THE TIMING OF GOD'S JUSTICE
READ 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
We know that God is a just God, and yet we see injustice in the universe. It seems like sometimes the righteous have a hard time and the unrighteous have it very easy.
We raise the question -- okay, God if you are going to be just, when are you going to deal with this injustice? The question of timing comes into place.
All through the ages, God's children have asked that question. In Psalm 13 the psalmist several times in that chapter says, "How long, O Lord?" They are raising the question - God when are you going to deal with this situation?
In Revelation 6 we are told about the martyrs who had been martyred for the faith. Notice verses 9 and 10, “And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”
There is the question of timing. How long? When is your judgment going to take place? When will justice prevail? The answer to that is in 2 Thessalonians 1:7. “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.”
The word, revealed, is the same word from which we get the name of the last book of the Bible -- the Revelation. It means the unveiling. It means to uncover that which has been hidden from view. It is talking about that future event when the Lord Jesus Christ will return to this earth. When you think in terms of the return of Jesus or the coming of the Lord there are two pillars that tie that truth together.
The first is around the word, rapture. The word, rapture, is a word that emerges from I Thessalonians and describes that time when the Lord Jesus will come in the air for His saints. The Lord will descend from heaven, and those who are saved will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. That's the rapture. He comes in the air for His saints.
The other pillar is the word, revelation, which describes the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth with his saints. It will be that climatic event - the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the revelation of Jesus occurs, God will administer His justice fully and finally on this earth.
It's a graphic scene. He says the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. What a scene that's going to be.
If you want to get a picture of that scene, read Matthew 24 and Revelation 19.
What a glorious picture that will be. What a glorious time that's going to be, when the Lord Jesus Himself will return in His revelation with his mighty angels and in flaming fire.
It says he will "take vengeance" (vs. 8). The word, vengeance, is not the idea of human revenge. We're talking about God's vengeance. It means inflicting full judgment and punishment upon that which is evil and wrong. It's a picture of a criminal who is given exactly what his crime deserves. No more, no less. That statement is teaching us that one of these days when the Lord comes, God's absolute justice will prevail on this earth, and God will administer appropriate punishment for every sin and every evil that's been done. On whom? Verse 8(b) "…on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Put those two things together. They don't know the Lord. That means they aren't saved. Why are they not saved? Because they obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.
The word, obey, means to submit under, to hear under, to put yourself into submission to one. To hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most important and one of the most serious and solemn experiences any individual can ever have.
The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the good news. It is the good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that He was buried, and three days later He arose again from the grave to live forevermore. That's glorious and good news, but the gospel is not just preached as information to be received. The gospel is preached as a message to be believed and responded to. You either obey the gospel, repent of sin and receive the Lord Jesus Christ, or you do not obey the gospel. He is saying that those who have had an opportunity to receive Christ and do not receive Him as their Savior, will experience the vengeance spoken of here. It's a pretty solemn passage of scripture.
It is really God's description of the future judgment that awaits those who reject
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a sad picture. Verse 9 - "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction." The word, destruction, does not mean annihilation. Some are teaching today that there will be annihilation -- cessation of existence. The Bible does not teach annihilation. The word, destruction, means the loss of everything that makes existence meaningful. It means the loss of freedom, the loss of family, the loss of pleasure, the loss of God.
Punished with everlasting destruction, "…from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." He is talking about the tragedy of tragedies. He is talking about the worst thing that any human being could ever experience. The tragedy of tragedies is that a person made by God and for God should live in eternity without God.
The hell of hell is not the flames of hell, although they are real and they will torment; it is being forever apart from the presence of the Lord. Just as heaven is the presence of the Lord, hell is the absence of the Lord.
C. S. Lewis stated, "Hell means that everybody will be infinitely separated from everybody else." The most severe separation of all is for a human being, made in the image of God, to be in eternity forever from the presence of the Lord. No light, no life, no love -- from the presence of the Lord. It's a sad picture. Don't go to hell. Don't reject the Lord Jesus as your Savior. To be in hell is to be separated from God forever.
Jess Hendley, an evangelist, was known as a hell-fire and damnation preacher. Some people made fun of him about it. But he said many times "The reason I preach on Hell is because I believe there is one and I don't want anybody to go there."
If there is not a Hell, we certainly wouldn't preach it. But if the Bible teaches there is a hell, we have to be faithful and true to the souls of individuals to whom we speak and tell the truth. Jesus had the tenderest heart that ever beat in a human breast and yet Jesus said more about hell than any other person in all of the Bible. What a tragedy to be separated from the presence of the Lord forever and forever.
On the positive side, there's glorification for the saved. Verse 10, “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints…”
The Bible says that when the Lord comes, he's going to be glorified in His saints. Not with his saints, not by his saints, but IN his saints.
It's the picture of a filament. An electric current goes through it, and it glows when the current passes through the filament. The Bible says that the Son of God is going to be glorified in God's saints. What a picture. “…to be admired in all them that believe…”
Have you ever thought about the fact that, as a saved individual, one of these days out there in eternity, you are going to be a source of wonder and amazement to the whole universe? People are going to look at you and gasp in wonder and glory in what Jesus Christ did in and through you.
We sometimes sing, "He's still working on me, to make me what I ought to be."
He is working on us and in us, and the Bible says that one of these days he is going to be glorified in us when He comes, in the beautiful timing of the Lord.
Your Friend and HIS,
Pastor Abbott
MEDITATIONS
1. According to verse seven, in what can people who are troubled find rest?
2. When Christ returns to judge the world, He will rip open the skies and appear with His angels in flaming fire. What does this tell you about the power of Christ?
3. Describe in detail who is being punished in verse 9, and what does it mean to be punished with everlasting destruction?
4. How should the reality of judgment affect us? How should it affect our witness to others?
5. What kind of reaction is described in verse 10? What does this mean to you?