Peter Brandon addresses the question of whether Jesus Christ will come soon, emphasizing the signs of His second coming as foretold in Scripture. He discusses the fulfillment of prophecies regarding Christ's first coming and asserts that the same will hold true for His return, urging listeners to be ready. Brandon highlights the moral, religious, economic, and international signs that indicate the nearness of Christ's return, encouraging believers to look up in anticipation. He stresses the importance of being 'in Christ' to be part of the gathering of the church when He returns, and concludes with a heartfelt plea for individuals to accept Christ as their Savior and Lord.

It's a great subject tonight. Will Jesus Christ come soon? So I want to give just a simple talk on the second coming and trust that we shall all be ready. Now let's turn to the scriptures. We're going to read first of all from Matthew 24 and we'll start reading at verse 1. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, see not all these things verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And that prophecy was completed in the year 70 A.D. when Titus, the Roman general completely destroyed the whole of Jerusalem so that there was not one stone left upon another. So you can see the immediate prophecies of the Lord Jesus were fulfilled, that's three. And he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming at the end of the world? Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars see that ye be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famings and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places all these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another and many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold but he that shall endure unto the end shall be saved and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come. Now let's look at another phase of his coming that's in 1 Thessalonians 4 and we shall read from verse 30. But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now notice the sphere the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words and God will bless to us the reading of the Bible. Someone has put to me the question will Jesus Christ come soon? I suppose they were worried about the gulf war. Perhaps they were worried about the possibility of a third world war. And as we look at the nations today we can see that the situation is boiling perhaps more than any of us realize. And so I can understand the person putting that question to me will Jesus Christ come soon? And the answer is yes very soon. Sooner perhaps than most of us realize. Now why do we believe that Jesus Christ is going to come soon? Because the world is in a boiling situation? No we believe that he is going to come soon because he said he would come. And we believe in the word of God. Now why is it that we believe so emphatically in the promises of God? Because of the fulfillment of the first prophecies. Now I know in England and probably you've read about it there was a certain bishop and he said that Jesus Christ probably play acted the prophecies. But I would like to say that you can't play act a birth. You try. You can't play act deity. You try. You can't play act an atoning death. And you certainly can't play act a resurrection. And therefore in the old testament the birth of the Lord Jesus was predicted a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel. The whole life of the Lord Jesus was predicted from Isaiah 42 right to 44. The death of Jesus was predicted as we have seen there are 99 prophecies relating to the death of Christ. And the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was predicted and we have seen that there are 16 direct prophecies in the old testament concerning his resurrection. So you can see he couldn't have been the play actor. Now isn't it logical ladies and gentlemen to believe that because the Lord Jesus fulfilled all the first prophecies concerning his coming to earth that he will fulfill the second kind of prophecies relating to his coming in the air. And therefore if we believe in the first prophecies we must believe in the second prophecies or the second set of prophecies and they will be fulfilled. That's why the apostle says this we say unto you by the word of the Lord. And the Lord Jesus made it quite clear that if I go away I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. And there is nothing clearer than that in scripture. Now when we look at the coming of the Lord Jesus there is only one coming but it's in two stages. First of all it is going to come for a special group of people called the church. Now the church in scripture is never a building and I will give you one verse to prove it. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Now I'm quite sure he didn't die for this platform that squeaks. And he didn't die for those hard pews that cause many aches. And I'm sure he didn't die for the ceiling or the brickwork. So you can see when Christ died he died for a company of people and that's what the word church means. It comes from a brilliant Greek word the ecclesia that means a company of called out people. And when that church is complete and that's what he's doing in the world today he's forming a church. And when it's complete he's going to take that church to heaven and we believe he's completing now the building of the church. And someone tonight might be saved and that person might be the last member added to the church and then the Lord will come and up will go his redeemed people. Secondly after he has come from the church and removed it he will then begin to deal with the nations. And first of all Israel will get its eyes open to see that the Messiah that they put on the cross was the real Messiah and not the false Messiah. Secondly the world will be governed by a wicked man called the man of sin. In the revelation he's the same man he's called the beast and I believe that's ironical. You know the clever people of this world always wanted us to come from the beast like the monkey. And it seems to me that the Lord says right I'll give you a beast to rule over