1 Peter 1, listen to the words as it directs us in our worship this morning. You've been born again, not of sea which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the word which was preached to you. Brothers and sisters, before us is a word that will last forever. This is the word that will be preached to us this day. I'll invite you to turn your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We're at verses 13 through chapter 5, verse 11, a new section for us. Turn in your bulletins as well to the outline and use that to take notes, follow along. What a fantastic passage before us that Paul, in essence, this is the last major section of this passage before he wraps up with chapter 5, 12 through 28, and then he's done. So this is the last major section, and what an incredible section it is for us. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13, he turns to end times questions and this issue of the second coming of Jesus Christ. So it'll be our privilege to study this in the coming weeks. This is indeed the word of our living God. In light of that, let us stand out of reverence and respect for Him at the reading of His word. Hear the word of your Lord. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." Well, they're saying peace and safety. then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like birth pangs upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not of darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep, do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober. having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for the attaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore, encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you are doing." That's Father Rennie of God's Word. Let's pray. Father, what a fantastic passage, a fantastic description of what awaits us in time, in reality. Lord, thank you for this glorious hope. Grant His grace as we dive into this passage to feast richly upon it. Lord, you are the servant, you are the one who serves this meal. Grant that you would serve it richly to our souls, nourishing us, growing us, feeding us upon you, the word of life. And Lord, as the manna sustained your peoples, Lord, so sustain us, we pray, this day on this manna before us. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Amillennialism. Precursory signs. Portents. The Abomination of Desolation. The Antichrist. The Mark of the Beast. Armageddon. Preterism. Partial Preterism. Full Preterism. When it comes to eschatology, when it comes to the end times, when it comes to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, there is no lack of terminology. Sadly, there seems to be a lack of understanding. In fact, if there's any area where there's going to be division, it's typically in the area of eschatology. End times. The second coming of Jesus Christ. In fact, today there are four primary eschatological or end time stands. There's what is known as the historical pre-trib, pre-mil, excuse me, the om-mil, the post-mil, and the dispensational pre-mil. Each of these are distinct, and each of these typically, most in that group, typically views the other ones as being wrong. And these separate groups, these different positions, have been the source of all kinds of division. Not necessarily the people, but the issue. It's been the source of all kinds of division, and factions, and denominational splits, and church splits, and family splits. In fact, there are groups today that gauge the orthodoxy of an individual based on their belief of the end times, their end time opposition. Eschatology and the love of it has spurned heresies and heretics and sects and divisions. all kinds of bizarre and crazy behavior throughout church history. Based upon all this, it's tempting almost to say maybe we shouldn't study the topic, because it might divide. And yet, brothers and sisters, you find in Scripture, this topic is crucial to Christianity, crucial to your walk with God. In fact, Revelation, a book given to describing 22 chapters, describing end times, begins in verse 3 with, blessed, announcing a benediction. Blessed is the man who reads and hears the words of this prophecy, the words of this book. Far from not being studied, it ought to be studied. That's why God gives us this. But get this, it's very important. God gives us teaching about the second coming of Jesus Christ not to make us prophets. That's key. I think that's the reason why there's so much division. It's so much perversity when it comes to this issue. We think God gave us this to be prophets. So we read it and we make predictions. Brothers and sisters, no end time teaching was ever given to make us prophets. It was given to make us alert, to give us hope, to give us a sense of confidence to live in a world given to sin and misery. It's written to give us a sense of anticipation to lift our eyes up from our mortal environment to the eternal and the immortal and to live as people who know that their God reigns and that the end is gonna be great and glorious. That's clearly why Paul gave it in 1 Thessalonians 4. You know, the Thessalonians had the reputation in the early church as being a group of people who understood the second coming of