Waiting for His Son From Heaven

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good morning. Faith, Bible Church. This morning, we are going to be looking at first, Thessalonians chapter, chapter one, if you want to turn there with me in your Bible, if you'll notice, the songs for the service today have really been focused on the coming Kingdom. The songs and scriptures focused on the coming kingdom and are waiting for Christ. We started a series in about the second coming and last week, what I wanted to do is, well, I wanted to impress the first and most important thing for every single Christian and every single non Christian, is that Jesus could return at any time. And we looked at the parable of the servants that Jesus told who were ready and waiting for his master to return at any time. That's really the first and most important. There's lots of questions about what's going to happen when Jesus returns. You have natural curiosity, and I hope you do, but the first thing that we need to think about is that he could return at any minute, and we need to be faithfully ready. That's true. If we die, we're going to stand before him, and he is going to look at our life. It's true. If he comes back today. What I want to do is I want to show you how we need to link the the work of Jesus on the cross to His coming. Those are both essential parts of the gospel as we think about it, and we're going to do that by looking at first, Thessalonians, chapter chapter one, verses two through 10, and I'll focus the sermon on nine and 10. Stand with me as we read God's word. But if you, if you want to model church a Christ following community first, Thessalonians is really the place to look. Notice. Watch as I read how the fruit of their lives traces down to the root of their faith, like watch it and you could see how it lands us in our sermon, as we as we look at Jesus return, we give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord, Jesus Christ, for we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you, not only in Word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. And with full conviction, you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaea. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaea, but your faith in God, God has gone forth everywhere, so that we not need to say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. This is the word of the lord father. Thank you. Thank you for giving us your son, Lord Jesus. You You are just and righteous, and you are going to come back in justice, you're going to come back in glory. And we stand here this morning grateful for mercy. Many of us have heard the gospel and believed the gospel, and you have poured out mercy now so that when you come in judgment, it won't be for wrath, but for reward, and that is a grace. You turned us from our idolatry. We are thankful. We do confess since we still live in flesh, with remaining sin and worship that goes other places. We ask for forgiveness. We would ask for repentance. We would want to keep turning away, and we would want to keep hoping. We confess that we look to a lot of things in the world that give us immediate hope that sometimes the volume on that is far louder than the volume of this truth. And we pray that You would help us put this truth at the forefront. Father, I pray for our community, thinking about the wrath that is to come in the world and a final judgment, our hearts ache. For those who don't know you, we are grateful as we start hearing news that another church plant is going to happen in our area. Some people we know, with Aaron badley and Jess Colvin and others, you. Well, being invited with to Indian trails, being invited to plant a church not very far from us. And we are thankful, and we want to pray for the success of those things, because we want this city to hear the gospel and for you to gather your people to yourself now. Help us understand this. Help us put put things in the right perspective. Help us with our hearts, so that we would give you wholehearted worship. Keep us awake and attentive. We ask all this in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. We give you a little bit more update on that church plant with Indian Trail. But Aaron, badly was on staff in our college, and he worked in the office for us. Jess Calvin was one of our elders for many, many years. So that's kind of exciting news. There's we'll let them tell more of that, but be praying for it. I don't say it often in front of you, because I don't. I want you to understand my heart. But if somebody comes to me and says, Boy, we want to plant a church in Spokane, what do you think said? You know, if you planted a church in the parking lot to the west of us here, I would be so excited, because there are so many people to reach in our circle. We can't reach them all, so come in, grab an oar and row. That's what we need to do. That's really should be our attitude when we think of churches getting planted, or evangelism happening and church is growing in our area. We want to see Christ glorified. That's always been the heart for us at Faith, Bible Church, let's turn to our attention, to our text. A number of years ago, Linda and I, with a couple named Fred and Sharon Williams, went to the Dominican Republic to train men and women's leaders, biblical counseling and shepherding, and when I booked the tickets, this has never happened before, and it's never happened since I found first class tickets on an American Airlines flight that were cheaper than the economy. I'm not necessarily that bright, but I figured I should book those. The cheapest flight is first class. Okay, I booked it. I was kind of apprehensive we show up at the airport, and I was sure that at check in, they would say, I know it says first class on your tickets, but you paid the cheap price. Sorry, go back to economy. Go back to like no inches of leg room and a nine hour flight. You're gonna love it. I was just sure that we get all the way to the boarding. I'm sure somebody's gonna say, sorry, you only paid the cheap fare. But it was true. We rode first class. We got a nice meal, like people fly first class for a reason. It's fun. I mean, it's really expensive. It was true. It was true. Something seemed to do good to be true. But that one was true. Did you know if you have turned from your sin, from your idolatry, to Christ, when Christ returns, you have first class entrance into the kingdom. You have a first class trip waiting for you. When Christ returns in glory, you will be gathered to Him. It's true. You can bank on it. Our problem as humans is we expect first class from the home to the airport or from now until then, which is not what we're promised. In fact, that reality that Christ is coming back is an anchor to the gospel, and it is to help us, because Jesus promised that there would be trouble and trial as we think about this, I want you to make it physical for you take take your hands, and I want you to understand how you have to do this To live effectively, fruitfully. As a Christian in this world, you hold firm on the gospel of what Jesus has done, and you hold firmly on the gospel of what Jesus will do at His return. Both are equally necessary. What what are what we're saved to will be fully realized when he comes. And this was the great promise that the Thessalonian Believers took hold of. They saw the world as it was. They saw all the various gods. And you could pick any number of names of Greek or Roman gods or the unnamed gods, but true enough of wealth or influence or power or reputation, things that that people want for themselves, they saw the vanity of all of those things, and they turned to Christ despite the trial. Us the pushback about following Christ. They had steadfast hope. You notice the three things there was the work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope.

