Gooding, David: 1 - Christ's Personal Return

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, let me thank you for the warmth and the sincerity of your welcome here this evening. I think it fitting that we should begin our studies with a quotation from the Holy Scriptures. The quotation comes from the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter nine, verses twenty seven and twenty eight. And in the Revised Version, these verses read as follows: And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment, so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time apart from sin to them that wait for him unto salvation. I am well aware that the topics upon which we embark this evening are held in the gravest suspicion in many quarters. I do not mean thereby that people that are not Christians and do not receive the word of God have no faith in such topics as these. That were to be expected. For if a man does not believe in God and does not ac- accept the inspiration of this book, then we cannot expect such a man to have any faith in the prophecies which are described in the Bible. But I mean that among genuinely Christian people, prophetic subjects have been widely held in the gravest suspicion. The reason for that is not far to seek. It is quite easy to understand. I suppose of all subjects, prophecy easily lends itself to misrepresentation. None of us is very much impressed by the prophecy monger. And from the very beginning of the world, there have been a race of people among the superstitious of mankind who have seized upon prophecies and sayings of seers and witches and mediums, and have heralded them abroad with all the art of the soapbox preacher. People whose taste is for sober exposition of God's holy word have very often been disgusted by such things. Then again, it has been a curious tray in humankind, particularly among the more superstitious, that every earthquake, every famine, every tornado has been heralded as a sign that the end of the world was about to approach. And of course, when these things have passed by and the end of the world has not come, people have understandably lost their faith in such empty predictions. So it has been with people that have dared, in flat contradiction of the warning of our Lord Jesus, to fix dates on which our Lord Jesus was supposed to return again, or the earth come to its end. Those dates likewise have gone by, and have but caused the laughter and the mockery of people that are unsympathetic to the gospel. And not to pile on the difficulties too much, yet it is the fact that those who read their Bibles find that prophetic things so often are full of strange symbols, difficult to understand, that it has seemed to many that the interpretation of prophecy is bound up with such uncertainty, such irresponsibility, that it was anybody's guess, that anybody with a fertile imagination might predict all sorts of things and build all sorts of schemes, professedly on holy writ, but so fanciful and far-fetched that they would command the belief of very few people. And in consequence, I say, even Christian people have turned away from the study of prophecy with the gravest of suspicions, and sometimes not a little disgust. They have regarded it as best as a luxury to be indulged in by very few people, but certainly something that is not really necessary and vital to our Christian faith. They have looked askance on lectures and on lecturers, to be sure, who have indulged in speaking on these subjects. And yet, for all that, to dismiss prophecy from our notice is both extremely unfortunate and really, when we think upon it, a completely impossible thing for anybody who believes that this Bible is in fact the word of God. I say it is unfortunate, for in this advanced age, when men are beginning to be perplexed and fearful about the future, to dismiss prophecy is to rob all Christian people of that glorious hope that will help to keep them sane and serviceable in this world. I was traveling up from London to Heysham on Tuesday evening, to while away the time on British Railways, I spent a two and six and bought myself Bertrand Russell's recent pelican, Has Mankind a Future? While certainly we may not all agree with Bertrand Russell's political outlook and his activities, certainly his d- he has done us good service in reminding us of this extreme peril that now overhangs humankind. He would have us remember that even as we sit here in this hall, great radar screens in America are screening Russia, waiting for the slightest indication that Russian bombers are setting off or Russian rockets have been launched to land hideous atomic bombs on the USA. At the same time, screen radar screens in Russia are screening the West for that very same purpose. It only requires that a flock of geese should come across the radar screens and be mistaken for approaching enemy aircraft, and it is quite conceivable that America would let go a torrent of atomic bombs, and Russia would immediately reply by a similar torrent. And in those circumstances, it is almost certainly true that no living person would survive in the British Isles. It is quite possible, says Bertrand Russell, that somebody somewhere has already invented and produced the machine that being set going would end human existence, but for a few mangled forms. And I say in that kind of a situation, for Christians to neglect what God has told them plainly for their comfort and encouragement regarding the future is an extremely unfortunate thing. With the world around us gripped in fear, at least those of them who care to think, we who know our God and know our Bibles have no need to be unduly alarmed. The more we may take grasp on the solid things that God himself has told us for our encouragement, the stronger we shall be, and the stronger to help our fellow men and women. But I say more. I say that to dismiss prophecy from our ken is to do the impossible thing for anyone who really accepts this Bible as the word of God. I have no time here this evening to start to prove to you that this Bible is the word of God. I am going to suppose that. When we do, in fact, open this Bible, we shall find that somewhere about three-fifths of the Bible is given over to prophecy. We can no more dismiss prophecy from our minds than we can dismiss the whole Bible from our minds. The majority of this Bible is prophecy. And then the things that relate to our Lord's personal return are so bound up with the fundamental facts of Christianity that we cannot possibly dismiss them unless we are prepared to dismiss Christianity in toto. They are inextricably mixed. Our Lord's personal return and all the events that are related thereto are an integral part of the Christian gospel. What is more, they are told us in such simple and direct language that if only we will accept the words to mean what they say, we shall have no more doubt about these facts than we have about the primary historic facts of our faith. Let me cite you, to give you some examples of the way the New Testament talks about the personal return of our Lord Jesus, that I might make it clear to you that while there may be some things that are obscure and difficult to interpret in the prophecies of the Bible, yet when it comes to the main details, they are lucid, as lucid as anyone could possibly desire. Our Lord Jesus himself told his apostles before he left them, in plain straightforward language, if I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. Words of two syllables, if I go away, I will come again. And what he told his disciples privately, that he told his judges publicly. You will remember that when they arraigned him before the priestly court and challenged him openly, art thou the Christ? Said our Lord Jesus, thou sayest that I am. Henceforward shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of God and coming in the clouds of heaven. I remind you of the circumstances. He was being tried for his life. To confess that he was the Christ was for him to tread perilously on the brink of condemnation and death. For him to claim that he would sit on the right hand of God, for him to claim that one day he would come in the clouds of heaven, the insignia of divine majesty, this was to court death. And yet, knowing what these remarks would cost him, facing death, he nevertheless clearly said that one day men would see him coming in the clouds of heaven. These are not isolated proof texts. We shall find remarks like these threading throughout the whole of our New Testaments. We are told that when the apostles watched our Lord ascend from earth to heaven, there stood by them angels in white garb who said, this same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go. He went bodily, he went visibly, said the angels, he shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go. And what the angels said, so said the Christian theologians, inspired by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. I quote you that example that I read at the beginning of this address. The writer to the Hebrews informs us that just as Christ once appeared here on earth for the purpose of giving himself upon the cross a sacrifice for sin, he was once offered to bear the sins of many. Just as surely as he did that, so he will appear the second time. Then it will not be a case of his giving himself a sacrifice for sin. Then it will be a matter of his personal return for the salvation of those who are looking for him. That is to say, for their bodily salvation. He will remove his people bodily to heaven. He is coming, said the theologian, the second time to those that wait for him for salvation. It is an integral part of the Christian message. If you will deny that our Lord is coming again, then with the same reason you will deny that he came the first time. For the verse says the two things hang together, as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and to them that look for him, he shall appear the second time. This was not only what the theologians wrote, but you will find that the Christian evangelists, as they traveled around the Roman world, preached this fact as part of their gospel message. The youngest of their converts knew it clearly from the very beginning, that the personal return of our Lord Jesus Christ was an integral part of the gospel message. So much so is this true that the Apostle Paul, when he wrote a letter to people at Thessalonica, reminding them of their conversion, stated it in these terms. Now look, when you were converted, this is what happens, he says. You turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven. Even Jesus, whom he raised from the dead, our deliverer from the coming wrath. This was no luxury. This was no obscure thing that only the deep theologians of the Christian church knew anything about. The various beginners, the newest converts, knew