Amen. All right, continuing our study, Practical Daily Living in a Non-Christian World. We're now in 1 Thessalonians Lesson 10, Ready for the Day of the Lord. Text from 1 Thessalonians 5, and the focus on verses 1 through 22. Key verse, this is after the verses in our text this morning, but chapter 5, verse 24 in his closing to the Thessalonians for this first letter to them, to that church. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. You can read from verse 23 down through 28 and see how he leads into that. That's kind of a conclusion of this whole closing to the letter. Application for today's lesson, the student will be challenged to live his life daily as though the Lord could come today. So with that, the context for our lesson, Brother Steve covered chapters 3 and 4 last week, but in chapter 4, verse 13, Paul began the subject of the return of Christ back in that verse, and continues the subject today in chapter 5. In both passages, Paul stated that the Thessalonians were to comfort one another with these words. Verse 18 in chapter 4, verse 11 of chapter 5 of today's lesson. The Thessalonians were confused over issues of death and the return of crops. and we'll get more into detail on that today. The Bible doesn't give us a detailed timeline for the end times, but we have enough, it tells us enough, we have enough information that we can be comforted, as the Bible tells us to comfort one another, and we will not be surprised at the arrival of these end time events. But most importantly, the study and the knowledge of these end-time events should motivate us to live for the Lord faithfully each day. So, the question we all must answer, are you and I ready for the Lord to return? Our outline for today's lesson is pretty short and sweet. Be ready, verses 1-8. Be comforted, verses 9-11. And be at peace, verses 12-22. So, be ready first. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 1 says, But of the times and seasons, brethren, or brothers in Christ, ye have no need that I write unto you. Now, the but is a conjunction which connects the earlier verses in chapter four with this new chapter that we're going to study. And it suggests a contrast. When it says but rather than and, it means there's a contrast between what he just said and what he's going to say. and it indicates a change of topics within the same overall topic of prophecy. 1 Thessalonians is a lot about prophecy. The subject is changing from a discussion of the blessings of the rapture of believers to the judgment of unbelievers. The times and seasons or ages and events when it's talking about many of these people expected the Lord to come in their lifetime. And so they were confused and grieved when their fellow believers died before Christ came back. They were concerned about this delay. And so Paul, in his letter to them, tries to assure them or assures them that everything's okay. The phrase, times and seasons, comes from Acts 1-7 where Jesus is speaking to his disciples And here's where I want to start in verse 6, to lead in, the disciples ask him a question. When they therefore come together, the disciples, they ask of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Will you kick the Romans out, and will you restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, verse 7, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. He's saying, this is not going to be done on our timetable, this is going to be done on God's timetable. You know, when the time is right, when God says the time is right, you will tell Christ it's time to go back. And this verse, this phrase used in Acts, Jesus using in Acts, actually goes back to Daniel 2, verse 21, where it says, and he, meaning God, changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings, and he sets up kings, or presidents, or dictators. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them, that no understanding. So, again, it's God's timetable. The reigns of kingdoms are within God's power and the timing of God's judgment, which is a part of this, is at His discretion, His discretion alone. And the specific timing, as I already said, is outside of our knowledge. He finishes up this verse while we read the whole. But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have, you have no need that I write unto you. Now why is that? Apparently, the Thessalonians knew, at this point, knew all that they needed to know about the coming judgment, the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord, the coming judgment. And Paul had taught them some additional things in chapter four about the rapture. And so now their knowledge was complete. They had all they needed to know about the rapture and about the end times. Verse two, for yourselves, know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the knife. The day of the Lord is a future period of time in which God will be at work in world affairs more directly and dramatically than he has been since the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that day begins immediately after the rapture of the saints and ends with the conclusion of the millennium. And within that, there's two days of judgment. One is his coming at the end of the tribulation period, and the other is his coming at the conclusion of the millennium. And here, right here, Paul is referring to that aspect of the day of the Lord at the end of the tribulation period. And he says, he will come as a thief in the night, That phrase is never used to refer to the rapture of the saints, which happens at the beginning of the tribulation period. It's used to speak of Christ's coming, like I just said, at the end of the tribulation or at the end of the millennium. In both those occasions, He comes as a thief in the night. He comes unexpectedly and without warning. that will come in both those instances. Verse 3, 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. So, he uses the thief in the night as a metaphor. And here in verse 3, he adds two more metaphors to that. One is peace and safety. Just as the false prophets in the Old Testament forecast a bright future in