Untitled Sermon

Oh, my voice, and cry, oh, so worthy.

2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Been a couple weeks. I pray you haven't forgotten, but read ahead. Paul and Silas and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians, verse 1. In God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more,

and the love that every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God's churches, we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you're enduring. All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result, you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you

and give relief to you who are troubled and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his power, He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day that he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. Now, this includes you because you believed our testimony to you.

And Father, as we come this morning, we pray to understand the things that you are showing us here in this chapter in 2 Thessalonians. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Just to refresh you as far as why Paul is writing this letter. The persecution at this time in Thessalonica and the surrounding areas in the churches in Macedonia, actually in all the Roman Empire, was increasing.

Christians were a thorn in the flesh up to this point and now they were no longer being tolerated and there was an actual move by Caesar to eradicate them, to kill them all, not to let them have any more of the freedom of expression, but just to get rid of them. And so, Christians were being crucified throughout the Roman Kingdom. Now, this upset the Thessalonians and Timothy has evidently arrived and brought Paul this information that the Thessalonians are upset because they're seeing all of this persecution going on and they were under the assumption, according to Paul's teaching and from his previous epistle from 1 Thessalonians, that this wasn't supposed to happen. They surmised that they had gone into the Great Tribulation

that Paul had talked to them about, that they had actually gone in and were a part of the day of the Lord, that the day of the Lord had come and they were now in the midst of the Great Persecution, the Great Tribulation. And then on top of that, there was a letter that had evidently been circulating through the churches, reportedly from Paul, and he mentions that in this epistle, that it's a forgery, wasn't from him, but it had been going around to the different churches stating that fact, that evidently the day of the Lord had come and they were now in the midst of the Great Tribulation period. And the Thessalonians were upset because according to Paul's teaching, according to what Paul had told them before,

when he was there and then the letter that he followed up his visit with, the believers in Christ were to be removed before this time of persecution was coming, before this time of the outpouring of God's wrath. They believed that, as Paul had said, Jesus had died for us, that we might not have to suffer the wrath, we are not looking for the wrath of God, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 9, but for the glorious appearing of our Lord. And so they were frustrated. Trials were heavy, persecution was intense, and so Paul writes this letter, first of all, to comfort them, to encourage them that God is in control, even in the midst of their persecutions.

And then secondly, to assure them that this was not the day of the Lord, that the Great Tribulation was still future, and that yes, God would be faithful and would remove the believers before that time of tribulation came upon them. So we can relate to this because our persecutions are increasing. The tolerance of Christianity in this country and in the world is waning. The tolerance of Christianity in this country and in the world is waning.

The tolerance of Christianity in this country and in the world is waning. You as a believer in Jesus Christ, as you stand steadfast, are more and more becoming a thorn in the flesh of society. You did not go away. You did not, I mean, you know, you are now a force to be reckoned with. You're a political force, the conservative right, the religious right. And it's a force that the liberal side

does not just not like. They hate you. And everything you stand for, and freedom of expression of religion in this country, as you have seen, is waning. More and more. In our school systems, in businesses, there are laws on the books in California and places that, like home Bible studies. You can't have that many people in your home, it's a fire hazard. And it's coming across the country.

The disciplining of your children has been taken away from you. More and more the foundations of your faith are no longer being tolerated. And so, more and more, you're going to see the church in America come under more horrendous persecution and the more we take a stand, for it the more intense the persecution is going to be so this epistle is to us just as much as it was to the church at thessalonica and paul writes and in chapter one he starts off with words of encouragement three encouragements i want you to see that paul writes first we saw in chapter one the first four verses the encouragement of praise the encouragement of praise how wonderful it is when you and i face trials and tribulations to just begin praising god just because it takes

our focus off of this out here and centers it on the lord and who he is and what his purposes are and what he's doing in my life you see satan wants you to get your focus out here that's why i took jesus up on a high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the earth he wanted to get his focus off of the father off of heavenly things onto the things that he could have on the earth and that's what he wants to do with you and me and what did jesus say you worship god the bible says you worship god and him alone do you worship set your affections on things above not on the things above not on the things above not on the things above not on the things above not on the

of the earth. That's a battle. Satan wants to get your eyes distracted. And so when you come under trials, one of the best ways to be encouraged is to praise. And Paul showed four reasons that he could praise God. We give thanks to God for you, he said, because we see that your faith is growing and we see that your love is increasing more and more for each other. And we see that your

perseverance is growing and we are boasting of you. Their testimony was increasing. They were being boasted of by Paul in the churches in the surrounding area. So four things were happening as a result of the persecution. Their faith was increasing. Their love for one another was increasing. I mean, we sit here and say we love each other, but when somebody goes through some

kind of peril, when there's an injury or a sickness or a loss of life or a loss of property, you watch people, they're motivated. They get up and they go and they begin to work. And that's as the body here really expresses love. I mean, it's great. You know, you have people over for dinner. That's nice. Do that. But the love is really expressed when you get into the

lives of each other here and somebody's hurting and you know, and you begin to reach out to meet that need, to meet that hurt. That's when the love increases. And Paul was praising God because that's what was happening at Thessalonica. Their faith was increasing, but their love for one another was increasing as a result of the trials and their perseverance. Their keep on goingness

was increasing. They kept on keeping on. And that only happens. When we're in trials, I'm sorry. I wish I could say, I've got a new perseverance pill and all you do is take one of these a week and you're going to persevere. Or I've got a new book on perseverance and you read that book and your perseverance will increase, but it won't. The only way your perseverance increases is as you go through trials, trusting him, praising him, loving one

another. Your perseverance increases. That's the only way it increases. And then your testimony is shed abroad. When you go through a trial, I mean, we look at Evan Gakstetter and the accident. And the people that were in prayer for him and how, how fast he recovered and the people around you here around, it's amazing how quickly he's recovered. And it's just by the power of prayer,

the testimony of what happened, what God did in restoration is being noised abroad through a trial. That's the way it happens with us. And so when the trials come, the encouragement of praise is knowing that God is working those four things out in your life and my life through the trial. And so don't focus on the trials. Praise God for what he's doing through the trials, with

the trials. And that's what Paul was wanting us to see. Second thing, and we're going to look at it today, that he wants us to be encouraged by is the promise of God. We're encouraged to praise. And so there's the encouragement of praise, but also the encouragement of the promise of God, which means the word of God. That's where the promises of God are, is in his word. And that's

in verses five through 10. Look at those verses with me. Paul says, all this is evidence that God's judgment is right. And as a result, you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. Now he's not talking anything there about salvation. He's talking about the assurance is evident as a result. God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you

and give relief to you who are troubled and to us as well. And this will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you because you believed in our testimony to you. You know,

one of the greatest characteristics that a person can have is that they are a person of their word. One of the greatest things that could be said about you or I is that we keep our word. What we say we do, we can be trusted. It's a mark of faithfulness, but it's a mark of promise. My dad was a man of his word. He was a man of his word. He was a man of his word. He was a man of his word. He was a

man of his word. And he was known for that. If he said he was going to do something, he did it. And there wasn't anything that stopped him from doing it. If he told me he was going to be at a certain place to pick me up and take me to the doctor's office when I was growing up or to pick me up from school or he was going to get something for me that I needed, I could count on it. I mean,

I could mark my clock by it because dad would be there. And if in the few circumstances he couldn't, I knew about it well in advance so that I could plan something different. But 99 times out of 100, he was there and he kept his word. And I knew that when he said something, he meant it. And he would do it. And he was known by that among the people. That's what God is. He's a keeper of

his word. He makes promises and he is faithful to fulfill the promises that he makes. Now, most of us here would affirm that here. I mean, as I say that now, again, this is something that as believers we go, uh-huh. But about Wednesday or Thursday, when you're in the middle of your life, and though whatever you face out there is on its third or fourth attempt,

at beating you to a pulp and you've got that thing to do or those people that are there and they're on you and the pressure of it is on you and it stirs up memories and all of a sudden from all over your life you're facing this pressure in this trial the fact that god keeps his promises will wane will be very insignificant by thursday to you and me if we're not constantly this week between now and thursday refreshing ourselves as to his promises so that when wednesday or thursday gets here and those things have mounted up against us we will be able to be encouraged because of the promise of god and be encouraged because in the midst of the trials we're praising him

