PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
[p. 314] PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
There are three lines of instruction connected with the past, present, and the future as they affect the believer, and to be occupied with one of these to the exclusion of the others must be a loss and privation; as we might say of three of our senses - seeing, hearing, and feeling, all of which should be in use.
The past is that which we learn first, and can never lose sight of. It refers to the expression of God’s grace towards us, consequent now on the finished work of Christ. We find all through Scripture from the beginning, that the man who turned to God was the object of His love and care. We see this in the case of Abel, Enoch, Noah, and so on all along the line of faith until the fulness of grace came in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, when God’s love shone out in all its magnitude on the returning sinner, and His righteousness in His past dealings of grace was fully declared. It is in this line that the believer is first deeply occupied, and it is most attractive and enjoyable; yet if we stop there, there is no progress in the soul. As long as we dwell exclusively on the fact of being an object with God, blessed as that is, we are more occupied with His loving kindness towards us in our own circumstances than with the love that is in His own heart; so that in a measure we judge of His love by His gifts, instead of seeing that no gift could be the measure of His love.
When His love is really before us, we are not thinking of what His love has done or will do for us, but He Himself is our object. We learn that “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8: 32) And it is undeniable that while we are occupied with what love can do for us, Christ Himself, who is the full expression of God’s love, is not before us as the object of our hearts; we have not come to [p. 315] what we read of in Luke 5: 11, “They forsook all, and followed him”. This was after they had received a remarkable manifestation of His favour in the great multitude of fishes. They were not occupied with the greatness of the mercy, but with Him who conferred it, for “when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him”.
There is a moment in the history of a soul that progressing, when Christ becomes its paramount object and when the one thought is like that of the two disciples in John 1, “Where dwellest thou?” or like that of Mary Magdalene, Where is He? “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10: 27) He is then more to us than any of His services, great and precious as they are. The still small voice was more to Elijah than the special care shown for him feeding him by the ravens. Jerusalem, though waste, was more to Daniel than the fear of the lions’ den. When Stephen beheld “Jesus standing on right hand of God”, (Acts 7: 55) he did not think of deliverance of receiving any earthly favour from Him, he was absorbed with Himself and the testimony concerning Him. Paul was consoled before the Roman tribunal not by any gift, but by the Lord Himself who stood with him and strengthened him.
God could, as we have seen, show such consideration for His own while the responsible man was still before His eye; so that an Enoch could walk with Him; or a Noah be set up here in favour and power; or Melchisedec could meet Abram when returning from the slaughter of the kings, and refresh him with bread and wine; or Moses could be forty days in the mount to receive the pattern of things in the heavens; or Israel be conducted from Egypt, the oppressor’s power having been so broken that he has to relinquish his grasp, and a way be opened for them through the Red Sea, so that they passed with a high hand out Egypt, the house of bondage, and all their enemies [p. 316] sank like lead in the mighty waters. They can then sing: “The Lord ... hath triumphed gloriously”. (Exodus 15: 1) God’s interests have become their interests, as expressed in Moses’ song, and they look to be brought to His holy habitation; and eventually they were brought through the wilderness in a remarkable way, so that their foot did not swell, nor their garments wear out, until they were led across the Jordan into the land of Canaan. In the Psalms again we see how God met the need of individuals at the moment, and at the same time provided for what concerned His own name and glory. If all this could be done for His own before the responsible man was removed from His eye, what will He not do when that man who offended is removed; when reconciliation is brought in, and when His own are before Him in all the acceptance of His blessed Son, who not only bore the judgment that rested upon man, but perfectly glorified God in bearing and removing it!
We find in the gospels, Christ the Man of His pleasure manifested, and that He could not only remove all the pressure that lay upon man, but that He could turn the sufferer to Himself (see Mark 5: 18). Finally, in His death He terminated judicially the old man before God, so that each of His own might be in His own acceptance with God; and that to everyone believing that Christ is raised from the dead, the Holy Spirit might be given by whom the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
What I have called the past, viz., what God has done for those who had faith from Abel down, finishes historically with the termination of Christ’s life on the earth. He was here the blessed revelation of God’s love, and we are thus assured of His boundless interest in us, and that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
A new day opens with the Lord’s resurrection and the present begins, being characterised by the coming of the Holy Spirit; and while we cannot lose sight of [p. 317] the past, there are many who from not rejoicing in the gift of the Holy Spirit, are occupied with the past alone, and do not know what it is to be in the Lord’s present confidence. The moment we receive the Holy Spirit from Christ glorified, we have the One who can make known to us all that God’s heart desires for the present. Many have the Spirit who are not in deliverance, and until they know that they are in Christ, that the Spirit is in them, the things of Christ are their chief joy.
