Picture yourself in downtown Boston and you and some friends discover that a bomb is set to detonate in one of the buildings in which your coworkers are working. You are sure of the information but you just do not know when it will go off. What would you do? Wouldn’t you do everything in your power to make sure they are delivered from that? Or would you begin to say, “Well Joe gets on my nerves, I don’t particularly care if he blows up. You know, Fran ridicules everything I do I don’t think I’ll bother to tell her about it.” Or would you say, “I don’t think that bomb is set to explode right away, I’m sure there is plenty of time for them to get out of the building. I’ll go to lunch first.” How many of us would be so callous as to act in such a way.
However, as we learned last week, there is a time coming, called the Day of the Lord in which unbelievers will suffer terrible pain for not receiving Christ as their Savior. And in the second part of this passage the key idea that Paul wants us to come away with is that the Day of the Lord should cause us as believers to live in a way that those around us would seek to know Christ and be delivered from that Day’s devastating consequences.
2. The Day of the Lord in Relation to believers (vv. 4-10)
Paul covers the Day of the Lord in relation to believers in verses 4-10. This is the first point we will look at today. In these verses he describes two truths that should cause us to live in a certain way.
A. The day will not overcome us
The first truth that should cause us to live in a certain way is that the day will not overcome us. This is what Paul mentions in verse 4. Here he notes, “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day of the Lord would overtake you like a thief.”
There is a contrast between those who know the Lord and those who do not. Though it will be unexpected and sudden and painful and inescapable for those without Christ, not so for you who have put your trust in Jesus.
There is no need for us to live in fear of the coming Day of the Lord because we will not experience it. We will not find ourselves struggling through this Day of God’s strong hand. The Scripture calls the Rapture the blessed hope of the believer for we will be delivered out of the tribulation of God.
In 2 Thessalonians, Paul addresses the issue of a letter that had supposedly come from him saying that the Day of the Lord had already begun. Can you imagine their consternation when the Thessalonians received this? They were now thinking that they had missed the Rapture and would have to endure the great trials that were coming upon the earth. But Paul reassures them in this letter to the Thessalonians as well as in his second that this Day will not overcome them as a thief as it will their unbelieving neighbors.
Now why does Paul say that this will not take us by surprise like a thief? He declares in verse 5, “For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness.” This day will not take us by surprise because we have had our nature changed. We were children of darkness. We were children of night, but no longer. Paul speaks of this transformation in Colossians 1:13-14. There he says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” We have been made new people by God’s work of redemption. We have been given new natures. We are no longer children of wrath as the rest because of God’s great mercy that He has poured out upon us.”
We are no longer in darkness, not because of some change we have made or leaf we have turned over but because God has changed our nature. And this brings us to the next point.
B. Our change in nature brings us great responsibility
And this is the second truth that should cause us to live in a certain way. And this truth is that our change in nature brings us great responsibility. If we know that we have been delivered from God’s wrath, and we know that God Himself is going to keep us from the tribulation then we have a great responsibility. God’s Word to us about the ends times isn’t just to satisfy our curiosity. It isn’t just to amuse us. But it is to cause us to become different people. If we know that everyone without Christ is going to suffer through this tribulation then we must do something about it. If we truly love people we are not going to want to see them experience this horrific period in earth history. And we are going to live in a way that portrays our new life in Christ. And while we are doing so we are praying that God will use us to snatch others away from this coming holocaust.
And so in verses 6-10 we find three areas in which God calls us to change in accordance with our new nature.
i. We are called to live accordingly
The first area in which God calls us to change in accordance with our new nature is that we are called to live accordingly. Paul discusses this in verses 6&7. “So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.”
In these verses Paul contrasts the actions of those in the world with how a believer should live. And the two words that he uses to describe the believer’s life are exactly contrary to the two words he uses to describe the unbeliever. The exact opposite of being alert is being asleep. And the opposite of being sober is being drunk. Now I don’t think that Paul is using these terms literally here because he is describing a lifestyle. We are to be spiritually alert. It obviously doesn’t mean that we can’t go to bed. He is not using this literally. And so in the same way he is not talking about literal drunkenness (though the Scripture does condemn it) but about avoiding that which fails to be serious in our purpose for life. Let’s look at these two words, “alert” and “sober” and see how we should be living our lives accordingly.
First, Paul says that we should be alert. The word “alert” means to be watchful or on your guard. Can you remember when you had some time before you had to be somewhere so you laid down for a quick nap? All of a sudden you woke up with a start and realized that you were 30 minutes late for your appointment? At that time you were neither watchful nor on guard. You let the time get away from you. In the same way Paul says that our lives should be characterized by watchfulness. We must not let the time that we have to live for Christ slip by us. Every day that we live self-focused, self-absorbed lives we are failing to be alert.
