2 Thess 1. Living Like the King in the Midst of Evil Until He Returns.

Wednesday July 5, 2023

Theme: The state of evil and sin in the world is a design by God. The believer is to live free and separate from it.

I did not say that God caused it. He designed it.

2Th 1:1-2

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ came to earth to give us divine life and a kingdom with Himself as King.

A great deal of the Bible is a revelation of the sinfulness of mankind and the depravity and evil of the world. The Scripture takes great pains to reveal this is multiple ways and from many angles.

In our passage, the suffering of those who live righteously in this depraved world. By living righteously, or sanctified, they walk in the manner of Christ, stand firm on the ground of the truth, and communicate the gospel when called for. They are not timid, but are bold representatives of Christ, yet still in kindness and gentleness. The power to do this properly comes from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit who have made the church and made our new lives.

Your spiritual life owes its existence and draws its life from the Father and the Son.

All eyes are going to see the returning Lord in one way or another – condemnation or unspeakable joy.

Like a farmer collecting his crop at harvest time, the Lord is coming to collect the lives He made.

The mystery age that Christ revealed would be a time of sowing. He revealed this mystery age in seven parables. The first, which He said governed the rest of these parables, was the parable of the sower. The second parable was of the wheat and the tares.

During the age of sowing, the enemy would sow alongside the Lord’s crop.

This is God’s doing.

Rom 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Some believers, unknowing of the life they have been given, remain infected by the flesh and fail to overcome it. They live selfishly, carnal, fleshly, in strife and envy, immoral, etc.

Flesh (unredeemed mankind):

Sexual sin, uncleanliness, lack of moral restraint, idolatry, occult rituals accompanied by drugs, hatred, contention, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, divisions, self-willed opinions, envy, drunkenness, drunken revelry, and other things like these.

Gal 5:19-21

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality [sexual sin], impurity [uncleanliness], sensuality [immoral, lack of restraint], 20 idolatry, sorcery [occult practices with the use of drugs], enmities [hatred], strife [quarreling, contention], jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes [factions, strife], dissensions [divisions], factions [self-willed opinions], 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing [drunken howling at the moon], and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

This is all flesh. The implication is enormous to a world of sinners.

Some people jump into all of them. Some wanting to be more respectable, allow only some of them. All unregenerate humanity lives in some or all of them and some believers are still trapped in them because they do not see nor understand the life that Christ gave them.

Mat 13:14

“And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,

'You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;

And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; …”

The Thessalonians quickly understood the life that Christ gave them. The key factor was their faith and humble ears. Paul was not the key factor. Paul is a key as their teacher, but he was also the teacher of the Corinthians and Galatians, who did not quickly understand.

It is vital for all believers to know Christ as King and the life (election and predestination) that He gave to us.

2Th 1:3-4

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; 4 therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.

Then Paul brings the afflictions and persecutions they face into the court of God in heaven.

Though God has allowed the fallen world to fight against the new life and way of the kingdom of heaven, He will judge all.

Mat 13:10-11

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.

Mat 13:30

'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

What Jesus speaks of in this chapter is a mystery age.

Mystery age of Mat 13:

It is the age between “when Christ was ministering on the earth” … and “the time of the Second Advent.” [Ryrie, The Basis of the Premillennial Faith.]

The whole age is going to be characterized by conflict and the victory of the faithful.