Page 81 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

Beloved, does it not behoove us to try our own hearts to see whether we have been
faithful or derelict in carrying out the last command of our blessed Savior? The
believer has no choice of whether he is going to be a missionary or not. He must be a

missionary and a witness if he is to be obedient. Considering the vast disparity in the
number of witnesses in heathen lands by comparison with those in more favored
countries, it would seem that one would almost have to prove an alibi for not being a
foreign missionary! What more blessed way to “occupy” than by witnessing unto Him

to those who have never heard His name. We praise Him for the share we have had in
declaring Him, delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification, ascended
for our intercession and coming again for our vindication, to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death. We have the satisfaction of knowing that we are in the

path of His will, because walking in obedience to His last express command, and we
have the thrill of wondering every time we see one brought to Him whether this is the
last one to complete the number of His elect.

Can we whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high;
Can we to men benighted the lamp of life deny?
Salvation, O salvation, the joyful sound proclaim,

Till each remotest nation has learned Messiah‟s name.

Yes, beloved, “Till each remotest nation has learned Messiah‟s name!” There is no
indication that there will ever be a time that this world that lies in the wicked one will

ever be converted. What the commission calls for is to make Messiah‟s name and His
salvation known, and to evangelize the world, not convert it.

There are more Christless souls in China today than when Robert Morrison, the

great London missionary, first arrived in what is now Hong Kong. There are more
Christless souls in India today than there were when William Carey, the missionary
cobbler, first went to India. There are more Christless souls in Africa today than there
were when Livingstone and Henry Stanley blazed a trail across the Dark Continent.

The number of believers has not even kept pace with the increase of population, but
the testimony of the Crucified and Risen Christ has been spread abroad in these
nations and the Written Word in whole or in part has been translated into over one

thousand languages and dialects.

This is the final, the irrefutable sign, that the coming of the King is near at hand.
When this sign is taken with the other signs, the restoration of the Roman Empire, the
return of the Jew to the land, the rise of the iron dictatorships that are found in

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