This is the Truth Network. Forever thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119, verse 89. I'm Stu Everson. Welcome to this special Wednesday in the Word Leader podcast, where we prepare and equip our leaders of this special Bible study outreach breakfast.
Every week to teach through the scriptures. Thirteen Dario locations. There's a men's group meeting and several of the Locations host the women on Thursday morning. Stay tuned. Be encouraged as we jump into this week's Wednesday in the Word.
Yes, God loves you. Yes, there's so many benefits of the gospel. But no, we don't often lead with You're on your way to hell. We don't often talk about Hell, fire, and brimstone, except for to make fun of a preacher that does talk about that stuff. We don't lead with the wrath of God, but when Paul.
Goes off on his gospel rant, his gospel diatribe in Romans. He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel is the power of God. In verse 18 of Romans chapter 1, he starts this whole polemic with. The wrath of God is revealed. Dr.
Sam Horn, we're going to get into perdition here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.
Some say, I heard one scholar say that it's some of the most graphic gory Content on God's judgment, God's perdition, retribution for the sinner. In the whole scripture, and it's right here in 2 Thessalonians. Tell us what's going on in this passage to lead up to this, Dr. Sam Horn.
Well, it's what we talked about in our last broadcast, and we met a group of people. Who came to faith when Paul brought the gospel in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1? With great power, the Holy Spirit attended to the preaching. that Paul had with immense power. And people turn from idols to serve the living and the true God, to worship the true God of heaven.
And to wait for the coming of his Son from heaven. And the word wait there is not. Let's sit on the sidelines and kind of not attract any attention. The idea there is. Let's go hard.
At making as much damage to the kingdom of darkness as we can for the sake of the kingdom of light while we wait for the coming of the king. And so that's what's been going on. And so these people, as they've been Actively, aggressively waiting. That's a really sort of oxymoron way of. Trying to talk about waiting because when you think about waiting, that's normally not something that's active and aggressive.
But they're active and aggressively waiting for the coming of Christ. And they are announcing the gospel of Christ in the middle of that, and they are suffering. That's what we saw. At the end of Our time last week. Therefore, we boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith and all your persecutions.
and in the afflictions you are enduring. And then he goes on in verse 5 to say, now This is evidence that you really are worthy. of the kingdom of God. Because you're willing to suffer for it. You know, you're willing to pay the price.
for something that you perceive as valuable. And what is valuable is the kingdom that you have been appointed to. And in verse 6, God considers it just. To repay with affliction those who are afflicting you.
So you might be being persecuted and afflicted now, but there's coming a day when God is going to repay your afflictors. with the affliction That they've afflicted you.
So, hence your word perdition, right, that you used. Since God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. When, and here's the time that this is going to happen. When the Lord Jesus is revealed. The word is.
Apocalypse, right? The last book of the Bible, Apocalypse is. Is the word here, Revelation, when Christ is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels? And that's where we ended.
So what's going to happen? When he's revealed, like when he comes. With his mighty angels in verse 8. There is going to be, to use your word, perdition. And the perdition is going to be on the heads Of people who have knowingly, willingly, intentionally, repeatedly.
rejected the kingdom of God, Rejected the king himself, Jesus, refused the offer of the gospel and resisted and afflicted his people. And so here's how he puts it: he's going to appear in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God. And those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, same group of people. Describe two ways. First of all, they don't know God. The word know there is the idea of having an experiential relationship. An experiential knowledge of him.
It's not saying they don't know about him in their head. And they don't know who he is. Like, who's this God that these people are suffering for? They know his name, they've heard about him, they've seen the evidence, they have creation, Romans 1 says.
So they don't know God. That's an intentional shunning and turning away from God. And then number two, they do not obey. the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's really interesting.
how he describes that, because I would have thought he would have said they don't believe the gospel. But he actually uses the term for obedience. Right? They don't obey the gospel. In Romans chapter 1.
Paul said, I want to come. to Rome to announce the gospel, to produce an obedience of faith. In other words, What God commands every human being on the planet to do is to obey the gospel. And the obedience. that he wants from everybody is belief.
I want you to believe. And so, when you refuse to believe the gospel, it's not just. you looking and saying, well, I'd rather not. It's an actual act of defiance. It's an act of disobedience.