god keeps his promise psalm 138 verse 2 and the king james says your you honor your word above your name niv says these things you honor lord your name and your word and it just kind of balances them out on equal ground but from one one I understand from those who know the hebrew he actually is elevating his word there above his name in that text that he will honor his word above his name because as you look at scripture and you look at who god is he is revealed by his word so he honors that revelation of himself above his very name yes his name is jehovah but he honors his word about himself because his word tells us who jehovah is that's why in john chapter 1 we're told that the word became flesh

and was given the name jesus because the word jesus told us who god was showed us who he was and so god honors his word above his name he tells you something and he's going to do it so we hang on that as believers so we are to hang on that as believers so paul tells us about the encouragement of promise in verses 5 through 10 and in this i want you to see three of god's promises that are revealed to us and they're i mean god has promises throughout his word most of them fall under these three categories the first one is in verse 5 and it's the promise of god's reward the promise of god's reward look at verse 5 all of this is evidence that god's judgment is right

and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of god for which you are suffering there's a reward and it's the kingdom of god and all of this is evidence all of this is evidence he says that god's judgment is right and as a result you will receive the reward of the kingdom of god all of what evidence all of what is evidence all of the first four verses that we just looked at last time the fact that your faith is increasing the fact that your love for each other is growing the fact that your perseverance is being strengthened and is increasing the fact that the testimony of what god is doing in you is being heard and seen by others is evidence that god's

justice and his judgment is right and you will be receiving the fullness of the reward of the kingdom of god but again you can't just say that god's judgment is right and you will be receiving he tells says that evidence what god is saying but you can't just say thatンダ Kampfgeist with the testimony without the trials so yes all the trials that were facing mistreatment all the tribulations that were facing here right now evidence that god's judgment is right and you are counted worthy to receive the kingdom of god now again this has nothing to do with salvation your salvation was affected the moment you said yes to jesus christ he came to live in your heart that you're facing. And in those trials, you're trusting him and your faith is increasing. Your

love is growing. Your perseverance is being strengthened and your testimony is being known to others. Those things are evidence of the fact that you're going to receive a reward. Now, this is really contrary to a lot of the doctrine that's being taught today. A lot of the doctrine that's being taught today is that you're his kid and you're the evidence of the fact is you got all

kinds of stuff. You got good health. You got all the prosperity in the world. You're not lacking for you've got every nice jewel and gem and thing that the world has to offer. But that's not what this says. This says these things are the evidence, faith increasing, love growing, perseverance increasing, testimony being spread. And those are only worked through tribulation and suffering and

through trials. So rather than being bummed as the trials are on you, and you know tomorrow you've got trials waiting for you. And rather than being bummed as we face those, Paul was reminding them and us that God is the one who's going to give you what you need. And he's going to give you what you need. And he's going to give you what you need. And he's going to give you what you need. And he's

using these trials in our lives to bring about this growth. And that he has promised us that if we're going to suffer with him, then we're also going to reign with him. Second Timothy 2.12. If you're going to be a Christian and you're going to stand for Christ and you're going to endure these sufferings, then you're also going to reign with him. That's a promise. And God wants

you to remember that promise. Paul tells us in Romans 8 verse 17. Now, if we're children, and that's what the Bible says, you've been born of God. You are now his children. To you, he has given the power to become the sons of God. So you're his children. And Romans 8 says, if we are then children, then we're heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in his sufferings

in order that we may also share in his glory. As a Christian, the one does not come without the other. If you're going to be a Christian, if you're going to name the name of Christ, then you will share in his sufferings in order that you can share in his glory. Because God is that God of like kind. And we'll see that in his judgment, in the area of his judgment. If you sow, you're going to reap. If you suffer with him because he suffered in the

person of his son, and his son was then raised from that suffering, raised from the dead, then you also in kind will be raised from the dead because you've suffered with him. Matthew chapter 5 verses 11 and 12 in the area of the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are you when people, what? Insult you. Been insulted for the glory of God? Taken a stand people call you weird and strange and one of those. And we don't do that here. You know,

it's not allowed here. Separation of church and state. When people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Gossipers. He goes on to say, rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. God wants you to be encouraged by his promise. The promise of a reward that the trials that we are now suffering are evidence that we're

in the plan of God. And we're in the plan of God. And we're in the plan of God. And we're in the plan of God. And that we will be the recipients of the kingdom of God. Now, what is the kingdom of God? Don't we already? Jesus said to the people when he was here, the kingdom of God is among you. So we know that the kingdom of God is contained in the person of Jesus Christ. And as believers,

