Now the text this morning is
verse 17. The verse reads, as these dear
ones have quoted it this morning, 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. I trust
that the Lord would give me half the grace and half the wisdom
and the strength and blessing that I so desperately need this
morning to be able to preach from this text. I certainly could
never preach a message worthy of this text, but I trust this
morning that the Lord will intervene for us and that we will be able
to profit greatly from our time together. If this verse is not
a blessing to you this morning, the day and the hour will come
when it will be most appropriate and when we trust and pray ahead
of time for you that the Spirit of God would apply it to your
heart in that hour when you need it. Now, beloved, I believe that
these words are spoken to console our hearts. They are spoken to
console the hearts of the people of God in the time of their bereavement,
in the time of the loss of their loved ones. I believe that we
know that for sure because in the very next verse, the last
verse of this chapter, the Apostle Paul says, Wherefore, comfort
one another with these words. Now it seems that these very
words were dictated by the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and they
were to be repeated by the saints of God to each other with the
view of removing sorrow from the minds of those that are distressed. The comfort is intended to give
us hope. This comfort that the Apostle
Paul speaks of here in verse 18 is intended to give us hope. And the comfort, as I look at
this verse of Scripture, you know, when we begin to think
of those that have gone on before, those of our loved ones who have
passed on into glory, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus,
that phrase in the Word of God we notice in verse 13 where Paul
says, but I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning
them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which
have no hope. These that have fallen asleep
are those that have passed away. those that have died, those whose
souls have been separated from their bodies, their bodies have
been buried, their souls have went home to be with the Lord.
And so these words here were spoken and dictated by the Comforter,
the Holy Spirit, in order that we might be comforted as we think
of those that have gone on. The Bible says sorrow not, as
those that are without hope, for they are with the Lord. They
are not with you and I any longer, but they are in a better place.
They are with the Lord. And by and by, we surely will
meet them again, and their welcome smile we'll see once more. Surely, by the grace of God and
by the work of God in our own lives, as God worked in theirs,
we surely will be united. And so we're to sorrow not as
those that are without hope. Now, the separation will be very
transient. between those that have fallen
asleep and those of us that are alive and remain. Now, I say
it'll be very tranquil. The reunion, though, will be
everlasting. The reunion will be forever and ever. Now, these words are also intended,
I believe, to comfort the saints of God with regard to themselves. You see, we bear about a dying
body. Every one of us, we're bearing
about a dying body. And the infirmities that we have,
it speaks of that fact that we are dying and have been dying
ever since the hour we were conceited in the womb. We've been dying.
And we come into this world, we are dying, men and women,
boys and girls, and so I believe this is to comfort us as we think
about our mortality. The fact that we're soon going
to go, as we spoke here a few weeks ago, you remember that
text out of Job? You know that when a few years
are gone, you must go the way whence you shall not return.
You must go the way that you will not return. We spoke here
of the last journey, our journey, our final journey here a few
weeks ago, and used that verse. But my friend, listen to me this
morning. You're not going into a strange country alone. You're
not going unattended. There is a friend, the Bible
says, that sticketh closer than a brother. And your Lord will
be with you while you're departing this life, and then you will
be ever with Him. and you shall be in his presence. where there is fullness of joy,
and at his right hand, where there are pleasures, the Bible
says, forevermore. Comfort yourselves then, both
with regard to those who have gone on before, and also in reference
to the thought of your own departure from this world. Let these words
be, as it were, a handkerchief to receive our tears and to wipe
them away from our eyes this morning. Now observe, if you
will, that the comfort which the Apostle Paul here presents
to us, it may be partly derived from the fact of the resurrection,
but not chiefly so. Now the Apostle Paul mentions
here that those which are alive and remain when the Lord comes
back. Now, I do not have any idea when
the Lord is coming back, but I'm sure that when He does come
back, there will be some of His people that will be alive on
the face of the earth. And when the Lord comes back,
He is going to bring His own with Him, those that have fallen
asleep in the Lord Jesus Christ through the centuries, They are
going to be brought back with Him, and those that are alive
and remain will not proceed. Brother Randy used the right
word when he read this. Those that have fallen asleep,
they will rise and go up to meet the Lord, and then they which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now, beloved, this
is a great, a great truth, and we believe in the resurrection
of the dead. We definitely believe in it.
