Before our Scripture reading
this morning, turn with me to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. I want to read just a few verses
from chapter 4, and then my text in chapter 5. Our Lord in chapter 4 is encouraging
these men, comforting these men, doctrine of Christ's resurrection. And he says in verse 16, 1 Thessalonians
4, verse 16, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 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. But of the times and the seasons,
brethren, you 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. It's a lot of theorizing, a lot of quibbling
around about times and seasons. Every time something comes up,
every time a war breaks out, every time something comes up,
somebody says, this is a sign, this is a sign. And he said,
you know that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in
the night. For when they shall say, peace
and safety, then suddenly 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 children of light
and children of the day. We're not of the night nor of
the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as
do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep
sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in
the night. But let us who are of the day
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an
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. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together, and edify one another, even as also you do. And we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the
Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love
for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now
we exhort you, brethren, Warn them that are unruly. Comfort
the feeble-minded. Support the weak. Be patient
toward all men. See that none render evil for
evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among
yourselves and to all men. Rejoice Evermore. Nobody but a believer can do
that. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench
not the spirit. Despise not prophesies. Prove all things. Hold fast that
which is good. Abstain from all appearance of
evil and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also would do it. Pray for us. Greet all the brethren
with a holy kiss. And I charge you by the Lord
that this official be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. I invite you to turn back with
me now 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I'm using for a text verse 11, where
he says, comfort yourselves together. I look around on those of you
who gather here, and knowing some of the things you're dealing
with, I want to do whatever I can whatever is in the realm of possibility
for me to do, to minister to you. At the end of our text,
and in summing up the gist of this letter, in a very few of
his epistles does he say, I want this read. I want it read to all the churches.
I want it read not only here, but I want it read there. I want
everybody to read this epistle. And if you've read it, you understand
why. But at the end of it, in summing
up the gist of his letter, the apostle tells us several things. Here's the first thing. He said,
warn them that are unruly. There's always men and women
who will not submit themselves to God's ordained rule. They're self-ruled. I'll do what
I want to do. Self-willed. They go about their
daily lives doing what they want to do. doing what they reason. Now whatever a man wants to do,
he'll find a way to justify. You are they that justify, you
see. They go about their daily lives
doing what they want to do, doing what they reason to be good and
what their hearts long to do. And I had no comfort whatsoever
to offer to unruly men. No comfort at all, just a warning. He didn't say comfort the unruly,
he said warn the unruly. Warn them. Any man who truly
knows what he is does not want himself in charge of his own
destiny. If you know what you are, man,
you're the last person you want deciding things. Lord, help me. If I must decide something, Lord,
help me to do it right. Help me to make the right decision. That's a man under the rule of
God. Warn them that are unruly. Unruly
about what? About the ways and means of God,
number one. God has ways and means that He
uses. God diviseth means that he might
recover his banished. He has means, he has ways. It has to do with our tenor of
life, about our behavior among men, about our attitude and conduct
in particular. Paul warned the saints of Ephesus
about fornication. That's so common in our day.
It's just acceptable anymore, isn't it? It's just acceptable. Nobody's shocked by it. Unmarital sex is what I'm talking
about. Living together. What they called
when I was a kid, shacking up. Paul warns about it. He warns
about it. It's not for believers. And then
he warns us about uncleanness. Warn the unruly. They need warning. And he warns us about uncleanness.
He's not talking about unwashed hands. He's not talking about
somebody didn't get a shower last night. That's not what he's
talking about. Uncleanness takes in things like sodomy, incest,
and a hundred other things that I don't feel like mentioning
this morning. All unnatural lusts. He warns you about it. Covetousness. What's that? That's an immoderate
desire after worldly things, whatever it is. I want this,
I want that, I want this. And it's immoderate. You know it's called in the scriptures,
idolatry. Idolatry. Covetousness, which
is idolatry. And then he warns us about filthiness. And again, that's not talking
about somebody who's filthy on the outside. What's
he talking about? He's talking about filthy gestures.
Filthy gestures. Filthy behavior, filthy dress,
filthy habits. He warns us about filthiness. Ephesians 5, 6, he says, after
saying these things, listen to what he said. Let no man deceive
you with vain words. For because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. What's he talking
about? The wrath of God. Well, in one
particular way, he's talking about the wrath of God as it
comes in disasters. People want to look at disasters
and call them accidents. Ain't that what they say? Well,
it's just a freak of nature. No. God sent it on purpose. Nature's not in charge of nature.
