Longing for His Return, Part 3

Introduction: The Certainty and Pattern of Christ's Return

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, July 1st, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now I invite you to follow with me in your own Bibles as I read two portions of the Word of God. The first is found in Romans chapter 8. In laying out the privileges of those who are adopted into the family of God by grace on the basis of the work of Christ, the Apostle has just declared that all such adopted ones are given the spirit of adoption and are given the status of heirs and joint heirs with Christ. But then he makes a qualification. He makes a qualifying statement at the end of verse 17, If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. Now follow the reading, verses 18 to 25.

1:05 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits. For the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

1:43 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together unto God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together unto God. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. For in hope were we saved, but hope that is seen is not hope.

2:14 For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. And now the second passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this chapter in which the Apostle has been demonstrating the validity of the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Some at Corinth were denying it, and he brings it to a very Christ-centered focus and opens up some of the most wonderful teaching found anywhere in the Bible.

2:50 In the Word of God, with respect to what God will do to these bodies in the grave at the coming of the Lord Jesus. I read in your hearing verses 50 through 58. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery, something that has been previously hidden, locked up in the purposes and plan of God, but not fully revealed.

3:25 That's a gospel mystery. We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

3:54 But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin, is the law.

4:21 But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

4:48 Pie in the sky, by and by.

4:52 Have you ever heard those words? Pie? In the sky, by and by. Well, those of us who have heard them most likely have heard them spoken in a sneering, mocking, or derisive way by those who have little or no sympathy for the Christian faith, especially no sympathy for a faith that has as its primary orientation that the best is yet to come.

5:26 Those who sneeringly say, ah, your religion is pie in the sky, by and by. They're the ones who say, I want my pie now, and I want plenty of it. You can have your pie in the sky, by and by, religion. If I have any religion, I want a religion that gives me pie on the plate now, and as much as I want now.

5:56 Well, what are we to do? When we live in an age shot through with materialism, sensuality, the worship of bodily appetites, and the things that are touchable and seeable and tangible, are we to somehow accommodate the Christian message so that we can promise all the pie you want now, and by the way, there's some left that we can call pie in the sky, by and by? Well, if we have our hearts and our minds tethered to our Bibles, we will unashamedly confess that the faith that is set forth in the Scriptures is a faith which does promise pie in the sky, by and by, and all those who have partaken of the realities held forth in the Christian faith are glad. That the best is yet to come. And in seeking to provide some kind of an antidote to the prevailing climate of the world in which we live, I've decided to bring this relatively short series of messages on the subject of the return of Jesus in New Testament belief and experience.

7:24 I began this series last Lord's Day morning and directed your attention to that wonderful message that I've been talking about today. That wonderful passage in Acts chapter 1 verses 10 and 11 that records the experience of the eleven disciples as their Lord Jesus has spoken his last words to them and with the light of the parallel passage in Luke 24, 50 and 51 as he raises his hands in priestly blessing upon them and is pronouncing blessing, he begins to levitate before their very eyes and while he is enveloped in a cloud, and their eyes are looking steadfastly in the direction in which their Lord went, suddenly two men, angels, appear standing with the eleven and these angels announce the certainty of the return of that Jesus whom they saw go up into heaven enveloped in a cloud and also not only announce the certainty of Christ's return but they declare the pattern or the form of his return. They announce the certainty with these words this same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven and then the main verb is shall come. There's the announcement of the certainty of his return.

8:49 This same Jesus shall come. But then they also declare the pattern or the form of his coming for the verb shall come is surrounded by the word come. It's surrounded on both sides with these qualifying words that point to the similarity. This same Jesus, even as, as you have seen him go, he shall come.

9:16 And then on the other side, in like manner, even so in like manner. That is, his coming is not only certain but it will be after the pattern of his going up into heaven. He shall come bodily. He shall come recognized for who he is.

9:37 He shall come in clouds of glory and of power. And the certainty and the pattern of the return of Jesus became such a vital aspect of the thinking, the preaching and teaching of these apostles that when we turn to the documents which they produced under the guidance of the Spirit writing to them, to congregations formed under their labors and labors of those directly associated with the apostles, that in those documents we find that the return of Jesus is a dominant element in the faith of these communities formed by apostolic preaching. The references to Christ's return in terms of giving instruction and consolation and exhortation and admonition are strewn across the landscape of the epistles of the New Testament so that I believe we can say and this was my assertion that when we turn to the New Testament we are forced to the conclusion that living in the expectation of the return of Christ was normal New Testament Christian experience. And to prove that thesis we then spent the rest of the morning message and last Lord's Day evening

11:06 looking at six texts of Scripture. In five of the six three different synonyms are used all of which point to the concept of eager expectation and longing and then the final passage which speaks of loving the return or the appearing of the Lord Jesus. And so we sought to see from the Scriptures that indeed expecting, longing for the return of Christ was normal Christian experience. And if you were thinking at all as we worked through those six texts then somewhere along the line I hope this question arose in your mind. Why did they eagerly await and confidently expect and even love the appearing of the Lord Jesus? Why was this the climate of their Christian experience? And it's that question that I want to answer from the Scriptures both this morning and hopefully to conclude this evening.

