Life's Backward and Forward Look
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. There is a time when we should not look backward.
(1) We should not look back with a heart of longing after the fleshpots of Egypt. The Children of Israel had received from the Lord a great deliverance. They had been led forth with a mighty hand. They had been snatched away from the cruel whip of the taskmaster. At first their hearts were filled with joy and gladness. When, however, they met difficulties in their wilderness journeys they turned their faces backward, longing for the fleshpots of Egypt. God was angry with them because they forgot the One who had gone before them, and prepared the place where they should pitch their tents.
God forbid that any of the young people who read these words should turn their faces and their hearts back to the old life from which they were saved. Let us keep our faces looking on, and up.
(2) We should not look back at our achievements with the thought of resting upon our lees. Some of us seem to be satisfied when we have wrought successfully some great undertaking. We forget that there is much land yet to be possessed, and much work yet to be done.
There is no time or place for a Christian to lag, or to stop by the way. We should serve unto death, dying with our harness on. So long as there are whitened fields needing harvesting; so long as there are plowed fields unsown, we dare not cease to toil.
2. There is a time when we may look back.
(1) We may look back at the close of each day to see if we have wrought well our task. This look should never be the look of pride and of self-satisfaction. It should be a look of scrutiny, that we may learn whether we have been faithful to our calling. Every day should be so lived that at its close our hearts may not condemn us. Every day should be so lived that at its close we may have from the lips of our Master, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Every successful merchant stops now and again to take stock. He wants to know whether he is gaining or losing. He wants to know this in order that he may stop the leaks, and improve by the mistakes he has made.
(2) We may look back in order that our tomorrow may be strengthened by our yesterdays. The idea of living a life in a haphazard careless way should be beneath every saint. The young man who sowed his seed without considering the harvest which he was bound to reap, was foolish indeed. Therefore, let us review each day that we may profit by the lessons of the past and make life more effective in the future.
(3) We may look back in order that we may correct any failure which is behind. It is still true that we cannot live over again the day that is gone. It is just as true, however, that we may crowd into our tomorrow some service which we may have inadvertently overlooked in our yesterday.
3. We may always look forward.
1. We may look forward to the opportunities which arise in order that we may take them as they pass.
2. We may look forward in anticipation of the Crowning Day.
I. PAUL'S CHARGE TO TIMOTHY (2 Timothy 4:1)
When Paul charged his son in the Gospel, he charged him in view of the Appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in view of His Kingdom. Here are the words of his charge: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His Appearing and His Kingdom."
1. The Apostle would have the young man Timothy to keep the judgment seat of Christ always in view. When the Lord Jesus set His face steadfastly toward Calvary, He looked far past its travail, to the glory which should be revealed. As the shadows deepened about Him, He never once turned back. He pressed His way on and on. "Having loved His own * *, He loved them unto the end."
If you would ask, why did the Lord never turn back? we would answer: "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame."
The Apostle Paul knew that young Timothy would pass through many a darkened day. He knew something of the sorrow that would befall his son in the faith. Therefore, he urged him to live and to serve in anticipation of that coming Day, when his record would be received at the judgment seat of Christ.
2. The Apostle would have the young man Timothy to keep the judgment seat of Christ in view, that he might be found faithful in service. These are the words with which Paul charged him: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine."
May we place before every young man, and young woman, the same admonition. If we are to stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of everything done in the body; if we are to receive from the Lord Jesus Christ, in that Day, according to that we have done, then let us preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season. There is not a moment to waste.
II. PAUL'S WARNING OF THE TIMES TO COME (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
1. The Apostle knew the times of testing which lay ahead. The good soldier of Jesus Christ does not despair because of the anticipation of some conflict. He is ready to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Dark days with their difficulties do not turn him aside, they only inspire him to more watchfulness and to more faithfulness in his task. "What did Paul say to Timothy? "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
Such were the days and such were the difficulties that lay ahead of the young man Timothy.
