The personal, literal, and actual return of Jesus Christ is the next great event on God's program, distinct from prophecy and revelation. The sermon reassures believers about the fate of those who have died in Christ, emphasizing that they will not miss the Lord's return and will be resurrected first. It distinguishes between two resurrections: one of life for believers and one of judgment for unbelievers, urging listeners to place their faith in Christ's finished work for salvation. The message concludes by highlighting the refashioning of believers into glorified bodies like Christ's, a transformation that offers comfort and hope in anticipation of meeting the Lord in the air.
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you please turn with me to the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians chapter four. We read from verse thirteen. One Thessalonians four verse thirteen. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. that ye sorrow not even of others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Prayerful comfort one another with these words.
I want to speak a little tonight concerning the personal, literal, actual return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The next great event on God's program. I used to say the next great event on God's prophetic program. But I amend that. Because as far as I can see, dear friends, The church and the rapture are not subjects of prophecy, but they are subjects of revelation. Both are termed as mysteries in the New Testament, the mystery of the church and the mystery of the rapture.
And a mystery, as we should know, is a truth hitherto unrevealed. And therefore... we should make this clear distinction between prophecy and revelation. It's when we begin to apply prophetic scriptures of which really have to do with the nations and with Israel to the rapture that there is hopeless confusion. To have a real grasp of this truth we must keep a clear distinction between the arising of the morning star for his church, and the arising of the Son of righteousness for his earthly people Israel.
We must keep a clear distinction between the Lord's coming for his saints and the Lord's coming with his saints. We must keep a clear distinction between the day of Christ and the day of the Lord. And as I have just said, it's most important that we should keep a clear distinction between revelation and prophecy. Now, people are talking about the signs of the times. Well, we are not so called upon to look for signs. But we certainly can look at signs.
And there are surely enough around to indicate that the Lord's coming is very, very near. It's imminent. The Lord is at the door indeed. I remember that when Dr. Atari was preaching once, that an infidel went up to him, you preachers are always talking about the second coming of trust. And you are also referring to the signs of the time. He said, I consider it to be nonsense. He said, I challenge you to show me one sign of the time. Dr. Tarry was a very gracious man, yet a very faithful one, in the service of the Lord. He looked the man straight in the face, and he said, My friend, you are one of the greatest signs today.
What, he said? Well, he said, the Scripture declares that in the last days coffers would arise, walking out of their own lusts. And he said, My friend, you are one of them. Isn't it true? We look around and we see the increase of infidelity, blatant blasphemy, evening so-called religious circles, men being lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God, children disobedient to the rule of their parents, living in the day of truth breakers, and so on. All those characteristics mentioned in the words of God in connection with the perilous times in which we live are to be seen all around us, dear friends.
indicating, without a question of a doubt, that the Lord might come even before this day has come to an end. So in connection to this subject, I want to refer to, to really very simply, five great R's. So we'll easily remember the point under the letter R. And we'll begin, first of all, with the thought of reassurance. Well, we know that the Thessalonians were absolutely thrilled with the hope of the Lord's return, and they were daily expecting him to come. But there was one thing that troubled them. And I think one of the purposes of the writing of this visit, as though, was to reassure the Thessalonian believers in connection with this matter.
They were thinking of those who had passed from this scene, those who sleep in Jesus. And while they were looking forward to the Lord's return during their lifetime... They were concerned about those who'd gone by the way of the grave. Would they not be cut off, shall we say, of this wonderful prospect of meeting the Lord in the air? Will they lose out in the day of glory at the Lord's return? Oh, no, says the Apostle. I want to assure you that that is not the case. Verse thirteen, for I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are to fleece. that ye sorrow not even as others, which have no hope.
These dear ones, when they passed from this sea, they died with a blessed hope that is untouched by death and goes beyond the grave. The wise man said, you remember, the righteous have hope in his death. That is the reason why we who are the Lord, we can look the King of Terrors cheerlessly in the heights. Because we know we have a hope that is eternal and a hope that has been implanted in our souls from the very moment we put our faith and trust in the Savior of sinners.
