A Thief In The Night

From the Love We're Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler, here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love We're Finding. Kerry, we continue our theme for the month of May. We want to make the most of the time before Jesus returns as we reach out to those who need to know Jesus. Well, and I think many times we're trying to get our house in order.

Nothing wrong with that. But when do you ever get your house in order? Right? I mean, life happens when you're getting ready for it, and the more important question is, are we ready for eternity? That's a great word. You know, I was praying for my neighbor for many years looking for an opportunity. We had fellowship, you know, passing, but just the opportunity to have that gospel witness and a piece of mail was in his box that belonged to my box, and he brought it to me. And that was the opportunity to have a wonderful, casual, just loving conversation about the gospel, about Jesus.

That was the spark, right? And you've heard, and I've heard, always preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words. You know what? We need to use words. That's totally true. And friends, you can find out more about this month's theme and other resources available at lwf.org.

That's lwf.org. And this all goes along with the theme this month in the series, The Edge of Eternity. And you know, Kerry, today's message, A Thief in the Night, you remember back when we were in high school, there was a movie that came out called A Thief in the Night. Yeah, and the whole essence is, are you ready? You know, are we really ready if Jesus would return at any moment? And you know, I think as we reflect on this series, this message, it's a reminder to believers that we have work to do. I mean, we have work to do. The harvest is plenty, but the labors are few. Well, Kerry, when we talk about the coming of Jesus, we have the first coming and the second coming, but you know, really, what's the difference?

Adrian Rogers was asked that question and here's what he had to say. The difference is that God wanted them to know the coming of the Messiah the first time, but He does not want us to know His second coming, that is, a sacred secret known to God alone. And by the way, anybody who does set a date is bordering on blasphemy if they have not already crossed the line.

The reason that God wants us to not know the time of His second coming is to keep us always in anticipation and to keep us from indolence and laziness or presumption. So we live in a time known as any moment. At any moment, at any moment, Jesus may come.

Boy, that's a sobering thought, you know, at any time. And you know, does it change the way that I talk or think or pray or serve or minister or support? Does it also, Byron, allow me to maybe purge my calendar of things of clutter, right, to clear the mechanisms to get ready for the second coming?

Yeah, it is a great word, Kerry. I'll tell you, I love a great word from our friend Nicole in Ministry Services who's back this week to have another wonderful letter from a listener. Thank you, Byron, for inviting me back today to share a testimony that we recently received. This listener wrote in and said, God continues to use Adrian Rogers to edify the body of Christ and reach the unsaved. We know firsthand that God uses Adrian Rogers to speak into our lives in a deep and personal way. Thank you for keeping these sermons going so that he can continue to bless so many people. Wow. What an encouraging word from one of our listeners on how God continues to use the teachings of Adrian Rogers in a deep and personal way. Oh, Nicole, what a great word.

Thank you for that. Well, with today's message, a thief in the night, here's Adrian Rogers. A man parked his automobile in front of his house and he did what no man should do. He left the key in the ignition thinking he'd be right back out. When he came out, the automobile was gone. His house keys and other keys were there in the ignition and he felt that horrible sinking feeling that anybody would feel who'd done such a thing. He reported the automobile was stolen, but the police did not find it immediately. But behold, the next morning that automobile was parked in his driveway, washed, filled with gasoline, the keys back in the ignition sitting there, pristine in condition. And there was a note and the note said, I am sorry that I took your car. I was in an emergency.

I had to have transportation. The car has been washed. It has been taken care of. It is filled with gasoline. And here are some complimentary tickets to the Dallas Cowboys for you and your wife. When he read that, the man said, well, you know, nobody should steal an automobile, but this man can't be all bad. Whoever it was that stole my car can't be all bad. And so the man and his wife who normally would not go to see the Dallas Cowboys go play football, went to see the Dallas Cowboys play football.

When they returned home, the house had been cleaned out. A thief had come. A very clever thief. The thought of a message, a thief in the night. Look if you will here in First Thessalonians chapter five, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come or so cometh as a thief in the night.

For 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. But ye brethren are not in darkness that they should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day.

Ye are not of the night nor of the darkness. 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 and helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. Now the purpose of our message today is to get you ready for the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And we believe with all of our heart that Jesus is coming. And what an incredible time this is to be living between two mountain peaks, the blood-drenched slopes of Mount Calvary and Mount Zion, the sunlit peaks of glory, living between the crucifixion and the coronation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I want you to be ready. When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

There are four things that will help you to get ready and four things you need to understand, four truths that are in the passage that I just read to you. Number one, here's something you can expect. You can expect, you can expect a surprising day.

We can expect a surprising day. Look again in verses one and two, but the times and the seasons brethren, you have no need that I write unto you for yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now, how does a thief in the night comes? Well, he comes surprisingly.

No thief ever wrote a note to you and said, tonight I'm going to rob your house. He comes when you're not expecting it. And so it is with the second coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And Paul told these people, I don't need to remind you again of the times and the seasons.

