soon? If you really did, you would get some of your sins confessed, you would stop your worldly practices, and you would get reconciled with that brother before you meet your brother’s Saviour. If you really believed the time is short and you lived in the expectancy of His soon return, you would be making more of your investments in the place where moth and rust do not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. You would be more interested in your heavenly home than pre paring your earthly home as though you were to remain here forever. Then the proclamation o f the Gospel over the air would not need to suffer be cause of the apathy, indifference and lack of in terest among Christians in telling the story to all the world. HOPE MAKES YOU HAPPY One other result of this hope — it is a hope which makes one happy. The word “blessed” means HAPPY. It is a hope that makes one HAPPY. It is the one bright spot and the one BLESSED HOPE in this dark world. There is little hope for the future in this world, but the Christian looks out upon the turmoil and the strife and cheers him self with the Saviour’s promise. He said when all the things which are happening about us today begin to come to pass, then “ look up, for your re demption draweth nigh.” It is not easy to under stand the words o f Scripture, “ rejoice in tribula tion,” unless one is able to look into the future and see the glorious hope of the Lord’s return. The world may despair and wonder, but to the believer everything is all right. God’s program is running exactly on time, and we know that all these things MUST come to pass, but the end is not yet. One of these days HE WILL COME. The king doms of this world will come the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. Then indeed shall peace flow like a river, men shall beat their swords into plowshares. Nature shall be at peace while the lion and the lamb lie down together, the leopard and the kid shall feed, and even the venomous serpents shall become the harmless pets of playing children. The earth will be delivered from the curse. There will be plenty for all, and they shall no more hurt nor destroy in all God’s holy mountain. And WE shall be with the Lord. Mothers and children, husbands and wives will be reunited in glorified, deathless, painless bodies to enjoy eternal life and bliss where God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Are you discouraged? Then look up! a better day is coming; and the darker the day down here, the brighter the hope o f His coming. Yes, He said, . . . I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:3). 25
as many verses in the Old Testament that speak of the Second Coming as of the FIRST. In the New Testament there are 422 passages which refer directly to His coming again. One whole book, the book o f the Revelation, concerns His coming again and events associated with it. How strange then that this truth of the Lord’s return should be so little known by Christians and disbelieved by so many who profess the name of Christ. How strange that in thousands of churches a preacher stands Sunday after Sunday with an open Bible before him, one-third o f which speaks directly or indirect ly concerning that glorious day when He shall come, and the “kingdoms of this world shall be come the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ,” and yet will never teach this glorious truth beyond the mere mention that some day the King is coming back again. The second coming of Christ is the consummation of all that occurred at His first com ing. It is the justification of Calvary, the vindica tion of His humiliation and death, the verification of His infallible Word, and the greatest incentive to revival and evangelism. THAT BLESSED HOPE There is no greater incentive to holiness among the believers than the daily looking for that glad event when Jesus comes. Almost every mention of His return is connected with admonitions for holy living. John in writing to us in I John 3 says: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall he: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him PURIFIETH HIMSELF, even as he is pure (I John 3:2, 3). Paul in writing to Titus says, For the grace of God that bringeth salva tion hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; LOOKING FOR THAT BLESSED HOPE, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-13). The blessed hope is a purifying hope. The trou ble is that all who talk about the coming o f the Lord do not believe in that BLESSED HOPE. John says that “ every one that hath this hope in him PURIFIETH HIMSELF.” Unless the blessed hope is a purifying hope it means nothing at all. You may believe with your head all about it, but until it enters your heart it is just mockery. In addition to being a purifying hope, it is also an activating hope. Do you believe that Jesus Christ IS coming again, and that He MAY COME very OCTOBER, 1968
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