“THE PURPOSE OF THE LORD’S RETURN,

THE MILLENNIUM AND THINGS TO COME.’’

 

(The Second Dallas Sermon; preached July 1, 1924.)

The theme on which I am to speak tonight is The Purpose of the Lord’s Return, the Millennium, and the Things to Come. This subject grew out of the sermon preached Saturday night on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. There were a number of the brethren not only of Peak and Main congregation but also of other congregations in the city, who were much interested to hear the sequel and to learn the background of the teaching concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as I presented it last Saturday night. Now I have not been in the habit of preaching on these things. I have spoken on them on a few occasions. These topics have frequently arisen in private conversation and were brought out by questions at one time or another, or in the study of the text of the prophecies in the Bible-class, but I have rarely preached on them, especially not in protracted meetings.

But since it is a part of the Word of God that is under discussion, and since God has spoken on these matters, I feel under a sacred obligation to present such things as I have found in the Word of God when asked to do so. And I shall endeavor tonight to be faithful in my presentation of this subject. I remember that the Lord Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit, “He shall glorify Me: for he shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.” Well, if that is the way to glorify Christ, I shall attempt to do that. I shall try to present to you the things to come as faithfully as I am able. I am not infallible. Every human being must take into consideration that not he, but the Word of God, is right. All of us must concede that, whatever the subject on which we may be speaking. Furthermore, we know that the Word of God is inspired. Our conclusions are not inspired. They may be true and correct for all that, but they are not inspired. The facts that we glean from the testimony of God in the Scriptures may be true and righteous altogether, but perhaps our arrangement of these facts and the sequence in which we conceive of them may not be correct. All things must be weighed in the light of God’s Word. This is the privilege and a heart exercise for every Christian, and all of us, like the Bereans, must finally turn to the Word of God to see if these things be so.

CHRIST COMES FOR HIS PEOPLE.

Now, as to the purpose of Christ’s return from heaven. The first fact that I wish to set before you is that the Lord Jesus is coming back from heaven for the purpose of receiving His people to Himself. On the evening of His betrayal He said to His disciples, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,” and then He states one purpose—and, no doubt, one of the chief purposes—of His return: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” Here we have one of the prime purposes of the Lord’s return. He is coming back to receive us—that is, His disciples, those who believe on His Name, the members of His Body—to Himself, and from that time on they will be with Him in inseparable union, as long as all eternity shall endure.

More detail of this is given us in 1 Thess. 4:13-18. In that passage we see that the very first thing that shall occur when the Lord Jesus descends from heaven, “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” is that “the dead in Christ shall rise first.” He especially tells us that those who are living on the earth at that time “shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep,” but, he says, “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven………….and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them”—that is, simultaneously—“be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Now one of these times that is going to happen. At the very time when even His disciples might be least expecting it, when it would seem least probable, suddenly, unexpectedly, unannounced, and swiftly as “in the twinkling of an eye,” “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

    OUR ADOPTION, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY.

Now the Book tells us furthermore that that will be the time of our full redemption. Up to the hour of the Lord’s return, His own will not be fully redeemed. The sentiment that when a Christian dies he enters into his final glory and his eternal habitation is not Scriptural. The Christian, indeed, at his death goes into the presence of the Lord. As Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” and again, “Having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is very far better.” Nevertheless, the Christian’s redemption is not finished, and he is in a condition of happy waiting and rest, a state of abeyance, until the day the Lord Jesus comes to consummate His victory. As the Apostle says in the eighth chapter of Romans, we are “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Not until this old body is redeemed from the dust and from the power of death, and we stand anew in the image of the glorious body of cur Lord Jesus Christ, will our redemption be complete, and not until then shall we fully have entered the state of sonship. We are the sons of God now, but we shall be fully installed into the high position of sonship—and that is what the word “adoption” means in the New Testament—at the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. “We wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself.” (Phil. 3:20, 21).

