Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians chapter 5 and verses 6 through to 8. 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.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verses 6 through to 8.

The Christian on Watch.

The apostle here writing to the Thessalonians uses quite a vivid illustration of what he's trying to set before them, picturing one that is drunken, one that is sleepy, one that is in an intoxicated state, and saying, now that person, before they ever watch or look Before they ever do anything, they are not in a fit state to be aware or watching or to make right decisions at all. And we could be familiar with that illustration. But it doesn't just apply to those that are intoxicated, but it applies to those that though not intoxicated with drink, yet are as unready and unfit to be ready to act, to watch, to defend what they already have, or to look for blessings and helps that are coming.

In most of the cases, we're exhorted to watch in the word of God. It is to watch against an enemy coming to take away what we have, to assault us, to bring us away from the Lord Jesus Christ. But we should also remember that if we are seeking the Lord and if we have a real need for our souls and we're wanting the Lord to come and wanting the Lord to come and bless us, then we also should be watching in that way.

When we think of Elijah, after the Lord had sent fire from heaven on Mount Carmel, and to assure the people that he had turned their hearts back again, they'd had three and a half years of famine and no rain. Then Elijah was praying for rain. But he wasn't just praying, he was watching. He was using his servant to go and look toward the sea. He was looking not for an enemy, not for someone to assail them, but looking for the first sign of the Lord's blessing and of an answer to prayer. And that is the other way of watching.

Another way would be when we are looking for tidings. We think when Absalom was slain and the watch over the gate was noticing runners coming, they were going to be bringing tidings. They were noticing who those runners were. They could tell from their gate, even when they couldn't see their facial expressions, they couldn't see who they were, but how they walked, how they ran, they could say who it was. And David says, when they said it was a Hymahaz, he is a good man. There is tidings in his mouth. And that's what they were watching and looking for.

So though the main thrust is upon warning and danger and enemy. There are other aspects where we are also to watch, and we need to be in a right frame, a right spirit, to be able to notice even the smallest things, like Elijah's little cloud arising out of the sea, or like the messengers of Ben-Hadad They immediately caught when Ahab said, Ben-Hadad, he is my brother. And they caught at it. They got mercy for Ben-Hadad through that. They could have easily overlooked that token probably of weakness in Ahab, a readiness to pardon and to forgive. But we ought to be. watching for those tokens, watching for those signs, whether for blessing or whether it is the first signs of the enemy coming in, an adversary coming in to our souls. So this is what Paul is specifically warning of the Thessalonians, that they are to watch, they are to be sober, and they are to be watching.

Before we come to a couple of points, I want to notice some other things that the Apostle brings up before he comes to the words of our text. Firstly, in verses two and three, he is reminding them of what they already knew. And it's good for us to be reminded as well. He says, for yourselves know perfectly. Now you think, if they already knew it perfectly, why does he have to remind them? But we do, we do need reminding of those things that we already know.

He says that the day of the Lord, so cometh as a thief in the night. 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. He says they knew it. And if we know our scriptures, we also know that. When we know the account of Noah and the time that the Lord brought the flood upon the earth, how sudden, how quickly that came. And now Lord uses that same example as what shall be at the end of the world. For he says that in Noah's day, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they married, they were given in marriage till the day that the flood came and took them all away. So shall it be also in the day of the Son of Man.

The Thessalonians had been told of that. We've only got to come to the last words of the previous chapter where the apostle is telling of the Lord coming and how the Lord shall come and all his saints with him. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise fast. And so they knew this. They knew what had happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. They knew what had happened to the Egyptians as they followed after Israel into the Red Sea and suddenly destroyed there.

So sometimes we need to be reminded of this when day after day goes by. And we might say that, well, tomorrow shall be as today and the next day. And we're making plans as if life shall go on. That we know that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night. There is not the warning. There's not that which heralds his presence. So this is, leading up to our text, what the apostle reaffirms and reminds the Thessalonians.

But not only that, in verses four and five, he reminds them of what they are, and he reminds us of what we are. He says, 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. We are to remember that we are born again. We are different than the world. The Lord has made that difference. We are not in the darkness of death, the darkness of unbelief and of ignorance, but the Lord has brought us into the light.

