The Second Coming 03 Church at Thessalonica — Stan Ford

What I'd like to do, and what's the word of God, and then do you think we could manage that little forum we had on Saturday night, sir? And it'll give the people an opportunity just to see whether this view might work, or whether it doesn't, and you'll be able to tell me.

The Coming of the Lord in First Thessalonians

So, first of all, I want to read, if I may, a few verses in the first chapter of Paul's first letter to the church at Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. We read from chapter 4 last evening. I'm going to read from chapter 1 this evening.

I would like to commence reading towards the end of this very wonderful chapter. Verse 9 says, For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we have unto you, and how ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the rock to come.

Now, may the Lord just add his blessing to the reading of his word. Now, I'm going to stand by the side here. Thank you together tonight that we've been able to sing and smile, and now as we come to thy word, we pray thee that would enable us to be, that we might hear these things to us, that we might, as individuals, say, speak, Lord, for thy servant here, for Jesus' sake.

The letter from which we have read this evening is, as you know, one of the earlier letters that the Apostle Paul, led of the Spirit of God, wrote. The commencement of the church at Thessalonica is one of the interesting, thrilling stories in the Bible.

Its record is in the seventeenth of Acts. When Paul, on his second missionary journey, left Philippi and eventually arrived at Thessalonica, wonderful things were done. Over a period of what we call in England a fortnight, over a period of two weeks, the Apostle Paul preached in Thessalonica, and many, many souls were saved.

A church was established, and something happened for God. Lives were changed, the impact was felt in the city. Persecution that arose in Thessalonica, I have little to say. I just want to remind you a bit that it did arise, and the Apostle Paul eventually arrived in the city of Corinth.

He longed for that church at Thessalonica, and so one day, led by the Spirit of God, he sits down and writes to them. It is a remarkable fact that in the chapters that are contained, the five chapters of this book, every chapter comes to its close by reminding those early Christians, those newborn days, that Jesus Christ is coming back again.

You know, I meet men and women who come to me and say, when you talk of the coming of Jesus Christ, surely you're talking to men and women who know something of their Bible. Men and women that have been on the road for a long, long while, but that's not true.

Here was a church just for men. Here were men and women who loved the Lord Jesus, and had not long been saved, and yet the Apostle comes to them with the most wonderful, with the most thrilling of truths, concerning the coming again of Jesus Christ.

You will remember that in the first chapter, we read these words as the last verse of the chapter, to wait for his Son from heaven. When I turn over to the second chapter, I read, and what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?

Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Then, when I turn to the third chapter, I read, to the end he may establish your hearts, unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

I look at chapter four, and I read the last verse, wherefore, in the light of the coming of the Lord Jesus, that I've just spoken about, wherefore, comfort ye one another with these words. Then I come to the last chapter, and my heart is stirred, as in verse 23 I read, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, it's no good coming to me and saying, oh sir, these are truths that are too deep for the average person to understand. When we speak of the coming of the Lord, we speak of a subject that's so near our heart, that so affects our life, that we must know something about that subject.

And tonight, with your permission and with God's help, I want to talk about these five verses contained in these five chapters. I want us, first of all, to remember that when the apostle came to the city of Thessalonica, he came with a very sore back.

He came with very sore feet, for on his ankles had been tight chains, and across his back he had felt indeed the beating of rocks. But, he came with a very warm heart. Oh, his heart was near to God, and although physically exhausted, he wanted to share with the men and women of Thessalonica the wonders of the gospel story.

Conversion Through the Gospel of Christ's Coming

I want, first of all, for us to look at the coming of the Lord, and as we look at it, I want us to see this truth that leads to conversion. May I repeat that? I want us to see this truth that leads to conversion.

When I look at the second chapter, I want to look at the coming of the Lord as the truth that leads to conversion, and I want us to look at this truth as it leads to continuance. The conversion is but the beginning of Christian life.

There is a continuance in Christian life. When I turn to chapter three, I want to see the truth, not in the light of conversion, and not in the light of continuance. I want to see it in the light of consecration.

I want us to realize that here is a verse that demands our holiness. It demands something in our life. When I turn to chapter four, we'll see this tremendous truth, not in the light of conversion, not in the light of continuance, not in the light of consecration, but we will see it in the light of comfort.

