Let's begin with a word of prayer, all right? Our Father, we're just grateful to be here tonight and to just enjoy each other's company, spend some time together in fellowship, but also just around your word, which is so precious to us, Lord, and we're thankful for that. And as we're looking at you coming again, Lord, we're excited about that, looking forward to it, desire to be with you, and we're grateful for the mercy and grace that you've extended to us, Lord. Just guide us along tonight, we pray now, in Jesus' name, amen. So, finished chapter four last week of 1 Thessalonians. But I think we'll start, just read a little of four and then work into five. That's where we're going tonight. So let's get to 1 Thessalonians 4, 16. For a little bit of a head start. 1 Thessalonians chapter four and verse 16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will be raised first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. 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 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 for a helmet and the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Starting in verse one then. Now concerning the times and the seasons. Times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. The word time there is chronos in the Greek. We would get chronograph from that, timepiece. Okay, so pretty easy to think about that. The seasons is more the character of the season. And the way I would liken it to would be Let me ask this question. What would be the season of 1940 to 1945? I gave you the time. He said war. And more distinctly, we'd say World War II, right? You see, we've got the time, 40 to 45, and the season, World War, OK? we might say 2020 to 2022 was the season of COVID, right? So we see the times and the seasons, okay? I think that helps us kind of understand that. Let's go over to Luke 21, where we have some more talk about times, okay? Luke 21, 24. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations. This is speaking about the Jews. And Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. So we're living in the times of the Gentiles, which most people would say probably started in 586 when Nebuchadnezzar last sacked Jerusalem. They've really been under Gentile rule since then. And we're still in it today, and will be until probably the rapture, as I see it. Maybe through the rapture, actually. Certainly at the millennial, that's about the Jews, at the millennium. But the times of the Gentiles, we just see that time, okay? Another place where it's used, and we see times and seasons, Acts 1-6. Acts 1-6, and this is at the Ascension. Okay, this is some of the last words of our Lord. Acts 1-6. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority. So the disciples were not to know either the times or the seasons that the father had set by his own authority. The exact time of his return, we don't know. Let me read this to you out of Mark 13, 32. But concerning that day or that hour, this is the Lord speaking, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. So even the Father keeps that from the Son. And how many of you have seen the movie Before the Wrath? I think you ought to watch it. It's on Amazon Prime. You can get it there. I don't think it costs anything. It's part of Prime, actually. Did we pay $4.99 for it? Whatever. OK, not much. Before the Wrath, there's a number of people in it. It's more of a documentary. Jan Markello is in it, and Amir Sefardi, and also a guy named Jay McCarl, who's a pastor out of California, somewhere up in the hills. And they talk about a Galilean wedding and how it's distinctly different in that the way it's done, I don't want to ruin the whole thing for you, but the father and the son, they go to the girlfriend's house, and they make a deal, they make a contract essentially, and then they go back, and so he has to prepare a place for his new bride, and then he goes and gets her. And it can take up to a year sometimes for him to build onto his house, which was traditional, build onto dad's house, build a room or several rooms or something like that, because they tended to live that way and have a central courtyard and all the family was kind of together. He doesn't know when he's going to go get his bride until the father says, OK, you're ready. And he's supposed to have all these provisions and things ready. He's supposed to have a week's worth of food ready so that they go into the bridal chamber for a full week. OK? A bunch of things. And so it takes time to prep all that. And this Jay McCarl, who has written a book that I tried to buy and it's selling for like 280 bucks on Amazon. It's out of print. Because I think a lot of people saw this movie in there after the book. The problem is, and he says in his own writing, that he didn't really document all this. And so that's why there's a little bit of a caveat with me. It bothered me when I watched the show that some of the things they say in there, which makes sense to me, and I think I probably agree with, but he didn't really document all his stuff. He lists a whole mess of books, but he says, I really wrote it more for young people and stuff, and I didn't put bibliography in it. And I don't know why he hasn't gone back. So all that to say, I think it's worth watching, but I can't find stuff to substantiate some of the claims he makes. They actually fly the bride back to the bridal chamber. They carry her on a a pallet between sticks and four or five guys, bridesmen, groomsmen, would carry her back, which is really a picture of us as the bride of Christ going back to heaven. And