Guidelines in Approaching These Verses

Introduction to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 and its Abuses

0:04 Let us turn again this morning to 1 Thessalonians as we continue our studies in this letter of the Apostle to the Infant Church of the Thessalonians, so rich with practical instruction for the people of God.

0:22 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

0:36 We begin this morning our study in this rather lengthy section beginning with verse 13 and continuing to verse 11. I shall read the entire section so that we might catch the drift of thought and then we will have an introductory study to the section for our time this morning. But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,

1:17 them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive and left unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede them that are fallen 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.

1:48 Then we that are alive that are left shall together with them be caught up 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. But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that ought be written unto you.

2:14 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night, when they are saying, Peace and safety. Then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall in no wise escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. For ye are all sons of light and sons of the day.

2:45 We are not of the night nor of darkness. So then, let us not...

2:51 Let us not sleep as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

3:31 Wherefore, exhort one another, and build each other up, even as also ye do.

3:41 It is obvious that the general doctrinal theme of this particular passage relates to the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, what we would commonly call the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. What we call the second advent of the Lord Jesus. Both in verses 13 to 18, where we have his coming and its relationship to dead and living believers in particular, and his coming in chapter 5, as it relates to the unconverted, particularly verses 3 and 4. Now, this section has been abused and made a football by perhaps more people of God, in the past 80 to 90 years

4:26 than many other sections of the Word of God. Some come to this section and try to read into it some of their own eschatological prejudices. The word eschatology, of course, dealing with the doctrine of last things. And they're convinced that they know all that needs to be known about all the details relative to the coming of Christ, what will immediately precede it, and all the factors related to it.

4:52 And so they come to a passage like this and they find good stomping ground to let loose all of those preconceptions. Now, as usual, the abuse of this passage is rooted in a failure to understand what the Apostle is seeking to convey and why he is conveying it. So in order that we might not be guilty of abusing the passage but using it to the end for which it was given, I want us to consider in the first place this morning what I am calling general guidelines that must be observed in the study of this section of the Word of God. The general theme is obvious to all of us.

5:37 As I read the passage, you could not help but be aware of the fact Paul is dealing in some way or another with the general theme of the return of Christ at his second advent. But now, we must not wrench this passage and set it in isolation. There are general guidelines that must be observed in our exposition in our study of the passage. Now, three of those general guidelines I wish to lay before you this morning at the beginning of our study.

Guideline 1: Consider the Larger Context of Sanctification

6:08 Guideline number one is what I am calling a consideration of the larger context of the passage.

6:18 Each Lord's Day, as I have opened up chapter 4 over the past, oh, 10, 12 months, weeks since we've been in chapter 4, I have reminded you that the theme of chapters 4 and 5 is explicitly stated in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more, for ye know what charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is the Lord Jesus, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. The theme of these particular chapters

7:01 is how to walk so as to please God, how to please Him in a life of practical sanctification. Now, if that's his theme, let's give Paul the benefit of the doubt that he's sticking with it even when he starts talking about the second coming of Christ. So the larger context is how to please God, how to be sanctified, what it means to be sanctified, to be set apart unto God in every area of life. Now, a child of God encounters death.

7:41 Loved ones die.

7:44 And the reaction of a child of God to death either evidences the sanctifying power of Christ or evidences the absence of the Savior. And this was the problem which prompted the Apostle to write this particular section. For notice what he says, verse 13, We would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that fall asleep, that ye sorrow not even as the rest.

8:16 He is saying to these people, your emotional reaction to the death of your loved ones is sub-Christian. You're worldly and your emotional reaction to the death of your loved ones. You're acting like the rest of the world. Isn't that worldliness?

8:36 And since a part of the rest of the world's expression of its alienation from God comes to light in the emotions, for we are emotional creatures as well as volitional and intellectual creatures, physical creatures, Paul is saying in essence, I want your sanctification to extend to your emotional life, particularly, as it relates to death and specifically the death of your loved ones who die in Christ. In other words, sanctification involves the totality of our being, as he says in the fifth chapter, verses 23 and 24. I pray God that your whole body, soul, and spirit

9:20 be preserved blameless.

9:24 So Paul hasn't deviated from his main purpose. I want you to abound in the life that pleases God. This is the will of God, your sanctification. And you people at Thessalonica, listen, that involves even how you grieve in the face of death.

