Longing for His Return, Part 2

Introduction and Call to Attentive Hearing

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, June 24, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. And now, as I did this morning in introducing this new series of studies, I ask you again tonight to turn with me to the first chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. And I shall read once more in your hearing the first 12 verses and then two verses from the latter part of the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, both written by Dr. Luke, guided by the Holy Spirit, and with reference to the Gospel of Luke. Luke writes in the first words of the Book of the Acts,

0:54 All that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was received up, after that he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, he chose to do the same. And then he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, you heard from me, for John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, do you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know. It is not for you to know.

1:54 It is not for you to know. or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you beheld him going into heaven. And then Luke 24, verses 50 and 51. Luke 24, verse 50. And he, that is Jesus, led them out until they were over against Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he parted from them and was

3:13 carried up into heaven. Now let us again ask God's help in the ministry of the word. As I've searched my heart, I don't believe it's wounded pride.

3:27 It's not that. But when you're pouring your heart out on a theme so majestic as this, and you see people falling asleep, it's very discouraging. I could understand it if I was a pulpit droner and simply talked on in a monotone, never got excited about anything, and had a voice that put you to sleep. But I'm out here wringing out my 67-year-old guts, and I find young people and young men and women falling asleep.

3:59 It's very discouraging. It really is. But I'm not going to stop preaching, and I'm not going to become a droner. But if I'm giving it all I've got, is it wrong for me to expect you to do the same? And if in fighting sleep you just find you can't win the war sitting, get up and stand at the back of the auditorium. It won't trouble me at all. It'll let me know you're dead in earnest to hear what I am dead in earnest to convey. And for some of you who have a habit of falling asleep, if you do that tonight, I'm going to look in your direction and speak at you until you wake up, because I can't do you any good and have any hope you'll be prepared for the coming of Jesus.

4:42 If you fall asleep when the very word which tells of that coming and tells you how to be prepared for that coming, you won't even hear as you drift off into slumberland. You won't slumber when the voice of the archangel sounds, when the trump of God sounds. And Christ returns. No slumbering then. God help us not to slumber now. Now for some of you who have allergies, you're on medications, there are extenuating circumstances, please be sure I do not judge you if you struggled with sleep. Several of you came to me asking forgiveness. I didn't even see you. Maybe the ones that should have come didn't. So please don't anyone say, well,

5:28 if he knew what... No, I know in any given moment that he knew what he was going to do. I know in any given moment that he knew what he was going to do. I know in any given moment that he knew what he was going to do. I know in any given situation, but dear folks, there's also a personal devil who wants to damn the lost and wants to dull the believer. And he'll do his best to do that even under preaching. Now I know it disturbs some of you that I lay my heart out like this, but I don't know any other way to live or to minister. I've never allowed the ministry to become a cocoon within which I hide who and what I am as a man. I don't believe God wants me to. So I've spoken very directly, very honestly, and I've spoken very directly, very honestly, and I've spoken very forthrightly, and I beg you for the good of your own soul and for the encouragement of mine, gird up the loins of your mind as we come to the word of God. Let's pray.

6:11 Our Father, we are before you, known completely. You know our down sitting in our uprising. You understand our thoughts from afar. And Father, together we plead with you that these weighty and sobering realities of which we have sung would not...

6:34 Let us now, by the preaching of the word, come home to our hearts with power. Bless those gathered for the hearing of the word. Bless your servant who seeks to open up and apply that word. May the Holy Spirit come upon us all, and may we taste and feel something of the powers of the age to come, breaking in upon us, even here in this place tonight. Oh God, for the good of our souls, we plead, hear and answer our prayers for Jesus' sake. Amen. Now, as I've already indicated, we come tonight to the second message in what will be a relatively brief series of sermons that I began this morning entitled, The Return of Jesus in New Testament Belief and Experience. And I began this morning by seeking to open up Acts 1 and verse 11 in it.

Review of Normative New Testament Expectation

7:37 It's setting the words of those two men in white apparel, obviously angels, who in the context of the eleven apostles seeing their Lord levitate in their very presence, enveloped in a cloud, speaks to them, asking first of all a question, you men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? And then they issue a prophecy, a prophecy that affirms that this...

8:07 This very Jesus, not another, one like him, but this very Jesus, in his personal identity, will so come in like manner as they saw him go into heaven. And in those words there is not only a certain prophecy concerning the second coming of the Lord Jesus, he shall come, but the angels make it clear that he shall come. He shall come. He shall come.

8:36 He shall come. He shall come. He shall come. He shall come. He shall come. He shall come.

8:37 He shall come. He shall come. He shall come. He shall come. He shall come. He shall come.

