Now as we continue with our studies in the Word of God, I want again to direct your attention to the little verse which we have made the basis for this week's studies. Paul's second letter to Timothy, chapter two, verse fifteen. Study. To show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing, that is rightly handling the word of truth. Now to that verse I want to add and read some verses from the Gospel according to Luke and chapter twenty-four, that's the last chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, reading at verse twenty-five. Then he said unto them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Jesus. himself. I'm sure the Lord will bless to us the reading of these verses. Let us bow for prayer. Our Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we acknowledge thee once more, asking that thou would be pleased to look down in mercy upon all thy people, and under whatever circumstances they're found at this time, may thy blessing rest upon them. May they know thy good hand to be with them. Guide them in their difficulties. Bless them no matter what they're doing even now. And with the responsibilities that come upon them, give them guidance. We ask these things, giving thanks in the Savior's name. Amen. Now those of you who are daily listeners will know then... What we are doing this week in this series of studies, we're seeking to rightly handle the word of truth. We're living in a day of much confusion when some genuine Christians are shaking their head and they're saying, I just don't know what to believe. For the simple reason, some people are throwing doubt upon the word of God. Some people are distorting the Word of God. We are being inundated with occult religions, demonology, and such-like things are making inroads into professing Christendom. And even men, who perhaps are supposed to be defenders of the faith, are casting doubt upon it and no longer believe the Word of God to be the inerrant authoritative revelation from God. And some good Christians are beginning to wonder which way to turn. And so in a time like this, it is necessary to help to establish God's people again in the faith, and to get them to the point where they will understand that the Scriptures do not contradict themselves. So therefore, as true workmen, we must be diligent. Knowing that someday we'll have to present to ourselves before God and have our work put under review, it'll have to be tested. And in the light of that, if we want God's approval, we'll have to study and be able to handle the Word of God correctly. Now what I want to speak to you about today is the fact of the two advents of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the fact that there are two events must be perfectly clear. Whoever carefully considers Old Testament prophecies must be struck by two contrasting and seemingly contradictory lines of prediction concerning the coming Messiah. One body of prediction speaks of him as coming in weakness and humiliation. presenting him as a man of sorrows, one who is acquainting himself with our grief. We see him as a root out of a dry ground, having no form nor commonness, nor beauty that we should desire him. His visage was to be marred, his hands and feet were to be pierced. He is to be forsaken of man and of God, and he is going to make his grave with the wicked. Oh, you can read these things a way back in the Old Testament. But there is another line of prophecy which presents the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah, as a resistless sovereign, one who could purge the earth with his judgments, one who could regather dispersed Israel, one who could restore the throne of David, and restore it to a greater splendor than even Solomon had, and he could introduce a reign of profound peace and perfect righteousness. Now, in reading these two things, one wonders. Here is one that speaks of his sufferings, another that speaks of his glory. Now in due time the fulfillment of messianic prophecy began with the birth of the virgin's son. That was according to what Isaiah had said. He would be born of a virgin. He was born in Bethlehem, according to the prophecy of Micah. And he proceeded with perfect literalness until the full accomplishment of every prediction of the Messiah's humiliation. But of course the nation, the Jews, would not receive their king. They said, we have no king but Caesar. Well, what would you then that I do with this man? They said, let him be crucified. He entered into the city one day, meek, and sitting upon an ass, the coat, the fall of an ass. But still they wouldn't accept him. They crucified him. But we must not conclude that the wickedness of man has baffled the deliberate purpose of God, for his councils include a second advent of his Son, when the predictions concerning Messiah's earthly glory will receive the same precise and literal fulfillment as did those which concerned his earthly sufferings. The Lord Jesus Christ was walking down the road to Emmaus on that first Easter morning when he rose from the dead. The Jews were slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken concerning the sufferings of their Messiah. That's what the Lord said to these two, going down to Emmaus, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Now, they were slow to believe what the prophets have spoken concerning his sufferings. For he said, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? They had said, We trusted it was he that should have delivered Israel. You see, they were looking for the king coming in power to re-establish the kingdom. But now he's been crucified, he's been dead. We don't even know where his body is. The Lord said, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken concerning the sufferings of the Messiah. But isn't it equally true that we are slow of heart to believe all that they have spoken concerning His glory? Surely the greater reproach is ours, for it ought to be easier to believe that the Son of God would come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory than that He would come as the babe of Bethlehem and the carpenter of Nazareth. Indeed, we believe that He was at Bethlehem. We believe He was the carpenter because it happened. Not because the prophets foretold it. But it is time we cease to reproach the Jews for their unbelief. If it be asked how they could possibly be blinded to the evident meaning of so many and such predictions, the answer is that they were blinded in exactly the same way as many Christians or professing Christians are blinded to the equally evident meaning of a far greater number of predictions of His earthly glory. Now then, remember this. The ancient scribes told the people that the prophecies of Messiah's sufferings were not to be interpreted literally. Just as some modern scribes are telling the people that the prophecies of Messiah's earthly glory are not to be literally interpreted. But the Second Advent is a promise. It's a promise to the church as well as to the Jew. Among the last words of comfort and exhortation addressed by our Lord to his perplexed and sorrowing disciples before he accomplished the sacrifice of the cross were these. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 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. You'll find that in John chapter fourteen verses one through three. There the Lord speaks of his coming again in precisely the same terms as of his departure. The latter was, we know, personal and bodily. If we say that the former is impersonal and spiritual, surely we ought to be constrained to such a forced interpretation of sinful language by the most imperative and unqualified scripture elsewhere. No such passage exists. But we are not left to doubt upon this vital point, nor to the conclusions of reason, however irresistible. In the very moment of our Lord's disappearance from the sight of his disciples, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which has taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. You will find that in Acts chapter one, verse eleven. When Paul was writing his letter to the Thessalonians, these young Christians, he said, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then again, Paul, in writing to Titus, he said, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now, my friend, As you read through these, and there are many, many other scriptures referring to the return again of the Lord, it is abundantly clear that the second advent will be personal and bodily. That therefore it does not mean the death of the believer, nor the destruction of Jerusalem, nor the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. nor the gradual diffusion of Christianity, but that it is the blessed hope of the Church, the time when sleeping saints will be raised, and together with saints then living, who will be changed, caught up to meet the Lord. The time when we, who are now the sons of God, will be like him, and when faithful saints will be rewarded for what is done, after the salvation, of course, for his namesake. There's quite a number of scriptures further bringing to view the contrast between the two advents of our Lord. You ought to compare Luke chapter two, verse seven. It speaks of her bringing forth her firstborn. That was when he came in his humility. But then look. and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. Then shall all tribes of the earth mourn. They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Oh, what a change. What a difference. Now listen to this. Hebrews chapter nine says, But now once in the end of the world, has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself? That's when he came in his humility and was rejected. But over against that, notice this. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. That's Hebrews nine, verse twenty eight. So you see, he came in the first place to seek and to save that which was lost. But he's coming again to claim his own. Now you could multiply these contrasts. throughout the Scriptures. Perhaps enough has been said to show that both the promises to Israel and to the Church require a return of our Lord to the earth. It may be helpful in Bible study to consider briefly the various theories which are here and there put forward to oppose the scriptural doctrine of the personal and carceral second advent of Christ. will of course be clearly understood that the scriptures which speak of his visible and bodily appearing at the close of the dispensation must be distinguished from those which refer to his divine attributes of omniscience. and omnipresence, by virtue of which he knows all things, that is always present everywhere, of which such passages as Matthew eighteen twenty, where he says, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew twenty eight, twenty, where he says, go and preach the gospel, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. But then there are certain prophecies that have to do with his coming again. The prophecies concerning the return of the Lord were not fulfilled by the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, nor by His manifestation in powerful revivals and happy prayer meetings. That's not it. This interpretation practically nullifies the doctrine of the Trinity, making the Holy Spirit only a manifestation of Christ. In Christ's promise of the descent of the Spirit, He distinctly speaks of Him as another comforter. Again, the inspired writers of the Acts and the Epistles and the Revelation mentions the return of the Lord more than one hundred and fifty times after Pentecost and always as yet future. None of the events predicted to accompany the second advent of Christ occurred at Pentecost. These are the resurrection of sleeping saints, the change of believers, living believers. by which they put on incorruption, their vile bodies being fashioned like unto his glorious body, they're catching up to meet the Lord in the air. These things did not take place at the time the Holy Spirit came. Then again, the conversion of a sinner is not the coming of the Lord. That's evident. And a lot of other things that are said which do not fit in with what the Scriptures teach. However, let me say this. The diffusion of Christianity is not the second coming of Christ. Why some people ever tried to teach that, I don't know. The diffusion of Christianity is a gradual thing, whereas the Scriptures refer to the return of the Lord as sudden, none expect it. The diffusion of Christianity is a process. Scripture invariably