Turn back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I titled
this message, A New Look at Death. A New Look at Death. Now you and I have the advantage
of having the whole Word of God. And you have been taught well
over the years. You know that there is a resurrection. You know that. And you look forward
to it. When we die, we die in hope. When we die, we leave this life
and we go to be with the Lord. But our brethren at Thessalonica
didn't have the advantages that you and I have. They didn't have
the word of God that you and I have at all. Paul had preached to them of
the death, burial, and resurrection. He preached to them of salvation
by grace. He preached to them of the return
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they were so convinced. And I
wish, I wish, would to God, that we had more of their spirit in
looking for the return of Christ than what we do. It was so imminent
to them that they looked for it to happen at any time. They
looked for it to happen in their lifetime. They fully expected
it in their lifetime. That's how convinced they were
of the gospel and of the resurrection of Christ and of the return of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But after Paul had left, some
of the believers there died. They died. And the ones who remained
were confused. They were perplexed. You see, they didn't have or
grow up in a Bible class having the truth taught to them. They
were brought up under paganism. They were brought up under Greek
mythology. I copied today something that
I read and just to give you an idea of what they had to come
out of. and the grave clothes were still
on them, so to speak. But here are some of their philosophers.
I'm going to read some of the Greek philosophers, what they
had to say concerning this matter of death. One of them says this, hopes
are among the living, the dead are without hope. Another one
said this, He was speaking of the plants that perish in the
garden. One day he's looking at the garden
and he makes this observation. He says, Alas, alas, these live
and spring again in another year. But we, when we die, deaf to
all sound in the hollow earth, sleep a long, long, endless sleep
that knows no waking. And then another one said this,
suns may set and rise again, but we, when once our brief light
goes down, must sleep an endless night. And then last, another
one wrote, no one awakes and arises who has once been overtaken
by the chilling end of life. That's what they learned. That was their view of death.
That was their understanding of what it is to be dead. No hope, no life, no coming back,
no resurrection at all. And so when Timothy goes back
to report to Paul what's going on, he tells Paul that the Thessalonians,
the believers there, are having some real trouble with this.
They are really distressed over some loved ones who have passed
on. And the way Paul, the way the
Holy Spirit moves Paul to speak of death He takes the sting right
out of it, doesn't He? He calls it sleep. When our Lord
spoke of Lazarus when he had died, He said to His disciple,
He sleepeth, let us go that I may wake him. And they said something
that's interesting. They said, Lord, if he sleepeth,
he doeth well. If somebody is sick, if one of your children's sick
or somebody in the family's sick, and they're asleep, doesn't that
give you some comfort that they're able to sleep? You know this,
you know if they're really asleep, they're getting some rest. That
for a little while, they are free from the pain and the sickness
they are going through if they're asleep. And so Paul uses this
term here, and he says here in verse 13, "...but I would not
have you to be ignorant or uninformed." To be uninformed. Brethren, and
this is to the brethren. Now listen, this is not to the
unbeliever. There are no words of comfort.
I'm telling you the truth. There are no words, zero words
of comfort for those who believe not God. For those who do not
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't have one word of comfort. But for those who believe, for
all you who believe, this is so comforting. Comfort one another
with these words. As to the brethren, the family,
He said, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep. And you know, when the Lord said
that Lazarus sleepeth, and they said he'll do well, it says,
The Lord said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. Oh, they got
that. They got that. They understand
now. He's speaking that he has died because he was sick. and
he has died, but the Lord never spoke of him as dead, because
he said in one place that God is not the God of the dead, but
of the living. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's
the God of the living. They are still alive. They are
alive this moment. Every saint who has passed from
this life into eternity, who's gone into the presence of the
Lord. They are very much alive. They are every bit as alive as
we are right now. I want to say they're more alive
than we are right now. They have it in its fullness,
in its completeness. They're asleep, he says, that
you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope, because they
were really distressed. Here's what they were so distressed
over. They were so distressed that their loved ones, believers
who had believed, had died, and they were going to miss Christ.
They were going to miss Him. When He came back, they're gone. No, they're not gone. They're
with Him. They're already with Him. You can imagine the rejoicing
that went on when this truth finally came home. They're not
dead, they're alive. They're with the Lord. They're
with Him. He says they sleep in Jesus. That's where they're sleeping,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, He says here, I'm writing
this, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
He's not condemning sorrow, but He is condemning excessive sorrow. That doesn't go with faith. It doesn't go with faith. How
are we going to be with the Lord unless we die? We spend every
dime we got trying to keep living, and yet how are we going to be
with the Lord unless we die? How are we going to change? How
are we going to get rid of this mortality? How are we going to
put on immortality unless we die? You know, the dying part I understand.
