Ecclesiastes 3:15 That which has been is now; and that which is to be has already been; and God requires that which is past. There is in law what they call a release. If you have an incumbrance upon your property, by the payment of a certain sum of money on your part the person to whom you are obligated gives you a document freeing your property from any incumbrance. That is a release. Well, when a man becomes a Christian, for and in consideration of what Christ has paid in his behalf, God grants him a full release, and all his old sins go down into the very depths of the ocean, never to be brought up again, neither in the crises of this world nor in the Day of Judgment; but until that arrangement is made, "God requireth that which is past." There are in our lives, however insignificant, a multitude of events for which we must give account. 1. In the first place, God will require of us all our past unrecognized blessings. Oh, God has been very good to you. Have you been good to God? "God requireth that which is past." More than Chat, He saw you dying, and sent an angel to redeem you. Did He? No. He sent His only Son. Why? To heal your wounds, and to wipe away your tears, and to carry your burdens, and to die your death, and to save your soul; and for these last ten or twenty years He has been asking of you one little thing, and that is that you would let Him just stand inside the door of your heart. Oh, have you done it? 2. Again, God will require of you, and does require of you, the warnings that were unheeded all your life. Did any of you have narrow escapes? He has made a record of them, and "He requires that which is past." So God will require of you all the warnings that came to you through sickness. So, also, God will require of you all those warnings that came to you through the sudden decease of your friends. I suppose that there have been thirty or forty startling providences in your life, when you were impressed with the fact — more or less impressed with it — that life was uncertain, and that at any moment eternity might move in upon your soul. How did you feel about it? Did you put the warnings that God gave you to any practical application, or has it been proved that there is no power in God's providences to move and arouse and arrest your soul? There are three points at which "God requires that which is past."(1) One is now. God is saying to you so loudly you cannot stop your ears against it: "O man, where is thy father's God? O man, where are thy dying mother's entreaties? O man, where have you spent your nights since you have been in town? O man, if you should die in your seat to-night, where would you go to? O man, how long will you live?"(2) There is another point at which God makes requisition, and that is the last hour we live on earth. What are the voices of the past saying to that unrepentant man as he is going out of life? Those voices are saying to him: "What about those Sabbath-breaking rides? What about those words blasphemous or unclean? What about those malpractices in trade? What about those million bad thoughts during your life, of envy, or hatred, or lust, or pride? Come to resurrection all ye days, and months, and years; come to resurrection." And they come. What is God doing with that dying man? He is "requiring that which is past."(3) There is one other point at which God will make requisition that is, in the great final day. Without a single exception, all the unforgiven sins of our past life will come up before us, and before an assembled universe we will be questioned about them. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Parallel Verses KJV: That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. |
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