One morning when starting on a journey by rail, I had asked at the bookstall for a copy of the well-known periodical, "The Christian." The attendant had replied to me in the words at the heading of this paper,
"Not one left," and as I walked away I pondered them and thought, yes, there is a day coming when there will not be a Christian left in this world, when every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will have been caught away, and "not one left." What a solemn thought! Have you ever weighed it in God's presence?
There is a portion of God's Word in which this great fact is plainly declared (Thess. 4:14-18), and the end of this Christian dispensation is stated with no uncertainty, that the Lord Jesus Christ whom the heaven has received, will someday, we know not how soon, leave that heaven and descend into the air, and there meet all His resurrected saints from Adam downwards, to the last who has fallen asleep in Christ, as well as all those saints who are living on the earth at the time, both companies having been caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So shall they ever be with the Lord.
Not one true believer will be left behind; froth every quarter of the globe; from every position of life; the babe of yesterday who has just touched the hem of His garment; the aged saint who has lived in the joy of this hope for many a long day,—not one will be forgotten—"not one left."
But what, you may ask, will be the fate of those who have rejected the offer of mercy, preached through the gospel of the grace of God, who have turned a deaf ear to the many entreaties they have heard to turn from their sins and to trust in the Lord Jesus as their Savior, who have listened to addresses and sermons until they were gospel-hardened?
Their awful fate is left in no uncertainty, for we read (2 Thess. 2:8-128And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:8‑12)), that they will be left here to be deceived by that Wicked One, the Antichrist, who will then manifest his Satanic power, with the result that all those who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness, will be cast out of God's presence, or in the solemn words of Scripture,—"that they all might be dammed."
Reader, where will you be? To which company will you belong? Will you be one of those who will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air; or amongst those who will be left to incur the terrible judgment of God's wrath forever and ever?
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36). Reader —which is your portion?