From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We're considering at the present time, as most of you will recall, the words found in Paul's Epistle to the Romans in chapter 13, reading from verse 11 to the end of the chapter, namely to verse 14. Verses 11 to 14 in the 13th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.

We are dealing here with what I have been explaining is the last great argument used by the Apostle to encourage these Roman Christians and us and all other Christians to live the Christian life. That's what he's concerned about. He started with this great appeal at the beginning of the 12th chapter, and having given a number of detailed instructions, he now is giving us a great argument, a great reason for fulfilling. He's already given us one, which is that love is the fulfilling of the law.

But here is another argument, and this is what we may call the eschatological argument. Don't be worried about the word. It means the doctrine of the last things, the final development, the ultimate end. And this is an argument which he's now using in order to reinforce this appeal, "and that," he says, over and above what I've been saying, in addition to. You can translate it if you like in those various ways.

This is a most important matter. I've been reminding you that this particular argument is one, obviously, that applies and appeals only to Christian people. The world has got its moralists, its ethical teachers, and its moral and ethical systems. But it never uses this motive. It can't. Indeed, it never has many motives to suggest to us. That's why they always fail. But here is a unique argument, a unique appeal, this great doctrine of the last and the ultimate things.

Now let's remind ourselves. The Apostle is acting on the assumption that we know these things, "and that knowing the time." And he refers not only to knowing the time; it refers to our knowledge of all the things that he says in this paragraph, in this particular statement. I've tried to show you that the statement divides itself up quite naturally into a doctrinal aspect and a more practical aspect, the doctrine and the application of the doctrine. Now at the moment, we're looking at the subsidiary doctrines that are involved in this great generic doctrine concerning the last and the ultimate things.

And the Apostle assumes that we know certain things. We've already considered some of them. He's assuming that we know the real significance and the meaning of this time, "the time" in which we are living. What a transformation that makes in our whole conception of history. Because of the wars in this century, people have become interested in history and in time. But we've seen that here is the only adequate view of time and of history, and it is peculiar to the Christian.

This time is the time between the first advent and the second advent of the Son of God. And all about your kings and princes, births, marriages, deaths, wars, and all the rest of it is comparatively insignificant. These are the things that really matter, and this is how you measure time. And we are living in "this time" between these two mighty, cataclysmic events. We've dealt with that. Then we've seen that he also says that he takes for granted our knowledge and our understanding of life in this world.

That what the world calls enlightenment, we call darkness. And that what the world calls life is to us death. What it calls day is to us nothing but night. And so we've been looking at our view of life in this world. This is plain Christian teaching. Christ, the Son of God, God sent him into the world to deliver us from this present evil world. That's the view of the Scripture. Now that doesn't mean that we retire out of it or that we see no value in culture. But giving all these things their maximum content, it is an evil world, and we are delivered out of it, translated out of it into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

So that obviously, we must have as Christians a very special view of life in this world. All that the world gets so excited about doesn't touch us; it doesn't move us. We see through it. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." This world, according to the Scripture, is something that's got to be overcome. It's set against us. We are fighting the world, the flesh, the devil. These are antagonists, and the world is against us, and we're all having to fight the world. So we've got this peculiar view of it.

At the end last Friday night we began to consider the third thing that he tells us that we know, and that is our outlook on the future. Our outlook on the future. If this is our view of the present, what of the future? And here again, our view is quite unique. He puts it in terms of salvation: "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." And he talks about the day: "The night is far spent, the day is at hand."

And we began considering this. Now this is most important. I suggested that a better way of looking at the translation here would be like this, not so much "for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed," but rather "nearer is us the salvation." That's what the Apostle actually wrote. Not so much "our salvation," which we tend to take in a subjective manner. He is talking about "the" salvation. And he says, as far as we are concerned, "the" salvation is nearer now than when we believed. And I began to show how he clearly therefore is doing here what he does elsewhere, namely to differentiate between three views of salvation.

You can regard salvation as something that's already happened. And every Christian is already saved from the guilt of sin and the condemnation of the law. You don't go on asking for that as a Christian; that's happened to you. You have been delivered from the guilt of sin and the condemnation of the law. But we are being delivered continuously, progressively, in the matter of sanctification, which is a deliverance from the power and the pollution of sin. That's continuous; that's present. But then there is a future tense to salvation. And that is, I quoted certain scriptures at the end last time indicative of this, referring to the ultimate deliverance, glorification. And that, of course, is in the future.

