Basic/Fundamental Issues, Part 1

Introduction: The Certainty of Christ's Return and Apostolic Teaching

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, July 15, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:11 Turn with me, if you will, please, to 2 Peter chapter 3. This will be one of the passages to which reference will be made in the opening up of the scriptures this morning, 2 Peter chapter 3. and I shall read in your hearing the first 13 verses.

0:35 This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you, and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willfully forget,

1:22 that there were heavens from of old and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water by the word of God, by which means the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens that are now and the earth by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering to you, word, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2:19 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy living and godliness looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat but according to his promise

3:07 we look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness well let us again pray and ask God by the Holy Spirit so to minister to us that we will taste the powers of the age to come as we come to the scriptures let's pray our father we acknowledge that left to ourselves we would be part of the chorus of the skeptical saying with a sneer and a spirit of unbelief and cynicism where is

3:53 the promise of his coming but we thank you that for many of us you have taken out the heart of unbelief and skepticism and cynicism. And you have put within us the certain conviction that our Lord Jesus will keep His promise to come again and take us to Himself, that where He is, there we may be also. And we pray that as our minds once again focus upon this great reality of biblical revelation, We plead that the Holy Spirit will take the words of Scripture, the words of Your servant, and by means of them bring us into heart contact with the very powers of the age to come.

4:44 Lord, we don't want to traffic in mere ideas and words. We long to know Your Spirit ministering to us that we may all be conscious that this word comes not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Lord, we look to you to grant this blessing for the good of our souls and for the glory of your name. We ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord.

5:15 Amen.

5:22 If we believe, as I trust most of us, if not all of us do, If we believe that the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ were given a unique place in shaping the contours of Christian doctrine and experience, then it must always be a source of concern to us to examine ourselves as to whether or not what we believe and what we profess to experience in any way parallels the belief system and the experience of those molded by the ministry of the apostles. Our faith rests upon Christ as the chief cornerstone in the spiritual temple of God, a foundation which is comprised of apostles and prophets in which Christ is the chief cornerstone.

6:25 And according to the passage that was read in our consecutive New Testament reading this morning, the apostles were commanded to preach the realities of the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the remission of sins offered to sinners in the light of that accomplished redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we have seen in our study of Acts chapter 1, in particularly verses 9 to 11, that these same apostles beheld their risen Lord ascend up into heaven, and they heard the united voice of the two heavenly messengers,

7:10 this same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you beheld him going into heaven. And the first thing that we did in seeking then to establish the fact that the doctrine of the Lord's return was foundational in apostolic ministry is to go to six passages in the New Testament which each one independently and together collectively make it abundantly clear that eagerly awaiting and loving the return of Christ was a vital element of normal New Testament Christian experience.

7:59 As that experience was molded and shaped by apostolic ministry, as surely as Christ crucified and risen from the dead was an essential element in faith and shaping Christian experience, So likewise, the fact that the one who died and rose would come again physically, visibly, in power and in glory at the end of the age was such a dominant note in their ministry that when we pull back, as it were, the surface of the belief system and the experience and the whole ethos of apostolic churches, we find that this conviction of the second coming of the Lord Jesus was vital.

8:50 It was an essential part of their faith system, and their Christian lives were shaped and molded by this eager awaiting and loving the return of the Lord Jesus. Well, having established from those six texts that conviction concerning the return of Christ in glory and power was an essential part of normal New Testament Christian experience, I then sought to answer the question, why, why do true believers who are in a healthy spiritual state, why do they eagerly await and love the return of the Lord Jesus? And I submitted to you that in my understanding of the scriptures, there were at least four parts in the answer to that question.

Four Fundamental Issues Regarding Christ's Return

9:43 True believers who are in a healthy spiritual state eagerly await and love the return of Christ because they long to experience and to see the completed salvation to which they and the whole creation have been predestined. Secondly, because they long to experience and to see the ultimate defeat of all of the enemies of Christ and of His church. Thirdly, because they long to see the public and universal acknowledgement of the true identity and the official position of our Lord Jesus Christ. And fourthly, because they long to see and to be with the object of their faith and love.

10:33 All the child of God needs to know about what happens to him when Christ comes is the wonderful fulfillment of those final words in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 to 18. So shall we ever be with the Lord. And that lays to rest all the curious questions about what it will be to be in the wonderful reality of existence in the new heavens and the new earth. Now in the course of preaching these things in five sermons, we've examined many passages dealing with the return of our Lord and the things that will take place at His return.

11:19 However, before moving on to several messages, to highlight the many ways in which the truth of the second coming, I don't use the word the doctrine of the second coming, though it is a doctrine, but it is the truth and the reality of the second coming, brings to bear upon Christians motivational pressure. And if we look at the whole Christian life as a circle, we can demonstrate that from the hub of that circle, going out in spokes, touching every place in that circle, the reality of Christ's return exerts motivational pressure upon the whole circle of Christian life and experience according to the New Testament.

