Studies in 1 Thessalonians 04 Coming — Svend Christensen

The Believer’s Walk and the Lord’s Coming

Going to be way beyond anything we've ever seen. Now, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4. Wonderful chapter. First part of the chapter had to do with the model walk, the walk of the believer, and then, of course, the last part, the unveiling of the explanation of the Lord's coming for the saints.

I think it's always good to read the Word of God, and so let's read these 18 verses, beginning at verse 1 of chapter 4. You remember, chapter 1 had to do with the believer's conversion in connection with the Lord's coming, the second chapter with his crown, the third chapter with all conduct, and today the believers comfort one another with these words.

Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the loss of sensuality or concupiscence, even as the Gentiles who know not God, that no man go beyond and defile his brother in any matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all touch, and we also have forewarned you and testified.

For God hath not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despised and despised is not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another, for indeed ye do it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia.

But we did teach you, brethren, that you increase more and more, and that you started to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, and that you walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.".

What words they are! Why has anyone ever had words like that? The believer's portion is just beyond anything that we can probably quest. How grand is our future? How certain is our future? How glorious is our future?

You take out many as we keep... We mustn't use the word old here, but as we keep getting older... You know, there's not much prospect, is there? Humanly speaking, as we get older, we get more people, and harder hearing, and harder to walk, and harder...

Everything, you know, the old machinery slows down, the old tent wears out. There's not much to look forward to from the human standpoint, but oh what a blessed hope we have as believers. Isn't that wonderful?

The Benefits of Trials

Now then, we'll start in the first part of the chapter, and it is very practical. Just a little bit by way of application from the third chapter. Remember, the third chapter dealt with the believers and their testing and their trials, and we might just give a few benefits of trials.

You know, one of them is found in 1 Peter 1, 7. We might just turn and read that. I'll read it to you. He says that the trial of your faith be much more precious than a gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

So, we see first that they prove, the trials prove the reality of our faith. It brings out the real thing, and if we stand up in trial, there's a great reward, more precious than gold. Secondly, they enable us to help others who pass through trials.

You remember in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul says, we're able to comfort you with the same comfort with which we've been comforted of God. Unless you pass through trials, you can't help others. It's the man that's gone through sorrow that's able to comfort a person that goes through sorrow, and it's not until you pass through that way that you can say, I know, and you can enter into it, and you can comfort them.

And then, there's something else. He says there are patience. Tribulation worketh patience, says Paul in Romans 5 verse 3. You heard of the story, I'm sure, about the man that had asked the preacher to pray for him, that he would have more patience.

I'm sure all of us at one time ought to be in need of that. And, as the preacher got down and he started praying for him, he said, Lord send our brother tribulation. He said, our brother? He said, I didn't ask you to pray for tribulation, I asked you to pray for patience for me.

Ah, he said, brother, tribulation worketh patience. Kind of a hard way to get it, but that's how we get it. So, these are some of the benefits of trials, and then they make us more zealous to spread the gospel.

You look on to the early part of the book of Acts. The more the people of God were persecuted and suffered tribulation, the more zeal they had to spread the gospel. That's the very opposite of what you would expect from the human standpoint.

Gave them great zeal and desire to spread the gospel. And then, as we read in Job 23, verse 10, it helps him to remove the glass in our lives. He says, when he passed through this setting, he says, I shall come forth as gold tried in the fire.

We're polishing us, fitting us for the glory. And, something else that makes us realize this is not whole. You know, when you get everything too comfortable down here, you want to settle down and stay here.

So, a few tribulations makes us realize this is not whole. We're only passing through, as the old hymn used to say, strangers and pilgrims passing through, and it makes us look along for the eternal city.

Walking to Please God

Now, in verse one, we have first a walk that's pleasing to God. Notice this pointed and forceful appeal. Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren. There's one of Paul's great words, beseech. He could have said, we command you, but he usually uses that word, beseech.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. In several other places, he uses that word, beseech. I beg of you, I plead with you. And, he said here, I beseech you, brethren, and exhort you, as to his past instruction by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received a bus, as you have heard of us in the past, now he says, I'm reminding you, I'm pointing out to you that the Lord Jesus, this is how he wants you to walk.

How you receive the bus, how you ought to walk. They receive it by word, they receive it by testimony, by their lives. You know how wholly and unblemishedly we behave ourselves among you, he could say to them.

Now, we exhort you according to our own way of living before the Lord, and in the word of the Lord, that you walk to please God. That's the great goal of a Christian, that I might please Him, that I might be well-pleasing to Him.

That should be our greatest desire, that I might please Him. Everything else is secondary. The chief end of man is to glorify God. Everything else should fall into insignificance next to that, that I might please Him.

