2nd Thessalonians 1:1-13
“Paul,
and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in 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 from 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 in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye
endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous
judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which
ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to
recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be
glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because
our testimony among you was believed) in that day. Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would
count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith
with power: that the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“2nd Thessalonians, probably
written about a year after 1st Thessalonians, probably one of the
earliest epistles written by Paul, if not the two earliest. This church was facing adversity. Paul wrote the first letter, and
evidently he gets word that these Christians there, first of all, had some
questions and are troubled by some particular things. And he gets the report of the persecution they’re enduring. Evidently there were zealous Jews who were
part of the reason for Paul being driven out of Thessalonica that were still
there stirring up trouble. And
there were also those of the Gentiles that lived there, that were hostile to
the Gospel of Christ. And this
young church, he had only been there three weeks, three Sabbaths it says,
before he was driven out. [Comment: If Paul used the
term Sabbath to mark weekly time, it meant they were observing the Sabbath in
the early New Testament churches of God under Paul. See, http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm.] Remarkable to see what’s happening, the work of the Holy
Ghost in the midst, without Paul being there. No doubt he has great love for this church. So he’s writing to this church about
the problems that they’re facing. Now, one of the things that’s troubling them, and it’s interesting,
because he’s going to mention “charity” [Greek: Agape,’ God’s agape-love], love and faith in
these first few verses, like he does in the first epistle. But in the first epistle, he mentions
faith, hope, and love. And he
leaves out hope here, because their hope is straining at this point in time,
because there evidently had been letters written that were counterfeit, that
supposedly had come from Paul the apostle, saying that they had entered into
the Great Tribulation, into the Day of the Lord. And they were relating their persecution and their hardship
to the fact that they thought ‘This is going on everywhere in the Roman
Empire,’ you know,
they didn’t have CNN to watch, or Fox News, they couldn’t get a fax from
somebody, they couldn’t get online. So if they heard a rumour, ‘This is happening everywhere in the known
world now,’ they felt, ‘Well, where’s the hope that Paul told us about? Where’s the coming of the Lord for his Bride? Why are we all of a sudden in this
situation, what’s happening?’ So Paul will leave out that word “hope”
in the beginning, and as he gets to the second chapter he’ll talk to them about
the situation, and where they really stand.
Who, What Is The
Church?
So he begins now addressing this young,
persecuted Thessalonian church. “Paul,
and Silvanus (whose
Silas) and Timotheus (who
is Timothy) unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ: grace unto you,
and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (verses 1-2) Now, addressing those who were in God and Christ, that’s the only
Church, by the way, the Church that’s in God and in Christ. The Ecclesia, the Called Out Ones, the
Church is not the building. When
you’re not here during the week, this is not church, this is an old warehouse
that’s been renovated and it’s empty. It’s a church when you’re here, because you’re the Church. It doesn’t matter what denomination or
what title’s on the door, it’s only the people in the building who are really
born-again who are the Church. The
Church is in God, no matter what denominational title hangs over it. If we’re not really saved, we’re not
really born-again, then we’re not really part of the Church [the greater Body
of Christ]. He’s writing to this
Thessalonian church, he says that’s “in God and in Christ,” and so are our brothers and sisters around the world,
whatever title they come under.
Peace, Faith And
Agape-love In The Midst Of Trial
“Grace unto you, and peace,” which is his normal greeting. And you know, it’s interesting, Paul is
certainly someone who can say to them, ‘Grace and peace be unto you from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,’ because Paul, by this time, and we
don’t have all of the details, but we know from Corinthians, he talks about
things he had already suffered before we get to the end of the Book of Acts,
where we see him in the hurricane [out at sea, not a nice place to be in a
hurricane] and the shipwreck and so forth. In Corinthians he tells us about all the shipwrecks he had
already been in, and all the beatings he had already taken, all the things he
had already been through. And yet
Paul knew that in the middle of all of those difficult circumstances, God’s
grace was not absent, and God’s peace was still accessible. And I’m telling you that because Paul
said it, not because I know it, because I’m a wimp. I’m still learning “Peace 101.” He had his PhD in “peace,” Paul. But he’s writing to this young Thessalonian church who was
surviving in the middle of all of this, and telling them God’s grace, he
doesn’t hesitate to give the same greeting that he does to other churches that
are in less of a trial, and less tribulation at this point in time. “Grace unto you, and peace,” because he knows that even in the most
difficult of circumstances, because he has been there. It’s not empty verbiage, “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 [fitting],” there’s a right way to do it, Paul’s not snowing them or
puffing them up to take an offering when he gets there. He’s not giving them a bunch of
nonsense here to soften them up for some triple-tithe Sunday or something. “We are bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it is meet” as it’s fitting, the proper way, because that your faith groweth
exceedingly, and the charity [agape-love] of every one of you all toward each
other aboundeth;” (verse 3) Now, this is remarkable in a situation
where they’re being persecuted. Because he’s saying “Your faith groweth exceedingly”, and he uses a word that speaks of
unusual growth here. The one word
is speaking of the growth you would see in a plant, to watch something grow,
but he’s using a word where that’s extensive, ‘You’re growing
exceedingly, in the middle of these difficult circumstances, we’re seeing this
tremendous growth,’ and Paul says ‘because of
