I. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONE EVENT MOST
OFTEN RECORDED IN HOLY SCRIPTURE
II. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS BOUND UP WITH
EVERY FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE, EVERY SUBLIME PROMISE AND EVERY
EXHORTATION TO HIGH, TO HOLY AND PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN LIVING
III. ONLY AT THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST WILL REDEMPTION BE
COMPLETE AND THE BLOOD OF THE CROSS BE JUSTIFIED
IV. NOT TILL OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST COMES THE SECOND TIME WILL THE
CHURCH BE EXALTED INTO HER TRUE FUNCTION OF RULERSHIP OVER THE WORLD
V. ONLY AT THE SECOND COMING WILL THE SOLEMN AND COVENANT PROMISES
OF GOD TO ISRAEL BE FULFILLED
VI. ONLY AT THE SECOND COMING OF THE CHRIST OF GOD WILL A GOVERNMENT
OF EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE BE ESTABLISHED UPON THE EARTH
VII. IT IS AT THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THAT THE
EARTH WILL BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION AND
TRANSFORMED INTO THE PARADISE OF GOD
VIII. THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR HIS CHURCH IS THE MOST
IMMINENT EVENT ON THE HORIZON OF TIME
I
The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Event Most
Often Recorded in Holy Scripture
IT is recorded in type, in figure, in symbol, in analogue, in
parable, in hyperbole and metaphor, in exalted song, in noblest
poetry and in rarest rhetoric. It is set before us in dramatic and
dynamic statement, in high prophetic forecast, in simple narrative,
close linked logic, expanded doctrine, divine exhortation and far
-reaching appeal.
The first promise of the Second Coming was made in Eden. It was made
in the promise given to the woman that her seed should bruise the
serpent's head. On the cross the serpent bruised the heel of the
woman's seed, but her seed did not bruise the serpent's head. Never
was his head more uplifted and unbruised than now. The promise of
the bruising is of God and must be fulfilled. The record of that
fulfillment is to be found in the twentieth chapter of the book of
the Revelation where our Lord descends and in the plenitude of His
power by the hand of an angel binds Satan for a thousand years
beneath His feet and the feet of His saints. As the bruising of the
serpent's head takes place at the Second Coming, and the promise of
the bruising is made in Eden, then the first promise of the Coming
is made in Eden; and as you see rising above the figure of the
fallen first man the figure of the Second man, you hear for the
first time the story of the Second Coming of the Second man; and
thus the story and the doctrine of the Second Coming begin with the
very beginning of the Book.
For three hundred years Enoch walked amid the slime, the slush and
the uprising tide of human iniquity in a God-hating and God-defying
world. Then one day God took him out of all the riot and wrong of it
without dying into the heaven of His glory; and the Apostle Paul
writing to the Corinthians of the Second Coming affirms there will
be a generation who will continue alive till the Lord comes; and
thus Enoch is a type of that deathless generation and by so much a
prophecy of the Second Coming.
For one hundred and twenty years Noah preached righteousness to a
world from which the death penalty had been removed, a world
surrendered to conscience (and let it be well remembered conscience
is not the gift of God nor evidence of grace but mark of fallen man,
the shadow of God's throne before which the "accuse" and "excuse" of
the soul witness to human guilt), a generation given over to
unrestrained fallen nature; a generation of murder, assassination,
violence, war, utter brutality, sickening sensualism, the invasion
of fallen and lust-seeking angels, rank spiritism, diabolism and
mocking laughter at God and the things of God.
Suddenly, without warning, God called Noah into the ark (the
building of which had awakened the derision of the revellers in sin
and the would-be wise men of the hour) shut the door and bolted him
in. At the end of seven ominous days in which the darksome clouds
hung low and threatening, the windows of heaven were opened, the
fountains of the deep broken up and the flood fell, sweeping away
all save Noah and his family in the ark. When the judgment waters
had subsided Noah and his family came forth to set up a new and
distinct dispensation in the world.
Seated yonder on the Mount of Olives in the shadow of the cross,
looking forward to His Second Coming and backward for an
illustration that should forecast the times and leave no excuse for
exegetical and interpretative theological blundering our Lord said
as it was in the days of Noah so should it be when the Son of man
should come the Second time.
