Turn with me, if you would, back
to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. My desire as a preacher, my desire is to be more clear
and understandable with each message that I preach. Now, that
may not end up being the case, but that's my desire. I pray that the Lord might allow
me to be more to the point. I pray honestly that the Lord
might allow me to be more to the heart of the matter. I pray the Lord might allow me
to be more heartfelt. I want to be more heartfelt. I pray that the Lord might allow
me to more and more see the seriousness of this. We need to learn something about
God. We really do. There's no time to play games.
There's no time to kill time. There's no time to add fluff.
Why don't we just fluff up the service a little bit? No, why
don't we cut it down to the heart of the matter? We need to learn
something about God. And we need to learn something
about ourselves. And we need to learn something
about the difference between a true hope of salvation, and
a false hope that only leads to eternal damnation. We need to learn something about
that. In 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13, the Apostle Paul said, I
would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. I don't want you to be ignorant
about these things. Verse 13 goes on to say, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, I don't want you to be ignorant
concerning them which are asleep that you sorrow not even as others
which have no hope. Now there are three things that
I want us to understand not be ignorant of. There are three
things I want us to understand through that verse of scripture. He said, but I would not have
you to be ignorant, brethren. But I would not have you to be
ignorant. Man. Is naturally ignorant. That's the first thing. Man is
naturally ignorant. Now, all men and women are ignorant,
naturally ignorant. And I am not being arrogant. I am not being arrogant. I put
myself into that category. Write my name at the top of the
list. All men and women. All men and
women are naturally ignorant. Ignorant of God. Man has no idea who God is. Naturally, that's how you start
out in the world. You're born into the world. A little baby
comes into the world having no idea who God is. And that little
baby will remain in that state and become a child and a young
adult and an adult and an aged man or woman still having no
idea who God is. Naturally, unless God reveals
himself. Men and women have no idea who
they are about to stand before. They have a God. Every person
has a God made up in his or her mind. But I promise it's all
lies. Whatever this flesh can concoct
in the mind is all lies. It's all a figment of our imagination
because it's not going to align with what God has written in
his word. People are so ignorant of God. Creatures are so ignorant of
God. I am trying as hard as I can
to not be offensive. I almost, I'm about to make a
third statement and almost thought, well, let's not do that. I have
to, I have to be truthful. I have to be truthful. And it's
because I care about the eternal state of our souls. So I'm going
to say, I'm going to declare that people are ignorant of who
God is. Preachers are ignorant of who
God is. I'm not trying to be arrogant. The Pope is ignorant of who God
is. That man is so ignorant of who
God is. He has no, the Pope has no idea
who God is. The reason we know this is because
If this world knew who God was, they would all fall down into
the dirt, crying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. The Pope parades around, claiming to be the intercessor
between God and man. That's who he thinks he is, the
anointed one. If that man knew who God was, he'd lay there just
pouring dirt on his head. He'd just lay there pouring dirt
on his head. He'd rip all those robes off and that silly hat
off. Isn't that right? I would not want to stand before
God having been a pope on this earth. The second thing I want us to
understand through this verse of scripture is this. Verse 13 says, but I would not
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Asleep means death. I don't want you to be ignorant
on the reason why men and women and everything else on this earth
dies. I don't want you to be ignorant
on why everything dies. Man naturally thinks it's because
of old age. He just died. What'd he die of?
Well, he just died. Things just break. Man naturally thinks it's because
of unfortunate accidents, mishaps, running red lights, wrong place
at the wrong time. That's not why men and women
die. There are no accidents with God.
There are no accidents with God. There are no accidents with God.
Nothing happens outside of his purpose. A leaf doesn't fall
to the ground. A sparrow doesn't fall out of
the sky. Nothing happens. Everything and everyone dies
because of sin. It's because of sin. In Adam, all die. That's what
1 Corinthians 15, 22 says. By one man, sin entered the world,
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that
all have sinned. That's Romans 5, verse 12. The wages of sin is death. Romans 6 verse 23. So man is
naturally ignorant of God. And man dies because of sin.
