{"id":22338,"date":"2023-04-15T10:51:58","date_gmt":"2023-04-15T15:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-022-not-appointed-to-wrath\/"},"modified":"2023-08-02T15:01:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T20:01:34","slug":"first-thessalonians-022-not-appointed-to-wrath","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-022-not-appointed-to-wrath\/","title":{"rendered":"First Thessalonians 022 – Not Appointed to Wrath"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[97],"series_event":[546],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-22338","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-thessalonians","series_event-first-thessalonians","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"First Thessalonians 022 - Not Appointed to Wrath","sermon_date":"20230416","sermon_month":"04","sermon_year":"2023","sermon_notes":22336,"sermon_slides":22350,"sermon_mp3":22356,"sermon_id":"41523184117835","series_or_event":546,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":97,"chapter_and_verse":"5:9","sermon_transcript":"

First Thessalonians 022 \u2013 Not Appointed to Wrath<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

1 Thessalonians 5:9 \u2022 Dr. Andy Woods \u2022 April 16, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n

PRAYER<\/h4>\r\nWell good morning, everybody.\u00a0 Happy one week after Resurrection Sunday.\u00a0 That's better than saying happy one day after tax day I guess.\u00a0 Tax day is tomorrow?\u00a0 I thought today was this.\u00a0 Today is the 16th right?\u00a0 Oh, so we get \u2013 they gave us an extra day.\u00a0 They give you an extra day to turn in half your money to the government.\u00a0 Aren't they sweet?\u00a0 Okay, we digress.\r\n\r\nLet's pray.\u00a0 Father, we're grateful for today, grateful for Your word, grateful for the fact that You change not.\u00a0 You're the same yesterday, today and forever.\u00a0 I do pray Father that as we look into the details of Your word today, that You would, via the illuminating ministry of the Spirit that you would take the teachings of Your word and apply them to the deep needs of Your people only You know Lord, in a room or even people listening online, the size of the listeners only You know what's going on in each individual life, and only You can take Your truth and apply it in specific ways that we need to hear.\u00a0 So we do invite this morning, Lord, that great ministry of the Spirit called illumination, which guides us into all truth.\u00a0 We recognize that we sometimes in our natural selves as Christians can impede that ministry through sin on our part.\u00a0 So we're just going to take a few moments of silence to do personal business with You so that we might be able to receive from You eternal truth.\r\n\r\nWe remain, Lord, grateful for the provision You've made for us as Christians in 1 John 1:9, which does not restore position, which can never be lost, but can restore broken fellowship.\u00a0 So we ask specifically as Your word is taught, not just from this pulpit this morning, but in all the classrooms, particularly kind of an exciting day for the youth.\u00a0 It's Camp Sunday, that's always a fun time, that Your name would be lifted up and glorified.\u00a0 And we lift up all of these things in Jesus' name, and God's people said amen.\r\n

REVIEW<\/h4>\r\nWell, let's take our Bibles if we could and open them to 1 Thessalonians 5:9.\u00a0 Continuing on in our verse-by-verse teaching through the book of 1 Thessalonians, Paul the apostle in the first three chapters has defended himself, dialing back to personal experiences that he had with the Thessalonians.\u00a0 And with his reputation as an apostle now rehabilitated, he's now in a position to correct the Thessalonians, which he starts to do beginning in Chapter 4 based on issues that he was aware of that they were struggling with.\r\n\r\nSo he's dealt with them on the subject of immorality, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8.\u00a0 .\u00a0 He's dealt with them on the subject of laziness, 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, and then beginning in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 all the way through 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (hoping to finish that section today, believe it or not, everybody laughs every time I say that) he's dealt with them on the subject of eschatology, the end times.\r\n\r\nAs we've studied, you have one of your clearest statements anywhere in the Bible at the end of Chapter 4 on the rapture.\u00a0 And then after discussing the rapture, Paul moves on to dealing with what is going to happen after the rapture.\u00a0 And this is where he introduces Chapter 5:1-3, something called the Day of the Lord.\r\n\r\nThe Day of the Lord in this context is a time of judgment that's coming upon planet Earth post-rapture.\u00a0 Other sections of scripture would call this the 70th week of Daniel.\u00a0 Jeremiah would call it a time of trouble for Jacob.\u00a0 And as we've explained, when he says the Day of the Lord, you have to understand that the concept of day was well known to Paul.\r\n\r\nHe most likely is getting this motif from the first use of the word \"day\" in the Bible.\u00a0 Where there's an evening followed by a morning.\u00a0 Genesis 1:5 is the first time you'll see the word day in Scripture, the Hebrew word yom.\u00a0 And so Paul is sort of taking that idea and saying here's what's going to happen post-Rapture.\u00a0 There's going to be a Day of the Lord, a time of evening or nighttime, the seven-year tribulation period followed by the breaking fourth of the dawn, which will be the coming of the kingdom once Jesus returns to the earth, subsequent to the seven-year tribulation period.\r\n\r\nIf you really wanted to drill down on this section of scripture, you would read Revelation 6-19.\u00a0 John, given a vision there on the Isle of Patmos at the end of the first century, he organizes everything chronologically how it's going to happen.\u00a0 The rest of the scripture really doesn't organize things in the tight chronology that John has in Revelation.\u00a0 The rest of the scripture just has these scattered prophecies about the Day of the Lord, the coming kingdom, and these kinds of things.\r\n\r\nAnd so the contribution of the book of Revelation is that the book of Revelation takes these scattered prophecies and organizes them into a chronological framework.\u00a0 So you have in the book of Revelation, as in the book of Daniel 9:27, a seven-year period, two divisions of that period.\u00a0 First half, second half, Daniel tells us what's going to happen in the middle and what's going to happen at the end.\u00a0 And John comes along with that structure intact, and he explains the different judgments that will happen in that time period.\u00a0 The seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, the bowl judgments, followed by the breaking forth of God's kingdom on the earth.\u00a0 So these are all things that are going to happen subsequent to the rapture that he, Paul, has described at the end of Chapter 4.\r\n

