When He Shall Come - 4

The doctrine of the second coming of Jesus Christ is a delightful truth for God's children, because we recognize that in many ways it can be considered the culmination of our salvation, although of course after Christ returns we still go on into eternity with the Lord in Heaven, and that is an unending continuation of our salvation. But what is so wonderful about the second coming of Christ is the reality that on that day we shall finally come face to face with our Savior, the one that we have trusted in by faith, the one that we have seen by the eyes of the soul but without the eyes of our physical bodies, will in that day become real both to our souls as well as to our eyes, and we will see this one who laid down his life for us upon the cross. And this doctrine of the second coming of Jesus Christ is a very prominent doctrine in the book of 1 Thessalonians mentioned, as I'm sure you know, somewhere in every one of the five chapters of this book. And it is highlighted in the last verse of chapter 1. And there the doctrine of the second coming emphasizes deliverance from divine wrath. There are many aspects of the second coming that could be highlighted, and I've already mentioned several. In this particular text what is highlighted is that at the second coming of Christ we who believe in Christ are going to be delivered from the wrath to come. So thus we return today to our study in 1 Thessalonians, and we conclude our study of chapter 1 after the delightful interruption of our spring Bible conference. And we are looking at some of the details concerning true saving faith, and we are going to travel over a little bit of the territory that we've already covered.

There will be some overlapping, which I think will be helpful because of the break in our train of thought with the Bible conference. But nevertheless we are moving toward verse 10, the last verse of the chapter that we have not yet had opportunity to address. But this chapter shows us what true conversion looks like. It dispels many of the false notions that people have about what it means to be a Christian.

It shows us what faith in Christ accomplishes in our lives and then ultimately what it accomplishes in that day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to take His own unto Himself. So what I want us to see in the last part of chapter 1 is, number one, what accompanies saving faith, and number two, what follows saving faith. There are two things suggested to us in verse 6 that accompany saving faith. And then there are a number of things that follow saving faith, some of which precede verse 6, others that follow it.

We'll just pick out several that follow. Moving toward the final one in verse 10. But first of all, let's consider what accompanies saving faith. And I found this distinction helpful.

It took me a while even to see it, having been over this chapter many, many times. But it became clear to me in verse 6 when Paul says, and you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. To answer the question, what accompanies saving faith, I offer a twofold answer.

Number one, commitment, and number two, joy. And you see those concepts in verse 6. But let me show you why I say these two elements accompany saving faith even more than it would be true to say that they follow saving faith, which actually both are true. But these accompany saving faith in a way that the other elements that follow salvation in chapter 1 do not.

First of all, commitment. And again, looking at verse 6, and you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. Notice carefully the flow of the statement and the tense of the verbs. And you will realize that Paul is talking about their becoming followers having already received.

You see that? You became followers of us and of the Lord having received, or after you had received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. In other words, they had received something prior to becoming followers of Paul and the other missionaries and Jesus Christ. Now we know that we all become followers of Jesus Christ immediately after conversion.

There's no particular time lag from the time that we are converted by the work of the Holy Spirit brought into the family of God. We immediately become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if there's something that goes before that, it must come along with our faith in Christ.

It has to, if it comes before our becoming followers of Jesus Christ. And what comes along with our receiving the word, that is faith in the gospel, and what comes along is number one, much affliction, which precedes becoming followers of Christ, and joy of the Holy Spirit, which also precedes becoming followers of Jesus Christ. Much affliction precedes our becoming followers of Christ and therefore accompanies faith. Now we know that affliction follows faith.

It's part of our life. It's part of the expectation of being a Christian and will accompany our lives as long as we are on the earth. But here the wording is such that we learn that much affliction accompanies our faith in Christ. And what I'm understanding, if I am understanding this nuance correctly, what I'm seeing is that when they believed in Jesus Christ, they were keenly aware of the cost of doing so. Their faith was mixed with, their faith was accompanied with much affliction, that is the affliction that they knew would accompany their faith.

If I believe in Jesus Christ, I know that what I will experience is much affliction. Which leads me therefore to conclude that their faith was accompanied by strong commitment, knowing the affliction that surely would come if they trusted Christ. They nevertheless trusted him, which demonstrates the strength of their commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes in evangelistic proclamations we talk in terms of believing in Christ, in terms of a commitment, make a commitment to Christ. But oftentimes in saying that, it almost loses the strength of the commitment.

