WE now propose to consider the closing words of the chapter— “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” We want to look at the passage not exactly according to its strict interpretation, but rather to learn from these three different appearing’s of the Lord Jesus Christ the very wide, comprehensive, far-reaching effects of His work.
We read from the 26th verse that “once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,” showing that on the cross the work was accomplished on the ground of which He is going to clear the universe of every trace of sin. For those who believe in His blessed Name, we have got the happy announcement in the last verse of our chapter, that “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many”: that is, when on the cross, the Lord Jesus not only dealt with the great question of sin, that is the root: but He also “suffered for sins.” So the gospel that you and I believe, the gospel of our salvation, tells us that “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:33For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (1 Corinthians 15:3)), and trusting in that precious Saviour we know that all our sins are forgiven. But then we are still in the world where we are surrounded by sin on every hand; not only so, but we know that we still have sin in us. Yet we rejoice that the moment is near at hand when the Lord Jesus shall come as Saviour, and when, just as we have been delivered from our sins, there will be complete deliverance from the presence of sin in us, from this poor groaning creation, and from the sorrow that is the secret of the groaning which marks it today.
Now we want in the first place, to be quite clear as to how comprehensive is the finished work of Christ as the basis of everything for the glory of God. Then I think we can see quite clearly, that there is something more still ahead of us. That finished work on the cross is past; His priestly work of which we have also spoken still goes on, for He now appears in the presence of God as representing us. He is able to carry us through this world in face of all the snares and pitfalls that meet us at every point, and He is going to bring, as the second chapter tells us, the “many sons to glory.” He will set everyone of them down in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. That brings us to His future appearing.
The day is coming when the Lord Jesus is going to rise from His seat in the glory, and when Heaven is once again going to become active in relation to this world; in relation in the first place to Israel, then to the world generally, and all going to merge finally into the eternal state. But then before anything could be done in that way, before He acts with regard to Israel, or to this world, before He clears this world of sin, in order to bring in a new world where everything will be in perfect accord with the mind and the heart of God, one thing is necessary—He will remove those who compose His assembly at the present time.
When we speak of His assembly, or the church, I suppose everyone here understands we speak of those who are the purchase of the blood of Christ, those who are born again, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God: the church consists of every child of God and nobody else. There may be somebody here who is unconverted, and he says, “I belong to the church.” If you are unconverted, you do not belong to the church of God and that is the only church that God recognizes, and those who form part of the church of God will be the only ones who will be taken when the Lord comes.
The church then must be removed from this world to the Father’s house, and therefore while it may not be the strict interpretation of our Scripture, we who know and love the Lord Jesus can quite see how we come in here.
I know there are some who have made use of this Scripture in a way that is unjustified.
The precious truth of the coming again of the Lord Jesus is being preached in every part of the world, and, thank God for it, there has been a revival of interest amongst His people generally with regard to the great fact that He is coming quickly. But then you know just as soon as there is a revival of truth the enemy does his best to spoil it.
Of recent years there have risen those who have said that when the Lord Jesus comes for His people He will take only those who are looking for His return, and they base their theory very largely upon this verse. Yet I need scarcely, say that the Word of God does not support such a theory. We learn from 1 Corinthians 15:23,23But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23) that when He comes it will be “they that are Christ’s” who will be taken. Thank God for that!
If we had nothing more than that little bit of the Word of God it would be quite sufficient for us: but we have More. If the assembly, the church, is the body of Christ, and Scripture tells us plainly that it is, then it is perfectly clear that, when the Lord comes, He is not going to take part of His body with Him and leave part behind. If the church is the bride of Christ, we can very easily understand that the Lord when He comes, is not going to take a little bit of His bride and leave the rest of His bride behind. We have only got to mention that to show the absurdity of their theory.
And there is this also to be said; there may be those who know the Lord, who do not know very much, in fact they may not know anything at all, about the truth of the “rapture” as we call it, but if they love the Lord Jesus at all, then there can be no question that they are expecting Christ to come for them some day in order to take them from this world to be with Him where He is.
What we have here I have no doubt presents to us that which is true of Christians generally in contrast with that which is true of the world. The world does not know anything about the coming of Christ, because it absolutely ignores His existence. Men do not want Him to come, for to entertain the idea of His coming would altogether upset all their plans and calculations. When He does come for His people the world that is not looking for Him will get a tremendous surprise. Those who know Him and love Him desire to see His blessed face. They know that they are not going to be left forever in this world, but are going to be taken from this world. That will be a day of supreme joy and gladness to their hearts.
Those who are intelligent as to these things, and every Christian ought to be, should be on the tiptoe of expectation, their hearts aglow with anticipation, in the prospect that at any moment the blessed Lord Jesus may come. Why, my dear fellow-Christian what cheers your spirit, what gladdens your heart, what dispels the gloom and all the sorrow and all the troubles that assail you in your pathway here like the prospect that He is coming and coming quickly? He may be here at any moment.
Well that is putting it on a somewhat low level perhaps. There is another reason why we look for Him and that is, because He has made Himself so unspeakably precious to our hearts. He has captured our affections. As He passes Himself before the vision of our souls, filling us with delight; as we get to know Him better and contemplate the glories of His adorable Person, the one thing that we want before everything else is to have the joy of seeing His face, delighting in His company, being “close to His trusted side.” There is still another reason why we want Him, and it ought to be the strongest reason of all. It is, that to have us with Him will be the joy and the supreme gladness of His heart, for He is going to present us before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
But then whilst we can consider all that, without stretching our scripture or bringing our imagination into play in the slightest possible degree, I do not think that is the primary interpretation of the words that we are now considering. I have no doubt whatever that they refer very particularly to the remnant of Israel looking for the Lord’s return, just as there was a remnant looking for His first coming.
