(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Oh, George, we ask that you please bless Pastor tonight as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, we're in 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4. Of course, this is a very popular chapter. It's a very well-known chapter in the book of 1 Thessalonians due to the fact that it's mainly focusing at the latter end on the rapture, the second coming of Christ, and we'll get into that in just a bit. But let me give you a bit of a review before we get into the content that we find in this chapter. First and foremost, in chapter 3, we talked about the appointment that the Thessalonians had with affliction. And of course, the Thessalonian church is going through a lot of persecution. They're going through a lot of affliction. That's basically how their church started. Based upon some of the wording that we see at the latter end of chapter 4, we can assume that basically some people are being persecuted even to the point of death. Some people are dying, and this is why the Apostle Paul is giving them the hope of the rapture. He's giving them the hope of the second coming of Christ because of the fact that they're possibly losing their loved ones throughout this persecution. And of course, this persecution stems from the Jews seeking to stop the work of the Lord. And we know that to be true because of what we see in chapter 2. And so he talks about their appointment with affliction. He's basically telling them, hey, don't let this catch you off guard. This is just part of the Christian life. Getting persecuted, getting hated for preaching the truth, for having a church, for just standing for the Word of God. This is your appointment. You are appointed unto affliction. You're appointed unto tribulation. This is just part of the Christian life. And so he explains that to them. And then in chapter number 4, he basically kind of reminds them of some of the teachings that he's given to them in times past prior to him leaving. And what he's doing is he's simply reminding them of these basic teachings that we're gonna look at tonight. And he's telling them that he wants them to abound in these things more and more. Now you say, well, what's the point of that? Well, here's the thing is that, you know, it's really exciting. It's really cool when we learn something new from the Bible, right? You know, you learn some some deep truth from the book of Revelation, from end times Bible prophecy, in regards to replacement theology, these are the things that are really exciting to us. But the reality is this is that the vast majority of the Christian life operates on simply the basics. Okay, all the other things is basically like the cherry on top, right? The basics is that which is most important and God actually wants us to be reminded of the basics, but not only to be reminded, but also to abound in more and more. So he wants us to know the basics, but he wants us to master them and abound in them more and more. You know, a basic of the Christian life is to live a holy life, right? That's pretty basic. We know that God wants us to to be holy, to live a sanctified and holy life, right? Well, we know that with our minds, but God wants us to abound in that teaching more and more. He wants us to live holier lives as the years go by, as the days go by. We know that we're supposed to read the Word of God, right? Every single day. That's God's will for us to read the Word of God, and that is something that we know that is basic. You know what God wants? He wants us to abound in reading the Word of God more and more. That means we should read the Bible more. We should learn more from the Word of God. Prayer is a basic element of the Christian life, and we know that we are to pray without ceasing, but the Bible also teaches us we're to abound more and more. So what am I saying? What I'm saying is this, you know, if we're to apply this in a practical sense, what are some of the goals that you have for 2022? Well, you know, some of the goals can simply be the same goals that you had in 2021. The difference is you want to abound in those, you know, goals in 2022. So it's like you read your Bible in 2021, you prayed in 2021, you went soul-winding in 2021. Well, the goal in 2022, if you don't have any new necessarily goals, then the goal should be to abound there in more and more, to win more souls to Christ. And if you read the Bible once this year, amen, well, the goal should be to read it twice this coming year, right? To abound there in more and more. If you prayed for about, you know, in the morning for 10 minutes a day, well, maybe your goal should be to pray for 20 minutes a day in 2022, to abound there in more and more. And so, you know, it's great to learn these new truths of the Bible, and these are exciting things that we see in the Word of God, the dark sayings and the parables, and now which is hard to understand, but the reality is this, is that it's far more important for us to master the basics and to abound there in more and more. And this is actually what we're gonna look at this evening. Look at verse number one. It says, Furthermore, then we beseech your brethren. Give me a second here. Let me take a drink of water. Sorry. Furthermore, then we beseech your brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us, how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. He said, look, you've learned of us how to please God, how to walk, and he's not talking about how to physically walk, you know what I mean? Like, hey, when you walk, don't, you know, don't limp or something, or don't look, don't be light on your toes. When he's saying walk, he's talking about walking the Christian life. He says, we taught you how to walk in the Christian life, right? And we taught you how to please God, and now I'm telling you that I want you to abound in that more and more. Okay, he says in verse 2, for ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. Now, the first thing I want you to notice is, you know, he's focusing right now primarily on his holiness, on being holy, excuse me, but I want you to notice that, you know, salvation, although it's important, it's, it's not the only important thing in the Bible. Because once we're saved, once we know what salvation is, once we know, you know, how to get to heaven, once we're saved, we have eternal life, we know we have eternal security, that's important. But once you have that, the Bible says that we need to leave those basic principles of the doctrines of Christ and move on to maturity. What does that mean? We need to learn how to walk and to please God. Okay, it's not the only thing we need to teach believers how to walk and to please God. Think about this, you know, the Bible tells us in Matthew 28, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, right? When he says teach all nations, he's telling them to teach the gospel, teach them how to be saved. And let me just say this, is that that teaching is not like a five-week course or something like that. Okay, you don't have to take five weeks to teach someone how to be saved. We literally do it in ten minutes. Okay, if