2. What are the testings which confront the young men and the young women of today? As we glance once more at Paul's words of prophecy we cannot but recognize that the time has now fully come of which Paul wrote above, when he said, "the time will come."
(1) Men do not now endure sound doctrine. The world of today speaks from the pew and says: "Prophesy unto us smooth things." The pew is crying unto the pulpit and saying, "Tell us that tomorrow will be as today, only much more abundant."
However, tomorrow will not be as today. Evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. The Spirit truly wrote of the last days: "For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents," etc. The worst of it is that these men shall have a form of godliness, yet denying the power thereof.
The Spirit expressly told them that in the latter times "some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and the doctrines of devils."
(2) What therefore shall our young people do? Shall they despair, shall they give up, or shall they press on through fire and flood?
III. PAUL PASSES THE TORCH TO TIMOTHY (2 Timothy 4:5)
Here is the way our key text runs: "But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."
1. Paul spoke these words knowing that he was about to lay his armor down. In the next verse he says: "The time of my departure is at hand." Do you wonder therefore that he was passing the torch to Timothy?
They pass the torch to thee,
So hold it high,
Their mantle falls on thee,
Their Master calls to thee
To do or die.
Let not the flare burn low,
Light up the sky,
For God now undergo,
For sin doth overflow;
Thy torch hold high.
The battle wages hot
And many die;
Fight on, and loiter not,
Thou shalt not be forgot
By God on high.
Thus did Paul, the aged, call upon Timothy, the youth, to take up the sword that he laid down, saying, "Fight the good fight of faith."
Paul's words called for the heroic.
(1) "Watch thou in all things." The very call to watchfulness suggests an enemy lurking near.
(2) "Endure affliction." This word suggests no roseate path lying before the servant of God.
(3) "Do the work of an evangelist." Mark you the Apostle did not urge young Timothy to attack the modernist. He urged him to save sinners. This is just what we should do in the present hour of apostasy.
(4) "Make full proof of thy ministry." In these words the Apostle was urging Timothy to do his best in his preaching and in his serving.
IV. READY TO GO (2 Timothy 4:6)
1. "I am now ready to be offered."
(1) Paul had suffered many things for Christ's sake in the past. To recount the story of his sufferings would take a long time. He, himself, summed up for us many of the things he endured. He said, in the Spirit: "Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day."
Would that we might be able to suffer with more grace the puny persecutions and pains we have to bear!
(2) Paul had suffered much, but was ready to suffer more. He said he was ready to be offered up but how? Did he not mean as a sacrifice, or a drink offering for his Lord? He did. And shall we not bend the knee and dedicate our lives as did he?
2. "The time of my departure is at hand." There had been a time in Paul's life when he longed to go to be with his Lord. He only was willing to stay that he might further the Word and work of his Master, and strengthen the saints, or he was willing, the rather, to go. Death meant no terror to Paul. It presented no misgivings.
Why do so many saints fear the valley of the shadows? Let us stand ready to meet the Lord whensoever He may call. Let us vow at this moment that we will make our lives so pure and so true, that a call up higher will bring only joy, not fear.
V. THE BACKWARD LOOK OF OUR LORD (John 17:4; John 17:6-7)
Before we set forth the backward look of Paul; let us stop for a moment in John 17:1-26, and consider the backward look of our Lord Jesus.
1. Christ said, "I have glorified Thee on the earth." The Master stood in the Upper Room with the twelve. He was about to be offered up on Calvary, the Just for the unjust. As He prayed to the Father He said, "I have glorified Thee on the earth," Is this not our duty, and privilege? Whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, let us do all to the glory of God.
2. Christ said, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." Up to that moment everything had been done in His ministry that God had given Him to do. The Calvary work now lay ahead. Thus, when He had gone on to Gethsemane, and to the mock trial, and the Cross, He cried, "It is finished."
