Sermon Tone Analysis

THE RAPTURE: “A MESSAGE OF COMFORT” –

1 Thess 4:14-18

By way of Introduction allow me to make some Statements:-

1] We are living in a very unusual and very unique time.

2. We are seeing are at this time lot of ANGER and Annoyance by People.

3.

This Anger and Annoyance is Mostly directed at Governments and Authorities Moving from Responsible Decision Making to invading and infringing and impeding the peoples personnel rights, And personnel Responsibilities and people ‘s personnel constitutional rights to choice.

To quote some people’s thinking, it was said to me in a matter of words

“Surely a government with the educated people they have would not do anything that would be wrong or detrimental to the people they government”

My answer to that is easy and simple ;-

“ the most dangerous thing to give anyone is an EDUCATION without GOD in it”

All Governments Have one goal in mind that Governs their way and direction that is--

ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT WITHOUT GOD IN IT.

All Christians who believe the bible know that this is coming.

Left wing and ungodly governments cannot and will not do anything good and beneficial to the Godly Cause for those they govern.

To say a government would not do anything wrong to those they govern is either naive or blind or may i say may be stupid.

History will testify to that.

4. As a fundamental bible believing baptist, the most disappointing thing is the shear lack of truth and knowledge concerning mainly the END time EVENTS.

5. the Christian must return to the Absolute confidence in the ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY of the WORD of GOD.

6.

The Bible is replete with the INDIVIDUAL CHOICE in LIFE.

Now let us Enter the sermon properly.

We wish to look at COVID and the latest mandate its impact upon the christian and their relationship to the END TIMES.

SOME QUESTIONS THAT COME TO MIND.

I}.

WHO ARE WE LOOKING TO: -

HEB 12:1-3

a. Author

b.

Finisher

II}.

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR .

Titus 2:13

a. Blessed HOPE

b.

Glorious Appearing

III} WHERE ARE WE TO LOOK.

James 1:25

a. Perfect Law

B. Liberty

“Looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2).

Only three words, but in those three words is the whole secret of life.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS in the Scriptures,

    to learn there what He is, what He has done, what He gives, what He desires; to find in His character our pattern, in His teachings our instruction, in His precepts our law, in His promises our support, in His person and in His work a full satisfaction provided for every need of our souls.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS Crucified,

    to find in His shed blood our ransom, our pardon, our peace.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS Risen,

    to find in Him the righteousness which alone makes us righteous, and permits us, all unworthy as we are, to draw near with boldness, in His Name, to Him who is His Father and our Father, His God and our God.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS Glorified,

    to find in Him our Heavenly Advocate completing by His intercession the work inspired by His lovingkindness for our salvation (I John 2:1);

Who even now is appearing for us before the face of God (Hebrews 9: 24), the kingly Priest, the spotless Victim, continually representing us before the Heavenly Father.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS revealed by the Holy Spirit,

    to find in constant communion with Him the cleansing of our sin-stained hearts, the illumination of our darkened spirits, the transformation of our rebel wills; enabled by Him to triumph over all attacks of the world and of the evil one, resisting their violence by Jesus our Strength, and overcoming their subtilty by Jesus our Wisdom; upheld by the sympathy of Jesus, Who was spared no temptation, and by the help of Jesus, Who yielded to none.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS Who gives repentance

    as well as forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31), because He gives us the grace to recognize, to deplore, to confess, and to forsake our transgressions.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS to receive from Him

 

   the task and the cross for each day, with the grace which is sufficient to carry the cross and to accomplish the task; the grace that enables us to be patient with His patience, active with His activity, loving with His love; never asking “What am I able for?” but rather:

“What is He not able for?” and waiting for His strength which is made perfect in our weakness (II Corinthians 12:9).

LOOKING UNTO JESUS to go forth from ourselves

    and to forget ourselves; so that our darkness may flee away before the brightness of His face; so that our joys may be holy, and our sorrow restrained; that He may cast us down, and that He may raise us up; that He may afflict us, and that He may comfort us; that He may despoil us, and that He may enrich us; that He may teach us to pray, and that He may answer our prayers; that while leaving us in the world, He may separate us from it, our life being hidden with Him in God, and our behaviour bearing witness to Him before men.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS

    Who, having returned to the Father’s house, is engaged in preparing a place there for us; so that this joyful prospect may make us live in hope, and prepare us to die in peace, when the day shall come for us to meet this last enemy, whom He has overcome for us, whom we shall overcome through Him-so that what was once the king of terrors is today the harbinger of eternal happiness.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS Whose certain return,

    at an uncertain time, is from age to age the expectation and the hope of the faithful Church, who is encouraged in her patience, watchfulness, and joy by the thought that the Saviour is at hand (Philippians 4:4,5; I Thessalonians 5:23).

