The afflictions and persecutions faced by believers are a sign of God's righteous judgment, preparing them to be worthy of His kingdom. It contrasts the suffering of believers with the future vengeance of God upon those who do not know Him or obey the gospel, highlighting the Lord's return with His mighty angels to be glorified in His saints. The message emphasizes that believers will share in Christ's glory, urging them to endure suffering with the assurance of future vindication and to live for God's glory.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.33 → restored 4.34
Shall we turn tonight to the second epistle of Thessalonians? We have but three Wednesday nights before the month of October dawns and I thought it would be very profitable and I trust it would be very encouraging to study the second epistle of Thessalonians. So if you have your Bible, turn with me to that second epistle and we would like to read the first chapter. and read it through. They're not lengthy chapters, but each night, God willing, in a succeeding Wednesday, we can have a chapter from this letter for every Wednesday night.
Chapter one of the second epistles of the Thessalonians. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father... and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace unto you in peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is me, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity or the love of every one of you all toward each other abounded, 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 or relax 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 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 fulfill 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. May God add his blessing to the reading and to the ministry of the precious Holy Word. I'm sure I hope that each one of you fellow believers may be well acquainted with the epistles that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians.
It was undoubtedly possibly and probably the first epistle he ever wrote to the early church of Thessalonica and you may remember the well the establishing of that church in the book of the Acts chapter seventeen where we read of its blessed beginning then you may also recall they're not long after the dear apostle had left he wrote the first epistle to them because they were troubled They had lost some of their loved ones in Christ. And yet they were looking for the Lord to come. For we must admit and confess that the faithfulness of the apostles in preaching the gospel was also to tell them and to encourage them with the knowledge Jesus is coming back again.
And the return of the Lord Jesus coming back for his saints was included in their message of the gospel to the saints of all. And in that first epistle we found, I'm sure as you have read it many times, that the saints were troubled when loved ones in Christ died. How could they, how would they be able to meet the Lord when he came? For they would be in the ground, buried. And then we know the great revelation. that Paul sent in his letter to them in that first epistle. Which undoubtedly lifted their hearts. But now he finds it necessary to write a second epistle.
For there was another danger. And the danger was which we shall see more in detail in chapter two. Paul's teachers had come in their midst. propagating the fact, because of their many troubles and their deep affliction they were suffering for the sake of the gospel, they were living in the day of the Lord, which means the day of God's judgments that are yet to be poured out upon the world. My beloved, let me remind you of something. I don't know how carefully you have read the Old Testament. But in all the prophecies of the Old Testament, wherever you may read them, whether in the book of the Psalms, even in the Pentateuch for that matter, but particularly in the prophets, you find a description of the day of judgment that is coming upon the world in more detail in the Old Testament.
So that these Thessalonian believers, Gentile believers, where unfortunately being falsely taught by some Judaistic teachers that their troubles were the Day of Judgment and the Great Tribulation that was promised. And may I say again, though you have the Great Tribulation very much specified in the New Testament, you can read more about it in the Old Testament, where it is called the Day of the Lord. Let me just very briefly and quickly remind you of the distinction. We believe in the teaching of the Word of God.
There's much to say about man's day. We'll have more to say about that in chapter two. Man's day. This is man's day. He's manifesting himself. But may I remind you, you're not going to have a converted nation either. and you're not going to have a converted world by the preaching of the gospel. Man's day is going to be worse, leading to what we shall see in chapter two, a character who is called the man of sin. Heading up and leading all rebellion against God, Christ, his word and even his people.
But to go back to the problem, let's look at the chapter carefully. First of all, read the salutation and the thanksgiving as he begins. From Paul and Silas, Timotheus, onto the church of the Thessalonians. Please note the address of the church. Not in Thessalonica. It's in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the address of your church? I know the address with my church is what Paul said here. You might want a street address, but that doesn't matter. What counts? Are you in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ?
And then the salutation of grace. Grace unto you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May I repeat an emphasis. The repetition of the names of the Father. and the Lord Jesus Christ my beloved let me say this frankly lovingly gratefully these are the two greatest persons to whom we're in and with whom we're in fellowship you may remember the epistle of John chapter one when John wrote our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ.
