Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: Peter prophesied that in the last days, scoffers will say, "Where is the promise of Christ's coming?" Is this prophecy being fulfilled in our generation? We'll talk about it today, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom, and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello. Today we're talking about the promise of His coming with our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you. It's good to have you with us today, listening friend, as we continue our series on the promise of His coming. They say, and I think it's true, that the test of orthodoxy is what you believe about the first coming of Christ, and the test of spirituality is what you believe about the second coming of Christ.

Think about it. If a church or denomination is right in what it believes about the first coming of Christ, then we call it orthodox, or evangelical, or fundamental. Any church that confesses the deity and virgin birth of Jesus Christ, His substitutionary atonement, His bodily resurrection on the third day, and His ascension back to heaven is orthodox. And some people think, well, if I'm orthodox, that's all that matters.

The problem with that is that the devil himself is orthodox. Satan believes in all of the fundamentals of the faith. Because orthodoxy is not the same as spirituality. Are you with me? Just having an orthodox creed is not enough. I know churches that are as sound as the Rock of Gibraltar when it comes to their creed, but they're as cold and dead as can be.

I preached in a church a few years ago that had a doctrinal statement longer than your arm. I mean, it covered Christology, soteriology, pneumatology, bibliology, you name it. They had ologies in there I'd never even heard of. They were extremely orthodox. But do you know what happened? Some people came to Christ and wanted to be baptized. They had a beautiful baptistery. There was only one thing wrong: they had never hooked it up. The plumbing wasn't hooked up in the baptistery because it had been so many years since anyone had been saved in that church. They had to get the deacons in there on Sunday afternoon to put in the plumbing.

You see, there's something wrong in a church fellowship where no one is coming to Christ. In the scientific realm, in botany and biology, they tell us that one of the signs of a healthy organism is the ability to reproduce. If a plant or animal cannot reproduce itself, something is wrong. The classic example is the mule. He's a hybrid between a donkey and a horse, and he's sterile. A lot of hybrid plants are sterile, which means they die out after one generation. And in the church of Jesus Christ, something is wrong if we don't reproduce.

Now, there may be a lot going on in the church. It may be Weight Watchers on Monday night, a support group on Tuesday night, the Boy Scouts on Wednesday night, the Red Cross blood drive on Thursday night, and a square dance on Friday night. You might have potluck suppers, bake sales, raffles, Mother's Day out, and Saturday night bingo. But don't make the mistake of confusing activity for spirituality. Your church can have all kinds of activity going on and still be as spiritually dead as a doornail. I know churches where they recite the Westminster Catechism every Sunday—one of the finest doctrinal statements ever devised—but then they go out and live like the heathen the rest of the week.

You say, "Preacher, I don't like the way you talk." Well, I don't like the way you live, so I guess we're even. You see, we need more than just orthodoxy. We also need spirituality. And just as the test of orthodoxy is what do you believe about the first coming, even so the test of spirituality is what do you believe about the second coming. And isn't it interesting that as you look across the landscape of this country, the churches that are reaching people for Jesus Christ are almost without exception churches that believe in the personal, visible, premillennial second coming of Jesus Christ.

Go into any major city—Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Phoenix, Dallas, Charlotte, or here in San Antonio—any other major city, and the largest churches that are really making an impact for Jesus Christ are churches that believe in the imminent, personal, visible, premillennial second coming of Jesus Christ. We may differ on some of the details of the second coming. You may be pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath, post-wrath, or whatever. The important thing is that we agree that He's coming back, and that there will be a Messianic age during which the Messiah will rule from the throne of His father David in Jerusalem.

So again, we say, it is virtually impossible to overemphasize the importance of the second coming. It is His promise to the church. In fact, the first promise God made to mankind after the fall was about Christ's coming. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, the Lord said, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." But only half of that prophecy has been fulfilled. The prediction that the seed of the woman would have His heel bruised was fulfilled at Calvary 2,000 years ago. But the final bruising of Satan's head under the bruised heel of the Messiah is still a future event and awaits His second coming.

