This morning is an article, and
I do not know the writer of this article, but I thought it went
so well with what we're going to look at in scripture today. The writer writes, those who
preach and teach the devilish doctrine of man's so-called free
will and salvation are encouraging their congregation to trust in
sinful works of the flesh. They blatantly deny Philippians
3.3 and make the cross of Christ meaningless as we read in 1 Corinthians
1.17. Every believer's one and only
confidence is in Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for
us through his perfect redeeming work while he was here on this
earth. We are on that broad road that
leads to destruction if our confidence is in anything else, especially
things that we have done. I say amen to that. I'd like
to ask you to turn once again to the book of Thessalonians. Allow me to recap just a few
words from last week while you're turning to that book. We consider
the words written in verse 9 where it says, how ye turned to God
from idols. We looked at who it is that does
the turning. Who it is that gives life to
a spiritually dead soul. A soul that cannot understand
spiritual things, the spiritual things of heaven, till one has
been spiritually born again. I read for you once again in the
Psalms, Psalms 80 verse 19, Turn us again, O Lord of hosts, or
Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be
saved. We also looked in Lamentations,
where it says in chapter 521, turn thou us unto thee, O Lord,
and we shall be turned. So read with me, if you would,
this complete chapter. It's only 10 verses. And we'll
take our considerations with verse 10 of this chapter. I want
to read the entire chapter again, because we want to keep in context
chapter 1, beginning at verse 1, of the whole part of Scripture
that we're going to be looking at. Paul and Silvanus. 1 Thessalonians
1, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians,
which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace
be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. We give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith, and the labor of love
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of
God and our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only,
but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance,
as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were in samples to all that
believe in Macedonia and Achaia. 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 were to spread abroad. so
that we need not speak anything. For they themselves show us what
manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to
God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for
his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come." I've titled this message this
morning, Delivered from the Wrath to Come. We must be brought to know the
depth of our sin in order to know our need of being delivered. If you don't know you're a sinner,
if you think that you have some righteousness in you, why would
you seek somebody to deliver you from sin? If you can be righteous
on your own, if you could do something righteous, why would
you look for somebody to deliver you from sin? You could do it
on your own, right? Isn't that the way free will
doctrine teaches? They teach that by your own free
will, by your act of a decision, that you can bring salvation
to yourself. Basically, they're saying you
can do an act of righteousness and become saved. Some of you recall Pastor Gene
mentioning this. A lady and her daughter got up
one time and walked out of this church in the middle of his message
saying this to where everybody could hear, I'm not that kind
of a sinner. That poor woman. You and I were just like that
one time. Every one of us. I wasn't that kind of a sinner.
I didn't need to go to church to find out how I needed a savior
or anything like that. I could just go and drink beer
and party out on a Sunday instead. I don't know what you did on
Sundays before, but you've all walked in that same manner. If you say you haven't, then
you're calling God a liar. We must be brought to know the
depth of our sin. You see, that's the problem with
the world. People don't know the depth of their sin. It's
not something we can naturally find out on our own. God has
to put it upon the hearts of His people. You are a sinner. dead in trespasses and sins,
so dead that you can't do anything spiritually. You can't even search
for God. You can't even look for God.
Not only can you not look for God, you won't because His laws
are ridiculous to you. Oh, we're not talking about thou
shalt not kill. We all believe that that's a
good law, right? We shouldn't kill anybody. What about when we've gotten
angry with somebody so much to the point where if it was not
for God's grace, we would have reached out and done something
foolish. We must be brought to know the
depth of our sin in order to know our need of being delivered. The certain lady at the well.
Remember the story? The Lord had to go through Samaria,
the Samaritan woman. He had to go through... Am I
saying the right one, Bill? Yeah. I had to question that
for just a minute. He had to go through Samaria
to meet that woman at the well for a reason. Why? To bring her
sins before her. That's what He did. He showed
her the sinner that she was. She was married five times. How
did this stranger know that he's God? That's how. How did God know that John Reeves
had been an ugly sinner? How did He know the depth of
my sin? Because He's God and He knows
everything. And when I came to this building,
this place and rescue, to lean on my brother's shoulder and
cry on my brother's shoulder, the gospel was preached to me.
I found out by God's purpose the sinner that I am. I had to know that I was a sinner
before I would ask and cry out for one to deliver me. This certain
lady of the well, the Lord told her all things about her sin,
and then He told her of Himself, the Gospel, the living water,
of whom all that drink of it shall never thirst." Christ preached
Christ. Pretty cool, huh? One who is blind from birth must
be given sight to understand the totalness and the depth of
their blindness. One who has never walked must
be given the ability and the strength to walk before they
can truly understand what it is to walk. One who is dead must be given
life before they can know the depth of their deadness. This
is the problem with the natural world. They cannot see the depth
of their sin. They do not see how deep it goes.
