Now, Paul in 1 Thessalonians
5 and verse 1, he refers here in verse 1 to the previous passage
of Scripture where he gives these
great words of comfort concerning what's going to happen. when
our Lord returns to this earth as he promised to do. What's
going to happen to us? What's going to happen to those
that we love? Where are they now? What are they doing now?
What's he doing? What's he going to do? When's
he going to do it? Not so important. You see that in verse one here.
All of what he's going to do, that's real important. That's
our comfort, his promise, his promises, the promise of his
gospel. That's important. But Paul puts
no importance whatsoever upon the timing. You don't need to
know. I don't need to talk about it. Is that clear here? I wish
that was clear to me and to this world. Don't be ignorant now
concerning the truth that's revealed. I don't want you to be ignorant
about that. because there's a lot of comfort in this book for the
believer. A lot of comfort. But don't waste
your time and don't indulge your idle curiosity concerning that
which is not revealed. And that's what he's saying here.
We don't know when. We don't need to know when. We
know what's gonna happen. You know what that is? It's just
a lack of faith. That's when our children, we
tell them, we're going to do this and we're going to do that. There's no tomorrow for children.
There's no such thing as later. If we're not doing it right now,
we're not ever going to do it. Well, they just don't believe
you. That's what it is. They don't believe you. And sadly,
that's how we are with God. He's promised it. By his grace,
I believe what he said. And when he gets good and ready,
then I'm good and ready. That's why I wanna be. That's
what he said, be ready. Be ready when it is time, but
don't worry about it. And you know, there's a whole
lot of things in the word of God to which this same principle
applies. Rejoice in that which is revealed
and quit arguing and debating and fussing and confusing everybody
over that which is not clearly revealed. Just hush about it.
Is there not enough that's crystal clear in the Word of God for
us to rejoice over for the rest of our lives? That we've got... And that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night. What you know that you don't
know about that. They already knew what could
be known concerning our Lord's return and that is that it will
be unexpected by most. That's the whole picture here
of a thief coming. He doesn't come when you expect
him to. He wouldn't be very successful if he did. Our Lord talked about
that in Luke chapter He says, Blessed are those servants
whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. You know,
dogmatic statements about that which can't be known, but watching,
watching, expecting, waiting. Desiring. There's nothing wrong
with wanting him to come now. Nothing wrong with saying even
so, Lord, come, come quickly. Watch. and that he shall gird
himself and make, where am I, 30, watching. Verily I say unto
you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to
meet and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come
in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them
so, blessed are those servants that are this, if the good men of the
house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have
watched and not suffered his house to be broken through. Be
ye therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour
when you think." He's not going to come when you
expect him to come. But listen, look at verse 3. Then sudden destruction cometh
upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not
escape." Suddenly, sudden destruction. isn't complicated. You're not
going to expect the moment that He comes, but that doesn't mean
you can't be watching. You can't be prepared. You can't
be, the Scripture word, ready. Ready. You don't have to know
the moment in order to be ready. Now this verse 3 concerns they. You notice the words they and
them? Paul doesn't talk like that in his letters to those
that he's writing to. He says, you. This is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. But here it's they and them. And clearly this refers to unbelievers. He's writing to the church. But
now he's talking about they and them. He has described in the
previous chapter toward the end especially the blessedness of
the Lord's coming to the believer. and how it's a comforting, comforting
promise and comforting truths regarding what's going to happen
to us and those that we love. But here we see that most of
the people who are alive on this planet when our Lord comes back
will be surprised also with regard to the Gospel, the
things of God, peace and safety. We go into church, we're doing
what we're supposed to do. The preachers have preached to
it. Listen to what they say. Here's what God said about the
false preachers of long ago, and they haven't changed. Jeremiah
8.8, how do you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with
us? And that's what you say when you step up in a pulpit and presume
to preach the Word of God. You're saying I've got the Word
of God, the law of God, the the written word of God. And I'm
going to present it to you. And I'm to be believed as though
God were speaking. How do you say that, God said?
Lo, certainly in vain made he it. The pen of the scribes is
in vain. The wise men are ashamed. They
are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word
of the Lord. And what wisdom is in them? If
you reject this book, what wisdom is in you now? You've got nothing
to say to me or anybody else. You say God loves everybody.
God says He hates sinners except those in Christ. What wisdom
is in you? You've rejected the Word of the
Lord. God says He's elected a people
from the beginning, chosen them unto salvation from the beginning.
They say it's up to your will. You've rejected the Word of the
Lord. What wisdom is in you now? Time to shut up. will I give their wives unto
others and their fields to them that shall inherit them." In
other words I'm going to destroy him. Their wives are going to
marry somebody else and the stuff that they think is theirs now
is not going to be there. For everyone from the least even
unto the greatest is given to covetousness. Plant a seed you
know. and the Lord will bless you.
