2024-03-10AM- Are You Ready?

Brother Jamie Ellington asks for prayers as he preaches. The Apostle Paul shares a mystery in 1 Corinthians 15 about the transformation of believers. Death is inevitable, but Paul discusses a different event - the rapture of the church. When the trumpet sounds, those who have died in Christ will be raised incorruptible. Our mortal bodies will be changed, and death will be defeated. Paul encourages believers to be steadfast and continue in the work of the Lord. In 1 Thessalonians 4, he further explains the rapture and the hope we have in Christ. The message asks the question, "Are you ready?" urging listeners to prepare for this event. I'm going to read this morning from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And as we get ready to get started right here today, I want to share with you, I received a text message this morning from Brother Jamie Ellington. And he just said, Would you please pray for me? He said, I've been asked to preach this morning. And he said, I preached Wednesday night. He said, and this didn't go well. And I know how that feels. I know how that feels to get up in a pulpit and walk away from it and think, I don't know what happened and why that didn't go well. So my heart goes out to Brother Ellington. He's probably getting in the pulpit about the same time that I am right here. So I want to remember him today. God will just pour out His Spirit on him. I know what it's like too. You know, he suffered that stroke. And I guess maybe now he's just getting back into the pulpit. I know what it feels like to wonder, Am I done? Is this the means you're using to pull me out of this? Because maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to say, I'm done with you. So I know what that feels like. To feel like maybe this is how you're just trying to choose to say, Look, I'm done with you. It's time to move on. So let's even keep him in mind as you listen to the preaching this morning and get involved in the preaching, that we've got a brother that's bothering him because he certainly wants to minister and do God's work. Alright, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We're going to start reading in verse 51. 1 Corinthians 15 and 51. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain. One more place. Please turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We're going to read a few verses here. Beginning with verse 13. But 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 under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel and with the 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. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Will you help me to pray? Lord, thank You so much for the opportunity to be standing here and to deliver Your Word. I'm asking for that power, the anointing, to get this message across so that it does just exactly what You have it planned for. And I pray for my brother preaching this morning. Brother Ellington, I ask you to set him on fire with the Holy Ghost. Give him the confidence that he needs to deliver Your Word. God, that they who hear will certainly be edified. And I pray You'll strengthen Your church today to exactly what You have planned here, I ask. Let us all be yielded to You in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to preach for a title this morning. Are You Ready? Are You Ready? The Apostle Paul here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 51, he makes the statement, I show you a mystery. The Apostle Paul had special revelations from Jesus Christ. Others didn't necessarily have. He was just like one of the prophets of the Old Testament, one of the historians of the Old Testament, when God would begin to reveal to the Apostle Paul. God worked that way through James and through Peter. God worked through John in that same way, how He would bring back to their memory, years after things had happened, to write things down under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And Paul here says, look, up until this time, you have been able to understand a lot that's been going, but God Himself has spoken to me. So I'm going to show you something here. I'm going to reveal to you a mystery. There are things that had yet to be revealed. Things that when the fullness of the time was come, and this was the time as the Apostle Paul began to write under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He said something that people haven't been able to grasp all that well just yet. I'm about to talk about it. Jesus had already told us in John chapter 14 about this mystery. The Apostle Paul said, I'm about to tell you something more. I'm about to build on what you already know. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. Now we often, especially as preachers, will reference Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27, where it says it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. And while death itself is still mysterious to us, because we've not really experienced it ourselves in the way that it's going to come, it's mysterious, but we all accept it. I mean, we understand that it's going to happen. We can trace all the way back to the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve had to look upon their dead son that their older son had just killed and think, this is what God was talking about. This is what our sin has brought us to as they look at the dead body of their own son. Since Cain slew Abel, death has been understood a little bit better. And so we get to thinking about how life is going to end. And even those who do not believe, even the agnostic who don't know whether they should believe or not, even the atheist has come to the conclusion by observation of life itself, that we're all going to die. God said it in His Word that it is appointed unto man once to die. One of our problems is we're always pretty sure it's not any time soon. I mean, especially the young, we get to the place where it's like death. That'll be some time off. We can look at those who