The Word With Suffering

Take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, you follow as I read verses 1 through 16. Our text for today is 13 through 16, but follow as I read this passage of Scripture. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.

For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ, though we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses in God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.

For you know how like a father with his children we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. We also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea.

For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out, and displeased God and opposed all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved. so as always to fill up the measure of their sins but God wrath has come upon them at last Let pray Once more Father we come to look into your word and we pray that you would help us And again Father that this would not just be something where we can fit this book together and know that we have a little more information, but that your word, which is living and active, penetrate our hearts and help us to change so that we will be better disciples of the Lord Jesus, ready to obey him in every instance and in every area. So help us now, we pray, as we look into this word, and we will thank you for what you're doing in our hearts, in our lives, for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

41 years ago, last Sunday, Beck and I took some vows before God and a number of friends and family and in that ceremony we promised that we would forsake all others and remain true and faithful to one another now you were many of you have been married too do you remember that day let me ask you that reflecting on that day that happened years ago does that motivate you today does it help you do what you're supposed to do as I reflect on my vows that day I think it helped us at least me to stay married when I didn't feel like being married it may come as a surprise to some of you but there are days when you don't feel like being married but you made that vow and reflecting on that past motivates you to be the kind of spouse that you should be that God wants you to be well that's what happened that's what's happening you remember in first Thessalonians as the apostle Paul reflects on what's happened to those people in Thessalonica and he does that He reflects on that for the purpose of motivating them. Now remember that the Apostle Paul, as he writes his friends in Thessalonica, is indeed writing to motivate them. They are champions of the faith, and he wants to cheer them on to a good finish.

He wants to motivate them to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus when it becomes difficult. And you recall that the first part of this book, the first three chapters, are all reflection. It's a reflection on their time together. And then beginning in chapter 4, it's direction, where he starts to direct them as to how they can faithfully live for Christ in their circumstances.

Now the last time we visited this letter, a few weeks ago, we saw the apostle refreshing the memories of the disciples in this city about the nature of their ministry amongst them Verses 1-12 Some doubts had entered their minds concerning Paul's mission team. After all, they had left quite suddenly when trouble started. Were they manipulators? Were they fast-talking hucksters who blew into town and then took off as soon as trouble started?

What were they? And you remember that Paul reassures them about that ministry. He says to them four things. We came for the purpose of preaching the gospel, and we did not hesitate to do that. We did it with boldness. You know that we ministered God's word with fidelity.

That is, we ministered as people called by God and faithfully fulfilled that commission. Thirdly, he said, you also know we ministered the gospel with selfless love. We didn't just minister the gospel. we didn't just give you the gospel we gave you our lives as well and then finally he says you know that we ministered with integrity our reputation was blameless and we were like fathers among you listen he says to them in verses 1 through 12 keep on going because you know that the message you believed was not manufactured by rip-off artists but delivered by servants of God And so by doing that, he's motivating them to stand firm because he said, our ministry, you know, you remember, he kept saying, you know, you know, you know what our ministry was like.

We weren't manipulators. And so you can stand firm because you got the message from servants of God. Now, in our text this morning, in verses 13 through 16, he turns their attention away from the team's ministry to them. And now he turns their attention then to their reception of that message. Again, he wants them to continue in the faith. And so he moves them in that direction by rehearsing with them how they embraced the gospel.

Let's look at it, verses 13 through 16. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is the word of god which is at work in you believers for you brothers became imitators of the churches of god in christ jesus that are in judea for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and opposed all mankind, by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has come upon them at last. this passage reminds them that their faith is genuine but it also gives us insight into their persecutors who are making their life miserable now first of all this morning then let's see the character of true faith okay the character of true faith verses 13 and 14 but then also as you look at the unbelievers who persecute you you glimpse the character of unbelief verses 15 and 16 now if you would stand firm in the faith remember he's writing to cheer them on see keep going you're doing good and he's saying to them if you would stand firm in the faith then understand the character of true faith look at your faith it's the real deal this is what genuine faith looks at looks like we need to understand the character of true faith as Paul who's now in Corinth sits their writing to them he tells the Thessalonians how thankful he is for them he says every time I think of you guys I thank God we just can't we just can't stop thanking God for you folks because we remember how you accepted the message when we brought it to you you see the mission team came preaching the good news of Christ that is that Jesus had come to save a people and he did it by the most extraordinary way, dying a shameful death as a criminal.

