God -- Sermons; Jesus Christ -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 20th century
The next surprise will be that we who are still living on earth when
Christ comes will be changed, we shall not die, we shall escape from the
hand of death. "It is appointed unto men once to die," but "Christ was
once offered to bear the sin of many," [Footnote: Heb. ix. 27, 28.] and
when He comes the saints who are living will be changed "in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye." [Footnote: 1 Cor. xv. 52.] You know how long it
takes for you to shut your eye and open it--it will not take longer than
that for the change to be made. Three great changes will take place--our
_bodies_ will be changed, no more sin, or pain, or weariness; our _minds_
will be changed. "We shall _know_" then what we cannot know now, we shall
see all as God sees it, we shall know the love of Christ and we shall love
Him as He deserves to be loved, and best of all "we shall be like Him for
we shall see Him as He is."
The third surprise will be that our _circumstances_ will also be changed;
we shall be no longer on the earth, for as soon as the great change takes
place we shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. He will then look
into our life work, and He will say to His faithful ones who have been
true-hearted and loyal: "Well done, good and faithful servant." [Footnote:
St. Matt. xxv. 21.] Then the heavens will resound with the Hallelujah
chorus, "Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to Him, for the
marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife hath made herself ready."
[Footnote: Rev. xix. 7.]
But the glory will be only then beginning, it will be "_glory upon
glory_." Remember there are two stages in Christ's Coming; He will come
_for_ His saints, and then He will come down to earth _with_ His saints.
As it is written: "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His
saints." [Footnote: Jude 14.] "When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." [Footnote: Col. iii. 4.]
We shall come _with_ Him when He comes to reign on the earth.
But there is something still grander than the glorious position of having
a place with Him on His throne. We look on and on into the Eternity that
is coming (and it is a wonderful outlook) and what do we find? It is that
we are wanted for the ages to come to show forth, and to be living
personal illustrations "of the riches of God's grace." It is not only that
we shall be saved and glorified, but that God will use us personally to
show forth all His love. The grace of God is the love which flowed down to
us in our great need, when we were dead in sins, slaves to sin and Satan
and deserving nothing but God's wrath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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