If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. The first book of
Thessalonians chapter 4. I want to give you a few things
for your consideration here this morning. I will read beginning
with verse 13. But I, Paul says, 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, not something that came out of
my brain, Paul saying, but this I say unto you by the word of
the Lord. I have the authority of the Lord
to say what I'm saying. That ye which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, go before them which
are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, and 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. These verses have been a tremendous
blessing to my own soul as I have meditated upon them. And I believe
they have been to the church throughout many, many generations. We believe that God's people
Respect the authority of the Word of God. And we know, as
we read these marvelous words, we know that these things, we wouldn't receive them at all
if it was not for the fact that they are the Word of our God. These are marvelous things. that
we just read about. The Apostle Paul had this blessed
hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he spoke of
that in the book of Titus chapter 2 and in verse 13. Let me read that verse of scripture
to you. Titus chapter 2 verse 13. Paul says, talking about those
who had experienced the grace of God, to whom the grace of
God had come in salvation, he says, teaching us that denying
ungodliness, in verse 12, unworldly lust, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world, looking, looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works. Paul says that we're to be looking
for that blessed hope, that's the hope of the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that he's coming back to this earth, to
receive us unto himself. And he calls it a glorious appearing. It will be glorious for the people
of God because it will be a time of resurrection. It will be a
time of change. when these vile bodies will be
changed and we'll have a body likened to His glorious body. So it's a glorious appearing,
the coming of the Redeemer, not coming as He did the first time,
being born in a manger in lowliness and being in humility, but the
Lord coming in great power and glory. Be a glorious appearing
of the great God. Paul had a high esteem for the
God of the Bible, for the Lord Jesus Christ. He calls Him a
great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. He's our Savior. You remember when His name was
given to Him, it was said in Matthew 121 that the Lord Jesus Christ would be
born, and that His name would be Jesus, for He would save His
people from their sin. He is the Savior, our Savior
Jesus Christ. And verse 14, Paul said, Who
gave Himself for us. He gave Himself for us. And that is never to be forgotten
by the people of God. were to treasure such statements
as these. He gave Himself for us that He
might redeem us from all iniquity, all sin. He brought us back from
whatever harm sin could do to us. The Lord Jesus Christ brought
us back. He redeemed us from all iniquity
and purified unto Himself a peculiar people, that is, by the grace
which Paul has been talking about here in verse 11 and 12. And
so, He purified unto Himself a peculiar people. We've been
made holy and without blame before our God in love, zealous of good
works, desirous, enthusiastic about doing right and doing good,
seeing that the Lord has done such things in our lives. Now throughout the ministry of
this apostle, he experienced a great deal of persecution because
he believed and had this glorious hope, this great hope of the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to read out a 2 Timothy
2, a couple of verses here, where he said in verse 8, remember,
he's telling young Timothy, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed
of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. In other words, Paul said, I
preached the resurrection. I preached that Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead, and because He was raised from the
dead, all of His people shall be raised in Him. all of his
people. He guarantees that his people
will be resurrected. Even because he lives, we shall
live also. Jesus said in John 11 that he
was the resurrection and the life. He said if a man believed
in him, then he would never die. And if a man lived and believed
in him, then he would never die. He said, do you believe this?
Do you believe this? Well, God's people believe that.
