Well, turning the scriptures
to 1 Thessalonians, as I said, there are two great desires of
the apostles here. One is that people would be comforted.
I want to be comforted. And I want to be built up. It says edify one another together,
to build one another together. The church of God is typified
as a building, isn't it? And a building is never just
made of one piece, is it? A wall exists as a wall because
there are many pieces holding themselves together. The church
of God is typified as the branches of a vine, sheep of a flock,
Stones of a building, one stone on its own doesn't achieve anything,
but stones together can make the most beautiful edifice to
be built up and to be comforted. I don't know about you, but like
many Australians I've been... I don't know what it is about
the business in Indonesia and the execution of these young
people. Thousands of people are dying
around the world in horrific circumstances, a lot of which
we don't know, but somehow the horror of what lies before these
young men and the brutality of it and There are two young men
who are deserving punishment but have been remarkably transformed
by their time in jail and yet when you think of what lies before
them, the horror of what might happen to them in the next couple
of weeks, somehow it has captivated the thoughts of Australians in
general. I don't approve of it. And yet, the reality is that
we are, as we read in Isaiah 40, we are as brass, aren't we? Life is short. Life is very, very fragile on
this planet. And we don't know. We don't know. We have no guarantee. We have
no guarantee. that we'll get beyond this morning
or this hour. What awaits those young men is
what ultimately awaits all people and maybe just the brutality
of it causes people to think. Think about what happens. What
happens at death? What happens beyond death? And the scriptures give us abundant
and clear answers, and as I have shown you before, the words that
we have here in 1 Thessalonians 4 and into chapter 5 are words
that the apostle has written by the power of God's Spirit
coming upon him. It says in verse 15 of chapter
4, he says to them, by the word of the Lord, He continually writes
to them. If you read earlier in chapter
3, you'll see he speaks by the Lord Jesus. He's not speaking
as a private man with private thoughts. He's bringing us the
Word of God. Let's read from verse 14, chapter
13, verse 13 of chapter 4. But I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, The ignorance is the mother of superstition and all
sorts of wickedness, isn't it? There is just so much ignorance
about so many things. Paul would not have his people
be ignorant. I wouldn't have you ignorant
concerning them which are asleep. that you sorrow not, even as
others which have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus God
will bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not proceed, shall not go before
them which are asleep. Because for the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, with the trump of God, 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 to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words. And there was some concern in
the Thessalonian church about the events that were going to
happen, the secrets of those events, the timing of those events,
and what a blessing it was that they had their questions and
their concerns. Paul came there having been called from Western
Turkey to come across in Acts 16, a man from Macedonia appeared
in a vision to him, come across and comfort us, it says. Come
across and help us. Come across and walk and bring
that gospel to us." And Paul went over there and in no time
at all he's landed in jail in Philippi and put in stocks and
he's beaten And then as a beaten man he's sent out from Philippi
and he passes two large cities on that Adriatic coast and he
then comes to Thessalonica and you can read about it in Acts
chapter 17. He comes to this city and he went there and he
was just there for three weeks, three short weeks and in those
three weeks remarkable things has happened. He went into a
church, a synagogue, a large synagogue, a successful synagogue,
a synagogue that not only included a large number of Jews but included
a large number of Greeks, a synagogue that was evangelising, a synagogue
that was reaching out to people, a synagogue that was frequented
by people of high status in that city. He went in among them and
three Sabbath days he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,
opening and alleging, explaining and demonstrating, explaining
and proving that Christ must have suffered. He must come and
he must suffer and be risen again from the dead. And this Jesus
whom I preach to you is Christ." A simple message, wasn't it?
Jesus Christ and him crucified was his gospel and he never wavered
from it. And some of them believed and
associated and joined themselves with Paul and Silas, and the
devout Greeks, a great multitude, and the chief women, not a few.
