So today I want to read a little bit further in 1 Thessalonians 5 after Jesus just finished
telling us that the day of the Lord is going to come as a thief in the night upon those
that are not saved, but upon us that are saved he said, Ye brethren are not in darkness that
that day should overtake you as a thief.
He says this, 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.
Now what's funny is that a lot of people will take this passage and say, well that's talking
about the day of the Lord, that's not the rapture, the day of the Lord comes later.
But if the day of the Lord comes later, then why would God say that we're not in darkness
that that day should overtake us as a thief.
We're going to be watching, we're going to be sober, we're the children of light if we're
not even going to be here for the day of the Lord anyway.
It doesn't even make any sense.
Obviously he's referring to the same day throughout 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Thessalonians 5 and
it's the same thought, that's why chapter 5 starts with the word but.
But notice he says, for they that sleep, sleep in the night and they that be drunken are
drunken in the night.
So he refers to those that are unsaved upon whom this day will come as a thief in the
night.
He refers to them as being drunken.
Well go to Matthew 24 and you'll see the exact same thing.
So in 1 Thessalonians 4 you have the rapture, then he talks about the day of the Lord coming
upon some people as a thief but not upon the saved as a thief because we're the children
of light.
Matthew 24, after he talks about the rapture, after he talks about Christ coming in the
clouds, the trumpet sounding, the elect being gathered, after he says, two in the field,
one taken, the other left, two grinding at the mill, one taken, the other left, listen
to what he says next.
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and
shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken.
The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and an hour that
he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth and we know that the weeping and gnashing
of teeth is a reference to the furnace of fire or hell.
And so what the Bible is using is the exact same illustration in Matthew 24 as in 1 Thessalonians
4 and 5.
Isn't it so consistent?
He talks about the rapture and then he refers to those who are not ready for the rapture,
those who are not saved, those who are in darkness.
They're not children of the light.
He refers to them as being drunken and he says it will overtake them as a thief in the
night.
He said the same illustration in Matthew 24 as in 1 Thessalonians 5 because he's talking
about the same thing.
And if you get the context and start reading in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 and read all the
way to 1 Thessalonians 5, 9 where he says that we're not appointed to wrath, it makes
perfect sense and it fits in perfectly with what you read in Matthew 24.
But if you're pre-trib, 1 Thessalonians 5 doesn't make any sense at all.
All you want to do is just quote verse 9 all day long and just keep quoting it about how
we're not appointed to wrath, but you don't want to go to chapter 3 where it says we're
appointed to tribulation and you don't want to go to Matthew 24 where he says the exact
same thing and tells us that the rapture is after the tribulation.