Without warning, out of a world of increasing materialism, self
-sufficiency, boasting, pride, violence, war and multiplied peril, a
world that under the guise of general indifferentism and cultivated
cynicism mocks at the things of God and denies we have a written,
final and sure revelation from Him, the Lord will snatch away the
genuine, regenerated Church (the dead raised, the living changed)
and take them to Himself, into the place prepared. For at least
seven years spiritual blackness, measureless woe and indescribable
anguish will fall upon a Devil-deceived and Devil-ruled world. Then
will the Lord come with His previously gathered Church, execute
judgment on the ungodly, sweep away all iniquity and set up the new
administration of righteousness and truth. Noah is therefore a
figure, a prophecy of the closing hours of this age and its climax
in the Second Coming of the Lord.
One day Lot went into Sodom, took office, tried to reform the evil
city, succeeded in vexing his righteous, but unspiritual soul with
the filthy conversation of the wicked, got down to the level of the
natural man, lost his testimony and seemed to his friends and
intimates like a madman or the most excuselessly inconsistent
trifler when he attempted to take up once more his damaged
testimony.
Then there was a night when God's angels came and snatched him out
of the doomed city. The next morning the fire of God fell and Lot
"saved so as by fire" looked on at the blaze and the burning of all
his works of righteousness as wood hay and stubble, big in bulk but
rejected of God.
Looking forward to His Second Coming and backward for an
illustration the Son of God declared as it was in the days of Lot so
should it be when the Son of man should come again.
There are good and righteous Christians--righteous enough but wholly
unspiritual who are seeking to make spotless town of a world God has
judged and doomed, failing to see the cross is not only the judgment
of the individual, but equally the judgment of the world; that not
only does the cross reveal the end of all flesh but the end in God's
sight of that system of things which men call the world; that on the
cross the world is crucified to the Christian and the Christian to
the world; and failing to see this, failing to get the mind of God
are daily descending to the plane of the natural man, are losing and
in many cases deliberately setting aside the testimony once for all
delivered to the saints.
Without warning, they will be snatched away to meet a descending
Lord (if they be real and regenerated Christians) and this alone
because their faith be it never so small holds them securely in the
bonds of the covenant. After that the Lord will be revealed in
flaming fire to execute judgment on the world and all the works of
misguided social reformers because these works are built, not upon
the righteousness of God, but the righteousness of man.
According to the Word of the Lord Himself therefore Lot is a picture
and prophecy of the closing hours of the present age with its climax
the Coming and Appearing of the Lord.
After Abraham had typically offered up his son on Mount Moriah and
typically received him from the dead on the third day the son for a
number of chapters in the record disappears from view. Then Abraham
the father sends his servant Eliezer into a far country to get a
bride for this now invisible son. Eliezer meets the intended bride
at a well from whence she is drawing water, goes with her into her
brother's house, takes out a pack of precious things sent from the
father in the name of the son, displays them to her and invites her
to become the bride of the son. She consents. The servant leads her
forth. On the way he talks to her of the promised bridegroom.
Suddenly she beholds him coming to meet her. He receives her, takes
her into his prepared tent and she becomes his wife.
On the same mount nearly two thousand years later God the Father
offered up His only begotten Son. On the third day He raised Him
from the dead. For two thousand years He has disappeared from view.
The Father has sent forth the Spirit to obtain a bride for His Son.
He meets her at the Gospel well from whence we draw the waters of
salvation. He is calling her through individual selection that she
may become the corporate bride. He has brought spiritual gifts which
He seeks to display in all her assemblies. He is endeavouring to
lead her along the highway of time and to speak to her in the heaven
speech of the Coming Bridegroom. Suddenly the Lord will come to meet
her and take her into the place prepared and keep her for the
marriage hour. In this simple story the analogue finds its prophetic
climax in the Second Coming of our Lord.
Jacob fled from his home, the brother he had outwitted and the
father whom he had deceived. As night drew on footsore and weary he
cast himself upon the plain with a stone for his pillow. Visions
came to him in the night. A ladder of gold reached from earth to
heaven. At the top of it was a host of angels and the Lord Himself
in glory. The Lord spoke to him and assured him he and his posterity
should have the land on which he was lying for an everlasting
possession. It was a confirmation of the oath to and the covenant
with Abraham and Isaac. As the covenant can find its fulfillment
only at the actual Second Coming of our Lord as the God of Jacob,
this vision is the prophetic anticipation of that hour and the
heaven-proclaimed assurance the Lord is coming a Second time.
Joseph was sent by his father to his brethren. They despised and
rejected him. They cast him into the pit of death. He was taken out
alive. He was carried away into a far country--even into Egypt.
