1 Thessalonians, we took a short break but the Lord’s been teaching us now in chapter 5 on the subject sobriety, it’s not what you think. 1 Thessalonians 5, I want to read to you verse 1-11. Then I want to talk to you this morning on this subject series sobriety. Note with me verse one the bible says, Now as to the time 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 just like a thief in the night, while their saying peace and safety. Then destruction will come on them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape. But you brethren are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief for you are all sons of the light and sons of the day. And we are not of the night or of the darkness. Verse 6, so then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober. For those 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. For God has not destined us for wrath before obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we’re asleep or awake we will live together with him. Verse 11, and therefore, encourage one another and build up one another just as you also are doing.
Let’s bow together in prayer. Father, we come to you this morning, humbling ourselves, understanding that this in the inerrant word of God. That you use this scripture to shape us and to mold us. And God we have worshipped you in our hearts and now we want to welcome the scripture into our hearts. And God I want to pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you would give me unction from heaven and that you would fill me with you Holy Spirit and use me this morning. God I pray you’d give me divine strength to preach this message. And God I also pray if there are people here today that don’t know you personally, God it’s impossible for me to change them, impossible for me to save them. But I’m under deep conviction that you through the power of your Holy Spirit will begin to woe them and call them to salvation today, that we as a church might celebrate with all of heaven for those who have been redeemed. God you indeed are holy and we don’t deserve to walk into your presence but according to the bible you have made us worthy by your son Jesus Christ to come and to be with you. So God please feed our souls today and change us. It’s in the name of Christ that we pray, and everybody says, amen.
The theme of chapter 5 is the day of the Lord. The call for Christians is to live a life of sobriety. The day of the Lord will be marked by God’s wrath being poured out upon those who reject the Lord Jesus. We learned together that this will be a day of desperation, destruction, and also discernment. However, those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord of their life will not experience the day of the Lord’s wrath. Can I say it to you this way, a couple of weeks ago Penny would have experienced the day of the Lord’s wrath but because she repented and gave her heart to the Jesus Christ she now will escape that day. As we learned last time together we will not experience God’s wrath as Christians because Jesus our Lord experienced the wrath of God for us on the cross at Calvary. Thus we’ve been rescued from the domain of darkness. We are now followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; in addition we’ve become lights in a dark world. We are now sons of light and sons of the day. Paul tells us that we are not destined for wrath. Paul’s building a case for those who in 1 Thessalonians as we as us at Ewing Road (Baptist Church). The train of thought is simple. Paul say’s first of all the day of the Lord will not surprise the true follower’s of Christ.
Secondly the day of the Lord will not destroy the true follower of Jesus Christ. However, in light of the coming day of the Lord, Paul writes to you and I saying, since you are followers of Christ here is how you ought to act now. I want you to look with me in your bible at verse 6 and 7. If you got it there in front of you say amen. The bible says so then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night and those who get drunk get drunk at night. Now let’s stop there. There are really three major words that I want us to zero in on this morning.
The word sleep, alert, and sober. As we look at these three words we see where scriptures give both a negative command and also a positive command. In other words, Paul speaks of how we are not to live our lives as followers of Christ but then he speaks of how we are to live our lives as followers of Christ. So let’s look at those two commands this morning as in our outline.
We’ll note command number one. It is this; do not be indifferent about your relationship with Jesus. Let me say this again, do not be indifferent about your relationship with Jesus. Paul says; let us not sleep as others do. The term sleep in the Greek New Testament is pregnant with biblical implications. I looked the word up in Strong’s Concordance and found that the here speaks of being slothful, lacks, lazy, sinful, and indifferent concerning one’s salvation. Now I’m under deep conviction on of the greatest sins that a child of God can make is to not give great care and concern for his or her salvation. To be lazy, to be lack, to be slothful, to be indifferent about your relationship with Jesus Christ is greatly disrespectful and it is irreverent to the Holy Son of God. After studying this word, sleep, I began to wonder if I were being indifferent in my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So I examined myself. It’s interesting this past week I was in the bed four days out of five. So I had an opportunity to examine myself to say the least. When you’ve had the flu, you do a lot of praying. Lord get me out of the flu, you understand, it was rough. But I ask this simple question, how can I know if I am indifferent about my relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord led me to 2 major ways that I can be confident that I am indifferent to my relationship with Jesus Christ, if I’m not careful.
The first major way is this. I am indifferent about my relationship with Christ if I am morally drifting, if I am morally drifting. Now I want you to listen to this because this is slick. In the Old Testament we read about the cities of Sodom and Gomorra. These two cities were considered morally despicable. According to Genesis 18:20, their sin was grievance in the sight of God the Father. They were filled with drunkenness, lude activity, homosexuality, anything you can think of, it was happening in Sodom. Abraham and his nephew, Lot, came to a time in their lives they became prosperous. Their workers were fighting among one another because they couldn’t keep us with whose possessions were whose. So Abraham and Lot decided to split up. Abraham told Lot, you chose where you want to live and I’ll go in the opposite direction. The scriptures tell us that Lot fixed his eyes on Sodom and he chose to move in that direction. But I want you to listen to this; He fixed his eyes on Sodom. Then in Genesis 13:12 the bible say, Abraham settled in the land of Canon, while Lot settled in the cities in the valley and he pitched his tents toward Sodom. And then it tells us in Genesis 14:12 that Lot moved into Sodom. And then it tells me in Genesis 19:1 that Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. To sit at the gate was to act as a ruler, as a judge, in some cases even a governor. Lot had not only moved into Sodom but he was acting as a ruler in Sodom. Warren Wiersbe states, Lot’s heart was in Sodom long before his body ever arrived there. Lot had become quite comfortable living in Sodom. Let me give it to you this way, Lot was morally drifting. Now I want you to look at me for just a moment, because here is the context in which I want you to see Lot’s life. Lot looked over there and saw Sodom. Before you know it Lot moved in real close to Sodom, just close enough but he didn’t touch it. Then you keep reading a little further and all of a sudden he moves on into the city of Sodom. Now, he’s living among them. And then before you know it, he is ruling in Sodom. I want to tell you something, Sodom was not only a place Lot was located but Sodom where the heart of Lot was fixed.