speaks of the return of the Lord as an event. The diffusion of Christianity brings salvation to the wicked, whereas the coming of Christ is said to bring not salvation but sudden destruction to the wicked. But these alleged explanations and theories, though widespread, do not appear in the books of good theologians, of any school of denomination, nor are they maintained by a single exegete of universally recognized eminence. These all maintain the bodily and visible second coming of Christ. It is, however, sometimes said that this coming cannot occur until after the world has been converted by the preaching of the gospel, has submitted to the spiritual reign of Christ for one thousand years. It is submitted that this view is wholly erroneous because Scripture clearly describes the condition of the earth at the second coming of Christ to be one, not of millennial blessedness, but of awful wickedness that was in the days of Noah, so shall it be. And when the Lord comes back, He's coming back, my friend, to a wicked world. He's coming, first of all, to take his own redeemed, forgiven church out of this world. And then after he takes his church out of the world, then he's coming again in power and in great glory in order to set up his millennial kingdom. But remember this. Everything that offends shall be dealt with before that time. So therefore, what we have got to do at the present time is this. In our handling of the Word of God, we've got to realize that certain scriptures spoke of him coming in humiliation. Now that is past. That has become history. He came in a humble way at the time of his death. He was born of humble parents. He was born in a humble place. He lived in a very humble way in the town of Nazareth. He was a nobody so far as the world is concerned with the worldly standards. He was only the carpenter, looked upon as the son of Joseph and Mary. But remember this. while they treated them with shame, and he acquainted himself with our griefs. Remember this, the great thing in the Word of God is this, there will be another Advent, the same Lord Jesus Christ that this world rejected, the man who died on Calvary's cross. definitely must come again. Now he said to the two on the road to Amas, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Now, in going into all the scriptures and you find out things concerning his sufferings, and then you discover things concerning his glory. Now again I want to emphasize what we've said already. If the Jews as a nation were at fault for not recognizing their Messiah when he came, for they did not expect the Messiah to come in all humility. They didn't expect him to be despised and rejected. They're looking for a great one to come in power and in glory. And they were wrong. He had first of all to come and suffer, then enter into His glory. Now, how much more are we wrong in the fact that we're not expecting the Lord to come? Come first for His church, and the rapture takes place, and then coming with His own. His saints come with Him, and He sets up His millennial kingdom, and He will deal with His enemies. You know, when David came to the throne, David had to deal with His enemies. And then Solomon came to the throne, and Solomon reigned a reign of peace. Now the Lord Jesus Christ will come like David. When he comes out of heaven with the armies of heaven, he'll have his sword. He'll deal first of all with his enemies. And then after dealing with his enemies, he'll be able to set up his kingdom and reign in righteousness. And a king, a man shall reign in righteousness. And a man shall be in hiding place from the wind and a cover from the tempest. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. Now then, we must not spiritualize these things, but we must take them in a literal sense. It was literal when he came to Bethlehem. It was literal when he worked in Nazareth. It was literal when they put him on a cross. These things were literal events. And the same Lord Jesus Christ is sitting now in glory, and will come in glory, and will come in power, and every eye shall see him, and they also pierced him, and all nations shall wail because of him. My friend, Christ is coming. Now remember, the world today doesn't want Christ to come. In fact, The majority in the world today do not want anything to do with God, and they don't want God to interfere with them. But the fact of the matter is that from time to time God has interfered in the human race. He has come into the affairs of mankind. We showed that when we dealt with the different dispensation. The Lord Jesus Christ at the present time is hidden from the eyes of men. He's exalted to the glory, waiting for the time when his enemies shall be made his foodstool. But the world has not seen the last of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming again. And just as the prophets prophesied his first coming, the Bible prophesies his return. And when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound... and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair, when the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore, and the roll is called up yonder. May I ask, will you be there, will you be there to answer the call? My friend, I ask you again, are you ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? People were not ready for his coming when he came in his first advent. Only a few people knew he had been born at Bethlehem. But then, while the leaders of the nation didn't know a thing about it, may I ask you now, how many people do you think at the present time are crying out, even so come, Lord Jesus? That is the last cry it would seem in the Bible. Men and women today should be saying this. As we look around us and we see the awful condition of things, there's only one cure for the world's troubles. It's the return of the Lord. Even so come, Lord Jesus, is the response of His waiting people as recorded in the book of Revelation. And I want every listener right now to realize this, that I believe the Bible to be literal. I believe that Jesus Christ is coming back again in person. And it becomes every one of us to be ready for that coming event. It says, Surely I come quickly. And you and I respond and say, Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus.