1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse
1. But of the times and the seasons,
brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves
know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief
in the night. For 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. But ye,
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake
you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light,
and the children of the day, we are nor of the night, nor
of darkness. 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 that be drunken, are drunken
in the night. But let us, who are of the day,
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an
helmet, 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. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together and edify one another, even as also ye do. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
these thoughts. The Apostle Paul has been explaining
to the believers at Thessalonica how that the Lord Jesus Christ
would soon be coming back and some of the characteristics and
circumstances of Christ's return. For example, at the end of the
previous chapter, he said, the Lord himself and not another,
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. And the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. So the apostle has been explaining
some of the circumstances of that day, the day of the Lord,
when the Lord will return. This promise that the apostle
was giving to the Thessalonians and has given to all the Lord's
people who read the scriptures with faith, this promise was
to comfort the believers there in Thessalonica and elsewhere
as they faced the dangers and the persecution and the disappointments
and the trials of life. And that's no different for us. These things are given to us
to comfort us in this life. And as we read them, we are to
read them not merely as some sort of textbook or theoretical
proposal, but as the very promises of God to our souls to encourage
us to warm our hearts in the troubles and the trials that
we face in life. So now the apostle goes on to
tell the church that while these things are facts, they've not
to be anxious concerning when this will happen. There is a
certainty that it will happen and it's sufficient for us to
know the certainty without prying to know the timetable. the knowledge of which God has
purposefully kept to himself. So the apostle does, however,
provide us with a few more details concerning the coming day of
the Lord, although this time it is with respect to the world
and the men and women of the world. He says that it will be
sudden and unexpected and it will also be severe and painful. It'll be sudden and unexpected,
it will be severe and painful. imagery that he looks, the imagery
that he uses and the metaphor that he gives here is the thief
in the night, which suggests surprise. It doesn't suggest
silence. It's not that this is going to
be silent. We've already heard that it's
with a shout, It's with the Trump of God, the Archangel is going
to... the voice of the Archangel will
be heard. This is cataclysmic, this isn't silent. But it will
be sudden, and it will be unexpected. That's the idea of the thief
in the night. And it will also, the other metaphor
that he uses, the other likeness, is it's like a woman in travail,
and that's suggestive of the anguish that will be part of
this day. So that the same event that comforts
and fills the Lord's people with happiness and hope in its expectation,
will bring sudden destruction on all those who are outside
of Christ. And at that time, there's no
opportunity left for repentance. There's no hope of rescue. In the day of the Lord, the day
of grace is past. And the writer to the Hebrews
says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation. Hebrews 2 verse 3. So then the
apostle goes on in these verses that we have, these 11 verses
at the beginning of chapter 5. He goes on and he highlights
the single mark that distinguishes between all men and women from
the beginning to the end of the world. And this is the reference
in verse five. He says to the Thessalonians,
ye are all the children of light. and the children of day. We are
not of the night nor of darkness." And this is the great division
that there is in the world. Those who are children of light,
those who are children of darkness. The children of light is a phrase
that was used on a couple of occasions by the Lord Jesus himself
during his ministry. And he used it to identify those
who trust in Christ, who is the light of the world. So that the
children of light are those who are the children of the light
of the world. They have been enlightened. They have been illuminated. Because, as Paul tells the Corinthians,
Christ who is the light hath shined in our hearts to give
to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. We've been given to see and to
know and to understand because we have spiritual light, those
spiritual things that God has purposed and ordained for his
people. And This was a popular apostolic
theme that's having dropped from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There was more than one apostle quoted the Saviour. Peter says
in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, But ye are a chosen generation, Remember
he's writing to the elect in all the world. You're a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation. a peculiar people,
these are all distinguishing marks, distinguishing identifications,
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. So that this is the great division,
the division between light and darkness. And the Apostle Paul
goes on to trace this division back to God's sovereign purpose. And this is what is going to
fill the remainder of the Apostle's thoughts in these verses down
to the end of verse 11. that sovereign purpose of God. It's as though having mentioned
the two groups, the children of light and the children of
darkness, having mentioned these two groups, the apostle at once
takes the opportunity to stress sovereign grace. And I just want
to pause on that point for a moment and just make a little application