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Now, Jesus was upfront with us. He is up front with us in the Gospels about what's going to happen when you follow him. Just to give you another airplane visual, if you've ever gotten off an airplane and you got to the exit door at the front and you realize you left something in the seat pocket, unless you were the last person on the flight, it was impossible to get back, like you tried going back six seats just to get a bag that you left, and it's really hard, let alone if you get to the front, everybody wants out. Everybody's going this direction, and you're going the opposite direction. That is what Jesus warned us about when we became Christians. Everybody's going the other direction. And you want to go upstream, you want to go the wrong way, but he wanted to give us comfort too. Listen to John 14. John 14 through 16. Jesus wants to give his disciples comfort about a bunch of things that are to come. He says this in John 14, verse one, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am you may be also. Jesus said this to his followers and to us as followers, because we're in the midst of a fallen, hostile world. It's hostile to God. Wants to worship anything but God. Jesus says that the world hates me. It's going to hate you. The end of that section, John 16, he says, I have said these things to you that you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation. He's saying this, I'm telling you this, that you're going to have a hard time, so that when the hard time comes, you'll know it's all going according to plan. Be comforted. It's hard. I know it's going to be hard. I know you should know it's all according to plan. But take heart. I have overcome the world through Jesus, death and resurrection. He has victory over death, and he will have victory over the world that's opposed to him. So as we look at this second part in a series of coming of Christ, take hold of those two realities. Take hold of those two realities, the cross and the Second Coming. What Jesus has done on the cross has secured our relationship with Him. When He returns, he's going to gather us up and bring justice to the world. Paul's concerned that the persecution and the temptations to the Thessalonian Believers would overwhelm them. He had to escape, a sense, with his life to get out of Thessalonica, and he was very concerned about him. He sent Timothy back in just a month or so when Timothy finally joins him, Timothy brings back a glowing report that they have held fast, and the church has only been a church by the time of this writing for six months, maybe a year, they've already had people die in the faith. They've already had people possibly die for the faith, and they're holding fast. They're holding fast. And so what he's saying to us as we focus on nine and 10 is Don't fall for the promises, the false promises of prosperity, comfort, counterfeit gods or the gods made and represented in this stones and wood and other man made things. The best of the world is temporary. The best of it. Remember King Solomon, who got it all opened, Ecclesiastes with Vanity, vanity, all this vanity and and the word sometimes gets translated meaningless, but it just really means a breath, just a vapor. It's just the best the world has is just but a vapor, it's going to pass away. The worst the world has, there's another good side of this is also just a vapor. The worst the world has is just a vapor. Take comfort. Don't spiral into despair about the bad in the world. No, it's just temporary. Don't get over elated in the good of the world to give it your worship. It's just temporary. The future is glorious, triumphant and eternal. In Christ, we're going to experience it when he returns. Here's a big idea from the two verses we're going to look at. It's very simple. Comes right out