And as the first promise in the Bible is concerning His coming, so the last promise in the Bible concerns His coming. Listen to it again: Revelation 22:20, "He which testifieth these things saith, 'Surely I come quickly.'" And that word for "quickly" has the idea of speedily or suddenly. In other words, once the prophetic events of the Book of Revelation are set in motion, everything will unfold with absolute precision and with no delay. We're already beginning to see how quickly things can change in this world.

The world in our generation has gone through monumental changes: the emergence of a United States of Europe, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and now Russia is talking about the possibility of reverting to a monarchy like it was under the czars 100 years ago. Maybe Gog in Ezekiel 38 will be a future Russian czar. Then there's the unification of Germany, something else a lot of people didn't think we'd see in our lifetime. And now NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, is the first step toward US participation in a global economy and eventually a world government. Already, for the first time in our 200-year history, we have US servicemen serving under United Nations commanders in places like Somalia. Again, it's a harbinger of the world government that the Bible says will be in place by the middle of the Tribulation period.

What I'm trying to get you to see is how quickly and unexpectedly things can happen. Sometimes you feel like your head is spinning because so many things are happening in such a short span of time, it's hard to process it all. That's why Jesus said, "Surely I come quickly." That's the last promise in the Bible. And by the way, the last prayer in the Bible is also about His coming. Here it is: Revelation 22:20, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." So the first promise of the Bible is about His coming and the last promise of the Bible is about His coming.

And in between those two promises is a mass of prophecy and prophetic teaching concerning this great event. There are 22 times more verses in the Old Testament that speak of the second coming than there are that speak of His first coming. In the New Testament, there are 422 direct references to Christ's return to this earth. One whole book, the Book of Revelation, concerns His coming again and events associated with it. The second coming of Christ is the consummation of all that occurred at His first coming. It is the justification of Calvary, the vindication of His humiliation and death, the verification of His infallible word, and the greatest incentive to revival and world evangelism.

But there is yet another benefit of preaching and teaching about the second coming of Jesus Christ, and that is it begets holiness in the lives of God's people. Let me show you something in 1 John chapter 3, beginning in verse 2. Here's what it says. It says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear"—that is, at His second coming—"we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." Now look at this: verse 3, "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he"—that is, even as Christ—"is pure."

You see, if you have this hope in you, the hope of Christ's imminent coming for His church, then it will purify you. How? By holding you accountable. You can't live in sin and disobedience if you really believe you may stand before Christ before the day is over. Let me tell you something. Any preacher who gets caught cavorting with prostitutes doesn't really believe in the imminent coming of Christ. Because if he did, he wouldn't be doing it. And that professing Christian businessman who gets involved in a shady transaction doesn't really believe in the imminent coming of Jesus Christ, because if he did, he'd be afraid to do something like that.

Any professing Christian who cheats on his taxes, or steals from his employer, or cheats on his wife doesn't really believe in the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ. Little wonder then, that as the church has begun to surrender her conviction that Christ is returning—imminently, bodily, literally, and visibly—the church has at the same time begun to surrender her commitment to holiness. Look at the immorality that has engulfed the church in our generation. Listen to what Paul said in Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 13.

He said, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Listen to me, my friend. The blessed hope is a purifying hope. If we really believe Jesus is coming back, we will get serious about confessing our sins. We'll get right with God and with each other. We'll start investing in the place where moth and rust do not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. We'll have a greater interest in preparing our heavenly home than in preparing an earthly home, as though we think we'll live there forever.

Well, we're out of time. We'll continue looking at the promise of His coming on the next program. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you. Take care. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary, and thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. If you liked what you heard today, you'll be pleased to know we've taken all of the programs in this series and placed them on one convenient CD entitled "The Promise of His Coming," and it's yours for a gift of just $6 or more to Messianic Perspectives. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order.

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