I invite you this morning to
take your Bibles and turn back with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter
4. The Christian faith. I don't
think that's a word we need to shy from, that word Christian.
It's no different than any other word in the Bible, redemption,
salvation, or anything else. It's all, all these terms have
been misused and misrepresented in this world. And because they're
misrepresented don't mean that we can't represent them in their
proper light. So I use that term freely. The
Christian faith, the faith of God's elect, is based entirely
on the Word of God. Entirely on the Word of God. Let that sink in. Entirely on
the Word of God. and things which no man can or
has seen." Nobody's seen Him. Nobody's seen
Him. The Scripture says in John chapter
1 verse 18, no man hath seen God at any time. Isn't that what
that says? No man. Do you believe there
is a God? Why? Why? I have only this book. I have
only the testimony of a man called of God who testifies that God
is. In the beginning, God. That's
what Moses pinned down under the inspiration of God. In the
beginning, God. I've never seen him. You've never
seen him. Moses didn't see him. Nobody's seen him. No man has
seen God at any time. And yet all my hopes and everything
that I have to say and the power behind it depends on a God that
I've never seen. You see where I'm coming from?
The faith of God's elect, the Christian faith, When we talk
about those who believe, it's based entirely on the Word of
God. I don't have anything. And it's
based on things that I've never seen. Creation. It says in this book, through
faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word
of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear. Now that pretty much shoots down
every theory and conjecture that man has ever made. Right there. What do I base that on? I base
that on the Word of God. On the Word of God. The Lord
said to Job, Job was getting a little high-minded, getting
a little aggravated toward his friends. And he began to preach
down to them a little bit. And God spoke. He let it go on
for a while. And then God spoke. Now evidently
Job's friends were believers too. Because God had Job to go
make sacrifice for his friends. But the Lord said this to Job.
He said, gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand
of you, and you answer me. I'm going to ask you something,
and now you answer. You answer. Where were you when
I laid the foundations of the world? Huh? Where were you? Declare if you have understanding.
Who laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched
the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
fastened? And who laid the cornerstone?
Anybody here see any of that? Uh-uh. No. No, that's God. That's God. No man's seen this.
No man's seen this. Man rattles on and on with his
theories and conjectures, supposing this and speculating that. But
the truth of the matter is that only God was there and he alone
can testify as to its origin and purpose. Prophecy. Whose eye saw the spirit
of the living God breathing through those who wrote the book? Huh? Stephen told Israel, he said,
you stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart and ears, you do always
resist the Holy Ghost. You gave no regard to the fact
that the Holy Ghost spoke through Isaiah, and spoke through Moses,
and spoke through David, and spoke through Jeremiah. Anybody see that? 2 Peter 1 verse 21 says, Prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God breathed through them,
John. He breathed their emotions, and
their character, and their mind, and His will. Paul at the same
time through their writings. If you read the writings of the
Apostle Paul, you don't need some kind of scientific fact
to prove to you that the book of Hebrews was written by the
Apostle Paul. Anybody can see his character
in that book. His writings are different from
that of Peter. James' writings is different
from those, too. And John's writings are different.
Now, they all tell the same story, but they're very character. It
comes through into the writing. And that's what he's saying here.
Paul told Timothy, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it's profitable for doctrine,
reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. That the man
of faith, that man of God, may be complete, throughly furnished
unto all good works. And preaching. Preaching. Anybody here able to see the
work of God in a man that enables him to speak for God? I tell
you, you better be careful. You better be careful about pointing
your finger at a preacher and saying, that man don't know God.
You better be careful. You can't see that. You can't
see that. As far as I know, I've never
been transfigured. I've never been walking around
and all of a sudden my garments become white and blistering.
I've never been transfigured. I've never come out of my study
with my face shining so bright with the glory of God that Kathy
had to put a veil on me. I've never experienced anything
like that. And I've never had an out-of-body experience like
Paul who was caught up. He said, I don't know if I was
in the body or out of the body. But he said, I caught up, nevertheless,
to the third heaven. I've never had that. I don't
know anything about that. And I've never been endowed with
supernatural gifts to do miracles and speak in foreign languages
and raise the dead and cast out demons. I don't have any of them. That which qualifies me as a
preacher is an inward, invisible work that can only be known by
the message I preach. The only evidence there is. That's
what John said. If they don't bring this message,
don't let them in your house. Don't bid them God's people. It's the message I preach, the
effects of that preaching, and the providence that attends my
way. God never called a man that he
didn't open the door. He opens the door. That man to
which doors have never been opened, not called of God. That's just
the way it is. Just the way it is. And regeneration. Our Lord said, the wind bloweth
where it lifteth. You can't tell where it come
from or where it's going. So was everybody born of God.
