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Dr. Lars Larson
Pray. Father, help us now as we open your Word. May the Blessed Holy Spirit apply your Word to our minds and to our souls, and help us, our Lord, not only inform us but to stir us, our affections toward you, and may we conform our wills toward you, to your Word.
And Father, we want to be mindful again of the concerns of your people. We pray for Mason, the grandson, John and Edwina, as he is being monitored for a possible concussion from wrestling, and for their daughter who will be having an MRI tomorrow, and then for the friend of some here, Dave Letalian, who has some serious health issues.
May you be merciful and gracious to him and his family. And again, our God, we pray that you would be gracious to us now as we turn our minds, our eyes, to your blessed Word. Accomplish your good purposes in Christ through your Word, for we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
In recent weeks, we've addressed the important doctrine of the second coming of Christ, because it's arisen in our study of 1 Thessalonians. Thankfully, the day will arrive, we don't know when, that the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel.
The trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first, as scriptures tell us. And then we who are alive and remain should be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we will always be with the Lord.
May that day come soon. In our addressing this matter, we have sought to expose and distance ourselves from much popular, but we believe to be unbiblical, teaching regarding the second coming. And so, we have also addressed some of the commonly and popularly held, but we believe to be errant, teachings regarding the second coming.
The Holy Scriptures do not teach what is most commonly believed in most so-called Bible-believing churches. And I realize we're the minority here, we're going against the grain. The popular belief is of a two-stage second coming, a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church, followed by a seven-year tribulation on earth, including, at the end of that seven years, a second stage of the second coming of Christ.
It's believed that then there will exist a 1 ,000-year Jewish millennium on earth, which is followed by the final judgment of unbelievers. In contrast to this view, however, we believe, in accordance with Protestants of old, prior to say 1900, all the old confessions agree with our position, or rather we agree with their position, we believe the Bible to teach a single return of the Lord, not two coming, not two stages, a single return of the Lord, which will be the last day of history for this fallen world.
It will be a day of a general resurrection of all mankind, judgment will take place according to their works, they're not saved by, we will not be saved by our works, but our works on that judgment day will validate our claim that we're believers, not hypocrites.
We'll obviously be exonerated on the day of judgment because of Jesus Christ and His works, His righteousness, not our own, but our Christian works will validate our claim that we are Christians. And at this judgment the Lord will consign the eternal fate of both believers and unbelievers.
This single coming of Jesus Christ as the final event in human history, this fallen world, is consistent with what our Lord Jesus taught His disciples. Our Lord said to them He would raise His people from the dead on the last day.
That last day is not a thousand and seven years old or long, the last day is the last day. He said this in several different ways as recorded in John 6. He said this is the will of my Father who sent me that of all He has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day.
Speaking of His own Christians. In the next verse we read and this is the will of Him who sent me that everyone who sees the Son believes in Him may have everlasting life and I will raise Him up at the last day.
The resurrection. A little farther in John 6 our Lord said no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws Him. I will raise Him up at the last day. And later still in John 6 He declared whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
Speaking about believing on Him wholly, fully, without reservation. And I will raise Him up at the last day. Of course all of these are references to Christians, Old Testament and New Testament believers.
Much later in John's Gospel when the Lord was speaking of the future resurrection of the righteous, when Lazarus was lying in the grave, Martha affirmed this doctrine of the last day. And so we read in John 11 24, Martha said to Jesus, I know that He, that is Lazarus, will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
And so this expression the last day is found repeatedly in John's Gospel. However some say that this last day in which Christians will rise from the dead is a different and separate occasion than when the Lord will raise the unrighteous from their graves to face their judgment.
They argue that the resurrection of the unrighteous and the judgment of the unbelievers will take place a thousand year millennium plus seven year tribulation after the resurrection of the righteous. And so they argue there are separate resurrections, separate judgments of the righteous and the unrighteous.
But in John 12 48 our Lord spoke of the damned and that they would also be judged on this last day. And so we read our Lord's words, He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him.
The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. So Christians are raised on the last day. The unbelievers will be raised on the last day to be judged. The simplest and we would argue literal meaning of our Lord's words is there's a single last day in which He will raise the dead, judge all mankind, separating the righteous from the unrighteous, sending the damned into everlasting punishment, and granting the righteous entrance into the fullness of the kingdom of God prepared for them.
