Turn back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the title of the message. We sorrow not as others who have
no hope. We have a good hope, the scripture
says, through grace. We have a good hope. We have
a hope, it says, Paul wrote to the Colossians, laid up in heaven. We have one reserved for us,
a hope reserved, a hope laid up. We have a good hope through
grace. Of all people on this earth,
the believer has to be the most happy. We have a good future. And I
guess it's because I'm getting older that I think more of the
future. I think a whole lot more often upon things above than I do things
below. I find my mind thinking more
often upon things above. And I know I get to sit in the
study and read, and that helps to do that. The more you are
in the scriptures and you read, the more your heart is set on
things above. The more your mind is directed
in that area. And since I do that, I think
a lot more upon things above. I think of walking on that new
earth. I think of seeing the Lord Jesus
Christ. I think of seeing him now more
than I've ever thought of seeing him. The one who loved me, called
me, died for me, died under the wrath of God for me. And in a
little while, by God's grace, I and some of you who believe,
we will get to join those ranks of the redeemed above. and we'll
get to see the Lord Jesus Christ and fellowship with our brothers
and sisters that have gone on, already gone on before us. But
until then, let us be faithful to preach the gospel, to stay
with God's word and not deter from it, but to keep it as it
is, the gospel of God's grace. God's great. We call it sovereign
grace, but it's kind of redundant to call it sovereign. If it's
grace, it has to be sovereign. It can't be anything else. If
it's grace, if you know the real definition of it, but I want
to look at a few verses here this, this evening. And, um,
I was thinking about the last couple of days I was looking
in Psalm 119, but it was just not there, but this was on my
mind. So let's look at it. Paul, as
you know, preached to this church here in Thessalonica. He went
and preached there in that city for a little while, a few weeks,
and then they ran him out of town. But God raised up a church
there. God raised up a powerful church
there. God raised up a church there
that became an example. Paul said, we don't even have
to tell anyone about you. They tell us about you. You,
he said the gospel came to you in power. Look over in chapter
one. Let me just read a few verses
here. Paul says in verse three of chapter
one, remember him without ceasing your work of faith and labor
of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the sight of God and our father, knowing brethren beloved, and
he's writing here to the Gentiles, your election of God. For our
gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in
the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction and
with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were examples to all
that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but every place your faith to God were spoken. And you left
your idols to follow God? Just in a few weeks, Paul preached
to that town, and God raised these people up. He raised this
church up. And some time had gone by, and Paul sent Timothy
back there to check on them, to help them to grow in faith.
and the knowledge of Christ. But one of the things that stood
out to me, as I was reading this portion of the scripture in chapter
4, is that Paul, and this struck me, Paul preached the resurrection
of Christ and His returns so effectually, so powerfully, they
expected Him to return at any time. Have we lost that? And we really lost that. Do we
really expect Jesus Christ to return at any time? This is why
Paul was writing this portion here about that you sorrow not,
even as others, because they felt that some of those who had
passed away, that they were now going to miss the Lord's return.
That it was just that imminent, and they had died, and they would
miss the Lord's return. But that's how powerfully and
effectually Paul preached the resurrection of Christ and the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is coming. He's coming. I like to think of it this way.
He's on His way. That's the way I think of it.
He's on His way. He's coming. He's coming again. He's coming
to receive His bride. He's coming to receive His church. And the only thing that I can
tell that keeps Him from coming right now and putting an end
to all this, is that our Lord said, other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring in. So there's others
yet to be brought in to the fold. And when they are, when He brings
them in, then He'll wind this up. Now, I know the world thinks
we're nuts. for believing that, but it's
so. I believe that with all my heart. I believe that there is
going to be a new heaven and a new earth. I believe that God
Almighty is going to put an end to this one, that he's going
to burn it up, and it's going to be over with. And that new
earth, that new heaven, new earth, wherein dwells righteousness,
there's no sin, no sorrow, nothing, no death. I'll never have to
do another funeral. I'll be happy. I'll be glad not
to do that. So as I said, Paul sent Timothy,
he sent Timothy there back to Thessalonica. And Timothy came
and he gave a good report. He gave a good report, but he
said, there's some that are troubled there. There's some trouble.
