[0:00] So I'm using it. If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and turn to 1 Thessalonians 5.! We're going to take a look at the first 11 verses.!
[0:10] 1 Thessalonians... Oops, went too far. There it is. Not... That's Corinthians. I used to know where... There we go.
[0:20] 1 Corinthians 5. The first 11 verses. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
[0:41] While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
[0:55] But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
[1:07] So then, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
[1:19] But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
[1:30] For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with Him.
[1:45] Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. Okay, as we get started here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, when we walk out of here, the one thing that we want to be talking about, there we go, is to be strong in the Lord.
[2:09] Just put it over there and leave it. Okay, put the cursor right in the middle.
[2:20] Click. That's good. Now, don't do it. Okay, I now have the power. Yes! And that's what we want to do.
[2:31] We want to be strong. We want to be strong in the Lord. And so as we're taking a look at this, today we're going to break down a couple of definitions. We're going to look at a couple of technical terms.
[2:44] But really what I want to do is I want to encourage you and to have you be encouraged. Okay? So that we can encourage one another to be strong in the Lord.
[3:02] Anybody notice that life isn't easy? Anybody? Anybody? Am I alone in that? Am I the only person here thinking, man, some days it's just tough getting up in the morning.
[3:13] And there are days where you just go, it's so hard to get going. And that's even after about a gallon and a half of coffee. You know, I mean, just, I'm not going to get into it.
[3:26] But life can be very challenging apart from being a believer. But as we were talking about in Sunday school today, the very reality is that as believers, not only do we have the normal difficulty that comes with living in a fallen world, but we have those people that aggressively are our foes.
[3:48] And some of them we don't even see. And some of them we don't even see. They just, they're there. And so it's important for us to be strong and to live boldly for God.
[4:00] But here we go. So, taking a look at the day of the Lord, that's kind of a load word or a phrase, and it's got some significant meaning.
[4:14] And so I want to talk about what does it mean, the day of the Lord? Because, I mean, that's where it starts off here in 1 Thessalonians 5. You know, no need for you to be warned about it, for you yourselves are a way that the day of the Lord.
[4:28] And that is a significant word. Let's take a look at it. First thing we need to know about the day of the Lord is what does day mean. Day can be translated as 12 hours, can be translated as 24 hours, or it can be translated as an indeterminate amount of time identifiable by a common element.
[4:51] That just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? An indeterminate amount of time identifiable by a common element. Open to the book of Genesis.
[5:02] We're going to take a look here. Genesis chapter 1. Huh.
[5:17] It's on page 1 in my Bible. Genesis chapter 1. Let's take a look at verse 5. This is kind of fun. Here we go. In Genesis chapter, oh, let's read verse 3.
[5:30] Verse 3, we'll start there. God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. And He called the light day, and He called the darkness night, and there was evening and morning the first day.
[5:46] How many times did we read day in that verse? Twice. There we go. All right.
[5:57] Woo-hoo-hoo. Two times. And the first time it says, what? He said, God called the light day. That would be, according to our working definition, the 12 hours.
[6:11] You might call that daytime, right? When the sun's up. But then we go on. He separated. He called the light day, and He called the darkness night.
[6:21] And there was evening, and there was morning the first day. What sort of day is that referring to? If it's including lightness and darkness, that would be the 24-hour definition.
[6:34] But turn over to chapter. So in one verse, we've got two definitions. But take a look at chapter 2, verse 4. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord made the earth and the heavens.
[6:55] That would be which definition? 12 hours? 24 hours? Or the indeterminate amount of time identifiable by a common element?
[7:06] What? It would be the third one. Yeah, the third one. And if you go through the Scriptures, you'll find that day can be translated in those three times, three ways, depending upon the context.
[7:20] It could be the day, and it just means the daylight. It could be a day meaning a 24-hour day. Or it could be a day meaning, I don't know, an indeterminate amount of time identifiable by a common element.
[7:34] The day of war. The day of harvest. The day of planting. You know, it's a time frame. You know, in King David's day.
