This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
They have no access to that anymore.
It's done right now. Even unbelievers are seeing
mercy. They're seeing the grace of God
right now, and we who believe are seeing it.
But there's going to come a day when those who do not believe
will no longer have access to His forgiveness or access to His
grace or His mercy. That may be the worst part.
I'm judging him. Every breath you breathe is
God's grace at work. If you could see things from His
perspective, you'd likely see many more specific examples of
the way He protects and keeps you from events or paths that
would lead you to destruction. In this moment, there's nothing
you can do to exceed the limits of that grace.
But as Pastor Lewis will warn in today's message, a day is coming
when His grace will be retracted, and only those who
have accepted it will spend eternity with him.
Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Second Thessalonians,
chapter one with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
These are things that are evident or that should be
evident in our own lives. We should have this, this faith
that should be growing, you know, and we and we do that by
doing, we're doing the day we, we're, we're in the word of God
and we do it in prayer and we're doing it through fellowship.
And it allows our faith to grow even in the midst of whatever
problems are going on. It's a blessing that we can come
here because outside of here, people are going nuts.
They're looking for answers everywhere and they don't have
any solutions. They don't have any answers.
And they're bouncing this way. They're bouncing that way.
They're believing in this person, they're believing in
that person. That theology or that
philosophy, it's everywhere out there.
But when you come here and you're in the Word of God, we
here together help to encourage each other to keep on, to keep
on. Just keep on.
Stay in the way, stay in the Word of God, stay in prayer,
keep Him number one, trust in Him, trust in his Word.
And that's the three pillars that we have that faith that
that love. But no, we also have the
patience. What helps us to be able to do
that is the fact that we have patience.
And that patience is because of the fact that we know we're
anticipating the return of Jesus Christ.
This ain't going to last forever.
Trouble doesn't last all ways. We are going to have a time of
rejoicing, a time of re glorification.
We're going to have a time that we are going to be able to spend
with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not the end of the story
for us. This is not the end of the
story. This is just the beginning of a
great eternity that's going to happen when Jesus Christ, our
Lord and Savior comes back. Amen.
And that's what we're hoping for.
And that's the patience that they have, and they're waiting
for that. Bless the Lord, bless the Lord.
Second Titus. Two.
I'm sorry, Titus 213. Just want to go there for a
second, Titus, I'm going to start right there.
Verse 11211. It says for the grace of God
that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us
that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for
the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen, Amen.
That's what we're looking for so we can be patient in the midst
of all this and that's why they were patient in the midst of it
because they were looking for the blessed hope of the return
of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So then we go to verse to verse 5 here.
Now verse 5 is a verse that's kind of complicated, so we want
to slow it down just a little bit.
But it says here, which is manifest evidence of the
righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the
Kingdom of God for which you also suffer.
So what Paul is saying here is, you know, he says the fact that
you were going through these persecutions, the fact that you
were going through these these trials and these tribulations,
and you're going through it with patience, that is visible
evidence or visible proof of the righteous judgment of God.
Now, some would say, well, if you're going through that, then
is God really with you? If you're going through all
that? That's the kind of doubt that
the world likes to try to put in.
You know, if you're going through all these problems and
you're, you know, you're, you're, you're being oppressed
and you're being, you know, persecuted, is God really with
you? You sure he hasn't rejected you?
The answer to that question is no answer.
That question is no. Paul says the reason why you're
going through it or the reason it's a blessing that you were
going through it, because as you go through that, that is the
visible proof and the way that you endure it.
The your response to it is visible proof that God is
righteous in making you worthy of the Kingdom.
This is what papa's saying. He looks at it totally
different. No, this is God making you.
This is God saying that you are worthy of the Kingdom.
And you look at the old prophets.
Jesus even thought about the old prophets.
He said, look, and you go through those persecutions and
all those things, rejoice, rejoice because the prophets
before you went through it, because great is your reward in
heaven. Great is your reward in heaven.
Now we're not saying here, this is not saying that suffering
makes you worthy of heaven, and nor is it saying that we add
anything to the finished work of Christ.
That's not what we're saying. That's not what Paul is saying
here at all. We don't add anything to what
Christ already did with our suffering, you know, nor does
our suffering make us deserving of heaven.
It's not like we get brownie points because we suffer.
That's not what Paul is saying here.
But what Paul is saying is that the suffering brings out the
proof or the evidence that God is working in you, that God is,
that God's power is upon you, his his grace is upon you, that
you are able to endure it. And that's the this is the
visible evidence of that. And that's not just the visible
evidence to God. God already knows it.
The evidence that we show, first of all, we show to ourselves
that God is with us in helping us to get through it, but also
to other people, they see it. And that's the testimony that
gives glory to God. That's the testimony that gives
glory to God. So the suffering's in the work.
That's just God working through us and he's the one that makes
us worthy. It's by his grace that we are
worthy. So endurance and suffering
proves that God's judgment of them that Thessalonian church
was right and shows their fitness for the Kingdom.
So in verse 6, now he goes and says, since it is a righteous
thing with God to repay with tribulation those who who
trouble you, pay with tribulation those who trouble
you. You know the one thing we must
understand that it is a righteous judgment of God that
He keeps his promises. He keeps his promises to the to
the, to the, to the sinners and he keeps his promises to the
believers. I was always taught when I was
younger that unrepentant sin is judged and faithfulness is
rewarded. Now we know that God is loving
because this is the issue that always comes up.
But wait a minute, how can a righteous and loving God, you
know, how can he send somebody to hell?
How can he judge somebody that always comes up?
Yes, God is loving. Yes, God is grace, God is
merciful, but we also must look at God as being holy.
God is righteous and God is just.
So Paul says it is a righteous thing with God to repay
tribulation for those who trouble you.
So those who are unrepentant sinners and who are troubling
those who are believers right now, they may think they're on
top of it, like they're ahead of the game, like everything is
going perfect for them. Everything is our way, and
nothing seems to be going your way.
Boy, I wouldn't want to be you. I don't want to be you.
You know, look at you. Like, man, I don't want to live
like that. Yeah, that's the way they feel
now. But just like Lazarus and the
rich man, the tables turned and it got to the point where, in
fact, Lazarus, you know, when Lazarus was what was in the
world, he was a beggar and the rich man had it all.
He had it all. It was all going his way.
Everything was According to him. But then when they both died and
and and had to go and see the Lord, the tables turned.
Lazarus was the one that was receiving the good things, and
it was a rich man that was dealing with the judgment and
the torment. And this is, and Paul is saying
that that's what's going to happen here.
Those who trouble you, they're going to receive tribulation,
they're going to receive trouble.
But you, it's a righteous thing with God that for you, you are
given rest. You're giving rest with us.
So Paul said we're all going to enjoy the rest of God.
We're going to enjoy that the rest with Jesus Christ.
And that word rest here actually means relief or a release from
trouble. It's a release from our
laborers, from persecution, from affliction.
It's the turning of the tables. So we look forward to that.
I could imagine, I can imagine that those who were back in the
Thessalonian Church, who was going through all that
persecution, they're probably waking up every day looking to
see that. Is my enemies drop dead yet?
They drop dead yet. Have they been judged yet?
It's not quite going to happen that way.
But when he returns, that's when they will see the judgment of
God. When would this happen?
When the Lord you can see it here in verse the bottom of
verse 7 when it says when the Lord is revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on
those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Now there's fire that we talk
about here. We see it so often in the Word
of God and it represents always represents one of two things,
fire that represents the presence of God or represents
the judgement of God. And usually where the believers
are concerned, it represents the very presence or power of God.
And that's why it was when a burning Bush that Moses was able
to talk to God or God spoke to Moses through a burning Bush.
It was the presence of God. When they came on the mountain,
that mountain would appear to be on fire.
The smoke and the fire and the thunderings of the mountain,
that was the presence of God. They were led by a pillar of
fire at night because it was the presence of God.
But then the judgement of God is for the unbelievers.
Fires represent the judgement of God.
We see that where the, when, when Elijah called down fire
from heaven and burned up the, the, the, the, the soldiers of
the king who wanted to do harm to Elijah, when the Lord burned
up Sodom and Gomorrah with fire. So that, that, that fire like a
judgement. But it also that fire is also a
refining fire for us. And when we go into the fire or
the Lord puts us into the fire, it refines us.
It, it, it, it tears off the bad things that we don't need.
And it keeps the very soul things that the, the, the, the,
the things that we do need. It helped it, it strengthens
those things in us. That too is done through the
fire of God. So it's interesting because in
some reports you see that it talks about the Lord coming with
clouds. And that's when we, we who are
looking forward to him coming, you know, that's us looking.
We see him coming in the clouds. You know, that's that's for the
believers to rejoice in. But for the unbelievers, they're
going to see him coming in flaming fire because vengeance,
he's coming to put vengeance to strike vengeance on
unbelievable. He's coming with judgement.
He's coming with judgement and he talks about two groups, the
people that he's going to be distributing vengeance to, those
who do not know God. Many believe that they are the
Gentile unbelievers, those who do not know God.
The Bible talks in several places of Gentiles as being
those who do not know God, and also on those who do not obey
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that would be like your unbelieving Jews.
They know God, but they're not obeying the gospel of God.
They're not believing Jesus Christ as being the Messiah, so
they too are going to be judged as well.
Either way, for those of us who believe, it's going to be a
glorious day. But for those of us who don't
believe, it's going to be her horrific day either way.
And then we go to verse 9 and in verse 9 he says there, you know,
these shall be punished from everlasting destruction, with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from
the glory of his power. And when you consider this
statement, this may be the worst part of judgment.
This may be the worst part of judgment, the separation from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal
separation. That means they are no longer
have any access to His grace. They no longer have any access
to His forgiven, His forgiveness.
They no longer have any access to His mercy.
They no longer have any access to any of those things.
The power of God, they have no access to that anymore.
It's done right now. Even unbelievers are seeing
mercy. They're seeing the grace of God
right now, and we who believe are seeing it.
But there's going to come a day when those who do not believe
will no longer have access to His forgiveness or access to His
grace or His mercy. That may be the worst part of
judgement, and that's for eternity.
That's for eternity. Right now an unbeliever can
repent and have access to not only God's grace, but His mercy,
His forgiveness, and he can receive the Kingdom of heaven.
But there's going to come a time where that can't happen, That
can't happen, so the consequences will be final.
That may be the worst part of judgment, in my opinion.
And then we go to verse 10. It says when he comes in that
day to be glorified in his sense and to be admired among all
those who believe, because our testimony among you was
believed. So he's coming with, He's
coming, He's going to return and he's going to return.
And for his Saints, it's going to be glorious.
Like we said, it's going to be a glorious day.
He's going to be magnified by those of us who believe.
That means he's going to be made larger and more evident and
they're going to see it in US. He's going to see it in US.
I mean, God is never more glorified than when we can look
at someone who is a trophy of his grace and His mercy.
There are people in our neighborhood, and I'm probably
one of them thinking about it. Didn't think I was at that time.
Thought I was OK. Now, they probably talk about me
like that, you know, but they probably thought that he was
never this. This guy ain't ever going to say
he ain't going to have him. There ain't no heaven in hell.
You know, there are people that were just kind of crazy.
They just kind of did some some outlandish things and they don't
mess. This guy is this guy is through,
you know, he's done. But then God starts working in
his heart and you see him again and it's like, Oh my God, what
happened? He speaks in a way that makes
sense. He's no longer doing things that
are crazy. He's dressed in a way that just
looks like he's civil. I mean, it just like what
happened. And we saw an example of that
when the demonics, you know, when, when Jesus went before the
demonics, the whole town looked at this guy.
They were afraid of him. They were afraid of him.
They didn't want to walk by him. But then when Jesus got a hold
to him, they saw him sitting beside Jesus and they couldn't
even believe it was the same person.
That's the glory of God and He's going to do do that with so many
people in that day. We are going to be the ones that
show glory. It's going to be in us.
We want to glory. He's going to be glorified in
us. So we believe with those who
reflect His glory and not those who have rejected His glory by
rejecting His Son Jesus Christ. In John 17, He says, you know,
yours are mine and mine are yours, and I am glorified in
them. Jesus said I am glorified in
them. And then he's going to be, you
know, then we're going to look at him and be marveled.
The Bible says that we're going to, you know, he's going to be
admired among all of those who believe.
We're going to look at him and be astonished and we're going to
be, we're going to marvel at his presence.
We're going to just marvel. We're going to be in awe of his
presence. Can you imagine just seeing him?
I can't wait to see him can't wait to see him can't wait to
see his face. We're going to marvel in his
presence. Now those who don't believe
they're going to be running from his presence.
He's going to marvel. We're going to marvel at his
presence. Then verses I'm about to finish
up here, verses 11 and 12, it says, therefore we also pray
always for you that our God would count you worthy of his
calling and fulfill all the goodness, all the good pleasure
of his goodness and the work of faith with power.
Let's just stop there for a second.