They cannot understand the separation that sin has caused between mankind
and the Holy Creator. Romans 5.12, we read this, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men that all have sinned. And when the Lord of Glory gives
life to a dead sinner, we see the grace. Because that's what
giving life to a dead sinner is. It's grace. It's unmerited
favor. We can't earn it. We can't buy
it. We can't do something to deserve it. It's grace. It bothers me to no end to see
a church that calls themselves a grace church, and then they
say, and all you got to do is come down here to the front of
the aisle and say a prayer, and you too can be saved. But it's
all about grace. They have no idea what the word
grace means. Only a true child of God can
see what we deserve, what we have earned, and understand the
grace of God for taking what we have earned, what we deserve
upon Himself. When our Lord gives life to a
dead sinner, we see His grace in Him doing so, in Him giving
us life. We see through the preaching
of His Word, That's twice I've done that today.
We see through the preaching of His Word that because of His
love for a chosen people, some will not see death. That's what
it said there in verse 10. And to wait for His Son from
heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. Some will not see death. We are brought to lay all that
is before us, all that is us, all that is our world, all that
is of this flesh at the feet of our Lord and Savior. We are
brought to see Him for who He truly is. He's Lord of all. To God be the glory. Great things
He hath done. Great is His faithfulness. We are brought to see Him as
Lord of all, and our new will willingly look to Him as such. We willingly submit ourselves
to Him as our Lord. We are brought to see the truths
of His Word. We are brought to see the truth
of our deadness, our sin, our flesh, Will you turn over to
the book of Exodus chapter 12? Mark your place there in Thessalonians.
We'll come back. Exodus chapter 12. How can one call upon one whom
they have never heard of? We must hear of Him before we
will call upon Him as our Deliverer. Here in chapter 12 of Exodus,
the people of Israel, Jacob, the sons of Jacob, the 12 tribes
of Israel, they had been in bondage to Egypt for 400 years. You know
the story. Jacob's brothers, Joseph, Jacob's son was sold into slavery,
and the slave owners took him down and sold him into Egypt. He went to prison a couple times
for some things the Lord brought his way. Boy, he had a lot of
troubles. A lot of troubles. And if you look at those troubles
spiritually, it's all the same troubles you and I deal with
inside. But the Lord took him down there, and then the Lord
made him a ruler of Egypt, second behind Pharaoh. So much power
that he had all the keys to the treasures of Egypt. And after
reconciliation with his brothers, he brought his family down into
Egypt. They lived in peace and wonder
for a time. And after a while, they became
too many of them. After a while, they became a
threat to the Egyptians. And the Egyptians began to take
power over them and enslave them. And they made them slaves under
the whip, under the bondage of slavery. And you'll recall that
they went this way for 400 years. Israel is a picture of God's
chosen people. It's a picture only. It's a picture
of the chosen of God, chosen from before the world was. Those
that God would set His affections on. The Lord didn't give His
oracles, His word, His prophets, His worship, His style of worship
to the world. No, He gave it to one people.
Israel. His elect. Egypt was a picture
of the world. All the wonders of Egypt, the
gold, the shining, the ease, the comfort, the power that man
think they have. Picture of the world, picture
of God's people. God's people had to be brought
first to know they needed a deliverer. So the Lord brought them into
slavery. It was the Lord who guided every
step that Joseph took, every step that Joseph had to walk
through to get to Egypt, every step that Joseph went through
to become where he did, that he would give the power to bring
his family into Egypt. It was God who brought this to
the people of Israel. And here's the thing about that.
Romans 8.28, even though it had not been written, was just as
true then as it is now. All things are for the good to
those who love God. The bondage of Israel, the revelation
of our sinful nature is just as good for you and I as it was
for Israel to be in bondage. Why? Because it brings us to
the point that we know we need a deliverer. When you see that
there's nothing you can do to save yourself, you start seeking
for one who will. That's the Lord bringing us to
that point. Read with me if you would, verses
1-13. Exodus chapter 12, verses 1-13, And the Lord spoke unto
Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt. Now Moses was a picture
of the Deliverer. God Almighty used him as a picture
of Jesus Christ, the one who would deliver his people from
bondage. This month shall be unto you, verse 2, the beginning
of months, and it shall be the first month of the year to you,
speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth
day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, According to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household be too little
for a lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it.
According to the number of souls, every man according to his eating
shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without
blemish, a male of the first year. Ye shall take it out of
the sheep, or from the goats, and ye shall keep it up until
the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly
of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."