Guideline 2: Focus on the Specific Subject Matter – Dead Believers

9:41 Your grief is either sanctified grief or unsanctified grief. That's the larger context of this passage. And if you wrench it out of that context, you'll begin to go to all extremes of foolishness with the passage. Now, having moved from the larger context, consider the second guideline that I'm calling the specific subject matter.

10:03 Notice how he introduces it, verse 13. He does not say, but we would not have you ignorant brethren concerning all the details of the second coming.

10:14 The subject matter is not directly the second coming. Now, many come to this passage as though Paul's purpose was to give a detailed exposition of all of the factors relative to the second coming of Christ. That is not his purpose. The specific subject matter is this.

10:33 But we would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that fall asleep. The subject matter directly is not the second coming of Christ, but the state and condition of people who die in Christ. That's the subject matter. He himself tells us, concerning them that fell asleep.

10:51 That's what I'm going to talk about. For you'll notice, he said earlier in verse 9, concerning love of the brethren. What's his subject matter? Why, obvious, love of the brethren.

11:01 So anything he says is related to that subject. Now he says, but concerning, verse 5, chapter 5, verse 1, concerning times and seasons. He announces his own subject. Now isn't it amazing that where the apostle clearly states what his main subject matter is, people will go completely by that and assume that here in 1 Thessalonians 4 you have a comprehensive statement about the second coming of Christ and begin to build all kinds of weird doctrines upon it.

11:33 No, the second guideline that must guide us in our study is to remember not only the larger context, but the specific subject matter, which is this. What happens to believers who die in Jesus Christ?

11:53 No less than four times you find this group of people mentioned in the passage. Concerning them that fall asleep, verse 13, verse 14, even so them that are fallen asleep in Jesus, the end of verse 15, them that are fallen asleep, verse 16, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Four times he refers to that group of people that is particularly in focus. Now other passages deal with the relationship of the coming of Christ to unbelievers.

12:31 Chapter 5, verses 3 and 4, he says the same coming of Christ that he's been talking about in its relationship to believers, dead believers, particularly in the previous passage, will be destruction upon the unbeliever. He deals with that in chapter 5. In 2 Thessalonians 1, 8 and 9, he's talking about what will happen to those that believe not the gospel, obey not the gospel. What will happen when Christ comes with reference to them?

13:00 He'll come in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that obey not the gospel. Now the relationship, of the second coming to the new heavens and the new earth, what will happen to this earth as we now know it? Peter deals with that in 2 Peter 3, 10 to 13, where he says that at his coming the world and the works therein shall be burned up. Now whenever you read passages dealing with the second coming, ask yourself what aspect of the coming of Christ is particularly being dealt with.

13:31 And if he's dealing particularly in these verses, verses 13 to 18, with the coming, the coming of Christ as it relates to dead believers, don't read in a coming that only has to do with them and then another coming that has to do with what will happen to the earth and another coming what has to do with dead unbelievers. Ridiculous. There's one second coming of Jesus Christ and there are different aspects of that coming described in specific passages. And a failure to recognize this has left the door wide open for all kinds of things of, as I say, and I say it purposely, all kinds of foolish teaching to be read in to portions of Scripture.

14:18 Apparently, some teaching had been abroad in that day that dead believers would be second-rate citizens at the coming of Christ. Well, that would cause sorrow if you felt that, boy, to die, you're left like the heathen are and the heathen had no hope in the face of death. You read some of the quotations that are found in most of the commentaries on what the heathen writers, the best of them, had to say in the face of death. Hopeless, Paul says.

14:42 Now, apparently, some of them were imbibing this teaching and felt that, well, if we're not alive when the Lord comes, we just go the way of all heathen. Well, if you felt that way and you saw your loved one who was a true believer die, no wonder you'd be swallowed up with grief. So, Paul says, now, concerning those that fall asleep in Christ, I don't want you to be ignorant of the facts, the true state of those people. So, keep in mind the larger context, the specific subject matter, and the third general guide line is this.

Guideline 3: Remember the Stated Goal – Mutual Comfort and Exhortation

15:11 Remember the stated goal that Paul had for giving these words. After he's all done, what does he say? Wherefore, comfort, exhort one another with these words. His goal was to give enough facts so that the average believer would be able to face death squarely in the eye, and facing death in the eye, would be able to come to a fellow believer and say, look, here's what God says about your dead loved ones.

