The Second Coming

Oh, glorious day, one day, Jesus is coming. Approximately once every nine minutes as the Holy Spirit of God dictated the New Testament, he stopped and said, wait a minute, warn people that I'm going to come back again. One in every 24 verses of the New Testament refers either directly or indirectly to the coming of Jesus Christ. Over 300 times the Bible points us to the second return of our Lord Jesus. More is said about the second coming than was said about his first. More is said about the second coming than about the new birth. The virgin birth, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and repentance all put together on the pages of the New Testament. The gospel message is many fold. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. And this morning we celebrate that fact. Tonight we shall celebrate the other half of the wonderful story of our Lord's relationship with men. The story of his coming and return. For that is indeed the consummating and grand finality that the Bible preaches and presents to the entire story of our Lord Jesus Christ. The fact of the coming of Jesus Christ is the unavoidable event of the New Testament. Time and time again that truth is mentioned. In my Father's house are many mansions. I go and prepare a place for you and if I go, I will come again. Have you ever stopped to think how absolutely imperatively important is the doctrine of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? There are certain things which are absolutely dependent upon the return of our Lord Jesus. For example, there can and will be no resurrection of the dead if Jesus does not come again. The grave is victorious. Death bears a finality. And them that sleep in Jesus are passed on into eternity and we shall never see them again. We are without hope in this world. We are of all men most miserable. They that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. And death is the end if Jesus comes not again. For the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4 that when He comes in great splendor and glory He will bring them with Him which sleep in Christ or which died as Christians. Then, if Jesus does not come there can be no golden age on this world. Jesus made the world by Himself. Colossians says all things are made by Him and for Him and by Him all things consist. The will of God will be thwarted. This world made by Jesus to glorify Jesus will not glorify Him and Satan will have the ultimate victory. Death over life. Sin over righteousness. If Jesus does not come. The Bible says that one day men would beat their plowshares into pruning hooks and study war no more. There would be a golden age of peace and prosperity and that this world designed and created to glorify Christ would do so. If Jesus comes again Satan thwarts the will of God and there is no golden age of peace on earth and the little rebellious planet called the earth will not indeed glorify her maker. If Jesus Christ does not come again the devil will not be bound in hell because Jesus is going to do so when He comes. Revelation 21 says And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon that old serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him in to the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years shall be fulfilled and after that he shall be loosed for a little season. This will not happen until Jesus comes in great power and great glory. And unless He comes Satan will not be judged. Satan will not be damned. He will not be doomed. And he who has been the power that has thwarted God's power in many times. He who has been the one that has had more honor from this earth than Jesus has thus far will gain the upper hand. Satan will not be judged. He will not be imprisoned. He will not be punished. And the doctrine of eternal retribution a farce unless our Lord Jesus comes again. Then too, the church will remain an unfinished dream and an incomplete bride. If Jesus does not come again, the Gentile age, the age of the church, will not be completed. It will not be fulfilled. The body will not be a reality. The last, the church, round the encircling globe, the body of Christ, will never be completed until and unless Jesus Christ comes again to this world. So much is at stake, this and more, regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you say, preacher, we believe that. We believe Jesus is going to come again. But what we want to know is when will the Lord Jesus come? I would be less than honest if I did not say to you that we are not to be setting dates, but we can be reading the times. The Bible tells us, of that hour knoweth no man, not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but my Father only. That time the Father has set in his hands. Only he knows when it will be. I can imagine many times Jesus looks over the precipice of heaven and says, now, Father, may I redeem my church. Now may I reveal my glory. Now may I bring honor to my name in this world. God says, no, son, give that church one more chance at revival. Give that nation one more opportunity for conversion. Give that man one more chance for repentance. The reason the Lord detains his coming is not because he is not going to come, but in the providential patience of an almighty God, he is giving mankind every opportunity to make decisions, to make himself right with God. The Bible does say the night is far spent. The day is at hand. The Bible is replete with signs that from heaven say to us, beware. The preparation for the coming of Christ is coming to a grand climax. And behold, the coming of the Lord is near. There are at least 20, if not closer to 35, major signs regarding the coming of Christ. The Bible says, when ye shall see these things, present tense and plural, then you know that summer is near. Yea, it is even at the door. These signs will not be running one after another. They will be running concurrently. Some of them have happened before in history, but never before in history has every major sign of the coming of Jesus Christ been being fulfilled all at once. That is, however, true today. And there are no major unfulfilled prophecies. Yea, there are no prophecies yet unfulfilled that preclude the rapture of the church and the chain of events that begins when Jesus Christ comes in judgment to this world, taking vengeance and judgment on them that know not the Lord. There are many of them. They are unspeakable in one sermon. I would speak to you tonight, as time allows, of but five or six briefly for your consideration. I want you to turn with me over to Matthew chapter 24 and let us look for a moment at one passage of scripture, which we often pass by getting to what seems to be the more important and concrete ones. Matthew chapter 24, verse number three. And as Jesus sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? Now let me stop right here and say that sometimes we run things together which are to be distinct. And sometimes we make distinct things that are literally compact in the scriptures. Sometimes the Lord's Holy Spirit simply states a proposition and then amplifies and magnifies it a hundred ways. One such is the grand verse when the Spirit of God says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, period. Mark that. The fruit of the Spirit is love. And then joy, long -suffering, peace, patience, all of these things are love's different manifestations. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, period. Love, then, taking many different forms. I believe that that same theological and homiletical tool is applicable here in this passage of scripture. Jesus says, be not deceived. He said, here are the signs of the coming of christ take heed that no man deceive you period having thus said i believe that our lord has been telling us something we have overlooked through the years that is that the prime sign of the condition of the world in religion in finance in in materialism in society in study in education in international relationships in domestic relationships in every area will be one of confusion one of deception one of bewilderment now having said be not deceived he is saying make sure you are straight and square because the world prime condition at the time of the coming of christ will be one of great confusion and deception there will be more people mixed up and deceived and confused and frustrated about more things when jesus comes than any time in the history of the world you see christ is our rock the word of god our steadfastness and when man is builded and geared in the word of god and steadfastly build it upon it he has stability regardless of the howling winds of adversity and deception and confusion and bewilderment that blow in his society for when men move away from god as our world has then everything comes apart and everything comes up and everything is confused and deceiving and bewildering and frustrating now you see the word for a copulative continues the thought we can really have no period there he says in the beginning of the next verse be sure that you're not deceived for and he continues the thought and he has an and at the beginning of the sixth verse and a four at the beginning of the next verse and all of these things in the next verse then following that and verse 12 and 13 but 14 and and on and on it goes now he has made one simple statement and that is that the coming of jesus christ as the world has moved away from the only stabilizing force it has ever known the prime consideration of the world will be that it will be one in a state of bewilderment and deception and uncertainty and confusion and certainly that is true today and but when for however then all are but amplifications illustrating in every area of life that one basic proposition which i believe our lord is stating and that men have far too often overlooked that the coming of jesus christ will be marked by a society of society of instability number one there will be a great confusion in our world as to the way of salvation last sunday morning i was not feeling well and i stayed in bed till the very last minute and dressed and came to church and i listened to a couple of programs on television one of them blessed me very much one disturbed me very much it was on a station in which they were interviewing sitting around in a circle which was fine a group of young people all between 17 and 22 today there was every segment of theological thought all the way from glossolalia to hair krishna and not there was one young person out of the 11 that was straight as to the way of salvation and the other 10 were so bewildered and so confused that it was heartbreaking these people had been selected because they were a cross -section of the of the thinking every thinking religious segment of our young people today now why why is there so much confusion and uncertainty religiously because we have questioned the validity of the only ultimate authority about the things of god the word of god i believe we ought to use every modern means to get out the gospel we as a church must be geared to the times but we must remain unapologetically anchored to the rock unless we are there in the finality of the authority that is biblical revelation there is room for such heresy as we have never dreamed and and we are not immune to it we must read the bible and believe the bible and stay in the bible else every doctrinal heretical wind that blows will make our people susceptible to its idolatrous and satanic grasp i was in a a service a few nights ago preaching in another city a young man came to me and was so bewildered as to whether he was saved or not i brought him again and again to the only and exclusive and original and ultimate proposition by which men are saved and that is what saith the word of god he said you mean it doesn't matter what the church says you mean it doesn't matter what i've always thought or what i think or what my friends believe or what some preacher tells me i said you are absolutely right it matters not the only stability in a confused theological world is what saith the word of god god says it and that is it and unless there is that stability there is confusion and deception everywhere some of our spirino converts they tell me have been being told by some of their friends that unless they have spoken in tongues they have never been saved that is a lie from the devil don't you believe it you are not saved or unsaved whether you speak or do not speak in tongues and i shall address myself to that subject in its entirety on a near coming sunday morning but young