CONFIDENCE IN THE COMING OF JESUS

A. Instructions regarding sexual purity.

1. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18.   How to walk and to please God.

Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

a. Finally then: Paul’s use of finally does not mean he is finished. It means he now began the closing section of the letter, with practical instruction on how God wants His people to live.

i. “The word rendered ‘finally’ (loipon) is an adverbial accusative, ‘as for the rest,’ and serves to mark a transition rather than a conclusion.” (Hiebert)

b. That you should abound more and more: Paul was thankful for the growth he saw in the Thessalonians, but still looked for them to abound more and more in a walk that would please God.

i. Abound more and more: This means that Christian maturity is never finished on this side of eternity. No matter how far a Christian has come in love and holiness, they can still abound more and more.

c. Just as you received from us: What Paul wrote in the following verses was nothing new to the Thessalonians. In the few weeks he was with them, he instructed them in these basic matters of Christian morality. Paul knew it was important to instruct new believers in these things.

d. How you ought to walk and to please God: Paul took it for granted that the Thessalonians understood that the purpose of their walk - their manner of living - was to please God and not themselves. When the Christian has this basic understanding, the following instruction regarding Biblical morality makes sense.

i. “When a man is saved by the work of Christ for him it does not like open before him as a matter for his completely free decision whether he will serve God or not. He has been bought with a price (1Co 6:20). He has become the slave of Christ.” (Morris)

e. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus: These were not suggestions from the pen of Paul. These are commandments from the Lord Jesus, and must be received that way.

i. Morris on the word translated commandments: “It is more at home in a military environment, being a usual word for the commands given by the officer to his men (cf. its use in Act 5:28; Act 16:24). It is thus a word with a ring of authority.”

2. (1Th 4:3-6 a) The command to be sexually pure.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter,

a. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: Paul gave these commands to a first-century Roman culture that was marked by sexual immorality. At this time in the Roman Empire, chastity and sexual purity were almost unknown virtues. Nevertheless, Christians were to take their standards of sexual morality from God and not from the culture.

i. Paul said this was a commandment (1Th 4:2). That word was a military term describing an order from an officer to a subordinate, and the order came from Jesus and not from Paul.

ii. The ancient writer Demosthenes expressed the view of sex in the ancient Roman Empire: “We keep prostitutes for pleasure; we keep mistresses for the day to day needs of the body; we keep wives for the faithful guardianship of our homes.”

b. The will of God, your sanctification: Paul made it very clear what the will of God was for the Christian. The idea behind sanctification is to be set apart, and God wants us set apart from a godless culture and their sexual immorality. If our sexual behavior is no different than the Gentiles who do not know God, then we are not sanctified - set apart - in the way God wants us to be.

i. Those who do not know God do not have the spiritual resources to walk pure before the Lord; but Christians do. Therefore, Christians should live differently than those who do not know God.

c. That you should abstain from sexual immorality: We live differently than the world when we abstain from sexual immorality. The ancient Greek word translated sexual immorality (porneia) is a broad word, referring to any sexual relationship outside of the marriage covenant.

i. The older King James Version translates sexual immorality as fornication. “Fornication is used here in its comprehensive meaning to denote every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse.” (Hiebert) “The word requires broad definition here as including all types of sexual sins between male and female.” (Thomas)

ii. The broad nature of the word porneia shows that it isn’t enough to just say that you have not had sexual intercourse with someone who is not your spouse. All sexual behavior outside of the marriage covenant is sin.

iii. God grants great sexual liberty in the marriage relationship (Heb 13:4). But Satan’s not-very-subtle strategy is often to do all he can to encourage sex outside of marriage and to discourage sex in marriage.

d. That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor: We live differently than the world when we possess our body in sanctification and in honor. Immorality is the opposite of honor because it degrades and debases the self. Those who do not restrain their sexual desires act more like animals than humans, following every impulse without restraint.

i. The phrase, that each of you should know “Indicates that the demand being made applies to each individual member of the church. The same moral standards hold for all.” (Hiebert)

ii. Some interpret this passage so that the vessel each one should possess is a wife, and that Paul here encouraged Christians to get married and express their sexuality in marriage instead of immorally. Yet it seems that instead, Paul meant to encourage each Christian to possess or hold his own body (vessel) in a way that honored God. Sexual immorality is a sin against one’s own body (1Co 6:18).

d. Not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God: This plainly means that the sexual conduct of the Christian should be different than the prevailing permissiveness of the day.

i. “The Gentiles knew gods who were the personification of their own ambitions and lusts but they did not know the true God, the God who is Himself holy and wills the sanctification of His followers.” (Hiebert)

f. That no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter: When we are sexually immoral, we take advantage of and defraud others and we cheat them in greater ways than we can imagine. The adulterer defrauds his mate and children. The fornicator defrauds his future mate and children, and both defraud their illicit partner.

i. “Adultery is an obvious violation of the rights of another. But promiscuity before marriage represents the robbing of the other that virginity which ought to be brought to a marriage. The future partner of such a one has been defrauded.” (Morris)

ii. Repeatedly in Leviticus 18 - a chapter where God instructed Israel on the matter of sexual morality - the idea is given that one may not uncover the nakedness of another not their spouse. The idea is that the nakedness of an individual belongs to their spouse and no one else, and it is a violation of God’s law to give that nakedness to anyone else, or for anyone else to take it.

3. (1Th 4:6-8) Reasons for the command.

Because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

a. Because the Lord is the avenger of all such: This is the first of four reasons for sexual purity. We can trust that God will punish sexual immorality, and that no one gets away with this sin - even if it is undiscovered.

b. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness: This is the second reason why Christians should be sexually pure - because of our call. That call is not to uncleanness, but to holiness; therefore, sexual immorality is simply inconsistent with who we are in Jesus Christ.

i. Paul developed this same line of thought in 1Co 6:9-11; 1Co 6:15-20, concluding with the idea that we should glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

c. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God: The third reason for sexual purity is because to reject God’s call to sexual purity is not rejecting man, but God Himself. Despite the petty ways many rationalize sexual immorality, we still reject God when we sin in this way.

i. Paul’s strong command here did not seem to come because the Thessalonians were deep in sin. No specific sin is mentioned; it seems that this was meant to prevent sin rather than to rebuke sin, in light of the prevailing low standards in their society and because of the seductive strength of sexual immorality.

d. Who has also given us His Holy Spirit: This is the fourth of four reasons for sexual purity given in this passage. We have been given the Holy Spirit, who empowers the willing, trusting Christian to overcome sexual sin. By His Spirit, God has given us the resources for victory; we are responsible to use those resources.

