The "day of the Lord" begins with the rapture of the church and encompasses a period of divine judgment on earth, including the tribulation and the millennial kingdom. Believers' hope of salvation is contrasted with the world's appointment to wrath, emphasizing that Christians are not destined for this judgment but are called to live in light, watchfulness, and sobriety. Old Testament prophecies in Isaiah and Zephaniah define the day of the Lord as a time of both judgment and future blessing, culminating in Christ's second coming. Believers are encouraged to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things, not quench the Spirit, test all things, and abstain from evil, all while living in anticipation of Christ's imminent return.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.60 → restored 4.33
In these morning hours, as those who have been attending know, we've been dealing with First Thessalonians. This letter addressed by Paul to these young Christians in this new church, Thessalonica, and dealing with some of the problems that they had. And we've pointed out in previous messages that he delivered to them the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins and rose again, but he also taught them the coming of the Lord for his church. And that permeates the book all the way through. Now in chapter one, we had the doctrine of salvation. They turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Chapter two, he dealt with testimony, our service for God, and how we can become those that Christians can imitate.
And the church at Peslon Nica was an example to the churches and Christians there in Greece. And then in chapter three, we have the doctrine of sanctification. set apart as holy to God. It was Paul's hope that the church and individuals would be blameless before God when he came because they'd be operating in his will. And yesterday we touched on the great doctrine of the rapture, the rapture of the church, Christ coming for his own, when he would come from heaven and cause Christians who have died to be resurrected and living Christians to be instantly changed, their bodies suited for heaven, rising from earth, meet the Lord in the air, and then going to heaven. Now, one of the problems we've faced in this week, both morning and evening, is the question of when Christ will come.
And that's faced here in chapter five of First Thessalonians. Now, he presents the doctrine as something that could happen any time. But as I've mentioned before, in all the passages on the rapture of the church, there's never any signs of its approach given. We don't have any signs the rapture could occur this morning. There's nothing preceding it as far as Scripture revelation is concerned. But the reason we think the rapture could be very near is because the world is being prepared for the events which will follow the rapture. And that's what we've been dealing with in the evening hours. We'll continue tonight in the dark in the second coming. Now in chapter five, verse one, he takes up this question of when.
But concerning the times or the chronology, and the seasons, these specific times, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night, for when they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. Now, why does he introduce the subject of the day of the Lord here? Well, as we are going to see in the Bible, the day of the Lord is a time when God begins to direct judgment on the earth.
Now, we're living today in a day of grace. A person can be an atheist, he can defy God, he can blaspheme God, and God doesn't strike him dead. He's allowed to do that. This is the day of grace when God is withholding judgment. Now, once the rapture occurs, that changes. into a day of the Lord, a day of immediate judgment. And that's what the Scriptures tell us about this event. In other words, the same event that closes this day of grace, the rapture of the church, also is the signal for the beginning of this future time of judgment. Now one of the things that always amazes me in scholars that deal with prophecy is how they don't pay attention to the basic rules of what we call exegesis or explanation of the Bible.
And one of the first rules is that whenever you come to a passage of Scripture, you ask, what is the context? What's the background? What's he talking about? It's amazing to me how many Bible scholars come right in this passage and try to devise their own definitions for the day of the Lord. Instead of that, they should be looking at the Bible because this is a well-known phrase in the Old Testament. It appears again and again. It's a constant theme of the coming of the day of the Lord. Now there were days of lords in the Old Testament, periods of time in which God dealt in direct judgment on Israel. Sometimes it'd be a famine, sometimes it'd be invasion, one disaster after the other that might be brought upon them as a means of bringing them back to God and judging them for their sins.
And these were called days of the Lord. In fact, The Book of Joel, for instance, almost the whole book deals with the Day of the Lord. I have my library, a book that spends the whole volume of this book describing the Day of the Lord in the Book of Joel. Now, some of these are already fulfilled because there are times of judgment in the past. Now, this is talking about a future Day of the Lord, by far the greatest and the most extensive, that's going to begin at the time of the rapture. Now, rather than take my word for it, let's turn back to some passages like Isaiah and chapter thirteen and here we have a description of the day of the Lord under the terminology that Isaiah offers now Isaiah remember was the great prophet of the coming of the Lord but he also speaks of this future time of judgment and in chapter thirteen we have this beginning in verse nine Isaiah thirteen beginning in verse nine this is what he writes Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate.
