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Our scripture reading this evening is from 1 Thessalonians chapter four, beginning at verse 13 through chapter five, verse three. And since my goal is to expound this whole passage for you tonight, it's going to be very important that you keep your Bibles open in front of you and follow along as we walk our way from verse to verse. Let's hear the word of God. But I 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, 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. But, of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child. And they shall not escape. May God bless the reading of his sacred word. Dear congregation, it's not often that twice on New Year's Day your pastors are able to wish you from the pulpit God's richest blessing on you and your families and your relatives. But today is one of those unusual times where New Year's Day falls on the Lord's Day, and we get to hear two messages on how to approach the year that lies before us. And we certainly pray for you that the Holy Spirit may help all of us in this coming year to run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, laying aside the sin that so easily besets us. You know this morning I thought under the sermon that we have this mission model for our church that by the Spirit's grace we will discipline believers in Christ and we will evangelize unbelievers for God's glory. That's our goal, that's our passion. But I thought this morning the way to do that is when every one of us personally and in our families are rolling our cares on the Lord and leaning on him in all of life's challenges, ups and downs. And so that refrain we heard this morning, roll and lean, roll and lean, roll and lean. I pray God that that will be a refrain for this particular year for our congregation, that we will take it with us every day. When the fears come, when the doubts arise, say to yourself, I will roll my ways unto the Lord. I will commit myself to him and lean upon him. And you see, when you roll and lean, you then have energy, don't you? You have energy to evangelize unbelievers and to discipline yourselves in the ways of God. So let that be our goal. Let that be our resolution this year. I believe that's what Reverend Calvin Holman was saying this morning. Let this text, Commit Your Way Unto the Lord, be our resolution text. this year, and that it would grow in us a willingness to serve Christ and to follow Christ wherever he may lead us, despite our weakness, our sinfulness, our fickleness, that we would not be easily deterred from God's ways or distracted down by path meadows, as Bunyan would say, but that we would stay on the straight and narrow and lay down our lives for the sake of God's kingdom, thinking more of his kingdom. than our own comfort and our own financial gain. So my wish for you this year is that your and my passion may be to make not only our calling and vocation sure in Christ so that God's glory may be our highest goal and our deepest enjoyment, but that our lifestyle would be so contagious as we pursue this goal that it would impact our children and our grandchildren, and that this church would be set ablaze with a passion for the glory of God and the in-gathering of his kingdom. so that his amazing grace would so shine in our lives this year that we and our children would be able to say unitedly as families, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That after all is the hope, the grand hope, the glorious hope of a true Christian. And we know, we know as we begin this historic 500th anniversary year of the Reformation, that this year we'll be taking another large step, if we survive this year, closer to eternity. The Puritans used to say, New Year's Day should always remind us of the four great last things. Death, judgment, heaven, and hell. And in their meditations, they meditated more on those four things than anything else. And what a grace it would be if we would do the same. This past year, we only lost two members. That's the smallest number that I can remember. I didn't check my records, but since I've been here, just two members. That's remarkable. but we must not presume that it will be that way for another year. Jonathan Edwards said, the arrows of death fly unseen at noonday. The sharpest sight cannot discern them. That was his Puritan way of saying God can cut people down in the middle of life or when they're young as well as when they're old. And all you have to do, boys and girls, young parents and singles, just look up any obituary, just a few days, or go on internet, look at the funeral homes, or walk through a cemetery, and you will see how many people die when they're young. We've got no time to waste, especially if we're not safe, because we're all traveling rapidly to our long hope. but how great it is when you can be a true Christian and welcome the next year and say, instead of saying, oh, I'm one year closer to dying, I wish I were younger, like the world always says, what a blessing if we can say, we get to live another year and we're one step closer, one step closer to being with Jesus forever, one step closer to our sure and certain and eternal home, to ever be with the Lord. That's the hope of a Christian. A Christian has the most glorious future you can possibly imagine. It's a utopian future. You know, Satan comes and tempts you young people and