Prepared!

And so it is that the day of the Lord will come. Unexpected, surprising. How do you prepare for that? Well, let's find out. let's pray and ask God to teach us this morning shall we Father once more we come to you and thank you for the opportunity we have to look into your word to hear your very voice in the text of scripture would you help us to listen now and do more than listen but to leave here determined to be prepared for the coming day of the Lord Father the day of the Lord is not something to joke about it isn't something that we make light of because as you've described it we want to be ready.

And so help us now to learn that and then learning it to go out and prepare. Thank you now in Jesus name. Amen. The day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night with sudden destruction. How do you prepare for that? Well, someone might say, the Bible says it's like a thief in the night.

And if I was looking out for a thief, I'd be waiting for him. I'd be looking and waiting. What does that mean? Like a property owner who's afraid of a thief, you're going to sit and peer out the window with a gun in your lap and just sit there all day long so that we just sit around with our Bibles looking for Jesus to come back? Well, that's not being prepared.

That's being paralyzed because nothing happens then. Well, still others say, you know what? If you work hard enough with the scriptures and you study them carefully, you can figure out the very day when Jesus is coming back. Listen, every year I get booklets in the mailbox that tell me when Jesus is coming. And guess what? Instead of being prepared, everyone's disappointed.

Well, someone says, no, what you really need to do is to understand the prophetic scriptures. You need to understand the signs of the end of the age so that you understand the signs of Jesus coming and you be able to figure out that he coming really soon And so what ends up is you end up counting the toes on the image in Daniel or you start trying to figure out whether Saddam Hussein or Henry Kissinger is the Antichrist, or you just follow every single news story that comes out of the Middle East. That's not being prepared either.

God tells you how to prepare for the day of the Lord he does it right in our text before us in first Thessalonians 5 4 to 11 after 1 through 3 he's described for us what the day of the Lord is like then picking up in verse 4 through 11 he tells us how to prepare for that sudden appearance and surprising appearance of the day of the Lord let's look at these first 11 verses of chapter 5. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief, for you are all children of light children of the day we are not of the night or of the darkness so then let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night but since we belong to the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation for For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. How do you prepare for the day of the Lord?

Well, here's what Paul says. Paul spoke from God. This is what God says. prepare for the day of the Lord by walking as children of light prepare for the day of the Lord by walking as children of light recognize who you are so he says in verses 4 and 5 recognize who you are but you are not in darkness brothers for the day to surprise you like a thief for you are all children of light children of the day We are not of the night nor of the darkness Because you belong to the Lord you are children of the day Because you belong to the Lord, you are children of the light.

And you are not in darkness. Now the Apostle Paul, in a few more years, when he writes the book of Ephesians, is going to say, for at one time you were darkness. but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light the apostle Peter in his book says this that we are a people for God's own possession that you may you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light that's what characterizes us light we are children of light children of the day he says but you he says in verse four but you And that's emphatic there. It's emphatic trying to draw the contrast between you and the people he's just mentioned who will not escape the destruction and the judgment of the day of the Lord.

But you are not of the darkness. You're the light. You're children of light. Okay? And because you're children of the day and not in darkness, the day of the Lord will not overtake you like an unexpected disaster. You know, in 1887, the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, over 2,000 people were wiped out as the dam upriver broke and sweeping water came down the valley.

No one expected that. No one was expecting that to happen. All of a sudden, literally thousands of people are dead as the water comes rushing down that valley. But that's not going to happen to you if you're children of the light. An unexpected disaster is not going to come upon you like the others that he's talked about in verses 1 through 3. You're expecting this.

You know it's coming. You know it's coming. Now, because you're children of light and of the day, you must walk like children of the light. Look what he says in verse 6 and 7. So then, you see that? So then, because you're children of the light, let us then not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. Because you children of light and not in darkness you respond accordingly Because you are actually you are children of the day you are children of the light in Christ then you must respond accordingly. Act in a manner consistent with what you are. So, if you're children of the light, walk like it.

Walk like it. Walk as children of the light by putting off the characteristics of darkness. He talks about those in verse 7. now before city streets or before city streets were brightly illuminated by street lights people thought the night was horrible and sinister that's how they typically thought of the night we don't think that way we got light all the time anymore but have you ever gone through a town for example when the power has been knocked out I mean it's dark there's no street lights you You ever notice how really dark it gets?

