And we've been talking about this event on the horizon, this thing called the rapture. There's coming a day when literally hundreds of millions of Christians will immediately and instantaneously vanish from planet Earth. They're going to be translated, transported from earth to heaven. It is a wonderful truth. The Bible calls this church our blessed hope. There's coming a day when we're going to be removed from this earth before God's day of wrath. Now much of what we'll talk about in the coming weeks as we talk about the tribulation period and the Antichrist, all of that, listen, you're going to escape it. Amen? Matter of fact, the Bible said we're not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation. through our Lord Jesus Christ. That word salvation has the idea of deliverance. God's going to deliver us out of this world before His wrath is poured out on an unbelieving world. This world will not get by with what it done to Jesus Christ. It will not. God is once again going to deal with the nation of Israel. We're going to look at that when we come to the tribulation period. But thank God, I'm not looking for signs tonight. I'm not looking for the Antichrist. I'm not trying to figure out who he is and identify him. Because listen, we're looking for the Son, the Lord Jesus, to come for us from heaven. Look what he says in I Thessalonians 4 verse number 13, the most definitive passage in all of the Bible on what's next, the rapture of the church. Notice what he says. For if, that is an emphatic sense, that's a clause that has the idea of since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus, those believers who have went on before us, Will God bring with Him? For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, not my word, it's God's word, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent. We're not going to keep them in the ground. We're not going to go 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," there's our two words, caught up, together, snatched out, together with them in the clouds, "...to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord." Never to depart from Him again. That word ever means always. Verse 18, Wherefore comfort one another with these words. We've learned, Christian, as we've been talking about what's next, that we need to be rapture ready. And this is our third installment if we've been working our way through this great doctrinal truth. And we've learned in our study that the rapture is a sure event, that Jesus told His disciples before He went back to heaven that He would come again. He said, I will come again and receive you. We're going to go up to meet Him. I'm going to receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. We may be parted for a while, but we're going to be together forever is what the Lord says. And so it is a sure event. The Lord said it. And listen church, what we learned this morning from the wise men, God always keeps His Word. Amen? Secondly, we learned it was a signless event. There's no signs. No need to be looking for the signs. We sing songs about the signs of the times and the signs of His appearing. And we want to recognize that all signs point to the return of the Lord's coming to the earth not His coming for His saints. When He comes in the clouds, He steps out into the atmospheric heavens and receives us up to Himself. It's a signless event. It's imminent. Doesn't necessarily mean soon, but it does mean inevitable. I don't know when it's going to be. You don't know when it's going to be. Nobody else knows when it's going to be. But in a sudden moment of time, we're going to be translated to heaven. It will happen suddenly. The Bible says in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye in an instant, less than a nanosecond, will be snatched from earth to heaven. And then it's a surprise. Listen, it ought not catch you by surprise. It ought not catch me by surprise. Well, the Bible said we're to be looking for the Lord. We're to be watching for His coming every day of our lives. We ought to be looking for Jesus to come, living in light of the Lord's coming. But it's going to catch this world by surprise. He will come as a thief in the night when it's least expected, and then the world will be overtaken. in a day of wrath. And then number five, we want to know it's a selective event. We learned that last week that this pertains to church believers only. Those who are saved from the day of Pentecost unto the rapture. That group that make up the body and the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one day we're going to be forever married to the Lord. And then here's where we ended last week. It is a sequential event. A sequential event. Although it's going to happen suddenly and instantaneously, and these events that I'm going to preach happen simultaneously, there's also a sequence to it. We talked about the return or a return. We saw that in verse number 16. For the Lord Himself, He's not going to send an angel. He's not going to send someone else. He's coming for us Himself, shall descend from heaven with a shout. that there are sounds that will announce His coming, a shout, the command to get up. There's going to be the voice of the archangel, the cry to the satanic forces to give up. Also the graves to give up the dead and then the call to go the last trump, a trumpet of victory as we're going to be forever, forever caught up to be with the Lord. And friend, listen, we are saved to sin no more. Amen? It's going to be a day of victory in the life of every Christian. But also we notice there's going to be a resurrection. Notice what he said, verse 16, the last phrase, And the dead in Christ shall rise first. That means all of our loved ones who knew the Lord and they're already in heaven, that there's coming a day they're going to come out of the grave. When Jesus comes... Listen, I