The Question: Why Do True, Healthy Believers Long for Christ's Return?

12:18 If not, it may spill over into one of the messages next Lord's Day. And the question is this. Why do true believers who are in a healthy spiritual state, eagerly await, earnestly desire, and love the return of Christ? Now you see what I've done in that question?

12:42 I've tried to incorporate the nuance of the three verbs plus the use of love. And we're asking the question why do true believers who are in a healthy spiritual state eagerly await, earnestly desire, and love the return of Christ? Now again, if you're thinking, you say, well, wait a minute, Pastor, you've added some qualifying descriptive phrases. The question assumes that there are indeed true and false believers.

13:18 That's right, because the Bible clearly teaches that. In a passage such as John 2, verses 23 to 25, we read that while Jesus is there at the feast, many believed on him when they saw the miracles that he did. But Jesus did not, same verb, Jesus did not entrust himself to them. He did not believe in them, for he knew what was in man and needed not that any should testify of what was in man.

13:45 There is such a thing as a false believer, one whose trust and faith is something less than the faith of God's elect, the faith of whole-souled reliance upon Jesus and the salvation of God. The whole-souled reliance that is offered to us in him, a whole-souled reliance that attaches us to Christ in love and in obedience. Or the faith of Simon Magus recorded in Acts 8.13.

14:16 Simon also himself believed and was baptized. And then he attaches himself to Philip. A few verses later, Peter is saying to that man, your heart is not right with God. You have neither part nor lot in this matter.

14:30 He was a false believer, not a true believer. And in the parable of the sower and the soils, remember the four different kinds of soils? Same seed fell on all four. But in only one instance did it bear fruit.

14:46 In three instances, there was some response. Jesus describes one of them. The stony ground here. They believe for a while.

14:55 But when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, they wither, they fall away. So I am assuming this biblical judgment is a doctrine that there are true and false believers. And the question we're wrestling with is this. Why do true believers, why do true believers eagerly await, earnestly desire and love the return of Christ?

15:21 Then I've added another qualifying and descriptive clause, and it's this. Why do true believers who are in a healthy spiritual state? You say, Pastor, are you assuming that you can be a true believer? No, no, no.

15:35 Are you assuming that you can be a true believer and not be in a healthy state? Yes. Because again, the Bible clearly teaches this. In Hebrews 5, 12 to 14, the writer to the Hebrews chides these people that they are in a place of arrested spiritual growth.

15:49 He says the time you ought to be teaching others, you have need that someone go back and teach you the elementary things again. They were not in a healthy spiritual state. They were alive, but they were spiritually anemic and stunted in their growth. Furthermore, we have the Lord Jesus many times in the Gospels rebuking true disciples for their unbelief.

16:13 For example, in Luke 24, 25, the two men on the road to Emmaus, oh fools and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have written. There can be arrested growth. There can be weakness of faith. There can be waning of love.

16:30 Revelation 2, 4, writing to the believers at Ephesus, commanding them for their integrity, morally and ethically, ecclesiastically. But he said, I have this against you. You have left your first love. So the concept of a true believer who has life in Christ, not being in a healthy state, is clearly taught in the Bible.

16:56 And while we flatly reject any concept of a two or three or four tiered concept of the Christian life, those who are saved and those who are saved and surrendered a little, and those who are saved and surrendered and sold out, and those who are saved and surrendered and sold out and baptized with the Spirit and speak in tongues. We have no sympathy for that 3, 4, 6, 5, how many other names you want to give to her in numbers. But the Bible does teach. And your experience validates if you're a Christian.

17:28 There are times when you are in greater spiritual health than others. There are times when, there are the symptoms of spiritual sickness and spiritual anemia. And I'm assuming that, and therefore, I'm posing the question this way, and I'm not playing lightly with words. Why? Why do true believers, who are in a healthy spiritual state, eagerly await, expectantly desire and love the return of Christ? That's my question. Every word in it has significance, and I trust you will think with me as we turn to the Scriptures to begin to answer the question. Here's answer number one.

Reason 1: Longing for Complete Salvation for Themselves and Creation

18:22 True believers, who are in a healthy spiritual state, eagerly await. earnestly desire and love the return of Christ because, because, because they long to experience the complete salvation for which they and the creation have been predestined.

18:51 Why does a true believer, in a healthy spiritual state, have this longing and expectation? It is because such a believer longs to experience the complete salvation for which he and all his fellow believers and the creation have been predestined. Now, what in the world do I mean by that answer? Well, this is what I mean.

19:22 If I were to ask you, what is the dark, ominous backdrop of the biblical doctrine, of God's salvation, extended to lost men and women? If I were to ask you that question, how would you answer? What is the dark, the ominous backdrop of the salvation revealed in Scripture? What is the black velvet upon which the diamond of God's gracious salvation is displayed, and against which it sparkles with brilliance?