are getting older. We can even look at those that are terminally ill. And we come to understanding, yeah, it's appointed unto man once to die. But it often feels like for us ourselves that death is a long way off. It's going to happen some farther time, and it's not even in our imagination. Plans get made in our lives because we're certain we're going to be around for another day. I don't know what you have planned for tomorrow, but I have plans. There's things that I've got in place. We already talked about a couple of them this morning, about some things that needed to get done. I said I'll take care of that tomorrow. And often we're caught ignoring the warning of James whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. We don't even know if tomorrow's going to come. And we make plans as if this life will continue to go on for the foreseeable future. And up to now, we've been right. Here I am. Just like I thought I'd be yesterday when we were here working at the church. I hadn't fully intended on being here in this spot about this time, and here I am. I was right again. I didn't die. But it's going to happen. Death is no respecter of persons. I just heard this morning of someone my age, my age, who was alive yesterday and not alive today. And so, as I continue in this message, I do want you to keep in mind my title. Just a simple question. Are you ready? Are you ready? We talk about death quite a lot. That there's a time appointed and a man wants to die. But that's not really what my text is addressing this morning. As we read there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, my text is referring to something different other than death. And while mankind has anticipated death, and partly understood that it's going to come, the Apostle Paul brings up the opportunity that's going to happen to somebody. Paul wasn't saying, now brace yourself because you shall die and not live, like one man was told in the Bible. But what the Apostle Paul is talking about here is a one-time event that's going to happen. One thing that's going to happen with a call to the church that Jesus Christ Himself has established and given Himself for and washed in His blood. When the church of the living God is going to leave this earth and is going to be called away to begin the rest of eternity in the presence of Almighty God, oh yes, there is coming a day in which there will be a trumpet that is going to sound. And the Bible says those who have died in Christ shall be raised incorruptible. Those bodies that begin to decay, that when once the breath has left and the heart is no longer pumping live blood through that body and it begins to break down, we've been there, some of us more than others, and seen bodies that grow cold, bodies that begin to turn dark, bodies that lose their color, and the decay begins to set in. He said there's coming a day that those who have died in Christ are going to rise up and will no longer have that decaying body. But He said they shall be raised incorruptible. All the things that we've been capable of doing, like these bodies that begin to break down, that after a day of work at the church it gets tough and it's hard on the body and it's painful, and we don't move as fast or as easy. But there's coming a day when these bodies, the Bible says, are going to be changed. The dead shall be raised incorruptible. He said the living at this time when the church is called out will be changed. And this corruptible, this perishable, this decaying body shall put on incorruption. There's going to come a day when everything's going to be different. I'll wear a body that does not decay, but will have an unending existence in the presence of God. This body that gets all out of breath when its lungs get damaged. This body that is susceptible to cancer and all other kinds of diseases. This corruptible body that when we get out here in the springtime and our bodies begin to react in ways negatively to the environment that we're in, sneezing and coughing and breaking down. This perishable body which gets weaker and weaker with age. This body shall put on incorruption. It's not going to be the same. The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian church. He described this vile body shall be changed and it will be fashioned into a glorious body. Paul here is teaching on what Jesus began in John chapter 14. Jesus made a prediction. And He just got, I guess you could say that it got our appetites whetted. It got us to where we're thinking, what do you mean by that? When He said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there ye may be also. And when we're just stuck in John chapter 14, it's that mystery that Paul was talking about. I don't know what he means by that, but it sure sounds comforting to me that there is coming a day when things are going to be changed. And just like Jesus mentioned, you remember in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18, He said upon this rock, I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And then it took epistles, it took writings of the apostles to explain what He's talking about when He said, I founded this church. Now I'm going to open up to you just exactly what the church is all about. When Jesus said, I go to prepare a place and I will come and I'm going to receive you unto Myself so that we can be together for all of eternity. He said, I'm going to let My disciples explain the rest of it to you. And here's what's happening with the apostle Paul and the Corinthian church inspired by the Holy Ghost giving us the specifics on how this is going to be happened, what Jesus had promised to us. Paul tells us here in verse 52, it's going to happen very quickly. It's going to happen in an instant. Here he says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. What he's talking about right here is that's just how fast this thing is going to happen. This isn't going to be drawn out over a period of time. It's not going to happen and people catch on and decide that they're going to do different. But