Wherefore, comfort ye one another with these words, and then I will come to the last chapter eventually, and I will remind you that the coming of the Lord is seen here in the tremendous hope that it leads each one of us to this consuming act that we should be, in the light of his coming, those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

First of all, then, let's think of the coming of the Lord in the light of conversion. I think it's a tremendous truth that these people at Castle O 'Niker heard the gospel. Why, the very word that we read reminded us of this, that our gospel came not to you in word only.

Oh, isn't it grand that there is good news? Not necessary for me to remind you that the word gospel simply means good news, and isn't it wonderful in the midst of all the trial of this day, in the midst of all the problems of our age, there comes good news, the finest news in the world.

Most of you have heard me tell the story of that man of God, the mighty Rabbi Duncan. He was walking one day down Christus Street in the city of Edinburgh. His white beard was glowing in the wind, his face was shining, and their parents had set with him, from the university in Edinburgh, an acquaintance.

And as they walked together down Christus Street, suddenly the acquaintance, looking at Rabbi Duncan, said, Rabbi, have you had good news? The Rabbi stopped, looked at his friend and said, good news? Why, the best news in the world, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

I say, do you know any better news than that? That's the finest news that ever could be given out. If I found myself tonight with the old Scottish hymn book, the Redemption Song, I would have given out tonight number 111.

Whenever you speak, you always say, what's the news? What's the news? The order of the day, what's the news? Oh, I have got good news to tell. My Saviour has done all things well, and triumphed over death and hell.

That's the news, that's the news. And the Apostle Paul came to Bethlehem and Isaac, as I have come to the city of Augusta, with good news, the God said, that Jesus Christ is willing to forgive our sins.

Oh, the wonder of it all. But you know, when we change from that news, we remember this, that the outcome of the preaching of that news told the people that Jesus Christ had died for their sins. Why he died, because of them we read, the glory of fact, that he was raised from the dead, the dead, the dead, or did Jesus Christ die?

Praise God he died, and he died for you and me. He gave his life for us, he suffered for you and me. My Bible tells me that God proved his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Oh, the wonder of it all. But not only did he die, but he rose again. But death could not hold its prey, Jesus my Saviour, he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord. For though, as I often say, they placed him in a tomb, and rolled a stone in front of it, and put a seal on it, and stood a soldier by it, no stone or seal or soldier could keep that blessed Christ in the grave, for God raised him again from the dead.

Oh, this is the message that all preach. This is the gospel that Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture that he was buried, and the third day he rose again to pay for our sins. There's something more, not only that Christ rose from the dead, but that he has delivered us from the lot to come.

Blessed be his name, that not only did he die for our sins, but he has delivered us from the punishment of sin. But hell can never claim us all, but it's trusted the Lord Jesus. By glory to his name, Christ holds the key of hell.

He'll never allow one to go into that place who trusted him. Ah, but what was the outcome? This was the outcome. But when they heard of the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ, and the wonder that they had, if they trusted him, been delivered from wrath, they turned to God, from idols, for the true and living God, for his son from heaven, for the wonder.

They turned to God from idols. As one has traveled in many countries in this old world of ours, one has seen many of the idols that men have made. And there is one thing that always strikes me about an idol that men will bow down to.

Whether indeed I've been in the heart of Africa, in Angola, or way in Mozambique, or in Botswana, when one has seen what one normally hears of as witchcraft, and one sees the idols that men bow down to, the thing that strikes me is this.

What they bow down to is the theft of their own labor. All from that those idols may be very primitive, but the people that made them were primitive. And it is the best that they can do. My friends, is it not a fact that in this country of yours, there are millions of men and women that are bowing down to idols?

They're bowing down to the best that they can do. It seems to me, does it seem to you? Does it seem to you that while they may not be idols, but one can see naturally, with the natural eye, they're idols indeed?

I meet men and women who just would give their life for a piece. May I repeat that? For a piece. Oh, they look around and they say what they want in life. It's things I'm going to get. Thrive and they savor and they squirt, but all the difficulty is this.