This is consistent with our Lord's words in Matthew 25 31 and following. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, hence the second coming, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
And it's not saying He won't reign until then, then He becomes King, but rather saying He's sitting down in His glory in order to pass judgment. He takes His seat and all the nations will be gathered before Him.
That's all people of human history. It's not talking about governments and what countries will be allowed to continue into a Jewish millennium. How do you judge countries as governmental entities and allow them to continue into the millennium?
He's talking about judging individuals and they're all nations and they're gathered before Him. And He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. See, a general resurrection, a general judgment.
And He'll set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. And then the King will say to those on His right hand, come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry, you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me in. I was naked, you clothed me. I was sick, you visited me. I was in prison, you came to me. Then the righteous will answer Him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty, give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the King will answer and say to them, assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.
Now here we see a judgment of works on the part of believers, right? And the judgment which proved that they were Christians was a love they showed for one another. That's consistent with many passages of Scripture.
And that you've done it to the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto me. Our dispensationalist friends say, no, no, that's a government and depending on how they treated Jews during the tribulation period in the future will be allowed into the millennium.
Now this is a general judgment of mankind and a judgment of works. And these Christians show forth their Christianity by the way they love one another. Verse 41, then he'll also say to those on the left hand, depart from me you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Now see, our dispensationalist friends have to put a thousand and seven years between the end of verse 40 and the beginning of verse 41, because they say the judgment of the unrighteous is after the millennium.
He will say to those who on the left hand, depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Here he is, for I was hungry, you gave me no food. I was thirsty, you gave me no drink.
I was a stranger, you did not take me in naked. You did not clothe me sick. And in prison you did not visit me. Then they also will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?
And then he will answer them saying, assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.
General resurrection, general judgment, separation of the sheep and goats, everlasting life, everlasting damnation. The scriptures teach one second coming of Jesus Christ on the last day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, separating the righteous from the unrighteous.
That's a whole lot simpler than this fanciful, very detailed, convoluted scenario that is believed and promoted by so many. I sat across from a dear Indian pastor down in South Africa who's committed to this in a way you just can't believe.
And he's researched and done the whole thing in every which way. And we sat across from one another for lunchtime. And I tried to explain to him why his position was errant and so convoluted and to hear his argumentation and the passages he pulled up in the verses he pulled out out of context.
It was just incredible to me. And yet totally sincere, lovely man, committed to the Lord Jesus. And so many are of this persuasion. Now in the paragraph before us, which is 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 -11, we read that Christians are prepared for the coming of the Lord, thankfully.
But that non-Christians are unprepared for the coming of the Lord. They're even unconcerned and uninformed about the Second Coming of Christ and the calamity of His judgment upon this fallen world. But the Apostle not only shows the preparedness of Christians and the unpreparedness of the non-Christian, but he shows that Christians also are to be preparing for that event.
Even though Christians are prepared, wholly, totally, they nevertheless need to be preparing. Let's read the passage. Now concerning the times and seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying there is peace and security, or peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape.
For you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We're not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
For those who sleep, sleep at night. Those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation, thankfully, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. And therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.
We read of two kinds of people here, those who are ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ and those who are not ready. And what do we mean by being ready? Well, Christians are ready in that they are ordering their lives in righteousness with view to the coming of Christ.
It's a reality to them, and it shows them, teaches them, and motivates them to live their lives before the Lord. All others, however, are not prepared for his coming. They order their lives without thought or reflection upon the accounting that will be required of them on that day.
Again, the idea of a general judgment of mankind and separation. Let's work through the passage. I'm not going to read through that outline. It would just be repetitious. So let's consider this as we work through the passage in the time we have.
First, verses 1 and 2, the day of the Lord will be sudden and unexpected. Paul wrote, now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Paul was continuing his discussion as we examine in the verses of the last chapter, chapter 4. Paul was comforting and assuring those in the church at Thessalonica that at the coming of Jesus Christ they would be reunited with their Christian loved ones who had already died.
We have a new chapter, but it's really the same theme or discussion. The question would naturally have arisen, well, when will this great event take place that we'll be reunited with our loved ones before the Lord?
Perhaps they had expected a very soon coming of the Lord. But Paul informed them there was no way to know when the Lord would return. The Lord himself had told his disciples, it's not for you to know the times or seasons.