Now, Paul was not setting a date. What he was saying is two things. First of all, the certainty, secondly, the uncertainty. The certainty is coming.

The uncertainty, we do not know when. He comes, but he comes as a thief in the night. Acts chapter one, verses six through eight, the disciples were there with our Lord on the Mount of Ascension.

He's getting ready to go back to heaven. They like you, they wanted to know about prophecy. Beginning in verse six, when they therefore were come together, they asked of him saying, Lord, will thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the father had put in his own power.

Anybody who sets a date is disobeying the Lord. The Bible says it's not for you to know, but he goes on to say, but ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me.

And what does he say? Don't go around setting dates. Get your heads out of the clouds of prophecy and get your feet on the pavement of soul winning and share and get people ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now, I don't know when he's coming. You don't know when he's coming. We all have a feeling that we are living on the edge of eternity and that's what this series of messages is about.

And I'll tell you one thing is 2000 years nearer than it's ever been before. Jesus Christ is coming. Listen, he came on time. He was born on time. He died on time. He rose on time and he's coming again in his own time.

He may seem slow, but he will never be late. And the Bible says that God is not in a hurry. Second Peter three verse eight, one days with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. You may say, well, it's been 2000 years since he promised to come again. In God's heart and God's mind, it's been no longer than two days, but he goes on to say in that same second Peter passage, but the day of the Lord will come.

It will come. And the day of the Lord is we're going to see in a moment is a very troubling time. The church will be taken out at the rapture, but there's coming a time known as the day of the Lord when God is going to pour out his wrath upon this world. And I'm going to tell you this, that even now, right now, the raging waters of God's wrath are furiously pounding against the dam of his mercy.

I don't know when. I know God in mercy is holding back this day because second Peter chapter three, verse nine, he says, the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but is long suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But you can expect a surprising day.

Here's the second thing. Not only can you expect a surprising day, but you can escape a sudden destruction. Look now in verses three and four, for when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. Now notice, they shall not escape, but he's not talking to you. If you know the Lord, you will escape. The rapture of the church will take you out before this day comes, this day of sudden destruction.

Now, what is he talking about? He's talking about the great tribulation, but there's coming a day that the Bible calls sudden destruction. It's right there in verse two. He calls it the day of the Lord.

Remember when they were crucifying Jesus, he's going down that Via Dolorosa and the women are weeping and he says, don't weep for me, weep for yourselves. This is your day. My day has not yet come. His day is going to come and it's going to be a very solemn day. Let me give you some scriptures that talk about the day of the Lord.

For example, Joel chapter two verses one and two, blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh. It is nigh at hand, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness. As the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong. Now notice this phrase, there hath not been ever the light. Neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

What's he saying? He's saying the day of the Lord is a day that is absolutely totally distinct. Never has there been a day like it. As a matter of fact, in Revelation chapter six, the Bible says that men are going into the caves and the dens of the earth and are going to ask the mountains to fall upon them because they say the great day of his wrath has come and who shall be able to stand.

The Antichrist who will rule at this time will make Hitler seem like a boy scout. It's going to be a solemn day. It's going to be a sudden day. Notice again in verse three when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction.

It's like the calm before the storm. And this kind of preaching you're called a calamity hour, but this world is going to be caught by surprise because it will not hear and it will not heed God's word. It was the same in Noah's time. This is one reason I don't believe the church is going to go through the great tribulation because the great tribulation is not a time of peace and safety, but the time of peace and safety is when this day comes.

It's when it comes and we're delivered out of it. Notice how it was in Noah's time. Put in your margin, Matthew 24, verses 36 and following. Jesus said, again, talking about his coming, of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only.

Now watch this. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the son of man be. Now what were the days of Noah like? Well, listen, whereas in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away.

So shall the coming of the son of man be. Now, what was it like? Well, the daily round of life was going on. They were having weddings, they were having parties, they were having business.

They were just going on. That's the day of Noah. And then one day God said, Noah, come on into the ark.

And then the flood came and then it was too late. It will be a solemn day. It will be a sudden day. And then I'm going to say, folks, it is a sure day. Look again, if you will, in this passage of scripture.

Verse three, for when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child. You see, the world is pregnant with judgment. And this solemn day, this sudden day is a sure day. What he's saying is, it's like a woman who's going to give birth. One woman was about seven months along and somebody said to her husband, is your wife expecting?

He said, she's not expecting, it's a sure thing. And so it is with this judgment. First of all, we can expect a surprising day. Number two, we can escape a sudden destruction. Number three, we must endure a surrounding darkness.

Look in verses four through eight. But ye brethren, talking about the saved, 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. Ye are not of the night nor of the darkness. 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, and helmet the hope of salvation for God has not appointed us to wrath. Now, we must endure a surrounding darkness. The world right now is already in darkness, moral darkness, spiritual darkness, social darkness, political darkness, and we must not be asleep. The world is asleep.