When the Lord came into the world, he said men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. And therefore they wouldn't come to the light lest their deeds should be made manifest. But the apostle would say to the Thessalonians, Remember that the Lord has made a difference. He's brought you into his light. He has given you eternal life. He's given you blessings that, yes, this world and Satan and our wicked heart will try and rob from you. But those blessings themselves are such blessings that will fit and prepare us to be a right person. to be watching and looking. And so he would have us remember that, and I believe it is a good thing for us to, these two points, to really be reminded that the day of the Lord cometh suddenly, but to be reminded what a miracle it is, a miracle of grace if we are called

If we are children of light, we are God's people, we are His church, we are those whom He has redeemed and saved and washed and cleansed, those who He has chosen and then called for that heavenly calling. The Lord has put a difference Between us and the world, come ye out from among them, touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and ye shall be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Maybe it's a good thing, good timing this morning for some of us, I hope all of us, to be reminded of whose we are and whom we serve, and the change that the Lord has brought in us, and from what position we come to such a text and a warning as we do here.

Your Paul is not speaking to those that are unregenerate. He's not speaking to those who do not know the Lord. who do not have anything to guard and preserve as that which is an eternal thing. We are exhorted to see that no man take thy crown. The Apostle would in effect say to the Thessalonians, you do have a crown, you do have a blessing, that Satan in this world would only delight to rejoice to rob from you.

So then when we come to our text, there's a therefore. Therefore, let us not sleep as if we were not converted. Let us not act as if we did not know that the Lord could come at any time or come suddenly. that we have, but let us watch and be sober.

I'm with the Lord's help to look at two points here. The first one is the Christian on watch. with the emphasis being on Christian, the person, the person that is on watch. And then secondly, the Christian watching. So our second point, the emphasis is not on the Christian, but on his watching. What is he doing? How is he? watching.

But firstly, the Christian on watch. What manner of persons ought ye to be? That is the point here. If we were to imagine a compound in the war times where they had watchtowers, And there was a soldier on that watchtower, and he'd been told what to watch for. But if he was drunken, if he was sleeping, if his mind was on other things, then he'd be in no position to be watching at all. It very much depends on the actual person.

To put it in extreme, you wouldn't put someone that was blind to be on watch because as a person they were incapable of performing what they were there to do, to watch. So it behoves us to really think, how are we, do we live in this world really soberly considering whose we are, whom we serve, the world that lies in sin and wickedness, the world that shall be burnt up one day, and that we being the people of God.

Really it's a sober, grave way of viewing the world, not light trifling, foolish, but those that have seen and known eternal things having a really sobering effect upon them. We couldn't think perhaps of one coming across someone injured or perhaps coming from a deathbed And there they are, telling jokes, light, trifling, and not at all impressed by what they have seen or heard.

And we should have the same effect. When we view ourselves, we view the world, we view what is at stake. To be grave, to be serious, to be thoughtful, to be withered as sober. What manner of persons are we? Now it's easy to get drawn into a light, a trifling spirit. And then when it comes to doing anything spiritual, We are unfitted to it. I always remember one time in my 20s, and I was well known for my faith and would often speak to the men that I was working with. There was one time I was in a light and trifling spirit and got drawn into the spirit that was around me. in a lunchroom. And then things were said, things were done, that I knew I should take a stand, should resist, should oppose. But I felt completely unable to do so because of my own spirit. I put myself into a position where as to bear witness, And to speak of the solemn searching things of God, I was not in a position to do. And sometimes to speak like that, you've only got a second or a split second, whether you speak or are silent, then it is too late. And I've always remembered that occasion.

But it's so easy to get drawn into that position where You might know what to say or do, but the whole of your behaviour, how you have been in the lead up, you're not able to do so. We should always remember this, especially when we come into the house of God, that there is due regard to how we are. We have the Lord's parable of the sower and the seed that fell upon prepared ground. When we come into the house of God, when we hear the word of God preached, we are, as it were, ground. We are hearers that the word of God, the seed, is falling upon. And it was only that prepared ground that brought forth fruit. And so in a sense, what Paul is saying to the Thessalonians here, be prepared ground, be ready ground for a work that I am to set before you, a watching work.

But then he also sets before them to have on spiritual armour. In verse 8 we read, 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. Paul goes into this armour more completely in his epistle to the Ephesians. But here he does mention some of those elements of the armour. This is why I said that in watching, often the emphasis is on defence. It is watching that someone doesn't come and take away what we already have. Well, if we're expecting an enemy, if we're expecting someone to come against us, even in a natural way, we think you're putting on some armour. And the first thing that is mentioned here, after being sober, is the breastplate of faith.

Now this is something that the world does not have, the world does not understand. Faith is that which cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. We view all things from the worldview of the word of God, how God views things, not how the world does. And we're not to expect that when the enemy comes in, he is going to be, as it were, attacking on our ground, or our terms, but on his terms. and he would try and take us away from that which is based upon the word of God, that which is of faith.

And so we are to have this as a readiness, be expecting, and be expecting that what will quench those fiery dance of the adversary will be faith, will be the word of God, will be a trust in what God has done, not in our own wisdom, not in our own understanding, not in our own abilities, but what the Lord did when Satan came in, when he was tried in the wilderness, and even Satan, he brings the word of God. When our Lord started replying with the word of God, But our Lord said, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Our Lord was not turned away from the word of God, not even when Satan quotes it in a deceitful and wrong way. And to have on the breastplate of faith is to be grounded in this, the faith and trust in what God has said, not in what man has said. or what man will tempt us to do.

The second aspect of that breastplate is that of love. You might say, what a strange thing to have as a defence, to have love. But what is it? Whose love? Whom is it that we are loving? If we have a love to someone, and that person is attacked, we will not have to reason and think, what shall I do? How shall I act? That love brings a spontaneous defense and rising to that occasion. If we love the Lord Jesus Christ, then any attack against him will immediately rise up. Immediately we respond to his name being taken in vain.

Yet we love the brethren, one of the great marks of being a child of God. We know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Then when the whisperer that separateth chief friends comes in, and he says, you look at this fault, and you look at this thing, and you look at these things against the brethren, and seeks to poison us against them, That love to the brethren, that will be that which quenches that, which moderates it, that prevents there to be a breach one to another.

And then we have, for an helmet, the hope of salvation. That hope beyond the grave, the hope of heaven, that which to have that is to realise what is at stake and what is our eternal home. Our Lord says, fear not them which kill the body and after that there's nothing more that they may do but fear him. After he hath killed hath power to cast both body and soul into hell. You know the dear martyrs, They had that hope of salvation. They counted not their bodies sacred. Their bodies are sacred. They also are redeemed as the soul. But they'd rather lose their life here and gain that eternal crown than to trade that crown for a moment's ease here below.

And it is to have this mindset Really what the apostle here is saying, the Christian on watch, is to have a right mindset, knowing who they are, whom they serve, the word of God of high esteem, the love to the Lord Jesus Christ and his people, and that hope beyond the grave as being something that is very uppermost in their minds.

Verse 9, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the hope of salvation, what God hath appointed us to. We are also to be mindful, in verse 10, of who died for us and that we should live together with him. who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. We are to be prepared to be a true watchman, whether for blessing or whether for the adversary.

Then we are not to forget, as Basil Ball says, you are bought with a price, wherefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are his. These are sobering considerations even in themselves. In thinking of them, they bring a soul from vanity, empty things, to solid, real things, things that make us really to consider whose we are, whom we serve, and what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us on Calvary Street.

Remember when our Lord was groaning in the garden of Gethsemane and he comes to the disciples and he finds them sleeping. What could you not watch with me one hour? There was the Lord to suffer. There was the Lord bearing the sins of his people even then, sweating great drops of blood. And there they were sleeping. They could not watch. And so we are brought to remember the Lord and what he bore for us, what he suffered. But then we also to be mindful of others, as in verse 11. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also ye do. I wonder how many of us really realise what a strength it is as preparing each other for watchfulness, to encourage one another, to strengthen each other, to comfort one another. So instead of being despairing, despondent, that we strengthen each other's hand.

Jonathan knew this. Jonathan, when he went out to David in the wood, and he strengthened his hand in God, he said, my father shall not find thee. Now shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee, in that he was wrong, but his aim was right. His aim was to strengthen his hands, to encourage him and to help him.

You know, a soul that is so despondent and discouraged, they're not going to be very good watchmen, are they? But if we comfort ourselves together, There's a walking together, two be together. One fall, another lifts him up. As iron sharpeneth iron, so the countenance of a man to his friend.

It's good for us to, instead of launch straight into how we are to watch or how a brother or a sister in faith is to watch, to think, well, are there other things that we can do that will make them and us to be more able to watch and more fit, more spiritually minded, more like the Lord, that there be a blessing in it before ever we are watching, whether for good or for evil, a mindfulness of what manner of persons we actually are.

We could add the Exhortation in verses 12 and 13 as well, where there is an exhortation to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. Esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Very often it's through the ministry that we receive guidance, warnings, blessings, And so if we start off with not esteeming those over us, not thinking much of them, thinking lightly of their words, not realising the Lord speaks through them, then we're not prepared to receive whether warning or blessing.

Again, it's what kind of a person we are, what kind of a spirit that we are. What kind of a Christian on watch are we? I want to go then from the Christian to the actual watching, a Christian that is watching. The Apostle Peter, joins these two things, soberness and watching, in his exhortation as well in 1 Peter 4 and verse 7. He says, but the end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer. And so here he is not only bringing in the soberness, not only the watchfulness, but one aspect of how we are to watch. Watch in prayer.

You know, if we only pray when we feel the spirit of prayer, we will lose a lot of the aspect of watching in prayer. If we are constant, regular in prayer, We will notice whether the Lord comes and softens our hearts. We will notice a difference in ourselves when the Lord does visit and bless us. We'll notice also when the Lord brings a restraint upon our spirit, when it is that we think, well, something is wrong. Why is this that I regularly come to prayer, and it may be We find enjoyment and pleasure in doing so, but then one time we don't and we think, what is it? I think, well, it's the company I've kept with. It's things I've been looking at. They are as the enemy coming in and eroding and making me to not desire the things of God. And I'm not fit for the presence of God. And it is discerned. in prayer. Very often we can discern if something has driven a wedge between us and the Lord. It is in our devotion times, whether in the house of God or private especially, that we are to watch then in prayer. When the Lord answers our prayers, we are to be mindful of what we've prayed, and then after we've prayed, He's watching providence, watching whether he'll answer through the ministry or in providence. He's watching in that way.

Then it is to watch against temptation. This is what our Lord said to those that were sleeping when he was in the garden of Gethsemane. Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation. There is prayer mentioned, and again there's a specific thing as to what we're watching against. Temptation. Satan setting something before us that is alluring, some path, some way, that is not good, that is not right.

Remember our first parents and how Satan came in, hath God said, questioning the things of God. We think of our Lord's temptations, we've mentioned them already. That he was driven after his baptism into the spirit to be tempted of the devil, tried even as we are, tempted. It's not sin to be tempted, it's sin to fall into that temptation. And those that are watching, they recognise what is a temptation, what is something that leads to sin.

The Lord said to Cain when he wasn't pleased with the Lord because the Lord did not show respect unto his offering, he said, If thou doest well, shall not thou be accepted? But if not, then sin lieth at the door. And there was the tempter. Pride had been wounded. His brother had been respected his offering, but not his. How often that can start to come in and how many of us would see that as a temptation of the devil. When we're jealous, we're envious of another. Was not that the very reason why the Jews had the Lord crucified? Pilate realized they Crucified him through envy. Thousands followed him. Why, they said, the whole world has gone after him. And later on, it was with the apostles as well. The pride of man and Satan.

But do we discern that? With Cain, he didn't. He slew his brother. Entered into that temptation. Terrible way. These are solemn warnings to us. In the Word of God, watch against temptation, something that is to draw us into a sinful, wrong, evil course of action, or even thoughts and affections. Often outward sins, they begin in the thoughts.

But then we have with the case of Nehemiah, to watch against enemies. They were building the wall of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 4. And they realized that there was those that were coming up, conspiring against them to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. We read in verse 9, nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night because of them. Later on we read that because they'd made all those efforts of defense, their enemies realized it. We read in verse 15, it came to pass that when our enemies heard that it was known unto us and God had brought their counsel to naught, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work, And then they were, they left off to come. They saw the defences that were made. And what an encouragement for us to watch.

We are told regarding Satan, we are not ignorant of his devices. The hymn writer says, Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees, because that saint is watching, he's in prayer. He has God on his side. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

We think also of our own sinful heart. Word of God is very clear that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We are to watch against the workings of that evil heart. We of all people, those that are called by grace, should be well aware of that. that our sinful heart is no friend of the things of God. It is enmity, it hates the things of God. It is sinful to extreme, desperately wicked. We are to watch against that.

