LOOKING FORWARD TO THE APPEARING OF CHRIST

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LOOKING FORWARD TO THE APPEARING
OF CHRIST
2
What Are You Looking Forward
to?
3
Most People Do not Look Forward to the Lords
Return.

• Just as in the days of Noah, the world today
  mocks the Lords coming of Judgment
  (2 Peter 33-7).

4
2 Peter 33-4 (NASB)

• 3 Know this first of all, that in the last days
  mockers will come with their mocking, following
  after their own lusts, 4 and saying, "Where is
  the promise of His coming? For ever since the
  fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was
  from the beginning of creation."

5
2 Peter 35-7 (NASB)

• 5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their
  notice that by the word of God the heavens
  existed long ago and the earth was formed out of
  water and by water, 6 through which the world at
  that time was destroyed, being flooded with
  water. 7 But the present heavens and earth by His
  word are being reserved for fire, kept for the
  day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

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The World Today Mocks
the Lords Coming.

• Many doubt He will ever come.
• Many regard it as ancient myth and pagan fantasy.
  
• Many believe there is no urgency to get ready for
  His coming.
• People carry on their daily lives without so much
  as a thought about the coming Judgment (Mat.
  2437-39)

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The World Today Mocks
the Lords Coming.

• TOO MANY BRETHREN today are entangled in the
  affairs of everyday life to such a degree that
  the Lords coming is NOT their 1 hearts desire
  (2 Timothy 23-4).
• As a result, the Lords coming is not a pressing
  thought, but a rare occurrence!

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For the Christian, the Lords Appearing Should
Be a Greatly Anticipated Event!

• Eagerly, the Christian awaits for the arrival of
  the Savior!
• Phil. 320-21 (NASB) 20 For our citizenship is
  in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a
  Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ 21 who will
  transform the body of our humble state into
  conformity with the body of His glory, by the
  exertion of the power that He has even to subject
  all things to Himself.

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• Those Who LOVE His appearing (long for it,
  welcome it), Are Those Who Keep the Faith.
• 2 Timothy 47-8 (NASB) 7 I have fought the good
  fight, I have finished the course, I have kept
  the faith 8 in the future there is laid up for
  me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
  the righteous Judge, will award to me on that
  day and not only to me, but also to all who have
  loved His appearing.
• THOSE WHO LOVE IT, WILL SHOW IT!

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If We Truly Look Forward to the Appearing of
Christ, What Will
Our Conduct Be?

• We will obey the Gospel for our eternal salvation
  (2 Thes. 16-10).

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2 Thessalonians 16-8 (NASB)

• 6 For after all it is only just for God to repay
  with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to
  give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as
  well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
  heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8
  dealing out retribution to those who do not know
  God and to those who do not obey the gospel of
  our Lord Jesus.

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2 Thessalonians 19-10 (NASB)

• 9 And these will pay the penalty of eternal
  destruction, away from the presence of the Lord
  and from the glory of His power, 10 when
  He comes to be glorified in His saints on that
  day, and to be marveled at among all who have
  believed for our testimony to you was
  believed.

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If We Truly Look Forward to the Appearing of
Christ, What Will
Our Conduct Be?

• We will obey the Gospel for our eternal salvation
  (2 Thes. 16-10).
• With faith, we will continue to imagine it,
  contemplate it, and meditate on it often
  (1 Thes. 416-18).

14
1 Thessalonians 416-18 (NASB)

• 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven
  with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
  and with the trumpet of God and the dead in
  Christ shall rise first. 17 Then we who are alive
  and remain shall be caught up together with them
  in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and
  thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18
  Therefore comfort one another with these words.

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If We Truly Look Forward to the Appearing of
Christ, What Will
Our Conduct Be?

• We will obey the Gospel for our eternal salvation
  (2 Thes. 16-10).
• With faith, we will continue to imagine it,
  contemplate it, and meditate on it often
  (1 Thes. 416-18).
• We will talk about it (1 Thes. 418 51-11 Acts
  1730-31).

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We Will Talk About It!

• What is the main topic of discussion between
  Christians time and again?
• We have a responsibility to comfort one another
  with words of His return (1 Thes 418).
• We have a DUTY to encourage and build up one
  another with words of His coming AND exhort one
  another to be the kind of people we ought to be
  when He arrives

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1 Thessalonians 51-6 (NASB)

• 1 Now as to the times and the epochs (seasons),
  brethren, you have no need of anything to be
  written to you. 2 For you yourselves know full
  well that the day of the Lord will come just like
  a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying,
  "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come
  upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman
  with child and they shall not escape. 4 But you,
  brethren, are not in darkness, that the day
  should overtake you like a thief 5 for you are
  all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of
  night nor of darkness 6 so then let us not sleep
  as others do, but let us be alert and sober.