12:06 One respected commentator has said it is the most dominant reality in motivating the people of God. I will not go that far. I believe the cross is the most dominant, but I'd be prepared to say this takes a close second. That he died for me and rose again is central.

12:27 that He is coming again in power and in glory is second only to the great truth that He loved me and gave Himself for me so that even when I remember Him in the way of His appointment, as oft as I eat the bread and drink the cup, I declare the Lord's death, what? Till He come, cross and crown and clouds. are joined together in the thought concentration even of the Lord's table. So what I want to do, though we've considered a number of passages and some of the things that will occur at the second coming, I want to preach to you this morning and again this evening on four fundamental issues in

13:18 conjunction with the return of Christ. We'll take up two of them this morning and then again, God willing tonight, the final two. And here they are. As to the event of the second coming, it is certain to occur. That's the first issue that we want to address. As to the event of the second coming, it is certain to occur. Secondly, as to the place of the second coming in the history of redemption. It is central and climactic. And then this evening, as to the precise time of the second coming, for us it is imminent, indefinite, and unknowable. And then fourthly, as to the

14:06 results of the second coming, they are manifold and clearly revealed. So those are the four categories of biblical truth that I want to set before you throughout the course of this day. First of all, then, as to the event of the second coming, it is certain to occur.

Issue 1: The Event of the Second Coming is Certain to Occur

14:29 When I was a little boy back in the dark ages, and I don't know where it originated, I can remember some of the men in my circle of interaction and acquaintance, when they would greet one another, they would say, hi, John. Hi, Harry. What do you know for sure? Instead of saying, what's up?

14:49 How are you doing? Or some of the current common greetings. I don't know where it came from, but there's something very attractive about that. You see someone say, hey, Harry, what do you know for sure? And Harry or John or Pete would respond.

15:04 Well, if someone should resurrect that form of greeting and come to you as a Christian and say, Well, Jim, what do you know for sure? Well, Pete, what do you know for sure? Well, John, what do you know for sure? We ought to be able to instinctively respond, I know for sure that my Lord Jesus Christ is coming again.

15:29 And unless we are prepared to consign ourselves to the murky, poisonous mists of agnosticism or plunge ourselves into the black hole of nihilism by rejecting the witness of Scripture. And that's all you have if you reject the witness of Scripture. The murky, poisonous mist of agnosticism, or the deep, dark, black hole of nihilism in which you'll say the only thing we can know for sure is that for sure we can know nothing. but by God's grace determined that we'll not go either into those mists or that black hole,

16:16 there are some things we can know for certain, and one of them is that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is presently seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, will return physically, visibly, in power and in great glory at the end of the age. Now the affirmations of this are manifold and consistent throughout the entire corpus of the New Testament. We began the series by noting those words of the two angelic visitors to the eleven as Jesus ascended into heaven. This same Jesus shall come.

16:59 That's the certainty of His coming. And then the paradigm or the manner of His coming, He shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven. But I want us to do a quick survey of a number of passages very quickly to demonstrate that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself bore witness to the fact that He would return again. And as we said and sang in our hymn during the offering, no longer to come as a babe to suffer and to die, but to come in glory and power.

Jesus' Own Affirmations of His Return

17:37 And Jesus was conscious that that was an aspect in his own history that yet lay before him. And then we'll look at several of the words of the beloved Apostle John, and then several of the words of the Apostle Peter, and then several of the words of the Apostle Paul. and then point in the words of James and Jude and then just mention by way of a broad overview the entire book of the Revelation The words of our Lord Jesus himself Now remember when we read these words we are reading the words of him who said I am the way the truth The one who said I do not speak my own words I speak the words given to me by my Father

18:25 Mark chapter 13. This is the chapter in which Mark records what we commonly call the Olivet discourse. That is, our Lord's teaching in response to the question of the disciples after Jesus had spoken of the dismantling of the temple. And in their minds, they associated that with the end of the Jewish system of things, which surely would be the end of the age. So they ask a question, when are these things going to come to pass? And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age. Well, in that setting, our Lord Jesus, in Mark 13 and verse 26, we're breaking right into the midst of this chapter in which the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming again of the Lord

19:14 Jesus at the end of the age are matters that at times are so closely interwoven that it's difficult to separate them and sort them out. But in this text, it is clear what our Lord is speaking about. Verse 26, and then they shall see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send forth the angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

19:52 Here Jesus using that designation that he most frequently uses concerning himself, Son of Man, that messianic figure spoken of particularly in the book of Daniel, that one who receives a kingdom from the glorious and enthroned God. Jesus says, they shall see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. That is, He will come in the unveiled expression and majesty of His identity in terms of His messianic function and His person as God. He comes enveloped in the Shekinah because He is the Shekinah of God.