See the words there, times and seasons? Which the Father has put in his own authority. And here Paul is saying that determining when the Lord Jesus will return is not possible for us to know. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
In other words, when he comes, he's coming suddenly, and he's coming in an unexpected way or time, unexpected manner. Again, Paul declared in verse 1, now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
Times and seasons, those two words are linked several times in the Holy Scriptures. It conveys the thought of both general and specific time frames. Paul declared there's no need for him to write regarding the times and seasons, for they already had been taught by Paul.
No one can even know in general when the second coming of Christ will take place. Don't you wish people would take that to heart? Matthew Henry, the Puritan commentator, addressed this. The Apostle tells the Thessalonians it was needless or useless to inquire about the particular time of Christ's coming, of the times and seasons you need not that I write unto you.
The thing is certain that Christ will come, and there is a certain time appointed for his coming, but there's no need that the Apostle should write about this, and therefore he had no revelation given him, nor should they or we inquire into this secret which the Father has reserved in his own power, of that day and hour knows no man, quoting the Lord Jesus, Matthew 24.
Christ himself did not reveal this while upon earth. It was not in his commission as the great prophet of the Church, nor did he reveal this to his Apostles. There was no need of this. There are times and seasons for us to do our work in these.
It is our duty and interest to know and observe, but the time and season when we must give up our account we do not, we know not, nor is it needful that we should know them. No, not like this word of Henry.
There are many things which our vain curiosity desires to know, which there is no necessity at all of our knowing, nor would our knowledge of them do us good. Isn't that right? If I knew that the Lord wasn't coming to the year 2050, I probably wouldn't be as diligent as I think, you know, I try to be today.
Paul stated in verse 2, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. And we've already addressed this expression in an adequate manner, I believe, of our Lord coming as a thief.
They are mistaken who argue that Jesus is returning as a thief in the night as that of a quiet, secret rapture of the Church. He's coming as a thief, and the thief comes quietly, doesn't he, secretly, and goes away, snatching his people ahead of the future seven-year tribulation.
No, Jesus coming as a thief does not carry the idea of a secret coming, but of a sudden coming, and an unexpected coming. That's how a thief comes. And so, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is like when a thief comes in the night, and his coming as a thief will certainly not be secret or quiet.
2 Peter 3 .10 so clearly informs us. Peter wrote, "...but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise...". That's anything but a silent rapture, isn't it?
Secret rapture. "...and the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works thereof will be burned up.". This whole creation is going to disintegrate, and a new heavens and a new earth will be created, and the idea of a new creation, one unspoiled by sin, and will dwell with God in the New Jerusalem forever.
And so, when Jesus returns as a thief in His Second Coming, He will appear to all, but they will not have expected this event ahead of time. They are caught unaware when He suddenly appears. Paul's statement of verse 1 is but one more place in the Holy Scriptures that teaches us we cannot know the date of the Second Coming.
Our Lord Himself told His disciples, "...but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven.". Matthew 24 is a notoriously difficult passage to interpret, because He's talking about the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, but He also speaks of the Second Coming of Christ.
And the great challenge of the interpreter of Matthew 24 is to determine when does He stop talking about the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem, and when does He start talking about the Second Coming?
And from my own mind, I distinguish it between the verses that deal with the days of the coming of the Son of Man, talking about AD 70, the days of tribulation, days of persecution. But then He interjects this word, "...of that day.".
So He talks about these days that's going to take place within this generation. You're going to see these buildings thrown down. But of that day, the Second Coming, no one knows when that's going to take place, is what He basically said.
But that doesn't stop anybody, does it? They continue to argue and set forth dates. There were thousands who gathered in 1844, because William Miller, who happened to be a Baptist, by the way, claimed the Lord would return on a specific date.
And Seventh-day Adventists really see their beginning on this date, which was October 22, 1844. Of course, when the Lord failed to appear, there was great disappointment. One of the early Adventists wrote, "...such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before.
We wept and wept until the day dawned.". This did not seem to discredit the movement, however, for they say that Christ did return on that day. And the Lord, they say, began to exercise His final judgment.
And so the Seventh-day Adventists have a doctrine called the investigative judgment that they say Jesus began to execute on October 22, 1844. This was all based on a futile effort to declare in advance a date for our Lord's Second Coming.
