READINESS FOR HIS COMING

E. M. Walkinshaw

Matthew 24: 44; 1 Thessalonians 5: 23, 24; Acts 7: 54–60

I have the impression, dear brethren, of readiness for the Lord’s coming. I suppose spiritually-minded persons would say that we are on the way to meet the Lord, either in the air or at the Lord’s supper. It is not an unusual thing to say in meetings like this that the Lord might come before the meeting is finished, which is true, and if it be true, and has laid hold of us, I judge it will have some effect. The Lord’s coming, that is not distinguishing the rapture from the appearing, is mentioned, I think, several hundred times in the New Testament. As far as I know it is not mentioned anywhere without its being intended to have some moral effect upon us. If we take another example of the effect, such as John, he says, “what we shall be has not yet been manifested; we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3: 2)—a glorified Man has never yet been manifested, but if it, or He, is manifested we know that we shall be like Him. What a wonderful thing that is, that we are going to be just like the Lord Jesus in His glorified body! Then he says, “every one that has this hope in him”—that is in Christ—“purifies himself, even as he is pure”. So that the standard of our purification is a glorified Man. You may say that is impossible, but nevertheless that is the standard. Hence throughout our lives, I suppose, it applies that if I have this hope in Him I purify myself even as He is pure. So that the standard is Himself, be it purity or righteousness. How exercising that is!

Well, I believe the Lord would encourage us so that we should be ready. He says, “Wherefore ye also, be ye ready, for in that hour that ye think not the Son of man comes”. It may be said that that is not strictly said to us; He is speaking really of the remnant. Nevertheless what the Lord says has an application to us, dear brethren, in that, so to speak on the way to the appearing. He will gather together all those who belong to Him, and it is remarkable that the Lord should put it like this, “for in that hour that ye think not the Son of man comes”. How much we are marked by decline and recovery; how often our affections stray from Himself as an Object. And often we might even say, ‘Well, nearly two hundred years ago the brethren were saying this!’ I think I have reminded the brethren before that many years ago an elderly brother told me that in the early days of the recovery the brethren went out from their homes to their work in the morning not expecting to come back. How genuine, how real, to the early brethren of the recovery, was the coming of the Lord, but we have to admit that in the frailty of our natural thinking and character our minds tend to wane and get away from it.

Nevertheless it is a simple fact that we are nearer to the coming of the Lord than ever before.

I would like to exercise my own heart, and the heart of my brethren, with a simple word of encouragement. Am I ready? You are on the way to meet the Lord; are you ready to meet Him? And I might say, when I meet Him, what will He say to me? I visited a believer recently who was sick. I said, ‘When the Lord comes what do you think He will say to you?’

He replied, ‘I only think he will say to me, You are a naughty boy’. Well, He may say that to all of us; but we are very thankful, at any rate, to know that on the cross He bore the judgment for us. And the One that we meet at the judgment-seat is our Saviour. What a wonderful thing that is!

Nevertheless, beloved brethren, we are going to meet Him, and I ask myself, what will He say to me? He will say something. He will say something to every one of us. While the judgment-seat is not in any sense penal, yet at the same time there is no doubt that our history will be reviewed from the beginning of our responsible life till the time when we go to be with Him. It is a good thing to review it now, is it not? Do you not think it is a good thing to review one’s responsible history with the Lord, to go over it with Him in so far as one’s poor failing memory takes it in, and be rather like Paul who could say, “we have been manifested”

(2 Corinthians 5: 11); we are already clear with the Lord, although he says elsewhere that this did not justify him—“but he that examines me is the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 4: 4. The wonderful thing is that we are on the way to meet Him. If I might repeat it, we are on the way to meet Him, either in the air or at the Lord’s supper, and I think the Lord would exercise us that we might be ready. So that whether it be in the air, or at the Lord’s supper on the morrow, I am ready to meet Him; I have gone through exercise of heart with Him, and I am consistent with Him in my words and walk and ways. What a wonderful privilege it is to know that we are going to meet the Lord!

So in this first passage He says, “Wherefore ... be ye ready, for in that hour that ye think not the Son of man comes”. I suppose when everything with Israel, and with men generally, is built up, then, when they think not, the Son of man comes. But, dear brethren, we are in the light. Do you not think that to be in the light is a responsibility? Do you not think, if you realize the number of persons living in this area, that with so many hundreds in the darkness it is a great privilege to be in the light of His coming, whether it.be the rapture, as we call it, or the appearing? What a wonderful privilege it is to be in the light of that, and there are no doubts about it. If it is a wonderful privilege, I am sure we would all agree it is also a responsibility. So if we are in the light of His coming we should also face the responsibility. It has its bearing not only on meeting Him in the air, but also on meeting Him at His Supper. We were reminded in our earlier reading that the need of the teaching of fellowship, and the practice of the truth, are essential if we are to partake of the Supper rightly. If we remain here until the morrow I trust we shall be thinking of the Lord’s day and the Lord’s supper. The Lord’s body; the cup of the Lord; the table of the Lord, all emphasize, beloved brethren, that the Lord would have us to be with Him more in our spirits and in our ways, so that we might be prepared not only to be instantaneously caught up to meet Him in the air but be prepared to meet Him at the Supper.