we've received Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit in our lives, right? So each of us has, in a sense, received the kingdom of God. Right. Absolutely. You are now living everlasting life when you believe Christ. The kingdom of God is in you. And you can experience that fellowship with him. That's part of the kingdom of God. You can experience that fellowship with him. And you can

experience that peace. That's part of the kingdom of God. You can experience his love. That's part of the kingdom of God. But we're still looking for the fullness of that revelation. When you and I stand in the presence of Christ, this is all gone. Sin is all gone. And in our, in our redeemed flesh, we're going to see him face to face. And then you'll experience the fullness of the kingdom of

God. And that's what we're waiting for. That's what we're hoping. That's our reward. Man, you and I have no idea what's going to happen when we're there. We have no idea. All we can try and relate to is, is the blessing of God. And that's what we're waiting for. That's what we're hoping. That's best of things here. And this, the Bible says, will pale in comparison. This won't even be

remembered. It's not even worth remembering compared to what it's going to be like when we're with him. And so we need to keep that before us. The promise of God's reward, the promise of what stands before us. But Satan, again, wants to get us distracted, wants to get your and my eyes and focus onto the things of this life. I got Dave Hunt's newsletter this week, and he had a

quote in there from a brother named William Law, who lived some 250 years ago. And he wrote a book called The Power of the Spirit. And in that, he relates a story of a man named Penitence, who was a very prosperous young tradesman who was about to die at the age of 35. And, and his friends came around him to express their sympathy and their sorrow and the fact that he was dying. And this

is what he said to them. He said, you look upon me with pity, not that I am going unprepared to meet the judge of the quick and the dead, but that I am to leave a prosperous trade in the flower of my life. And yet what folly of the silliest children. It's so great as this. Our poor friend Lepidus died, you know, as he was dressing himself for a feast. Do you think it's now part of his trouble that he did not live until that entertainment was

over? Feast and business and pleasure and enjoyments seem great things to us while we still think of nothing else. But as soon as we add death to them, they all sink into an equal littleness. If I am now going to the joys of God, could there be any reason to grieve that this happened to me before I was 40 years of age? Could it be a sad thing? To go to heaven before I had made a few more bargains or stood a little longer behind a

counter? If I am going amongst lost spirits, could there be any reason to be content that this did not happen to me till I was old and full of riches? Now that judgment is the next thing that I look for and everlasting happiness or misery has come so near me, all the enjoyments and prosperities of life seem vain and insignificant. But my friends, how I am surprised that I have not always had these thoughts. What a strange thing it is.

A little health or the poor business of a shop should keep us so senseless of these great things that are coming so fast upon us. Where's your focus? In the littleness of the things of this life or in the reality of forever? There's a reward coming and God wants us to remember that he keeps his promises. That reward is waiting for you. The second thing, and to keep the progression

of the literary, the second promise deals with recompense. Recompense. Repayment. Verses 6 through 10. Verses 6 through 10. And God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will

be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power. Let's stop there. Think about this for just a minute. Recompense. It means repayment. NIV renders it paybacks. And our generation can understand that, can't we? God's into paybacks. Calls it vengeance in his word. And he so knows how to do it. And he so knows that if we go to do it, we'll so screw it up that he

says, don't repay evil for evil. Don't revile when someone reviles you. I mean, we look at the loving part of that. You know, love those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Do good unto those who despitefully use you and persecute you. We're doing that in love. Forget the other side of God's love is his wrath. And God says in Romans 12, 19, vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord. So while we're to respond in love, it's with the understanding that vengeance is God's and he will repay. I don't know if you think about God's love that way. I mean, so easily we can get wrapped up in the fact that I just have to love and I get smitten and I get smited and I get beat on a cheek and I've got to turn the other one and I've just got to love.

And we fail to see that on the other side of that. On the other side of the coin, God will repay. I mean, I think we've forgotten that in our society. And our society has replaced that with the Rambos and the Rockies and the Terminator 1 and 2 and 12 and 15 and, you know, however many different ways we can kill each other, how many new toys we can get to blow each other to pieces to the extent that we've forgotten that God is a moral universe.