This reminds me of a dear brother, an aged brother in Nassau. He was a Methodist lay preacher in his day and a very faithful one too. A man who bore a wonderful testimony to his God in the city. Everybody knew him. Then the time came when he was afflicted with arthritis and other troubles. Unable to continue with his service of the Lord, he was confined to his house and I often used to go and visit him. I found that in visiting him, I got the blessing. I went in order to refresh his soul, but always came away, to refresh myself. Because that man was living in the full enjoyment of his faith in Christ.
And whenever the doctor went to see him, and by the way, the doctor was an infidel, he always had a message straight to the point for his decision. And he told me on one occasion, he said, you know, Dr. Rosen, that was his name, came to see me. and I was troubled about certain purple patches appearing on my skin. So he said to the doctor, doctor, what is the reason for this? Well, Curtis, he always called him by his Christian name, the doctor said, I must tell you it's the beginning of the end. And the old man looked at him with a shining face. Doctor, he said, you've given me some good news.
Well, he said, I've got to do one in glory. It was my companion for many, many years. And the prospect of seeing her again thrills my heart. And more than that, Doctor, I'm going to say to the one who saved my precious soul face to face. Oh, Doctor, he said, you've given me some good news today. So when he told me this story, I said, well, Captain Aubrey, with an old retired sea captain, I'm going to reverse what the doctor said. The doctor told you it was the beginning of the end. Actually, it was the end of the beginning. Because when you put your faith and trust in the Savior, you entered into a life that's untouched by death and goes beyond the power of the grave.
And if death should knock at your door, it'll only be the end of the beginning. because you're going to continue throughout the ages to come in the realms of immortality with the rest of the redeemed rejoicing in the knowledge, not only of sin-significant, but of a friend that's taken closer than a brother, and one who indeed is going to receive the praise and homage and worship and adoration of the redeemed hosts throughout eternity. And he said, Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. So it seems to me that the apostle is seeking to reassure the Thessalonian believers concerning those who have departed this morning.
Then we have the thought of resurrection. The dead in Christ shall rise first. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven to the shelf with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. It's a wonderful truth of resurrection. We know, of course, that sleep is a term connected with the body. And only with the body. And never with the soul. We know what happened to death, of course, with reverent hands. The body is laid into mother earth.
But what about the spiritual side? absent from the body, present with the Lord. There's no intermediate state then. And it's no poetical, shall I say, sentiment when we see, as we often do, safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on his gentle breast. For the departed one, although the body is in Mother Earth, is at home with the Lord. with Christ, which is very far better. And let me tell you, friends, in the hour of sorrow, earth's loss is not to be compared with heaven again.
To be with Christ is impeccably very far better. So after all, it's only the house that laid aside. Where is the tenant? the tenant is of far more value than the house, the tenant is triumphing in the realms of immortality in the presence of the Lord Himself. For we know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we grow, nor how true this is.
And as we desire to be clothed upon, with our assurance which is from heaven, the apostle in that wonderful scripture is pointing out, that it's not the disembodied state or the naked state that he refers to there, that our goal, of course not. He was looking forward to the day when his saints would be clothed upon, for there a house which is from heaven, one day to enter into the very presence of the Lord in glory with a body like unto himself. For our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change these bodies of our humiliation?
that they may be conformed unto the body of his glory. According to the wording whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. That means to say that the same power that has formed the universe is the same power that is going to take these poor bodies of humiliation that have gone into death, corruption, and into dust and conform them unto the body of his glory. glory. You can see what a wonderful truth it is, the truth of resurrection, and what a comforting thought it is, that dead in Christ shall rise first.
First. That's the message of the Thessalonian believers who were troubled about those who had come on before. Why we are in no way is going to precede them? That dead in Christ shall rise even first. Let me speak about resurrection, friends. There's no teaching in the New Testament of a general resurrection, is there? We very often hear that expression used in certain circles, but it's an unscriptural one, because there's no such thing as I have said. I want to repeat it as a general resurrection. There are two distinct resurrections, at least a thousand years in between. And one is called the resurrection of life, the other is called the resurrection of judgment.