Are we prepared for that? It is a wonderful privilege, but are we all prepared for it?

In that connection I read the next passage because Paul is speaking of our whole spirit, and soul, and body—“and your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. He says, “Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly”; earlier he had spoken of each holding his own vessel, that is, his body, in sanctification, and here it is our “whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The spirit, of course, is the person, as also the soul. At the present moment we have a body, and as having a body we have part in God’s testimony; and at the present moment we have part in the praise of God in the assembly in the wilderness. We have a body, but we also have a spirit and a soul, and Paul’s desire was that the whole of our persons might be “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Now that

itself, of course, becomes an encouragement as well as a test, because he does not say “the God of peace himself sanctify you”. I suppose, dear brethren, that would include His disciplinary ways with us—maybe we resent them at times, but they are in order that we might be sanctified, that is to say, practically set apart for holy use in our whole spirit and soul and body.

Now I take it that the Thessalonians would be committed to that; not simply that they would rest in the fact that God would do it, but they would be committed to that. I wonder how far in our whole spirit and soul and body we have been secured for the blessed God. If you trace the securing of man for God through the epistle to the Romans you will find the spirit is to be secured, the soul is to be secured, and the body is to be secured, and every one of us should remember that, so that we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.

Hence it is intended that the whole person, spirit, and soul, and body, should be secured for the pleasure of God.

Hence Paul writes to these Thessalonians, who were quite young in the faith. I do not suppose they were all young in years, but they were young in the faith. They had many problems, as we have many problems. Of course they were very young, and some of us, it seems to me, have been on the road for fifty years or more and do not appear to have got as far as they had.

I have sometimes wondered about that, dear brethren. To some of these persons who had just come out of heathendom Paul writes in epistles that are now in our hands and which we have a struggle to understand. I wonder how they understood them; but I believe in those days there was a clear and definite dependence upon the Spirit of God, and more than that, with those persons secured out of pagan

practices there was a total committal to God—a total committal. Speaking for myself, there is a tendency to be half-hearted, but with them there was a total committal. So he says,

“sanctify you wholly, your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless”. Paul never lowers the divine standard; whatever the state of the saints he never lowers the divine standard.

Now a brief word on Stephen. I fully agree that it is not the rapture, it is not the appearing; it is the departure of a person to be with Christ. I draw attention to Stephen because of his reference to his spirit. He was in most adverse circumstances, circumstances in which none of us have been, and I am sure we would all agree with that, although most here would have known some kind of pressure, probably pressure through faithfulness to our Lord. May we be more faithful, even if it brings pressure! But Stephen was in tremendous pressure, a spiritual man full of the Holy Spirit; they gnashed upon him with their teeth. The whole of his sermon, if sermon it be called, was judicial, and they resented it. At this point, of course, Israel as a nation was cut off from God’s altar, a very solemn fact for Israel, but no doubt opening up the light of the truth that was yet to follow. What I wanted to call attention to was his spirit; he says, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. Now I do not think he could have said that if his spirit was vindictive or resentful, or if he had a spirit that was other than in accord with the spirit of the Lord Jesus Himself. That has recently become a real challenge to me. How is my spirit with the Lord? If the Lord should take me to be with Him, how is my spirit? Could I commit my spirit to Him? or is it resentful or vindictive, or harsh and out of accord with His spirit?

How could I say, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’ if my spirit was out of accord with His?

I doubt if I could. It has often been remarked that Stephen is close to his Master; his Master committed His spirit to His Father, and He committed to His Father a spirit that was in perfect accord with His Father, one that could be committed to Him, and Stephen’s spirit was of the same character.

Now, beloved brethren, it is open to us. Is there any diminution of the Holy Spirit, any diminution of the power, any diminution of the opportunities to be in the presence of God and to be formed according to Christ? I think what we generally evade is the suffering and the sacrifice that it may involve. But whether it be that the Lord takes us to be with Him on the cloud, together, or whether it be that we meet Him at the Supper, or whether it be that any one of us here might be taken to be with Him, I would desire and pray that our spirit might be in accord with His. How essential that is! But then it is not only essential for going to meet Him, but it is essential for our part in the testimony, because the testimony is Christ, and the testimony resting at the present moment in the saints, in the power of the Spirit, is Christ in character. Hence you can see it affects the spirits of every one of us.

May the Lord help us, dear brethren, in these few simple thoughts. Firstly, to be ready; “be ye ready”, and the next chapter says as to the virgins, “those that were ready went in”; and then that we might be committed in our whole spirit, and soul, and body to be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, whatever the will of God may be, that we may be exercised to have a right spirit, right towards one another, right towards our enemies, and towards any who may persecute us or oppose us, and have a spirit that is in accord with the Lord Jesus, so that at any time

each of us may be able to say, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’. May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Address at Buckhurst Hill
9 June 1990