Appointment of the Father

The Effect of Christ's Sudden Return on Believers

0:03 Let us turn again this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

0:12 The general theme of the particular paragraph in which our text is found this morning is dealing with the subject of the effect which the teaching of the suddenness of Christ's return should have upon the child of God. As we've reminded you from week to week in the latter part of the fourth chapter, the apostle introduces the subject of the second coming of Christ

0:52 as it relates to an area of gross ignorance in the church at Thessalonica, namely, what happens to our dead loved ones in Christ. And so he addresses himself to that subject and assures them with this great bulk of information concerning the details of the events surrounding the actual coming of Christ and assures them that at that coming, the Lord Jesus will show that his peculiar concern is his dead saints for he will raise them up first and not until then will he glorify those who are alive and remain unto his coming and together we shall be caught up to be with our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:37 As he begins chapter 5, he is not so much concerned with imparting new information but in stirring them up to make good use of the information which they already have for he says in verse 2, ye know perfectly well that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now you know that, but I want you to live accordingly. Here is this block of knowledge, this is what it ought to produce in your experience. And that to which he exhorts them can be summarized under three general headings as we've studied it in some detail in the first place, he says in verse 6, So then, let us not sleep.

2:18 As do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. And then in verse 8, but let us since we are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. What should the doctrine of the suddenness of Christ's return do for the Christian? It ought to cause him on the one hand to resist the temptation to spiritual slumber and on the other hand it ought to cause him to be watchful, sober, and armed for battle.

The Helmet of the Hope of Salvation: Patience vs. Passion

2:51 Now as we studied the particular aspects of that armor in verse 8, the last of them, or the last aspect of the armor, was this matter of the hope of salvation. And we tried to lay hold of how this acts as equipage against the onslaughts of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And I said last week that it's this hope of salvation, confident and joyful expectation of the promised blessing of full redemption coming at the second coming of Christ that keeps the Christian from disillusionment and discouragement in the face of calamities and injustices here and now.

3:34 And also it keeps him from being allured by the dazzling presence of sin. And as I was going over this matter of review, my mind turned again to my good friend, Mr. Bunyan, and I thought of the picture of those two children sitting in the interpreter's house, one whose name was Passion and the other whose name was Patience. And this is the best summary I could give you, and it also gets in another plug for my good friend, Mr. Bunyan.

4:04 I saw moreover in my dream that the interpreter took him by the hand and had him into a little room where sat two children, each one in his own chair. The name of the eldest was Passion, and the name of the other, Patience. Passion seemed very much discontented, but Patience was very quiet. Then Christian asked, What is the reason of the discontent of Passion?

4:29 The interpreter answered, The governor of them would have him stay, that is, the head of the house, for his best things till the beginning of next year. But he will have all now. Patience is willing to wait. Then I saw that one came to Passion and brought him a bag of treasure and poured it...

4:48 and poured it down at his feet, the which he took up and rejoiced therein, and with all laughed Patience to scorn. But I beheld but a while, and he had lavished all away, and had nothing left but rags. Then said Christian to the interpreter, Expound the matter more fully to me, interpreter. So he said, These two lads are figures, Passion of the men of this world, the sons of darkness and of the night, the men of this world, and Patience of the men, of that world which is to come.

5:21 For as here thou seest, Passion will have all now, this year, that is to say, in this world. So are the men of this world. They must have all their good things now. They cannot stay till next year, that is, until the next world, for their portion of good.

5:38 That proverb, A bird in hand is worth two in the bush, is of more authority with them than all the divine testimonies of the good of the world to come. But as thou sawest, that he had quickly lavished all away and had presently left him nothing but rags, so will it be with all such men at the end of the world. Christian. Then said Christian, Now I see that Patience has the best wisdom, and that upon many accounts, one, because he stays or waits for the best things, two, and because he will have the glory of his when the other has nothing but rags.

