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[0:00] I'm going to teach tonight. I really thought I was going to preach, but it just wasn't hitting me that way, so I shall teach.

[0:13] The Book of First Thessalonians chapter 5, I'll be teaching from chapter 5, we'll be reading the last few verses of chapter 4.

[0:28] The books, or the letters, I guess we should say, but it's books in our Bibles. It's been debated that the letters to the Thessalonians, first and second Thessalonians, were the first New Testament scriptures written, even though we find them much later in the New Testament.

[0:54] Now, it's another one of those things, and you all probably heard me say before, I wasn't there, I don't know. I don't know what was written first. Very well could have been.

[1:06] That very well could have been the case. We see Paul visit Thessalonica in the Book of Acts, but many people say that the two letters to the Thessalonians were the first books or letters that we have of the New Testament.

[1:26] Once again, that could be very possible. We do know that just from some of the things that are stated, like in the Gospel of John, that that was written very late in the life of John, although what John was writing about was current events as far as when Jesus was there, and he was traveling with Jesus and such, but it was written much later.

[1:56] In fact, all the pastoral epistles, all Paul's writings, Peter's writings, all those are thought to have taken place before the Gospel of John was ever written by John, the Apostle.

[2:10] So it is very possible that these letters were the first ones of the New Testament ever written, but there is no hardcore evidence to support that.

[2:23] Me personally, I tend to think along those lines just because some of the things that were written to the Thessalonians and some of the speech that was used in the original Greek that it was written in.

[2:36] But the main gist of both of the letters to the Thessalonians, because Paul visited Thessalonica very early in his ministry, in his evangelism, the main gist of both of these letters was there was confusion amongst the Thessalonians as far as different points of doctrine are concerned, in particular, as we'll see here where we read from tonight, in particular the end times, and what happens to loved ones that have passed away, that have died, but they had faith in Christ.

[3:16] Where are they now? What are they doing? You know, are they just floating around in the atmosphere somewhere? And there was all kinds of questions that came up about this after Paul had taught them some of these things.

[3:32] And we'll actually see some of that tonight. So we'll pick up reading in verse 13 of the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians.

[3:45] In verse 14, 1 Thessalonians 4 says, for if we believe, I'm sorry, verse 13, but I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

[4:06] For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead and Christ shall rise first.

[4:27] And we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, wherefore comfort one another with these words.

[4:39] So here in the latter portion, latter few verses of chapter 4, Paul is telling them about what's popularly known as what we call the rapture of the church.

[4:55] And he's confirming this to them that this is what will happen. When he says, we which are alive and remain will be called up to be with Jesus forever.

[5:11] And he tells them to comfort one another with these words. And that's what naturally leads up to chapter 5 where we're going to be reading from tonight. But we need to keep that in mind that he's just talked about the rapture of the church.

[5:27] And before this, he was getting into the end times and what to expect in the end times as far as how men's hearts will be and how men will be wicked and they'll be given over to themselves and such.

[5:44] But this was to clarify the question that the Thessalonians had of what would happen, what was going to happen with them.

[5:55] If the Lord comes back, because the Thessalonians, one of their biggest problems was they had heard Paul teach these things, but they had thought that the coming of the Lord was so near, such as we should think, but they thought that the coming of the Lord was so near, they were giving up their jobs, they were just stopping everything and just waiting on the Lord.

[6:20] And so Paul addresses this in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. He's like, no, you need to continue doing as you were doing. Keep your jobs, continue with your families, continue teaching your children.

[6:33] Wives, you continue being wives. Husbands, you continue doing what husbands do. So this is some major stuff that Paul was addressing here.

[6:45] So all that brings us up to the first verse of chapter 5 with the Lord's help and Lord's will. We'll go through verse 11 tonight. But the first verse of chapter 5 in 1st Thessalonians says, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.

[7:04] So Paul has just explained the rapture, explained that the church is going to be taken out. Those that believe in Christ and those that have died in Christ, they're going to be raised up and those that are alive and remain at the time of Christ's second advent or His second coming, they're going to be called up to be together with Him as well.

[7:27] So what question would that naturally give us as human beings? What question does it give me? What question would it give you? The question is, when is this going to happen?

[7:40] How is this going to happen? And so that's why Paul here writes in the first verse of chapter 5, but of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.

