Anticipating Christ's Appearing: A Call to Holiness

"Now this word appearing here occurs frequently in the King James version of the Bible and of course every time it is alike in English being in one of the various forms appear appeared, appearing and necessarily are likee in English but the fact is the language from which our English was translated has it in about seven different forms so that when you read the word heing here not that it matters to you really but you don't know will will not know unless you are student of the original and bother to look it up which of the seven Greek words would be used but for the moment we're concerned only with the word appearing in its prophetic use and that is unquestionably how Peter used it here there are in the seven words of which I spoke three particular Greek words which mean all told these have these means manifest shine upon show become visible it means a disclosure are coming a manif estation and a revelation now the word Peter uses here actually means or can mean any of the following things he said at the appearing of Jesus Christ in English now it is at the disclosure of Jesus Christ or at the coming of Jesus Christ or at the manifestation of Jesus Christ or at the revelation of Jesus Christ and he used exactly the same word in verse 13 when he said wherefore G up the loins of your mind and be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ now you'll have to ask the translators and they're all dead why they would say in verse 7 at the appearing of Jesus Christ and in verse 13 at the revelation of Jesus Christ there might have been some fine shade of meaning which they felt must be expressed which one word would not express so they use the other but we may safely conclude that the words are used interchangeably in the Bible that is where it says hearing whatever Greek word is used that the words are used interchangeably in the scriptures now there has been a good deal of debate about the words particularly among the Cults there are prophetic gos that make their whole prophetic scheme rest upon the word appearing or Revelation or manifestation or disclosure and they write page after page and book after book but making their book rest upon the difference between one shade of meaning and another but I have learned now that I have been around a while that if a cult that is obviously a cult and has no standing in the historic uh stream of Christianity to confuse the figure beautifully no standing in a stream but if it has no no standing in the the long Corridor of Christian of approved Christian truth if that cult is forced to labor a word in order to make its point you may well check it off and give it no further thought because the Bible is one of the easiest books in the world to understand it is one of the hardest for the carnal mind and the easiest for the spiritual mind and when it becomes necessary to labor a shade of meaning in order to prove that we're right particularly when our position when established will be shown to be contrary to all the beliefs of Christians back to the days of Paul then we can simply shrug that off smile it away and say what's the use because you see my brethren it is very easy to try too hard when we come to the reading of the scriptures yeah it's easy to try too hard doing anything if you try too hard certain ball club for instance forgot for the moment which one I read the sports news sometimes when I'm sitting in a drugstore having a lunch but uh one of the clubs it said that they tried desperately hard at the opening of the season they were tense and jumpy and jittery and making errors because they were trying too hard then when the the season rolled up and they found that they were going to end up that back in the second division they relaxed and said what's the use and now they're playing great baseball the difference is not it haven't changed the man they just relax if you push too hard you don't always succeed in doing what you want to do I often pity a young preacher when he gets up before an audience particularly if that audience is what he would consider an important audience like a convention or something where he wants to be at his best and figures they won't forgive him like he don't own congregation would had to see the young fellow push till his throat gets dry always a sort of sorry cuz I've been there myself pushing like everything but you never get anywhere in the kingdom of God when you push because the kingdom of God is not taken that way it uh you you relax yourself into the kingdom you you you trust the Lord watch him do it now it's the same in interpreting the Bible if we insist upon too fine definition chances are we're going to end up wrong cuz we're trying too hard if I could uh concoct grotesque illustration here it'll be like this Suppose there a man in Chicago living now visits his family in De Mo and then after he's had a few days with his family in De Mo he drives back home and at his leisure sits down to write about it to friends or at least casually to mention it in his letters and to one he says I went to deor last week to another he writes a few minutes later I visited deor last week to another he says I drove to deor last week to another without noticing that he's doing it just following the the the thread of his own thought he says I'm ordered to deor last week and to a fifth one he said I I said to my brother John in De Mo last week and that's all he seals letters yawns goes to bed that's all there is to it but now let us turn and loose on those five letters uh some interpreters particularly the interpreters that push like everything and insist upon there being no synonyms in the Bible at all that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are never used synonymously there is a law of the Ms and Persians distinction between them and between appearing and coming in Revelation and manifestation there's always a precise machine like definition now uh let us uh notice they say now here is that one one letter he said I went to De Mo in the English that is so and so let's suppose that's been translated into some other