Jesus Christ. Did you know that? Actually, you did, because I preached on it. Chapter 1, verses 9 and 10, look at it. Paul says, everywhere I go, people are reporting about us what kind of reception we had with you, how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and how you're waiting for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead. The reputation of Thessalonians was, This is a group of people who are genuinely waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ for the return of their Lord to bring them home. That was their reputation. Now why do you suppose they got such a reputation? The answer is because when Paul was there on his first missionary journey, the three to six weeks he was there, a large part of his teaching involved the second coming of Jesus Christ. Isn't that incredible? You think, oh, no, no, he talked about all these. No, he talked a lot about the second coming of Jesus Christ. We know that from 2 Thessalonians 2. If you want, you can flip ahead a couple of pages. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 3 through 5. The Thessalonians were being disturbed because people there were saying that Christ had already come back. The second coming had already taken place. We're now in that final state. How would you like to wake up and hear that? And it unsettled people. And so Paul wrote to clarify, 2 Thessalonians is primarily written to clarify the aberrant views of what was going on in that church regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ. And we read in verse 3 of chapter 2, let no one in any way deceive you. For it will not come upon, I'm sorry, unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? The idea there is, he wasn't one-time teaching. Paul was frequently talking about the kingdom of God, the consummation of the kingdom of God, the return of Jesus Christ to this land, and thus the consummation of all things in Jesus Christ, and the summing up of us in him forever. That was a large part of Paul's message. Well, hence, the Thessalonians knew a lot about the second coming of Jesus Christ. They had the reputation, but they didn't know everything. And it's what they didn't know is what tripped them up, at least in 1 Thessalonians when Paul wrote this. See, what happened was there was a bunch of believers, we can presume maybe the first converts, who were so core to this body, so core to this group, and they started dying. And the questions abounded. Wait, if there's this glorious future, why would God punish or curse a dear brother or sister and allow them to die and not live to see the glory of Christ? I mean, why would God allow that? And secondly, where are they? What man, what you've shared, this is their, what you shared, Paul, has just blown our brains with regards to what the truth of God's Word is. Here before, we thought we understood God's Word. When you came and shared about the Messiah, it put all the pieces together. And now we've got questions about the second coming, because we can't trust what we've known. from Judaism. Tell us what's going to happen when Jesus Christ comes. What's the fate of our loved ones? Are they somehow second-class citizens now? Paul, teach us more. So Paul penned this. Notice with me verse 13. We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep. that you may not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. Paul is writing this to inform them, to instruct them pastorally. So get this, he's not writing to make them prophets. He's writing to give them hope. He's not writing so that they would walk around and predict what's gonna happen next. He's writing to give comfort to their hearts. Finally, he's not writing. so that they would go around and see signs and wonders and start making with their charts and projections about the return of Jesus Christ. No, He's writing to make them vigilant, watchful in their faith. And so we're going to look at this passage, but we're not going to look at it as prophets or as wannabe prophets. We're going to look at this passage as brothers and sisters living in a state of sin and misery, struggling to get by, eking by at times, in seeing how this glorious doctrine gives so much hope to the believers. We're gonna begin by looking at the core teaching of chapter four, and that core is 15 through 17. 13 through 14, and then verse 18, we're gonna address next time. The core is 15 through 17. 13, 14, and 18 were written with the knowledge of 15 through 17. So I thought it best, let's first get into our minds, 15 through 17, then 13, 14, and 18 will make more significance to us, will mean more to us. In light of that, notice three characteristics. of the second coming of Jesus Christ. And the first one is found in verse 15, the second coming of Christ will be impartial. Now that's a strange title, but that's exactly what Paul says in verse 15. The second coming of Christ will be impartial. Notice with me verse 15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord. In other words, Paul here is not being speculative, unlike many in our day who might get in a discussion, this is my opinion, this is what I think is going to happen. I'm a pan mill, I think it's all going to pan out in the end, you know? That's