00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Turn in your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of 2 Thessalonians. Two weeks ago, we did a survey
of 1 Thessalonians and looked at those five chapters in just
a survey of the book. And then, this last week, our
brother Brian Borgman was here and, for the pastor's conference,
spent each of his sessions going through the book of 1 Thessalonians.
So, it was a I cringed a little bit, but no, it was a good study
and was very edifying and encouraging. And so now we're looking at 2
Thessalonians chapter one. Want to work through the chapter
tonight and then, Lord willing, next time be looking at 2 Thessalonians
chapter two and spending more time in that chapter. So let me read 2 Thessalonians. Chapter 1, this is a young church
which we've heard. Paul spent three Sabbath days
with them, and they were persecuted. And so Paul encourages them,
as we'll see in this chapter, with the righteous judgment of
God. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians
and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace unto you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet,
because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity
of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth, so that
we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your
patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations
that you endure. which is a manifest token of
the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which ye also suffer. Seeing it is
a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them
that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with us,
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his
mighty angels. in flaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory
of his power. When he shall come to be glorified
in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe because
our testimony among you is 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. Let's pray. God, we thank you for the instruction
that your word gives. You don't answer all of our questions,
but you give us enough to know what you're doing. And we know
from your word, you have promised that your son will return to
this earth. You give us details even of what
that return will look like in this passage. We pray that you
would help us to understand it. Help us to apply it to our lives. Help us to go from this place
with a renewed sense of the reality and the gravity of your righteous
judgment. Help us not to make light of
these things. Help us to rightly Embrace them
and live them and warn this world of your wrath to come. Help us, we pray in Christ's
name. Amen. The doctrine of eternal
torment is likely the most difficult doctrine in Scripture to believe. It is also the most sober and
weighty doctrine in Scripture. However, it does, I believe,
much good is done to our souls to contemplate eternity. The primary responsibility of
a pastor that supersedes other responsibilities is to watch
for your souls. If it's a judgment day, You end
up separated from Christ and told, Depart from me ye that
work iniquity, I never knew you. You will not care what other
aspects of pastoral ministry that your shepherd did well. Similarly, if your financial
advisor is a nice guy, but you come to retire and you realize
he invested poorly and actually squandered your retirement, his
magnetic personality will be of little consequence to you. Paul, in the New Testament, frequently
repeated his warnings of coming judgment and stated that to say
the same things to you, to me, is not grievous. but for you
it is safe. John the Baptist warned his hearers
to flee from the wrath to come. Each New Testament writer addresses
this subject because the state of our souls carries eternal
consequence. And so despite the difficulty
of the doctrine of eternal torment, Paul did not hesitate to introduce
this young Thessalonian church and give them specific details
related to it. Why would he address this subject,
the righteous judgment of God, to such a young church? What
was his purpose in writing to them? What was he hoping to accomplish?
Well, as we have mentioned, that this was a church being persecuted
significantly. The doctrine of divine retribution
helps those under persecution to understand that God will fully
and finally measure out justice. He will do so in a way that leaves
no question. From this we learn that it is
appropriate and necessary to draw from this doctrine in times
and in the face of persecution. In contrast, in times of freedom
and prosperity, to dwell on the subject of divine retribution
seems a little dark, a little dour. And so as we come to this subject,
as we approach it in the relative freedom that we enjoy currently,
this subject can seem unnecessary. However, it's also vitally necessary
in times of prosperity to be reminded that this is not our
final destination. That we are called to be pilgrims
and sojourners. Who have a measure of detachment
from this world? Because we believe that Christ
is returning. And that all the elements are
going to be the world will be destroyed. The elements will
melt in fervent heat with fervent heat. So what manner of persons
ought we to be? If you remember. The example
of Lot very early in our Bible, in the book of Genesis, you remember
that when the angels came to warn Lot of God's plan to destroy
and to burn the city down and destroy it, Lot's response was
less than urgent. I won't turn there, but Genesis
19, the angels instructed Lot to flee to the mountains." Actually,
I think I will turn there, just briefly. If you remember, the
angels instructed Lot and said, Lot, judgment is coming, flee
to the mountains. It came to pass that when they
had brought them forth abroad, that he said, escape for thy
life. Look not behind thee, neither
stay thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountain. lest
thou be consumed. You remember Lot's response?