One is called the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust. And as it is with prophecy and revelation, so we should keep a distinction between these two resurrections. Marvel not at this, said the Lord Jesus. All that are in the grave shall come for, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life. and they have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation or judgment. So there are two distinct resurrections. Don't let us go away with the idea that the Lord is suggesting there that we are saved on the basis of being good and doing good.
We know that that's not true because by grace are ye saved through faith. And that's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of worth, let any man should boast. It's to him that worketh not, but believe it on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith of his works accounted for righteousness. Praise God that when we rest our soul's salvation on the work of Christ, then we should be careful to maintain good works. A dead man cannot walk, a dead man cannot run, and a dead man cannot work. We must have life. And life in order to do good works in the sight of God.
Oh no, the Lord Jesus was not teaching that. It seems to me that the best thing a man can do in life is to trust the Savior and put his whole confidence and trust in the risen Lord. Those who have done so will take part in that first resurrection. On the other hand, the most evil thing a man can do in God's sight, surely, is to reject that blessed one who gets quite under the Spirit of God, who has done so marvelously for his God and for us at the place called Calvary, Calvary.
So there are these two resurrections, and we must keep a clear distinction with regard to these truths. I remember I was called from Nassau to conduct the funeral of Dr. Boat of D'Land, probably known to many of us here tonight. And in course of conversation afterwards with Mrs. Boat, she told me that she had attended a funeral in D'Land just previously, and of a certain preacher who had stood by the grave side And he started to wax very, very eloquent concerning the departed. He said something like this, Meetings, I can see our dear departed brother stand before the great white throne.
And our dear sister was very quick to notice the error. So I said to her, I said, well, if he was a dear departed brother, he'll never stand before the great white throne. And if he stands before the great white throne in that day, He certainly was not a deity-party brother. Oh, let us be clear with regard to these truths. It's true that we're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and I think that's a very solemn prospect. And we should serve the Lord in the light of the judgment seat of Christ. But to think that we should stand before the last greater size, the Supreme Court of the universe?
You may, verily. But alas for those who died in their sins, for them it would be the resurrection of judgment. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the heaven and earth fled away, and there was not found room for them. And I saw the dead's morning great stand before God. Here they are standing. It's the dead. in resurrection power. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged after those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. The most solemn scripture is sure, dear friends, as to which resurrection you're going to take part in. If you're going to take part in the resurrection of life, then we can rejoice and we can say with the poet, I'm the resurrection morning, soul and body meet again. No more weeping, no more parting, no more pain. Here who are they must be parted while the flesh, its Sabbath teeth, waiting in a holy stillness, wrapped in sleep.
Soul and body reunited, then forth nothing shall divide. Waking up in Christ's own likeness, satisfied, the dead in Christ shall rise in church. Then please notice the reunion. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with Debbie MacLeod to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. What a wonderful meeting that's going to be. It seems to me that the Lord is going to allow these dear ones who have gone on before, whose presence we meet in this scene, those of fragrant memory.
Very often I hear them say, when announcing funeral services in the Bahamas, it will be at such and such a time and such a place, and friends can come along and pay their last respects. Their last respects. Well, as I think of the dear ones who have gone on before, I do not pay my last respects, because I have a lasting respect for them, a lasting respect. Now, as we think of those dear ones, isn't it a wonderful prospect to think that we are going to sing them again? There's no question about it, friends. And is this that gives us strength in the hour of trial?
Is this that comfort our hearts during... the period of adversity as we pass through the veil of tears, then we which are alive and remain to be caught up together with them, these dear precious ones, to meet the Lord in this. Well, we met together on earth. I often think when we gather around the Lord's table to show forth the Lord's death that he'd come. I think of the dear ones who used to be with us. Their seats are now empty. Now in heaven, but we're still on earth. But all the joy that fills our hearts as we think of those glad moments that we spent in his presence with these dear ones a revered memory.
