1 Thessalonians 4

1 Thessalonians — Steve Gregg

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1 Thessalonians 4

1 ThessaloniansSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg provides commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4, highlighting the importance of avoiding fornication and keeping our bodies consecrated to God. He explains that the essence of Christianity is not simply following laws and rules, but living a life that pleases God, which includes abstaining from sexual immorality. He also touches on the topics of identifying the time of the rapture and the importance of identifying with Jesus. Overall, Gregg provides a thought-provoking analysis of this chapter and its relevance for Christians today.

Transcript

Turn to the first Thessalonians chapter 4. We went rather rapidly through the first three chapters in one section, because mostly they were newsy, rather than doctrinal. There are some very fine verses, and some very fine thoughts that Paul expresses, but still the general flow of thoughts. If we would have thought, we would have thought, we would have thought, we would have thought, we would have thought, we would have thought, we would have thought, we would have thought.

That's a somewhat newsy. He tells them how glad he is to hear of their success. In the Christian was, he tells them what he's been doing in the meantime.

He reminds them of what it was like when he was with him, and how he ministered. He expresses his prayer that he can rejoin them, but these things, so we didn't need to comment. I felt a great deal on those.

Now we get into the real essence of his message to the people. Apparently, when Timothy brought back to Paul the report that the church was doing well, there were nonetheless a few items where they needed some further extracational instructions. The three points that Paul addresses in this epistle are all in fact addressed in this chapter.

The first is the problem of pornication, and the second had to do with people working with their own hands, as opposed to being lazy, and the third had to do with ignorance concerning some matters of the second coming of Christ. And this subject of the second coming of Christ has taken up last in chapter four. And it runs from verse 13 to the end of the chapter, and it continues on into the majority of chapter five, so that after he finishes talking about the second coming of Christ, he ends largely with just some exhortations, some general exhortations for the Christian life.

And most of them are short and unrelated to the ones before after them, almost like Proverbs. But this is how the book is laid out, the next two chapters that we have to look forward to, let me cover that kind of information. My intention will be to cover chapter four in its entirety, but not to go into chapter five today.

The first eight verses deal with the matter of pornication, the first problem he wished to address in the church. Now he is not harsh on the church. Now you know that when he wrote to the Corinthian church, he was very appalled by the pornication in the church.

And that is because they actually had a person in the church who was living with his father's wife and Paul was a gasp, and he actually said cast the person out. He doesn't come as heavily against it here as he does there, and perhaps it's because it's possible that no one was actually committing pornication, but they were philosophizing about whether a Christian could or sure it. Because after all, it was a very integral part of their previous religious background.

The worship of the Greek gods, and this was a Greek city, so that all the Congress there had a Greek background. The worship of the Greek gods and the temples of the deities involved pornication, involved temple prostitutes and temple priestesses who were used sexually in the act of worship. Now we would be a gasp at that suggestion just because we have such a Judeo-Christian conditioning.

And of course that we should be a gasp because that is an abomination in the set of gods, but realize that the conditioning they had was completely devoid of Judeo-Christian morals. And therefore, it seems strange to them to adopt a religious system that made all sex outside of marriage illicit and wrong. And there must have been some, at least, who were questioning whether pornication really is necessary to avoid.

And Paul makes it very clear, while he does not necessarily say that any of them are committing pornication, he makes it very clear that they must be exalted to avoid pornication and to clear that any gives a strong reason why a Christian must do so. And so we'll read those verses and make comments. Furthermore then, we distinguish you brethren and exhaust you by the Lord Jesus that, as he has received of us, how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would have bound more and more.

For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from pornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concubism, even as the Gentile Christian or not God, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord is the Avenger of all such as we have also forewarned you and testified. For God has not called us to unclean this, but to holiness.

He therefore that despises it, despises not man but God, who is also given unto us his holy spirit. Now even though fornication, if singled out as a sin to be avoided here, you can see that Paul doesn't take just a negative approach saying, don't fornicate. He comes from a positive angle, he says, God has, we are, it is the will of God for us to be sanctified, and that means holy, it means made holy.

He wants us to be holy people, rather than starting with saying, it's not the will of God for you to commit fornication. He wants to prevent the vision of what it is the will of God for you. He wants to give them a positive vision, rather than just giving them laws and graze in stone, thou shalt not, thou shalt not.

The essence of Christianity is not simply a lot of do's and don'ts or a lot of rules and restrictions. The essence of Christianity is to love God with all your heart, and because of your love for him to imitate him in his characteristics, of which the chief is holiness, that we want to be holy before God. There's a motivation within us, there's a new nature, God's divine nature.

We've become partakers of it, and therefore it is a nature of a holy God. In fact, when he says in verse 8, he that despises, despises not man, but God, who is giving unto us his holy spirit. I believe the emphasis involved money is on the word holy spirit.

God has given us his spirit, and this spirit is a holy being. And since his spirit is to be producing the fruit of his own character in us, obviously holiness befits us, because the spirit that we've received is holy. And God has given us a holy spirit, which means that for us to be unholy, he that despises, simply means he that disregards these instructions I've just given.

He said, these are not originated from man. It might seem to be a strange thing for a man to come and say you can't have any sex outside of your marriage bond, but this is not a human doctrine. I didn't make it up, and he said, but it is in keeping with the vision of holiness that we should have due to the fact that God's holy spirit now resides in us.

The fact that his holy spirit resides in us means that we are his temple, and temples must be kept holy. Now, he doesn't bring that point up here, but he does in 1 Corinthians 6, which is also a passage of Guinness fornication. And in 1 Corinthians 6, he stresses against fornication the fact that our bodies are temples of the holy spirit, and as the spirit dwells in us as holy, so his temple must be holy.

Therefore, we must not commit fornication because that defiles it. And in that same passage in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says, all other sins are outside the body, but when a man fornicates, he sins against his own body. And without going into detail into 1 Corinthians 6, I want to just say, I don't think he's saying there that fornication is the only sin that hurts the body.

When he says all other sins are outside the body, but he that fornicates sins against his own body, I don't think he means that fornication, unlike other sins, hurts the body physically. It can be, of course, pointed out that the results of fornication can be damaging to the body. There are diseases that can be contracted, and other problems against the body can arise due to illicit sex.

But that is true of some other sins, too. I mean, overeating can be very damaging to the body. Using alcohol can be damaging to the body.

There are other sins that hurt the body. So what does Paul mean when in 1 Corinthians 6 he tells us that all other sins are outside the body, but fornication alone, among sins, is against your own body. It has nothing to do with the harm done to the physical body, but rather to the fact that it spiritually defiles the body.

That other sins are defiling of your character. But fornication brings your inner very mystical sense, brings your body into the state of defilement. Because he points out, and this he does in the same chapter for for Corinthians 6, that when you have sex with a person, you become one flesh with them, and there is an inner mixing of identity with the person that you're having sexual intercourse with.

So if I go and I sleep at the heart, I have joined the body of Christ with art. I've actually caused Jesus as it were to commit fornication because I'm a member of his body. I become one flesh with this heart, so I make Jesus one flesh.

This is such a disastrous spiritual situation. There's a mystical union that takes place through sex which causes a certain defilement of the body in illicit sex that is unlike and is deeper than the defilement of the physical body that comes to understand. It does not mean it's the worst of sins because other sins create other kinds of important defilement to avoid.

But Paul does go on to say in second Corinthians 7.1 that we must cleanse ourselves from all defilement or filthiness of flesh and spirit. Some sins defile the flesh, some defile the spirit. But principally, sexual sins defile your body because your body is the temple of Jesus Christ.

