1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We are living in dark times. And I don't say that because
of any results of a recent election. One party promises hope. The other party promises a bright
future. But the truth is, they can never
fulfill those promises. And for that reason, we ought
to take to heart and believe God when He says to us, cease
ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils. The truth is that
they are dark times because dark sinners live in these times. Men and women whose hearts and
whose minds, whether religious or irreligious, moral or immoral,
are characterized in Scripture as being full of darkness. And not only that, but we live
in the last days. We live in that time between
the first earthly coming of Christ and the second earthly return
of Christ. He tells us many years ago that
men shall wax worse and worse. That in the days preceding the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it would be as it was in
the days of Noah. Men and women just carrying on
life, without any thoughts of God. There are dark times because
there have been such since we fell in the garden. Dark times are because men and
women are totally depraved sinners. It doesn't matter who's in power. We get so disappointed with our
leaders when the truth is they are exactly the same as we are. But whenever men have access
to money and access to power, Those two things simply reveal
what they really are by nature. That's why we always have these
dark times. But here in our text, the Apostle
Paul speaks of some who are called The children of light. And that's my message today.
Children of light in times of darkness. He contrasts two groups
of people here, and not only here, but God does this again
and again in the Scriptures. He always divides mankind. into two groups. If you look down in verse 4,
where we read here in 1 Thessalonians 5, after he has reminded us of
the coming of our Lord and His coming as a thief in the night,
he says, but ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day
should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light. Not some believers are, but all
true believers. They are the children of light
and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness, therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us
watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in
the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night." He
talks about those who are in the light and those who are in
darkness. Children of the day and children
of the night. And he gives this instruction
there in verse 8. He says, "...but let us who are
of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and
love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation." In other words,
as he describes his people in other places, they obviously
are soldiers in a warfare, soldiers to stand watch and to carry a
banner. So he describes these things
as part of armor, a breastplate and a helmet. And as a basis
for this, as a reason for doing so, he says in verse 9, "...for
God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, he traces back the
reason for our salvation to God's appointing. Not that we chose
something that was right, not our decision, not our will, not
our good fortune, but He traces it back to the fountainhead of
all grace, and all glory which is to God Himself and something
He has done." And the word appointed here means something like to
purpose. God has purposed or ordained. God has ordained this for us. And when you read in Acts 13,
the Apostle writes, "...for so hath the Lord commanded us, saying,
I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest
be for salvation unto the ends of the earth." He's talking about
that man Paul. He said God had ordained him
to be a light to the Gentiles, that he should be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth. And then it says this, And when
the Gentiles heard this, that this man was sin of God, that
he was sent to preach the gospel of salvation to the Gentiles. When these Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as
many as were ordained or appointed to eternal life, they believed. They believed. And here the apostle
is used by the Spirit of God to give us some things, to reassure
us, and to encourage us. He does this to the Lord's people
wherever they are and whoever they are in any of these dark
times. And He gives us some things to
do. The first thing that He tells
us here, which is the most absolutely wonderful and glorious news and
truth that ever a sinner could hear is in verse 9, that God
has not appointed us to wrath. He has not appointed us to wrath. And that is not to say for one
minute that we don't deserve wrath. Because we are the same
in Adam as every other sinner, and the same in nature as every
other sinner. As a matter of fact, the same
apostle, tells the Lord's people at Ephesus, there in chapter
2, saying, we were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. And not only that, but he says,
we were enemies in our mind, even as others, by wicked works. by nature enemies, by actions
enemies, and no differed in ourselves than any other sinner, but salvation
is according to God's grace. Salvation is according to His
everlasting covenant. Salvation is according to His
sovereign will and purpose. It is according to His appointing. Hold your place here and turn
back to Romans 9. Romans 9. The same apostle, led here by
the Spirit of God, he says in Romans 9 and verse 20, to any
who would deny or resist such thoughts of God acting in His
sovereignty to save who He will. He says, "'Nay, but O man, Who
are thou that replies against God? Who are we to say what God
can do and can't do? Who are we to stand in the face
of our Maker and tell Him that it's not right for Him to do
this and that? He's the only one that's right. He says, "...shall the thing
formed," and we ought to always remember that's what we are. We're the thing formed, not the
one that forms it. "...shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay? of the same lump, the same lump,
to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
His wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy."
