I invite you to turn in your
Bibles, if you will, to the book of 1 Thessalonians. It's good
to have each one of you out this morning. It's a joy to sing these old
hymns of the faith and to think about that great
gathering. It is going to take place one
of these days over there in that Fanny Crosby said, in the land
of summer love. Over there in that blessed happy
home of the saved. The redeemed of the Lord. If
you have your Bibles open to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, I
would like to read verse 13 down through verse 18. Listen carefully. These are verses that are not
only to be used for funeral sermons. The fact is I really don't know
that there should be such a thing as a funeral sermon. My brother
Spurgeon preached to 6,000 people for
many, many years and never did one of his people ever hear him
preach a funeral sermon. he wouldn't do it. He'd just
read scripture and he said that a man or woman
preached their funeral while they lived. You believe that?
I believe it. I believe it. But these verses are to be used
to comfort the people of God and not just be used on the occasion
of when we're having somebody's memorial service. Beginning with
verse 13, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that you saw not, even as others
which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore,
comfort one another with these words. Now on the fifth chapter
in verse 9 through 11, listen carefully. For God hath not appointed
us to wrath, hallelujah, 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 ye do." One other
text in II Thessalonians the second chapter, verse 1. Now
we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and by our gathering together unto him. Two things in this
text, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering
together unto him. Now, beloved, our gatherings
on earth are a type of that last great gathering in heaven when
all the people of God are assembled together over there. Paul speaks
of this gathering here in our text, and it is of this gathering
that I'd like to speak to you for a little while this morning.
There's a better gathering to come, brethren, However we may
enjoy the meeting this morning and this time of the gathering
of the saints, however we might be comforted and edified by what
we hear and what is said here this morning, there is indeed
a better gathering coming for the saints of God, for the people
of God. Now the gathering of which the
text speaks will take place at the end of the world when Christ
Returns to the earth the second time I'll never forget When I
just shortly after I was converted That I was about 17 years old. I heard a preacher talking about
1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 18 and I had never
heard in my early years about the second coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I had never heard anything about
his coming. And so how surprised I was to
hear somebody actually say, fact is, I asked him after the meeting,
I asked him if he would say again to me what he had said when he
talked about the Lord Jesus coming back again. Because I couldn't
believe it. It was astounding to me to think
about my Redeemer, the Savior of my soul, the one who had come
into this world, being sent of the Father, and who had suffered
death, that cruel, agonizing death of the cross, to be told
that He, Jesus, after He was crucified and had ascended back
to glory, to be seated at the right hand of the Father, that
He would come again into this miserable world, to think that
Jesus would come down here again. Well, the Word of God is clear
on the subject. He is coming again. He is coming
again. The angel said at the time of
his ascension to glory, this same Jesus which is taken up
from you into heaven shall so come in like manner. As you've seen him go into heaven,
as you've seen him go, he's coming again in like manner. And that, of course, is the great
hope of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he's coming
again. the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus,
is coming again. Now in our day and time, as was
in Paul's day, there are those who sometimes get a little out
of line in talking about the second coming or the prophecies
or the subject of eschatology, and they frighten people possibly
by saying things about it which they can't prove. Maybe setting
a date as to when the Lord's coming back, or speculating as
just when it will occur. But there's one thing about it.
