Shabbat Shalom. Please open your Bibles. We are studying 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and we are going to deal in this ministry meeting with the first 11 verses. We can truly say that we have learned much from the writing of the Apostle Paul to these young believers in Yeshua, the Messiah, who found themselves living in the city of Thessalonica, eager to know what God has for them and the plans that He has for them. They have turned from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son to come from heaven. And the Apostle Paul really loved them so much that he was so concerned for their spiritual welfare that he sent Timothy in order to see how they are doing.

And upon the return of Timothy, he received information about their lives and he is writing them and seeking to answer some of their questions. So in chapter 5 verses 1 to 11, the subject here is the coming day of the Lord. Or as we say in Hebrew, Yom Le-Yehovah, Yom Adonai, the day of the Lord, specifically deal with the tribulation period. And so we read in verse 1, But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I should write unto you, for you yourself know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, shalom and shalva, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

But ye, brethren, ye 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 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 has not appointed us to rest, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord Yeshua HaMashiach, who died for us.

That whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. And I'm stopping here. This is verse 11 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We are dealing with the coming day of the Lord. Beloved brothers and sisters, to speak about such a topic today is something that is not really pleasant. In fact, God loves so much the world that He does not want that even one soul will be judged by Him and separated from Him for time and for eternity. God so loved the world, John 3:16, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might believe and be saved. But we know very well, beloved brothers and sisters, that the vast majority of the world population are still without the knowledge of the person of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah Jesus, the Messiah and the Savior. So the Apostle Paul naturally have concern for the believers at Thessalonica. He's writing to them this letter full of messages and full of instruction to these believers in Thessalonica. And finally, He's arriving to the conclusion of this letter. To remind you, and I think it's always good to remember, that He was there, according to Acts 17, only three Shabbat days.

Between three to four weeks, He was only the time that He spent in the city of Thessalonica. The city of Thessalonica have experienced the visit of the Apostle Paul who went to the synagogue of our own Jewish people. There He preached the message of the Gospel. He told them the fact that Yeshua is the Messiah, that He died and that He rose again. And now, after three weeks, He immediately had to leave Thessalonica because there was an opposition by other Jewish brethren who did not yet believe in the Messiah. And they did not like what He said. So the believing brethren took Him and sent Him to another town by the name of Borea.

From Borea, He went to Athens. From Athens, He went to Corinth. And from Corinth, He sent Timothy back to Thessalonica after a little bit of time to see how they are doing. And now, about a few years after, the Apostle Paul writes this letter to the believers in Thessalonica. Well, you remember in our previous meeting together, he wrote about the catching up of the believers to meet the Lord Yeshua in the air. "For we read," he said, "For this I say unto you by the word of the Lord," verse 15 of chapter 4, "that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Mashiach," the dead in Christ, "shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Then he said, "Comfort one another with these words." I read from verse 15 to verse 18 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. But now immediately in chapter 5, he cannot change the subject. From dealing with meeting the Lord in the air, he brings us back down and he began to deal with a period of time that is called in the word of God, "Yom Le-Yehovah," in Hebrew.

It's a biblical Hebrew terminology that he uses here in chapter 5 and verse 2 called "The Day of the Lord." "The Day of the Lord." In Hebrew, "Yom Le-Yehovah," "Yom Le-Adonai." And so now, beloved brothers and sisters, you notice that when it's come to the catching up of the saints, he said to them in chapter 4 and verse 13, "I do not want you to be ignorant or misinformed." But when it's come to the day of the Lord, they tell them, "You already know what I have already told you when I was with you." Because in this fifth chapter, in those first 11 verses, the Apostle Paul now speaking to the brothers and sisters in Thessalonica about the destiny of this world.

The destiny, or someone say, the fate of this world. You know, we don't realize, and the world, the unbelieving world, don't realize that the world is heading to a time where they will be judged by God. There is a day coming where God is going to judge this world in righteousness by that man whom he have called the name Yeshua the Messiah, the Lord Jesus the Messiah, there is a day of judgment that is yet approaching upon the nations of the world that rejected the person of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. But the believers, you and I, the Thessalonians 2,000 years ago, they have anticipated the coming of the Lord to take them to be with him in heaven.