THIEF IN THE NIGHT<\/h4>\r\nAnd after Paul gives that description of the Day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, he then applies it.\u00a0 And he talks here about how that time period is going to come like a thief in the night.\u00a0 In other words, it's going to take the unsaved world totally off guard.\u00a0 Not that they haven't been warned, it's just that they haven't been listening to the warnings.\r\n\r\nIt will be just like it was in the days of Noah, where despite Noah's preaching for 120 years of the coming flood, Matthew 24:38-39 says of the unsaved world of Noah's day, they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.\u00a0 And that's what this Day of the Lord is going to be like.\u00a0 That's why it's described as a thief in the night.\r\n

SONS OF LIGHT<\/h4>\r\nBut then beginning in 1 Thessalonians 5:4-8, which is what we covered last time, Paul begins to explain that yes, the unsaved world without a knowledge of God or His word will be caught off guard by this time period, but you're different.\u00a0 You're sons of the light.\u00a0 You know about these things.\u00a0 Because you're related to Jesus Christ by way of faith, you have an understanding of these things that the world doesn't have.\u00a0 And so he exhorts us prior to the rapture to live according to our identity, to live as sons of the light.\r\n

1 THESSALONIANS 5:9-11<\/h4>\r\nAnd then we move now to 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11.\u00a0 And once we finish Verses 9-11, we're finished with the eschatological section of 1 Thessalonians.\u00a0 And don't be disappointed in that because there's going to be plenty of eschatology when we move into 2 Thessalonians.\r\n

THREE REASONS WHY THE CHURCH AGE BELIEVER WILL ESCAPE THE DAY OF THE LORD<\/h4>\r\nBut basically what Paul does here is he gives three reasons why we, as members of the church age, will not be stuck in this time period.\u00a0 The world will be stuck in this time period.\u00a0 In fact, if you look at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5:3, it says, \"... they will not escape.\"\u00a0 We pointed out that that's a double negation there in Greek.\u00a0 Once this time period hits, there's no possible way the world will get out of it.\r\n\r\nBut it's different for us because we will escape this time period.\u00a0 We will escape this time period based on what Paul has spoken of at the end of Chapter 4, via the rapture of the church.\u00a0 And so what I'm seeing here in 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 are three reasons why the Christian church will not be in the Day of the Lord or the seven-year tribulation period.\r\n\r\nAnd this is something that we need to bone up on and understand because there's a lot of different views on this as you probably noticed.\u00a0 The view that we represent is at the top of the screen[1]<\/a>, pre-tribulationalism, that the rapture happens before the seven-year tribulation period starts and there's just a lot of people out there running around trying to knock that belief down and teach their own version of it where we're going to be here for half of that time period, second viewpoint down, all of that time period, third view down, or we're going to be here for roughly three quarters of it, fourth view down.\r\n\r\nAnd so in an age of skepticism about everything, you have to really, I think, develop certainty, and I think you can from God's word, that we will not see any of this time period.\u00a0 That's not saying that the Christian life is easy.\u00a0 We, this side of the rapture, experience many trials and tribulations, small \"t\".\u00a0 But we escape the time of tribulation and testing that is coming upon the earth, capital \"T\".\r\n

REASON 1:\u00a0 WE ARE NOT APPOINTED UNTO WRATH<\/h4>\r\nPaul here gives us three reasons.\u00a0 The first reason is we are not appointed unto wrath.\u00a0 Notice 1 Thessalonians 5:9.\u00a0 \"For God has not destined us ...,\" see the pronouns there?\u00a0 He's speaking to the church.\u00a0 It's very different than what he was doing in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, when he was speaking of them, third person.\u00a0 Now he speaks to us, Paul even includes himself in that.\r\n\r\n\"For God has not destined us for wrath ...\"\u00a0 Now this word wrath in Greek is the word org\u0113<\/em>.\u00a0 And there are many, as I've said before, many sexual concepts that come out of that word.\u00a0 You know, orgy and these kind of words.\u00a0 And so the word org\u0113<\/em> in Greek basically is talking about passion that can't be limited<\/strong>.\u00a0 Passion without control.\r\n\r\nBut here the word is not being used in the sexual sense, it's being used in the anger sense<\/strong>.\u00a0 Where it's speaking of emotion, and in particular it's speaking of God's emotion.\u00a0 In other words, there's coming a time period where God has just had enough, humanity has gone too far, and He just releases full vent onto planet Earth his rage.\r\n\r\nIt's a passion without a limitation on it.\u00a0 That's what's meant by org\u0113<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/strong>\r\n\r\nAnd Paul is explaining here that we are not candidates or destined for that particular time period.\u00a0 So one of the great arguments for the idea that we will be removed from the Earth before this time period starts is we are promised an exemption from org\u0113<\/em>.\u00a0 Now we're not promised an exemption from man's wrath, Satan's wrath, the world's wrath.\u00a0 We experience those even today.\r\n

