In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4,
the Lord gives us a command. Comfort one another. That's the
Lord's command. Comfort one another. Don't damn
one another. Don't condemn one another. Forgive
one another. exhort one another. That word
means comfort. You'll see this word in our text,
it says comfort means exhort. That's what exhortation is, comforting,
comforting. The goal is to have brethren
believe on Christ and look to Christ and trust him and find
their comfort in Christ. That's the goal, that's the goal. And so Paul begins in 1 Thessalonians
4.13, he said, but I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
You know, Christ is wisdom. God makes Him wisdom unto us.
When He's made wisdom to you, that's when you're wise unto
salvation. You're not ignorant anymore.
You're wise unto salvation when Christ is your wisdom. Knowing
that every promise that God has made is sure in Christ. You believe that? You believe
every promise God made is sure in Christ? then you'll be wise
unto salvation to believe Him, to trust Him. Christ is life. If we're made wise unto salvation,
Christ is our life and we'll never see death. Christ is our
life. We'll never see death. That's why for those given life
by Christ, Paul refers here to death as sleep. He was referring
to the death of our physical bodies as just sleep. Look here with me, let's read
it together. Verse 13, 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, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God 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 prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be called up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. The Thessalonian brethren needed
to be taught again many things. Our Lord moved Paul to deal with
that. And we need to be taught again.
We need to be reminded. We need to be taught over and
over. And one of those things for the saints at Thessalonica
was concerning God's saints who die. Now, I know several of God's
saints who have died recently. And I know some who are very
close to dying. God's saints, those that believe
on the Lord Jesus. Been in the faith a while and
they believe on him right up to the end. They believe the
Lord's all their salvation. And for those that remain, those
that remain, they need to hear this word. They need to be comforted
with this word. And there'll come a day when
you and me will need to be reminded of this word too. We're pretty
cocksure when we're, you know, 40, 45, 50. We got it all figured
out. But you be right close to touching
that death pillow, and you'll need to be reminded of this.
You'll need to be reminded of it. Won't be quite so cocky then.
This is true of God's saints who die in Christ Jesus. Their
bodies sleep in the grave, but they're with the Lord immediately.
When they die, their bodies sleep in the grave. That's why he's
calling it sleep, their bodies sleep. But their spirit immediately
is with the Lord. And each of God's saints are
looking for the day when Christ returns. and he's gonna raise
our bodies incorruptible and our body and our spirit will
be with the Lord in perfection, perfectly conformed to Christ.
Now that's comforting if you have a dear loved one who's one
of God's saints who dies in the Lord, that'll be comforting to
be reminded of that, to be reminded of that. Now first off, notice
here, death for God's saints is called only sleep. He said
there in verse 13, 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, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. Do you believe that the Lord
Jesus died and rose again? You believe he died and rose
again. Now there's a lot of folks historically that may say they
believe that. But what do you mean when you
say, I believe he died and rose again? Think about why do we
believe he died and rose again? He knew no sin. He couldn't die. Our Lord Jesus could not die.
He knew no sin. He was not like any of us born
into this world conceived in sin. That's why we're gonna die.
Why our bodies will die, but he knew no sin, he could not
die. Why did he die? Why did the Lord Jesus die? The
only reason our Lord Jesus could die is because he bore the sin
of God's elect. God made him sin for us who knew
no sin. Now having been made sin for
us, The actual suffering he bore and the death he died was the
curse due to bearing the sin. Those are two different things,
being made sin for us and then being made a curse for us. You
realize that? The only reason he was made a
curse and bore that second death that his people would have had
to bear that second death and died that death for us is because
he bore our sin. He willingly went to before God,
innocent, spotless, the spotless Lamb of God, the just one, and
the Lord made him bear our sin. And for that reason, God justly
poured out wrath on him, the justice of the law in our place.
And that was the curse he bore. That's what you and I would have
had to bear. That's how just God is. God would not pour out
justice on him till he bore the sin of his people. But when he
bore the sin of his people, God would not hold back the justice
even from his only begotten son. That's justice. That's justice. Men will be more lenient with
themselves. They'll be more lenient with their own children. But not God. God's just. He would not pour out wrath on
the Lord Jesus till he bore the sin of his people, but when he
bore the sin of his people, he would not hold it back. He would
not hold it back. But when our Lord cried, he's
finished. That's exactly what he meant.
