with a hymn from your hardbacked
hymnal number 15. Number 15. Brethren, we have
met to worship, which is exactly what we've done. So let's all
stand together. Number 15. Brethren, we have met to worship
and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power
while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the Spirit
of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round
you, slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming, hell
is moving, can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and
our mothers and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help
us? Moses' sister aided him. Will you help the trembling mourners
who are struggling? heart with sin. Tell them all about the Savior. Tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners
till our God makes all things new. Then he'll call us home
to heaven. At his table we'll sit down. Christ will gird himself and
serve us with sweet manna all around. Please be seated. Every time we sing that hymn,
I have to think about myself as the sinner that's struggling
with sin. I'm the one who needs grace more
than anybody else. And I know that's true for each
one of God's children. If the Holy Spirit doesn't come
down, it'll be worse than Bain, what we're doing. Let's pray
together and ask His blessings on this time. Our Heavenly Father,
we confess to You that we have no ability, no righteousness,
no reason, why you should show us any mercy or any grace except
for thy son's sake. And so we come before your throne
of grace pleading in the name of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, for your help. for your salvation, for you to
send your Holy Spirit, for you, Lord, to to enlighten the eyes
of our understanding, to reveal to us the glory of Christ, to
enable us to rest our souls in his glorious person and in his
finished work of salvation. Thank you for this blessing.
Thank you for bringing us to this place. Lord, for Christ's
sake, we pray that you would be merciful to us. For it's in
His name that we pray. Amen. All right, will you open your
Bibles with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. I've titled this study, When
Will Christ Return? When will the Lord Jesus Christ
return? And I'll go ahead and answer
that question right now. When men least expect it. That's what God says. When there's
a crisis in the world, everybody starts talking about the coming
of Christ. He's not coming then. When there's a crisis in a person's
individual life, they get religious. They get interested in the things
of God. And then when that crisis is
over, everybody loses interest. When the crisis in the world
is solved or resolved for a time everybody goes back to their
normal way of life except for the child of God. The believer
is watching and waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ all the time. The unbeliever is only interested
in things of God during a time of crisis. That which is born
in the storm often dies in the calm. And that's what the Lord
tells us right here. So, am I interested in the return
of Christ for the salvation of my soul? for the hope of seeing
Him as He is and being made like Him for the reward of eternal
life? Or am I interested in the Lord
Jesus Christ and the things of God just to get me through a
problem in this world? That's the difference. That's
the difference. Look what the Lord says in chapter
5 of 1 Thessalonians verse 1, but of the times and seasons,
brethren, he's talking about the coming of Christ. You know
that was the subject in the previous chapter, towards the end of the
previous chapter, when he says the archangel shall come, the
trump of God shall sound, and the Lord shall descend, and those
which are dead shall be raised, and those which are alive shall
be caught up together with them, and so shall they ever be with
the Lord. And now he says, now, as to when
that's going to happen, as to when that's going to happen, You have no need that I write
unto you. For you yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety,
then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman
with child and they shall not escape. When is the Lord coming? When
no one's expecting Him. That's how a thief is able to
succeed. When he breaks into your home
at night, he doesn't announce his coming. He doesn't wake everybody
up. He doesn't send you a letter
and tell you what time and day He's going to be there. No, He
comes when you're asleep. He comes when you least expect
it. And that's what the Lord says, that's when I'm coming.
As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming
of the Son of Man. How was it in the days of Noah?
well the scripture says and i know that uh... the the world likes
to portray the days of noah some sort of uh... of of debauchery
that was just out of control that's not what the scripture
says men were married and giving marriage and they were eating
and drinking and everybody was just enjoying life and uh... noah's warning them that the
lord was going to destroy the earth and nobody believed it
Why? Because life was good. Life was
good. Why are we worried about the
destruction of the earth? Let's enjoy what we have. That's
when the Lord is going to come. And how many were saved when
that deluge came from God? How many were saved? Eight. Eight. Noah, his wife, his three sons,
and their wives. No one else got on the ark. So when is the Lord coming? If your interest and my interest
in the things of God are only during a crisis, and when the
crisis passes, so does our interest, then we should have no hope that
when he comes that we're going to be ready. You see, the believer, the believer,
the child of God is watching and waiting all the time. All
the time. Good times and bad. Why? Because their hope is not just
to get a better life. Their hope is to see their Lord.