There he was exalted to become co-ruler with Pharaoh. In the hour of
famine he became the bread giver, the saviour of a hungry world. At
the same time he got a Gentile bride. In the hour when tribulation
and sorrow came upon his brethren he revealed himself to them the
second time and was owned and acknowledged by them. With his wife he
came in his chariot of kingly glory and established his father and
his brethren in the promised land of Goshen.
The application is so simple it applies itself.
God the Father sent His Son to His brethren in the flesh. They
despised and rejected Him. They put Him in the place of death. He
was raised up alive. He has gone into a far country--even into
heaven itself. He is there now as one who has been exiled from
earth. He has been exalted to the throne of His Father. For two
thousand years of spiritual famine and hunger in the world He has
been the giver of the bread of life, the saviour of men. During
these years of His exile He has been obtaining a bride from among
the Gentiles--that is the Church. When the hour of tribulation and
anguish shall come upon His brethren in the flesh, even as He
Himself has warned, He will appear in His glory, the scales will
fall from their eyes as they did from Paul and they will own Him as
their Messiah and Lord, the Holy One of Israel. With His Church in
associate power and glory He will deliver them and place them
forever in the promised land--the land of their fathers.
No sooner has Moses with the host of Israel crossed dry shod through
the divided waters of the Red Sea than he lifts up his voice and
sings, not of the first, but the Second Coming of the Lord. He sings
of Him as a man of war, as the head of celestial armies, coming to
execute judgment, overthrow iniquity and establish His reign and
rule of righteousness.
When you open the historic pages of the Bible, along the seemingly
driest and coldest paragraphs you may if you will behold the wheels
of the King's chariot flashing by and catch a gleam of His radiant
features, now as the man of war in David, and then as the Prince of
peace in Solomon.
Yonder, under the far-away stars, Job sat at his tent door and as he
meditated on the brevity and vanity of human life, its hopes
deferred that make the heart sick, the sound of the clods as they
fall upon the coffin lid, he asked the question that has quivered
down the ages--"If a man die, shall he live again?"
He answers his own question. He says he knows he will die. He knows
his soul will go into the underworld of the dead. His body will be
laid away in the dust. It will become nothing more than a bundle of
skin and bones. He knows, also, this bundle of skin and bones is the
work of God's hand. The Lord will have respect to His work. He will
remember He wrought it. At a given time He will call to Job and Job
will answer; then in anticipation of the supreme moment he cries out
exultantly he knows his redeemer liveth; that he shall stand in the
latter day upon the earth and covered with his own flesh once more
shall see his incarnate God.
Thus in those wondrous days of the long ago Job caught the shining
of the morning star, heard the trumpet of the first resurrection and
caught the vision of the Second Coming of his Lord.
David sweeps his fingers across the answering chords of his golden
harp and sings of that hour when the Lord shall come in His glory;
when the trees of the wood shall clap their hands; when the
mountains shall flow down at His presence, the waves of the sea
fling their hallelujahs on the resounding shore; and when the earth
shall own the Lord is coming, coming not the first time to die, but
the Second time as the risen one to live and reign and with none to
dispute Him.
In the Song of Songs we who believe are by nature before God as
black and uncomely as the sun-burned tents of Kedar, but by grace in
God's sight as beautiful as the Tyre-woven curtains of Solomon.
The breath of the spring time is in the air. The voice of the turtle
dove is to be heard in the land. It is the time of love and for
hearts to find their mates. The leaves of the fig tree of Israel are
beginning to put forth. The seeds of hope sown in the graves of the
Christian dead and watered with tears from the anguish of the living
are ready to bud and blossom forth in the full flower of their
assured immortality. The voice of the Bridegroom may be heard saying
to the Church: "Come away my beloved. Come thou rose of Sharon and
thou lily of the valley," and presently we see the Bridegroom
Himself descending and the Church going up out of the wilderness
leaning on the arm of her Beloved.
So we may learn and quickly if we will, that the Song of Songs which
is Solomon's is the celebration of the nuptial hour when our Lord
shall come the Second time to take His affianced Church to Himself
and make her the heavenly bride of His unfolding and unfading glory.
The prophet Isaiah hears the seraphs sing their "holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory" till the
posts of the door are moved at the wonder of the song. He sees the
glory of the Coming of the Lord. He tells us the Lord is coming with
fire and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger
with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.
Jeremiah announces the Lord is coming the Second time. When He comes
He will make Jerusalem the throne of His glory. Unto it shall be the
gathering of the nations. They shall gather unto it in the name of
the Lord, and neither shall they walk any more after the
imaginations of their evil heart.