And here Paul is telling us that Jesus Christ was raised from
the dead. according to his gospel. And wherein, he says, I suffer
trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds. In other words, he
says, I'm put into prison. I'm put into shackles because
I believe in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, I suffer trouble as an evildoer. But he says, I've been
put in bonds, but the word that I preach The Word of God is not
bound. Therefore I endure all things
for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And then also
in the book of Acts, we find where the Apostle Paul was defending
himself as to what he believed that he also made mention of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you were
to turn back with me to the 24th chapter of the book of Acts,
holding your finger there in Thessalonians. I'd like to read
to you a couple of these statements that the apostle made concerning
this hope and concerning the resurrection of our Lord Jesus
with verse 14 and 15 of Acts chapter 24. But this I confess
unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship
I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written
in the Law and in the Prophets, and have hope toward God, which
they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. And herein do
I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense
toward God and toward men." The Apostle Paul here is giving his
defense of what he believed and what he'd stood for among the
Jews, and he tells them that the Jews' religion allowed that
there would be a resurrection. of the dead, both the just and
the unjust. So what he was preaching was
not contrary to what they supposedly believed. And then also in the
26th chapter of the book of Acts, verses 4 and verse 8, 26 chapter
verse 4, My manner of life from my youth was that the first among
mine own nation at Jerusalem know all the Jews, which knew
me from the beginning, if they would testify that after the
most straightest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee,
and now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made
of God unto our fathers. and to which promise our twelve
tribes instantly, serving God day and night, hope to come,
for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I'm accused of the Jews. Why
should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God
should raise the dead?" Now, beloved, God is going to raise
the dead. And that is very clear in the
scriptures, and in that that He raised our Lord Jesus Christ,
He will raise all of His people. Now if you would, turn back with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and let's look at these verses
here for a few minutes this morning. In verse 13, the Apostle says,
But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren. There were
some of the Lord's people, apparently, that believed that those who
had fallen asleep, and that of course means those who have died,
before the Lord Jesus comes back, that they would not participate
in the glorious events of His coming. that they would not be
able to enter into that because they had already died and were
buried and there would be nothing for them. And therefore, Paul
said, I don't want you to be ignorant about this. This is
not true. Even though they have died and
gone on, they are still going to participate in that glorious
appearing of our great God. They're going to be resurrected.
They're not dead. be heard from again, they are
going to be raised. And so he says, I don't want
you to be ignorant concerning them which are asleep. And this
word asleep means those that are dead. And death is like sleep. Somebody said that sleep is a
short death and death is a long sleep. And we know that those
who are asleep in the Lord Jesus Christ, they're like a man who
is asleep because he goes to sleep and then he wakes up. And
God's people go to sleep in Jesus and they will wake up on the
morning of the resurrection. They'll come forth unto everlasting
life. And he said that you sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope. In other words, I don't
want you to go around sorrowing like these people that you'll
never see them again. And that they're not going to
have that, the Lord Jesus has nothing for them any longer.
I don't want you to sorrow like that. Like the heathen that have
no faith and have no understanding of the things of God. Don't want
you to don't want you to sorrow that way now Paul was not saying
that it was not he was not saying that it was wrong for people
to That are bereaved to have sorrow in their heart He was
not saying that we know our Lord Jesus, and he's the best example
I know of in the scriptures in John chapter 11 verse 35 at the
tomb of Lazarus the Bible said Jesus wept and He wept, and the
Jews said, oh, how he loved him, how he loved Lazarus. And so,
beloved, there's nothing wrong with a man's sorrowing when he's
bereaved. Abraham, you remember, mourned
the death of his wife, Sarah. And she was a woman that should
have been mourned for. She was a godly woman. and a
woman of faith. And so it was okay for Abraham
to mourn for his wife, but to sorrow as others which have no
hope, those who have no hope of ever seeing our loved ones
again, is wrong for a believer. And we don't have the time to
enter into it this morning, but we know that in pagan religions
there's a great deal of people cutting themselves and just absolutely
in terrible, terrible trauma because they feel they have no
hope. And there are many in this world
that have no hope. Paul spoke of them in Ephesians
about those who are without hope and without God. not knowing
God, not having the faith of Christ in their hearts, and not
having the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ in their souls,
then they feel that there is no hope. There's no hope for
those who have died and gone on. But in verse 14, Paul says,
for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that's
exactly what we believe, We believe that Jesus died, as we said earlier,
He gave Himself for us in death, and we believe He died, and we
believe that He rose again on the third day, that He was the
firstfruits of the resurrection. and that the Lord Jesus Christ
came forth in mighty power out of the grave and he has begotten
us that are now believers into a living hope. He brought us
into a living hope that we too shall be resurrected from the
dead. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, do you believe that he died and rose again?
