1 Thess. 4:13-1713But 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. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then 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 ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:13‑17); 1 Cor. 15:51-5751Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In 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. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54So 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. 55O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑57); 1 Thess. 5:1-101But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 6Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 9For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:1‑10); 2 Pet. 3:10-1310But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:10‑13)
The first two scriptures, beloved brethren, bear upon the first subject which I have on my heart to speak to you about, this evening; namely, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His saints. I might refer you to a great many other scriptures on the second part of the subject, because I may remind you, that the day of the Lord is a subject that is not peculiar to the NT, but that it is found as well in the OT, as in the New; but that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air for His saints is only to be found in the NT, and only in those parts which we have read this evening, where it is propounded by the Holy Ghost, as a special revelation not previously known. “This I say unto you by the word of the Lord,” is a fresh revelation of a truth, not up to that moment communicated. And “Behold I show you a mystery,” in 1 Cor. 15, is also indicative of a fresh revelation of the same truth.
Now I am not purposing to speak tonight on the doctrine of the Lord’s coming at all. What I am anxious, and pressed in my own heart, to occupy your time with, is its practical bearing on every class. As to the doctrine, it has been often set before us, in great clearness and distinctness; but the practical effects of it, and the practical issues of it on our consciences and in our souls, is that which we need to be continually reminded of. This side of the truth is greatly pressing on my heart, to speak to you about this evening.
And now, as to the first part of it, namely, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His saints, His own beloved ones; let us remember how it will terminate the present state of things, as regards the saints in this world. Is it not well, that we should know exactly where we are? Is it not well, that we should have the divine sense in our souls of our present position? We are really between two great judgments.
We are between the past judgment of the cross, and the judgment that awaits both the living and the dead. We are between these two; and we are, beloved friends, on the very eve of that bright and blessed moment which will precede the latter. In order to show you more plainly from scripture—and it is scripture I am anxious to bring before you—I will read one or two passages which describe the present state of things in this world, which has developed to what it is, since the cross and rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ. I would say, it is of great moment to remember this—that the world as it is at the present moment, what we call the world, or better still, the age, is the result of Christ’s rejection; and the state of things found in it after His rejection, the ‘age’ in reality, is what the devil has made, out of the murder of God’s Son, by the wicked hands of men. When we speak of the world, we do not mean the literal world: the literal world God made, though it partakes of the consequences of Adam’s sin, and groans; “the whole creation groaneth,” but the literal world on which we stand was made by God: there is nothing in it that He did not make, nothing that did not reflect His handiwork, the skilled power of His hand; not a blade of grass, not a leaf of the trees, not a part of that creation, that is not a proof of the skill and power of the Creator—spoiled, tarnished, because of man’s sin, and involved in the miseries of its federal head, it is yet destined in His grace, to be delivered out of the bondage of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. But the age is a different subject altogether. When we speak of the world, meaning thereby the age (what scripture calls the age), we speak of that moral order of things that obtains in the world, consequent on the rejection, the crucifixion, the murder of the Christ of God. We might speak, and we do speak, and thank God, we can speak, of the death of Christ as an atonement for sin, but as far as man is concerned, it is the murder of Christ. And that, with all its momentous issues, rests on the age. That is what God will require in a coming day from the world; that is the ground of God’s future dealings with this world—even the murder of His own Son.