[7:47] Well, he was a king for a long time. And so we have to understand the context to what it's talking about. Here, it's not talking, so far as we know, the day of the Lord is not 12 hours, nor is it a 24-hour period.
[8:09] The day of the Lord is an indeterminate amount of time that is identifiable by a common element, and we'll come to that in a minute. Just for what it's worth, the day of the Lord is used in both the Old and New Testament.
[8:29] I think it occurs about 34 different times. You can find it in the Old Testament, and you can find it in the New Testament. A lot of people want to identify and say, oh, this is what it means.
[8:40] I don't think we can pinpoint exactly one thing that it means. Like, it just means that which comes before the rapture or that which comes after the rapture.
[8:54] The day of the Lord is just dealing with... The common element that we're going to find in the day of the Lord is this.
[9:05] The day of the Lord is when He acts according to His authority and power, bringing wrath upon His enemies.
[9:23] If you read through the 34 different occurrences of the day of the Lord, it says things like, don't be stupid and want to be in the day of the Lord.
[9:35] You know, don't be foolish and incur God's wrath for the day of the Lord. It's darkness, pain, suffering. It is terror. It is hardship.
[9:47] The day of the Lord is when God brings His wrath upon those who have turned their backs upon Him. It is a terrifying event.
[10:00] So in 1 Thessalonians 5, when we're reading about the day of the Lord, and I should have left it open, but I didn't. There we go. And it says, Now concerning the time and the season, brothers, you have no need for anyone to write anything to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
[10:26] There's something that's going on here. If the day of the Lord is a outpouring of God's power and vengeance upon those who have denied Him, those who have stood up against Him, those who have just not followed Him, and it's a day of darkness, a day of pain, a day of sorrow that comes upon the world like a thief in the night.
[10:57] But you, brothers, no one need warn you. Why is that? Why is it that, you know, if this terrible day which is going to sneak up on the world like a thief in the night, and we know, we're familiar with the thief in the night, right?
[11:15] If the strong man knew the thief was coming, what would he do? Ammo up, right? You know, if the thief was known before and the thief wouldn't steal anything, he'd just carry away extra loads, buckshot.
[11:30] But how is it that we don't have to worry about the timing of the day of the Lord? Pardon me?
[11:44] That's a good answer. Because we're already His. But that doesn't mean that when those around us suffer that we're free from suffering.
[11:59] The reason why we don't have to worry about it is because God has given us His Word. It's not going to surprise us because we have God's Word.
[12:12] So let's talk about God's Word. God's Word is a revelation. Oh, boy. All right. Revelation. Content and process of God making Himself known to people.
[12:28] God is revealing Himself to us through His Word. That is, He is making Himself known to us. Now, there's the special revelation which we have here, right?
[12:41] This is the Word of God. It is a special revelation. There's also the general revelation. Who knows what the general revelation is? Nature. Because nature teaches us who God is.
[12:55] His invisible attributes in Romans chapter 1 are seen in that which has been created. But revelation is the content and process of God making Himself known to His people.
[13:07] Now, what we have here in the Word of God is called the special revelation. revelation. Why is that a special revelation? Because this tells us things that we can't discover on our own.
[13:23] How many of you learned the difference between a hot and cold stove? I remember the last time I touched a really hot stove when I wasn't paying attention.
[13:36] We had one of those glass tops. I hate glass top stoves because you can't tell when they're hot. I blistered all four of my fingers on one hand. So I just went poof.
[13:48] Ah, guess what? I learned it was hot. I could discover that using my own senses. These are the, eh. That's not what we have here in the Word of God.
[13:58] What we have in the Word of God is Him revealing to us His nature, His expectations, His plan for us.
[14:11] We learn things in here that we can't learn by natural observation. I'll give you the most simple and the most basic thing. You can't learn about who Jesus Christ is and what He has done apart from the revelation of God.
[14:27] You can't go look at a tree. You can't look at a bird. You can't look at anything in creation and understand who God is and what He's done for us.
[14:37] That's what the special revelation is about. This is God revealing Himself to us so that we know who He is and who we are to be before Him. Special revelation.