this thing and rejoiced in it. In fact, this was an integral part in those searchings of heart that brought them eventually to trust the Savior and to take their stand as Christians. They were asked to believe that this Jesus of Nazareth, who for their sakes was crucified upon a cross, had risen again. They were asked to believe that that same Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead, was coming again, coming personally to deliver them from all those tides of divine wrath and judgment that shall bring this age in which we live to a close. I say they knew it from the start, and it were well for us Christians here in nineteen sixty one if we had these focal points of our salvation clear from the very start. We have turned to God from idols, not only to serve God while we live here on earth, but to wait for his son from heaven to complete for us the salvation which he has begun. And this sense of our Lord's personal return and the living expectancy of this return was fostered week by week as those early Christians gathered to celebrate the Lord's Supper. And to this very present, wherever the Lord's Supper is truly celebrated, whatever name be given to that institution by various Christian bodies, wherever that Lord's Supper is truly celebrated, it is calculated to foster this great expectancy. We are told that we are to do this thing, to break the bread and to drink the wine in memory of Christ, for as often as ye eat this bread and drink of this cup, said the inspired apostle, you do show forth the Lord's death till he come. Till he come. It was such a living expectancy, such a deep and powerful factor in the lives of early Christians. The very often, when they ended their letters and their, their, uh, their correspondence to one another, they signed themselves in the usual manner and added words in Aramaic, Maran atha, the Lord is coming. And I'm delighted to see that what the early Christians did, somebody at any rate in Belfast has done in that Presbyterian church that is situate on the University Road, you will find written in Greek characters across the porch of the church, those very same words in Greek, but not in Aramaic, until he come. Living testimony in nineteen sixty two that our Lord is personally coming again. I do beg of you, my dear people, to notice that this is a fact stated clearly and simply in the most direct language. Oh, let you not be beguiled of your hope and comfort, or be blinded from the warning, whichever it may be. The words in which it is stated are as simple as the words of John three sixteen, that glorious verse of gospel truth upon which many of us rested our faith when first we came to the Savior. Just as the statement of our, that our Lord is coming is clear and indisputable, so are the happenings that shall attend that great event stated in clear and precise language. At least, the major events are stated clearly. There are some things which the wisdom of God has left shrouded in symbol, perhaps that they might be evident to the people that shall be living in that time, who shall need their special comfort. There are indeed many things related to the coming again of our Lord Jesus, many, many events, which some people find exceedingly difficult to piece together. That is understandable enough. Our Lord's first coming to earth did not take place in a pinpoint of time. It was an extended period. We shall be helped if we observe that the Old Testament prophesied his first coming. And if you and I had been living in those far off days before Jesus Christ came the first time, and we had been reading our Bibles that prophesied of his coming, we might have been very perplexed. For some prophecies that refer to his first coming in the Old Testament talked of his birth. A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son. And some talked of his entry into Jerusalem, riding upon an ass. Some talked of the welcome he would be given, Hosanna in the highest, where others talked about rejection and suffering and death. And if anybody had expected that all those prophecies would have been fulfilled at one particular moment, he would have found it very difficult to see how that all the the prophecies with their many varieties could possibly have happened simultaneously. So doubtless it will be when our Lord comes again. Hundreds of statements of scripture converge upon that period. It will be a period rather than a point. And this evening, my task is not so much to discuss with you the multitudinous details and sort them out to their various stages in the divine calendar. I am merely concerned to make with you the point that our Lord is in fact coming again, and that when he comes, there will be two major impacts of his coming. The first impact of his coming will be for people who are Christians. And what will happen to them at the moment when our Lord appears, I propose to read to you in the calm words of Holy Scripture. I read it in the words of Scripture, lest you think that perchance I am growing emotional and excited, and painting glowing but imaginary scenes in the future. These are the calm, true sayings of God. If you care to find them at some other time, they are found in the first epistle to the Thessalonians and chapter four. The inspired apostle Paul tells us this: If 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 that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Those magnificent words need no embroidery from me, but I take leave to repeat them. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven. The dead in Christ shall rise, and we that are alive and remain until his coming shall together with them be caught up in the air to meet the Lord, and so shall we ever be with him. This is a foundational hope for Christians. This is their standby in those sorrowful moments when they commit the last remains of their loved ones to the dust. For we do not sorrow as those who have no hope. Sorrow we do. We should be inhuman if we didn't. But we do not sorrow with that blank, dark despair of those that have no hope. We believe, because God has said it, that our Lord is coming, one day shall speak the voice personally that shall call up from the grave Christian people that have departed, and shall take up together with them all living Christians who have survived until the coming of the Lord. The Apostle Paul has told us elsewhere that in the moment of our Lord's coming that will take place for this particular purpose in a split second, that the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and the living people shall be changed, no longer subject to death. Will you allow me to point out to you that this, if it be a fact, is the most wonderful news that human ears ever heard? Perhaps it is its very wonder that holds you back from daring to believe it too fully. This is such a dream come true. The biggest and the best of all human longings, here stated not as a dream, but as the positive, sure saying of God. And perhaps some of us feel it is almost too good to be true. Yet I point out to you, this is not an isolated thing. It is the calm, considered statement of all the New Testament that the Lord is coming. And I pause to exhort all of us who are Christians, right here and now, to rejoice in heart and to give thanks warmly to God. We do not sorrow as those that have no hope. This is evolution, true and good. There was, first of all, a natural body, but there shall be as certainly a spiritual body. Our natural bodies, as they are sown in the grave, are sown in dishonor, in corruption, in weakness. They shall be raised in glory, or if so be we are alive when the Lord comes, they will be changed and made immortal. While the Bible paints such a glowing picture for all who trust the Savior, with equal clarity, with equal certainty, does it indicate that there will be another major impact of our Lord's return? That will be for the judgment and perdition of those that reject the gospel. These, I realize, ladies and gentlemen, are hard words, but we should be mere sentimentalists. We should be terribly illogical. We should be guilty of putting our heads into the sand. If we accepted with joy the gladness of our Lord's return for Christians, and hid our eyes from the equally plain statement that our Lord's return for many will mean perdition. You are not in darkness, said Paul, writing to Christians, that that day should overtake you as a thief, but it will overtake many as a thief. In an hour when men think not, he will come. He shall come as a thief in the night. In fact, when they are saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, and they shall not escape. Again, these are not isolated remarks in scripture. Our Lord spoke more of this than any. He told us that in the day of his coming it would be as in the day of Noah. Just as on that day when Noah entered into the ark, the flood suddenly came on thousands of people who were unprepared for its coming, and they perished. So would it be in the days of the coming again of the Son of Man. I tell you that the tender-hearted Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior who died for us on the cross, told us this plainly and bluntly. It shall be so. He shall come when men are not thinking. He shall find many unprepared. His coming for them will mean that they perish. But somebody will object to me and say, but Mr. Lecturer, all these statements in the Bible are surely to be interpreted in another fashion. Surely they are not meant to be interpreted as literally as you have interpreted them. So then you would make them more difficult, would you? You say, surely we're not to think, are we, of our Lord literally and bodily coming out of heaven? Surely the Bible doesn't mean that. We're not really to think literally, are we, of of people coming up through the graves and being literally raised from the dead. Are we to think of people bodily going up from earth, living people being changed and taken up bodily? Surely somebody says it cannot be taken literally. But then I ask you, why not? Why not? What grounds have you to say that this is not literal? It is a canon of interpret- interpreting Holy Scripture that where the literal meaning makes sense, no other meaning need be sought for. Moreover, we have the example of Old Testament prophecies that prophesied his first coming. They prophesied he would be born of a virgin. He was literally born of a virgin. They prophesied that he would be rejected and crucified. He was rejected and crucified. And all those prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled literally. There is no reason to think that the prophecies that relate to his second coming are anything but literal. But more than that, we have the word of God upon this matter. He shall so come in like manner as he was seen to go, and that settles it once and for all. He went literally. For after