6:16 You see, Patience was a man who had, put on him the helmet of the hope of salvation. What kept him from spending all now and feeling that he must give himself to lust and passion now, it was the assurance that the best was yet to come. And so this hope of salvation is the armor of the Christian against discouragements on the one hand and the allurements of sin on the other. Now, having touched the subject of the hope of salvation, as he often does, the apostle then just, opens up the flower of that very subject and enlarges in the next two verses upon this subject of the hope of the Christian.

The Basis of Christian Hope: Not Wishful Thinking or Delusion

6:58 And he says, For, verse 9, God appointed us, not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. He's touched on the subject of the Christian hope, then he goes on to develop, what is the basis of that hope. You say as a Christian, you're willing to endure injustices and inequities because the best is yet to come? You say you're willing to trample your lust and passions underfoot and say no to your carnal appetites because the best is yet to come?

7:39 How do you know the best is yet to come?

7:42 Is this just wishful thinking? You know what wishful thinking is. It's longing for something that might come to pass, but not very probable. You know what wishful thinking is, you kids in school.

7:55 You say, Boy, I sure wish I could get all A's on my report card. That's wishful thinking, isn't it? Well, it could happen. But it's doubtful it'll happen unless you've diligently applied yourself with all of your faculties and have perhaps a little bit more than your natural share of gray matter.

8:12 How do you know that this whole matter of your confident expectation of future blessing is not just wishful thinking? How do you know? What's the basis? What's the basis of your hope?

8:24 How do you know it's not just a downright delusion? A delusion is even different from wishful thinking. Wishful thinking has some probability in it, but a delusion has no probability whatsoever.

8:37 None whatsoever. It's like a man drinking an ounce of poison and just saying, Well, I know it won't hurt me. He's been deluded into thinking his poison is nutritive food. No.

8:50 How do you know you're just not deluded? That would be a terrible thing, wouldn't it? At least passion had a few hours of pleasure.

9:02 Oh, he had nothing in the world to come, but at least he had something now. How do you know you've got something out there? What's the basis of your hope? Perhaps nothing more clearly reveals how genuine your experience with God is than an answer to that question.

9:20 What is the basis of your hope? You say the best is yet to come for you? On what basis? What's the basis of your confident expectation?

9:31 Of full and final salvation at the return of Christ? What is the basis? I wish I could take time this morning to give you all paper and pencil, make you write it out, analyze your answers, and then I think I'd preach up a storm for six hours.

9:46 I think it'd be terribly revealing. What is the basis of your hope? Would some of you put, Well, the basis of my hope is that I haven't been too bad, or that God is love, or that God is merciful, or I made a decision 30 years ago. What's the basis of your hope?

The Two Pillars of Hope: Father's Appointment and Son's Atonement

10:04 Well, the apostle gives the basis of the intelligent Christian's hope in these next two verses. What is that basis? Notice. Put on this helmet of the hope of salvation and you're warranted to put it on.

10:17 You're not constructing that helmet out of a fabric of nothing. No, no. It's made of substantial metal, the metal of two great privileges. Here they are.

10:28 Verse 9, The appointment of the Father, for God appointed us not unto wrath, and verse 10, the atonement of the Son, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Of what is the metal of the Christian's helmet constructed? Of the solid stub substance of the appointment of God the Father and the purchase of God the Son. And when you get that which God has appointed and the Son has purchased, you've got something solid.

11:09 And I submit, if your hope is made of anything less than that,

11:15 it may be just wishful thinking or downright illusion. Now we don't have time to deal with both of them. I'd hoped to, but the more I got into it, the more I realized that was wishful thinking. So I've settled on just getting through verse 9 this morning.

The Sovereign and Selective Appointment of the Father

11:33 In what sense is the appointment of the Father part... of the helmet of the hope of salvation?

11:43 In seeking to encourage the saints as to the certainty of their hope, the Apostle Paul traces that hope back into the councils of eternity when God set His love upon a people and destined them for life and salvation by Jesus Christ. Notice the train of his argument in the light of Mr. Sterrett's lesson this morning. Think!

