When you turn back to Acts chapter
one, and I'd like to read these verses once again, I'm going
to try to preach upon the second advent, the second coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. After the resurrection, and he
was raised from the dead, The Son of God made complete satisfaction,
put away the sins of his people. That's why he died. And he was
raised from the dead, and he spent 40 days after the resurrection
speaking with the apostles. And we read in verse 9 of Acts
chapter 1, and when he had spoken these things, while they beheld,
he was taken up. This is a reference to the ascension
of Christ. And a cloud received him out
of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel, which also said, ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus. The same Jesus. the one who is
the son of God, the one who became flesh, the one who kept God's
law perfectly, the one who died on Calvary's tree as a sin-bearing
substitute, the one who was raised from the dead, the one you're
watching ascend back to the Father right now, this same Jesus, which has taken up from you into
heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go
into heaven. Now this is talking about the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ. His second coming. His second advent. Now there are five great events
that stand out in the story of salvation, but before I give
these five events, I want to remind you of who Jesus Christ
is. Jesus Christ is the second person
of the Trinity. God the Son, the creator, the
sovereign of the universe, the one who controls everything and
everybody, the one who is controlling your mind right now. I know you're
thinking freely. But He is so sovereign that He
controls even the thoughts going through your mind. And whatever
He does is right. He's God. Jesus Christ is God
the Son. Jesus Christ is the God-Man. God became flesh. And He had a purpose in doing
this. It was to save His people from their sins. Now it won't
do us any good to think about the return of Christ if we don't
know who He is. He is God the Son. Now there are five events
that stand out in the story of salvation. The first event is
this, is when He stood before time began as a surety for His
people. I don't know of anything I love
thinking about much more than that. Before time began, before
there was a creation, before There was any creation at all
where God dwelled by himself. Completely satisfied, he purposed
to save a people and he gave those people to his son for his
son to take complete responsibility for their salvation. He's called
in Hebrews 7.22 the surety of the better testament. Now surety
is guaranteed. He, before time began, took full
responsibility for the salvation of his elect. I love that passage
in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 12 where Paul talked about him
who first trusted in Christ. You know who first trusted in
Christ? God the Father. He entrusted the salvation of
all of the elect to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said, of my hand shall thou require him, if I bring
him not before thee and set him before thee, let me bear the
blame forever. That's what Judah said to Jacob
when he was going to represent Benjamin, but that's what the
Lord Jesus said of all of his people. Christ Jesus, oh, how
I love this. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
took complete responsibility for my salvation. God looked
to Him for everything. And in looking to Him for everything,
He didn't look for a thing out of me. I find such joy in that. Now, the second great event in
the story of salvation is when the Word was made flesh. Jesus Christ, the uncreated,
eternal Son of God, took upon himself human flesh. He became a man. God was manifest
in the flesh. In the flesh for 33 years. I love to think of his 33 years
here on earth, don't you? Working in a carpenter shop. There's no way we can speculate
on what all he did during that time, but I do know what he did
do for sure. He kept God's law perfectly in
the flesh. 33 years he never sinned. And he worked out a perfect righteousness. You see what he did? He did as
my surety. When he was keeping the law,
he was keeping the law for me, for all of his people. He said,
I'll be surety for them. I'll guarantee their salvation.
And in the flesh for 33 years, 30 years in obscurity, nobody
knew who he was. Working in a carpentry shop and
then his breakout where he had three years of ministry where
all the world knew him during that time. He worked out a perfect
righteousness. That's the righteousness that
the believer is justified by. I love this. My righteousness, my personal
righteousness, the righteousness that is mine is the perfect obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He worked out a perfect righteousness
for me. Now the third event would be
his death. He who never sinned was nailed
to a tree. And this is so mysterious to
me. He's God, he's man. How could the God-man die? I
don't know, but he did. He actually died. And when he
died, The scripture says he was delivered for our offenses and
raised again for our justification. When he died, he completely satisfied
everything God requires of me. All my sins were paid for. They
were put away. They were blotted out. His death
secured my salvation. He was delivered for our offenses.
Why did he die? There's only one reason for death,
sin. That's the only reason for death,
sin. And my sin became his sin so
that he became guilty of that sin. It became his sin. When he died for sin, he wasn't
dying for my sin. It used to be mine, but now it's
his own. He's dying for sin, just for
the unjust that we might be brought to God. Second Corinthians 521
says, for he hath made him to be sin. That's the language of
scripture. He hath made him to be sin, for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Now, I can't pay for your sin. I can't pay for somebody else's
sin. I can only pay for my own sin. And when Christ died on
Calvary's tree, the sins of God's elect literally became his sins. He became guilty of them, and
that's why he died. But beloved, the fourth glorious
event, he didn't stay dead. He was resurrected from the dead. He was dead for three days, and
sometime in that tomb, all of a sudden, he opened his eyes. I love to think about that. There
was darkness in that tomb, all of a sudden he opened his eyes.