Oh, beloved, please, let's get beyond the Florence Bible Chapel. We're in the Father, and we're in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know Paul's thanksgiving. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is me, because that your faith grows exceedingly. and the love of every one of you all toward another to each other abound so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God or in other churches besides Thessalonica as he calls them here we know there's only one church but we know that there are numerous individual churches so And Paul is saying, we glory in you in the churches of God.
Why? For your, now know, your patience and your faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you're enduring. Now notice commendation very carefully. He commends them for their patience and for their faith in what they were bearing for the sake of the testimony. that they endured. Will you go back with me to chapter one of the first epistle, please? I want you to notice a contrast in the salutation in chapter one. In verse three of chapter one of the first letter, when Paul wrote the first letter, remembering without ceasing your, now note, work of faith, second, labor of love, third, Patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now go back to chapter one in the second epistle. I note very carefully the omission of that third statement in chapter one of the first letter. Patience of hope. Note in verse four of our chapter. We thank God. We glory in you in the churches of God for your patience, for your faith. But he omits the word hope. What did happen? Well, tell you very frankly, they'd lost their hope. They were listening to false teachers. They were listening to those who were trying to tell them they're going through the Great Tribulation. Please, let me ask you a question.
What is the hope of the church? Richard, see, as you have it in chapter two in the opening verses, when he's coming for his bride, his church. and gathers us all together to meet him in the... And if he wrote in First Thessalonians four, we're going to meet him in the air. That's the whole... Look, my beloved fellow believer. I say bluntly, I will take it up more deeply next week, God willing. The church is not to go through the great tribulation. And through tribulation that is to come upon all the earth. You have many a promise, as we may well know. But here is the truth.
The believers of Thessalonica, they lost the blessedness of that hope and their joy. But now Paul goes on to write, your tribulations, your persecutions, they are a manifest token. Now know very carefully as we read through verse ten. They are a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God that is letting you go through those trials. that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which ye suffer. My beloved the apostle is reminding them their sufferings were for the glory of the kingdom and they were counted worthy to be members of that kingdom because they were suffering.
I think of the words of dear Peter if you've ever read first Peter through from suffering to glory and beloved we you and I well know if you know your Bible you can't go through this world as a believer without suffering and even for the kingdom of God even for Christ's sake in whatever form it may be and even your physical suffering that you may endure you can do that for the glory of God bear them for which he may serve. But note what we have in the following words. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.
Now Paul is now bringing up the fact those men that trouble you, God is not going to forget them, he's going to visit them in judgment. It is a righteous thing for God to recompense tribulation. to all their troubles you. Whatever you and I as a believer suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus, and beloved we do, you can't live for Christ without doing it. And if your life is living for Christ, you'll feel it. You'll experience it.
But here is the Apostle Paul, look, saying, You're troubled. God will recomp... In other words, I think of a dear sister. I don't know how many of you do well remember, I'm sure, our dear beloved sister, Mrs. Harold Harper. And many a time I recall having heard her say it again and again, when trouble came, when somebody falsely either accused or attacked or made light and tried to Play down the testimony of the Lord somebody has. Don't worry. Whatever they do to you. When you remember the words of Romans chapter thirteen, where God says, vengeance is mine, I will repay.
And how frequently she said, God will take up the matter. I don't have to worry about it. He's the one that's going to recompense. the affliction that I bear for His namesake. Well, let's read on. Now you come to a very precious portion. It describes the day when He will recompense the trouble. All the ungodly, the world at large that is rejected, is rejecting, and has made trouble for God's dear people in the name of the Lord Jesus. The day of judgment coming.
read on let me read through verse seven through verse ten and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels now beloved let me immediately make clear to you this is not the rapture don't forget the rapture as Paul wrote in first Thessalonians for The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we shall rely on the remain. Shall be called up together with them in the cloud to meet the Lord in the air.
But if you know your Bible, let me quote one verse. You find it in the epistle of Jude just before the book of the Revelation. The prophecy of Enoch who prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all the ungodly, and so on. My beloved, let me say, that day is coming. And may I lovingly say, and earnestly, don't you ever expect the nations of the world to get back to God?