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1 Thessalonians 57-11 (NASB)

• 7 For those who sleep do their sleeping at
  night, and those who get drunk get drunk at
  night. 8 But since we are of the day, let us be
  sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and
  love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9
  For God has not destined us for wrath, but for
  obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus
  Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we are
  awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.
  11 Therefore encourage one another, and build up
  one another, just as you also are doing.

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We Will Talk About It!

• We cant help but want to tell the lost about it
  and share the Gospel with them.
• Acts 1730-31 (NASB) 30 "Therefore having
  overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now
  declaring to men that all everywhere should
  repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He
  will judge the world in righteousness through a
  Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof
  to all men by raising Him from the dead. "

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If We Truly Look Forward to the Appearing of
Christ, What Will
Our Conduct Be?

• We will watch for it, knowing it could occur at
  anytime on any day.
• There are no signs to look for (1 Thes. 52 cf.
  Mat. 2415-22).
• Yet, we can and must watch for the event of His
  coming! (Luke 1235-40).

21
Luke 1235-37 (NKJV)

• 35 "Let your waist be girded and your lamps
  burning 36 and you yourselves be like men who
  wait for their master, when he will return from
  the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they
  may open to him immediately. 37 Blessed are
  those servants whom the master, when he comes,
  will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that
  he will gird himself and have them sit down to
  eat, and will come and serve them.

22
Luke 1238-40 (NKJV)

• 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or
  come in the third watch, and find them so,
  blessed are those servants. 39 But know this,
  that if the master of the house had known what
  hour the thief would come, he would have watched
  and not allowed his house to be broken into. 40
  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man
  is coming at an hour you do not expect."

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• We must be watchful each day, knowing that each
  day is potentially THE DAY
  of the Lords coming!

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If We Truly Look Forward to the Appearing of
Christ, What Will
Our Conduct Be?

• We will not procrastinate, but instead make haste
  to obey the Lord now, while we still have a
  chance, before Christ returns.

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2 Peter 38-9 (NASB)

• 8 But do not let this one fact escape your
  notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as
  a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
  day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as
  some count slowness, but is patient toward you,
  not wishing for any to perish but for all to come
  to repentance.

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We should never delay to reform, repent, or
change our ways for God.

• Gods patience has spared us from wrath!
  We will not use it wisely?
• Now is the time to do the good we know we ought
  to do (James 414, 17).
• After death comes the Judgment, then each
  persons fate is sealed (Heb. 927).
• Redeem or make the most of your time each day to
  do the will of God (Eph. 516).

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• No longer will we be filled with good intentions
  that never are fulfilled, but instead
  we will act on those intentions to do
  good right now!

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If We Truly Look Forward to the Appearing of
Christ, What Will
Our Conduct Be?

• We will prepare for it by holy and godly living
  (2 Peter 310-14).

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2 Peter 310-12 (NASB)

• 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a
  thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a
  roar and the elements will be destroyed with
  intense heat, and the earth and its works will be
  burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be
  destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought
  you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12
  looking for and hastening the coming of the day
  of God, on account of which the heavens will be
  destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt
  with intense heat!

30
2 Peter 313-14 (NASB)

• 13 But according to His promise we are looking
  for new heavens and a new earth, in which
  righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved,
  since you look for these things, be diligent to
  be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
  

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Let Us not Be Caught
Unprepared!

• If our hope is truly fixed on Christ, we will
  purify ourselves by putting away all our sins and
  seek Gods forgiveness (1 John 33 19).

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If We Truly Look Forward to the Appearing of
Christ, What Will
Our Conduct Be?

• We will not be lukewarm in our service to God
  (Rev. 314-15), but zealous for good deeds
  (Titus 210-14).

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Titus 211-14 (NASB)

• 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing
  salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny
  ungodliness and worldly desires and to live
  sensibly, righteously and godly in the present
  age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the
  appearing of the glory of our great God and
  Savior, Christ Jesus 14 who gave Himself for us,
  that He might redeem us from every lawless deed
  and purify for Himself a people for His own
  possession, zealous for good deeds.

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• Only Those Who Look Forward
  to the Appearing of Christ Will
  Be Saved.

35
Hebrews 928 (NKJV)

• So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of
  many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will
  appear a second time, apart from sin, for
  salvation.