B. Living the quiet life before God.

1. (1Th 4:9-10) We should live a life of increasing love.

But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more;

a. But concerning brotherly love you had no need that I should write to you: These principles are so basic that Paul knew they were obvious to the Thessalonian Christians. The Thessalonians were taught by God about the importance of love, yet we must all be reminded.

b. And indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia: It wasn’t that they Thessalonians were without love; their love toward all the brethren was well known, but they had to increase more and more in their love.

2. (1Th 4:11) We should live a life of work.

That you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

a. That you also aspire to lead a quiet life: This means that we should have an aspiration or ambition in life, and that we should aspire to lead a quiet life.

i. Aspire has the thought of ambition, and is translated that way in several versions of the Bible. Quiet has the thought of peace, calm, rest and satisfaction.

ii. The quiet life contradicts the hugely successful modern attraction to entertainment and excitement. This addiction to entertainment and excitement is damaging both spiritually and culturally. We might say that excitement and entertainment are like a religion for many people today.

• This religion has a god: The self.

• This religion has priests: Celebrities.

• This religion has a prophet: Music video channels.

• This religion has scriptures: Tabloids and entertainment news and information programs.

• This religion has places of worship: Amusement parks, theaters, concert halls, sports arenas; and we could say that ever television is a little chapel.

iii. The religion of excitement and entertainment seduces people into living their lives for one thing - the thrill of the moment. But these thrills are quickly over and forgotten, and all that is important is the next fun thing. This religion conditions its followers to only ask one question: “Is it fun?” It never wants us to ask more important questions such as, “Is it true?” “Is it right?” “Is it good?” “Is it godly?”

iv. We need to live the quiet life so that we can really take the time and give the attention to listen to God. When we live the quiet life we can listen to God and get to know Him better.

b. To mind your own business: This means that the Christian must focus on their own life and matters instead of meddling in the lives of others. “Mind your own business” is a Biblical idea.

i. “There is a great difference between the Christian duty of putting the interests of others first and the busybody’s compulsive itch to put other people right.” (Bruce)

ii. “Paul, however, does not mean that every individual is to mind his own business in such a way that all are to live apart from one another and have no concern for others, but simply wants to correct the idle triviality which makes men open disturbers of the peace, when they ought to lead a quiet life at home.” (Clarke)

c. Work with your own hands: We must recognize the dignity and honor of work. Work is God’s plan for the progress of society and the church. We fall into Satan’ snare when we expect things to always come easily, or regard God’s blessing as an opportunity for laziness.

i. Manual labor was despised by ancient Greek culture. They thought that the better a man was, the less he should work. In contrast, God gave us a carpenter King, fisherman apostles, and tent-making missionaries.

ii. “There is nothing more disgraceful than an idle good-for-nothing who is of no use either to himself or to others, and seems to have been born merely to eat and drink.” (Clarke)

3. (1Th 4:12) We should live a life that is an example, lacking nothing.

That you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

a. That you may walk properly toward those who are outside: When we combine the love of our brothers with work, we walk properly. People who are not yet Christians (those who are outside) will see our example and be influenced to become followers of Jesus.

i. Hiebert on properly: “Means, ‘in good form, decorously, in an honorable manner, so as to cause no offense.’ Believers can never be indifferent to the impact produced by their example.”

b. And that you may lack nothing: Paul completes the thought he began in 1Th 3:10 (that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith). If they followed his teaching and example, they would lack nothing and come to the place of genuine Christian maturity.

C. Concerning Christians who have died.

1. (1Th 4:13) The believing dead are thought of as being “asleep.”

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

a. But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep: In the few weeks Paul was with the Thessalonians, he emphasized the soon return of Jesus, and the Thessalonians believed it earnestly. This was part of the reason that they were the kind of church Paul complimented so highly. Yet after Paul left, they wondered about those Christians who died before Jesus came back. They were troubled by the idea that these Christians might miss out on that great event and that they might miss the victory and blessing of Jesus’ coming.

i. It is with some interest we note that four times in his letters, Paul asked Christians to not be ignorant about something:

• Don’t be ignorant about God’s plan for Israel (Rom 11:25).

• Don’t be ignorant about spiritual gifts (1Co 12:1).

• Don’t be ignorant about suffering and trials in the Christian life (2Co 1:8).

• Don’t be ignorant about the rapture and the second coming of Jesus (1Th 4:13).

ii. Remarkably, these are areas where ignorance is still common in the Christian world.

b. Who have fallen asleep: Sleep was a common way to express death in the ancient world, but among pagans it was almost always seen as an eternal sleep.

i. Ancient writings are full of this pessimism regarding death:

• “Of a man once dead there is no resurrection.” (Aeschylus)

• “Hopes are among the living, the dead are without hope.” (Theocritus)

• “Suns may set and rise again but we, when once our brief light goes down, must sleep an endless night.” (Catullus)

ii. Christians called death sleep, but they emphasized the idea of rest. Early Christians began to call their burial places “cemeteries,” which means, “dormitories” or “sleeping places.” Yet the Bible never describes the death of the unbeliever as sleep, for there is no rest, peace or comfort for them in death.

iii. Though Paul, using idioms common in his day, referred to death as sleep, it does not proved the erroneous idea of soul sleep, that the present dead in Christ are in a state of suspended animation, waiting for a resurrection to consciousness. “Since to depart from this world in death to ‘be with Christ’ is described by Paul as ‘very far better’ (Php 1:23) than the present state of blessed communion with the Lord and blessed activity in Hi service, it is evident that ‘sleep’ as applied to believers cannot be intended to teach that the soul is unconscious.” (Hiebert)

c. Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope: For the Christian death is dead and leaving this body is like laying down for a nap and waking in glory. It is moving, not dying. For these reasons, Christians should not sorrow as others who have no hope when their loved ones in Jesus die.

i. As Christians, we may mourn the death of other Christians; but not as others who have no hope. Our sorrow is like the sadness of seeing someone off on a long trip, knowing you will see them again, but not for a long time.

