lesson 10 I think...1 Thess. ch. 4 (read the chapter again before reading my notes

I am sending this n my Toshiba NB100 (a min laptop). My advice...don't buy one unless you are into self-torture. Now to the good stuff. We, my wife and I are in Spain as I write these lines, study notes, and it is March 17, cold and rainy back home, sunny and warm here on the Costa del Sol in Andulicia. We will be home sometime early Apri and hopefully there won't be anymor snow. On with the lesson.(we are home now) If tere is one thig I want to emphasize over and over, and I have made the notation on my home page, it is this: I am a layman and there is no pretence in my heart and soul to be anything more than that. I am not a clergyman. However let me say this...you don't have to be such in order to read and study the hidden riches of God's Word. I have been doing so ever since my Dad's aunt, my great aunt gave me a brand new Bible when I was 8 years old. And so I share with you some of the things that I have been reading and studying for the past 62 or 63 years. By the way I still have tht Bible, a Holman, King James version. Okay, trust you have read chapter 4 and there is something here that we can do by God's help and grace and that is to follow the life of the apostle Paul and his admonishen to walk so as to please God and gratify Him. There is something we can do by God’s help and unmerited grace, His favor and that is to follow the life of the Apostle Paul and his admonishment to walk so as to please God and gratify Him .Will’s Wharf taught me a lot of life’s lessons Growing up on an island that was separated somewhat from the mainland; well life was perhaps more sheltered than most people knew about. But Will’s Wharf was a special; place, sort of a gathering place for the neighbourhood. It was only a few yards from the house we lived in, the house I was born in and when I look back and reflect, our world was pretty small really. The neighbourhood that I speak of consisted primarily of three houses in which there were a total population of 8 adults and 6 of us kids. Three generations. Now if you walked a short way, you would find a few more houses and people. Will was our neighbor and a cousin of our dad, an excellent man with an excellent spirit. And as children we would visit his wharf and “borrow “ a dory or dinghy and go for a row out on the harbour. I thought it was like heaven to me, it was where dad taught me to properly tie up a dory compensating for the Bay of Fundy tides. The wharf only went out from the land maybe forty feet or so and the dory’s would ground out on the beach at low or even half tide, so if you were going to borrow one, you needed to pay attention to the time and tide. So you could get it back where it belonged. As I said, it seemed like heaven to me, but the Bible says that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered the heart of man the things that God Has prepared for those that love Him. This 4th. Chapter of 1 Thessalonians speaks about preparation, preparation for the coming of the Lord. We read in verse 17 “thus shall we ever be with the Lord. I only spent a few short years living near Will’s wharf and if you were to go to Campobello Island today to Thurber’s point near the nubble , you could search there for a long long time but you would not find Will’s wharf. It is gone! It was man made and it was only temporary. Heaven is a place of permanence. Hebrews 11:13-16 says,13/ “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14/ For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15/ And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16/ But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” This is our hope tonight, it is our heavenly hope! Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us, that where He is we would be there also. And the apostle Paul back here in 1 Thess. 4 is not only proclaiming that Christ is coming but he is telling them how to prepare for His coming, and he alludes to the order of that great event….the dead in Christ, those who died as a born again Christian, knowing and living for Jesus before they died, will rise first, then those who are still living at the time of His return a page2 /Godly life, forgiven of their sins, just like the other crowd who precedes them, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air .And thus we shall always be with the Lord. “ “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” In this Bible study group we read a lot of scripture. I do not apologize for doing so. It was said of Smith Wigglesworth that he too read the scriptures many times instead of sermonizing. Not that I am any Smith Wigglesworth….he was a plumber….I am an electrician. What a comfort to know your name is written in heaven in the Lamb’s book of life. If I weren’t sure of that tonight then I would make sure before I go to bed tonight. There is a song that says “if I were you, I’D GIVE Jesus my heart, If I were you, I’d make a new start, I’d do it today, I wouldn’t delay if I were you…..I’d give Jesus my heart.” This is too important for us to take lightly. And I’m sure when the apostle was concerned for their faith, this is what he had in mind. It should be the most important thing on our minds as well. As we go on in this chapter and then to chapter five and to the second epistle we shall see how he increases his exhortation concerning the coming of the Lord. I said before that if the Apostle thought the Lord was coming soon , even in his day, how much closer is His appearing today? So important an event as the rapture is, requires our utmost and undivided attention, don’t you think? In fact Paul says “we urge you and exhort in the Lord Jesus , that you abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and please God.” This is what these letters are about , how we are to walk and please God. I think since I started or decided to study this particular subject, that the devil has attacked me in my mind more perhaps than any time before and has said to me “do you really believe this? Look around , give your head a shake man…has anything really changed? Or is it all imagination? And that is when I remind him of His unsuccessful attempt to sway Jesus over to his thinking. What did Jesus say and do? He used the scripture to quench the devil’s fire didn’t He? When feelings fail, when doubts arise ….go to this written Word, remember this church Paul is writing to and he reminded them that when they received the Word that he was preaching to them, they did not receive it as the word of men but in truth they accepted it as the Truith, the Word of God .Verse 2 of this the 4th. Chapter of 1Thessalonians sets the tone of Paul’s letter: “for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus..” This is not salvation by works that he is advocating but it is rather working out our salvation, it is faith by works and it is preparing for the coming of the Lord So Paul urges these Thessalonian Christians as well as you and me to abound more and more in our walk with God that we would please Him in all things….That we walk in all holiness, sanctified, set apart. Can the world tell if you are a Christian? Can they see a difference in us, a lifestyle that is what a good example should be? From the Amplified version , verse 3 reads “For this is the will of God, that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living:) : that you should abstain and shrink from all sexual vice , That each one of you should know how to possess (control, manage)his own body in consecration (purity, separated from things profane) and honor, Page three./ 5 Not to be used in the ;passion of lust like the heathen, who are ignorant of the true God and have no knowledge of His will.” Remember when Paul was in Athens? He saw tan altar with an inscription…TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. And isn’t that true with everyone of us before we were born again by the Spirit of God, before we ever received the mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost ; God was unknown to us? Paul did not just go to Athens to escape persecution, he knew it would follow him anywhere he went and preached Christ, especially the resurrection of the dead. Acts 17:23 “Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim unto you.” Is it possible to worship a God you don]t know? Or was Paul being a bit facetious here and using this inscription as an opening to proclaim the Gospel? Enough for now, we will continue later...RC