Ron Dunn Podcast - The Second Coming Pt 3

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Ron Dunn speaks from 1 Thessalonians from his Second Coming series

Would you open your Bibles now to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and follow along as I read verses 1 through 10. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 1 through 10. The message this morning is the third in the series on the second coming entitled, The Suddenness of His Coming. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 1 through 10. In the fourth chapter, as we saw last Sunday, Paul has been revealing to us through the Holy Spirit what is going to happen to those who are dead in Christ when Jesus comes back. And naturally the thought and the question arises in the minds of these people, well, what about those of us who are alive and living right now?

And when is all of this going to take place? And Paul says the only thing we know about the time is that we don't know the time. And so the fifth chapter, he describes certain things that have to do with his coming. And the emphasis and the overall tenor of this passage is that his coming is going to be sudden and unexpected. Beginning now in verse 1 of chapter 5. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye 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, and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober. Putting on the breastplate of faith and love. And for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath.

But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Several years ago, I attended a Congress on Prophecy, and they had the theme of their prophecy painted on a large banner stretched across the front of that auditorium. The words that revealed the theme of that conference were in the form of a question, What is this world coming to? What is this world coming to? And I sat there all week long wishing I could change that question, because as interesting

and as important as is that question, what is this world coming to, there is a better question. What is coming to this world? When I think about what this world is coming to, I get a little bit discouraged. But when I think about what is coming to this world, I get encouraged. And the emphasis in the Word of God is not only what is this world coming to, but primarily what is coming to this world. And the people who are merely focusing on what is this world coming to are the people who are trying to do something to change it, and they're trying to educate and to sophisticate and trying somehow by a thousand different means,

humanly devised, to change the course of history. But those who are primarily concerned, not only with what this world is coming to, but what is coming to this world, are those who recognize that only the intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be able to halt the onrush of human history and put things in their rightful place. Paul is talking about not so much what the world is coming to, but what is coming to this world.

And he speaks about a day in which God is going to break into human history. He describes that as the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. And one of the most important lines of prophecy throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament is that phrase, the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. He says in verse 2, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Now there is in the New Testament another expression called the day of Christ. You'll find it in 1st and 2nd Corinthians and also in Philippians chapter 1 and chapter 2. And the New Testament speaks of the day of Christ.

Now the day of Christ and the day of the Lord are two different emphases. They more than likely occur at the same time, but the emphasis is different. When the New Testament speaks of the day of Christ, it is relating that day to the reward and the blessings of believers when Jesus comes again. Philippians 1, 6, Paul writes to those who've been saved and he says, I'm confident that God who has started the good work of salvation in you will perform it, will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. And in the second chapter, he says that he wants to be found faithful at that day of Jesus Christ. And so the day of Christ emphasizes that day in the future

when Jesus Christ is going to come and bring his people to himself and reward them and bless them. The day of the Lord, every time it is mentioned, is always mentioned, not related to blessings, but always related to judgment. The day of the Lord is a fearful day. In Joel, the second chapter of Joel, he says, blow the trumpet in Zion

and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand, a day of darkness. Now remember that. It is a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and a thick darkness as the morning spread upon the mountains. Now over in Zephaniah chapter 1, listen to what the prophet says in verse 14. The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hasteth greatly. Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man, shall cry there bitterly.

That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation. A day of darkness and gloominess. A day of clouds and thick darkness. Remember that. It's going to be important in just a few minutes. A day of the trumpet and alarm. He says, I will bring distress upon men that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord

and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath, but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land. So the day of the Lord undeniably is a day of terrible judgment and a day of darkness. Now that day does not simply mean a 24 hour day, but it refers to an extended period of time in which the Lord will make himself conspicuous by his working. It is the Lord's day. God's going to have his day.

God's going to have his day. I know once in a while people say, well, why doesn't the Lord do something? Look at all that's going on. Why does God just sit there in his heaven and do nothing? The devil's having his day. But listen, the Lord is going to have his day. There is going to be an age ushered in by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for his

saints and that day of the Lord is going to begin with the rapture of the saints and extend through the tribulation period up until the time when the eternal ages begin. There is a time coming when God is going to have his day. Well, why does the Lord call it the day of the Lord? Why doesn't he call it the age of Lord call it the day of the Lord? Why doesn't he call it the age of the Lord or the time of the Lord? Why does over and over in the Old Testament he speak of it as the day of the Lord? Because it is an age that has the characteristics of a day, the characteristics of a 24-hour day. When does the day begin? It begins at midnight, the darkest hour, the darkest hour.