Ezekiel beholds the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up. He
sees Him coming out of the purple dawning of the east. He restores
Jerusalem. He builds the temple till the shining spendour of it
shall fill the promised land; and in a voice as the sound of many
waters He says this temple shall be the place for the soles of His
feet and thus rebukes those who try to keep Him from dwelling bodily
in the land as though forsooth He should lose His heavenliness by so
doing, forgetting that earth is His rightful home and is to be His
eternal dwelling place. Yea and Amen when He comes to His own again
He shall dwell in the midst of His ransomed forever. And the nations
of the earth as they ascend to the heights of Jerusalem to behold
His glory and to worship Him in His holy temple as they catch the
first glimpse of the city, its gardens like unto the garden of the
Lord, the temple with its shekinah cloud by day and the flaming fire
by night that shall make it to be no more night but day, shall cry
out, not "Jerusalem," but "Yaveh Shamma--the Lord is there." And
from henceforth this shall be the name of the city.
Daniel has visions in the night. He beholds the Lord as the Son of
man, as eternal judge and king of all the earth. He sees Him coming
to the Father to receive His title deeds and then descending in
clouds of glory to establish the kingdom that shall never pass away.
From Hosea to Malachi the Minor Prophets echo with the declaration
the Lord is coming and always this coming is the Second.
Hosea foresees Israel will forsake the Lord and for many days be as
a dead man out of sight and forgotten. But in the latter times when
the Lord Himself shall return Israel will awaken and own Him as Lord
and king.
Joel tells us the armies of the world league shall be gathered
against Jerusalem and under their godless, Devil-incarnate head
shall defy the Lord of hosts; that the Lord will come, overthrow
them with a great slaughter and deliver the holy city from the
treading down of the Gentiles forever.
In Amos the Lord is coming to restore the kingdom to Israel and set
up and establish the throne of David.
Obadiah warns us of the day of the Lord, the day that is introduced
by the Second Coming of the Lord.
Joel teaches us under the madness and folly of Gentile rule
ploughshares are to be beaten into swords and pruning hooks into
spears and the nations are to give themselves to war and all the
horror and desolation of it. But this Scripture is never quoted by
those who preach peace where there can be no peace. Always they
quote Micah who tells us the swords will be beaten into
ploughshares, the spears into pruning hooks and the nations shall
learn war no more.
The two prophets seem to stand in absolute opposition to each other.
They do not.
Joel tells us what will happen just before the Lord comes.
Micah tells us what will take place after the Lord comes.
In Joel the Lord will come, meet the armies of the League in the
valley of decision, the valley of Jehoshaphat, and overthrow them;
then will the implements of war be beaten into the implements of
peace and war be at an end forever.
Micah announces the end of war and the beginning of lasting peace
will come as the consequence of the Lord's appearing in glory and
not till He does so appear.
Nahum proclaims the Second Coming. The Lord's way shall be in the
whirlwind and the storm, the clouds shall be the dust of His feet,
the mountains shall quake at Him, the hills shall melt and the very
earth burn at His presence.
In Habakkuk the Spirit carries human language to its loftiest height
till it glows on peaks of thought sublime.
The prophet sees the Lord coming the Second time. His brightness is
as the shining light. In His hands once pierced for such as we is
the hiding of His power. Pestilence and burning coals are His
vanguard. He stands and measures the earth. He drives asunder the
nations. The everlasting mountains are scattered. The perpetual
hills bow before Him and the inhabitants of the onlooking worlds
lift up their voices and sing: "His ways are everlasting."
Zephaniah proclaims the Second Coming.
The Lord will come and smite the world league in the pitifulness of
its gathering and the pigminess of its might. He will pour forth His
indignation and fierce anger upon all the exaltation and pride of
man. He will devour the earth with the fire of His jealousy, deliver
Jerusalem, turn to the people the pure speech of the old Hebraic
tongue, bid Zion to sing, Israel to shout and calling Jerusalem her
daughter, bid her to rejoice. He will overthrow the false Christ and
as the true Messiah will Himself dwell in the midst of Jerusalem
forevermore.
Haggai declares the Lord will come and will shake all nations so
that only the things which are of God may remain.
Zechariah tells us in terms so plain, so clear no one need
misunderstand nor be in darkness for a moment that the Lord is
coming the Second time.
He will come with all His saints. His feet shall stand in that day
on the Mount of Olives; and that no false teacher nor wilful
perverter of the truth about the reality of the Lord's bodily
presence on the earth at that time may have even the shadow of a
shadow to rest on, and as a proof that this coming is not spiritual
but actual and the testimony of His very feet under the most
pronounced topographical conditions, the prophet says the mount on
which those blessed and real feet shall descend is not only on the
Mount of Olives, but that "Mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east."
At the touch of the Lord's feet this wondrous and sacred Mount of
Olives will split in twain. One half of it will roll like a wave
northward. The other half will roll to the south. A great valley
will be formed. That valley is named in Scripture, but never has
been found on any map and cannot be found in Palestine to-day. It is
the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision, the valley of
judgment of the nations. And into this valley pell-mell shall rush
the Antichrist-led and Devil-deceived armies of the league of ten
nations to find their overthrow at the hand of the Lord and the
inauguration of that hour when the once despised and crucified
Christ shall be the revealed and recognized God of the whole earth;
when there shall be one Lord and His name one--even that name which
is above every name whether in heaven or on earth--the name of
Jesus.
Malachi closes the book of the Old Testament. He beholds our Lord
Jesus Christ coming the Second time. He sees Him coming as the
rising sun filling the heavens and flooding the earth with the
benediction of His majesty and might.
From Malachi to the New Testament we pass over four hundred years of
prophetic silence and then we are in the book of the Gospel
according to Matthew.
Here we are face to face with the night of nights.
The stars like silver squadrons sail close to the waiting earth. The
angels fling down their wreath of natal song and the virgin mother
cradles upon her white and unsullied breast the Christ of God.
We follow Him in the days of His unfolding ministry. Every time He
touches the earth His footsteps leave a benediction. Each time He
breathes the air He sweetens it. His low and modulated voice starts
a note of music whose rhythmic accents have not done sounding and
whose heavenly harmony outsings the discords of earth. He looks
daylight into blind eyes. He cools the fever pulse to quiet beating.
He makes the lame man to leap as a hart. He hushes the storm on
Galilee till the ruffled, windswept waters are as calm and peaceful
as a babe upon its mother's breast. With a word He raises the wept
-for dead. Everywhere and at all times His miracles are wrought, not
merely that He may do good and bring needed blessings as He passes
by, but as the credentials and sign warrant of the truthfulness of
His claim that He is Son of God, God the Son, the Anointed of the
Lord and Israel's king.
But in all His ministry of hand or word never does He speak save
incidentally of His first coming. Always and in fullest degree He
speaks of His Second Coming. Seated upon the Mount of Olives He
affirms, after the cross shall have slain and stained Him and the
grave shall have briefly held Him He will come again; but, just
before He comes it will be as it was in the days of Noah--a time of
materialism, sensualism, the culture of self-consciousness, an hour
of boasting, pride, lawlessness and war; and when He is revealed it
will be as with the driving judgment of the flood.
In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew and the first part of the
chapter He declares He is coming as the bridegroom comes--seeking
the marriage hour of his bride.
In the last part of the chapter and as the climax of His bridegroom
coming He will appear as the king of glory and the judge of the
living nations.
When He stands before His guilty judges and their suborned witnesses
and while they mock and deride Him He breaks His hitherto amazing
silence not to demonstrate to them the truth of His incarnation nor
the proof of His preexistence, but in calm and measured utterance to
tell them that after they shall have put Him to death He will come
the Second time; and they shall see Him descending from heaven
seated upon the cloud of shekinal glory and with the power of God.
In Mark He is the householder who goes into a far country, gives to
each of His servants a work to do, puts the porter on guard to watch
the door of the house and announces that no one in heaven nor on
earth knows when He will return. He will return, He will come the
Second time. It will be in one of the four watches of the spiritual
night. It may be at even, it may be at midnight, it may be at
cockcrowing and it may be in the morning. Because it is certain He
will come, but uncertain when He will come, each one who claims to
be His servant is under bond to watch. The whole household must be
in the attitude of watching, of readiness and expectation; and His
word of exhortation and warning to His Church is:
"What I say unto you, I say unto all--watch."
In Luke He is the nobleman who goes into a far country to get the
title deeds of His kingdom and return. When He returns He comes
first to His servants, gathers them to Himself and rewards them.
After that with them He executes judgment on His enemies and then
sets up His kingdom.
