“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.” [1]
What is the worst sin you can imagine a person committing? Is there a sin so heinous, so horrific that it would exclude you, or anyone, from God’s mercy? If you can envision such a sin, what would that sin be? What is even more essential to the message today is for you to ask yourself whether you have ever committed a sin so monstrous, a sin so vile, a sin so wicked that that sin has condemned you to eternal banishment from the love of God? Is there a sin that nags at your mind, rising up to condemn you each time you struggle to speak with the Lord, and always causing you to question whether you are saved or not?
The front page of the September 18, 2005 New York Times featured an inside look at the daily workings of an abortion clinic located in Little Rock, Arkansas. [2] Doctor Russell Moore describes the newspaper article as revealing the calloused, yet tortured, consciences of women awaiting the abortion of their unborn children. The women seated in the abortuary didn't wish to be seen, or even to make contact with others in the waiting room. Even more striking though, at least in Doctor Moore’s estimate, as in my own estimate, was the religious connections of the women involved—including Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists. Many of these women represented denominations that stood in stern opposition to abortion as an act of taking the life of an innocent and vulnerable infant.
One Baptist college student, having her third abortion, was quoted in the article as saying: “My religion is against it. In a way I feel I'm doing wrong, but you can be forgiven. I blame myself. I feel I shouldn't have sex at all.”
A woman named Regina said, “I've done this once and swore I wouldn't do it again. Every woman has second thoughts, especially because I'm Catholic.” Regina noted that she went to confession. “The priest didn't hound me,” she reported. “He said, ‘People make mistakes.’”
Regina's story could be understood by the clinic operating room supervisor, Ebony, whom the article chillingly describes as rinsing “the blood off aborted tissues.” As is true for those she treats in the clinic, Ebony has also had an abortion. “As a Baptist,” the article said, “she still considered abortion a sin, but so are a lot of things we all do, she said.” In this, Ebony sounds like many of us who justify our sin by minimising what we do. The article closes with Ebony's words to the Catholic undergoing the abortion: “No problem sweetie. We've all been there.”
We perhaps imagine that the women ushered into a death clinic, for that is what the abortuary is, are secular feminists; perhaps we imagine that these women are doctrinaire liberals who detest the Faith. What appears to be evident from this article is that these are girls who could be from Notre Dame parish or who could be numbered among the New Beginnings Baptist youth. If you conducted a telephone survey and happened to reach the phone of any of these women, they would undoubtedly be counted as “pro-life.” They know all the right answers concerning the sanctity of life. Yet, even with this background, they wait together in the abortionist’s waiting room.
In the article cited, Doctor Moore made a telling point when he wrote, “Whatever the very real soteriological debates exist between Catholics and evangelicals, they share, at least in the waiting room, the same doctrine of grace: ‘Let us sin that grace may abound’” [ROMANS 6:1]. [3] Each Christian in this day needs to confront this point honestly. We have slipped into a pattern of presuming against grace among the churches of this day. As Christians, we sin and appear to imagine that we can got away with our sin because we were not immediately arrested or struck down by Holy God. It is not only our youth that have concluded that sin is a minor indiscretion, but this virus has also contaminated vast swaths of those counted as being among the faithful!
I am not seeking to condemn. The message of grace is at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus’ atoning death forgives every sin, and that includes the sin of killing our own offspring. However, we need to know that grace cannot be twisted into a licence to sin. When we attempt to so distort grace, grace is emptied of all meaning. We must confront sinners with the truth that “there is … now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” [ROMANS 8:1]. At the same time, we must focus this grace in a biblical direction.
Assuming that the issue before us is somehow the fact that we all make mistakes would be a grave mistake. What is before us is the knowledge that the grace that is desperately required for each of us is the grace that flows from the knowledge that judgement has fallen in all its fury on the crucified Son of God who became sin for us, “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” [2 CORINTHIANS 5:21]. Indeed, God is the Justifier, but He is the Justifier because He is just.