You see what I'm saying? These things are based on the
Word of God. And unbelievers, worldly men,
I've sat down with them and talked to them and they say, now wait
a minute, now wait a minute, you're saying God come inside
you and did a work in you and revealed his son in you and all
these things. I can't see that. You expect
me to believe that? No, I expect you to believe God.
Well, you mean you think this book here is written by God? Yes, sir, I do. I do. I think he's the author. I know
men wrote the book. I'm telling you, there's infallible
proofs within the book if you read it and study it. It's unlike
any other book that ever was. I believe we do harm to ourselves
when we try to determine who is and who isn't safe. We're
not qualified for the work. The Lord plainly tells us that
Satan has sowed tares with the wheat. Ain't that what the Lord
said? He sowed tares with the wheat. Now He said, don't you
get in there pulling tares. You uproot the wheat. What did
He tell us to do? Let them grow together. Ain't
that what He said? Let them grow together. I'm not
going to go around here putting stickers on your head and saying,
You know, this man knows God, but this fellow here, he don't
know God. So I'm going to talk to this
one, but I ain't going to talk to that one. I'm not going to go around
here and do that. I'm going to let you grow together. And he
who knows the hearts of men, the reaper, when he comes, he'll
separate. He'll separate the wheat from
the tares. And he said, I'll take the tares
and bind them up and burn them. And all my wheat, I'll gather
into my barn. He will. Not me. Paul said to his own master,
he standeth and falleth. Christian faith stands completely
on the integrity of the Word of God, believing those things
which we've never seen, ever seen. Till the Spirit of God shuts
a man up to the testimony of God, I've got nothing for him. I can't talk to him. I can't
reason with him. I can't sit down and show him
the things of God till God shuts him up to this book. I'm telling you, that's the experience
of every man called of God. God will somehow show him that
the testimonies of men are fickle and they change and one century
they believe this and the next century they believe something
else and he'll start looking at his own experience and his
own background and pretty soon he'll come to find out that nobody
knows what they're talking about. The only one who knows what he's
talking about is the one who wrote this book. Wrote this book. The Spirit of God shuts a man
up. I've got nothing for him. I can't reason with him. I can't
correct him. I can't give him any hope. But
if the Lord does shut him up, if He does shut him up and set
him down, and shut him up to His Word, I've got volumes to
say to him. I've got volumes. Now, I said
all that to say this. In 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 18,
He said, Wherefore comfort one another, with these words. Isn't that what he says? With these words. I'll come to your house when
you're hurting, when you're mourning, when you're passing through the
trial and trouble. You call me up and tell me you're
troubled. I'll come to your house. I'll
sympathize with you. I'll give you my ear. But in
the end, The only comfort I can give you is in this book. Comfort one another, Paul said,
with these words. With these words. And this is
the very reason Paul gives in chapter 1 of this epistle as
to why he believed these people were God's elect. He came not
unto them in word only. It's just not another book of
words. It's God's book. And it has that
impact on that man. That man understands these things
are of God. We don't read these things and
preach these things and hear these things and go out of here
unaffected. You either go out of here on
your way down or on your way up. One or the other. On your
way to Christ or away from Him. One or the other. This is the
Word of God and it will not, he said, return unto me void.
It's the Word of God. Those whose hearts have been
renewed, those whose hearts have been wounded and healed, those
with whom God the Spirit has reasoned and convicted and convinced
of sin and righteousness and judgment, they're moved by the
Word of God. Aren't you? I may not understand
everything in this book, but when God gives it to me and I
do understand it, I move by it. I don't just sit there and say,
huh, all right. Put that over on the bulletin
board. Maybe I can remember that. No, no, no, no. God come to Noah
and he said, I'm going to bury this world in a wall of water. You reckon he was moved? What it says over in Hebrews
chapter 11, Noah moved. What did he move at? He moved
at the Word of God. Moved. Now the natural man, he
needs evidences. He don't believe God. He needs
evidence. He needs signs. The natural man
will not take God at His Word. I don't care if he's religious
or not. I don't care if he's a preacher or a drunk. It don't
make any difference. You come up to him with this
book, and he says, well, you know, I just believe God will
save them old heathens over there in Africa some other way than
the preaching of the gospel. And so you turn over to I Corinthians
chapter 1. It says here that it pleased
God through the foolish. I know, but I'm telling you,
and he'll start in. He won't bow to the Word of God.
