1Thessalonians: The Study of a Topic: The Coming of the Lord

Now we're looking at the study of a topic, and that topic will be the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as presented in the Epistle. So chapter 1, now my challenge will be not to make something academic, which is so inherently thrilling and wonderful for us to appreciate. Chapter 1, verse number 9, For they themselves shall show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us, or our Deliverer, from the wrath to come.

Chapter 2, verse number 19, For what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing, are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming, for ye are our glory and joy. Chapter 3, verse 11, And God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you, and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men, even as we do toward you to the end. He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

Chapter 4, verse number 12, verse number 13, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye 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 remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or go before them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with voice of archangel, and with 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. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.

Chapter 5, but, so a different subject is being introduced here, but of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all children of light and children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunk and are drunken in the night. Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep. And I would take that sleep to be not death, but slumbering Christians. Whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, edify one another even as also ye do. One final reference at the end of the chapter, verse number 23, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

Now we know God will add His blessing to these very, very familiar and often read, spoken on portions of the Word of God. If you are asked to prepare a message on a topic, so the president asked you Wednesday night is ministry, we'd like you to speak on the subject of redemption. Or you have a Sunday school class and you'd like to take them through the Word of God and teach them something about the deity of Christ.

How do you begin? Where do you go? How do you begin to bring together information to actually study a topic and to feel as though you've really got a grasp of all the Word of God has to present on this particular subject? Now certainly some subjects are vast. If you were, for example, to try to deal with the whole issue of creation and all the times that it's mentioned in the Word of God, you would have a vast amount of material to try to bring together and to organize. What we have before us today is the subject of the coming of the Lord Jesus, a New Testament truth, and we speak of it sometimes as the rapture.

Passages on the rapture are relatively limited and manageable in their frequency. Just think with me quickly. Go through your mind with the different passages.

We won't go into some of the controversial ones, such as is Matthew 24, John 11, references of the rapture. Begin just, for example, in John chapter 14. And in John chapter 14 we have the promise given, I will come again.

So in John 14 we have a promise given that is the very first place we would start with. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, or rather 15, is not so much the promise of His return but, linked with it, the prospect of resurrection. So we add then to John chapter 14 the prospect of resurrection in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

As you go through your Bible you come to Philippians chapter 3. Again, another clear reference to the Lord's coming for His people. And there it is the change in our humiliated bodies to be made like unto His own body of glory. We have the perfection that it is going to bring.

The removal of sin, the sinful nature, all that is linked with us as those who are marked by sin, all gone forever. What a tremendous prospect. We have the perfection that it is going to bring.

When we come to Revelation, three times over in that final section, behold I come quickly, behold I come quickly, and so on, we have the personal assurance. Just mentioned here, that's a side topic, but whenever the Lord Jesus speaks of coming to the earth to reign, returning for Israel, He speaks in the third person. When the Son of Man comes, when the Son of Man comes, when He comes, whenever He speaks of coming for the church, first person singular, I come.

Whether you're looking in John 14, John 21, Revelation 22, it is always first person. It is very personal. It is intimate.

He's coming for His bride, and so it's I come quickly. If I go, I come again. If I will that He tarry till I come, what is that to Thee? So it is always first, it is always a personal, intimate coming when He's speaking of coming for His bride, for His church.

But here in 1 Thessalonians, it's not so much the promise of His coming, although that underlies it. It's not the prospect of resurrection, though we have that in chapter 4. It's not even the perfection that it is going to bring, although that is implied in one or two of the passages, nor the personal assurance. But really, when you come to this epistle, it is brought before us for its practical and its preserving effect upon the testimony of God's people.

So the passages then in our New Testament, as you bring them all together, you begin to get a full picture of this great event we refer to as the rapture. But just in 1 Thessalonians then, as you come to this epistle, you think of the progression of truth that is brought before us. We begin in chapter 1, as we'll soon look at in a moment, and we are there taught it is going to be a pre-tribulation rapture, snatching us away from the danger that is going to envelop the world.