You cannot be a Christian and not believe in the resurrection
from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ was raised
from the dead, and we believe that God raised Him up, and those
who believe that God raised Him up are those that are the children
of God, those who believe in the resurrection, because you
can't take just piecemeal, don't you see? The resurrection tells
us about his death, about his burial. The resurrection tells
us about his having suffered, his having suffered the penalty
of our sin, paying our debt in our room instead and place. Now
beloved, there is some consolation also in the fact that we shall
meet our departed brethren. There's some in the resurrection,
and then there's some also in the fact that we're going to
meet those that have died and went on to glory. There's great
consolation that we're going to meet them in the air. Blissful
will be this general assembly of the redeemed, never again
to be broken up. The joy of meeting never apart
again is a sweet remedy for the bitterness of separation, you
see. And we're going to be joined together with our loved ones,
and it will be a remedy for all the bitterness that you now suffer
as you see them go down into the valley one by one, and as
they're separated from us, and as they're taken home to glory.
Now, so shall we ever be with the Lord. read these words here
in the last part of this verse, so shall we ever be with the
Lord. And I believe that the Spirit of God means for us chiefly
to get our comfort from those words. Now I'm not saying that
these other verses, verse 13 down to verse 17b, are not to
be considered. I'm not saying that, but But
I believe our chief comfort is to come from the fact that we
shall forever be with the Lord once this life is over and once
we're gathered home unto the Lord. So shall we be with the
Lord. Now whatever else that you draw
comfort from, Neglect not, beloved, this statement of Scripture,
so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now there are other sources
of good cheer in connection with the glory to be revealed, for
heaven is a many, many-sided joy, if you please, but still
none can excel this communion with Jesus Christ which we're
going to have. Wherefore, comfort one another
in the first place and most constantly with these words, so shall we
ever be with the Lord. Beloved, nothing can take the
place, not the meeting of our loved ones, not us being alive
and seeing the Lord coming back, can ever take the place of so
shall we ever be with the Lord. May we receive great comfort
from that. Now I want us to consider this
text this morning in three ways. First of all, I want to speak
of it as being a continuance of what we already have in this
world. And then secondly, we want to
talk about it being a great advancement over what we have in this world. And then thirdly, we'll use the
word coherence to talk a little bit about in the end, finally
in the end of our message, about how that when we get to heaven
we're not only going to be there, we're going to be in, in our
Lord and like our Lord. These are the things that will
continue. Now regarding here the meaning
of the text, I think we have here a continuance of our spiritual
state. Let me make this statement here
at the very outset. It is a great truth that we shall
never be less We will never be less with the Lord than what
we are now. Now, I don't know whether that
impresses you or not, but it does me. Now, you see, I've been
privileged to walk with the Lord and to be in fellowship with
the Lord and to have his blessing upon my life through the years.