DIVINE WRATH<\/h4>\r\nWhat we are exempted though from is a category of wrath called divine wrath.\u00a0 The wrath of God is very, very different than the concept of divine discipline.\u00a0 Hebrews 12:5-13 says, whom the Lord loves, the Lord (what) the Lord chastens, the Lord disciplines.\u00a0 Discipline is the idea that when we step out of line as Christians, God oftentimes will introduce momentary pain into our lives so that we will associate the momentary pain with the sinful action, and we'll be less likely to destroy ourselves in sin.\u00a0 We all experience that as God's children.\r\n\r\nIt's the same reason you discipline your children when they run out in the street without looking.\u00a0 You don't want them to do that, so you have to introduce some kind of momentary pain into their lives, depending on how the form of discipline manifests itself.\u00a0 And the goal there is the next time they think about running out in the street without looking, they're going to associate the momentary pain with running out in the street without looking and their lives will be spared from being hit by a truck or hit by a car.\r\n\r\nSo God does that with us, He disciplines us, but that is not wrath.\u00a0 Discipline is a different category than wrath.\u00a0 Discipline is corrective.\u00a0 You know, it's done out of love.\r\n\r\nWrath is a time period when God is actually directly introducing divine judgment.\u00a0 So just because you're disciplined by the Lord, and read the story of David and others to see what the disciplinary hand of God can look like, don't confuse that with the fact that, oh no, God disciplines me, therefore I'm going into His org\u0113<\/em>, into His wrath one day.\u00a0 And the Bible promises that we are exempted from divine wrath.\r\n\r\nI mean, it's as clear as day here.\u00a0 \"For God has not destined us [Paul and the rest of us] for wrath, ...\".\u00a0 So the promise is made, and the tribulation period is a time period of God's wrath, and so obviously the church cannot be here.\r\n

THE PROMISE \u2013 EXEMPTION FROM DIVINE WRATH<\/h4>\r\nAre we exempted from divine wrath?\u00a0 Yes, we are.\u00a0 It's promised many times in the Bible.\u00a0 The verse we're looking at here (1 Thessalonians 5:9) is one of the clearest references to it, but you might remember back in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, Paul introduced it for the first time, this concept in the Thessalonian books.\u00a0 He said to the Thessalonians there, \"and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us<\/strong> [notice the pronoun] from [meaning out of ] the wrath [org\u0113<\/em>] to come.\"\r\n\r\nTo the struggling church at Philadelphia, Jesus promised, \"I will also keep you from the hour of testing, (testing, capital T) that hour which is to come upon the whole earth to test those who dwell on the earth\" (Revelation 3:10).\u00a0 Other places in Scripture which indicate that we're delivered from divine wrath.\u00a0 You see them there on the first bullet point up.\r\n\r\nRomans 5:9.\u00a0 \"Much more than having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.\"\r\n\r\nRomans 8:1 says, \"Therefore there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.\"\r\n\r\nSo you've got 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:9; Romans 5:9; Romans 8:1; Revelation 3:10, and you should probably take those scriptures and jot them down somewhere, because you've got a whole chorus of voices today, of people that are going to try to tell you that you're going into God's wrath because they're not pre-tribulational rapturists, as we are here.\r\n\r\nSo if that promise is made over and over and over and over and over again to the child of God, how could the child of God today be in that time period which is a representation of His wrath? <\/strong>\u00a0See, once the rapture of the church takes place, now there's nothing left to hold back the wrath of God coming to the world.\r\n\r\nBecause He will have kept His promise.\u00a0 He's promised us that we're exempted from His wrath, then the church is removed from the earth.\u00a0 He's kept that promise.\r\n

AFTER THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH, THE WRATH OF GOD COMES<\/h4>\r\nAnd now this world becomes a candidate for something that God has been warning about going way back in the ancient prophets and prophecies, the wrath of God now comes.\u00a0 And as you go through different tribulation period passages, you'll see over and over again it's described as the wrath of God.\r\n\r\nThis is just a fast overview of what the initial time period looks like.\u00a0 Once the wrath of God hits, Jesus will be in heaven opening a seven-sealed scroll that will bring these various judgments to the earth.\u00a0 They're all described in Revelation 6.\r\n\r\nFirst the rider on the white horse comes and he is a form of God's wrath because he brings the world into deception.\u00a0 God is allowing the world to be deceived because the world at that time will think that the Antichrist is their messiah.\u00a0 He's that rider on the white horse imitating what Jesus will do when He comes back at the end of the tribulation period being the rider on the white horse, Revelation 19, introducing His peace to the earth.\r\n\r\nThis coming Antichrist will introduce a pseudo peace, a false peace.\u00a0 The world will think peace has arrived.\u00a0 But it quickly fades, this hope, because peace with the opening of the second seal is taken from the earth.\u00a0 It's what looks to be like a world war breaks out.\r\n\r\nNow keep in mind this is not Satan causing these things, ultimately.\u00a0 It's not angels causing these things, ultimately.\u00a0 Of course, God is sovereign, and He can use angels to accomplish His will, and He even uses the devil to accomplish His will.\u00a0 In fact, that's the only reason the devil is even around anymore, because God is strategically using Satan to somehow accomplish His sovereign will.\r\n\r\nBoy, Pastor, do you have a good book on that that we could read?\u00a0 Yeah, the book of Job is all about that.\u00a0 The earliest book of the Bible talks all about that, how God is actually using His arch enemy, Satan, to accomplish God's will in Job's life.\u00a0 So it's not Satan causing these things ultimately, it's not angels causing these things ultimately, it's Jesus who's opening a seven sealed scroll, bringing these things to the earth.\u00a0 In other words, Jesus is bringing forth His wrath, something that you're exempted from according to divine promise.\r\n\r\nSeal number three, famine breaks out, seal number four, death breaks out, and what you'll see in seal judgment number four, and there's the verse numbers on the screen[2]<\/a>, is a quarter of the world's population, just like that, is destroyed.