Come back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I titled this message, Appointed
to Salvation. Appointed to. You want to talk
about eternal security. There are many who talk about
that, and they've got it twisted. But here it is. God hath not
appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord
Jesus Christ. There's your eternal security.
God's appointed you. He's appointed a multitude of
sinners to obtain salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
let's look at these eleven verses. as we start to wind down this
epistle. Paul continues here for the next
11 verses on the Lord's return. Back in chapter 4, toward the
end of that chapter, starting in verse 13 down through 18,
he's speaking of the Lord's return. He speaks of what happens to
believers when they die. He calls it sleep. He says they
are asleep. And he does this to encourage
and comfort those whose hearts are broken because of loved ones
who've passed on. And Paul tells them it's all
right. It's all right. They're asleep. And the Lord
will bring them with Him. When He comes, they'll come.
And he writes this also to encourage their faith and our faith. What's
written to them is written to us. And he writes it to encourage
our faith But he does not write these things to satisfy human
curiosity. He says in verse 1, But of the
times and seasons concerning which I have written to you about
the Lord's return, brethren, you have no need that I write
to you about the times and seasons. The Word of God is not written
for human curiosity. It's written for our learning,
isn't it? And we do not need, I thought
about this as I read this. I've read this all week, every
day. Two or three times a day I read these eleven verses. Then
I just go to work and think about them. Go to bed and think about
them. But we do not need to know times and seasons because we
would be looking for times and seasons. We would be caught up
looking at the sky. at the times and at the events
that are going on right now, we'd be caught up looking at
those things. That's useless. That's useless. We don't need
to be caught up in looking at times and seasons. The believer
is to be totally caught up in looking to him, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That is the conduct
and attitude of a believer as he passes through this life.
It's looking to him, not looking for times and seasons. There
are many who built their ministry on times and seasons. I watched a program the other night.
I just watched a little bit of it. That's about all I can stomach
of this stuff. But I watched it. It's Hal Lindsey.
And here's what they do. They go out in the morning and
they get the newspaper. They take their prophecy from
the newspaper. That's what they do. Then they go try to find
a Bible verse that looks like it works. Then they get on TV
and they say, this is what's happening. No. They're so far
off, they don't know straight up. They don't. But they've made
their ministry on times and seasons. They've made a lot of money off
of that. Made a lot of money. But the believer, the believer
is not taken up with times and seasons. We're taken up with
Him. We are taken up with our Lord, our Redeemer. That's what
we're taken up with. To know Him. And to be ready
for Him when He comes. To be ready for Him. You see,
it's not like when you're going to go somewhere and you look
at the clock and you say, well, we better start getting ready. That's
what happens when you look at time and season. But when you're
looking for Him, you're always ready. Always ready. And Paul says to them, he says,
you know perfectly well Paul taught them this. Paul taught
them a lot in three weeks, didn't he? He gave them a lot in three
weeks that he spent with them there in Thessalonica. And he
says that, for yourselves know perfectly, you've been taught
of God, God used Paul to teach them, that the day of the Lord
so cometh as a thief in the night. You know this. I taught you this.
The day of his coming The day of the Lord, the day that He
will be admired by all His saints. That's what it says over in 2
Thessalonians, in verse 10, when He shall come to be glorified
in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe. That's
the day of the Lord. That day when He shall come and
appear as King of kings and Lord of lords. Not little sweet Jesus,
but the King of kings. He comes, he'll appear as the
monarch of heaven and earth. And that day when he comes, the
day of the Lord, when he shall gather his elect from the four
corners of the earth. And he said, when this happens,
you know this perfectly well, it'll happen like a thief in
the night. It'll be unexpected. If you expected a thief, he wouldn't
get in, would he? You wouldn't be surprised. You'd be expecting it. But it's
going to be unexpected by this world. This world is just going
to be sudden and unexpected, and it's going to be swift. They
say suddenly. It'll happen when the unbelieving
world is crying peace and safety. That's when it'll happen, when
they've made their false professions, and they've entered into their
false religions, or they just don't believe it's going to happen
at all. Then you have those on the other end, and they don't
believe it's going to happen. He said, when they cry peace
and safety, all is well, just like back in the days of Noah,
eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage. He said, Noah, you're
a nut. It's a beautiful day. Things
are going on just fine. The economy's great. He said, it's going to be unexpected. It's going to be like a thief
in the night. It's going to be when they cry peace and safety,
when they think that all is well and safe, and that the overflowing
scourge will not come to our den. It won't come to our house.