[7:51] He says you don't need to know the times and the seasons, but that continues. He says, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

[8:03] Paul here is saying, you don't need to worry about the times and the seasons. You already know that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.

[8:13] So Paul has already addressed this to them at some point previous to this, which would be when he had visited Thessalonica and he had preached to them and so many of them had come to faith in Jesus Christ.

[8:28] But he says here, yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now he specifies the day of the Lord. There's a couple of times in the New Testament that the day of Christ is brought up or the day of Jesus Christ is brought up.

[8:46] In the Old Testament we see a lot about the day of the Lord and we see some of that in the New Testament as well. What Paul is doing here though when he says, you yourselves know that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.

[9:01] He's not making any distinction between the day of Christ and the day of the Lord. It's all one day. Now the day of the Lord in the Old Testament, every time you read about the day of the Lord it has to do with judgment.

[9:15] It has to do with judgment. It has to do with sin, being reckoned with, sinners being reckoned with. It's a dark and a gloomy time, the day of the Lord. As many people think that the day of the Lord is just the rapture of the church, but folks that's not what the Old Testament shows the day of the Lord to be.

[9:35] You read about it in Amish. You read about it in Ezekiel. You read about it in Isaiah. You read about it in all kinds of Old Testament books and it's always, always, always talking about judgment.

[9:47] But remember in the verses previous to this in chapter 4 that we went over, he's talking about the church being taken out and now he's talking about the day of the Lord.

[9:57] So there's two different, there's two ways that this is looking here. It's looking backward and it's also looking forward. It's looking back towards the Old Testament and the day of the Lord there and it's looking forward to the New Testament Church's day of the Lord.

[10:14] But folks it's all one day, not one 24 hour period, but it's all one day. The day of the Lord begins with the rapture of the church, the vengeance on planet earth and when planet earth is going to have the judgments that we read about in the book of Revelation, the 21 judgments, we've got the vows of wrath being poured out upon the earth.

[10:39] And we've got all these different things going on in Revelation. That begins with the church being taken out of here. So that begins the day of the Lord, but that day is not a 24 hour period.

[10:52] It lasts and it lasts and it lasts at least for seven years because we know there's seven years of tribulation according to the Scripture. And that's the day of the Lord.

[11:03] But he tells them, you yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. And there's people out there that will say, well this means that this is talking about Jesus Christ coming and stealing the church away in the middle of the night just like a thief would come to your house and steal something away as a thief in the night or as a thief would.

[11:27] Folks, that's not what it's getting at. It's talking about, it's just like when Jesus is talking over in the Gospels and he says, as in the days of Noah, shall the coming of the Son of Man be?

[11:42] As in the days of Lot, shall the coming of the Son of Man be? He's talking about the coming of the Son of Man there. He's not talking about how everything's going to be as it was in the days of Noah when it repented God that he had even made man.

[11:56] And he's not talking necessarily about things being as they were in the days of Lot when people were marrying and giving him marriage and they were eating and drinking, just going on with life like nothing else mattered, nothing else was going to come of.

[12:11] He was talking about the suddenness, the suddenness of the flood in Noah's day and the suddenness of the raining of the fire and brimstone down on Sodom and Gomorrah.

[12:21] He says, as sudden as those things were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be? That's what those verses are getting at in the scripture there where Jesus is talking about those.

[12:33] So when it says, you yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord, so cometh as a thief in the night, he's saying you know that it's going to come suddenly. And we know from Jesus' teaching within the Gospels, we know from his teaching that no man knoweth the hour, no man knoweth the day, not even the angels, not even the Son of Man.

[12:53] While he was here on this earth, he said, no one but the Father knows that day and that hour when Jesus Christ is going to come back to this earth, when He's going to come claim His church and when the day of the Lord will begin at that point.

[13:08] And Paul here is just reiterating to them, he says, you know this, you know that it comes as a thief in the night. Verse 3, for when they shall save peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

[13:27] And this is how we know that the last few verses that we read of chapter 4 tie into this and how the coming of Jesus to take the church out is tied in with the beginning of the day of the Lord.

[13:42] When they say peace and safety, and that's what those people will be saying. And you actually read very similar comments in Jeremiah chapter 6 and Ezekiel chapter 13. It's talking about people saying peace and safety, people crying peace when there is no peace and destruction came upon them.

[14:01] And it says here, for when they shall save peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, just like the folks in Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain that were destroyed, and just like the folks that were on the earth back in Noah's day.

