But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that
ye saw or not, even as others which
have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain under the coming of the
Lord shall not present them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall 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 he which are alive and remain shall
be caught up together with them in the
cloud to meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the
Lord.
Wherefore, comfort one another with these words."
May God add his blessing to the reading
of this portion of his words.
Some folks are looking forward to the tribulation.
Some are anticipating Armageddon.
Some are looking for the beast and the
false prophet or the antichrist.
Had that been the anticipation of the Apostle
Paul, he hardly could have written concerning the
blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the
great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
For it gives me no joy to think
of living through Armageddon, nor of existing under
the iron fist of the beast or antichrist.
That to which we are looking as the
promise of our Lord is that which we
call the translation or the rapture, and when
God's time clock has come to that place
where he is ready to terminate this age
in which we live, that age is going
to come to its termination, and the program
of this age will begin to unfold as
the Lord Jesus appears in the air to
take all believers to himself.
It is our purpose to consider together with
you this evening something of the promise of
our Lord and his Apostles in the word
of God of that to which we look
forward the translation of the church.
I want to begin our study this evening
in the gospel according to John.
In John chapter 13, our Lord has taken
his disciples apart into an upper room.
It is his purpose to instruct them of
things that have been, to explain to them
that which will shortly take place, and to
prepare them for their future in his absence.
The Lord Jesus in John chapter 13 and
verse 21 has said, "...verily, verily, I say
unto you that one of you shall betray
me."
Our Lord has there revealed the fact of
his betrayal into the hands of the Roman
authorities.
He has told them further in verse 31,
"...now is the Son of Man glorified, and
God is glorified in him."
And in this glorification, our Lord is revealing
his approaching death.
Then when you come down into verse 36,
Jesus answered Peter, "...whither I go thou canst
not follow me now, but thou shalt follow
me afterwards."
And so Peter said to him, "...why cannot
I follow thee now?"
And in those verses, the Lord Jesus is
revealing that not only is he going to
die, but that he is going to be
separated from the disciples, and they will be
with him and will see him no longer.
The result of these revelations, and the result
of this instruction, was that the disciples were
smitten with a severe heart attack, spiritually speaking.
And in chapter 14, verse 1, the Lord
has to say, "...let not your heart be
troubled."
Now, there was every reason, humanly speaking, why
their hearts should have been upset and disturbed,
for the one who had been with them
was no longer to be with them.
The one who had provided for them was
no longer to provide for them.
The one who had been their guide was
no longer to be present to be their
guide.
The one who had empowered them was no
longer to be present to empower them in
their daily walk.
They were to be left as fatherless, as
children who were bereft of a parent.
They were orphans.
There was every reason why their hearts should
have been perplexed when the world that is
to take away their Lord will turn its
bitterness and animosity against them.
But this spiritual condition our Lord meets in
two ways.
First of all, in chapter 14, and verse
1, he meets their spiritual heart troubles by
a call to faith.
"...Ye believe in God, believe also in me."
So, the first antidote to their heart condition
was faith in God the Father and faith
in God the Son, and the second antidote
that was to be taken along with this
first prescription was faith in his future program.
For the Lord Jesus says, in verse 2,
"...in my Father's house are many mansions, or
dwelling places.
If it were not so, I would have
told you.
I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am there
ye may be also."
Now, for the moment, I want to emphasize
that which our Lord reveals to them in
verse 3.
He has just talked to them about his
absence and about the fact of separation, and
the Lord Jesus now looks forward to a
time when the absent one will be the
present one, when the ones who have been
orphans will no longer be orphans, when they
who have been separated from the Father's house
will be brought into the very presence of
the Father.
So, he is looking forward to that time,
and it is the teaching on their relationship
to him and to the Father that will
be the antidote to their heart trouble.
He affirms, first of all, in verse 3,
"...if I go, and I certainly am going,
I will just as surely prepare a place
for you."
Now, the word translated here, prepare, is not
the word which means to manufacture or to
make.
It is the word which means, as some
parts of the South would say, to ready
up.