Won't bow to the Word of God. You write it off to his hard-headedness
or whatever you want to write it off to, the bottom line is
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
That foolishness to him. But to those whose hearts have
been renewed, whose hearts have been wounded and healed, they're
moved by the Word of God. The natural man, he fills his
hopes with signs and he fills his hopes with feelings and experiences. Natural men fill their churches
and the churchyard with symbols and visual aids. They're not
moved by the Word of God. They've got no confidence in
the reign of Christ or in His callings and gifts to the church.
But they look to seminaries. They look to seminaries. Somebody
come in here and heard me a while back, probably a year or so back.
Said, where'd he go, Scoot? Huh? They look to seminaries. They
look for degrees and organizational approval. God's people believe
God. Do you believe that? Do you believe
God calls a man to preach, arranges his providence, calls his people,
presents them before one another, and does his work in their heart
through the preaching of a man? Do you believe that? That's what
God's Word says. Now you've either got to believe
God or throw it to the wind. This is so. Natural religion,
natural man, he won't have that. But to the person who's not too
proud to be taught, not too rebellious to listen, to that person who's
been shut up to Christ and finds himself wholly dependent on him.
Some of you in here know what I'm talking about. Some of you
don't. God shut me up. He shut my mouth. He took away
my excuses. He put me in the seat. And I
crawled into the church and sat back in the back and opened my
ears and waited for a word from God, knowing that if He didn't
speak to me, I was sure for hell as if I was already there. I
understood that. Do you understand that? I tried. Oh, to that person who has been
shut up to Christ and finds himself wholly dependent on Him, to that
soul drawn by the Father in sovereign purpose and love, God has comforting
words. They are all comforting to him. My friend, this life is no more
than a vapor. Yesterday I was in my teens. wanting to drive. Oh, I'll be
glad when I get 16 so I can get my license and drive. Oh, I'll
be glad when I'm 18. Oh, I'll be glad when I'm 21.
Next thing I know, I'm 60. What happened? It's just a vapor
in there. Just a vapor. It's gone. It's
here for a second and gone. And all those things that were
so important. I mean, I lived every day for
it. One more day, one more week, one more year, I can do this,
I can have this, I can be that, I can do this. It's gone. Gone. It's no more than a vapor. We're
here for a brief moment and then go out into eternity. We're living,
no matter how you want to look at it, we're living in the last
days. These are the last days of our
lives and I know for sure the last days of God. Are you going to get all prophetic
on this preacher? Well, a little bit, maybe. But
I'll tell you this, he said one time, once, in the end of the
world, ain't that what he said? He appeared. In the end of the
world. Not at the beginning, in the
end of the world. How long is that age going to
last? I don't know. I don't know. But we're living in the last
days. These are my last days on this earth. And there is not
a bit of difference Not a bit of difference than that in the
end of time. Either way, you're going to go to your long home.
Either way. Nothing's going to change. Nothing's
going to change. We're living in those last days.
The scripture says this. We're running headlong toward
the end of the world and judgment and every little trifling thing
seems to take precedence over these things that are valuable
and these things that's going to help you to know something
about eternity. We're running headlong toward
these things. For those of you who are now walking in the light
of Christ and walking in the faith of God's elect, moved by
the Word of God, taught by the Word of God, I've got five things
to say to you this morning that ought to comfort you concerning
this second coming of Christ. Or you're going out to meet Him
any way you want to look at it. It's brief. It's so short a time. You know, once you die, once
you are taken out of this realm of time, it's just going to be
an instant to judgment if it's another 5,000 years. It's going
to be an instant. You're going to close your eyes
in death and awake in judgment. Time should be no more. That
has to do with when you die, and it has to do with while you
live, any way you want to look at it. But He gives us five comforting
things here, five comforting words. The first thing that cheers
the hearts of all those who hope in Christ is to know that His
coming is not delayed. It's not delayed. There's nothing
to postpone His coming except the calling out of His elect,
which could be complete at any time. Could be complete. In every place where it talks
about His coming again, the sense of the passage is that He cometh. He cometh. In Revelation 22,
verse 20, it says, He that testifieth these things, these wonderful,
eternal, blessed things, this man saith surely, I come quickly. I come quickly. And coming quickly
doesn't mean that he's in a hurry. It just means that He's not prolonging
the time. He's not sitting at ease on the
throne, unmindful of the suffering of His people. That's the children
of Israel. We've been studying that over
in the book of Exodus. And they lay down there in that
iron furnace being oppressed and suffering. And I know that
they thought in their heart, He must be unmindful of this.