2. (1Th 4:14) There is full assurance that Christians who have died yet live.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

a. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep: We have more than a wishful hope of resurrection. In the resurrection of Jesus we have an amazing example of it and a promise of our own.

i. For the Thessalonian Christians, their troubled minds were answered by the statement, God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. “It is best to understand the words to mean that Jesus will bring the faithful departed with Him when He comes back. Their death does not mean that they will miss their share in the Parousia.” (Morris)

b. Jesus died: When Paul wrote about the death of believers, he called it sleep. But in his description of Jesus’ death, he did not soften it by calling it sleep, because there was nothing soft or peaceful about His death.

i. “He endured the worst that death can possibly be . . . It is because there was no softening of the horror of death for Him that there is no horror of death for His people. For them it is but sleep.” (Morris)

c. We believe that Jesus died and rose again: This was the confident belief of the Apostle Paul and the early Christians. We will certainly live, because Jesus lives and our union with Him is stronger than death. This is why we do not sorrow as those who have no hope and why we have more than a wishful hope.

i. When a sinner dies, we mourn for them. When a believer dies we only mourn for ourselves, because they are with the Lord.

ii. In the ruins of ancient Rome, you can see the magnificent tombs of pagans, with gloomy inscriptions on them. One of them reads:

I WAS NOT 

I BECAME 

I AM NOT 

I CARE NOT 

Or one can visit the murky catacombs and read glorious inscriptions. One of the most common Christian epitaphs from the catacombs was IN PEACE, quoting Psa 4:8: I will both lie down in peace and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. We should look at death the same way those early Christians did.

iii. Sadly, not all Christians are at this placed of confidence and peace. Even Christians have, in unbelief, had the same fear and hopelessness about death. The author once read an inscription reflecting this un-Christian despair on an Irish tombstone in a Christian cemetery on the Hill of Slane, outside of Dublin:

O cruel Death you well may boast

Of all Tyrants thou art the most

As you all mortals can control

The Lord have mercy on my soul

(1782)

3. (1Th 4:15-16) Those asleep in Jesus are not at a disadvantage.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

a. By the word of the Lord: Paul emphasizes that this was an authoritative command, though we do not know whether Paul received this by direct revelation or if it was an unrecorded saying of Jesus. One way or another, this came from Jesus and did not originate with Paul.

i. “In no place does the apostle speak more confidently and positively of his inspiration than here; and we should prepare ourselves to receive some momentous and interesting truth.” (Clarke)

b. We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep: Paul wanted the Thessalonians to know that those who are asleep - Christians who have died before Jesus returns - will by no means be at a disadvantage. Those who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede them. God will allow those who are asleep to share in the glory of the coming of the Lord.

i. “The living will have no advantage over those fallen asleep; they will not meet the returning Christ ahead of the dead, nor will they have any precedence in the blessedness at His coming.” (Hiebert)

ii. We who are alive means that Paul himself shared in this expectancy. It wasn’t because Paul had an erroneous promise of the return of Jesus in his lifetime. “More feasible is the solution that sees Paul setting an example of expectancy for the church of all ages. Proper Christian anticipation includes the imminent return of Christ.”

c. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout: When Jesus comes, He will come personally. The Lord Himself will descend, and come with a shout. The ancient Greek word for shout here is the same word used for a ship’s master command to his rowers, or a commander speaking to his soldiers. “Always there is the ring of authority and the note of urgency.” (Morris)

i. Apparently, there will be some audible signal that prompts this remarkable event. It may be all three descriptions (shout, voice, and trumpet) refer to the same sound, or there may be three distinct sounds. The rapture will not be silent or secret, though the vast majority of people may not understand the sound or its meaning.

ii. When Paul heard the heavenly voice on the road to Damascus (Act 9:7; Act 22:9) his companions heard the sound of a voice, but they did not hear articulate words. They heard a sound but did not understand its meaning. It may well be that the shout/voice/trumpet sound that accompanies the rapture will have the same effect. The entire world will hear this heavenly sound but will have no idea what its meaning is.

d. With the voice of an archangel: This doesn’t mean that the Lord Himself is an archangel. The only one described as an archangel in the Bible is Michael (Jud 1:9). Paul means that when Jesus comes, He will come in the company of prominent angels.

i. With the voice of an archangel means that Paul clearly did not designate a specific archangel. “It is even possible that he does not mean that an archangel will actually say something, but simply that the voice that will be uttered will be a very great voice, an archangel type of voice.” (Morris)

e. With the trumpet of God: Believers are gathered with the trumpet of God. In the Old Testament, trumpets sounded the alarm for war, and threw the enemy into a panic, in the sense of the seven trumpets described in Num 10:9 and Revelation 8-9. Trumpets also sounded an assembly of God’s people, as in Lev 23:24 and Num 10:2. Here, the trumpet of God gathers together God’s people.

i. “It was by the sound of the trumpet that the solemn assemblies, under the law, were convoked; and to such convocations there appears to be here an allusion.” (Clarke)

ii. There are three other associations of trumpets and end-times events. One is the last trump of 1Co 15:52, which seems clearly to be connected with this same trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4. The others are the seven trumpets which culminate at Rev 11:15 and the trumpet gathering the elect of Israel at the end of the age in Mat 24:31.

iii. Hiebert compares this trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4 and the seventh trumpet of Rev 11:15: “The subjects are different: here it is the church; there a wicked world. The results are different: here it is the glorious catching up of the church to be with the Lord; there it is further judgment upon a godless world. Here ‘the last trump’ signals the close of the life the church on earth; there the ‘seventh’ trumpet marks a climax in a progressive series of apocalyptic judgments upon the living on earth.”

iv. As to the trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4 and the one mentioned in Mat 24:31, we can also observe:

• The subjects are different: Matthew refers to Jewish believers during the great tribulation; Thessalonians refers to the church.

• The circumstances are different: Matthew refers to a regathering of the elect scattered over the earth, with no mention of resurrection; Thessalonians refers to the raising of the believing dead.

• The results are different: Matthew refers to living believers regathered from all over the earth at the command of their Lord who has returned to earth in open glory; Thessalonians refers to the uniting of the raised dead with the living believers to meet the Lord in the air.

f. And the dead in Christ will rise first: Paul’s point to the Thessalonians is clear. The prior dead in Christ will not be left out of either the resurrection or the return of Jesus. In fact, they will experience it first.

i. “It is only after the faithful departed have taken their place with the Lord that the saints on earth are caught up to be with Him, or more strictly, to be with them and meet Him.” (Morris)

ii. “ ‘The order of the resurrection,’ he says, ‘will begin with them. We therefore shall not rise without them.’” (Calvin)

g. Will rise first: Many wonder how are the dead in Christ raised are first. Some believe that they now have temporary bodies and await this resurrection. Others believe that they are now disembodied spirits who wait for resurrection. Still others conjecture that the dead in Christ experience their resurrection immediately.

i. There will come a day, when in God’s eternal plan, the dead in Christ will receive their resurrection bodies. Yet until that day, we are confident that the dead in Christ are not in some kind of soul sleep or suspended animation. Paul made it clear that to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord. (2Co 5:8) Either the present dead in Christ are with the Lord in a spiritual body, awaiting their final resurrection body; or, because of the nature of timeless eternity, they have received their resurrection bodies already because they live in the eternal now.

ii. However God will do it, we are confident that His promise is true. “Though the bones be scattered to the four winds of heaven, yet, at the call of the Lord God, they shall come together again, bone to his bone . . . We doubt not that God will guard the dust of the precious sons and daughters of Zion” (Spurgeon)

4. (1Th 4:17) Jesus comes to meet His Church.