Though limited in time tonight, and probably unable to handle my whole subject, I cannot resist the impulse to try to bring home to the Christian’s heart the exceeding great and glorious privilege wrapped up in these words. You know how people will go hundreds and thousands of miles and spend their last penny in search of health, for just a little recuperation, a little patching up of the poor, imperfect life that we have in our natural bodies. But, oh, what it will be when Jesus comes and fashions anew our bodies and makes them like His glorious body! Have you ever gotten up some morning and breathed the fresh, morning air; and the skies seemed so blue and the world was so wonderful and it seemed as though there were springs under your feet, and you felt glad just to be alive? Then you knew what it is to be well. The doctors say that we are never perfectly well, that there is always something slightly out of order, but at such times we are approximately well. They say that health is the most wonderful possession and that without it everything else is valueless. But what is health but the normal functioning of our poor earthly life? What then will it be when that new life will course through our bodies and we shall be beyond reach of sickness or pain for evermore, gladly alive with the Lord Jesus, with a body like unto His, endowed with capacities and powers that transcend all our conception at the present time? We shall be like Him when He shall appear. The dead shall be raised incorruptible and the living shall be changed; for “this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality”; and the dead and the living shall be caught up to meet Him in the air, simultaneously. Then is our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

    THE TIME OF THE CHRISTIAN’S REWARD.

 

Every Christian’s reward also waits for that blessed day. You hear sometimes that “so-and-so has gone to his reward.” It is a mistake. There is a preliminary foretaste before the coming of the Lord, both for the evil and the righteous—the story of the rich man and Lazarus gives us an indication of that. But to speak of reward—no, that does not come till the Lord Jesus comes. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is.” (Rev. 22:12). That certainly involves the judgment of Hi# people according to the works they have wrought. The apostle tells us (1 Cor. 4:5) “judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God.” Our talents are committed to us to occupy until He comes. When the Lord Jesus comes, those that have well and faithfully used their talents will receive rank and rating according to the diligence they have put into their work. The one man who had made ten pounds received jurisdiction and control over ten cities, in the parable of the “pounds.” (Luke 19). The other man, who made five pounds, received authority over five cities, but the third, who had hidden his pound, was rejected altogether. So, there will be a judgment of Christ’s servants in accordance with the work they have done. Furthermore, there is some indication that a Christian’s work may even be burned up, and yet if he has put faithful—even if blundering—efforts into the work, he himself shall be saved, “yet so as by fire.” (1 Cor. 3:10-15). So, there will be judgments and rewards.

Moreover, the Christian will receive his crown only when Jesus comes. Wherever you find the crown and crowning spoken of it is always connected with the coming of the Lord. Paul, writing to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:8) says, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing Again when Peter speaks to the elders (1 Pet. 5:2-4) and tells them to take up the work of the Lord “not of constraint, but willingly,” he adds, “and when the Chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away.” The “crown of life” also is promised to us after we have been tested out and approved. (Jas. 1:12). So, we see that the crown comes to the Christian at the time of the return of the Lord Jesus.

    GRACE TO BE BROUGHT TO US.

 The Lord Jesus is now working with His church. He loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might cleanse it by the washing of water and with the word. He is dealing with every single Christian and is disciplining them, working with them, looking forward to the time when He can present them spotless and without blemish, in exceeding joy, in the presence of the Father. Now that is the thing to look forward to. We could never have any happiness apart from perfect holiness. But the time is coming when His church shall be presented in the presence of God without blemish. (Eph. 5:27; Jude 24). That will be a time of exceeding joy for His people. The presence of God strikes terror into the hearts of those unfit to face Him. If we are permitted to face Him through the work of our Lord Jesus, how happy we shall be to look into the face of God! “His servants shall serve Him and they shall see His Face and His name shall be in their foreheads.” Shall we ever be able to arrive at such a bliss—we, so weak, so miserable, who have so many defects, who are so continually failing, however hard we try?

