The Gospel of John, beginning with the first
verse of the first chapter.
I look forward to this myself.
I enjoy my preaching.
That is, I enjoy preaching.
I confess that I don't always manage to
get through to my audience.
But I do, in almost every instance, enjoy
what I'm preaching about.
So please pray, and we should have some
great Sunday evening services.
Now, in the book of 1 Peter, continuing,
the rest of the verse I have been
dealing with that part that says, that the
trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perishes, though it be
tried with fire, might be found on the
praise and honor and glory.
And I have deliberately not gone beyond this.
But now, the rest of the verse says,
at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
And I would this morning talk about the
appearing of Jesus Christ.
For here is a word, and it embodies
an idea.
An idea that is of such importance in
Christian theology and Christian living that we dare
not allow it to pass unregarded.
Now, this word, appearing, here, occurs frequently in
the King James Version of the Bible.
And of course, every time, it is alike
in English.
Being in one of the various forms, appear,
appeared, appearing.
And necessarily, alike in English.
But the fact is, the language from which
our English was translated, has it in about
seven different forms.
So that when you read the word, appearing,
here, not that it matters to you really,
but you don't know, or will not know,
unless you are a student of the original
and bother to look it up.
Which of the seven Greek words would be
used?
But for the moment, we are concerned only
with the word, appearing, in its prophetic use.
And that is, unquestionably, how Peter used it
here.
There are, in the seven words of which
I spoke, three particular Greek words.
Which mean, all told, these have these meanings.
Manifest, shine upon, show, become visible.
It means a disclosure, a coming, a manifestation,
and a revelation.
Now, the word Peter used here, actually means,
or can mean, any of the following things.
He said, at the appearing of Jesus Christ
in English.
Now, it is at the disclosure of Jesus
Christ, or at the coming of Jesus Christ,
or at the manifestation of Jesus Christ, or
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And he used exactly the same word in
verse 13, when he said, Wherefore, gird up
the loins of your mind, and be sober,
and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now, you'll have to ask the translators, and
they're all dead, why they would say, in
verse 7, at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
and in verse 13, at the revelation of
Jesus Christ.
There might have been some fine shade of
meaning, which they felt must be expressed, which
one word would not express, so they used
the other.
But we may safely conclude that the words
are used interchangeably in the Bible.
That is, for it says, appearing, whatever Greek
word is used, that the words are used
interchangeably in the scriptures.
Now, there has been a good deal of
debate about the words, particularly among the cults.
There are prophetic cults that make their whole
prophetic scheme rest upon the word appearing, or
revelation, or manifestation, or disclosure.
And they write page after page, and book
after book, making their book rest upon the
difference between one shade of meaning and another.
But I have learned now, that I have
been around a while, that if a cult
that is obviously a cult and has no
standing in the historic stream of Christianity, to
confuse the figure beautifully, no standing in the
stream, but if it has no standing in
the long corridor of approved Christian truth, if
that cult is forced to labor a word
in order to make its point, you may
well check it off and give it no
further thought.
Because the Bible is one of the easiest
books in the world to understand.
It is one of the hardest for the
carnal mind, and the easiest for the spiritual
mind.
And when it becomes necessary to labor a
shade of meaning, in order to prove that
we're right, particularly when our position, when established,
will be shown to be contrary to all
the beliefs of Christians back to the days
of Paul, then we can simply shrug that
off, smile it away, and say, what's the
use?
Because you see, my brethren, it is very
easy to try too hard when we come
to the reading of the scriptures.
It's easy to try too hard doing anything.
If you try too hard, a certain ball
club, for instance, I forgot for the moment
which one.
I read the sports news sometimes when I'm
sitting in a drugstore having lunch.
But one of the clubs, it said that
they tried desperately hard at the opening of
the season.
They were tense and jumpy and jittery and
making errors because they were trying too hard.
Then, when the season rolled up and they
found that they were going to end up
back in the second division, they relaxed and
said, what's the use?
And now they're playing great baseball.