19:57 Well, if you're thinking, and you are thinking, biblically, I hope you would answer in words something like this. The backdrop of the salvation revealed in the Bible is the horrible reality of the ruin of mankind in the sin of our first father, Adam. I hope you would answer with words that at least, in some way, would point to that biblical reality. The backdrop of the salvation revealed in the Bible is the horrible reality, of the ruin of mankind in the sin of our father, Adam.

20:37 And in the biblical account of the tragic reality of man's sin, God makes it clear that not only has sin brought spiritual and brings literal death to man, but sin has brought a curse upon God's beautiful creation. When God was done creating the scripture says, He beheld all that He made, and it was very good. It's no longer what it once was. Why?

21:11 Well, if we go back to those early chapters of the Bible, we find out why. And in Genesis 3, we find God speaking to those who were involved in that first sin of our father, Adam. The woman, the serpent, the man, and now when He speaks to man, He says in Genesis 3, 17, And unto Adam He said, Because you've hearkened to the voice of your wife, and eaten of the tree which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

21:53 Thorns also in thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and unto dust you shall return. Cursed is the ground for your sake. Man's sin not only brought this horrible disruption of communion with his God and brought him under the curse and wrath of God, but the creation itself bears the consequences of man's sin.

22:36 The words used in Romans 8 is that the creation was subject to vanity, to futility, not through its own will. The creation did not, like Adam, suddenly become animate and living with a mind and a conscience and a will and rebel against God. That's what Adam did. But for Adam's sake, on account of Adam's sin, the ground, the creation is cursed.

23:05 And though in God's common grace he is committed to uphold and sustain this earth and our whole system of things, that he might, through that sustaining, show his kindness to the good and to the evil and have the theater in which he will call out his elect, this world is not Eden. It's a cursed world. It's a world which Paul describes as groaning and travailing. Now, what is God predetermined to do in that dark backdrop of human sin that spills over into the creation?

23:46 Well, according to the Scriptures, he is not only predetermined that out of the mass of all of Adam's posterity he will take a people to himself whom he will deliver from the just penalty of their sin, whom he will take back into his favor, declaring them righteous, adopting them as his sons and daughters, and effect a work of renovation that will fully restore in them the image of God after the very likeness of Christ. That's what God has purposed to do. Romans chapter 8. Look at the language, familiar to many of us.

24:26 Verse 29. Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained or predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, Christ, might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom he foreordained, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified.

24:52 And whom he justified, it is so certain that God's purpose will be realized, them he also glorified. So what was God's predetermined purpose? Fully to restore his image in fallen man. Righteously and justly to remove the guilt by providing a substitute.

25:14 And in the person of the Redeemer, a perfect righteousness is effected that God can impute and put to the credit of unrighteous, hell-deserving sinners. And by the gift of the Spirit and the operations of the Spirit in renovating man from the inside out, when God is done and gives us our resurrected bodies, we shall reflect the likeness of Christ. He will be the firstborn, the elder brother in a family, all of which bear his image. But is that all God's purpose to do?

25:55 Put a perfected man into a cursed creation? There would be a constant incongruity between restored man and unrestored creation. So in the redemption that God has predestined, he has set his heart not only on this marvelous renovation of man, the rebel, but of the very creation that has been cursed for man's sake. And this is what I read in your hearing from Romans chapter 8.

26:34 Look at it with me now. Paul says in verse 18, I reckon this is a sober, reflective conclusion. This is not something he felt in a moment of heightened spiritual, emotional fervor. He said this is my sober, reflective judgment that the sufferings of the present time, that is, that believers bear because of their union with Christ, are not even worthy to be compared with the glory, now notice, glory which shall be revealed to us.

27:09 He says present sufferings should not even be talked about in the same sentence with the glory that will be revealed to us-ward. And then as he's going to describe that glory, notice where the focus shifts. For the earnest expectation of the creation, waits for the revealing of the sons of God. John says, now are we children of God, sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be.

27:43 And Paul says, in terms of that time when the sons of God will be revealed for who they really are, God's precious ones, whom He has marked out to perfectly reflect the likeness of His Son with perfected, sinless, spirits and resurrected, glorified bodies that will throb with the very life of the body of our Lord's glory. And he says the very creation is waiting for that to happen. Why? Why is this whole world waiting for something to happen to you and to me?

28:21 Well, he's going to tell us. For the creation was subjected to vanity or futility, not of its own will. Here the creation is personified into a person. And he said, the creation made no choice to be in its present state, but by reason of Him who subjected it, that is, it is God who pronounced the curse upon this world, upon this creation.

28:47 And he says he did this in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. When God imparts all the glory of the salvation He purposed for His people, the whole creation is going to be liberated from its bondage, the curse placed upon it because of man's sin. When man's sin is thoroughly dealt with, then the earth that has been cursed for man's sake will also know God's redemptive, liberating power. And he says, here's one of the proofs of it, verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain. That's the verb you would use to say what happens to your wife when she's been looking at the clock or looking at her watch and says, honey, they're coming two minutes apart. This is the real sure enough thing.

