(SGAT meeting, 28th January 2022)
The title presupposes that we are to be ‘WATCHING FOR THE LORD’S COMING’!
* That most certainly is not the spirit of the people of God generally today. We are in that period symbolised by the ‘sleeping virgins’, Matthew 25:5. “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.”
* There is a spirit of deep slumber everywhere abroad. It is similar to that which overtook Israel on many occasions and against which the Lord warned them. “Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage,” Deuteronomy 6:12. Sadly, it was a warning that went unheeded. “Can a maid forget her ornaments, [or] a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number,” Jeremiah 2:32.
* As Israel was given the means of keeping alive the memories of the Lord fulfilling His future Covenant blessings, so we have the equivalent in the Lord’s table. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come,” 1 Corinthians 11:26.
* Yet despite the widespread observance of this ordinance amongst God’s faithful remnant, there is very often a very proper remembering of the past, the first element, but scant thought given to the future, the second element, ‘till he come’, of the ordinance.
I. WATCH AS DID THE EARLY CHURCH
1. There was a ‘watchful’ disposition in the apostolic days. Heed Paul’s words to the Corinthians. “ . . . . ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 1:7. The Corinthian church was not the most spiritual yet it had this grace. Where does this place many today??
2. Why was this so? A people who have been very conscious of the Lord’s presence, power and blessing amongst them have strong longings after that fulness of fellowship that will come at His return. Is there not something of a very sad contrast today to the disposition of the hearts of the apostles on the Mount of Ascension and the direction of their hearts and eyes? “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” Acts 1:11. What longing is evident in the apostles!
3. There are few today in that pose or disposition of heart! Yet we ought to be so looking upward. “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:12-13. Few ministers emphasise the final clause of this verse!
We ought to be looking as did the father of the Prodigal for his son.
The words ‘looking for’ are words that entail the idea of ‘a spirit of waiting, open-armed, to receive one longed for’! It implies a living and real expectancy of Christ’s return to this earth as it was, amongst a few, at the first advent of Christ!
“And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name [was] Simeon; and the same man [was] just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him,” Luke 2:25. His ‘waiting’ was the result of the grace of the Holy Ghost upon him.
“And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; and she [was] a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served [God] with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem,” Luke 2:37-38.
They were in the minority in their day even as such as are of their spirit are in the minority today!
II. WATCH WITH AN INFORMED HEART AND MIND
We cannot watch intelligently if we do not know what it is we are watching for! Sadly, many today are very poorly informed with regards the Saviour’s return. I have heard ministers who excuse their lack of preaching on the vital truth by pleading ignorance of it! That would be deemed heresy and condemned if it were used of a lack of preaching on any other cardinal doctrine!
1. There is no excuse for such ignorance. We are commanded to ‘WATCH’, Matt 24:42. The word means “give strict attention to”. Surely there are few who observe this call to ‘strict attention’ to this subject!
The very telling words of the Saviour to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus show this to be so. “Then he said unto them, O FOOLS, AND SLOW OF HEART TO BELIEVE ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN,” Luke 24:25. This is the same word Paul uses of the Galatians who had been deceived by the Judaisers. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” Galatians 3:1. Fools because they had been misled by ignorance and the lies of the devil’s agents. So it is today. A vast number of true believers are as the two in Luke 24 and the Galatians.
2. If there is one subject that the Bible sets forth it is the return in triumph of the Saviour. In Genesis 3:15, we have the prophecy of the Lord bruising the head of Satan. To ‘bruise’ means to crush. When the same word is applied to the Saviour we know that it refers to His DEATH at Calvary. Likewise, there will be a crushing of the devil’s power when the Saviour returns and then ultimately when he is cast into the Lake of Fire!
From Genesis onward, prophecy of the return of Christ becomes progressively more extensive and expansive, until we come to the last book of the Bible with all its wonderful detail of events at the end, particularly the last three and a half years.
The ignorance that there is amongst Christians regarding what the Bible teaches of the second advent is testimony to the devil’s ‘bewitching’ influences!
3. The Saviour demonstrates in Matthew 24-25, the character of the information provided in the Bible about the return of the Saviour. There we have the *readiness of the Saviour to answer questions about His return, verse 3. There also is His warning about the *danger of being deceived about this subject, verses 4, 23-25. There also is an example of the *extensive setting forth of details about His return, 6-25. He employs plain statements and the illustrative language of the parable. So it is throughout the whole Bible! Ignorance amongst God’s people on this matter is inexcusable!
