Now, if you will, turn back with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I'm going to take my text
from verses 9 and 10 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. My subject is comforting words. Comforting words. Now, 1 Thessalonians
5 begins with a reminder that the day of the Lord is coming.
You remember over in the book of Peter that he warns those
who were saying that the day of the Lord had already come.
It had already passed. All things are the same from
the beginning of time to now. Nothing has ever happened. Nothing
is going to happen. That is what they say. But he
said the Lord is not slack concerning His promises. This day is coming,
and this world is being held in store. It's the day of the
Lord. It's His day. It's the day of
His glory, the day of His return. It's the final day, the last
day. And I tell you this, the day
of the Lord, as it's often called in Scripture, is well documented.
And it's incorporated in the Gospel these men preached. All
through there you hear them. They preach the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ, but they also preach the second coming
of Christ. The second coming of Christ.
The day of the Lord. Our Lord often spoke of that
day. And so His disciples after His death. Now depending on a
person's relationship to Christ, this is His day. This is the
day of His power, the day of His ultimate victory. This is
the Lord's day. This is the Lord's day. And depending
on a person's relationship to the Lord that is coming will
determine whether or not this subject will be a warning or
a comfort. It's a comfort to those who believe.
It's a comfort. It's the day of your full inheritance
to those who believe. It's the day of change that you
long for if you believe. But if you believe
not, this day is a day of judgment and a day of horror. But either
way, this is a reminder that this day is coming. It's decreed
of God. Paul said to those wise men on
Mars Hill, he said, God hath appointed a day in the which
he'll judge this world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. By his righteous standards, not
ours. We judge men, don't we? We do. We do. We set men aside and we
judge them. We judge them by whether or not
they smoke or drink or how they live their lives or whether or
not they pay their bill. We judge men. We judge men. But we judge men by our standards. You ever notice that? We judge
men by our standards. And we usually find somebody
that's substandard to our standards to pick on. And then we judge
them. This judgment's not that way.
He said, righteousness will I lay to the plummet. This is by that
man whom he hath ordained. His righteousness established
and accomplished, not ours. This is not a righteousness.
This righteousness demanded in this judgment is not a righteousness
that you can produce. It's a righteousness that He
has accomplished. Now you look in there and see
if I'm not telling you so. You read back there in the book
of Revelations where John said he saw the dead stand before
the Lord. And he said, and the books were
opened. And another book was opened. It's that other book
that I'm talking about this morning. That Lamb's Book of Life. That
imputed righteousness, that righteousness wrought out by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's by His righteousness
imputed by faith, not by works of righteousness which we have
done. And then he says that God hath given assurance to all men
concerning this day, this appointed day of judgment, in that He hath
raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. Now that's it. There's no other hope. No other
hope. Judgment is coming. Judgment
is coming. An end to the chaos. An end to
the corruption. An end to the deception. By the
power of the Holy Spirit, John said he saw the dead small and
great stand before God. Stand before God. I tell you,
as a young man, I remember my first speeding ticket. And I
had to go stand before the judge. And I was scared to death. I
was 16 years old. I didn't know what to expect.
I didn't know what kind of fine. I didn't know if I'd get my license
back. I didn't. I was scared. But we're not talking about standing
before that kind of a judge. We're talking about standing
before God. Standing before God, who can see the very thoughts
and intents of your heart. That great and terrible day of
the Lord, that's what it's called in Scripture. The last day is
coming. It's coming. How will it come? He said it will come like a thief
in the night. Isn't that what that says there
that I read to you a few moments ago? This day will come as a
thief in the night. Unexpected. Unannounced. undetected. When will it come? In an hour
you think not. That's what the Lord said. In
an hour you think not. That's when He's coming. And He also says here in our
text, when men shall say, peace and safety. That's when He's
going to come. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
28. Let me see if I can show you
in the Scripture what He is talking about there when men say, peace
and safety. He is not talking about in the
day when God's elect rejoice in peace and safety. That is
not what He is talking about at all. He is talking about when
the multitudes who are deceived cry, peace and safety. Now watch
this over here in Isaiah 28 verse 14. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem,
because you have said, we have made a covenant with death, and
with hell we're at agreement. That is, we've made our decisions.