that we thank God.’ Because I believe his heart would have
been broken if he had heard the church was crumbling, was falling apart, people
are turning away, they can’t take the pressure, they’re wondering. But Paul says ‘We hear your faith
is growing exceedingly, because of that we are bound to give thanks for what’s
going on there, and the love every
one of you has for one another, your charity [agape-love] is abounding.’ And
he prayed in his first epistle to them that their love [agape-love] would
abound. Now we hear that that’s
happening. And interestingly,
that’s happening in the most difficult of circumstances. And to me, as I think about that, that
is a mark of maturity. You know,
it’s easy for us to love the lovable. And it’s easy for us to love when everything’s going great in our
lives. But for our love and our
faith to be growing exceedingly and our love to be abounding when we are being
persecuted, and we feel we’re at the wrong end of things, when we’re feeling ‘Why
would a God who loves us would allow these things to happen in our lives?’ gives evidence of great maturity. And in case you don’t know, the Bible
is clear that bitterness and unforgiveness, and anger, and seething, they’re
all marks of carnality, and the lack of the Holy Spirit. And I see people that are not willing
to forgive, they grind, they seethe, they hold a grudge, there’s
bitterness. Those are not the
things that characterize Christ. Love believes all things, hopes all things, it bears all things, it
thinks the best, it’s the very nature of Christ. [This agape-love he’s talking
about can be studied in far greater detail at http://www.unityinchrist.com/Agape/Agape%20I.htm.] And this young church, under adverse circumstances, it’s a
great church, great church. It’s
growing in faith exceedingly, and abounding in love. That’s the kind of church I always want to come to, when it’s
abounding in love. And you know, I
think difficulty certainly opens up those channels between one another. I see folks here who are widows, who
have both lost a husband within the last two years, I see what happens when
they see one another. Before they
can say anything in the English language, the tears come, and they run to each
other and embrace each other, because they know, they know. ‘We know, don’t we, we know.’ And love is abounding there. And folks that have been through difficulty, you see people come up on
Sunday and say ‘I need prayer, I have cancer,’ and I’ll say that’s interesting, you have somebody right here, and they
have cancer too, and you’ll see them begin to talk, and the next thing you
know, they’re embracing, the tears are flowing, so many times in difficulty,
love abounds, love abounds. And
that’s what was happening in this church. And I think it’s a great testimony to them. “your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity
[agape-love] of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we
ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in
all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure.” (verses 3b-4) ‘We brag about you, you’re a church that’s surviving. When other organizations would
disintegrate, instead of that, you’re abounding, you’re growing, you’re
becoming stronger, and we brag on you guys when we go somewhere. ‘Those Thessalonians, what a great
group, they’re growing, they’re strong, they’re abounding.’’ [Comment: Notice Paul used the term “in the churches of God”. This was the official name by which
most of the true apostolic churches Paul founded were known by, the churches
of God.] But you notice, he didn’t mention “hope.” He mentioned “faith” and “love” as he
goes through here, and he’ll come to their “hope.” And he says ‘Your patience and your faith are there,
and it is evident in the middle of your persecutions and your tribulations that
you endure.’ And again, the tribulum in Latin, the tribulation, the tribulum was the part of the
threshing sled that was drug over the grain that separated the wheat from the
chaff, the tribulation that is governed by the Lord and allowed in our lives,
has purpose, and it separates in our lives the wheat from the chaff, and it
leaves what’s pure, and it lets the wind blow away the chaff of religiosity and
it leaves what is real and endures. So Paul says, as he looks, he sees the chaff blowing away, but he sees
the patience and the faith of their lives being made evident in tribulation, in
the tribulations and persecutions which they were enduring.
This Is A Moral Universe: You Reap Faith and Agape-love For Your
Tribulation, Those That Trouble You Reap What They Sow, Trouble
And he says ‘the fact that you’re
enduring this,’ “Which
is a manifest
token of righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the
kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:” (verse 5) I’ll read verse 5, but I’ve got to read down a few verses so you
understand what he’s saying here. “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,” (verses 6-7) So, he says, ‘The fact that you are enduring in very difficult
circumstances, and that you have patience and faith, you’re enduring in the
middle of all this, is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God,
upholding some and condemning others.’ That God looks
at your circumstances, and his grace is there, he’s upholding you, and the
manifest token of that is we see patience and faith in the middle of very
difficult circumstances [see, http://www.unityinchrist.com/psalms/Psalm3…]. But that same judgment, he says, will
be exercised in another direction against those who are troubling and
persecuting you, because what they sow is what they will also reap. And this is a moral universe, because
God is governing. And we often sit
around and think ‘This is not fair, and this is not fair, and why is this
happening?’ And Paul is saying, ‘No, in the
middle of all of this, the fact that you have the strength to carry on without
completely disintegrating is a manifest token of God’s righteous judgment,
because he is upholding you in all of this, and that same judgment will be
directed at those who persecute and trouble you, who reject Christ, when they
are judged.’ And God is not working with unjust balances or weights, he
condemns that all through the Scripture. So, the fact that we’re standing up under difficult circumstances,
that’s not something we can say, ‘Well, you know, its my maturity. I been readin’ the Bible for 30 years,
I pray every mornin’ for five minutes, and got my little breadbasket on the
table, and that’s why I’m so strong.’ You can find
out tomorrow that was a bunch of nonsense. It’s grace [through the power given to us through his
indwelling Holy Spirit], except for his grace, there go I. If we have strength in our lives, it’s
his Spirit. If we stand, it says,
in persecution, it’s because, it says, ‘because the Spirit of glory is
abiding upon us, from Christ.’ It has nothing to do, we are as