And I know something about being with the Lord, something about
him being with me. And it's a wonderful blessing
to me to know that whatever happens, Even in death, whatever happens,
if I'm alive and hear that tremendous shout of the voice of the archangel
and I see all of the dust coming out of the cemeteries and all
of that, that there shall never be a time when I shall be less
with the Lord than what I am now. There shall never be a time. Now this is so important for
us to see this. Death shall not separate us,
nor the terrors of the tremendous day of judgment will never separate
us. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. Now by being caught up in the clouds or in one way or
another, our abiding in Christ will remain unbroken. It will
remain unbroken as we receive Christ Jesus the Lord so shall
we walk in him whether in life or whether in death. Now I understand
him to mean here that we're with the Lord now and that nothing
shall separate us from him even like Enoch you know that walked
with God. Enoch walked with God and was
not, the Bible says, because the Lord took him. The Lord took
him out of the world, but he walked with God. He had the fellowship
of the Lord in this life. Now we're with the Lord in this
life in a very high spiritual sense. You remember Paul said
in Colossians, for you're dead, And your life is hid with Christ
in God. You're dead. Now we're dead as
we are in Christ who has died in our place. We are in Him,
He's died, so we're dead as far as the world is concerned. And
as far as God is concerned, we're already dead. We died in His
Son. And then your life is hid with
Christ in God. Now this is very mysterious.
Were you not buried with Him in baptism? We certainly were. We were buried with Him. I've
been in the grave where Jesus was. I went into that grave when
He went into it. because I was in him, I am with
the Lord, he is with me, I'm his child, I belong to him. Now,
do you not know that it is to be, what it is to be dead unto
the world in him and to be living a secret life with him in that
we're in fellowship with him, we know his secrets, not all
of them, but we know some of them, he reveals them and he
makes himself manifest to us even in a way in which he does
not to the world, We know the Lord and we're with the Lord.
Are you not risen with Christ already? Are you not risen with
Him? Absolutely! If you died with Him, if you
went into the grave with Him, then you've been risen with Him.
And do we not also, have we not been raised up together, and
in some measures we're raised up together to be made to sit
in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus? Absolutely! We're with the Lord,
and he is with us. Now, if you're not with him,
brethren, then you're not Christians at all. If there's anybody here
that is not with him, he said, if you're not with me, he said,
you're against me. So if you're not with him, then
you are against him, and you're not Christians at all, for this
is the mark of the child of God, that he follows the Lord Jesus
wherever he goes, and it is essential to salvation to be a sheep in
the fold of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot be a Christian unless
you're a partaker of Christ's life. You must be in union with
Him and receive God's life into your own soul, and that life
is eternal life. The believer has eternal life
because he's a partaker of Him that is eternal, the blessed
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So then, beloved, we're a member
of his body, a branch of the spiritual vine. Separated from
him, we're spiritually dead. If you're separated, if you say,
I'm not with the Lord, then you're spiritually dead. If you say,
the Lord is not with me. then you're spiritually dead
this morning, and that is your state before God, your position
before God. He himself has said, if a man
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered,
and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they're
burned. Now, beloved, Jesus is not far from any one of his people. It is our privilege to follow
him, as we said a little earlier, whithersoever he goeth. It's
our privilege to be near the Lord and for Him to be near us.
And His loving word to us is, abide in me and I in you. That's His word. And so I believe
He does that. And sometimes we enjoy the realization
of this union, and we enjoy the realization of this communion
with our blessed Lord who is with us. We are, dear brethren,
constantly with Christ in the sense of an abiding union with
Him, for we're joined unto the Lord and are one spirit with
the Lord. We are one spirit with Him. We're with the Lord. Now then,
this companionship is, we trust, made manifest to others by the
fruits that are brought forth in this life. The poet said,
live or die, work or suffer, let my weary soul abide in all
changes whatsoever, sure and steadfast by thy side. Nothing can delay my progress,
nothing can disturb my rest, if I shall, where I wander, lean
my spirit on thy breast. Now, beloved, listen to me this
morning. This companionship, this our being with the Lord,
the Lord being with us, It's so important that we see this.