8:38 And so just like that, he's going up into heaven, his ascension is the paradigm for his return out of heaven. This same Jesus shall so come in like manner, and as he went up in the full appropriation or the full manifestation of his own individual identity, as he went up physically, visibly, physically, visibly, visibly. so He will come in that same identity, visibly, physically, He will come attended with clouds as well as with the entourage of mighty angels and the glorified spirits of His saints awaiting to be joined to their resurrected bodies. Now, having sought to open up that passage, I then made a transfer from that passage to the kind of climate that was formed by these men who had seen their Lord taken up into heaven, who had heard the words that He would so come in like manner out of heaven, and I made the assertion that the companies of those who were gathered under their preaching, New Testament churches, were marked as a people,

10:01 people who had this expectation and yearning for the coming of the Lord Jesus, that longing and expectancy for the return of Jesus was the norm of Christian belief and experience among those who were brought to faith in Christ through the apostolic ministry. Well, then I began a demonstration of this fact by looking at three texts, in which this fact is made unmistakably clear. In 1 Thessalonians 1, 9, and 10, we saw that eagerly awaiting Christ's return is identified as a distinctive evidence of true conversion. Secondly, we saw in 1 Corinthians 1, 7, that eagerly awaiting Christ's return is cited as a distinct accompaniment of saving union with Christ. And then thirdly, in Titus 2, 3, eagerly awaiting Christ's return is said to be a distinctive lesson in the instruction of the saving grace of God. And then as I closed the message, I identified four possible reasons as to why the level of our belief and our experience falls short of this New Testament norm. If it was normative for them,

11:29 why is it not normative for many of us? And I suggested, I did not pontificate, I suggested four possible reasons, not in any way thinking that I was exhaustive, but hopefully it triggered some reflection and some wholesome introspection and self-examination to see whether indeed our lack of this normal faith and experience, is due to any one or more of these reasons that I sought to identify. Now tonight, we're going to look at three more texts which add their witness to the fact that expectation, eager anticipation, and longing for the return of Christ was normative New Testament faith and experience. So we're going to look at texts 4, 5, and 6. All right, number 4. According to Hebrews 9, 27, and 28, eagerly awaiting Christ's return is a distinctive pledge of a completed salvation.

Eagerly Awaiting Christ's Return: A Pledge of Completed Salvation (Hebrews 9:27-28)

12:43 According to Hebrews 9, 27, and 28, eagerly awaiting Christ's return is a distinctive pledge of a completed salvation. Turn with me then to the 9th chapter of Hebrews.

13:05 Now, if you're familiar at all with the overall argument of the book of Hebrews, you know that the writer is seeking to show the better things of the new covenant in Jesus Christ. Christ is greater than the angels, greater than Moses. Christ is greater than the Aaronic priesthood, et cetera, et cetera. And then in this particular chapter, the writer is setting forth the superiority of the sacrifice of Christ and the work he accomplished as our great high priest.

13:39 This work of Christ, starting in verse 23, is carried on not in the types and shadows of spiritual realities, but in the substance of those realities themselves. Verse 23, It was necessary, therefore, that the copies of the things in the heavens, that's the old tabernacle, and the priesthood and the altar of incense and sacrifice and all that pertained to God's institution of worship under the old covenant, these were copies of the things in the heavens. And he says it was necessary, therefore, that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter into a holy place made without, like in pattern to the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, else must he have often suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once, at the end of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice, the sacrifice of himself.

15:03 Here the perfection of the sacrifice of Christ is identified in that it was offered once for all, never again to be repeated. And having established that Christ's sacrifice is a better sacrifice, in that it is offered once for all, it needs no repetition, then he goes on to highlight another aspect of the perfection of the work of Christ. 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. Not only has Christ made a once for all, never to be repeated sacrifice, it is a sacrifice with irreverence, with irreversible finality. Now we have in verses 27 and 28 an as and a so comparison. Notice, and inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this comes judgment, as surely as all will die, except those alive at the coming of Christ, as all are appointed to die, and after death judgment, so,

16:30 here's the comparison, Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, death judgment, one sacrifice, and what will be the parallel? That sacrifice will issue in Christ appearing a second time apart from sin. That is, coming not to bear sin as a sacrifice anymore, he will come apart from sacrificial dealing with sin. What will he come to do?

17:03 He will come to bring to completion the salvation of those for whom he died. He will appear a second time apart from sin to them that wait for him unto salvation. That is, his appearance will be with respect to completing, to perfecting in the experience of those for whom he died, the salvation procured by his death. That's the structure of the passage.