When you join it in an illicit sexual relationship with a simple woman, you of course are a sinful person yourself at the same time, but you are joining the temple of God in the body of Christ to a heart which creates a spiritual mixture that is what fellowship has right with darkness. What fellowship is the temple of God with idols? Be not unequally ill together with unbelievers because this mixture is totally contrary to the spiritual nature of our calling. We are holy temples and our bodies need to be kept holy from fornication.

Now that is his argument in 1 Corinthians 6 on the same subject as he addresses here. In this passage he does not speak directly of our bodies being temples, but he does refer to them as being vessels in verse 4. We should know how to possess our vessels in sanctification, in holiness and honor. Notice holiness is really the issue here.

It is not just that fornication is a bad thing, it is that it is inconsistent with holiness and holiness is the real thing. The thing that Paul wants to stress is God's will is for your sanctification, not fornication. And he brings it up again in verse 7. God has not called us to uncleanness, which is identified with the defilement of fornication, but he called us to holiness.

So he has given us his holy spirit, he has called us to holiness, his will is our sanctification. And we need to learn to possess our vessels, our bodies with sanctification and honor. That is we need to treat our bodies honorably like as holy things, just like if they were vessels in the temple of God.

So the same idea here is our bodies are consecrated to God and need to be treated as a special holy thing. And this is his main argument against fornication. I would point out here that many times we give ourselves and our children all the wrong reasons for avoiding fornication.

The typical parents trying to tell their teenage daughter to avoid sexual misconduct uses reasons like you might contract AIDS or a venereal disease, you might get pregnant. You might create an emotional bond that will break your heart when it dissolves, when the guy leaves your flat. Your heart will be all out there and then you will experience great depression.

It could ruin your reputation for life, it could ruin your parent's reputation. I mean, these are the kinds of arguments that are usually brought forward to incite people to a sexually pure lifestyle. There is a threat of what bad things might happen to you or your family if you do the wrong thing.

And this is entirely the wrong motivation. And you know to say, I won't do this thing because I might get some damage out of it. It is not the motivation the Bible gives us.

Even when Paul says he's sitting against your own body, he's not talking about the physical harm that comes to you. He's talking about the fact that your body is the temple, the Holy Spirit, and you defile his temple. It is the damage done to God that is Paul's concern.

Your body is called to be held in sanctification and honor as a vessel and to God. And when you fornicate, you are defining that which belongs to God. You might as well take the Holy Vessels as thou shagged it that were from the temple and drink and toast the gods of silver and gold with them because that's essentially the same act.

To take God's vessel, to take God's sanctuary, which is your body, which is set aside for divine use only. And to make it an object of based, defiled activities is an act of blasphemy. It's an act of rebellion such as God brought quick and judgment upon Belchager for.

And by the way, I might point out from Hebrews chapter 13, it is stressed that God will judge fornicators. He says in Hebrews 13, 4, marriage is honorable in all. And the bed is undefiled, but formongers and adulterers, God will judge.

Now, might point out the similarity between this verse and the verses we're reading in 1st Thessalonians. Marriage is what? Honorable. And the bed in marriage, the marriage that is undefiled.

Honorable and undefiled. Paul says in 1st Thessalonians, you need to possess your vessel in honor and sanctification, holiness. You need to not defile that which is holy unto God and you need to be treated honorably.

Because marriage is an honorable use of your body. Sexed in marriage is honorable and undefiling. But God will judge those who use sex outside of marriage, formongers and adulterers.

God will judge. Paul says the same thing in 1st Thessalonians 4 and verse 6, where it says that no man will go beyond and defraud is brother in any matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such as God will judge fornicators. So this is the main thought.

I'm going to take it verse by verse now, but I want to just give you the overall picture of the passage. He's arguing, of course, against fornication, but he does so in a starting with a positive note. Not saying, God shut not fornicate, but saying, here's what God's goal for you is.

God has called you to be holy. His will is free to be sanctified. Your body is a holy thing.

You need to treat it as a holy thing. If you think of avoiding fornication for motives other than this, you are going to have humanistic motives. What does fornication, what could I suffer for this? And then if I judge that the suffering is great enough, then I'll avoid it.

But on the other hand, if I consider that the suffering I endure is not great enough to avoid it for, or that I'm willing to take the risk, thinking that I'm the only one who stands to lose, I might say, well, I'm willing to take the risk. For the joy of this affair, I'm willing to take the risk of shame, venereal disease, or whatever else might happen to me, knowing that they might not also happen. I'm just kind of a risk taker.

I'm going to go ahead and go for the gusto, and then if I have to suffer consequences, then it's nobody's fault but my own, and I'm the one who has to pay. It's a victimless crime. There's a victim that's going to be me.

Therefore, I have the right to decide whether I'm going to do the act or not, since I have to decide, well, am I willing to pay the consequences? It's like I can speed down the highway higher than the speeder if I want to, as long as I'm willing to pay the ticket if I get caught. But if that's the way you're thinking, you're still thinking strictly of yourself as the center. As long as it's you whose fortune or disaster is hanging in the balances in your decision, and that's your only consideration, you feel like you have the liberty to make the decision, based on whether you're willing to pay the consequences.

Let's see, there's a whole different way we should be looking at it. Not whether I can take the risk and I might suffer certain things, but the fact is, knowing that whatever may or may not happen to me, one thing that will always happen if I fornicate is God will be cheating. Out of that which is rightfully his for holy purposes, he purchased me and how Paul closes his discussion on this subject in 1 Corinthians 6, he says, no, you not that you are not your own, even bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your bodies, which are his and in your spirit. So obviously Paul's argument is avoid fornication. Why? Because you might get sick, you might get reproached, you might get pregnant? No, none of the above, those are disastrous in themselves, but the real disaster when fornication is that God temple, which is rightfully his, which he purchased at the high price of his blood, has been taken by you and defiled in a willful act of rebellion against God.

And that is what of course Christians and our children need to be taught when taught to avoid fornication realize it's not just their thing where it's a victimless crime, where you might be the only one who stands to lose and that you might feel like you have the right to make the choice. The fact of the matter is that it is not a victimless crime. Crime, God is the victim.

And you wrong God, you rob God. If you take your body and use it for your own use, for your own pleasure when it has now been bought and constructed for years. And so Christians need to be given and our children need to be given a vision of holiness of their bodies and that they need to possess their bodies like holy vessels and treat them honorably in a sanctified manner.

And by the way, it is often said that there is no scripture in the Bible that speaks against masturbation. And it is true that the subject of masturbation is not addressed by name in the scripture. There is no place that really names masturbation or lists that in any group of sins, unless uncleanness which appears in some lists of the scripture might be understood to be masturbation.

The reason I suggest that is because under the Old Testament law, if a person had a wet dream even, or if he had any issue of semen from his body other than through sexual intercourse, he was ceremonially unclean until he had washed his clothes and waited day out. So if he was ceremonially unclean, if he had an issue other than in sexual intercourse and his wife. So masturbation which, of course, results also in a similar phenomenon, might be identified as uncleanness.

And we know that in the words of the flesh that Paul lists and other lists of sins sometimes uncleanness is mentioned. And certainly he's not talking about physical dirt on your body. He's talking about moral uncleanness.

And it may be that masturbation is contained in that general designation. But whether or not masturbation is mentioned as a specific sin. We have this general principle.