\u00a0 There's a lot of people running around today saying we're in the tribulation period now.\u00a0 Not so.\r\n\r\nThe earth is having problems today.\u00a0 With the pandemic, everybody is worried and scared.\u00a0 But when you actually look at the numbers of people that die from the actual virus, rather than comorbidities or something like that, the number is very, very small.\u00a0 It's far less even than 1%.\u00a0 I'm not trying to make light of the pandemic at all, because we know people even in our flock that have suffered and some have died perhaps from that, perhaps from a comorbidity.\r\n\r\nMy only point is what's happening now pales in comparison to what's coming. \u00a0You cannot compare 0.0001% to just like that [finger snap] 25% of the world's population is killed.\u00a0 Just like that.\u00a0 And who's causing it?\u00a0 Jesus.\r\n\r\nAnd Jesus has the right to cause it because he entered into history 2,000 years ago to spare people from this.\u00a0 But if people reject it, then the only option left for them is they move very fast into the wrath of God.\r\n\r\nNow, if that isn't bad enough, then Revelation 9, the great army from the kings of the east, from the Orient, crossing the Euphrates River, which is that line of demarcation between the Far East and the Middle East.\u00a0 I'm of the John Walvoord perspective on that, that that very well could be China.\u00a0 Or China could be clearly one of the players.\u00a0 Which is very interesting because you can't even pick up the paper today without hearing about China.\r\n\r\nYou know, our own president, some people call him, you know, Beijing Biden.\u00a0 I mean, totally bought off by China.\u00a0 China interfering constantly into social media, constantly interfering into even, well do I even say this?\u00a0 Because if I say it, they'll probably take it off the internet.\u00a0 Interfering into our electoral process.\r\n\r\nYou know, I remember the Clinton years when they were basically selling military secrets to China.\u00a0 And that's the first time I started to notice, wow, if Walvoord is right on China being the kings of the east, and I think he is right, we're living in a time period where what God said is starting to happen.\u00a0 The Bible predicts an aggressive kings of the east, or China in the last days.\r\n\r\nAnd as this giant army, and you can see it, read it, don't take my word for it, it's in Revelation 9 and Revelation 16, as this army moves into northern Israel under satanic power for the final battle called the Battle of Armageddon, where the Euphrates River is supernaturally dried up by satanic powers.\u00a0 Google the Euphrates River today.\u00a0 That's kind of interesting.\u00a0 It's sort of drying up.\u00a0 I don't know if that's, I don't think this is that, but maybe it's some kind of precursor.\u00a0 I don't know, but I do know that the Bible says as this army moves across the Euphrates River, they wipe out, it says right there in the text, one third of the world's population.\r\n\r\nYou say, \"Well, wait a minute.\u00a0 Let's do some math here.\"\u00a0 I thought Revelation 6:7-8, a quarter of the world's population has been wiped out, leaving three quarters.\u00a0 And so if you take away half from that, if I've got my math right, let's see.\u00a0 Oh my goodness, maybe we should just read the Bible.\u00a0 Let's go to Revelation 9 just for a minute.\u00a0 I had all this worked out before I got up here.\u00a0 Revelation 9:13, \"The sixth angel sounded, and I heard a trumpet from the four horns of the golden altar.\"\u00a0 There it is, Verse 18, \"A third of mankind was killed by these plagues.\"\u00a0 So as this army is making its way from the east into the middle east, now they destroy a third.\u00a0 Three quarters was left, right?\u00a0 So can someone help me with the math there?\u00a0 How much of the world's population is left?\u00a0 Fifty percent.\u00a0 By the time you hit Revelation 9, one half of the world's population has been destroyed.\r\n\r\nNow there's this view of eschatology called Preterism.\u00a0 I did both my master's thesis and doctoral dissertation at Dallas Seminary trying to refute Preterism.\u00a0 And you should really be in prayer right now that I don't tell you everything that I know about Preterism because I'll bore you to death.\u00a0 But you won't be the third that's killed here but you will be bored to death.\r\n\r\nAnd this is something that is taught by Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Answer Man.\u00a0 He teaches partial Preterism.\u00a0 The late R.C. Sproul taught this.\u00a0 It's not a matter of hearsay.\u00a0 Read their books.\u00a0 Hanegraaff's book is called the Apocalypse Code<\/em>.\u00a0 R.C. Sproul's book is called The Last Days According to Jesus<\/em>.\u00a0 And they have kind of a variation on it where they save a few shreds of scripture for the end.\r\n\r\nBut they say the bulk of Revelation has already happened.\u00a0 And they're trying to connect it with the events of AD 70, when the Romans invaded Jerusalem.\u00a0 Which means they have to take the book of Revelation and they have to pretend that it was written in the AD 60s, rather than the AD 90s.\u00a0 And the problem is, nobody ever taught the book of Revelation was written in the AD 60s until the 5th century.\r\n\r\nAnd if you want to see a take down on this whole subject, go to the Pre-Trib website, https:\/\/www.pre-trib.org\/<\/a>, and watch the debate around 2010, somewhere in there, maybe a little earlier, the debate between Mark Hitchcock, Dallas Seminary grad, and Hank Hanegraaff on the date of the book of Revelation.\u00a0 And you'll see Mark Hitchcock just utterly destroying Hank Hanegraaff.\u00a0 Hank Hanegraaff has no arguments.\r\n\r\nIn fact, his opening statement, and I was sitting there to watch it, it was the most bizarre thing I'd ever seen.\u00a0 Instead of giving his opening statement, he decided to cite the book of Revelation, Chapter 1, from memory.\u00a0 So why would you do that in your opening statement?\u00a0 Because you have no opening statement.\u00a0 You have to showcase something, right?\u00a0 So he decided to showcase his memory.\u00a0 Mark Hitchcock comes in as an attorney, I think he was a former prosecutor, comes in with facts, information, details, and by the end of the whole debate, if you can even call it that, I mean you're actually feeling kind of bad for Hank Hanegraaff because he really had almost nothing to say.