So when you get judged by the God of heaven, and you receive a just recompense. And you wonder, what did I disobey? The answer is, you refuse to believe the gospel. Right. And it's not an obedience like I'm working, I'm performing my way into God's favor, but it's.
Responding Putting myself under the authority of the gospel, saying, I'm a sinner, I need a savior. You know, Acts 17, where Paul said, Hey, God now calls. all men everywhere to repent. Jesus said, This is the command, right in John 6. He said, This is my commandment that you believe.
That you You acquiesce not just in your mind. But in your heart. Dr. Horn, I love those two. Marx, of course, I don't love, I don't bask in the tragedy.
of you know Perdition and judgment upon sinners. We want to call sinners repent. This passage should break our heart. We should have tears talking about this. But the description really kind of boils it down to the brass tax of the Christian life because he says, the judgment is going to come on those who do not know God.
How often do we talk about the Christian faith as not knowing about God? But knowing God. How many people will be in hell who knew all about God? Even the demons believe in tremble, James 2.
So, a mark of someone who is a saint, who's a believer, is someone who truly knows God. This is an intimate knowledge, you know, not just a head knowledge. And who obeys the gospel is someone who has. Come under the blood of Christ, who is willingly believed and said, I need a savior. I can't save myself.
I can't work this thing out. I need. A powerful alien righteousness like Paul describes in Romans 3, 21, 22. I need a righteousness that's not from here. That's from Christ to cover me.
And so the same things that mark unbelievers. They don't know God. They don't believe the gospel. Those are things that the opposite of that, the contrast of that is the mark of believers. Because it really does separate, like the old country preacher says, the saints from the ain'ts.
And Paul is making it clear. To the Thessalonians, hey, you're marked by knowing God, you're marked by responding to the gospel. but those around you aren't. And that's their fundamental issue. They're fundamentally not going to hell.
Because They're not going to hell. Because they persecute you. They're not going to hell because they put you under tribulation. They're going to hell because of their. improper relationship.
Their separation. From Almighty God and from His gospel. And so that's kind of the tone. Those are who are, which means we're here to help people know God, right? And to help people find the gospel and subject themselves to it.
Yeah, and I think so. You're hitting this really hard. And I think it's so important for anybody who's leading these Bible studies to help people realize. How God sees people, right? Because I live next to people in my neighborhood, and they look actually pretty good.
You know, they... They have a decent marriage. Their kids seem like they're successful. You know, they have a nice job. And we can tend to go, well, you know, they're really good people, but.
From the perspective of this passage, They don't know God. and they don't obey the gospel. And that's At the end of the day, why they're going to be under the just judgment of God. Because sometimes we listen to people and they. would say things like, well, I'm actually pretty good.
I go to church. I'm moral. Or, you know, I may not believe like you believe, but Man, we're on the same team. I want to see the poor fed. I want...
And God would look at all those people and would say to them, You have not obeyed me. I told you to believe the gospel of my son. I sent somebody to tell you that gospel. You have had ample opportunity repeatedly throughout your life. To hear it, to understand it, to see it.
to encountered in the life of somebody. And you refused to believe it. You dismissed it, you denigrated it, you said it didn't make sense, it was for the week. You had a different opinion. But I told you To obey, to obey me and believe the gospel, and you would have eternal life, and you didn't.
We tend to offer it as a choice. Like You know, if the waiter comes to me and says, Would you like a Coke? And I say, No, thank you. That waiter would not go back and go, Well, that is a terrible person. He disobeyed me.
I gave him a choice. God is not giving people a choice. Like you can believe or you can't believe. He's actually commanding them. There's a difference between a command and a choice.
Now, people have to choose. But God is actually giving them a command. And so that's really important.
Well, let me just say this because it's going to get more dicey, and I want you to jump right into verses 8 and 9, Dr. Horn. We established a little kind of a 4P outline of this chapter, you know, early on last week. For those looking at chapter 1, there's 12 rich verses. We broke the first part up into the two P's of purpose, kind of why he wrote the book, introduction to this book, who are these saints, which we covered a lot in 1 Thessalonians, what happened in Acts chapter 17.
So Paul's writing this letter.
So there's this purpose. in the first part of chapter one. 1 through 7, and there's this praise. He gives this effusive thanksgiving for their exceedingly growing faith, which is so rich, their abounding love, and all that. He gives thanks to them, you know, always for them.
