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Guide us, O thou gracious Savior.
Pilgrims through this barren land. We are weak, but thou art mighty. Hold us with thy powerful hand, Bread of Heaven.
Feed us now and evermore.
276.
Guide us so badly.
Around my life, who's in, God willing.
Oh my God.
I'd like to suggest First Thessalonians chapter 5.
It's.
It's interesting that it has the Lord's coming or the rapture in the chapter before and then reminding us the Lord's coming. And we have the farmers or at least some of the armors being mentioned in this chapter as well and on how we ought to walk. And I just want to see if that would be a suggestion that we can take up.
Recess Lions. Chapter 5. What other times in the seasons? Rather you have no need that I write unto you for yourselves. Know perfectly that the day of the Lord 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 that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night. They that be drunk and are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober.
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Putting on the breastplate of faith and love and foreign helmet the hope of salvation.
For God has 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.
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you.
And are over you and the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake, and be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, Comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men, See the non render evil for evil unto any man.
Whatever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men, Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and everything gives thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
When not the Spirit?
Despise, not prophesying.
Prove all things.
Past that, which is good.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
And the very God of peace sanctified you holy. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calls you who also will do it.
Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Drop and take up the 4th chapter.
And we find that in that chapter the apostle tells us about the rapture, and then he ends the chapter by saying, wherefore comfort one another with these words. And then they go on to the fifth chapter in regard to the Lord's coming from a different perspective. Now that touched my heart, because today among Christendom most don't know the difference between the rapture and the Lord's coming.
And often we walk and we sometimes hear comment that we may say, well our children are with Christians, they should be OK. And sometimes that worries me because what do they believe in just because they profess to be Christian? So here it tells us that we are walking differently. There is a lot of times and seasons. Well there are those that are still looking for earthly events such as times and seasons.
Rather than spiritual things. So we need to be careful and this chapter exhausted to tell us that we are not of this world, we are this.
It's interesting in the new translation in chapter 4, verses 15 through 18.
Are in parentheses. So if you go back to verse 14 of chapter 4, it says if we believe.
That Jesus died and rose again, Even so them also which sleep in Jesus.
Will God bring with him?
The Thessalonians had lost some of their loved ones in death.
And they didn't know, they thought they won't be around when the Lord comes back again.
So in verse 14 he says yes, they will be included. They will be there when Even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. So they're going to be included like you say, brother David's in the appearing it's two parts of the Lord's second coming.
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Both are part of the second coming, first of all the Rapture, and in that part he will only come, as it says in this chapter.
Four, he will descend from heaven with a shout, and he's going to come to the clouds and then we will be raptured. And then it's later on at the end of the great tribulation that he was coming back to planet Earth. He's going to put his feet down on this planet again.
And he will come with his Saints. That's called the appearing.
Sometimes the revelation, sometimes it's called the manifestation.
That's all when He comes back in person. And so you have the distinction. And then verse 15 through 18 of chapter 4 shows how those who are dead in Christ will be included when the Lord comes again in his appearing. So like you say, brother.
Dave, this chapter five really begins with.
The appearing what is what we know is the appearing in verse 23 of chapter 5. It's the rapture again, isn't it? That's referred to I think.
In Acts chapter one, it's interesting that when the Lord rose from the dead and was those 40 days with his disciples in the earth, they were with him and.
He they say in verse six Acts 16, when they were therefore were come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?
That's what they were thinking about. The Lord was going to establish his Kingdom.
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.
Which the father has put in his own power. That's in connection. Like Brother Dave said, times and seasons are in connection with his coming when he comes to establish his Kingdom. The end of the great tribulation times.
Times and seasons there's nothing to indicate when the Lord is going to rapture us home, but for his coming at his appearing, there is multitudes of signs and.
That God gives that the time is getting close and some of those were seen in the world today, the beginnings of them, brethren.
But he says here as to the in chapter five, he uses those same 2 words 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 so cometh as a thief in the night.
So when it's that coming as a thief in the night, that always refers to his appearing, is that right?
We notice the language change too in the 14th chapter, verse 17 or those verses. There we find the word we be speaking to you, and He's speaking about we, we which are alive and remain. And I trust that many in this room this afternoon were associated with as we are. So He reminds us here about the times and seasons, but this is not about us. Because another clue to that is the Lord doesn't come for us as a thief in the night when they're not ready.