God is. God is. And he said, don't let men deceive
you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath
of God. When it comes, he said, it comes suddenly. You're not
expecting it. You think a man who comes and
hears the gospel and he's... He's encouraged by these things,
and he begins to see some things, and then you say some things
to him, you give him God's commandments concerning certain things, and
they ignore him. You think he's just going to linger out there
in a vacuum? He says here to want. Want. These things are going to come
on suddenly. They'll come on you suddenly. Oh my soul, disasters, providential
circumstances, ungodly encounters and influence. God's restraining
grace is a grace much overlooked and taken for granted in our
day. I do it, you do it, everybody does it. They overlook that restraining
hand of God. If God lifts his hand of grace
off of his people, this world will swallow you up. I'm telling
you the truth, it'll swallow you up. This'll happen, that'll
happen, this circumstance, this situation, you'll go down the
road to God. And what a spiritual judgment. Oh, what happens when that comes
along? No hunger for worship. Well, it's Sunday. Well, I know,
but I got stuff to do. You go in church today, well,
I'm kind of tired. Huh? Spiritual judgment. No hunger for worship. No appetite
for the gospel. No spirit of prayer. No joy in
salvation. Warn them, he said, that are
unruly. Warn them! It's not right. It's not common. It's not natural
spiritually. Warn them that are unruly. For
this you know. I'm reading this. This is God's
Word. This ain't my ideas. This you know, that no whoremonger,
no unclean person, no covetous man who is an idolater hath any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. We don't. Believers are men and women being
saved from their sins. Does that make sense? Salvation is not an excuse for
sin. It's not an act of God to make
you feel comfortable in your sin, nor encourage you to continue
in it. Paul writes to the church at
Rome and he says, Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. But, are you listening? Alive
unto God. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now listen. Let not sin, therefore, reign
in your mortal bodies, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield yourselves, members,
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God." So what's he saying? You spend much time at the cemetery,
you don't go hang out there, do you? You don't get a chair
and go around a big tree and just sit there in the cemetery.
How come? You ain't got anything in common
with those in the cemetery. You're alive. Are you not? You're alive. They're dead. You're alive. They're not moving.
But you are. They can't do anything about
their condition, but you can. They're in a fixed condition.
You're not. Not yet. Yield yourselves unto
God, now listen, as those that are alive from the dead. You're not dead. You're alive. We're not children of the darkness.
We're not asleep. We're awake. Warn the unruly. Warn them. Don't let them go. Now watch this. Comfort the feeble-minded. Who are they? These are they
whose minds are not strong enough to deal with losses. Carry heavy
burdens. They stagger under persecutions. They're easily overcome with
temptations. So get rid of them. No. No, that's not what you do. You
comfort them. You comfort them. You give them
some encouraging words, some kind and assuring comments. Comfort
the feeble-minded. And then listen to this. Support
the weak. those weak in faith and knowledge. Paul said to the Roman saints,
we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the
weak. Help him, carry his burden, hold him up in prayer. And what
this is talking about is the same as a man going on a forced
march, going on a forced journey like they were out there in the
wilderness, and they're going to who knows where. They don't
know yet, but they're going. And here's a weak brother and
he's stumbling, he can't carry what... Let me have it. I'll
carry it for a while. I'll carry it for a while. Now spiritually, you do the same
thing. The weak, you help them carry their burden. Support the weak. And then he
says this, be patient toward all men. Hard to do, ain't it? Where does
patience come from? Patience is something you just
reach up on the shelf like you do in the pantry. I need this
seasoning, so I reach up and get it. Where does patience come
from? Tribulation, he said, work of
patience. Trouble. Trouble. And patience, experience. And
experience, hope. God delivering you out of trouble,
the love of God, He said, brought in your heart. He manifests His love in a special
way to you and He leaves us with an experience that makes us patient. Be patient, keep encouraging,
keep ministering, keep praying for, keep helping, be patient. And then James said this, the
trying of your faith worketh patience. God tries. Don't. He puts it through the
fire. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be
perfect, and entire wantonness. Now be patient. Be patient. Now here's my text. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse
11. Is anybody here not convicted
of the things that I've talked about? All my soul, either in
your mind, in your heart, or actually guilty of it. Everybody
in this place. Here's my text, 1 Thessalonians
5.11. Wherefore, wherefore, comfort
yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you
do. Paul said, I know this is your
practice, but I'm telling you to do it anyway. Comfort yourselves together.