don't know that... We like to use terminology like the graves are going to burst open. I don't necessarily know that you'll walk to a cemetery and tombstones are going to be knocked over and dirt's going to be flying up and holes in the ground and coffins laid open. I don't know about all of that. God doesn't have to do that. You say, preacher, why? Because Jesus in that new body, He appeared in rooms. He walked right through a door, right through a wall. I mean, there's nothing. It's a different kind of body. And I believe it can come right up through the coffin and the grave liner or whatever, and the ground, come right up through that and be reconstituted into a resurrection body. Listen, the Lord may do that, but He doesn't have to do that, right? But here's what we do know, is when we plant the bodies of our loved ones, that is not the end. There's coming a day we're going to see them again. Amen? The Bible said that we'll be clothed with our house which is from heaven. It's a new body. The Bible said flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. This body is not suited for a heavenly body. It knows sickness and sorrow and sin and disease and death. Friend, it's a weak body. It's a mortal body. But thank God we're going to receive a body like it to its glorious body that knows no sickness and no pain. Hey, this body's corruptible. That body's incorruptible. Amen? It's a body that's suited for a heavenly environment. And so the bodies of the saints are referred to as being asleep three times in our text, verse 13, verse 14, and verse 15. Look, if you would, please, in verse number 13. He said, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. He's not talking about the soul sleeping in that body. Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about our loved ones laying in the grave till the resurrection day. That is a misnomer. That is not the truth. If that soul is in the grave sleeping with the body, how can it come back with Jesus? The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The moment our loved ones close their eyes in death, they're immediately with the Lord Jesus. Isn't that a blessing? They just change addresses. And the souls of our departed loved ones will come back with the Lord. They'll be reunited with the resurrection body. Notice what he says, verse 15, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God. So when the Lord comes, He brings back the souls of our departed loved ones, those believers that knew the Lord throughout the history of the church. Then look down, if you would, please, in verse number The dead in Christ, those who place their faith in Jesus, shall rise first. Somebody said, Why are they coming up first? They've got six feet further to go. Now, I don't know if that's the truth or not, but we know they're going to be reconstituted, and that body's going to be reconstituted into a new body like the Lord's body. It's going to be not a reconstructed body, but a resurrected body. One that's raised in incorruption, raised in glory. It was sown a natural body. It's raised a spiritual body. There's a natural body. There's a spirit, a house. Not made with hands that's in the heavens waiting. Wait, well listen, I can't wait to have a body that knows no pain and sorrow and hurt, all the aches and pains, all the snap, crackle and pop of our joints. All of that is one day going to be gone. Isn't that a wonderful thing? I tell our guys on staff, the young ones, alright? Brother Vernon always gives me an amen. Hey, your day's coming. You may not be snap, crackle and popping today, but you live long enough, you will. You will. You may not wake up stiff today, but you live long enough. That day is going to come. You will wake up stiff, okay? And you've got to work those joints out when you get up and get everything moving. It takes just a little bit longer. You say, preacher, what is it? That's the groans for glory. Our body's grown in for that new house that God's prepared for us like it is a glorious body. And then there's going to be a redemption. What do you mean by that, preacher? A redemption. It's what the Bible calls the redemption of the body. Do you realize that right now we are redeemed souls living in unredeemed bodies? My soul's redeemed. I'm heaven-bound, like Mace Jackson said with the hammer down. But my body... is not redeemed. I still have a sinful nature. I still get sick. I have infirmity and weakness. I get tired. All of those things with our body, but it's unredeemed. The redemption of the body takes place when the Lord comes and we get the new body. In your notes is Philippians chapter 3 verses 20 and 21. For our conversation, our citizenship is in heaven. from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." And so the dead are going to be raised and the living will be changed. We're going to receive a new body. Look what verse 17 says. Would you look at it? then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." The living are going to be changed. So it is coming, the dead are raised, the living are changed. Alive and remain refers to that generation of believers who will be present on earth when Jesus comes. I always tell Bible college students when I sat there, especially freshmen, and I can't tell you, you have to experience and understand what I'm talking about. But when you're a young preacher, you're longing for some things. You're longing for that day you pastor your first church, or you make it to the mission field, or you work or go into evangelism, and you're serving and preaching and doing. You're preparing for that future ministry. And every generation of the Bible, you're just saying, Lord, hold off till I get that first church. I want my name on the sign. Lord, till I can get to that mission field. Or maybe young people saying, Lord, you know I want to be married, so hold off just a little bit. I