Now this morning we're going
to be dealing with those verses that Brother Jim just read in
1 Thessalonians 4 and 5. But I want to begin by having
you turn to Acts chapter 1, the book of Acts. I'm going to talk
to you this morning about the hope of Christ's return. We have a good hope of salvation. It's the hope of the gospel.
It's the hope of sins forgiven. And that's not some future hope
in that sense because that's already done. That's done. Christ
finished that work on the cross. Put away our sins. Establish
righteousness by which we're justified before a holy God and
from which we have spiritual life. But now this Return the
hope of Christ returned. That's a future Hope that'll
be realized when he comes back the second time and he will It
may be a little difficult for people to believe in this day
and age, but he's coming again and to take care of this world. He's going to judge this world
and he's going to gather his people unto himself. And this
series of messages I've been doing, basically what I've been
trying to do is to go to the scriptures to find out and define
the nature of the last days, what the Bible calls the last
days, the last age. We're in the last age. You had
the old covenant age, you had the patriarchal age, then the
old covenant age, and now we're in the last age. This is the
last segment of time that God will deal with this world. And
mainly because he is saving his people from their sins. He's
bringing his chosen people into the fold, into the church. That's what he's doing. And I've
got this message and two more and they're all gonna come from
first and second Thessalonians because it seems that the people,
the believers in Thessalonica were a little more concerned
with this issue, the second coming of Christ. And Paul did a lot
of teaching on that issue. But as we went through the book
of Mark chapter 13, we talked about the last days, the final
age of the church here on earth. called the New Covenant Age.
Christ closed out the Old Covenant Age. When he said it's finished,
remember the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
The book of Hebrews tells us he takes away the first, that
he may establish the second, and that which is old must wax
away, must grow away, and that which is established, and we're
living in that new covenant age. And that last from that new covenant
age spans from his first coming, the first coming of Christ, and
his death, burial, his resurrection, his ascension unto the Father,
And it'll last on through till he comes again. And look at Acts
chapter 1. This is when the Lord was about
to go into glory. Look at verse 6. He's talking
to his disciples. And he says, when they therefore
were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, when wilt
thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Now they
still thought that the Lord was going to establish an earthly
kingdom in Israel. But that's not what He's going
to do. He's going to establish a kingdom. He's already established
His kingdom. And then His kingdom will be
finalized. It's a spiritual kingdom. But
it's not going to occupy real estate here on this earth. He's
going to create a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. But he says in verse 7, and he
said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons
which the Father hath put in his own power. But you shall
receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you
and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Now he's talking about the Holy Spirit coming to give the gifts
of ministry, to preach the word. It had to do with those miracles
that they did to confirm the word. Verse nine, And when he
had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up,
and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they
looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel." This could have been two angels
or whatever. And he says, which also said, you men of Galilee,
why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, you
know the name Jesus, what it means. God our salvation which
is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner
as you have seen him go into heaven. So he assured them through
these two messengers he's coming again. This same Jesus. God manifest in the flesh. Now
as I've said before, go back to 1 Thessalonians now chapter
4. As I've said before, the new
covenant age, the church age, the age we're in today, it began
with Christ dying on the cross, ascending and being resurrected,
ascending into glory. It was inaugurated at Pentecost. That's the way I like to view
it and describe it. When Peter preached the gospel,
the Holy Spirit descended, and 3,000 people, Jews and Gentiles,
were brought to faith in Christ. And then came great persecution
in Judea. And believers were scattered
all throughout the Gentile world. And you had significant events
taking place here. One of the most significant was
the conversion of a man named Saul. Remember on the Damascus
Road, he was converted. and he was commissioned to be
the apostle to the Gentiles. And Paul was instrumental in
being used of God to start many of the churches that we read
about in the New Testament. This one in Thessalonica, the
church in Ephesus, churches in Galatia. And then Christ spoke
of in Mark 13, the destruction of the temple, the Jewish temple,
the holy place. and the destruction of the holy
city of Jerusalem. Many people say, well, that the
new covenant age, the end of it is going to be marked by the
rebuilding of that physical temple. That's not what the Bible teaches.
The holy place before the cross was that temple, but it had been
perverted and had been cursed of God because of their self-righteous
legalistic religion. The holy place after the cross,
you know what it is? It's the church, the people of
God. That's the holy place after the
cross. Christ is building his church as we speak. He said,
upon this rock, the rock of himself, not Peter, But the rock of Christ,
the glorious person of Christ, the finished work of Christ,
upon this rock I'll build my church, he said. And the gates
of hell will not prevail against it. Doesn't that comfort you?