This, in fact, was not the death of a criminal. It was the very means by which the Son of God made atonement for your guilt and redeemed you from the power of sin. And so they came with that message. Jesus has come, the Son of God has come to save a people and that he had been raised from the dead to rule and to reign over those people as king and lord expecting obedience to all that he had taught them this was the message they came and he says and you believed it you embraced it you exercised faith in it you bowed your knee before the lord jesus christ What you must see here in verse 15 is he says, When we, me and Silas and Timothy, mere men, proclaimed that message to you, you accepted it as the very word of God.

You, the true faith, so what is he saying here? True faith believes the right thing about the gospel. The message comes from God. The gospel is the word of God. It is not something made up by men. The gospel is the very word of God.

It is a message that comes from God. It is not just what men have made up. He says, you possess faith. That is, you believe the right things. You've got the facts right. it's not enough just to say yeah jesus came and he died on the cross and they say he was raised from the dead i believe that that's good it's not enough to say that by the way you got to believe that that's the very message from god that that is the way that god says that you're saved that that is the way that god says you're reconciled to him you believe that's the word of god you believe that that message comes to you from God you got to believe that it's not good enough just to acknowledge the facts you've got to say those are more than facts that's the very word of God it comes from God himself many people don't believe that some people ask how can we possibly believe that God needed some sort of satisfaction before he was prepared to forgive can't God forgive I mean he's got to have a sacrifice?

He's got to be appeased? Surely not. And that Jesus provided that sacrifice as a substitute for the punishment sinners deserve? Are these notions, are they not unworthy of God? That's nothing more than a hangover from primitive religions. It's immoral to believe such things.

I've even read some who have said, if you really believe that, then you have to believe that God is a cosmic child abuser. You put God in the category of child abuser if that's what you believe. Yeah there are people who say that One British writer put it this way Jesus would not have preached to us of a God who would be appeased by the cruel sacrifice of a tortured body I cannot accept either the hypothesis that the appalling death of Jesus was a sacrifice in the eyes of God for the sins of the world, or that God, in the shape of his Son, tortured himself for our redemption.

I find such religious ideas to be amongst the least attractive in the whole of anthropology. right and these things are said by people who claim to be christians right they say yeah we believe in god we believe in forgiveness sure god can forgive but all this bloody stuff about him torturing his own son in order to appease his wrath please that's unworthy of god that's not from god paul would later say in the book of first corinthians what that people look at this message as what? Foolishness. Foolishness.

It's foolishness to some and a scandal to others. Who could possibly believe that? But God's word here says that that message is the very word of God. That indeed it is not a hangover from some primitive religion. That God is not some cosmic child abuser. Rather this is the very word of God.

This message comes from God himself it's not to be questioned it's to be believed this is the word of God you see and that message he says in verse 15 was I'm sorry verse 13 was confirmed as the word of God by the fact that it is at work in you who believed you see that the end of verse 13 not as the word of men but as it really is the word of God which is at work in you believers no human message no matter how wise no matter how eloquent can ever transform a human life only the word of God can do that only the gospel can do that and the gospel is not a message about how to have the best life now. It's not a self-help message. It's not how to live a virtuous life or how to overcome personal and social issues.

It's not that. The gospel is alive and it transforms you. Look at what it did to them Just as a reminder look back at chapter 1 This is what happens when the gospel comes Chapter 1 verses 1 through 7 we give thanks to God or verse 2 we give thanks to God for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

See what it does? It produces faith, love, and hope. For we know, brothers, loved by God, has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the holy spirit with full conviction it comes and it powerfully works in you you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the lord for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the holy spirit so you became an example to all the believers in macedonia and so forth so it's changed them and what's the last thing he says it says it's taken you you idolaters whose whole life was devoted to this way of thinking in this way of living and you abandon those idols and embrace this invisible god who's manifested himself in the person of the lord jesus christ and you've thrown everything out in order to have everything that he is you see that's what the gospel does it transforms lives transforms lives you know what and all of us have this i'm going to fully admit it all of us have this thought how do i know this is really true you've had those thoughts don't look at me like you've never thought that i every one of you have thought that at some time i how do i know this is really god's i don't know this is true you know one of the things that speaks to me is over the years of ministry I've met people I can think of one in particular who has lived a certain kind of life and then he came to Christ and he is a totally different person now and I've met scores of people like that I remember one guy saying to me you know before I became a Christian I'd look at the Bible and say oh how do you ever get through that thing he says now I can't wait to get home and open it up and read it if there's anything that shows to me the truth of the word of God it's that.