     Well, you have come to the Lord for salvation; cleave to the Lord with all your heart and He will see you through. We are told in 1 Peter 1:13, to set our “hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Now, you know what “grace” is, don’t you? Grace is the undeserved favor of God. By the grace of God we have been saved. It is His grace that makes us strong in weakness. By His grace we are justified. Now Peter tells us that we have not only been saved by grace in the past, not only are we today standing in the grace of God, but there in grace yet to be brought to us, and even urges us to set our entire hope on that. If it were not for that we could have no hope in the coming of Christ. What man is there who could face the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ on the ground of his own merit and worth? But we are not told to rest our hope on that. “Set your hope on the grace” of God. That very motive will help you to live a life that is pure and holy—“as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as He Who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living.”

      SALVATION FUTURE.

One more item. The Lord Jesus is coming back to accomplish our final salvation. Just as our original salvation demanded His coming from heaven, taking the form of a servant, going to the Cross and bearing our sins there, so our ultimate salvation in the future is dependent upon Christ’s coming again in glory and power. We cannot be ultimately saved unless Jesus comes back. That is why the New Testament puts such an emphasis on the doctrine of the Second Coming. In Hebrews 9:27, 28, we read, “And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.” He is coming back for our salvation; which means that unless He came back there could not be any such thing. We have left it out of our theology, haven’t we? We have got things all fixed up without that. Why should Christ come back? If you have no essential place in your theology for the coming of Christ, your theology is wrong. In the New Testament we find that it filled the Christian’s whole horizon. They were longing for it, and taught to yearn and wait for it. And your very salvation depends upon it. It requires His coming to bring about that salvation. Peter calls it the “salvation ready to be revealed at the last time”; and Paul says, “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Jesus is coming for the salvation of His people.

     THE COMING IMMINENT, BUT A COMPOSITE EVENT.

This is the first great object of the coming of the Lord, the very first thing to be expected. This is the hope of the Church and as far as the New Testament teaching is concerned we are not taught to look forward to anything else. Well and good for us to observe the course of times and developments and circumstances. Yet the Christian is taught to look forward to this one first event of all, an event that is liable to break in upon us at any time—that our Lord Jesus “shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” That is the one future thing set before us, and it is imminent. When I say “imminent,” I do not mean “immediate.” I have no inside information that it will be today or tomorrow or within the next two or three years. But an imminent thing is one that may happen at any time; it may bide quite a while, and yet again it may occur the next moment. The coming of the Lord Jesus is imminent. The very first thing that will happen— not to be heralded by anything, not necessarily preceded by any fulfilment of prophecy, as far as I have been able to ascertain, is this aspect of the Coming. In this stage of His coming, He comes down from heaven with the shout and the voice of the archangel, the dead are raised and the living are changed and caught up, with the resurrected dead, to meet the Lord in the air. That is the very first event to be looked for. It may be that tomorrow’s sun will not dawn till that thing happens.

Now, a thing may be simple or it may be complex. The first coming of the Lord Jesus was not a simple event, it was a complex event. The Lord Jesus came when He was born in Bethlehem. Again, He came when He was baptized of John—for “John preached before the face of His coming.” Again, He came when He made His triumphal entry. “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee!” Again, when He died on the Cross He came; “This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.” (1 John 5:6). Again, He came when He came back from the dead. All these features of His first coming constitute the first coming of the Lord Jesus upon the earth. It was a compound event—not a single act, but an event made up of many different features.