But then when we go on to verse three, we notice a language change from we to they. That's a third party reference, isn't it, for when they shall say peace and safety. And this world is often look for peace. There is no peace in this world, but we're looking for peace. We're looking for safety. We're looking for all these things that are temporal. We want to make sure this world goes on.
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Because we claimed it to be ours. But here they for when they say when they when this wall fingers peace and safety, then it's a sudden destruction cometh upon them.
And then he, I don't mean to have the time to finish the thought here. And then they remind us. But ye, that's speaking about us again here, brethren are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief.
Maybe someone could help us with the difference between a crime?
I would just suggest and perhaps it's a simple answer, but what I have appreciated with of that is that.
A time tends to be more specific as to an actual.
Point in time, whereas a season is a period of time over which something happens, isn't it? And so we speak of the season of spring or the season of summer or something like that.
It's a period of time, whereas again, it's not always used that way, but in a general way, a time is when something specific happens, and there are things that the Lord does at a specific time, but there are things that are done over a period of time, and all of it refers to when the Lord comes back to this earth to deal with things.
Just as what I would call a simple example, the day of the Lord.
Well, the day of the Lord is not one day as we would express it, but it includes the judgments that will take place at the end of the tribulation period. But really the day of the Lord extends throughout the tribulation and includes the judgments at the end, or I should take that back. It includes the whole of the Millennium and includes the judgments that will take place at the end. And so to me, it's seems that the Lord sometimes.
Acts by doing something over a period of time, and sometimes acts by doing something at a specific time.
State director comment I I thought I'd understand it too that the times and seasons goes together sometimes into certain festivals, religious ceremony, et cetera that man go after. So we'll find that in within that Deuteronomy 1616 three times a year did it go into Jerusalem.
So there are fixed times for certain feasts as well. So this is more.
Of customs and things that man would want to follow.
It says, ye have no need that right unto you. Why not?
Because it's in the scriptures, this is relating to prophecy.
Now, when Paul wrote the Thessalonians, there was something that he did need to write them about and that was where what has happened to our brethren who have died. We were looking for the Lord to come and now they've died, they've missed it. So that was the subject. They needed clarity, they needed teaching on. There were certain things he did need to write unto them, and that's the point of First Thessalonians. But when he come to chapter five, he says, I don't need to write to you about that because it's already been revealed in the Old Testament.
Now, as far as times and seasons of Brother Dave, you may have this in mind that we find that we go to Revelation chapter 12 and 13, for instance. We find that.
That that 3 1/2 year period is spoken of. Is it time and times and half a time. We finally spoken of this 42 months. We find it spoken of his 12160 days, very specific time frames and it's connected with the Saints of God and suffering. It's been noted it's brought down to the days 12160 days. The blessed Lord notes the very day that we're going through. So the times and season it is connected with prophecy. No reason to write about it now because it's it's a subject of prophecy.
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But what the apostle does in this chapter now takes the appearing of the Lord, and brings it to bear on our present conduct.
The proper hope of the church is the Lord's coming for us, but here he takes up the subject of the Lord's coming with us, and that has a practical bearing on our life, our manner of life here in this world, and that's what he takes up in the subsequent verses.
It's true, and many Christian circles, that the distinction between these two parts of the Lord's second coming are not clear. The rapture when he comes for us, the church is a heavenly people, and when God.
Predestined us to for eternal glory. There was not even a world in existence yet.
The church is heavenly in every aspect, so the exit point of the church from planet earth is something that is not detailed in any time or season, but we know that it must be near. But we don't know The point is is to be ready at any time. But then he says here in.
Verse two yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
And sometimes I find that believers think that the Lord will come as a thief in the night for us. I sometimes say to them in a simple way.
Do you expect a thief at your house and they say no. Are you waiting for a thief? No.
Let me ask you another question. Are you waiting for the Lord? Yes. And do you expect the Lord to come? Yes, I say. Well then he won't come for you as a thief. He will come as your heavenly Bridegroom to take you home to glory. But a thief is for those people.
Who don't want him to come and don't expect him to come. That for them it will come as a thief. And it's interesting to go through the many scriptures in the New Testament that speak of his coming as a thief. And it's always in connection with his appearing, never in connection with the Rapture. So it's helpful just to get those things clear in our minds. There are two distinct parts.