17:35 Now, it's interesting in verse 28, when he goes to describe those who have come under the canopy of the benefits of the once for all sacrifice for Christ, of Christ, those who having come under the benefits of his sacrifice, will indeed from that sacrifice have a complete salvation, no part of it missing when the Savior completes his saving work. He could have described them in many ways. He could have said he shall appear a second time apart from sin to them that believe in him, and that would have been true. Or he could have said to them that love him, and that would have been true. But of all the ways he can describe the people who will experience complete salvation, at the second coming, he describes them in this distinctive way. They are eagerly waiting for him. Now in the context, it's clear that the only ones who have biblical grounds to say that they have had their sins put away by the once for all, never to be repeated sacrifice of Jesus, and who will experience the complete salvation when he comes again,

18:59 the only ones who can lay claim to that are those that eagerly wait for him. You see that from the passage. He will appear a second time apart from sin, that is with no view to bearing sin by sacrificial death and offering up of himself. He will appear to complete his salvation, but it will be for all those, but only to those who eagerly expect and yearn and wait for his return.

19:38 That's what my Bible says. I didn't write it. I'm responsible to preach it. I'm responsible to preach it in such a way that I carry your judgment, that I'm not putting my ideas into the text, but letting God's ideas in the text stand out in bold relief.

19:56 Let me state it very simply. Do you have, sitting here tonight, any expectation that if Jesus appeared a second time this night, that his appearance would be with respect to completing your salvation? That is, completely eradicating from every facet of the texture of your soul, every last remnant of sin, and in an instant giving you a body, like unto the body of his glory, a resurrected body, fit for life in the new heavens and the new earth. Do you believe if Christ came tonight, he would appear to you, apart from sin, unto completing your salvation? Do you have some degree of confidence that that would be your experience? If so, then you ought to be described as one who is eagerly waiting for his return. To be.

21:01 God, I am asking you, I am asking you, I am asking you, I am asking you, his appearance, because it is to such and to such alone that he will appear the second time without sin unto salvation. The writer to the Hebrews assumes that it was normal Christian experience for all who had come in faith to embrace Christ and his once-for-all sacrifice for sinners, that by the operation of the Spirit and the dynamics of grace, there would be a baseline disposition of soul that could be described as eagerly awaiting for him. Not eagerly awaiting to get out of trouble, though that's a legitimate strand in the motivation as we'll see in a subsequent message. Not eagerly awaiting to get away from the pressure and the inconvenience of sinners around us, but it is essentially eagerly anticipating and waiting for him. In other words, those who put their trust in Jesus and the perfection of his sacrifice for sin have hearts that are bound to him in a relationship of love. And love,

22:28 always, yearns for the sight and the communion and the fellowship of its object so according to hebrews 9 27 and 28 eagerly awaiting christ's return is a distinctive pledge of a completed salvation this is what the writer tells us all right now we come to text number five and i'm going to express its teaching this way according to and that's what i've done in each heading i've named the text cited the place deliberately according to philippians 3 20 and 21 eagerly awaiting christ return is a distinctive characteristic of the true citizens of heaven eagerly awaiting christ return is a distinctive characteristic of the true citizens of heaven of heaven now we turn to philippians chapter 3 and as i've done with each of the passages i'm not just jumping down in them taking enough time to give you a sense of the flow of thought here in this church that was sort of paul's pet church in the right sense of the word there was there was a peculiar bond between paul and the philippian church and in this letter many

Eagerly Awaiting Christ's Return: A Characteristic of Heavenly Citizens (Philippians 3:20-21)

23:55 indications of that unusual pastoralism epistolic intimacy and in chapter three he begins by warning these people of the influence of those we call the judaizers those people that wanted to bring new covenant believers back under old covenant rituals and ceremonies so he says finally my brethren rejoice in the lord to write the same things to you to me indeed is not irksome but for you it is safe beware of the dogs when you call these Judaizers, that's what they call Gentiles, dogs, unclean creatures. He says, you beware of the dogs. I'll tell you who the unclean creatures are. Beware of the evil workers.

24:39 Beware of the concision. Beware of those going around wielding their knights, saying, we've got to get you circumcised and become a full-fledged kosher Jew. He says, you beware of them. He said, I'll tell you who the true circumcision are. We are the true circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. You want to find a true Jew? Ask a man, do you worship by the Spirit of God? Do you glory in Christ? Do you put no confidence in the flesh? Those are the credentials, the spiritual credentials of a true Jew. And then Paul goes on to reinforce that from his own experience, how he came from being one who thought circumcision, being a strict Jew, was all that mattered, and how he came to the place where he viewed all of that as refuse, and saw that his only hope for acceptance before God was to be found in Jesus Christ. Now, in verse 17, he's going to shift to another area of concern that he has.

25:42 Brethren, be imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk as you have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping. Think of it. While he was writing this letter, tears were dropping down on the parchment. He said, I tell you now, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is perdition. They are Christ's enemies. They are on their way to hell. And now he's going to describe them, whose God is the belly, their physical appetite.