you. And in the last days there's going to be a mighty man the greatest man that ever lived apart from the Lord Jesus that will be the man of sin that will be worshiped more than we worship God and he will deceive the nations. And two things will happen. Some in Israel will get their eyes open to see that the one that they crucified was the King the Lord the Messiah. And at the same time there will be this fourth God and furthermore there will be the fourth Christ the fourth prophet in fact there will be an ugly trinity of evil. And then God will bring great judgment upon this world because of its abounding sin so that one third of the marine life will be destroyed probably one third of the solar system will be destroyed and probably one third of the world's population will be destroyed. And then he will come with all his saints and he will reign over this earth for one thousand years. Now some of the events I've missed out because I want to speak upon that first stage of his coming the Lord's coming for his church and we should all be on our toes looking for that moment. Now how will we deal with this subject? Now first of all tonight I'm not going to deal with this subject for the bible student. When we come to the last session of our ministry up there in the north we're going to give a whole series on the second coming. But tonight I want to give this address for the man in the street for the person who knows nothing at all about prophecy. So we're going to deal with the subject under three very simple headings. When will he come? When he comes for whom will he come? And then how will he come? And then I want to close with the challenge are we all ready? Are we ready? Now if I were to give you the moment of the Lord's coming I would expect everyone in this congregation to switch off from the preacher. Why? Because the word of God says the day and the hour knows no man. Not even the angels not even the son of man and you will notice the title the son of man. Therefore the preacher would be exceedingly foolish to give you a day a month or a year and I'm not going to do it. But he did say a very interesting thing he says when you see these things come to pass lift up your heads look up for your redemption draws near. Now the word to look up and lift up the head is very interesting especially that little phrase to lift up the head. It means to stretch the extremities and when you stretch the extremities you especially stretch the neck. In fact in the bible there are two kinds of necks. There's the stiff neck man and the stretch neck man. The stiff neck man is a rebellious man. The stretch neck man is a man of anticipation looking for his coming. It was taken from the idea of an Easterner looking for a friend that was going to come for an evening meal and he's a little late and his friend goes to a brow of a hill and he stretches his extremity he stretches his neck to see it is coming and that basically is the meaning of the word. Now in Matthew 24 I know it's the coming of the son of man but there's an overlapping period and I'm sure that will satisfy some of you bible students. There are 24 signs and I've picked out four that I believe to be very major. The first sign is a moral sign he says iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold he says as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man and two things mark Noah's day immorality and total corruption. Now my dear friends what the Lord Jesus is saying as he looks down the short avenue of time is this just before I come all the moral codes all the moral absolutes are going to be jettisoned and the world is going to overflow with iniquity but don't panic when you see it happening stretch your neck. Now is that so? In Europe there is a philosophy that every Christian detests and it's called existentialism and this is what it's basically saying at least this form of religious existentialism that man has grown up and now he doesn't need the God of the Bible and because he has grown up and he doesn't need the God of the Bible he must now manufacture his own God so really that's pantheism and therefore all the laws affiliated with the God of the Bible must be cast out such as the ten commandments and all the laws affiliated with Christianity they too must be jettisoned such as marriage a man must now be a free agent so that if men want to marry and women need to marry if a man wants three wives if a lady wants three husbands let them all be free and you'll be reading here in Australia a book called the brave friend world it's a masterpiece of the devil now my dear friends we have seen in Britain 25 years of the permissive society and I want to say this it doesn't work it's a total failure and even the common people in the streets of London are beginning to hate it loathe it because we see the results of it now can you imagine what will take place dear friends when the church is taken the restraining power of the Holy Ghost removed and there's no light no thought in the world the whole of society will be corrupt now says the Lord to us when you see this overlapping period don't panic get on your toes and look up and say he's coming very soon then he gave to us religious signs he said that there would be false Christs he said that there would be false prophets he said in the 25th chapter if you look at it carefully there will be false conversions those young ladies that go forth to meet the bridegroom with lamps of profession but no oil in their vessels and then as you go through the scriptures in the last days you will see there will be false doctrines and false religions and probably false manifestations of revival in other words in the last days there's going to be falsity in every possible spiritual realm now i'm sure this will shake some in all the theological colleges in the world there are only 15 percent that are fundamental and that means well over 70 percent of our theological colleges do not believe in the scripture now if i gave you all the facts and the figures of what we call apostasy you would be amazed but it's coming in now like a flood furthermore all these religious pretensions are going