Book 504. 504. I know that my Redeemer
liveth. This was quite a statement by Job, there are a lot of people
that say that Job was a contemporary of Adam. That's how far back
Job goes. That Adam was still alive whenever
Job was around. And I think some have even said
that Job was one of the first books written in the scriptures. But I don't know anything about
that. don't have anything to prove
that or substantiate that necessarily. So I'll leave that with all the
theologians and smart guys. But one thing is true, though.
It was a long, long, long, long, long time ago before the New
Testament and the mystery of the gospel had been opened up
and revealed. Yet to the Lord's people in the
Old Testament, the gospel was revealed. And Job realized that
He said that I know that my Redeemer liveth and on the earth again
shall stand. That's what we'll sing this morning.
Page 504. I know that my Redeemer liveth
and on the earth again shall stand. I know eternal life He
giveth, that grace and power are in His hand. I know, I know that Jesus liveth
and on the earth again shall stand. I know, I know, that life
He giveth, that grace and power are in His hand. I know His promise never faileth,
the word He speaks, it cannot die. Though cruel death my flesh
shall say, hailed yet I shall see. by and by. I know, I know that Jesus liveth
and all the earth again shall stand. I know, I know that life
He giveth, that grace and power are in His hand. I know my mansion He prepareth,
that where He is, there I may be. O wondrous thought for me
He careth, and He at last will come for me. I know, I know that Jesus liveth,
and on the earth again shall stand. I know, I know that life
He giveth, that grace and power are in His hand. Amen. We truly believe that,
that grace and power is in His hand and for those who will receive
grace, it will come by the power of His hand. Amen? Turn now, if you would, in your
Blue Hymn book, your Songs of Grace Blue Hymn book, to hymn
number 42. Hymn number 42, Here's My Hope
and Consolation. In myself I have no merit, nothing
good have I to give. That a holy, just, and perfect
God could ever let me live. Sin defiles my best performance,
guilty, violent, ruined I am. Yet my heart breaks in repentance,
By God's grace, I see the Lamb. See the Lamb of God, our Savior,
bearing all our sins. By eternal love and favor, Jesus
died bearing our blame. Bruised and wounded and forsaken,
as our substitute he died. It is finished, sin's forgiven,
justice now is satisfied. ? Here's my hope and consolation
? ? Jesus died for sinners' sake ? ? Trusting him I have salvation
? ? And the cup of blessing take ? ? All is well I cannot doubt
it ? ? God who gave his son for me ? rules this world and all
things in it for my good eternally. So I'll trust my God and Savior,
though my joy is mixed with pain. He is worthy, worthy ever, that
in me His peace should reign. Faith in such a great Redeemer
gives my soul a blessed calm. Christ is near, He's my protector. He will keep me from all harm. All right, if you would turn
now in your Gadsby hymn books to 927. Hymn number 927. If you
have any hymns that you'd like to sing after this, we'll be
glad to sing those. Hymn number 927. Thou only sovereign of my heart,
my refuge, my almighty friend, and can my soul from Thee deport
on whom alone my hopes depend. Whither, oh, whither should I
go? A wretched wander from the Lord. Can this dark world of sin and
woe one glimpse of happiness afford? Eternal life, thy words
impart. On these my fainting spirit lives. Here, sweeter comforts cheer
my heart and all. Thou round that nature gives
Let earth's alluring joys combine While Thou art near, in vain
they call One smile, one blissful smile of thine, Thou dearest
Lord, outweigh them all. Thy name, my inmost powers adore,
Thou art my life, My joy, my care depart from thee. Tis death, tis more, tis endless
ruin, thee despair. Low at Thy feet my soul would
lie, Here safety dwells and peace divine. Still let me live beneath
Thy eye for life, Eternal life is thine. Amen. Does anybody have a hymn
that you'd like to sing out of any of the hymn books? Number
what? 10. Number 10. Number 10, those who There is a name I love to hear,
I love to sing its word. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. because He first loved me. It tells me of a Savior's love
who died to set me free. It tells me of His precious blood,
the sinner's perfect plea. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. It tells me what my Father hath
in store for every day. And though I tread a darksome
path, yet sunshine all the way. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. because he first loved me. It tells of one whose loving
heart can feel my deepest woe, who in each sorrow bears a part
that none can bear below. Oh, how I love Jesus! Oh, how I love Jesus! How I love Jesus, because He
first loved me. Anybody else have a song that
you'd like to sing? Our Jesus is the God of hope. He works it by His power. It holds the weak believer up
in the distressing hour. It holds the weak believer up
in the dead, stressing out. The darkest cloud hope pierces
through and waits upon the Lord, expects to prove that all is
true throughout the True hope looks out for blessings great and though
they're long delayed Yet hopes determined still to wait Until
they are conveyed Yet hope's determined still to wait Until
they are conveyed Hope long will wait and wait again, and ne'er
can give it up. Till the blessed Lamb, who once
was slain, appears, the God of hope. to the blessed Lamb who
once was slain, appears the God of hope. Anybody else have a song they'd
like to sing? Okay. Let's get after the Word
of God, if you would. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter
4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, if
you would. Let's bow and we'll have prayer. Fathers, we've sung this morning.
We are people who are ready for your return. Father, we are people
who desire to see your second coming. We are people who desire
to be rid of this earth and the sin that's found in it. We're
ready to be rid of these bodies, the flesh and sin that dwells
within it. Father, we're ready to be out of these cities and
nations and the sin that's found therein. Father, now, even in
these times of turmoil and tumultuous living, people running around
crazy and out of their mind, and we know that you're a sovereign
God that is in control of all things and that these people
only do what has been given unto them to do. that you say in your
word that you've made the wicked even for the day of evil, but
yet for your righteous, for your elect, for your people, your
sheep, your children. It doesn't end here, Father,
and we know that it isn't without hope. We've sung many times this
morning that we have a blessed hope. That hope is Jesus Christ,
That hope is found in Jesus Christ, and that hope will be realized
by Jesus Christ. Father, we look to him today.
