24. —THE COMING OF OUR LORD.
What an appropriate close to the second year of united Bible Study— “The Lord’s Coming!” Perhaps there is no subject in which greater advance in truth has been made, during the last 50 years, than in that of our Lord’s return. Truly we are in the testing days of Matthew 25, when at midnight the Spirit has raised again the cry “Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him.” Few intelligent Christians now doubt the personal return of our Lord to this earth. The old idea too, that death is to be regarded as our Lord’s coming is now widely and justly regarded as erroneous. Some however, still speak of death as the Lord’s coming, failing to see that the idea has not only no Scripture warrant, but is directly opposed to its spirit, as in John 21 “ Jesus saith unto Peter, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee, follow thou me.” “ Then went this saying abroad among the brethren (not that this foretold John’s death, but on the contrary) that that disciple should not die.”
A careful study, however, of the Scriptures brought before us, as the result of last month’s study, will show that further light is needed to distinguish between the two parts of our Lord’s coming, which we may here contrast, into the air, for His people. “I will come again and receive you unto myself.”
As the Morning Star (before the day) Revelation 21.
For final salvation. — “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.”
Public to the Mount of Olives, with His people. — “At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”
As the Sun of Righteousness, (ushering in the day) Malachi 4.
For judgment. —“The Lord cometh, with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.”
It is evident that the coming for His people must precede His coming with them, and therefore it is the former for which we wait. It may occur at any moment, “for we shall not all sleep.” In the words of another, “As soon as the last member is brought in, and Christ’s body is complete, the Church will be removed from the earth, will pass away into heaven. The Lord, as we read, descending thence with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, while we, both the dead and the living in that day, will be caught up to meet Him, and be forever with Him. Thus will end the path of the Church on earth, and for this we, the children of God, are now called to wait, even “for His Son from heaven” to take us home to Himself.
And now, the Church being gone, with whom will the Lord begin to deal next? With Israel again. Gathered once more into their own land-in unbelief and defiance of God, it is true-the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the very tribes which slew their Messiah, will by this time have built their city and temple (Isaiah 66:66A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence to his enemies. (Isaiah 66:6); Zechariah 14:1-31Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. (Zechariah 14:1‑3); Revelation 11:1, 21And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 2But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. (Revelation 11:1‑2)); and not only so, but will also have received a false Messiah, set up by themselves, one suited to meet and to please the unregenerate heart. This delusion, on their part, God will permit, in order to chasten His people for their past disobedience in rejecting His Son. They hated, they put the Just One to death, the One who came to them in the Father’s name; and hence He, acting with them on the principle of retributive justice, measuring to them the same measure that they themselves meted to Jesus, will allow them to become the blind dupes of another, who will come to them in his own name. (John 5:4343I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. (John 5:43)).
A deceiver at first, and a tyrant in the end (Psalms 5:6; 43:16Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. (Psalm 5:6)
1Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. (Psalm 43:1)), this fearful being, this false Christ, Satan’s great counterfeit of their long-looked-for Messiah, will receive their blind homage and worship, in those days of their deepest delusion and ripened apostasy. And not only so, but “all the world will wonder after the beast” (Revelation 13:33And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. (Revelation 13:3)); while the ten Gentile kings, who in that day will rule the fourth and last empire of Daniel, will give him their power and strength, owning him alone as their Lord, and becoming wholly subject to him, as his vassals (Revelation 17:12,1312And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. 13These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. (Revelation 17:12‑13).) In the midst, however, of the infidel nation, thus come to the height of their evil and folly, an elect faithful remnant (Isaiah 6:1313But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. (Isaiah 6:13); Ephesians 3:12,1312In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. 13Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. (Ephesians 3:12‑13); Zechariah 13:8,98And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9)), hated by the bulk of the people, will be raised up (it would appear through the testimony of two certain prophets, namely the witnesses spoken of in Revelation 11) to look for the coming of Christ. And in answer to the cry of these sufferers He will come. (Psalms 79, 80, 118.) Yes: the heavens will open, and Christ the Rider on the white horse, followed by the armies in heaven (Revelation 19:11-2111And 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. 17And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; 18That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. 19And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:11‑21)), even His Church, together with others who have part in the first resurrection, who as we have seen, will have previously ascended to meet Him, and will have been with Him in heaven during the whole of the above-mentioned action on earth, will descend to make war with the beast, the ten kings of the earth, and their armies; with all in short, who, in that hour of man’s complete apostasy, will be leagued under the beast, against God and His Christ. Then follows the conflict-” The battle of Armageddon” (Revelation 16:13-1613And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. (Revelation 16:13‑16)), the issue of which it is almost needless to tell. The beast, and the false prophet, his minister, the second beast of Revelation 13:1111And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. (Revelation 13:11), will be destroyed, cast, both of them, into the lake of fire forever; the kings of the earth, and their armies, will be slain with the sword proceeding out of the mouth of the heavenly conqueror; while Satan, the great mover of all, will be chained, and cast, for a thousand years, into the bottomless pit. This done, the Lord, having gathered in His elect, namely, the Jewish remnant before named, will next take to Himself His great power and will reign. He will ascend the throne of David, His father, which had been destined for Him, as the true heir, from the outset (Psalms 89; Ezekiel 34:23,2423And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 24And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. (Ezekiel 34:23‑24)); gather in,’ in the next place, the whole of His people, both Judah and Ephraim, and not only so, but His glory will spread through the earth. Blessing at last will flow forth in a national political way to the Gentiles, who will unite with Israel in that day, in adoring the Lamb through whose blood alone they will be redeemed. (Isaiah 2:2-52And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:2‑5).) The temple worship of Israel will then be revived. (Psalms 51; Ezekiel 40-48) The feasts and the sacrifices, not pointing forward, as of old, but commemoratively back to the blessed redemption already accomplished, will be observed in Jerusalem. Thither the nations will congregate; thither they will go’ up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:1616And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16).) The promised land will be the scene of God’s presence on earth-the place of His throne; there His city will rise-, Jerusalem-the metropolis of the world; there His temple will stand: there too the glory will be especially visible, in the light of which the nations will walk. (Revelation 21:2424And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. (Revelation 21:24).)
Such, beloved reader, is a brief forecast of the immediate future, and an attempt to group into order the events that precede and follow our Lord’s public appearing. Before closing this notice we might say that it appears to us that the following passages out of Division 2 of the subject may fairly be taken as alluding to the first or secret coming of our Lord into the air.
“Even so, come Lord Jesus.”