Between the Two Appearings

Between the Two Appearings

(No. 2194)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 15, 1891,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die,
but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the
sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the
second time without sin unto salvation." Hebrews 9:26-28.

The two great links between earth and Heaven are the two advents of our
Lord, or, rather, He is the great bond of union, by these two
appearings. When the world had revolted and God had been defied by His
own creatures, a great gulf was opened between God and man. The First
Coming of Christ was like a bridge which crossed the chasm and made a
way of access from God to man–and then, from man to God. Our Lord's
Second Advent will make that bridge far broader, until Heaven shall
come down to earth and, ultimately, earth shall go up to Heaven. At
these two points a sinful world is drawn into closest contact with a
gracious God. Jesus herein is seen as opening the door which none can
shut, by means of which the Lord is beheld as truly Emmanuel, "God with
us."

Here, too, is the place for us to build a grand suspension bridge by
which, through faith, we, ourselves, may cross from this side to the
other of the stormy river of time. The Cross, at whose feet we stand,
is the massive column which supports the structure on this side. And,
as we look forward to the Glory, the Second Advent of our Lord is the
solid support on the other side of the deep gulf of time. By faith we
first look to Jesus and then for Jesus–and herein is the life of our
spirits. We dwell between these two boundaries–Christ on the Cross of
shame and Christ on the Throne of Glory–these are our Dan and
Beersheba and all between is holy ground! As for our Lord's First
Coming, there lies our rest–the once-offered Sacrifice has put away
our sin and made our peace with God. As for His Second Coming, there
lies our hope, our joy, for we know that when He shall appear, we shall
be like He, for we shall see Him as He is. The glories of His sacred
Royalty shall be repeated in all the saints, for He has made us unto
our God kings and priests–and we shall reign with Him forever and
ever.

At His First Advent we adore Him with gratitude rejoicing in "God with
us," as making Himself to be our near kinsman. We gather with grateful
boldness around the Infant in the manger and behold our God! But in the
Second Advent we are struck with a solemn reverence, a trembling awe.
We are not less grateful, but we are more prostrate as we bow before
the Majesty of the triumphant Christ! Jesus in His Glory is an
overpowering vision! John, the Beloved Apostle, writes, "When I saw
Him, I fell at His feet as dead." We could have kissed His feet till He
left us on Olivet, but at the sight of the returning Lord, when Heaven
and earth shall flee away, we bow in lowliest adoration! His first
appearing has given us that life and holy confidence with which we
press forward to His glorious appearing, which is the crown of all.

I want, at this time, to bring before you those two appearings of our
Lord. The text says, "He has appeared." And again, "He shall appear."
The 26th verse speaks of His unique manifestation already accomplished.
The 28th verse promises the glorious second outshining, as it promises,
"He shall appear." Between these two lights–"He has appeared" and, "He
shall appear"–we shall sail safely if the Holy Spirit will direct our
way.

My first head is this, once, and no second. And my other division of
discourse will make a kind of paradox, but not a contradiction–yet a
second.