[14:54] So when it says that He has, that there is no need for anybody to write to you because we already know because we have the Word of God. For we are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
[15:10] How do we know that? The special revelation of God's Word. Okay? God's Word is one source of information and it's a valid and it's a great source.
[15:30] But you know, He's also, we read in Romans, He's also provided creation so that you go out there and take a look, you can learn about who God is for His invisible attributes.
[15:41] You know, the fact that He is who He is. We can study and learn about that. But there's a problem. There's a problem. When all we do is go outside and study nature and try and make statements about God, about God's plan for the ages, and about what God has done in the past, when all we do is look at nature, we wrongly make conclusions.
[16:09] It's inevitable. If that's all you're using, if the revelation of God in creation is all you're using instead of using the Word of God and creation, you're going to have wrong conclusions.
[16:26] That's not me saying this. I want to share something with you. Take a look in 2 Peter. I still remember when I discovered this and it was like, poof, light bulb went off.
[16:46] Take a look at 2 Peter 3. We all know who Peter is, right? He was that very reserved and shy and timid apostle. He would never put a foot out of place.
[16:58] He was always so humble too. Yeah. He's the one that jumped out at the boat and was doing great until he saw the wind and the waves and then he sunk. He was the one, no, you're not going to wash my feet.
[17:10] Well, if you're going to wash, wash my whole body. Peter, the shy, reserved one. Verse 1, chapter 3 of 2 Peter. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved.
[17:25] In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.
[17:39] Now, just a second. Who are the holy prophets? That's the Old Testament writing. Okay? So he says, you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.
[17:56] Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last day with scoffing following their own sinful desire. They will say, where is the promise of His coming?
[18:09] For ever since the fathers fell asleep, things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. So what he's saying is, if you ignore what God has written and you just look around, you'll be like those who say, everything has been the way it was and that's all it's ever going to be.
[18:28] And this is what he says. They deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
[18:47] But by the same word, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
[19:01] He's saying that God's word has power. It's not the power of nature. It's not the events of the cosmos.
[19:14] It's God himself directing it. I lost my page.
[19:26] Where am I? Okay. It's got to be in 1 Peter what I'm looking for. I know.
[19:41] I know. I know. This is terrible.
[19:58] I've got it written down on my desk and I've totally... Where's the passage? There we go.
[20:09] 2 Peter 1. Found it. Verse 19. I want to bring this to a point. The difference between just looking at the revelation, the natural revelation, the general revelation, versus looking at the specific.
[20:26] People are going to take a look at what's outside and they're going to make conclusions. They're going to say, well, because this tree has really tight rings here, that means that there was a drought.
[20:38] But there's no evidence of that, right? Look at what Peter says. General revelation versus the special revelation. 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 16.
[20:52] We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven and we were with him on the holy mountain.
[21:20] Apostle Peter was on the mountain when Jesus was glorified. God. And the voice of God the Father spoke and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
[21:33] And they were just in awe because they were there in the presence of God and it was just amazing. But look what he says. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.
[22:02] Do you understand what he's saying? He's saying that while they were on the mountain and they were looking at Jesus and how awe-inspiring and wonderful it was and just what a great thing that was, this is more important?
[22:19] Peter is just saying, yeah, it was great being on the mountain, but this is more true. Not in the sense of that was wrong or that was false, but you can hold on to this.
[22:33] You can go back to this accurately every time. How many of you accurately remember what it was like to graduate from high school? Neither do I. Not that I didn't graduate, I just don't remember.
[22:46] Okay, how many of you remember what it was like your first kiss? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember the first time I kissed my wife, yeah. No, we don't because our memories aren't perfect.
[23:00] But this is. And God in His great love for us has given us His word that we can go back to time again and time again and time again.
[23:12] In fact, like this morning, we had a great discussion about the wording of one word. Should it be he or it? It was a great discussion. And we've got God's special revelation here that is true and valid and we can trust.
[23:29] Way more than we can trust our own observations of what's happening out in nature. This is sure. This is what he says. We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.
[23:47] The blessing, the gift of God's word. Believers read, study, and know God's word. Thus we know and prepare for what is coming.