dependent in the next trial, upon the Lord Jesus, as we were dependent on him
in the trial we went through today. It isn’t like ‘trial 101 is down, my strength is come up to here, and
tomorrow’s trial 102 comes, and I need this much…’ No, each day we are just as dependent, to be dependent on Christ, and to
stand, yes, in the power of his Spirit, and because of his Word. But he says it’s a manifest token of
God’s righteous judgment that you’re enduring, and that also he will deal with
those who are troubling you [ie, from 1st Thessalonians 5:15,
“Render no one evil for evil”, ie, God will take care of it, as he says
somewhere else, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, I will repay.” It’s not ours, it’s his responsibility
to repay.] ‘It 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” (verses 5b-7a)
There Are Two
Sources For Tribulation, Two Kinds
Now it’s interesting, one thing you
ought to take note of here, Jesus said in this world you will have
tribulation. There are two
different sources for the tribulation that we see here, there’s one tribulation
the Church is experiencing, and that’s coming from the world, the flesh and the
devil, the hostility, from Satan, from persecution, from stirring people
against the Church, that’s a source of tribulation. But it says, God is going to pay back tribulation to them,
so there is another source of tribulation, that comes from his throne, which
the Church has nothing in [ie, is not included in], because we’re washed in the
blood of Jesus. The tribulation
that comes from his throne has nothing to do with us. When that first Seal is opened, and the white horse begins
to ride forth, deception begins to overtake the world, that Tribulation is from
a different source than the tribulation that you and I experience every day,
presently. So, “seeing it is a righteous thing with God to
recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;” (verse6) and this is a righteous thing, it’s not ‘God’s really angry, you ticked him off, you’re on the wrong side of him,
he’s gonna crush you into meeces and pieces,’ it’s
not that kind of human stuff, it’s a righteous thing with God, to recompense,
to pay back what is just. “tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you
who are troubled rest with us,” that’s going to be our payment, “rest with us,” So God ultimately will pay back to the
unbeliever, to the persecutor tribulation and trouble. [Comment: And often times we can see
this happening in this life. Hindus had killed a bunch of new-believing Christians in south India,
who had been discipled by seeing the JESUS Film. Shortly afterward, a huge typhoon stuck that same area,
killing a bunch of Hindus. The
surviving Hindus were heard to be remarking that the typhoon had been the
righteous judgment of God for their persecution of those Christians. And some of those Hindus came to faith
in Jesus Christ as a direct result of God’s righteous judgment. And they all, in that area of
devastation, stopped persecuting the Christians. God does often repay in this evil world, when his kids are
hurt and persecuted. But it’s as a
loving parent discipling a misbehaving child.] And to us, his payment, rest. Isn’t that what we’re waiting for,
rest? I don’t know about you guys,
I like rest. I love the Christmas
holidays because I didn’t do anything, I rested. I sat in my living room, in a pair of sweatpants and a
sweatshirt, watched football [watching men brutalize each other J], slept, ate, watched football, slept,
ate, watched basketball, slept, ate. Just with my kids, my family, my wife, it was wonderful, rest. It’s as
good as it gets in this world, the fellowship we have with one another, in our
families with one another. There’s
a day coming when there’s going to be rest, no sorrow, no suffering, no
disease, no death, no pain, no sorrow, no tears, rest. Man, oh man. I’m looking forward to that, just
stepping into, you know, we hear of heaven, we hear of glory, all of these
other terms that define our inheritance and what it will be like to step
through the vial into God’s presence. But here Paul call’s it rest. I like that. [Comment: Just
think of what the Wedding Feast of the Lamb will be like, with all the saints,
lasting anywhere from 7 years to four months, depending on which interpretation
of prophecy turns out to be correct, except not needing to sleep, we’ll be
eating, fellowshipping, eating, fellowshipping, getting to know many, many
saints, and Jesus, on a personal level, face to face, that will be glorious
rest. And then after the Wedding
Feast, we’ll all accompany Jesus Christ back down to earth, where we’ll rule
with him as kings and priests for 1,000 years, ruling over mankind, spiritually
nurturing them into the Kingdom of God (cf. Revelation 19:7-10, 11-21;
Zechariah 14:1-15; Revelation 20:1-6; 5:9-10). Then we with Christ will usher the world into a period of
rest during his Millennial reign on earth (see, http://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/mkg1.htm. Then after this glorious period of worldwide rest, God will make new
heavens, and a new earth, and the New Jerusalem, bearing God’s very throne, and
the Sea of Glass, will come down to rest in the Middle East, and that will be
our home, the residence and our many mansions Jesus spoke of. Earth will essentially become the
Headquarters planet of the universe, a place of eternal rest and peace in the
presence of God (cf. Revelation 21:1-23). Hebrews 4 talks about entering into God’s rest, it’s a pretty big theme
throughout the Bible.] I’m looking
forward to that. It’s not that I’m
lazy or a bum or anything, just I’m looking forward to that rest, you know,
it’s emotional rest, spiritual rest, physical rest, it’s rest. It’s what we’ve been looking for and
been longing for, but what we can’t find here. It’s the city that Abraham looked for, and he never found it
here in this world, it’s what we all long after, it’s when we step into there
and step into heaven, the streets of gold, the walls of jewels, the presence of
the Lord is there [ie the New Jerusalem]. When we get there, we say, ‘Yeah, this is, this is what I was made
for. Every color is the color I’ve
been waiting to see. Every sound
here is the sound that I’ve been waiting to hear. Every thing I see is what I’ve been looking for my whole life. The temperature here is the temperature
I’ve been waiting, my wife, we’ve been arguing over the thermostat for years,
now there’s no thermostat, this is wonderful! [laughter] This
is the temperature I’ve been waiting for. These are the things I’ve wanted to smell. I’m at rest. I’m where I was made for.’ [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/revelation/Revelation%20%2021-22.htm.] It is the manifest token of God’s equity, that he will give
to us who have believed and trusted in him, rest, and to those who have
rejected and persecuted, what they’ve sown, tribulation, trouble.
