Perseverance; Sobriety/Watchfulness; Holiness

Introduction: Doctrine and Duty in Light of Christ's Return

0:09 The following sermon was delivered at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, by Pastor Albert N. Martin. This is another sermon in the series entitled The Return of Jesus in New Testament Belief and Experience.

0:34 May I urge you to turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's first letter to the Thessalonian Church, 1 Thessalonians, and follow as I read the first eleven verses of the fifth chapter. We had occasion to consider the latter part of the fourth chapter this morning, that word that Paul received from the Lord concerning those who have gone before us, falling asleep in Christ, and what the returning Lord will do for his dead saints and his living saints at his return in remembering, that there were no chapter divisions, not even paragraph divisions in the letter that would have been originally read to the Thessalonian Church. The Apostle goes on in chapter 5 to say, But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that anything be written unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall in no wise escape.

1:57 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief, for you are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. So then, let us not, let us not sleep as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night.

2:26 But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, that is, whether we are alive or sleep the sleep of death in Christ, we should live together with him. Wherefore, exhort one another, and build each other up, even as also you do. Now let us again ask the help of God as we come to our service. To our study of the scriptures. Our Father, it has been good for our souls to sing back to you your own holy word. We thank you for this hymn that has underscored the great truth, locked up in that parable of the foolish and the wise virgins, the attendance of the wedding, and we pray, O Lord, that you would help us to heed the exhortations of our Lord, Jesus, given again and again in his own ministry and through his apostles,

3:51 that we may be a watchful and wakeful people in anticipation of his glorious return. Bless, we pray, the opening up and the application of your word to each of our hearts. We ask these mercies in Jesus' name. Amen.

4:14 One of the most foundational principles of the Christian life, as it is set before us in the New Testament, is that there is or there exists an intimate, living, mutually supportive relationship between doctrine and duty. An intimate relationship between what we are and have in Christ and what we are to be and to do for Christ. Or to state it in another way, that you've heard many, many times in this place, the great indicatives of God's grace are the basis for the imperatives of the duties of grace. And nowhere is this principle more vividly illustrated than with respect to the Biblical doctrine of the second coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Having opened up from the Scriptures some of the major, major aspects of the what of the Lord's return, we are now considering the sole what of that glorious event that is yet to unfold as God carries out His purposes of redemption and His grace. I stated this morning that the practical applications of the truth of the Lord's return

5:43 can be arranged under two headings. These are judgments that the preacher makes, and I claim no infallibility, but I have found it helpful in the course of these months of study to try to see if there are some major categories under which the practical applications of this doctrine can be arranged. And it is my present judgment that they can be arranged under two major headings, the gracious consolations derived from the truth of the Lord's return, and secondly, the manifold motivations that are rooted in the doctrine of the Lord's return. This morning we fixed our attention upon the gracious consolations of the return of Christ, and I sought to demonstrate from the Scriptures that as the people of God, we are to receive distinct and special consolation in the contemplation of the return of Christ in the midst of the ordinary afflictions of life, in the face of suffering for the sake of Christ, and in the face of death, our death, and the death of our loved ones. Now, this evening, we come to begin to consider, I believe there will be at least one subsequent message in the will of God, to consider together the manifold motivations of the return of Christ.

Motivation 1: Persevering Faith

7:13 For when we take up our Bibles, we find again and again that the truth of the Lord's return is not only connected to the consolations which the people of God need in the midst of affliction, suffering, and the reality of death, but that again and again there are motivations to various strands of Christian duty and responsibility that arise directly out of the doctrine of the Lord's return in glory and power at the end of the age. Now, a motive is defined in our dictionaries as some drive, impulse, or intention that causes a person to do something or to act. A motive is some drive, some impulse, or intention that causes a person to do something or to act. I like to think of motives as the hidden, silent, but powerful engine of the soul. What your motives are, you will be.

8:22 That which impels us to a given course of action are the motives that are resident in the soul. And if the Bible makes anything clear, it is the fact that an enlightened, spirit-wrought conviction concerning the return of Christ is to function in manifold ways at the level of our motivation. In other words, there are a number of areas in our lives as the people of God lived in this present world that should be influenced by motives, drives, or intentions rooted in present conviction concerning the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in the time allotted tonight, I want us to consider things as three of those manifold motivations. The first is this. The return of Christ is to motivate us to persevering faith.

9:23 The return of Christ is to motivate us to persevering faith. According to the Scriptures, saving faith is not the static act of a moment in the past. Rather, it is the implantation of a living disposition of the soul. Saving faith is not a static act of the past.

