Alright, take your Bibles and
turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. Be looking again at verses 6
down through verse 10. 6-10, we'll recap what we went
over last Sunday morning in our Sunday school time, and we'll
pick up where we left off in our main text in verse 8. But
let's read down to verse 10 here. He says, 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 which are drunken, be
drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in
Helmuth the hope of salvation. For God hath 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. I guess if I had a title for
this, it would be, Be Well-Armed. Be Well-Armed. Last week we saw
in verses 6 and 7 of this chapter, Paul, having then comforted the
believer concerning Jesus Christ and His coming, went on to show
that God had done for them what God had done for them in salvation.
Look at that in verse 6. He says, "...you are children
of light." He has told them that God has translated them from
darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son, and now, because they
are born again of the Spirit of God, they are now children
of light." If you are a believer in Christ, you are born of God,
then you are children of the day. Children of light. You have understanding and wisdom
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord. You are children of light, and
therefore, He springs from this to an exhortation. He springs
from their comfort and He says, comfort yourselves with this,
you children of light. If you are then children of light,
Paul says, walk then as children of the day and not as children
of the night. He says, you are children of
light, but the children of the day and not of the night. nor of the darkness. Therefore,
let us not sleep as others, but let us watch and be sober." Last
week we saw, watch and be sober. We saw that these two things
are intertwined one with another. In other words, you cannot watch
unless you are sober, and you cannot be sober unless you watch. You must do both of these things. We must watch against the enemies
of our souls. We must watch against the enemies
of our souls. Watch against spiritual slumber,
against spiritual sloth, and we should be about our Father's
business, which is to worship, study, and to witness. We are
to watch and not be drunk with the cares of this life. If we
are so wrapped up in the things of ourself and the things of
this life, then we are drunk on the things of this world and
we're not able to watch. We're under the influence of the cares of this life. We see these things every day.
And my friends, our everyday lives are important. Paul is
not diminishing our importance of our roles concerning the support
of our family or the support of ourselves and to the enjoyment
of the things of this world. He's not diminishing these things.
But if these things interfere with the worship of God, then
they must be set aside. Otherwise, we're not watchful.
We're not watchful. We're being drunk with them.
Paul says if a man doesn't take care of his family, he's worse
than an infidel. Isn't that right? Of course we're to take care of
our family. Of course we're to provide for their needs. But,
if it interferes with the worship of God, then know this, you are
being attracted by the enemies of our souls. If a man cares for his flesh
above Christ, he is either one of two things. He is either asleep
or he's dead. Those are just the two mediums. There's no middle ground here
between life and death, between salvation and unbelief. There's no middle ground between
heaven and hell. There's no middle ground. We
either are or we aren't. But sometimes because of our
sin, the lines begin to blur and we don't know what we are
at times. I know even John Newton had this battle between his soul
when he says concerning his sin, he said,
am I a child or am I not? We all battle with these things
in our hearts, believer. You're not alone. We all battle
these things. But we must watch against them.
We must be sober concerning our duties to Christ our Lord. If
Jesus is our Lord and our King, we should strive to be watchful
against the lusts of our own flesh, so we not be carried away
with our own passions. He said, watch and be sober.
But the thing I want us to look at this morning, we saw that
last week, but this morning, look at verse 8. He says, but
let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love for an helmet, the hope of salvation. Be well
armed. As I said last week, if a soldier
in the military was on guard duty and he was watching, and
he was sober, and yet they had not given him the equipment to
fight the enemy, what good would that do him? It wouldn't do him
any good. It wouldn't do him any good at
all to stand guard with no weapons of warfare, no protection for
himself. He would be exposed to the enemy. And my friends, you can watch
and you can be sober all you want to, but if you are not armed
with the gospel of Jesus Christ, if you are not protected by faith,
hope, and love, then you will not stand against the foes that
we face. You will not. It is a sure thing
you will fall. You talk about a sure bet. It's
a sure bet. You know a lot of things about
the Gospel. And a lot of people that have
fallen into sin know a lot about the Gospel. But if you are not
armed with it, if you have not put it on, what good is it? What
good is a breastplate in the corner? What good is it in the
corner if you don't put it on? Paul says we must put these things
on at all times. Be on guard, be well armed. Why? Because we are surrounded by
spiritual enemies. This is not a myth, my friends. This is not some mythological
characters we are talking about. When we speak of principalities
and powers and rulers of darkness, these are real beings. And they have nothing to do but
to look for your ruin and your destruction. That's all they
want. You talk about a one-track mind. That's all they have in
their sights and their focus is to ruin you and to ruin your
testimony. That's it. You think of other
things. We can't think of... I can't
think of anything sometimes more than a few seconds. But these
guys, they're constantly bombarding us, constantly surrounding us,
constantly attacking us. And their best weapon is to make people believe they
don't exist. My friends, the Scripture says that our enemies
are not flesh and blood. When you think someone's attacking
you or someone's coming after you, know this, it is not flesh
and blood that is doing this. Matthew Henry says this concerning
our enemies. He says our enemies. Our spiritual
enemies draw many to their interest. Keep them there in it. By making
them careless, secure, presumptuous, by making them drunk with pride
and with passion, giddy with conceit and with gratification
of the senses. This is the minds of most so-called
believers when they say, oh, I'm sure this
is the will of God for me. Everything just fell into place.