the shortest time that you can think of, that is how fast that this event is going to take place. A moment. What he says here in verse 52, the Greek word for this is atomos. It's where we get the English word atom. Basically the Greeks are saying it's the smallest thing that anybody can even think of. It's indivisible. You can't get any shorter than this period of time. And somebody might decide that they're going to put it down in numbers and put it in a decimal. This is exactly what this means. And teach a science lesson what a moment is, what a twinkling of an eye is. But the point that he's getting across is this is going to happen fast. This is going to be so fast there's not going to be time to have a reaction. And what's really important is that when it happens, that you are prepared for it to happen. In verse Thessalonians chapter 4, there's even more clarity that is being given. We read that there are those who will be asleep at that time. And that's just a figure of speech. He explains it here in 1 Corinthians 15 and in 1 Thessalonians 4. A figure of speech concerning those who are dead. He said they're going to rise up from the dead when Christ calls for them. We have this promise in Romans chapter 8. If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead shall dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. There shall be the dead that are going to be involved in this event, but there shall be those who are alive at the time of this event. But he says the dead are coming forth first in a resurrection, and then the living shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. What a glorious time this is going to be when the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now, we're not given the specific timing of this event. We're not told when it's going to happen, but he did describe it like this. It'll be like a thief in the night. You can suspect it, but there's not going to be any forewarning. You're not getting a text message in 30 minutes. I'll be there for you. You're not getting a phone call. What'll happen is you'll get messages that'll ask you to be ready. What'll happen is you'll get messages that are going to tell you you've got to get rid of sin in your life. What you'll do is you'll hear messages about the unity of the brethren and keeping sin out of your life. That's the warnings that go forth for a time that shall happen in an immediate moment. All we know, it's going to happen without warning and that it's going to happen really fast. Really fast it is going to happen. The Bible says there will be a shout. It'll be a loud summons from Jesus Christ Himself. The voice of the Lord. Then there's going to be the voice of the archangel. Then there will be the sounding of God's trumpet. And in an instant, it's all going to be done. Hallelujah! The children of God are going to be caught up, the Bible says, in the air together to be with the Lord. And then those who are saved, those who have been born again, those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, those that are faithfully gods through Jesus Christ, are going to leave this world. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is going to be the very beginning of what the church has anticipated all along. Job said it like this, Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold. John said we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, or we shall see Him as He is. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Hallelujah! As a thief in the night, without warning, but a call is going to come forth. And so, in I Thessalonians chapter 4, when you're thinking about this, when you're thinking about how the church is going to leave, when you get to the place where you get disgusted among each other, there's going to be a catching away. He said we'll comfort one another with these words. When you get to the place where you're discouraged, when you get to the place where faith is beginning to fail, He said comfort one another. We're getting out of here, brothers and sisters. This whole world, as wicked as it's becoming, and I believe that the greatest sign of the time is the sinfulness that's in this world. We can talk about earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars, but read in your Bible. You'll find that the preponderance of sin, and when the sin has come to the full, that's when everything's going to change for the church. And we are getting out of here. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. We had a sneak peek in our Bibles about this type of event. Remember Enoch. The Bible says that he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. And the writer of Hebrews said that he was translated, that he should not see death. So it kind of gives us an understanding. That's kind of how that's going to happen. One moment, Enoch is walking along the earth, and the next minute he's gone. People that he said good morning to on that day never heard from him again, because he was gone. He was missing, because God translated him. You remember the story of Elijah the prophet. When it came time for him to go up, God sent a whirlwind down, pulled him up out of this world. Hallelujah! You remember when Jesus stood on that mountain talking to His disciples, and He said, look, I'm going away. And the Bible says He was parted from them, and He was caught up in the heaven. He was taken up. A cloud received Him out of their sight. We get a little insight on what it's going to be like when it's time for us to get out of here. And the Apostle Paul, with this in mind, to the Corinthian church, he told the Thessalonian church, comfort one another with these words. But he told the church at Corinth, he said, look, with this in mind, be steadfast, unmovable, get abundant in the work of the Lord. I want you to know that your labor is not in vain. But one thing I want you to know is abundantly clear when he talks about this catching away. In particular, when Christ comes for His church, He's coming for His church. And the Lord