That's who he's talking about in our text, the vessels of mercy. which he had aforeprepared unto
glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles." He says, God hath not appointed us to wrath. And Peter says in 1 Peter 2,
unto you therefore which believe, unto these who are found truly
believing in Christ, unto you therefore which believe, he is
precious. Precious. He's not a big part
of your life. He's not even an important part
of your life. He is our life. He's precious. But unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word,
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed." Paul
says, we were not appointed to wrath. God did not decree that
we should suffer of ourselves of His wrath and judgment personally
in the matter of our sin. He writes, through Jude the apostle,
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort
you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. The message of salvation is the
message not just thrown out in the world for whoever, the message
of salvation in Christ, he says, was delivered and is being delivered
to the saints, those separated ones by God, appointed not to
His wrath. And he goes on and he says this,
"...for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before
of old ordained or appointed to this condemnation." You say,
well, they didn't have a chance. No, listen to it. He says ungodly
men. This is what they are. ungodly
men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying
the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny the only
true Christ. And they do so. Not by simply
denying the name or the existence of Jesus, but they do so denying
who He actually is and what He really accomplished in His cross
death. So what He's saying here, in
one part, is that God's elect, they were never under the wrath
of God. And for this to ever have happened,
God who is said to have loved them with an everlasting love,
He would have had to change, and He is the One who changes
not. This business of salvation is
not God deciding to do something based on seeing what we'll do. It's not God determining to do
something based on what He sees us determined to do. Salvation
is of the Lord and it is by His appointment. And these believers,
these children of light, they've been blessed with blessings in
Jesus Christ in what He calls the everlasting covenant. Now you and I, did not exist
early enough to have any active part in the everlasting covenant. The devil had no power or influence
in anything that was determined in that everlasting covenant. That is a covenant made within
the Godhead before time ever began, before the devil ever
was, certainly before you and I were born. And the blood of
Jesus Christ is called the blood of the everlasting covenant. Which shows that these children
of light, believers, if we be such, they have been in union
with Christ, and He has been our surety from old eternity. You say, why would He have stood
for me? I don't know. But even a greater
mystery, even a more amazing thing to me, is why would the
Son of God, the eternal Son of God, why would He ever been mindful
of me and stood for me? Because a surety, is not like
a guarantor, like we have on legal documents, so that if the
one who he signs for doesn't pay, then he has to assume the
bill. No, a surety is one who takes
the responsibility from the first. It was never expected by God
that we would ever be anything that would be savable of ourselves. It was never expected of God
that we would ever do anything as sinners that could please
Him. It was never expected of God
that we would ever be able to do anything in order to save
ourselves and to keep ourselves from His wrath and judgment,
but He appointed us. not to wrath. And though we were
in the Lord Jesus Christ, when He came under the wrath of God
on the cross, all these children, all these children of light,
they were in Him as Noah and his family were in the ark, safe
and sound, when all that judgment in the flood came against the
ark. Why didn't Noah die in the flood?
Why didn't his family die in the flood? They were just as
much sinners as any of Adam's race, but yet God had not appointed
them to wrath. God had been propitiated toward
them since Christ stood as that surety. They were not appointed. What does that make you feel
like? When you know you deserve wrath. Do you know that? When
you know by what you do and you think and you say and by who
you have a naturalist connection to, the head of our race, Adam,
when you know all these things, if you're honest, And the only
way we're ever honest is for the Spirit of God to make us
honest. When you know that what you really
deserve is wrath and hell and eternal judgment, what does that
make you feel like when He says, God has not appointed us to wrath? And then He gives us what you
might say is the other side of that coin. And it's understood
in this verse, it says that He has appointed us to salvation. You know, to listen to some people,
you would think that salvation was a little help, or an opportunity, Something whereby we are assisted
to do something. But the apostle in that early
preaching in the book of Acts tells us that there is none other
name given under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be
saved. We have to be saved. We can't
save ourselves, we have to be saved. And we are in the same
way as we are not appointed unto wrath, we are at the same time
appointed to salvation. Salvation. Salvation from all
our sins. Not some of them, not most of
them. Not just the big ones as we think
naturally, but salvation from all our sins. Salvation from the bondage and
the slavery that we come into this world with, being held captive
by the devil. Salvation from our own cells
which we in ourselves hold on to the very things that destroy
us? We have to be saved. We are like
people playing with a watch. Like my granddaughter when she
takes and looks at my watch and wants to push the button where
the light comes on. She can play with it. But she
has no idea of what time it really is. We can get up in the morning,
love our families. We can get up and go to work. We can do all these things that
we do every day. In Noah's day it says they were
eating and drinking and giving and merry, just business as usual. And never think about what time
it is. It is that time of darkness.
Wherein the children of darkness live on this earth with no idea
of who God really is. With no idea of their own sinfulness
and their own situation. They live and they play with
the watch, so to speak. And they don't have a clue that
it's one minute to midnight. And the Lord of Glory is coming.
unannounced, suddenly, as a thief in the night. But He's, from
the beginning, appointed us to salvation. That's what Paul says. If you just turn over a page
in your Bible, probably, and look in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 and verse 13, For he writes to these same people
in this second letter and talks about all those children of darkness
deceived by the mystery of iniquity. He says, but we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation."