[14:16] And then there is destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. And that's sad words that we read here. They shall not escape.

[14:27] The day of repentance is now. The year of the Lord is now. When Jesus, when he, in the Gospel of Luke, and he went into the synagogue there in Nazareth and he began to preach and he preached from Isaiah chapter 61.

[14:44] And he said, the Lord has anointed me to preach this message. He's anointed me to come here and to free the captives, to open the prison doors, to set people free.

[14:54] And he set all these things from the book of Isaiah in chapter 61, but he left one thing out. He left one thing out when he was saying that, in fact, if you want to flip over to Luke chapter 4, we can read that real quick, or I can just read it to you if you don't want to flip from your spot there in 1 Thessalonians.

[15:18] Luke chapter 4, and Luke 4, excuse me, 13.

[15:45] Okay, if you want to begin at verse 13, this is right after the devil had tempted Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days and nights.

[15:56] So Luke 4, starting at verse 13, says, And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee and there went out a fame of him through all the region around about.

[16:09] And he taught in their synagogue, being glorified of all men. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went in the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.

[16:20] And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet of Seas or Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he had anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

[16:34] He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

[16:46] And he closed the book and he gave it again. So he was anointed by God. He was sent by God to preach these things. He says, And to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

[16:58] And if you flip over to Isaiah 61 and the first two verses of Isaiah 61, you'll see that when he preached that he left one particular line out.

[17:11] Isaiah 61 verse one, the Spirit of the Lord goes upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

[17:28] That's where he ended there in Luke chapter four. But there's another, there's a comma there in our English translations. And it says, And the day of vengeance of our God.

[17:39] He didn't say that in Luke four. He ended with to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Folks, the acceptable year of the Lord has been going on since Jesus Christ was here since he was crucified.

[17:53] It is just as Paul wrote to the church of Corinth when he said, Now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. We are within the acceptable year of the Lord now, but the vengeance of God is coming.

[18:05] He says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord comma and the day of vengeance of our God. And cross first advent here, the first time he came, he didn't come to proclaim the vengeance of God on people.

[18:19] Cross came to seek and to save that which was lost. That was his whole purpose of coming here the first time. But the next time he comes, he will be bringing in the day of the Lord, which is vengeful, which is wrath.

[18:32] You know, we've all probably heard it preached or taught in Deuteronomy where it says, Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, I will recompense. And all vengeance belongs unto God.

[18:45] So when cross preached these things in Luke chapter four and that synagogue in Nazareth, he left out the part of vengeance because he wasn't here for that at that time.

[18:56] But after all these things we've gone over tonight thus far, after all those it says, for when they shall say peace and safety in verse three and verse Thessalonians five again, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape.

[19:17] No one will escape that sudden destruction that comes upon them, but we being believers in Christ, we don't have to worry about this sudden destruction. We read here in just a little while, just a few more verses, we'll get to it here in a little bit.

[19:31] We're not appointed under wrath. And I praise God that I'm not appointed under wrath and why am I not appointed under wrath? Because of my belief in Jesus Christ, because I came to Christ in faith and repentance.

[19:43] And in turn, me coming to Christ in faith and repentance, God granted unto me salvation. And folks, God doesn't halfway save. God doesn't partially save. The Bible says he's able to save to the uttermost and he saves us completely and he saves us holy.

[20:00] He saves us from the penalty of sin. He saves us from our sin itself. He saves us from ourselves. He saves us from God's wrath. That's what that's what it is to be saved.

[20:10] We are saved and we are redeemed back to God. We were cast off in the garden with Adam and Eve, our original father and mother.

[20:20] They were accursed from God. We were accursed because they were, but we have been redeemed back into the family of God. Verse four in 1 Thessalonians five, but ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.

[20:36] We are not in darkness, but those who will not escape this day that he is talking about, the day of the Lord, those that will not escape, they are in darkness.

[20:46] We know from the Bible that we have lied, that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. We know that if we walk with him that we have the light of life.

[20:57] We know that from scriptures that we've been going through actually in Sunday school here recently in the gospel of John. If we walk with Christ and we have the light of life with us and if we have the light of life, we are not in darkness.

[21:14] He says, so he gives us warning in verse three, they shall not escape. And verse four, he gives encouragement to the believers, but ye brethren speaking specifically to fellow believers in Christ, ye brethren are not in darkness.