It's not in the book. They are drifting further away. And so is the professing church. And as we shall come into chapter two, we'll see more deeply the study of it. I think of the words of a dear servant of God. I never have forgotten them. They went right home to my heart and my conscience. When he made this statement, no matter how much you pray, you cannot stop apostasy. It's in the book. Read Paul's writings, Peter's writings, John's writings, James' writings, Jews' writings, and even the book of the Revelation.
Please, I say frankly, I say it lovingly, and I say it very devotedly to my Lord's glory agree with what the book says and share the grief of the Lord over it that men get further away and the beloved apostle you read the epistle of Jude it's a book on apostasy all the way through and even near the end of it Jude says and the apostles told you so I want to tell you, you better believe what the Apostles wrote. But now let's read on. The day of judgment is coming.
And what we have here is the descent of the Lord with all of his mighty angels as well as with all of his saints. Coming back to the earth in power. Now, Lord, now, no, look very carefully. Inflaming fire, taking vengeance. I wonder if you've ever noted carefully the first time the Lord Jesus publicly preached in the Gospel of Luke chapter four in the synagogue in Nazareth they gave him the scriptures to read as he stood up to read and he opened it to the prophecy of Isaiah and he quoted words from chapter sixty one that indicated he was fulfilling those words.
But if you read Isaiah sixty-one, he stopped where you and I would never stop. And where the teacher in school would never permit you to stop. He stopped reading it a comma. And if you ever went to school, the teacher would never permit you to stop reading it a comma but finish the sentence. But where he stopped, the next words were this. and the day of vengeance of our God. He not only came to save and minister, but someday he's coming back and he's going to open the book again. It's going to be the day of vengeance. You've got it right here.
Please pause for a moment. Don't lightly take it. Seriously, in flaming fire taking vengeance. You know I'm glad I'm saved. I'm grateful. And in mercy he saved my soul. Please. For I know I'm not going to be in that day of vengeance, the object of his judgment. But will you please note whom he's going to take vengeance upon? There's two classes of people here. First, then the know not God.
Oh, my beloved, there's many people that know not God. May I lovingly say, I don't know how much you're interested in the foreign field, but I want to tell you there are millions in the foreign field that do not know God. in their idolatrous practices. And the gods that they have raised for their own self. They don't know God. Read Romans chapter one. And you find the whole race, even at the beginning of time, went away from God. And they did not desire the knowledge of God.
May I say this? You've got many people in this country that don't know God. I've met them many times in my Christian career. A stranger to him. But here's the judgment thing. Look. Romans chapter one, verse twenty tells that through the very creation of God, they can know his eternal Godhead and power. If they will. But they turn away from him. Can I say loving me again?
That's a day of judgment coming. A day of vengeance. On them that know not God. But not only that. Go further. There's another class. And then that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. What? The many that have heard the gospel of him wouldn't believe it. Please may I submit to you, have you ever thought this through? When the Lord Jesus is finished with that day of vengeance and not be an ungodly and an unsaved person left on the earth, if I read my Bible right, even when it was here he told that the angels will come in that day and separate the godly from the ungodly, the righteous from the unrighteous.
And if I knew my Bible correctly, when that day of judgment is finished, read the book of Revelation, when that judgment is finished, there'll be an eternal separation of the godly and the ungodly. And here you have it. For two reasons, they knew not God when they could have known him. Second, there's a great number that they would not obey the gospel. Oh, I'm so glad I obeyed the gospel. What a joy to say. I trusted the Lord of the mighty. But now please notice. Verse nine. Who shall be punished with everlasting death?
What? Eternal destruction. You and I. Oh, you think of John three, sixteen. 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. On the contrary, in the contrast, on the other hand, some are going to everlasting destruction. Beloved, I'm sure that you, together with myself and ourselves at home, we daily pray for the salvation of our loved ones.
whom we believe are still out of Christ their danger is great to be banished or punished with everlasting destruction I know from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power my beloved please me I said look the world wants a man and the world's after a man and when we get to chapter two we'll see the kind of a man that they're going to pick the man of sin but the man Christ Jesus he's the one that is coming and the ungodly will be banished from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power please I cannot I cannot minimize I cannot even properly emphasize the glory of his power Revelation chapter nineteen from verse eleven to the end of the chapter.
