Insight for Living

Guest (Male): You can't have a baby without labor pains and those without Christ can't escape the Lord's coming judgment. Two surprisingly similar human moments. In the same vein, Christians are commanded to keep watch and help others do the same. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll explores how to stay spiritually vigilant during these critical times. Our message comes from Chuck's series called Contagious Christianity. In this next study, we'll meet a man whose expensive barometer correctly predicted a devastating hurricane, illustrating how God's Word accurately forecasts the coming judgment. Chuck titled his message "Like a Thief in the Night".

Chuck Swindoll: We saw in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 18 truth concerning Christ's coming for His own. It was great. We all felt like cheering. If you were like me, you sang all the way back to your house. You were thrilled to read "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus shall we ever be with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words."

Let those words put their arms around you and encourage you when you're in the valley. Those words will put a mountain in your valley. They'll give you a reason to go on. Ultimately, we face a very bright tomorrow. Christ is coming. That's a marvelous truth and we count on it and it's comforting to us.

The Thessalonian believers were concerned about a couple of things, however. Not only were they concerned about their dead Christian friends and family members being missed when Christ came back, but they were concerned about whether they might be going into a period of tribulation because suffering had begun to happen.

Now 1 Thessalonians 4 answers the first concern. 1 Thessalonians 5 answers the second. The Day of the Lord is coming (verses 1 and 2). The Day of the Lord relates to the unbeliever (verse 3), and the Day of the Lord has some things to say to the believer (verses 4 through 11). Look at the coming of the day. "Not to worry," says Paul. "Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you."

I take it that he says that because when he was with them, he covered the bases sufficiently. He said to them while he was among them, "Here is God's plan," and he spelled it out for them to understand it. And they grasped it as best they could in his brief ministry among them. Then he left. And he's told them all that he knew to tell them and they had heard all that he had to say. So he says for me to write this to you really is superfluous. I've covered the bases.

Verse 2: "You already know this, that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night." Right away I know I've come across something different than chapter 4. "Like a thief in the night." Well, toward the end of chapter 4 we read verse 16: "The Lord Himself will descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God." Does that sound like a thief in the night?

Thieves come when you least expect them. No announcement, no trumpet, no screams. They slide in and out just like a thief. No announcement. Chapter 4:13 to 18, there is an awareness, there is a knowledge, there is a forth-telling along with a fore-telling. "It's coming. You will hear and you will see and it will be for you, my child." Count on it, it's comforting.

But verse 3: "While they"—note the pronoun, different from "you," verse 4—"but you." Now, "while they are saying peace, safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly." "Finally, we've got things like we want it. We've got the answer man on the throne. Take it easy." And then destruction. Pain is certainly involved. You see the next analogy? "Like a woman suffering birth pains."

We had our son and daughter-in-law and grandson who's doing fine. Some of you were concerned about him recently and I want to tell you he's doing great. No, I'm teasing, nobody asked me about him, but I'll tell you whether you ask about him or not, so you don't have to worry about that. He's doing great. He was sitting in his highchair throwing cornbread crumbs all around the room. It was adorable. When my children did it, I hated it. I think it's beautiful now when my grandson does it.

Just making the biggest mess, the place looked like a tornado had struck all around him. He had stuff all over his face and all down his front. He was terrific. And I looked at Debbie and I said, "He's so cute, he's such a beautiful child now. Tell me, what was the hardest part of all?" She said, "Well, obviously the labor." She said, "When you get to the last two or three centimeters, why," she says, "you know you've got this nurse leaning over you saying, 'Now just breathe, don't put all of your energy into pushing, just breathe.'"

She said, "I want to say to the nurse, 'Well, why don't you get down inside this body and go through that if you've got all the answers for me?'" She says, "Here I was just almost to birth and these incredible pains coming upon me." And I instantly thought about this passage of scripture. Inescapable pain. You can't have a baby without the pain. You will not know tribulation without destruction. See the way it closes? "They shall not escape."

The rocks and the mountains will scream for relief and there'll be no relief. God planned it that way, anymore than you and I could escape an 8.3 earthquake in the Los Angeles area. You don't live through it. If you do, you don't escape the pain of it. It's coming. It's real. It is as real as birth following pain. It is as real as the sudden surprise of a thief that's invaded your home. That's the point. And convincing people in an easy day like today is almost impossible. But it's coming. It's coming.

Now I think some are convinced and you're getting uneasy, some of you who should not be uneasy because you're among the brethren. See verse 4? "Isn't knowledge a wonderful thing?" I think Charlie Brown was right, he said the other day in one of those cute little cartoon columns, he says, "Security is knowing the answers to the questions on the test." And he's sitting there writing them all down, the other kids are just breaking out in a sweat. Security is having the answers.

"But you, brethren" (verse 4). "You, not they, not them." That's verse 3. "Children of God, you are not in darkness that the day should overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We're not of the night, we're not of the darkness." So then, look at the responsibility. Here's the part that follows the knowledge. So then, those little particles are so helpful when you read your Bible. "Let us not go to sleep. Let's not even get sleepy as others do."

You see, the unsaved will live their world in slumber. They'll live out their lives calling disaster peace or potential disaster a time of peace. He says, "You've got too much information for that." I mean, if anyone ought to be on target and alert today, it ought to be the child of God, the informed Christian. You've got information that the unsaved world would love to know about. It's your comfort. No wonder you sleep well at night. No wonder you relax.

But this is the day. "Let us not sleep as those who are slumbering their lives away. Let us be alert and let us be sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night and those who get drunk," he writes in the first century, which is different in the 20th. "Get drunk at night. Now they get drunk all day and all night." But in those days, it was reserved for the night. The point is clear. Those who live in the realm of darkness carry on their lifestyle in a realm of darkness. But you are of the light.

You have been marvelously privileged to have information, to be made aware of a coming doom, to know the horror that will strike this earth. You even have information on how to be delivered from it. You know the Savior. You know of the cross and the empty tomb and you know the offer of the gospel. You have enough to keep you at peace. "Since we are of the day" (verse 8). "Let us be sober, having put on a breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation."

A.T. Robertson in his Word Pictures says that this idea of watchfulness brings a figure of a sentry to our mind. The sentry is on guard and he is well-armed. You're like an alert sentry. You've got a body of information and it's your privilege to know it and to protect it and to make sure it's declared. What a challenge to get the message out. "God hasn't destined us for wrath" (verse 9), "but for obtaining deliverance." Our message is one of hope through the Lord Jesus Christ who died that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

I call that a secure statement. Isn't that gracious of him? Even if you sleep, you'll awake with him. I have on occasion appreciated the writings of Earl Palmer. Recently reading his words regarding 1 Thessalonians 5, I thought these need to be repeated when I get to this passage. Listen to what Dr. Palmer writes.

"Paul calls his friends to keep wide awake and clear-headed. He speaks out against any dulling of the mind, whether by drugs or by indolence. How very far from all escapism is Paul. He calls out to Christians to stay in the real world, the 24-hour cycle in which all other people live, and to stay with style."

"The mandate still rings true in the 20th century. Our culture offers so many temptations toward the way of escapism and isolation. We are tempted to disconnect from society and human relationships on the one side to protect ourselves, and then to hurl ourselves into immediate and overwhelming personal relationships on the other side to satisfy ourselves. A gradual cynicism seeps into the process. We may take pills to be dynamic or at least to cope and then pills to disconnect and go to sleep."

"Over against this temptation toward the dreamy world of constant and expensive tedium stands St. Paul's demanding and vital portrayal of discipleship." Now, let me add just a note here that I would be tempted to overlook if I hadn't thought of it. Some must have medicinal help to make it in life. Okay? This man isn't attacking that kind of necessary assistance. What he's talking about and what the apostle is talking about is an unadvised, unwise dependence on drugs, on alcoholism, on whatever will allow you to escape from the real thing.

It's a picture of vigilance, being mentally active, spiritually alert, and prophetically aware. That's what it's talking about. No one fits that picture better, I repeat, than the child of God. You know that you have heard enough in these moments, you've heard enough to qualify you as an authority on prophecy compared to the knowledge of the unsaved world.

You know that Christ's coming is at any moment. Most don't know that. You know that His coming will remove from this earth all believers. That's an absolute mystery, an unknown factor in the minds of the unsaved. You know that that will plunge this world into an unsaved population in which judgment will break out from the hand of God upon this earth for a period called the tribulation period. Again, that's just called fantasy at best in the eyes of the unsaved. And you know there's a way out of it. Once again, not known by the unsaved world.

You are awake. You are not asleep. You are getting this information. Let it go. Tell it. Announce it. Offer it. Make it available. Well, what about to one another (verse 11)? "We're to encourage one another. We're to build up one another just as we are also doing." Now, I find that very, very encouraging. I don't find a panic-stricken, stress-ridden evangelist written across Paul's mind. I see us calmly, deliberately yet consistently making the Savior known, but at the same time encouraging one another and building up one another.

You say, "Well, that's easy." Well, hey, are you doing it? If it's so easy, how much time you spent these past six, seven days encouraging one, two, three other people? Have you done that? Isn't it remarkable? We are masters at finding flaws with each other and just drilling away at those flaws. But this passage says we're to affirm each other. We're to build up each other. We're to strengthen one another so that we can make it through the day because there comes a night when no one's going to be able to work.

Now I want to say something about urgency. Then I'm all through. First I want to say something to believers and then I want to say something to you who have yet to come to know Christ. To you who are Christians, don't be indifferent because tomorrow is secure. There's work to be done today. It troubles me when I meet up with a student of prophecy so-called who has put it all together, has so many of the ducks in a row that there's no longer even any sense of urgency about it.

