Is Jesus coming soon?

Sixty years passed, and the last of those beloved men whose ears heard that first message from the Lord in glory was about to depart. But before he closed his service on earth, the Revelation of things to come was given to him, and the last words of it from the Lord, closing up the Holy Scriptures, confirmed that first announcement: "Surely I am coming soon." Yes. The first and last words from the Lord in glory to His servants on earth were about His coming again.

There is no prophecy to be fulfilled before the Lord comes for His saints; and that coming may be NOW. Yes, before I finish this sentence the shout may be heard. His word is "quickly" — "a little while" (Rev. 22:20; Heb. 10:37)... Do not trifle, my dear hearers. The Lord Himself is a reality; His coming a divine fact soon to be accomplished.

There is another point which is important, and that is not merely that the thing promised is sure. The Lord considers it important that the saints should always be expecting it as a present thing, and wishing for it as a present thing — I say expecting it as a present thing, uncertain when it will come... Now, would the certainty that it must be two or three thousand years off not affect this state of mind?

Fixing dates for the coming of the Lord is a harmful thing, and those who do it are presumptuous people. The Lord Himself said, "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32). Yes, someone says, but we know the year. Really? Then why did the Lord add, "Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come"?... To the apostles, who have given us the Word of God by the Holy Spirit's inspiration, the Lord said, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority" (Acts 1). If this knowledge was withheld from them in the Father's wisdom, where is there any hint in the Word that it would be revealed to us?

First, let the believer remember that what may seem a long delay in our eyes is only a brief moment with the Lord, for "with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Second, let us never forget that the promise of His coming is His promise, and that His word cannot fail. Third, there is a reason for the delay. It is not that the Lord is slow to fulfil His promise, but that He is patient, "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." In His grace God gives space for repentance before the judgment falls; in his unbelief man uses the delay to deny that judgment will ever come.

Let me remind you of what the Apostle John says about the practical result of this blessed hope: "Everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure." Yes, this must always be the result of waiting for the Son from heaven; but it is not at all the result of merely holding the prophetic doctrine. Many of the most impure, profane and ungodly characters who have appeared in the world have held the second coming of Christ in theory; but they were not waiting for the Son, and therefore they did not, and could not, purify themselves.

How striking the difference is between the end of Malachi and Revelation 22:17, 20... In Malachi, He returns and distinguishes between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not. In Revelation, it is the church — when the Person of Christ is revealed as the Morning Star — whose heart goes out with desire after the Bridegroom, stirred by the Holy Spirit Himself.