If with Israel there was a manifestation palpable to the human senses of how God delivered them from the power of the enemy, and conducted them through the Red Sea to the joy of deliverance from all their enemies, eventually to plant them in Canaan on new ground, how much more now, when this wonderful type has been fulfilled by the work of Christ and a deliverance, not now visible to human senses, has been made known by the Spirit of God dwelling in us. A new day is opened to the soul when the Spirit is given to remain with the believer for ever. Thus we know the present. First, the believer has to learn the past in what Christ has wrought for him and in the fulness of the grace of God towards him; but having received the Spirit, a new range of truth is opened out to him, viz., that which “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10.
We see from Matthew 14: 10, when John the baptist was beheaded, that the Lord accepted it as an intimation of His own rejection, and retired into the desert. There He fed the multitude who followed Him; but now He has taken a new place which He set forth in figure by walking on the water above all the power of evil on the earth; He has opened out the [p. 318] way to Himself where no one could join Him but by the Spirit. The Lord set forth this in figure when He attracted Peter to join Him; He said to him, “Come”, and Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus. Thus in pattern the Lord prepared Peter for the new structure, the only spot where now He can be found on earth, the house of God, the church of the living God. Hence in John 14 the disciples, inside with Himself, were first taught how they would be furnished by the Spirit with the knowledge of what Christ had been here on earth; they are then set up in His own peace to come forth for Him on the earth, receiving all supply from Him, as the branch would from the vine. This is a new divine path, one which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. It is not then merely what is past that occupies us, but what is present, the Lord’s present mind and interests, so that not only are there special gifts given by the Spirit to the servants for ministry, but as each one knows Christ as Head on the other side of death, he knows Him in His own sphere of life as the source of everything, and that He directs each for the present moment, and everyone who seeks Him and beholds His glory is transformed into the same image, according to His present mind, and is therefore enabled to “shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”. (1 Peter 2: 9)
Finally, the Spirit of God, according to John 15: 26, sent from Himself in heaven, demonstrates (John 16: 8) what the world is in its true moral character: “of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged”. Secondly, He was to guide them into all truth and to show them things to come. Thirdly, “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. He was to bring out to them heavenly things. This is the highest point of your present, because you come from Him in heaven, as [p. 319] united to Him there, to represent Him on the earth at the present moment in the church, and in your own social circle.
No one can be in communion with Him without knowing how the church has been leavened by professors, so that it has become a “great house”, where there are vessels to honour and to dishonour; and when anyone gets near Him he will first purge himself from vessels to dishonour, and then follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. If he walks in the Spirit he is in concert with the Lord’s present mind, so that Paul’s teaching, which refers to our union with Christ in heaven, is the great truth for the servant to present in the last days, and is the aim and end of his ministry to the saints. Thus he is led by the Lord to understand how the truth in John’s gospel can alone awaken souls from the dead and formal state into which they have fallen, and revive the truth of union with Christ so that they are prepared for the future by being in present concert with the Lord.
The one who is in concert with the Lord would also know that His attitude towards the professing church is that He is walking in the midst of the seven candlesticks in judgment, and that in the last days those who cleave to Him, though they have but a little power, keep His word and do not deny His name. They are sustained and succoured by Him in a remarkable way, though apostasy will advance, and culminate in Babylon - which is man surrounded with all the luxuries of this world, but perfectly independent of God. Amidst all the confusion and darkness here the future is lighted up by the fact that you know Him as He is in the present, and that you are here for Him when He comes. So that at the close we find the Spirit and the bride inviting Him to come and take His rightful place on the earth; then the bride will be here for Him as the new Jerusalem.
[p. 320] Now it is to be noted that while those are interesting, who speak of the Lord’s walk and ways upon the earth as showing what He was in our circumstances, they do not get to the present until they know that they are in Christ, and that the Spirit is in them, so that they have full deliverance from themselves; and then, while it is still interesting to look at Him in connection with our circumstances, we have to do with a much greater thing, viz., with Himself in His own circumstances.
One remark more, the snare of those who are satisfied with the knowledge of what Christ has done for them and of God’s favour towards them, is to become occupied with the future in the line of prophecy, and they are thus diverted from the great controlling interest of being in company with the Lord, in His present mind and purpose.
The Lord give us grace to apprehend our true place with Him now. The more we dwell upon the immense range of truth that belongs to the present, the more edified we shall be, and the more will He Himself personally be the enjoyment of our hearts, because we shall be in concert with Him; and the more truly we walk in the Spirit in the present, the more we enjoy the past and are prepared for the future, occupied for Him, while watching and waiting for Him to come.
To sum up. If you dwell on the past, historically fulfilled in Christ’s life on earth, your heart will be filled with the goodness of God, manifested in what He has effected for us in Christ, and with the greatness of His interest in His own for ever. But when, having received the Spirit, you know that you are united to Christ in present grace, you realise the prayer in Ephesians 3, and you know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God. Then Christ’s interests are your interests. No matter how dark the day, you know that you are in His confidence and that He is unchanging, and He will instruct you as to how the dead and [p. 321] formal are to be aroused out of their slumbers; and if you are here when He comes, you are of the bride to welcome Him, and to rejoice in the brightness of His presence.
Scarborough,