So out of this synagogue gathering was gathered this church in Thessalonica,
just after three weeks. And then the Jews, which believed
not. moved with envy, took under them
certain lewd fellows of the basis sort. These Jews who proclaimed
righteousness, a righteousness under the law, these Jews who
had heard, no doubt, 10 or 15 years there had been between
the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and those remarkable
events in and around Jerusalem, witnessed by millions. And here they were just a little
way across the Mediterranean, and they had their synagogue,
they had their church, and it was successful. And there they
were holding meetings and reading the Bible, and then Paul came
along with the Gospel. When the Gospel came, when the
Lord Jesus came as he did to that nation Israel, all of their
religion was exposed. All of the righteousness that
they thought they had under their religion was exposed. In fact,
these Jews preaching righteousness and the law, to get rid of Paul
out of town, to get rid of the message, they went down to the
marketplace and found the roughest blokes they could get and they
caused such a stir in the city that Paul had to leave. And he
went down the coast a little bit further, he went to Berea.
And then hearing that he was still preaching and proclaiming
the same Jesus in Berea, the same mob of Jews sent people
down there to stir up the Bereans. He came with a gospel, he came
with a message from God. And this little church in Thessalonica,
this little church was left just after three weeks and he was
sent away for the safety of himself and the safety of those he cared
for. And he's troubled about them. What's going to happen? What's happened in the lives
of these believers? I've just been there three weeks.
There they are, separated out of this synagogue, surrounded
by these people who have hunted me out of town. How are they
coping? How are they coping? And Paul
is rejoicing. He sent Timothy back to Thessalonica. How are they going? What's happened
in the lives of that little flock of believers there? And Timothy's
come back and he's brought great news. He found that these people,
in the midst of all this opposition, not only had survived, but they
had thrived. And he says in verse 8 of chapter
3, he says, now he lives. His life is to see his brothers
and sisters standing fast, standing solid, again holding each other
up and building each other up. And they are standing fast in
the Lord. Now standing fast in the faith,
they had held on to the testimony that Paul had proclaimed. But also, as I said earlier,
they had concerns, didn't they? What about, what happens, what
happens to our brothers and sisters who have died? What happens,
and obviously they are very exercised about the return of the Lord
Jesus, what's going to happen when he comes back? What's happened
to people who die? What will happen when the Lord
returns? What will happen to living believers
when the Lord Jesus returns? What happens? How do we get to
meet with them together? And what will be the final position? He says, I don't want you to
be ignorant. Knowledge. Knowledge is the solution, is
that knowledge of God and knowledge of His Gospel and knowledge of
His purposes is the basis on which He wants His people to
be comforted. He just wants them to know what's
in the Scriptures. He wants them to know what God
has promised. He wants them to know again and
be reminded again of the character of God. He wants them to sing,
Our God reigns. He doesn't want them to be ignorant.
Let's read on in verse 14. For we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, and even also them which sleep in Jesus God
will bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain until the
coming of the Lord shall not go before them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. with
the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive shall
remain, and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be
with the Lord. comfort one another. Don't worry
about the times and seasons, he goes on in chapter 5, because
you know yourselves perfectly that the day of the Lord shall
come as a speech in the night, when this world is saying, peace
and safety. then sudden destruction cometh
upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not
escape. But you, brethren, are not in
darkness, that they should overtake you as a thief. You are all children
of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night
nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as
do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep,
sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in
the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting
on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope
of salvation. For God has not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for us, that whether we wake or asleep, we should live
together with Him. Therefore, comfort yourselves
together and edify one another. Build one another up from a foundation
even as you do. Further reminder isn't it, Paul
is wanting these people to be knowledge, to be knowledgeable. There is, as we read in Isaiah,
there is one great overarching fact isn't it. This is God's
creation. He rules it, He created it, He
sustains it. Its immensity is to show us how
big He is and how immense. Its power, the power that's involved
in sustaining us is to show us how powerful our God is. The
wisdom of putting it together and sustaining it from the tiniest
little things that we can see with the best of our microscope
to the hugest things. How do they all hang together? It's to show us that the knowledge
of our God, the wisdom of our God is absolutely infinite. Why is it so big? It's so big
to show us how big our God is. It seems like it might be a waste
of space. It's all about how big He is.
