Well, if you have your Bibles tonight, I invite you to turn to the book of 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians, and I'm thinking of, we actually land in our study and reflection of what we confess together and believe in the Heidelberg on this question and answer of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm going to get there. I put in the bulletins a connection with the Belgic Confession tonight because we will be looking at that at the end of the sermon. But this is actually in correlation with the Lord's Day that we considered last time. And that is Lord's Day 19. This is question and answer 52. Just one question and answer. And I'm wrestling with whether to continue for a few weeks here into 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I think I'm going to because it's such an interesting and marvelous passage to help us understand what to expect before the coming of the Lord. And so this might be a three-part sermon on question answer 52. How does Christ return to judge the living and the dead comfort you? And the answer is, in all distress and persecution, with uplifted head, I confidently await the very judge who has already offered himself to the judgment of God in my place and remove the whole curse from me. Christ will cast all his enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation, but he will take me and all his chosen ones to himself into the joy and glory of heaven. And that is a wonderful truth that we believe together when we confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to judge the living and the dead. Tonight we're considering 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, and I'm going to read that chapter. It is 12 verses as our sermon text for this evening. This is the word of the Lord. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in your afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed. To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And there we'll end the reading of God's word tonight from 2 Thessalonians 1. Well, tonight we come to this great truth of what we confess together, of what we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead. This is a crucial article of our faith. This is an important article of what we believe and what we're looking forward to when we confess that in the Apostles' Creed. And I don't think that we've appreciated enough the importance of this truth and living in light of this truth. At least I know that I struggle with that myself. Part of the reason I think is because it seems so mysterious to us. Maybe it seems scary to us to think that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come down on the clouds of heaven because we wonder about our position at that moment and what that day is going to be like and what are we going to have to endure and what is that going to what are we going to face but you know that the bible says that it is god's will for us that we have confidence and boldness on the day of judgment that that is his desire for us that we have confidence and boldness on the day of judgment that's first john by this love is perfected with us that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as he is so also we are we in this world the language of of scripture comes to us on the second coming and it gives us a real help and encourages us that really what the second coming is is a rescue mission we haven't thought enough about that it's a rescue mission we have to appreciate and look forward to this day in light of the struggles of this life and particularly in the face of the hostility of the world toward the believer. That's what he's describing here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. And tonight, I thought how helpful with question and answer 52, how does Christ return to judge the living and the dead comfort you? Notice that same theme of comfort is given on this great truth of his second coming. It's a comforting truth. It's meant to be a comforting truth. And I think maybe it hasn't been for us partly because we've been so comfortable here. But because I don't think we've always appreciated what the second coming is meant to deliver us from. What the second coming is meant to deliver us from. And that's what we're considering tonight. That's what this passage is particularly about. We are comforted in the second coming by considering here the evidence of that coming. the relief that is coming and then the response to that coming. We'll consider these three things. First, the evidence here. You'll notice the first thing that question answer 52 says is that in all my distresses and in all persecutions, with confidence I can lift up my head and confidently await Jesus to come again. That is exactly what Paul is saying in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Notice verse three. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all of your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. So you see there that what he's saying is, particularly, they have endured a lot as a church. This is probably the most faithful church in the New Testament. It's a remarkable church. Paul commends this church in many ways. If you know a little bit of the history and the situation here into which Paul is writing, the city was a very pagan city, full of idolatry as it goes. Mount Olympus sat there with its view that every time an earthquake happened, Zeus was shaking his curls. What a city. There was a lot of hostility in this city to the gospel. They did not like Christians. They did not like this church there. And the church was making a remarkable difference in this particular environment, which is remarkable to think about. False teachers were plaguing the Thessalonians. We'll get into that a little bit next time if I continue this. But they were