9:53 Saving faith is the implantation of a dynamic or living disposition of the soul. And the only validation that my professed faith in the past is real is that it is operating in the present. True faith is persevering faith. You'll remember in the parable of the sower in the soils, Jesus demonstrates that temporary faith is not saving faith.

10:22 He says there are some who when they hear the word receive it with joy, and then they only endure for a while. And when persecution and tribulation arise because of the word, like the plant that has no root system, the seed that fell upon rocky soil, they wither and they die, demonstrating that the root of the matter was never in them. According to the scriptures, saving faith, I say again, is not a static act of the past. It is the implantation of a living disposition of the soul.

11:02 And it is present, persevering faith that is the validation of the legitimacy of perseverance of the past. And the scriptures tell us that all who truly believe into Christ will manifest the genuineness of that faith by continuing to cling to Christ in the death grip of saving faith. For that's what saving faith is. It is being brought to the place where I am persuaded from the scriptures that my condition as a sinner is such that apart from death and death I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved For Jesus Christ I have no prospect but to be a recipient of the wrath of God. And when a man or woman boy or girl conscious of personal guilt and hell deservingness lays hold of Christ as the only Savior of sinners as the Savior who is willing and able to save all who come unto God by Him faith is not simply reaching up a pinky of the soul in touching Christ It is the laying hold of Christ in a death grip. Oh, God, if you do not have mercy upon me, for Jesus' sake, I've had it. Saving faith is the death grip of the soul upon Christ as he is offered in the gospel.

12:30 And if that faith is genuine, it is persevering. And one of the motives to persevering faith is that Jesus Christ is coming again. And if he is coming again, and we do not know when he is coming, then the disposition of our souls will be one of determination that when he comes, he shall find us clinging to him in persevering faith. Let me demonstrate this from several scriptures now.

13:04 1 John 2. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 28.

13:14 And now, my little children, abide in him. That is, remain in union with Jesus Christ by living active faith. Now, my little children, abide in him. Why, John?

13:31 That if he shall be manifested. It's a reference to his second coming. If he shall be manifested. If he shall be manifested.

13:39 If he shall be manifested. If he shall be manifested, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming. Now, in this text, the Spirit of God is very clearly addressing professed believers and is saying you must abide in Christ that if he shall be manifested, he would find you not ashamed, but bold at his coming. Now, some would say, well, those are two different categories of Christian experience.

14:13 Everyone who professes to be in Christ and says he's sincere in his belief of Christ, that if they're living as they ought, they'll have boldness at the Lord's coming. If they're not living as they ought, they'll be ashamed, but the Lord will have a little time to sort that out and slap them on the wrist and settle the issue and then welcome them into heaven. No, my friends, the biblical doctrine of abiding in Christ is not a matter of differing levels. of Christian grace and experience and rewards.

14:42 It's a matter of life and death. To abide in Christ is to manifest that we are truly united to Christ. Failure to abide in him by means of persevering faith is to manifest that our professed faith is not the real thing. Right in this very passage, 1 John chapter 2, look at verse 24.

15:06 As for you, let that. Abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning abide in you, you shall also abide in the Son and in the Father, and this is the promise which he promised us, even life eternal. To whom is life eternal promised?

15:31 To those who lay hold of Christ and continue to abide in Christ and in the truth. Begin in the frame of Christ. And John got this notion from his Lord, the very words of the Lord Jesus in John, Chapter 15, in which he speaks of His relationship to His Own as that of shared life, a kind of shared life that exists between the vine and the branches. And our Lord says in John 15 verse 5 I am the vine, you are the branches.

16:08 He that abides, He that remains. He that remains in me and I in him, the same bears much fruit. For apart from me, severed from me, cut off from me, you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered.

16:28 And they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. Now is our Lord saying that we can be genuinely united to him and then eventually be severed from him? No. No. We don't take metaphors and press every single detail of them.

16:47 But what our Lord is saying is that if we do not abide in him, we will be cut off by him. And we will be destroyed as dead, lifeless branches are cut off the vine and consumed. In fire. When we turn to Hebrews chapter 10, we see a similar emphasis in conjunction with the Lord's return.

17:14 These professing believers were facing tremendous pressures and opposition. In verse 32, the writer says they endured a great conflict of sufferings. Being made a gazing stock by reproaches and afflictions. And partly becoming partakers with them.

17:35 That were so used. He reminds them of what many of them have already suffered in their attachment to Christ. Not only generic afflictions, but specific persecution and opposition because of their professed attachment to Christ. And now he says in verse 35, Do not cast away therefore your boldness, which has great recompense of reward.

18:01 For you have need of patience. You have need of steadfastness. That having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a very little while, he that comes shall come and shall not tarry.