26:25 These are the shrines at which they worship, whose God is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame. They glory in the very things that ought to clothe them in a dark carpet of shame. They glory in the very things that ought to be their shame. They mind earthly things.

26:48 Their whole mindset and all of their interests have to do with the seeable and the touchable and the feelable. And the enjoyable. That's what they are. See, this is not the Judaizers. The Judaizers were legalists trying to attain salvation by law. These were libertine, antinomian people. These were people who, though professing to be Christians, still worshipped their appetites. Their God was the belly. Their glory is in their shame. They mind earthly things. And Paul says, this must not be. Anything with which you show sympathy, why? For. For. Always look at your little fours in your Bible.

27:35 Back in verse 17, he said, be imitators of me. Walk as you have us, an example. Verse 18 began, for. There are other people that are seeking to gain your loyalty to their views and their practices. I want to warn you about them. Now he's going to give a second reason for this warning.

27:54 For. For. Our citizenship is in heaven. Whence also we, here's our Greek word again, eagerly wait and anticipate a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the apostles' argument? And this would have had particularly telling impact upon the Philippians. Philippi was a Roman colony. People who had. Roman citizenship settled in Philippi. And while they were in Philippi, they were still very conscious of their Roman citizenship. And their true loyalty was to Roman constitution and Roman law. And Paul knew that these people understood what it was like to be living in alien territory. Your citizenship and your whole orientation was that, not of a Greek, but of a Roman.

28:55 Because your citizenship was there in Rome. Well, now he uses this play on this concept of citizenship, the polituma. And he says that our polituma is in heaven. We have a heavenly citizenship. And therefore, we are to live by the rules and the laws and the constitution of heaven and of the Lord of heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven. And our citizenship is in heaven. And our citizenship is in heaven.

29:25 In heaven. And having mentioned heaven, he then says, whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

29:41 Now, just to underscore what Paul is doing here, let me read a lovely paragraph from Hendrickson's commentary on this phrase, for our homeland, our citizenship, our commonwealth is in heaven. Do citizens of Philippi think of Rome as their native land? Do citizens of Philippi think of the £10,000.000 living land, live in Philippi, and live in Philippi even?

29:59 necessary期 Welcome time is over听 onお願いします from above. Their names are inscribed in heaven's register. Their lives are being governed from heaven and in accordance with heavenly standards. Their rights are secured in heaven. Their interests are being promoted there. To heaven their thoughts and prayers ascend and their hopes aspire. Now, having said that your citizenship is in heaven, notice what he says about all the citizens of heaven. There is a distinctive characteristic of the citizens of heaven. And what is it?

31:03 He tells us, whence also we wait, eagerly anticipate, and patiently wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, the emphasis upon Christ himself as the focal point of their expectations. Of their yearning, of their patient waiting. Eagerly waiting, longing, expecting for a Savior.

31:38 And in this context, I'm not going to expound it now, that will await another message. It is in terms of the Savior who will bring salvation to our bodies at his second coming. Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation? Will he do more than that? Yes. But here Paul focuses upon that dimension of our salvation, of our bodily salvation. But for our purposes, we want the spotlight to fall upon the phrase, from whence we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, we have an unqualified description of the people of God. As surely as they are citizens of heaven, we wait for a Savior, they eagerly await the return of the one whom they trust as their Savior.

Loving Christ's Return: A Promise of Open Declaration as Righteous (2 Timothy 4:8)

32:36 Well, now we come to witness number six, the sixth major text. And you'll notice a difference if you've been listening carefully in the way I word this. According to 2 Timothy 4, 8, loving the return of Christ, not eagerly expecting, that's not the family of Greek words that is used, but the standard word for the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest, the highest. Of our being openly declared as righteous. According to 2 Timothy 4, 8, loving the return of Christ has the distinctive promise of being openly declared as righteous. Now we turn to 2 Timothy chapter 4. This is the last section of Paul's last letter. While here in his earthly pilgrimage, he knows that very shortly he's going to be martyred.

33:44 And so he's bringing this final word of solemn charge to his spiritual son, Timothy. This is a passage that I often pray through on a Lord's Day morning. And try to picture this letter deposited in the chair where I read my Bible and pray on a Sunday morning. And feel afresh the solemn weight of this passage.

34:09 I charge you in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead. And by his appearing and his kingdom, Timothy, keep these weighty issues constantly breathing over your shoulder as you think of your ministry. In the light of these realities, God's eye upon you. Christ Jesus, the coming judge.

34:35 Preach the word. Be urgent in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. And then he tells him why he must do this.

34:47 Not only because of his accountability to God and to Christ, but because of the certainty of the erosion of a grasp upon soundness and the sound doctrine. The time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine. But having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts and turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside unto fables. But be thou sober in everything.