To meet him in the cloud, to meet him in the air. But now, he is coming and he is speaking about a coming judgment that is going to come in the future day. So let me just break it down in order to help us all to kind of grasp what the Apostle Paul is saying here. First of all, in the first two verses, Paul is directly pointing to the day that is called the day of the Lord. It's not one single day of 24 hours. It's not one single day that is called in Genesis. You find it the first week of creation. He called it that day God created the heavens and the earth.

But he is speaking about a period of time that is really known in biblical terminology, in Jacob's trouble, in which God will judge this world in righteousness, as we were going to see this in a few moments. So, look what he says to them, first of all, in verse 1 and verse 2 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. First of all, he says, But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I will write unto you. Notice he used the word times and seasons. Times and seasons. In Hebrew, we call it etim vezmanim. Times and seasons always relate to the world in which we live in.

The believers in Yeshua the Messiah, in actuality, are outside of this world. Heaven is our home. We are a people that are heavily company, belong to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. But times and seasons belong to this earth. I want you for a moment to turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. And I want you to see what we read there in verse 14. When God created the heavens and the earth. We read, listen to this. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night. And let them be, listen to this. For signs and for seasons and for days and for years.

Times and seasons are linked with creation. When God created the heavens and the earth. Times and seasons were given to mankind. To our nation Israel were given times and seasons. The celebration that God had given. The appointed feast that God had given to the nation of Israel. I want to read another verse. In the book of Daniel. If you turn to Daniel chapter 2 and verse 21. Let me just read that verse also. It says here, And he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and setting up kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. God is in control over times and seasons.

You and I, we are not sure how things will happen. But we sure need to realize that times and seasons are linked with this earth and with this world. And so we find out that when the Lord Yeshua the Messiah had been resurrected from among the dead. And he went to heaven. You remember before he went to heaven in Acts chapter 1. The early disciples asked him. They say in verse 6. "Will thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" And Yeshua had to answer to them in verse 7. And he said unto them, "It is not for you to know the time that the seasons which the Father has put in his own power." God had placed times and seasons in his own power.

And the disciples, the Hebrew disciples of first century were told by the Messiah who was going to go to heaven. "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons." In other words, what we learned from that. That whatever information we have in the Word of God. We are not to set up times and seasons. You know, sometimes we say you heard on the radio or television. You know, the Lord coming on the 28th of October in 2015. Or the Lord is coming on that date. And sometimes we set up dates and time. While the Lord said to them. "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father has kept it and held it in his own hand." What the believers need to do is to allow the Lord to set up the times and the seasons.

And they are to be faithful to follow after him. Trusting that he will do all things well in the life of the people of God. So he said to them, "But of the times and the seasons, brethren." Notice he called them brethren because they were believers in Thessalonica. He said, "You do not have a need that I will write unto you. I don't need to write you times and seasons." You see, they were probably asking, "Well, when the Messiah will come? When Christ will come? When He will appear? When He is going to come to this world? We are waiting for His coming." I'd like to remind you that in chapter 1, the Thessalonians, we read of them, "You have turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven." They were waiting.

They were saying, "Will He come today? Will He come tonight? Will He come at that moment?" But apparently, He hasn't come because 2,000 years have passed by and you and I are still exhorted to wait for the coming of the Lord, to anticipate His coming at any time. But we do not know the dates. We do not know the times of His arrival to this world. We do not know the time that He's going to take the heavenly company before the tribulation to be with Him in heaven. Neither do we know the time in which He's going to come to this world. But we do know, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, that He will come to meet His people in the air.

And that the believers, the believers in Yeshua, the Messiah of this present age, will be taken up out of here, caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And we also know that the day of judgment at the second coming of the Messiah, that the day of the Lord will also come because... And now listen to verse 2, what the apostle is saying to them. He says, "Listen, for you yourself know perfectly that the day of the Lord is coming as a thief in the night." Now, notice he used the word, "You yourself know." Well, how do they know? The Apostle Paul was only three and a half weeks or so, three Shabbat days in Thessalonica.

But apparently, when he was with them in Thessalonica, he didn't only preach to them the Gospel, but he gave them some instructions that were given in the Tanakh, in Old Testament scripture by the Hebrew prophets. To remind you that in 50 AD, when Shaul Paul went to the synagogue, opening in the synagogue the scripture there, where there were some Jewish people and some Gentiles who came in, he read with them the Old Testament, the Hebrew Tanakh, from Genesis to Malachi, concerning the things of the Lord. He didn't have New Testament teaching in his hands. He was still enacting the book of Acts. Even the book of 1 Thessalonians was not yet written, neither 2 Thessalonians, because he wrote it much later on.

He visited them in 50 AD, he wrote to them in 52, 53, a few years later. So they only had the old Tanakh, Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim, the law, the prophets, and their writings. So he is now telling them, "You yourself know." And notice what he tells them, that the day of the Lord is coming as a thief in the night. Now just pause with me for a moment. That expression, the day of the Lord, is an expression that was written many, many times by our own Hebrew prophets in Old Testament, in Biblical times. That expression, "Yom Le-Yehovah," or "Yom Adonai," has been always taught by the Hebrew prophets.

Let me just read you some of them, that you will see how important it was in Israel's history. We read, for example, it says in Isaiah 2 and verse 12, "For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud," we just read it, "and lofty, upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low," the Bible teaches us, Isaiah we say. Later on in Isaiah chapter 13 and verse 6, notice what the day of the Lord is, the day of judgment, is the day where God is going to judge this world in righteousness. He says in verse 6 of Isaiah 13, "Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty." Again, it is a day of judgment.

In chapter 13 of Isaiah, verse 9, "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel, both with wrath and furious anger, to lay the land desolate, and he shall destroy the sinner thereof out of it." The day of the Lord is not a day that is pleasant, it's a day of judgment. It's a period of time that is known in Scripture as Tzarat Yaakov, the day of God's judgment. It is cruel, and God shall destroy the sinners, that means those that rejected the Messiah, out of it. It's a terrible time, beloved brothers and sisters. Jeremiah, Yirmiahu said it like this, "For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him, and the sword shall devour, and made drunk with their blood.

For the Lord God of hosts has sacrificed in the north country by the river of Euphrates." It's speaking about the terrible time which is going to come upon the face of this earth. Ezekiel said it this way in chapter 30 and verse 3, "For the day is near." Even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day. It is the time of the heathen. God is going to judge the heathen, the ungodly world in righteousness in the day of the Lord. Yom Le-Yehovah, Yom Adonai. Joel said it this way, let me read you what Joel had said in chapter 1 and verse 15, "Alas, for the day, for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as the destruction from the Almighty shall it come." Joel 2 and verse 1, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, sound and alarm in my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh." Joel 2 and verse 11, "And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great, for he is strong and he is executing his word.

For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it?" Judgment is going to come. Judgment is going to come. In chapter 3 and verse 14, Joel continues and he says, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." Men will have to make a decision and God ultimately will judge those who rejected himself and rejected the Messiah. There are many other verses that can be read from Amos, from Ovadia, from Tsephaniah. Listen to what Tsephaniah said in his writing. Tsephaniah chapter 1, 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 men shall cry there bitterly." "Destruction, cruelty, judgment, and trials, and the day in which God will judge this world in righteousness, because men have refused to accept his will." You know, the Apostle Paul said in Acts chapter 17, "He said those words, "At the time of this ignorant God winked it. But now He is commanding all men everywhere to repent." Why, Paul? Why does God command every man to repent? "Because He has appointed a day in which He will judge this world in righteousness by that man whom He has ordained." And as He said it, "Whereof He has given us assurance unto all men, in that He had raised Him, namely Yeshua, from the dead." So brothers and sisters, the day of the Lord is coming.

The tribulation period is coming. It is a time where God is going to judge this world in righteousness by the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. It is a terrible time. A time that we call it the tribulation. The Lord Himself, Yeshua Himself, called it a tribulation days. A terrible and an awful day of the judgment that is going to come upon this world. I want just to mention a couple more verses in the Gospel of Matthew. So please turn with me to Matthew chapter 24. Look what the Lord Jesus, what Yeshua said about this terrible day. Matthew 24 verse 36. "But of the day and the hours knoweth no man, know not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." You remember what we just read in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 2.

"For you yourself know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." Yeshua said in Matthew chapter 24 verse 36 that no one knows, only the Father, not the angels, only the Father know about the day that He kept for Himself. The Lord Yeshua continued and He said, "But as in the days of Noah..." And listen to this brothers and sisters.

