believe in a little savior.
SPEAKER_02: It's all little together.
SPEAKER_02: But when you get a great sense of sin, you want a great savior.
SPEAKER_02: And fell that, if you do not have him, you will fall into a great destruction and suffer a great punishment.
SPEAKER_02: At the hands of a great God.
SPEAKER_02: Every bit of God's justice against your sin is going to be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Either on Christ at the cross or on you in hell.
SPEAKER_02: And no one knows the day or the hour of God's justice.
SPEAKER_01: But today, right now, is the day of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Right now.
SPEAKER_01: Confess your sins.
SPEAKER_02: Acknowledge that you deserve justice.
SPEAKER_02: Ask for his forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: Plead for his mercy.
SPEAKER_02: Trust in Jesus as your Savior and as your God, and you will be saved now.
SPEAKER_01: In this moment, God's justice against you will be satisfied forever.
SPEAKER_02: And dear Saint, you who have understood the magnitude and the reality of hell, how could you not warn others?
SPEAKER_02: Spurgeon again.
SPEAKER_02: If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.
SPEAKER_02: And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay.
SPEAKER_02: If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled with the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.
SPEAKER_02: Verse seven says that he will grant relief.
SPEAKER_02: The Greek word there is anesis, it means, and I'm quoting from the commentaries here, relaxation, loosening, easing, freedom, refreshment, restoration, and rest.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is just, and in his justice, he will bring you rest, beleaguered saint.
SPEAKER_02: He is one day going to set you free from all of your afflictions.
SPEAKER_02: He will refresh your wearied soul.
SPEAKER_02: He will restore your joy forever.
SPEAKER_02: Just as eternal is his wrath, even more so is his reward.
SPEAKER_02: Do you long for rest?
SPEAKER_02: I do.
SPEAKER_02: Do you long to be free from the burden of sin?
SPEAKER_02: I do.
SPEAKER_02: To have sadness and shame and guilt, to have grief and destruction lifted away and never to return to you again, and in their place receive joy and gladness and delight and glory, I do.
SPEAKER_02: And rest is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 7: the same Jesus who ascended off the Mount of Olives is coming back in the same way that you saw him go up.
SPEAKER_02: He is returning bodily.
SPEAKER_02: He is going to rip open the veil of heaven, and on the clouds he will ride down, flanked by angels, ringed in fire, touching down on the Mount of Olives, and he will stroll into his city to enact justice.
SPEAKER_02: He's coming.
SPEAKER_02: Can you picture it?
SPEAKER_02: And on that day, the day of his revelation, verse 10, says, He will be glorified in his saints.
SPEAKER_02: As we marvel at him, captivated by his glory and his justice and his mercy, we will sing and praise and shout and bless his name because he is worthy.
SPEAKER_02: Why is he worthy to bring justice and judgment?
SPEAKER_02: Because he is the lion of the tribe of Judah and he will let out a righteous roar.
SPEAKER_02: And why is he worthy?
SPEAKER_02: To rescue sinners?
SPEAKER_02: Because he is the sinless lamb slain from before the foundation of the earth to purchase them and make them his own.
SPEAKER_01: He is worthy.
SPEAKER_01: And he is bringing justice.
SPEAKER_01: So don't lose heart waiting for that day.
SPEAKER_02: Don't be overcome by affliction.
SPEAKER_02: Don't let injustice pretend like it gets the last word.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: Persecutors will be punished and afflictions will be ended.
SPEAKER_02: Hardships will be halted.
SPEAKER_02: Pain and suffering and sickness and disease and even death itself will be defeated.
SPEAKER_02: So don't lose heart because justice is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Finally, Paul gives a third reason not to lose heart.
SPEAKER_02: That hope does not disappoint.
SPEAKER_02: And we see this hope held out in Paul's pastoral prayer for these saints in verses 11 and 12.
SPEAKER_02: To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: How do they know they're going to endure to the end?
SPEAKER_02: Paul prays a prayer of hope.
SPEAKER_02: He prays very specifically for three things that God would make them worthy, fruitful, and faithful.
SPEAKER_02: He prays that God would make you worthy of his calling.
SPEAKER_02: Here he's speaking that God would bring their lives into correspondence with the holiness of the calling they've received.
SPEAKER_02: That's what the root idea behind the word worthy is there, that it would correspond to it, it would balance it, it would be in alignment with it.
SPEAKER_02: And the calling you've received is a holy calling, Paul says to Timothy.
SPEAKER_02: So Paul prays that God will make your life just as holy.
SPEAKER_02: That by his grace, that by his power, your life will come into conformity, into step with the holiness of the salvation you've already received, that you would shake off your sin, that you would resist temptation, that you would live a holy life to God.
SPEAKER_02: He prays that God would fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.
SPEAKER_02: Here you see Paul praying that God would help them by the power of the Holy Spirit, that every desire of their heart to serve the kingdom would come to fruition, that their gifts and their abilities and their opportunities would be leveraged to serve God, to minister to one another, that they would bear fruit.
SPEAKER_02: And thirdly, you see in Paul that the Paul pray that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is simply praying that God would magnify his glory such that his character, his holiness would shine forth in them and that others would see it and glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: Now, how could Paul pray all of these things?
SPEAKER_02: How does he know that God would answer that prayer for the Thessalonians?
SPEAKER_02: Because Paul knows that he who began the good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: If you are his, you will always be his.
SPEAKER_02: And he will keep you his until he comes back for you.
SPEAKER_02: But that doesn't mean that there won't be days when you ask, How long, O Lord?
SPEAKER_02: If you've ever asked that question, you're in good company.
SPEAKER_02: John records, When the fifth seal was opened, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
SPEAKER_02: And they cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?
SPEAKER_02: It's no sign of weakness to ask how long.
SPEAKER_02: Until the number of their fellow servants and the brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
SPEAKER_02: So don't lose heart while you wait for the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Find confidence in his work in you, find strength in his promise, find encouragement in his hope.
SPEAKER_02: Remember that justice is coming.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Almighty God, we do thank you.
SPEAKER_02: And we do love you.
SPEAKER_02: And we do ask how long.
SPEAKER_02: We look for the day that you will come and make all things right.
SPEAKER_02: And we ask until that day comes that you would keep us faithful.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of Jesus Christ we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.