an old joke, okay? Know that, okay? It's gonna pan out in the end. That's not Paul here. He's speaking by the authority of God. In other words, what he's saying here is God's Word. We know that. But realize, this is not speculative. This is reality. Do you understand what this means? We're not reading a comic book. This isn't Saturday morning cartoons. This is not some Avengers movie. This is going to happen in your lifetime. I don't mean your living physical life, in your existence. Every one of us in Christ, in this place right now, someday will witness what we're looking at firsthand. Incredible. Wow. Notice, I say this by the word of God. We who are alive and remain, emphasis there until the coming of the Lord. Remain carries the idea of survival. It's the remnant. The idea behind this word is the vast majority of the body of Jesus Christ will have already died, already perished, already in the grave before Jesus Christ comes back. Those whom Christ comes back for will be a small remnant in comparison to the myriad of brothers and sisters of saints that have lived in Christ and have since died. So understand, the vast majority of God's people will have suffered what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 5 as that embarrassing unclothing of ourselves, where our body and soul are rent. Our soul is rent from our bodies and we go to heaven as spiritual beings, but our bodies rest in the grave. Okay, so that's the vast majority. Well, he's saying those who remain, the remnant, will not precede those who've fallen asleep." Now, the word fallen sleep is a euphemism. It's a reference in the ancient days, in the Bible times, for death. And because of that, there were many cults and religions that believed that when a person died, their soul simply fell asleep and remained in their bodies. We call that the doctrine of soul sleep. That is not what's taught in Scripture, by any stretch of the imagination. Brothers and sisters, Paul said in 2 Corinthians, to be absent from the body is what? To be at home or present with the Lord. So there's no such thing as soul sleep. Remember in Christ's time on the cross, what did he say to the thief? today you will be with me in paradise." And in Hebrews 9 it says, it says, inasmuch as it is appointed for man to die once and after this comes judgment. Brothers and sisters, the Bible does not believe in soul-separation. Why is it, why is Paul talking about this? It's a euphemism. He's being pastoral, brothers and sisters. Now, at those times where he needs to be, where a biblical writer needs to be straightforward, clear, like when John 11, when Mary and Martha's brother died, and his disciples, Christ's disciples, were sort of clueless, and Jesus said, you know, talked about the issue of sleeping the whole day, and finally he said, Lazarus is dead. I mean, whap! Okay? Right in the face. Otherwise, Paul's pastoral here. It's just pastoral. Those who have fallen asleep, and that's how the Bible references, to be pastoral, to describe for us in Christ what death is. Now, yes, there's a sting, and yes, it's not desirable, 2 Corinthians 5, but for us, ultimately, the sting of death's gone. And hence, it is just to sleep. We don't believe in soul sleep, but it is just that. It's a pastoral declaration. With regards to those who have fallen asleep and those living, those who have died and those living, notice that those living will not precede those who have fallen asleep. Now, let's talk about the word precede. It's an incredible word. The word precede carries the idea of doing something before somebody else, and so of gaining an advantage over them. The early bird gets the worm. One of my first jobs as a young man, I worked at the United States Geological Survey grinding rocks. And whoever got to the office first set the radio station for that day. I was a young Christian. So man, I ran to that place. I'd get there at times 45 minutes early to be all the other co-workers to set it on my station so I could hear sermons. During the day and every one day was this unwritten policy. You don't change the radio So I'm going I'm turning on early bird gets that worm. That's the idea behind Precede I preceded them therefore I gained me a tactical Advantage on who set the radio station Paul says listen When it comes to second coming of Jesus Christ those who are living dudes does not have a tactical advantage or any advantage over anyone who's died That's the point. Now, why would he say that? Well, because of Judaism. Did you know Judaism taught that at the end of the world, those living would have an advantage over those who are dead? Foregone belief. In Judaism, if you were alive when the end of the world came, you would be at an advantage over those people who had already died. So no doubt that teaching and that thought was there in Thessalonica. So there they're looking at Brother Joe and Sister Sally going, these dear brothers and sisters who love Christ, why would God take them from the earth and deprive them of the privilege of being number one in the kingdom? Why would God do that? Brothers and sisters, by way of footnote, we have the same exact view. We do. You all have the same view. Not about the second coming of Jesus Christ, but