THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"The Return of the King”
Rev.
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prca.orgDear
radio friends,
When
the King comes, it will be great glory for Him. God has been busy exalting His Son, Jesus Christ. We read in
Philippians 2,
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every name.” God has raised His
Son Jesus from the grave. He is ascended
up on high to the right hand of God where God has placed His own Son to rule
over all things for His glory, for His honor.
But the culmination
of all the glory of God’s Son, our King, will be when He returns in judgment at
the end of the world. Then all the earth
will tremble. The wicked will hide themselves and the righteous will admire Him. He Himself said in
Matthew 25,
“When the Son
of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory.” He
will be surrounded by glorious angels as attendants, and all His saints will
accompany Him. And it will be great
glory for our King.
While on earth,
they despised Him. They spit upon Him,
hated Him, and crucified Him. Today
mankind refuses to acknowledge Him as Lord alone, denies His truth, and curses
His name. But not
then. When He returns, He shall
be glorified in all of His great admirable glory. He shall be seen in His awesome, terrible
majesty. We pray, “Come, Lord
Jesus.” We look forward to the coming of
our King.
For it will not
only be glory for Him. Oh, it will be
glory for us! It is the culmination for
Jesus in His glory, but it is the culmination also of our glory and of our
hope. All of our faith in Jesus Christ
is aimed at this point. This is the
goal, the heart, of everything. This is
all our hope. And this is why we live,
why we serve Him, and why we endure the loss of all things, if necessary, for
His sake.
David, in the Old
Testament, knew this. Already at the end of his life in
II Samuel 23
he confessed the following: “And he (referring to the king) shall be as
the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even
as a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by
clear shining after rain…for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.” To see the King return in glory! Imagine!
Imagine your faith
today without this article of the Christian faith: the return of Jesus Christ to judge the
living and the dead. Without that
article of the Christian faith, what would you have? You say, “Well, we would have
forgiveness. We would have the
church. We would have the Holy
Spirit.” Yes, perhaps.
But without this
article, without this certain faith that Jesus Christ, the King of all, is
returning at the end of the world, then there would be no culmination. There would be no final glory. There would be no final church; no eternity;
no new heaven and earth; no time when we shall sit down, as Jesus said, with
Abraham and Moses and Paul and all the saints there to admire the wonderful
grace of God in perfection.
My brothers and
sisters, this is the goal. This is what
we are waiting for. This is what gives
ballast to our souls in the midst of every trial and trouble. This provides direction. This is the purpose for life. Why are you living? Are you living ready to stand before the King
and to be with the King eternally? This
is why we are willing to suffer, as I said a moment ago, for His cause. This is why we labor in instructing our
children in the home and maintain a biblical, godly marriage in the midst of a
world of filth. This is why we labor for
Christian schools and maintain marriages—because Jesus is coming!
This is what we lay
hold of by faith. This is what comforts
us now in every sorrow. This is what is
before our eyes when we put the body of our loved one into a casket and bury
him in the ground. And this is what
pulls our feet out of snares of temptations that the devil has laid for us or
keeps us out of the embrace of another woman (or man). This is why we will not quit our
marriages. And this is why we will not
join the world in its vain and empty pursuits—because our King is coming. King Jesus is coming. Are you ready?
He is coming back
for judgment, according to the Bible, the great day of reckoning for the human
race. Now He returns for other things as
well; for the Bible says that at that day He will raise our bodies from the dead. Oh, what a day this is going to be when He
shall change our vile body, that it might be fashioned
like to His most glorious body. Our
bodies that now decay and become old and are placed in the ground and become
dust—those bodies shall not be left forgotten in the grave. He stands watch over those bodies. And when He comes He will change them like
unto His glorious body.
Still
more. He comes to create the new
heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell, says the apostle
Peter. He will gather the church into
one. And there we shall be forever
before Him in matchless splendor.
Still
more. He comes in order that He
might place the jewel of His grace and glory upon our heads,
that He might bring us into perfect peace and bliss and fellowship with
God.
But, primarily, Jesus
Christ is coming again for judgment—that all men might be gathered before Him
as the Judge. For He said in
John 5
that the Father had committed all judgment unto His Son. He will stand before His enemies, before the
unbelieving, before the wicked and all who blaspheme His name, who live in this
world out of the pride of their own heart, who declare before Him that they are
their own and that they will do what they want and that no one will ever tell
them what to do, who declare proudly that “I am man.” He comes to judge them. And He says today, “Be wise, O ye rulers of
the earth. Kiss the Son, lest He be
angry in that day.”
He comes also to
judge us, His people. For we, too, shall stand within the mass of humanity on that
day. He said, “Before Him shall be
gathered all nations. And He shall
separate them one from another.” One, final, public judgment issuing in heaven or hell. Mankind summoned before the throne of the Son
of man in His return. This was God’s
eternal purpose—that at the last His righteousness in Jesus be revealed to every heart and soul.
Romans 2:5,
“But
after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up
unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation (here is the return
of Jesus) of the righteous judgment of God.”