He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened and its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will halt the arrogance of the proud. and I'll lay alone the holiness of the terrible. I will make a mortal rare than gold, and a man more than the golden wedge of Uphur. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce angler. And it goes on to speak about this time of future judgment.
Now some of these things were fulfilled in the past, but It's looking forward to this future time of judgment upon the world. Now the day of the Lord seems to begin at the rapture. It includes the day of wrath, the tribulation, time that leads up to the second coming. And it also includes the whole millennial kingdom. Because we're told that in that period God is going to deal in direct judgment in the world. He's going to rule with a rod of iron, we're told in Revelation. In other words, it's an absolute rule. In the millennial kingdom... No one will be allowed to openly oppose God or to blaspheme His name. There will be immediate judgment upon them, and some may die, and some may be disciplined in various ways if they don't obey the Lord in this future time of trouble.
And also in the millennial kingdom, which is a time of peace. Now, if you go back to Isaiah chapter eleven, you have a whole chapter there that's talking about the millennial kingdom. the time of God's reign upon earth and at the time of his second coming. And it describes how it's going to be a time of blessing from God. And I won't take time to read the whole chapter, but it tells us in verse eleven, it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hands again the second time to recover the remnants of people who are left from Assyria and Egypt and Paphos and Cush and Elam and Shiner from Hameth and the islands of the sea. He'll set up a banner for the nations, will assemble the outcasts of Israel, gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Goes on to speak of their being regathered. Now, remember, they were regathered from Babylon after the seven years of captivity. Then they were scattered to the whole world. Now he's talking about a future regathering. And one of the interesting things that we haven't had time to go into this week is the fact how God is working with Israel. There's four million Jews back in their promised land, and I believe this fits into the pattern of prophecy and its fulfillment. In fact, it's absolutely necessary because it's the first step in fourfold movement of Israel through their time of blessing at the time of the second coming. And so it's talking here about the millennial kingdom, the blessed time.
That's still a day of the Lord because God is dealing in direct judgment. Now, there's many other passages. I'd like to turn, however, just to... few verses in Sephaniah, and here it talks about this future time of trouble. We could read quite a bit of this chapter. Verse eight it says, It shall be in the day of the Lord's sacrifice that I'll punish the princes and the king's children and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. In the same day I'll punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master's house with violence and deceit.
It goes on to say how there's going to be judgment from God. He will search out Jerusalem. He will punish men, verse twelve, who are settled in their complacency, who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil. And it goes on to say the great day of the Lord is near, verse fourteen, and it's coming a time of a day of wrath, verse fifteen, a time of trouble and distress. So the Old Testament clearly defines this day as the Lord. It's beginning with a time of judgment from God, and then moving on as a millennial kingdom when it's a time of judgment, but also a time of blessing. Zephaniah brings this up in chapter three, and we can read further there about the future time of blessing, and how God's going to rejoice over Israel.
Verse fourteen, it says of chapter three of Zephaniah, sing, O daughter of Zion, Shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O the order of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your judgments. He has cast out your enemy. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst, and you shall see disaster no more. And it goes on to speak how Jerusalem will be at peace. So you see, you have this mingled picture, first of a time of judgment, and then the future millennial kingdom. Now, that's going to begin with the day of the Lord. And of course this helps us understand where this fits into God's prophetic picture. And as I mentioned in previous messages, there is a series of events that begin with the rapture and climax of the second coming.
There's first of all, as I've mentioned before, the revival of the Roman Empire and form of ten nations brought out by Daniel seven. Then there's a dictator who arises who conquers three and in all ten. Then he makes a seven-year covenant with Israel, of peace. And it's observed for three and a half years that it's broken. And the final three and a half years is a time of world government, world disaster, world tribulation as God pours out judgments on the world leading up to the second coming. All these events have to happen first. But you see that whole period is the day of the Lord. God is dealing in direct judgment with the world. And to me it proves that the rapture is before the time of trouble.
because this first passage in First Thessalonians five clearly says that the day of the Lord begins at the rapture. In other words, it follows it. And if the time of tribulation follows the rapture, it also means that the rapture occurs before the time of trouble that the Bible describes. And so that's the characteristics of this period. Now in First Thessalonians five, it goes on to describe this And it says it's going to come, the rapture is going to come, and the day of the Lord is going to come, like a thief in the night. Now, this is also used of the second coming of Christ, but it means in both cases there is no preliminary announcement, as it were.