So the goodness of God is what they're talking about here.
Now he says you're going to be, you know, he says that you know,
God would count the I'm praying that God would count you worthy
of his calling. That means that God would
declare or decree you worthy of his calling, that God's power is
working in you and as a result of that you are going to be
counter considered, decreed, declared worthy of his calling
and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness.
Now the Bible talks in many places about walking worthy of
his calling. We can't do that on our own.
We blow it, we blow it, but we
do know that God is able to make us worthy.
He's able to, He's able to work in us in a way that we will live
a life that's worthy of his calling and he says and fulfill.
All the good pleasure of His goodness.
And it's interesting when you look at the good pleasure of
his, of his goodness. It's not just doing good things.
It's not just doing good things, but it's doing good things with
a good motive, and that motive is pleasing the Lord Jesus
Christ, not pleasing a man, not trying to position yourself, not
trying to weaken someone by doing something good for them,
so you weaken them to an opportunity to take advantage of
them later. That's not what this is talking
about. This is talking about doing good
with good motives. It's good motives.
The meditations of my heart and the words of my mouth, OK, are
both pleasing to God. Not just me flattering you with
my word, trying to butter you up, to weaken you so that I can
take advantage of you, or so that I could be given a special
favor, or whatever it is that we may want to gain with our plan
to butter up or flatter. But this is actually living,
living it and having it in our hearts to do that which is good.
And again, that only comes through the Spirit.
We can't do that ourselves. That comes through the Spirit of
God. All this is a grace of God.
It goes back to the earlier, that earlier word of grace.
All this is a grace of God. To do good things is a grace of
God. And then, and then, then we, you
know, we finish up with this. The reason why verse 12 is that
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified.
That's why he's praying that for them so that the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ would be glorified in them.
And you and him according to the grace of our God and the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's the grace of God that saves
us. It's the grace of God that keeps
us. It's the grace of God that
causes us to be able to stand under persecution.
It was the grace of God that caused this church to be able to
stand in the tough days. It's the grace of God.
And it's the grace of God that's holding us even now.
It holds us and it holds those who are not saved.
So I just want to say to those who are listening, and there's
someone here today that have not given their life to Christ.
You've thought about it, maybe you've heard things, saw things
that begin to pull at your heart.
And you said maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next
day, maybe when I get older. I'm not quite ready yet,
brothers and sisters, we don't know when that last opportunity
comes. We don't know it may be within
the next 5-10, fifteen, 20 years, or it could be within the
next 5 minutes that we leave here and go to be with our Lord
Jesus Christ. We don't know.
People are leaving here every day and they're not all going to
be with the Lord. So I plead with you, I thank
you, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Repent for your sin.
Repent. He is a good God.
He is willing and He is able to forgive you and to cleanse you
of everything you've ever done, make you new.
Repent today. Turn your heart to Him today.
Turn from that wicked way and trust Him for your salvation.
Do it today, don't wait till tomorrow, do it today.
He's ready and He's willing to receive you.
His arms are open wide. He's ready to receive you.
But there will be a day when it's going to be too late.
Let that not be today. Don't tell me, Don't test.
It you've been listening to Living Waters of Grace, he
wanted you to be aware that this message was given by Pastor
Lewis Harrell, an associate pastor serving alongside Pastor
Clark. Although you're familiar with
Pastor Clark being the voice of Living Waters of Grace, you'll
now have the opportunity to hear both pastors on this program.
Pastor Lewis is making his way through 1st and 2nd
Thessalonians. These books are a constant
reminder of the blessings that await faithful followers.
But this was often difficult for such young believers.
The Second Thessalonians 2-3 says let no one deceive you by
any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away
comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the Son of
perdition. When you choose to remain
faithful to God, the one who is always faithful to you, it comes
with its own reward. The new church in Thessalonica
was thriving, but Paul correctly saw the need to reinforce God's
steadfast love and identify him as a promise keeper.
Paul's second letter reads like a response to questions the new
church was struggling to answer. Living Waters of Grace is a
ministry out of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland, located in
Greensburg, PA. Are you in the area?
We would love to continue learning more about life in
Christ together with you. Stop in and see us this Sunday
morning at 10:30 AM. When you do, be sure to mention
that you heard us here. You'd love to hear the stories
of how God is using this program to reach people.
To find out more about the church and get our location,
head on over to calvarychapelonline.com.
Thanks for joining us today on Living Waters of Grace.