Back to John 15. John 15. As Paul said in Romans 10, he
said, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for you is
that you might be saved. It really is. It's my heart's
desire and prayer to God. What it means to be saved is
to be found in Christ. We're going to look at that tonight,
what it means to be found in Christ. And I use the illustration
of the ark, those in the ark all the time. There's no better
illustration than that, is there? All those that were found in
the ark were saved. Who was in that ark? Well, those
that God chose, those that God called, who? They were a bunch of sinners.
Weren't the Ham and Shem and Japheth and their wives? And
Noah was a sinner. Not long after they got off the
ark, you know, they fell. But someone once said, I love
this, you know, they were in that ark for a year. And one
day, Noah stumbled and fell. All of God's people do fall.
They fall to temptation. They fall. But he didn't fall
out of the ark. He fell in the ark. He didn't
lose his salvation. Salvation is to be found in Christ. Our Lord says this eight times
in these ten verses. Abide in me. You abide in me
and I abide in you. My words abide in you. I want
us to consider that. We're not going to deal with
all the verses and everything he said. We're just going to
look at this, what it means to abide in Christ and Christ in
us. OK. It won't take long, but this
is vital. The three things I want us to
consider, the comfort of this, the comfort of it, the command
or the exhortation of it, and then the conclusion. All right,
look at verse 5. He said, I am the vine, you are
the branches. He's telling his disciples that.
He's not questioning them at all. He's saying, you are the
branches. I am the vine and you are the branches. Remember, in
this same chapter, verse 16, he said, you have not chosen
me, I chose you. It ordained you to bring forth
food. So, you didn't choose Christ. You didn't choose to come. You
didn't call on Him. He called on you. Right? Everybody in here who claims
to believe Christ and believe the truth knows that. You had nothing to do with you
being here. Hearing this gospel and believing
Christ. You had nothing to do with it. It's all Him. So He
says, I am the vine and you are the branch. That's a fact. Like John 14. You believe in
God. You do. Why? Because the Son has revealed
Him to you. And He said, Believe also in
Me. I am the way, the truth. I am the way you're going to
get the glory. I am the truth. And I am your life, because I
live, you live also. These are comforting words, aren't
they? I am the vine, and you are the branches. Now listen.
And He says, He that abideth in Me, And I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. I'm just going to read some scriptures
to you, and you don't have to turn. I'm going to do the turning
for you. But you know these scriptures.
In nearly every epistle, it begins this way. Paul, unto the church
of God at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ. Set apart in Christ. Called to
be saints. Called to be saved. And he went
on to say, you see your calling, brethren, don't you? See your
calling? God hath chosen the foolish thing.
God hath chosen the weak thing, base thing. Things that are not
to bring to naught, that no flesh should go. But of God are you
in Christ. Not hoped to be, you are in Christ. Who of God is made unto us. All these things. Christ is all
we need. All we need for salvation, for
life and God's ascension. He's our wisdom, He's our righteousness,
He's our sanctification, and He's our redemption. And according
as it is written, He that glorieth. But who do you glory in? In the
Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to this. And as said, nearly every epistle
begins this way. You know, everyone I read to,
you say, that's my favorite. Well, Paul, by the will of God,
to the saints, an emphasis to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Oh, bless God who blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him. that we be holy and without
blame before him in love, predestinated love, and we're accepted in the
Beloved, in whom we have redemption. You know what these things mean.
Listen to this. Ephesians 2, at one time you
were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenant of promise, no hope without God in the world,
but now in Christ Jesus. Ye who sometime were far off
are made mine by the blood of Christ." He is our peace. He
is our peace. Listen to this. Now therefore,
you are no more strangers and foreigners. We are fellow citizens.
We are the saints of the household of God, are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. In whom all the building is fitly
framed together, groweth unto a holy temple, in the Lord, in
whom ye also are built together for the inhabitation of God through
the Spirit. He abides in you, and you abide
in him. We have some nurses here. I've
said this before. Karen, that's Karen right there.
And that's Helen and Robin and other nurses we've had. But anyway,
you take vital signs, don't you? Of people. It's all related to
what? All the vital signs. Isn't that
something? Are you alive? Let's check your
heart. Right? Your blood pressure has to do
with blood? Heart? Heart rate? Isn't that
something? Those are vital signs. Well,
if your harsh desire, like Paul said, that I might win Christ
and be found in Him, your vital signs are good. You
must be alive. The world doesn't care. They
don't know these things. They don't care. What does it
mean to be in Christ? They don't care. That's not important. It's not important to religion,
is it? It is to you. You know these things. So, your vital signs are good. What does it mean to be in Christ?