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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.

a. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them: Those alive and remaining until this coming of Jesus are caught up to meet Jesus in the air, together with the dead in Jesus who have already risen.

i. The verb translated caught up here means to seize, or to carry off by force. “There is often the notion of a sudden swoop, and usually that of a force which cannot be resisted” (Morris). In the ancient Greek, the phrase to meet was used as a technical term to describe the official welcoming of honored guests.

ii. This passage is the basis for the New Testament doctrine of the rapture, the catching away of believers to be with Jesus. The word rapture is not in the ancient Greek text, but comes from the Latin Vulgate, which translates the phrase caught up with rapturus, from which we get our English word rapture.

iii. Paul’s statement, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is both dramatic and fantastic. He speaks of Christians flying upward, caught up . . . in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. We wouldn’t believe this unless the Bible told us it were so, not any more than we would believe that God who became a baby, that He did miracles, that He died on a cross and He lives in us.

iv. Paul’s language here is so straightforward and free from figurative speech that there is no missing his intent. “The Apostle’s declarations here are made in the practical tone of strict matter of fact, and are given as literal details . . . Never was a place where the analogy of symbolical apocalyptic language was less applicable. Either these details must be received by us as matter of practical expectation, or we must set aside the Apostle as one divinely empowered to teach the Church.” (Alford)

b. Shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: Paul’s plain language leaves no doubt regarding the certainty of this event. Yet the timing of this event in the chronology of God’s prophetic plan is a matter of significant debate among Christians.

i. Many - though certainly not all - Christians believe the Bible teaches that there will be an important seven-year period of history before the Battle of Armageddon and triumphant return of Jesus. The debate about this catching away centers on where it fits in with this final seven-year period, popularly known as the Great Tribulation, with reference to Mat 24:21.

• The pre-tribulation rapture position believes believers are caught up before this final seven-year period.

• The mid-tribulation rapture position believes believers are caught up in the midst of this final seven-year period.

• The pre-wrath rapture position believes believers are caught up at some time in the second half of this final seven-year period.

• The post-tribulation rapture position believes believers are caught up at the end of this final seven-year period.

ii. The adherents of these different positions each believe their position is Biblical, and these differences of understanding should not make dividing lines of Christian fellowship. Nevertheless, this author’s opinion is that the pre-tribulation rapture position is Biblically correct. Even other references to the return of Jesus within 1-2 Thessalonians support this understanding:

• 1Th 1:10 shows believers waiting for the return of Jesus. The clear implication is that they had hope of His imminent return, not the expectation of an imminent great tribulation.

• 1Th 4:13-18 assures us that those believers who died would share equally with the living in the events of the rapture and the resurrection, answering their fear that somehow the dead in Christ were at a disadvantage. But if Paul believed Christians would go through the great tribulation, he would count the dead in Christ as more fortunate than those living Christians who might very well have to endure the great tribulation. It would have been logical for Paul to comfort the Thessalonians with the idea that the dead in Jesus were better off because they won’t have to experience the great tribulation.

• 2Th 1:3-10 comforts Christians enduring hardship, promising them a coming rest, while their persecutors will face certain judgment. But if Paul knew that the church was destined to pass through the great tribulation, it would have been more appropriate for him to warn these Christians about worse trials and suffering ahead, rather than hold the promise of a coming rest.

c. And thus we shall always be with the Lord: The manner in which Jesus will gather us to Himself is impressive. But the main point is that whatever the state of the Christians (dead or alive) at the Lord’s coming, they will always be with the Lord. This is the great reward of heaven - to be with Jesus. Death can’t break our unity with Jesus or with other Christians.

i. We shall always be with the Lord is an important truth with many implications. 

• It implies continuation; it assumes you are already with the Lord.

• It implies hope for the dying; in death we shall still be with the Lord. 

• It implies future confidence; after death we are with the Lord. 

• It implies advancement; we will one day always be with the Lord.

ii. “We shall be so with him as to have no sin to becloud our view of him: the understanding will be delivered from all the injury which sin has wrought in it, and we shall know him even as we are known.” (Spurgeon)

5. (1Th 4:18) The exhortation: comfort one another.

Therefore comfort one another with these words.

a. Therefore comfort one another: Paul did not tell them to take comfort, but to give comfort. In the way God works, we always receive comfort as we give it.

i. “Paul does not himself seek to comfort or encourage his readers but rather bids them actively to comfort or encourage ‘one another.’ The present imperative places upon them the continuing duty to do so, both in private conversation and in the public services.” (Hiebert)

b. With these words: The truth of the return of Jesus for His people, and the eternal union of Jesus and His people is to be a source of comfort for Christians.

i. This concluding statement of Paul only makes sense if the catching away of the previous verses actually delivers Christians from an impending danger. If the catching away only brings humanity to God for judgment, there is little comfort in these words, as understood by Clarke: “Strange saying! Comfort a man with the information that he is going to appear before the judgment-seat of God! Who can feel comfort from these words?”

ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD!

Rom 8:28  We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.

