Encouraging The Thessalonians - And Us! (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Thank you, Father, for your word. We pray today that we would be encouraged, as Paul wrote to the

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Thessalonians, for their encouragement. We pray, Lord, that we would see you.

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We pray that we would today go away from this passage of Scripture, encouraged by the awesome magnificence of the salvation that you've provided for us in Christ.

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It's in his name we pray this morning. Amen. All right,

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I'm just going to flash through the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians here. You have the background from last week, and I might ask you a question or two about that, all right?

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So, get ready. Paul, Silvanus, or Silas, and Timothy, to the church of the

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Thessalonians, in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our

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God and Father your work of faith and labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you.

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Let me stop there. How is it that Paul can say to these Thessalonians that he knows that God has chosen them?

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Why would he say that? See, when we look at these letters, we want to always be asking the question, why did he say that?

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It's not just flowery Greek that Paul happened to come up with on these occasions.

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Why did he say that? He says he knows that God has chosen them. Why? Well, look,

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I could say about you, I know that God has chosen you, most of you, that I'm familiar with.

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Why would I say that? Because what? Yes, you've accepted the

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Lord. Okay. Because He sees the fruit.

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And what's the fruit in the case of these Thessalonians? What is it? There they are.

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Okay, now tell me a little bit about that. Why it would be remarkable that there they are.

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Can you do that quickly? We only have a short three hours before. Okay, go ahead.

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That's right, and the people that are left after they get shredded, they get shredded. Okay, and coupled with the fact that they're only there a relatively short time.

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It says that Paul reasoned with them in the synagogue three Sabbath days. Now probably he was there longer than that.

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Long enough to establish a group of believers that were Jews and Gentiles. But he only reasoned in the synagogue three

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Sabbath days. So, it's kind of give them the gospel, get beat up, get out of here.

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That's sort of how the deal went. And so when he writes back to them, and he says he remembers, and he knows that God has chosen them, it's because there they are.

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Now that's the way that you know that God has chosen believers. Because there they are.

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With the other believers, hanging on, bearing reproach for the name of Christ.

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That's all fruit. See, we're living in a day, we're living in a day, aren't we, when there is in some places a so -called easy believism.

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You sign the card, you raise your hand, your bus will wait, all that kind of stuff. Okay, I get that.

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And then we wait to see. And let me say this, by the way. There are a lot of people that have been saved in a service where they said, raise your hand, come forward, sign the card, and all of that.

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But there are a lot of people that think they are saved, that they are not. Because they signed the card, raised their hand, came forward, whatever.

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All right? And I'm not against coming forward, by the way, under the right circumstances. So, how do we know, then, which of those that claim that they have come to Christ under those circumstances, how do we know that, in fact, they have?

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The same way that Paul knew about these Thessalonians. There they are.

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We lived in Detroit, Michigan, for a year. Which is another piece of the long story.

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But anyway, we lived in Detroit, Michigan, for a year. And there we met one of the vice presidents of General Motors.

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He happened to attend the church that we were training the evangelism corps in. That guy was saved in a meeting where it was, come forward, your bus will wait, and all of that.

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And I'll tell you what, that guy was really saved. I could say about him,

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I know that God has chosen you. Why? Because there he was, many years after.

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Now John makes the other end of the comment about that in his letter, doesn't he? He says, we knew that they were not of us.

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Why? Because they went out from us. All right? So the deal is, the

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Thessalonians are hanging in there. All right. We've got to go faster than this.

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All right. Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the

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Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Saving conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

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And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction.

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We've talked about that this morning. I talked about it at length last week. With the joy of the

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Holy Spirit. The joy of the Holy Spirit exceeds affliction. Okay?

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So that you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

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For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere.

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Everybody's heard about the persecution. They've heard about these believers. And they've heard about it for a couple of reasons, probably.

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They've heard about it for a couple of reasons. One, because they are hanging in there and it's a word of encouragement.

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But two, because they are the source of trouble up there in Thessalonica, a free city that simply acknowledges

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Rome. And here these guys are, these followers of the way. They were not called

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Christians there at that point. These followers of the way are up there, claiming that there is another king besides Caesar and threatening our free city status in Thessalonica.

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And so the word about their faith has gone out all through Macedonia and Achaia. That is the Greek peninsula proper.

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All right? For a variety of reasons. You can look at our own scene in our country today.

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There are a lot of things that are known about a lot of people. And it's for two different reasons. One, because some agree with what's going on.

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And some because others agree or disagree vehemently with what's going on.

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And it's the same thing in both cases. It's true of what happened in Thessalonica. They themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true

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God and to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

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There are two things there that are highly significant. And we're just going to have to stop there a moment. And we're going to have to talk about eschatology.

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I say eschatology. Is that some kind of pasta? No, that's not some kind of pasta.

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All right? It is the knowledge, the ology part, the knowledge of the eschaton, the last things.

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The things that will happen in the end. I know that things, you know, what goes around comes around and goes around and comes around.

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But all the going around and coming around is not going to last forever. It's going in a straight line.

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And there is going to be an end of history, the so -called eschaton, the end things that are coming.

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As we talk about eschatology, let us not forget that this letter to the Thessalonians is a pastoral letter.

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It is a letter for their encouragement. It is not a treatise on eschatology.

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Okay? But I want to talk about eschatology for a minute, just first of all, in the interest of full disclosure.

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All right? I am an unapologetic, pre -millennial, pre -tribulational, that is my understanding of the

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Scriptures. And I'll tell you why. Okay? I understand that in New England, with the heritage of the

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Puritans and all the rest of it, that we are in a place where amillennialism, that is, there is going to be no millennial kingdom of Christ on earth, that that is a popular thing and it is held by many people who are good brothers.

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Let me say that. Eschatology cannot be a measure of orthodoxy.

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So if you are amillennial and you say, oh, this guy is pre -millennial, pre -tribulational, dispensationalist, great hunk, we have to leave here and can't listen to any of it.

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Don't do that. And if you are a millennialist, believing that there will be a millennial kingdom of Christ, don't get all haughty and huffy because you believe that.

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All right? So it cannot be a matter of orthodoxy. I think we will see in what

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Paul writes to the Thessalonians here that the best understanding of what has gone on is what

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I will describe to you about a pre -millennial look at the

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Scriptures. What does that come from? Some years ago, everything for me is some years ago now, okay?

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All right. Some years ago I was talking with a young pastor and I said to him, so when are you going to preach through the

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Revelation? And he said, never, okay? Why? I asked him.

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He said, too controversial, too many views, too many positions. We're not going there, okay?

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And I say that is a great tragedy. Whatever your view of eschatology is, I say pick a view and preach it, brother, because in the preaching and in the studying to do the preaching, your understanding will be clarified.

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You might have to abandon a position or two. You might adopt a position or two. But you ought to do it.

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You know the book of Revelation says at least twice that there is a blessing for all who read this book.

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And then it's repeated at the end. There is a blessing for all who read this book. And so we ought to be talking about prophecy, okay, because in this case

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Paul talks about these things to the Thessalonians. Now let me,

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I said I would tell you why I take the position that I do. The issue is not eschatology really.

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The issue is hermeneutics. You say, oh, man, great, more pasta.

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No. Okay, hermeneutics is just how you approach the interpretation of the Scriptures.

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I approach the interpretation of the Scriptures the same way Pastor Mike does and Pastor Steve and all you guys that preach because that's what you have been taught.

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And it is in a grammatical, historical way. In other words, you take the words at face value.

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I'm having a rush here. I'm not getting into the weeds. You take the words at face value and you take them in their historic context.

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So, that when God says to Abraham, for example, in Genesis chapter 12,

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Abraham, I'm going to do three things for you. One, I'm going to give you a family. He had no kids at the time.

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I'm going to give you a family that's going to become a great nation. Two, I'm going to give you a land that will be yours in perpetuity.

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And three, I'm going to make through your family and nation, I'm going to give blessing to all of the world.

