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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 24. An Echoed Longing
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An Echoed Longing
Now shall we try to gather up simply and clearly what has been found in these epistles. Throughout, the Coming is continually held up as an incentive to faithfulness, and to patience in suffering persecution. At the Coming certain things will happen to those who are trusting themselves to the Lord Jesus. Those who have died will be raised. [Note: 1Th_4:13-14; 1Co_15:23, 1Co_15:52; Php_3:11.] Then the living will have their bodies changed, [Note: 1Co_15:51-52; Php_3:20-21; Rom_8:23.] and be caught up to meet the Lord with the raised ones. [Note: 1Th_5:17.] Then there will be judgment of how the life has been lived, [Note: 1Co_3:10-15.]salvation will be perfected, [Note: 1Pe_1:5-7.] including our bodies. [Note: Rom_8:23.]
And then will be great glory, more than compensating for all the misunderstanding and persecution. [Note: Rom_8:18; 1Pe_4:13; 1Pe_5:4; 2Ti_4:7, 2Ti_4:8.] We will be without blemish, [Note: Jud_1:24.] and we shall be like Him. [Note: 1Jn_3:2-4.] Dying is like putting off an old wornout garment; the Coming will be like having a new garment. [Note: 2Co_5:1-10.] We will be openly acknowledged by our Lord. [Note: Col_3:4.]
But the Coming is not to be expected at any moment; certain things open to all eyes will happen first. There will be a falling away on the part of some Christian people. [Note: 2Th_2:1-3; 1Ti_4:1; 2Ti_3:1-5; Jude.] This will be one of the marks of the time preceding His coming. [Note: 1Jn_2:18.] One feature of this will be a making light of, a jeering, at the teachings about the Lord's return. [Note: 2Pe_3:3-4.] This falling away will continue, and intensify, until a world leader called the lawless one, or man of sin, shall come to the front. [Note: 2Th_2:1-12.]When he has run his course he will be slain by the sudden appearance of the glorified Jesus in the heavens. The spirit of lawlessness, which will come to a full head in this leader, was already then at work in the world, but it was being hindered by a restraining power. The Holy Spirit now in the world is that power of restraint. At some time He will withdraw, or be withdrawn, from the corporate Church. That withdrawal will be the signal for the lawless leader to swing into action.
The Coming will be to set up the Kingdom on the earth, with the Jew restored to premier place among the nations. The present rejection of the Jew is partial, not absolute; it is for a limited time, though thus far, a long time; that rejection has been made a blessing to the nations, us Gentiles; the present Gentile leadership in the earth will come to an end, then the Jew nation will be re-constituted, but on the same basis as the true Church, namely, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and through it will come worldwide evangelization and infinitely greater blessing to all the world than it has ever known. [Note: Romans 11.] Paul's conversion seems to have been an acted prophecy of the manner of conversion of the Jew nation. [Note: 1Co_15:8.]That Kingdom shall continue under the blessed sway of the King until all enmity has been completely put down; then the Kingdom perfected shall be duly delivered up by the Son to the Father. [Note: 1Co_15:24-25.] At the end of all, the heavens and earth shall be burned up by the chemical elements in the atmosphere, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. [Note: 2Pe_3:3-13.]
The lower creation is conscious of suffering, and is expectantly longing for the time when it, too, shall share in our deliverance from all the effects of sin. [Note: Rom_8:19-22.] The world will be utterly unprepared for the Lord's coming; it will come as unexpectedly and disagreeably as. a thief breaking into one's house in the night, [Note: 1Th_5:1-4.] though abundant warning has been given from the flood time on. [Note: 2Pe_3:5-7.] The genius of the lawless one is indicated by John's name for him,—the Antichrist; his spirit is now at work in the world, and reveals itself in every thing and every one that is not a positive holding forth of Jesus to men. [Note: 1Jn_4:3; 2Jn_1:7.]
Our Lord's coming is as sure as the death, which is ever in our midst; [Note: Heb_9:27, Heb_9:28.] is "at hand," [Note: Jas_5:7-8; 1Pe_4:7.] only a very little way off. [Note: Heb_10:35-37.] It may be hastened or brought nearer, or sooner, by our faithfulness. [Note: 2Pe_3:12.]And the expectancy in our hearts is but an echo of the intense desire in our Lord's heart to return. [Note: Heb_10:12, Heb_10:13.] How fully are our hearts echoing what is in that great heart, that once broke under the weight of our sin?