1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

When God Says "Enough"!

We also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.  For you, brothers, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out.  They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved.  In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit.  The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

On one occasion, driving through a Dallas suburb I saw a man on fire.  A knot of other men was filming his distress.  I later learned that he was enrolled in a course of cinematography at a local college.  As part of the course he and some other students were required to make a film.  Part of the scripting they decided upon called for a scene of a burning man.  He had donned a pair of blue jeans and a heavy shirt, placing over that a suit which had been doused in lighter fluid and then ignited for the scene.  Unfortunately, he had chosen a polyester suit and opted to film outdoors on a windy February morning.

The wind quickly whipped the flames out of control and the polyester quickly melted to the clothing under the suit.  Even his rubber-soled runners had melted by the time I knocked him to the ground and beat the flames out while laying on his body.  When all flames were out I wrapped him in a blanket from my car, uncoiled a hose attached to a tap on a nearby house and soaked him good to cool his body.  Piling him in my car we rushed to a hospital some three miles distant.  Suffering third degree burns over one-third of his body he was hospitalised near my laboratory.  His parents thanked me profusely, calling me a good neighbour.  But how does one distinguish a good neighbour from one who merely lives in the proximity?

I acted quickly for that young man, just as you would no doubt be quick to rescue a neighbour in danger.  Perhaps some would dispute my neighbourliness, but that young man and him family had no doubts about my willingness to take some risks for the sake of a neighbour.  Consequently I had a good hearing to present the Gospel, which I did in subsequent days.

In my library is a book of sermons by a gifted denominational leader.  The book title, Say, Neighbor, Your House is On Fire, is also the title of the first sermon in the book, the thesis of which is that when a neighbour's house is on fire we do not casually stroll over to the house, nonchalantly ring the doorbell and lazily announce to the occupants of the burning home, “Say, neighbour, your house is on fire.”  Rather, motivated by concern to quickly alert our neighbours to the danger they face, our voices betray excitement and anxiety for their safety as we warn them and urge them to leave the house.  We do not speak softly and in a cavalier manner, but we shout and argue if necessary to spare them loss and death from the flames.

Yet, despite the knowledge that we are to be concerned about the physical welfare of our neighbours, it is thought to be somehow gauche to be concerned for the spiritual welfare of those living about us.  Even if we should bring ourselves to speak of eternal verities, we tend to mask the concern with soft voices which speak in a lackadaisical manner.  Yet, I contend that the dearest neighbour one can ever have is that neighbour honest enough to speak urgently as he or she warns of danger to come.  I want to be a good neighbour today.

The Holiness of God Demands an Accounting from All Mankind.  Evangelicalism in this century has spawned a peculiar theology unknown to our spiritual forebears.  Though having a fine foundation, this particular theology, like the leaning tower of Pisa, is dreadfully unbalanced.  Contemporary evangelical theology has emphasised the love of God to the exclusion of the holiness of God, and the consequences arising from this distortion are nothing short of catastrophic.

Does the love of God preclude His just demand that all people render an accounting?  Is God the kindly old man upstairs who winks at sin?  Is God the gentle soul who though concerned for the welfare of His creation is nevertheless unable to intervene to halt man's self-destruction?  Is God so focused on accepting mankind that He is unwilling to call man to account?  When we preach that God is love, forgetting that such love flows from a Divine Being who may only be described as Other we set the stage for calamitous ruin of those who receive but half a revelation of God.  Indeed, God is love; but God's love is meaningless if God is not also holy.

How is a person saved?  What is necessary to be forgiven of sin?  What steps secure the redemption of the soul?  The Word of God is quite clear that salvation is a gift to all who believe the Good News that Christ died because of your sin, that He raised from the dead for your justification, ascended into the glory to intercede for you, and is coming again to receive you.  Salvation, the forgiveness of sin, redemption of the human soul, is all of grace; and it becomes effective when we believe in Christ as Master of life and Saviour.  When you remain aloof from commitment to Him as Lord, you remain outside the love of God and are thus under judgement.

Faith alone saves, but the faith which saves is not alone, was the consistent declaration of divines in ages past.  Just so, the redeemed are revealed through the manner in which they live out their lives.  The Thessalonians heard the Word of God from the missionaries and they received it as it actually is, the Word of God, which is at work in [all] who believe [verse 13].  Both faith in the Christ of the Word and commitment to Him were involved in their salvation, as is abundantly evident from Paul's statement of verse 14: For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus.  The churches in Judea openly affirmed their faith in Christ, preached the Word of God with boldness, witnessed to the grace of God, stood against religious tyranny, endured unjust persecution; and the Thessalonians did the same things.