29  For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.

30  And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good,.... There is a temporal good, and a spiritual good, and an eternal one. Temporal good is what the men of the world are seeking after, and generally have the greatest share of, and the saints the least; and yet they have as much as is needful for them, and what they have, they have with a blessing; and even sometimes afflictions work for the temporal good of God's children: spiritual good lies in a lively exercise of grace and a conformity of the soul to God; and is what the men of the world least regard, and the saints most; and sometimes afflictions issue in this sort of good, as they do also in eternal good, for they work for us an exceeding weight of glory: by "all things" may be meant, all beings good and bad: all good beings eternal or created: eternal, as Jehovah the Father, all his perfections, purposes, promises, provisions, and performances; Jehovah the Son, as the mighty God, and as Mediator, all that he is in himself, all that he has in himself, all that he has done, or is doing, all his titles, characters, and relations; Jehovah the Spirit, in his person, offices, and operations; these all have worked together in the council of peace, in the covenant of grace, and in redemption; and they do work together in sanctification, and so they will in glorification, and that for the good of the saints: all created ones, as good angels, good magistrates, good ministers of the Gospel: all evil beings, as devils, persecuting magistrates, heretics, and false teachers: all things, good and bad: all good things, outward peace and prosperity, external gifts, the ministry of the word, the administration of ordinances, church censures, admonitions, and excommunications; all evil things, sin the evil of evils: original sin, or the fall of Adam, which contains all other sins in it, was attended with aggravating circumstances, and followed with dismal consequences, yet has been overruled for good; hereby a Saviour became necessary, who was sent, came, and wrought out salvation; has brought in a better righteousness than Adam lost; entitled his people to a better life than his was, and makes them partakers of the riches both of grace and glory: actual sin, inward or outward; indwelling sin; which is made use of, when discovered, to abate pride, to lead to an entire dependence on Christ, to teach saints to be less censorious, to depend on the power and grace of God to keep them, and to wean them from this world, and to make them desirous of another, where they shall be free from it; outward sins, of others, or their own; the sins of others, of wicked men, which observed, raise an indignation in the saints against sin, and a concern for God's glory, and to look into their own hearts and ways, and admire the grace of God to them, that this is not their case; of good men, which are recorded, and may be observed, not for example and encouragement in sin, but for admonition, and to encourage faith and hope under a sense of it; of their own, for humiliation, which issues in weakening the power of sin in themselves, and the strengthening of the graces of others: but from all this it does not follow, that God is the author of sin, only that he overrules it to wise and gracious purposes; nor should any take encouragement to sin, to do evil that good may come; nor is sin itself a real good; nor is it to be said that it does no hurt; for though it cannot hinder the everlasting salvation of God's people, it does a great deal of hurt to their peace and comfort; and that it is made to work in any form or shape for good, is not owing to its own nature and influence, which is malignant enough, but to the unbounded power and unsearchable wisdom of God: all evils or afflictions, spiritual and temporal, work together for good; all spiritual ones, such as the temptations of Satan, which are made useful for humiliation, for the trial of grace, to show us our weakness, our need of Christ, and to conform us to him, and also to excite to prayer and watchfulness; the hidings of God's face, which make his presence the more prized when enjoyed, and the more desirable. Temporal afflictions, afflictions in body, name, or estate, nay even death itself, all work together for the good of God's people. The Jews tell us of one Nahum, the man Gamzu, who, they say, was (k) so called, because of everything that happened to him he used to say, גם זו לטובה, "Gam zu letobah", 

"this is also for good": and they give instances of several misfortunes which befell him, upon which account he used these words, and how they proved in the issue to his advantage: agreeably to this is the advice given by them,

"for ever (say they (l)) let a man be used to say, all that the Lord does, לטב עביד,

 "he does for good".''

Now that all things do work together for good, the saints "know", and are firmly persuaded of; both from the word and promises of God, and from the instances of Jacob, Joseph, Job, and others, and also from their own experience: and it is to be observed, that it is not said that all things "have" worked together, and so they may again, or that they "shall" work together, but all things work together for good; they "now" work together, they are always working together, whether it can be observed or not: prosperity and adversity, whether in things temporal or spiritual, work "together", and make an intricate woven work in providence and grace; which will be viewed with admiration another day: one copy reads, "God works together", or "causes all things to work together for good"; (and so the Ethiopic version,) "we know that God helps them that love him, to every good thing": (and to this agrees the Syriac version), "we know that to them that love God, he in everything helps them to good"; and certain it is, that God is the efficient cause, that makes all things work together for his people's good. The persons to whom all things work together for good, are described as such that love God; a character, which does not agree with all the sons and daughters of Adam: love to God is not naturally in men; it is wrought in the soul in regeneration, and is an evidence of it; it grows up with faith, which works by it; 

without it, a profession of religion is vain; and where it is once wrought, it lasts for ever; it ought to be superlative and universal, constant, warm and ardent, hearty and sincere: such who have it, 

show it by a desire to be like to God, and therefore imitate him, by making his glory the supreme end of their actions; 

by being careful not to offend him; 

by delighting in his presence, 

in his people, word, ordinances, ways, and worship; 

and by undervaluing the world, and all things in it, 

in comparison of him; who is to be loved for the perfections of his being, 

the characters and relations he stands in and bears to his people, 

and on account of the love with which he has loved them, and which is indeed the spring and source of theirs.

 They are further described, 

as such who are the called according to his purpose. The called of God and of Jesus Christ; 

not to any office, or by the external ministry of the word only, but by special grace; from darkness to light, from bondage to liberty, from the company of sinful men to fellowship with Christ, 

from a trust in their own righteousness to a dependence on his, 

to grace here, and glory hereafter; 

which is done according to the purpose of God: the persons called are fixed upon by God; none are called but whom God purposed to call; those who are called can assign no other reason of it than the will of God; 

and no other reason but that can be given why others are not called; the time when, the place where, the means whereby, persons are called, are all settled and determined by the will, and according to the purpose of God.

What shall we then say to these things? Either to these afflictions, shall we murmur and repine at them? no, since they work together for our good, and are not to be compared with our future glory, which is certain; for if we suffer with, and for Christ, we shall be glorified together: 

or to these blessings just now mentioned, as the foreknowledge of God, divine predestination, effectual calling, free justification, and eternal glorification, what can be said to these? nothing can be added to them, they are a complete set of blessings, wanting nothing; 

nor can the greatness of them be fully expressed, or the freeness of God's grace displayed in them, sufficiently declared: what remains for us to do, but to be thankful for them, and glory in them? or what can be said "against" them? 

nothing at all, they cannot be contradicted or  (disagreed with) gainsaid; they are true and faithful sayings; they can never be made void, and of no effect, by hell or earth; nor ought our unbelieving hearts to have anything to say against interest in them: or what is to be said, or inferred "from" them? why, the free, sovereign, unchangeable, and everlasting love of God, in providing and bestowing such benefits; and the certainty of salvation, which is infallibly secured hereby:

if God be for us; or, "seeing he is for us", has an affection for us, which appears from the gift of himself, Son, and Spirit, and all the blessings of grace and glory; and is on our side: as that he is on the side of his people, is evident from his preservation of them from the evils of the world and their own corruptions; from the supports he gives them under afflictions and temptations; from his carrying on the work of grace upon them, notwithstanding all the opposition made unto it; and from their safety and security they, enjoy by him, notwithstanding the power of their enemies; he is so for them, and on their side, as that he will certainly save them. 

