The Model Life: Alertness, Part 3

Take your Bible and turn with me to the 5th chapter of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians Chapter 5. I'm going to read the first 11 verses for you, set them in your mind, and then we'll begin making our way verse by verse through those first 11 verses They read as follows Now as for the times and epics, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night

While they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief For you are all sons of light and sons of day We are not of night nor of darkness So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night

But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love as a helmet, the hope of salvation For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing If you have been with us, then you know that we are looking at this book by addressing the fact that it's about modeling the way In chapter 1, it was about the model church

Chapter 2, verses 1 to 12, was about the model leader Verses 13 to the end of chapter 2 was all about the model follower Chapter 3 was about the model friend When you come to chapter 4 and chapter 5, you learn about the model life And there are four components that Paul gives us about the model life We have discussed three of them One is abstinence That's 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 1 to 8 This is the will of God that you abstain from sexual immorality The model life is marked by a life of abstinence from sexual sin

Two, it's marked by a life of aspiration to loving abundantly and living appropriately That's in verses 9 to 12 And then you come to verse number 13 of chapter 4 It's all about the coming of Christ for his church And that is marked by a life of anticipation But when you come to chapter 5, it takes on a new tone And that is all about the model life being one of alertness And that's found in verse number 6 when he says, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober Let us be of sound mind Let us be vigilant Let us be awake Let us be alert

In light of the coming of the Messiah, you need to be alert He talks in chapter 4 at the end about instruction concerning those who have died in Christ And now in chapter 5, he gives the next rotation to those who are alive in Christ And what he does is tell them with these words, which I think are so unique He says in verse 2, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night Do you understand what he just said? You know full well You know perfectly well

This is so important. I know some of you are thinking, no, we spent five weeks on the rapture of the church in verses 13 to 18, and we've already spent two weeks on the day of the Lord, and we're going to spend a few more weeks looking at these first 11 verses, and you're going to say, okay, okay, okay, enough's enough about the coming of the Messiah, the second coming of Christ But you've got to think of it this way Paul was in Thessalonica for at least three Sabbaths We know that because the Bible tells us that

He might have been there a little longer because he had developed his tent-making ministry, so let's just say he was there for a few months But he says, you know full well about the day of the Lord and how he's going to come like a thief in the night That tells me that Paul's instruction and Paul's discipleship of new believers in Thessalonica focused in on the return of Christ Think about this

When someone comes to Saving Faith, and you put them in a new believer's class, or you want to talk to them about new believer things, how much emphasis do you spend talking about the second coming of Christ? If you don't spend the bulk of your time talking about that, you're hindering the new believer You see, Paul spent all this time talking to them about the coming of Christ Chapter 1 ends with it Chapter 2 talks about it Chapter 3 talks about it Chapter 4 emphasizes it

Chapter 5 is all about it, right? So he says, now you know full well, I don't wonder how much we know full well about the day of the Lord Think about that What do you know about the coming of the Messiah? What do you know about the book of Revelation? What do you know about Old Testament prophecy concerning the coming of Christ? We get so consumed, so consumed with all the rigors of each and every moment of every day that we are no longer concerned about the return of the Christ coming at any moment of any day We are so wrapped up in everyday events Think about your church you go to

When was the last time you went to a church and they talked to you about the coming of the Messiah, the second coming? And they might mention it in passing, but do they emphasize it? Remember, in the New Testament, outside the subject of faith, the subject of the second coming is the most dominant subject in the New Testament And yet we as churches today spend very little time talking about the second coming of Christ That's a travesty We should emphasize it over and over again Jesus is coming again And so we should be talking to someone who gives their life to Christ

Hey, listen, you have faith in Christ Well, that's a main topic of a main subject of the New Testament But let me talk to you about now the second main subject of the New Testament Jesus is coming again Let me help you understand this But very few people know anything about the second coming of Christ And yet Paul's emphasis was here These are new believers So he says, listen, you don't need for me to say anything because you know full well about the day of the Lord What do you know about the day of the Lord? We spent the last two weeks talking about it

Hopefully, you know something, right? And so it's imperative for us to realize that this is an intricate part of our faith We live in anticipation of Christ coming again Our whole life is motivated by the fact that Jesus is coming for his own And so Paul is going to embark on this day of the Lord topic He's already talked about the translation of the church into glory And now he's going to talk to them about how they are to live a life of complete and total alertness to the coming of Christ in the day of the Lord He's going to cover four things

If you want to be alert to the coming of the Messiah, the day of the Lord, you must, number one, be reminded Number two, be responsible Number three, be refreshed And number four, be reliable That's going to take us through the 11 verses, first 11 verses of chapter 5 And today, we're just going to cover the first one, okay? And that is you need to be reminded You need to be reminded of four things, okay? Number one, the time, okay? Number one, the time Number two, the term Number three, the thief And number four, the terror You need to be reminded, number one, of the time