It won't happen. No. Then suddenly, he says, sudden
destruction. Sudden destruction. I remember
watching that tsunami that happened here just a few years ago on
TV. People, it was on the beach.
I mean, it looked like a perfect day, didn't it? And all of a
sudden, that wave just rolled through over the top of them,
over through that town. Killed thousands and thousands
of people. Unexpected. They didn't hear
that earthquake. All of a sudden, here comes that
wave. He said it'll be sudden destruction.
And listen, they shall not escape. Oh, what a word. What a sentence. Can any hide himself from God? That's what the Scripture says.
None can hide himself from God. He said the darkness is light
before thee. Nothing. Eternal destruction. The wrath of God cometh upon
them. And it's deserved wrath. Deserved
wrath. And listen, it's wrath warned
of. This world's been warned for
6,000 years. For 6,000 years it's been warned
of the coming of the Lord. And it will come upon them, it
says, like birth pains come upon a woman. I thought these two examples,
they denote these two things. First, a thief. When he comes
into the house, he does what? He steals your earthly possessions.
Nothing makes me madder than a thief taking something that
I've worked for and paid for. You know, you've went out and
you've worked and you've paid for it, and a thief comes along and
he takes it. But now we're not comparing the
character of our Lord to a thief. We're not doing that. But what
He's saying here, when He comes, He's taking away all earthly
possessions. They're gone. They're gone. And then here's
another thing. Birth pains. Birth pains. That's inward, isn't it? That's
a pain of woman. You young ladies here, you've
had some birth pains. You felt it. I didn't feel it.
You felt it. You felt it, and you felt it
inward. It's felt pain. It's real pain. And it's pain. And it's pain. You know what
that pain comes from? The curse. Go back and read Genesis. That's where that pain came from.
The curse. He's taking that fruit. And God
said in childbearing, you're going to have pain. That's where
it came from. This world, this unbelieving
world, is going to feel this pain of the curse, and they're
going to lose all earthly possessions. But thank God for that next verse,
chapter 4. But ye, brethren, are not in
darkness. You are not in darkness. This
world is in darkness. This world is, but you're not.
You are children of life. You've been taught of God. God
revealed the Gospel to you. God revealed His Son to you.
God has made you children of life, those who believe the Gospel.
You've been taught of God, and you're looking for Him to come.
And you're looking for Him to come and put an end to all this,
aren't you? See, it'll be sudden destruction. It'll be painful
for the unbelieving world, but not for you. Not for you who
believe. No, you're looking for it. You're
looking forward to that day, aren't you? I know you are. You're
telling God you are. And he said that day, that day
when the Lord comes will not overtake you as a thief. Unexpectedly. You know why? You expect His
return. He said He's returning, didn't
He? And you fully, fully expect the Lord to return. So when He
does, it'll be like, well, I was waiting for you. I was waiting
for you. It's not unexpected. You expect
it. And listen, and it will not be
painful. It'll be joyful. Boy, it'll be
a joyful day when that happens. A joy that passes all understanding,
all human experience here in this life. It'll be a joy to
the believer when the Lord returns. It won't be painful. And you
won't be surprised by it. No, you'll be expecting it. Why? Because you are all children
of light and the children of the day. You're the children
of the gospel day. You're children of light and
of the gospel day. You're not in religious darkness
and ignorance. God has enlightened you. You
understand who God is. You understand who Jesus Christ
is. You understand that God is to be worshipped in spirit and
in truth. You understand. That it's through the Lord Jesus
Christ that God can be just and justify you. It's through Him,
through His blood, that you can worship Him. And He can have
anything to do with somebody like you and me. You understand? You know why? Because you're
children of light. God took you out of darkness. Scripture says
He's taken us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us
into the kingdom of His dear Son, which is the kingdom of
grace, the kingdom of life, the kingdom of righteousness, That's
the kingdom you and I belong to, and every believer belongs
to. You're not in religious darkness
anymore. You've been translated. You've been made a child of light.