The world has been chloroformed by the devil and the world is asleep in a drunken stupor. Now, let me tell you what you should do as a child of God today. Listen to me. Number one, you should be aware and wise up. Look in verse five. Ye are all the children of the light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. And so what you need to do is to be aware, to wise up. We are the only ones, the only ones in this world today who can make sense of what is going on. And we need to be aware.

Are you aware of these things? That's why I'm preaching this series of messages. Jesus is coming.

You say, well, everything looks fine. That's exactly my point when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction. We should be aware and wise up and we should be awake and get up. Look in verses six and seven. 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. Get busy bringing this world to Jesus Christ.

Here's the third thing. Not only should you be aware and wise up and be awake and get up, you should be alert and dress up. Look in verse eight. 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 two things that you need to be wearing. First of all, you need to get your heart right. That's the breastplate of faith and love that covers your heart. You need to love Jesus.

You need to love one another. You need to put your faith where God put your sins on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the breastplate. You need to wear that. If you don't wear that, you're not ready to live in these dark days and then not only keep your heart right, but you keep your head right. Put on the helmet of salvation, the helmet of the hope of salvation. Now, what does it mean the hope of salvation? Does that mean I hope I'm saved?

No, that isn't what that means at all. In the Bible, the word hope means absolute certainty, rock rib certainty based on the word of God. For example, the second coming of Jesus is called the blessed hope. You are to have your heart covered with faith and love and you are to have a helmet of absolute certainty that you're saved. We are living in surrounding darkness. Put on the breastplate of faith and love and put on the helmet of the hope, the certainty of salvation.

You need to be alert and dress up. Now, here's the fourth and final thing. We will experience a sure deliverance. If we'll do these other things, we will experience a sure deliverance. Look beginning in verse 9. Now, look at this. There are some theologians who believe that the church is going to go through the great tribulation. This day that I told you, there's none of the like it.

But look at this. For God had not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. The word salvation means deliverance. Deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

Now, watch this. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also ye do. Now, the fact that Jesus Christ is coming at any moment is a fact that will comfort and it will edify. Now, I want to tell you why I believe that the church is going to be taken out before the great tribulation.

I give you two classic examples. We've talked about in the day of Noah. In the day of Noah, before the flood came, God took Noah out and God put Noah in the ark. Before God destroyed Sodom with fire and brimstone, the angel said to Lot, come and get out of the city.

I can't do anything until you come out of the city. God would not pour his wrath upon his man, Lot, even though Lot was a compromising worldly Christian. Lot was taken out before the fire fell. Noah was taken out before the flood came. First of all, there's an explanation. Look at it again in verse 9. For God has not appointed us to wrath.

Now, not only is there an explanation, but there's an expectation. Look in verse 10. Who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Now, Paul was expecting Christ.

He says we. Paul was expecting Jesus in his lifetime. Was Paul wrong?

No, Paul was right. You go back to chapter 4 and verse 17. Paul is explaining this rapture and he says, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with them.

He included himself. I mean, that was 2,000 years ago. 2,000 years ago, they were living on the edge of eternity.

We're always on the edge of eternity. The apostle John said in his first epistle, little children, it is the last time. And so Paul was expecting Christ. You should be expecting Christ.

Now, here's the point. If the tribulation comes first, then we're not looking for Christ. We're looking for antichrist.

Paul was looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. When you're looking for the tribulation to come, rather than looking up, you're looking around. I'm telling you, folks, why we need to be looking for Jesus at any moment.

First of all, there's an explanation. We're not appointed to wrath. Secondly, there's an expectation Jesus can come at any moment.

Thirdly, there is the edification. Look in verse 11. Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also you do. Now the fact that Jesus is coming at any moment is a great comfort and a great edification. If I believe that the church is going to go through seven years of a day so horrible, so terrible that Jesus said, and Jeremiah said, and Daniel said, and Joel said, there's never, never, never, never, never been a day like that.

Do you think that'll edify me? Even so come great tribulation? No, even so come Lord Jesus. I'm not looking for antichrist.

I'm looking for Christ. I'm waiting for the trumpet sound. At any moment, just as God said, Noah, go into that ark and just as God said, Lot, get out of this city.

He's going to say to Adrian, come up hither. And the trumpet will sound. We're going to meet Jesus just like that. Now folks, this is serious business.

We can expect a surprising day. We can escape a sudden destruction. We must endure a surrounding darkness and friend, we can experience a sure deliverance. Now, if you have questions regarding how to place your faith fully in Jesus Christ, we'd love to offer an insightful resource. Go to the website to our find answers page. There you'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your relationship with God. We also want to invite you to check out our grow your faith page where you can get grounded and dig deeper in your faith. Simply go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says, grow your faith or find answers today. We can't wait to hear from you. Well, as we wait with expectation for the return of Jesus, we should be in the habit of sharing the gospel. Adrian Rogers said, get your head out of the clouds of prophecy and get your feet on the pavement of soul winning. We're so glad you joined us today in this study of God's word. Tune in next time for more timeless truth right here on love worth finding.