Not Obeying The
Gospel, What Is That?---Churches Flourish Under Persecution
Verse 7, “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:” (verses 7-9) How do you “obey” the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Obey? How do you obey Good News? That’s what the Gospel means, Good News. That God is going to have to deal
justly with those who have not obeyed the Good News, the Good News that God has
sent his only Son to die in our place, so that when we die, we can enter into
his forgiveness, we can enter into heaven [ie the kingdom of heaven, the New
Jerusalem, which will end up on earth, as Scripture shows]. That’s “obey the Gospel.” You know, when we go through the Gospels
we talk about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin, well
there’s only one sin that’s unpardonable, that’s not accepting Christ as
Saviour, that’s not obeying the Gospel. Every other sin is pardonable. I know, because I had a stack of them, and they’re all gone, washed in
the blood of the Lamb, they’re gone. Every sin is pardonable but the sin of not accepting Christ as
Saviour. And God says he’ll be
just when he deals with those who know not God. It doesn’t say they haven’t heard, and obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn’t say they haven’t heard. God is so gracious. You know how years ago, China turned to
Communism, and the major changes that took place, pastors being killed,
missionaries being thrown out, evangelists being put to death. And there are more Christians in China
today than anywhere in the world. Chuck [Smith] met with Mama Quan two years ago, and she told Chuck that
there are close to over a million and a half home-churches that are known,
house-churches, in China. And Mama
Quan told Chuck, and this is just for us this evening, that there are over 1
million house-churches in China that consider themselves Calvary Chapels. [Wonder if the Internet had something
to do with that?] Our brothers and
sisters, that we should be praying for. So God can get to everyone. God’s not going to be unjust or unfair, when he sends off those who know
not God, who refuse the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because in the darkest and most kept places, there are
churches that are flourishing. In
Thessalonica where the church is being persecuted, it was flourishing. You know, you’re sitting here this
evening, if you don’t know Christ, God’s gonna say to you, ‘Wait a minute,
you had heat, you had light, you had a PA system, you had a band, you had a guy
in a Hawaiian shirt because you’d never listen to a pastor or a priest, so I
did everything I could to get the Gospel to you,’ so you’d better listen tonight if you
don’t know Jesus Christ, because this is the night for you to come to know
Christ as your Saviour, I’m sure.
God Is Going To
Right The Balances
‘They know not God, they obey not
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,’ Verse 9, “who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them
that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.”
(verses 9-10) So, ‘Who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction.’ Now, I’m not a morbid guy. And I wish that the punishment was not
everlasting, but it is. And God is wiser than I am. And there are those in the Church, and in seminaries today,
who have been respected for years, that are embracing annihilationism, that
hell is not real, and that when the unbeliever dies, they’re
annihilated---because they go back to a verse in the Gospels that says, ‘fear
him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.’ Well that’s not what that verse is teaching at all, and throughout the
New Testament and throughout the Gospels Jesus himself tells us that you and I
are eternal. We’re not just this
stuff. This is the space-suit. And we look at each other, and we judge
each other, the color of our skin, the colors we wear, we spend a lot of time
on this space-suit. We take it to
the gym, we feed it health-food, we buy it juicers, we give it vitamins, we get
it nipped and tucked. You know,
there’s no excuse for a bad looking space-suit these days, you can do all kinds
of things to it [unless you’re retired on a fixed income, then it looks like an
old wrinkled space-suit that nobody wants J], the carcass. That’s not what we are. This is just what I wear. I
don’t wear Hawaiian shirts, I wear this [he’s slapping his chest], and I’m
inside, the spirit, eternal. And
so are you. You will spend
eternity somewhere, separated from the Lord, or in his presence. Those who receive not God’s
forgiveness, ‘If God’s a God of love, how can he send people to hell?’---no, no, no, it says here they won’t
receive it. It says here they
don’t want to be in his presence. He will give them their way. I think it was Moody that used to say “Any human being that goes to hell
is a trespasser, because hell was created for Satan and his angels.” That’s not what human beings are
intended for. But there are those
who are deliberately turning away from Christ, they don’t want to hear
anything. And look at what society
is doing today, what our legislators are doing, we have these words like
“inclusive” and all this stuff going on around us. No, no, the Good News has not changed in 2,000 years,
anybody in this room, anybody in this city, anybody in this country and anybody
in this world, healthy or poor, rich, famous, sick, any condition, no matter
what sin they’ve committed, how terrible their life has been, anybody anywhere
can receive the love of God, and complete forgiveness through Jesus Christ, who
is the Saviour of mankind. And
that is great news. [applause] And we’re
hearing so many different things, so many things contrary to that. And for those who deliberately refuse
and reject, grieving the Holy Spirit, Jesus said when the Holy Spirit when he
comes would convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment. I know before I was saved,
I was arguing, like Saul of Tarsus, kicking against the goads. I knew God was dealing with me. I didn’t know exactly what that meant,
and I liked arguing with Christians when they tried to witness to me. In fact, I was happiest when I got one
of them mad. But I was grinding
inside, because God was wearing me down with his love, and he was hounding me
and hounding me and hounding me. The same way any parent would with a prodigal or a child they loved,
warning, drawing, warning, drawing, loving, extending, warning. And he’s doing that today, he’s doing
that in this world. But there will
be those who will continue to refuse, ‘I don’t want nothing to do with you
God, I don’t want to have anything to do with a Saviour, your Bible,’ and finally God will say ‘Alright,’ and they will have nothing to do with
it, and they’re falling into outer darkness. Remember when you were a little kid, did you ever see a baby
do this, all of a sudden they start to doze off and suddenly go like this,
because they start to fall. Well
the falling will never end, and it will be a falling away from God into
darkness, where the fire is not quenched, the worm dieth not. They’re falling away. And the Bible teaches clearly, there is
eternal punishment. Not my idea,
not my invention [comes straight out of Roman Catholicism though]. But I would be remiss to try to soften
that. And I would be, I wouldn’t
be worth my salt, because this is what the Bible clearly teaches. And Christ talked of hell more than he
talked of heaven, because of his love, because of his concern for mankind, so
that they would turn. [This is according to Pastor Joe’s and Calvary Chapel’s
interpretation. There are other
interpretations as well about hell, our space-suits and what we are. To read some, in this secondary area of
Bible interpretation, see, http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm. The annihilationist interpretation has some merit. But in the long run, like all
interpretations based on prophecies on the subject of Gehenna-hellfire, which
at the very least are a thousand years out into the future, we are looking
through a prophetically darkened glass as the apostle Paul said, which makes
all these interpretations secondary, and we’ll learn for sure at the return of
Jesus.] So Paul says here, to
these persecuted Christians, ‘You know, God is going to right the
balances, I know that you’re struggling, I know that you’re wondering ‘Where is
his love?’, I know you’re wondering ‘Why is he letting all this happen?’, I
know that life’s circumstances can be painful. But you know, we brag on you because we hear in the middle
of everything that your faith is growing exceedingly, your love towards one
another continues to abound, and we tell other churches. And the fact that you’re surviving in
the middle of all this, that you’re enduring, your faith is growing, is a
manifest token of his righteous judgment. He’s upholding you because you’re in Christ, and he will deal justly
someday, there isn’t anything unfair going on. One day those who have troubled you and persecuted you will
receive what they’ve sown.’ But none of us should ever glory in
that. You know, we should work
with tears, and the last bit of our strength to see that last person come to
Christ. When you think of the most
terrible person, a murderer, these snipers that killed so many people [DC
snipers incident]
around Washington, as terrible as what they did, I could not wish to see one of
them go to hell, because that is eternal. That’s more than we could ever imagine. And it’s a great truth, to stand behind us and fuel our
genuineness and sincerity, to see human beings, which are worth everything to
God Almighty, for which he gave his own Son, to see human beings escape that
and come into the light, and to be washed in the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, freely, without deserving it, without working for it, by faith,
by faith. “who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from
the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and
to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was
believed) in that day.” (verses 9-10) He’s not just
coming to get the bad guys, ‘he’s coming to be glorified in his saints, and
to be admired, that word is much stronger, kind of means “to be wondered at, to
stand around in awe and wonder”, in all them that believe, because our
testimony among you was believed, in that day.’ So, he’s coming, and when that happens, he knows that
he’s going to be glorified in---now this is not an ego thing, that he just
wants us all there to go ‘Ohh, glorified,’---no, it’s to the praise of the glory of his grace, it
says in Ephesians. He will appear to
us, the first time we see him in heaven, you look in the Book of Revelation chapter 5, not as
King, if it was an ego thing…no, he appears as a Lamb with the marks of
slaughter upon him. In fact, 28
times in the Book of Revelation, Jesus is dictating the Book of Revelation to
John on Patmos, and the most favorite name he uses to describe himself in the
Book of Revelation is “the Lamb of God,” and he uses that 28 times in the Book
of Revelation, the Lamb of God---The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Apocalypse
of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. What a sight that will be. And certainly when we see it, then we will glorify him, that sinners
like you and I, there saved around his throne in glory, then we will wonder,
we’ll be standing there, ‘Wake up, we need to sing the next song,’ we’ll just be in awe. Just imagine.
God Can’t Wait To
Bless Us
“Wherefore also we pray always for
you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good
pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.” (verse 11) Paul came back down to earth a little bit now. He just wanted God to keep his hand on
them through all of this, ‘this is the ultimate, you know you’re called to
be an evangelist, called to be pastor, called to be a missionary, called to be
a mom, called to be a dad, called to be a truck driver, called to be a computer
technician,’ but
ultimately, we’re called to an Image. Our ultimate destination is not just a place, it’s an Image, to stand
around his throne, conformed to the image of Christ, wondering, standing in
awe, ‘wherefore God, we pray that God would count you worthy of this
calling.’ Number 2, “to fulfil all the good
pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:” So
it is the good pleasure of his will, of his goodness, that he just can’t wait
to blow our minds and bless us. Jesus, in John 17:24, said ‘Father, I will that those that you’ve given me be with me where I
am, that they may behold the glory that I had with thee before the foundation
of the world.’ Jesus is the only one that can ever say
that. No one else could say
that. Even when he prayed in
Gethsemane, he prayed ‘Not my will, but thy will be done.’ But the one time in the Gospels, in all four Gospels, there is one time
when Jesus Christ exerts his own will towards the Father, and it is when he
said, ‘Father, I will that those that thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold the glory that I had with you before the foundation
of the world. Father, this is what
I want. I want them all home, and
all together. No tears, no sorrow,
I want them to be behold the glory that I had with you before the foundation of
the world.’ And it says that here. [Comment: This period of standing in awe around his throne at the Sea
of Glass will probably be at the Wedding Feast, talked of in Revelation
19:7-10. After this period of
time, we accompany Jesus back down to earth to take out the Beast power, allied
to the armies of the world, who have gathered together to fight the Lord at his
return. This event is pictured in
Zechariah 14:1-15. From that point
on we will be ruling with Jesus Christ as kings and priests under him, ruling
the surviving world for 1,000 years. And then at the end of the Millennial period, our real and future home,
the New Jerusalem, comes to earth, there to reside forever, cf. Revelation
21:1-23, as previously pointed out.] “that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good
pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in
you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus
Christ.” (verses 11-12)
2nd Thessalonians 2:1-5
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by
word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any
means: for that day shall not
come, except
there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of
perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or
that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God.”
The Day of the Lord
Counterfeit, False
Letters Sent To Them In Paul’s Name
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by
word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” (verses
1-2) Is, present, it is come, the day of
Christ. The term in the Old
Testament was “the Day of the Lord.” I’m not going to make a big differentiation between those, in the New
Testament, Christ is the LORD,
Jesus Christ the Lord. The day of
Christ is the day of the LORD. And the idea is, the Day of the LORD begins with his coming for the Church, “our gathering unto him,” There’s certain things that will take place
when the Day of Christ occurs, the Day of Christ goes from the Rapture [1st Resurrection] of the Church to the end of the Millennium, that’s the Day of
Christ, the Day of the LORD. It encompasses all, an array of remarkable things when humans will no
longer be in control, but he has taken the steering wheel, and we leave the
driving to him. It’s the day of
the LORD. And here he’s saying to these Thessalonians, ‘Look, I don’t want
you shaken, you know, your faith and your love are in place, but your hope, I
don’t want you shaken, because I’m begging you in regards to all of this, by
the coming of the Lord, and by our gathering to him, it isn’t just that he’s
coming to earth to set up his Kingdom, that’s the expectation of every Jew [and
it will happen, but after the Wedding Feast], the Messiah was [and is] coming,
to set up his Kingdom on the earth, every man will sit beneath his vine and his
fig tree.’ The apostles didn’t understand what he
was saying when he said, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in
God, believe also in me, in my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not
so I would have told you. But lo,
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will
come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, you may be also.’ That was a completely new concept for a
Jew. ‘You’re coming to set it
up here, now you’re saying you’re coming to take us to the place you’re
preparing for us there.’ This is something different, something
for the Church. [Comment: And
those many mansions are contained within the New Jerusalem, which comes to earth after Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom of God rule
on earth. But at the Wedding Feast
we the saints will be transported to the New Jerusalem, the place where God’s
throne is, with the Sea of Glass (wherever that is). When you put all the prophecies about this event and the Sea
of Glass together, coupled to the 2nd coming prophecies, this is
what transpires. Many Christians,
not putting all the prophetic pieces of the puzzle together properly, have
formed fuzzy and perhaps inaccurate interpretations that make it look like we
go to heaven when we die, ever to remain there with the Lord. Nothing could be further from the
truth. Calvary Chapels are getting
closer to the truth and proper interpretation here than most other
groups.] John’s Gospel was written
to the Church. The other three
Gospels, you read Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21 it talks about the coming of
Christ to earth [i.e. the Jewish hope, the hope of Israel]. The Gospel of John, written to the
Church, talks about the coming of Christ for the Church, to take the Church with
him. That’s his teaching on the 2nd coming for the Church. And it says
that here. “Now we beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by
word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” (verses 1-2) Evidently someone was prophesying in their church [falsely, obviously], and by some false
epistle, letter that supposedly came from the apostles. Don’t believe this, he said “Let no
man deceive you by any means: for that
day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the
son of perdition;” (verse 3)
Two Major Events
Mark The Beginning Of The Day Of The LORD
The idea is certainly here, “for that day shall not come, except
there come a falling away” and it’s a definite article, “the falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all
that is called God, or that is worshipped; so the he as God sitteth in the
temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you
these things?” (verse3-5) Now Paul says this, ‘Don’t let
anybody trouble you that the Day of the Lord is present, because it can’t come
unless there are these signatures that tell us the Day of the Lord has
begun. There will be “the” falling
away.’ Now, some stretch that to say…that it’s
a reference to the Rapture, and that it talks about there has to be first, the
standing away from, and even Wiess does that, from Moody Bible Institute, and I
think that’s stretching the text. I don’t think we have to do that, that’s wrestling the text. I think the Scripture is clear that in
the last days there’s going to be an apostasy, apostasia, standing away from the Faith. Paul writes Timothy, ‘Also in the
last days, perilous times shall come, men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy,’ sounds
like the news, ‘without natural affection,’ sounds like the news, ‘trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, from such turn away.’ I mean, we’re warned in 1st and 2nd Timothy, from
Peter and so forth, that the last days will be marked by a falling away from
the Faith. In fact, Jude, when
he’s writing, he said, ‘I was going to write to you about our common
faith, but the Holy Spirit placed on my heart that you would defend the faith
that was once delivered unto the saints,’ because already that Faith was coming under attack. [i.e. “the Faith” being the proper set
of Bible beliefs that were intended to be the beliefs to be held by the Church,
Body of Christ, as opposed to heretical beliefs. Some of those heretical beliefs are even today woven into the
current differing denominations that make up the Body of Christ, those
heretical beliefs having come from the proto-Catholic Church during Constantine’s
time, 325AD, and thereafter. See, http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm
and http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch3.htm.] In the Book of Revelation, 90AD to 100AD, the things that
Jesus has to say to these seven churches, you see that there is already a
stepping away in so many venues from the truth that had been given to the Church. And it’s been a process. But there will come a specific time of
apostasy, a great deception. And I
don’t know what that will be exactly.
