over to Second Thessalonians. Brother Gary finished up First Thessalonians last week, and today we go to Second Thessalonians. I thought I might let y'all in on a little personal note. I've started a diet. Actually, I'm on two diets. I wasn't getting enough food on one, so... And I'm just kidding. I'm on a diet, I promise you. It is Mother's Day, and since I'm the one up here, I thought I'd go ahead and make use of my position here and show you some photos of Mom. A lot of you remember her. You might not remember her in that fashion there. Wasn't she a cute little thing in grade school? And there she is in high school with her cat-eye glasses. How those ever became a thing, I don't know. But I guess even she made them look good. There's mom about 1969. And she was a pretty thing. One of my favorite pictures of mom and dad. This was at a group reunion picnic, I think. And far as I know, that's the last picture, the latest picture I have of mom before she passed away. And so I miss her, and I have good memories, very good memories, and I hope that you have good thoughts about your mom, whether she's living or passed already. Trust that you had a good mother to assist in your upbringing. All right, we get to the lesson today, and we're studying Chapter 1 of 2 Thessalonians, The Godly Character of a Persecuted Church. All right, now, as we seek the context, the second epistle was written pretty close, pretty soon after the first, and it addresses one of the most debated questions of life, and that is, why do bad things happen to good people? And I've heard messages preached on this. I've heard this question asked, why do bad things happen to good people? Why would God allow his people who are striving to live godly lives, why would he permit them to suffer? Not only to suffer in their lives, but even to suffer because of their virtuous manner of living and trying to do the right thing and getting And I'm punished for it. Somebody said, no good deed goes unpunished. And that was said tongue in cheek. But why does God allow that? Not only does God allow it, God predicted it. And he even promised. He promised affliction, persecution in 2 Timothy 3, 15. Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It's a guarantee. He said it's gonna happen. And then in Acts 14, 22 it says, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. So the suffering of the righteous has been a paradox, actually, debated since the time of Job, and probably even farther back than that. Job is, of course, the poster child for affliction that is allowed, permitted by God. By God's own testimony, Job was the godliest man on earth during his generation. Job 1a, the Lord said unto Satan, you know the history, I'm not gonna go into all that, but the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job? There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and steweth evil. So God said, he's the godliest man in the world. And in fact, he even said it twice over the next chapter. He came back and told Satan that, And yet, God permitted Satan to attack Job, to afflict him to a degree that probably none of us will ever be acquainted with. It doesn't seem fair. I mean, think about it. It just doesn't seem right. What was God's purpose? in all this, what can we learn from it as an application to ourselves? As we take Job's example, why did God afflict Job? Well, we don't know the mind of God in its entirety to know all what God was accomplishing. in the afflictions of Job, but we do know, we do see some things in the book of Job that sort of explain to us why God allowed Job to go through this affliction. And this, by the way, this is not the outline of the lesson. This is just a preview thrown in. First of all, God sends affliction to prick our ears. He delivers the poor in his affliction and openeth their ears in oppression. In other words, sometimes God has to get our attention. We get complacent, we get to taking God for granted, and sometimes God just has to prick our ears through oppression. Secondly, God allows things to come upon us to protect us from evil. Job 36, 21, and by the way, this is the fellow named Elihu speaking. He didn't come on the scene until a little bit later in the book of Job, but he said, take heed, regard not iniquity. He said, you know, look at what's going on in your life and do not give place to iniquity. So he pricks our ears, he protects us from evil, and then he allows us to go through testings to prove our excellence. He knoweth the way that I take. This is Job speaking now. He knoweth the way that I take. When he had tried I shall come forth as gold. So with that in mind, let's examine this exhortation of Paul to Thessalonica in this second epistle of Thessalonians. So we go on researching the text, and the first thing that we see is Paul's commendation of the church. And let's begin reading now in verses 1 and 2, 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. So first thing we see is the greeting here, verses 1 and 2. So we know it's Paul and Silvanus is another expanded name for Silas, that's how most of us know him. And then Timotheus, as you probably know, is Timothy. It's sort of like a formal name. Sometimes people call me Stephen. but not often. If I heard Stephen when I was