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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Coming to the Disciple and Coming to the World
Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. (Revelation 1:7—NIV)
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:22,23—NIV)
There is a coming of the Lord to the disciple and then there is a coming of the Lord to the world. Most of us are aware of the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus in the clouds of glory. However, His coming to the disciple may not be as well known. Yet it is the coming of the Lord to the disciple that appears to be the burden of our day—perhaps more so than in the past!
Introduction
If you will think about the above two passages you will see that there are to be two distinctly separate comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first coming is His historic coming in the clouds of glory. Every eye shall see Him at that time.
The second coming is to the disciple, not to the world, as Judas remarked.
There are three things we need to understand about the personal coming of the Lord to His disciples.
First, His coming to us is based on our keeping His commandments. The Lord's historic coming to the world is not based on anyone keeping His commandments.
The coming of the Lord to us is not based on our believing in Him except as our belief leads us to keep His commandments.
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. (John 14:24—NIV)
It seems every organized effort to respond to the Divine salvation, whether Judaism or the Catholic Church or the Protestant churches, manages to find a way to avoid keeping God's commandments. One thing or another is substituted for simply obeying God.
In our day it is the teaching of lawless grace. Just believe in Jesus and you do not have to keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.
I think the inability of organized religion to keep the commandments of God comes from Satan, who understands very well that God will not work where His commandments are not being kept.
The spiritual condition of the American churches, for the most part, is abysmal. While there are refreshings scattered here and there the believers, in many instances, are still not being exhorted to obey the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.
Grace, the "rapture," and Heaven are preached constantly, but not the need to keep the commandments found in the New Testament. Consequently there is a lack of the Divine Presence. Because of the lack of the Divine Presence the lamp of the testimony is growing dim. This disastrous condition is resulting from the preaching of lawless grace.
We absolutely must keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles if we expect to have the Presence of God.
To be continued.