"O you that tell good tidings to Zion, get up into the high mountain; O you that tell good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:9-11,RV) "You Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no wise least among the princes of Judah: for out of you shall come forth a Governor, which shall be shepherd of my people Israel." (Matthew 2:6,RV) "I am the good Shepherd: the good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. ... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (John 10:11,27-28) "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation 22:12) "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works." (Matthew 16:27) "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, 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." (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8) "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." (Psalm 50:3-5) "God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had bright beams coming out of His side [margin]: and there was the hiding of His power. Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet. He stood and measured the earth: He beheld and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: His ways are everlasting. ... The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; at the light of your arrows they went, and at the shining of your glittering spear. You marched through the land in indignation, You threshed the heathen in anger. You went forth for the salvation of your people, even for salvation with your anointed." (Habakkuk 3:3-6,11-13) "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 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 Thessalonians 4:16-18) "Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:51-53) "Our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself." (Philippians 3:20-21,RV/KJV) "Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:3-4) "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24) "For thus says the Lord God: Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day he is among the sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country." (Ezekiel 34:11-13)
Second Advent in the Gospel Plan
The preaching of the second coming of Christ, in glory, is as much a part of the preaching of the Gospel--the good news--as is the preaching of the cross of Calvary. In fact, the preaching of the cross is not complete without the preaching of the second advent.
Nothing so awful as the coming of the Lord to judgment has ever taken place on this earth. The earth will quake, and be removed like a cottage, the heavens will depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, every mountain and island will be moved out of their places, and: "The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the caves, And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Revelation 6:15-17)
Yet the announcement of the coming of that great day is part of the message of comfort which God sends to His people. How marvelous is the comfort of God, when even the most terrible judgments are comfort! The comfort is that Christ is coming to save His people. The prophet Habakkuk, to whom a view of the terrors of the last day were given, said, "You went forth for the salvation of your people." (Habakkuk 3:13) "Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with him, and His work before Him." (Isaiah 40:10)
When the hearts of the people grow fearful, and the knees tremble, and the hands hang down, the Lord tell us to strengthen them with the words, "Your God will come with vengeance." (Isaiah 35:4)
The coming of Christ is the "blessed hope" of the Gospel. (Titus 2:13) When He shall come, His saints will say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." (Isaiah 25:9)
The announcement of the coming of the Lord is the same comfort as the announcement of the pardon of sins. Whoever preaches the remission of sins, does it only partially if he does not preach the coming of the Lord in glory. The texts quoted in this lesson shows this.
The Crowning Work of Salvation
"He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:11)
Jesus Christ is the good Shepherd. He is "the Chief Shepherd." (1 Peter 5:4)
He came to earth for the purpose of seeking His lost sheep, and He seeks them out, and saves them by giving His life for theirs. On the cross He suffered all the agonies of the lost: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)
He endured everything that men would have been obliged to endure if He had not come, and that the rejecters of Him will have to endure at the last. He took all on himself, in order to save men. The terrors of the last day, the day of Judgment, were present in full on Calvary. Even so the blessedness and joy of Calvary will be present at the coming of the Lord the second time, in glory.
It is only by the power of the cross that Jesus will come again. He will be seen coming in the clouds of heaven "with power and great glory," (Matthew 24:30) but that will be but the power and glory of the cross. The fire that devours before Him will come from the pierced side. "God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had bright beams coming out of His side: and there was the hiding of His power." (Habakkuk 3:3-4,margin)
From the side whence flowed the healing stream of life, comes the power to render to the wicked according to their deeds. The power manifested at the coming of the Lord is the power of salvation; it is the power by which Jesus now saves His people from the hand of the enemy. "His mercy endures for ever." (Psalm 136:1)
In wrath He remembers mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2) The waters that will overflow the hiding place of the wicked, will be the waters of salvation that flow from the wounded side of Jesus. "He will swallow up death in victory," (Isaiah 25:8) and then those who have made a covenant with death, seeking to hide in its shadow, must necessarily be swallowed up with it. "Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it." (Isaiah 28:16-18)
So although the last day will be the most terrible, it will contain nothing but joy for those who have accepted the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Do not the righteous joy in the cross of Christ?
Is it not the one thing in which to glory? "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Galatians 6:14)
Yet the crucifixion of Christ was a most terrible event, and all the terrors of the wrath of God raged round the cross where Christ died. But for His death on the cross, the Son of man would not have the power to sit in judgment and to execute judgment on the ungodly.