Not good, but evil creates a moral problem for us. Present injustices require future retribution, end quote. This is probably the heaviest of God's promises. The rewards, okay, I can see. I can look back over 25 years of walking with the Lord and see what he's done in my life. So I know he's working. And reward I can hang with. I mean, I know there's got to be something better because

he's already made something better out of the last 25 years than I would have been without. But this idea of recompense, of paybacks is awesome and even more weighty when we take time to think about it. You see, as we look at life, it's easy to get distracted from God and think that the current prosperity of the wicked and the seeming suffering of the godly, causes us at times to cry out to God, where's justice, right? Where is justice, God? How can

you allow a nine-year-old girl to be snatched off of her bike and taken out and raped and brutally murdered? How can you allow that? Where's justice? How can you allow a mother to strap her infant and toddler son in the backseat of her car and drive it off into a lake and drown them? Where is justice? How long will you let it go? Asaph asked that question in Psalm 73. Asaph was a priest in

David's court, was actually the priest that wrote the songs and the music to the songs of the Psalms. And he says in Psalm 73 that because of that, because the wicked seem to prosper while the godly seem to suffer, his foot almost slipped until he went into the house of God. And there it was revealed to him that the feet of the wicked are on slippery ground and they quickly slide into hell. Now I've often wondered, I don't know if you've ever thought of that or not when you've thought about that in Psalm 73. What did it mean when Asaph said my foot had almost slipped?

Did it mean that he was so despairing of life that seeing the wicked prosper and the godly suffering is ready to croak himself? Or did it mean that he was ready to go do what the wicked were doing? I think that's more what he meant. I mean, he was a priest. I mean, here he was sacrificing the wickedness and the things of life for the things of God, writing songs about God, praising God when he was seeing the wicked prosper. And it almost

got to the point in Asaph's life where he's saying, chuck it all, man. I'm going to go out here and party. Until he came into the house of God and saw that the wicked vanish fast. They prosper but for a season and then their feet are on the path to hell quickly. Habakkuk thought the same thing. Habakkuk chapter one, he's asking God, he's seeing the wickedness in Israel, the division

kingdom. And he's going, God, how long will you let injustice? I mean, you've taken the northern kingdom and look at us. I mean, they're just going nuts. You'd think they'd learn, but how long are you going to let injustice go? And in verse four of Habakkuk one, God says to Habakkuk, if you only knew what I'm planning in your days, you wouldn't believe it. But I'm bringing the Babylonians.

And then a couple of chapters later, you're finding Habakkuk pleading with God, call him off, call him off. You know, it's too much. Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 12, verse one. I love Jeremiah. Jeremiah is one who, who appeals to God. He's, he's got the new psychology down where you say the good stuff and then throw in the sandwich and then say the bad stuff, you know, say the good

stuff again, sandwich the bad stuff in between the good on one side and the good on the other. He starts off Jeremiah chapter 12, verse one. God, we know that you are righteous and that your judgments are true and good. And then he comes right in with, but this I have against you. How can you let the wicked go on the way they're going? You know, and Jeremiah can't even understand.

God's vengeance is not vindictiveness. Let me say that again. God's vengeance is not vindictiveness. It is simply the administration of unwavering justice. You see, God is never backed into a corner and then explodes. This is wrong. God has already bringing about the justice to correct the wrong. Man had fallen in the garden of Eden. Yet we find before the foundations of the world, Christ had already suffered, had already died in the mind

of God before the foundation of the world. So God is not vindictive. He is not responding because he's backed into a corner. It is simply the administration of the world. It is simply the administration of unwavering justice. He is simply allowing his presence to be seen totally. And it comes in the form of trouble for trouble. This vengeance of God is shown in two parts in these verses. And I want you to see this because it's heavy to me. It blew

me away. Verse six, we see that he says he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you. And then in verse eight, he says he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that can look like the same, but it's not. It's two different ways. It's two. It's, it's, the intensity increases from verse six to verse eight with what God does. Okay. So let's look at

these verse six. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you. Trouble for trouble. That's that God in kind. If you suffer with him, you're going to reign with him. That's the way God is. God is kind for kind. An eye for an eye. That's the way God administers life. That's the way he administers his creation. That's the way he administers his justice. Trouble for trouble. That's why God