I have been saved, I am being saved, I shall be saved. Now those three ways of referring to salvation are plain and clear in the teaching of the Scripture. And it's very important that we shouldn't be confused about them. People often have been confused. There are people who take a text like this which says "now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" and say it is sheer presumption for anybody to say "I am saved" or to ask anybody else "are you saved?" It is presumption, they say, for anybody to talk about assurance of salvation. They say that you can't be; you're only hoping to be saved. Your salvation lies ahead. It's nearer than it was because you're going on, but you mustn't say you are saved.

People have often taken this and in the language of the Apostle Peter they have wrested it to a wrong use and have implied it as an argument against the whole notion of assurance of salvation. It is important that we should distinguish these three tenses, with respect to salvation or with regard to the New Testament teaching and doctrine concerning our salvation. In this particular instance we have before us, it is surely perfectly plain and clear that the Apostle is using it in the third sense. He's talking about this ultimate, final salvation that awaits us. This is something again with which we're quite familiar. These terms are used so frequently in the Scripture. It talks about "the day" or "that day" or "the day of the Lord" and so on.

Now our Lord himself does this in his own teaching. Let me give you but one example of it; there are many others. Our Lord says in Mark 13:32: "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." He is referring to that day. He says, "I say unto you that this generation shall not pass till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man." Now there is one example. But as you read our Lord's teaching, you will find that he was constantly dealing with this theme.

Now there was a very great controversy about all this in the early part of this present century. There had been a move towards the end of the last century to teach what they called "the Jesus of history." They were representing our Lord as just a man and as a great religious teacher and that he was very little concerned about the supernatural realm and the future and so on. They were trying to reduce him to a moral, ethical teacher, some even to a political teacher. There was a great movement. But that was exploded by Dr. Albert Schweitzer. The fact that he exploded that doesn't mean that he was right because he wasn't. But he exploded that and he exploded it by showing this, that there was nothing more characteristic of the teaching of our Lord than this constant emphasis upon this which was going to happen, what he was yet going to do.

This apocalyptic element in his teaching. Albert Schweitzer, of course, regarded this as a sign that our Lord was a creature of his own age and even suggested partly that he was a little bit abnormal in a mental sense, that he was obsessed by this idea that he was going to come again. But what he was able to establish from the Gospels was this, that if you took out this apocalyptic element, there was really nothing left at all and certainly nothing which explains the influence which our Lord had upon his contemporaries. I'm just showing that this was a very vital and essential part of our Lord's teaching. And if we don't have it in a very prominent position in our thinking, we are not true to our Lord's own teaching.

But then you get it strikingly after he had gone. It's very interesting how at the very beginning of the church, Peter, preaching to those people who came crowding around him and John as the result of their healing of the lame man. Peter, winding up his sermon, puts it like this: "Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."

Now that's a most striking and important statement. Peter there is able to show that this is something that had been preached right away through the Old Testament. The Lord himself had preached it, and here is he now as the first spokesman in the Christian church giving great prominence to it. And you find it running as a theme right through the book of the Acts of the Apostles. You remember the Apostle Paul, in a sense, made it the central part of his message in Athens. Perhaps this will help to fix it in your mind. Think of our friends, Christian people in Athens tonight and in Greece in their trouble. Well, when Paul was there and preaching on Mars Hill, you remember how this was his great point: that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the whole world in righteousness by that man whom he hath appointed, of which he hath given assurance unto us in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Now he was preaching to Stoics and Epicureans, philosophers, clever, sophisticated people. But that's what he preached to them. He knew that they'd ridicule it; nevertheless, he preached it because it is an essential and vital part of this Christian message. And you remember how in his second epistle to the Thessalonians it's a very great and prominent theme: "We beseech you, brethren," he says in the second chapter, "by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ, better the day of the Lord, is at hand." He's been talking about that day in the first chapter, and here he comes back to it again. And indeed, it is a controlling theme.

The Apostle Paul, writing what is agreed by all to be his last letter, which is his second letter to Timothy, in the fourth chapter, puts it like this: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." He's already said the same thing in the first chapter, in which he says: "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day." He's already said it about himself, though he's in prison. He's not ashamed: "For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Here it is. And you see, it is a constant theme in the preaching of the great Apostle.

You remember in Titus 2:11-14 he has exactly the same thing: "waiting for the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." There it is. And it's not confined to Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews uses this as one of its great motives and one of its great appeals. Listen to this in chapter 6, verses 11 and 12: "We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence unto the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." And in verse 18: "That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."