to head up in one man that's going to come and he's going to be the false messiah and you can see at least in europe the whole of europe is waiting for a brilliant leader and if you were over in europe today you will see that the common market is not basically working and they're talking about now a president but what they mean is someone that is highly intellectually fused and therefore we can see as we see all these religions of the world and they are ganging together and it wouldn't surprise me if we see all the religions coming together as one and that will be the masterpiece of sin but as we see all this apostasy and sin and deception what do we say do we go into confusion no get on your toes stretch the neck and say hallelujah the lord's coming you see it's a sign of his coming that he gave to us economic signs he said there will be famings and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places now i would love to deal with the subject of earthquakes so we are being told there have been more earthquakes in the last 10 years than they have been for the last 50 years and we have seen that in our faces pestilences what does that mean diseases that are mysterious and probably AIDS is the first of many can i repeat that AIDS is the first of many there is a new immoral disease going through america it's only known now as herpes but it has more complications than AIDS and we are see these ugly diseases spreading all over the world what about famings now here are some facts one third of our world is starving that's why the gulf war was absolutely ridiculous one third of our world is underfed so that there are millions of children suffering with malnutrition and one third of our world is overfed so that scores of people are dying with obesity what a ridiculous world we live in now when we see all this faming coming what do we do go along to the superstore and fill up our deep freezes of cosmos you get on your toes you stretch your neck and say the lord's coming any moment isn't that wonderful that's the christian's hope then he gave to us international signs that he said there would be wars he says nations shall rise against nations i wish i had time to go into that word rise it's very interesting and kingdoms against kingdoms the idea there is world wars and what does this basically mean that international tension will be there in all its profundity and hideousness where will the center of all this international tension be in belfast no no nigeria certainly not europe no listen the middle east we are now in this exciting day in which we live beginning to see the great prophecies of scripture fulfilled on the stage of time and we are seeing god fitting in the puzzle and the puzzle is almost complete now because israel is there in the land almost surrounded by their enemies and when we see all this we don't panic if we love the lord we should be absolutely full of joy because the lord's coming but i want to ask you a question are you ready if he came tonight would you go or would you be left behind for judgment you know dear friends it's a lovely thing when you've been away from home and then you're coming home especially when the children were small my dear wife i suppose was an enforced widow for 30 years 30 years and when i left home my heart was heavy when i was coming back home invariably i had two cases of walking up that little hill getting off the country train those cases were light i was going home and you know it was a lovely joy to knock on the door i never used the key i had a special knock would you like to hear it and you would hear four feet bounding up the passage and the door would open and there would be two little boys saying love me to see you daddy what you've got in the case but then my wife would come and it wasn't basically what was in the case can i put it in an ungrammatical way we wanted to see each other what a moment of joy it will be when he comes and i believe the lord's footsteps are being heard today i believe we can almost hear the knocking on the door he's coming and what a joy it will be to see him but there are some here if he came you would be left behind and may i say this to you don't leave the square of this building until you're right with god tonight as you sit there say to your precious never dying soul soul you must get safe tonight it's absolutely vital whatever it costs now for whom will he come i was going to talk about the church but i think that would be a little complicated for some of our good friends i was going to speak about the sealing of the spirit but that would be difficult but i want to speak on this little expression he's going to come for those in christ he's going to come first of all for the dead in christ and he's going to come for those who are alive in christ and notice that little expression in christ in christ jesus is mentioned over and over and over again all the way through the epistles so you can see that we're not majoring on something that's extreme we're majoring now on something that's fundamental now what does it mean to be in my children are in me it doesn't mean to say they are actually sticking out of me but it means they've been born into my family and into my wife's family they bear my name they bear my nature they bear my wife's nature why because our genes have been them it doesn't mean to say the children are literally in me so that they stick out of me no but it means in christ in me means they have been born into my family now he's going to come for all those who have been born again those who are in christ that have been born of christ or born of god and therefore when a person becomes a true christian as we shall see in a few moments god forgives all his sins through the death of the lord jesus he put into that person's life that has received the forgiveness the holy spirit and the holy spirit brings a completely new life right down into his spirit so he is born from above and that's the greatest thing that god ever does now my dear friends can i ask a question are you born anew have you been born anew well someone would say well brother peter how do we receive christ how