I. Our first theme is, ONCE, AND NO SECOND. Now once in the end of the
world has He appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself."
This He has done, once, and He will never repeat it. Let us dwell on
the subject in detail.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has once appeared and though He will appear
again, it will not be for the same purpose. On His first appearing, fix
your thoughts, for the like of it will never be seen again. In the
bosom of the Father He lay concealed as God. As the Second Person of
the Divine Trinity in Unity He could not be seen, for "no man has seen
God at any time." It is true that, "without Him was not anything made
that was made," and thus His hand was seen in His works but, as to
Himself, He was still hidden–revealed in type and prophecy–but yet,
in fact, concealed. Jesus was not manifest to the sons of men until one
midnight an angel hastened from the skies and bade the shepherds know
that unto them was born in Bethlehem a Savior, that is Christ the Lord!
Then the rest of the angelic host, discovering that one of their number
had gone before them on so wonderful an errand, were swift to overtake
him and, in one mass of glittering glory, they filled the midnight
skies with heavenly harmony as they sang, "Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Well might they sing, for the Son of God now appeared! In the manger He
might be seen with the eyes and looked upon, and handled–for there the
Word was made flesh–and God was Incarnate! He whom the ages could not
contain, the Glorious One who dwelt with the Father, forever unseen,
now appeared within the bounds of time and space–and humble shepherds
saw Him and adored! By Gentiles He was seen, for wise men from the East
beheld and worshipped Him whose star had led them. As He grew up, the
children of Nazareth beheld Him as a Child, obedient to His parents
and, by-and-by, He was made manifest to men by the witness of John and
the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him at His Baptism. God bore Him
witness as He went up and down the hills of Palestine preaching the
Kingdom and proclaiming salvation to the sons of men. Men saw Him, for
He spoke among them openly, and walked in their midst. His was not the
seclusion of dignity, but the manifestation of sympathy! "He went about
doing good."

He was seen of angels, for they came and ministered to Him–and He was
seen of devils, for they trembled at His word. He dwelt among us and we
beheld His Glory–He was the Revelation of God to men, so that He could
say, "He that has seen Me has seen the Father." He was made still more
manifest by His death, for in His Crucifixion He was lifted up from the
earth that all might behold Him. He was exalted upon the Cross, even as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness on purpose, that whoever
looked to it might live. Then and there He opened those four
conspicuous founts of cleansing blood which were made to flow by the
nails. See how it flows from hands and feet! There, too, He laid bare
His side and set His heart open for dying men and forthwith there
flowed forth blood and water! Thus we may look into His inmost heart.

High on the Cross the Savior hung, without veil or curtain to conceal
Him. "Once in the end of the world has He appeared." I know of no
appearance that could have been more complete, more unreserved. He
moved in the midst of crowds, He spoke to men and women one by one. He
was on the mountain and by the sea. He was in the desert and by the
river. He was both in house and in Temple. He was accessible
everywhere. In the fullest sense, "once in the end of the world has He
appeared." Oh, the glory of this gracious epiphany! This is the
greatest event in history–the invisible God has appeared in human
form!

The text tells us very precisely that in this First Coming of our Lord
He appeared to put away sin. Notice that fact. By His coming and
Sacrifice, He accomplished many things, but His first end and object
was "to put away sin." You know what the modern babblers say–they
declare that He appeared to reveal to us the goodness and love of God.
This is true, but it is only the fringe of the whole Truth of God. The
fact is that He revealed God's love in the provision of a Sacrifice to
put away sin. Then, they say that He appeared to exhibit perfect
manhood and to let us see what our nature ought to be. This, also, is a
truth, but it is only part of the sacred design. He appeared, they say,
to manifest self-sacrifice and to set us an example of love to others.
By His self-denial He trampled on the selfish passions of man. We deny
none of these things and yet we are indignant at the way in which the
less is made to hide the greater. To put the secondary ends into the
place of the grand objective is to turn the Truth of God into a lie! It
is easy to distort truth by exaggerating one portion of it and
diminishing another–just as the drawing of the most beautiful face may
soon be made a caricature rather than a portrait by neglect of
proportion. You must observe proportion if you would take a truthful
view of things and, in reference to the appearing of our Lord, His
first and chief purpose is, "to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself."