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Guys like me think that's what's going to happen. Alright? Others think, well, not really the land.

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God really isn't going to give a land to Abraham and his descendants in perpetuity. That was good up until the church came along.

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Now, all of the things that are spoken about in the Old Testament concerning the land, those things all become true of the church.

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And the church takes the place of Israel in prophetic understanding of the

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Old Testament in particular. So -called replacement theology. I do not adhere to replacement theology because of the promises of God to the people of Israel, including,

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I will scatter you all over the world, then I will draw you back from the four corners of the earth.

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And in the words of the Apostle Paul, all Israel will be saved. That has not happened.

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But I think it's going to happen. Why do I think it's going to happen? I think it's going to happen because I take the words at face value,

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I take them in their historical context, and I don't say, well, the church has replaced

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Israel. I get it. In Galatians, we seize on the verses and go, you know, there's no male nor female, no

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Jew nor Greek, and we are all children of Father Abraham. I spiritualize that.

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My Amillennial brethren do not. Okay? So I think that the things that happen are going to be true.

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When I read the second chapter of Isaiah, and it says that the descendant of David, who has an eternal life, a life that will be described, assuming

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Pastor Mike gets there, a life that is indestructible, by his indestructible life, he will rule, the capital being

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Jerusalem, all nations will stream to Jerusalem, and there the king of an indestructible life will rule from Jerusalem with a rod of iron to those who do not accept him, but in the company of those who have.

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See, I think that stuff is going to happen. You know why? Because the Bible says that. I take the words at face value.

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I do not say, well, the church has replaced that. Okay, so what do you call that?

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Well, you know, you have to spiritualize that. You have to allegorize that. Really. At Christmas time, we will celebrate again the fact that there are approximately 300 prophecies that seem to have been pretty literally fulfilled in the first coming of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. He was to be born in Bethlehem. He would be born of a virgin.

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All of those things. Everything down to the triumphal entry and the crucifixion, all fulfilled literally.

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Then we come to what happens at the end where we read that all Israel will be saved, that Israel will be regathered from the four corners of the earth, and we say, oh, no, no, no, no.

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That cannot be. That could not possibly be. Because things have changed, don't you know?

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And not only that, the whole salvation operation, this is a premise that lies under a lot of this, the whole salvation operation has really become a

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Gentile deal. Listen. Do not believe that. The Apostle Paul, particularly in Romans 9, 10, and 11 points out that it is we

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Gentiles who have been grafted into a Jewish deal, not the other way around.

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We Gentiles have not replaced what God has in mind for His people, what

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He has in mind on earth for His people. Now, one of the things He has in mind on earth for His people is that King Jesus will rule on the earth for an extended period of time.

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Don't have time to go to the 20th chapter of Revelation. That King Jesus will rule there for an extended period of time, and that the world will experience a peace like it has never known, either a peace under the rule of His rod of iron, or either a peace because they embraced the

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King. And you understand the Old Testament descriptions of that period.

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The lion will lie down with the lamb. A child can play near the den, the hole of a cobra, and so on and so on.

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It will be a time of unprecedented peace in the creation, and unprecedented peace among the nations of the world mediated by King Jesus.

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High Priest Jesus. That's what the Old Testament says.

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Alright? Now, if I say, well, no, no, no. The church has replaced all of that.

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Then we get into interpreting the Old Testament prophecies in a spiritual way, maybe an allegorical way.

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It doesn't really mean that. It really means this. We may read the New Testament back into the

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Old Testament. Aha! We always thought that that would be true. But it looks like when

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Paul uses that passage to make his point about several things, that that's really what it meant in the

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Old Testament. No, sir. You've got to adhere to the principle that every affirmation of the

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Scriptures, every affirmation of the Scriptures means one thing, and one thing only.

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Not two things, three things, or a hundred things, or take your choice about whatever you want it to mean.

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Now, if you look at me and say, oh, you know the one thing that every passage of Scripture means?

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No, I don't know a lot about the passages of Scripture and what they might mean. But I'll tell you this, that each passage of Scripture only means one thing.