Well, it means you were in Christ before you were born, before
the world began. You were in His will. You were
in His purpose. The purpose of God, according
to salvation, was given us in Christ before the world began. That's 1 Timothy 1 now. You were in His purpose. You
were in His will. You were in His good pleasure.
He pleased God to make you His people. He chose you. Jacob had
that. Before Jacob was born, before
he'd done any good or evil, didn't he? The purpose of God according
to the election might stand. He was saying, that's the one
I love. And he said that about you. How do you know, preacher?
Paul said in Thessalonians, I know your election because our gospel
came unto you. Not in word only, but in power.
He called you by this gospel. You believe it, you love it.
You love him. To be in Christ would be in His
kingdom before you were born. Your name was written in the
book of life before the world began. And nobody can take it
out. For known, for whom He did foreknow,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God. That's Peter. Paul, for
whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be what? To be
a child of God. So you didn't have anything to
do with it. Don't you love this? The world doesn't love this.
The world hates this. They don't love this. Why do
you love it? You're in Him. Truth's in you. He's in you. You're in His heart. You're in His mind. You're in
His purpose. You're in His will, His good
pleasure. You were in Christ when Christ came to this earth.
He's the covenant head. He's the second Adam. In Adam
all died. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. We were made sinners, we were
born sinners because we were sons of Adam. In Adam all died.
In Christ, what? Made alive. You see, when Christ
came to this earth, He didn't come to show us the way, He came
to be the way. He didn't come to, you know,
show you how to get to heaven, He came to bring us to God. He didn't show us what to do,
He came to do it all. In Christ. Christ, when He came
to earth, our covenant head, our substitute, the second Adam,
everything He did, we did. We were in Him. He represented us. We did. He's a surety of the
everlasting covenant. His righteousness, he kept the
law, he pleased God. God is well pleased for his righteousness
sake. What do we do? Just believe.
And even that's not a present. It's a gift of God. All whom
Christ did this for, he gives his faith. He sends the Holy
Spirit to give them this faith, and they believe. They can't
help but believe. They're going to believe. We kept the law in Christ. And when He died, God made Him
to be sinned. God just, He can't justify the
ungodly. Our sins have to be paid for,
have to be punished, but Christ was made sin. God laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. Who's those all in Isaiah 53? His people, for the transgression
of my people was He stricken. This is who he's talking about,
us, his people. He was talking to his disciples
right here. Judas is gone. He didn't say these things to
Judas. And this is not said to the world, this is said to his
disciples, those in him. So when he died, when Christ
died, the sins were paid, justice was satisfied. How do we know? He arose. Like the high priest
coming out of the Holy of Holies. after He shed the blood of the
Lamb and put it on the mercy seat. Are the bells ringing on
the hem of His garment? They sure are. He's alive. And
He came out. Christ's tongue on the cross
said, It's finished. And when He died, the veil was rent from
top Top to bottom. Who read it? God did. So that
the way into the Holy of Holies is open. How? By Christ. You know these things, don't
you? I'm enjoying telling you this
again. We've heard these a thousand times. If you love this, then
you've received the love of the truth. If you don't, never tire
of this, but it gets more and more wonderful. And when Christ
arose, we arose, we quickened together with him. He lives. And he said, because
I live, what? You live also. I am come that
they might have life. Why? Because they were dead.
And he raised us to the gospel. But when he was on this earth,
And he was crucified, buried, arose again, went back and seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high. And you know what Scripture
said? We're seated in him. Now how is that, preacher? Well,
I still don't understand. All right, let me give you a
good illustration. I've used this many times. Maybe
somebody hasn't heard it. Okay? A man and a woman purposes
to have a child. Okay? They want to have a family.
How is that child born? The seed of the Father. Right? A woman can't give life to herself.
It's the Father's seed. God's people are born again.
Not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible. By the Word of
God that liveth and abideth for ever. By the Gospel. Peter said,
this is the Word which by the Gospel is what? Preached. Being born again. Alright? So this couple decides to have
a child, and the father implants his seed in the woman she conceives,
and there's an unborn child in her from conception. For nine
months. Hidden to the world. Unknown to the world. It does
not yet appear what that child is. Unknown. Some of you know these scriptures.
