be turning to Mark 13. Mark 13. And let me just say thank you. Thank you for inviting Michelle
and I, and we're glad that we could come and be with you and
fill in for your pastor. He's a dear man, and I enjoy
getting to know him better. We talk once in a while on the
phone, and so he's a real joy. And the people there in Springfield,
well, Nixa, Missouri, he's really tender to them in their heart. They think very fondly of him
because he was their pastor as well before they called me. So
thank you very much. So we'll be in Mark 13, verses
24 and 27. Now in this passage, our Lord
is speaking of his second coming. That is, when he returns to the
earth, he shall gather together his people to himself, and then
he will judge the earth for their wickedness. And our Lord promises
his return in Mark 13, 26. He says, and then shall they
see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and
glory. Now before I get going, I will
acknowledge and we ought to acknowledge and recognize that this passage
does speak of the destruction of Jerusalem. It does tell us
of the destruction of the temple in 70 AD and the nation of Israel
being taken apart, being destroyed by God. And so that when those
unbelieving Jews who saw Christ and heard him speak took part
in his crucifixion. When they saw the cloud of their
impending doom by that Roman army gathering around them and
they came in to destroy, they understood this is the judgment
that Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, sent of God, spoke of. But what
I want us to do is to see how Christ has prepared his people
for his return. That's gonna be our focus is
how Christ has prepared his people for his second coming. And the reality is that we all
should welcome the return of Christ. We that are his people
should be glad at the thought of Christ returning and our heart
should be stirred because we're thankful and rejoicing. But it'll
be a terrifying time for the wicked. But Christ has so prepared
us that we are made ready for his coming. We shall stand before
him and have nothing to fear or be afraid of when he returns. Our title is Christ Comes Again. Christ Comes Again. And we'll
just have two divisions. First, we'll see how Christ prepared
his people for his return. And then we'll see our gathering
together before destruction. I think this message will go
nicely with what we heard this morning, and that's why I was
on my heart to bring it forth to you. But in this passage,
we're gonna see how Christ's coming again is actually a picture
of his salvation for his people. Look there at verses 24 and 25.
Mark 13, 24. But in those days, after that
tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the
powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. This is a very serious
thing. What the Lord is telling us is
that the world as we know it, But we understand about the world,
and as we know it, it's going to flee away at his presence. When Christ comes, he's going
to set all things right. All that is crooked, all that
is wrong and not right in his darkness will be set right by
the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now, in looking at
Christ's second coming, I think there's a lot of people, we know
a lot of people like to study and think about and talk about
the Lord's second coming. But the reality is that it'll
do us no good to talk about the second coming, to speak about
it as though we understood it. It'll do us no good except to
maybe terrify us if we have no part in his first coming. If we have no part in Christ,
if we have no part in his first coming, then his second coming
will be nothing but a terror unto us. So let's learn what
part we have at his first coming before we get excited about his
second coming. Christ came to put away, when
he came the first time, he came to put away the sin of his people. That had to be dealt with first. He could have come right at the
beginning and just destroyed every one of us in Adam. When we sinned in Adam, we could
have all just been destroyed right then and there, but Christ,
he didn't come right away. He first came, not to destroy
us, he first came to put away the sin of his people, all those
before he came and all those since he came. He had to deal
with that sin. Turn over to Hebrews 9, Hebrews
9.27. Hebrews 9.27, the apostle tells
us here, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment, right, we all are going to die and we're
all going to stand before God sitting upon his throne who is
righteous and holy and perfect in all his ways It's appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, look at verse
28. 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 a glorious thought. He's
not returning. coming to lay out to us the sin
of ourselves and to condemn us for our sin. No, He's coming
in glory and power to save His people because we have in Him,
even now, salvation. What the scriptures teach us,
what they declare to us is that every one of us is worthy of
hell, we're worthy of that judgment, we're worthy of that damnation.