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Not a hundred things. That's what God has revealed in His Word. You say, well, some of them are really tough.

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Well, yes they are. And I don't claim that I have the complete handle on everything that the one thing is.

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But I do know this. God doesn't speak out of a hundred sides of His mouth. And so every passage of Scripture means only one thing.

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Now, in this whole deal, you understand why

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I go where I'm going to be going as we come here to this letter of the Thessalonians.

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Because I take the Bible at face value. I take it in its historic context. I think the promises were made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.

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I think those promises are going to be fulfilled as literally as the promises that were fulfilled in the first coming of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And so what that means from that point of view is this.

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It means that the Lord came the first time. It means that He's coming back.

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We're going to get into that. Alright? It means when He comes back, something's going to happen that Paul explains here to the

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Thessalonians which apparently had not been explained before. And then there's going to be a period of time of unprecedented anguish on the earth.

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And then the Lord is going to come back as judge to judge the earth and to rule it in perfect peace either with a rod of iron or by assent to His kingship.

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And then after that, the whole thing's going to go away as Peter describes it by fire and a new heaven and a new earth will be established and we will be eternally with the

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Lord. The so -called eternal state. Alright, now. I don't have time to do an extensive discussion of amillennialism or postmillennialism.

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Postmillennialists believe this. They think we're in the millennium right now. Really? Well, the bears came a few weeks ago and obliterated my neighbor's bird feeders.

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That doesn't sound like lions lying down to the lambs and all that kind of thing. So our postmillennial friends, they are what

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I would call the optimistic prophesiers. They believe the gospel is going to be preached.

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The whole world is going to turn to Christ. That is the millennial period in which we live.

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And then Jesus is going to come and we will all be with Him in the eternal state. And there are some pretty heavy hitters that have believed that through the years.

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B .B. Warfield, I was just reading him last night. B .B. Warfield is absolutely convinced that we are in the millennium now.

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The preaching of the gospel. And then Jesus is going to come and it's all going to be over. And the gospel is going to be accepted by everyone all over the world.

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And God is done with the nation of Israel as a nation. Finished.

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Dr. Roger Nicole, priest here at Bethlehem. Long before most of you were here. Great brother.

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He went home with one of our families and they got into eschatology. How do you do that over Sunday dinner?

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I'm not quite sure. But anyway, they got into eschatology and finally

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Dr. Nicole said, Ma 'am, speaking to the lady of the house,

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Ma 'am, God is done with Israel. B .B.

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Warfield, S. Lewis Johnson reports that B .B. Warfield said, God, we know that God is done with the nation of Israel.

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This is when Warfield died in 1921. So this had to be between, you know, turn of the century, 20th century.

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We know that God is done with Israel because all of the nations that threatened Israel all through biblical times, all of those nations would have to be reconstituted and they would have to be threatening

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Israel once again and Jews would have to be back in the land claiming that they were a nation and all of that.

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And that, Dr. Warfield said, can't possibly be. He was speaking in the period of British colonialism.

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He said, that couldn't possibly be. I said, Dr. Warfield, take a look at the paper tomorrow morning and what do you see?

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All the nations that threatened Israel have been reconstituted. The Jews are in their land as a nation.

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And everybody around them says, we want to throw you in the sea. Really? Yeah, that's exactly what the

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Old Testament has prophesied. So guys like me that just take it at face value, that's where we're coming from.

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So, you know that now. If you want to leave, you can. If you don't want to, that's okay too.

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We'll just continue on. Okay. Paul says to these guys at the end of chapter 1, these

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Thessalonians, you are to wait for His Son from heaven. Oh, I wonder where they heard that. Now get this.

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Paul goes into Thessalonica, I can see right now by the clock and by how this is going.

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Now we're going to have to revisit this in September when I do this again. Alright. Paul comes into Thessalonica and he preaches the

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Gospel to Jews who either don't know anything about their Messiah or have rejected their

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Messiah. Okay? If they have heard anything about it. And he preaches the Gospel to Gentiles.

