if you would, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5 and
verse number 9. 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, that is whether we're alive when
he comes back the second time, or whether we sleep, or whether
our bodies are sleeping in the graves, We should live together
with him. Our subject is not appointed
to wrath. Not appointed to wrath. Within the church at Thessalonica,
an issue had arisen regarding the second coming of our Lord
Jesus. The Spirit of God laid it upon
the heart of this great apostle to write them two letters. Both
of them dealt with, a good bit of the letters at least, dealt
with this subject of the second coming of our Lord Jesus. There were some within the church
who tried to stir up fear in the hearts of God's people regarding
the certain return of the Savior for His saints, and the Apostle
writes to comfort the hearts of God's people. As we look forward
to the second advent of our Savior, we have nothing to fear. No reason
to be afraid. That is those of us who rest
in Christ Jesus. It will be a glorious day. It's a day that we look forward
to. It's a day that we long for. Ever since our Savior went back
to glory, as it is recorded there in the book of Acts chapter 1,
the messengers from heaven said to the disciples, this same Jesus
that you've seen go up into heaven shall so come again in like manner
as you've seen Him go. Ever since then, the saints of
God have been looking for Him. And since there were those in
the church who were trying to stir up fear among the people
of God, the Spirit led the Apostle to write these words that are
words of consolation to the people of the Lord. You know, in Isaiah
chapter 40, the Lord told Isaiah to comfort ye, comfort ye, My
people, saith your God." We're not here to, the preachers of
the gospel are not here to make you to be in fear, to make you
to tremble. I'm talking about the people
of God now. We're not here to disturb your
rest in Christ Jesus. I'm here to tell you that the
Savior has done the work of redemption in full. And you have nothing
to fear from the judgment of God. The sword of justice has
already pierced the heart of the shepherd. That sword will
never come after you. It will never come after me.
We've been brought to lay hold of the blessed Savior by faith.
We've been brought to turn our backs upon all of our idols. Upon all of our religious works,
we count them to be but dung. They're just dead deeds. We look
to nobody else but Christ Jesus and Him crucified. He is indeed
all of our hope. He is all of our life. He is
all we want. He's all we want to know. He's
all we need to know. And so when the Lord Jesus comes
back someday in the glories of heaven with ten thousands of
His angels, and as John says in Revelation chapter 1, then
every eye shall see Him because it won't be a secretive coming.
It will be very open and all the world will see Him. It will
be for us a day of satisfaction. It will be a day of joy. The
one who has saved us by his almighty grace. The one who has redeemed
us. The one who has robed us. The one who has forgiven us.
The one who is our great mediator. The one who is our intercessor.
The one who is our prophet who continues to teach us. That one
who is our great high priest who continues to be our advocate,
that one who is our King, who rules the world to fulfill God's
eternal purpose, working all things out for the good of His
people. When our Savior comes back in that blessed day, it
will be the ushering in of one everlasting day of joy, an everlasting
day of delight, When we shall see the Savior and we shall be
with Him forever and ever. Let's go back and see how chapter
5 begins. Our brother has read to us chapter
4. The last few verses of chapter
4 refer to the coming of our Lord Jesus. These are verses
that we often read at the grave site or at a funeral. of a child
of God. There's no reason to be fearful
because if we believe the Lord Jesus, if those who have died
in Christ or those who have died be in Christ, if they believe
Christ Jesus, they'll be raised again when He comes back and
we will see them and mainly we will see the Savior someday. So, He says in the last words
of chapter 4, each other or one another with
these words. And then he begins chapter 5,
and it is a good chapter division, but it is still the same theme. He says in chapter 5 verse 1,
but of the times And the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that
I write unto you." Now, when he says, I have no need to write
unto you about the second coming of the Lord Jesus, he is not
saying that it is unnecessary for me to write about this subject,
because it is necessary. It is necessary for him to write
about the second coming of our Lord Jesus. We're always encouraged
to look for His appearance. The Savior comforted His disciples
in John chapter 14 by saying these words, I go to prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself. That where I am, there you may
be also." I will come again and receive you unto Myself. So even
the Savior spoke about this, the necessity and the certainty
of His second coming. The angels, they set forth His
return. As I said to you a little earlier
in Acts chapter 1, the angel said to the disciples, you men
of Galilee, while I stand you here gazing up into heaven, this
same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, taken up
on the basis of having finished the work of redemption, having
saved and justified His people, having put away our sins, having
died that God might be just and the justifier of the ungodly,
this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall
so come again in like manner as you've seen Him go. The apostle
has already written some things in this epistle about the second
coming of our Lord Jesus. In fact, look back in chapter
3, the last two verses of chapter 3, 3.12, and the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even
as we do toward you. To the end, He may establish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all of His saints."