you don't know 100% sure that if you're to die today that you'd go to heaven, you could know for a fact tonight, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in about ten minutes or less. Maybe not less, maybe 12 minutes or less. Okay, how to be saved. Okay, and that's what the Bible tells us, to teach them, right, regarding the gospel. But then later on it says teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I'm with you always even into the end of the world. Amen. So it says teach them referring to salvation, but then later on it says then teach them to observe all things. So what does that tell us? It's telling us that after someone gets saved, it's important that we keep back nothing that is profitable unto them. Right, we got to teach them the Word of God. It's not just a matter of, all right, now you're saved. See ya. I mean, that's great. They're going to heaven. You know, if we never see them again, we'll see them in heaven. But you know what? God also wants us to teach them how to walk and how to please God, how to get sin out of their lives, how to be a good wife, how to be a good husband, how to be a functioning member of society, how to be a good laborer, how to go soul-waning, how to disciple others, how to love, how to, you know, how to hate. Right? How to walk and to please God. Don't keep back anything that is profitable unto new believers. The Bible says in Colossians, you don't have to turn there, chapter 1 verse 9 says, You know, it should be our desire to produce workers. Right? Workers for the ministry, workers for the harvest, you know, we want them to get saved, we want them to get plugged in, we want them to get assimilated, and we want them to learn how to preach the gospel, we want them to learn how to read the Bible, how to pray, how to do good works, how to maintain good works. You know, what I'm saying is, is let's not just be satisfied with getting people saved, although that's a great start. We should be content with getting people saved, you know, but we should thereafter teach people the Word of God. Okay? Teach them how to mature in the Christian life. Teach them, you know, different doctrines of the Bible, the doctrine of baptism, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of, you know, submitting to your husband, the doctrine of loving your wife as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, the doctrine of glorification, the doctrine of the rapture. I mean, there's so many things that people need to learn and abound in therein more and more. You know, they need to learn how to please God. Because, let's just be honest, someone gets saved, you know, obviously they don't come with batteries included. They get saved, they probably have some baggage with them. They probably struggle with some sin or sins, many sins. You know, they're probably battling some, some vice in their life. We don't know. Okay, and so we need to teach them to please God, and the way you please God is by cleaning up your life, right? You know, maybe they drink alcohol. We got to teach them what the Bible says about alcohol. Maybe they're involved in fornication. We got to teach them what the Bible says about fornication. Maybe they're just lazy. We got to teach them that laziness is a sin, and that God expects us to be hard workers, to be diligent, to work as unto the Lord, okay? You know, maybe they just don't like to work at all. Maybe they've never had a job in their life. Well, we got to teach the young man to work. Why? Because that pleases God. That's why. Well, I thought it only pleases God when we read the Bible. No, it pleases God when we just live a Christian life, not just within the church doors, but even outside of the church doors. You understand? You know, we want to, we want them to be fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So we want them from a practical perspective to live out the Christian life, but we also want them to learn the Bible as well. So we got to teach them how to be faithful, how to be consistent in the church, you know, so they can learn the Word of God through the preaching of God's Word. We got to give them a Bible reading plan so that they can, you know, accomplish reading the Bible in one year. We want them to be fruitful in every good work, but also to increase in the knowledge of God. We've got to teach them the will of God to please the Lord. Look at verse 3. He says, for this is the will of God. I've always liked this verse because, you know, being a Christian for the last 15 years or so, you know, people, I've always run into people who are like, what's God's will, you know? And they always want to know some secret will, like what's God's specific secret will for my life 10 years, 15 years from now? Well, you don't have to go very far to know what God's will is. And in fact, it's literally laid out here. He's saying, for this is the will of God. Oh man, is it for me to be a pastor? Is it for me? Is it gonna say that the country that I am called to to be a missionary? No, it says, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Yeah, well, I know that. I like to be sanctified, you know. Okay, well, let's get a little more detailed there that you should abstain from fornication. I like how the Bible is just very practical. How do you live a holy life? Don't fornicate? That's pretty practical right there. You say, well, you know, that's a little too practical. Yeah, but you'd be surprised that some people out there don't know that. They think it's okay to fornicate and to sleep around and to, you know, be a whore monger or be a whore, as the Bible puts it. They think that's okay, because that's just how they grew up. You know, they don't have a problem with it. Whereas the Bible clearly lays out that God's will for our lives is to live a sanctified life, not a perfect life, because no one's perfect. But it is possible to not be perfect and still not commit fornication. It's possible to be sanctified, not unto perfection, but at least to the point where you're not committing fornication. At least to the point where you're not committing drunkenness. You're not becoming an extortioner. You're not an idolater. You're not these things that the Bible says. So what is God's will for people's lives? Well, there's many wills, according to the Bible, when you actually study the Word of God. But specifically that's laid out here in 1 Thessalonians 4 is that they should abstain from fornication. Okay, and you know what? This was written like thousands of years ago, 2,000 years ago, approximately. And obviously this is something that possibly was taking place in that church. But wouldn't you say this is also a problem today in 2021? Fornication is still an issue, even though this is such an old ancient book. It's so outdated. You know, it's so outdated. You know, this is so old. It's so irrelevant. No, this is still relevant because people today are still committing fornication. Christians are still committing fornication. And they need to be reminded of the fact that the Bible tells us that God's will for our lives is to be sanctified and to abstain from fornication. And by the way, you can add every other sexual sin to that. Because it's not just fornication. Abstain from adultery. Abstain from lasciviousness. Abstain from concupiscence. Abstain from any type of sexual sin. You know, the Bible says it is good for a man not to touch a woman. And obviously the answer, because God's not saying to be some queer or something like that. He's like, the answer is that you should just get married. But as a single young man, it is a sinful thing to do to commit fornication or to commit adultery with another man's wife or, you know, whatever it may be. You know, God's will is for you to be holy. And what does that mean? Well, to be sanctified. And what does that mean? Well, to abstain from fornication, if you really want to know. Verse 4, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel and sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. Now hold your place there. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. So, first of all, I want you to notice that sanctification is directly tied into what we do with our bodies. Obviously, God wants us to be sanctified, you know, inwardly in our mind. He wants us to have a clean mind, to have a renewed mind. That's obvious. But that's not the only thing that God is concerned with. And you have a group of Christians out there that will often say this, well, God sees the heart. And what they mean by that is basically God doesn't care what you do outwardly. He just cares what you do inwardly. No, newsflash, he cares what you do with your body, what you do with your mind, what you do with your soul. He cares about everything. That's why the Bible says that all three, mind, soul, and body, should be blameless until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if he didn't care about our bodies, then why did he buy it? You're bought with the price, the Bible says. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. OK, belonging unto God, that's what it's saying. Look at 1 Corinthians 6, verse 12. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly and belly for meats, that's going to be my verse on Tuesday. I mean, it's my verse now, but you know, meats for the belly, belly for meats. What is he saying? He's saying that the belly was created to consume meat, right? And meat was created to be consumed by the belly. Meat referring to animal products, OK, whether pork or beef, you know, chicken. I know some of you guys don't like chicken out there. I still like chicken. I still like pork, OK? But beef, I'm starting to eat liver now. I actually like liver. Some people don't like, they eat it out of discipline. I actually like liver and onions, my friend, with a little bit of bacon sprinkled on it. It's good. Weaklings. Meats for the belly and belly for meats. God created the belly to be able to consume meat products, and he created meat products to be consumed by our bellies, OK? But look what it says, but God shall destroy both it and them. He's like, he's going to destroy both, basically. So the belly destroys the meat, but at the end of the day, you know, the belly destroys the meat, but at the end of the day, God destroys both, OK? And look what it says, now the body is not for fornication. So the parallel that we see between meat and bellies is not the same parallel that we can draw with fornication and our bodies. Yeah, we know that the meats are the belly and the belly for meats. They go one with, they work in conjunction. We eat the pork. We eat the beef. We eat the animal products. This is normal. This is how God created it. God did not create a plant-based diet, OK? Meats for the belly, belly for meats. But he's saying, however, the body is not for fornication. Those do not work together. Now, some people out there try to make it work, right? But then they suffer the consequences because of it. He says the body is not for fornication. Well, who is it for then? But for the Lord. And the Lord for the body. Now, what does that mean? Well, he's saying that, you know, obviously prior to marriage, because marriage is an institute that was created by God, prior to that, the body should never be used for fornication. It should be used to attend to the things of the Lord. It should be used to serve God. Use your feet to go and preach the gospel. Use your hands to be a blessing to others. Use your eyes to read the word of God. Use your mouth to open your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the word of God. Use that which you have in yourself prior to marriage to be a blessing to others, because that's what it's for. It's for the Lord. And even after marriage, obviously, in general, our bodies are still for the Lord. We're to serve the Lord. And look, don't get me, don't, don't, don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. I'm not saying we're just like 24 seven, like serving God. You know what I mean? Like, like robots, because obviously we don't, no one does that. We're to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But let's be honest, no one serves the Lord their God or loves him with all our soul, mind, and strength 24 seven. And whoever says they do it is just lying. They're liars. They're hypocrites is what they are. I'm telling you, that's what the Bible says. But I'm also telling you that I fall short of that because I'm a human being. I'm a sinner. I make mistakes. I don't always think upon the Lord as I should. Okay. But in general, the general rule should be that that should be our desire. That should be our goal, that we serve the Lord with our bodies. Okay. He says, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body, those do work in conjunction one with another. Verse 14, and God has both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power, referring to the resurrection, knowing not that your bodies are the members of Christ, shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot. God forbid. What is a harlot? That's another way of saying prostitute. Okay. What know you not that he which is joined to in harlot is one body for to say, if he shall be one flesh, but he that is joined into the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man do it is without the body, but he that committed fornication sin it against his own body. What know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy ghost, which he which is in you, which he have of God and ye are not your own. So the Bible is telling us this, is that when you commit fornication, when an individual Christian commits fornication, they're causing the body of Christ, which is this bodies, not his body, but the body that belongs to him to sin. Okay. Not that Jesus is sinning, but this body that belongs to him that, you know, he's, he's, he's the owner of this body. We're causing it to sin because it's the members of the body of Christ. You understand? So don't take this, this subject of fornication lightly. This is something that's important. This is something that matters to God. Oh, I don't know about that. You know, we're living in a different era. Yeah, but you know what? A Christian is still a Christian. The Bible is still the Bible. God has not changed. You know, the morality of the