And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my lord. Behold now, if thy
servant has found grace in your sight, and thou hast magnified
thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life, and
I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me and I
die. There could be wild animals in the mountain. Is it really
necessary that I go that far? Behold now, this city is near
to flee unto. It's a little one. Oh, let me
escape thither. Is it not a little one? And my
soul shall live. The angel says, okay, go to Zoar. And then in verse 25, when the
judgment comes, And Abram got up early in the morning to the
place where he stood before the Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and
Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and
lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain,
that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of
the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt. Now here it is, verse 30. And
Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him,
for he feared to dwell in Zoar, And he dwelt in a cave, he and
his two daughters. You understand the point of Lot when he was
warned of judgment to come. He thought, oh, it's not that
big a deal. Zoar's a little closer. And then
when the judgment come, he thought, you know, a cave in the mountains
sounded pretty good right now. The difficulty, like in the days
of Noah, is that when God is about to do something truly unprecedented,
we hear that word thrown around a lot, meaning something that
has never happened before, like flooding the earth, that we have
to accept that by faith of what God says. Our mind says, now
wait a minute, God has never done that before. Peter warned
in his epistle, that mockers will say in the last days, where
is the promise of His coming? All things continue as they have
from the beginning of the creation. We haven't seen Christ return
before. What makes you so confident and
sure that He's going to do that now? Well, because He said He
would. This is a one-time deal. He's
only going to return one time. And the Scripture tells us that
He will come like a thief in the night. Jesus said, the Son
of Man comes in an hour when you think not. He has been, as the parable He
told, He's been on a long journey. But then He comes back. James
says, He that shall come will come and will not tarry. And if Paul could issue this
comfort and warning to the Thessalonians, how much more now? They didn't see His coming. It
didn't reduce the value or the gravity or the reality. We're
going to see that here in a little bit. of this coming. If you look
back a page in 1 Thessalonians 5, in verses 1 to 4, he said,
These are key verses, I think. For when they shall say, what
will the conditions be prior to that? For when they shall say peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon
a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren,
are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a
thief. So tonight I want to preach from
this text and exhort you to consider the righteous judgment of God
at the second coming of Christ. The righteous judgment of God
at the second coming of Christ. This subject, this judgment,
this doctrine, is something that once you consider it, and you
reflect on it, and you really see it, It's one of those things
that you can't unsee it. When you drive down the street
and you reflect on this concept and this subject, and you realize
of the coming judgment that is about to come upon this earth
to all those who are outside of Christ, pretty soon as you
go into Walmart and you're walking through and you just start doing
some math, you just start thinking, How many of these people are
going to be totally shocked, surprised, like a thief
in the night? Devastated? I want to give you
three things from this text. But as I said, once you see this,
it's hard to unsee it. It's kind of like garlic and
onion. It just has a way of, you put
that in the potato salad, And you just know there's garlic
in there. You just know there's onion in there. And not that
we need to have a morbid, dour mindset, but it does need to
be part of our perspective on this life. It does need to have
a shaping influence on how we think. And so I want to give you three
things from this text. Number one, we look at their
persecution, which is the requisite for the righteous judgment of
God. That's what makes it necessary, is their persecution, Paul says,
makes it right. He says there in verse 5, it's
a manifest token, it's an evidence of the righteous judgment of
God. Secondly, I want to look at the
punishment that he is going to bring in verses 5 to 10, which
is the requirement of the judgment of God. And then lastly, in verses
11 and 12, the request, their prayer, and the request in face
of the righteous judgment of God. So number one, In verses
3 and 4 we see their persecution. This is what demonstrates and
makes divine retribution necessary because they were being persecuted
for righteousness sake. It demonstrates that God's judgment
is righteous by how they are behaving. The definition of persecution
is the infliction of pain, punishment, or death upon others unjustly
particularly for adhering to a religious creed or mode of
worship. So they are inflicting pain and
death and torture upon people for worshiping God. Why does the enemy do this? Because our enemy can't punish
God. He pours out His fury on those
that bear His image. If you think about the righteous
judgment of God, of His vindication of His children, we can even
consider how we would respond if we caught somebody doing that
to our children. Last night I had to pick up Bethany
from the train station. Late into the night, she's coming
home from college for spring break. And I was in my truck,
and it's late, it's after midnight. I can't be responsible for anything
that happens after midnight. And I was sitting there, and
I don't know why I had this thought. I was thinking about this subject,
about how you would handle it if somebody was harming your
children. And so my mind just began to
wander. And I was thinking about the concept of kidnapping or
somebody stealing one of your children. It's kind of a morbid
thought. And I was imagining as she's
getting off the train, because I've done this before and I kind
of knew what it looks like, what would I do if somebody just grabbed
her and put her in a vehicle? And I started having some very
dark thoughts. I'm in my truck and I'm thinking,
well, I would ram them right into that. They're persecuting God's children. And He's violently angry. Psalm 44 and verse 22 is a familiar
psalm. And it says this. Yea, for thy
sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep
for the slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. Wherefore, hidest your face,
and forgetst our affliction and our oppression. For our soul
is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth to the earth.
