Show Video time stamps

All right, let's go ahead and open up to Ephesians. Open up to Ephesians. And we ended off last week with thinking about what it means to glorify God. People ask me all the time, well, what am I actually doing when I glorify God and glorifying God? And I'd suggest you can get a head start by that hymn.

It's praising him, it's displaying his glory. And so let's just look at this here. He's told us we'll begin in verse 5. Ephesians 2, verse 5. Even when we were dead in sins.

That was the first three verses. Remember, we're born into the sphere of sin and death in Adam under where everything is against us. But now God took us and he took that worthless, wet, miry clay and he created something new out of it. But God, verse 4, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, made us alive together with Christ. By grace are ye saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

And the question we want to be looking at this week, and probably next week as well, is, is what's the purpose for all this? Why did God go to such lengths to provide such an exorbitant, extravagant, extraordinary salvation? You know, he could have just pulled us out of the quaggery quicksand, the quagmire and quicksand of sin and death, hosed us off and sent us on our way. But instead he pulled us out of the quicksand of sin and death, transferred us into a realm of His Son and ruled by righteousness and life, united us to Himself through Christ, made us alive, raised us up and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms, in Christ. And that is, why did he do that?

He didn't have to do all that. He could have done far less. That's what most of religion teaches, a much less Christianity, a much less salvation. But you read passages like Romans 5, you see there, the gods has provided a much more salvation. And so we're left with this question.

Now, the flesh does. The flesh thinks, you know, the flesh thinks it's good enough for God. So it doesn't appreciate what God did when he saved us, but God saved us. We're going to learn now in verse seven, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through. Through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are you Saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Well, if it's not of works, lest any man should boast. Verse 10. Whose work is it?

Verse 10. For we are his workmanship. We're the result of his work. He created us anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, not just any old works you think are good. These are works.

He came up with an eternity past that he needs carried out to accomplish his mystery program. And he created this new group for humanity called the Body of Christ. And he's going to use the Body of Christ and working in and through the Body of Christ to carry out the work necessary to fulfill his mystery program, to establish his glory and in the heavenly realm. And that's our special position. So he's provided such a wonderful, outstanding.

He did this all to provide a new group of redeemed humanity to accomplish especially the work necessary to establish his glory in the heavenlies. And people say, will ask me, well, what does that mean when you're displaying his glory? What does that mean? And so sometimes it's helpful. You know, I think we did this before up in chapter one, where we were looking at the powers and principalities, because these are powers and principalities in the heavenly realm.

And so people kind of. Because, you know, we don't really live in the heavenly realm, do we? We live in the earthly realm. Now, as his ambassadors on Earth, what do we do? What's going on with these powers and principalities in the heavenly realm?

And so we suggested, well, you can get a good idea about it by looking at the earthly realm. I don't have to. If I talk about powers and principalities in the earthly realm. You know exactly what I'm talking about. You know, there's a city government, a county government, a state government, a national government.

Some would like a world government. But, you know, the different levels of governments and rulers. I remember there was someone building, I think it was a church actually. And they were having a huge problem with the county clerk. This little old lady.

And the county clerk could control everything going on in the city with, at least with regard to building. If you didn't do what she said, she didn't give you clearance. She had her own little fiefdom. You had to do everything just the way she said. You had to fill out this and fill out that.

And if you didn't do it or something wasn't quite right, then you didn't get it. She had her own little power, her own little Fiefdom. Well, we understand this, right? And then you go to the next level and the next level and the next level powers and principalities. And I'd suggest maybe when it comes to displaying God's glory in the heavenlies as members of the Body of Christ, we can get a picture of that and idea that by looking in the earthly realm at how the nation of Israel is going to display God's glory in the earthly realm.

And I'll bet no one here has any problem or difficulty understanding that. So let's go to Isaiah and we're just going to look at this really quickly because I want to look at a longer text and if I don't get to it, I'm going to run out of time like I usually do. But let's just. Tonight we're going to use tonight, this morning, we're going to need our timeline. So we're going to look at our timeline here and then we're going to go to another passage.

But just remember, if you're new or you need a refresher course, this timeline really says it all. You don't need to go years at Bible college. You don't need to go to seminary or get a PhD in ancient Israelite history or anything like that. If you just understand some of the. I was going to say high points, but actually it's mostly low points in Israel's history, you will have no problem having at least the context for the Old Testament, which includes, of course, the Gospel accounts, Christ's earthly ministry, and the ministry of Peter and the twelve in early Acts.

And this timeline. Notice what it's missing here? This is God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel. There's no dispensation of Grace so far on God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel. Remember, there's five courses of punishment.

I'm not going to redo this. If you go to the website, I wrote some lengthy articles going to every detail of this. If you look, I think it's called Articles tab, and you click that, you'll see there's two issues that go into most of the details of this. Five courses of punishment, they come from Leviticus 26. And I just want to show you where Isaiah fits in this.