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So what does he tell them? You tell me. What is it he tells them must be done?

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What's the deal? And what do you do about the deal? Brand new. Walked into the synagogue on a

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Sabbath morning. Hi, I'm the Rabbi from Tarsus. I've got a word or two to say which is going to flame this city.

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Alright. And so what do I tell you? I give it to you from the

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Scriptures. That would be the witch Scriptures. Yeah.

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He might even say to them, you Jews know that from a grammatical, historical, hermeneutic, that Isaiah 53 has been fulfilled.

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You wouldn't say that, okay? But he goes to Isaiah 53 and he points out the suffering

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Savior. He goes to Isaiah 2 where we read that that suffering

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Savior is one day going to rule the world. And what else does he tell them? End of Isaiah 53.

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Before coming back. I get coming back from over here. Before coming back, what does he tell them? Jesus died for your sins.

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And? He what? He was raised from the dead. That's what always got them.

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He was raised from the dead. You know, there were guys running around the landscape a lot that died for this, that, or the other thing.

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But none of them were raised from the dead. And so he told them that this Jesus died in your place.

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He lived a perfect life. Probably told them that. He was raised from the dead. And? He's coming again.

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Now where did he get that information to tell them? Where would he have gotten that?

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Now here's what some folks even in our day might say. They might say, well, you know, the Apostle Paul, he kind of made it up as he went along.

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You know, some of these things were not authoritative. A lot of what we know about Christianity is really

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Paulianity and not Christianity. Where did Paul get the information that Jesus was coming again?

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I don't have time to worm it out of you. I'm just going to say, your computer -like minds are flashing back to John 14.

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Don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me if I'm going away. I will come again.

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I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself.

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In other words, see, it doesn't really do any good for a Savior to die in your place even to be resurrected from the dead if that's the end of the story.

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The end of the story is He's got to come and consummate all of what that was about and that means

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He's coming again. And He, in fact, Himself said that He was coming again. So the

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Thessalonians got this. Jesus died in my place. The to -do part of this is under the conviction of the

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Holy Spirit, I need to repent. I need to repent of my sins. I need to repent of what I thought about Jesus if I ever thought about Jesus.

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I need to own Him as Savior, not as imposter. And then I heard that He was raised from the dead.

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That's pretty impressive. And I heard that there were more than 500 people who saw Him over a period of 40 days raised from the dead.

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And then there's this Paul standing before us who talks about being knocked off his donkey on the road to Damascus and speaking with the risen

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Lord. That is all pretty impressive. And this Jesus who will reign as King, and particularly the

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Jews knew about this, this Jesus who will reign as King, He's coming back again to receive us to Himself.

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Now here's the one little point that they missed. They thought He was coming back again to receive them to Himself before they died.

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And then, guess what happened? Some of the believers started to die.

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Oh my goodness! And so you know the story from last week. I'm not going to rehearse all of that.

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Timothy comes down to Paul who is now in Corinth and he tells Paul, they're doing fine up there, but they've got a couple of questions.

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Alright? And the couple of questions are what's happened?

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We thought Jesus was coming again to receive us to Himself and some of us have died.

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Notice this second part which we're not going to get to until September. These people turned from idols to serve the living and true

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God and to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead. Got that?

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He's coming back before I die to receive me to Himself by the power of His indestructible life demonstrated by His resurrection from the dead.

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But here's brother so -and -so and brother so -and -so and sister so -and -so and they've died.

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So what's the deal? That's the question, Paul, that they have in their minds. And then further he goes,

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He raised Him from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

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Now that's a little different deal. Oh, there is wrath to come. I'll bet Paul told them about that if they did not come to Christ as Savior.

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There is wrath to come. And I don't know, some of them may have run off to a safe space with a coloring book at that disquieting news.

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I have no idea. But some of them believed it and they came to Christ. And Paul here encourages them by saying that you will be delivered from the wrath to come.

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Now, we're going to get done this morning at any kind of time that we ought to get done. I've got to skip ahead a couple of chapters.