The term together suggests to me the assembling of ourselves
together. Together, not apart, but together. Don't go in your closet. Come
together. It suggests an assembly. The
people of God are with like precious faith. They come together on
the first day of the week. That's when the church met in
the book of Acts, on the first day of the week. They gathered
themselves in one place where God has chosen to raise up a
church, wherever it was. And they were anticipating the
coming together of the saints, excited over the prospect of
God speaking to them. Excited over the prospect of
the revelation of God to them. Of a good hope. Not a hope, a
hope, a hope, but a good hope through grace. Together suggests to me an assembly,
and it suggests to me a holy union. We are together. One fellow
said one time, I was listening to him preach, and he said, when
you get folks together, it's hard to get them together. That
ought not to be. That ought not to be. We're one
mind, aren't we? We have the mind of Christ. Is
the mind of Christ different to me than it is to you? Same
mind, ain't it? Same mind. He said they're just one body.
One church. Christ's body, the church. They're
just one body. They're just one spirit. One
spirit revealing the things of God to us. One spirit. Not a bunch of revelations. One
revelation. God's spirit reveals Christ to
us. When He comes, He's not going to talk about Himself. He's going
to talk about Christ. He's going to take the things
of mine, Christ said, and He's going to show them unto you.
They're just one spirit. They're just one hope if you
call it. Christ in you, that's the hope of glory, ain't it?
Just one hope. They're just one Lord. One Lord
in charge of all things. All power in heaven and earth
given unto me. You go pray. Just one Lord. Just one faith. Face like spokes
in a wheel. No it ain't. Ain't nothing like
spokes in a wheel. It's just one thing. Isn't it? Just one thing. One baptism. There's all kinds
of baptisms. One kind you take this little
glass and you put your fingers in it and you sprinkle. One kind
you take this little vessel and you pour it on them. You pour
it over their heads. One kind baptizes babies, sprinkles
them. Another baptism is when you're
buried under the water. That's a baptism I believe in,
one baptism. We're either buried with Christ
or we're not buried at all. Isn't that what it says in Romans
chapter 6? If you want to understand baptism,
read Romans chapter 6. Buried with him in baptism, that
like as he was buried, he was buried. He was put, the stone
rolled up, he covered up, he wasn't sprinkled. He was buried, and we're buried
with him in baptism, and raised with him. Oh, my soul. They assemble themselves together,
they are of one mind, and being assembled they are to comfort
themselves together. And that is as one body, as an
assembly together before God. Well, how? How are we going to
comfort one another? Well, he said edify one another. Edify. What's that mean? That means to instruct and improve. How? Well, he tells us in Ephesians
4 verse 12, as he ascended up into glory,
the same one who descended accomplished his work. And now he ascends
up into glory and he left some gifts. He left some apostles
and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastor teachers. Why? Why? For the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, now listen, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. Instruct and improve. That's what I hope for. And the chief end of our assembling
together is to be edified. Edification is at the chief end
of worship. Did you know that? You can't
just sing a song because it has a nice tune. If the song is not
glorifying to God and people are not edified, then there's
no point in singing it. Is that right? It's edification. If we're edified,
we'll worship God. If we're edified, we'll be comforted.
If we're edified, we'll grow in faith and knowledge of Christ.
And we'll go home instructed and improved. And that's my hope
for us this morning. If you look back at the last
verse in 1 Thessalonians 4, you'll notice that he says something
in particular about this edification. He said, comfort one another
with these words. It doesn't come by much speaking.
You come over here and hug your brother and say, hope you're
edified. Well, you haven't done anything
to edify him. You have to edify him. You have
to give him some instruction. You have to talk about these
things. comfort one another with these
words. What words? Words of salvation. Salvation in Christ, victory
over sin, deliverance from the power of Satan, hope of eternal
life, and all of these things declared plainly by the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what can I say to you this
morning that we all might go home edified? that we all might
go home comforted. Well, let me give you five things
very quickly. First of all, let me comfort
your hearts and minds concerning the purpose and will of God.
Oh, I tell you God's eternal counsel and will. When I first
realized that God had an eternal counsel, how I was overwhelmed,
just overwhelmed. All of these things I've been
told were just circumstantial. They weren't circumstantial.