spite of the fact that judgment was coming soon, they will do it again in the future, just like they did in the Old Testament, just before this day of the Lord and its destruction that will happen then. The second metaphor is that of of the labor pains that go along with childbirth. The Lord used this same illustration in the Olivet Discourse, and this metaphor of the birth of a child shows several things about the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord. It shows, one, it's inevitable. Just as the birth process starts, it's inevitable, it's going to go to conclusion, it's sudden, it's inescapable, and there's a painfulness to it. So it is with the Lord's judgment that will happen at the Day of the Lord. Notice in verse 3, Paul uses the third person plural pronouns. It says, for when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as prevailed upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. Now let's look at verse 4, and we'll compare the pronouns there. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. So now he's changed to ye, or you, and at the end of the verse, you again. because the saints have been raptured already, so they're gone. So they won't be experiencing this judgment that's coming at that point in time. So believers have no part in the day of the Lord because they've been delivered from this He's going to get into some contrasts here. And one of them is darkness and light. They've been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of light. Jesus taught that to believe in him would remove a person from the spiritual darkness. We're blind. Before we're saved, we're blind. We're in darkness. But our eyes are open once we quit trying to live a perfect life or, you know, handle the sin problem ourselves and give it up to recognize that we're a sinner and we need a Savior. And that brings us into a into the sphere of light. We're in verse 4. But Paul really emphasizes this idea of the sphere of darkness and the sphere of light because he keeps going with it through verses 5 all the way up through verse 7 to add emphasis to this on the contrast between Believers, non-believers in a sphere of darkness and a sphere of light. Verse 5 says, Here are all the children of light, speaking to the members of this church. Here are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. So he sets up this contrast. We no longer live in the blindness So we should act like that. We should be alert to spiritual issues of the day, and live a life that is alert to what's going on in the world, that's balanced, that's godly, and it's under the control of truth. That we seek the truth, and then we're going to live by the truth of God's Word. Verse six, he goes on, therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. Verse seven, for they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. Unbelievers are not aware of these spiritual realities. If you've been reading the newspaper, you can see different people making comments of what's going on over in Israel. And we know what the Bible says, we know enough of the end times, and we see things happening, and we know where we're headed. We don't know when it's coming, but we know where we're headed. They don't know where things are going. They're not awake to spiritual realities, rather they're asleep and controlled by forces outside themselves, which render them unable to respond as they should, just like those who are drunk. When we're asleep, we're not in control of our bodies, by God's design. Our bodies are resting and rejuvenating themselves, repairing things that The things we've done during the past day takes a toll on our body. We're tired. We need rest in order to go about our business the next day. In the same way, the drunk person is controlled by forces outside their body, of their choosing, but similar to it, is the point he's making. These are normal characteristics of those who live in the sphere of night. He goes on, verse eight, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. Believers are children of God, their Heavenly Father who is light, and in whom there is no darkness at all, the Bible says. Believers live in a completely different sphere of life than those who will be judged in this day of the Lord. Notice Paul. Paul is talking here about, he says, be sober. And in keeping with that sober attitude that he just described, Paul uses the metaphor of a soldier in armor. This is one of Paul's favorite illustrations, the sight of a soldier, comparing the Christian life to that of a soldier. And he speaks first of the breastplate. The breastplate of a soldier covers him all the way from his neck down to his waist, which covers most of the viral organs. So it's an essential item of armor for the soldier. And that's what, then he says, the breastplate of faith and love for the Christian, The faith and love protects vital things in our life. Faith in God protects us inwardly, and love for God and love for other people protects us outwardly. And these attitudes equip Christians to be ready for the rapture, as he encourages us strongly to do. In addition, he speaks of a helmet. You know, over in, I think it's 1 Corinthians, the armor of the Lord, he goes through all the different pieces. Here he just singles out the breastplate and the helmet. But the helmet, for the head, protects the soldier from physical attacks, And by the same token, the hope of salvation guards the Christian's head from attacks on their thinking. The salvation that he speaks of, the hope of salvation that they're looking forward to is deliverance from this wrath to come when the Lord returns. And it's not, for the Christian, it's not a wishful thinking that they hope they'll be saved eternally. But the Bible says we have sure hope. And we're not as others who have no hope. Which brings us to this question. Describe how you are living in expectation of the Lord's return. What are we doing that we do because we're expecting the Lord's return? Or maybe that's not the only reason, but... Watching. Watching, okay. We know it's coming. We have the assurance that it's