He lives! I love the way the angel said
to those women who came to the tomb, he said, they said to him,
why seek ye the living among the dead? What are you doing?
He's not here. He's risen. He was raised from
the dead. And when he was raised from the
dead, the justification of every believer was accomplished. He
was delivered for our offenses, Romans 4.25. He was raised again
for our justification. He was resurrected And when he
was resurrected, I was too. So was every believer. And I
now live before God in the person of my great substitute. He was
raised from the dead. And then for 40 days, he spoke
to his disciples concerning the kingdom of God and what they
were to do and how they were to spread the gospel and what
they were to preach. Forty days. And then after 40
days, the fifth great event was his ascension. Now can you imagine
they're sitting there, standing there, talking to him, he's giving
his final instructions and all of a sudden they see him starting
to rise up in the air. Can you imagine seeing that great
sight? And he was received into a cloud and they stood there
gazing. Wouldn't you have been doing the same thing? I think
it's interesting the way the angel said, you men of Israel,
why stand you there gazing like that? Well, I understand why
they do that. Can you believe this? I mean, they were witnesses
to this. He ascended back to glory. Psalm 24 is the ascension psalm. He went back to glory after accomplishing
what he came here on earth to do. But all five of these events,
favor this sixth event, he is coming again. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is coming again. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, oh may I then in him be found. The Lord Jesus Christ
is coming again. All this stuff that you're thinking
about, it's going to be no more. It's not even going to be important
to you. All the trials, they'll be over. You'll see him as he
is if you're a believer. Some will be terrified at his
return, and they'll be calling for the mountains and rocks to
fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the
throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. That's scripture, revelation,
the wrath of the Lamb. Some won't love his return, but
many will rejoice. They'll finally see him as he
is, and they'll be made just like him. Oh, the return. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn
with me for a moment to John chapter 14. I want to read verse 38 as he's
speaking to Peter. And he says to Peter, wilt thou,
that's John 13, 38, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake?
Barely, barely I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till
thou hast denied me thrice. Have you ever thought about how
Peter must have felt while he was denying Christ? The Lord
told him he was going to do it. And he must have been freaking
out. I am powerless I'm denying my Lord, I'm denying my Master,
just like He said I would do it. And you think after the second
time, surely I can keep from doing this. The third time, He
denies him with oaths and cursing and swearing, saying, I know
not the man. I'm sure while He was doing this,
He was horrified at Himself. How could I be this evil? And
the Lord announces to him, you're going to do this. You're going
to do this. I love that passage in Luke 22
where Peter had said, when the Lord said, one of you are going
to betray me. And he said, no, everybody else does. It won't
be me. I can see John. I can see James, but it will
not be me. And the Lord says, Peter, I pray
for you. He was in such a state of pride
and arrogance. I prayed for you, not that you
don't fall. He needed to fall. but that your
faith fail not. And Peter's faith didn't fail.
He denied his association with the Lord, but he didn't deny
the Lord. All he said is, I don't know him. He didn't deny who
he is or what he did. And I guarantee you, when, after
the Lord was raised from the dead and somebody would ask Peter,
are you saved? He'd say, he would have said,
probably not. Are you someone that Christ has died for? I doubt
it. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the son of the living God? He would have said, yes,
I do. That's faith. And the Lord says
to Peter, after he tells him, you're going to deny me three
times. Let not your heart be troubled. You are going to royally mess
up. You're going to deny me three
times. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God.
You believe God is sovereign. Believe the same thing about
me. That's who I am. You believe God is holy. That's
me. You believe God is all-powerful. That's me. You believe in God. Whatever you believe regarding
God, believe regarding 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. Now when he's talking about going
to prepare a place for him, he's talking about going to the cross.
I'm going to the cross to make sure you're going to have one
of those dwelling places in heaven beholding my face. I go to the
cross to prepare a place for you. Now I've got a place paid
for and reserved and I'm gonna have it for sure because he went
to prepare it for me and it is sure. Now look in verse 3, and
if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive
you into myself that where I am There you may be also. You know, that's all I care about. You know, people talk about all
these different views regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I have a hard time pronouncing millennialism. I try to say that,
you know, you got the pre-millennialist and the post-millennialist and
the all-millennialist and all that kind of stuff. Well, I believe
whatever the Bible says. And a lot of this stuff, we're
not really going to understand it until it happens. But I believe
whatever the Bible says. And when you get into all these
views, well, there's going to be a millennium of a thousand
year reign, and then there's going to be a tribulation, and
then people will be, or there's all these different millennial
views, the emphasis is on when, what, how, and the emphasis of
who is lost. You know, when will he return?
Well, whenever he wills it. Aren't you fine with that? I
hope he comes back tonight. I'd be so happy. What do you
think's gonna happen? Whatever he says in his word,
do you understand it? Not much. I really love being
a pan-millennialist. That's the way I answer that
because all these people have these millennial views. I'm a
pan-millennialist. It'll all pan out in the end.
Whatever the Lord does, it's gonna work. And I'm just so happy
with that. All I care about is being with
him. All I care about is being saved from my sins. All I care
about is being able to behold His face in righteousness. That's what we care about. And all these different views
that people have as to what's going to take place and when
and so on, I don't care. Whenever He comes back, that's
when I want Him to come back. I'm just so fine with that and
I want it to be now. I say, even so, come Lord Jesus. We earnestly desire his return. You men of Israel, why stand
you gazing like that? This same Jesus who has taken
up you is gonna come back in like manner. Now, he is coming
to this earth again. Behold, the Lord shall descend
from heaven with a shout, the scripture says, with a shout. And you can believe it, a loud
shout. And the trumpet of the archangel
shall sound, the trump of God. In Matthew chapter 25, when the
son of man shall come in all his glory, and all the holy angels
with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and
before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Behold, he cometh with the clouds,
and every eye shall see him. You know, when he returns, I
don't know how this is, but when he returns, everybody's gonna
know who he is. They might not have had any thing for him while
he was here on earth. They may have never heard of
him somehow. But when he returns, every eye shall see him. And
everybody is going to know exactly who he is. For as the lightning
that lighteth out over a part of the heaven shineth into the
other part of heaven, even so shall the Son of Man be in his
day. What a day that will be when
he returns. Just this thought. 1 John 3, verse 2, behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God, therefore the world knoweth us not. Turn
with me now, I want you to see this. This is what we ought to
care about His second coming. Verse 2 of 1 John 3. Beloved now, right now, present
tense, are we the sons of God, everyone who believes on him.
And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Can you even imagine
what it would be like to be sinless? You can't even imagine it. And
John, under the holy inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, we
cannot imagine, it doth not appear what we shall be. We don't know. We can talk about being holy
and without blame and perfect and without sin and perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ. We can talk about that because
we read it in the Bible, but we don't know what it means.
It doth not yet appear what we shall be. The thought of being
like Christ, I don't know what that means. I look forward to
it. That's the earnest desire of my heart, but let's go on
with what he said. 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. Now, with regard to the first
and the second advents of the Lord, there are, first of all,
some great similarities and likenesses. in the first coming of Christ
and the second coming of Christ. First, they are both personal
comings. Christ himself came the first
time. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout. Both of these Advents, the first
and the second, are personal comings, the Lord himself. And
both Advents were promised by the Father. The first Advent,
I love that scripture, behold, a virgin, a virgin, shall be
with child. Isaiah 9, 6, unto us a child
is born unto us a son is given the government should be upon
his shoulders you know this delighted the Old Testament saints don't
you love that scripture where the Lord speaking of Abraham
said Abraham rejoiced to see my day and I don't have any doubt
about what he was talking about he was talking about when Abraham
got to have that substitute for his son when he's getting ready
to kill him. Don't you reckon Abraham rejoiced? Oh, how happy
he was. He rejoiced to see my day. I
reckon Isaac rejoiced about that too. When he saw the knife coming
at him and all of a sudden the Lord stopped him and pointed
to that ram to be a substitute for him, he rejoiced too. But
the Old Testament saints rejoiced in this. They believed the same
gospel that you and I believe. And his second coming is promised
by the father. He said, behold, I come quickly
and we say, even so come Lord Jesus. And both of these comings,
the first coming and the second coming were unexpected. A couple
of people were looking for his coming, Simeon, Anna, but nobody
else was. He made himself known to a few
shepherds. just shepherds, nobodies. They
were the ones He was pleased to let know that the Son of God
is coming to the earth. Very unknown. And you know that
when the Lord comes again, He says He's going to come as a
thief in the night. Nobody is expecting His coming. It's promised by the Father in
both of these and nobody will expect him. You know, whenever
there have been these predictions as to the day the Lord will come
back, I can remember three days since I've been alive where people
said he will come back. And I knew one day he would not
come back. It's whenever they said he would.
Because he's not going to come back on a day when a man predicted
it. No one knows the day or the hour. Unexpected. But in some respects, The first
and second advent are very, very different. In his first advent,
he came as an infant. An infant. How helpless is an
infant? His second advent, his second
coming, he will come as the infinite. The first was in obscurity. Nobody knew who he was, except
a few shepherds. The first was in obscurity. His
first 30 years of life were obscurity. Nobody knew who he was. But when
he comes the second time, all will know him. And every eye
shall see him. The first place was a manger.
The second coming is with the hosts of heaven. The first coming
was to trouble. As soon as he was born, Herod
sought to put him to death. In his old life, he was called
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But his second coming
is going to be in glory and majesty that we can't even describe. His first coming was in poverty,
a cow stable, the smell of manure in the air, not even able to
get in the inn. The second coming will be with
wealth and majesty that we can't even describe. The first coming
was as a lamb that opened not his mouth. Even when he was mistreated,
he didn't try to defend himself. He opened not his mouth because
he knew what he was doing was as the sinner's substitute. The
reason he didn't defend himself is because he knew he was guilty.
If I'm not guilty of something and you accuse me of it, I'm
going to defend myself. He knew that he was guilty because
the sins of God's elect became his sins and he came as a lamb. But when he comes again, he's
going to come as the lion of the tribe of Judah. the Lord
of Lords and the King of Kings. The first coming, he suffered
and died alone. And the second coming, all the
saints are going to meet him in the air when he comes. And
he's going to come with all the hosts of heaven, the angels,
the saints. In his first coming, he had men
always trying to catch him in his words, trying to trip him
up. I think that is amazing that
such foolish men thought they could trip up omissions. But his second coming, these
same men will say, open the door to us and the door shall be shut. The first coming, he was a laughing
stock, mocked at, made fun of. The second coming, every knee
shall bow in heaven and earth, and every tongue shall confess
that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. His first coming, they cried,
crucify him. His second coming men will be
saying rocks and hills fall on us and hide us from the face
of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the land. Now his purpose in the first
and second coming were different. How so? Now remember I talked
about the similarities and the differences. But his purpose
in coming first was to pay the price for sin. The penalty of
sin. His second coming is to receive
his reward. The first coming was to save.
The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. The second coming will be to
judge. And you who are troubled, rest
with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with
his mighty angels and flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and on them that obey not the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the first coming was to
open the door of mercy for any sinner who comes. The second
coming, the door will be closed. You know, those who hold the
pre-millennial position, and they talk about that seven year
tribulation period where, where people will be tried and almost
like you'll have another chance to be saved if you can make it
through those seven years. That's nothing but purgatory.
Same difference. Believing something like that,
that's purgatory. That's all it is. It's, it's Baptist purgatory. When God opens a door, no man
can shut it. And when God shuts a door, no
man can open it. He said that. The first coming
is to call the guilty to himself. If any man thirsts, let him come
to me and drink. And the second coming, he will
be separating the sheep from the goats. The first coming was
to offer up a sacrifice to divine justice, the next coming will
be to administer divine justice. Now, at that time when the Lord
returns, there's so much scripture about this, it would take many
messages to look at all the different scriptures regarding the return
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But understand this, when he
returns, the rich man's riches will fail him. He built his life around those
riches, and he will see that they mean nothing. And it wouldn't
be worth his time to bend over and pick up a $100 bill if he
saw it at his feet. There would be no meaning to
that at all. At that time, the good man will
discover that he's no good. The moral man will find out that
his morality was filthy rags. The freewheeler will find out
that all of his boastings of his pretended free will when
he could do this, he's gonna find out it wasn't so. There
wasn't any truth to it at all. It was all a lie. The reformed
believer who speaks of getting more holy and less sinful, he's
gonna find that the opposite is true when the Lord returns.
You see, all things will be seen clearly when the Lord returns. But you know what else is going
to happen when the Lord returns? Everybody, no exceptions to this
rule, everybody who looked to Christ only as everything in
their salvation. They didn't look to their works,
they didn't look to their experience, they didn't look to how they're
living the Christian life, they didn't look to their evidences,
they looked to Christ only as everything in their salvation.
Everybody that does that, they're gonna find their foundation is
good, that they're going to be accepted, that they're going
to hear the Lord say, come ye blessed of my Father, Inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Now the Lord is returning. What is our response? He even said, behold, I come
quickly. I hope it's tonight. I hope it's now. If it's not
now, I hope it's tomorrow. If it's not tomorrow, I hope
it's the next day. look forward to his return when everything
is going to be right and he's going to return and God's people
will shine as the sun the scripture says that's what the Lord said
they'll shine as the sun and all of those who hated Christ
will be dealt accordingly when he returns how we look forward
to that his glorious return and here's our response when he says
behold I come quickly even so Come, Lord Jesus. How we earnestly look for his
return. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would come quickly. Lord, we know that You're going
to come at your own appointed time, but we ask that you would
come quickly. Lord, we ask that you'd come
quickly to us in grace, that you'd come quickly in reigning
grace, that you'd come quickly to us in mercy, that you'd come
quickly to us in preservation. Lord, we know your return is
going to be when you've determined it. But Lord, how our hearts
cry out, even so, Lord, come quickly. We long for your return. We long to see you as you are
and be conformed to your image, to behold your face in righteousness.
In Christ's name we pray, amen.