Are you sure that you are working for Christ’s kingdom or are you simply busy sleeping away the opportunity to serve the Lord while you still have breath? We need to people like the men of Issachar, who according to the Scripture, “understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.” Do you really understand what you should be doing? God has given us very little of the precious commodity called time. And we must be seeking to live in such a way that would cause those around us to desire Christ. Will you be alert? Will you live your life in watchfulness to look for opportunities to share Christ with those around you? Let’s not allow the time we have to live for Christ pass us unnoticed like one who sleeps in the daytime.
Next, Paul says that we should be sober. In a negative sense, we are to avoid the foolish attitude of life characterized in drunkenness. How does a drunken person respond to those things around him? He has no serious discernment about what is important or how to handle what is going on around him. This is the attitude that Paul says we should avoid in our lives.
I have named this attitude that we should avoid, superficial nominalism. Paul says to be sober. So what do I mean by a superficial nominalism? I mean that we avoid merely give lip service to the Lord’s return. In a superficial nominalism, we have no real concern for the lost. We have no great desire to accomplish God’s will during the remaining time we have on earth, whether that is 1 day or 70 years. In this superficial Christianity we are concerned more about getting through the day and relaxing than looking for opportunities to live for Christ before a watching world.
To be sober, means that we are to have a clear and unclouded view of our responsibility as believers. We are to live accordingly as recipients of our new nature. We have not been put here without any real purpose but we are to recognize that as Christians we have been given an eternal purpose in living. We are not just on a Ferris wheel at an amusement park waiting for it to stop so we can say, “Nice ride.” If that is life to you, you have sorely missed the higher life to which Christ has called you and the attendant responsibility that goes along with it. Don’t come to the end of your life having lived it for yourself without any thought of how you could impact those around you for Christ. Because you won’t be the only one highly disappointed at the outcome.
We are to be sober (serious in our purpose) so that we might give ourselves to pray in earnest for those around us to be saved and for the strength to carry out our part in this. Paul knew that if we were not sober and serious about the consequences of the Lord’s imminent return we might not be concerned enough to pray.
We must live accordingly and be alert and sober. We must recognize that we only have a limited time in our lives to reach those around us for Christ and in that we must use our time wisely. Let us neither sleep and allow the time to go past us unnoticed nor be drunken and not take the passing time seriously.
ii. We are called to dress accordingly
The second area in which God calls us to change in accordance with our new nature is that we are called to dress accordingly. Paul notes this in verse 8. “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.” Paul says that when we go out to serve the Lord each day that we can only be alert and sober if we are dressed properly. How many of us would go out into our communities still dressed in our PJs? We would not be prepared for what we needed to do for the day.
I can remember many, many years ago when the Crowell men were young boys that I was invited to go skiing with the family in a cabin in Vermont. While I was getting ready to hit the slopes one morning, James came barging into my room to attack me. So I grabbed him and walked him to the balcony making as if I would throw him off. While I was holding James by his legs, Pam looked up to the balcony where the commotion was going on and said, “Oh you have your superhero outfit on.” Then I realized that I only wearing my long johns, I screamed and ran back into the room. I was not ready to be on my way for the day.
Likewise, if we fail to recognize that we are in the midst of a spiritual battle and do not properly understand that we need to be dressed for it we will go out in our non-fighting apparel and become a casualty in the war. Satan seeks to destroy us and our testimony for God in causing us to forget that there is a battle being waged around us for the souls of people. And if we fail to see the eternal significance of this battle we will lose. And notice that Paul says we can only be alert and sober if have already put on this armor. We cannot live accordingly if we do not dress accordingly. “Let us be sober, having put on the breastplate and the helmet.”
So in what does this armor consist? Paul says first, that it is the breastplate of faith and love. We will not live according to our new nature if we are not exercising faith or trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and loving those around us.
The next piece of armor that we have is the helmet, the hope of salvation. Why is the hope of salvation so necessary in living according to our new nature? This hope of salvation is not some action that we conjure up on our own. We don’t go around saying, “I hope that I have salvation. I hope that I have salvation.” It is a noun. This is a present that God has given to us. It is a confident expectation in our reception of eternal life. Satan would love to knock our brains out so that we don’t think clearly. And if we don’t have an assurance of eternal life he will do it every time. He will rob our joy right out from under us. Throughout Scripture, God continually calls us to revel in our home in heaven. But how can we revel in it if we don’t know if we possess or not. How can you rejoice in heaven and live like a citizen in heaven if you don’t assuredly possess it? Satan will beat our spiritual brains out every day if we are not wearing the hope of salvation as a covering for our head.