This he has determined to do, he has sent his Son to obtain salvation for them, his Spirit to apply it to them, and keeps them by his power to the full enjoyment of it: and since this is the case, who can be against us? none can be against them. There are some that cannot possibly be against them; if Jehovah the Father is not against them, the Son cannot be against them, nor the Spirit; good angels cannot be against them, so far from it, that they rejoice at their good, minister to them, and are a guard about them; the law cannot be against them, because it is fulfilled in them; nor justice, because it is satisfied, and all its demands answered: and though there may be some who may be against them, and oppose themselves to them, yet their opposition is to no purpose; they will never prevail over them to their ruin and destruction; as neither sin, nor Satan, nor the world, nor death itself.

“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1Th 5:18)Give thanks. Well, of course – only a self-indulgent fool would fail to do so. But seriously, stop and deliberately think about all for which you can be thankful. Sure there are the big things – health and happiness; salvation; food on the table; kids who are well adjusted and doing fine for themselves; and so on.But what about the little things? The otherwise ordinary things that often go completely unnoticed and unacknowledged?Here’s a challenge – each day compile a new list of at least fifty things you are truly thankful for; you will find it difficult at first, but then a wonderful thing will happen. The lights will come on and you will begin to see all that you have in your life that give you endless reasons to be thankful.Stuff like – toothpaste in the morning; shampoo that clears up dandruff; a neighbor’s dog that does not bark all night long; gas in your car; a working computer; downloads that don’t take hours to install; socks; a note from a friend; an opportunity to serve somewhere in a manner that matters; appliances that work when you push the button…and on, and on, and on.The net result of deliberately engaging in this practice will soften your heart and transform you from a default grump to a giver of thanks. Your attitude will change your outlook, and carry you forward and upward into the day. Instead of hustling and bustling, grinding and grumbling – your life will become marked by praise and gratitude.The truth of the matter is that there are a million things we each can be thankful for, and by giving thanks our lives will be enriched in great measure. And that’s a million and one things a thank ful heart can find.

The Sinlessness of Christ

In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin — Heb 4:15

A Truth of Utmost Importance

It might seem at first as if the sinlessness of Jesus were a matter far away from human need. It is as if we discussed the color of the stars or the density of water in the depth of ocean. Why should we trouble ourselves, it may be asked, over an abstract question such as this? Were it not better, in a reverent faith, to leave these mysteries alone? It is enough for me (a man might say) that Jesus of the Gospel story was the friend of publicans and sinners and went about doing good. The one fatal objection to that attitude is that to a thoughtful mind it never can be permanent. Steadily, whatever point we start from, we are forced into the presence of this problem. And especially is that true of all of us who believe in a Gospel of redemption and who cannot conceive of a message of good news which has not redemption at its heart. The keystone of our faith is this, that Jesus the Lord suffered for our sins. But if Christ was sinful, as you and I are sinful, then not for our sins, but for His own, He died. So all the efficacy of that atoning death, with all the preaching of Christ crucified, rests ultimately on the sinlessness of Jesus. It is not, then, an unimportant theme. It is one of the most important of all themes. It lifts the cross out of the realm of tragedy into the clear air of willing sacrifice. Only if Jesus Christ was sinless can we be certain of what is all-important—that in a free action of redeeming love He died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

Entire New Testament Affirms Christ's Sinlessness

Now when you study the New Testament writings—I mean the writings outside the four Gospels—one thing that becomes plain is this, that they all record the sinlessness of Jesus. However the writers differ in their outlook—and each of them has his unique outlook—however they may diverge from one another in their concept of the work of Jesus, yet there is one point on which they all agree, and that is in conceiving Christ as sinless. John had lain upon the Master's bosom, and he writes, "In Him there was no sin." Peter had known Him in the closest intimacy, and he writes, "He died, the righteous for the unrighteous." Paul writes, "He who knew no sin was made sin for us." And the writer of Hebrews in our text says, "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." These are but a few texts out of many which indicate a perfect unanimity. Each writer may use the fact in his own way, but all of them insist upon the fact. And what we have to ask is this, How was that profound impression generated so that not one writer of the New Testament doubts for a moment the sinlessness of Christ?

First Heresies Concerned Christ's Divinity

Let me say in passing that it helps us to conceive how powerful this impression really was when we recall the nature of the earliest heresies. When men today have doubts about the Lord, it is the divinity that is the point of difficulty. You and I may doubt if He was God, but we never for an instant doubt that He was man. Yet the singular thing is that in the earliest heresies the point of difficulty was the opposite. Men did not doubt if Jesus was divine then, but they doubted if He was really human. Now it seems to me that no mere moral grandeur will ever quite explain these earliest heresies. One is not less a man, but more a man, if he is morally and spiritually wonderful. That strange belief uttered in early heresies, that Christ was not human as you and I are human, can only rest on the profound impression that He stood apart from all in being sinless. The nearer then to the historic Christ, the more intense the belief that He was sinless. The closer that men stand to Him, the more profound does the impression grow. And so we must go back to the record of the Gospel story and try to discover how that impression was created.

Christ's Sinlessness Not Self-Declared

In the first place I should like to make clear that it was certainly not created by insistence. Christ never insisted on His sinlessness—never took pains to prove that He was sinless. There are some things on which our Lord insisted with a self-assertion that is most magnificent. I am the truth, He said—I am the life. No man cometh to the Father but by Me. Yet though no one who ever taught mankind has made such stupendous claims as Jesus Christ, you never find Him saying, "I am sinless." On the contrary, one might almost say that He deliberately veiled that fact. So did He live in fellowship with outcasts that they called Him the friend of publicans and sinners. And once when a lawyer, with the gloss of a compliment, came to Him and said, "Good Master," Christ checked him instantly—"Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." Clearly then, for reasons we can only guess at, Christ did not passionately insist upon His sinlessness. However the impression was created, He never declared it so.

No Deed of Sin Recalled

How then was the impression generated? Well, the first answer is that those men who companied with Jesus did not recollect one deed of sin. When the years of ministry were closed, they would recall it all in tender memory. They would summon to the sessions of sweet thought the days they had spent together in the villages. And as they did so and as they talked together of the time when it was bliss to be alive, silently it would be borne in upon them that they had never seen one trace of sin in Jesus. They had been with Him in His temptations, and they had seen Him in the widest range of circumstances. They had known Him in hunger and in weariness; they had watched Him in rapture and in agony. And yet as they looked back upon it all in the penetrative light of memory, they could not recollect one single incident which suggested to them the thought that Christ had sinned. Thus it was that the deep impression was created. It was a judgment based upon the memory of the wonderful years they had spent with Jesus. Could they have recalled one single instance in which the conduct of Jesus had been flawed, then neither in Peter nor in John would we have found the sinlessness of Christ.