men and women the only thing that matters is have you repented of sin received jesus christ by faith and regardless of emotional mental self -induced experience or second spiritual you talk about a second blessing brother i've had it and a third and a fourth and a fifth and a sixth and i've had a hundred today and i expect a hundred tomorrow and a hundred the next day and on and on with him with whom every day is indeed sweeter than the day before on the news tonight yonder in ballerath california 1500 teenagers walked 55 miles in blowing wind and gale like wind and sand and 95 degree temperature and stayed for three days on a mountaintop bringing easter sunday morning in to the beat of a rock concert as there were poisonous snakes and drought and death and danger all around the reporter said all because they agreed they would go to any experience to any extremity to have a spiritual experience there are spiritual experiences that are satanic there are spiritual experiences that are psychologically self -induced there are spiritual experiences that are of the flesh but if you would have a real spiritual experience you will do it not on a desert top but where you are by the new birth in your heart let's get something straight our world is filled with strong confusion and it will get worse it will not get better richard hoge was in town yesterday he called me and asked to buy our breakfast it's so unusual that richard hoge buys anybody anything i took him up on it and went out for breakfast we sat there i said where were you in your last meeting he said we were in a revival in oklahoma city what church nichols hills baptist church charlie graves my pastor recommended you how many say 346 was it good turn away crowds what happened he said monday night a witch came and the newspaper got a hold of it and blew it out and it helped the meeting the crowds came to see what was going on he said i never prayed as hard in my life he said night after night i would preach up there and she would stand back there and jeer and make faces and i could feel a gripping satanic power of evil fighting the spirit of god in those services there was a time in my life that i wouldn't have believed it there was a time in our society it would have been possible but there is such deception deception and confusion that eastern religion that witchcraft that idolatry that astrology is sweeping our country hear me i urge you with all my heart to get your bible and go to your knees daily in prayer and let the holy ghost of god be your teacher else you will be bait for every heresy that comes along there will be before the coming of our Lord Jesus great and grand confusion regarding spiritual things. I said there are 40 signs, or 30 or 40, and I plan to preach to you about seven. I've had time to talk about but one, continued next Sunday night. Let's stand and bow our heads together. Our Father, we thank Thee that in a day that religion is so pulled apart by right and by left that politics and psychology and finance and society and education and every area of life we find division and confusion. And Lord, we admit sometimes that we would be confused. We would be bewildered. But thank you, Lord, though we want to have our wind, our ear blowing in the wind and listening to what men are saying, that we can have our feet planted on the rock in Jesus Christ. And Lord, we know that in the last days there will be great deception, great bewilderment, great confusion. And we acknowledge that no society has begun to blow apart, to disintegrate as fast in every area as has ours in the armed services. We have confusion. We don't know what's right sometimes. We don't know who's right. We sympathize with Mr. Calley. And we look on the other hand and ask, can we, thousands of miles away, make a better decision than a group of men who were there and tried and heard and knew the facts. We look at our president and we think that to pull out of Vietnam today is the thing to do. But there are so many reasons why we here we have to stay there some more. That seems to be the thing to do. And, oh, God, almost everywhere, if there is one mark of our society, it is a schizophrenia that pulls us apart and confuses us. But, oh, thank thee, dear God, that in thy word, in thy scriptures, we can know that God loves us. He died to save us through faith in the blood of Jesus. He indwells us by the Holy Spirit. He is coming again for us. And we must major on the priority of winning men to him, working while there is time. Help us not to give ourselves primarily to making money to physical work when there is spiritual work. A ministry to God to be performed. Help us to stay on the main track and be men and women and believers and readers and followers of the word. Thy word, the Bible. Give us stability, a rock, a salt -likeness, a light -houted -house -ness, a steadfastness to a world without light, a putrefying world without preservation, a crumbling world without stability. May we be that to our society as thou and thy word are that to us in Jesus' name. Amen. I want you to join with me now as we sing a few verses of the invitation hymn. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. The Holy Spirit of God inspired the writer to write that song because that's how men are saved, with nothing except surrender to Jesus and faith in the blood of Christ to cleanse from sin. Amen. You may be a visitor. You might have walked right in off the streets, as so many do. You might have gone to great extent, as great hundreds of our people do, having driven from surrounding areas all across this Harris County to be here tonight. Whether you've come a mile, a yard, or a dozen miles, our Lord has brought you here tonight to hear the gospel. Salvation is in Jesus. Don't be mixed up about that. Get your life anchored in the word of God and be saved. Will you do it? You belong elsewhere, perhaps. God has led you here. You want to join this church. We want you to join and urge you so to do. Will you come? We await you as we sing together. Everyone joining. Who will be first to come? God has led you up against us. We will you change your love. God has led you. Hospice for your life and your involvement.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention Matthew 24 · chapter mention