just have to say there's going to be a generation of preachers, of Bible college students that will not make it to their first ministry when Jesus comes. It's just going to happen. There's going to be a generation of believers that's going to be taken to heaven without dying. We're going to be like Enoch and Elijah who will escape death. Friend, listen. I'm going to use old Mace Jackson again. I'm not looking for the undertaker. I'm looking for the upper taker. How many of you want to say amen right there? I prayed the other day. I was talking to the Lord and I said, Lord, if it would please you, let 2024 be a year that Calvary Baptist Church didn't lose one member in death. That was my prayer. That was my prayer. We've mourned the loss of so many of our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus in these last years. My heart has been grieved and ached. It's not something that we take lightly. I love these people. We've given our lives to care for people. They're our family. You're our family. When they go to heaven, there's deep loss. And I know it's not the same as those that are their immediate family, but there's loss there. And I said, Lord, let there be a year, 2024, let that be a year that not one believer at Calvary Baptist Church goes to heaven unless you come for all of us at one time. How about that prayer? Friend, listen to what I Corinthians 15, verse 51 says. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Not every believer is going to die, but every believer will be changed. That word change is the word metamorphosis. It's like the caterpillar going into the cocoon and coming out on the other side, a beautiful butterfly. I'm just going to go ahead and go on record. I may not look like much now, but listen, there's a better day ahead. Amen? There's a better day ahead. One day I'm going to sing like some of these guys can sing here in the church. You know, right now, nobody asks me to sing. They don't. But one day, one day, that's going to change. At the Lord's command, the dead will be raised and the living will be changed and together we'll be called up to meet the Lord in the air. That word meet in verse 17 means face to face with. Do you realize at that moment, Christian, your faith will become sight? Oh, what a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. The words caught up means to snatch out. It means to catch away, to take by force. God's going to snatch us away. In a sudden moment of time we'll be translated from earth to glory. And then there's a reunion. There's a reunion. Look what he says in verse number 17, last phrase. And so shall we ever, always be with the Lord. Friend, listen, never to be separated from Him again. Listen, when we meet our loved ones on the other side, we'll never be separated from them again. What hope. What hope that we have. I'm so glad. And I realize that there are people who know the Lord, but they don't believe right in certain areas. And I understand that. My heart goes out to them. I used to work with a guy. He was in Adventist. I believe he was saved. And he wasn't a Seventh-day Adventist. He was an Adventist. And he believed that when his loved ones died, that they went in the ground and slept with their body. And one day Jesus is going to come. We're going to all get up and all of that and everything. And I thought, how sad to think of your loved one laying in a cold, coffin in the ground. I don't bring any hope and encouragement to anybody, does it? Oh, but know that when my loved one breathed their last, when our brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus breathed their last, they were immediate with the Lord. We were separated for a moment down here, but friend, when Jesus comes, we'll never be separated from them again. There's mamas, mamas that never held a baby, never held a baby. That baby went on to be with the Lord before it was born. But I'm telling you, there's a day coming you'll never be separated from that child again. They'll be there to greet you when Jesus comes. Listen, I just want to say, church, we have hope. Now somebody makes the question. I'm not going to go into depth with it tonight. It would be an entire message about whether or not children who have not reached an age of being able to be saved to understand would they go to heaven or not at the rapture. I'm going to tell you what my persuasive belief is. The Bible doesn't definitively say, but I believe there's areas of Scripture that we can draw from that helps us understand that. Preacher, when the rapture I'm saved, but my baby... Will it be left here when I go to heaven? Number one, God is merciful. I don't believe God would leave a defenseless infant and take its parents and leave it there to suffer and die with no one to care for it. Number one. Number two, when David's baby died, the baby born to him in Bathsheba died, he made this statement. He said, I'm paraphrasing, he can't come to me, but I will go to him. You know what he was saying? I'm going to go where he was. You know what David's saying? That baby is safe with the Lord. The Bible says that our families are sanctified because of believing partners and believing parents. Here's where the question comes in. Do all children go up or is it just of the saved? I don't have the answer to all of that. Have you ever noticed there's a whole lot of people that can ask a whole lot of questions? And there's some of them we're not going to know all the answers to. But here's what I think. See there's those who believe that the children... Now listen boys and girls. If God's been dealing with your heart about being saved, that means you know you need to be saved. That means if Jesus would come and you've not been saved, you'll be left. And you need to be saved. But those children that are not there yet, they don't understand. They don't have the ability yet, the cognitive faculty to