35:12 Suffer hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. And then he says, now Timothy, everything I'm telling you to do, in a very real sense, he's saying, I want you to come to the place when your ministry is, ending, that you can say with me, I am already being offered.

35:31 The time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.

35:38 Henceforth, this is what I have to look forward to, Timothy. 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 that are in me. And also to all them that have loved his appearing. After charging Timothy with his responsibilities, giving his own testimony of his soon demise, what is Paul's confidence?

36:12 His confidence is this. Henceforth, verse 8a, there is laid up for me, it is already set aside for me, something that he calls, the crown of righteousness. Now this is metaphorical language. Paul is not looking forward to something made of olive leaves or made of gold and precious stones that is somewhere stored out amidst the galaxies in a special rewards chest, waiting the second coming and the Lord will haul them out and make sure that they're the right head size and put them on us.

36:49 No, this is metaphorical language. He said, there is a reward awaiting me, and it has to do with righteousness. It is the crown of righteousness, something which the Lord himself, now notice the play on words, the righteous judge, a crown that has to do with righteousness, laid up waiting for the righteous judge to confer it upon me. He shall give it to me in that day.

37:20 Now what is Paul talking about? Well, I believe this is what he's talking about. From the analogy of scripture. Because by the grace of God this proud Pharisee, who once thought that his righteousness consisted in his good Jewish bloodlines, in his proper circumcision, in all of his zeal to keep the old covenant law and all of the Pharisaic trappings overlaid upon it, this man had been brought to the place where he saw that all of his bloodlines and all of his religious zeal and all of this stuff was nothing but a pile of rubbish, scubala, dung, refuse.

38:01 He said it in Philippians 3. And he said, I came to see that the only righteousness any sinner can have that will stand the gaze of the righteous judge, the God who sees the heart and the motives, is a righteousness alien to me, to be found in Christ having a righteousness not of my own, but the righteousness which is of God and in Christ and received by faith. And when that proud Pharisee repudiated all confidence in his own works and his own performance and cast himself upon Christ alone, he was declared righteous in the court of heaven. That's what the Bible calls justification. It is a declarative act of God that on the basis of the perfect righteousness of Christ comprised of his perfect life and his substitutionary death, God credits that righteousness to every believing sinner. And Paul says there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, that is, there will be an open declaration before the entire assembled world that in Christ I have been accepted and also there is probably a reference to the imparted righteousness, that is, when God justifies a believing sinner

39:25 who by faith has been united to Christ, God transforms that sinner, gives him a heart to be a holy man, a holy woman, who though imperfectly, yet really and purposely pursues a path of righteousness. And in the day of judgment, God will make it evident that when he identifies men and women and saying, they are my righteous ones, that they not only have an imputed righteousness based on the work of Christ, but there is an evident imparted righteousness because of their union with Christ and the transformation by the Holy Spirit. And in Matthew chapter 25 this is made very clear. And I want us to look there for a moment. We are trying to grasp what is this crown of righteousness because it involves us. We want to know what it is. In Matthew 25, our Lord is here describing the day of judgment.

40:25 Verse 31, When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and the angels with him sit upon the throne of his glory, before him shall be gathered all the nations. He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates sheep from the goats. He is going to set the sheep on one hand, the goats on the other. Then he is going to speak to them.

40:49 Now notice the language of verse 34. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The ones who are welcomed into the kingdom, a kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, the ones who are blessed are the sheep. And then he goes on to describe things that they did here in life.

41:24 And what was the conclusion of those things they did? Verse 37, Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or a thirst and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come unto you?

41:49 They are described as the righteous. The sheep are the righteous ones. And what kind of righteousness does our Lord highlight in the day of judgment according to this passage? Not imputed righteousness, but imparted personal righteousness, which is not the ground of their acceptance, but is the manifestation that they are the true people of God.

42:15 And therefore we read, verse 46, And these, referring to the goats on the left hand, shall go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now come back to Paul's words. He said, Timothy, it's all but over for me. I'm already being offered.

42:37 The time of my departure is at hand. And you want to know what I'm looking forward to, Timothy? My eye is fixed on that very day that I've hung over your head as I charge you. In the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing, His epiphany.

42:57 Now, he says, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. He's going to give me, as a righteous judge, who shows no sinful partiality, He will openly judge me and declare me to be one of His righteous ones, one of those accepted before Him on the basis of the righteousness of His own Son, and one whose life validates that indeed there was no dead faith, but a living faith, that there was no mere notional Christian experience, but vital life-transforming experience. And then Paul adds something, and he says, by the way, Timothy, this is not just the prospect for me as an apostle, as an eminent servant of Christ, as one who has labored more abundantly than all the other apostles. Is this something uniquely reserved for the apostle? In all the uniqueness of his apostolic life and ministry, no.

44:10 He says, what will be mine, Timothy, is reserved for all them that have, and here we don't have one of the three words for eagerly anticipate, expectant, and waiting, but the standard word for love in a tense that means they began and continue to love His appearing. Here Paul identifies all those who will be openly declared as righteous ones in the day of judgment by Jesus Christ, receiving the crown of righteousness. Here's their distinguishing mark. They've loved His appearing.

44:53 There it is. To all them that have loved His appearing. Think of the extensiveness of that. All them that have loved His appearing.

45:04 Who never, never had their names recorded in church history, let alone in Scripture. Who may have served in the most obscure places, unseen and unknown, even by many fellow Christians.

45:20 But in Christ they've appropriated a perfect righteousness that will stand the gaze of God on the day of judgment. And in their union with Christ they have become righteous people and their deeds manifested. And he says this crown of righteousness is not only reserved for me. Here's the extensiveness.

45:44 It's reserved for all those who have loved His appearing. But it's not only extensive and all-inclusive. It is restrictive. All those who've loved His appearing.

46:00 What about those who've not loved His appearing? What about those who profess to know Him? But they are like those who profess to know Him described in Philippians 3. Their God is their belly.

46:14 Their appetites, their passions. They mind earthly things. If you did not know from their lips that they say they are Christians, you would never suspect it if you watched the basic pattern of their lives. There is no yearning for those wonderful things that only a child of God yearns for.

46:37 As we'll see them in particulars in subsequent messages. Why the child of God eagerly awaits the coming of Christ. The yearning for Him. The yearning for the things that He will confer at the second coming.

46:52 The things that will happen to Him and on His behalf. They know nothing of that. Christ is a convenient category that has somehow found its way into a department of their lives. But they're not Christ-obsessed.

47:08 They're not passionate in their pursuit of Christ. There is little of anything one could call spiritual energy and holy obsession to live for Him. And to be more and more like Him. The Apostle says, the crown of righteousness is laid up not only for Him and not only will be given to Him at that day, but to all them that have loved His appearing.

47:40 Are you one of them? That's the question we must ask. Am I one of those? This passage says that loving the return of Christ has the distinctive promise of a declaration a definitive statement being made before the assembled world that I am one of His.

48:03 Now in summary, do you agree with me after looking at these six passages that if you throw out the highs and the lows do you agree with me that when I say that an eager expectant longing and love for the return of Christ was the norm of Christian faith and experience in the New Testament? Have I carried your judgment? I hope I have. Now if so, what are we going to do when many of us and I say us and I say many of you many of us are very conscious as I have been in preparing these first two messages and the third one is half prepared sitting on the desk.

Practical Counsel: Avoiding Pitfalls and Cultivating Expectation

48:47 What do we do when we say Lord I do long for your coming I do think of your coming have you noticed how many times even in the prayer this morning it wasn't something unusual that I will say such and such barring the Lord's return if the Lord spares us when we prayed for little Kelly Reid this morning Lord if you spare her and delay the coming of your son I think many of us can say Lord Jesus you know all things and if you were to ask me as you said to Peter do you love me if you were to ask me and say name my name Albert do you love my appearing Lord you know all things you know that I love your appearing but there's the consciousness we don't love his appearing as we ought as constantly as passionately as consistently what do we do we considered some of the reasons why we may be in that state may I just give a couple of practical counsels that may be helpful if you're conscious sitting here tonight yes I do long for and eagerly expect his coming not as I ought I want more and more that that ordinary climate of New Testament apostolic perspective will be mine

50:16 in my experience here's my first word of counsel don't allow irresponsible and sensational prophecy mongers to cause you to shy away from clear Bible based convictions concerning the return of Christ alright that's my first word of counsel don't allow irresponsible and sensational prophecy mongers a monger is someone who deals in a given commodity a fish monger is a guy that sells fish an iron monger is a guy that sets up shop and sells iron we've got prophecy mongers making thousands of dollars on their sensational books based upon a notion that has no basis in scripture whatsoever a so called secret second coming of Jesus followed by another dimension of a second coming followed by yet another we end up with three or four second comings and I don't say that to demean anyone but as a preacher of the word this same Jesus shall so come as you've seen him he shall come in clouds of glory Pastor Barker read Revelation 1 7 every eye shall see him don't allow prophecy mongers to cause you to shy away from clear Bible based convictions