he shows that in the show, and that's really cool, and that sounds like, wow, that's just like a pre-trib rapture that we hold to. But I haven't been able to find documentation for it. That's why I take it with a little bit of salt. I want to believe it. I think you ought to watch it. I think it's worth watching. I think a lot of it you can get out of scripture. It's good. And I like the people that are backing it up. Why did I say all that? Concerning the day or the hour, no one knows, only the Father. And so that's scriptural. And he sends his son at the appointed time to get the bride. There is this thing that we just read in Acts 1, 6, about it's not for you to know the times and the seasons. And I've kind of struggled over that because I understand not knowing the times. I don't know the date when the Lord's coming back. But the season, I think we do know. And yet this says it's not for you to know. And I'm thinking that this is directly given to the disciples. This is how I take this. It's given directly to the disciples, but later on, Paul has things revealed to us that really seem to indicate that we can know the season. And we'll get into that as we move down through this passage, okay? That it seems like, whoa, that makes, he's telling us we can know the season. And I kind of look back to Daniel 12.4, where he tells Daniel, you know, close this up until the time of the end, Daniel. Don't write down anything more. And I see that, down through history, when I look at church history, our early church fathers weren't talking much about eschatology. They were talking about who is Christ and is He deity and, you know, these other kinds of things. And Luther didn't deal with eschatology real well. You know, his focus was more, hey, we got to get back to faith alone, Christ alone, you know. and those kinds of things. And now that we are in the latter times, these things seem, it seems like the seasons are much more to us. And the Lord had told Daniel, you know, save us for the time of the end, you know, and I think these things get revealed to us more and more. And so I do think that we can understand the seasons now, even though to the disciples, he said, not yet. Okay. That's how I take it. Okay. So, and we're back in 1 Thessalonians 5, chapter 2. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Fully aware. His emphasis here is simply that believers were fully aware while unbelievers were living in ignorance of God's word, okay, of God's plans. The sadness of these events will reveal to the world its ignorance of divine truth. You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord, okay, and we've talked about this a little in the past, and I have a two pages of everywhere it says in the Bible, the day of the Lord, okay? And then there's a whole mess more that just say the day, and it's clearly referring to the day of the Lord. And it's a big study. The day of the Lord, what I understand of it, it's an extended period of time during which God openly intervenes in human affairs, both in regard to judgment and blessing, okay? The rapture ushers in the Day of the Lord, and the tribulation begins sometime after, as described in Revelation 6 and on, okay? And we'll look at this a little bit more later as we go on. The Day of the Lord involves all nations, including Israel, are involved in the Day of the Lord. Let me just read Ezekiel 30, verse three. For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. Okay, let me just ask this before it goes on. Doom for the nations, and it will be darkness and not light. Why is it doom for the nations? You know? Satan runs the world system. Yeah. And they're just not paying attention. As we just saw. Okay. It comes like a thief and they're just not paying attention. And they are definitely just following what Satan would have. Okay. Think about Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain? They don't want anything to do with God. That's where many of them are. Some are just apathetic. Then Matthew 24, 22, if those days had not been cut short, no one would survive but for the sake of the elect. Okay, so yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. I got some more to look at here regarding the day of the Lord. It lasts from the rapture to the end of the millennium. That's what most people hold, okay, in our camp, pre-tribulational camp. Let's turn over though to 2 Peter. We should look at that. 2 Peter 3.10. Second Peter 3.10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. So you can see that this verse kind of captures the entire day of the Lord. It comes like a thief, and then he goes clear back, to where we're done with the earth, and it's all destroyed. And that's at the end of the millennium. So this little verse of Peter just grabs that whole time section. I always think of it as 1,007 years, because it's at least the tribulation, and it's the millennium. And it wraps that all up into one. There's a little more time in there probably before the tribulation takes off. It's also called the time of Jacob's trouble. Let me read this to you. It's Jeremiah 30, verse seven. In the King James, it's Jacob's trouble. This is a little different here, but, alas, that day is so great, there is none like it. It is a time of distress for Jacob, that he shall be saved out of it. Which, you know, reminds us of Romans 11, where it says all Israel will be saved, okay, in the end. of the tribulation. And then the day of the Lord comes unexpectedly like a thief. Okay? Comes like a thief in the night. We just looked at this 2 Peter 3.10, which says