It does me. I know God has a people that
he chose before the foundation of the world. He gave us to Christ. All that the Father giveth me,
Christ said, shall come to me. And Him that cometh me I will
in no wise cast out. Given to Christ, put into His
hands, all salvation conditioned on Him. And He by His blood on
that cross put away our sins and established a righteousness
that God has imputed, charged, accounted to us by which we stand
before Him. Accepted, forgiven, justified. And so that began there, that
holy place, that holy city that was destroyed. The Bible talks
about the new Jerusalem. The Jerusalem which is above,
that's the people of God, that's the church, that's the city of
God. And it's a spiritual city. And
so we who believe in Christ by the power of God, we're assured
by God that our Lord and Savior will return. His second coming,
and He's going to gather us up. It's what some people call the
rapture. We're going to be caught up with
Him. And we're going to be gathered together, and He's coming to
gather His church, and He's coming to judge all who are found in
unbelief, all to whom sin is imputed, to destroy this world
and make a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
I read it at the beginning of the service. As it is appointed
once for men to die, after that the judgment, Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. And that'll be the glorification
of every one of us together who are found in Christ, who are
washed in his blood. clothed in his righteousness.
Now a question came up in the church at Thessalonica. And the
question basically had to do with this. What about believers
who die from this physical body, who die before the Lord returns? That was the question that he
asked here. Now look at verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians 4. Well,
Paul writes here, he says, but I would not have you ignorant,
to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Now he
describes them as being asleep. The Bible, the New Testament
often refers to the death of believers, those who die in the
Lord, die in the faith, as sleep. And so it's nothing to be dreaded.
Sleep is a good thing. I love to get a good night's
sleep, how about you? You wake up feeling rested. And
you wake up and it feels like no time at all has passed, doesn't
it? And that's the way it is with believers who have died
in the Lord. There's sleep, it's a rest, it's
a rest from the sins and the problems and the pains of this
world. And when we awake, when we arise
with Christ and His second coming, it'll be like no time at all
has passed. Think about how much time has passed with Abel, who
fell asleep in the Lord. Now, somebody says, well, that's
soul sleep. Well, I don't know. Some people
say that when we die, our spirits go to be with the Lord. And that
makes sense to me. But either way, He describes
it as sleep. So he said, I wouldn't have you
ignorant of those who've gone to sleep. And he says, but 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. We have hope. Now hope is not
wishful thinking. Hope is not a pipe dream. Hope
is the expectation of glory, eternal life and glory in Christ
because of what He accomplished in our stead. And it's all based
upon the Word of God. That's why it's an expectation.
That's why it's an assurance. Because God said it. And so we
have a hope. It's the hope of the Gospel.
It's the hope of eternal life. because Christ is our life, he
is our righteousness. And it says, for if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. So we have this hope of
eternal life and glory in Christ. Think about it. The Bible says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, it's God
that justifies. You see, death, all death, Physical
death, spiritual death, and eternal death is because of sin. And those who die in sin, who
have sin charged to them, they will die eternally, whatever
that death entails. There's no hope of glory, no
hope of a blessed life for them. But what if the sin problem is
removed? Taken out of the way. It's not
a problem. Well, that's what Christ did
for his people on that cross. And when he comes, he came and
he bore our sins in his body on the tree, and he drank damnation
dry in his death, satisfied justice. Sin cannot be charged to us. Righteousness is charged to us,
therefore we'll live forever. We have spiritual life given
to us from Christ by the Holy Spirit. We cannot be separated
from Christ. Who can separate us from the
love of God in Christ? Nothing. Not even death. And Christ is our hope. He's
our certain expectations. And Paul wrote a lot on this
in 1 Corinthians 15. We won't go there. But we'll
all be glorified together with Christ. Look at verse 15. He says, for this we say unto
you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which
are asleep. If we're alive, if Christ would
come back right now and gather us who are alive on the earth
together, now don't get me wrong, we will suffer the equivalent
of death because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, we'll all
be changed. in the twinkling of an eye, this
corruptible body cannot, this corruptible cannot inherit incorruptible. We'll have a new body. That's
what the scripture says. A glorified body. And I don't
know a lot about what it's gonna be like, but I know there'll
be no tears, no sickness, no sorrow, all of that. But our
being alive will not hinder or prevent those who have gone to
sleep, those who have died in the Lord. And so he says in verse
16, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Now notice that he's not coming
secretly and every other person disappear like they say. He's
coming back one time with a shout publicly. With the voice of the
archangel, now that's Christ. There's no hierarchy of angels.
