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.