He must not know. And they groaned and they cried.
And God said, I heard the cry. And when the fullness of the
time was come, just like He told Abraham in the beginning, when
that 400 years had passed, and when the fullness of the Gentiles
was come in, then He came. Then He came. Not sitting at ease on the throne,
unmindful. He's not sitting idle on the
throne, untouched by the feelings of our infirmities. He's engaged
in His work. He's coming. He's coming. He's engaged in His work as the
mediator. He's arranging all things, and
ordering all things, and fulfilling all things. All of these kingly
duties assigned to Him by the Father, and He's doing it for
the good of His kingdom and the glory of God. We ought to be
filled with enthusiasm, looking for Him, knowing that He's coming. I tell you, that old man laid
down there at the Pool of Bethesda, If he'd have known Christ was
coming, he'd have been enthused, wouldn't he? Even in his paralysis,
he would have been enthused. Blind Bartimaeus knew he was
coming. He heard the shouts of the people.
He knew. You reckon he was enthused? They couldn't shut him up. He
didn't know where he was. He just knew he was close. And
he started crying, Jesus, thou son of David. Huh? My daughter's husband's over
in Iraq. serving our country. They gave him a short leave,
and he came back yesterday. But for the last three weeks,
that's all I've seen on Facebook is my daughter commenting on
things that she's doing, things she's getting ready. She's getting
the kids ready. She's buying this. She's getting
tickets. She's getting this. Looking forward, enthused, waiting
for him to come. Now those who love him are enthused. They want him to come. They don't
fear His coming, they're looking forward to it, and they know
it's not delayed. Whatever delays there are are
necessary. Oh, you expect a package to come
in the mail, and it's a gift from somebody you love, you'll
wear the grass out in the yard checking on the mailbox. Huh?
That's right. That's what He's talking about
here. He's coming. He's coming. Those who look for His coming,
they live differently than those who don't. They live a little differently. My son-in-law is not to me what
he is to my daughter. And I don't live my days like
she does. You see what I'm saying? It has
an effect on you. An effect on you. And then the
second thing that comforts the hearts of all them that believe
is that He Himself is going to come. My soul, the Lord of glory. Listen to this here in verse
16. For the Lord Himself, the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout. Those disciples stood out there
in awe. And I don't know how this happened. I don't know if the cloud came
down. I don't know if he went up. It don't say. It just says
that this cloud, that he stepped onto a cloud and just ascended right up into
glory. And John, they stood up. This
was a real man, raised from the dead, stepped on that cloud. and ascended, and they stood,
I know I was, they stood out there and just in awe watched
as he ascended up into glory. And the angels surrounding the
cloud, they said, you men of Galilee, why stand you here gazing
into the heaven? The same Jesus that's taken up
from you is gonna so come and light the man. The Lord Himself shall descend. The King Himself, not some lowly
ambassador, not a servant or even an angel, but the Lord Himself. He who is salvation. He who is
life. I'm sure it enthused and comforted
to some degree those like Blind Bartimaeus and these other men
when the servants of Christ, Peter and them, came into town. I know that, but it wasn't like
when he come. When He comes, boy, there's a
difference. There's a difference. He who opens the arms of God
to guilty sinners, to all who are oppressed of the devil, whose
whole first appearance was spent going about doing good, He's
coming again. Coming again. And then thirdly,
His coming will not be an obscure event. I was going to this little
Baptist church and this is the doctrine they taught there. They
taught the secret coming of Christ. He's going to come and there's
going to be a rapture. You see these signs on people's
cars. If this car is unattended by
a driver, it's because of the rapture and all this filling.
And I thought that, I thought, you know, he's going to, I don't
know how he's going to do it, but he's going to come and all
of his elect is going to be taken up and the dead and Christ is
going to be raised and they're all going up there and they float
around here and the rest of the world lives down here for a thousand
years and goes through tribulations and dragons and all kinds, no
end to the foolishness of religion. His coming will not be obscure.
I used to believe those things, but brethren, that's just a bunch
of religious tommyrot. When the Son of God comes a second
time, it says, with a great shout. Ain't that what that says? With
a great shout, it'll be heard round the world, the voice of
the archangel. And with the trump of God, you
reckon a man could hear that? The trump of God, it's going
to sound. In Revelation 1, verse 7, it said, Behold, He cometh
with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced
Him. And all the kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of Him. It's not going to be an obscure
copy. In Matthew 16, verse 27, it said, For the Son of Man shall
come in the glory of His Father. The glory of His Father with
His angels. How many do you reckon that is?
All of them. All of them. His first coming
was in obscurity and humility. But not so this time. This time
He comes as the conquering King. Unto those who look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. That's the conquering King. He's
already conquered. Death is swallowed up in victory.
And the Word of God teaches a sudden, glorious, climactic event that
brings everything as we know it to its ultimate end and design. It's over. In an instant. Just like that. It's done. It's
done. This whole world, Peter said,
is going to melt with a fervent heat in an instant. In an instant. It's gone. It's vanished. It's
taken away. Sudden, glorious, climactic event. And it brings everything to its
ultimate end. And then fourthly, He comforts
those who believe on Christ with His second coming, telling us
that it will be attended with a great resurrection. Turn with me over to John chapter
5. John chapter 5. Declaring Himself
to be the Christ, He tells us in verse 25 of John chapter 5
that the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
He's talking there about the preaching of the Gospel. The
voice of Christ in the preaching of the Gospel. Talking about
raising here the spiritually dead. Those dead in trespasses
and sin. They hear His voice in the Gospel
and they pass from death unto life. Now watch this down here
in verse 28. John 5, 28. They marveled at
that. Now listen to this. Marvel not
at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the
grave shall hear his voice. You mean Cain and Abel and Noah? Methuselah? All these men? You mean all men? I mean all
men. All men. Shall hear his voice
and shall come forth They that have done good under the resurrection
of life, and they that have done evil under the resurrection of
damnation. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16,
it says, the dead in Christ shall rise first. He talked to believers
here. They're going to 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. Now, brethren,
those who die in the Lord, He's talking here about believers.
They can't leave this world until God calls them home. Now you
rest in that. I don't care if you've got polio
or cancer or whatever you've got. You ain't going nowhere
until God's through with you. When you've accomplished his
purpose in this world, he'll take you home. Until then, you're
immortal. That's what the Bible says. Those who die in the Lord, they
can't leave this world until He calls them home. And until
that day, no weapon, no enemy, no means of death will prosper
against you. I don't care what their plans
are. How many times they planned to kill Paul, but it didn't work
out, did it? When He's pleased to take them
home, He does so. And their spirits are cradled
in His arms. And their bodies are laid to
sleep, waiting for this last day. I bet you that sounds poetic,
but you know, I just have no problem believing that. Well,
having given His final testimony to the world, and given it to
those Jews, they couldn't stand what Stephen preached. Oh, it
cut them to the quick. And they ran upon Him, and it
said they gnashed on Him with their teeth. They just bit Him. They just
gnashed on Him with their teeth. But He, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing on His right hand. biting on him
and scratching on him and pulling on him and hitting him. And he's
standing there looking up into heaven and saw Jesus standing
on the right hand of God. And they took him out to stone
him. And his face began to look to them as the face of an angel. And listen to what he said in
his dying words. Now when they stoned a man, they didn't take
pea gravels and hit him. They took rocks this big around
and bashed your brains out. These men had these big stones
and they were throwing them at him and hitting him and wounding
him. You know what he did? Listen
to his last words. Stephen, you can read them for
yourself over in the book of Acts. His face become as the
face of an angel and when they stoned him, they heard his last
words saying, Lord Jesus, Receive my Spirit. Cradle my Spirit in
your heart. You got that kind of hope? I'm telling you, we're headed
for the grave. We're headed for judgment. Christ could come back
today. There's nothing postponing His
coming. He could come today. But if He
don't, we don't have very many days left, do we? And I tell