And you come to chapter 5, and you're reminded that we are going to live forever with Him. And so you have this broad panorama, this broad progression of events that we have here in this epistle. We are taught as well from 1 Thessalonians it is a present hope, a present hope.

And so in chapter 1, the believers were looking for His Son from heaven. In chapter 4, Paul speaks of the fact that he as well was looking for Christ to come. So the word that is used is an imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ that these passages would substantiate and would help us to appreciate.

Just a word about the particular word that's employed here, because sometimes there can be a bit of confusion, and I know very little, virtually no Greek, but we're told by those who do know Greek that this were the parousia, the coming, involves the coming, the presence as well, and its duration. So it's not just a moment in time, but rather it's our presence with Him. It begins with Him coming to the air, our being caught up, our time with Him, and the duration of that time spent in His presence, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Think with me just of the progression of truth then that we have in these five chapters. How is it presented in chapter number one? In chapter number one, the coming of the Lord is the occupation of converted sinners. Converted sinners, they're looking for the Son from heaven, our Deliverer from coming wrath.

So it's the occupation of converted sinners. Our brother has read to us in chapter 2, and in chapter 2 it's the compensation for faithful servants. He's looking forward to compensation, and part of it is the tremendous joy he will have in what he can present to the Lord from his faithful service for God.

So chapter 2 then is the compensation for faithful servants. Chapter 3, a whole different theme, the Lord's coming there is really an exhortation to tried saints. They are going through the furnace of affliction, and Paul is encouraging them.

He has sent Timothy and Silas to them to encourage them, but also now he gives ministry to encourage them, reminding them of a coming day, and presenting them the fires of affliction were creating greater holiness in their lives, and he is thinking of how they will stand in the very presence of the Father, and the joy that will bring him. And he is giving encouragement to them, his exhortation to tried saints. Chapter 4, again a different situation, different circumstances, but the coming of the Lord still has a tremendously practical effect, because in chapter 4 it's consolation, isn't it? For sorrowing.

Consolation for sorrowing souls. Those who are sorrowing because of loss of loved ones, but more than just the loss of loved ones, the concern would those loved ones enjoy reigning with Christ in a coming kingdom. Our brother read to us in chapter 1, or rather in Acts chapter 17, that Paul was speaking of another one, another king, and Paul taught them of a coming kingdom.

And now the believers had laid some of their dear fellow saints into the grave, and they wondered, will these believers enjoy the kingdom with all of its blessings when the Lord returns? And so he is, in chapter 4, giving consolation to those who are sorrowing. Chapter 5, again another emphasis altogether in chapter number 5, he is bringing the Lord's coming before them as a stimulus for the sanctification, the sanctification of waiting sons. So, occupation of converted sinners, the compensation of faithful servants, an exhortation to tried saints, consolation to sorrowing souls, and finally sanctification for waiting sons.

Tremendously practical. So it's not just something theoretical, not just a doctrine we hold and tuck it away and bring it out at different times, but something that has an influence, should have a bearing upon every life, and we all have to confess how limited our enjoyment and appreciation and its consequent influence on our lives actually is. So just bear with me, we'll come to these and have to deal with them in very short order, but nevertheless see if we can find some helpful things.

Chapter 1, Paul speaks there about the coming tribulation. Chapter 1 then, the Lord's coming and the tribulation. You may say, where do you see the tribulation? I would suggest to you, I wouldn't be dogmatic, but I would suggest that almost, almost every reference to wrath is God's judgment on earth.

Remember when John the Baptist came preaching, flee from the wrath to come, or deliver from wrath to come. God has not appointed us to wrath. Virtually every reference in the New Testament to God's wrath is something current, is something on earth, not in eternity.

So I would take it this is the tribulation. So I want you to think first of all of the, we mentioned earlier, I think some were mocking, but they mocked Paul. I can handle the mocking.

