Our study tonight is on the second coming
of Christ.
Now already a question has been put to
me.
The second coming of Christ is totally supernatural.
That is correct.
When the dead in Christ shall rise first
and we which are alive and remain shall
be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
After the first coming of Christ that will
be the most spectacular event in history.
Now I say that with great emphasis and
therefore someone has said, why do you believe
in such a supernatural coming?
Because of his first coming.
The first coming of the Lord Jesus was
totally supernatural.
His birth was supernatural.
A virgin shall conceive and bear a son
and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
And that was perfectly fulfilled.
If you look carefully at the life of
the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man
and as the Son of God and if
you read in the Old Testament especially from
Isaiah 40 right up to 44 you will
see Jehovah's servant prophesied to come in a
supernatural way and live a supernatural life.
And that was fulfilled.
Thirdly the death of Christ was predicted.
In fact if my memory serves me right
there are 99 direct prophecies concerning the death
of Christ.
And when the Lord Jesus said on the
cross it is finished over 99 prophecies were
fulfilled.
That is totally supernatural.
Again the burial of the Lord Jesus was
predicted precisely.
It shows very clearly although his death was
one of shame he was going to be
buried in the tomb of a rich man.
That was minutely fulfilled as you all know.
And what about the resurrection?
Now my memory may be a little adrift
here but I believe it's correct to say
that there are 16 scriptures in the Old
Testament that depict the resurrection of Christ.
Psalm 16 says thou will not leave my
soul in hell neither shalt thou suffer by
holy one to seek corruption.
And then lastly the ascension of Christ was
predicted.
And if you read very carefully the scriptures
the way in which the Lord went back
to heaven was all described very carefully in
the Old Testament.
In fact the Lord told them that he
was going away and if he would go
away he would come again.
And therefore all those predictions were minutely fulfilled.
Now isn't it logical sensible to believe that
the person who fulfilled the first prophecies will
also fulfill the second promises in absolute detail.
Therefore dear friends that's why we believe the
Lord is going to come.
Not because our present world is in a
total mess and confusion.
We believe that the Lord Jesus is going
to come simply because the Bible said he
would.
And he never never breaks a promise.
Now another thing that's interesting.
I'm going to read tonight from various sections
of 1 Thessalonians.
And in 1 Thessalonians we have a clear
outline on the second coming of Christ.
In the second letter we have again a
clear outline on his coming to us.
One of those comings is called the Lord
coming for his saints.
In the second epistle it's the Lord coming
with his saints.
Now what we're going to do tonight with
the subject of the Lord's coming again for
his people.
Now the historians tell us now that this
probably is one of the first pieces of
inspired writing that we have in the New
Testament.
As far as we know it was written
20 years after the death of Christ.
Some believe that Galatians was the first.
Others believe that James was the first.
But now the census is that Thessalonians is
the first piece of inspiration that we have.
Now again that's interesting.
Because this gives us an inside information of
what the apostles preached in the first century.
I know it's clearly outlined in the book
of the Acts.
But in this particular chapter and this was
written long before the book of the Acts.
In fact it was written long before any
of the first Gospels were published.
And therefore we have now an insight in
what the apostle preached.
All the fundamental facts are outlined in this
particular epistle concerning Christianity.
But the most dominant fact of all is
the fact of the second coming of Christ.
It's mentioned in every chapter.
And what we're going to do is to
go through the scripture and see every mention
of that coming in this particular epistle.
In chapter 1 it's the coming of the
Lord Jesus and salvation.
In chapter 2 it's the coming of the
Lord Jesus and Christian service.
In chapter 3 it's the coming of the
Lord Jesus and stability in holiness.
And in chapter 4 it's the coming of
the Lord Jesus and sorrow.
In chapter 5 it's the coming of the
Lord Jesus and entire sanctification.
So can you see how this should affect
us.
You see the coming of the Lord Jesus
is not a doctrinal battle that Christians have
among themselves.
When we believe in the coming of the
Lord Jesus it should affect every single part
of our lives.
And if it doesn't affect our lives it's
quite meaningless.
Now you must remember too that when Paul
was writing to the Thessalonians they were all
young Christians.
Most of them were only nine months old
in the faith.
Now this would be interesting in a congregation
like this.
Would there be someone that has been saved
in the last nine months?
Would you raise your hand?
Not one.
Now remember that these were new Christians nine
months old in the faith.
And yet as we go through this reading
we find that these Christians have made a
whole impact upon Greece and Macedonia.
Now this gives us a key to a
great secret.
How was it possible for 40 men to
go all over the Roman world and preach
the gospel and shake that Roman empire with
the gospel?
Was it just through public preaching?
Now forgive me shouting this.
No!
Immediately the Christians were saved they all became
publishers of the truth.
And we shall see they went everywhere preaching
the word.
That means if we all caught the fire
of these early Christians every single person would
endeavor to be a sole winner.
And that would be the beginning of revival.
So now we're going to look at this
great subject the coming of the Lord and
salvation.
Would you turn please to the first chapter
and we'll read from verse 7.
So that he were an example to all
that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
That means the Christians who had been saved.
For from you sounded out or resounded out
the word of the Lord.
Now what does that mean?
It's the idea of echo.
And that's where echoes of service comes from
this particular verse.
Now what do we mean by an echo?
If you go to a valley where there
is a vast mountain in some parts of
the earth.
You can actually just say a word like
I'm saying and then the echo would come
back to you.
Now that's the meaning of the word.
Now the apostle gave the whisper of the
gospel.
And these Christians who were saved they were
resounding it, speaking it out.
The echo was coming back all over Macedonia
concerning the kind of lives that they lived.
Now can you see the brilliance of that?
Now go on.
For from you sounded out the word of
the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia.
But also in every place your faith the
God would is spread abroad.
So that we need not speak anything.
For they themselves that could refer to the
Christians.
And then the people who were watching the
Christians.
Show of us what manner of entering in
we had unto you.
How ye turn to God from idols.
Now I want you to think of that.
That is a perfect expression of what we
were speaking about last night.
Repentance.
What is repentance?
It's the change of mind.
And because your mind is changed the change
of your attitude.
And therefore when the apostle preached the first
thing he did was to give them a
complete outline of the glorious character of the
infinite God.
Now that's vital in our preaching.
That's why we were singing tonight Holy, Holy,
Holy Lord God Almighty.
Now these Christians they got such a glimpse
of the glory of God through his preaching.
They turned to God.
Now what does that mean?
You remember that mighty man of faith whose
name was Abraham.
He was sitting in his vast house in
the Ur of Chaldees.
And no doubt it was full of luxury.
For even then he was a rich man.
And all around the walls there would be
terrapins.
And Sarah if she was going to cook
something that was special would consult a terrapin.
If there was a problem in the house
she would consult another terrapin.
It was a household God.
And immediately the glory of God appeared unto
Abraham.
And he got a glimpse of his holiness,
his righteousness, his severity, his compassion and love.
All those terrapins seemed to disappear.
Now you're getting the word.
They turned to the glory of God from
all their silly little idols.
Beloved let's face it when I was reading
this I had to say to the Lord
this morning, where are my idols Lord?
And all of us need to say that.
An idol is a thing that you love
most.
The preeminent thing in your life.
It can be yourself, it can be your
family, it can be your business, it can
even be your retirement, it can even be
your house.
There are many idols.
But these Christians, these early Christians they got
a glimpse of the majesty and the glory
of God and they turned to God from
their idol.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we got that
glimpse tonight.
And we dealt with these stupid idols that
trip us up so often.
And then notice what happened.
They turned to God from idols to serve
the living and the true God.
Now first of all look at their idols.
I'm not going to name them because they're
not really named in this epistle.
But the naming doesn't mean anything.
But they got a glimpse of the true
and the living God and they looked at
their idols and they must have said as
the Psalmist said.
They have eyes that see not, noses that
smell not, lips that speak not, hearts that
not even function, ears that do not listen.
They're dead and all our idols are dead.
We're going to leave them all behind very
shortly.
They turned from their idols in order to
serve and the word serve there is strong.
Don't miss it.
It's the word Julos which means to serve
as a slave.
This doesn't mean for one moment that God
held them by a whip.
You see the principle of slavery in the
New Testament is not enforced slavery.
You remember the old servant who said I
love my master.
I love my wife.
I love my children.
I will not go out free.
That was voluntary enslavement and that's ours.
You know why?
Because our master has his hands pierced, his
feet pierced, his side pierced and as we
see his infinite love for us we yield
ourselves and the motive is not the motive
of a whip but it's the motive of
worship.
The motive of giving ourselves wholly to the
man who loved us and then you'll remember
the old slave went to the door post
and his ear was pierced but his master
was never pierced.
But our master is and isn't it lovely
to have a pierced ear.
Now I'm not saying we should all come
tomorrow night with a golden earring.
Please don't think that that's awful but all
of us should have our ear pierced because
our savior was pierced for us and then
you will notice it's to serve the living
and the true God.
In other words when we talk about the
judgment seat of Christ we shall see that
when we stand before the Lord we shall
stand before him with glorified bodies and all
of us will stand there before him in
grace and we shall see what we did
in the body and all that we spent
on ourselves will be burnt up and praise
God for it.
You'll be glad to see it burnt up
and all that we spent for the Lord
will be wonderfully rewarded to serve the living
and the true God and then go on
and to wait for his son from heaven.
Now the word wait here is quite weighty
and it's the idea of waiting expectantly.
You know in the east when they were
looking for a person to come they would
go to a brow of a hill and
then they would stand on their toes and
then if they couldn't see them they would
stretch their neck and sometimes the word wait
in scripture means stretching the neck.
There are two kinds of necks in scripture
there's the stiff neck that means the rebellious
person and the stretch neck if you like
a drop neck and it means they were
waiting stretching themselves lifting their heads up saying
he might be here today.
Waiting constantly for his presence and then I
want you to notice where the deliverance comes
and to wait for his son from heaven
why because he has gone into heaven and
there's a man in the heaven and the
person who is head of the church his
head is in heaven his body is on
earth and that's where the Holy Spirit lives
in the habitation of the church and because
the Lord Jesus is there our head we
all long to be there with him in
heaven the abode of all the saints the
father's house whom he raised from the dead
the word is from among the dead now
what does that mean?
Lazarus was raised as we were saying last
yesterday afternoon from the dead but obviously as
far as we know he died again but
when the Lord Jesus was raised from among
the dead he was raised in the power
of an endless life never never to die
again and that man is now in the
glory and it's a guarantee that the Lord
is there that we're going to be there
now can you see the setting they turned
to God from idols to serve like a
slave the living and the true God and
to wait constantly and patiently for his son
from heaven whom he raised from among the
dead now there comes a time especially if
a person is at university when you have
died some doubted as we were hearing yesterday
morning the way in which to exclude those
doubts is to get into your mind and
heart the glorious evidence of the resurrection we
do not believe in the resurrection of Christ
like a story or a fairy story we
believe it to be an infallible fact and
that's what the apostle Luke addresses the whole
of the book of the act and he
gives us the infallible facts of his resurrection
now what are they first of all he
gives us textual evidence he keeps talking about
the scriptures secondly he gives us accurate historical
evidence then he gives us critical evidence by
showing that the greatest critic of Christianity became
a Christian that's why thousands of Christians are
now praying for the conversion of Professor Dawkins
and what a moment it would be if
registered on the papers you saw his conversion
it's possible and then he gives us legal
evidence and then last of all he gives
us experimental evidence he shows that Christianity is
not a religion but it's a complete change
of life when no longer you're conformed to
this world but transformed by the renewing of
your mind now can you see the brilliance
of that whom he raised from the dead
even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath
to come now what is that wrath I
have no doubt to believe that that wrath
includes first of all the great tribulation I'm
sure that's correct no Christian will go through
the tribulation there is nothing in scripture that
gives you the slightest indication of talking about
the blessed tribulation you read of the blessed
the happy hope but never the blessed tribulation
we have been delivered from wrath but then
there is a present wrath now when our
country I'm referring to Britain a country that
I love brought in the easy way of
divorce we knew that judgment was coming and
then when they licensed homosexuality we were certain
judgment was coming and now it's coming all
its view and thousands are unemployed and in
that state people are now beginning to turn
to God you may see a similar situation
in Australia that's why all of us should
be ready for a harvest of soul because
when the toys are taken away people begin
to think of God Laodicea is a terrible
disease that has affected the church of God
when we love the material more than spirit
well there is a wrath that's to come
there is wrath that's imminent but remember the
Lord Jesus has delivered us from the wrath
to come but don't stop there now can
you see from that one setting if we
had salvation that affected people like they did
in the first century we would see Sydney
really bubbling with blessing but you see the
gospel that we preach is so mediocre that
it doesn't really touch the lives of people
look at these early Christians that were suffering
tremendous persecution they turned to God from idols
serving the Lord like slaves the living God
waiting for his son from heaven even Jesus
that delivered us from the wrath to come
but go on now we come into the
second chapter verse 17 that we brethren being
taken from you for a short time in
presence not in harm endeavored the more abundantly
to see your face with great desire now
if you go through this epistle you will
find this that he uses the face more
than he does in any other epistle now
why he wanted to see the face now
your face is not really defined by the
refinement of your features your face as far
as God is concerned expresses intelligence expresses identity
and it can express spirituality they looked unto
him and were radiant again I'm quoting now
from Ephesians 5 awake thou that sleepest arise
from the dead ones and Christ shall give
thee light that means radiance in other words
there is something about the faces of people
who are spirit filled who are radiant I'm
not talking about your features I'm not even
talking about your inner personality but there's something
about people who are filled with the spirit
who are filled with the joy of the
Lord and we need that we need a
face that reflects something of the loveliness of
Christ now go on wherefore we would have
come unto you even I Paul once and
again but Satan hindered us now do you
believe that do you believe that you know
in my own life there were times when
I wanted to go to a group of
Christians and everything was arranged but I knew
that the devil hindered sometimes by sickness sometimes
by immorality Satan can hinder now let me
say this in passing it's wrong for the
servant of the Lord to be governed meticulously
by a diary that can hinder us you
mustn't imagine that God is going to be
squeezed into our tram line always remember this
he is transcendent he is outside of time
and space his imminent he projects his glory
into everything that he makes and you cannot
put the almighty God in the tram lines
of our minds we must be open to
the leading of the spirit all of us
so that all our service is really controlled
by him and constantly as companies of people
we must begin to say to God are
we in the will of God by doing
this don't go by the clock don't go
by the diary but go by the direction
of the spirit now this mighty man of
God was hindered in coming to them always
remember that and that's we need to be
constantly for what is our hope or joy
or crown of rejoicing now I've heard believers
say that we shouldn't serve for reward now
I don't believe that if the reward is
the motive for your service that is wrong
but the Lord Jesus distinctly said that we
should lay up treasure in heaven now that
is emphatic and in the scripture there are
rewards for instance we shall all have a
glorified body now we're going to discuss that
tomorrow night but there will be some Christians
more like Christ than others you see the
more Christ forms in you now he will
take from the body of humiliation or at
least the soul that's in that body of
humiliation and put it in the body of
glory and therefore this particular crown of rejoicing
is a soul winning crown let's read on
so we get the context for what is
our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing
are not even ye in the presence of
our Lord Jesus at his coming now here's
something that I must weigh up before you
now the people that I might lead to
Christ during this mission will probably be not
my souls when I stand some of you
dear people are going to bring in the
unsaved some of you have prayed for them
in fact agonized for them especially your children
now when you stand before the fema I
may be the last link in the chain
but they're not my souls the souls that
will be with me are those that I
have influence in my own area by my
life now let's ask a question how many
