I purpose to take up a subject which I feel to be deeply important—the coming of the Lord Jesus; and to take it up, not proving it as a doctrine, but showing that it was originally a substantial part of Christianity itself. The groundwork is Christ's first coming, and His atoning death; but when we look beyond the foundation, then we see that the coming of the Lord Jesus is not merely a bit of knowledge, but a substantive part of the faith of the church of God, and that on which the moral state of the saints, and, indeed, of the church of God, depends. You will see, in going through the passages which I will now quote, that it connects itself and is mixed with every part of Christianity, characterizes it, and connects itself with every thought and feeling of the Christian. A person could not read the scriptures with an unprejudiced mind without seeing it: it presents itself to you in almost every page.
Some people have taken the pains to count how many times it occurs; but what I say is not merely this, but that it is so connected with every part of Christian life that, if you take it out, you take away what gives its character to the whole Christian life. It was identified with the system as announced to the world. I take conversion: people say what has that to do with the Lord's coming? That is part of what they were converted to— “to await God's Son from heaven.” This waiting for God's Son from heaven characterized their conversion. They were converted to serve God, surely; but, also, “to wait for His Son from heaven” (1 Thess. 1:10).
There are two subjects with which scripture is occupied, when personal salvation is settled: one is the sovereign grace, which makes us, redeemed from sin, like Christ in the glory (that is, the blessed portion of the church of God); and the other is the government of this world. The Jews are the center of the government of the world (Deut. 32:8). “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.” There we get, in the government of the world, Israel in the center; but Israel would not have Christ, and so was set aside for the time. God's throne was taken from Jerusalem at the Babylonish captivity, but a remnant spared and brought back, that the King might be presented to them; but Him they refused, and are now set aside till His return. There are only sixty-nine weeks of Daniel definitely fulfilled. The last week is not fulfilled; it is not come. So as to the great feasts: you have got the passover fulfilled— “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us;” and the feast of Pentecost has its fulfillment in the descent of the Holy Ghost. But the feast of Tabernacles is not fulfilled at all: you have no anti-type yet whatever. But here the other blessed work of God comes in, that meanwhile God is calling out poor sinners to have a part with His Son, and be like His Son; for we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He may be the firstborn among many brethren. He has taken us poor sinners to have us in the same glory as His Son. This is another thing from prophecy, which gives us the portion of the world and the Jewish people. When He shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory.
The Christian's position, as to the coming of the Lord, is that he is waiting for Christ to come according to His promise. People say He comes at death; I reply, Do you make death the same as Christ? If this were the case, we should have Him coming hundreds and hundreds of times, whereas we only read of His coming twice (Heb. 9:28). Shall I tell you what will happen when Christ comes? Resurrection! This is quite a different thing from death. The coming of Christ is, for the saint, to be the end of death—exactly the opposite. I believe nobody can find a trace of the thought in scripture that Christ comes at death. Instead of Christ's coming being death, it is resurrection; we go to Christ at death, it is not Christ who comes to us. Blessed it is “to depart and to be with Christ;” “absent from the body, present with the Lord.” But I am to show that this thought of the coming of Christ mixes itself with and characterizes every part of Christian life.
In the first place, we have it in conversion, as already said. They were converted to wait for God's Son from heaven. I will turn to other passages in support of it, but I will go through Thessalonians first. In the second chapter of the first epistle, at the end, the apostle speaks of what his comfort and joy in service were. He had been driven away by persecution from the midst of the Thessalonians, and writing to them speaks of his comfort in thinking of them. But how? “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?” He cannot speak of his interest in them, and Joy, without bringing in the coming of the Lord Jesus. Again, as regards holiness, we next read: The Lord make you to increase and abound in love, etc., to the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God and the Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints (1 Thess. 3:13). As to the death of a saint, they were so thoroughly looking for the Lord, that, if a person died, they thought he would not be there, ready to go to meet Him. They were wrong in this, and the apostle corrects their mistake. But now people say, when a saint dies, we shall go after him, we shall follow him. Here there is not a word about it. Suppose I were to go and say to a Christian now, who had lost some one dear to him: “Do not be uneasy, Christ will bring him with Him,” he would think me wild, or find it utterly unintelligible; and yet this is the way the apostle does comfort them: “Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (chap. 4.). He then shows the way He will do it: “They which are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep.” “Prevent” is an old word for anticipate or go before. The first thing the Lord will do when He ascends is to raise the sleeping saints. He is going to bring them with Him: if they have fallen asleep in Him, their spirits will have been with Him meanwhile; but then they will receive glory, be raised in glory, be like Him, as they had been like the first Adam, and, going to meet Him in the air, will be forever with Him; and when He appears He will bring them with Him, and they will appear with Him in glory. You get it in a general way in the fifth chapter, Where he desires their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This hope, then, is a part of the Christian state in every aspect. Conversion, joy in service, holiness, all are connected with the coming of the Lord.
