HOW WILL THE LORD COME?
HOW WILL THE LORD COME?
Read 1 Corinthians 15: 51 - 54; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 - 18. Study these scriptures prayerfully. They are so clear and explicit as to require no expounding. Some of the believers at Thessalonica had died. The others were sorrowing because they were afraid that those who had died would miss the Lord’s coming. Paul writes to comfort them by assuring them that the believers who had died would have part in it as much as those who were alive when He came. The spirits of all departed believers are with Christ in the paradise of God, though their bodies are still here in the grave. When the Lord comes the very first thing that will take place will be the raising of “the dead in Christ”. That which was sown in weakness, and dishonour, and corruption, will be raised in power and glory, and invested with the splendour of immortality. As it is said in 1 Corinthians 15: “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body”. THEN WE which are alive, upon whom death has not laid [p. 29] its hand, we who have not descended to the grave, shall be changed and “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”.
“Dead and living, rising, changing,
In the twinkling of an eye
Shall be caught up altogether,
For the meeting in the air;
With a shout the Lord, descending,
Shall Himself await us there.
Oh! what joy that great foregathering!
Trysted meeting in the air;
Sweet to know He’s coming for us,
Calling us to join Him there”.
That assembling shout may be heard today. Oh! what a soul-transporting thought it is, that in the twinkling of an eye we may be
CAUGHT UP INTO GLORY
with the One who loves us and who gave Himself for us! The last message that has come down from the glorified Saviour is a thrice repeated declaration, “Behold, I come quickly”. “Behold, I come quickly”. “SURELY I COME QUICKLY”, Revelation 22:7; Revelation 22:12; Revelation 22:20. Are you ready to look up now, and say with the beloved John — “Even so, COME, LORD JESUS”?
Let me now call attention to
THE TWO-FOLD CHARACTER
of the Lord’s coming. Scripture plainly indicates that there are two events — two acts, as it were — in the Lord’s coming, and if we confound these two events we shall come to wrong conclusions. We gather from Scripture that Christ will come
1st, FOR HIS SAINTS, and 2nd, WITH HIS SAINTS.
We have seen that the Lord Jesus is coming again to receive His own to Himself, that where He is they [p. 30] may be also. This is the true scriptural hope of the church. But there is another event which has a very prominent place in the Holy Scriptures, and that is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in great power and glory to judge and reign over the earth. It is this last event which is the grand theme of prophecy throughout Scripture. The great mistake which the Jews made, and in which, as a nation, they are still involved, was that they were so occupied with the scriptures which spoke of Christ coming in glory and power, they overlooked those which spoke of His humiliation and suffering. They lost sight of the fact that Christ was coming in humiliation to suffer, just as Christians now are in danger of losing sight of the fact that HE IS COMING IN GLORY TO REIGN.
Yet all the prophets testify that the Lord is coming to judge the nations, and to rule the earth in righteousness. They speak largely of a time of future blessing for Israel and the whole world: a time when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea: a time when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and the nations shall not learn war any more. How are all these things to come about?
At this point I must warn you against a common mistake. Many Christians fail to see the difference between Israel and the church, and they apply to the church Old Testament promises and prophecies which belong exclusively to Israel. The Old Testament is the record of God’s past and future dealings with people on earth, and of those dealings Israel is the centre†. All the prophecies concerning Israel’s
†In the Old Testament there is not a line about the Church of God. The church is composed of Jews and Gentiles, formed into one body, and united to Christ in glory by the Holy Spirit. It is thus a complete contrast to everything we read of before. In the Old Testament the Jews were most rigidly separated from the Gentiles, so much so that even in the lifetime of our Lord He commanded His disciples to go not into the way of the Gentiles, and to enter not into any city of the Samaritans. At Pentecost an entirely new thing began. The gospel goes out to every creature, and those who believe, Jews and Gentiles, are united in one body by the Holy Spirit. This is “ the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.” Read the epistle to the Ephesians.
[p. 31] future glory will yet be fulfilled. On account of idolatry and unbelief, and finally because of the rejection of Christ, Israel has been set aside for the present.
“She fell, and her crown of glory
Was struck from her rebel brow,
And with feet all wounded and gory,
She wanders in exile now”.
But the day is coming when Israel will be brought from exile, and from wandering, to that promised land where the glory of God shall be her light, and the presence of the Lord her everlasting joy. See Isaiah 11: 11 - 16; Jeremiah 16: 14, 15; Ezekiel 20: 40 - 44; Isaiah 60; etc., etc. The prophetic period of future happiness and peace on earth, commonly spoken of as the millennium, is always connected with the restoration of Judah and Israel to their own land.
This present period of grace in which we live is a gap in God’s dealings with Israel. He has laid them aside “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in”, Romans 11: 25. God is not now dealing with Israel as a nation: He is gathering out a bride for Christ — the church — from among both Jews and Gentiles. But when the church is complete and caught up to meet the Lord, God will resume His dealings with Israel. A number of Jews will be convicted of their sins; and will repent deeply of their individual and national wickedness. They will be brought to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, and they will look out for Him to come as their Deliverer and King. They will have to pass through the great tribulation spoken of in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, and will [p. 32] look out for the signs which are there spoken of as preceding the coming of Christ in power and glory.
Many students of prophecy have not distinguished the two parts of the Lord’s coming, and have supposed that these things are to happen before He comes for the church. It is an utter mistake for Christians to
LOOK FOR SIGNS.
Before this time of signs, wonders, earthquakes, and tribulation begins, the church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and will be happy in His presence during the time of all these terrible disasters and calamities on earth. His own word to the church is, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”, Revelation 3: 10.
The period of great tribulation is described in Revelation 6 - Revelation 18. To read those chapters is enough to make the heart quake: what will it be to go through the terrible realities which are there so vividly described? But where is the church during that fearful time?
She is seen on earth up to the end of Revelation 3, but in chapters 4 and 5 she appears in heaven under the figure of four-and-twenty crowned elders round about the throne. God has taken pains to let us see that the church will be complete and in glory before a seal is opened, a trumpet sounded, or a vial poured out.
Then AFTER that great tribulation shall all the tribes of the earth see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, Matthew 24: 29, 30. Then shall the Lord Jesus Christ be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Thessalonians 1: 8. This is the event proclaimed in Revelation 1: 7.
“[p. 33] Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him”.