of the text, turn to God from idols. When we do the outline, it'll be, keep turning, turn to God from idols and wait for God's Son from heaven. This is what the Thessalonians did at their conversion. This is what is necessary for us as we're holding a true and authentic faith in Christ. So let's take it these two parts. Number one, keep turning to God from idols. Keep turning to God from idols or or looking at their example. Verse nine, it says you turned to God from idols to serve the true, the living and true God. And I want you to remember, everybody gets saved from the present wrath of God the same way you get saved from the future wrath of God, that's by the work that Jesus has done on the cross. It is by repentance from sin and idolatry, and it is by faith in Christ alone. And they did the Thessalonians did. Now, I think it's helpful for us in our day, because we think of idolatry in pretty restricted ways. We should define it. Idolatry is giving the worship that belongs to the God of the Bible to something else. Let me say that again, idolatry is giving the worship that belongs to the God of the Bible to something else. It can be a creature God has created. That's how Romans one describes it, worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. It can be something someone invents. Whether it's a thing, worship by over attention. Nobody struggles with that with a device. It can be worship by ideal or by by hope, and it can be worship of a of a theory of a philosophy. At the heart of it, though it's really simple, here's what idolatry is. Idolatry is this, whatever that God of choosing is? It goes like this, I will give you x right now. If you give me Y, right now, I'll give you x right now. You give me. Let's do it in in the overt idolatry. You see it in the Bible, you might have the Canaanites in the Old Testament would say, Baal, I'll give you worship and sacrifice. You give my wife and my crops fertility. Very practical. Idolatry is usually very practical in China or Africa, it might go like this, ancestors, there are evil spirits making us sick and ruining our crops. Here is a sacrifice. Here is a statue to your honor. Please drive the evil spirits away and give us good luck. It might be a prayer rug, bowing to Allah, all those kinds of overt idolatry. It could be the poly polytheistic gods that make up the LDS religion that's overt idolatry. Then there's functional idolatry. Some biblical counselors call them functional saviors. Functional idolatry when, when we elevate a potential good thing to an ultimate thing. We start worshiping. You. Remember, you're hardwired to worship. You were created to worship. You're made to worship. You're going to give your attention, your affections, to something, and you could take a good thing and make it an ultimate thing. This kind of functional idolatry in politics can look like this. Here's my donation, here's my yard sign, here's my vote. The other party is ruining our world. You are the only one who could save me. It could be a good thing to be active in politics, and you could do all of those things with the right motives, but it's very easy to think that we'll be saved by a political outcome. You could say it to a job, I'll work hard, I'll be productive. Give me a promotion, give me more money, then people will treat me like I'm an important person, or I can buy what I want and do what I want. Fame, money, power become our saviors. There's sports idolatry, where the athlete says, I'll give my talents, my discipline, my training, give me a place on the team, and we will win. And people will think we're winners, we're amazing. Of course, there's fan idolatry too. You got the swag? I mean, you. Where are the Seahawks jerseys? Oh, they don't play till a couple weeks. But pretty soon the swag will show up. I will wear the swag and I have some swag

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nuts. I'm just but pretty soon your heart gets wrapped up like it will be a good day if the Seahawks win, it'll be a good day. If the mariners win,

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who's laughing? It's like I haven't had a good day for so long.

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You to be saved, we need to repent and believe. We need to turn from the overt idolatry. You need to turn from false gods, and you may be here in one of those things I just described that, and Jesus is the only Savior, and you need to turn from the functional idolatry. And because the flesh in our in us, is so powerful, we can naturally, easily gravitate to these functional idols or saviors.

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JC, Ryle, 19th century preacher from Liverpool, go Liverpool. He once preached a sermon called idolatry to be destroyed at Christ's coming, which got my attention. He writes this, it is a pestilence that walks in the church of Christ to a much greater extent than many of you suppose it is an evil that, like the man of sin, sits in the very temple of God. It's an allusion to Second Thessalonians. It is a sin we all need to watch and pray against continually. End Quote, because in the history of the church, it goes from venerating godly examples or being inspired to godly examples, to worshiping saints, to worshiping a style of worship, a political party or a leader our way of life, we can elevate what is temporary and fleeting to the status of a god. You How do you know when you're falling for functional saviors? One way is to track the source of those very strong emotions and affections, anxiety, depression, elation, anger, disappointment, jealousy, coveting, lustful thoughts and actions if you find yourself all bunched up in frustration. You should say, What am I hoping in right now? What am I really trying to get out of things now, sometimes you can track that to somebody in my life just died, and that's hard. That's lament. The other side can be a false worship. This form needs to be constantly addressed. One of the best pickups for little, tiny books that we found this summer, suggested to us was a little devotional by Charles Spurgeon called the checkbook of faith. This week, there was in their one minute readings. You like one minute readings? Checkbook of faith is yours. He says this, here's the way of mercy for a sinner. Like sinner, do you want mercy? He must cease from the habit of covering sin. This is attempted by falsehood, which denies sin by hypocrisy, which conceals it by boasting, which justifies it by loud profession, which tries to make amends for it. The sinner must confess and forsake. Confession must be honestly made to the Lord. We must not throw the fault upon others or blame circumstances or plead natural weakness. We must make a clean break of it and plead guilty. There could be no mercy till this is done. Furthermore, having owned our fault, we must disown all present and future intent to abide in it. The habit of evil must be quitted together with all places, companions and pursuits which might lead us astray, not for confession, not for reformation, but in connection with them, we find pardon by faith in the blood of Jesus. End quote. So notice what Paul said was characteristic of the Thessalonian Believers, you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and hear our word. Serve is connected back to last week's idea of serve with this parable Jesus told about the master who went away to a wedding and his. Servants were anticipating him, serving Him, to serve the living and true God, to worship Him and to do His will. So first turn, keep turning. Second, wait for his Son from heaven. Wait for his Son from heaven. Verse 10, you could see, Paul says, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. We are now to wait. So you have the you have hold two things now. You have this doctrine of repentance, and then you have Jesus and His return, and he says, and to wait, to wait for his Son. From what does that mean? Let me illustrate it, and then let me define it. I'll tell you what it doesn't mean. Did anybody have to go clothe shopping with their mother when you were like eight or nine guys, did you ever go clothing shopping with your mother? When she was shopping for herself? My mom would take us shopping, and eventually I would get clothes which was never a thrill. Toys are a thrill. Clothes, not a thrill today. Tools are a thrill. Clothes, not so much. Still the same, she would, she would be at the Rounders, you know, the JCPenney and those, those, and she'd be looking through the blouses, and she'd be looking through the trousers, the pants, like she'd be looking through all the things, the dresses. And when I was eight, every minute was eternal. I waited for my mother to be done with shop. Maybe she would give me a reprieve and says, go to the go to the toy department and just covet. Would you? She didn't say that. That's really what was happening. Why don't you go to the toy department and covet? Give you something to do that's not what Paul's talking about. Like it's really boring, it's really long, or the sufferings going on and on and on and on. I'll tell you what it is. It's not that. It is this. It's an anticipation and expectation for Jesus to return, and anticipation and expectation, just like we looked at last week, the Psalms are filled with this language. As the various Psalm writers suffered, they would give a lament to God. This world is really hard. I'm going through real difficulties. And this word Wait, it's a worshiping word. It's an attitude, anticipation and expectation. It could take a long time, but I'm going to anticipate. Listen to just three of them from Psalm 25 and they're frequent over the Psalms. David has many enemies his lifetime, whether Saul Philistines, and he writes this psalm. He says this in Psalm 20, 520, my God, in You I trust. Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me. He's got enemies that are about to announce a victory over him. And he says this, indeed, none who wait for you shall be this shall be put to shame. Verse five, lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation. For you, I wait all the day in the New Testament. Turn write a couple of books to Titus. Chapter one, sorry, Titus chapter two. Titus chapter two.

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You see how these are paired. This is such a familiar teaching or doctrine. Titus 211 says this, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training them to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. So he doesn't use the idolatry word. He uses the righteousness words holiness to turn from unholiness to holiness, to turn from unrighteousness to righteousness. Verse 13, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself, a people for His own possession, who are zealous for good works. Here we have the return of Christ, the death of Christ on behalf of sinners, as the handles we all hold waiting four things to wait from they're in your notes. First, we wait for his Son from heaven. We wait for his Son from heaven. You.