Walking to please Him, and that you would have bound more and more. Do you notice as we read such a long list, you often see these words together, you're bound more and more. One of Paul's great words was more.

Romans 5, much more, much more, much more. Here, in this epistle, you get more and more, more and more, that you're bound more and more, your faith increased more and more, that your love increased more and more.

You never get to the place where, in your Christian life, where you can say, I have arrived. There's always room for more growth. I think all of you will agree with that. Some of you here have been saved longer than I'm alive, and you still, I'm sure, will admit I have still more room to grow.

And there's always more room to grow. There's always more room, because God's ideal is that we might be conformed to His image, and how far short we come of that. So, there's room to grow as you have the pattern before you, looking unto Jesus.

And, he says that you would not only go on more and more, but abound more and more. Terminologies, rich languages met, and that's the thing. This is the permanent challenge. We can continue to abound more and more, till we see Him face to face.

The Word of God and the Will of God

Then, in verse two, you have the preaching of the Apocryphal. You know what commandment we gave you by the Lord Jesus. He reminds them of His word to them through the authority of Christ. It's the commandment that we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

Unless we teach the word of God, it has very little effect. Anything we add to the word of God doesn't mean very much. It's the word of God that has authority. It's by the word of the Lord Jesus, He says, that is His backing.

By His authority, we speak to you. So, you have first the walk, the preaching to God. Then, in verses three to eight, you have the will of God in relation to wedlock. First, this is the will of God, even your sanctification, a walk in holiness.

Do you notice how practical this epistle is? A walk in holiness. This is the will of God even your sanctification. You know, we've been set apart. If you look at the word of God, I think you'll find that there's sanctification after the test.

In 2 Corinthians, or 2 Thessalonians, rather, you might just turn to one verse there. Chapter two and verse 13, "'For we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning," notice that, these believers, "'He has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth.'.

Before He ever saved us, He set us apart by the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit prepared us.". We have the same in 1 Peter 1 too. In that, according to the foreknowledge of God, and the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience of the sweetness of the blood of Jesus Christ.

So, God's whole purpose in calling us was to make us holy. Then, when we are saved, He says even to the Corinthians that they were sanctified in Christ Jesus in opposition. We are absolutely holy because we're in His holiness.

We're accepted in His perfection. We're made holy in Him. "'Be ye holy now,' says God, even as I'm holy.". That's the practical aspect of all sanctification. God has called us to holiness, and don't you be afraid of that word.

That's a Bible word. There's so much false teaching about holiness, but God's word tells us we're to be holy even as He's holy. This is the will of God, your sanctification. That's God's great desire.

Out of unholy beings He wants to make us holy. He wants us to live as we are positionally. We are holy in Christ Jesus, now He wants us to live it out, and it's not in ourselves, it's only brought by His power.

So, we see then the will of God demands absolute holiness, and that it demands sexual purity in our lives. Abstain is this, that ye abstain from fornication. Our lives should be holy in that aspect as well.

Sexual Purity and the Body as God’s Temple

And then notice in verse 4 that every one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. This is the right way to control ourselves, to speak about self-control. We are to possess your vessel to keep your body under, and to have it in control under Him in sanctification and honor.

All vessel is a vessel that should be neat for the master to use. These bodies of ours are not for fornication, they're for the Lord. That's the purpose of it. And then the wrong way is mentioned in verse 5, not in the lust of sensuality even as the Gentiles who know not God.

We know the Lord now. We've been called unto cleanness and to holiness. And that's the Word of God standard for the believer. How we need to teach this to our young people. There's a day, you know, when there's no standard anymore.

Young people can't even blush anymore. They live together in the colleges, co-ed, and their dormitories, and all that, and they don't think there's a thing wrong with it. How we need to sound out God's standards that remember God has not changed, His Word has not changed, His standards have not changed.

It's still the same. He doesn't have one standard for the people of our age, and then He has a different standard for young people of this new generation. It's still the same. And how we need to emphasize that.

And then it speaks about wrong committed against our brothers in verse six, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother. And you know what the penalty was under law, if a man took another man's wife, the two of them would be stoned.

God hasn't changed any. Though this is the day of grace, and He doesn't come right out in judgment like that on individual and kill them right there, God says there's still judgment. Listen what it says here, verse six, because the Lord is the avenger of all such.

He's the avenger of all such, as we have also forewarned you and testified. Sin will never go unpunished unless we confess our sin and forsake it. Then, in a future day, it's going to be dealt with. It's the sin of the believer, unless it dealt with, will be dealt with by the Lord.

