I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I'd like to read verse 9. I'm
going to make a few comments out of this book. different passages,
but this is the heart of the message this morning. This is
a verse that absolutely is the whole of the gospel. In one verse,
you want to know a verse that sets forth the glorious truth
of God's will and purpose to show mercy and compassion to
his people, Almighty God who is just and will not, under any
circumstances, acquit the wicked. Verse 9, for God hath not appointed us
to wrath. but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's one word in this
verse of scripture that we must understand the meaning. If we're going to have any true
understanding of this verse of scripture, we've got to understand
this one word In verse 9, us. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath. Unless we understand to whom
us refers, let me tell you what we're going to do. We're going
to jump to all kinds of conclusions. wrong conclusions. We're going
to give some men and women a false hope and we're going to be found
to be preaching that which isn't so. And we're going to be calling
God a liar. Now the specific people that's
being referred to in that verse of scripture, who are the us. It's found in this first chapter
of this book, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 4. Here are the us, verse 4. Knowing brethren, beloved, your
election of God. Let me tell you who the us are
in chapter 5 verse 9. It's God's elect, the ones that
Fred just read about, the very small remnant. I do understand
how the false religions of this world will say to God's preachers,
God's people, why do you make such a big deal? out of the elect,
out of the chosen, out of the predestinated. Why do you make
such a big deal out of that? I'll tell you why we make such
a big deal out of it. God has made it to be a big deal. Almighty God has set forth this
truth. Now, Paul made this statement,
verse 4, chapter 1, 1 Thessalonians, Your election of God. Now it wasn't that Paul had a
special gift from God to know who God's people were. Paul was not infallible. There
was a preacher that went with him for a while named Demas.
Traveled with Paul. Greeted the churches. Demas. But before it was all said and
done, what was said of Demas? He's forsaken me. Having loved
this present world, Demas left. So it wasn't that Paul had an infallible perception of God's
elect. But what the Spirit of God had
been pleased to do was set forth some marks or some characteristics
of the sheep. And therefore, the Apostle spoke
with confidence and assurance of their election of God. Not
who every one of them are because he that endureth to the end shall
be saved, but these are the marks of all of God's elect, regenerated
by the grace of God. This is the mark, and this mark
continues to the end. They die in the faith. This is
the marks of a believer. Here's what it is. In 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1, in verse 5, here's the first mark of a believer. They believe God's report concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Or in other words, they believe
this gospel. This gospel that I explained
last Sunday. This is the gospel. The gospel
that gives all the glory to God Almighty doesn't give any to
man. It makes salvation to be by God's
choice and not man's choice. Here's the difference right there.
Night and day. Black and white. Here's the first mark. This is
the us that Paul referred to in chapter 5 and verse 9. God
hath not appointed us. Here's the first mark of a believer.
Scripture says in verse 5, For our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance. This is the mark. The gospel
came. It came from God. God has sent
the gospel. Our gospel came not unto you. In particular, God has a people
and He sends the gospel to them. It came not unto you in word
only, meaning just in your natural ear. That's what it means. It
didn't come only in the natural ear, but also in power and in
the Holy Ghost, in the quickening power mixed with faith. And in much assurance, much assurance,
this is what a believer believes. They believe the gospel, that
gospel has been sent of God, and they have this assurance. This is the truth. This is the
truth. It bears witness to their heart
by the Spirit of God in agreement with God's Word. I mean, somebody
can say, well, I believe that. Well, what do you base your belief
on? Here's what we base our belief on, right here, this book. When the Spirit of God opens
a heart, as He did Lydia, the Gospels believed. She received
the Word spoken of by Paul. It's spiritually illuminating,
powerful. God's people hear it. They understand
it. And they must hear that message
afresh. That's what it is. Secondly,
the elect discern the faithful preachers of God. In the latter part of verse 5,
As you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. Here's what a regenerated sinner,
truly regenerated by the grace of God, will not do. He will not sit and listen to
a lie. He's just not going to do it. I mean you hear the gospel preached
and it honors Christ and you rejoice in it and you're thankful
that God's shown mercy to you. You hear somebody standing up
and they're lying on God and they're telling men that God's
done all He can do and you're thinking, I can't handle this.