The difference is, now they haven't changed a
man, they've just relaxed.
If you push too hard, you don't always
succeed in doing what you want to do.
And I often pity a young preacher when
he gets up before an audience, and particularly
if that audience is what he would consider
an important audience, like a convention or something
where he wants to be at his best,
and figures they won't forgive him like his
own congregation would, to see the young fellow
push till his throat gets dry.
I always sort of saw it because I've
been there myself, pushing like everything.
But you never get anywhere in the kingdom
of God when you push because the kingdom
of God is not taken that way.
You relax yourself into the kingdom.
You trust the Lord and watch him do
it.
Now, it's the same in interpreting the Bible.
If we insist upon too fine a definition,
chances are we're going to end up wrong
because we're trying too hard.
If I could concoct a grotesque illustration here,
it would be like this.
Suppose that a man in Chicago living now
visits his family in Des Moines.
And then, after he's had a few days
with his family in Des Moines, he drives
back home and has his leisure, sits down
to write about it to his friends, or
at least casually to mention it in his
letters.
And to one he says, I went to
Des Moines last week.
To another he writes, and a few minutes
later, I visited Des Moines last week.
To another he says, I drove to Des
Moines last week.
To another, without noticing that he's doing it,
just following the thread of his own thought,
he says, I motored to Des Moines last
week.
And to a fifth one he said, I
said to my brother John in Des Moines
last week.
And that's all.
He seals the letters, yawns, goes to bed.
That's all there is to it.
But now let us turn the noose on
those five letters.
Some interpreters, particularly the interpreters that push like
everything and insist upon there being no synonyms
in the Bible at all, that the kingdom
of God and the kingdom of heaven are
never used synonymously, there is a law of
the Medes and Persians distinction between them.
And between appearing and coming and revelation and
manifestation, there's always a precise machine-like definition.
Now, let us notice.
They say, now here is that one one
letter.
He said, I went to Des Moines.
In the English, that is so and so.
Let's suppose that's been translated into some other
language two thousand years from now.
And these scholars are busy with it.
And he said, now this man said, I
went to Des Moines.
In the English, that is thus and thus.
But notice over in this other chapter, he
said, I motored to Des Moines.
Therefore, there must have been two different times.
And in this other chapter, he said, I
go to Des Moines.
Now, he must have had some reason for
these three words.
He wouldn't use them carelessly.
And then he also said that I went
to Des Moines or that I saw my
brother in Des Moines.
Then another place, he said, I visited Des
Moines.
He must have, that means sojourned, stayed longer
that time.
They'd have had him there five different times,
when actually he was only there once, and
he only said he was there once, but
he just happened to know the English language
well enough to be able to say it
five different ways.
Now, I'm perfectly convinced that a great deal
of our pushing and trying too hard in
theological interpretation, we make the same error that
a hypothetical scholar, as we talked about two
thousand years from now, would make.
The Lord says it one way in verse
7, and he says it another way in
verse 10, and then you skip a book
and take up another book, and the same
thing is said there in a still different
way.
It simply shows that the Holy Ghost isn't
in rut, even if interpreters are.
It just shows that God never uses cliches,
even though preachers sometimes specialize in them.
So that's when you come to the word
appearing here, you can just relax, that's what
it means.
It means appearing, it may mean a manifestation,
it may mean a shining forth, it may
mean a showing, it may mean a suddenly
coming into the focus of your mind, of
your eyes, it may mean a disclosure, it
may mean a coming, it may mean a
revelation.
Well, all of those things mean about the
same thing, and to all intents and purposes
there would be no reason to get excited
about them, or to write books to prove
that they don't mean the same thing.
Now, my friends, here are the facts.
I think they are the facts, I do
not mean to read anything into them.
You see whether I am not giving you
the facts as they are found here.
One is Peter's speech of an appearing of
Jesus Christ.
And he wrote to men on earth, and
this can't possibly be spiritualized, the scene can't
be transferred to heaven, for he was writing
to the church on earth, to the saints
scattered abroad.