From Bethlehem comes the Governor that is to be the Shepherd of Israel. (Matthew 2:6) He rules His people as a shepherd rules his flock. He feeds them, and the food that He gives them is himself. (John 6:53-58) He gives himself for the sheep. "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep." (John 10:11)
When the Lord comes, it will be at a time when the wicked will have gathered to make an end of the righteous ones on the earth. A decree will have gone forth that whosoever will not worship the beast or his image, shall be killed. "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." (Revelation 13:15)
Just at the moment when Satan has stirred up all the forces of evil against the just, and to all human sight it looks as though the righteous were to be cut off from the earth, Christ will appear to save them. "Now also many nations are gathered against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel: for He shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor." (Micah 4:11-12)
It will be but the crowning act in the great drama of the cross. It will be the demonstration to the whole earth that Christ is the Saviour. Then those who have rejected Him, and have mocked at His offers of salvation, will be forced to acknowledge that Jesus saves. But the present comfort to the people of God lies in the fact that all that great power to salvation is theirs now. It is all in the cross.
Mighty to Save
He comes with strong hand, as a Mighty One. "Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him." (Isaiah 40:10)
But it is that same arm with which He gathers the lambs of the flock. "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those who are with young." (Isaiah 40:11)
He is gentle, because He is strong. His strength to destroy the wolves and lions that would devour the flock, is His power to feed the flock, and to make the sheep lie down in green pastures. (Psalm 23:2) Strange that so many preachers of the Gospel have so little to say about the coming of the Lord, which contains so much comfort for the people of God!
There is in this lesson valuable instruction as to the return of Israel. Jesus is the Shepherd of Israel, and when He comes the second time, "with power and great glory," (Matthew 24:30)--He comes as a Shepherd. It is then that He will gather together all His people,--the flock that has been scattered and torn, "and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers." (Ezekiel 34:13)
When He was here the first time, He said that He had come to seek and to save that which was lost, (Luke 19:10) and He also declared that He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; (Matthew 15:24) they were the ones whom He came to seek and to save. But everybody knows that there has not yet been any gathering of Israel. The lost sheep have not yet been gathered together into their own land. Moreover He himself tells us that it will be when He comes the second time that He will say, "Gather my saints together unto me." (Psalm 50:5)
It is then that He will gather out His sheep from all the lands whither they have been scattered. (Compare Ezekiel 34 and Matthew 24:30) Then there shall be one fold and one Shepherd. (Ezekiel 34:22-31; John 10:16) That fold will be the fold of Israel, for all the saved will constitute the Israel of God. "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Romans 11:26)
The Comfort of the Gospel
The Apostle Paul describes the coming of the Lord in glory, when the dead shall be raised, and the living caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, thus ever to be with Him, and says, "Comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
This is comfort for those who mourn departed friends, who have been laid in the dark grave. They need not sorrow as those who have no hope, for "the righteous has hope in his death." (Proverbs 14:32)
But this is not all the comfort that there is in this announcement. It is the same comfort that the Lord in the 40th chapter of Isaiah tells His servants to give to His people. It is the comfort of the Gospel of salvation from sin.
Notice: When Christ comes with the sound of the trump of God, all the saints of God, both sleeping and waking, will be changed. In the twinkling of an eye the change from mortality to immortality, from corruptible to incorruptibility, will take place. All will then be given bodies incapable of disease and decay. What a wonderful change that will be! But mark: This change of our bodies is "According to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto himself." (Philippians 3:21)
We are rebellious by nature, and our minds are not subject to the law of God, "neither indeed can be." (Romans 8:7)
But He is able to change our minds, giving us a new mind, and a new nature, so that we shall be subject to Him, and shall delight in the law of the Lord; and His power to do this is according to the power by which He will at the last change our bodies from corruption to incorruption. And note that this change will take place "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." (1 Corinthians 15:52)
The Lord is able to do marvelous things in a very short time. Therefore we may know that if we are but willing, He can in an instant effect this wonderful change in our natures.
Is it not worthwhile to have a belief in the resurrection of the dead? Is there not great comfort in the knowledge of the coming of the Lord? All this shall take place as surely as "the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." (Isaiah 40:5)
Therefore, "be not afraid." (Isaiah 40:9)--Present Truth, September 14, 1899--Isaiah 40:9-11.