[21:28] Notice he doesn't say shall not be in darkness. He doesn't say may not be in darkness. He says he doesn't say won't be in darkness. He says you are not. That's present tense right now as I stand here as a born again child of God.

[21:43] I'm not in darkness because I have Jesus Christ, the light of the world. But ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief.

[21:54] But that day will overtake those that aren't looking for Christ. And that's what we're going to get into in the next few verses. Verse five, you are all the children of light and the children of the day.

[22:05] We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep in the night, sleep, sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

[22:20] But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and foreign helmet, the hope of salvation. So back to verse five in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, ye are all children of light and the children of the day.

[22:37] We are not of the night. Again, this is present tense. He says ye are all, ye are all children of light and children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

[22:48] We're not of the people who aren't going to escape the great day of the Lord when it comes. Those are the ones that are walking in darkness. Those are the ones that despise the light.

[22:59] These are the ones that Jesus in John chapter three said, this is the condemnation that men love darkness rather than light. That's not us.

[23:09] We love the light. We love the light because the light shone in our hearts and it showed us we were sinners and that same light showed us the Savior that we could have in Jesus Christ and we received that Savior when we came to Christ in faith and repentance.

[23:24] And ever since then, ever since the point of salvation, believers loved the light, not because it just guides their way. I mean, I understand the Bible says that thou woes a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and psalms one not tame.

[23:40] But Christ is that God. Yes, the word of God is a God as well and it's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. But Christ is the light and he lights the way and the longer we go in that way, the brighter and brighter that way becomes.

[23:55] We are children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. What do we see though?

[24:07] With all that being said, what do we see? He says, therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. We are children of the light. We are children of the day. We are not of darkness.

[24:19] He says that we should watch. He says, but let us watch and be sober there in verse six. We watch because we have lot to watch. Others that are in darkness, they don't have lot to watch.

[24:32] Therefore they're not watching. What are we watching for though? We watch for Christ's return. Yes, we watch for the signs. One of the most prophetic chapters in all the New Testament and definitely within the Gospels is Matthew chapter 24.

[24:48] And I've taught on that and I've preached on it as well. But many people are fascinated with that, but they get things misconstrued as far as what's going to take place when the disciples came to Christ.

[25:01] Christ told him when he was speaking to the temple, he said, no, one stone will be left upon another here. And they said, Lord, when are these things going to happen? And that's when he starts going into how there's going to be famine, there's going to be pestilence, there's going to be war and rumors of war and these things.

[25:18] But he says, these are the beginnings of sorrows. That's the words of Christ. These are the beginnings of sorrows. I think that the generation that we're in right now, we're seeing some of those things right now.

[25:32] We're seeing just about all of those things, pestilence and famine and wars and rumors of war and earthquakes and diverse places and all these other things. Those are the beginnings of sorrows, but that is not the tribulation period that we read about in the book of Revelation, nor is it the tribulation period that it goes into later on in Matthew chapter 24.

[25:54] So Christ gives us those things. So we're watching for those. Yes, we're watching for the coming of Christ. We're watching. I mean, you read in Matthew 24, or not 24, but 25, that we're to lift up our head for our redemption, draweth now.

[26:10] When we start to see these things come to pass, we lift up our head for our redemption, draweth now. It's getting closer to us as the hours go by, as the days go by, our redemption's drawing closer.

[26:24] But he tells them here in verse 6, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. What are we watching for? We're watching for signs. Yes, folks, nobody, nobody knows when Christ is coming.

[26:38] We've already been over that. No man knoweth the hour nor the day. No man. And so all these freaks over the years that have said the world's going to end at such and such time, everybody thought the world was going to end come the year 2000.

[26:53] You've got these people like David Cares, you've got Jim Jones, you've got all these people that's working down. They knew some of these things. No man knows the hour or the day when that is coming, but we watch the world around us.

[27:09] What do we see? We see China and we see Russia, the king of the north and the king of the east. That's brought up in the Old Testament. We see them collaborating together.

[27:19] We see and we hear about these earthquakes in diverse places, folks. We have more earthquakes around here now. I know that we had when I was a young and I can remember one when I was a kid.

[27:31] And within the past 10 or 12 years, there's been several around here. So we've got that. We see more pestilence. We see more famine. We see more wars and rumors of wars.

[27:43] We see mothers hating daughters and sons hating fathers. And we see all these things that are brought up in the prophetic revelation of the Old Testament.