"As the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." "For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and they were drinking and they were marrying and they were giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark." "And they knew not until the flood came." "And it took them all away." "The flood came and took them all away in judgment." "So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." "Then shall two be in the field." "The one shall be taken." "Taking in judgment." "The other shall be left." "Left to enter into the Messianic kingdom." "It is a terrible time, beloved

brothers and sisters, the judgment that God will pour upon the face of this earth, that He called it the Apostle here, after the Hebrew declarations by the prophets, He called it the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night." "You know, He had these words thief at night." "You know, at night time, usually the thieves go when everybody is sleeping or when everybody is away from their homes, they don't ever come and say, "Listen, I'm going to come to your house at certain time of the day or certain time of the night and just, you know, rob you and go away." "No, the robbers are not going to come in such a

way." "No, the robbers are not going to come in such a way." "The robbers are coming to do something when one is not expecting their coming." "The apostle Paul, he's saying in verse 2, for the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." "It is the day of God's judgment." "It is the time of Jacob's trouble according to Jeremiah 30 and verse 7." "It is the time, as we read here in the second verse, it is the time that the Lord will come as a thief in the night." "That this day will appear as a thief in the night." "And ultimately Yeshua himself points to that because he himself will come

when one is not expecting his coming." "Again, I just want to read another verse or two in Matthew chapter 24." "Because just before this, we find out, listen to this, and I'm reading Matthew chapter 24." "It says here in verse 34." "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass until these things shall be fulfilled." "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away." "In the next verses, in verse 42 of Matthew chapter 24, it says," "Watch thereof, for ye know not what hour your Lord does come." "You don't know that." "He says, but know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the

thief would come," "he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up." "Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man is coming." "He read Matthew chapter 24, specifically now verse 42, 43, and 44." "So beloved brothers and sisters, now just think with me for a moment." "He is writing this to the brothers and sisters in the city of Thessalonica." "They wanted to know certain things, what's going to happen, when will the Lord going to come?" "They were waiting for the Son to come from heaven." "So the Apostle Paul have taught them, when he was with them, that there is a

time that God is going to judge this world in righteousness." "The day of the Lord is coming, but there is no time that had been given for man to know that." "But what he wanted them to do is to be awaiting the coming of the Lord." "In chapter 4, verse 13 to 18, he is going to come to meet the believers in the air." "In chapter, immediately after the rapture or the snatching up of the assembly, he is going to come in judgment upon the face of this world." "And he wanted the believers to always have an attitude of readiness." "You and I know very well that had we lived in the light of the

coming of the Lord, there will be complete change in our lives." "Imagine if the Lord will tell us that he is going to come tomorrow morning." "I know what we are all going to do." "We are going to straighten up matters." "We are going to fix certain things." "We are going to correct the wrong." "We are going to all of a sudden be spiritual minded." "We will read the Bible." "We will pray and we will wait for the Lord." "Lord, you told us you are going to come tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock." "We will prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord." "But because we do not know the days and the times and the

seasons of the coming of the Lord." "Neither for the snatching up of the heavenly company, nor for the judgment that is immediately following after." "Therefore, we seem to, you might say, to neglect to have an attitude of waiting on the Lord." "So we carry on in life, we do certain things, neglecting to wait for the coming of the Lord." "Anytime we neglect to read the word." "We carry on in our life just like the unbelieving world." "And we neglect to be sober minded, waiting on the coming of the Lord." "So, Paul is encouraging now the brothers and sisters in Thessalonica to recognize that there will be a sudden coming of the Lord for the destruction

upon the world in which we live in." "And it may be very, very soon." "So notice what he said in verse 3 and verse 4 and verse 5." "Paul now pointing to the sudden, unexpected coming of the Lord for the destruction that will fall upon the face of this world." "And I'm saying it, if somebody is here who is not a believer yet in Yeshua." "Can you imagine what's going to happen to one who rejected Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah?" "And say, I don't need you as my Lord and as my servant." "Can you imagine the destruction that's going to fall upon those who rejected the Lord?" "Look what it says in verse 3." "For when

they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child." "And listen to this at the end of verse 3." "And they shall not escape." "You see the Apostle Paul is saying, listen, the unbelieving world, they will say, peace, safety, we are in a pretty good shape.