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Chapter 2 is all about this. I want you to think about this as I say it.

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In chapter 2, Paul defends what he said to them when he came to Thessalonica and he defends the fact that he is an apostle.

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That's a really broad summary of chapter 2. Question. Why would

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Paul have to defend himself to these Thessalonians? Now, think about the historic context.

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Why would Paul have to defend himself to these Thessalonians? They accepted Christ. They turned from idols to serve the true and living

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God. And here Paul has to remind them how he conducted himself in their midst. How he regarded them as a mother, regards her children, and so on and so forth.

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Why would he have to do that? Hey, what's happening in Thessalonica? What's the charge of the ordinary

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Roman citizen that is outside of Christ? What's the charge?

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These guys are revolutionaries. They're saying there's another king besides Caesar. We are required to declare

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Caesar as Lord and I think these guys are not going to do it. But, we're going to send a reporter from CBS and say to them, hey, do you think

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Caesar is Lord? And see what happens on the 6 o 'clock news. Okay? That's what's going on.

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These people are not regarded well. Where did you get this information, you revolutionaries?

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You got this information from who? From Paul, the itinerant rabbi.

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He's torn up the rest of the world. And you think he's the real deal. Well, let me tell you, he's just a charlatan.

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He himself is an imposter. Can't possibly be real. We all know that Caesar is

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Lord. And so, obviously, the Apostle Paul... And look, he came to take advantage of you.

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I'll bet you he even took offerings and lifted your money and all that kind of thing.

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And they would be able to say, what? No, he didn't take offerings or lift our money or anything like that.

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And he reminds them of that in chapter 2 of 1 Thessalonians. In chapter 3, we read that he was concerned about them.

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He couldn't stand it any longer. He sends Timothy. I talked about this last week. He sends Timothy to see what the deal is.

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Timothy comes back with the encouraging report. But not only the encouraging report, but some questions like, why are believers dying?

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When we thought Jesus was coming to receive us to Himself before we died. And then we move on to chapter 4.

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You ought to explain to Pastor Mike how quickly this can go. At the beginning of chapter 4, down through verse 12,

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Paul gives them instructions about how they ought to live. Since you have not died and since Jesus has not come as you heard that He would, here's how you ought to live.

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You ought not to defraud your brothers and sisters and all those sorts of things. This is how you ought to live.

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This is another piece of the encouragement of the letter to the Thessalonians. They are encouraged to hang in there under persecution, and they are encouraged to live as children of light in the persecution and in the anticipation that Jesus Christ will return to the earth.

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Now, let's get down to verse 13 of chapter 4. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers.

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Apparently, they were uninformed. "...about those who are asleep."

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Dead. "...that you may not grieve as others who have no hope.

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For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep."

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This is new. This is not Old Testament. Okay? This is a new batch of people that are involved.

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They are in Christ because they have repented of their sins, repented of their opinion concerning Christ.

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They have embraced the idea that He lived a perfect life on their behalf, died a death in their place.

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He was risen from the dead and He is coming again. They have embraced all of that. Alright?

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What they had heard was Old Testament. Jesus is coming again. He is going to judge the world.

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Where did they get that? From Paul. He even says it over in 2 Thessalonians. You know very well what

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I told you. But He didn't tell them this. Alright? "...God

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will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the

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Lord that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

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For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command." Okay, you're saying, okay, that's good, that's good.

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This is all syncing with the Old Testament. It's very syncing. S -Y -N -C, not

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S -I -N -K. Okay. With the Old Testament. That's good. Jesus is coming again. "...a

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cry of command, the voice of the archangel, the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first."

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Oh, there will be dead in Christ. If the Lord doesn't come before I'm done, the

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Lord doesn't come this Sunday, there will be dead in Christ. And we will be some of them.

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The dead in Christ will rise first. "...then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

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Lord in the air." That's not Old Testament. This idea that we who believe will be caught up to meet the

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Lord in the air, that's not Old Testament. The idea in the Old Testament, Zechariah 14, is the

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Lord will return to judge the world. When He returns, He will return to the Mount of Olives from which

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He ascended. You read in Acts. He will return to the Mount of Olives. That thing will be split in two.