Well now, consequent upon that, I will point you to two scriptures, which will show us exactly where we are at this present moment, and also the state of things which has grown up since the rejection of Christ, and since His murder by the hands of men. The first is 2 Tim. 3:1-51This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1‑5), and I venture to say, that the most casual reader of the word of God can hardly fail to trace the likeness between the description that is given there, and the very times that we have come to ‘This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall be present”—that is the meaning of the word “come”—“perilous [difficult] times shall be present, for men shall he lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, pleasure- lovers more than God-lovers, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” Now this is the state of things all around us at the present moment, depicted by the Spirit of God, marked out by the Spirit of God. And, beloved friends, it is so different from all the thoughts of men’s hearts, thoughts that many of us here cherished and cultivated many a day in the past; has it not been taught that the gospel of the grace of God, the good news concerning His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, which has gone out since the death and resurrection and ascension into the heavens of the Lord Jesus Christ, was so to permeate the world, and so to change the whole order of things, that it was assuredly to bring in the millennium? That was the notion many of us held; perhaps too, some of us here hold it still. Many of us held, in other days, that the preaching of the gospel was so to leaven the age, so permeate the age, and so overlap everything that was here, that evil should be banished by the proclamation of the good, and every blessing introduced in that way, until the whole thing spread universally all over the world. Now that is contrary to the plain declarations of the word of God. Here you find an epistle that comes down to the very days we are in, and describes the times that are upon us; not “the latter times, mark, which were the times of the apostles, but “the last days,” which are our own times. Now, observe the difference between these two. There are “the latter times, in 1 Timothy, which describe times to the close of the apostles’ lives down here. There are the last days, which are the days we are in; our times are the “last days”; we ourselves are in the last days. And here are the features, the moral features that are being presented by the world in these last days. Every feature in that description in 2 Tim. 2, all that marked the heathen world (see Rom. 1), is reproduced in professing Christendom in the last days. Solemn it is, to think of that, beloved friends. The very vices, the very sins, yea, the enormities of the heathen world are reproduced under the sham profession of the name of Christ; “having a form of godliness but denying the Power thereof”; it is all shell, but no reality, no kernel whatever; and that condition of things goes on, and will not be ameliorated by the gospel, nor by anything else; all will develop into increased evil till the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His saints.
Now, one other scripture, in Jude 1111Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. (Jude 11), “Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” In this epistle, the Holy Ghost describes the condition of things that would be manifested at the end, when apostasy should be rife, when there would be a complete giving up of the truth and Christ, for that is the subject of Jude. Look at these three things—how solemn they are. Cain, Balaam, and Core. You will find in these, all the elements of that system which has grown up into such gigantic proportions at the present day. If ever there was a period that was distinctly characterized by Cain’s principles, it is the present moment. What were the two leading features in Cain’s history? He founded a religion, and he built a city. Those are the two great things that display themselves in him—he was the inventor of a religion; and what was the nature of that religion? Why, that which is the spirit of all that we see round about us at the present moment—what is it? That man as he is in his natural state could approach to God—Cain was the great exalter of man. His sacrifice declared that there was no fall with its consequences; that the utter ruin, as well as the guilt of man, was no barrier to him in bringing an offering to God. Cain’s religion denied both ruin and guilt; he worked at the ground that had been cursed, and it yielded to his toil, and he brings the fruit of the ground that had been cursed, and places it before God, and it is said “to Cain and his offering, he had not respect.” On the other hand, Abel came upon the ground and merits and value, and in all the nearness and dearness and blessedness of Christ in type, of which his lamb was the expression; he brought the fat, the personal excellency of the victim, and the blood, that which met the holy, righteous claims of God as to sin. Now, if you will but speak to people, you will see how they are under the influence of Cain’s religion, “the way of Cain”: religion without sacrifice, religion without blood, religion without the claims, the righteous holy claims of God being met in the only way suitable to His majesty and to His glory, and without the blessed standing of the perfect acceptance and intrinsic worth of the One who met His claims, of which, of course I need not say, Abel’s lamb was the picture and type, for it sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore it is, that now through His grace, not only are we clear in virtue of that work of Christ, but we stand before God in all His appreciation of that work, and in all the acceptability of Him who finished it, for the glory of His God and Father; the measure of our acceptance being that of Him whose blood has met all the claims of a holy God, and glorified Him as well; we get both things—and that is what Cain’s religion denies.
Then as to what is said about Balaam. Why, Balaam was just the type of a person using religion to get on in the world. And is not that what is going on at the present moment? He loved the wages of unrighteousness; he would have cursed Israel right heartily if he could; he was perfectly willing to accept Balak’s rewards and money, but he was restrained by the mighty hand of God, yet his heart was after his covetous- ness. And this we see very distinctly all round about; the very same principle, full-blown and developed, prevails in this Christ rejecting age.
And then we have the gainsaying of Core, which is rebellion against the authority of God, in His true King and Priest.