We've reached some kind of an agreement in our mind. We've
made promises to God in exchange for His favor. We've said, if
you'll just do this, I'll do that. We've made our deals. There's always some kind of deal-making
going on when man tries to reconcile himself to God. We've made promises to God in
exchange for His favor, and we're all fixed up. That's what he's
talking about here. Well, he said, there's an overflowing
scourge coming. It's coming. It's coming. And when the overflowing scourge,
like in the days of Noah, shall pass through, you said it won't
come down to us. It's not going to take me. Why? Well, we made lies our refuge. And under falsehood have we hid
ourselves. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in sign a foundation. For a foundation, a stone, a
tried stone, one already tried in the scourge, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. And he that believeth shall not
make haste. He's not upset. Not upset. Judgment, he said,
verse 17, also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to
the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,
and the water shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell
shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through. Then
shall you be trodden down by it." Now turn with me to Acts
chapter 4. Our Lord says here, Jesus Christ
is the only rock of refuge and foundation of hope against the
judgment of God. That's what He said in these
verses. Now watch this, Acts chapter 4 verse 10. Be it known unto you all and
to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by Him does this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone. Now, we just read about the stone. This is the only stone, the chief
cornerstone, the only foundation that will hold up against this
great and terrible day of the Lord, against this judgment.
Now he said, you took this stone and you threw it aside. This
is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which
has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. My friend, we're living
in the days of great deception. Men and women are being encouraged
on a massive scale to make lies their refuge. You call them what you want to.
The scripture calls them lies. Lies. To find hope in their traditions
and creeds and decisions and commitments, to find hope in
moral reform, to find hope in their own righteousnesses, to
find hope in denominational identification, and to find hope in ceremonialism
is to find hope in a refuge of lies. That's all it is. It's a refuge of lies. And to
cast aside the Savior is to throw away the only foundation of hope. He's the hope. God laid the stone. He said, here's the stone. Here's
the foundation. Judgment is near when men and
women cry, peace and safety. They cry, peace, peace, where
there is no peace. When's He coming? When men cry
peace and safety, when that becomes the universal message of religion,
you're all fixed up, y'all. All fixed up. How shall judgment
come? How shall it come? He said, suddenly,
like travail upon a woman. Suddenly. Irreversibly, irresistibly,
inexcusably. The scripture said they shall
not escape. They'll cry for the rocks and
mountains to hide them, but there is no escape. As was the world before the flood,
Peter says, so the heavens and the earth, which are now by the
same word are kept in store. reserved under fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But he says here in 1 Thessalonians
5 verse 4, but brethren, ye brethren, are not in darkness. Ain't you
thankful for that? We're not in darkness. I'm not
out here dancing in the moonlight. I'm not out here in pretense
trying to speak an unknown tongue. I'm not out here doing no thing.
I'm not in darkness anymore. I was in it. Up to my eyeballs
as much as any man in it. Carried away with it like white
water in a river. Step in it and it washes you
away. You're caught up in it and you can't get away from it
unless the Lord delivers you. He said, you're not in darkness
that that day should overtake you as a thief. You're the children
of light, children of the day. We're not of the night nor of
darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep like
others. Let's don't go lay down. Let's
don't sleep. We have the light. We're children
of the day. Believers are not blind anymore.
Their eyes have been opened. They have the spirit of wisdom,
Paul said, and revelation and the knowledge of Christ. The
eyes of their understanding being enlightened. They understand. They understand why this world
was formed. They understand the fall of Adam.
They understand the redemptive work of Christ. They understand
that substitutionary work of Christ. They understand His reign
and glory. And they understand that He's
coming back. And unto those who look for Him
shall He return without sin unto salvation. And those who cling
to the old play pretties of religion are still in doctrine. They're
still in darkness. Those whose lives are altered,
whose lives are not altered, those whose lives are not affected,
whose idealisms remain the same and who see no evil in it, are
still in darkness. They're still in darkness. The
Lord said there's coming a day in which they'll kill you and
think they did God a service. Now man won't do that unless
he's convinced he's right. The Pharisees lied, cheated,
hired false witnesses, did all of these things in the name of
religion and crucified Christ. They killed the Savior believing they did God a service. Those who still live in the night
and live for the night and sleep in the day Children of darkness. Believers are children of the
day. They live in the light. They work in the light. They
walk in the light. They worship in the light. They
wait in the light. They know the truth and the truth
has set them free. And believers know judgment is
coming and have taken refuge in the only place that can protect
them from it. And there ain't no hurry to leave
here. No hurry to leave it, and not
uneasy about it. That which Paul offers here as
a comfort to those he loved, he sets before us under four
headings. First of all, he tells us in
verse 9 that God hath not appointed us to wrath. Now the universalist will tell
you that it's not God's will that any should perish. God's
not willing for any to perish. Let me tell you something. If
God wasn't willing for any to perish, nobody'd perish. Who
do you know who can defeat the will of God? Who do you know
can even thwart the will of God? Nebuchadnezzar fought like that
one time until God put him down as a beast and showed him what
a beast he was. And then when he returned him
to his right mind, and that's what God does when He converts
a man, He gives him a right mind, He gives him the mind of Christ.
And Nebuchadnezzar said, I tell you this, He rules in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou? Paul talked to some folks who
were upset about election. And he said, who art thou, old
man, that replies against God? He's the potter, you're just
the clay. You're just the lump. He spit
in the dust and pulled it up in his hand and formed something
for his glory. And if he makes you a vessel
of dishonor, what's that to you? He's the potter. Or if he makes
you a trophy of his grace and sets you on his mantle, huh?
He's the potter. Believers live in the light.
They know judgment is coming and they have taken refuge in
that only place. And he said, God hath not appointed
us to wrath. Now God takes no pleasure in
the death of the wicked. He takes no pleasure in it. That
man over here that cries out against God who has been deceived,
God takes no pleasure in his death. Takes no pleasure in his
death. But He wills their destruction,
or they wouldn't perish. That's just so. And I'll tell you why I know
that. Because the Scripture said, He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. That's just so. And Peter, using the same Scripture
I read to you in Isaiah a while ago, and over in the book of
Acts, he says in 1 Peter 2 saying, Unto you, therefore, which believe
he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone
which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of
the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to
them that stumble at the word, being disobedient. Now listen,
whereunto also they were appointed." But if you're here this morning
and you're a believer, you can rejoice in this. God hasn't appointed
you to wrath. Rejoice in that. There's a world
of men and women that God has left aside, turned His back on,
give them up to themselves. Give them over to strong delusion
to believe a lie. But some, some, such were some
of you. Ain't that what Paul said? But
God gave you eyes and a heart. Oh, my soul. God has a people
chosen in Christ before the world began. And they fell just like
every other son of Adam. They were all by nature children
of wrath, even as others. But God did not appoint them
to the same end that He did the reprobate. He did not leave them
to their own destruction. He did not, like whole nations
in this world, turn them over to themselves and leave them
unprotected. before Satan. He didn't hedge
them about like he did Job. Their final end will not be everlasting
damnation because God has not so ordained their end. That's
right. Paul said you can rejoice in
this. You can be comforted with this. God hasn't appointed you
to wrath. So that's the first and great
comfort to the believers that God has not appointed him to
wrath. If He had, He wouldn't be a believer. I always get this question, well
how do you know if you're one of God's elect? You believe.
You believe. Only God's elect believe. Isn't
that what Paul said, I know your election of God? He told this
very people in chapter 1, I know your election of God because
when my gospel came to you, it came not in word only. It came
in power and you believed. You believed. If God had appointed you to wrath,
He wouldn't have given you a new heart. And if God had appointed
you to wrath, He wouldn't have called you with
an irresistible calling. God hath not appointed us to
wrath. Now look here in verse 9 again.