And he's the archangel, he's the highest. The word angel means
messenger. And with the trump of God, the
trumpet sound, the clarion call. Right now, do you know what the
clarion call right now is to the people of God? It's the preaching
of the gospel. The trumpet sound is the preaching
of the good news. of how God justifies sinners
through the blood and righteousness of Christ. But at this last trump,
this last clarion call, he'll come and the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Verse 17, then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up. That's what the word rapture
means, caught up together. with him, not one here and one
there, and then Christ comes back again and gets, no, the
Bible doesn't teach that. That stuff didn't even get, that
stuff didn't even enter into what people call Christendom
until around the 1850s. But together with him in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be
with the Lord, eternally be with Christ. And so Paul says, for
this reason, wherefore, comfort one another with these words.
Isn't that a comfort to the people of God? Now here's the expectation we
have. Either we're going to die this body of death and go to
be with him, or we're going to be alive and he's going to come
and take us up together. That's a comfort. Look over at Mark 13 that I preached
on these last few weeks. Look at Mark 13 verse 24. Now, as I told you last week,
a lot of preachers say, well, this is just talking about that
one event, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the
events that lead up to that. And that could be true. The events
that led up to the destruction of the temple are very similar
to the events that lead up to the second coming of Christ.
And listen to this in verse 24 of Mark 13, but in those days
after that tribulation, now that's after the destruction of the
temple. The sun shall be darkened, the
moon shall not give her light, the stars of heaven shall fall,
and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken." You see, this
creation will be shaken when Christ comes again. And it was
shaken when the temple was destroyed. I don't know about the moon being
darkened and all that, that might be symbolic language describing
some things that happen. But here it says in verse 26,
and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with
great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds. from
the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of it,
not one of God's elect will perish. He'll gather us together. He
chose us. Our names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. He gave us to Christ. Christ
came and took care of the sin problem, wrought out righteousness,
and they must have eternal life and glory because of Him. It says in verse 27, then shall
he send his angels and shall gather together his elect. And
right now, in the days before the destruction of the temple,
the people of God were scattered throughout the Gentile world
and they preached the gospel. Well, in the days leading up
to the second coming, the scripture says that the gospel must be
preached in all the world. God has a people and he's not
willing that any of them should perish, but they should all come
to repentance. And how do they come to repentance?
By the Spirit bringing them to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works under the preaching of the gospel. Now, go back to
1 Thessalonians 5. As you know, the Bible was not
originally written in chapters. So here's a continuing thought.
And now, here's what he's telling the people of Thessalonica. He's saying, watch and be sober. Be clear-minded is what that
means. And endure to the end. Now that's
the same thing he told his disciples leading up to the destruction
of the temple. He said, he that endureth to
the end shall be saved. And this endurance is perseverance
in the faith, which comes not by our own power or our own goodness,
but it comes by the power and the goodness of God. We persevere,
we continue in the faith because he won't let us go. He keeps
us. He preserves us. And look what
he says, verse one of chapter five. But of the times and the
seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For
you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night." That is, He's going to come unexpectedly. When people do not expect Him
to come, just like a thief, taken by surprise, you might say. Christ
will come, when? But the world will not be expecting
Him. And they will not welcome Him. The world won't. His return
will be an absolute terror to the world. You remember when
Paul wrote about judgment in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He's
talking about we'll all stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
and it will be declared then, the judgment of our works, whether
they're fruit unto death, the works of unbelievers, or fruit
unto God, the work of God through his people. They show our union
with Christ. That's what we, it'll be declared
a judgment. And Paul said after, knowing
the terror of the Lord, we do persuade men. What is that terror? You know exactly what it is.
