second question. If such a warning is so clearly given, how can He be
said to come as a thief? He Himself teaches us perfectly clearly that
the meaning of the illustration is that, as the thief comes without
giving notice, so He will return without previously giving any such
notice of His approach as will arouse the sleepers. The thief does not
tell you when he is coming; and when he comes, he neither knocks the door
nor rings the bell. But he comes quietly. He does nothing to disturb
those that are asleep, and His object is to enter unobserved. So our
Lord teaches us, that when He comes He will do nothing to startle the
world. There will be nothing to prevent men eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, right up to the very end. The men of
the world will find Him in the house before they have the least idea of
His approach. That this is the meaning of the words is perfectly clear
from what He said (Matt. xxiv. 42–44): ‘Watch, therefore; for ye know not
what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman 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 cometh.’
But, you may say, how far is this consistent with what has been said of
the probability of His return following quickly on the exhaustion of the
Ottoman Empire? If there be a prophetic series in the book of
Revelation, and we have already reached the last station on the last
branch of the line, how is it that He can be said to come upon us without
notice as a thief does? Has He not given us notice in this prophecy?
In answer to that question we must observe the clearly marked distinction
between His own believing people and the unbelieving world. To His own
people He will not come as a thief, for we read in 1 Thess. v. 4, 5, ‘But
ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake _you_ as
a thief.’ _You_ are in the light, _i.e._, for you can see Him coming; so
_you_ will not be found asleep. So He Himself taught us distinctly in
the very passage in which He uses the illustration; for He there shows
that His own disciples are to expect His coming when they see the
predicted signs, just as they expect the summer when they see the budding
of the trees in spring. (Matt. xxiv. 32, 33.) Nor are they to wait in
their expectation till they see these signs fully developed; not to wait,
_i.e._, till the young branch is fully grown; but they are to watch
beginnings, and learn from them. They are to draw their conclusion when
the branch is yet tender, without waiting till it is fully ripened; as He
Himself taught us in Luke, xxi. 28: ‘When these things _begin_ to come to
pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth
nigh.’ If, therefore, you be amongst the people of God, you need never
be taken by surprise. We do not know the exact time, but we may study
the predicted signs, and, having them before us, may look out for the
second advent just as Simeon and Anna looked out for the first. We may
be like the servant of Elijah, going up again and again to the hill-top
to watch for the coming rain; or like the loving servant watching for the
footsteps of the master whom he loves, and perfectly ready, whenever he
returns, to open the door, and welcome him to his home. The Lord came
suddenly to His temple, but He did not come suddenly to Simeon; and the
Lord will come as a thief to the world, but if you hold fast to His own
word He will never be as a thief to you.
As I have already said, it is the _world_ that will be found asleep, and
to whom He will really come as a thief. But some man may say, ‘If there
be these signs beforehand, will they not arouse the world as well as
believers? Will they not awaken society? Will they not compel men to
prepare?’ I answer that by another question, Do they? There are certain
signs already given; do they wake up society? Have they produced such an
impression as to arouse the great mass of worldly men? There are the
Jews preserved as a separate people, in fulfilment of a prophecy given
more than three thousand years ago; what effect has such a fulfilment of
God’s word had in the city? There are all the politicians of Europe at
their wits’ end because of the decay of Turkey; how many even of
yourselves have been led thereby to look out for the near approach of our
blessed Saviour? There is Rome stripped of its temporal power in
fulfilment of great prophecies given, some of them, more than two
thousand years ago; how many are there that have been led by that
fulfilment to look out even for the fall of Babylon? The simple fact is,
that these great fulfilments, though conspicuous to the eye of those who
study them, completely fail to produce the least impression on the deep
sleep of the unconverted world. The prophecies are not read; the facts
are not compared with them; the lessons are not learned; and the soul is
not aroused to preparation. How many are there even in this very town on
whom the fulfilment of God’s prophetic word has never produced the
slightest effect? They are living just as they would have lived, or
rather sleeping as they would have slept, if there had been no prophecy
to give the warning, and no history to confirm its truth. Can you
wonder, then, that the Lord Jesus should come upon such persons as a
thief?
But I trust, dear brethren, that He may not come as a thief to you, but
that you may be found in the light and awake, not in darkness and asleep;
or, to use the illustration of this text, that you may not wake up naked
to your everlasting shame. I am sure you desire when He comes to be
found awake, looking out, ready to welcome Him. You wish to be found
clothed. Oh, think what it would be to be found naked, when all the
saints of God are standing around you in their resurrection robe! We
have lately read of poor people startled in the night by shipwreck, and
rushing as they were to the deck, utterly unprotected against the bitter
blast of the winter’s snow-storm. Think what it would be to be suddenly
aroused from your own deep sleep, to see all that you have in the world
wrecked around you, and to find your poor soul quite naked, while the
terrible storm of God’s most just judgment beats upon you, and breaks
down every hope of escape! Oh, dear brethren, may it never be so with
you! May you be amongst those who can peacefully look for His appearing,
because you are clothed in His righteousness! May you be kept walking in
the light, and cleansed from all sin through His most precious blood!
Then you will have nothing to fear, but everything to hope for, in the
thought of His coming. Then He will never come as a thief to you, for
you will be ready at any time to open the door and welcome Him. As the
bride delights in the bridegroom, so will you delight in Him. Your trial
will consist, not in the dread of His coming, but in the difficulty of
patiently waiting for His return; and when He comes you will find no
language to bless and praise His holy name, for His boundless and
unmerited love in having redeemed you by His atoning blood; in having
called you by His sovereign grace; in having forgiven you through His
finished atonement; in having sanctified you by the Holy Ghost; and in
having preserved you in His own unchanging faithfulness, till He shall
have finally presented you spotless and faultless before the throne of
His everlasting glory.
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Footnotes
{30} Hume, ii. 67.
{32} I was interested, two days after preparing this lecture, by reading
the following sentence in the _Times_, ‘Upon every temporal consideration
Rome never was so low as she lies this day.’—_Times_, Dec. 15, 1873.