Let me tell you that all true children of God believe that
Jesus died and rose again. All true children of God. Those
who may entertain the idea that through some connection with
religion that they're Christians, because maybe they were raised
in a Christian home or something like that, they may not believe
that Jesus died and rose again. They are not Christians, they
are not true believers. True believers believe it. Now
in Romans, you remember in Romans 9, a very favorite passage of
Scripture by many, where in verse 9 of Romans 9, Paul said that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
he said thou shalt be saved. Now I want you to get that. Let
me give it to you one more time, Romans 9 and verse 9, that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. So we must believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead that's an article
of faith and we remember in first corinthians chapter fifteen where
the apostle paul was uh... talking to the corinthians about
the gospel he had preached to them and he laid out three facts
that according to the scripture that christ died he was buried
and god raised him from the dead And these three facts are believed
by every child of God. I like what John Gill said about
this. He said, nothing is more certain
or more comfortable and more firmly to be believed than that
Christ died for the sins of his people and rose again for their
justification. I like that. That is true. Desperately
true. And the question is, do we believe
that Jesus Christ died and that He rose again? And then when
He died, that our sins had been laid upon Him, and He died to
satisfy the penalty of the broken law. Do we believe that? If we
do not believe it, we'll die in our sins and be lost. You remember Paul talked about
a resurrection both of the just and the unjust. The just are
those who have been declared to be without sin on the basis
of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the unjust are those who
are just the opposite, who have their sins upon them, and their
sins will appear on the books of God when they enter into the
judgment. And they will be sentenced to
everlasting punishment, where the worm doth not, and the fire
is not quenched. Now he says, if we believe them,
that Jesus died and rose again, even them also which sleep in
Jesus. Now that's a very important phrase. Them which sleep in Jesus. Don't you see, beloved, that
it's a union with Jesus Christ that guarantees our resurrection. The Lord Jesus has been raised
from the dead, and we all that are his people were raised in
him. We were raised in him, so much
so that the Bible says that we're living on resurrected ground,
and if so be that you've been risen with him. Paul spoke of
that in Colossians. We've been risen with Christ,
already raised in him spiritually, and we're seated at the right
hand of God. because we were raised in Him. But the question is, are you
in Jesus Christ? Now, beloved, the Bible says
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. There's no salvation apart being
in Christ. Christ, being in Christ, He's
the hope of glory. If you be in Christ, then you
have His life. You have eternal life. You have
the life that is of God. Okay, so he says, even though
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Now
this means that when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, those
who have fallen asleep in Christ, far from being left out of the
events of this glorious day, they are going to come back with
the Lord Jesus. Their souls will come back with
Him when He comes. And there will be a resurrection.
The Lord Jesus is going to bring them with Him. Bring them with
Him. Isn't that alright? The souls
of all of His people that have died in union with Christ will
be brought back with Him when He returns to this earth. For
this we say unto you by the authority of the Lord. I say this to you
by the Word of the Lord. Now, beloved, that means everything,
as we mentioned earlier, to us. You know, the old prophets of
the Old Testament, when they started to speak for the Lord,
they would say, Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. The Word of the Lord came unto
me, and this is what God said. Now, this is authority. And where
the word of the King is, there's authority. And Paul said, I don't
want you to think this is something I've hatched up. But this is
something that God spoke to me. Now, when did the Lord speak
this to him? When did he get this special
word from the Lord? Well, we know that in John chapter
5, our Lord Jesus Christ, if you want to hold your finger
here and turn over there quickly to John chapter 5, I want you
to see these two verses here, verse 28 and 29. Maybe this is
what Paul is referring to. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming. These are the words of our Lord.
He said, marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. Now these are the words of Jesus. And shall what? Come forth. All that are in the graves are
going to hear his voice. and they're going to come forth.
And they that have done good unto the resurrection of life,
and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Just a word of explanation on
verse 29. The dead are going to come forth. And Paul already told us there
will be a resurrection, just and unjust. And so he says in
verse 29, They're they that have done good. How much good do you
have to do to be considered to be good in the sight of God?