Now, all this comes to a full head and climax at this present moment. And that will bring me to the first part of the subject—the one bright and blessed pole star of the saint’s hope. No preaching of the gospel, however faithful or earnest, can make the age different; there can be no amelioration of that condition of things by any effort that can be made, even through the testimony of God by the preached Word, at this present moment. I venture to say, that there is not an honest conscience or heart here that will not join me in the truth of this utterance, namely, that the state of the world or the age at the present moment, instead of becoming better, is rapidly developing into the very worst condition of things that can be conceived. And it is not only the testimony of scripture—thank God, there is that most abundantly—but I appeal to your own observation. Look at what is before the eyes of men. They do not know where to turn; all their hopes are frustrated; they expected a sort of universal jubilee; a bringing in of that which was to change and alter the whole condition of the world; and instead of this, it is all getting worse, and is all going down. The whole course of things, on every side and in every department of society, in every branch of human life down here, is becoming worse and worse. What is to terminate it for the believer? It can never be better. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” says the Spirit of God. But what is to bring it to a close for the saints? Our hope; thank God for it! And what is that? Why, this blessed, immediate coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I want to occupy your affections and heart for a moment with that, in its practical bearings upon us. I desire to put a question affectionately to you, and to myself as much as to you. I have often said to myself, as I sat in my own room, Do you believe He is coming? Do you really believe it? Do you believe that at any moment the shout of the Lord Jesus Christ might be heard? Do you, in your heart of hearts, sincerely believe that? It is so searching. Alas! I believe, and yet I do not believe it. I must say, I believe it profoundly, and yet in another sense, when I reflect upon it, and think of it, how little I do believe it! Because, do you think, that if in our affections and hearts, there were this one blessed, living reality, that the next moment, the next hour, I do not put it the next year or the next month, but before we actually leave this room tonight, that blessed One might come; do you think we should be found clinging to all the things we are mixed up with? If this hope were in the depths of our affections, if it were not merely an event we were waiting for, as we talk about believing the Second Advent, but the expected return of One “whom, not having seen we love” and watch for, oh, how different then it all would be! How blessed to wait for that living, glorified Christ, up there at God’s right hand; He who is the stay of our hearts to-day, and the one bright prospect before our souls; His glory cheering our hearts at this present moment, united to Him where He is. It is a heavenly hope; not in any sense an earthly hope; and I believe that those who are not heavenly in their ways and conduct down here, have not the power of that hope in their souls. And why? Because it is a heavenly lift out of all below; and that in such power, that all here is distanced; it is not an earthly hope, it is not Christ coming to the earth, it is not Christ coming to set things right here, to bring in the millennium, and to establish an order of things suitable to himself. It is Christ coming to take His own blood-bought ones, and to take them into the Father’s house, that they should follow Him in there. It is for heaven; and hence the apostle says in Phil. 3, “the state to which we belong,” (which is the meaning of the word “conversation”), has its existence in the heavens, from whence we await the Lord Jesus as Savior.” We are permitted to be there now, blessed be His name, in faith and spirit too, and we await the One who is there, to come forth from that blessed place, and to take us into it, that He may have His own joy and delight in having us with himself.
Now let one entreat of you to put this question to your own souls tonight—Is that the next thing before my heart? Think of this one day—How much has it been before your souls and affections to-day? It is very searching if you sit down and put it to yourself, as in the Lord’s presence. And do not suppose this to be self-occupation; it is conviction by the power of the word of God. It is not moaning over the feebleness, and weakness, and wretchedness of your own heart; the great things you would do, and the little you have done. lt is not this kind of torture, this is most wretched and miserable self-occupation; but it is sitting down face to face with this living word of God, to see how far these things are mere matters of doctrine that we firmly believe in our minds; or, whether they are living realities which are shaping and forming us in everything we have to do with? A person said to me lately, If I really believed in the Lord’s coming in that way, I do not know how I could go on as I do now with my business. Well, what is it going to be? Are you going to give up the Lord Jesus Christ, to give up the hope of Christianity, in order to adhere to the wretched things that are here in this world? I perfectly admit that it does cut like a knife, all round on every side, and that it does test us as to everything, it finds us out as to everything. But that is just the very blessedness of it, where it comes as a living power before our consciences and affections, that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming, and coming quickly, according to His own word, “He which testifieth these things, saith, Surely I come quickly.” And why? Because, that is what is in His heart. He does tarry; but what is in His heart is that He is coming quickly. Love is always quick in its movements, swift in its footsteps, always beforehand in its activities. In the desires of His heart, He says, “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.” There is no delay in that heart; no slowness in His own deep affection—He does tarry in His ways, but not in His heart; He makes us know how He longs to have us with Him. Oh, what a poor response that blessed love of His receives from these poor hearts of ours! Oh, what grace and love! Christ longing to have us with Himself!