the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And now a couple more verses to look at in Revelation. If you want to turn there, you could. Revelation 3.3. Revelation 3, 3, remember then, now this is speaking to one of the churches, okay? Remember then what you received and heard, keep it and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I come against you. Okay? He wants us to be paying attention and we'll see later on, it shouldn't surprise us. But here he's saying, if you're not paying attention, it's gonna be like a thief to you. You're not gonna be ready for it. And then Revelation 16, 15. Let you turn there one more time. Coming like a thief, he says, 16, 15. Behold, I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake. keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. It says in the night. He's coming like a thief in the night back in our text. It's like a thief in the night. It doesn't mean he's coming at night. It's just like that, OK? You're not really expecting it in the middle of the night. So he could come at any time, and we've looked at that previously when we were 2 Thessalonians 2 chapter 2. Okay, back into our text of 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3, next verse. While people, and we'll just say they, 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. So people, they, the world, are saying there's peace and security. The character of the times indicates peace and security, or peace and safety, depending on your translation, to those that are in darkness. We should turn over to 2 Peter 3.3. Got a little bit to look at there. 2 Peter 3, 3, knowing this, that first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires, and they will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. Nothing's changed. They're not seeing what's coming, and there's no expectation there. And this has happened before. Let me read Jeremiah 14, 15 to you. Therefore, thus says the Lord, concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, although I did not send them, who say, this is what the prophets are saying, prophets that aren't prophets of God, sword and famine shall not come upon this land. And then the Lord says, by sword and famine, those prophets shall be consumed. So we see that it's happened in the past. No, nothing's going on. Everything's going on just as before. Sun comes up, sun goes down, and we don't have to worry the Lord's not coming back. And that's an old line, but the Lord is coming. And then it says in our text, then sudden destruction will come upon them. They're saying peace and safety, peace and security. and then sudden destruction will come upon them, and that's those that are in darkness. I take that from verse four. If you look ahead to verse four in our text, okay, you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. So those that are in darkness aren't thinking this is going to happen, okay? Too many people walking by with a sign that says the end is near. They're just not buying it anymore. Okay. Matthew 24, 43 is a good example. Should look at that. Looking at the sudden destruction will come upon them, those that are in darkness. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. And then the Lord is going to take out his own before the day of the Lord. And go to Luke 17 for that. He has a history of this, and in Luke, it's kind of put together. Luke 17, verse 27, gives us a little picture. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. We see Noah is taken out from the destruction before the destruction comes. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they're eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day when Lot, it's interesting, it's the day when Lot went out from Sodom, Fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So again, here we see on that day, and we see the rapture taking us out in the day of the Lord beginning. It's not a day you wanna be around, it's a day of darkness and destruction and gloom. So the sadness of the rapture will usher in the beginning of the day of the Lord. And that brings destruction. And a couple of things I thought of here, just looking at destruction in four different ways, physically, politically, religious, and spiritual destruction. Physical, if it happens in a twinkling of an eye, there's going to be a lot of cars that go off the road. If it takes a little longer, maybe people will pull over and park and go, wow, that's my lord returning. Cars, planes, trains, ships, unmanned. You know, if it takes a half hour, some planes aren't going to get on the ground in time. Okay, whatever. Looting, theft, death, heart attacks, people just, you know, traumatic things like this. We see people just dying. Grocery stores overrun. No toilet paper anywhere. Overtaxed emergency services. Depression over lost loved ones, children missing. Many people think that children that are too young to have made a decision for Christ before the age of accountability, which might vary for every child out there, they may be gone. I even heard one guy say that he thought that pregnant women would lose their babies. I don't know that I'd go with that, but it's an interesting thought. Go to heaven. Yes, those babies would be raptured. It's a thought. That's a lot of physical stuff. I'm sure there's more you could come up with if you spent a lot of time with it and a group of people worked at it. Political stuff. I think there's going to be a rush to say that everything's under control, because it'll be a big thing. Maybe aliens will get the blame. I wouldn't be surprised about that. Christians were the problem. The left will love this. They can pass anything they want. Power grabs? Never let a crisis go to waste? You could probably think of lots of political things. shortly after that. Religious stuff. What is the Pope and all the religious leaders going to say? They'll have to say something. Those that are left behind. Pastor of the church here, pastor of the church there, whatever. Partial rapture. That should come back into favor, I would think. Partial rapture theory, which isn't scriptural. Those with worn out Bibles are all gone. Okay, then spiritual things. The big thing is the removal of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. That's just monumental. 