And he wrote to them saying, live a
certain way, and endure afflictions, and trust God
in the middle of your sufferings, in order
that your faith here on the earth now
may be tried, so that at the appearing
of Jesus Christ it may be found better
than gold to you.
Now, appearing of Jesus Christ where?
Common sense can tell us that it only
could mean here on the earth.
He was writing to people on the earth,
he was not writing to angels.
He didn't say to Gabriel, when Jesus Christ
appears, if he had said it to Gabriel,
we'd have known he meant in heaven where
Gabriel is.
But he said it to people on the
earth.
And he said there was to be an
appearing.
And the word he used here, I repeat
again, means a coming.
At the coming of Jesus Christ, at the
disclosure of Jesus Christ, at the shining upon,
sudden shining upon, like the rising of the
sun.
A manifestation or a revelation.
Now, he said all those things.
And he said that this was to take
place sometime in the future.
Now, we get the meaning, that is, in
Peter, the future from the time Peter wrote.
Now, we get the meaning in Mark 9,
verse 4.
It says that there were on the mountain
the transfigurations, we call it now.
And suddenly there appeared unto them Elias and
Moses.
Now, neither Elijah nor Moses lived on that
mountain.
They had appeared there, they had come from
somewhere else that they were to this new
place where they now are.
And in coming they had made themselves known
to the eye.
They appeared there in public manifestation, the same
as you appeared here at church this morning,
or I will appear at Rochester, God willing,
11th, 8th, Tuesday morning.
So it was an appearing, that's very easy
to understand.
And when he said that he was looking
forward and the people of that day to
an appearing of Jesus Christ, he meant that
they could look forward to a sudden disclosure
of Christ, a sudden coming and becoming visible.
But there's nothing mysterious about that, nothing queer,
nothing that you have to be highly educated
to understand.
Everybody appears, becomes visible.
Let's imagine, please, this young fellow, Sergeant Jones,
who'd just been released from a prison over
in Korea.
And he hasn't yet appeared.
But his wife holds that, and she scrubs
the kids every morning and fixes the house
meticulously and has on tap for quick cooking
the things she remembers that he loved and
greatly enjoyed.
She's expecting him to appear.
And then one day there's an excited voice
on the phone she almost thinks.
It's her husband.
It's the sergeant.
But to her he's just, my husband and
the father of my two kids.
And no sergeant to her, he's her husband.
Well, he appears.
He'll say, I'm taking a taxi out, I
should be there in 15 minutes.
I should appear in 15 minutes.
I should be revealed to you within 15
minutes.
I should manifest to you within 15 minutes.
You don't have to sit down with a
lead pencil with a Greek point on it
to figure that out.
He's talking about, I'll be there, honey.
And that's all the Lord said here.
Peter said that, or Peter talking about the
Lord, he said that at the appearing of
Jesus Christ, well, of course he's going to
appear.
And when he appears, he'll be disclosed.
When he's disclosed, he'll be manifested.
And when he's manifested, he'll be revealed.
And when he's revealed, he'll shine upon the
people to see him revealed.
So, again, I gave you one.
Now two, that Peter wrote in the year
65 A.D. And therefore, by the process
of elimination, we can know that when Peter
wrote of the appearing of Jesus, what he
didn't mean.
We don't know quite yet what he didn't
mean by elimination, but by elimination we can
learn what he didn't mean.
Since he wrote in the year 65 A
.D., and since he placed that appearing in
the future relating to 65 A.D., he
didn't mean his appearing at the Jordan.
For Jesus had appeared at the Jordan, and
John had baptized him there at the Jordan.
He had appeared under John the Baptist and
been made manifest to him when the dove
descended upon him and John knew who he
was.
So he didn't mean that appearing because that
appearing had already taken place more than 30
years before.
And now Peter, writing more than 30 years
after that appearing at the Jordan, said, we're
looking forward to the appearing of Jesus Christ.
We eliminate the Jordan.
Then he appeared in Jerusalem.