The great objective of our Lord's coming here was not to live, but to
die! He has appeared, not so much to subdue sin by His teaching, as to
put it away by the Sacrifice of Himself. The master purpose which
dominated all that our Lord did was not to manifest goodness, nor to
perfect an example, but to put away sin by Sacrifice! That which the
moderns would

thrust into the background, our Lord placed in the forefront! He came
to take away our sins, even as the scapegoat typically carried away the
sin of Israel into the wilderness that the people might be clean before
the living God. The Lord Jesus has come here as a Priest to remove sin
from His people–"You know that He was manifested to take away our
sins." Do not let us think of Jesus without remembering the design of
His coming! I pray you, Brothers and Sisters, know not Christ without
His Cross as some pretend to know Him. We preach Christ–so do a great
many more–but, "we preach Christ Crucified." And so do not many more.
We preach concerning our Lord, His Cross, His blood, His death. And
upon the blood of His Cross we lay great stress, extolling much, "the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot." We know no past appearing of God in human flesh except that
appearing which ended with a Sacrifice to put away sin! For this our
Savior came, even to save sinners by putting away their sin. We will
not deny, nor conceal, nor depreciate His master purpose, lest we be
found guilty of trampling upon His blood and treating it as an unholy
thing. The putting away of sin was a God-like purpose and it is a
wellspring of hope to us, that for this reason Jesus appeared among
men.

Let us go a step further with our text– only once does the Lord appear
for the purpose of putting away sin. He came once to do it and He has
done it so well that there is no need for Him to offer any further
sacrifice! "This Man, after that He had offered one Sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down." He will never appear a second time for the putting
away of sin. It was His purpose, once, but He has so fulfilled it that
it will never be His purpose again. The High Priest, as you know, came
every year with blood for the putting away of sin. He has slain the
victim this year, but next year he must come in the same manner–and
the next, and the next, and the next–because the sacrifice had not
really removed the guilt. But our Lord has come once for this Divine
purpose and He has so achieved that purpose that He could truly cry,
"It is finished," for the work is done once and for all. He has so
perfectly put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself that He will never
need to offer a second sacrifice! That our Lord should ever come a
second time as He came the first time is inconceivable by those who
love Him! He will come a second time, but in a very different style,
and for a very different purpose–not as a Sacrifice for sins–but as
King and Judge.

And here learn yet further, that only once is sin put away. Jesus died
to finish transgression and make an end of sin. Our Lord made Atonement
for sin when He died, the Just for the unjust–He made peace for us
when the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. When the Lord had laid
upon Him the iniquity of us all, Divine wrath fell upon Him on account
of our sins until He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
Then sin was put away. And there, but never anywhere else, was full
Atonement presented and iniquity was blotted out! There is no other
place of expiation for sin but the place of our Lord's Sacrifice of
Himself. Believing in Him that died on the Cross, our sins are put
away–but without faith in Him there is no remission of sin. Beyond our
Lord's, other sacrifice there is none–other sacrifice there will never
be.

If any of you, here, are entertaining some "larger hope," I would say
to you–hope what you please, but remember, that hope without the Truth
of God at the bottom of it is an anchor without a holdfast. A
groundless hope is a mere delusion! Wish what you will, but wishes
without promises from God to back them are vain imaginings. Why should
you imagine or wish for another method of salvation? Rest assured that
the Lord God thinks so highly of the one Sacrifice for sin, that for
you to desire another is evil in His sight! If you reject the one
Sacrifice of the Son of God, there remains no hope for you–nor ought
there to be. Our Lord's way of putting away sin is so just to God, so
honoring to the Law of God and so safe for you, that if you reject it,
your blood must be on your own head. By once offering up Himself to
God, our Lord has done what myriads of years of repentance and
suffering could never have done. Blessed be the name of the Lord, the
sin of the world–which kept God from dealing with men at all–was put
away by our Lord's death!

John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the
sin of the world." God has been able to deal with the world of sinners
in a way of Grace because Jesus died. I thank our Lord even more
because the actual sins of His own chosen–even of all those who
believe on Him in every age–have been put away. These sins were laid
on Him and, in Him, God visited man for them. "He His own self bore our
sins in His own body on the tree"–and so put them away forever–and
they are cast into the depths of the sea. The putting away of my guilt
as a Believer was really, effectually, and eternally accomplished by
the death of our great Substitute upon the bloody tree! This is the
ground of our everlasting consolation and good hope through Divine
Grace. Jesus did it alone. He did not only seem to do it, but He
actually

achieved the putting away of sin! He blotted out the handwriting that
was against us. He finished transgression and made an end of sin–and
brought in everlasting righteousness when, once and for all, He died
upon the Cross.

