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1 THESSALONIANS 4 (SECOND READING)

Rem The previous three verses come down to every detail of life.

CAC Yes, the walk of saints is not only to be pleasing to God, but of such a character as to approve itself to man. They are to be marked by quietly attending to their own matters, working with their own hands, so that there may be no reproach.

Ques Would you say the saints were troubled, and that called forth this special word about the rapture?

CAC Yes, it would seem they were concerned about those who had fallen asleep. We should be badly off if we had not these few verses, as it is the only Scripture that gives the rapture.

Ques Is it implied in ^[p. 262] John 14?

CAC Yes, but you could not learn the rapture from that. There are hundreds of scriptures which refer to the coming of the Lord, but this is the only scripture that shews in a distinct way that the rapture precedes the manifestation. The rapture is necessary because God is going to bring with Him those who sleep. The point is, How can God bring them? So the rapture is brought in to shew. When Christ comes the saints come with Him. Well, how can that be? Because the saints are going to be caught up first. When we understand this scripture, we can see how others like John 14 fit in with it, but we could not learn the rapture from John 14.

The rapture is brought in as comfort for the saints. We have been seeing what an immense place the activity of love had amongst these brethren; loving one another was the way of holiness and so on. Paul had charged them to love one another, and said they did it. It was their love for one another that made them so sorrowful when some of their number slept. Paul had said a great deal about the coming of the Lord; the Thessalonians were marked by waiting for the Son from heaven, but they did not understand this particular truth about the catching up of the saints. We must remember that the preaching of the kingdom had an effect on people in those days that it has not now. A long period of time having elapsed takes the edge off the expectation, but these Thessalonians really expected the kingdom in their lifetime. Paul had preached that Christ was the Messiah, the rightful Heir, who would take up His rights, and they looked for Him to come speedily; they never thought of the kingdom being postponed. But they thought that these saints who had been put to sleep through Jesus had missed the kingdom, and this epistle was written to correct that. We can see now how saints have lost the immediateness of the Lord’s coming.

^[p. 263] Rem It was prominent in preaching and teaching forty years ago.

CAC The hope ought not to have diminished in the interval. We are forty years nearer to its fulfilment. There was a long period of time when the truth of the coming dropped out, but when once it was restored then the important thing was that the saints should be ready, and what the Spirit has been doing ever since by ministry and teaching has been the preparation of the bride. Speaking generally, the truth of the Lord’s coming has spread and been received by all intelligent christians in all denominations.

Ques Was there more manifest interest in the truth twenty years ago?

CAC All the ministry and the way the truth has been brought before saints has been in view of the coming, to prepare the bride. All that God has been doing since the Reformation (which was no doubt the midnight cry) has been to awake the saints so that they might trim their lamps and be ready. I think there has been a great awakening movement on God’s part. It began with the Reformation and has continued to this day, and all along the Spirit has been restoring and reviving certain truths that had dropped out. Christianity as a system of heavenly privilege had been quite lost sight of till God began to revive the truth. He began with justification by faith at the Reformation, and the whole time since then, 400 years, has been a time of revival. The Lord had in view His own return, and the truth has been coming out in power.

Rem We are clear enough in doctrine!

CAC Well, that is a mercy! If people are not clear they get their hearts set on other things; for instance, many have laboured for the improvement of this world. If you do not know the line on which to go, you waste your time. All the unfoldings of prophetic truth in the early part of ^[p. 264] the last century were to disentangle saints; they were entangled in things not of God. And what is God’s object? That our hearts might be free undistractedly to go after Christ.

Rem There used to be a great deal of preaching about the Lord’s coming.

CAC I think it was largely an event that was preached; it caused fear, and no doubt the Lord used it, but it is a Person and not an event that should be before us. The question is how much the Person is established in our hearts. All ministry is to build up Christ in our affections so that we might be ready for the rapture, and for the appearing too. It is possible to hold the truth of the Lord’s coming and to be as dead as a door-nail. We want movements of life and we see that in these Thessalonians. My impression is that the great preparation for the Lord’s coming is that we should love one another. I think that is what pleases the Lord.

Ques Are we beyond the mid-night cry?

CAC I think it is going out still with increasing power. Every ministry of Christ is “Behold the bridegroom”. The word ‘cometh’ is not in Matthew 25: 6; it is simply, “Behold the bridegroom”. It is calling attention to a Person, and every ministry that calls attention to Christ is the midnight cry. If the presentation of Christ does not prepare souls for His coming, nothing will.

Ques Why does Paul go back to, “If we believe that Jesus has died and has risen”?

CAC It is the foundation of everything. Jesus has died and risen again. He has broken the power of death, so He has divine title over those who have fallen asleep. No power of evil can hold saints in death, because Jesus has died and risen. He has been in death and carried away its gates and bars, as Samson did.

