Turn to 1 Thessalonians and chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We'll read together the first 11 verses of the chapter. And our text for this evening is taken from the verses 7 through 11, the latter part of our reading. First Thessalonians chapter 5 reading from verse 1. But of the times and the seasons brethren ye have no need that I write unto you or yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night for when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. But ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of the light and the children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. And now our text for this evening. 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 had 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. Therefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. Amen. That's fine reading God's holy and inspired word. What the covenant people of God, you'll remember that the last time as we were working out, been working our way through this letter to the Thessalonians that Paul has been addressing matters concerning the last things, the last days and when Jesus Christ will come again. Rising out of that, our Lord has been encouraging us to live lives that are appropriate to, that are according to that truth concerning Jesus coming again. There is, as we saw last time, a great destruction for those who are spiritually asleep, that that day of the Lord will overtake them like a thief in the night and bring utter ruin and destruction. They will not see the day of the Lord coming. But we who are of the day, Paul says, you will see it if you're awake and you are sober and watching, he says, that you'll you'll see it, that you will be right with the Lord and have an eager anticipation and awaiting Jesus Christ, ready not only for the coming, but ready to enter into the fullness of that life. But Paul hasn't finished with this subject. There's more to take to heart and there's more to understand here concerning this soberness, more for the Thessalonians to understand. Remember that they are facing ongoing severe persecution, opposition, a great deal of hardship in their life in Thessalonica and they need especially to watch and be sober. But the same is true for us too, isn't it? We also face difficulties, trials, hardships, many blessings as well that we have from the Lord. We ought to be so thankful for all of that. But nevertheless, there are very real trials. So we too need to be edified, strengthened to face all that God plans for us. And we live in the middle of a society that is spiritually asleep and drunk. Paul is now going to therefore unpack a little more what it means to be spiritually sober, not only so we can grasp that and understand it, but we can practically put it into place. And the way we practically do that is by actively having on our armour. So we take up our text under the theme, being sober in our armour. We look at three things. First of all, what this means. Secondly, Why we do this, why do we be sober in our armour? Thirdly, to what purpose? Being sober in our armour. Paul reminds us that there are those who are asleep or and drunk. Remember that he's not talking about this physically. He's not talking about people being physically asleep or physically drunk. He's speaking what we call metaphorically. He's giving a picture or an illustration of a reality. He's speaking of people who don't in fact believe in reality. They don't want to know about reality. That's what light is. When light is there, then you can see things as they are. When things are dark, you don't see things as they are. So someone who's in the dark doesn't actually see the truth. They don't see reality. So people who are spiritually asleep, spiritually drunk, they don't believe in reality. They don't believe in God as he really is. They don't believe in the truth concerning our world. that it is groaning with sin and death, and that destruction is coming, and we need desperately a saviour. They are asleep spiritually, no awareness of those spiritual truths, in fact, no desire to even know about that. In many ways, worse than the animals. And they're drunk. This idea of being drunk is not being drunk with alcohol, it is being drunk with all the sensual pleasures of this world. In other words, just purely caught up with the physical and the sensual, the things that we can sense. In other words, full of things like food, and drink, and experiences, and relationships, and money, and possessions, and fame, and entertainment, and all of that that people just have their lives awash with, so that they never think about their soul. They never think about eternal matters. about what life is truly all about before the face of God. Paul says that these who are asleep, these who are drunk, do so in the night. You notice that he says, for verse 7, they that sleep, sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. Once again, he's not talking literally, although of course that kind of makes sense in the picture, doesn't it? When does sleeping mainly occur? At night time. When do people mainly get really drunk? In the night time. And so this picture becomes even more striking to us. The comparison is there because the night or the darkness is also metaphorical, a spiritual picture. What he means by night is that such people, they continually live away from the light of truth. They're living away from what is true and what is reality. They are ignorant spiritually and they don't want the light and they don't want the truth. And because of that, because they're living in the darkness, they're continually exposed to and being damaged by all the spiritual lies and evil of this world. It's a bit like the picture of a sleepy drunk who then gets behind the wheel of a powerful fast car What does it lead to? It's a recipe for disaster, sorrow, death. And so it is for all human beings in spiritual darkness. They are rapidly heading down a very broad road to destruction. But, says Paul, but let us, who are of the day, be sober. First we see here that same expression we looked at last week as well. We are of the day and that's a wonderful thing. It's not