you, looking forward to this, we need some comfort, we need
some hope. This business, I just don't even want to think about
it, preacher. You better think about it. You better think about
it. I'm telling you, death can take
you out of here so fast, one minute you're here, next minute
you're gone. You're gone. And what in His presence must
seem but just an instant, He'll come again. And He'll resurrect
our bodies from the grave and reconcile our spirits again with
our new bodies. And those believers who are yet
alive in an instant shall undergo a change. And that one says over
in 1 Corinthians 15, in the twinkling of the eye. They'll undergo a great transformation
and in their new bodies be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
What a word. To meet the Lord in the air. I tell you, I don't know what
your appetites are, but everybody has somebody in the world they
look up to, some famous man. If he was coming here today and
you had a chance to meet him your heart be going 90 mile an
hour. Some great singer or whatever,
I'm going to meet him. I'm going to meet him today. This is the Lord of Glory. He
said we're going to be caught up to meet Him. To meet Him. We believed on it. We believed
on it. We worshipped Him. We loved Him. But we never met Him. We're going
to meet Him on the clouds of glory and all the glory of His
Father's house. We're going to be caught up to
meet the Lord in the air. Meet Him who is God, Ruler, Savior
of men. Well, picture how you know this
resurrection is going to be because God guaranteed this resurrection
with His own. Look back here at the text. See it back there in verse 14? For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so, them which sleep in
the Lord Jesus will God bring with Him. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? He guarantees that resurrection
in that day by His own resurrection. Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. He says in verse 12, now if Christ
be preached that He rose from the dead, How say some among
you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Now what he's talking
about here, and he goes on to explain it throughout this chapter,
is that Christ is a representative man. Those things that happened
to him in this world didn't just happen to him. They happened
to all that he represented. When he died on that cross, I
died on that cross. All believers, all those elect
given to him by God died on that cross. We believe that if one
died for all, then all were dead. He's a representative man. And
he's talking about this resurrection. When we preach the resurrection
of Christ, I preach that resurrection of Christ as he is a representative
man. And Paul said if we preach Christ
that he'd be risen, how come you say there ain't going to
be no resurrection? For if the dead rise not, if
there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen?
Verse 13. He's the representative man. Verse 16. For if the dead
rise not, then is not Christ raised? And if Christ be not
raised, your faith is in vain. Your yid and your sins and all
that died, died without hope. And we're all false witnesses
who stand up and preach it. Verse 20, But now is Christ risen
from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. Actually, the resurrection
of Christ is the guarantee that all the spiritually dead will
be raised and called to faith. And that's what Ephesians chapter
2 But God, who is rich in mercy for that great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins,
has quickened us together with Christ, raised us up, made us
to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, that in days to come,
ain't that what He said? In the days to come, He might
show unto you. You see how that resurrection
guaranteed that coming of spiritual life. And even so, it guarantees
that resurrection of the physical, the bodies laid in there. Every
last Job said, I know this, the worms devour this body, yet in
my flesh, I'll stand on this earth. I'll stand on there, and
I'll see Christ. I love this scripture, Revelation
20, verse 6. He said, blessed and holy is
he that hath part in the first resurrection. Boy, if you don't
have a part in that, if you don't have a part in there,
if you weren't represented by Him who died, and if you have
no hope in Him that died, if you don't have a part in that
first resurrection, but blessed and holy is he that hath part
in it, On such the second death hath no power. Can't hold you down. Can't keep
you in the grave. Can't condemn you. Can't corrupt
you. And the last comforting word
to the believer is that of his final state. 1 Thessalonians
4, 17. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. What a comfort to ever be with
Him. What little I know. God put me
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Made provision
for me. Sent His Son for me. Raised His
Son for me. Seated Him at His right hand
ruling and reigning over all things for me. Sending Him back
to raise me again from the dead. All my hope is in Him. It's all
in Him. My joy is in Him. My peace is
in Him. So shall you ever be with Him. With Him. That's what salvation
is. That's what eternal life is. Father, we thank You for these
precious, precious words. The words of this book make us
mindful of it. Make us studious in it and give
us joy from it. Lead us to Christ. Show us these precious things
and cause our hearts to rejoice and to look forward, to look
expectantly for Him, to watch for His return. We ask it for
Christ's sake. Amen.