knoweth them that are His. This call is going to be a very selective call. Not everybody is going to participate in this event. Not everybody is going to be caught up together in the clouds. Some are going to be taken, but some are going to be left behind. Be assured that those who are leaving, those who are being pulled out of this world of sin, are those who are Christ's at His coming. It is those who have died in Christ. Among those that are left behind, there will be scores of scoffers who have scoffed at the Bible and mocked those who believe what the Holy Scripture says. Left behind, there will be those backsliders who fell in love with this world at the expense of their relationship with Almighty God. They're going to be left behind. It will be the pretenders, those who show up on Sunday morning in church and live the rest of the week to the fulfillment of the pleasures and the lusts of the flesh. Left behind, those whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame. Those who mind earthly things are going to be left behind. Abusive husbands are going to be left behind from a faithful Christian wife who's carried away into heaven. There's going to be dads and mothers left behind by children who've placed their confidence in Jesus Christ. There will be those unthankful, unholy, disrespectful children left as mothers and fathers are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Those who have refused God's repeated call to be saved from your sin through Jesus Christ will be left behind when this event takes place. Now, using my imagination, I can only suppose that this world is going to be left in chaos. It's going to be a confusing time for these people. It'll be the biggest news event ever. It'll beat them all. I imagine there'll be a big surge in interest in Bible prophecy then. I believe people aren't going to be so shy away from how's the end going to be. All of a sudden, people are going to start getting interested in what does the Bible else have to say concerning this. And uninterested people are finally going to get interested in what the Bible says. I believe that one of the most vivid depictions of this event Jesus gave Himself in Matthew chapter 25, in the opening verses of this chapter, when He begins to describe ten women. Ten women that in the eye of any casual observer were perfect candidates for the bridegroom. Every one of them undefiled. They all had a good reputation. They were not fornicators. They were not flirting with this world. They all looked like they were ready. Every one of them had a lamp in their hand. They were all dressed, not in the attire of a harlot, but they were dressed as a bride adorned for her husband. Every single one looked just as ready as the next one was. But Jesus Himself said, half these women are foolish. Half of them are foolish because while they appear like they're ready, while they talk like they are ready, they're not. They're not. There were five that really anticipated the coming of the bridegroom. There was five that really watched and waited and expected that this was really going to take place. Now all of them watched, but only five were thinking, I think it could happen now. I really do. The five wised, they supposed the bridegroom could call at any moment and so the wise stayed fully prepared. But you know the five foolish? They were convinced it's not today. They were fully convinced it is certainly not going to be today. Just like us when we supposed we weren't going to die last week and we didn't, every day went by, night after night, day after day passed, the five foolish. They look like they're right. Because every day they said, no, he ain't coming today. And somebody says, he might. And then they get up the next morning, I told you. I told you. And perhaps they got to the place, as is written in 2 Peter chapter 3, scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? While the wise were constantly careful to keep their lamps and their vessels filled with oil. But the foolish did not care to maintain their vessels. They did not care to maintain the ability to get up and go at the call of the bridegroom. Now they all had the chance, the opportunity to be ready. But the foolish, repeatedly, time after time, passed up the opportunity to prepare themselves for the call of the bridegroom, when the moment would take place that the bridegroom would appear. Jesus was clear in this parable, there shall be no time at that moment to get ready. The door of opportunity will swiftly close, and those opportunities will no longer exist. And only those who were always ready for the bridegroom were the ones who get called away. And you can read in Matthew chapter 25, it's palpable. You can clearly hear the sorrow in the voices of five foolish virgins as they cry on the other side of a door that cannot be opened. Lord, Lord, open to us. And the only thing they hear might be a muffled call from the other side of a closed door. Verily I say unto you, I know you not. And when Jesus closed this parable in Matthew chapter 25, He said this, Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. And so I ask again, are you ready? Are you prepared? Right now, we don't have the opportunity. We're not going to have that when the voice of the Lord calls. When the sound of the archangel's voice sounds. When the trumpet sounds. It's not going to be in succession. I just heard a voice. I just heard another voice. There's probably a trumpet coming. I better get ready. No, it's going to happen in a moment. It will happen in a twinkling of an eye. And those who are prepared are getting up out of here right now and moving out of this place. Those who are unprepared will be right here. Now look, I know what it feels like to lay in my bed at night wondering has it happened? As it's quiet, it's dark, and I knew that I wasn't ready, and I promised the Lord, give me another chance. If it hadn't happened, I'll never let this happen again. I know the fear, but I cannot imagine the multiplied millions upon that feeling of