says, You know, to be a Christian is kind of like putting a damper on life. No, no, no, that's satanic. That's just temptation. To be a Christian is the greatest joy this world can ever give you. And the greatest joy of all is yet to be in the land of glory when we shall ever be with the Lord. And so as Dr. Barrett said this morning, New Year's Day is a day of hope, and I want to preach to you about that hope tonight. the hope of ever being with the Lord. So our text will be from verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians 4 through 5.3. And I'll just read again just these words from the beginning of verse 16. For the Lord himself, this is really the capstone of the text, shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. I want to look with you at hope in life and death from these words, and we'll look at two things. First, the return of the Lord, verses 13 through 18, and then the day of the Lord, chapter 5, 1 through 3. So at the heart of this text is the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, he's coming back. We just commemorated his first advent, but it's a reminder, he's coming back. And you see that glorious expectation sustains every believer. In all our trials, the same God who came to Bethlehem. rose from the dead, and the same one who rose from the dead ascended into heaven, and the same person that ascended into heaven is sitting at the right hand of God, and the same person sitting at the right hand of God is coming again with a shout, a shout of victory. And this, when you can rest in this, when you can roll over on this, and lean on this, this will sustain you for every trial in this life, it will sustain you in the hour of death as well. There's a member in our church who's passed on to glory now, but she was a dear child of God. And I still remember sitting in her living room, and she was saying to me, I can't wait to be with the Lord. And she said, but my only hope, my only hope is that I don't have to go the way my mother and the way one of my sisters went, with a terrible form of cancer, painful. And that's what the Lord gave her, the same thing. And when she found out she had it, I visited her again. And this is what she said to me. She said, the Lord will help me in this trial as well. And just before she went to her last surgery, I had the privilege of being the last one to see her. I actually saw her rolled away. I could give the last prayer on that occasion with her. And I just looked at her and said, how are you doing? And she grasped my hand with strength. And she looked me straight in the eyes. And she said, whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. It is well with my soul. That's the way to live. That's the way to die. Tell you, I went home that day, pastored a lot more than I pastored. You see, when you see the truth vividly displayed in the lives of God's people, there's a reality about it. Dear young people, children, you can't push away. And you can't wipe it out of your memory bank. This is real. Christ is coming back. And the people of God are made ready for his coming. In life and in death, there is hope. He's coming with a shout. There's victory in the air. And Paul writes this, you see, to the Thessalonians. Because they were a persecuted church. They were very dear to his heart. He established this church on one of his missionary journeys. They lived in a worldly atmosphere and people persecuted them nonstop. And Paul's writing these words to comfort them. Some of them were having their blood shed for being Christians. And so Paul wants to strengthen them and give them hope and give them to see the real future. And so he applies the truth of Christ's return to them in this wonderful section of this first epistle. And what Paul does to comfort them is basically to say three things to them. Three things we need to hear today, the first day of the year, as we face the future as well. Number one, know your hope in Christ. Know your hope in Christ. Look at verse 13 and 14. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you 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. What Paul is saying here is that Christianity flourishes not in ignorance but in knowledge of the truth. Christ said, for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. You know, so many people are cynical today. They say with Pontius Pilate, what is truth? The apostle's response is right here. I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. You see, the Reformation truth we're going to be celebrating this year is grounded on this book, the Bible. And it's truth that sets us free. That's why Luther could say doctrine is heaven for my soul. Truth, I would not have you ignorant, brethren. That's how Paul introduces this whole section of comfort about eternity and about being with Jesus and the glories and the joys and the triumphs of the Christian life. He says, I wouldn't have you to be ignorant. You need to know your hope in Christ. So how are you doing tonight? How are you doing as you stepped across the threshold into 2017? Are your sins forgiven? Are you entering the new year by the grace of God with a clean slate because your last prayer last night was, Lord, wash away all the sins of this past year? Are you trusting in the blood of Christ alone? I would not have you ignorant, brethren. This is the only way to live, the only way to die. Or