The truth in the tenses, number one, and then we'll look at the power of prepositions in this section. The truth of the tenses, what I mean by that is this, and to wait for his son from heaven, that is a present tense. In fact, if you want to be very, very technical, it's present active tense.

In other words, it's something they were actually doing. They were on the tiptoe of expectation, waiting for his son from heaven. So the very tense of the verb tells us this, that it was something they were living in the good of, and looking for any moment, looking for Christ to return.

So the first thing is, the truth that comes from the tense is this, it was something they were waiting for at that moment in time. Now, power of prepositions. Bear with me.

If you want to nap, if you don't like grammar, and this doesn't matter, take a nap for just two minutes and wake up in a moment. Okay, notice in verse number 10, you notice the word from occurs three times, right? They were waiting for his son from heaven, and we read there that whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus our deliverer from the wrath to come. So three times the word from is in that passage, but they're two different words.

That is what is so wonderful about the Greek language, it is so expressive and so specific in its meaning. Two different words can be translated, are translated in this verse as from. One carries the idea of something being taken out of.

You took a cookie from the jar. The cookie was in the jar, and you took it out of the jar. Another word could mean, another word means that something was taken away from the very presence of something.

Now, from heaven, he's there, and he's coming out. From the grave, he was in it, and he came out. From the wrath to come, different word, from the face of it and drawn away, not in the middle of it.

You see how expressive the verb is? It doesn't use the same word for from heaven or from the dead. He was in the grave. He is in heaven.

He is coming out of it. If it had used the same word for wrath to come, it would mean we would be in the wrath and taken out of it. Doesn't use that word.

It uses the word meaning from the very face of, from the very presence of, escaping it. So in chapter one, what he is emphasizing, what we are being taught, and the same thing in chapter five, we are not appointed to wrath. We will not see all the judgments of Revelation 6 on.

We will be taken away from the very face of it, our deliverer from coming wrath. So chapter one, the Lord's coming and the tribulation. Chapter two, I know we're moving quickly, chapter two is the Lord's coming and a tribunal.

We will be taken away from one judgment, but we will face another judgment. That's chapter two. Taken away from the face of one judgment, but to stand at another bema, at the judgment seat of Christ.

And so in chapter number two, he speaks there about a coming day and what is our hope, joy, our crown of rejoicing. Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming for ye are our glory and joy. Three things are very obvious from what Paul writes here.

Number one, he was laboring in light of a coming day. Number two, he was living in light of that day. Number three, he was longing for that day.

Laboring, living long. All that he was doing, all that he was doing, he was doing with a view to what he would receive at the judgment seat of Christ. So let me give a little word of encouragement.

Whether you're a Sunday school teacher, whether you are a young man trying to help in the assembly in some way, whether you are one of those faithful people that are at every meeting, always in your place, always supporting what can be done. Let me just give you a word of encouragement. Nobody in the assembly appreciate you.

Okay. Got news for you. If you're living for people's appreciation, I suggest you buy a dog.

Okay. Someone has said, never judge your popularity by the adoration of your dog. Okay.

If you're looking for that kind of appreciation, forget it. Human nature is such that our default position is self-occupation. And it is only through the work of the Spirit of God we begin to appreciate and can value others.

And tragically, we are so slow to express it. Now, I'm not looking for pats on the back. Pat other people on the back.

But we're afraid to express our appreciation. They might get a big head. They might begin to get... There are enough people that walk around deflating everyone.

You can risk encouraging someone. Okay. You can risk encouraging a young man, a sister who has a Sunday school class, those faithful believers who are always there in their place, backbone of the assembly, don't make a lot of noise, never complain, and everyone just takes them for granted.

You can encourage them. Tell them how much you appreciate them. Paul was living and laboring in light of a coming day.

He was longing that his service, as he thought of the believers and thought of the tremendous joy he would have in presenting them to the Lord Jesus on a coming day, it gave him tremendous joy. You remember, maybe you don't, so let me refresh your mind. You remember in the Old Testament there was the potential for a man or a woman, if they really wanted to consecrate time to God, they could take what was called the vow of a Nazarite.