It just becomes language that we use that loses its force. But here are people who were keenly aware of the level of sacrifice and suffering and affliction that they knew would come if they stepped out to become identified as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they did it anyway. Now we know that Jesus has taught the afflictions that accompany faith in him over and over and over again in the Gospels. I just picked out one statement.

I could read a dozen to you at this point. But Jesus said in Luke 14, 26, and 27, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple, and whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Now to understand that statement and other similar ones, we first of all have to dispel ourselves of the notion that there's a difference between becoming a born-again Christian and becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. In biblical language, they're one and the same. To believe in Jesus is to become a disciple of Jesus, that is, a follower of Jesus.

It's not a two-stage process. It's not step one, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved, and then at some later time you really need to make a stronger commitment and become a follower of Christ. Jesus is saying they go together, and this is pretty jarring language, and it is indeed intended to be. It's intended to jolt us when he says, If anyone comes after me and does not hate father, mother, son, and daughter, wife and children more, does not love me more than these, he cannot be my disciple.

If he does not hate them, obviously he's not talking about an active, bitter, antagonistic hatred toward them, but it's a contrast. The love we have for Christ needs to be so much greater than our love for anything or anyone on earth that by contrast you can almost call one hate in comparison to the great and high level of love that accompanies the other. In other words, Christ is calling for a pretty, not pretty, to cross that word pretty, Christ is calling for an extremely significant commitment to become a follower of Jesus Christ, which is the same thing as true faith in Jesus Christ. Christ has to be first, and Christ has to be way first above everything else, or else it's not true saving faith, or else you cannot be my disciple.

That doesn't swallow down easily, does it? But that's the words of Jesus. And as I say, there are many similar statements of Christ like this in the Scriptures.

And they knew that, the Thessalonians knew that. And when they, whatever language you want to use, whenever they made their commitment to Jesus Christ, whenever they made a decision for Jesus Christ, whenever they believed on Jesus Christ, they knew that a great cost was involved and they didn't shrink away from it, and that demonstrates a strong commitment that accompanied their faith. And then secondly, joy falls into the same category. Verse 6, and you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, and you could insert those words parenthetically here again, having received joy, having received much joy of the Holy Spirit.

You received the word in much affliction. You received great joy of the Holy Spirit at the same time. So faith was accompanied by joy. And this clearly is not the fleeting, temporary joy of an emotional experience which some people mistake for joy, but it is joy that is sourced in the Holy Spirit, not in our emotions, not in the commotion that may be going on around us, but it is something that is within us by the work of the Holy Spirit. How can you tell the difference between a worked-up emotional joy and a true Holy Spirit joy? I thought Mark Webb had a very perspicuous comment this week, I hope you remember it, when he said in regard to the Holy Spirit and how you know the Holy Spirit is operating in your life, he said, if it's something you feel, it's probably not the Holy Spirit. Now, I'd never heard that before exactly that way.

I've never really thought of it exactly that way before, but I firmly believe that what he said is true, and I've said it in other ways. But if it's something that you feel, and so many people are looking for something to feel, in fact, we even sing songs about that. Bum-ba-bum-bum, I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I pray. Well, that's true in a sense when the Holy Spirit prompts you to pray, but what exactly is this feeling we're talking about? If you can feel it, it's probably not the Holy Spirit.

It's probably something emotional. The presence of the Holy Spirit is not detected by a tingling feeling or some similar feeling, but it's detected by the results. The operation of the Spirit produces certain things in our lives, such as the fruit of the Spirit, and one of the manifold fruits of the Spirit is what? Joy. Joy. That is a fruit of the Spirit.

So how do you tell the difference? Well, I would say probably in this way. If the joy vanishes, it's not from the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit joy endures. If it comes and goes, it's probably not from the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit joy may wax and wane. In other words, there may be times when it's stronger and times when it's weaker, but it's never gone.

It never goes away. It's always there, and what it's there to do as much as anything is to carry us through those times of affliction. We have trusted Christ knowing that affliction awaits us for doing so. How are we going to hold up to that? We're going to hold up just fine, thank you, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who among other things is going to give us a level of joy in the midst of affliction that will enable us to perseverantly endure to the very end.

How do you tell the difference? Well, consider the words of Christ in Matthew chapter 13 in the parable of the four soils. And he said, But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Count that conversion. Chalk it up.

Report it to headquarters. Tell people that we've seen another decision for Christ. He received it with joy, yet he had no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation of persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

He received the word in some sense with some emotional experience, and then the trials came along and it washed him out. Is that true saving faith? No, it's not.