15:44 Now, stop being swallowed up with that heathenish grief. Get with it, man. You say you believe what God says. Here's what he says.

15:52 Now, don't let your grief run off and be like the world. His specific purpose was not to give some verses that could be a battleground of theological debate. He did not give these to be an occasion of warning to the unconverted, primarily, but he gave them to be the basis of mutual comfort and exhortation amongst the saints of God. You see, God wants the rank and file of believers to be theologians in their own right, that they might be exhorters of one another.

16:31 He didn't give this for preachers to go off and have prophetic conferences.

16:38 And what he says, he said he gave this to be fuel in the hands of the saints to comfort other saints. And tell them not to despair like the world despairs. All right, now, those are the general guidelines. The larger context, it has to do with how to please God even in your emotional reactions to death.

17:02 The immediate subject is not the second coming. The immediate subject is those that fall asleep in Jesus. The stated goal, that if we know what happens to them, we'll be able to exhort and comfort one another. Now, what does he do to give them fuel for comfort?

Specific Observations on Christian Doctrine: Source and Importance

17:19 Well, he gives them a good stiff dose of the biblical doctrine of the second coming of Christ, which immediately moves us into the second area of our thinking this morning. I've given you general guidelines as we approach the passage. Now, will you consider some specific observations regarding Christian doctrine as we find it in the passage? See, I'm sort of preaching around the passage this morning, giving you the guidelines, hoping to set some barriers that then we move into a phrase-by-phrase exposition we'll end up where Paul wants us to end up.

17:55 He gives them some doctrine. Now, what does this passage tell us about such doctrine? Well, in the first place, it gives us the source of that doctrine. He says, you people are to grasp what I say and so grasp it that you'll be able to comfort one another.

18:09 Well, what does he put in their hands? Does he put the sawdust of human opinion? Does he put the froth, the spun candy of mere sentimentality? No.

18:19 He puts in their hands the solid substance of Christian doctrine which has as its source divine revelation. For notice what he says in verse 15. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.

18:36 The source of my teaching, the apostle says, is divine revelation. Now, what did he mean by the word of the Lord? Did he mean he had a previous word that Christ had spoken? And it's interesting.

18:50 Some of the commentators will squeak out of the platform. Good, it's gone. Some of the commentators say why it's obvious. Paul is referring to some word of Christ that never got recorded in the Gospels.

19:03 Just like the word Paul quotes where he says that our Lord said it's more blessed to give than to receive. It's quoted in Acts but you can't find it in the Gospels. Others say Paul is not referring to a previous word of Christ but he's referring to some special revelation that came to him as a commissioned apostle. Well, which one is it?

19:21 I can't tell you. I don't know. But the significant thing is this. It's whether the word of the Lord was a word previously spoken by Christ or whether it was a word given directly by divine revelation as he speaks in 2 Corinthians 12.1

19:38 of having special revelations. Galatians 3.12 or 1.12 where he says my gospel was not of men but came by revelation.

19:46 He's reminding these people that the word he gives comes with divine and absolute authority. For that phrase the word of the Lord is used continually throughout the Old Testament and carries over into the New Testament to speak of the voice of God coming through to men with all of its divine authority and inerrant authority.

20:14 God who in times past spoke unto the fathers by the prophets hath in the last days spoken unto us by his Son. The only thing worth putting in the hands of believers by which they can mutually exhort one another is the solid substance of divine revelation. Therefore as God's people we must cultivate and seek to sustain a sanctified spirit of criticism critically analyzing what we hear. Is it true not only to the letter but the spirit of scripture and to the entire spectrum of divine truth.

20:53 The source of this doctrine with which he would arm the people of God to come to one another divine revelation. Secondly the importance of biblical doctrine. Now notice their problem was this. They were despairing in a way that was characteristic of the heathen.

21:13 He says I don't want you to sorrow as the rest who have no hope. They were worldly in their sorrow and their worldliness was rooted in what we would call the theology of heathenism. It has no doctrine. It is the doctrine of resurrection and the life to come.

21:32 So what the heathen believe affects their reaction in the face of death. You see every man's life even his emotional life is simply but an extension of his theology of his concepts of life of death of God and of the world to come. Now how does Paul correct this worldly emotional reaction?