Beloved, there is a further note here–observe that only once has He
made a Sacrifice of Himself. "Now once in the end of the world has He
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The very best
way to describe the death of our Lord is to call it, "the Sacrifice of
Himself." It may be well rightly to divide the Sacrifice, as the priest
cut up the bullock or the ram. You may speak of our Lord's bodily
sufferings, His mental griefs and His spiritual anguish, but, for the
most part, we are not able to go far in this detailed appreciation of
the wondrous Sacrifice. We are such poor folk in spiritual things, that
instead of bringing a bullock which could be anatomized and its vital
organs all laid bare, we are content to bring a pair of turtle doves,
or two young pigeons–and these were not carefully divided asunder, but
burned upon the altar! The most of us have to take our Lord Jesus
Christ as a whole, since, from lack of understanding, we cannot go into
detail. What did He offer to God? He made a sacrifice of Himself. Truly
He sacrificed His crown, His rest, His honor, His reputation and His
life–but the essence of the Sacrifice was Himself–He, Himself, took
our iniquity and bore our sorrows. "He His own self bore our sins in
His own body on the tree."

Your sacrifice, O Christ, is not to be measured unless we could compute
the infinity of Your Godhead. It was not only Your labor, Your pain,
Your shame, Your death–Your Sacrifice was Yourself–what more could
even You offer? There, on the altar, the Son of God did place Himself,
and there He bled and died that He might be the Victim of punitive
justice, the Substitute for guilty men! There was He unto God a
sweet-smelling savor because He vindicated the Law and made it possible
for the Lawgiver to be justly merciful. This, according to our text,
was done once, and only once, and it never will be repeated, so that
the whole business of our Lord's appearing to put away sin by the
Sacrifice of Himself, is confined to one appearing and one offering. I
want that word, "ONE," to ring in your ears. "By one offering He has
perfected forever them that are sanctified." I would have the adverb,
"once," go through every ear, and abide in every heart. "By His own
blood He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us." Peter says, "Christ also has once suffered for
sins."

Once it is, and not more often. To suppose the contrary would be,
first, to break away from the analogy of human things. Read the 27th
verse–"As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment." A man dies once and after that everything is fixed and
settled–and He answers for His doings at the judgment. One life, one
death–then everything is weighed and the result declared–"after this
the judgment." So Christ comes and dies once. And after this, for Him,
also, the result of what He has done, namely, the salvation of those
who look for Him! He dies once and then reaps the fixed result
according to the analogy of the human race, of which He became a member
and Representative. Men come not back here to die twice–men die once
and then the matter is decided–and there comes the judgment. So Christ
dies. He does not come back here to die again, but He receives the
result of His death–that is, the salvation of His own people. "He
shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." "You were
slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood." The Christ is so
completely Man that He follows the analogies of manhood as the Apostle,
here, observes, and we must not break away from them.

To suppose a second death for our Lord would be to forget what He came
to do. The punishment of sin was, "In the day that you eat, thereof,
you shall surely die." One death was the sentence. It is true that we
have to speak of that one death as divided into the first and the
second death, but it is judicially one sentence of death which is
pronounced on man. When Christ comes, therefore, He bears the one
sentence of death. He laid down His life for us. The penalty due to sin
was death–"In the day that you eat, thereof, you shall surely die."
Christ, therefore, must die, and die He did–"By the Grace of God He
tasted death for every man." But it was not said, "You shall die
twice." No, and Christ does not die twice. "Christ, being raised from
the dead, dies no more–death has no more dominion over Him. For in
that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives
unto God." He has borne the full sentence which was pronounced on sin
and thus He has put away the sin which involved us under the penalty.