1 Thessalonians 5 verse 9. Here's the second thing. He hadn't
appointed us to wrath. Well, what did He appoint us
to? He's the Lord. Nothing comes to pass without
His appointment. What did He appoint us to? To
obtain salvation. Isn't that what that says? No man will ever obtain salvation
who was not appointed to receive it. He's appointed. It's the eternal
sovereign will of God that His elect shall all be saved. Every
one of them. Every one of them. This is the
Father's will. That's what Christ said. Would
you know what the Father's will is concerning these things? Well,
here's the Scripture to tell you over in John. John chapter
6 verse 39. This is the Father's will which
has sent me that of all which He hath given me I should lose
nothing but raise it up again at the last day. That's right. It's the eternal sovereign will
of God that all His elect be saved. And the Son glorifies
the Father as He's given sovereign power over all flesh and in His
death to give eternal life to as many as the Father had given
Him. I don't know. I know this. Children
of the night, children of darkness, children deceived in this world.
See, election is a slam door. It's just a shut door, Russell.
What you're saying is if a man seeks God, he can't come in because
election closed the door. No, I'm saying there's none that
seeketh after God. That's what I'm saying. And if
it weren't for election, we'd be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what Paul said. If God
hadn't preserved us a seed, we'd be just like Sodom and Gomorrah
burned up in the fire. Election's not a closed door
keeping multitudes out, but an open door of mercy and grace
to those who would otherwise never seek the Lord. Antichrist
religion, the lies and deceits of this world, always portrays
election as unfair, unjust, and keeping thousands out of heaven
who otherwise may decide they want to come in. The truth of it is, there are
none that understandeth and none that seeketh after God. Election
is the door in, not the wall that keeps men out. Man loves
his sin. I'll tell you, it's man's nature
that keeps him out. It's his love of darkness that
keeps him from the truth. It's his love of sin and self
that keeps him out. He loves his sin, and he loves
this world, and he loves them both exactly the same way. If God had not chosen a people,
listen to what Isaiah said. He said, except the Lord of Sabaoth
had left us a seed, talking about Christ, we'd been like Sodom
and Gomorrah. My brother once said to me, This
has been years and years ago, better than 30 years ago. He
said, if I believed like you do, I wouldn't bother to preach. If I believed that God had appointed
some to life, and God in His sovereign purpose had left some
to themselves, if none but God's elect did what He said, I wouldn't
preach. And I said, on the contrary, if I believed like you and every
other Arminian preacher that ever lived, if I believed like
that, I wouldn't preach because man's dead. I guarantee there
wasn't any other preachers but Christ at the grave site of Lazarus. There wasn't a big congregation
of preachers out here all trying to get Lazarus to come out of
the grave. They didn't even bother to go down there. Man's dead.
They was all mourning and crying because by now he stink. Don't
take the stone away. Don't do that. Why not? Why not? Huh? Lazarus, come out of there. You see what I'm saying? I tell you, if God hadn't chosen
a people, I wouldn't bother to preach. You might as well go
out there and preach to the grass. If you don't believe me, you
go over here somewhere that God hasn't sent you, and you stand
there and preach a while and see if I ain't telling you the
truth. God has appointed some to life. That's why we preach. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, after
he talks about this strong delusion, And men being given over to believe
a lie and be damned, Paul said, but oh, he said, I'm thankful
to God for you, brethren. How come? What did he say there
in verse 13? Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you unto salvation. Isn't that what he said? Something to rejoice in. Here's
what makes the hearts of God's people rejoice. And here's where
they find comfort. God has not appointed them to
wrath, but He has appointed them unto life. And then thirdly,
watch this down here in verse 9. This salvation, He said, is
by our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
an interesting word, that word, by. You know, the Lord, in the
Word of God, when He inspired the Word of God and give men
language, He takes these little tiny words that we take for granted
and He hangs the glory of His Father's house on Him. This salvation is by, not by
you. It's not by you. It ain't something
you can do. It's by the Lord Jesus Christ. It means that the salvation here
referred to is accomplished by Him. It's of His doing. He's
the one appointed to accomplish it. He's the representative man. He's the substitute. Now salvation is a new person,
a new Adam, a new man. One not subject to a fall. One
not subject to corruption. One not drawn away. One tempted
and tried like as we are yet without sin. One that loved his
father even though it meant his suffering and death. Christ alone
is approved of God. He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. And He pleased God by becoming
their representative and substitute, and He pleased God in all that
He said and done. He pleased God in His righteous
vindication of judgment, and He pleased the Father because
He laid down His life for the sheep. Salvation is in a person,
and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. And to be saved is to
have Christ. It's to believe on Him, rest
in Him, lean upon Him, give yourself to Him. It's all together in
Him. And to have Him is to have life.