Look at this. Wow, how effortlessly this thing
came up. Look at this beautiful blessing
I have in front of me. God must have done that. I'm sure Jonah said the same
thing. Well, look at that. There's a
ship going to Tarsus. Look, I got a bed I can sleep
in. This ship is going exactly where
I want to go, and I have a ticket in my hand. It must be the will
of God. My friends, don't look at the
circumstances to try to determine God's will. You want to know
God's will? Go to God's Word. If it is against
God's Word, it is not God's will. You can put that down. It's not
God's will. If it keeps us from the Word
of God, if anything keeps us from the Word of God, from the
worship of Jesus Christ, from the study of His Word, from the
witness of Christ to the lost, then we are being drawn away
of our own lusts and enticed. That's it. And some say, well, I'm a child
of God, He'll take care of me. I'm sure that, you know, he wants
the best for me. And this is comforting to me.
This is a joy to me. I'm sure that he wants that for
me. And if he doesn't, he'll close
the door. But I might as well walk through anyway. My friend,
that is presumption. That is presumption of the worst
kind. And it's dangerous. My friends, God will take care
of His own, there is no doubt about that, but at what cost? What are you willing to pay for
it? Lot. What did he pay for his
lust, even though he was a child of God? He lost his wife, and
his daughters committed incest with him." Oh, that's just silly.
That won't happen. It'll happen. Abimelech, remember him, Naomi,
his wife, he left the house of bread and praise for God's washpot,
and he died and his sons died with him. At what cost are you
willing to pay for your lusts? People that neglect the service
of God do so because they are not well armed. My friends, you
need to be well armed. How then shall we equip ourselves
against such foes that we cannot see? How can we do this? How can we
be well armed against a real enemy? Martin Luther wrote that
song, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, and he said, Still our ancient
foe doth seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great
and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal. Do not think you are a match
for him. Paul here in our text says to
be armed with three things. Look at our text. He says, put
on the breastplate of faith and love and a helmet of hope. Three graces. Three graces given
to every believer in Christ. And we must exercise ourselves
in these graces. What are they? Put on the breastplate
of faith. Faith is the eyes of the soul. This is how we come to Christ,
is by faith, isn't it? Isn't this how we came to Christ?
By faith. We believed Him and trusted Him. And as a breastplate protects
the vital organs of the body, so does faith quench the fiery
darts of doubt and fear. Why did we come to Christ? What
was the purpose? Why did we come? Forgiveness
of sins. We needed acceptance with God
that we could not provide. Now, after you came to Christ,
did we cease to need that acceptance? Did we come to Christ once and
say, oh, that's it? Gil and I were talking about
that big church. You know, they don't need Christ
anymore. They came to Christ and they've
forgiven sin. They don't need Him anymore.
No, true believers need Him now more than they ever did before.
I need Christ now, today, at this time, more than I ever have
needed Him before. I need Him now. I trust Him now. I am still coming to Christ by
faith. The moment that we stop coming,
the moment that we say, I've had enough, that's enough, I
can handle it, Lord, all by myself now. I've got enough strength
now, I can face these foes on my own. You have thrown the breastplate
in the corner and you've taken out against the enemy by yourself.
You will fall. You will fall. Peter said this, to whom coming. as unto a living stone. Jesus
said, Him that cometh. That word is present perfect
tense. He that came, He that is coming, He that shall come
to me, I will in no wise cast out. We are always, always, always
in need to come to Christ by faith. Constantly coming to Him
by faith. Habakkuk says, Behold, his soul
which is lifted up is not upright with him. In other words, someone
who doesn't need to come to Christ by faith is lifted up with pride. If you're not on your knees before
Christ by faith, then you are lifted up by pride. My friends,
we must always need Him, but the just shall live by faith.
