Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE COMING WRATH”
First Thessalonians 5.1-11
Last week, I brought a message about comfort. At this time, we will deal with a passage written especially to cheer up those who had lost a loved one and needed God’s assurance about where their loved ones are and what part their loved ones are playing in the coming Rapture, which is the next event to happen on the prophetic calendar according to the Word of God. People need such comfort.
When you lose a loved one, you can get very discouraged. I remember I was a very fortunate child, being very, very close to my grandparents and very close to my great-grandparents. I remember returning to Texas one summer when I was a little shaver; I guess I was about 12 or 13 years old.
I don’t remember the exact summer, but my Levi’s reached my ankles when I arrived there. About two months later, when my parents and brother arrived, my Levi’s barely reached the top of my socks. So, I was probably around 12 or 13 years old when I went through a growing spurt.
My great-grandfather died that summer. And I remember waking up at two o’clock in the morning, about ten or twelve hours after he died, feeling empty inside. If you have ever lost someone you love very much, you know what it is like to wake up early in the morning when it’s still pitch-black outside, and you can’t wake up anybody else in the house or call anyone and get words of consolation from them. Well, you know you have consolation from the Word of God.
And that is the best consolation there is. I believe that when such things happen, like losing a loved one, you are susceptible to falling by the wayside in your Christian life if you do not have the conviction in your heart that God has taken care of and is taking care of your departed loved one. I also had two uncles, my dad’s brothers, Kenneth and Leon, who I have reasonable assurance were saved men when they died—things like that are essential for a Christian to know. I am glad that my grandparents are with the Lord. And I am glad that my uncles, both thoroughly wicked men before their conversions, found forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Christ.
It thrilled my soul that each of those loved ones had the humility to let me examine them as thoroughly as I knew how, at the time, to satisfy myself, they were saved. And you know, they didn’t resent it at all. They were humble, perhaps because they each realized so late in their respective lives that what I was doing was for them. I get suspicious when someone claims to be a Christian and yet is too proud to allow a loved one to deal with them about their salvation. That’s not the way Christians I have known handle the subject.
Anyway, it encourages me to know that my grandparents and those two uncles, insofar as I could determine, because they died before the Lord Jesus returned, are not going to miss out on anything in heaven. If you are a Christian, you don’t miss anything by dying before the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Whatever goes on down here, we won’t miss anything by being up there. Nothing significant happens down here. Nothing significant at all. Nothing vital unless it’s related to the Gospel ministry. So, I am encouraged that my grandparents and uncles will not miss out on anything when the Lord comes and takes us away. I am also glad I am still alive and guaranteed I won’t miss out on anything.
So, it doesn’t matter if I die. If I die, I won’t miss out on anything. And if I am alive when the Lord returns, I won’t miss out on anything. It makes me realize that the Lord has everything taken care of, so I don’t need to worry about anything else. I can just faithfully continue serving the Lord. Is that not comforting to the soul?
The portion of God’s Word we shared about comfort last week was good news. But it is not the only good news there is. Thank God, there is more to lift the spirits of a discouraged Christian, more to heighten the anticipation of a child of God who may be disillusioned, more to invigorate the person who is engaged in the work of faith or the labor of love and maybe growing very, very weary in his service to the Lord.
This message will be an encouragement to you. The unsaved sometimes refer to believers as gloom and doom prophets. They will say about us, “You people are just negative all the time.” You know something? I believe that a right understanding of Bible truth causes a Christian to be both a realist and an optimist.
Do you agree with me? Let me give you more evidence to help you agree with me. Does the world not gripe when we continually warn them of God’s impending judgment upon a gainsaying world? I read a recent publication that talked about this world becoming tired of hearing Hellfire and Brimstone preaching and that we need to give them something just a little different.
Let me tell you something. The only thing people hear is hellfire and brimstone preaching that will scare them enough sometimes to see some people saved. The apostles of Jesus Christ were just plain, pea picker, Hellfire, and brimstone preachers. They were little more than that. And God blessed their ministries tremendously. So, I don’t feel we are hurting anyone by preaching the infallible Word of God, the whole counsel of God’s truth.
It doesn’t matter whether the world gripes about what we say or gripes about what we do. They say we are pessimistic about humanity’s hopes for survival. I don’t believe it’s pessimistic when we illuminate what the Bible says is mankind’s hope for survival. I say we are realists. I say we are realists because we do not hide from the truth and the reality of God’s judgment coming upon a lost and gainsaying world of Christ rejecters. That is not pessimism. That is realism.