Where could we find a greater ambition than to fulfill the work which God gives to us? Let us not shift our responsibility and say we have no work to do. God has written, "To every man his work." The Book of Ephesians tells us that we are created unto good works which God hath afore prepared or mapped out. The one great ambition, therefore, of every life should be to continue, until its task is done.
3. "I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world." The Lord Jesus manifested all of those wonderful titles which belonged to the Father. In fact, He Himself wore those titles. May we also manifest His Name. We bear the name Christians "Christ-in" surely we can manifest the Name we bear.
4. "I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me." The Lord Jesus definitely claimed that His words were the Father's words. What are the words which we are commanded to speak? To the Prophet Ezekiel, God said: "Thou shalt speak My Words." We are commanded in the New Testament to "preach the Word." With this partial backward look on the part of Christ, let us now give Paul's backward look.
VI. PAUL'S BACKWARD LOOK (2 Timothy 4:7)
Paul like his Lord, as he neared his departure, looked back over his life to review it. He epitomized the days he had spent from his conversion unto that hour under three statements.
1. "I have fought a good fight." Paul had addressed Timothy as a good soldier. He had written to Philemon about Archippus and had called him a fellow soldier. How wonderful it all is. We are in a great conflict, a great battle against sin and Satan.
Our fight is indeed a good fight. We are not seeking to kill, but to make alive. The banner which we carry over us is the banner of God's love, not the banner of hate. We go forth as soldiers of the Cross.
Our fight is a hard fight. Even though we are marching with good news, the enemy is seeking to repulse us. There is much of conflict and much of endurance which we will be compelled to bear if we are good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
2. "I have finished my course." By his course he meant the work which he had been given to do. Paul had never deviated from the course. He had never gone off on bypaths. He had gone where he had been sent. He had preached what he had been commanded to preach. There were no backslidings in his life, no turnings aside. He had set his ship to the compass of God's will, and had thus steadily plowed his way across the sea of time.
3. "I have kept the faith." The Apostle Paul himself said that he preached that which he had received from God. He did not fabricate a Gospel, nor invent a message. He did not try to create some new thing. In Galatians we read of how God had revealed His Son to him. He said: "I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Let us endeavor to be able, in our backward look, as we review our lives to say the three things above even as Paul said them.
VII. PAUL'S FORWARD LOOK (2 Timothy 2:8)
1. "Henceforth." This is the first word of our verse. How entrancing does it sound to those who truly know the Lord and have met grace. Yet, how dark and gloomy is the word to the unregenerate. They never want to look beyond the veil of this present life and say, "Henceforth."
2. "There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." There was a time when Paul wrote, "Not as though I had already attained, * * I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling." We are not sure that when Paul wrote to Timothy, he was certain of that particular prize. He was, however, assured of the crown of righteousness.
3. "The Lord, the Righteous Judge." It was upon this ground that Paul felt assured of his crown. If he had fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith, he knew the righteous Judge would certainly give him the crown.
4. "And not to me only." Thank God for these words! Paul included himself, but he did not exclude you or me. How happy we should be, therefore, that the crown is open for us to obtain. We can join Paul in wearing the crown of righteousness, if we will join him in fighting the good fight of faith.
5. "Unto all them also that love His Appearing," Paul puts along with the other things which he set forth in 2 Timothy 2:7 this further basis of reward. First of all he certifies his own love of Christ's Appearing. Then, afterward he spoke also of others who love His Appearing. This is all in line with Hebrews 9:28, which says that He "Shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation" unto all those who look for His Appearing.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Princess Eugenie of Sweden sold her diamonds that she might build a home for incurables. On one of her visits to the home she met a wicked sick woman, to whom she talked about Christ. She told the matron on leaving that she hoped special attention would be given to that poor creature, for the princess was anxious that before she died she would become a Christian. One day she found the invalid with bright face because her heart was radiant with hope, and with tears in her eyes the princess said to her husband on returning to the palace, "I saw the glitter of my diamonds today in the tears of penitence." A. C. Dixon, D.D.