Daniel chapter 8 verse 23. In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, the king shall arise having fierce features who understands sinister schemes. That's anti-Christ he's talking about. And so Daniel's saying at that moment, when the time is full, comes anti-Christ. And we know Revelation tells us his little foray only lasts for about six years. And so those who persecute the righteous are secure in their fantasy that they are the chosen ones, or that they're safe, or that their religion is going to back them up even though they've never dug into their own religion with any degree of honesty.
That's how life is. And these Thessalonians were learning this. We're supposed to be learning it. That's why we come and assemble and consider the Word of God. It became Scripture. All Scripture is God-breathed.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. And the man that says, one bunch of men wrote the Bible. Yeah, they did. They penned it. They scribed it. They did not author it. Men can't write like this. What matches the Scripture?
Nothing. And when these men wrote, and God did not want to preserve it, he discarded it. We don't have some of Paul's other letters. They weren't God-breathed.
They may have been good, decent, kind, right? They were not inspired, so God did not preserve them. When Paul was persecuting Christians in his testimony, he told others about it. Acts 26, verse 9, he says, Now, that's a double entendre. He made more converts getting stoned than anyone else, than any other way. He wasn't getting stoned with spirits, with alcohol, wine. He was getting stoned by stones. And look what God did.
He changed the world because of it. So the persecutors live with all their attention, centered on themselves, and all their hatred centered on others. The Christian is to live with his attention centered on Christ and criticisms upon sin and the flesh. It's not an unending guilt. You know, if you are driven by guilt, the joy of the Spirit is evading you.
It's not the Christian way. No, if you've just robbed the bank, then guilt is for you. But if you're living that way, you just feel guilty. Maybe you hear a challenging sermon and you feel guilty.
Well, it's not so that you could leave here feeling guilty, dragging your knuckles and, oh, woe is me. I am undone. I'm a man of uncleanness. That's right. But then God says, Who shall I send?
And Isaiah says in that same passage where he says, woe is me. Here I am. Send me. But wait a minute. You're all wowed up. I don't know if we can use you, Isaiah. Of course, that's just who we need for this.
We need one woe chap to go woo other woe chaps. Whoa. So anyway, Paul's allegiance was not to his ethnicity. He was not, you know, centered on his ethnicity. I'm a Jew.
I'm a Greek or this or whatever. He sided with God. And this is a fatal mistake that many people make. They side with their nationality. They side with their ethnic or family heritage. Those things have their place, and I'll tell you where their place is, beneath God, far beneath God.
We talked about this a little Wednesday night. There's nothing wrong with admiring and working to uphold the Constitution unless you have no zeal to uphold the word of God first. God's words first. It's not the Constitution then God's word. It's God's word, because this is the voice of God. This is how God has chosen to speak to his people. Why won't God speak to me? Because you won't read the book where he's already spoken. As he told in Hebrews, he has spoken to us. God, who at various times and in different ways spoke to the prophets in times past, has in these last days spoken to us through the prophets. Here it is. Hebrews chapter 1, first three verses.
Lay it right out. So verse 16, he continues, he says, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, the Jews that were persecuting Paul, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins, but the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. And it wasn't finished, because the temple, the Jewish temple, is still around, and yet within 20 years or so, it will be completely destroyed, and then rabbinical Judaism will really take off, and the word of God, the word of the prophets, the Old Testament to them, will be reduced to this day. When they have a quoting scripture moment, they can't understand what they're saying without quoting a rabbi too. The rabbis say, the rabbis say, Jesus said, I say to you, he said, you have heard that it has been said, but I say to you.
He did not say, the prophets say, he says, I'm telling you, because I am God. And so he says, they forbade us to speak. The Jews did not want the gospel.
All right. They didn't want the Gentiles to have it either. This is hatred, and the Jews obstructed Paul on his first missionary trip in Antioch, Pisidia Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra, in Berea, in Thessalonica, in Corinth. I don't understand this man. I would say that didn't work.