12:08 You can't read the Apostle's letters. Without thinking, he uses closely reasoned arguments. He's been talking about two kinds of people that will be present at the return of Christ. Sons of the night, sons of the darkness, kidding themselves that all's going to turn out all right, saying peace and safety, and then sudden destruction seizes upon them.

12:30 They shall not escape. Ah, but he says there's a different class. Sons of the light, sons of the day, expecting, expecting, expecting, longing, waiting in preparedness and when he comes, caught up to be with him forever in his presence. Now, when you trace it back to its ultimate source, what's the difference?

12:54 What made the difference? Why are some of you people at Thessalonica no longer sons of the night, slated for destruction, but sons of the day and of the light? What has made the difference? Why are you willing to wait for the best?

13:10 Why are you willing for the best things to come when around you there is a world full of little passions who want everything now? Why are you desirous of being watchful? This spiritual exercise that is so, so distasteful to our flesh when everything in us cries out to enter the land of Nod. Just be indifferent to that world of spirituality.

13:34 What keeps you pressing on in watchfulness?

13:39 The answer is not because of something which you, who initiated the apostle says, but something which God initiated. And because God initiated it, He will complete it. Why do you have grounds to confidently expect that when Jesus comes you'll shred or shed the last vestiges of this carnal nature? You'll take on a body like unto His own glorious body and be forever with Him.

14:09 What ground do you have to expect that you will have salvation completed?

14:16 Why, he says, because the only reason you even have any part of it begun is that God Himself purposed to make you His child and what God purposes in eternity and begins in time He will complete in eternity. And so He anchors the whole matter of the Christian's hope in the doctrine of election.

14:45 Now, we've had no election for three chapters simply because it hasn't been there. But I see it here in chapter 5 and so I'm going to preach it because it's here.

14:56 Now, why? Because that's the ground of your hope. This is the substance of which the helmet is made. Now, notice the specific factors in this appointment of the Father.

15:08 Four things right here in the text. First of all, it is sovereign.

15:15 For God appointed us, not unto, but to obtain salvation. This appointment has come to pass by the free, unfettered activity of the will of God. God did not ratify what we initiated nor wait for our deciding vote.

15:40 No, no. It is God who took the initiative to appoint a people to the obtaining of salvation in its beginning, its continuance, and in its final completion at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, all the emphasis on the whole matter of the electing grace of God is always upon this principle that it is God's activity. Mark speaks of the elect whom He hath chosen.

16:13 Ephesians 1 so beautifully states it where Paul says God has treasured up all of His blessing in Jesus Christ and then he traces those blessings back to their fountainhead according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. And so the first thing we discover about this appointment of the Father which is one half of the substance of which this helmet is constructed is that it is a sovereign appointment and in the second place it is a selective appointment. For God, God hath appointed us not unto wrath

16:56 but to the obtaining of salvation. Who's the us? The us in the immediate context is Paul and all the believers there at Thessalonica. Us who have been made sons of the day, sons of the light.

17:12 Us who are believers. Now it's interesting in checking through all my commentators one of whom is Adam Clark. And for any of you who know anything about commentators, you'll know that though he was a very learned man and apparently a godly man, he was a man who hated the biblical doctrine of election. He was no friend of that doctrine.

17:31 But listen to what he says in his comment on this passage because he's at least being true to what the words say. So then it appears that some were appointed to wrath. If the scripture says he hath not appointed us to wrath, listen to what Adam Clark says. So then it appears that some were appointed to wrath.

17:50 On this subject there can be no dispute. Then he proceeds to show how that that appointment to wrath means that the Jews as a nation because they rejected the gospel were appointed to wrath but we Gentiles were appointed to salvation because now the gospel has come to us. You see what happens? The force of the words presses into the doctrine of election which involves God's bypassing some in choosing others but since he will not embrace that doctrine he now seeks to explain the bypassing and the appointing as something other than an appointment to salvation.

18:25 So he would read it this for God appointed us not unto wrath but to hearing the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. But that isn't what the text says. That isn't what my Bible says. My Bible says that it's an appointment that is not only sovereign but it is selective in terms of those whom it appoints unto salvation.