It means to take a place that is
now in existence, and to furnish it and
equip it to make a suitable habitation for
the one who is to be moved into
this place.
And so, the Lord Jesus is picturing here
a place that had been in existence, which
he is going to especially furnish and equip
and prepare as a suitable place for those
whom he has come to take to himself.
"...I go, and I prepare a place for
you, and I will come again and receive
you unto myself."
And there the Lord is picturing for us
the habitation of an Oriental family.
In the society in which our Lord lives,
the houses were built around a large open
square or patio.
The walls normally were built without any windows
on the outside of the square.
The only way of entrance into that square
was through one single gate, a very massive
gate that could be bolted and barred by
night as protection against any abandoned or marauder.
Then, inside, there would be a multitude of
rooms that would open off this central court.
They did not have interior hallways as we
think of them today, but they would have
a multiplicity of rooms, all of which would
open off this court.
When a father would receive a daughter-in
-law for his son, that father would simply
go to one unused portion of that enclosure,
and he would wall off another room or
two, and that would become the habitation of
the son and daughter-in-law.
As their family grew and increased, they would
just wall off another section, and the living
quarters would expand.
It was limitless then, and if he had
a number of children it would have been
beneficial if he had started with a good
bakery, so that there would be enough dwelling
places within the family enclosure for each one
of the children.
Now, when we read of the statement, in
my father's house are many mansions, it brings
all sorts of concepts to our minds, and
we think of a beautiful edifice out in
Dallas North, translated into glory and polished up
and furnished with a little gold and silver
to make it a first-class mansion, but
it's isolated from everything else.
But that's not the picture that our Lord
has in view here at all.
Rather, he is saying that in the enclosure
that is the father's house, there will be
many, many dwelling places, so that he is
emphasizing the unity of the family, one with
another and with the father.
And when the Lord is speaking here of
that place he has gone to prepare, there
is going to be no such thing as
you comparing your address with mine and make
sure that you are in a prestige location,
and you're not in the same street with
somebody else, or in an area that is
on the downgrade, because we're all going to
be in the same dwelling place, in the
same enclosure, there with the father and with
the son.
But it is not that which we especially
want to emphasize, but rather our Lord's promise
that because he is there preparing a place
for us, he has given to us his
promise, I will come again and receive you
unto myself, that where I am there ye
may be also, as it is natural for
the bridegroom to keep the bride with him
wherever he may be.
So, our Lord in his love for us
desires us to be with him, and he
has prepared a dwelling place as a bridegroom
for a bride, that we might be in
his presence at home with him forever.
Now, our Lord in John chapter 14 has
given us only the fact that he is
going to come again.
He has given us only the fact that
he will take us to himself.
Of the program, of the method, of the
time, he has said nothing.
He has given us the glorious hope that
he will come again and that he will
take us to himself.
Now, to get a second step in the
New Testament revelation concerning this great program of
the translation of the church, will you turn
with me into the fifteenth chapter of 1
Corinthians?
This, as you are familiar with it, is
the great resurrection chapter in the New Testament,
where the Apostle Paul, by inspiration, gives to
us that which is the central theme of
the gospel.
In chapter 15, verse 3, he says that
I delivered unto you first of all that
which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures.
Now, what was the proof that he died?
Why, verse 4, he was buried.
What's the second fact?
He rose again the third day according to
the scriptures.
What's the proof of that?
Why, verse 5, he was seen of Cephas,
and then of the twelve.
So there are two essential facts in the
gospel that the Apostle Paul preached, that Christ
died for our sins and that Christ rose
again from the dead after the price for
our sins had been fully paid.
And the rest of this chapter is an
unfolding of that second facet of the gospel.
If Jesus Christ died for us but does
not live again, if he had not been
resurrected, then we do not have salvation at
all.
Our salvation depends not only on the fact
of the death of Christ, but just as
really on the fact of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
The Apostle then moves to defend and approve
the fact of the resurrection of Christ, and
as he moves through this chapter in a
glorious way which we cannot go into tonight
because it is another field of study, the
Apostle demonstrates that not only has Christ been
raised beyond any doubt whatsoever, but that we
will be raised also.
