First Thessalonians five. Every letter that Paul wrote
was for admonition, it was for reproof, it was for encouragement.
And it always addressed specific issues of the specific church. And it's no different in this
letter to the church at Thessalonica. But as this letter is coming
to an end, He says in 1 Thessalonians 5, But of the times and the seasons,
brethren, you have no need I write unto you. For you yourself 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. Paul says concerning
the times, You don't need me to tell you anything. You know
perfectly well that the Lord is returning. You know perfectly
well that the time of the Lord's return is at hand. And how much
more so now can we say that? 2,000, roughly 2,000 years later,
how much closer are we? The Lord called it the end times
then. Paul called it the end times
then. Paul says, you don't need me to tell you about that. He
said, you know perfectly well the Lord's gonna come back for
his people. When most think of the return
of the Lord, they apply it to what they think they have done
to be rewarded by him. Most will say, yeah, the Lord's
coming back and we're looking for his return so that I can
have my reward for the good deeds that I have done in religion.
That I came out of specifically there were seven they said there
were seven crowns that you could earn by doing this and by doing
that by abstaining from this by not partaking in that and
Seven crowns the Lord Jesus Christ is the crown to his people the
Lord Jesus Christ is the reward for it to his people, isn't he?
We don't need to concern ourself with something. He is the prize. Paul said, I press towards the
mark. He's the mark. The prize of the high calling
of God. He is the prize to his people. He is the crown of righteousness. We don't rejoice in what we do
for him. No, we see that we're nothing but sinners saved by
grace. We've been made to know that.
We know that everything that we produce is sin. I can't do
something to earn favor with God, but Christ did. Christ did. He perfectly satisfied
every demand that his father had. We rejoice in him and what he
has done for his people. If you want to know whether somebody
is out for self, look at their motives. Look at their motives.
If they're out to get a reward in this life, look for pleasure,
popularity, and power that they're seeking after Christ never did
that. And the Lord's people, yes, we do wrestle with those
things in the flesh, don't we? We still wrestle with those things
in the flesh, but the new man looks to Christ in all things,
all the time. The new man must have the Lord
Jesus Christ. New man has one desire, doesn't
it? The Lord Jesus Christ and His precious blood. Only the
Lord's people want Him to have all the glory. Only the Lord's
people want to have Him as their righteousness, Him as their reward.
He did that. He does that. He gives that desire.
It's not something we can learn or attain to. It's something
that's bestowed. He gives us one desire. I've got to be found
in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but the righteousness which is by the
faith of Christ. given to his people. Only God's people want him to
have all the glory. Then Paul tells us why this is
true for God's elect and let's read verse four through 11. And
I'll tell you the second hour, we're gonna be looking through
the remainder of the chapter. That's why we're stopping at
11. We're gonna actually be looking at verse 16 through 28, the second
hour. But here in verse four, he says, but ye brethren are
not in darkness. that the day should overtake
you as a thief. You are all the children of light
and the children of the day. We are not 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 you do." There is
no comfort outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no comfort,
no true comfort to the Lord's people outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's no hope of eternal life.
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no justification outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no righteousness outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. No hope of eternal life. There's
no peace outside of Him. He's the Prince of Peace. There's
no joy outside of Him. His salvation, the Lord is our
joy, isn't He? There is no rest outside of Him.
And Paul says, put Him on. Put him on. Well, how do we put
him on? Well, look at verse eight again.
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.
How do we put him on? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Every time that we see something
that we could turn into a work, we must remember that it has
to be seen through the lens of the gospel, where Christ does
everything and gets all the glory. This is done by faith alone.
This is looking to him. This is what we continually repeat
is look to Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is
how we put him on. And the only way we can do that
is if he has given us faith to do so and enabled us. It's an
act of grace in the heart, isn't it? It's an act of mercy in the
heart for the Lord's people. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. That's what he said, wasn't it?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. So all
I have to do is believe, yes. That's all you have to do. And
the only way we can do that is if he says believe. If he says
look, if he says seek, then we seek, then we look, then we believe.
Lord, I want to believe. What did the disciples say? Do
you believe? Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I believe you,
but I'm full of unbelief also. Is that your experience? That's
mine. Every day, it's Lord, Lord, make me to know thy precepts.