The first course of punishment comes with associated chastisements. If they don't respond to that, it goes to the second course and that intensifies those chastisements. Third course, fourth course, with more intense chastisements. The goal, God's goal is to bring Israel back to himself, but they end up going further away. So my point, that's all I'm going to really say about it, because it would take all day to say anymore.

When you get to Isaiah, you're in the fourth course of punishment. That little four in a red circle there. You're in the fourth course of punishment. And he's going to look out now at the rest of Israel's prophetic history, and he's going to look out and prophesy regarding. With everything that comes after now, it's critically important to realize.

Oops, let's see here.

Oh, there it is. Oh, how do I keep. Why is that not working?

I'm not waiting long enough, I guess.

Well, anyway, you saw it for a second there. I don't know why it's doing that. Oh, okay. All right. There is no.

This is the timeline you just saw with everything except what's in gold or yellow. And that's not there. The dispensation is not in there. But Isaiah and none of the other prophets are prophesying about anything going on in the dispensation of Grace. They're not prophesying about what happened to the nation, to Israel in 1948.

They're not prophesying about any of that.

They don't see this dispensation of Grace whatsoever. All they're going to see is this history. We know now that this God interrupted his prophetic program with the nation of Israel when Israel continued in their rejection, rebellion against God and rejection of his son. God put their program on hold, and now he's carrying out another program. It's like having two TVs, right?

I actually have a friend that has two TVs in the same room so he can have that one on. And when that's in a commercial, he pauses that so he can watch this one. Well, if that helps you. God put on pause his prophetic program with Israel, and he started watching another program, carrying out another program. And it's a dispensation of Grace.

So when we look at Israel's timeline, there's no dispensation of Grace. And Isaiah's back there in the fourth course of punishment, and he's warning them about going into the fifth course of punishment. And once you go into the fifth course of punishment, there's no turning back, because that has a time schedule. There's a time schedule with the fifth course of punishment. And that fifth course of punishment is broken up into five time units.

I call them installments of the fifth course of Punishment time units of the fifth course of punishment, whatever you want to call it. And the first time unit was given to Jeremiah, the 70 year Babylonian captivity. The rest of the time frame was given to Daniel, 490 years till it's fulfilled. And the five installments include everything that's going to happen after that. So when you're in Isaiah, he's not prophesying about anything going on in the dispensation of Grace.

He's prophesying about what's going to come up in Israel's prophetic program. And the next thing, when Isaiah is prophesying, the next thing on the list is that the end of the fourth course of punishment, the Assyrians are going to come down and take the northern kingdom of Israel in captivity. It's going to carry away the northern part of Israel. Then what begins the fifth course of punishment is the Babylonian Captivity. And they're going to come and take away the southern kingdom of Judah, and they're going to silent kingdom of Israel, which is Judah, Judah, Benjamin, Jerusalem, and they're going to take them away.

And then the rest of the time schedule is given to Daniel. So with that little bit, we're now, where is Isaiah at this point? Isaiah is going to prophesy about the Assyrian captivity. That's the end of the fourth course of punishment. He's going to prophesy with regard to the Babylonian captivity.

That's the beginning of the fifth course of punishment. He's going to talk about the medo, Persian rulership. 49 years according to Daniel, that's going to transition into God going back to his place, leaving Israel and leaving Israel under the rule of the Gentiles. 400 years of silence that's going to be broken by John the Baptist in Christ's earthly ministry. That's the fourth installment of the fifth course of punishment.

And then the only thing left on Daniel's time schedule is that final seven year, what we call that tribulation period, the seven year, the day of the Lord's wrath, seven year tribulation period. And then of course, you have Christ's return. He ushers believing Israel into the kingdom, plants him in the land, and makes of them his own great and holy nation. So the question is, in Isaiah, where are we at? And that's where we're at.

And you have to know that if you read this and think, well, let's just read, go up to chapter 59, verse 20, just so we realize where we are on the time schedule. Isaiah 59, 20 and the Redeemer shall come to Zion. Zion is the hill that Jerusalem is on. So Zion and Jerusalem go together. The Redeemer shall come to.

I was going to say Isaiah to Zion and them that turn from transgression. And Jacob saith the Lord, so here we are. Christ comes back, the Redeemer comes back to bring about Israel's national salvation, complete Israel's prophetic program, and he's going to do that by returning to Zion. Now, if you do most of historic Christianity and throw away God's word, Zion and Jerusalem and put in Chicago or London or worst of all, Salt Lake City, you got to see, you might as well just throw away your Bible because you just make it mean whatever you want it to mean. It says Zion, Jerusalem, the literal Zion.

It's not this Jerusalem in your heart or it's not your hometown, it's the literal Zion, Jerusalem. And he's going to return there because in God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel and God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel, that was spoken about since the world began, the world is blessed with Israel and through her rise, very important. So he has to save Jerusalem first. See, it doesn't work any other way. That's the way salvation goes to the world in God's prophetic program with Israel, Jerusalem, it's not him going to Jerusalem.