The salvation of his people was accomplished. It wasn't accomplished
by you believing. It wasn't accomplished by anything
you do in this life. It hadn't been accomplished by
you, period. When he said it's finished, he meant I just accomplished
the salvation of everybody God the Father gave me to die for.
That's what he did. That's what he did. God's justice
was honored by the Lord Jesus. You've never honored it. You
will never honor it. You've never kept the law. You
will never keep the law. That's what faith's confessing.
Christ honored the law. He kept the law perfectly. He
laid down his life in place of his people. When he saw you polluted
in your sin, worthy of death, worthy of hell, instead of condemning
you, the Lord Jesus Christ came and laid down his life in place
of his people. That's the difference between
a sinful, self-righteous man and the Lord of glory. That's
love, that's faith, that's honoring the God's law. That's what Christ
did for his people. He didn't come and condemn. He
said, I ain't come to condemn the world. He was already condemned.
He came and laid down his life for his people. And when you've been condemned,
and you've been judged, and you've been maligned, you know what
the Lord Jesus did? He continues to stand between
you and the devil, between you and those that charge you. And
he keeps saving you from every enemy you have, because that's
who Christ is. That's how he loves his people. Pharisees condemned men. They
saw them fall a little bit, and they condemned them, and they
charged them, and they condemned them, and every word they spoke
was about how good they are, and all the scriptures they fulfilled,
and all they've done for God, and how these sinful people have
rebelled against God. That's not what Christ did. Christ
laid down His life for His people, and He saved His people. That's
what He did. That's the difference between
a self-righteous, God-despising Pharisee and a Lord of glory. And we are the self-righteous,
God-despising Pharisee by nature, and we gotta be saved from us.
That's the death we gotta be saved from. And that's the death
He saved us from. He put away the sin of His people
forever. He made us the righteousness
of God in Him. He justified us from every sin
forever. For each one born again of God
and given faith to believe on Christ, that means we shall never
die. We shall never die. The Lord
Jesus honored the law. He put away sin. He conquered
death. He conquered the grave for his
people, and you'll never die. That's good news. On the Mount
of Transfiguration Moses and Elisha appeared and the Lord
Jesus appeared there and He's transfigured and He spake of
His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. His decease which
He should accomplish. That's what He did. That's what
he did. That's why he rose from the grave.
If God has given us faith to believe he rose again, then we
believe he honored the law for us, he put away our sin, he conquered
death for us, and he rose triumphant, and we arose in him and sat down
at God's right hand. That's what Paul means when he
said, if we believe he died and rose again. Is that what you
believe? That's what you believe. You
believe that your righteousness is not in these hands and it's
not in these feet. And that means when you fall
and you sin and you do every day, that doesn't change that
your righteousness is perfect at God's right hand, that you're
perfect at God's right hand. That's what faith believes. You
see, if my falling and my sin makes me change my attitude toward
you or toward myself or toward anybody else that, oh, you can't
possibly be a child of God, I trust in my works. because my righteousness
is right there. That's at God's right hand. So
what you do when you fall, that don't change the righteousness
of His people. We believe He died and rose again. We're seated
there with Him. That righteousness is forever.
That's what faith believes. If we be dead with Christ, we
believe we shall also live with him. Knowing Christ being raised
from the dead, dieth no more. Death has no more dominion over
him. In that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he
liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Reckon it to be so. Paul said
God raised him up having loosed the pains of death because it
was not possible that he should be holding of it. Wasn't possible. And brethren, it's not possible
for you either. Now the key here is continue
in the faith. Continue in the faith. You notice
Paul said those that died in the Lord Jesus, those that sleep
in the Lord Jesus, that means they all died in faith. They
all died in faith. They never went a little ways
and then stopped and drew back and started trusting themselves
and trusting their work, trusting what they'd done. They kept trusting
Christ no matter what. You that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now thee reconciled.
