I WILL COME AGAIN
John 14:3.

On the night in which the Lord Jesus was betrayed, the eve of His crucifixion, He gathered His disciples around Himself in the upper room to prepare them for the events of the morrow and the days that would follow. The agony of Gethsemane and the shame and death of the Cross were looming before Him. He knew that Judas Iscariot had already left to complete the treacherous bargain of betrayal. But, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end, and His heart was full of tender sympathy for them as He was about to be taken from them. They would be left to be His witnesses during His absence in the very world that rejected Him and crucified Him.

It was in this atmosphere of privacy and intimacy that the Lord opened His heart to them, and from John 17:20 we know that he had in mind all who would believe on Him through their word, until He comes again. He told them of the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, whom the Father would send to be in them, and with them forever, and we know from the New Testament epistles that this is still true of every believer today. He told them of the Father, of the Father’s love and of the Father’s House, and the place He would go to prepare for them there.

Then He gave them this wonderful promise, "If I go...I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also". Nowhere in Scripture had such a promise been disclosed before. The Old Testament prophets had foretold His coming to subdue His enemies and set up a kingdom that would fill the whole earth and stand forever. The Lord Jesus had expounded this to them only days before. He had spoken of the coming of the Son of Man predicted by the prophet Daniel (Dan.7:13,14; Matt.24:30), and He had given them a sign from Daniel by which those who would be alive at the time of the end would be able to gauge the proximity of that coming. (Dan.12:11,12; Matt.24:15). God had revealed this to His prophets long ago, and the disciples believed what God had said.

But now, as the Lord Jesus gives His new and special promise to His own, in this day of Grace, He says, "Ye believe in God, believe also in Me’. The glad news of the Father’s House above, and a place prepared for us there, and that He Himself will come personally to take us there to be with Him forever, was revealed in the New Testament by the Lord Jesus Himself.

He gave us no sign by which we could calculate the date of His coming for us, in fact, when He next mentioned it in John 21:21-23, He introduced the possibility of John remaining alive till He returns. This was quickly misconstrued, and the report went abroad among the brethren that John would not die. However Jesus did not say, "He shall not die"; but, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee"?

The apostle Paul received this same promise later by direct revelation from the Lord, so that he could teach it among the Gentile believers, and the same tenor of present expectation is evident as he writes to the Thessalonians. He speaks of "we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord", and he is obviously including himself (I Thess.4:15). In 2 Cor.5:1-4 he expresses his deep desire to be among those who are alive when the Lord returns, so that instead of passing through death, ‘mortality might be swallowed up of life’. See also I Cor.15:51-58 and Phil.3:21,22. The lives of countless saints have been cheered by this glad prospect since then, as H.L. Turner wrote:

0 joy! 0 delight! should we go without dying;
No sickness, no sadness, no dread, and no crying;
Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory
When Jesus receives His own.

However, some years later, as he lay a prisoner in Rome and the day of his execution was near, he realised that ‘the time of his departure was at hand’ and he had ‘finished his course’. It had now become obvious that it was not the Lord’s will that he should "tarry till He come". But he was ready to "depart and be with Christ" (Phil.l:23), confident that for the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor.5:8). The Lord evidently intended the promise of His coming to be a present expectation that would be both an incentive and a comfort to His people. Let us therefore consider the following:

1. "Occupy till I come" - Luke 19:13. This quote comes from a parable which the Lord used to indicate that He would go away, and return after a period, and that He expected His servants to be active in His affairs during His absence. To ‘occupy’ is simply to ‘trade’. When we apply this to ourselves we learn that as believers, we are all equally responsible to accept what He has given us as a trust - our abilities, our time, our understanding of His will - to be used in His interests. He has left us His own example, for at twelve years of age he said, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business"? When He comes, He will require each one of us to give account of our trading, and reward us accordingly.

2. ‘Hold fast till I come" - Rev.2:25. These words were spoken by the Lord to the church at Thyatira. He is seen here moving among the seven churches, assessing, warning, rebuking and encouraging, out of a full knowledge of all that was going on in each one of them. In the church at Thyatira, teaching was being tolerated that had turned the hearts of His people away from Him, to find satisfaction elsewhere, and He had given them opportunity to repent. The Lord now warned that unless they did so, He would intervene with such stern measures that all the churches would learn that He does indeed search the hearts and reward accordingly. Nevertheless they still possessed things that were precious to Him and He encouraged them to hold these fast till He comes. Likewise He would encourage us, amid the weakness and failure we must so often confess, to treasure the things that honour and please Him, both in doctrine and practice, and hold them fast, by His grace, till He comes.