I am into reality in the Word of God. Aren’t you? I say we are realists because we see mankind as the way it really is. Human beings are, generally speaking, dead in trespasses and sins. Unbelievers are lost and undone. Humanity is hopelessly depraved by sin and is desperately in need of God’s deliverance. Some might say, “But I don’t like that. I don’t like you saying depraved.”
Depraved, beloved, in the Word of God, does not mean you are as bad as you can be. It means you are as bad off as you can be. No one in this room is as bad as Adolph Hitler was. Or as bad as Benito Mussolini was. Or as bad as President Clinton is. But you are as bad off as they are if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your savior. The destiny of a lost man, whether he is a sweet society person or the most hopeless reprobate who has ever lived, is precisely the same.
They say we are pessimists. I say we are optimists because even though we know there is a dark day of God’s wrath determined upon this wicked old world, we will not be here when it comes. At least I’m not going to be here. I don’t know about you. There are people in the world who do realize that seven years of Tribulation are coming to this world. And they realize that it will be seven of the most horrible years mankind has ever experienced. They realize that. They know the Bible teaches that.
The awful thing is that many of these same people also believe that it is a part of the plan of God for Christians to suffer the torments of that time, that Christians will go through those seven years of Tribulation. Did you know that the same nonsense was told to the Thessalonians, Paul’s new converts? And the false teaching, the fear that they were going to have to go through the seven years of Tribulation, had left those Christians in fear of God’s wrath. Not in fear of God, but in fear of God’s wrath.
So, Paul wrote them a letter, this first Thessalonian letter that we’re studying from this evening. And in this letter, he taught them that Christians shall not, indeed Christians cannot, suffer the coming wrath of God. It is not possible. You say, “Well, how can you be so sure?” Oh, I can’t be so sure. But God is. Amen? “How come you are so positive?” It is not me that has to be positive. The Bible is positive. It either says it or it doesn’t. Amen? And it says it.
Beloved, there are increasing numbers of Bible teachers worldwide, broadcasting on various mediums, both over the airwaves and using videos. They are persuading both the few who are saved and the multitudes of “Christians” who are really lost. They are persuading folks that Church Age Christians will pass through the Tribulation, that they will need to endure and suffer through the seventieth week of Daniel, so that they can prove and demonstrate to God that they are worthy to go to heaven.
But no one is worthy. Why in the world should I prove that I am something that I am not? Why should I prove to God that I am worthy when I am not? Turn to Revelation chapter 6. I want to establish, in two verses, the nature of those seven years known as the Tribulation and what it will be like. Revelation 6.16-17:
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
These two verses teach us that the seven years of Tribulation, which the Thessalonians were afraid they would have to endure and which some of those unschooled and unlearned Bible teachers were falsely teaching them, are a period of time that a great many people don’t understand.
Look at what it says in verse 16.
“And said to the mountains and rocks.”
This is what is happening during those seven years:
“Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
What is the answer to that question? No one will be able to stand. The Bible teaches that these seven years of Tribulation, which some people are afraid they will have to endure, are a time of the outpoured wrath of the Lamb of God.
You will not suffer the Tribulation if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. I am not going to experience the Tribulation. Why? Because the child of God can't suffer the wrath of Almighty God. God’s wrath is reserved for the lost, not the saved. The Lord Jesus suffered God’s wrath on my behalf.
That is why, in the passage now before us, First Thessalonians 5.1-11, six particulars comfort us, the comfort that we shall not go through, that we need not endure, either this wrath or any other wrath from God or the Savior.
First, IN VERSES 1 AND 2, I WANT YOU TO NOTICE THE PARTICULAR DAY OF THE LORD
Paul wrote,
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
Twenty-nine times we read in the Bible of the Day of the Lord.[1] And I want us to learn just a little bit of what the Day of the Lord is:
First, its chronology. Notice that the Apostle Paul uses the phrase, “But of the times.” I am persuaded that the Day of the Lord chronologically follows the Rapture of the Church Age believer. In First Thessalonians 4.13-18, we learn what the Lord Jesus Christ will do. Read that passage when you get home.
The Lord Jesus is going to come invisibly in the air. Those who are saved, both dead and alive, will be caught up to meet Him in the air, so we shall ever be with the Lord. That is the first thing that happens with the Day of the Lord. It is the first thing that begins the Day of the Lord. That Day starts with the darkness of Tribulation. The darkest hour of human history is the beginning of the Day of the Lord. You say, “How in the world can a day begin with darkness?”