2 Thessalonians 2.7 says, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And so really we see Satan unrestrained. Believers gone, the Holy Spirit in them is gone. Doesn't mean the Holy Spirit isn't here, but he's not in dwelling. There's no believers at that point, right after the rapture. Probably will begin to be some fairly soon after that, that recognize that they blew it. That'll be a huge thing that Satan has just unleashed, really. I don't know if you heard, but President Biden made an announcement to the Flagstaff right now, because we just reached the one million deaths for COVID in the United States this week. One million deaths. So I did a little math. I was kind of fooling around with this, because that kind of struck me when I thought of that. There's approximately 330 million in the United States. If 10% of them are Christians, that'd be 33 million. And I don't know if we have 10%. When you look at Sodom and Gomorrah, it didn't go off too good there. It was a really wicked city. I hope we're better than that. But for 5%, that's 16.5 million. And that's maybe a fairly safe number. I don't know. The Lord maybe is way more gracious than, you know, and merciful. Maybe it's more than 10%. I don't know. It's just numbers to play with, to think about. We probably all know Jessica Lewis. She's the only person I know who died from COVID personally. I personally, I know of other people, but I'm not going to count them. I know of Jessica. And you may know of one or two or three people that you knew personally. But if you take that number that's in your head there and multiply it by 16, that's how many people would be gone on the day of the rapture. So I know Jessica. So instead of just missing Jessica, it'd be 16 other people if 5% of this world is saved. If 10% are saved to be 32 people that I personally would know, I mean, that's roughly obviously. It's just something to think about. That's a lot of people gone. It's going to be devastating. That's the only point I was trying to make there. It says, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, they start slow, begin to build. Sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. Okay, verse 4 in our text, 1 Thessalonians 5, 4. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. John 12, 46 says this, let me read it. I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. So we should not be in darkness as believers. Let's turn over to Ephesians 5, 5. That's worth going to. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 5. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral, or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." That walking. just comes up over and over and over again. Do we remember the song, Walking in the Light? Walking in the Light, okay? Verse nine, for the fruit of light, think of Galatians 5 there, the fruit of the Spirit. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Verse 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. And we know that light exposes the unfruitful works of darkness. After the rapture, when the light is gone, how dark will that darkness be? It'll be a dark time. Verse 12. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed to the light, it becomes visible." And of course, you know, we're called to be the light of the world. But we're not to be in darkness. And again, this comes back to knowing God's Word so that, you know, we are aware of these things. That way, the day will not surprise us like a thief. And that's our next section here. for that day, and if, let's look at your text there, and we're gonna read verses two and four. We're just gonna take three right out of there, okay? For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day, the day of the Lord, to surprise you like a thief. And I hadn't seen this before, but this verse really ties the rapture and the day of the Lord together. In my mind, it just locks them together. You're not in darkness, brothers, that day will surprise you. Why? Because we're gonna be here for that day. We're gone at that day, but it starts that. It should not surprise us, okay? So we go up and that day starts, that day of the Lord. The rapture ushers in the day of the Lord and the tribulation begins sometimes after that. There is some sort of gap thought between the rapture and the tribulation starting. There's this peace deal that's made with the Antichrist. It's gonna take him a little time to establish his position. Year, two years, couple years, we don't know. But there is a period of time it appears. That's what most people in our camp are holding to. But it comes as a thief to the world. And we should not be surprised. Like Noah, like Lot, the Lord's going to take us out of here before the rapture, before the wrath of God. In verse 4, this is where I think we understand the seasons, in that that day shouldn't surprise you like a thief. We should be able to see that season. We don't know the