Now I want to tell you that all the passages of the New Testament about the Second Coming cannot be explained upon the theory that it is a simple event, that the Lord Jesus will just come down at one single act and that will be all. There are a number of features to it that we must recognize. One, as we have already seen, is that the Lord Jesus is coming to receive his saints to Himself. However, we read again that He comes “with His saints.” Now evidently it cannot be that the Lord Jesus comes to receive His saints and at the same time comes with His saints. That cannot be; it is just as impossible as to say that you can make two mountains without a valley between. There are some things that are just not possible. Here is one of them: the Lord Jesus is coming to receive His people, and that He comes and His people come with Him! In Colossians 3:4, it says, “When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.” Well, before that can happen, the Lord Jesus must have come for his saints; they must have been caught up to meet Him in the air; that apportioning of rank and place and position must have taken place—and “then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.” Then the whole world shall admire Him in His saints—“When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed.” (2 Thess. 1:10).

     There is coming then a time of the appearing of the Lord Jesus when He, with His saints, shall return. That is a very important point. In Revelation 19:11 and onward, we see the heaven opened and the Lord Himself, the King of kings and Lord of lords, coming forth, riding upon a white horse; and on white horses following Him, arrayed in white raiment His saints, the “called, chosen and faithful”; a great retinue, coming down with Him from heaven to the earth. That is the second stage of His coming. It is not a different coming, but the same coming. If, for example, I were coming to Texas and some of my friends had met me in Texarkana, and then I came on to Dallas with them, you would not say that that was two comings. So, the first stage of the Second Coming is when the Lord Jesus comes down and receives His own up. Then, after certain affairs have been attended to, He comes with them and the whole world sees His coming.

1. HE COMES TO OVERTHROW THE WORLD POWER.

That leads us now to the second point, to the second purpose of the coming of the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus comes again, He will come to overthrow His adversaries; especially the last world-power. Now these calls for a little research into Old Testament prophecy. In the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, you read about a very remarkable beast, unlike anything that lives and breathes upon the earth; a beast that has seven heads and ten horns and upon the horns are written the names of blasphemy. The beast has a mouth like a lion, a body like a leopard and feet like a bear, and it is a ten-horned beast. To that beast Satan gave his authority. Probably all of us understand that Satan is the Prince of the World and has his throne upon the earth right now. You remember what the Lord Jesus said to the Church at Pergamum (Rev. 2), “I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s throne is.” It is true that the Lord Jesus over-rules and that God overrules. But Satan still rules. You remember the time on the mount of temptation when Satan offered to the Lord Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and he said, “All this authority hath been committed to me and I give it to whomsoever I will. If Thou wilt bow down to me, I will give it to Thee.” The Lord Jesus utterly refused, and said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship) the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Now it may be objected that Satan is a liar and that; Satan did not have that authority. If Satan had been lying the Lord Jesus would have known it; if Satan had been lying about that point it would not have been any temptation to Him. If Christ had not known that Satan had that authority.

     He would not have been tempted. But this was one of the Lord’s temptations and He turned it down with indignation, and said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan!” So that power was left in Satan’s hands. But there is coming one in due time who will accept at Satan’s hands that which the Lord Jesus refused. And that particular person, whoever he is, called the “beast” in the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation—accept at Satan’s hands the sovereignty of the earth and the rulership of all nations, tribes, kindreds and tongues. “And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon” —who is previously defined in the chapter as being the devil— “gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority”—how great authority is shown in verse 7:—“there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.” This beast, therefore, is either a universal kingdom or a universal ruler. In fact, he is both. He both represents the kingdom and himself is its head.

     THE FOUR BEASTS OF DAN. 7.

Turn back to the prophecy of Daniel recorded in chapter 7 of that book. Daniel saw four beasts coming up from the sea, diverse one from another; the first beast was like a lion, the second like a bear, the third like a leopard, and the fourth unlike anything that could be named. That latter beast comes snarling across the earth, trampling everything under his feet; and through one of its horns raises the voice of blasphemy against Him that sitteth in the heavens. It continues persecuting the saints until something happens. The thing that happens is a sudden judgment from heaven. But till the beast is crushed, the beast rules. Then, it says, the saints shall receive the kingdom— not up in heaven, but “under the whole heaven.” That is the picture in Daniel 7.

Now in the Book of the Revelation you find the last beast of Daniel again; yet embodying the characteristics of all the four.