I boldly announce, therefore, forgiveness for sinners. On the authority of God’s Word, I caution each one who hears me this day that Christ Jesus is Judge of the living and the dead. Now, at this time, He offers mercy and grace to all who will receive it. God’s mercy and His grace is extended to all who accept the sacrifice for sin that has been provided—Christ Jesus the Lord. Believing that He died for your sin, every transgression is forgiven and you will be delivered into the Kingdom of God. The deliverance Christ offers is immediate. Salvation is offered to each person who comes to God through Christ the Lord. Amen!
This Good News is certified through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus died because of your sin, and He raised from the dead to justify you from all that your own efforts fail to secure for you. This is a limited time offer, however. You must accept this gracious offer now. Scripture cautions, “Now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” [2 CORINTHIANS 6:2b]. The grace of God is extended to all who will receive it now, and that grace is offered through Jesus Christ the Son of God.
MERCY IS EXTENDED TO THE IGNORANT — “Christ Jesus our Lord … judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” [1 TIMOTHY 1:12-14].
Those actions that condemn you and which were performed in times past are irrelevant; the person you may have been in days gone by is immaterial to this divine offer. Paul confronts his own character that was displayed in the time before he became a follower of the Risen Christ. His sinful past was perhaps more egregious than is yours, if for no other reason than he used religion as a mask to perform his heinous deeds against God’s people. Paul was religious, sincerely religious, tenacious in holding to the tenets of the Jewish religious practises—but he was ignorant! He thought he was pleasing God, but he was offending the holiness of the Lord.
You may not appreciate being called ignorant, but if you have never received the grace of God in Christ you are acting ignorantly. Your ignorance is born out of unbelief, and you know nothing of the grace of God though His grace is showered on you each day of your existence. Oh, I suppose you think you know about grace, but in reality you know nothing of God’s grace. If you knew God’s grace, you wouldn’t presume against that grace, and as it is, you are presuming against grace. You are despising God’s grace.
Here is the truth—if you are unsaved, you may know about God, but you don’t know God. At best, your knowledge of God is that there is a God. And though you may mouth the word, “Father,” it doesn’t mean much to you. Calling someone “Father” doesn’t make that one your father. And that is especially true when you call God “Father.” You know that you aren’t really on speaking terms with Him.
How pronounced is the ignorance of the outsider? We need but recall that religious people, members of the Jewish race, people that would have proudly identified themselves as belonging to God’s Chosen People, crucified the Messiah, the Son of God. I’m not pinning all the blame on the Jewish people, for had you and I been present, doubtless we would have sided with the crowd that was screaming “Crucify! Crucify!” We didn’t want a Saviour and we certainly didn’t go looking for One.
I want us to notice at this time the compassion with which Peter addresses his own people after the Spirit of God was poured out on the first believers. Drawing that Pentecostal sermon to a conclusion, Peter said, “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled” [ACTS 3:17-18]. Those who had clamoured loudly for the crucifixion of Jesus, even arguing to send Him to the cross in the place of a condemned insurrectionist, acted in ignorance. And you, if you have never called upon the Lord Jesus as Master over your life, have acted in ignorance because you failed to accept the grace of God as it was offered.
I appreciate the remainder of Peter’s message delivered on that epic day long ago. The call Peter issued is the call that is issued from the pulpits of all the congregations of the Lord to this day. To the ignorant, we who stand behind the sacred desk plead, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness” [ACTS 3:20-26].
Stature in the world is no means of guarding oneself from ignorance. Remember, it was the political and religious elite of the world that argued for and carried out the crucifixion of the Son of God. The Apostle Paul, speaking of the wisdom we impart through declaring the message of life points to the wisdom we possess despite the manner in which the lost disparage what we are saying. The Apostle writes, “Among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” [1 CORINTHIANS 2:6-8].
Wealth is insufficient to turn aside the righteous judgement of Almighty God. Undoubtedly, you will recall one young man who came to Jesus. Let’s look at the account as Doctor Luke records the incident. “A ruler asked [Jesus], ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: “Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.”’ And he said, ‘All these I have kept from my youth.’ When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, ‘How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God’” [LUKE 18:18-25].
You surely realise this was an ignorant move on the part of that rich young man! He exchanged eternal wealth for the tawdry baubles of this dying world. This young man did not differ from another individual whom Jesus used as an illustration in a parable. Jesus taught, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be’” [LUKE 12:16-19]?