I was reading the other day, that chapter of chapters, the 17th of John, and those words of the blessed Lord came with renewed power before me, when He expresses this very demand of His heart, “Father, I will”—it is the claim as it were, of His heart—“Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.”
Think of that! As if He had said, I could never be there without them; I could never have my joys there without them; I must have them with me where I am. How little there is of a desire in our poor hearts to be with Him where He is! How little we reciprocate His love!
It is in this way the truth works, in its practical operation upon us, and finds us out. Alas, that we have to own how correct we may be in doctrine, and yet so earthly in practice! May we know the truth, in the love of it, better in our souls. I could never say what I have heard from others, namely, wish that they did not know so much: on the contrary, I should say, I wish I knew more, but in power, in the Holy Ghost.
Let me refer you to one other scripture, in order to show the force and power of it in that connection. You remember how the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospels, when He is speaking of, and illustrating His coming in that wide and general way, in which it is there set forth, says, “If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming.” Now mark what follows, “and begin to smite his fellow- servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken.” Observe what results flow from putting off, in the heart, the Lord’s coming. What is it makes a servant smite his fellow-servants, and eat and drink with the drunken? What leads to violence and self-assertion over his fellows, as well as to association with a drunken world, “to eat and drink with the drunken”? Is it not clearly and plainly the heart letting go this hope as a present and immediate prospect before it. How solemn, to defer in the affections the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord does not say, “If that servant shall say with his lips,” but “if he shall say in his heart.” And have you never said in your heart, “He will not come tonight”? Have you never said in your heart, “Well, I do not think the Lord is coming exactly just now, I do not think He is coming exactly this year”?
Oh, friends, these are the ways in which this truth searches us; “If that servant shall say in his heart,” mark it well, IN HIS HEART. I have thought of it in connection with that wondrous verse of the Psalm, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,” not in his head, he knows right well in his head there is, but he has said it in his heart; he does not want God; in the case of the servant, it is the secret of the affections which comes out.
Then there is another scripture which presents this in its practical bearings on us who are His own saints here, and that is the Lord’s own words in Luke 12:3535Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; (Luke 12:35), a scripture beyond all others, bringing out the practical nature of the Lord’s coming in relation to every detail of our life. “Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning”; “girded about,” that is, there is to be no relaxation of watchfulness. It is like that word “sober”; it does not mean abstaining from one thing that is likely to take away your senses, but it is the general condition becoming those who have such a prospect before them—we are to be sober. And if ever there was a time that we are called upon to be thus in everything, it is this present moment. The very thing that characterizes the age in which we live is a want of sobriety in everything, a want of girdedness in everything. Now this quality is pressed earnestly here, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning.” You are going through a defiled world, and you are going through a dark world, and you need the girdle because of the defilement, and you need the light because of the darkness. “And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.” How searching that is. It is not merely to say, we wait for Him, but there is to be everything about us that betokens His coming; we are to be the living exponents of the fact that He is coming, we are to be “like men that wait for their Lord.” Do you think one who is really waiting for the Lord from heaven would be grasping after present things, would be seeking to enlarge their borders and advance their interests in this world?