LOOKING UNTO JESUS the Author and the Finisher,

    of our faith: that is to say, He Who is its pattern and its source, even as He is its object; and Who from the first step even to the last marches at the head of the believers; so that by Him our faith may be inspired, encouraged, sustained, and led on to its supreme consummation.

LOOKING UNTO JESUS and at nothing else,

    as our text expresses it in one untranslatable word (aphoroontes), which at the same time directs us to fix our gaze upon Him, and to turn it away from everything else.

UNTO JESUS and not at ourselves,

    our thoughts, our reasonings, our imaginings, our inclinations, our wishes, our plans;

UNTO JESUS and not at the world,

    its customs, its example, its rules, its judgments;

UNTO JESUS and not at Satan,

    though he seek to terrify us by his fury, or to entice us by his flatteries.

Oh! from how many useless questions we would save ourselves, from how many disturbing scruples, from how much loss of time, dangerous dallyings with evil, waste of energy, empty dreams, bitter disappointments, sorrowful struggles, and distressing falls, by looking steadily unto Jesus, and by following Him wherever He may lead us.

Then we shall be too much occupied with not losing sight of the path which He marks out for us, to waste even a glance on those in which He does not think it suitable to lead us.

UNTO JESUS and not at our creeds,

    no matter how evangelical they may be.

The faith which saves, which sanctifies, and which comforts, is not giving assent to the doctrine of salvation; it is being united to the person of the Saviour.

“It is not enough,” said Adolphe Monod, “to know about Jesus Christ, it is necessary to have Jesus Christ.”

To this one may add that no one truly knows Him, if he does not first possess Him.

According to the profound saying of the beloved disciple, it is in the Life there is Light, and it is in Jesus there is Life (John 1:4).

UNTO JESUS and not at our meditations

    and our prayers, our pious conversations and our profitable reading, the holy meetings that we attend, nor even to our taking part in the supper of the Lord.

Let us faithfully use all these means of grace, but without confusing them with grace itself; and without turning our gaze away from Him Who alone makes them effectual, when, by their means, He reveals Himself to us.

UNTO JESUS and not to our position

    in the Christian Church, to the family to which we belong, to our baptism, to the education which we have received, to the doctrine which we profess, to the opinion which others have formed of our piety, or to the opinion which we have formed of it ourselves.

Some of those who have prophesied in the Name of the Lord Jesus will one day hear Him say: “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:22,23); but He will confess before His Father and before His angels even the most humble of those who have looked unto Him.

UNTO JESUS and not to our brethren,

    not even to the best among them and the best beloved.

In following a man we run the risk of losing our way; in following Jesus we are sure of never losing our way.

Besides, in putting a man between Jesus and ourselves, it will come to pass that insensibly the man will increase and Jesus will decrease; soon we no longer know how to find Jesus when we cannot find the man, and if he fails us, all fails.

On the contrary, if Jesus is kept between us and our closest friend, our attachment to the person will be at the same time less enthralling and more deep; less passionate and more tender; less necessary and more useful; an instrument of rich blessing in the hands of God when He is pleased to make use of him; and whose absence will be a further blessing, when it may please God to dispense with him, to draw us even nearer to the only Friend who can be separated from us by “neither death nor life” (Romans 8:38,39).

UNTO JESUS and not at His enemies

    or at our own.

In place of hating them and fearing them, we shall then know how to love them and to overcome them.

UNTO JESUS and not at the obstacles

    which meet us in our path.

As soon as we stop to consider them, they amaze us, they confuse us, they overwhelm us, incapable as we are of understanding either the reason why they are permitted, or the means by which we may overcome them.

The apostle began to sink as soon as he turned to look at the waves tossed by the storm; it was while he was looking at Jesus that he walked on the waters as on a rock.

The more difficult our task, the more terrifying our temptations, the more essential it is that we look only at Jesus.

UNTO JESUS and not at our troubles,