We pray that you would help us to lift up our praise and worship
to him today. We just give honor and glory
to our Savior who has saved us, cleanses from all of our sin,
and has gathered us here today in this church to edify one another
and to lift up praise and worship to God. who is the eternal God,
the sovereign God, the God in whose justice and mercy and righteousness
there is no equal. Father, we just pray today that
we might give you the glory and the praise that's due in your
name. Father, we just thank you for the peace that you give us
even in these times because of Jesus Christ. So I ask now, Lord,
that you would help me to preach Help me to speak truth to open
up these scriptures. Lord, may you teach your people
today. By the Holy Spirit and we ask
Lord. That you just might help us be with us. Encourage us,
strengthen us, increase us in our faith. Hold us and keep us
Lord in these days and these times that we live in. Lord,
we pray that you might bring your people, your sheep. In. by conversion through the Word
of God. And even today, Father, if there be any in our midst
here among my children, among these people, brethren, Lord,
I pray, Lord, if they have yet to be converted to you today
by your word, bring them to yourself. They might present themselves,
profess their faith and that they might be baptized. They
might be joined to the church and that they might be instructed
of God and that they might become faithful members serving Christ. Lord, we just ask that you would
do that to anyone in this town, Lord, that is your sheep, that
you would bring them to us. That you might increase our church,
Father, in numbers, not for money-wise, not for fame-wise, but, Father,
for, to come alongside of the ministry here and the service
here, Lord, to help in the labors of this church. And so, Father,
Lord, we just pray your will be done, not as we desire, Our
desire is for whatever your will and purpose has determined. And
Lord, we just pray that you might bring us in the line with that
very thing. But you've told us to pray for
these things. And so on your word and on your promise, we
pray for them. And we know that you are faithful to do the things
that you said that you would do. And we ask it all in Christ's
name. Amen. Well, I thought today I'd bring
a message of encouragement and hope, you'll see in one of the
verses here, it is one of the things in the scripture that
the Bible gives us and teaches us to use to comfort one another. One of my favorite verses in
scripture says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell the people
what the Lord has done for them, you know? And we do that often here. We
preach the gospel. We tell about what Christ has
done for us in his substitutional death and atonement. And we are
very thankful and glad for that. But the Bible also says there's
other words that we have to give each other for comfort besides
what the Lord has done, but it's what the Lord is going to do.
One of these days, the Lord is going to do something that is
an amazing thing that the Bible says that every eye shall see. And we're talking about his second
coming. We're talking about his second
coming. I thought I would speak to that, this message this morning,
I'll be honest with you, is it's not gonna be a deep, profound
thing. I'm basically gonna read through the passages here, kind
of open up a few words, maybe take our mind to think on a few
things. So it's not going to be nothing
deep and doctrinally challenging or theologically assertive where we're just like,
you know, I'm going to have to think about that really hard.
But, you know, anything like that, it's truly going to be
just a simple message reminding us and comforting each other
in the fact that in the day that we're living in. I mean, all
this is crazy stuff. I don't know about you guys,
but it's just crazy seeing what we're seeing today. But yet we've
lived in these times over the ages. The people of God have
seen this cyclical pattern of craziness. I mean, I think if
we were to live back in the dark ages and we've seen that the
the threats and the rule of the Catholics and the killing of
the people of God. During that time, we thought,
man, we're living in crazy days. We can't believe this. Surely
the end is coming. And days before that, when all
the heresies were arising and before the Catholic church really
got started, people would have said, man, this is crazy how
far we've gotten away from the truth. And surely the Son of
God is coming at this time. And so we've been in this cyclical
pattern that we've seen these things. The Bible says that there's
a season for everything, that everything comes and is going
to come. There's the rise of the sun, the setting of the sun,
the morning, the night, all these things will come. There's not
going to be any change in anything until the Lord does come. And
so we're all going to experience these things. Every generation
of Christians is looking forward to the soon return of Jesus Christ. And we don't know when that's
going to be. We don't know how much longer. All we know is we are closer
now than we was last week when we met together, right? We're
at least seven days closer to that day. So we don't know. And
we're not ones as scoffers saying that, well, it's just the same
as it's always gonna be, and we're gonna keep on trucking
on, and Jesus said he's gonna come back, but he hasn't, and
it could be 10,000 years in the future. And I think we're not
scoffers in saying that the Lord's return is not gonna happen. We're
not that way either. We want to expectantly look for
the Lord Jesus Christ. I think every generation is expectantly
look for the Lord Jesus Christ. I know we wanna get off into
different eschatologies. There are groups of people that
believe that this is already a past thing and it's all done
and then life is gonna continue on as it is. We don't believe
that. We believe that there is a time
when the Lord will come again. Matter of fact, we do believe
in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. There's nothing left
really to take place except for the Lord's return. And we do
not, and I guess I should probably say, not we, but me, I believe
the Bible teaches that that is the next event to take place.
I don't want to speak for everybody here, but as I see and understand
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is, is that the next thing
on God's calendar of events, so to speak, and I really don't
like to talk in calendars of events type things, but the next
major thing that the Lord will be doing will be his return as
far as it is in his promises. The Lord has promised to keep
his people until the end. The Lord has promised to come
again And until that coming again, he has promised to hold his people
together, to keep them together, that the church will continue
to prevail against the gates of hell, that the people of God
will be kept and not allowed to fall away. And so we see that
the Bible also says that the people of this world, the heathens
of this world, the things will wax worse and worse, and then
his return will come. But I wanted to read to us a
few verses today of encouragement because, and I'm gonna go ahead
and tip my hat here because as I get into this, I don't want
there to be too much confusion on what I'm saying. I'll give
my eschatology the way I understand it by God's word in just kind
of a brief, simple synopsis here. I do not believe in dispensationalism. I do not believe in premillennialism. And I know some people may not
know what that means, In dispensationism, I don't believe that God has
two ways of saving Israel. I believe that God saved people
in the Old Testament the same way that he saves them in the
New Testament. I don't believe that there is a special thing
with the nation of Israel, that God has not got something special
that's gonna happen with Israel in the last days, okay? I don't believe that God's going
to rapture a church out and then a seven-year tribulation is gonna
happen, and then Israel is gonna be saved, then there's gonna
be this other coming and this war, and then this eternal state,
a thousand-year reign, and then this eternal state. I don't believe
those as literal things that are gonna happen. I believe that
Christ and his coming is a one-time event, not a two-time or a two-and-a-half-time
event. So I do not believe that there
is a soon-to-be rapture of the people of God, and then there'll
be a seven-year tribulation, and then at the end of that,
then other things are gonna happen, a thousand-year reign, okay?