The Times We Live
In
If you read the statistics on
denominations in America, it will stagger you. Next time we get together I’ll pull one of those out. It will tell you, you know, how many no
longer believe in the virgin birth, they no longer believe the Bible is the
Word of God, they no longer believe that Christ died and rose, they no longer
believe that he’s returning. They
turn away from the Faith that was once delivered to the saints. That’s what we believe. We believe in a Jewish God, God sent a
Jewish Messiah, of the tribe of Judah, that was born of a virgin, that came and
died for our sins on a cross, and paid for them, he ascended, and he is returning---that’s
my Jesus. I don’t know what Jesus
other people believe in, but that’s the Jesus of the Bible. And there is a stepping away from that,
mainline America, mainline denominational America is in a post-Christian
era. [Comment: One of my best friends became an
atheist, due to some serious nasty things done to him by some supposed
Christians. I have more respect
for him than I have for those supposed Christians who have given up all the
Bible doctrinal beliefs about Jesus, what the Bible teaches about him, defining
true Christian beliefs, and yet appropriate his name, calling themselves
Christians. These folk are using
the name of Christ improperly, and there will be a cost for that.] That’s strange, here we are, we’re the
Hippies in the meter factory and we’re more orthodox than most of the churches
in the country, we’re living in a strange day, look around here, would you ever
expect that? We actually believe
the Bible. But there will be a
greater apostasy, something staggering. And I think that it will have to do with the antichrist, that apostasy
and that man of sin being revealed, because the world’s going to wonder after
him. I mean, you watch the
electoral process in America. Somebody told me last week, ‘You know, Jesus is not a Democrat or a
Republican,’ and I
believe that. But you watch the
way our nation votes, it doesn’t vote on principle anymore, on morality, on truth, but
we look around and see people saying, ‘Wait a minute, where’s the guy whose
going to put money in my pocket? Wait a minute, I need more of this, I need a Lexus, I need a boat, I
need a house down on the shore, a house up in the mountains, I need a plane, I
need ski’s, I need skullcaps, I need nips and tucks, I need three different
skate boards, I need a motor-cycle,’ and
you vote for, so much of America runs and forsakes so many things [of
principle, moral issues and standards], and will pull the [voting] lever for
their stomach, for their flesh. Well imagine what will happen around the world. You know, we’re at the top of the
income bracket on earth. We’re the
top five percentile of the entire earth. You have running water and refrigerators and antibiotics and food and
clothes and a car, you’re at the top of the pile [to say nothing of all our
toys and gadgets that work on electricity. Want to see how the other 95 percent lives? Pick a day, any day, go down cellar and
turn off the main breaker in your fusebox for the house. If you have gas for
hot water, shut off the hot-water heater. Put your car keys somewhere. Now shut off the water-main valve to your house. When you need water, walk to the store
and buy bottled water, and carry it back to your house. You haven’t even come close, you still
have all your furniture and beds in the house, but you’ll get the idea when you
spend 24 hours like this.] And
you’re worried about that stuff. What happens in a country where they have nothing?---nothing, nothing to
eat, they’re watching their children die in front of them, there’s constant war
and tyranny. What’s going to
happen when someone steps on the scene, supernaturally, that has the answers,
someone who is going to provide food, and peace, money. The world, it says, is going to wonder
after the Beast, wonder, those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book
of life, the great and the small. You know, you guys out there that are conspiracy guys [those guys drive
me nuts J],
because I get a lot of you guys coming up to me, ‘No, no, the Illuminati,
you know, the Builderburgers, you know, the Trilateral Commission, you know,
the Club of Rome, you know, the Knights Templar,’ there are lots of conspiracies, and
there is some reality to some of this. I’m not the barometer, don’t ask me how much. But there is a much greater conspiracy, it began before the
world was formed, when the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the
world. We know the Big conspiracy,
we know the last chapter, we know who wins in the end. And in the Big conspiracy, all of the
conspirators are going to get conspirated. All of these conspirators, when the antichrist shows up,
their minds are going to be blown, and they’re going to wonder after the Beast,
they’re going to get conspirated, they’re going to reap what they’ve sown. When he comes it says the world is
going to wonder.
When The Beast
Person Sits In The Temple, All Religions Come Under One Roof
So, you know Paul’s saying to these
Thessalonians, ‘Don’t be troubled as if this has already begun, because
if it had begun, let no man deceive you, for except there come an apostasy, the
man of sin being revealed, the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself
above all that’s called God, then you’re not in the Great Tribulation, unless
this stuff is beginning to happen.’ “that is
worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself
that he is God.” (verse 4c) So, there’s tension, we see the tension
over in Jerusalem today. We hear
the Prophets telling us (in Zechariah) that Jerusalem will be a cup of
trembling and a stumbling stone to all of the nations of the world. It’s remarkable, because there are many
times. It’s a stone hill. There’s no oil, there’s no gold,
there’s no diamonds [and yet Jerusalem is called the diamond capital of the
world, because of Jewish diamond merchants there], there’s no nothing, no
resources. It’s a rock. The Muslims holy day is Friday, the
Jews holy day is Saturday, the Christian’s holy day is Sunday, they’re all
there with guns pointed at each other, over a rocky hill. And while you can negotiate nuclear
proliferation, you can’t negotiate between Allah and Yahweh, that won’t be
negotiated, it’s going to be the tension that draws the whole world in, over
belief, over belief. [Comment: A similar dispute occurred in
Yugoslavia when Tito died, and the Muslim Serbs went toe to toe with the Roman
Catholic Croats, and divided Yugoslavia into ten vicious, warring factions that
required international intervention to put it to rest. Wars over religion are always the worst
kind of wars, and Jerusalem will make what happened in Yugoslavia look like
child’s play, Kindergarten stuff.] Now we have the Roman Catholic Church presently working on “the
Catechism of the Universal Church,” their magazine talked about it, to try to