That when they've got things, when they've given all their time for things, they find those things can't help them when it comes to the matter of the conquering of death, when it comes to the matter of the conquering of sin, when it comes to the matter of deliverance from the wrath of God.

Things don't help. Then I meet men and women who don't bow down to things. I meet men and women who say it's not things I want, it's theories. Oh, that's what I want. Why? God gave me a brain with which to speak and the theories of men, the philosophies of men, those are the things that I'm going to fantasize.

I meet many a man and many a young woman who spend their time after the theories of this world and when they've got them, I know no theory in this world that will bring the forgiveness of sin. I know no theory in this world that will deliver a man from the grave.

I know no theory in this world that will bring a man away from the wrath of God and bring him into the joy of God. The gospels are, Jesus Christ are, but if I find men and women who crave after things and men and women who crave after theories, I meet so many young people and they crave after thrills.

Oh, that's what they want in life, putting it behind the wheel of a fast car, the back of a horse. That's the thing all my friends remember. There is nothing wrong with thrills. We wouldn't like life without thrills.

Nothing wrong with theories. It's important that we shall follow man's thinking. There's nothing wrong with pain. If I'm talking to a young man here who's seeking to ask a girl to be his partner for life, let me tell you something.

The Bible says, if you care not for your own, you're worse than Anthony. I hope you'll get paid. But what's wrong with pain and what's wrong with theories and what's wrong with thrills is when you make them your God.

When your whole life circles around them. There were people in Bethel and Icarus who had idols. The best they could make, they bowed down before them. Though they bowed down before them, there was no deliverance from sin and no deliverance from death and no deliverance from the wrath to come.

But hallelujah in Jesus there was. Blessed God by his death and his resurrection, he has brought to the tongues of men salvation, conversion. May I ask you, oh please I trust it is not at the expense of courtesy, but may I ask you, are you converted?

Are you saved? Have you trusted Jesus Christ? Has he delivered you from the wrath to come? Well he's willing to tonight. And when they were converted, they waited for God's help. Oh the wonder of it. I thank God for the opportunity of saying to you tonight, Jesus Christ is coming back again.

And are you converted in the light of his coming back again? Because if you're not, death has not been taken away from thee, sin has not been taken away from thee, and neither has the wrath of God been taken away from thee.

But if you've trusted Christ, oh the wonder of it. But then I want us to see not only the coming of the Lord in the light of conversion, but I want us to notice the coming of the Lord in the light of our continuance.

Continuing in Faith Until Christ Returns

You see, I would not give that much for a man or a woman that tells me they're a Christian and doesn't show it by their living. See, I'm not over-concerned about you putting your hand up and saying, I want to be saved.

I'm not over-concerned about you coming to the presence and saying, I want to be saved. Oh I'd love for you to do it, but I'm not over-concerned. But what I am concerned in is that you'll go back to your home, back to your school, back to your college, back to your work, to show by your living who you are and whom you serve.

For this is the faith that the world needs to see, not the faith of a man who says, I believe in God, but the faith of the man who says, I believe in God and I will make that Savior, not just Jesus, but the Christ, my Lord, my Lord.

As I say these glorious words, I remember this, that they not only waited for his son from heaven, but he said, what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing are not even ye. Oh this is it, that you can continue the path, Mary, it is for us to continue.

You know my friend, the Apostle Paul at the end of his journey would say, I've bought a good life, I've finished the course, I've kept the faith. And what more just a need is never Jesus Christ having taken him as their Savior.

I'm in the light of the but one day we shall see him, one day we shall stand before him, let us continue in our faith. But not only is the coming of the Lord seen in the light of our conversion, how essential it is that all of us here tonight who know the Lord Jesus as Savior shall not only continue, but shall consecrate ours.

Consecration and Holiness in View of Christ's Return

And we'll say of the truth, Lord, what I have is by my privilege over a number of years to lead the Bible readings in the month of March in the university in the city of Cambridge. Every year over many years now, I always start the first Bible reading reading the same chapter.

We open our Bible in the Acts of the Apostles and we read the story of a Peter and a John who wended their way to the beautiful gates of the temple where they saw a man who would lay his guts together.