are you indifferent or even hostile, perhaps, to the teaching of biblical doctrine? Do you crave God's word of truth that can set you free like a baby craves milk? That's what Peter said. Desire the truth like the milk of the word. And so, The doctrine that Paul does not want them ignorant of is concerning them which are asleep. Isn't that rather surprising? Why would he talk about that? Well, because they had lost. They had lost relatives. Because the relatives were Christians. They were persecuted and killed. And Paul says, don't be discouraged concerning them which are asleep. Let me talk to you about those who are asleep. Now Paul is not saying asleep to minimize the reality and the pain of death. Paul knows the reality and pain of death. And it's perfectly proper for Christians to weep at the death of their loved ones. But not to weep uncontrollably. Not to weep in a sense that there's no hope. He says, I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. You may sorrow, but your hope is in Christ. Your hope for your lost loved ones, your hope for your own soul. And death, therefore, is but a sleep, because your loved ones are going to be raised from the dead. It's just a temporary resting place. The old divines used to call it a soft pillow awaiting the day of resurrection. Now, of course, there's no soul sleep. We're only talking about body sleep here. The body sleeps for a little while. There's no darkness or oblivion for the soul because the moment the believer dies, his soul goes to be with the Lord. And so Paul wants the Thessalonians to know that Christians who sleep in Jesus die in the Lord and are forever united with Christ in soul and in body. Westminster Confession, larger catechism rather, puts it this way. Christians, the souls of the righteous dead are made perfect in holiness and received into the highest heavens, while their bodies, which even in this death continue united to Christ, rest in their graves as in their beds until the last day. Question 86. So doctrinal ignorance, when you are ignorant of these truths, you see, can sap the joy out of the Christian life. That's what Paul is saying. Thessalonians, stop being depressed. You've lost your loved ones, but They've got a better future right now. Their soul's in glory. Their body's just sleeping for a little while. Soon, their bodies will be caught up with the Lord in the air and they'll go forever to be with the Lord. Rejoice, comfort one another with these words. That's what he's saying. Let this doctrine move you to rejoice. Know your hope is in Christ. How is that possible? This is not just a fairy tale. No, Paul says, we know that because we believe, look at verse 14, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. These words are immeasurably comforting for believers. Christ died for our sins, dear child of God. He died in our place as our substitute. So that it is as if when we come before the judgment bar of God, as if we had never sinned because he's paid for all our sins. And he's our total righteousness. He was wounded for our transgressions. The Lord has laid the iniquity, our iniquity upon him. And so God counts believers in Christ as righteous for they're justified, Romans 3, 2 Corinthians 5, by faith in Christ alone. So the gospel of Christ, the gospel of the death and resurrection of Christ, the gospel of Christ crucified is our only peace. But it's a sufficient peace. It's a glorious peace. It's a triumphant peace. It does everything we need to have done for us. His blood is shed for the remission of our sins. And so Paul says, your loved ones have been taken away. You can be sad about that. Yes, it's difficult. but don't sorrow as those without hope, even if you are taken away. You can face death with courage and peace, for death comes to Christians not as God's avenger against their sin, but as God's servant to carry them home. Heidelberg Catechism says it this way, question 42, our death is not a satisfaction for our sins, but only an abolishing of sin and a passageway to eternal life. Oh, what a glorious thing this is. The gospel is an announcement, says Paul, that Christ is coming back. Even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Christ's resurrection is not just for himself. He's the forerunner. He's going to come back and resurrect everyone. And all the believers are going to go to be with him as his brethren. He, the firstborn among many brethren, who has our flesh in heaven now, is going to bring our flesh and soul into heaven with him soon. And so the very fact that he sits at the right hand of the Father is our blessed pledge and guarantee that as sure as he is there, so surely we shall be there, dear believer, soon. That's the beauty of the Christian life. Christ is always ahead of us. Christ has paved the way for us. He's the breaker. He doesn't die as a private person. He doesn't get resurrected from the dead as a private person. He's not sitting at the right hand of God, said Thomas Goodwin, as a private person, but he's coming, and he did all these things as a public person, in public display before all the world, willing to be the second Adam, representing the new humanity. And Goodwin then goes on to say something like this. He said, it's like there's two huge giants in this world. One is called the first Adam and the other big giant is the second Adam. And he said, picture that they both have a