I have seen lives completely transformed by the renewing effect of the gospel. Many of you here know exactly what I'm talking about because your life has been transformed. It has changed You now love the things you used to hate and you hate the things you used to love You see It the Word of God because it transforms you How has your life been transformed How has your life been transformed?

So what is the character of true faith? At least it begins here. It believes that the message of salvation through Jesus is the message from God. True faith embraces that fact, that the message of salvation in Jesus is the very word of God. But true faith not only believes the truth, it also remains faithful to the truth. Verse 14.

And that's important for us to see. Notice what he says here. Again, when you're reading the word of God, pay attention to the words. He says, and we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of God, but as what it really is, the word of God, not as the word of men, but as it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers, for, there's that important word, for you brothers became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews.

Now, do you see what he's saying there? How does he know that they believe that the gospel message is the word of God? How is he convinced of that? He's convinced of that because they suffered like their brothers and sisters in the churches in Judea. He's saying, we know that you accepted our message as God's word because you maintained your faith in the gospel in the midst of suffering.

You maintained your faith. Suffering came and you held fast. How do I know you believed that this is the word of God? Because when the pressure was on, you did not abandon that. You stayed true to that. You not only embraced the truth, you remained faithful to the truth.

You see? Suppose, for a moment, you could be arrested for believing that aliens were watching us. Let's just suppose that. You say you believe that. But that becomes illegal. We don't want people believing that.

So the police show up at your house with a warrant for your arrest for becoming a member of the alien watching society. Okay? If you really aren't wholehearted in that, what are you going to do? Well, first thing you might do is you might protest. And you might say, look, stop. No, don't arrest me.

Look, I, I, okay, I'm just, I'm just curious, okay? I'm not, I don't really believe that. I'm just kind of curious about it, okay? I'm not breaking the law. You might even go so far as to disassociate yourself from those who believe that. You might say, look, bring a statement that says I don't believe it, I'll sign it.

That's no problem, okay? or when you find out the beliefs were illegal you resigned your membership in the alien watching society okay either way you're you that's going to show that you really don't believe it but see these folks did not protest and they did not distance themselves from their newfound faith when the pressure started they held on they held on he says you became imitators of the churches in Judea. Now it's not like they said, let's be like them. It's that in the process of persecution and hanging on to their faith, they imitated what happened in Judea.

And by the way, Paul knows all about that. You know why? He was the one doing the persecuting back then. He knew about it. He knew about it firsthand. You go back and read in Acts, you read about Peter being thrown in jail.

You You read about the Herod who was persecuting the church. You read about Stephen being stoned. All these things are going on. Persecution breaks out in Jerusalem. And so they became like them. They held fast to the faith.

Look at chapter 1 again, verse 6. Right? Verse 6. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affection with the joy of the Holy Spirit. even in the midst of persecution for your newfound faith you were still joyful you accepted it with joy you see this is a wholehearted faith that remains faithful to your belief if you want to think of it this way it remains faithful to your faith now what did they suffer well we're not sure we can go back to Acts chapter 17 where some of the the story of the founding of this church is found we've been there a few times already let's just recall together what happened well maybe some sort of legal action you remember that when they went hunting for Paul and the rest of his team that the believers got them out of town But Jason, in whose house they were staying, Jason was hauled before the authorities.

So it's entirely possible that they had faced legal action. They are no doubt socially ostracized. You believe that crazy fable? what are you some kind of cult distant socially ostracized maybe they lost membership in the guilds remember back then if you're a carpenter you belong to the carpenter's guild if you're a plumber you belong to the plumber's guild that's the only way you had work and they often would lose their livelihood because each guild had its patron god and christians refused to offer sacrifices to the patron god of their guilds fine you're out no job you can remember in azerbaijan being there with the believers there many of them lost their jobs when they found out in this muslim nation that they were christians so they might have lost their livelihood um family members hate them now remember like you as believers you brought your children up in the admonition nurture of the Lord.