somebody who knows it has happened and they're gone! And I missed it because I was not ready. Are you ready to meet the Lord in the air? Are you ready to ever be with the Lord? You'll find no shortage of somebody telling you it's not a big deal. You'll find no shortage of somebody saying, oh, you had an experience ten years ago. You're covered. But I'm telling you, if the oil has run out, if you've left the vessel behind, if you've dropped off the lantern, you may look the part, you may sound the part, you may know what it's all about, but I'll tell you what, when the bridegroom comes and the call is, go ye out to meet him, and you say, Lord, Lord, open to me! Watch ye therefore, for ye know not the hour when the Son of Man cometh. Brother Halston, would you come and get us a song, please? Several years ago, my wife and Lily and I went out to Owensboro and we bought a car. And I was in the lead vehicle coming back. And she'd call and she'd say, this gas gauge is low. I said, that's all right. Once we get on the parkway, we'll get off and we'll get fuel. And I kept passing up. There were no exits. It's a long stretch. It was dark. It was night. And my wife would say, I don't know how much longer, I mean, we weren't used to this vehicle. Sometimes you might be able to gauge how long you can go on an empty tank, but not on a vehicle you never had before. And she said, I don't know. What are we going to do if I run out of gas? What's going to happen? You know, I don't want to be left here on the side of the road walking and trying to find, or going after something and me, and Lily be left on the side of the road. So I made up in my mind, first chance. First gas station. It might be the most expensive in the state, but it really doesn't matter to me right now because I cannot take that chance. And I want to implore everyone under the sound of my voice today, you cannot afford to take the chance that when it all runs out, when the voice of the Lord sounds, when the voice of the Archangel, where are we now? I mean, I just wonder, where are we now? Could it be possible that the Father is putting everything in order and He's getting them lined up right now as I stand in this pulpit? Could it be right now that He calls for the Archangel and says, come on over here. It's just about time. But it's going to happen! It's going to happen in a moment! In the twinkling of an eye, somebody's going to be missing and somebody's going to be left behind. Are you ready? Oh, Father, I thank You so much, Lord, for the opportunity to deliver this message today. God, I pray, let there arise a concern among us. God, even those, Lord, that might be considered dressed like one of the five wise, one of those with a reputation of a five wise, God, that You know, You know there's not been made a preparation. You know whether there's somebody ready for this calling away. You know, God, and I'm asking You today to help somebody to make the calling and the election sure in this house today. Lord, You're the only one who can do it. You're the only one who can make that call. I've offered myself a preacher, God, but the Holy Ghost, Lord, we count on You to make that call and I pray somebody make it right today. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Are you ready? Are you ready right now? At this very moment. Will you put it off? You say it's worked for me thus far. It's gotten me this far. There's going to come a day, this old gas station building, nobody's going to be here to open the door. Nobody's going to come in and turn off the alarm system in the locks and turn on the lights because some of us are going. I want all of us to go. I want all of us to go. So now, is there some reason that you won't? Is there some reason, sin? That's what's going to keep you. That's what's going to keep you from going. It's sin. But the one who can take away all sin can give assurance and confidence. I've got my vessel full of oil and I've got my lamp and my ears are tuned. All it's going to take is to hear the voice of the bridegroom. And I'm going because I'm ready. I've made preparation. Is there somebody today you'd like to come on? You'd like to get in this altar and say, I can't take the chance anymore. I cannot take the chance anymore. I've got to be ready. I've got to be prepared right now. Is there somebody you'd love to slip out, get into this altar? If you've been saved, but you know things ain't right, get in this altar. If you haven't been saved, get in this altar. Make yourself ready. He'll do it. He does all the work. He does all the work. You've just got to come and lay it down before Him. He takes care of it. You don't have to work it out. He's already done that on Calvary. Somebody. Oh, come on. Come on. Make yourself ready. Be prepared for the coming of the Lord. Oh. All right, church, let's all come in. And you who've hesitated, please, don't put it off. You who've decided that I've been okay thus far, don't put it off. Don't put it off. Let's get ready. Let's make sure that we are prepared for the Lord is coming. He promised it. He promised, I will come. I will come and I will receive you unto myself. Paul said this is how it's going to happen. There's going to be some noise and you're going with me. Be ready. Be ready in the name of Jesus. Oh, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Hallelujah. Oh, God. Lord. Oh, Lord. I want to go to heaven. Hell is an awful, awful place. In the book, the promise was given. I was saved by amazing grace. Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. I want to pray. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Lord. Oh, Lord. I want to go to heaven. Jesus didn't mean it as a threat. He meant it as a wonderful, comforting promise. I want you to go with me. But you've got to be ready. You've got to be ready. I've been on my knees. Standing up my plea. I've been bending over. Lord, I want to go. Lord. Oh, Lord. I want to go to heaven. Hell is an awful, awful place. In the book, the promise was given. I was saved by amazing grace.