The country which we live in, things are pretty well." "The leaders of this country leading us to make peace and arrangement with the neighbor countries." "And everything seems to be in peaceful, in shalom and also safety." "We are protected, things are safe for us." "We don't have to worry about anything, we are in a safe situation." "But then what's going to happen is because they neglect to trust the Lord and recognize that He is coming." "And the judgment is going to come upon this world." "Then the Apostle Paul said," "When they shall say, peace and safety, then." "Then sudden destruction is coming upon them as a travail upon a woman with a child." "And they

shall not escape." "They shall not escape." "Now notice the difference between they and ye." "Notice in verse 3." "They shall say." "And then sudden destruction will come upon them." "As a travail upon a woman with a child." "And they shall not escape." "The Apostle Paul distinguished between ye and we from they and them." "The ye and we are the believers." "That they and them are those that do not believe in the person and the work of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah." "That they and them are the unbelieving world." "So he is saying, listen, they will say shalom." "They will say shalva." "They will say peace." "They will say safety." "But then there will be sudden

destruction that is going to come upon them." "I found them as, and he gave us an example, with a woman that is waiting to give birth to a child." "I know that from experience when my dear wife Irene was expecting our own children." "Yoav, Netanel, I remember that all of a sudden." "She called me, she moved me, she said, we gotta go, we gotta go to the hospital." "Suddenly we had to quickly get up and get dressed and take the bag and go into the car and drive into the hospital." "Because she was travailing, expecting to give birth to one of our sons." "We didn't plan it." "We didn't know the time." "We were just

going to sleep as normal as every other night." "Not expecting." "The coming time where a woman travailed with a child." "And all of a sudden it came." "We need to run quickly to the hospital so they will help with the delivery." "And our baby boy will be born." "But beloved brothers and sisters." "Here he doesn't talk about a birth of someone." "But he makes an illustration." "It is sudden." "It is unexpected." "It is not known." "And yet all of a sudden that judgment of God will fall upon the face of this world." "And you notice what he continued and he said." "And they shall not escape it." "You know, people don't realize it." "It's so

sad." "They think they're going to delay their trust in the Lord." "I don't need to know.

I don't need the Savior." "I can delay, you see." "Maybe later on, God, I want you to come into my life." "But today I don't need Yeshua, Jesus, the Lord, as my Savior and my Lord." "And then they neglect." "You know, neglecting is like denying." "Neglecting is saying to God," "No, I do not want to accept the Yeshua, Jesus as my Lord and my Savior." "I am okay." "Things are fine with me." "There is peace." "There is safety." "But they don't realize, beloved brothers and sisters, that the sudden destruction will come." "And they shall not escape it." "Now I read already these verses from Matthew chapter 24 about Noah." "The humongous, a huge ark that

Noah had built some years ago before the flood." "And years ago before the flood came, people mocked at Noah." "Noach, what are you doing?" "I am building an ark." "But Noah, why do you build an ark?" "I build an ark because God has told me to do so." "Yeah, but Noah, why do you need an ark?" "There is not even rain, there is no water around." "Yes, but there is a day coming where God will have to judge this world in righteousness by the person of our Lord Yeshua, the Messiah." "Please turn with me to the book of Genesis." "Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5." "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great

in the earth." "And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "And it repented the law that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart." "Then look what we read here in the next verses." "It says in verse 8, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." "And then he said to Noah in verse 14 of Genesis chapter 6, "Noah, make thee an ark of gopher, wood, rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." Verse 17 of Genesis chapter 6, "And behold, I even I do bring a flood of water upon the earth to

destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under the heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die." "That's happened historically." "And when Noah built this ark, everybody mocked him and says, 'Noah, what do you do?" "And yet the flood came, and the judgment of God came, and only Noah, his wife, his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Jephet, and their three wives enter into the ark, and they went to the other side, to the new world." "While the flood of God's judgment had covered this earth, no one was kept alive except those that were with Noah and his family, the animals that came to the other side." So beloved brothers and sisters,

as the days of Noah were, people continued, they said, "Well, there is shalom, there is peace, there is shalva, there is safety." "But then sudden destruction will come upon them." Let me just read to you a couple more verses, if you please bear with me.

