Malachi 3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: I. REMIND OF SOME PARTICULARS IN THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 1. The certainty of that event. That. Christ will come is a point on which we are not left to doubt and conjecture. We have the plainest testimony which words could give (Acts 1:11). 2. The manner of it. It will be glorious. The first coming was in all outward meanness and humiliation. The second is to be "the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour." His coming will be sudden. 3. The purpose and consequences of it. In His state of humiliation Christ came as a Saviour; when He comes in glory, He will come as a Judge. II. ANSWER THE SOLEMN QUESTION OF THE TEXT. "Who may abide the day-of His coming? " Who will be able to bear that severe and close inquiry which will then be made into our lives and characters? 1. Those who will not be able to abide. Every open and habitual sinner. The worldly man, who has made the world his god, and has set up his idols in his heart. The hypocrite, who has the form of godliness, but is without the power of it. The man who is self-righteous, and trusts to his own merits and strength. 2. Those who will abide. The humble, penitent, believing Christian, a character widely differing from every other. His ground of confidence in that day will not be his innocence. He will claim an interest in the death of Christ. His penitence, his uprightness, his secret striving with sin, his useful life, his godly motives will be brought in evidence of the soundness and reality of his faith. The Judge Himself will own him as a friend. (E. Cooper.) Parallel Verses KJV: But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: |
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