Lord, keep me. Lord, make me believe. I want
to believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Come to Christ as a child. Come, he said, suffer the little
children that they come unto me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of heaven. If you want to come to Christ,
you can. You can. You gotta come as a child, confessing
that you're nothing, confessing that he's everything, believing
on him through faith. If he's given you faith, if he's
given me faith, we will come to him as a child, confessing
he is all by faith. That is, putting on faith and
love and the helmet of hope, the helmet of the hope of our
salvation. He is that hope, isn't he? Look to Christ, look to the Lord
Jesus Christ is what Paul's saying. And he tells us why we can in
verse nine, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. God hath not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. I love the wording here. I love
the way that it says, how we obtain salvation. It's not by
you, and it's not by me. It's not by what we do. It's
not by what we don't do. It's by the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we obtain salvation? By
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what do you mean? He had
to obtain it for us. Salvation's bestowed. Salvation
is the gift of God. Salvation is by grace through
faith, isn't it? we obtain salvation by Christ's
doing. And that's what I've titled this
message this morning is Salvation Obtained. I have four questions
for us this hour. I hope the Lord would be pleased
to enable me to declare it clearly to you and enable you to hear
it clearly, that he would send his spirit to make it effectual
to our hearts. The four questions I have is who obtained salvation? I've already answered that, but
we're going to look at that just for a moment. Who obtained salvation? How did he obtain salvation?
When did he obtain salvation and why? Why did he obtain salvation? The first question is who? Salvation
is not obtained by our doing, as I've already mentioned. Salvation
is not obtained by our doing or not doing something. Not when
we decide something. Salvation is not obtained when
we decide to pray a prayer or decide this or decide that. That's not when salvation is
obtained. It's not when we confess our
sins, then salvation is obtained. No, no, no. Salvation was obtained
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation was obtained by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when we, how did Paul communicate
that? I have not apprehended that which
has apprehended me. He was saying, we have obtained
Christ is what he's saying. Christ has obtained me. That's
why I've obtained him. I am my beloved and he is mine.
Not because I did. the obtaining, but because he
hath gotten his people, he hath redeemed his people, he hath
saved his people from their sin, and therefore makes them alive
to that fact. That's salvation, when he makes
us alive to the fact that Jesus Christ saved his people from
their sin. Salvation is not obtained by
anything we do. There is only one who is worthy
to take the book He's got his name on it, don't, that's the
Lamb's book of life. He's the only one that's worthy
to take the book and to loose the seals and to open the book
thereby, thereof. There's only one who is holy
as God himself because he is God himself. There's only one
God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God. He's called
the Root of Jesse. He is the Prince of Peace. He's
called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is who obtained salvation. This is who obtained salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is qualified. He is capable. He's the only one that was qualified.
He's the only one that is capable. You and I are neither qualified
nor capable, are we? We can't obtain salvation by
what we do. He did. He did. He had perfect blood by birthright.
He had his father's blood, didn't he? That was his qualification
as who he was. He was qualified. You and I are
disqualified because of our father Adam's blood. We're polluted,
born polluted in sin. We're not qualified to obtain
salvation by what we do. We are totally, completely, and
utterly sinful. When I was writing this, I started
out by saying totally sinful, and I said, well, yeah, we're
totally, we're completely too, and then I came to utterly, so we're
totally, completely, and utterly sinful, aren't we? I mean, by
nature, we see that so clearly. Lord, I have in my hand no price
I can bring. I have nothing to give whereby
I can boast therein. Simply to Jesus Christ, his people
will cling. We're born dead in trespasses
and in sin. David said, born in sin, shaping
into iniquity. And most men and women lie to
themselves about their condition. They look at others and think,
well, I'm not as bad as that person is, or I don't commit
the sin that that person does. Sin is not what we do. Sin is
what we are. Sin is what we are. Even the
very breath that exit our bodies, it's poison. Carbon dioxide is
poison, isn't it? Everything about us is toxic. Men say he's, you know, so-and-so,
he's not that bad. I've even heard men say, boy,
he sure is a good man. You ever heard that before? May
the Lord keep us from describing each other that way. I want to
be referred to as a sinner saved by grace because that's my only
hope. That's my only hope. Is that yours? That God gave
grace and he saved you or is your hope? I'm a pretty good
guy. You know, I've I, Lord, I thank
thee that I tithe, I fast weekly. That's what the public, that's
what the Pharisee said, wasn't it? I'm not like so-and-so. I'm
not even like that publican in the back back there. Lord, I
thank you I'm not like that. What did the publican do? He
beat upon his breast. He said, Lord, I have a heart
problem. I have a heart problem. You're gonna have to do something.
I can't do it. You're the one that obtained salvation. I can't
obtain it. I can't obtain it. Have mercy on me, the sinner. That's what he said, wasn't it?
See, God demands perfection. Don't be deceived. Don't lie
to yourself. May the Lord keep us from lying
to ourselves. God demands perfection. Not one sin ever. Not one sin
ever. You and I are unholy by nature.
