This evening I am going to speak of the coming of Christ. Many questions link themselves with this great one; as, for instance, the reign of Antichrist. But I shall limit myself this evening to the event itself -namely, the coming of the Lord.
I began by reading Acts 1, because the promise of the Lord's return is there set forth as the alone hope of the church, as the first object which would of necessity fix the attention of the disciples, when they were vainly following with their eyes the ascending Savior, who was going to be hidden in God. In this chapter, just as the Lord was about to leave them, three remarkable features appear. The first is that the disciples desired to know when and how God would restore the kingdom to Israel.
Now Jesus did not say that this was never to happen; He only said, that the time of this restoration is not revealed. It belonged to times and seasons which the Father has put in His own power. The second is, that the Holy Ghost was about to come; and the third, that during the time the disciples were looking towards heaven, two angels said to them, " Why stand ye here gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
They were then to expect the return of Christ.
If we study the history of the church, we shall find it to have declined in spirituality -exactly in proportion as this doctrine of the expectation of the. Savior's return had been-lost sight of. In forgetting this truth it has become weak and worldly. Not, however, wishing to quit the sphere of the word, let us see therein how the feeling of the return of Christ ruled the intelligence, sustained the hope, inspired the conduct, of the apostles. We have only to this end to look through a few passages of the New Testament.
Acts 3:19-2119Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19‑21). " Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come [or so that the times of refreshing may come ' from the presence of the Lord.. The Holy Spirit is come; He has remained with the church; but the times of refreshing will come "from the presence of the Lord when He shall scud Jesus." It is impossible to apply this passage to the Holy Ghost, because He was already, at that time, come down, and had said by the mouth of the apostle, " Whom the heaven must receive till the times of restitution of all things." And, in truth, the Holy Spirit has not restored all things. He who is to come according to this passage, is not to come to judge the dead, nor that the world may he burnt up and destroyed; but it is especially for " the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets."
I cite these passages to make you comprehend what I understand by the coming of the Savior. It is not the judgment of the dead; it is not the great white throne; but it is the return of Jesus Christ in, person, when He shall be sent from heaven. If you compare these verses with what is written in Rev. 20, you will see that the coming of Jesus Christ, and the judgment of the dead, are two distinct events; that when the judgment of the dead takes place, there is not a word about Christ returning from heaven upon the earth; for it is said, " From whose face the earth and the heavens fled away." (Ver. 11.)
The Lord will return to the earth.
Let us now see how Himself first, then the Holy Ghost by the apostles, have constantly directed our attention to His personal return.
Matt. 24:27-3327For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 28For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. 29Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. (Matthew 24:27‑33). " Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." Certainly the expedition of Titus against Jerusalem was not the coming of the Savior in the clouds of heaven. Neither is this a description of the judgment of the dead before the tribunal of the great white throne. At that time the earth is no more, whilst in the passage just cited the nations of the earth are brought before us, and it is a question of an event in which the earth is concerned. " Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn." It is not a millennium brought about by the exercise of the power of the Holy Ghost. The world has never seen the Holy Ghost. We are told that the tribes of the earth shall lament when they see the Lord Jesus (Ver. 33). " So likewise ye, when ye see all these things, know that it [ He] is near, even at the doors.'
Verses 42-51. The faithfulness of the church is made to hinge on its watchfulness as regards this truth of the return of Christ From the moment that it was said, "My lord delayeth his coming," " then the servant began to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken." " Therefore be ye also ready," said Jesus, " for the Son of man [not death] corneal."
Matt. 25:1-131Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. 2And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: 4But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 6And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. 7Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 10And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. 11Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. 13Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. (Matthew 25:1‑13). The expectation of the return of Christ is the exact measure (the thermometer, so to speak) of the life of the church. As the servant became unfaithful the moment he had said, " My lord delayeth his coming," so it was with the ten virgins, for it is said, they all slept. It was not death, nor the Holy Spirit, that the ten virgins were told to expect; for neither death nor the Holy Spirit is the Bridegroom. All the virgins were found in the same state; the wise ones (the true saints) as well as the foolish ones, who wanted the oil of the Holy Spirit, slept and forgot the immediate return of Christ, as, on the other hand, what wakes them up is the midnight cry that He is coming.