[27:53] We see these things coming to pass. And if that's what we're seeing, we need to be looking up because our redemption is drawing nigh but those that are in darkness, they don't see that.

[28:03] The book of Proverbs says those that wander in darkness knoweth not at what they stumble. And that's one of the saddest verses in all of the Old Testament. They know not at what they stumble.

[28:13] Folks, that means they could stumble directly over the gospel of Jesus Christ and never even realize it. What a sad statement that is. What a sad thing that would be.

[28:25] But they're stumbling, they're tripping, they're falling, but they don't even know what they're stumbling and tripping and falling over according to the Scripture. Let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

[28:39] And this sober isn't just talking about not drinking, not getting drunk. It's saying to stay alert. Stay alert, stay on top of things. The best way to stay on top of things, especially world events concerning what we're going over tonight is to keep your nose in your Bible.

[28:58] You study the Scriptures. And that's the best way to stay alert as to what's going on versus what the Bible says.

[29:09] So verse 7, for they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunk, and are drunk and in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for end helmet the hope of salvation.

[29:24] For those that sleep, sleep in the night, and those that are drunk, are drunk in the night. He's talking about things that happen in darkness. And that's what we were just going over there, the contrast between darkness and light.

[29:35] He says, but let us who are of the day, remember he said that we were children of the day in verse 5, let us who are of the day be sober. In other words, be alert, be on guard, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for end helmet the hope of salvation.

[29:55] We're awake and we're watching and we're sober. But how is it that we are that way? I'm talking about people that belong to God, kingdom people, people that have been born again.

[30:08] We're awake and we're sober and we're watching. And that is made possible by the means that God has given us through this gospel armor that we read about here in the granted.

[30:21] It's not as detailed as what we find in the book of Ephesians when we talk about putting on the full armor of God. But here he says, put on the breastplate of faith and love.

[30:35] What is a breastplate and what does a helmet do? Either one of these are offensive weapons. Either one of them are for offense. We don't take a helmet off to throw it at someone. We don't throw a breastplate at someone.

[30:45] They're defensive, they're defense, defensive tools that we have at our disposal. He says the breastplate of faith and love.

[30:56] Breastplate would cover your inner tear, your organs, what's vital to you. Your helmet would cover what's vital up here. It covers your cranium so your brain don't get damaged.

[31:06] So in other words, we're covering our heart and we're covering our mind. And we're covering our heart with faith and with love, with faith in Jesus Christ that He's going to take us out of this mess before it gets too messy.

[31:19] Now remember we talked about how the wars and rumors of wars and famine and pestilence, that was the beginning of sorrow. But when the real tribulation comes, folks, the church is not going to be here.

[31:30] I'm thoroughly convinced the church will not be here. We will be with Christ and He will call us up. He's going to get us out of here and I praise God for that.

[31:43] But we put on the breastplate of faith and love, faith in Jesus Christ and the love that He has given us to love not only ourselves, I don't know how many of you all, or how you all were before you got saved, but before I got saved, I hated myself.

[31:59] I hated everything about me and I hated everybody that was around me. I couldn't stand to be around people, but when I got saved and the love of God came within me and God came to dwell within me, all that hate was done away with and it became love and I have love for my neighbor.

[32:20] Whether they're saved or they're lost, I have love for my neighbor. Christ said to love God and to love your neighbor. He didn't make a distinction between saved and lost neighbor or black and white neighbor or any other types of neighbors.

[32:32] He just said, love your neighbor and I have that kind of love and we put on this breastplate of faith and love. With this breastplate on and our helmet and foreign helmet, the hope of salvation, I mean folks, we can stand on watch.

[32:50] We can be on top of the palace walls or on top of the walls that are surrounding the city where the case is and no matter what kind of fiery darts that the enemy shoots at us, no matter what they do to us, if we got on this breastplate and we've got on this helmet, folks, the enemy cannot hurt us.

[33:08] He can do his best to and he can try and drag us down. He can try and physically hurt us. He can try and mentally hurt us. He can try and spiritually hurt us, but we are children of the day and we know what we're watching for because the Bible tells us what to watch for and we watch for those enemies and we watch for the enemy's darts and the enemy's arrows and the enemy's attacks.

[33:31] And with this armor on that God has provided to us, folks, we are untouchable as far as the enemy attacks go.