You need to possess your body as a holy vessel in sanctification and honor. You decide, is it an honorable use of your body to masturbate? I think no one would say yes to that. I think everybody who masturbates would be ashamed to say so in public.

It is not an honorable thing. Even if it were justifiable, even if we could find every reason to say it's okay to do it, none of us would claim it's honorable because everyone who does it is ashamed of the fact. And that should tell us something about it.

And while I don't think the Bible comes out or Christians should necessarily come out and say, thou shalt not masturbate, although that might be good instruction, we can say this. Instead of making a list of what things you can't do, let's just say what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to treat your body as an honorable holy thing.

Now you decide which specific actions fit and which don't fit that calling. And I doubt that there's any person I've ever heard of that thought of masturbation as a sanctified, honorable use of your body. And if someone does, then I don't know what to say to them about this.

I guess they couldn't come down too hard on them, but I don't think anyone really does think that way about the subject. And yet, of course, Christians, as well as the Christians, have very serious problems in that area, it's very widespread. Are abusers of themselves with mankind? Yeah, the reference there in Romans might be a reference to homosexuality, but it could also, of course, abusers of themselves with mankind could be possibly a reference to masturbation too.

Anyway, we know that it is not the God-intended use of the sexual apparatus. You know, God-intended the sex for the merger of two in marriage into one and for also the purpose of procreation. And it is a relational thing.

Sex is a relationship thing. It is, as we see very clearly, from the earlier statement about it in the Bible in Genesis 2.24, here it says, the man, Shaliza's father and mother, and cleaved to his wife, and they too should become one flesh. And Paul identifies that in Romans A, Christianity, and Sikhs have been in the sexual act, they become one flesh.

Well, obviously, sex then is a life-joining activity that is it emerges two lives into one. And fornication is quite an appropriate use of the sexual ordinance for this very reason. Fornication is, by definition, outside of marriage.

If it was in marriage, it wouldn't be called fornication. That sex outside of marriage is fornication. And therefore, it is sex without any commitment for life, between two parties, because marriage is that commitment.

Therefore, fornication is the practice of a life merging, a life-joining activity without any life-joining intention. There's no intention to become one flesh for life, and yet they are doing it nonetheless. And that is, of course, to just take, as everyone knows, what is pleasurable and try to divorce it as much as possible from whatever responsibility it was intended to go along with what is pleasurable.

And that is entirely selfish, and obviously, in Florence, the proper use of sex. So, he starts this discussion furthermore than we defeat your brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God so you would have bound more and more. This is not the first time that he mentions himself and his companions as examples to be imitated.

He says in verse 5 of the first chapter at the end of verse 5, you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. He reminds them of what they were like, also in chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. He spends the time reminding them of his own character and his own behavior among them.

Here he does it again, and this time in connection with fornication. It is very clear that he is saying, if you want to see the model of sexual purity look at me and my companions, which is a neat thing for him to be able to say. Any minister, of course, should be able to say that.

If you want to see what a fornication is appropriate or not, follow my example. And a minister should be an example of holy dealings with the opposite sex. Let me show you what Paul said to Titus.

In Titus chapter 2, writing to probably a fairly young minister, who has given charge of the oversight, at least temporarily, oversight of the church and creed. In Titus chapter 2, he gives verse 1, he says, but speaks out of the things which become sound doctrine. That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity and patience.

The aged women likewise that they be in behavior has become with holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. But they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chased, keepers at home, girdle, beating to their own husbands, that the would of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

Now I pointed this out before, I do so now again. Paul tells Titus to give special instructions to the old men, and to the young men, and to the old women. But he gives him no instructions for Titus to give directly to the young women.

He says, you instruct the older women, the ancient women, the aged women, and let them teach the younger women. Why? Because it is a wise thing for a young minister, or for any minister, to keep a certain aloofness from the single young women. It may seem prudish to our modern way of thinking, but it's safe.

I can tell you very plainly, from my early years of ministry, I found out the hard way it is a safe thing, and a necessary thing, to not become too involved personally with young female counselies. Many ministers have had their ministries ruined, either by actual physical misconduct or simply rumored sexual misconduct. Sometimes they have not even done anything wrong, but because they have been indiscreet in the way that they related with the young women in the congregation, they have not been an example of sexual security, though they have never done anything wrong, yet no one knows that for sure.

The way they behave around women leads some people to be suspicious. And our behavior should be just the opposite. It should never lead anyone to be suspicious of us.

Let me show you what it says in 1 Timothy 5. 1 Timothy 5. Reviews not an elder, that means an older man, but intrigues him as a father, and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, and the younger as sisters, with all purity. So here again, he lines out the old men, young men, old women and young women, as he did the Titus, and chapter 2 of Titus. Here he indicates that there's a certain respect to be shown to old men and old women, and the young men should be treated like brothers, and the young women should be treated like sisters with all purity he had.

Now he doesn't add with all purity or any other, you know, qualifying remarks when he's talking about the other groups of people, but when he's talking about treating the younger sisters, the younger women, so treat them as sisters, think of them as sisters, that'll keep your mind, you will not behave inappropriately toward them if you think that way toward them, and he stresses with all purity. There is such a need for purity in the ministry of the gospel with respect to relations between ministers and young women, that I think it wise for any minister to avoid any private counseling with young women, Paul told Titus that the older women should counsel and teach the younger women and there's no need for a pastor ordinarily to have to do that. Or if he does have to do it, he should make sure he's not alone when he does it.

Ideally he and his wife should counsel or should counsel a young woman if he has a wife and if she's available, otherwise some other person's with him should be there just for the sake of the purity of the testimony, so that people can look at that man and say, I can't even imagine that this man is doing anything wrong in that area, and that's what Paul's saying about him and his companions, look at us, we're the model of what we're about to talk about, about avoiding fornication. Our conduct is safe to be imitated. Remember Joseph's remain clean, but his circumstances made it impossible for him to geographically avoid this woman that wanted to have sex with him, and he was put in a hard spot, he would have stayed away if he could, he was a slave and he was obligated to be in the house with her alone many times.

But notice that even though he kept himself pure, because he wasn't alone with her, it was impossible for him to prove his innocence when he was accused. And many of my mother, when she was going to church as a child, said that the pastor of her church was accused of indecency with some of the girls in the church and it caused great church spread and about half the church, believed he was innocent and about half believed he was guilty, and no one to this day knows whether he was innocent or guilty, about half the church left and the other half still, he's still the pastor over him, and no my mother was a little young girl when this happened. But what a blot on a man's ministry, that half of this congregation suspects that he did something wrong.

This could have been avoided. I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but this could have been avoided if he had avoided altogether any private talks with young girls. Now again in our society, especially in America, this rule sounds a bit too old-fashioned.

And I remember, I told you once about a very well-known Christian rock-and-roll musician whose name was Household Word. Shortly after his divorce occurred, it was rumored that he was a little flirtatious with some of the groupy girls that hung out at his concerts afterwards, and one place in particular covered chapel, wouldn't let him come back and play it anymore. And when his agents were trying to get him booked there, they said, no, we don't want him to be here anymore because he doesn't conduct himself in a pure manner toward the girls, his agents said, well, he's not a beacon.

He's only a musician. Why should he have to conform to the qualifications of a beacon? As though he had no responsibility to maintain a pure visible relationship with the single sisters, just because he wasn't a beacon or something. Well, obviously, since he was a Christian musician and in the forklift, he also needs to be an example, but all Christians should follow this example.

All Christians should retain certain aloofness from the young members of the opposite sex. There's no need to get intimate with such people. There are older women who can counsel the younger women.