We don't know that so much because we have lights all the time. Back in those days, they didn't have street lights. It was dark. And they looked at dark as a horrible time. We might talk excitedly about going out for the night. But people of Paul's day talked about night always negatively and fearfully.

The night was no friend. You didn't go out at night, you see. One writer of those days, one great preacher by the name of Chrysostom, put it this way. For corrupt and wicked men do all things as in the night, escaping the notice of all and enclosing themselves in darkness. For tell me, does not the adulterer watch for the evening and the thief for the night?

Does not the violator of the tombs carry on all his trade in the night? You see, night gives you cover. The darkness gives you cover. And he's saying, walk as children of light. God calls us to be people who live in a way that would bring no shame if what we did could be seen in the light. So he says, walk like children of light.

What does that mean? It means putting off this characteristic of sleep. Of sleep. Don't sleep. How concerned are you about your bills? Or your boss?

Or your leaky roof? Or anything when you're asleep? You say, well, I was laying awake. No, no, no. When you're asleep, you don't even think about those things, right? It's not even on your mind.

You're sleeping. Okay? And so what he's saying here is, don't live lives of moral indifference. You don't live lives of moral indifference. When you're asleep, you're indifferent to everything. Everything does, nothing matters, right?

To sleep is to have no concern for the injustice of abortion and euthanasia or any concern for the oppression of the powerless. That's just not even on your, you know, I'm just indifferent to that. As long as I got my Netflix, what do I care about anything else, right? there's no concern this moral indifference means there's no concern for things like sexual purity and honest hard work and kindness and all that jesus calls on his disciples to be and to do morally indifferent don't be like that that's part of the darkness don't sleep it means you're not going to get drunk you're going to put off drunkenness now he's not referring certainly drinking to excess is is part of what he's talking about but that's not what he means primarily.

He's using this as a metaphor. And rather here than moral indifference, you have moral carelessness. When you're drunk, you don't care about anything. Right? Now we're talking about moral carelessness now. I just don't care.

I don't care. You know, I remember right after, the summer after I graduated from high school, I went to my first party where there was drinking. Okay, now some of you may think, wow, that late in life? Yeah, that late in life. My summer after my senior year, I went to the first party. It was with some of my high school friends, some of my football buddies, and we were all working for a particular guy.

We all worked for Steve. Steve owned a couple gas stations, so we worked at these gas stations, and he decided to have a party for us. And so I went, and I'll never forget what I saw that night. I saw my friends. I'd known all the way through high school. I saw my friends get drunk, and I saw their girlfriends get a little apprehensive.

I saw their girlfriends get a little scared. You know why? Because they were acting not like they normally did. And you know what? They had no idea how they appeared to their girlfriends that night. In fact, they didn't care at that point.

I remember one Sunday morning, early in the morning, I used to deliver Sunday morning paper and my brother and I would be up at about 3 o'clock on Sunday morning to deliver the paper. And I remember going to Leon house Leon was a guy in our community our little town He was a great athlete football star and all that Got his legs blown off in Vietnam I remember the morning we came to his house and he was outside in his wheelchair, as drunk as you could be. And he was ramming his wheelchair against the door and screaming at the top of his lungs.

He was in a rage. Now, I'll tell you what. At that moment, he couldn't care less what people thought about his rage, right? He couldn't care less. He wasn't even thinking about that. So what the Apostle Paul is telling us here is, don't live a life where you don't care about what God requires.

Don't live a life where you have few moral inhibitions. Don't live a life where you do what you feel like doing with little thought to the morality or the consequences of your actions. That's what he's saying here. Put that kind of attitude off. Instead, you put on, you walk as children of light by putting on the characteristics of the light. Verse 6.

Instead of sleeping, you keep awake. You stay awake. Now, what does he mean by that? What he means by that is you live a life of vigilance. You're fully aware of what you're doing and what it means. You think about your actions.

You think about what that means and what you do. You're alert. You're alert to temptation. You're alert to the seduction of sin. You're alert to the wiles of Satan. You're aware of what's going on around you and you know how to respond.