do we receive this new birth the bible makes it very simple john says in the gospel he came unto his own and his own received him not but to as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of god even to them that believe on his name now what does it mean to receive christ now note this it means number one to have a direct intimate encounter with jesus christ not with the preacher with jesus christ not with a text of scripture it's not an encounter with a doctrine it's not an encounter with a scripture it's an encounter with christ himself by faith and it's here tonight nearer to you than the person sitting next to you and then it means that you receive him as your own personal savior because we've all sinned we're all guilty before god we all need forgiveness and therefore we receive christ so that he might forgive us and save us from sin and then secondly i receive him as my lord where self and sin has been controlling my life that ceases to happen and jesus christ becomes the lord of my life so i receive him as savior and i receive him as lord if thou shalt confess with thy mouth jesus as lord and shalt believe in thine heart that god has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved now you might say well how does that experience come not by waiting for it you know there are lots of people who have come to this mission and they've been sitting in those seats and they've heard the gospel and they went out without christ and we felt very sad about it and when asked one or two said this well it hasn't come to me yet and what they're waiting for is some kind of dream some kind of vision now my dear friends we don't wait for dreams we don't wait for visions we don't wait for feelings the only feeling you need is this that you're a poor lost sinner and when you understand that you're not far from the kingdom you see my dear friends you don't get married by dreams you don't go to bed on monday night and wake up on tuesday say oh dear i'm married you never get married like that you have to go before a responsible person and say intelligently and devotionally i will and you will never get saved by a dream or a vision or a feeling there comes a moment in your experience forgive me bringing this right down to earth when you have to get on your knees and say lord jesus i'm a poor lost sinner i need to be saved would you save me now and be the lord of my life and then you've received him and the moment you receive him in faith and in repentance like that you are born of god and you're ready now here's a big problem i must share it with you i was speaking to some young people i'm not going to tell you where it was and they stayed behind and they said look we've received him as savior but we haven't received him as lord but we're all right you know i said what do you mean well said one fellow speaking for the others i was dead scared of hell and i asked the lord to save me but i had no intention of making him lord of my life and i still wanted to do some of the things that you may call naughty well i said you're not saved the first step is repentance turning to god from sin and the second step is faith and faith is two-fold it's faith in the savior it's faith in the sovereign and then you're in hell oh there's going to be many left behind when jesus comes in fact i believe there'd be some that break bread that will be left behind when jesus comes they were not really in christ they were in the assembly in the church in the mission but not in christ or let's face up to it are we in christ oh i trust that everyone may be in christ before this service is over now how will he come well he's going to come with tremendous power he's going to come with bridegroom majesty and glory when he comes again and i want you to note these majestic words he's not going to come as he did during his first redemptive coming hear now the word of the lord the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout what were when he came the first time he came in humility born in a manger when he commenced his ministry he was so poor he actually had to say show me a penny when he lived here in the valley of this earth he was known as the man of sorrows why the cross was ever before him when he finished his course the last vision the world had of the lord jesus was a man suspended to a roman gibbet with a crown of thorns crushed in his head his beard plucked from his face his visage marred to such an extent it was beyond recognition his back like a cloud field and that's how the world saw him and they never saw the resurrection and the ascension it was a cross and dare i say it a savior that bled and remember this the world in which we live is under the curse because of the blood of christ and it's yet to be judged that's why i hope you're in christ because if you're in christ you're in god's new society that will never be judged but when he comes the second time and i want to say this now in worship before him he's not going to come in humility he's not going to come in poverty he's not going to come as the man of sorrows i say this with reverence he's not going to come with a crop of wood on his back or with a crown of thorns on his head he's going to come in all his majestic glory listen the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout on his head there will be the crown of gold his garments will be of wrought gold his feet will burn like brass his voice will be the sound of many waters and he will come in glory great glory and he won't come with an apologetic whisper saying oh earth you've made a mess of it i'm about to come he's going to come with a shout i love that you know that shout first of all it will be a resurrection shout he shouted at the grave side of lazarus lazarus come out and one came out but when he shouts again it won't be one it will be millions and they won't come out with grave clothes all around them they'll come through it all in glory it will be a resurrection shout but then it will be a gathering shout for the first time the whole church will be gathered together and brothers and sisters in that day all the labels will fall off won't that be lovely