Now we're getting into perdition, the third P, starting in verse, really verse 7 and 8, all the way down through 12, and this beautiful prayer. But we're stuck right in the middle. Touch on verse 9. I'm going to let you take the heat, forgiven the heat, because this is hellfire and brimstone, and this is really intense. I mean, you find places like Revelation 20, 21, where it talks about there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Lake of fire, this unquenchable you know, flame that is is just an awful thing. 2 Thessalonians is right up there with these verses on hellfire and brimstone.
So. You know, the language that Paul uses and that God inspired him to write, we don't get to change. You know, we don't get to sort of calm it down and make it more palatable. He literally says he's going to take vengeance. He's going to inflict vengeance.
That is a really strong image. It's the idea of somebody Bringing extreme pain and punishment on somebody. It's what the Romans did. to a prisoner. That they wanted to inflict vengeance on.
Think about. The what a what a Roman Centurion would do if he wanted to inflict vengeance on you for something you did to his troops. Or something you did to his family, or some dishonor you brought to his nation. he would bring the full weight and the full brunt of the wrath of the Roman Empire on your head. That's the image here.
God is going to bring the full brunt. Of his weight. He's not going to shield you. He's not going to protect you. He is going to bring the full brunt of his wrath on certain people's heads.
And what that wrath is going to look like. It starts with those fiery angels in verse 7. Like the fiery angels, they are these cute little cuddly cherubs that we think are floating around. These are warriors, right?
So he's going to bring this, and here's what's going to happen in verse 9. They are going to suffer the punishment of eternal destruction. Away from the presence of the Lord. And from the glory of his might. In other words, they're going to be completely separated from God and everything glorious.
And they are going to feel Eternal punishment. The word punishment there is the idea of um Uh Painful infliction on the person of somebody. And eternal destruction is the idea of: it's not that you cease to exist. is that you are brought to utter ruin. Like, we would say this: like, you know, the trash talk between two teams, like the World Cup's going on right now.
And they're two teams playing tonight. And can you imagine two big fans? you know, looking at these two teams playing and say, we're going to destroy you. And the idea isn't by the time we're done, you're not going to exist anymore. The idea is: we're going to totally annihilate you.
We're going to bring you to utter ruin. All of your hopes for the World Cup are going to be totally destroyed. That's the idea here. There is eternal torment and separation. versus the idea of annihilation.
And this is going to happen away from the presence of the Lord. They're going to be totally separated. From God and from the the glory of his might. Jesus had a word for this. and it was the word hell.
He talked about hell a lot in the Gospels. It is not a popular topic right now. In fact, there are.
Well-meaning Christians who can't abide the idea that God would ever eternally punish somebody. That he's just gonna annihilate them, that they're gonna stop existing. He is gonna punish them, but their punishment is gonna be they're gonna stop existing. When actually, this text says something very different. God is going to inflict punishment.
That punishment is going to be painful. There's going to be no extinguishing of the pain. Eternally. And these people are going to be brought to utter, devastating ruin. because of their willful rejection of the gospel.
and their willful rejection of him. And so before we move off that, Let's not let the weight of that escape us. That is the fate of our neighbour. Right, that is the fate of our aunt who Has refused to believe the gospel. That is the fate.
of the boss who's been so kind to us, but but actually refuses the gospel that we have shared with him. That is the fate of our son or daughter. Who refuses the gospel? That is a horrific thing that needs to, that it ought to crush us. There ought to be in us.
This Immense Wait. that this carries that that we bring to the Lord And we say to the Lord, I can't carry this by myself. I need you to enable me, empower me, and strengthen me so that I can get up and share the gospel more effectively. And I can pray more fervently. Obviously, it's God who's got to bring the repentance, it's God who's got to open the eyes and liven the heart.
But he uses means to do that. And the biblical means that he's ordained for that is the prayer of the saint. and the witness of the gospel. Through the mouth of a saint. Right?
And what's happening to those saints is they're being persecuted. Which is why, if you go back to church history, In the midst of their persecution, they're praying. their captors. and persecutors, and they're witnessing to them. How many times have we heard stories throughout The history of the church of the persecutors becoming themselves captured by the gospel.
And the number one example of this is the guy writing this letter. Right. So it's just. You know, we we run away from persecution.
Sometimes it's the most effective, undeniable means of bringing that persecutor to faith.
