In the golden chain of salvation, the last item is a most glorious diamond called glorification. Our salvation, starting with election, ends with glorification. That is when we experience the fullness of redemption’s blessings.
Now, if I ask when our glorification happens, some of you may think it happens at our death. No. While it is glorious to die as a believer—our bodies rest on earth and our souls are perfected in holiness and enter glory to be with the Lord joyfully—that is not the final glorification. That is called the intermediate state. Our final glorification, with our bodies and souls united, happens at the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Titus 2:12 calls this our “blessed hope.”
In “Looking unto Jesus,” we come to this glorious topic next. We saw that after Christ ascended, He has been interceding for His people and reigning as mediator over the world. He will continue to intercede and reign until the last of His elect is securely saved and gathered into His church. Once the number of His elect is completed, His intercession will end, and He will immediately come as He promised.
As preparation last month, I said two things. First, guard your heart and mind from the mocking disbelief in the Second Coming in the last days. Scripture prophesies that in the last days, many will doubt His coming, burdened with worldly cares, just as in Noah’s days, when people were eating, drinking, and giving in marriage. Becoming narrowly worldly-minded will lead to a mocking attitude about His second coming, questioning, “Ah, when is He coming?” We need to guard our minds from this and pray with David, “Turn my eyes away from beholding vanity; renew it according to Your word.”
Second, develop a mindset of the New Testament experience of the Second Coming. Just as Jesus and the apostles taught us the truths of the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, they also, with equal clarity and certainty, witnessed and taught us the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Second Coming was central to the New Testament Christian experience. I said three things about this: they saw waiting eagerly for the Second Coming as a sign of true conversion; as one of the primary means of sanctification; and as the great future hope of true believers. If our experience does not match up to this, there is a defect. So, as we look at this truth, pray that we may be transformed by the renewing of our minds. My prayer and goal today is that after I finish my message, I will have created a yearning for His coming in our hearts.
Two Main Headings
We have two main headings:
- Biblical Clarity of the Second Coming
- Glory of the Second Coming
Biblical Understanding of the Second Coming
Firstly, let’s discuss the biblical understanding of the Second Coming. We all know so much confusion exists regarding the Second Coming and eschatological truths about the last things. There is a teaching that has become very popular over the last 100 years—premillennialism, or “premil”—so popular that most churches in our country believe it. People who have been in our church going through the Bible verse by verse are very clear, but we have new people coming from that teaching and new subscribers to our channel who still have many doubts, so I have to repeat this. Unless you take away that block, you cannot truly enjoy the blessedness of our hope.
The foundation of the premillennial view is that there are two returns of Christ. One is a secret rapture only for His church, and then a final return. They teach there are two resurrections: one for believers and then one for unbelievers. First, all the church will rise, and living believers will go to heaven and meet the Lord secretly in the air. Once the church goes off, the Antichrist will come, then there will be a seven-year tribulation period (three and a half years of tribulation and three and a half years of great tribulation), many Jews will be saved, and things will be at their worst. Then, Christ will come again a second time, publicly, and reign over this world for 1,000 years. Jews will rebuild the temple, bring back sacrifices, and then Satan will be let loose for a while, and then judgment will come, followed by the final state. You would have seen charts depicting this. This premillennial view is very, very popular. It is a favorite doctrine of the Brethren and was made popular by them. Very subtly, Darby and Scofield, in their reference Bibles, added these notes and charts. Because it came in the Bible, many people even thought this is what the Bible teaches. The media and sensational “Left Behind” movies and books made it famous. It is so strongly a part of their church doctrine that if you don’t believe it, they will take you out of church membership; that has happened to one of my brothers.
Even some good preachers I admire, like John MacArthur, Jerry Falwell, and Ray Comfort, all preach that. John MacArthur himself has famously described it as “leaky dispensationalism,” meaning he doesn’t adhere strictly to every tenet of classic dispensationalism. I was telling someone that once you allow wrong ideas to impact you deeply, no matter who you are or how much of the Bible you may know, it will blind you to the truth. MacArthur is a great preacher and has done great service to God in this generation; we are not worthy to untie his sandals. But he is fallible. If you try to trace where these wrong seeds were implanted, you’ll find it was in Talbot Theological Seminary where he was trained, which is one of the strongholds of dispensational theology. His admired mentor, Dr. Charles Feinberg, a brilliant man with strong ideas about Jews, was also a strong dispensationalist.