Of the second coming. Both are part of the second coming.
There's another major distinction to that is that the rapture, the Lord come to take us to be with himself when there comes a thief later on, is he's coming to execute judgment. The difference isn't it? And we have gone out of this world rapture out to be with the Lord, and we will return with him to reign.
Might be able to go back to the beginning of the book of First Thessalonians, pick up a verse or two that helps get the context for the what's already been said. It's not really different than what's been said, but it's just reinforces it perhaps.
These believers in Thessalonica, it would appear, had only been saved a few weeks at the time that this letter was written to them.
So the Apostle Paul is writing to brand new.
Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and he had to be separated from them, and he was concerned about them. And so he writes them a letter. And in his letter he begins almost at the very beginning.
Versus chapter one, verses 9 and 10, he says for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you. Now here's what characterizes their conversion.
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To the Lord Jesus, their salvation and their expectation, he said. Ye turn to God from idols. It's the first thing that happened for them. They turned from all the world's idols.
Those were actual idols, but today there are lots of spiritual idols. You turn to God from idols to do what two things to serve the living and true God.
And the 2nd and to wait for his son from heaven.
And so this was what was given to them. They turned from their former way of life to God. And in turning to God they had now a new occupation to serve the living and true God. These two things ought to characterize any believer who puts their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ today. Whether it was then or now, we would turn to God from the idols that previously.
Controlled our lives, not necessarily physical idols, but other things that were the things that controlled our lives, that instead of God and to serve the living and true God. And in addition to that, when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus, it's to wait for his Son from heaven and we wait for one who was here, who died, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus.
And then this is what connects the last phrase with what's been said, which delivered us from the coming wrath, or the new translation, or Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.
All the verses that have been referred to in chapter four and five use the expression the day of the Lord, because the Lord is the one who's coming back to execute judgment, and it will be a day of wrath.
And then a day of peace. But when he first comes as Lord, he came as Savior. They had come to know Him as the deliverer from wrath. But now he says you've trusted in him. He's the one that will deliver you from wrath. And so when he comes back, you're not going to be coming under that wrath. He's the one that's already delivered you from it.
And in fact, in chapter 4, that's already been read.
And in Second Thessalonians chapter one, it's made very clear he can't come back until you're with him because he's delivered you from that wrath. And so when he is the Lord comes back to execute wrath on the earth, you have to be gone. You have to be with him, otherwise it would not be possible for him to.
Come back.
And so.
That's our place.
Is to serve the living and true God and to wait for our deliverer as we see the world get worse. Is that a cause for fear? No, it's a cause to serve the living and true God and as he says in in our chapter, to be a light.
In a dark place where the light of the world. And so it is for us, brethren, let's, if you will be like the Thessalonians were exhorted to live life intelligently in the understanding of where we are in this season of God's grace.
Just to comment on season, it often has to do with some activity that's going on for some period of time. And this should be a fruitful season for God when he's gathering out of the world a heavenly people for himself. But seasons come to an end, and this season will be finished and come to its end, and then those times that God has purposed to come will come.
Another distinction to be made between the rapture and the appearing is.
That the Rapture is something that is revealed in the New Testament only.
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Nothing about the Rapture in the Old Testament. Perhaps you say, well, there's figures of it and that is true.
Enoch was taken before the judgment of the flood, and that is in a certain sense a figure of it, but it was not something that was well known.
That was known in the Old Testament, whereas the Day of the Lord is something that is spoken of.
In a lot of places in the Old Testament, it's very common that. Just look at the book of Joel for a minute.
To see that it is a day of terrible judgment. In fact, it will be the most awful judgment this world has ever or will ever know.
Joel Chapter 2. Blow ye 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. For it is nigh at hand. A dead darkness and of gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. A great people, and as strong there have not been ever the like.
Neither shall be anymore after it, even to the years of many generations of fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth. The land that's the land of Israel is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. Yay. And nothing shall escape them. So it's a awful day of judgment. The day of the Lord is a day when the Lord Jesus is coming back to exercise.
His lordship in the earth. And so it will include awful judgment that is mentioned here in our chapter 5 says.
When they shall say, verse 3 peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with.