A minister who feels like he's the only person who can give counsel out of the counselors. First, it's flattering himself. And he may have motives that he himself doesn't fully understand for wanting to counsel that pretty young thing.

But he needs to follow the advice of Scripture because sex is a dangerous temptation to most people. And if not to the minister himself, then for all he knows it may be because of girl. I can remember as a teenager some young girls come to you for counsel and there were at least two cases in particular where they would have had me in bed if I'd been amenable.

I mean, that's what they came for. And they came under the guise of seeking counsel. And I just realized, man, I gotta make sure, I mean, I gotta make sure that I'm not alone with young girls, especially when I was a young single minister.

But in general, Christian men ought to observe more discretion than is often not necessary. So he gives himself as the example. He says in verse two, for you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

So Paul had already made reference to this subject, but apparently the reasonableness of the subject. Or whether any loopholes could be found in it was under discussion in Thessalonica and so he had to address it more fully. For this is the will of God.

Now, I mean, this is what Christians should be concerned with. The question is not, can I do this and get away with it? Can I do that and get away? The question is, what's the will of God? That should be the whole question in the mind of every Christian. Nothing else.

No other consideration needs to bother our minds. One only, what is God's will? What will please God in this matter? Paul says, I'll set the record straight once and for all. This is the will of God that should be sanctified.

It should be holy. So this is the will of God. Your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication.

For example, this is an example of how to be holy. It's not the only part of holiness, but since that is the relevant topic that he's addressing, he relates fornication to the call of the Holy. God's will is for you to be holy, therefore, with reference to the subject of fornication, you must abstain from it.

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. I would just say that the word vessel here is a Greek word that in some context in Greek literature has been used to refer to wives. And some have felt that Paul is saying here that everyone ought to take a wife in sanctification and honor.

That would agree, of course, with what he said in 1 Corinthians 7. At the beginning of that chapter, he said, it's good for men not to touch a woman, but to avoid fornication that every man has his own wife and every woman have her own husband. That was counsel he gave in 1 Corinthians 7. And the RSV translation, for example, simply retranslate this. They translate that every man should know how to take a wife in sanctification and honor.

In others, they translate the word vessel, or they interpret it as a wife. On the other hand, we know that Paul, in other passages, speaks of our bodies as a vessel. In 2 Corinthians, for example, chapter 4, verse 7. 2 Corinthians 4, 7 says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be have gone out of us.

The earthen vessel here refers to the weak bodies that we have made out of earth. It's a container for the treasure of salvation and of the glory of Christ. This is the treasure, but we have it in earthen vessels.

I believe that Paul here, in 1 Corinthians 4, is referring to the body. We should possess our bodies with sanctification and honor. Control ourselves and handle our stewardship of our bodies as a matter of a sacred obligation to maintain the holy and undefiled state of that which is separated unto God.

In verse 5, not in the lust of consciousness, even as the Gentiles which know not God. Now, consciousness simply means unrestrained sexual craving and desire. And he's essentially saying that the Gentiles who aren't Christians who don't know God, they are characterized by consciousness.

And that, of course, would have been true of his own Christians there before they were saved. And you know, probably, if you had a loose life before, that sex is not the easy, a loose sexual life. It's not the easiest thing to give up once you've decided to become a Christian.

And so they were having trouble, but he was pointing out that this kind of behavior, this lifestyle of consciousness and unrestrained sexual activity, is a life that is characteristic of Gentiles who don't know God. And, of course, we're suggesting as you, maybe Gentiles, but you are not Gentiles who don't know God. Therefore, your lifestyle should be different because you do know God.

And in verse 6, it says, that no man should go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter. Now, the word any is an italics, which means it's not in the Greek. The Greek simply says, no man should go beyond and defraud his brother in matter.

So you need to supply some kind of words. Many believe that the right word to supply is in this matter. And that would seem right.

If he says, don't defraud your brother in any matter, it seems to change the subject from the subject of formication to the matter of just dealings in business with your brother. And that change, I don't think, has yet come about in Paul's discussion because in verse 7, I think he's still talking about formication. So in verse 6, I think he's still talking about formication.

So in any matter, I think should be substitute with in the matter or in this matter, which is an alternative translation equally valid. And then he's saying that in formication, if you commit formication, you are defrauding a brother. Now that's an interesting statement because formication is usually not done with a brother.

I mean, if the man is being addressed here, in community formication, it would not seem like he's defrauding a brother, he's defrauding his sister. Or if it's not even a Christian woman, he's defrauding a parliament or whatever, a woman. Why does he refer to formication as defrauding a brother? Well, it's possible, of course, that particularly adultery is in mind.

And if you sleep with your brother's wife, you defraud your brother. You're shooting him, you're ripping him off with what's his. That wife belongs to him, not to you.

And you're stealing from your brother, you defrauding him. And probably adultery is one of the main things he's thinking of, because adultery is one species of formication. Formication is the broader word.

It means anything that's the illicit sexual conduct. Anything other than the rightful specialization between a man and his wife, is formication. So these reality, homosexuality, hormone green, adultery, masturbation, probably, should all be put under the same classification as the general term formication.

Now, it may be here that he's speaking particularly of adultery, has to be especially avoided because they're you defrauding your brother. But he doesn't, at least verbally, single out adultery from other kinds of formication. And therefore, we must assume that other kinds of formication might also be seen as a defrauding of your brother.

But how so? At least one possible explanation would be that when you commit formication with a woman, who is single, but if she's married, you defrauding her husband, obviously. But even if she's single, in a sense, you're defrauding her future husband, assuming that most women would be married because in that society, the single career woman, who's not a phenomenon in that society as now, the idea was if she's not already married, someday she will be. And if you sleep with her, you're ripping off her future husband because he deserves to have her save for himself.

And this is clear from the mosaic law. In the fact that if a man splits with a woman who is neither married nor betrothed, he would have to pay a fee to her father, which was the price of virgins, because virgins were worth more than a woman who was not a virgin. And therefore, the father would be able to get a smaller dowry.

He would not be able to get a larger dowry for his daughter in marriage because she was worth less than she was no longer a virgin. She had been reduced in value by the fact that she had extramarital sexual relations before she was married. Now, if that's the case, then you are rendering this woman a thing of lesser value to a future husband.

A man in the difficult times would value a virgin more than a woman who had been loose and had been slept with and whom he was receiving second hand from another man. Therefore, you are defining the future husband of the woman, even if it's an unmarried woman you're dealing with. So, we can see it both ways.

If it's a case of actual adultery, obviously you're defrauding your brother. It may not mean your Christian brother, necessarily. Any man could be considered your brother, you're supposed to treat well.

And if she's not married, you're actually defrauding her future husband. So, there is an act of defrauding your brother in the matter. He doesn't mention defrauding the sister because presumably she enters into the agreement willingly.

It's not talking about rape here. It's talking about agreed upon sexual activity. And so, though in essentially defrauding her, that's her own choice.

You're not ripping her off. You're not oppressing her as she makes her own decision. But you are defrauding the man that she belongs to.

She doesn't belong to you. And she either belongs to a husband or a future husband in the sight of God. And therefore, you are ripping off that man.

Then he goes on, in verse 6, to say that God will avenge all such things. And that agrees with what we saw in Hebrews 13, 4. Hormongers and adulterers, God will judge. For God has not called us to uncleanness, which here is used as a synonym for fornication, uncleanness.