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Nothing that comes from this world can or will deliver us. We wait for deliverance from heaven. There might be reprieve, there might be reform, there may be a remnant, but nothing that comes from this world will deliver us. In Philippians, 318, through 21 the Apostle Paul's writing about unbelievers and many who have turned back from Christ to the gods of this world. Verse 18, he says, for many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their god is their belly. They glory in their shame with mind set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven. What's your first citizenship? Your king is Christ, and your home is with him, and he is in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to even to subject all things to himself, we're gonna look at that next week. And you may serve in a variety of ways, variety of spheres. You can bring reform or reprieve, but nothing will be your ultimate. Nothing will last until Christ sets up a new heaven and earth, the ultimate and permanent changes will come from Christ, who's now in heaven. So first we wait for the Son from heaven. First we wait for the second we wait for the Son from heaven, whom God raised from the dead, whom he raised from the dead, the one we wait for has conquered death. When he comes, it will be the end of the tyranny of death to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, means that we wait for one who will resurrect our bodies. You. In fact, it's going to be one of the major, the major elements of his future reign. He will reign in life over people who live eternally, first, Corinthians, 15. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. That means firstfruit means there's a harvest coming. For, as by a man came death by a man came also the resurrection of the dead. For, as in Adam, all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, each in its own order, Christ, the firstfruits, then at His coming, those who belong to Christ, so at this coming not only will be delivered from the wrath of God to come, but we will be transformed into life. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power For he must reign until he has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. When John saw the revelation of Jesus Christ in Revelation, chapter one sees Jesus in his blazing glory, laser eyes, face that shine like the sun, breastplate, clothing, glorious and shining. He falls down as though dead. Verse 17, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not. I am the First and the Last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades, what kind of Savior are you waiting for? You are waiting for the king with the keys. The king with the keys is coming the authority over hell and death.

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Remember, the church is very young, already some had died. And what an answer? What an answer when we trust Christ, when people get saved in a Muslim context, or persecuting context, or another context where they could be killed by their own family, for betraying their honor, for becoming a Christian at this time, Paul and Silas had been threatened with death, James had been martyred. Living for Christ in the Roman Empire could be deadly, but you have a King who's got the keys over death and Hades and he's coming back. I. Third to wait for Jesus. So wait for the Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus. Sometimes there's a purpose, like putting it back, so that we all go. That's right, it's Jesus, but whenever the Apostle Paul names him. He's reminding us we have the God man. Here we have the one who was born of a virgin, who was raised by a couple of poor parents, who was largely rejected, but who worked miracles, who prophesied, who taught, who offered salvation, who was betrayed, who was crucified, who was raised from the dead. This is Jesus of Nazareth, a real person. Why does Paul insert Jesus here? Because this one is now elevated to the right hand of the throne of God, and he's making prayers for you, intercession. He's praying for you because he knows what it's like to be tempted in all kinds of things, in every way. He knows what it's like to be tempted, and when you have failed in your temptation, when it's been too strong for you, it was never too strong for him, but he knows what you need in your temptation. It's Jesus who's returning, the man who's been here once.

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Reading through the Gospels a habit, that's it's really helpful. I was, I was reading in Matthew 21 earlier this week, and it was the story of Jesus coming in the triumphal entry, and then he comes into the temple. The temple is like three the temple mounts like three football fields. One football that's how big it was. One football field was filled with the money changers and the sellers of all the sacrificial animals. It was, it was high prices for everything. Jesus walks in at the triumphal entry. He looks at it, and Gentiles can't come in and worship. That's the only place they could. But it was full, and he, he takes whatever the material is, he weaves together a whip. Sits there, steaming. Jesus is angry, steaming, and he whips because of the whip. And then, like a prophet of old, he just, he starts flipping tables. And you got to know that the animal baskets are being dumped over with the birds, and you have to know that the cattle are being driven out, or the lambs are being driven out. No. I mean, you've never seen Jesus like this in the story books. And he says, My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer. A direct quote from Jeremiah chapter nine about how the Israelites were impeding the Gentiles from worshiping. He drives the money changers out. The squawking is over. Listen to verse 14.