As travelled upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. So it's a day of judgment and the day of the Lord is spoken of in both testaments. And it's really interesting to go through. The book of Isaiah speaks a lot of it, brethren.
So here, he says.
That's for those that will stay here in this world after the rapture. They're going to suffer the day of the Lord.
Judgment and destruction is not really the subject here, but rather to encourage the Catalonian Saints, which really in turn to us too, that we're not children. We are children of light. Do we? Do we value that? As he reminds us here, we are children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. We have to shine for him. We have a different character than the children of this world.
It was coming to earlier how things seemed to get so dark around us. We've got all the problems and difficulties we get. We, we can easily be depiled with all the, all the, the immoralities around us. But we have to shine. And in dark plays now, sometimes it's difficult to shine, but sometimes in the sense the darker the time, I remember, I think an old writer of old quitted, he said the darker the time.
The brighter the small testimony. So if you can picture yourself in a dark room and I told this story before we, we went through a cave one time for the children. You crawled through a few caverns and then we entered this big room. And then remember the man said blow your candles out or I should have mentioned we weren't allowed flashlight. We had a pink and welded sideway with a candle in it. It took a bit of time to get accustomed to that light and he had everyone blow the light out. It was so dark you couldn't see your fingers in front of your eyeballs.
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And then he lit a match. That's it, just a match. And the whole room lit up because he was so dark. So the darker the time sometimes the brighter the testimony.
We all have a sense of and night. Certain things characterized the day. Certain things characterized the night.
When the Lord Jesus came into the world, he presented himself.
As I am the light of the world.
The world said we will not have this man released unto us, Bravos. And so when the Lord Jesus, the light of the world left the world, the world is a system of things became a dark place and it's continued. This Thessalonians were very at the very beginning.
For most of the history of the Church on earth.
But the earth at that point was looked at as in night, because the light of day was not there and the person of the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus returns as the Son of righteousness, then the world will be in day. The 1000 years of the coming Millennium will be a day of light and a day of righteousness and will fill the whole earth.
But it's important for us to recognize as believers in the Lord Jesus.
The day in which we live is the night, and we have to live as children of day in the time of night. And So what does the world have for its life?
Where's the light in the neighborhood in which you live? It's in the believer.
Each one of us on the street corner in which God has placed us has given us the responsibility of being light.
We're not the sun as the Lord is, but each one of us sometimes were looked at as a star.
In the view of Genesis one, we're looked at as light, light bearers and actually when you get to the revelation, the church before the Lord starts the period of the day of the Lord in in the revelation, the light that was in the world during the night is seen in chapters 2 and three where he reviews.
How did the Church fulfill its responsibility?
Of being the light of the world during its night.
Sadly.
That review ends in him having to say I can't use you anymore.
You are have failed to be the light that you should be.
And so as a testimony for me and the earth, I have to put you aside. And that's why it ends up in Laodicea being put aside as a light bearer for the Lord in a in its period of night. And then the question is raised, who's worthy now to do something?
And the worthy Lamb of God is identified in chapter 5.
As the one who can and then we see the activity in chapter 6 on of what is going to be the tribulation and the activities of the day of the Lord. And so it will be. But in here, as it says to the saying to the the Saints, you're the you're the children of the day. You're not of the night, you're not of the darkness. And so let's not sleep. Let's be sober. Let's live with an understanding of the day in which we live.
Otherwise, there's the danger of going to sleep or the danger of going into the darkness ourselves and the character of which we live our lives, that is living with the world.
It is a solemn thing, isn't it, that it is a solemn thing that when the Lord comes, evidently the disappearance of millions of people will have at least in an outward way, an effect on this world. But yet it says here in verse three, when they shall say peace and safety whatever.
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Explanation. Satan will have whatever lie he will have, he will somehow be able to persuade men. Don't worry, everything's going to be all right. Everything's going to carry on. And I believe for myself that there will be a measure of peace and prosperity in that day. There are many predictions today about how things can fall apart, how economies can fail.
How different events could cause a big breakdown in this world?
Humanly speaking, it could certainly happen, but I believe the Lord will see to it that there is something that Satan can latch onto that he will lull men to sleep with, just as they are now very, very solemn to think about it. And that, you might say, points out the basis for the exhortations that.