To suppose that our Lord should be made a Sacrifice, again, is a
supposition full of horror. When you study deeply the death of your
Lord, unless your heart is like an adamant stone, you must be bowed
down with grief. The visage of Him who was Heaven's Glory was more
marred than that of any man, and His form more than the sons of men. He
whose brow was from the beginning surrounded with majesty, had His
forehead and temples torn with a coronet of thorns! Those blessed
cheeks that are as beds of spices were distained with spit from the
lips of menials. His face, which is the joy

of Heaven, was buffeted and bruised by mockers. His blessed shoulders,
which bear up the world, they scourged with knotted whips until the
blood ran down in crimson rivers as the plowers made deep furrows.

How could they treat Him so? Was it possible that my Beloved should be
scorned and slandered, spit upon and condemned as a felon? Did they lay
the shameful Cross upon His blessed back and lead Him through the
streets amid the ribald mob? He who knew no sin was numbered with the
transgressors! Found guilty of nothing save excess of love to man, He
was led away to be crucified. They hurried Him off to die at the common
place of the gallows. The rough soldiers nailed Him to the Cross and
lifted up the rough tree for all to gaze upon. I wonder the angels
stood it! It seems extraordinary that they could look on while men were
taking their Lord and Master and driving bolts through His hands and
feet and lifting His sacred body upon the cruel tree! But they did
stand it and the Christ hung on the tree of doom in a burning heat,
through the fierce sun and the inflammation of His wounds and inward
fever. He was so parched that His tongue was dried up like a potsherd
and was made to cleave to the roof of His mouth.

There He hung amid derision, His bones all dislocated and His very
flesh dissolved with faintness as though it were turning back to its
native dust. Meanwhile His soul was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto
death," and the Father's face, which has sustained thousands of
martyrs, was turned away from Him until He cried, "Lama Sabachthani!"
And is there heart so brutal as to suggest a repetition of this Divine
agony? Repeat this!? Repeat this? O Sirs, we rise at once, as one man,
in mutiny against an idea so revolting! One Calvary is glorious, for it
has accomplished the grand deed of our re-demption–but two Calvarys
would mean double shame and no glory! Shall the Son of God, after all
that He has done, come down on earth to be, a second time, "despised
and rejected of men"? Shall He, a second time, be dragged through mire
and blood? It must not, cannot be! God forbid! He has trod the
winepress once and for all. No more shall He stain His garments with
His own blood!

To suppose a repetition of the Sacrifice is to cast suspicion upon the
work and efficacy of the great offering of Himself. Was not that
Sacrifice infinite in value? It must have been, for it was the
Sacrifice of God, Himself! Why, then, present it again? Unless the
first was altogether or measurably a failure, why repeat it? The
repetition of the Cross would destroy the Cross! O Man, you have taken
away from the death of the Lord all its virtue if you would dream of
His dying yet again! As to that invention of the Church of Rome–the
continual offering of the unbloody sacrifice of the "Mass"– it is a
dead thing, for, the "blood is the life thereof," and it is as gross an
insult to the one great Sacrifice as could well have been devised by
His worst enemies. He has forever put away the sin of His people by His
one offering, and now there remains no more sacrifice for sin!

My Brothers and Sisters, the idea that our Lord Jesus did not
effectually perform the work of taking away sin removes the foundation
of our faith! If by one offering He did not put away sin, shall it be
repeated? Suppose, for a moment, that He died twice–why not three
times? Why not four times? Why not 50 times? Why not forever the
rehearsal of Calvary, forever the doleful cry, forever the tomb of
Joseph and the dead body wrapped in linen? And yet, even after a
thousand repetitions, how could we know that we were saved? How could
we be sure that the Sacrifice sufficed and that sin was really put
away? If the one offering of Himself did not satisfy justice, what
would or could do it? Then are we without hope and, of all men, most
miserable, for a golden dream of the putting away of sin has come to us
and, lo, it has melted away. Once yonder tree! Once yonder tomb! Once
the broken seal and the frightened watch–on that ONE Sacrifice and
Justification we securely rest–and we need no repetition of the work.
It was enough, for Jesus said, "It is finished!" It was enough, for God
has raised Him from the dead!