30:00 Not just crampiness, but I can time it. They've gone from three minutes to two and a half to two minutes. What is that woman experiencing? She's experiencing travail in pain.

30:16 And Paul says this created order that he personifies into a person is not only groaning, but it's in the throes of birth contractions. It's not in death pains, it's in birth pains. Now, when mama begins to have her pains, three minutes, two and a half minutes, two minutes, you say, ain't no baby born yet, but it won't be long. As long as she's bopping around in her maternity clothes and waddling like a duck and no birth pangs, she just looks a little like a waddling duck.

30:52 But nobody's too excited. But when the birth pangs come and it's time to get to the birthing center, to the hospital, you say, now something is about to be birthed, is about to emerge. That's the imagery of the passage. The whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain together until now.

31:15 Something's going to be birthed. Earthquakes, cyclones, lava flows, eruptions, all of the so-called natural tragedies that we say on the one hand when we go to certain places how could paradise be more beautiful than what I'm seeing now? A few hours or days later we see images in the newspaper on the television and we say it looks like part of this world has been turned into a living hell. What's the cause of this incomparability? The creation is groaning and travailing, longing to...

32:08 And what will it birth? It will birth restored Eden plus more. And he says not only does the creation groan and travail in pain together until now, not only so, but ourselves also who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for our adoption that is the redemption of our body. Here's a groaning and a travailing creation.

32:43 Something's going to be born. Something's going to be birthed. And here is the groaning child of God. He doesn't use the second verb so we can't press the birth imagery.

32:53 But the fact that he puts them in such close proximity, the groaning of the child of God, what makes him groan? Paul tells us explicitly in 2 Corinthians 5, 4, we that are in this present tent, this body, do groan, being burdened, longing to put on our habitation from heaven. This is the groaning of frustration of a partially renewed spirit. We have the first fruits of the spirit.

33:22 That is, we have the first installments of the full harvest of God's grace imparted and effectually working in us by the spirit. Or we have the first fruits of which the spirit is the beginning and there will be additional manifestations of his grace. However we take it, the best is yet to come. When an Israelite in obedience to God was reaping the first fruits to bring as an offering to God, he was taking but a smidgen of the entire harvest.

33:59 Believers, we know as glorious as just an armful of sheaves, there's a full field of redemptive blessing waiting to come home to harvest. And when will it come home? When the voice of the archangel sounds and the trump of God blows glorified bodies, it's harvest time and we'll come with him to inhabit what? A new heavens and anew.

34:36 For the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. If that doesn't put dancing in your feet, you're either half asleep or you're dead as a dodo. That's what God's destined for every single one of his children and for this poor, groaning, travailing, sin-cursed creation. And the child of God, the one who is a true believer in any kind of spiritually healthy state cannot eagerly await, earnestly desire and love the return because that child of God longs to experience the completion for which he and the whole nation have been predestined. Do you long for his appearing? Let me ask you, child of God, are you really content with what you now know of the Spirit's work in you? You say, well, I'm very grateful.

The Believer's Groaning for Full Redemption

36:01 I'm overwhelmed with wonder that the Spirit would have brought me to the felt awareness of my wretchedness and my sin, that he would have driven me out of myself and through the Gospel revealed Christ as a Savior perfectly suited to me and gave me the gifts of repentance and faith and had embraced God in Christ in penitent faith. Oh, I'm so thankful for the Spirit's work in convicting me, revealing Christ, giving me a new heart, enabling me to repent and believe. And surely I'm thankful that the Spirit has been given to me as the Spirit of Sonship. And I don't live under the carking, ominous cloud of wondering that God's going to zap me.

36:46 I know he's my Father. And the Spirit of Sonship enables me to cry out, Father, Pastor, are you asking me, am I ungrateful for the present aspects of the Spirit's work? No, no, I'm not asking you that. I'm asking you, are you content with what you presently know?

37:05 What do you know of the Spirit's work? I'm not. I'm thrilled every time when I have my devotions that the Spirit enables me to have real experiential communion with God, aren't you? I'm thrilled every time when in preaching I sense that God the Spirit is inflaming my own heart and helping the mouth of my soul to feed on the truth that I'm trying to hand out to you so that at times I can say, you know, I'll go away if you want.

37:31 I'm just having such a wonderful time feeding my soul. I'm going to keep going until the table's empty. That's wonderful. And all the facets of the Spirit's ministry, but I'm not content.

37:43 I want the Spirit's ministry to come to its culmination in me. The work He's begun giving me a heart to be holy and a heart that loves Christ. I want to be perfectly holy. I want to love Christ with no diminution, with no vacillation, with no hours and days of wretched coldness.

38:06 I want the Spirit so to work in me that I shall love Christ and love the Father and love the Holy Ghost perfect. And I want a new body. I don't want to have to unlimber arthritic joints before I serve God. I want to make a beeline to the throne and say, oh, my Father and my blessed Savior, what are your marching orders for me today?

38:31 For the Bible says they shall follow the Lamb with us wherever He goes. His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face. And then to have every fiber of my renewed physical constitution throbbed with life, never weary.