In the Gospel of John He eats with His disciples the last and
memorial supper. He goes out with them, bids them lift their glances
to the wide, extended sky where the jewelry of the night as the
scattered largess of a king burns in the fire of opal, the purple
and violet of amethyst and the white splendour of uncounted
diamonds. He assures them these gleaming things are no fiction fire
-flies of gaseous worlds in the making, but illuminated dwelling
places in His Father's house. He is going thither. He will ascend
into that congeries of inhabited worlds and will prepare a place for
them, a glorious palace home befitting their high estate; when all
is ready He will come back and receive them in corporate unity to
Himself.
His words are simple, but the simplicity is the simplicity of light
and every accent is as the touch of peace to troubled hearts; for
this is what He said:
"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and
receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
In the book of Acts, in the first chapter you have a scene no artist
has really ever painted, no writer ever fairly portrayed and no
mortal tongue can fittingly describe.
Our Lord is going up from the Mount of Olives. He is going up from
the midst of His disciples. He is going heavenward. The disciples
watch Him as He ascends. He enters a cloud. Do not, I beseech you,
imagine for a moment this cloud is a fog bank, a mass of watery mist
and vapour; it is the shekinal cloud which once covered the
tabernacle in the wilderness and was the vehicle of His presence
when Israel in that far time marched on their way to the promised
land. It is His chariot of state. In this chariot sent to meet Him
He passes between the onlooking worlds ever higher and higher till
at last He takes His seat upon the throne of the Highest at the
right hand of the invisible majesty.
Then, as through the dimness of their tears the disciples watch Him
disappear, they hear a voice which says to them:
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 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."
"This same Jesus."
Mark that well!
The Jesus who on the Sunday night of His resurrection did meet these
disciples in the upper room and said to them as they shrank back
into a frozen silence of hope and fear:
"Peace be unto you."
"Why are ye troubled?"
"And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?"
"Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and
see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
Still these disciples were afraid, afraid it could not be true.
Then He showed them His hands and His feet that they might see where
the nails had gone in, torn through the flesh and left eternal
wounds as the chevrons of glory.
And still the silence of hope mingled with fear.
Then he said:
"Have ye here any meat?"
And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
And He took and did eat before them.
He had said to them He was flesh and bones, not flesh and blood.
He was not flesh and blood because in the sin-offering all the blood
must be poured out at the bottom of the altar, and He was Himself
the antitypical sin-offering. He had poured out His blood. It had
run as a living stream from every vein and artery.
Because He was the sin-offering in death, in resurrection He became
for the first time a priest--high priest after the order, not of
Aaron, but Melchisedec.
That very morning as the high priest He had ascended to heaven,
within the vail, and sprinkled His redeeming blood (how is not
revealed) on the eternal throne, changing it from the throne of
judgment to a throne of grace. That night He stood before them He
was their high priest, not of earth, but heaven. He breathed upon
them, imparted to them the Holy Spirit--the Comforter--linking them
to His immortal body. He remained with them, going and coming,
during forty days, operating with them officially by and through the
Holy Spirit as His unseen executive; for we are told that, "until
the day he was taken up he through the Holy Ghost had given
commandments unto the apostles;" and then, finally, as this scene in
the book of Acts shows us, ascended to His high-priestly function
and unceasing service of intercession.
He is seated in heaven now, seated there as the same Jesus who met
His disciples that first Sunday night, the same Jesus who ascended
out of their midst from Olivet. This same Jesus! The same not only
in realistic, human body, but the same in character, full of the
same measureless compassion and grace as when He sat on the well
curb in Samaria and though thirsting as a real man for real water
offered to give to the sinful woman who by divine and eternal
ordination met him there, the water that should be in her as a well
of water springing up into everlasting life.
This same Jesus is coming again, not a phantom, not an impalpable
spirit, not a ghost Christ, but a Christ who is a real man of real
flesh and real bones.
This is the key-note of the book of Acts.
He who died for men, who has sanctioned the Holy Spirit to operate
in His name, speak in His name, reveal to us the things that are His
and show us things to come concerning Him, He is coming again,
coming not only as very God, the Holy One of Israel, He who has been
exalted to be both Lord and Christ, but as this loving, tender,
compassionate Jesus, and in a body that may be seen and handled--a
body of flesh and bones.
In Romans we have the promise the Lord is coming to bruise Satan
under His feet and the feet of His saints; and according to the
calendar of heaven and the way in which they measure time there this
great event must come to pass, as it is written, "shortly."
In First Corinthians the Lord is coming to raise the dead who shall
be His "at his coming."
In Second Corinthians He is coming to transfigure the living who
believe in Him and thus clothe them with their "house from heaven,"
give them the body that shall be the handiwork of God and not man.