That is, all of the saints who've gone, who've died in Christ Jesus,
all of the Lord's people. When the Lord comes back, they're
coming back with Him. What a wonderful day that is
going to be when all of the redeemed, all of those who have departed
from us, going all the way back to Abel. Abel who has been with
the Lord. Nobody could even find the dust
of Abel's body. But God knows where every speck
of it is. Because He redeemed, Christ Jesus
redeemed, not only the soul of Abel, but He redeemed his body.
And He must have his body. Abel and all the other departed
saints, they're coming back with the Lord Jesus. And in that day,
there will be a glorious resurrection. And those that died in Christ
Jesus, their bodies will be changed. And that's when mortals shall
put on immortality. That's when corruption shall
put on incorruption. That's the day when the saints
of God shall be rejoined with their bodies and then those who
are alive and remain when the Lord comes back, that's when
we're going to be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, I said we will be changed, that is if we're alive.
But whoever the saints of God are who are living when Christ
comes back, they're going to be changed, their bodies will
be changed, and we shall be forever with the Lord. But all of the
saints are coming back at His coming, as the Scripture says
here. And this is so comforting to
the people of God. Our Lord is coming back to receive
us unto Himself. He is coming for us. for us. He bought us. He loves us. He's been gracious
to us even from old eternity. And it is His will that we be
with Him forever to enjoy Him and to worship Him. He is coming
back to receive us unto Himself. And that's what we want. We want
to be with Him. We want to see Him as He is. We want to worship Him without
the frailties of the flesh. We want to adore Him and have
fellowship with Him without any distractions of the world. We want to be with Him and join
our voices and our hearts together with all of the saints of God
in singing His praises and to do so without any sin. Oh, how wonderful that will be
when we will not have any more sin to hold us back. That's just
absolutely thrilling. We will be with the Lord Jesus
and we will have no sin. It will be one everlasting day
of worship and praise. I know that at many funerals,
preachers try to set forth the things that people will be doing
in heaven. I read one preacher, a prophet,
But he said, whatever you enjoy doing on earth, that's what you'll
be doing in heaven. Well, there is an element of
truth in that. Now, if by those words he meant,
and indeed he did mean, You enjoy being with your family and you
enjoy recreation and you enjoy picnics and sitting by the lake
or fishing or things. What do you think it's going
to be? You'd be really disappointed if you got in, but you won't.
Because if that's what you think heaven's going to be, if that's
the reason the Lord Jesus redeemed you, to take you into a place
where everybody's having family picnics and big old family reunions,
you won't be there anyway. And I'll tell you, you wouldn't
be happy at all if you got to go. Because heaven is a place
of worship. It's a place where everybody's
singing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who has redeemed us
unto God by His blood. Heaven is a place of worship. So the Lord Jesus, He's coming
back to take us unto Himself. Now, when He says here in chapter
5 and verse 1, But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye
have no need that I write unto you." Here's what he's saying.