In the Bible, every day begins with darkness. Read Genesis chapter 1. The first seven days started with the evening and the morning being one day. All through the Bible, God’s days start at sundown, run about 12 hours, and then up comes the sun to complete the day with sundown. After the darkness of the beginning comes the dawn of the Day of the Lord. At the end of the seven years of Tribulation is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the bright and morning star. That is when He is coming back. That is the morning of the Day of the Lord. And then the daylight of the Day of the Lord.
That day, when the sun shines brightly, will be the one-thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, His millennial kingdom. That is the daytime period of the Day of the Lord. That is its chronology. That is the sequence: the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Second Coming of Christ, and then the one-thousand-year millennial reign of the Lord Jesus.
Second, the imminency of the Day of the Lord. Observe what the Apostle Paul wrote about the Revelation of the Day of the Lord:
“The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”
This means that as suddenly and unexpectedly as a thief comes to steal, so will the Day of the Lord come upon the world imminently. You ask, “What is the reason for coming like a thief at night? Why is there not going to be any warning? Why will God not give us a sign of Christ’s coming?” Understand, if you are going to learn anything about Bible prophesy, that the signs of the times referred to in Scripture are signs that forecast, not the Rapture, never the Rapture. The signs of the times always forecast the Second Coming, the visible Revelation of Jesus Christ. They are not signs that forecast the coming of the Day of the Lord to us.
So many have made a lot of money for years, spending all of their time not preaching the whole counsel of the Word of God but spending so much time as prophecy specialists. One of the things those charlatans never tell anyone is that no sign lets us know when the Day of the Lord has arrived. There will be no sign! The signs we find in Scripture lead up to the Second Coming of Christ! There will be no sign of the Rapture. You ask, “Why?”
Two simple truths straighten Christians out regarding signs, and they will help you to understand both this truth and other Bible truths regarding signs. According to First Corinthians 1.22, signs, according to the Apostle Paul, are required by Jews, but not Gentiles:
“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:”
You need to forever ingrain into your thinking and burn into your mind and heart that signs are for Jews. Greeks seek wisdom. God once approached the hearts and minds of Jewish people differently from the way God approached the hearts and minds of Gentiles. Since signs are for Jews and wisdom is for Gentiles, it would also help you to know that according to Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11, God judicially set the nation of Israel aside because they rejected Jesus Christ.
God now deals with Jewish people, not as an elected nation anymore. He won’t do that again until He brings them back to center stage during the Tribulation. For the last 2000 years, He has dealt with Jewish people as individuals in the same way and in the same fashion that He deals with you and me, who are not Jewish. So, God does not deal with the Jewish people as a collective whole elect nation right now! He will in the future, but He doesn’t right now. This means God gives Gentiles no signs and Christians no signs to tell us when the Day of the Lord is coming. He doesn’t give signs to anyone else right now, either, because He presently treats Jewish people the way He treats Gentile people.
It was Jewish people who required signs. Greeks seek after wisdom. Therefore, we see that the Day of the Lord is imminent. That is, though it may not come today, it can come today. And when it comes, it comes without warning, without signs of its approach.
Secondly, THE PARTICULAR DESTRUCTION OF THE LOST (5.3)
“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.”
Notice the word “they.” Writing to the Thessalonians and using the word “they,” Paul refers to unsaved people. He refers to lost folks, not Christians.
Notice the saying. To paraphrase Paul, “Lost folks will talk of peace and safety.” Peace and safety all the time. Much as they do now. And, of course, such sayings as these reflect gross ignorance of the Word of God. There will not be any peace and safety coming. There will be no peace and safety. Even many so-called Christians talk about this incredible outpouring of renewal, which is determined upon the Christian world. But there is no such thing as that mentioned in the Bible.
If taken to be a reflection of the Church Age, Revelation chapters 2 and 3 is about the entire world of Christendom moving toward increasing apostasy until it finally reaches a point of such spiritual decadence that the Lord Jesus Christ’s attitude will be, “Since you are neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out.” Perhaps God will send an end-time revival, but those not directly influenced by the revival will be very bad off spiritually. They will be deluded, spiritually akin to the situation just before the 1929 stock market crash when everyone was feeling so good, everyone thought things were hunky dory, and they were blind to the signs an objective person could see that indicated a stock market crash was coming. But everybody was too busy having a good time.