world changes overnight. I mean, the, the morality and the standard of the world changes over night. God says that he changes not. His morality never changes. You know, what he defines as sin never changes. What he defines as wickedness never changes. What he defines as sanctification and righteousness and justice never changes. It's never altered because he remains the same. Okay. And so this needs to be preached far more often. Verse 20 says, for you are bought with the price, therefore, what glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's go back to first Thessalonians. So this is the will of God for us. Okay. That we should abstain not just from fornication, but just every sexual sin that exists out there that we should live in holiness and sanctification. That's all we can please the Lord. So man, how can I please God? Well, let's start off with the most basic thing. Just make sure you don't, you abstain from fornication. Don't get involved in lasciviousness and wickedness. Get away from the harlots of this world. Get away from the whores of this world. Ladies, get away from the whoremongers of this world. And you're on your way to fulfilling the will of God. Yeah. But I was looking for something more like mystic and specific and like, well, you know, you don't, no, that's not, this isn't like Lord of the Rings or something. This is the Lord of Lords, King of Kings. Okay. And you know what? God doesn't have to like say something very impressive. We just need to do what he says. And if he just says abstain from fornication, it's like, all right. He's not like go to the top of this mountain and you will find there a tree and it will speak unto you. No, he just says, just look, look, forget all that. Just abstain from fornication. And that's how you can please me. Verse six, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such as we also have forewarned you and testified for God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God who has also given us unto us, his Holy spirit. Now there's actually two ways you can interpret these three passage, these three verses here, because you know, the previous verse in verse five, it's talking about fornication. It's talking about abstain from fornication and sanctification, but then you have verse six that says that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter. Now, what this could be referring to is just simply part of sanctification is making sure that you do not do any ill will towards your brother in Christ. Right? You don't defraud him. You don't steal from him. Love worketh no ill, right? You're just good to him. But if you were to just take it in context and say that it's still referring to fornication, you know, this, when it says that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, it could still be referring to, it's not referring to two men, obviously. It's referring to a woman and a man vice versa. Okay. You said, well, then why does it say man and brother? Well, because in the Bible, sometimes God just generalizes both genders and just says, brother, you know, like Paul says, greet all the brethren. Is he telling them to just only talk to the males? He's like, Hey, I got a message for the males. Ladies, if you could just step out for a minute, I got something for only the males in the church. No, it's referring to all the Christians in the church. Okay. And when the Bible often would, not often, it does it all the time. It talks about man, you know, it's referring to just both. Right? And so this could just simply be referring to the fact that no man go beyond defraud his brother in any matter by, you know, attempting a brother to commit fornication, tempting a brother to commit some, some wicked sexual sin. I believe that that's probably what it's referring to because of verse seven, it says, for God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. And uncleanness in the Bible is often synonymous with fornication, adultery, that type of sin. Okay. So he goes, he first, first of all, he's speaking to them about the importance of holiness, sanctification, abstaining from fornication, et cetera. Look at verse nine. He says, but as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for yourselves are taught of God to love one another. So first he goes through the believer's holiness, but now he's going to go through the believer's love. Okay. And he tells them, you know what, love one another, but I don't really have to go into detail on how to do that because you're taught of God on how to do that. Now, what does that mean that you're taught of God? It doesn't mean that God in an audible voice comes and basically explains to you how to love your church members. What it means is that when you're saved, because the Holy Spirit dwells within you, the fruit of the Spirit is love. And it's kind of like a natural byproduct of just being a Christian is that you have this natural, or should I say supernatural love for the brethren. Okay. And I'm not saying it's for everyone. Okay. But obviously your immediate brethren in the church, the people you're with, the people you see, there's this natural tendency to just love them. Okay. To what degree, obviously that's different for everyone, but you know, I would say for each and every one of you and myself, that we have loved one for another. We love each other. Now we don't, we don't tell each other, like when we see each other, like, Hey, I love you. Kind of weird. I remember, let me tell you the story. So a couple of years ago, I'm not going to say who it was, but a couple of years ago, one of the church members, he gave me a call and he was, I can't remember what he was explaining. He was complaining about something. I remember he was complaining about something and I, you know, I was just kind of, you know, multitasking. So I was talking to him and I was trying to help. My wife was going to go run some errands and she wanted to take the kids with her. So I'm helping the kids load into the vehicle and I'm talking to this person. Right. And so I'm like, I'm listening, I'm listening and he's talking to me, talking to me, he's real serious and I'm listening. And so, uh, I, I load the kids into the car and, and I go to the driver's seat where my wife is and, you know, I gave her a kiss and I say, I love you. And then, and then, and then the church member on the phone says, Oh, okay. I love you too. I'll say, I'll talk to you later. He thought it was like, like hanging up on him or something, you know? And I'm like, Hey, I'm not talking to you. I say, I love you, but I'm not just going to tell you like that. You know, but it was just so funny. He's like, Oh, I love you too. I'll talk to you later. It's just like, I don't want to discourage you from telling you, from you telling me that you love me. I'm just saying that that was just a funny situation there. And I'm not saying that to love one another, you have to tell each other that you love each other. Okay. You know, that can get kind of old a little bit, maybe sometimes insincere. Um, but you know what, the reality is this, is that, you know, let us not love, uh, in word, but in deed, right? So the best way to, to present to someone that we love them is based upon the things that we do for them. Right. And again, I'm not saying you can't tell each other that you love each other. I think that that's perfectly fine. But what I'm saying is this, is that the Bible tells us that we're taught of God, how to love one another. Okay. The Bible tells us in Romans 13 and verse number eight, Oh, no man, anything, but to love one another. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. A lot of people are concerned with, Oh man, how am I going to keep all these commandments? How am I going to make sure I keep all this, the things that God says? Well, here's a really easy way to do it. You can either list all of God's commandments and just go one by one and just see if you can keep them all. Or you can just simply summarize them all and just love your brother and you, you'll fulfill the commandments, you'll fulfill the law. Because the Bible says for this, thou shall not commit adultery. Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not steal. Thou shall not bear false witness. Thou shall not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. So the easiest way to keep all of God's commandments in one shot is just to love your brother. You know, don't be this kind of Christian where it's just like, I got to make sure I keep every single one of these. Let's see what else does it say? Obviously, we should esteem the law of the Lord, which is esteem his commandments and seek to fulfill them. But what I'm saying is according to the Bible, the easiest way to fulfill them is just love your brother because love worketh no ill toward his brother. If you love your brother, you're not going to kill him. If you love your brother, you're not going to steal from him. If you love your brother, you're not going to covet what he has. Why? Because you love him. Okay. So he's telling them abound in holiness, abound in your love one toward another. It says in verse 10, chapter 4, he says, and indeed he do it toward all the brethren, which are in Macedonia, all in Macedonia, but we beseech your brethren that ye increase more and more. So the Thessalonian church is a lovable church. They not only love the people in their church, the Bible says that their love is spreading to all the brethren, which are in all Macedonia, which is that region in the north. I mean, it's right above Thessaloniki. Okay. You know, that's where Philippi is and everything. And so their love is spreading even to that region there. And he's telling them, Hey, keep increasing. Make it go further than that. It's pretty, pretty interesting, pretty awesome. And I would say that maybe what he's referring to is the fact that they're willing to go out to different parts of the world to go preach the gospel. Okay. Because preaching the gospel is one of the greatest demonstrations of our love for people, right? Telling them how to be saved. So he talks about the believer's holiness, the believer's love. Verse 11, the believer's work, verse 11 says, and that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. So it's pretty interesting. You know, he gets into their work ethic. Okay. And this is what I love about the Bible. When it comes to practical advice and counsel and admonishments, sometimes it's just like, Hey, love your brother. But also don't be lazy. You know what I mean? Like study to be quiet. What a, what a great way to phrase that. You know what you need to study is not end times Bible prophecy. You know what you need to study? Not, you know, the, the intricacies of replacement theology. You should learn how to just shut up when you're working. Well, that's not very spiritual. Yeah, it is. And to do your own business. What's another way of saying that? Mind your own business. So apparently there's people in this church who are just flapping their gums at work. They're just kind of wasting time being a bad testimony at work, just talking and chatting away and not getting things done. And the apostle Paul is saying, Hey, you need to study. You need to get your degree. You need to get your masters and just learning how to be quiet on the job. Okay. Obviously there's certain jobs out there that require for you to talk a lot. Like, for example, my job, I got to talk for an hour straight. Okay. Uh, but there's certain jobs that requires for you to physically, you know, accomplish a task where if you talk, you're just going to waste time, you know? And so, you know, he's telling them, you know, just be quiet, learn how to do your own business, to work with your own hands as we commanded you. So this is something that he's actually taught them in times past, how to have a good work ethic. Okay. By the way, the Bible tells us in all labor, there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. Okay. Don't be a person on the job that's constantly talking to the employees, constantly talking to your coworkers, just flapping their gums and just not getting anything done. You know, obviously if your job allows it and it requires for you to communicate with your coworkers in order to get a task done, that's a different story. But you know, a lot of times that's not what it is. Some people are just idle at their job and they want to waste time. Don't do that. He says in verse 12, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without and they may have lack of nothing. So you say work honestly. Don't steal from your boss. Don't steal money from your boss. Don't steal hours from your boss. Don't steal paperclips from your boss. Don't steal pens from your boss. Be an honest person. Okay. When it says them that are without, he's referring to without the church, without the scope of, you know, Christianity, people who are not saved. That's what he's talking about. And God wants us to live an honest life before the Gentiles, which the Bible often synonymously, you know, refers to unsafe people as. Okay. He wants us to be honest among them to, you know, have a good work ethic before them. And obviously not all Gentiles and not all unsafe people, you know, are going to like us even in spite of our good work ethic. They're going to find out that you go to this church or find out that you have a terrorist as a pastor and, you know, a hate preacher as a pastor and all these things. And then they're just going to, they're going to hate you no matter what, but in general, okay, you know, maybe for that and not because you're lazy and you talk too much. Okay. Let it be for me. Okay. Not for your lack of diligence. All right. So he's just reiterating a lot of these things. And now he gets into the believer's hope. Okay. The hope of those who have died in Christ. Verse 13 says, but I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so then would also which are which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Okay. Now I want to talk about a couple of things here. First and foremost, as I mentioned, this probably means that a lot of people are not a lot, but maybe some have died. Okay. And so, you know, when someone dies, it causes sorrow, obviously. It should cause sorrow. Okay. Don't have this overly callous heart