Paul says we are not of the night. We're not of those who creep
around at night and mark houses and steal and carry on. All the works of evil mostly
are done in the night, aren't they? Of course, we're so brazen
now, we do it in the daytime. When this world has gotten so
brazen, here it says you're drunk in the night, you're drunk in
the daytime now. I mean, you're just drunk all day and all night.
No brazen with it anymore. But we're not of the night, nor
of darkness. No. We're not in spiritual ignorance.
You know who God is, and you know He's to be worshipped in
spirit and truth. You know this. Therefore, he says in verse 6,
therefore, when seeing this is so, let us not sleep as do others. Let us not sleep, slumber. There's a danger in that for
believers. There's a danger in this spiritual
slumber. Or Paul wouldn't be writing this.
He said, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch.
Watch for our Lord's return. Watch over ourselves. And watch
over one another. Am I my brother's keeper? And
what King said, yes, you are. Yeah, well, that's a disappointment
to some, but not others. Not all. Yes, we are our brother's
keeper. Let us watch and be sober. Let
us not be as the unconverted who look not at eternal matters. They don't look at eternal matters.
Those are things, it's just like a fairy tale. Really, it's like
a fairy tale to them. They're really not concerned
about it. They do not care about their soul's well-being. They
do not believe God. He said, don't be like them. Let us not sleep the sleep of
indifference. over in Revelations, the Lord
writes to that church about their lukewarmness. Can that happen? It did. He would have written
about it. It happened to them. Let us not sleep the sleep of
indifference or lukewarmness. What happens? Paul says here, let us not sleep.
He says, let us not sleep as do others. What happens when
you're asleep? What happens when you go to sleep? Well, one of
the first things that happens is inactivity. You just quit. You lay down and you stop everything.
You stop inactivity. And then here's something else
that happens. You're unaware and unconcerned with your surroundings. Oh, he said don't become that
way. Don't become inactive and unconcerned with your surroundings. I'll tell you something else
that happens. You enter into another world. It's called dream
world. You enter into dream world and you have no control over
that. Have you ever tried to stop a dream? The only way you
can stop it is how? Wake up. You've got to wake up
to stop it. There have been dreams that I
have wanted to wake up. I mean, you just... I had a dream
the other night. Somebody was after me with an
axe. I was so glad I woke up. And I was alive. But that was
so real. I woke up in a sweat. You had no control over that.
You couldn't stop that. But when you're awake, you can
stop it. When you're awake, you can bring every thought into
subjection to Christ. You can stop a thought. You can
say, hold on now. That's not of the Lord. And you
can start thinking of something else and stop a thought. When
you're asleep, you can't stop a dream. You're in dream world. Saint Paul says, don't get into
that state. Don't let yourself get into a
spiritual stupor. Don't do that. Let us not fall
into a spiritual stupor and become careless in our walk, in our
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But let us watch. Let us watch. Be awakened. Let us watch over our hearts.
Out of it are the issues of life. Issues of life. Let us watch
over our thoughts to bring them into subjection to Christ. Let
us watch over the snares of Satan and the world. John Bunyan in his Pilgrim Progress,
he told Pilgrim, stay away from the enchanted ground. Don't go
to that. Stay away from the enchanted
ground. You'll fall asleep. Don't go there. Watch. And let
us watch for our Lord's return. He's coming again. Let us watch
for it. And be sober. Watch and be sober. A drunk man can't watch for you.
