10/15/2024
Morning by Morning
Who can endure the day of his coming? Malachi 3:2
Charles Spurgeon:
Christ’s first coming was without external pomp or show of power, yet in reality very few could withstand its testing might. Herod and all of Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of His wondrous birth, and even those who professed to be looking for His coming exposed the fallacy of their shallow profession by rejecting Him when He arrived. His life on earth was a winnowing fork that sifted the huge pile of religious profession and very few withstood the process.
But what will His second coming bring? What sinner can even stand to think of it? “He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked” (Isa. 11:4). Consider the soldiers who humiliated Christ by arresting Him. “When Jesus said,’I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6). Imagine the terror of His enemies at His second coming when He will more fully reveal Himself as the “I AM” (EX. 3:14)!
Jesus’ death shook the earth and darkened heaven, so imagine the dreadful splendor of that day when, as the living Savior, He will summon “the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42) to stand before Him as their judge. Oh, that the coming terror of the Lord would persuade people to forsake their sins and “kiss the Son, lest he be angry” (Ps. 2:12)!
Although Jesus is the Lamb, He is still “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” able to tear His prey into pieces (Rev. 5:5). And though “a bruised reed he will not break” (Isa. 42:3), He will break His enemies with an “iron scepter;…dash[ing] them to pieces like pottery” (Ps. 2:9). None of His foes will be able to stand against the winds of His wrath or hide from the boundless hail of His indignation.
Yet Christ’s beloved blood-washed people look forward to His coming with joy and hope to observe it without fear. To them He already “sit[s] as a refiner” (Mal. 3:3), but “when he has tested [them], [they] will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
May we examine ourselves this morning “to make [our] calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10) so that the coming of the Lord will cause no dark foreboding or apprehension in our minds. Oh, for God’s grace to cast away all hypocrisy and to be found by Him to be sincere and without rebuke on the day of “his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:1)!