The dying part can be a little apprehensive about that. I mean,
I don't know how I'm going to die. I've watched some believers
die painfully of cancer and heart troubles and had watched one
of them had his lung taken out and he just suffered. The dying
part's not easy. That's the part I think concerns
us as believers. But now death, it has no power
over us. We will not, listen, we will
not experience death. It won't be any more difference,
I mean it will be a spiritual difference, than going from this
room to this house to the house across the street. We won't know
what death is. Jesus Christ tasted death, it
says, for every man. Every man, every one He represented,
He took their death. Now He knows what death tastes
like. But I'll never know it. I'll
just know a transformation. I'll know a change. There's a
great change coming. There's a great change coming
for every one of us. This age, I'm going to stop aging.
The only way you can stop aging is die. If you want to stop aging,
dying does it, but that's the only thing that does it. But it'll all stop. I'm going
to get to that in a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself.
But Paul here, he's not condemning sorrow. We do sorrow. We sorrow
for the lost. We won't see them for a while.
We enjoyed their company every day, every week. We enjoyed the
company. And now they're gone for a little
while. Now listen, for a little while.
That's all. You see, we've got to learn to
live above this life. That's why it tells us to set
our hearts on things above. You know, and Vicki was talking
about this not too long ago, you know, there'll be a time,
there'll be a time come when one of us will die. If we don't
both die at the same time or something, a plane crash or something,
but more likely one of us will die before the other. But it's
just the separation is just a little while. Now she's not going to
be my wife in heaven, in glory, but she's going to be my sister
in Christ. And that relationship we have
in Christ will be a whole lot better than the one we got here.
It will. Perfect love. Perfect love. Won't be any sin to get in the
way. Won't be any sin to complain about. It'll all be gone. But he's saying here, don't sorrow
excessively as though they have no hope. They have hope. They
die in hope. Now we know by the word of God
that we all must die. We know that. It doesn't matter
what rank of life you're in, whether you're rich or poor or
learned or unlearned, you and I gotta die. But the believer, the believer,
his is not death. It's sleep. It's sleep. You know, one of the good things that I've
learned about aging I like to go to bed and rest. When I was
young, going to bed, going to sleep was a waste of time. It
was a waste of good time that I could be doing something. I
hated, I kid you not, I hated when I was a teenager to go to
bed at 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock. I didn't want to go to bed. My
grandson, you've got to force him to go to bed. He sneaks up
at night, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the morning, he's up. But now that I'm older, there's
nothing. There's nothing like rest. There's
nothing like good sleep, is there? Nothing matches it. Nothing like
good sleep. Rest. I know there's a lot of things
we don't know about what happens at death, but we're not completely
ignorant of it. We know this, to be absent from
the body, to be present with the Lord. It's to be present
with the Lord. And the terminology he's using
here is this thing of sleeping in Christ is this. It's rest. They're resting. They are resting. He's the place
of rest. You know, that's why they got
the word cemetery from the Greeks, which means a place of rest.
It's a place of rest. Christ is our place of rest. You notice he said, "...them
which sleep in Jesus." There in verse 14. They're asleep in the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're a part of the body of Christ. They're at rest
in the Lord Jesus. And I like the way he says this,
for if we believe that Jesus, and he says, then we sleep in
Jesus. He's pointing here to the manhood,
the human nature of Jesus Christ. This man, Jesus Christ, is real
and he really died. And He really rose again from
the dead. And He's really seated at God's right hand. And they're
with Him. They're with Him. Now I know this about death,
back to this matter of death. I know this, that death breaks
the union between the soul and the body. We are made up of body,
soul, and spirit. And death breaks that union.
It breaks that union. The body, it says, goes back
to the dust. It says over in Ecclesiastes,
it goes back to the dust. And it says the Spirit goes back
to God who gave it. It goes back to God who gave
it. But know this, and this is what He's telling them, and this
is for us again. And we need to have... I need
this. I need somebody to tell me this
all the time. Death does not break the union between the soul
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Death does not break the union
between me and the Lord. Listen to Romans 8.38, "'For
I am persuaded that neither death,' there it is, the first one, the
first one he's persuaded that, 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. That
union cannot be broken. Satan can't break it. I can't
break it. If it could be broken, I would
break it. It cannot be broken. It's not established on me. It's
established on Christ. And we know that to be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord, as it's written
in 2 Corinthians 5.8. We are confident, Paul says.