his resurrection, men handled him and saw that he was not an empty spirit. He had flesh and bone. They handled him. They saw he was human. He was seen to go literally, and the Bible is explicit. He shall so come in like manner as he was seen to go. But somebody says, but surely, Mr. Lecturer, our Lord comes again when we die. Isn't that what the verses mean? He comes again. He comes to each deathbed and takes his believing child safely to heaven. I wouldn't like to deny that our Lord accompanies people to heaven. Certainly he told us that we should not see death, we who trust him, but passing through death, we should not see it. But that is not what these words mean. On the face of them, it is impossible to make them mean this. For it is told us expressly that the dead shall be raised, and at the same time as they are raised, living people shall be caught up together with them. That has never happened at any deathbed yet that I heard of. It has never yet happened at all. And therein is your answer to people that come round, are knocking on your door, and would persuade you that the resurrection is already past, that Jesus Christ has already come again, and that you have no chance now of entering to heaven. I hesitate not to say that that is wicked nonsense. For when the Bible talks of our Lord's coming again, it lays it down that all the dead in Christ shall be raised at once, in a moment, and the living shall be caught up together with them. It's not talking of a Christian deathbed. Manifestly not. It hasn't happened yet, but it will happen. You will say, but doesn't this all tend in the direction of escapism, Mr. Preacher? Hopes of our Lord's coming again, doesn't that smack of escapism? People that have not the nerve to face life here, therefore they comfort themselves with dreams of pleasure later on. You say, wouldn't it unfit us all for life if we really believed that Jesus Christ was coming again? Well, certainly I must confess to you that some Christians, some of the early Christians, got the thing the wrong way round. Because they believed that Christ was coming again, they left off their daily work and said, why bother to work if Christ is coming again? And I have known men and women in modern times take a similar attitude. Instead of getting on with their daily jobs, instead of living to the full as they ought to live, they have become escapist and crept up a corner and gone through life in a slovenly kind of a fashion, on the excuse that what did it matter how you lived here because Christ was coming again and it was all so very temporary that we needn't really bother. The Bible itself is loud in its condemnation of such attitudes. But to have a hope in the future is not escapism. People say that we ought to live in the present and not bother about the future, but that is evident nonsense. You can't live in the present without having regard to the past and the future. Have you ever considered what a tiny, tiny fraction the present is? When is now? Why, by the time I've got the word out of my mouth, now is past and gone forever. You can't live in the present. It isn't big enough to live in. For every tick of the clock is bringing the future at you. It wouldn't make sense to live in the present. I wouldn't like a holiday that lived in the present. What do you think of a man that took no, no account of how he was going to plan his holiday? He had no idea how the thing was going or where he was going or what he was going to do, but got, just got up in the morning and never had any thoughts about the present. Would he not go through the day doing nothing? You've got to decide to play the piano, haven't you, before you can get on the music stool and start to play. You've got to decide the future before you do anything. And in the biggest sense of all, life would make sheer nonsense without a future. Christianity isn't so stupid as to come to us and tell us to live merely in the present. It expects that men and women will be sane enough as to ask, what is the purpose of life and where are we going? Ah, maybe it is that modern man has become afraid to look the future in the face. It stares at us with a ghastly look, if we had no hope but Christ. The ghastly possibility that some fool or other would press the button that would set least loose the atomic forces that would kill millions, and if any survived, would mean that their children would be born freaks. Oh, I'm glad to say that God's word is not escapist. It brings meaning into life that there is a future, that future that Christ is coming again. This world's disorder shall not go on forever. Christ is coming again. He will not allow men to destroy the earth before it pleases him. He has his hand upon the controls, and he is coming again himself to reign. What a glorious hope that is. It makes sense of the present. In as much as he is coming again, says the apostle, you may know that your present labor is not in vain. Get on with your work. Live to the full, because it makes sense, because Christ is coming. I wonder, as I exhort Christian people here present to enjoy this prospect, and to live to the utmost, to live to the full, to the edge of all their abilities, believing in life, because there is a worthy future. I wonder if I talk to any here who find themselves somewhat uncomfortably disturbed underneath at the prospect of these things. It would be disturbing to anybody, would it not? To sit here and