Satan, according to Revelation 20, is being eternally punished. He doesn't rule anything in hell. God is omniresent. Would you agree with that? That includes hell. In fact, your footnote I I mentioned the ESV because I wanted to draw your attention back to the footnote the in verse 9 where it says they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from there should be in it's not just the ESV it should be there's other translations as well.
If you have a reputable translation, there should be a footnote there. And the footnote should drop you down and it should say something like destruction that comes from. In fact, this Greek word where it says away from in verse 9 is used many, many times in the New Testament. In virtually every other location in the entire New Testament, it is simply translated from, not away from from.
So if you understand that, look at how it reads. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his might. Now certainly we recognize, make no mistake, his grace, his love, his joy, his peace, his splendor, none of that will be present in hell, but his wrath will be as he meets out his fury upon the people there.
Isaiah 2 speaks about that. I'm going to take you to Hebrews chapter 10. In Hebrews 10 29-31 it says this. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the son of God and has profained the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outright outraged the spirit of grace. For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine. I will repay." And again the Lord will judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If you are here among those who don't know God and have not obeyed the gospel, this need not be your end. The scriptures tell us that though we're all sinners and we all all of us deserve that. Every person here deserves everything we've just looked at. We all deserve it. But by grace the father sent his only son to pay my penalty in my place, to pay your penalty in your place.
If you would but believe upon him, repent and turn from your sin and turn to him today. This day, you can go from being under that condemnation to be an adopted child of God most high. But you must repent today. We live right where or we live this church is right by the street. You could walk out and get hit by a bus literally half an hour from now. You are not guaranteed another day. Today is the day of salvation.
Now that's heavy, but praise be to God. There's good news in this text, too. Yes, the wicked will be punished, but the righteous will be vindicated. Verse five, go back to our texture. The evidence or probably this is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God. What is the what evidence? What's he talking about? The evidence is their their persecution and affliction. Verse four from the text we looked at last week. We boast about you and the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions you are enduring.
This is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God. So, they're enduring this persecution, this affliction from the wicked. By the way, the Bible tells us, read Psalm 1. If you've never read Psalm 1 or you haven't read it for a long time, Psalm 1, by the way, really outlines the bulk of how the Psalms operate. There are the righteous and there are the wicked. And there's no middle ground. There's no there's no such thing as someone who's kind of wicked. If you're a sinner unrepentantly, you're wicked.
If you're redeemed, you're you're redeem you're righteous. Not you're right. You are not inherently righteous, but the righteousness of God through Christ is upon you. There's the righteous. There's the wicked. And the righteous here have been afflicted by the wicked. And so God is going to comfort those according to this text. He's going to comfort those who have felt this persecution and this affliction as a direct result of living out their faith. If you haven't read the biatitudes recently, let me take you back there to Matthew chapter 5.
There he is on the hillside teaching Jews and Gentiles alike. And he says this in Matthew chapter 5 in verses 10 to 12. He says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile 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. Yeah, the persecution itself is awful to endure. We all understand.
No one no one skips along going, "Yay, I'm being persecuted." No one that I know of does that. But your reward is great in heaven. And the Father is honored and glorified and exalted as you stand firm in the midst of it. And he's going to comfort with peace and with rest those who are so afflicted. That's what we read here in verse 7. He's going to grant relief to you who are afflicted. That that little phrase grant relief is the it's synonymous with peace and with rest.
And it's really pictured for us in the words of Jesus in Matthew 11. I'll read it for you. Verses 27 to30 says this. All things have been handed over to me by my father. And no one knows the son except the father. And no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light. When he talks about relief in second Thessalonians, that relief is found in Christ. It's found in who he is, in his person, in his character. This is a beautiful thing. In the midst of this dark world, God is going to grant relief, comfort, rest for the soul for those who are afflicted.
So if you find yourself afflicted for your faith, persecuted maybe at your job site, maybe from your family members, maybe from your neighbors, who knows? It might be difficult now, almost certainly is difficult now. But fear not, friends, God is going to grant relief to you. There was a many many many years ago a young Midwestern lawyer who was suffering deep deep bouts of depression. So much so that his friends thought it best to keep all knives and razor blades out of his reach.