That's why the Christian who knows his word and who loves his Lord's appearing as the things in this life progressively darken and the gloom deepens, he lifts up his head, for his redemption draweth nigh. The day of the Lord will begin at the darkest midnight hour, but then it progresses until the dawn of his advent and his authority and his kingdom is set up on earth. It begins in darkness and it ends in the glorious dawn of his kingdom. The day of the Lord is coming. This is what Paul is referring to. That day of the Lord is going to come sudden. It's imminent. It is imminent.

We read last week in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 that the Lord Jesus Christ, the very next thing that's going to happen on God's prophetic calendar, the very next thing that is going to happen is that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to descend to the lower atmosphere and he's going to raise the dead in Christ and he's going to catch up those of us who are alive and remain in Jesus to meet them in the air and then we're going to be with the Lord forever at that moment the day of the Lord the day of judgment the day of fearful retribution will be ushered in, and it will be at the darkest hour

of human history, and we're fast approaching that day. It could happen today. The Lord could come right now before this sermon is over. Before we finish this service, the Lord Jesus Christ could catch us all up to be with him, and all the prophecies of the Word of God and the events of the present day indicate that this is going to happen and that right soon. What about the day of the Lord? Paul mentions several things in this passage, and I want us to discuss and discover the three primary characteristics that he reveals to us concerning this day which is going to come. First of all, the day of the Lord is going to be a time of destruction. It is going to be a time of destruction.

Notice what he says in the third verse. 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. Notice what the apostle says. It is going to be a time of sudden destruction, and it's going to come upon them. Now that word, come upon them, is a very interesting word because it means that it's already coming. It's in the present tense, which means that it is certain.

It is already headed this way. There is nothing that can stop it. There is nothing that can stop it. There is nothing that can alter it. It is going to come, and the word means it is going to come to stay and to stand by us and to be upon us. It is not going to be just a fleeting passing of God's wrath. In times past, God has poured out a little bit of his wrath, but his destruction and his wrath has never come to be upon us and to stay,

and that's what's going to happen. It is going to be a time of destruction. Listen to what Peter says in 2 Peter 3. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt.

That word means they shall liquefy with fervent heat. And the word heat there is the Greek word for fever, which means an internal heat, a heat which comes from the inside and explodes on the outside. And scientists tell us that there is a deposit of fire in the core of this earth. And someday God is going to use that great deposit of fire that is in the core of this earth

and that fervent heat, heat from within, a fever, the old world is going to have a fever, and it's going to explode. And he says all of these elements shall liquefy, they shall just turn to liquid with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. It is going to be a time of destruction. And when he uses this word destruction, it does not mean annihilation.

Remember that. God never annihilates life. He's not talking here about the destruction of the essence, or rather the existence of life, but rather the essence of life. He's not going to destroy the being. He's going to destroy well-being. That's the idea.

In other words, this destruction is God extracting everything from us that makes life meaningful and joyful and purposeful. There is going to be destruction, not the existence of human life, but the essence of human life. Now he says this destruction is going to be inevitable. Inevitable. Look the way he describes it in verse 3. As travail upon a woman with child. It's in the nature of things.

When a woman is with child, there comes a time when that child must come forth. It is inevitable. It is inevitable. It's in the nature of things. It's in the nature of things. You may not know when that's going to happen, but all of a sudden, there it is. It's time.

I remember when one of our children were born. my wife had been to the doctor that day, and he said, well, I'll see you next week. You know, it's going to be about three weeks. And so I think it's around four or five o'clock in the morning, she woke up and she said, it's time. She called the doctor, and he said, it's not time. You just go back to bed. Well, she went back to bed, but she didn't go back to sleep. And about two hours later, an hour and a half later, she called that doctor. She said, I don't know about you, but I'm going to the hospital. And I took her to the hospital. We lived out in North Dallas, a farmer's branch, and I had to drive all the way in town to Baylor Medical Center. And all the time we were counting, you know, counting the

seconds and counting all of that. And I was just hoping the Lord would hold things up until I got her there. But now listen, you can call the doctor and say it's time. He says it's not time. His word doesn't have a thing to do with it. When it's time, it's time. It's inevitable. Listen to what God says. This destruction that is coming upon the earth is as inevitable as a child coming forth. I heard Billy Graham speak in Denver a couple of years ago, and he said, If God does not judge America, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. And I believe that. If God does not judge this country, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah

because we have more light and more grace and more opportunity and the Bible says to whom much is given much is required this destruction is inevitable there is nothing that can alter its course

and he says it is also inescapable they shall not escape and that's a double negative. They shall not by any means escape. There will be absolutely no escape whatsoever. Are you a part of this? Every person who's not been born again into the family of God, every person who has not had his sins washed in the blood of Jesus, every person who has not had his sins washed in the blood of Jesus, every person who has not confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, will be a part of this destruction which is inevitable and inescapable that's coming and that right sin. But it's also not only going to be a time of destruction, it's going to be a time of

deception. A time of destruction. It is going to be a time of deception. A time of deception. Notice the apostle again, verse 2 and 3. 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. It is going to be a time of great deception. And this deception comes from two things. First of all, because they listen to false speaking. In verse 2, they shall say, and that's in the present tense,

it means they're all the time saying it. That's their message. That's their hobby horse. They've gone to seed on that. They go around with two fingers stuck up all the time. And he says, while they're actually saying peace and safety, while they have the words on their lips, destruction shall come. Now, those of you that live in the clusters of evangelical churches

find this hard to believe. But did you know that most of Christendom doesn't believe that Jesus is coming back? Did you know that? Did you know that the majority of those who profess to be Christians believe that the church's mission in this world is to change this world

and make it so glorious and magnificent that the Lord will just move his residents down here? Did you know that? And did you know that in the majority of the churches in Texas, if I were to preach what I'm preaching this morning, even though it's the Word of God, they would laugh at it and say, that is all symbolical. And people are going to be deceived because they've been listening to false speaking. Peace, safety.

You remember what Peter said over in that third chapter of his second epistle? People came along and they asked a question and made a statement. They said, where is the promise of his coming? You said he's coming again. It's been 2,000 years since he's left. Where is the promise of his coming? They asked the question and then they make a statement. For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they are.

What they're saying is we live in an unchanging universe. And did you know that people believe that today? They try to deny the fact that God destroyed the world with a flood. And they try to deny the fact that God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, because they want to believe that this is a stable universe. And it is not a stable universe. And there are countless hundreds of false prophets today

going around saying, peace and safety. But not only because they listen to false speaking, but because they've been lulled into a false security. Notice what he says in verse 2. The Lord come up as a thief in the night. Over and over again he says he comes in the night. Notice verse 7. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. Why do you suppose God keeps insisting that his coming is like a thief in the night? Because they that sleep, sleep in the night. They that are drunken are drunken in the night. Here's this false sense of security that people have. They feel like everything's all right.

They do the best they can. They go to church once in a while. And after all, this is a Christian nation. And after all this bugaboo about demons and the devil and the second coming and judgment and this world being destroyed with fire in this sophisticated, educated age, nobody can believe that. And so they take a bottle, they get drunk, and they go to bed and they sleep. They're just as at ease as they can be, lulled into a sense of false security. I think every American knows now, it's been brought out so many times why the Japanese decided to bomb Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning, because they knew Americans. And they knew that on Saturday night was their time to live it up. And Sunday morning was not the day they all got up early and prayed and went to church.

But Sunday morning was the day when the majority of Americans were suffering from a hangover from the night before. Lulled into a false sense of security. And I'm reminded of the prophet Daniel as he describes the destruction of Belshazzar. It says that while Belshazzar drank, while he was feasting,

at the very moment he was feasting in a false sense of security, the Chaldeans came and destroyed him. It's going to be a time of great deception. And there are a great many people today that are deceived about the events of this present hour and that the coming of the Lord is nigh. The judge standeth at the door and is knocking. But there's one other thing I want us to see in this passage. Not only is it a time of destruction and a time of deception,

but the best thing of all, it is a time of great deliverance. A time of deliverance. Notice what the apostle says in verse 4. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are the children of light and the children of the day. Then in verse 9, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the certainty of our deliverance. A lot of people are questioning this idea of what will happen to those of us who are

alive during this time. And this day of the Lord that is going to come upon the earth, and all of this time of tribulation that is going to come upon the face of the earth, will those of us who are alive in Jesus at that time have to go through that great time of trouble? And that's been a question that's been on my mind and on the minds of a lot of others. And I admit to you this morning that there are several verses in the New Testament

that seem to indicate that those believers, that the Christians alive at this time will have to go through that time of tribulation. But there are a great many others that indicate otherwise. And the one thing that has convinced me this morning more than anything else that we will be delivered from that time of destruction and that time of tribulation is this passage right here. Paul says, But you, brethren, are not in darkness. That day is going to be a day of darkness. We are children of the light. That's going

to be a day of darkness. Those who are children of darkness will be in that time of darkness. We are children of the light. That's going to be a day of darkness. Those who are children of darkness will be in that time of darkness. But notice he says that that day should overtake you as a thief. That word overtake means to lay hold on you and hold you. Brother, that day is not going to lay hold on me. That day is not going to take hold of me, because I am a child of light. I am a child of the day. That's going to be a time of darkness and a time of the night.

