Let us turn again in the Word of God to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and reading again in verse 52. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. We shall consider these words as the Lord is pleased to enable us. We are told here that this is a mystery. A mystery is something that we cannot find out for ourselves. We only know it because God has revealed it. We were reading in Revelation 11, And there you have the seventh trumpet sounding, and that is the last trumpet. That is the one referred to here. In Revelation 11, we read the Lord is coming back for judgment, but he's also coming back to deliver his people from the last vestiges of corruption within them. He will change them. He will resurrect those who have died. All must be given an adaptation to exist forever. And that cannot happen here unless God changes things, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So this is the last trumpet. At a military funeral, they sound the last post. At the end of the service, this signifies the end of that person's time on earth. For most people in the world, that's the end of it. But that's not the last trumpet. The last trumpet shall sound, and it shall signify the entrance into another world. a world beyond this one, where there is eternal life, but also eternal death. And it all depends on how we finish our time here. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, who die with a faith born again in their hearts. who die united to Christ and who have the Holy Spirit abiding in them forever, and that's why they must go to be with Christ. What God has joined together, no power can put us under. Now, this mystery is revealed by the Word, and we ought to prize the Word more than we do At the time of the Reformation, millions of Bibles were sold within months because the people didn't have the word. They had, with the elite, they had the Latin translation, but the common people did not have the word. And so they were dependent on men, men's wisdom, intellect, to give them the meaning. and most of the meaning was wrong. But when they had the word in their own language, men were no longer their primary teachers. It was the Holy Spirit. He is the author of the words. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And because he is the author, he is the only one who can interpret that word to us correctly. And it remains mysterious to us until he opens our understanding, just like the two on the road to Emmaus. And then we will understand. On our side, we have to pray that we will be honest and sincere and humble in applying that word to ourselves. It's very easy to read the Word of God and skip the application, and to think that some kind of growth in intellect will make up for a deficiency in godliness. The mystery of godliness is Christ. He has the Holy Spirit without measure, and he sends the Spirit with the Word. And as the promise was, they shall all be taught by God. and that's what happens. To confess Christ with a true faith, the Lord says to Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So here is a mystery. It's to do with the second coming of Christ and what happens at the resurrection for those who are dead, but also the change which occurs in those who are still living. People have spent years speculating when that will be. Augustine, that godly genius, he put it very wisely. He said, the Lord has not told us the day of his coming so that we will be ready every day for his coming. And yet, how far the thought of his sudden second coming is from all of us. And again, that's why we need the Word of God. If you look at the books in the New Testament in particular, they're always mentioning the second coming. And the whole of this life we have here, it's a preparation for that event. The whole of our life is a preparation, and it's how you finish here that matters. What stage you are in when you depart or when he comes, because it will be one or the other. So those who are alive at his coming, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. The dead shall join the living together and there will be one universal resurrection. All shall hear the trumpet. All shall hear the voice of the Son of Man bringing forth from the graves. All shall see him when he comes. So it's universal. It's a sudden sound that we've never heard before. And it's not an indistinct sound, as Paul says. If the trumpet doesn't give a distinct sound, who shall prepare himself for battle? It is a distinct sound. It is the sound of a summons. All shall come forth. Matthew Henry commenting on the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and that was a resurrection. He was dead. Our friend Lazarus is dead, he said. Matthew Henry says, if he hadn't put that word in, Lazarus, come forth, he said the whole graveyard would have come forth. And that's what's going to happen at the end of the world. The whole of this world is a graveyard. When you think of the millions and billions under the earth, in the sea, one voice, they will all see him, Revelation 6, they will all hear the command, they will all hear the trumpet, the seventh trumpet, the last trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall come forth, and the living shall all be changed. This will be unexpected. No matter how well we prepare, it will be sudden. And when it's sudden, there's no more time to prepare. The five virgins who were not ready were shut out. He came suddenly. The Lord said, when he comes, it will be as in the days of Noah. They'll be marrying, giving in marriage, feasting, and doing other things. And then suddenly, when the door of the ark was closed, the flood came. But in this instance, it will not be water, it will be fire. 2 Peter 3. It will be a judgment of fire on the earth. It will be burned up. And in Revelation, we read, there was found no place for heaven and earth. They fled away. Wrapped up as a garment, they had served their purpose. What was temporary is now gone, but the permanent remains. The permanent will remain. You can look at this world and write over everything temporary. There was a minister a couple of hundred years ago, and when people said, look at this and hear this and look at that, His favorite answer was, this also shall pass. This also shall pass. And everything that's so famous just now and spectacular and successional and draws the attention of the world, this also shall pass. But the permanent will remain. But how many are ready? How many have a desire to depart who love his appearing? Not just that, how many rejoice that he is coming back for them, that they'll soon be gone from this world, and we can apply that to other people also. We grieve in our bereavement, but do we not also rejoice, as sorrowful yet rejoicing that the person has gone to be safe in the arms of Jesus? a better place, secure, a better state, a better company, and a face they have never seen before. At last they see him, and they're like him. He also remembers waiting in his human nature to see his people. He hasn't yet set his human eyes upon them, until they come to him and they're with him in glory. Now, all this will be heralded by a trumpet. It was the pattern of kings to send a herald before them to announce their arrival, but also to announce the arrival of a judge. Samuel, remember, went around judging the people and a trumpet was sounded when Samuel had arrived. The court was now in session. The king in the olden days, and maybe the queen, used to send out a letter inviting you to the palace, only it wasn't an invite because it was the queen commands your appearance before her at the palace. Well, in this case, it's the King who commands our appearance before him. And they shall all stand before God. The people of God, they die, and we read that they stand without fault before God, blameless, all the incorruption gone. Now their bodies fashion to the glorious body of Christ, and the souls of the believer made perfect in holiness. They join the spirits of just men, now made perfect, whereas the others, well, they go to their prison. And as Dante said, above the gates of hell, abandon hope, all ye that enter here. Now, the Word of God tells us this is reality, this will happen. But many in the world and many in the church act as if it's never going to happen, and they will not be prepared. They came for Samuel Rutherford on his deathbed, the minions of Charles II, and they wanted to give him a show trial and then execute him, but he was dying in St. Andrew's And he said to the servants of the king, he said, I cannot answer this summons. I have received a higher summons, and I must answer that summons first. And soon I shall be where few kings and great men come. And so he died at dawn, and the shadows fled away, and he saw Christ. the person he had always wanted to see. They even said he dreamed about him. Now, when he comes back, the graves will be opened. Trumpets were usually sounded at a great victory. The trumpet shall sound, and the power of Christ's victory is sounded, and all the graves will be opened. He has conquered death, And this is going to show up most of all when he opens every grave in the world, and they shall come forth. In the Old Testament, we read of this too. Daniel in chapter 12, he spoke about this resurrection. Some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame. But nobody can say that they weren't warned. The mighty God the Lord hath spoken, but who takes him seriously nowadays? Now, this trumpet sounded before, of course, in the Old Testament, but it will sound one last time, and everybody will be gathered together one last time, but then there will be a separation. And some people will never see the other people again. But that one last time, we will all be raised together. But then comes the judgment. Now, the word judgment is based on the verb to separate. Because when you separate something, you're saying, well, this is good and this is bad. That's a judgment. Or this is true and this is false. That's a judgment. Nowadays, the world doesn't want to judge anybody except those who judge. You're not allowed to judge other people, but they judge you if you dare to use God's word to judge anything nowadays. They're even trying to ban people praying silently. There's so much for freedom of conscience. When you're intruding into our freedom, and saying you can't even pray silently in your heart unless they tell you to. There'll be a change when he comes. The world will see it was wrong, and all their wisdom and books and monuments, they went for nothing. Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. but one enemy remains, the last enemy, and he will come again, and all the graves will be opened, and he says, O grave, where is thy victory? The lamb in the midst of the throne, he will come, but he's also a lion as well as a lamb. Now, when this change happens, and this resurrection happens, we are passive. We don't do it. It is done to us. Nobody can avoid coming forth. Nobody can avoid eternity, but they can neglect eternal life. Eternal existence is not the same as eternal life. As soon as a person believes in Christ, they have that eternal life, John chapter three. They've passed out of spiritual death into spiritual eternal life. And there's no going back because Christ remains there in the heart. And now they have a hope, a purpose, an aim in life. And it's all summed up in that phrase, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And it's as if it's burned into the heart and nobody can take it out. So we're passive. And Christ's faithfulness, his power, his promise, he will accomplish all of this and we will be passive. So this is a summons to meet God, the judge of all. But the people of God are quite safe in the judgment. There should be no terror, really, although it's quite natural to be afraid of being judged. We do that all the time in this world. But we come to God the judge of all, but also the advocate of some. And the believer stands there by faith in the righteousness of the judge. Christ. So, obviously, they are going to be acquitted because they're standing in the judge's righteousness, not by works but by faith. Now, of course, we read that works will appear on the day of judgment, Revelation chapter 20, but we're not saved by works. The works are there as evidences, evidences of a person's faith. And that isn't all about works that you can see, because you have to judge faith by its motivation. There are people who do things out of faith in Christ, and there are other people who do religious things, but it's not out of faith in Christ. And because you have faith in Christ, you have a love for Christ, and you have a hope in Christ. And these three will always be together, faith and hope and love. But if you have love for Christ, it means he loved you first. There's great comfort when you know the Scriptures. And Paul says that, that you may have hope and comfort from the Scriptures, but you have to know the Bible and you have to pray to remember it. and to use it in relevant situations, which is actually all day long if you think about it. Because what is life? It's just a series of choices. We're making decisions all the day. Do this or don't. Say this or don't. Go with this or don't. And we need the word of God to guide us, and we're told it's a guide to our path. It's also a light to our feet that tells you where you're treading. And sometimes you will make a false step, but you have the light to see it is a false step. So you come back to where you went astray, and you pray with David, hold up my goings, and I shall be safe. They shall all stand before God when the last trumpet occurs. It will be in an instant the twinkling of an eye. The Lord said, when he comes, it will be like lightning. No warning. But the people of God are safe. They're safe in Christ. But anybody outside of Christ is not safe. There are some places where lightning will not strike, but it means that it can strike anywhere else. And the refuge in Christ is set forth in many ways, whether it's the ark or the city of refuge. God is our refuge and our strength. What about fear of the future and a very present help in time of trouble? Most of our troubles are inside of us, not around us. We need to respond, and that takes prayer rightly, to the troubles that are around us. Trumpet sounds for the final court appearance. But if we sin, and we do, we have an advocate with the Father. able to answer all accusations against his people, because you can only die for sin once, and he has done that. No more death is required from his people. As John Owen put it, the death of Christ was the death of death. They shall be mine, says the Lord, in the day that I make up my jewels. And this is the day when the jewels are gathered and the children are brought home to the father. It's rather like when a father sent out to a neighboring house, the message was, the child is wanted at home. And that kind of message comes when a believer goes into heaven. That child was wanted at home. And we should have joy that they're now in that safe place with Christ. Because this world is full of hostility. It's like a minefield. You don't know where you're treading sometimes. And Bunyan puts it very nicely to Pliable, there the people no longer hurt one another. Now that is a change. Heaven is a happy place because It's a holy place. There is no corruption. The dead shall be changed. No spot nor blemish now. They stand before God without fault. You have the word of God, he says, as a mirror, which means, can you see yourself there? Because you're in there somewhere. I am in there somewhere, journeying towards heaven, or not journeying towards heaven, with a love and a hope in the heart for Christ or not, on the right-hand side with the sheep and the judgment, or on the left with the goats, we're all there, and the mirror of God's Word tells us where we are, if we're prepared or not prepared. But for the people of God, well, there's a happy ending. How would you know how a person ends a biography? You go to the end of the book. You go to the end of this book and God's people there literally live happily ever after. And that cannot be said of anyone else except God's people. This is a summons to a joyful meeting with Christ. whom having not seen, you love. But when you see him, you will love him more than you do now, because then you will love him without any indwelling sin, which by its nature is always a hindrance. But there you will be free at last. You will be what God has purposed you to be. In this world, Many appear to be something. But on that day of judgment, it's more than appearance. It's what we really are. He shall see it. We shall see it. And for the unbeliever, well, the man was speechless. He couldn't argue against it. His whole life was against him. The books were opened. and he was found to be without faith or love or hope. But the righteous has hope in his death or her death. We have someone to go to and someone who desires our presence. He has sent his word, he has sent his spirit, and then he will come himself. And the herald will go before him the archangel, the sound of a trumpet, and that we shall all rise to meet him. Will you be sorry to leave the earth? Are you sorry that some others have left the earth to go to heaven? We would not wish them back. The word says it's far better to be with Christ, which is far better. This is how we can measure our spirituality. What is better? To remain here, sin every day, struggle against the devil, yield to temptation, or to be in that place where we will love Him perfectly, sin no more, and follow His commands wherever the Lamb goes? When we get to heaven, we will see more of Christ than we do here. We will know more of Christ than we do here. And we'll not only have his word, we'll see him speak it to us. We'll see his eyes, we'll hear his tone. And these are things that we kind of have to imagine when we read scripture. how he said something, how he looked when he said it. Job said, with these eyes I will see him. But also we can add, with these ears I will hear him. Rutherford said again to a noble who was sick, he said, sickness is a little death. and you should rehearse your deathbed. Because if you think of that last time, last hour, you'll be able to see at last what is important and what is not, what is gain and what is loss. And certainly when we come to die, there's only one thing that matters. This is eternal life. to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Now, time is passing. Let us briefly apply this in some measure. The unbelievers may scoff, but this is certain to happen. We will not get even a minute's warning. The trumpet shall sound. The Son of Man shall be seen coming with his angels and great glory. The dead will rise, and if we're dead, we'll rise with them. But if we're living when he comes, we will be changed. We will be changed so that we can either live in heaven or die eternally in hell. I think it's Professor Shedd who talks about hell, always dying but never dead. and the company, Christ and his angels, or the devil and his angels? Light or fire? Conscience at peace with God forever, a peace which is now realized, all his promises at last fulfilled in our experience, or conscience like a worm that dieth not? Robert Bruce said, that's the worst part about hell. Where you go, your conscience goes with you. And hell is filled with remorse and regrets, but they can't say they weren't warned. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. There is your last beatitude. Blessed are the dead. They were blessed in life, men shall be blessed in him, they are blessed at death." You cannot escape immortality, but you can neglect eternal life. And eternal life is when you trust yourself to Christ and trust in Christ, especially his atoning merit of his death and the power of his blood to give you forgiveness and access to heaven. This hope will buoy you up, you might say, keep your head above the water in the storms of life. And when your dust lies waiting there for the sound of the last trumpet, waiting in the grave as in a bed at rest, waiting for his return, well, you can write above your resting place the words that are found on the tombstone of Sir James Simpson, the inventor of chloroform. On his gravestone, you read, Sir James Simpson, born 1811, died 1870, and underneath, died 1870, underneath, nevertheless, I live. Nevertheless, I live. And we all live in Christ, and we will all live to Christ. but make sure of Christ while there is still time, because there will be a sudden change into eternity. The trumpet shall sound, and greatly blessed the people are, that joyful sound that know. May he bless his word to us.