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He says, the blind and the lame came in the temple, and he healed them. The blind and the lame came into the temple and He healed them. This is Jesus, who is coming back. He is zealous for the worship of God. He is the Lord of Glory, and no one else deserves it, beside Father, Son and Spirit. He is zealous for the glory of God, and he's full of compassion to the needy, the lame, the blind, the homeless, the poor, the guilty sinner. He's the one coming back, and you could do it just in any reading. As you walk through the Gospels, a leper comes to Jesus and says, if you were willing, you could make me clean. And Jesus puts out his hand to touch him, big, social No, no. He says, Be clean. He is coming back for me, a woman caught in adultery, a woman who is a known prostitute comes to Jesus in the middle of a middle of a. A fancy meal, bawling at his feet, and he says, Woman, Your sins are forgiven. He is coming back for me, zealous for the glory of God and the praise that he deserves, full of compassion to anyone who is lowly or hurting or guilty. Jesus,

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fourth, waiting for the deliverance from Wrath, waiting for the deliverance from wrath. Who delivers us from the wrath to come? The world is under the wrath of God right now. It is partial, but that's why we die. That's why there are massive worldwide events, natural disasters. We're in a fallen world. The wrath of God is being poured out, but in a limited way, and there is a final wrath to come. Why? Why is there a wrath? Well, God is the maker and ruler of heaven and earth. He is Creator and Sustainer of All Things and creatures. He alone has the right and authority to demand worship and obedience. He set the standard of morality, life, speech, conduct that honor him. When we give our worship to others or violate his law, he is right and just to punish because we are worshiping a lie. And since he is true and good, he could not be true and good if he let a lie go unchecked, if any person or nation persistent false worship, breaking his laws, oppressing the poor, persecuting His people, He will judge he will judge the person. He will judge the nation.

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What is the escape from the wrath to come? The one who's died for our sin and risen from the dead, He delivers from present wrath, he will deliver from full future wrath. What you have to understand, if you have repented and trusted Christ that there is no more anger or wrath left in the cup of God for you, it was all poured out on Christ. You have no wrath to face. But what do I do about trouble? What do I do about hard things? Well, he's still a father who will still discipline his sons and daughters, so that they would be holy. This is still a hostile world, but there is no more wrath, and there's no future wrath. The day of Christ's coming is a deliverance from wrath, and the reward of a kingdom turn over to Second Thessalonians, chapter one. Here's this practical you trust Christ, and you suddenly end up in a hostile world that it still wants the old worship for its own means, and it starts getting hostile toward you. The Apostle writes this encouragement, verse six, 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 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of alert or Lord Jesus, and here's the final judgment, 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. If you want to see the drama of it unfold, you could read from Revelation six to 20, that's that's an unfolding of what that final wrath will be like. And I want you to hear this. You have many problems in this life. You have many problems. I mean, it might be a miscarriage or an infertility, it might be an early death or a cancer of someone that's very important and close to you. It might be a job situation, it might be a church situation. You have many, many problems, but the worst problem you have is the wrath of God on unbelief. And if you trust Christ, your worst problem has been solved. The worst thing that could happen to me can't happen to me. I can't bear the wrath of God again. And

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I'll tell you what we do. We take our problems and we turn up the volume so loud on our problems, we think that a contemporary problem is the worst problem. Of them that we possibly have. This is here to turn the dial back to say I have a Savior who has already died for me. I have a Savior who will deliver me in the future. My worst problem is no problem because of the grace of God. You

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uh, Paul Weber and Seth Peterson are major mountain bike enthusiasts. Paul or drummer, most of the time. You know the only way to get to the top of a ridge if you're mountain biking, I asked Paul. He verified it in first service. Can you get up a hill just holding one handlebar? No, because you have two feet that are pumping like you have to hold on to both. That's what I'm trying to get across. This, this concept that that the Bible's filled with is you hold on to the work of Christ, the person of Christ, who has given Himself up for you, who has been raised and who is coming back. You have to have both. They're the gospel. He is coming back to rescue and to judge. We'll talk about those events in coming weeks, you can't. So if you are in the valley of great despair, great difficulty, or if you're in the euphoria of some present success, and you feel like it's eclipsed anything in the future, the way out of the valley, way to pump and get to the valley so that you have a clear view, is you have to look at what Christ has done, and you have to look at what Christ is coming to do.

