0925. Those Who Delay His Coming

Those Who Delay His Coming

"But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth His coming" (Mat_24:48)

In Matthew 24 we have a message that is, primarily, Jewish; yet, therein, we have an expressed attitude toward our Lord's Return, that is well worth considering.

1. There is the fact of the Second Coming set forth in such verses as Mat_24:30 :

"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory" (A. S. V.).

To those who accept the authority of the Christ's own statements, Christ's coming again is undebatable. The critic may seek to discount His testimony by saying that Christ was merely giving the opinions of the Prophets which He had imbibed from the "expectation" of His day. Such words are proofless; indeed, such words, of necessity, discount the whole of the Christ-given message.

Christ said plainly, "I will come again." He taught His personal, corporeal, visible, literal and sudden return.

2. There is the imminence of the Lord's return set forth in this twenty-fourth of Matthew, as follows:–In Mat_24:27, He comes as the lightning, flashing from one end of the heaven unto the other.

In Mat_24:42, We know not the hour when the Lord doth come.

In Mat_24:44, We are taught: "Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh."

3. There are in the 24th of Matthew, positively prophesied, two classes of people who will discount the Second Coming.

(1) There are those who will say, "Lo, here is Christ, or there." This is often done today. Men are saying that the day of the Lord has already come.

In the day of the antichrist the world will again cry, "Lo, here is Christ," or, "Lo, there is Christ." But the command is, "Believe it not." The antichrist will set himself up above God, so that he, as God, will be worshiped.

The very world which today refuses to believe in the Return of Christ, will gladly acclaim the coming of the antichrist. The world will wonder after the beast, and worship his image, and receive his mark and the number of his name. This will meet its completed fulfillment after the rapture of the saints.

(2) There are the evil servants who say, "My Lord delayeth His coming." These words certainly set forth the attitude of the masses of today toward our Lord's Return.

There are many, very many, who will admit that the Lord is coming back again, but they place His return in such remote centuries that the coming presents no "blessed hope," no joyful anticipation. What is the Second Coming of Christ to those who assure their own minds that His coming lies millenniums beyond their own day? They can neither be "waiting" nor "watching;" "looking" nor "praying" for His Return. Certainly they will not be "loving" the day of His appearing.

Let us beware of any teaching that robs the Lord's Return of its "any moment" possibility.

The delay of His coming finds the church in a state of worldliness, that is saddening to behold. She has begun to eat and to drink with the drunken.

The delay of His coming finds the church in unwarranted union with the world in world-betterment schemes, and in general social improvement plans, which have broken down the barriers of her holy separation.

The Lord pity those who rob the church of her Blessed Hope by preaching that the hope is endlessly delayed.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR