Nothing can be more solemn, beloved friends, than the Lord’s testimony here to His disciples (and it applies to us). If I look for the will of God being carried out anywhere, I must go, of course, where Christianity is. They are those who will be “beaten with many stripes;” that is, the professing church of God—Christendom, if you will.
The warning is not against saying that Christ will not come; everyone says that He will but the infidel; but against saying, the Lord delays His coming. Now I desire to speak a little of the condition of soul of one who is manifestly waiting for Him, as to whether it characterizes those who read this; whether, if He come at midnight, or in the cock-crowing, or in the morning, He would find us watching; and I would speak of it, not as an interesting topic, which those who have studied much perhaps may receive some light about, but as a subject for our hearts.
Christ is waiting, and, so far as His people are right here, they are waiting. He is not sitting on His throne yet. The blessed work of Jesus on the cross being done, He sits at the right hand of God, on His Father’s throne, until His enemies are made His footstool. From thence He sent the Holy Ghost down to fill our hearts, and make us abound in hope whilst waiting for Him. He is sitting down; He has no more to do as to His atoning work; and He has sent the Holy Ghost to gather out His joint-heirs to wait here, or to wait there, —which is better, of course.
Christ has appeared and brought salvation; but, beloved friends, we cannot have too fast hold of the fact that the heart and intention of Christ is not merely to clear us from judgment, but to have us with Himself, and that is what He is waiting for. I speak of this hope now, not as a little Christian knowledge, but as the only and proper hope of the Church.
Now, for instance, when the Lord was comforting His disciples when He was going away, What did He say to them? — “I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” And He shows what will be their hope meanwhile; not the knowledge of the Father, nor the coming of the Holy Ghost, but the coining of Himself. What is it that the angels say in the first chapter of Acts? — “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.” And so we should find in every respect that what God has set before us in His Word all sinks down when this hope is lost. It is this hope which characterizes the Church, in the mind of Christ and in Scripture, and the Lord is now awaking and calling us back to this expectation. Paul tells us, in the third chapter of Philippians, that “our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” I find that as characteristic of the Christian. It is not to doubt the fact of our dying and departing to be with Christ, precious as it is and useful as it is for us to think of it, but this is His coming to take us to Himself.
There are nothing but troubles here for us in the world. We belong to it until we are converted, and then it belongs to us. “Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours” —even the trials through which we pass. The poor thief says, “Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.” How little they thought, when they sent the soldiers to break his knees, that they were sending him off to heaven!
Another point—if the saint dies, he is just absent from the body and present with the Lord. But we are to be “conformed to the image of his Son.” Now I do not want to be conformed to Christ in the grave. The poor thief was, of course; he saw corruption. Of course Christ did not “see corruption.” But we are not to be conformed to Him in the grave, but in the glory. That is the full, blessed result of the hope that is before us—to be with Christ and like Christ. The reason why I have found the Lord’s coming so precious is that it brings so definitely the Lord Himself before me. He is coming to take me; it is not that I am going to be happy in heaven, but that Christ Himself is coming to fetch me.
Now it is delaying the Lord’s coming that brings such deadness into the Church. Take the first chapter of Thess.; you will see it is the Lord’s coming which gives the character to the people. What were they converted for? “To serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven.” Here were a number of people who had turned away from all their idols to serve the only true God, instead of all the gods they had before; and Paul says to them, I am looking for the Lord to come, and ‘then you will be my joy and crown.’ Then, if you look at holiness, it is “That he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then in the fourth chapter he gives full expression to it, and in the Second Epistle you find the coming of the Lord with respect to judgment. It was the object that was perpetually before them, as that which formed and fixed their character.
If you take the virgins (Matt. 25): —They went forth to meet the Bridegroom. Well, the Bridegroom tarried; He delayed His coming (we know He has tarried); and they all slumbered and slept. People say, “Why did not all these good and holy people find it out long since?” Why, because they all slept! They had all gone out to meet the Bridegroom, but, as people say, it is not very comfortable to bivouac out, and so they all turned in somewhere—turned into the world, in fact; and there they all slumbered together, for people can very well sleep together. But at midnight the cry was made, and then, when they began to awake, they found they had not all got oil; and the effect of the cry was to separate the professors from the true ones. The professors go to buy, and whilst they are gone the Bridegroom comes, and those that are ready go in with Him to the wedding.
You will see that you never find the Lord’s coming delayed beyond the life of the people to whom it was being written of and you find the same thought in the Lord’s teachings on the subject. What I mean is this—we know the servants who received the talents are the same ones who are judged for their use of them; and it is the same virgins who went to sleep that awake up again. We find in Revelation the history of the whole time of Christendom. Is He going to make a long tale of it? No. He takes seven churches then existing to tell it all out. So there is no excuse for a single soul to say, He delays His coming. It is a present thing. As James says, “The Judge stands before the door.”
But the hope of the coming of the Lord has been lost, and the church has gone quite into the world. Do not you think that, if it were believed in R— that the Lord was coming, it would not alter every detail of people’s lives? Paul says, that after his decease there should be a complete turning aside; men speaking perverse things, and drawing disciples after them. And then in the midst of this darkness there is to be the cry at midnight. How can I resist such a testimony?
People say, Well, though I am occupied with what is here, my heart is not in it, so it is not my treasure. They always say, Where my heart is, there is my treasure. Now, that is not at all what the Lord says. He says, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be.” If you have a great treasure in heaven, you may be sure your heart will be there. It is no use talking; an unconverted man knows very well that if he were looking for Christ it would alter all his life-converted people too. Do not you believe that it would separate professors off in five minutes, if we were all walking like men who are waiting for their Lord! It is the delay between the cry and the coming that separates them off. And they were to have the character, and tone, and ways of men that were waiting; and these were to be “blessed”, blessed.
(To be continued.)