(4) But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. (5) Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. (6) В¶ Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. (7) For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. (8) 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. (9) For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, (10) Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (11) В¶ Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
How very gracious was it in the Lord the Spirit, while describing the awful events of this great day of God, as they will overtake the wicked; to comfort the Lord's people, with the assurance of their safety, when surrounded with such tremendous judgments, in their view, before them? And, I beg the Reader to be careful with me to observe, from whence, and in what, their safety is found. Not in themselves, or their own attainments. For wherein do they differ from others? and what have they which they did not receive? Not from birth, or descendants in nature. For all are alike born in the same Adam-stock, of whom Scripture bears testimony, there is none good, no not one. Romans 3:12. Not in works of righteousness which they have done; for they were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Ephesians 2:3. But Paul blessedly shows the cause; because by the water of regeneration, and a renewing of the Holy Ghost, shed upon them abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Titus 3:3-7, And here again, the Apostle sums up all in one, the sole cause, of their safety, and their everlasting blessedness in Christ Jesus; because God (saith he) hath not appointed them to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And hence, the Apostle adds, He died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Song of Solomon 5:2; Matthew 25:5. Here is the sole cause of mercy. This the glorious security of the Church. Hence no day can overtake them, no surprise of the midnight hour alarm. Sleeping, or waking, they are the LORD'S.
I cannot suffer myself, neither the Reader, to pass away from these most blessed, and precious assurances, of God the Spirit, without first desiring to pause over them, and ponder well their deep importance, on that great subject contained in them. And I desire to do this the rather, because they come in with a strength of argument, at once perfectly irresistible, and unanswerable, to silence the presumptuous reasoning of men untaught by the Holy Ghost, who venture, in direct defiance to all the glorious promises of God, to call the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, unscriptural, and highly dangerous. These men are so full in their apprehensions, of human worth, and human works, that they cannot ascribe the whole salvation to the finished redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ; but will make the purposes of God's grace, still to be depending upon the will of man. Alas! what is not the unhumbled pride of our fallen nature capable of bringing forth, where men are not taught of God, and remain unacquainted with the plague a their own heart? I very earnestly beg the Reader, to ponder well this precious scripture, looking up to God the Holy Ghost to be his Teacher; and then, to his cool, and serious judgment, under the Lord I will leave the subject.
If, as God the Holy Ghost by Paul, here taught the Church, that God hath not appointed the Church to wrath, but hath appointed them to obtain salvation, by Our Lord Jesus Christ; can God's appointments be frustrated of their end? And if not, can that be unscriptural, or dangerous which inculcates, under divine teaching, such blessed truths? If God, who appoints these blessed things, to save from wrath, and to obtain salvation, hath in confirmation also, secured the means for the accomplishment of his purposes; is it possible to suppose, that any peradventure shall arise, which God did not foresee; and for which God made no provision? If, as a blessed security to the Church, God the Father, who hath not appointed to wrath, but hath appointed unto salvation; hath made the whole everlastingly secure; having chosen the Church in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that it should be holy, and without blame before him in love; and hath predestinated the Church unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself; accepting the Church in the Beloved: if; on the part of God the Father, in the high Covenant offices of his everlasting love, he hath mercifully made such ample provisions of security, for the sure accomplishment of his purposes; can either men, or devils, frustrate his designs? Moreover, the Holy Ghost hath added in this very scripture, another blessed cause of assurance. He that appointed us to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, hath confirmed it in Christ; for, we are here told, Christ died for us, that whether we wake, or sleep, we should live together with him. Hence, here is also, the Pillar, and ground of the truth. Neither doth the subject stop here. For God the Spirit hath engaged, to regenerate those, whom God hath chosen, and for whom Christ died; and, in confirmation that he hath done it, in this very chapter, the Lord declares, that they are not in darkness, as are the ungodly, whom the day of God will overtake as a thief in the night; but that they are children of the light, and the children of the day. Now then, in the face of these, and numberless other scriptures to the same purport, shall we be told, that God's purposes are doubtful? That the final perseverance of the elect, is unscriptural, and dangerous? Are such men indeed so desperately blind, as to suppose, God hath appointed the means, but is uncertain of the end? Oh what a leanness, and poverty of soul, must there he in congregations under such teaching? Surely it may be said of all such men, as Job did to his Pharisaical instructors: miserable comforters are ye all, physicians of no value?
Reader! I pray you for the Lord's glory, and your own personal happiness, look up to God for his instruction on this momentous point. Hear what the Lord saith to confirm his word unto his people. Wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Hebrews 6:17-18. Here observe the several gracious expressions. God's immutable purpose, formed wholly in himself, without any regard to the mutability of his chosen people. That purpose confirmed by two immutable things, God's word, and God's oath. And confirmed with this express design, that the heirs of promise, (mark the expression, heirs of promise, not workers of the law, see Galatians 3:15 to the end), might have a strong consolation. And all this because God was willing that those heirs of promise should have his gracious purpose more abundantly shown unto them, to confirm all his promises; yea, and Amen in CHRIST JESUS. Now then put the whole together. Here is the immutable purpose, will, and Pleasure of Him, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. James 1:17-18. And, hence, Christ in allusion to it, saith, that in order for the sure accomplishment of it, the Lord will cut short the times of persecution in his Church. For speaking of those exercises, Jesus saith, that except the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved. But for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. And the Lord further confirms the everlasting safety of his people, in that he shows the impossibility of deceiving the elect, Mark 13:19-22. So that God's purpose is founded in himself, and established in the covenant, ordered in all things and sure. 2 Samuel 23:5. It is confirmed in the blood and righteousness of Christ. Ephesians 1:7. And the people which are the heirs of promise, are made willing, by the regenerating work of God the Spirit, according to covenant engagements in the day of his power. Psalms 110:3. And what crowns the whole, as this immutability of God's will was not founded in any expectation from man, or liable to change from the mutability of man, neither depended upon anything good or bad in the objects of this distinguishing mercy, so the ultimate blessings given to those heirs of promise, were not given them for their merit, or to be kept back for their undeservings. Among the very first clauses in the charter of grace, we find the merciful design expressed in these words: For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said the elder shall serve the younger. Romans 9:11. And, hence, the Almighty Founder, which in his own immutability formed the counsel of his will, formed, no less, all suitable provision to make the heirs of promise everlastingly blessed, and happy in their heritage. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and, whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30. And what shall we then say to these things? Not, surely, as those say who call the consolations arising from those doctrines wrong, yea, and the doctrines themselves unscriptural and dangerous, but rather to hear what the Lord Jesus himself said, in comforting his people, with the full assurance of faith. Fear not little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom! Luke 12:32.