people am I influencing for Christ if the
Lord came tonight would there be many standing
around you now I know some of our
sisters will say but we're not all as
brave as probably what some people are it
doesn't matter about bravery even a godly life
is a witness for instance I remember in
my own area where I go from door
to door knocking in order that people might
come to know the Lord I was speaking
to one lady and she was talking about
a sister in the assembly now she's quiet
she's reserved and she's always saying I'm not
much of a testimony but what that lady
told me about this particular sister in Christ
was beautiful when she comes in and attends
to us she's like an angel that's the
witness here is a father in the home
and he's got some boys that are wayward
if he keeps blowing his top is he
a witness when those boys are saved they
will praise God for the life of their
godly heart so when we stand before the
fema all the people that we have influence
will stand with us and that's where Paul
wanted to see the converse complete in him
as he stands before Christ at the beaming
go on for what is our hope or
joy or crown of rejoicing honor even ye
in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
at his coming for ye are our glory
and our joy now why constantly this man
of God had been praying for these Christians
that Christ might be formed in them and
God was answering his prayer although he wasn't
with them now if God raises up in
your ministry in your meeting a godly sister
who spends hours in prayer or a godly
brother praise God for him you can never
tell the spirituality of a man by the
hours he spends over the word that might
be a natural ability you can tell the
spirituality of any man by the hours that
he spends in prayer now let's look at
this carefully for ye are our glory and
our joy this man was a mighty man
of prayer and he was praying that Christ
should be formed in them let's get to
the third chapter and we have to close
here verse 11 now God himself
and our father referring of course to relationships
and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way
unto you now can you see that Paul
wanted all his movements to be in the
direct will of God now I wonder if
I could open my heart and discuss something
with you that my wife and I discussed
just before she died we were going to
places preaching the gospel that had the usual
mission once a year and quite frankly some
of these places we saw no blessing whatever
my wife and I were having our reading
together and we were up to John 12
and we read that little expression that where
I am there shall my servant be immediately
after the reading my wife said did that
stand out as you read it Peter I
said what's your reaction I believe that we're
going to places where God is not working
and she quietly said amen when we receive
an invitation from the assembly to go let's
pray so that we are sure that we're
in the will of God at that time
I was having a mission in Newcastle and
as you know they have a 1200 seater
tent and the place was being packed and
in the morning I was ministering the scriptures
from 11 to 12 and I was standing
at one tent door shaking hands with some
of the people and a man came up
to me and I shall never forget he
says brother I've got a word from the
Lord for you I said what's that that
where I am there shall my servant be
I nearly fell through the grass therefore it's
absolutely essential that in all the missions and
in all movements should we should be in
the will of God look at it again
so we get the the impact of this
God himself and our father and our Lord
Jesus Christ direct our way unto you and
the Lord make you to increase and to
abound in love one toward another and toward
all men even as we do toward you
to the end he may establish your heart
unblameable in holiness before God even our father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
with all things now you will notice the
word unblameable in holiness there is no such
thing in scripture as sinless perfection but we
are told to be unblameable in holiness now
could I now speak to those who have
the authority of overseer make sure your life
is unblameable in holiness remember scores are following
you and watching you that is why all
of us have to be very careful what
we do especially in regard to marriage if
you are married only let one person and
only one be the object of your physical
affection and no one else the same applies
to the wife you see there is moral
sin in the local church far more than
we realize and all of us have got
to be an example to the Lord that
is why when the Lord comes all of
us should say am I unblameable in holiness
how vital this is and with that I'm
going to close but I'll read it again
so that the impact comes to us to
the end that he may establish your heart
unblameable in holiness before God even our father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
with all that means after we have stood
before the beamer and we have been corrected
for anything in our life that may not
be related to holiness we shall come with
him to reign with him when he comes
to set up his kingdom upon us