In the Word of God, the Word of God speaks of the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, in a way in which we are exhorted to be
ready for His coming. We're exhorted to be watching
and waiting for His coming. The coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, according to the Bible, the Bible says that the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night. in which the heavens
shall pass away with great noise and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned. And Peter went on to say that
the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. concerning His coming. He's coming. Oh, He shall come. He that shall come will come
and will not tarry. And the Lord Jesus said in Matthew
25 and 13, Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor
the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming in the very last verse of the Bible, Revelation
22 and 20. It says, He which testifieth
these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. And all the people of God say,
Even so come Lord Jesus. He said, I'm coming quickly. That was his parting word. That
was the word that he left to us at the end of Scripture. I
come quickly. Surely, I come quickly. So we believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ will come. There are those that say that,
you know, there are many of the prophecies of Scripture that
are not fulfilled yet. Therefore, the Lord probably
will not be coming anytime soon. But beloved, it appears to me
that many, many of these things, I think we've been in the last
time since the cross of our Lord Jesus, I think we're in the last
days And iniquity abounds, and the Bible says that there will
come a time when the love of many shall wax cold because iniquity
abounds, and if that's not the case in our day, I certainly
couldn't describe it. We know that men are wicked and
seducers are waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And we know these are perilous
times that we're living in, and therefore we should not say to
ourselves, oh, I don't think he's coming, because the Bible
says in an hour when you think not, that's when the Son of Man
is coming. And so the very hour that you
say, well, he won't come, or he's not coming, or the Lord
is slack concerning his promise, well, he just may come in that
hour. Certainly the hour is unknown
to the angels, it's unknown to the Son, and it's unknown to
all men, but the hour is known only to the Father. But the Lord
Jesus Christ is coming again. He is coming again. Our conversation
is in heaven. Paul said in the book of Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 20 and 21, he said our conversation, that's
our citizenship. is in heaven. That's if you're
a child of God this morning. If you believe that Jesus died
and rose again, then your citizenship is in heaven. Oh, you're citizens
of this United States of America, true. But you're also citizens
of heaven. And the Bible says this is where
we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from. He's coming from heaven. And
so the Lord Jesus is coming back, and He shall change our vile
body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body,
according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things
unto Himself. So the Lord Jesus Christ is coming
back, and we need to believe that. He shall come and will
not tarry. So you need to be ready for His
coming. You need to be thinking about
His coming. Now when we read 1 Thessalonians
4, you take note of the fact that there's going to be some
that are going to be alive, some believers are going to be alive
when Jesus comes back. And then there are going to be
those that have fallen asleep in the Lord Jesus Christ. That
means that they have passed from this life into glory. And the
Bible says, being absent from the body, we are present with
the Lord. Those who have fallen asleep
in Jesus are present with the Lord right now. And the scripture
speaks here about God bringing with Him those who have passed
away, those who have changed worlds, as we might say, and
those who are with the Lord. They're with the Lord, and they're
going to come back with the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back. In verse 14 it says, "...even
so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." God's
going to bring with Him all that host of the redeemed ones who
have fallen asleep in Him. But I want to mention the fact
that there are those, as we mentioned a few moments ago, who are going
to be alive. Now, the Bible talks about a
change that's going to take place, both in the lives of those who
have fallen asleep in Jesus when He comes back, and those who
are alive and remain. There's going to be a change
take place, a great and glorious change. But in thinking about
this change, now you know some of the Lord's people are bothered
somewhat by the subject of dying, the subject of death, and they
don't want to think too much about it. They would rather just
ignore it, hoping some way or another that they'll not have
to ever deal with it too closely in their lives. But beloved,
I'm not looking myself for death. I'm not looking for it. I'm not
looking for that. I'm looking for change. I want
change. That's what I want. Well, the
change is that these vile bodies are going to be, they're going
to be completely changed and our bodies are going to be made
like into that glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let
me read to you a scripture. This is a blessed scripture in
1 John 3 and 2. Where it says, Beloved, now are
we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is. God's people are going
to see the Lord Jesus just like He is, and they're going to be
like Him. And that's going to be all right with me. That's
going to be fine with me to be like the Lord Jesus Christ when
he comes back. But these people that are alive
and remain For this we say to you in verse 15, by the word
of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming
of the Lord shall not perceive them which are asleep as far
as resurrection is concerned, but we which are alive and remain.