18:18 But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrink back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition. But of them that have faith.

18:35 Unto the saving of the soul. And here the writer to the Hebrews is underscoring this same principle. That it is only in the maintenance of persevering faith in Christ. That the promise of complete redemption will be realized in our own experience.

18:57 And so he encourages them that in a little while, God's timetable is not ours. He will come. And there will be the vindication of all of his people. But my righteous one, the one who is truly declared righteous in the court of heaven.

19:15 Because he is united to Christ by faith. My righteous one shall live by faith. Faith will be the very core of the life that he lives from beginning to end. And if he shrink back, if he abandons faith.

19:32 My soul shall have no pleasure in him. And then he consoles them by saying, I have good hopes for you that you are not part of the number who shrink back. Who having professed faith. And who can point to a time when they, quote, came to believe in Christ.

19:51 But have subsequently relinquished that death grip upon Christ. Those who thus shrink back. Shrink back, not to the loss of a few rewards. But they shrink back to perdition.

20:03 They shrink back to the loss of a few rewards. But they shrink back to perdition. But they shrink back to perdition. They shrink back to suffer the wrath of God.

20:07 They shrink back to suffer the wrath of God. For their sins that have never been cleansed. For their impenitence. And for their unbelief.

20:15 But we are not in that category, he says. But of those that have faith unto the saving of the soul. But of those that have faith unto the saving of the soul. But of those that have faith unto the saving of the soul.

20:23 And then the familiar words of Romans 1. And then the familiar words of Romans 1. Verses 16 and 17. Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

20:31 Why? For it is the power of God unto salvation. For it is the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believes.

20:39 To everyone who comes into the condition of being a believer. To everyone who comes into the condition of being a believer. To everyone who comes into the condition of being a believer. Not to everyone that believed past tense.

20:47 Not to everyone that believed past tense. But to everyone who becomes a believing one. But to everyone who becomes a believing one. And notice now the very next verse.

20:55 And notice now the very next verse. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith unto faith, For therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith unto faith, For therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith unto faith, But the righteous shall not only be justified by faith, but shall live by faith. So you see, the emphasis is upon not the static act of a moment, but the acquisition of a disposition of clinging to Christ and Christ alone as our righteousness and as our hope of eternal life.

21:30 And then the familiar words of our Lord Jesus, speaking in terms of the destruction of Jerusalem, of His own coming in glory and power in what is commonly called the Olivet Discourse. Jesus said, He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. And what's the context of that statement? Matthew 24 and verse 14.

21:57 Matthew 24 and verse 12. I'm sorry. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. As iniquity abounds, it sucks back into its orbit those who profess attachment to Christ.

22:19 But He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. In other words, it is persevering faith, even in the midst of a growing climate of lawlessness that is exposing the sham faith of many. Those who are truly united to Christ, they shall persevere in faith. And here our Lord states, such and only such shall be saved with the consummate blessings of God's saving grace.

22:54 We unashamedly confess in this place our confidence that the Bible teaches that once a man or woman has been brought into the orbit of God's saving grace, those whom He loved and set his heart upon in eternity, who were given to Christ, for whom He shed His blood, and to whom the Spirit comes, opening their eyes to see their sin, and to see the suitableness of Christ, giving them the gift of faith and repentance, so they turn from their sin and lay hold of Christ. We unashamedly say we believe everyone truly united, united to Christ, not a one of them shall be lost. We do believe I trust with a passion when Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. And there is no other salvation worthy of being preached. Who wants to preach a salvation that in the end, may all Peter, out and come to nothing?

24:08 No, we do believe the Scripture teaches the preservation of the saints. But it teaches with equal clarity the necessity of the perseverance of the saints. God's preserving of His own comes to light in the dogged, persevering faith of His own. Not bypassing their faith, but producing it and securing it, and you and I manifest the genuineness of our faith by the perseverance in the way of faith.

24:46 And the Lord's return is to be an incentive to this. He is coming, and when He comes, if I am found in any other posture of soul but that of clinging to Him, abiding in Him, clinging to Him as my only hope of life and salvation, clinging to Him, as Lord and Master of my life, and the sovereign, gracious, despot of my soul, if I am found in any other posture, I will be ashamed before Him at His coming, and He will be ashamed of me.

Motivation 2: Spiritual Sobriety and Watchfulness

25:23 And if I am found at His coming, clinging to Him, having that disposition of the soul, that only in Christ am I accepted before God, I will have boldness, and I will be humble before Him at His coming. One of the powerful motives derived from the truth of the Lord's return with respect to the people of God is the return of Christ is to motivate us to persevering faith. But then secondly, the return of Christ is to motivate us to maintain spiritual sobriety and watchfulness. The return of Christ is to motivate us to maintain spiritual sobriety and watchfulness. And here we'll look at four passages of Scripture. I think I'm about ready to say after these months of rooting around in the Scriptures and all the key passages concerning the Lord's return that this is probably the most dominant emphasis in those key passages concerning the return of the Lord's coming. Jesus. Look with me, first of all, at Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. I'm sorry,

26:45 Mark chapter 13. It's an MK in my notes, not an MT. Mark chapter 13. This is Mark's account of what is commonly called, as I mentioned earlier, the Olivet Discourse. Our Lord most likely standing on the Mount of Olives, looking back at the beautiful temple and telling the disciples when its destruction would occur and when he would come and usher in the end of the age. And here in Mark 13, beginning in verse 33, we read, But take heed, watch and pray, for you know not when the time is. Remember in our initial studies, as to the time of the Lord's return for us, it is always imminent at hand, indefinite, and unknowable. Jesus has just underscored that and says, now take heed, watch and pray, for

27:44 you do not know when the time is. It is as when a man sojourning in another country, having left his house, given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. Watch, therefore, for you know not when the Lord of the house comes, whether it evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning, lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch. And you see how that emphasis is so concentrated in these few verses. Our Lord says that the certainty of his return, in a context of the indefinite time of his return, is to motivate. To motivate us to maintain spiritual sobriety and watchfulness. And the concept of watching is a military term. It's describing what that sentinel will do who sits in his post through the darkest

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29:17 Everything alive and alert. And our Lord says, in the light of the certainty of His return, the indefiniteness of the time of His return, we are to take heed to watch. We are to watch therefore. Verse 37, And I say unto you as I say to all, Watch.

29:41 Then we turn to Luke chapter 12. We find a similar emphasis. Luke chapter 12, verses 35 to 40.

29:54 The Lord again, speaking to His disciples, says, Let your loins be girded about. A Middle Eastern in those days, when he was to get someplace in a hurry, he would take his loose, flowing robe and he would bring it up and tie it with a sash at his waist so he didn't go stumbling over his own skirt. Now the Lord says, You must have your loins, your spiritual loins girded. Be in a state of readiness.

30:21 Your lamps burning. And be yourselves like unto men looking for their Lord when He shall return from the marriage feast. That when He comes and knocks, they may straightway open unto Him. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He comes, shall find watching.

30:41 Verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself and make them sit down to meet and shall come and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch and if in the third and find them so blessed are those servants. Blessed are the servants who maintain sobriety, wakefulness, and watchfulness. Verse 39, But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and not have left his house to be broken through.

31:15 Be ye also ready, for in an hour that you think not, the Son of Man is coming. Watch therefore. Be ready with spiritual sobriety and wakefulness.

31:31 Then in Romans chapter 13, we find a similar emphasis. This is not some little emphasis stuck off in a corner of an obscure verse. We find it in our Lord's utterances. We find it in the apostolic instruction, Romans 13.

31:50 This great epistle in which the grand doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone is set forth. The doctrine of that faith union in Christ and with Christ being the basis of our deliverance from the dominion of sin. That in Christ we are adopted and given the gift of the Spirit. And God has committed Himself that this salvation that is ours in Him will never be taken from us.

32:18 These are the great themes of this epistle. But beginning in chapter 12, there is a concentration of application of that doctrine of great and glorious salvation. Now note what he says in chapter 13 in verse 11. And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep.

32:42 Why? For now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. Paul says, be wakeful. Wake up.

32:53 Get into a state of spiritual wakefulness and alertness. Why? Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. That is the full salvation that will come to us.

33:06 At the return of the Lord Jesus, the night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore, vigorous language, cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light.

33:20 Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in reveling in drunkenness, chambering in wantonness, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.

33:38 This final exhortation to put on Christ and in putting on Christ enter into the Christian life with the determination that we will make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. That exhortation is in the context of the second coming. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. In the light of that, we are to be wakeful.

34:04 We are to awake out of sleep. There is, a slumber into which the child of God can drift and the call comes, awake from your sleep. When we're sleeping, we're out of touch with the real world. We can dream that we're millionaires.

34:20 We can dream that we're sunning ourselves in some beautiful island in the Pacific. We can dream that we're brilliant. We can, we're out of touch with reality when we're asleep. Paul says, wake up, come to wakefulness.

34:35 Get in touch, get in touch with the reality. Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. And in the light of that, let us so walk in our own moral and ethical patterns of life in such a way that it's evident that we are alert and awake and alive to spiritual realities. And then in the Thessalonians passage that I read in your hearing at the beginning of the message, chapter five of first Thessalonians, here again, the same emphasis.