Well, and there's an interesting uh juxtaposition in here that that really we spent some time on la this past week. you know, with our groups teaching. Because in verse 5, he talks about this rest. that comes upon Those or relief in verse 7 that comes upon those who did believe, you know, that they're given rest. You think about Revelation 14, you think about places in, I think it's maybe Revelation 5, you know, that these martyrs are crying out, but God's given them eternal rest.
But those who reject God will have no rest.
So there's almost in the leader notes I'm sending out, Dr. Horn, you can almost put up a chart. And I would encourage people to do this in their study, their teaching. Each word is important. You know, punishment, what does that mean?
Eternal judgment, what does that mean? What does it mean that the fiery angels are going to carry out a fiery judgment? You know, what does that mean? You know, a good question here. Who am I warning?
About the wrath to come. You know, in my evangelism, well, sure, I'm inviting God. I heard one pastor say, you know, oftentimes we offer the benefits. Oh, you're going to have a better life. Oh, you're going to have a better psychology.
Your mental health is going to be better with Jesus. You're going to have a peace that passes all understanding.
Well, those are true benefits, Dr. Horne. But. Those don't address the cancer. That's eating away at us of our sin that has to be dealt with by only the cross.
And the cross is the ultimate picture of God's punishment, God's wrath. You want to see something ugly? You want to see a picture of perdition being judged? Look at the cross of Christ and how beautiful that He took our place on that cross. And now we are given the righteousness of Christ.
So there's a very real sense into which right now. If I'm a true believer in Christ, I will experience tribulation. I will experience Persecution. like Paul described of them in verse four and five. of this chapter.
But it's temporary. Eternally I will experience rest and relief. For the unbeliever On a temporary basis. They may have relief on this earth. They can eat, drink, and be merry.
And they are Instigating And they are the tormentors. They're the ones putting tribulation on believers. They're the ones persecuting believers. But for eternity, They are eternally the object of persecution, tribulation, and no rest. And it says that in Revelation 14, they will have no rest.
whatsoever, for eternity they will be tormented. And that should torment us in a sense of breaking our heart for lost people. Because I'm looking at someone who's going to be tormented forever. They're not tormenting me, they're tormenting Christ. They're tormenting, they're after him, right?
You know, and Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He wasn't killing Stephen. He wasn't attacking the early church. He was attacking Jesus himself. And that's who is the object of their hate.
And that's who we need to introduce them to. But we need to call them to judgment. We need to call them to repentance. And we need to say, this is what awaits those who don't know Christ, Dr. Horn, because this is real.
But the the there's no rest now. For in terms of The trials and tribulations for the believer, but in eternity, That's our journey's marked by rest. We've entered the rest. Christ is our rest, right?
So, to come back to that. These believers are suffering persecution. Their persecutors are one day going to be judged. That's the flow of the passage, right?
So you got praise, purpose, praise. Perdition, and in the perdition section, you're finding out what's gonna happen to the persecutors. But back up in the praise section, and even in the prayer section we're about to go into. What's happening is these believers have realized something. The minute I open up my mouth, and talk about the gospel, it's going to divide people.
Right, like I can live next to my neighbor, and we can have a great time if we talk about football, or we talk about the economy, or we talk about the lake, or whatever hobbies we have. The minute I look at my neighbor and say, You need to repent of your sins. and put your faith in Jesus Christ. That's a conversation that's not going to have neutrality to it. He's either going to repent.
or he's going to resist. And if I keep coming to him and keep insisting that he repent of his sins. And put his faith in Jesus Christ, sooner or later, he's going to look at me and say, don't talk to me about that again.
Sooner or later, there's going to be a pushback. Yeah.
Sooner or later, if I keep doing it And I keep doing it boldly. There's going to be opposition. Right? If I do this at work.
Somebody's going to come to me and say, you can't say that anymore here. I might lose my job for this. Right in the public square, if I stand up as a public official and speak boldly about people's need to repent. And to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and in His saving grace alone, by faith alone. by grace alone, through in the finished work of Christ alone.
I'm going to alienate even people who would claim to be Jesus' followers, right? And I'm going to pay a price for that. And you and I are going to have to, every one of us as Christians are going to have to get good with that price. I mean, I think about the Apostle Paul. For the gospel to come to these people at Thessalonica, somebody had to be willing to suffer.