51:44 about the return of Christ this is the devil's way of robbing us of a powerful element of healthy Christian experience he did it right when the apostles were alive that's why Paul had to write second Thessalonians he had people that got a twisted view of the second coming and they thought they weren't working sitting around in the hill in the white robe waiting for Jesus to come once in a while they got hungry but they weren't working so they come knocking on the brother's door oh brother Henry I'm getting hungry I've been out on the hillside waiting for Jesus Paul says when he comes and his belly's playing a tune on his backbone don't give him anything to eat if any man will not work let him not eat and if these characters go on in this nonsense shun them put them to shame that they might come to their senses and get back into the world and get back into a biblically oriented lifestyle while still yearning for the coming of Jesus then there were others that had some silly notions that somehow you would have first class treatment if you were alive when Jesus came so Paul had to write the last half of chapter 4 I would not have you ignorant concerning them that fall asleep that you sorrow not as those who have no hope for this I say unto you by the word of the Lord we that are alive unto the coming of the Lord we're not going to go before those that sleep the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God that's noisy business

53:11 voice of the archangel trump of God the dead in Christ shall rise first first class treatment for his dead sense then we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we be ever be with the Lord what do you need to know about heaven that's all you need to know we're going to be with him we're going to be with him and as one hymn writer said heaven itself without thee dark as night would be Lamb of God thy glory is the light above Lamb of God thy glory is the life of love you don't need to get caught into all kinds of nonsense concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus have a well established biblical confidence that the next great epical event in the history of redemption is the voice of the archangel the trump of God and the parting heavens and our coming Lord don't let the nonsense rob you of those convictions secondly don't be satisfied with a merely intellectual pursuit or persuasion

Cultivating a Whole-Person Anticipation: The Maranatha Cry

54:39 of the doctrine of Christ's return don't be satisfied with a merely intellectual persuasion of the return of Christ you've got to start there you'll never be a Christian if you're not persuaded of the facts about Jesus the gospel is an announcement of factual indicatives God has acted for our salvation by way of Mary's womb by way of a cross and by way of an open door and by way of a tomb and by way of a spirit sent down from heaven those are facts and you'll never be a Christian if you don't reckon with the facts but those facts must not simply hang there in suspension they become as it were the conduit through which Christ himself comes to us and the gospel not only announces facts with its indicatives but it comes with its imperative and you know what its imperative is? believe not the facts in isolation but the Savior who's the center of all the facts believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved so I am not demeaning having a clear intellectual persuasion of the return of Christ but let's not stop short of those three strong Greek verbs one of them has two prepositions as a compound in front of the main body of the verb it's a beautiful word that packs into it

56:08 the whole idea of eager anticipation confident waiting it is something that engages the whole inner man let's not be satisfied with anything less than a climate of thought in which the coming of the Lord Jesus is part and parcel of the atmosphere in which we breathe there's a clear indication that this was what happened at least in some of the apostolic churches I want you to look at a verse that perhaps has puzzled you for a long time 1 Corinthians 16 the end of the letter Paul writes verse 21 the salutation of me Paul with my own hand Paul would often dictate his letters and to validate that they weren't forgeries he'd write something in his own handwriting at the end so people could compare and say whoa whoa whoa we got a letter from him he doesn't form his A's that way this is bogus so Paul was taking precautions to make sure that people would know it was indeed his letter the salutation of me Paul with my own hand if any man loves not the Lord let him be anathema let him be accursed he has set forth the glory and the sufficiency of Christ for all of the messes at Corinth he takes them back again and again to the person and work of Christ as the answer to their messes

57:37 and he says if anyone doesn't love a Lord like that he deserves the curse of God then he adds a word look at it in your Bibles if any man loves not the Lord let him be anathema maranatha what in the world does maranatha mean well those who study ancient languages tell us that this is a combination of a couple of words in Aramaic Aramaic was the language spoken by Palestinians at the time of our Lord kind of a second cousin to Hebrew as they spent time in the captivity and came back from the captivity Aramaic would have been the language our Lord would have spoken along with Greek and probably Latin and in Aramaic these words in terms of how you divide them can mean our Lord has come or all Lord come and most of the scholars that I've consulted tip in the direction of saying most likely it is one of those things that became so much a part of the church's beginnings in and around Palestine that Aramaic phrases that would have been natural in prayer and in the general greetings of brethren one to another like Abba Father that became part and parcel of the language even of the Christian faith as it moved out

59:06 into the Gentile world so Paul writing in Galatians out there in Gentile territory says he has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father so there were some of these Aramaic words that became so much a part of encapsulating the thought and the convictions and the perspectives of believers there in Palestine that they became the property of the church universal and apparently the second coming of Christ was so much a part of their thinking of their worship of their prayers of their perspectives that it was common to say Maranatha O Lord come now what would happen if with real intelligence we began to use that as a parting word with one another not just as a shibboleth but we wanted to encapsulate what our yearning was we've just had a wonderful time of fellowship but we know it's still two imperfectly sanctified sinners talking about a savior they only know from a distance and we say oh the little taste we've had here O Lord come come and give us give us the exotic wine of heaven and when we had a Lord's day and we sensed something of seeing the edges of his ways and we have felt and I use the word