Start out with verse 4.
Need two things that we need to think about in this connection. One is sleep and the other is drunkenness.
Nothing wrong with sleep and the material sense of it, but it's speaking about.
Being asleep spiritually and I sometimes say.
If a person is asleep on the floor, I can speak to him. Hey you.
And he's not going to respond. Why doesn't he respond? He has life, but he's not alert. And sometimes, brethren, we can be very alert as to material things in this world that affect us personally, our business, our houses, our homes, our families, our cars. But when it comes to the Lord's things.
We're not alert.
That's what sleep is.
To not being alert to the Lord.
And so we're told not to sleep. Let us not sleep, as do others.
But let us watch. So the contrast to sleeping is watching.
You know how sleep can overpower you if you.
Let it. It's a hard thing to resist. So in these days, lots of people are going to sleep, Brethren, I really believe.
I must say some time ago I heard testimony on some of our brethren in the Muslim countries and how they without fear are carrying the gospel forward, and I think of us over here in the United States.
And sometimes we think if we want to go to meeting or we go. If we don't want to go, we don't go.
And justice hit me, Brethren, are we asleep? As to the Lord's interests, I fear that I can be asleep. And I say, brother, if you see me asleep, please come and give me a shake. I want to be alert for that momentous time when the Lord comes again. So let us not sleep. But the other part is to not be drunken.
What is drunkenness? It's being under the influence.
Perhaps not with alcohol, but under the influence of present things.
You can be under the influence of sports, nothing wrong with sports in themselves, but you get under the power of that to the point you're thinking only about that.
Don't be drunken. Don't be under the influence. Other people get under the influence of music. There's a lot of things in this present world that it's easy to become get under the influence of them. So we need to be alert. The Lord's coming.
And justice to think, brethren, I've often wondered, brethren, I honestly believe it's true that the moment we step across into the presence of the Lord Jesus and see him in all his glory, we're going to say, what was I doing down there in the earth? I was just fooling around. I didn't hardly put any importance to the Lord's things. When He's glorious, He's going to fill the whole universe with his glory and we're going to be with him, associated with him.
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Oh, how easy it is to get under the influence of present things.
When I see the way the Lord's blessing in other parts of the world, brethren, I say what's happening up here?
Materialism has had a tremendous influence on us and has dulled the testimony up here. It's self pleasing up here and I, I have to say I'm not pointing the finger anywhere else about myself because I know I've been affected by it. But that's part of what it is. Drunkenness is to get under the influence of present things to the point that I'm not acting.
As a Christian ought to act.
Sometimes too, it can go to the other extreme as well. I was thinking of later to see how they became neither cold nor hot. We'll get into that influence. We get influenced by that too, don't we? We don't want to make any opinion on anything. We don't stand for anything from the Word of God. And there's an old phrase, you don't stand for anything, then you'll fall for everything. It's so easy not to make a stand, especially about Christianity.
We find in our society that they want you to agree with them. All these terrible immoralities that they mentioned, if you speak up against it, they were saying you hate them. The word of God is the guide and we have to uphold that. So sometimes we became neither hot nor cold and then we find a Lord said he didn't like that neither and he spewed them out in the mouth. I like to quote a verse. This sounds very and I want to say I'm not reading this verse.
In mind but this first been on my heart. I ordered that at the last conference. Please if you heard it please let me do it again. In the book of Ezekiel chapter 33 I find I find myself falling to this position for many years by just sitting and say how nice and that nothing happens. Ezekiel chapter 33. I read this to for your encouragement.
Verse 31. Ezekiel Chapter 33. Verse 31.
And and they come unto they as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them. For with the mouth they show much love, but with the heart goeth after their covetousness. And lo, thou art unto them as a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice.
And can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
I read it more to say, do we fall into that condition sometimes? Have you told someone there was such such lovely address they gave or the comments they have made but.
Did any of this affect your hearts? Do what do is an interesting word. You'll find scripture use that a lot. 2 letters do this do in remembrance of me. Well, does everybody do it? And I know there are some in this room.
Would not do as the Lord would request us to do tomorrow morning if the Lord needs us here. If you go through scriptures, there are various doves. We Christianity is an action, isn't it? We're to do not just faith alone, faith and work together.
So today is in contrast to night as light is in contrast to darkness. We often speak of the increasing darkness, morally and spiritually, of the day that we're living in. I like to read a verse over in first John chapter 2 because I believe it gives us the flip side of the same coin.
First John, chapter 2.
Read well. Read from verse seven, brother, and I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. Now verse eight again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past, or the darkness is passing.
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And the true light now shineth. Well, you might notice on verse 7, the old commandment is not the law of Moses. The old commandment was the words the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples here in His public ministry. And now John is Speaking of the new commandment, his exhortation to believers. Now which thing is true in him and in you?
We walk in the light, that is, we walk in the light of God revealed.
First, John gives us the emphasis. It is the manifestation of eternal life in the Saints of God.
That light is now true in us, but it says because the darkness is passing now, isn't that an encouragement to us? Because we think of the darkness getting worse, but in the light of first John, the darkness is passing. That true light has already shined fully in Christ. It shines now in the believers, The life of Christ manifested, and it's in passing, and it's in view of the coming day when that light will be manifested in all of its fullness. There's a verse in Proverbs chapter 4 we're all familiar with, but I enjoy it in this connection.
Proverbs, chapter 4.
And verse 18.
But the path of the just.
Is as the shining light that shineth more and more.
Unto the perfect day for the Darby rights renders it. But the path of the righteous is as the shining light going on and brightening.
Until the day be fully come. And so it's all true that it is getting darker.
But on the other hand, as we take these things up in the ways of God, the day is upon us, and the day it is brightening as it goes on the path of the just is as the shining light that goes on and brightens until the day before He come, And so on the path of the believer here in the presence of this darkness, should shine more and more.
Because he was the true light, and it is the reflection of that light in us that that brightness.
And so we really do need to be in the enjoyment of him for his light to shine forth. That doesn't set aside responsibility, but there's energy.
In in being, in the enjoyment of Christ.
Some solemn thing.
To recognize that if the day is getting darker, it's getting darker because the light of Christianity is getting dimmer.
We look at the conditions of the world as getting worse and we look at it that way as it's getting darker and darker and that there's truth in that, but the light of the world, The Lord Jesus is not here, but he left his people in his place to give light in testimony for himself to the world, as you have again in Revelation 2 and three. But the sadness of it is, is when.
The believers take up as they were warned here in First Thessalonians 5 are exhorted not to if.
You are not shining in your personal life.
Than where you are is darker.
If I'm not shining as given to me where I am, then my street corner is darker. And it's a solemn thing to think that when we look around us and talk about darkness, we might not look at the other side of it and recognize the importance of being light for the Lord. And if we're not, then we have added to what's called the darkness.
The side of it is as he says.
Not to sleep and then we sleep and verses 6 and seven that have been spoken to, but then he speaks about us in verse eight. He says let us who are of the day we belong to the day we don't belong to the night, we belong to the time an identification with our Son of righteousness and it says.
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Putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in helmet the hope of salvation. There are three things mentioned there, Faith and hope and love. Now go back to chapter one and see what it is that characterized these new believers.
And their lives.
It says in verse three of chapter one, remembering without ceasing. This is Paul in his prayer remembering them without ceasing their what?
Work of faith.
Labor of love and patience of hope.
In our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father. And so there were three things that characterized normal, proper Christian life. There are three things that ought to characterize your daily life and mine. It's the work of faith.
The labor of love and the patience of hope. And so, as we already had, they had turned from idols. The idols of dumb, idols of darkness.
To serve the living and true God. How did they serve Him? By the work of faith and the labor of love. And they had the hope. And so it was. The hope was to wait for His Son from heaven.
And if you give up those things, you've given up the very things that protect.
The life and so if the turning to God from idols to serve the living and true God, he says.
What do we need? We need the breastplate that protects the heart.
And is that which preserves in connection with faith and love, our hearts, our source of love, and so on, and in the helmet the hope of salvation. The helmet protects the head. And when we lose the present enjoyment of our hope.
Because we don't have our helmets on, if you will, to protect us from the world's thoughts, which are contrary to God's thoughts, and we give up the protection of the breastplate of faith and love. Then we're going to go in with the world. We're going to walk in the darkness, and we won't have the joy and the comfort and the present service that is to characterize our lives now.
Perhaps add more things to that list and chapter 2.