What is wrong with that teaching? There are many problems, such as people being given a second chance to repent in the tribulation period, which suggests, “If you don’t repent now, don’t worry, when the tribulation starts you can repent.” The teaching talks about building a temple again and offering sacrifices again. After the Lord has once and for all offered a complete sacrifice and torn the veil, what is the meaning of all this? It divides the people of God into two groups: the church and Israel. It denies the present mediatorial reign of Christ. Most sadly, it robs Christ of His glory. We will see that the Second Coming is synonymous with the revealing of Christ’s glory, but this view robs Christ of His glory as if He secretly comes, behind the scenes, subtly and magically takes away His church. What is the need for it in the plan of God?
But the main problem is, does the Bible teach two comings of Christ? When you, as a diligent Bible reader, compare verse by verse, will this stand the test of the analogy of Scripture? Lo and behold, no one will ever be able to show two comings of Christ. It miserably fails the test, and only by twisting and taking verses out of context, using some symbolic language, can you come up with this premillennial view. Before we start looking at the blessings of the Second Coming, I want to clear this up. We don’t have time to look at everything in that view, but the main point I want to show is that the Bible nowhere talks about two comings.
My proposition against premillennial teaching is this: all the passages in the Bible that explicitly teach the Second Coming teach just one final coming of Christ, and that coming will bring glory to believers and judgment for the wicked. I have to prove this. One coming of Jesus Christ. A coming which will bring final salvation and glorification to the people of God and final judgment to the wicked. For any teaching to be true, we shouldn’t take isolated verses; it should pass three criteria: Did Jesus teach it? Did the apostles teach it? And then, did the people of God in church history believe and teach it? Let me show you that Jesus, the apostles, and church history taught and believed in one coming.
Let me quickly show you in the Bible. If you can note these verses and privately compare them, let me know if you have questions. I will give two witnesses from Jesus’ teaching in the gospels and two from the apostles’ teaching in the epistles, so it is very clear to you. These are all direct, key passages that talk about the Second Coming. We saw the whole of Matthew verse by verse for seven years, and Matthew 24, which is the root teaching for all Second Coming discussions. Nowhere did we see two comings. How is one coming described in Matthew 24:29 and following?
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
When does this gathering of the elect happen? Not seven years before, secretly. No, it is when the sun is darkened, the moon doesn’t give its light, and when He appears in heaven. All tribes will mourn, and that is when the elect will be gathered. Some say this is the elect in Israel. Oh really? But verse 31 clearly says “elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Another example is the parable of the tares in Matthew 13:40, where at the end of the parable, the Lord says, “Let both grow together till harvest.” What will happen at the harvest of His coming? “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” The “shining forth” is always connected with the glorified state of saints in the Second Coming. So we see glorifying the saints and punishing the wicked happening at the same time. There is no secret rapture with seven years in between. In these two clear passages in the Gospels, we see only one coming.
Let us go to the epistles. 1 Thessalonians 4:13: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
Next, in chapter 5, verse 1, Paul continues to talk about the coming: “Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you.” Oh, this artificial chapter division has caused so much confusion. It is the same day. Verse 2 continues, “for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” What will the Second Coming of Christ do? Verse 3: “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”
It is the same day which will bring judgment and destruction for the wicked and full salvation and glorification for the saints. That day will find the wicked unprepared, and it will find the child of God prepared and watching. It will be a day of glory for them. But it is the same day. Verse 9 says, “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” How can you squeeze seven years in between these chapter divisions and say it is different?
Another key passage that talks about the Second Coming clearly shows that it is one coming. In 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5, Paul is comforting people who are suffering. He says in verse 7, “and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.” When He is revealed, what will He do? Verse 8: “in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” Is this seven years after the rapture? No, no. See verse 10: “when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.”
Do you see there is only one coming? At that time He will glorify the saints and at the same time punish the wicked. It is one event. We can keep looking at other passages. The Bible nowhere clearly teaches anything about a secret coming or two comings. If this is shocking or unbelievable, I plead with you to have a Berean spirit and examine the Scriptures.
Not only these scriptural passages, but is this some new discovery I have made or that a few reformed men have made? No, no. This is the historical understanding and faith of the true people of God throughout church history: one return and one resurrection. The oldest expression of the historic church’s faith is what is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed. What does it say at the end? “On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” Next it says, “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” Why didn’t most godly Christians know anything about a secret coming for His church? He will come once, and that will result in judgment.