So how do we dress properly? How do we put on this armor so as to live according to our new nature? Romans 13:12-14 speaks clearly of this. There Paul says, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
Do you see the correlation here that Paul makes between putting on the armor and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus Christ is our armor. When we begin our day we must go out in the strength that He supplies. When Paul speaks about this armor in Ephesians 6, he starts the paragraph by saying, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” How are we to put on this armor? Each morning we are to make our declaration of dependence upon God. We are to call to Him for the strength to live for Him this day. We are to ask Him to supply the ability to trust Him in whatever comes our way. We must plead with Him to enable us to love others, especially those who hurt us.” We need to call to Him to assure us concerning our home in heaven. So that when the assault of Satan comes against us in all its fury we shall be able to “resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm.” We must dress accordingly.
iii. We are called to think accordingly
The third area in which God calls us to change in accordance with our new nature is that we are called to think accordingly. In verses 8-10, Paul tells us two ways in which we are to think in accordance with our new nature that God has given us through faith in Christ. I hope you can see the reverse progression that Paul has made in this passage. If you are to live in accordance with your new nature that includes being alert and sober then you must dress according to your new nature. And if you are to dress according to your new nature by putting on Christ then you must think in accordance with your new nature. So what are these two ways in which Paul says we are to think?
a. We have been rescued from wrath
The first way in which we are to think in accordance with our new nature is that we have been rescued from wrath. Paul says in verse 9, as a follow up to having had our nature changed that, “God has not destined us for wrath.” We have been rescued from the wrath of God by His grace. Not because we were better than anyone but because we have received forgiveness for our sins. In Ephesians, Paul says that we previously had been children of wrath, waiting for God’s wrath to fall upon us, even as the rest. But he goes on to say in 2:4, “But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.”
In having had our nature changed by Christ we have become children of God, no longer under the wrath of God. We have been rescued from wrath. We should have no more fear of punishment. Paul says that there is no longer any condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. Likewise the author of Hebrews says that Christ partook of flesh and blood, “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been rescued from wrath. We must live in light of this in how we think. If there is no more condemnation then we are free from the penalty of death. And if this is so then it should radically affect how we think about our life and how we live it.
b. We have been destined for heaven
The second way in which we are to think in accordance with our new nature is that we have been destined for heaven. Verses 9&10 say, “God has not destined us for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.” Friends, we have been destined for heaven. Jesus Christ died for us to give us deliverance from our sins and we will live with Him. Not only did God not give us the wrath we deserved but also He bore it Himself in His body on the cross. And because of that we will be with Him forever in a new body no longer racked by pain or sin. If that doesn’t cause you to rejoice then your EEG is straight lined.
These truths should cause us to live in great awe of our God and in sincere devotion to Him. Shouldn’t this great truth, that though we deserved death God reached down to us and said, “live!” cause us to want to serve Him fervently in purity of heart? We have been rescued from wrath and destined for heaven.
3. The Recap And Its Relation to the Rapture (v. 10-11)
Finally in verses 10 & 11 we see that Paul ties in the section from 4:13 all the way to 5:11 together. We see this because he repeats the final phrases from the last paragraph as the ending for this paragraph. At the end of 5:10 and in 5:11 Paul says, “We will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another, just as you also are doing.” At the end of the previous paragraph 4:17 & 18, Paul says, “And so shall we always be with the Lord, encourage one another with these words.” There are two phrases in these verses that Paul joins to show the close relation of the paragraphs to one another. In chapter 4, literally he says, “with the Lord we shall be” in chapter 5 he says, “with Him we shall live.” And he ends each section with “encourage one another with these words.”
Because the Rapture will remove God’s people from the earth, Paul says we are to be encouraged that we will not see the wrath of God poured out upon us. But this knowledge should cause us to live in such a way as to diligently present Christ to others by our lives and by our words so that they too might be rescued from the wrath to come. So let me ask you some questions:
+Have you been setting your thoughts on your rescue from wrath and future home with Christ?
+Are you daily seeking to live in dependence on Christ’s strength to be alert and sober?
+Are you living in such a way to be able to present Christ to those around you?
+Are you making it your ambition to seek to bring others to Christ and free them from their bondage?
+Do you really believe that your friends are in so desperate a condition as those in the building about to explode? If so will you not commit yourself to seeing them rescued? I hope you will.