I am not you. You know what manner of men we
were among you. We preach the truth to you. Thirdly,
God's elect. They're going to follow Christ
as he's revealed in these scriptures. They don't apostatize from the
truth. They welcome the message of the
gospel in spite of persecution. Verse 6, you became followers
of us and of the Lord. What he's saying is you became
followers of us as we were following the Lord. Having received the
word in much affliction, but you received it with joy of the
Holy Ghost. God's people have been taught
something of their depravity. They know something of the fall
in Adam. They're taught that of God there's
salvation nowhere else but in Him. All the trials and the persecutions
of this world sent by Satan. to remove them from the message
of God's grace and the joy of God's mercy, they fail in their
attempts. Those people will try to convince
a believer, now listen, this is not the truth, and the more
they try to convince them it's not the truth, the more assured
they are it is. The Spirit of God teaches them,
He knew you became followers of us and of the Lord, you received
the word of much affliction and joy. And fourthly, God's sheep
are said to be patterns. of believers. Verse 7, so that
you were in samples or examples to all that believe in Macedonia
and Achaia. When the Spirit of God gives
a new heart, that new heart manifests itself in true and consistent
worship with God's people. Faithfulness, faithfulness and
a desire to walk, a desire to walk. a desire to walk and be
an example in word, in charity, in attitude, in faith, in purity.
That's what 1 Timothy 4.12 says. God's people, regenerated by
the grace of God, they're examples. They're examples of graciousness
and faith and purity and attitude. God's people have a true attitude
wrought by the Spirit of God. And they know they're sinners,
saved by the grace of God, but they manifest a life in Christ
that is consistent as an example of love and kindness and graciousness. That's a believer. Fifthly, God's
elect are not ashamed of the gospel. Look at verse 8. For
from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia
and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God is spread
abroad so that we need not to speak anything. God's people
are witnesses of what God's done for them. That's what the Lord told that
regenerated demoniac of the Gadarenes. He wanted to go with the Lord.
He said, no. No. I want you to go home. You go
back to your city and you tell them what great things God's
done for you. That's what they do. They're not ashamed of the
truth. These that have been truly, sovereignly
regenerated by the grace of God, they bear the marks and the characteristics
of God's elect. They know what they are in themselves,
and they'll be the first to tell you. In me, that is in my flesh,
they're going to say like Paul, there dwells no good thing. I'm
telling you. But they bear the marks of a
regenerate. They bear the marks of God's
elect, and the Spirit of God turned over to 1 Thessalonians
5, 5. Spirit of God moved upon the Apostle Paul to exhort them
to these things. 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 5 to
8. He said, ye are all the children
of light. Children of the day. We are not
of the night, nor of darkness spiritually. You know what that
means. Therefore, let us not sleep, be unable to perceive
what's going on around us. Don't be like those that sleep,
but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night. They sleep in the night of their
spiritual darkness. And they that be drunken, drunken
with the wine of the wrath of a great whore, spoken of in Revelation. Those that are drunken are drunken
in the night, but let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting
on the breastplate of faith, and love, and foreign helmet,
the hope of salvation. Let us be sober. Now what does he mean when he
says let us be sober? Well, I'm going to sum it up
by saying this. I read what he meant and what
he was saying, and I'm going to sum it up just like this.
