SNT 470 Part 1 - 1 Thessalonians 4 (Cummins)
Format: Mp3
Publication Date: 09-27-1970
Walter J. Cummins graduated from the Power for Abundant Class in 1962.
He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Ohio State University in 1968 and his Master of Education degree in Secondary School Administration in 1978 from Wright State University.
He was ordained to the Christian by The Way International in 1968. He has studied at The Way International under Victor Paul Wierwille and K.C.Pillai. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he was director of the Research department of the Way International and served as assistant to the president.
SNT-470pt1-IThessalonians4(Cummins) DRAFT
SUMMARY KEYWORDS: God, disorderly, church, leader, comfort, situation, unruly, individual, lord, brethren, Timothy, tongues
First Thessalonians chapter four verse Thessalonians. And second Thessalonians has a lot to do. As a matter of fact, it was written regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the church in the future. In First Thessalonians chapter four, we have that record. Regarding the ending of the mystery, of which we're a part the administration of grace, which was, began on the day of Pentecost was made known to the apostle Paul, and of which we are apart, and will terminate with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the gathering together for the church. And in verse 13 of chapter four, this record begins, but I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Asleep, of course, is asleep, in depth, not asleep, like at night when you go to bed, but asleep in depth concerning those which are asleep, that she sorrow not, that she sorrow not, even as others which have no sure, if you have no hope, of the gathering together. If you have no hope for the future, when you die, you're dead. That's it. It's all over within, you have no hope. But when you know the word, when you're born again of God's Spirit, you can look forward to that gathering together when those which are asleep. He says something's going to happen. concerning them, which are those which are asleep, that you sir, or not, even as others which have no hope, verse 14, For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, do you believe it? Yeah. Okay, well praise the Lord. Even so, them which them also which sleepin Jesus, who also believed that he died and that he rose again? Well, God, bring with him. Today, yesterday, tomorrow, wasn't yesterday, I know, might be tonight, yet it might be tomorrow, it might be 100 years from now, I don't know when. But he says, will God bring with him, God will bring these people with him who are asleep. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, by the Word of who? The Lord not man, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord, shall not precede. Of course as the word the word prevent in the Old English means to precede shall not precede them which are asleep. We're not going to precede those which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and then, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then, then, after those which are asleep, the dead in Christ are risen, 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, for a little time be with the Lord. No, forever. So shall we ever, ever be with the Lord? It says, Those that are asleep in Christ, those who are not born again, those who are born again of God's Spirit, but fell asleep. Those who are dead in Christ, they shall get up first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds. I always think of that picture, you know, where we're all gathered here on Earth, we may not all be gathered. Some of us may be alone. Some of us may be with a friend, some of us may be in a group and what's going to happen? Some of them will be taken up to meet the others in the air to meet the Lord in the air. And some of them are going to stay here. What a shock for the others. But what tremendous picture for the rest of us. Isn't that fabulous?
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often think of how privileged we are. And again, it's not by our own works, but because God loved us. By grace we're seeing, not of works lest any man should boast. Isn't that a fabulous thing? A reality? Isn't that something to really look forward to? If someone falls asleep in Christ, to know that they're going to be in the resurrection are in the gathering together? Sir, certainly must bless your soul, right? Not Not at all, like those which have no hope, like it said back in verse 13, even as others which have no hope. It's not at all like that. But verse 18, he says, Wherefore, Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Again, what a tremendous comfort there is, in such words, in such a picture of the reality of what's coming in the future, amen. There's fabulous comfort. chapter five, verse one, but But of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night, the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, he says, you, you who are in the church that's lunians addressed to the church, right? have no need that I write unto you concerning the times and seasons. For you know, the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, okay, as they come in tomorrow. I don't know. It comes as a thief in the night, but you still have no need that I write unto you. Concerning the times and seasons, for when you shall say. And they better not be you. Or you'll fall in that other category. Yeah, when they shall say they they who? Yeah, the ones that are outside of the church. Notice how he changed the person in the pronoun here before he was talking to you. When and I still talking to you? But he says, one day, they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction come with a bond you know, upon them, come upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. But ye ye now we're getting back to you. brethren, are not in darkness, that that they should overtake you as a feat. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness Therefore let us not sleep in the night no no let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober spiritually let us well physically other way to let us watch and be sober that's right the others they it says this day is going to overtake them as a thief in the night you know like the thief comes up they won't even know what hit him that's a thief you know a robbers one that comes up and six a gun in your face a thief does the sneaky business you know it comes in the back window goes up. opens your safe you know, figures it out use a stethoscope if necessary. gets the money out sneaks out the back window again. And when do you find out the money's gone? Next day or whenever you look in and again. You know, I know you've been hit till after he's gone. They that they will overtake them as a thief in the night. They won't even know what hit them. See a few funny things happening like from my stand beside them all sudden he's going up in the air right? That's right. But they they will no really what's him it's coming as a thief in the night. But you brethren are not of the nature of the day. Your children of light. So watch, be sober. He could come anytime. And let's be in fellowship when it comes to the strength thing. Be sober. Are they that sleep, verse seven, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate plate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. Verse nine, For God has not appointed us to wrath. The day of the Lord is going to be full of wrath, isn't it? Don't believe me just take a peek at Revelation sometime. All kinds of baloney gonna happen to those people. It's a day of wrath. Another place that it calls it a day of vengeance of the Lord. That's right. But says we, he has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain what? Salvation salvation to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that beautiful, that wonderful? To know that we're not going to be in the wrath, but that we have obtained salvation. Marvels, verse 11. Again, he says, Wherefore? Because Christ, God in Christ made this available to you. Because you are going to be in the gathering together. Because you're not going to be in the wrath, but because you've obtained salvation. Wherefore, Wherefore he says, comfort yourselves together. And the word comfort is the word that's normally translated in courage, and courage yourself and courage yourselves together and edify one another, even as also you do. Was there edification and encouragement here tonight? In the manifestations That's right, a message from God, or for God, to the people to edify them by way of exhortation and comfort. Sure, there was come, edification income, edification, with expectation and comfort there wasn't there. says, Wherefore encourage yourselves together, build one another up, encourage yourself, and then edify build up one another, even as you also do, because if you don't build up one another, what's the world gonna do to you? They're not going to build you up. I'll clue you. In case you haven't found out yet. No, the world's not going to do it. But build up one another, encourage one another. Say let's isn't this word? Great. Let's get moving with the greatness elements. They encourage one another. Because you know, you're going to be in the gathering together, aren't you? Aren't you? Okay? Wherefore encourage one another shoot, if you've got a hope like that. Man, you just, you're so thankful. And you just, you just want to be built up at all times, encourage one another. It's like I've heard doctor will say, we can't afford to be down more than an hour around here. We have to stay on top of the heap. We have to constantly encourage one another build each other up. Boy, we've got to stay on top of the heap. If you don't, how are you going to help someone else out in the world who doesn't know God yet?
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Or who doesn't know the greatness of the word? How are you going to help them? Unless your build up unless you're on top of the heap? Sure, stand up. Encourage one another, build each other up. And if you're all build up, then you can go out and help someone else to the greatness of the word right? Encourage one another edify one another, even as you also do, verse 12. And he goes on to elaborate upon this. We beseech you, brethren, to know kn O W to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. In other words, he's talking about the leaders in the church. He says, You who are in the church, I want you to know those people who work among you who labor among you. They work with you. They don't want Using they work with you, because they're brothers with you, your brothers in Christ, they work with you. And what else to say they are over you are over in the great because the word to stand before they stand before you. They work among you work with you, and they stand before you and what else they admonish you? admonishes the word admonish, literally. If you break it down, it's to put in mind, to put in the mind to put something in their minds. That's how they warn you. That's how they admonish you by putting something in your mind. Now, what are they going to put in your mind? Baloney? No, the word write the word. By putting the word in your mind. That's how they warn you. That's how they admonish you. Three things there. I want you to know these people who work with you. Number one, work with you, who stand before you and who you, warn you by putting things into your mind by putting the word into your mind. That's the leaders know these people, because they work with you. They stand before you and by standing before you they share with you the greatness of God's Word. They're warning you in a sense, when they literally regarding some matters, they're warning you by putting that word into your mind. Putting that word into your mind, it says I want you to know these people who were in the church and verse 13. And to esteem them to esteem them not just to recognize them doesn't stop there. It goes on to esteem them very highly. Very highly. You don't look at him. You don't just Yeah, hi. Oh, hello, Joe. How you doing? Doctor world? Oh, hello, how you doing? Great. You're a leader in the church last wonderful. Know, you esteem them very highly. You. You admonish the leader in the church, not just here at headquarters, the leader in your community in Columbus, you have Mr. dorsum. And in other areas, you have other leaders, Wichita, you have Donnie fuga, California has jammed up other people who are leaders and these people, according to the word us steam them or reckon them very highly not just highlight but very highly, because they are leaders in the church. They are ministers of God, not ministers, ministers of the United States, the greatest nation in the world. They are ministers of God was higher than the United States. You don't believe me? have a talk with you sometime. You esteem these leaders that labor among you. That labor among you, that stand before you and that work, are admonished you by putting the word into your minds, these people you esteem very highly addressed to you in the church. And be at peace among yourselves. Do you see the beauty of this thing? Thank you do suppose here's the leader in the church. I'm a follower disciple. I come up. I said, Well, now I don't quite agree with way you run in the operation here. I think it ought to be done this way.