Never let us allow such a thought in our hearts. “Ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.” Let things go; “sell,” is the word, not “get.” Get—that is the word of the day—amass, hold, get, that is the world’s principle. “Sell,” part with, “give,” that is what God says. “Sell that ye have and give alms: provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
And then He goes on to say, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.” Now let me call your attention to this word, “that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately,” that is, that there may be no delay. There is the expectancy that looks for Him, watches for Him, that enters into what He says, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find”—What? Doing? Not first, but “watching.” He does speak of doing afterwards. Some people have not an idea of anything but doing; nothing ever enters into their minds but doing, they are not at rest unless they are doing; they have no peace unless they are doing; there is no comfort of heart except they are doing; it must be one constant Do with them for comfort or quietness. But oh! beloved friends, there is something more than that; blessed as it is to do in company with the Lord, and in communion with His mind. Do not suppose that I would say a word in any degree to depreciate, or to underrate the value of earnest spiritual service; but I do say there is as great failure in one who is out of fellowship with the Lord’s mind, though in continual doing and working, as in one who is out of fellowship with the Lord’s mind, and therefore never does anything. We must seek to be even, and in the mind of God as to things. Nothing can be more blessed than to work for the Lord, in the Lord’s way and in company with the Lord, and in the power and energy of the Spirit. But there is something more blessed than that, precious and wonderful as it is. And what is that? “Watching”! Oh the blessedness of this watching! You may have seen a mother sitting by the bedside of her little child, how she watches; what are the hours of the night to her as she keeps vigil by that bedside? Or to any one keeping watch by the bedside of one near and dear to them in this world, what are the hours of the night? It is affection which is on watch, you cannot sleep; ah it is impossible, if there is an object that commands all the affections of your heart on that sick bed. Sleep is gone, yea, fled far from you. And look at it here, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching”; that is, looking out for Him, expecting Him, just as you would if you expected, after long absence, one who was near and dear to you. How long and weary would that absence be! How would you not go to the door or to the window to listen, so as to catch the first sounds of their return? Watching: oh, what a reality! I do not know anything, that so brings that blessed One in all His own living intrinsic worth before our souls, as those words, Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh shall find watching.” How affecting to have it thus put in that way! I leave it with you, most earnestly entreating you, in the Lord’s name, to take this great truth of the Lord’s immediate speedy coming for us, to your consciences and affections this night: let us learn to judge everything we are connected with by it. Would you like the Lord to come and find you in that association? Would you like the Lord to come and find you in that company? Would you like the Lord to come and find you in that business? These are the questions—Should I like Him to come and find me there? Would it please Him to find me in that association, in that connection, in that business, in that occupation? Is it true that I would like Him to come and find me so? These are the ways, it is intended to work upon us.
The Lord give to each one of His own here, by the power of His word and Spirit, a true estimate of how they stand in affection and heart, in relation to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And now let me turn to the other subject, for a moment or two. I do not know anything that ought to affect us more, on the other side, than this; namely, that the eternal blessedness of the saint is the doom of the sinner. No heart can conceive anything like the grace of His coming to the air, of His coming to fulfil the last service He owes to His Father and to us, to take us home to the Father’s house; He just owes that one service to Him. But reflect a moment, if the Lord were to come an hour hence for His saints, if He were to come to take up all that are his—all His own blood-bought ones, for whom He gave Himself, in this great city and throughout the whole earth, would be all caught up together; the dead raised and the living changed in the twinkling of an eye; not a solitary one left behind, no grave of His own unopened, the sea retaining none, the ashes of the martyrs all brought back again by His own power, all caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. But think of this, I entreat you, think of what it will be for the unsaved, think of what it will be for those that are not Christ’s, think of the awful closing of that door, think of what it will be to be shut out forever, for those that are not Christ’s! Now, beloved friends, that is what makes it so solemn. And let us bring it home to our own circles. We are all of us here, I suppose, in some relationship of life, in some way or other; husbands or wives, fathers or mothers, brothers or sisters, or children or friends.
Now there is where the subject comes in, when we think of our husbands, or wives, or children, or of our brothers, or sisters, or friends. This is that which imparts to the moment a solemnity, it is not possible to overrate. Yes, that which is the one precious, living, unspeakable comfort of the heart, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for us, that blessed Savior now in heaven, that terminates all hope for the unsaved, it terminates for them every prospect, but judgment; it shuts the door of mercy forever upon all in this professing Christian country, who have turned their backs upon that blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And think of what they are left behind for. Left for what? They are left for one of two things. I will ask you to look at two scriptures, because I desire the living mighty word of God should speak to conscience and heart. The first scripture is in Rev. 19:11-1611And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:11‑16), which is the book of judgment, remember. “I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns [diadems]; and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the Word of God. . . And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.”
That is the judgment of the living, the judgment of the living lost, the judgment of those who are alive, who, having rejected the Lord Jesus Christ in His day of grace, await judgment. If they are alive when He comes, that is what is before them, left behind for judgment, left behind for all the indignation of the fierceness and wrath of God, when judgment will be the rule, as mercy is the rule to-day. It is mercy and grace to-day, and, beloved friends, it is mercy and grace for the last time. Is there an unsaved sinner here tonight in this company? Is there one who is not washed in the precious blood of Christ? Is there one who has not fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him? If Christ were to come tonight, think of what awaits you. If Christ were to come tonight, the door of mercy is closed against you forever; nothing for you but judgment, wrath, eternal banishment from God’s presence, eternal destruction forever from the presence of God. Mark the words, solemn words, “Who shall be punished,” says the Holy Ghost in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, “who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.”