This is not something that we speculate on, suspicious about. You know, I suspect this. No. We are confident. We are confident,
I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord. That's what happens. It's immediate.
It's immediate. No purgatory. It's immediate. When that thief was hanging on
the cross, what did our Lord say to him? This day shalt thou
be with me in paradise. Today. And when that happens, turn over
to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. There's
a lot of things I don't know. There's a lot of things I don't
know. But I want you to look over here in 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Verse 1, that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle were dissolved, this body laid in the grave,
we have a building of God. I don't know how to describe
it, but when a believer dies, he calls here a body, there's
a building, it's a body, there's a body awaiting. and house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan
earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found
naked." It's not without a body. But there'll come a time, and
we're going to get to this, I'm going to get ahead of myself,
but there's going to come a time when the Lord comes back that
this body, which is planted in the cemetery, is going to be
like that grain of corn that's planted in the ground. You know,
it's just a little old grain of corn. It's worthless. It's just worthless. It's just
a grain of corn. Well, you're not going to eat it. But you
put it in the ground, and it dies, it says. The Scripture
says over in 1 Corinthians 15, it dies. And God gives, out of
that, out of that, God gives life and brings life and it grows
up and you've got this great big stalk of corn. And he gives it a body. And one
of these days, one of these days, this body's gonna be laid in
a grave. Your body's gonna be laid in a grave. But then there's gonna come a
day when that body is going to come out of that grave, and it's
going to be new. It's going to be a spiritual
body. I'll show you this here in a little bit. It'll be a spiritual
body. Now, we know this about death. We know this. We know that to
die for the believer is gain. Nobody else. Nobody else. It's
not gain. But here's gain. And Paul uses
this in Philippians 121. And when he uses this word gain,
he means profit. It's an advantage. It's like
a business term. It's a profit. It's an advantage.
It's an advantage. Listen to everyone who believes
it's an advantage for you to die. Do you see dying and death as
an advantage? It is. It's gain. It's profitable for you to die.
Because it means this, you're with the Lord. You're with the
Lord. And here's some of the gain and
profit of it. When the believer dies, the believer
is fully delivered from sin. the very presence of sin, you'll
never ever say again, why did I say that? Why do I think like
that? Why did I do that? That's gone. That's gone. In this life, sin is a source
of nothing but humiliation. It's nothing but a source of
sorrow. But in this hour, we're free from it. Free from
the very presence of it. Free from the presence of it.
We know that sin does not have dominion over us right now because
we know that by the Word of God. We know that. But in that hour,
the very presence of it is gone. It's gone. And then it's an advantage
in this way. We will be delivered from ever
doubting our standing before God. Am I His or am I not? John Newton
said this, "'Tis a point I long to know. Oft it gives me anxious
thought. Am I His or am I not?" He doesn't have those doubts
anymore. They're gone. We're delivered
from any doubts of our standing before God. Faith has now given
way to sight. And all doubting is gone. And
then here's another advantage of death. Sleep. This is sleeping in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Here's another advantage. We
are delivered from all temptation. You know, the Lord taught us
to pray, deliver us, lead us not into temptation. Because we like it too much. If He doesn't remove it, I'll
give in to it. That's pretty much about how it goes. If He
doesn't remove it, if He doesn't give me the strength, I'll give
in to it. That's gone. All temptation to sin. and whatever
besetting sin I may have, it's gone. It's gone. Now, why would we not want to
go and be with the Lord? Why would we not want to fall
asleep in the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ? Here's another
advantage. The believer is delivered from
all his or her enemies. There are no enemies in heaven. Everyone there is family. And
everyone there is loved and appreciated and respected. No one, no one
will slander you no more. No one will persecute you. Here
we are constantly exposed to these things. There it's gone. It's over. It's over. Here's another advantage. And
I see this one probably as, I mean, at the top of the list. At the
top of the list, because I've seen it. I've seen it in others.
I've mentioned it. We are delivered from suffering.
I don't know how we are going to die. For some, it may be very,
very painful. But it's just for a little while.