He or she knows where that person's going and they're on their way and don't bother me with anything else, I've got it all put together. Something's wrong with your prophetic knowledge if that's been the result of it. I think a person who knows about the future and has a balanced view of it is intensely concerned about the lost. I think his concern for world mission could not be of greater intensity. I think a desire to help people and to assist them through life as it is in all of its pain is great. It's a great desire.

Indifference comes from a heretical understanding of scripture, not an accurate understanding of it. If you really believe the Savior's coming and if you really believe it's at any moment, you want to have as many as you could get ready with you. Now to you that are lost, don't be fooled because today seems calm. There's a storm coming tomorrow.

A number of years ago, there appeared in the New Yorker magazine an account of a Long Island resident who was finally able one day to satisfy a long-awaited desire. He had for several years thought about and finally saved up money for this order he placed from Abercrombie & Fitch: an extremely expensive barometer.

When the instrument arrived at his home, I'm quoting, "he was disappointed to discover that the indicating needle appeared to be stuck, pointing to the sector marked hurricane." After shaking the barometer vigorously several times and never getting the point to move and bumping it on his desk—not a good idea for an expensive instrument—the new owner wrote a scathing letter to the store and on the following morning on the way to work to his office in New York City, he mailed it.

That evening, he returned to Long Island to find not only the barometer missing but his house as well. The needle of the instrument had been pointed correctly. The month was September, the year was 1938, the day of the terrible hurricane that almost leveled Long Island. Don't be fooled. It looks like Easy Street right now. The chart at your business is beginning to go back up again. Your sales are better. Your bank account looks better. Your salary may have never been better.

Your hope is now brighter. Your health is good. You're even talking with a few members of your family again. You find yourself of all things enjoying life. Don't be fooled. There's a storm coming and you won't escape it without Christ. I'd like us to bow together. Will you do that, please?

This old book called the Bible has been bumped around, shaken, and beaten up on for centuries, but its indicators are right on target. If this book says Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming. If this book says disaster is on its way, disaster's on its way. If this book says there's no way to get out of that disaster save faith in Jesus Christ, it means that. God isn't hard-pressed with the facts. He tells us straight.

And my privilege at this moment is to tell you how to miss hell and get heaven. Nothing you promise, work on, or buy will make that happen. Faith in Jesus Christ will. You got it? Ever been a time in your life when you've said, "Lord Jesus Christ, I need you. I need what money can't buy: forgiveness, hope, peace of mind, the security of an eternal home, grace. I need a place in your family. I believe Christ died for my sins. I take him now"?

It's amazing what that'll do to the spiritual barometer. From disaster and hurricane, it'll turn to calm, fair weather, peace, hope. Father, I pray that You would show us again the hope that there is in the Savior. Calm the minds of those that are to be calmed lest they fear that which they have no reason to fear.

But for those who live in a false kind of security, in sort of a smug sophistication thinking, "Someday I'll deal with this," I pray that misery will accompany their path. There'll be no relief, no peace, constant turmoil as You, Spirit of God, work to bring them to their knees, to bring them to faith.

Thank You for the hope that we have in the Savior. May it not make us indifferent and distant from the lost, but on the contrary, sensitive, available, in touch, aware, in style with today, clear-headed, compassionate, willing to help. We're grateful for truth and how it delivers us from error and needless fear. May we not become indifferent, having been carefully and well-informed.

Now unto Him who is able to guard us from stumbling and present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, this day and forever. Amen.

Guest (Male): May God use His warnings spelled out for us in 1 Thessalonians 5 to prepare His people for the return of Christ. You're listening to Insight for Living and the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll. This is message number nine in a 12-part series that Chuck titled Contagious Christianity. Our prayer is that this in-depth study of Paul's letter has sparked your curiosity to learn more.

If so, be sure to request our latest Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook for 1 Thessalonians. This engaging resource allows you to shift from simply hearing Chuck's teaching to uncovering truth on your own. The spiral design means no wrestling with pages; it opens completely flat right alongside your Bible. And there's plenty of space for you to record what God reveals to you personally.

To purchase the Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook for Contagious Christianity, call 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/offer. Today we're also offering one of Chuck's most requested books and it connects beautifully with this study on Contagious Christianity. It's called Laugh Again and it's all about discovering outrageous joy. Here's an important distinction: joy and happiness aren't the same thing.

Happiness comes and goes with our circumstances, but joy runs deeper. In his book Laugh Again, Chuck shows you how to tap into the kind of joy that God gives, the kind that holds you steady when life knocks you down, when you're exhausted, or when anxiety keeps you up at night. This isn't about faking a smile or pretending everything's okay. It's about knowing the One who's bigger than whatever you're up against.

You can own this book Laugh Again when you make a donation to support the ministry of Insight for Living. Call 800-772-8888 or visit insight.org/donate. Thanks for remembering that your gift, no matter the size, empowers us to share Chuck Swindoll's teaching every day on your station and the many other places where you can freely access Insight for Living.

I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll continues his encouraging study on Contagious Christianity Monday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, ". . . Like a Thief in the Night", was copyrighted in 1984, 1985, 1993, 2003, and 2024 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.