And if Jerusalem continues in their rebellion and unbelief, well, then go other places. Salvation can only go out to the world, beginning in Jerusalem. And when Jerusalem's saved, Jerusalem will take salvation out to Judea and what was the Galilee area. And when Judea. Excuse me, when Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee believe in the Lord are saved, they'll go to Samaria.

And when Samaria is saved, they'll bring Samaria back into the fold of the Davidic monarchy. All Israel will be saved. God will raise up saved Israel and they'll be a light to the Gentile world. That's the way it works in God's prophetic program. So if you're reading John and you're reading about he is the light of the world.

He's the light of the world in the context of where that passage is beginning with Jerusalem. If Jerusalem's still dark, then his salvation can't go out. It begins with Jerusalem. We're going to see this here. That's why it's so important.

The Redeemer came to Zion. He comes to Jerusalem. And he's going to. Now pick it up. Really what we're going for here in chapter 60, chapter 60, unless my history lesson threw you off course.

Of what we're trying to do here. I'm trying to demonstrate. You'll have no problem. I don't think you'll have any problem understanding what it means for the nation of Israel to display God's glory in the earthly realm. And what I'm suggesting is, if you can understand that, you can at least have a basic understanding of what Paul means when he says the Body of Christ is going to display God's glory in the heavenly realm.

Verse 1, chapter 60, verse 1. Arise, shine, Jerusalem. And of course with Jerusalem, Israel arise and shine. Well, how is Jerusalem and Israel going to rise and shine? Let's skip before we finish verse one and go to verse two.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth. So at the time he's going to come, darkness covers the earth. And what about the nation of Israel? And gross darkness? You know, all that stuff's going to go on in Jerusalem, the Antichrist and all that's going to come, especially the last three and a half years of that tribulation period and gross darkness.

The people. So how are they? And here he commands them, arise and shine. Well, how are they going to rise and shine? Back to verse one.

For thy light is come. They don't have any light of their own, but their light has come. The Redeemer has come to Zion, and he's going to shine his light on them. And the Lord. And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

It's his glory that's going to rise upon them, raising them up. The nation of Israel saved Israel be raised up. Verse three. We just reread verse two so we can go on to verse three. And what's going to happen when they are, when Israel reaches this time, Christ comes, shines his light, regathers the believing Israel, ushers them into the kingdom, plants them in the land of Israel, and shines his light on them and raises them up with his glory.

He's going to raise them up and they're going to be a light to the world. Verse 3. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to the brightness of thy rising. You see where we get this? When God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel, it happens with Israel and through her rise.

Now let me just ask you this. For the last 2000 years, have salvation gone out to the world through Israel and with Israel and through her rise? She didn't even basically exist till since what, 1948 or whatever? It's obvious the answer is that. No.

So obviously we're not participating in this plan on purpose. We're participating in this plan on purpose. And I wish I had my disco ball here. Dave's got me a disco ball because I do this. But in Paul's the way God's, everyone here knows it's obvious we're not now being saved with Israel through her rise.

Now God's opened up because of Israel's rebellion and rejection of his Son. He's opened up a new way of salvation through the apostle Paul, the distinct apostleship of Paul whereby he is now blessing the world apart from Israel, apart from that program and through her fall. Two different programs. Two different programs. And I better keep going so I could spend all day.

Maybe it's time for a refresher coach. Some people have asked me about doing a refresher, especially on the courses of punishment. Maybe I should do that again. So let's go now. And I just wanted to bring that out.

If you can understand how the nation of Israel can be light, shine God's light out to the world, display his glory out to the world, I think you can understand. Had at least a basic idea how when we're seated in our position in the heavenly realm, we will be displaying his glory. And it's like a city. Some people. I wouldn't say this, but some people say New York is like the glory of America.

Everything is the melting pot and all that kind of stuff. The Statue of Liberty is there and it draws people from. From all around the world. Now that's a bad illustration because God's Jerusalem is going to be infinitely greater than that. But I'm just for the idea.

Just as New York by some are called a beacon of light to the world and the world comes to New York, it's the glory of America. Well, so too the nation of Israel is the glory of God. And they're going to be sending his light out to the Gentiles and they're going to come and worship the one true God with Israel and through her rise.

Now he's not doing that now. He's taken his light out to the world through the distinct apostleship of Paul and is enlightening people apart from Israel through her fall. And if you can kind of get a grasp on that, I think you can also kind of see how he's going to use this new group of redeemed humanity, the Body of Christ. Now, we just read in Ephesians 2:7 as a showcase of his glory in the heavenly realm forevermore. So let's Go back to Ephesians, Ephesians 2.

We'll actually go to chapter one and I'll just bring this out. I wish I had noticed the connection with the hymn in this, because when I talk about displaying his glory, the way is by praising his glory. When we praise his glory, we display it. When it comes from the inside, God working on the inside, it radiates out from God working within us. And it's the praise.

Look at chapter one, verse six. Everything he did is to the praise. This is Ephesians 1, verse 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Look at verse 11.