And he shows us that there is no
individual who has ever lived from the time
of Adam to the end of the millennial
age when this earth is destroyed by fire.
No man who has ever lived who will
not be resurrected.
There are, it is true, two kinds of
resurrection, and some will be resurrected to life
and some resurrected to judgment.
But every single individual who ever lived will
be resurrected, and that is a sober and
a serious thought.
For if the unfaithful and the wicked were
left in the grave and were never resurrected,
then that would be the end of them,
and it wouldn't matter very much what they
did about Christ.
If they were blotted out, if they were
forgotten, if they simply lapsed into unconsciousness and
stayed there forever, then they would miss the
blessing of heaven and glory, but they wouldn't
be too bad off in that state of
obliteration.
The Apostle has shown us very conclusively that
every individual who ever lived will be resurrected.
Now, after presenting the truth of resurrection, the
Apostle, in verse 51, wants to introduce us
to what he calls a mystery.
He says, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed in a moment in the
twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we the living one shall be
changed.
Now, as perhaps you have been taught before,
when the word mystery is used in the
word of God, it does not refer to
something that is mysterious, that is difficult to
understand.
A mystery refers to some truth that has
not previously been revealed by God to man.
It is something that had been hidden in
the counsels of God, which God purposed to
do, but he had not previously revealed what
is purpose was.
Now, the Old Testament has taught us very
clearly that every believer in the promise of
God, every born-again individual will be resurrected
in the glory.
There was nothing new about that truth.
So, when the Apostle says, I show you
a mystery, he is not referring to what
he has been teaching in 1 Corinthians 15,
that believers would be resurrected.
You can go to Job chapter 19, verse
25 and following, where Job, in the very
first revelation given to us in the word
of God, says, I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand in the
latter day upon the earth, and though after
my skin worms destroy this body, yet in
my flesh shall I see God.
Job, who preceded Abraham, had the confident hope
of the resurrection through the Redeemer who would
one day appear.
You can go into Isaiah chapter 19, verse
26, or Daniel chapter 12, verse 3 and
following.
Those Old Testament prophets state very clearly that
the righteous would be resurrected into glory and
would enjoy the presence of God forever.
The day that in Psalm 16 affirms the
same truth concerning Christ, thou would not suffer
thine holy one to see corruption and give
the promise of the resurrection.
It was not then resurrection which was an
unrevealed truth that is now being revealed to
man.
But what is the mystery?
What is the new revelation?
The new revelation was the fact that some
believers would be translated into God's presence without
coming through the avenue of death and resurrection.
Down to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 51,
as you began to read Genesis and read
right straight through the Old Testament and through
the New Testament down to that point, you
would say there's only one way a person
can get into glory, that is by physical
death and then physical resurrection.
For there had been not the slightest hint
that any individual would ever get into God's
presence apart from that process of death and
resurrection.
I grant it, and you will observe that
we do have the case of Enoch and
Elijah in the Old Testament who were translated
without seeing death.
But God never followed the translation of Enoch
by saying there's coming a day when all
believers like Enoch will be caught up.
God knew all the time what he was
going to do, but he didn't take those
people into his confidence as to what his
program was.
And when Elijah was translated, and the double
spirit of God's portion fell on Elijah, even
Elijah had no idea that God one day
would instantly catch up every believer on the
Lord Jesus Christ as Elijah had been caught
up.
That was a purpose of God hidden away
in the recesses of his own council, but
now in his will God reveals to the
apostle Paul the fact that the hope set
before believers is that we shall not all
sleep, and by sleep I'm not referring to
what happens on a warm night after a
big dinner, after a strenuous weekend when you
feel sleepy in church.
He is not talking about physical sleep, he
is talking about believers' death, and he is
saying I want to teach you a truth
that never has been taught before.
We shall not, we believers, shall not all
come into glory by the prophet of dying,
and then coming to glory by resurrection, but
we shall all be changed.
Now, here is the new truth that there
could be a transformation into the presence of
God out of this body of corruption, into
an incorruptible body, out of this mortal body,
into an immortal body without the process of
death and resurrection.