You see the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the Canons of Dort, the Westminster Confession, the London Baptist Confession—in all the great church confessions of faith, this is the faith of God’s people. One Second Coming, one general resurrection, followed by one judgment, and then eternity. It is so simple and clear. To mix this up with a rapture, seven years, tribulation, great tribulation, a temple again, sacrifices, a 1,000-year reign, two comings, and two resurrections, and then judgment and eternity, is so confusing and absurd and also contradicts many other teachings of the Bible.
Yes, Romans 9 talks about a future mass turning of Jews; God may bring many Jews to Christ. The Bible talks about the Antichrist, terrible apostasy, and tribulations intensifying like birth pangs. One thing about prophecy is that until it happens, we cannot 100% clearly know how it will happen. All this premillennial view and charts claiming to make it crystal clear are neither biblical nor the faith of the historical people of God. But one thing we clearly know from the Bible is that there are not two comings; there is only one coming of Christ. That fact alone demolishes the entire premillennial teaching. Still, if you want to stick to it and say, “The rabbit I caught has three legs, and my Bible says two comings,” that is your stubborn freedom. But like I said, your mind will never be able to properly see the glory of the Second Coming and live in that light until you see it as the Bible teaches. So, what does the Bible teach? That is what we are going to see today and in the coming weeks.
Today, I want to open our blessed hope: the Glory of the Second Coming. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 1:4. These people are suffering opposition from Jews, the community, and authorities for their faith. Paul encourages them with the blessed hope of Christ’s coming in the midst of their suffering and their glorification at His coming.
4 “so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, 5 which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God… 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.”
Think for a moment and contemplate, with the eye of faith and the eye of imagination, this tremendous scene. In the past, when our Savior ascended to heaven, His form gradually disappeared from the gaze of His disciples. The angels said this same Jesus will come back likewise. He goes to heaven, we saw His session, He sends the Holy Spirit, He intercedes and gathers His church, and He reigns as mediator and prepares the world for His coming. When the last elect is saved, His intercession ministry is done. Imagine the scene in heaven when all is ready.
Imagine the boundless, triumphant joy on Christ’s face. We can imagine Christ saying to the Father, “Father, after My ascension, I sat at Your right hand, interceding until now; the last elect is saved. It is time for Me to go to the world to grant full redemption to My people and judge the world. The great day has come. Now we can dismantle and shatter this stage of creation. Let Me break the seventh seal, let the seventh trumpet be blown, pour out the seventh bowl.” Let the angel announce with an oath, “that time shall be no longer.” All time given to mankind is over; there is no more concept of time; now eternity starts.
Maybe the day is announced with a trumpet in heaven to call and summon all souls and all angels. Oh, what a stir there will be in heaven. Think of the Father’s joy, who bears the scar of how terribly the world treated His Son and how even now the world doesn’t know His glory. Oh, on that day, the full glory of the Son of God will be revealed. He promised to sit at His right hand until He makes His enemies His footstool, and that day has come. Think of the angels, how eager they must be for the revelation of the glory of Christ. All the billions and billions of powerful angels are eagerly ready to come down. If believers here, even with remaining sin, yearn so much for Christ’s coming to experience full redemption, we cannot imagine the joy of perfected souls in heaven on this day of joining the souls and bodies of the saints together. They will experience their full redemption on the day that has been so long looked for! Imagine Adam and Enoch, how long they have waited. Jude 14 says, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied this: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones.’” What a scene in heaven! I imagine if the Lord doesn’t come in my lifetime, I will be there!
No wonder Revelation is filled with ecstatic worship and triumphant song. Revelation 11:15 says, when the seventh trumpet sounded, “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”
Imagine the scene on earth. One day all of a sudden, the sky will split and roll back like a screen, there will be a sign and the sound of an archangel and a trumpet will sound, and every part of this world will see it. All continents and nations will see it. He will come with all glory. The light of the sun and moon begins to fade before a brightness superior to its own. What an event that day will be! There are so many things to talk about, so let us quickly look at four things from 2 Thessalonians 1:8, when “the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance.”