And to me it seems that the Lord don't allow us to meet them, church, as we met together here on earth to meet the Lord, in order that together we might meet him in the skies. That's how he seems to raise the maid, and we which are alive and remain should be caught up together with dead in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wonderful words of comfort, aren't they? No wonder the apostles had therefore comforted one another with these words. Well, I often think of that scene, remember when Jesus came to the house of God.
And he went into the death chamber, and there was that little girl lying still in death. That tremendous word went forth, polite I, Q, mine, dams will I pray unto thee? Arise! And she rose. Lord said, Give us something to eat. Your life has to be fed. I wonder how it passed through her mind when she gazed around that room. There she would see strangers, for Peter, James and John were there. Then she would see those she loved nearest and dearest on earth. Mother and father were there.
But I think there would be one that would attract her attention, that hold her gaze, the lovely face of her saviour. We'll enter into that, dear friends, when we are caught up to glory. We'll see those there that were strangest to us on earth. And we'll see those who were nearest and dearest to us on earth, our loved ones. But the one who will claim our attention and rivet our gaze will be the altogether lovely one, the lover of our soul.
I shall know him, I shall know him, when redeemed by his side I shall stand. I shall know him, I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand. In our scripture this morning we were not able to reach that far, you remember. Though it does not yet appear what we shall be, we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. So we shall see him as he is. But as he was, we read a chapter like Isaiah chapter three, we think of him as he was, his face so marred more than any man, his form and the sons of men.
It seemed as though his suffering and anguish, he was unrecognizable, as it were, for the part. But he was never more lovely, friends, never more beautiful, when he honed upon those nails of Calvary, the sight of God. He was truly fair to God. But we're not going to see him as he was. His time of suffering is over and over forever. Never more will God, Jehovah's might, the shepherd with us, O Lord. Never more will cruel sinless set at naught, our glorious Lord. We are going to see him as he is. In his altogether loveliness, in his transcendent majesty and glory.
And one look upon his altogether lovely place will be enough to rubbish our hearts and bow them in worship and praise before him throughout the endless ages of eternity. That's the reason why we sometimes see, soon with joyful, glad surprise, we shall hear that word arise, mounting upwards of the skies. Glory, glory, glory. wonderful reunion. Then we come to the thought of the rapture. Well, we know that this word has two meanings. First of all, it means excessive joy. And what a moment that will be when we see him face to face.
Whom having not seen me love, in whom though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. No wonder we sometimes seem face to face, with Christ my Saviour, face to face. What will it be when the rapture are beholding? Jesus Christ who died for me. We are joyful tonight, aren't we? We have been saved by God's grace. We've been having a wonderful time today in the courts of the Lord. Joy that cannot be expressed and fully felt, as the Old Scotch lady said, better felt.
than self. But what a joy will put our hearts and put our souls, friends, when we see him face to face without a cloud between in the penance of loved ones that have departed. It will be rapture. But then I understand another meaning of the word is the conveying of persons from one place to another. Won't it be a joy to the deep and to be transported from the presence of sin to the presence of his glory. We're going to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Why is it stressed here in the air? Well, I'll tell you what I think. You know, the air seems to be the domain of spiritual wickedness, Even Satan himself is called the prince of the power of the earth, of the air. Read the principalities of powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places, seems to be the enemy's territory. And what does it prove to the conqueror give of a complete, decisive victory than to leave his own through the enemy's territory?
And that's just what the Lord is going to do, friends, and that's why he's going to meet us in the air. Oh, how wonderful. We'll go sweeping through those everlasting doors. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up the everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Well, that was the first welcome he got, friends, when he returned after his wonderful victory. At Calvary he met the greatest foe of all time, and fought the greatest battle of all time, and won the greatest victory of all time. And when he went through those everlasting doors all heaven welcomed among, who was rejected by all else.