about life and death. How many times have you heard it? Or how many times have you, yeah, not necessarily seen it, but heard it? Brother Bob, he died the week after he retired. You're at his funeral, and people stand at the coffin and say, oh, poor brother Bob. He worked 65 years, spent 65 years, worked 30, 40 years of his life. with the dream of retiring and enjoying life, and God took them home to glory. What a drag! Brothers and sisters, we have that view. Is that incredible? That you could actually be at a funeral going, a Christian funeral, a funeral of someone who loves Christ, and consider them impoverished because God didn't give them more time on this earth. It's crazy. That's the view that led the Thessalonians to go, man, why has God been so mean to these people? Paul says, you don't understand. There is no partiality in the kingdom of God. Now we're not talking about non-believers and believers. We're talking about believers. There's no partiality in the second coming of Jesus Christ. No partiality in the final state. No partiality. Do you know there may be someone who's walked this earth for 90 years of their life serving Christ, planting hundreds of churches. They will not be in any superior position in heaven than you. and the person who stayed on their deathbed will not be in any inferior position to anyone else in glory." There are no generals, there are no pastors, there's no deacons, as if they were leaders, they're servants, as if they were above, they're below. There's no generals, there's no corporals, there's no rank in file and glory. The lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land, not a man. Okay, so in light of that glorious truth, Paul says the second coming of Jesus Christ brings with it an impartiality. Notice what he says in verse 17, we who are alive and remain shall be caught up, and he's emphasizing. shall be caught up together simultaneously with them in the clouds. In the Greek, together simultaneously is the idea. We will be caught up simultaneously together to see Jesus Christ. No tactical advantage, no benefit of being alive or dying. It doesn't matter. In the kingdom of God, we're all on an equal plane in that sense. Isn't that glorious? What a glorious truth. Family of God, you may look at your life this day and you may say, man, I've not lived a good life in Christ. I'll be blessed if I'm a garbage collector in heaven. The gospel comes and says, there's no distinction. God, it's not you. You see, we got this idea in Christianity that it's what I do that merits God's love. The more I do, the more God will like me. The more I read God's word, the more God will say, ah, there's my son I love. Brothers and sisters, it is not that way. You're saved because God first loved you. 1 John, we love because he first loved us. It's not you. It's not what you've done since you've been saved. It's the grace and the mercy and the kind intention of Jesus Christ. No partiality with regards to the second coming of Jesus Christ. No partiality with the final state. Incredible. Secondly, would you notice what Paul teaches here? The second coming of Christ not only is impartial, but it will be glorious. Notice with me 16, 17. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God. and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." Paul's wording here is vivid. He piles expression upon expression to paint a vivid, incredible image before our mind's eye. In fact, John Calvin's quoted, I've got the words there in your bulletin, the apostle unquestionably had nothing further in view here than to give some taste of the magnificence and venerable appearance of the judge. So that's the point. He's piling expression, six of them, expression upon expression to evoke in us a sense of awe and wonder over the magnificence of the glory of the manifestation of Christ. Incredible. Let's walk away through it so you get a sense of it. Six different expressions. 16, the Lord himself would descend from heaven with a shout. The word here, shout, is an authoritative cry. It denotes nothing less than this unstoppable, omnipotent cry. Now, it's used in the Bible and in secular Greek of the ship master to his rowers, a general in the midst of the military battle, a hunter to his hounds, a charioteer to his horses. But if you want a true picture of this authoritative shout, You gotta go to John 11, where Jesus Christ approaches the tomb of Lazarus, and the women and his sisters come out, and, oh, Lord, if you've been here, and he goes to the tomb, and he says, roll away the stone, and the, but Lord, he'll, what, in the King James, he stinketh, right, he stinketh much, something like that, it's a great line, but Lord, he stinketh, and Jesus says, roll it away, so they're rolling, and what does Jesus do at that point? Does he go there and shake his hands and shake his body like you'd expect some televangelist might do? No, Jesus Christ spoke a word. More than one word. Three words. Lazarus, come forth. And that authoritative cry was unstoppable. Satan couldn't stop it. No force, no power, no person, nothing on this earth could have stopped Lazarus from rising from the dead. That's the idea behind this shout. When Jesus Christ comes back, there's going