It comes without a schedule that's clearly marked in Scripture. And as a thief comes, he doesn't tell you he's coming, so will be the rapture. There won't be any special sign that the rapture is going to occur except the things that have been mentioned. Now, because there's going to be this seven-year peace treaty before the second coming of Christ, the world's going to hail that at the time of peace that at long last the problem of Israel in the Middle East will be solved. And so as this passage says, they'll be saying peace and safety, but then sudden destruction comes on them. The great tribulation breaks loose, and all the horrors of that period, the judgments of God, The persecution of the world ruler against Christians and anybody opposes him, and there's going to be sudden destruction, like a pregnant woman looking forward to the birth of her child.
Now, a woman can anticipate to some extent the time of her deliverance, and so to some extent we can estimate when the Lord is going to come, but we can't know the day or the hour or the specific time. We are warned about it, you see, but we can't do it that way. And that's the illustration that he uses. But now he tells us, as our Christians, but you, brethren, are not in darkness, so this day shall overtake you as a thief. And the verses which follow, he contrasts the Christian who is living in the day of God's grace now with the unbelievers that will be living in the night that's going to follow this day of grace.
You see, it follows a symbolism of a day, a twenty-four-hour day. It begins in darkness, in other words, with judgment. Then there is the light of the millennial kingdom that follows. The blessed time that's still in the day of the Lord. Then it closes again with judgment, as the Revelation tells us, there's a rebellion against God and against Christ at the end of the millennial kingdom by those who made a pretense of following Christ that weren't actually born again. And when Satan is loosed at the end of that thousand-year period, they rebel against Christ. And, of course, Revelation describes how they're going to be destroyed by fire. In other words, the day of the Lord ends with another night of divine judgment upon them.
So that's the characteristics of the day of the Lord and the outline of a future events that are going to take place. And so in the verses which follow, he contrasts our hope, that is, the rapture, and the hope of the world, which is, of course, Disaster. He said, You, brethren, are not in darkness that that day will overtake you as a thief. You are the sons of light, the sons of the day. We are not of night nor of darkness. He's telling us we're not going to be a part of that tribulation time. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. You see, the world is not waiting for this. They're not anticipating it. You and I know the facts, and he wants us to be awake.
and to be looking for that glorious coming of Christ for us. Those who sleep, sleep in the night, those who are drunk are drunk in the night, but let us who are of the day see a different time frame, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as in hell with the hope of salvation. This is this famous triad we meet again and again in the Bible in Thessalonians of faith, hope, and love. And that's, of course, the major characteristics of our Christian life and faith. And then in verse nine he says, but God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, our appointment book is the rapture.
That's where we're going. The appointment book of the world is disaster because they're not ready for the Lord when he comes. We have a different appointment. Our appointment is that we will not be appointed to the wrath of God. And then he goes on to describe it more in detail in verse ten to eleven, who died for us, that is Jesus Christ died for us, whether we wake or sleep, that is whether we're alive and the Lord comes or whether we're sleeping in the grave and the bodies are sleeping, we shall live together with him because we're going to be resurrected. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as also you're doing. In other words, we have a wonderful, comforting hope that Christ is coming.
If that was true back in the first century, when this truth was revealed, it certainly is true today because every day that passes, of course, is a day closer to the rapture. As you've been seeing this week, there's a number of reasons to believe that the rapture of the church is very, very near because our world situation is shaping up precisely as you'd expect it to be if the events that follow the rapture are going to be fulfilled. If they're about to be fulfilled in the raptures first, then the rapture could be very near. In fact, we can expect it any day and that's the marvelous truth that's presented here now in verse twelve he has a final word to them you know in the Lord's work there's often problems in a local church sometimes in proportion as they don't pay attention to the Bible and don't maintain a true commitment to Christ but that was a problem in this Thessalonian church you see they all were young Christians they all were immature They didn't have any professional ministry leading them.
