Spurgeon: October AM
* 10/15/AM
"But who may abide the day of his coming?"
--Malachi 3:2
His first coming was without external pomp or show of power,
and yet in truth there were few who could abide its testing
might. Herod and all Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news
of the wondrous birth. Those who supposed themselves to be
waiting for Him, showed the fallacy of their professions by
rejecting Him when He came. His life on earth was a winnowing
fan, which tried the great heap of religious profession, and few
enough could abide the process. But what will His second advent
be? What sinner can endure to think of it? "He shall smite the
earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips
shall He slay the wicked." When in His humiliation He did but
say to the soldiers, "I am He," they fell backward; what will be
the terror of His enemies when He shall more fully reveal
Himself as the " I am ?" His death shook earth and darkened
heaven, what shall be the dreadful splendour of that day in
which as the living Saviour, He shall summon the quick and dead
before Him? O that the terrors of the Lord would persuade men
to forsake their sins and kiss the Son lest He be angry! Though
a lamb, He is yet the lion of the tribe of Judah, rending the
prey in pieces; and though He breaks not the bruised reed, yet
will He break His enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in
pieces like a potter's vessel. None of His foes shall bear up
before the tempest of His wrath, or hide themselves from the
sweeping hail of His indignation; but His beloved bloodwashed
people look for His appearing with joy, and hope to abide it
without fear: to them He sits as a refiner even now, and when He
has tried them they shall come forth as gold. Let us search
ourselves this morning and make our calling and election sure,
so that the coming of the Lord may cause no dark forebodings in
our mind. O for grace to cast away all hypocrisy, and to be
found of Him sincere and without rebuke in the day of His
appearing.