Saved When The Lord Appears # 3

Saved When The Lord Appears # 3

d. In the Scriptures we read that we who are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, that is, with our beloved who have gone on before. No more separation, no more fear of funerals, no more visits to the cemetery, no more going back to the home that has been made empty because the loved one has departed.

"We shall not all sleep, what ineffable bliss,
Some living at present may taste even of this,
His coming, the rapture, the joyful surprise,
One moment a mortal, the next in the skies.

Our Saviour will come in the air, He'll descend,
The living, the sleeping, to His shall ascend,
Some wait there in heaven, some wait here below,
Then raptured in triumph to Him we all go.

We shall not all sleep, but changed we shall be,
Yes, changed in a moment when Jesus we see,
In the blaze of His glory, the flash of an eye.

e. When Paul was nearing the end of his remarkable career, he writes, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."

The expression "if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" is literally "the out- resurrection from among the dead!" that is, Paul knew that the Lord was coming back, that the Christian dead would rise to greet Him, and he wanted to be of the company, and thus expresses his hope and desire.

2. What  will it mean to the unsaved for Christ to appear?

a. If they are dead then it will mean that at His appearing their tombs will not be unsealed, they shall wait longer for another great event which is so startling that one shudders even as he reads of it, that is Judgment.

b. If they are living they will be left behind when others ascend to greet Him with their loved ones in the skies.

c. And when the time comes those who have rejected Jesus Christ will face the Judgment. In Revelation 20:11-13, I read, "And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." It is a white throne, to me, at least, it is significant that when the saved greet Him there will be "a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." The emerald is green and green rests the eye. In contrast the full blaze of the white of the throne of God's judgment will be torture indeed. 

He will be upon the throne; the One whom men have rejected and despised in spite of His mercy, and love. "The dead, small and great, shall stand before God." There can be no favoritism there. The books shall be opened and on the basis of one's record, men will be judged. Those who have accepted Christ need have no fear of the judgment of the Great White Throne. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," but if he has been rejected, and finally rejected, we know what the end must be, for the word of the Lord hath spoken it.

Recently the Honorable Elihu Root, in one of his addresses used this expression:  The timetable of the Almighty.

What a striking sentence, how suggestive, how true it is to these days, how it fits in to my subject.

The hour has come. Jesus said that as He was nearing the end of His earthly ministry, and when the price of our redemption was to be paid in full.

"Behold, now is the time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

The door of mercy is open; it may close at any moment. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near."

~J. Wilbur Chapman~

(The End)