and to inherit eternal life. That's their hope. This world
is not their home. They're sojourners. They haven't
put down roots in this world. They're pilgrims. They're strangers
in a foreign land. That's what the scripture says
about the children of God. So, if we've become comfortable
in this world, if this world has become our home, and during
times of peace and prosperity we have no interest in the things
of God, then the Lord is describing us
as He described, that's the world. That's the world. When is the
Lord Jesus Christ coming? When men least expect it. when there's peace and prosperity
in the world. You know, in a time of great
conflict, everybody gets to talking about the coming of Christ. They
did it during World War II. They did it on 9-11. Every time
there's a big crisis, everybody starts thinking that way. And
the crisis is over, and everybody goes back to their regular life.
making their life in this world. The Lord's coming for those who
don't have life in this world. Their life is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And their whole purpose for existence
in this world is the anticipation of His return. That's who He's
coming for. Where do you stand? He is coming. He is coming when
men least expect it. Oh Lord, with all the enticements
of this world, don't let me make my life attached to this world. This world is fleeting. This
world's going to be destroyed. It was destroyed the first time
by water. It'll be destroyed the second time by fire. Mark it down. It's going to happen. And God's people say, how does
this book conclude the whole canon of Scripture, all of the
Word of God? How does, what does John say
at the very end? Turn with me to the book of Revelation
chapter 22. Verse 20. The very end of the Bible. This is God's Word. Verse 20, He which testifieth
these things saith, Surely I come quickly, so be it. That's what Amen means. So the
Lord is testifying of these things and He's saying, I'm coming.
I'm coming quickly. Even so, Here's John's response
to that. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Come. Come. What a glorious day it's
going to be when that eastern sky does split and when the trump
of God does sound. Those who are found in Christ
are going to be caught up together with Him. We, we, eye has not seen nor
has ear heard, nor is it entered into the imagination of man the
things which he has prepared for us. You know, what do we
do? We, we have a tendency to think
of heaven as an improved version of what we have, don't we? Oh,
it's not. It's not going to be anything
like what we have. Now, Look, go back with me to our text because
I want you to see something here. Here's how, look at verse 11,
skip down with me to verse 11 of chapter 5. Wherefore, comfort
yourselves together and edify one another even as also you
do. This is not, this is not scare
tactics, this is not fear mongering. This is our comfort? This is
the believers hope? Comfort ye one another and edify
one another with these words. Lord, does this truth comfort
my soul? Does it encourage me? Or am I? Well, let's look at
the rest of this. Go back with me to verse Verse
three, for when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they
shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in
darkness. You're not in darkness. You're
not walking in the flesh. You have the light of the Spirit.
You know the truth. You know who Christ is. You know
what he's accomplished. If this is true of you, then
you have nothing to fear in the coming of Christ. You're not
walking in darkness. You're not looking to your righteousness
for the hope of your salvation. You're not looking to any experience
or decision that you have made for the hope of your salvation.
You're walking in the light as He is in the light. And you have
fellowship one with another because the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
has cleansed you of all your sin. Your sin's been put away. You have no fear of condemnation,
no fear of judgment. You stand accepted in the presence
of a holy God. But you, brethren, are not in
darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. You
see, you're not sleeping. You're not spiritually dead.
Not if you know Christ. If you know Him, you want to
know Him better. If you know Him, You long for
that day when you see Him in the fullness of His glory. We look through a glass dimly
now. We're just catching glimpses of His glory as He reveals Himself
in His Word. But then, face to face, face
to face, in all of His splendor, in all of His glory, So he says,
you're not walking in darkness that the day should overtake
you as a thief. You are all the children of light. The light of the gospel has shined
in our hearts in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other
words, we see Him as the good news. We see Him as the good
news. We believe, as Isaiah said in
Isaiah 52, that our God reigneth. He reigns sovereign. He reigns
sovereign over creation. He has put all things in order,
in the created order of things. The theory of evolution has one
objective and that's to rob from our God His glory in creation. That's it. If we can rob Him
of His glory, of His reigning in creation, then we don't have
to deal with it. Those are people who walk in
darkness. Our God reigneth in Providence. He works all things
together for good, for them that love Him and those that are called
according to His purpose. And what great comfort we have
in knowing that through the difficult times and the good times, our
God is sovereignly ordaining and ordering the events of our
lives for our good and for His glory. Our God reigneth. We walk in the light when we
bow to a God who's sovereign, a God who reigns. And there's
a whole lot of folks that will say, well, I know God reigns
in creation. I know he reigns in providence. And then they
deny his reign in salvation. They'll make salvation something
that God doesn't reign in. Something that He's dependent
upon them for. Oh no. Our God reigns in salvation. Our God sovereignly, according
to His own will and purpose, chose a particular people before
time ever began. Put them in the covenant of grace.