tells us whatever you sow, you're going to reap. Israel sowed to the wind. They were reaping the whirlwind. If you sow to the flesh, you'll reap destruction. But if you sow to the spirit, you'll reap life. You'll inherit life. It's kind for kind. Whatever you sow, you're going to reap. Trouble for trouble. And we have examples in scripture. Pharaoh in Egypt. What did Pharaoh

do? Pharaoh hated the Jews. He hated the Hebrews. And so he ordered that all the male children of the Hebrews be thrown into the river and drown. Heinous, hideous, pre-abortionistic kind of crime. In fantasy, killing all the youth, the male children. And what did God do in his vengeance to Pharaoh? God caused all of Pharaoh's firstborn to die. Yes, but like for like, killing the nation's

strength in the water. God eventually brought all of Pharaoh's army into the midst of the Red Sea and drowned them. Like for like. Haman in the book of Esther. Haman hated the Jews and especially the one Jew, Mordecai, that he saw every day. Hated him. Just hated him. Finally conspired around to be able to build the gallows and and led an edict to be given whereby the Jews would be killed. And

he went to appeal to the king to allow Mordecai be given to him to be hung on the gallows. And I don't know if you are familiar with the gallows at this particular time in the book of Esther, but it wasn't a, you know, one of these kind of gallows with the rope on it that he hung him from. It was a 75-foot spear in the ground, literally. A 75-foot pole that had a pointy thing on the end.

And what he wanted to do was take Haman up there and impale him on the pole. Just run him down feet off the ground so that he could be seen by everybody in the town. And what did God do to Haman? Haman ended up on the pole. Impaled on a pole. And where Haman had wanted to rid the heritage of the Jews, what happened to him? All of his sons were killed. Kind for kind. Trouble

for trouble. Remember Daniel and Darius the Mede, who they conquered the Babylonians. And Daniel's found favor with King Darius. And that's much to the dismay of all of the other advisors. And they hate Daniel. And they conspire against him. And they cause the king to make a ruling that nobody can worship anybody but the king for 30 days. No other gods. You can't worship anybody or pray to anybody other than the king. And what does Daniel do? I mean,

he's a diehard Christian, you know, in the pre-Christian sense of Christianity. He goes to his room and throws open his windows towards Jerusalem and prays to God like he always does every day. Word gets back to Darius. They bring Daniel in to Darius' dismay. He doesn't want to do it, but he's signed his word. His word is his promise. And Daniel's thrown to the lions. And

you know the story. Daniel survives. And what happens? Darius throws all of those advisors and counselors to the lions. And what happens to them? They were consumed before their bodies ever hit the ground in the lion's den. Kind for kind. Trouble for trouble. During the time of Christ, the Sanhedrin, the reigning Jews, felt that it was better that one man die for the sake

of the country than the entire country perish. Totally against the word of God. If they'd have been reading the word, they'd have known that this was God's deliverer. But in their own desires to keep their own status quo, they impaled him upon a tree, crucified him. And what happened to their precious city and to the precious nation of Israel? About 40 years later, the Roman army came

through and burned Jerusalem to the ground, killing about a million people and dispersing the nation of Israel into the other nations of the world. Kind for kind. Trouble for trouble. I don't know about you, but over the last 25 years of walking with the Lord, I've seen that happen in my own mind. Both in the ways that I have treated people, because the intensity of it makes no difference.

The fact of it is there. When I have complained about people, other people, when I have gossiped to others, I have found myself gossiped about and found out about. I have found myself complained about and found out about it. When I have done things, even as a Christian, to undermine others, I have found that it comes back on me. And so I've found that now, as people are doing things to me, just for an instant, there's that thing that riles that

wants to return, like for like, you know, and I'll be your vindicator, God. And God says, no, I don't need your help. I've done fine. I can do it on my own. And then I've learned to just kind of pull back and realize what's coming to them. And it burdens my heart because he has been faithful to do that. That's why Jesus could stand there and not speak a word. It wasn't just knowing that he was in the will of the Father. It

was knowing what was coming. And when they hung him on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, because he knew that 70 AD was coming and they were going to be left with a million dead and scattered for centuries. That's why Stephen, when he was in the midst of being stoned, said, Father, lay not this charge. Because he knew what was coming. Trouble for trouble, like for like. So when people are doing

things to you, rather than thinking about how you can blow their house out from under them or put nails under their tires and really give them a rough time, just begin praying for them because God is a vengeful God and he repays like for like and what people sow, they will reap. That's awesome enough in itself, but the intensity gets greater as you come down to verse eight. Not only will he pay back trouble to those who trouble you, but verse eight, he will punish those more intense, more severe, punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Who are they? Well, someone who does not know God. It doesn't doesn't say

who do not know about God. It says who do not know God and do not obey the gospel. That's somebody who's in who's not in a relationship with the Lord. What's the relationship with the Lord involved that we know him, that we're having fellowship with him and that we're obedient to him. Jesus said, you tell me that you love me, but if you love me, you're not going to love me.