But unto holiness, this he stresses again at the beginning and end of the discussion. He, therefore, that despises, and that's an old English word that simply means disregard. And those who just regard for Paul has said on this, is not disregarding a human decree, but a divine decree.

And the fact that God would decree such things is evidenced by the fact that his spirit is a holy spirit. His spirit that he has given us is holy. Therefore, it follows that God is holy.

And if we act in an unholy manner, we are acting inconsistently with his call and his will in our life. So this is how Paul argues against fornication. Then we have a short section where he deals with the question of laziness.

And once again, he comes in a very diplomatic way, rather than just saying don't be lazy, get out there and work. He starts by raising the issue of love and obligation to love. Just as he speaks against fornication by urging our obligation to be holy, so he speaks against laziness by obligation to love.

Now, as he brings before the testimonies, the lostiest aspects of our call is Christian. He said in chapter 2 and verse 12 that we should walk worthy of God who has called us unto his kingdom and glory. He sets before them the vision of a very high calling.

We are called to glory. We are called to the kingdom of God. And now he points out we are called to holiness, therefore avoid fornication.

And we are called to love with a God-like love and that means we can't be lazy. Because if we're lazy, we're leaching off our brothers and sisters and that's an unloving lifestyle. The loving lifestyle is of course not to be on the receiving end but to be the giver.

And so he urges that we need to love one another and then brings the specific case of working with our hands so that we might not be a burden to anyone and we might not like anything. So let's read this section. Verse 9-12.

But as teching brotherly love, you need not that I write unto you. For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed you do it toward all of the brethren which are in all Macedonia.

But we deceit you brethren that you increase more and more and that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. That you may walk honestly toward them that are outside the body of Christ and that you may have lack of nothing. Now here, he stresses what is a recognized universal duty of Christians to have brotherly love.

He says I don't even need to remind you necessarily because God himself teaches you that we love one another. We are taught of God. Now does that mean that because they know the word of God they know the scriptures that command us to love.

Therefore they are taught by the scriptures of God or doesn't mean that God who dwells in them by a spirit teaches them. I believe the latter is in mind. Jesus points out and we covered it not long ago for Jesus said it is written in the prophets.

And then he quotes actually from Isaiah 54-13 and they shall all be taught of God. Now that's what the prophet Isaiah said. And then Jesus says every man therefore that has heard and has learned of the Father comes to me.

Now what are you talking about? Who comes to him? Those that the Father is drawing. What are you talking about? There is something we are doing inwardly in them causing them to identify Jesus as the true Messiah and so they are being drawn by God by this inward communication from God. He is very witness to their spirit so that they should come to Christ, that's what he is saying.

And he uses the language of Isaiah they shall all be taught of God to imply that that's what is happening in these people who are coming to him. They are being taught of God. God himself is teaching them and drawing them to Christ.

In other words the teaching that is of God is an intuitive inner teaching of the Holy Spirit that he is referring to here. And so in Paul later uses the same language for especially in sport you are all taught of God to love one another. It would follow that what he means is you don't need to be reminded from external sources like me or like written sources but rather you are taught by God who dwells in you.

God's spirit teaches you to love because love is the fruit of the Spirit. In another place in Romans Paul says the love of God is shed about in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. So the Holy Spirit teaching us in our hearts is that we should love and he is moving us in the direction of love.

And he points out in verse 10 that they have already made some great strides in the direction of exhibiting Christian love. Their love is very widespread and of course their testimony is well known throughout Macedonia but I just desire that you might increase more and more. In other words though it can be said that you are a very loving group there are still areas where love needs be perfected.

There are areas where your love needs to increase and let me give you an example he indicates here in verse 11. That you study to be quiet and do your own business and work with your own hands as we can manage you. Now there are three things he says there.

Study to be quiet to do your own business that means mind your own business and work with your own hands. Paul generally considers idleness as going hand in hand with gossip that if people have nothing productive to do with their hands they will go about as tail bears. This he tells us about widows in 1 Timothy chapter 5. Beginning with verse 11 he says but the younger widows refuse that means don't add them to the role to be told by the church.

Well when they have begun to wax once and against Christ they will marry having condemnation because they have tapped off the first ledge. And with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house and not only idle but toddlers also in busy bodies speaking things which they ought not. So he says these widows they are young, they need to be matched up with husbands so they have some whole from activity and raising kids and keeping a household to keep them out of trouble.

Because if you just add them to the support role of the church and you support them to be young widows they are just warned around with nothing better to do. They will be idle they will just go about from house to house gossiping is what he is saying. So Paul assumes that idleness will lead to gossip.

It is so true. You go down to the eating station or any restaurant around here and see all the retired old men who sit down there every morning and sit idly drinking coffee. And you know what they do the whole morning? Gossip.

They have nothing productive to do. They are retired, they are independent of labor and so what they go down is they go down to the restaurant. The same guys are there every morning, same thing and all the restaurant sometimes or most of them you will find men sitting around with nothing to do but gossip.

Paul is wise, he realizes gossip of course is very damaging thing. And gossip is absolutely forbidden and condemned in the book of Proverbs as well as some other parts of the scripture. And Jesus said every idle word that precedes out your mouth you have to give account of in the day of judgment.

Gossip is a very damaging thing. And gossip is just about the natural product of laziness. If you don't work, if you don't spend your time in something constructive you will have nothing to do but sit and what you do when you sit.

So entertain yourself, you talk. What you do when you talk. Well, since you are not a constructive person anyway as evidenced by the fact that you are not working, you obviously don't have any constructive goals.

Therefore, you are not being constructive either. And you will end up talking about things that are of no value and even damaging things. You will become a busy body.

So Paul tells, if that's only you need to study to be quiet, to mind your own business and to work with your hands. You see these related thoughts here. Don't be a gossip, just keep your mouth shut, mind your own business and work quietly with your own hands.

And the idea is that everyone should have his work to do whatever it is and he should busy himself about his own work rather than busy himself about seeing if everyone else is doing their job right or whether there is any scandal going on around and he needs to learn how to hold his tongue. And this is something that would enhance the body of Christ greatly if Christians would learn how to study to be quiet in mind their own business. And this is a product of working with their hands and being constructive in their activities.

Now, I might point out that this remained a problem in Thessalonica even after this letter was received by them. So that Paul had to write to them again in 2 Thessalonians in chapter 3 and address the same problems which apparently had not been corrected. In 2 Thessalonians 3 he says, now in verse 12, now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.

So in other words, they need to learn to be quiet. He told them in chapter in the previous epistle the study to be quiet. He says they need to be exhausted now to be quiet or in quietness.

They need to work and earn their own bread. He is referring to people who do not work. He says in verse 11, for we hear that there are some which walk among you just orderly working not at all but are busy bodies.

So you see again, all these passages, 1 Timothy 5, 1 Thessalonians, all of them connect vitalness with the busy bodies. And they need to learn to be quiet, stop gossiping, just learn to pay attention to what they are supposed to be doing and visit themselves up productive things. And he says in verse 12, now back in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 12, because that you may walk honestly toward them that are outside and that you may have lack of nothing.

That is to say if you work with your hands, through this means God will provide all you need, you will lack nothing. In some cases I am living by faith. And to some people living by faith since I am living with I do not have a job.

And I am not willing to work. And so I am just going to let God support me. And what that really means, I am going to let my brothers and sisters support me.

Because very seldom does God spend mana from happening or costs, meat and materializing the refrigerator, people who live by faith trust God to provide through human beings. And therefore to say I am trusting God means I am trusting my brothers and sisters to intervene and stem cells to support me. Now Paul here is urging them to be loving.