Paul calls it there in 2 Corinthians 4, our light afflictions, compared
to that eternal weight of glory. Whatever it is we go through,
it's but a light affliction. If you think of what Jesus Christ
endured, the hell of God's wrath, anything that I will endure is
a light affliction. It doesn't feel light. I didn't
say it felt like that. But it is. It is. I have no more health problems. I have no more health problems.
No doctor's going to say, you have cancer. You've got this
coming. You've got dementia. That's gone. That's all gone. My health will not fail me anymore.
Our minds, listen, this is one of the things that just fascinates
me, besides watching birds fly in the air. To watch a bird fly,
I find fascinating. We spend billions of dollars
putting airplanes in the air, and it just leaps off a limb
and goes flying. Oh, the God, the power of God,
the wisdom of God. It's amazing. But our minds will
be brilliant. I was going to say nothing fascinates
me like the mind. I honestly don't think we begin
to even tap. The mind. We explore the oceans. We explore the mountains. We
explore outer space. I don't think we've ever tapped
into the human mind. You have any idea of the genius
that Adam was before sin? He named all those animals. He
didn't even have a guidebook or anything. He just said, that's
a cow. That's a horse. And whatever
He called them, that's what they are called. And every now and then, God lets
us have a glimpse of the brilliance of the mind when He lets somebody
create something or solve a problem, and you think, my, that's brilliant.
That doesn't even scratch the surface of brilliance. The most intelligent person in
this world has an IQ of minus zero compared
to what it ought to be. And I'm telling you what it's
going to be. He says, we will have the mind of Christ. Can you imagine such a mind? To have a brilliant mind again. And not to age no more. And never
a tear drop down the face because of sorrow or shame. You won't shame yourself and
you won't shame your family. You won't shame nobody again.
You won't embarrass no one again. You won't be embarrassed. Take
away sin, you don't have those things. And then here's a... Here's the last thing we're delivered
from, or the advantage of this. Here's the last advantage. Well,
I'm not gonna say last, but we're delivered from death. Now, what's
everyone here looking forward to? I mean, what are we all anticipating? Sooner or later, it's not retirement. It's dying. It's dying. Every last one of
us. I don't know when any of us will
go, when the Lord will take me or when He takes you, but I may
have to do the funerals of several of you. I don't know. But it's only going to be done
one time. Only one time. We're only going to die one time.
You see, the unbeliever has what they call the second death. They
don't only die from this life, they got a second death where
they're cast into the lake of fire. When they're under torment
forever and ever and ever. That's called the second death.
But we only got to die one time, and it's not a painful death.
Not the death, the dying part might be a little painful, but
the death of it, it won't be. He took the sting out of death.
We're delivered from death. And then, here's probably the
greatest one of all of them. When the believer dies, he or
she is delivered into the presence of God. Can you imagine that? A worm
like us, old wretched man that I am, delivered into the presence
of God who can't be comprehended. A light into which no man can
approach. delivered into the presence of
God through the blood and righteousness of that man, Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ has so thoroughly made His people righteous by
His work and cleansed them by His blood that they can actually
stand in the presence of God Almighty and rejoice, not be afraid, Not
be afraid, but rejoice. I know that when our loved ones,
if they go before we do, I know we'll miss them, but we wouldn't
bring them. Would we bring them back? We'd
like to, but would we really? Would you put someone back in
prison that just was let out? Would a healthy man go back to
being sick? That's what it'd be like to come
back to this place. It'd be like a healthy person going back to
his sickness. Lazarus, the Lord raised him
from the dead, guess what? He had to die again. Because he was on this earth.
He got to leave this place. Now he says in verse 14, I'll
wind this down. For if we believe, and here's
the key, here's the key, this is the ones Paul's writing to. If we believe that Jesus died,
that the man Christ Jesus died, this is His substitutionary work,
this is His substitutionary character. He died and we believe that He
rose again, You believe that? That's what Paul is saying. You
believe that? Well, even so, in the same manner,
them also which sleep in Jesus, God will bring with Him. They're
with God. God will bring them with Him.