You were smiling. All right? But known and loved by that father,
known and loved by that mother that bears that child in her.
Christ is the one who prevailed in birth till we were born. And long before we were born,
we were in Him, in His love. He purposed to have a family,
and you were one of them. And you were in His love, and
He named you long before you were born. He knew you. Everything about you. David said
that in Psalm 139. He didn't know my substance before
there was any. Everything about me. The very
hairs of our head are numbered. Known and loved by the father,
the mother, named, called a son or a daughter. Now listen to
this. An unborn child, when it's in
that mother, all that mother is, that child is. You understand? If people love
the mother, they love that child. If the father loves the mother,
he loves that child. He's in it. You can't love the
mother and not love the child. They're one. He's in it. You understand that? Where if
she's accepted, if she's granted entrance, someone says, come
into my house, woman. The child's accepted too, right? Why? In her. Am I making sense
here? This is what it means to be in
Christ. What it means to be in Christ. Loved, accepted. All she does, everything she
does, the child does. Right? That child can't do nothing.
The power can't do anything, but she does. Where she goes,
the child goes. If she lives, the child lives,
right? This is what it means to be in
Christ. I think that's a pretty good
illustration, don't you? And of God, how do you get there?
Of God are you in Christ? The Father chose, gave to the
Son. Holy Spirit, through the preaching
of the Gospel, the seed plants Christ in us. And one day, that
unborn child is born. A new creature. The world's never
seen before. And without exception, usually
without exception. That doesn't make sense. Usually
without exception. That doesn't make sense. Usually, that child
bears the image of their parenthood. One of them is going to die.
If you're like Steve Parks, he looks just like he does. They
call it the spitting image. Well, all of God's people are
new creatures created in Christ Jesus. They were predestined
to be conformed to the image of Christ long before they were
born. And when they're born again, there's this new creature As
he is, so are we in this world. And we can't see it. But God
does. That's the one he looks at. That's
that new creature. So it is. Born again. So, to
be found in Christ. Hmm. Be found in Christ. Oh boy. Does that make you glad?
Those truths make you glad? Well, that's the comforting.
Truth of it, all right? Listen to Psalm 91. Listen to
Psalm 91. Mandy was reading this just yesterday
morning, I think. He that dwelleth in the secret
place, secret to most, of the Most High. What is that secret
place? Christ. Isn't it? The world didn't
know Him. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. shall abide, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And it goes on to say, surely,
listen to all these surelys, if you're in Him, He shall deliver
thee from the snare of the fowler, who? The Almighty, the one in
whom you live, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee
with his feathers. Who's that? It's one who's like
an eagle, a man, an eagle, a cow, a calf, and a lamb. Under his
wing shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and thy buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid. For
the terror by night A thousand shall fall at thy side, ten thousand
at thy right hand. It shall not come nigh thee. Why? The Lord is thy refuge. You're in Him. Remember they
came to the garden to take Christ, and they should have. They were
after all of them. Christ went out in front of them
and said, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus. He said, You
seek me. You've got to let them go. You
can't have them. Listen to this. No evil shall
befall them. All things work together for
good according to the purpose of God, called of God, whom He
had predestinated, called, justified, glorified. No evil shall befall
them. He'll give His angels charge
for this. This is what it means to be in crime. Are you saying once in grace,
always in grace? That's exactly what I'm saying.
I make no apology for that. But I'll change one word. Once
in Christ, always in Christ. You're in Him. You're kept by
Him. You're saved in Him. He'll keep you in all thy ways. He'll call upon me. I'll answer
Him. I'll be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him. I'll honor him with long life.
Will I satisfy him? And I'm going to show him my
salvation. Isn't that wonderful? Is that
your favorite song? This is just partly, just scratched
the surface of what it means to be in Christ. It's everything.
Do you believe all that? Then you're in Him. Does it give
you joy? How are your vital signs right
now? Is your heart racing? Good! We don't want it to... We want it to beat irregularly.
We want your heart to burn within you while we open the Scriptures
to you. Alright, here's the command of it in our text, John 15. The Lord said in verse 4, Abide
in me. And down in verse 5, he said,
I am the vine, you are the branch, you do abide in me. But here
he says, abide in me. Why is he telling those that
abide in him to abide in him? Huh? Abide in me, he said. Verse 5,
he says, he that abideth in me and I in him, the same will bring
forth much fruit. If a man, verse 6, abide not
in me, he's cast forth as a branch. Verse 7, if you abide in me and
my words abide in you, Ask what you will, it'll be done to you.