you won't go up baptists you won't go up as anglicans and you won't go up as methodists and you won't go up as brethren and you won't go up as presbyterians all the labels will drop off and for the first time in history the whole church in all its glorious oneness will be gathered around the lord jesus and like a bride we shall be presented to him without spot without a wrinkle and without a blemish i'd love to go into the details of that but it's going to be a victorious shout and that's the main meaning for instance when a roman scored a victory over their enemy if it was of such a sort or size they were allowed to go back to rome to celebrate it and as far as gibbons is concerned he tells us that only about 10 roman generals were ever allowed to go back and one was titus and when they went back they took all the spoils all the captives with them it must have been a tremendous sight and then the general would be in a golden chariot and in front of him foolishly there would be a white bull that they would sacrifice at their temple pagan temple jupiter behind the general there would be the leading centurions behind the leading centurions the centurions in the roman army behind them the soldiers behind the soldiers the captives behind the captives there would be all the spoils that they had captured and when he got right into the center of the city and there would be literally thousands there he would have a fanfare of trumpets played and then he would shout out one word in latin that i'm going to shout out in english victory and all the men would shout going through rome victory victory and there would be the spoils of it when he comes he's not going to give us the sober song of defeat it will be the triumphant song of victory and every single believer will go out meeting his lords shouting victory glory to the lamb on the throne what a day that will be for every christian but then what about the ascent of the church i want you to listen to this beautiful expression shall rise first think of it some might say well brother brandon this is the problem most of those people have been so decomposed that no one will know where they are that's right some have been boiled and eaten by lions like in the days of nero that's correct so how can he gather their remains my dear friends matter is never destroyed it always evaporates into energy and god is the god of the atom and he knows where the atom is and here bring it together in all its glorious oneness but you think of it the dead in Christ think of all those that died in the first century being raised think of the millions that were saved in the reformation all being raised think of those that were saved in the 18th century revival thousands upon thousands all being raised think of the thousands now being saved in china and those that have died for the faith and also behind the iron curtain the thousands that have come to christ and then died all being raised but we can't help being selfish some of you put your dear mums down didn't you and you felt it some of you planted your parents you knew they were with the lord but you loved them whilst they were in the body can i get nearer some of you have lost loved one and you've put your husband you've planted him or the wife and you still feel the sore of it right now it's an open wound think of that moment when the dead in christ are raised not with bodies filled with cancer not with old discrepant bodies but raised in glory raised in power raised the spiritual body that means a body that can completely and totally controlled by the spirit what a moment the dead in christ shall rise first and we which are alive if he came now that would refer to us shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air i was reading last week in dr wilson's paper very good paper about some americans that were surrounded by iraqis and they could see them coming from all angles and they were shaking for fear and suddenly dropping from the air was a helicopter and ten of them were hoisted up and he said they were snatched from the jaws of the iraqi were they glad when the lord comes he's going to snatch us away from the jaws of the tribulation and what a moment that will be reverend it's so near i think we ought to have a practice have you noticed they were having gas practice in israel because they were absolutely sure some kind of gas bombs were going to be dropped and they kept having practices if the coming of the lord is so near shouldn't we have a practice let's see how we get on a second coming practice i shall count five and i shall shout victory and that's the lord's come let's see how we get on ready don't you shout i'll shout and we'll see how we get on one two three four five victory would you go or would you be left would you go would you be left or if there's someone here in whom the spirit of god is moving tonight i'm sure you should be saying something like this look mr brandon how can i be born again well can i do it with this book he wants to cleanse your life so it's clean like that and he can cleanse you through the precious blood he wants to put the holy spirit now within you so that you're born of god and he wants to do that near now but in a meeting like this he comes close he comes near and he couldn't be nearer and he stands at your life's door and this is what he says behold i stand at the door and knock now sometimes when you knock you knock politely if they don't hear you'll knock again if they don't hear you're not louder if you know they're in and they are not really answering they may be asleep you're not louder if it's desperate to get in you're almost knock the door down do you know what i believe the lord's doing now he's coming any moment and he's knocking desperately he's knocking to come in friends you would be foolish tonight to keep him out if you go out of this meeting tonight without christ and without god your eternal blood is on yourself you have written your name in the book of damnation the lord's here and he wants to save you open the door open the door can i plead with you to do that open the door tonight and receive christ as your savior and lord