It's not. But the joy that is produced by the Holy Spirit is going to stick with us. That's why people can speak confidently and encouragingly in the midst of trials. That's why true saints can actually encourage other people from their own beds of affliction, their own times of pain, as people come to comfort them. Many times a true saint of God going through difficult suffering will end up encouraging the person who's trying to encourage him more than the person who's trying to encourage him encourages her or him because of this joy of the Holy Spirit that sustains Christians in times of their affliction. And so what accompanies saving faith? Number one, commitment. What accompanies saving faith?

Number two, joy. And let me just ask you, do you see the evidence of this in your life? Is that the kind of faith that you have, a faith that is committed in spite of afflictions? When people tell me, well, I used to be a Christian, I used to follow Christ, but this happened to me and that happened to me and I was so disappointed, I was so disillusioned, I just don't think that I can believe anymore.

What does that tell me? They didn't have true saving faith. The Bible talks a great deal about counterfeit faith. Here in the parable of the sowers, there were four kinds of soil. How many of them represented true faith?

Just one. One represented abject unbelief, the hard soil, no penetration of the seed. There are people like that. They just don't believe, won't believe, don't claim to believe, don't act like they believe, don't make a decision for Christ, they reject the whole thing. That's the hard soil. But then there were two kinds of soil that responded in some way, but it wasn't saving faith. The thorns choked out the one response, the sun deed upon the other response and withered it out, and only the one soil represented true saving faith.

Now, which represents you? And if God has not given you a commitment that will take you through the trials of life, then you need to acknowledge that something's missing and ask Him for that. If God hasn't given you a joy that sustains you in the midst of trials, then you need to acknowledge that something is missing and ask Him to give that to you. What accompanies saving faith? But then number two, what follows saving faith?

And here I'm going to have to zip through several things so I can spend the most time on the last one in verse 10. But what is it that accompanies saving faith? Well, number one, a conformity to Christ. We saw that in verse six.

We were looking at it. You became followers of us and of the Lord. That followed, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, to become followers of Christ. That's the goal of salvation. What God is doing in salvation, He tells us in Romans 8, verse 29, is to conform us into the image or the likeness of Jesus Christ. When God gets done with us, we're going to be as perfect in our humanity as Christ was in His humanity.

That's pretty astounding. We can never be like Christ is in His deity. There's only one God, and we'll never be like God.

But we can be like the human perfect God-man, the human side of the perfect God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who never sinned, never had an evil thought, never spoke a word out of season. Oh, be careful, little lips, what you say. Be careful, little lips, what you say, for the Father up above is looking down in love.

Oh, be careful, little lips, what you say. But when God's done with us, we're going to be just as perfect in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, in our desires, Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God. That's the goal. He's conforming us unto the image of Jesus Christ, and it starts right after conversion. This is one of the first things that accompanies, or follows rather, saving faith.

And it's a learned process. We start out as babies, and we kind of look around us, and we've landed in this new family, the family of God. We've never been here before, and we're Christians, and we want to be God-honoring Christians, and we say, what does that mean, what does that look like? And so we start picking people out who look like they represent mature Christians, and we try to follow and copy them for a while, but that only lasts for a while, because they're not perfect either, and if we get our eyes set upon men, and never get beyond that, we're going to be disappointed. But Paul says you became followers of us, first of all, the missionaries, and of the Lord.

That's the goal. That's where we're going, to grow beyond the place where our concept of Christian development is all wrapped up in this person or that person. Now we're going to get beyond that by the grace of God, and recognize that no matter how other people disappoint us and fail us, because they will, because they're not fully sanctified yet, they will disappoint us and fail us from time to time, just like we will disappoint and fail others from time to time, because we're all sinners, saved by grace, but still sinners, until we're in the presence of the Lord. But if we turn our eyes upon Jesus, we will never, ever, ever, ever be disappointed, because He never fails, He never sinned, He never did anything wrong. Just keep becoming like Jesus, and you won't be disappointed. So, conformity to Christ. Number two, an example to others, verse 7.

So that you became examples to all in Macedonia and to Caiaphu believe. You graduate from following others to becoming the kind of Christians that others now can follow you. And again, they need to get beyond that, but you can be helpful in that way. You know, it's a real shame from time to time I see somebody, a Christian, and I can see younger, weaker Christians who are looking at them, who are looking to them, who are following them, and they aren't setting a very good example.

