NOT APPOINTED TO WRATH

Photo by B Smith from the patio

158 - NOT APPOINTED TO WRATH

June 23, 1963 

Pastor Henry F. Kulp

 

I Thessalonians 5: 4 - 10 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

There is an awful day coming upon this earth. It is called the Day of the Lord. It is the day of God’s wrath. But, praise God, this day is not for the believer—it is for the unsaved world. When the day of the Lord comes, we will be in Glory—in Heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. We belong to an entirely different dispensation. We belong to the day of Grace—not the day of Wrath. Why should a child of God’s grace, who is saved by grace, who is kept by grace, who has all these wonderful grace promises, be forced to go through a period, which, according to Scripture was expressly designed as a time of judgment upon a Christ-rejecting world. A world that has rejected God’s grace in Jesus Christ. We belong to the day—they belong to the night.

1/ Notice, Verse 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

We are not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. This passage tells us very clearly, our appointment is to be caught up to be with Christ. The appointment of the world is for the day of the Lord, the day of wrath. One cannot keep both of these appointments. I praise God I am not waiting for an appointment to a day of wrath, but I am waiting for the appointment when I shall be caught up to be with the Lord Jesus Christ and ever be with Him in the Heavenlies.

2/ This does not say that there will not be folks saved during this day, for there will be an innumerable company who will be saved, and they will be martyrs. Many will be saved after the church has gone to Heaven, but they will experience the awfulness of that period, and the wrath of God as poured out upon the earth—it will involve them also. When an atomic bomb explodes over a city, in the tribulation it will kill believers as well as those who are nonbelievers. They will participate in the awful trials and troubles of that day.

3/ Revelation 6: 2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Here we read that when this day of the Lord starts, it will start with peace, but it will not last very long, for in Revelation 6: 4 we read, There went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him that sat thereupon that he should take peace from the earth, that they should kill one another.

There was given upon him a great sword. Wars will be everywhere, as we read in Matthew 24 Kingdom shall rise against kingdom and nation against nation, and those who are saved will be caught up in this awful time of killing, and I believe this will be a war between classes and races. We can see all of this heading up right now—the awful hatred that is in the world, between peoples, between nations, between races, between classes. Just take the poor people throughout the world, and they despise those who have. All this is going to break out in a terrible war. Strife will be everywhere.

4/ Revelation 6: 5, 6 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Here we have famine, inflation, and the saved people are going to be caught up in this inflation and the famine that will sweep over the world like a scourge.

Then in Revelation 6: 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

He tells us about pestilences, 500 million will die, and certainly there will be Christians— those who will be saved after the Church, the Body of Jesus Christ leaves this earth, and they will take part, and they will feel the bitterness of these pestilences. Yes, an awful day is coming, and I am glad we are appointed, not to wrath, but to be caught up with the Lord Jesus Christ.

5/ Sandwiched in between here we have instructions to believers. It is true we are appointed not to wrath, but we are appointed to live for the Lord Jesus Christ.

I Thessalonians 5: 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

The children of light must realize that certain moral standards go with their position. They are to be different from the children of darkness. Certainly we do not have the same moral standards, certainly we do not have the same type of life. One is a child of light and the other is a child of darkness. But we have a group of Christians out in Hollywood who have so influenced the world that they have the idea that they can do the same things, only in a different spirit. They can go before the world in the movies and portray the part of a harlot or a drunkard or a murderer and it is perfectly all right. We, as Christians, have to recognize that we are of light, not of darkness.

6/ There must always be a difference between those who are saved and those who are unsaved. Jesus Christ said, and He brought this out in this passage, Matthew 12: 35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

7/ Then, Titus 2: 11, 12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

8/ Then Paul continues, let us not sleep as do others. And, here, Paul uses another figure. First, we are children of light, the world are children of darkness. Here we are to be awake, where the world is said to be asleep. Do you realize that God has much to say about believers sleeping. The possibility is here, and many who are saved must be asleep or God wouldn’t have too much to say in His Word about Christians sleeping. Paul mentions it quite a few times.

9/ We can call these passages God’s alarm clock. The word, Sleep is used in Scripture in a three-fold sense. There is the physical act, which is indeed a blessing. God made glorious provisions for physical recuperation by this process, but many of us want too much of a good thing, and often it is our undoing.

The word of God says, Proverbs 20: 13 Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

And then as we go on in Proverbs, and go back to Proverbs 6: 10, 11 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth and they went as an armed man.