It manifests itself in our lives. People can tell if we're with
the Lord. You remember those in the scripture
that the Bible says those ignorant fishermen that were the disciples
of our Lord, The Bible says that men took knowledge of them that
they had been with Jesus. There was something about their
lives that indicated, and the life of the Christian is manifestly
a life with Christ. And men must take knowledge of
us. They should see that there is
something in us which could not have been there if it were not
for the Son of God. There must be something about
us that could not be true if it were not for the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Something about our spirit, something
about our course of life, which could not have ever come out
of human nature. but had to come, had to be wrought
in us through the grace of our Lord Jesus. And we received it,
of course, from Him. It was a gift. We received it
from His grace. But brethren, if we are what
we ought to be, our life is spent in conscious communion, growing
out of continued union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I hope
that we can impress that upon you. My beloved is mine, the
scripture says, and I am his. He claims us, and do we not claim
him? Do we not claim him? The Lord
is with us. Blessed be the name of God. The
best of all is Emmanuel, God with us. The Lord is with his
people. Now I'm gonna get to the other
point in a minute, but let me, if I can, give you what I believe
the Lord has impressed me with. He claims us, we claim Him. He loves us, we love Him. There
is union of heart between us. And without what I'm talking
about, there will be no being with the Lord in the hereafter
forever. And you remember that. What I'm
talking about, it must begin here. And I'll tell you, it'll
either begin here or it'll never be so in eternity. And I want
to impress that upon your mind. That's why this part of the message
is so very important. There's a union of heart between
us. For us to live, Paul said, is Christ. And we have no other
aim in this world. He is with us by the continued
indwelling of the Holy Ghost, who is with us and shall be in
us forever, the Holy Spirit of God. I preached a sermon one
time on the Spirit of God. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of His. And this is so very, very important
that we remember this. God must be with us by the Spirit
in our hearts. Now He sent us the Comforter
to represent Himself, and through the divine paraclete, He continues
to be with us. And so even now, wherever with
the Lord. We're with the Lord right now.
Our Lord has also promised to be with us whenever, and I like
this, whenever we're engaged in his work. Did he not say in
that great commission, he said, go into all the world and preach
the gospel and baptize every creature in the name of, or baptize
men in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? And lo,
I'm with you even to the winding up of the ages. Did he not say
that? Did he not say to the church, I'm with you? I'm with you, even
to the winding up of the ages. And this is so very important
that we understand this. This is a grand word, I believe,
of encouragement. He said, I'm going to be with
you. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, so that
you may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and you need not
fear what man shall do unto you. So do not think that the first
time that we're ever going to be with Christ is when we see
him in the glory land. That's not it. We're with him
now. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And he now manifests himself unto us as he does not unto the
world. Has he not often fulfilled his
promise to us? Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Do you
not say that? Do you not say it? Beloved, I'm
trying to show you this this morning that we're with the Lord
right now. Fear not, I am with thee, the
Old Testament says. And I believe this is as much
a word of the Lord under the gospel as the Old Testament times. He said, fear not, I am with
thee. By the power of his blessed spirit,
Jesus abides with us and through this present dispensation, he
enables us to be ever with the Lord. But my brethren, the time
is coming when we're going to die. We're going to die. And unless the Lord shall descend
from heaven with a shout, meanwhile, assuredly, when we come to die,
we're going to still be with the Lord. The poet said, death
may my soul divide from this abode of clay, but love shall
keep me near thy side through all the gloomy way. Yea, the
psalmist said, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. But in a moment, when one closes
his eyes in death on earth, He shall open them in glory, absent
from the body, present with the Lord. This has been a great joy
for departing saints to know that they shall forever be with
the Lord. Just like they have here in this
world, they shall never, never be without His presence and with
His blessing. There was a dying believer one
time who was being attended upon by a a Christian, somebody who
loved the Lord, and in the last, very last minutes of this individual's
life, he was mumbling some words. And the fellow that was caring
for him bent down, put his ear to the man's lips. He wanted
to be able to hear his last words. And as this man dying out, very
hardly able to get his breath, he heard him repeating to himself
again and again the words, forever with the Lord, forever with the
Lord, forever with the Lord. When heart and flesh fails, the
departing one knew it's gonna be forever with the Lord. Now, I want us to think a little
bit more here. I'm about ready to end this point.