18:52 As hard, as the doctrine may seem to human wisdom scripture clearly teaches that God has appointed men to wrath but not because of some kind of and I say it, I trust not irreverently sadistic spirit in God. Men deserve wrath and he could have appointed all men unto wrath.

19:18 When God appoints men to wrath he is simply giving them up to work out the logical end of their own corrupt natures and their own rebellion against him.

19:32 If a child starts on a course down a path that will lead out into the middle of route 46 on Sunday afternoon that's a path leading to destruction. If I appoint that child to destruction all I need to do is stand back and let him walk that course.

19:53 If he is in that path by his own choosing by virtue of his own rebellion no injustice can be done be laid upon a man for refusing to intervene if it was his just desert. Now the illustration breaks down in that human compassion would move us etc. I know that. But now as God looks at humanity and sees humanity fallen in Adam having turned aside from his precepts and his fellowship walking in a course of destruction destruction and wrath is what humanity deserves.

20:26 We are by nature children of wrath Ephesians 2. As in Adam all die. But wonder of wonders the Apostle Paul says God has made an appointment sovereignly and with particular selectivity he appointed us. He chose a people in Jesus Christ that they should be brought to the obtaining of salvation through the merits and sufferings of the Son of God.

The Soteric Appointment: Rooted in Christ's Person and Work

20:57 And the Apostle mentions this in order to say that it might be part of that helmet of the hope of salvation. The third thing we see about this appointment of the Father sovereign, selective and now I want to use a word that ought to be in your vocabulary. If it isn't I want to give a definition and I'm not just using it because it's got another S but it's the only way I know to describe it. It is soteric.

21:26 And what do I mean by that? It has an inseparable relationship with the Savior and the saving work of Christ.

21:34 Soter is the Greek word for Savior. And when you hear of soteriology that's the study of the doctrine of salvation. Something that is soteric has reference to the saving work of Christ. Now notice what our text says.

21:48 God has not appointed us unto wrath but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. His appointment is never an exception. It is an exercise of pure sovereignty without relationship to the saving work of His own dear Son. And since it is a soteric appointment it's a salvation rooted in this unique person whom the Apostle calls here our Lord Jesus Christ.

22:26 And in the original the emphasis is different from what you get in the English rendering. You'd think that the Lord Jesus Christ was the one term used but literally rendered it would come out like this. To the obtaining of salvation through Him who is our Lord. Well what Lord?

22:44 Even Jesus Christ.

22:48 Jesus Christ. He points to it. That unique person Jesus. The God man.

22:55 Emmanuel. God with us. I say it reverently. God's decree of election could deliver no one from

23:09 without the inflation of the fleshment of the Son of God.

23:16 The pure decree of election could not deliver from wrath for God being holy His justice had to be satisfied and vindicated and having chosen to save men the course that was open to Him was one which would involve the humiliation of the Son of God.

23:37 There had to be a Jesus. Jehovah our salvation. The eternal word confines. Within the dark warmth of a young virgin's womb.

23:51 This is a soteric appointment. It has reference to that salvation that comes through this unique person who is Jesus Christ the anointed one. The long promised Messiah. That one who is the focal point of all the Old Testament prophecy and types and shadows.

24:12 The one who through the jaws of death came out triumphant. And has been exalted to the right hand of the majesty on high. Where he now sits as king of kings and lord of lords. This appointment the apostle says has this inseparable relationship to the Lord Jesus.

24:32 His unique person. And then he hints here and then develops the thought in the next verse of salvation not only rooted in this unique person but a salvation resting on the redemptive acts of that person. For he says who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him. A salvation rooted in that unique person.

24:58 A salvation resting on his redemptive acts. And then a salvation which we consciously lay hold of. He uses a very interesting word here. God has appointed us to the obtaining the word could be translated purchasing.

Obtaining Salvation: The Price of Repentance and Faith

25:14 God has appointed us to the purchasing of salvation. Well wait a minute. I thought salvation was a gift.

25:24 The Holy Ghost used the word purchase.