38:46 I don't need to sleep. I don't need to take naps. Don't you long for that? I hope you do.

38:56 And that's what you're going to get when Jesus comes. So that's why I say the true believer in a healthy spiritual state does indeed eagerly await, earnestly, long for, and loves the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it is then, as we saw in the Philippians 2, 3 passage last week, we wait for His Son from heaven because He shall fashion the body of our humiliation like unto the body of His glory. And any child of God grounded in the most elementary facets of the biblical teaching of the return of Christ, knowing from the Scriptures that at His return, if we are alive, there will be the double dose of our glorification, the Spirit instantly, fully and perfectly sanctified, a renewed body imparted from the hand of the coming and returning Lord. Most of us will get it in two installments. Our spirits will be perfected in the moment of our death. And made fit to look upon the face of Christ in glory.

40:17 And while our bodies rest in their graves, at His coming, we get the next installment. But all the focus of Scripture is upon the full and final installment, not on the first. And that's why Paul can say our very salvation is couched in hope. That is confident expectation of promised blessing.

40:43 So much is our biblical religion pie in the sky, by and by, that Paul says we're saved in hope. We're saved in the context of confident expectation of the promised blessings of salvation. Well, let me give you a second. Second reason.

Reason 2: Longing for the Ultimate Defeat of Christ's Enemies

41:05 We're answering the question, why? Why do believers long for Christ's return? Here's our second answer from the Scriptures. True believers who are in a spiritually healthy state eagerly await, earnestly desire, and love the return of Christ because, because they long to see the ultimate defeat of all the enemies of Christ and of His Church.

41:38 Because they long to see the ultimate, and here I struggled with the words. I used my synonym, found it. The crowning, the climactic, all kinds of words. You choose the one that rings most in your own mind and heart.

41:54 But the true, healthy believer longs to see the ultimate defeat of all the enemies of Christ and of His Church. Now to open this up again from the Scriptures. And some of you who know what the terms mean, I'm giving basically a biblical theological overview of these realities. They're not dependent on an isolated text here or there.

42:20 They form the very fabric of God's redemptive purpose. We go back to Genesis. And when God gives the first announcement of His purpose to do something with man the sinner, man who has rebelled and aligned himself with the devil, even then Adam aligned themselves with the devil when they sinned. God comes and in free, sovereign, aggressive grace He goes after man while he's running away from him.

42:54 That's grace. Running, kicking, screaming, hiding. God says, I'm going to get my man. And He comes after us.

43:03 And He comes after Adam and Eve. And He's going to deal with the devil. And isn't it interesting that the first word of gospel light and promise is spoken to the devil? It is.

43:15 Look at chapter 3 in verse 15. Well, let's back up verse 14. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon your belly you shall go and thus shall you eat all the days of your life.

43:31 Now notice. And I will put enmity. That's the language of warfare. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

43:44 He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Now, the first announcement of redemptive grace is couched in the language of warfare. You see that? The woman and the man have disaligned themselves from God and aligned themselves with the devil.

44:08 There is now enmity between the devil, between the serpent and the man and the woman. And God says in grace, I'm going to break up that enmity, that alignment, and I'm going to break up that enmity. I am going to put enmity. I am going to start a war.

44:27 And I'm going to pit you, serpent, against the woman, your seed against her seed. And in that warfare you'll be permitted to bruise his heel. But I got news for you, Mr. Satan.

44:40 You're going to have your head crushed. That's the language of warfare. Redemption is warfare. The living God is committed to break up man's alignment with the devil.

44:54 And through the seed of the woman he will crush the head of the serpent. And from that point onward right on into the book of the Revelation you are reading various chapters of this whole theater of cosmic warfare. The end result is absolutely certain from the beginning. The head of the serpent is going to be crushed.

45:22 You want to kill off two inches of its tail. You bash its head in. And the seed of the woman is going to bash the head of the serpent. And when we open up the scriptures we see that warfare all the way through until when we come into the book of the Revelation eight times the word war is used from chapter 11 to the end eight times that tremendous theater of redemption is described in terms of warfare.

45:53 And the passage of the book of Revelation is repeated here in the book of the Revelation in Genesis chapter 12 verses 7 to 9. And there was war in heaven Michael and his archangels going forth to war with the dragon and the dragon warred with his angels and they prevailed not neither was their place found anymore in heaven and the great dragon was cast down the old serpent that is called the devil the deceiver of the whole world he was cast down and his angels were cast down with him and then there's that marvelous song of triumph and now pick up the reading at verse 13 and when the dragon saw he was cast down to the earth he persecuted the woman that brought forth the man-child and it was given to the woman the two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place where she is nourished for a time and times and the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water is a river that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream and the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth and the dragon waxed angry with the woman and went away to make war with the rest of her seed they that keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus there's

