6

I WILL COME AGAIN, AND
RECEIVE YOU

Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

ACTS 1:11

As we have seen, certain requirements have to be met before we can ever arrive in that mansion that is prepared for us in our Father’s dwelling place, and we have considered how our Lord met them. We saw how he met and looked at the Law’s demands, how he met the devil, how he met death and hell, and how he faced even the problem of the holiness of God himself. And in that amazing phrase of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we saw how he even purified the heavenly places in order to ensure that our entrance does not introduce pollution there. So we are free to enjoy the blessings that await us in that mansion.

So we come now to the next step: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3). Our Lord says in effect, “I will come back, and I will receive you unto myself. So you are not going to lose me; you are going to be with me throughout the countless ages of eternity.”

Now it is generally agreed that this statement is a reference to what is commonly called the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It may, in addition, have various other meanings about how our Lord comes to us spiritually and so on, and yet I think that obviously its main meaning is that of the Second Coming, one of the critical doctrines of the Christian faith, one of the great central doctrines of New Testament teaching and, therefore, a doctrine that of necessity we must consider together.

Let me introduce this subject to you like this: I am coming increasingly to the conclusion that one of the best ways of testing whether men and women are Christians or not, whether they really do believe and live by the Christian faith, is not so much to ask them directly for their view of the Lord Jesus Christ but rather to confront them with this particular doctrine. Instead of asking them, “What do you think of Christ?” or “What is your view of the person of Jesus of Nazareth as he is displayed in the New Testament Gospels?” I think a much more certain and subtle way of discovering whether people really are Christians is to ask them leading questions such as these: What is your view of what is happening in the world at the present time? How do you react to it? Are you surprised at it? Does the present state of the world and the prospects that seem to lie ahead of us fit into your philosophy of this life or do they not? Are you driven into the depths of despair by what is happening in the world today? Is this something that has come crashing into all your calculations and ideas, or is it something that fits naturally and inevitably into your view of life and of the whole course of history? What is your forecast of the future? What are you expecting of life? What are you anticipating in the realm of history?

People cannot answer those questions without telling you, plainly and surely, whether they are Christians in the New Testament sense of that term or not. There is no more direct way of discovering that than by bringing people immediately face-to-face with the world situation and asking them for their ultimate explanation. Alternatively, we can put it to them in terms of this extraordinary teaching of the New Testament with regard to the Second Coming of Christ.

In other words, does this doctrine of the Second Coming seem remote to you or irrelevant? Do you take the view that so many take? They say, “What I want from preachers is something that is going to help me live in this world here and now. You are talking about something that is going to happen sometime, about the reappearance of the Son of God into this world. If you were preaching like that many years ago, when life was complacent and leisurely and when it was an interesting thing to debate these theological points, I would not have objected. But, surely, with the world as it is today, you are not going to spend your time discussing these remote ideas?” Now if that is your position, you are displaying immediately your attitude toward the Christian gospel.

Does this doctrine of the Second Coming seem remote
to you or irrelevant?

Or let me put it like this: what is your view of Christianity and of its teaching? Is it that it is something that is to be applied to life, a great ethical and moral and social teaching that it is our business as men and women to apply to life and its circumstances? Do we believe that as the result of so doing we will improve the social conditions and the international situation, we will get rid of war and all sorts of trouble, and we will introduce the kingdom of God and make this world another paradise? Is that your view of it? Well, that has been the view of many people, and of all those in the world today who are astonished and unhappy, these people are the ones who are most surprised.

But one is constantly meeting large numbers of people who believe this argument. “I cannot possibly become a Christian,” they say. And when we ask them what their problem is, they reply, “My difficulty is this—you claim that your message is one that has been given by God to mankind. Well, that gospel of yours has been preached now for nearly two thousand years. And for a time it had the monopoly of the thoughts and minds of men, but look at the state of the world! If the gospel of Jesus Christ is the thing that is going to put the world right, isn’t it time it did so? So,” they say, “I just cannot believe it.” Now, there is only one thing to say to such people, and that is that they have an entirely erroneous view of what the gospel of Jesus Christ really is.