25:28 I thought the Bible said he purchased us with his own blood. Acts 20.28. It does.

25:34 I thought the Bible said he redeemed us not with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ. That's right. He purchased salvation. Ah but listen.

25:47 You and I must purchase it too.

25:50 You and I must purchase it. Or we cannot purchase it as far as rendering God which will satisfy the demands of God's broken law. We can never render a thing acceptable to him. It took the sinless life of the Son of God and the substitutionary death of the same Son of God to satisfy divine justice and in that sense to purchase redemption for the people of God.

26:16 And anyone who adds one iota to that work Galatians 1.8.9 says let him be accursed.

26:24 But how does that free and full salvation become ours in experience? Listen my friend it becomes ours when by the grace of God we purchase it at the price of yielding everything to the Son of God. Selling our pride that would add one iota to his infinitely perfect work. Coming and gladly confessing nothing in my hands I bring.

26:52 That's a high price to pay for the proud human heart. It doesn't want to pay that price. It wants to say I thank thee I'm not as other man. At least there's a little wiggle of the finger I can add to that.

27:06 God says no. That free salvation come buy it he says without money and without price. Well how in the world do you buy something without money and without price? God uses the term buy it there and I say here 55.

27:17 Come buy. Buy at the price of your pride. Buy at the price of your most darling lust. Jesus said the sin is dear is the right hand or the right hand.

27:29 Thy must be repented of or you'll perish.

27:34 God's appointment to salvation is a salvation not only rooted in this unique person resting in his redemptive acts but a salvation that comes by a conscious appropriation at the price of repentance of the humbling of ourselves before him and then the casting of ourselves upon him without any reservation for Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ.

28:00 For Jesus Christ. Jesus said whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple. Those are the terms of God's salvation. Rooted in that eternal purpose of God but it never comes to light when men simply cast a furtive glance to the cross and say oh yes I kind of like what flows down from there I think I'll take some of that and cheaply reach out and snatch it and stuff it in the pocket and go the way proud unbent unbent unbroken wedded to their lust and sins no no he has appointed us to the purchasing of this salvation through not our own merits but through the merits of Christ.

28:44 That's why there's no incongruity or contradiction. Jesus can say what is the work of God? Believe on him. The same Jesus said strive to enter the narrow gate.

28:53 Now how in the world do you put those two things together? I thought belief was simple. Oh no. True belief is not simple.

28:58 Jesus said how can you believe which seek honor one of another? And seek not the honor that cometh from God only. Jesus the same Jesus who said I am the bread eat of me said there's a narrow gate and few are going to get through it. Strive to press through.

29:15 That's the biblical fusion of the concept of a free salvation. It'll cost you everything. But it'll cost you everything.

29:31 That confusion?

The Certainty of God's Appointment

29:35 And so the third thing I see about this appointment of the Father sovereign selective esoteric and then the fourth thing it is certain. This is the crux of the whole matter.

29:50 Definitely expect all of those blessings that God says will come to his own at the return of Christ. Well because whatever God appoints is certain. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. If God has marked me and destined me for completed salvation who can change that?

30:12 The appointments of God are sure. And the best parallel I know in scripture to this is that wonderful statement in the 8th chapter of Romans and I would refer you to it for a moment beginning with verse 31 where the apostle asks some questions and then some of the answers are so obvious he doesn't even insult our intelligence by giving them he lets us supply them.

30:40 Having indicated that when we're saved we're not saved by accident but according to the purpose of God in verse 28 and then giving that great statement of God's purpose starting in eternity in his foreknowledge and spanning to eternity in glorification the apostle has to lay his pen down for a minute and have what the old Salvation Army folk used to call a glory fit while his heart exalts in such a great salvation and then when he picks up his pen again he asks the question what then shall we say to these things? He said I've written myself into a state of speechlessness. Now once in a while when I've preached myself into that condition not often

31:23 I wish it were more often but he wrote himself into a state of speechlessness.

31:29 What shall we say then to these things? If God before us is against us spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth.