We are saved by faith, and having been saved our lives reflect the salvation we received.  We do not do good deeds in order to be saved; but because we are saved we do good deeds.  Why be baptised?  We openly identify with Christ in obedience to Him because we are saved.  Why unite with the church?  We gather with other believers to exercise the gifts conferred by the Spirit because we are saved.  Why speak of our salvation to others?  We witness to the grace of God, because we are saved.  Why teach the Faith?  Why refute heresies?  We resist religious error and spiritual tyranny, because we are saved.  Why continue steadfast in the Faith despite trial and opposition?  We persevere in the Faith, because we are saved.

I spoke in a previous message of the trials believers may anticipate because of their faith. In that message I pointed out that it is not an option to consider such statements as conditional, they are imperative.  Sinners are offended by righteousness, recognising intuitively that all righteousness finds its source in the Living God.  Hating God because His righteousness exposes their enslavement to self and to sin, they assail the child of God, thinking that they will somehow rid themselves of every reminder of their vassalage.

The Thessalonians quite likely had been questioning why it was necessary to endure pressure and opposition, and especially pressure which originated among their own countrymen. Whether or not this was the case, the Apostle sought to address the pressures they were even then called to endure.  Paul pointed out that theirs was a testing not unlike that of the Judean churches which were persecuted by their fellow Jews.

What had those Jewish persecutors done?  They had killed the Lord Jesus.  Two disciples walking toward Emmaus were joined by the Risen Son of God.  They explained to Him that The chief priest and our rulers handed [Jesus of Nazareth] over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him [Luke 24:20].  What did the Jewish persecutors do?  They killed the prophets.  Even then the honour roll was expanding exponentially – Stephen, James, and a growing host of unnamed saints.  What did the Jewish persecutors do?  They drove out the Apostles … including Paul.  Acts 8:1 solemnly states the case of this persecution.  On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered.  Later, when Saul of Tarsus was converted, these same persecutors lay in wait to slay him in Damascus, but he escaped their hand.  Then in Jerusalem, after debating with the Grecian Jews, he found it necessary to leave because they tried to kill him [Acts 9:23-29].

The reminder Paul delivered these pressured saints was not mere hyperbole.  Neither were his words exaggerated nor could they be classified as ministerial speech.  Indeed, the Jews of whom he spoke could rightly be said to displease God and to be hostile to all man in their efforts to keep [the missionaries] from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved.  Were these Jews religious?  Absolutely.  Were they pious?  Unquestionably.  Were they pleasing to God?  Never! Would they give an accounting?  Assuredly.

You will recall that Paul was himself once committed to the Jewish Faith.  He studied under the respected rabbi, Gamaliel.  We have good reason to believe Saul may have been a member of the Sanhedrin – the Jewish judicial body.  In his letter to the Philippian church he made note of his heritage.  If anyone thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless [Philippians 3:4b-6].

Was Paul only speculating when he referred to these despicable acts of the Jewish persecutor?  Not at all!  He confessed that he was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man [1 Timothy 1:13a].  Speaking to an enraged mob in Jerusalem this same Apostle exposed the hostility of the Jewish leaders.  He said, I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify [Acts 22:4,5a].

But when confronted by the Risen Lord of Glory, Jesus the Son of God, the Apostle recognised that all men must give an accounting.  It would not be as some suppose, that God would weigh good deeds against bad deeds.  Every man vainly imagines that he has something of worth to present God to make Him amenable to receiving him.  Every man thinks he can force God to concede that perhaps there is some redeeming grace resident within the individual.  Romans 3:10-18 shatters forever such foolish thoughts.

There is no one righteous, not even one

there is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good, not even one.

Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.

The poison of vipers is on their lips"

Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways,

and the way of peace they do not know.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

And yet again the Word strips away our excuse, [A]ll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [Romans 3:23].  We must give an accounting to Him who holds our times, for we are under the terrible sentence of death – separation from God and from life.  We desperately require divine grace if we are to be saved.  This is the point which you must grasp if you would be saved.  Salvation, the forgiveness of sin, does not consist of what you do to placate an angry God, nor yet does it consist of your efforts to better yourself.  Salvation is the gift of God freely given to all who believe.  But having believed, the saved are forever changed, initiating a transformation which will culminate in the likeness of Christ reproduced in each one who is saved.

The Sinful Acts of Man Invite Divine Judgement.  Studying the text, I note this arresting clause: In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit.  In what way?  Crucifying the Lord Jesus!  In what way?  Slaughtering the prophets!  In what way?  Driving out the preachers!  In what way?  Revealing hostility toward all men by inveighing against the Gospel and attempting to keep the preachers from speaking to the lost so that they may be saved!  In this way they both invite divine judgement and accumulate wrath upon wrath.