46:53
So there's two things, one of them, one of them, are enduring practices, this turning in your notes. You have indwelling flesh. You're just a normal person if you get distracted by the wrong things. We were at our friends, the soba voice last night, and they had hummingbirds at the feeder, and they were pouring out their hearts. And we were like, there's hummingbirds you ever been around that sort of thing? Like somebody's pouring out their heart. There's hummingbirds. Your your heart is like so easily distracted, like that. So a daily practice is to hit the the emotions of the day. You know, we call them brownies and frownies. Lots of people have different things and go, Why is that a frowning? What's the feeling in there? And to recenter, you have to have this enduring practice for turning that confession of sin or distraction, that over euphoria. There all kinds of causes, all kinds of things that seem to get you excited, and you can tell that they're there. There's something going on, because there's maybe a lot of conflict brewing about those you can't put any significant hope in possessions, pleasures, prayer for prayer for praise from people. You can't put any significant hope in the next election, in a reform, you can't put any significant hope any economic policy, any investment like the Bible, is filled with the only trust you should have is Jesus. Then there's the waiting. You have to have turning practices. There's the waiting. American evangelicals are consumers, and so, like, we don't wait for anything. I want it so I can charge for it. I mean, we're we're quite schizophrenic. At one moment we're Chicken Little saying, the sky is falling. The sky is falling. The next moment, we're ordering two pizzas when we only need one.

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We need to cultivate our waiting. It's hard. Much is hard. Much is good, too. Much is good, too Finally, we need to talk about the coming wrath, the American tendency. The American tendency is to take now what, what we call the victim storyline, the I've been hated storyline. What is the tried and true storyline of any Olympic athlete? Well, I started this, and I got really good and and then I had a bad meet. Or the poor girl from Australia who like, now there's cat memes about her break dancing and like, people didn't think it could. People did, but then I did. You know, there's this victim mentality everywhere. I'm a victim, I'm a victim. I'm a victim. Both presidents are going to say I'm a victim, because that's the storyline people I can then you overcome. But here's what the victim mentality does. It it makes you retreat into a fortress that's safe and secure. It makes you adopt either a bunker lifestyle, retreat, physically away from everything, or a bunker mentality, everybody's dangerous. Everybody's dangerous. The Thessalonians did not resort to that. Listen, the wrath of God is coming. The wrath of God is coming. Why? There are still 60,000 babies aborted a year now it's by a pill. You don't even need to go to Planned Parenthood. I think those are innocent, and God promises from the Old Testament that he will exact a vengeance and a justice for the innocent. And you can name out a whole series of kinds of innocence, calling evil good, good evil in various policies in our state alone, in our state alone, I read a statistic, 64% of the of King County classifies themselves as irreligious, as liberal King County, no wonder you remember the 36% of everything else are everything else, Mormon, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, animal, like, what it's everything, right? The percentage of evangelicals, really, really small Bible believing. What's our status? 63% identify themselves as your religious 1% better in conservative Eastern Washington, and the wrath of God is coming upon them. The Thessalonians didn't establish a bunker mentality. They went the wrong way on a one way street warning people their faith sounded forth like a trumpet. If you have been delivered from the wrath to come, you should hurt and anguish for the others who are bearing that wrath. You need to be turning. You need to be waiting, and we all need to be sounding forth the true hope that's in Christ.

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You have a one way ticket. You have a first class ticket. You have a first class ticket when Jesus splits the skies and glory of a first class ticket, but you don't have a first class ticket through this life. Don't expect it, but when he comes, you are secure. What a ground of hope to be, outward focused, not victim focused, outward focused, bringing the good news to the world around us. Let's pray, Father, thank you for what you have given us in this word. And I pray that You would help us as we think about how to apply this, how good it is for our souls to know that what our hope is found in is Christ for what he's done, for what he will do, and I pray that you would make it practical in us, that we would cultivate, especially those thinking habits, those rehearsing habits, day by day, we would keep our focus where it should be. Waiting for you in your name, we pray amen.