Excuse me, verse 12. That we should be to the praise of his glory. Look at verse 14. Who is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

That's the whole goal of this extravagant, exorbitant salvation is be the praise, the displayers, the reflectors, the radiators, whatever word works for you, or put them all together of his glory. And so now what I thought we'd do. Well, I guess I got one more thing here. In short, when someone in eternity, when someone in the everlasting future, when someone asks the Lord, how gracious are you?

You know what he's going to do? He's going to point to us in Christ, the Body of Christ seated together with him in the heavenly realm and say, you can see it there. And he took these people in chapter two, Ephesians 2:1, that were dead in the sphere of sins, following the course of the world under the ruler of darkness, fulfilling the lust of their own selfish, evil hearts and flesh. And he took them and created them anew in Christ Jesus. And the extreme, infinite graciousness revealed in that.

He'll point to us, he'll say, look at them. That's how gracious I am. I took unworthy, not even unworthy, defiled, corrupt, ungodly, idle, worth worshiping Gentiles with regard especially to the Body of Christ. But of course, now we know that God has gathered together Jew and Gentile all into one. There is no Jew or Gentile in the Body of Christ.

He's gathered us together in one and he's made us, he's created us into something that can display, infinitely, eternally display his glory.

And then Ephesians 1:10 will be fulfilled. All right. I want to do something a little different. I was just going to go to 2 Thessalonians. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians.

We'll be there for the rest of the day. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians. All I need is verses 10 and 12. So let's just read verse 10 and 12. This is 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 10.

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints. That's what we were just talking about. That was that point on the last slide. 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. Glorified in the saints.

Go to verse 12. That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in Him. It's this whole glorification concept. Having created us anew in Christ Jesus, we now he, as it says in verse 10, he's glorified in us, and we are glorified in Him. It's that united in a perfect and complete and whole relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole triune Godhead.

And that's the glory of all this. And what I thought I'd do today, because I've already prepped you a little because we went to Isaiah, is take the time to show why it's so important to rightly divide the Scriptures. Because the problem in Thessalonica here comes from them beginning to get confused. People are trying to confuse them and get them to wrongly divide the Scriptures. And so we're going to use this as an example of how rightly dividing the Scriptures is the only answer to the errors of historic Christianity.

And so I'm just going to give a little background here. We're just going to kind of dive into this passage. And we're not how many here. I'm betting now maybe you'll prove me wrong. Maybe everyone will raise their hand.

But I'm betting no one here has done much work in second Thessalonians in a while. Would I be correct? So we're kind of. John says he's been in second Thessalonians, but the rest of us are going to kind of pick it up here. I'm not going to go into detail of every aspect of the verse.

We could spend a whole year here alone. I did do First Thessalonians in the Roman study. We also did James in the Roman study. Somebody Sometimes people come when they only come every few months or something. They say, you're still in John or you're still in Romans.

And I'm like, yeah, but you missed, since you were Here last time we also did the book of James and we did most of the Exodus account and we did the highlights of the Psalms. See, I just use these verses. I just have to be home someplace. And we use them to spring off to do the rest of the Bible. As a matter of fact, my goal is to not teach just a single verse in a passage.

My goal is to teach that verse in the context of the whole Bible. That's my goal. I don't know if I accomplish it or not, but that's my goal. And here the Thessalonians, just a little bit of background. I'm not going to give all the background.

Paul already wrote them. And Paul was there in person. He sent them a letter, we'll say, about a year before second Thessalonians, first Thessalonians. And they were having some problem with their hope. In the previous one.

They were despairing because they thought those who had died in Christ would miss out on the Rapture.

Now they have a bigger problem. A year has gone by. Instead of having this fixed for them, others have come in and are trying to lead them astray and get them to confuse God's two mix up and confuse God's two programs and peoples. Someone was telling them, even to the point of forging a letter in Paul's name. You can read that in 2 Thessalonians 2, 2, that they were suffering persecution and tribulations because the day of the Lord had begun and you know, the day of the Lord's wrath.

What does Daniel say about it? Keep your finger here, but go to Daniel just to see why this would cause people problems. Daniel 12, Daniel 12. We're only going to be here a second. If you want, just wait for me to read it.

The only reason I'm going there is because I can't remember exactly what the verse said. So it's my memory that drags us there. Chapter 12. But at least I remembered where the verse is. Chapter 12, verse 1.

And at that time shall Michael stand up in the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book. But it's everyone else. It's going to be a time like never before seen in the history of the world.

And you have people are coming and say these Thessalonians were suffering severe persecution and trials and tribulations. And they were suggesting the day of the Lord's wrath had begun, and they're going through it. So that's a little bit of the background. What it means is it was causing them despair. And what's the opposite of this?

What is another way of describing despair? Losing hope. They're starting to lose their hope. And Paul writes this letter to restore it. He thought what he wrote in First Thessalonians should have done the job, but now he's going to take it a step further because let's just look at a couple passages.

