THE EMPOWERING THOUGHT OF THE LORD’S RETURN
Illustration★★★★Jack MacArthur speaks of the power of the truth of the Lord’s / second coming in men’s lives: I was so intrigued with the empowering thought of the Lord’s RE- I TURN, so I investigated the lives of men who have been mightily I used of God, to find out what they had to say concerning this blessed I truth. D. L. Moody was asked the secret of his power and intensity.
He said, “I preached for years with the thought that before every sermon was finished the LORD MIGHT COME.” J. Wilbur Chapman said, “I preach the Lord’s return because the thought of His second coming has changed my whole ministry. I have not the slightest doubt but that we are approaching the last days.” (Oh, if it were true then, how much more so it must be now!)
G. Campbell Morgan, who just recently left this vale of tears to be with our wonderful Lord, said, speaking in those dark terrible days of the bombing of England, ; “To me the second coming is the perpetual light of my pathway, mak- I ing the present bearable. I never lay my head on my pillow without _ thinking that before morning breaks the final morning may have I dawned.”
Hudson Taylor, that great pioneer for God who tackled _ the seemingly impossible in China and wrought such mighty things for Christ, said, “This truth of the Lord’s return has been the greatest spur to me in missionary service.” R. A. Torrey, peerless preacher of yesterday, said, “The truth of our Lord’s return is the most precious truth the Bible contains.
It fills the heart of a believer with joy. It girds him with strength for the battle. It lifts him above the sorrows and the fears and necessities and trials and ambitions and greed of _ this world, and makes him in all things more than a conqueror.”
The point
Jack MacArthur recounts how Moody, Chapman, Morgan, Taylor, and Torrey each credited belief in Christ's imminent return with fueling their preaching and endurance.