\r\n\r\nSo the Preterist pretends that the book of Revelation was written in the 60s to make it a prophecy about AD 70.\u00a0 The problem is every church father until the 5th century thought that the book of Revelation was written in the AD 90s.\u00a0 So the book of Revelation is written in the AD 90s, it can't really be a prophecy about AD 70, can it?\u00a0 So the whole Preterist position is built on an early date for the book of Revelation, which makes the whole viewpoint suspect.\r\n\r\nBut the Preterist basically wants you to believe that the book of Revelation already happened.\u00a0 Preterism, Latin for past, past or gone by.\u00a0 And you can see very clearly that any intellectual integrity will not allow you to believe something like that because AD 70 was bad, but it did not wipe out half of the world's population.\r\n\r\nWorld War I and World War II, as bad as they were, did not wipe out half of the world's population.\u00a0 I mean, this is something that's obviously unparalleled in human history.\u00a0 This is something yet to come.\u00a0 And actually, Jesus, who had no place to lay his head, remember, in the first coming, is causing this.\r\n\r\nSo if you are promised is an exemption from divine wrath, how in the world could you be in this time period?\u00a0 Then you have martyrdoms and cosmic disturbances.\u00a0 And so by the time you get to Revelation 6:16-17, this is the pagans, the unbelievers, figuring out what's happening.\u00a0 And they say, \"This is the wrath of God.\"\u00a0 It says in Revelation 6:16-17, \"and they [the unbelievers] said to the mountains and to the rocks, \u201cFall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath [org\u0113 \u2013 <\/em>that's what you're exempted from] of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath [org\u0113<\/em>] has come, and who is able to stand?\u201d\"\r\n\r\nNotice the expression at the end of Verse 16, \"the wrath of the Lamb,\" which kind of looks like an oxymoron, doesn't it?\u00a0 It's like saying reasonable attorney's fees, government intelligence, postal service, Microsoft works.\u00a0 How could a lamb be wrathful?\u00a0 But that's what the Bible says.\u00a0 The sweet little Jesus that had no place to lay His head, that was ushered to His grave as a common criminal so that we would not have to enter into His wrath, now it's completely different.\r\n\r\nNow the wrath of God has broken forth.\u00a0 He's opening the seals, causing these things to come to the earth, not the least of which is an elimination of one half of the world's population.\u00a0 I mean, how many churches do you think would ever teach on the wrath of the Lamb?\u00a0 I mean, just think about it, all the churches that are meeting across the United States today, I mean, I would love to know what churches and what percentage of churches are talking about the wrath of Jesus that He's bringing to the earth.\r\n\r\nMost of our time is spent talking about what He did for us 2,000 years ago, and thank God for that.\u00a0 But if your view of Jesus is just a Savior Jesus, a suffering Jesus, then you really don't have a complete picture of who Jesus is.\u00a0 He is the Lamb, but He is also the what?\u00a0 The Lion of the tribe of Judah.\r\n\r\nI mean, there's coming a point in history where Jesus basically says, \"I ain't taking it anymore.\"\u00a0 And this comes from the guy that said, \"Turn the other cheek\" and \"blessed are you when you're persecuted.\"\u00a0 This is the guy as He's dying on the cross saying, \"Father, forgive them.\u00a0 They know not what they do.\"\u00a0 And there reaches a point in Jesus' ministry when He says, \"That's enough.\u00a0 No more grace.\u00a0 Here comes the judgment.\u00a0 The wrath of the Lamb.\"\r\n\r\nRobert Thomas on Revelation Chapter 6:16-17, \"Mankind in his rebellion,\" see he's describing what he thinks is the thought process of the pagans who are in this time period that cannot escape it.\u00a0 What are they thinking?\r\n\r\n\"Mankind in his rebellion<\/u> <\/strong>correctly analyzes the cosmic and terrestrial disturbances as a part of the great end-time day of wrath from the one sitting on the throne and from the Lamb. The verb \u0113lethen<\/em> (\"has come\") is aorist indicative, referring to a previous arrival of wrath, not something that is about to take place. Men see the arrival of this day at least as early as the cosmic upheavals that characterize the sixth seal (6:12-14), but upon reflection they probably recognize that it was already in effect with the death of one-fourth of the population (6:7-8), the worldwide famine (6:5-6), and the global warfare (6:3-4). The rapid sequence of all of these events could not escape notice, but the light of their true explanation does not dawn upon human consciousness until the severe phenomena of the sixth seal arrive<\/u>.<\/strong>\"[3]<\/sup><\/a>\r\n\r\nIn other words, the pagans or the unbelievers, the Christ rejectors, what the book of Revelation calls them the earth dwellers.\u00a0 I mean, they're experiencing all of this, and so finally, by the time you get to Seal No. 6, they say, \"You know what?\u00a0 This is the wrath of God.\"\u00a0 And then they say to themselves, they're not saying the wrath of God is coming, they say, \"You know what, as we're thinking about this, not only is this the wrath of God, but this wrath of God started all the way back in Chapter 6:1.\"\u00a0 That's what the Greek grammar here is saying.\r\n\r\nThe pagans figure out the wrath of God is hit, and then they start to analyze it, and they say, \"You know what?\u00a0 It already started.\u00a0 It already started with the first seal judgment, Revelation Chapter 6:1.\"\r\n\r\nWhy is that important?\u00a0 Because you have all of these people now running around trying to say that the wrath of God does not start until after Seal Judgment No. 6.\u00a0 And they try to make this read as if it says, \"The wrath of God is coming.\"\u00a0 And that becomes their theology as to why you have to be here for the first five seal judgments at least.\u00a0 This goes under different names, mid-tribulationalism, the latest people that are trying to argue this or what are called the pre-wrath rapturists.\u00a0 Yeah, we're exempted from God's wrath, but you know, the wrath of God doesn't start until after the sixth seal judgment.\r\n\r\nAnd Robert Thomas is saying that's not what the passage says, grammatically.\u00a0 And even beyond that, why in the world would you base your theology on what unbelievers are finally figuring out?\u00a0 I mean, since when did that become some kind of inerrant truth?\u00a0 This is just unsaved people wrestling with what's happening and they're analyzing it finally, correctly.\r\n\r\nSo keep this in mind when people are trying to tell you that you're going to be in Revelation 6.\u00a0 And very sadly, we're living in a time where people that win debates are the people that yell the loudest.\u00a0 The loudest guy in the room usually wins.\u00a0 And these people are screaming at the top of their lungs, trying to talk you out of your pre-tribulational beliefs and understanding.\u00a0 And these are the kind of silly arguments that they advance.\u00a0 And if you don't have somebody in the pulpit somewhere countering what they're saying, then you're just going to fall into confusion.\r\n\r\nWell that's my job as a pastor, is to protect the sheep.\u00a0 That's what shepherds do.\u00a0 And periodically that involves calling out names, because how do you protect the sheep from the wolf if no one wants to identify who the wolf is?\u00a0 Or where the wolf is?\r\n\r\nI mean such a shepherd in the natural world should be terminated or fired immediately, and yet we have all this ridiculous mindset in Christianity today, indicating that a shepherd is just supposed to stay positive.\u00a0 Your best life now, all this sort of stuff.\u00a0 Be careful about what you're teaching on there, pastor.\u00a0 Just keep it positive.\u00a0 Keep everybody happy.\u00a0 Keep the Lawrence Welk music playing.\u00a0 For those of you who remember Lawrence Welk, you're dating yourself a little bit, I guess.\u00a0 You know, it's like keep everybody, keep the balls in the air.\u00a0 Just keep the juggling act going.\u00a0 You know.\r\n\r\nAnd whatever happened to shepherding?\u00a0 Because when you actually start shepherding, people say, \"Oh, you're a negative person.\"\u00a0 Well, that's not being negative, that's being loving.\u00a0 You know, some of the most loving things my parents ever did for me, ever, and they did a lot of wonderful things for me, but they warned me about dangers.\u00a0 If my parents never warned me about potential dangers, they really wouldn't be operating out of love.\r\n\r\nBut somehow, we've twisted our understanding of shepherding and pastoral work to the point where if you actually stand up and warn someone about dangers, and then you warn about the people promoting the dangers, that that's somehow unloving.\u00a0 That's a cultural understanding of love.\u00a0 That's not a Biblical understanding of love.\r\n\r\nSo the wrath of God is coming.\u00a0 Revelation 11:18, \"And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath<\/strong> [org\u0113<\/em>] came, ....\"\u00a0 Revelation 14:10, \"he will also drink of the wine of the wrath<\/strong> of God, ....\"\r\n\r\nThese are common descriptors of the tribulation period itself.\r\n\r\nRevelation 15:1, \"... which are the last, because in them the wrath<\/strong> [org\u0113<\/em>] of God is finished.\"\r\n\r\nRevelation 15:7, \"Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath<\/strong> of God, who lives forever and ever.\"\r\n\r\nRevelation 16:1, \"... Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath<\/strong> of God.\"\r\n\r\nRevelation 16:19, \"... Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce<\/strong> wrath<\/strong>.\"\u00a0 There, it's not just wrath, there's a magnifier in front of it, His fierce wrath<\/strong>.\u00a0 As if the word wrath wasn't enough.\u00a0 Now it's God's fierce wrath.\r\n\r\nRevelation 19:15, now this is Jesus returning.\u00a0 This is the meek and mild Jesus who had no place to lay His head in the first century, who was ushered to his grave as a common criminal.\u00a0 And now as Paul Harvey said, now for the rest of the story.\u00a0 You ready for this?\u00a0 Jesus.\u00a0 \"From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath<\/strong> of God, the Almighty.\"\r\n\r\nIt's the meek and mild Jesus that's opening this scroll bringing these judgments to the earth.\u00a0 You know Islam, it's sort of interesting, you say to a Muslim, \"Do you believe in Jesus?\" \u00a0\"Oh yeah, we believe in Jesus.\"\r\n\r\nUntil you understand what they mean by Jesus, Jesus to them is sort of a sidekick of Allah.\u00a0 Muslims they do not believe in the Trinity.\u00a0 They do not believe that Jesus was the eternally existent second member of the Godhead Who is Creator, Redeemer, and Judge.\r\n\r\nAnd all this stuff that is going on in media, Superbowl Sunday, He gets us.\u00a0 Did you see those ads?\u00a0 Sort of portraying Jesus as you know he gets us all, he is just a great big, let's all do a group hug.\u00a0 Let's bring in the transgenders, let's bring in the homosexuals, let's bring in all the sexual perverts, and let's all do a great big group hug because Jesus gets us.\r\n\r\nMy goodness.\u00a0 Are people not understanding who Jesus is?\u00a0 That you're dealing with someone Who is Creator, Redeemer, and Judge?\u00a0 If you don't understand Jesus as Creator, the one who spoke in the heavens and the earth leapt into existence, Redeemer, someone who stepped into time to absorb the wrath of God the Father in our place and rose from the dead, and coming Judge.\r\n\r\nAnd if you just have maybe a fraction of those things, like we'll just focus on this little sliver of Christ over here, and we'll run that on Super Bowl Sunday in these ads called \"He Gets Us.\"\u00a0 What you have there is a false Jesus.\u00a0 It's a distortion of what the Bible says.\u00a0 Because when you read the whole Bible, what you'll see is Jesus is not a social reformer.\u00a0 The social justice movement is trying to hijack Jesus.\u00a0 They even have little plastic dolls and things like that.\u00a0 Sort of portraying Jesus like Fidel Castro.\u00a0 Or what's that guy's name?\u00a0 Che?\u00a0 Is that his name?\u00a0 Che?\u00a0 Who was a mass murderer by the way, but why let facts bother people's agendas?\r\n\r\nJesus is kind of a social reformer.\u00a0 Jesus is kind of the guy that gets us.\u00a0 Jesus has kind of come into the world to fix whatever things people are uptight about today.\u00a0 The environment, universal healthcare, whatever it is.\u00a0 That's what Jesus came into the world to do.\u00a0 What a bunch of absolute nonsensical idolatry<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nHe is Creator, He is Redeemer, and He is Judge.