When Joseph P. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s wealthy father, engaged in a stock market conversation with a shoeshine boy one day, he realized a crash was coming, sold all of his stocks, and was unaffected by the market crash. Others could have seen what Kennedy saw, but they did not. The world today says, “Peace and safety. Peace and safety. Peace and safety. Peace and safety. Our side won the election! Everything is good.” So, that is the saying that they are involved in. Wise believers, on the other hand, will be particularly prayerful.
Second, notice the suddenness. Paul used the phrase “sudden destruction.” It will arrive very quickly when the tragedy comes (and it will come). It will arrive quite unexpectedly when the ruination comes (and the ruination will come). There will be no escaping to the hills and mountains. Remember the prediction of a Y2K catastrophe back in the day? I knew that whatever occurred would not be a catastrophe fulfilling Bible prophecy. Why not? Because we had warning of it coming. The Day of the Lord will come without warning.
Third, notice the simile. What is a simile? It is a grammatical tool used to compare things that are typically thought of as dissimilar. You say, “He walks like a duck.” He and the duck have nothing in common except the way they walk. And what the Apostle Paul is doing in verse 3 is comparing two things that are completely different except for one area. In one area, and only one area, the Day of the Lord is like a woman in travail.
Notice what it says. “As travail upon a woman with child.” Ladies, you can identify with this more than any man can. Thank God. What happens when travail comes upon a woman with child? Can we not all agree? Even though I have never experienced it, and Lord knows I am not interested in experiencing it, is it not true that when hard labor comes upon a woman, it both completely consumes you and completely incapacitates you?
When you are breathing, pushing, and hurting, you can do little else but what you are doing. Isn’t that right? The Apostle Paul lets us know what it’s going to be like for the unsaved in the Tribulation. They are going to be hurting so badly that they can think of nothing else but the pain they are going through. For the unsaved person, how horrible it will be since, when they are going through those seven years of Tribulation on this earth, they are but tasting what their lot will be for all eternity in the lake of fire. It is just the beginning. It is just the beginning for them. The wrath of God. The wrath of Almighty God.
Fourth, notice the certainty.
“And they shall not escape.”
Isn’t there a sense of finality here?
“They shall not escape.”
Third, NOTICE THE PARTICULAR DARKNESS OF THE LOST MAN
Verses 4 through 7 contain three words that contrast the saint from the sinner who will see the Day of the Lord.
Our differences are in verses 4 and 5:
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”
Even though there will be no sign, it will not sneak up on you like it is going to sneak up on most people.
“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.”
Christians are not in darkness. Christians are not of darkness. The whole thrust of the two verses that I have just read indicates that the wrath can only come upon, can only come upon, those who do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and savior.
Second, our duties are in verse 6. It reads,
“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”
Because these things will not happen to you, Christian, because you need not fear the wrath of Almighty God, there are three things the child of God must do in the light of Biblical truth regarding the coming of the wrath of God upon lost people. First, we are to stay awake. Second, we are to watch. Third, we are to stay sober. The child of God is like a watchman who has been stationed on a watch tower. As dark and deluded with the cares and affairs of this world as the unsaved are, we must not be distracted. We must keep our eyes open, ready to fight, and sober as we watch for the enemy. Do you imagine those who skip Church services are alert? Do you conceive of those who prefer the company of unsaved people to the company of fellow Church members being alert? Will the Spirit of God graciously provide spiritual alertness to the lackadaisical? It is unlikely.
Third, notice the drunkenness in verse 7:
“For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.”
You ask, “What is drunkenness here?” Drunkenness is being under the influence of something.
Here, I suspect Paul is referring to being under the world’s influence and being overcome by the world. I think he is speaking more broadly than being under the influence of alcohol. Lost people do not know what’s going on. They do not understand what is happening at all. They spend all their time saying, “What’s happening?” because they don’t know what is happening. They are just not aware. We need to be very careful not to behave like them. They are drunk on the propaganda that is given out by the world.
We need to be very careful that we do not allow ourselves, as brothers and sisters in Christ, to be influenced by the propaganda spewed out daily, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute; that we do not become drunk on the propaganda spewed out by the world. Do you know why? We know this, “the whole world lieth in wickedness,” First John 5.19. So, we need to be careful what we watch. We need to be careful what we read. We need to be careful what we listen to. “Is what I’m doing bad?” The issue is, “Is it best?” If you are doing less than what is best, you are missing your potential, and you might be lured into the drunken stupor of being influenced by this world. It is essential, it is significant, that we not be the way they are.