He says in verse 1, now as to the times and the epics, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night Times and epics Times is chronos, epics is kairos Chronos deals with chronology, deals with clocks, calendars Kairos deals with events, deals with seasons So they're similar but yet distinct

Christ would say in Acts chapter 1, verse number 7, to the disciples before his ascension into glory, it is not for you to know the times and the epics that your father or my father has fixed in eternity So know this about the time The time is, number one, unknowable, and number two, unchangeable It's unknowable because you'll never know the time That's what Christ says over in the book of Matthew, chapter 24, when he says in verse 36, but of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the sun, but the Father alone

For the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah Verse 42, he says, therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming Verse 44, for this reason you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think he will Verse 13 of chapter 25, be on the alert then for you do not know the day nor the hour So, he wants you to know concerning the times and epics, number one, the time is unknowable, but the time is unchangeable It's fixed according to Acts chapter 1 verse number 7

So there is a fixed time in which the Lord is going to return We don't know when that time is, and that's a good thing, because if we knew the Lord was going to come in the year 2030, right, what would we do? We live in sin to the year 2030 That's all we would do Don't sit back and say, no, I wouldn't do that Yes, you would Everybody would do that, and then all of a sudden we'd rush to give our life to Christ so that when he comes in 2030 we'd be ready But the Lord wanted every generation to be put on notice that he could come at any moment So you live in anticipation

You live alert, awake, sober-minded, ready It's like when your parents leave and you're at home alone, but you don't know when they're going to come back, right? But you're always looking for them to come back, because you don't want them to come back and catch you doing something you shouldn't be doing So you want to make sure you're alert and awake and ready for them to come back again, see? So that when they arrive, you're ready for them to come home And so the fact of the matter is, is that Paul says, you have nothing more for me to say to you

That means he's already talked to them about the times and epics And so notice it's plural That's important, because there's a series of times and a series of epics, a series of seasons that take place before the day of the Lord comes, or the Christ comes at the end of the day of the Lord That is just so important to realize, because remember, it's the rapture of the church that instigates everything else We don't know when Christ is going to come and claim his church for his own

But once that happens, once that happens, then everything then is almost like set in motion for the different times, plural, and epics, seasons, to take place And you read Matthew chapter 24 in the Olivet Discourse, and Christ talks about all the different aspects that will take place You parallel that with the six seals of, seven seals of Revelation chapter six and following, you begin to realize that there's a great parallel concerning the different events that take place into the coming of the Messiah

But he calls them birth pangs, right? He says in verse number three, he says, while they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape In other words, these times and epics are like birth pangs They come, and as time moves closer to the end, they come with more frequency and greater intensity And that's the way it is in the book of Revelation That's the way it is in the Old Testament That's the way it is in Matthew chapter 24

That's why Christ says in Matthew 24, these words, he says, but all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs in verse number eight It's just the beginning It's just the beginning Because there's so much to the times and seasons to the coming of the Messiah So all these things are very important So the time, although it's unknowable, it is unchangeable because there's a fixed day in which the King is going to return He's in control of everything He knows exactly when all of this is going to happen, and so it's all mapped out from eternity past Next thing is the term day of the Lord

If the time is unknowable and unchangeable, then the term is unmistakable and unforgettable It's unmistakable, the day of the Lord We've told you it's a phrase used 19 times in the Old Testament, four times in the New Testament There's also another phrase that's associated with the day of the Lord It's called in that day That phrase is used 115 times in the Scriptures, 45 times in the book of Isaiah alone In that day, speaking of the tribulation, speaking of the coming of the Messiah, speaking of the great and terrible day of the Lord So the Old Testament speaks so much about it

But I wonder if you know that the day of the Lord is that term that describes the time in which God intervenes in human history for judgment We told you last week that you must understand that the tribulation is all about, which describes the day of the Lord, is all about, number one, the time of testing for Israel and the time of triumph of God over the nations You must keep that in mind You see, so many times we forget about Israel You can't forget about Israel because the number one subject in the Bible is God, right? Everything in the Bible is about God

But the second most dominant subject in the Bible is Israel, 2,566 times Israel is a major topic of the Bible Israelology is so important You can't just push Israel aside Everything is about Israel Israel is God's elect Israel is what God is doing and why God is doing all that He is doing today It's all about Israel You must not ever forget that And so this day of the Lord is a time of testing The Bible says very clearly that the meaning of the day of the Lord is that this is the Lord's revenge, the Lord's revenge

It says in Ezekiel 38 verse number 19, for in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land Nahum chapter 1 verse 2, God is jealous and the Lord revengeth The Lord revengeth and is furious The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries and He reserveth wrath for His enemies The day of the Lord is the Lord's revenge But it's also the Lord's refining of His people Israel