Charles Russell, the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, claimed the Lord would return in 1914. That's the beginning of the Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, there were five occasions up into the 1950s that the Jehovah's Witnesses officially declared on such-and-such a date Jesus is returning a second time.
And in my library I have photocopies of the Watchtower and Track Society, where there's a photocopy of each page from history where they said Jesus is coming back on such-and-such a date. And it's always interesting when I'm talking to Jehovah's Witnesses at my door that I tell them about this event, or these events, and they're ignorant of it, of course, and I tell them I've got photocopies of their Watchtower and Track Society literature, and that usually ends our conversation.
But date-setters have been coming forth through all of history. It's a fascinating study. Taconius, who was an early Christian writer, claimed that Jesus would return in 381 AD. Hippolytus and Lactantius claimed that he would come in 500 AD.
Can you imagine the fervor of 1000 AD? Everybody all across the Christian world thought Jesus was coming back. Why? It was after a thousand years. Jehoiachin of Flores, an Italian monarch, returned in 1260 AD.
Isaac Newton, who was a great Christian man, as well as, obviously, a great scientist, said, no, Jesus is coming in 1715. Johann Bengel, June 18, 1936. John Wesley agreed with that date, which was, of course, a hundred years after Wesley lived.
Edward Griffin spoke of the coming of Christ at the onset of the Millennial Kingdom in 1921. I have a book in my library entitled, 88 Reasons Christ Could Return in 1988. Harold Camping, whom I knew personally, was a nice guy in many respects, but man did he go off the reservation in the latter years.
He wrote a book in 1994 that declared Jesus was coming back. And he kind of did the same kind of interpretive gymnastics. Well, he really came back spiritually, in a sense, and now if you're a Christian, you can't go to any local church.
They're all corrupt. You need to listen to family radio and give your offerings and tithes to us. It's the last days. And so, in spite of the clear teaching of Scripture, no one knows the times and seasons, date-setters persist.
And they're all around us today, by the way. And for some reason, people gravitate to these things. You know, we all have a fascination about the future. We want to be told, or we want to learn about what's going to happen to us in the future.
And so, some people run to their astrological charts, astrology. You know, some read their tea leaves, their animal entrails. And some read the Bible and try and determine future events. And Paul said, there's no reason for me to write about this.
You don't need anyone writing to you about this, because there's no point in it. No one knows. Now secondly, we see the Day of the Lord will bring sudden destruction on non-Christians. Verse 3,. While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Once a pregnant woman starts having labor pains, there's no escaping it. It's coming, isn't it? No stopping it. It's inevitable. Matthew Henry wrote of this, he tells them how terrible Christ's coming would be to the ungodly, that it would be to their everlasting ruin.
Again, we have the idea of a general judgment, the ruin of the unbelievers. It seems to be commonplace in our Lord's teachings, His dealings with His enemies, that He first lulls them into a false sense of well-being just before His wrath comes upon them.
You find that throughout scripture. These sudden, surprising events, where they thought everything was fine, while they were ignoring God and His law. They were unaware and unprepared. When Paul makes reference to peace, it may be speaking about an internal sense of peace, whereas security speaks of an external, outward safe-keeping.
But it's clear that their sense of peace and security is a false sense of well-being. It is a delusion. Even when they are believing they are safe and secure, then the Lord Jesus will bring sudden destruction upon them at His coming.
And there are many people who are completely oblivious of the day of judgment before them. As one wrote, when they thought themselves most secure, they were then in greatest danger. When they were most off their guard, then the crisis came.
The destruction our Lord will bring is as a woman whose time has arrived to give birth, and when the severe birth pains come suddenly upon her, again, there is no putting it aside, no ignoring it. When the time arrives, the end of their unbelief and rebellion will seal their fate and secure their condemnation, they will not escape.
Thankfully, however, thirdly, the day of the Lord will not surprise Christians. Verses 4 and 5. Paul wrote to these Christians,. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
He is coming as a thief, but He is not going to surprise you as a Christian like a thief. Why? Because you are ready for Him, is what Paul is implying. For you are all children of light, children of the day.
We are not of the night or of the darkness. And so we see Christians need not fear that coming day. Matthew Henry wrote of this. He tells them how comfortable this day will be to the righteous. We need not fear the Second Coming.