Fourth, NOTICE THE PARTICULAR DISCERNMENT
Paul writes in verse 8,
“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.”
He refers to our attitudes, or our discernment, in three directions:
Inwardly, let us know who is of the day and be sober. What is our place in Christ? It is light. We are of the day. What is our propriety? What is proper for us? Sobriety. Don’t be drunk on the world like lost people are. Don’t come under the domination and the influence of the intoxicating and trashy influences of this world. Be different. You are a child of God. You are a creature of light, not darkness. What is the source of truth for us? The Bible. This is why we must be people of the Book, committed to reading, studying, and learning God’s Word.
Outwardly, putting on the breastplate of faith and love: A breastplate consists of two pieces, one covering the front and one covering the back, which, when properly tied together, will protect the thorax of the body, the whole chest cavity, and the abdominal area. Faith and love suggest the work of faith and the labor of love because that is what Paul has been writing about throughout this letter. That means these activities are to be consciously put on by the child of God. And when we put them on, they will be a means of protecting us. You must engage in the work of faith and the labor of love for your good. It makes sense. You make up your mind and purpose in your heart that you are going to serve God, that you are going to work and labor to see sinners saved, that you are going to minister to other people. I guarantee that God will ensure you are protected because you will be too valuable to His cause not to be protected.
That is inwardly and outwardly. Now, notice upwardly. He writes, “for an helmet, the hope of salvation.” The place of battle in our Christian warfare is right here. Right up here. The mind. The human mind. This is where the battle takes place. This is the reason so many Christians are so very anemic, because they’ll do everything; they will control everything except their thought life.
“If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
But Paul mentions a helmet, the hope of salvation, to protect you, with the hope of salvation securely protecting your thought life. What is hope? It is the confident expectation of future blessings based upon God's promises. But how will you know God's promises if you do not read, study, or are committed to learning God’s Word? This speaks of our confident expectation of future deliverance.
If you keep your mind on the Lord Jesus Christ coming for you to deliver you as you live for, love, and serve Him, you will be in great shape. Believers have already been delivered from the penalty of sin. Believers are being delivered from the power of sin as they obey God’s Word and serve the Savior. But so many have been propagandized and unaware of that part. Believers are being delivered from the power of sin in our life. The Bible says so.
Will you believe your senses, or will you believe God? My advice? In this regard, forget your senses. Forget what you smell. Forget what you taste. Forget what you hear. Forget what you see. Forget what you feel. Quit believing that physical body that you live in and start believing God. He says you are being delivered from the power of sin. So, you need to start acting like it. Your body says, “I’ve got to have a beer.” God says, “No you don’t.” “Yeah, but I’ve got to have one.” God says, “No you don’t.” “Yeah, but I feel like I do.” God says, “Your body is lying to you. You do not have to have one.”
I have been saved for fifty years now, and few summer days go by without me feeling like I’ve got to have a cold glass of beer. But you know something? I don’t got to have nothing, because God says I don’t got to have nothing. Bad English, but effective communication. The Bible shows I don’t have to do that nonsense. The Bible shows I have been set free from that kind of slavery, that what I need to do is begin ignoring my body’s cries and lies and start paying attention to what God says.
What about this hope of salvation? With the hope of salvation securely protecting your thought life and your mind, the Christian will, without fear, put his armor on and put it to the test in battle and begin to fight the spiritual foe. So, what we need to be Christian is discerning. Inwardly, you need to stay clean. Outwardly, you need to put forth effort to see folks saved and serve God, and upwardly, you need to look forward to Christ coming for you. You do that, you do that, and you’ll be okay. “Oh, pastor I have some spiritual problems.”
Are you attending Church faithfully?
Are you studying your Bible so that you might know your Bible, to do your Bible, to seek the salvation of the lost and serve God?
Are you being discipled?
“Well, no.” Then, no wonder you’ve got problems. You are not doing what you have been created in Christ to do. You are going to have problems whenever you don’t do what you have been created in Christ by God to do.
Would I take a clock off the wall and try to use it as a spare tire? No, it will not function well because I am using it to achieve an end for which it was not designed. You are not your own. You were not designed to be your own. You have been bought with a price. So, you need to get after it and live for Christ.