47:23 the description of the warfare picking up the very language of Genesis that's what our Bibles are all about in one from one perspective it is the record of this irreconcilable warfare but from the very outset the scriptures are clear that the Lord Jesus will eventually give a final total irrevocable irremediable defeat of the devil of his followers and all the enemies of Christ and of his church and when our great champion came forth in space-time history you remember that his first after his baptism being identified with his people in a sinner's ordinance though he knew no sin identifying his mission as the redeemer of sinners he is driven by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and he enters into his first hand-to-hand combat and when he's done what does the scripture say the devil left him for a season the handwriting's on the wall then the Lord begins to cast out demons and though the squint-eyed narrow-hearted prejudiced religious leaders say ha ha he's doing that because he's in cahoots with the devil Jesus said no no I by the finger of God cast out devils I am the stronger

48:51 than the strong man for no one can take the goods of the strong man except he first bind him then he shall spoil his goods and Jesus went through all of Galilee and all of Judea manifesting that he was the one who was bruising the head of the serpent and then just prior to his death in John chapter 12 in verse 31 he said now is the judgment of this world now is the prince of this world cast out of the devil Noah me each one that is you that is you you I have many many angels and in your heart I shall keep you forever holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy of Christ will be that climactic, irreversible, ultimate and final defeat of the devil and all of his followers and all the enemies of the church.

Christ's Vengeance and the Believer's Rest

50:13 And any true believer in any kind of spiritual health who has tasted something of the beginnings of the triumphs of Christ longs for the final defeat of all of Christ's enemies and the enemies of his church. And the second coming is in many places described in that very language. Look with him now at just two or three specimen passages quickly. Second Thessalonians chapter one.

50:48 From the very beginning of their profession of the Christian faith, the Thessalonians have suffered. A great opposition.

50:57 Paul is writing this second letter to comfort and encourage them to straighten out some skewed thinking about the return of Christ. Notice what he says in verse seven of chapter one. And to you that are afflicted, rest with us. When?

51:14 Where? With respect to what? At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven. You who are afflicted, a period of rest.

51:25 Rest is coming. And it will come at the revelation of the Lord Jesus at his second coming. And what is there in his second coming that's going to bring rest? In the context, it's rest from affliction.

51:40 You that are afflicted, rest with us. When? At the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire rendering vengeance. To them that know not God and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all them that believe.

52:19 At Christ's second coming, he says, his own will marvel at him. And marvel at the changes that will be wrought in them. But they are to take comfort from the knowledge that at that coming, which is the manifestation of the glory of Christ, brings the sons of God into the full possession of the glory appointed for them, it will be in flaming fire to take vengeance. God is a vengeful God.

52:48 He says, vengeance is mine. I will repay. Don't you take vengeance. That's not your prerogative.

52:55 Leave it all to me. For I will. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.

53:02 And these suffering saints at Thessalonica are to draw consolation when they conjure up in their minds what these words mean. The Lord whose coming will be the epitome of their own bliss and delight. The heavenly bridegroom comes to take his bride to go off to the marriage supper of the Lamb. He said, picture your Lord coming.

53:24 How? Coming. Coming from heaven with the angels of his power.

53:32 In the book of Jude, Jude prophesies, tells of Enoch prophesying, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones. Think of the entourage of the returning Lord. Numerous angelic hosts. When on earth people saw one angel, they were always terrified.

53:51 Nobody ever danced a jig when they saw an angel. God had to say, don't be afraid. There was something. Intimidating someone, some being from that other world has intruded in my world.

54:04 Imagine what will be when 10,000 of his holy ones, the entourage of the returning Christ, he says, you persecuted Christians, think of it. He will come. How? From heaven with the angels of his power.

54:20 In what context? In flaming fire, rendering vengeance.

54:27 He's going to come. Rendering vengeance. And his vengeance will be like a leaping, licking, aggressive, flaming fire.

54:36 And what's it going to do? It's going to consume everyone who knows not God and those that obey not the gospel. And what will be the result of that coming with his angels in power, in flaming fire to take vengeance? It will not be the annihilation of his enemies.

54:58 But Paul goes on to say in verse 9, Who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

55:11 Some of you sit here this morning proud of the fact you don't know God and you don't obey the gospel. Every Lord's Day when the word is preached and someone pleads with you to repent and flee to Christ, you put a notch in your rifle Sunday night saying, I made it through another Sunday and Jesus ain't getting me.

55:34 No, Jesus is going to get me. No gospel is going to intrude my life. No gospel is going to tell me that I have no right to run my own life, to choose my own standards of right and wrong. No gospel is going to intrude in my life and make me a God-centered, Christ-centered, holiness-loving, obedient disciple of Christ.

55:59 No way, Jose. And every Lord's Day you pride yourself. You've gotten through. Another Lord's Day.

56:07 Oh, my dear friend, I beg you this morning, take seriously this passage.

56:14 You'll meet Jesus in flaming fire as a vengeful Christ if you don't know God and you don't obey the gospel.

56:26 You say, but I don't disbelieve. Ah, it says if you don't obey the gospel, there's no neutrality. The gospel comes with its announcement of God's provision for sinners in Christ and the great indicatives, the declarations. The declarations of what God has done suitable to any and every sinner is followed by the great imperatives.