We can welcome it, because God has not appointed us to wrath. And that's not based on anything of you or me. It's based upon what Christ did on our behalf. And that's why it's so certain and so assuring.
If you think it's resting upon your shoulders, well, you better be concerned. But thankfully, it rests upon Christ's shoulders, and they are secure to us, isn't it? We have no reason to fear. Jonathan Edwards' grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, was a pastor for 60 years out in Northampton, and I have one of his books in my library.
Safety. Standing in the Righteousness of Christ in the Day of Judgment is the title of the book, and that's a truism. Here the metaphor of darkness not only conveys the idea of ignorance, but also of immorality.
They are of darkness. They are unaware of Christ's coming, but they are so ill-prepared for His coming. But in contrast to them, Christians are not in darkness. Christians are aware of His coming, and they are prepared for His arrival.
Again, this is not because they know when He will return. For no one knows the times or seasons, but they do know with certainty that He will return. And regardless of when He returns, they are ready, because they have faith in their Savior, who has promised to deliver them.
And so they are not in darkness. They are not in ignorance. They are not in immorality. They will not be unaware or ill-prepared. They will not be caught by surprise. However, we are not to be presumptuous regarding our standing when the Lord comes.
We have a responsibility placed upon us as we see next, fourthly, the day of the Lord should be before the eyes of Christians. We don't presume. We don't take it for granted. The Lord's coming. We're going to have to stand before Him.
I'm going to have to give an account of the substance of what I teach you. That's pretty intimidating. That's a corrective and a preservative for me. And you're going to have to give an account of how you did and how you responded to what we're saying.
That ought to give you pause, too, each of us. We have to give an accounting. So then let us not sleep, Paul says, as others do. But let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night.
Those who get drunk are drunk at night. And so Christians are not to sleep, as others do. Now, obviously, the Lord is not telling us to go without sleep, though some of us may feel we keep that almost literally.
I missed out on two nights' sleep going to South Africa and one night's sleep coming home. What Paul is advocating is that Christians should always remain alert with view to the coming of the Lord. And he expressed this same idea in different ways in different places.
For example, we read in writing to the church at Corinth, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize, run in such a way that you may obtain it? That requires effort, doesn't it?
Focus. Purpose. Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable. In other words, salvation. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty.
See, he's committed. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body, bring it into subjection, lest, when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified. Now he's talking about a race and being disqualified in the race, but he's clearly talking about forfeiting salvation for himself.
If he lived carelessly, in disregard, that's the definition of a hypocrite. And so he ordered his life accordingly. Paul strove to be holy, disciplined in all of life, because he desired to win the prize set before him.
This is not works righteousness. We're in Children's Progress in Sunday School. Christiana and her sons. Christiana said to a heavenly messenger, can you take us to heaven with you? We want to be there.
He said, no, no, no. It says the difficulty must come before the prize. You need to go through that wicked gate and travel that narrow path, that long path that leads to the celestial city. This is the path, the course that God has appointed to us.
I forget the exact words of what he said. First the bitter, and then the sweet. And this is the nature of the Christian life. So we have this responsibility. Drunkenness is mentioned. It makes mention of being sober.
Drunkenness is a great sin. But drunkenness is also a metaphor for one who is spiritually insensitive and unconcerned about what's taking place around him. And that's what a drunk is like, isn't it? He doesn't know what's going on.
Spurgeon preached a sermon on this text, so then let us not sleep as others do. And he entitled the sermon, Sleep Not. Here are a few of his words. A piece of news about a fire in another continent makes a sensation in all our homes.
But the fire that never shall be quenched is heard of almost without emotion. The discovery of a gold field will affect half the markets in the world and send a thrill through the public pulse. But when we speak of that blessed city where the streets are of gold, how coolly men take it all, regarding it as though it were a pretty fiction, and as if only the things which are seen were worthy of their notice.
We sleep when heavenly things and eternal things are before us. Alas, that it should be so. And so we are to be alert, always ready for the coming of the Lord. We are not to be as those who are sleeping with regard to these matters.
May the Lord help us to be awake and alert. Fifth, Christians are to be prepared for the day of the Lord. And here we read how we are to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for our helmet the hope of salvation.
And so we are not only supposed to be awake, but we are to be watching. That is, we are to be armed with view to the coming of the Lord. Paul uses the metaphor of spiritual armor. Obviously he did so in Ephesians 6 at great length and detail.