Now the four beasts of Daniel’s prophecy were four kingdoms. It is a parallel prophecy to that of the Image in Daniel 2. The parts of that Image represent the four world-kingdoms— the head of gold, arms and breast of silver, belly and thighs of brass, the legs and feet of iron mixed with miry clay. That Image also comes to its end by a judgment from above, a supernatural judgment from God;—a stone cut out of the mountain without hands smote the image on its feet; and reduced it to fragments which the wind carried away like the chaff of the summer’s threshing-floor. Then, (and not until then) the stone grew and became a mighty mountain and took possession of the earth. (Some say that this has already come to pass. We have not noticed that it has.)

The four beasts of the seventh chapter of Daniel, (correspond to the four parts of the Image of Dan. 2. These are the four world-kingdoms: the head of gold, which is Babylon, represents the first beast; the second part of the Image was Medo- Persia, and the second beast represents Medo-Persia; the third part of the Image represents Greece and the third beast in the vision of beasts also represents Greece; the fourth part of the Image, and the fourth beast represent Rome, exceedingly strong and fierce. “Forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in. pieces and bruise.”

“Well, that settles it,” says someone, “because Rome has come and gone.” Yes, Rome has come and gone, but we have had her equivalent ever since. So that does not help us much. Furthermore, we read here in Revelation that that beast, at the time of its supernatural destruction, holds control over the whole world. Is that then another world-power? No, it is bound to be one of those four of which we read in the 2nd and 7th chapters of Daniel. The beast that re-appears in Revelation is called the beast which “was and is not, and is about to come.” (Rev. 17 :8). That beast has three stages in his career: a time when he flourished, a time when he went out, and a time when he came back. Here he appears in his latter stage, when he comes back in all his force and embodies all the features of the other beasts in himself. Thus, John beheld him when he rose up out of the sea. As in the prophecy of Dan. 7, that fourth beast met with supernatural destruction from on high, just so this ten-horned beast also meets with judgment from on High. What is that judgment? Turn to the tilth chapter of Revelation: “And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written which no one knoweth but He Himself. And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood; and His name is called The Word of God.

And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceeded a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” And while John was beholding this magnificent vision, he saw standing in the sun an angel who was beckoning to all the vultures to come to the great supper, that they might feed upon the flesh of kings and mighty men, captains, and of high and of low, because the great supper of God was about to be prepared for them. And what happens? The Son of Man comes with His armies and clashes with that beast which has back of him “the kings of earth and their armies.” Don’t think that there will be a fight. Someone said once that somebody taught that the Lord Jesus would lead forth His saints in carnal warfare! But there will not be a struggle, nor hand- to-hand conflict. All that will happen will be that He will speak the word and the armies will be slain by the word of His mouth. They will fall under His sentence and the Lord Jesus will take control. The beast and the false prophet will be taken alive and cast into the lake of fire, and as far as the Book shows they are the first beings to go into that awful place. “the man of sin.’’

This then marks another purpose of the Lord’s return. He will come to take control of the situation and destroy that final world power and its great ruler. In 2 Thess. 2, you will find a picture of a remarkable personage, with whom the Lord Jesus clashes at His return. Jesus at His coming destroys him. That being is called “the man of sin. … he that opposeth and exalt- eth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped.’ We read as follows:

“Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your -mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand.”

In every translation known to me except the Douay, the King James and the American Revised Version, this reads “the day of the Lord is now present.” Someone had made those Thessalonians believe that the day of the Lord had already broken in upon them.

“Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of His coming.”