He actually appeared there in Jerusalem, walked around
among them, talked to Pharisees and elders and
rabbis and common people, and he didn't mean
that appearing because that had taken place more
than 30 years before.
He had appeared one day suddenly and embarrassingly
in the temple.
Just when times were going good and there
was a boom on, and people were coming
from everywhere with their cattle or with their
money and buying cattle to exchange their money
to make gifts, suddenly there appeared a man
and that man rolled a rope up and
started driving the cattle out of the temple.
That was a sudden appearance at the temple.
He didn't mean that because that had taken
place more than 30 years before.
He said, now there will be an appearance.
Then our Lord appeared on the Mount of
Transfiguration, as we have mentioned about.
Then he appeared after his resurrection to the
disciples.
Paul said he appeared to about 500 brethren.
He appeared to him.
He appeared to the apostles.
We know he appeared to Peter and he
appeared to the women so that the Lord
did appear again after he had first appeared
there when the star had produced him and
the angels sang his coming.
And he had many appearances.
He was there in bodily manifestation.
They saw him.
They looked upon him.
He did things that could be identified.
He was at places that could be pinpointed
on the map.
He was there as a man among men.
But he didn't mean any of those because
they were all in the past, at least
30 years in the past.
And he didn't mean to Paul on Damascus
Road because that had already taken place something
like 25 years before.
Now, when has this appearing occurred?
Peter said, I want you to get ready
in order that your trial, your faith, your
reflections, all this faith and obedience and cross
-bearing may mean honor and glory at the
appearing of Jesus Christ.
He appeared in the future.
So, if he has appeared, where has he
appeared?
And if he has appeared, when did he
appear?
Now, I know that the Seventh-day Adventist
appeared in the year 1884, somewhere back there.
And I believe that the so-called, blasphemously
called Jehovah's Witnesses also make something out of
this appearing business.
But I want to ask you, where, when,
to whom did Jesus Christ appear since the
day that he appeared to Paul on Damascus
Road or since the day he appeared on
earth, his first time, putting it broadly?
I can't find anybody that says that he
appeared to them except some fanatic who usually
later died in an insane asylum.
But there is no reputable testimony any place
that Jesus Christ has ever appeared since the
day he appeared to put away sin but
to sacrifice it himself.
There have been new cults risen.
There have been men who walked around on
the street saying, I am Christ.
There are case histories that the psychiatrists can
tell you about the lie, the yards, the
yards that they'd written up of men who
thought they were Jesus Christ.
But we'll write that off.
For it is neither here nor there, nor
grow he into the desert, for lo, he
is not there, nor in the secret chamber,
for he is not there.
He simply has not appeared.
Because if he appeared to be in line
with the meaning of the word as used
simply and commonly in the New Testament, he
would have to appear as he appeared in
the temple, as he appeared by the Jordan,
as he appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration,
as he appeared to his disciples after his
resurrection.
He would have to appear in visible human
manifestation, taking up room and having size and
having dimension and having appearance and having color
so that he could be identified by the
human eye and ear and human touch.
And the shadow would be upon him when
he stood in the sun and you could
see that shadow.
And when you walked close to him you'd
feel the air off his clothing.
If that word is going to mean what
it universally means, then it will mean that
the appearing of Jesus Christ has to be
very much the same as his appearing the
first time and as anybody's appearing.
Eisenhower appeared in Chicago yesterday all unexpected, they
said.
And Eisenhower, I imagine, the man judging, I've
not seen him in person, but I would
judge maybe five foot ten.
And so he took up five foot ten
vertically, and I don't know how wide, but
certain horizontal room he took up.
He had a certain suit on, a certain
tie, and his rather sparsely populated head shone
in his big friendly smile.
And so he was there, he appeared, the
Calvary pilgrim.
Now when did the Lord Jesus Christ appear
anything like that since the day he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself?
When Peter put his appearance in the future.
Then he might have appeared any time between
the time Peter wrote and now.
But did he appear?
And if he did, where?
And if he did, when?
Nobody can answer that question except some who
are not prepared to support their contention.
When he appeared the first time, he appeared
with healing in his wings.
He appeared not in exact fulfillment of the
Micaiah, or of the Old Testament passage, but
he had healing in his fingertips, and he
walked among men, he took babies in his
arms, he blessed people, he ate, he drank
by the people, he walked among them.
And the scripture tells us when he appears,
he'll appear like that again, he'll be a
man again.
So a glorified man, a man that can
be identified, can be known, be the same
Jesus that went away.
Now when did that happen?
He certainly appeared to the saints all down
the years, and there is a sense in
which everybody who has a pure heart looks
upon God.
And I may be speaking to Christians now
who wouldn't for the life of you, too
modest and retiring and humble, you wouldn't for
the life of you argue against this sermon,
you wouldn't come to me and say I
don't quite accept your sermon disorder.
I've seen Jesus.
Well all you mean, and you do mean
it, and I thank God you do mean
it, is that God has illuminated the eyes
of your heart, and you see him with
your heart's eyes.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
And I believe it's entirely possible for the
eyes of our faith to be illuminated, the
eyes of our spirits, so that we can
gaze upon God.
Perhaps veiled, perhaps not as clearly as in
that day, but the eyes of our hearts
can see him.
And so Christ appears to people like that.
He appears when we pray, and we can
see him.
But that's not what Peter meant.
Because Peter was using word language here, which
meant a shining forth, a revelation, a coming,
a becoming present suddenly, a disclosure, a taking
off of the invisibility.
He meant the same as the newspapers meant
when they said Eisenhower had appeared, that Conrad
Hilton had addressed a group of Republican women.
He meant the same as the newspapers say
when they tell us that the young sergeant
so-and-so appeared suddenly to the delight
of his family half a few years away.
Never been any appearance like that since the
day he appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself.
Now, that's gone.
I think this is number four, isn't it?
I've lost count myself.
My numbers never get very accurate.
But somewhere here I've said, and want now
to say, that since there was to be
an appearance, according to Peter, an appearing in
person on earth to living persons later than
Peter's time, and since that appearing has not
yet occurred, then Peter's words are still valid,
and we may therefore expect Jesus Christ again
to appear on earth, in person, to living
persons as he appeared in other days.
My brethren, I believe that that is the
gist of the Bible teaching on the Second
Coming.
We may therefore expect an appearance.
When our Lord had not yet come in
the flesh, they were expecting him.
They said he will appear.
But what God had told the woman, had
told the serpent, had told, I presume, Cain
and Abel, and certainly Adam and Eve, and
Abraham who saw his day, and all the
rest, and the prophets, and all the prophets
since the world began, spoke of the appearing
of Jesus Christ to put away sin but
the sacrifice of himself.
And then one day he appeared.
It was not an apparition.
It was not a ghost.
It was not a spook.
It was not a materialization.
Get away with it.
Materialization.
The old madam with their spooky costumes on,
squeezing dollar bills out of the gullible public
with their materialization.
You materialize.
It's a ghost until the old lady works
on him and then he materializes.
I don't mean materialization.
That is a weird word stolen and raped
by the spiritists and the devil cults.
And you can throw it out.
Nobody ever said Jesus Christ was going to
materialize.
He was going to appear.
That's quite different.
To become material when you're not material, that's
to materialize.
If you're a spook today, and tomorrow you
put on fleshly garments and walk among us,
that's materialization.
The Bible never talked about materialization.
Eisenhower didn't materialize when he came to the
Conrad Hilton.
He appeared.
He had already been matter.
He didn't materialize, but he appeared.
So Jesus Christ is not going to materialize.
He's going to appear, which is another matter
altogether.
Now, in closing, Paul said, in 2 Timothy
4, 1 and 8, I think it's one
of the sweetest passages in the entire Bible.
It's about a graciousness, a wonder.
He said, I charge thee therefore before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge
the quick and the dead at his appearing
and his kingdom.