They did the same thing in their religion. In fact, they would tell them about their gods and what they needed to do to appease them. And now they're saying, we don't want any part of that anymore. What do you think a family is going to do? Well, then you are not part of us anymore. There's all kinds of things that might have happened.

Let me ask you, what do you suffer? Let's be honest and frank here. We haven't reached the point of that yet in our culture. There is pressure, though. We're not suffering, but we are under pressure. how are you responding to the pressure that's being put on you now are you holding fast you see so what is the character of true faith true faith will produce faithfulness true faith produces faithfulness true faith is not simply believing the truth not simply accepting some facts it is that but it goes beyond that it's not simply believing the truth it's faithfulness to that truth you hang on to the truth no matter what the cost how can we abandon this message if it comes from God you see this is how we know you believe because that you believe this is from God Why Because you wouldn abandon it You really believed it came from God and you couldn abandon it You were faithful.

So what's the true character of faith? It's believing the truth and remaining faithful to the truth. Believing the truth and remaining faithful to the truth. So he's motivating them here. Stand fast. your faith i we know you believe this is the word of god stand fast in it you stood so far continue to do that continue to do that now what follows if you notice in verses 15 and 16 paul kind of goes off on a tangent and he starts telling them this is what unbelievers do to you when you believe this word of god it's a description of those who persecute believers paul says what these unbelievers did to the very first believers in judea they did to us and they'll do to you this is what's happening to you it's happened before with these folks in judea it's happened to us it's happening to you.

Unbelieving opposition looks the same wherever it pops up. And so what I want to suggest to you is that you need to understand the character of unbelief. So we've looked at the character of faith. Now as he describes these unbelieving persecutors, he's giving us, if you will, a description of what unbelief looks like. What does it look like? What is the character of unbelief?

Well, the first thing you will note is that unbelief opposes the purpose of God to save a people. Unbelief, unbelief, and you're going to see, you see this all the time. Unbelief doesn't just say, well, that's what you believe. I believe something different it opposes what you believe how do i know that well the first thing he talks about in verse 16 is who killed both the lord jesus and the prophets and drove us out okay they oppose unbelief opposes the lord jesus the first people who heard the good news the first people who heard the good news from Jesus, killed him.

Right? He came with good news What they do They killed him By the way doesn this tell you about the stubborn roots and corruption of sin Jesus comes along and says to them, Look, it's not all about following the rules. It's about believing in me. Now to me, that's good news. I am so glad to hear that God accepts me not on the basis of the fact that I've kept the rules real well but that I've got to abandon my efforts to keep the rules to earn from God and just trust in Jesus and they hated that message and they killed him isn't that something but that's what happens you oppose what Jesus says you don't like what Jesus says.

Someone says, yeah, but no one's killing him now. Come on. That happened back then. Yeah, but watch what happens. No lie. I'm telling you.

Watch what happens when Jesus shows up in any conversation. You know what? You can talk to anybody about forgiveness. You can talk about God. But watch what happens when Jesus comes up in the conversation. Well, we all worship the same God.

We all worship the same God. We have different names. You call him God. I call him Allah. Whatever, whatever his name, we all worship the same God. And you say, well, actually, one time Jesus asserted that you can't know God unless you know him.

Remember, he said that to Philip. He said, Philip, how can you say that? If you know me, then you know God. And the Bible over and over says he's the final revelation of God. You're totally ignorant of God unless you know Jesus. Watch what happens when you say that right well actually that's not true i mean do you worship the god that's revealed in jesus okay now now you're now you've crossed the line all right but god is kind and loving and he'll forgive you if you're sorry well actually he won't see you're his enemy in order to be reconciled to him you've got to entrust yourself to jesus and what he did at calvary What happens to the conversation then?

Right? Or this one. This is what's ruling in our culture today. If you want to live the good life, then be yourself. Just be yourself. Don't let anyone tell you not to be yourself.

Well, actually, Jesus says the good life comes when you deny yourself. And in fact, you let him tell you everything you're supposed to do in every part of your life. It's not what you want to do. It's what Jesus wants you to do. Right? That's the good life.