Again, he's not saying, you have no need that I write unto you
of the second coming of our Lord Jesus, because he did write of
the second coming of our Lord Jesus. Notice his words. For those who are looking for
seasons and times and signs But of the times and of the seasons,
brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, because you're
not supposed to be looking for times and seasons and signs of
when the Lord Jesus is coming back. An evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after signs. Nowhere in the Scriptures are
we commanded to look for certain signals in this world that are
going to trigger the second coming of our Lord Jesus. So the Apostle
Paul says, of the times and the seasons, you have no need that
I write unto you of those things, because that would be needless.
For years, some preachers have said, well, when you see Israel
beginning to come back together, well, that means the Lord Jesus
is coming soon. Don't look for seasons and times. Or when this begins to happen,
or these nations begin to come together. I remember years ago,
reading about preachers who said when the United Nations was formed,
they said, that's a sign. The Lord is coming back soon.
But He didn't come back. Listen, we're not to look for
seasons. We're not looking for certain
times. We're not looking for signs.
We're looking for somebody. We're looking for the Savior.
And if you're looking for anything else, if you're waiting and thinking,
wondering when this is going to happen, when this is going
to happen, and that will trigger His second coming, you look in
vain. And the Apostle Paul says, no
need for me to write about those saints. It's useless. It's useless. Because he says in the second
verse, "...for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." Unexpected. Every once in a while you read
where some preacher says, well, the Lord Jesus is going to come
back on such and such a day. Well, I can tell you this, of
all the days that He could come back, it won't be that day. It
won't be that day. Because no man knows the day
nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh. It says He comes
as a thief in the night. How does a thief in the night
come? He comes unexpectedly. He comes when people are not
looking for Him. when people are not observant,
when people are asleep. Then he says in verse 3, 4, When
they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh
upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not
escape. When the Lord Jesus comes back,
it will be a day of division. That's right, it will be a day
of division. When the last of God's elect
have been brought into the fold of salvation, and our Lord Jesus,
He comes back in His glory, and every eye shall see Him. He's
been exalted to be the King. He's been exalted on the basis
of finishing the work of redemption the Father gave Him to do. When
He comes back, every knee shall bow to Him, every tongue shall
confess He's Lord to the glory of God the Father, and He's going
to divide man as a shepherd divides the sheep and the goats. That's
what the Scripture says. The sheep on the right hand,
and He will say to the sheep, Come, come my sheep. Oh, the tender voice of this
shepherd. Come and enter into the kingdom prepared for you
for the foundation of the world. But to the goats He will say,
depart from Me, I never knew you. This will be an everlasting
division when our Lord Jesus comes back. And I know there
are those today even who say peace and safety God's a God
of love, they say, and you don't have to worry about His wrath.
You don't have to worry about anything like hell. You don't
have to worry about punishment for sins. After all, God's full
of mercy. Well, the Scripture says here,
sudden destruction. Isn't that what it says? Sudden destruction. Now, you
listen to me. And if I could scare you a little,
I would. But I can't scare you all the
way to your heart. But if you're without Christ
Jesus, and you've never been brought to see Him as the sinner's
only Savior, you have every reason to be very much afraid. Because you have no hope. You
have no Savior. You have no Redeemer. You have
no Mediator. Oh, that God the Holy Spirit
would take His Word and invade your darkened heart. Oh, that
He would give you life to flee by faith to Christ Jesus. You see, you're like the people
of Noah's day. Noah preached. He was a preacher
of righteousness. God's going to send judgment.
And the people have never even seen rain. And here he says God's
going to send a flood. And you know what all the skeptics
said? Peace and safety. Nothing to worry about, folks.
Here's just a religious fanatic. And he continued to preach and
build, preach and build. He said, there's just one place
of safety. God's going to send judgment.
God's going to have vengeance on this old world because He's
come down from heaven and He's looked, and every imagination
of man's heart is only evil continually. God's going to send judgment.