Here is the point Jesus was driving home through delivering that particular parable—a point, may I say, that needs to be driven home even in this day. Jesus warned, “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” [LUKE 12:21]. Wealth is not sinful of itself. It is our use of wealth that God is speaking of. He is teaching us that we are responsible for what we do with what He has entrusted to us. We are responsible for how we administer what has been committed to our oversight. If we ignore the will of God, wealth can destroy us. However, if we are wise toward God, our wealth can be a blessing both for us and for those to whom we minister. I am not advocating that anyone need impoverish himself or herself just to please God. However, we must ensure that we are using what we have to advance the Kingdom of Christ.
So stature and wealth are unable to turn aside the wrath of God. Know that supposed intelligence does not enable one to reject the grace of God. All supposed intelligence will condemn the individual who exalts what she or he supposes to be true when exalted against the truth of God. We see the testimony of the Apostle in his first letter to the Church of God in Corinth. There, Paul testifies, “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” [1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-31].
All mankind’s vaunted greatness is worthless before the truth of God. Saul of Tarsus enjoyed eminence among the Jewish elite. Yet, his testimony points to the knowledge of Christ as the only thing worth having. He testifies, “I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh… If anyone else thinks he has reason for 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; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” [PHILIPPIANS 3:4-8a].
CHRIST JESUS CAME TO SAVE SINNERS — “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” [1 TIMOTHY 1:15]. One serious deficit revealed among professing Christians is the lack of emphasis on the transformation that accompanies salvation. For a disturbing number of the professed people of God, perhaps even for the majority, the transformation arising from salvation is projected far into the future. Consequently, the professing Christian is taught that she can live as she wishes because ultimately she will be saved. Though she may feel deep guilt at the choices she is making in this present life, she comforts herself that God forgives her presumption. The biblical view, however, is that salvation transforms the redeemed individual now. I’m not suggesting that the transformation is immediately complete—it is not! However, the transformation begins immediately, and continues throughout the days of this life.
Don’t presume to speak of your salvation if you have no love for the brotherhood of believers. If you imagine that you can ignore the faithful and somehow cocoon yourself in a cozy little world that consists of you and God while excluding the faithful, you are deceiving yourself. How damning are the words which John has given when he writes, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” [1 JOHN 1:5-10].
You cannot say you have fellowship with the Saviour if you have no fellowship with the brothers! If you claim to have fellowship with the brotherhood of believers and yet never participate in the life of the Body, you are deceiving yourself. You are not only deceived, but you are living a wicked life that defies the One you claim to love. It is impossible to love God when you do not love the brotherhood of believers. And it is impossible to love the brotherhood of believers when you want nothing to do with them.
Let me make this point sufficiently sharp that no one misses what I’m saying. If you have no desire to attend the fellowship of believers, if you can skip church for months, or even for weeks, and never miss the fellowship of those who love the Lord, you should boldly admit, “I’m not a Christian and I don’t believe all that Bible stuff. Church is for people who take the Lord seriously. Not me! So, I don’t bother going!”
I suppose I should clarify that when I speak of going to church, I’m not necessarily speaking of being in a building with stained glass, a steeple and pews arranged in rows on which people are to be seated while listening to a sermon. “Church” could be a group of God’s people gathered in a living room to sing, to pray, and to study the Word of God. It could be people gathered in a commercial building where they prepare for the work of the Lord and worship Him as the Risen Lord of Glory. What is important for us to recognise is that the redeemed people of God are drawn to one another. These redeemed people love one another and long to be with one another. They cannot be content to ignore the act of sharing their lives as God’s people. A lifestyle that involves forsaking uniting in love is not possible for them as God’s holy people.
The thrust of the Apostle’s teaching is that each of us is a sinner. I don’t mean that we have committed what we deem terrible, despicable sins against others; I do mean that each of us has failed to live in a manner that honours the Living God. Therefore, Paul will testify in another place, “All have sinned and continue to fall short of God’s glory” [ROMANS 3:23 ISV]. Remember, this dreadful assessment follows on a dark catalogue of our failure as part of this sinful race. “As it is written,
‘Not even one person is righteous.
No one understands.
No one searches for God.
All have turned away.
They have become completely worthless.
No one shows kindness, not even one person!
Their throats are open graves.