growing up, I knew I had done something wrong. If I heard Stephen Wayne, I was really in trouble then. Normally, though, I hear Steve. Well, normally we think of Silas and Timothy, but this shows us that Paul always had companions in travel. I personally believe that Paul had some physical problems. Often Luke traveled with him, the physician, and I personally think it was his eyesight, one of the problems that he had. And so he always had companions in travel. In this case, he had Silas and Timothy with him. Verse two says, grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Those words, grace and peace, carry the connotation of graciousness and quietness. And as we're going to see, the church at Thessalonica was undergoing persecution during this time, and Paul is encouraging them, look, don't allow conflict to arise within the church. He says you've got people fussing at you and fighting you from outside, don't let it get inside. I mean if we ever come under some form of political persecution, our course of action should be to pull together, to stick together. fighting among ourselves and pointing fingers and placing blame. We haven't had to undergo that. We live in a community that is peaceful, that is tolerant toward our church and our meetings and our outreach in the community. It's not like that everywhere. You probably remember back during COVID that John MacArthur took a stand with his church there in California and suffered some pretty harsh pushback, not of a physical nature, but certainly it was a serious thing. And God gave a victory in that, by the way. The government of California had to reimburse that church for all the attorney expenses that they had incurred. But you see that it can happen. It probably will happen, either in our generation or in the generations to come. to follow. We see these things coming about. We see more and more the intolerance of those who do not share our faith in Christ. And so, just in passing, really, Paul says, grace and peace. Be gracious, be quiet, Let's not, don't be in an uproar. When I see so-called church services going on and people are just doing everything under the sun and it's just total disarray, I think about that. We are supposed to do things decently and in order, in graciousness and in quietness as well. So that's the greeting. Secondly now, we notice the gratefulness here in verses three through five. First of all, Paul is thankful for their reliance, or their faith. He said in verse three, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meat, that word just means fit, it's fitting, because that your faith groweth exceedingly. So the first thing he talks about is their faith. They are learning to live by faith. This church is a fairly young church, and they've got problems they need to correct, but they were doing some things right. And they had a testimony that their faith was growing. He said growing exceedingly. Then he was thankful for their relationships. The next part of the verse says, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other abounded. So they were having charity or love one for another. And then Paul was thankful for their resilience in verse four, 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. He says, we glory in you. Paul bragged on this church to others. Let me tell you something, there's times I brag on Addiston Baptist Church. People ask me, how's your church doing? We're doing great. I mean, you know, I know, you know, we're not perfect because our church is made up of imperfect people. But I think it was my dad that always told me, he said, son, if you ever find a perfect church, whatever you do, don't join it because you'll ruin it. And that's probably very true. There is no such thing as a perfect church. But listen, this church is perfect for us. God placed us here. And he has brought us together to serve him together. And I love to say good things about Addison Baptist Church. Of course, I've been here. off and on since I was born. No comments, Barb Campbell. But I've been in and around Addison a lot, but listen, I appreciate Addison for what we are now as well. Not only for our history, but what we are now. And he says, I glory in you, in the churches of God, for your patience, and faith in all your persecutions. Patience and faith. Patience is the enduring. Faith is the expectation that it's worth enduring. You see? They had patience. They were enduring. But they weren't enduring saying, oh, this is going to be over. This is sort of stupid. I wish I didn't have to go through it. They weren't grumbling. They had faith that it was worth the effort to endure their suffering. persecutions and tribulations, he says, that ye endure, which is, it says in verse five, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. That's a little bit problematic as you go to interpret that, because what's he talking about? Is it the patience and faith? That's the token? Or is it the persecution And tribulation, that is the token of the judgment of God. Well, I think it's sort of a whole. The fact that they were going through tribulation and persecution and the fact that they were enduring that patiently and with faith speaks of And I got a quote from Barnes' commentary. It says, the crimes of the wicked