21:54 Well he does it not by trying to just come directly and change the emotion. No, no. He comes by setting their thinking straight upon Christian doctrine. You see most of our emotional problems whether it's inordinate grief in the face of death whether it's unsanctified joy whether it's unchristian despair generally our emotional problems are rooted in either an ignorance of Christian doctrine or a failure to apply the doctrine when we need it.

22:31 You check most of your emotional problems. Isn't that their root? You're either ignorant of basic doctrine or you're failing to apply it.

22:42 Now Paul corrects both of those things. How does he do it? He says now I would not have you ignorant if the reason some of them are despairing is because they're ignorant of the doctrine he'll give them the facts but then he recognizes it's one thing for a Christian to have the right facts or the right doctrine but then when he gets in the situation the situation so clouds him that he can't apply the doctrine so what does he say? Exhort one another.

23:08 That's the time your brother comes along and says hey you a Christian? Yeah. You believe this? Yeah.

23:14 You believe this? Yeah. You believe this? Well what in the world are you acting like you're doing?

23:17 You see we need one another then not to teach us the doctrine but to help us apply it in the given situation.

The Application of Doctrine: Exhortation in Calamity

23:26 Am I registering?

23:29 Isn't this what we need? You see here's someone who believes the doctrine of God's sovereignty and he's sitting in a men's class in there when Mr. Starrett's teaching through the confession and he reads it. And he reads it.

23:39 And he reads it. And he reads it. And he reads it. And he reads it.

23:39 And he rejoices. God is on his throne. All men and things under his disposal and rejoicing. Hallelujah.

23:46 Wonderful. Everything going fine. He knows the doctrine.

23:51 Next week front end drops out of his car on his way to work.

23:58 His kid flunks out of college.

24:01 His shop burns down.

24:04 And all of a sudden he goes to pieces. Now what's his problem? Well he needs to have a brother come along and put his arm around him and say hey you remember when you were sitting in that class three weeks ago and Mr. Starrett was talking to us about all men and all things.

24:18 He says yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well how about this?

24:23 Well that's right. And how about that? Did that time somehow slip out of the end of God's fingertips? Is that out in some area of no man's land where God can't quite reach out and control it?

24:34 He says no I don't want to believe that. And so as his brother comes alongside of him he begins to remind him of his doctrine. What happens? He gets delivered from his despair.

24:44 He gets delivered from his sinful grief. He gets delivered from that worldly disorientation that comes in the face of calamity. What did he need? He didn't need to know the doctrine.

24:54 He learned it there in that classroom. He needed to have a brother come along and exhort him to build him up. See? Now that's what Paul does with Christian doctrine.

25:04 He thinks of those Thessalonians and he sees that hopeless worldly despair. And I keep using that term purposely because I hope it will get under our mental hide. There is a worldly despair and he says the reason you're despairing is you're ignorant of what the state of that loved one is. You're looking upon him as a second-rate citizen in the kingdom.

25:29 Poor fellow, he's died. He isn't around to be here when Christ comes back again. He said, let me tell you the facts. Based upon divine revelation this is what I say.

25:39 If anything, we're the second-rate ones. They'll be raised up first and we'll catch up with them and we'll meet the Lord. And by the time we enter to glory we'll be neck and neck. We'll be four to five.

25:51 I said, I gave you that doctrine but I know human nature well enough to know that the next time one of you loses your loved ones because you've thought so long in terms of the despair of heathen thinking you'll probably forget. So you need your brother to come along and put his arm around and say, hey, Mac, remember what the apostle told us? Comfort one another with these words.

The Importance of Doctrine for Sanctification and Life

26:17 Now how important is Christian doctrine? I submit to you that Christian doctrine is the basis not only of knowing God but of living and walking before God so as to please Him. That's the theme. Let's not wrench this passage away from it.

26:35 And the child of God who is increasingly assimilating the doctrines of God and has the blessing of the surrounding of the people of God to help Him apply those doctrines in the given situation, that's the maturing Christian who is pleasing God who is progressing in His sanctification. Now do you see why it's the deep passion of my heart that every one of you in this assembly aspire to be rooted and grounded in Christian doctrine and to know how the doctrine applies in life and in situations?