Just flip over a couple pages to 1 Thessalonians 1. Look what he says. Explain explicitly in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 1: 10. And to wait for his spirit, excuse me, for his Son from heaven. His Son's going to come.

Come from heaven. He's not going to come to earth at this time. He's talking about the Rapture, what we call the Rapture, the catching up of the Body of Christ from earth and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. Even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come. Now, you can't get much plainer than that, can you?

Delivered us from the wrath to come. They've been told. He's told them explicitly. They're not going through the day of the Lord's wrath He's delivered them. And of course, we won't look at it now, but in chapters four and five, he goes in far more detail, actually describes the steps that the catching away of the Body of Christ is going to go through, what we kind of call that rapture.

And so Paul's writing this second letter to them. So what I thought we'd do, they are under severe persecution. Let's just set the groundwork here by looking at verse four. And then we'll go back to verse one, verse two, Thessalonians, chapter one, verse four, so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. So I'm just bringing this verse out to your attention as part of the background.

They're under severe persecution. Now. We don't really think too much about that because we don't really know what persecution is. We think we're persecuted if someone stops talking to us or stops sending us Christmas cards because we're believers or something, that's not the persecution they were getting. They were persecuted.

Remember in Paul's visit, we could go back to Acts. That might be a good thing to Add onto this, go back to Acts. Paul was, remember, persecuted by unbelieving Jews in Philippi. They chased him out of Philippi and he headed down to Thessalonica. They showed up in Thessalonica and they persecuted him until they chased him out of town pretty quickly.

And they stayed behind and kept persecuting along with persecuting the Thessalonian believers who received Paul's message and faith and were persecuting him along with their Gentile co citizens because it was turning their society upside down.

And so they're under severe persecution. And so in that light, and someone's come along and confused them, trying to confuse the two programs that we looked at earlier when we were in Isaiah, they were confusing God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel. That's where the day of the Lord belongs, with his mystery program for the Body of Christ. The day of the Lord doesn't belong in the mystery program for the Body of Christ. And this dispensation of Grace, now how do we know that?

How should they have known that? Well, there's the very first verse, so it solves all their problems. The very first verse dispenses with all post Trib theories, all mid Trib theories, all that kind of nonsense of theological don't rightly divide. So they're all confused in their theology. Verse one and two.

I guess it's actually the first two verses here. Chapter one, verse one and two, Paul and Sylvanus, Timothy unto the church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So these are saved saints. They're in God, through Christ, in and through Christ. Verse 2, Grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now what does that tell you right there? What's God dispensing in the day of wrath? He's dispensing his wrath and judgment. What's he dispensing here to the Thessalonians? He's dispensing grace and peace.

Now grace and peace, I'd suggest is the very opposite of wrath and judgment. That one verse, the fact that all Paul's epistles begin with grace and peace prove that it has to be a pre tribulation rapture. Because if it were going through, you couldn't read your scriptures from Paul if you went through the tribulation because he says that we're receiving God's grace and peace. When he restarts his prophetic room with the nation of Israel, removes the church, the Body of Christ, he restart his prophetic home with the nation of Israel. Then he's going to come back in his wrath and dispense wrath and judgment to an enemy world today.

He's dispensing grace and peace to an enemy world today. That dispensation of Grace, I was going to try and click back there, but I had so much time getting hard time getting to that slide before. I won't go back there. But you remember the timeline, the yellow bar, the dispensation of Grace. That is when God is dispensing his grace and mercy.

It's a day, Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians, a day of salvation, a day of amnesty. He's giving his enemies an opportunity to be saved before the wrath comes. Alright, let's keep going. So they should have known right off from the greetings of his letters that that they're not in the day of the Lord. Because in the day of the Lord, God's dispensing wrath and judgment.

But Paul tells them God's dispensing grace and peace. So that rules that out, right? To begin with, they were suffering through these persecutions, but it wasn't part of the day of the Lord's wrath. It was the normal sufferings of those who are being God's ambassadors on enemy territory in a world where people hate God and his things. So his messengers are going to suffer.

Verse 3. Verse 3. We are bound to thank God always for you brethren as it is meet because that your faith growing exceedingly and the charity in our King James loves, that's that agape love of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth. So here we have the greeting, this abounding love. I thank you.

Growing in faith and abounding in love. Growing in faith and abounding in love. We could go back. That's actually what Paul desired of them back. And we won't turn over there first Thessalonians 3, 10 and 12.

He's going to say he wanted to come for a personal visit to complete their faith. What's lacking in their faith now? He says they're growing in faith. He said in verse 12 he wanted to see their love abounding. Their love is abounding.

But do you notice something that's missing here? Go to. Back to. We will look at this first. Go back to chapter 1 again of 1st Thessalonians, 1st Thessalonians 3, 1st Thessalonians 1:3.

Remembering without ceasing. Let's count your work of faith, your labor of love and your Patience of hope. Three things there, faith, love and hope. But when he writes to them a year later, when they're starting to be led astray by these false teachers, notice in his thankfulness to God, now he talks about their faith. Your faith grows exceedingly and love is abounding.