Don't do it again. Paul does it again. I mean, again, you know, the wisdom of, the lack of wisdom in Wile E. Coyote. Now, I'm not talking like he's a real figure, but it illustrates a point. He comes up with some pretty clever plans to get that roadrunner that I can't stand.
I could get that thing. And he has these good plans that they don't work. Instead of going back, I'm going to do that one more time. He comes up with something else.
Sometimes, the same thing is what you need to be working on, developing it. Paul said, yeah, I got stoned in those cities, but look at the converts. I would have said, okay, this is the part where I need to end the sermon, because here's, if I say any more, they're going to be upset with me. The wisdom of God, it takes so much time to meditate on these things. That's what in the Scripture says, meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all.
Paul wrote that to Timothy. Meditate. Give yourself, that's what it's going to take, Timothy. If you're going to come up to the level of servant that you can be, then this is what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to meditate, not just, you know, the victory in memorizing Scripture is that it forces you to think it through.
You begin to actually meditate once you've gotten the verse, and you're liberated from thinking about trying to memorize it, or what could it mean until now it is yours. And so, when I love the verse in the Sermon on the Mount, when the Lord says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. That tells me, having been told, my heart is not pure, as it tells us in Jeremiah, the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked above all things, no man can know it. I, the Lord, test the heart.
I know the mind. Well, if God is telling me, blessed are the pure in heart, he's saying he can make my heart purer even though it's impure. The mercy of God, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. So, this filling up of the measure, the implication that God will allow a nation, a group, an individual to run their course and then pay up. This is how it's been taught since the book of Genesis, Genesis 15, 16. God speaking to his servant Abraham, telling him about the Amorites who were an irritant from the beginning. In the fourth generation, they shall return here, speaking of the Jews. Then, back to the Amorites, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. God is saying, I'm not going to deal with these people yet.
They've got to run their course, but I've drawn a line in the sand and at that line, it's over for them. Matthew 23, verses 31 and 32, 33. Therefore, Jesus speaking, therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell?
Fill up the measure. You've been judged as a people for your idolatry by Nebuchadnezzar. You've been judged as a people. You will be judged as a people again for your blasphemy of killing your Messiah because you abandoned your scriptures and couldn't recognize him if you nailed him to a cross, which you did.
You'll be judged for that, and they are, and then you will be judged by the Antichrist because God has populated the planet with the Christian message, and you have rejected it, calling them all sorts of names, hating on them. Granted, many Christians in history have not helped this cause. This is not anti-Semitic.
This is history, the way it is. God is so far beyond the ethnic thing. He's into the righteous thing.
He always has been. He just chose a particular. It had to be somebody. He chose the descendants of Abraham. Knowing what we know of Abraham, he made the right choice, not that we need to sign off on it. Daniel chapter 8. You know Daniel, he was a, what a man of God. Even he, when he had an encounter with God, he just fell apart. My beauty, my strength is gone. That is the encounter we should all have at some point in our lives as Christians. There should be times where we just, woe is me. John said, I fell as dead in his presence.
He put his hand on me. Daniel chapter 8 verse 23, in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, the king shall arise having fierce features who understands sinister schemes. That's Antichrist he's talking about. And so Daniel's saying, at that moment, when the time is full, comes Antichrist.
And we know Revelation tells us his little foray only lasts for about six years. And so evil allowed to run its cost, God's response, righteousness is allowed to intercept it through his people and the preaching of the word of God. So God has a goal, to fill eternity with those who are not, who having not seen him physically, but have seen him spiritually, those who bring others in and make it in themselves.
For we worship God in spirit, we worship God in truth, and God knows what he's doing. Well he also says here in verse 16, but the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. Now I've already commented on their rejection of the scriptures, and so I'm not going to take the time to go back on it, but here's what God had in mind for them. He called them to be apart from all the peoples of the earth as descendants of Abraham, and eventually of Isaac and Jacob.