Hid them in Christ. Accepted them in the Beloved.
Our God has the right to make from the same lump of clay some
vessels of honor and some of dishonor. Why? Because we walk
in the light. Our God reigns. He's reigning. And He reigns in redemption. He accomplished redemption all
by Himself. through his own shed blood, through
the sacrifice of his life, he purchased for himself those people
whom God had chosen. He's not counting on us to throw
in our two cents worth. He's not counting on us to vote
for him. He's not counting on us to do
something to make what He did work for us. No, He reigns in
redemption. He atoned for all the sins of
all of His people once and for all. We're walking in the light.
We're not walking in darkness. We know the truth. God's turned
the lights on. And He reigns in regeneration. He makes His people willing in
the day of His power. When we were yet without strength
in due time, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And in
due time, Christ reveals himself. Paul said, God, when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal himself
in me. When it pleases God. You see,
no man seeks after God at any time. God has to seek us, doesn't
He? Why? Because He reigns in salvation.
We're not walking in the darkness. We're walking in the light. Lord,
I need You to shine the light of the gospel in my heart that
I might have a hopeful anticipation for Your coming when You bring
this world to an end. Lord, I don't want to be caught
with thief in the night. I want to be awake. I want to
be sober. He reigns in sanctification. I know a whole lot of Calvinists
that say, oh no, God reigns in election. He reigns in redemption. He reigns in regeneration. And
then they make themselves reign in sanctification. In other words,
they put themselves under the law, and they compare themselves
to themselves, and they believe themselves to be getting better,
or they compare themselves to one another, and they have a
hierarchy of holiness within their little groups, and then
they compare themselves to the law, and they think, well, I'm
getting a little closer to keeping the law now than I was before.
Oh, no. No, our God reigns in sanctification. We're made holy because he's
holy. We're made righteous because the law's been fulfilled. We're
perfect in the sight of God, in the righteousness of our God
who reigns. And our God reigns in glorification. God made him to be our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. and he reigns
in all those areas so we're we're we're we're we're glorified all
that God has chosen he has glorified so that our God reigns well the
scripture says in Ephesians chapter 1 that all the people of God
are in the heavenlies right now in Christ Our God reigns. We're walking
in the light. We're not walking in darkness.
We're not dependent on anything other than who Christ is and
what he did for all the hope of our salvation. The light of
the gospel. God has turned the lights on
me, shined them in our hearts, and we're not walking. We're
not like the rest of the world. Now when God speaks like this,
Causes each one of us, doesn't it? Causes each one of us to
try ourselves to see whether we'd be in the faith. And that's
a good thing. That's a good thing. Is He describing
me? Is God describing me? Oh, Lord,
have mercy upon me. Verse 5, you are all the children
of light. and the children of day. We are
not of the night nor of darkness. We don't believe the lie. We
believe the truth. God's delivered us from the lie.
The lie of free will, the lie of good works, we know it's not
true. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do. When do men sleep? They don't
sleep when there's a crisis. Oh, when there's a crisis, everybody's
awake. Everybody's trying to fix the problem, aren't they?
Everybody all of a sudden gets religious. But when do men go
to sleep? When everything's good. Everything's
good. What the Lord's saying is that
His children never sleep. They don't go to bed in the dark and well
listen look what he says verse 7 for they that sleep sleep in
the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night they're
drunk they're intoxicated not with alcohol but with a false
gospel with a false spirit they believe something that's not
true the Lord said try the spirits
and see whether they be of God don't be intoxicated with a false
spirit one thing that's one thing that's true about a person who's
inebriated is you can't reason with them you cannot reason with
a person who's who's inebriated and that's the way it is people
who are so religious and so intoxicated with the false gospel and false
spirit of free will and good works you can't talk to them
God's got to cause them to question their gospel before they're ever
going to become interested in the light. Why? Because they're
walking in the darkness, sleep in the darkness. The Lord said,
you're not that way. You're not drunk with that spirit. But let us, who are of the day,
be sober. Be clear-minded. Understand the
truth. What God says is true, isn't
it? And what freedom there is. The Lord said, if you know the
truth, the truth will set you free. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the way, the truth, and the life. We know that. And the only way
to be free is to be in Him. Where the Spirit of God is, there's
liberty. But this has to do with everything,
doesn't it? If you're not deceived. If you know things the way they
really are. And here's the truth. The way
God sees them is the way they really are. Okay? That's just the way they really
are. It doesn't matter how we see them. How God sees them and
what God says about them is the way they really are. So faith
is believing what God says. That's just, it's that simple.