Instead of drunkenness, he says, you put on sobriety. As children of the day, you've got to be clear thinking. You've got to be clear thinking. Again, now he's not talking here about don't get drunk. He's saying be the kind of people who are characterized by clear thinking in the face of adversity, of suffering, and the seduction of sin. Be clearly thinking. instead of recklessness you exercise restraint.

You see you in control of your faculties You think about the nature of sin around you You think about the adversity that attacks you And you consider how you will respond You see So how then do you prepare for the day of the Lord? Here's the first thing he says. You don't prepare by setting dates. You prepare by living as children of light. You prepare by just doing those things that please God.

That's how you prepare for the day of the Lord. to be prepared is simply to live life as an obedient disciple of Jesus that's what being prepared is it's not setting a date it's not being like okay when's he coming it's like every day day to day you live obedient to Jesus that's how you prepare for the day of the Lord to be prepared is to pursue holiness. Now he goes on now in verses 8 through 10. And here he says, prepare for the day of the Lord by serving as soldiers of Jesus.

Prepare for the day of the Lord by serving as soldiers of Jesus. Once more, the reminder in verse 8, the reminder again, he says it, but since we belong to the day, again, he reminds you, this is your identity. You belong to the day. You don't belong to the night. you don't belong to the darkness. That is what you are, people of the day. And again, like he did in verse 6, he says, because that's true, because that's true, act in a manner consistent with your identity.

Act in a manner consistent with your identity. So if you're not children of darkness, you're children of the day, children of the light, then what must you do? He says, put on sober-mindedness. put on sober mindedness now ESV has it as let us be sober this is not the sobriety that stands in contrast to drunkenness now we switch the metaphor we're talking military rather this is the clear thinking alert mind of a soldier soldiers are trained in such a way that when the chaos of battle unfolds around them they're still able to think clearly and know what to do.

Listen to orders and do what they're told to do. You see? And as these folks and as we experience the adversity of persecution and the seduction of sin we need to possess the clear thinking of soldiers We on a battlefield We need to be able to think clearly As adversity overtakes you and as sin's seduction hits like an enemy force, you need to think clearly so that you can withstand the onslaught and respond in a way that glorifies God.

You see what he's saying here? When sin is coming at you, when persecution is bearing down on you, when those things are coming at you like enemy forces, you need to be able to think clearly. You need to be able to understand what's going on. You need to be able to understand how to respond in a way that glorifies God. And you can do that as you put on the armor of a soldier.

One translated it this way, and I love this, and it can be translated this way, it's perfectly good. It says, since we are children of the day, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation, let us be sober. You see? Because we're clothed that way, now we're clothed as a soldier. Let's be sober like a soldier. Let's be clear thinking.

So the first thing he says is put on sober mindedness. Be clear thinking in this world of adversity and sin, in the world of difficulties and seduction. Be clear thinking. But he also says put on the armor of faith, hope, and love. Now, do you notice that? Those are the three cardinal virtues of the Christian life.

Several times in Paul's epistles, he emphasizes those three virtues, faith, hope and love. Those are the three main virtues that he emphasizes in all his epistles or most of them. Faith, hope and love. Put on the breastplate, he says, of faith and love. okay he's talking about love for your brothers and sisters if you love one another that's going to protect you like a breastplate protects you from from those arrows and things that come at you all right we saw that already you remember chapter 3 verses 12 and 13 and may the lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we do for you so that what happens if you love one another he may establish your hearts blameless and holiness before our god and father at the coming of our lord jesus with all his saints he says holiness comes as you love one another you're going to grow as you love why that unless love grows selfish desires increase and we'll turn our love toward ourselves and not toward god and not toward others and that results in ungodly character and lifestyle so part of the protection part of the preparation is give yourself to loving one another that's going to protect you listen do you you must realize that if you're not loving others your spiritual growth is going to get stunted you see how well i read my bible every day and i witness to people all the time but if you're not loving the brothers you won't grow like you should you see you're still thinking about you get rid of you think about others that's a breastplate faith is part of that breastplate breastplate faith in the promises of god protects you as well believing what God says trusting his promises you see trust in the God who will always stand behind his promises and then he says so he's talked about faith he's talked about love now he talks about hope put on the helmet of the hope of salvation now he's talking here about the final installment to our salvation you say well I'm completely saved and I would say no you're not You say, wait a minute, am I in danger of going to hell?