But there seemed to be a double welcome to me. Lift up your head, so ye hasten be ye, lift up ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory? It isn't the Lord's crowned and mighty, that the Lord might be in battle, because the battle is fourth and one. It's victory, friends. It's a fight that's why it leaves no second trial. It leaves no second fight. It's the Lord of hosts because he's going to take in... when you receive that second welcome to those everlasting doors, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, a multitude that no man can number with the accompanying angels, ten thousand times, ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.
I must host will be sweeping to those everlasting doors when the Lord returns, and he's going to take us right through the enemy's territory in order to do so. and give a proof to a wandering world of a complete, decisive victory over hell and death, and woe and sin, and satan. Rapture. Then I come to the refashioning friends, and I think this is a marvelous truth because it is connected with the thought of Revelation, with the resurrection. Listen to the mattress words of the Apostle. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on incorruption. Immortality rose. So when this corruptible have put on incorruption, and this mortal have put on immortality, Then should be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is followed up in victory. Now comes a note of triumph. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, great, where is thy victory? Answer to those who questioned his given, thanks be unto God, who giveth us a victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We turn our eyes to Calvary, friends, and there we see. Death robbed of its sting. grave robbed the victory of his glorious resurrection. For the marvelous truth and his very passionately, because we are going to be made like unto the Christ. We are going to bear his image for whom he did for. Now he did also predestinate that we should be conformed unto the body of his son, unto the glory of his body of his son. Oh, but the skeptic cries out, the Apostle anticipates this.
How are they raised? And in what body do they come? How is it possible for a body that's gone down into death and into corruption and dust? How is it possible for that body to be raised? Do you answer me? Or the body that has been drowned at sea and swallowed by the big fishes of the sea and become part of the fisheries. How are the dead ways? And in what body do they come, sneers at skeptic and infernal. But the Apostle has the sharp and the pointed reply, for the critic, thou whole. That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.
Take a lesson from the field of botany. You've got ten thousand of them. That seed that you put into the ground is not made alive until it dies. Well, isn't that true, friends? We put the sea potato into the earth, and that sea potato must go into corruption, into dust, before there can be resurrection, or new fruit, or a new form. And whilst it goes into death and corruption, we see the carcass, that's all, but there is the germ of life there. There must be, in order for resurrection to take place. And the apostle in a masterly way applies that truth of resurrection, dear friends.
We lay aside the mortal remains of our dear ones. We put them into Mother Earth. We think of a burial, but it's more than that. The bodies have to be buried. You remember there's a whole chapter taken up with a burial. The purges of a burying place. And Edmund said that I might bury my dead out of my sight. He knew it was absolutely necessary because unless that took place it would be a danger to the living, even from a hygienic point of view.
But it seems to me that when we come to this marvelous fifteen-foot Corinthians, the Apostle is looking beyond the fact that it's a burial. and the body is just put out of sight. It's a blind thief. And why? Because another body is coming out of the earth, not the same body, but one that is closely related to the body that's put into the earth. And so he makes it perfectly clear by saying it's sown in corruption, but it is raised in corruption. It is sown in his honor, but it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. Isn't that wonderful? A spiritual body. And as I have said, a more wonderful body because it's going to be like the person, the Lord Jesus himself. Let me illustrate it very simply like this. Sometimes when I go over to my amy, this is when we were living in Nassau, of course, my wife would say, now don't forget, before you come back, bring me some bulbs. My wife is passionately from the flowers.
In fact, she's a gardener. She has green fingers. And since we can't obtain these bulbs in... Nassau, before I return back, like a beautiful husband, I go into Cretace's store and buy perhaps a dozen or so these gladiolas balls. And I look at them while they're dirty looking, unshapen, anything but a thing of beauty. And it takes up all the faith that I can sum to see in them a wonderful gladiolas. All right, I'll take them. My wife will be pleased to receive them, and she gets the work that she puts me in the garden. Then she calls me out a little later on. She's going to come in here. And I look, and there are those tightly flowers with the sword-like leaves.