Hebrews 2 says that the universe in the hands of the Lord Jesus
is something like a clock. We have an immense God. Behold Him. He says, as he's
leaving his disciples, he says, I've gone to prepare a place
for you. And he says, if I've gone to prepare a place for you,
I'll come back. In my father's house are many
mansions. In my father's house are many
places of rest. I'm coming back. He's gone to
the cross. He's gone to the grave. He's
gone to heaven. to prepare a place and he's coming
back. As he left this earth in Acts
chapter 7, he was taken up in a cloud and the angels, the apostles
are gazing on and they say, the angels come and say, why are
you looking up there? You don't need to look up there.
He's going to come back. He came to come back exactly
as you saw Him go, in that resurrected body, in that glorified body,
that body that bears the marks on it of His humiliation and
His crucifixion. He came in humiliation. He came born of a woman, born
under the law. He came to manifest God. He came to reveal God to us,
God in human flesh, God in such a way that we can touch Him and
feel Him and know Him and be united to Him. He came as God
in human flesh. to redeem his own, to reconcile
unto God, to bear their sins in his own body on the tree. He came to die, he came to be
buried, he came in humility, he came and he gloriously triumphed. And in his resurrection, People
say we need evidence. In his resurrection, there's
not one resurrection meeting. Not one time did he give evidence
to any of them. What a remarkable opportunity
he had on the day he rose from the grave. He could have, with
Mary Magdalene and Peter and James and John and the others,
he could have marched down to Pilate's fall, couldn't he? He
could have gone to Caiaphas' place where they judged him and
counted him worthy of dying. He could have stood on the top
of a temple in Jerusalem. He could have revealed himself
to multitudes, and yet he chose not to. He only ever revealed
himself to his own, hundreds of them, 500 at one time. You
can read about it in 1 Corinthians. He is a triumphant God, and His
triumph is a purpose, isn't it? Our God reigns. Behold a God
who reigns. He reigns purposely. He reigned as God in that eternal
councils when it was just before time began, He and His Father
and the Blessed Holy Spirit. He was the reigning God and He
created all things. It was He who spoke and creation
came into existence. He is the reigning God and He
reigned in the fall when Adam and Eve fell, our God was still
reigning, was still reigning for his people and his life. He came as one who reigned. He reigned over death. He reigned
over creation. He reigned over people. He reigned for his own. And how God The Lord Jesus Christ,
He reigns in heaven right now. He's working all things together
right now for the good of those who love Him, called according
to His purpose. Our God reigns. It's one of the
great tragedies, isn't it? The great tragedies of every
false gospel and every false understanding and misunderstanding
of the Lord Jesus. It dethrones Him. always he is
dethroned. He is dethroned in the eyes of
people. Why does this world use him as a swear word? The answer
of scripture is really plain. The people standing where I am
cause him to be dethroned as if he is a God who is trying
to achieve something and is frustrated. He is a God. He is the God who
reigns over all of this universe right now. He reigns purposefully. He reigns effortlessly. He reigns majestically. He reigns,
in a sense, mysteriously. He reveals something of his activities
and there is much that we don't know. He puts a veil over it. He reigns with absolute sovereignty. He reigns absolutely infinitely. He has his way in the world. When we see those swirling cyclones
and we see all that dust and debris and other things, God
determines where every little tiny piece of dust goes in the
whirlwind. Not only does he determine it,
he planned it and purposed it from before the foundation of
the world. The most random thing that you can do as a man is throw
some dice up in the air, isn't it? And let them fall and bounce
around and let them come to rest. And he says, the lot is cast
into the lap. They're thrown up with all their
numbers on them. But it's every decision, every
decision of them is from the Lord. I say all that to say that
our God, this world, under the reign of our God, is heading
somewhere. This is a creation that is heading
to a point in time. It is not randomly just going
on and on. In fact, that's what the scoffers
say, doesn't it? Peter promises us, he says, scoffers
will come walking after their own lusts. 2 Peter 3 verse 3
and saying where is the promise of his coming? And the answer
of the wise men of this world is, for since the fathers fell
asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning.