who go unpunished on the earth and the sufferings of the good who are unavenged are a demonstration that there will be a judgment when all these inequalities will be adjusted. So we rest in the knowledge that there is coming a day when God is going to avenge those who have suffered at the hands of wicked and ungodly men. And we should not glory in the fact, should not take satisfaction in the fact that God's going to judge. But just to know that it's worth it. It's worth it to endure. It's worth it to be patient. and knowing that God is gonna set things right in the time to come. It says God, I couldn't have this verse pulled up, but God is not unrighteous to forget your labors in this manner. Now he says, it's a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which also ye suffer. Now, this does not mean we can earn our way into the kingdom. Does it mean that we're counted worthy? That means, well, God's keeping track of all your good works and good deeds, and then all your bad deeds, and he's gonna weigh them, and if the good works outweigh the bad works, well, then you will enter into the kingdom of God. No, not at all. Strong, in using this term, to count worthy, he says it means to deem entirely deserving. The Bible, in several places, into the future kingdom, entrance into the heavenly existence of eternity. And there's different levels, if you will, of interest. In 2 Peter 1 verses 10 to 11, it says, wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So you can enter the kingdom or you can enter it abundantly. The same with life here. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. It's good to be saved, but it's also good to have that abundant life that Jesus promised. Same thing here, our manner of entering in. All who enter this kingdom future kingdom we're all in the kingdom of God now of course in the spiritual sense but when we enter into that kingdom all that enter into it do so by the blood of Christ there's no there's there's no uh marginal thing with god i'll let you in even though you weren't uh a child of god you did a good work you know here there and i'll let you know you go into the kingdom by the blood of christ however the manner of our entrance is determined by our faith our enduring And I think that's what John is referring to in 1 John, when he said, now little children abide in him, that we shall appear, we may have confidence before him, and not be ashamed at his coming. So apparently it's possible to go to heaven, but there's some shame attached to it You say I don't understand that I'm not sure I do either but I and we sing that song no tears in heaven That's true at a certain point, but the Bible says that God in heaven is going to wipe away all tears from our eyes. What are we going to weep over? Well, there's several things I could suggest, but there will be some regrets when we get to heaven, before God wipes away the tears. So we want to enter into the kingdom, not just so as by fire, as it says in, I think, 2 Corinthians, but we want to enter it in a confident way, that our entrance might be an abundant entrance. Well, now we move on. Not only we talked about the greeting and the gratefulness and the commendation of the churches, now on to point number two, the coming of Christ. Now, 1 Thessalonians had a lot to say about the coming of Christ in great detail. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, I'd almost guarantee you that Pastor Pittman used that scripture yesterday at the grave site. Can you verify that, Marilyn? Did he read 1 Thessalonians 4? Not sure. I bet he did, though. I'm sure that he probably did. It's a wonderful detailed description of the coming of Christ. Well, here he's not talking so much about the details, but the fact of what the coming of Christ represents, what it encompasses. The first thing we see is the recompense of God, verse 6. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. Here again, we're talking about the judgment of the evildoers who persecute God's people. And he says it's a righteous thing. That word righteous, guess what it means? It means right. You see it in the word. It's a right thing for Jesus to do this. In the lexicon, he uses the word equitable. It's fair. It's also translated in the Bible, just or meet. As I already mentioned, that means fitting. To recompense, he said he's gonna, let's read it again. Seeing it as a righteous thing with God, it's the right thing for him to do to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. To recompense means to pay back in kind. Now that doesn't fit with many folks' idea of a loving God, he wouldn't harm a flea. God would never send anyone to hell. Well, that doesn't fit with Bible theology. God is jealous over his people, and those who trouble them are not going to escape unpunished, no matter what they think. You can't just act any old way you want to and then, as it is said, sow your wild oats and then hope for a crop failure. It's not going to happen. Watch what a man sows that shall he also reap. Now, these folks, they're going all sin is going to be judged. Our sins were judged in Christ. Those who do not receive Christ as Savior, their sins are going to be judged in hell. But the fact is that God singles out the fact that He is going