20:43 We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Similarly, in Matthew 25, Matthew chapter 25, after the Olivet Discourse is recorded by Matthew, then there is the record of some very searching parables that we will consider when we get into the area of how the second coming is to motivate the people of God now look at verse 31 of Matthew 25 but when not if but when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the angels with him

21:29 Then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all the nations, when the Son of Man shall come. Our Lord speaks of it in no uncertain terms. He speaks of His own person, Son of Man. He speaks of Himself as coming in glory with the entourage of the angels of heaven that result then in His sitting upon a throne of His glory.

22:05 A throne that will be the manifestation and the outshining of his identity as the God-man. And his proper position as the messianic king. Now about to be the arbiter of the eternal destinies of those who are identified in this passage as the sheep and as the goats. And then in John 14, these familiar words so often comforting God's people in seasons of great distress.

22:38 The disciples were greatly distressed. The Lord has told them He's going to die and that He's going to leave them. And their hearts are disturbed and troubled. And our Lord says, Let not your heart be troubled.

22:52 You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many. mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And he did go. We've read of his going this morning with hands up raised in priestly blessing. He's received up into heaven. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. If I go, and he did, and prepare a place, and he is, I come again. Simple, unadorned, no mystical, figurative, apocalyptic

23:46 vision or language. I come again. Incarnate truth speaks. I will come again. And then in Mark chapter 14, a most interesting incident in which Jesus affirms the fact of his coming in power and in glory.

24:07 he's standing now before his accusers and the high priest and we read in verse 60 of Mark chapter 14 and the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus saying do you answer nothing? what is it which these witness against you? but he held his peace and answered nothing again the high priest asked him and said Are you the Christ? Are you Messiah? Are you prepared to say that your real identity is that of the long-promised Messianic King?

24:48 The question, the first prong of it is His official identity. Are you the Christ, now notice, the Son of the Blessed? This has to do with his essential identity as God the Son. For you remember, in his interaction with the Jews, when he claimed to have God as his Father in a unique way, they understood it was a claim to deity.

25:14 And on several occasions they took up stones to stone him. And when the question is asked, for what evil deed do you stone me? The answer is, for no evil deed, but for blasphemy, that you being a man make yourself God. And the high priest was fully aware of those claims of Jesus and so he says to him, Are you Messiah, that has to do with his official position, the Son of the Blessed?

25:41 That is, do you make claim to being a sharer in the divine essence, Son of God, in that unique way? and Jesus said I am he doesn't say I am to the first prong I am not to the second I am not to the first I am no I am you've rightly identified my official position I am the messianic king I am Messiah I am son of the blessed and then notice how he follows up that response and you You high priest who sit in judgment of me, you shall see the Son of Man. Takes that favorite term for himself.

26:28 People say Christ never claimed to be God. Ridiculous. Look at the context. Son of Man is none other than Messiah, Son of the Blessed.

26:40 The Blessed is God. The high priest would not use the standard name for God in their superstitious false reverence. They would not use it. So he is referred to as the blessed.

26:52 And Jesus said, I am. And you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. in the full integrity of my position as Messiah that I am and as son of the blessed that I am I will come again with the clouds of heaven. Verse 63 And the high priest rent his clothes and said What further need have we of witnesses?

27:25 You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? The high priest regards Jesus' claims to his true identity in his official position as Messiah, in his essence as Son of the Blessed, and in the culminating expression of who he is as Messiah, what he is as Son of God, and they say, blasphemy, put him to death.

27:56 And we read that some began to spit on him, to cover his face, to buffet him and say to him, prophesy and the officers received him with the blows of their hands. It is right to say it was Jesus' affirmation of his commitment to come again in his full messianic identity and function as son of the blessed that was the final straw for which he was taken out and brutally murdered. you see that in the context in the passage so that to question the second coming of the Lord Jesus is to say that he was a fool

28:41 who was driven to the cross by a mistake by an exaggerated claim about who he is and his true position in the plan and purpose of God I would not weary you by telling you in the history of so-called Christian theology how men with keen minds and knowledge of many languages and a string of degrees have said we've got to dig through all of this and come up with a real historical Jesus this Jesus who makes claims to deity this Jesus who makes claims that he will come in power and glory at the end of the age That is the Jesus of the fevered religious devotion and thinking of his followers.

29:32 But surely the humble rabbi out of Nazareth would make no such claims. And so they dig back into the stuff of their own unbelief and ignorance. While humble children of God come to the scriptures and say, My Lord said I am. and you shall see me coming in power and in great glory.

29:57 In fact, do you know what the last recorded words of Jesus are in the Bible?

30:03 Not I love you. I died for you. I will be with you in all of your trials. The last recorded words of Jesus in the Bible.

30:16 Revelation 22 and verse 20. He who testifies these things says, yes, I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

30:31 The Lord Jesus who testified of the things which John records, his last words to his church through all of the ages that have unfolded since he went back to the right hand of the majesty on high, are these words, I come quickly, to which the people of God in every successive generation have answered in this eager anticipation of His return, even so come, Lord Jesus. There is no biblical Jesus without the Jesus who Himself affirms again and again the fact of His second coming. Then we look at the words of the beloved Apostle John in 1 John chapter 2.

Apostolic Affirmations of Christ's Return

31:23 The one who leaned upon the breast of Jesus, described as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Not that he did not love the others, but apparently a peculiar measure intensified love to this particular disciple. 1 John 2 and verse 28. And now, my little children, abide in him that if, the Greek word eon that can be translated if in other contexts should be translated not if, but when.

31:57 And now, my little children, abide in him that when he shall be manifested, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming. he assumes that among the community of the believers to whom he writes his epistle these spiritual children that none of them would hear for the first time the reality of the return of the Lord Jesus the object of their faith and love little children abide in him that if that when he shall be manifested you may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming. A similar emphasis in chapter 3. We know that if when he shall be manifested,

32:47 we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And when we turn to the letters of the apostle Paul, five of the six texts that I expounded in your hearing, demonstrating that eager awaiting the return of the Lord was normal New Testament Christian experience. Five of the Six texts came from the letters of Paul. And I love the unembarrassed dogmatism of the apostle in a passage such as 1 Thessalonians 4.

33:19 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, not if of doubt, but is since. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and are left unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.

33:54 For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven. There it is, in artless simplicity. The Lord Himself, not one like Him, not one resembling Him, not one in the place of Him. The Lord Himself, this same Jesus taken up from you, shall so come.

34:20 The Lord Himself shall descend. 2 Thessalonians, a similar artless, straightforward affirmation. Verse 7 of 2 Thessalonians 1. To you that are afflicted, rest with us 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.

34:56 when, when, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints. When he shall come. Doesn't stop to attempt to argue it. He simply states it straightforward, unequivocal, when he shall come.

35:19 And we find the same emphasis in 1 Peter. I trust that some of you do remember when we worked our way through verse by verse through that marvelous epistle. And here the Apostle Peter affirms with equal clarity and certainty the coming again of the Lord Jesus. Chapter 1, verses 6 and 7.

35:42 Speaking of the great inheritance that awaits them. But in the present time, though they rejoice in this, there's heaviness. They're put to grief in manifold trials that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He is confident that there will be a revelation, an unveiling of Christ.

36:10 And that will come at his return. Verse 13 of the same chapter. girding up the loins of your mind be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ and that emphasis goes right through the epistle Chapter 4 verse 13 he speaks of the revelation of the glory of Christ at His coming In chapter 5 in his charge to the elders and to the pastors, he says in verse 4, and when the chief shepherd shall be manifested, When he shall be manifested. Not pausing to prove, to explain simple assertion and affirmation.

36:57 The same is true of James. James chapter 5. Dealing with a very practical matter of the people of God suffering at the hands of the unjust and unrighteous. Who have advantage over them economically and in their position in society.

37:14 Verse 7. Be patient therefore brethren until the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth. Being patient over it until it received the early and latter rain.

37:27 Be ye also patient. Establish your hearts. For the coming of the Lord is at hand. Murmur not brethren one against another that you be not judged.

37:37 Behold the judge stands before the doors. Be patient unto. This is a reality. This is in your faith system.

37:48 Now, kick it in. This comes, you see, in the practical motivation. Bring into present focus that which you all believe that the Lord Jesus is indeed coming again. The coming of the Lord is at hand.

38:04 The writer to the Hebrews, He that comes shall come and will not tarry, as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this comes judgment, And so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto those that wait for Him shall He appear the second time apart from sin unto salvation. Jude gives the same emphasis in verse 14 of his epistle, and the whole book of the Revelation. What is it if we take out of it the wonderful reality that Christ will come, and the various dimensions and events that are associated with His glorious coming? Now this is just a sampling of the data of the New Testament, and it affirms with unanimous voice the return of our Lord Jesus, as certainly as all the prophecies in all their particulars regarding the first coming were meticulously fulfilled.

The Unwavering Certainty of God's Promises

39:02 so will it be with respect to the second coming. Every prophecy will be meticulously fulfilled. And as certainly as God has kept and will continue to keep the promise made to Noah, as long as the earth remains, there will never again be a universal flood, seed time in harvest, summer and winter. God has kept that commitment.

39:23 And this is why we don't nervously go around excited about all of the latest pronouncements of environmentalists who pronounce such woe and doom upon us because we're committed to the belief that God will keep His promise, not that we are indifferent and cavalier and prodigal with respect to the use of those things God has given us. But we don't have this nervousness that we must preserve things as they are. Someone's already taken that job on his shoulders. And we're convinced that the God who speaks is the God who cannot lie.