35:10 Chapter five, yourselves know perfectly, verse two, the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. And I must pause to say there's a twin use of the concept thief in the night. Here, Paul uses it in terms of the believer is not one who is surprised when the Lord's come. He says that day will not overtake you as a thief.

35:33 That is, we'll have a destructive, it will not have a destructive effect upon you. But the thief motif will be devastating to those who are spiritually asleep, indifferent to spiritual realities. Peter says, for the Lord will come as a thief in the context of speaking to the people of God, indicating that there is suddenness and unexpectedness that is both applicable to the saved and to the unsaved. So we've got to sort out that difference.

36:06 When the Bible uses an analogy, it doesn't mean that it has the same nuances in every context. We've got to look at the context. Here in this context, he says, you know perfectly the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. Suddenly, unexpectedly, when they, unbelievers, are saying, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them.

36:29 In conjunction with what? The suddenness of the Lord's return. Sudden destruction comes upon them as, as travail comes upon a woman with child and they shall in no wise escape. Those who wanted to put down the thought that Christ is returning, those who wanted no sober reflection on how shall I stand before Him in that day when He comes to judge the world, sudden destruction will come upon them.

37:00 But he says, you brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. That is, overtake you as a thief with negative results. For you are all sons of light, sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

37:18 You see the indicatives? He's telling us what we are. And that's the basis of what we're to be and to do. You are all sons of the light, sons of the day.

37:29 That's the positive. Now the negative. We are not of the night nor of darkness. So then, be, what you are.

37:38 That's what he's saying. So then, let us not sleep as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. Same emphasis as our Lord. Let us be alert and alive to all of the realities about us, the dangers, the privileges, the principles of spiritual warfare.

37:58 Let us watch and be sober for those who sleep, sleep in the night, and those who are drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, since we are of the day, this is what we are, sons and daughters of the day. Now he said, let us live as sons and daughters of the day. Let us, since we are of the day, be sober.

38:22 When a man is sober, what is the characteristic of that man? Well, he doesn't have an accumulation of alcohol pressing in on his brain cells and making him to some degree ignorant and ignorant of the reality around him or unable to function with all of his faculties in relating to that reality. He says, let's not be drunk. Let's not allow ourselves to get into any frame of mind where the accumulative influence of the alcohol of worldliness, of preoccupation with ourselves, our jobs, our reputation, whatever else it is that takes us out of touch with the great realities of the soul, of the coming again of the Lord Jesus. He said, we must not be drunken. He's not speaking about literal drunkenness. He does speak about that in Ephesians 5.

39:20 Let us not be drunk with wine where it is excess. But he's using this as figurative language.

39:27 Worldlings are sons and daughters of the night, so they sleep. They're out of touch with reality and they want to remain so. They're drunk. They drink themselves silly with their own thoughts and their preoccupation with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

39:45 He said, look, people who get drunk get drunk at night. People who sleep, sleep in the night. You should have nothing to do with the night. You're sons and daughters of the day.

39:55 You're sons and daughters of the light. Live accordingly. The return of Christ is to motivate us not only to persevering faith, but to maintain spiritual sublimity and sobriety and watchfulness.

The Danger of Spiritual Slumber and the Need for Mutual Exhortation

40:12 Watchfulness means mental concentration in order to perceive and to react to real and perceived danger.

40:25 As I was reflecting upon this this afternoon, it struck me afresh.

40:30 The grave danger for some of you is not that you're going to go out into a lifestyle in which you throw over all of the boundaries of decency and morality, but to just allow yourself to stagger into hell, having succumbed to the grave dangers of a society addicted to sounds and sights that put you to sleep.

41:01 I've lived long enough to see people go from an occasional interaction with sounds coming into their ears other than conversation to where people are obsessed with sounds coming into their ears continually, pictures continually before their eyes. Can't wait to get the newest handheld gimmick in which you can punch in how many channels and instant this and contact with this and there is this glut on what people call the information highway. It becomes a form of narcotic that dulls the senses.

41:41 The people of God can very quickly drift into patterns in which the great issues that ought to frame our lives, especially in this context, my Lord could return today. Would He find me watchful and wakeful, in touch with reality, engaging in what I ought to be engaged in as a child of God in obedience to Him?

42:10 You and I need one another in this area and that's why, again, in this very context, you notice how Paul closes the exhortation, verse 11, wherefore, in the light of the Lord's return, in the light of the tendency to slumber and to become spiritually inebriated, wherefore, exhort one another and build each other up as also you do. We need fidelity to one another. We need to have the kinds of relationships that we can put a hand on the shoulder of a brother or sister and say, you know, John, there was a time when when we talked our conversation drifted very naturally into the real issues of our walk with God and our desire to be what God would have us be. But in recent weeks, I've found that your conversation rarely goes there and when I try to steer it there, it becomes a one-way speech. What's going on, John? What's going on, Mary?