to exact on those who persecute the saints. So those who have, I mean, we're not suffering a whole lot of persecution, but some folks in the world are. And they're being incarcerated. They're being perhaps physically tortured and even killed just for just for their open faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is those who are doing that, that God singles out and says they're going to receive a just recompense, a reward for what they have done. So now that we see the recompense of God, but now the return of Christ. Verse seven, and to you who are troubled, rest with us. mighty angels says you are troubled. Those who are suffering the persecution rest. with us. You say, well, how can you have rest when you're being persecuted? Well, we could talk about the rest that Christ gives us even in this life. But specifically here, he says, you are troubled. Rest with us when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven. This is the second phase of the coming of Christ. And Pastor talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I believe, about how that the the second coming of Christ has some different aspects to it. There's gonna be the rapture, the catching away of the saints. And that's not what this part is talking about. This here is speaking of when Jesus, it says, shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. There's some force. Specifically here, but when Jesus come back that time we're going to be coming with him And we're going to be guess what we're going to be riding on horses now I hope that he takes time to give us a few lessons before we have to do that because I'm not big on riding horses, but And I mean, Jesus is going to bring judgment upon the earth like it has never seen. The battle of Armageddon, it talks about the blood running to the horse's bridle. That's pretty deep, I mean. And so it's gonna be a very bloody thing, a very violent battle. Judgment being exacted upon these people. And it's going to mark the end of the Great Tribulation and the beginning of the millennium. That's a big word. It just means a thousand years. It's going to be the thousand year reign of Christ. And I think that God is going to allow us what it could have been like if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned. If we lived in a perfect life, we're going to live in that perfect environment for a thousand years. We're going to rule and reign. We're going to judge angels and all that good stuff. But so anyway, he's saying the return of Christ is going to put an end to this persecution that we may be experiencing in life. Then, it's sort of repeating itself, but the retribution on the ungodly. Verse 8, in flaming fire, I'm not sure if that's literal, but if it's metaphorical, it's certainly meant to say it's gonna be something else. It is going to be a very, very violent thing. Inflaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So inflaming fire, taking vengeance He says it's gonna be on those that know not God. By the way, that includes those who never heard the gospel. You say, well, that just doesn't seem fair that they... listen read Romans chapter 1 and it tells you we are without excuse those that even have never heard the gospel they have seen God in nature doesn't mean it'll lead them to salvation but it is enough to render them without excuse before the Lord so those that have never know the gospel, they are going to be part of this punishment as well. But not only those that know not God, but those that obey not the gospel, those who they are going to receive an even greater punishment. In Revelation, toward the end, it talks about the great white throne judgment and the dead being judged. And it says they will be judged according to their works, not to see if they go to heaven or hell. That's already decided. Their names are not in the book of life. But they're just, in order to determine their degree of punishment, and I think that the punishment will be greater for those that have had opportunity to hear the gospel, sometimes over and over and over again, and yet have rejected it. all the laws are going to be the objects of this judgment in verse 9 it says who shall be punished from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. I talk to people all the time and say, the Bible doesn't ever talk about everlasting punishment. Well, it talks about an everlasting destruction. They're going to be destroyed, but it will be an eternal destruction. They'll constantly be in the process of being destroyed. It's not annihilation, which means you just go out of existence. That's not what the Bible teaches. It says that the wicked shall be cast into hell, and they're gonna be tormented day and night forever and ever. So lost people today do not realize, well, look what it says. It says they will be punished, first of all, from the presence of the Lord. A lot of people today don't realize blessed by the presence of the saints and how that our lives bring the elements of the Lord's presence into a cursed world. Something called what we call common grace, you know, it rains on the just and the unjust. God's blessings upon us, his people sort of fall out and spread out to those around us. The world is better off because of the presence of God's