From the prophet even unto the priest, everyone dealeth falsely
for they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people
slightly. You know what it is to heal somebody? It's not going to fix the problem.
It'll make you feel a little bit better. It's not going to
fix the problem. And here's how they do it. They
say peace, peace, when there is no peace. They're saying peace
with God. Here's what you need to do to
have peace with God. And they'll lay it out for you. Somebody actually wants to go
to heaven when they die? My goodness, you're saved. Wow. They've been sold a lie. They think there's peace with
God by all the wonderful works that preachers tell them to do.
Quit smoking and drinking, start reading your Bible and teach.
We need somebody to teach the first grade boys Sunday school
class. Would you be willing to do that?
That's what they're saying to the Lord in that day. We've preached
in your name. We had a job in the church. But
he says this, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of
my father, which is in heaven. You know what that is? This is
the will of him that sent me that you believe on his son. That you quit your religious
foolishness and bow to the Savior and lay hold of him as he's revealed
in this book as the victorious sin conquering soul redeeming
champion of sinners who redeemed all for whom He
shed His precious blood. And then the Lord's going to
say, they're going to say, Lord, Lord, and He's going to say,
you're not entering in. And they're going to say again, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? Didn't we teach the Sunday
school class? Didn't we preach when the preacher
was out of town? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. We put
on a show. Everybody knew, you know, that
we were preachers. And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. All of your wonderful works are
filthy rags. Verse 4, we can't quit there
today. But ye, brethren, but ye, brethren,
are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a
thief. You're not in darkness. Now, two truths are taught here.
First of all, you're not in darkness. Why? Blessed are your eyes, for
they see. You weren't born in the light,
God had to turn it on for you. He turns it on for one, and he
leaves it off for another. Blessed are your eyes, for they
see. It's given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God, but to them it's not given. And so you're not in darkness,
and they are. If God had not given it to anybody,
He would have been right not to. None of us deserved it. We all deserve to stay in our
darkness and suffer the consequences. But He was gracious to His chosen
people and shined the light of His gospel, the light of the
world, the Lord Jesus Christ upon them. You are not in darkness
because Christ has revealed the Father to you. No man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will
turn the light on. You're not in darkness because
the Holy Spirit has indeed taken the things of the Savior and
shown them to you. You're not in darkness because
God from the beginning has chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. in this verse that day in the
sense that our Lord taught in Luke 12 will be as a thief to
everybody. There is a sense He said I'm
coming in an hour when you don't think about it. You're not going
to be thinking it. You're not going to know. And
in that sense He said it will come as a thief in the night
to everybody in that sense. Remember verse 40, be ye therefore
ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think
not. It's not revealed, and you're not going to know it. So just
be ready all the time. Just because you don't know doesn't
mean you can't be ready. Ready is having settled the issue
with God of your sin, concerning your sin. Come now and let us
reason together, saith the Lord. What about, Lord? Your sins are
scarlet. But I'm fixing to make them white.
I'm going to make them white as snow. Now you're ready. Now you're ready. Ready is serving
him. Isn't that what he said? The
good servant is doing his master's business. It's being about his
business. It's looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. Always and looking for him, even so come. And if you are in this sense
ready, then it will not be as a thief in the night in one sense. And Paul is revealing that here.
It won't be as a thief in this sense to you. A thief comes,
what? To destroy and to steal. God
will take away, didn't he say those who have not will be taken
away even what they have. If you don't have the grace of
God, if you don't have the gospel, if you don't have Christ in you,
the hope of glory, if you're a rebel against God, even the
stuff that you have in this world, I'm gonna come in and take it
from you like a thief. Like a thief, although it's not
stealing because it's his anyway, isn't it? But like a thief, he's
gonna come and he's gonna destroy them and take everything they
think is theirs. And in a sense, what he's gonna take, really
in a sense from this world, you know what he's really gonna take?
When he comes as a thief and that, you know what he's gonna
steal, quote unquote? Me and you. His sheep are the only things
in this world that he has any interest in whatsoever. Did you
realize that? He don't want nothing that this world has. He's coming
to get us. That's what he's coming for.
And when he takes us, he's gonna burn the house down after that. But when he takes us, it's not
really stealing, is it? Because we're his also. We belong
to him. I belong to the king. I'm a child
of his love. So as Paul said here, in this
sense now, not as a thief, No, he's just coming to receive his
own unto himself. And I say again, and I know you
say it with me in your heart if you're his, even so come Lord
Jesus. Let's pray.