It's not going to fly. What's the point? unbelief will always oppose Jesus it'll always oppose Jesus it'll always oppose the messengers of salvation looks what he says says they killed the prophets and they drove us out they killed the prophets you remember Elijah back in first kings he's running from Jezebel why because she's put to the sword all the true prophets of God and even though the old testament doesn't talk much about the death of prophets the the Jewish people of that day had their own martyrology in which they they talked about Isaiah being sawed in two during the reign of Manasseh and Jeremiah being stoned by the people who carted him off to Egypt and even though that's not in the Bible that could be true I mean there's a reference to that right in Hebrews 11 some were sawed in two others were stoned right what's the point the point is that messengers come from God and they tell people what God says and they say thus says the Lord and what's the response the response normally is not oh that's God saying that to us we better bow the knee instead what do they do they kill the messenger they kill the messenger there's this consistent settled refusal to hear what God has to say he says they drive us out they drive out the heralds of the gospel Paul and his colleagues face this all the time. Last night as I was getting to the finish line on this sermon, I went and I did a survey in the book of Acts.

I went through quickly the book of Acts that covers Paul's ministry. And here's what you find. Paul and his colleagues face this all the time. They were driven out of Pisidian Antioch. They were driven out of Iconium. They were driven out of Lystra.

In fact, Paul was stoned. You heard it this morning. Paul was stoned and left for dead. they dragged him outside the city and God miraculously healed him and he went on to Derby and then back around he was driven out of Philippi he was driven out of Thessalonica he was driven out of Berea That the story of his ministry He comes in he goes to the synagogue he preaches he gets a following people get angry, and they drive him out of the city.

Somehow they get him out. Short of killing the messengers of the gospel, they seek to get them out of the way. Again, we see this constantly. and I'm not saying we are not being persecuted in this country don't get me wrong but we are our voice is consistently trying to be people are trying to consistently shut out our voice they drive out the heralds of the gospel notice this okay they oppose the purposes of God by opposing Jesus by opposing his messengers the prophets and the heralds of the gospel they even hinder the proclamation of the gospel they oppose the proclamation of the gospel they actually keep the gospel from reaching the ears of those who need to hear it that's what paul says in these actions what do they do they drive us out by and and they displease god and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the gentiles that they might be saved.

He said, they've actually hindered us. People have not heard the news that would save them because of these folks. The Jews in the synagogues hated the message that Paul brought, which was what? That Messiah came not just to reach the Jews. He came to reach all the world. In fact, you see this in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49. You see it in all the major prophets. You see in all the prophets, there is this hint that God is about not just Israel, but about all the world. In Isaiah 49, verse 6, the prophet Isaiah wrote, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. It's too little that you're only going to reach Israel.

What does he go on to say? I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. That's God's always been his intention. And so they actually keep the message from reaching the Gentiles so that they could hear and be saved. I think of the people I met in Azerbaijan so many years ago To speak of the gospel meant prison They were not allowed in that Muslim country They were not allowed to spread the gospel.

They still did, but they did it with the awareness that as Pastor Sadi, the pastor of the church we are in, who served time in prison, knew very well if they tried to communicate the gospel to their neighbors and friends, it could put them in prison. Christian literature that would take the gospel message out was forbidden. I'll never forget the time we came into Baku from where we were staying, the city.

We came into Baku to teach that day. And as we get out, all of a sudden, these people suddenly appear from all over the place, and they start unloading the truck. We have all these Christian books that they're trying to get out and into other cars and out of sight quickly so they can start disseminating it. And I'm thinking, oh my goodness, I was riding in a car that was smuggling Christian literature.

I'm glad we didn't get pulled over. But they keep the message from going out. What does he say about that? He says, in the end, that unbelief actually hates God and man. Notice he says, when they do that, when they do these things, what does it say? It displeases God and opposes. and the word they're opposed means hostility.

It displeases God and it shows hostility towards all mankind. Hindering the gospel displeases God. Many will tell you today, many who call themselves ambassadors of a loving God will say to you that what you believe is a bigoted, narrow-minded, brutal religion because it tells people that they're sinners, that their life is worthless before God, and they're headed for judgment unless they embrace Christ in faith.

And they will say, oh, God hates that. No, no, no, no. Don't you dare talk like that. That is such a bigoted religion. We don't want any of that. God hates that.

Actually, God hates it when you keep that message from going out. God says that actually does not please Him It displeases Him when you keep that message from going out Hindering the gospel is hostile toward mankind What would you do if someone came up with a miraculous cure for lung cancer and said Well, yeah, I got it, but you need to pay for it. That's a little expensive, but it took a long time to develop this.