39:59 and that God has said throughout the scriptures, Jesus is returning. As I sat at my study meditating upon these things and had occasion to pull out my top left drawer where I keep my desk calendar and I see how this Monday if I am spared and the Lord delays his coming, I've got my to-do list and they're all filled in there on the 16th. and I thought if God keeps a calendar he's got a calendar and he's got a date circle and it says on that day send my son back and it's as certain as though the date has come and gone in the mind and purpose of God

40:45 Christ is returning Christ will come again he affirms it all of his inspired penmen affirm it. There is only one way to get rid of the Christ who returns in power and in glory, and that's to rip your Bible to shreds. If you're going to have anything resembling biblical religion, you're going to have a religion in which all of your hopes rest down upon the sacrificial death and perfect life of Jesus, his triumphant resurrection. All of your hopes are pinned upon the work He accomplished in the room instead of sinners.

41:29 And if you're going to have biblical religion with your hopes resting only in Christ, you will believe with every fiber of your being that the same Christ who died and rose again and ascended into heaven will come again in power and in glory in company with the angels of heaven. as to the event of the Lord's return, it is certain. And if any of you ever begin to waffle in your persuasion of this, you are waffling with regard to your persuasion of the validity of the Christian faith. And unless you recover by repentance and faith, you'll be wreckage strewn along the road as an apostate from Christ.

Issue 2: The Place of the Second Coming in Redemptive History is Central and Climactic

42:19 But now quickly, we've considered as to the event of the Lord's return, it is certain. Now secondly, as to the place of the Lord's return in the history of redemption, it is central and climactic. It is central and climactic. now it's clear from the scriptures that the salvation of sinners and the renovation of a cursed creation were planned and purposed by God before he ever created the world before he ever put our first parents in it and when we use the term the history of redemption what do we mean We mean this, that though God planned and purposed salvation before He actually created, for the Scripture says we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him.

43:18 Clearly indicating that God envisioned us as created and fallen and in need of redemption. So in Christ, before He even created the world or our first parents, the plan of redemption was all laid out in the mind and heart of God.

43:37 But you see, God actually effects that plan, not in eternity, but in space-time history. He executes that plan in the stuff of real human history, of a real world with real earth and real trees and real human beings and unseen beings called angels and demons and the devil. And it is in that history that God is working out His redemptive plan and purpose. He begins it with the creation of our first parents.

44:15 And then God permits the wretched, horrible defection of Adam and Eve. When a real man named Adam partakes of a real piece of fruit from a real but forbidden tree. And is plunged into real spiritual death and alienation from God. And this God comes in a real manifestation of mercy and kindness.

44:41 and announces that though there will be judgments upon man for his sin, this God is committed to dismantle this alliance with the devil and put enmity between the woman and the serpent, between her seed and his seed, and announces an ultimate triumph of the seed of the woman over the serpent. and then God allows men to reach such horrible, horrible depths of rebellion that He says, I'm going to blot them all out. And He shows favor to one man and his extended family. And God sends a universal flood and begins, as it were, to establish His world with the family of Noah.

45:28 And then God records for us in Scripture how from that family the nations of the earth are developed. And how God has to intervene to scatter them at the Tower of Babel. And then God begins to focus in upon a man with a pagan background in an idolatrous nation called Abraham. And He calls this man out of Ur.

45:50 And he begins to make promises to him that envision nations and a multitude of people blessed through him. A multitude as vast as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. And then God's purposes flow into those who come from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then those twelve sons of Jacob are taken down into Egypt with their father.

46:15 And there they multiply over a course of four hundred plus years. Until they number into the hundreds of thousands. And God opens a Red Sea and leads them out. And puts them under the leadership of Moses.

46:30 And enters into covenant with them. And cares for them. And provides them through 40 years of wandering. What's God doing?

46:36 He's working out what he planned in eternity about the salvation of a great multitude. And no man can number from every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. Remember, whenever you pick up your Old Testament. wherever you pick it up, you're dipping into some facet of this great history, which is the unfolding of the eternal purposes of God.

46:59 And then He constitutes them a nation, and under Joshua they conquer the land of Canaan. And in due course, God brings them under the leadership of judges and then kings. And then they flourish and come to a place of international glory and prominence under Solomon. And then the breakdown begins, and the kingdom is divided into Israel and Judah, the ten northern tribes, the two southern.

47:23 And then because of their sin, as we've heard in the opening up of the prophets, they are sent into captivity. And after 70 years, God brings them back into the land, reestablishes their worship, reestablishes their genealogies, that the promise is made that through the seed of Abraham, blessing would come. and then for 400 years there's no prophet, no further revelatory data. And then God causes an old man and an old woman to be fruitful.