The clause harks back to the wicked acts of the Jewish opponents of the Faith, but their opposition was not different from the opposition of every unbeliever.  The opposition of sinful man is revealed in the acts of the wicked men who delivered Jesus up to be crucified.  You, if you are outside the Faith, are guilty of the death of the Son of God.

But perhaps you protest against this charge.  You deny your guilt, saying, “I never crucified the Lord Jesus.  I never killed the prophets.  I did not drive out the preachers.  I have not been hostile toward mankind.  I did not attempt to keep any from speaking the Gospel.  I did not keep anyone from being saved.  I did none of these things.  This passage has nothing to do with me.”  Have you embraced Christ as Master of life when He was presented to you?  If not, you have sided with those who shouted out, Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!  [Luke 23:21].  Have you openly identified with the prophets and the apostles, uniting with a sound, Bible-preaching church?  If not, you are guilty of siding with those who are hostile to the Gospel.

Perhaps one imagines himself or herself to be a fine person and thus thinks this makes him or her acceptable to God.  “I never robbed a home,” you say.  “I never killed anyone.  I am not a bad person.”  Perhaps, but there is a standard by which to view your actions, a standard which permits a perfect review of motives before the day in which God will reveal every motive. That standard is the Word of God which presents the perfect standard of the teaching of Jesus Christ the Lord.  I ask you these questions: Did you ever covet what another possessed?  Did you ever wish you had someone else as your spouse?  Did you ever harbour malice in your heart against another?  Did you ever hate another, whether you imagined you had just cause or not?

The Word of God warns that greed is the same as idolatry [Colossians 3:5b].  Have you never heard the stern words of Jesus warning that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart [Matthew 5:28]?  Did you never hear the words of Jesus warning that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement and that anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell [Matthew 5:22]?  If eye or hand or any part of your body causes you to sin, it is better to gouge it out or cut it off [Matthew 5:29,30].

The reason behind such demanding teaching is discovered in the abiding consequence of our actions – actions over which we have no power until we have been transformed by the grace of God.  I cannot reasonably expect that those who are dead will be able to perform the normal tasks of daily life.  They are powerless to do what others do.  They cannot stand or walk or give birth or work – they are dead.  Just so, in the spiritual realm those apart from the life which is offered in Christ cannot please God, for they cannot perform those tasks pleasing to God.  Walking about in our world, they are spiritual zombies, walking dead.

Just because the spiritually dead are unable to perform tasks pleasing to God does not excuse them from giving an accounting to God.  They must provide an answer for every action.  For had they repented, turned from pursuit of their own desires and turned to the righteousness provided in Christ, they would have been empowered to perform those very tasks pleasing to God.  Therefore, they are responsible for their own actions because they have rejected the means God has provided to do what they ought to do.  Thus, they always heap up their sins to the limit.

God's judgement fell on the Amorites when sin reached its full measure [Genesis 15:16], so that same judgement would fall on the Jewish people when they had filled up the measure of their sins and those of their forefathers [Matthew 23:32].  Some will plead, “Oh, don't charge the Jewish people with sin.  Don't be anti-Semitic.”  Two statements must be made in response to such thinking.  First, those who crucified Christ foolishly cried out to Pilate: Let His blood be on us and on our children [Matthew 27:25]!  Indeed, they defied God and invited His judgement.  However, don't imagine that they bear the guilt alone for crucifying the Son of God.  Each of us is responsible.  He died because of each of us.  He gave His life because of the sin of us all [Isaiah 53:6].

At the time of this letter awful tragedies had only recently befallen the Jewish people and the events were no doubt still fresh in the minds of his readers.  Famine throughout Judea during AD 45-47, a brutal massacre of Jewish pilgrims in the temple precincts at Passover in AD 49, and the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by the Emperor Claudius in the same year, all alike suggested divine judgement.  God permitted these awesome events as harbingers of that ultimate judgement which was yet pending.

I speak candidly to all who listen.  We are not immune to such divine judgement.  We have sinned grievously and we live in the midst of a people who present a terrible affront to Holy God.  We, when we are silent in the face of wickedness… we, when we are mute before the insinuation of evil… we, when we refuse to speak up in the presence of irreverence… heap up our sins to the limit.  We must give an accounting; and without forgiveness, we have no defence.