With their tongues they deceive.
The venom of poisonous snakes is under their lips.
Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
They run swiftly to shed blood.
Ruin and misery characterize their lives.
They have not learned the path to peace.
They don’t fear God.’”
[ROMANS 3:10-18 ISV]
Look at that final assessment—“They don’t fear God.” What a dark assessment of the condition of all humanity. All the other characterisations point to this one dark confession.
• Mankind is unrighteous—They don’t fear God.
• People lack understand—They don’t fear God.
• No one searches for God—They don’t fear God.
• People have turned away—They don’t fear God.
• The entire populace is worthless—They don’t fear God.
• Kindness is no longer witnessed—They don’t fear God.
• Speech reflects a poisoned heart—They don’t fear God.
• Violence characterises all humanity—They don’t fear God.
• Lives are ruined and people are miserable—They don’t fear God.
• Peace is impossible—They don’t fear God.
The dark testimony provided through this compilation of statements drawn from the Bible accompanied by the summary assessment of our condition is but a grim echo of what is stated elsewhere. The challenge is presented in the Proverbs,
“Who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure;
I am clean from my sin?’”
[PROVERBS 20:9]
And the answer is obvious to sentient being—No one is clean from their sin!
Perhaps you will recall Job’s mournful lament of the human condition.
“Man who is born of a woman
is few of days and full of trouble.
He comes out like a flower and withers;
he flees like a shadow and continues not.
And do you open your eyes on such a one
and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
There is not one.”
[JOB 14:1-4]
Our days on earth are too brief and the wickedness that stains our lives is remembered more than any supposed good we may perform. We were born in sin, as David observed, and we pass away without leaving a lasting legacy. Our memories will quickly fade and we will be remembered no longer. This is our sad condition.
Surveying the scope of human existence, Solomon accurately observed, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” [ECCLESIASTES 7:20]. And our own observation compels us to agree with the wise king. Each of us knows quite well that sin characterises our very existence. None of us would dare say that we are righteous as God is righteous, none of us would ever presume to imagine that any of us are so perfected that we will be counted as sinless as God is sinless. To even imagine such a thing is to reveal the arrogance of our heart. If this describes us, we have deceived ourselves, exalting ourselves above the Lord God.
GOD’S GLORY IS THE REDEEMED SAINT — “I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen” [1 TIMOTHY 1:16-17]. Here is incredible encouragement for each of us today, the Living God is displaying His perfect patience in each believer. You Christians, you who are born from above, you are examples to the lost; you are a revelation of God’s grace and mercy. That you were not struck down in divine judgement, which we each deserved, pictures God’s mercy so that any who know you know something of God’s character. He is seen through your life!
As a redeemed individual, you are a trophy of God’s grace! Looking forward to that day when at last the Master returns to gather His redeemed people to Himself, we rejoice. Paul was writing a congregation that was persecuted. The Christians gathered in Salonica were paying a terrible price because they dared believe the message of the Risen Lord. The Apostle was concerned that the persecuted followers of Christ might succumb to the pressure that the world was bringing against them, so, he wrote to encourage them.
The opening words to this beleaguered assembly were, “We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater. As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring” [2 THESSALONIANS 1:3-4 NET BIBLE].
These Christians were praised as being worthy of emulation in their firmness and in their courage in the face of opposition. Then, the Apostle reasoned concerning what they were experiencing, “This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering. For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” [2 THESSALONIANS 1:5-8 NET BIBLE].
The suffering saints would see God deliver them through holding the wicked to account. It is what Paul says as he looks forward to that day of deliverance and retribution that is important for our study today. The Apostle said, “[The wicked] will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed—and you did in fact believe our testimony. And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith, 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” [2 THESSALONIANS 1:9-12 NET BIBLE].
Notice what is written concerning the reception we who follow the Master will have at His return. Jesus is coming to be glorified among His saints and admired among all who have believed. Think about that! We who are the redeemed of the Saviour are the evidence of Christ’s glory. Jesus is glorified in His redeemed people! We seldom see as God sees, but if we can see as He sees, we will see that those seated in this meeting with you are the glory of the Risen Lord of Glory. The redeemed of God, those fellow worshippers of the Christ who meet throughout our world, are the glory of Christ Jesus. The brilliance of His grace and mercy is revealed in those whom He has redeemed. Christians need not wait until some distant day to realise the glory of Christ the Lord; His glory is seen even now in those who worship Him. Amen!