III. WATCH WITH A CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE SAVIOUR’S WARNING OF CARELESSNESS OVERTAKING THE PROFESSING CHURCH
1. How clearly the Saviour depicts the professing church of today. Matthew 25:1-5. These words point to the end of this age, the word ‘then’ tells us that. The times of which the Lord had been speaking were those at the close of this age, 24:29-30. The Saviour immediately set forth some parables and illustrations by which He paints a picture of the happenings of that time, verses 32-33, 37-41, 43-44, 45-51.
From these words we move to verse 1 of Matthew 25 and here is another ‘then’. He is still speaking of the days just before His return.
2. There is little evidence of the Lord’s presence, power and blessing amongst us today. We are in a state of carelessness and negligence. We have not been forsaken for that cannot be, but the Lord has withdrawn His presence which was once known very much amongst us. “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? [why] hidest thou [thyself] in times of trouble?” Psalms 10:1. So complained the Psalmist. Backsliding and carelessness will cause such a withdrawal. The Saviour’s forsaken state on the cross tells us why forsaking takes place. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1. SIN was the cause. Not His sin but our imputed sin being placed upon Him as our substitutionary sacrifice. As Paul says: “For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ became as our sins and immediately was forsaken of His Father.
Sin amongst God’s people will cause the Lord to leave. “And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put [it] even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, [but] turned [their] backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you,” Joshua 7:10-12.
The powerlessness of today’s pulpits may be explained by these words. Sin is tolerated in the camp of Israel and the Lord is offended and withdraws His blessing and power!
3. Such has ever been the impact of sin upon the relationship between God and His people. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear [me],” Psalm 66:18. The word ‘regard’ carries the meaning of ‘approve’. The word is translated in Genesis 1:4 as ‘saw’, that I ‘saw with approval’ as the verse goes on to say. “And God saw the light, that it was good”.
How much of the world and the ways of the flesh are seen as ‘good’ and ‘approved’ amongst God’s people today?
It is this attitude that has cost the church the presence of the Lord and caused a forgetting of Him and His return.
IV. WATCH WITH THE HOPE AND EXPECTATION OF A LATTER-DAY REVIVING OF GOD’S PEOPLE.
“And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps,” Matthew 25:6-7.
1. The source of the cry. This has to be from heaven as only heaven knows the exact time of His return. There will be information for those ready to heed the Scriptures but only heaven knows the precise time of His return.
2. It is a cry indicating the approach of the Lord’s return. It is a not a cry announcing His ARRIVAL but rather His APPROACH! Please remember what is stated in Daniel regarding our knowledge of the last things. “And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what [shall be] the end of these [things]? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words [are] closed up and sealed till the time of the end,” Daniel 12:8-9. Then more will be told us from the prophecies that are presently sealed. Just this morning I read Malachi 3:1: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.”
What happened before the first advent will, I believe, take place in a greater measure before the second advent. We will have the TWO WITNESSES in Jerusalem testifying during the last forty two months of this age of the truth of God’s Word just before the sounding of the seventh trumpet and that glorious announcement: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever,” Revelation 11:15.
3. It is a cry to return to the believer’s rightful duties. These had been neglected. Lamps needed trimming or dressing! A term I remember being used in my boyhood days. The light had grown dim. The oil was there but the lamp’s care had been neglected.
They had then to go ‘out to meet him’. By their actions they showed that they were anticipating the bridegroom’s arrival. So it must be with us! Noah and his family’s entrance into ark indicated that they expected the Lord coming in judgment for the world and deliverance for them! bConsider these words: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain,” Isaiah 26:20-21.
An awareness of the approach of the return of Christ and His judgment upon wicked men will bring an abandoning of the usual pursuits as would any who find themselves in a house that has caught fire. A withdrawing from the danger would be uppermost in their mind. The abandoning of the luxuries and amusements of the Titanic illustrates for us the circumstances that will overtake us at the end of this age!
4. It is a cry which heralds the long awaited entrance to the marriage supper. Verse 10. It must therefore be a watching with evident excitement!
Are we so waiting? With this question we end our study this evening.