In that day, through Jesus, it will be universally and publicly known,
declared, and confessed that God, in Jesus, is righteous—righteous in
condemnation of all those who refuse His Son Jesus Christ, who shall hear the
words, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting darkness,” and righteous in
His salvation when He says to His children, “Come, ye blessed—blessed because
your sins are covered perfectly in My Son’s blood.”
The Bible is simply
full of this. The creation is longing
and groaning for this day.
Romans 8
tells us that it longs to share in the glorious
liberty of the children of God. The
church now in glory, worshiping around the throne of God, all the souls of the
saints of God who are with Jesus, they cry out:
“How long, O God, holy and true.
Dost Thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Rise up, Lord. Stand up.
Show Thyself.” And the Scriptures
repeatedly, in parables and epistles and psalms and Old Testament prophecies,
constantly are telling us, “The King is coming.
The world will come to its conclusion, to its end, when Jesus Christ
appears upon the clouds of glory.” This
is what is coming to this earth. Are you
ready?
Before His coming,
the Bible tells us, there will be a great falling away of nominal Christianity—a
great falling away from the truth of the Scriptures. There will be the rising of what Paul says in
II Thessalonians 2
is the man of sin, the Antichrist, the one-world empire,
united in hatred of our Lord and King and everyone who would confess Him or do
His will. There will be a great
persecution against all who shall live godly in Jesus Christ.
But when, at last,
sin and rebellion against God have reached their divinely appointed limit and
end, when the last elect is born in this world and regenerated by the Holy
Spirit of Christ, then Jesus is going to come down from the right hand of God
as the King. He will be visible to
everyone in His glory. With His appearance
the dead will immediately arise out of the earth, so that all men will stand
before Him—humanity from Adam to the last soul.
Christ will sit upon a throne of judgment, the record of the human deeds
of mankind shall be read, and He shall pronounce a just verdict upon all: innocent or guilty. And He shall execute that verdict. The wicked, who have not been cleansed by His
blood, and who have lived in unbelief, shall be cast into the lake of
fire. And the righteous, by grace alone,
covered by His blood—unto life eternal.
You will appear
there. You will not escape this. You will be there. In
II Corinthians 5:10
God says, “For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the
things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or
bad.” You will not lose yourself in the
crowd. You will not be able to sink
unnoticed behind the lines of the billions who stand before the throne. Your name will be called. And you will step forward. And you will be judged.
There are two
truths, then, that need to be pointed out to us today.
First, the return
of our King, Jesus, puts the lie to everything the world is saying. What is the world saying? In television, in news, in books, in songs
they are saying “There is no judgment from God.” The truth of the King’s return is scorned by
man because man detests the idea of being accountable, answerable, responsible to one true and only God who is the Lord.
Man is answerable
to God. That is what the return of Jesus
Christ declares. He is answerable to the
Creator, he is answerable for treason before this Creator—for man originally
was created to love, serve, know, and glorify God. And failure to do so is heinous evil.
But God sent His
Son into this world in order that those who believe, by grace, in His Son shall
not perish but have everlasting life and joy with God.
The return of Jesus
Christ puts the lie to the inmost heart of man when man says, “There is no
judgment from God.” It puts the lie to
evolution. Evolution is not a scientific
explanation of origins. That is not its
driving force. It is not an honest
attempt to figure out where we came from.
Evolution is an attempt to deny where we came from. It is interested in this question: Answerability, accountability—Who am I? That is
what is trying to be answered in evolution.
Man says, “I’m not answerable to God.
I’m part of cosmic significance.
I have somehow, by chance occurrence, arisen on the scene of human
destiny. I have evolved.” And God says, “No, you did not. You were made by My
hand. You were made out of the dust of
the ground. I breathed into your
nostrils the breath of life. I gave to
you a soul. And that soul must stand
before Me to glorify Me, either in the execution of My
holy justice or in songs of praise.” You
are accountable to God. Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of sin. Find sure refuge and eternal bliss in Him.
We must remember
that this judgment, which surely comes, will come upon the world and all
therein.
But this is
comfort. My comfort is that the One who
judges me in that day is the One who died for me. The comfort is that the basis of judgment
will be in my Lord Jesus. The King who
judges is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the One who, out of the grace of God, has loved His children even unto the
end. He is the One who, believer, has
loved your soul in the deepest hell upon the cross. He is the One who stuck closer than a
brother. He is the One who declares that
He is faithful and true.
The Father, as I said before (
John 5),
has committed all judgment to His Son. The One who shed His own blood for our souls
will be the Judge. That is our
comfort. Will He, who is the head of
church, condemn the body, the members of the church? Will this Husband, our Lord Jesus Christ,
damn His wife? Will the Savior abandon
us at that moment? I tell you, He will
not. He will confess each and every name
for whom He died.
He will come and say, “Ah, this one, this is one of Mine,
in eternal grace and election. This is
the one I remember so well, for I paid for his sins upon the cross. This is the one who, by My
grace, walked with Me in this world and walked upon a path of repentance with
Me.”
That is why we do
not want to be ashamed on that day or bring shame to His name. Because our Savior is the One who is
returning, our great and glorious Savior, we do not want now to do anything
that would in any way bring shame to that wonderful, glorious grace of Jesus
Christ. That He should be disappointed
in me? That I should injure His
love? That I should have to say to Him,
“Lord, while outwardly I confessed Your name,
nevertheless, I walked contrary to everything I was saying when the eyes of men
were not upon me. My religion was only
for the eyes of men.” Saving faith is
not for the eyes of men. Saving faith is
for the eye of the King. That is why we
live.
My comfort, and
your comfort, as a believer, is that on that day all His and our enemies shall
be destroyed. Now the enemies of Jesus
Christ ridicule and persecute those who confess Him. They ask, “Where is your God?” They say that it is vain to put your trust in
Jesus Christ. They say that you are an
enemy because you proclaim man’s problem as being sin, sin against God. So Jesus said to us, “Marvel not if the world hate you. They
hated Me. The
servant is not above his Lord.” They
watch and they are very quick to point out your inconsistencies. And they want now to make Christianity out to
be the religion of bigots, the enemies of sexual choice, advocates
of intolerance.
But in that day the
record will be set straight. And the
cause of God and all those who represented it shall be vindicated. There is comfort here, because on that day we
shall be translated into heavenly joys and glory.
Here is one of the
most blessed words from the Scriptures that you shall ever hear: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…. Well done, thou good and faithful servant;
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
Those are the most blessed words that your ear can or will ever hear. The most blessed words for your ear to hear is not: “Oh, you are
everything to me (if it is spoken by another man or woman). Won’t you give me….” The most blessed words are not: “There will be a Christmas bonus.” Or “You’re one of the guys.” Or “You’re in the group.” Or “You’re our best salesman.” Or “You’re house and your yard
are so lovely.” Or “You’re
beautiful, or the best.” Those are not the sweetest words
for the human ear to hear. In that day
all such words will fall to the ground as empty. In that day every proud look and every
haughty spirit will be laid low. In that
day the thoughts of men will perish.
But it only matters
what God says of you. It matters today
what God says about you. It matters what
He will say in that day about you. That
is what matters!
My comfort is that,
in Jesus, God sees me as His, redeemed and precious. Therefore, in His grace, He will say, “Come
into this bliss prepared for you—this eternal paradise. Come to this place where there are no tears
ever to be found or formed. Come to My
side. Sit thou here and I will serve
thee.”
The King is
coming. He is robed in might, appareled
in glory, with the scepter in His hand. He is seated upon His throne, issuing His
commands. If I do not lift up my voice
today and tell you that He is coming and that you must stand before Him, then
your blood will be upon my hands in that day.
And if you do not hear this word, your blood will be required of you. You are not your own. This is life:
to know Jesus Christ and to know God in Him. Jesus is coming. Go out to meet Him. Prepare yourself for His coming.
We prepare for His
coming not by predicting the time, which no man can do. And any who try declare
themselves to be false prophets, enemies of Jesus Christ. But we prepare by living a righteous and holy
life. We prepare by living with the eye
of faith upon this day. This is what
must be set before us when we get up in the morning, when we get married, when
we graduate from high school, when we leave the house at 6:30. We must constantly say to ourselves: “My King is coming.” Do you?
If you do not, you
are on the wrong path today. You had
better get off that path now. You are on
the road to destruction. Do you live for
the things of this life? Is this what
matters to your heart? Is this what you
are pursuing? There is one path for your
soul. There is one path for your heart. Your eye must be on the coming of Jesus
Christ. You must store up spiritual
treasure and love in Him.
You, who are in business—He
will require of you of His goods and how you did your business and how you
conducted yourself. You, who have riches
or lands or homes, you, who have children—into all of these things the Lord
will inquire. You, with the strength of
your body—how you used your body. You
with talents; you with resources—did you use them in the pursuit of the great
and glorious kingdom? He will ask: “How did you serve Me? How did you work?” I solemnly swear to you, on the basis of
God’s Word, that Jesus Christ will inquire of you.
Oh, what regret if
I must say, “King, while you were away, I beat your servants. I lived in hatred against other members of
the church. King, while you were gone, I
lived in the kingdom of darkness. King,
I saw one of your little ones in need but I was too busy with my own business
and I thought someone else would help him.
King, I was too busy to take in the poor, to read the Scriptures. I was too busy to come to the aid of the
church. I slept in this world.” Oh, oh, what regret.
Rather, let us live
with an eye to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might be acceptable
and pleased in Him that day. Let us
endure, if need be, loss for His name. Let
us be ready to be called whatever name they wish to call us. Let us be ready to give up our homes,
possessions, families, and goods. And
let us hope to the end. For the King is
coming! It is just a little while
now. Be patient and wait and pray: “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”
Let us pray.
Father, we thank
Thee for Thy precious word. Bind it now
to our hearts. In
Jesus’ name, Amen.
Last modified: 02-may-2007