But then you're waiting, where's the hope? What happened to the hope? And of course, that's what 2 Thessalonians is going to provide. He's going to buttress up their hope. They're confused about the hope.

Hope in this context of that rapture event, the catching away, the mystery aspect of the Body of Christ, where they're going to be caught away by the Lord and meet the Lord in the air. He's not coming to earth at that time. He's taking us up in the air and they're beginning to get confused. So he leaves out hope. And that's really what the second Thessalonians is about, giving them back their hope, buttressing up their hope.

They need the hope. They're losing the hope. In this context, it's especially the events of what we call that rapture event, the catching away of the saints of the Body of Christ. Now, did you remember if this is also something that happened in Ephesians? Ephesians starts out, remember that prayer again.

We won't turn there. I think it's chapter one, verse 15. He talks about their faith. He's thankful for their faith and their love. And there's no hope.

And they were beginning to lose their hope with regard to the mystery and Paul's distinct apostleship. And he wrote Ephesians to them to buttress up the hope of the mystery in Paul's distinct apostleship. Here he's writing to the Thessalonians to but buttress up the hope of the rapture. So we see a similar type of thing here. Most people think, and this might be correct.

I'm just, I don't buy it. That Ephesians, we talked about this before is just for super saints. Paul, if we finally found a group of believers, he could write the full Revelation of the mystery to. Well, I don't buy it. There's a couple clues in there which we've talked about before.

You know when you send someone an in detail letter, you know when I was working and I did a good job, you know what, I'd come in in the morning, the boss would leave on my desk, great job, exclamation point, well done. You know what would be on my desk when I did a bad Job, this big, long memo giving me all the details of everything I did wrong. Tell me how to do it right. I'd suggest Ephesians was to buttress up what was beginning to be lost by the Ephesians, the mystery, Paul's distinct apostleship. And here in second Thessalonians, he's going to buttress up their hope, especially with regard to the Rapture.

All right.

Growing in faith, verse 4. So that we ourselves glory in you and and the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. We read this verse before to bring out the trials and tribulations. I'll bring that out to the forefront. In addition to suffering through trials and tribulations, in addition to the fact that they're growing in faith and abounding in the midst of trials and tribulations, the patient endurance involved with that and was bringing about edification of the church.

He's going to start buttressing them up. The sufferings and persecution aren't from the displeasure of God. The sufferings and persecution are because they're obedient to God, faithful to God, carrying out God's work as his ambassadors on enemy territory. And he's using the Thessalonica church, the Thessalonians, to build up, edify his other churches, verse 4. So that we ourselves glory boast in you and the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which ye endure.

So they have the patience of faith. What's the term? What did he call it back in 1st Thessalonians 1, if you remember, the patience of hope. He needs to buttress up the patience and hope that comes from hope, the patience and faith that comes from hope, the patience of hope. And that's what they need.

He wants them to know that they're suffering and their endurance, they're growing in faith and abounding in love in the midst of persecution. Trials and sufferings are a source of edification to his other churches.

Verse 5.

In addition to suffering through persecutions and tribulations, they aren't a sign of God's displeasure, but a manifested token of his righteous judgment. As you minister. As they ministered as God's ambassadors in an enemy world among those who hate God. This persecution, this suffering, the very fact they're growing in faith and abounding in love in the midst of persecutions and extreme sufferings doesn't mean it's God's displeasure.

It means they are operating in accord with God's. Goodwill. And he's going to say that a couple verses later, they're operating. It's a token. They're growing in faith in the midst of sufferings is a token.

It's a little chip given that points to a time when everything's going to be fulfilled, to a time when those who trouble them will be troubled. He's going to. They're now God's ambassadors proclaiming a message of salvation to his enemies so that they don't have to go through the day of Lord's wrath. But the persecutors, the ones who don't believe Paul's gospel, they're going to go through that day of wrath. And then the ones who are causing trouble, the troublers in the dispensation of Grace are going to become the troubled in the day of the Lord's wrath.

It's a token of his righteous judgment right now. And this. Do I dare do this? Let me see if I can get back to this slide. I got to move these there.

Okay. We already looked at this slide. This is the main one. But I added this one because it's very important to realize. He's talking here about the righteous judgment of God.

It's very important to realize how God is displaying his righteousness. This is one of the key things to understanding God's prophetic program with Israel and his mystery program for the Body of Christ. In God's prophetic program with Israel, just open up any psalm, open up anything that Moses talked about, anything in the prophets, and you'll see it there. In God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel, God is displaying his righteousness by destroying his enemies and saving his friends. That's the facet of the righteousness of God displayed in God's prophetic program with Israel.

Let me say it again, because you got to see the difference of what he's doing today. In God's prophetic program with the nation of Israel, the nation day of the Lord's wrath, God is displaying a facet of his righteousness whereby he's destroying his enemies and saving his friends. Is that what he's doing today? Absolutely not. Just read the first half of Romans 5, Romans 3.