day, we don't know the time, the chronos. but the season, it should not surprise us like a thief. And then the other verse that we often quote, you know, Hebrews 10, 25, let's not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. So here we got two verses that say we can see the day approaching. We don't know the day, but we know the season. And it's a season of lawlessness. You know, we see those things. I think we see precursors. I think that the vaccination mandates were really a kind of a precursor to the mark of the beast. And that if you didn't have the passport in some places in the world, you couldn't get things, you couldn't do things, you know. And I think it's just casting a shadow ahead of what's coming. And we're certainly getting close to I mean, there's just so many things are lining up. It's just amazing. All right, so Christians can see the day approaching. We should not be surprised, but waiting expectantly, you know, that it could be any day, and our hearts need to be prepared for that. Another verse I just thought of that I didn't put in here, but I think it's 1 John 2, I want to say 26 or eight, Yeah, 28, 1 John 2, 28. Okay, we need to be prepared so that we don't shrink back, okay? You know, a lot of people have said, if he gave us the date, I listened to a guy the other day who said, if he gave us the date, we'd be in Las Vegas till a week before. I mean, that was, you know, just hyper-really, but. You get the point. We'd be goofing around until the last minute, and we'd say, okay, I better straighten up and fly right. But he didn't do that, and that's probably for that reason. Okay. Let's turn over to Luke 12. Luke chapter 12 and verse 35. And we're still looking for that day to surprise you like a thief. Luke 12, 35, stay dressed for action. Keep your lamps burning. That's reminiscent of the 10, it reminds me of that parable of the 10 virgins who weren't ready to keep their lamps burning, were they? Some of them didn't have the oil. Verse 36, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. They see the master approaching is what's going on. They're ready. Blessed are those servants whom the father finds awake when he comes. Awake, alert. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. It's thought that we go to the marriage supper of the Lamb after the rapture during that seven years, that that seven years is a period of, again, back to that movie, The Wrath, before The Wrath, there are premises that the wedding feast was often a week-long affair, a seven-day affair. And that's a picture of us in heaven with the Lord before we come back with him on white horses of being at a wedding feast. Maybe. Hope so. This says, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch or the third watch, Let me say something here that I've told a few of you this and There's this thought, and some people teach it, that the Lord is going to come back on the Feast of Trumpets. And it makes sense to me because he fulfilled the first four feasts right on time. And the Feast of Trumpets could really fit with the rapture of the church. Sort of bought into it a little bit until recently when I read this. Because last year, when the Feast of Trumpets came around, it's usually in September. It varies because of their lunar calendar. I was paying attention that day. I just was. And I probably will this year, too. But I'm expecting it. And here he says, we can't expect it. And so I thought I should mention it because I think you ought to know it's getting more and more prevalent. I'm seeing it in various places. People are putting this out there that the Lord is going to come back on Feast of Trumpets. Maybe he will. And what year, we don't know. But I found myself expecting it. And here it says I can't expect it. And there's a couple other verses that say the very same thing. It sure seems to fit. It really fits well in a lot of ways, because I've looked at it quite a bit. But I'm not promoting it. And I've been very cautious to say it. But I thought I would say it now, because it's getting quite prevalent. And so you should probably know about that. Can't be any expectations. We are to be awake and waiting, and are we dressed for action? Are we awake and waiting and dressed for action? That's a question to ask ourselves. All right, we'll finish with this. It's a quote from McGee. I thought it really ties this together well. He says, the rapture of the church actually does two things. First, it ends this day of grace in which we are today. This calling out of a people for his name and bringing many sons home to glory. The times of the Gentiles. This is what God is doing in our day. The rapture not only ends that, but, number two, it begins the day of the Lord. The great tribulation will get underway when the church leaves the earth. The one event of the rapture will end the day of grace and begin the day of the Lord. It closes one day and opens another. I thought that was a good way of saying that. So we'll end there for tonight. All right, let's just close in prayer. Again, Lord, we thank you for your scripture, and we look at it here tonight and try to work through it, try to best understand it as best we can with what we're given and what you've revealed. And there are some areas where we struggle to understand for sure what you mean, and maybe as time goes on, we'll understand even more. But it's clear, Lord, that you want us to be awake and alert and waiting for you and to be looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Help us to be doing that for sure, Lord. We just pray this now in Jesus' name, amen.