He says you know we are supposed to walk in brotherly love. Therefore it is inconsistent for you to depend on your brothers to support you when you could support yourself. That is not loving.

It is taking advantage and it is the way of the world to do that, to take advantage of other people and work as little as you can. But Paul indicates the spirit of the Christian is just the opposite. Rather than being on the take all the time he wants to be giving.

He has learned a new blessedness in giving that exceeds the blessedness of receiving. And you might remember in Ephesians chapter 4 Paul was talking, giving some practical advice and counsel or excitation to those who needed to put off the old ways and put on the new that is put off the old man and put on the new man. And in that context of putting off the old and putting on the new he says in Ephesians chapter 4 28, let him that still feel no more.

But rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that neither notice the thought here. The idea is the man you see in the world now is converted. He not only has to stop being a thief, he needs to restructure his life.

He needs to become a productive person who works with his hands so that he can now give to others. A person is a thief because he'd rather not work. If he wanted money through the legitimate it means he'd get a job and work and earn it.

But if he sees it's because he's not willing to work for all the money that he wants to have. So he's taking from others which is an un-Christian way. It's the way the old man is but the new man is not wanting to take but to give.

Therefore this man needs to learn the discipline of work to earn his own needs and also to provide for others so that he can give. He needs to learn the habit of giving as well as the habit of avoiding stealing. He actually changes his life 180 degrees.

Now that here we see in Paul's exhortation first that's only in 4 or 12 that you may walk honestly to a dem that are outside that is you won't be taking advantage of them and that you may have lack of nothing. So here we see that Christians should work. Now Paul himself though he was a full-time minister work and earned and he made sense that was his vocation.

He did emphasize that since he was involved in the work of the gospel he didn't have to work like that and then first Corinthians 9 he goes to great lengths to show that anybody who was full-time in the work of the gospel should be supported for their work and that they should not have to work. So he said that he made himself an exception just to set a good example and also that he might add something to his contribution to glory of the gospel by making the gospel free. But he indicated throughout chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians that he had every legitimate right to charge money for his ministry and that he indicated that the other apostles in fact were doing just that and that he and Barnabas were the only notable exceptions to that practice.

So Paul in the other places he says the labor is worthy of a tie and so forth in 1 Timothy 5 he indicated that it's quite okay for a minister to be supported by the ministry. That is assuming he is full-time in the ministry. I know a lot of people who say well I feel called the ministry so I'm going to quit my job and just live by faith.

But even though they quit their job and feel called the ministry they are not serving God in the ministry full-time. And many times I know for myself when I first thought called the ministry I thought well I shouldn't get a job because that will restrict me from freedom in the ministry to travel and move into a place. So I'll just be full-time ministry in Christ God.

Well God did support me graciously not abundantly. He kept me alive in my ignorance. But the point was that at that time though I was in the ministry I was not full-time in the ministry.

I could easily have worked to support myself and done the same amount of ministry that I was doing in what time I could have called my spare time. And later I heard some very good counsel from a minister who was giving counsel to a young man who felt they were called the full-time ministry. He said if you still call the full-time ministry start ministering your free time.

And as soon as the demands of ministry actually call you from your work then maybe take a part-time job and use the extra free time that you gain to fill with ministry. And if in fact God's call and the opportunities compel you to minister all the time so that you can't work then drop the job all together and just trust God to support you. And that makes plenty sense because the general principle is Christians should work with their hands.

And if God calls them to full-time spiritual ministry then that is an adequate substitute for manual labor. In fact it's a high calling but and it is worthy of support. But a person cannot just choose to do it because he's too lazy to work and unfortunately some people do it for that very reason and they don't work at a job they require it to be supported by others and yet they don't really minister full-time.

A lot of their time is on their hands to do leisurely things and is actually wasted and I could say that in personal experience. So this is a general rule that goes for Christians generally and even some ministers like Paul himself should possibly work for the sake of the testimony or simply because they have the time to work and minister. Paul however it wasn't that he had time on his hands he didn't he said that he labored night and day so that he wouldn't be chargeable.

He was ministering all day and probably all night sometimes but he was self-employed which made it possible for him to work his own hours. That's the kind of job that I held for many years as a window cleaner. I was self-employed it was very ideal for the ministry because with a minimum of equipment I could just maintain a business and I could go out and get jobs if I needed money or I could not go out and get jobs I didn't need money or if I had ministry to do.

It's a wonderful thing to be self-employed in fact I wouldn't think that be a bad thing for every Christian to have some self-employment rather than to be laboring under a heathen master somewhere. You know a man can observe two masters very adequately but if God would provide some trade or some means of secular employment where you can support yourself I'm not saying that a man must have that kind of work. But it's an ideal situation for a person who is also called the ministry work.

Okay let's go learn here. Versus 13 to 18 the rest of the chapter then introduced the subject of the second coming of Christ and this is developed further in chapter 5. Though we want to take chapter 5 today we'll take it tomorrow Lord Wearing. Here we see that there were some persons in the church who had lost through death Christian loved ones.

This is one of the indicators that the church was possibly a little older than just three weeks old when Paul left it. There had been some who had actually died since their conversion and since Paul had obviously spoken to them about the second coming of Christ. He makes it very clear in the first and second pistol in the epistles that he had already discussed personally with them matters as a second coming of Christ.

They felt that a great tragedy that some of their members had died before it happened. After all they probably thought the second coming of Christ would be soon. Now I don't say that Paul talked that that would be the case we don't have Paul's words saying that it will be soon.

But we have every reason to believe that at least some of them hoped it would be soon and probably Paul even hoped it would be soon. I'm sure every generation of Christians including the first generation of Christians has hoped that the coming of the Lord be soon. And since we don't know when it will be there is nothing wrong with them hoping that it would be soon and two.

The problem is they apparently felt that those who had died had missed out. Oh what a shame you know they're not going to get to see the coming of the Lord and they were hoping of course that those who were still alive would live to see it. None of them did.

They all died as it turned out. But these were young Christians, zealous for the second coming of Christ to come. And so you know it seemed a great sorrowful thing that some of their relatives had died and missed out on being involved in the second coming of the Lord.

And they needed some instruction about the doctor of the resurrection. And in this passage of course we have the only passage in the Bible that mentions the rapture by name. Of course the word rapture doesn't appear in our English Bible.

It appears in the Latin vulgate in this passage however where it says in verse 17 we which alive and remained shall be caught up. The word caught up in the Latin version is rapture, rapture or something like that. And that's the word from which the word rapture is taken.

And it's the only place in the Bible that mentions the rapture. There is one other place that seems to describe the rapture. And that is in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 for Paul says in a moment in twinkling of an eye we shall be changed.

This mortality must put on immortality, this corruption must put on in corruption. That is in 1 Corinthians 15. And verses 51 through 53.

Now here Paul seems to be talking about the same event in 1 Corinthians but he makes no reference to be caught up necessarily. In 1 Corinthians 15 there is a reference to a change taking place in our material bodies to become incorruptible but there is no statement to the effect that we will be caught up into the air. But it's almost certainly talking about the same thing in both passages.

All in saying is the only reference in the whole Bible that makes no reference to Christians being caught up in the areas right here in 1 Thessalonians 4. And since that is the case this must be a key passage in resolving the question that plagues the minds of many Christians use the rapture before or after or in the middle of a future tribulation period. And as you know this is a debate that even to this day rages in the church. The very popular view now is of course that there is a rapture before a 7 year tribulation period.

