ARE WE READY FOR THE COMING?
By
S. F. MOORE
"What I say unto you I say unto all, WATCH."
The problems connected with our Lord's return become ever
more urgent as the event draws nearer. We see today, (amongst the vast
majority of regenerate Christians), an extraordinary example of 'wishful
thinking' - that all believers, including apostates and the grossest
backsliders, will escape all the coming judgements and at once ascend with
Christ, to rule and reign with Him, on the throne of the world. It is
difficult to understand how the grave warnings of our Lord and His Apostles,
which have been constantly repeated to His Church, could have been so ignored,
and can still today remain unheeded. The issue at stake is far graver
than a mere divergence in exposition: it is, (1) the fearfully practical issue of our plunge into the Great
Tribulation or our escape: and, (2) the
inconceivable glory of enthronement over the world (possibly only a few
years from now), or a lost crown and throne.
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Very
soon the Lord is Coming. He is coming as a
Bridegroom. He is coming for the Bride. He leaves ivory palaces to
come for her because He greatly desires her beauty. The beauty of the Bride of Christ is portrayed
in the Bridal Psalm (45) as "all glorious within."
The glory of the Lord is mentioned many
times in Scripture. One translation of the word "glory" is beauty, meaning the beauty of the
Lord. Hence we worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness. So
likewise His Bride for whom He comes from Heaven to receive is portrayed in
prophetic type and anti-type, as adorned in the beauty of holiness. Her
clothing is of wrought gold (Psa. 45). Christ espouses to Himself a Bride
who is glorious within and without. By revelation Paul sees Christ
presenting to Himself this Bride, "Glorious ... not
having spot or wrinkle." John, the seer,
envisions the Bride in Heaven. The one thing he emphasises is the fact she had MADE HERSELF ready.
The
church of the firstborn is
spoken of as a virgin, meaning a people
separated from the world unto God. Paul wrote to the Christians under
his ministry, "I have espoused you to one husband,
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11: 2). Christian, are you all glorious within?
Are your spiritual robes without spot or wrinkle? God abhors garments
spotted by the flesh. He wants us to
abhor them. Enoch is a type of the translation saints. He had the testimony that he pleased God. Christian, is your life
chaste and pure? Is your walk with the Lord so attractive that He will
greatly desire your beauty? If you or I have one thing in us that is
contrary to His Word we cannot please Him. He measures our love to Him
by the measure of our obedience to His Word (John 14: 15).
Now
in this hour of His appearing the matter of making ourselves ready is
the most important thing that concerns us. Many are taking for granted
that they are ready. Measured by Christ's own words to His disciples, readiness
for translation does not consist, as many erroneously suppose, in being saved
or filled with the Spirit. We need to go to the Word of God and see for ourselves what
conditions He imposes for translation and reigning with Him. In His
Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24 & 25) the
Lord foretells the terrible calamities coming upon the whole earth. With
pointed warnings and explicit commands He cautions His disciples to
escape judgements. And He tells them
how. It is not without significance that His words of prudence and
caution are not spoken to the Church as a Body but to individuals: "Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts
be overcharged." The original Greek renders "yourselves" and "your" with particular emphasis. "Watch YE therefore and pray always that YE may
be accounted worthy to escape" ... "Because thou didst keep the word of my patience I also
will keep thee from the hour of trial which is to come upon the whole
world." ... "Blessed is he that
keepeth his garments." In the Lord's emphatic
admonitions to His disciples to be weary and watchful does not encourage
them to rest in any past blessing; nor does He tell them that, being filled
with the Spirit, they can drift along. The Lord's emphasis is laid on WATCHING,
HEEDING, PRAYING. The escape according to
Christ's own words is made on condition of personal effort and is wholly
a reward of the effort to be ready.
What
Christ says should mean everything to us. His oft-repeated command is to
"WATCH."
To watch means, in the original, "to be alert"; "to be aroused"; "to be awake".
In this hour of His coming He has shown us in pointed warnings that the only
way to escape the trouble coming upon the whole earth is to "WATCH AND PRAY ALWAYS" (Matt. 24: 42; 25: 13; Mk. 13: 35; Lk.
21: 34-36; 1Thess. 5: 6; 1Pet. 4: 7; Rev. 3: 2; Rev. 16: 15).
Again the Lord says, - "Strive to enter in*... for many
will seek to enter in and shall not be able" (Lk. 13: 24). The Greek rendering of "strive" is "agonise"
- agonise to enter in. Paul,
seeking to win Christ, as the Bridegroom, said "I press" towards the mark" (Phil. 3).
[* Well informed Christians dont
strive to enter into a new heaven and new earth;
they strive to enter into the Millennial Kingdom of Christ: and, as far as
those who have died in the faith are concerned, that necessitates Resurrection
attaining a Resurrection out from the dead.]
How great will be the disappointment of the careless,
lukewarm, unready ones in the hour of the escape (Lk. 21: 34-36). Now, before it is
too late, is the time for us to awake out of sleep and stir ourselves to
watching and prayer, for the signs of His appearing
are everywhere around us.* The tares are ripening. So is the
wheat. The ingathering is near.
[* One prominent sign is apostasy:
ignoring responsibility truths and conditional promises of God.]
The
Lord rebuking the worldly Laodicean Christians said,
- "I know your works, that thou art
neither hot nor cold ... so because thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out
of my mouth." Christian, is
your service for the Master, your praying, your Bible reading, the testimony of
your life in private and public, cold or hot, or lukewarm? Ask yourself
this question, - "Am I a wise virgin trimming
my life by the Word of God, or am I a foolish one, looking for His Coming but
not preparing for it?" In contrast to the ease-loving,
pleasure-loving Christian of today, how different was Paul's pressing toward
the goal. He put forth desperate effort to win Christ as the
Bridegroom. He stripped himself of every weight; suffered the loss of all
things that he might in the fervour of his effort
attain to the first resurrection out from among the dead (marginal rend. Phil. 3: 11).
"Let your loins be
girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like
unto men that wait for their Lord" (Luke
12: 35, 36). There is a wall of worldly separation between most
Christians and Christ today which renders impossible watchfulness and
prayerfulness. Our Churches are
full of men and women living in slothful ease and selfish indulgence,
un-watchfully gliding, drifting with the world, careless
of the rigid requirements imposed by
the Lord upon all accounted worthy to escape the things overtaking the world and to stand before the Son of Man.
"When he shall appear, we shall be like him: ... every man that hath
this hope in him purifieth himself even as he
is pure" (1 John 3: 2, 3).
"The imminent return of Christ,"
avers Dr. Torrey, "is the great Bible argument
for a pure, unselfish, devoted, unworldly, active Christian life."
According to John, the apostle, everyone who hath this hope of Christ's return,
purifies himself. Beloved, the question of great moment is not, Is the Church ready? But are you ready?
The Lord is preparing to take His place on the Throne; and to those who will go all the way with Him to His standard of perfection, by
watching and praying always, He gives this glorious promise: "To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in
my throne even as I also overcame, and am sat down with my Father in his throne"
(Rev. 3: 21).
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