because of anything we did and that's amazing and wonderful too. God has had mercy on us and for that we can never stop thanking him. That he has laid a hold upon us by his grace and he's made us spiritually alive, he's opened our spiritual eyes, he's unblocked our spiritual ears so that we can see, we can hear his truth. God lovingly has laid a hold upon us and brought us out of that whole kingdom of darkness in which we were willingly and we would have wanted to stay there. But by the power of his grace, he's rescued us and brought us out of that, made us to hear and see and know spiritual truth. And we know that we're sinners. We know we deserve that eternal destruction from God. But we're given knowledge and a faith in Jesus Christ, that wonderful gift, so that we see him and we know he's the only hope for us. We cast ourselves upon him, seeking that forgiveness of our sins and knowing of His blood washing us clean, wonderful righteousness given to us, life for Him. So now we are of the day. We live in the kingdom of light because God has made us citizens in that marvellous kingdom by the power of His grace. And as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, God continues then to enlighten us more and more. We are children of the day. Being children of the day, He says, OK, well, We, throughout the day, be sober. Be sober. Do you remember what that word sober means? Because we looked at that last week as well. It doesn't mean, remember, to be somber. Some people think being sober means, you know, sort of having a bit of a sour expression and being dour and, you know, no fun, that sort of thing. No, that's not what the word sober means at all. To be sober is the opposite of being drunk. A drunk doesn't think clearly. Thinking is out the window, logic's out the window. So to be sober means to have crystal clear thinking. It means to be thinking clearly, logically, to understand matters and to be taking them in and to be alert and sharp and thinking clearly. But it also means responses. The drunk can respond in all sorts of ways and never appropriately. But to be sober means we are responding in a right and a glad and a joyful and a clear and appropriate way. So this is the idea of being sober. Of course, this is also in the spiritual realm. To be sober means that we live in the reality of what this life is about. To know I live right before the face of God. I'm standing in his world and he has put me here. To live in the reality that we're sinners in need of salvation and that this world around about us it groans with sin and is dying and we every day need salvation in Jesus Christ in his grace and truth. So this is really a call when Paul says here, but we who are of the day, he's saying, Christians, are you listening? If you're of the day, are you being sober? Are you like this? Are you really awake and alert spiritually every single day? Or are you sort of drifting along and just whatever feels nice? Or he says, are you being sober? thinking with a crystal clear understanding of what's happening in the world and how I'm to respond gladly and appropriately according to the truth and grace of God. Are we applying ourselves logically, rationally, spiritually to understand the truths of God, what he's teaching me every day from the word he's bringing to me and the situation in my life? Are we actively being sober? And now, the Holy Spirit brings that home to us. This is how Paul's now going to unpack, as I said, this a little more. But we're of the day, let us be sober. Notice that he then immediately says, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. Do you understand the language? As soon as you hear that language, breastplate, helmet, what's he talking about? He doesn't need to use the word, does he? This is a soldier. plain and obvious. Do you see how this starts to bring that home to us? Can you imagine the soldier who goes out onto the battlefield and he's drunk? Or the soldier that goes out there and he's just half asleep? Are they going to last very long? Nope, cut down. If you're a soldier in your old day, do you understand how important it is to be sober, not affected by alcohol, and to be alert, awake, on high alert, carefully, in a crystal clear way, understanding everything that's happening around about you and responding quickly and appropriately to all that's happening. And so Paul's using this illustration. God uses this illustration to bring home to us. This is what it's about, to be sober. Paul says, putting on the armour. Now, in the English it sounds like almost, but we who are of the day be sober, putting on, and that in the English sounds like, okay, well, we need to be sitting down. and starting to put this on, you know, pull on the breastplate, and then when we've done that, then we're going to be, you know, but it's in the original, it's actually more having put on. So when you're on the battlefield, you're not sitting there putting your armor on, it's already on, it's already strapped on, it's ready to go. And that's what Paul's really saying. Having put on this armor, be sober. Paul, remember we saw in Ephesians chapter 6, he gives a much more detailed list there of the Christian's armour, but here he pairs it right down to, as it were, make a point and particularly bring out these two parts of the armour for emphasis. Two parts, the breastplate and the helmet. Let's have a look at those two. The breastplate of faith and love. Do you know what the breastplate is? Breastplate for the soldier in those days consisted of a large metal plate shaped and fitted that would come down over the chest and the upper part of the abdomen. But there was a back part as well. And so it would cover the back and would sort of come together a bit like a turtle's shell kind of thing. And then strapped together usually with leather straps over the shoulders and around the side. So it gave a full protection to the vital organs of the soldier. in his chest and his upper abdomen, and particularly protected the heart. So, here is the breastplate, but of course, once again, this is a spiritual picture, isn't it? It's the breastplate of, in other words, this is what it actually