And Paul said, I'm willing. Right? For to go to Thessalonica, to go to Philippi, to go to Corinth or Athens, somebody had to be willing to suffer. And he knew what that suffering was going to be. We're not talking about a blister.
We're talking about being stoned and left for dead. We're talking about Roman beatings five times. We're talking about immense persecution, and somebody had to be willing to look in God and say, I'm willing to go through that so that the gospel of your Son can come to those people.
Now, you'll notice in verse 10 Um When he comes on that day, when Christ comes on that day, He's not just going to inflict vengeance. on those who have disobeyed the gospel. He is going to be glorified in His saints. And he will be marveled at by By all who have believed. We haven't seen the Jesus that's coming.
Like we know and we've heard about the Jesus that was born. We've got some little measure of an idea in John chapter, you know, in Revelation chapter one. of what he's like, but when we see him, We are going to marvel. At him. Yeah.
We are going to go, I am so glad I believe. It's gonna make all the little sufferings that we've gone through.
So worth it. And then we're going to look around. and wonder what happened to you because you're going to look just like him. Yeah.
Wow. Like His glory is going to be revealed in us, and we're going to marvel at His glory.
Well, it's like 1 John 3:2, I think it says, where it says, when we see him, when he appears, we see him. We will be like him. We will be like him. We will see him as he is. And Dr.
Horne, again, a contrast, because the unbelievers. They're facing severe punishment. They're facing the fiery angels of God. They're facing great wrath of God. They're facing all this judgment for eternity.
We're facing, we're doing two things. We're glorified, which is, you know, the doctrine of glorification, you know, which is the third part of sanctification, right? But we're sanctified positionally. You know, when we're saved, we're sanctified practically as we're growing in faith, and we're sanctified. In a future sense.
When we're ultimately glorified.
So that's the point. He returns, we will see him. Our faith becomes sight. You know, 2 Corinthians 5:7. And then Those two things happen.
We are glorified, we are made perfect. And We admire him. We are in awe of him. I mean, what a great picture. It's a jaw-dropping thing.
All right, so here's the thing.
So you got these two groups of people. One group is going to have judgment. and eternal punishment and the other group is going to be Gloriously transformed, and they're going to marvel at the glory. Of the God, of the Lord Jesus Christ who's appeared.
Now, here's the line. All of this is because our testimony to you was believed. That's the last line in verse 10. The difference. Between the two groups comes down to that phrase.
Paul said, When we came to Thessalonica, We witnessed. About Jesus. And you people are going to have a very different destiny than the other people because you believed what we witnessed. Wow. You believe the gospel, the word of our testimony.
was believed. And so That's why we come to the final P, right? Paul's gonna look at these people because these people now have a job. He's looking at these people and he's going, You believed. You have a future destiny that is marvelous.
It is stunning. It is jaw-dropping. And when you see Jesus, you're going to be so glad that you put up with what you put up with, but you have a job. And before that comes, while you're waiting for that, you've got a job. And I'm going to pray.
That God will equip you? and sustain you and give you success in the job he's called you to do. And that's the prayer. Notice what he says: to this end. What end?
What we're talking about here. I came to Thessalonica and gave a witness, and you believed. You've got to stay in Tesla Nica and keep giving that witness so others will believe. To this end, We always pray for you. Paul says, listen.
We are partnering with you. I'm not there physically present. But we're partnering, and our partnering is this: we are always praying. This big vision of what God has done for you and in you, and what's going to happen to the people who don't obey the gospel, is motivating me to pray for you because you have a big job. You have a big, big task ahead of you, and that is to do what we did.
You're going to have to do the exact thing we did in 1 Thessalonians 1. When we preach the gospel with power, you're going to have to preach the gospel with power with your words and with your life. And so, to that end, we pray always for you. That God may make you worthy of his calling, right? That.
The idea here is There is a calling you've received to salvation. And now you've got to live a life. That has been shaped by that salvation. The word worthy is a word you would use for a scale. Remember those old timey scales?
Where you had a balance, and so on on one side of the balance is your salvation. God called you to this. God's the ultimate one. Who will stand before? God's the ultimate judge.
And God's the one who saves us, and God's the one who takes us to heaven, and He's the one who counts us. You know, we stand before him.
So there's a very real sense that this is very theocentric. This is very God. This is Paul's prayer is that their heart, their state, aligns with God's view of them and God's calling of them. Is that a way of putting it?
So here's, let me give an example.