- Revelation of Jesus Christ. Verse 7 says “the Lord Jesus is revealed.” Luke 17:30 says, “on the day the Son of Man is revealed.” The Second Coming will be the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, an unveiling. It points to the fact that Jesus is not revealed yet. All we saw at His first coming was a humiliated form of a servant. His essential glory was veiled in flesh; His humanity veiled His glory. There were a few glimpses now and then, like in the transfiguration. The purposes of the first coming to lift us from our gutter of sin could only be accomplished when He came with veiled glory in the form of a slave, so men could insult Him, mock Him, spit on Him, slap Him, make Him suffer, and even kill Him on the cross as an atoning sacrifice.
But in the redemptive plan, the Father has fixed a day when the Lord Jesus Christ will be unveiled with all His glory. All that is happening now in providence is behind the scenes. The seven seals, trumpets, bowls, wars, famines, plagues, political upheavals—all events are like a grand sculptor sculpting an amazing statue of art for many years, and all are waiting, waiting, waiting, not for one or two years, but for thousands of years. From Job, all the Old Testament saints and all the prophets, and all the apostles to the last saint, are waiting. All the glorious twists and turns of thousands of years of providence, which were so confusing and raised so many questions at individual, national, and international levels, will be made clear. On that day, God will pull down the big veil, to the eternal awe and shock of the universe, and the full glory of the Lord Jesus Christ will be unveiled. There will be no more veiling of what He truly is, both in His essential deity and in the conferred Lordship as a reward for His suffering.
It will cause universal awe. Like at the first coming, the world will not wonder who He is. But the undiminished splendor of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed to everyone. Every eye will see Him personally with their own eyes in infinite glory because His coming will be so dramatic. As He descends, He shatters and dismantles the whole universe. Think of the language used for the most mighty substances: the great sky is rolled back as a scroll, His brightness will be so bright that the sun and moon will become dark, all the big stars and billions of planets and heavenly bodies will fall like figs from trees. What a scene!
Then, notice in verse 7, the unveiling is described in three prepositional phrases: “From, With, In,” to underscore the nature of the revelation.
- FROM: The source of that unveiling is from heaven. If you are sitting here with a mocking mindset, can we believe all this in this advanced 21st century? We are going to Mars. Day and night go on. How can all this happen? Your mind is not able to believe because your mind is all focused on this little cursed, muddy heap of earth and your puny little 50-60 years of experience. You have to realize that the one coming is from the highest eternal heaven, which rules all realms with unbounded authority. In a second, He can crush this cursed earth even now. This is not a big thing for one from heaven. This is not a dream or a myth. This is the infallible Word of God. This is where all of history is going, every tick of the clock, every movement brings us closer to God pulling down the veil. So the source of this unveiling, our hope, is from heaven.
- WITH: He will come “with the angels of His power.” He will come with an innumerable retinue of all angels as a witness of His power. I believe heaven will empty itself of all the saints and all the angels. They will be His servants who will accomplish His purposes on that day. They are not there for show. They are called “angels of His power.” They will be the instruments of His power to execute His judgment and salvation.
- IN: He will come “in flaming fire.” Not just fire, but flaming. Other passages talk about Him coming with clouds. We know in the Old Testament, fire and clouds are a manifestation of the presence of God. The Israelites were led with a pillar of fire and a cloud.
Now, what are the redemptive blessings we receive at this time? It is so glorious. We will look in detail at the blessings of resurrection, judgment, and eternity in the coming weeks. Let us look at three general blessings today that this 2 Thessalonians 1 passage talks about. We again have another RGA: Rest, Glory, and Admiration.
- First: Rest from all afflictions of every kind. Verse 7 says, “and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.”
If you are a child of God, crying out that you have no rest and there is no end to your affliction, the Second Coming will give you rest. What kind of rest is it? It is a full, eternal relaxation or relief—a true and permanent deliverance from all the pressures and sufferings that come from this sin-diseased, cursed world. These things cause varied forms of restlessness.
I don’t know how much we can appreciate this, but think of the Thessalonians who were suffering terribly because of their conversion. They faced constant opposition from Gentiles, Jews, and authorities. They were restless. So aptly, Paul holds out the promise: the moment Jesus is unveiled from heaven, every oppressive pressure on the child of God will be utterly and eternally removed from the Christian. This is an age of tribulation for Christians, not like dispensationalism says, where it’s all for future Jews and we can be jolly in our sins. No. Jesus said, “If you live like My disciples, in the world you shall have tribulation.” The apostles said, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Historically, persecuted people are the ones who have the most glowing vision of the return of Christ, because it makes them hold loosely to the things of the world and makes their hearts burn for that glorious day when the Lord will come. When situations in the world are difficult, that is when our hope becomes lively. I don’t know about you, but I never appreciate what a blessed thing it is to be a believer more than when I suffer, face difficulty, or face fear and death. What a blessed thing it is to be a believer now!