No. Here's what you need to understand. God's salvation is an all-encompassing thing. It's not just my ticket to heaven, okay? That isn't salvation. Salvation is God justifying you so you're reconciled to him.

Salvation is your sanctification destroying the flesh. That's part of the salvation. It's your adoption. it's all of those things but the final installment of God's salvation is what glorification when he returns we will we will have our that final installment when God comes and finally rescues us from all adversity he rescues us from the sin within us and outside of us and he rescues us from his wrath which he will pour out on the day of the Lord it's going to rescue us from all those things.

That's the final installment. And he's saying, put on the hope of salvation That not a vague anticipation that something good will happen It the settled assurance that Jesus will deliver you You know it It just hasn happened yet One writer put it this way, so we have this hope, right? This hope. We have this settled assurance that someday in the future, when Jesus appears, He's going to deliver us finally and completely from all the sin around us, all the sin in us, and he's going to deliver us from all the persecution we suffer.

He's going to deliver us from even his own wrath. That's the final installment, right? And one writer put it this way, if we do not have the helmet of hope, things in life will come crashing down, cracking our spiritual skulls, and incapacitating us spiritually. Can you see the picture? What is that? I am completely convinced that God is going to show up.

Jesus is going to show up and deliver us. That's what's going to keep us going now. You see? That's going to keep our skulls from getting cracked. That's the helmet we have. We have this certain hope that God is going to come.

We will not be incapacitated if we're living with that hope. You know how it is, folks. you know what listen to me you're incapacitated at work when you see it when you don't have this helmet of hope you can get incapacitated at work you've got some people at work i know i i've been there it's been a while but i remember those days right i remember my very first job i had a boss that thought his job was to torment me that's what he thought would make me into a man i guess that's what he was paying me for to make me into a man. I don't know.

He said, torment me. And you're tormented too. What's going to keep you going? You know what's going to keep you going? Realizing that God doesn't even overlook that. That whoever is persecuting you, they're going to have to talk to God about that.

And God's going to bring it up to them. You know what you were doing to my children? I don't like it. And unless that person is saved for what he's done, he's going to pay for what he's done for you. now that may sound un-Christian we get to 2 Thessalonians you're going to see that Paul says here's your hope the people who trouble you I going to trouble you see the helmet of the hope of salvation is what going to keep us going But how do you know that armor is going to do the job Especially that helmet of hope.

That's what verses 9 and 10 tell you. Notice that little word there, for. For, okay, put on the breastplate and the helmet. Why? Because God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we're awake or asleep, we might live with Him. You can rely on that hope because God did not appoint you to wrath.

There's real reason for hope. Why? God hasn't appointed you to wrath. God has set His love on you. If you're a Christian, and you have entrusted yourself to Jesus, and you are in Christ. God has set His love on you for the very purpose of escaping His anger.

He says, I'm going to love you so that you don't experience my wrath. You may not know when the day of the Lord will arrive, but you don't need to be anxious about it. You do not need to be anxious about it because God's plan for you is salvation and not destruction. That's His plan. That's His plan. In fact, he says, what?

That God secured that for you through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus secured that for you so that you don't have to be anxious about the day of the Lord. You do escape God's wrath. You don't escape God's wrath because of some good life that you live. Oh, I hope I, as if this is your salary for living a good life. It doesn't happen through you.

You've got no claim on escaping the wrath of God. there's only one way of doing it and that is trusting yourself to jesus and what he has done that's the only way you're going to escape god's wrath that escape comes simply completely holy through grace nothing you have done earns that deliverance listen to me all of you now if you're saying well i'm okay with the day of the lord because i think i've done pretty good you are in you're in trouble because you're not going to do good enough no one does good enough but it comes to us, that escape comes to us through Jesus. Listen, this is what's amazing to me. It is the Lord Jesus himself who comes in judgment who rescues you from judgment The very one who comes to bring judgment is the very one who rescues you from his judgment How?

Look what he says. Through who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him. That escape from the coming wrath of God, where God on the day of the Lord suddenly appears and brings great destruction on all those who are not his. you're delivered from that because it's the fruit of his death on the cross you will not suffer the wrath of God on the day of the Lord because Jesus suffered the wrath of God on the cross and so if you trust in him that wrath has been poured out on his son already it's not going to be poured out on you it's nothing you do it's all of Christ it's all of grace and he died so that you may live with him.

