Books For Christian - Jesus Is Coming For You

Publisher: Publisher
ISBN: 0883681587
Pages: 110
Book Type: Paperback
Size: 0.31 x 8.24 x 5.22 inches
Released Date: Oct 1997

Reviews
Table Of Contents

Description:
The return of Jesus will be a day of joy, transformation, and reunion for those who have a personal knowledge of Him. R A Torrey provides scriptural answers to questions about the time, manner, and results of His return. Learn how you can be ready for the greatest day the world has ever seen!

1. A Vital Truth --- 7
2. Scriptural Proof --- 17
3. How Will It Happen? --- 25
4. A Day of Joy and Sorrow --- 41
5. Peace and Punishment --- 65
6. When Is He Coming? --- 85
7. Ready or Not --- 103

Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10

The truth about the Lord¿s return is our safeguard against all heresies, errors, and falsehoods. One error after another is arising to deceive, "if it were possible, even the elect" (Mark 13:22). However, the truth of the Second Coming of Christ, which is clearly revealed in God¿s Word, proves them all wrong. It is remarkable that all forms of error contradict the doctrine of Christ¿s Second Coming. It is equally remarkable that all these errors are overthrown by the truth revealed in the Scriptures.
The truth of our Lord¿s return is the most precious truth the Bible contains. It fills the heart of the believer with joy, and it clothes him with strength for the battle. Lifting him above the sorrows, fears, necessities, trials, ambitions, and greed of this world, it makes him more than a conqueror in all things.
Obviously, the second coming of Christ is important, for it is mentioned more times in the New Testament than there are chapters-- 318 times in the 260 chapters of the New Testament. This doctrine, according to someone who has made it his lifelong study, occupies one in every twenty-five verses from Matthew to Revelation. It also occupies a prominent place in the Old Testament, for by far the majority of the predictions concerning Christ in the Old Testament are connected, not with His first coming to die as an atoning Savior, but with His second coming to rule as King.

The coming again of Jesus Christ is the one doctrine with which God commands us to comfort sorrowing saints. When death had begun to thin the ranks of the believers in Thessalonica, and hearts were aching over separation from those who had passed away, the apostle Paul wrote,

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep [dead], that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
(1 Thess. 4:13-18)

Since "these words" have to do entirely with the second coming of Christ, it is evident that the one doctrine with which God commands us to comfort those sorrowing over the loss of loved ones is Christ¿s second coming. No other truth has such comfort for believers when they are called upon to pass through deep sorrow. On many occasions when I have written to those who have lost, for a time, those they love, I have obeyed God¿s commandment and used the truth of our Lord¿s return to comfort them. Many have told me afterwards how full of comfort this truth has proven to be when everything else had failed.
In the Old Testament we find God, through His servant Isaiah, comforting the people of Israel in the time of their misery and desolation with the thought of the Lord¿s coming:

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.¿O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold¿his reward is with him, and his work before him.
(Isa. 40:1, 9-10)

Over and over in the New Testament, the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ and the events connected with His coming are held up as "that blessed hope" (Titus 2:13), as well as the eager desire of every true believer. In Titus 2:13 Paul said, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." And Peter said,

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?(2 Pet. 3:11-12)

To the true believer, the coming again of Jesus Christ is not something to dread, but it is the brightest hope the future holds for us. It should be the object of our eager desire and longing anticipation. The last prayer in the Bible should also be the cry of every wise Christian heart: "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).

However, while the return of our Lord is the blessed hope and eager desire of the true believer, it is the particular object of the hatred and ridicule of the mockers who follow after their own evil desires. Peter¿s prediction has come true:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Pet. 3:304)
A worldly church and worldly Christians join with these mockers in their hatred of this truth. As a wife who is flirting with other men does not long for the return of her absent husband, so the faithless bride of Christ, who is flirting with the world, does not long for the return of her Lord. But, for the believer whose affections are all fixed upon Jesus Christ, the Word of God contains no other promise so precious as the promise that He is soon coming again. A person¿s attitude toward the coming again of Jesus Christ is a good indication of his spiritual state.

The fact that our Lord Jesus is coming again is the great biblical argument for a life of watchfulness, fidelity, wisdom, activity, simplicity, self-restraint, prayer, and abiding in Christ. During the last week of His earthly life, our Lord said to His disciples, "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matt. 24:44). In our day we are constantly urging men to be ready because death may overtake them at any moment, but this was not the argument that our Lord Jesus used. It was His own coming, not the coming of death, that He held up before His disciples as the incentive to live as they ought to live.
Still speaking of His coming, Jesus said,

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.(Matt. 24:45-46)
On another occasion, when our Lord was warning His disciples against the sins that are especially common in our day-- overeating, overdrinking, and over concern with the cares of this life-- He said,

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [overindulgence], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.(Luke 21:34-36)

It was not the physical effects of overeating and overdrinking that our Lord held up as a warning to His disciples, but rather the fact that these things would make them ill-suited to meet Him at His return.
The apostle John wrote to those whom he had led into the light, "Now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming" (1 John 2:28). There are many reasons that we should abide in the Lord Jesus, but the preeminent reason in John¿s mind was that Jesus is coming again. If we are to have confidence and not be ashamed before Him when He comes, we must be abiding in Him.

Our Lord Jesus told us that His return is the one event for which we should always be watching. He said,
Let your loins be girded about [keep yourself dressed and ready], and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
(Luke 12:35-36)

In the next verse a special blessing is pronounced upon those whom the Lord will find watching when He comes:

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (Luke 12:37)

The Holy Spirit told us in Hebrews 9:28 that "unto them that look for him," Jesus will "appear the second time without sin unto salvation." These words ought to lead us into some very deep and earnest thinking and to ask ourselves whether we are really looking, watching, and waiting for Him.

It is evident from what has been said in this chapter that the truth of our Lord¿s Second Coming is a truth of foremost importance. Unfortunately, many consider the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ to be an impractical doctrine. I once regarded it that way myself. In my early ministry, one of my church members came to me and asked if I would speak on the Second Coming of Christ. I knew nothing about the doctrine and put him off, thinking to myself, "This church member will be a much older man than he is now before I speak on a doctrine so impractical." But the day came when I found that it was not only one of the most precious, but also one of the most practical doctrines in the whole Bible.
There have been four marked epochs in my Christian experience. The first was when I came to know the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior and my Lord. The second was when I discovered that the Bible is indeed the inerrant Word of God, that its statements are absolutely reliable in every respect, and that everything any man ever needed to know is contained in this one Book. The third was when I learned that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is for the present day and I claimed it for myself. And the fourth was when I saw the truth of the second coming of Christ. This truth transformed my whole idea of life. It broke the power that the world and its ambitions had over me, and it filled my life with the most radiant optimism in even the most discouraging circumstances.