But this poem was a blessing to me. Blessed stay beyond conception. Who its vast delights can tell? May it be my blissful portion
with my Savior there to dwell. So I think this text looks like
a continuation of what has already begun, only rising to something
higher and higher. as we get on to look at the text. To be with Christ is eternal.
This we have already and shall continue to have and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Secondly, this is my second point,
and that is that this text speaks also of a great advancement.
a great advancement. Now, listen to me. It's an advancement
upon this present state for however spiritual-minded we may be, and
however, in consequence, there we may be very near unto our
Lord Jesus, yet still we know that while we're present in the
body, we are absent from the Lord. When we're present in the
body, we are absent from the Lord. Now this life, at its very
best, is still, comparatively speaking, an absence from the
Lord. Is that not right? It is, comparatively
speaking, an absence from the Lord. Now we cannot, in the highest
sense, be with Christ right now, in the highest sense, be with
Christ right now, because the Bible says that to depart, we
must depart to be with Christ. We must depart to be with Christ,
which Paul said is far better. He said, I have a desire to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better. But there shall
be forever, when we're there, we shall be forever beholding
the unveiled face of our Lord Jesus Christ. Earth is not heaven. Though the believer begins the
heavenly life here on this earth, earth is not heaven. and we shall
never fully understand or appreciate or be able to apply this verse
while we're here in this life. We're not with Christ as to place
nor as to actual sight as we shall be in the glory land. We're
not there at this time. Now let us consider a little
bit what this glorious condition is to be to which we shall be
advanced when we depart. and when we're with the Lord.
We should be with the Lord in the strongest possible meaning
of the language. So with Him that we shall never
again mind earthly things. Never again mind carnal things. Now you know the Bible says that
to be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life
and peace. Well, beloved, let me say that
when this hour comes, we depart and we're with the Lord forevermore,
that we shall never again mind carnal and earthly things. It
shall be all spiritual. We shall be with Him as to have
no sin. no sin whatsoever to cloud or
to dim our view of him. Won't that be wonderful? Oh,
beloved, little do we know how much the fall has affected our
minds and our hearts. How little do we see? How little
do we know? But do you know there's coming
a time when we shall know even as we're knowing? Do you know
that there's coming a time when all of the effects of the fall
will be taken away and we'll be able with undimmed eye to
see our Lord Jesus Christ. What a great blessing. What a
great blessing that will be. And we shall know Him even as
we're known. Think of it, if you will. We
shall be with Him so as to have no fear of His ever being grieved
and hiding His face from us again. Think about that. Do you not,
as you traverse this world, do you not often think, oh, if I
could just see His face every day. Oh, if I could look upon
His face every day. Oh, listen to me now. We shall be with Him so as to
have no fear of His ever being greed with us, so that He would
hide His face from us. We shall never again be made
to cry out in the bitterness of our spirit, Oh, that I knew
where I might find Him. Have you ever cried that out
in your heart? Lord, oh, that I knew where I might find him.
Oh, if I could just lay hold upon him. If today he would come down
and visit my soul. If I could lay hold of him. But there'll never be a time when there'll
never be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll
never be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll never be a time when
there'll never be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll
never be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll
never be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll never be a time
when there'll never be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll
never be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll never
be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll never
be a time when there'll never be a time when there'll never be a time when
there'll never be a time when there'll and believe his love, which is toward
us in 1 John. We know and believe his love.
But now isn't it something that God has manifested his love to
us, but we very seldom return it. Very seldom. And that's due
to our depravity. It's due to the fall and the
effects of the fall in our lives. But there, my friend, there,
I want you to know that we'll always swim in the full stream
of God's love, and we'll return His love as we praise and worship
Him forever and ever. And there will be no long lukewarmness
to mar our fellowship with Him. He shall never have to say to
us, I would that thou were either cold or hot. How blessed would
that be blessed? The Lord will never find our
hearts cold in glory. We'll be with the Lord, you see,
and all of that shall be wiped away. It will all be wiped away. There shall be no weariness to
suspend our bliss. We shall never have to cease
from fellowship with him because our physical frame is worn out
and we cannot fellowship with him. Listen to me, my beloved.