where it's just like, well, they're saved, aren't they? Then you'll see them again. Don't worry about it. It's going to be okay. It's like, okay, thanks a lot. Thou physician of no value. You know, obviously if we lose someone who is saved, we're thankful that they're in heaven, but it doesn't mean that we're not going to miss them or something, even though we know we're going to see them again. Why? Because death is a separation between you and a physical person in your life who you're used to having around, who you love, you know, they're just, they're removed from your life and it causes pain. It causes sorrow. Don't have this hyper spiritual attitude about, well, I'm so eternally minded. That stuff doesn't even bother me or something. You know, I know they're all in heaven. It's all good. Why even waste tears? You know? Well, no, actually the Bible talks about having sorrow. And look, Jesus, oh, that's where that's coming from. I thought those PA guys were messing around in the back. That too? Jesus is the son of God. He's God in the flesh. He is the resurrection. He holds our life in his hands. He can make me just drop dead right now if you wanted to in the middle of this sermon, he has all the power is given into it, right? Well, while he was here on this earth, he wept for Lazarus who was dead. Jesus wept. Now, is it because he's like, well, this is the only person I'm not going to be able to resurrect or something? Is it because Lazarus was just an exception to the rule or something like that? No, it's because he loved him. So if the son of God who is perfect, who obviously is eternal life, he is the resurrection, has enough compassion to shed tears for someone who he knows he's going to resurrect in the last day. Folks, so can we. It's completely normal. And look, he wept in spite of the fact that he was going to resurrect him right there because obviously he's all knowing. So he's about to resurrect that guy right then and there, bring him back to life right then and there. He still wept. I mean, that's one of the most powerful verses in the Bible. Jesus wept. It shows you the extent of his compassion and even the sorrow that he had in his heart for a person whom he loved that died. Okay. And so, you know, anytime someone comes to me and they're just like, yeah, we shouldn't worry about that. You know, I had a family member one time and this would be before I was saved. And she's a Pentecostal, problem number one. But her ex-husband, who's our uncle, you know, he passed away. He died. And I don't know if he was saved. I like to think that maybe he was because he had contact with different Christians who actually believed right. But I don't know. Okay. And, you know, my family and I, we had some sorrow in our heart, even though we didn't know him, we weren't as close to him. We still had sorrow in our heart because we remember him. And we went to the funeral. And, you know, what do you wear when you go to a funeral? Black. Why? Because black signifies sorrow, mourning, right? You're mourning. This woman came in all pink. And I remember my mom was super mad. She's like, who, what are you doing? What do you think you are? This is time for celebration. You know, he's went home to be with the Lord. This is a good thing. We should be rejoicing. It's like, man, you're cold hearted. That's inappropriate. What is that? But this is the kind of nonsensical, hyper-spiritual attitude that's out there. Folks, there's nothing weak about mourning and being sorrowful over someone that died whom you love, even someone who died that maybe you weren't as even close to. Folks, people in the Bible mourn for like 40 days. People mourn for like a month. I mean, weeping day in and day out for a lost loved one, even though they knew they were saved. You know, some people ask, well, you know, do you think Jesus wept for Lazarus because maybe he went to hell or something? Well, here's my thing when it comes to Jesus resurrecting dead people in the Bible. I believe every single person that he resurrected was already saved because anybody who dies and goes to hell never comes back. But people die and go to heaven and they come back. I mean, not today, but in the Bible they have. You know, Paul, you have Elijah who's in heaven and who's going to come back in the end times. There's 144,000 guys who are going to do that. Right? In Revelation chapter seven. So I think Lazarus was already saved. Okay. But what I'm saying is that, you know, these people, they have sorrow in their heart because they've lost loved ones, you know, and Paul is telling them, don't sorrow as others who have no hope. So he's not saying, hey, don't sorrow at all. I should not see you guys crying at all. Don't be a sissy. Don't be a weenie. Suck it up. He's just saying we don't sorrow as others sorrow. Because look, when someone dies whom we love and we know they're in heaven, we're sorrowful because we're not going to see them for a time and we're going to miss them. Whereas a person who dies without Christ, now that's some deep sorrow right there. Because you know you'll never see that person ever again. And you know the eternal torment that they're going to experience when they lift up their eyes in hell. That's a reality. That's why he says we don't sorrow as them which have no hope. And folks, there's people out there that their family member dies or whoever they die and they have no idea how to deal with that. I've had family members that, you know, a family member has died and they literally for years would go every weekend to that person's grave site, put up a lawn chair, bring food and have a picnic there to spend time with their deceased loved one. And I'm not saying that's inappropriate to do, you know what I mean, like, you know, every once in a while. But obviously the reason that that person was doing that is because they don't really know what happened after they died. They think that they're still there. You understand? Whereas we know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord if they're saved. Obviously, the body is important. That's why we put it in a beautiful casket. You know what I mean? We put them in a wonderful suit or dress or whatever it may be. And we bury them because it signifies that you're burying a seed that will one day spring up to something completely different. That's what the resurrection teaches us, right? But, you know, those are people who have no hope. They just think, they think, they're like, who knows where they're at? Well, we know according to the Bible. And so, and by the way, when it says concerning them which are asleep, you know, this doesn't mean that, this doesn't teach soul sleep. Like the soul is asleep inside the body. I mean, what a nap. You're just in there the whole time. You're just like, I'm dead. I wonder when the resurrection is going to be or something, you know? I wonder if it's tomorrow. It's all dark in there. Like, I mean, this is what like seven-day Adventist and, what's the other ones? Jehovah's Witnesses, they teach soul sleep. That when someone dies, their soul is just asleep in the body. No, folks. Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Luke chapter 16 teaches that the rich man, when he died, lifted up his eyes in hell. There is no purgatory. There is no way in between. You'll never find the word purgatory in the Bible. Only one or two places you can go to heaven or hell. Now you can believe that there's something in the middle, but your belief does not change the reality. I mean, you can believe you can fly if you want, but go ahead and jump off the roof and see if reality doesn't hit you in the face. Because your belief does not change. We need to go to the word of God to see what it says. And the Bible doesn't teach that when people die, they're just asleep in their body. When it says them which are asleep, it's synonymous with those who are dead. Why? Because when someone dies, they look like they are asleep. Right? I mean, right? They just look like they're asleep. And to a certain extent, it kind of is true. The body is asleep. The spirit is absent from the body, but the body is asleep. And one day it will awake to righteousness at the resurrection, the rapture, which is what we're going to look at. Verse 14, and here's the proof of that. Look what it says, for if we believe that Jesus died, synonymous with the sleep and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Sleep in Jesus basically means that people who have died, but they're saved, God's going to bring their spirits with them to be reunited with their body. Verse 15, he says, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. So let me explain to you how the resurrection looks like, what the rapture looks like. Okay. When we say the rapture, by the way, the word rapture is not found in the Bible, but it's a good word to describe the second coming of Christ. It's a good word to describe the resurrection because that's literally what happens. You know, the Bible talks about the fact that Jesus Christ is going to cast them away, right? It talks about, you know, not caught away, they're going to be taken. One shall be taken, the other left, it shall be caught up. So the idea there is almost like a bird of prey swooping down to snatch its prey, to snatch whatever is taken up from the land. Well, that's how the rapture is going to be. Okay, that's the second coming. That's why it's called a rapture because we're going to be snatched away into glory. Okay. And the way it takes place is that when Christ comes, every eye shall see him. And the Bible says that the dead in Christ shall rise first. So they get first dibs on the resurrection. You understand? Because obviously there's going to be a lot of believers that are alive during that time, but the vast majority of believers are dead. There's far more believers that are dead than are alive. We understand that, right? I mean, from the beginning of time up until the end of time, everyone who's ever died, David, Moses, all the nameless prophets in the Bible, or even nameless pastors and prophets and Christians throughout history who have died in the Lord. I mean, they're resurrecting first. Now don't take this lightly. This is going to be a terrifying sight. Okay. And you're like, I thought it was like a secret or something. Don't clothes fall to the ground and everyone just like teleports or something like that? No, that's a sucky rapture. That's a secret rapture. That's the pre-trib rapture that's not found in the Bible. The Bible says that every eye shall see him. He's not like hiding or something. And then like he just raptures everyone and disappears. No, the Bible says that everyone's going to see Jesus. I mean, why wouldn't he want everyone to see him? It's going to scare the crap out of everyone. So the sight of Jesus, according to Romans six is so terrifying. Put it this way. It's so terrifying. It's worse than any horror movie you've ever seen in your life. Forget Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Talk about the rapture here. Forget, you know, Hellraiser. Hellraiser ain't got nothing on the rapture. In fact, the Bible says that the rapture is so terrifying that men will desire for the rocks to fall upon them, to hide them from the face of him, to sit on the throne from the wrath of the lamb. That's how terrible. I mean, you know, you're at a movie or something. You see something terrible. Oh, I can't see that. The rapture is worse. They're like, find me the heaviest rock there is, the heaviest mountain there is, and please let that thing fall on me to hide me from that. And they can't hide. That's a terrifying sight. The rapture is the most terrifying sight in history. You know why? Because our God is a terrible God. He's scary. The Lord is terrifying. But that's not it. You know, everyone sees the Lord and they're trembling. They're asking Mount Vesuvius to fall upon them, Mount Everest to fall upon them. But then even after that, you have all these dead bodies bursting through the ground. It's not like lights are coming up or something like that. The bodies are coming up. You have like this rumbling and it was like, what's that? And then the cemetery is just bodies bursting out of the cemetery. There are white suits and the dresses flying through the air. So many bodies flying through the air that it blocks out the sun because you know that's a lot of believers. How about people who are working in the Navy and they're out in the ocean and all the dead bodies, Christians who have died throughout the centuries, who have died in the ocean just bursting through the waters. This is why men's hearts are failing them for fear. It's called a heart attack. They're looking at you just like. It's a terrifying sight. It's probably a very, it's probably a very noisome day. Extremely terrifying. Babies flying through the air as well. Millions of babies that have been aborted. Billions that have been aborted throughout the years. I mean, this isn't just like one soul there, one here, one here. It's like, it's like a wave of souls, a body, excuse me, flying through the air to meet their spirit because the spirit of those bodies are coming with Jesus to meet the Lord in the air. The bodies are going to meet the Lord in the air with their spirits. And that's when they become transfigured. They become something completely different. They become glorified according to the Bible. Now, if this happens in our lifetime, I want to see that. While everyone else is freaking out. I'm like, dude, you know, going to Instagram live or something. You know, that's a sight to behold. And it's still not over. Because after everyone, you know, after the last couple of soul, bodies are coming through the air, you know, because they're so far down deep in the ocean or whatever, you know, the ones in the Titanic or something, you know, they're done. Then it's our turn because it says that we which are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. Prevent means we're not going to go before them. We can't cut in line. They go first. They get first dibs on the resurrection. And then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds. So then it's our turn. So after everyone thinks, oh, it's finally over. No more, no more crazy stuff or whatever. Like, I got to get off these drugs or