And so, the apostle Paul, by inspiration, is
giving to us this new method by which
God will bring one whole generation of believers
into his presence.
He tells us when this will happen.
It will happen, first of all, in verse
52, instantaneously.
No process involved.
There will be an instantaneous transformation, for it
will take place in the twinkling of an
eye.
That word twinkling is not the word blinking
of an eye.
That's pretty fast.
We wouldn't have much time to do anything
if it took place in the blinking of
an eye.
This is even faster than that.
It has reference to that sudden flash of
light that may pass between two individuals, that
instantaneous, indivisible unit of time in which there
is that flash of recognition that will go
from one to the other with no lapse
of time whatsoever.
The apostle says this is going to be
that instantaneous in the twinkling of an eye,
and it will take place at the last
trump.
Now, the last trump, as the apostle uses
the term here, has reference to that moment
of time when God will have concluded this
present age in which we live.
It will be that moment of time when
the last member has been born again and
has been joined by the baptism of the
Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.
It will be that time when the bride
of Christ has been completed.
It will be that time when the father
will say to the son, son, it is
time for you to return and to bring
to yourself that bride whom you have purchased
through your own blood.
There is not the faintest hint any place
in the word of God as to when
that time will be.
God has not given us one single sign
to tell us when the last member will
be brought into the body of Christ.
It is entirely possible, as far as we
understand the word of God, that I may
preach to you this evening in the spirit
of God may convict some sinner here who
never has received Christ as Savior or is
in need of a Savior, and before I
could finish this sermon he would say in
his heart, I accept Christ as my personal
Savior, and I'd never get to finish this
sermon because God would say, that's the last
one, son, go get it.
And we'd be translated in a moment in
the twinkling of an eye that that last
sermon for the program of God on earth
will have been completed.
And then the apostle said, we shall be
changed.
Changed from this body of corruption, verse 53,
into an incorruptible body, and this mortal, that
one subject to death, shall become deathless, as
is translated in that moment of time into
the very presence of God.
And the apostle Paul has built on that
foundation which the Lord laid in John chapter
14 in his promise, I will come and
receive you to myself.
And now Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 has
told us a little bit of what the
program will be, that we may be caught
up to meet the Lord in the air.
Now I want you to turn with me,
please, to the passage that we read as
our scripture in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses
13-18, where the apostle gives to us
yet more detail concerning this translation or the
rapture of the church.
Now, there was a problem that the apostle
Paul was writing to me.
The apostle had spent, as near as we
can figure out, only about three weeks in
Thessalonica.
Not very much time, is it?
Now, if you were to go to a
group of raw idol-worshiping heathens, deep in
rationalism, in idolatry, how much would you figure
on getting accomplished in three weeks?
Well, the apostle, first of all, got a
bunch of them converted, and then he began
to teach them.
And you know, there are some folks who
say, don't teach prophecy, leave it alone, that's
certainly not for babes in Christ.
But these Thessalonians certainly weren't beyond spiritual babyhood,
but they'd only been been saved a few
days, and the apostle Paul told them what
fact, that the Lord was coming.
He had told them of the hope that
was before them, and from that moment of
time on, they had been looking every day
for the Lord to come.
Then a strange thing happened.
One of the brothers in Christ died, then
another, then another.
How many?
We don't know.
Some little time had gone on, and physical
death had come into that assembly, and they
began to be upset.
They were somewhat worried.
You know, after I've tried to teach seminary
students, I have a crack at them over
four years, I find at the end of
four years there are a couple things they
don't know yet, and a couple things I've
told them that they're a little confused about.
I'm not surprised that these believers were a
little bit confused after just three weeks.
They just didn't have it straight.
They said, here are our brethren who were
looking for this translation and looking for the
Lord to come just as much as we
were, and they have died.
Now, when the Lord comes and takes us
to himself, aren't they going to miss some
of the blessings?
Aren't they going to be left out?
What about these people who died in Christ?
Won't we who are alive on earth when
he comes have a head start?