essentially saying, listen, the second coming has already happened. And you've missed it. The truth that we have considered here, and this is what Paul is doing here, is encouraging them that in the midst of persecution and opposition and bad ideas and all the things that were happening in this environment to them, they were receiving the word. This is what he's praising them for. In affliction and joy by the power of the Spirit. The truth that we have considered throughout history, and we know this, is that the church flourishes in times of opposition. Remember in this particular city, if you remember back to our study in Acts, there was an uproar in this city over the gospel. And a man named Jason and some of the other church members were dragged out into the open. And with heavy persecution, remember, they were ridiculed and beaten. And Paul is writing to them with this Gentile church. And he's overwhelmed by, in the midst of this great struggle, how this church was flourishing. Back in the first epistle, We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father. Talk about encouragement for a church. You guys are flourishing in your work of faith, labor of love, and patience. For this, Paul said, we also thank God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men. This was the peculiar strength of this church. They didn't all sit around and say, well, that's nice what Paul says. That's nice what Paul says. They understood that the ministry of the apostles was the ministry of the word of God. You welcomed it not as it is the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. So this particular church, in the midst of this, was facing all kinds of opposition. Hated in the culture, their wealth was being taken away from them. They were somewhat becoming, it felt like, I'm sure, fugitives. They were being heavily assaulted from without and from within by false teaching. And they had many of their earthly belongings sieged. This was the environment of this church. And the Lord's blessing is all over it. The blessing of the Lord is all over it. It's the great truth that the church flourishes best in times of opposition. It has always been that. It has always been that. The church doesn't flourish when everyone is doing well without any testing. It most flourishes this way. That's what history has proven to us. That's why there's always opposition in this world. And we're going to look at that here. What Paul is observing here is unique. I want you to notice the perspective of Paul. Now, what do we do in the midst of all hardship for Christians? And we're so martyr conscious right now, which is interesting. What does Paul encourage a church that's actually facing difficulty from the world and the culture? He didn't run around in all of their persecutions and all their afflictions and say, oh, I'm so sorry you're going through all that. It's not what he said. I can't believe this terrible thing is happening to you. There's nothing like that in the New Testament. This is what we do. The apostles never viewed things this way. Remember, we've been looking at in John and talking about the difficulties, but in Acts, I've referenced more than a few times that when they faced opposition for the gospel and they were even struck for the name of Jesus, they went away rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name. It's an entirely different perspective. Imagine if you're in Thessalonica and they're coming after you and they're taking lands and they're taking houses and comforts and threatening you with jail time and punishment for believing this gospel. Imagine if those things happened. Imagine if they started happening. That's what was going on in Thessalonica for the Christians. And Paul is saying here, we boast about you. You are steadfast and strong in your persecutions and afflictions. Why? Here it is tonight. Verse 5. Because these things are evidence of the righteous judgment of God. Do you ever think about these things like this? These are evidence of the righteous judgment that's coming. That you, now second thing, are suffering this which proves that you're worthy of my kingdom. This is what Paul's saying, worthy of the kingdom of Christ. See, that's an entirely different perspective for us in how we look at these things. We're always trying to fight it, of course. and we want everything to go well, of course, and I do, but the apostles had such a perspective of this that is in line with the perspective of, number one, all suffering and hardship and difficulty in this life is evidence, when people hate us for the faith, is evidence of his righteous judgment, but it's also evidence that you belong to Jesus. You know, that's one of the purposeful reasons often that we suffer in this life? In God's providence, that it would prove that God's judgment is righteous? The word means a plain indication, not only that judgment is coming, but that it's righteous. So when the world rises up and things rise up against the truth of the gospel, that is evidence of that judgment that's righteous and is coming soon. That's how he wants us to think about it, which we don't often think about. I, at least, when I speak of the second coming and have taught on the second coming, this has been a neglected point for me. It was Jesus, as he was going to the cross himself, as he was about to suffer and die the cruel death of the cross, they would take him, the world would take him, they would crucify the Lord of glory, they would hang him on a cross, they would, and of course this would be God's wonderful way of making the gospel known to the ends of the earth and saving people through this. This is the marvel of it. But Jesus said in the midst of this, if I didn't come and speak to them the truth, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse. You see, we're here for a purpose and we speak the truth and we minister the gospel knowing that God is saving to the ends of the earth. But it has this purpose too. It is an absolute evidence of the righteous judgment of God when the world rises up. This is why, boys and girls, we talk about three sworn enemies. Not only are we internally, do we have our own problems? That's why we need a savior. But we have other sworn enemies, the devil and the world. And this is all being addressed here. Now, this is an important point. It has the effect of demonstrating that we belong to the Lord. Remember what Hebrews says about those who are suffering in the kingdom of God. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Wow. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. History is that's Isaiah. Sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheeps and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated. listen to this, of whom the world was not worthy. The world was not worthy of these people. No, the world is really not worthy of you. Here you are, God's people sent here to give a message. They're really not. This is how the perspective is. They wandered about in deserts and mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth. The world was not worthy of these people. And at times it was a judgment when they were taken out, like John the Baptist. The Bible through and through considers the New Testament church as not of this world, the believer not belonging to this world, hated by the world. And all of this is evidence that you are worthy and belong to the Lord. That's the encouragement of this tonight. I think that single great truth helped the Thessalonians get through all the struggles of this life. Think about Jesus' very words. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. That's evidence, he's saying. That's evidence. In response to all the unbelief, it's presented as a judgment on those who harm us. When he comes to give us relief, I want you to think about this point tonight. When he comes, it is to give relief. It's going to be quite a day for those who don't believe. The Bible makes this clear everywhere. When the Lord Jesus comes, notice the passage here tonight. He's going to come in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They've not believed. They've not listened to him. They didn't bow the knee. This is exactly what the Heidelberg says tonight when it says, I confidently await the very judge who has already offered himself to the judgment of God in my place and remove the curse from me, Christ will cast all his enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation, but we'll come back to what he's going to do for us. This is an important truth in the scriptures that doesn't get talked about much in Christianity anymore. There is judgment coming. There is a day of judgment coming. There is an eternal place of judgment called hell. The scriptures teach this everywhere. Jesus spoke about it. But in this context, it's meant to be, and it's meant to be a comfort to us to say, all of your pain, all of your struggle, all of the unjust things done, all of the evil, all of the awful things that they have done to my people throughout all these years, I'm going to answer. I'm going to answer. Remember when in Ezekiel, he called, this is Ezekiel 9, and he called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing case at his waist. And the Lord said to him, Pass through the city through Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all of the abominations that are committed. Do you ever sigh and groan over what's happening? Do you ever sigh and groan over evil? Do you ever sigh and get tired of it? The Psalms say, you know, at times I cry rivers of water because people hate your law, oh Lord. The sadness of this world, the hatred, the vicious things that are done, the terrible things that are done. How does anyone think this is normal? There's a devil, and there's people under his control, and it's a murderous world. Sure, there's common grace, and the Lord restrains, and he gives us a good go of it in this life at times that is just surprising, but this is the struggle in this life. Remember what Jude said, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones to do what? To execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. You know how many terrible things have been said against the Lord? How many awful things have been done to slander him? And yet he keeps this project going because he's saving. It's not forever. There's a rescue coming. Think of all the blood that cries out from the womb in this nation. Think of the Lord saying to Cain, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. How much blood cries out from the womb? Think of all the harsh and terrible things that have happened. And the Lord is going to address this. The Bible teaches us this. But I want you to notice tonight that the particular reason he's saying it is so that you look forward to the rescue of what's coming. When it gets to the point that the righteous are being crushed and they've crushed the truth of the gospel and they've done all kinds of terrible things and it's difficult to live in this world, the Lord comes for us. So where did that happen in history? I'll tell you how the New Testament writers used it. And they said, look at Lot. Look at Lot. Lot lived in Sodom. Pitched his tent outside of it. Ended up inside of it. And look at all the things that happened. I don't have to rehearse that story. You know, he offered his daughters to them. And one day the Lord said, that's it. The angel came and pulled him out. He was that entrenched in it. And he was God's child. And the Lord would not let him face that judgment. See, it was pictured as a rescue mission. The second coming is often pictured as a rescue mission, at least in 2 Thessalonians, to those who are suffering the struggles of this life. And that's the encouragement tonight. That's what the Heidelberg says. In all my distresses and persecutions with uplifted heart, I confidently await the very judge who has already offered himself to the judge in my place and remove the whole curse from me. Do you notice Paul's great words there in verse 10? When the Lord Jesus Christ comes, here's what's going to happen. He's going to grant you relief. Of all this struggle, of all this sin, of all this pain, it's going to be done. What a sigh of relief it's going to be, beloved. No more. No more of this. Can you imagine it? No more of the sighs, no more of the groans, no more of any of the pain. It's done forever. And then he says when he comes on that day, guess what's going to happen? He's going to be glorified in his saints and marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony was believed. This is what is so beautiful about this article tonight. I mean, the apostles talked about this everywhere. Paul said before he died, he said, henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me but to all who've loved his appearing. He wants you to have confidence tonight that you belong to him, that you're his, and that you can pray, Lord Jesus, come quickly, and that when he comes, he's for you, he's delivering you, he's rescuing you. That's the beauty of this particular passage tonight, and that's what's being said to us, that he's rescuing and helping us. The picture of the saint on Judgment Day, the picture of the saint, and of course, 1 Corinthians 15 says that, behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall all be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. The dead in Christ, of course, will rise first, but at the last trumpet, we're going to be changed in a moment. But the imagery the Lord has of us when he comes on the clouds of heaven that we look up and say, there he is. There's my champion. There's my hero. There's the one I've lived believing in all these years and all my life, whom has taught me, as we heard this morning, the knowledge of God and has saved me from the judgment to come and has loved me and removed the curse from me. There's my hero and he's not coming to judge me. He's coming to get me. That's the imagery of this. That's what the Lord is telling us about the second coming. He's already made atonement for you. He's already stood in your place. The very one who comes as judge was the one who came down to this earth and suffered the cruel death of the cross and became the curse for you so that when he comes again, he's not coming to unveil your sins again. He's coming to take you home. He's coming to rescue you. He's coming to give you everything that he ever promised. Remember 2 Peter 3? The Lord's not slow in giving you what he promised. What did he promise you? Well, he's promised you forgiveness of sins. But he's promised you eternal life. The Lord's not slow to give you glory. The Lord's not slow to give you heaven. The only reason we're still here is because he's still gathering more. And when the last of the elect come in, remember what Jesus said? When the last of the elect come in, then the end will come. Then the end will come. I posted to social media the other day, I found this picture of the 1918 pandemic. And you know what everyone was doing? Well, we've already tried it. They were sitting outside with masks on in a worship service in 1918. We think we're the first ones to face what we're facing and COVID-19 is the end of the world and everything's falling apart. And the message of scripture is, listen, nothing's new under the sun. Life will go on. We will get through this. When the last of the elect comes in, then the end comes. That's how the Lord wants you to think. Not COVID-19, not the crumbling of governments or persecutions. It's none of that. It's when the last of his sheep come in, then the end comes, and then he comes and gets us. That's the plan. That's the master plan. And so the message here for us tonight and this struggling church in the world that was trying to make sense of everything and understand all the difficulties of life and the discouragements was, lift up your eyes. You know, what an imagery today, this morning when Jesus is in prayer, lifting up his eyes to heaven. Lift up your eyes to heaven. He's coming soon. He's coming soon to take us home. So what should we be about until then? Well, I think this is the beautiful truth of what he's saying. On that day, don't lose heart in the struggle. When he comes again, the righteous, Matthew 13 will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. So what do we do? Well, what does Paul end here by saying? To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be what? Here's the tie. Glorified in you. Wait a minute, Jesus is praying to his Father this morning, asking for that glory, and now what Paul is saying here is, for your purpose on earth, is that you would live so that the name of Jesus is glorified in you. For what end? Well, for his glory, so that people would see him, that they would know him, that they would believe in him. And notice this, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a purpose here. We have a purpose here. Speak the truth. God is still saving. Not all the elect have come in yet. The ark door is still open. Think of Noah's day. Noah preached. He was a preacher of righteousness for 120 years, and he preached, enter the ark. What do you think we're doing? Enter the ark. It's Jesus, believe the gospel and don't lose heart in the struggle. The righteous will soon shine and on that day he will say to you, think of this great truth, Matthew 25, come my beloved, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That's what's