Mere Absence of Observable Sin Not Sufficient

Now all that is absolutely true, yet it is far from being all the truth. It is quite impossible to build a Christian doctrine on any negative basis such as that. Granted that they had never known Christ to sin, is that any adequate proof that He was sinless? Had they been watching Him with unwearied eyes from the moment of His birth to the cross? On the contrary, they had only known Him for three brief years out of the three-and-thirty, and of these three years there was many a day when they were never in His company at all. What of the long years of village childhood? What of the crucial time of ripening manhood? What of the still and happy days in Bethany when Martha and Mary were the only company? There was no Peter to be observant there nor was there any John to watch and to remember; there was only the love of women so adoring that the universal voice has called it blind. Had any of the disciples detected sin in Jesus, we should never have had the faith that He was sinless. But to call Him sinless because they saw no sin is something that no reasonable man can do. For immediately on doing it, there arises before him all the unchronicled and unrecorded years when Christ was hidden from the eyes of watchers in shadows that were as enwrapping as the grave.

In Jesus There was No Consciousness of Sin

The true foundation of the doctrine lies deeper than any absence of the act. It was not thus, at least not thus alone, that the profound impression was created. What impressed men in Jesus Christ was not merely the absence of any act of sin, but rather the absence of any consciousness of sin. It was that never once did he make a confession. It was that never once did He betray penitence. It was that never once upon His lips was there whisper of remorse or of regret. The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely active is his conscience. He becomes sensitive to shades of guilt that are imperceptible to common men. Yet Christ, who lived in a fellowship with God that is admittedly unique and uncommunicable, never betrays so much as by a word the faintest trace of consciousness of sin. As Simon Peter grew in spirituality, he cried, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man." As Paul advanced in the deep things of heaven, he came to know he was the chief of sinners. But Jesus, who through all His earthly years was walking in perfect union with His Father, never once whispered, "Father, I have sinned." We see Him in those high and holy seasons when He was looking back upon His past. We overhear Him in His hours of prayer; we see Him in the agonies of death. Yet in such seasons when purest and holiest souls feel above everything their need of mercy, the pure and holy soul of Jesus Christ was absolutely unconscious of that need. We have had very many shining saints in Christendom, and they have differed vastly from each other. But there is one point in which they are all alike, whatever their century or their communion. And it is this, that as they have wrestled heavenward and grown in grace and fellowship with God, out of the depths has come the fervent cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner." It is not your worldly man who utters that. It is not your nominal and easy Christian. As life in God becomes more real and deep, steadily the sense of sin is deepened. And the one thing you will note in the experience of Jesus Christ is that with t life in God unparalleled, He never had any consciousness of sin. And He was always talking about sin, remember. It was a theme which was ever on His lips. He poured the vials of His withering anger upon the man who thought that he was righteous. Looking abroad upon the world of men He saw no hope for them except in penitence—"I will arise and go unto my father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned." Now it was that fact, as I understand the Gospels, which created the profound impression of Christ's sinlessness. It was that He had eyes to see sin everywhere—yet had no eyes to see it in Himself. It was that other men when they are called to die cry out into the dark, "Father, forgive me"; but that the Master when He came to die said, "Father, forgive them"—not forgive Me. There is not a trace in Christ of any healed scar. There is not a trace of regret or of remorse. In all the history of the Redeemer there is no word of penitence nor any sign of shame. And all this, with a heart so sensitive and with a life so flooded and absorbed with God, can only mean that Jesus Christ was sinless.

Jesus Used Praise but Not Penitence of Old Testament

No one can study the prayers of Jesus Christ without discovering what he owes to the Old Testament. Christ fed and nourished His piety on the sublime words of psalmist and of prophet. And though His soul was steeped in prophecy and the language of it rose to His lips in prayer, there is one point at which He stops, saying, as it were, "Thus far and no further." It was with the Scripture that He met the tempter. It was with the Scripture that He assailed His adversaries. It was of the Scripture that His heart was full as He hung in His last hours upon the cross. Yet never once, though claiming as His own that wonderful heritage of faith and prayer—never once does He personally use the cry of prophet or psalmist for forgiveness. Isaiah had cried, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips." David had cried out of a broken heart, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned." Yet Christ, who was so steeped in these old writings that their language rose to His lips as if by instinct, never uses—never repeats—these penitential and brokenhearted prayers. Now all that we ever find in Holy Scripture is the transcript of our deepest life. We can only use its language with sincerity when it has some link with our experience. All that answers to us as if it were our own comes to our lips when we draw near to God; all else, though it speaks as with the tongue of angels, can never rise to heaven in our prayers. Why is it then that Jesus Christ is silent with such a treasury ever at His hand? Why does He use the psalmist's adoration, yet never in one word the psalmist's penitence? The only answer of which I can think is that in all the experience of Jesus there was nothing which answered to that heavenward cry in which psalmist and prophet prayed for pardon. Had He felt in Himself the slightest need, He would have used the penitential language. For there is nothing like it in the world, it is so poignant and sincere. Yet Christ who used all else never used that—never took up a single word of it though from a child in the sweet home of Nazareth He had been fed on the word of Holy Scripture.

The Reality of Jesus Temptations

There is one other aspect of the matter that I can hardly avoid saying a word upon. It is that if Christ be sinless, then what becomes of His temptations? Now let me say, and say with all my heart, that I hold the temptations of Jesus to have been intensely real. He is no brother to me unless in all reality He was tempted as the Son of man. And the point is, how could He be tempted so—truly intensely and terribly tempted—if He was indeed a sinless Savior? I shall not profess to give a perfect answer for I am not here to give little answers to great questions. But I am here to suggest to you such thoughts as I may have brooded on in quiet hours. And I think that there are two considerations which throw light upon the difficulty, and these two I would put as follows.

The Temptation Between Two Rights

The first is that the bitterest temptations are not always dependent upon sin. They spring from the conflict, not between right and wrong, but from the conflict between right and right. If a man, for instance, is tempted to become drunk, then of course within his heart there must be evil. And if all temptations were of that complexion, then Christ our Savior could never have been tempted. But I submit that in this life of ours there are other temptations more bitter than that which if a man has experienced and resisted, he has sounded all the depths of moral trial. Here, for instance, is a student who has come out of a humble home. And he is brilliant and successful in all he does, and the way is opening for a fine career. And then one day there comes to him the news that his father is smitten with some dread paralysis and that the little family business will be ruined unless the son comes home, and comes at once. On the one hand is his duty to his mother and to the little children still under her care. On the other hand is his duty to himself and to the gifts of intellect which God hath given him. And what I say is that in these rival voices calling each of them as with the voice of heaven, there are all the elements of a moral conflict beside which that of the drunkard is a sham. For you have not exhausted moral conflict when you have told of the conflict between good and evil. Subtler than that, and sometimes far more terrible, is the conflict between good and good—the duty that we owe ourselves faced by the duty that we owe our brother; the duty that we owe our wife and children faced by the duty that we owe to heaven. What I mean is that if all human progress were merely a progress from bad to good, then in Christ who was entirely good, there could have been no progress through antagonism. But if within the circle of the good many of our fiercest battles must be fought, then it is easy to see why a sinless Savior might be tempted as we are. Yes, and if sinless, might it not be the case that He felt temptation more terribly than we? For there are calls that are deadened for everyone of us just because our hearts are dulled through sin. Had we been less dulled, with what intense appeal certain claims might have come home to us, and so would the temptation have been so much more the awful.