Arise for our help and redeem us for your mercy's sake. And this is quoted in Romans
chapter 8 and verse 36. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. This has been a common testimony
throughout the history of the church. And yet, as you look in chapter
1 here, the Thessalonian response to persecution was supernatural. They were flourishing. An infant
church, newly converted, being persecuted, and he says, we are
bound to thank God always for you, brethren, because your faith
is growing exceedingly. What an encouragement. He says,
and your charity, Pastor Jeff preached on this this morning,
it's abounding. Your charity for every one of
you is abounding. And he says we are bound, we're
obligated. It's necessary for us to thank
God for you. Because, there's the reason,
it wasn't just flattery, it's because he could see the grace
of God in them. And he just says, I just praise
God for you. It was an obligation. I mean,
listen to that report card of this infant church. Faith growing
exceedingly, charity abounding, your patience and persecution
and tribulation steadfast. What Pastor Jeff preached this
morning, that was true of this Thessalonian church. Their love
for each other was abounding. I think we can learn from this.
Our brother Brian even mentioned this this week about gratitude
for people. I believe we need to be quick
to see the grace of God in others and acknowledge it and say, that
is just praise God for you. I'm often guilty of this. I think
it, if that counts for anything. My wife says no, but I think
it. I mean, there's times I walk
around the church and I just see somebody doing something
and just think, praise God for you. Brother Leonard, praise
God for you. I was driving to prayer meeting the other night
and I got to thinking about Brother Leonard and I just thought, praise
God for that man. I see people cleaning and serving
and I just think, praise God for that. Of all the things you
could be out doing, just wanting to be a part of the Lord's house
and the Lord's work, And we need to just be grateful. Praise God. My children could
probably testify. Dad doesn't just go around praising
God for them. But I probably should, a lot
more than I do. You know, just even this week
at the pastor's conference, seeing people serving joyfully. Praise God for you. What a joy. Those meals were par excellence. Come out there and dinner is
right there. I don't even have to leave the building. It's right
there. Praise God. And lunch. What a great time. Appreciate those of you who served
there. How do we encourage people who
are facing unjust suffering? Well, we can commend their patient
endurance and being steadfast. Years ago, we were doing a push-up
contest with the kids. We're a little competitive in
our family. And one of them was running out of gas, and they're
just straining, and they're about ready to quit. And my wife comes
in as our resident cheerleader and just starts cheering them
on. Come on, you can do it! You can
do it! And man, they cranked out about
10 more push-ups. And I'll never forget it, they
got up and said, you just woke up more strength. I was out of
strength and you just woke up some more and I all of a sudden
could do more. You understand, that ought to
be how we approach the brethren, is just a desire to infuse some
oxygen and infuse, wake up some more strength in them. I believe that's what Paul is
doing here right out of the gate. Look at what he says in verse
4. So that we ourselves, we glory in the churches of God for you.
I mean, when we go to the churches, we tell them about you and what
you're doing and how you're enduring persecution and tribulation,
but your patience and your faith is exemplary. When others are in the face of
suffering, it can be very disorienting. Sometimes it feels like you're
in a whirlpool. I remember a friend of mine,
we were whitewater rafting, and he got dumped out, and he says,
I'm swirling around in this water, and I can't find up. I don't
even know what up is. And I'm just sitting there thinking,
I don't think I'm getting out of this. I don't even know which
direction to push. And we're all sitting there like,
okay, this is fun, he's kind of a jokester, what's he doing?
Okay, where is he at? Is he coming out? You know, and
that panic sets in and then, like a bobber, he just comes,
you know. And when people are enduring
suffering and trial, it can be disorienting of, what is God
doing in my life? And we want to be an encouragement,
a help, a proper eternal view of suffering
for righteousness' sake. The Scripture says it's a great
privilege to be counted worthy to suffer for a great King. Do
you remember the Apostles in Acts 5? They beat him and let
him go, said, hey, just stop preaching in his name. They thought,
oh yeah, whatever. We ought to obey God rather than
men. And they went away from the council rejoicing that they
were counted worthy to suffer for his namesake. Jesus said
this in Matthew 5, when you are persecuted, rejoice and be exceeding
glad, because great is your reward in heaven. As I was reading this, I couldn't
help but think that Paul certainly remembered that he
used to be Saul, and that he was one who persecuted the church. Pastor Matt read this this morning
in 1 Corinthians. Remember, he said, Paul, I am
Paul, the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called
an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. I don't think
that just left him quickly. What do you say to saints suffering
difficulty, trial, and even persecution? Your faith is growing exceedingly. You realize that we can grow
more in adversity, in five minutes of adversity, than a hundred
hours of prosperity and ease. And just to be aware of it and
to come alongside and say, you know, your faith is growing exceedingly. It's necessary to offer perspective
from the outside. Because when you're in the midst
of that, you don't feel it. You're just trying to survive. Not only is your faith growing,
your charity and your love is abounding. And Paul glories in
the church. We know in Romans 8.18 where
he says, For I, the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. We just need to be reminded of those things. But secondly, as we look in verse
5, we look at the punishment. The requirement of the righteous
judgment of God, it requires a punishment. Their persecution
is evidence that justifies the propriety of God's judgment.