For He says in Daniel 12 verse number 10, many shall be purified and made white and tried but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise they will understand Malachi 3 verse 2, but who may abide the day of His coming and who shall stand when He appeareth for He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap He shall sit as a refiner and purified as of silver and shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness The day of the Lord is about the Lord's revenge

It's about the Lord's refining and redeeming and restoring of Israel The day of the Lord is about the Lord's revelation of Himself That's why it's called the book of Revelation, the Apocalypse, the unveiling of the Messiah It says in Ezekiel 38 verse 23, thus will I magnify Myself and sanctify Myself and I will be known in the eyes of many nations and they shall know that I am the Lord

Joel 3 verse 16, the Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of His people and the strength of the children of Israel So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain Then shall Jerusalem be holy and there shall no strangers pass through her anymore The day of the Lord is about the Lord's revenge It's about the Lord's refining of the nation of Israel It's about the Lord's revelation of Himself

For one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father It's all about unveiling the glory of the Messiah That's why Revelation 1 says that every eye will see Him when He comes again Why? Because they will bow in submission to His kingship He's the Lord of lords He's the King of kings But note this, the day of the Lord is also about the Lord's recreation of the entire planet

For it says in 2 Peter 3 verse number 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved

What manner of persons ought you to be? In all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of the Lord, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells There's coming a new heaven and a new earth The end of everything is what the story is about It's about the coming of Christ in the day of the Lord

Paul says, we have no need to say anything else to you, for you know full well about the day of the Lord, how He will come like a thief in the night Now remember, this is not only something that is unmistakable, it is unforgettable That's why the Lord says in Matthew 24, verse 21, For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be That one verse destroys, destroys preterism, destroys those who believe that Matthew 24 was fulfilled in 70 A.D

It's impossible, because there have been more horrific events that have taken place since 70 A.D. on the planet than 1.1 million Jews being killed. I told you last week, the Holocaust had over 8 million Jews killed World War II had 85 million people killed There have been greater days that are more horrific than 70 A.D., but not the end There's nothing greater than what's going to happen in the end

And so you move from the time, which is unknowable and unchangeable, to the term, the day of the Lord, which is unmistakable and unforgettable, to the thief, which is unpredictable and unquestionable He will come like a thief in the night Now, the Lord is not a thief, but when He comes, He will come just like a thief Unpredictable Unquestionable, because He will come like a thief But it's unpredictable, because a thief doesn't send you a text to let you know when they're coming, or an e-mail, or a postcard, or a phone call We're going to be at your house on Friday evening at 7 p.m

Make sure you're gone, because we're coming to rob you No Thieves come unexpectedly They come unannounced They come suddenly, and they come for harm, to destroy, steal Christ is going to come like a thief in the night That phrase is used in Revelation chapter 16, right? The phrase is used here and in Matthew 24 Notice that at the rapture of the church, that phrase is not used It's only at the coming of Christ in judgment that that phrase is used, Him coming like a thief But when He comes for His church, He comes with a trumpet

He comes with the voice of the archangel, right? And He comes to take His people home to be with Him But with the day of the Lord, it's different He comes as a thief in the night Unpredictable and unquestionable, because He is coming There's no doubt about that But then listen to this And that is, He says, They will not escape This is the fourth word, and that is the word terror Terror If the time is unknowable and unchangeable, and the term is unmistakable and unforgettable, and the thief is unpredictable and unquestionable, then the terror is unimaginable, unimaginable, and unpreventable

Why they are saying peace and safety, then all of a sudden, destruction, terror That's the way it happens So many times we forget about that Paul would say in 2 Thessalonians 1, he would say these words He would say, Dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed. A time of terrible terror

That's why Paul says, Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men Listen to what is spoken of in Revelation 16 When you come to Revelation 16, you're at the end because the bowls of judgment are being poured out Remember the six seals which span the tribulation period And when the seventh seal is broken, the seven trumpets blow And then once the seventh trumpet blows, the seven bowls of judgment are poured out in rapid succession at the end And listen to what it says in Revelation 16

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became blood like that of a dead man and every living thing in the sea died Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters and they became blood

And I heard the angel of the waters saying, True and righteous are you who are and who were, O holy one, because you judged these things For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets and you have given them blood to drink and they deserve it And I heard the altar saying, Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was given to it to scorch men with fire Men were scorched with fierce heat and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues and they did not repent so as to give him glory

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became darkened and they gnawed their tongues because of pain and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and they did not repent of their deeds Talk about terror Talk about horrific judgment By the way, none of that happened in 70 AD This is all going to happen in the future This is all prophecy

But get this, amidst all of the malignant sores, amidst all of the fire that comes down upon them and scorches them, amidst all the biting off of their tongues, amidst all the pain, they still want to gather together to fight against God because they still think they can win And so it says in verse 12, The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates Its water was dried up so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east