Here it is. It's everywhere. All these men use it as a great argument. Peter does exactly the same thing. James does the same thing. He warns the rich men, for instance, in his last chapter to be careful as to how they treat others and so on. Peter again in his first epistle, he's got it: "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." That third chapter of the second epistle which I've already read to you. And John uses exactly the same argument in his first epistle and, of course, the whole of the book of Revelation. It's confined to this theme. That's what it's all about. Everything is to be viewed in the light of this great teaching about this salvation which is yet to come.

It's clear as to what he's referring to. This is none other than the great doctrine and teaching concerning our Lord's second coming, our Lord's appearing again in this world. He's been here once; he's coming again. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it like this: "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," not in connection with sin this time as he did the first time, "but unto salvation." This is a theme that is intermixed in the very warp and woof of the whole of the New Testament teaching. It's vital, and it's generally used, as Paul uses it here, in terms of a great appeal for conduct and behavior on the part of Christian people who believe and who know these particular things.

Again you see, we're obviously dealing with something that is quite unique and confined solely to Christian teaching. Nobody else knows anything about this at all, and they're not only not interested in it; they ridicule it. They laugh at it. This to them is a kind of joke, the kind of foolish thing that is believed by these obscurantists who call themselves Christians. But it is absolutely essential to the whole of the New Testament teaching. It's not merely a doctrine. It's used in this particular way as the Apostle is using it here, and that's what I must try to show you. But in order that we may gather the full weight of the doctrine and the teaching, we've got to be clear as to what the teaching is. Knowing, we are to know this.

We must know something about the form in which this great event is going to take place. And there's no difficulty about this. We're given abundant teaching. You remember what was told to those apostles standing on Mount Olivet still looking up into heaven? While they looked steadfastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel which also said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." There it is. He will come in a visible form. It's not a spiritual coming, as many have tried to explain it away. It is to be a visible coming.

Our Lord taught exactly the same thing. He says they shall see the Son of Man coming riding upon the clouds of heaven surrounded by all his holy angels. That's his own teaching. The book of Revelation is full of this: "Every eye shall see him." This is the emphasis everywhere. It is to be visible. It is to be in a body, a glorified body, but still in a body. "As he has gone, so," say these angels here. Therefore, this is an essential part of this teaching. It's going to be the mightiest event that the cosmos has ever known or ever can know when he appears again. Not as he came as a babe the first time, but as the great King of kings and Lord of lords, conquering and to conquer.

So it's going to be essentially visible, something that will be seen with the naked eye, and he will be in his glorified body. But why will he come? What is the purpose of his coming? And this again is equally clear. He will come to complete the work. Now when I say complete, I'm not talking about the work of atonement; that's already complete. He doesn't complete that. But he does come to complete the work for which he originally came into the world and was sent into the world to accomplish. What's that? Well again, John in his first epistle answers the question in the third chapter: he has come to destroy the works of the devil. He's come to undo, to nullify everything that the devil has done.

There it is, put in its general form. And I shall refer to other elements of it as we go along. But what immediately will happen will be there will be a general resurrection both of the good and of the bad. Our Lord himself taught that. A resurrection of the good and the bad; you'll find it in John 5:24 and 25 and so on. A rising from the dead and that for the purpose of the judgment which he has come to execute. That's what Paul was referring to in Athens when he said that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the whole world in righteousness by that man whom he hath appointed. Our Lord taught the same thing. You've got it in Matthew 25 in the three pictures, the three parables in Matthew 25. In each case, he emphasizes this element of judgment.

And he will return to judge and to pass a sentence and judgment. And then, having done that, he will set up his eternal kingdom of glory, as Peter puts it in that third chapter of the second epistle we read at the beginning: there shall be a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Now there it is in general terms. But let's look a little more closely at the consequences. Because if this whole argument that the Apostle is putting before us is to carry weight with us and to influence us, we must know the teaching in detail. And these are the things which are emphasized here and everywhere.

The first thing, and we must put this first in view of what the Apostle is saying in this context, is this: time shall be no more. That's a great statement. You see, now we are living in this peculiar time, knowing the time. We're still in that position. But then, when he has come, time shall be no more. Time comes to an end. God starts time, he ends time. Time shall be no more. What else? Well, Peter has told us in that chapter: the elements shall melt with fervent heat. There shall be a purging of all the effects of evil and sin out of the whole cosmos.

For we must realize always that it isn't merely man who's fallen. The whole of creation has fallen with him. The Apostle has already reminded us of that in the eighth chapter. So you see, in order to get rid of all the works and the effects of the devil and of evil and of sin, the very elements are going to be melted with fervent heat. There's going to be a dissolution so that evil and all its influences and pollution can be purged out of the entire cosmos. And that is but preliminary to a kind of grand reconstruction of the entire universe. Our Lord himself taught this. Let me give you the text in which this is stated most plainly in the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

Let me read at verse 27: "Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." That's the interesting word there, of course, is this word "regeneration." We are familiar with the term "regeneration" in what happens to us when we're born again, when we become Christians. It has the same general meaning here. But now, of course, it's not speaking to anything that happens in us.

