Today is the time of preparation, the hour for repentance. We are to turn aside from our own ways and seek the face of the Lord. All sin must be removed from us. We must learn to follow the Lord Jesus in diligent, cross-carrying obedience.

The way of the Lord must be made straight. The Bride must be separated from the fleshly churches and then purified and made beautiful in holiness and faithfulness before the Lord returns from Heaven.

All shall be defined and made eternal. The holy shall remain holy and the filthy shall remain filthy.

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. (Revelation 22:11)

It is a fearful prospect to be judged and found unworthy of the Kingdom of God, to be blinded to what Christ is doing in and with His true saints, to be separated from God and His purposes.

The Kingdom principles illustrated by the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the talents (Matthew, Chapter 25) are being applied today. We know from the words of the Apostle Peter that the Judgment Seat of Christ has been in operation since the first century.

The parables of the ten virgins and the talents teach us that alertness, preparation, and diligence are necessary if we would enter the Kingdom of God.

Even today, those to whom much has been entrusted may be losing the grace that has been given to them and—perhaps without realizing it—may be beginning to enter the realms of spiritual darkness. These kinds of spiritual changes can take place in people without their having a clear understanding of what is happening to them.

We think the Hebrew Prophets portray at least three comings of Christ:

His first coming as the Babe of Bethlehem:

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)

Christ's second coming to judge Israel, which includes all His saints whether Jewish or Gentile by physical birth:

When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. (Isaiah 4:4,5)

Christ's third coming in the clouds of heaven to rule the world in righteousness:

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13,14)

To be continued.