The vessel will be strengthened to hold the new wine. It will
be strengthened. We'll be able, we will be able
to endure, we'll be able to go on, we'll be able and to have
fellowship with Him perpetually. No break shall ever occur in
the intimate communion of the saints with the Lord Jesus Christ. There, my friend, rest is eternal. There, worship. is endless. Their praise shall be unceasing. Their the bliss unbounded. Because, don't you see, we're
with the Lord. Forever with the Lord, what will
it mean? Well, I believe it will mean forever life, spiritual
life. Forever light, forever love,
forever peace, forever rest, forever joy. That's what it'll
mean, forever with the Lord. Oh, to be with Him. I ask no
other bliss, one writer said, and cannot imagine anything more
heavenly than to be with the Lord forever. What then must
it be with Him to be with Him actually? Well, listen, let me
think about this a little bit with you. You remember that there
was a sick woman that said, oh, if I could but touch the hem
of His garment, I would be made perfectly whole. And you know,
she did touch the hem of his garment and virtue went out of
him and healed her. She was healed, gloriously healed.
And you know, the scripture says that, pardon me, in the Old Testament
says, look into him and be saved. Look into Him and be saved. And
you know we looked and we were saved as we saw the Lord Jesus
bleeding on the tree, as we saw the Lord Jesus withering in agony
and shame. We saw Him our substitute dying
in our place. We saw Him and we were saved,
we were healed. But what then must it be to be
with Him actually, consciously, and always? What must it be to
be with this One? with our Lord Jesus. To be with
Him no more by faith, but in very deed with Him forever. with
the Lord forever. I hath not seen, Paul said, nor
e'er heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. O glorious hour! O blessed abode! I shall be near and like my God,
and flesh and sin no more control the sacred pleasures. of my soul. Isn't that blessed? It's blessed
indeed. Now then, I come to the third
part of our message. I'll try to be as brief as possible.
And as I come to this third part, I introduce to you a word, coherence,
for the want of a better word. And if we were Greek scholars,
which we're not, we would know that the word with here in this
text when it says, and so shall we be ever with the Lord, that
this word with here in the Greek is M-E-T-A, which signifies being in the same place with
a person. Now that's not the Greek word
that's used here. But the Greek word that's used
here is S-U-N, which goes very much further and it implies a
coherence, the two who are with each other are intimately connected. It's much more than just being
in the same place. And let me try, if I can, to
bring that out and to explain it. Think then, beloved, we're
to be like Christ because we're going to see him as he is. We
read that in 1 John 3 and in verse 2, that we're going to
be like Him because we're going to see Him as He is, and we're
going to be like Him as to character, and we're going to share in His
spiritual likeness, we're going to be conformed to His image,
we shall be adorned with His beauty. Know ye not that we shall
be like him when we shall see him as he is? Christ will rejoice
to see his people all covered with the glory which his Father
has given him. He will not be ashamed to call
them brethren. Those poor people of his who
were so full of infirmity and mourned over so much, they shall
be so like him that they shall be at once seen to be his brethren. Isn't that marvelous? We shall
be with them in the sense that we shall be partakers of the
blessedness and glory which our adorable Lord now enjoys. We shall be accepted together
with him We are accepted, you know, in Him. We shall be accepted
by the Great Father together with Him. Is He the Beloved of
the Lord, my friend? Is He? Well, if He is the Beloved
of the Lord, does His Father's heart delight in Him? Well, as
well it may. As well it may. You know, the
Lord Jesus Christ, He served the Father's will when He was
here in this world. He did always those things that pleased the
Father. And in Him, I did too. Oh, somebody said, now you're
bragging. No, I'm bragging on Jesus. I'm in Him. He's my substitute. And if He's my substitute, if
He lived vicariously for me, then His life is my life before
God. And I accept that. I don't have
any trouble with that. That's my salvation. That's the
only salvation there is for a sinner. is to be saved in another, to
be saved through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
if he delights in Him, He'll delight in you. He'll delight
in you as His people. You shall be beloved of the Father's
soul. Is He enriched? Is Christ enriched
with all manner of blessings beyond conception? Absolutely. And did He not bless us in Him
with all spiritual blessings? Did He not? Absolutely! And we
shall enjoy them when we get there. We shall be with the Lord. So we will be blessed then as
we're there. Is Christ exalted? Oh, how lawfully
is He lifted up to sit upon a glorious high throne forever. But you
shall sit upon His throne with Him and share His exaltation
as you have in this life, as you walk with Him, shared in
His humiliation. You're going to share in his
exaltation. Now that's a tremendous thought.