43:10 What's going on, Pete? What's going on, Harry? Wherefore, exhort one another, build each other up and the writer to the Hebrews brings in the second coming in Hebrews chapter 10, underscoring this same duty that Paul lays upon the Thessalonian believers there in 1 Thessalonians 5, 11. In chapter 10, the writer to the Hebrews says, verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not.

43:40 He is faithful that promised and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works not forsaking our own assembly together as the custom of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day drawing nigh. He says you're to engage in this ministry of mutual exhortation with one eye on the fact the day is drawing nigh. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.

Motivation 3: Serious Pursuit of Personal Holiness

44:14 Now is our time. Our salvation nearer than when we first believed. The return of Christ is to motivate us to maintain spiritual sobriety and watchfulness. And thirdly and finally for tonight, the return of Christ should not only motivate us to persevering faith, to the maintenance of spiritual sobriety and watchfulness, but the return of Christ should motivate us to a serious pursuit of personal holiness.

44:49 It should motivate us to a serious pursuit of personal holiness. And here we look at three pivotal passages. The first one is in 1 John chapter 3. The same John who has exhorted his readers in the area of the necessity of persevering faith in 2.28 now writes in chapter 3 verse 1, Behold, stand back, look, be amazed and astounded. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God and such we are. For this cause the world does not know us because it didn't know him. Beloved, now are we children of God and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be.

45:45 Oh yes, we have much now, but there is much in the not yet that awaits us. It is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if he shall be manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him even as he is. John says we know that at his return the first thing he is going to do is glorify his saints.

46:10 We shall be like him. We shall see him as he is. Now verse 3, And everyone, everyone that has this hope, set on him continually purifies himself even as he is pure. John says without any qualification those who have biblical grounds to believe they are the children of God and therefore are destined to total conformity to the Son of God, that conformity culminating in his return, every such person, that has this hope set on him is in a constant serious pursuit of universal holiness. Everyone that has this hope set on him and don't be embarrassed by the language, purifies himself. Well, I thought we were only purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ. John has already told us that.

47:12 He knows that very well. In chapter 1 in verse 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, goes on cleansing us from all sin. I thought we were purified in terms of defilement and guilt only on the basis of the work of Christ. John, what are you saying?

47:30 John says, I know that. I'm the one that told you in chapter 2 verse 1. These things I write unto you that you may not sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and he is propitiation for our sins. John, what are you saying then?

47:48 Are you contradicting yourself? No. But the Holy Spirit is underscoring that in this matter of personal holiness, we are engaged. And we're engaged seriously.

48:01 So much so that this language is warranted. Everyone that has this hope set on him continually purifies himself. How? Not by pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, conquering his remaining sin in his own strength, but by the serious engagement of all that God has given us in Christ to be increasingly conformed to the image of Christ.

48:29 And we are active in that process. We heard about it in the Sunday school hour. So then, my beloved brethren, Philippians 2, 12, as you have always obeyed, now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear, and trembling for it is God who works in you both who are willing to work for his good pleasure. If I'm really thinking with any degree of sobriety that at the coming of Christ, that which I long for beyond all else, is that I may see him and be like him, then the thought of his coming is going to get me seriously active to engage all of the God-given means at my disposal, that that process might go on as far as it's possible to go on until he culminates it at his coming. Everyone that has this hope in him and has biblical grounds to have such a hope, here is the evidence. He is purifying himself, even as he is pure. In other words, we do not look primarily over our shoulder and say, Well, is that true?

49:48 Is my life and the patterns of personal holiness such as to put me in the class of the other men in the church of my age, the other women in the church of my age, and experience my year... No, no.

50:02 Ultimately, our standard is Christ. Second Corinthians 3.18, But we all with open face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into that image from one stage of glory to another. 1 John 2.6, he that says he abides in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked.

Holiness as a Response to God's Grace and a Mark of Obedience

50:26 Christ is our standard of what it means to be pure, what it means to be like God, what it means in the right sense to be image of that God who is thrice holy and enjoins us to holiness. And that brings us to the second key passage. And that's 1 Peter chapter 3, as we seek to demonstrate from the scriptures that the return of Christ should motivate us to a serious pursuit of personal holiness. Those of you who are here for the expositions of 1 Peter will remember, I trust, I hope I'm not flattering myself as a preacher, I hope you remember that we emphasized again and again that there's not one exhortation, not one. There's not one admonition in this letter until we come to chapter 1 and verse 13. The opening verses are all the indicatives of grace. Here's the salvation you have.