And sometimes we think it's all individual. You know, I know I'm not what I ought to be, and I really need to get things right, and I need to do better, and all that. God, I know, isn't fully pleased with me right now.

No, He certainly is not. You know what areas need to be corrected. But the sad thing is that you're also causing others to stumble. And so what follows saving faith is, number one, conformity to Christ, and number two, to become the kind of Christian who can be a fairly reliable and safe example to others, never a perfect one. And then number three, an evangelistic concern, verse 8. From you the word of the Lord is sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything. And part of that has to do with their life, their testimony.

People saw it, and they went and reported on it elsewhere, but it's clear there's more than that going on here. There was some kind of evangelistic activity that centered in the church at Thessalonica and went out from there to other places. There were messengers that went forth from that church and proclaimed the word of the Lord in other places.

Details are not given to us. Identification of the names and titles that were given to these messengers are not given to us. Were these, would we call them preachers, would we call them evangelists, would we call them missionaries?

Maybe, maybe not. They may have just been businessmen or women who traveled from Thessalonica to other places on business, but as they went forth, they proclaimed the word of the Lord. They were intentional about the proclamation of the gospel as they went from place to place.

Thessalonica, you remember, was a great commercial center on the Ignatian Way, great port city on the Aegean Sea, travelers passing through there all the time who could report on what was going on in the church at Thessalonica, but members of the church of Thessalonica traveling to other places regularly who could proclaim the word of the Lord. An evangelistic concern is what follows faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not all God's children have the same gifts and opportunities.

Not everybody has the opportunity to travel. Not everybody has the gifts of public preaching, public proclamation, but all truly saved people have the same concern for the gospel to others, for the gospel to the ends of the earth, and all find appropriate ways to be involved in that. It's one of the opportunities that Faith Promise Missions program gives to our congregation. Even people who are shy and timid, and that doesn't excuse us for never saying anything purposefully about the Lord. We can find ways to do that, but admittedly, some people just really struggle with that, but there are other ways to be involved, other ways to participate in getting out the gospel. You can help, you can encourage, you can support, you can pray, you can give, you can do things to get the gospel out, and if you have been truly saved, you're going to have a heart's desire to do that. Now sometimes those who have that more outgoing personality can't understand why everybody isn't just like them. Talk so easily and so freely, preach the gospel in all kinds of places and ways. No, everybody isn't like you any more than those who are very, very generous givers to the cause of the gospel aren't like you either.

You are gifted in that way perhaps. So you do what you are gifted to do, others do what they are gifted to do, but everybody, everybody, everybody involved in this evangelistic endeavor, everybody involved in the Great Commission, everybody involved in going to all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature and seeing Christians baptized and taught the word of God and seeing churches established and seeing the gospel going out to the ends of the earth, everybody, everybody, everybody concerned about that, burdened for that, interested in that, involved in that, that's one of the things that follows conversion. Number four is rejection of false religion.

We saw that in verse nine, for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. The Christian faith is exclusive. It's one of the things that rubs the world so wrong, with such great irritation with Christianity. Why can't you just calm it down, tone it down? Why can't you just acknowledge that believing in Jesus Christ is one way to heaven and there are other ways as well?

Why can't you just do that? We'll all get along together. We won't have this friction, this irritation that you say there's only one way, only one way to God, only one way to salvation. Why can't we just encourage and commend all people of faith? Might be faith in Buddha, faith in Allah, faith in who knows what, but we're all people of faith. Isn't that wonderful?

No, it's not wonderful. Every other so-called religion is a damnable heresy that is designed to see people and take people to hell and true believers in Jesus Christ know that and have to say that, as unpopular as it is. Christianity is an exclusive religion and when you come to Christianity, you will put away all loyalties and relationships to false religion if you have true saving faith.

If these people turn to Jesus Christ from their idols, from their community religion, from their family religion, it costs them. But you cannot embrace Christ without rejecting false religion. You cannot embrace the gospel without rejecting every false and counterfeit gospel. You can't embrace the true gospel without rejecting every false and counterfeit gospel. And that often requires painful separation from family and friends.

We don't enjoy that, we don't look forward to that, but remember the words of Jesus a little bit earlier? Unless you're willing, if necessary, to be... You don't have to really push them aside. They're probably going to push you aside if they don't become followers of Christ. But if you're not willing to experience this separation from family, from brother and sister and mother and father and son and daughter, if you're not willing to pay that price, then you can't be my disciple.

