The Daily Word of Righteousness

Seven Steps to the Rest of God, #17

For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: (II Corinthians 12:20)

Then their spiritual sacrifices will be presented with clean hands and holy hearts.

It is not so today. The profession of faith in Christ is accompanied by immorality, covetousness, every form of strife and discord, jealousy, and self-seeking. It is time now for the Bride to prepare herself through the Holy Spirit for the personal coming of her Lord. The Lord Jesus will come to the Church first so the Church will not be condemned when He comes to judge the world.

"The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple," Malachi declares. When will this coming take place? Certainly not after Jesus appears to the world in the clouds of the heaven.

We know from I Thessalonians, Chapter Four and I Corinthians, Chapter Fifteen that the Lord Jesus will descend from Heaven and clothe the dead and living saints with immortality. Then the saints will rise from the surface of the earth to meet Christ in the air.

It cannot be true that Christ will resurrect and glorify the members of His Body and after that purify them with judgment, with a baptism of fire.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is more powerful than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: (Matthew 3:11)

The judgment of the saints, that which is described in the fourth chapter of I Peter, must take place before the Lord returns to resurrect and glorify us.

Think about this: the Scripture teaches that when Jesus appears from Heaven we shall appear with Him:

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)

The appearing of the dead and living saints in glory is described in I Thessalonians 4:14-17. This is the time when Christ descends from Heaven with the trumpet blast, bringing with Him those who are asleep in Him. The dead saints will be raised from their graves. The living saints will be changed and then caught up with the resurrected saints to meet the Lord in the air.

If we think this through we can see that it is not possible for us to be raised from the dead, to put on incorruption (I Corinthians 15:53), to ascend to meet Christ in the air, and after that be judged and then cleansed from all sin and self-seeking.

The Apostle Peter speaks of the fiery trials that will test us during our days on the earth, and then declares them to be Divine judgment on us.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (I Peter 4:17)

To be continued.