56:47 Repent and believe in the gospel. You have no right to go on running your own life, loving your sin. What right do you have to do that? God didn't make you to sin.

57:00 He made you to glorify Him. You have no right to go on in impenitence. You have no right to go on in unbelief. Almighty God demands that you trust His Son.

57:10 He demands that you cast yourself upon His Son. What right do you have to walk by Christ, ignoring Him, despising His grace? You have no right. And if Christ's coming, God will give you what you deserve.

57:25 He'll take vengeance on you.

57:28 Some of you better tremble in your seats.

The Holy Desire for Vengeance and Vindication

57:39 This is why the true people of God long for Christ's return. And this may help some of you. Several of you said, Pastor, how can I long for Christ's return when my own children and relatives are dying? My relatives are not saved.

57:51 I want to yearn for His return, but I know if He comes, it'll be curtains for them. My friend, there will always be a tension. It would be inhuman not to feel that tension. But in that tension, your yearning for the vindication of Christ and the destruction of His enemies better be greater than your natural yearning for the well-being of your children.

58:14 If Christ can take vengeance on His enemies and not have a bad conscience, the more we are like Christ and enter into the sympathies of Christ, there will be something more important than even the salvation of our loved ones. It is the vindication of the glory and the righteousness of God.

58:46 And the true believer in a healthy spiritual state longs for Christ's return because he knows that His return, all of Christ's and the Church's enemies, will be ultimately, finally, irrevocably destroyed.

59:07 And if you have any question that this is a holy desire, I commend to you one other passage from the book of the Revelation, chapter 6.

59:17 And here in vision, John says in verse 9, When He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. These are martyrs. And they cried, and they cried with a loud voice. Here they are, their perfected spirits in the presence of God.

59:38 And they cry with a great voice saying, How long, O Master, the holy and the true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell in the earth? And there's no answer that, Shame on you wanting vengeance. You are perfected, glorified spirits. You've been raised above any thought of vengeance.

60:04 No. God likes what He hears. And God responds by doing this. And there was given them to each one a white robe.

60:14 And it was said unto them that they should rest for a little time until their fellow servants also and their brethren who should be killed, even as they were, should have fulfilled their course. God says, in essence, Wait a little longer, and I will. How long? Wait a little longer, and I will.

60:39 If glorified spirits can long for Christ's return, that all of Christ's and His people's enemies shall be destroyed, then a soul in a state of spiritual health here and now will know something of that yearning.

61:02 You see, we need to understand that when we become Christians, we're enrolled in the army of Christ, outfitted by the graces which are ours in union with Christ, and then we're thrust into battle. There's no boot camp in the Lord's army. You get enlisted. He equips you, and He says, You're out in the field.

61:20 There are no war maneuvers with blank shells. You read Ephesians 6, 10 and following. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Why?

61:29 You've got to take unto you the whole armor of God. Why? For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. He didn't say some of us.

61:37 We all do. To embrace Christ is to be conscripted in this cosmic warfare. On the side of the seed of the woman, against the serpent and the seed of the serpent.

61:54 And we bless God that we know our labor and our warfare is not in vain.

The Certainty of Christ's Victory in Cosmic Warfare

62:00 I read a few months ago in reviewing that book by Dr. Vern Poitras, entitled The Returning King, A Guide to the Book of the Revelation. We featured it on the front page of our flyers from Trinity Book Service. Anyone, anyone with just...

62:18 I don't say this disparagingly, grade school education and ability to read can read that book and greatly profit in thinking through the message of the book of the revelation with Dr. Poitras as a guide. Because he gets to the heart of the issue that God never gave the book of the revelation to be like one of these 2,500 piece puzzles and it's all a garden of flowers. I see people working on those things and I say, you're either crazy to want to put the pieces together or you'd be crazy when you're done.

62:46 You know, where everything looks the same, the little itsy-bitsy pieces and all the same colors, different flowers and yet they labor. I've seen some of you. I just marvel that people like to do that for pastime. I think I'd end up needing to repent for getting irritated that the crazy thing didn't fit.

63:04 But anyway, that's the way a lot of people treat the book of the revelation. They say, well, it's this massive...

63:10 Jake saw a puzzle and we got to fit it all together. No, the message is in the sweeping visions that pass before the eyes of the seer, John. John, the apostle. And in the introduction to that book, when Dr. Poitras is trying to undermine this whole idea that you've got to be some kind of either a theological or an imaginative genius to appreciate the book of the revelation, that a group of seminary students were playing basketball at a gymnasium somewhere. And one of them happened to notice the janitor, the uneducated janitor over in the court reading his Bible. So one of them went over and said, what are you reading? Oh, I'm reading my Bible.

63:47 Where are you reading? And he said, the book of the revelation. And so the seminary student, thinking he could be of some real help to this poor ignorant janitor, said, do you understand what you're reading? He said, oh, sure, no problem.

64:00 The seminary student looked shocked and said, well, what is the message then? He said, Jesus is going to win.

64:10 Now, I would not say gonna. I don't like gonna. Jesus is going to win. But he said gonna.