listen to the word of God telling us that Christ is coming again, and for that person to be unsure whether he or she is in fact ready for his coming. To be unsure whether that coming for you would mean glory and fulfillment, or whether it would mean destruction and an eternity of misery. I beg of anybody who is so disturbed to take this thing to God. You need not be disturbed. You need not be uncertain. My dear people, you might be as certain as anybody. You might live your life in the radiance of this certain hope that when Christ comes, you will be taken to be with him. But let us all mark it well that this does not happen automatically. We came here without our personal choice, but we shall not get to heaven without our personal choice. Here is a realm that God has given to man to choose. Whether Christ's coming means for us glory and fulfillment, or whether it mean eternal disaster, will depend completely on our personal choice. We settle it now. We settle it before he comes. And Christ was forever telling us this. Be ready, said he. Be ready. Christ was not among those who told people that his coming was a long way off and that they had plenty of time. His insistence everywhere was, get ready for it soon. Let us be clear that his coming again is not the end of the world. Thousands of years before the end of this world, Christ will come again and himself reign personally. And his coming is imminent. Never has he given any other impression. Get ready, get ready, get ready. He shall come unexpectedly. He shall come as a thief. He shall come and shut the door, and men won't be inside and will be outside and be lost. Get ready. And in his name, I dare not do anything else but exhort us all here present this evening that we make sure of this, that we are now, this very moment, ready. I cannot guarantee you that if you delay this matter, you will have opportunity tomorrow. How does one get ready? I close by quoting you the description given of those people whom Paul says are ready. The dead in Christ are ready. Not all the dead die in Christ, it is but the dead in Christ are ready. That experience of personal salvation that brought a man or a woman into Christ here on earth is a distinction that lasts eternally. The dead in Christ shall rise, but not the others. Or if it's a question of the living, the account of their conversion is given. They turn to God, they turn from idols to serve him and to wait for his son. It behoves us all, in the closing moments of this day and in view of God's clear word, to ask ourselves, have we ever turned? Have we had a s- a personal conversion? Or have we hitherto just drifted? Have you, sir? Have you, madam? Have you ever personally turned to God? You say, I've never been an idolater. I'm not so sure. Certainly you don't, nor do I, worship hideous monsters of wood and stone. But an idol is anything that we trust, short of trusting God. When we come to think of our Lord's return and our readiness for it, when we think of eternity and whether we shall be in heaven or not, tell me, what are you trusting? If it is anything else but Christ and his atoning sacrifice, then I must warn you that you are trusting an idol, something that your own hands have made. That is an idol. If you tell me that you are depending on your good works and your honest living, then I shall say, sir, that is something of your own doing, and it's an idol you trust. Good as it may be, and fair and golden, those golden good works of yours, yet if you trust them, that is an idol you trust, and it will let you down at last. They only who have learned in their sinfulness and need to cast themselves completely and utterly on Christ, on his great sacrifice for sin, on his living power and person. I say they only who have learned to trust him and him only, they only will be saved when the Lord comes. And to you all, I commend this tremendous decision. Let us seek grace of God this very night to examine our hearts honestly, to ask ourselves whether we have had this personal turning to God, whether we have learned to abandon faith in all else, whether we have put our faith in Christ, his death and his rising again, whether we are in fact unshakably sure that we are ready for his coming. May God lead us all into that glorious peace and certainty to know from his own lips that already here in life we have passed from death to life. Already here in life we are ready for his coming again. Should we bow a moment in prayer before we go? Now, our gracious God, we pray that thou wilt bless thy holy word that we have here studied together. We thank thee for its simplicity and its directness. We ask that thou, we may all of us see clearly the spiritual implications of this thing, that we may not read these things as a tale that is told and straightway forget them. Cause us to see that thou art in earnest, we beseech thee. Cause us to see that if we would be sure that we are ready, there is something that we must do. Cause us all to understand clearly what that something is, that doing it, we may be saved. Being saved, know it by thy good assurance, and live our lives in this radiant hope, living them deliberately and carefully, serving the living God until our Lord shall come. To this end be thy blessing on this lecture and upon all subsequent addresses, if so be that we come to them, and our Lord has not come meanwhile. Through that same Lord Jesus Christ, we ask these things. Amen.