coming. That's what's coming. That's the good news of this. So, in this struggle, we can expect difficulties at times. I think we can all say the Lord's given us a good go of it in this life, a blessed life full of, at least for me, the difficulties have simply been some people may say mean things about me, but at times it may get worse. At times people may persecute us. They may hate us. And the Lord's telling you tonight, none of that goes unnoticed. He's righteous. He's just. He will repay everything that's done against his people. But remember the cause for which we're here. I want to close tonight with the Belgic Confession. I want to just read it tonight. I think it's so encouraging. And then we'll go to our Lord in prayer. Finally, we believe, according to God's word, that when the time appointed by the Lord has come, which is unknown to all creatures, and the number of the elect is complete, our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven bodily and visibly as he ascended with great glory and majesty to declare himself the judge of the living and the dead. He will burn this old world in fire and flame in order to cleanse it. Then all human creatures will appear in person before the great judge, men women and children who've lived from the beginning until the end of the world these will be summoned there with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet for all those who died before that time will be raised from the earth their spirits being joined and united with their own bodies in which they lived and as for those who are still alive they will not die like the others but will be changed in the twinkling of an eye from perishable to imperishable then the books that is the consciences will be open the dead will be judged according to the things they did in the world whether good or evil indeed all people will give account of the idle words they've spoken which the world regards as only playing games and the secrets and hypocrisies of all people will be publicly uncovered in the sight of all therefore with good reason the thought of this judgment is horrible and dreadful to the wicked and evil people listen this but it's very pleasant and a great comfort to the righteous and elect, since their total redemption will then be accomplished. Then they will then receive the fruits of their labor and of the trouble they have suffered. Here it is. Their innocence will be openly acknowledged by all, and they will see the terrible vengeance of God that God will bring on the evil ones who tyrannized, oppressed, and tormented them in this world. The evil ones will be convicted by the witness of their own consciences, and they shall be made immortal, but only to be tormented in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. In contrast, the faithful and the elect will be crowned with glory and honor. The Son of God will profess their names before God his Father and the holy and elect angels. All tears will be wiped from their eyes and their cause. Now think about this. At present, condemned as heretical and evil by many judges and civil officers will be acknowledged as the cause of the Son of God. Can't you just see this coming? All that we believed and all that's ridiculed, this is coming. This will be what's held out. These are my people. And also, as a gracious reward, the Lord will make them possess a glory such as the human heart could never imagine. Where do you start to explain that? I has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered in the heart of man the things that God's prepared for those who love him. Do you love him? I know you do. So then, we look forward to that great day with longing in order to enjoy fully the promises of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's exactly what Thessalonians is saying. That's how he wants you to live. So might we this week think about a lot more the glory that awaits us. Jesus prayed. I want that glory that I had with you, Father, before the world began. You know, that's essentially what we're looking forward to is the glory that awaits us. This is what the New Testament tells us to look forward to and to remember our great purpose here. Don't lose heart in the struggle. There's a reason we're here. His purposes are being fulfilled. God loves you, and he will take you home. Let's pray to him tonight. Heavenly Father, thank you for such words tonight. And if we struggle with the doctrine of your justice and judgment, it's because, well, we have not taken seriously sin and just how righteous you are. But it's righteous. And every idle word and deed and thought spoken against you will have to face your scrutiny on that day. No one will be able to stand unless they are in Jesus. and you give us such words of comfort tonight that we would not look with dread upon that day that's coming, but that we would live with hope and confidence that you're coming to rescue us from all of this. And as the world bears down on us, as we see how bad things could become, we begin to understand this. So thank you for preparing us with this truth. Thank you for helping us with this truth. Sometimes, as the old saying goes, it's difficult to make the wicked sad and the righteous happy. May we be happy, O Lord. Happy that we belong to you, are purchased, and may the Lord Jesus Christ, his glory, be shown through us. Fulfill your work. Save to the ends of the earth all your people. Give us hearts for the lost and let the gospel sound out. And may we as a church be faithful like Thessalonica in our works and good deeds and service and love for one another in whatever you call us to endure, rejoicing that we belong to the kingdom of Christ and are worthy to suffer for the name and give us confidence, O Lord. Thank you for the peace that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.