Now wouldn't it be something to be alive and to be remaining
on this earth when the Lord comes back? Wouldn't that be a wonderful
thing? a glorious thing to be alive
when the Lord Jesus comes back. Now I've heard various individuals
try to describe and use this in a way to provoke the people
of God to holier living and to living more in a way and a manner
which would please God. And I think that's alright. I
don't see anything wrong with that. For an example, many years
ago I was invited to preach at a Bible conference in Lexington,
Kentucky at a Bible college there, and there was a fellow there
who preached on the program that preached on this subject of those
who are alive and remain. when the Lord comes back. And
he had various things to say which was quite provoking, I
thought, which I felt at that time, being a young preacher,
I thought that it was very well used. And he was talking about
how that there are some professing believers that live in such a
manner in this life that if the Lord comes back in their state
that, you know, they're going to drop everything that they
have. The Bible talks about that when the day of the Lord comes
that if you're up on a rooftop, don't come down, or get down,
don't go back in the house to get anything, just go to the
mountains, just leave. And two shall be grinding, one
shall be taken, and the other left. and he was describing how
you'd be driving down the road in an automobile and one would
be left and the other be taken out of the automobile. And then
he also said that there were those who were living so carelessly
and such wayward lives that they might be in a bar when the Lord
comes back and they would leave all of their clothes and their
coat draped over the bar stool and they'd be gone. If they're
God's children, they of course will be taken home wherever they're
found. But whatever a person wants to
say. But there's going to be some people alive when the Lord
comes back. And I would like to be found
when the Lord comes back watching and waiting for His coming. Peter
said, Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. The end
of all things is at hand. The end is at hand. And so be
sober. Be sober. And if you're frequenting
places you don't want to be found, if the Lord was to come back,
then stay out of those places. And leave those places alone.
And if you're involved in something that you don't want to be found,
involved with, when the Lord comes back, then my friend, cease
to be involved in it. And may the Lord be pleased to
undertake for you, if you're a professing child of God, to
so live that you'd not be ashamed at His coming, that you would
no way be ashamed at His coming. Alright, now this great gathering
of the saints, and the first thing the Lord will do, will
gather together His people, we read it in Matthew chapter 24
and 31 when he comes together. He's going to gather together
his people. Listen to these words. And he
shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one
end of heaven to another. And the manner of this gathering
is plainly revealed in the scriptures that we read here out of 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. The manner of the gathering.
The dead in Christ shall rise first. Those that have died and
went on with the Lord, their bodies are coming out of the
grave. And those which are alive and
remain, they'll be caught up together with the Lord in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now, we shall not all sleep,
we're told over in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. And that's what
I was talking about a while ago. I'd like to be alive, but I'd
like to be changed. And I will be if I am alive when
the Lord comes back. And Paul went on to say that
this is going to happen in a moment. He said in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Those
words are found in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51 and 52. Well, we told you that we're
going to be changed into a body, a glorious body, like unto the
Lord Jesus Christ. But now, beloved, have you ever
thought about how or whether or not we're going to be able
to identify one another at this gathering, or when the saints
come back with the Lord Jesus and their bodies come out of
the graves, are those bodies going to be recognizable? Can
you discern those bodies? Are we going to be able to tell
who people are that have come out of the resurrection body,
even though they have a body like our Lord Jesus Christ, can
we discern? I like what Mr. Spurgeon had
to say about this. He says, When we fall asleep,
though apparently it shall be destroyed, yet shall it not be
so. He's talking about a body that
we have buried, that we have sewn into the dust of the earth. But he says, yet it shall not
be so. It will be destroyed. The skin
worm shall destroy this body, yet it shall not be so. But it
shall only slumber a while, and then awake again. and constantly
says death is described as sleeping in Jesus. That is the state of
the saint's mortal frame between death and resurrection. But listen
to this, he says, the angels shall guard our bodies. Now that
is the angels shall guard our bodies that are in the earth. Now listen, all that is essential
to complete the identity of our body shall be securely preserved
so that the very seed which was put into the earth shall rise
again in the beauty of which becomes it. It shall rise
again in the beauty which becomes it. All I say that is essential
shall be preserved intact. And that is because we are in
Christ and because we are with Christ. And so the Lord will
preserve the identity of our bodies. And you say, well, I
don't know how that could be. I don't know how it could be
with those who've been cremated. Well, enough will be preserved.
in the ashes of those who have been cremated to restore their
identity. It will be so, and it will be
so with all those who have been buried in the earth for hundreds
of years. There's enough there of seed
that their bodies will be, we can identify who they are. They will come forth. Well, I
like that, and I rejoice in that. I truly do praise the Lord for
that. Now in due time the last trump
shall sound, and Christ shall come, but the saints are going
to be with Him, and that is, they'll be forever with the Lord.
