Notice in the following excerpt
from his sermon 'Christ’s Work no Failure' that Spurgeon had a great understanding pertaining to end time prophesies. Now if we could adjust to the same sort of reasoning we might be using up a lot less imagination.
"Our
Lord has come to save His elect and He will save every one of them! No soul for
whom He stood as Surety and Substitute shall ever be cast away. The sheep shall
pass again under the hand of Him that counts them and they shall all be there.
“He shall not fail nor be discouraged,” but He shall see of the travail of His
soul and shall be satisfied.
As
for the Lord’s Second Coming, we know not when it shall be. Shall the world
grow darker and darker till He comes? It may be so. There are passages of
Scripture and signs of the times which may be taken to indicate it. On the
other hand, shall the age grow brighter and brighter till He appears to bring
the perfect day? Through the preaching of the
Gospel shall there yet be periods in which multitudes shall be converted and
whole nations shall be saved? I do not know—there are texts that seem to look
that way and many a brave worker hopes as much. There are some who can map out
unfulfilled prophecy with great distinctness, but I confess my inability to do
so. They get a shilling box of mathematical instruments. They stick down one
leg of the compasses and describe a circle here and a circle there—and they
draw two or three lines—and there it is! Can you not see it, as plain as a
pikestaff? I am sick of diagrams! I have seen enough of them to make another
volume of Euclid.
My impression is that very little is to be learned from the major part of these
interpretations or speculations. I do not think that anybody can map out the
future so as to be absolutely sure of anything definite
except certain great clearly-stated facts.
It
is certain that the Lord will come, that He will come in such an hour as the
most of men look not for Him—and that His coming will be a surprise even to
many of His own Church. He may come at this moment while yet I am speaking to
you, but He may delay His coming, if it so pleases Him, through many a century.
It may sound strange for me to say so, but if our Lord were not to come for ages,
we should not be justified in saying, “My Lord delays His coming” nor would any
prophecy of Scripture be broken. Furthermore, it seems to me pretty clear that
truth and righteousness are to win the day upon the earth—the idols are to be
abolished, war is to cease and the great Jehovah is to be called “the God of
the whole earth.” Either before or after His Second Advent—I am not going into
that question this morning—this polluted earth is to be cleansed and this round
planet of ours, which today is darkened by sin, shall yet shine out, like a
new-born sun in all the pristine light which beamed from it when first it came
from its Maker’s hands! The Lord shall reign over all mankind and a period of
peace, rest and holiness shall be the fruit of His blessed sway! The Lord Jesus
will not rest till He has subdued all things unto Himself and put down all the
spiritual wickednesses which now tyrannize over the world...."