They didn't have a New Testament. They didn't have a lot of things that we have. They didn't have the maturity. And so he gives them some exhortations here. And in verse twelve he says, We urge your brother to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. You see in the church there emerged some who were leaders. And what he does is admonish the others to recognize those roles of leadership and follow the leaders. Now we have to recognize that God doesn't give the same gifts to everyone, and some have capacity for leadership, and some don't, and we should recognize these spiritual gifts in the Lord's work and honor those whom God has seen fit to honor.
He says in verse thirteen, to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. In other words, we recognize that God has called them to do a job, and we should cooperate with it. And be of peace among yourselves. There shouldn't be conflict and argument and confusion in the local church. There should be the harmony of love. Now in verse fourteen he says, Now we exhort your brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. Can Christians do that? Oh yes. It's amazing. Even good Christians sometimes do things they shouldn't.
And the Thessalonian church, there were some that weren't behaving like they should. And so he gives them an exhortation here not to be that way, but to not be unruly. And they were to comfort those that are weak. In other words, to strengthen them. And also to uphold and be patient with all. Then in verse fifteen, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all the church. In other words, That's our guiding question. What's the best thing to do under the circumstances? How can we make the work of the Lord go forward? Now, the verses that follow are a series of short, one-liners, as it were.
But they are very comprehensive. Notice what he tells us. First of all, rejoice always. Do you do that? Well, I'm afraid all of us tend to sometimes to complain. I remember... One time I was stopping by to see some of our members, and I commented, the weather was bad. And the lady bawled me out. She said, you shouldn't complain. We need the rain. Of course, she was right. I shouldn't have said anything contrary about this rainy weather. In other words, we should rejoice how much, ever more. While you're rejoicing, of course, you're not complaining, you see.
And that's a present tense. Keep on rejoicing. You see, in our Christian life, there are so many things that should give us joy in the Lord. So many things that God has done for us, we should rejoice in the Lord. And then pray without ceasing. Now, that doesn't mean we have a twenty-four-hour prayer meeting, but it means we are in constant communion with God. Now, I think this follows a normal pattern. I know Geraldine and I have morning devotions, and we read the Bible and pray together. And we commit to the Lord what we think are the prayer needs for that day. And then perhaps I go to the office and start reading my mail, and here's a tough letter.
How am I going to answer it? And so I go on to the hotline to heaven and ask the Lord for some guidance, you see. I think that's perfectly normal. We don't talk twenty-four hours a day. We don't consciously use words for prayer, but there's that constant fellowship with God as we recognize that God is with us to help us. Now, I know the Bible teaches that God indwells us. It's so hard for us to visualize that. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit indwells us. Our body is a holy temple. But I'd like to think of it a little more graphically as the Lord sitting right beside you when you're working at your desk or in your home, whatever you're doing. And then as you need help, you turn to him and ask, what do you tell me to do?
What should I do in this circumstance? In other words, there's a constant bond of fellowship one with the other. And I think that's the way it ought to be. Now, I think in a good marriage, there's a bond like that between husband and wife. They don't always talk, but especially if they're in the same room, there's a consciousness that the other person is there. I always tell Gerling, when she goes along, it's a pleasure trip. because she's alone. It makes all the difference in the world just to have her there. And I'm sure many of you feel that way about your husband or your wife, too. There's constant community, even though we don't talk all the time. But if we have something to say, we can speak up. And that's our relationship to God.
And he honors that, I think, as we walk in fellowship with him. Then in verse eighteen, in everything, give thanks. For this is the will of Christ Jesus for you. We have a friend, a lady friend who is a constant complainer. We like her. She's a nice person. But she complains she doesn't have any friends. Well, she runs them off by just complaining all the time. And no matter what it is, you take her out for dinner. She doesn't like the food. And in the riding in the car, she gives her husband's advice. Almost every block is how he should drive. And nothing quite suits her. But we put up with it. We like her in many respects. But it's a terrible thing to be a complainer.
The Bible says we should give thanks in everything, not necessarily for everything, because we don't always know why God is doing some difficult things for us. But in every situation, if we think it's through, we can give thanks. You know, you sometimes talk about having a blue Monday, you know. Sometimes preachers do. They think back over the previous day and they didn't do quite as well as they should, you know. Or someone said a critical word, you know, and They're blue. They're discouraged. Have you ever stopped in those circumstances? I think we all have that. There's a lot of talk about depression these days, but all of us have influences that sort of put us down.