That's a question you ought to ask yourself. How much good do
I have to do in order for God to say I'm good? Well, my friend,
let me say this to you plainly and clearly this morning, that
God only accepts absolute, total perfection. God only accepts
conformity to His holy, holy, holy law. And a man cannot be
considered to be good in the sight of God, unless he is in
Him, that is good, that is God. Unless he's in union with Christ,
he will never be totally good. A man, if he's in Christ, he's
without sin. If a man is in Christ, his sins
are all stands perfect and complete before
God because he's in the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God
looks at him and not you. Now, beloved, that's how you
get good enough to be on the right side in the resurrection. Now it says this, and they that
are done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Well, how evil
do you have to be to be one that is raised to damnation. How evil do you have to be? Well,
my friend, let me tell you. If you were born of a woman,
the Bible says you're unclean. If you're bored of a woman, you
have a nature that you received from your parents who they received
from their parents on back to old Daddy Adam in the Garden
of Eden. And that nature is a sinful nature. That nature is contrary to God. That nature cannot will to do
anything that pleases God. That nature is contrary, I say,
to the law of God, and will not obey the law of God, will not
submit to the law of God. Now, beloved, if you were born
into this world, born one time, you're evil enough to come up
on the resurrection of damnation, and that's exactly the way it'll
be. And until you get into Christ,
until you get into Him, and your sins are blotted out and put
away, cast behind His back, as far as the East is from the West,
you're going to be raised to the resurrection of damnation. You cannot be good, Jesus said,
there's none good save one, that's God. And until you get into Him,
in Christ by faith, you cannot have a resurrection unto glory. Now then, was this where Paul
got his word? Well, maybe it was. Turn back
to Matthew. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 24,
and look at verse 30 and 31. Well, I'll add verse 29 to that. Immediately after the tribulation
of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the
power of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear
the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels
with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other. I remind you again that these
are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Now is that where
Paul got the word? Or you could possibly read, and
I'm not going to do it because I don't have the time, but in
2 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 1 through 4, Paul talked about
when he was caught up into the third heavens. He said he didn't
know whether he was out of the body or in the body, he just
didn't know. And he said that he saw things which he couldn't
speak of, unspeakable things. Was that when he got this word
from the Lord about the resurrection? Well, it could be. But we know
clearly that he says, we say these things to you by the word
of the Lord. And so don't, my friend, go out
of here thinking that these are not the Lord's word, they're
the apostles' word. It's the Lord's word. Even them
also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. That ye which
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not
precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout. Now we're going to talk here
a little bit about this resurrection. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout. Himself. the same Jesus that
you saw taken up into heaven will come again the scripture
says the same Jesus the Lord himself himself shall descend
from heaven he's coming down with a shout and this shout is
kinda like a well the commentaries say it's a shout like the king
was coming into the camp and there's a great shout goes up
because the king is coming well that's true and I remember hearing
an old preacher from the South one time saying that this would
be similar, he thought, to the battle cry of the Confederate
Army when they were getting ready to go into a battle, or when
they were rushing into battle. That yell, that Confederate yell
that they've described, I've read about it, and they said,
until you've heard it, you never heard it. But when you hear it,
you will never forget it. The yell, the battle cry of those
Confederates. And so whether you understand
that or not, you probably do. But there's going to be a shout,
a tremendous shout. The Lord Himself is coming back
from Heaven and there's going to be a tremendous shout with
the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Now, we're told in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 that this is the last trump that will blow and John
Gill just simply says it's the last trump because there isn't
any blow after that. And I agree with that statement.
I believe it's the last trump. Now, we had a little word, Randy
and I, and barbara there before the meeting and we talked about
revelation chapter eleven verse fifteen which talks about the
seventh angel sound and i'd believe personally and i i think it's
right that uh... that's when the trump of god
blows when this resurrection it takes place in the dead in
christ shall rise first they will come forth out of the great
now do you actually believe that the dead in Christ, those that
are in union with him, that they shall rise out of the grave. Do you believe that? Do you get
the picture here? They have been asleep. The earth
has been honeycombed by graves all over, and they've been asleep
in Jesus. Some for many, many years, hundreds
of years, But they're asleep in the dust of the earth. And
their graves are going to open up. And they're coming forth
out of the graves. Now, my father had a blacksmith
shop when I was growing up. And there were things in that
blacksmith shop that I kind of enjoyed playing with, fooling
around with when I was a kid. And one of the things that he
had was a big magnet. And then he had some steel balls
that had come out of discarded steel ball bearings. And these
steel balls, get those and bury them in the sand. And then I
would take the magnet and go over the sand and see the sand