He's the avenger of all those that commit uncleanness, and He warns us against his vengeance. In first Corinthians six, we might just turn to that, nine and ten. He says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?

Ye not deceive neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor truncated, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God?

And such were some of you, but ye are one. And that's the thing with the believers. We are a new creation in Christ Jesus, and that verse seven here in first Thessalonians, the end of that point, says,.

But God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. This chapter, the first part of it, is full of the believer's holy walk. He says, By way of which you look at verse six, the last part, remember then the apostle word, because the Lord is the avenger of all such.

In verse seven, realize the purposes of God. God hath called us to holiness, not to uncleanness, but to holiness. That's God's purpose. Then, realize the tale of unbelief in verse eight. He therefore to despise, to despise not man, but God.

If we do not heed the word of God on this any other point, we despise God and his word. Not man, but God. Oh, we're going to get this home to our young generation today. And then, remember your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

That brings it up in the last part of verse eight, who had also given unto us of his Holy Spirit. Coincidence? He says, Nor ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, and therefore ye are to glorify God in your body which are his.

We're completely somebody else's possession. That's why we can't use our bodies as the flesh would desire. We're to keep these things under, and turn our bodies over to the use of the Holy Spirit. Then, he has to wait for Christian love in verse nine and ten, but as touching brotherly love.

Brotherly Love and Practical Christian Conduct

Now, why does he write so often about brotherly love in his epistles? Because it's tedious. We forget by nature we're so selfish, and he has to keep reminding us of brotherly love. But, as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves have taught of God to love one another.

The very nature of God is love. God is love. As he refers back to the Holy Spirit in verse eight, the fruit of the Spirit is love. Your body to the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in you, gives you this love.

Now, he wants you to exhibit this love one to the other. How can we show that the love of God dwelleth in us? Only by we, as we express it one to the other. Love is something that's more than talk. It has to be expressed in action.

So, you have this obvious reminder we're to love one another. We're taught of God to love one another. Then, in verse 10, and indeed you do it toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia. He says you're doing a good job, but he's not satisfied.

As much as they seem to be loving these brethren, he says we beseech you brethren that you increase it again more and more. You need to grow in grace more and more. You need to love more and more. Park of the Palms, you know, is a wonderful place.

You can feel the love here, feel the warm fellowship. But, I'm sure as Paul was writing to you here at Park of the Palms, he said that I can see how you love one another, but I want you to increase more and more.

You can still add some more to what you're already doing. Don't get so smug with yourself and say, why we really love each other up here, you know. We're a wonderful group of people. Don't get taken up like that.

He says you have room to love each other some more and more. There's some practical ways you can still show your love. You know, there's people respond to love. Love is the greatest thing you know. Why we have to sit down with people sometimes and start sharing and showing a bit of love to them in certain ways, you know.

How they respond to that. It's the least little thing sometimes, you know. They respond to it. And then there's another practical verse in verse 11, as to the working to meet our daily needs. He says that you study to be quiet.

In other words, don't be restless. Don't be a restless individual. You know, some people, they can't sit down for a moment and visit their fellowships. They're always restless. They're a bundle of myrrh.

He says don't be restless. Secondly, do your own business. In other words, mind your own business. He doesn't let people that know the other man's business much better than his own. Much sooner to talk about the other man's business than his own when he has come to talk about his business, he gets suddenly very quiet.

But oh, he can talk about the other man's business. He knows that so well, you know. He says now, mind your own business. Don't be a busybody. And then work with your own hands. Now, most of everybody here has always worked with their own hands.

But in other words, don't be a sponger. I know certain people, the only time they come to a house when they get hungry, yes, this is true. There are people who only come when he's hungry. I'll come to mealtime, and I'm going to come.

So, there's a sponger, you know, a sponging. Lovely Christian, but all sponging. He says now, don't be a sponger. Work with your own hands. And then there's a worthy ambition in verse 12, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, those on the outside.

That's a godly example for those of outside, and an honorable independent need of nothing. You have need of nothing. Isn't that nice? And now we come on to the last section of this epistle, and how beautiful it is.

The Hope of the Resurrection and the Lord’s Return

Notice the but. When you get a but, you always get a great change. Here he introduces a new and a grand subject. Here he makes known a revelation that was a mystery. Remember in 1st Corinthians 15, 51, it says, behold I show you a mystery.

Now he's going to unfold it, because these Christians, they needed to be instructed. They knew that Christ would return as king, but what about those that had died? How were they going to reign with him?

Had they been relegated to an inferior place now that they had already died? Would they miss out on Christ coming for the church? Would their resurrection be deferred to the end of the tribulation? These are things that had to be explained.