3. "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come" -I Cor.4:5. Some in Corinth had been criticizing Paul as to his motives and movements, but he assured them that he could look up to the Lord with a clear conscience. They were prone to favour the things that earned the praise of men, and therefore their judgment was of little account to Paul. When he said, "Judge nothing", he was not denying that there were things that they ought to be judging. He taught them emphatically that they must judge the shocking immorality that they were condoning among them. He taught them too, that they ought to judge themselves before they ate of the Lord’s Supper if they were to avoid the chastening of the Lord. But this was a different realm, one in which they had no capacity to judge, for they could not know the facts. It is the realm of hidden things, the counsels of the heart, which are only fully known to the Lord. When He comes He will bring these things to light, and the praise that each one will receive then, will be from God and not from man.

4. "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come" - I Cor. 11:26. It was on the same night in the upper room that the Lord Jesus instituted His Supper of Remembrance. It is His desire that we remember Him in His absence (Luke 22:19; I Cor.11:24,25). But it is only till He comes, and thus it quickens our anticipation of that glad day when we shall see Him as He is, and our faith shall give place to sight. The earthly symbols will be no longer needed for we shall be forever with the Lord. The full details of what we shall be then are not yet revealed, but we know that when we shall see Him we shall be instantly transformed into His likeness (I John 3:3; Phil.3:20,21).

As the Lord Jesus brings the New Testament Scriptures to a close, His final words to us are, "Surely I come quickly". What joy we can bring to His heart as we truly respond, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus".

- R.M. Goatley.

0 the blessed joy of meeting
All the desert past!
0 the wondrous words of greeting
He shall speak at last!
He and I in that bright glory
One deep joy shall share;
Mine, to be forever with Him,
His, that I am there.

- P. Gerhardt.

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE LIFE OF KING ASA

Asa came to the throne of David in Jerusalem at a critical time in the history of the Jewish people. After the death of Solomon, the ten northern tribes had formed a rival kingdom under Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made calf worship the state religion and sought to deter his people from going up to Jerusalem to worship.

In Jerusalem itself things were far from ideal. Under Solomon’s successors - first Rehoboam (Asa’s grandfather) then Abijah (Asa’s father) - temple services continued, but after a fashion only, for idolatry was rampant throughout the nation. Asa’s accession to the throne meant a radical change for the better, as the following Scriptures show. (Unless otherwise stated, all quotations are from 2 Chronicles).

Rehoboam. . .forsook the law of the Lord.. .And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord (12:1-14).

Rehoboam.. .reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem.. .And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord. ..above all that their fathers had done.. .for they also built them high places, and images, and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree (lKings 14:21-23).

Abijah walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord (I Kings 15:3).

Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days (I Kings 15:14).

Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God (14:2).

The expression ‘the Lord his God’ is found elsewhere in connection with Asa (14:11,15:9), and herein was the secret of his success. He recoiled from the widespread idolatry he had inherited from Rehoboam and Abijah, and sought to win his people back to Jehovah, the God of their fathers. When the Bible says that his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days, it means that, whatever his failings in other areas. he never once hankered after the heathen gods around him. Not so with his contemporaries from Jeroboam to Ahab, seven kings in all, who reigned in the northern kingdom and went after a motley of false gods that only hastened the nation to its destruction. What a contrast Asa presents when seen in this context! And as we consider his life in detail we discover some other interesting contrasts as well.

1. Asa’s name means ‘healing’, and as a king he certainly improved the spiritual health and moral tone of the nation by his early reforms. But in later years he was diseased in his feet and found no cure because he sought it from men and not from God.

2. In seeking to stamp out idolatry and bring the people back to the Lord, Asa had to pull down and build up at the same time. He dealt mercilessly with all forms of idolatry, even to the extent of removing from office "the queen mother" (his own grandmother apparently) and smashing her pet idol. Such graphic terms as "took away", "brake down" and "cut down" speak for themselves. But Asa did not stop there. Getting rid of lifeless idols was one thing, but getting the people back to the living God was another. So Asa commanded them to "seek the Lord.. .and to do the law and the commandment". He further urged them to build "fenced cities" and to fortify them with "walls and towers, gates and bars". Particular mention is made of the temple altar needing to be "renewed", no doubt as a result of sheer neglect under the earlier kings. His example here is one that stands for all time. Uprooting the weeds of error must be accompanied by sowing the seeds of truth.

3. Then we have the contrast between the time when Asa brought silver and gold into the house of the Lord (15:8), and a later time when he brought gold and silver out of the house of the Lord (16:2). This was a turning point in the king’s life. Previously he had been walking in the sunshine of God’s blessing, and was enriching the house of God with his gifts, but in an evil hour he got his eye off the Lord and his sky was darkened. A man’s state of soul at any given time is sure to have a positive or negative effect on his testimony to the name of the Lord.

4. The reason for the change in Asa lies in yet another contrast. The same Hebrew word is rendered by two different words in English - "rest" in one place (14:11) and "relied" in another (16:7). In the first case the king of Ethiopia came against Jerusalem with overwhelming forces, but Asa cried to God for help and secured a great victory. In the other case, when there was a perceived threat from King Baasha of Israel, Asa did not turn to the Lord his God, but sought human help by bribing the king of Syria to attack Baasha, using the money from the house of God for that purpose. Actually Asa’s plan had the desired effect, but he thereby lost the smile of the Lord’s approval. His victory was really a defeat.

5. After each of these events, the Lord sent a prophet to Asa, but with very different messages. The first was a message of encouragement, on the strength of which Asa pressed forward with his reforms. The other was from Hanani the seer, a message of reproof for trusting in men rather than God: "Herein thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars". If Asa took heart from the first message, he took umbrage at the second, and imprisoned Hanani so as to silence his voice.

6. Hanani’s words, which were really a rebuke to Asa, have been a blessing to many from that day until now: "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him". Note the intensity of God’s search - His eyes running to and fro; the scope of the search - the face of the whole earth; the objects of the search - those whose hearts are true to Him; and the purpose of the search - to display His power in giving timely aid to His people. In other words, He is looking for those who are looking for Him.

Despite his failures, the Scriptures view Asa as a good king whose God was the Lord right to the end. Moreover he left behind him a son and heir called Jehoshaphat, who "sought the Lord God of his father, and walked in His commandments" (17:4).

- W. McVey.

THE GREAT DISTRACTION

Devilish devices, wicked wiles, impious invasions have all been part of the weaponry used by our adversary in his efforts to defile many a life, shatter many a soul, and destroy the testimony of not a few of the Lord’s beloved saints, since he first tempted and deceived our first parents.

One thing the enemy does not want is for a believer to become occupied with Christ. Such people spell danger to his infernal strategy, for they become worshippers of the Living God and of His glorious Son through the Eternal Spirit. Satan hates true worshippers, for they give to God His rightful portion in acceptable sacrifices. They are lovers of God, of His Word, of His people and of the lost for whom the Son of God died at Calvary, and they are mighty in prayer. These must be destroyed if possible, or at least, the credibility of their witness must be permanently wounded if the nefarious purposes of darkness are to succeed.

The wily tempter knows also that those Christ-centred lives will not be easily seduced by the vile and disgusting poisons of his armaments. Indeed they will recoil from all such intrusion. Therefore he turns to his secret weapon department and selects "The Great Distraction". Of course it is cleverly camouflaged and can appear as a number of things with which the believer is well acquainted, and is therefore by them disarmed.

"The cares of this life" (Mark 4:19) can so preoccupy the mind and heart, that Christ is crowded out of His pre-eminence. That is just the ordinary stuff of life, which we can usually keep tidily sorted in the cupboards of the soul, until one thing piles on top of another and at last spills out and clutters the heart and mind with the mundane and the ordinary. Then the harried believer finds little time or taste for such heavenly occupation as the enjoyment of Christ in the soul. For the approach of this weapon we have a rather gentle word, it is called "worry".

"The deceitfulness of riches" is another arm of this devastating weapon. It approaches benignly at first as "honest ambition" to "get ahead" and "pay the bills". It seems so absolutely right, that any other attitude may be labelled as "sloth", "irresponsibility" or even downright "carelessness".

While there is clearly no sin in possessing riches, the danger comes when there is a subtle switch of control and the desire for money begins to possess the mind. It can then command our concentration and dictate our actions, so that what began as a permissible discipline, eventually reveals its true colours as "covetousness".

"The lusts of other things". Of all this wicked device, this is perhaps the most subtle aspect, "other things". This is what conquered the rich farmer in the Lord’s parable (Luke 12), "good things". That is their greatest danger, they can be "good" things. In fact Peter discovered on the transfiguration mount (Matt. 17:1 -9), that the Great Distraction can even be a holy thing. The three disciples had been specially privileged to be present on that glorious and holy occasion, and while Peter began to speak about a suitable response they could make, the Father actually interrupted him. "While he yet spake" the voice came saying, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him". In effect the Father was saying to Peter, "Don’t talk – Listen - to Him".

So we see that we may be distracted by things, good things, even holy things. It may be a spiritual gift, a spiritual truth, a spiritual service, a spiritual experience. If any one of these becomes a self-serving pre-occupation of the mind and heart that does not lead to Christ it has become a distraction.

The Great Preservative for this most subtle wile is found in the exhortation of the Word of God in Heb.3:1, "Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus". This concentration of the heart, mind and soul on our Exalted Saviour in His anointed ministries on our behalf, is the great preservative for the heart and its affection, the mind and its attention and the soul and its occupation.

"Consider" here is a most powerful word. It is so much more than just a passive "thinking" about the Lord. It is translated "behold" in Acts 7:31 when Moses saw the burning bush and "drew near to behold", why it was not consumed. It is translated "Perceive" in Luke 20:23 when the Lord Jesus "perceived" the meaning behind the spoken words of His critics. It is also translated "Discover" in Acts 27:39 when the storm-tossed mariners "discovered" a bay into which they drove the ship. Let us then behold Him so that we might perceive and discover more of Himself - the mountains of His majesty, the gardens of His fragrance and beauty, the valleys of His sorrows and the rivers of His fulness. These are glorious realms of discovery, and there is no end to this commanded activity, for "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). The pursuit of this Great Attraction is the Intent of eternal life, the Content of eternal life and the Extent of eternal life. There is nothing beyond this, though we range throughout His everlasting empires and penetrate the vanishing point of the ages of the ages, ‘This IS life eternal".

If we allow the enemy to distract us, we will lie down at last on the thorns of remorse, clutching to our cold hearts the "things" that seemed so important in the fever of life. "Good things" perhaps, even some "holy thing", but we may learn, too late to alter or to mend our ways, that the Lord Jesus had been displaced from the throne of our life. Saved? Yes, still saved, but saved as by fire, with only the ashes of our things of wood, hay and stubble to leave at the feet of our Beloved.

- Abridged. J.B.N. Courtesy "Counsel"

GOING TO DO.

He that is always "going to do" a great many things, very likely ends in doing nothing. One resolution put into practice is worth any amount of good intentions. The commendation in Matthew 25:21 does not run, "Well intended", or "well planned", but "well done, good and faithful servant".

Satan’s kingdom will never be much shaken by the mere drawing of plans as to what we are "going to do". If the path is clear - if the light of God is shining on our way - then "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might" (Ecc.9:10). While others may be planning, and perhaps dreaming, let us be doing. There can be no objection to planning for our work, and considering well what we are about to do for God. But let us attend to present duty. Let the work of the Lord for this day be done. Let us lay hold of the passing opportunity and utilise it for God. Being thus faithful in that which is little, our God may commit to us that which is great. Being diligent stewards in the few things, the Master may make us "ruler over many things".

- Abridged. "Believers Treasury"

WALK BEFORE GOD

I am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be thou perfect.
Genesis 17:1

Walk before God and perfect be;
Care not for human eyes,
Which but the outward aspect see:
To heaven’s standard rise.
Be not afraid to let thy ways -
Each thought, each word and deed -
Be tested by the searching rays
Which from His throne proceed.

Walk before God: be often where
No human eye can see;
And all thy heart to Him make bare:
From secret sins be free.
Thus all thine actions and thy ways
Shall His approval meet;
Thy life shall be a life of praise,
Its end a triumph sweet.

Walk before God: be not at ease
Though saints may think you right;
Be careful that Himself you please;
Be perfect in His sight.
The fear of man but brings a snare -
Care not for smile or frown;
Misunderstood? still do and dare,
"That no man take thy crown".

Walk before God: obey His word,
And yield to His demands-
Beware of calling Jesus "Lord",
And slighting His commands.
Live for that moment when, unveiled,
Each secret thing shall be,
Which every eye but His has failed
Within thy breast to see.

- W. Blane.

R.M. Goatley,
P.O. Box 353
Taree, N.S.W. 2430, Australia.