You see, I came to life by faith and I'm living by faith. I'm
living by faith. I'm trusting God. You see, I
don't just believe in God. I believe God. I believe Him. And I believe God's word concerning
His Christ. And I believe whatever God says
in His Word about what is good for me, no matter what I feel,
God's Word is right. It's to be trusted. It's to be
trusted above all else. 1 John 5 verse 4 says, For whosoever
is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. You see, it's not
our faith, but rather the object of our faith. It's by looking
and coming to Christ now, always and forever coming, never stopping. The breastplate of love. Let
me ask you this. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Very simple question. But don't answer it with your
mind. Look inside your heart and answer that question. I must
look inside my heart and answer that question. Do I love Him
more than my family? Do I love Him more than myself? Do I love Him more than my life? Do I love Him? This is the second
grace that he mentions that we are to be well armed with. Love
for Christ. If we love Christ, then let us
put on love. Put it on. It's glorious to put
on the love of Christ. It warms and fills our hearts
with such joy and peace. You see, it's one thing to admire
Christ at a distance. It's altogether different to
put on the love of Christ. It's easy to say, I love Jesus.
Talk to any of the lost people of this world and the false religion
of this world and they'll tell you how much they love Jesus. But as the saying goes, put your
money where your mouth is. You ever heard that? Put your
money where your mouth is. In other words, the word love
is easy to throw around and we do it a lot today. I love you. Well, I don't have much time
for that, I'm sorry. Maybe next time." What good was my love? What good
was my love? It's easy to say, I love you.
Remember when Peter... He was with the Lord and he said,
I'm going to die. Peter said, No, Lord, I'm going
to die with you. I'm going to die with you. And
I don't doubt in my mind that Peter had every intention of
dying. I don't doubt that he was very
sincere in his word. But it wasn't only a few hours
later when he said, I know not that man. Well, Pastor, I love Jesus. I've
heard that a hundred times and I'll hear this. I've heard a
hundred more. Pastor, you know, I just enjoyed
that message. Boy, that really thrilled my heart. And next week,
where'd they go? Where'd they go? It's easy to
say, isn't it? But when things come up, interfere,
get in our way, where's our love? I'll tell you this, if we say
we love Jesus Christ, and you said that this morning when I've
asked that question in your heart, and you've said yes, do not think
for one moment that our love will not be tested. God always
tests, not for Himself. He knows already your love for
Him. Oh, but my friends, we don't
really truly know. How much we love Him until we
are put to the test. Until we are put to the test.
Love for Christ is not to be displayed just when it is convenient
or when it best suits us. But it must overcome every obstacle
in order to get to the object of our love. Whatever obstacles
in front of us, we must overcome it to show our love for Christ.
And number three, He said, put on the helmet of hope. My friend,
this is keeping our hearts and minds fixed on eternity rather
than time. It's fixing our hopes, fixing
our lives and centering them around eternity rather than rooting
them in time. I've said this before, we are
like trees. We love to take root. We love
our own little space and our own little world and we get around
in that world and anything that bothers that world or turns it
kind of sets us. If we get out of our routine,
if we have this set thing that we do every day and something
interrupts that, we get all bent out of shape. Why? Because we've set our hope on
those things. rather than saying, hey, this
is just a brief moment in time. My home is not here. My life
is not to be centered around the things of this world, but
it's to be centered around Christ. Take this for example, when you
go to work or whatever it is you do during the day, anything
you do, I'm not saying that you're sitting
around daydreaming about heaven, not working, not performing your
daily tasks. Your mind can be on your daily
tasks, but what is the reason for our daily tasks? What is
the motive? What are we doing here? Why are
we doing this work? Is it just for our own pleasure?
Our own satisfaction? Just the dollar? What? Are we doing this to be a witness
of Christ? Are we doing this with a mindset
of eternity? Take marriage, anything like
that, anything we do practical, it should have an eternal vision
wrapped around it. I should work so that I might
witness to others. I should love my wife so that
I might witness of the love of Christ in my marriage. Everything should be centered
around the hope of Christ, which is eternity. What is our hope? What is the
hope we're to be centered around? Well, he says it in verse 9,
he says, God hath not appointed us to
wrath." Isn't that a glorious hope? That God has not appointed
us to wrath. but to salvation through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Isn't that a hope you can wrap
yourself around? Isn't that something we can center
our lives in? Anchor our souls in? Yes. Anchor it in there. And then
when the winds of life come and move us from side to side, the
anchor holds. Why? Because our hope is not
in the ship, it's in the anchor. Our hope is not in the ship,
it's in the anchor. And my friends, as David said, I shall not greatly
be moved. I'll tell you, sometimes we're
moved. There's no doubt about that. Sometimes we fall. But my friends, when we fall,
let us fall on the rock and be broken. If you've not fallen on Christ,
my friends, If you do not fall on that rock in this life, that
rock will one day fall on you. I hope that's not the case with
anyone here this morning. My friend, be well armed. Pick
up this book and every page, find Christ. Anchor your souls
in Him. and His worship and not on the
things of this world. And my friends, you won't be
moved. I pray the Lord blesses to us.