It just goes on and on and on. The Buddhist definition of eternity
is you take a silk handkerchief and once every hundred years
you rub it against the highest mountain in the world. It goes
on and on and on forever. That, according to the scriptures,
is willing ignorance. It is not just ignorance, it's
willful ignorance of God. The scriptures point out again
and again that creation is going somewhere. There is a day appointed. a day appointed in the councils
of God, a day appointed that cannot be changed when our God
is coming back and everything is ready right now. When you look at the mountains
and you look at the clouds, it's good to think that He can come
back right now. We are to look We're not to look
for signs and we're not to be caught up in the silly nonsense
of events, the timing of events. We've had that, we've been plagued
by that throughout church history, haven't we? The whole Adventist
movement. was based on the advent of the
Lord Jesus. And they kept predicting it and
getting it wrong, predicting it and getting it wrong. Every
time someone has predicted it, like that man in the US just
a few years ago, every time they've predicted it, every single one
of them, according to the Word of God, is going to be wrong
all the time. And then the Adventists, to save the embarrassment of
being wrong too many times, they then had to say that in 1914
there was a secret coming. a secret coming. What a load
of nonsense. Let's read what the scriptures
say. Let's find our comfort in these words, that Paul sought
to comfort these beloved brethren. There is a clear, clearly outlined
sequence of events. The bride of the Lord Jesus at
the moment is in three states. There are some in heaven right
now. There are some on this earth
right now. And there possibly are some who
are not yet born. And so there are some in heaven
who see the face of the Lord Jesus. They are singing. They
are asking questions. How long, O Lord? They have a
real existence, a real and powerful existence. And yet they don't
have bodies. They don't have a resurrected
body like their Lord Jesus. They are worshipping the Lord.
And then there will come a time There'll come a time when there'll
just be two states of humanity in this world. There'll be those
in heaven and those here. We don't see the face and see
the glory of the Lord Jesus as they do in heaven. But there'll
come a time when there'll just be two states, won't there? There'll
be those that are on earth and those in heaven and no more to
be born. The last of God's children will
have been born and been born again, and then the end will
come. That's what these events that
Paul is talking about here. These are the events. Firstly,
Christ will descend, and he'll bring with him his redeemed. He'll descend from heaven. Verse 14, those that sleep in
Jesus, God will bring with him. The Lord, verse 16, shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and
the trump of God. God will come. Our God will return
from heaven as promised. And the dead will be raised.
The living will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air. The
world shall be destroyed and recreated. And then that heavenly
city in Revelation 21, that beautiful bride prepared and adorned by
God as a suitable bride for his dear son. that shall come to
this new earth. And then there'll just be one
state of the redeemed. There'll just be one state. All
of them will have resurrected bodies. They'll have real bodies
that you can touch and feel. The Lord Jesus' body was a real
body. You could touch it, you could
feel it. You could walk with Him, you could eat with Him,
you could drink with Him, you could be taught by Him, you could
question Him, you could hold Him. That's the resurrected body
that lies before every one of us, isn't it? That's where we
are going. It will just be that one state. We don't know when he's coming. We don't know. We're not to trouble
ourselves about that. It'll come. He'll come as a thief
in the night. He'll come when no one is prepared,
when people are marrying and being given in marriage, when
things are going on normally on this earth. He'll come. He'll come with great power and
glory. He'll descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of
God, and the dead in Christ shall rise. There won't be this secret
rapture that people talk about. We're talking about a huge climactic
event, a climactic and sudden event. He'll come in his real
body, a physical body, his resurrected body. When he comes, there'll
be a mighty resurrection. And when he comes, this earth,
this earth that has been the playground of Satan and sinners,
this earth that has sustained almost unwillingly the wicked
and depraved sin of men who live in this world breathing the air
of a Creator, living the life that's given by a Creator, eating
the food that sustains them by the hand of a Creator and neither
glorifying Him nor acknowledging Him at all. has a time limit on it. So firstly
we are to comfort each other. Comfort each other about the
fact that our God reigns. We are to comfort each other
about these departed brothers and sisters because they are
sleeping. They are, as the scriptures so
often describe departed brothers and sisters, they are asleep.