If you love me, keep my word, keep my commandments. Then you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. So how do we know that we love Jesus? When we're seeking to know him more and more through study of his word and through prayer and through being obedient to that word. To those that don't, to those that aren't in a relationship with him, there's a punishment coming that's

even more severe than like for like. Trouble for trouble. It is like for like, but it's the most intense of the scale. To those who do not know Jesus, John chapter three, Jesus said they're already condemned for they're not receiving the gift of the Father. They already stand condemned. I didn't come into the world to condemn the world because the world's already condemned. And the result of that, the reaping of that is this. They will be punished,

verse nine, with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power. The ultimate judgment in failing to enter into a relationship with Christ is the punishment that's, that's a twofold. It's defined there in verse nine, shut out from the presence of the Lord. And it's implied shut out from the majesty of his power.

Now, throughout the word, we find that in the presence of God is the fullness of joy. He is our, and then you go right down the line. He's our shepherd. He's our banner. He's our covering. He's our provider. He's my strength. He's my shield. In him is, in his presence is a fullness of joy. In him is life everlasting. So I'm shut out from that presence. What do I not have?

I don't have joy. I don't have the fullness of life. I don't have a covering. I don't have provision. I don't have a leader. I don't know where I'm going. I am lost. I am empty. I am in pain. I am in sorrow. I am in discomfort. That's shut out from his presence. Forever and forever and forever. And from the majesty of his power, from the majesty of his power. Second Peter chapter one, Peter tells us that he has given us everything that pertains

to life and godliness according to his majestic power. You and I see the power of God around us all. I mean, just the power of God in creation. I mean, the Hubble spacecraft is sending back pictures of galaxies. Great, man. We knew they were there. That's wonderful. That's the power of our God. When God moves in your life and brings healing, we see the majestic power of God. When

God brings relationships together that were torn apart, that's the majestic power of God. When God does some miraculous things in our lives each day, that's the glorious power of God. We see that majesty of his power and we're going to see it in its fullness when we stand in his presence. But imagine a place where you see none of it, not even a hint of it. No morning or evening and beautiful

sunsets, no glory of the creation, just total blackness, total darkness, no glory of a cool mist or a cool breeze, just flames, just flames forever and forever. Forever, no hope, no joy, only sorrow, only anxiety, only wishing you would have and knowing you never will. Forever and forever and forever and ever again. That's the awesomeness of the punishment that's coming. Warren Wiersbe writes, to those who say I cannot believe a loving God

would judge sinners and send people to hell, he says they do not understand the holiness of God or the awfulness of sin. God so loved the world. He didn't want you and I to go to that place. He didn't want you and I to go to that place. He didn't want you and I to go to that place. He didn't want you and I to be shut out from the majesty of his presence or the greatness of his

power. That he sent his only son, that whoever believed in him would not be perishing but would be having everlasting life. God promises recompense. Believe it. Believe it. And thirdly, he promises rest. Reward, recompense, and rest. Look at verse 7. In verse 6, he says, not only will he pay back trouble to those who trouble you, but verse 7, give relief to you who are troubled and to us as

well. In verse 10, on the day when he comes to be glorified, in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. And this includes you because you believed our testimony. God repays tribulation to the lost, but rest to the saved. And the word rest there means relief. It means a release. It means not being under pressure. Can you relate? Or are you sitting here under the pressure still of the week ahead or of your

circumstances? You see, while we're here, Hebrews tells us that we're to strive, seek to enter into that rest. We can experience part of it here. Hebrews chapter 4. Part of the rest of God that he gives us. When you see a seasoned saint that's been walking with the Lord for 40, 50, 60 years, and they've come to know that. They've come to see that God's been faithful in every trial,

