1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Well, did you bring your bible? Say amen. I want to invite you to open it with me to 1 Thessalonians 5. We are going to continue to go verse by verse. If you’re visiting with us we’ve been talking on the subject series, Sobriety. This will be part 4 and it’s probably not what you think but if you have missed some you can go to www.ewingroad.com and you can list to those messages or you can pick up some CDs in the back.
1 Thessalonians 5, if you got it there in front of you say amen. Let’s read. 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 their saying peace and safety then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child. 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 light and sons of day. We are not of night, nor of darkness. 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. 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 but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we will live together with him. Verse 11, therefore encourage one another and build up one another just as you also are doing.
Let’s pray. God, we love you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the veracity and the truthfulness that we find here in the scripture. God I pray today that we would allow our belief system to be shaped and molded by the truth of scripture. God I want to pray this morning that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit and give me absolute clarity of mind as I stand to preach this message. Father I pray that we as followers of Christ would grow deeply in our relationship with you as a result of our time together. We thank you that we can worship you and lift you up, and we thank you that you inhabit the praises of your people. So now in humility I pray that you would indeed use our time together as you see fit. We pray that you would continue to draw people to a saving knowledge of who you are and into a personal relationship with you. It’s in the name of Christ that we pray, and everybody said, amen.
Since we have placed our faith in Lord Jesus Christ, the bible teaches that we are no longer in the dark concerning the salvation we will receive at the coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds. In Fact we are not ignorant concerning the coming judgment of God. The wrath of God poured out upon all those who reject the grace of Jesus Christ will not come as a surprise to us according to this text nor will the wrath of God consume us according to this text. We are granted freedom from the terrible wrath of God based upon the work of Christ His Son on the cross at Calvary.
The foundation of Biblical hope is not your denomination. The foundation of Biblical hope is not your religiosity. The foundation of Biblical hope is not your good works. The foundation of Biblical hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody must know him. Paul highlights the foundation of our hope in verses 9-10 of the text we just read. Now I want you to see this because we are kind of laying ground work here and then we will dive in.
The bible says “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.” This verse issues forth the promise that we are not going to face the wrath of God. Why is it that followers of Christ we will totally miss the wrath of God? Number one, because the wrath of God was poured out on Christ on the cross. Number two because the promise of God is that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming in the clouds, 1 Thessalonians 4, to rapture the New Testament church. So before the wrath of God is poured out upon the earth for seven years and then the day of the Lord takes place at the end of that seven year tribulation the bible says before all of this you and I as followers of Christ will be raptured up. Aren’t you glad this morning that you will miss that wrath of God?
The bible tells us that God has not destined us for wrath. However, he has destined us “for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us.” Here Paul underscores the reason we miss the wrath of God is because Jesus died for us. The bible teaches that Jesus Christ is our substitute. He took the wrath of God.
This just came to mind because I have a new friend here from the Art Institute of Atlanta and I had the opportunity this past week to go to their world religions class and give a Christian world view. So I started off with 3 major questions of a world view. Where did we come from? What’s gone wrong? What is the solution? So I talked about where we came from, God created all of us. What’s the problem, sin. So we spent a little time there on sin. Then we talked about the solution being the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know, I find it pretty interesting that towards the end of our talk one of the individuals asked me, Pastor, is there any room for the love of God in your preaching? Easy response, what part of the love of God didn’t you hear? God demonstrates his love in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. No greater love has anyone than this that he would lay down his life for you and I. We see the breadth, the depth, and the height of love of almighty God when we focus that love on the backdrop of the wrath of God. Whenever we see his wrath coming and then realize that we totally will miss it because of Jesus Christ. That’s when we say, what love he has toward us. Aren’t you glad God has set his affection toward you?