Christianity is an exclusive religion. Number five, here's what else follows true saving faith, a life of Christian service, also in verse nine. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, how you turned to God from idols, what? To serve, to serve, to serve the true and living God. Folks, that's what we're here for as Christians. We're here to serve, to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, to serve the cause of Christ, to serve the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, to serve the gospel of Christ. We're here to serve. I saw it on a bumper sticker the other day.

I hadn't seen this one for a long time, but I like it. It said, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. Is he your boss?

Do you really think of it that way? He's my master. I'm his servant. I'm here to serve him. I'm here to do what he tells me to do. My boss is a Jewish carpenter who, of course, has now ascended to the throne of heaven.

But is that your mindset? It was theirs. They turned from idols, but not to be idol. Different spellings of the word idol. They turned from idols to serve. But then number six, saving faith produces a second coming expectation, verse 10, and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. This is what saving faith produces, a second coming expectation, waiting for the coming of Christ. To wait for the coming of Christ means to expect the coming of Christ, or to wait up for is one way to translate it.

To wait up for the coming of Christ, present tense, continuous. We're doing this all the time. When you know that guests are coming to visit your home, I presume this happens to you from time to time, do you fail to prepare for them? Do you fail to clean the house and get ready for them? Do you fail to have a room ready for them? Do you fail to rearrange your schedule in order to accommodate them?

Do you just go on as if there is no difference? Yeah, they're coming, but it doesn't make any change or any difference in my thinking or in my activity. Well, you're certainly not looking forward to their coming. And if the coming of Jesus Christ doesn't change anything about your schedule, your preparations, your expectations, then you're not really waiting up for the coming of Jesus Christ. And this is the culmination. This is what motivates all the other things we said. This is what motivates our conformity to Christ and our example to others and our evangelistic concern and our rejection of false religion and our life of Christian service. It is because we are expecting Christ to return, and there are so many things that are related to that, and we're looking forward to all of them. But the one that is emphasized here is what? Deliverance from judgment. To wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. There are a lot of interesting things in this verse, and I'll try to point them out on my way to the main emphasis on delivering us to the wrath to come.

But notice what's packed into this one text. It tells us, number one, that God has a Son. Now, we know that God is one. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one Lord, one God. And yet the Bible is filled with this teaching that there are more than one persons in the Godhead. God is one God, but the Godhead is a multi-person Godhead. We have the Holy Spirit, and He's mentioned in here in this chapter. And we have God the Son, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And God has a Son, and in a biblical understanding of that, we know that God's Son is God as much as God the Father. But God has a Son.

Isn't that interesting? That certainly would come as a surprise to people who are not familiar with the Christian religion. Number two, God's Son is presently in heaven. That's where we would expect Him to be, the dwelling place of God.

That's where we would expect God to be. If God has a Son and His Son is God, then we'd expect Him to be in heaven. But thirdly, we learn that God's Son was resurrected from the dead.

Whoa! God died because this presupposes death. You can't be resurrected from the dead unless you die. And if it presupposes death and it presupposes an incarnation, the Gospels packed into this by implication as much as statement, but God's Son was resurrected from the dead, which then requires His incarnation as a man, requires His living a human life in order that He can die.

Otherwise, He couldn't die. God can't die, but men can die, and if God can take upon Him humanity, then He can die, and He did. Furthermore, it makes it very clear who this Son of God is, who God raised from the dead. He's Jesus, even Jesus, the man born of Mary who lived upon the earth, the man who lived a perfect life and then died a substitutionary death and then was raised again from the dead. Jesus is God's Son, and Jesus is God.

Here's how Gordon Fee put it. I thought it was so well stated I needed to quote it to you. He says, The living and true God has a Son who is in heaven by virtue of the Father's raising Him from the dead, and this one is Jesus. I'll read that again because that summarizes what I just said so succinctly and beautifully. The living and true God has a Son who is in heaven by virtue of the Father's raising Him from the dead, and this one is Jesus.

Now, that nails it down. If you understand that and believe that, you've got the right Jesus. You've got the right Savior. You are believing the true gospel.

If any of those statements you have trouble with, then you have trouble with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because then it goes on to make clear, number five, that God's Son is the Savior. This Son who was raised from the dead, even Jesus who, in these words, delivers us from the wrath to come.

He delivers us. God's Son is the Savior. God's Son is the deliverer. God's Son is the rescuer. Deliver from what? Rescue from what?

Maybe we should start with who. Delivers who? Rescues who? Delivers us, said Paul.

