FIRST AND SECOND THESSALONIANS.
We are now entering on the Epistles to the Thessalonians, and we will just review a little what we have been looking at. In Rom. 9. and 11., we saw what we called the dispensations of God. Then, when we entered on Corinthians, we found the stories of the body and of the spirit. When we got to Galatians, Ephesians, etc., we saw the purchase of the possession as the fruit of Christ's first advent, and the redemption of the possession as the fruit, of His second advent. What blessed, beautiful mysteries these are! There is wonderful accuracy fullness, and variety in these prophetic intimations. You and I can talk of heavenly and earthly secrets. We may be little capacitated to indulge in such high conversations, but we are not straitened in the oracles of God.
Now, the Epistles to the Thessalonians introduce our thoughts to two other things —the coming of the Lord and the day of the Lord. We have been prepared for such distinctions from the very beginning. In the early patriarchal times there was the difference between Enoch and Noah. Enoch was translated to heaven at some undefined moment, in a silent, secret manner. Noah's story was altogether different. Noah had to witness the judgment of the old world and pass through it. Till 120 years had spent themselves, he could not enter the new world. Are not these as distinct as possible? And if we had time, we might trace the same thing in Abraham and Lot, and in Moses and Joshua. So I am prepared for the coming being different from the day. You will ask me what I mean by these two.
The coming is the Lord's descent from heaven to the air, there to meet His transfigured glorified saints. The day of the Lord is His coming from heaven all the way to the earth, bringing His saints with Him, to judge it and set up His kingdom upon it. So the coming links itself with your rapture or translation. The day links itself with the judgment of the earth and in 1 Cor. 4:33But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. (1 Corinthians 4:3), “It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment," the word rendered “judgment," is really " day,' see margin. And does not the morning judge the night? Does it not rise on the scene to turn out night and darkness? So the day brings judgment. There was that in Noah—not in Enoch—Enoch had nothing to say to judgment. Noah witnessed and passed through it. Now it is striking that in the divine argument of these two epistles, the first keeps us in company with the coming—the second introduces us to the day. We will turn now to the 1st Epistle, and we shall find the coming at the close of each chapter. In chap. 1., “Ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven”. Now, beloved, that is your proper, personal attitude. You are to be turning your back on the idolatrous world, serving the true God, and waiting for His Son from heaven. This is proper Christianity. Now, in the close of chap. 2., we get the same " coming" connected with service. “Why are we so earnest to come to you—to spend ourselves upon you? Because ye are our hope and crown of rejoicing in the presence of the Lord at His coming." We are willing now to serve you, because we are waiting for a day when you will be our glory and joy." How far do you and I draw encouragement from the hope of the coming of the Lord? When we appear before the Lord, service will be recompensed.
In the end of chapter 3, he uses the coming for another subject, but we still get the coming. It is given in a different phase. It will be a day when we shall be presented by the Lord to the Father with all the brethren, and on the way to it, we should be cultivating brotherly love. Would not the children in a well-ordered family be ashamed if they were quarreling, and suddenly their father opened the door? That is the thought here. The more simple our impressions of God are, the happier for us.
This will not be the royal kingly scene which waits for the earth. The family scene is the secret of heaven..
In chapter 4, the coming is used for a different purpose altogether, for comfort under bereavement, "that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.... For the Lord Himself shall descend," etc.
“Wherefore, comfort one another with these words."
So here we are kept in constant company with the "coming of the Lord" and the spirit has not yet glanced at "the day of the Lord." The day of the Lord has not yet taken place when the Son comes, when the servants receive their rewards, when the brethren meet in the Father's house, and when those who have been bereaved are reunited.
Now look at chapter 5, “Preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." We are still kept in company with the coming, and here it is used as a reason why we should cherish personal holiness. How full the mind of the Spirit is of this one precious mystery, and undistractedly so—using it again and again for different moral purposes!
Now, the apostle has told me certain things that attach to the coming of the Lord: waiting for the Son; service; brotherly love; being taken to meet Him in the air; without any thought at all of the day. In due time He is coming back; the saints will rise to meet Him, and go together to the Father's house. This is intimated in John 14, “I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also." Then there is the whole Apocalyptic action lying between the coming and the day; that is, it lies between our being taken in the air to meet the Lord, and our returning with the Lord to execute judgment.
Two simple things entitle me to say that. One is that I find the church (or living creatures) in heaven in the opening of the prophetic part of the Apocalypse. I know, from Corinthians and Thessalonians how they got there. Rev. 4, does not tell me how they got there, but there they are, seated on thrones in their glory, round the rainbow-encircled throne; and all through the action of the Apocalypse they may raise the shout in heaven at certain things on earth, but they are never found on earth. And if the Lord make good His promise, as He surely will, He will put the saints into the judicial action of the Apocalypse, judging along with Himself: "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?" Can the judgment go on without that promise being fulfilled? So the saints are there, conducting the judgment with their Head and Lord.
The Thessalonians were a people morally entitled to talk of these things because they were in trouble. The Corinthians, Galatians, and Colossians were not so exposed. Among all the churches the Thessalonians were a troubled, persecuted people, and most fittingly and beautifully the consolations of the Lord are administered abundantly; thereby telling us that these consolations are for the Lord's prisoners, whether in Spain, or on the coast of Africa, at this present moment. They are Thessalonian saints; I may be a Corinthian saint.
Now we come to the 2nd Epistle—and there we are introduced to the day of the Lord. There was one glance at it in the 1st Epistle—but the coming was its burden, as the day is the burden of the 2nd Epistle, When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that knew not God." This is the Lord's return to the earth in the terrors of judgment.
Then He does not stop in the air to meet His glorified saints, but He comes taking vengeance. However could you put, these two things together?
Then when these things are presented to the thoughts of the saints, they might alarm them. Is this what we wait for? “No," says the apostle, in chap. 2. His coming in flaming fire cannot take place till that man of sin be revealed. You are to make use of the coming of the Lord and your gathering together unto Him, to comfort yourselves against the thought of the day of the Lord. The day will find out its object, and the coming will find out its object. If ever there was accuracy it is here. Was I told in the 1st Epistle that I must wait for a something before the Lord could come? Here I am told that I must wait till the man of sin be revealed. All the daring of the world must show itself in its Babylon front. The Herod of that day must be displayed in the full bloom of apostasy, “sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God;” and then the day of the Lord will come, and, as we read in Luke, wheresoever the carcass is, thither will the eagles be gathered together."
Is that the way the church waits for her Lord—as the carcass waits for the pouncing of the eagle? Would that be a comely thought for the church of God?
I pause here. May our thoughts be guided in the light of God's word; may we walk in the understanding of His ways and hope for the fulfillment of His promises. Amen.
(Continued from page 160)