47:54 Zacharias and Elizabeth. And God tells them that this child conceived in your old age by my miraculous intervention, this child will be the forerunner of Messiah. Six months later he appears to a humble young woman by the name of Mary And he tells her that she's going to conceive in her womb by a direct operation of God the Holy Spirit without any human father. And that one conceived in her shall be son of God.

48:27 And then God passes over many years until that child of the unusual birth from Zacharias and Elizabeth appears in the wildernesses of Judea saying, the time has come. I'm the forerunner. Messiah is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand.

48:45 And he begins to reconstitute the covenant people of God in saying bloodlines are not enough. There must be internal grace. And then the Lord Jesus shortly thereafter appears. He is baptized in the river Jordan.

49:00 Anointed by the Holy Spirit. He goes about showing his mastery over the devil. He cast out demons with the word. His mastery over creation, he can say, to turbulent seas, peace, be still, and they become as calm as glass.

49:17 And he bristles and oozes with all of the credentials of the promised Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him. He opens the eyes of the blind. He preaches the gospel to the poor and to the outcasts.

49:32 And after several years, he is arraigned, as we read this morning. He is arraigned. He is condemned to die. He dies.

49:41 He rises from the dead. He spends 40 days instructing his people about the kingdom of God. He's taken back into heaven. And as the first act of messianic kingship, he sends the Spirit upon his gathered people.

49:55 and gives them the mandate that they're to take the message of His saving grace to the ends of the earth. Now that's a brief survey of the history of redemption. That's what God has been doing in the stuff of real history. I'd like to define it this way.

50:14 The history of redemption is the sovereign activity of the triune God working out His eternal saving purpose and plan in the theater of the real world of space, time, all material and immaterial entities and of human beings. That's the history of redemption. Now the question is this. After all of this stretching over several millennia from the creation of our first parents to their fall into sin, to God's initial announcement of redemptive grace, all the way through to the appearance of our Lord Jesus, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension,

51:00 and ascending of the Spirit according to the Scriptures. What is the next great act of God in that history?

51:12 It is the clouds, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God. It is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. As surely as all the lines of prophecy that pointed to our Lord's first coming should have been understood. You remember Jesus said, All fools and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have said ought not the Christ to have suffered and then have entered into His glory.

51:45 You had Isaiah 52, 13 through Isaiah 53. You had those Psalms in which David speaks of a depth of suffering far beyond his own personal experience. You should have known that all the lines of prophecy pointed to this great act in redemptive history. So from the coming of the Lord Jesus and the meticulous fulfillment of all the lines of prophecy that pointed to His first coming, So now all the lines focus and converge like the rays of light through a magnifying glass on a pinpoint that will burn.

52:25 All of the rays point to this next great act in redemptive history. It is the coming again of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so I say, as to its place, the Lord's return in the history of redemption is both central and climactic. What do I mean it's central? I mean this.

The Centrality of Christ's Return

52:54 Once these other things have occurred in the history of redemption, the next great event is the second coming of Christ, And in a sense, that next act presses in upon whatever time passes from Pentecost until the Lord comes. This is why the biblical writers can use this language about the coming of the Lord is at hand. Look at 1 Peter 4 and verse 7. I'm trying to demonstrate now the centrality of the second coming in redemptive history.

53:30 Peter writes in A.D. 62 or 3 verse 7 of chapter 4 But the end of all things is where? Away off in the distance There got to be some people sitting in Montville in the year 2001 So how dare I say the end of all things is at hand?

53:55 It is at hand in terms of God's redemptive purposes and commitment. It is the next great event in redemptive history. The end of all things is at hand. And as Peter reminds us in his second letter, God does not reckon time as we do. A day with the Lord is a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. He's not slack concerning his promise. That ancient promise that was at hand in the first century is at hand in the third, the fourth, and in the 21st century it is still at hand. I come quickly. This is the next great event in the history of redemption The words of James that we looked at earlier James chapter 5 He says verse 8 Be patient establish your hearts

54:49 The coming of the Lord is where? It is at hand. Murmur not, brethren, one against another, that you be not judged. Behold, the judge stands before the doors.

55:01 He hasn't pushed the doors open yet, but he stands before the doors. At any moment, all that must be fulfilled shall be fulfilled. The next great event is indeed the return of the Lord Jesus. This is why Paul can say to the Romans in Romans 13 and verse 11, And this knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep, for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed.

55:34 Each day that passes, the coming of the Lord that is near becomes yet nearer, Paul says. And that was true in the first century and the second and the third, right down to the present time. Revelation 22, verses 10 to 12. Revelation 22, verses 10 to 12.

