Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2718
“Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.” 2 Corinthians 1:10.
WHEN children are learning their grammar, they have to pay particular attention to the tenses of the verbs. And it is also important for Christians to remember their tenses—to remember the past, the present and the future. Our text brings all three very vividly before us and reminds us that God has delivered, does deliver and will yet deliver.
First, let us think for a little while concerning the past. How old are you, my Friend? How many of your years have you employed profitably and how many have you allowed to run to waste? For how many years have you worked the will of the flesh and been a servant of sin and Satan? How long have you been born again? What is your age spiritually? Take down the record of your life and examine it, from the days of your childhood, through youth and early manhood, up till now. It is a book which should do us good to read. In some respects, all it’s pages may make us weep and yet, viewed in another light, many of them may give us cause to sing. This is the one book in the library that many people do not like to take down and read, for there are so many blots in it and so many humbling records. Yet “God requires that which is past,” and it is a token of wisdom for a man to talk with his past years and to learn from them the many lessons they are able to teach. All the days we have lived will go before us to the Judgment Seat and each one will bear its record and leave it there. So let us not be oblivious of that which God remembers, but let us remember it that we may be penitent for all that has been wrong in it, and that we may be grateful for all that has been right.
Next, think about the second part of life, namely, the time present. And here let me urge upon you, dear Friends, the importance of valuing the present. In fact, time present is the only time that you have. The past has gone and you cannot recall it—the future will never really be yours for, when it comes, it will be present, too. It is only in the present that we live, so that if we waste these precious hours that are now with us, we waste all that we have. If we serve not God today, when will we serve Him? Tomorrow? No, for when that opportunity comes, “tomorrow” will have been changed into “today.” Let us endeavor, as God shall help us, to watch our moments so as not to waste one of them.
It is a good thing to have our life divided up into short periods. The other day I saw John Wesley’s diary, or rather, horary, for it had in it not merely an entry for every day, but for every hour—and not only for every hour, but usually there was a distinct occupation for every 20 minutes! The good man made his days to have many hours in them—and his hours seemed to have more minutes in them than most men’s hours have—because he did not waste any of them, but diligently used them all in his Master’s service. God help us all to do the same by paying great attention to the present portion of our life!
As for the future, there is an idle curiosity which prompts men to try to live in it that we must renounce. But there is a gracious expectation which enables us to live in it—a holy anxiety which prompts us to prepare for it. It is greatly wise for us to talk with those years that are to come if we talk with them in view of their end. I would have you familiar with your graves, for you will soon be in them—and still more familiar with your resurrection dwelling place, remembering that God “has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Let us often project ourselves beyond the present into the future—to gather strength from the future is frequently the best way to deal with the present. You will be more easily able to bear your present burdens when you think how short is the time in which you
will have to carry them. Your “light affliction, which is but for a moment,” will seem scarcely like a feather’s weight to you when you anticipate the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory” which God has prepared for you!
I recommend to you, therefore, this rule of three, and advise you always to consider the past, the present and the future. And just now I invite you to do so in connection with the delivering mercy of God. He has delivered us. He does deliver us. He will deliver us. And, first, I am going to point out to you three trains of thought Next, three lines of argument And, thirdly, three inferences.
I. First, THE TEXT SUGGESTS THREE TRAINS OF THOUGHT.
The first is memory, which tells us of the deliverances in the past—“Who delivered us from so great a death.” Take the words exactly as Paul wrote them and recall how God has delivered some of us from death. A few here, perhaps, have been very near to death in battle or in tempest. Many more of us have been very near to death in sickness. Some of us have, several times in our lives, looked into eternity—our illness has been no child’s play and we have realized the possibility, or even the probability of our soon passing away from all the engagements of this mortal life—and standing before our God. But we have been raised up again—we have come forth from our chamber tottering on our staff, perhaps, through weakness, yet we are still preserved—the living, the living—to praise the Lord as we do this day. I have no doubt that almost all of you have had, at one time or another, some very special proof that, “unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.”