Won't we be able to grab off the
chief mansions, the best mansions, and they'll come
along at a later time and they'll just
sort of take what's left?
If there were two different groups who went
to be with the Lord, one by resurrection
and one by translation, it would suggest to
us that there would be division throughout all
eternity, for some got to be with the
Lord by one method and some by another
method.
And it was entirely conceivable that those who
are alive and are translated would go to
a different compartment or a different place from
those who had been resurrected.
And so, here is one who has lost
a loved one, and he says, why, the
Lord may come today, my loved one has
died, and in the coming of Christ will
I see that loved one?
Will we be together?
Will we be united, or will the fact
that that loved one has died mean that
we will be in separate places?
Glorified, yes, but in separate places for us.
You see, they hadn't grasped the truth of
John 14.
They thought in my Father's house are many
what?
Mansions, and they thought they might live on
two different streets in glory because they got
their two different methods, and they hadn't understood
that our Lord didn't say many mansions.
He said many apartments.
And so, the apostle wants to write to
them.
He wants to straighten them out and give
them comfort and consolation as they are looking
for the coming of our Lord.
So, he begins to write in verse 13
and says, "...I would not have you to
be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep."
Now, when Paul says, I don't want you
to be ignorant, that expression always means they
were ignorant, and he didn't want them to
keep on being ignorant anymore.
And so, he says, I'm just writing to
dispel your ignorance.
Now, if I called you ignorant, you'd get
mad, but I don't think Paul worried that
much whether you called, or whether you mind
that he calls you ignorant.
So, he just says, "...I would not have
you to be ignorant, either, brethren, concerning them
which are asleep, that ye fall or not,
even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, and we certainly do believe that
fact, even so them which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with another."
The first point of his comfort and consolation
is that there will not be a single
believer on whom death has laid its hands
who will be left in the grave, or
who will be forgotten when the Lord Jesus
Christ comes.
We sing sometimes an Easter hymn, Death Cannot
Keep Its Prayers.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ is victor over death, and
I submit to you that, if at the
coming of Christ, or at the resurrection, the
body of one single believer were left behind,
Satan would have won a victory in that
one area.
And I would go further, and I would
say that if you have been unfortunate enough
to lose a finger, and in the resurrection
that first joint of that finger were left
behind and not resurrected, Satan would have gained
a victory.
Now, I grant you it wouldn't have been
much of a victory if it's just that,
but it would be a victory.
So that, the Lord is sure, the Apostle
Paul is showing us here that in the
resurrection, them which sleep in Jesus, God absolutely
must bring with him.
Why?
He is the victor.
Now, what's the process?
And, beginning at verse 15 on down to
verse 17, we have the climactic revelation concerning
this line of teaching, the process by which
the church meets the Lord in the air.
This we say unto you by the word
of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain under the coming of the Lord
shall not...
Now, change the next word in your English
text.
It should read, precede, or go before, or
the commonest English I can think of is,
have a head start.
That's exactly what he means.
Or, if you take all those who are
in the grave, and then all those who
are alive on the earth, it would seem
as though the living one certainly would have
a little head start anyway on those who
have died.
The Apostle says, when we go to meet
the Lord, the living one shall not have
a head start on those which are asleep,
for this is the process.
The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with a voice of the archangel,
with a trumpet of God.
I have to stop on those phrases that
are given to us there, the shout, the
voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God.
They can be taken in two different senses.
The word that is translated here, shout, is
the word in Greek that was used for
the command of a military leader.
As one might stand at the head of
a great battalion that is all ready to
go into battle, and the leader would stand
up and say what?
Forward march!
It's an authoritative command to move, and the
word translated here, shout, is the shout of
a military commander who is moving out the
troops that are following after him.
The voice of the archangel and the trumpet
of God.
Now, the archangel, or the voice of the
archangel, is interesting to observe here, because when
God gives commands, and when God would accomplish
his program, he frequently uses angelic ministers in
that program.
The law was given through angels in the
Old Testament.
Angels ministered to Christ at the temptation, and
angels were with Christ at the time of
his trial and crucifixion.