to be a shout heard around the world, an authoritative shout that Satan, his armies, no man, people, nation, king, name it, could stop. Secondly, would you notice, with the voice of the archangel. Now, angels throughout redemptive history are sort of like movie stars. They really are. If you go back, in fact, Paul in Galatians talks about how, me or an angel, you know, on and on and on. They had this status of stardom. So they didn't have movie stars, right? Their movie stars were the angels. Wow, angels. Brothers and sisters, to describe the pageantry of this day, not only will there be this authoritative shout, most likely from God, John 5, 25 and 28 indicate that. God will give this shout, the angels then voices will join to that with the voice of the archangel, and then with the trumpet of God. And the trumpets in the Bible are almost always associated with victory, celebration. For example, they were sounded at religious occasions, theophanies in the Old Testament, Exodus 19, Isaiah 27, Joel 2, and it was sounded by God when he came to rescue his people from hostile oppression, Zephaniah 1.16, Zechariah 9.14. So the trumpet in Judaism, in the Jewish mind, was a tool of victory. Okay, so Paul is saying, so when Christ comes back, and he's not just throwing out words, this is what's going to happen. Christ comes back, God's going to make a statement, an authoritative cry that is unstoppable. The angels are going to join the voice, archangels are going to join his voice, and then the trumpets are going to sound. These glorious trumpets, solfères, that are going to be heard throughout the world. Notice 16d, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. It's incredible. The dead in Christ are going to rise. Now, brothers and sisters, what is the state of dead people right now in Christ? Well, they're either deteriorating bones, or by now they're dust. That's what's going to rise. In fact, there's a Puritan, I wish I'd put it in your bullets, I skipped it as I was making up the insert. Samuel Davies has a sermon, it is an powerful sermon called The Universal Judgment. If you could find it, read it. The Universal Judgment by Samuel Davies. Wow, what a passage, what a sermon. In this sermon, he describes this event, the dead in Christ rising. Listen to what he writes. Now also the slumbers underground begin to store. to rouse and spring to life. Now see graves opening, tombs bursting, charnel houses rattling, the earth heaving and all alive. while these subterranean armies are bursting their way through. See clouds of human dust and broken bones darkening the air and flying from country to country over intervening continents and oceans to meet their kindred fragments and repair the shattered frame with pieces collected from a thousand different quarters where they were blown away by winds or washed away by seas." He goes on and on and on. These bodies that now as they rise, this dust co-mingling into, think of Ezekiel, co-mingling into skeletons, and then the muscles and the connecting tissues forming as the bodies rise. And at some point, the fully formed individual Christian, you, me, and our bodies will be rejoined with our souls to meet Christ. You talk about glory, now think about it. The mark of Christ's divine authority, according to Romans 1, is his resurrection. The second coming of Christ is going to come with the resurrection. It didn't have to be like that. Christ could have went like this, and we would have been instantaneously right there before him. Instead, there's going to be this glorious, fantastic resurrection. And then, 17a, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. This word refers to a violent swooping, a violent grabbing. For example, it's used in Revelation 12 of a river that is sweeping away or trying to sweep away God's people or the body. Think of it. Every year people die in rivers. Every year people die in floods. Why do they die? Because the current is so strong. What is man in this torrent of a stream? That's the word, okay? Acts 8, when they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. Philip couldn't stop him. Philip couldn't say, time out here a second, I want to say goodbye. After his baptism, he came up and boom, gone. after you baptize the Ethiopian, right? Gone! Just gone! 200 miles, 300 miles, over there. He was snatched away. Acts 23, and as a great dissension was developing, the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them, and ordered the troops to come down and snatch him from them by force. You know the soldiers didn't come down and say, excuse me, would you mind if I grab Paul? They, by force, took their swords out, probably started hitting, scaring people, backed up, and they grabbed Paul. They didn't just grab him, they yanked Paul and took him away from the mob that was going to tear him to pieces. That's the word here. So get this, Jesus Christ comes back, loud shout, archangel voicing, trumpets, this incredible dust cloud that goes up and all of a sudden commingles into bodies. And then those who are the remnant of God's people on the earth will be forcibly grabbed and removed from this earth. Incredible. And then would you notice the last one, this is the climax of it all, verse 