I do not hold to that. I believe those things are symbolic,
and that there will be things that is going on in every age
that is symbolic of those things. I do believe the Lord is reigning
now. I do believe that Satan is bound now. And I do believe
that things will get worse as it goes along and then the end
will come. I believe that there is only
one coming of the Lord. I believe that this passage of
scripture that we're gonna be reading today is talking about
the same passage of scriptures in all of scripture that talks
about Christ's return. I don't believe that this is
a special return just for the church and then later for everybody
else, okay? I believe that this is speaking
of the last day, and I don't know how to understand it any
other way. If it's the last day, then it's
the last day. That's the last day, right? What
happens after the last day? Eternity, right? That means that there's no more
time. The day is governed by time, right? There's evening
and morning, the day, okay? And whenever we come to the last
day, then that means that that is the last day. The Bible says that there will
be the last trumpet. There's not going to be multiple
trumpets. There's going to be the last
trumpet. There's going to be the voice
of God that's going to shout, and it's going to be a loud voice,
and it's the last voice. It's not going to be a multiple
thing. It's not going to be strung out
over a period of time, and I know There's a lot of dear brethren
that hold to that theology, and I pray that the Lord would bring
them out of that error. There is also a view, there is
dispensational premillennialism, then there's historical premillennialism,
which is actually closer to what I believe than anything else,
but I believe in what's called a gospel millennial eschatology,
or as some people call it, an amillennial eschatology. But these are neither here nor
there, okay? We can discuss these all day
long. Matter of fact, there's many brethren of mine that are
preachers that we have different eschatology and we sit down and
we discuss these things vehemently, but not to the point of disfellowshipping
with each other. Although I will say, strong hyper-dispensationalism
that believes in two different types of salvation, I have a
hard time fellowshiping with that. There's only one salvation. There's only one way of salvation.
There's only one gospel. And there's not a gospel to an
ethnic people because of their ethnicity. The New Testament
is very clear that everything that was promised to ethnic Israel
has been given to ethnic Israel already. And then everything
that's promised to spiritual Israel is being given to spiritual
Israel and will be given to spiritual Israel There's a spiritual Israel,
there's an ethnic, national, physical Israel, and the physical
Israel has already had everything given to them, promised of God,
and as a people or as a nation, God has divorced them, has left
them desolate, their house desolate as a nation, as being the carriers
or being the instrument The institution in which God has placed his oracles
and his ordinances and now the New Testament church, the gathered
assembly of people of God who have been born again, who have
been converted of the gospel to believe the truth and has
been scripturally baptized and has been brought into union with
a local New Testament church, that church is now the institution
that God has promised his presence, has promised it to be the pillar
and the ground of truth, to hold forth the ordinances and the
service of God, just as in the Old Testament, national Israel
did, okay? And so, ethnic Israel has nothing
left to claim other than the fact that the Bible says that
out of that ethnic group, there are elect people that will be
saved. But they're gonna be saved just
like us, not because of their heritage, not because of their
skin, or their nationality, but because that God has chosen them,
has written their names down in the book of life before the
foundation of the world, along with every Gentile that was ever
written in, okay? The Gentiles were written in
at the same time that the Jews were written in. It's just that
in God's timeframe, he did not begin to bring the Gentiles out
as sheep, like he did the Jews. He did the Jews to the Jew first
and then to the Greek. The gospel, whenever it was revealed
in its fullness after Christ's resurrection, the Bible says
that it went to the Jew first and then to the Greek. The ministering
of the gospel was to the Jews first and then it went to the
Greeks. And so we see that there is this
one people And that's a story in and of itself, a preaching
in and of itself, but we will not do that. So the coming of
Jesus Christ is for all his sheep, Jew and Gentile, okay? And it's the one Israel that
he's coming to get. He's coming to get his people. And I think
we'll see that as we come. But I'm not here to try to defend
an eschatology today. I'm mainly here to give you guys
comfort, but hopefully, in some side notes, I might be able to
point out the truth of Scripture as far as eschatology is concerned.
But look with me, if you would, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4,
and I'm gonna start reading at verse 13. Now again, this is
Paul. He's riding to the church of
Thessalonica, and he says in verse 13, by the Holy Spirit,
he goes, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye 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 caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore,
Comfort one another with these words. And that's what we're
here today to do. Comfort each other with these
words. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no
need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. He didn't
say that he is gonna come in the night like a thief. He said
he's gonna come as a thief in the night. It's a metaphor here,
okay? And 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. But ye brethren
are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a
thief. Ye are all the children of light
and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us
watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night, and they that be drunk and be drunken in the night.
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God
hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ. who died for us, that whether
we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Who died for
us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with
Him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together and edify one another, even as ye do." So there again,
we see two verses. Verse 18, comfort one another
with these words. Verse 11, Edify one another even
as you do or comfort yourselves together In light of this message
in light of this truth that Christ is coming back and that all those
who have died in Christ those who are alive in Christ are all
going to be Resurrected with him and meet him in the air Okay,
so we will be caught up with Christ as verse 17 says caught
up together with Him in the clouds, and it's something that we are
to comfort each other with. And sometimes we don't do that
enough. I'll be honest, I don't preach on this enough as a preacher. I should be preaching on this
more than I do. We talk about it a lot. Matter
of fact, I was talking with Brother JC Fulton as we were driving
down to Texas, maybe it was when we were driving home from Texas
a couple weekends ago, Matter of fact, he was coming
back, and I was telling him, I said, you know, have you ever
really thought about the fact of Jesus coming back? I mean,
we know the Bible teaches that. We know the scriptures. It's
very clear that the Lord is gonna return for us. And in the back
of our mind, we're thinking that, and we go about our day, living
our, you know, from day to day, all the things that we do, whether
we, you know, if we're still workers, we're out working, caring
for our family and doing the daily duties of everything in
life, doing what we do. And we know in the back of our
mind that the Lord is coming again, but have you ever truly
set and pondered upon the fact that there is this reality that
is truly gonna happen, that all this stuff going on day by day
life, just the rat race of life going on, that all of a sudden
that is gonna be interrupted one of these days and Jesus Christ,
physically is gonna come down from heaven and all the world
is gonna stop. Everything is gonna stop. And
that whenever Jesus Christ comes down, it's gonna be a monumentous
affair because number one, as we see here in our passages,
whenever he descends from heaven, it's gonna be with a shout with
the voice of the archangel. That it's gonna be with the trump
of God. And there's gonna be people rising up out of the graves.