They are asleep in the arms of the Lord. Their bodies are sleeping
in a grave and their souls live on. The thief on the cross, looking
across and remarkably transformed as he looked across at that naked
and bleeding body of the Lord Jesus. He looked across and he
acknowledged remarkable things. He preached one of the most remarkable
sermons in all of the scriptures. He acknowledged that he was a
sinner and deserving of what he was getting. He acknowledged
the Lord Jesus was not deserving and in a remarkable way he went
in that instance from being one who blasphemed and mocked the
Lord Jesus like the fellow next to him. What a remarkable act
of faith to look at a dying, bleeding, naked man as that cross
was covered in his blood and it dripped down to the ground.
He looked across at him and he saw, said, Lord. He acknowledged
that he was Lord. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. He acknowledged him as Lord,
acknowledged him as a king, and the Lord Jesus gave him the most
wonderful promise, didn't he? He says, today, this very day,
you will be with me in paradise. What a remarkable promise. The
Lord Jesus kept saying it, didn't he, in John 8.51. He says, if
any man keep my saying, he will never see death. In John 10,
28, he says, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish. At the grave of Lazarus, when
he came there and he spoke to Mary and Martha, and he wept
with those who wept, he knew what was going to happen. He
stayed away deliberately to make a point that he is the resurrection
and he is the life. And his word controls life and
death. And he says to Mary, whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. And there she was
mourning over the death of her dearly beloved brother. Do you
believe this? Stephen, as he was being stoned
to death, he looked up to heaven and he saw the Lord Jesus. God's
children will die, but God's children will only die in their
flesh. The believer falls asleep in
the arms of the Lord Jesus, as if the angels are hovering, waiting
to take them, like Elijah, directly to heaven. says Revelation, they sing in
heaven, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. They rest
from their labors and their works follow them. The body dies and
it's laid asleep in a grave and the soul lives on. And at this
appointed time, at an appointed time, and by an appointed means,
people leave this earth. And at an appointed time and
by an appointed means of the Lord Jesus coming back, the redeemed
bodies shall be raised. They are with Him now and they
will come back with Him. They will come back. They are with Him and they are
coming back. Comfort yourselves with these
words. Find comfort in what's happened. They're on their way back with
him. They cannot be separated from him. Comfort each other. We comfort
each other with this hope. We are not to be people who have
no hope. And when he comes back, the dead
in Christ shall rise first. There was seemingly some confusion
and consternation amongst the Thessalonians as to what was
going to happen, how it was going to happen, was some going to
go before the others. The Lord Jesus comes back, he
returns, he comes with his own, he descends from heaven, and
returns exactly as he promises. He comes with a shout. It won't be a silent and secret
arrival. He comes with the voice of the
archangel. He comes with that trumpet of
God. It'll be a universal and a public
and a visible and an audible return. It will be the trumpet
sounding the arrival of the King, the trumpet sounding the arrival
of that Jubilee year. It was wonderful how God set
up the nation Israel. No one owned land in Israel. It was all God's land. And if
you bought land, you bought it If you bought land from another
Israelite, you bought it for 49 years. That's all you had
it for. And on the 50th year, they blew
a trumpet. And that sound of that trumpet,
the land that you had sold to your fellow Israelite became
yours again. Things were restored. Things
were restored to God's order of things. A glorious year, a
glorious year that proclaimed freedom, a glorious trumpet that
proclaimed reconciliation and restoration. The trumpet that
says our God reigns. Death is defeated, Satan is conquered. Comfort one another with these
words. Build each other up together. There are some who will be alive
at his coming. He comes as a thief. He comes
when this world, the people of this world are saying peace and
safety. Then those alive at his coming
will be caught up together. So he comes back and the dead
in Christ, they don't have physical bodies but as he comes back their
bodies are resurrected out of the graves and they meet the
Lord in the air. They come back and there they
are with the Lord now, he with his glorified resurrected body,
they with their resurrected bodies, and in an instant the people
who are on the earth, those who are alive when all these events
happen, they'll be caught up together with them in the air. They'll be caught up together.