There are a few differences between this account of the armor of God and the armor that he describes in Ephesians 6. Here the breastplate is faith and love, but in Ephesians 6 the breastplate is that of righteousness.
Here the helmet is the hope of salvation. In Ephesians 6 the helmet is salvation. So metaphors can take different shapes, and you have to give attention to the context of what is being conveyed. In the breastplate we have faith and love tied together.
Thomas Matten, I have all 22 of his works, wrote about this. The breastplate consisteth of two graces, faith and love. These two are joined together. For the one can do nothing without the other. This is clever.
Faith without love is but dead opinion. And love to God in Christ cannot be without faith. Both together enable us to do notable things for God. Galatians 5 .6 Faith worketh by love. What can withstand faith working by love?
Not only is it revealing Paul being clever, tying these together in the breastplate of faith and love, but showing the Holy Spirit weaving these things together in Scripture. We see the triad before us, the common grouping of these three, faith, hope, and love.
Faith and love in the breastplate, and then we have faith and love joined together, and faith and love, and then hope, the hope of salvation. Again, the certainty of the future prospect of our full salvation.
We have set our hope on that which is before us, having been reserved in heaven for us. He declares, sixthly, that salvation is certain for Christians in the day of the Lord. It does not stand in doubt.
Although we have a responsibility to be ready and prepared for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, it is not in order to earn or merit our salvation. That is not possible. Our salvation is certain. It is not in doubt.
God has decreed that we will be saved, we who have fled to Christ, verses 9 and 10, for God has not destined us for wrath. I love that, destined. Decreed. He has predestined us to salvation. He has decreed it so.
But to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, living or dead, we might live with Him. God has not destined us for wrath. And that is not a reference to a future seven-year tribulation.
The Church is not going to go through the tribulation because He has not destined us for wrath. That is talking about eternal hell, eternal wrath. And you and I as Christians are not destined to go there.
It was in God's purpose to save us through Jesus Christ. The fate of the wicked and the unbelieving world is eternal damnation, the eternal unending wrath of God. But praise be to God, He is not destined, that is, He is not determined.
He had not decreed that we receive His wrath. Thanks be to God. It was all of grace. It is not because we are less deserving of hell. That is not the case. But it is because Jesus Christ was sent on a mission to save the ones whom the Father gave Him from eternity.
And if you are a Christian, it is because God had you on His heart. Not because you are less sinful than others. Many times we are more so. But it is because God set His love upon you. Somehow, someway in eternity, God the Father saw you as being tied to His Son, whom He loved supremely.
And so He loves you supremely, because you are tied into Christ, even from eternity. It is a wonderful thing. Who could imagine it? The Bible teaching the doctrine of predestination is not a matter of debate.
We are not going to go into Ephesians 1, but it is clear. To deny election, to deny predestination, is to deny the Bible. Or to twist the Bible in such a fashion that you really tie yourself up in knots when you try and twist the scriptures to say otherwise.
Charles Spurgeon once wrote or rehearsed what John Newton had experienced. John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace, the former slave trader. Here is Spurgeon's account. John Newton used to tell a whimsical story and laugh at it too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of election, Ah sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else He would never have seen anything in me to love me afterwards.
I am sure it is true in my case. I believe the doctrine of election because I am quite certain that if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him. I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards.
And He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great biblical doctrine.
I recollect an Armenian brother telling me that he had read the scriptures through a score or more times and could never find the doctrine of election in them. He added that he was sure he would have done so if it had been there, for he had read the word on his knees.
Of course Spurgeon in his ways. I said to him, I think you read the Bible in a very uncomfortable posture. If you had read it on your easy chair, you would have been more likely to understand it. By all means, the more the better, but it is a piece of superstition to think there is anything in the posture in which a man puts himself for reading.
And as to reading through the Bible 20 times without having found anything about the doctrine of election, the wonder is that you found anything at all. You must have galloped through it at such a rate that you were not likely to have any intelligible idea of the meaning of the scriptures.
No, the scriptures teach election and the predestination of the ones He chose, that they will be like Jesus. Armenians of course deny this. Not Armenians, the ethnic people, Armenians, followers, they may not know it, but they are promoting the false doctrine of Jacobus Arminius, who said that people are saved by their own free will, not by God's grace, ultimately.