We have nothing to boast in, nothing to say, well, wait a
minute, I'm better than this person and I'm better than that
person. It doesn't matter what we think
of ourselves. God says that we're all, all
the wages of sin is death. We've all earned damnation, but
Christ was sent of God. God the Father gave his son. God the Father spared not his
son to put away the sin of his people and to deliver them from
that coming day of judgment, to deliver them from being cast
into hell because he bore that judgment in his body. He bore
the righteous judgment of God to put away the sin of his people. He bore that punishment and made
them righteous so that, as the scriptures say, we are even now
fit to stand before the throne of God, faultless before the
throne of God. Faultless before the throne of
God because of Jesus Christ. And so he gives us life, brings
us into the knowledge of his salvation, brings us into Christ
so that we look to him and are protected and covered in his
righteousness and have no fear of eternal death. We have nothing
but life in Christ, all right? So that even now, even now he
ever lives to make intercession for his people. He is assuring
that all his people shall be brought into the knowledge of
his salvation and they shall know him. It says in 1 John 2,
1 and 2, My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. We hear of this glorious gospel
not to be used as a cloak for unrighteousness and to justify
ourselves in our sin and the love of sin as we do naturally,
but we hear this gospel that we would rejoice and be glad
in him and seek to walk before him in truth by faith which he's
given to us. Now, he says this, but we hear
this good news, but if any man sin, and we do, we're in the
flesh, and we are wicked, and well, we're redeemed sinners,
but this flesh is fallen, and this flesh does not do those
things which please God, so that if any man sins, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
propitiation for our sins. Now, that word propitiation doesn't
mean much to us unless you really know it. I didn't know it very
well, so I want to understand. What is this, he's the propitiation
for our sins? Well, the thing that helps me
to remember it is he is the means of our forgiveness. He's the
reason why God forgives us. That's what propitiation for
our sins means. He's the means of our forgiveness. And not for us only, not for
us Jews who John is writing to, but also for the sins of the
whole world, all those Gentiles in darkness. That's why Christ
came, for the Jews and the Gentiles. And so his blood ever pleads
to the Father so that none for whom he died shall be lost. So when Christ comes again, he
will consummate, he'll complete and finish his great work of
redemption. The works are finished, we shall
be saved, but he'll wrap it all up. He's gonna gather us together
with him, raising his people from the dead, and he'll judge
this world. All right, now. I wanna show
you how there's a similarity in Christ's second coming to
his first coming in salvation. That's what I wanna look at together
now. Look at verse 24 and 25 again. Let's read it just so
we're familiar. But in those days, Mark 13, 24, in those days after that tribulation,
the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light
and the stars of heaven shall fall and the powers that are
in heaven shall be shaken." Okay, the Lord's talking here about
created things, the sun, the moon, the stars, and he tells
us in the scriptures that all of creation declares to us the
glory of God. It testifies of his power, of
his Godhead, of his glory. Now, for example, we see how
in creation we can see things that picture his salvation. They were made this way and created
this way, not in and of themselves and just happened to be pictures
of Christ, but they were created for that very purpose so that
we would see and behold, that's testifying of Christ's salvation
of his people. That declares his glory. So for
example, We see that, well, we understand in our salvation that
we are a new creature, a new creation in Christ. He doesn't
take that which is old and just improve it and pretty it up.
He creates anew. He creates a new man in each
of his people. It's by his work, by his spirit.
It's a new creation. This creation typifies the creation,
or the creation of the world typifies the creation of us in
Christ, right? So that Christ delivers us from
darkness, as we saw this morning, he delivers us out of darkness.
Well, that's how the earth was. When God created the heavens
and the earth, it was in darkness. And it says in Genesis 1.3, when
God said, let there be light, then there was light upon the
earth. And just like that created earth,
God brings light to us, brings us out of the darkness and reveals
to us what he's done in Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4.6,
for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's revealed
that, that light, Christ is the light and life, and he's revealed
it in our dark hearts by giving us a new heart by his spirit.