51:28 Here are the dimensions of the salvation that await you. And the God who's reserved for you this marvelous inheritance, he's preserving you to bring you to the inheritance. Some of the most wonderful teaching found anywhere in the word of God, parallel in many ways to Ephesians chapter 1. But then in verse 13, he says, In verse 13, he comes with his first exhortation.

51:50 Look what it is. Wherefore, in the light of this glorious salvation that is yours, many facets of which yet await you at the return of Christ, wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober. You see the bringing together of these emphases? We're to be like men in readiness to run.

52:12 We're to have all of our wits about us. We're to be sober. And we're to set our hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance, but like as he who called you is holy, be yourselves also holy in all manner of living.

52:42 Because it is written, you shall be holy. For I am holy. And here's Peter's picture of the consistent Christian. His heart is overflowing with praise to God.

52:55 He can enter into Peter's words in verse 3 of this chapter. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begot us again unto a living hope by the resurrection. The child of God, Peter envisions in his mind, can enter in and in his heart, his sense, this overflowing of wonder and gratitude for so great a salvation. Now he pictures this same Christian with a heart bubbling over with gratitude and wonder that he has been so blessed by God in Christ.

53:31 He ties up the loose flowing parts of his garment. He puts his sash around them. He splashes cold water on his face. He drinks a cup of strong Dominican coffee.

53:44 He's got all his. He's got all his wits about him. Ready to run. His mind is alert.

53:48 And what is he doing? His hope is set upon the coming of Christ when he shall be fully conformed to the image of Christ. And on the way between here and there, what is he doing? He is pursuing universal holiness.

54:05 Seeking to take seriously the word of God that says, You shall be holy in every facet of your life. In all matters. In every manner of living. That Greek word means in every facet of your lifestyle.

54:21 Pursuing holiness seriously, intensely, in utter dependence upon the grace of God. Drawing upon the wonder of our union with Christ. Believing that we died with him. We were buried with him.

54:39 We were raised with him. We now sit with him in the heavenly places. The Holy Spirit dwells. It's within us.

54:47 And the word of God is set before us to guide us. And we're taking seriously what it means to be a holy young man. A holy woman. Holy boy.

54:59 Holy girl. Holy man. Is that you? Is that me?

55:06 John says, Everyone that has this hope set on him goes on purifying himself. Peter admonishes us that we are to set our hope perfectly on the return of the Lord Jesus and the grace that will come to us in conjunction with that return. I am marked to be glorified. I am marked to be conformed to the image of Christ.

55:31 What in the world am I doing? Drinking at the swine trough of Hollywood's garbage. What in the world am I doing? Letting the world impinge upon my soul in reading material that duty doesn't...

55:46 demand I read. That takes my mind down paths of the unclean and the dishonest. What am I doing watching images of violence and lechery and uncleanness? In God's name, how do people marked for glory live like that?

56:08 No. If we're marked for glory and we're serious about attaining glory, by the grace of God as children of obedience, we will not fashion...

56:20 ourselves according to our former lusts in the time of our ignorance. But we'll pray with Robert Murray McShane. He just said that he prayed, Lord, make me as holy as it's possible for a redeemed sinner to be made holy in this life. Where would you set the standard beneath that?

56:46 Lord, make me just holy enough to have progress in the sins that others see. And you have to question. You have to question whether your motive for holiness is real in the first place. It's the eye of God that matters more than anything else.

57:02 Peter goes on to enlarge on that very dimension. And if you call on him his father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear. In other words, Peter is saying, this pursuit of holiness in the light of the coming of the Lord Jesus gets beyond mere externals. It touches the motives.

57:24 It touches the thoughts of the heart, the imaginations of the soul. We know what it is to be grieved and wrestle as much with the fleeting thought of pride or lust as we would wrestle with the temptation to thievery or to punching someone in the face. We're serious about universal holiness. Well, we come around full circle to where we began.

Holiness and Godliness in Light of Christ's Return

57:52 We said we were going to study some of the passages of Scripture that show us that holiness is real. They show us the motivational pressure of the truth of the Lord's return. And I've tried to demonstrate for you from these Scriptures, and I won't take the time to expound them, but I just remind you of 2 Peter 3. That emphasis comes through twice in that section of Peter's teaching on the second coming.

58:18 Verse 11, seeing these things are thus to be dissolved. What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation? In all holy living and godliness. Verse 14, beloved, seeing you look for these things, give diligence that you may be found in peace without spot and blameless in His sight.