This evidence of their persecution demands a verdict. It demands
a judgment. As we read, the saints of old
in the Psalms asking, How long, Lord? How long? for the kingdom of God, for righteous
punishment, because they persecute and trouble you. They're mistreating the children
of God because they are the children of God. You know, one story, it's a familiar
story, maybe you've heard it before, of in Oxford in 1950,
or 50, not 1955, 1555, There's the story of Hugh Latimer
and Nicholas Ridley who were being burned at the stake for their faith. And Mr. Hugh Latimer, the implication I think is that
Mr. Ridley was starting to tremble
in fear. Because they're getting ready
to light the fire. And Mr. Latimer said, play the
man, Mr. Ridley. Play the man. You can do it. And he's recorded as saying,
we shall this day light such a candle. By God's grace in England,
as I trust, shall never be put out. Play the man, Mr. Ridley. See, if we rightly comprehend
the righteous judgment of God, we don't need to add a drop.
We won't need to add anything to it. It will be righteous. Notice what he says there in
verse 6. It is a righteous thing with God. to recompense the tribulation
to them that trouble you. It's a righteous thing. He's
not apologizing. He's warning. And there's nothing
we need to add to it. This is why the scripture says
in Romans 12, those familiar verse in verse 19, he says, Dearly
beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.
For it is written, I will repay. Sayeth the Lord. My wife is, we don't watch a
lot of movies, but if she picks out a movie, I already know what
the plot's gonna be. It's not a Hallmark movie. She likes vengeance. She wants
somebody to be wronged, and she wants somebody to come in with
sweeping vengeance. It's a little fearful to be married
to such a woman. But listen to what the Scriptures
say in the book of Nahum. Kind of an obscure text, but
this is how he starts the book in verses 2 and 3. God is jealous,
and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord
is slow to anger and great in power, and he will not at all
acquit the wicked." Romans 2, a familiar text, says,
"'But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest unto
thyself wrath against the day of wrath. and revelation, here's
the phrase again, of the righteous judgment of God. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 35 is
the text that Jonathan Edwards was the basis for his sermon,
the popular sermon of sinners in the hands of an angry God. And it's just one verse that
he was expounding In Deuteronomy 32 and verse 35 it says of the
Lord, to me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall
slide in due time. For the day of their calamity
is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste. It is coming. But notice what
he says in verse 7. And to you who are troubled. Rest with us. You don't need to avenge yourselves.
Rest with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. And as we read
in Nahum. And he's furious. Rest with us. In Revelation 6 and verse 9,
it says this, And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw
under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the
word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried
with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true,
dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell
on the earth? And white robes were given unto
every one of them, and it was said unto them that they should
rest yet for a little while, for a little season, until their
fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed
as they were, should be fulfilled." Just rest. These scriptures are likely a
quotation from Psalm 94. The whole psalm of Psalm 94 is
about God's vengeance. And it starts out, it says, O
Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, O God, to whom vengeance belongeth,
show thyself. Think about how long it's been
since that was written. This prayer and this appeal and
this plea for God to avenge his adversaries. Lift up thyself, thou judge of
the earth. Render a reward to the proud. Lord, how long shall the wicked
triumph? How long shall the wicked speak
perverse things? Verse 8 describes this punishment. Look who shows up. when Jesus shall be revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory
of his power. Jesus is violently angry. He's furious. And he's coming
with his mighty angels to address those who obey not the gospel. So here's the reality is that
it comes down to what have you done with the gospel? He uses unusual language here
in verse 8. They obey not the gospel. See, this world doesn't view
Jesus as relevant to their life. Why do I need that? But you understand
that this King has good news. And the good news is, is that
despite your rebellion against him and that he's violently angry,
he has offered conditions of peace. He has extended good news and there is no neutrality. How
many times did Jesus say this? You're either for me or against
me. You're either gathering with
me or you're scattering. There is no neutrality. There's a famous story in history
of Antiochus Epiphanes, who was attacking Alexandria, Egypt. And his army, I don't know all
the details, but was surrounded. There was ships that came in
in support from the Mediterranean. And he was surrounded and told
to surrender. And he asked the general if he
would give him time to think about it. before I surrender."