large belt, and there's millions and millions of hooks on their belt. And everyone is born in the first Adam. Everyone is hooked onto the first Adam. Everyone is stained with sin. Everyone is headed to destruction. But God comes with his Holy Spirit, and he plucks us, he unhooks us from the first Adam, and he hooks us into the belt of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. So we're in him now, and we're represented by this public person. when we, by faith, are united to Him, and we're inseparable from Him from then on in. So the big question, not only on New Year's Eve, and not only on New Year's Day, but the big question every day of our lives is, am I hooked to the belt of the second Adam? Am I by faith trusting in Him alone? Have I rolled over, committed my entire soul, my body, my life, this life and the life to come all upon Jesus? Is He my all and in all? And can I say, though my faith isn't what I wish it were, and though my knowledge of Jesus isn't what I wish it were, though I come short on every hand, thou knowest all things, Lord. Thou knowest that my trust is in Jesus, and my love is in Jesus. I love him who first loved me. And you're hooked never to be unhooked again. You don't need to sorrow, then as those without hope, because you believe that Jesus died and rose again. And so your faith is on a good foundation. Death may strike you down, but Christ will raise you up. And as surely as you died in him, you will rise in him. And so you have nothing to fear. That's point one, Paul says. Know your hope is in Christ. Point two is believe Christ's promise of resurrection. Really believe in it. Let it sink deep into your soul. Listen to what he says. Look with me now at verses 15 through 17. If you have your Bibles open before you, I hope you do. For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, so it's not his own word, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, that's an old-fashioned King James Version word that means go first before, them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And then here's the capstone of it all. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now, this is really what you call the parousia. That's a Greek word, sounds like a big word, but the parousia is simply meaning, it's just the coming, the arrival, the event of Jesus Christ coming again. He will come. The parousia is not a secret rapture like so many Pentecostals say and you hear on the radio so many times if you listen to any gospel on the radio. It's a public event, it's not a secret event. But this is the parousia. He's coming again. If you want to call it the rapture, this is the rapture, but it's not a secret one. It's a public one. He'll come down with a shout that everyone will hear, Paul says. The shout here in the Greek means a loud command, an authoritative summons, that every grave would be open, that his people would be raised and gathered to him, as Psalm 50 also says. And then secondly, Paul says, there not only will be a shout, a command to arise from the dead, but it'll come down with the voice of the archangel. Now the only archangel named in the Bible is Michael, Jude 9. And Daniel 12 links the coming of Michael with the resurrection of the dead. Christ will come with his angels when he brings his kingdom. That's what he tells us in Matthew 13, Matthew 16. Thousands times tens of thousands of angels. But apparently, one of the archangels, whether it be Michael or one of the other, if there's seven of them, or a small number of them, one of them will be shouting out this voice as well. Arise from the dead. Christ is here. And then thirdly, Paul says Christ will come down with the trump of God. It's a very interesting thing. There'll be a loud noise, the trump of God. You know, when I was living in Sacenter, my first ministry, and right across the street from us, there was one of these loud, blaring noises that would just fill the whole village, the whole city, at noon every day. And we had a family with a stain. I didn't know about it. I didn't warn them about it. One of the girls was outside. She's like nine years old. And this siren goes off at noontime, so loud. Little girl runs in the house. She said, Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. She was actually a God-fearing girl. And she thought for sure this was the trump of God. But you see, that's what will happen, Paul says. And he goes on in chapter five and says, it will happen like a thief in the night. The trump will sound. Everyone will hear it. And what an amazing sound it will be. You know, the Bible speaks a lot about a trumpet, the sounding of a trumpet. God came down to Mount Sinai with the sounding of a trumpet, Exodus 19. Under the law of Moses, the priests used trumpets to call the people together, whether for worship or for war, or to announce the year of jubilee. And Psalm 47 tells us that Christ ascends into heaven to take his throne and to rule the nation, saying, God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. And you know that when he went up, the angels came by and stood by the apostles and said, as you have seen him go up on the clouds, so you will see him come again on the great day. Zechariah 9 depicts the coming of the Lord to save his people this way, the Lord shall be seen over them and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet and shall go with the whirlwinds of the south. So this loud cry, this voice of the archangel, this great trumpet, it all signifies one thing, a great triumph, a great liberation, great eternal worship in the presence of God for every believer. They shall gather together, the elect, from all the four winds of the earth, from one end of heaven to the other. And what a day, what a day it will be. Believers shall finally see the Lord who loved them and gave himself up for them. It will be a wedding day, a victory day, a coronation day, all wrapped up in one as the king comes for his bride. the skies will open in majesty and in glory. Christ will come with visible glory. Faith will become sight and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. My friend, if you're a believer, this will be the biggest day in your life ever. Paul says that even death will not make us miss it. He says in verse 15, that we which are alive shall not prevent, shall not go first or go before them which are asleep in the graves. The dead in Christ shall rise first. If we're still alive, they will arise and they will ascend and then we ascend. and will meet the Lord in the air. They will be the first to rise again in glory. Don't be discouraged by their death, says Paul. They're gonna be the first to be with the Lord. He's coming. Hear his footsteps. He's on the way. That's what Paul's saying. Live by faith, not by sight. And then in verse 17, you see, we who are still alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. You see, though those who are yet alive will not need to be raised from the dead, in a moment our bodies will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. and we'll be transformed into his glorious likeness. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Oh, what a public event this rapture will be. And so we shall ever be with the Lord, Paul concludes. No more death. Heard about it last night. No more painful separation. We'll be together with the one who is our life. We'll see the king in his beauty. His presence will be as streams of living water to us. His glory will be our reward. We will gaze, gaze, says Revelation 19, upon his face. You know, I gave you this illustration before, but let me give it to you again, because it's important we grasp this right now. You know, there were two students from our school, from an African country, and one was brand new, and he... The older one, the older student brought the younger student to me and introduced him to me. And maybe you remember me telling you this, the student just kind of glanced at me like this and just kept looking away. And the older student said, no, no, no. He said, you're in America now, you're in America now. In Africa, it's an insult to stare at a teacher in the face. But in America, it's an insult not to look him in the face. That's how the poor man, he tried to, and he'd look maybe just a half a second, or maybe three quarters of a second, and he looked away again. He just couldn't get used to it. It was too much for him. But you see there, there, it will no longer just be little glimpses and blinks and glances as Samuel Rutherford complained of in this life. But there we will be able to look him full in the face with no sense of guilt, no sense of any impediment, no obstacle in the way, clean slate, as pure and holy as Christ is pure and holy. And we will rejoice in him as a perfect bride with a perfect bridegroom. And we will gaze into his face with perfect love. Heaven, a world of love. Edwards described it as. And it will never end. And you never have to unlock your gaze. You never have to look away from this beautiful Savior and seeing Him, we will become like Him. We shall see Him as He is. What a glorious thing. You know, Reverend Kelderman, quoted Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress so beautifully last night. There's another sweet part there that pertains to the same thing. You remember Bunyan's old Mr. Standfast, just before he dies, he says this, I'm going nigh to see that head that was crowned with thorns and that face that was spat upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight and shall be with him in whose company I delight myself. You can't put it into words. That's why McShane, McShane said, when I see thee as thou art, then Lord shall I fully know, not till then how much I owe. When I see thee as thou art, we will say the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, that he will be the most wonderful sight in heaven, it will be the center of heaven. The sight of Jesus is heaven. You know, many years ago, Samuel Rutherford wrote to one of his correspondents, Lady Kenmure, and he used the illustration of a marriage, and he wrote this in his letter. The bride taketh not by 1,000 degrees so much delight in her wedding garment as she doth in her bridegroom. So we in the life to come shall not be so much affected by the glory that goes about us as we are with the bridegroom's joyful face and presence. And cousins later, Poeticize that this way, and you know the hymn very well. The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but at my king of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but at his piercing hand. The Lord is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. And then thirdly, Encourage each other with this truth. Paul says, know your hope is in Christ, believe Christ's promise, and then