Revelation 21:5-8 And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.… And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful, etc. Some remarks on the new moral creation were offered in our last homily, and were suggested by the last clause of the fifth verse. The subject now is the one matchless Creator. Who is he that brings into existence on our planet a new order of spiritual things, that creates a new moral heavens and earth? The representation here gives us to understand that he is One who is all-truthful, everlasting, infinitely beneficent, surpassingly condescending, and essentially sin resisting. I. HE IS IMMUTABLY TRUTHFUL. "For these words are true and faithful" (ver. 5). What words? The words that had reference to the things that had already come to pass. What he had promised and what he had threatened had come to pass. What he has spoken not only has been done, but is being done, and must be done. He is the Truth, the unalterable Reality, the one Rock that stands immovable amidst all the fluctuations of creature thought and speculation. Whatever in creature opinion is conformable to him is relatively true and beneficent, and whatever disagrees is false and pernicious. II. HE IS EVERLASTING. "I am Alpha and Omega [the Alpha and the Omega], the Beginning and the End" (ver. 6). He is without a beginning, without a succession, without an end; the Cause, the Means, the End of all things but sin. All that exist throughout immensity are but evolutions of him; ever multiplying and growing branches from him, the eternal Root. The capability of forming such a thought is the glory of our nature; the power of properly entertaining it is the only means of possessing true mental life and progress. III. HE IS INFINITELY BENEFICENT. "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely" (ver. 6). Souls are ever thirsting. Of all animal sensations, none is more agonizing than a burning, unquenched thirst. But soul thirst unquenched is far more agonizing and destructive. And soul thirst seems to be almost the mainspring of all human actions. "Who will show us any good?" This seems to be the cry of all. This thirst there is One and only One who can quench, and for this he is ever working. He pours forth in all directions the refreshing and crystal streams. And all this "freely," without any coercion, limitation, partiality, or pause; freely as he gives the beams of day and the waves of vital air. From the heavens above, and the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth, there goes forth from hint, as from an ever-acting, fathomless, and inexhaustible fountain, that which can quench the thirst of all human souls. IV. HE IS SURPASSINGLY CONDESCENDING. "He that overcometh shall inherit all [these] things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son" (ver. 7). Two things are here stated which suggest this amazing condescension. 1. This recognition of every individual man who does his duty. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." That he should notice man in the mighty aggregate may well impress us with his condescension, but that he should notice individual man, how much more! Here we have the universe won by self conquest. Notice: (1) Self conquest as the grand work of man. What is it overcomes self? A man may overcome others by violence, overcome difficulties in his secular pursuits, overcome the forces of nature so as to make them subserve his will, and yet not overcome himself. Self conquest includes at least two things - the subordination of the body to the soul, and the subordination of the soul to sympathy with God. The soul may rule the body, but it may rule it for selfish, or sceptical, or ambitious ends, Such a rule would not be self conquest. The soul should be ruled by sympathy with God, sympathy with his character, his operation, his plans. In these two things self conquest consists, and such conquests require battling - resolute, brave, persistent, invincible battling. (2) Self conquest as winning the universe. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." The millions of men who live in the universe do not inherit it; it inherits, possesses them, uses them, plays with them, absorbs them, But the man who has conquered himself comes under the control of sympathy with the great God - inherits all things - gets the universe. He gets the whole of it; he penetrates its meaning, appropriates its truths, admires its beauties, drinks in its poetry, revels in its spirit, exults in its God, and says, "The Lord is my Portion." He gets the whole of it to enjoy forever. 2. The affiliation of every individual man that does his duty. "And he shall be my son" (ver. 7). The conquering of sin and the rendering of the external universe into subservience of the higher interests of his nature is the grand duty of every man, and every man that does this God will make his son. Are not all men his children? By no means. They are all his creatures, his offspring, but not his sons. A man may have a dozen or more offspring, but not one son. He only is a son who has the true filial instinct, involving trust, love, obedience, acquiescence. The great mission of Christ into our world was to generate in humanity this true filial disposition, enabling them to address the Infinite as "our Father." This is the true adoption, He, then, who conquers evil becomes a son of God. He does not receive "the spirit of bondage again to fear, but... the Spirit of adoption," etc. V. HE IS ESSENTIALLY SIN RESISTING. But the [for the] fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part [their part shall be] in the lake which [that] burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (ver. 8). All these hideous characters are but the creatures of sin. Sin is cowardice, sin is faithless, sin is abhorrent, sin is murderous, sin is lascivious, sin is deceptive and idolatrous. All these productions of sin are abhorrent to the Divine nature. "It is the abominable thing" which he hates, and he consigns sin to irretrievable destruction, and it is destined to have its part in "the lake which burneth with fire." CONCLUSION. Such, then, is that ever blessed One who is engaged in the new moral creation of our world. The creative work has begun; its progress seems to us slow, but its consummation is inevitable. - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. |
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