That's how deep his depression was. He questioned his life's calling, the prudence of living the way he did. And during this dark time in his life, he wrote the following. I am now the most miserable man living. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forbode that I shall not. But in God's enormous common grace, this man whose name was Abraham Lincoln received encouragement, pressed on, and his life was thoroughly vindicated after this bout with discouragement.
But far greater than that will be the believer's vindication when he comes. Look at verse 10. When he comes on that day, friends, I think, do you ever think in word pictures or or not word pictures, actual pictures in your brain? Some of you do. Some of you can't even comprehend that. I think in pictures think in try to picture this when he comes on that day to be a glorified in his saints. How many of you have heard the mercy me song? I can only imagine.
That's a great song. In there there's the question is asked, "Will I stand in his presence or to my knees will I fall?" Great question. I don't know. But we're going to glorify him on that day. When he returns, it's like Acts chapter 1. It'll be like that when Jesus ascended in Acts 1:9-11. They're doing this in awe. They're marveling. In fact, that's what the the text says here. To be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who believed. In the same way they marveled when he ascended, we will marvel when he is revealed to us.
Yesterday the men or some of the men gathered at Dunamis where we were just given some fun things to learn about the sport and it was a great time together. In the course of it, our our good friend Jake and Kristoff, good friends back there were demonstrating some stuff to us. And Kristoff was holding the pads. I'm doing this really wrong. I'm going to butcher this, but he's holding the pads and Jake was teaching us how to kick, strike, whatever. And he said, "Start light and then slowly progressively get harder and harder and harder and harder."
And he's doing this and he's showing us how to get harder and harder. And the last few kicks I was because I knew the sermon was coming. I took advantage of it. I use this as a sermon illustration. I was just observing the guys in the room and with every passing kick, their jaws got lower and lower and lower, Jake. They marveled at you. But that, no offense to you, Jake, that pales in comparison to how we will marvel when the Lord returns. What a day that will be for the saint we and all the troubles of this world.
All the ways in which we are persecuted, all the ways we were mocked and derided for our faith. In that day, we will marvel at him. We will glorify him and our labor in the Lord. We will know with certainty that it has not been in vain. The believer will be vindicated on that day. That is why we read here in verse 11, to this end, Paul says, I'm I'm praying for you that God may make you worthy of his calling. I love that, by the way.
He doesn't say, "I'm praying that you'll make yourself worthy." You can't make yourself worthy, but God can. Philippians 1:6, "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion." So, he's going to make you worthy of his calling. He's going to continue to sanctify you and bring you home so that and you may fulfill, it says, every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power. God's power, his his enabling is what allows this the the struggling believer to press on in the middle of a dark world in a in a middle of a world that is persecuting the believer and afflicting the believer.
We press on not in our power, not in our might, but in his. And that's good news. So that verse 12 says the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to his grace. On that day God will be glorified. The saints will marvel. We will be going home. All will be well. So let me tell you something. For the wicked, today is the day of salvation. You need to repent today.
But should the wicked not repent, God is just and he will repay, the wicked will not get away with it. Sometimes in a weary world, we can think to ourselves, why do the wicked prosper? The psalmists said that. Why do the wicked prosper? It seems like they do all these evil things and especially to believers without any recourse and they die unrepentantly and it looks like they just made it through. They they skated through. They got everything they wanted.
The wicked will not get away with it. God is just to repay. But for us who are also wicked, but by God's grace have had the good news of Jesus revealed to us and we have repented and we have believed and we are saved. We are new men and women in Christ. On that day, we will marvel at him and we're going to go to be with our father forever. So, dear friends, let me close by reminding you from an old hymn, how our hearts should live.
Trust him when dark doubts assail thee. Trust him when thy strength is small. Trust him when to simply trust him seems the hardest thing of all. Trust him. He is ever faithful. Trust him for his will is best. Trust him. For the heart of Jesus is the only place of rest. God, I pray that we would indeed trust you in this way. You are so ever faithful. You're faithful in your justness. You're faithful in your wrath.
You're faithful in your grace. You're faithful in your kindness. You are the one who holds us fast by your tender mercies. And you bring your people safely home. Thank you for that. Thank you that you are the one who makes us worthy of our calling. And Father, may we live our lives for your glory. May we be evangelists seeking to help those who don't know you and have not yet obeyed the gospel to see their need for Christ. We pray that there might be those even this day who would turn from their sin and believe savingly upon our Lord.
And so, Father, we entrust ourselves to your care as we press on in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.