When out of heaven he comes, all the angels and the saints with him, and a sword goeth out of his mouth to devour his enemies. I'm glad I'm not on his enemy. Oh, the joy of knowing that I belong to him by grace, divine and fame. But will you note something along with that manifestation of his glory and of his power? Verse ten. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints. Beloved, let me say this. Will you please note it?
The saints are coming with him. And well, Colossians chapter three, verse four. When Christ who is our life shall appear. then shall ye also appear with him in glory my beloved can I visualize it we find that lovely him we'll see him face to face but will you take this in when he comes out of heaven we're coming out with him glorified and all the world the unsaved world is going to see the glorified saints I read it that way When he shall come to be glorified in his face.
And no, to be admired in all them that believe in that day. Forget the parenthesis. That day of his coming to the earth. My beloved, my beloved, beloved blessed believer. Let me say this. Well, let me quote the words of First Corinthians two nine. I hath not seen. Here hath not heard. Neither hath it entered the heart of man. The things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit. And on the ground of that scripture and the ground of what we have just read in our chapter.
When he comes back to the earth in all of his glory, you and I who are saints are coming women with glorified bodies. I want to tell you something. Then the world will say, those Christians were right. Today they don't. But in that day they'll admire them as well as the glory of the Savior. But now read on. Here's the application, as Paul mentions, that blessed coming. The recompense. Oh my, I think you're what Peter wrote.
He calls it the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And prays that we might have a triumphant admission into the glory of that kingdom. Luke, can I repeat it again? Look, my brother, my sister, if you have Christ as your Savior, and I do, when he comes in the power of his glory, we come in with him, glorify too. I'll tell you, you look a lot better I know, so will I. I've never seen a glorified saint yet. I've seen a few sanctified ones, but I haven't seen any glorified ones. Look, we're coming back with him in glory.
Now what's the effect? That's what follows at the end of the chapter, quickly. Wherefore also we pray always for you. then our God would count you worthy of this calling, fulfill 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. What is the application? Oh, says Paul, keep on suffering. and let God be glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ in you.
Oh, I think of the words of Paul as he wrote them to the Corinthians. Whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all to the glory of God or the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, look, we're going from sufferings to glory. But here's the picture. Now, please know very carefully. Before Paul even corrects the problem, in chapter two the trouble then he encourages them glory is coming glory is coming glory as one old hymn writer wrote the glory shines before me I cannot linger here and beloved will you sing the old hymn when all my trials My troubles and trials are all.
And I'm safe on that beautiful shore. Just to be near the Lord I adore will prove the ages. Be glory for me. And yet we're coming down. Look, let me say it again. The people in Florence that do not know the Lord when he comes and you come back with the Lord, they're going to recognize you and admire you. And I want to tell you, it'll be too late for that. Oh, beloved, before the Apostle Paul deals with the problem to show them they had no business listening to those men who were teaching them. They're in the Great Tribulation. He tells them, look at the glory that's coming.
And you'll be in that glory. All of his saints. My. Hey, that would be quite a picture, wouldn't it? I don't think they'll get that on the television in that day. Be too big. But thank God it's coming. The old hymn said, the crowning day is coming by and by. When the Lord shall come down in glory and the Savior, let's give him a word of thanks, shall we? Oh, blessed Father. We thank thee for the glory that's coming. How little we appreciate it as we should.
But Lord is here in the book. And Lord Jesus, you came first of all, the man of sorrows. But when you come again to this earth, you're coming as the man of glory. And the saints in glory shining with thee. Oh Lord Jesus, what grace. What mercy. To poor, lost, guilty, how deserving, sinners. To be sharing the glory with thee. Ain't that wonderful? But then, Lord, help us to reach out to those who are still lost. Help us, indeed, Father, to glorify thy name and the Lord Jesus.
By the little that we can do for him here. And grant that we'll bring precious souls out of darkness into light. to share that coming glory with us in that eternal day. Bless thy word to our, and Lord, take us home, fill with the thought on coming back with Christ. Glorify. In his precious name we pray, giving thanks. Amen. Thank you for coming, and God willing,