"AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT"
Thank you. It is so good to have you in our audience once
again. I encourage you to get your Bible, your pen and paper, and
study with me for the next fifteen minutes, "What Saith the
Scriptures?" We continue to plead with our listeners to examine
everything that we see and hear that has reference to spiritual
matters. We might believe a lie in some secular problem or matter
and not be affected by it spiritually, but, my friend, if we
believe a lie in matters pertaining to the soul, it could well cost
our eternity in the presence of Jehovah. There are so many these
days who offer the public so many ideas and plans which are not in
harmony with God's Word. Each of us must decide for ourselves what
we are going to believe and practice with reference to our God.
We have those who continually seek to set times and seasons
for the Lord. I have before me a copy of the Beaumont Enterprise,
dated March 6, of this year. On page 7A, I read the following
account: "Heng-ming Chen says shining, golden balls of light
floated down from the sky and told him God was coming to suburban
Dallas. Specifically, God is supposed to descend from heaven on
March 31 at 3513 Ridgedale Drive in Garland."
I will return to this newspaper account later in our thoughts,
but for just now, I read from the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
as He speaks of His second coming, "But of that day and hour
knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but
the Father only. And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the
coming of the Son of Man. For in those days which were before the
flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they
knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be
coming of the Son of man....Watch therefore: for ye know not on
what day your Lord cometh. But know this, that if the master of the
house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have
watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken
through. Therefore be ye also ready; for in the hour that ye think
not the Son of man cometh." That is the reading of Matthew, chapter
24, verses 36-39, and verses 42-44.
Now, I do not know if Mr. Chen believes in Christ as the Son
of God or not. But, I do know this: Mr. Chen contradicts what Jesus
Christ has said. Jesus says His coming will be as a thief in the
night. Mr. Chen says he knows. Now who are we to believe. Mr. Chen
or Jesus Christ.
Listen to the inspired apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:1,
"But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no
need that aught be written unto you. For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. When
they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh
upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no
wise escape."
The inspired apostle Peter states, "But the day of the Lord
will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent
heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned
up." (2 Peter 3:10).
Thus we have Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul and the apostle
Peter all stating exactly the same thing. The coming of the Lord
will be as a thief in the night. No one knows when He shall return.
And yet, men have over and over again, sought to deceive mankind
with false dates and times. And very obviously, all of those dates
and times have gone by and the Lord's word remains, that He will
come as a thief in the night.
I have before me a book entitles "Thy Kingdom Come," printed
in 1909 A.D., by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. On page
153 the following statement is found: "And, with the end of A.D.
1914, what God calls Babylon, and what men call Christendom, will
have passed away, as already shown from prophecy." When we allow
this same book, on the next page to describe the term Babylon, we
read, "the name Babylon is used as a general or family name for all
the nominal Christian systems, and now includes not only the church
of Rome, but all Protestant sects as well," Did you notice what was
said? In the year 1914, all denominations would cease to exist,
will all pass away. Question. Did they? Here we are in 1998, 84
years later and these organizations still exist. Evidently, the
author of this book made a glaring mistake. But, the fact that they
were wrong did not phase them. The Watch Tower organization chose
another date -- 1928. But, 1928 came and passed and nothing
happened. So what did they do. They picked another date, and they
will continue to pick dates, all to no avail. Did not the Lord say,
He will come as a thief in the night. How foolish for man to step
up and say, "Oh, yes, I know when the Lord is coming, He spoke to
me, He gave me a revelation."
We shall see what shall happen come Tuesday morning. I have no
fears nor doubts to predict that Wednesday will come and nothing
will have happened. Is that blasphemy? No, that is just an
application of the Word of God. Mr. Chen says Tuesday; Jesus says
no man knows. I have never met this gentleman, but I have explicit
faith and confidence in the words of my Savior.
As I drop down further into the article from the Beaumont
Enterprise, I find the following statement, "The group also
believes God will make a March 25 television appearance on Channel
18. That's Channel 18 on TV sets all across North America. Six days
later, they believe God will take the form of Chen and split into
hundreds of clones so he can personally speak with everyone at
once." As I make this tape on Tuesday (March 24), I have no fears
to predict that the Lord will not appear on channel 18 tomorrow,
Wednesday (March 25). That will make this gentleman a false
teacher, because he is claiming something that simply did not come
to pass. Turning to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verses 21
and 22, I read, "And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know
the word which Jehovah hath not spoken? when a prophet speaketh in
the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass,
that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken: the prophet hath
spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him." When
Wednesday (March 25) comes, followed by next Tuesday, March 31, and
none of these happen, we will know beyond any doubt that this man
hath spoken presumptuously.
The day of revelation (that is, God speaking through men)
ceased to be almost 2000 years ago. When Jude wrote in verse 3, he
stated, "Beloved, I was giving all diligence to write unto you of
our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting
you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all
delivered unto the saints." When the apostles of the first century
laid down their pens of inspiration, Jehovah God had completed His
testimony for mankind. We now have that testimony in the book we
call the Bible. It is the final authority in all matters
concerning spirituality and the salvation of the souls of man. Jude
told his readers that they had (at that point in time) everything
that they needed for salvation.
The apostle Paul warned, "But though we, or an angel from
heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we
preached unto, let him be anathema. As we have said before, so say
I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than
that which ye received, let him be anathema." That is the reading
of Galatians 1:8, 9. Whatever it took to please God in the first
century was given to those who lived in the first century. And it
is the same message that will save people in the 20th Century. God
does not have different methods of salvation for people in
different situations or in different centuries. Sin is still sin,
and the salvation from sin is exactly the same today as it was 2000
years ago. It took the blood of Christ them, and it still takes the
blood of Christ. As those people had to obey the commandments of
Jesus Christ, so do people today have to obey the commandments of
Jesus Christ. And when one does just that, nothing more, nor
nothing less, that one will receive forgiveness of sins just
exactly like those people of the first century received forgiveness
of sins. And what must one do? The sinner must hear the gospel of
Christ, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God" (Romans 10:17). Having heard the Word of God, faith will be
produced in the heart, and that person will ask the same question
as was asked in Acts 2:37, "Brethren, what shall we do?" The answer
will be the same that the apostle Peter told that audience, "Repent
ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit." Those who do this will be added by the Lord to
the saved, as He did in Acts 2:47. Forgiveness of sins will take
place when one comes into contact with the blood of Jesus. Paul
says this will happen when one "is baptized into Christ Jesus,
baptized into his death" (Romans 6:3); where the blood was shed.
Then in verse 17 and 18, we read, "But thanks be to God, that
whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart
to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being
made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness."
Back to the newspaper article. I hasten to point out that I
have no desire nor inclination to slander anyone. My only motive in
referring to this article and in saying what I have is to encourage
each listener to examine what we read or hear. Just because one
comes along and claims, "last year I received a revelation from
God," does not make it so. There have many, many, people who claim
to have received revelations from God. And invariably, these so
called revelations prove to be false when compared to God's
revealed truths. There are no latter day revelations; God no longer
speaks directly through men and women to reveal news truths to
them. As we have already stated in this lesson; revelation was
completed in the first century and we now have all that we need to
please Jehovah God, as we comply with the words of Christ Jesus and
the inspired apostles of the first century. The Book of God is not
a dead letter, but a very vital, living, active sword. Reading
Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living, and active, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing
of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern
the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Dear friend and listener. Do not let men like Heng-ming Chen
deceive you. There will be others like him who will attempt to fill
your mind with false ideas and false doctrines. The only way to
guard against this is to be filled with the knowledge of God's Word
and take your stand thereon.
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