Numbers 23 verse 9, for from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him, there a people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations. They're not like everybody, you could say that about the church, that's why we're disliked, but you're not going to go to the bar with us, what you're not going to go do this with us, not going to go do that, and then if you do, and you call yourself a Christian. That double standard they like to use against us, not understanding that we have a flesh, a sinful nature, that's very fragile. Once it is cornered with temptation, it usually collapses, and thus we pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, but yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory, and the whole Bible talks about just that, the kingdom, the power, and the glory of God.
And so, Israel of course failed, and not only was she called to be separate, but God planted the nation Israel on a natural land bridge between three continents, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and they were supposed to be what they never really became. You can say that about the church, not all churches, but you can say that about the church overall, but there are churches that are a land bridge, and they preach the word, and they are separate, and they are loving, and they are intolerant of applauding sin. We get accused for that. We call it legalist. Someone was telling me, someone wrote into a letter, why don't you accept my immorality?
Because by definition, immorality is harmful. How dense can you possibly be? I know how dense. As much as Satan will make you, that's how dense we can be. We're supposed to stand in the gap and protest and say, do you even know what you're saying?
Do you even know where it comes from that you're saying? Verse 17, he says, but we brethren having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavor more eagerly to see your face with great desire. It would be another five years before he gets to see their face, but this is love. God wanted to get Paul to the seaport in Corinth where there were tons of people passing through, just like in Thessalonica, and he got him there, and I mentioned that Satan made a tactical mistake. Paul will go on to say in the next verse that Satan hindered us from getting to you, and God said he didn't hinder me. I'll get to who I will get to.
I know what I'm doing. We have to believe that by faith, Paul did. He accepted that. There were many things he did not like.
None of them seem to have stopped him. To Satan, Paul was the nightmare. It's the guy that you'd shoot with everything.
He'd just keep coming. I used to have a lot of those nightmares. Too many war movies as a kid. The bazooka's not working.
The tanks aren't working. All right, well, this is who Paul was. And so verse 18, he says, Therefore we wanted to come to you, even I, Paul, Timon, again, but Satan hindered us. The Corinthians, some of the Corinthians will throw this in his face. He doesn't really care.
He's not coming. He says, Do I do things lightly? Do I just say yes or no without taking it to the Lord first? I'm led by the Spirit of God. And so the church is still hindered by Satan, but not stopped.
Same with you. How many times have you been coming here a long time? Have you heard me say we battle, we build at the same time. We do not battle, get the victory, then start building. We stumble. That's part of the battle, but we still serve. Now, there are lines there. I mean, if you commit an egregious sin, then God will have to deal with that in a separate environment, but these stumbles that you make, lose your temper.
I'm getting out of the ushers ministry. I lost my temper at my wife. I know your wife. Maybe you aren't so guilty. You're kidding. I should have done it the other way, made the man guilty because then the women, you know, they don't respond like the guys do. The guys laugh and the women are like, I'm going to get you. Messing with the sisters like that.
Anyway, sorry. The church in Jerusalem, Satan was there. Peter said to Ananias and Sapphira, Satan has filled your heart. The church in Smyrna, his throne was there according to Jesus writing the letter.
I know where Satan's throne is. The church at Pergamum, that is, Thyatira, he was there too. Jesus tells us that in Revelation 2, a church in Philadelphia. He said Satan was exalted there also. That was the perfect church as churches go and Satan was there. In Ephesus, in 1 Timothy, Paul tells them Satan is there.
Hymenaeus, Philetus, Alexander. Paul said, I've turned those guys over to Satan. They've strayed. They were in the faith. They went off.
They've done me much harm. And then Corinth, Satan was there too and in Mechanicsville. In this church, Satan comes here too. Now, that should not cause us to shake in our boots, but it sends off the alarm. We put a perimeter around. We put our defenses up as Nehemiah said.