I do not need, I hope, to linger here to warn you that it is of no use
to expect that God will put away sin in any other way than that which
at so great a cost He has provided. If sin could have been removed in
any other way than by the death of His dear Son, Jesus would not have
died. If there had been within the range of supposition any method of
pardon except by the Sacrifice of Himself, depend upon it, Jesus would
never have bowed His head to death. The great Father would never have
inflicted death upon the Perfect One if it had been possible that the
cup should pass from Him. He could never have inflicted upon His
Beloved a superfluous pain. His death was necessary, but, blessed be
God, having been once endured, it has, once and for all, put away sin
and, therefore, it will never be endured again.

II. We come, now, to look at the rest of the text. Once, and no second
AND YET A SECOND. "He shall appear a second time." Yes, Christ Jesus
shall appear a second time, but not a second time for the same purpose
as before.

He will appear. The appearing will be of the most open character. He
will not be visible in some quiet place where two or three are met, but
He will appear as the lightning is seen in the heavens. At His first
appearing He was truly seen–wherever He went, He could be looked at
and gazed upon–and touched and handled. He will appear quite as
plainly, by-and-by, among the sons of men. The observation of Him will
be far more general than at His First Advent, for, "every eye shall see
Him." Every eye did not see Him here when He came the first time, for
He did not travel out of Palestine, save only when, as an Infant all
unknown, He was carried down into Egypt. But when He comes a second
time, all the nations of the world shall behold Him! They that are dead
shall rise to see Him, both saints and sinners–and they that are alive
and remain when He shall come shall be absorbed in this greatest of
spectacles. Then Balaam shall find it true, "I shall see Him, but not
now: I shall behold Him, but not near." Though they cry, "Hide us from
the face of Him that sits on the Throne," they shall cry in vain, for
before His Judgement Seat they must all appear!

His second appearing will be without sin. That is to say, He will bring
no sin-offering with Him and will not, Himself, be a Sacrifice for sin.
What need that it should be so? We have seen that He once offered
Himself without spot to God and, therefore, when He comes a second
time, His relation to human guilt will finally cease. He will then have
nothing further to do with that sin which was laid upon Him. Our sin,
which He took to Himself by imputation, He has borne and discharged.
Not only is the sinner free, but the sinner's Surety is also free, for
He has paid our debt to the utmost farthing. Jesus is no longer under
obligation on our account. When He comes a second time, He will have no
connection of any sort with the sin which once He bore. He will come,
moreover, without those sicknesses and infirmities which arise out of
sin. At His First Advent, He came in suffering flesh and He came to
hunger and to thirst, to be without a place where to lay His head. He
came to have His heart broken with reproach and His soul grieved with
the hardness of men's hearts. He was compassed with infirmity. He came
unto His God with strong crying and tears. He agonized even unto bloody
sweat and so He journeyed on with all the insignia of sin hanging about
Him. But when He comes a second time it will be without the weakness,
pain, poverty and shame which accompany sin! There will then be no
marred visage nor bleeding brow! He will have re-assumed His ancient
Glory. It will be His glorious appearing!

When our Lord comes to the fullest in His Glory, there will remain no
sin upon His people. He will present His bride unto Himself a glorious
Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The day of His
appearing will be the manifestation of a perfect body as well as a
perfect Head. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun when
their Lord's Countenance is as the sun shining in his strength. As He
will be "without sin," so will they be "without sin." Oh, what a
glorious appearing is this! A true appearing and yet the very opposite
of the first! Then the text adds–"He shall appear without sin unto
salvation." What does that mean? It means that He will then display the
perfect salvation of all those who put their trust in Him! He will come
to celebrate the great victory of mercy over sin. At His coming He will
set His foot upon the dragon's head and bruise Satan under our feet. He
will come to have all His enemies put under His feet. Today we fight
and He fights in us. We groan and He groans in us, for the dread
conflict is raging. When He comes again, the battle will be ended–He
shall divide the spoil of vanquished evil and celebrate the victory of
righteousness!