Verse 37 of Matthew chapter 24. "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark." And notice verse 39. "And they knew not until the flood came and took them away." That expression, "took them away." It is the judgment that God had laid upon this world when he took the world away in judgment. Then he says, "In the future day," he says, verse 40, "Then shall two be in the field." "The one shall be taken," and I read it before, "in judgment, the other one shall remain." Verse 41.

"Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken in judgment, and the other shall be left in order to enter into the kingdom that will be established by the Messiah." The Messiah, the Massianic Kingdom. And so, beloved brothers and sisters, the Apostle Paul is emphasizing and he's saying, "Listen, the world in which we live in today ultimately will not escape the judgment of God." And brothers and sisters, I tell you, those that think in a world in which we live in that they're going to escape the judgment of God, the day coming where judgment will fall upon rebellion world and God will have to judge this world.

Sin had to be judged. Our sins have been judged as well, but it was judged when our Lord Jesus the Messiah died for us on the tree. He paid the penalty, the just one, he is, and the unjust, you and I. He is the one who died on the tree, was buried and rose. So we who are sinners by nature will receive forgiveness by simply believing in what he had done for us. So you notice what he's saying now, and let's go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 4. He says, "Now he distinguishes between the unbelieving world and the believers." He notice, he continues, "And he called them once again brethren." In verse 4, he says, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness." That that day, this is the day of the Lord, the tribulation period, should overtake you as a thief.

You are not in darkness. You have the light of life because you, brethren, the Thessalonians, and you and I who are believers in Yeshua the Messiah, we are not in darkness. We were darkness before we became believers. We were part of a sinful world, but we enter into the light by accepting Yeshua the Messiah. So it says, brethren, he says, "You are not in darkness that this day should overtake you as a thief." He's saying, "That day will not take the believer as a thief by surprise because they are no longer in darkness." They are no longer in darkness, away from God in darkness, because the believers have been transformed from darkness unto light.

Look at the verse in Colossians chapter 1 with me. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 12. Paul wrote to the Colossians and he said, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who has delivered us," listen to this, "Has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." You see, when we have accepted the Lord Jesus, the Lord Yeshua HaMashiach, we have been transformed from darkness to light, because we belong unto the kingdom of the Son of His love, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who, as it says here, "We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." You know, every sin that we have committed, past, present, future, all have been laid upon our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

And when we turn our hearts to Him, we are now belong to Him. We are no longer in darkness, that this day of the Lord shall overtake the believer as a thief. The believer ought to have an attitude of anticipation of the coming of the Lord, a time we are not, it's true. But positionally, we are out of darkness and we are in the light, we belong to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. We are no longer in darkness. Paul said it elsewhere in Ephesians 5 and in verse 8 he says, "For ye were sometime darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord." He said, "Now that you are light already positionally, walk as children of light practically." Always good to distinguish between positional truth and practical truth.

We are in the light, but we are not always practically walking in the light. We are saved, but we are not always behaving as saved people. We are called saints, but we are not always act saintly. That's why we have positional truth and practical truth. Positional truth tells us our eternal relationship with the Lord. Practical truth tells us how we should live because we belong to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. So now notice that. He says in verse 5, and pointing to the sudden destruction that will fall upon this world, he's saying in verse 5, "Ye are all children of light, and the children of the day.

We are not of the night. We are not of darkness." You know what he is really saying? Brothers and sisters, realize this. What the Apostle Paul is saying about us, the believers. Even when a time we are not living in a suitable spiritual state, but a true believer in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah should live in a right spiritual state. We fall, and we stumble, and a time we dishonor the Lord. But positionally, as he said, "Ye are the children of light, and the children of the day." He says, "We are not of the night. We are not of darkness." As we read here in verse 5.

So, it is encouraging what the Apostle Paul is telling them. But it is a terrible thing. For the world that rejected Yeshua, rejected God, where there is a day coming that will be sudden, and it is a sudden destruction that will come upon the unbelieving world, and they will not escape out of this judgment. And that's why we need to preach the Gospel. That's why we need to share with people around us. The fact that there is a way to eliminate the judgment that is going to come. And the way to eliminate this judgment is to turn our hearts from the evil ways, from the world and its ways, to the person of our Lord Jesus Yeshua HaMashiach.