It means that as we live here in this world, and we all do,
let us deal with things with an eye and a heart that desires
the glory of God and that which is best for God's people. That's
what it means. We're living in a world, we all,
you know, we've got jobs, we've got this, we've got that, As
I've said before, things mess and stuff. All of us do. But
being sober, sober-minded, let us consider those things, look
at those things in the light of we're in this world and we're
not of it. The Lord has ordered all of our
steps. The Lord's laid in our lap the
lot. of our lives. This is the way
it is. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. Let's be sober, realizing, Lord,
as I walk in this world, Lord, keep me. Lord, let me walk as
one that adorns the gospel, adorns the doctrine that You've taught
me. Let's do it like this. Why? Here we are on our verse. Verse 9. For God for God, the
One who rules and reigns, He before whom all of us shall stand
and give account, for God hath not appointed, God has not decreed
us to wrath, God has not decreed the wrath of God, deserving wrath
to all of us, God has decreed that He's not going to charge
us, His people, His elect, us, that's who He's talking about.
God has not appointed us, the elect, His chosen to wrath. Now we all by birth and attitude
and practice, I know we deserve wrath, we're born children of
wrath, possessors of a hateful attitude before God, but God
The Apostle Paul says, who is rich in mercy for his great love
wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins. This is
what he did. He chose to not impute. He chose to not charge us with
our guilt. The guilt of our sins. He chose
to not charge us with our iniquity. If He had, if He'd have dealt
with us according to our own just deserving, I tell you exactly
what would have happened. We'd have died in unbelief. We'd
have died in our sins, but He delights to show mercy according
to His own will and attitude and purpose and to not deal with
us. He's chosen to not deal with
us after our sins. Who? The us. that we have nothing
in which to glory except Christ and His mercy and His grace and
compassion. We don't have anything to glory
in. I'm telling you, the moment we say, well, I'll tell you what,
I'm one of the elect and you're not. No believer looks like that. I'll tell you what a believer
does. As he muses upon these things, he thinks, What if, what if you'd left me
to myself? I was once again speaking with
my mother coming over here a few minutes ago, come to the services
and we were talking about it. But for the grace of God, she
came from a large family, large family. And I told her, as far
as I know, I don't know, what do I know? But as far as I know,
out of all the kids, Twelve. Twelve kids, as far as
I know. Out of her family, her mom, her
dad, all of her cousins, all my aunts, uncle, as far as I
know. Why would God choose to show
mercy to one? Because it pleased Him. That's
all I can say. And I didn't say that, God said
it. I'm just repeating. That's what I'm doing. I'm just
repeating what He says. God has been pleased to not reward
us according to our iniquities. And as He has not appointed us
to wrath, He has appointed or decreed us to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. In closing, let me say this.
So sure Has the salvation of God's elect eternally been? So sure as it is eternally been. God chose them, put them in Christ,
wrote their names in the book of life. Revelation 13, 8. God wrote their names, chose
them in Christ, saved them in Christ, wrote their names in
God's book, and beheld the Lamb slain from before the foundation
of the world. If this had not been so, if this
had not been an eternal decree, an eternal appointment, if this
had not been an eternal appointment, God, who does not change, Had
God eternally decreed this, if He had not eternally decreed
this, it wouldn't be so right now. Because He don't change. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob, are not consumed. And God's decree to not appoint
us to wrath and to appoint us to salvation. God's decree to
not do this and do this was not because He looked down through
time and saw that we would choose Him. It wasn't because He looked
down and saw that we would choose Him, therefore He chose us. That
would be salvation by works, based on what we did. I've said
before, Psalm 2, God did look. He looked. God looked, and He
saw that there were none righteous, not one. So here's the final
word on why any sinner is not condemned in his sins. Right
here. This is the reason. Not because
he's good. Not because he's faithful. Not
because he decided. You know what Scripture says.
clearly states that. You know that. Not because he did anything,
but here's the reason. God appointed him to salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5, you know,
verse 9 and 10. 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,
whether we're alive or whether we're not alive, whenever the
Lord returns, we should live together with Him. Salvation
is of the Lord. God ordained it. God procured
it. by the blood of Christ, and God
applies it by the Spirit of God in quickening power and grace.
God hath not appointed us. We have no one to glory in save
Christ and Him crucified. Lord, I am what I am by Your
grace. And would You cause me to remember
that for Christ's sake? and my comfort and good, amen. All right, let's take.