As a child of God, if you are suffering today, if something is making you sad, if you are struggling with anything that is causing restlessness, let me encourage you to set the vision of this unveiling of Christ before you. He comes to deliver you from all afflictions and to give you permanent rest. Every oppressive pressure on the child of God will be utterly and eternally removed from the Christian. Think about your affliction—health, poverty, needs, sickness. He will deliver you. For some, it may be a husband, wife, or children. Aren’t you happy that He will deliver you from all that? May that give you hope.
Glorification in His Saints
Let us look at the second blessing: the glorification of Christ in us. In verse 10, Paul says Christ comes “to be glorified in His saints.” What does that mean? It means we are so inseparably united to Christ. He is the head, and we are His body. Every believer is a member of His body. Christ cannot be completely glorified without us being glorified. So He comes to be glorified in His saints.
What does that mean for us? Here on earth, no matter how much we grow in grace, we are still not fully glorified in Christ. We are struggling with remaining sin. We are not a pretty sight here, harassed by the body of death and struggling with the propensity and inclination to sin. We have a hundred and one weaknesses. The work of redemption is always in progress. Even the apostle Paul, we saw, was not perfect. Much of the glory of Christ is obscured in His body in its present situation. Paul yearned to be delivered from his body of death. Christ cannot be fully glorified in us until His full work of redemption is completed in us.
So when it says He comes to be glorified in His saints, it means that at the moment the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God are heard, the veil is pulled away, and Christ is manifested. At that moment, Christ’s redemptive work in my soul and body will be so complete, so perfect, so glorious, with a deathless body and a sinless soul. These bodies will be fashioned like His own glorious body, and every last drop of sin and stain of depravity will be removed. I will be made perfect in holiness, both body and soul. John says when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. At that moment, His work of redemption in me will be complete. At that moment, Christ will be glorified in His saints. This can only happen at His Second Coming.
The full application of redemption happens at the Second Coming. How can I explain this? Think of it this way: all that God gives in this world is a foretaste. Think of a saved person. Maybe they were a sinner who had been destroying their body and soul with addiction to alcohol, drugs, gluttony, and adultery, living as a child of the devil, defiling their mind, heart, and body without any control. But the grace of God transforms them and saves them. They are called, regenerated, justified, and made a child of God. They become a living sacrifice. How marvelously they change! They leave their former life and their life is new. We see them living holy, with control over their food, passions, sexual drives, and recreation, and using their body for the glory of God. Oh, we see and praise God. What glorious things God has done in their life! Once as rash as an animal, now so gentle and good, like an angel. We say, what a monument of God’s grace! Like a wretched slave trader who became an angel-like John Newton, writing “Amazing Grace.”
But my friend, all that has happened to him, God says, is a little foretaste, a drop, a down payment of the best that is yet to come. So the transformation that happens to him in this life is called a foretaste, an earnest, a down payment, and he is sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption. All the sanctification and changes that have happened for you in this world are just a foretaste, a trailer, compared to the glorious transformation that will happen when you are glorified in Christ. Isn’t that exciting? Oh, how this should make us yearn for His coming. What we are so excited about now is just small change; the jackpot lottery comes at the Second Coming.
That is why the Bible says we are saved in hope, with a perspective that the best is yet to come. The unveiling of the Lord Jesus will be so glorious for us. Full redemptive blessings will be bestowed on us, of which we have only had a foretaste all our life. Imagine if Christ receives glory through us now, when we only have a foretaste, but what a mess we still are with our remaining sins.
Some of you, as a pastor, I see with an honest confession. So you know what a bad pastor I am. After years and years of teaching, honestly, you only cause me frustration. Still like this? Still not mature in Christ? Still dishonor Christ? When will you grow and arise? The harvest is plenty. When will we have laborers? Still struggling with the basics of godliness. Sometimes in discouragement, I ask, “Lord, how long! I should struggle with them forever! When will they grow up?” He keeps saying to me, “You love Me, feed My flock.”
You know why? Because a day is coming when even the least of saints, when I look at you on that day, I will jump for joy. Yes, yes! You will reach a state so glorious. Not a dim reflection of Christ, but a perfect reflection of Christ in body and soul, perfectly conformed to the image of the glorious Christ. He will be universally glorified in each of you. Oh, that day all the flock of Christ will be made perfect.
How comforting to those of us who live every day mourning for our sins and failures! Oh, I don’t glorify Christ in this world as I should. I do so little. I fail in so many areas. I bring so much dishonor. Oh, to see this hope! A day is coming when I can perfectly glorify Christ in heart, mind, and soul. What a wonderful combination! That day, Christ will be perfectly glorified by pouring full redemptive blessings on me. I will be able to perfectly glorify Him. My highest good and His highest glory happen in one act. They are joined together in the scheme of redemption. When He comes, He is glorified, and I will perfectly glorify Him.
Admiration of Christ
The third blessing is the admiration of Christ. Verse 10 says Christ comes “to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe.” What is this admiration? It means to marvel with glad astonishment, a gloriously pleasant shock and grateful wonder, leading to praise and worship. It is a wonderful shock. Let me give an example. A son was asking for a bat that cost 1,000 rupees. He keeps asking and asking. He brings a pamphlet, shows pictures, and says, “It’s so nice! I want it.” He keeps asking, very eager. The parents decide to buy it for him on his birthday. On that day, the parents tell him, “Okay, your gift is in the room, go!” He runs, opens the door, and he is shocked and filled with wonder and amazement beyond words. Why? Instead of the bat he was asking for, he finds a costly 100,000 rupee bike. He had always secretly wanted one, but never thought his parents would buy such a thing. It was beyond him to even ask for such a thing. But when he finds that his parents brought what he secretly wanted, far beyond the 1,000 rupee bat, the parents have brought a 100,000 rupee bike. How wonderful! It is beyond all his wildest imaginations. It’s a poor example. What does he experience? He experiences wonderment and amazement.
We have some idea of Jesus Christ’s coming. It will be like this and that, so joyful. But when the Lord Jesus returns, His saints will experience that which is far beyond expectation or imagination. When they are given rest and experimentally feel and know what it is to be glorified, when they experimentally know how to look upon the face of the Savior whom they loved unseen, they will be like the little boy who got far more than he ever wished, hoped, or asked for, and will be left breathless and shocked.
They will be shocked and sit with admiration and amazement. All our admiration will be focused on Him, by whose gracious work all this has happened to them. None of this comes because of them, but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we see how great He is—when our eyes and mind grasp, “Oh, He is so great! So gloriously exalted!”—when we realize He left all this glory, came to this earth in the form of a slave, a babe to a virgin as a small cell in a womb; became so poor that His parents didn’t have money for a lamb but gave pigeons; He grew, and allowed Himself to be mocked, scorned, ridiculed, slapped; He endured suffering and drops of blood like sweat; nails were driven into His hands and feet, leading to a shameful death on the cross, enduring the hell of hells on the cross and crying out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” He rose, went back, ascended to heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, interceded until He applied all the salvation blessings He purchased as the glorified God-man. And finally now, He comes, gathers all His sheep from all the nations of the earth, then by covenant faithfulness pours full redemptive blessings and makes them experience this bliss, and will take us to eternal bliss.
Imagine you standing there. All this happened because of whom? Whose merit? Whose labor? Whose work? Whose sweat drops? Whose blood? Whose pain? Whose suffering? Whose intercession? Whose Spirit? Oh, that one. We believed Him when others didn’t. We didn’t wait in vain. Behold, He comes back with all this glory. We see face to face in all glory now. Surely, what could we do? What shall we do? What else will be fitting in that hour? Looking upon this one with glad and joyful tears, but to admire Him and marvel at the magnitude of His grace and the glory of His person.
So, brothers and sisters, we see the three glorious blessings at His coming: rest from all afflictions, being glorified in Him, and standing in amazement at Him. Do they strike a yearning in you, in the slightest way, to say with John, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”? Remember RGA: rest, glorification, admiration.
Oh, the sad part is that finally the passage also talks about what will happen to the people who don’t believe. Verse 8 says He is “taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Sitting here, you are not moved by any of this. You are looking here and there, wondering when the sermon will be over, stuck to your world and its pleasures and problems. See what the verse says. Are you a person who does not know God? Not just knowing about God, but knowing God in a relationship? You can know God by obeying the gospel through repentance and faith. The second description the verse gives is “those who do not obey the gospel,” meaning you have heard the command of the gospel so many times—the good news, the wonderful things God has done for you in Jesus Christ. The mystery was hidden for ages, but has now, historically and geographically, come to you, and it commands you to repent and believe in Him, but you are still living and not obeying the gospel.
In spite of all the knowledge of the truth, there is no obedience in your life. See what will happen on that day. Just knowing this will not help; have you obeyed? Do you see yourself in this description: not knowing God, not obeying the gospel? When Jesus Christ is coming, He will come for rest, to be glorified in His saints, to be admired, but He will take vengeance and punish with everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord. Very terrible words are used. He will take vengeance, and verse 6 says, He will repay. Why? What did I do? He will take vengeance on you for all your sins and disobedience and pay you back for all your sins.
Can you imagine this almighty God who will come with such glory and revelation, coming to you to take vengeance? It will be like a villain coming to take vengeance, as you would have seen in some great revenge movies. But the most terrible vengeance is this. The degree and duration of punishment. The degree: if one with a word of mouth can throw galaxies into space, if that hand is lifted against me to take vengeance, oh, what will that be? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. In all His glorious power in His Second Coming, the duration of payback and vengeance is forever, forever. No rest, no interval, everlasting destruction. Even if you die and are buried, He will raise you from the grave and give you this punishment.
Friend, if you take five minutes and seriously think about this—about your eternity, everlasting punishment with an eternal soul and a never-dying body—if you think seriously for five minutes, you will immediately run to Christ, repent, and put your faith in Him. Do not allow sin and this passing world to harden you and blind you so much. The world and its lusts will pass away. Think, where will you be 100 years from now? May God open your eyes so you immediately obey the gospel, repent, and believe in Christ. All this glory will be yours on that day.
As we come to communion today, we do this in remembrance of me, until I come. We remember His coming as well. He says we have to remember His death in the light of His Second Coming. We not only have to look backward at the reality of His suffering and look upward at the reality of spiritual fellowship with Him and His mediatorial reign now, but also look forward to when all that He died to purchase for His people will be realized in our experience.
I keep teaching everyone again and again: it is not enough to hear, know, and enjoy the sermon. You must meditate on this until your souls are on fire. Do it every day. That is when you can live every day with energy and strength to glorify God. That is what “looking unto Jesus” means. When understanding works seriously, deeply, and spiritually, these things will become a spiritual sight and a scene before your eyes. You will probably have visions of the rapture burst on your sight.
Christian, if you would gain more and greater victories over the world than you have ever done, bring this scene often before the eye of your mind and gaze upon it until you become blind to all earthly glory. He who gazes long at the sun becomes unsusceptible to impressions from inferior luminaries. He who looks much at the coming glory of the Sun of Righteousness will be little affected by any alluring object the world can exhibit. Oh, let this be our work. Let us meditate on the Second Coming of Jesus until it becomes a vision to us. Has the reality of that event been burned into your heart? You have to live in the light of that truth.
This is our hope. Develop this hope. Develop a yearning. New Testament believers saw this as a sign of true salvation. If we are born again, Peter says, He has “begotten us again unto a lively hope.” The Second Coming is a great means of sanctification.
May we come with hearts full of love to communion.
- He came first, emptying Himself of glory in love. When He left, He went with a rich testimony of His love: “It is expedient for you that I go away.” In the same way, His returning is all love. “I will not leave you orphans in the world, in the grave, comfortless; I will come unto you.” Yes, He has gone to heaven now, but He is always thinking and interceding for us. He ever lives for that. His heart beats for us. This Christ will come again, but He will come again in His own person. What love! The great, exalted Christ, He Himself comes. Might He not send His angels? But He must come Himself! Oh, what a heart-beating love that He will come to deliver us from all afflictions. Oh, His love that He united us together, so He staked His great glory with our glory. He comes to be glorified in us, to bestow the fullness of all redemptive blessings.
- When He comes, Christ will welcome all His saints into His presence, and is not this love?
Oh, we will be so amazed by the riches of His grace—His rewards of grace, a reward beyond all our work, and beyond our wages, and beyond all promises, and beyond our thoughts, and beyond our understanding. It is a participation in the joys of God and in the eternal, unfading inheritance.
Oh, how foolish and stupid we are not to eagerly wait for His coming! What else are we waiting and living for if we are not waiting for His coming? RGA—rest, glorification, and admiration. May we say, “Come, Lord Jesus,” as we partake.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 