Sign of the Times- Coming Like A Thief Part 2 of 3

    I am still working on part 3, but I have finished part 2. I sure wish better with a keyboard. God bless everyone and I hope this will be helpful.

Okay now lets go back to Matthew 24:16 : Then let those that are in Judea flee to the mountains. So Jesus is saying when you see the abomination of desolation you better flee to the mountains. 17: Let him who is on the housetop not go down to get the things that are in the house. Remember Lot’s wife when she looked back. 18: And let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak.

19: But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days. Now I do not think that means that you should not be having physical babies. I think it is talking about spiritual babies. Woe to you if you are trying to birth a spiritual baby when all of this is going on. Woe to you if you are not spiritually tuned in to the Spirit of God when all of this is happening because it is going to be a time like we have never seen.

So that is why it is good to get mature here with the Lord so when this comes you are not a baby trying to figure out what is happening. Because you are going to see this later on in the parable of the virgins. 20: But pray that your flight may not be in he winter, or on a Sabbath. 21: For there will b a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now. Is that what we just read over in Daniel 12 when Michael arises there will be a distress like has never been seen? It is the same thing right here. 22: And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short. Did it say that the elect would be rescued over in Daniel 11? Here it is again.

23: Then if anyone says to you, “behold, here is the Christ, or there He is,” do not believe him. 24: For false Christ and false prophets will arise to show great signs to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Meaning this! It is possible for the elect to be deceived. Now most people will say that the elect can not be deceived but that is not what that just said. It says if possible; it did not say it was impossible, but it says if possible to mislead even the elect. Why would Satan try and mislead you if you can’t be misled? Why would he waste his time?

25: Behold I have told you in advance. So Jesus is answering those disciples and he is stating that he is telling them in advance so when it happens you are going to know it. 26: If therefore they say to you, “Behold, He is in the wilderness, do not go forth, or Behold, he is in the inner rooms,” do not believe them. 27: For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes to the west, so shall the Son of Man be. 28: Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Now I want to set the stage for you on the coming of the Lord. Now let’s go to Matthew 24:40 Now this is after all this other stuff all the way down through verse 39. After all of this other stuff Jesus says 40:Then there shall be two men in the field. Ones going to be taken and one is going to be left. 41: Two women grinding at the mill; one will be taken. And the other one will be left. Now how many of you have been taught that is rapture?

All right! Now lets get this picture. One is going to be taken and one is going to be left. You have to put a lot of other scriptures together to get this picture. Now listen closely. 42:Therefore be on the alert for you do not know what day your Lord is coming. Now if Jesus is coming to take you away then why would you be on the alert? If he is going to come and take you away then like come on Lord lets go. But if He is coming in another way then you might want to be ready for the way He is coming. That is what I want to show you.

42: Therefore be on the alert for you do not know what day your Lord is coming. 43:But be sure of this, That if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. So Jesus is talking about the coming of the Lord and He is using the analogy of a thief. Now then what is that saying? Does that mean he is coming in a way nobody knows? That is not what that is about. It is different. It‘s not when He is coming but how He is coming. 

If the head of the house knew at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and not allowed his house to be broken into. In Joel chapter 2 it talks about the locust army. And the locust army enters the house like a thief. Well Jesus is giving a little insight here but He does not go into detail. You have to go farther on and study. For this reason you be ready for the Son of Man is coming at a hour when you don’t think He will. He is coming when you don’t think and He is coming in a way you don’t think.

Now then turn to Revelation 3:1-6. I want to show you how Jesus comes like a thief. You have to understand He is coming like thief. Revelation 3:1: And to the angel of the church of Sardis write: He who has the seven spirits of God. You see there are not seven spirits but there, but there are seven personality aspects of the Holy Spirit which are listed in Isaiah 11:2. The seven spirits of God means the Spirit of Truth, Spirit of the Lord, Spirit of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Strength, Knowledge. Those are the seven personality aspect of the Holy Spirit.

3:1 And the seven stars, says this: I know that you have a name that you are alive but you are dead. So He is talking to a church that has a name that they are alive like Life church, Word of Life Church, New life Church, Living Water Church, or Life Way Church. How many churches have a name that is kind of like what is being addressed right here? I find that interesting. This church has a name that they are alive but they are dead. 2: Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So he is warning them. You better wake up. You have a name that you are alive and you are singing jumping and shouting like your alive but your dead. He said you better strengthen the things that remain. Why? Because the harlot, the false teachers, the false prophets, and the harlot spirit will take your strength. Did you know that?

Turn to proverbs 5. Guys you are going to have to understand these things to get the picture what He is saying. Why does it say strengthen the things that remain? Because you have lost your strength. Now Proverbs 5 is talking about the harlot where smoother than oil is her speech. Now look at verse 7: Now then my sons listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8: Keep your way far from her, And do not go near the door of her house. 9: lest you give vigor to others, and your years to the cruel one, which is the powers of darkness. 10: Lest strangers be filled with your strength. So that spirit of harlotry takes your strength and steals your strength. So Jesus is saying in Revelation you better wake up.