But there is another issue, if you die now rejecting Christ, if, notwithstanding all the grace, the mercy that is lavished on you, notwithstanding the preaching of the loving- kindness and tenderness, and goodness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ you still despise, and you still refuse, and you still reject, saying, like Felix of old, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will send for thee” (not just now, not yet); if, I say, you die in your sins—oh, think of what awaits you. Think of a man dying in his sins, of a man dying unwashed, of a man dying outside the shelter of the blood of Christ, dying without the acceptance that is, for the vilest sinner, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved friends, I do not like to ring the changes on the awfulness of it, but one is bound to be persuasive, knowing the terror of the Lord. Oh, think of what it would be to be wrapped in a Christless shroud, to be put into a Christless coffin, to be laid in a Christless grave, and to sleep a Christless sleep; and then to wake up for the great white throne, to have part in the resurrection of the damned, to have part in the resurrection of the unjust, to be raised up for judgment, to be raised for banishment.
Oh, mark the words, read them, and may God write them on your consciences (Rev. 20:12-1412And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (Revelation 20:12‑14)). “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another look was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Yes, raised for the second death, brought out of your Christless grave for the second death; awaked out of your Christless sleep, for the second death.
O friends, this is what remains for you, if you die rejecting Christ. If you live on, rejecting Christ, until He come, the prospect for you is the 19th chapter; if you die rejecting Christ, no trumpet blast of resurrection shall blow over your grave, the rapture of the saints will not affect you, the opened graves of His own will not affect you—it will be for them as it was for Christ, a resurrection out from among the dead—but you will sleep on, if you die out of Christ; your body, I mean, will sleep on in your Christless grave; but oh! when this resurrection comes, when this great white throne is set, and when the dead, small and great, stand before Him there, when the books are opened and men are judged according to their works: oh! that is eternal banishment from God’s presence, that will be everlasting woe.
Oh let me entreat of you tonight, if I speak to one who is not saved in this company, let me point you to that past judgment that I spoke of at the beginning, let me point you to Calvary, let me point you to that blessed One who is upon the throne, but who was there upon the cross, He who bore the judgment of God upon that tree, let me point you to Him. Indeed, everything seems to point to Him; past, present, and future, with one great voice seem to point to Him, and the echo answers from opening graves as it points to Him, the wail of the damned points to Him, and the song of the redeemed points to Him; I point you to Him tonight. He is on the throne, He is there at God’s right hand, having finished the work. He is raised from the dead, and He is in heaven, His face radiant with the glory of God, the face that man spat upon, the visage that was more marred than any man’s, is now glorified; and every ray of that glory that shines from the face of that Savior, speaks of the completeness of that work that He finished on the cross. I do not say to you, Look at Him on the cross, for He is not on the cross; if He were, there were no gospel, no mercy, no hope. There is one thing that my soul revolts from, as a most hateful denial of the truth of God, a denial of the gospel, and that is a crucifix; a crucifix is the most solemn denial of the whole truth of God. Though Protestants in this country would not make a crucifix, and perhaps in their Protestantism would abhor a crucifix, yet if you think of Christ as on the cross, what are you, but in your thoughts cherishing a living crucifix before your eyes? And what is that better than if you had the thing substantially there in tangible shape and form before you? Oh, no, He is on the throne; He was on the cross, He is on the Father’s throne; and very soon, He will come to the air for His own. I point you to Him in heaven; I point you to Him in the fulness and completeness of that work which He finished, the work of Him who was on the cross. The Lord, in His wondrous grace, His infinite grace, His present grace, but grace now acting for the last time, give to every heart here that knows Him not, to look to Him; the Lord give you to see the solemnity of this tonight, and bring it in power before your consciences.
And, beloved brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ, one word more, and then we separate. He is coming. We may never meet here again; we shall never meet again as we have been constituted tonight, that is evident; this company will never be repeated here again—I do not mean to say that there may not be a great many more meetings, but never one as constituted this evening. In future meetings, if He tarry, some here this evening will have passed away, and others have gone to different lands—but oh, friends, He is coming, and He is coming quickly. Are you ready? Child of God, are you ready? Sinner, are you ready? I address both classes tonight, are you ready? Are you ready in title? Are you ready in affection? Are you watching? Are you waiting? The Lord, in His grace, bring His coming before all our consciences, all our hearts, in its own living, practical power, and to His name shall be the praise, through Jesus Christ.