They'll be taken from this earth. There's so much nonsense in those
left behind series, books and movies, but there's one thing
that is true, isn't it? There will come a time when the
Lord Jesus comes back and his people will be taken from this
earth. Every single one of them. Everyone that he died for, everyone
that he loved from eternity, everyone that he's loved with
an everlasting love and drawn to himself. Everyone that he's
known, everyone that he cares for, everyone that he moves this
universe for, they're scattered throughout this world and he
gathers them from the four corners of this earth and they are gathered
together with him. We that are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them. We'll be caught up. Some will be on this earth and
there will be this remarkable transformation. We shall not
all sleep but we shall all be changed and there in the air
will be the Lord Jesus in His glorified resurrected body and
this multitude which is beyond number of His redeemed in glorified
resurrected bodies in the air. Satan is described as the prince
of this era. If you read Revelation, you find
that there are these extraordinary cosmic battles going on. But
in every single battle, in every single instance, the Lord Jesus
triumphs. He triumphs effortlessly. He triumphs in the very realm
that the scriptures say is Satan's place where he is the prince.
He is the prince of the power of the air. They are caught up
in that place. He will destroy the wicked one. to whom the Lord shall consume
with the spirit of his mouth and destroy with the brightness
of his coming." He'll destroy Satan and he'll be cast out forever. There will be a resurrection. The dead will rise. There will
not be any bodies of any of the saints on this earth. Not one
tiny little part. Everything will be taken up.
They'll be transformed and everyone will have resurrected bodies.
And there is this glorious reunion, isn't there? They're caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
That word meet is to have a friendly encounter, a reunion. Christ's bride is one. Perfectly, gloriously resurrected
as He is. A beautiful bride, perfectly
suited and worthy, wholly spotless and blameless, washed by His
blood, robed in the very righteousness of God, perfectly suited, bodies
perfectly suited to live with Him." How does John describe
it? He says, what manner of love the Father
has bestowed upon us, that we should be called sons of God.
Therefore the world knows us not, because it didn't know Him.
Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we
shall be like Him." Like Him. for we shall see Him as He is." People want to frighten people
about the Day of Judgement. The idea is, as we've been told
several times, that there's going to be this sort of movie played. There we'll see the movie of
John Newell's life and all of John Newell's sins will be exposed
before all of creation. The Bible doesn't say a single
word about that. In fact, the opposite it is.
The opposite. The opposite. God has taken away
the sins of all these people. Can you possibly think why on
that great day when his bride is resurrected, his bride is
given these glorious bodies, On that day, that day where the
marriage is consummated, that day He would want to expose the
sins of His bride which He put away on the cross 2000 years
ago. He says He doesn't remember them anymore. They're covered
as with a dark cloud. Brothers and sisters, your sins
are either gone completely and there is now no condemnation
for those that are in Christ Jesus or you are still in all
of your sins. And as the Lord Jesus said to
the Pharisees, He says, you die in your sins, you Pharisees.
You die surrounded by your sin. Your sins. God's children have
had their judgment dealt with. When were they judged? When were
their sins judged? Their sins were judged on the
cross. Our sins were taken away 2,000 years ago. God doesn't
see them. God doesn't remember them. We
have, according to 1 John, we have boldness. We have boldness. We have confidence on the Day
of Judgment. We have boldness. We are confident
because as He is, so are we in this world. Judgement is finished,
there is now no condemnation, for the joy set before him, the
joy of being with his bride, the satisfaction that he has
of taking away their sins and making them perfectly fit and
righteous and holy, good enough, worthy to live in the presence
of a holy God forever. There will be one shepherd and
one fold. Job, the oldest book in the Bible. Job, that's what Job was looking
for, that's where Job's hope was, isn't it? He knew, under all of those afflictions,
he knew that his body was going to die. And he says, for I know
that my Redeemer, he says, I know, this is 2000 BC, I know that
the Lord Jesus lives and lives forever and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skins worms
destroy this body, I'm going to be put in a grave and I'm
just going to become dust again. Worms will destroy this body."