All these are the rain bells, a sight to behold without a doubt. And she says very simply to me, those are the lords you brought me from Miami. Do I doubt it? No, but that's in the truth of resurrection near, dear friends. She put the body, shall I say, into the earth, but she got a more wonderful body out of it. Not the same body, but one that was closely related to the one that she put in. So is the resurrection of the dead. I believe that's just what the Apostle meant when he spoke about the stars of heaven. Why, he said, there's one star different than another star in glory.
So is the resurrection of the dead. Now there are billions of stars in the heavens, and the marvel of it all is this, that he has a name for every one of them. He calls them all by name, so his own. He calls his own sheep by name, too. And it seems to me the apostle is attracted to this wonderful thought, that although there are billions of stars in the heavens, yet there are individual stars. And it means that today's trend that in the glorious resurrection... of the dead, and when the living are changed, why are we going to retain our individuality, our own personality, our own identity?
Although we're going to be light-crushed, we're going to be wicked, forevermore. I can't understand why people think it's an incredible thing for God to raise the dead. if they'd only take a walk down their own garden and see all his wonderful illustrations in nature. I think it was William Jimmy's Brian. He was a very devoted Christian, wasn't he, if I remember right? A champion for the truth, especially when evolution lifted up its ugly head in this country. He was a man who took a stand even in the courts when an action was brought. He was a champion for God's truth.
He put up three times for the presidency, although he never got to the White House, he occupied the exalted position of Secretary of State. And on one occasion he was going through the city of Colombo. During a very hot day he felt thirsty, so he went into a restaurant and he called for a slice of watermelon right off the ice. What nicer than a piece of cold watermelon when you were very, very thirsty. But before that man would take that watermelon and consuming it, his great mind began to work, and he went back into the history of it. And he said, I can see a little sea, taking off its coat and beginning to work. And with ten gathered from where, he said, I don't know.
He gathered material from where I don't know. Hundreds of times, he said, don't wait. And pushed all that material through a little pen and built a watermelon. On the outside it put a covering of green. Inside that a round of white. And inside that a corner of red. And inside that dozens of seeds capable of doing that same work over and over again. He said, who was the architect that drew the plan?
Where did the watermelon get to its flavoring extract from. Where did it get its coloring matter from? Then he came to the conclusion, the wisest man in the world cannot explain watermelon. But the most ignorant man can enjoy one. Isn't that true? And he said, until you can explain even the watermelon, he said, do not dare to limit the limitless God. That's it. So I take comfort from this thought tonight, friends, that although my poor mind can grasp the fullness and the immensity of these truths that we have barely touched upon tonight, after all, we have a better limited capacity, and how we can possibly take in the infinite with our finite mind.
Although we may be able to fully understand and to fully explain these wonderful truths, there's one thing we can do, friends. We can enjoy them. And why? This we say unto you by the word of the Lord, the greatest authority in the universe ever so. And because he says so, I stand upon the incredible rock of holy scripture that can never, never be shaken. And although I might tremble upon that rock, thank God that rock will never tremble under me.
All these wonderful truths in connection to the Lord's coming, friends, are ours and ours to endure. I close. But you'll notice it's all based on two fundamentals. and the two cardinal points of the gospel. Jesus died and Jesus rose again. As much to say, unless you are resting your soul's eternal welfare upon these two fundamental realities that Jesus died and rose again, then you shall know hope. Absolutely. that if you can say, upon a life I did not live, and upon a death I did not die, another's life, another's death, I saved my holy third of things.
And you can go out tonight with Joshua in the blessed hope, coming to the Lord, draw it now, and when he comes, we shall all be caught up to meet him, if we are saved by the grace of God and sang on the finished work of Christ, to For all will be caught up. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In the moment, in the twinkling of an enclosing end, may I appeal to any who may still be strangers to God's grace, put your faith and trust in the Savior, and stand upon the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, for your soul's own blessings.
And then you will have this blessed hope, possessing your souls. and you'll be able to sing. I'm waiting for the dawning of that bright and blessed day, when the darksome night of sorrow will have vanished far away, when forever will the Saviour fall beyond this veil of tears.