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And as a matter of fact, no matter what, whether you agree with me or not, this is the way I'm going to run it in the church, even though I'm no I'm not the leader in the church. That's still the way I'm going to run. Okay, here's the leader over here. You've just told him something like this. Now, what does he do? What can you do? If he's, if you've just told him you're not going to walk? You know, with him? You're not you don't believe what he's saying? You want to teach something else? Or do something else? I don't think we ought to do tongues and interpretation together. I think we ought to divide him up. All right. Now what happens? We have division in the church. Don't worry. We're not at peace among ourselves. See that? How this verse? Why that that last part of the verse goes right with it, and be at peace among yourselves. If everybody's a leader, you wouldn't have peace, I'll clue you in. But the man of God who's in charge is responsible to God for His people. And you're responsible to God to do with the man of God who's over you, since that's the word. It says a steam them recommend them, recognize them very highly. You set them above anything else, the President walks in the door, a man of God walks in the door, at the same time, you recognize the man of God is a little bit higher than the President. Maybe a little more than a little bit. Because he is a man of God, you esteem them very highly. And if you do this, walking on the word, following that Manna God, then you'll be at peace among yourselves. They do see that fabulous. Keep your finger here, look at Philippians give you an example. Philippians chapter two. Philippians 219. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy, Timothy, Timothy, shortly unto you, that I also meat may be of good comfort. When I know your state, not your standing, he knows they're standing doesn't mean they're standing is what a son of God, their state is their fellowship with God that may fluctuate. Their fellowship may fluctuate, you know, like the fellowship with the Father with the son, the son throws the football through the window, what happens to his fellowship? It's broken as soon as the window but he says, I send Timothy Unto You, I want to shortly that I may know your state, your state, your fellowship with God. For I have no man like minded and of course, you know that word like minded means souls that are equal equal soul. Having two souls that are equal, they think alike the groove of like everything else, they just right down the line, their lives just patterned together. Timothy was like Paul, no man who was equal soul who had a mind that clicked like Paul's, who will naturally care for your state, for all seek their own. They're not seeking the things in the church are seeking their own thing. All people are like this. Paul says, that's true. Just being honest. For the most part, people just seeking their own things, not the things in the church. This is why you have so much division in the church, why there's not peace in the church. But he says, They seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. And then verse 22, he says, But Timothy is not quite like that. You know, the proof of him Timothy, that as a son with the Father, He has served with me in the Gospel, him Timothy, therefore I hope to sin presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. Yet I suppose it necessary to send to you after for datas my brother and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger or apostle, and he that ministered to my once Epaphroditus was a fellow labor, fellow labor companion in labor. He worked with people, and he stood before these people, he had a ministry. And he warned many of the people to didn't just like we read in First Thessalonians this was Epaphroditus and verse 26, goes on to tell about him, for he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness because that ye had heard that he had been sick, for indeed he was sick nigh unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but on me also lost I should have sorrow On sorrow, to have a man of God in the church like an emperor for dieters who really worked with Paul, and to have him die, would have been sorrow up on sorrow for Paul wouldn't. And for the other people in the church too, but he didn't die. It says, verse 28, I send him therefore the more carefully that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful, verse 29, receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation, hold him in reputation. Look at this man of God, who's in the church, who has worked with you who worked so hard with you is nigh on the death. It says, work, look at this man, hold him in reputation, esteem Him how very highly esteem him very highly. Here was Paul sending a man of God down to the people at Philippi. And he says, Now you receive this man, and hold such in reputation, again, esteem him very highly, because for the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death. Now regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me, the Philippians weren't quite moving in the right places they should be at that time. And that's what, why Epaphroditus had the opportunity that he did. But he got out of it. And he's a man of God in the church. He says esteem him very highly. Look at First Thessalonians chapter five.
