IF HE DOESN’T COME

#309                                            IF HE DOESN’T COME                                                             

Scripture  II Peter 3:3-10, NIV; Hebrews 10:35-39, NIV                                     Orig. 9/18/1966

                                                                                                                               Rewr. 7/24/1981

Passage:

II Peter 3:3-10  3Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]

Hebrews 10:35-39  35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 

37 For,

“In just a little while,
    he who is coming will come
    and will not delay.”[a]

38 And,

“But my righteous[b] one will live by faith.
    And I take no pleasure
    in the one who shrinks back.”[c]

39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Purpose:          To conclude a three-part series on the second coming sharing with my people the posture of the Christian while waiting for the return of the Lord, in light of the confusion brought on by scoffers and doubters in a secular age.

Keywords:      Christian Life             Revival                       Second Coming

Timeline/Series:                     Second Coming

Introduction

            It was another news story out of Southern California.  It was not the first, nor will it be the last.  There can be little doubt that the fantasy world of Hollywood induces people to engage in the spectacular and the dramatic.

            It was early morning, near Los Angeles, and a group of people were gathered together on a roof-top.  They were robed in white bed-sheets that were being whipped by the wind.  They were waiting to greet the Lord, who was coming on a time-table that they had computed.

            They had accomplished a very successful PR job because a number of reporters were on the scene.  One newspaper had even set up a camera and had it directed toward the eastern sky.  They were not there to record a  happy reunion, but rather a dismal failure.  Another weird group of people had declared somewhat about the return of Jesus What’s-His-Name, and nothing has come of it.  Wow!

            They probably were sincere.  After waiting through much of morning, then one by one the aspirants of the return of Jesus began to slip away.

            Then the reporters found out from the leader of the group  how they had come to believe that this was to be the day.  He had multiplied his age by the number of his children, then added 666 from the Book of Revelation, and then had divided this sum by the number of puppies in his dog’s new litter, and in this way had derived the date.

            It is no wonder that the unbelieving world scoffs at any mention of the second coming.  Again and again there have been such groups who, for whatever reasons, have laid the foundation for such ridicule by abusing what we are clearly taught in scripture relative to His coming.

            Mark 13:32, But of the day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

            Luke 12:40,  Hold yourselves ready, then, because the Son of Man will come at the time  you least expect Him (NEB).

I.          As Our Lord Delays His Coming, We Must Respond with Vigilance.  V9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

            Too many of us as Believers act as if we wait for  some kind of escape.  TS Eliot1 speaks of an inherent danger.  “Hell is one’s self; there is nothing to escape from and nothing to escape to.” 

            We have a Biblical parallel  of the danger of one’s attitude as he begins to think too strongly of his own personal safety  Psalm 141:10, Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.  The Bible likewise gives us the correct believing stance, John 10:10, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 14:18, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.  Colossians 3:4, When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

            Understand that what we wait for is the return of Jesus, and this waiting must be with vigilance. 

            We are not just awaiting the fulfillment of prophecy.  David foresaw a day when Messiah would reign  over Jerusalem.  Psalm 24:7, Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in.  Malachi closes the vigilant Old Testament with such a message of hope (Malachi 4:2), But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.     

            What we wait for is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus.  John 14:1-3, Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in 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.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.

            Many of you came to this place from other farms where your Father and Mother just barely managed to eke survival out of marginal cotton land.  Those farmers had to surrender the land to  pasture and forest.  But here, the promise is in the soil and the climate and every spring you begin with renewed vigilance the wonderful challenge of harvest.  Even so spiritual vigilance.

II.         It is a Time Also for Vision.  Vv10-11, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, the heavens . . . shall pass away . . . ; the elements . . . shall melt . . . ;  the earth . . . shall be burned up.  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be . . . ?

            Vision requires knowledge of the Word.  We will never understand the TIMES unless we understand the WORD.  Habakkuk 1:2, How long, O Lord, have I cried to thee, unanswered?  I cry, violence, but thou dost not save.  Why?

            His question—Why doesn’t God do something about the human leeches who live off of the blood sucked from God’s saints?  Habakkuk agrees, however, to wait in a posture of vigilance and vision.  2:1, I will stand at my post, I will take up my position on the watch-tower, I will watch to learn what He will say. . . .  Then God gave Habakkuk His answer,  V3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry long.”  And Habakkuk concludes 2:20, “. . . The Lord  is in His holy temple; let all the earth be hushed in His presence.  3:2 . . . In the midst of years thou didst make thyself known, and in the wrath thou didst remember mercy.  3:19, The Lord God is my strength, who makes my feet nimble as a hind’s feet as he sets me to walk upon my high places.

            That word tells us all that we shall ever need to know of His coming.  Acts 1:11, This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner from heaven.  Philippians 3:20, Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 10:37, Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry.

            Our day is beset by the sudden and unexpected happening.  On a quiet October morning 5 or 6 years ago a ship crushed a ferry crossing the river in New Orleans.  Over 60 dead.  Just before Christmas a year later, a grain elevator exploded and collapsed on the block house.  37 dead.  I watched from Ochsner Foundation Hospital.   A soft summer dance in Kansas City and 111 dead, 108 injured. [Survivor stated], “I kept asking mother, is it a dream?”

III.       This Time of Delay—This Time of Vigilance and Vision—is a Time of Victory.  Hebrews 10:35, Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward, 37 For yet a little while and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

            For the believer, there is victory in death.  If Jesus chooses to tarry through our life time, it will be to the end that others say be saved.  John 1:11-12, He came unto his own and his own received him not.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on  his name.

            For the believer, there is victory in a life cut short by the return of our Lord.  He will come during the lifetime of some of us or of our children, or of our children’s children. Only then will we acknowledge this life to be what it truly is.  The world’s picture is that death is unacceptable.  This is life, and death is the void  of life.  But in reality, this place where we now live is the land of the dying, and that ruled over by Christ is the land of living.

            Make no mistake, our victory is in our vision and our vigilance as we live out our lives in this, the land of the dying, waiting for the glorious reckoning of our Saviour’s kingdom.

Closing

            Dr. Wayne Ward, in  one of his books, tells of a trip to the Holy Land.  While walking on the Mount of Olives, he came upon a man in the garb of an Arab who seemed to understand the place where they stood.  Being a teacher of Hebrew and Aramaic, he greeted the man.  But strangely, the man answered, “Howdy!”  Dr. Ward questioned the man about his homeland.  He was told, “I’m a Holiness preacher from Kansas City.  I live in that shanty right over there.  I intend to be Johnny-on-the-spot when Jesus comes.”  You don’t have to live in a shanty on the Mount of Olives to be acceptable to Jesus when He returns, but you do have to be ready.

1 Eliot, T. S. (1988b). The Cocktail Party: A comedy. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Eliot:                      https://fleurmach.com/2013/03/27/t-s-eliot-the-cocktail-party-1949/

Dr. Ward:            https://www.christianitytoday.com/1961/03/gospel-of-jesus-christ/