if I may. Because I want to suggest to
you that that is a feature that characterises all true believers
in sovereign grace. There are some people who say
that they believe in sovereign grace. but rarely, if ever, do
they speak about it or preach about it. Or maybe they do preach
about it once a year as part of their annual confessional
studies. but they don't weave it constantly
into their preaching and ministry. Here's the Apostle Paul, and
he's preaching, he's writing, but he's preaching to these Thessalonians
about the end times. And what does he do? He preaches
Christ and God's sovereign grace. The Apostle Paul does not let
an opportunity pass to stress God's sovereignty or lift up
the glory of Christ in God's gracious saving purpose. The reason for this is that Paul
knows that free grace is the heart of spiritual comfort for
the Lord's people. And when he's writing this letter
to the Thessalonians in the midst of their troubles, in the midst
of their persecutions, he's not going to. arrive in Thessalonica
in the next couple of days and do amazing miracles and bring
in a big force or hand of power in order to suppress all their
troubles and their persecutions. That's not within the Apostle's
gift. What is within his gift is to
speak to them about the grace of God, to tell them about the
purposes of God and to lead them constantly into the truth of
God. And anything that is taught from
pulpits, suggesting or implying that divine blessings hang upon
man's duty or human obligation or our own works is a crushing
weight to any and every sin-sensitive soul. It's a heavy burden for
Christ's little children. And the Lord says in Luke chapter
12, fear not little flock. for it is your father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. So as the Lord Jesus Christ preached
sovereign grace and the Apostle Paul preached sovereign grace,
at every opportunity let us endeavour to do the same and to uphold
the same principles in our own ministries and in our own fellowship. Therefore, the Apostle Paul specifically
makes this distinction between the children of light and the
children of darkness and he specifically draws the attention to the Thessalonians
to the fact that it is all of God's grace and it is attributable
completely to God's sovereign will and purpose as all good
gospel preachers do. He gives us these three irrefutable
proofs in the last couple of verses. He says, God has not
appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. God has appointed
the means of our salvation, the death of a substitute. And thirdly,
that this has already been accomplished by the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And here Paul is clearly and
emphatically telling the Thessalonian believers and with them all who
have faith in Christ that we have been appointed to salvation. Just let those words, those four
words roll around in your head for a minute. We have been appointed
to salvation. Now Paul couldn't be clearer.
If in the day of the Lord we are called from the grave or
from the earth to meet the Lord in the air, it shall be because
we have been appointed to salvation at the will and according to
the purpose of God. The events in this world unfold
according to God's appointment. If he appoints something to happen,
it happens. And if something happens, it
is because he appointed it to be so. God has chosen a people
and appointed them to life and not death, to salvation and not
to wrath. And nor is that appointment a
mere wish or aspiration. Our politicians, they come out
and they make their speeches. All the time, they come out with
their plans and their aspirations and their ambitions. And they
have neither the power nor the means to accomplish these things. That's the way of men. They make
big promises and they can't deliver. But not so with God, who is himself
the spirit of power. And here Paul tells us that the
appointment of our salvation has been committed into the hands
of Jesus Christ. God's chosen people, the elect,
are appointed to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. The
whole of Scripture points to this. From the covering of skins
in the garden for Adam's nakedness, to the promise of a son who would
bruise the serpent's head, to the ram caught in the thicket
for Abraham, the covenant of life for Jacob, the sacrificial
system instituted by Moses, and all the promises given to the
prophets until the coming of Christ. everything pointed to
salvation by the death of a substitute and the Lord Jesus Christ is
that lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So that finally
Paul reassures us that It is done. It is completed. The work of salvation is accomplished
by the death of Jesus Christ, who Paul says, who died for us. Verse 10. And this is so important. It's the essence of free grace. If salvation hinged on something
we needed to do, in order to secure it or acquire it or obtain
it, then our salvation would be neither appointed nor certain,
and we could have no confidence or assurance in it. but it is
appointed and it is certain and we may have every confidence
and assurance in it because Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. Our God-given faith
and the love that we have experienced from him and the love that we
experience for him testify to the transforming grace he has
given us. Paul says, comfort yourselves
together. That's what we're doing here
tonight. We're comforting ourselves together and edify one another. That's what we do when we speak
together. That's what we do when we share
together. And just our conversation, just
our presence here, just our unity on this topic, on this purpose
is an edification one of another. What a blessing we have been
given to be able to meet together and share together and fellowship
together in the gospel. This is the good news of our
appointed salvation, our accomplished redemption and our certain glory. Paul says, let us watch and be
sober. Watch for Christ's coming. and
live soberly in the sure confidence that it is well with our souls
by the grace of God and the love of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.