They're going to be people that's on this earth that's going to
be caught up off this ground and caught up with them in the
air and going to be welcoming and meeting Christ as he returns
back to earth and then the judgment begins and he separates the sheep
and the goats and judgment begins. But that's truly going to be
a trip. And have you ever wondered what it's going to be like? I
mean, what's it gonna be like as we're going down? I mean,
is there gonna be that brief instant where we're gonna be
like, we hear the sound and then we think, oh, there it is, it's
time, and then all of a sudden, boom, we're caught up with Christ
and all the rest of the people of God. Or is it just gonna be
just a, we blink our eye and boom, there we are, already translated
into the new body and into the air with the Lord, not even really
knowing what's going on, all of a sudden, hey, here we are.
Or is there going to be that brief moment where we're going
to ponder and see him and realize that this is it and nothing else
is going to really matter at that point. Ozark imaging is
going to be a thing of the past. What I got going at work ain't
going to matter to me no more. My mortgage, my house, my car,
my anything, everything else is not going to matter. At that
time, everything is going to cease to be on my mind except for the
fact that it's finally here. It's finally here. I mean, all
we know is this time. All we know is this reality that
we're in. All we know is that things go
on and on, morning and evening, day and night, labor and toil,
sorrow and joy and pain, sickness, glad times, healthy times. We
have all this stuff that we are experiencing and going on day
by day, and all the things that's happening in this lifetime, but
there's actually gonna be a time, whether it's in our time or some
other time, but the people of God will experience the very
moment that Christ comes back in a cloud, visibly. I mean, this isn't just some
made up pretend thing that we talked about. I mean, it's actually
gonna be a thing that happens as if like tomorrow, how many
of y'all remembered a few years ago when the eclipse came through
this way and everybody, just everybody, I mean, even we, we
drove all the way up to Kansas City to get in that main path
of the eclipse so that we could watch the eclipse and everything
because it was such a cool thing to see and experience, okay? And we sit there and we waited
and waited, and then all of a sudden, boom, there it was, and it was
like, ah, how neat, you know. Well, guys, this is gonna supersede
something like that. This is gonna be something that
we have been waiting for and waiting for, and it's been in
the back of our mind And we've known it to be true, but all
of a sudden the reality of it is going to come upon us. But
the Bible says here that it's going to come as a thief in the
night, whenever we're not necessarily expecting it. That's what that
phrase, a thief in the night, means. It means that it's going
to come quickly, swiftly. It's going to come, you know,
we're not going to, he's not going to say, look out, in two
hours I'll be there. No, he's just, it's a time, time
for him to come. We see that this is going to
be an amazing thing. Have you ever thought about that day? Have
you ever thought, what's it really going to be like? How's it going
to feel to us? You know, I mean, these bodies are going to change.
If we're a child of God, these bodies are going to be changed.
We're going to get a new body. How's that going to feel? What's
it going to be like for this body to go away and for a new
body to come in? You know, what's it going to
be like for us to meet him in the air? You know, I know one
thing, I'm going to have to be given a new body for that to
happen because I'm scared of heights. Let's go back and look at some
of these passages here and let's kind of break some of this down.
It says, but I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning
them which are asleep. What's that talking about for
those which are asleep? You know, there's one segment
of quote unquote Christianity and I don't necessarily claim
them to be Christian. But there is a denomination out
there that believes in what's called soul sleep. And they believe
that whenever a person dies, that they are just asleep and
there's no consciousness. They don't have any consciousness
of being with the Lord. There's no consciousness of being
here, that they're just dead, buried in the ground, and that
there is no conscious activity until the Lord comes back again,
okay? And I don't wanna go into any
of that, but that's not what this is talking about. This is
talking about dying, okay? The word asleep here means dying. And we can see that throughout
the scriptures, we can see the word of God uses this word asleep
or sleep to talk about the people of God who have died in Christ. We know, and I'm not gonna go
to every verse, but I do want us to look at a few verses to
solidify the fact that this is what this means. Look at Acts
chapter 7, very familiar passage, I'm sure, to most of you. It
is the account of the deacon Stephen, after his defense of
the gospel and his defense of Jesus Christ and his stoning,
we find these words said about him, starting in verse, 54, it says, when they heard these
things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him
with their teeth. Now, I've preached in a lot of
awkward places. I've had a lot of people disagree
with me, people unfriend me on Facebook, but I have yet to have
anybody gnash on me with their teeth yet. Stephen, whenever
he preached, they came and gnashed on him with their teeth. They
bit him. But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said,
Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord. So they started hollering and
closing their ears. They didn't want to hear him
say that. and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And
the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet
whose name was Saul." Now, y'all know who Saul is, right? Saul of Tarsus is also Paul the
Apostle. If you remember, the Lord called
him Paul, and he went by Paul after his conversion. But he
was Saul of Tarsus, is who he was, the one who was persecuting
the churches. Verse 59, and they stoned Stephen,
calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried
with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Of course, we know
that he died. but he fell asleep. So the Bible
uses the word asleep to talk about those who are Christ's
people who die, they have fallen asleep. In 1 Corinthians chapter
15, if you would, we're going to be looking at this verse even
more. So once you get there, if you want to put something
in there to turn back to it quickly, we will be back in 1 Corinthians
15, hang on a bit. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
In verse six, we see, after that he has seen of above 500 brethren
at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present,
but some are fallen asleep. He's talking about some of the
saints that saw the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection. They said, you know, there are
many, even at the time of me writing this letter, there are
still some who are alive who witnessed the resurrection of
our Lord, Jesus Christ, that He truly did come back from the
grave. But there are some that also
seen this, but they have already fallen asleep. Look at verse
18. It says, then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Okay, so here again,
we see the word asleep used for those who are falling asleep
in Christ, who are dead in Christ and died in Christ. Look at verse
51. It says, behold, I show you a
mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. Okay? Not all of us are gonna
sleep. Not all of us are gonna have
to experience death. Now, the Bible does say it's
appointed unto man wants to die, okay? It's appointed unto man
wants to die, and after that, the judgment, okay? The Bible
does say that, and that is not any contradiction to what's being
said here. It's appointed unto man wants to die. That is talking
about that this man dies one time. These stories that we hear
about people that have died and gone and seen the Lord and all
this stuff and then come back and everything, that's fairytale. Okay, that's fairytale stuff. We know of people that have died
that the Lord has resurrected and brought back to life. We
know in the Old Testament, there was some, that the prophet raised
back to life, that in the New Testament, that Jesus raised
some people to life. Lazarus and a young girl that
the Lord raised to life. And we see that there were many
who was raised back to life whenever Jesus was crucified and they
were resurrected. But yet there is a death that
is gonna come, that there is appointed for man that he will
die and he will stay dead. But then there will be the resurrection.