God had an eternal will and counsel and he's been going about doing
it, creation, just a part of it. When Paul began to talk about
just the Jews, his own people, he was talking about his people
and talking about the Gentiles to whom he was sent. And he was
trying to show you God's purpose in all these things. And as he
was doing it, all of a sudden, he just broke out. He couldn't
stand it anymore. And he said, oh, the depth of
riches, both of wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past, find him out. Can thou by searching
find out God? That's what it says over in Job
11. Can you find out that? Can you just... I'm going to
find out who God is. Can you? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It's higher than heaven. What canst thou do? Deeper than
hell, what canst thou know? There's no comfort in simply
knowing God has a will and counsel or even in the knowledge that
His will shall be done. There's no comfort in just knowing
that God's going to save a people. The comfort offered in the will
of God is concerning you. That's what I want to know. What's
God's counsel concerning me? Now He's God, He's going to do
what He will. If He says He's going to save the people, He's
going to save them. But that don't comfort me. Where do I
fit in? You see what I'm saying? Comfort only comes from knowing
His will concerning you. Look with me at verse 9 of our
text. What a thing to say. Now Paul
knew these people or he couldn't write this. And listen to what
he said, for God hath not appointed us to wrath. Boy, that'd be good
to know, wouldn't it? Huh? He's not appointed me to
wrath. How'd I know that? He sent me a preacher. Huh? He sent His Spirit with
that preacher. And His Spirit awakened me to
truth and understanding and knowledge and trust in Christ. God has
not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation, to have
it in your grasp. Salvation. Are you one upon whom God has
chosen to save? Are you one whose name has been
written in the Lamb's Book of Life? There are those appointed
by the will of God to such an end. The Bible talks about it.
Paul said to Timothy, God has saved us. He just keeps talking
about us, us, us. He saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Well, how do I know my part in
this? Because God hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will. Our Lord said over in John chapter
6, he said, I came down from heaven. Now, he first said this,
all that the Father hath given me is going to come to me, and
him that comes to me I will no wise cast out. For, he said,
I come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will
of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. And, you
ever read that next verse? And, O my soul, this is the will
of God, every one that seeth the sun, and believeth on him
shall have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at the
last day. Every man that comes to a spiritual
understanding of God's will to save a people in Christ and trust
in Christ will obtain an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. That's what he says in the verse
following, having abounded toward us in our wisdom and prudence.
Making us to understand that God is gathering all things that
was given to Christ. He's gathering them all together
in Christ. That's what he's doing. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestined. Everything required of them was
provided in Christ, accomplished in Christ, secured in Christ,
who now sits at the right hand of God, expecting his enemies
to be made his footstool. Salvation of the Lord. God hath
not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. That ought
to bring comfort. And then secondly, I comfort
your hearts and minds this morning that God's sovereign purpose
and will to save a people by our Lord Jesus Christ, last sentence
in verse 9, by our Lord Jesus Christ. By Him. The real comfort and
security of divine election and predestination is that it's brought
to pass through the person of Christ. Take Christ out of that
election zone. Don't offer much peace. One mediator between God and
me and the man Christ Jesus. Christ is the surety. There's
an everlasting covenant of grace. The blood he shed on the cross
is the blood of the everlasting covenant. And he's the surety
of the everlasting covenant. Whatever that covenant demands,
he provides. He's the surety. Everything God has willed to
be is fixed in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You're complete in Him.
Not hinged upon your will, but upon His. Not riding on your
sufficiency, but on Him. In Him. In Him. And redemption is the accomplished
work of Christ. Righteousness is the accomplished
work of Christ. Forgiveness of sins is the accomplished
work of Christ. He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame in Him. In Him. Secured in the love of
God. brought into a holy union with
the Son of God. God has not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Take Christ
out of the equation and you're left with an empty sack. That's
all you got. Empty sack. And boy, there's
a lot going around with the sack. It's all rolled up. You can't
look in it. They just talk about it. Experts on predestination. Experts on election. Experts
on all these things. The resurrection. Ask them about
anything. Man, they'd go on for hours, dissertations, talking
about this and that. One meeting I went to, a guy,
we was to talk on the work of the Holy Spirit. That was going
to be the theme of the conference. When he got up to preach, he
went over there and flipped the first page back on this big,
great big old thing of paper. And he had a graph on there.
And he starts telling us all, I've never seen a board in all
my life. Empty sack. You take Christ out
of it, that's all you got. You got an empty sack. Well, how does a person get in
Christ? That's a good question, ain't
it? Well here it is, 1 Corinthians
1 verse 30. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus. You can't get in Christ. You
can't get saved. Salvation is in Christ. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, Righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That according as it's written,
he that gloweth, let him glow in the light. Thirdly, I can
comfort you in whatever circumstance and situation you're in. I don't
care what it is. We know. And now what Paul says,
we know. Now you're going to have to read
the first seven chapters of Romans to understand what he's talking
about here. He's already laid the foundation.
He's already made the declaration. Now he's summing it up. And we
know that all things... Is he leaving anything out? No. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. Everything may not be good in
itself, But God has a good design in allowing it to come your way,
and it's working for your good and His glory. You see, things
aren't on a, like a, I don't know, this world,
the way they believe is that all circumstances and situations
It's like a big stream and it's just running. It's just going
where it goes over its bikes here and goes over there and
goes over here and you can't predict it. That ain't so. God rules in providence. He could have saved Pharaoh as
easily as he could have saved Moses. All things work together for
good. Always. Pain and suffering are not good
in themselves, but they work in us and teach us about having
compassion on other suffering things. Listen to this. Paul said, God comforteth us
in all tribulation, trouble, that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. That's what I let you go through. Listen to this one, 1 Corinthians
10, 13. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common with man. But God is faithful. Who is? God is. God is faithful who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to bear, but
will with the temptation make a way of escape. My friend, be comforted to know
that Christ said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake
you. Oh, when you get in over your
head, when you get up to your eyeballs in temptation, when
it seems like there's nobody there, Lord, here I am. I'm left here alone. You're not
alone. You're not alone. Well, I feel
alone, yeah, but it's just a feeling. It's just a feeling. He said,
I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you. And I'll never forsake you. And
then, fourthly, Paul reminds us here to be comforted in the
knowledge that God has sent a man to minister to you and tell you
the truth. A servant of God, tied in with
the edifying that gives these godly comforts. He beseeches
them, or us, to know them which labor among them, and are over
them in the Lord, and admonish you in the Lord, and to esteem
them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at
peace among yourselves. Quit fighting. What you got to fight about?
My soul, He saved us by His grace. We have a high priest in heaven
Satan can't touch, this world can't touch, he's successful,
he's already accomplished, he has salvation in his hand. He
talks about us sitting with him in the heavens. What we got to
fight about? Huh? Foolishness, that's what. And I thank, he said, and I thank
God. I thank God for you. I tell you, I look back on my
past. I thank God that when I met Henry Mahan, God gave me a sense
of his being God's ambassador to me. My nephew asked me one time,
he said, I'm not going to church all my life. He said, at least
your daddy went to church. He said, mine didn't. And he
said, how somebody like me to know where to go, who to believe? That's a pretty good question,
ain't it? And here's what I told him after
I thought about it a while. You never will. You never will
unless God tells you. You never will. Unless God gives
you a sense and leads you to a man and gives you an understanding
of what that man's saying, you never will. We are God, John wrote, and he
that knoweth God hears us. The world don't hear us, but
he that's of God does. And this is how you know the
spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And it's a great comfort
to know that God has sent someone your way who's interested in
you and willing to give himself completely to minister to you
the things of God. They're not as many as you might
think. No, they're not. In fact, I'd
say they're very few. And if you find one, like Paul
said, you better love him, better support him, take care of him.
What we're talking about? We're talking
about edification, edifying, understanding. Comfort concerning the eternal
appointments of God. Comfort in the accomplished work
of Christ. Comfort concerning every circumstance
and situation that comes your way. Comfort as to this one who
stands before you and talking to you this morning. Comfort.
Are you comfortable? You will be if you believe I'm
sin of God. You're comfortable. You're comfortable. And then lastly, concerning this
death that we must die, I'm rapidly approaching the age where all
my brothers and sisters begin to have trouble. Diabetes and
cancer and heart trouble and strokes and on and on the list
goes. And I have no comfort in knowing
that, but a great comfort knowing I have a good hope through grace. Verse 10. Talking about Christ, he said,
who died for us. Now watch this. Whether we wake
or sleep, whether we're alive and moving around or dead in
the ground, whether we're alive or asleep, we should live together
with him. The same apostle said for me
to live is Christ. He's my hope, my salvation, my
substitute, my reason of being, my representative. And to die
is gain. Boy, that life is life, isn't
it? But to die is gain. To die as a believer is to move
from hope to reality, from desire to fulfillment. This mortal must
put on immortality. You couldn't stand heaven. in your present state. You couldn't. You can't hardly stand an hour's
worth of preaching. What are you going to do in glory
where everything testifies to Christ? You couldn't stand it
in this body. This mortal must put on immortality. And when he does, he'll shout
with all the redeemed in glory, oh, death. Where does that stand? That thing I've dreaded my whole
life. Where is the sting? It ain't
there. Old grave, where is the victory? Oh, he said the dead in Christ,
those that are already dead, the dead in Christ are going
to rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
should 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. Now here's everlasting comfort.
It's the last word of comfort to you this morning. To be with
the Lord forever. Forever. No more sin. No more sickness. He said not
even the sun is going to shine like that. No heat. No heat. Christ is the light of glory.
Be all the light we need. Don't need no sun. Don't need
no moon. Don't need no star. He is Christ. He is Christ. Oh, may God give
us a sense of these things for Christ. Thank you.