And during that period of time there were different restrictions, but one of the things about their time during the vow of a Nazarite was their hair was to grow. And for a man it would be a mark of reproach, a mark of shame, but his hair grew. And at the end when his vow was done, when the days of his Nazariteship were done, his hair was shaven and it is the only thing, now mark this, it was the only thing aside from the offerings ever placed upon the altar for God.

Now think of the implications. That was the mark of years perhaps set aside in consecration and service to God. And at the end of those days he was able to take the mark of that and able to put it on the altar in worship and thanksgiving to God.

Wouldn't you like to have something to to be able to put on the altar in worship and an appreciation that God finds, could I say almost, almost as fragrant as the sacrifice of his son? That's worth living for isn't it? Isn't that worth going in for? Saying no to a few of the legitimate things of earth, saying no to a few of the legitimate pursuits of earth, that at the end of life there might be something. I mean could anything be more tragic than looking back on life and realizing the very reason I was born and saved. I've missed it and I've got nothing to bring.

Now lest you get the wrong impression, let me just let me just balance things here for a moment. The men who stand up here and pontificate and tell you all these wonderful things, they will get no greater reward, in fact possibly a smaller reward, than a Sunday school teacher, a mother who raises her children as she should, God that will not reward gift. Get that? God does not reward gift.

Gift is gift. He doesn't reward what he's given us. What God rewards is faithfulness for what he's given us.

If you're faithful with your Sunday school class, you're faithful in the Bible reading, you're faithful in the home with your children raising them, you will have the opportunity to get the same compensation, the same reward at the Bema, than the big evangelist, than the great teacher. God rewards faithfulness. So whatever God has given you to do, do it to the very best of your ability and as faithfully as you can because that is what is going to bring him glory and honor and reward eternally for you in a coming day.

Paul was laboring in light of that day. He was living in light of that day. His great expectation was the joy and the blessing he would see for believers he would present at the judgment seat of Christ to him.

Of course, as our brother mentioned, Paul was being accused of abandoning the Christians during their time of persecution and he's making it very clear, listen, we live for you. You are our joy, our crown, our everything, our whole life is bound up with you and so he's making it very clear and he was longing for that day as well in light of the Lord's coming. Chapter 3, it's not now the tribulation or the tribunal but it's the Lord's coming in their trial.

They are in the midst of a tremendous trial that we'll look at in another session, the trial of their faith and Paul is thinking of a coming day of presentation. Now, I would take it from bringing together a number of scriptures that there will be at least four presentations that the Lord Jesus Christ will make of his bride. He will present it to himself, Ephesians 5, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

So Ephesians 5 tells me he's going to present that bride to himself. When I come to Revelation 19, the marriage supper of the Lamb, I would take it he is going to present his bride to the saved upon earth in the kingdom period. 2 Thessalonians tells me that when he comes to judge the world we will come with him and we will be admired in all them.

So he's going to present us to the entire universe in the coming day. But I would take it here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, it is a presentation before the Father. Behold I and the children which God has given me in the presence of his Father presenting us.

You know the most amazing thing about it? I think the words of, if Isaiah 53 will have application then, he shall look on the travel of his soul and he will not have one single regret. Can you imagine him having no regrets that he died for a bunch like us? Can you? I mean it's amazing to me that he has no regrets. Knowing that we would fail him, knowing how unlike him we would be, knowing the shortcomings, knowing the our brothers mentioned how we can become rivals and contentious with each other, he'll have no regrets.

He'll look on the travel of his soul and be satisfied. It was worth it all, worth it all. The cross, the shame, the suffering, worth it all just to have us with him eternally presenting us before the Father.