Salvation. If I were to stand here 24 hours
a day and live to be a hundred, I could never express to you
just what salvation means. I know in the Bible it's spoken
of in the past tense. We have been saved. I know it
speaks of it in the present tense that we are being saved. I know it speaks of it in the
future tense and says that we yet shall be saved. It's called
eternal salvation. These Thessalonian believers
at the church at Thessalonica, and all of God's people in every
age, He has not appointed them to wrath, He has appointed them
or chosen them to salvation. That means that you and I, if
we're one of these that the Lord says, we won't ever We can't
now, and we won't ever be able to ascribe any of the glory of
it to ourselves. He has saved us, and right now
He is saving us. We have to be saved from a lot
more than our sins. We have to be saved every day.
We have to be saved out of all the difficulties of life. We
have to be saved. If there's one thing I've learned
over the last year is how helpless we are in everything. All we
want to do, we want to figure out. But the truth is we have
to be saved. We have to be saved. Turn over
to 1 Peter chapter 2 and look down at verse 9. Peter, writing to believers,
says in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9, but you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar or particular
people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who
hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." Paul
says he has saved us. Why? Because he appointed us
to salvation. He sent the Savior. Why? Because
He had appointed a people to salvation. And He tells us that
it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy, He saved us. I'm so glad He didn't just give
me a chance. I'm so glad He didn't just make
it possible. I'm so glad it wasn't like me
as a man who's fallen into a deep, dark pit, broken up now and unconscious
and lying there dead for the most part, that He didn't just
dangle a rope down to me and say, if you'll take hold of that
rope, pull yourself out. I've made the way. This is the
best I can do. No. He came down that rope. And He
took hold of us. And He brought us out Himself.
That's what David said. He said, I was in a horrible
pit. Oh no. obtain this salvation. The Scriptures say they all obtain
mercy. They all obtain like precious
faith. Paul says, therefore I endure
all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Ephesians 1. Paul says, He's
blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Did you know that
what men do in time can never change what God determined before
time? He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world, Paul says there, and blessed us with
A-double-L, all spiritual blessings. And if He hadn't, there wouldn't
one person be saved. But if the Lord Jesus Christ
hung on that cross there before divine justice, and paid the
sin debt of this sinner, or that sinner, or this sinner, you can
mark it down, they must be saved. Not only does God appointing
it require, not only does the death of Christ require, but
the Spirit of God in the application of those things requires it. And then he says something else.
He says that we might obtain, or but to obtain salvation by
our Lord Jesus Christ. You say, now why would that be
encouraging or edifying or comforting? Well, if our salvation was not
holy in one outside of ourself, we'd mess it up. That's why He's
called the Savior. God our Savior. Because this
salvation, this deliverance from wrath, is all in and through
and by Him, by our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 10 it says,
"...who died for us." If He died for me, I don't have to die.
If He died for you, you don't have to die. Because when He
says, He died for us, it means He died in our place. Or for, that's what that means.
For us, in our place, as our substitute, bore our sins in
His own body on the tree. He died for us. And that's what
Christ was doing on the cross. He was suffering the wrath that
was due His people. He was drinking the cup of God's
wrath to the last bitter dreg. He was bearing the sword of God's
justice for our sins in His own breast, because the Lord had
laid on Him, made Him responsible for our iniquities. And Paul
writes in Romans 5, and I'll read this to you out of an old
Translation called Young's Literal Translation. And he says in Romans
5, in that ninth verse, he says, "...much more then, having been
declared righteous now in his blood, we shall be saved through
him from wrath." That's how God could appoint us to know wrath. Because that wrath was to come
to bear against our substitute. He was to die in our place and
He did. And God counted what He was and
what He would do for us as such a done thing that He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. Everything. What a safety there
is in this or in Him. The appointments of God cannot
be altered or His purpose frustrated, and Christ's sacrifice for our
sins is a finished work. And the coming One, the One who's
coming as a thief in the night, the One who's going to come and
His light's going to cause the darkness to flee away, He'll
be unmistakable. to every being on this earth.