[33:41] Verse nine, for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord, Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

[33:55] So verse nine, again, coming right out of verse eight where we're talking about the breastplate of faith and love and a helmet for the hope of salvation, he says, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord, Jesus Christ, I am not appointed to wrath.

[34:17] I don't have to suffer the wrath of God. I've said it dozens of times, maybe hundreds of times, that Jesus Christ took the wrath of God on himself and upon himself in my stead and in your stead so that we would never know what the wrath of God felt like.

[34:35] He took that upon himself. He took my sin. He took my shame. He took my guilt. And he took God's very wrath upon himself that I wouldn't have to suffer it.

[34:47] So me personally, I don't think that the church is going to go through the tribulation period because we are not appointed to wrath. We may see the beginnings of it.

[34:59] In fact, I think that we will see and we are seeing the very beginnings of it, but the actual tribulation period, I do not believe that the church will be here for that, for we are not appointed to wrath.

[35:12] We are appointed to salvation. And Christ saved us, he didn't save us just to dump the wrath of God out on us. He saved us for his own glory and he saved us for the glory of God the Father.

[35:25] That's why Christ saved us. God saved us for the sake of Christ. You read in Ephesians chapter 4 that we are to forgive one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us.

[35:36] God forgave us for the sake of Jesus Christ that Jesus Christ would not die in vain. And Christ did not die to save us just so that we would have the wrath of God poured out on us here in this life or in the next.

[35:52] We are not, if we're born again, we are not appointed unto wrath. And I praise God for that. He says, for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.

[36:08] This is probably the most amazing thing in all the scripture that we've read tonight that Paul looked exactly where we need to look for our confidence.

[36:19] He looked exactly where we should go to for our confidence in salvation. Again, we're not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.

[36:32] Where's Paul looking to? Paul's looking to the cross. He's looking to the crucifixion of Christ. And folks, I've said it before, if Christ came and lived a long, fruitful life and was able to teach hundreds of thousands more people than what he did, but he died of a heart attack at the age of 100, it would have done us no good.

[36:57] Because the Bible says without the shedding of blood there is no remission. He had to have his blood shed. He had to be crucified. These are the things that were prophesied in the Old Testament and Christ fulfilled them all up to his first advent.

[37:13] Now there's some other things that haven't been fulfilled quite yet concerning the second. We're not going to get into that though, but we're not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.

[37:28] Paul looks to the cross and that's exactly where we need to look for. He looks to the cross for his confidence. It says, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him, whether we're alive or whether we're dead, in other words.

[37:48] We should live together with him. Like I said, this was some of the questions that the Thessalonians obviously had was what happens, Christ hasn't come yet. Not about my mom or my dad or grandma or grandpa or whoever died, but they had faith in Christ.

[38:04] Paul here says whether we wake or whether we sleep, we live together with Christ. We are bound from the point of our salvation to the point of our regeneration into a child of God.

[38:18] We are bound to Christ forever and not only are we bound to Christ, we are bound to fellow believers in Christ. We did that again, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

[38:32] Not only do we live with him, but we live together with other fellow believers in Christ. That goes for this life that we are in right now and the life to come. We are forever bound to fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, just as we are forever bound to Christ.

[38:49] Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. Comfort yourselves together and edify one another.

[39:00] Folks, there is, and that word, wherefore, puts us back to what we just read, that we will live forever together with one another with him, with Christ.

[39:14] Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another with what? With those words. That's how he ended chapter 4. We read it just a little while ago.

[39:24] When he's talking about the rapture of the church in verse 18 in chapter 4, wherefore comfort one another with these words. And he's saying basically the same thing here in verse 11 in chapter 5, wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, build one another up with what I just told you that cross died for us, that we are not appointed to wrath, but we are appointed to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.

[39:51] Help yourselves along with that and help one another along with that thought and with those words. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do.

[40:04] Folks, there is no better way for us as children of God to comfort one another than with the gospel, than with the fact that if we are born again children of God, that we are guaranteed an inheritance with Christ.

[40:22] The Bible says in Romans chapter 8, we are heirs to God and join heirs with Jesus Christ. We stand to inherit everything that Christ has and praise God, Christ has it all.

[40:34] And therefore we stand to inherit it all with him and we can comfort one another with those words. We are not appointed to wrath, we are appointed to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ.

[40:46] And that's as far as I am going to go tonight. I won't say that I'd like to go tonight, but that's as far as I'm going to go.