1st Thessalonians Part 5 – Lawson Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’re here for this last broadcast from 1 Thessalonians 5, talking about in light of His coming, when is Jesus coming again. I believe 1 Thessalonians 5 gives us one major key to that. So stay tuned. I believe that you’ll be blessed and you’ll receive some life changing revelation. He is talking about the gospel. And he says in verse five, 1 Thessalonians 1, he writes this about 50 AD, so about 17 years after Christ’s death and resurrection. “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.” So Paul said, not only we preach the gospel, we live the gospel. And you guys demonstrated the gospel. He says this in verse eight, “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God is spread abroad.” So people begin to hear about them in their local area, the surrounding area, and even in a greater area. Praise God. Chapter two, he is talking about the gospel. He said in verse two, “We’re speaking to you the gospel with much contention.” There’s sometimes difficulty when we’re sharing the gospel. And he says in verse four, “We were allowed of God to be put in trust.” We’ve been entrusted with the gospel. What a marvelous thing that God has entrusted us with the gospel. Amen. You know, the Bible says of stewards, it’s counted that a man be found faithful, and we’re stewards of the gospel. He goes on and he says in verse eight, “We imparted to you not only the gospel, but our also our own lives.” And then he says in verse 13, “You received the gospel. You received the word of God from us.” In chapter three, he talks about, you know, dealing with difficulty. You know, sometimes we’re, we’re preaching the gospel and we face difficulty. Jesus sometimes faced difficulty. Paul sometimes faced difficulty. Not, it was because he was doing what God called him to do. Some people think if you do what God calls you to do, you’re never gonna have any problems. Well, the problem is that just doesn’t fit in with the scripture. The thing is we are promised to overcome, but it doesn’t mean, you know, that we’re never gonna have any problems. So what do we do if we deal with difficulty? Keep looking at the good things that God’s done, amen, and keep thanking God for that, amen, and keep moving forward in what God has you to do. Praise the Lord. Now, in chapter four, he talks about how we’re called to holiness, and some people think that’s a bad word. It’s not a bad word. You’ve been made holy by the blood, but you also need to live holy. And he says, “In hope of Christ coming.” And so in verse four, he says this verse Thessalonians 4:4, he says, “Every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.” But then he goes down in verse 14 talking about our hope and says, “For if we believe that Jesus died in rose again, even also those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” How many of you believe Jesus died in rose again? How many of you believe Jesus is coming again?

He is.

Well, you read the same Bible that I do. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19, if we don’t have this hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Now, in chapter five, he begins to talk about living, understanding the times and seasons and how we live in light of what’s going on in the world. Notice this in verse one through three. “Of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write to you for you know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night.” Does a thief come unannounced? Yeah. If you knew when a thief was gonna come, listen, we had a thief break into our church about Christmas time and kicked Carson. And he beat out the back window with a hammer and probably threw something over it and crawled in and stole the soundboard and stole some other people’s musical instruments. Listen, it was 25 miles to the sheriff’s office. But if I would’ve known that thief was coming, I would’ve been there with my double barrel shotgun. Amen. I told them at the sheriff’s office. So after that, I got a new soundboard and I put this thing on it. And if they picked that thing up, it called my house. And then it called my another elder’s house into another one. I mean, I lived three blocks from the church. Another one lived about four blocks from the church. The other one lived about six blocks from the church. And I told that sheriff, I said, “Listen, before you get there, I’m gonna shoot their radiator and shoot their tires out and they aren’t gonna get anywhere. Praise God, because I am not gonna be ripped off. I don’t be like… But if he says, “Hey, a thief doesn’t announce when he is coming.” So he says, “The day the Lord will come as a thief of the night. Now, this term, the day of the Lord, you have to understand in Bible prophecy, this term is a very broad term. So it can talk about anything from Christ coming to His church, clear to the end of the millennial reign. That’s when Christ reigns with His church for a thousand years of peace on the earth. So that’s a very broad time period, okay? So don’t get bent outta shape if I look at things differently than you do, okay? He goes on and says this, “For when they say, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, as travail on a woman with a child; and they will not escape.” You remember Noah, the ark is a type of salvation, right? And Noah built this ark. He was 100 years in preparing the ark. Him and his family, 100 years building, 100 years laboring, 100 years preparing. And then God said, “Get the animals in.” And then he got them in and God shut the door. Guess what? They mocked Noah. They criticized Noah. Most Bible scholars believed it hadn’t even rained on the earth til Noah. They thought this guy has done lost his marbles, right? 100 years built. What is going on? But when God shut that door and it began to rain, they begin to beat on that arc, right? But it was too late. And he says, “It’ll come, it’s gonna come.” Now, how do we live in times like these? Well, the first thing is you have to know that we are children of the light. Everybody say, I am-