There's only one place in this whole wide world where you can
find safety, and that's in this ark that I'm building. Oh, come
into the ark!" They said, poor old fool, lost his mind. Peace and safety! And one day
God said, Noah, take the animals into the ark, all the animals
went in. Then God said, Noah, come into
the ark, for thee only have I found righteous in this world. And
Noah went in and God shut the door. And when God shut the door,
the door of mercy was shut forever for those that were outside. And I know God saved exactly
the number He intended to save. At the same time, those who died
in the floodwaters, for all those years they saw the door open,
they could have listened to His preaching, And when He said,
come on in the ark, the flood is going to be here in just a
few days, they could have said, oh brother Noah, we believe what
you are preaching, we are coming in. No. And they were destroyed. And you know whose fault it was?
Their fault. Their fault. God saved who He
will. The door of mercy was opened
for anybody who wanted to come in. No, I wasn't at the door. He said, no, you can't come in.
No, no. He said, oh, please come into
the ark. Judgment's coming. Destruction's
coming. This is the only safety there
is. I said, peace and safety. God shut the door and they died
under God's wrath. Words of verse number 3, they
shall not escape. You will not escape. You see,
life is to be sought after now. Christ Jesus is to be sought
after now. God says in Proverbs chapter
1, He says at the final judgment, I called, but you refused. Now the door is shut and you
are calling, I refuse to hear you. I tell you what, you better
walk in the light God gives you. Ask God for more light. Oh God,
I don't want to perish. Lord, I know the preacher said,
the Bible says, I'm dead in trespasses and sins. I'm just an old dead
dog sinner. Oh Lord, would you show me mercy?
Give me a little bit of light. Give me a little bit more light.
And I don't know much about your Word. I don't know much about
the Bible, but I need Jesus Christ. Christ the Lord! I need the Savior! I need His mercy! I need His
blood to wash away my sins! Oh God, I cast myself on Christ
Jesus. I wish God the Spirit would lead
somebody to do that today. If you cast yourself on the Savior,
it's the Lord's doings. It's the Lord's doings. But look
what he says in verse 4. But ye, brethren... Now he's
talking to God's people. You're not in darkness, the darkness
of ignorance, the darkness of error, the darkness of sin, that
the day should overtake you as a thief? Why, you're all children
of light! You're children of the day. We're
not of the night, we're not of darkness. We were children of
darkness, we did walk in darkness, but now we walk in light. We
were in error, we were in sin, we were in ignorance, but we're
not that way anymore. God's taught us the gospel. God's
taught us how He is glorified through the doing and the dying
of the Lord Jesus in saving sinners. God has taught us how He remains
just and holy, and yet receives sinful men and women and young
people like us here this morning through Christ Jesus Himself.
We're not in the dark anymore. We were in the dark, but we're
not in the dark anymore. We're children of light. That's
what He says in verse 5. You're all children of light,
you're children of the daytime. We're not of the night. The night
didn't give us illumination. You're not of darkness. The darkness
didn't give us knowledge. Who did? That One who is the
light of the world. He gave us illumination. Therefore, it says in verse 6,
let us not sleep as do others. Let's watch and be sober. Be
sober about the things of God. Be serious about the things of
God. There's a time for foolishness. There's a time to be funny. There's
a time to joke. And when you get to talk about
the things of God, this is no joking matter now. It's time
for seriousness. We're talking about God. We're
talking about His glory. We're talking about His Gospel.
We're talking about His Son. We're talking about His Spirit.
We're talking about your everlasting safety. This is nothing to be
joking about. You watch some of these clowns
on TV. You turn on these religious clowns. They make you laugh up one side
and down another. They got no seriousness to them. They don't know the Gospel of
God's grace. Let me tell you something. You
are never dying souls what you are. You have a body, but you're
a never-dying soul, and you're going to leave this world someday,
and what's going to happen to you then? You better get serious
about that. You better be solemn about that. Just watch. Be sober. He says, verse 7, For they that
sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken, are drunken
in the night. But let us who are of the day,
Be sober. How do we do that? Put on the
breastplate of faith and love. The breastplate of faith. That's
the body of truth. The faith of God's elect. And let's believe God. And for our helmet, put on the
hope of salvation. Why? Because God hasn't appointed
us to wrath. He hasn't appointed us to wrath. Now some are appointed unto wrath.