The Wrath of God, Though Pending, Is Certain.  Paul simply commented: The wrath of God has come upon them at last.  Stark and dreadful in their implications, the words hover over the sinner.  When I was a child growing up in south-east Kansas, I witnessed many summer thunderstorms, awesome in destructive power.  The day would dawn cloudless and humid.  As the morning progressed, the sun would beat down relentlessly, baking the earth to the hardness of steel.  In the late afternoon a small cloud would arise in the south-west.  Everyone working outside would uneasily take note of the cloud and watch it.  The cloud would quickly grow until it was identified by the familiar anvil-shaped cloud of the prairies which announce the advent of violent storms.  All the while the cloud was growing it was moving swiftly, ominously, toward the silent watchers.

At first we felt a gentle breeze stirring the leaves, but those zephyrs were messengers of destruction.  The cloud would grow until it would blot out the sun.  The wind increased which always seemed to stir everyone into a momentary frenzy as whatever we did not wish to blow away was battened down and as windows were closed and doors were shut tight against the storm.  Even as the cloud advanced ominously from the south-west and the sky darkened we felt the first great drops of rain, cold and wet, pelting hard against bear arms and heads.  We would soon witness moments of intense gusts and heavy rain, a downpour so heavy that it would be impossible to see more than a short distance.  Then, as quickly as it began, the rain and wind would stop and a foreboding stillness would hover over the land.

In the brief moments, the sky ink-black and the air still, what can only be described as a sense of foreboding seized everyone caught by the storm.  No sound escaped the mouth of the birds.  Dogs crawled under the porches; cattle turned their backs to the impending storm; and all waited for what was certain to soon come.  A crash of thunder, the flash of lightning, the howl of wind and the creaking of boards strained by the violence of the blasts, the rattle of hail slamming the roof, we silently endured a cacophony promising sure destruction.

Children knelt to pray and they were often joined by their elders in appeals to God for protection.  Attempting to speak, witnesses of such awesome destruction are stuck dumb at the power flailing away at their fragile little houses.  We moved away from the windows and doors lest the violent pounding might unleash a shower of glass should the gales precede a tornado.  Those who have witnessed such storms must confess that they have known terror and they have felt the awe with which man witnesses the violence of nature.

Judgement gathers like a great prairie storm and shall soon break above the head of the wicked.  Even now the first messengers of impending doom are blowing.  Conscience warns that God shall demand an accounting of every man for every action and for every thought.  The presence of the Church serves as a warning of judgement to come.  The message of the Word continues to warn that God shall demand an accounting of every man.

I fear that the words of the wise man recorded in Ecclesiastes 8:11 apply in this instance.  When sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.  That same wise man continued in the following verse with his assessment of righteousness: Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God.  Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow [Ecclesiastes 8:12,13].

Peter cautioned those who would scoff at the coming of the Lord to judge win and evil.  You must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.  They will say, “Where is this "coming He promised?  Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”  But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's Word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.  By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.  By the same Word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men [2 Peter 3:3-7].

It is not my place to judge, but it is my responsibility to warn of the certainty of divine judgement.  Those who imagine that God shall not require an accounting, those who think they shall be able to present their own feeble attempts at righteousness, those who presume upon the mercies of God through seeking to reject His offer of grace while presenting their own efforts to placate His wrath, move toward destruction and doom.

How awesome is the warning found in Hebrews 10:28-31: Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of god under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know Him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, The Lord will judge His people.”  It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.

Judgement awaits the outsider; but judgement has already been accomplished for the believer and the verdict has been decided in favour of the redeemed.  That one who has already repented of rejecting Christ, the great sin which condemns.  That one has already been set free from divine judgement since God has offered His Son to receive judgement for all who will believe.

That is a glorious verse which Paul penned; it is a comfort to each one who believes.  Though we struggle to fully understand the meaning of those words, we are nevertheless relieved in the knowledge that we are forever free of the fear of divine judgement.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God [2 Corinthians 5:21].  Who can understand these words?  The Son of God was made sin for us.  We are humbled, astonished, and left incredulous.  Indeed, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed in everyone who is hung on a tree [Galatians 3:13].

This is good news indeed which I can announce to any and to all.  There is no need to await judgement, there is no reason why you should die, and there is no cause for you to be condemned, if you will but heed the Gospel of Christ.  To all who [have] received [Christ], to those who [have] believed in His Name, He [has given] the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God [John 1:12,13].

And that is my plea to you this day.  Flee the coming judgement!  Flee the wrath to come! Find shelter in Christ!  Turn from your own way, a way which even now is condemned and which can afford no safety.  Embrace Christ as Master of life, believing this Good News that He died because of your sin and that He raised for your justification.  If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved [Romans 10:9,10].