IN SUCH AN HOUR AS YE THINK NOT
by Pastor Jim May
Matthew 24:44, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
D-Day, June 6, 1944 was one of the greatest days in all of history. Beginning just after midnight, the allied forces began what was to be called "the longest day" as Operation Overlord got under way.
After four years of war, the allies were going to invade German-occupied Fortress Europe. D-day marked the beginning of the end for the Third Reich. Germany had been preparing for years for this invasion, building a fortress along the Atlantic sea wall 1,800 miles from Holland to the Brittany Peninsula.
They sent their best strategist, General Erwin Rommel (the Desert Fox), to prepare for the invasion that would come. For eight months he strengthened the coastal barricades. He pushed himself and others to the breaking point, working day and night for a June 20th completion deadline. But, on the morning of June 6th, the fifty-one year-old General was 500 miles away, in Germany sleeping.
Thinking that nothing would happen, he had taken a three-day holiday to be with his wife on her birthday. The invasion took place at a time and a place that he, and the German high command, didn’t think it would come. They thought they were prepared. They thought that they might be invincible. But they didn’t remain vigilant and ready, and they paid the price in defeat.
The United States of America had to learn this same lesson on a quiet Sunday morning as the year 1941 was coming to an end. At 7 AM on December 7th, 1941, the Japanese destroyed the Navy’s Pacific fleet in a matter of a few hours. Our recovery took four long years of fighting as the Marines and the army hopped from island to island in the South Pacific, rooting out the Japanese and destroying their ability to fight. Millions of lives were lost and trillions of dollars spent on the war. So many less lives could have been lost, and World War II could have been brought to a much quicker end if we would have just been ready, watching and waiting. But there was a heavy price to pay because the enemy struck at an hour when we least expected it.
Surely we are living in the last days. Signs of the times are everywhere and there’s a feeling in the air that all of the things around us are going to soon change.
We, in the church, know that Jesus is coming soon. I hope and pray that we are watching and waiting for His coming. But I know that most of the church world, and none of the worldly crowd, are ready.
What a price must be paid for those who are found sleeping when Jesus comes to catch His bride away!
If you are a part of the church that is watching and waiting, almost breathlessly, anxious for the coming of the Lord, that will be a welcomed day. Oh what a glorious day it will be when my Jesus I shall see. When I look upon his face; the One who saved me by His grace. That will be a glad reunion day!
But for the rest of the church, who doesn’t go in the rapture, and for the whole of sinful man, that will not be a welcomed day. It will be a day that great tribulation shall be unleashed upon the world and upon those who were not watching and waiting.
Satan’s forces of evil will invade the shores of earth in an all-out effort to annihilate mankind once and for all. There will arise a tide of evil the likes of which this world has never seen before. It will make the death camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Treblinka, seem like a Sunday School picnic by comparison. The terrible reign of death and destruction that will come upon this earth for that last seven years of earth’s history under the rule of Satan, will beggar description.
Yet, all the warnings, all the chastisement, all the preaching, all the teaching and all the judgments that God can bring to bear to get man’s attention, are going largely unnoticed as men travel headlong into eternity without God into the Lake of Fire.
I fear that most of those who call themselves Christian are asleep. They have spent years learning of the Second Coming of Christ. They have planned to go in the rapture. They talk about it all the time and they believe it’s coming, but they just don’t remain vigilant.
Jesus told us what was going to happen when He comes again in Matthew 24:37-41, "But 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 and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left."
Have we ever known the church to be in more of a party mood than right now? Even tonight, most aren’t having worship services anymore because Christians have become lazy and have lost their zeal for the House of God. Many of them are having home cell meetings where they are sitting around in an easy chair, sipping on coffee or some other beverage, talking about how they are going to build their little social club, while the sinners in the world still haven’t heard the message of the Gospel. The church has come to an hour when we just don’t think that the Lord is coming right now and that’s what has me worried.
When Jesus comes again, do we honestly believe that He is going to catch away a Bride that is unfaithful to His calling? Do we really believe that those who are forsaking the assembling of themselves together to worship Him will go in the rapture?
Oh they love to get together and teach one another, or hear some new revelation. They love to come together and try to dazzle one another with their superior spirituality. But that only reminds me of the scripture in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
The church, as a whole, would rather spend its time listening to a teacher teach on the mercy, grace and love of God, than to hear a preacher tell them to repent of their sin and get right with God.
Even in churches where the truth of the Word of God is being preached I believe that some are going to be left behind when Jesus comes again. Two will be sitting side by side, on the same pew, while the worship is going on or the Word is being preached. But one will be taken and the other left behind. One will be hearing and obeying the Word of the Lord, while the other is just there, daydreaming about tomorrow, or reminiscing about yesterday, instead of focusing on what’s happening right now!
Sunday School classes are going to be left half empty. Congregations in the auditorium will suddenly be a little thinner. Some of the pulpits will instantly be vacated and a new pastoral search will have to begin. Youth Groups will be without a Youth Pastor, and Youth Pastor’s will be without a youth group to lead. Some of the musical instruments will fall to the floor, while others around them will just keep on playing until they notice the change.
In a moment, in the twinkling of eye - faster than you can blink, everything will happen, and it will come in an hour when we think not.
God isn’t going to wait for us to get ready then. It will just be too late. All of the prayers of the past, all of the singing of the past and everything that we have done for the Lord in the past will all be for nothing, simply because we let our guard down for a moment. All it takes is a moment to turn away from the Lord. All it takes is a moment of laziness, a moment of resting, a moment of not paying attention to the condition of your soul, and the Lord will come, and it will be too late.
The church is sitting in a place of peace and relative safety and we have let our guard down. Could it be that Jesus will come tonight? Could this be the exact moment of His returning?
Matthew 25:13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."
None of us can know for certain and we had better not put any trust in someone who claims that he knows. False prophets and false teachers abound in the church today. We don’t have to worry about the world causing us to lose out with God. We have to worry about those “wolves in sheep’s clothing” coming in and devouring the flock.
How many Christians are sitting in church, perhaps this morning, or even this evening, listening to a watered down gospel or no gospel at all? How many are planning big buildings, building big dreams into the minds of the congregation or telling them that they are all right no matter how they are living?
The church has left its First Love and gone chasing after other gods that will lead it into destruction.
Could this be the hour that we think not, when Jesus shall come? I do know that it will an hour and a day much like this one.
Before this night is over Jesus could come. Where will you be when that happens? Will you be at home asleep in your comfortable bed? Will you be on the job? Will you be driving down the highway? Will you be in prayer, or in church? I don’t know where you will be but I do know that it could be at anytime and I want to be found faithful.
I know that you have heard me speak about this time and time again, but folks, we need to be constantly reminded of just how close we are to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Every day when we wake up, our first thought should be, “Lord, is the day that you will come?” Then we should step out and live each day as though it will be our last on this earth. Even if Jesus tarries in His coming, we still have no promise that we will see another day. Jesus can call you home at any time and you are only one heartbeat, or one breath, from Heaven’s door.
Still Jesus is coming in an hour when we think not. Most of the church world doesn’t believe that Jesus is coming soon. When we can stay out of church days without number, and fail to read the Word of God, and not have a prayer life that is consistent, how can we say that we are watching and waiting? We don’t think that Jesus is coming soon. Our actions speak much louder than our words.
What would be different if you really believed that Jesus was coming today? What would you do different? We can’t stop doing our daily routine because Jesus said to “occupy ‘til He comes” but would we be doing some of the things we are doing? Would we be so concerned about many of the things that we worry about if we really believed that Jesus was coming soon? Would we be concerned with the newest car or the bigger house, or the best music, or the greatest singers, or anything else?
If we really believed that Jesus was coming soon, we would be on our face before God, making sure first of all that we are ready to go, and secondly, we would be telling everyone we could that Jesus was coming so that they could go too.
When was the last time we told someone about Jesus? When was the last time we led a sinner to the Lord? If we aren’t doing so, then we really don’t believe that Jesus is coming soon!
In such an hour that we don’t think it can happen, Satan is going to rob Christians of their greatest joy. He is going to steal their soul right from the very gates of Heaven and drag them down into the pit. He is going to convince many to give up right at the very last moment and because of their sin and rebellion against God, they will miss an eternity by only moments.
Don’t think that it can’t happen just that way. To think that it can’t happen that way puts you in jeopardy of being left behind too. Satan’s greatest tool is to make Christians think that it can’t happen to me.
Let me tell you that Jesus is coming soon, and He will come in an hour when we think not! He will come when we aren’t expecting Him. He will come at a time when we are least ready. He will come at His appointed time and we need to be always watching and waiting for that day, that hour, and that minute to come.
Don’t drop your guard. Don’t believe the Devil’s lies and let him lull you to sleep in the very House of God. Don’t allow yourself to fall into apathy. Stay vigilant! Stay ready! For at hour when you think not – that’s when Jesus is coming again.
The high cost of being unprepared for the D-Day invasion for Germany, and the high cost for America not being prepared for the attack on Pearl Harbor, or the attack on the World Trade Center, will be nothing compared to the high cost of being unprepared for the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ.
The high cost of missing Heaven cannot be counted in dollars and cents. Eternal life with Jesus and the eternal life in Heaven are worth more than the wealth of the whole world many, many times over. The loss of your eternal soul is more valuable than anything and everything that this world has to offer. All of these things are fleeting and temporary, but your soul will live on, or it will continuously be dying and never really die, forever! That’s the high price defeat and the great reward of victory.
Let’s be found faithful to the end: ever watching and ever waiting for his soon coming. Don’t let that day catch you unaware!
Matthew 24:44-46, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing."
What a great day that will be when we rise up to meet Jesus in the air! What a sad day that will be for those who are left behind!