Why would the waters of the Euphrates have to be dried up for the kings of the east? Because by the time you get to this point in the tribulation, all technology is gone It's all been destroyed And so the only way for them to get there is on horseback There are no electric cars to drive There's no gas to fuel your tanks You're going to have to go on horseback and foot That's why the great Euphrates is dried up Why can't they just fly to Megiddo? Planes don't work That's why It's going to go backwards, not forward It's going to get worse

So in verse 13, And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, that's Satan, out of the mouth of the beast, that's the Antichrist, out of the mouth of the false prophet, that's the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs The deception Satan has his unholy trinity The Lord is a triune God Satan is going to mock that So he has his unholy trinity For they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the world, the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty

Amidst all their pain, amidst all their chewing off of their tongues, amidst all the horrific judgment coming down upon them, the deception of Satan is incredible He gathers them together in a place called the Jezreel Valley, the Valley of Megiddo, or the Valley of Ezdralon It's all one and the same The plains of Megiddo Verse 15, Behold, I am coming like a thief, and blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Megiddo Notice what it says

They gathered together It does not say there's a battle of Armageddon It is the battle of Bozrah If you've been with us for any period of time, you understand that there is no battle of Armageddon They gather there Keep your finger in the text Don't read into it Read what it actually says They gather there for the great day of the battle of God And so when Isaiah, in Isaiah 63, sees the Messiah coming from Bozrah, his garments are already stained with blood

Because you see, they had to gather in Megiddo to make their way down to Jordan Valley, to make their way to the wilderness, to make their way to the land of Edom, because Bozrah is the capital of, the ancient capital of Edom, to destroy the Jewish nation But God will show up and protect his people, because that's what God does And that's why the blood flows up to the horse's bridle for 200 miles. 198 miles from Bozrah to Megiddo And why would the blood splatter up to the horse's bridles? Because everybody's on horses That's what they're on They're not in tanks, not driving motorcycles

They're on horses It's the great day of the war of God God designed the war God wins the war How does he do it? He just speaks the word That's it So in Revelation 19, when we come back with him, we don't do anything We just watch We have front row seats to everything that Christ is going to do He speaks the word He treads the winepress alone He speaks the word His enemies die The Bible says these words in the book of Zephaniah It says, As the great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hasteneth greatly Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man, will cry bitterly

That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and the alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers And I will bring distress upon men that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord And their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy

For he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land The day is coming It is unpreventable, the terror The terror in itself is unimaginable William Barclay, in his commentary, gives this illustration of a fable He says, there was a fable which tells of three apprentices or three apprentice devils who were coming to this earth to finish their apprenticeship And they were talking to Satan, the chief of the devils, about their plans to tempt and ruin man The first said, I will tell man that there is no God

And Satan said, that will not delude many for they know there is a God The second said, I will tell them there is no hell Satan answered, you will deceive no one that way Men know even now that there is a hell for sin The third said, I will tell men there is no hurry Go, said Satan, and you will ruin them by the thousands You're sitting here today and you're thinking, there's no hurry. I have tomorrow, next week, next year Don't be deceived No man knows the day nor the hour of our Lord's coming And that's why the Bible says, today is the day of salvation

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts in the day of provocation in the wilderness Don't do that If you have never given your life to Christ, you need to do so today You have no guarantee of this afternoon You have no guarantee of tomorrow The only guarantee you have is this moment right now That's it And the Lord has you here for a divine purpose You're not at Christ Community Church today by accident You're here by divine appointment And Satan wants you to think there is no hurry You got a luncheon to go to It can wait You have friends to meet You have a party to attend

Wait till tomorrow Wait till next week Satan's biggest ploy is to say, there is no hurry But there is There is very much a hurry to make a decision for Christ If you haven't done that, you need to do so today. I implore you. I beg you, like Paul says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men We want you to know that Jesus is coming Although we do not know the time, we know He's coming like a thief in the night The terror will be insurmountable And so you need to give your life to Christ now

Because Paul would later say in chapter 5, for those who give their life to Christ, God has not destined you for wrath, but He's destined you for His glory And that's where you want to be Knowing for certain that Jesus is your destiny In His presence forever, glorifying and magnifying His name Let's pray together Father, we thank you for today This brief time that we've had, I pray Lord would speak to many If there be one among us today who's never given their life to Christ, may today be the day of their salvation May they embrace the grace and mercy of Almighty God To understand saving grace

The love of the living God That is an unconditional love for man Lord, we are grateful that you have saved us from our sin We're grateful Lord that we're children of the light, not of the dark We thank you Lord that we're children of the day, not of the night That we can walk in the light as you are the light But if there be one today who has never given their life to Christ, may today be that day That they might walk into the light and be light for others around them They might see the glory of the Lord We thank you in Jesus' name Amen.