31:51 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather that is risen from the dead. What is the whole pressure of this argument? It all hinges or all focuses upon this pivot.

32:05 If God initiated this salvation and if God purposes to carry it out to glorification who at any point will come in and take the hand of God and remove it from one of those whom he's purposed and destined for life? Who? Shall the devil?

32:26 No, no. He's God's devil. Shall angels? No, the good ones wouldn't want to.

32:30 They want us there. The bad ones? No, they're less in power than the devil.

32:35 Well, who's going to do it? Shall the saints? No, they want us there too. Well, you see if God's put his hand upon a man and marked him for life and he now has a little bit of the first fruits here are some of those Thessalonians they can look back to what they were and they see the change that God has wrought and they find the motions and structures and the strivings of this new life they have new battles now instead of just fighting with the wife they're fighting with that old disposition that wants to fight with her see?

33:06 That's a different thing and so they've got these new battles now and these new conflicts and they have the beginnings of eternal life even now and in the midst of all the discouragement and the rest Paul says look, put on a helmet that when these fiery darts come you'll not be wounded in the vital place of your mind and that helmet is the hope that things aren't all right and that things aren't all right it's not always going to be this way it won't always be conflict when he comes you'll be made like him at his appearance you'll be caught up to enjoy uninterrupted fellowship and his presence through all eternity put on that helmet and the child of God puts it on and then some darts begin to come and he begins to feel his helmet and say wait a minute what's it made of? plaster of Paris? you've made a good Roman steel

33:50 what's it made of? Paul says I'll tell you what it's made of the purpose of the Father he appointed you you mean God who started this work has appointed me to the obtaining of full and complete salvation not just its beginning and a little bit of continuance but its completion yes oh that medal will stand the test God's appointed me see see how this then becomes fuel for the hope of the child of God for he knows that the appointments of God are not only sovereign selective soteric but certain what God has appointed God will carry through and bring to completion well

Practical Conclusion 1: Inseparable Doctrine and Experience

34:35 in the time that remains this morning I want to draw several practical conclusions and applications from this verse as I said I'd hope to get on to verse 10 but the more I got into it the more I saw riches in that text that I felt wouldn't be right to handle it quickly so suffer the word of exhortation in the light of verse 9 I see in the first place something that I denunciated again and again from this pulpit I hope you don't grow weary of it you got a dose of it in the bible class this morning and here it is the inseparable relationship between doctrine and experience what was the whole thrust of this paragraph I hope you can tell me by now

35:19 was it primarily information or exhortation information or exhortation exhortation the primary thrust was stirring them up to action in life and where in the world does he end up in the world in the world in the world in the world in the world in the world in the world in the world in the world with the high doctrine of election because there is an inseparable relationship between Christian experience and Christian doctrine the whole passage is an exhortation to be watchful to be sober to be prepared but when he came to how are you prepared what is the helmet made of listen it's not made of good feelings and it's not even

36:03 made of prayer you must put it on with prayer it must be kept polished with prayer you don't pray your hope will burn low you begin to wonder if you have any grounds to have a hope no such thing as a perpetually prayerless Christian no such creature but you see that helmet is made up of the doctrine of God's electing purpose and so this very practical section of scripture filled with exhortation to the most practical Christian duties is inseparably wedded to doctrine the apostle says as it were listen that helmet is forged upon the anvil

36:47 of the great doctrines of the word of God and is constructed of the metal of those same of the same doctrine so if I would have a hope that burns bright and will keep me from running after the bubbles of sin keep me from discouragement and despondency in the face of apparent injustices I must continually feed my soul upon the doctrine of God's divine appointment of me unto life there's a hymn in our hymnal that captures this so beautifully the work which his goodness began the arm of his strength will complete his promises yea and amen

Practical Conclusion 2: Proper Use of Election Doctrine

37:32 and never was forfeited yet things future nor things that are now nor all things below or above can make him his purpose forego or sever my soul from his love nothing can make sever me from that purpose second conclusion observation from this text is this here we see the apostle making a proper use of the doctrine of God's decree of election what is the proper use of that doctrine well you notice he is not using it as a wall to keep sinners away from Christ nor is he using it as some awful boogeyman to scare people