Preach the word.
The instant in season, out of season, reprove,
rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine,
for the time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine.
He said that at his appearing he would
judge the quick and the dead.
And then he linked that appearing up with
an earnest exhortation that he might preach the
word in the instant in season and out
of season.
And I cannot think now of one lonely
passage in the New Testament that talks about
Christ's revelation, manifestation, appearing, or coming that is
not organically linked with moral conduct and faith
and spiritual holiness.
The Bible knows nothing about the modern curiosity
that plays with the scriptures and
impresses credulous and gullible audiences with the amazing
amount of prophetic knowledge the brother must have.
The Bible knows nothing about that.
The appearing of Jesus Christ is not an
event that we may curiously speculate upon when
we do we sin.
And the prophetic teacher that speculates curiously without
moral application is sinning on his feet while
he's preaching to the people.
Paul said, I charge you, therefore, before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge
the quick and the dead at his appearing
in his kingdom, preach the word.
I'm talking to a pastor here.
Not necessarily he exhorted him to fulfillment of
his holy ministry.
But in the 8th chapter, 8th verse, he
tells us more about what will happen when
he appears.
He said, I've parted good-bye and I've
finished my course and I've kept the faith.
And henceforth there is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall give me at that day.
And not to me only, but unto all
them that love his appearing.
Those that love the appearing of Jesus Christ
are those who shall also receive a crown.
But you say, doesn't that take in too
much territory?
Doesn't that mean that just anybody that believes
in the premillennial position will receive a crown
of righteousness?
No, it certainly does not.
It means that those that are loving the
appearing of Jesus will receive the crown of
righteousness.
And that does not include all who merely
believe in the premillennial position.
You've gone to seed on that whole thing.
You've gone to seed on it so drastically
and so far that you hardly hear a
sermon on the second coming anymore.
There are still a few that are going
about the country with their charts and their
object lessons and curiously interpreting prophecy.
I repeat, I believe there is sinning against
God and ought to repent lest some worse
thing comes upon us.
And that's what Paul said about the appearing.
He certainly wasn't all that he did say
that.
And then John said in 1 John 3
that we shall be like him because we
shall see him as he is.
Beloved, says he.
Beloved.
We are the sons of God now.
And the sons of God, Jesus Christ, has
appeared through our faith and we have grasped
him and seen him and believed in him
and we rest upon him.
And it does not yet appear, that is
it hasn't been disclosed, what we shall be.
But we know that when he shall appear,
he is disclosed, we shall be like him
for we shall see him as he is.
Then verse 3 says bluntly, every man that
has this hope in him purifies himself even
as he is pure.
Everybody, everyone he even says, it's singularized, that
has this hope in him purifies himself even
as he is pure.
Those who expect the Lord Jesus Christ to
come and who wait for that coming and
who love to anticipate that coming will be
busy purifying themselves.
Not curiously speculating, but purifying themselves.
Oh, I suppose that when we get to
heaven maybe we'll be what we ought to
be.
In the meantime we have to take ourselves
as we find ourselves.
And I find that curiosity that once killed
the famous cat has hurt a lot of
Christians.
A lot of Christians.
There is a certain eeriness about some people.
Not spirituality, just eeriness.
They're ghost hunters.
And they can move right into the middle
of a supernatural thing and feel right at
home.
They're the mediums, or media, which is it.
And they're the funny wizards and telepathists and
all the rest.
I don't feel at home there at all.
I don't feel at home in the realm
of the eerie and the uncanny.
The queer squeaking in the Bible called it
peeping and muttering.
I don't like peepers and mutters.
And I don't feel at home among them.
But there's a certain type of mentality that
does.
And when they get converted, if they don't
ask God to sanctify their brains, they carry
that goofy thing right into the church-rhythm.
And so their theology consists of a lot
of theological peeping and muttering.
My old German grandmother, God rest her memory,
she wasn't a Christian, and she didn't know
much about the Bible, although she taught me
all I ever knew until I was, what,
15, about it.