27:17 Now do you see why? This is why. It's not that by nature I just have a doctrinal bent and I'm on a binge. I recognize this principle of Scripture.

27:30 And when you come to me with your problems as you come, and I hope you continue to come almost invariably, what do I end up doing? I end up doing by making you aware of some doctrine you say you believe but are failing to apply at present or some doctrine you're ignorant of.

27:46 Isn't that what I end up doing with you? I don't put my arm around and just say, well, things will be better. Let's just feel better. Better day coming.

27:54 Try to give you some worldly comfort. Now the problem, is oftentimes that's what we want. Because you see, the other makes us think. And when you're in despair, you don't want to think.

28:05 You just want to wallow in your despair.

28:09 But Paul says, you've got to think. I don't want you to be ignorant. I don't care how hard you're sobbing over the death of that loved one. Listen, sit down and think.

28:16 I've got some facts to tell you. And then some facts that I hope your brethren will remind you of. So when you're in despair, don't pray, oh God, send me somebody to sympathize. Say, oh, God, send me somebody to illuminate me.

28:33 Give me light. And remind me of the light that I already have. Well, so much then for the source of this doctrine that he uses to dispel worldly grief. So much for the importance of that doctrine.

The Interrelatedness of Christian Doctrine

28:48 Now will you notice the interrelatedness of Christian doctrine?

28:54 Paul begins his argument, and we'll go into this more in detail in our exposition next week, God willing. After announcing his subject in verse, verse 13, now notice how he begins to deal with it. We would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall asleep, that ye sorrow not as the rest who have no hope. For, now he's moving into his doctrine.

29:16 If we believe, no question that they did, it'd be the same as saying since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus, will God bring with you. You see, he builds the doctrine of what's going to happen to their dead loved ones at the coming of Christ upon the fact of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He can't construct the doctrine of the future state of dead believers without the foundation of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. You see, there is this interrelatedness

30:02 of doctrine. Here is a specific problem in a specific place and he's answering that by going to these bedrock foundational concepts.

30:14 Now, what does this say to us? It says to us, beloved, if we value our souls, don't tamper with any beam in the structure of divine truth and doctrine.

30:26 For you see, God's truth comes to us not like a bunch of boards and shingles and nails and trusses all dumped in a backyard or on the construction site. When I did construction work summers, many times when we were laying the foundation, the lumber truck would come and dump out all the 2x8s and the 2x10s and the 2x4s and all the rest. Well, that's not a house. That's a bunch of raw materials but that's not a house.

30:52 You see, there is no interrelatedness. All the materials are there but when they are properly joined together they become a structure and in that sense every beam is related to the rest of the house. Every beam piece of that house has a relationship with God's truth comes to us in that kind of structure and when we tamper with any facet of that structure we are eventually going to find that the entire structure as far as our relationship to it is a dissolved structure. You and I live at a point in the history of the evangelical church when for close to a hundred years people have thought they had the right to say which parts of the structure were important enough to preserve and put wood life on them

31:37 so the termites of unbelief and the termites of confusion don't eat at them but other things they are not that important and so we have reared a generation that has a mentality of doctrinal indifference.

31:51 Doctrinal indifference. People have no precise concepts of truth. We no longer catechize because that is legalistic. We don't want people to have clear definitions clear understanding if this is so that is so and if this is so this is so but the apostle Paul writing not to theologians reminds us he is writing to humble believers who for the most part were artisans you remember we found earlier he said study to be quiet do your own thing and to work with your own hands these were hard working people they were what we would call middle lower middle class artisans of the city of Thessalonica and yet he wants them to be theologians in the sense that they understand if this fact is true

32:35 and this one is true then this is true and if I touch this one I will also ultimately destroy this one he does that very clearly in 1 Corinthians 15 where he says if Christ be not raised then this is not so and this is not so and if that's not so this is not so go on out and live like the devil he said that's the end result he said of denying a truth here you'll end up making the rounds of the honky tonks over here and just live like the devil because there's nothing beyond this life oh dear believers I plead with you today don't be mentally lazy in a way that will lead to doctrinal indifference don't allow anyone to tamper with any facet of the truth