And then he says, "...yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom
I shall see for myself. These very eyes I shall behold
Him and not another." That's how saints of God happily
attend. That's the hope. That's the confident
expectation. That is the promise of God. You
see, believers are called believers because they just believe what
God says. I can't explain it all. How on earth do you explain
resurrection? How do you explain the science
of resurrection? I've got no idea explaining the
science of creation. I can't explain it. These are
spiritual things but they are physical realities. These extraordinary
promises, these extraordinary physical and spiritual promises
are written down in the history of this world. They are there
as plain and simple historic facts and as the Lord Jesus said
to Martha, do you believe this? Do you believe it? comfort one
another, he says, with the promise of the presence of the Lord Jesus. So they shall be with the Lord
forever. They'll be with him forever. He says in Hebrews, he says,
I will never, never, never, never leave you nor forsake you. I'm
just translating the Greek. Never, never, never, never leave
you nor forsake you. The great work is done. That great cry, it is finished,
when he died on the cross. It is all paid and paid in full. It ushers in all of these events.
They must necessarily take place. There'll come a time when hope
is fulfilled. There will come a time when faith
has done its work. There will come a time when all
that remains is love. We will see Him, we will know
Him, we will know Him, what it is to be loved by that God, to
be loved eternally, to be loved purposefully, to be loved in
such a way that He came for His own and He died for them and
He rose for them and He reigns for them. And He's coming back
to get them. And creation stands on tiptoes
and looks at the horizon. and looks for him to come. And
the Spirit and the Bride, at the end of Revelation, the Spirit
and the Bride say, come. It says, let him that hear us
say, come. It says, him that is the first,
come. The Bible finishes with the saints
in heaven calling upon him to come. Calling upon people to
come. Come. Come if you are thirsty. Come. Come and drink. You have no money, you have no
resources. Come and drink. Come and take
freely from the water of life. Come. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Let's finish with Revelation
chapter 1. I'll just read a few verses.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, prepared as a bride,
adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away." What intimacy of a love relationship
that He will wipe the tears from their eyes. And he that sat upon
the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to
me, Write. For these words are true and
faithful. And he said to me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and the end. I give unto him that is a thirst
of the fountain of the water of life freely." Grace, amazing grace, amazing
grace flowing from the wounds of our dear Saviour. Comfort
one another. Paul is saying to the Thessalonians,
the Holy Spirit is saying to us, Talk about these things. Talk about them often. Have them
as the foundation of your life. Lay them as foundation stones. Build each other up together. When we see our brothers struggling
and wavering, we need to keep reminding them, our God reigns. Our God is coming back. These
troubles, these light and momentary troubles are not to be compared
to what lies before God's people forever and ever and ever. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven,
we thank you and yet our thanks are pathetic compared to the
wondrous work of your dear and precious Son. We praise you,
Heavenly Father, that we who were dead have been given life. We who lived in darkness have
seen a great light. We praise You, Heavenly Father,
that You save Your people by Your Word of grace. You save
Your people through the preaching of the Gospel of Your dear and
precious Son, Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. We praise You,
Heavenly Father, that He reigns over all things. We thank You,
Heavenly Father, that there is so much in this world that causes
us to lean upon Him, to rest in what You say in Your Word,
and to find in Him our only peace and our only comfort in this
world. We thank You, Heavenly Father,
that the Gospel as it came to those first Europeans came with
power, and with much assurance, they were much assured by your
work in their lives that what God had said and God had promised,
God who cannot lie, must fulfil. Heavenly Father, we pray that
we would look for His coming, we would await it with expectation,
and that we would live in light of it, Heavenly Father. We thank
you again. for the victory, the glorious
victory of Your dear and precious Son, that sins have been taken
away and dealt with and Your justice has been honoured in
the death of Your Son on behalf of His people. We praise You,
Heavenly Father, that He was put to death because of our sins
and He was raised to newness of life Because of our justification,
Heavenly Father, help us to find our peace in Him and in Him alone. And help us by your Spirit, Heavenly
Father, to comfort one another and to be continually having
our eyes on your work in the lives of our brothers and sisters,
fixed on the Lord Jesus, who is both the author and the perfecter,
the finisher of faith. We long for His coming, Heavenly
Father. Help us to long for it even more, and as your scriptures
say, to speed its coming. It will die, that great day will
come, Heavenly Father. We pray that we might be found
in Him, find ourselves at rest and at peace with thankfulness
and gratitude for sovereign grace and infinite love and mercy that
you have shown us in your dear and precious Son. Cause us to
live lives, our Father, that honour Him for who He is and
what He has done and what He will do as promised. We pray
these things in Jesus' name. Amen.