There is going to be a coming of Christ at that resurrection. And it says here, We shall not
all sleep. That means that there are gonna
be some who are still alive in Christ whenever Christ comes.
That there isn't gonna be this natural death of all mankind
and then after everyone has died off, then Christ is gonna judge
us, then Christ is gonna come. No, Christ is gonna come and
interrupt life as we know it and come back, okay? There's other passages that tells
us but I don't want to dwell on that today. 2 Peter 3, if
you would. 2 Peter 3. The whole letter of 2 Peter is
written for the purpose of giving hope and assurance to those who
are waiting upon the Lord. 2 Peter 3. Look with me at verse 1. And
saying, where is the promise of His coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of creation. So here again, we see that the
word asleep is used to talk about those who have died, and here
particularly, we're talking about those in the Old Testament that
have died. Look, if you would, at John chapter 11. It speaks
of Lazarus, whenever Lazarus died, before the Lord resurrected
him. John chapter 11, look with me
if you would, verse 11. It says, these things said he,
and after that, he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth,
but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. So here we see
two times the word sleep is used to refer to death. And then if
you would, Acts chapter 13. in verse 36, Acts 13 in verse
36. It says, for David, after he
had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep
and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption. Okay, so
now that passage in 2 Peter that we read that talked about the
fathers had fallen asleep, well, here we go. This is what it's
talking about. and all those before him, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
the fathers that have died in faith, that have died in Christ
Jesus, the Bible says that they are asleep, and that is talking
about death here. And so back to our passage in
1 Thessalonians. It says, but I would not have
you to be eager, brethren, concerning them which are dead, or which
have died, that she sorrow not even as others which have no
hope. Now we use that phrase a lot,
especially during funeral times, right? Matter of fact, this is
one of those passages that most preachers preach at funerals. But look at this, at this phrase,
it says that we are to sorrow not even as others which have
no hope. Why is the Holy Spirit telling
us that in reference to people who are falling asleep in Christ?
It's telling us that ye sorrow not, even as others which have
no hope. There's gonna be a sorrow that
we have. Whenever someone dies, we truly are saddened by that.
We grieve over that and we sorrow over that. But yet the Bible
tells us that in your sorrowing, do not sorrow like those who
don't have hope. See, for the Christian, we have
hope. that this person in Christ Jesus
that has fell asleep in Christ, there is the hope that Christ
has given us that, what we are fixing to read, that they will
be raised to life again, that they will be caught up with the
Lord, that we will one day see them again as we are caught up
with the Lord. So we have been given a hope
by God, a promise by God, that these loved ones who have died
in Christ, those who have been converted of the gospel, have
repented of false works, have turned to Christ Jesus, trusting
Him as their only righteousness, believing the true gospel of
Jesus Christ, these people that have been given faith in the
new birth to trust these things are given a hope. For all my
people, for all my sheep, for all the elect of God, there is
hope that this is not the end for you. The end for you is to
be with me. Now, what about this word hope? This word hope is used in several
different ways in the New Testament, several different ways in the
New Testament. Matter of fact, whenever I was studying this
word, I came up with several ways that we could define the
word hope and how that word is used throughout scripture. The
word hope is used in reference to the man, Jesus Christ, that
he is our hope. The word is used in an earnest
expectation of something that is going to happen in the end. The word hope is also something
that is an inward testimony of the spirit of God that is given
to us to keep us trusting in the Lord until the day. The Bible
says, calls it the hope of assurance that we are given hope of assurance
by the Spirit of God, that that's a hope. And whenever we say hope
in the Christian context, in the child of grace context, this
hope isn't a hope so. Well, I hope that's gonna happen.
You know, whenever my kids were little,
they'll remember this. Well, even today, it happens. But we'll be outside on our porch
or in the yard or whatever, And then we'll hear down the road. And what do we know? The ice
cream man is in the neighborhood. Well, my kids would get excited.
The ice cream man's coming, the ice cream man's coming. Can we
have some money? Can we get some ice cream? They had a hope that
they were out there waiting, hoping he would come down in
front of our house. Okay. Well, that hope is a, I
hope so. I hope it happens, but they didn't
know. They didn't know for sure. I
mean, he could have just been circling in another neighborhood and take
off and go somewhere else. They didn't know. It was a hope
so. But there was an earnest expectation. They were earnestly
expecting that guy to come down. But it was a maybe so. He might
or he might not. To the Christian, hope that is
given to us is not a maybe so, but a it's gonna happen so. And
so we have a hope based upon promises. We have a hope based
upon the very Word of God. See, whenever Christ tells us
that you will not all sleep, but that you will be raised,
that's a promise. And so our hope is in that, not
in anything that we do. Our hope is in Him saying and
being true to what He said. Our hope is in what is told as
a fact that is going to happen. And so our hope is solidified
by the Holy Spirit who bears witness with our spirit that
we are Christ Jesus's, and that being Christ Jesus, that he will
not forsake any of his own, that he will not leave us, that he
will not forsake us, that he will not miss any that the Father
has given him, but all will come to him. And he said that all
that come to me, I will no wise cast out, but I will raise them
up at the last day. Matter of fact, let's look at
that real quick so you don't think I'm just a joker on that. Look
in John chapter six, if you would. John chapter six. Look at verse 37. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And to him that cometh to
me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. See,
he came to fulfill the will of the father, and he did fulfill
the will of the father. And this is the father's will,
which has sent me. Okay, now how many in here believe
that God's will is gonna be done? Now, I remember in my past, I
used to say that, you know, well, that wasn't God's will. Well,
that wasn't God's will, man, I'm out of God's will. There's
no such thing as anything being out of God's will. There's things
that's being against the word of God. There are things that
are against the commands of God, but there's not ever anything
that's out of the will of God, okay? That's a wrong precept
that many people have, is that there can be something happen
out of the will of God. If anything happens out of the
will of God, then God is no longer sovereign in that area. Okay? God says he will do all his will,
that he does all things according to the counsel of his will. Okay? That his will cannot be thwarted.