And so we built with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. That's how the West was one. That's how we do it. That's how we roll. And it's not going to change and it should not change. When we get to heaven, you know, I think about when the saints go home, I'm always envious.
I mean, he gets to go. And of course, it's a selfish statement, very selfish. You have loved ones and if you're feeling left behind and the grief that belongs to that, what would others feel? Yeah, you know, believe it or not, there are a lot of people that love you.
And don't mess it up after service in the fellowship. But anyway, there are people that love you and we should not think that way, though we can't help think that way to some degree. Because we recognize that where they are, the glory is so splendid that it could not be written down. God doesn't really make an effort to tell us about heaven. Yes, good. No more crying there. No more death. I can't tell you any more than that because you can't handle it. But if you love me, even if you fail, my mercy will be upon you and Satan can't have you.
You're mine. No one's going to take it away. Then the hoofbeats you hear coming are Satan. You don't really believe that.
You know how many billions of people don't believe in Jesus? What are you going to say? They're all going to hell?
I'm not saying anything. I know where I'm going. I know where you're going because God said it right here.
Hold it up. And so we see spiritual resistance in human places. Daniel chapter 10. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days. Behold Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me, for I had been left alone with the kings of Persia. This is an angel speaking to Daniel saying, Daniel, I was trying to get to you, but there was spiritual warfare happening all over the place, bogeys everywhere. And I couldn't get out of this spiritual battle.
God sent Michael, you know, the tough guy angel, and he delivered me through Michael. You say, well, why did God wait? He knows why.
Whether he tells you or me, it doesn't matter. He knows why he knows what he's doing. God is so perfect. We can't, you know, sin has, as we, you know, though the eye of sinful man, thy glory cannot see. And when we sing the hymn, holy, holy, holy, God is so perfect. He is so on.
There's not, there's not, oh, I miss that. It's so on top of it. And when the Christian moves into that place where they finally recognize it, there is joy and peace unspeakable. But to get there, that is an achievement. To stay there, that's really, put a medal on yourself.
It's doable. That's what the prophets are saying. That's why Peter knew, because Jesus told him, looked him in the eyes and said, you're going to die by the hands of somebody else.
When that day comes, you will die. And Peter did it. He went out like a man in Christ. And so they, those apostles, they did not, again, back to Stephen. I like to say he never saw the rocks.
He was so busy looking at Christ, he never saw the stones. Is that all you got? When it's doable, when Paul finally, it's time for him to die, he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. And here it comes. I have kept the faith. Why does that preserve description? Why didn't God say, you know what, I'm not going to preserve that because that's not inspired?
Well, because it was inspired. And we need to hear it. And we need to have that as our word also. I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. And not to me only, but to all those who have loved his appearing. That is the life he lived and not just Paul.
Others did too. And so where he says here that Satan hindered him, the Greek word for hinder is to break up the road. It's used if you're going to say, you know, break up the road. Satan sought to break up the road. But God has got so many shortcuts and ways around that, it doesn't stop the Lord from doing what he wants. And thus, again, we have the Thessalonian letters, which we would not have, according to what we know, had Paul been able to go to Thessalonica.
And aren't we glad we have them. Verse 19, for what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
The word coming here is parousia in the Greek. It literally means his presence. It says in the presence of our Lord at his presence, at his being there, at his person, at his reality, at his personality. And then he says in verse 20, for you are our glory and joy. You are that splendid thing about life.
This is why we take the abuse because of these results in you. This was a sound and proper outburst of his personal feelings at the fruit that God allowed him in Thessalonica. And I close with this verse from Isaiah 43. God, Jesus Christ speaking, Isaiah 43, I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. This is what erates those who come to Christ. He blots out all your sin, your guilt, your punishment. He takes it upon himself. This is why we say you are worthy, O Lord.
You are worthy. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of 1 Thessalonians. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app as well. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of 1 Thessalonians right here on Cross Reference Radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-09-16 12:49:40 / 2023-09-16 12:59:36 / 10