You at one time, where you were enemies and alienated in your
minds by your foul, wicked works, you actually took the law of
God and thought you kept it. You actually looked down on those
that you didn't think kept it. Foul, foul wicked works. And you were alienated from God
by those wicked works. But God came and made you see
you're the sinner. And all that justice and all
that goodness that you thought you'd accomplished died. And
you began to believe on Christ. And he did all this in the body
of his flesh through death to present you Him, present you
holy and unblameable and unapprovable in His sight, in Him, in what
He did and what He accomplished, in His sight. He knows why every scripture's
read that's read. He knows the heart of it and
why it's read. He knows the motive of why you
even picked this book up. He knows the motive. He knows
the motive why you came here tonight. He knows the motive,
and that's what He's looking on. And for his people, holy,
unblameable, unapprovable in his sight." Perfect. You sit
there and say, well, now, I know there was a lot of sinful motive
in why I came here. I know there's sinful motive
in everything I do. But before him and in him, holy,
unblameable, unapprovable in his sight. But here's the requirement. if you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel which you've heard, which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven." What does that mean, if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and not moved away from the hope? Who's your hope? Who's your hope
of being there with God? Who's your hope of being accepted
with God? Is it something you do? You're in the faith then,
but if it's all Christ, you're in the faith. Don't be moved
away from Christ. Be settled in Christ, be grounded
in Christ, no matter what comes your way. And if we've truly
been born of God, we shall continue because he will preserve you.
You may fall many times a day, the scripture says, he's going
to keep you. All the tribulations are God
proving we're His by Him keeping us steadfast in the faith. That's
what the trials are for. When I was young in the faith,
I remember my brother had been in the faith for about 30 years,
and he was going through a trial. And the grapevine was working
overtime. And there was a lot of things, and the baptismal
waters wasn't even dry behind my ears yet. And a faithful pastor
told me, he said, you wait to weigh in on this. Don't give
your two cents until you've gone through something like what he's
gone through. And then if you continue in the faith, grounded
and settled, and you're not moved away from the whole gospel, then
you put in your two cents. He said, but when you do that,
and you go through that trial, you won't put any two cents,
because you know who carried you through it. That's true.
That's true. Those who die in the Lord Jesus,
believe in Christ alone, death's just sleep for them. Death is
merely sleep for them, that's all it is. But it's only the
body that sleeps. Our spirits with the Lord immediately.
There's no such thing as soul sleep. And I don't know how to
describe this, I just know what the scriptures say, but I know
this. You know when you go to sleep at night, and you're really
tired, And there's times you lay down, you close your eyes,
and it's just like that, you open your eyes, and it's the
next day. And we're talking about time
language going from this capsule of time to eternity. So we're
having to try to think of this in time language. But when you
close your eyes and open them, you're with the Lord, it's done.
And I personally believe it is all done. When you close your
eyes and open with the Lord, we're going to all be there,
is what I believe. For us that are remaining, it seemed like
time, and we've seen it from the side of time. But we're talking
about when you close your eyes and open them, you're in eternity
now. Time's no more. Our Lord said
this, though. He said, when you die, immediately,
your spirit's going to be with the Lord. Our Lord Jesus said,
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. He said
to that repentant thief on that cross, today you shall be with
me in paradise. Today. There are no souls sleep. When you die, you go open your
eyes and be with the Lord. Now, our body's gonna die because
of sin, but the death of the body, it's just gonna free the
soul to be with Christ in glory immediately. Now, that's comforting
for you who remain. That's who he's comforting. Now,
this is a comfort for those that are dying too, but he's comforting
those who remain. He's comforting them concerning
those who've already slept in the Lord Jesus. We're members
of Christ's body. We're one with Christ. We're
in union with Christ. And so when one of God's saints
die, now listen to this carefully. When one of God's saints die,
we're not, we sorrow, because you sorrow when you lose a loved
one. And God's saints are our loved
ones. But we don't sorrow as those
that have no hope. We don't sorrow as those that
have no hope. You remember we saw just recently
when the Lord went to Jairus' daughter, the Lord entered in
and all wept and bewailed her. There were some there, when that
word bewailed, there were some there just wailing, you know,
just, oh, carrying on. The Lord said, weep not, she's
not dead, but sleepeth. And he put them out, he put them
out. Only the body sleeps in the grave. Our spirit's with Christ immediately.
So we don't weep and bewail as those that have no hope. One
of the best witnesses of this I ever saw was at Brother Henry
Mahan's funeral. I don't recall seeing anybody
crying at that funeral. I don't recall it. Now, I'm not
saying there weren't, but I don't think I saw anybody crying at
that funeral. Everybody there knew how much
Brother Henry wanted to be with the Lord since the 80s. And it was a happy time. He had a
good hope. And we had a good hope that he
had a good hope. So it was a happy time. All right,
now let's go to this next thing. What shall happen to the body
of God's saints that's in the grave? Verse 15. 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 prevent them
which are asleep. The word prevent means we won't
rise before them. We won't go before them. The
word prevent means go before. When Christ returns, some of
God's saints will be alive. They's gonna still be alive.