And the providence of God has so arranged it that when Christ
comes, them that are asleep in the Lord Jesus Christ, and when
He comes, our souls Our souls shall hear the shout of victory
and join in it. You believe that? So you die
and you're buried and you come back on resurrection morning
with the Lord Jesus. Well, when this shout of victory
is given, all the people of God are going to join in it. The
voice of the archangel shall be actually heard by all his
redeemed. So if you don't live until the
Lord comes back, that doesn't mean you're going to be shortchanged.
It doesn't mean that. It means that, well, you'll come
back with the Lord Jesus, and then you will hear the shout
of victory, and hear the voice of the archangel, and the trump
of God shall be sounded in the hearing of every one of his beloved,
for we shall be with Jesus all through that glorious transaction. I think that's good. I like that.
I like the way that's put. Now then, the object of this
gathering Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 17, the last
part of the verse, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That's
the object of this gathering, of the Lord coming back and raising
the dead and bringing them up in the clouds with Him is so
that we shall forever be with the Lord. Now I like to think
about forever being with the Lord. I think this is important
that we meditate on this and think about it a great deal.
I remember reading a story about an old man who was dying and
he was whispering something and he was not able to raise his
voice to any level where people standing around him could hear
he was whispering and so his son leaned down to hear what
it was that he was whispering And the old man was saying over
and over, forever with the Lord. Forever with the Lord. And that'd
be a wonderful thing to go out of this world with that on your
lips, wouldn't it? Forever with the Lord. We're with the Lord
now, and we shall never be less with the Lord than we are now.
Now you say, well I don't know anything too much about what
you're talking about, about the presence of God. Well, those
who are the loved ones of Jesus Christ and those who have walked
with God, they know something about being with the Lord, enjoying
His presence. And you're never going to be
less with the Lord than you are in this life. It's going to be
more and more and more we're going to enjoy the presence of
our blessed God. And this is to the end that we
might behold His glory, that we might look on His face, know
as we are known, fellowship with our loved ones, and be shut in
while the last plagues and judgments fall on the enemies of the Lord
in this life, till the indignation of the Lord be overpassed, till
the storm passes by We're going to be shut up forever with the
Lord. Isn't that a glorious thought?
Now let me say a few things and we'll hurry here this morning.
We want to try to cut it short on account of the graduation
this afternoon, but let me say just a few things about this
gathering. First of all, this will be a
tremendous and great gathering because of the myriad of souls
that shall be joined together. All the children of God from
Abel, from O righteous Abel, to the very last soul born into
the family of God before his coming, they all will be there. Every one of them will be there. Now, we who preach the doctrine
of elective grace, we sometime are accused of preaching a very
narrow, a very narrow gospel. and a very narrow salvation. But the number, my friend, will
be 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. A number more numerous
than the sands of the seashore. Not one poor, afflicted, weak,
storm-tossed child of God will be overlooked or forgotten. They'll
all be at this gathering. John 10 and 28 says, I give unto
my sheep eternal life, they shall never perish. They shall never
perish. Oh, what a joy that brings to
a man's heart. Once he has eternal life given
to him, he'll never perish. He'll be at this gathering. When
the saints gather, he'll be there. Not one empty mansion in glory,
not one empty seat in the house. Every soul for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ laid down his life will be gathered together in
that great day. What a gathering, as Fanny Crosby
said in the hymn that we sang this morning. What a gathering
that that will be. Number two, this will be a humble
gathering. Not one saint there who is worthy
to be there. Now you think about that. There's
not going to be one of us there who is worthy in and of ourselves
to be there. Worthy is the Lamb will be the
theme of our song in glory according to Revelation chapter 4 and verse
11 and Revelation 5 and verse 9. Worthy is the Lamb. He's the
one that's worthy. He's the one that saved us and
made us meet to be inheritors of such a great blessing as being
gathered with all the people of God in eternity. You see,
all these people are sinners. They were all sinners on earth. Every one of them were sinners,
lost sinners, until they were brought out and brought to see
their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. And every one of them
brought to see their need, found their need met in the person
of the Lord Jesus. The salvation of these sinners
was provided for them. for them by Jesus Christ. Salvation is by the grace of
God. I think Mike quoted Ephesians
2, 8, and 9 this morning. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. The theology, my friend, of the
Bible is summed up in these five words in Jonah 2, 9. Salvation
is of the Lord. These people are there, they
all were lost sinners until God saved them in their lifetime. And they were brought out of
their sin and out of their, the death of sin, and brought into
the life of Jesus Christ. And all was by grace. Everything
God demands of you, a sinner, He provides for you in the substitute,