He's talking about all believing people. He doesn't rescue everybody. He doesn't deliver everybody. He delivers those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He delivers us. But what does He deliver us from?

And here's the solemn part. He delivers us from the wrath to come. God has a holy wrath. It's not often emphasized in our day, but nevertheless it is taught throughout Scripture. We would much rather talk about the love of God and not talk so much about the wrath of God. But our Lord and Savior talked about both.

And one is as true as the other. We revel in the love of God, but we dare not ignore the wrath of God. We dare not push it aside because it's not welcome, because it doesn't make us comfortable.

What do you want? A comfortable lie or a liberating truth? I hope you say, I want the truth, no matter how hard it may be. God has wrath. Jesus said it this way in John 3.36.

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Paul stated elements of the wrath of God several times in the book of Romans, chapter 1, verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Romans 5, 9. Much more than having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans 9, 22. What of God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

Wow, that'll choke. Vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Or Ephesians 5, 6. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. God has a holy wrath, and anything that God has is holy. Anything that God has is righteous. Anything that God has is just. Anything that God has is perfect. And his perfection and sinlessness and holiness require his opposition. Yes, his vehement opposition against sin and his judgment upon sinners. God has a holy wrath, and God's wrath is directed toward people.

To wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. But he doesn't deliver others from the wrath to come. This idea that God hates sin but loves a sinner is not exactly what the Bible says. God indicates that God hates sin, and God has a holy hatred, a holy wrath directed toward the sinner. It's both.

Both are true. But according to this, God's wrath is future, wrath to come. Now, there are some judgments of God that fall in time, but there's a wrath that Paul is referring to here that comes with the second coming of Jesus Christ, a wrath to come, his future. That tells me that God is long-suffering. How long has he waited before causing his wrath to justly fall upon sinners? He's waited for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and thousands of years since this statement was made. How long-suffering, how kind.

And yet, unbelieving and skeptical people will even take the loving long-suffering of God and fault him for that. He said he was coming. He said he was coming quickly. Where is he? I don't believe that stuff.

I'll tell you where he is. He's holding back his just wrath so that it doesn't fall on you yet. It will unless you repent. It will unless you believe. And the day of wrath will come when Jesus Christ returns. In that day, all unbelievers will suffer God's holy wrath. In that day, it will be too late to repent of your sins. In that day, it will be too late to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But now, now, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation if you will come to Christ. Well, this passage teaches us surely that Christ demands serious commitment. He commands exclusive devotion. Therefore, you need to let go of whatever competes with Christ. You need to let go of whatever is of greater priority in your life than Jesus Christ.

But number two, this passage teaches us that Christian faith is pivotal. It's not one option among many. It's the only way to escape the holy wrath of God.

There is no other way. If you trust in Allah, God's wrath will fall upon you. If you trust in Buddha, God's wrath will fall upon you. If you trust in a Jesus who is not the Jesus of Scripture, then God's wrath will fall upon you. You haven't trusted in the only Savior that God has given. If you trust in your good works, then God's wrath will fall upon you. If you trust in church membership and baptism, then God's wrath will fall upon you.

If you trust in anything but Jesus Christ and Him alone, God's wrath will fall upon you. And that day is coming. Therefore, I plead with you, rouse yourself from your indifference. Those of you who sit here and say, yeah, I've heard that before, heard it before a hundred times.

Yeah, but it's true. And one day it'll be too late for you. Rouse yourself from your indifference.

Escape from your competing attachments. Well, I've got to do this first, I've got to do that first, and then I'll get right with God. You have no promise of tomorrow. You don't know that you'll have that opportunity. You better turn loose of this or that or whatever it is you're waiting for. Don't allow that to take you to hell. You are playing with fire.

There's danger here. There's a wrath to come. I plead with you to reject your cherished delusions, whatever is causing you to doubt the Word of God, whatever is causing you to doubt the truth of what I'm proclaiming to you today.

That is a delusion. It may comfort you and allow you to go on in this world without worrying about what's coming, but if it is not true, then it is a damnable delusion that will sink your soul in eternal punishment when the wrath of God justly falls upon you and your unbelief. I plead with you, flee from the wrath to come. Shall we pray? Oh, Father, thank you for giving us the truth and unwelcome as it sometimes is, but, Father, we do welcome it because we need it. We want to know the truth. We need to know the truth. Father, by the work of your Spirit, help us to respond to the truth, all of it in faith believing to the salvation of our souls. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.