CONTINUES FROM NEXT WEEK
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour our Lord doth come”. Matt. 24:42
Many of the prophecies of the scripture concerning the end time have been fulfilled except his second coming. There are people saying that He would not come back again; that is an error. It may be the founder of a church or General Overseer, but that is not the word of God. We are in Perilous Time now with diverse teachings, falling away and rising of many leaders of the Church. That is why when people speak or announce in the media space any spiritual exposition or teaching you must weigh their words against the Scripture, not how big they are or the position they occupy.
Those who had risen against the doctrine and authority of the Church, in our recent past, they had perished, they had died, they had gone. I am very conscious of the tenet that says; there is possibility of falling from grace, I too, often tell God; “o Lord, let me not fall from the grace”. I pray you will not fall away, nor fall from the truth.
Jesus is coming back again. I believe that Jesus Christ is coming back again. It can be this evening, it can be tomorrow morning, and it can be next week. And even if he does not come as you have reasoned it by yourself, if death comes you are nearer.
EXPECTATIONS FROM CHRISTIANS AS THEY WATCH
As children of God we have to brighten ourselves, enlighten ourselves to encourage ourselves as we are waiting for the Bridegroom. That is why we are told that we should not forsake the assembling of one another. We should know the mind of God day by day, and we should do the will of God from time to time. If you want to enjoy the Kingdom when Jesus comes you must be ready. You recall the stories of the wise and the foolish virgins about the kingdom of God (Matt 25:1-13). Also, there is danger of not watching as well as blessings for those who watch.
In our watch, however, there are certain expectations of the Lord the Christian faithful must meet. One is witnessing and soul-winning. We should not be tired to tell others to come to the Church. It is commissioned by Jesus Christ, go and tell the whole world, preach the gospel, baptizing them (Matt 28:18-20; Mark 16:15). It is not the work of only the pastors, not the work of only the workers, not the work of only the evangelists but every Christian. Every Christian is a preacher. Every believer in Christ should save souls, and when you save souls you earn a star. But when you cannot bring your own neighbour to serve God, you cannot get any star. Proverbs 11:30 “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise.”
From the beginning in John’s gospel chapter one, brothers told their brothers we have seen the Messiah, the Saviour, and they were brought to know Jesus. It is not a new thing. It is not only the witness: even though many witnesses and youths this time around are tired. The expectation from your waiting for Jesus to come back is that you must be witnessing Christ’sgospel. The bible says, “Occupy till I come”.
Another one is to be prayerful (Matt 26:41; Luk 18:1). Many are tired of prayer, and others cannot even fast again. Prayer can never be too much. It is prayer that can sustain you. I as a person I am sustained by prayer and I depend on prayer. Prayer never fails. It is prayer that will make you stand.
Paul the apostle told the Ephesian church that their strength lied in prayer and that it is essential to enable them to stand against the wiles of the devil. In Ephesians 6:18 thus, he stressed, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints”.
You are sustained from falling from the grace through prayer. When we are talking about falling from grace it comes little by little. It is not only the people who left the church and are not going again that are falling, but also when you are drawing back gradually from your position in things of God, that means you are falling. Maybe you were an interpreter in the Church before, and you are now saying I’m getting old I cannot interpret again; let this boy do it; ah! It is a step of backsliding. You used to prophesy but are no longer doing it, you say, let others coming do it: who stopped you from prophesying? Those things you were doing before and Satan is luring you not to do them again: watch it.
We have to rekindle the fire of prayer once again, so that the power of the Holy Spirit would be eminent and present all the time in the Church.
That is why the Lord has given us the RAISE agenda, to raise back the glory of God to this church. When you begin to give story such as saying; “we were doing this before;” that is a mark of backsliding.
The third is to be steadfast to overcome the perilous time. God has been warning us that the perilous time is just starting. Sure, people are crying that things are hard. Some are criticizing government, but God is telling us that the economic crisis is not peculiar to Nigeria, it cuts across all the world. May the Lord give us the power to overcome. (2Tim.3:1-6; I John 2:15-17). In verse 14 of 2 Timothy chapter 3, the scripture says; “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
What can help us is standing steadfastly in what we have heard before and are hearing now that are unassailable truth of God and the gospel of His Christ. For instance, there was this deaconess that came to me that she was leaving the Church that the position of deaconess is not in the Church. She said she heard one preacher speak against the position, and even that of church matron (IyaIjo). She said that had moved her out of the church. It is another spirit that has entered the woman. Interestingly, she was able to remove the husband, who was an elder from the Church. And that is the perilous time – the possibility of falling from the grace.