Oh yeah, God helps them. Kevin was talking earlier to me this morning about coming out of the Arminianism into the doctrine of grace, and how a pastor was talking about a great big circle with the big letter G for God, but he had a little m for man down outside of the circle, and basically it is the little m man as the 1 input.
God has the 99, but ultimately it is the man that makes the decision, and Kevin was right in saying, well if that little man makes the decision, then you put a whole X on the big G, because God does nothing because He trumped my fallen man.
It is nonsensical, infusing in a fallen man his ability to save himself. It is because of the Lord Jesus, and only the Lord Jesus, as our great champion. As David went out and fought the Philistines and gained victory on behalf of all his people when he slew Goliath, the Lord Jesus is our champion who went out on our behalf and won the day.
Again, bottom of page 8, if you have it, we are going to close with this. Spurgeon described our Lord as our champion. I read this down in South Africa to the brethren. Further it is clear that He, Jesus, is the champion.
The Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed. What was asked for was worthiness, not only in the sense of holiness, but in the sense of valor. One is reminded of a legend of the Crusades. A goodly castle and estate awaited the coming of the lawful heir.
He only could sound the horn which hung at the castle gate, but he who could make it yield a blast would be one who had slain a heap of Paneem, that is, pagans, in the fight, and had come home victorious from many a bloody fray.
And so here no man in earth or heaven had valor and renown enough to be worthy to take the mystic role out of the hand of the Eternal One. Our champion was worthy. What battles he had fought, what feats of prowess he had performed, he had overthrown sin, he had met face to face the Prince of Darkness, and had overcome him in the wilderness.
Ay, he had conquered death. He had bearded that lion in his den, had entered the dungeon of the sepulcher, and torn its bars away. And thus he was worthy, in the sense of valor, on returning from the far country to be owned as his father's glorious son, heaven's hero, and so to take the book and loose the seals thereof.
The brilliance of his victories does not diminish our delight in him as the Lamb, far otherwise, for he won these triumphs as a lamb by gentleness in suffering and sacrifice. He won his battles by meekness and patience before unknown.
The more of a conqueror he is, the more astounding is it that he should win by humiliation and death. O Beloved, never tolerate low thoughts of Christ. Think of him more and more as did the Blessed Virgin when she sang, My soul, magnify the Lord.
Make your thoughts of him great. Be great in your God and Savior. And then add to your reverent thoughts the reflection that still he looks like a lamb that has been slain. His prowess and his lion-like qualities do but set forth more vividly the tender, lowly, condescending relationship in which he stands to us as the Lamb of our redemption, our champion.
Well, the passage closes with verses 9 and 10 and 11, God is not destined us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may be with him.
And I might just point out that this metaphor, one of the difficulties of this passage is the metaphor of sleep changes throughout the passage. And so, for example, in verse 6, when Paul used the word sleep, it conveyed the idea of spiritual carelessness.
But in verse 7, Paul used the word sleep to refer to natural sleep, like we sleep at night. But then he changes again in verse 10, Paul uses the word sleep to refer to Christians who died in the Lord, awaiting for the coming of Christ.
And so he changes the metaphor repeatedly in the passage, and that kind of makes it a little difficult to sort through. You have to be very careful sorting through this. But the final word is how Christians are to treat one another until the day of the Lord.
Therefore encourage one another, and build one another up, just as you are doing. This is how we are to behave. We are to encourage one another, not discourage one another. We are to build one another up, not tear one another down.
And interestingly, the relationship between chapter 5, verse 10, and 11 is really the same as that between chapter 4, 17, and 18. Remember after he spoke about the return of Christ, the rapture of His people?
He said, therefore encourage one another with these words. Well, here he says, therefore encourage one another, and build one another up, just as you are doing. May we be an encouraging people to one another.
There's enough in the world, there's enough in our own souls to discourage us. Is that not right? Let's encourage one another in the Lord, and build one another up, rather than tear one another down. Thank you, our Father, for your word.
Thank you for the truth that is so clear and evident before us. Help us to take these matters to heart. Most of all, our God, may you help us to be alert, awake. You have prepared us for that day when Jesus returns, because you have destined that we not encounter wrath, but rather you purpose from eternity that we would have salvation through our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we put our entire faith and our hope.
We rejoice in our Savior, for we pray in His name. Amen.