It cannot be broken. All right? So there is no such
thing as being out of the will of God. There is sin. Okay? There
is being in the transgression. There is transgressing the law
of God. There is disobedience. There is rebellion. Yes, there
is those things. but that is not out of the will
of God, for God has determined all those things as well. So, Jesus came down and He said,
this is the will of, this is the Father's will which hath
sent me, that all which He hath given me, all, not one, will
be lost. that all which he had given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the, what? Last day. There's where our hope
is. Our hope is in that promise.
Our hope is in the promise that Jesus said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. I hope in that. I hope in that. Not a maybe so hope, but a truly
that's gonna happen. That's my hope. My hope is that
Jesus is gonna do all that He said, all that the Father gave
me, He's gonna do the work that's gonna solidify the fact that
they're gonna come to me, and whenever they come to me, which
they will, because they cannot not come to me, because The Father
has given them to me, I have died for them, and I'm sending
the Spirit to apply all that I did for them to them, so there's
no way that they cannot come to me, because I will take out
the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. I will put
a new Spirit in them and cause them to walk in my statutes. I will, by my power, make them
willing, okay? So there is no way that it's
not gonna happen, okay? So all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and all that come unto me I will in no
wise cast out. That's why we don't sorrow as
others who have no hope. Because if they have died in
Christ, if they have died believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, if
they have died as a child of grace, then the promise is they
will not be cast out, but they will be raised up at the last
day. we will be with them again and see them again at the last
day. They will be among all those who are raised up. That is the
hope that we're talking about. We don't sorrow as those who
have no hope. Those who do not have that hope,
inward hope of God, they're afraid of death. They're afraid of what's
on the other side because they don't know that they don't have
that inward testimony of what's gonna happen. And so they're
fearful of death. Listen, brethren, I don't wanna
die. You know, I like living. But I'll be honest with you,
and I don't say this facetiously. I don't say this in a blasphemous
way before God or anything like this. I don't have a problem
with dying whatsoever. I have more of a fear of a painful
death or a long, drawn-out death than I have of death itself.
Okay? The Spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we are His, and if we are His, we have the promises
that we will be raised again. And so death isn't a problem
for us. But I will say, you know, I don't
want to be mangled, you know. I don't want to be in a horrible,
long-suffering type death. If I go, I hope the Lord takes
me in a quick, painless, you know, type way. But that's His
business, not mine, okay? Whatever he does is right and
just, so whatever he does, he does. But here we see that this
is the promise, the hope that we have is in the promise of
Jesus Christ. And so whenever we look at that
loved one and dying, it isn't that, oh no, I'm not ever gonna
see her again, or this is the end of the world, or I'm never
gonna, you know, it doesn't get, it doesn't say that it isn't
hard. Okay, all of us in here has lost loved ones. Lori's lost
both of her grandparents. I've lost my grandparents and
other loved ones. Brother Ed's lost his wife. Sister
Louetta's lost her husband. We've lost our loved ones. And
listen, it wasn't easy. Listen, even for those who wasn't
our family, Sister Barb died and whenever Brother Howard died. It was hard for all of us because
we love them and we miss them. We think back to the days whenever
they were with us and how we talked and rejoiced together
whatever, we miss those days. But the Bible has given us a
hope that if they have died in Christ, that they will be raised
again. And so we don't continue in heathenistic
sorrow of it's the end of the world and I cannot go on anymore.
My life is just meaningless and I can't grip with reality and
I can't move on and continue to be of service to the Lord.
We don't have those thoughts. We pray that the spirit keep
us from those thoughts, right? Why? Because we have a hope.
That's why we are to comfort each other with these words.
That's one of the reasons I'm here today, is to comfort you
with these words. Why? So that when those times come, one of
these days I'm gonna die and my children are gonna need that
comfort if they are children of God. They're gonna need that
comfort to know. You're gonna need that comfort
to know. My wife will need that comfort to know whenever I die.
And vice versa. But I'm getting out here first. I'm gonna be like my grandpa.
I'm gonna win at that. Ain't leaving me here by myself. But back to our passage here.
We are not to sorrow even as others who have no hope. Let's
look at a couple places about this word hope. Kind of get another
idea here. 1 Thessalonians there, look back
at chapter two, if you would, verse 13. It says, for this cause
also think we God without ceasing, because when ye received the
word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe. That's in verse
13, okay? So whenever you were born again
and given ears to hear, what does it say? that ye received
the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as
the word of men, but as it is the truth, the word of God, which
the Bible says God cannot lie, right? So if we trust that God's
word is truth, look at verse 19, for what is our hope or joy
or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? You see that, brethren? What is our hope, our joy, or
our crown of rejoicing? It's the fact that we are gonna
be with Jesus Christ and He's coming. Now, if God has said
this to be true, or has said this, we are to know it to be
true, right? We know that He cannot lie, and so He's given
us the promise, and so our hope is in the coming of Jesus Christ.
Our hope is in the fact that His Word has declared to us that
we will be with Him and raised up with Him at the end. So our
hope is not a vain hope, it's not a hope so. And I'm gonna
stop, and I'm gonna say this, and I have some brothers that
I love in Christ, that I believe believe the gospel of Jesus Christ,
so therefore they are brothers in Christ, but I believe they
get some of this wrong. They have a hope so, and they
continue on on this avid thing of saying it's just by hope,
by hope, by hope, and that no man can have assurance. Now,
I will say this. We cannot have assurance based
upon any outward performance. We do not have any assurance
based upon any law keeping, any obedience by any right living,
by any walk. Our assurance is not outwardly,
our assurance is inwardly, but it is definitely given inwardly.
The Bible says that we are given a faith of assurance, or excuse
me, an assurance of faith and an assurance of hope, that we
are given faith that looks to the things that are not seen.
And it grabs those things that are not seen. and it clenches
and holds to those things, that we are given a hope, but it's
not a hope based upon nothing, it's a hope based upon promises,
and the Spirit bears witness to that, thus solidifying hope,
and hope and assurance are basically fused together in one thing.
If you have a hope, you have an assurance. Okay, and our assurance
comes from the hope that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. You
can't divorce those two things. Hope is not just some ethereal
thing out there that would make me think it's gonna happen. No,
it's something that God gives us by the Holy Spirit, and it's
an inward testimony, and it has nothing to do with anything outwardly
we do. And here, we see that our hope
is fed, or our hope is strengthened by God's word. God's word gives
us hope. And when God says it, we can
grasp it and believe it as ours. Look with me if you would to
Titus chapter two. Titus chapter two. Look with
me at verse 13. It says, looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. So here again, we see hope is
tied to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking
for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ. We don't sorrow as those who
have no hope. We have a hope. Jesus Christ
is our hope. His word is our hope. He has
told us that he is coming again. And so we hope for his glorious
returning. A child of grace is going to
have hope. If you don't have hope, if you have a hope so and
not a hope, a true hope that is a hope of assurance that Christ
is yours and that that what he has promised is yours and that
he is coming for you. If you don't have that hope,
then you've probably not been born from above because the Bible
says that he has given us that hope and that the Holy Spirit
bears witness of that and fuels that hope. not only inwardly
but outwardly through the Word of God. Look, if you would, at
Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Look with
me down at verse 11. Hebrews 6 and verse 11. And we
desire that every one of you do show the same diligence, here
it is, to the full assurance of hope unto the end. We desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope. He's
saying continue to serve and minister with the full assurance
of hope that in the end, you're going to be with Christ. That
in the end, that all of this is not going to be in vain. For those who don't believe that
there is an assurance that can be had by the child of grace,
you've missed the work of the Holy Spirit. You've cut out the
work of the Holy Spirit. You're denying the work of the
Holy Spirit to give the child of grace an inward assurance
not based on them, but based upon Christ and based upon His
works and based upon His promises in His Word. Brethren, I preach
to you today a comfort that when Christ says He's coming back
and He is coming back, that we will be with Him. Look at verse
18. Actually, let's back up and look
at verse 15. It says, And so after He had
patiently endured, He obtained the promise. For men verily swear
by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end
of all strife. wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise," so that's us, the heirs of promise
is the children of grace, okay, to the heirs of promise, so God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. Now
listen to what he's saying here, brethren. God was willing to
overabundantly show the children of grace, how serious he was
about how salvation is gonna be effectual for us. It's not
gonna be just an offer. It's not gonna be just an accept
Jesus type thing. It's not gonna be a decision
left up unto the person. That salvation is so solidified
that Christ secured it, he's applying it, and the consummation
of it is coming by his blood. It was his blood that secured
that, But more than that, he gave an oath by himself of his
own name, of his word. God willing more abundantly to
show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel.
What does that mean? That means that His will cannot
change. His will cannot change. That
was His counsel, remember? That word counsel is often used
as the will of God or the purpose of God, the determination of
God. Remember in Acts, the Bible says that by a wicked hand you've
taken Jesus Christ. By the determinant counsel of
God, by the determinant will or the determinant purpose of
God, So God has an immutable purpose or an immutable will. And he confirms that by an oath. Look at verse 18, that by two
immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. So God can't lie, right? So if
he says it, it's gonna come true. If it doesn't come true, then
God lied, okay? Thus God is not God because God
of the Bible is a God that cannot lie. The Armenian God lies. He says that he wills that all
men should perish or not perish, but come to repentance. But yet
all men do not repent and come to Christ. that all men do not
get saved. That God, that Bible, that teaching
is erroneous. That is not the God of Scripture.
The God of Scripture who wills something, it is immutable. That
will is immutable. It cannot change. And he says,
by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. The very fact that God has
told us the truth, that Christ has died for us, applied that
to us, and then will receive us to himself, is something that
he has laid for us to hold onto, to lay hold of. Not to maybe
so, but to hold onto. He set that before us to lay
hold upon that hope. Verse 19, which hope we have
as an anchor of the soul. We have an anchor for the soul.
What does an anchor do? What's the purpose of an anchor?
You all know what an anchor is. What does an anchor do? I grew up over in Oklahoma and
used to go fishing up on the Cimarron River, up around Manford,
Oklahoma. And we'd go, and we'd put out,
and we'd go up the river, and we'd get in this strong current,
okay? And that'd be a good place for
fish, especially whenever, you know, we had a good deep hole
coming through or something. We would get our boat set just
right, and then we would throw out an anchor at the back and
an anchor at the front. And what was that anchor there
for? Keep the boat from moving, right?
To hold the boat steady, to hold it in one place, to keep it being
swayed or moved and pushed downstream. Okay, that's what the anchor
is for. And so here he's saying, that
God has given his word to us and has given an oath by that
word, he has swore, and he has swore by his word that cannot
lie, that this hope that's set before us is to be had. And he
said that hope, that is an anchor for the soul. It keeps us from
swaying and moving back. Am I saved? Am I not saved? or am I not His? Is this mine
or is this not mine? Is this mine? Now, I'm not saying
that there ain't times that we waver and doubt, but the Lord
always brings us back in. The Lord always refreshes our
heart and refreshes our mind, and His mercies are renewed every
morning to us. But I'm talking about those men
who think, well, I don't think I can be. And I just, I'm not
gonna say, I'm not going to say that I have that assurance. I
don't have that assurance, but I have that hope. I have a hope,
but I can't have an assurance. Our assurance is found in the
hope that's laid for our anchoring of a soul. That assurance that
we have comes from the hope that has been given to us that by
two immutable things, God given his word and God swearing by
that word, has given to us, not to mention the very fact that
Jesus secured it all by blood, we now, for our soul, can look
to that and to be an anchor, both sure and steadfast, and
which entereth into that within the veil. Look with me, if you
would, to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1, and look with
me at verse 13. The Bible tells us, wherefore,
gird up the loins of your mind. What does that mean, gird up
the loins of your mind? Be sober and hope to the end
for the grace that is to be brought unto you when? At the revelation
of Jesus Christ. So this hope that we have is
always tied to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So back
in our passage, back in our passage, it says that we are not to sorrow
as those who have no hope. That means that we are not to
sorrow as if there's not a day coming that all is gonna be made
right. We're not to sorrow as if that
person is never gonna see Christ again, that we're never gonna
enjoy fellowship with them again. Why? Because there's the promise
of the resurrection. There's the promise of the second
coming of Christ. Christ is coming back. And so
we might sorrow and grieve for a little while and our heart
hurt because that person is no longer with us because we loved
them and had an attachment in this lifetime to us. But we have
a hope that that will transcend into an even more deeper fellowship. You know that in the resurrection,
whenever the Lord comes again, But the Bible says that they
will not be given any in marriage, that there will be not a husband.
Me and my wife are not gonna be husband and wife. Brother
Ed, whenever he sees Sister Ruth, it's not gonna be his husband
and wife, it's gonna be a brother and sister in Christ. It's gonna
be as a child of grace. Now, we're gonna know each other.
I believe that we're gonna know each other, but we're not gonna
have those ties like we had here. It's gonna be on a level, brethren,
that we have not even ever experienced. We have a little taste of it
now. The Bible says that he has given us his love, shed that
abroad in our heart so that we might love God and love the brethren,
but we love them unperfectly in this body of flesh that cannot
do right, okay? We love them in this body of
flesh that is full of sin. So whenever we love God, we can't
love him perfectly. When we love the brethren, we
can't love them perfectly. But one of these days we are
going to be able to love God and love the brother on a level
that we've never been able to love them before. And so whenever
we get to heaven, it's not going to be, you know, whenever one
of our loved ones dies, we love them in the flesh because we
have that attachment to them. But one of these days we're going
to be with them and it's going to be a relationship that we've
never really experienced on the level that we have before. And
so we have a hope in that. And we have a hope that it's
always gonna be better. It's gonna be better. It's coming
and it's gonna be better. Look at verse 14. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, and if you're a child of grace
and you don't believe that, then you're really not a child of
grace. Because a child of grace believes that Jesus died and
rose again. But 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? Jesus is gonna bring them
with Him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord. So again, the word of the Lord is being said.
This we believe. Why? Why do we believe this?
Because this is by the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord.
Remember Paul, he had mentioned on a couple of occasions, that
the things that was told in the Corinthians and to the Galatians,
he said, you know, the things that I'm teaching you, the things
that I'm relaying to you, conveying to you as a church, these things
wasn't just something that I made up or something that was given
to me by men. No, they were given to me directly by Jesus Christ.
If you remember, after Paul's conversion in his time with Cornelius,
what does the Bible say that he went for what, three and a
half years on the backside of, into Samaria? And during that time, the Lord
taught him all the things that he taught. And this is a side
note. I mentioned this to my friend
J.C. Fulton one time when we were visiting with each other
that something I picked up and reading in the scriptures one
day, you know, the Lord taught the first apostles for three
and a half years before he died. So they had three and a half
years of teaching directly by Jesus Christ. And Paul, who said
that he is the chief of sinners and the least of the apostles,
but yet Paul, he had the same amount of training. Jesus gave
him three and a half years in Samaria. Training. teaching,
just like he did. So Paul had just as much one-on-one
teaching as all the other apostles had, so that in coming side by
side, that he was no lesser than any of the other apostles. Matter
of fact, if you look at it, he was actually greater than the
other apostles in the fact that the Lord used him more mightily,
it seemed, in the writing of the word of God and in the taking
of the gospel throughout the rest of the world. But anyway,
that's just a little tidbit for you, a little nugget there. that
Paul had three and a half years, just like the other guys had
three. So there wasn't no, you know, these guys got more than
he did. No, he got the same amount. But the fact remains is that
Paul said, everything that I'm teaching you came from Jesus.
And so he is going to the word of the Lord. Why is he looking
to the word of God as being his proof that these things are true?
Well, because we just learned that by the word of the Lord,
is given to us a hope for the anchor of the soul. God's oath,
his promise, his word is given to us as a hope for the soul,
okay? So it says, for we say to you
that 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.
That word prevent there doesn't mean to stop, okay? Doesn't mean,
now we are, in our language, prevent means to stop. Okay,
but that word prevent there means not to come first, not to go
before them. Okay, that word, it says, so
it says that we are a lot of men to the coming Lord shall
not go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel,
with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise
first. So they're gonna go first. They're gonna come up first.
Now I heard brother Roy say this in messages a couple of weeks
ago that Why are the dead in Christ getting to rise first
before us? Well, they start to rise first
because they got six feet to go before they get up with us,
you know? So that's why they start going
first. Now, I don't know whether that's
true or not, but anyway, speculation. Y'all can argue in that theological
circles if you want to. But he does say that the dead
in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. But notice
what you see here, what's happening. I tell you what, brother, I think
I will stop here. I was gonna move on, but I noticed
it's now been an hour and a half or so. And I think I'm gonna
stop and go. We've seen the promise or the
hope for those who fall asleep in the Lord and for us who are
remaining But I want us to go over what happens. You know,
talk about this day of the Lord a little bit, and maybe we can
do that next Lord's Day. So I think I'll stop right there.
I meant to go on a little bit, but it's getting late, and it's
getting pretty hot in here, too. So we'll just cut that off. For those who are watching, I
apologize, and tune in next week. But does anybody have any comments
or anything that you'd like to share with that? All right. If that's the case, then let's
bow. Heavenly Father, again, we thank you for the day. And
again, we are excited for the coming of the Son of God. Lord,
we truly look forward to that. We thank you for the word of
God that has given us promise and that we have hope. And Lord, we just thank you so
much for the day that we've had today. We thank you for the time
we've had together. We continue to pray for all of
our members, wherever they be. Lord, we pray for Sister Louetta
and her healing. We ask, Lord, that you might
continue in that, that you might be with her daughters as well,
Lord, that you might bring them back to us in fellowship. Lord,
we pray for those that are around us, Lord, that are still experiencing
things with this sickness that's going on. Lord, we know you're
in control in all of it. We pray that you keep your people
safe in all these riots, as you've promised in your word. And so, Lord, we just thank you
for all that you do and all that you are for us. We ask you now,
Lord, to be with us as we eat this food, that you might nourish
it, our bodies with it, that you might be with us in fellowship
around the table, that it might be honoring to you as well. Of
course, in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.