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I don't care if you're here at headquarters. If you're at ECU, Wichita, California, Columbus, Minnesota, wherever you are, New York, Florida, wherever it is. And there's a church. And there's a man of God in that church. That man of God is responsible to God for His people. And the people are are responsible to God to do it. That man of God says you esteem him very highly. First Thessalonians five, where were we? Verse 13. Okay, we go to 14 now. Now we exhort you, brethren, we encourage you, we encourage you, brethren, to do four things, to do four things. Number one, warn them that are what? unruly, warn them that are unruly. Like a soldier, you know, disorderly conduct, ever heard of that? Sure, US soldiers. This is what the word on really means. disorderly, disorderly. They're unruly, they're disorderly, they're not carrying out orders. They're not following orders. A person who's in this situation, he says, warn these people. And that's the same word that was used back in verse 12. And money to put in mind, put some things in their minds that warn them and what are you going to put in their mind? The word not baloney. You put the word in their mind, put the word in their mind. That's what's going to remedy the situation. It's not saying Well, now let's look at it. Let's analyze our situation, according to the courses I had in philosophy at Ohio State. No. Let's look at what the Word says. The word will take care of will remedy the situation do what the Word of God says. You won't No, no get rid of the problems. Warn them which are unruly, I still talking to you who are in the church. Right. I mean, he's leaders in the church. He's not this isn't addressed to leaders, though. This is addressed to everybody in the church. He says, first of all, recognize those that are over you and working with you. Even if you're a leader, they're still another leader. You have to look to you see, you don't you do. Make up your mind. Do your don't. Sure. Like, here's a leader is another leader. We're all leaders. When you stop to think about it, when you know God's word, and you step out, you help other people don't just or you're a leader. Okay, but then there's another leader, a man who works with you, but he's before Are you? And he may have warned you at one time or another by putting the word into your mind. Has anybody here been taught the Word by anyone else? Or Joel learned on your own? What I mean? So we look to the leader, we all have leaders before us. And we all have followers. We're leaders, and we're following that the picture, all right. So he says, you watch a steam these leaders very highly. And if someone is unruly, he's disorderly, like a soldier in the Army disorderly. Then you warn him, you admonish him by doing what? Putting the word where his mind putting the word in his mind. That's how you warn this individual who is unruly, disorderly. Another example would be like, demonstrations. Demonstrations can be orderly, or they can be disorderly, right? Or you can have you have an orderly demonstration of a good time and the hero. Yes, I did. Well, now I've got to explain that. Well, I was telling a group Friday night about this situation. I was in my first year at college, Asbury College in Kentucky. Great College, few rules and regulations and so forth. But it's, it was good fundamental school. And I was at the end, I only stayed there one year, going Asbury one year, the reason being not that my grades were so low, and matter of fact, they had better grades there than at Ohio State. But the reason that I left was because I received a letter in which I was told that we don't care to have you back next fall because of religious differences. What had led up to this thing was that I was in the dorm. Night after night, teaching people teaching the other boys in the dorm about God's word. And not only that, I lead them into speaking in tongues was was just an unforgivable sin at Asbury. Incidentally, I last February wasn't that they had a big revival down at Asbury where just hundreds or 1000s or something spoke in tongues. So at that time, though, they weren't quite that help on the situation. So I was admonished, warned by the Dean of men, not to teach these people in the dorm anymore. He told me, No dice.
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No teach him tongue anymore. And I told him after an hour's discussion, I told him, Well, I'll pray about it. So I prayed about it in the spirit tones. So quietly to myself, naturally, I went back to my dorm, and I lifted the situation. And I called Dr. Whirlpool. And he says, Well, the important thing right now is for you to get through college. And, well, I was kind of disappointed, you know, because I thought here was the greatness of God's word. Why not take a stand on it? Of course, each situation is different. I've learned the sensing, but I went back to my room. I must have been there maybe a half hour, maybe 20 minutes, I don't know. And I received a phone call. You never guess who it was, was Dr. Worrell. And he says, As I got quiet in my office and had a little talk with the Father, He says, I found out it's time to take a stand on God's word. And he told me, you take a stand. You can continue to teach those young people the greatness of God's word and to fellowship with them and so forth on the word. And if they kick you out, stay there. Have your own individual sit in. And another step was, if you need help, we'll send the carload down there We never needed the help, and I suppose maybe knew this spiritually. But the thing is, you know, they're demonstrating for everything else, why not demonstrate for a righteous cause? Right. And not a disorderly thing either to be nice and orderly. We never had call for that. But I was called back into the dean of men's office little later, a month or month and a half. I don't know what period of time elapse. And he told me I'd forgotten about the situation. But I heard that you're continuing to teach these young boys in the dorm. And I said, That's right. And our conversation didn't last quite as long that time. But I got a letter a couple of days later asking me to leave. But the reason he had found out about it again, is because after that first pressure was put on me, and the people I had been teaching, got the pressure to because I gotten the pressure, the whole body suffers. So what did they do? They just start to stay in a little stronger. They went witnessing the more people they went talking to the professor's. And that's how he found out.