tremble. and fly out of the way as the
ball bearings would come up to the magnet, come through the
sand up to the magnet. And then you would bury them
a little deeper, a little deeper, just to see if that mighty magnet
would pull them right out of the sand. Beloved, there's coming
a day when the mighty power of God will come down upon this
creation, and God is going to draw by his great power all the
bodies of these people out of their graves they'll come forth
out of their graves just like those steel balls came up out
of the sand they'll come forth can you get a picture of that
in your mind how what a day that will be you say well now preacher
you're talking about something that I just don't can't imagine
that could be well just believe the word of God Just believe
the word of God. The Bible teaches what I'm telling
you this morning. There's going to be a resurrection. Okay? And so, then in verse 17,
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds. those that are alive and remain
at the coming of the Lord. Now, there's various ideas. There's some that believe, some
of the Jewish writers, old writers, would say that there's probably
going to be a 200-year period between what is talked about
in verse 16, about the dead in Christ rising first, then which
are alive and remain. being caught up. Maybe a 210
year period, one of them said, and another one said 214 years. Where they get that, I don't
know. I don't have any such idea as
that. It sounds to me like these things are going to happen together. And so the dead in Christ has
risen, and we which are alive and remain. We have lived until
the glorious day of the Lord coming back. We've lived until
that glorious day. And so the Lord has come back. And so we're going to be caught
up. We are alive and remain. Alive
and remain. Now, I often tell people, I'm
not looking for a hole in the ground. I'm looking for one in
the sky. And I believe in the coming of the Lord, and the Lord
could very well come back. I pray, according to Revelation,
even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Come quickly! I'd like for Him to come while
I'm yet alive on this earth. Of course, if He's not pleased
to do that, then that's alright too. He sanctified the tomb,
He sanctified the grave, He got the victory over the grave. and
the Lord Jesus is going to raise his people, and so that's okay,
whichever pleases him. Them which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. There's going to be a cloud come
down, my understanding, and all the people getting into a vessel
will be taken up in that cloud into heaven. Now my understanding
is that they've been taken up and are with the Lord in the
air shall come the time Peter speaks of when he talks about
the earth being renovated by fire the elements being burned
up with fire the earth being purged the Lord's people will
be in the air above the earth when it's being renovated being
made ready for that heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, that
will be coming down from God out of the heavens. So, so shall
we ever be with the Lord. And that, my friend, is a very,
very wonderful thing to think about, that we'll always be with
the Lord. Always be with the Lord. It's
not like here where we struggle day by day to stay in fellowship,
where we're constantly trying to keep our hearts right before
God, walking as we ought to, that we might know His presence
and feel it daily in our lives, then we shall forever be with
the Lord. Isn't that a glorious thought?
Forever to be with the Lord. And then verse 18, and we'll
close, Wherefore, seeing that all of this is going to happen
on that day of the glorious coming of our great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. And I do hope that these words
have been comforting this morning. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these spiritual words, the words of the Spirit, according
to the original, I understand, These words are the words of
the Spirit of God. Comfort one another with these
spiritual words. Now, these doctrines comfort
one another with these teachings. Comfort God's people as they
are living in a body that is so prone to disease and illness
and affliction. Seeing that God's people are
Tested and tried daily many are the afflictions of the righteous
many of the heavy burdens that God's people bear on their shoulders
and We're to comfort one another with these words that that God's
Son the Lord Jesus is coming back and going to take us out
of all this mess And we'll solve all the problems he's going to
deliver his people, gloriously deliver his people. And that
you don't need to worry about those who have already died and
went on. You don't need to worry about
that. Comfort one another with these words that they're going
to be raised first. And that they're going to be
with the Lord forever as we are. And there will be a glorious
triumph. Now, if God permits me to be
back next Sunday, which I trust He will, I hope to bring another
message maybe from the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians on the resurrection
and the importance of it. And if God wills, then we'll
meet then. Now, I've asked Susan to sing
a song, and this song, I want you to listen very carefully
to it. as she sings it. I believe it's to the tune of
the Faith of Our Fathers and I just want you to listen to
the words of this song and in order that you might do so, you
just remain seated and she can stand and sing if she wants from
there or if she wants to come up, whichever one you want to
do Susie. When I have breathed my final
breath and dropped this robe of flesh in death, when my appointed
work is done and my allotted time is gone, Don't stand around
my grave and cry. I'll not be there. I did not die. My Savior came to call me home. and I with him to heaven have
gone. Now I am free from sin and pain,
and with the glorified I reign. Don't stand around my grave and
cry, I'm glorified, I did not die Seated with Jesus on his
throne Glorified by what he has done I am a trophy of his grace
Rejoicing, I behold his face. Don't stand around my grave and
cry. I am with Christ. I did not die. My body lies beneath the clay. Until the resurrection day In
that day when Christ comes again Body and soul unite again Don't
stand around my grave and cry Rejoice with me I did not die.