Why is he telling us that? John, who wrote this gospel,
wrote 1 John, listen to this, and it's about ten times in 1
John. Abide, abide, abide. He was there. Listen to 1 John
2, listen to this. He says in 1 John 2, verse 24,
Let that therefore abide in you which you heard from the beginning.
If that which you've heard from the beginning remain in you,
you'll continue in the Son to Father. Are you getting this? He said, my words abide in you.
You abide in me, my words abide in you. And listen to this. Now, little
children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may
have confidence and not be ashamed for him as he's coming. On and
on it goes. Abide. Now, Bernard used to say,
all you need is a Bible and a dictionary. It's true. Listen to this definition
of abide. You're going to love this. Just a dictionary. Abide. It means to stay in a given place. God says, there's a place that
I've chosen to put my name there. Go there. And stay there. Do you understand? Like He told the children of
Israel in the house where the blood was, don't leave the house.
Abide right there. Abide. This is not good advice. This is command. Boy, we need
to be told this, don't we? Stay. Like you tell a dog, keep
it from running out in the street. Stay. Stay. Stay put. Stay. It means to continue. If
you continue. Dwell. It means to dwell. Live
there. Your life. It means to endure. It means to be present. If somebody
is looking for you, they know where to find you. Isn't this good? It means to
remain. It means to stand. Don't move. Stand. It means to tarry or wait
for the one you love. Isn't that something? Abide. Abide in love's abiding joy. Stay. Go to Ruth chapter 2. You will want to turn here and
look at this. To abide means to stay put. Ruth,
right before Samuel. Joshua Judges, Ruth, Chapter
2. Don't you love this story? It means to stay put. It means
don't leave. Stay right where you are. You
don't want me to stay, do you? Ruth is all of us, isn't she? Ruth, chosen. She was a heathen. The Lord brought her from a heathen
land House of Bread in Bethlehem. Why? To meet her Redeemer. She
didn't know him. And long before she knew him,
he knew her. He saw her before she saw him,
didn't he? He gave commands concerning her,
didn't he? Oh, she was loved by Boaz before
she even knew him. He set his love on her. He gave
commands concerning her, didn't he? Don't you love this story?
Well, look at Ruth chapter 2, verse 8. Then said Boaz when
she was in his field. She just happened to land in
his field, remember that? In verse 8, then Boaz said unto
Ruth, Hearest thou not my daughter? Are you listening to me? Go not
to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here
fast by my maidens. Remember that message? You see
all these maidens? These are maidens of Boeth. Redeemed
of the Redeemer. Right here. In this little field.
Yes, they are. Yes, they are. Stay. Don't leave. He gives this angel's chart.
He gave this man's chart. Don't anybody touch her. Feed
her. Give her handfuls on purpose.
Do everything for her. He loved her. Verse 9, Let thine
eyes be on the field that they do reap. Go thou after them,
follow them. Have I not I charged the young
men concerning thee? Stay right where you are. Paul even said that to Corinthians.
Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called. It's the
gospel right here. Stay. Be not moved away from
the gospel. Don't do it. Do we need that?
Why? Because of the weakness of the
flesh. Because of the pull of Egypt, the world. She fell on
her face, verse 10, says, Why have I found grace? Why have
you taken knowledge of me? I'm a stranger. He said, No,
you're not. I know all about you. I know all about you. So she ran home, and verse 22,
Naomi said unto Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It's good, my daughter, that
thou go out with his maiden. That's good, that they meet thee
not in any other field. It's good. You stay right there.
Keep fast by the maiden of Boaz, that gleam under the end of the
bar. Almost over. You stay right there.