I point to the persecuted assembly in Salonica, the congregation to which the Apostle wrote, as an example of God’s great mercy and the practical impact that mercy has in our world. I am not suggesting that because a person is saved that the world about that believer will be converted, but I do understand that the world cannot deny that something powerful has taken place in the life of that believer, because they see the change that is taking place. The world cannot dismiss what God has done, and even should those who witness the life of that believer choose to reject the message of life, the transformed presence of the child of God serves to condemn the lost because of their rejection of divine mercy.
You who are saved are not perfect; but you are being perfected. And the lost who know you witness the truth that mercy has been extended to you. The lost of this present world do not acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but they know that you know Him as Master. Undoubtedly you are grieved at the sin that surrounds you, and you are repulsed at the thought of your own sinful condition, but you are not content to shrug off your sin. The lost people living about you will be compelled to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, not only because He will be revealed in all His glory on that day when He returns, but because you will be glorified in Him. You are glorified in Him now, but it is not apparent to the flesh. Your status in Christ is apparent to the eye of faith, however.
Should Christ call out His redeemed people tomorrow, there will be multitudes who will know what has happened. And they will be terrified at what we have warned is coming upon the earth. As he wrote those persecuted saints in Salonica, Paul testified, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” [2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12].
It is the presence of God’s holy people that restrains the hand of the Lord now. Our presence in the world, and the presence of the Spirit of Christ living in us, holds back the awesome judgements of God against the wickedness of this dying world. Then, after Christ has received His people to Himself, those who knew us, those among whom we walked and conducted ourselves day-by-day, will realise that we were the evidence of God’s mercy. Tragically, many will be deluded because God Himself will send them what is identified as “a strong delusion,” compelling them to believe the falsity of the things spoken by the antichrist. This acceptance of the universal lie is further evidence that they are perishing.
However, for us who have believed the message of Christ, there is this gracious benedictory affirmation delivered as the Apostle wrote those saints in the ancient city. “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” [2 THESSALONIANS 2:13-15].
We who are redeemed have been called to obtain the glory of Christ our Lord. Take a moment simply to allow that thought to sink in. We who are twice-born are called by God to obtain the glory of Christ our Lord. At His return, Christ Jesus is coming to be glorified in His redeemed people. We are the glory of God! You will perhaps recognise that this is affirmed by what Paul wrote the Roman Christians, testifying, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” [ROMANS 8:28-30].
Reflect on what the Apostle has said in our text and emphasised in the passages to which I’ve referred—You who are saved are the evidence of God’s mercy. Because of the grace you have received, you share in Christ’s glory. But we do not seek to mask that glory. We know that it will be revealed in such a fashion that all people shall see it at the return of our Saviour, but now, even in the midst of this broken, fallen world, we display the glory of our God through lives that are lived out in such a fashion that we reveal His presence.
Recall the teaching of Jesus delivered from a mountainside one day in the Judean wilderness. Jesus testified of the redeemed people of God, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” [MATTHEW 5:13-16].
Perhaps there is one who listens at this time who has not given God glory, nor can that one glorify Him because they have never received the Son of God as Master over their life. That one who listens now has not accepted the sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God. Now is the time to receive Him as Master over life, receiving the life and destiny He has promised.
The message that will ensure that you are included among those sharing the glory of the Son of God is this. Jesus, God’s own Son, was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life. He offered His life as a sacrifice, taking upon Himself your sin so that you need never suffer the punishment of banishment from the mercies of God. He was buried and rose from the dead. Now, He has ascended into Heaven where He is seated at the right hand of God. He now calls you to receive Him as Master over your life. Amen; and amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers, 2001. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] This information is provided through an article by Russell Moore, “Evangelicals and Catholics Together …at the Abortion Clinic,” Russell Moore, September 18, 2005, https://www.russellmoore.com/2005/09/18/evangelicals-and-catholics-togetherat-the-abortion-clinic/, accessed 3 July 2021
[3] Ibid.