And versus.
14 and 1514 and 15. It says, do all things without murmuring and disputing, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. This is a.
Talking about moral darkness in the world. Among whom you shine as lights in the world.
When the body of Christ, when members of the body of Christ are in constant argument with each other, that hinders the light in this world as well.
I remember a number of years ago someone spoke at a Sunday school. I like those Sunday school because often the lessons are simple and it seems to stay in your mind longer. And this brother asked the children. He said, have you seen St. Lights? And of course every one of the children put their hands up and say yes. He said, have you ever seen St. Lights in the whole city put into one corner?
So why? It doesn't make sense, but it sure makes it very bright.
His point was that a light is to be distributed evenly through our all the areas to shine. It may not be as bright as all the light in one spot, but it's a lot more useful. So the Lord put us into various corners, for lack of a word. So we think of this room. Here we have many lights shining as if it was under a bushel. No one out there can see us in it. And as a word of encouragement.
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In a few days you will be going home away from your friends and the influence you have with your brethren.
Are you light for the remain, shining for your friends? And I think our brother brought that point out very nicely that why is there darkness around us? Is there Bush old? Did we put our light under a bushel and it's not shiny? Or have you let it's not let the light shine as we ought to?
Brother Bill, you spoke about the breastplate of righteousness in your meeting here. It's the breastplate of faith and love. How do you fit those two together?
Well, I suppose that what we get here was written to very new believers, wasn't it? We know that when Paul went to Thessalonica, he was there probably less than a month. It says 3 Sabbath days, so he couldn't have been there very long and.
We might say Paul crammed an awful lot of teaching into that time period. He brought them right out of idolatry, right out of heathenism, into the light of the gospel. But he had also given them a good deal of instruction as to the Lord's coming and what would happen and so on. And as Dawn was mentioning, the three things that he brought before them very clearly were faith and hope and love. And so those things are.
Very necessary for the new believer. They're necessary for all of us.
And in that sense, the breastplate is composed of faith and love, and the helmet is the hope of salvation. But in Ephesians, which is, as we mentioned, the highest truth that God gives us concerning the believers blessings during this time of His grace, it's a little different, isn't it? Because they were seen as risen and seated at heavenly places. And so it's a breastplate of righteousness and a helmet of salvation.
It's necessary that there be a walk and that there be the definite security of where that salvation is and where it's taking us. And it's not merely the hope of the Lord's coming, but all the ramifications of it that protect us, isn't it? And so the use of those pieces of the armor here is perhaps more suitable for new believers.
That perhaps were not so well instructed, but the others are.
You might say a little bit more advanced in Christianity, and to bring before them the importance of being maintained in the heavenly places and in the enjoyment of it.
Is that the way you would see it?
Faith and love, if they're in operation, will certainly produce righteousness. One thing.
And here, like you say, in connection with the helmet of salvation, it's with a specific view of the Lords coming. And so it's the hope of salvation or as in Ephesians, it's it's the merely the helmet of salvation which is more inclusive of all our earthly pathway going through this world. We know that in the Lord Jesus we have complete salvation through it all.
Wonder if we have these practical working out of the helmet of the hope of salvation at the end of Romans chapter 13.
Romans, 1311.
And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. Clearly this is in reference to the Lord's coming. We have the salvation of our souls, and this is not a practical salvation. It's something we're still waiting. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
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Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.
So here is the armor of light that while we think of light often as bearing witness.
It's and it's also a great defense against this, the armor of light. The light will repel the darkness. And so we're to cast off the works of darkness. That's a little bit more than as we sometimes sing dropping off like autumn leaves. That's more of an act of putting it away. He said, well, let these go unto the Lord and these things will fall off. Well, that may be, but we we can't sometimes we need to be a little bit more energetic.
And putting away from us the things of darkness, and using it rather to put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the life. That is the life that this world should see in US.
The hope of salvation doesn't imply a question concerning its reality, does it?
No, we use Hope Indiana a different way, don't we do, John?
In many cases, when we speak of hope, there's an element of uncertainty as to it. But the only uncertainty as to this hope is the timing, not as to the actual.
Fact of it's going to take place. When we speak of hope, we often use a matter of uncertainty as to whether it will happen or not. But here there's no question of of that. It's merely a matter of timing.
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