Today, God is putting on display. Paul says, Romans 3, 21. But now the righteousness of God that God has put in the spotlight, the facet of his righteousness is that now through Paul's apostleship, God is saving his enemies because he has no friends. Do you see the difference in his prophetic promo of the nation of Israel? He's going to come and display his righteousness, destroying his enemies.

He's not doing that today. Today he's demonstrating his righteousness and sin, saving his enemies. And that's a world of difference. And that's what their ministry is now. In 2 Thessalonians, they're carrying out a ministry of God, sending his grace and peace to a world on enemy status before him.

He's not destroying them at this time. It's going to. Later, it's going to say, in that day, he's not destroying them now, he's saving them. And that's what the Thessalonians are doing. They're his ambassadors, his proclaimers of a day of salvation, a day of amnesty to the world of enemies, a world on enemy status before God.

And that's why they're receiving this persecution, and that's why they're suffering, doing this.

See if I can get to the. That's why they're suffering, doing this. And so when he says it's a Manifest token, verse 5 of the Righteous judgment of God. See, it's a token. What they're going through now is a token of what's going to happen in the day of the Lord's wrath.

The ones who are troubling them now are going to be the ones troubled in the days, the day of the Lord's wrath. But for them, so what's true of them, that's what's going to be true of the people troubling them. What about the Thessalonians in that day? And that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer? It's a token that the troublers are going to be troubled.

And the Thessalonians, he's going to say a couple more verses, are going to rest with Paul. The troublers are going to be troubled, and those troubled are going to be at rest. And it's a token of that, because that's not going to be filled until that day of the Lord's wrath, the day of the Lord's wrath. And so we have. When Christ is revealed in his power and glory, wrath and judgment.

Let's just read a few more verses here.

We've already talked about verse six, seeing that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. That's what I was talking about. The troublers are going to be troubled by the Lord, and the ones who were troubled by the haters of God and rejecters of God are going to be at peace, excuse me, at rest. And to you who are troubled, rest with us. That's Paul and the whole Body of Christ.

When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. And so he's pointing out now we go to the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's given this certainty. Their sufferings are not wasted. Their sufferings are what he boasts about to other churches to edify them in the midst of their sufferings.

Because you're growing in faith, abounding in love. So it's not wasted, it's serving its purpose. And it's a token it looks forward to when God changes the display of his righteousness. And he goes from displaying his righteousness and saving his enemies to displaying his righteousness by destroying his enemies. And when that happens, the enemies who troubled them are going to be troubled.

And the ones who were troubled, the believers are going to receive rest. And it's going to be notice it's a rest with us. It's with Paul, his co workers, all the believers in Thessalonica and all the believers since for the last 2,000 years, they're all going to rest. There's that rest coming. And he says, shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.

Now see, this isn't, that's not, some people say, think that's the Rapture. That's not the Rapture. The Rapture. He comes and it's a secret removal. I mean, everyone on earth is going to know when a good part of humanity has gone away.

But the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't reveal him or the saints at that time. He's going to reveal himself and the saints at his second coming, when he's going to have fulfilled and fully displayed his righteousness and destroying all enemies and saving all believers, saving all the saints, all those who are with him. And he's going to establish them. And so this is the second coming in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he's going to come and his second appearance is going to be revealed.

Read about it. Matthew 24. He's going to be seen by the whole world. It's not going to be a secret thing. It's going to be seen by all.

He's coming with his mighty, his angels of power in a flaming fire. Whether that's his glory. Some people think that's the glory that you're going to see. Others think it's his judgment fire, like the baptism with the fire and things like that. And he's going to be taking vengeance.

He's going to be operating now not the way he's operating today. Today he's operating by saving his enemies. At that time, he's going to be operating by destroying his enemies. And why is he going to show vengeance and destroy them? They've had 2,000 years to accept.

So far we've been here almost 2,000 years under the dispensation of Grace. It might go on 2000 more or it might end before I finish this sentence. There is no time schedule. This isn't like God's prophetic problem with Israel. There is no time schedule.

It's him being long suffering, offering the enemy world his grace and peace as long as possible. And these are those who don't know God. Who and why don't they know God and that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is because they don't. How do you obey in Paul's Epistles? You obey by believing.

You receive and believe Paul's gospel. And they're going to be judged according to that. Keep your finger here we go to Romans, Romans 2, Romans 2, 16, Romans 2, 16.

In the day when God. This is all about judgment as we go through in the first part, really the whole chapter too, but especially the first half here. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. And so we have. They've rejected Paul's gospel and they're going to not participate in that rapture event and be removed from the coming wrath.

They're going to enter into the day of the Lord's wrath. The ones who are troubling the Thessalonian believers are going to be troubled by God and he's going to bring his vengeance and his wrath upon him and go through that tribulation period and climaxing at the second coming, Christ's second coming. And he's going to then restore creation unto his own glory. And this is one reason why I think the tribulation period is going to be pretty quick after the rapture. Because the ones that are going to go through this thing are going to be the ones who are alive at the end of the dispensation of Grace.