But the Resurrection is the salvation principally intended here. Alas,
what evil sin has done! How many of our best beloved lie rotting
beneath the clay! The worms are feeding on those whose voices were the
music of our lives! The scythe of death has cut them down like
grass–they lie together in rows in yonder cemetery. Who slew all
these? The sting of death is sin! But when our Lord comes, who is the
Resurrection and the Life–from beds of dust and silent clay our dead
men shall rise–they shall leap up into immortality! "Your brother
shall rise again." Your children shall come again from the land of
their captivity. Not a bone, nor a piece of a bone of a saint shall be
left as a trophy in the hand of the enemy! When our Lord brought forth
Peter from the prison, He did not let him leave his old shoes behind
him, but the angel said, "Gird yourself, and bind on your sandals, and
follow me." And when the Lord Jesus shall come and open wide the door
of the sepulcher, He will bid us come forth in the entirety of our
nature and leave nothing behind. Salvation shall mean to us the
perfection of our manhood in the likeness of our Lord! No aching hands
and weary brows, then, but we shall be raised in power! Our vile body
shall be changed and made like His glorious body! Though sown in
corruption, our body shall be raised in incorruption and this mortal
shall put on immortality! What a glorious prospect lies before us in
connection with the day of His appearing a second time unto salvation!

Now notice that this appearing and this salvation will chiefly belong
to those who look for Him. Will you bear with me patiently a minute or
two here? I wonder how many there are in the Tabernacle who are looking
for Him? The text

says, "Unto them that look for Him shall He appear a second time
without sin unto salvation." Beloved, I will put the question
again–How many here are looking for our Lord's Second Coming? I am
afraid if conscience has her perfect work, many will have to say, "I am
afraid I am not among the number." I will tell you what it is to look
for that Second Appearing. It is to love the Lord Jesus, to love Him so
that you long for Him as a bride longs for her husband. Why are His
chariots so long in coming? Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Strong love hates
separation–it pines for union. It cries, "Come, Lord! Come, Lord!"
Longing follows on the heels of loving. To look for His coming is to
prepare for Him. If I were asked to visit you tomorrow evening, I am
sure you would make some preparations for my call–even for one so
commonplace as myself. You would prepare because you would welcome me.
If you expected the Queen to call, how excited you would be! What
preparation good housewives would make for a royal visitor!

When we expect our Lord to come, we shall be concerned to have
everything ready for Him. I sometimes see the great gates open in front
of the larger houses in the suburbs–and it means that they are
expecting company. Keep the great gates of your soul always open,
expecting your Lord to come! It is idle to talk about looking for His
coming if we never set our house in order and never put ourselves in
readiness for His reception. Looking for Him means that you stand in a
waiting attitude, as a servant who expects his master to soon be at the
door. Do not say, "The Lord will not yet come and, therefore, I shall
make my plans irrespective of Him for the next 20 or 30 years." You may
not be here in the next 20 or 30 minutes, or, if you are, your Lord may
be also here!

He comes! He is on the road! He started long ago and He sent on a
herald before Him to cry, "Behold, I come quickly." He has been coming
quickly over the mountains of division ever since–and He will be here
soon. If you look for His appearing, you will be found in an attitude
of one who waits and watches, that when his Lord comes he may meet Him
with joy. Christ is coming, I must not sin. Christ is coming, I must
not be rooted to the world. Are you thus expecting Him? I am afraid I
shall only be speaking the truth if I say that very few Christians are,
in the highest sense, waiting for the appearing of the Lord. My friend,
Mr. Govett, in his commentary on my text, reminds us of the story of
Moses, when God told him to take 70 men up the hill with him. We read
of these honored men, that, "they saw God, and did eat and drink." What
a privilege! They were all the Lord's guests! As Moses went up to God
into the thick darkness, he said to them, "Tarry you here until we come
again unto you."