And God gave a command to the angels,
and that through the chain of command and
angelic host from the archangel down to the
angels, there would be the repeating of this
command.
And then when he says the trumpet of
God, the trumpet in the Old Testament was
used for one of two things.
First of all, it was used to summon
Israel to battle.
In the second place, it was used to
summon Israel to worship.
Now, I see two possibilities, and it may
include both of them.
The shout, the voice of the archangel and
the trumpet of God, may be the command
of God to the angelic host that they
are to go and are to engage in
battle with Satan, and they are to wrest
from Satan's control every body of every believer
to demonstrate the complete victory of the Lord
Jesus Christ over death.
Or, this may be a shout and a
voice of the archangel and the trumpet of
God addressed not to the angels but to
the believers to summon them to that great
assembly in worship and praise and honor and
glory.
In glory itself, the word addressed to believers.
Not the command, go and liberate, but the
command, come unto me.
But here is this authoritative word that sets
the whole program in motion, and in verse
17 we find the next step.
We have had, in verse 15, the resurrection
of the dead believers, and then following that,
in verse 17, you will observe the word,
then.
After the resurrection of the believers, we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the cloud.
Now, I want you to get the picture.
Our Lord has been sent by the Father
to this earth to bring all living and
dead believers of this age, the church, into
his presence.
When the Lord gives the authoritative shout, the
graves will be opened, and every believer in
Christ in the grave, the body of every
believer who has been in the grave, will
come forth.
And then, as the second step, while those
bodies are being caught up, we which are
alive will be caught up, and together we
shall meet the Lord in the air.
Underline that word, together.
What does it show?
That before either group meets the Lord in
the air, they are joined into one group.
No difference, no distinction, no privilege for one
over the other.
The two, the dead resurrected and the living
translated, will be joined into one group, and
they shall meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the
Lord.
Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
What's the comfort?
There will be no separation, there will be
no division, there will be no distinction, there
will be no privilege for one group over
the other group.
We shall be united together and with one
another, and then we shall be united together
with our Lord, to be with the Lord
in the air.
So, what will be the effect of this
translation on the earth below?
It would be interesting if we had a
lot of scriptures that we could point to
to show, for as I understand scripture, it
seems as though it makes no effect whatsoever.
It has no, it makes no impression on
the multitudes of lost ones who are left
on this earth to go to the great
tribulations.
Their hearts have been hardened against Jesus Christ,
they have rejected him as Savior, and when
they see this great sign, and I believe
it is a sign that cannot be hidden,
for there will be multitudes who in an
instant of time are absent from the usual
rounds and habits of life, yet they can
shrug their shoulders and pass it off and
say, so what?
And when the gospel is proclaimed during the
tribulation period, it will fall as on dead
and deaf ears, because our hearts have been
hardened against the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood
is proclaimed as the basis of salvation for
the sins of the world.
Yet what will it mean for us?
There's an interesting note that I observe whenever
I read passages that have to do with
this translation of the church, that no place
as far as I have been able to
find it in the word of God does
it ever say that Christ is coming to
take us to heaven.
No.
Every time it speaks of Christ coming for
his bride to church, he is coming to
take us unto himself.
Here it is again in 1 Thessalonians 4,
verse 17, "...we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air, and so shall we ever be in
heaven."
Is that what your Bible says?
No.
So shall we ever be what?
With the Lord.
You go back to John in chapter 14,
and as the words come from the Lord's
lips himself, what does he say?
"...I go to prepare a place for you.
I will come again and receive you unto
the place I go to prepare for you."
Is that it?
No.
"...I will receive you unto myself.
The glory of heaven is not the gold
of the streets, nor the jewels of the
gates, nor the splendor and the beauty of
our eternal habitation.
The glory of heaven is the person of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
We are not looking for an event.
We are not looking for a program.
We are looking for a person, and we
can live day by day, hour by hour,
and moment by moment with the expectation that
the Lord may come at any time.
As we spoke of this last evening in
our first introductory message, we tried to point
out to you that this whole teaching, the
doctrine of our Lord's return, was revealed to
us in Scripture to produce a new kind
of life.
