Well if you brought a bible with you say amen. I want to invite you to open it to 1 Thessalonians 5. If you’re visiting with us we’ve been going verse by verse through this marvelous, marvelous text. The Lord’s really been teaching us some great truths. I’m talking to you on the subject, Sobriety this morning, Sobriety.
1 Thessalonians 5, I’ll begin reading in verse one so please call you attention to that text. The bible says, Now as to the times and the epics brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night, while you are saying peace and safety. Then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains come upon a woman with child. And they not escape. Verse 4, but you brethren are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of day. You are no longer of the night or the darkness. So then let us not sleep as other do but let us be alert and be sober. For the who sleep do their sleeping at night and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. I love verse 9; For God has not destined us for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Verse 10, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we will live together with him therefore encourage one another and build up one another just as you also are doing.
Let’s bow together in prayer. Father, I thank you so much for the scriptures. I thank you for how they teach us, they challenge us, the shape us. God today we’re praying that your Holy Spirit would work in a magnificent way in our hearts. That you would empower us and enable us to welcome the scriptures into our soul. That it might motivate us and challenge us to live sober lives, lives that are watchful, lives that are understanding that your coming is near. And God today there is nothing special about us. God the goal here is not to elevate this church. The goal here is not to elevate anyone on this stage. The goal is to elevate You. So Father I pray in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that you would continue to teach us the art of humility. We humble ourselves today before you. And we want to hear from heaven. And God I pray, today that peoples lives would be changed, that we could continue to rejoice and sing the salvation of many souls. It’s in your holy name that we pray, and everybody said, amen.
Well as Christians we live sober lives because we have an enemy and because we have an ending. Paul stresses that ending as the day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3. We learn together last week that the day of the Lord will be a day of desperation, destruction, and also discernment. Indeed, those who never come to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ will be subject to the fiery wrath of a holy God. In an age of apostasy and in an age of when cultural relevancy in the pulpit trumps biblical truth and in a day when preachers bow to the whims of carnality and sinfulness, we seldom hear preaching about the wrath of God. However, scripture repeatedly warns us about the wrath of God with a strong emphasis on the day of the Lord.
Now look at this preacher for just a moment. It is not a privilege to talk about the wrath of God. I would much rather get up here and talk about the love of the Lord. And I’m always thankful; we wouldn’t know how great His love was unless we understood how great His wrath is. But I do know this morning I don’t get my, you know, my kicks off of talking about the wrath of God so some people, you’re visiting are thinking, good grief that preacher, boy, he loves hellfire and brimstone.
Well, when you preach verse by verse through the bible you’re going to come on it and you can’t skip it. And the problem is there are a lot of preachers skipping it today. So they got a lot of folks showing up for church but none being changed by the power of God. The power of God comes through the true biblical and pure gospel. And with the Lord’s help this morning we are going to continue to talk about that marvelous gospel. But it’s in the backdrop of the wrath of God.
Could you imagine a mass murderer, he enters into your house, slaughters your entire family? You see it with your own eyes. You are cut through the heart with the traumatic loss of your entire family. Somehow, you narrowly escaped that death. They capture the murderer. He stands before the judge and the judge looks at him and says you are guilty of this crime. We have eye witnesses, we have testimony against you. You are indeed guilty, guilty, guilty. Could you imagine if the judge leaned back in his chair, stroked his brow, places his attention on the man who was condemned at that moment for murder and said, you know what, I am a loving judge. As a matter of fact, I am a nice guy. So what I’m going to do this morning is set you free. Could you imagine that? How your blood would boil as you watched the murderer walk from that courtroom into the street of freedom. In fact, you’d be so fired up angry, so overwhelmed with indignation; you would fight the court system for justice. So why would you do that? Because those who murder, deserve justice. As a matter of fact, you would look at that judge in that courtroom and you would be in absolute dismay over the verdict that he came to.