33:19 of the living God a few generations ago people said the doctrine of God's sovereignty is not important it just confuses people so now we're cursed with a man-centeredness in every strata of evangelical life from evangelism to Christian life teaching to worship man is at the center why? because God was pushed out of the center as the supreme controller and governor not only of the world in general but of the destinies of man and we're reaping the end result of it well I don't want to labor the point I want to hurry on now to what Paul tells us in this passage about the goal of Christian doctrine not only the source of it the word of the Lord the importance of it

The Goal of Christian Doctrine: Renovation of Emotional Life

34:03 the interrelatedness of it but now what is the goal of Christian doctrine as found in this passage he says I don't want you to be ignorant then he gives them the doctrine what was the view he says the end in view was the renovation of their emotional reaction to death I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that fall asleep why? that ye sorrow not you see he said I'm going to give you doctrine to the end that your emotional life will be radically overhauled the end of doctrine was not knowledge for knowledge sake

34:46 the end of doctrine was experience and life even the deepest affections of joy or sorrow of grief Paul states this elsewhere very beautifully when he says in Titus 2.10 exhorts the people of God to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things adorn the doctrine in all things may God help us to keep that balance you have on the one hand people who go all hog wild on doctrine and they say we've got to learn doctrine and so they saturate their minds with doctrine Bible outlines

35:30 and theological outlines and verses and propositions and all their passion is for doctrine and when anyone begins to apply the doctrine and begin to say hey man you've got all that doctrine in the closet why don't you put it on and start wearing it they say the important thing is to know it not too concerned about wearing it on the other hand you've got people that say doctrine doctrine doctrine I get so tired of it I'm concerned about life how you live how you think how you act Paul says you've got to have doctrine to adorn what you think and act and how you live is an extension into experience of your doctrine so he would have us fuse these two things together be concerned

36:14 about the facts of the doctrine be careful to understand the meaning of the words of scripture but never content that we have a clear understanding of the doctrine but ever praying Lord show me how this applies to life I would not have you ignorant brethren so we come away and say wonderful we understand what Paul teaches about the state of dead believers no that isn't the end in view the end in view is that when your dear one dies when one loved one next to you dies that there's nothing about your reaction that makes you in any way look like the world that in your very reaction to the face of death people will have to shake their head and say those Christians they're something else

36:59 they're something else we'll deal next week with whether or not Paul is giving a blanket prohibition of any grief at all whether he's doing that one thing is obvious the grief of the Christian if he has any is not in any way to be like the grief of those who have no hope and the only one who's rightly understood the teaching of Paul is the one who when put to the test can demonstrate in his experience the application of the doctrine to life and so I submit to you that this passage which we're going to deal with not only must be regarded in terms of its general guidelines

Summary and Call to Believers and Unbelievers

37:42 but also in terms of its specific instruction regarding Christian doctrine as we come to the passage and I trust you'll read it over during the week in the light of those guidelines what is the context how to walk so as to be pleased God the specific issue is not the second coming the specific issue is dead believers what happens to them are they second rate citizens what does he tell us about them and then remember that the goal he has in mind that being armed we might comfort one another I've been speaking primarily this morning to those of you

38:27 who are the children of God who fit into this framework of the brethren to whom Paul addresses himself I would not have you ignorant brethren but I must say in faithfulness to the souls of some of you you are not in Christ this passage holds no comfort for you if you die out of Christ there are passages that are specifically given to tell what will happen to you Luke 16 is the description of a man who died out of Christ and it says in Hades he lifted up his eyes being in torments scripture tells us in Revelation chapter 20 other portions what the second coming of Christ will be

39:12 to the unbeliever 2 Thessalonians 1 8 and 9 he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that obey not the gospel and so I would entreat those of you who sit here this morning strangers to repentance in faith strangers to union with Christ strangers to union strangers to the new birth strangers to justification strangers to God's sanctifying work I plead with you give yourself no rest until you know that you are in Christ in the Christ who died and rose again and from that place of ascension majesty and power says him that comes

39:56 to me I will in no wise cast out and if you are in Christ then pray that God will inscribe upon your heart this doctrine concerning the state of believers who die in him that you may not only be comforted for yourself this is not selfish but that you might be armed to comfort and encourage your brethren this I submit to you as the purpose of the passage this is the general framework of the passage and now I know for some of you there will be some trauma because of the as you've always read into this passage lots of other things that God never put there pray that the Lord will help you through the trauma

40:40 and that we might have consciences bound by the word of God let us pray