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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E SS — j r f t s p • : it ^
August 1926
incentive to service. "Occupy till I come,” was the command of the Mas ter who had gone away to receive a kingdom and whose return was ex pected by the servants whom He had left behind to carry on His work. Those servants who appreciated their Master and who expected Him to re turn any day, did their best to carry out their Lord’s command, with the consciousness that when He did return there was a reward in store for them. And so the Christian who is looking for his Lord to come is busy about the Master’s business. He knows the Lord will come and bring his reward with Him, and the consciousness adds zeal to his love and increases his service. Those who are looking for the ful fillment of the "blessed hope,” the coming of our Lord, have no place for a so-called “ social gospel.” They give themselves wholly to Scriptural Evan gelism. The result is that in the midst of a church that has drifted from the foundation and has gone in for shows and other clap-trap methods of attracting people, we have a Spirit- filled company of pastors, evangelists and laymen who are concerned with the salvation of precious souls and the building up of Christ’s cause amongst men. There is no room and less time for the dressing up of old humanity, or trying to change the conditions of a sin-saturated world. Those who are looking for the return of our Master give their time and their energy and their means and talents to preparing the church for His coming (the ful fillment of the “ blessed hope” of the church), and to snatching men as brands from the burning. SECOND, the blessed hope of the Lord’s coming is the greatest incen tive to a closer walk with God, (Jude J :1 4 )’i “ And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Be hold the Lord come(h with ten thou sands o f His saints. And Enoch walked with God three hundred years.” (Gen. 1 :22 ): “ Now, little children, abide In Him, that when He shall appear we shall have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." If we are expecting the Lord to come for us, we will walk with Him here. If we have fellowship with the' Lord here we will not be ashamed before Him at His coming. We will be careful of our conduct when we expect our Lord to come; we will be careful of*the things we say to each other and about each
Is the Second t o y i n g or
Christ a Practical Hope? REV. B R I T T O N R O S S Nashville, Tennessee
It gives the editor of this magazine great pleasure to introduce to our King’ s Business Family Rev. Britton Ross, the first stu- - dent o f the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Not only was he the first student, but the janitor when we opened our school in an old pool room on Main Street, Los Angeles. He has proven himself to be an "A No. I " preacher, teacher, and evangelist, and is now pastor of the Eastland Baptist Church, the largest church in Nashville, Tennessee. We commend him to you for your prayers that continued blessing may rest upon his ministry and message.
lief. William Gladstone, the g r e a t English statesman, said: “ The letter to the Romans recorded by Paul the Apostle is the most consecrated logic in the world." If the Apostle Paul is so practical in dealing with sin, salva tion, grace, faith, the cross, Is it not reasonable to believe that the message he brings to the churches concerning the Second Coming of Christ is also practical? Peter, in the second epistle that bears his name, makes a very clear and practical statement concerning the "blessed hope” (2 Pet. 1 :16 ):. “ For we have not followed cunning ly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were dye- witnesses of his majesty." Paul was a practical man, so was Peter, but let us not lose sight of the fact that Paul and Peter were only the human instruments, and the H o l y Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is the Author of the Word of God. We are .therefore justified in saying that the Holy Spirit of God has made the “ blessed hope” of the imminent return of our Master a real, practical hope in the believer’s life. The Practical Aspects of the Blessed l Hope In t\e life of the believer the truth of the Lord’s coming becomes a prac tical as Well as a blessed hope. FIRST, the blessed hope of the com ing of our Lord compels the believer to do service for God and the souls of men (1 Cor. 15 :58 ): “ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." The man or woman who is looking for the Lord to come has the greatest
HE second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is called by the Holy Spirit the “ B l e s s e d Hope" of the
Christian. Not only is it the blessed hope, but it is the blessed practical hope. To hear some people talk about those who are looking for the immi nent return of our Lord, one might be led to think of the latter as a lot of visionary, star-gazing individuals who never did any real practical work for God and the souls of men. As we study the Word of God and we read of Paul’s declaration of his faith and the sac rifices he made for the Gospel’s sake and then read of the wonderful state ments concerning the Lord’s return that the Holy Spirit records through Paul, we cannot but believe that the glorious appearing of Paul’s Christ and our Christ was a real and prac tical hope to him and to the churches to which he ministered. The passages of Scripture referring to the doctrine of the Lord’s return are so numerous that time forbids to quote all of them, but one ought to be enough to convince us that Paul was looking for and expecting the Lord Jesus to come, that he based his hope of the future upon His coming, and was looking forward to his reward for faithful service at the coming of the Master (2 Tim. 4 :7 ): “ I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept' the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." As we study all of the Pauline Epis tles, we are impressed with the prac tical applications made to the hearts of men, and we can readily see the practical truth standing out in bold re
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