Enlarging Vision--Promise to Abraham--A Host of Similar Promises
--Many of them Not Merely National--Their Fulfillment--Not Limited by
the Short Epoch of Time--The Present Only One Part of the Divine
Administration--Why the Revelation Was Not Given Sooner--Groping in
the Twilight--Growing Illumination--A Time for Everything--Dazzle or
Enlighten--Discoveries in Science and Revelation--Our Slowness in
Receiving Spiritual Truth--Limitations of Great Men.
If reason, even when based on revelation, still appears to you a very
fallible guide, will you please take note of some direct promises
contained in revelation itself? And I would ask you to consider how
these promises could ever come true apart from Restoration. There are
glorious promises that are partly or wholly of a local or national
character. These that I shall cite now are not to be so restricted. They
have a far grander sweep and application. No doubt the writers of them
may not have been conscious of their full import. But that is the nature
of revelation. It grows in meaning from age to age. And the noontide
glory of those promises is beginning to break on our larger vision.
Take the words spoken to Abraham: "In thee shall all the families of
the earth be blessed." To realize that this promise was of no mere
national importance, listen to the way in which Paul applies it in his
Epistle to the Galatians. He says: "The Scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the heathen through faith preached before the Gospel unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."
Now has that promise been fulfilled? Since Abraham's time have not
millions and millions of the families of the earth passed out into
darkness unblessed? Other millions of families are passing away now,
without having once heard the Saviour's name. And other millions
deliberately reject Him. Certainly, all these millions are unblessed, In
their case the promise has not been fulfilled. But it will be fulfilled.
Beyond the bourne of time it will come true. This glorious enlargement
of the scope of the promise takes away all difficulty, and fills us with
joy and praise.
The other passages that I shall quote bear the same way, but we shall
not stay to make any comment on them. I would ask you to think them over
seriously; disarm your mind as far as possible from prejudice; let the
glorious truth prevail. Ponder such passages as these:
"All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."
"As the new heavens and the new earth which I will make, shall remain
before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain."
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."
"All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord."
"All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O
Lord; and shall glorify thy name."
"All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."
"In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall
glory."
"I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my
salvation unto the ends of the earth."
"His name shall endure forever; it shall be continued as long as the
sun; men shall be blessed in him, all nations shall call him blessed."
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born
this day in the City of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord."
"It is written in the book of the prophet Esaias, All flesh shall see
the salvation of God."
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father."
"Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For thou only
art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee."
"All Israel shall be saved."
"And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I
saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth
on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever."
Such are some of the Scripture forecasts of the final day of grace. Men
have tried to confine the realization of such promises to the present
life. But they will not be so confined. The vast scheme of grace extends
far beyond the narrow span of time. Only conceive of the fulfillment of
such glorious hopes as being extended into the next age. Such a prospect
begins to appear to be truly worthy of God. And surely, the news of such
an enlarged scheme of salvation is the most joyful that ever fell on
mortal ears. Men of the most devout and reverent spirit are beginning to
take these larger views. The day is breaking; soon the shadows will
flee away.
If such promises as we have quoted seem too general, or merely
national, just confine your attention to a few which are evidently of a
far wider scope.
Christ says he will draw all men to Himself. Then He must do so in the
next life; for certainly He is not doing so now. But His word will
stand. He will do all His pleasure. It is a marvel that the Christian
world has taken so long to see this promise in its glorious fulness.
In harmony with the statement just referred to, we read in Isaiah that
"he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." Are
not these wonderful words? How are they to be explained? The travail of
His soul! Who can fathom that abyss of woe? The very words are
suggestive of untold agony. I believe that at the last He touched a
depth of woe which no man or angel has sounded.
But He shall have a recompense that will satisfy Him. Does not that
point to the salvation of the whole race? Would anything less satisfy
Him? Does He not say that He came to save the world? And will anything
less satisfy Him? Certainly He is not satisfied now. The moiety of
mankind that is saved now, or to be saved to the end of time, will not
satisfy Him. No! His divine love embraces the whole race.
What then about the uncounted millions who never heard of Him? What
about the millions that are dying now, and that never heard the music of
His name? Is not every one of them in the divine scheme of salvation?
Their time will come. The Saviour's operations are not limited to one
age. His love is from everlasting to everlasting; and so are the means
at His disposal. In this age we see but the beginning of the outgoings
of His grace. We cannot conceive of Him being satisfied till the last
soul of the human race is redeemed.
I shall not go farther along this line than simply to remind you that it
is written that God will be "all in all." That is a wonderful expression
when we look into it. What does it really mean? Does it not mean that
God will be all in all? That is--He will be everything in everybody. I
take it that this is the real meaning of the words, Everything in
everybody! O mystery of love and power divine!
I apprehend that the significance of the words "all in all" is not fully
appreciated or understood. See, for instance, the way in which the words
are used in that hymn, "That Christ is all in all to me."
The words, "all in all to me" seem to be used as an attempt to emphasize
the force of the sentiment, "all to me." That is, He satisfies my every
want. But I apprehend that the words have a much larger meaning than
that. It is not myself alone, but everybody that is concerned here. It
is that Christ is everything to every human soul. Everything that He is,
is made over to everybody. What a glorious expansion of the words! "All
in all;" that is, everything in everybody. Was there ever such an
infinite wealth of meaning packed into a few short words?