That's the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. That'll
be the One who died for us. And that'll be the One who's
coming for us. What is this light? He says,
we're the children of light. Well, He tells us in 1 John,
He said, if we walk in the light, As He is in the light, we have
fellowship one with the other, and the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin. Christ said He was the light,
and at the same time, the gospel of Christ, which is called the
truth, that's the light. Why? Because it speaks of Christ. Because it sets forth the one
way that God can do what He said here in these verses, and be
just, and at the same time a Savior. That's light. It's called wisdom
also. Christ is called wisdom. Not
only has He brought us, and as Peter said, called us out of
darkness into His marvelous light, into a knowledge of the truth,
into faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we're children with
the light. If you walked out of this building
today and it was pitch dark, what would be the first thing
that you would do? If you had a flashlight in your
purse or a A little light on your keychain. The first thing
you would do, you would try to get hold of some light. Hold
it up. And you walk out and you see
where you're going. You can see what's going on a
little bit. You've got this light. And over here you see a person
falling, stumbled. A person about to walk out in
the middle of the highway and you hear a truck come. What would
you do for them? Would you not shine the light
over there?" You see, that's how God describes His saved people,
His believing people, as those who are to shine forth as lights. He said, you're a city, like
a lighted city on a hilltop. He said, you don't put a candle
under a bushel, a cover. But we're to be those who in
this darkness, and in these times of darkness, do the one thing
that this world needs. It doesn't need a new president,
better social program, better military, better this, better
that, all those things that, like over the last few months,
you know, we've been told that our country's going to hell in
a handbasket and all that kind of stuff. Well, it was already
doing that. It's done that under every president
I've ever lived under, but not the children of light. It doesn't
matter what comes. It doesn't matter how dark it
gets. We'll be like those Israelites
when that darkness came over Egypt. That darkness, it said,
but in every one of their households, they had light. Somebody said,
I don't know what's going on. I do, I've got some light on
it. God is working all things after the counsel of His own
will. Well, I don't know why this happened,
or I don't know why I feel like this. I do, because you're a
sinner. I don't know how we'll ever get
out of this. I do, only in Christ. You're going to stay in darkness,
until the Spirit of God takes this truth and shines it in your
heart, and enables you to see the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ." That's light. And those who are in the light,
he says Christ died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we're
going to live together with Him. Live or die, it doesn't matter.
For me to be absent from the body is to be present with the
Lord. He says, wherefore, now listen to this, wherefore comfort
yourselves together and edify one another even as also you
do. This is our comfort. This is
what builds us up. He says, "...and we beseech you,
brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over
you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very
highly in love for their work's sake." That simply means the
person or persons that tell you the truth believe it. If they
tell you what God says, if they preach the gospel of light, if
this is the truth, believe it. Then he says, and be at peace
among yourselves. There's enough struggle in this
world. The children of darkness, they're never at peace with one
another. Let's be at peace with one another. I'm thankful for
the peace the Lord gives us. He says, now we exhort you, brethren,
warn them that are unruly. He didn't say kill them, bury
them. He just said warn them. Why? Because the Lord's people will
heed a warning. Comfort the feeble-minded. Did you know that the Lord's
got some people that are feeble-minded a little bit? They're not mental
giants. I'd be among these, I think,
feeble-minded. Support the weak. Be patient
toward all. Patient. What a grace. Patience. See that none render
evil for evil unto any man. But ever follow that which is
good both among yourselves and all men. Follow that which is
good. I'll tell you what's been going
on in that world. It's not good. Rejoice evermore. This is instruction
to the children of light. Well, I don't feel much like
rejoicing today, preacher. Do you see any conditions here? He says to the children of light,
rejoice evermore. You're waiting for a feeling
to make you rejoice, aren't you? It's not likely to happen in
a time of darkness, but we rejoice in the Lord. Pray without ceasing. I run up with a fellow very often
at an eating table, and without warning, without saying anything,
he'll burst into this repetitious, I'm sure what he calls prayer.
I didn't even bow my head. That's not praying. You see,
if you find out what prayer is, prayer is really a spirit-wrought
attitude of the heart. I don't have to bow my head to
pray. I do, at times. I don't have to be by myself
to pray, though I am at times. We're to live in a prayerful
attitude, driving down the road, doing our work, Facing the day
and all things, praying, Thank you, Lord, for your mercy to
me. Lord, please help me in this. It may never fall off my lips,
but it's in my heart. In everything, give thanks. Everything. For this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." To the Lord's people, I
don't care what goes on or how it appears. This is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit. Despise not prophesying. prove or test all things that
with the Word of God. And hold fast that which is good. Listen to this, abstain from
all appearance of evil. It doesn't just say, don't do
evil. It says, abstain from even the
appearance of evil. And the very God of peace, sanctify
you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you
who also will do it." Then the Apostle says, Brethren, pray
for us. You pray for me. And if we find no reason, don't
find ourselves inclined to really do any of these things He commands,
we may well yet be in darkness. He speaks these words to the
children of the light, the children of the day. And our Lord said,
he that is of God hears God's word. Father, we give You thanks
and praise. that in Christ we do have hope. He is our hope, and it is the
good hope of grace. And in Him we already have a
bright future, which is to be with Him, to be in your holy
heaven, and to enjoy you for worlds without end. We thank you for such free grace
to us. for such a Savior given to us,
for such a salvation accomplished by Him, so complete and full
and free. Give us grace as the children
of light in the midst of these dark times, whereby in these
things we might comfort each other, and obey these words of
instruction, not just for your glory, but for our own good. We pray for the week ahead that
you would help us in every way. Watch over us and provide for
us as only you can. Have mercy upon us. Hear our
cries. But we ask everything in the
Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest and Mediator. Amen.