In Mark 13, we get nearly the same thing. Verse 26 forbids us to apply the passage to the invasion of the Romans; and when it is said (ver. 22), "It is nigh, even at the doors," there is no thought about the judgment of the dead, nor of the great white throne. At that day, the day of the judgment before the great white throne, there will be no question either of house or household.
Four passages only are to be found in the New Testament which speak of the joy of the departed soul. The first occasion is when the thief said to the Lord (Luke 23:42,4342And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:42‑43)), " Remember me when thou comest into [in] thy kingdom." It was about the coming of Jesus in glory that his thoughts were occupied—a truth which was familiar to the Jews. The Lord replied to him, "To-clay shalt thou be with me in paradise." The second case is that of Stephen, who said (Acts 7:5959And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. (Acts 7:59)), Lord Jesus, receive my spirit:" the third, when Paul said, " To be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord " (2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)); the fourth, " For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better " (Phil. 1:22, 2322But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I wot not. 23For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:22‑23)). In truth; it is far better to expect the glory, present with Christ, than to remain here below: not that we go to glory when we depart, but we are quit of sin, out of the reach of it, and we enjoy the Lord apart from it. Yes, it is a state far better, but it is also one of expectation, like that in which Christ is Himself placed, sitting at the right hand of the Father, expecting that which is to come.
Here we find again (circumstantially different) the parable of the unfaithful servant; only the Lord adds, "That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself [what a picture of Christendom!] shall be beaten with many stripes; but he who knew not [the pagans],.. shall be beaten with few stripes." All shall be judged; but Christendom is in a state worse than that of the Jews or pagans, inasmuch as it has had more advantages.
Luke 21:2727And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. (Luke 21:27). " Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." The fig-tree of which the Savior speaks on this occasion, is especially the symbol of the Jewish nation. " Watch therefore," He adds, " that ye may stand before the Son of man."
These two chapters, namely, Luke 17, and 21., as well as Matt. 24, and Mark 13, relate to the coining of the Lord connected with the Jews—its earthly bearing. To these may be added Luke 19, where the servants who are called, and the enemies who rejected the nobleman, clearly mark the servants of Christ, and the Jewish nation. See particularly verses 12, 13, 27.
John 14:22In 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. (John 14:2). " In my Father's house are many mansions... And if I go and prepare a place for you, 1 will come again, and receive you to myself." The Lord Himself will come for His church, in order that the church may be there, where He is.
Acts 3 This is the preaching of the apostle to the Jews: Repent, and Jesus will return. You have killed the prince of life; you have denied the Holy One and the Just; God has raised Him from the dead. Repent, be converted, and He will return But they would not repent. During three years He had vainly sought fruit from His fig-tree. The husbandmen, on the contrary, killed the Son of Him who had placed them in His vineyard. The Son of God, Jesus, asked pardon for them on the cross, whence His voice is all-powerful, in saying, " Forgive them, for they know not what they do." The Holy Ghost, by the mouth of the apostle answers to the intercession of Jesus, " 1 wot that through ignorance ye did it... Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." But we know they continued to resist the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:5151Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. (Acts 7:51)).
This is the great end of all the counsels of God. As we have before seen the secret of His will, that God would gather together all things in Christ, we find here what He has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets: that is, the earthly part. How are all these things to be accomplished? Is it by the operation of the Holy Spirit? No, for it is said that " he shall send Jesus." It is, doubtless, true t hat the Holy Ghost will be shed abroad, and He will be so specially upon the Jews; but in the passage quoted, the event is to take place by the presence of Jesus. There cannot be a revelation more explicit, than that it is by the sending of Jesus, that the things spoken of by the prophets will receive their accomplishment. How can the force and simplicity of this declaration be evaded?
We see the fall, the ruin, of man; we see even all creation subjected to corruption. The bride desires that the Bridegroom may appear. It is not the Holy Spirit who will re-establish the creation, and who is the Inheritor of all things; it is Jesus. When Jesus appears in His Glory, the world will behold Him, whilst it cannot see the Holy Ghost.
"At the name of JESUS every knee shall bow." The work of the Holy Spirit is not to re-establish all things here below, but to announce Jesus who will return. Again, it is the Holy Spirit who was in Peter when he said, " Whom the heavens must receive till the time of the restitution.'" Receive whom? Not the Holy Ghost Ole was descended from heaven already), but Jesus; and all we have to do is to believe, (To he Continued.)
(Continued from page 37)