Fifth, NOTICE THE PARTICULAR DESTINY OF THE LIVING
Look at the Christian’s appointment. Look what God has appointed for us. It is not wrath, First Thessalonians 5.9. The first half of the verse says, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath.” Now, turn to Romans 5.9:
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
You might wonder, “What wrath is Paul talking about, the Tribulation or Hellfire?” Both of them. Both of them are God’s wrath. Believers are going to be delivered from both of them. That’s good. That’s good stuff. Then, in Revelation 6.16-17, we have already seen that seven-year period is the outpouring of the wrath of the Lamb. Since I have been delivered from wrath, since I have not been appointed to wrath, I am not going to be here when that all happens. I am going to be gone. I like that. It is not wrath. What is my appointment, if it is not wrath? It is resurrection. It is Rapture. It is heaven, according to First Thessalonians 4.14-17. You can read it. We have not been appointed to wrath. We are going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord in heaven. That’s great. I don’t have to worry about going through the wrath of God.
And look at what we obtain as a result of being Christians. First Thessalonians 5.9, the last half of the verse:
“but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
You know what salvation is? It’s deliverance. That’s all it means. The word salvation means deliverance. Deliverance. But, as I mentioned before, if you are truly saved you are being delivered from the power of sin. You have already been delivered from the penalty of sin. And what awaits the child of God is to be delivered from the presence of sin by going into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is good. And there is security, too. Look at verse 10:
“Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”
It is that final bit of assurance the Apostle Paul gives to let us know what is the particular destiny of the living.
Finally, WHAT ABOUT THE PARTICULAR DELIGHT OF THE LIVING? (5.11)
This is my final point.
“Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
There are two delights, two things they were already doing that Paul wanted them to continue doing:
First, comfort yourselves together. How do you do that if you are not together? This does not happen when you stay home. Second, building up one another. Armed with the truth that we shall not suffer the wrath of God, knowing that we need not go through the Tribulation at all, what we can delight in doing instead is building up people.
Share the truths that we know to comfort folks and let them know that they don’t have to go to Hell. They don’t have to go through the Tribulation. They can if they want to. But I, personally, don’t want to.
I want to be delivered from all that stuff. I don’t want to go through something that is not intended for me. And while you are engaged in comforting yourselves when you gather with these truths, what is the likelihood you will not, yourself, be comforted as you are comforting others?
In conclusion. You shall not suffer the wrath of Almighty God upon the unsaved unless, of course, you are unsaved. You ask, “How can you be so sure of what you say?” Because wrath comes on the Day of the Lord, which is future, after the Rapture.
Because destruction comes only to the lost. Christians are saved.
Because darkness is the condition of the lost, and we are in the light.
Because discernment is given to us to know the times and the seasons, not to the lost.
Because our destiny is the redemption of the body, not the wrath of God.
Our delight is to comfort and to edify each other in the congregation with these truths, meaning you will be comforted as you are in the assembly, comforting others.
Can you imagine God saying, “What I am going to have you do, I’m going to take you through seven years, the most horrible period that man has ever seen. You are going to suffer, bleed, die, be beheaded and starve to death for me, and I want you to comfort one another with that knowledge.”
That wouldn’t comfort me at all. It would scare the daylights out of me. Do you know what the truth of this passage we are looking at does? It frees me to serve God, and I don’t have to worry about fear of the future.
That was the problem with the Thessalonians, thinking that they were going to experience God's wrath. Not being sure they weren’t, they were afraid for their future, which caused them to be distracted from serving God in the present.
We need to commit ourselves because of this truth that we are armed with: We should not live irresponsibly like lost people. We gather for worship. When we gather, we comfort one another. Comforting others, we are comforted as well.
So, we can say, “I have a purpose for living. I have a plan for living. I have power for living. And I have a Provider who makes it all possible. The primary means by which He makes it all possible is the Church, where I am a member, gather for worship, and collaborate with others to fulfill the Great Commission of my Lord Jesus Christ.”
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[1] Isaiah 2.12; 13.6, 9; 34.8; Jeremiah 46.10; Lamentations 2.22; Ezekiel 13.5; 30.3; Joel 1.15; 2.1, 11, 31; 3.14; Amos 5.18, 20; Obadiah 1.15; Zephaniah 1.7, 8, 14, 18; 2.2, 3; Zechariah 14.1; Malachi 4.5; Acts 2.20; 1 Corinthians 5.5; 2 Corinthians 1.14; 1 Thessalonians 5.2; 2 Peter 3.10
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