And that basically things are going to go pretty smooth for us until we get raptured out of here and then all hell is going to break loose on the earth but will be gone. One preacher in San Diego actually was heard to say he was describing the horrors that are coming down here through the tribulation because we don't have to worry about that. We will be in vacation land at that time.

Everyone is going to be dying down here and it's retortious but we can be oblivious to that. We will be soaking up the rays and having a heavenly glory and fun and the sun and kind of a thing. That's a very common mentality when Christians today that the 7 years before the judgment of the world will be a tribulation period and before that time the rapture will take place.

Others feel the rapture will occur at the beginning of such a tribulation period. Others feel it will happen at the end of such a tribulation period. Others lie to myself wonder whether the Bible is in speech of such a tribulation period.

Nonetheless place the rapture at the second coming of Christ. Now the question has to be settled in this passage or no other because there's no other reference to the rapture in the Bible. And if we don't have the answer to this question in this passage then we don't have it in the Bible.

And some people actually believe we don't have enough information in the Bible to settle this question. I think people say well God is less obscure so that maybe we could test our unity and see if we can get along with differences of opinion. Or just because he didn't want us to know exactly what's going to happen.

So he's not been clear on the subject. I don't know why they say he hasn't been clear. As far as I'm concerned the Scriptures are quite clear.

The only thing that would make it unclear is if we approach them with pre-stoppersitions that have been fed to us by teachers who have some kid in agenda who are trying to prove something that isn't there and they filled our minds with pre-stoppersitions so that when we read the passage we read those pre-stoppersitions into the passage. But apart from such pre-stoppersitions a pristine new convert who's never heard any teaching on the subject and reading through the New Testament would have no confusion about this subject. The subject could be clear as crystal because God has not left it murky.

He has not left it insoluble. He has not left us in a situation where we have to say well you know when the Lord comes then we'll know. The teaching in the Scripture is fairly clear if we're willing to come to it without pre-stoppersitions.

Let's look at this passage for example and we'll see what we can gain in knowledge about the rapture from it. First of all the passage is not principally a passage about the rapture. The rapture is mentioned almost incidentally.

The passage is about the resurrection. He's talking about Christians who have died and the fact that they will rise that the coming of the Lord and they will not miss the second coming because they will rise to see it and to join him and it's coming. Incidentally he mentions those of us who haven't died when he comes will be caught up also with them in the air but he only mentions that as an afterthought as it were.

The passage is mainly about the resurrection at the coming of Christ. The rapture is only mentioned in connection with it. But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that you sorrow not even as 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 renamed. Unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent.

The Greek words should because they shall not precede. Prevent is an old English word archaic it doesn't mean the same thing now. In the Greek we who are alive and remain under the coming Lord shall not precede them who are asleep or who are dead.

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 renamed shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever use the Lord wherefore comfort one another with these words.

So these are to be words of comfort to those who have lost loved ones to our Christians. The comfort is in this. They have not missed out.

Those of us who do live to see the second coming of Christ will have no advantage over those who die first because we won't precede them. We won't be ahead of them in any sense. In fact they will be ahead of us because the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we who have not yet died will be caught up to meet the Lord.

So the rapture happens immediately after the resurrection of the dead. The dead in Christ rise first and then the rapture takes place of those who are alive. Now let's look at this verse by verse.

Notice first of all there is no reference in this passage to a tribulation period. It doesn't mention whether there is or whether there is not a tribulation. And it certainly doesn't say whether the rapture occurs before after or in the middle of such a tribulation.

The tribulation is not even addressed in this only passage that refers to the rapture in these terms. Therefore we are not given information here as to whether it is before or after a tribulation or even whether such a tribulation exists. I would point out however that back in chapter 3 of the first testimony and we do have a reference to tribulation not to a seven year tribulation at the end of the age but nonetheless the word tribulation appears.

And it says in first testimony in 3-4, for verily when we were with you we told you before that we should suffer tribulation even as it came to pass and you know. Now obviously this is not a reference to the seven year tribulation. It's simply talking about trouble.

But it's interesting that in the only place in this epistle where Paul mentions tribulation which is also the only place he mentions the rapture, the only book where the rapture and tribulation mention together indicates that tribulation is four Christians. And while it doesn't address the question of a future tribulation, it speaks of tribulation in general. In principle there is nothing inconsistent with Christians going through tribulation.

But again the seven year tribulation is not brought into our view at all in the passage. What we see is in verse 13 he says that he wants them to be knowledgeable. He doesn't want them ignorant on this subject.

He's one of the rapture schools that I travel and teach in who have not an inkling of the doctor of the resurrection. I've met a leader of a research school who when I mentioned the resurrection he was shocked. He says you mean our bodies are going to rise from the dead to and I mean here he's one of the leaders in a research training school.

And I you know the ignorance that Paul wished they wouldn't have is still with us. He wrote this chapter so we wouldn't be ignorant, yet it was all in vain as far as some people are concerned. I don't want your ignorance as bread and concern those who are asleep, those who have died.

He says he doesn't want us to sorrow as others do who have no hope. Now does this mean that it's wrong for us to be sorry when someone dies? He doesn't necessarily say he doesn't want us to have any sorrow. He doesn't want us to sorrow as others do who have no hope.

The sorrow of one who has no hope in a resurrection is of a much deeper and more devastating sort, resulting in bitterness. It's a sorrow of the world that leads to death as 2 Corinthians 7 would use the language. It's not the sorrow of God that leads to repentance.

It's the sorrow of the world. It causes something that leads to the rest of their lives and they lose their loved ones. And there's no hope.

What can they say? I hope to see this person again on what basis. They have no authority. They have no Scripture.

They have no Christ. They have no hope. And the loss of the loved ones sometimes takes them by all by surprise and there's no way for them to deal with it.

But we didn't sorrow like that. There is a place for sorrow. Of course we miss our loved ones.

Jesus even wets at the tomb of Lazarus. But he was grieved because he saw how this caused pain to his friends when Lazarus was dead. But we don't sorrow like those who have no hope.

We have a hope. And in a sense we can even rejoice. There is sorrow.

When my wife was killed, I experienced a mingling of sorrow and joy. I was joyful for her because I knew that that was she long for the most. And she had often said it.

How much she long to see the Lord. She got to see him before I did. She had an advantage over me in that.

But I was sorry because she had been such a wonderful companion. I was very sorrowful to live the rest of my life without it. But one thing that was a comfort to me, which could never be a comfort to a non-Christian, is I knew that someday I would see her alive again.

That she would rise again and so would I. And we would live forever in the presence of the Lord and enjoy the fellowship of each other in all other saints. And that is something that makes the grieving experience of Christians over dead Christians, Christians who died the greater. And of course the reference to them being asleep is simply a stress on the fact that it is only temporary.

Sleep is temporary from which you wake up. So death for a Christian is temporary because we shall rise again from it. Well, he points out something very interesting in verse 14.

He says, if we believe Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Now that's interesting because it implies that those who sleep in Jesus, Christians who died are now with God. And when Jesus comes, he will bring them with him.

Now it's very clear that their bodies are not with God because their bodies didn't go and dig in the months of your life. They're still there in the graves that they haven't totally decomposed. The bodies are not present with God.

The bodies are in the earth. That's what must be resurrected. But when a Christian dies, his body becomes dead, but his spirit lives on and goes to the Lord.

The absence of the body is to be present with the Lord. This is established fairly firmly in various New Testament references, especially from Paul and Philippians and Second Corinthians. But also elsewhere, we do not die.