17b, to meet the Lord in the air. You go, that sounds cool. We're going to meet Christ up there somewhere in the stratosphere, atmosphere, wherever. Pretty cool. You've missed it, brothers and sisters. Do you know the significance of the heir to Judaism? The heir in Judaism was the abode of Satan and the demons. Guess where Christ is going to meet you? The place where in Judaism taught Satan was the prince of the power of the air. He owns that real estate called the air. That's where he and his demons habitate, and that's where they move and come down and wreak havoc. That Jesus Christ is going to meet us in the air tells us that he has sovereignly crushed the head of the serpent to smithereens. Now he did it at the cross, of course. But boy, when he comes back, it's the end for Satan. Isn't that incredible? Brothers and sisters, from all this we go, it is going to be a glorious day. I sometimes think about John 11 and Lazarus and I go, wouldn't it be incredible to be Lazarus? Have you ever thought about that? Maybe I'm the only one who has these weird thoughts. I sometimes think about Lazarus or other people who were raised or, you know, Tabitha and go, what would it have been like to be them? I mean, to be in the grave, to suffer the consequences of death, and obviously the decline and the corruption of your body, and then with one word, instantaneously to be back on this earth, having been in the presence of God, and then walking out towards Christ uncontrollably, meaning come forth, he had to come. So he's going, and what would it have been like? Sometimes I read that and I find myself jealous. You ever feel that way? I find myself jealous of certain people, and I would love to experience that. Guess what, brothers and sisters? Whether you're alive or dead, at the come of Jesus Christ, you're going to experience that. Come forth. and we, dead or alive, will be resurrected, brought up to God. The word for the snatching is the Latin raptus, where we get the word rapture. We're going to be taken violently from this earth, not any violence to us, but nothing's gonna stop us, taken up to God to meet the Lord on the stomping grounds of Satan. And thus, we'll always be incredible, glorious, I think of it in this way. When Moses was on this earth, Moses got tired of talking to bushes and pillars and rocks. Did you know that? Yeah, Moses got sick of talking to burning bushes. He got tired of talking to pillars of clouds and fire and day, and he got tired of it. So he came to the Lord one day and said, God, I've got a favor to ask you. And God said, what? I want to see you. I want to see you as you are. I don't want to see theophanies. We call it a manifestation of God. I don't want to see a burning bush anymore. I want to behold you. What did God say to him? Remember? No man can see me and live. No mortal being can see me and live. Bummer, right? Oh, I'm stuck with, okay, I'll take the pillar. No man can see me, but there's a cleft in the rock. I'm going to put you there. And I'm going to pass by. And at the appropriate time, I'm going to let you open your eyes. And you're going to see what? What in the text does it say? Do you guys remember? See his what? Okay. The Hebrew, I've never read a translation that translates it right. Okay. Many say his backside. It's not the Hebrew. The Hebrew connotation is, get this, where he was. That's the idea. So Moses would get to see God manifest his essence, he wouldn't see this, and then leave. And Moses at that moment, after God left, Moses would look up and open his eyes to not behold his God, but to see where his God formerly was, and that God would leave him on his face as a dead man, worshiping God in reverence and glory. Brothers and sisters, do you know what's gonna happen at the second coming? We're gonna see Christ with unaided eyes. God's not gonna show us where he's been at that time. We're gonna be resurrected up or raptured up, and we're going to see God with unaided eye in his glory. Wow! Brothers and sisters, the second coming of Christ is glorious. Paul says, don't worry about a loved one. Don't you worry about a loved one. Oh, the other thing I didn't stress, actually that's next, sorry. Don't worry about a loved one. We're gonna get there at the same time, and we're gonna behold the magnificence of the glory of the majesty of the Son of God. Do you know what that looks like now? Revelation 1, just read that. Devotion, go read Revelation 1. When you think of Jesus, you think of Jesus on the earth. Do not think of Jesus on the earth. Jesus Christ's current state is described in Revelation 1 as this being who is beyond description. And that's who we're gonna gaze upon. And that being will come and love, out of love to see us. Incredible. So the second coming of Christ is impartial, no advantage to the believer alive or living or dead. Secondly, the second coming of Christ is glorious. And lastly, would you notice from this passage, the second coming of Jesus Christ will bring unbreakable communion with God. Notice with me verse 17. After describing what we just read, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. It's important, brothers and sisters, to note that Paul here is not referring to the individual, but the