bring all Faiths under one roof. Ah, I’ve got a picture in one of the updates that Britannica sends you,
of the present pope with fourteen leaders, Bahi, Hindu, Muslim, you know, those
are the ones that are more normal of the group that he’s sitting with, fourteen
of these, some of them are very strange and very dark, and they’re having this
“Day of Prayer” together. And I
look at that, and I think, ‘You know, I can’t imagine Elijah on Mount Carmel
having a “Day of Prayer” with all of his buddies from Ashtoreth, and Baal, now
let’s get together for a day of prayer,’ we see those
things, you know, the Cardinal of France, who was born a Jew, was given the
name of Aaron Lustinger, he’s in line to be the next pope [never worked out, we
got a Chilean priest]. He’s a
genius. His vision, you can get
his books at the Catholic Bookstore, his vision is to bring Islam, Judaism, and
Christianity under one roof. Would
be the first Jewish pope for awhile, too. We’re headed somewhere. But
you look at the tension in the world today, what in the world could bring Islam
and Judaism under the same roof? What in the world could bring them all next to the Church [Catholic
Church, that is]? Some shocking
event is going to have to take place. I’ve got a great suggestion. The Shout, the voice of the archangel, the voice of God, the elect
disappearing from the face of the world. They can blame it on flying saucers, they can blame it on whatever they
want, who cares once we’re gone? You
know we’ve got the ralions out there cloning people now, flying saucer people,
they’ve got some strange clubs going on, I don’t care. It’s going to take some startling thing
[event] to break down that animosity, it’s not spiritual the way you and I
understand agape-love spiritual, to break that down and bring all those people
under one roof. You saw how
startling 9/11 was [the destruction of the Trade Towers in NYC], you saw the
memorial service, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, everybody there, but
they all [all of them] worship one god, tragedy, something startling. It will happen on a global scale. Nuclear? Possibly. We’re
on the verge, can happen any day, could happen any day. Israel is ready. People are sitting all over the world
with their fingers at the button right now. [Comment: see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXqzwWDqZ2g&feature=em-share_video_user and this is Russia
now, with six of these Typhoon puppies, and they’re building a new class of them as well. Sorry, the subsailor in me, couldn’t
resist throwing this into the mix. But it’s real. Russia is
not worried about us, but the Chinese dragon has awoken, and China is becoming
an armed super-power, building ICBM missile submarines, aircraft carriers and
all. Europe, probably in fear of
Russian re-armament, will seek to become “the United States of Europe” and
become another well-armed super-power, taking the place by default of a
faltering United States. Smaller
nations/military powers at this point, India, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, and
maybe the Philippines, are aligning with the Russians, and countering this
forming alliance China has formed a military alliance with Pakistan. The end-time power-blocs long ago
prophecied in both Old and New Testaments are forming up before our very eyes,
at this point, driven by Chinese militarization. This doesn’t even include what’s going on within the Middle
East, where two sects of Islam battle each other for supremacy, the Shiites
under Iran, Syria and Iraq, opposing the Sunnis of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
United Arab Emirates, Tunisia and Turkey, all under the Muslim Brotherhood
(that group attempting to form up a Caliphate which the Bible calls “the King
of the South” in Daniel 11:40). That’s an update from the period of time when this sermon was
given. The United States of
America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have their
collective head in the sand and it’s butt sticking in the air with a target
painted on it, like a huge ostrich, all because our respective public sectors
don’t understand the signs of the times, who then vote in liberal politicians
who have even less of a clue (while our military grieves at what’s
happening. Sorry, got carried
away.] If you knew what’s
happening, you would either not sleep well tonight, you’d be up getting all
your accounts current with the Lord, so you could sleep good, or you’d go to
sleep and say ‘Yeah Lord, come!’ Because there is a tension out there
that is incredible right now. And
God is gracious. We’ll come there
in a few verses. The Holy Spirit
right now is restraining all of this, or it would all fly to pieces. But at some point, when God decides
morally that the clock has ticked down to where there is no more redemption in
regards to the Church [greater Body of Christ], he will interrupt human
history. What type of natural or
manmade cataclysm will bring the Beast on the scene? I don’t know. They’re telling us now an asteroid’s gone by. ‘Don’t worry about it, 300 million miles away.’ You know, there’s not a lot of people out there in the news when they
tell me ‘Don’t worry about it,’ where I don’t worry about it. We’ve got that other program where we watch for asteroids, remember the
last one that went by, a couple months ago, you know we have this big plan to
shoot a nuclear missile at it and blow it up, so it fragments and doesn’t hurt
us. They saw it after it went
by. Now to me, the way I
understand this program, is if you don’t get it coming, the whole thing doesn’t
work. You gotta get it coming in,
not once it’s gone by, it’s too late. [laughter] We live in a
broken world. You know the truth. There are people that you work with,
you go to school with, they’re out there, broken and empty. And their eternal destiny needs to be
changed. And God will use us. He will uphold us. I don’t know what this year will bring
to our church or to our nation. But the just judgment of God will be manifest in our lives, and that he
will hold us up. And whatever we
face, it will be his grace, and his hand on our lives, he will keep us, and we
will stand one day, in rest, around his throne…[transcript of a connective
expository sermon given on 2nd Thessalonians 1:1-12 and 2nd Thessalonians 2:1-5, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia,
13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]
related links:
When does the New Jerusalem, “Our Many
Mansions” comes to earth? See,
http://www.unityinchrist.com/revelation/Revelation%20%2021-22.htm
The Faith Once Delivered Unto The
Saints, then heretical beliefs were introduced into the Body of Christ. See,
http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm and
http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch3.htm
The 2nd Coming of Jesus
Christ, as seen through Matthew 24. See,
http://www.unityinchrist.com/mathew/Matthew24-1-31.htm
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