We shall never see death. Our bodies will stop. But our spiritual man, our conscious person, will vacate the body and be in the immediate presence of the Lord.

And when he comes, he will bring them with him. Why? Because their bodies will then be resurrected and those spirits will not be any longer distant body, but will be receiving glorious, incorruptible bodies to inhabit for eternity. That is the biblical teaching.

You get it from the first verse only in 15. You get it from here. You get it from the whole teaching of the Scripture on the subject of the resurrection.

So, it says, for this we fanned you by the word of the Lord, verse 15, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord, apparently Paul at least hoped that maybe some of them would be. He didn't say that it would necessarily be so, but you can tell the hope, the desire that some of us will be. Now, of course, there will be some who are, but it wasn't Paul's readers or himself.

They shall not proceed, those who have died, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout that the voice of the Archangel, the Trump of God, it sounds anything but secret. Those who teach you of pre-pregulation after usually say it's a very secret thing. The whole world wakes up one morning and all the Christians are gone.

No one knows where they went. A massive church is put out by the CIA. Think of the trouble in the communist countries, where they don't let anyone out.

And suddenly, millions of citizens have vanished. What border did they sneak out of? Just imagine the confusion, this is going to cause. So many people paint this picture, airplanes crashing because they had Christian pilots, cars and veering off the roads because they had Christian drivers.

The world's thrown into a panic. And it all happened very secretly and very silently. God has come in and next to his people.

One has been taken, the others have left. No one noticed what happened. They had no explanation.

People suggest that UFOs came into a similar way. All these scenarios are painted for us. And yet, the Bible nowhere portrays the rapture as a secret quiet event.

The only passage that speaks of it in clear terms is this one and it says, if anything but quiet. The Lord comes with a shout, the voice of the Archangel and the Trump at two. I mean, how much more can he do to get people's attention? This is a noisy event.

Everyone's going to notice it. And by the way, the passage in first Corinthians 15, it talks about our bodies being changed, also mentions that the last Trump. So again, it's apparently the same event but describes somewhat differently.

But both refer to the noise. It's not a secret quiet rapture. Then it says, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

This does not mean that the dead in Christ will rise before other people rise. As though there's a special resurrection for Christians and another resurrection later for non-Christians. This is taught, of course, by many, but that's not biblical.

Jesus's own teaching was that there is an hour coming when all who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of Man. Both have done good unto the resurrection of life. Both have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.

It is a given moment in time. He said it in John 5.29. You're actually in 5.28 and 29. There are other references in the Scripture to the same thing.

I don't have time to go into them now because of our church of time. But there is a general resurrection. Jesus taught it, Paul taught it.

The Bible teaches throughout. There's a general resurrection. The wicked and the righteous rise at the same time.

The sheep and the goats are brought before Christ at the same time in the same courtroom. It all happens at once. The only reason it mentions the dead in Christ here makes no reference to the others is because the concern of the readers has to do with their Christian loved ones has died.

He's referring to those who sleep in Jesus. He says, now they're going to rise. They're going to rise first.

Not first before other dead people. They're going to rise first before we who are alive and remain or taught. The sequence that is suggested by the word first is not a sequence of various groups of dead people rising at different times.

But it is a distinction between those who have died in Christ and those who are alive in Christ. Those who have died in Christ first experienced resurrection. Then we who are alive and remain are taught together with them to meet the Lord in the air.

And first shall we ever be with the Lord. The word meet in verse 17 to meet the Lord in the air is a great word that referred to the act of a welcoming committee going out of the city to meet a visiting dignitary. Someone of great importance who is coming to visit the city.

The chief citizens of the city would go out and meet him. And then they would return with him immediately. This is not a reference to us going up to meet Jesus and go on into heavens for seven years.

We're going up to meet him as the citizens of the city go out to meet a coming king and to accompany him on the remainder of his journey. And this we can see the same word, by the way, is used in Matthew 256. Matthew 256, the parable of the 10 versions, says that when the cry went out, the virgins that were ready went out to meet the bridegroom.

Why? To accompany him on the remainder of his trip. It's the same word meet in the great. Matthew 256 and also a very important use of this word is seen in Acts 28-15.

Acts 28-15 is when Paul was coming to Rome. And it says, and from events that is from Rome, when they brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as a PI form, and the three pavents whom Paul when he saw, thank God, and took courage. They came to meet us as the same word.

The Christians from Rome, hearing that Paul was coming to Rome, came out to meet him. Why? To accompany him back to Jerusalem? Where he come from? No. They came to accompany him into Rome.

So when Jesus is on his way to earth, he's not coming to take us and take us away. He's coming to return to earth. He said, if I go away, I will come again.

And I will receive you unto myself. Where? Here. He's coming to earth.

And therefore, we're going to meet him, but not meet him so that we can dash out in doubt or stay with him. And we're going to meet him so that we can complete the dessert with him, to complete his journey with him. And that's what this word means in the great.

Now, I would just point out two points, as we close here, of importance in identifying the time of the rapture. We're told in verse 15 that we are who are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord. The word coming there is the Peresia, the Peresia of the Lord.

So not preceded those who are asleep, so the Lord will defend the dead and Christ who rise and will be caught up here. This takes place as the Peresia, the coming of the Lord. You may read throughout the scriptures using Greek reference books will help to find how many times the Peresia is referred to.

18 times in the New Testament, the Peresia refers to the second coming of Christ. Always it refers to his return to the earth. It does not refer to a partial return to the clouds, from which he turns around and goes back into heaven, as some would suggest.

The coming of the Lord, the Peresia is the final coming at the end of the age. And this is when the rapture takes place. Furthermore, we see that it happens in connection with the resurrection.

The rapture takes place immediately after the resurrection. The dead and Christ rise first ran. We who are alive and remain are caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Well, when does this resurrection take place? I've already mentioned there's a lot of passages about the resurrection we don't have time to look at, but let me give you just one group of verses in John chapter 6 to identify this time for us. In John 6, verse 39, Jesus said, this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he has given to me, I should lose nothing, but I should raise it up again at the last day. Verse 40 of John 6, 40, and this is the will of him that sent me, that of everyone that sees the sun and believes it on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Verse 44 of the same chapter, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Now the same chapter, verse 54, who so eat as my flesh and drink as my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Four times in one chapter, in one speech, Jesus says he will raise up his people at the last day.

That is when the resurrection takes place. The Christians are raised at the last day. By definition, the word last means that after which is no other.

It is the last in a sequence. There have been many, many days that have happened since the beginning of the first day and the second day and the third day of Genesis chapter 1. Many days have passed. There is one day set that is the last, and that is the day when Jesus is going to raise the dead.

And that is the day that he is going to rapture his church. There is no reference to a resurrection of saints or a rapture of saints seven years before the last day, or a thousand in seven years before the last day. The coming of Christ is the last day.

No other days follow. Because when he sets up the new heaven and the new earth, according to 1st Peter, or 2nd Peter 3, verses 10 through 12. Now when Jesus comes, the heavens and the earth dissolve.

The elements melt with the fervent heat. He creates the new heavens and the earth. There is no sun, moon, stars, there is no night.

So there is no more days as we know it. There is no more day and night. Evening in morning where the first day and so forth.

There is no more evenings and mornings when Jesus comes back. That is the last day. And that is the Peresia.

That is when the resurrection takes place and that is when the rapture takes place. So we will go on with further instruction in chapter 5 and tomorrow's class. First episode in chapter 5 continues to talk about the coming of the Lord from the different angles.