Oh, the delight of thus being joined heirs with Christ, with
him in the possession of all that he possesses. Possession
of all that he possesses. Well, this is wonderful. What
is heaven? It is the place which his love suggested, which his
genius invented. which his bounty provided, which
his royalty has adorned, which his wisdom has prepared, which
he himself glorifies, in that heaven you are to be with him
forever. With him forever. You shall dwell
in the king's own palace. You know its gates of pearl and
streets of gold. shall not be too good for you
because you're going to be one with Him and you're going to
be like Him there in eternal glory. It will not be too good
for you. Another thought that impresses me is this that you
know we're not going to it's not like here we go into heaven
here's the mansions the Bible says there are many mansions
in glory the Lord Jesus said there's many mansions if we're
not so I would have told you And it's not that we're going
to go into glory, and here's the mansion where the Lord lives,
and then there's going to be a bunch of little huts back behind
the big mansion, and that's where we're going to be. No, no, no,
no, no, no. Nothing like that. Rich man up
in his house and then the tenant back and back, you see, way back
out of the way. No, no, it's not going to be
that way at all. But we're going to be with Him in the same palace
in the metropolis of the universe, if you please. God's people are
going to be with Him and they're going to be like Him. In a word,
believers are to be identified with Christ forever. And that
seems to me to be the very life and the very essence of this
text, that we're going to be with Him and we're going to be
like Him, and that is forever. Now, brethren, you know sometimes
we think about our Lord Jesus being in glory as He is now,
seated at the right hand of the Father. And we wonder about,
you know, whether we're going to be there or not. We believe
we're the Lord's people here. We wonder in our hearts, we're
disturbed often, and sometimes we have assurance, maybe, and
other times we don't have much. But you know, I believe that
the head who is Christ will not be in heaven, and the members
not be there. I believe the members will be
there. And I do not see how that Christ
can ever be without Christians. Do you? How will He be in glory
without Christians? How can there be a Savior and
no saved ones around Him? All of the saved ones will be
around Him. All the Christ-like are going
to be around Him. There shall be no elder brother
without the younger brethren. Is that another way of saying
it? Will that come across to you? I'm telling you that the
Lord's people are going to be with Him forever. We're His fullness. and there'll be no redeemer without
his redeemed. We're his people. Somebody said,
well, he wouldn't have had to save anybody. Well, now, wait
a minute. No, he wouldn't have had to save
anybody, but my friend, listen to me. Why all the work of redemption
if he didn't mean to save somebody? He meant to save a people, and
He has saved that people, and that people are going to be like
Him, with Him, predestinated to be like Him for all eternity. We're His fullness. He must have
us with Him, and that is not in any way presumption. I'm telling
you, He must have His people with Him. We are identified with
Him forever. Nothing can ever divide us from
Him. Hallelujah! We're going to be
with the Lord forever since Christ and we're one. Why should we
doubt or fear? If He in heaven had fixed His
throne, He'll fix His members there. He will. He'll fix every
one of them there. Now there are two or three practical
things that I want to suggest quickly, and we're done. One
is this. This with the Lord, we mentioned
it briefly a few minutes ago, must begin now. It must begin
now. Do you wish to be forever with
the Lord? You must be with Him by becoming
His disciple in this life, His follower in this life. None come
to be with the Lord hereafter, I want to stress it, who are
not with the Lord here in time. I want you to understand what
I'm saying. None will be with Him hereafter that are not with
Him now, as we explained earlier in the text. Next, every Christian
should seek to be more and more with Christ, for the growth and
glory of your life lies there. More and more with Him. Do you
want to have heaven below, somebody said? Do you want to have heaven
below? Be with Christ below. Be more in fellowship with Him.