encourage each other with it. Talk to each other about it. Wherefore, verse 18 says, comfort one another with these words. May I ask you a question? You're a believer. When's the last time you've comforted another believer? with the second coming of Jesus. When's the last time you spoke to a fellow believer and said, it's okay my friend, we're on our way to glory. The best is yet to be. We're going to be with Jesus. Don't say it flippantly, say it weightily, say it beautifully, say it warmly, say it personally. Yes. That's it, you see. You don't speculate when the Lord's going to come, but you talk about the comfort of his coming. Wherefore, comfort one another. The word comfort actually can be translated here, exhort one another. It's your duty to do. You're to encourage fellow believers. You're to talk to each other about this. There's good news. This is an essential part of the good news of the gospel. As surely as January 1 leads to 2017, as surely as December 31 pulled the curtain on 2016, so surely, run away, just a few steps away from eternal glory, where there are no curtains, where there are no walls, where there's no end, where there's an everlasting future. And you see, the times, the times in which we live, Call for us, these worldly times, these times in which the world is clamoring, influencing you, impacting you, in a thousand ways, in all different kinds of media, to focus on the here and now, to focus on the things of sight, to focus on the stuff and possessions of this world. And Paul's saying, no, no, no. No, don't focus on this world. Comfort one another with these truths. the future, the glory, being with Jesus forever. He exhorts you. He says to the Thessalonians just two chapters earlier, you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children that you would walk worthy of God who has called you to his kingdom and glory. So the doctrine of the end times is not an escapism thing. You don't say, oh well, life is so hard and sin is so burdensome. I just want to think about heaven. I want to escape the responsibilities of this life. That's not what Paul's saying. Paul is saying, you remind one another. Like the author said in Hebrews 10, consider one another to provoke each other to love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching, the great day approaching. So in the fellowship of the church, we remind ourselves we have here no continuing city. So as the day approaches, we actually encourage each other with the truth of glory, and that truth admonishes us now to go out and abound in the work of the Lord. People are going to hell all around us. People are going to hell even among us. We've got a lot of work to do. So we're to do our duty out of love until the Lord returns. And then we have to give an account to him of all that we've done. All that we've said, all that we've thought. Therefore, my beloved brethren, Paul says at the very end of his long chapter of 57 verses on the resurrection of Jesus, he adds verse 58, he's saying, what does this all mean that Christ is risen from the dead? And his answer is this, therefore, because he's risen, my beloved brethren, Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So what is Paul saying there and here? He's saying since Christ is coming, comfort yourselves with that, but since Christ is coming also, get out and get on your helmet and your boots and your work outfit and go out and work on the messy building of the church and the messy building of this world by going out, evangelizing, talking to people, living lives that are contagious. Do the work of the kingdom. Oh, what a glorious thing the gospel is. Comfort one another with these things. We're on our way home. We're on our way home. Everyone knows how good it is to get home. We're on our way home. Heaven is where God most clearly reveals himself. Where you see God as he really is in the fullness of his being. Heaven is home. That's where we want to be. I want to see God in his fullness. I want to know him better. I want to worship him more purely. I'm on my way home. Comfort one another with these words. Heaven is where God's glory is revealed with peculiar and special clarity. It's where his perfection shine in unrivaled splendor and beauty. It's where God is unveiled, where God is clearly seen in magnificence. It's the place of the glory of God. And that's where a believer wants to be. That's why we say of a believer when they die, she's gone to glory. We say that more than we say she's gone to heaven. Heaven is glory. Heaven is where Jesus is, where the triune God is. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, says David. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Glory is the weightiness of God, the beauty, the sobriety, yes, but also the joy and the strength and the fullness of God, being with God, reconciled with God, united with God, communing with God. I'm created for thy glory. Heaven is the arena of the glory of God. Comfort one another with these words. But, says Paul, of the times and the seasons, chapter five now, verse one, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. Unfortunately, the people who did chapter divisions, which of course are not inspired, divided this into a new chapter, when really it's just a continuation. Paul's switching the camera focus from the return of the Lord to the day of the Lord in terms of the actual suddenness of the judgment. That's what he's doing here. But it's really the same theme. It's just addressing two different topics of the same theme, the rapture of the church. the public rapture, and now the day of the Lord. The first pertains to our salvation, and the second to the judgment of the world. That happens at the same time, not at a later time after the great tribulation, but at the same time. And so we should not drive a wedge between the rapture of the church and the day of the Lord, for they both happen at Christ's return to earth in visible glory. And so what Paul says here is really two things in verses one through three. The first is he says, don't trouble yourself about the times. Stop asking the question, exactly when is Jesus going to return? No one knows that anyway. Calculating dates is futile, it's dishonoring to the Lord. All you need to know is that he's going to come as a thief in the night. That's what he says. of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. And the metaphor of a thief coming in the middle of the night, suddenly, surprisingly, Paul wants to teach us two lessons from that. First, it tells us that Christ's coming will sneak up on us. Thieves don't go around broadcasting when they plan to arrive. That's bad for business. They come under the cover of darkness, hoping to catch us unawares and asleep. And at night, we often don't realize someone's breaking into our home until the noise disturbs us. And the job is often done. You see, same way, Christ's coming will not be known until he breaks in upon our world with his glory. And so you need to always be ready. That's how Jesus applied this truth. Be always ready. For the Son of Man cometh as a thief in the night. And the second lesson of the thief is that Christ comes to take away the things of this world. That's what Peter says in 2 Peter 3.10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night into which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. The elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Everything the world values will be taken away in a flash. However, Christ will not be a thief to believers. Paul writes in verse four, but ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You see, you, if you're a believer and you're living, not backsliding, and you're living toward Jesus, you're expecting the day. It won't overtake you as a thief, he says in verse four. And why? Well, he writes that later in chapter five, verses nine and 10. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. So if we know he's coming, and we know his coming is our joy, he's not like a thief, he's like a friend. Our Savior, our Lord, is coming. But then Paul speaks especially to those who are not believers. That's his second thought in these first three verses. Look at verse three now. He says, do expect, don't trouble yourself about the times, but do expect sudden judgment. When they shall say, this is the unconverted now, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child. and they shall not escape. So Paul's saying, you believers, you expect Jesus to come, you welcome his coming, you long for his coming, but you unbelievers, you're not ready. You think you're safe in your wickedness, you think you're safe in your nominal religion, you think you're safe in your orthodox religion that doesn't know the Lord Jesus personally? No. You're not safe. You're not safe. How can sinners have peace until they repent and are reconciled to God? You will not realize your danger until God's judgment falls on you with sudden destruction. Paul says, sudden destruction. These are awful words. Jesus says the same thing, doesn't he? In Matthew 24, as the days of Noah were, so shall the day of the coming of the Son of Man be. As in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. And if anything, Paul's picture is even more graphic. He said it'll be like a woman in childbirth. In the midst of her travail, Jesus will come. The pain and the agony and the sense that it's too late will be overwhelming. A woman's travail ends in the joy of holding a newborn baby. The travails of believers will end like that. to be in Christ with this incredible joy when the child is brought to the mother. The bonding between the two is just unbelievable. A man stands outside the inner circle for a moment, cannot grasp it fully, but it's an unbelievably beautiful sight to behold when a child and a mother bond with each other in the moment of birth. And so what Paul is saying is, what a contrast between a believer and an unbeliever. When a believer sees Christ coming for him, to take him, to be with him, there's a bonding that goes beyond words, a bonding that is unspeakable, full of joy, like a woman giving birth to a child. But oh, the pain, the pain of an unbeliever who's not ready to meet the Lord in the air. It shall be awful. Mountains, hills, fall on us and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. Paul just says it this way, they, end of verse three, they shall not escape. My friend, you're alive in 2017. You may not be alive tomorrow. You may not see the end of this year. Your name may be in the necrology, December 31, 2017, if the Lord tarries. And I say to you in love, you will not escape this awful pain, this awful wrath of God, if you refuse to repent and believe the gospel. If you shut the door on the invitations and the offerings