Turn now to Matt. 25. The wise virgins take oil in their vessels, but they all go to sleep and forget that the Bridegroom was coming; but what I have specially to inquire here is, What was the original calling? The statement, clear and positive, is, that they went out to meet the Bridegroom; but, while He tarried, they “all” slumbered and slept. They all forgot His coming, the wise as well as the foolish. They got into some comfortable place; bivouacking in the open air is not pleasant to the flesh. But at midnight the cry is heard, “Behold, the Bridegroom!” The thing that roused them up from their sleep was the cry, “Behold, the Bridegroom!” The, original object, then, of the church was to go to meet Him Who came; but even true believers forgot it; and, further, what awakes them up from their sleep is their being again called out to meet Him at His coming. Then you get in “the talents” the same thing in regard to service and responsibility. He takes His journey and tells them: “Occupy till I come.”
Another very striking fact as to this truth is, it is always presented as a present operative expectation. You will never find the Lord nor the apostles speaking of the Lord's coming, with the supposition that it would be delayed beyond the life of those to whom they spoke. It might be at cock-crowing or in the morning; but they were to be waiting for God's Son from heaven: In the parables referred to, the virgins who went to sleep were the same virgins as those who awoke up; the servants to whom the talents were entrusted were the servants who rendered an account of them at His return. We know centuries have passed, but He will, not allow any thought of delay. “In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” “Blessed is that servant whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.” Again, what was the cause of the church's ruin? It was, “My Lord delayeth His coming.” It was not saying, “He will not come,” but “He delayeth His coming.” Then the servant began to beat the men-servants and maid-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; and this brings on his judgment. If the bride loved the Bridegroom, she cannot but wish to see Him. Her heart is where He is. When the church lost this, she settled down to enjoyment where she was, and got worldly, and did not care about the Lord's return.
Turn now to Luke 12, and you will find how this waiting for Christ characterizes the Christian, and therewith the serving Him while He is away! “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” They were to have their loins girded, their lights burning—such were the characteristics of a Christian. They were to be as men that waited for their Lord to open to Him immediately; their affections in order and full profession of Christ, but watching for their Lord's return. It is not having the doctrine of the Lord's coming. The blessing rests on those who are watching, “like men that wait for their Lord.” Blessed is that servant whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching. They must be girded and have their lights bright while He is away, and watch for His return; and then He makes them sit down to meat, and girds Himself, and comes forth and serves them. Now they must be girded and watch. Our rest is not here. But, says the Lord, when I have things all My own way, you shall sit down to meat, and I will gird Myself and come forth and serve you; I will make you enjoy all the best that I have in heaven, and I will minister it to you: only be found watching.
Christ is forever, in grace, a servant according to the form He has taken. He is girded now according to John 13. They would naturally think that, if He, were gone to heaven in glory, there was an end of His service to them; but He tells them, “I am going away; I cannot stay here with you, yet I cannot give you up; but as I cannot remain on earth with you, I must make you fit for Me in heaven. “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.” It is water here, not blood. “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet.” Life-giving conversion, as well as salvation, is fully wrought; but if we pick up dirt, in the way, even as to communion and the walk, grace and advocacy is there to wash our feet and have us practically fit for being with God where Christ is gone. Growth there is or ought to be, and, as to the unchangeable cleanness of the new man, this is certain; but I have not been watchful, I shall pick up dirt in my path. I cannot have this, in heaven, nor be in communion with what is there, and the Lord says in effect, “I am not going to give you up became I am going to God and glory and so I must have you in a state suitable to this, and washed as you are (though not all, for Judas was there)—keep you fit, restoring you when you fall. But you must be watching while I am away.”
It is a comfort to me to know that all the virgins woke up in time, and I believe all His, saints will wake up before the Lord comes. The difficulty to the heart in looking around is that so, many do not receive it: But the true service of the Lord is connected with “watching.” That is the State to which the blessing and the heavenly feast is attached. Then you find another thing, “serving” while He is away; and the result of this is, “Of a truth I will make him ruler over all that I have.” It is far better to eat, as is said of Israel, of the finest of the wheat, and that in the Father's house; but if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him, With the stewing in His absence, we get the ruling; as the heavenly feast with watching. The Lord then goes on to what we had in Matthew, the saying: “My Lord delayeth His coming.”
What the Lord is pressing as to watching and serving is, “I am coming again; you must be watching for Me, as men that wait for their Lord: that was to be their character as Christians. Supposing all the people in this town were actually watching, waiting for the Lord from heaven, not knowing the moment He would come, do you think the whole town would not be, changed? A person once said to me that, if everybody believed that, the world could not go on at all; and the Christian cannot in a worldly way.
If people were waiting for the Lord from heaven, the whole tone and character of their life would be changed. I may have the doctrine of Christ's coming, when I am really not looking for Him; but I should not like to be heaping money together when the Lord comes—I should, if possible, huddle it away out of His sight.
Turn now to Phil. 3 Paul was running a race, and he forgot all things else but the goal; and how does he speak of Christ at the close of that chapter? “Brethren, be followers together of me,” etc., etc. “for our conversation (our living association) is in heaven, from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” etc. He had seen Christ, and would not be content till he was like Him in glory. To be with Him then was, no doubt, far better; but it was not the goal of his heart. People talk of going to glory when they die. There is no such thought in scripture as being in glory, when we depart to be with Christ. Most blessed and happy to be with Him! This I would surely press; but it is when He comes that He will change these vile bodies and fashion them like unto His glorious body. I am waiting till I get my body changed, to be like Christ in glory; and, what is more, Christ is waiting too.