This is something that's going to happen to the whole universe, to the entire cosmos. There will be a reconstituting of the entire cosmos. You see, because of the fall, the whole universe has become involved and has become affected. And the universe as you and I see it now is not as it was in its original creation. But it will be when this great regeneration takes place after our Lord has returned and has caused the elements to melt with a fervent heat and so on, getting rid of sin and evil. Then this kind of great reconstitution of all things. But the best statement of this in many ways is the one we've already considered when we were studying the eighth chapter from verse 18 to verse 23.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Now that's what I'm referring to. That's the exposition of that word used by our Lord, that word "regeneration." You see, the creature means creation. Not only the animals, but everything: the rocks, the flowers, the trees, everything is bearing marks of the fall of man.

When man fell, you remember part of the punishment was that God cursed the ground. And later you have the flood, with all the cataclysmic events involved in the flood. Now all that is what's going to be done away with, and the whole cosmos, the whole universe is to be restored to its original perfect condition as it was created by God. And the Apostle, if you like, states exactly the same thing again in Ephesians 1:10. He says that God hath made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. That's a wonderful statement of it again, and we must never diminish this in any way whatsoever.

That is what's going to happen when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again into this world. Not only man, but the whole universe will be involved in what will happen. But to come to human beings, we've got to indicate that this is the thing which the world is so ignorant of. That to the world all this will mean condemnation and a committal to eternal punishment. The devil and all the fallen angels and all who've listened to them and been duped by them and who've served them rather than served God will be cast to everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. This is, of course, something that the world regards as monstrous, impossible, and ridiculous.

But this is the plain teaching of the Scripture. The Apostle Paul puts it in a terrifying manner in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, as I was saying just now in the first chapter. But it's quite plain and clear everywhere throughout the Scriptures. He says when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in them that believe in that day. The world knows nothing about this, and that's why it is as it is. That's why it lives as it does.

But our Lord taught the same thing. He talked about the place where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. It is he who said that there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It is he who spoke of Dives and Lazarus and pointed out that a great gulf is fixed and that if we belong to that section where Dives was, there is nothing to anticipate but terrible punishment. But listen to our Lord stating this in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew where, as I say, in his three parables he deals with this very issue. Our Lord is turning to those on his left hand and he says, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And he repeats it again: "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal."

If you believe the Scriptures, if you believe that these are the divinely inspired words of God himself given through men, this is the teaching of the entire Bible. The whole of the Bible is leading up to this. And it's inevitable, of course; otherwise, the devil has defeated God. This must be the end, and we are told quite plainly by the Lord himself and by his apostles, as we'd been previously told by the prophets who foresaw his coming and who generally fuse the first and the second comings, "the day of vengeance of our God." It's the plain teaching of the whole of the Scripture. But the thing I want to leave uppermost in your minds this evening is the consequences of this second coming and appearing of our blessed Lord and Savior to believers, to Christians.

Because that is after all what the Apostle is saying here. He's addressing members of the church. And while he reminds them that he's taught them about the general consequences of our Lord's coming and the consequences to unbelievers, he is particularly concerned about all this with respect to those who are believers. "You know," he says, "about this great day that is coming." Now what do we know about it? How does this become a motive for Christian holy living? You can divide it like this. What will be the effect of the Lord's coming again to judgment and to wind up the whole of salvation? What will be its effect upon believers? Is there anyone here, I wonder, who will be surprised when I say that one of its effects upon believers will be to judge us also?

It will involve us in a judgment. But let's be clear about this. Not a judgment in the sense that our salvation will be in question. It is what is called a judgment of rewards. Listen to the evidence. John in his first epistle in the second chapter, 28th verse puts it like this: "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." There it is. That when he shall appear we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. He doesn't say that we shall be lost when he comes. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus; that's settled.

But though you are saved, you may be ashamed at his coming. His coming will judge us. That's the motive that Paul is using as an argument. He says, "You know that he's coming. Very well, remember this: be careful that you're not ashamed when he comes." But let me give you another example of the same kind of teaching. In the first epistle to the Corinthians in the third chapter, Paul is dealing with the whole respective position of himself and Apollos. The silly people in Corinth had been putting one up against another. So he says, "We are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

"Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; listen, every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." That's a perfect statement of it. The question of our salvation is not involved. But what is involved is the question of our reward. It is possible for a man to suffer loss and all he's done to be useless. He himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

These are the things that we've got to bear in mind. This is of the very essence of Paul's argument to us. A judgment of our works, a judgment of rewards. And again, he repeats that in the second epistle to the Corinthians and in chapter 5, and beginning to read at verse 8: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." He's writing solely about Christians here. "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences."

There is no question about this. "Judgment," says Peter, "must begin at the house of God." And that is the sort of judgment that is going to begin in the house of God. The first thing we've got to realize about this second coming of the Lord as far as we are concerned is that it will judge us. I'm emphasizing this. I know many people who are very interested in the whole matter of the second coming; they regard themselves as experts on it and times and seasons. They never mention this. They couldn't talk so glibly about the other aspect if they really—this is the first thing to emphasize: that every one of us must appear before the judgment throne or judgment seat of Christ and give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. We are going to be judged. Not in the sense of salvation as the unbeliever, but in this sense of reward.

What else? It will mean that we shall see him, and see him as he is. Oh, that is the prospect awaiting us as Christian people. I go beyond that: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." But if you really want to know the fullness of this salvation, the thing to emphasize is that it involves the body as well as the spirit and the soul. Listen to Paul in Romans 8:11: "If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you." And in the 23rd verse he's talked about the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

The body is going to be redeemed. It is going to be glorified. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know this, that when he appears, we shall see him as he is, and we shall be like him." That's glorification. The entire man shall have been completely and perfectly redeemed. There will be no trace in any part of us—body, soul, or spirit—of the effects of the devil, the effects of sin, and of evil. All the works of the devil shall be taken out of us as from the whole cosmos, and we shall be perfect and entire without spot or wrinkle or any such thing in the presence of God. In addition to that, if this isn't a motive that works with us, whatever will? Not only will all this happen to us, but we shall be privileged to hear certain words uttered by God himself.

Listen to them in Matthew 25. Our Lord himself spoke these words. He's dealing with the second people to whom the Lord had given certain talents: "His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." He's talking about his future coming, and that's how he puts it. Take verse 33: "He shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left hand." No, let me take verse 23. "Lord said unto him," another servant, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Verse 34: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, listen to this: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Is there anything that can equal that? That you'll hear this great word uttered. The King shall say to them on his right hand, "Come, you blessed of my Father." This is the Lord speaking. "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." And finally, "the righteous shall go unto life eternal." These are but some of the things that await us who know these things. Let the Apostle himself put it again in that most moving statement he makes in his last epistle, second Timothy chapter 4: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing."

That's what we are looking forward to. These are the things we know: that we're going to receive a crown of righteousness from his blessed hands. We shall be crowned. The crowning day is coming by and by. Then, as Paul works out so gloriously in 1 Corinthians 13: "Now we know in part; then shall I know even as I am already known." Full knowledge, full understanding, full enjoyment, full unmixed, and evermore. The Apostle compresses all that and infinitely more into this brief statement of his that we are examining together: "Our salvation is nearer than when we believed." "The" salvation is nearer than when we believed. That's it. That's what he's talking about.

That's true of us. Here we are in the flesh tonight. That's what we're going on to. This is the motive, this is the appeal, this is the argument. My dear friends, do we know this? Are we living by this? Is this the grand motive in our lives? This is the Christian position. This is the thing by which we should live. This is the thing on which we should live. It's this that enables the Apostle to face all possibilities at the end of the eighth chapter of this great epistle to the Romans: lead a sheep to the slaughter, suffered and buffeted every day, but it doesn't matter. I know, I am persuaded, I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Or the grand leap which is made earlier on: "whom he justified, them he also glorified."

Are you living in the light of your glorification, of which I have reminded you this evening of some of the details? Do you know about "the" salvation? The day, that day, the day of the Lord, the day of the Son of God. His glorification finally, fully; ours also. And the devil and all that belong to him destroyed and banished forever and forever. May God by his Spirit through the Word bring these things to our knowledge in a living manner. O Lord our God, we pray thee to write them upon our minds and upon our very hearts, that our wills shall be governed by them.

We thank thee, O Lord, again for thy Word and for thy tenderness and kindness in revealing these blessed things to us. While we are yet in this world of time, that we may not only rejoice in the knowledge of what awaits us, but that we may feel the power and the influence of these things in our daily lives and living. O God, write them upon our minds and hearts. And now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us, now this night, throughout the remainder of this our short, uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, and until the day shall dawn, and he shall appear, and we shall see him as he is and be made like unto him. Amen.