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Then He will go into Jerusalem and He will assume the kingship at that point. That's not what's being described here.

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This is described to believers, to the church. Alright? We will meet the

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Lord in the air and so we will always be with the

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Lord from the time that the dead in Christ rise to meet the

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Lord in the air and those who are left then go to meet the Lord in the air.

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The key here is the great meeting in the air. It's not the

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Lord coming to earth as the Old Testament prophets foresaw. It's all they could see. It's all the

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Holy Spirit inspired them to see. Alright? We will meet the Lord in the air.

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And then He gives the words that are the reason that He wrote this letter and about three months later would write the second

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Thessalonian letter as they were under persecution. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

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So you see folks, I think this. We need to consider prophecy.

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We don't need to preach it every single Sunday from now until we die. Alright? But we need to consider prophecy because it is a major piece of encouragement for believers who are walking here in the mud as they consider the fact that one day they will meet the

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Lord in the air. Here's another thing that we need to consider. We talk about...

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I don't know exactly what the Statement of Faith of Bethlehem says. I didn't read it.

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I just took you guys on faith when we came back from Bolivia. Here we are.

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I didn't say let me see the Statement of Faith. Let me see the mission statement. I didn't even go there.

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But we believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

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That means the any moment return of Jesus Christ. But it can't mean the any moment return of Jesus Christ to judge the world and to set up a kingdom of a thousand years, a millennial kingdom.

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It can't mean that. You know why? Because a lot of stuff hasn't happened that is predicted in the

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Old Testament would happen before King Jesus would assume the throne, the capital of which would be

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Jerusalem. A lot of that stuff has not happened. And yet here we sit this morning saying we believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

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Watch this. There is nothing that has to happen in prophetic

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Scripture before the Lord returns to the air to gather the saints to Himself.

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That's why we believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus. And that applies to believers in the so -called church age.

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You say, what is the church age? The church age is that period of time from the day of Pentecost when

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Peter preached, they shouted out, cut to the heart, men and brothers, what shall we do?

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And he said, repent. Repent about your sins. Repent concerning Jesus who you called an imposter and crucified 50 days earlier.

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And be baptized to demonstrate that you're for real. Alright? From that day on when 3 ,000 people were added to the church until the great meeting in the air, that is the age which the

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Old Testament prophets didn't see much of. That is the age called the times of the

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Gentiles in the Scriptures. That is the age in which people like you and me could be grafted into the

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Jewish salvation that God provided through His people in His land through the

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Savior who is the descendant of David who will rule one day on the earth and then will take us finally to glory.

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Alright? That the Old Testament prophets did not see a lot of. So the so -called church age is from the day of Pentecost until the day of the great meeting in the air.

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The so -called comes from the Latin. I'll be like R .C. Sproul. Let me just do a little

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Latin for you here. I only know this word so I'll do it.

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Raptura. Okay? The snatching out. The grasping.

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It's a Latin word. That's what the Latin word means. And we call it the rapture of the church. You say, are you telling me that the

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Amillennial brethren don't believe in the rapture of the church? Yes, they do believe in the rapture of the church. They believe that there will be the rapture of the church.

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We'll be the first guys to go. And then, Jesus will come immediately at that point and He will judge the world and there will be no intervening

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Millennial kingdom. No lions lying down with lambs. No kids playing by the holes of cobras.

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None of that stuff. None of that unprecedented peace. None of the nations being ruled either in peace or with a rod of iron.

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All of that was Old Testament stuff. Can't buy that. Except I buy it.

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And that's why I've told you what I've told you this morning. Alright? That gives rise, by the way, to a very encouraging, not a greeting, but a parting.

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When we leave today, I'll see you here, there, or in the air.

