King's Business - 1914-05

THE KING’S BUSINESS

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was preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things”—and many people stop right there— “which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began’.’ (Acts 3 :20, 21). When you turn back to the holy prophets you will find that they taught that there is to be a restor­ ation only of the things in Christ. All out of Christ are not to be restored. The teaching of the prophets is that the saved are to be completely restored. Read in the 23rd verse: "Every soul, which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” The Restoration and Destruction. At the Second Coming of Christ there will be the consummation in the restoration of all things that are in Christ, and the beginning of the de­ struction of all things that are out of Christ. What does that mean? Well, turn over to 1 Thessalonians 4 :13, “But I would not have you to be ig­ norant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this .we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord Him­ self 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 which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” Read also 1 Thessalonians 2 :8, “Then shall the wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall de­ stroy with the brightness of His com-

lived in Chicago, and I am living in London, and I am watching the prog­ ress of things in the world. Another reason is that the Lord Jesus Christ laid down this principle, that the Gos­ pel is a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. There is more light in this world today than there ever was before, and those who resist the light grow worse and worse, and they grow bad in proportion to the light they re­ sist. The opposite is also true: there is more light in the world, and those who receive the light grow better and better. Those that receive the light are developed by the light; it is a savor unto life. Now, whether these Bible students will agree or not, it is clear to me that the real spiritual Body of our Lord is growing better and better every day, not Christendom, oh no ! Not the ex­ ternal Church, but the real Bride of Christ, is getting her garments ready for the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. And those who refuse the light are growing worse and worse every day. When I was in Chicago I had the con­ viction that if a volcano should have erupted and destroyed that city, as Ve­ suvius did Pompeii, and some one had come a thousand years afterward and excavated from the ruins, there would have been evidences of degradation that would have been a surprise to the Pompeiians. There are depths of in­ iquity today, under all flags, the deep­ est the world has ever seen; and I be­ lieve there are homes of righteousness, of faith and love and sacrifice, in which the Lord Jesus Christ delights. Those that receive the light grow better and better, and those that reject the light grow worse and worse. 2. Another consummation is that' of the hopes of God’s people for the resurrection of the dead, for the res­ toration of all things in Christ Jesus. Now let us pause a minute there. “He shall send Jesus Christ, which before

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