The Bible is telling us here that we should continue in things which you have heard, the things you have learned in the Church till now, continue in them. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Col 2:6-7). Be not deceived by any wind of doctrine, any man, any woman. Do we not see people like Phebe? What about women like Mary and others who were deaconesses?
Another heresy has emerged saying the believers should not pay tithe again. These are erroneous teachings going on in the world today filling the media wave. Be not deceived, continue in what you have heard, you have learnt from us, from me. That is what will make you to stand. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col 2:8).
Total obedience is also very essential to our waiting for His second coming. Obedience to the voice of God. Jesus said in John 10, “My sheep heareth my voice”. If you are a sheep of Jesus Christ you must hear His voice, not deceiving spirit, not voice of strange familiar spirit. Not voices from the water, or from the wilderness. People are going from mountain to mountain, valley to valley, place to place, church to church burial ground to burial ground, looking for power, and they come out and speak nonsense to us in the public.You must be very careful, do not be carried away, know where you have started and where you are going. The Lord will help us. Total obedience to God is demanded. Jesus said, if you love me you will keep my commandments. And that is what God had ordered the Israelites right from the beginning (Deut. 6:4-9). If you want God to make you a precious, blessed child, man or woman, you must obey the voice of God.
Ex.19:1-5 says: “if you will obey me indeed,endeavour not to depart from faith”. Not just the starting but the end of your faith matters. A man of God said it some years back that “I have reached a place of no turning back”. You must have a decision like that about your faith and not falling away from it before anyone, even if it’s your son, even if it’s your husband or it’s your wife: what the Lord has given you as the sound doctrine you must never turn away from it. Be steadfast in the apostles’ doctrine to the end (Act 2:42). God is telling us that we are glorious children, peculiar children. You must decide that “I have walked with the Lord and have reached a place of no turning back”.Jesus said anyone holding the plow looking back is not fit again for the Kingdom of heaven (Luke 9:62; I Tim 4:1).
DANGERS OF NOT WATCHING
But when one is not watching, he runs into the danger of loss of earthly blessing. You lose many blessings of the Lord when you are not watching for the Lord’s coming again. Matthew 25:24-30 makes this clear. But in verses 28-29 the scripture warns us concerning the danger of losing the blessing of God: “Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath”.
Talent is the gift God has given you to work with; so when you are not steadfast in faith, waiting for Jesus’Second Coming, then you will lose earthly blessings. That’s why it was taken from that man in the parable of the Talents. He didn’t use the talent, he was living in foolery full of excuses: saying well I know you are stubborn, always looking for gain where you have not sowed.
Another danger risked by those who are not watching for the Lord’s return is hellfire. God forbids that for you and I. In Matthew 24:48-51, the scripture says; “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. Beware.
REWARDS FOR WAITING FOR JESUS’ SECOND COMING
Reward for those that are watchful however shall include earthly blessings of prosperity, rest of mind, increase, sound health, security, etc. As you are watching all these will be given to you as grace. Anything we have from God is by grace we are not better than the people who have gone. He has promised it, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). That God is still there, He has not changed. Wait and watch till the end.
Another reward awaiting those that watch for the Lord is to inherit the Kingdom of God. You must be a candidate to inherit the Kingdom of God if you are watching.
A word is enough for the wise. Uphold the hope till the end. Do you hope that Jesus will come one day? Yes. And this hope you have, uphold it till the end. It is essential to continue in the hope.
“Looking for that blessed and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Also, Hebrew 3:6 enjoins: “But Christ as a son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
In Colossian 1:27, the Spirit of the Lord declares unto us, “Christ in you the hope of Glory”. Those who have Christ in them have the hope of glory at the end of their earthly sojourn. But when grudges, murmuring and bitterness are in your heart then Christ is not there again. Allow Christ to be in you so that you have the hope of His coming and when He comes you enter into the glory with Him. Because the Lord wants us to maintain that hope to the end. By coming to church, to teaching, prayer meetings, bible study are meant to ginger and to encourage the hope more and more.
It is written in I Peter 1:13; “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”.
After all we have been labouring, speaking, teaching and you have been hearing all these years, what the Lord needs from you is to“gird your loins, be sober and hope to the end”. The Lord will help us. And what becomes of those who have this hope, according to I John 3:3; “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure”. You have to purify yourself, you have to wash yourself clean. We have been given the blood of Jesus for purification. Therefore, you wash every time, you wash every day to be pure.
Please we are waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ for the second time. As we are waiting, this is what the Lord wants from you, because He has promised and He will never fail. It shall be a glorious happy day for us on that day when He shall appear in the sky. The Lord will help you. Amen.
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