We are unrighteous in every way, in every manner. Not the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was born King of kings and
Lord of lords. He was born the eternal God. He was the fullness. He is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And he obtained the salvation
that you and I could never, ever, ever obtain by what we did. You
and I are born dead. He was born alive unto his father.
Do we know that? He wasn't born dead like we are. He was born alive unto his father.
He was born the righteousness of God. He was born as holy as
God because he is God. He is God. For every single person
he was born for, every single person he lived for, every single
person he died for that died in him on the cross of Calvary,
he obtained eternal redemption for them, for them. Every single
person given to him in the covenant of grace by his father, he obtained
salvation for them. He's the only one that could
have, isn't he? He's the one that did it. So that's who, that's
who, the question was who obtained it, that's who obtained it, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The second question is how, how did he obtain
it? Hebrews 9, 12 tells us, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. By his
own blood, he entered once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. That doesn't say that if we do
something, that if we do something, he will obtain eternal redemption.
It says he has. That's already past tense. He
had obtained eternal redemption for us, for his people. Salvation
was obtained by his blood alone. Colossians 1.20 says, and having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things into himself by him. I say, whether things in earth
or things in heaven, whether there be things in earth or things
in heaven. This is all past tense, isn't it? It's not going to,
he's obtained. And he hath reconciled. These are all, this is done.
This is finished already. There's rest in that, isn't there?
You mean there's nothing for me to do to obtain salvation. There is nothing for you to do
to obtain salvation, look to Christ. Well, I thought you said
there's nothing for me to do, I did. Faith just looks to Christ and
we get no glory for looking, do we? Looking is, it's a passive
term. It's not a action whereby we,
because if it was, we would start saying, boy, I'm doing this. That's the problem. Every time
we talk about, What we do, we make it a work, don't we? Faith
just believes Him. It's just the breath that we
take. He's the breath that we take. All this is past tense.
And it's all because Him being the brightness of His glory in
the express image of His person and upholding all things by the
word of His power. He did all of that. And when He had by Himself
purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. I could have titled this a done deal probably. If
you want to put it that way, it's over. It's finished. He's
done it all. All by his blood. It's his work. Salvation has
been obtained by him. Romans 4 says, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again because of our justification. It's already done. His people's
been justified. His people's been sanctified,
glorified. We know that from Romans. the
book of Romans, don't we? The Lord tells us that clearly. As offensive, as offensive as
we are in his sight, we are, we are more, as ugly as we used
to be, this is how I want to try to say this, as ugly as we
used to be, we're more than beautiful on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Now, why? Because we've been made the perfect righteousness
of God in him. That's how the Lord sees his
people, by the Lord's blood. He did it. He did it all. We've been justified in the sight
of God. You've heard me say this, but
I like to... I like to give definitions to words because I don't ever
want them to be misconstrued or misunderstood. That word justified
doesn't mean just as if I had never sinned. It means that you
have never sinned one time in the sight of God. And the way
that he sees it, that's how it really is. See, he took the sin
and he made them go away. He purged them by his own blood.
He washed them away by his own blood. He cast them as far as
the east is from the west. You can go east as long as you
want to, and you'll never hit west. You can go west as long
as you want to and never hit east. That's what he said. You can't find the sin. Why?
They're gone. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Why? They're gone. They're gone. He obtained salvation by his
blood. We are declared the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The song lyric that said, why
should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer, but
this I know with all my heart, his blood has paid my ransom. Third question is when was salvation
obtained? Was it when we allowed him to
do something for us? Was it when we chose to do something
for him? No. No, Ephesians one tells us
clearly, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. When was salvation obtained for
the Lord's people? It was obtained in eternity in
the covenant of grace between the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit. And it was obtained in time by his own blood, wasn't
it? It was both. It's absolutely both. He's called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. See, this is a
timeless salvation. It was accomplished in time,
but we're talking about an eternal, everlasting God that's never
had a new thought. I can't explain that to you,
but faith believes that. He's never had a new thought.
He's always seen his people in Christ, always. When was salvation
obtained? Before the world began and in
time on the cross of Calvary. The Lord Jesus Christ successfully
obtained eternal redemption for his people. And the last question is why? Why? And I could have taken us to
many places to show us why, but we know the reason. It was all
for the glory of God, wasn't it? All for the glory of God.
He tells us in Ephesians 1, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself. according to the good
pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Why did he obtain
salvation? That we might be to the praise
of his glory. I love the thought that it's
because he wanted to do it. Why did he obtain it? Because
he wanted to. He chose to. He chose to obtain salvation
for his people. He's the he's the author. He's
the finisher of faith, isn't he? He chose to do it. I love
the thought that you and I can't choose to do anything. He chose
to obtain salvation and did it and did it. All for his glory,
according to the good pleasure of his will, it was his choice. Every time I quote this verse
I'm about to tell us, I remind us that it's on the bulletin.
