THE writer was speaking the other day with a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ on the coming of the Lord for His saints. He had been hearing some lectures on prophecy which showed how near the day of the Lord is. Now, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ will come for His saints before the day; therefore, if the day is near, His coming, as the “Morning Star,” must be still more near. If you have ever watched through the night, you may have noticed that before the day breaks the morning star is seen glittering brightly in the sky. Thus, Christ is called “The Bright and Morning Star” (Rev. 22:1616I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. (Revelation 22:16)), because He comes to His saints before the day breaks in judgment on the world. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God: and 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” (1 Thess. 4). Those few little words “in the air” have been overlooked by a great many people. They think the Lord will come at once to the earth; but, you see, it says, “in the air,” and that we meet Him there! Now, when we who have believed are gone, God begins to deal in righteousness with a Christ-rejecting world; and then, after a while, the Lord comes with His saints to execute judgment (Jude 1515To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jude 15)). But, between their being caught away to meet Him in the air, and His coming with them to the earth, many things have to take place, so that some time must elapse between these two stages of His coming. Therefore, if the word of prophecy shows that the “day of the Lord” is near, how much nearer must the moment be when the saints are caught away? Now, this was what that believer felt, and he felt it so much that he said very solemnly, “I seem like one who has packed up everything, and is just going to move away. I don’t want to touch anything. All is ready, and I am just taking my last look round before I go;” and, suiting the action to the word, as he stood in the street of a country town, he gazed round about him, as if he was then and there actually taking his “last look round” before departing to be “Forever with the Lord.” His Manner of doing it was so very natural, that it was quite clear he felt exactly what he said, and the writer could not help thinking what a happy thing it would be if every believer just felt as this one did. Do you? Are you “like one who has packed up everything,” so that your hands are free “to serve the living and true God,” while you “wait for His Son from heaven” Are you so loosened from the world that you “don’t want to touch anything” that is “of the world.” As a pilgrim and a stranger who has no place here, do you seem as if taking your “last look round” before you “move away”
“On clouds to meet Him in the air,”
who, to fit us for the Father’s house, “was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification”? He has trodden “the path of life” before us right up into the glory; and before He went He said, “I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also” (John 14). What a joy to see Him who, “having loved His own that were in the world, loved them unto the end,” right through everything, down to death itself!
Oh, that our hearts were so set upon Himself, that we really longed to see Him, while waiting patiently for the blessed moment A mother who has been long parted from an only child, and hears that he is coming home in a ship from a far distant land, keeps thinking of his coming all day long. He is never out of her mind for a moment. Whatever she is doing, she keeps thinking of the moment when she shall see him. She may be very patient about it, but she so wants to see him, and can’t forget that he is coming. Why? Because she loves him.
So it would be with us, dear reader, if our hearts were rightly constrained by the love of Christ for us. I hope you know His love? If not, His coming has no joy in it for you. O may you be drawn to Him by the Spirit’s power through the truth! Did He not come into the world to save sinners? Yes; He died for the ungodly once. And now He is coming to judge a Christ-rejecting world! Would you not rather be with Him when He comes than here on earth among those whom He comes to judge Well, then, only look to Him now, and believe in Him, and you shall be shortly caught up to Him, happy forever.
I would not work my soul to save,
For that my Lord has done;
But I would work like any slave,
From love to God’s dear Son.
Romans 3:2828Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28); Titus 1:11-1411Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. 12One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; 14Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. (Titus 1:11‑14).