is for the Christian, not a metal plate, but it's faith and love. Faith. the powerful gift of God, worked by the Holy Spirit in us, that is given to us, whereby, with that faith, we are enabled to trust in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are enabled to believe in the truth of God and what he tells us in his word, and to believe especially in Jesus, who was sent by God to be our saviour. to trust in the truth that this is the way in which we're saved in this dying world. That he truly was the son of God, sent and became man and lived upon this earth and lived a perfect life of righteousness so that can be ours by faith. And died a perfect death to pay for all the sin and the punishment and the shame so that it was taken away and that we can be made right with the law. But it's not only faith. But it's the breastplate of faith and love. This is that infinite love of God for us to begin with. That He, despite the fact that we were sinners deserving of His anger and His justice, instead He chose to save some who were wretchedly ugly and filthy in the kingdom of darkness and to save us in that love. Not because of anything in us. but purely out of his amazing love, mercy and grace to rescue us. And he then sheds abroad in our heart through the Holy Spirit that love. So we know that. And we begin to understand, Lord, this is amazing that you should love us. And then having received that love, God also works in us that same love, so we begin to respond. And that's this love also, it's a responding love to God in that soberness to love God for all that he has done for us. We love him because he first loved us, and we begin to love neighbour as well. So here is our breastplate of faith, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and in our God and in all that truth, and love, a love of God for us that's lifted up and calls us to life in return. That's impenetrable armor for our heart. We can trust in this. And no matter what weapon comes against us, that Satan tries to use against us, Or the world tries to throw against us to overcome us. Or even that old man of sin tries to throw against us. This armour is provided by God. And it functions as we soberly grow in this. You notice, this is the soberness. This is the crystal clear thinking of understanding. How has God done this? And what has he done? And what has he done for me? And we keep learning and growing. And as that does so, that armour becomes stronger. by his grace, by his working in us. Then there's the helmet of the hope of salvation. Helmet, it's pretty obvious isn't it? It means up here on the head, literally the Greek means that which goes around the head. That's what the idea of the helmet. It's where the thinking goes on isn't it? This is where all the sober reflection and understanding and meditating and the decisions come from. This is all happening in our head, in our mind. And that means protection for the soldier and for the Christian. This helmet is, what is it? It's hope. The helmet is the hope of our salvation. Remember, what's biblical hope? Biblical hope isn't the sort of thing the world often talks about, when it talks about hope, what it means by that is kind of a wistful, wishful thinking, oh maybe this would be so nice if this would happen, probably won't happen, but oh boy, that'd be great. No, no, right, that's not biblical hope, that might be world's hope. What's biblical hope? Biblical hope is this, that which is coming in the future, that we know because God has promised it, is absolutely sure and certain and it is coming, And we know it through faith that this is true. And we have an eager anticipation for it coming and its arrival. That's biblical hope. We have a hope in God. We have a hope in heaven. We have a hope in the resurrection. We have a hope in our salvation. And that word really ties the whole thing all in together. These are most sure and certain things that are coming, that we know. We don't see them yet, we haven't received them in full yet, but we have a hope for them. We haven't received the fullness of our salvation yet. Have we been saved? Absolutely. We've been saved. If we have a true faith in Jesus Christ, if we have believed in him, If we have indeed seen the truth of what the Bible says, that we are sinners and that we need a saviour and we have come to God and asked him, Lord, forgive me for my sins for the sake of your son. Then God does not cast any out. We are saved and saved to the uttermost. But have we received the fullness of our salvation yet? No, we haven't. There's the aspects of the fact that we have still got lots of sin clinging to us, lots of corruption that we fight against every day. And we haven't yet gone to heaven and been made perfect in righteousness. And we haven't got to the last day of the resurrection and entering into the fullness. So all of that's yet to come. But do you know there's a very active salvation that's going on. You and I, every single day, need to be saved. I need to be rescued. a bit more from me. I'm the problem. All of my sins and my wrong understanding, my wrong thinking, it's not sober like it ought to be. And I need rescuing from that. And here's the wonderful thing. You see, I wear this helmet of the hope of salvation. Every single day, my God who has given me faith so that I believe, who loves me with an infinite love. He's pouring that love upon me by saving me every day. And everything he sends and the word that he gives to me is at work to save me and rescue me from me and from my corruption and from everything that I need rescuing upon. He's saving me every single day. And it's that that then sits there and protects me. in my thinking, where I can be taken aside so easily, that I can be tempted to think, oh, but, you know, maybe I need to go and do this, and I need to find pleasure in this world, or, you know, drag me off into a wrong understanding, and say, no, no. God's saving me. That's what's happening. When I find hard things that come upon me, perhaps like the Thessalonians, opposition, persecution, I think, oh, Maybe God doesn't love me. No, God's saving me through everything he sends to me every day. I have