That's what it's about. To abide means to continue. It
means to continue. Listen to Colossians 1. It means
to continue. It says in Colossians 1 verse
2, it said this, To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ,
grace to you, peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We pray and always for you since
we heard of your faith. Because he gave it to you. And
he says you were at one time enemies and aliens, just like
Phaeson. Same thing, same gospel. So he's
going to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from your hope of the gospel. Stay put. Do you need that? We
sure do. Grounded and settled. So, it
means to continue. It means to be present. Hebrews
10. I do want you to turn there.
Hebrews 10. To abide means to be present. And we look at this,
and I quote this always, and I'm going to keep quoting it
until the day I die. And we need this desperately,
so much more as we see the day approaching. Don't we? Don't
we? This world has never been a more
dangerous place. These last days are a perilous
time, more perilous than ever before. Chapter 3 says, Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. Exhort one another daily. While
it's called a day, lest any of you be hardened to the deceitfulness
of sin, we're partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
conference steadfast unto Him. It just means to stay under the
gospel. Jude said, keep yourself in the
love of God. Our Lord said that. Look at Hebrews
10, verse 23. Let us hold fast to the profession
of our faith without wavering. He's faithful to promise. Let
us consider one another, provoke one another. Just don't think
about yourself, but think about one another. Pray for one another.
Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. It's a
matter of some here. Exhorting one another. There's
so much more as you see the day approaching. Assemble together. It means to dwell together. It
means to be in the presence of our Lord with His people. Can you say with David, let me
check your vital signs again, what is your heart's desire? What is truly your heart's desire?
God knows. He looks on the heart. David
said this, can you say this? One thing have I desired of the
Lord, and that will I seek after. that I may dwell, abide, in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life. Never leave. To behold the beauty of the Lord. You see any beauty in Him? There
was a time you didn't. You do now, don't you? All together
live. Oh, to behold the beauty of the
Lord and inquire in His temple. Anything you need. to know Him,
to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. Do you need to keep
hearing this gospel? David said that, he said, Thy
loving kindness is better to me than life. David said in Psalm
84, he said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell
in a fighter's tent in all the world. They're all tents. Can you say that? Can you say
in this life that really it doesn't get any better than this? That this is where you want to
be with God's people. So if you're the bride of Christ,
this is where you'll be found. Me and you and I have been married
now 46 years in September. Okay? And we're both sinners,
and it's the grace of God that brought us together, gave us
the love for one another, and we're both sinners, and we've
had our problems, and we're still together after all these years.
That's of the Lord. It's by the grace of God. If
you're still in the church and with God's people and still in
love, that's the grace of God, isn't it? But this is what we
find in our later years. The older we've gotten now, About
all we want to do is just sit together. Just sit in the house. We used to go here, go there,
do this, do that. Now we just kind of want to hang
around each other. Sit on the porch and talk. Don't
we talk about the Word and the Scriptures? We're enjoying each
other's company now more than ever. Is that true? Janette's
going, she's looking at Ed. It's so, isn't it? If that love
is there. The same is true of the bride
of Christ. There's nothing she wants to
do more than sit at His feet. That's where you'll find her.
At home. She loves Christ. She loves His
people. By this shall all men know you're my disciple. You
love one another. The maidens of Boaz. That's where you want
to be. That's who you want to be with.
That's where you will be. To abide means to be present
with. That's where you're going to find the bride. When she finally
married Boaz, if you're looking for Ruth, where would you find
her? Where you found her in the beginning? At his feet. Probably
she went to Boaz and laid at his feet to cover me. I'm not
going anywhere unless you bless me. He said, well, you just stay
right here. I'm going to take care of all this. And I'm going to marry
you. And he did. We'll get to the
conclusion here in a minute. It's wonderful. But that's where
you'll find the people of God, the bride of Christ. They're
at home with their beloved. Like David, one thing that I
desired, Paul said, this one thing I do. Isn't it? This one thing I do. I want to
win Christ. Be found in Him. Noah's life was that ark. It
wasn't a hundred years. He preached the truth. He believed
the truth. And when it was over, he was found in that ark. That
ark was his life. And Christ is the life of his
people. He really is. That's not just a statement.
It's a fact. It's Christ in you. It means
His Word is in you, His truth is in you, a love of the truth
is in you. You have faith in Him. Christ
in you means you have faith in Him. It means He is in your mind,
in your heart, in your affection. You need Him. You hunger and
thirst for Him. The Gospel, you do. You never
lose that if Christ is in you, if you're in Him. You're alive. You feed off of Him. He's your
life. You feed on it like a baby sucking
his mother's breath. That's scripture, isn't it? Your joy in Him, your peace is
in Him. Now, an average person, you know,
is not a theologian, an average believer, in here even. Maybe
you have trouble, would have trouble telling somebody what
it means to be in Christ. But you know this much. You know this, that all your
hope is in Christ. Right? You know that the love
of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God for you is in Christ. You know that. You can say that,
can't you? That's what it means. be in Christ
and for Christ to be in you. He's put that truth in you. He's
put that faith in you. He's put that confidence in you.
He's put that hope in you. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. His word, his word of truth,
his gospel is in you. And he said this, he said, if
my words, if I, let me read to you. He said, if you abide in
me and my words abide in you, you'll ask what you will and
it'll be done unto you. What wilt thou? that He do for
you. When a leper came down from the
mountain, and Christ said, what will thou that I should do unto
thee? He said, Lord, I want to be clean. Done. If the truth
is in you, if Christ is in you, you have one desire. I want,
Lord, I want to be found in you. Done. In that great day when
you come, Lord, remember me. Done. It'll be done unto you. Don't
pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. Done! Ask. That's your desire. That's the will. That's the desire
that God puts in all of His people. Not for things of the world.
He gives us that in abundance. We don't need one more thing,
material thing in this world. Oh boy. But we're still poor and needy,
aren't we? We need Christ more than ever.
If that's what you need, and you go, Lord, I need Thee, done. You have me. So here's the conclusion
of the matter, and turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter
1. And I conclude. Okay? 1 Thessalonians chapter
1. This is good, and I just quoted
a little bit to you a while ago. It begins this way. You have it? 1 Thessalonians
1, Paul, Silas, Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians,
which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
to you, peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said in verse 4, We know, beloved, your election of God, our gospel,
this gospel which you've heard tonight. He came to you not in
word only, but in power, life-giving, heart-piercing, convincing, convicting
power and a Holy Ghost who takes the things of Christ. Much assurance,
gives you assurance of who Christ is and what He did. That's assurance
you need. You know that? There are two
things you can be sure of. You're a great sinner. And Christ
is a great Savior. Two things you can be sure of.
You can't keep yourself, but you're kept by the fire of God.
That'll give you assurance. And you know what manner of men
we were brought among you, and you became followers of us. And
the Lord received the Word in much affliction. Your examples.
Look at verse 9. And they showed us, people have
showed us, how you turn to God from idols to serve the living
and true God. So many of you were in false
religion and you renounced it. And now you believe the God who
is God. And what you're doing, verse
10, is waiting for your son. Remember, abide means tarry.
Abide. He said, go into Jerusalem and
abide. You stay right there. I'm coming.
Wait on me. I'm coming. He can't lie. Wait for His Son, whom He raised
from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to
come. Now look at chapter 4. This is
wonderful. Get ready to shout. Somebody
go ahead and shout if you feel like it. Verse 13, I would not have you
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. We've
had several brethren fall asleep in our Lord. Mack, Joe, Henry,
Henry, Henry, Mary, your mother, Hamlet, Ball of Slings, several
others, so many, Ellen. Brethren, we don't sorrow as
others which have no hope. And we're going to see more very
soon. If, you know, if age, if things
usually follow by age, John, Earlene, Ed, Jeanette, right? My mother, Roberta, Nancy. It's going to happen. The weak,
the sickly, they're going to be gone, right? Where are they? Hang on. We're going to see them
again. And we believe, verse 14, that
Jesus died and rose again. We believe them that sleep in
Jesus, God's going to bring with Him. Will God bring with Him? And this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent or go before them that
went before us, that are asleep now, their bodies in the grave.
For the Lord Himself Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of
God. Or Rahab heard it, we will tell
you. You're hearing it right now.
And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them In the
clouds, if you ever wanted to fly, I'm going to you. I mean, and I envy the birds
all the time. You see them every now and then
just floating and look like they're just having fun. They're not
going anywhere. I'd like to do that. I'm going
to you. With no gravity, this world's sand, nothing's going
to drag us down. Mount up on wigs and acres. Going
to meet everybody, going to meet the Lord, look at it. Verse 17,
caught up together with them in the clouds, the Lord is going
to bring all the saints of glory for this great reunion in the
air, in the cloud, going to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. So comfort one another with these
words. And these light afflictions we're
going through right now. will not be remembered or come
to mind. Your work is not worthy to be
compared with the glory that shall be revealed. And we're
going to live with Christ. We'll see him as he is. We'll
be with him forever and with the saints that you love on earth.
We're all going to be perfect and we're going to dwell together
in perfect holiness and harmony. No more sinners. Y'all aren't
going to be rotten anymore. We're going to get along perfectly. If you love doing this now, oh,
we're going to love it then. Now what's not to look forward
to? Comfort one another. Alright, stand with me.