[24:04] How many of you are right now getting ready for winter? Right? You know? We're putting away summer things and we're dragging out winter things.
[24:19] We're putting studs and snow tires on. We're putting away the summer badminton and we're getting out our wheelbarrow full of wood so that we can carry it back to the house.
[24:32] Because we know what's going to happen. That's how believers live when they spend time in God's word. We know what's coming down the road.
[24:45] When he says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 that now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. Because we have God's word.
[24:58] We can read it and we can study it and we can know it. Alright. So the day of the Lord which is coming is a day where God pours out his wrath on those who deny him.
[25:15] And we know that day is coming because we know and study the word and so we're prepared. But how is it that we, what do we do to be prepared? prepared? How do we get ready?
[25:29] Let's take a look in 1 Thessalonians again. I'm in chapter 5. Let's start with verse 3. While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman pregnant woman and they will not escape.
[25:54] But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of the light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
[26:07] So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. I wanted to go into the Gospel of Matthew and spend time in the tale of the ten virgins.
[26:23] You guys know the parable of the ten virgins? There's a wedding and the bridegroom is coming and these ten virgins are going to go and they're going to participate in the wedding celebration and everything and they've been invited and so they've got their oil lamps so that they can be part of the thing and they all go get ready but for some reason the bridegroom hung out at the pub playing darts too long.
[26:47] I don't know why he was delayed but he was late showing up and they all got tired and they all fell asleep. No big deal because when the bridegroom started to show up they were woken because of the crowd noise, whatever and so all these ten virgins they got up and they went to check their lamp.
[27:03] Right? And five of them took their spare oil and filled it up and they were good but five of them hadn't brought any extra oil and they were like hey give us some of your extra oil and they're like no I might need it later go get your own.
[27:24] You see they had prepared they were ready for what was coming as compared to those others who weren't ready and that's what we are supposed to be we're supposed to be prepared when it says don't sleep like others do let me translate this all ten virgins slept correct but five of them had made certain they had their spare oil ready that's what we're supposed to do it's not that we're not supposed to ever fall asleep we're just supposed to live on caffeine and sugar that's not what it says it says we're not to sleep like others do that is unprepared we're to be prepared so that when we wake up in the middle of the night we've got our extra oil and we're ready we're not unprepared like the world who when they wake up they're like what?
[28:13] Gimme no no no you gotta get your own back to 1 Thessalonians here we go you are not in darkness for that day to surprise you like a thief you are children of light children of the day we are not of the night or of darkness so then let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night but since we belong to the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation okay okay to be sober is to think to see and think correctly about what is happening around us no the events that are going on in the world today have you noticed that there's two vastly different perspectives about it vastly different perspectives there are those people who think abortion is great and it's an expression of freedom and rights there are those people who look at abortion and see the murder and see selfish self-gratitude in it the demand for everybody to lift up trans rights
[29:52] I don't care about trans rights go your own way some people say others say that if you're not embracing it and encouraging it then you're you know we have vastly different views on things I'm not getting into that I'll let it go let's just put it this way to see and to think correctly about what is happening around us to be sober it doesn't mean not to get drunk duh we're not supposed to get drunk but to be sober is to be able to take a look at the world around us and have clear thoughts about it accurate thoughts not necessarily thoughts that we think but thoughts guided by the word of God because I'll be honest with you this is a more sure and true text than our own perceptions we can trust the word of God more than we can trust ourselves that's what first Peter that's what Peter was saying when he wrote first Peter it would be better to trust the word of God than personal experience because we can come back to this and we can study it and we can know it and we can be accurate versus personal experience our memory so let us be sober and see things accurately more than that let us be properly equipped let us put on faith love and hope verse 8 but since we belong to the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation basically get saved basically turn to God in faith look apart from salvation there is no hope apart from salvation the day of the
[32:10] Lord is going to be terrible for you it's not going to be fun even if you are saved because God's going to be pouring out his wrath on those people that deserve it and if you have a heart you're going to feel bad but be prepared now this this section ends you know it's got look the day of the Lord's coming and you know that because of the word of God and because God has given us his word we can be properly equipped and prepared we can know what's coming but then look at verse 9 God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing look this is what we're supposed to do we're supposed to be encouraging one another every believer has a bad day amen everybody has bad experiences we live in a sin filled world yes