Husbands, if your wives stood looking over your
shoulder every moment of every day, I dare
say there are some things that you wouldn't
do that you normally do.
Why?
Your husbands were around the home all day
long and stood looking over your shoulder.
Some things would be different, and I'm sure
the children would say, the young people would
say, if my parents stood and looked at
me every moment of the day, there are
a lot of things that I did today
I wouldn't have done.
The presence of a person is the greatest
deterrent to manifestations of sin in the flesh.
When God would deter the child of God
from the paths of sin, how did he
do it?
By promising the imminence of his appearance, that
he might come at any moment of time.
Let me say to you, if you are
here without Jesus Christ this evening, that which
we have been speaking to you about from
the Word of God is not just some
far-off truth, something that may happen generations
from now.
It is a revelation from the Word of
God that may take place at any moment.
Before I could pronounce the benediction tonight, the
Lord Jesus Christ could come to take the
redeemed to his house.
Before you awaken in a new day, the
Lord Jesus Christ could come to take every
believer to his house.
It will happen in the moment, in the
flash of an eye, too late to prepare
to meet the one who has come.
And, I would invite you, if you are
here without Christ, to settle the question now
to accept Jesus Christ as a personal Savior.
If you do know Jesus Christ, I wonder
if you've ever considered how different life would
be if you really believed that the Lord
might come at any time.
I've often used as an illustration the story
which I heard a long time ago, but
has brought the truth home to me repeatedly.
It was a story told of a young
man who went from Philadelphia in the days
when the western border of our colony was
in the region of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The great west and the southwest, unexplored and
unsettled.
This young man left the comforts of Philadelphia
to go out and homestead in the area
of Fort Pitt, which is now the city
of Pittsburgh.
Going out there, he had cleared a tract
of land, he had built a cabin, he
had left in Philadelphia, and he had promised
he would send for when he was established
there in that wilderness frontier.
About the time that his cabin had been
made ready for occupancy, and he was ready
to send for his fiancée, he was asked
by the authorities in Fort Pitt to represent
the government and to go on an expedition
out into the wilderness to the west.
It meant leaving his cabin, his caverns, the
home that he was establishing.
He was familiar with the law of the
land of that day, for the law realized
that many people would set out to homestead,
but who would be turned back because of
the vicissitudes and trials of life would abandon
their claim.
So, if a claim were left unoccupied, it
became the possession of the first individual who
moved in and possessed it.
This young man did not want to forfeit
all the labor that he had put into
this cabin, so he sent back to Philadelphia
and asked his fiancée to come and to
move into that cabin and possess that cabin
and occupy it for him.
The day that she came and moved in
to occupy that cabin, he left to go
into the wilderness to the west to accomplish
that for which he was being sent.
But, he left with the promise that the
day that I return will be the day
of our wedding.
She was to occupy until he should return.
Now, how do you suppose that young woman
spent her days?
Is it unreasonable to think that she would
get up in the morning and she would
go about the regular duties in the cabin
there with this consciousness today, my beloved may
return?
And when she would bar the cabin doors
and shutters at night, it would be to
go to bed with a thought that perhaps
before a new day breaks, my beloved will
return and according to his promise, it will
be the day of our wedding.
She went about her duties occupying his possession
until one day she looked out and from
the west she saw the familiar form of
her beloved as he had returned.
And according to his promise, the day of
his return was the day of their wedding.
Our Lord has said to us, believers, occupy
till I come.
Lift up your heads for your redemption draws
nigh.
We shall not all go by the avenue
of death, but we shall be translated to
meet him in the end.
And with John we would say, even so
come, Lord Jesus.
Our Father, may the Spirit of God receive
fit to reveal to us this precious truth
that we can live each day looking for
the one who will take us up to
be with himself.
May this truth transform our lives so that
we might walk in the light of his
return.
Give us the comfort that this teaching brings
to us as it promises us a blessed
reunion with every child of God.
Give to us, our Fathers, a purification to
come from living in the light of our
Lord's return.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.