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I remember, the next year, I went to Ohio State University, which was a complete change as far as universities. But that was it that spring, my first year at Ohio State. We had an orderly walk on the Capitol. All we did was walk up and down. We had our suits on and everything. And we had papers that we were passing out at that time, and it was good experience, but a nice orderly riot. No, was by no means. But you start to think with all the baloney people or everybody, any group, no matter where they are, somebody's got something to say they're demonstrating for their walking for right? Well, why not walk for the word? Take a stand up on it. Now, I'm not advocating demonstrations. Don't get me wrong. Maybe we all have a handsome I don't know. I'm not advocating that now. But I'm saying that we ought to take a stand up on God's Word. We ought to walk upon that in our individual lives and then sharing it with other people. Right? Sure. But this, those that are unruly, those that are disorderly, those you warm, if they're doing something disorderly in the church, speaking in tongues, and somebody else interprets is that in order to do all things, how decent and in order? That's right, if somebody is hanging from the chandelier, is that in order? No. They were sitting on the day of Pentecost, weren't they? They were sitting, as they spoke in tongues as they did the other thing. As they prayed, no matter what they did, they were decent, and they were in order. But when somebody becomes disorderly in the church, and the operation of the keys that God's laid before them, then you do up. You warn that individual you do it. Don't go run into your namesake as you know. Just keep it quiet and go tell that individual tell that individual don't tell Maggie muggins you know, her or Herman, bloke, or anybody else don't blab to your neighbor. Tell that individual warn that individual and use the word. The word of God if he is he or she is disorderly, unruly, okay. I think that demonstration business, you know, there's peaceful, what they call peaceful demonstrations, what they call Ryan's Well, it's peaceful, it's orderly isn't. If it's a right, it's disorderly. You see the difference? Good illustration. But the thing is, we're talking about here in the church currently in the church, if somebody is operating disorderly but the screws to him the word if they're operating orderly, love them. That's great. Wonderful. All right. That was the first thing warn them which are unruly, disorderly, incidentally, that Word is in the Greek as a tortoise, which means literally means without talk. Without cat if you do something without tact, spiritually, you can really blow the scene. I mean, you know, it'll just a lot of things will happen. It's like the verse, you know, God's word will not return void. You could put that word of God on an old beaten up tin pan, with worms crawling all over it, and who's going to eat it? How many here would eat it? What I thought. On the other hand, you could put it on a silver platter, couldn't you and serve it with all a fresh aroma and everything else. Now how many would eat some of you would die How many would eat it Some of you still aren't too sure. But sometimes you have to use a little tact when you're dealing with people. That ta CKT AACT.
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deal them, deal with them using a little wisdom. Don't serve it on an old tin pan with words on it. Serve it on a silver platter. Here's the word of God. Because like it says we're ambassadors for God. Oh, for ambassadors, we don't get out our oldest clothes we find you get out new clothes. We look like an ambassador, don't we? All right. Or them which are unrelated or disorderly. Number two, comfort the feeble minded that doesn't mean what you think it means. It's not feeble minded at all. feeble minded I think of somebody with an IQ below 30 So well, or there abouts. You know what I mean? It's not a good word at all the great the Greek literally is small soul small soul it that's if you literally broke it down. The Aramaic is what Dominator. See if I can recall now, it's similar. For comes to me, I'll tell you about it. But it's in the idea of being having a small soul, or an equivalent English expression might be low spirited, low spirited. I mean, see it low spirited. Somebody with they're just not excited at all. desponding. It's just depressed, completely. Down Beat Down from because of a situation. Maybe someone in his family died? Or maybe they've got family troubles. Or maybe, maybe he's on dope. Maybe this would cause it to maybe he's got some other situation. Maybe he's got a wife, we just found out about his girlfriend. I don't know. But for some reason, this individual just shrinks down. He's got a small soul. He's low spirited. And no matter what you say what to him, just seems to float through in one ear and out the other right? People get this way at times. I've gotten this way. I'm sure some of you have. Alright, what do you do with this person? It says, comfort, comfort him. You can't say a look. You got to get out of that situation. You've got to comfort the individual. Maybe that would be comfort to him. I don't know. I'm not saying but I know you can't just go over there and shove something down his throat. You You have to comfort an individual. Now this is a person who may have been strong for a long time on the word but all of a sudden, there's something happens Satan knew a weak point and he threw it and it just stopped the whole machine. in his life, and he just closed up so to speak. He put a key a shell around himself. He started feeling sorry for himself and a few other things. This person needs comfort in that situation doesn't mean they need comfort. And it says comfort, the small sold individual or the low spirited individual, a despondent person, you comfort that person. Bring him comfort....