Albert N. Martin

The more vital any aspect of truth is to the salvation and the edification of the souls of men, the more vicious will be the attacks which Satan makes upon that particular truth.

If the devil can move men to deny, to distort, or to discredit these central truths of the Word of God, he is filled with fiendish glee. This is precisely what he has done throughout the course of church history and continues to do, with respect to this foundational truth of the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the return of Jesus in power and glory at the end of the age. He is continually seeking to move men to deny, to distort, or to discredit this truth, because he knows that when it is held as a matter of faith and in its biblical balance it shakes many, many of the very pillars of His Kingdom.

However, we must not allow the distortions and abuses of the truth to cause us to shy away from that truth. Rather, we must be all the more determined to attain and maintain a solidly biblical and balanced understanding of such truths, and then to live in the light of them. According to Ephesians 4 that’s one of the cardinal marks of Christian maturity: that we are no longer tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but we become established in the truth, as the truth is in Jesus. I’ve already said that this is what the devil has sought to do, regarding the truth of the return of Christ.

So, for several weeks now, we have been considering together this subject: the return of Christ in New Testament belief and experience. In seeking to open up this subject from the Scriptures the first thing we did was to examine six passages in the New Testament which clearly demonstrate that eagerly awaiting and loving the return of Christ was an essential element in ordinary, New Testament, Christian experience.

We then sought to answer the question: why do true believers who are in a healthy spiritual state eagerly await and love the return of Christ? I set before you four strands of an answer to that pressing question. Then last Lord’s Day we began to address what I named as four major issues relative to the Lord’s return.

Before we turn to a number of passages and see how it has a motivational pressure upon every facet of the Christian life, I want us to be clear in our minds—as clear as the Bible allows us to be—with respect to some of the fundamental issues pertaining to the Lord’s return.

We looked at several of those issues last Lord’s Day. As to the event of the Lord’s return, we saw that it is certain. The dogmatic assertion of the angels in Acts 1:11 (that we read again this morning) “This same Jesus shall so come in like manner,” that dogmatic assertion is echoed again and again throughout the entirety of the New Testament.

Secondly, as to the place of the Lord’s return in redemptive history, we saw that it is central and climactic. All that God has done and is presently doing in redemptive grace and judgment, and everything that He will yet do finds its culmination in the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. The other side of Christ’s Coming is eternity. The outworking of all that came to consummation at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power and in glory.

Thirdly, as to the time of the Lord’s return, we saw that to us it is always imminent, indefinite, and unknowable. The words of Jesus have timeless relevance to His people. “Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.”

Then we began to take up a fourth category of concern. The event, it’s certain; its placed in redemptive history, central and climactic; its time, imminent but unknown and unknowable to us; fourthly: as to the events connected with the Lord’s Return, they are clearly revealed and manifold.

I tried to illustrate this principle by comparing 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 with 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11; the same man, writing to the same church, speaking of the same Second Coming. In the first passage you wouldn’t even know that the wicked are even considered in His Second Coming. All the focus is about what He’s going to do with His own, whereas in the 2 Thessalonians passage he mentions obliquely and by way of assigned reference “our gathering together unto Him,” but the focus is on what He’s going to do with the man of sin and all who are deceived by him. So you would think, “Well, the Coming is primarily judgment upon the man of sin and the wicked!” Well you see, there’s the principle: there were specific, pastoral concerns that needed to be highlighted, and Paul picked off one of the greats in one passage, he picked up another with the other, but it’s the same return of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we began to look at the ingredients of the first slice. What will Christ do with His own at His return, and we had time only to open up this one glorious strand of biblical truth: all who are truly in Christ, whether dead or alive, shall at the Coming of Christ be fully conformed to the image of Christ , forever to be with Christ. That’s what He’s going to do with His own, and we saw this clearly established in: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, Philippians 3:20 and 21, 1 Corinthians 15:35, 42-49, verse 52 and following, 1 John 3:1-2. That will be our glorification.

Now we come to the second thing that Christ will do with His own at His return. This is what He will do— (please don’t be turned off, it’s a long sentence, but then we’re going to break it down; I want you to have, when we’re done, a comprehensive picture of the events connected with the Lord’s return that are clearly revealed, but also manifold.) At the return of Christ all who are truly in Christ shall be brought to the judgment seat of Christ in order to be openly identified, vindicated, and confessed by Christ, and to receive the rewards of grace from Christ.

Now, everything under this heading focuses on the issue of believers appearing at the judgment seat of Christ. Because some have made and artificial distinction between what they call “the Bema of Christ, the Bema Seat (it should be pronounced—in the Erasmian pronunciation, it’s an eta—the Bema of Christ), they have made a distinction between the judgment seat of Christ and they say, “That’s the award place; that has nothing to do with the judgment of the great, white throne, the judgment of the nations.” There is a Bema Seat of Christ, with a little tinge of apparent knowledge we are told that that is fundamentally different from the judgment seat of God. Well, if any of you have heard that, sooner or later you may, I want to give you the biblical stuff to show that that has absolutely no foundation in the Scriptures.

Look at Romans chapter 14 with me. Paul is here dealing with believers, and believers who have a different conscience about what they can and cannot do in matters not strictly commanded or forbidden by the Word of God, matters indifferent, as we call them. On the one hand he’s telling those who can indulge in certain things not to look down their snoot at these who have a more tender conscience about those matters, and he’s telling those who are in that position not to judge those who can do what they can’t do. Now, he’s going to bring that exhortation to a focus point, and notice what he says in verse 10 of Romans 14:

“But you, why do you judge your brother?.” That’s the weak man judging the strong. “Or again, why do you set it nought [or despise] your brother?” That’s what the strong were doing with the weak.

He says: you’re both wrong! You fellas that can’t do certain things just because you can’t, you think that everyone else is sinning. Stop it! You’re playing judge. And you who look down on your snoot who can do certain things that they can’t do, stop despising them as though they’re a bunch of silly, weak-minded people. Stop it, both of you! Stop it. Stop it; enough is enough already!

Notice what he says in that context: “Why do you do this? For we shall all stand before the [Bema Seat] of God. For it is written, ‘As I live— [quoting from Isaiah 45:23] saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each one of us shall give an account of himself to God.”

Here he says: Stop this mutual judging, because each one of us—believers, he’s not talking about unbelievers—each one of us shall stand before the Bema seat of God, the tribunal of God in fulfillment of God’s Word in Isaiah 45, verse 23, and there each one of us shall give account of himself to God!

Bible References: Romans 14:10-12; Isaiah 45:23