There's some believers that have died and the others that are
still there are afraid they've missed the Lord's return. And
the one thing we need to understand about this group here from Thessalonica,
they grew up under Greek philosophers. Greek philosophers teaching things
like this, hopes are among the living, the dead are without
hope. They grew up with that. They grew up with this. One philosopher
said, sons may set and rise again, but we, when once our brief light
goes down, must sleep an endless night. That's what they were
taught. Another one said this, no one
awakes and arises who has once been overtaken by the chilling
end of life. Well, that's not so. That's not
so. And so Paul enlightens them by
the word of God on what happens. So in verse 13, Paul says, I
would not have you to be ignorant or uninformed, brethren, concerning
them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even, now he doesn't
stop there, even as others which have no hope. You don't sorrow
as those who have no hope. They have a lot of sorrow, and
there's a lot of sorrow over that. I hate to hear, I do, I
hate to hear someone passing away that never believed God. I've conducted three or four
funerals of unbelievers. They never confessed Christ in
any way, shape, or form, never went anywhere, and I've conducted
those funerals, and it's misery. I told the truth,
though. I told the truth. I told the
truth on God, I told the truth on Christ, and I told the truth
on us, who we are by nature. I told the truth. But that's
not a good occasion. And I've preached at funerals
of several believers, and I'm telling you the truth. Everyone
I've preached has been a joyous occasion. There's been a reason
for Thanksgiving. It's Carnation Day, Crowning
Day. there with the Lord. It's a day
of rejoicing. It's a day of rejoicing. You
know, I thought when I was going to do my father's funeral, I
did his funeral, and I thought, oh, this is going to be tough.
But you know, the Lord gave me strength that I've never had
because I just had the confidence that, you know, to be absent
from the body, to be present with the Lord. And I had just
unusual power in preaching that service. Now, had he not believed,
it would have been different. It would have been different. Paul, listen, Paul is not condemning
sorrow. You know, when we depart from
one another, there's some sorrow. I remember when Henry and Doris
moved from Ashland, they lived there 60 years or so, they moved
from Ashland and they moved to Rocky Mount. You know, I knew
where they lived, you know, go stop over there, and they were
not going to be there no more. And there was a sadness to that
when they left. And there was a sadness and there
was a sense of a sadness when I, when Vicki and I packed our
bags and we sold the house and I remember getting in that truck
and for the last time, looking at the house and driving away,
I remember that feeling. I remember that feeling. But
I'm here. I'm here. Here's the point. I moved from this place to this
place. That's exactly what happens to
a believer. They move from this life to eternal
life. They move from this life to glory. Christ said to that thief on
the cross, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Today. He went with him that day to
paradise. And that's why we sorrow because
of their absence, but it's tempered by faith and hope. Sorrow is
tempered by faith and hope. That we'll see them again. You
know, we'll see the Lord. He's our number one object that
we want to see. Jesus Christ is. But we want
to see all the brethren and sisters, don't we? We want to see them
again and rejoice with them again. And as we worship here together,
someday we will be with that throne. Thousand times ten thousand
times ten thousand. And we'll worship without sin. We'll worship without a thought
coming into our mind. What's going on here, there,
what I got to do or where I'm going to go. You don't have to,
we will not have to arrest our attention ever again. Perfect attention. And so Paul
writes here because most people are ignorant as to what death
is and what happens when a believer dies. And even when an unbeliever
dies, most people are ignorant of it. But only in the Word of
God can we have real life on this subject of death and dying
and departing from this life. We all have to. We all have to. Now, I know when you're young
people, I know young people like, you know, you got a life you
want to live. I know that. I understand that
because I did. You know, when I was a young
man, I heard Henry say things like that. And I was like, I
mean, I know I wanted to have my two boys, wanted to raise
them. And I know that. But I'm past that now. I'm past that. But I know this,
I know this, it's appointed unto men once to die after this. He
says judgment, but it doesn't stop there. That doesn't end
with a period. Men and women all have to die. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter young or old. Spurgeon said the young may die,
but the old must. It's a must. But the believer
dies in hope. He dies in hope. He or she dies
in hope. We have a hope of being raised
from the dead. We have a hope of being with
the Lord. I mean, seriously, some of us are close. Some of
us are close. We have a hope of being with
Him. And Paul, and I want you to notice
here, when Paul addresses the death of the believer, when he
speaks to the Thessalonians and to us, Paul speaks of it as sleep. He said, then we sleep in Jesus.
Sleep. Could there be a better, could
He have used a better Word than sleep, as far as rest. You know, when the Lord said,
Lazarus sleepeth, they said, well, if he's asleep, he does
well. He doeth well. Somebody's asleep, you said,
don't bother him. Don't bother, leave him alone,
let him sleep. You know, the death of a believer
is spoken of as sleep. You know, it says when Stephen
was being stoned, And he said, Lord, lay this sin
not to their charge. You know what it said he did
after that? He fell asleep. He didn't say he died. He said
he went to sleep. There's only one person here
in this verse, in these verses, that did not fall asleep. He says, if we believe that Jesus
died, He did not sleep. He died. I'll get to that in a minute,
but now he died. But the death of a believer is a sleep, that's
what it is. It's not death, it's sleep. You know, something I know about
sleep, first, if you really have a good sleep, you have a good
rest, and it's over with that fast. Isn't it amazing how fast
the morning comes? It just comes so fast. The other
morning, first time in a long time, I can't even remember when,
I was telling Vicki this, I said, I woke up, I woke up refreshed. I slept all night. I mean, I
was not tired. Most of the time I get up more
tired than I went to bed. But I was not tired and I was
actually rested. I mean, I really felt what rest
was. And you know, God has made it
so that when we sleep, that's when your body does its most
healing. It's when your mind heals itself
the most when you're asleep. It's when you're asleep. There's
so much in sleep. And those which sleep in Jesus,
he said, that's how he defines it. The believer, we know through
the word of God, will never taste of death. It says in John 11,
25, 26, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection. See, she's
looking for an event. Martha said, Lord, I know in
the resurrection, my brother will rise. And the Lord said,
you're looking at the resurrection. You're looking at the resurrection.
Quit looking at an event. People are looking at this event.
And Christ said, I'm the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection.
I'm the life. HE THAT BELIEVES IN ME, THOUGH
HE WERE DEAD, YET SHALL HE LIVE, AND WHOSOEVER LIVETH AND BELIEVETH
IN ME, LISTEN, SHALL NEVER DIE. You know what He said to her?
Believest thou this? You believe this? You believe
this? You know the only part of me
that's dying is this body? I was thinking of this a couple days ago. I thought the
only part of me dying is this body. My soul is eternal. I'm already
experiencing, in a sense, I'm already experiencing eternity.
I'm not going to die. I'm not going to taste of death.
Christ tasted it for me. He took the sting out of death.
He took the power out of death. He took death away. Death is
a freeing. Now it's a freeing. It's like
a chariot that takes us home. He said, Whosoever liveth and
believes in me shall never die. You know why he shall never die?
Because Jesus Christ is my life. It says in our life is he with
Christ in God. He'd have to die first, because
he is my life. Now here are a few things that
we know from the Word of God concerning this. of the death
of a believer. We know that when a believer
falls asleep in Christ, we know that the union between his body
and flesh is broken. It's over. This body of corruption,
this body of death is finally laid aside. Right now we actually
carry around a body of death. Oh wretched man that I am. There
Paul said that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing
that's in this flesh. Now he's not just talking about
skin too, he's talking about the nature, the nature of flesh. And this body goes back to the
dust and the spirit soul goes back to God who gave it. But that union that we have in
Jesus Christ is never broken. We are his body, and that is
never broken. No member is ever cut off. No
member is ever amputated. In Romans 8, 38, 39, for I am
persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing
can separate us from Him. Not Him. And we know that to be absent
from the body, as Paul said, is to be present with the Lord.
As the Lord said to that thief, This day shalt thou be with me
in Paradise, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, 8, We are confident, I say,
this is not maybe or wishful thinking. We are confident, I
say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and be present
with the Lord. Just to go to sleep and to wake
up in His presence and never experience what death is. Never
experience death. And we know, listen, we know
by the word of God that we have a building of God eternal in
the heavens. The soul is not going to be left
naked. He says in 2 Corinthians 5, 1,
for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. There is going to be a resurrection
of the body, a new body. a body that's powerful, a body
that's new, a body that has no sin, a body like the body of
Jesus Christ. And that's beyond our imagination. You know, I keep getting a little
surprised by what the Lord allows man to create, like this AI that's
out there now. And you look at some of the things
they're coming up with, but it's still nothing. nothing what this
new body is going to be like, and what it's going to be like
to be without sin, and what it's going to be like to be on an
earth without sin. Look how beautiful this one is
with sin. This one's beautiful even though
it's got sins in it. What's it going to be like without
sin? I mean, that's astounding. Only God can come up with that. We can't even imagine it. And
we know this, we know this, for the believer, now I'm talking
to believers here, this is, for unbelievers this is not gain,
but for the believer, to die, to leave this life is absolute
gain. Gain, and when Paul uses that
word gain, it's used in, like you would use it in a business
term, like in accounting, you know, it's gain, profit, profitable. It's just pure profit. It's pure
profit. And here's, I'm going to give
you some things how it is gained. It's gained because we are fully
delivered from sin. Now only those who know what
sin is, know what the guilt of sin is, can appreciate this.
Nobody else will. But you who know what sin is,
that Oh, that awful thing of sin,
that awful nature that causes you to think things you ought
not think, say things you ought not say, do things you ought
not do. It'll be gone. It'll be gone. Full deliverance from the power
of sin and full deliverance from the presence of sin. And then we'll be fully delivered
from doubting. doubting. John Newton said, "'Tis
a point I long to know. Oft it gives me anxious thought.
Am I his or am I not?" You reckon John Newton's thinking that now?
You know he's not. No, that's gone. That's gone.
You see, faith in this life is never perfected. And that's why
we doubt. That's why we have unfounded
fears, unfounded doubts, because faith in this life is never perfected.
We desire to grow in faith and the knowledge of Christ continually
until He takes us home. But it's never perfected in this
life. But when we die, the second we die, we are delivered from
ever doubting God again. We never doubt Him again. And
then we're delivered from all temptation. That'd be a good
day when I'm not tempted no more. When I'm not tempted to sin,
not tempted to doubt, not tempted to put a question mark over God's
faithfulness, God's care. And you know what the disciple
said to him on that ship? Carest thou not that we perish?
What an insult. What an insult. Well, we've done
the same. We've done the same. And then
we're delivered from all enemies. I mean, especially the the unseen
ones. This world is full of. Demonic
spirits is full of unseen spirits, you can't say. If the Lord would remove the
hedge You wouldn't want that to happen.
He keeps them at bay. He keeps us safe. David said,
thou only makest me to dwell in safety. Satan would take you
right now in a heartbeat and crush you. He would. And he'd get pleasure
out of doing it. Pleasure out of doing it. But we're delivered
from all enemies, especially that indwelling enemy, that old
nature we got. We get rid of that old man. And then the believer is delivered
from all suffering. I watched my dad suffer. I mean,
there's the last couple months of his life he suffered. But no more. It's over with. You know, there's been times
that I have had pain and I've been awake all night long and
they're just like, is this ever gonna end? Is this pain ever
gonna end? And then when it does, it's such
a relief. Health will not fail. The mind,
the mind. You know, my mother is starting
to get dementia. And it's sad, you know, it's
sad to watch. But the mind will be perfect. They said we only use 10% of
our minds. I don't know how in the world
they know that. I don't know who came up with that number.
I doubt if we use that much. That's probably a high figure.
But our minds will be fully used. Because the scripture says we'll
have the mind of Christ. Now think of that. We'll have
the mind of Christ. We'll actually have a perfect
mind, you know, and to me, it's just, and I think the mind and
the brain is just the most fascinating thing, one of God's creation
as far as this creation. And it'll be healed. It'll be
perfect. And then last of all, be delivered
from death. That's over with. I'll not do
another funeral. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? And then we'll be delivered into
the presence of God through the blood and righteousness of Jesus
Christ. Christ has made us so thoroughly
righteous in His person and work that we can stand in the presence
of God accepted. He will present us spotless. He does that. It's not Him and
me. It's not me cooperating. It's
Jesus Christ presenting me spotless. He washed me in His blood and
covered me in His righteousness. The Scripture says He is made
unto us. He is these things to us. He
is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
It doesn't say He just gives these to us, though He does.
This is what He's made to us. This is what we are in Him. This
is how God sees us in His Son. There's no way He could have
anything to do with it. And then He says here in verse
14, if we believe, here's the key, if we believe that Jesus
died not sleep doesn't speak of him sleeping does it no he
died he died under the wrath of god he died under the wrath
of god for sin and them sins belong to someone they weren't
just floating in the air they belong to someone that he died
and rose again even so them also which sleep in him and sleep
in jesus will god bring with him they are with god now If they're with the Lord now,
could they be in a better place? They can't be in a better place. Not at all. And when He comes,
they'll come with Him. Because they'll never be separated
again. Never be separated. Where He goes, they go. Where
the head goes, the body goes. And when He comes, they come.
And they'll be with Him. They're not laying in a graveyard.
They're with him, they're with him right now, even as we speak.
And he says, verse 15, for this we say unto you by the word,
by the authority of the Lord, I have the authority of God on
this, that we which are alive and remain. You know, Paul speaks
of it as if it's imminent. He said, we, he's speaking of
it as if, and that's the way we ought to look at it. Let's
not lose that. We which are alive and remain
until the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or precede
them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself, personally,
He's going to descend from Heaven with a shout. The first time
He came, just very few knew about it. Not this time. You know,
Scripture says every eye is going to see Him. I don't know how
that's going to be, but it's going to be. Every eye is going to
see Him. He's going to come physically.
The same Jesus went away. He says, He's going to come again
like manner. This same Jesus is coming. Jesus
Christ is coming. He's going to come with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ, those who are in Him, not in a grave. He didn't
say those who are dead in the cemetery, those who are in Christ. Blessed are those who die. Let's
see, what? Eternal Revelations 14. I started trying to quote it,
but I'd rather read it. Revelation 14, look in verse
14, let's see, I think 13. And I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works
do follow them. But blessed are those who die
in the Lord. That's what he says. And the dead in Christ, those
who have died in him, shall first rise their bodies. Now he's talking
about their bodies coming out of the grave. 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. Don't get caught up in what's
going on out there in the world and the political landscape.
Comfort one another with these words. Here's where you're going.
This is why, by God's grace, I hope to go. I hope to. I've learned if you're on a wagon
with a bunch of drunks, just jump off. Don't get stuck on
the wagon. This world has nothing for me.
It's like being on a wagon with a bunch of drunks, just jump
off of it. My interest is in the kingdom of God. My interest
is what's going on in the kingdom of God. My interest is what God's
doing. What he's doing. What men are doing, they're just
going to do what the Lord allows them to do. That's all they can
do, what he allows them to do. But comfort one another with
these words. That word also means exhort. Exhort, take the word
of God and exhort one another. Let's get in the word and read
it and then exhort one another with it until the Lord comes.
He's coming. He's coming. He's on his way.