Have you ever stopped and said, now let's see how much has changed? Do you know that ninety-nine percent of our life doesn't change from Sunday to Monday? The reasons why we rejoiced on Sunday are still there Monday? And whatever the little thing is that may have caused the difference, Doesn't really matter. We should be giving thanks in everything. I try. I don't believe in complaining about things. But it's very easy to be a complainer. And I don't think that's very honoring to God. In fact, do you know when the children of Israel left Egypt, went to the promised land, God judged them severely for murmuring. What do they murmur about? Food? Water? It's always amazing to me that women didn't complain about their clothes.
I don't find any record in the Bible that any one of them ever found false. She was still wearing the same dress forty years after they left. That wouldn't work very good today, would it? But the point, of course, was no one else had a new dress either. When they got the AI, I remember in the Promised Land, they found a Babylonian garment. Boy, that was something. And they latched on it. They weren't supposed to, you know, they got judged for it. No. It was amazing that the women didn't complain about their clothes. But it's so easy to find fault, and it's so hard sometimes to be thankful in every situation. And yet that's what the Bible says, isn't it? Because we have so much to be thankful for.
No matter how bad our situation is, you can always find someone who's worse off, someone who's had greater sorrow, greater difficulty, and we should be thankful what God has given to us. And then he gives us a very pointed reference here in verse nineteen. Do not quench the Spirit or stop quenching the Spirit. It's a presence negative. Stop doing it. Now, the Holy Spirit is viewed in our life as a fire. He's a consuming fire. He wants us to be on fire for God. And God says here, don't quench it. Well, how do you quench a fire? Well, there's different ways of doing it. You can put a cover over it and shut off the air.
That'll quench the fire. Or you can add water. You see, there's lots of ways to quench a fire. But he says, don't do it in a word. Don't say no to the Spirit of God. That's what quenches him. And we should say, yes, Lord. You know, after all, saying no, Lord, doesn't make sense, does it? If he's Lord, he shouldn't be saying no. You see, it should be always, yes, Lord. Don't quench the Spirit. I think it's a very important question to ask. Are we really yielded to the Spirit of God? You know, a lot of Christians really aren't. But there are some that are, and we should be among those some, that do not quench the Spirit. As I mentioned in the previous message, there's three basic laws to the spiritual life.
Quench not the Spirit. Grieve not the Spirit. In other words, don't harbor sin. Confess it and get rid of it. And then walk by the Spirit, life of faith, and step by step, we trust God's promises and sustaining power. And it's under that three-fold command that we achieve the kind of life that God wants to do, of being filled with the Spirit, and useful in God's hands. But here it's quench not the Spirit. Verse twenty, do not despise prophecies. That's very appropriate this week. We're studying prophecies, aren't we? You know, there's a lot of people that don't have any use for prophecy. They don't want to think about the future. It confronts them somehow that they're going to have to face God.
But do not quench it. Do not stand against it. Do not object to it. And so we're told here not to despise prophecy. And then test all things. Hold fast what's good. We're living in a world of varied values, and we have to constantly ask ourselves, what is the real value of what I'm looking at or what I want? And we have to test what's good and what isn't good. Then we have also this broad statement, abstain from every form of evil. It's not a question of, can I do this and get away with it? But if it's doubtful, if it's evil, stay away, abstain.
That's Paul's simple rule that should guide their Christian life. Then in verse thirty-three in Paul, he talks about complete sanctification. Now may the Lord God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. who he will cause you is faithful, who also will do it. Now you notice here we have three different descriptions of man. We have spirit, soul, and body. In theology we call this trichonomy. Sometimes man is used as material and immaterial, and then we have dichotomy, two things.