So, we continue on. In verse 6 and 7 and 8, the Apostle Paul is charging the Thessalonians. He's charging the believers to walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. You notice how many times in the Epistles, Shaul Paul, or Peter, or James, or John, or Jude, talking to the believers, to the Christians, to the Messiah followers, saying to them, "Walk with the Lord. Don't carry on in the ways of the world. Live a life that is pleasant to the Lord. Read the Word of God. Study the Scripture. Spend the time in prayer. Go to the meetings and be with the believers. Serve the Lord." Why does he do so?

Why does he challenge us all the time? You know why, brothers and sisters? Because we need that, because we neglect to do so in a practical way every day of our lives. We think that if we are saved, if we are forgiven and we have accepted the Lord, therefore, you know, I'm fine. I don't need to continue to live a life that is honoring to the Lord. Imagine what it means to the Lord when the people of God say to him, "God, thank you for giving me salvation, but don't bother me in my life. I'm going to do my own thing. Don't disturb my comfort zone." And you see how God, imagine, it's like a parent that gave us birth, and then we don't respect them.

And in a sense, we say, "I don't need you to bother me in my life. I know you are my parent, but don't tell me what to do." Well, God is the Creator. Yeshua is the Savior. He didn't save us so we will carry on in our own way. He saved us so we will live a life for His pleasure. And so Paul continues, and he's charging the believers at Thessalonica in the next verses. He said to them in verse 6, "Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober." Verse 7, "For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that are 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." See what he's telling them in these three verses? "Don't sleep, be awake, be alert." Then he said, "Be sober, don't be drunk, be always alert and awake." And you know, like when a person is sleeping, he is not able to be alert to what's going on. He is not able to discern certain things that are happening. And you see, he does say this to the brethren. He early called them in verse 1, "Brethren." He continued to call them later on in verse 4, "Brethren." And now he's telling the brethren, "Brethren, let us not sleep, as do others." Now he used the word "us." That means Paul, Shaul, and "us" means the brothers to whom he writes.

He's including himself. He says, "Let us all," he says, "Let us not be those that are sleeping." And let us also watch and be sober. You know, in Ephesians chapter 5, he says, "Let us not be drunk with wine wherein there is excess." "Be not drunk with wine." In other words, when a person is not sober, and he is drunk or she is drunk, he is not having control over his life. He carries on in his or her way and not having control over their life. They are not watching. They are not careful. And we can be in such a condition when we are not focused on the lawn.

He says, "Therefore let us not sleep, but also let us watch and be sober." A verse that I want to read is in Romans chapter 13 with you for a moment. Paul in Romans 13 said, and I'm reading verse 12 and 13. There he said, "The night is far spent, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. And let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, and not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus the Messiah, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." You see, beloved brothers and sisters, this is exactly what Satan, the world, and the flesh do in the life of the believer who is not occupied with the Lord Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.

And we are not careful. And as he mentioned, he says, "Listen, the night is far spent. Life carelessly without walking with the Lord had been far spent. But the day is at hand, the Lord is coming. And if he is coming, shouldn't we be anticipating him, serving him, walking in the light of what he taught us, seeking to be those that are blessing to God's people and honoring to the Lord? The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Wake up, be alert, be sober." He is saying to the Thessalonians, and he is saying it to us as well. They that sleep, sleep in the night.

They that are drunk and drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in helmet the hope of the promised salvation. I am adding the word promise. It is not the hope that maybe we are going to be saved. No, it is a true salvation. The hope that we have because of our salvation. That is what he is really saying here. And again, I would like to say he included himself. See, Paul was honest. He knew his heart. He said in Romans chapter 7, "The things that I don't want to do, this I do.

And the good thing that I want to do, this I don't do." He knew his heart. And he says, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of this body of humiliation?" And then he turned to the Lord and he said, "To our Lord Yeshua, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah." He knew that the only one that is able to deliver us from our own way is none else but the person of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. He is able, so to put on the breastplate of faith and love, to trust God, to love God, to trust and to love the brethren, to put this breastplate on our chest.