That tremendous story, and I've done it for years with these young men and women. As we do it, what I try to emphasize is this, that Peter and John used every pick they had for the blessing of that man.

They used their feet, they walked towards the temple. I pray they used their eyes, they looked and saw a man in need. They used their voice to speak to him. They used their ears, they listened to him.

They used their hands, they stretched it out and caught him by the hand. Best of all, they used their great knees. I looked into the faces of these young men who in that great university will one day come out to lead maybe the world in their particular fear.

And I emphasize this, that what you have in your hands, in your eyes, here the Apostles dares to remind us of that great truth. To the end you may be, but the coming of the Lord Jesus is coming. When I turn the page again, I come not only to the fact that conversion is seen in the light indeed of his coming.

I realize that it's seen in the light of his coming. I realize that consecration is seen in the light, is seen in the light of his coming. Comfort ye one another with these words. Wherefore, comfort ye one another with these words.

Comfort in the Resurrection and Return of Christ

Isn't it wonderful that now as we fall last night, that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

We which are alive and remain shall be brought up together to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort ye one another, exhort ye one another with these words.

O my friends, I know nothing that will bring comfort to God's people like the realization that one day death is to be conquered, that Christ is coming and we'll be with him and see him. All that was said in the first chapter is true.

Christ who died to deliver us from sin, who rose to deliver us from death, who's coming again to deliver us from the wrath of blessed fear. Do you know this? Or have I tonight to look into your faces and say, O my fellow traveller to eternity, with a bang, with a bang, the apostle is not finished with the truth.

Sanctification and Wholehearted Readiness for Christ's Coming

For he dares to remind us that this truth is to be an all-together consummation. There is God to buy you wholly and fully. Oh, by the way, by the way, we are living in a day when there's thousands of people travelling from door to door, speaking to men and women, leaving literature behind, and they say man is not a tri-part being, God is not triune.

Purpose of this? Don't you tell me man is not spirit, soul and body. This is the word of God. I never wrote it. Not guilty. Nothing to do with me. God says, the God of peace shall sanctify you wholly, spirit, body, all the wonder of you.

I may be full of glory, for that's the meaning of the word sanctified, to this present consummation, because it is blessedly his name. Therefore, comfort ye one another, it says chapter 4, but chapter 5, that we may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My friends, I wonder if I may ask you, have you been thinking with me, coming again of Jesus Christ? How has it affected you? Do you find yourself seated here tonight saying, praise God I'm converted?

Do you find yourself saying, I'm going to continue in the Christian faith? Do you find yourself knowing that Jesus Christ may come back at any moment, consecrating your all? I like that. We started off, remember, we started off by reminding ourselves that that is the God who died to deliver us from sin, to deliver us from death, and who lives and is coming to deliver us from the lost to come.

Do you know that? One of my favorite verses is found in the opening verses of the epistle to Timothy, where the apostle says, Timothy, Timothy, grace, mercy. You know what grace is, don't you? Grace is getting what you don't deserve, that's great.

Mercy, mercy is not getting what you do deserve. When you get what you don't deserve, and you don't get what you do deserve, then hallelujah the peace. Have you got that peace in your heart? Have you found that savior?

Oh, why not? That savior comes in tonight. I hope to do that. See, I want you to sing a few verses of a trance, almost to give it out, not shudder to ask you to sing it, but shudder to sing it myself.

I want you to sing a few verses of number 199. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, and let them move. Take my feet, may we sing in my country. As far as I know, I've never heard that tune before.

I'd like you to sing it, and I'd like you to mean it. I'd like to learn it, to learn the meaning of it, like, take my life, take my feet. And where was this meal to be served? You've forgotten the same as I.

The harvest, let's make this very clear, is amazing and full of man, and we're going to have the opportunity of meeting you. That's what I'd like to do. Of course, I can eat pork and pay for that meal.

You know, I'm not going to pay for it at all. If you can bring some of your uncle here. I'd love to see that place so full. If you have someone with you who knows. Peter Franklin's work, and it's good to have.

I'm sure most of all the work is on the ground, or it's just coming over next week. I'm not going to say I don't live in 1909 next week as well, I'd like to see all the work in truth. Good night, and Lord bless you.