Notice what he says in verse 9, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. God has not appointed me, that word appoint means to put me in a place, to place me, to put me in order. And God has placed me and God has placed you. There is a place that God has for every one of his children and that place is not wrath. And as I look over in the book of Revelation as it describes that great day of the Lord, as it describes that great time of tribulation, over and over again it says that it is the wrath of the Lamb. It is the wrath of the Lamb.

And that is the wrath of God as it is being poured out upon this world that has rebelled against Him. And this Scripture says that God has not put me in the position of wrath, but salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to be a time of great deliverance. It's going to be a time of great deliverance. And I want you to know that if the Lord Jesus Christ should come right now, all of those

who are in him would immediately leave this place and be rescued and delivered from that day of the Lord. Our day is the day of Christ. That's my day, the day of Christ. Your day is the day of the Lord, if you don't know Jesus. And everybody in this congregation this morning must fit under one of those two days. Either your day is the day of Christ when He will perfect what He started in you at salvation, or your day is the day of christ when he will perfect what he started in you at salvation

or your day is the day of the lord a day of darkness and gloominess and wrath and retribution from which there is no escape the certainty of my deliverance god has not appointed me to wrath but notice the challenge of my deliverance you know the word of God never informs us about the future merely to satisfy our curiosity. But always that you and I might be challenged by it and might prepare ourselves. Notice he says in verse 6, Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. Verse 8, 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. Now let me just mention three things

that you and I are to do while we're waiting for the coming of the Lord. First of all, we're to be awake. We're to be awake. He says, therefore, let us not sleep, but let us watch. Did you know that there are some here this morning that are sound asleep? And all the time God's alarm clock is ringing in your ears, and he's saying, listen, you've got unsaved friends, and you've got unsaved children, and you've got unsaved employees, and all the time you're asleep and the billboards of God meet you as you drive down the highway saying the time is short the time is short and some of you still are spiritually asleep spiritually numb and spiritually

dull and insensitive he says wake up your eyes, see what's going on. And the tragedy is that there are a large host of professing Christians who are living as though everything was going on like this for the next thousand years. It is not, brother. It's time to wake up, to open your eyes, to watch. Keep your eyes open. Be awake. And your eyes open. Be awake. And to be alert.

He says be sober. You know what being sober means? You say, well, that means not being drunk. Well, yes, it does, but that's only a part of it. To be sober means that I am not to be influenced by anything outside the Word of God. It means to be controlled. It means that every time somebody comes along with a new idea or a new ism or a new philosophy or a new belief or a new religion, I just don't fall. But I'm sober, I'm controlled by the Word of God.

And I'm not going to be letting the world and Satan and the flesh influence me and distract me and to push my energies other places except in the service of my Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says we're to be armed. Verse 8, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet, the hope of salvation of salvation you see we're waiting for his coming in a hostile world and you've got to be on guard put on the breastplate and that breastplate covers the largest area of the vital spots you cover all of those vital spots where the enemy could kill you you put on the breastplate and notice he said it's a breastplate of faith which means our relationship to god and a breastplate of faith, which means our relationship to God, and a breastplate of love, which means our relationship to other men.

Now, I want you to know this morning, the devil can defeat you if you are not right with God and right with man. You put on the breastplate of faith, your right relationship to God, and the breastplate of love, your right relationship to other people. And then you need something to control your mind, to give you peace and assurance. And he says, you put on the helmet the hope of salvation. What's he talking about? He's not talking about you're being saved from your sins. You've already got that. But he's saying the expectancy of the salvation that Jesus is going to bring to you at his second coming. That's the best way I know to be armed.

That's the best way to walk through this world that is living in hostility and enmity, to walk through this world right with God, right with our fellow man, and living in the expectancy that Jesus is coming again. And you show me any child of God who lives with that attitude daily, and I'll show you a child of God who's living in victory. Now, which is your day? Which is your day? The day of Christ or the day of the Lord? The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, the day of the Lord. slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.