It's the terror of standing before a holy God without Christ. Can you imagine that? And that's what it'll be. for
those who stand on their own. That's why we say we must have
Christ. We must have His blood to wash
away our sins. Nothing else will do it. You
remember those in Matthew 7 who talked about how they had done
many wonderful works? Well, there's no amount of wonderful
works that any sinner can do that'll wash away even one sin. Your confession doesn't wash
away your sins. The blood of Christ washes away
our sins. We must have righteousness in
order to be saved and kept and glorified. And we don't have
it in ourselves, but we have Christ, the Lord our righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And listen to
this, look at verse three. For when they shall say peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon
a woman with child, and they shall not escape. You know, leading
up to the destruction of the temple, there were false preachers
claiming to be Christian, claiming to believe in Christ, but it
was a false Christ, false Christianity. Well, the same will happen leading
up to the second coming of Christ. There'll be false preachers and
false prophets. There'll be much deception that
comes in the name of Christ, but denies the doctrine, the
truth of Christ. And the same as in leading up
to the destruction of the temple, some will come so close that
if it were possible, they could deceive the very elect. purveyors of false peace and
false safety, false gospels. This has been the case from the
beginning. Jeremiah even spoke of it. Those prophets, Jeremiah
was telling them of the coming destruction because of their
sins. False preachers, false prophets who outnumbered Jeremiah
were saying, oh, it's okay, peace, peace. My friend, we have them
today. Preachers who won't tell the
truth about who God is and His justice and His holiness. Preachers
who won't tell the truth about who Christ is in the glory of
His person and the power and accomplishment and success of
His finished work on the cross to save His people from their
sins. Preachers who won't tell the people the truth about our
sinfulness, our depravity. They indicate or preach openly
that men have a spark of goodness and all we need to do is fan
it. But my friend, when we talk about our situations and what
we need, what do we do? We tell sinners to flee to Christ. That's your only hope. He spoke
of in Mark 13 leading up to the destruction of the temple, he
said, some will flee to the mountains. You know, the book of Revelation
tells us when the end of this world comes and Christ's destroying
this world, they'll pray for the rocks to fall on them. There'll
be no fleeing. There won't be time. He comes
as a thief in the night. But look at verse four. But you,
brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake
you as a thief. Now, do you see that? Now, we
don't know the day and the time. And we're not to go about trying
to figure out the day and the time. You remember, several years
ago, there was an old preacher out in California who just was
convinced that he'd put together the numbers and he knew the exact
date of the second coming. He wrote a book on the first
one that he'd come to and it didn't happen, so he said, well,
I didn't figure in some numbers that I should have. And he made
another date for it and it didn't happen. We don't know the day
and the time, but Christ will not overtake His people as a
thief. Now what that means is this.
We don't know when He's coming, but we expect Him to come. We're
looking for Him to come. We're praying for Him to come,
aren't we? Somebody said one time, well,
I don't want Him to come now. I've got some loved ones who
are not saved yet. Let me tell you something. He's
not coming before the last one of His sheep are brought into
the fold. But he's gonna bring them. Look
at verse six. Therefore let us not sleep as
do others. Now there he's talking about
a sleep that's not a good sleep. That is resting to the point
that we forget these truths. Or we neglect these truths. Don't sleep as do others. Like
the unbelievers who go about life and do their business and
live as if this is all there is? My friend, this isn't all
there is. If it is, what a sad place to
live. He says, but let us watch, be
on guard, be sober, be clear-minded on these issues. Verse 7, for
they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they which be drunken
are drunken in the night. You see, that's showing how people
go through their lives. And he says, but let us who are
of the day, of the light, be sober, be clear-minded, putting
on the breastplate of faith. You remember when Paul spoke
of the armor of God in Ephesians 6? This is very similar right
here. He says, the breastplate of faith
and love. Over in Ephesians 6, the breastplate
is called the breastplate of righteousness. But here he calls
it the breastplate of faith and love. And what is this faith
and love? It's looking to Christ. Loving Christ and his truth and
his people. He says, for in Helmut, the hope
of salvation. In Ephesians 6, the Helmut's
called salvation. That's on our minds, you see. Listen to this, I love this verse.
People argue, have the people of God, have the elect of God
ever been under the wrath of God? Well, listen to this. Paul says, for God hath not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. You
see that? God's people were never appointed
to wrath. To be under the wrath of God
is to be damned. The Bible says that if you're
one of God's children, you are a vessel of mercy, a fore, prepared
for that, appointed to that. What is it to be clear-minded?
Faith and love and salvation. Paul described it in Hebrews
chapter 12. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. 2 Corinthians 11, not letting
false believers or false preachers corrupt our minds from the simplicity,
the singleness that is in Christ, looking unto Him. And so as he
concludes it, he says, verse 9, for God hath not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. We
didn't obtain it by our works. We didn't obtain it even by our
faith. We obtained it by Jesus Christ,
and our faith is in him. Who died for us, that whether
we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. What does
that mean? If he died for you, you're gonna live with him. There'll
be no one in hell for whom Christ died. Verse 11, wherefore, for
this reason, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another,
even as also you do. That's the promise of the gospel.