60:35 unashamedly we have felt something of the power of spiritual realities and we say Lord if I could just carry that into the kitchen all week and into the shop and onto the train and you feel that with me there's a time coming when you'll never have that experience it'll just be a heart fully completely ever expanding in its capacity and understanding of the glory of God and the delights of communion with God so when we've had a little taste of that shouldn't it make us yearn O Lord give me the full supply Maranatha O Lord come and when we feel as we shall see and I can't help but anticipate some of these it's all a ball of wax we feel as I did sitting there today finishing up my notes and I said it won't be long before the surgeon to cut that joint open to get rid of the arthritis you're going to have to work on this one there'll be a place where there's no arthritic joints O Lord come and when we feel the crushing weight of our accumulated erosion with the passing of the years and we know that our bodies have seeds of death in them that are sprouting at a frightening rate and we think of lying under the sod and the worms eating us but we say that's not the end of us He shall fashion

62:04 the body of our humiliation and it reaches the apex of humiliation if I may mix terms it reaches the depths of humiliation when the world is full of worms or eating this body into which I've fed tons of food over the years gallons of liquid have to give it hours and decades of sleep that body's going to come out of that grave fashioned after the body of His glory and when you think of what this body does make you want to say O Lord come O Lord come that was something of the climate apparently at least in that Corinthian bunch they didn't sit to scratch their head and say what in the world does Paul mean Maranatha is it Maran-tha or Maranatha and that's where the linguists go crazy over how it should be divided no apparently when they heard the word their hearts responded Maranatha O Lord come O Lord come dear people let's not be satisfied with a merely intellectual persuasion of the return of Christ let's cry to God that He'll nurture every soul that is willing to die in the presence of Christ and let's pray for this every soul that follows our Master that He will lead us in love and in His calling and in His presence that is

A Solemn Warning and the Reason for Delay

63:33 in the presence of Christ and in His ascension in His hope in His not eternal Jesus O Lord you. May I solemnly warn you, don't believe the lie that there's a coming of Jesus in which he'll take his own out of the world and airplanes will fall and highways will be filled with driverless cars. No, no, my friend. When he comes to bring completed salvation to his own, 2 Thessalonians 1 and a host of other passages make it clear that coming, which is the consummate glory of Christ in his saints, it'll be curtains for you if you are not in Christ. But the scripture says you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven coming in the power and might of the angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel. Don't believe any movie, any book that says it's going to be rough, the horrible, horrible time of tribulation, but you still can get saved. Now is the day of salvation when the

64:52 voice of the archangel speaks and the trump of God sounds. It's all over. The door of mercy is shut, but it's open tonight and Christ is not returned. And you ask me, well, why hasn't he come back yet?

65:06 I can tell you, you know, I can tell you because Peter did. He said, account that the long suffering of our God is salvation. That's it. Don't look for any profound reason. Christ is not returned because he still yearns over sinners and is committed to bring more sinners to himself. And when the last of those marked out and given to him in eternity, for whose sake he came by way of Mary's womb to go to the horrors of the cross and from the cross to the triumph of his tomb and from the tomb to the triumph of his father, when he's gathered them all, then he says, my father, the work is done. It's time to go get

Concluding Prayer and Call to Preparation

65:58 them all and bring them home. Oh, may God grant that you'll be one of them. Let's pray. Oh, our father, how we thank you for your word. We thank you that we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we believe the apostolic testimony. We thank you that Peter, and James and John were there with our Lord Jesus in the Holy Mount and saw a temporary outshining of the glory that will be his when he returns. And we thank you for the record that they have left us of seeing him ascend into your presence and the record of the words of those two shining angels, this same Jesus, this very Jesus that you have seen go into heaven shall so come in life. And we thank you for the record that they have left us of seeing him ascend into your

66:56 and we respond and say with that final prayer of scripture, even so come Lord Jesus, we pray for those who, if you were to come this night are not prepared to meet you, Lord Jesus, may they not allow the impressions of this hour to vaporize before the heat and the blast of worldly concerns and the efforts of the church. And we thank you for that. And we thank you for that. And we thank the devil to snatch away the word, but oh God, give them no rest until they know the blessedness of sins forgiven acceptance in Jesus Christ with a righteousness that you yourself have provided for sinners. Lord, help us who are your people. We've confessed to you today, our sin of allowing so many things to dull our ardor and our yearning for the return of our Lord Jesus. Oh God, forgive us, cleanse us and come upon us by the Holy Spirit and enable us to engage in those disciplines, which with your blessing will find us more and more naturally inclined as we interact

68:13 with one another. And as we pray in secret and as we worship to find welling up within our hearts, the constant cry, Maranatha, oh Lord, come. Hear us and receive our thanks for this day in your courts. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.