And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side
posts, and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they
shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire, and in leavened bread, and with
bitter herbs, and they shall call it. They shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden
at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his
legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it
until the morning shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it, with
your loins girded, your shoes on, your feet, and your staff
in your hand, and ye shall eat it in the haste. It is the Lord's
Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt
will I execute judgment. I am the LORD, and the BLOOD
of the LORD. shall be to you for a token upon
the houses where ye are, and when I see the blood, I will
pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy
you when I smite the land of Egypt." Now back in our text
in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1. Folks, we wait for the Passover
to return. Jesus Christ is our Passover. The reason our Lord didn't want
men to go through the temple anymore when He threw over the
tables, and we were reading about this in Friday night's Bible
study, we started studying the book of Mark. The reason in the book of Mark
the Lord overthrew all the money tables and He didn't want anybody
going through the Church with blood anymore. Why?
Because He was about to fulfill that. The high priest would go
through once a year into the holiest of holies. He would sprinkle
the blood of the Lamb on the mercy seat. But Christ was about to fulfill
that. The Passover feast was about
to be fulfilled by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the
Lamb without spot. He is known as the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world, as it says in Revelations.
He is our Passover. We don't celebrate or practice
the Passover meal anymore. Our Passover is Jesus Christ
Himself. His blood is shed and spread
on our doorpost. The doorpost to our hearts. And
it is He who works on the hearts of men. I can't do anything to
your heart. You can't do anything to your
heart. But God can. And when He has shown you what
you deserve, what you have earned, and then shown you the Passover
lamb that shed His blood for you, oh my goodness, glory be
to God, is it not? How can we not glorify? How can
you not love a God who has loved you so much that He gave Himself
for you? People like to say, does that
mean if you don't have a free will, does that mean you come
to the Lord unwillingly? Does He drag you down there?
Does He drag you down kicking and stuff? No! If He has shed His love abroad
in one of the hearts of His people, we love Him because He first
loved us. We wait for our Passover to return,
but notice that in our text, our Passover is the Son of God. We wait for His return, the one
whom He raised from the dead. Even Jesus says in verse 10,
we wait for His Son, He who is God in the flesh, He in whom
all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily. He who has all
power in heaven and earth, and even under the earth, the One
who created everything for His own purpose. We wait for this
One who knew no sin, who was perfect in every way, who laid
down His life for His sheep, our Passover. His blood is on
the doorposts of our hearts, the doorposts of our souls. Wicked
hands of men killed the Lord of all, but it was by His determinant
counsel. No man took His life. He laid
it down, and then He took it up again." Folks, the hour is
coming. The hour is coming when the Lord
of judgment will come and death will pass on all who refuse His
will. All who refuse His rule. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful that He has come in and made Himself ruler in our
hearts? He rules over them anyway. Every
knee it says shall bow, every tongue shall confess, but in
death it will be too late. Bow to the Lord now, for now
is the day of salvation. And salvation is of the Lord. When the Lord gives us His blood,
when He gives Himself as our sacrifice, we willingly come
to Him and wait for His second coming. Look with me at 2 Samuel. Again, hold your place in Thessalonians.
Turn over to 2 Samuel, if you would, please. Chapter 22. 2
Samuel chapter 22. And while you're turning there,
allow me to read from Romans chapter 7. Paul, a man who persecuted the church, a man who had to be shown his
sin, and the Lord did it by blinding him with His glory. Paul wrote this in chapter 7
verse 18, he says, that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform
that which is good I find not. For the good that I would do
I do not, but the evil which I would not do, that I do. Now
if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Paul was looking, even in his
day, a preacher of God, a man who would write books inspired
by the Holy Spirit to be put into the Bible, the Word of God,
the very Word inspired of God to the Holy Spirit. He said,
oh wretched man that I am. Not that I was like he was something
different now, but that I am right now. Who? He was looking for the deliverer
right there. Who will deliver me from this
body of death? David. And mind you this, David,
who is loved of God, God had brought him through a
lot. I mentioned this in Bible study.
Imagine what David had to go through loving his king, wanting
to serve his king Saul, Loving everything about Saul, but yet
Saul hated him. Imagine what that must have been
like. The pain to being chased, and then chased by one of his
own sons. Chased around by one of his own sons who wanted to
take the throne from him after Saul had been killed and taken
away, and David had been made king. Imagine what it was like for
David and his band of soldiers going down the road and some
guy up on a higher spot cussing at him and calling him names.
How unworthy, how useless, how whatever he was to David. And
one of his men said, well, you know, if you want, all you have
to do is say it. I'll go up there and kill that guy. He said, no.
Let him be. Let him be. He is of the Lord.
David had been through a lot. And the Lord had brought some
peace finally into his life. Look with me, if you would, verses
1-7 of 2 Samuel chapter 22. And David spake unto the Lord
the words of this song. In the day that the Lord had
delivered him out of the hand of all of his enemies and out
of the hand of Saul. He said, the Lord is my rock
and my fortress and my deliverer. The God of my rock in Him will
I trust. He is my shield and the horn
of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge. My Savior, thou
savest me from violence. I will call on the Lord who is
worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine
enemies. When the waves of death compassed
me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of
hell encompassed me about. The snares of death prevented
me. In my distress, I called on the
Lord. and cried to my God. Oh, what joy this brings to my
heart to read these next few words. And He, my God, did hear
my voice out of His temple, and my cry did enter into His ears."