What a beautiful expression, “asleep through Jesus”.

^[p. 265] Probably they were killed, they were put to death directly on account of Jesus. There is something very beautiful about the death of a saint. It says, in Romans 14: 8, that if we live we live unto the Lord, and if we die we die unto the Lord. It is wonderful to live to the Lord, and when we die to die to the Lord.

It was a wonderful triumph that an Old Testament saint could die in faith, a greater triumph than for us. If we die we die to the Lord; what the saint has before him is the Lord, and the Lord is absolutely supreme even in the domain of death. We enter into a sphere which is under the lordship of Christ: He is Lord of the dead and of the living. When we go into death we do not go into a region of darkness at all; we are going into a domain where Jesus is supreme; the saint dies in the consciousness of this. It is characteristic of saints that they die in the sense that Jesus is supreme in the region that they are entering into. That is why they can fall asleep, they can go into it so peacefully and quietly. It is remarkable that the Lord Himself fills that scene.

There are only three scriptures that speak of the departure of christians; for the thief on the cross it was “with me”, that is, with Jesus; Paul has “the desire for departure and being with Christ”, and then again he speaks of being “absent from the body and present with the Lord”. The Saviour could take a poor sinner to be with Himself. Christ is the anointed Man who will bring all God’s thoughts to pass. The Lord is the One who has dominion over death. So we have the three titles of the Lord. Death has no fear for the believer; everything in the domain of death is filled up with a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It should be the great desire of saints to know more of Him in this threefold character as Lord — Jesus — Christ. Sometimes in our history we have been very happy in having a thought of Jesus the Saviour, of the Lord supreme in grace, or of ^[p. 266] Christ the anointed One in whom all God’s thoughts are established. The least little bit of knowledge of Him is enough to fill the heart to overflowing, but why should not we know Him more? It cheers me when I enjoy a thought of the Lord to remember that this is what I shall have the undistracted joy of, with no disturbing element. We perhaps have the joy for five minutes here and then some distraction comes, but think of being in a sphere where there is no distraction! The saints there are waiting with Him. His titles of Lord, Jesus, Christ, carry the thought of His kingdom, and the saints there who are waiting have this absolute blessedness of the undistracted enjoyment of the Lord. The Lord Himself is going to introduce them into the full fruition.

There have been those who have loved the Lord, who have said they would rather go through death because the Lord did. Paul desired (Philippians 3) to reach the resurrection, as the Lord did, through death; he wanted to die for the One who had died for him, “being conformed to his death”. Peter desired the same thing, and the Lord allowed it after a long life of service. It means very real affection that would lead one to follow Him even through death. Peter said, “I will lay down my life for thee”, and he meant it, and the Lord granted his desire. There is never a spiritual desire that the Lord does not fulfil. The Lord will never disappoint you of anything you desire spiritually. I have seen the Lord fulfil the desires of people when they had wonderful desires that seemed beyond possibility of realization. Peter had not measured what it meant to lay down his life; he had to learn that a servant girl could frighten him, but he came to it afterwards when he said that “the putting off of my tabernacle is speedily to take place”.

It is the Lord Himself. The thought of power is prominent. He will come forth in power; it is the first wave of the power of His kingdom, “which he has even to subdue all things to himself”, that could give saints bodies like Himself. The saints that have fallen asleep will feel the first touch of His power, for the dead in Christ rise first. It is very sweet that it is the Lord Himself that comes. God will have an answer to every question when He displays His saints in the same glory with Christ. What an answer! The saints now often suffer through their bodies in different ways, and there are many things difficult to understand, but, when all is seen in the light of His accomplished will in the saints, what a triumph it will be!

It will be wonderful to meet the Lord in the air, to meet Him in the air, not in heaven! He is supreme in every sphere. “The Lord... shall descend from heaven”; He comes down into the air.

Ques Do you mean that Satan will be dispossessed as prince of the power of the air? The Lord came to dispossess him.

CAC Yes, when the Lord comes Satan goes. The Lord’s coming forth will mean the entire dispossession of Satan. The saints’ coming in glory will mean that Satan will go under their feet. Man is getting to the end of his tether, getting to the full height of his ambition. What a great thing it is to see that the Lord will have the place of supremacy in everything! He is supreme now in heaven, and has been for more than 1900 years; He will be supreme in the air and have His saints to meet Him there and then He will be supreme on the earth. It is wonderful to think we are bound up with that Person!

Ques Is that like putting on the Lord Jesus Christ?

CAC Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ is putting Him on as character in contrast with the flesh. We are to come out wearing the Lord Jesus Christ, robed in the full glory of that Person, so when people look at a saint now they ought to see the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in contrast with all ^[p. 268] that the flesh lusts after. We shall put Him on gloriously by and by but we are to put Him on morally now. People who have done that would be ready for His coming, would they not?

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