38:17 from coming to Christ now some people have used the doctrine of election that way to use the illustration that I read in Spurgeon the other day in preparing for one of my sermons in Carlisle next week he reminded himself of a little school boy that took an apple out of his pocket it was all shiny and he held it up to one of his buddies and said see and the guy says yes he said well that's all you'll have of it and stuck it back in his pocket then he said to someone else who was a little bit more compassionate he said let him smell it and so after the fellow smelled it he said now put it back in your pocket and that's the last he saw that's the way some people do with salvation they hold it up show the beauty of it and they say ah but God's decree of election tells you I've got to put the apple back in my pocket no no no no listen listen

39:02 Paul is not using this clear statement of God's decree of election his appointing of people to salvation to keep sinners from coming to Christ he is using it as a sweet cordial to refresh the spirits of fainting saints in the midst of the conflict that's how he's using it you need that helmet he says the battle's going to get hot don't go out there with your head exposed have this sure helmet of salvation have a firm grasp upon the wonderful truth God has appointed you to life and what he appoints he will carry through

39:45 if you're here this morning a stranger to God's grace what the scripture reveals about the decree of election is no hindrance to your coming to Christ God is revealed in the will of his precepts or his will in his precepts and those precepts give you every encouragement to come he commands all men everywhere to repent what clearer way can he indicate his desire to receive sinners than to command all of them to come to repent to believe to look upon his son and he's given me and every minister of the gospel and every Christian the wonderful unspeakable privilege of saying to all men in Jesus Christ there is a perfectly

Practical Conclusion 3: Assurance Through Right Relationship with Christ

40:29 suitable savior for every sinner who will come flee to Christ flee to Christ that's the proper use of the doctrine of God's decree of election a cordial to refresh the spirit of saints who have something of battle sweat upon them and then in the third place and I bring this message to a close with this sober note the only way to be assured that you are not appointed to wrath is to be rightly related to the Lord Jesus you see God doesn't let men march up into the court of heaven

41:14 snatch the book of his decrees from his hand and look up in the index and find their name and say now what am I appointed to wrath or salvation God doesn't allow us to do that but listen my friend he has told us in his word he that believeth not is condemned already he has said in his word he that believeth not shall be damned and the only way you can know that you are not appointed unto wrath is to flee the wrath to come and hide in the wounds and merits of Jesus Christ

41:54 I ask you this morning very soberly are you hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified by a deep and thorough repentance have you turned from your sin and by a living active faith are you embracing the Lord Jesus as your only hope of salvation can you gladly confess this morning make it come to thee for dress helpless come to thee for rest fall I to the fountain fly wash me Savior or I die oh dear

42:39 young people some of you perhaps have been perplexed by this talk of election some of these other things you say why why this stuff just sets my head a spinning oh listen to me does this set your head a spinning he that believeth not should be damned that simple language isn't it he that obeys not the gospel shall be consumed with wrath at the return of Christ 2nd Thessalonians 1 is it so difficult when I tell you in Christ's name turn from that disposition of playing God step down off that

43:16 the one who sits there is the pierced one as the glorified one oh I entreat you young people and any adult strangers to the grace of God be assured that you are not appointed to wrath by embracing that salvation which is set before us in the Lord Jesus and embrace him today I see nothing in scripture but exhortations to immediate immediate repentance and faith and so I urge upon you seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near and the only time you are sure he is near is now in the overtures of his grace going out through the preached

44:01 word call upon him dear child of God I hope you know what your helmet is made of maybe that's why you have been a little uncertain in the battle you weren't quite sure of that helmet well do I really know do I really know that the best is yet to come how can I know reason number one the appointment of the father God willing next week we shall take up the second reason the atonement of the son and with those two things forging that helmet what grounds for the hope of the Christian may we be found wearing that helmet

44:45 and be like patience willing to wait for the best is yet to come let us pray