But there's other expressions used in the Bible. It uses will, for instance. It uses heart, it uses affections, He uses love, all these different aspects of our human nature. Now, these three terms, spirit, soul, and body, sometimes are used in various senses in the Bible. Sometimes the word spirit means everything. Our whole person. Sometimes the word soul is used. We say many souls came to Christ. We mean the whole person, you see. And sometimes we have the word body embracing the whole man, like in Galatians, rather, Romans twelve, one and two. receipt you there for brethren by the mercy of God you present your body he just doesn't want our physical bodies but he wants us to have this total yieldness to God so these terms are not always mean in the same thing if you have a scopio Bible you'll find a very good note here that analyzes the various types of usage of these three terms but the important point is that we should be sanctified in every aspect of our life.
Now, if you want to distinguish these terms, spirit seems to refer to our God consciousness, our communion with God. The soul seems to be our psychological source, our emotions, and so on, that's flowing through the body. And again, of course, the body, of course, is the physical body. Now, all three of these things combine in a person before God. And in all cases, they should be rendered as holy to God or healed to him. And that's his goal. So when they stand before Christ at the rapture, that they'll be blameless before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he calls you as faithful who also will do it. In other words, we can't do it ourselves. We have to let God make us what we ought to be.
And then he has a final word here. Brethren, pray for us. How important that is to pray for Christian leaders. I think we don't always realize that we should how Satan is trying to trip up anybody who's in a place of leadership in the Lord's work. He tries to get them off one way or the other, any way to defeat their usefulness in God's hands. And we should remember people in prayer, that we know our subject to satanic deception, and we should build a wall of protection about them in prayer. And Paul sensed the need for that too. Now he prayed for them without ceasing. Now he said, brethren, keep on praying for me.
See, there's a fellowship in prayer as we pray for each other. And then he greets verse twenty-six, greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. Now there's emphasis here on the word holy, of course. I was in Hawaii and attended a church there and they had a really good-looking pastor and he kissed every woman that came out on the cheek. That was their custom there. And he built it on this verse. Now we'd shake hands usually in America rather than kissing everybody. but nevertheless we should greet one another. And then in verse twenty-seven he gives them a solemn charge. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren. That's what I've been doing to you.
God wants his word to be expressed and given. Now he didn't have printed copies of it in the Old Testament or New Testament. They just had the parchment which was written and so they had to read it rather than reproduce it in some printed form. And so he charges him to read it to the brethren, and he closes with this final prayer, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with him. And that's, of course, the final prayer of the Bible, the final prayer of this book. And so in Thessalonians, we have his word to this young church. As you go back over it, you're amazed at how much he covers, in relatively few words, that's essential and important to our Christian faith, hope, and love.
And we today have this same exhortation that is given to the Testament in church so long ago to be living in the light of the Lord's return and anticipating His return even today. And that's what I've been trying to emphasize in this context of this passage. Now tonight we're going to deal with the doctrine of second coming. I want you to see what the passage the Bible talks about when it talks about the second coming. And in contrast to what the Bible says about the rapture, to see that there are two totally different events. The rapture is before the time of trouble. We go from earth to heaven.
The second coming is after the time of tribulation. We come from heaven to earth. And the circumstances of those two comings are totally different. Of course, separated by some years, as the Scriptures indicate. And so we have this glorious coming. Now, one of these days, the Lord's going to come. And what we're trying to understand, and sometimes we don't completely understand, about the future and God's coming for us is suddenly going to be reality. We're going to hear that voice from the blue, as he mentions here, and we'll be rising to earth, meeting the Lord in the air, and we're going to be forever, forever with the Lord and with our loved ones in Christ. What a wonderful reunion that's going to be for many of us as we meet so many that we dearly loved in this life.
We're now in heaven, and we're going to be forever together, never together. to be separated again. And I think in view of that we can be thankful in everything, can't we? Shall we pray? Our Father, help us to follow the exhortation of these scriptures and to rejoice evermore, to be thankful in everything, to question out this Spirit, to abstain from evil, to walk with the Lord in the will of God and be blameless before Him at His coming. And so speak to our hearts according to our need. Grant that this little epistle may be treasured in our hearts and its truth may be exemplified in our lives as we think and some excitement that the Lord may come anytime and he could be coming very soon.
So bless us as we share this occasion. If there's one here today that hasn't fully trusted Christ, we pray that they'll realize that this is for Christians only and they need to put their trust in Christ as their personal Savior as the one who died on the cross for our sins and rose again. But then for us as Christians, we should be living expectantly, serving the Lord every day until he comes. For we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen.