Tonight I want us to turn to
1 Thessalonians. We'll break our routine just
a little bit tonight in light of our present circumstances. I want you to turn to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5, and I want to read one verse. One verse. And that verse is verse 18. The
Apostle says, "...in everything give thanks, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." That statement, that truth, that
command, could be found in any of the books of Scripture. As most of you know by now, I'm
sure, our building was broken into sometime Sunday or Monday
night. And when I checked it on Tuesday
morning, all the electronic items, all the recording and duplicating
equipment, all the PA system, And since a good part of them
were in the pulpit, they even stole the pulpit. And to my mind, that's the worst
part of all. I've stood by that pulpit many
years. And as I sat down on the pew
waiting for the deputies to come and to report the crime, I just
kept thinking in my mind, What in the world could be God's purpose
in this? What in the world would be His
reason for bringing this to pass? And I thought, because of God's
grace to us, He's made us to know that He works all things
after the counsel of His own will. And although we do not
know and may not ever know why, we certainly, if we believe the
Bible, have to know who. And we have to know and admit
the fact that His will, His being the first cause, involves, as
the Scriptures say, all things. He works all things after the
counsel, after the wisdom, after the purpose of his own will. And contrary to the notions of
natural men and women, this even includes all the acts of fallen,
unbelieving men and women, even their thefts, even their crimes. As a matter of fact, the psalmist
is led by the Spirit of God to say just exactly that in Psalm
76 and verse 10. He says, "...surely," in other
words, there can be no doubt, "...surely the wrath of man the
wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou
shalt restrain." In other words, if God allows it, it will in
some way work to His glory. even if it simply glorifies His
justice and His holy wrath in their condemnation and eternal
judgment. The prophet Amos says something
very much like that. He said, Shall a trumpet be blown
in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil
in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" Is there anything
that happens or takes place, whether outwardly good or evil,
that takes place outside of the realm of His sovereign authority
and power? We may blame it on the devil,
we may blame it on the wickedness of men, and rightly so, but behind
all things, all events, all acts, is God who controls and rules
all things and all people. And while I was sitting there
waiting for them to come, I remembered something I read a long, long
time ago. And it was something that an
old preacher said on the occasion of he, his own self, being robbed. I think someone stole his wallet,
And he found in that occasion, he found in that thing a reason
or actually reasons to thank God for. I wonder if we could
find a reason. in light of what has taken place,
if we could find a reason or reasons to give praise to God
and to give thanks to God, even on the occasion of being robbed. This is what he said. He said,
Father, I thank Thee first, because I was never robbed before." And
when you stop and think about it, it is a wonder given the
sad state of mankind, given the condition spiritually and morally
of most men and women in this world, it is a miracle of restraining
grace. That we're not robbed every day. That we're not robbed individually
every day. And that's why all the laws,
and that's why all the rules, and that's why all the notions
that men and women come up with as to how to deal with the problem,
they deny, first of all, the reason for it. And that is the
heart, the darkened, deceitful hearts of lost men and women. Christ says, out of the heart
comes all of these things such as murders and thefts. Paul attributes thievery to an
action of our flesh. It's what we are naturally. And you know, if we sought and
seek by nature to steal the glory from God, it's a wonder. And we ought to thank God that
this covetousness that is natural to man, in the face of a plain
commandment wherein he said, Thou shalt not steal, we ought
to have thanks to God that we're not robbed more often than we
are, that we are not the victims of thefts and crimes and such
as that, more than we are. So he said, first of all, I thank
Thee because I was never robbed before. And then the second thing
he says was, he said, I thank You, Lord, secondly, because
although they took my purse, They did not take my life." Somebody
would say, well, that's kind of viewing it as the glass of
water half full. But again, if we know anything
about the nature, the very murderous nature of men and women, fallen
sons and daughter of Adam, we can be thankful that we might
have lost a few things But we came to no bodily harm. Nobody
was injured. Nobody was hurt in any way. And we are preserved by the grace
of God, by the great Protector from serious danger and serious
harm. which He has promised to do to
His people all the days that He would have them to live in
this world. It's not to say that at some
point it won't happen. It's not to say that we won't
walk out, or I won't walk out, and somebody shoot me on sight,
maybe for no reason at all. But I know this, whether it be
a disease, whether it be at the hands of a criminal, whether
it be at a gun or a knife or a bomb or whatever it is. If it takes the Lord's people
out of this world, it is that instrument that He ordained to
usher them into eternity. Stephen was taken out and stoned. And yet, that was the very instrument
and way that God had ordained to deliver him from the trials
and troubles of this life, for to be absent from the body, Paul
said, is to be present with the Lord. He not only calls that
veil of tears to be drawn to a close, But he uses some instrument,
whether it be at the hands of a criminal, whether it be by
a dread disease, whether it be by a sudden heart attack, doesn't
matter what it is. For the Lord's people, that death
has no sting. That death is just a door that
opens out into greater glory and the presence of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And though they take things,
he said, I thank you, Lord, that they didn't take my life. Then
he said another thing. I had to go back and try to find
these things, but he said another thing. He said, thirdly, I thank
thee because although they took my all, it was not much. Somebody said, well, they stole
everything we had. They stole all the electronics
we had. They did. But stealing all that
we had, they didn't get much. They didn't get much in the light
of eternity. They didn't get much with regard
to the glorious blessings of God. They got a few pitiful handfuls
of metal and scrap. And if they'd gotten it all,
they still wouldn't have gotten much. You know how much things
in this world that men clamor after and seek after and fight
to get and kill to get and steal to get, you know how much it's
really worth? This world will not know until
a coming hour. But at that appointed hour, God
has already said, I'm going to show you just exactly how all
the gold and all the silver and all the diamonds and all the
materials, I'm going to show you just exactly how much they're
worth. He said, I'm going to burn them
with a fire to the point that everything about them that makes
them valuable to fallen men and women, he said, all the elements
shall melt with a fervent heat. They'll be melted down to virtually
nothing recognizable by fallen man. Just worth nothing. All that man has done to fashion
them, and to view them as valuable, and idolize them, and desire
them to the point of stealing them, God's going to show us
what they're worth. Nothing. And those words will
come back. to haunt every one without Christ. What shall it profit a man if
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" You see, the value
of all things is comparatively very little and insignificant. And one way we can know the value
of, the true value of, even in an earthly sense is this, they
can all be replaced. All replaced. If you had a little
money, you could replace every one of them before Sunday morning.
And we'll have to replace some of them, but that's how valuable
they really are. It's not even like they got a
one-of-a-kind diamond or a one-of-a-kind painting or something like that.
All these things, we'll know the value of them simply by the
fact they can be replaced. I don't mean replaced by kings
and billionaires and stuff. I'm talking about working people
like us." And then he said, fourthly, and this is a wonderful thing,
he said, I thank Thee, Father, because it was I who was robbed
and not I who robbed. That's good, isn't it? Father,
I thank You that it was I who was robbed. however painful,
however awkward, however fearful that might have been, I'm thankful
that it was I who was robbed and not I who was the robber."
You see what grace God has shown to His people and continues to
show to us. not only saving us from our sins,
but restraining us and keeping us from being and doing what
we would be and what we would do as sinners. As I thought about
it, something else that I read a long time ago came to my mind,
and it was the words of an old writer who was watching a man
with his friend being led to the gallows to be hanged. I think his friend said something
like, oh, what a crime he must have committed to be taken out
and publicly hanged. And this old writer looked at
that situation, he told his friend, he said, there goes me, but for
the grace of God, whoever it was, Whatever wickedness they
intended and accomplished in this place when they broke in,
I can say, there goes me, but for the grace of God. Just His
grace. Not because I'm some kind of
morally superior being. Not because, as some people might
say, I'd never do anything like that. Not because I not only
do have the potential, I have the tendency, but for the restraining
grace of God. Lord, I thank You that it was
not me that broke in and stole and robbed. Just Your grace that
keeps me from doing that and far worse, far worse. You see, only God's grace keeps
us from being the thieves. I hope we don't ever forget that.