Now, after Paul's coming, they believe in a general resurrection and a general judgment. So, Paul now proceeds in these verses to give an orderly outline of just what will take when the Lord comes again.

In verse 13, we see the reassurance for those showing as a result of ignorance, but I would not have you to be ignorant brethren. Now, it's understandable that they were ignorant about this revelation, but there's no excuse for us to be ignorant.

He says, I don't want you to be ignorant brethren concerning those that are asleep. Now, he speaks about it when he says, I don't want you to be ignorant. That means he's going to go on and inform them.

It was his desire to inform them as what God's word was. He did that in other cases. You know, he told in Romans 11 through 5, he didn't want them to be ignorant concerning Israel's future, why they were partially blind.

He didn't want them to be gifted for a Christian chapter 12. He wants God's people to be instructed. Now, the word sleep is used in two ways. First, it means a physical rest. In Matthew 28 and verse 13, it reads like this, saying, Say ye, his disciple came by night and stole him away while we slept.

Referring to a physical rest. In John 11, 12 we read,. Then said his disciple, If he sleep, he shall do well. This is speaking of a physical sleep, but it's most often used of the believer's body laid to rest.

In Matthew 27 and verse 52, you read this,. And the graves were opened, and many of the bodies of the saints which slept arose. In Acts 7 .60, when Stephen laid down his life for the Lord Jesus, he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Meaning, his body fell asleep. Not just at night's rest, but he died physically. 2 Peter 3 .4 says this,. And saying, With the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue.

So on. But, sleep is never referred to as soul sleep. Let's make that very, very clear. It's a reaction from the body that wanted to be present with the Lord, and it's in religion which is far better.

Sleep is never referring to the soul, it's to the body, and sleep means to lie down. Resurrection means to stand up, and I think if we keep that in mind, it helps us. Now, notice there, sleep was caused by ignorance.

He said, Now I don't want you to be ignorant, but I'm concerned in them which are sleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. Sorrow is not ruled out, but it's not to be sorrow as others which have no hope.

We sorrow when somebody goes to be with the Lord in that sense, because we're selfish. We miss the one that's gone, and we feel sorry for ourselves. Here I am left alone, and she's going to be with the Lord, and so much better, and I'm left behind, and we miss them.

We miss their companionship, their place is empty, and so on. We do sorrow, but not as others, because we wouldn't want them back. They're with the Lord, which is far better. He said, I don't want you to sorrow as others who have no hope.

Then, he gives us the return of the departed Christian made possible by the death and resurrection. Notice verse 14, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and we do that with all our hearts, even so them, just as few as Jesus died and rose again, even so them with sweet in Jesus will God bring with him.

You see, these dear ones are with the Lord Jesus, and when the Lord Jesus comes again, he's going to bring them with him to be reunited to their resurrected body, and I think that's what you have in chapter 3 verse 13.

Even our father at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with his saints. The whole setting there is Jesus coming back for the church, but he's taking those that's gone on to be with him. He's taking them back with him to be reunited to that body as it raised again, and he says here, just as few as Jesus died and rose again, even so them also with sweet in Jesus, God is going to bring with him.

He's going to bring them with him. They're not going to miss out on anything. What a great comfort to these believers who didn't know what had happened to those that had gone on before. They'd missed out in that first resurrection.

They'd missed out in reigning with Christ. They didn't know what they'd missed out on. My friend, they're not missing out on a thing, and then in verse 15, you have a revelation from God. Gandhi's departed Christians do not have an inferior place, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, and the thought behind this is just like God spoke to the prophets of old, gave them a divine revelation in the word from the Lord.

So, this is the very same thing. I'm speaking to you for divine revelation. It's the word from God that says it. This is not something of my own concoctions at all. I have a death and revelation from the Lord, a word from God.

We say unto you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord. Now, notice he puts himself among those that be alive and remain on the Lord's come. In other words, Paul anticipated the coming again of Lord Jesus.

This is most remarkable, isn't it? Now, in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 51, behold I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, he says. He's including himself, but then I want you to notice a balance.

If you turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 14, and I think we get from Paul the balance we should have as believers. He says, knowing that, verse 14, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

Here he presents the other side, again in chapter 5 verse 1, for if we know our earthly house of this tabernacle where there is salt, we, he said, have a filling of God and house made, not made with hands, eternal in the heaven.

So, he gives you that balance. The first two he gave you, he was expecting to be among those that be taken up, we who are alive. These two scriptures, he speaks about his body. It's not going to be left, but it's going to be, we have a body in a house eternal in the heaven, and I think that's the view of the Christian.