That's how they have rejected Paul's gospel. And they go into the day of the Lord's wrath, which leads into the tribulation period and second coming. And they were ones who rejected Paul's gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the mystery. And they're going to receive the ones who are troubled are going to be troubled. God's going to change the righteousness he's putting on display.

And now he's going to turn it from saving his enemies to destroying his enemies. While those who served him as his ambassadors on earth in the Body of Christ are going to have rest. Verse 9. What's their punishment going to be? What's their punishment going to be?

What's their punishment going to be? So we looked at verse 8, verse 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Remember, the whole thing with salvation is we're brought into the presence of the Lord and we are made participants in his glory. Romans 5, 3. That we have the absolute hope of his glory, of being the participants in his everlasting glory.

Colossians 1, verse 26. The mystery, the riches of this mystery that provide hope for the Gentiles. Christ in us, us in Christ. He's going to say that again here in second Thessalonians. It's the hope that comes through that mystery.

In that day they will be. So if salvation is being brought into the everlasting presence of God and made participants in his glory, what's the opposite of salvation? This destruction? Being completely banished from God's presence and not participating in his glorious in his powerful recreation of the universe un his glory. What an amazing thing.

What a horrible thing to be banished off to their own hell of their own selfish interests, sin and death. Banished from the presence of light, banished from the presence of life, not participating in the glorious restoration of the universe, the recreation of the universe unto his glory.

And they'll be banished. This isn't annihilation. They don't cease to exist. They keep existing. It's just going to be not in God's presence and it's not going to be part of his plan and purpose.

And that should remind maybe some people of Romans the first last half of Romans 1, where he goes through that. Anyway, okay, so he's going to now he's going to restart his prophetic program with the nation of Israel at the second coming, the destiny of the unbelieving world, what it means for God again. He's going to restart his prophetic program. He'll turn the spotlight away from displaying the righteous of God and saving his enemies because he has no friends. That's what he's doing today.

You want to know why God lets the world continue the way it's continuing? It's because he's being long put in about A million O's, trillion O's. He's been long suffering so that he can offer salvation to his enemies. But one day that's going to end. He will have been long suffering enough and he will have filled up the Body of Christ and they'll remove them and he'll restart his prophetic problem with Israel whereby he'll come come to avenge the saints and destroy his enemies and save his friends.

And when he does that, he's going to fulfill the Davidic covenant, he's going to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant. And we could go into the details of that, but we're out of time and I don't want to leave us on the destruction of the ungodly unbelievers. No one wants to go home on that note, do they? So let's end on a high note. That's the troublers.

The troublers who are troubling the Thessalonians while they're growing in faith, abounding in love, being a witness and an edification to all the other churches suffering and persecuted and experiencing the token of what's to come. Now they're serving God on enemy territory and his righteous judgment is offering salvation to his enemies, people who hate him and his word and his things. But it looks ahead to the time when the troublers will be troubled and he'll destroy them, banish him from their presence. They won't participate in his glorious recreation of the universe. And verse 10.

But what about those who believe? What about the saints? Verse 10. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints. And this is really why we're here, right?

We're talking about displaying the glory of the Lord when He shall be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe. Because our testimony among you was believed in that day. So in that day, at the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, he's going to come his mighty angels vengeance with a fiery flame. His glory is going to shine out. Everyone will see.

It will be the complete non secret Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And with him are going to be his saints. The Body of Christ in the heavenly realm, the nation of Israel in the earthly realm. Now look what they're going to do. They're going to.

And they're going to be displaying his glory. What does it say here? When he shall come to be be glorified in his saints. How gracious are you, Lord? Well look at that Body of Christ.

Look what I did with them and what they were. And now what they are. And he's going to be admired in all them that believe. Here we have admired. He's going to be admired in all that believe.

Here we go from the saints, I think he's referring there to the Thessalonian saints and the Body of Christ. Christ. And now we go to all who believe, which would include believing Israel and believers on earth and the believers in heaven, all his saints, all believers everywhere. And they're going to marvel. The nation of Israel is going to look up at the Body of Christ.

God restoring his glory in the heavenlies through the Body of Christ. And the Body of Christ is going to look down in the earthly realm and see God restoring his Glo through the nation of Israel. And they're going to marvel at the recreation of the universe unto God's glory centered in His Son. And I'm going to end on this exciting note centered on His Son through two groups of redeemed humanity in Christ. Redeemed humanity, the Body of Christ and the nation of Israel.

And that is how we participate in the glory of God. Now if you'll notice, I didn't get to 11 and 12, verses 11 and 12. We're going to do that next week because that brings us back to the present. That was all future. That's our future.

The way it's going to work, we're being removed at the Rapture and be at rest. And then after the tribulation and the second coming, we'll be put on display and the whole universe will wonder at how God recreated the universe unto his glory in Christ. Then in verses 11 and 12 he's going to come back down to that day. He'll come back to the present. And that's how we'll kick it off next week.