Once again, turn back to 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 10, and I'll bring this
to a close. Well, almost. While you're turning back to
1 Thessalonians, allow me to read from 2 Corinthians 1.8. For we would not, brethren, have
you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia. Paul is writing
to the Corinthians. Don't be ignorant about the trouble
that we've had to go through for preaching the gospel. Don't
be ignorant about the trouble that standing up against free
will doctrine is going to bring you. Because it didn't bring
us any comfort. This trouble which came to us
in Asia that we were pressed out of measure, above strength,
insomuch that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence
of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death, and doth deliver in whom we trust, that He will
yet deliver." Not only did He deliver them into the problem,
He is going to deliver them out of the problem, and He's going to continue delivering
them. What Paul means here in 1 Corinthians is that He will
yet deliver us. What does it mean by that? Paul
is expressing the confidence of all for whom Christ died for
and that all will come to have. We no longer have confidence
in this flesh. Paul wasn't having any confidence
in his flesh. His confidence was in Christ,
the one who delivers from death. We are turned and are being turned
to trust Him and in Him alone. Our Lord tells us through the
writings of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8.1, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh but after the Spirit. There's no condemnation
to us. We believe God. He's delivering us. The old man is put away, and
the new man trusts in our Lord and Savior Jesus. Trust Christ. Trust His Word. Trust His works. We trust in who He is. We trust
in what He has done, and we trust in what He is doing right now. Look again at the last part of
verse 10 in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Notice what it says there.
Which? What? What is that word? Delivered. Past tense. A man who stands before people
and reads these words and then tells you, you need to do something,
is lying against God's Word. It says, even Jesus, which delivered. It's done. There's nothing for
you to do. If you belong to Jesus, you are
saved right now. You've been saved before the
world was ever created, as far as He was concerned. The Lord created everything for
His people, to save His people, to show His mercy and grace upon
us. Isn't that wonderful news? which delivered us. Done deal. Finished, as He said on the cross.
The death on the cross for the Lord Jesus Christ, it was effectual. It's done. We can rest in Him. We can put down our desires to
go out and make ourselves righteous. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not
saying go out there and sin willfully. You know better than that. Men can come before people and
talk about practical godliness all day. All that's doing is
telling you how to live. Folks, you folks, I don't believe
anybody needs to be told how to live. You folks know how to
live. You folks know right from wrong. You know what's good and
what's wrong. Nobody, no man of God ever goes
out and suggests that it's okay for you to sin. But what we do
do is tell you that when you don't, when you can't, when your
flesh is too weak to get past whatever sin the Lord has allowed
you to step in, you have an advocate. One who has already suffered
the pains, paid the price, and redeemed you unto Himself. Our Lord says this in Matthew
11.29, Take My yoke upon you, He says, and learn of Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light." All other religions require something
of the people. Do this, do that. The Son of
the true living God has fulfilled all that is required for His
people, and the gates of hell shall not prevail. We wait on
Him who has delivered us from this wrath to come. In the book
of Luke and also in Matthew, our Lord gives a picture of those
who go through that doormark death, believing that they have
come, that they have some matter in the imaginary salvation of
their own works. Luke 13 verse 24, our Lord says
this, Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many He says,
our Lord says, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter
in and shall not be able to. When once the master of the house
is risen up and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without
and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. And
he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not which ye
are. Then shall ye begin to say, We
have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.
But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not where you are.
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. In Matthew 7.21, our Lord says
it this way. Not everyone that saith unto
Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will
say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in
Thy name done many wonderful works." Men are all over the
world today telling you that all we have to do is walk a little
better than we did yesterday. And we're doing it because Jesus
loved us. And then they don't tell anything
about what Jesus did out of His love for you. The gospel is about what Jesus
has done for you because He has loved you. That's the news I need to hear. I know when my mind is thinking
a wrong thought, and so do you. I know when my anger has raised
up against my Lord, and so do you. We know how to walk. We need
a gospel. We need a message of how our
Lord has loved us from before the world began. We need a message of a Lord who
has given Himself for us and saved us with His own blood. We need a message of a Deliverer. Have we not done wonderful works
in your name? Verse 23 of Matthew 7, And then
will I profess unto them, Speaketh the Lord, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. Do you wait? Do you folks wait? On the one who has delivered
his people? Or are you out working it out? in your own good deeds. God's people, those who are chosen
of God, saved by God, and delivered by God, shall be delivered by
Him. We wait for His Son from heaven,
whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us
from the wrath to come. Amen?