so this one is, you know, nothing. I'll trust my Lord. Man, are they cool to be around or what? They are. It's really sweet being in their presence because nothing unnerves them. Nothing ruffles them. God's in control. I want to be like that. And we can enter into that rest here, but it's just a prelude to the rest that that's coming. When we are with him, when you and I get to see him and to be with him,

then there will be total rest. No more bills. No more heat bill and electric bill and roof to fix and grass to mow. Hallelujah. Praise God. No more of this junk like's happening in the east coast where they get two feet of snow and then rain and it floods everything out in the middle of January. Is this last day's weather or what? People need to pray that people will see that,

that this is not the worst flood they've had in 24 years. Yeah, well, I bet if you go back and look, the worst flood they had 24 years ago, in January, this is last day's weather. God has promised you and I rest. And look at verse 10. This is so cool. On the day that he comes to be glorified, now notice this, in his holy people. And you say, what are you making such a big deal about one little word? Well, what does that mean?

The day that he comes to be glorified in his, what's going to happen with us on that day? What does that mean to you and me? Well, John R. W. Stott has written, he does not say that he's coming to be glorified among them as a theater or a stadium. He is not coming to be glorified by as if they will be spectators in the audience who will watch and worship. He is not coming to be

glorified through or by means of them as if they will be mirrors which reflect his image and glory, but in them. God is going to be glorified in you as a filament, which itself glows with the light and the heat when the energy passes through it. Man, on that day, not only is the Holy Spirit going to be in you, but you are going to glow. You're going to be a light bulb for Jesus. That's

exciting. Because right now I know what is in me that is in my flesh. There dwelleth no good in me. Even with the Spirit of God in him, in his flesh there dwelleth no good thing. But in that day, in that day, you're going to just shine, man. You're going to glow. You're going to just have this brilliance for Christ. It's going to be so awesome. You're not even going to realize it. And

in the midst of that is rest because you're in his presence forever and forever and forever. Let's stand together. The trials are going to be there. They're going to be there tomorrow and they're going to be increasing in intensity because God said so in his word. Until the day that Jesus comes back for us, we're going to have them and have them increasing in intensity.

But God tells us that there's encouragement and praise. The encouragement of praise and knowing what he's doing with those trials in our lives. That he is increasing your faith. That he is growing your love for each other. That he is growing your perseverance. And that that will be noised abroad to other people who see Christ in your life. And that you are to be encouraged

in the promises of his word that he has promised you. He has promised you a reward. He has promised that that reward is to be in his presence forever and forever and forever. He has promised recompense to those who don't know him. And he has promised rest for those that do. If there are any here this morning, that number one, you either don't know him and you want to, or you're in the midst of

something and you want the rest and you want to know the reward and you want to realize the fact that God does take care and that vengeance is his and you just need prayer for that. We're going to have the brothers down front as we close and I encourage you to come down for prayer. If you're in the midst of something and you want to know the reward and you want to realize the fact that God is in the midst of a situation and you, you, the disease is greater than you are. You're facing some sickness or illness, or you're facing some pressure or some trial in relationship. And it is greater

than your realization of the promises of God and this encouragement of praise and the encouragement of his promise. And I want you to come down front as we close and the brothers are going to be down here to pray with you, to pray for you, to lift you before the Lord that, that, that is blinding you to his goodness might be removed. And if there's someone who has wronged you and all you can think of in your mind is to pray for them. And if there's someone who has wronged you and your mind is getting even, I want to encourage you to come down and pray because what God has in mind for their lives is it would blow your mind to think of what's going to happen. Just let him be

God. Vengeance is his. Maybe you need some prayer to relieve the tension of the bitterness of that. I encourage you to come down front. Father, we thank you. Your love for us is so good. You anticipated all of these times. You knew all of this was going to happen and you gave us your word to encourage us in these times that we might be encouraged by your praise to know what you're

doing in our lives and that we might be encouraged to know what you're doing in our lives and that we might be encouraged to know what you're doing in our lives and that we might be encouraged to know Encouraged by promise. To know the promises of your word. The promise of reward and recompense and rest. Oh Lord, forgive us for our pettiness. For keeping our eyes focused on this life.

As William Law said about penitence. And how before us stands eternity. And this is but a shadow. Keep eternity before us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.