And the general said, OK. And they had him draw a line
around him in a circle. And he says, well, just make
your decision before you leave that circle. There's no neutrality. Are you
surrendering or are you not? Are you obeying the gospel? who
hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come. He that believeth
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not is condemned
already because he has not believed in his Son." They will be punished with everlasting
destruction. Daniel said it this way, many
of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some
to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Banished, what does he say here
in verse 9? From the presence of the Lord.
Get him out of here. And from the glory of his power. See, at His return, Jesus will
be the single polarizing figure. The only thing that will matter
in that day is your relationship with Him. Consequently, that's the only
thing that matters now, is your relationship to Him. Jesus said it this way in Matthew
10. In verse 32, whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not
that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send
peace, but a sword. And your relationship to him
supersedes every other relationship. And so he goes on to say, For
I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. That
when it comes down to it, the relationship that we have with
Jesus Christ supersedes the relationship with our family. and a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh
not his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He that
findeth his life shall lose it and he that loses his life for
my sake shall find it. That is the significance of the
righteous judgment of God. And then Paul closes when he
shall come to be glorified in his saints, to be admired in
all them that believe, because our testimony among you is believed
in that day. Wherefore, we also pray always
for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling. and to fulfill all the good pleasure
of his goodness, 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 a proper response to the righteous judgment of God?
Pray that God would count you worthy of this calling. Matthew Henry said this, religion,
if it is worth anything, is worth everything. So I ask you tonight, where do
you stand in relation to the righteous judgment of God? There are only, I believe, two
appropriate responses for yourself. to flee to the mercy seat where
God atones for your sin by placing His righteous judgment for your
sin upon His Son. There's an interesting story
in the Old Testament, the book of Numbers, about the cities
of refuge. And in the cities of refuge,
they had to have three of them the west of Jordan, and three
of them on the east of Jordan, so that they would be spread
out. And as it lays it out and explains it, it says that if
you, there was an accident and the axe head flies off and hits
somebody and kills them, and you didn't mean it, but they're
dead. That at that point, you need
to flee to a city of refuge. Because if their family member
sees that you just, in their mind, killed their brother, if
they catch you before you get to the city of refuge and inside
the wall and inside the gate, they can kill you with no punishment.
And he's called the avenger of blood. And so when you were out and
about working and something like this happens, and you realized,
oh no, The avenger of blood is coming. I need to get to the refuge.
And they had to go to this city and stay inside of the city walls,
if you know the story, until when? The death of the high priest. And then once he died, you were
released. You were free to go. So when
you realized your guilt, there was only one response. Run! There were even laws that you
needed to mark the way to that refuge, and you couldn't have
any stumbling blocks in the way, and needed to be a clear path.
And when you realize, what have I done? You have one response. Well, for our sin, and from what
we've heard from this text, who is the avenger of blood? God. And what do you think is going
to happen if you don't get to the refuge? before He gets to you. The second appropriate response
is to warn those who have God as their enemy, who are abiding under His wrath,
and to warn them to flee from the wrath to come. to walk worthy of this calling,
our life needs to demonstrate that we believe this, so that
it gives weight to our warning. Let me close with Lot. You remember
our story, we looked at Lot. And you remember what happened
when the angels came and warned Lot that judgment was coming.
And Genesis 19 and verse 14 says this, And Lot went out and spake
unto his son-in-laws, which married his daughters, and said, Up,
get out of this place. The Lord will destroy this city. But if you know the story of
Lot, he didn't have a very good testimony. And the Scripture says, but he
seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. I looked up
that word mocked and that he was joking, that he was playing
with them. And they didn't listen. That's the gravity of the righteous
judgment of God. And we rest, and we wait, and
we warn. Who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? Have you made it to the refuge
of the Lord Jesus Christ? And clinging to Him is your only
hope. Let's pray. God, it is sobering to reflect upon your righteous judgment. We confess
openly, publicly, frequently that apart from your grace and
your Son, we would be in the same position, fully deserving
your righteous judgment. We glory in your atonement that
you would pour out your wrath for my sin upon your own son. I pray for each in this room
that they would understand that there is salvation in no other,
that there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby
we must be saved. Help us, we pray in Christ's
name, amen.
Thessalonians Study #2
| Sermon ID | 319232256404806 |
| Duration | 53:08 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 2 Thessalonians 1 |
| Language | English |
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.