It's just, I just believe God. I can't not believe God. God
says it. I believe it. And what liberty and what freedom
there is in just believing the truth. And here's what the Lord
says about his coming. The world's not going to be ready.
I'm going to come like a thief in the night. Why? Because they're
expecting me to come in the midst of a crisis, but I'm gonna come
when there's peace and safety. And only my people who are walking
in the light, not in the darkness, are going to be ready when there's
peace and safety. Because they're anticipating
my coming all the time. They're not asleep, they're not
drunk with a false gospel. Look, Let us who are of the day be
sober, putting on the breastplate of faith." Now the scripture
says that Satan cast flaming darts at our hearts, causing
us to doubt. What's the biggest thing that
Satan, the most mileage Satan gets in a child of God? Accusing
the brethren. And when he does, he's using
the law. He's using the law when he accuses you, doesn't he? His purpose is not to get you
to doubt. His purpose is to get you to
look away from Christ. You're looking at yourself and
you think, well, if I was really ready for the coming of Christ,
if I was a child of God, I wouldn't be thinking like that. I wouldn't
do that. I wouldn't act like that. I wouldn't talk like that. And the accuser of the brethren
says, see, you're not a child of God. And so then you have
doubts and fears. Why? Because you're not believing
God. You're looking to your life and comparing your life to the
law and thinking, well, I've got to get a little bit better
before I can be ready. No, you don't. You've got to look to
Christ to be ready. That's it. So the breastplate
of faith is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness. Not comparing yourself to yourself,
not comparing yourself to the law, not thinking, well, if I
just get a little bit better, then I'd be ready. You can't
get good enough to be ready. He's the only one to make you
ready. And if he does, you'll be ready. You'll be ready. The breastplate of faith and
love. Love. What reason do I have to believe
that I'm ready? Because God said he has loved
his people with an everlasting love. And God proved his love
towards me when he sent his son to be the propitiation for my
sins. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. Don't measure love by your love. Your love's fickle, isn't it?
It's kind of up and down. Sometimes you love a lot, sometimes
you love a little. But His love is perfect. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. So, this is the
breastplate that He gives us of faith and love. And for a
helmet, we've got to protect our thoughts, don't we? That's where our problem is,
isn't it? It's in our stinking thinking, isn't it? Our minds
are just so prone. Well, the Scripture says the
whole head is sick. We're just sick in the head.
We can't have a holy thought. Our minds, when we would do good,
I know I've mentioned this recently, but we came here today with hopes
of worshiping God and hearing the truth. And we've been meeting
for 35 minutes, and you haven't been able to keep your mind on
it perfectly for that amount of time. You've had unholy thoughts,
haven't you? Sure you have. Why? Because our
minds are just so corrupt. So what do we need? We need a
helmet. A helmet of what? A helmet of
salvation. Where am I going to get that?
Salvation's of the Lord. You see, I can't measure my salvation
by my thoughts. My salvation's got to be measured
by what Christ has done and by who He is. If I try to measure
myself, you've not been able to have a holy thought. Not only
do we have evil thoughts when we don't want them, when we would
do good, evil is ever present with us, but we've never ever
one time had a holy thought, a perfect thought. And the Lord
Jesus Christ never thought anything but holy thoughts. So what are
we going to do? We're going to put on the helmet
of salvation. Lord, you've got to protect me with your salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord. He's finished it. He's accomplished
it. Four, God hath not appointed
us to wrath. The fury and wrath of God is
going to fall on this earth. It is. It's just, it's coming.
And it's going to come when men least expect it. It's going to
come when they say, peace and safety. It's going to come when
there's no major conflicts, and everybody's just back to normal,
enjoying life. And that's when it's going to
come. But God has not appointed you
to wrath. Why? Because all the wrath of God
has already been quenched. The fiery wrath of His justice
has been put out in the sacrifice of Christ so that there is now
no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. I'm fearing
the wrath of God. I'm looking to what Christ did
to put away the wrath of God. And so he says, God has not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together and encourage one another, even as also we do. God bless His word to our hearts
and make us, make us ready. Alright, let's take a break.