While People are Saying

“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 

“For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 ESV)

We live in a day and time, at least here in America, when this “peace and security” message is everywhere, and it is being believed by the masses. For what this message says is that you can make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, or you can pray a prayer to receive Christ into your heart, and now all your sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and now heaven is guaranteed you when you die, and nothing can take it away from you, but regardless of how you live. But that is not the biblical gospel message.

Do we need to believe in Jesus Christ? Absolutely! But what is belief? It is persuasion of God. And what is God going to persuade us to do? Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’s sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow our Lord in obedience, then we have the hope of salvation and eternal life with God (Luke 9:23-26).

And the faith to believe in Jesus is authored and perfected by Jesus Christ, it is gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of man. So we don’t get to define what that faith looks like. God does. His word does. And his word teaches that it involves us being crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. For if we live in sin, we will die in our sins (Romans 6:1-23).

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18]

And Paul taught that the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. And Jesus said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father. And many will stand before him one day and claim they know him, and he will respond with, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” 

[Titus 2:11-14; Matthew 7:21-23; cf. 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

So, if we want forgiveness of sins, and salvation out of our lives of slavery to sin, and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven, then we have to follow what the Scriptures teach as a whole unit on this subject and not take some select Scriptures out of context to make them say what they do not say if they are taught within the correct context. For “regardless of how we live” is not part of the gospel message. It teaches the opposite, in fact, that we must die to sin and obey the Lord, in practice, to have those promises.

When this says, “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them.. and they will not escape,” this is talking about all those who have made no professions of faith in Christ, and all those who have professed faith in the Lord but who are believing the lies of the enemy which are teaching them that nothing is required of them other than some ill-defined “faith” in Jesus Christ which is of the flesh and not of God, and which tells them their sins don’t matter for eternity.

For the Scriptures teach that if we claim that we are in fellowship with God, but while we walk (in conduct) in darkness (sin), then we are liars. And if we say that we know God, but we are not obeying him and his commandments under the New Covenant, then we are liars. For it is not those who give lip service to the Lord who have eternal life with God. Righteousness and obedience to our Lord and holy living and the forsaking of our sinful practices are required of us by God for salvation and for eternal life.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31] 

So, don’t buy into the lies that tell you that how you live will not impact where you spend eternity, if you have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. And don’t let sin continue to reign in your mortal body to make you obey its desires. For if sin is what you obey, it leads to death. But if obedience to God is what you obey, its end is eternal life with God.

The Lord’s Anointed  

An Original Work / December 16, 2011

Based off Isaiah 61

The Spirit of the Sov’reign Lord on me;

Anointed to preach the Good News;

Sent me to bind up the brokenhearted;

Proclaim freedom for the captives.

He sent me to preach release for pris’ners

Who are walking in sin’s darkness;

Proclaim God’s grace to all men who’ll listen;

And tell them about God’s judgments;

Comfort all who mourn;

Give crowns of beauty;

Oil of gladness and thanksgiving. 

They will be called oaks of God’s righteousness,

A planting of our Savior, God,

For the display of our Lord’s splendor, and

They will rebuild God’s holy church.

God will renew them, and will restore them,

And you’ll be called priests of the Lord.

You will be ministers of our God, and

You will rejoice in salvation.

The Lord loves justice;

He is faithful to 

Reward those who are seeking Him.

I delight greatly in the Lord;

My soul rejoices in my Savior, God.

He has clothed me with His salvation,

And in a robe of His righteousness.

He has given me priestly garments to wear, 

As the bride of Jesus Christ.

As the garden of our Lord and Savior, 

He causes us to grow in Him.

He makes righteousness, 

Praise, and thanksgiving

Spring up before all the nations. 

https://vimeo.com/114836524