We are to watch against snares. Snares is something that we put our feet in, our hand in, it pulls tight and it holds us fast. It's not something that we can just dabble in and then back out of and be free of. A snare is something that quickly holds and is very hard once you're in that course or in that snare to be relieved from it. And there's snares strewn all along the way to hold the people of God in one way or another, one extreme or another. We need to watch against such snares.

Another thing to watch is the errors of wicked men, especially those that come into the Church of God. We are warned in Jude that there shall be those even amongst you. The Church's greatest danger is from within, not without. There will be errors, serious errors. We read there must needs be heresies among you that they that are approved might be made manifest. Really those that are approved are those that are a Christian that is ready to watch and is watching, and that notice immediately, and when perhaps the elders and pastor don't even recognize it, they put their hand up and say, that that is being taught in our assemblies here is an error, is a fatal error. It must be stamped on, it must be stopped. And the Lord has ordained that. those heresies be in congregations so that his people are shown to be who they are.

We are to watch in providence the things that are happening in the world. Our Lord reproved those of his time that they knew not the day of their visitation. They could tell the signs of the times. They could tell the signs of the seasons or whether it shall rain or not in the next day, but they couldn't tell the signs of those times. We should be very watchful in this. We hear the news, we hear what is happening in our nation, in other nations. We have the word of God and we compare these things, these two things together. We know God is working out his providence. God is bringing about his counsels. And we watch to see the Lord's hand. And in all of our lives, especially, to watch. We're seeing my life's minutest circumstances subject to that eye. And it's good for us to watch what the Lord is doing, to see his handiwork, to see those things where We are to be warned against all those things that are to be an encouragement to us.

May we watch providence. May we watch for his second coming. This is what our Lord so warned about. He mentioned of it already regarding the days of Noah and the days of the Son of Man and whether it is the end of the world or whether it is our own death. We have to watch for that. Sometimes the Lord gives signs. We read of Elisha. He fell sick of the sickness whereof he died. We think of Bunyan's second book of the Pilgrim's Progress, and how when Christiana and those that were with her, they came down to the river of death, that each one of them was given some warning. Some fell sick. some things that are happening, and there's a message joined to it, joined to that sickness, joined to that affliction. The King desireth within a month or a few weeks to have your presence with him in glory. Sometimes the Lord doesn't give warning, but other times he does, and quite often it has been. whether an illness has been discerned or a terminal illness, or whether the Lord has just impressed upon his people that their days are shortening and they must not think that they're going to reach their 80s or 90s or long life, but they're to be looking for his coming.

believe it was, and it wasn't while we were in this country. But one of the Lord's servants was sent out into the ministry, and he didn't minister for very long. It was Mr. Funnell. And those that heard him preaching said he seemed to be that he'd had one foot in heaven, and that he was so much speaking of and meditating upon heaven.

Well, while still relatively a young man, the Lord did take him very suddenly. And it seemed that already he had that anticipation and that readiness to be with the Lord. We had to notice then the Lord's doings. We had to be watchful of it. And especially, I'd say, this encouragement of any of you that are seeking the Lord, Those who want the Lord's blessing, be watchful as to that.

Watchful when the Lord first softens your heart, when he brings the word through the ministry, when he gives you tokens for good in providence or perhaps in prayer, answers to prayer, you to watch these things and lay these things up, things that the world might really escape, speaking yesterday, one to another, the baptising service we went to afterwards, and afterwards speaking, and where we'd been in workplaces with professed Christians that had had remarkable things happen in Providence.

They ascribed them to luck. When we pointed out that was not luck, it was God's hand. Here's a token for good. They couldn't see it. But those that we're talking with, they could clearly see it. They could clearly see the Lord's hand. And it's a great blessing to be able to see it.

The Lord said at one time with his disciples, blessed are your eyes for they see, for what they see. And he said for their ears as well, what they heard. Well if we're coming to the house of God and we're watching at the posts of his doors, our ears are open. We want to hear something from the King of Kings. We want to know something of the Lord Jesus Christ, something that shall satisfy our souls.

And you know the two signs, our two points this morning. The Christian himself on watch and then his watching. preparing of ourselves as our character, our person, that very much the Lord blesses the ministry too and makes us to be what he'd have us to be, feeding us, instructing us and teaching us. And then as we watch, we watch for his blessing. But having been blessed, we watch that the enemy doesn't come and take away that and mar that.

and separate chief friends. No wonder the Apostle closes this first epistle with such warnings and such directions. 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.

The Lord at his blessing. Amen.