It's the verse that the Lord gave me when we moved up here.
I'd love the verse, uh, second Timothy one nine, God has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works. Boy, that is so clear, isn't it? Holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. I love the infiniteness of our
Lord and the sovereignty of our God and how that salvation wasn't
an attempt, it was successful. And we were given to Christ before,
we were given grace, We were given a holy calling
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Can you explain that to
me? No. Can I explain that to you? No. But that's how wonderful
this salvation truly is, is it's impossible to men diminish salvation
all the time. This salvation can't be diminished.
It's the work of God. It can't be thwarted. It can't
be changed. It's forever settled. It's forever
settled. by his own will begat he us. Ephesians 1 says, in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance. What is the inheritance? The
Lord Jesus Christ, that's our inheritance. Do you want anything
other than that? No, no, just him. He is heaven, isn't he?
He is heaven to his people. Men, women get caught up in I
just came back from a funeral, as you all know, and I overheard
some of them talking about what the individual's doing now. You
know what he's doing now? He's our dear brother. He's worshipping.
He's worshipping Christ. He's not paying attention to
the great designs that's present there because he's focused on
the person, the most glorious being. The Lord Jesus Christ,
he's focusing on him. He's our inheritance. We have
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Why did he obtain salvation?
Because he was not willing that any of his elect should perish,
but all should come to repentance. And God wasn't willing, and he's
still not willing. He's never been willing. I love
that about our God, don't you? He's not willing that any of
his people should perish. So he, by himself, purged his
people's sin on the cross of Calvary. He loved her. I can't not talk
about the love of our Lord involved in this. This was not just, You
know, people have graven images of who God is, and you've seen
the paintings and things before as he's an old man with a beard
and white and all that nonsense. God's a spirit. God's a man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, but God is a spirit. Don't imagine what
he looks like. Look to Christ by faith. That's
what I would encourage you to do. That being said, He loved
his bride. He loved his bride. The son loved
the father, and the father loved the son, and they loved their
people. It's an everlasting love, he
calls it. He calls it an everlasting love. Therefore, he obtained eternal
redemption for her. And in closing, I wanna read
verse nine again. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. God
hath not appointed us to wrath. Boy, there's rest in that, aren't
there? God, if you can honestly say, you can honestly believe
that God has not appointed you to wrath, boy, there is rest
in that. That means Christ endured his
wrath for you. That's what that means. And he
says, but instead of wrath, He's appointed us to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Lord Jesus Christ. He imputes
this gift by his grace to his people. Understand salvation,
and a lot of times we say things and people can misconstrue them.
So I want to be as clear as I can be on this. Salvation is not
obtained when faith is given. Salvation is not obtained when
faith is given. Salvation is revealed by faith. You see the difference? Salvation
is not obtained when faith is given. Salvation is revealed
by faith. See, salvation was already obtained
by Christ. He gives faith to believe that Christ obtained
salvation for his people. Faith is not the cause for salvation. Faith is not the cause for salvation. Faith is not the cause for eternal
redemption. Faith is not the cause for justification. It's the evidence of salvation. It's the evidence of life had
been given. It's the evidence of justification
before God. Faith just looks to Christ and
believes on him. Proverbs 8 says, for whoso findeth
me findeth life and shall obtain favor. favor of the Lord. Whoso findeth me, findeth life. He's not lost though, is he?
He's not lost. Whoso findeth me, findeth life.
He's not the one that's lost. We're the ones that's lost. How
are we going to find him if we're the ones that's lost? Well, that's
the point. The only reason we find him is because he found
us. That's how that works. The only
way that we find him is that he must find us to give us life
and faith, revealing that he is all. relieving, believing
that everyone he obtained salvation for will be found, will be kept
by his power. The Lord said, of all that the
Father hath given me, I shall lose none. I shall lose none.
We're kept by his power. There is not a single person
in hell that the Lord Jesus Christ died for, that the Lord Jesus
Christ loves. that he shed his blood for. And
everyone that is in glory is because he loved them, because
he shed his blood for them, because he honored the father in everything
that he did, because he obtained eternal redemption for them.
Because Christ chose to die, because Christ chose to become
his people's substitute, he made them robed in his righteousness.
Look in verse 10. Christ Jesus, who died for us,
that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with
him. Whether we wake or whether we sleep, we should live together
with him. We're one with him. We're one
with him because he obtained salvation. Thank God he did.
Let us pray.