In Philippians our citizenship is in a country which is in heaven
from whence we are to look for a Saviour, even the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall change this body of our mortal humiliation that it
may be fashioned like unto His immortal and glorious body, a change
which He will effectuate by that mighty power according to which He
is able to subdue all things unto Himself.
In Colossians our life is hid with Christ in God, a double
environment of security, and when Christ who is our life shall
appear, we shall appear with Him also in glory.
In the epistles to the Thessalonians each chapter closes with a
testimony to the Second Coming.
In the first epistle in the first chapter the Apostle commends the
Thessalonian Church because they had turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven.
From the beginning the Apostle Paul taught the new converts the next
possible event might be the Coming of that Lord whom he had declared
had been sacrificed for them, was now risen and in heaven. This was
the one supreme thing for which they were to be in readiness every
day--the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the second chapter he assures the Thessalonians he will meet them
in the presence of the Lord at His Coming; when He comes and they
are all gathered before Him, saved through the Gospel Paul has
preached to them in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, they
will be the guarantee and occasion of the crown he shall receive.
In the third chapter he exhorts them to increase and abound in love
to one another that their hearts may be established unblameable in
holiness before the Lord when He shall come the Second time with all
His saints.
In the fourth chapter he announces as a special revelation from the
Lord that the Lord Himself is coming to awaken those whom He has put
to sleep in His name. He will descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. The dead in Him
shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught
up with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; so shall we ever
be with the Lord and with one another.
In the fifth chapter the Coming of the Lord for His saints as just
noted in the fourth and preceding chapter will bring in the day of
the Lord; and we further learn this coming for the saints not only
precedes the day of the Lord, but as the introduction to it will be
as secret, sudden and unknown to the world as is in general the
coming of a thief.
In the second epistle, in the first chapter the Lord is seen coming
with all His saints to execute judgment on the ungodly and the
unbelieving.
In the second chapter we learn the word, "Rapture," so often given
as the name and title for the translation of the Church to meet the
Lord, while it may be a deducible truth and exegetically, or, rather
philologically sustained, is not the Holy Ghost title. The true and
Scriptural title is: "Our gathering together unto Him."
In this chapter we learn also when the Church has been gathered to
the Lord in heaven the man of sin, the Antichrist will be revealed;
then will the Lord appear in glory, overthrow him and his league of
nations and set up the heaven-ordained kingdom of righteousness and
peace.
In the third chapter the Apostle prays the Lord may direct their
hearts into the love of God and into--patient waiting for Christ.
In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians the Lord comes FOR His
Church.
In the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians He comes WITH His Church.
In First Timothy He is coming that He may be shown forth as the
blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.
In Second Timothy He is coming to judge the quick and the dead and
to give reward to all those who love His appearing.
Titus gives us the inspired and official title of the Coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ as, "That Blessed Hope."
In Hebrews we see this age is the antitypical Day of Atonement; just
as at the close of the day in Israel the people were waiting for the
man who led away the scapegoat into the wilderness to come back
without it as evidence their typical redemption was complete and
secure for another year; just so our Lord Jesus Christ having
appeared in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself, reconcile the world to God and bring in the day of grace
and salvation, to them that look for Him shall He come the "second
time, without sin, unto salvation"; that is, He will come back not
as the sin offering, but as the triumphant Redeemer and as witness
that our redemption will then be completed by Him in the immortal
bodies He shall give us.
James testifies that in the closing hours of this age Capital and
Labour will look at each other with wrinkled brows, clenched hands
and nervous, impatient expectation.
He exhorts the Christian labourer to be patient because, as he says,
"the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh," is so near, so imminent He
standeth as a judge--verily "at the door"--and ready to intervene.
In the First Epistle of Peter the Lord is coming to justify the
faith of His elect.
In the Second Epistle He is coming to bring in the new heavens and
the new earth.
In the First Epistle of John we who believe are sons of God. It is
not yet manifested to the world what we really are, nor what we
shall be; but we know when He shall appear we shall be like Him for
we shall see Him as He is. When He shines out we shall shine out
with Him.
We are told every one who has this hope in him, purifieth himself
even as he is pure.
And thus in this special fashion the Holy Spirit affirms the Second
Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the climacteric of our
avouchment as sons of God, but, when held as a hope in the heart,
will keep us pure and clean as the Holy Christ Himself.
In the Second Epistle of John we are warned false teachers will
abound; teachers who shall deny the eternal incarnation of the Son
of God. They will deny He is coming the Second time; but, above all,
they will deny He could possibly come in the flesh.