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And Paul says, and so will we always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

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This is a pastoral epistle. Now, you see this thought echoed many places in the

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Apostle Paul. I can't think of them all because I'm old. But I think about Colossians, I think it's chapter 3, where Paul says, set your minds on things above, not on things of the earth where your life is hid with Christ in God.

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You say, well, that doesn't seem to talk about eschatology. No, but it directs your attention heavenward.

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And when we talk about the coming of the Lord, and we can think or say about each other, I'll see you here, there, or in the air, that is in the presence of Jesus.

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And when we know that the Lord is coming back to receive us to Himself, and so we will ever be with the

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Lord. You say, wait a minute. We will ever be with the Lord? What happens when He comes back? I'll just do this about that long and then maybe in September we'll get back to it.

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Revelation chapter 19. You don't have to turn there because I'm not going to. But in Revelation chapter 19, we read about two things that go on.

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It's another scene in heaven. Here's the Revelation outline. The first three chapters are messages to the churches on earth.

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Chapter 4 begins, Come up here. And from there on, the scene always in Revelation.

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From chapter 4 on is the scene in heaven up until chapter 19. And in chapter 19, the

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Lord Jesus returns. But before He returns, something happens that ought to encourage you.

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Encourage one another with these words. We just had the communion service here a week or two ago, didn't we?

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And we have it once a month, don't we? And you understand that Jesus has never been to a communion service like this.

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Because He said to His disciples in the upper room on that night before He was crucified,

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He instituted what we call communion. It was part of the Passover meal that they were having.

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He instituted what we call communion. And then He said to them what? I will not drink of this cup again until I drink it anew with you in the kingdom.

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Okay? What do we read about in Revelation chapter 19? Revelation chapter 19, we read about what is called there the marriage supper of the

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Lamb. I think this is by my commentary by the way.

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No, there isn't one there. This is the Bob commentary. The marriage supper of the

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Lamb. Happens sometime between the time of the great meeting in the air and the time about seven years later,

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Daniel chapter 12. Don't have time to go there. About seven years later when the Lord Jesus returns to the earth in the

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Zechariah 14 style, splitting the Mount of Olives in half and so on to judge the world.

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Someplace between those two times. Because all of us believers are now with the

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Lord forever. Thessalonians encourage one another with these words. What better time could there be to say okay guys, now we're going to have the best communion service you ever went.

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And the Lord Jesus Himself says this is my marriage supper. I will serve.

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Pastor Mike, all you guys that are elders, sit down. I'm going to serve this one.

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And He drinks the cup anew with us in heaven when we are in His presence forever.

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And then, the next thing we read is that the Lord descends from heaven to deal with the nations of the earth.

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And He deals with them by His Word. But notice who is behind Him. You'll have to read this at dinner or after dinner or during the ball game or whenever.

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Okay? Who is behind Him as He returns to the earth? Who is behind Him?

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Are all of these people clothed in white. All of these people demonstrating the great righteousness that He has given to them.

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And they are returning to rule and to reign with the great High Priest and great

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King Jesus during that time which we call the millennial reign of Christ.

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Well, guess who those people who possess the righteousness of Christ might be? Could be the folks that met

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Him in the air and then were taken to heaven, participated in the marriage supper of the

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Lamb. Now, I'm thinking about every wedding service, am I not? This marriage is to demonstrate what?

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The union and relationship between Christ and the church. Remember that?

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Okay? And so, I say this because we had to close and we're practicing the bailout school of homiletics here.

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I have to bail out. Alright? I have to say to you, I'll see you here, there, or in the air.

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Therefore, encourage one another with those words and have a real reason to cast your mind and your thoughts and your life heavenward after you've walked six days in the mud before you arrived here this morning.

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Let's pray. Thank You, Father, for Your Word. Thank You for the imminent return of Jesus Christ to snatch the church away, to take us into His presence, there to participate in the marriage supper of the

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Lamb, the greatest communion service that any of us will ever participate in. And then to return to rule and reign with King Jesus.

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When the going gets tough down here, Lord, as it was for the Thessalonians, I pray that we would encourage one another with those thoughts and those words which come from Your Word.