language 2,000 years from now and these Scholars are busy with it and he said now this man said I went to the mo that in the English that is thus and thus but and notice over in this other chapter he said I motored to De Mo therefore there must have been two different times and in this other chapter he said I'd go to De Mo now he must have had some reason for these three words he wouldn't use them carelessly and then he also said that I went to De Mo or that I saw my brother in De Mo then another place he said I visited the mo he must that me so stayed longer that time they'd have had him there five five different times when actually he was only there once and he only said he was there once but he just happened to know the English language well enough to be able to say it five different ways now I'm perfectly convinced that a great deal of our pushing and trying too hard in theological interpretation uh we make the same error as a hypothetical Scholars that we talked about 2,000 years from now would make the Lord says that one way in verse 7 and he says it another way in verse 10 and then you skip a book and take up another book and the same thing it said there and it's still different way it simply shows that the Holy Ghost isn't in rup even if interpreters are it just shows that God never uses cliches even though preachers sometimes specialize in so that when you come to the word appearing here you can just relax that's what it means it means appearing it may mean a a manifestation it may mean a shining forth it may mean a show it may be mean a suddenly coming into the focus of your mind of your eyes it may mean a disclosure it may mean a coming it may mean a revelation well all those things mean about the same thing and to all intents and purposes there would be no reason to get excited about them or to write books to prove that they don't mean the same thing now my friends here are the facts I think they are the facts I do not mean to read anything into them you see whether I'm not giving you the facts as they are found here one is Peter speaks of an appearing of Jesus Christ and he wrote To Men on Earth and this can't possibly be spiritualized the scene can't be transferred to heaven for he was writing on to to the church on Earth to the Saints scattered abroad and he wrote to them saying live a certain way and endure afflictions and trust God in the middle of your sufferings in order that your faith here on the earth now may be tried so that at the appearing of Jesus Christ it may be found better than gold to you now appearing of Jesus Christ where Common Sense can tell us that it only could mean here on the earth he was writing to people on the Earth he was not writing to angels He didn't say to Gabriel when Jesus Christ appears if he had said it to Gabriel we'd have known he meant in heaven where Gabriel is but he said it to people on the Earth and he said there was to be an appearing and the word he used here I repeat again means they coming at the coming of Jesus Christ at the disclosure of Jesus Christ at The Shining upon sudden shining upon like the rising of the Sun a manifestation or Revelation now he said all those things and he said that this was to take place sometime in the future now we get the meaning that is in Peter the future from the time Peter wrote now we get the meaning in mark 9:4 it says that there were on the mountain of transfigurations we call it now and suddenly there appeared unto them Elias and Moses now neither Elijah nor Moses lived on that mountain they had appeared there they had come from somewhere else that they were to this new place where they now are and in coming they had made themselves known to them to the eye they appeared there in in public manifestation the same as you appeared here at church this morning morning or I will appear at Rochester God willing 118 to Tuesday morning so it was an appearing that's very easy to understand and when he said that we were that he was looking forward and the people of that day to an appearing of Jesus Christ he meant that they could look forward to a sudden disclosure of Christ a sudden coming and becoming visible but there's nothing mysterious about that nothing queer nothing that you have to be highly educated to understand everybody appears becomes visible let's imagine please this young fell Sergeant Jones who' just been released from a prison over in Korea and he hasn't yet appeared but his wife all set and she scrubs the kids every morning and pickes the house meticulously and has on tap for quick cooking the things she remembers that he loved and greatly enjoyed she's expecting him to appear and then one day there's an excited voice on the phone she almost thinks it's her husband it's the sergeant but to her he's just my husband and the father of my two kids and no Sergeant to her he's he's her husband well he appears he'll he'll saying I'm taking a taxi out I should be there in 15 minutes I should appear in 15 minutes I should be revealed to you within 15 minutes I should manifested to you within 15 minutes you don't have to sit down with a with a lead pen with a Greek point on it to figure that out just talking about out be there honey and that's all the Lord said here Peter said that or Peter talking about the Lord he said that at the appearing in Jesus Christ well of course he's going to appear and when he appears he'll be disclosed when he's disclosed he'll be manifested and when he's manifested he'll be revealed and when he's revealed he'll shine upon the people to see him revealed so again I gave you one not two that Peter wrote in the year 65 ad and therefore by process of elimination we can know that when Peter wrote of the appearing of Jesus what he didn't mean can't know quite yet what he did mean by elimination but by elimination we can you can learn what he didn't mean since he wrote in the year 65 ad and since he placed that appearing in the future relating to 65 ad he didn't mean his appearing at the Jordan for Jesus had appeared at the Jordan and John had baptized him there at the Jordan he had appeared under John the Baptist and been made manifest to him when the dove descended upon him and John knew who he was so he didn't mean that appearing because that appearing had already taken place more than 30 years before and now Peter writing more than 30 years after that appearing at the Jordan said we're looking forward to the appearing of Jesus Christ we eliminate the Jordan then he appeared in Jerusalem he actually appeared there in Jerusalem walked around among them talked to Pharisees and and elders and rabbis and common people and uh we didn't mean that appearing because that had taken place more than 30 years before he had appeared one day suddenly and embarrassingly in the temple just when times were going good and there was a boom on and people were coming from everywhere with their cattle or with their money in buying cattle to exchange their money to make gifts suddenly there appeared a man and that man rolled a rope up and started started driving the cattle out of the temple that was a sudden appearance at the temple he didn't mean that because that had taken place more than 30 years before and he said now there will be an appearance and then our Lord appeared on the Mount of transfiguration as we have mentioned about and then he appeared after his resurrection to the disciples Paul said he appeared to about 500 Brethren he appeared to him he appeared to the apostles we know appeared to Peter and he appeared to the women so that the Lord did appear again after uh he had first appeared there by when the star introduced him and the angel sang his coming and he had many appearances he was there in bodily manifestation they saw him they looked upon him he did things that could be could be identified he was at places that could be pinpointed on the map he was there the man among men but it didn't mean any of those because they were all in the past at least 30 years in the past and he didn't mean to fall on Damascus Road because that had already taken place something like 25 years before now when has this appearing occurred Peter said said I want you to get ready in order that your trial your Faith your afflictions all this faith and obedience and cross bearing May mean honor and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ you put in the future so if he has appeared where has he appeared and if he has appeared when did he appear now I know that the 7eventh day Adventist day appeared in the year 18884 somewhere back there and I believe that the so-called blasphemously called Jehovah's Witnesses also make something out of this superan business but uh I want to ask you uh where when to whom did Jesus Christ appear since the day that he appeared to Paul on Damascus Road or since the day he appeared on Earth his first time putting it broadly uh I I I can't find anybody that says that he appeared to him except some fanatic who usually died and in the same Asylum but there is no reputable testimony any place that Jesus Christ has ever appeared since the day he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself there have been new culturism there have been men who walked around on the street saying I am Christ there are case histories that the psychiatrist can tell you about the Y yards that had written up of men who thought they were Jesus Christ but we were right that off for it is neither here nor there nor go ye into the desert for Lo he is not there nor in the secret chamber for he is not there he simply has not appeared because if he appeared to to be in line with the meaning of the word as used simply and commonly in the New Testament he would have to appear as he appeared in the temple as he appeared by the Jordan as he appeared on the Mount of transfiguration as he appeared to his disciples after his resurrection he would have to appear in visible human manifestation taking up room H and having size and having Dimension and having appearance and having color so that he could be identified by the human eye and ear and human touch and the shadow would be upon him when he stood in the Sun and you could see that shadow and when you walk close to you'd feel the air off his clothing if that word is going to mean what it universally means then it will mean that appearing of Jesus Christ has to be very much the same as he appearing the first time and as anybody's appearing Eisenhower appeared in Chicago yesterday all unexpected they said and Eisenhower I imagine a man judging I have not seen him in person but I would judge maybe uh 5 for 10 and and so he took up 5' 10 uh vertically and I don't know how wide but certain horizontal room he took up he had a certain suit on certain tie and his rather sparsely populated head shown and his big friendly smile he was there he appeared The conad Hil now when did the Lord Jesus Christ appear anything like that since the day he appeared to put away sin for the sacrifice himself when Peter put his appearance in the future then he might have appeared any time between the time Peter wrote and now but did he appear and if he did where and if he did when nobody can answer that question except some who are not prepared uh to uh support their contention when he appeared the first time he appeared with healing in his wings he appeared not in fulfillment of the of the M or of the Old Testament passage but uh he had healing in his fingertips and he walked among men he took babies in his arms he blessed people he ate he drank by the people he walked among them and the scripture tells us when he appears he'll appear like that again be a man again so a glorified man a man is can be identified can be known be the same Jesus that went away now when did that happen he certainly appeared to the Saints all down the years and there is a sense in which everybody who has a pure heart looks upon God and I may be speaking to Christians now who wouldn't wouldn't for the life of you too modest and retiring and humble you wouldn't for the life of you argue against this sermon you wouldn't come to me and say I don't quite accept your sermon Mr da I seen Jesus well all you mean and you do mean it and I thank God you do mean it is that God has illuminated the eyes of your heart and you see him with your heart's eyes blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and I believe it's entirely possible for the eyes of our faith to be illuminated the eyes of our spirit so that we can gaze upon God perhaps Veil perhaps perhaps not as clearly as in that day but the eyes of our hearts can see him and so Christ appears to people like that he appears when we pray and we can see him but that's not what Peter meant because Peter was using were language here which meant a shining forth a revelation a coming becoming present suddenly a disclosure taking off of of the invisibility he meant the same as the newspapers meant when they said Eisenhower had appeared to con Hilton and had addressed a group of Republican women they mean the same as the newspapers say when they tell us that the young Sergeant so and so appeared suddenly to the Delight of his family after three years away never been any appearance like that since the day he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself now uh that's G on I think this is number four isn't it I've lost count myself my numbers now never get very accurate but somewhere here I've said and want now to say that since there was to be an appearance according to Peter and appearing in person on Earth to living persons later than Peter's time and since that appearing has not yet occurred then Peter's words are still valid and we may therefore expect Jesus Christ again to appear on Earth in person to living persons as he appeared in other days my brother I believe that that is the just of the Bible teaching on the second coming we may therefore expect an appeared when our Lord had not yet come in the flesh they were expecting him they said he will appear the God had told the woman had told the serpent had told I presume Cain and Abel and certainly Adam and Eve and Abraham who saw his day and all the rest and the prophets and all the prophets since the world began spoke of the appearing of Jesus Christ put away sin to the sacrifice of himself and then one day he appeared was not an apparition it was not a ghost it was not a spook it was not a materialization get away with it materialization the old madens with their spooky costumes on uh squeezing dollar bills out of the Gable public with their their materializations you materialize the ghost is a ghost until the old lady works on him and then he materializes mean materialization that is a weird word stolen and uh raped by the spiritists and the devil Cults and you can throw it out for nobody ever said Jesus Christ was going to materialize is going to appear that's quite different to become material when you're not Material as to materialize if you're a spook today and tomorrow you put on fleshly garments and walk among us that's materialization Bible never talks about materialization Eisenhower didn't materialize when he came to the con Hilton he appeared he had already been matter he didn't have materialized but he appeared so Jesus Christ is not going to materialize he going to appear which is another matter all together now in closing Paul said in 2 Timothy 418 I think it's one of the sweetest passages in the entire Bible I there's about it a graciousness or wonder he said I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick end the dead that his appearing and his kingdom preach the word the instant didn't see season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all longsuffering IND Doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doct he said that his appearing he would judge the quick and the day and then he link that appearing up with an Earnest exhortation that he might preach the word and be in in season and how to see and I cannot think now of One Lonely Passage in the New Testament it talks about Christ's Revelation manifestation appearing or coming that is not organically linked with moral conduct and faith in spiritual Holiness the Bible knows nothing about the modern curiosity that plays with the scriptures and impresses credulous and gullible audiences with the amazing amount of prophetic knowledge the brother must have the Bible knows nothing about that the appearing of Jesus Christ is not an event that we may curiously speculate upon when we do we sin and the prophetic teacher that speculates curiously without more application is sinning on his feet while he's preaching to the people Paul said I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach the word talking to a pastor here not necessarily he exalted him to fulfillment of his holy Ministry but in the eth chapter 8th verse he tells us more about what'll happen when he appears he said I fought a good fight and I finished my course and I've have kept the faith and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them that love is appearing those that love the appearing of Jesus Christ are uh those who shall also receive a crown but you say that doesn't that take in too much territory doesn't that mean that just anybody that believes in the premillennial Position will receive a crown of righteousness no it certainly does not it means that those that are loving the appearing of Jesus will receive the crown of righteousness and that do does not include all who merely believe in the millennial premillennial position he's gone to seed on that whole thing you've gone to seed on it so drastically and so far that you'll hardly hear a sermon on the second coming anymore there are still a few that are going about the country with their charts and their object lessons and curiously interpreting prophecy I repeat I believe there sinning against God and order to repent L some worse thing comes upon them and that's what Paul said about youing wasn't all that he did say that and then John said in 1 John 3 that we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is beloved says he beloved we are the sons of God now and the sons of God Jesus Christ has appeared through our faith and we have grasped him and seen him and believed in him and we rest upon him and it does not yet appear that is it has been disclosed what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear these disclosed we shall beight him for we shall see him as he is then verse three says bluntly every man that has this hope in him purify himself even as he is pure everybody everyone he even said it singularized it that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is to those who expect the Lord Jesus Christ to come and who wait for that coming and who love to anticipate that coming will be busy purifying themselves not curiously speculating but purifying themselves oh I suppose that when we get to heaven maybe we'll be what we ought to be in the meantime we have to take ourselves as we find ourselves and I find that Curiosity that once killed the famous cat has hurt a lot of Christians a lot of Christians there's a certain eeriness about some people not spirituality just eeriness they're they're they ghost conscious and they can move right into the middle of a supernatural thing and feel right at home they're the mediums or media which is it and uh they're the funny Wizards and and telepathist and all the rest I don't feel it home there at all I I don't feel at home in the in the realm of the Eerie and The Uncanny the clear squeaking in the Bible called it peeping and Ming I don't like peepers and mutters and I don't feel at home among them but uh there's a certain type of mentality that does and when they get converted if they don't ask God to sanctify their brains they carry that goofy thing right into the church with them and so their theology consists of a lot of The Logical peeping and mod my old German grandmother God Rest her memory she wasn't a Christian and she didn't know much about the Bible though she taught me all I ever knew until I 15 about it but you had a dream book and it was badly dogeared and some mark But grandma wouldn't drink her coffee in the morning so she consulted the dream book she she really dream that some people don't dream much but grandma was a dreamer and she had one or two every night as a rule and she'd always consult her dream book when she got up in the morning I wish I had kept her gotten a hold of it and kept it just for curiosity sake it had a glosser that is we'll start at a apple you dream about apples then it told you what that signified B beats dream about Beats then C uh uh your country well you dreamed about your country or some other country and so on down the line to Z and ammer San clear down to the end and she had a glossery told her just what she might expect wouldn't that be an awful way to live no wonder grandma was hi to live no really no wonder because she must have been miserable all the time figuring that a dream meant something up now there are mentalities like that and Grandma was a sharp little woman don't think she wasn't and she had a raise her tongue that was equal to her razor like mine but she was just off there she also believed in dogs barking and tappings the dog barked under your window somebody would die sure enough and I've had more dogs if I died every time a dog barked under my window I'd have been the best customer of The Undertakers of this country's ever seen CA dogs Delight to bark under my window and mosquito light to come into my room and if there's a fly in the rest that comes to me I have a magnetic attraction for such things and if any they meant anything how long ago I would have been in a straight jacket and a padded cell but I it don't me the thing thank God for a simple skeptical mind the those through the world not worrying about anything like that so when a fell un rolls a CH and starts from me I look for the exit I want to get out of there as fast as I can get because these trying too hard he's pushing too hard he's like the man that's trying to understand the 16 magon by getting a microscope and examining the toe of the Virgin you can understand the beauty of the 16 Madonna by examining a a little tiny bit of it you got to get back and give it geography so when we come to the scriptures we have been fooled and bedeviled by people people who are simply curious to a point where very few people give the second coming of Christ any thought these days but I want to tell you Peter said there would be an appearing that appearing has not yet taken place therefore that appearing must yet take place and John said they those that were expecting it and looking forward with hope to it should purify themselves even as Jesus is do I might use an illustration that almost invariably embarrasses somebody but if you take them their weddings that go on the bride it's four or five lieutenants and sub lieutenants and helpers and workers get her dressed just right why cuz she knows she going to meet the man up there and she wants to appear right she's hoping and I don't mean that in a funny way she's hoping she expects to be married and so she she has that that whatever they call it and she put that on they all fix that up and every little thread must exactly in place even walked cautiously L something become get out of place and she's expecting to meet the man and be United in marriage there at the altar and says the Holy Ghost he that have this hope in him purify himself how even as he is pure the bride wants to be dressed worthy of the husband and as well as the husband and the Church of Christ should be dressed worthy of her bridegroom even as he is dress pure even as he is pure so the appearing of Jesus may take place it'll take place in his time there are those of us who believe that it can take place soon I do not believe there's anything yet has to be done to make possible his appearance I believe that it his all long ago been done and what hasn't been done will be done after he appears so the greatest event in the history of the worlding his first coming in death and Resurrection the next greatest event in the history of the world would be the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having not seen we love though now we see him not yet we Rejoice This Joy and unspeakable and full of glory and the world will not know it that he that that haveth this hope in him he will know it for he has purified himself even as Christ is pure" [00:01:00]