Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Relevance of the*

*Second Coming of Christ*

/2nd Peter 1:16/

               

 

September 9, 2007 – PM

Sun Oak Baptist Church

 

 

*Introduction*

 

          A.

Please turn with me to 2nd Peter 1:16.

As we turn once more to this verse, I would remind you that it refers essentially to the Second Coming of our Lord and to our Lord’s First Coming.

*Read 1:16.*

What I want to do tonight is to show the relevance of the Second Coming of Christ.

Peter called attention to this doctrine, the amount of time he spends on it suggests that it is this, the Second Coming that is perhaps the one thing above all others that is going to strengthen and comfort and help the people to whom he wrote.

If one-third of a dying mans words are devoted to this doctrine we can be pretty sure it has bearing on our lives today.

B.

Understand that in the days in which we live there are large numbers of people both outside the church and inside the church as well who are greatly troubled as they look upon this modern world in which we live.

And the people Peter was writing to were troubled as well – and the Second Coming has relevance to all of this.

There are people troubled today because they think the Gospel has failed.

After all:  the world is getting worse and worse – not better.

The first Christians were troubled because they thought that the Gospel was going to conquer the world in a very few years, that the Lord would return immediately and all would be well.

And when these things did not happen they began to say:  “Is this faith after all what we thought it was; is it miraculous and supernatural, is it, after all, the power of God?”

 

                   Or, as one well-known evangelical put it:  “Has the Gospel failed?

Has the Christian church failed?

Is there anything in the Gospel after all?

The state of the world as it is, and the things that appear on the horizon, are thus tending at the present time to shake the faith of many and to keep many entirely outside the Christian faith.”

C.

So what is the answer of the New Testament to that kind of attitude?

What does it have to say to that position?

I want to show us tonight that the answer is the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ.

The New Testament answer to all the difficulty and to all the trouble in the world today is ultimately the Second Coming.

How do we apply the doctrine of the Second Coming to our lives today?

What is its relevance?

What I want to do tonight is to focus on some principles, to state and remind us about some key Biblical truths that the doctrine of the Second Coming absolutely reinforces.

* *

*I.

First of all:  the doctrine of the Second Coming confirms that there is a plan of salvation.*

The truth concerning the Second Coming confirms absolutely and positively that there is a plan of salvation.

A.

The plan is outlined in the New Testament.

1.       Turn to Eph. 2:8.

The New Testament, indeed the whole Bible, makes it very plain and clear in eternity past God mapped out a plan of salvation for this world.

The New Testament tells us that before man was ever made, and before man ever fell – God had planned the salvation of the world.

God sees the end from the beginning.

*Read 2:8-10.*

2.

All things are open before the sight of God.

The Bible constantly repeats and reiterates this grand fact:  God, having seen the end from the beginning, and all things being entire and plain and open to His sight, planned before time began that at a given point and place He would create the world; He would create man; He foresaw that the Fall would take place; He knew man would listen to the suggestion of Satan; and that then He, God, would begin the process of salvation.

B.

The plan is outlined in the Old Testament.

1.

When it comes to the airline view of the OT we can see the calling of Abraham at a given point; of the creating of the nation of Israel; and of how the nation was led down to Egypt.

That seemed to be the end of everything, but God called them out and took them into the Promised Land.

We then see the different experiences and stages of history through which they passed in that land.

2.

As we read the Old Testament, if we didn’t know the New Testament, it’s quite possible to be cast into the depths of despair.

The children of Israel constantly failed.

They were carried away captive, but God intervened and they were brought back again – there was just a remnant left, but God was with them.

Then the remnant seemed to go astray yet again.

For four-hundred years, from Malachi to Jesus Christ there was no prophet nor was the “Word of the Lord” recorded in Israel.

Then in the fullness of the times the Son of God came.

But He was crucified and the end seems to have come again.

But on the morning of the third day, as it had been predicted and prophesied, He rose from the grave, He manifested Himself, He ascended to heaven.

Then, exactly as it was foretold, the day of Pentecost came and the Holy Spirit was given.

But God’s plan of salvation still marched on.

C.

The plan is not yet finished.

There is a plan; it’s in the NT and it’s in the OT – and the plan is not yet finished.

1.

The doctrine of the Second Coming tells us that there is still something more to happen.

Everything has been foreseen; the times are fixed; God knows His own mind and purpose.

Everything that God has ever planned has come to pass, and what God has still planned will yet come to pass.

2.       Turn with me to 2nd Tim.

3:1-5, 13.

The doctrine of the Second Coming announces all that so that we must not think of salvation as something contingent; we must not think of it all as something that is dependent upon what is happening in this world of time – instead we must come back to the plan.

The Bible allows us to look through the glass dimly and see a time-table.

And we can argue that that time-table has always been kept in the past, so it must be kept in the future.

3.       *Read 3:1-5, 13.*  Here’s something to remember as the world turns worse and worse and as men get more evil and more evil.

The plan of salvation is not finished; the end is as certain as the beginning; and all God’s purposes with respect to mankind are definitely portions of a great, whole, grand plan which is invincible and unchangeable.

Satan thought he stopped the plan in the Garden; he thought it was stopped when Egypt caught up to Israel at the Red Sea; no doubt he thought he stopped when Israel was taken into captivity; and no doubt he was gleeful and thought he had won when Jesus died on Calvary – but he didn’t.

D.

The doctrine of the Second Coming confirms absolutely and positively that there is a plan of salvation – and that it isn’t finished yet.

* *

* *

*II.

Second:  the doctrine of the Second Coming reminds us about the reality and the terrible power of evil.*

Turn over to Matt.

24:21-25.

The doctrine of the Second Coming confirms there is a plan of salvation still running its course, and it reminds us about the reality and the terrible malignant power of evil and this is how it does it:  the doctrine of the Second Coming tells us that the power of evil is so great that even the saved men and women would be defeated by it were it not that the Lord Jesus Christ is to come.

*Read 24:21-25.*

The Lord must come again before the evil can be dealt with finally.

A.

The doctrine of the Second Coming reminds us about the reality and the terrible power of evil in the sense of giving us a clearer grasp of the biblical doctrine of evil and the power of evil.

1.

The Second Coming teaches us that there are two mighty forces in this world, two mighty kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.

Satan is the god of this world.

Turn with me to Eph. 6:10-18.

2.

One of the issues is this:  do we realize this as clearly as we should?

Could we ever be surprised at the state of the world if we only realized that as the New Testament does?

Do we realize that evil is a kingdom headed by a great king, the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air?  *Read 6:10-18.*

3.

Right now as the sands of time trickle down the glass there is a massing and gathering together of two great armies, two great kingdoms, God and Satan, Christ and Evil.

These are the forces.

Evil is a terrible reality, an awful power.

And I realize the thought of this can be very depressing.

Yet surely we must be realistic and face facts.

The world is bad and getting worse.

The doctrine of the Second Coming proclaims the terrible reality and power of sin.

B.

The doctrine of the Second Coming reminds us about the reality and the terrible power of evil in the sense that emphasizes the inevitable conflict between these two kingdoms.

1.

The power of evil has come into this world, and its one object and motive is to destroy the work of God.

That is why sin came in, that is why Satan intervened.

He hates God – that is the consuming passion of his being and of his existence.