Do you see that? He died so that you may live with him. So whether you're asleep or whether you've died when the day of the Lord appears and you're already dead, you're going to live with him. If you've entrusted yourself to him and what he's done on the cross. If you're alive, awake, when Jesus appears, you will live with him. Why?

Because he died for you. If you've entrusted yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ you have hope because that wrath will not fall upon you it will not God has not appointed you to wrath but because you've believed in Jesus he has delivered you from his own wrath because his son suffered it in your place how then do we prepare for the day of the Lord you don't do it by wasting your time correlating news stories with the latest book on biblical prophecy that isn't going to prepare you for the day of the Lord. The way to be ready for Jesus' appearance is to live a life of faith in God's promises, to love the brothers, and to live in the hope of final salvation that's yours in Christ.

That's how you prepare for the day of the Lord. You walk like a soldier. You walk in faith, love, and hope. The last thing he says in verse 11. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. Prepare for the day of the Lord by motivating one another as brothers and sisters.

Now he says been doing this. Here's again, these are the champs. This is a champion church. They've already been doing this. They've already been encouraging one another. He says continue to do it.

Continue to do what? Keep encouraging one another. Life is hard in this incursed world. You know, there are Christians in Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, all over the world who are facing death and persecution. You know why? Because they say Jesus is Lord. jesus is lord can cost them their lives they're dying in our country well we're ostracized we're not acceptable in polite company anymore we're the crazy fanatical bigots that hate homosexuals and obviously are racists all right and so we're marginalized at least that's what we're facing now So what does he say?

He says, encourage one another with the promise that we will share in Jesus' resurrection. Chapter 4, remember? You may be dying, but there's a day of resurrection coming. Encourage one another with the promise that we going to share in Jesus triumph We may be ostracized we may be marginalized but we going to share in Jesus triumph when He comes and encourage one another with the assurance that the day of the Lord is coming He says, keep building each other up.

Keep building each other up in the faith. Help us. We need to help each other walk as children of light. We need to build one another up so that we're walking as soldiers of Christ and putting on the armor. We need to help each other grow in faith and love and hope, sobriety. We need to build each other up.

That's how you prepare for the day of the Lord. You don't prepare for the day of the Lord by figuring out the signs of Jesus' return. You prepare for that day by encouraging one another and building one another up in the faith. That's how you prepare for the day. I want you to go back with me and think about four-year-old Greg we'll call him Greg Greg's four years old and he's taken to his room by his mom she's angry with him and she says you good in here and I want you to take a nap now he's mad because he doesn't want to take a nap so you know what he does? takes out all his crayons and he starts drawing on the walls and he just drawn all over the walls He just in that room angry at his mom just drawn all over the walls when suddenly the door opens and there she stands He jumps.

Right? He's surprised. Now, how is he surprised? In one sense, he's surprised that his mom is just standing there because he wasn't expecting her to show up at that moment. but in another sense he's surprised and he jumps because he's caught right you see those two different levels of surprise i'm surprised because oh mom's there but i jumped why because i'm got caught doing something i shouldn't have been doing when i should have been doing something else now god has told us to prepare for the day of the lord in one sense all of us are going to be surprised because no one knows the day or the hour when Jesus shows up so we all are going to be surprised to a certain extent but on the other hand the day of the Lord should not catch you by surprise by the Lord catching you so how do you prepare for the day of the Lord so you not surprised in that sense Well you prepare by walking as children of light You prepare by walking as soldiers of Jesus.

You prepare by encouraging and building one another up. Prepare for the day of the Lord. Stop looking and start living. Father, thanks for your word. thank you for it's how it penetrates our hearts how it opens up whole new vistas of understanding to us so that we know how to live and Lord I pray that this congregation would be a congregation that prepares by living in the way it's supposed to help us to stop help us to stop imagining to stop trying to figure things out and instead to devote our energies to walking as faithful disciples of Jesus, serving the Lord Jesus with all our might.

Help us to prepare in that way, and we'll thank you for what you're doing. In Jesus' name, amen.