You need to pay a lot of money for this. what would you say about that person now nobody gets it unless you can pony up the bucks okay cash alone please what would you think of that person yeah i don't hate anybody you'd say yeah you do you're you're an enemy of us if that's what you want to do and and people will say well i don't hate you well no but they they hate mankind if they're going to hinder the life-giving message of the gospel that's hostility toward mankind the very thing that will save them they won't do so unbelief hates both god and man it opposes god's saving purposes and lastly it guarantees the wrath of god it guarantees the wrath of god notice what he says at the end of verse 16 but god's wrath has come upon them at last those who oppose the gospel I missed that phrase. So as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has come upon them at last.

Unbelief guarantees the wrath of God. Those who oppose the gospel fill up the measure of their sins. Now I can remember my mom. I remember my mom saying this. And I would say to you, don't ever say this to your children. But my mom used to say it.

She would say to my brother and I, that's enough. I have had it up to here well usually up to here right it's not going to go on anymore right that's what God is saying look I've had it up to here ever since the prophets you have just been you have just been ignoring me I've been giving you good news and what do you do I've had it up to here you filled it up right now the wrath of God that he talks about here in this book always refers to the future right when you look at verse 10 of chapter 1 how does he put it he says that we have been saved as Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. In this book, the wrath that he always talks about is future, except at this point.

He says that future wrath, it's being displayed right now against these people who are so hard-hearted. They become so hard-hearted, their judgment is inevitable. At last, at last, it's arrived. What does that mean? I'll be honest with you, I had to wrestle with that. What does he mean that the future wrath is being expressed already against those who oppose the message or God's saving purposes?

I think he's talking about like he does, the Apostle Paul does in Romans chapter 1 verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. And what is the wrath? He goes on to describe it as what? giving them over to what they want. And that's quite, I think that's what Apostle Paul is saying.

He's saying, the wrath of God is expressed. He letting them get harder That what they want Does that mean they beyond hope No No there are some who are going to be saved There are some of those unbelievers who oppose the message of God who God will still reach. But those who refuse, who resist, who refuse, resist, who will not listen, they're experiencing wrath already.

Chapter 1, verse 10, we've been delivered from the wrath to come. They oppose. Jesus has delivered us from the wrath to come. We have no fear. But those who refuse to hear, those who resist Him, those who oppose Him, have begun to experience the wrath of God. Well, so what does this text tell us?

Just this. The Word of God calls on you to reflect on the true nature of faith and the true nature of unbelief. It does so in order to give you a firm footing so that you can stand when the pressure's on. You'll be motivated to stand when the pressure's on. You'll be motivated to faithfulness if you understand the true character of faith. That the message you believe is actually the Word of God.

You can count on it You can rest in it You can hang on to it It the very Word of God And being convinced of that you will not abandon it That how you going to continue Faithful to the end If you believe that the Gospel is truly the Word of God, and believing that, staying true to it, you won't abandon it. And you're going to stand firm when you understand the character of unbelief. You're not going to be surprised by what you face.

You know what the opposition is. You know what it does. So don't be surprised. This is the nature of unbelief. Expect it. And you will stand firm.

By knowing this, you're ready to stand. But let me ask you one last question. Where do you stand? Where do you stand right now? Maybe you're one here who said, yeah, I've heard you, Pastor Tim, and I hear you telling me it's the Word of God. I don't know.

I don't know. It's just, you know, I think it's kind of a cruel and bloody thing to say the things that you say about Jesus. I want to plead with you right now that it is the Word of God. That Jesus came to save sinners and He did it by giving his life This is not some manufactured thing This is the very word of God And God calls on you not to resist it, but to embrace it.

Because that is your only hope. And if you do believe that, if you do believe that, then stand firm in it. Embrace it. Love it. Hold on to it. Because it's your life.

Father, thank you for your word. Father, it is delightful to sit and hear the word of God as it reveals our hearts, as it challenges us, as it encourages us. Now help us, we pray. having heard this message from you, the gospel that is the very word of God, we pray that we would be faithful to it. Help us to stand firm, knowing what true faith is and knowing what unbelief is, and to stand firm for your glory.

And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.