We should live as we may expect the Lord any moment, and yet live as though he may not come, but we still will pass through the valley as a shadow of death. We need to hold that balance. I think that was the thing that kept Paul so well balanced, so even in his whole outlook.

Now, this revelation by the word of the Lord, and he adds a new thing that was unknown in the Old Testament. The church, of course, was not known then, and this is the resurrection of these saints to be with the Lord.

From Genesis to Malachi, there'd be no hint of a rapture or separate church resurrection. This is what he unfolds here, and then he says, the living saints will not precede them who are asleep. Now, in the old version, of course, it's present, but not present.

You have the same thought in Psalm 119 verse 147 that he presented the morning. What it really means, he preceded the morning. He was up early in the morning to meet with the Lord, and so we who are alive, we are not going to precede them.

These that have gone on, they're not going to miss out this fall. We who are alive, we're not going to precede them. But, he says, if there's any order at all, and of course it all happens instantaneously, in verse 16 you notice here that the resurrection bodies of the departed Christians are the first to be mentioned.

The Lord Himself Descends from Heaven

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Now, he says, we're not going to precede them. Now, he's at the Lord himself. I like that. Jesus said, I will come again. He's going to keep his promise.

I'm going to be the one that's going to come to my side. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. This is a great shout of authority, just like the shipmaster used to shout to the rowers, the commander to the soldiers in the midst of great excitement.

The shout, the voice of the Lord himself, and then the voice of the archangel, possibly Michael, doesn't say it. We know that he says, one archangel, that is name by name. Then with the trumpet of God, in the old testament, if you care to, in your own leisure, to read in Exodus 19, you'll find out the different trumpet sounds that call God's people together.

What a time that's going to be. And then notice that the dead in Christ shall rise first. They're not going to be left behind. All those bodies are going to come out, and the spirit and the soul will be reunited to that body, that glorified body.

And at the same moment, we're going to be changed, as we read in Corinthians. In a moment, the 20th of March, we're going to be changed. What a change that'll be. We who are alive and remain shall be caught up.

And I understand that caught up there means with great hope, a mighty thrust. If he will be going through the enemy's territory, and he's going to take us right through, that moment will be an eye. All speed records will be broken.

We'll make these fellows that go up in rockets, like a rocket, they'll reverse. Yes, that moment will be able to be taken up. Great hope, all right. Remember the same word Paul used about himself in 2nd Corinthians 12, that he was caught up into the third heaven.

In Revelation 12 too, where the man-child, when he was born, he was caught up to heaven. So, that's the same caught up. We get our word, the rapture from that, and it's together. I tell you, if God's people are not together down there, down here they're going to be together then.

This is it. It'll be like life, won't it? All the divisions dividing them now will be all disappeared. We'll be caught up together. They wait to get in that nest. It's nice to enjoy that now, isn't it?

We're going to be caught up together. And notice the cloud. We're going to be snatched away and caught up together with them in the cloud. Always with the Lord's coming, you have the cloud, especially connected with his revelation.

And, we're going to meet the Lord in the air, face to face with Christ my Savior. I've told you before, this morning will be a morning there, Lord. You've never seen another morning like it. This will be the morning of morning, face to face with the Lord Jesus.

And, that moment will be like him. It'll all happen just in a split second. We'll meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is a tremendous thing, isn't it? No more parting now.

When the Lord was here upon earth, he was just with them at different periods of time. After his resurrection, he left them a little while, and then he left. He came back, and he left. He appeared on many different occasions, and he's gone again.

But then, my friend, it's going to be unbroken with the Lord forever. It's going to be within the presence of somebody you love forever and ever. When you marry a beautiful girl, you know, and you take her into your arms, when you first marry her, you say, you're mine.

You're mine the rest of our lives, till death do us part. But the years, they soon run by. That young fellow, she marries such a big, strong, sturdy fellow, he becomes feeble and old. That beautiful young girl, she becomes old and wrinkled, too, and bent, and we can't always stay together down here.

But, oh my friend, this will be all gone away. We'll be forever with the Lord. No more, no more breaking of fellowship, of communion, of company. Isn't that going to be wonderful? And in that place, we're going to be like him.

Our bodies will no longer get old. There'll be no pain. In fact, there'll be no nightmare, no tears, no sorrow. Our loved one's not getting old, we're not getting old, but eternity with the eternal Savior.

No wonder he's that comfortable with another, with Jesus. Oh, this glorious, this grand. Well, I see my time is gone. I was going to give you a lot of reasons why the rapture's very near, but we might just mention to you the, you know, very significant, I might say, in many of these other things I've taken, but it's a very significant thing to be living in this day.