church, the body. That's important. Why is that important? You tell me, why is that important? Paul is stressing the plural, it's plural, it's not individual. We, together, at one time, are going to equally enjoy the Lord. Why is that important? Well, a variety of reasons. One, the Thessalonians thought for sure that their loved ones were at a disadvantage. No, no, no, no, we're all, all of us together at the same time. Secondly, he's stressing the corporateness of the bride of Christ. Hey, if there's people in your life in the body of Jesus Christ who you don't get along with, learn to get along with them. You're just gonna spend the rest of eternity with them. Together, we're gonna always be with the Lord. Now, that expression, with the Lord, you gotta realize, we're talking the heart and soul of redemption. It's the heart and soul of the covenant that God established in Genesis. It's the heart and soul of redemptive work and activity throughout all of redemptive history, and it's the culmination and the consummation of our eternity. with the Lord, right? When God made Adam and Eve, he made them to be fellowshipping beings with him. So in Genesis 3, we read of Christ's God walking in the garden, and the idea in the Hebrews, walking with view towards inviting deep and inviting rich fellowship with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve rebelled against God, and what happened? They were kicked out of the garden. They were no longer able to be with God. In fact, God put the cherubim up there in the flaming sword to protect not God from man, but man from God. If they try to get there, no man can see God and live. They'll die. as sinners. And then redemption begins. The promise of redemption, Genesis 3, 15 on, begins and it all revolves around what? Well, think of it. Matthew 1, what is Jesus Christ's name? Immanuel. What does that mean? Translated means? God with us. It's what it is. The Great Commission, when Jesus Christ rose, what did he tell his disciples? Go, do all these different things, make disciples. I am what? The promise of redemption. I'm with you always. I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. That's the glorious kernel that unites all of redemptive history. That and many other things, but that's one of them. And in the end time, Revelation 21, 3 through 4, what do we read? We read that the tabernacle of God is with man. He shall dwell among them and they shall be his people. Do you understand? Heaven is defined not by where we are, but with whom we are. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords will always be with the Lord. So when we read, thus we will always be with the Lord, we realize, wow, this is the consummation of redemption. We now are always with God. You say, but isn't that true? He's always with us. How is this an improvement? Well, it is an improvement, brothers and sisters. Can we ever not be with God? Not in being. We'll always be with God. God's always with us. but not our well-being. You follow me? I'm using a pun here. There are times in our walks where we stray, prone to wander how I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, prone to sit there. That's where we get the idea, the doctrine of the leanness of soul, Psalm 106, right? The Puritans called it that, the dark night of the soul. where though God is with us, we get bereft of the sense of his presence. And so we have moved, not God, God's always with us, but we have this sense of where's God? This text says not only will God always be with us, we know that from Matthew 28, but now this text says we will always be with the Lord. You see the significance of that? It's incredible. No more wandering. No more lapses in your walk, no more times of feeling alienated, no more praying and feeling like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling because you feel like God can't hear you or is not hearing you, not can't, is not. Am I talking crazy? I'm not the only one who's ever experienced this, right? You all know what I'm talking about. Song of Solomon. One of my favorite pictures of it is Song of Solomon. I've used it before. The book is written to picture married love between a man and a woman and ultimately between Christ and his church, the bride. And in it, there's a scene, chapter 5 and chapter 6, where it's so typical. Christ, the husband, is out working. He's out. He's doing his work. And it's late. It's so late that the woman can't stay awake anymore, the bride. And so she decides to go to bed. And the moment she puts her head on the pillow, we read Song of Solomon 5. I was asleep, but my heart was awake. A voice. My beloved was knocking open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. For my head is drenched with dew, my locks with the damp of the night." That sounds poetic. What that means is I haven't been gallivanting, I've been working hard, working so long that the dew has now graced my body. That's how long I've been working. I just want one thing in world, I want to be with my bride. Now, open the door. But the woman, this is us, brothers and sisters, we've just gone to bed and we lay our head down and we go, oh, I didn't have a devotion today. I didn't have a prayer time today. And what do you