[33:29] I know that we're saved and we love Jesus and we're just great but the person on the other side isn't and the people that are walking next to you aren't and just in general it's a sin consumed world and things are going to go wrong so let us encourage one another first of all let us take care of ourselves put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of hope let's be ready let's take care of ourselves let's have our spare oil ready but once we're prepared let's look around and see what we can do to help somebody oh and go help them oh go do this take care of us get right with God here but don't stop there that's an incomplete process get this taken care of so that you can reach out God has blessed us with a salvation that is sure with a hope that is eternal with a security that is everlasting why don't we use that and reach out why don't we take that and go forward that's what his call is is for us to be vigilant in lifting one another up there is a day rapidly approaching where God's patience and God's restraint will be no more the day of the
[35:18] Lord is rapidly approaching and I'm sorry but as I look around I see things that are happening in the world that have not happened in 4,000 years the last time the entire population of the world responded to one stimulus was COVID doesn't matter if people agreed with it or disagreed with it or whatever every government on the face of the earth responded to COVID do you know when the time before that was the tower of Babel that's a biblical level event people look at what's happening to our society the ungodly anti-biblical forces are pushing hard don't be deceived the day of the
[36:27] Lord is rapidly coming we know this because of what God says in his word that in those days they will say peace and security and like a thief in the night destruction will come upon them so let us be prepared if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior hello today is the day of salvation because you don't want to have to go through the day of wrath unprepared and for those of us who do trust Jesus Christ let us strap on righteousness let us embrace hope and let us put the hope of salvation so that we can boldly live for God and in that reach out to your fellow believer to encourage and strengthen them in the hard days because just as much as you know you've had hard days everybody else does too so that's what I've got for you today the day of the
[37:30] Lord is almost here and I don't care if I'm off by 40 years ain't none of us going to be around here to argue about it but it's rapidly coming and if it's a hundred years or a thousand years our responsibility is the same to be prepared and to encourage and strengthen one another let's pray Father as I take a look at your word as I take a look at the the day of the Lord that is coming and the wrath and the the judgment and the condemnation and the pain and the sorrow that that's that's bringing I pray that each and every one of us here today would be prepared that each and every one of us would be ready more than that Lord bind our hearts together so that as we go through this day we encourage one another
[38:33] I pray this in Jesus name amen with His wonderful face And the things of earth Will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory And grace Turn your eyes to the hillside Where justice and mercy embrace
[39:40] There the Son of God Gave His life for us And our measureless debt was erased Jesus, still we lift our eyes Jesus, our glory and our prize We adore You, behold You Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to You Turn your eyes to the morning And see Christ the Lion awake What a glorious dawn
[40:41] Fear of death is gone For we carry His life in our veins Jesus, still we lift our eyes Jesus, our glory and our prize We adore You, behold You Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to You Turn your eyes to the heavens Our King will return Our King will return for His own Every knee will bow Every tongue will shout all glory
[41:46] To Jesus our Lord Jesus, to You Oh, Jesus, we lift our eyes.
[42:26] Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore you, behold you, our Savior ever true.
[42:39] Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.
[42:52] Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.
[43:07] When peace I know you have a tear in my way, When storms I sail ashore, Whatever, my Lord, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.
[43:39] It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.
[43:58] Though Satan should buffet, Though trials should come, Let peace blast assurance control.
[44:15] That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And has shed his own love for my soul.
[44:30] It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.
[44:48] My sin, O the bliss of his glorious thought, My sin, not in part but the whole.
[45:07] He is nailed to the cross, And I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, oh, my soul.
[45:26] It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.
[45:42] And Lord, praise the day when my face shall be sighed, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll.
[45:59] The trump shall resound, And the moon shall descend, Even so it is well with my soul.
[46:18] It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.
[46:40] Yeah. Yeah. All God's people said? Whoa, that was really not convincing. Oh, man, I really hope it was.
[46:51] Not with them with them with them with them. Thank you.