So just like the earth that was void and without form and in
darkness. So we before Christ were without
form. We had no part in his body till
he created us in Christ. And we were void of righteousness
until Christ made us righteousness. And we were in darkness until
Christ revealed his light in us and brought us to know him
by his spirit. All right, so seeing that relation,
how we see the works of our salvation, even in creation, And it should
be no surprise to us to learn that even in the end, even when
it speaks of the end times of Christ returning again, that
we actually see pictures and types of our salvation of how
the Lord has, what he's done for us in Christ. Turn over to
Isaiah 60. Isaiah 60, and we'll begin in
verse 18. Isaiah 60, verse 18. First we hear, violence shall
no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within
thy borders. But thou shalt call thy walls
salvation and thy gates praise. All right, so the Lord, he leads
his people into the strong city of salvation, which he's prepared
for them. It's his kingdom, and we're now
surrounded by the walls of salvation. Now, in the next verse, Isaiah
60, verse 19, we're gonna see that the natural light that we
have as men and women has shut us out from the blessings of
God, but all that natural light, all that natural understanding
is removed and Christ's light is revealed to us. Look at Isaiah
60, verse 19. The sun shall no more The sun
shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall
the moon give light unto thee. But the Lord shall be unto thee
an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall
no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself. For
the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy morning
shall be ended. Christ performed this work, he
became the light of his people when he made reconciliation for
his people. So that even now, it says verse
21, thy people also shall be all righteous. They shall inherit
the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my
hands that I may be glorified, so that in all of salvation we
are Christ's workmanship. Everything we do has been ordained
of God to be done in us so that we come forth, not of our own
works, but of his workmanship. So what you see there is that
that natural light that we have, that natural understanding was
worthless and did us no good. It didn't bring us any nearer
to the truth of God. And so God removed all that natural
light and reveals to us the light of Christ. He reveals to us what
Christ has done for his people. Now think about this world for
a moment. All they have is natural light. pictured in the sun, the
moon, and the stars. That's all the light that they
have. And that's gonna be a terrifying
day when Christ comes, and those things are removed, and those
things are destroyed before them, that's all that they have. But
you who know Christ, who have the light of Christ, he's your
sun, he's your moon, he's your stars, What does it matter if
all these things fall apart and are removed? They'll be terrified,
but you have already been prepared by Christ, made righteous, so
that though the flesh may look at it and be taken aback and
fearful, but really the believer, the new man, what do you have
to be afraid of? Come Lord Jesus, remove these
things. It's all right because you've
prepared us for that very day. And so even as this world, as
you can see it in another sense, you see where this world is just
turned upside down. I mean, people are just even
changing genders. It's just gone mad, just what's
going on. They have no light. They have
no understanding. They're in complete darkness.
And it's just going further and further and further and further
from the truth. But you keep looking to Christ. And it doesn't matter what they
say or what you see, just keep looking to Christ. Because he
tells us there will be great deception, great deception. It'll
just keep rolling out more and more and more. You don't need
to be afraid or worried by it or moved because he told us these
things would come. You just keep looking to Christ
and don't be moved from him. All right, so in those days after
that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall
not give her light and the stars of heaven shall fall and the
powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. All right, everything
they think they know is gonna be shaken and they have nothing. no part in Christ, so when he
comes they're going to be terrified. So, you that believe, our Lord
has removed all these things from us, but he gave us the light
of Christ. He gave us the light of Christ.
Now it says, after that tribulation, after that tribulation. That's
referring back to verse 14. In Mark 13, verse 14, he tells
us, he says, when ye shall see the abomination of desolation,
when you see it, flee to the mountains. And what I showed
the people in my congregation is that what he's saying there
is when the Lord brings that home to your heart and you see
the wickedness about you, you see the wickedness in your own
heart, you see the wickedness all around you and what's going
on and you hear the trumpets blaring and you see the judgments
of God being poured out upon the people, when you see it,
when he makes you to see it, He says, you get to Christ, you
flee to the mountains, you flee to the mountain of my salvation. You go there and there's your
safety, there's your deliverance, there's your protection when
you see it. He says at the very end of this
chapter in Mark 13 37, he said, but what I say unto you, the
apostles standing before me, I say unto all, watch. So these words are for us even
today, just as they've been true for every generation. You get
to Christ. When you, when God makes you
to see you're worthy of the damnation of God, you flee to Christ. You
flee to those mountains, all right? Christ, he's returning
again. He said, behold, in Revelation,
I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man
according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first. And the last, and when he's talking
about there that our works, he's not talking about our works in
the flesh, our religious duties and our religious sacrifices
and what we do. No, the work that we do, the
good work that we do is looking to Christ. Our Lord said, reverence
my son. You believe him, you trust him.
That's the good work. And all those other works will
follow. All right. Moving on, look at
verse 26. After these things were told,
and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with
great power and glory. So in other words, when Christ
first came, he came quietly, he came without riches, he came
without honor, and he was just poor and in weakness. But this
time when they see him, all will see him, exalted in the clouds,
gloriously rich in majesty and riding in power. Revelation 1.7
says, behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see
him. And they also which pierced him
and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, amen. All right, so having such promises,
having the promise that Christ is returning, it gives us great
boldness. We ought to be bold in faith.
Don't be afraid to speak to others and declare what God has done
for you in his son, Jesus Christ. And to say, come on, come hear
the gospel. Come hear our pastor preach and
come hear this gospel because you don't know. It's usually
the one that you think this person will never hear. and they're
usually the ones that hear it and come, and that one that you
think surely the likeness would want to come, they're the ones
that never come, or if they come, they don't come for very long.
Now, we're encouraged, it says, this world shall be made to see
the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Well, even now, brethren, we
see him in the clouds. We have the witness of him in
the clouds so that we are encouraged. We have a cloud of witnesses.
It says in Hebrews 12, one and two, it words it this way, wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. We are reminded through the prophets,
through the apostles, we have their word, we're encouraged
by the brethren, we're encouraged by the pastor that the Lord's
given us as he preaches the gospel, as he feeds us, we're encouraged
with that cloud of witnesses. Therefore, with so great a cloud
of witnesses, he says, let us lay aside every weight and the
sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him." Well, who's the joy? What's the joy? You, brethren,
that believe are his joy. For that joy, he went to the
cross. It says that he endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God until God should make his enemies his footstool.
All right, so now let's go on to the final point there, the
gathering of his people. So we see how the Lord, he shows
us that he's prepared us for his return. He's prepared us,
he's become our light, so we don't need these natural lights.
He's become our light, and we already see him in the clouds.
We have the cloud of witness given to us through the gospel,
through the preaching of the gospel. All right, now let's
look at the gathering. Look at verse 27. Here we see
that the first order of our God's business is going to be to gather
his elect unto himself. And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from
the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Now, our Lord has been very patient. He's been very long-suffering. with the wicked. He's been very
long-suffering with the wicked. He didn't destroy them right
away. He's been very long-suffering. Why? For you that are his beloved,
for you that are his people, his chosen, he's long-suffering
with this world till every one of his people should be brought
in to the truth of the gospel. That's what Peter was saying
in 2 Peter 3.9. 2 Peter 3.9, the Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to usward, to his chosen elect, to usward, not willing that any
of us, chosen, elect, sons and daughters of God, should come
to him, that we should not perish, but that all, all of us should
come to repentance. So that's what the Lord is doing
in his patience here with all the wickedness we see going on
about us. He's not destroyed it yet because he's still gathering
in his people to himself. And that's what we see the Lord
doing, right? He sends out his ministers. Those that he's revealed
the gospel to and raised up to preach the gospel, they go forth
as ministering spirits, right? Just as angels sent of God minister
the will of God, so we go forth preaching, proclaiming, declaring
the gospel of what God has done for us in his son, Jesus Christ. And we saw earlier that all these
passages, they concern Christ's second coming, but they've been
seen already by us, being witnessed in his first coming to us, when
he first revealed himself to you and became your light and
became your witness and revealed to you Christ. Even so, we see
it here in our gathering that we've been gathered into Christ,
right? He's gonna gather us in the end,
but we're gathered first into Christ his gospel, he said in
John 10.27, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me. So we're going to hear Christ
and follow him, all right? Now in salvation, therefore,
the Lord sends his angels, right, his ministering spirits, They
gather him through the gospel so that when we read of him sending
his angel to gather us at that final end day when he raises
us from the dead and gathers up his people, so we see that
as well, that his elect are gathered in his second coming. That's
what it says there in verse 27. And then Mark 13, verse 27, sorry
about that. It says, and then shall he send
his angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds
from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of
heaven. So there's the pattern. We see
everything that's going to happen in the end time is already done
for us at the first time when he comes to us initially in salvation
to work in our hearts what he's already worked for us on the
cross through his word. All right, so let's just see
it in Revelation 14. Turn there, Revelation 14. And we see our gathering together
to him in the skies. Look at verses 13 through 16. We read, And I heard a voice,
Revelation 14, 13, And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto
me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, sayeth the Spirit that they
may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. How do we die in the Lord? We
die in the Lord in that first death, right? When we die to
self and are made alive unto Christ in the gospel, when we
hear his word by faith, having his faithfulness, his work of
faith revealed to the faith which God has given to us. So that's
how we die in the Lord first in the gospel, all right? And
he says, don't worry, you that die in Christ, you have nothing
to fear, nothing to fear at his second coming. Verse 14, And
I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and upon the cloud one
sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown,
and in his hand a sharp sickle. This is speaking of his return,
his second coming. And another angel came out of
the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the
cloud, thrust in thy sickle, and reaped For the time has come
for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And as
I was saying earlier, that all the fruit of God's people is
ordained. And so when that final fruit
is born, whatever that fruit is, whatever that last person
is that bears that final fruit, that'll be the end ripening,
and then comes the end. He'll thrust in the sickle. And
that will be raised up to the Lord. He says in verse 16, and
he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and
the earth was reaped. All right, now that's just for
the believers. He gathers up us to meet him
in the skies, and then we will be made witnesses of what's to
come, which is the destruction of the wicked. Look at verse
17, Revelation 14, 17. And another angel came out of
the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar which had power over
fire, and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle,
saying, thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the
vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel
thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine
of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath
of God. So for all the self-righteous,
will-workers, will-worshippers who trust in their own works
and trust the works of this flesh and think that they please God
and do him service, but really are against God and enmity against
him, it shall be a terrible and frightening day for them. But
for you who hear Christ, who hear his word and hear what he's
done and believe him, It's a blessed day. You see how he's prepared
you for this. He's done everything necessary. He called you through his gospel. He came and revealed the light
of Christ to you, making you a new creation in him, and he's
replaced all your natural light with the light of Christ. He
encourages you in the cloud of witnesses, and he reveals to
you his truth and strengthens your faith and trust in him,
and he's gathered in this gospel already, so that everything else
will follow. It's already done, it's certain
in Christ. It's going to be done. So fear
not, for your salvation draws nigh. Now I just wanna close
with one final passage. Turn over to Isaiah 26. Isaiah
26, because it captures this really well. And go to verse 19. Isaiah 26, verse 19. Here the Lord says to us, thy
dead men shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they arise. It's a sweet picture of our resurrection
in Christ when he rose from the dead. And it's a picture that
we shall rise when he calls us. And he says, awake and sing,
ye that dwell in dust, For thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and
the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter
thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself,
as it were, a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed."
Christ Jesus is that chamber. He's the doors that we are enclosed
in. We are protected in Christ, as
Noah was protected in that ark. When the judgment of God fell
upon the earth, that's our protection. Christ is our ark, and the judgment
of God shall fall upon this earth. But we'll be protected in there.
Look at verse 21. For behold, the Lord cometh out
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover
her slain. So it will be a terrifying day
for them, but you rejoice and be glad in the Lord Jesus Christ
because he's prepared you. He's already shown you these
things, and so you have nothing to fear in that hour. All right,
I pray the Lord will bless that word to you. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you for your mercy, for the grace that you've shown
us in your son Jesus Christ in preparing us in that first death. in that first resurrection in
Christ, that we have no fear of the second resurrection. Lord,
keep us ever looking to the Lord Jesus Christ and beholding the
peace that he has made between us and holy God. Lord, keep us
right there. We thank you for your mercy.
And Lord, we pray that you would bless our time of fellowship
together now. We thank you in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.