And to miss Christ is to miss life. To believe on Him, Christ
said, is to pass from death unto life. That's what He said. That's
how you know that you've passed from death unto life. Because
you believe on Him. And then the fourth thing that
gives the believer hope and comfort is the substitutionary work of
Christ. Look here in verse 10. He said,
Who died for us. He died for us. Is there any truth in the Gospel
sweeter than this to the taste of a seeking sinner? Christ died
for me. Oh, that's sweet. I tell you,
you see yourself hung before the sovereign justice of God,
shut up to that justice, shut up to that holiness, shut up
to that inexhaustible wrath, and to find out that another
had been chosen to die in your stead. And I tell you this, if
the Lord Jesus Christ was not appointed to your wrath, then
you cannot be appointed to His life. So you're going to throw
an election out, you're going to throw the whole thing out.
Throw it all out. Well, I just won't have this
appointment to life. Then you can't have your appointment
to His substitutionary death. If the Lord Jesus Christ did
not pay your debt in full, then you still owe it. You still owe it. If the Lord
Jesus Christ did not satisfy the justice of God on your behalf,
then everlasting punishment is your sure end. Because you cannot
satisfy that justice. That's why punishment is everlasting.
Because it can never satisfy the justice of God. God cannot
save any sinner for whom justice has not been satisfied. And no
sinner can ever satisfy God's justice or else the punishment
would not be everlasting. Paul said, The gospel I preach
to you, which you also received, and wherein you stand, and by
which you are saved, if you keep it in memory. and be not moved
away from the hope of it, is how Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. The Scriptures tell us that His
death was vicarious. He died as a substitute for our
people. The salvation to which God's
elect are appointed to obtain is by the Lord Jesus Christ and
by way of His vicarious suffering and death. Those who still fear
the fires of hell have never yet seen the fire burn out on
the Lord Jesus Christ. I heard somebody one time tell
a story about one of the big forest fires out in California.
They said that a father and a son was out hiking in the mountains
out there. And those forest fires, I forget,
I did know what it was, but there's a plant that grows out there
that sap is like gasoline. And as soon as it gets the least
bit hot, it bursts open, and that fuel, this little plant,
it only grows about so high. But when those flames, a plant
that high can send flames 30 feet in there. It's just like
gasoline. And the hotter the fire, the
more it explodes, and the more it goes, and then it goes, and
then it carries with it the pine trees and the other trees in
the woods, and this thing just takes off. And because of the
winds there on the coast, there on the Pacific, the winds are
coming in and swirling around in those valleys, oh, the forest
fires are horrendous. And anyway, they were up hiking
in the mountains, and unbeknownst to them, one of these forest
fires got started. And this thing began to come
along, and it was blowing pine needles, and he saw the smoke
of it and grabbed his boy by the hand, and away they went,
trying to get back down to the road. But that fire began to
blow and began to, it kind of just makes its own weather and
environment and this thing is blowing flame and needles and
embers and things are going and catching fire here and catching
fire there. And if you're not careful, you're going to run
right into the fire instead of away from it. And so he takes
this boy, and by now the smoke is coming in, and they're just
about to pass out from the smoke, and the boy's exhausted, and
the daddy grabs the boy, and he spies this little meadow out
there that's just smoldering. It's already burnt. Went through
that grass and burned it up, and he run out there in the middle
of it and bowed down. And that little boy looked up,
and he saw those flames coming through them pine trees, and
he cried. He said, the flames are going to devour us. And his
daddy said, no son, the fire can't burn twice in the same
spot. We'll be safe. We'll be safe. That's my hope in Christ. That's
my hope of judgment. That's the whole thing in a nutshell.
The fire can't burn twice in the same spot. Go there. Kneel down there. Hope there. There's hope. There's hope in
Christ. Our Father, we thank for these precious, precious
promises. Oh, what undeserved comfort and
peace and joy that you've given to those that believe. Be pleased
this morning to demonstrate that grace and demonstrate that mercy
and speak peace to the hearts of someone here this morning,
for Christ's sake.