ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
my friend? It touches us in every human relationship. It touches our grocery bill, and it touches our undesirable neigh- bors. This is "the law of Christ." Verses 11-14 of chapter thirteen put before us the incen- tive to let the Holy Spirit empower us for this testimony in a sinful world. And that incentive is none other than the return of Christ Jesus, our Lord. And what an incentive to holiness, whether in relation to government or family or neighbors. "Our salvation" is the goal ever before us, and it is "nearer than when we believed." We have seen in our former studies that "our salvation" is past, present, and future. It is past, spiritually; it is present in its outworking; and it is future in the changing of our bodies from mortality to immortality at the coming of the Lord. If you were saved ten years ago, my friend, you are ten years nearer this salvation than when you first believed. Every day you are getting closer to that great day when Christ shall call His church home. I have a calendar on my desk on which I record dates for engagements which are ahead. If we could look into God's calendar, we should see this great date, which He has not seen fit to reveal to us, but which is sure to come to pass because He said so in His Word. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Let us therefore be ready to meet Him at His coming. Nearly two thousand years ago Christ, who is the Light of the world, went back to heaven. The night of sin and darkness is "far spent." But day dawns when the sun rises; and He will come in all His glory, as the "Sun of righteous- ness . . . with healing in his wings" (Mal. 4: 2 ). Before the dawn, the morning star appears in the sky; and between the morning star and the sunrise there is the darkest period of the night. Christ is the Morning Star to the church. He will come to take her away just before the great tribulation, the darkest period of the world's history, comes upon the earth. But the black darkness will speedily be dispelled by the bril- liance of His glory, when He comes with His church to rule and reign. Page 232)
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online