coming. Jesus gives us all the signs. and different books of the Bible of what it's going to be like right before his return. And all of these signs converge together. So we have to know what's going on in the world. We have to watch and know what's going on in the world. I mean, if you can look at today's church, You can tell a lot about what's going on. You look at a Catholic church and look at what they're starting to accept in their church. It's not just the Catholic church, but it's the process that broke away from the Catholic church, the direction that they're going in. It's scriptural, because it says in the scripture what they're going to do. But it's not the way we're supposed to be looking. So we're commanded to watch. To not be surprised when he comes back, but to be aware of what's going on. Are you here today because you expect Christ to come? It's not the only reason, but he tells us, be ready and don't be surprised by it, but continue with your lives. Continue doing all these things. Reading your Bible, learning more and more about Christ, more and more about God. Pray. All these things he's told us to do, he said, don't neglect those. you know, like some, and dress in white robes and go wait up on the roof of a building for Christ to, you know, those people then left wanting, had to come down embarrassingly and come up with some other explanation for why Christ didn't come. But we need both sides of the coin, my point. So we comforted, verses nine to 11. We'll move through this kind of quickly. Verse 9 says, "...for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." So this wrath that he's speaking of appeared to be not just a temporal wrath that happens during the Tribulation period, or the second half of the Tribulation period, but of the eternal wrath of people that come to that point without Christ. Verse 10, who died. Verse nine says, 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. So whether our bodies are alive or we sleep in death, in either case, one day we're going to be together forever with the Savior who died for us and paid for our sins. Verse 11, Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. So this is the verse I was referring to, the parallel verse or the companion verse to, I think it's verse 18 of chapter 4, where he told them then to comfort one another. So he talks about hope, and he will talk more about hope as we go through this, but that's what brings us comfort. So how can we comfort and edify one another in the fact that Jesus soon returned? share with them that hope. We get comfort for ourselves. We can build them up, encourage them by reminding them that they also have this hope. This is a promise, and God keeps His promises. He will return. Lastly, be at peace. We'll read verses 12 and 13 together, then we'll come back and unpack it. And we beseech you, brethren, we beg with you, we plead with you, brethren, brothers in Christ, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you. and to esteem them very highly in love for their worth's sake, and be at peace among yourselves." So, Paul describes their spiritual leaders in three ways, and I'm going to take that. Well, he says, to know them which, what? Labor among you, number one, are over you in the Lord, number two, and number three, those who admonish you. So take the first one, take the middle one first, I think it's most important. They are over you in the Lord. This is the same word translated in the Bible in 1 Timothy, where it says, Paul speaking to this young pastor, Timothy, says, Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the Word and doctrine. So let the elders or pastors that rule well be counted worthy. So clearly it's referring to pastors of this church. I don't know if they have more than one. And other examples of this were 2 Samuel 13, 17, I'll not read it, but it speaks of a servant who was in charge of a house, which speaks of stewardship. not ownership, but taking care of something for someone else. 1 Timothy 3, it speaks of, it uses this word as the way fathers should rule over their houses. So, you roll all that together, Pastors are to exercise oversight of the congregation and provide leadership under God, but are not to be authoritarian, authoritarians, plural. The second one is they labor among you. So, pastor is a church member, first and foremost. The Bible says we're fellow laborers with each one of us with each member. The pastor is a church member also. He has responsibilities of church membership alongside the responsibilities of formal leadership, leading the congregation. And as I said, we are pastors are fellow laborers with us in the Lord while they lead the church in their office. Lastly, he says they admonish you This is a reference to the ministry of the scriptures, ministry of the Word of God, teaching, preaching, counseling, and other things related to that. It's interesting, the word for admonish is a compound of two Greek words, place and mind. So the pastor places God's Word in the minds of the congregation. which requires that he places it in his own mind first, just like a teacher. I can't teach what I haven't studied and prepared. And looking at this from another side, as we go through the scriptures, there's three words. that describe the work of the pastor or the title of the pastor. One is bishop or overseer, the second is elder, and the third is pastor. And I say that to sort of align those three words and duties of those three people with these words in verse 12. The overseer, the bishop, is over the church in leadership, which aligns with those who are over you and the Lord in this verse. The elder sets the example for the flock as one of the flock, which aligns with the they that labor among you. And then pastor, the pastor feeds the flock by admonishing them with scripture. And that aligns with admonishing, the third word here. So that's what the pastor is to do and how we are to relate to him. What were the Thessalonians to do? Well, these same verses tell us that. And we beseech you brethren to know them. Now it doesn't mean just to know their name, but