say when that thought crosses your mind? Well, verse 3, I've taken off my dress. How can I put it on again? I've washed my feet. How can I dirty them again? She says, I don't want to get out of bed. I just cleaned up. To get up means to get dirty, and to get dirty means I got to do it all over again, just open the door to see your face. I'd rather just stay in bed." And then we read, my beloved extended his hand through the opening, so there was an opening that he could reach in to unlock the door. Our colloquialism is, he jiggled the hammer, the handle, the handle. He jiggled the handle, and it caused this desire in the woman. My beloved extended his hand through the opening, and my feelings were aroused for him. I rose to open to my beloved. And my hands dripped with his aftershave, was on the door handle, and I grabbed the door handle, and I could smell my beloved, and I just, I wanted a fellowship. So this is the believer who lays his head down and says, I didn't have a quiet time. I need to get up and be in the world. I need to pray, but I'm tired. One time is not going to matter. I don't care. But everything within you says, no, but I want to spend time with God. So you get up, and you sit down, and it's not like you thought it would be. It's distant. It's far. God's far off. And so you are, Jacob, now wrestling on your knees to understand the word of God and fellowship, whatever the picture in your mind. Well, that's what happens here. She goes after her husband, and she looks Everywhere she can. Have you seen my beloved? Have you seen my beloved? Have you seen my beloved? And she's searching high and low, everywhere, and she can't find him. And she keeps saying, if you find him, let him know I'm looking for him, would you please? And she's looking, she's looking. And finally, she spies him in the garden. And she approaches him. And you would expect, perhaps, in our sinful mind, think of a husband and wife, Tiff. You'd expect, perhaps, the husband to say, oh, now you want me. Now you want me to come to you. Where were you a half an hour ago when I was tired and I just, you know, now I'm with my buddies here in the bar and enjoying a brewski, whatever you want to say, right? Where were you then? You'd expect perhaps some kind of condemnation. Do you know what this woman gets? She gets the exact language that the husband spoke to her on her wedding night. Song of Solomon 6.4, you are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling, as lovely as Jerusalem, as awesome as an army with banners. Brothers and sisters, she heard the words that her husband told her on her wedding night. You know what, when you feel like you've wandered from God, when you've wandered into sin and you have wandered from God, God's words to you are the words that he spoke to you on your wedding day. the day you were saved. I love you. It's never changed. No condemnation, just love coming to me. Brothers and sisters, I read this passage and I see this is my life. I live in a constant sense of whoring after the nations, having my darling lusts, and then waking up to the reality that all of that is in competition to my Savior and I love my God more than I love my sin. at least theoretically, I know that's true. And so I go after my God, and then it's cold, and it's dry, and my prayers bank off the ceiling, and the Word of God is made of 50 feet of concrete, I can't get down at all, and deep into it, it's just, oh Lord, and you fight and you struggle like Jacob wrestling to understand what the Word of God says. All the while, you gotta know that God's words to you are, my beloved, I love you. Do you understand when we meet the Lord in the clouds and the air, do you understand that this Song of Solomon scene will never be repeated by you again? Never again. Your walk with God will be restored to the utmost. And thus, you will always be with the Lord. So don't worry about a loved one. Think of our hymn of dedication. Peace, perfect peace with loved ones far away. Maybe those loved ones are in the grave. Maybe they're far away, geographically. Understand, brothers and sisters, God has an incredible future for us all. And we're not talking Avengers here. We're talking about reality. This is going to happen in your lifetime and your existence. Let's pray. Father, how we cannot wait to hear that voice, to hum along with the trumpet, to be snatched up to your presence. And Lord, of all places, a statement of your majesty and glory and sovereignty over Satan and his demons in the air, where we together, arm in arm, would gaze upon you, our Savior, and never know a time of deprivation again. Oh, Lord, we long for that day. It gives such glorious hope for us living in a state of sin and misery. When the silly puffs of smoke can distract us so much. Lord, it's said that a cup of water can create a fog so dense it'll shut down London. Lord, that is our troubles in life. They're so crippling, but they're so substance-less when we gaze upon this. God, I pray you give us the grace to set our eyes on the things above, set our mind on the things above, not the things on the earth. And so live as people, longing for and hastening the coming of our Lord. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.