whatever, you know. Then it's our turn. And then we're just like floating, you know, start flying through the air. And then then we become glorified. This sounds like a fairy tale. What's because you just don't believe the Bible. And look, folks, the Bible is better than Hollywood. The Bible is better than any CGI that Hollywood could ever create. Hollywood tries to keep up with what God does. And when they try to emulate what God does, it always sucks. Noah's Ark, that stupid movie was crappy. So was the Moses movie. They always screw it all up. Because God's story is actually it's always better. And more graphic too, by the way. And so this is the rapture. Okay. And this is the order. First Corinthians 15, 23 says, but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits. Basically, he's the first of the resurrection. He's the one who came back to life first in his glorified state. Afterward, they that are Christ at his coming, referring to the dead in Christ. And then we which are alive and remain. Verse 24 says, then cometh the end. Okay. When we shall, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. Verse 16 of first Thessalonians four says, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with the shout, with the voice of the archangel. That doesn't sound like a secret. You see the pre tribulation rapture says that Jesus is just going to come. And they define twinkling of an eye as in like silent. It's just like silent, invisible. It's just talking about, when it talks about the twinkling of an eye, it's referring to our glorification. Let's talk about the rapidity of that transformation. It's not referring to the fact that he's just going to come and go. Okay. The preacher rapture teaches that the secret coming, clothes are going to fall to the ground. Everyone's going to disappear. No one knows what's going on. That's not what the Bible teaches. He says he descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. He has a, I mean, he's rolling out the red carpet for himself. Put it this way. The Bible says that the sun and moon are darkened. Okay. And there's spiritual meanings behind that. But one of the things that at a surface level, it's for aesthetics. You know what I'm saying? It's for aesthetics. Because when the sun and moon are dark and everything is dark and he comes, he's the focus. You know, when someone comes on stage, you know, all the lights are off or whatever, and then the spotlight comes on them, all the lights are off. So the focus is on that main person. Well, that's why the sun and moon are being darkened. It's because the main focus is Jesus. That's why every eye shall see him. When he descends upon a cloud and look, the Bible tells us that he shall descend with power and great glory. It's not like, come on guys. He has this little birthday little thing. The Bible says in Matthew 24 that he descends with power and great glory. It's like, like it's going to catch everyone's attention. It's the trumpet is probably going to be so deafening. Forget what DARPA or whatever it does. What was that? What does that thing call them? HARP or what? Well, people claim that they're hearing or something. They claim they're hearing like some sort of trumpet. You guys know what I'm talking about? Marcos, you know about that, about all that stuff. What? What? Yeah, that one. What's it called? CERN? Oh, it's HARP. Forget CERN and HARP and whatever. Everyone's going to hear this trumpet. It's going to be loud. It's going to be terrifying. He's coming with a shout. I mean, I don't know how that's going to sound. He's coming with the voice of the archangel. I mean, put it this way, folks. It's so loud. It wakes up the dead because the dead in Christ shall rise first. It's like, boo, and then they're like. It's the greatest alarm clock the world will ever know. Verse 17, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Look at verse 18 says, wherefore comfort one another with these words. That's some comforting words. So he just finished giving this awesome description of what the rapture is going to be. And then he tells them, hey, what he's basically saying is this. You know, the dead in Christ, your loved one is going to be in the air. You're going to see him ascending in the air and you're going to see Jesus Christ ascending, but your loved one ascending, transfigured. So comfort one another with these words. Now, in a church like ours right now, what we have is a lot of babies and a lot of weddings. And amen to that. And it's going to continue like that. But, you know, we're going to get to a point in our church where, you know, we're just going to get older and you know what's going to start happening? People are going to start dying because it's just the way of life. That's how it was in my old church. Just kind of funerals happen and people get older, they get sick and they die. And then the kind of reality begins to set in for a lot of people. And they start realizing, man, you know, life is short. And, you know, look to your left and look to your right. You're not always going to see this person. And when they're gone, you know, the Bible tells us to comfort one another with these words like, you know, we'll see him, we'll see her again one day. He's going to be up there like this, you know, ascending before we do. You know what I mean? We're going to miss this person, but we're going to see them again. And so, you know, I love the doctrine of the second coming of Christ because it creates, it's like a conclusion to all the afflictions of this world. So everything you've ever gone through, every pain, every sorrow, every day of mourning or suffering that you've experienced, it'll all be compensated at the resurrection. You'll be compensated. That's why it's such a big event. That's why there's so much that goes into this. You think there's a lot that goes into the Christmas program? You think there's a lot that goes into the Thanksgiving banquet? And you're like, oh man, I got to get my outfit. I got to get my gun. I mean, this one is even bigger, folks. And so great chapter, amen. Great chapter. And Paul's simply telling the Thessalonian church, you know, and by the way, they're all in heaven right now. All of them are in heaven. The people that we're talking that I just described are going to be the ones that we see ascend. And so great chapter to describe the second coming of Christ and the conclusion to the sufferings of this world. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. So thankful for the rapture. So thankful for the resurrection. And we're thankful for pain and suffering and affliction because those things in our life help us to long for the resurrection, which is something that you want us to do. You don't want us to just put that event on the back burner and act like it's never going to happen or it's not going to happen in our lifetime. You want us to think upon the resurrection and the rapture because it changes the way we live. And it helps us to pain and sorrow helps us to appreciate the end of all things. And Lord, I pray, Father God, that you would you would prepare us for the coming sufferings and pains of this world.