Title: Salvation from Separation
Text: 2 Thessalonians 1: 6-10
Date: January 6, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
2 Thessalonians 1: 6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to
recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; 7 And to you who are troubled rest with us,
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,8: In
flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9: Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 10:
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them
that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
Subject: Salvation
from Separation
Proposal:
Christ Jesus saves his people from the separation of hell by bearing that
separation himself in our place on the cross.
Divisions:
1) We will look at what hell will be for the unbeliever; 2) We will look at how
God’s people are saved; 3) We will look at what heaven will be for the believer
I. WHAT WILL THE ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OF HELL
BE FOR THE UNBELIEVER?
Righteous Tribulation
The day
of judgment and hell will be the righteous recompense of tribulation from God—“seeing
it is a righteous thing with God.” God
is Righteous. Everything God does is
right. It will be a righteous thing with
God.
Just Vengeance
The day
of judgment will be the just vengeance of God when the Lord Jesus Christ is
revealed—“in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Vengeance will be the meeting out of justice by God. For those who know not God, and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, scripture describes everything about the
day of Christ’s return and judgment as “flaming fire.” Whether it will be actual
fire or not, I do not know, but flaming fire is one of those things that we equate
with great pain and torment—and that it shall be.
Remember
how Mt. Sinai quaked with fire and the people ran in fear? Sinner, if Christ
returns while as yet you remain in your sin, under the curse from breaking
God’s holy law, the holy justice of God demands that everything about his
return will be just vengeance of flaming fire upon you.
Christ himself
will be revealed from heaven in flaming fire upon you. His mighty angels will be revealed from
heaven in flaming fire upon you. His
vengeance shall be flaming fire upon you.
The eternity of hell shall be flaming fire upon you. In Mark 9, the Lord Jesus describe it as the
“fire that is never quenched; the worm that never dies.”
Matthew 13: 40: As therefore the tares are gathered and
burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41: The Son of man
shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all
things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42: And shall cast them into a
furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
It will
be just because they obeyed not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They would not believe Christ. Those who meet God under the curse will do so
because they would not submit to the truth that Christ alone is the Holiness and
Righteousness of his people, the manifestation of the Righteousness of God. God
is satisfied with his Son and those resting in his Son alone. Instead, they called God a liar and looked to
their vain wisdom and works. They shall meet
God under the curse and condemnation of his holy law so it will be the just
fire of holy justice on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Everlasting Destruction
Hell
will be the punishment of everlasting destruction—“who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction.” Everlasting
destruction means it is not the end of being.
It is the only the end of all well-being. It is
not the end of life but it is the end of all the comforts of life in eternal
destruction which never ends.
God is
eternal so his justice is eternal. Eternal justice can never be satisfied by
man who is not eternal. God’s punishment of the wicked will last
eternally. The wages of sin is death and
that death is death that never dies, not the first physical death, but the
“second death.”
Revelation 20: 6: Blessed and holy is he that hath part
in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they
shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand
years.
Revelation 21:8: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and
the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters,
and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone: which is the second death.
Separation from the Presence of the Lord and
from the Glory of his Power
The sum
and substance of this righteous tribulation, this just vengeance, and the everlasting
destruction of hell will be separation from the presence of the Lord and from
the glory of his power—“who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”
Sin
makes a sinner desire that which is the worst possible thing for him—to flee
from the presence of the Lord. When
Adam sinned and God came into the garden, Adam and Eve “hid themselves from the
presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” Throughout his life
he does the same. There is a description of a man’s life in Job 21:
Job 21: 7: Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea,
are mighty in power? 8: Their seed is established in their sight with them, and
their offspring before their eyes. 9: Their houses are safe from fear, neither
is the rod of God upon them. 10: Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their
cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. 11: They send forth their little ones
like a flock, and their children dance. 12: They take the timbrel and harp, and
rejoice at the sound of the organ. 13: They spend their days in wealth, and in
a moment go down to the grave. 14: Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us;
for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. 15
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should
we have, if we pray unto him? 16: Lo, their good is not in their hand: the
counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Likewise
in the day when Christ returns the desire of the wicked will be to flee from
presence of the Lord.
Isaiah 2: 20: In that day a man shall cast his idols of
silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship,
to the moles and to the bats; 21: To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into
the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his
majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
So when
his holy angels bring men before him for judgment, Christ’s sentence will be to
give them what they wanted all their lives.
Matthew 25: 41: Then shall he say also unto them on the
left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels:… 46: And these shall go away into everlasting punishment:
But
that will not be the end of the second death, that will, itself, be the
punishment of the second death. It will be a place far removed from the glory
of his power. Christ the Lord is the glory of God. He upholds all things by the word of his
power.
Hebrews 1:3: Who being the brightness of his glory, and
the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power…
2 Peter 3:7: But the heavens and the earth, which are
now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
It is
the glory of the power of the Lord that keeps the hell in men’s hearts, the
very heart of enmity within sinners, from breaking out in unbridled wrath. Think
of the evil you see in the world now: murder, war, robbing and so on. But the Lord only permits the wrath which
praises him, the remainder he restrains—by the glory of his power. He does so for his glory and the good of
those given him of the Father, but though they know it not, even the unbeliever
benefits from Christ upholding all things by his power. But when Christ says, “Depart from me” and
removes his presence and the glory of his power from the wicked, there will
only be “outer darkness and wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Can you imagine a place without the stability
of Christ upholding all things and restraining the wrath of the wicked? It will
outer darkness without the glory of his light. (Mt 8: 12; 13: 42, 50; 22: 13;
24: 51; 25: 30) It is called “a lake of fire” because without the glory of his
power it will be a place “as unstable as water.” And the hell of hell will be an
everlasting sight that is never dimmed.