I wouldn't want a drunk man on the wall at all, would you? You'd
find him, he'd fall off the wall. He wouldn't be of any use at
all to you. But a sober man, that man can
watch. That's why it says watch and
be sober. Spiritually minded. Spiritually minded. Not taking
up too much with the affairs and concerns of this life. And
that's really, I tell you what, it takes a watchfulness to not
let that happen. It takes a real watchfulness
not to let this thing, this world and all that you go through in
making a living and raising families, it takes a real watch not to
let that grab hold of you. Get too busy. You have no time
for these things. Oh, how deceitful this world
is. How deceitful Satan is. Very deceitful. Be serious about
your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Always, always,
always give great attention. Give your greatest attention
to that. I believe one of the reasons
so many people divorce It's because they're not serious about that
relationship anymore. The Lord wrote to the church,
or was it at Ephesus? He said, you left your first
love. You wouldn't think that, would
you? He wrote to that pastor and he said, you left your first
love. Busy! Look how busy they were. You
go back and read that. Busy, busy, busy. But you left
your first love. You gave up on that relationship.
You got so concerned with these other things, kids and whatever,
whatever, whatever. You got so concerned with them
that you let that relationship just dwindle away. That's why
he's saying here, watch. Watch. Be sober. Be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night. That's the natural time for them to sleep. That's
the natural way, isn't it? That's for the natural man. He
just sleeps. He sleeps in the night. And they that are drunken
are drunken in the night. Drunkenness is the opposite of
sober. It's excess. That's what it is. It's excess. It's lack of control. When you get stone drunk, you
don't have any control. That's why you don't want them
behind the wheel. They can't control where they're driving.
And it's a work of darkness. Drunkenness is a work of darkness. And the scripture says, no drunkard
shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But the drunkenness he's talking
about here, he's not talking about wine. He's talking about
worldliness. He's talking about being caught
up with this world. Being caught up, trying to keep
up with the world. It can get a hold of you. It's
the walk after the flesh. He says, be careful about this.
But let us who are of the day be sober. Sober-minded. Serious. Serious about this relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Serious in our walk with the
Lord. Serious about any walk with God. If He did it, somebody
else can do it too. If He did it, why not me? He
walked with God and He was not because of what? God took him.
And I hope that can be said for every one of us. He walked with
God. And he was not, because God took
him. Took him and her. Oh, he said, let us who are of
the day be sober. Let us be sober minded and fellowship. Now listen. Fellowship with those
who are sober. Let us fellowship with those
who are sober. That begets sobriety, doesn't it? That begets sobriety. and cast off the works of darkness,
putting on the breastplate of faith and love." Over in Samuel, it speaks of
the breastplate as a mail. It protected the chest. And they
had a helmet made of brass. That's what David saw. Put that
on David when he was going to fight Goliath. That's what Goliath
had on. But David took it off because he said it was unproved
and it was too big for him. It didn't fit him. So he took
it off. Put on the breastplate of faith
and love. You see, our weapons are not
carbon. There's a good, what an illustration. Saul took his
helmet of brass and his breastplate and he put it on David. And David,
after he put it on David, here David is, a ruddy, it says a
ruddy man, just a ruddy young man, just a young strappling,
that's what he called him, a strappling. And here he is trying to wear
this general, this grown up, full grown man, He's trying to
wear his armor and it's dangling around on his head. It just doesn't
fit. David says, I can't wear this
to battle. You know what he went to battle
in? The name of the Lord. That's what he went to battle
in. He says, put on the breastplate of faith and love. We are in
a war. We are in a war, a war that's
not going to end until we leave. And every soldier who goes to
battle needs armor. He needs something. We send our
young men and women into battle. You see them now when they go
into battle. They have what on? They have these vests, bulletproof
vests. And they have those helmets the best helmets we can make.
They've got helmets and both roof beds. Protect those vitals.
Protect those vitals. Because we're in a war and we
need armor. But our armor, our armor, they're
not made up of carnal things. Swords and guns and breasts.
It's faith and love. Faith and love. And these protective
vitals of the spiritual man. They do. Satan is after man's
soul. He's after man's soul. And the
weapons against him are the weapons that God gives. And that's faith
and love. Faith believes God no matter
how hot the battle gets. Faith believes God. David said,
in the name of the Lord. That's faith. That's faith. Faith believes God and it takes
Him at His word. And love is the bond between
God and His people and between each other. It fortifies the soul. It keeps
the fiery darts from entering that heart. It's a strong breastplate. Is faith and love sufficient
for such an onslaught? It is if God gave it. If it's
of God, it is. Whatever is of God is sufficient. He says here, put on the breastplate
of faith and love. One's not without the other.
Faith and love go together, don't they? You can't have one without
the other. You know, our Lord said, if you
had faith as a great mustard seed, it's like, look at a mustard
seed, how small it is. He said, you can move a mountain.
You can move a mountain. You believe that? Yes. Because He said so. And for a helmet, Here's our helmet. Here's our
helmet. The hope of salvation. You can't
quip a man that's got hope. David said, well, Job said this,
though he slay me, yet will I trust him. When was it? And I preached this last Sunday. But when was it, Job said, I
know my Redeemer liveth. That's when he was sitting in
the dust, scraping those swords, and his friends sitting there
throwing darts at him. He said, you know, I know my Redeemer. He had his helmet on. They were
hurling stones at him, but he had his helmet on. You'll feel it, but it won't
take you. It won't take your life. And for a helmet, a hope of salvation. Every soldier needs a helmet,
and our helmet is hope. Paul wrote to Timothy and he
said, Jesus Christ, our hope. Our hope. The hope of salvation. The expectation
of being saved. David said this, though I fall,
rejoice not over me, O my enemy. Rejoice not over me, don't get
happy and shout when I fall, because I'll rise again. I will get back up. You can't
keep a man down that has hope. And if God's given him hope,
if God's given a man hope in Christ, he can lose everything
and he'll get back up. He's got his helmet on. And here's
the good news. Listen, here's this hope. Here's
this hope that will get you through every trial and trouble that
comes your way. God has not appointed us to wrath. There are some that are. But
God has not appointed us to wrath. He's not made us vessels of wrath
or vessels of mercy. Listen, God has not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain, to have, to receive salvation. from sin, from death? Oh, death,
where's your sting at, death? He's appointed us to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. The
Scripture teaches us this. It's of His appointing. If I'm saved and you're saved,
I mean, the Lord's truly saved us. He appointed it before the
world began. He appointed our salvation. It's
His work. Salvation is something we obtain
through another. We obtain salvation through another,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, He says. We obtain salvation
through His person, His work, the one who died for us. This
ought to be enough to excite to sobriety, shouldn't it? and
watchfulness. This knowledge, this hope is
enough to excite us to sober-mindedness and watchfulness. My, what God's done for us and
His Son, who died for us. Somebody died that I might live.
Someone died, and that's God's Son. Someone had to be put to
death because of me, in order for me to live, in order for
me To stand before God, Jesus Christ had to be put to death
in the flesh. He died for us, a particular
people that God chose. Election doesn't lead to licentiousness,
does it? Never does. I'll tell you what
it leads to. It leads to thankfulness and
godliness. The grace of God teaches us what? To deny ungodliness. And here's the good news, that
whether we wake or sleep, we may die before He comes, or
we may be alive on this earth when He comes. Either way, we
shall live together as one harmonious family with Him. With Him. We will live together with Him. That's the end result. The end result of the death of
Christ is that we may live together with Him and rejoice in God our
Savior. Therefore, comfort yourselves
together. Comfort. Get together. Get together. Edify one another. Be a comfort to one another.
Be an encouragement to one another. Wherefore, comfort yourself together
over the resurrection that the Lord is bringing them back. Comfort
yourself together over His second coming. He's coming. He's coming
to get us. Comfort yourself together over
being together with the Lord forever. Isn't that good news?
It is to some. It's not good news to everybody,
but it is to some. It's good news to some. To know
that we have been appointed to obtain salvation through one
who cannot fail. Behold my servant who shall not
fail. It's sure, this salvation that
we have been appointed to obtain is sure and it cannot be lost.
And this is how we should come together and this is how we should
comfort one another at all times. Get together, comfort one another
with these things. You don't have to spend your
time talking about the economy, who's going to be the next president,
and blah, blah, blah. Because that's what it ends up
being, blah, blah, blah. Talk about him.