understand and believe. And God's merciful. Because I've got parents right now, your wheels are turning. I wonder if my child's there. Let me just tell you something. God is merciful and just. And He knows when that child has had opportunity to be saved and when they have it. And God's not going to arbitrarily send anybody's child to hell. or leave them to face the judgment, the tribulation period. I want to calm the fears of parents in our room, but we ought to be evangelizing our children all the time. In family devotions, we would talk about the rapture. When we would read the Bible, we would come to that passage and my children would say, well, mom and dad, well, they would say, dad, will we go? And I say, honey, I don't know. Are you saved? Are you saved? I never gave them a false hope. I always impressed upon them that saved children. Because if they're old enough to ask that question, they may be old enough and understand enough to be saved. And I don't want to leave any doubt in their mind about whether or not they need to be saved. And so evangelize your children. Now that doesn't mean that you force a decision. Let the Lord do that. Let the Lord do that. And if your child's asking questions, don't force the decision. They may not be ready yet. But at that time God will deal with the heart of your child and bring them to themselves if they're willing to put their faith in Him. Amen? Parents, grandchildren. Listen, I encourage you. The moment I saw Caleb Garraway's book I already bought three copies. I pulled them right off the table. I bought them for my nephew that's got two brand new twins that was just born into the world just in the last month. They're in a NICU unit getting ready to come out here soon, hopefully before Christmas. And both of our nieces on my wife's side of the family have little children. And we bought them that book not only to evangelize that child, but to evangelize mom and dad. Now most of them in our family are saved, but not all of them. We're praying for them to know the Lord. And I said, God, give us a way to witness to our family. Here's a way to witness to my family. Because what parent's not going to read a Christmas story book to their children and they're reading the gospel to their child to guess who else is getting the gospel? They are. Isn't that good stuff? And so utilize every opportunity. Can I tell you that was $45 well spent. That was nothing because you can't put a price tag on a soul. And so there are those who say, Preacher, you've not finished your thought. You've all over the place. And I understand that. The game don't start until 820. I'm not going to preach that long. But anyway, there are some Bible teachers that believe that the children of saved will go up, but the children of the unsaved will be left to face the judgments of the tribulation period. You say, preacher, where do you lean on that? I don't have scripture, but I believe that children before the age of accountability are safe in Jesus because if the children of unsaved moms and dads are aborted in the womb, do you know where that baby goes? It goes to be with Jesus. If that child tragically dies in an accident or has cancer and it has not the ability to believe, that child goes to be with Jesus and I'm of the persuasion that those children that are before the age of accountability, that they'll be snatched out and taken to heaven. That is where I stand on that because I just believe God's merciful. Now if you differ, you can be hard-hearted if you want to. All right, let's move on from there. I'm kidding. I'm kidding, okay? All right, number seven. This is the last thing I want to share with you. The rapture is a strengthening event. It's a strengthening event. Let me give you this real quickly tonight. First of all, it's going to challenge us to remain faithful and steadfast to the Lord, even in times of difficulty and persecution. I Corinthians 15.58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Let me help you understand something tonight. No generation of Christians since Jesus went back to heaven ever looked for a hole in the ground. Every generation of Christians, although we're 2,000 years this side of the promise of Jesus, have looked for the Lord to come and to take them to glory. Let's remain faithful. If we believe Jesus could come at any moment, it ought to move us to a life of faithfulness. Amen? Number two, it should purify us. I John 2.28 says, And now little children abide in Him. That means remain in fellowship with Him, that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. Do you know what that just tells me right there? That there's going to be some Christians that when Jesus comes and they meet Him, they're going to be ashamed. because of how they lived or what they're doing or the priorities of their life are not where they need to be. The motives of their heart lack purity. You see, folks, it's more than just what we do on the outside. It's what we are on the inside. Because we can look all good and tidy on the outside, but on the inside we can be rotten. Did you know that? With bad attitudes and wrong spirit. And I don't want the Lord to come to be found that way. Do you? There's going to be Christians, they're going to be raptured from a barstool. Did you know that? They're saved. But they've left the Lord and they're living a life of sin. And they're in places they shouldn't be and they know it. And they're going to be raptured and they're going to meet Jesus that way. Christian, don't ever be anywhere you wouldn't want Jesus to find you. Don't ever be doing anything you wouldn't want Jesus to find you doing. It ought to purify us. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, I John 3, 2 and 3. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. We don't know what all this body is going to look like. Some people believe we're going to look like we're 30 years of age. That would be nice. I don't know what we're going to look like. I have no idea. But we know that when He shall appear we're going to be like Him. That's what He said. For we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself. We deal with the sin and the things that are wrong in our lives. We seek to have right priorities and seek first the Kingdom of God even as He is pure. Let me give you the last one. It comforts us. We saw that in our text, didn't we? Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Do you know the entire truth of the rapture was given to a group of believers that were grieving the loss of those that they loved? Paul had three months, three months, and Thessalonica had taught them what's next in time events. A Christian's never too young to learn about the coming of Jesus. Somebody says, well, I'm not ready for Revelation. Oh, yes you are, because God said that He pronounces a blessing on anybody that reads it and heeds it. You may not understand everything about it, but God said, I'm going to bless you when you read and heed this book. That's what He says. Isn't that right? And they were asking, Paul, our loved ones have died. Are they going to miss when Jesus comes? And the Holy Spirit answers the question. And he said, no, they're not going to miss it at all. They're going to be prime participants. because there's coming a day of resurrection for those who went on to be with the Lord and forever we're going to be with Him. The rapture teaches us that death, listen to me Christian, death doesn't have the last say. It is not final. That is not the end. Those who are saved will see their loved ones who are saved again who have gone on before. The Bible said we're for comfort. That word is a present tense. It's continuous action. We're instructing to comfort one another and continually comfort one another with this wonderful assurance that this is not the end. We're going to see them again. What comfort that is. I can promise you that I've been to many a gravesite, and I've been to the gravesite of the unsaved and probably the majority if not all of the family unsaved, and it's not like the gravesite of Christians. It is a sad, sad, sad, hopeless affair because they don't have any assurance. To them, this is the end. I've actually been in situations where, and I kid you not, where they have actually crawled into the casket with that loved one, weeping and having to be drug out because of the hopelessness that's in their heart. Christian, the Bible said we're to sorrow It's not wrong to sorrow. It's natural. It's normal. It's necessary. Everyone sorrows. You're not unspiritual to sorrow. And you're not unspiritual if you sorrow for a long period of time. Now, we shouldn't sorrow unendingly, but we do learn to get through what we can't get over, right? We learn to go on. But we do so because we have hope. that death didn't have the final say in our lives and the lives of our loved ones. And that there's going to be a grand reunion day and it strengthens us and enables us to go on. The pagans of Paul's day and the pagans of our day have no hope in the afterlife. No hope they would see their loved ones again. But Christian, we have hope tonight. There's going to be that grand reunion day. One of the beautiful things about being a Christian is you really never have to say goodbye. It's just see you later. Amen. Billy Sunday and R.G. Lee and Homer Rodeheaver. By the way, if you don't know those names, you ought to get acquainted with them. You should. There's great saints of the past that if we're not careful, we're losing touch with them. and who they are and what they've done, and the testimonies that they had. They were sitting on the back porch of Billy Sunday's cabinet, one on a lake. Dr. R.G. Lee, you ought to listen to his message, Payday Someday. It's a classic. Classic. You ought to listen to that. Adrian Rogers is in heaven now, but he pastored the Bellevue Baptist Church there in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Lee was staring out into the distance. They were watching the sun go down. Billy Sunday looked over at Dr. R.G. Lee and he said, What are you thinking about? Dr. Lee said, Oh Bill, I was just thinking about what is beyond that sunset. It struck Homer Rodeheaver. He was a songwriter. So it struck him in the heart in such a way, he went into the house and he wrote a song entitled, Beyond the Sunset. Here's the last stanza of the song. Beyond the sunset, O glad reunion, with our dear loved ones who've gone before, in that fair homeland we'll know no parting beyond the sunset forevermore. Christian, if I could leave you with one thing tonight, that in a world filled with darkness and disease and death and decay, Oh, God's created a beautiful world. I understand that. But it's also a planet filled with death and disease and decay. You say, Preacher, you're so depressing. No, it's reality. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God's eternal life And one day, friend, all of that's going to be over. Amen? For the children of God. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. When I look upon the face of the One who saved me by His grace. When He takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land. What a day. Glorious day that will be. Christian Titus 2.13 Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Can I tell you, you need to be rapture ready. If you're not saved tonight, young man, young lady, you need to be saved. Christian, if our hearts are not right with the Lord, they need to be right tonight and they need to stay right because He could come at any moment and we'll see Him. And hurting Christian, if your loved one knew the Lord, there's a grand reunion day over on the other side. Isn't that a wonderful hope tonight? Father, take the message and use it in every heart and every life.