Moses was gone for 40 days–how many of the 70 waited for him? I do not
know when they began to slip down from the hill, or whether they went,
one by one, or in groups. but when Moses returned, not a soul of them
was left, save Joshua, whom Moses had taken up with him to still higher
ground. The 70 had gone down among the people and probably spread that
unbelief among them which led to the making of the golden calf. None
can do so much mischief as those who have been with God, but cannot
wait for the glorious appearing! You tell me Moses was gone a long
time–well-near six weeks! Yes, and that is why many cannot wait for
the Lord, now, because the delay is so long–it is nearly 1,900 years
since He went away. True, 4,000 years rolled away before He came the
first time, but 2,000 quite wear out the watchers for His Second
Coming. Men cannot wait and, therefore, go down to the world and help
to fashion its idols. Only here and there do we see a Joshua who will
abide in his place till his leader appears.

As to watching, this is rarer than waiting. The fact is, even the
better sort of Believers who wait for His coming, as all the 10 virgins
did, nevertheless do not watch. Even the best sort of the waiters
slumbered and slept. You are waiting, but you are sleeping! This is a
mournful business. A man who is asleep cannot be said to look and yet
it is, "unto them that look for Him" that the Lord comes with
salvation. We must be wide-awake to look! We ought to go up to the
watch-tower every morning and look toward the rising sun to see whether
He is coming. Surely our last act at night should be to look out for
His star and say, "Is He coming?" It ought to be a daily disappointment
when our Lord does not come– instead of being, as I fear it is, a kind
of foregone conclusion that He will not come just yet. How pleased we
are if some daring fellow will tell us when He will come, for then we
can get ready near the time and need not perpetually watch!

We would not go to a gypsy in a red cloak and let her tell our
fortune–but we will let a man in a black coat tell us the fortune of
our Lord. What folly! Of that day and of that hour knows no man, nor
even the angels of God! This time of the Advent is a secret and
purposely so, that we may always be on tiptoe of expectation, always
looking out–because our Lord is surely coming, but we are not sure
when He comes. "And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the
second time without sin unto salvation." Many professing Christians
forget Christ's Second Coming altogether. Others drop a smile when we
speak about it, as though it belonged only to fanatics and dreamers.

But you, Beloved, I trust are not of that kind! As you really believe
in the First Coming and the one great Sacrifice, so really believe in
the Second Coming without a sin-offering unto the climax of your
salvation! Standing between the Cross and the crown, between the cloud
that received Him out of our sight, and the clouds with which He will
come with ten thousands of His saints to judge the quick and the dead,
let us live as men who are not of this world, strangers in this age
which darkly lies between two bright appearings, happy beings saved by
an accomplished mystery, and soon to be glorified by another mystery
which is hastening on! Let us, like her in the Revelation, have the
moon under our feet, keeping all sublunary things in their proper
place. May we even now be made to sit together with Christ in the
heav-enlies!

Now all this must be strange talk to some of you. I wish it would alarm
those of you who once made a profession of true religion, but have gone
back to the world's lies. How will you face Him, you Backsliders, in
that day when He shall appear and all else shall vanish in the blaze of
His light, as stars when the sun shines out? What will you do when your
treachery shall be made clear to your consciences by His appearing?
What will you do, who have sold your Master and given up your Lord, who
was and is your only hope for the putting away of your sins? Oh, I pray
you, as you love yourselves, go to Him as He appears in His First
Coming and then, washed in His blood, go forward to meet Him in His
Second Coming for salvation.

God bless you and, by His Son and Spirit, make you ready for that great
day which comes on apace!

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Hebrews9:24-28; 10:1-18;
Matthew 25:1-13.