\u00a0 And to take Jesus and lower him to something other than what He is, do you know what that is?<\/strong>\u00a0 This is a replication of the Colossian heresy.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is exactly what Paul is fighting against in the book of Colossians, where they were teaching in this Colossian heresy in Asia Minor that God is the creator, but because the physical world is evil, Gnosticism<\/strong>, false belief, God is not the direct creator of the heavens and the earth, so instead God created an angel who created another angel, who created another angel, who created another angel, odd infinitum, and finally this little low ranking angel at the end of the chain is who brought the heavens and earth into existence.\u00a0 And Jesus is just one of those angels, Colossian heresy.\r\n\r\nPaul says you've just stripped Jesus of who He is, full deity.\u00a0 He is not some kind of low-ranking janitorial angel on some infinite chain.\u00a0 Jesus is Creator, He is Redeemer, and He is coming Judge.\u00a0 And He is fully God.\u00a0 And He has always existed.\r\n\r\nAnd what was added to eternally existent deity at the point of the virgin conception was humanity.\u00a0 He became the God Man.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because He loves us that much to die for us so we wouldn't fall into His judgment.\r\n\r\nWhen I see all these sorts of renditions of Jesus, it really sort of scares me a little bit, to be frank with you.\u00a0 How trivial people are with the name Jesus.\u00a0 How they'll use the word Jesus in context where He, if you use Him in that context, you just shrunk into a little box who He actually is.\r\n\r\nHe's Creator, He's Redeemer, and He's Judge<\/strong>.\u00a0 And just as He died for the sins of the world, He's going to bring forth His judgment on the Christ rejecters on planet earth.\u00a0 And my point is, and I really didn't anticipate quite going in this direction, but it's time to let the Holy Spirit have His way, right?\u00a0 Amen?\r\n\r\nPaul's point is, how could you be in that time period when you're exempted from divine wrath, as the Bible says to the New Testament Christian over and over and over again.\u00a0 <\/strong>\r\n\r\nLook at the contrast there in 1 Thessalonians 5: 9.\u00a0 \"For God has not destined us for wrath, ....\"\u00a0 Well, if I'm not destined for wrath, what am I destined for?\u00a0 \"... but for obtaining salvation ....\"\u00a0 Look at that.\u00a0 My destiny is not divine wrath.\u00a0 My destiny is the attainment of salvation<\/strong>.\r\n

THREE TENSES OF SALVATION<\/h4>\r\nNow, obviously to understand that, you have to understand the three tenses of salvation.\u00a0 Because you read that and you say, \"Well, I thought we already had salvation.\"\u00a0 You do, but that's just tense one.\u00a0 That's why we like to promote, we may have it in our track rack by Pastor Dennis Rocher who explains this concept so well, salvation in three time zones.\u00a0 Paul is talking to people who have experienced tense one, are experiencing tense two, but are yet to experience tense three.\r\n\r\nPhase one<\/strong>, as you know, is justification<\/strong> where we are delivered from sin's penalty at the point of faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 It already occurred in the past, the moment you trusted Christ as your Savior.\r\n\r\nThen God ushers us into the present tense of salvation and unlike Calvinism or Arminianism, which will say God is going to undo the first tense if you're not a good boy or girl in the second tense.\u00a0 No, that's not what the Bible says.\u00a0 The Bible says first tense has been totally executed once you exercise faith in Christ, regardless of how you live as a Christian.\u00a0 Now, if you live in a carnal way as a Christian, there's going to be a lot of temporal problems.\u00a0 There's going to be a forfeiture of rewards at the bema seat, there is the regret of a wasted life.\u00a0 But first tense has happened.\u00a0 I mean, are there people out there that say they've trusted in Christ, that never did?\r\n\r\nI'm sure there are.\u00a0 But there are also a lot of people out there who have trusted in Christ for salvation, and because of poor teaching or a lack of attention to divine truth, they just don't make a lot of progress in the tense too.\r\n\r\nArminianism will say, \"Well, if that happens to you, you lost your salvation.\"\u00a0 Calvinism will say, \"Well, if that happens to you, then you never had salvation.\"\u00a0 We see a middle ground here where you can have the reality of a carnal Christian.\u00a0 And if you don't believe you can have the reality of a carnal Christian, I would encourage you to read 1 Corinthians, because that's the whole point of the whole book, dealing with carnal Christians.\u00a0 So if you can't be a carnal Christian, I mean, why have a whole book, actually two, the sequel, 2 Corinthians, in the New Testament dealing with something that doesn't exist?\u00a0 It doesn't make any sense, does it?\r\n\r\nYeah, but my favorite teacher says this, and my favorite teacher says that.\u00a0 Forget your favorite teacher.\u00a0 Read the Bible.\u00a0 Read the Bible and hold your favorite teacher accountable to what it says instead of trying to defend your favorite teacher.\u00a0 Because we have a mindset today which is carnal where people say, \"I follow Paul.\u00a0 I follow Apollos.\u00a0 I follow Cephas.\u00a0 I follow Christ.\" (1 Cor 3:4).\u00a0 Dividing over your favorite orator is 2,000 years old.\u00a0 And that's what people are like when they say, \"I don't agree with what you say because my favorite teacher says different.\r\n\r\nIt doesn't matter what I say.\u00a0 What matters is what God says.\u00a0 And it doesn't matter what your favorite teacher says.\u00a0 What matters is what God says.\r\n\r\nDon't be one of these Christians that their whole theology is based on kind of bobbing back and forth between theological opinions because they like the way this guy writes.\u00a0 Or I like the way this guy sounds.\u00a0 Or I like the way this guy comes across on television.\u00a0 I like this guy's vocabulary.\u00a0 Where you're just bouncing all over the map theologically because you're more interested in defending your favorite teacher than you are building your faith on solid biblical truth.\r\n\r\nSo the Bible then says, God ushers us into the middle tense of our salvation<\/strong>, which unlike the first tense that takes place in an instant, sanctification, progressive sanctification takes place over a lifetime<\/strong>.