I read to you there in Romans chapter 9 to begin the service,
those who were fitted unto destruction. But God has got a people. We're
appointed Not to wrath, but to obtain salvation. Notice in verse
9 again, for God hath not appointed, God hath not designed, or God
hath not destined us to wrath. Do you believe God destines people? Why, yeah. It's called pre-destination. before the world was made. All
things were predestinated. God ordained all things. And
there are a people in this world, there are some people in this
world that God has not appointed, He has not designed them or destined
them to wrath, but He has designed and destined them to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. That's to the praise of the glory
of His grace. He could have left us in darkness.
He could have left us in ignorance, but He didn't. He didn't. Thank God He has not appointed
us unto wrath. Think for a moment of what the
wrath of God is. Proverbs 16, 14 says, The wrath
of a king is as the messengers of death. Well, if the wrath
and the rage of an earthly ruler or king or judge is so fearful
that it's as if many messengers come
to tell you you're going to die, what must be the wrath of the
King of Kings? What must be His wrath? Proverbs
19.12 says, the king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion,
but his favor is as the dew upon the grass. The king's wrath,
roaring of a lion. Just to read it sends chills
down my spine. Nahum 1.6 says, who can stand
before God's indignation? Who can abide the fierceness
of His anger? His wrath is poured out like
fire and the rocks are thrown down by Him. And I speak to all
of you, all of you who are in here, all of you who are watching on the internet, I hope and pray
we will only hear about what the wrath of God is and never
experience it. Just hear about it and never
experience it. There's some people in Revelation
chapter 6 at the final judgment appearing before the Lamb of
God and they call on the rocks and the mountains to hide them
from the wrath of the Lamb. The wrath of the Lamb. Psalm 212 says, Kiss the Son
lest He be angry with thee when His wrath is kindled but a little. But a little. His wrath was kindled
but a little in the days of Noah and He swept millions of people
into hell. His wrath was kindled but a little
And He consumed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Only one who has ever felt the
fullness of His wrath, that's the Son of God. He felt it without it being tempered,
without it being diluted. He felt the fullness of God's
wrath. And you hear the Son of God Himself
who had no sin of His own. You hear Him cry, My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? You hear Him praying in the garden,
Oh, Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me. What
is that cup? That's the wrath of God. He took that cup of God's wrath
and drank it dry. Oh, to be among those who will
never know anything about the wrath of God. And I'll tell you
who will never experience God's wrath. Everybody Jesus Christ
died for. Everybody whose place He took.
All of His church. All of His elect. Every sinner
who's brought to Him by the Spirit of God and that sinner's led
to lay hold of Jesus Christ for eternal salvation, they'll never
know anything about the wrath of God except what they read
in the book. We're not appointed unto wrath. We're appointed to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. You think about that. We've been
designed and destined. Designed and destined to obtain
salvation. Deliverance! Rescue! From what? Sin? Satan? The world? death. We're saved and we're safe in
the Lord Jesus because God has appointed us
to obtain salvation. You know what that means? We
don't get any of the glory because He's the one who appointed us
to salvation. You see, But we do compel everyone
to come into the ark of Christ Jesus. And I say the door of God's mercy
is open for needy sinners. But the fact of the matter is
nobody's going to come in except those who are made willing in
the day of God's power. So we're not going to come begging
you Oh, won't you do something for Jesus? Won't you make a decision
for Jesus? No, we'll beg the Lord. Oh, Lord,
do something for dead sinners. Oh, God, raise the dead, just
like You did for us. Do for these who don't know You.
And then they, along with us, can look forward to the day when
the Lord Jesus comes back in great glory. Oh, it will be so
wonderful. so glorious when we're caught
up together to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we be
with the Lord forever. I comfort one another with these
words. Let's sing a hymn.