to know them. is to recognize the spiritual role of the pastor and to show him proper respect for that role. The second thing in verse 13 was to esteem them. We are to know them and to esteem them. To esteem them very highly, it says, and love for their work's sake. Not to be loved for their charm or their wit, but love because The pastor shows his love for them, or us, in his labor for God. And when these things happen, when the Thessalonians, or us, are doing what we're supposed to do, and the pastor is doing, fulfilling his role, verse 13 closes, and be at peace among yourselves. At that point, if things are working that way, there will be, a church will be at peace. And we'll look at verse 14 and 15 together. It says, Now exhort your brethren, warn them they're unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. So here he talks about or presents to them how all church members as well as church leaders are to treat each other in the fellowship of the church. Unruly is one who doesn't follow and talks about one who is unruly. Unruly is one who doesn't follow rules and causes chaos and turmoil within a church. It says, warn them. Don't let a problem fester. If there's a problem like that, it should be addressed and not allowed to fester or it becomes a bigger problem. Feeble-minded doesn't have to do with intelligence, but those who have been beaten down by discouragement. And he says, comfort them. The third instruction is to regarding the weak, those who have not yet learned to lean on the Lord as much as they should for their spiritual needs. And until they do, they require strong support from other believers. So he says, support the weak. And then this fourth instruction sort of summarizes the first three. You have to apply this one to all three of those other cases. And that is to be patient as you're working through these parts of ministry to different people, always be patient with them. And then number five, he says, see that none render evil for evil. That would be basically avenging or wrong or retaliating, and retaliation really isn't an option for a Christian. So we're not to render evil for evil, but do good for other people. Then the closing, he gives these short, sweet, someone called it staccato statements, almost looks like, you know, if a pastor's preaching and he looks at the clock and he's running out of time, he may summarize one of the points in his lesson by just giving you the important stuff. And that looks maybe like what Paul did, I don't know, but he said it was important enough and those who give us our scriptures, I felt it was important enough that it needed to stay in there. He says, rejoice evermore. Joy is appropriate at all times. He said, pray without ceasing, or pray not continuously 24 hours a day, but pray persistently but pray regularly. Verse 18, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. A lack of thankfulness is a trait of unbelievers. They don't recognize where their blessings come from. And then, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you, I think applies probably to Verses 16 and 17 and 18. Verse 19 says, quench not the spirit. The Bible tells us don't quench the spirit by sinning and don't grieve the spirit. But instead walk, be controlled by the Holy Spirit and walk in the Holy Spirit. Verse 20 says, despise not prophesy, prophesyings. We usually think of prophesying of foretelling future events, but more often it is giving forth the Word of God, the written Word. And he's saying, don't despise it, do the opposite. Don't treat it lightly. but receive it with seriousness, because it is the word of God. And then lastly, verse 21, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil. So he's saying both sides of the coin there. But look at things, especially the preached word. Do a careful examination and discernment. The Bible talks in the book of Acts about the meridians and how they search the scriptures daily to make sure these things that Paul was preaching were so, and worthy of the same mind. But examine it carefully. What we find from what a man tells us what is found to be good and consistent with scripture, we're to embrace that wholeheartedly. But if it's found to be evil or unbiblical, unscriptural, we're to shun it. And we're to abstain from all appearance of evil. If we work on that one, then it never comes to doing evil. If we're trying to abstain from just the appearance of evil, That's a good safeguard. That's a good thing of the Lord I'm looking for. Keeps you back from the cliff. Have your guard, your guardrail back from the cliff. If you're abstaining from all appearance of evil, you should be good. With that, I'm going to close. just read an excerpt from, what's the application to this? How do we apply this? Well, really, I think he's told us that little by little all the way through this lesson. The writer of your study guide sums it up this way. We are to live in faith, hope, and love, and live in anticipation of the Lord's return, faithfully working for Him. We're to show love for one another and to comfort and edify one another. We're to love and respect our pastors and do good to everyone. Christians are to be people of joy, prayer, and thanksgiving. If I had to sum this all up, this paragraph up, that's what I would use. Christians are to be people of joy, prayer, and thanksgiving. We are to be people of the word, led by the spirit, and we are to be people characterized by good and never evil. And with that, I'll close. Lord, thank you for this chapter, this closing chapter of 1 Thessalonians, and help us to apply it. There's a lot of Things to do in there, things to work on, new checklists to measure ourselves and see how we're doing and what we need to work on. And we just pray that you'll bring these things to remembrance and help us to even go back and reread them from time to time. Pray for the after service, pray that you'll bless the message and pray for our work this week for you. bring us into contact with people we should speak to and give us boldness, help us to share your word, share the planet's knowledge with them.