But she had a dream book.
And it was badly dog-eared in some
marks, but Grandma wouldn't drink her coffee in
the morning till she'd been solving her dream
book.
She really dreamed.
Some people don't dream much, but Grandma was
a dreamer.
And she had one or two every night,
as a rule.
And she'd always consult her dream book when
she got up in the morning.
I wish I'd kept her, gotten a hold
of it and kept it, just for curiosity's
sake.
It had a glossary.
That is, we'll start at A, Apple.
You dream about apples, and it told you
what that signified.
B, Beats.
Dream about Beats.
Then C, your country.
Well, you dreamed about your country and some
other country.
And so on down the line.
Z, an ambersand.
Clear down to the end.
And she had a glossary and told her
just what she might expect.
Wouldn't that be an awful way to live?
No wonder Grandma was so hard to read.
No, really.
No wonder, because she must have been miserable
all the time, figuring that a dream meant
something or other.
Now, there are mentalities like that, and Grandma
was a sharp little woman.
Don't think she wasn't.
And she had a razor tongue that was
equal to her razor like mine, but she
was just off there.
She also believed in dog barking and tapping.
If a dog barked under your window, somebody
would die, sure enough.
And I've had more dogs.
If I died every time a dog barked
under my window, I'd have been the best
customer, the undertakers of this country's ever seen.
Because dogs delight to bark under my window,
and mosquitoes delight to come into my room.
And if there's a fly in the restaurant
that comes to me, I have a magnetic
attraction for such things.
And if any of them meant anything, how
long ago I would have been in a
straitjacket and have had itself.
But they don't mean a thing.
Thank God for a simple skeptical mind that
goes through the world not worrying about anything
like that.
So when a fellow goes on a charge
and starts for me, I look for the
exit.
I want to get out of there as
fast as I can get.
Because he's trying too hard.
He's pushing too hard.
He's like the man that's trying to understand
the Sistine Madonna by getting a microscope and
examining the toes of a virgin.
You can't understand the beauty of the Sistine
Madonna by examining a little tiny bit of
it.
But you've got to get back and give
it geography.
So when we come to the scriptures, we
have been fooled and bedeviled by people who
are simply curious to a point where very
few people give the second coming of Christ
any thought these days.
But I want to tell you, Peter said
there would be an appearing.
That appearing has not yet taken place.
Therefore, that appearing must yet take place.
John said those that were expecting it and
looking forward with hope to it should purify
themselves even as Jesus is pure.
I might use an illustration that almost invariably
embarrasses somebody.
But if you take the weddings that go
on, the bride, it's four or five lieutenants
and sub-lieutenants and helpers and workers who
get her dressed just right.
Why?
Because she knows she's going to meet the
man up there and she wants to appear
right.
She's hoping, and I don't mean that in
a funny way, she's hoping, she expects to
be married, and so she has that, whatever
they call it, and if she puts that
on, they all fix that up and every
little thread must be exactly in place.
Even watch cautiously, lest something become, get out
of place.
And she's expecting to meet the man and
be united in marriage there at the altar.
And says the Holy Ghost, he that hath
this hope in him purifies himself, how?
Even as he is pure.
The bride wants to be dressed worthy of
the husband and as well as the husband.
And the Church of Christ should be dressed
worthy of her bridegroom even as he is
dressed, pure even as he is pure.
So the appearing of Jesus may take place.
It'll take place in his time.
There are those of us who believe that
it can take place soon.
I do not believe there's anything yet has
to be done to make possible his appearance.
I believe that it is all, all go
be done.
And what hasn't been done will be done
after he appears.
So the greatest revenge in the history of
the world barring his first coming in death
and resurrection, the next greatest event in the
history of the world will be the appearing
of Jesus Christ whom having not seen his
love.
Though now we see him not, yet we
rejoice with joy and a speaker will improve
glory.
And the world will not know it but
he that hath this hope in him he
will know it for he hath purified himself
for even as Christ was pure.