So I want to put my message to you in terms of that kind of question. I am looking at the sort of people who really are quite sincere, and I want to show that such a question is nothing but a sheer misunderstanding of the teaching of the gospel and what it promises. In their perplexity they regard the gospel as something that is to be applied to life, and by its application they think life can be reformed and improved. So it follows that they often feel that this teaching of the Second Coming of Christ is so remote as to be finally irrelevant.

What, then, does the gospel really teach?

Here in this passage I suggest we have it in a nutshell. Our Lord is addressing men who are continuing to live in this world. He tells them that they will have troubles and trials and tribulations. What comfort does he have to give them? Do you notice what he does? He talks about his death and the cross, and then he goes straight from his death and resurrection to the Second Coming. Not a word, for the moment, about anything in between. Haven’t we noticed this before in the New Testament record?

We must be perfectly clear about what the gospel has to
say about the world and its history. It tells us that life
in this world has been vitiated and ruined by sin.

So let us divide this up. First, we must be perfectly clear about what the gospel really has to say about the world and its history. It tells us that life in this world and the whole history of the human race has gone radically wrong; it has been vitiated and ruined by sin.

Now that is, of course, as we must all agree, whatever our view may be, something that is quite fundamental. The whole teaching of the Bible, from beginning to end, is that the trouble with men and women, with life and with history, is radical. The real problem is sin. Sin does not merely affect the surface of life; it affects the very source. And the result of all this is that the life of this world is under the control of sin, under the control of Satan.

The Bible teaches, quite categorically, that sin is such
a radical problem that the world cannot now
and never will improve itself.

Some people today think that it is ignorant to believe in Satan. Well, if you feel like that, I just ask you to look at the world and at yourself and try to explain some of the things that happen, both within you and in the world, apart from the biblical teaching about Satan and the hosts and powers of evil, these malevolent influences that are unseen in the spiritual realm.

The next step in the argument is that the world, as it is in sin and under the control of Satan, cannot be improved. Indeed, I defy anyone to show that Scripture teaches that it can. The Bible teaches, quite categorically, that sin is such a radical problem that the world cannot now and never will improve itself; there is no hope for it in that way. So we begin to see why the man or woman who is truly Christian, who bases all opinions on scriptural teaching, is not a bit surprised at what is happening in the world today.

Our Lord and Savior himself said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. . . . Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot . . .” (Luke 17:26, 28). He spans the centuries; he lays down the proposition that because of sin and the Fall, mankind as mankind is going to be no different at the end of history than what it was at the beginning. Therefore, nothing is such an utter travesty of the Christian gospel as the suggestion that because it is being preached, each generation will be better than the previous one, and the world will reform and improve, until everything that is evil and wrong will have been banished and ultimately all will be perfect.

The gospel never teaches that; it asserts the exact opposite. I do not apologize for saying that the Bible’s view of history is profoundly pessimistic. Of course, that is why the Bible is not popular and has not been so during the last hundred years. Evolutionary theories and hypotheses are very optimistic; they all tell us that the world is going to be better and better and that mankind is evolving and advancing. Philosophers always want to be optimistic if they can be, and thus they paint this picture of improvement. And, of course, if you believe them, you cannot like the Bible because its realism contrasts sharply with these optimistic ideas.

It was Christ himself who said that there shall be “wars and rumours of wars” (Matthew 24:6). His teaching was that as long as lusts and passions and greed and jealousy and envy are in the human heart, wars will continue. You see, the Bible is not foolish enough to think you can have one thing on the personal level and another on the international level. As long as two people fight and quarrel, nations will do the same, and they are doing so in spite of all the fatal belief in the effect of education and international conferences to make men wise.

As long as two people fight and quarrel, nations will
do the same, in spite of the effect of education and
international conferences to make men wise.

What is in the heart of man will express itself. We all know that the tendency in all people is to fight. The cause is sin, this terrible, malevolent power in the human race that drives us to self-destruction. The state of the world reflects the state of sin, which dominates our lives; this is the biblical message. Furthermore, the Bible goes on to tell us that as a result of all this, the world is under judgment, that the whole of human history is moving to a grand and ultimate climax, that God, because he is God and because he is what he is, has pronounced his judgment upon sin and evil and wrong. That judgment will finally be executed at the end.

So that is the first principle. The second is that the Bible not only says things like that about the world and human history; it also has something to tell us about God’s redeeming purpose in history or what you may describe as a kind of divine history. The world is as it is because of man’s disobedience and sin, but, thank God, he has not left it at that. There is a description of the state of the world in the Bible, as we have seen, but it does not stop at description. The whole point is to tell us what God has done about it.

The world is as it is because of man’s disobedience and
sin, but, thank God, he has not left it at that.

What, then, is God’s purpose? Again I start with the same negative. His plan and purpose is not to reform that world but to save people out of it. God’s purpose is to take hold of individuals and to put them into another kingdom that is his kingdom and the kingdom of his dear Son. The very person who uttered these words that we are considering is none other than God’s only begotten Son, the one whom God sent into this world to bring this gracious purpose to pass. When he was on earth he chose various ways to say to people, “The world is perishing; but come to me and become a member of my kingdom and you will be delivered, saved from the wrath of God.” He has come, as Paul says to the Galatians, to “deliver us from this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4), to rescue us out of the dominion of Satan.

We have already touched on this in passing, but the effect of the gospel is to enable us to see the nature of life in this world and to bring us to see that what really matters for us is our soul, that our greatest concern should not even be the possibility of a third world war.

If I have not awakened to the fact that my soul and
my relationship to God are infinitely more important
than the possibility that my body may be destroyed by a
nuclear bomb, then I have not started to be a Christian.

Now I am not denouncing politics, nor international efforts to ensure peace. That is not my purpose. What I do maintain is that if I have not awakened to the fact that my soul and my relationship to God are infinitely more important than the possibility that my body may be destroyed by a nuclear bomb, then I have not started to be a Christian. I must realize that it is my soul, my eternal destiny, my relationship to God that matters. The effect of the gospel upon men and women is to bring them to see themselves as strangers in this world of time. They hang on loosely to time and the things that happen in this world and see themselves as pilgrims bound for eternity—that is the big, the thrilling thing.

The business of the gospel of Jesus Christ, therefore, is not to reform the individual or the whole world; it is to take hold of us one by one and to bring us out of it, to give us a new birth, a new life, a new beginning. It makes men and women children of God. It gives them a new outlook, a new power, and sets before them the blessed hope of life with God in eternity.

That, let me emphasize again, is the Christian message. The gospel is not merely an exposition of the Sermon on the Mount and its social application in order to make this world a better place. Men have been preaching that kind of thing for so many years and trying to put it into practice, but look at the results! To ask unregenerate people to live the Sermon on the Mount is mockery; they cannot do it. They cannot keep the Ten Commandments; they cannot even live up to their own moral standards. But how glibly people talk about “the social application of the gospel” and about bringing in the kingdom of God.

There is a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light,
and these two kingdoms are here together in this world.

Oh, the tragedy of it all! No, we need to be born again, to be regenerated, and the gospel offers to do that. So side by side in this world of time, you have these new people, the citizens of the kingdom of God, and those who belong to Satan. “Ye,” said Christ to the Pharisees, “are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44). There is a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light, and these two kingdoms are here together in this world—that is another aspect of the gospel message.

The next principle is this: ultimately these two histories, these two kingdoms will meet, and then there will be an end. That is the essence of the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ. This New Testament gospel tells us that as certainly as the Son of God came into this world as the babe of Bethlehem, as certainly as his disciples lived with him and saw him ascend into the heavens, so he will return again into this world, visibly, in a bodily form. You get this statement in every epistle. As Peter reminds us, the Lord himself said it (2 Peter 3:13), and the first apostles all preached it, but nobody believed it. The world has never believed this kind of message. But it is a part of Christian preaching to proclaim it.

Now I am not going to deal now with the various ramifications and theories and ideas about the details of this Second Coming of Christ. To me that is not the important matter. The important matter is to grasp this great central statement that he is coming again and that he is coming to judge. The world and its peoples, all who have ever lived, will be judged. There is to be a final assize. Everything that is evil and belongs to Satan and his kingdom will be destroyed; it will all be cast into the lake of destruction and fire. And, as Peter put it, there will be “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). Everything sinful and tarnishing will be purged out of the universe, and there will be a new world, in which there will be absolute righteousness.

And—you can be sure of this—all who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, who have seen the all-importance of the soul, who have seen their dread condition under the condemnation of the Law, who have committed themselves to him, taking upon themselves the scorn and sarcasm of the world, those who have counted all things loss for his sake, who have denied themselves and have taken up their cross daily and followed him, those who have said, “I care not what happens to me as long as all is well between me and him”—these are they who will be with him in the new heaven and the new earth and will share and enjoy his glory forever and ever.

Those who have said, “I care not what happens to me
as long as all is well between me and him” will share and
enjoy his glory forever and ever.

“When is this Second Coming going to happen?” asks someone. And the answer is, I do not know, and nobody else knows. We are not to be concerned with times and seasons, but we should be tremendously concerned about the event. If you are Christians, said Peter to those early Christians, you will be looking for these things and hastening their coming (2 Peter 3:12). You will realize that this is the one thing that matters, and you will look forward to it. You will expect it; you will prepare yourself for it; you will realize what sort of a person you ought to be in the light of it.

People are so concerned to try to determine times and seasons. There are those who tell us that the Second Coming may be near. And there are people throughout the centuries, as Peter reminds us, who have scoffed at the idea and have said, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). This gospel has been preached for nearly two thousand years, they say today, but he hasn’t come again yet. Yes, and they spoke like that before the Flood! People have always done that sort of thing, and when the Son of God came into the world the first time, it did not even recognize him. Remember, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). I ask you again to face the facts. Look at the world situation, and try to explain it in any other terms than I have used. Do you not see that man, in his malevolence, his enmity against God, and his foolishness, is just fulfilling Scripture and its prophecies? And above all, I ask you to see yourself involved in all this.

Finally, what is the promise to the Christian in the light of all this? Let me remind you of it, and this is the thing that is most urgent for all of us. I do not want to be pessimistic; I do not know exactly what is going to happen in the world. But I do know that whatever may happen, each one of us has to die and leave this world. And what do I have to say about that? Well, death to Christian men and women, to those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, means that they go to be with Christ. That is his promise to us. He said to that thief dying at his side on the cross, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

There are those who would say that one of the things that Jesus had in mind when he said, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself” was just that; that as you and I come to die, it will not be lonely, it will not be terrible, it will not mean going to some great unknown—he will be there. I am not sure that is straight from Scripture, but Jesus himself said about the poor beggar Lazarus that when he died, he was “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22). That is the death of a believer; it is not horrible. The angels of God will be there to receive you and to carry you to him. I am quoting the apostle Paul when I say that “to die is gain,” for it means “to be with Christ; which is far better” (Philippians 1:21, 23).

As you and I come to die, it will not be lonely,
it will not be terrible, it will not mean going to some
great unknown—he will be there.

The Bible does not give us many details on this point. I do not suppose we could stand them if we were given them. The thing is too tremendous; it is too glorious for us to think of. But of this I am certain: when he comes again there will be a general resurrection. All shall rise; when he comes, followers of Jesus will “be changed . . . in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52). There will be a great resurrection, and what our Lord tells us is that we shall be prepared for that new order, for that new earth, under those new heavens, even by receiving a changed body. This body of our humiliation will be changed. There will be no disease then because we shall not be stricken with illness and infirmities. We shall be “fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). We shall be like him; we shall see him; we shall be transmuted and glorified like him and will enjoy that bliss and those blessings with him forever and forever.

That is the comfort to those who believe on him. “Let not your heart be troubled.” Do not feel all is lost because Jesus tells us, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” I believe that I, miserable sinner such as I am, am nevertheless going to look into the blessed face of the Son of God and be like him and spend eternity in his holy, glorious, loving presence. This is true of any person who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God. If you believe that he died for your sins and rose again to justify you, if you give yourself to him and live for him, that will happen to you.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). I suggest to you that in the midst of the darkness and the confusion and the uncertainty of this modern world, if you want rest, if you want peace, if you want quietness of heart, you will not find it by trusting in ideas on the reformation of this world, for these are all being falsified before your eyes. You will find peace only where you will find this assurance that whatever may happen to you in this world of time, nothing, nothing, shall be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord and the glory of being with him forever and ever.

Do you know this? Do you believe it? Give yourself no rest of peace until you have that blessed assurance.