The Apostle unhesitatingly affirms those who hold and teach this
falsehood are nothing less than antichrists; and he warns us as
faithful followers of the true Christ not to receive them into our
houses, nor bid them Godspeed.
Jude is the smallest, that is to say, the shortest, of all the
epistles. It is a clasp between the Old and the New Testaments.
Jude tells us Enoch the seventh man who lived on the earth
testified, not of the first, but the Second Coming, saying:
"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints."
Then we find ourselves in the Revelation.
This is the book of the Consummation.
The supreme subject is the Second Coming.
There are twenty-two chapters.
Each of the chapters portrays conditions and circumstances leading
up to the great climax--the Second Coming and the immense and
measureless consequences--the millennial reign and the eternal
state.
The book is like the roof of a great cathedral, like the interior of
the roof, groined and panelled--each panel a chapter.
It is like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in which, however, may
be found figures and forms such as Michel Angelo never drew nor such
even as his imperial and suggestive mind could conceive.
You will find in these chapters the figures of wild beasts, the
dragon, fallen angels, fiends from the pit, that old Serpent called
the Devil and Satan. If you will read and listen you will hear the
blast of trumpets, the breaking of vials, the sounds of woe, the
tramp of marching feet, the clash of battle, fire falling out of the
heavens, trees and grass in flame, the waves of the sea turned to
blood, fountains and streams become as wormwood and gall, the sun as
black as a starless midnight, the moon hanging in the lowering
heavens like a clot of blood, earthquakes, the scarlet tongues of
outpouring volcanoes, thunderings and lightnings, all manner of
wickedness and pervading sin, a world quivering as a ship in the
storm, the bending heavens as though unbolted and insecure, all
foundations apparently shattered and the universe itself as though
rushing forward to its funeral pyre.
Heaven opens and the Lord comes forth riding a white horse, followed
by armies on white horses, the horses the symbols of His power, each
hoof beat as it smites the slant of heaven the sound of swift
descending judgment.
On the Lord's head are many crowns.
He is wrapped in a garment dyed in blood.
His eyes are as a flame of fire. His glances penetrate to the secret
intents and purposes of the heart. They get behind every cloak of
deception and every pretense. All the spotted nakedness of interior
and intensive sin is revealed. Nothing remains in shadow, everything
is illuminated to bareness, and the searching light of His looks
goes through every fibre of being.
He is coming to reign and rule.
All the things the chapters record have been driving us to look
forward to that; the woe, the anguish and the hell on earth have
been pleading and crying out for a master to master and put an end
to the cataclysms of catastrophic iniquity; the very nature of
things has been testifying that He must come.
He is responding to the demand that lies in the nature of things.
He is coming to reign and rule as a king. He is not coming with an
olive branch in one hand and a cooing dove on His shoulder.
Nay!
He is coming with a rod of iron. He is coming to trample all
opposition beneath His feet, put down all rule and authority, break
to pieces and shatter as a potter's vessel the pride of nations and
the self-exaltation of man.
He is coming to establish peace, but not by means of compromise, by
gentle and persuasive ways, but by war and as a man of war, as the
man who is very God and judge omnipotent.
The book closes with the thrice repeated announcement from the Lord
Himself:
"Behold, I am coming quickly."
This is the last utterance of the Lord from heaven.
To this the Church replies with its last recorded prayer:
"Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus."
When you close the book you feel the next thing is--the Coming of
the Lord.
If the value of a statement or doctrine is to be measured by the
number of times repeated, then, since from Genesis to Revelation, in
every form of human language the Second Coming is proclaimed, is
stamped upon almost every page of the Bible, is inwrought with every
fibre of truth it finally presents; since in the New Testament alone
it is mentioned directly and indirectly more than three hundred
times, as there is no other theme in the Bible that approaches it in
frequency of repetition, it should seem that this event and doctrine
of the Second Coming with all its promises and certified
consequences should easily be of supreme and all-compelling
importance; and because the Holy Spirit has made it of such
importance I am under bonds to preach it.
Those who persist in saying it is incidental, secondary and sporadic
might well be said to be of that class of theological disputants who
never study their Bible; for the fact is should you cut out every
reference to the Second Coming, its cognate truths and all the
events to which it gives emphasis, you would have but a fragment of
the Bible; and the Book upon which faith is founded, from which hope
casts its glances heavenward, sees light in the grave and
immortality assured, would be but as a broken reed, a garment of
beauty torn and shredded, or as a harp whose main chord had been
snapped asunder.