God Will Bring Justice for You, Part 2

2 Thessalonians 1: 6-9

Today, Pastor Colin unpacks a biblical truth that is both difficult and deeply impactful. It regards the eternal destiny of those who do not know Jesus and its implications not only on our theology but also on our character and conduct.

Join us as Pastor Colin shares this profound message from 2 Thessalonians, where the Apostle Paul writes about the stern reality of eternal destruction, which is starkly juxtaposed against the Lord’s glorious might. These words carry immense weight, yet rather than spurring callousness, they can amplify our compassion and fervor for prayer, reflecting the transformative power that steeping in this hard truth can bring about.

In today’s message, “God Will Bring Justice for You,” Colin will help us explore six practical applications of this scriptural truth, touching upon aspects like sustaining faith amidst suffering, curbing desires for revenge, and deepening empathy for those who wrong us. Moreover, we’ll delve into the significance of the cross and the urgency of responding to the gospel—a call to repentance, belief, and following Christ wholeheartedly. After all, grasping the reality of eternal judgment propels us towards embracing and proclaiming the good news of Christ’s redeeming love all the more fervently.

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. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, you’ve got our attention. What is this hard truth? Well, we’re in the second letter of Thessalonians, and I think this is one of the hardest statements in all of the Bible with regards to the future eternity of those who are lost without Jesus Christ. And this is what the Scripture said, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. The cumulative weight of that is almost overwhelming. And you think, what effect will a truth like that have on a person’s soul? If a person actually believes in eternal destruction, as the Bible speaks about that here, isn’t that going to make us kind of brutal, sort of violent people? And actually, the reality is, where that is most deeply believed, it produces a tenderness that knows what it is to pray for the lost and seize the value of what Christ accomplished on the cross. I find that in my own experience, I find that in the pattern of Scripture. And we’re going to talk about one of the hardest truths in the Bible today. And we’re going to do it with the intent that God, by his grace, will produce tenderness of heart in us as a result. And with that introduction, we’ll open the Bible at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verses 6 to 9 today. As we continue our message, God will bring justice for you. Here’s Colin. 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. 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 hand 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. 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. 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. Look, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, he says, live at peace with everyone. 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. God will deal with this. You can leave it to him. Here’s the third application, and it’s along the same lines. He says this, to increase your compassion for people who harm you. 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? 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. Number four, use this truth to help you understand what happened at the cross. Now folks, this takes us to the very heart of Christianity today. Jesus Christ came into the world because there is a future catastrophe that you need saving from. That’s true for every one of us. Now think with me about the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes into the world. We’ve celebrated that at Christmas. Then for three years of ministry, Jesus does so much good. Think of what Jesus did in the three years of his ministry. He’s feeding the hungry. He’s healing the sick. He is giving the greatest teaching that this world has ever heard at any time in its history. He did so much good in just three years. How much more good could he have done if he had gone on doing the same things for 30 years or another 50 years? Yet he says to his disciples again and again that he has come into the world in order to die. Now if you think about that, it will produce this obvious question. What could he then accomplish by dying that he could not accomplish by living? And the answer is right here. He died as a sacrifice and in the great love and mercy of God, our sins were laid on him. Isaiah says it plainly. The Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all. He can’t bear our sins and be a sacrifice living. He has to do it by entering into death, dying. That’s why he came into the world. And bearing our sins, our sins being laid on him, inevitably meant him bearing the punishment that is tied to these sins and that is precisely what was happening at the cross. Isaiah says it plainly. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message, God will bring justice for you. We’re going to pause the message right there, but we’ll be back shortly. Open the Bible is supported on this station and on the internet by regular donations from our listeners. This month, if you’re able to set up a new donation in the amount of five pounds 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 are able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more. Let’s get back to the message now. Here in the second letter to the Thessalonians, chapter one and verses six to nine. Here’s Colin. So use what we’re learning in the Bible today. It has multiple uses. Use it to understand what was going on in the cross. Then here’s the fifth thing. Use this to motivate your obedience to the gospel. Now I hope you still have your Bible open in front of you, and will you notice what it says there in verse eight, describing the ones who are outside, experiencing the everlasting destruction, shut out from the presence of the Lord. Who are they? We’re told in verse eight that they are those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. So the ones who are outside, we read in the scripture, are those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So if I want to be delivered from that unspeakable eternity, if I want to be inside with the light and the joy and the presence of those who are redeemed by Jesus Christ, what must I do? If those who are outside are those who do not obey the gospel, what I must do, the one thing I must do, the thing that will determine your eternity, friend, is you must obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. You must. This matters more than anything else in your life. It is more pressing and of more consequence than anything else you can imagine in this world. It has to be. We’ll say what that means in just a moment, but first just this. I am so glad that it speaks about obeying the gospel, because think with me. If it had said those who do not obey the law are outside with this everlasting punishment and are excluded from the presence of the Lord forever, if it said those who don’t obey the law are outside, that’s all of us, isn’t it? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If I have to keep the law in order to get in, I don’t get in. No one has lived a perfect life. So what we’re learning here, even in this very verse, is that salvation does not come by obeying the law, which we can’t do, but by obeying the gospel, which by God’s grace we can do. You say, okay, tell me, what does it mean to obey the gospel? Jesus made it so clear in just three words. The first word was the word repent. God commands all people everywhere to repent. Jesus came preaching and calling people to repent. You say, well, now what does that mean? Well, repentance is a decisive turning away from all that God calls sin in order that I may offer myself and my life, all that I am, to Jesus Christ. And it begins when I say, in the light of the cross and in the light of him going into that hell for me and bearing my sin, my life can no longer be about myself. It has to be for Jesus Christ. You say, well, now wait a minute, how can I do that? I know myself. I know my habits. I know my own stubbornness. I know how difficult it is to change. How am I going to do this repenting? Here’s the second thing, and the answer to it, you must believe. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a real relationship here between you and Christ. That relationship is formed by faith. What does it mean? It means you trust that he is the son of God. It means that you trust his death for your sins, and you trust the power of his life to enable you to change. You trust that his grace and his power are sufficient for everything that you will face in your life now and through the future and even in death and into eternity. You trust Christ. That’s how this life is lived. That’s how this change is accomplished. You trust Christ, and you trust Christ because Christ is altogether worthy of your trust. No one deserves your trust more than him. And here’s the third thing, you follow, you follow. James Denny says, and I love this simple statement, he says, salvation is not only a gift, it is a vocation. I love that. Salvation is not only a gift, it is a vocation, a calling, a life. And it begins when we respond to the words of the Lord Jesus who says to every one of us today, follow me, follow me. Repent, believe, follow, obey the gospel. And you may have been saying to yourself for some time, well, you know, I will think about Christianity someday. Listen, I have to say to you today, do not be passive about this, please, please. Eternity hangs on it. Your eternity hangs on it. God is calling you through his word. This is how he speaks, he speaks through his word and you’re hearing his word and he’s calling you to repent, to believe in his son and to become a follower of Jesus Christ. You say you’re trying to scare me into that, I’ll do anything to bring you to that. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It’s not everything, but at least it’s a beginning. And if you are moved by thinking about this reality towards faith in Jesus Christ, thank God for it, something’s got to get you moving, otherwise you’re going to drift through the rest of your life and then into an eternity that is outside. So use this to motivate your obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Repent, believe, follow. Here’s the very last thing for all of us here today, and you have embraced Christ, you love Christ, I want you to use this, the last thing, to deepen your joy in the mercy of God. Folks, I’ve been thinking about this scripture all week and this most obvious point never occurred to me until late on. But think about the man who’s writing these words. God is just. He will repay those who persecute the church with an everlasting destruction. Listen, the man who wrote these words once persecuted the church himself, didn’t he? The apostle Paul. Saul of Tarsus was his name then, and he was the terror of the early church, a man of violence, a man arranging murders. And the book of Acts tells us that he was so intense about all of this that, breathing fire and slaughter, the book of Acts says, he was on his way to a place called Damascus. And there he was going to carry out a campaign of violence to persecute Christian believers there. And some of you know this story, Jesus Christ stopped him in his tracks. The ascended Lord, giving a blinding light and then an audible voice, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Well, he was persecuting the church, but you see the point of what the Lord was saying. Saul, you think that your struggle is with Christians. You think that your battle is with the church. I’m telling you, Saul, that your real fight, the fight that’s going on in your soul right now, it’s a fight against me. And Saul of Tarsus is down there in the dust of the road, and he repents and he believes. He becomes a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. He takes a new name because the change in his life is so radical. And Saul of Tarsus becomes the Apostle Paul. And now here he is, the Apostle, and the Spirit of God is on him and giving him these words to write to the church. Can you try and put yourself in his skin in this last moment? What did he feel when he wrote this? I was a blasphemer. I was the persecutor. I was a violent man. I deserve this everlasting judgment. I deserve to be shut out forever and forever, but I have been shown mercy, and it has transformed my life. Friends, that is the power of the gospel. That is the gospel by which we are saved. It is the gospel on which we take our stand. It is the gospel for which we live. It is the gospel that we believe. It is the gospel that we proclaim. It is good news, not only for all of us who are here today, but for everyone in our community and for everyone in our great city, and for every person in this world. Well, this is Pastor Colin, and a message on everlasting destruction is tough to bring. It’s tough to hear, but we desperately need it because it’s speaking about eternal realities that God has revealed to us. You know, there’s a lot of conversation these days about, is hell real? Let me say this to you today. Hell is as real as the cross. You look at what happened on the cross. Jesus Christ was in the darkness. He cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was bearing guilt. He was under the judgment of God. That happened, and the reason that it happened is that there is darkness. There is forsakenness. There is judgment. There is the bearing of guilt, and outside of Christ, what that means is hell itself. And when the Bible speaks about salvation, that wonderful word that we can easily trip over, it speaks about salvation because there’s something that every person needs saving from. And this is the reality, and this is why we need Jesus Christ, why we must come to him, and why when we know him, we want to share his glory and his grace with other people. You know, the darkness of this message shows the brightness of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and why he is infinitely valuable, and why to live for him is the greatest thing in all of life. It absolutely is, and as Colin was talking about what salvation is, and what we’re going to be saved from, maybe you recognize that you need that salvation, that you don’t have that relationship with Jesus that Pastor Colin talks about. I hope you’ll take action today to remedy that. Pray a simple prayer asking God to forgive your sin in the name of Jesus. Dedicate your life to following Jesus, and go and talk to somebody about it, maybe to a trusted Christian friend or family member, or go along to a local Christian fellowship. Meet with the folks there, talk to the pastor, pray with the prayer ministry team. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick, and I very much hope you’ll join us again soon. How does your future look? Discover the glorious future in store for everyone who loves Jesus and longs for his coming. That’s 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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