The fruit of his suffering and travail. I would take it as the thought of God's will being accomplished. He's brought them safely home and we are presented before the Father in 1st Thessalonians chapter number 3. In that section he's talking about their trial, the development of holiness, Christ-like character and all of that is linked with the future day that he is looking to, to present them blameless before the face of, the idea in the present, before the very face of his Father.

I want to hurry because chapter 4 and 5 are where I want to come to especially and if I can show some very clear distinctions and very clear truth. Now chapter 4, if you sat in Bible readings you know there's differences and we're just going to skirt all that for just a moment and just deal with the Lord's coming and the transformation of saints. Not now the tribulation, not now the tribunal, not now the trial but the tremendous transformation that will occur in a coming day.

Paul is encouraging believers who are sorrowing because of loved ones, we've mentioned already, not just the fact that they have died, the natural sorrows but would they also enjoy kingdom blessings as they would when the Lord comes and so forth and he is going to first of all tell them of a great comfort, a great comfort. We sorrow, yes we do sorrow. Please never tell someone dry up the tears, they're with the Lord and all those other nice platitudes.

Partings in life are times of sorrow. All we have known are earthly relationships of those we love and you can hardly sometimes think of losing those you love without almost beginning to cry before it happens. You just don't even want to think about it.

But we do sorrow but Paul says our sorrow is not the sorrow of despair, the sorrow of hopelessness. We sorrow but not as others and he brings them to this tremendous comfort and the tremendous encouragement. So number one is a great comfort.

You'll notice the careful change of words. Jesus died, we sleep. Jesus died, we sleep.

Now you all know, I hardly need to tell an audience like this, that sleep does not refer to the soul and spirit, it's just the body. He's speaking about the body now coming out of the grave and sleep is something referring to the body. But it is lovely to think that it is, for him it was death.

He tasted death, tasted death in all of its finality, in all of its awfulness, in all of its solemnity, he tasted it. We sleep. There's a rabbinic translation of Deuteronomy 32 where it speaks about Moses being put to death by the word of the Lord and the rabbinic translation is that God kissed him to sleep.

I think that's touching. God just kissed him goodnight. See you in the morning.

That's what God does with every believer, just a kiss goodnight. We sleep, a great comfort for these believers. But also there was a great change that is expected.

The grave being robbed of its prey from mortality to immortality, from death to life, from corruption to incorruption, from shame to honor. Tremendous change that is going to occur, all because he died and rose again. If we believe that Jesus died.

Five times the Lord Jesus Christ displayed his power over death. You all know them. He displayed it when he raised a girl that had just died, a girl of 12 years of age.

He displayed it again when they were taking a young man who had been dead for several hours, taking him out to bury him and he said, arise. He displayed it a third time at the graveside of Lazarus, four days in the tomb. Lazarus come forth.

Lazarus came out. He displayed it at Calvary when he died, gave up his spirit before those on either side died. Tremendous displays of the power of the Lord Jesus over death.

But the greatest, while dead in the grave, he had power over death, raised himself from the dead. You wonder why the New Testament stresses the resurrection of Christ? The resurrection of Christ is the ultimate proof that this book is true. While dead, held captive in death, he had power over death and came out of death.

Little wonder then, he says, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. A tremendous, tremendous change, contrast. But 1 Thessalonians 4 tells me of a tremendous challenge.

You say, where's the challenge? Well, you farmers will have no idea what I'm talking about, okay? So you have to just take my word for it. I grew up in the city, in the inner city. And in the inner city, the city of Philadelphia, there were neighborhoods.

And you did not walk on someone else's turf unless you were challenging them. And if you had to walk through that neighborhood for some reason, you learned where all your escape routes were, how to look over your shoulder, and how to just watch where you were going, because you were in some danger. You had your turf, they had their turf, and never the twain shall meet, okay? It was a tremendous challenge to go on somebody else's turf.

Where is the Lord going to meet us? On Satan's turf. And he is going to stand by absolutely helpless, humiliated, and humiliated. All of his minions and his myriad of evil spirits that inhabit the air, as we meet the Lord in the air, they will stand helplessly.