Somebody said where Jesus is, is heaven there. Whether it be
here or whether it be there. where Jesus is, to His heaven. So be in fellowship with Him.
Do you want to know at once what eternal bliss is? Know it now
by living near the Lord and walking in faith with the Lord. The next
word is this. How plainly the way of life is
spelled out here is to be with the Lord. That's what it is.
That's the way of life. If you want to be saved, sinner,
you must be with the Lord. You must be with Him. There's
no other way for you to come near to Him and lay hold upon
Him by faith. But by faith, life lies right
here. Come to Him by humble faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Him. Draw near to Him
and be with Him. And lastly, and I want to impress
this upon everyone here that's a stranger to the Lord Jesus
Christ, what must it be to be without the Lord? What must it
be if it's so blessed And we spent the whole time this morning
talking about how wonderful it would be to be forever with the
Lord. But listen to me now, what must
it be to be without the Lord? What must it be to be against
the Lord? For it comes to that, you see.
It comes to that. Because he that is not with me,
Christ said, is against me. To be forever with the Lord,
banished from His love, banished from His light and life and peace
and rest and joy, what a loss will this be. What must it be
forever? Just think of it. To hate Jesus
forever. To be plotting against Jesus
Christ forever. Is this not hell? It's infinite
misery. Is this not hell? Listen to me. To be against the Lord of love
and life and light, we must turn from this fatal course. If you're
here this morning and you say, I preach, I'm not with the Lord.
I'm not with the Lord. The Lord is not with me. Believe
on Him, friend. Believe on Him, O soul. Kiss
the Son, lest He be angry and you perish from the way when
His wrath is kindled just a little. Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. Men are dying around us. Souls
are leaving this world. Souls of men and women leaving
this world. Who will be the next? Who will
be the next? Remember that old huckster that
was crying out, who will be the next? Who will be the next? My
friend, what will it be to die without the Lord? It will be
not to be with Him, It'll be just the opposite of all the
things we had to say here this morning. May the Lord own this
message. I had to bring it. I felt duty-bound
to bring these thoughts, and I felt like that the Lord would
honor it, that the Lord would use it. And I hope that in these
days when we're memorizing these verses, thanking and meditating
upon them, that we'll remember these words, and that they will impress this truth so upon our
hearts that we'll never forget it. And when that day and time
comes when we are to leave this world, that we'll be able to
comfort our own hearts. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And
to leave a good testimony. To leave a good testimony when
we're leaving this world. Let's pray. Father, in the name
of Jesus, glorify thyself, honor thyself, own your word, bless
this message, and use it, our Father, in the hearts of your
people, and especially in the coming week, as the mourners
gather. May thoughts go up to you, and
may we rejoice that you're with us now, and that we soon shall
be with you in a greater way, and that we shall be like you.
Oh, blessed Lord Jesus, David said, I shall be satisfied when
I awake in thy likeness. So shall we be satisfied. Father,
we pray for your blessing upon the bereaved, your encouragement
to the husband, to the daughters of the bereaved. May your blessing
rest upon them and to the family. In Jesus' name, Amen.