Christ's Sinlessness an Attainment

And the last thought that I would leave with you is that the sinlessness of Christ was not a gift to Him, but rather I should call it an attainment. "Why callest thou me good?" He said; "there is none good but one, that is, God." Christ never claimed and never had on earth an absolute and unconditioned goodness. His was the goodness that was always perfect because through every condition it was tested and never failed, even in hours of agony, in a perfect and filial response. The God who dwells in heaven cannot be tempted. He lives in absolute and unconditioned goodness. He dwells in heaven where there is no temptation above the smoke and stir of this dim planet. But Christ was human to the very depths and knew all the play of emotion and impulse, and felt every influence that breathed upon Him, crying to Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan." From moment to moment He had to choose His course. From moment to moment He had to trust His Father. From moment to moment He had to resist, even though it was a mother who appealed. And we call Him sinless not as God is sinless, who cannot be tempted nor touched in the high heaven, but as one who never failed and never faltered in the fulfillment of His Father's will. To you and me the heavenly Father speaks as He spoke to the well-beloved Son. And you and I hearing Him misinterpret Him, and at the end of the day are sorry and ashamed. Christ caught the faintest syllable of heaven. Christ interpreted it all without a flaw. Christ bowed to it joyfully and without a murmur even when the will of God was Calvary. That is the sinlessness of Jesus Christ—not an unethical gift, but an achievement. It was wrought out from stage to stage in perfect obedience to the heavenly Father. And so I think there falls an added glory on the deep mystery of Jesus' sinlessness when we remember that right to the very end He was tempted in all points like as we are.

"Grieve not ‘God The Holy Spirit’."

"Grieve not the Holy Spirit."

  Ephesians 4:30........................https://youtu.be/ddQLumcLpzY

Eph 4:30  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by     Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God's own, secured) for the day of redemption 

(of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin). 

All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of the Spirit of grace. 

Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. 

Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies dormant except he worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. 

Do you desire to speak for Jesus--how can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue? Do you desire to pray? 

Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you! 

Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? 

Would you imitate your Master? 

Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? 

Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardour for the Master's cause? 

You cannot without the Spirit--"Without me ye can do nothing." 

O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the sap!

 O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the life which God gives thee through his Spirit! 

Then let us not grieve him or provoke him to anger by our sin. Let us not quench him in one of his faintest motions in our soul; let us foster every suggestion, and be ready to obey every prompting.

 If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing without him; let us begin no project, and carry on no enterprise, and conclude no transaction, without imploring his blessing. 

Let us do him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from him, and then depending alone upon him, having this for our prayer, "Open thou my heart and my whole being to thine incoming, and uphold me with thy free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward parts."https://youtu.be/GYXJmnJCPG0

Reigning in Life by the "Much More" Grace of God

KEEP YOUR ANCHOR STRONG IN PREVAILING WINDS, STORMS OF LIFE’S CIRCUMSTANCES!

For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Rom 5:17)

Man's problems are a result of his initial relationship with Adam. God's remedies are found in a new relationship with Jesus Christ. As we have seen, all of humanity begins life ruled by a tyrant dictator called death, due to their link with Adam. "By the one man's offense death reigned through the one." However, when people become related to Jesus Christ through faith, they can increasingly learn to reign in life by the "much more" grace of God. 

Notice again that God's remedy for those under the reign of death is two-fold: "those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life." Every Christian has received, and has been standing in, the gift of righteousness since the day they were justified by faith in the Lord. This is the only way that anyone can be accepted by a holy, righteous God. Yet, having this wonderful gift of imputed righteousness credited to our account in heaven does not automatically bring daily spiritual victory into the life of God's justified saints. Many Christians, although possessing this gift of the righteousness, do not walk in daily victory. The reason for this lack of spiritual victory is related to the other aspect of God's two-fold provision, "abundance of grace." 

Many Christians do not characteristically live by receiving God's grace. Many attempt to live victoriously by merely doing the best that they can by their own human resources. They hope to achieve victory step by step. This will always prove inadequate, because victory must be received from the Lord. "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Co 15:57). "Give and receive" is the language of grace (which depends upon the work of God). "Earn and achieve" is the language of law (which depends upon the work of man). 

Jesus came to man's rescue filled to overflowing with God's grace. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . full of grace and truth" (Joh 1:14). Now, for those forgiven by grace, there is a victorious life to be lived by humble dependence upon the "abundance of God's grace" available to us through our new relationship with the Lord. "Much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ."

Father God, I see that Your grace is the resource for living as a Christlike overcomer, reigning in life. Lord, I humble myself before You, admitting my need for Your grace. I reach out to You in faith, praising You that there is abundance of grace available for such victorious living!

Invited into the King’s Presence

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in HIS temple.” (Psa 27:4)

An invitation has been extended from the High Court of Heaven. It was not sent out to a select few, but was posted for all who hunger for something higher, something better, something more real than the hoopla and hullabaloo of the world’s surface traffic.

We have been granted access to the Throne of Grace, and the invitation does not require any dress code.

“Come as you are,” it says. No need to rehearse what you will say, no need to primp on appearance — no cause to try and impress. And, what’s more, you don’t have to have it “all together” either.

“Come as you are IN YOUR TIME OF NEED,” 

it says. 

What this means is that when you feel the least acceptable, THAT”S when you are the most welcomed!

Come broken, come dirty, come troubled, come fearful, come confused, come undone-the Lord waits for you! He will meet you — and change you! You will not leave the same way you entered. What a privilege!

The Bible says, “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in our time of need!” (Heb 4:16).

The old Gospel song puts it this way, “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear; all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!

“Have you trials and temptations? 

Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; 

take it to the Lord in prayer.

 Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

“Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer. Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer; in His arms He’ll take and shield you — you will find a solace there!”

This invitation has been sent to YOU — accept it even now and come before the Throne of Grace, and discover anew the privilege of prayer.