And they will watch as, you can do the estimating, I don't know, literally billions of people pass through to meet the Lord in the air. In the air. What a tremendous challenge that was.

And I'm not going to challenge the Satan that will be, and he will be utterly defeated. Utterly defeated. I think that's part of what Paul is referring to, isn't he, in Romans chapter 16? God bruising Satan under your feet shortly.

If you want to laugh, you can laugh at him as you go through. He'll be helpless. Tremendous challenge there.

And what a tremendous congregation. A great congregation. I've been doing some reading lately, just linking it with some things in Scripture, getting an appreciation for the incredible size of our solar system and galaxy after galaxy.

I mean, in our galaxy alone, our Milky Way galaxy, over 100 billion stars. And we're one of the smaller galaxies, likely 100 billion galaxies with trillions of stars. In fact, I was astounded to read this, but those who apparently are able to estimate it actually estimate that the number of stars in the sky roughly equals the number of grains of sand in the sea.

Now you just think of that, okay? Think of that vast expanse. Maybe one of the reasons is that the crowd entering heaven is going to be so great. We need that vast expanse to just go through.

But a great congregation caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The Lord's coming and the transformation that will occur. Five minutes for chapter five.

The Lord's coming and the times and seasons. There's a distinction to be observed here as we begin chapter five. In chapter four, I would not have you ignorant.

So here's something they needed to know. Chapter five, something they did know already. So obviously he's talking about two different things in chapter four.

Chapter four, they did not know. They needed to know. Chapter five, he says to them in chapter five, you know perfectly.

Here's what you do know. So chapter five is introducing a new subject at the very beginning. Not the Lord's coming for the church, but the Lord's coming in judgment upon the earth.

The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them as a thief, and so on, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. So he's talking at the beginning of chapter five about something totally different than the Lord's coming for the church.

This is times and seasons refers to God's dealings with Israel and God dealing now with the earth in terms of judgment, what we would call the day of the Lord, the great or the tribulation period that is entering, that is coming upon the earth in a coming day. They knew the scriptures. They knew the sequence of prophetic events, and they knew the sureness of those events.

That is up to verse number three. Then he tells them not just a distinction that we have to notice, but he says there's a doom that you're going to avert. He says you're not children of the night.

You're not marked by the darkness of this world. He says you belong to the light. You belong to the day.

The world's night is coming, but you belong to the day. You belong to the light, and God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. We are not appointed to the tribulation, but we are appointed to obtain deliverance.

Salvation, if you will, as he uses it here, God has appointed us not to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep. And again, I would take that. The idea of waking is being alert to his coming or sleep.

Those who are spiritually in slumber, no partial rapture, whether we wake or sleep, regardless of our spiritual condition, we should live eternally with him. What a tremendous thing. So there is a distinction to be observed, a doom that is avoided, a destiny to be enjoyed, the certainty of it, God has appointed it.

God has appointed it. Here is God's will for his church, that is to enjoy eternal fellowship in heaven. God has appointed the completeness of it, the conditions that awaits, that we should live.

Did you notice that word, live? I would take it that we have hardly begun to live here on earth. Hardly begun to live. Remember, on an occasion, a dear believer was called home, and I know that sometimes things can sound trite, but I think there is a tremendous truth to it.

When someone said to a grieving loved one, your wife was never more alive than she is right now. Never more alive than she is right now. We have hardly begun to live life as God intends us to live it, that we should live together with him.

The tremendous consummation, the tremendous communion with him, life with him. May God bless his word. The Lord's coming and the tribulation, we have no part of it.

The Lord's coming and the tribunal, we will have to face that day of judgment. The Lord's coming and our trials, tremendous encouragement. The Lord's coming and the transformation, a great change that will occur.

The Lord's coming in the times and seasons. We will have no part in the day of the Lord. The day of Christ is heavenly, that is what we are linked with, and we will live forever with him.