our substitute, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. And so this will
be a humble gathering. Oh, you won't have to worry about
going there. You won't have to worry about
being there. Anybody's going to try to top you or in any way,
shape, or form call attention to themselves and magnify themselves,
make themselves look like some great one. No, no, no, no. There'll
be one great one there, only one great one, and that'll be
Jesus Christ Himself. And all of us will be humble
because we're there because of His work and His salvation. Number three, all the folks at
this gathering will be dressed alike. How many times have you
held back from going someplace because, you know, you heard
it said, I just simply don't have anything to wear. I don't
have anything to wear. And so you don't want to go because
you're afraid that you might look poorly, shabbily dressed,
and therefore you won't go. But my friend, you're going to
be there at this gathering, and the wonderful thing about it,
we'll all be dressed alike. Every one of us will all be dressed
up in the garment of salvation provided for us by the Lord Jesus
Christ, the imputed righteousness of the Savior, clothed in white
linen, the white linen of the saints. You say, Preacher, you
know I really have my own tailor? I really do. Well, my friend,
I'm sorry. You go in without a wedding garment
on and you will be cast down. Those that are at this gathering,
all of them will be clothed in that righteousness of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that garment woven from the top and bottom by His
doing and His dying. And that's the way, my friend,
we're going to be dressed, all of us, in the white linen of
the saints. Salvation is not a human project,
and we need to remind people of that. It's not a human project. Salvation is not something you
do for God. It's something that God does
for His people. The Bible says, "...who has saved
us and called us, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began." It's not of works, lest any man should
boast. And so you see, we're all gonna
be dressed the same. So nobody's gonna be able to
say, look at this outfit. I mean, look at this. Well, we'll
sure be all attracted very much by our garments. I'm sure of
that. And I'm sure everybody will be
dazzled as they look upon such a sinner as I am and see me decked
out in the righteousness of the Son of God. I never knew you
to ever be anything outstanding. They'll say, yes, but I'm dressed
in the garment of another. Oh, in the beauty of another.
I'm dressed in His dress. And so therefore, I will be accepted
and will stand out along with everybody else. And everybody's
going to look just like the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's going
to be a wonderful time. Now, it's not of works lest any
man should boast, not by works of righteousness, which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us. According to his
mercy. And so these people, they get
there by the mercy of God, and the mercy of God only. Now, John
Newton said, and some of you might have heard this before,
but he said that he thought there would be three surprises in heaven
for all who go there. Number one, he said, we'll be
surprised to find that there are some people we expected to
be there who are not there. Number two, he said, we will
be surprised to find some people there we didn't expect to be
there. And then, he said, thirdly, we
will be most surprised to find ourselves there. Well, beloved,
let me say that I will be surprised. I'm surprised every day that
the grace of God continues toward this poor sinner. Every day I
feel the nearness of Christ. Every day I feel His pardoning
love in my soul. I am surprised. And so to wake
up in glory in His presence, in His actual presence, is going
to be a surprise indeed to me. Because you see, we're not to
be presumptuous. If we get to heaven, it'll be
by the grace of God. If we get to heaven, it'll be
by the intervention of God in our lives. It'll be because of
the great provision which we have in our merciful Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus. And so, you know, John Newton
wrote, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch
like me. I was once lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. This
huge gathering will be singing glory, glory to the grace of
God and glory to the Lamb of God who is worthy of praise. Now I just want to remind you
of a couple of things as I close. I want you to turn in your Bible,
if you will, to John chapter 17. I want to call one verse
to your attention and that's verse 24. Verse 24 of John 17. where the Lord Jesus is praying,
and he said, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given
me. The Father has given a love gift
to the Son, and that love gift was all the elect. They were
all given, given, given to Christ. He said, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world." There's just a couple,
three things I want to mention here. One is, this prayer is
the energy which is drawing all the family of God toward its
one home. This prayer of our Lord Jesus,
He said, My will, Jesus said. And do you think the Father heard
this prayer? I do indeed. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. This is the will
of the Son of God. And I said this is the prayer,
the energy of which is drawing all the family of God towards
its one home. We're going to heaven because
Jesus Christ willed it and asked the Father to bring us there. He asked the Father to bring
us there. Now, let us think just a moment. There's an admonition
that I would like to leave with you because I want to receive
the comfort and the edification of the verses that we have used
this morning. I want to receive that comfort.
I want to be able to think on the subject of death because,
you know, we're coming down to that place when our lives could
end just like that. And Jesus could come back in
a moment in the twinkling of an eye. We could be changed and
gone from this world scene. But what I would like to do is
always look on heaven's side of death. I would like to look
on heaven's side of death. Number one, I'd like to remember
that Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, my Savior, my Lord and Master,
actually prayed to his Father to have me brought there. I'd
like to keep that in mind. And I think we must keep that
in mind. And then also that the Word of God says that precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Now that's
looking at death from God's side of it. Do you see that? Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Looking
at death from his side. And I would like for us to do
that, to remember that at all times, because we have nothing
to do with Earth's side of death. We have nothing to do. What can
we do? I mean, can a man ransom his own life? Does he have some
way? Is there some way? Somebody said
if the rich could hire the poor to die for them, the poor would
be mighty wealthy. And such is true. Such is true,
but there is no way that a man can, you know, there's no discharge
from this war. There's no way out of this except
we're going to die. All God's people are going to
die, but there is nothing in death for a child of God to concern
us. We need to look on God's side
of it and to keep that uppermost in our thinking. And then, this
is something that I believe that we should think about. Death,
then, is not a tragedy for a child of God. It is a decree of God. God has decreed the death of
his children. He's decreed it. And like all
the decrees of God, they were formed by wise and holy counsel. God counseling with himself. Never been anyone wiser in all
creation except our God. No one wiser than He. And so
He says and teaches in His Holy Word that His decree is that
we be with Jesus. That we be with Him where He
is. Now death for the believer is not a penalty, somebody said,
but it is a promotion. It is a promotion. We need to
keep that in mind. It is a promotion. for a child
of God to die. Philippians 1 and 21 says, for
me to live is Christ, and to die is what? Gain. He is gain. Having a desire to depart, Paul
said, to be with Christ, which is far better. It sounds like
a promotion to me. He said, to be with Christ is
far better than to be left here in this world. Paul said, I realize
that God has a mission for me, and I realize that the church
at uh... the Philippian church that they
were involved in that he said you have need of me I realize
that but he said it would be far better for me to die and
leave this world and go on and to be with the Lord be far better
for me so that sounds like a promotion to me and so beloved we need
to keep looking and looking on that side God's side of death
and view it as he views it. And I think as we do that, that
we will receive that edification and we'll receive that instruction
and that comfort which these verses were designed for the
Holy Spirit to give us as the people of God. Let us have a
word of prayer. Father, we thank you that we
were allowed this morning to gather here in Jesus' name And
we thank you for these great verses and great truths that
we've been able to focus our attention upon this morning.
And we do ask that you'll be pleased to bless Lord, this message
to every heart, and I pray that there will be a real moving of
the Holy Spirit in edifying hearts and building up hearts and giving
us all an awareness so that we would not be ignorant concerning
those which are asleep in Jesus, but that we would be able to
rightly divide the word of truth and open the word and comfort
those that are experiencing bereavement. And we pray that you might be
pleased this morning to bring that poor humble soul that is
looking for life and knows that they must face God and know that
it's appointed unto them to die, but they're going to face the
judgment afterwards. We pray that for that dear soul
that you'll show them the all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His saving grace, that they might look to Christ and they would
be saved. I pray for the salvation of those
that are lost in our midst. Thank you again, Father, today
for your love for us and your wonderful mercy which we have
in Christ Jesus. And Father, we do ask for that
one who is in the hospital, who is afflicted and is aged and
is facing a serious day tomorrow. I pray for that one that you'll
comfort that soul May it please you, Lord, to give him a word
in his heart, in his soul, that he may yet, ere this life is
gone, he may look away to Jesus and find everlasting consolation
and good hope through grace. We pray it in Jesus' name, for
his sake. Amen.