That wicked one will have set himself up as the greatest of all, as God, and he will employ that blinding delusion; he will have come “according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” No doubt, he will be an attractive character in many ways, a being of great power and ability to whom Satan will lend all of his authority, who will have sway all over the earth. The majority of human beings will have absolute faith in him ; they will not even tremble when they see Jesus coming to clash with him. But the Lord Jesus will bring him to nought by the brightness of His coming

When, therefore, the Lord Jesus comes down with His saints, He will find a certain one in control and his hosts marshalled against Him. This head of the world-power can hardly be distinguished from the “man of sin” in 2 Thess. 2. The Lord Jesus, at His coming, will clash with him. There will be no encounter with carnal weapons, but the outshining of His glory will be sufficient. Thus will the last world-power come to its end. It is evident, then, that whatever the power that holds sway at that time, it will come to its end when Jesus comes with His saints. He finds him here in full possession and authority, and in a moment He sweeps him away and destroys him and his armies. Turning back to Revelation 19:19, we read:

“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image: they two were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone: and the rest were killed with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came forth out of his mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

The sequence then is this, that after having caught up His Church to Himself, the Lord is coming down with His saints, to take possession of the world, and to receive, added to His many crowns, yet one, the crown of all the earth, which indeed has been His all the time. And this is precisely the hour and time announced in Revelation 10:7, “in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God”; And in- 11:15, “And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever.” I believe it. I believe this world is yet to see an exhibition of perfect government. Satan will be put down. Antichrist will be destroyed. The “man of sin” will meet his doom. I believe that the beast will be cast into the lake of fire. And, as Daniel shows us, just as soon as that beast is destroyed, the saints will possess the kingdom that the beast had held—namely, the sovereignty over all peoples and nations. I believe that. That is the reign of the saints as it is taught in the Bible.

     III. THE FINAL SCENE OF OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY.

Well, I should like to be able to take more time with that. There is a vast background of prophecy behind it. I should like to be able to show you that that clash between Jesus and the beast and the armies described in the 19th chapter of the Book of the Revelation is the great battle of Armageddon mentioned elsewhere. I should like to show what will happen when that beast is cast into the lake of fire and “His saints shall reign on the earth.” But I cannot take hold of that just now. I must go back once more to the Old Testament.

 

In Old Testament prophecy there are many things—different bits here and there—characteristic of Old Testament revelation. God spoke in divers ways and manners and at various times, here a little and there a little. It may be difficult to combine all the pictures given to us in the prophetic vision, but there is always one final scene that you find in the Old Testament prophecies. This final scene represents Israel—the nation descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—in the greatest trouble and tribulation, such tribulation as has never been known since the world began; and when that trouble is at its height Israel is threatened with extermination. There is no help anywhere. Then something occurs:—The Lord descends from on high with His saints, delivers Israel and rescues Jerusalem. Israel is restored and the Lord is king over all the earth. That is always the final vision. In the third chapter of Joel, at the 9th verse, we read:

“Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all he men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste, ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together.”

Here they are, then—gathered together. For what purpose? Their purpose is to exterminate the Jew from the face of the earth—a thing some people would like to do today. If you turn to the 83rd Psalm you will see a combine gathered together for the purpose of exterminating Israel. Israel is the most persecuted nation that has ever lived. She has gone through the furnace of persecution throughout the ages.

“And have they not had griefs enough, this people shrunk with chains? Must there be more Assyrias, must there be other Spains?. . . . “They are the tribes of sorrow and for ages have been fed On brackish desert wells of hate and evil’s bitter bread………….

“After tears by ruined altars, after toils in alien lands, After wailings by strange waters, after lifting of vain hands, After tears and toils and trials, after ages scorched by fire. . . .” shall they now, at last, have to come face to face with extermination? God describes it. They come to a time of tribulation such as has never before been known on the earth. But the darkness is suddenly lightened with an announcement of relief: “Jehovah will be a refuge to his people and a stronghold to the children of Israel.” When a man tries to exterminate Israel, he encounters God, he beats out his brains against the thick bosses of the bucklers of God the Almighty. Because God has said, “If the foundations of the earth can be measured and if the ordinances of the stars can come to an end, then shall come to an end my people Israel.” It never shall be accomplished. In fact, God has never yet given up His purposes regarding Israel.

     Here, then, you find the nations gathered together. “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but Jehovah will be a refuge unto his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.”

     JERUSALEM’S FUTURE.

Jerusalem is the one city on earth with a career before her. The Lord has promised that He will cleanse her by the spirit of justice and the spirit of burning. (Isa. 4:4). No stranger shall pass through her any more. She shall be made glorious with the glory of the Lord Himself, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The 14th chapter of the book of Zechariah shows Israel in her great final distress: “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.’’ And listen—“and His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives’’—the place He went up from! I hear people say, “The Lord is never going to set His foot upon the earth again. But that is only a technical point.

     As long as you concede that He is going to come back, it would not matter whether or not He set His foot upon the earth. If the Lord Jesus comes to the air that does not mean that He is going to stay up in the air for ever. Here you have the statement that the Lord will stand upon the Mount of Olives. It goes on to say, “And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem”— that same Jerusalem, which just a little while before had been in the greatest distress! Immediately follows the issue: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.” (Zech. 14:9).

You see that ds the final scene. And what is the scene? It is the Lord coming to take control of the wicked world and destroy the power that is trying to exterminate Israel. From that day on He rules as King: “The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.”

♦ * *

We have found three things tonight—three purposes of the Lord’s return. The first is His purpose regarding His own people. Secondly, there is His purpose regarding the final world- power, the anti-Christian power that controls the earth and is governing when Jesus returns. Thirdly, there is His purpose of deliverance of the people of Israel—who shall be delivered from the power of the enemy by the returning King. How glad they will be to see Him! When Jesus left them, He said, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” They will be so glad then that they wall cry out, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!” And Jerusalem shall be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more, and Israel shall be restored and righteous; and a new era shall begin upon earth.

There is a hope held out in the Scriptures, that there will yet be a future for this old, downtrodden world, this creation which is suffering and groaning in pain together until now. It will be when the Lord Jesus comes down from heaven to assert His great power. The power is His now, but He has not asserted it. Some say the Lord is reigning today. You are right. He is reigning in the hearts of those who have willingly obeyed Him. But He has not taken in hand the rule and the government of the world. There is a day coming when He will rule the nations with His rod of iron. (Of course, you understand the phrase, “rod of iron.” The rod is the scepter and iron signifies strict unyielding justice) . It will be a great day when He comes down to take possession of this much-abused earth, Lord of lords and King of kings, with power and great glory, and following in His wake, the armies of heaven, the called, the chosen, the faithful, who have been glorified with Him !                                      

“The Son of God goes forth to war,

A kingly crown to gain,

His blood-red banner streams afar—

Who follows in His train?”

But who will follow in His train? In these days the Gospel is being preached and it is a question of accepting or rejecting the King of kings and Lord of lords. When Jesus comes. He will take vengeance in flaming fire on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who take their stand against Him have nothing to hope for in that day. But those that come to Him now with their burden of sin and to obtain healing and cleansing, shall have their share with the saints, and wen Jesus comes will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. I think this is an appeal to every human being present. If you are not in Christ, what are you waiting for? What do you expect? The claims of the Lord have been presented to you. The Cross has been held up before your eyes—the one hope of the sin-sick soul. The way of salvation has been taught. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins.”

Once you line up for that great King, you share in His rejection in this day while He is still absent and people despise His name; but at that day you shall appear with Him in glory. For if you share with Him in His rejection you shall also share in His glory, and if you suffer with Him you shall reign with Him. If you flee to Him for refuge tonight, you shall be numbered with His saints when He comes again. Is it worthwhile and will you submit to the power of God? We are going to sing, “Whosoever will, may come.” But these sweet gospel-songs will not be sung to us forever and the Lord will not be knocking at the doors of our hearts always.

-There will be 2 more  parts of thi message-Part 3  is divided into 2 articles

-R. H. Boll (1875-1956)  was Editor of Word and Work (1916-1956)