55:58 he says unto me seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand he that is unrighteous let him do unrighteousness still he that is filthy let him be made filthy still he that is righteous let him do righteousness still and he that is holy let him be made holy still behold I come quickly in the first century I come quickly the time is at hand and for this reason the return of Christ is identified as the hope of the believer not his personal death though as we saw last week the intermediate state is glorious

56:45 for the child of God to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better but you see that's the individual child of God, entering into an intensified level of sinless communion with Jesus. But Jesus does not yet have His wedding day. Jesus does not yet have the conquest of all of His enemies. Jesus does not yet have the full inheritance of that for which He died.

57:17 And as glorious as death is for the child of God in terms of what it does, releasing Him from this more limited communion, this sin-stained communion, into a relationship of face-to-face communion without sin. My friend, there's something bigger than your individual salvation and mine. And that's why the hope of the believer is not the intermediate state in death. The hope is that which is at hand, the next great event in redemptive history, when all of the promises of God with respect to the triumphs of His grace and the defeat of His enemies will find their consummate and final fulfillment

58:03 at the return of the Lord Jesus. That's why the coming of the Lord is said to be the blessed hope. It is the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. But not only is the return of Christ central in the history of redemption, it's climactic.

The Climactic Nature of Christ's Return

58:25 Now, climactic means the final or culminating event in a series of events. Well, the history of redemption has been a series of events. In space, time, history, in the stuff of the real world, real human beings, real angels, real demons, real devil. God has been working out His redemptive purposes and plans.

58:51 And that which is climactic, the final culminating event, is the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Let me illustrate it this way. For Marion Jones, who had hoped to come back with five golds from the Olympics, I believe she did win the 200 meters in one or two others and took a second or third. Now, if you were to ask an Olympic athlete, what was your climactic experience in conjunction with the 200-meter dash?

59:24 Do you expect that she would answer and say it was the hours of being at the track, running until I felt my legs were like lead and my lungs were about to burst? No. You think she'd say, well, it's my starting blocks. To me, the climactic thing with the 200-meter dash is settling those starting blocks on the track.

59:47 No. You think she'd say breaking the tape first? No. The climactic event is standing on the podium with the gold draped around your neck.

59:56 After that, it's all downhill. It's all downhill. That's the climactic element. Now, that's how the Scripture sets before us the coming of the Lord Jesus.

60:08 Everything else has been leading up to that one yet to be known event. The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So 1 Corinthians 15 to 20 to 28. We are told that those events accompanying Christ's return will mean the destruction of the last enemy.

60:31 Not the second last. Not the third last. But the last enemy. 2 Peter chapter 3 and I want you to turn there with me briefly Peter breaks up all of history into three not four or five major epochs what are they?

60:50 creation to the flood 2 Peter 3 verse 5 this they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water by the word of God by which means the world that then was. Epoch number one, creation up to the flood. With the flood, now there is what Peter calls the world that now is. Look at the scripture again.

61:20 By which means the world that then was being overflowed with water perish, but the heavens that are now and the earth by the same word have been stored up for fire being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. And when will that happen? Verse 10, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the which the heavens shall pass away with great noise. The elements be dissolved with fervent heat.

61:52 The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. You see what Peter is saying? Epoch 1, creation to flood. Epoch 2, flood, post-flood.

62:02 the heavens and the earth that are now until the what? Until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. When does that occur? At the second coming.

62:17 Well, what's the third epoch? Creation to flood. Post-flood to second coming. Second coming to an eternity in the new heavens and the new earth.

62:27 Verse 13, but according to His promise, we look for new heavens. And a new earth wherein, and he uses a present tense of the verb that means to settle in. It means to be permanently at home in something. We, according to promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness will have its permanent, unchangeable dwelling.

62:58 It's climactic. When Jesus comes, everything that He does in His coming means the purposes of God have come to their climactic fulfillment. Eternity is ushered in. And the enjoyment of God and of the Lamb in the midst of the throne for those who are His.

63:21 And in the horrors of outer darkness in the lake of fire for those who are not His. The scriptures repeatedly state there are only two ages.

63:33 I said Peter divides history into three epochs, but there are only two ages. Jesus said committing this sin means no forgiveness in this age or in that which is to come. Paul says God has put everything under the feet of Christ in this age and that which is to come. and when Jesus gives his parable in Matthew 13 with respect to the final judgment.

64:01 I want you to note this. Matthew 13 and verse 39.

64:09 The enemy that sold them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are the angels.

64:19 The same Greek construction is used in Matthew 28, 20, Lo, I am with you even to the end of the world. The end of the world is the time of the destruction of the ungodly, the glorification of the saints. It is climactic. Nothing follows.