I am-

A child-

A child-

Of the light.

Of the light.

And he begins to talk about that here in verse four on down through verse eight. Let’s read it. “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of the light, and children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch, and be sober.” What’s it mean to be sober? It means to be sober minded, right? You know what’s happening. You know what’s going down. He says, “For they that sleep, sleep in the night; they that are drunk, are drunk in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet.” Again, the hope of salvation. How many of you still have hope and salvation? How many of you know salvation is if you study the scripture, you can read about this? 2 Corinthians 1:9-11 talks about it. But salvation is passed. Our spirit has been saved. That salvation is not only passed, our spirit has been saved, our soul is being saved. How many of you glad your souls still being saved? Pastor Lawson still renewing his mind. He needs a little every day. Praise the Lord. Why? Because I live in a world that’s been affected by sin and by Satan, right? All right? But our body’s gonna be saved. Peter talks about that when Jesus comes again. So it’s past, present, and future. Salvation is in all three tenses. And so he says, “We have the hope of salvation, a salvation that is yet to come.” Now, let’s look at a couple other scriptures where Paul talks about we’re children of the light. Let’s go to Ephesians 5. One of my favorite scriptures is Ephesians 5:8. It says, “For you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord.” You’ve gotta understand who you are. Walk as children of the light. See the communication of your faith, Philemon verse six, becomes effective by acknowledging every good thing that is in us in Christ. He says, you were darkness, but you’re not darkness anymore. I don’t identify with darkness. You are light in the Lord. See, the problem is if you identify with darkness as a believer, you’ll act like a schizophrenic, amen. But I don’t identify with darkness, right? I’m not a sinner trying to get saved. I’m not a poor man trying to get wealth. I’m not a sick man trying to get health. I’m not a crazy man trying to get a sound mind. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I have the light, the love, the life of Jesus in me. When I identify with that, guess what? When sin presents itself, I don’t present myself because that’s not who I am, amen. And I walk outta darkness and walk into the light. So he said, you were sometimes darkness, but now you are. This is who you are. This is your new identity. This is your true identity. “You are light in the Lord: walk as children of the light, for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” If it comes from the Holy Spirit, it’s gonna be good, it’s gonna be right, it’s gonna be true. The Holy Spirit doesn’t do anything that’s not good, right, and true. “Proving what is acceptable to the Lord.” He goes on, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest or revealed by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he says, ‘Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.'” What’s he saying? Wake up. Quit acting like a dead man. Don’t be sleeping and keep your eyes open, right? Stay, pay attention to what’s going on, right? Go to Romans chapter 13. Read this in Romans chapter 13. I love these verses too. Beginning in verse 11, look at what Paul says here. Kind of the same thing. “Now, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” It’s closer to Christ coming than when we first believed. It’s right now. He says, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, throw off the works of darkness, let us put on the armor of light.” When he says light is like armor, put on the armor of light. I like that. You know, when we came in this room tonight, we didn’t curse the darkness, we turned on the light. Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’ve been watching the program today. I’ve been teaching live in church on a Wednesday evening service, sharing about the hope of Christ coming. We have all of these teachings available to you in downloadable form, free of charge on our website and many more at CharisChristianCenter.com. If you’re really operating in faith, two things are gonna be happening. Number one, you’re gonna get joyful. And number two, you’re gonna get thankful. And you’re gonna start seeing what you have instead of what you don’t have. You’re gonna quit complaining. You’re gonna quit whining. You’re gonna quit acting like a victim. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted, built up, established in the faith as you’ve been taught abounding there in with thanksgiving. There’s a lot of things that are being exposed, right, with a lot of people right now. They weren’t just red hot loving Jesus one day and then living like the devil in the next. It begins as a seed in their mind, and they don’t deal with it, right, as a thought. You don’t wanna entertain thoughts that are gonna take you places you don’t want to go doing things, right? Somebody used to say this, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you wanna stay, cost you more than you wanna pay. It’s true. So don’t go there. And we were in James 1 on Sunday, right? And he says, “Let no man say, when he’s tempted, he’s tempted of God, because God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt he any man. But if any man is tempted, he’s drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” Don’t blame God. Don’t blame God. Don’t blame God for sin. Don’t blame God for evil. So, but this word provision, it’s like a forethought in your mind. So if you will deal, it’s not a sin to have a bad thought. I’ve had a few today. I was thinking about some political things. Okay? I know too much sometimes, okay, all right. So I had a bad thought today. It’s not a sin to have a bad thought, but you can’t let your bad thoughts, you’ve gotta deal with them in the thought realm, right? Because if you don’t deal with them in the thought realm, you might go someplace you don’t wanna go. You might do something you don’t wanna do. So you deal with it in the thought realm. So he says, “Put on Jesus and don’t make provision for the flesh.” Don’t even go there in your mind. In other words, you deal with something when it’s a thought, right? You correct it as a thought. You get your mind straightened out, right? Keep your mind sound, washed in the Word. So we’re children of the light. And that’s what he’s saying here in 1 Thessalonians 5. Guess what? The closer we get to Christ coming, two things are gonna happen. On one side, the darkness is gonna get darker, and on the other side, the light’s gonna get brighter. But you gotta decide which part you’re gonna be in. Jesus talked about it in Matthew 24, and this is what he said. He, he said, “Listen, this gospel, the kingdom’s gonna be preached to all the world for a witness to all nations and then shall the in come.” But he talks about it, before that, he says, “The love of many is gonna wax cold”, right? So there’s evil and there’s good and you choose which part you’re gonna be in. And the closer we get to Christ coming, the more the light’s gonna stand out from the darkness. And so I made my choice a long time ago. Praise God. Now let’s move forward, verse nine through verse 11. So number one, we’re children of the light. “Live like who you are.” Number two, realize this. Look at verse nine. “For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how I love that verse. I love that verse. God didn’t appoint us to wrath. How many of you think that God’s gonna put us through the fire and the fire is gonna purify us? Your doctrine if you think that’s all washed up. Because if the blood of Jesus didn’t purify you, what could purify you? God did not appoint us to wrath. Now let me show you a couple scriptures, okay? For some of you, you gotta hear this, okay? I might be giving away who I am, but go with me in Revelation 14. In Revelation 14, we’re just gonna look at a couple verses, but in verse 14 through verse 20. Dr. Sumrall preached a message on just these verses, verse 14 to verse 20, and he called it two harvests and two feasts. In one of them, there’s a harvest of life. Jesus is coming for His bride. Jesus is coming for His church. Jesus is coming to receive a spotless holy church. We read the scriptures last week in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4. They’re right there. Some people have torn those verses outta their Bible, but it’s still gonna happen, right? Jesus is coming. There’s two harvests, one of ’em for salvation, another one’s for judgment. He talks about these things, all right, in this portion of scripture. But in verse 19, it says this, “The angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and cast it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.” Right? Now, we just read a scripture, right? 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, “God has not appointed us to wrath.” How many of you glad that God didn’t appoint you to wrath? How many of you glad that Jesus took the wrath of God for you? Jesus took the judgment of God for you. Amen. I’m so glad that he did. I was thanking God during worship for my salvation. I was thanking God that He saved me, that He washed me in his blood. Then He cleansed me. We need to still thank God for our salvation. But we read, as you read here some more. Let’s read another scripture. Let’s go to Revelation 16. Revelation 16:1 says, “I heard the great voice of the temple saying to the seven angels, ‘Go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God on the earth.'” Now, you read right? 1 Thessalonians 5:9, what’d that say? “God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And you read that scripture and God spoke to these angels said, “Go pour your vials of wrath on the earth.” Right now, if you study these vials of God’s wrath, when Jesus, the Lamb of God, prevails, in Revelation 4 and 5, remember, John saw Jesus in the Revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ, who is the grace of God. And he saw Jesus in chapter one, the resurrected Savior of the world, to Him who saved and washed us from His blood, from our sins in His blood. He saw Jesus the resurrected Savior. And Jesus said this in verse 18, he said, “I am he who lives and was dead. Behold, I’m alive forevermore. Amen. And I hold the keys of hell and death.” Jesus holds the keys of hell and death, not the devil. Jesus is Lord of heaven. He created all things. Jesus was Lord when he walked on the earth. Lord over sin, Lord over sickness, Lord over demons, Lord over disease, Lord over death. Jesus was Lord when He walked on the earth. And when He went to the grave, He was Lord in the grave. He spoiled principalities and perils, made it strove them openly. So he says, “I’m He that lived and was dead.” Verse 18, Revelation 1, “Behold I’m alive forevermore and I have the keys of hell and death.” Verse 19, he says, “John, the things that you have seen, write them in a book.” The things which you have seen. Verse 19, chapter one of Revelation is a key. “And the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter.” And in chapter two, Jesus begins giving a message. This book of Thessalonians is a message to a church from Paul the apostle. Jesus gives messages to seven churches in Asia, right? Those churches represent seven churches in Asia, right? They represent, secondly, the church chronologically from Christ time that he was there to the end of time. And there are two last day churches. They are the Church of Philadelphia Great missionary church, and they are secondly, the church of Laodicea, right? What’s happening? We got a great revival on one hand, we have apostasy on the other hand. The Ephesus Church, right? The first church was the church that left, not lost, left their first love, right? There was Sardis, the persecuted church, but their messages to churches. And those seven churches represent, seven churches that were in Asia, seven church, the church from the time of Ephesus, the Apostolic church to the last day church, and they also represent seven conditions of any true church throughout history. There’s times I thought my church was like Philadelphia. Hallelujah, a great missionary church. There’s times I thought my church was like, Sardis, you have a name that you live, but you’re dead. It’s bad when the pastor thinks that his church is dead. Amen. But you know what? Jesus has a message for the church in any condition. There’s Pergamos, there’s a worldly church, right? There’s Thyatira, there’s a religious church. But then that’s chapter two and chapter three. But then chapter four verse one, he begins, right? And in chapter four verse one, he says, “I heard the voice of a trumpet talking with me saying, ‘Come up here and I will show you the things that be here after.'” After what? After the church age. Chapter one Jesus the resurrected Savior. Chapters two and three, Jesus, the Lord of the church has a message for every church, every time, every condition. Chapter four through chapter 22, Jesus is the coming King. Chapter four and five, Jesus comes to the throne to take the book from Him who sits on the throne. As he takes the book from him who sits on the throne, they begin to sing worthy. We sang it tonight. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, right? And then Jesus begins to open the seventh sealed book. When He opens the seventh seal, the seventh seal is seven trumpets. If you study closely, Revelation 16, the seven vials of God’s wrath and the seven trumpets, you will find that they’re nearly identical. Now when the seventh trumpet sounds, that’s the last seal, the last book, right, the book’s finally opened. It says this in Revelation 11:15, it says, “The kingdoms of this world to begin the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ and He will reign forever.” Jesus is the coming King, right? So Revelation 16 is really kind of going back and reiterating the same things that will happen when these seven seals were opened. So I submit to you chapter one is Jesus the resurrected Savior of the world. Chapter two, it’s the revelation of what? Jesus Christ, who by the way is the grace of God. Chapter two and chapter three is Jesus Lord of the church. In chapter four through 22 is Jesus coming King. And I submit to you that if the blood of Jesus didn’t clean you up as a believer and make you good enough, the wrath of God probably wouldn’t either. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We’ve been sharing about the hope of Christ coming. And I just want to invite you today, if you don’t have a church family, if you don’t have a church home, to come either physically to Charis Christian Center and meet us here or be part of the church or to watch us online at CharisChristianCenter.com.

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