Now back to Revelation 3:3 where is writing letter to the seven churches. Now we also read this back in Matthew 24 where He said if the head of the house new at what hour the thief was coming. Now then Jesus is going to tell you who the thief is. 3: Remember therefore what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. So in other words He is saying you better remember what I told you and you better keep it and you better repent. You better do what you are supposed to do. If therefore you will not wake up. Remember He said if the house had known at what hour the thief was coming. If you don’t wake up then I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you.

Now if he is coming to this church and He says you better be careful then how is He coming to this church? In a good way or a bad way? He is coming in a bad way, like a thief. Is everybody still with me so far? He is coming a little different than we have been taught. This is why you have to be on the alert. If you are not then He is going to come like a thief. And when the thief comes he is going to kill, steal, and destroy. Because the thief only comes to do what? Steal, kill and destroy! That is in John 10:10.

He is coming like a thief meaning this. If you are not awake when He comes, and you are not ready. Then He is going to be a thief to you. And you know who the thief is? Satan! So you know how He is coming? He is coming and allowing the powers of darkness to come on the sleeping church. The thief is coming to the sleeping people of God and they will not be awake and they will not recognize it and they are going to get taken away.

How are they going to get taken way? By the false prophets, the smooth words. All of that stuff there is the taking away of the people of God. That is how they are taken away. Ones taken and one is left. The thief comes in the night to enter your house to steal, kill, and destroy. This is how He is coming. This already happening to a large degree in the church. 4: But you have a few people. He said a few. You know how many a few was in the days of Noah? Eight people! You have a few people who have not soiled their garments. They will walk with me in white for they are worthy. 5: He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments.

So the promise is to the over comers right? It is not to the ones who say the magic words. Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again on the third day and I know that I am a sinner so please forgive me for my sins, halleluiah, I am saved. That is not what this is saying right here. Jesus is saying to him who overcomes. So there is a lot to overcome here. And I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before my father, and before His angels.

Now I have heard people teach on erasing the name. Have you ever heard anybody teach on that? They will say well the name never was there and that is what that means. Now it is like when I erase something it is like I made a mistake. Have you ever erased anything? You usually erase something because you made a mistake. It is hard to erase something that was not there. It is like uh oh! That should not be there. Jesus said if you overcome then I won’t erase you’re your name. If you do not overcome then I will come and take away which is the parable of the talents. Do you see what I am saying?

You have the ten virgins. The five foolish who had the lamp and they had the oil but he took them away. Erasing is like taken away. It is all saying the same thing. He said I am going to come like thief. If you overcome you are going to have white garments, but if you don’t I will erase your name. Do you see that. Hopefully this is getting clearer for some of you.

Okay then so what are the white garments? Does that mean you are going to have a white suit like the television evangelist? Okay then lets look at what the scriptures says. Turn to Revelation 19:7: Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. How many people have ever been a bride before, ladies? Okay what do brides do before they get ready to have the wedding? They get cleaned up. They spend a fortune on a hair do and their make up. They go get their nails done and find them some priceless wedding gown and shoes to wear. But the bride goes and makes herself ready for the bride groom. Now look at this. 8: And it was given to her which means God gave his people the grace to get pure. That is the fine linen of the saints. In other words God poured out grace on His people so they could get cleansed and ready for the bride groom.

I mean what bride groom wants to go get a dirty bride? A bride would not come in there in their work clothes and their hair rollers with out taking a bath and say I am here honey; let’s get married. You would be backing out and getting you another woman. You would be saying something is not right. That is not the one I want. Well do you think Jesus is any different? You think He is going to come in and say no problem let’s get married any way? No he is going to say there is something wrong with that bride there. She is a little dirty. She has defiled herself. Her garments are not clean. Look guys Jesus does not marry harlots and prostitutes. He will not do it. So we have to overcome all of this stuff and get the fine linen bright and clean. That is the white garments in Revelations 3.

What is the fine linen? For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. The fine linen is not the magic words you pray. The fine linen is obeying the word of God and walking in holiness and righteousness. That is how you clothe yourself in the white linen. That is how you make yourself ready. In the parable of the virgins what did it say about the foolish virgins? They went away to get the oil and it says the wise who made themselves ready went in. They where ready. This is how they got ready for the coming of the Lord. 9: And he said to me, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.

Now back to Revelations 7: 13-14: And one of the elders answered saying to me, these who are clothed with white robes who are they, and where have they come from. 14: And I said to him, My Lord you know. And he said to me, They are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Now back to Revelations 3:6.Now after saying everything to the church of Sardis listen to what Jesus has to say. 6: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit say to the churches. In other words, do you hear what He is saying. So if you don’t have a ear then you are not going to understand what I am saying. When He says that, that means most people are not going to understand that. Now John 10:10 says The thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy. So that is again, how He is coming like a thief.

Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5:2: For you yourselves know. Now these guys new something that we don’t know. For you yourselves know that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3: While they are saying peace and safety! There again is your false prophets and that is the message that is being preached when Jesus comes. Peace and safety, nothing bad can happen to us. I would love too do a entire study on the peace and safety message of the last days but I do not have time to go there now. Who is they? It is not NBC news or CNN. While the prophets are saying peace and safety Then destruction will come upon them suddenly. So what am I saying? I am saying this; that the powers of darkness are being released more and more. And they are the test to find out who the real people of God are. And if your house is not ready and you are not on the alert. Then you are going to be led away by the harlot’s voice. That is what is going to happen.

And Jesus is going to allow it. He did this in Deuteronomy 13. He allowed false prophets to be raised up to test the hearts of the people. He did it in the old testament and He is doing it today. And all that stuff is to test the hearts of the people to find out who do you love. Let’s just think about this; for instance you are married and you think your marriage is really great and your wife and your husband is really faithful to you. Until you are on a business trip and somebody comes to your spouse with a enticing word. And then you find out where your heart is. And nobody else knows. Is that not true? It’s true isn’t it? Then you find out. God wants all your heart. It will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape.

In other words there will be a false peace and safety message and everybody is thinking every thing is okay and boom! They are led astray, and the day of the Lord comes, and they missed it. It was too late. Jesus comes and the powers of darkness have already come and have taken them away to the false teaching, the false prophets, the false signs and wonders and Jesus comes and they miss Him. That is what happened to the foolish virgins. They missed Him. That is what happened to two working in the field where one is taken and one is left. 4: But you, brethren are not in darkness, that the day would over take you like a thief. In other words if you are in darkness; the thief is going to come and overtake you like a thief. 5: For you are sons of light and sons of day. 6: So let us not sleep as others do. In other words the sleeping virgins of the last days are asleep when all this comes you are going to miss it. And what is talking about when it says you are asleep? It is talking spiritually asleep. So I am doing every thing I know how to do to wake myself up and wake every one else up. Wake up!

What does it say in Matthew 25? The bride groom shouts wake up! Come out to meet Him. I believe that is the cry to the church today is wake up! Come out to meet Him. He is going to be coming. Let us not sleep as others do but be sober and alert. 7: For those who sleep do what? They sleep in night time when there is spiritual darkness. And those who get drunk get drunk at night. You here people talking about getting drunk in the spirit. I have seen the Spirit of God poured out but it is very interesting that God does not want us to be drunk, but He wants us to be sober. It is amazing how things can get a little twisted and we think something is God.

Foolish virgins never really wake up and get it. They will hear but they will never hear. Because they do not believe the truth. 8: But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation for God has not destined us for wrath. In other words we are not supposed to go through the wrath, but if you do not wake up and you do not get your garments clean, then the wrath is going to come on you. That is what is going to happen. Is everybody with me so far?

It is time to get serious about cleaning your house. I am talking about myself and everybody else included. We better get everything out because the thief when he comes if he can find anything there then he will come and break into your house. It is the test that is going to come to find out who you are. Turn to 2 Peter 3:3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lust. That is one of the signs of the last days is mocking. A spirit of mockery. I would say that in 90 percent of the believers that we have counseled with that I have had to cast out a spirit of mockery in them. I had to deal with it in my own life. That spirit will make you not want to take God’s word seriously and believe that God really means business when He says repent and turn away from your sin. That spirit kept telling me God does not really mean that. He understands you can not follow in Christ footsteps putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Only Christ was able to do that. You just have to d the best you can and God will understand and His blood will cover you. And it was a lie straight from the pits of hell. And their was a spirit of lust that worked hand and hand with the spirit of mockery. It had to go as well.

2 Peter 3:7 But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept from the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 10: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. Now peter heard this message that we just heard in Matthew 24. So what do you think he is saying in 2 Peter? The same thing that he heard when Jesus was on the earth. The same thing we read out o Daniel. So Peter is just going back and telling you again in a little different way. In which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and it’s works will be burned up. 11: Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness. 12: Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. He said you are supposed to be looking for this day. Does it say you are supposed to be looking for the rapture? No! Does it say anything about rapture here or anywhere here? No! Peter said look for the day of the Lord. Why? Because you better be on the alert when that day comes and be ready or you are going to be taken away.

You are going to see this when I get into the flood, but I will save that for part 3. 13:But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. 14: Therefore, beloved. Who is the beloved? You are a beloved and I am a beloved. We are the beloved. We are the beloved of the Lord. He is talking to the people of God right? 14: Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless, and blameless.

I hope everyone is getting something out of this. I am going to stop here and pick up with the flood next time.