Then on the helmet of the hope of the salvation was given unto us through the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. "Let us," he says. He's charging the believers not to sleep, but to be spiritually alert. That is what you and I need in our own life these days, to be awakened and alert because spiritually speaking, there is blessing for those that will trust in the Lord. In verses 9 and 10 and 11, Paul assures the believers of that sure salvation that they have. And notice what he says in those last three verses. Verse 9, 10 and 11. We find out that he says, "Listen, God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation or deliverance by our Lord Yeshua, Jesus Christ Yeshua HaMashiach." You know, the believers, the assembly, the saints of God, the ecclesia, has not been appointed unto wrath or unto judgment.

Why? Because the judgment already fell upon another, upon Yeshua. We are not appointed unto wrath. And again, I would like to suggest, beloved brother, that wrath has to do with Sarat Yaakov, Jacob's trouble. has not appointed the believers in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah unto wrath. Just go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9b and 10. I'm reading it again. "Ye turn to God from idols, to serve the living and the true God," "and to wait for His Son from heaven," "whom He raised from the dead," "even Yeshua," "which delivered us from the wrath to come." There is coming wrath. The day of the Lord, Yom Yehovah, the judgment that is coming.

But the Lord Jesus, the Lord Yeshua, delivered us from the wrath that is to come. God have not appointed us unto this day of God's wrath and vengeance against this world, but to obtain the deliverance, the salvation, and it is through and by the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Brothers and sisters, it is because of what Yeshua have done that not only we have the assurance of eternity, eternal salvation, but we also have the assurance of deliverance from the coming wrath, the coming judgment, the coming tribulation, the coming day of the Lord that will fall upon the unbelieving world. That's why, and again, I don't say that everyone has to see it the way I understand it and teach it, but we believe and I believe and I teach that the brothers and sisters of the present day age will be taken out of here, this is the Ekklesia, will be taken out from this earth before the tribulation period will begin.

The day of the Lord is a day of vengeance The snatching up, the catching up of the Ekklesia is a time of blessing, there is peaceful time, there is no judgment, there is no wrath, there is no vengeance, there is nothing of a sort. And that's why you can see chapter 4 is before chapter 5. In chapter 4 we see the snatching up of the assembly, in chapter 5 we see the judgment, the day of the Lord that will come upon the face of this earth. So, God has not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. When he said to obtain, it doesn't mean that we are not saved.

But to obtain salvation here is to obtain deliverance, not only spiritual and once and for all deliverance which we have, but to obtain deliverance from the judgment that is going to come upon the face of this world. Let me remind you, the tribulation we are all going to experience in our lifetime, as the Lord had promised in John 15 and in John 16, in this world ye shall have tribulation. He doesn't speak about the day of the Lord, the tribulation. He is speaking about the trials and the problems that believers will experience during their lifetime. But here he is speaking about the day of the Lord, the day of the tribulation period that will come upon this world.

Now, here in verse 10, he reminds us of what Yeshua have done for us, who died for us, that whether we be awake or alive, or sleep or dead, we should live together with him. The Lord Jesus Yeshua died for us. On the tree, on the cross, God placed all our iniquities upon him. And he says, Eli, Eli, lama shvaktani, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? God forsook him in order that he will not forsake you and I. That we should live together with him. We're going to be with him. We're going to be like him because we're going to see him as he is.

We're going to be together with our blessed Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. Some believers may have already died. They await the resurrection. Others like you and I today are still alive. We have been not appointed unto rest, but to obtain salvation. It is because the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah died for us, that whether we die, or whether we live, we should be together with him. And notice verse 11, he's just asking the brethren, he says, Wherefore, brethren, comfort yourself together, and edify one another, even as ye do also. In other words, brethren, let's not cut each other. Let's not harm each other. Let's build up each other.

He's saying to them, comfort yourself with these things. Edify. Build each other up spiritually. Encourage the saints. Because the saints of God need encouragement as we walk here in this world that is filled with trials and with challenges. So brothers and sisters, the day of the Lord is coming. It's a day of judgment. It's a day of wrath. It's a day that unbelieving world will be judged by God. But for the believers, we have hope. And because we belong to the Lord, God will not allow us to experience this difficult, this terrible day of tribulation. He will remove us out of here, and He will take us to be with Him.

But until that day, we are exhorted to walk in the light, to be sober, to walk not in darkness, not to sleep, and to walk in a way that it is pleasing to the Lord. May the Lord help us to do so. Amen to that.