Luke 13: 28: There shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets,
in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out…16: 26:…between us and you
there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you
cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
One of
the most fearful things for a prosecuting attorney is to be thrown into prison
with prisoners he has prosecuted. So it will be for the false preacher, father
and mother, who did not teach the truth.
II. HOW ARE GOD’S PEOPLE SAVED FROM THIS
SEPARATION OF ETERNAL DESTRUCTION?
That
second death will be eternal destruction because we are not eternal. But God
the Son is eternal. He came and joined himself with human nature that he might
fulfill all righteousness and condemn sin in the flesh for those given him of
the Father. On the cross of Calvary, Christ
Jesus, being God the Son, offered his Manhood through the eternal Spirit, by
which he satisfied eternal justice for his people.
Righteous Tribulation and Just Vengeance
Christ
on the cross was made sin for his people.
God was right and just in punishing him because “the LORD hath laid on
him the iniquity” of all the elect of God.
With the sin of his people laid upon him, he became the guilty one in
place of his people.
Leviticus 16:21: And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon
the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the
children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting
them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit
man into the wilderness: 22: And the goat shall bear upon him all their
iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the
wilderness.
Even in
the type, the shadow, that scapegoat was reckoned so impure that the fit man
had to be washed before he could come back into the camp.
Eternal Destruction
Christ
suffered eternal destruction and finished it for his people when he offered
himself through the eternal Spirit. In
the picture the scapegoat was presented to the LORD alive, to make atonement
with the goat that died. The second
death—the curse—will be a living death.
On the cross, Christ was alive when he was made a curse for us—he was
bearing that living death.
Separation from the Presence of God and from
the Glory of his Power
We saw
that this second death will be separation from the presence of the Lord and the
glory of his power in justice. So God in
justice forsook Christ on the cross.
Isaiah 53: 8: He was cut off out of the land of the
living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
Darkness
covered the earth for 3 hours.
Matthew 27: 46: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with
a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Christ
was paying the wages of that second death his people owed to divine justice
when he was cut off from the presence and glorious power of the Lord. He cried, “My God, my God why hast thou
forsaken me.” His heel was bruised by Satan.
He bore wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Christ bore the worm that never dies when he cried, “I am worm and no
man.” At the same time, he was the High
Priest of his people who remained holy in soul, entering into the presence of
God—the holiest of holies—with his own blood.
Hebrews 9: 12:…by
his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us.
Righteousness
entered in. Justice was satisfied.
Redemption was accomplished.
John 19: 28: After this, Jesus knowing that all things
were now accomplished,…30: When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he
said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
The
wages of sin—the death that never dies—was paid in full. Christ condemned sin in the flesh, putting death
to death.
Romans 8:3: For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
2 Corinthians 5:21: For he hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
III. WHAT WILL HEAVEN BE FOR THOSE WHO KNOW
GOD AND OBEY THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST?
First,
“to know God” is to be known of God—born again of the Holy Spirit. To “obey the
gospel of Christ” is to believe on him and rest in him from all dead works.
Those born of God through faith in Christ are…
Romans 3: 24…justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through
the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I
say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus.
So what
will heaven be for us, brethren?
Instead of Righteous Tribulation, Righteous
Rest and Just Acquitting
Just as
it will be a righteous thing with God to recompense trouble to them that trouble
us, “to you who are troubled [it will be a righteous thing to give you ] rest
with us, [his apostles] when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with
his mighty angels.”
This is
consolation and instruction to the believer now—“And to you who are troubled
rest.”
When unbelievers trouble you, rest in Christ. Our rest right now is
Christ Jesus. He shall bruise Satan under our feet
shortly.
But this is also what eternity will be for us who believe on
Christ—“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.”
When
Christ takes vengeance on them that obey know our gospel, that vengeance will
include our acquittal and the meeting out of justice to us which will be to see
his glory.
Romans 8:18: For I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us.
Instead of Everlasting Destruction,
Everlasting Life with Christ
Opposite
to that everlasting destruction which will be—“from the presence of the Lord, and
from the glory of his power”—we shall enjoy everlasting joy in the presence of
the Lord and by the glory of his power.
Everlasting Glorification
Christ
will bestow glory upon us that we might behold his glory which he had with the
Father before the world was made “when
he shall come to be glorified in his saints.”
He will give us perfect
knowledge and holiness. We shall be made
like unto his glorious body; we will know him fully in the glory of his person
and perfections, his wisdom, power, faithfulness, and goodness, in the riches
of his grace when Christ shall appear in all his glory to us.
Everlasting Admiration
For
eternity we will ascribe honor, praise, and glory, to him, and give him the
glory for saving us when he comes “to be admired in all them that believe…in
that day.” How will we receive all this? Will it be by our great works or goodness or
wisdom? No. Look at the parenthesis in
v10: Paul said, (because our
testimony among you was believed.)
Sinner,
believe this testimony of my Redeemer.
This is our testimony: Jesus Christ has saved all for whom he died from
the separation of eternal death into eternal salvation by suffering and dying
our death for us. Sinner, how can you not believe on him? And believer, rest in him! Continue in him! Since he was forsaken for us, he says, “I
will never leave you or forsake you.”
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Amen!