64:15 That's the way it's quoted in the book. So I'm giving it to you as it's written. The janitor said, Jesus is gonna win. That's the message of the book of the revelation.

64:25 And it is. And all who are with him. And in that marvelous picture, chapter 19, where you see the last conflict between the powers of darkness and the aggressive, redemptive Christ. He comes on that white charger, his garments dipped in blood, and the language is gory.

64:47 Talks about flesh to be eaten by the birds of the sky. Talks about flesh to be eaten by the birds of the sky. Talks about flesh to be eaten by the birds of the air. But it's a marvelous picture.

64:54 All of Christ's enemies and the enemies of his people are doomed to defeat. Child of God, that's why we long for Christ to come. That's why we yearn for him to return.

65:12 It grieves us to see his enemies walking through the earth as though they owned it.

65:19 Talking as though they knew reality when in their pride they've been defeated. They've detached themselves from holy scripture and from the revelation of God in his holy word and in his blessed son. I ask you as we close this morning,

Self-Examination: Do You Long for Christ's Return?

65:38 do you, do you eagerly await, earnestly desire, and love the return of Christ?

65:51 If not, why not? Well, it could be because some of you are not true believers. Your faith has reached out to take hold of what you think are the goodies of salvation so that you won't go to hell when you die. But you don't want a salvation that looses you from your fundamental attachment to this world, to its standards, to its people, to its goals, to its perspectives.

66:22 And this is the great danger of you kids in the second generation of Trinity Church members. You will feel very comfortable with many of the fruits of mom and dad's saving relationship to Christ and the fruits of that relationship in the church family. You young ladies know there's no men among you, among us, that are out to seduce you. You guys know that there are no women among us out to seduce you.

66:53 If you have exchanges with one another, you can assume honesty and goodwill and uprightness. And many of you kids, you like the fruits of that, but you don't want a Christ. Who's going to put the stamp of His blood-bought ownership over every single facet of your life. What you wear, what you watch, where you go, who becomes your friends.

67:23 There's no halfway alignment with Christ, dear young people.

67:29 He has all of you, or He has none of you.

67:33 Maybe that's why the thought of Christ's return doesn't get you excited. You've got so much you're enjoying now. Why have Jesus come and spoil the fun? True believers, true believers, while they're thankful for all God's given them, as the Scripture says, He's given us all things richly to enjoy.

67:56 We don't hold to them in such a way that it makes us recoil from the thought Jesus is coming and the best is yet to come. Maybe that's why some of you don't eagerly await and earnestly desire and love His return. Others, it may be that you don't want to wait and earnestly desire and love His return. Others, it may be that you don't want to wait and earnestly desire His return.

68:19 You're not in a spiritually healthy state. You may have allowed the noxious weeds of subtle worldliness to cut off your appetite for spiritual realities, neglect of the means of grace, of secret prayer, the cares of this life, so that you've been able to hear this, the third message in this series, and not once even be tempted to raise one goose bump on your arm. Not even tempted. All you've said is that crazy old creature getting all excited and blowing out his vocal cords and saying, I don't want to wait and blowing out his vocal cords again.

68:54 When in the world is he going to stop or the Lord kill him? That must have been in your mind. Have you entered in if there's not been something in all the passages we've considered, the things that get God excited, if there's been no sense of entering in with spiritual and emotional affinity? You're sick, dear child of God.

69:15 Sick, sick, bad, sick, and you need to go to the great physician and say, Lord, Jesus, diagnose my sickness. Lord, Jesus, give me any prescription to make me healthy so that I can once again be in the company of those who what? Those who eagerly await, earnestly desire and love the return of Jesus. In my final reflections early this morning, this little turn phrase came to me.

Call to the Christ of the Cross for Healing and Salvation

69:54 I don't labor at turn phrases, but I hope you'll understand what I mean by that. If you're not ready for the Christ of the clouds, you must have dealings with the Christ of the cross. Or, we're not ready for the Christ of the clouds. And I pray, God, that someone sitting here this morning will make a direct line to sinners just like you, if you will but have him.

70:35 If you'll have him, all of the salvation procured by him is yours in him. And though God parcels it out in degrees, culminating it at the second coming of his Son, all the full blessings are as certainly ours as if he gave them to those who are in need of them. So, if you are in need of a spiritual sickness or drowsiness or anemia, you keep going back to Christ and say, Lord Jesus, show me, show me the causes of my sickness and, Lord Jesus, heal me. Why do true believers long for the full salvation for themselves and this creation predestined by God and they long to see the ultimate and final defeat of Christ and of all of the enemies of Christ and of his church. May God grant that we shall be

72:01 those who love your holy word and we pray that it would be a word of life, a word of saving, mercy and grace, of encouragement, of solid stability in the lives of your people. We ask you, Lord Jesus, to forgive us that we've known so little of that yearning, of that longing and yearning to fulfill every obligation laid upon us by your word and for which you are prepared to equip us by the grace and power of your spirit. Seal then your word to the benefit of those who know you not and seal it to the hearts of your own for your