58:38 Everywhere you turn in the Word of God, it teaches us that the doctrine of the Lord's return, when spiritually assimilated, and when exerting the pressure upon that engine of the soul, our motives should be a powerful motive. Not only impelling us in the direction of persevering faith, motivating us to maintain spiritual sobriety and watchfulness, but motivating us to a serious pursuit of personal holiness. And what I hope to demonstrate in some context, I'm not quite sure how it's all going to fit together, is that if someone objects, well, living like that will make you so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. No. Just the opposite is true. When you live like that, you are your most earthly good.

The Practicality of Heavenly-Mindedness

59:32 For in these very epistles that direct the people of God to live with the eyes of the soul fixed upon the coming glory, descends to the most practical duties in the social realm, in the domestic realm, in personal interactions. And as I was driving over tonight, I said, Lord, how can I illustrate that and make it stick? And the best thing that came to my mind was, suppose I were to tell you, well, I'm going to tell you, that what I try to do on Mondays after all my to-do things, I have to pay my bills like you do. And I do it the old way.

60:06 I have a pen and I write out checks. I don't sit there and do this electronic stuff. I mean, I do it the real way. I write out the checks.

60:14 And I have to balance my checkbook. Some electrical impulse doesn't do it for me. That's another story. But anyway, suppose I were to tell you, when I've done all of those things that I, the things that have to be done, one of them tomorrow I've got to clean out my closet and get all my summer shirts back into the other room so my wife has a place to put all my long-sleeve shirts.

60:33 I've got all that written in on my little block on Monday for to-do. Then I try to get a couple of hours to sit in our family room. My wife gets me a New York Times and a Star Ledger. And I put on some CDs of the kind of music I enjoy.

60:49 And I will sit there for two, sometimes three hours, giving those papers a very serious read, and try to keep in touch with the book reviews, the theater reviews, international news, what's going on in New Jersey, read the editorials. Now, what have I done today? I've engaged myself in almost all my waking hours, reading my Bible, praying, writing, preaching. Now, let me ask you a question.

61:21 Do you think I would want the Lord to come and find me preaching more than I'd want Him to come and find me sitting, listening to Beethoven's Fifth and reading the New York Times? What do you think? Now, you see, if we have the biblical perspective straight in our minds and hearts, we would want to be found by the Lord at His coming doing what it was our duty to do. And I believe it's my duty to take some of the Sabbath rest that I don't have because it's my most exerting day and to transfer it to a Monday.

62:03 And I believe I can honestly say, as much as I would love to have the Lord return while I'm preaching, I'm not ashamed should He return if He finds me with my feet up on the recliner, the New York Times in my hand, and listening to Beethoven. I've got no problem with that. Why? Because all of life is lived before His face when we're walking as we ought to walk by the rule of His Word and by the help of His Spirit.

62:33 We are not advocating that which Paul condemned. Some of those Thessalonians, they took the doctrine of the Lord's return and they went wacko with it. And some of them weren't working and they were apparently taking the posture, well, we're just going to look up to heaven and wait till Jesus comes. And Paul says, when they get hungry, don't give them a meal.

62:52 And when their stomach is playing a tune on their backbone and they've got to go work, then they'll realize that's not the real world. If any man will not work, let him not eat. That's in the context of people abusing the doctrine of the Lord. The Lord's return.

Conclusion and Prayer

63:04 No, it does not mean we become detached and unpractical. No, it means that in every situation we so live out what God has set before us that by His grace, no matter what we are doing in the corpus of the revealed will of God, we are doing it before the face of God in readiness for the return of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus. May God grant that in the coming week we will find that blessed motivational pressure of the truth that this same Jesus who was taken up from us into heaven shall so come in like manner. Let's pray. Our Father, what thanks can we render to You that You have condescended to lay out before us Your great purposes of grace and mercy for Your people. And we pray that You would, by the Holy Spirit, so deal with hearts in this place tonight that any of Your children who have been slumbering, who have allowed themselves to be partially inebriated with the stuff of this world, that You, Lord, would bring them to new levels of sobriety and wakefulness and watchfulness.

64:28 We pray for those who are utterly indifferent to the blessed reality, of the return of our Lord Jesus, totally unprepared, who will meet Him as a condemning judge. O God, in mercy deal with them. Give them no rest until they lay hold of Christ in the death grip of saving faith. We do ask You to seal Your word to our hearts.

64:59 Whatever's had the mixture of our own straw and stubble, of our own ignorance, blow upon it, Lord, blow upon it as the chaff. And may Your word and Your word alone sink down deeply into our hearts. We pray that You would help us in the coming week to live as those who are sons and daughters of the light and of the day, that we may cast off all of the works of darkness. Help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name.