\u00a0 It's a process where we are gradually being weaned away from sin's presence in our daily life.\r\n\r\nThat's why at the bottom of the screen[4]<\/a> you'll see \"saved\" used in the past tense, \"justification\" saved used in the present tense, \"sanctification\" saved used in the future tense, \"glorification.\"\r\n\r\nHave you been saved?\u00a0 Yes, I have been saved, and I am being saved, and I will be saved.\u00a0 That's the right answer.\u00a0 <\/strong>\r\n\r\nI have been saved, and I am not the man I should be, but in my daily life, thank God I am not the man I used to be. \u00a0But one of these days I will be dead, or the rapture will come first, and I will be out of this body, and I won't even have the desire to sin anymore.\u00a0 That's tense number three<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nWhen Paul says here, \"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation ....\"\u00a0 He's speaking of salvation there in the third time zone.\u00a0 The word salvation, you have to be very careful with it in the Bible, because it doesn't always mean the same thing.\u00a0 It's not a technical word that always means the same thing every time it's spoken.\r\n\r\nSo what do you use to determine how the word is being employed?\u00a0 You look at something called context.\u00a0 Obviously in the context, as Paul is talking to save Christians, he's not dealing with tense one.\u00a0 He's not so much dealing with tense two, although you could probably make the argument that he could be, but he's really talking about tense three, because he's talking about future things.\r\n\r\nYou're not destined for the wrath that's coming, but here is your destiny.\u00a0 Your destiny is glorification.\u00a0 Romans 13:11-12 says, \"Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. ...\"\r\n\r\nWell, wait a minute.\u00a0 I thought they already had salvation because they believed.\u00a0 And you read that and you say, \"Well, wait a minute.\u00a0 I go to Sugar Land Bible Church and we just had a lesson on this.\u00a0 The three tenses of salvation.\"\u00a0 Obviously, this is talking about Tense No. 3, glorification.\u00a0 In fact, Romans 8:30[5]<\/a>, your glorification is so certain that God looks at it as if it's already happened.\u00a0 You'll notice there glorified is in the past tense just like the other aspects of our salvation.\r\n\r\nSo you see the contrast here.\u00a0 I mean, there's Christians that are biting their nails every single day thinking they're going into the tribulation because that's what the people on YouTube tell them all the time.\r\n\r\nLook at 1 Thessalonians 5:9.\u00a0 You're not destined for God's wrath, which is coming.\u00a0 Well, if I'm not destined for God's wrath, which is coming, what am I destined for?\u00a0 You're destined for glorification.\r\n\r\nAnd of course we can't complete today without mentioning the last part of this 1 Thessalonians 5:9, \"... through our Lord Jesus Christ,\".\u00a0 You are not destined for wrath, but for obtaining glorification through the Lord.\u00a0 You are destined for glorification because of what Jesus did for you.\r\n\r\nJesus' final words on the cross were, \"It is finished.\"\u00a0 Don't trust in your good works that you're doing.\u00a0 Trust in the good work that He did.\u00a0 And if that has not happened, then these promises are non-applicable to you.\u00a0 Your destiny is to become an earth-dweller in the tribulation period, and perhaps through the preaching of the 144,000 evangelists you could hear the gospel and be saved.\u00a0 But, you know, I'm a path of least resistance type myself.\u00a0 Why do that?\r\n\r\nI would rather just trust in Jesus now and have the promise that I'm not going into this time period because I'm \u2013 what does he say in 2 Corinthians 5:17?\u00a0 You're a new creation in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 You're not like the world.\u00a0 You're brand new.\u00a0 You're not going into His wrath.\u00a0 You're going into glory.\u00a0 But it's only applicable through Jesus who said John 14:6, \"I am the truth and the life...\"\u00a0 Excuse me.\u00a0 Forgot one of those.\u00a0 In fact, let's just go back to the beginning of the quote.\u00a0 \"Jesus said to him, \u201cI am the<\/strong> way, and the<\/strong> truth, and the<\/strong> life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.\"\r\n\r\nAnd you would think something like that would be clear.\u00a0 But just so there's no ambiguity, no wiggle room, he<\/strong> adds this expression, \"No one comes to the Father but through me.\"\r\n\r\nNow Peter, who was there to hear that, got it because the book of Acts records Peter's words in Acts 4:12.\u00a0 \"\u201cAnd there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must<\/strong> [and this is an important word here, \"must,\" meaning 100% essential] be saved.\u201d\"\r\n\r\nSo look at that.\u00a0 I thought we would get through three verses, and I would show up all the people laughing at me at the beginning.\u00a0 I'll show them.\u00a0 I'll make it through Verse 11.\u00a0 And we barely made it out of Verse 9.\u00a0 So with that being said, you might want to study 1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 next week.\u00a0 Matter of fact, the way we're going, you might want to just study Verse 10.\r\n\r\nSo let's pray.\u00a0 Father, we're grateful for Your word, grateful for the opportunity to gather and study it and teach it.\u00a0 And I do ask that You'll bless us in the main service that follows.\u00a0 We'll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus' name, in God's people said amen.\r\n\r\n[1]<\/a> See minute mark 0:11:19 in video for chart.\r\n\r\n[2]<\/a> See minute mark 0:23:14 in video for list.\r\n\r\n[3]<\/sup><\/a> Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 1-7: An Exegetical Commentary<\/em> (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1992), 457\u2013458.\r\n\r\n[4]<\/a> See minute mark 0:56:09 for chart.\r\n\r\n[5]<\/a> 29<\/sup> For those whom He foreknew<\/u><\/strong>, He also predestined<\/u><\/strong> to become<\/em> conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30<\/sup> and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called<\/u><\/strong>, He also justified; and these whom He justified<\/u><\/strong>, He also glorified<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 (Romans 8:29-30)","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t