Critique of Post-Climactic Schemes

64:39 Now, because the return of Jesus is set before us as central in the history of redemption, and because it is everywhere presented as climactic, The majority of God's people throughout the ages have not embraced the notion that there's a third age intermediate between the now and the then. an age in which the redeemed with resurrected bodies will dwell alongside unregenerate people who in some way are externally governed by Christ with a rod of iron in this present earth that's going to blossom with all kinds of unusual fruitfulness and the animals will all get along with one another. And I am to get excited that I'll dwell alongside a bunch of hypocrites

65:26 who at the end of that thousand years are going to join in one massive revolt and try to overthrow the reign of Christ. And then the wicked will be raised and judged. My friends, it is impossible to fit that scheme into the overarching teaching of the Word of God. It makes the second coming anticlimactic.

65:49 The real climax comes when He deals with all those scoundrels at the end of the thousand years and then we have a full new heavens and new earth wherein dwells nothing but righteousness. But my Bible says He's going to do that when He comes again. And I long for that day not only to see my Savior, but as we shall see in a subsequent message, one of the great motivations that captures the heart of a true believer. He is not a crass individualist who's always thinking of mine and me and I.

66:23 He longs for the time when all of the fruit of Christ's suffering will be gathered together and Jesus can have His honeymoon.

66:33 He can have His wedding feast and He's not going to have it until we're all in. And bless God, we're all going to be in when He comes again. The dead in Christ shall rise first. We who are alive and remain caught up together.

66:49 There's no more blessed togetherness than that which we'll know when the voice of the archangel sounds and the trump of God blasts. and our returning Lord comes to take us to Himself. And then we will enter in to a new heavens and a new earth. Continuity with the present heavens and earth, yes, as we saw last week from Romans 8.

67:12 But such discontinuity that it can be called new heavens and new earth. In the very theater where the devil has done his dirty work, God's going to set up shop. and we can only imagine what the new heavens and the new earth will be like when renovated by the purifying fires of a returning Lord. Well, those are the two things I wanted to set before you this morning before we move on into the various aspects of the motivational pressure of this truth of the Lord's return.

Pastoral Application: Be Ready

67:44 To have settled afresh in our hearts this simple truth as to the event it is certain as to its place in the history of redemption. It is central and it is climactic. And the one question with which I leave you this morning is this. Have you obeyed Jesus' most frequently repeated admonition in the light of his return?

68:12 Do you know what it is? Be therefore ready, for in such an hour as you think not, The Son of Man is coming. Matthew 24, 44. Be therefore ready.

68:31 Why? For in such an hour as you think not. And we'll see the significance of those words tonight when we consider as to the time it is imminent, but unknown and unknowable to us in such a time as you think not. the Son of Man is coming.

68:51 As in the days before the flood, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. They were eating and drinking and marrying, giving in marriage, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man.

69:09 Are you going to join the skeptics and say, Ha! My grandfather heard this stuff. your skepticism is nothing new it proves nothing but that you're willfully forgetting something there was a God who told a generation of God forsakers, law breakers, vile, incensuous, wicked men, I'm going to send a flood and they said flood, schmud, big deal whoever saw a flood, whoever heard of a flood they knew not until the flood came. Then they learned what a flood was.

69:50 As they're gasping for their last breath of air before they sink beneath the billows and in a short time become bloated carcasses on the face of the sea. My friend, that God is the God who is and who calls you to repent of your sin and to cast yourself upon His dear Son, the Lord Jesus, who died and rose again and who delays His coming according to Peter out of purposes of salvation. Account that the long suffering of God is salvation. He has borne another week with your wretched unbelief.

70:29 Living for yourself. Living by your own rules in God's world. Sucking in God's breath. Eating God's food.

70:39 And God spared you another week. And what do you do? You say, God must not mean His threatening. I got away with it another week.

70:49 Until the flood came, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. My dear friend, don't go on in your unbelief. Am I saying that Jesus Christ will come in your lifetime or mine? No, I have no warrant to say it.

71:06 But could He come? Yes! And He commands you to be ready should He come. And dear child of God, before we even get into the particulars of the motivational pressure of this reality, ask yourself this simple question.

71:23 Were he to come today, could I meet him without shame?

71:29 Keeping short accounts, a tender conscience, not knowingly living in compromise. God help us that the reality of His imminent return will be a spur to abide in Him and to walk with integrity before Him let's pray our Father we thank You that You have given us Your Word as a lamp in a dark place and that when we look about us and see the disintegration of our own society the madness, the lawlessness the wholesale abandonment

72:15 to materialism and sensuality the defiance of even the laws of common decency we thank you that we know that history is going somewhere we thank you our father for the confidence we have that a moment is coming marked out in your own death calendar when you will send your Son back out of the clouds in glory and power. Oh, Lord Jesus, be merciful to some who were you to come today would be cut off in your righteous anger. We plead with you that you'd give them no rest until they find a refuge in the blood and righteousness

73:02 of our Lord Jesus. Help us, our Father. May your word be written upon our hearts and may we live in the strength of Christ in the light of it. We pray in Jesus' name.

73:16 Amen.