You remember how we read in the book of Malachi that there were those who feared the Lord, and spoke often one to another. The Lord valued that so much, in a day when the mass of Israel was going on with a mere form of things with no reality, that He hearkened and heard—the word means that He bent His ear to listen—and He claimed them as His own. He looked down and in the midst of all the failure He saw that little company, characterized not by anything spectacular, not by anything that man would think of great account; they were characterized by this, that they feared the Lord, they thought upon His name and they were looking for His coming. Then we come down to the second chapter of the Gospel according to Luke and we find that some four hundred years after that there were still a few and they were looking for the first coming of the blessed Lord. In a coming day there will be a remnant that will be looking for the second coming of our Lord Jesus, and to them He will appear and, observe, He will appear without sin unto salvation. He bare the sins of many and to these He will appear, and of course it will be these that will be looking for Him.
Perhaps someone finds this verse rather puzzling. I remember meeting a lady and she said to me, “What troubles me is this, that there is a verse in the Word of God which says, ‘Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,’ but how can I know I am one of the many?” I replied, “You can settle that very quickly. If you do not know whether you are included in the many or not, come to the Lord Jesus Christ, come in your sins, come as you are and trust Him here and now, and the moment you trust Him you will learn that your sins are all gone, and you will say, thank God I am one of the many.”
The Lord Jesus then will appear apart altogether from sin. He is coming back for those whose judgment He endured on the cross, and He is coming back not to deal with the question of sin, because that question has been dealt with and settled, but to take them out of that condition and order of things that is marked by sin and He is going to transfer them to a world freed from sin’s presence and blight. Now is that not exceedingly beautiful? He is going to appear unto salvation, not the salvation of the soul because that is already an accomplished fact, accomplished the moment we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but to deliver us from a scene that is marked by sin and to transfer us to a world where sin shall be unknown.
Further, the Lord Jesus is coming to put down all rule and all authority and all power. He is going to put down everything, that is contrary to God. What a wonderful thing my dear fellow-Christian that you and I are in the secret of what God is going to do. The Statesmen of this world do not know anything about that. Neither the men in power today, nor the men that are hoping to be in power, know anything about it. “You give us the money and the power,” say they, “and we will show you what we can do!” But they will only show what they cannot do. They will show the world that they are unable to make anything one whit better than it is. Why? Because Christ is not in all their thoughts, and tell, you something more, the schemes of men today are such that there is no place in them where they can fit Christ in—absolutely none. We read in the second chapter of the first epistle of Peter of “the Stone which the builders rejected.”
Have you ever thought what a striking word that is? You watch a mason who is erecting a building. There is a stone. “Yes,” he says, “I think that will do very nicely.” There is another stone “Yes, I think I can fit that in there.” But there is another stone; “No, I cannot do anything at all with it,” and he flings it aside as worthless and it is rejected. That is exactly what this world has done with Christ. I do not mind what the party is and I do not care who it is who will try to put this world right, they can find no place for Christ in their scheme, and if there is anybody who has been deluding himself into thinking that by following a certain party or following a certain policy he is going to help towards the putting of this world right, let me say to you, my dear friend, you are on the wrong track, you are going against Christ, for there is no place for Christ in the schemes and the plans of men today and that is why everything is upside down. Make no mistake about it but waken up to it before it is too late.
I have no doubt if we could get at the back of the thoughts of the men who are in power, as to the state of things in the world generally, we would find that they are simply at their wits end to know what to do. Is it not a marvelous thing that you and I whom they look upon as so many simpletons, are in the secret of what God purposes. We are in the secret of what Christ is going to do, and we know what is going to happen to this world, as also to the men that are engaged in a futile attempt to make the world better.
We know there is only one Man that will put the world right. There was a Member elected for the first time for a certain constituency some years ago, and the day after his election a friend of mine said to him, “Well, Mr. So-and-so, I suppose you are going to Westminster to put the world right.” “No, I know better,” he answered, “there is only one Man who can put the world right and that is the Man who is at the right hand of God.” My friend might well have said, “Then why are you going to Westminster?” but I suppose he did not want to hurt his feelings.
That is true, there is One and only One who can put the world right. Christ is coming. He will put down all rule and all authority and all power, everything that sets itself up against the authority of God; and “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Then He will deliver up everything to God, that He may be all in all.
That will be the ultimate and complete triumph of God. If you want to know what it will be like, read the first seven verses of Revelation 21. There is to be a new Heaven and a new earth, there is the Holy City coming down out of heaven from God, there is God dwelling with men, who is called their God and they His people, and what is characteristic of that world is that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” If the politicians could get their ideals realized tomorrow, and introduce that new world that they see in their dreams, they could not give us a world like that.
But that world is coming so that God can find His home and delight in the midst of His people, and they find their home and their delight in the presence of God. He who on the cross nearly two thousand years ago, with His dying breath, said, “it is finished,” shall be on the throne and say “It is done.” God will be all in all, and we who form the bride of Christ, shall share with Him in His joy, and in God’s triumph in that day of everlasting glory.
Let us seek to apprehend these things a little better, so that being in the secret of His mind with regard to that day and that world, we may be maintained in separation from the vain show of this day and this world. So shall we be found here, walking worthy of the Lord unto all well pleasing, for His glory.
W. Bramwell Dick.