the hope of salvation. We then know and we understand why everything is happening to us. We understand and know why is there so much hatred and murder and fraud and deceit in the world. We know, we understand. the amazing nature of what God is doing for us. In all this we are able to be sober. Clear, glad, logical thinking, calm, purposeful responses to all that happens in life. Let us, who are of the day, be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of hope and salvation. Why? Why do we do this? Paul also points out here why we do this. Notice at the beginning of verse 9, he says, for, and that word means because. Okay, let's be sober. Because, he says, God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. God has appointed us. God appoints all things. God appoints all people. Here's the one that determines where every single person will be born and what life they will have, what time in the history of this world they'll be born into, what country, what family, what circumstances, what work God appoints every single person. God has appointed us, not to wrath, but to salvation. For most people, And here's the amazing thing, for most people, having sinned and rebelled in Adam, and hated the truth of God, and as John 3 verse 19 says, men loved the darkness rather than their light, because their deeds were evil, and that was us too by nature. God has appointed them to remain in that darkness, to receive His justice and His judgment, and that is right and good. They loved drunkenness and they loved darkness and they didn't want to come out of it and God gives them over to it. God appointed them to wrath. But. But. Wonder of wonders. Amazing grace. Even though we, his elect, deserve just as much to be appointed to that just and righteous judgment, God has appointed us in every part of our life to obtain salvation. And the way that this is written means that God is continually working this. So, as it were, we could say it this way, For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation continuously. That's the idea of the wording there. In other words, everything that he's appointed to our life is actually already appointed and already worked out and will already come to pass exactly as he planned it, because it's part of the obtaining of the salvation that he has purchased for us. We are obtaining salvation more and more every day. So as it were, Paul's saying that to us. People of God, you are of the day. Do you hear this? Do you do you understand this? This is part of the sober thinking that we are to actually have. God has appointed you to have everything that is needed in your life. and His word and His grace given to you in exactly the right amount so that you can actively, consciously, powerfully lay hold upon the salvation that He's appointed for you every day. We don't tend to think about that, do we? we tend to have things come along and happen to us in life. We think, oh, this is just not right. That's not fair. That's not good. How can this be good to me? You know, you walk out, you know, in the afternoon in the morning and you've got a flat tire and, you know, it's like, this is terrible. That's not right. You know, we have something that comes out of the blue. A relative of ours suddenly has a stroke. How can this be right? How can this be good? But it is. God has appointed us to the obtaining of salvation. That's what's important. And every single thing that's happening is actually part of God giving us that salvation. And for us to lay hold upon that, needs sober thinking. It means clear and logical thinking, the hope of our salvation, the breastplate of faith and love so that Satan tries to tell you this is all not right. This is terrible. And you say, no, no, hold on. That's not right. And we stand up like a soldier and say, no, I am going to hold on to the beautiful truth of the gospel that God has given to me to think soberly. And then we will see and actively use our armour. We'll be fighting like a soldier and having a clarity of thinking and all the knowledge of the Word of God. Now, you see, us doing that doesn't work our salvation. We don't actually manage to save ourselves by doing these things. God's done it all. He saved us in Christ. He chose us. He's caused His Spirit to come to us and make us alive. He's the one that fashioned the armour and has given it to us. But he says, I would have you to enter more and more actively into experiencing the salvation that I have wrought for you. People of God think soberly, with a clearness and a clarity that comes with the truth of my word and the truth of who I am as a loving God who's saving you in my Son. Which is why Paul continues that in verse 10, He's really continuing on, isn't it? We've been appointed to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. We obtain that salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his work. He has done it all. We, as God's people, were placed into the hands of Jesus Christ before the world was even created. And he received all of his people to himself and he loved every one of them. And he took it upon himself to come into this world, to take upon himself our flesh and our blood, and then as our representative, to not only live the perfect life of righteousness, but to go to the cross willingly, to lay down his life for us. He took upon himself darkness and death. the wretchedness of all the justice due for sin. He suffered hell itself so that we will never go there. So that we may be the children of the day and the children of light and not of darkness. We have been saved and rescued and delivered out of death, out of spiritual sleep and drunkenness so that we may be truly alive in him. And that's what Galatians 2 verse 20 says, isn't it? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So what that means is now, whether I continue to live on this earth physically and perhaps live until Jesus comes again on the clouds of glory, Or, if the Lord in his perfect timing calls me home in death, which could even be tonight, where to be ready for the Lord's coming. I have life, perfect life, in Jesus Christ already. And I am about the obtaining of my salvation as God works it more and more every day. Nothing can separate me from the love or the life of God in Jesus Christ. So God is calling us through Paul here. He's calling us to the full exercise and experience of that life as we think soberly with our armor on. Be sober. Engage your heart, your mind, your soul in this Christian life with Jesus. Really live together with him. Yes, you will experience difficulties, trials and the struggles. We know that every day, don't we? We need to come at the end of every day and say, Lord, forgive me. brought the sins, the failures, those wrongs that I've done, but I, every day, I'm still a soldier, I still have on that armour that God has given to me and worked for me, and that in that, having that on, I can think soberly and I can live in Christ every day. To what purpose? Why would Paul have the Thessalonians to really know this and to live this in their lives? Why would God have us to see and know these things? Well, I trust you can see and know that already. It's not that I'm going to say anything now that really adds to what we've been looking at already. But just consider the contrast. What do drunks do? Drunks in the dark, they stumble around. They think they're having a good time because they're drunk. And all they're doing is running into things, hurting themselves and other people, and they achieve nothing but damage and destruction, drunkenness, but never achieves anything good. But alert, joyful people, full of a certain hope, knowing what they are and who they are and what they are doing and where they are going, they're full of life and activity. That's the reason for Paul to bring these things to us. He would have us to be truly comprehending that, to lay hold upon that. No matter what our circumstances, we have a fullness of life in Christ and no one can take that away from us. But more than that, for us to realize that God has picked us up out of darkness, brought us into light. We're in that kingdom and he set us on a pathway to glory on that narrow road that leads to eternal life. And he fills that road with many different things. Some of them will be very joyful. Some of them will be hard and difficult and painful. But he fills that road with so many different things so that we can grow and learn of him, about ourselves, about his grace and about his mercy. about so many different things that open our eyes and help us to see and understand and walk with Him. We will spend, of course, eternity in knowing more and more about God and His greatness and all that He's done, but right now, God purposes for us to turn away from the blind drunkenness of the world spiritually and to experience His life as He has always planned for us to enjoy. but then there's that further purpose. Paul ends this section with this encouragement, wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another. Notice this, even as also ye do. Paul, he says to the Thessalonians here, drawing toward the end of his letter, You already do this. I don't have to give you instructions to actually do this because you're already doing it. And I can say too, as a pastor of this congregation, brothers and sisters in the Lord, you already do this too. And it's a wonderful thing. And I know that even of the things that you've said to me, that you do already encourage one another and edify one another. But God is never wanting us to sort of just be mediocre. He wants us to go on and prosper and to become better and even greater in doing what he calls us to do here. And so Paul says, edify one another. And this word edify actually means to build a house. So what we're doing is not just speaking nice words to each other. But as we lay hold upon all this beautiful truth and we understand God is working all this to the obtaining of our salvation, I'm being saved every day, and we encourage one another in this, we're building the house. It's the house of the temple of God. And we have the privilege of building that together. We build one another up in the truth, and we participate in what God is doing in saving His church. Of course, there's a warning there too, isn't there? If we are half asleep, if we're not bothering with these things, then the house tends to crack. And the warning is found in the pages of Scripture too. Look what happened to Israel so many times. But God is faithful, and he continues to encourage us and gives us words such as this. And he speaks to you tonight. As each one of us applies our hearts and minds clearly to the word of God, and we read and study and have a clarity of mind to see how the word applies, as we come to love and to know our savior more and more, then we help each other in that soberness, and the church is built. And it's not only that we have protected heads and protected hearts in faith and love and hope, and there's active building going on through soberness, but there's a real joy and comfort. That's why he says, wherefore, comfort one another. Comfort one another. Speak often, one to another, about these things that are joys and blessings in our Savior. who has loved us with an everlasting love, who has given us a gift that cannot be measured, cannot be fathomed. We will be trying to fathom it for all eternity, and he holds us in such a powerful hand that no one can truly harm us. We've been appointed into the obtaining of salvation, and that's what God will be doing every day. Daily, We have the privilege of God exposing our sins, having us come to a greater knowledge that I am forgiven in Christ's blood, of grace sufficient for all of our needs, and a future that grows brighter and more amazing every day in Him. What a privilege to be sober in our armour. Amen. Let's stand to pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, Lord, your word, it lays a hold upon our heads and our hearts in the places where we need it the most. We thank you for these words and we pray that you may enable us who are of the day to be sober and laying a hold upon our saviour. Wonderful truths you've given to us that we may walk more and more in this obtaining of our salvation that you have appointed to us. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen.