The Second Coming of Christ  (Introduction)

What is it?  The return of the Lord Jesus  to this earth to take His Church out of this world and to give judgement to this ungodly world, 1 Thess. 4:13-18.

It is the greatest event in the history of the world. The Lord spoke about this event repeatedly, and warned His followers about it, Heb.9:27-38.

His coming was prophecied as early as Enoch's time, Jude :14-15.

The Old Testament is full of prophetic utterances about His coming, usually called 'The day ofthe Lord' ,Amos 5:18-19, Mal. 4:1-2. In the book of Daniel there are many utterances and visions concerning the events related to His coming, Dan.12:1-4. A book to be studied together with the Revelation.

The Lord Himself spoke extensively about His coming to warn and prepare his followers for this event, Matt.25:1-46, Luke 21:5-36.

What about the actual manner of His coming? (Rapture) 1 Thess.4:13-18.

1. The rapture of the Church, His actual coming in the air to meet the Church and take her to Heaven.

2. A period of 7 years follows this event, when in the absence of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel of Salvation a time of great tribulation will be unleashed upon the world, culminating in the battle of armageddon.

Preceding the Rapture, the world will be led into a state of calamities from natural disasters

and economic chaos. Great falling away from the Faith and a lukewarm Church.

Following Armageddon. Christ establishes a 1000 year reign on this earth, after which the final rebellion of man occurs against God. Destruction of present earth and Heavens, God

creates (renovates) a new earth and new heaven ,where the New Jerusalem will be with God,Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Church, Rev.21,22.

Is. 53:3-4. A man of Sorrows

Not His own sorrows or originating from His own conduct.

Sorrows: Pains, anguish of spirit, soul and body.

'The sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell.......' Ps.46:3.

No sorrows come from Christ, He is the Son of the Blessed. Mark 14:61. God is a happy

person, and what God is, Christ is, Ps.16:11, Heb.1:3.

The fulness of joy and these pleasures for evermore which are in Christ are not only for you, but for God Himself, Rom.8:26,30.

A man of sorrows, 'Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows'

Our griefs: Personal to us, many in number, sicknesses of all kinds, tensions that make us sick,fears , wounds, calamities-all distorting the mind, body and spirit, affecting the whole man and ending in death. The common portion of man.

Our sorrows,Men accept them as their lot, Anguish of spirit, soul and body, affliction from within and without, sore diseases.

A heavy burden was lifted from us, the whole human race and taken upon Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus was a man of sorrows. He was identified with me at Calvary. He was numbered with the transgressors. God made Him to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, 2 Cor.5:21.

He did not become sinful, 1John 1:5, 3:5. He did not become sick. His body saw no corruption, Ps.16:10. By going to Calvary, Christ took all our sins, and all our sicknesses

with Him to the Cross.He took the punishment of God's rightful anger for your sins and mine, the sins which brought this heavy burden upon us.

All our sins, our griefs, our sorrows were entinguished,blotted out of God's sight in the fury

of Calvary,vanished from God's memory, Heb.10:17.

All the charges against us disappeared at Calvary. Christ nailed them there, taking them

out of the way,Col.2:14.

A man of sorrows.They have gone,the man Christ Jesus remains,the one and only mediator

between God and man, 1 Tim.2:5.

Behold my Servant, Is.42:1.

Behold the Lamb of God,,John1:29.

He was wounded for our.....Is.53.

Believe on the Lo5rd Jesus.....Acts 16:31.

2 Kings 3:1-20

A strange Alliance-three kings joined together against Moab: A godly king, a backslidden  king and a heathen king. All three make an alliance to fight the Moabites.

For seven days they go on without a thought for God or prayer, until suddenly they are brought to a halt due to lack of water. When a problem like that came they decided to seek the councel of the Prophet of God.

They enquired, 'Is there a Prophet of God?', and they went to find Elisha.

The water here would represent a beautiful type of the Spirit of God. They had no water and despite all their resources could not produce any.So they had to turn to God. There was no shortage as far as God was concerned. The shortage was on earth. They were told to dig  trnches and the following day the trenches were filled with water.There is no limit to what God can send. It matters not the barreness or the desert. If they had dug 100 times more they would have been filled. There is no limit as to the time or what He can do. We have some very dry places here today also and the movement of the Holy Spirit is needed. The hardness of the people or churches does not matter. God is able to send water to the hardest place. His arm is not waxed short. We cannot fabricate or work it up. Only God can send it.

The reason why they did not have any water:

A strange alliance: Jehoshaphat was a godly king. He inquired about a prophet, yet he was in the same trouble as the backslidden king of Israel and the heathen king. Jehoshaphat was in trouble because of his foolishness. Had he kept away from them he would have had plenty of water. 

In 2 Chron.19:1-3 we read, 'shouldest thou help the ungodly?' In spite of that he does the same thing again. He went with Jehoram and because of that he came into a dry patch. God already warned him.

Contrast Ezra 4:3. No alliance with the ungodly, even if they took offence. Ezra 6:14,21, built and prospered with the help of God. You cannot link up with darkness, be it in business, etc. No fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Jehoshaphat went along, and did not even bother to pray. Had there been any water they would have continued along in their own mind. God brought them to a circumstance where they were compelled to seek God. So many in their prosperity think they can go along without God. Thank God for any circumstance that brings you back to God.

About Jehoram (2 Kings 3:1-2) 'He wrought evil but not like his father.....'  In 2 Kings 3:13-14, we have what God thought of him.That is what God thinks of a double minded person. God knew exactly where ho stood.

Laodicean christians. What God thinks of half hearted christians. Professing christianity but not in the heart. 2 Kings17:31-34, fearing God but serving other gods in the heart (no  one can serve two masters)

Elisha said,I would not even look at you, i.e no word from God for you if it were not for Jehoshaphat. He was foolish but not sinful. There is enough danger outside (Moab), let alone fighting on the inside.

We cannot defeat the Moabites unless we have the water first. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We need the Spirit.

They had no prayer, or anything. God could have given water straight away but He did nothing till they sought Him. They had to seek Him because they could not bring the supply alone.

When Elijah prayed after the drought rain came, but they could not otherwise do anything about it.

Jesus said,' If any man thirst let him come to Me and drink'  We cannot work it out. It comes down from above.

Some christians try to work it up with music, shouting, etc. It is God;s prerogative. We need the Spirit.

Some say we manage  without the Spirit. The prodigal son managed. The blind man managed somehow, so we manage without elecrtricity and you may have managed for many years, but you can manage better with the Spirit.

The three kings hsd to humble themselves, they had to lean the power of God.They could not do it alone. They journeyed for seven days and when they met a crisis then they had to come to the Word of God. Before they could get the water they had to get the Word of God. They had to do something before water came. They had to dig ditches. There might be something you have to do before you receive the filling you need.