of the gospel, you shut the door you will perish forever. You can better shut the door on all your false hopes and all your misplaced confidences. You can't just wait and see and hope that it's going to be well with your soul because you've come to church faithfully, because you've been a decent parent or because you put your kids in Plymouth Christian or because you You're a little better than your neighbor next door who mows his lawn on Sunday. Because you're immoral and because people around you like you and think you're a Christian. You need to know the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to repent before him. You need to roll over all your sins upon him and plead for mercy. and believe in him and trust him and cast yourself upon him. Say, if I perish, I perish, but I'm going to perish at his feet. It's the only way to live. It's the only way to die. It's the only way to be ready for this thief in the night. Otherwise, you will not escape. Let me close this sermon with just a few practical lessons. Number one, the beauty of this comfort tonight is not just that Christ, like when a baby meets its mother the first time, there's this bonding, and that bonding grows and grows, but it's not always as intense as it is at that first moment. It won't be like that, it'll be better. It'll be better with Jesus. Jesus will keep revealing himself more and more. The bonding will keep growing and growing into what the old divines used to call beatific vision of a sacred union that goes far beyond what human words can explain. A union of love and communion that goes far beyond the bonds between a husband and a wife and a parent and a child. You can never fully grasp it. But if that's true, then we need to spend more time meditating about heaven now. More time reaching for deeper and richer fellowship with Christ now. Longing for his coming again more now. The more heavenly our lives are here, the more we are fit for earthly good. It was said of the old Puritan Richard Sibbes, of that blessed man, let this just praise be given, that heaven was in him before he was in heaven. You know, Spurgeon, had someone come to him once and give him this illustration. He said there was a young prince who one morning was found trying on his father's gold crown before his father got up. His father, the king, was quite annoyed with him. But Spurgeon said, go, try on your crown, your father won't mind. Try it on as often as you can, because we must be more in heaven while we're here on earth. Second lesson I leave with you is this, don't, if you're a believer, don't be overly fearful of dying. Yes, dying is the last terror. It's the king of terrors. But if Jesus knows you, and you know him, he knows your name, he'll put his arm around you. He'll say welcome to you. He'll bring you home. You'll be with him forever. You will cross the Jordan, and he will meet you in the river, and he'll carry you across. Don't despair. Don't despair. And thirdly, and lastly, you can't get to heaven without Jesus. That's what this whole thing is all about. Heaven and Christ are nearly synonyms. You can't reject Christ and go to heaven. You can't keep going on in your pew, rejecting the offer of Christ and say, oh, I hope someday it may happen, and not even know exactly what you're talking about when you say you hope that something will happen. You can't keep doing that. You will die. And you will be lost forever. You understand? If you're not in Christ. So what's necessary? You've heard it all your lifetime. Misery, deliverance, gratitude. You bring your sins, just as you are a miserable sinner, and you know you're a miserable sinner. You bring them to the cross, and you cast them at Jesus' feet, and you say, Lord, I can't go on without a Savior. And you trust Him. If you can't trust him, you ask him for grace to trust him, and you won't let him go. You say, Lord, I've got to die. I've got to meet God. I can't live well. I can't die well without a Savior. I need a Savior. Have mercy upon me. Son of David, have mercy upon me. And once you know that your only hope is in Christ, then you see, you just want to live to his glory. You want to live out of gratitude. Don't look for a special, special, extraordinary conversion. Look for Jesus. You can't get to heaven without him. You can't live without him. You can't die without him. You can't have real joy without him. Seek his face. May this be the year, yes, may this be the night where you say, I can't go through another year without the one thing needful, Jesus, be everything to me, and he will be forever. Amen. Gracious God, please bless this word. Please bless both sermons today and the Mandarin worship service. Oh, please, Lord, use it for the unsaved and use it for the saved and help us to go forward in thy strength. Comfort it. by these words and exhorted to flee to Jesus every day of our lives, every day. We need forgiveness every day, Lord. Help us to go to him 1,000 times, 10,000 times in 2017. Son of David, Son of David, have mercy, have mercy, have mercy on me. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Hope in Life and Death
(1) The return of the Lord; (2) The day of the Lord.
Sermon ID | 1229161856340 |
Duration | 1:00:08 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday - PM |
Bible Text | 1 Thessalonians 4:13 |
Language | English |
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