While the body has given us rest, it has made many a man a beggar.

10/ The second use of the word, has to do with physical death—the separation of the inward man from the outward man. This is a beautiful and blessed usage of the term. if there is anything more welcome than sleep when you are tired and worn out, I don’t

know what it would be. So it is with the child of God when he dies. The child of God has no occasion to fear death, nor to regret it. he is absent from the body and present with the Lord. You remember when Jesus Christ was going to see Lazarus, He said, Lazarus, sleepeth—but the disciples misunderstood Him, so he said plainly, Lazarus is dead.

John 11: 11 - 14 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

11/ Then there is another symbolic use of the word, sleep, and as it is used in our text. Iit means to stop spiritual activities. Those who are not working for God. God uses many symbols to picture the one who is not working for God. A sleeping saint is insensible to his own condition, and to the danger of others—he never hears a child who wails because something is happening to him, he does not hear one who is out in the water and is drowning. Because he is asleep.

12/ In the Old Testament, God uses the picture of sleep with the child of God.  

Isaiah 56: 10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

Here the mighty prophet of ancient time has pointed out the danger of spiritual slumber, for he said, His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs down laying to sleep. Here are the D. D.’s of Israel’s time. They are called dumb dogs. Here, were men who were called upon to watch and to warn of impending danger, but they absolutely failed. Instead of warning of danger, they were asleep.

13/ We have another example of that in the Word of God.

Jonah 1: 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

I cannot help but think of the story of Jonah, for we read, Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his god. Now, notice, this, they were gods who were not gods, they were gods who could not help them, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay fast asleep. Think of it. He was in danger—he didn’t know it, and people all about him were in danger, and he didn’t know about them, because he was asleep. But let us not

be too quick to point the finger of scorn at this prophet until we examine our own spiritual welfare. Perhaps we will discover that we have been asleep to the voice of God as well.

14/ Luke 9: 32 But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.

Here Luke takes us to the top of the Mount of Transfiguration, and gives us a picture of the Christ with His three intimate disciples. Peter, James and John, and here we read that Jesus was transfigured before them and Moses and Elijah appeared before them. But in this verse we read, but Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep. And when they were awake, they saw His glory and two men that stood with Him. It is only when God’s people are awake that they have the joy and privilege of beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sleeping saints see nothing, and as a result they miss the blessing that God has for them. God forbid that our Lord should find our eyelids so heavy with sleep that we do not see His glory or the dangers that are about us.

15/ Here we have another illustration taken from the Old Testament that I feel is very important in this point of our study.

Judges 16: 19, 20 And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.

While asleep this strange, but interesting character found himself stripped of his power, and he lost his eyes so that he would never again be able to open them. This, indeed was a costly sleep for the man to whom God had entrusted so much of His power in the day. Oh, that we be would not be like Samson, and have God strip us of our power and our sight.

16/ Romans 13: 11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Now notice this, and knowing that it is high time to wake out of sleep, the question that is posed by this Bible verse, is What time is it? Paul tells us clearly it is time to get up. It is time to be awake.

17/ Then notice, Ephesians 5: 14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Did you ever get the picture that is here? It is one that makes sense. It is not a very pretty picture, but it is the picture of people sleeping in a cemetery. It is a picture of the child of God sleeping among the dead, in the tombs and the graves. Not a very pretty picture at all, but that is what is happening in the world today.

18/ I Corinthians 15: 34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

Notice, those who are asleep have no vision.

19/ Ephesians 5: 14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

He says, Awake and arise, this is what the Holy Spirit calls upon us to do. To arise, is an appeal to action, and hence it is more of a command than it is an appeal. It is one thing to wake up, it is another thing to get up. You wake up when an alarm goes off in the morning, but you don’t always get up. Christians can suddenly wake up and realize that about them there are problems, and they are not living as they should, and they are not going forth and working in activity for God, as they should, but they just do not arise. They just wake up and that is all. They soon go back to sleep again.

20/ I Thessalonians 5: 9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Here, it tells us that we are to obtain salvation. And this means deliverance from this day of wrath that is coming. Then he adds in Verse 10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

We should not be sleeping, but sharing this Good News with all we know, love and come in contact with.

AMEN

Ref: 06/23/1963 / 158 - NOT APPOINTED TO WRATH / 05/16/2022