God Will Bring Justice for You, Part 1

2 Thessalonians 1: 6-9

Considering the early church’s intense struggles and Paul’s responsive epistles—particularly 2 Thessalonians—Pasor Colin delves into the strength and guidance these scriptural letters offer. The town of Thessalonica saw fresh believers face immediate, overwhelming opposition. Paul’s words still resonate, providing wisdom and comfort for modern Christians similarly enduring ceaseless challenges from society.

In this broadcast, Colin encourages listeners by reminding them of God’s unwavering presence: “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.” As we explore 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 6-9, Colin challenges us to confront uncomfortable truths—those that shape our understanding of God’s justice, promise, and ultimately His character.

Our journey through Scripture today reveals the reality of how hardships can foster compassion and empathy. It’s a testament to how even the toughest biblical truths can foster the gentlest of spirits.

It is always a terrible thing when a particular group of people are picked on, and they are singled out, and they are attacked viciously and repeatedly. And the obvious question for people who are suffering persecution is, where is God in this? Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. And Colin, for someone who is feeling that right now, who is suffering persecution for their faith or for any other reason, they might be asking that question, where is God now? Yeah, and you would not be the first person to ask that question. And the good news is that God has actually given you in the Scripture an entire letter that speaks directly to the question that you are asking right now. I think that in these days more and more Christians are asking the question, you know, how am I to handle the hostility that comes towards me simply because I am a Christian? And 2 Thessalonians is a letter that directly addresses that. It’s absolutely fascinating. When Paul went to this town of Thessalonica, there was a little church that was born, and immediately these new believers just had an onslaught of opposition. And Paul himself had to leave the town, and he was not able to go back. And he wrote these two letters, and we’re in the second letter of Thessalonians today that specifically is about how do you stay the course when you’re just getting tired of the battle. Here are these believers, and it just never ends. There’s just opposition all the time. So if you’re experiencing that in your family, or maybe in your workplace, and just the pressure that’s against you because you belong to the Lord just seems to be relentless, then there is a letter in the New Testament that very specifically is for the issue that you’re facing. And do you know where God is in all of this right now? He’s standing right with you, and He has said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. So today we’re in the second letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 1, and verses 6-9, if you can join us. As we begin this message, God will bring justice for you. Here’s Colin. You know that it is often tempting for the preacher to fit the message to what people want to hear. But you will know this in your own experience as I know it in mine. I am not helped by people who only say what I want to hear. I am helped by people who say it like it is. And I especially need people in my life who will confront me with what I may be hiding from without even knowing that I’m hiding from it. And I need to hear, we all need to hear what God has to say, especially, especially where that makes us feel uncomfortable. And so I want us to kind of home in on this a little before we get into what the Scripture is saying to us here. Think about it. You could spend your whole life shaping a personalized God to your own liking. Shaping in your mind, hammering it out, a God who loves what you love, a God who says what you want to hear, a God who calls you to live as you’re already living. That God would only be a projection of yourself. And at the end of the day, what good is a God who’s designed by you? Really? A God who is shaped by you will die with you. A God who was shaped by me would die with me. Such a God cannot help us because he or she has no existence apart from us. And the Bible has a word for that. The word is simply idolatry. In ancient times, the idols, you know, were made of wood, and they were made of stone, and they were made of metal. In our more sophisticated times, the idols are not so much metal, they are mental. We hammer them out in the caverns of our minds. This is who we think God is. This is what I want him to be like. And that is precisely why so many people in our culture today are convinced that Christianity is simply a projection of human thought, mixed in with a power play by the church. And I want to try and open your mind up to something else this weekend. What if God was before us? What if he is without us? What if he always will be despite us? What if we are dependent on him, not him dependent on us? What if God were abundantly good, and you are part of a world that is rebelling against him? What if God is love, and you are spending much of your life running away from him? What if God sees a future disaster that you don’t even know about yet, and is already reaching out to deliver you from that catastrophe? Well, folks, I have been studying this book all of my life, and that is exactly the message that I find here. God comes to us and he says, I am who I am. I’m not whoever you want me to be. And he speaks to us in this book so that we may find him, so that you can know him, and so that we may be able to enjoy him forever. So I hope you’ll open your Bible with me at the second book of Thessalonians. We saw last week that this letter was written to encourage Christians who were being persecuted. Now let’s pause there for a moment. Persecution is always a terrible thing. A particular group of people, and it varies at different times and different places, but it is always a terrible thing when a particular group of people are picked on, and they are singled out, and they are attacked viciously and repeatedly. And the obvious question for people who are suffering persecution is, where is God in this? How are we supposed to stand up under this and survive through it? And this letter that’s open in front of us today is given to give us the answer. Now I’ve asked two questions of these verses that I hope you have open in front of you. The first question is simply, what does this say? And the second question is, how can I use what I learn here in my life? First of all, then, what does this say? Simply, I want to show you what you can see for yourself if you have a Bible right there in front of you in these verses. Two things. Number one, it says that God is just. Verse six, God is just, and he will pay back trouble for those who trouble you. Now folks, the justice of God is not always obvious in this world. People who do good often suffer, people who do evil often prosper. But God is just, and even though his justice may be hidden now, verse seven tells us it will become obvious when Jesus Christ is revealed. Now this is very important because the justice of God is a central truth in all of the Bible. God never acts out of vindictiveness, but we are being reminded here he always acts out of justice. So you can have absolute confidence before we go any further that not one person will be punished for a single sin that they did not actually commit. You can be absolutely confident that no one will ever be punished by God in a way that is disproportionate to the offense that they have committed. And you can be confident that no one will escape the judgment or the justice of God because God knows all things and nothing is hidden from him. No one intimidates God, no one has leverage against him. You can have confidence in the absolute justice of God. That’s the first thing. God is just. Now here’s the second thing that follows from it, and it’s in verse eight. God will punish. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Now it’s a plain statement. And then we are given two descriptions of this punishment. Notice them in verse nine. The first is they will be punished with everlasting destruction. Now just pause there for a moment, folks. Everlasting destruction. Now the combination of these two words, everlasting destruction, is to me absolutely terrifying. Is it not to you? But the meaning is absolutely clear. This is a destruction that is without end. It is, in the words of Matthew Henry, to be always dying and never to die. Now you may say, now wait a minute. This sounds disproportionate. How can any sin deserve an everlasting punishment? If God is just, how can he punish like this? And you know what? The best answer I ever heard to that question, and it’s a good question, was given by a friend of mine who was talking to middle school students. And he said this. Suppose a middle school student punches another member of the class. What happens? Well, he’s going to get a detention. Suppose that in the detention, he punches the teacher. Oh, he’s going to get expelled from the school. Suppose that on the way home from school, he punches a policeman. He’s going to end up in the jail. Suppose that some years later, he joins a crowd there to see the visit of the President of the United States. And as the President walks by, he lunges forward to punch the President of the United States. He’s shot dead by the Secret Service. Now think about it. The offense in every case is exactly the same. But the gravity of the offense and the consequence of the offense is measured by what? The person against whom it is committed. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message God will bring justice for you. It’s part of our series Staying the Course When You’re Tired of the Battle. And don’t forget, if you ever miss one of our broadcasts, you can always catch up or go back and listen again online. Go to openthebible.org.uk You can also find our messages as podcasts. Go to your favorite podcast site, look for Open the Bible UK and subscribe to the podcast to receive regular updates. Let’s get back to the message now. We’re in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verses 6 to 9. Here’s Colin. The gravity of the offense and the consequence of the offense is measured by what? The person against whom it is committed. Now ask this question. What comes from sinning against God? Answer, everlasting destruction. Then there’s a second description. Verse 9, do you see it there? They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord. Now to be shut out from the presence of the Lord means to be without hope. It means to be without love forever. James Denny says it like this, obey the gospel and you will enter into light in which there is no darkness. Disobey the gospel and you will enter into darkness in which there is no light. He speaks of this as a night on which no morning ever dawns. So folks, very simply, I’m just saying to you what you can see for yourself in the Bible. This is what it says. God is just and therefore he will punish and he will punish through an everlasting destruction and those who are so punished will be shut out from the presence of the Lord forever and this will happen when Jesus Christ is revealed. Now let’s pause there for a moment. Friends, this is one of the hardest truths in all of the Bible, but you know what I’ve found? The hardest truths can produce the most tender of hearts and I’m going to show you how that is the case in just a moment here. And I give you this promise that if you will grasp this most difficult of truths that is plainly stated here in the Bible, it will soften your heart. God will make you as a result of believing this more tender towards him and more tender towards other people as well. I promise you and I’ll show you how in just a moment. So let me suggest to you now six ways in which you can use this truth that is so plainly stated for us in the Bible today. Number one, use this truth to sustain your faith in a suffering world. Now if you have suffered at the hands of another person or if you have a loved one who has suffered at the hands of others as these early Christians were clearly suffering greatly at the hands of violent people who were causing agonies in their lives, you will ask the question, where is God in this? Honestly, in a suffering world, are there any of us in this congregation here who have not asked the question, where is God in this? We all ask that question, every single one of us. And I want to say to you that this truth helps when you are asking that question and here’s why. Because it reminds us that when you see the righteous suffering and the wicked prospering, you have not yet seen the end of the story. And God says to suffering believers, to those who are doing good and are suffering in it and for it, there is a day coming when Jesus Christ will be revealed. This is a word that some of us need to hear today. You are right in the middle of suffering as you are doing what is right. And the Lord Jesus Christ says to you, you will see on that day when Jesus Christ is revealed, you will then see the full measure of God’s justice and you will then see the full measure of God’s love. So use this in the meantime to sustain your faith in a suffering world. That’s a huge part of the answer as to how we live in this world where so often the righteous suffer and so often the wicked prosper. You need this truth and you need to use it to sustain your faith when sometimes you see things that you cannot begin to understand or begin to explain. Second, use this truth to restrain your desire to even the score. Now this is just practical stuff in life, folks. When someone hurts you, your natural instinct will be that you want to hurt them back. That’s in all of us. They brought you down, you want to bring them down. Now you look into your own heart, you see something of this ill will towards another person. How do you restrain that desire to even the score? And again, I’m saying to you today that this truth that we’re learning helps. Listen to how it’s applied in Romans in chapter 12. Paul says this, now look, if it is possible as far as it depends on you, he says, live at peace with everyone. You say, hey Paul, is your head in the clouds? You realize what goes on in this world and you’re saying live at peace with everyone as far as it’s possible on me? He says, here’s how. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath because it is written, it is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord. Now you see the truth that’s being brought into the picture here, it’s the truth that we’re looking at from 2 Thessalonians. God will repay the wrong. So, leave room, Paul says, for God’s wrath. Look, here’s it put simply, as simply as I can. You don’t need to take it into your hands if you know that it’s in his. That’s what he’s saying. You don’t know that, you’ll always be taking, putting everything right into your own hands. God will deal with this. You can leave it to him. And so it’s on this foundation that in Romans the apostle goes on to say, so if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. How can you do that? Only if you know that justice can be left in the hands of God. Otherwise, you’ll always be caught up in evening the score with someone who’s wounded you. See why I say that the hardest of truth can produce the most tender of hearts? Here’s a third application and it’s along the same lines. Use this to increase your compassion for people who harm you. And some of us in the congregation have known what it is for another person to do terrible things. And then you read the Bible and you read Jesus says this, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. And here you are, you’re a Christian. And so you want to take every word that Jesus said absolutely seriously and you think of what someone has done to you and you read these words, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. And you’re saying to yourself, how in the world do I begin to do that? Where would I even start? How is it possible? Oh, you know, if someone has done something terrible and then that person sees what he or she did and they truly repent, well then you might find it in your heart to forgive them. But if they go on, as sometimes is the case, with absolutely no awareness of what they have done for you, if even worse they continue to do the same thing in the lives of others, then how in the world are you going to have compassion for them? Now these are deep things in life, friends, but I simply want to say this, the teaching that we are considering in the Bible today helps. Let me show you how. When you think about everlasting destruction in relation to that person, when you think about what that would mean for them to be shut out from the presence of the Lord forever, I tell you, you would not wish that on your worst enemy. You would not. And the more clearly you grasp this truth, the more you will be helped to pray for those who persecute you. And here is what you will find. Bitterness cannot survive long when you begin to pray. Compassion will sneak in through the back door of your heart. It really will. I’ve proved it in my own life, as countless of you have as well. That’s why I’m saying to you that this hardest of truths, when it is embraced and it is internalized, can produce the most tender of hearts. And some of you have discovered freedom precisely here. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and the message, God will bring justice for you. It’s part of our series, Staying the Course, When You’re Tired of the Battle. And if you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or if you want to go back and listen again, why don’t you come to our website, openthebible.org.uk, and there you can listen to any of our previously broadcast messages. You can also find them as podcasts. Go to your favorite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK, and subscribe to the podcast to receive regular updates. You can also find on our website, and as podcasts, Open the Bible Daily. That’s a series of short two to three minute reflections, a new one every day, read by Sue McLeish and written by Pastor Colin Smith. Open the Bible is supported on this station and on the internet by regular donations from our listeners, and we’d like to thank you for that. If you don’t already donate to the work of Open the Bible, but you feel it’s something you’d like to do, we have an offer for you. This month, if you’re able to set up a new donation in the amount of £5 per month or more, we’d love to send you two copies of a book. It’s called More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. Colin, give us an idea of what’s in this book. Well, the first thing to say is that it has stood the test of time. This book has been around for more than 40 years, and God has used it in the lives of many people. It sold more than 15 million copies. That is remarkable. Now, someone might say, well, a book that was written 40 years ago is hardly going to be relevant to today. So here’s the good news. It has been updated to speak to some of the questions that we are facing today, and that work has been done by Josh McDowell’s son, Sean McDowell, and it’s been done really well. So this new edition is going to bring a time-tested book to a new generation, and it’s a marvellous story. Josh McDowell started out by asking some fundamental questions of his own life, and these are questions that never change. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? And he was challenged by some friends to make a serious investigation into the claims of Christianity. He started out on that thinking that he was going to disprove Christianity, and what he found was that the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ laid hold of his mind and of his heart, and that story is told very wonderfully in this book. So this is a very useful book, both for believers, so that we will be better equipped to testify to Christ, and also for anyone who has serious questions about Christianity and is looking for answers, more than a carpenter, updated after 40 years for a new generation. This is really a special gift, and I’m delighted that we have the opportunity of sharing this book this month. We’d love to send you two copies of this book if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per month or more. Full details of the offer and to give online go to openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I hope you’ll be able to join us again soon. The hardest truths in the Bible can soften your heart. Find out how next time on Open the Bible.

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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Sermons on 2 Thessalonians Most people can put up with trouble for a little while…but when the problems keep coming, it begins to wear you down. You’ve been in the trenches of a tough battle and there’s no end in sight. What you need is the strength to keep going, an understanding of your enemy,

Colin Smith

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