I hope we don't ever have an attitude as a congregation of
people that we're standing up on some lofty moral pedestal,
incapable of doing such things as that. That we look down our
noses at such who have done such things and say, oh, I'm far better
than they. It is God and His grace alone
that makes us to differ. And I thought about it, I'll
add just a few things to that in light of our situation. Made me happy to think about
this. I stood behind that pulpit for, I guess, over 30 years now. Same pulpit. But though they
stole our pulpit, They couldn't steal our message. They couldn't
steal our gospel. You say, why? Because ours is
what the scriptures call the everlasting gospel. They couldn't steal the thing
that is most central and important to us, and that is the word of
truth that endureth forever. They used to say that the Scottish
people, when invaded by various persons, groups, countries, that
there was a saying, they'd say, you might trample down the heather,
but you can't trample down the wind. And that's the way it is
with this gospel. They can steal all the equipment
to record it on, but they can't steal the gospel. They can't
steal this message that is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believes. They can't steal what's hidden
in our hearts. The psalmist said, Thy word have
I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. They didn't
try to steal a track, or a Bible on a pew, or a hymn book, or
a CD, or a bulletin. But if they had stolen all those
items, we'd still have them. They couldn't steal the gospel
of the grace of God. And not only that, though they
stole some trinkets, they couldn't steal our treasure. Treasure
safe. Because our treasure is the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. And He's sitting on the right
hand of the Majesty on high. And He had determined as one
of the Godhead that what would take place regarding this incident
would work in some way for our spiritual and eternal good and
for His glory. Do we believe that? You know,
that eases the frustration and it eases that disturbance in
our mind that somebody would break in and steal something
like a pulpit and recording equipment to record the gospel and all
these things. But somehow, and most likely
for a reason known only to God Himself, they did. But they didn't get our treasure.
All the riches of God's grace are in Him. That eternal inheritance,
that is the gift He gives to all His people, is said to be
forever secured in heaven. They didn't get that. Though the truth is they didn't
really get anything valuable, did they? But I'll tell you a couple of
other things. And one of them is that such
an action, such a thievery, Such an event serves as a reminder
of two things. Turn over and look with me in
Luke chapter 12, first of all. I'll just point these out to
you. And these are words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who told us,
to seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things
will be added to you. In Luke chapter 12 and verse
33, our Lord says this, "...sell that ye have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which
wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where
no thief approaches, neither moth corrupteth. For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also." We are to regard
all material possessions as things that God has given to us that
we might use them for His glory and the help of His people, not
hoard, but freely give. And as we do so, we remember
that our real valuables, our real treasures are in heaven. They don't corrupt. They don't
rust. No man can steal them. What is
valuable is what gives us in Christ. He gives us in Christ. And then the last thing I want
you to notice is this. Turn over to 2 Peter chapter
3. And that is this. When those
thieves came in here the other night, were you expecting them? Now, I was out of town, but if
you would have been expecting them, wouldn't some of you men
have been here and been on the guard and watched? Well, this
is the very thing that the Lord uses to tell us something about
His coming. He's coming again. You see, we
did not expect those thieves to come the other night, did
we? And without announcement, without warning, they came and
they stole. And that ought to remind us of
what our Lord says. He says in 2 Peter chapter 3
and verse 10, He says, but the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night. As a matter of fact, That expression
and illustration is the most often one used by our Lord and
His Apostles in speaking of the second coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. If I'd ask you earlier in the
week, say if I'd ask you Sunday morning here after the service,
you think we'll get robbed this week? No. What about if I ask
you, Do you think Christ will come tomorrow? But the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, unannounced, sudden,
in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also,
and the works therein shall be burned up, seeing then that all
these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." In other words,
we are to be living in that expectancy of the sudden and soon coming
of our Redeemer, looking for and hasting unto the coming of
the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be destroyed
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Nevertheless,
nevertheless, we, God's people, we, according to His promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in
peace without spot and blameless." How could we ever be in peace
in peace with God or each other, without spot and blameless, to
be in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. So all these things considered,
may the Lord give us grace and help us to do what the Apostle
instructs us to do in all things. In everything, give thanks. Thank you, Lord, for the thieves.
In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning us. Father, we thank you for your
amazing mercy and for such promises that would relieve our stresses,
relieve our discomforts, relieve our fears concerning this world's
awful, awful doings. We thank you concerning this
thing that we were not the doers. We thank you, Lord, that nothing
precious, none of our true treasure was stolen, nor could be. We
thank you for your everlasting gospel, that by your grace you
enable to be proclaimed. Proclaimed to a world that by
nature hates it, but yet proclaimed to some folks that are the objects
of your love, the objects of Christ's redeeming works. and
who shall be the objects of the Spirit's work to reveal this
good news to them. We thank you. We pray that you
would help us in these days. Provide for us, Lord, as it pleases
you. For we thank you and pray in
Christ's name. Amen.