Christ’s coming – Jacob Kevlighan – Korea – May 26, 1997

In Luke’s Gospel, chapter 17, beginning with verse 22, we read of things Jesus talked to His disciples about, “The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and ye shall not see it.” That told them they were going to see difficult times.  The days will come when they would wish for the Lord’s return.
I don’t think too many here have exactly got there yet, but things got so difficult, and the world got so evil, they wished for the Lord’s return.  But He said, “You shall not see it in your day.   He said, “They will desire to see ONE of the days of the Son of Man.
The Bible teaches us there are two days of the coming of the Son of Man.  The first is when He comes for His Own, to take them away from what is going to fall upon this old earth.  The next day is when He returns with His own and His angels to reign here.
There is a great contrast between those two days.  The first day will come like a thief in the night, and it will happen like lightning; it will happen at a time when they think not!  The thief doesn’t send out signs and signals that he is coming.  Jesus said it would be like that, His first coming.
He gives them many warnings so they would not be caught unaware.
But then the Second Coming, when He comes with His own and with His angels, all the world will know when He is coming.  There will be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and men so aware that their hearts would be failing them for fear, and they would be calling on the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them.  That is a great difference to coming as a thief in the night.
He said, “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.” In one sense that is a great consolation. I have heard different people say, “The world is worse today than ever it was”, but that is not true.  Jesus said in the day of His return “As it was in Noah’s day, so it would be.” That is a consolation in this sense: that it tells us we have assurance that the God that kept them, in those times in the past, will keep us in the future.
You could not make the world any worse than it was in those days.  It had reached the limit, because it says, “The world was filled with violence.”  When something is full, it will not hold any more.  It says, “Every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually.”  You cannot make it any worse; that is the limit!
Jesus said it is going to be just like that when He comes.  It is heading that way pretty fast.  With all the evil these computers are going to bring into people’s homes, it is not going to take long to accomplish that.  But the God that kept those people in Noah’s day, and the God that kept His family, can keep His people still.
He said as it was in Lot’s day, so it will be then. Verse 28, “As it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went OUT of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
Then He went on to say some other things.  “In that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.  Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
I remember one day it dawned on me what that suggests. That suggests to us that the Lord won’t come on Sunday, the first day of the week, because two men would not be working in the field on the Lord’s Day; two women would not be grinding in the mill on the Lord’s Day!
It would be nice if He did come on the Lord’s Day! Maybe we would be in a better condition, but He suggested most people would be found at their worst!  They would be taken from their work.  He talked about three different parts: the one part in their bed, the other two parts at their work.
We know that at any given moment there are some parts of the world in bed; it is night for example, right now. Most parts of Europe are in their bed, and the British Isles are in their bed, and a given part of the Americas, in North, Central and South America, quite a number of them are in bed right now, because it is nighttime there now. At any moment that is the situation.
Jesus said some would be taken from their bed, and some would be taken from their work, and then as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, others would be taken from the grave, or rather that the graves of the dead in Christ, first of all would be opened. “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.” When the dead are raised up in the air, then the living would be taken to be with Him.
Now that is going to be a very real identification of the Lord with His people – the Lord taking His people out of the world and showing to all the world that “they are Mine”.  You think of those three men in Daniel’s day who were cast into the fiery furnace and the king saw a fourth, like the Son of God with them.  He showed clearly that those three were His.  He was not ashamed to be seen with them.
Many years later, Daniel, as an old man, his turn came.  That was in another empire in the days of another king.  He was thrown into the den of lions, and the king came trembling in the morning and asked, “Is thy God whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee?” Daniel said, “Yes, He sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths”. He said the reason for that was “because before God I have done no evil, and also before thee, Oh King, I am blameless”. God was not ashamed to be identified with Daniel.
Now we think of Christ coming to claim His own.  It would be a very real identification with them, just like in those days.  As the New Testament teaches us, God’s people need to be harmless and blameless as the Sons of God.  Think of God taking somebody from their workplace.  They are there at their work desk and the next minute they disappear.  The manager, the director and the people in the workplace are wondering what has happened.
Slowly they get to understand the Lord has taken His people out of the world.  Individuals are missing in the world here and there.  Certain graves in the cemeteries are opened, and then they realize the Son of God has come.  What kind of person need they have been?  You know if that person had not been working honestly in his work place, and if those that worked with him would say, “I knew that person. Let me tell you something; he worked very well when the manager was around, but when he was not there it was a different story!”  Do you think God could identify Himself with that?
If somebody was working for the public construction contractor or somebody else, and he was taken, and some of his customers had some bad experience with his work, that he overcharged them, or he promised to put certain materials into the work and they discovered very inferior materials had been used, do you think God could identify Himself with that?
If somebody was taken away from their business and one of his partners came in and discovered that the books are irregular and things that should have been declared were not declared, and they discovered it, do you think that God could identify Himself with a person like that?
You know you can keep those things hidden from friends, or from workers, but on that day nothing will be hidden.
People are taken away from their homes and the neighbours and the authorities come in and they find things in their homes that don’t belong to a child of God – a small TV hidden there, some magazines and books that don’t belong to the children of God!  The neighbours say, “They profess to be Christians, but look what is here!  Do you think our God, our Holy Righteous God, would identify Himself with that?
Paul and Peter and the writers of the New Testament admonished God’s people to be holy and harmless, pure and blameless in this evil world.  Peter used an expression, “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.  Wherefore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless!”
The same thing would apply whether we are alive that day or whether we are in the grave.
The graves would be opened and the dead in Christ would arise first, it says.  Generally, people about the area would know who would be buried in the graves; it is often on the tombstone and it is always recorded.  It is not that the Lord wants anything of the grave, because all that goes into the grave is what belongs to this earth.  It returns to the earth.
It is a human body and a human nature – all that was human goes back to the earth from whence it came. The Creator does not want anything out of the grave, but He is letting the world know that there is resurrection as the Bible taught, and that Christ, as He promised, has come back for His people, and He is letting them know that they are not alone, those who were taken out of the grave, the Lord showing that they were “Mine”.
But what manner of people would they need to have been in their lifetime for that?  They would also have needed to live blameless and spotless and harmless in this world, and to have left a testimony that God would not be ashamed of.
Jesus showed us there would be many who would miss it.
Jesus talked about the problem of the young virgins in Matthew 25:1.  He said, “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.  And five of them were wise and five were foolish”. He is talking about the same mixture.  Some are taken, others are left.  They had the same home life, living in the home; they had the same struggles and problems.  Two grinding at the mill – the same work life with its problems and difficulties.  Two working in the field – they have the same work life too, but in each case one is taken and the other left.
Some people say that is suggesting a lot, but that is what Jesus said.
I was thinking of the messages that came to the seven churches in Asia, and maybe you can read those messages again.  You begin to think, if the Lord had returned at that time, what would the situation have been?  Do you think it would have been five wise and five foolish?  If you read those messages, it would seem like there would be three wise and seven foolish!
But there were some soul-saving messages that came from Heaven.  The Christ that promised to return for them was interested in them; He was interested in helping them.  He could see they were going astray and were going to miss it, and He sent His judgments and His corrections, as we heard.  We don’t read the results of those messages.  It would be interesting to know how many had ears to hear and how many paid attention, how many made the corrections that were necessary.
If He had come at that time, it would have been less than five among the ten!
But you can see the kindness and interest of our Saviour looking down on them and sending them messages that were so important for their salvation.  We know the first message that we heard in the Gospel was very important for the salvation of our soul, but there have been messages I have heard during the years, and they were also soul-saving messages, and those messages that came to the seven churches were soul-saving messages.
John was to send them to the seven churches.  We read he addressed them to the seven churches.
I remember an old couple, a brother and sister, many years ago; they were old, but they had professed when they were young.  She had been a school teacher in her day and she knew her Bible very well, but later in life she became blind, and her brother used to read the Bible to her every day.  She would correct him if he read a word wrong.  She had a good memory of the Bible.
But the time came when they did not feel their need of coming along to the meetings any more.  They talked continually of the first mission they attended and the first messages they heard, and they were quite satisfied they had met Truth and entered into the Truth, and they felt all they needed to do now was to continue reading and praying at home.
When you think of those messages that were sent to the seven churches, maybe if there was somebody like them, not attending the meetings, they would never have heard those messages, and those messages were vital, vitally important.  That is God’s plan. To attend meetings is God’s plan and it is in the interest of our soul.
Well, Jesus talked about different things here.  He talked about the days of Noah, in verses 26 and 27, and in the next verses, 28 and 29, He talks about the days of Lot.  He talks about “THEY”.  In the days of Noah, they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage. Who was He talking about?  That is a very different description to the description we get of the people of the world in those days in Genesis.
I don’t think Jesus was trying to describe the same people.  In Genesis 6, we read that the earth was filled with violence, and their every imagination was evil continually, and they had corrupted God’s way upon the earth.  Jesus is talking to His disciples and He is talking about those who ate and drank and married and were given in marriage.  He is giving those disciples a warning, but He is talking about a different group here, and there was another group we read of in Genesis 6.
They are referred to as the sons of God but it says they got their eyes on the daughters of men, and they married those whom they chose.  It doesn’t say anything worse about them than that, and Jesus didn’t lay any charge worse than that against them either, but they were not in the ark!
They were an example of the foolish!  They were so busy with social life and family life and they had no time for anything else.  They seemed to think it was alright for Noah to build the ark, but not necessary for them to be concerned about it.
In the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded!  They were totally legal and lawful things.
Who were they? It is obvious it was not the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, but there were another group of people in Sodom and Gomorrah.  Remember Abraham pleaded for a group of people there.  He began with 50, didn’t he?  He continued reducing that number till he got to ten, then he was satisfied.  Surely there were ten there serving God!  But finally there were only three who came out.  What happened to the rest?
I think Jesus is referring to that group.  He was warning His disciples lest the same thing would happen to them – just taken up with the lawful, legal side of life to such an extent that they missed the purpose of life.
Jesus clarified that even further in Matthew 25.  He talked about the five foolish and what He will say to them.  He didn’t say there was anything illegal about them either!  The only charge He laid against them was, “I know you not!”
And they were numbered among the wise when they all came.  I remember a young friend of ours speaking in a meeting many years ago.  He said he had been reading that portion of Scripture during the week.  He said the way it appealed to him was this:  He said, “It seems the five wise were friends of the Bridegroom, but the five foolish were just friends of the friends”.  I never forgot that, because that is just how it was.  They were satisfied because they were in the right fellowship.  They were amongst the right people and going to the meetings with the right people, with God’s people, but they didn’t have a relationship with the Bridegroom.
It is obvious those sons of God didn’t have a relationship with God like Noah had!  And the same thing with those in Sodom – they allowed the lawful things of life to rob them of their communication and fellowship with their Bridegroom.  You think of a young couple thinking of getting married and the bridegroom observing that the intended bride is very happy to have communication with his family but not happy to have communication with him!  That would not be very satisfactory, would it?
Jesus said about the foolish, “I know you not”.  Jesus gave His disciples many warnings.
Jesus had come down from Heaven to be our Saviour and die for us and He rose again, and He is going back to intercede for us.  He could have appointed one or two angels to do that too, to intercede, but He is interceding personally.  He is continuing to take a personal interest in our salvation.
We see His personal interest in those seven messages that John was given to give to the angel of the seven churches – a little glimpse of His activity on our behalf behind the curtain, and He is coming back personally to collect His own.  He could have left the angels to do that but He has personal interest right to the finish in those that He died to save.
He gave them a little advice, “Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye might be accounted worthy to escape these things.”  There is the secret.  Praying is continual communication with Him.
I know many treat prayer as a kind of remedy, something especially for when you get into difficulties and you want to pray, when you are having problems you can’t handle, you go to pray, but Jesus told us prayer is not a remedy, it is for a preventative.  He told His disciples to “rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”
That was not a solution or a remedy for temptation; it was a preventative. It’s like when people clean their teeth every day, once, twice, three times – that is not a remedy; that is for prevention and they do that continually and faithfully.  Their teeth may be perfect and not a sign of any problem, but they are brushing their teeth for prevention; that is the way Jesus taught about prayer.
We can avoid or escape many things if we are faithful in prayer.
He also said, “Men ought always to pray and not to faint.” Isaiah taught the same thing – that again for prevention.  I like the way Isaiah said, “They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
We think of prayers as talking, talking, talking, asking and asking from God.  If you had the privilege of being in the presence of a king or the presence of a president, how would you behave?  Would you start talking the minute you entered his presence and keep on talking, talking, and talking and then say, “Excuse me, I have to catch a bus.”  I think you would be sitting very quietly, waiting to hear what he has to say.
You know these prayers Jesus taught were very short.  Even John 17, – that whole chapter is a prayer – you can read it in three minutes without any pressure. What an example prayer, and what we call the Lord’s prayer is less than two minutes!  We have needs, but our God knows our needs better than we do.
Prayer is waiting on God to change our attitude, our thoughts and our spirits.
Paul wrote in Romans 12 about presenting ourselves before Him and transforming ourselves by the renewing of our mind.  It is nice when we wait till we can get the door shut, till we find our attitude and our thoughts change.  That is when we are getting somewhere.
Jesus said to “Watch and pray always”.  There is a lot to watch, but the best place of all to watch is to watch our thoughts!  When a nation is afraid of the enemy entering the land, do you know what they watch?  They watch at the point of entry, to catch them on the way in before they get in.
If we watch at the point of entry, if we keep watch on our thoughts, we won’t have a problem with our words; we won’t have a problem with our actions; we won’t have a problem with our feet.
There are many things we are taught to watch!