They're with Him right now. They'll never be separated. Never
be separated. Paul gives them and us comfort
in this verse. For those who mourn, he says,
they're just asleep. They're just asleep. Don't mourn
over their sleeping. Secondly, they sleep in Jesus
Christ as members of His body. Now, get this. He said they sleep in Jesus,
not the grave. And no believer in a grave. No
believer out there is sleeping in the grave waiting. He or she
is already with the Lord. And thirdly, that when the Lord
comes, He'll bring them with Him. Isn't it comforting to know
that they are with the Lord? They are with the Lord. And He'll unite their soul with
their new body. They are with Him. They are not
in the grave. You notice something here. Let
me point this out before I finish this up. It says, he that believed that
Jesus died, Jesus Christ really died. You notice here, Jesus
died, the saints sleep. He died, they sleep. And because
He died, I can sleep, I can rest. I can find real soul rest in
the Lord Jesus Christ. His death was not a sleep. His death cannot be spoken of
as a sleep. It was a real death. He experienced
what I would have experienced under the wrath of God in hell,
being cast into that lake of fire. He experienced it. It was
a real death to Him. His death, my death, listen,
When it comes time, my death, your death, will be a blessing. His had a curse in it. My curse. The curse that was on me. Now,
verse 15. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, by the authority of Christ. See, they grew up
under Greek mythology. None of that stuff was true.
It was all a bunch of bull. None of it was true. He said, but what I'm saying
to you is true, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent or precede them which
are asleep. They're already there, and their
bodies will be raised, and they'll be united to their new body,
a spiritual body. Paul said, this is a revelation
that the Lord has given me. I'm telling you the truth. You
can stake your life on it. This is going to happen. 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. The first time our Lord came,
quiet wasn't it? A few shepherds, a few wise men. over in a stable, over there
with the animals. It ain't going to be like that
when He comes back. Ain't going to be a blast of a trumpet. You
know the scripture says that every eye will see Him? You say,
how's that going to happen? Here's the only way I can explain
that. He's God. He's God. And He can make every
eye see Him. Now He's going to descend from
heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and the
dead are going to rise up. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord." They're not going to touch this earth. They'll never touch
this earth again. They're going to meet Him in
the clouds, in the air. To meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We'll all be together. That's going to happen. I'm telling
you the truth. God's telling us the truth. This
is going to happen. This is what's coming. This is
what's coming. Now let me close and read to
you 1 Corinthians 15. Turn over there. Let's see, verse 35. Hold on a second, verse 35. But
some man 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. As I was saying about that grain
of corn. that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that
shall be, but bare grain. It may chance of wheat or of
some other grain. It doesn't mean you don't know
what it's going to be. It'll be whatever you planted, except
it'll be glorified. I mean, it'll be full body. All
flesh is not the same flesh. There is one kind of flesh of
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of
birds. There are also celestial bodies,
bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial is one, and
the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is 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 is sown in corruption. That
body that went into the grave, it went back to dust, it was
just this old body of corruption. It's raised in incorruption.
There's a new body. There's literally a new body.
Flesh and bones. Not blood. It doesn't say flesh
and bones and blood. You know, Scripture says the
life of the flesh is in the blood thereof. The life of that new
body is in Christ. is not in blood, it's flesh and
bone. Christ is the life of that body,
of that new man. It's raised in incorruption,
it's sown in dishonor. It's sown in dishonor. I've seen
some people buried, they just look like a... My grandfather,
he was a stout, strong man, six foot, six one or something. You
know, he's taller than me by a couple of inches, about 6'1".
But he had lung cancer and just shriveled up to nothing. Shriveled
up to nothing. Sewn in dishonor. He said, boy,
I remember him when he was so strong. And now, look what sin
has done to the body. It is raised in glory. That's
right. It ain't going to look like it's
coming. When it comes out, it's not going to look like what it
did when it went in. It is sown in weakness. That's right. It's raised in power. It is sown
a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body. You're looking at it. You're
living in it. And there is a spiritual body. That's coming. That's coming. And so it is written, the first
man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit. Howbeit that was not first, which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that
which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth
earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. The Scripture says, As He is,
so are we in this world, and so shall we be when He comes. We'll be just like Him. We'll
be just like Him. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
But I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, He didn't
say this, he didn't say we shall not all die or be dead, but we
must sleep. We shall all be changed. In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the
trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible
and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption and this mortal shall 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 is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but
thanks be to God which gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ." That's a new look at death, isn't
it? You know, when the world sees it, and I understand looking
at it from a natural standpoint, Depressing. It's depressing. What was it? Clint Eastwood said,
when a man die, you take all he has and all he ever will have.
It's depressing to the natural man. But to you who believe, it's an advantage. It's an advantage
for us to die. All right.