Now here's the third thing that I want us to understand through
this verse. Verse 13 says, but I would not
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. Some
have no hope. I don't want us to be ignorant
of this. Not every man or woman leaves
this world with a hope before God. Not every man or woman leaves
this world with a hope of eternal life. I don't want us to be ignorant
of this. Lord, please cause us to see
this. Heaven is not just the next step
for every soul on this earth. Some have no hope. That's why
the Apostle Paul said, that's why I repeat right now, I don't
want us to be ignorant of this. I want us to have a hope. I want
every soul in this room to have a hope. I want every soul in
this room to have a hope. Now, he goes on to say in the
next verse, if this is our hope, then we have a good hope. And
on down he says, we will be caught up to be with our Lord and we'll
live with Him forever. If this is our hope. All right,
let's see what it is in verse 14. He said, for if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. Now let's understand what
he did not say. He did not say if we believe
in ourselves. He did not say if we believe
we have done good enough. If we believe that we did all
we could do, if we leave this earth believing in our hearts,
we did all we could do. He did not say, if we believe,
we can make a change. Yes, I see my sin on me, yes,
but I believe I can make a change. And I'm gonna set my heart to
it. He didn't say that. He did not
say, if we believe, that God will look on our hearts and see
how sorry we are for it. He didn't say that. He did not
tell us to believe. or look to anything in ourselves. Let's not be ignorant of this.
Turn with me over to Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 1 says, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, my people,
my city, my nation, is that they might be saved. I want them to
be saved. I want them to be saved. He said in verse 2, For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. They're ignorant. And I feel
so sorry for them. I don't wish ill on them. I wish mercy on them. They're
so ignorant. Verse three says, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness. and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves,
they have not yielded to, they have not understood and yielded
the mind and the heart to the righteousness of God. What he's saying is they're looking
to themselves. They're looking to themselves. There is no hope
in looking to ourselves. None. If we base our hope on
what we see in ourselves, we will never have hope. If we base
our hope on what we see right here, we'll never have hope.
Turn your eyes on the Lord Jesus. look full into His wonderful
face and you'll find hope. You'll find hope. Verse 4 says,
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. To everyone that believe it.
If we believe, if we believe. Everyone that believes will leave
this world with a hope. Everyone that believes. Now this
is something I don't want us to be ignorant of. Believe what? Believe what? What will a sinner
who has a hope believe? What will a sinner who has a
hope believe? Go back to our text. 1 Thessalonians 4. Verse 13 says, But I would not
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, do we believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ was sinless? Yes, we do. then why did he die? If he was sinless, why did he
die? Sin is what kills. The wages
of sin is death. If he was a sinless man, why
did he die? It could only be because sin
was laid on him. That's the only reason. Sin was
laid on Him. If there is no sin, there is
no death. If there's no sin, there's no
death. Sin had to be laid on Him. It had to be. Now, if He did
not commit the sin, if He did not do it, where did He get it? He got it from the sinners that
his father purposed from the foundation of the world to save. That's who he got it from. All
of their sin was laid on him. Now, I'm going to try to be,
I want to be clear. I just want to be clear. I want
to try to really slow down right here. I'll try to be as clear
as I can be. Maybe the Lord will really open
our hearts to understand this. If I see my sin in myself, this
is the difference in a true hope unto eternal life or a false
hope unto eternal damnation. True faith, false faith. If I
see my sin And I do, and you do too. If
I see my sin and I believe in my heart that if I'm going to
have a hope before God, this sin that I see right here
in myself right now, this is going to have to be addressed.
If that's what I believe in my heart. I see it, I look at it,
and I realize this is going to have to be addressed. I have some things that I need
to fix. I see some things that I need
to fix before I go stand before God, right now. Just in case
I die, I better fix it right now. If that's what I believe, then
I do not believe that my sin was laid on Him. If I say, we all do, we all see
the sin. If what's going on in here, if
what's going on in this heart is, I better do something about
this. This is a holy God. And he judges
and he damns. And I don't like what I'm seeing.
And I better straighten up and fly right. I better fix this.
If that's what is going on in my heart, then I do not believe
that my sin was laid on him. If I believe that God is going
to deal with me based on my sin, then that means I don't believe
that God dealt with Christ based on my sin. It means I don't believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ died because of my sin. Why did Jesus die
on the cross? Sin. My sin. My sin. I don't believe, if that's what's
going on, it means I don't believe He bore the penance. If I look
at it and say, oh, He's going to get me for that. I'm going
to have to be punished for that. If this is not remedied, punishment
is coming to me, that means I don't believe. He bore my punishment. No, it can't be swept under the
rug. God doesn't sweep anything under the rug. God has never
said, don't, that's all right. Never. God is holy. And everything that I see in
myself that I know needs to be punished, it was punished. punished
in Him. But if I don't see all of that
sin taken out on Christ, then it means my hope is not in His
death. I can have a mental understanding
of the fact that Jesus Christ died. Anybody can. Anybody can. I can have a mental understanding.
The Apostle said, I don't want you to be ignorant of these things.
I can have a mental understanding of the fact that Jesus Christ
died. But that does not mean that my hope is in his death. But if God has given me a hope
in his death, If God has given me hope in His
death, if God has caused me to believe that my sin was laid
on Him, and God judged me, and God gave me what I deserved through
His Son on the cross, God dealt with me. If we believe that, then it means
we are His elect. That's all that it can mean. And the reason is because no
man or woman can receive that belief. No man or woman can believe
that unless God puts that belief in the heart of a sinner. Nobody
will believe that unless God puts that belief in the heart
of a sinner. God gives faith. Faith is not
of ourselves. It is the gift of God. It's impossible
to believe that. You can tell people Christ died
for your sins and your sins are gone. He took everything you
do and are and laid it on Christ and they cannot believe it unless
God puts faith in the heart to believe. I believe that. I mean,
I really believe that. God is the author and the finisher
of our faith. Therefore, if we believe, if we believe, it's not the cause. Okay, if we believe, here's the
start. Now it's time to go to action.
It's not the cause. If we believe, it's the evidence. It's the ending result. If we
believe, if God has convinced our hearts that all of our righteousness
before him, all of our perfection and sinlessness before him was
earned by the obedience of his son. And all of our sin that
was paid in full through the death of his son. If we believe. If God has given us faith to
believe that, then it means we belong to Him. It means we belong
to Him. If we believe, we belong to Him. If God has given us peace to
rest, if God has given us the ability to stop right there,
then we're sheep. Goats say this, but, but, I still
have to, but what about, I still, but, that's a goat. A sheep lays
down and rests. Just rests. And if God has given
us the faith to stop right there, stop at the work and the death
of Christ and say, I believe that he took care of it all.
I just believe he took care of it all. I believe it. Is in his hands was in his hands
and always will be in his hand. I don't even have to think about
it I trust him. That's what he said. I trust
him And that's a gift from God to
us that heart is a gift from God that's a gift of hope and
that is a true hope Unto eternal life that's an understanding
to eternal life It says in verse 14, 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 14,
for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, why did
Christ rise again? We're almost finished. Why did
Christ rise again? With the exception of Enoch and
Elijah, with the exception of those two men, every man and
woman ever born into this world has died. Some were raised back
up, but they all died again. Why did Christ rise never to
die again? It's because the sin is truly
gone. It's gone. Where there is no
sin, there is no death. No death. Men who die without
the hope of being under the blood of Jesus Christ, they'll bear
an eternal punishment. It'll be an eternal punishment.
And the reason is because they will never be able to pay off
the sin debt. They'll never stop trying to
make the payment. The payment will never be finished.
It'll never be completed. But Christ rose again. He rose again. That means the
debt is paid in full. With the debt being paid in full,
sin is gone. And when the sin is gone, the
death is gone. All that remains, the only result
that can be left is life, life, eternal life, eternal life. If God has caused us to see and
believe that our debt is paid in the blood of Jesus Christ,
And that in His resurrection, we have risen with Him to a sinless,
eternal life. If He's caused us to believe
that, we have a sure hope. We have a sure hope. We are not
as others who have no hope. To know Him, to know Him, is
to not be ignorant of these things. Here's all we need to know. Him. That huckster, you know
the story of the huckster, he kept saying, I don't know about
all that stuff, but I know this. I'm just a sinner, nothing at
all. But Jesus Christ is my all in all. To know him, that's to
know it all. Know him, look to him. That's
all we need to know. All right, stand together with
me.