people in the world. And the Bible talks, in fact, it's in this chapter, or in this book, in the next chapter, and I wish I got to teach that one too, but I don't. But it talks about that he who now hinders will hinder, and I think it's talking about the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, until he'll be taken out of the way. I mean, I think he's everywhere, but he indwells us. We are gonna be taken out. Our influence, our spirit-led influence is gonna be taken out of the world, and the world is going to go into chaos. Don't ever underestimate how much influence you and then Christianity as a whole has on this world. All right, well, I need to hurry on. Notice, well, he says, also, and from the glory of his power. The reverence of the saints, in verse 10, it says, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day." So, when he's glorifying the saints, this is speaking specifically about Christ's return. We are told to We're to glorify God with how we live and how we treat our bodies and what we do, how we behave. But the glorification of this passage, I think, refers to the final glorification of our entire body. We're going to have a sinless body, entire being rather. We're going to have a sinless body, a sinless mind, a sinless spirit, and the Lord is going to be glorified by the exhibition of His trophies. I mean, we're going to be glorified by His power. We, His saints. So, the coming of Christ involves all these things. And then lastly, in the last two verses, notice God wants us to be counted as champions. This was Paul's desire for these Thessalonians. Verse 11, wherefore, It says, we pray, therefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of His calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with His power. He says, first of all, we need to be worthy of our God. or the calling that we are, a lot of callings. Romans 1 says we're called to be saints, and I don't have time to list all these, called unto peace, called unto liberty, we're called unto holiness, we're called out of darkness into his marvelous light, and we're called unto his eternal glory. That's our calling, and he says we need to be counted worthy. We need to act in such a way as if God would look upon us and he would count us worthy of that calling. You say, well, I'm not perfect. God knows that. I mean, I know it, you know it, but God knows it as well. But he wants us to be faithful. He didn't say it's required of stewards that they be found perfect. He said it's required of stewards that they be found faithful. It says, again here, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness. The good pleasure of God means that God uses us as He sees fit. It's His show. It's His prerogative. We belong to Him. He can do with us whatever He wishes. However, notice the good pleasure of His goodness. We are not puppets on strings just dancing to the whims of an unfeeling slave master. Yes, God does what he wishes in our lives, but because he is a good God, works out for our good and for his glory. You see, God is not just using us and then discarding us, not just seeing what he can get out of us with no reward, no. It's according to the good pleasure of his goodness. And then he ends that verse saying, and the work of faith with power. Faith on our part, power on God's part. Not only do we need to be worthy of our work, but we need to be worthy in our witness as well. Look at verse 12. 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. Christ worthy our witness we notice we're supposed to reflect the Savior's glory Christ glorified in you of course Matthew 5 16 let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works glorify your father which is in heaven but not only does our witness promote the Savior's glory but also there's glory for the Saints as well it says that Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him. Isn't that something? James 4, 10. Oops, wrong way. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. I believe that God desires to exalt his saints. That's what he did with Job, hey? Have you seen Job? See Satan came accusing the brethren And God said, yeah, I know all that, but have you considered Job? He was lifting Job up. And, of course, always the exalting of the saints is within the context of our being obedient to Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And notice that our being lifted up begins with humility. God, we need to humble ourselves before God, as he says here in James 4, and let him lift you up, starts with humility. And I firmly believe that our true rewards will be received in heaven at the judgment seat. Now maybe that God will bless you in special ways during your faithful service here on earth, but that should not be the ultimate goal during this life. We ought to lay our treasures in heaven. So now as we set the application, two things, glory is coming. But for now, God calls upon us to suffer patiently the wrongs that come our way. In 2 Timothy 2.3, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for these admonitions. And we pray that you would bless your work to our hearts today. Bless now the service to follow. Be with our pastor as he brings the word, and give the letter as you see fit. We pray in Christ's name, amen.