So. When you became a Christian, you responded to the call of the gospel. But over the years, you've been conforming your life. On the other side of that scale, like God puts salvation on the one side, on the other side, you put your life. and you've submitted to the word.
And you've allowed the word to shape you so that your life... Worthy of that gospel. In other words, it confirms your calling. I think we shared this before, I think I shared it here. here before, you know, sometimes I do funerals.
And When I do a funeral for An older person, I will oftentimes ask. Their children, did your dad know the Lord? And oftentimes I'll get an answer like this.
Well, Pastor, I think so. I think so. I think he knew the Lord. He never went to church. He never talked about God.
I never saw him read the Bible. He never prayed. But I heard a story that when he was a kid, He went to vacation Bible school and he prayed a prayer. And I think. I think he might have been a Christian.
And you just Your heart just breaks. Your heart just breaks because it's like. That person is going to wonder for the rest of their life if their dad or their mom was really saved. And then you go to another funeral. And another person Has died, and there are scores of people who get up and say.
Oh, I'm so glad John was in my life. I became a Christian because John witnessed to me. I saw John's testimony at work and I couldn't get by it. And no matter how much. Scorn I heaped on him.
He loved me, and I finally became a Christian, and he's the reason. These are two different men. Who both would have claimed something, but one of them left no doubt about it. That's the idea that God would make you worthy of God. Of his calling, and that he would fulfill every resolve for good.
And every work of faith by his power. In other words, You're going to want, as a Christian, you're going to want a resolve to do certain things that are good. And there are certain works that you're going to want to do that are going to demand faith. Like think about When you decided to launch out and start the Truth Network, did that require faith? Where did that come from?
Right? When you resolve to sit down and say, you know, I want to start Bible studies. In Dario's for the good of people. That was a resolve that you had. It has demanded time and effort and energy.
It's been exhausting. It's been going on for years. Where did that come from? And Paul is telling us where it came from. I'm praying that God will make you worthy of your calling, but that He'll also Energize the resolve you have to do these kinds of good things and will bring about the work.
that your faith wants to do. I mean, that's the prayer, right?
So that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified. And the word in you is the word for by.
So that in all of this In all of your works of faith, in all of the resolve that you have to do good things, it'll never be for your glory. It'll always be for his. That the name of Jesus will be lifted up. In other words, you're making him famous. And you're making yourself disappear.
Right? That's the idea here. And you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. and in the midst of all of your suffering. When you are doing everything you can, when the normal person would be doing everything they can to run away from it, you're going, Lord, I want to do good to those who persecute me.
That that's not coming from you, right? That's the idea here. And so, this is an incredible passage, you know, as you think about this. And, and, You know, what this does for me is it kind of helps me do two big things. Number one, it helps me to resolve to live for the gospel.
Right. The whole reason these people are suffering, the whole reason they're under all this pressure and affliction, is the gospel that changed them.
So, number one, It helps me live for the gospel, and then it keeps my eye on eternity. I'm going to see Jesus. And when I see him, I'm going to marvel. I'm going to go unbelievable. It's better than the World Cup.
It's better than getting a Picasso. It's better than. Yeah.
Um becoming the world's best first trillionaire. There's something better. And when it shows up, the entire universe is going to marvel that we have a part in it.
So it brings me. with a resolve to live for the gospel, and it keeps my focus on eternity. And I want you to praise out of here before we do. I love that statement: live for the gospel. I also thought I might throw a little word in there.
The word buy, live. By the power of the gospel, yeah, absolutely. And he opens this chapter with grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He closes this chapter according. According to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's so it's by grace. I love Spurgeon wrote a little book, a little paperback. I bought it for all my groomsmen when I got married. I found it's funny, I went into a Christian bookstore. back in 1992.
And this Christian bookstore had these big prosperity gospel authors. $35 for this big book. You know, the secrets of supernatural healing, all these big flashy books. And in the back, there's a little used book section. It wasn't a used book, say a little paperback, and it had these books by Charles Spurgeon.
Four. Literally. $2. and the books were called All of Grace. And that's what, you know, it was grace that taught my heart to fear right, my heart to fear right, and grace will sustain me, grace will lead me home.
And I think this is a key theme here, Dr. Horn. There's a little comfort here, too, in the fact that. If you think it's gory. For Paul to be bludgeoned and beaten, for these Thessalonian Christians to be.
