Rom .13:11-14 Let The Coming Of Jesus Be Your Joyful Future

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

We talked about the second coming of Jesus yesterday, and it’s worth dwelling on it a little more. As I told you, at the age of 15, I went to a meeting, and I heard this wonderful preacher—well, he wasn’t all that wonderful, but I mean the message was wonderful—about the coming of Jesus Christ. I’d never heard of it before. I’d never heard of such a thing. My family, my parents were good parents and taught us to pray, but they were not particularly religious and we didn’t open the Bible or anything. And so to open this book and to hear that Jesus said that he shall descend from heaven with a shout, they shall see the Son of Man coming in all his glory. The glory of the angels and 10,000 times 10,000 angels shall come with him. It was simply an astonishing reality that was being presented to me. And though I’m an old man now, I will have to say without a doubt that the second coming of Jesus has given me always a sense of the future, the positive side of the future. Now, as an old man, I don’t look so much now to the second coming of Jesus, but to going home with my Lord and rising again at the time that God chooses that to be. But when I think back of all my youthful days and my middle days and middle years, I think the second coming of Jesus was the factor that directed the truth that directed my life. You know, it’s just wonderful to realize that we don’t have some vague, fearful, we don’t have some mysterious view and vague view of the future. Before I became a Christian, before I was 15, I wondered about the mystery of the world, and it all seemed so very dark. But once I became a Christian, there was this glorious, blessed hope, as I mentioned to you yesterday, Titus 2.13, the happy hope. The word blessed means happy, the happy hope of the return of Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus’ promise. I believe that Jesus will not fail us. I believe he will fulfill this promise. For many people, it has been so long and so seemingly tardy that they’ve given up on the promise. We must not give up on that promise. With God, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is a day. We must look from his perspective. When he makes that promise, it is secure. There is no doubt about it. And I think of those verses in Isaiah 25. And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees, and he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people.” and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, the rebuke of his people he will take away from the earth, for the Lord has spoken. And it will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. So we look up and lift up our heads, because our redemption, our rescue, is drawing near. When we see trouble in the world, we do not dwell on the trouble and become fearful like the unbelievers. We are filled with hope. When we see all these troubles, we lift up our heart and rejoice because our redemption, as I say, is drawing near. And to see Christ, to see the heavens split, to see the glory of Jesus descending from the skies with all the holy angels, And the massive trumpet sound, the brightness, the glory of it all, it’s just almost like a fairy tale. But I believe it, because the one who made that promise is the one who raised the dead and rose from the dead. He is the one who healed the sick and forgave sins and said, whoever believes on him shall have eternal life. And so I believe that. And I think of that verse, those wonderful verses in Isaiah 11, “…there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. righteousness shall be his belt, the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist. So Jesus is going to rule in that kingdom of ours, and there will be justice and mercy, and everything will be beautiful. It says in verse 6, the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a child, a little child, shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. What a glorious and beautiful imagery that is. Like an eternal spring day. That’s how it’s going to be for us. Death shall be no more. This mortal shall put on immortality, as we read yesterday in 1 Corinthians 15. This corruptible, these bodies of ours that waste away and die, shall put on incorruption. There will be perfect eternal health, joy, energy, all will be ours, and the love surrounding us from the love of Jesus and the love of our Father and the love of one another. This is what we are looking forward to. This should direct our path. It should cause us to lift up our hearts when we’re in depression, when we feel that life is worthless, when we’re overwhelmed with trouble, when we’re worried about our situation and how we will live or how we will die. We look to Jesus Christ and we say, our eternal life is secure. I am immortal until my life is done, somebody once said. Nobody can kill us or harm us unless God gives permission. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. You see, this is the hope that we have. It should cause us to serve people because we know we are safe in the arms of God. It should cause us to put aside all the worries about whether we will have a Some people get to the age of 50 and say, well, I had those dreams when I was 20 and they were all shattered and ruined and I’m disappointed with life. Don’t be disappointed with life because this isn’t the life. This isn’t the life we’re intended to live. That is, yes, of course we’re intended to live it, but this is not the life that we are intended to secure for eternity. This life is a training ground. It is a faith experience. We are being trained to trust in our Lord, the one we cannot see, until the glorious day comes. Now, I grant you, there are periods, there are maybe even decades in our life, when the second coming of Jesus fades a little bit, and we get all bound up with the troubles or the dreams, the dreams as well, buying a new house, having a family, and settling down, and secretly in our minds sometimes there’s that feeling when we’re young, I hope Jesus doesn’t come before I get married or buy a house. But as time goes on, the promise of Jesus’ return becomes more and more meaningful. It becomes more meaningful because the world becomes more disappointing. We see that most of our goals are never fulfilled, are never acquired, and we look towards something more permanent, something more joyful. We recognize that joy is a passing thing in this world. Yes, we experience it from time to time as Christians, But on the whole, it’s not permanent. It doesn’t stay with us because this world is full of disappointments and brokenness. But the coming of Jesus, that’s where life really begins. And so we look at ourselves getting older, or we look at ourselves as young, and we say, I’m only at the beginning of life. Not simply because I’m young, but because eternity is going to come. For the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. In Revelation 1, verse 7, it says, Every eye shall see him. Every eye shall see him. I know you may have a different view from me, but I do not believe in the secret rapture, that some people will see him and will be raptured up, driving their cars, and suddenly their cars will crash because there’s no driver in them. I don’t believe that. That was an idea that was developed in the mid-1900s mid-1800s, and it’s prevailed ever since, but it’s not found in the Bible, I think. Every eye is going to see the Lord descend, and there will be those who call upon the rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the face of the Lamb, because there is a separation of sheep and goats, as I said yesterday, at the coming of Jesus. But we will call out and cry to God that we are so glad to see him. Now, as I’ve mentioned before and many times to you, every man and woman is going to be saved. But that is going to come in the judgment after the return of Christ. The return of Christ is the separation of the sheep and the goats and the final judgment is the reconciliation when every knee shall bow when all truth is seen when the judgment scene reveals all history when people realize that unbelievers realize that god was after all with them and following them and working through all of their trials and tribulations and was with them in their darkness, so that they see the glory of God and realize that God has been their shepherd all along. Then every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that in Christ’s righteousness alone is their strength. Remember what it says in Revelation 21. now i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away also there was no more sea then i john saw the holy city new jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride adorned for her husband And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain. for the former things have passed away. Make that the destiny of your life by faith in him. He will not fail you because he has promised, and he will bring about that glorious day. Thank you for joining me, everyone, today. Colin Cook here and How It Happens. 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