Wouldn't it be something if he came today Well, if he came today,
this is what happened. Everybody's body must be changed.
Flesh and blood can't inherit glory. You know what that tells
me in you? This body's corrupt. Our bodies are corrupt. It's
of Adam. We can deny we're sinners all
we want to. You're going to prove you're
lying one day because you're going to die. This body's corrupt. It's got
to be made incorruptible. But we that are alive and remain,
we won't be made incorruptible before them that already sleep
in the grave. Their bodies are in the grave.
They will be raised first incorruptible. Christ is going to descend from
heaven with a shout. Look here in verse 16. The Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in
Christ shall rise first. He's going to descend with the
voice of the archangel. Christ is the archangel. He's
the angel of the covenant. The archangel means the first
angel. Christ is preeminent in everything. And when he returns
and he shouts, everything is by his voice. How were you born
again? By the voice of the Lord. How
has your faith been sustained? By the voice of the Lord. We
just saw it Sunday, the entrance of his word, give light. How
have you been corrected? By the voice of the Lord. If
you're hearing the gospel tonight, it's only by the voice of the
Lord. And you know how your body's gonna be raised? The voice of
the Lord. Everything's by the voice of the Lord. But the dead
in Christ shall rise first. Christ shall raise their bodies
incorruptible. The Spirit of the Lord revealed
this to Job. Job, you know, we think of God's saints of old
that, oh, they just didn't know as much as we know. That's not
true. It's the same Spirit of God that
taught them that teaches you. Job said, if a man dies, shall
he live again? All the days of my appointed
time will I wait. He's talking about his body.
Till my chains come, thou shalt call. Thou, Lord, you shall call,
and I'll answer thee. Thou will have a desire to the
work of your hands. This is all the work of his hands.
Somebody might think it's impossible for God to raise our bodies from
the dust when they've been in the grave for so many years.
You think about the saints that had died. Job's body's in the
dust. And saints through the ages,
their bodies are in the dust. And somebody say, well, how's
he going to raise all their bodies from the dust? The first man,
Adam, you know how he made his body? He made it out of the dust. He breathed life into Adam and
Adam became alive. But go with me to 1 Corinthians
15. Let's see how the Lord is going
to do this when he returns. I'm just going to read this because
this is This just says it, and we gotta be created. You know,
your spirit right now, this new spirit He's put in you, in which
you worship God, it's the creation of Christ, and it's righteous
and holy. Nothing else is righteous and
holy but what He's created. But your new body is gonna be
righteous and holy, incorruptible by His creation. Look here with
me, 1 Corinthians 15, 35. Some men will say, how are the
dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool,
that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And
that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall
be, but bare grain. It may chance of weed or some
other grain. but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him,
and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh,
but there's one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts,
another of fishes, another of birds. There's celestial bodies,
bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial is one. He's
saying, The glory of the celestial is one, the glory of the terrestrial
is another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of
the moon, another glory of the stars. For one star differs from
another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. It's sown in corruption. That
means your body is going back to the grave just like a seed
because it's corrupt. And it's going to go back in
corruption. But it's going to be raised in incorruption. It's
sown in dishonor, it's raised in glory. It's sown in weakness,
it's raised in power. It's sown a natural body, it's
going to be raised a spiritual body. There's a natural body
and there's a spiritual body. So it's written the first man
Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit. That's Christ. That was not first,
which is spiritual, but that which is natural. Afterward,
that which is spiritual. The first man's of the earth,
earthy. The second man's the Lord from heaven. And as is the
earthy, such are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly,
such are they also that are heavenly. As we born the image of the earthy,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say,
brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither
doth corruption inherit incorruption. Now hold your place right here
just a minute. Let me go back to our text and just give you
this. Paul said, after raising the body of his saints who are
already in the grave, he said they're going to raise the bodies
of the saints that are already asleep in the grave, and then
those that are alive, he's going to change our vile body, the
body you're in right now, if you're here when he comes, he
calls it a vile body, he's going to change it like to his glorious
body. Incorruptible. And we're all
going to rise up with Christ. and that's when the victory's
gonna be final. Listen to this, now let me read you from our
text. You hold your place here in Corinthians, and I wanna read
the rest of it. Then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air, so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now look here
at 1 Corinthians 15, 51. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, that is, not all our bodies will be
in the grave, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that's written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn back with
me to 1 Thessalonians 4.18. Why is Paul declaring this? He said in 1 Thessalonians 4.18,
Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Comfort one
another with these words. You see the marginal, if you
have a marginal reference, you see that word comfort means exhort
one another. Comfort, that's what exhort means.
Our Savior is so gracious to comfort His saints. You take
somebody whose loved one is one of God's saints has died in the
Lord and they're weeping, You wouldn't go to them and say,
now you need to stop weeping. You comfort them, wouldn't you?
Just like you comfort them if they fail in sin or fail and
you comfort them, you exhort them, look to the Lord, go to
the Lord. That's our Lord's command to those that speak in His name,
is to comfort His people. He says, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry to her that her warfare's
accomplished, that her iniquity's pardoned. She's received in the
Lord's hand double for all her sin. I pray God, give me grace to
comfort you. I want to be a help to you. I
want to comfort you. I don't want to sit you down
at the table and lecture you for an hour. I want to comfort
you. Our Lord Jesus comforted the
apostles and Mary and Martha when he came to the grave. He
said, our friend Lazarus sleepeth. He's just asleep. But I go that
I might wake him out of sleep. He comforted them. He commands
his saints in our text, comfort one another with these words.
When your brethren are weeping, comfort them. How? How did Paul do that? How did
he comfort us right here? Everything he said was what Christ
did and will do. That's how you comfort your people.
Comfort his people. You speak of what Christ has
done and what he shall do. That's how you comfort God's
people. Be comforted. If you have a loved
one that's passed or that is now sleeping or you have one
that's about to sleep, be comforted. Let's go to Revelation 21. Here's
the word, the comforts. There's so much of the word to
give comfort, so much of the word to exhort. You think about those departed
saints that are with the Lord right now, and think about what
they're enjoying, and think about what you have to look forward
to. Now, continue in the faith. Don't look away from Christ,
don't turn back to your works, don't turn back to you. Can you
save yourself from the grave? Let's see, pull yourself up by
your bootstraps when you're six feet under. You can't do it now
either, so trust the Lord. If you're gonna be saved, it's
gonna be by Christ. That's the difference between
what we believe and what reformed religion is teaching. We believe
Christ, we trust Christ. We believe he started it, we
believe he finished it. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. We don't believe we start it and then we gotta
cooperate with him to finish it. You're gonna cooperate with
him. You're gonna do what he renews
you to do in your heart. Just like when he commands you
to come out of that grave, you coming out of it. But are you
gonna glory that you came out of that grave? You think Lazarus
gloried that he came out of that grave? Lazarus did him glory
that he took the grave clothes off. Somebody else took the grave
clothes off. We're going in Christ only. But
here now, you continue in the faith, and look at this, Revelation
21, 3. 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. Who's wiping
the tears away? God is. Who's going to get the
glory? God is. God's wiping the tears
away. And there'll be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, You help me make all things new. Thank you for
helping me make all things new. Thank you for being so good to
me and helping me help you help yourself. No, that's not what
God said. God said, behold, I make all
things new. And he said to me, write, for
these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it's done. He said, you write this down.
These are the words of this book. Don't take anything away from
them. These are true and faithful words. God said, I did it all. I did it all. It's done. I'm alpha and omega,
the beginning and the end. That means he's salvation entirely,
every second. I will give unto him that's a
thirst for the fountain of the water of life freely. You know
why you came here tonight? If you came here by God's grace
and He really brought you, there's only one reason you came, you're
thirsty. People that don't come to hear
the gospel, when do you go eat? You're hungry, aren't you? That's
why you go eat. And when you're hungry, you don't back up from
the table, you come to the table and you eat. God's people, He
keeps His people thirsty and hungry and you keep coming. And
He said in Him that's the thirst I give him of the fountain of
the water life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things. He tells you how you overcome
in Revelation. He said they overcome by their
faith. What's that mean? They trust in Christ. Christ
said I've overcome the world. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things and I'll be his God and he'll be my son. I pray God
comfort one of his saints with those words. God be the glory. Thankful for
what he's done. Amen.