Absolutely hammered with tribulation and persecution. If you think it's gory for A dozen Egyptian believers to have their heads cut off. On a beachhead, after bowing their knee to Christ and saying, I'm not going to recant my faith. If you think it's gory for the persecution, the execution of believers all over the world, whether they're burned to the stake, you know, like Huss, like Tyndale. Let me tell you what's gory, and I believe Paul's saying this: these Thessalonian believers, what's gory and what's tragic and what's horrible.
Those are just temporary little fleeting things. Our light affliction is working an eternal way to glory, right? 2 Corinthians 4:17. While we look not at things that are seen, But things that are unseen. 2 Corinthians 4:18, things which are seen are temporal, things that are unseen are eternal.
What's gory is this wrath of God poured out on sinners for eternity. We still have a little bit of time. To warn them of the wrath to come and to pour the grace of God to them.
Well, that's what he's praying for, right? I mean, he's praying for resolve to do good and for. Our faith to produce work. that keeps us going back to our lost neighbor and going you need to get saved And he kicks us out of his house. And we're like, well.
That's one more down. You know, I don't know how many times, but he's going to get saved. And I'm going to go back. You know, and I'm going to do a work of kindness.
Now, we shouldn't be idiots about it. Like, we shouldn't, like I, that one of the people that lives in our neighborhood, she writes Bible verses and throws them on rocks and throws them in people's yards that she doesn't like.
Well, that's not helpful. That's not how you win people to Jesus. But there ought to be a deep resolve in our life to say, I want to do good to these people that need the gospel. There needs to be an energizing that comes out of our faith. to say I want to invest in them for the gospel's sake.
And that's what Paul's praying for, you know, and that's what you're giving your life for. And I hope that's what I'm giving my life for as a pastor at Palmetto Baptist. I want to see our people get up and get at it. I've said it before. I don't know how much longer I have here on this planet.
But I want to do as much damage to the kingdom of darkness while I'm here. Yeah, and who are we taking with us to heaven? How are we making it? One Baptist preacher said, I want to make it hard to go to hell from North Carolina. I want to be such a bright witness here that people know the way to heaven and that people can point them to Jesus.
We can't save anyone. But we can sure point them to the one with our life, with our lips, with everything we say, everything we do. And part of that is telling them the truth. Yeah.
You know, if the building is burning. I had an encounter with a lady outside of a uh a gym recently. She's walking in, little older lady, she's walking out, I'm walking in, she sees my truth network, she mistook me for someone else. What's that truth network? What is that?
I said, We help people find Christ. She says, Well, I don't do anything religious. She says, I don't see how a loving God could send anyone to hell.
Well Um Maybe she said the wrong thing to the right person or the right thing to the wrong person. But that stirred up about a 10-minute conversation, which ended really well. But I had to tell her, I said, ma'am, listen. You know, people decide to go to hell by rejecting Jesus. That's why he came.
Do you understand the hell he faced on that cross? Why did he suffer? Why was he the only innocent man to ever live, to ever walk this planet? Executed on a bloody cross, naked in the open, because he bore in his body my sin, my wrath, your sin, so you wouldn't have to pay for your sin for eternity.
So either you pay for your sin now. Or either you let him pay for your sin now, or you will pay for your sin for eternity. And why am I still here? I'm casting a I'm casting a life vest to you. It's as though you're in a burning building.
doctor Horne, if this building we're in right now was on fire. And there were a bunch of people over there in that section of the building that had no idea. This building was on fire. This thing's gonna go down. It's gonna collapse.
They're gonna die. What would we do, and why should there be a little bit of an urgency, a little pep to our step as believers? Exactly, because of the very. hope that we have in the gospel we've been rescued And we have an obligation to go and rescue others.
Well, let me pray for us here. Lord, thank you for the power of this text. Lord, we started out looking at vengeance and we looked at eternal destruction and we looked at flaming angels that are going to bring all of this retribution on people. But it ends with grace. It ends with gospel, it ends with calling, it ends with salvation.
Lord, it is not your will that any should perish, even those that persecute your people. You sent them. You allowed them to go through that persecution because you want the persecutors. to come. To salvation through grace.
And so, Lord, help us to live with the gospel in our heart, in our mouth, in our hands, and with our eye on eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Dr. Horne, and thank you for joining us for this Wednesday in the Word podcast.
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