Believing To See No.
A sermon
(No. 766)
Delivered by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
" I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living."- Psalm 27:13.
I HAVE taken the whole verse for my text, but I am not sure that I
shall keep to it. The words in it at which I catch are these, "Unless I
had believed to see." Most people see to believe, but in David's case
the process was reversed and put into Gospel order–he believed to see
and this is the keynote of our discourse. The prayer of my heart is
that some may be led to believe to see, and that those who have been
trying to see in order to believe may now come and trust in Jesus and
believe and see the Grace of God. Here we have in the words I select
for the text, a doctrine stated, many difficulties removed, and some
directions afforded for the Christian life.
I. We have here before us a fundamental truth and DOCTRINE of our faith
that the great act by which a man is saved, so far as he is concerned,
is the act of faith. That is to say he gives up all other righteousness
and casts himself upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment he
does that he is saved–his past sins are forgiven him–his future is
secure. That one simple act of confidence in Jesus, insignificant as it
may appear to be, is the dawn of spiritual life, the evidence of
security, the token of eternal salvation!
And here is the reason for this, namely, that faith is God's appointed
mark which He sets upon His favored ones, and by this may a man know
whether he is saved or not, whether he is ordained unto eternal life or
not–by his answer to this one question–"Do you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ?" Or, in other words, "Do you trust in the Son of God?"
The case is ordered in this wise–we have sinned, we have broken God's
Law–God's Law must be honored. Sin cannot be committed without a
penalty being inflicted.
The Lord Jesus Christ determined and stipulated in the Covenant of
Grace that He would take upon Himself the form of Man and that He would
suffer for the chosen many, even for His people, what they had deserved
to suffer themselves on account of their sins, or a punishment that
would be equivalent to that suffering. In due time the Lord Jesus
Christ appeared. True to His word of promise He went up to
Calvary–there He received, at God's hands, that which was due from His
people to the great offended Judge. There He paid their debts.
There, once and for all, He took the handwriting of ordinances that was
against them and put it away, nailing it to His Cross. Now, virtually,
all for whom Christ died were then saved. Their debts were then paid.
Their punishment was then discharged. The debt due to the Sovereign
Justice of God was then altogether borne, and Jesus Christ, then and
there, "finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in an
everlasting righteousness" for His people. This Man, by His one
offering, has perfected forever them that were set apart!
Once yielding His soul unto death and giving Himself up a sacrifice for
men, He then and there saved His people as before the bar of God. These
saved ones are known by their being brought to trust in Him as their
once dead but now ever-living Lord. Without faith in Christ, my Hearer,
you have no share in His blood. You have no interest in His
righteousness. What He did upon the tree will have nothing to do in
saving you. All His griefs, and groans, and pangs you will have no
share in. Your debts remain unpaid. Your punishment has not been borne
for you. You will have to endure the wrath of God forever!
In the prison you will be forever bound in chains of fire. Inasmuch as
you have not believed, you have no share in the Atonement of Jesus
Christ. But if you have come and trusted yourself with Christ. If,
fully convinced that there is salvation nowhere else, you believe in
Him, then your debts are paid! The punishment of your sin has been
endured. You can never suffer, for God cannot punish two for one
offense. You can never be summoned to God's bar to be tried for your
life. You are clear. Through Jesus' blood you are ransomed. You are
justified, accepted, adopted, saved. Who shall lay anything to your
charge, seeing that Christ has died for you and made a propitiation for
your sin?
Now, the whole of this hinges upon a man's believing. If he believes
then the great Gospel truth is that he is saved. Throughout all the
Bible this is the one ray of light that comes out of the darkness to
poor troubled man–"He that believes on Him is not condemned." "He that
believes on Him has everlasting life." "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved." These assertions occur over and over and over
again so that I may safely say that this is the Gospel–that he that
believes is saved, and that the faith by which he lays hold of Christ
is to him proof positive that he is saved. He has God's Word for it
that he is redeemed in Christ.
II. We have now briefly stated the doctrine, but the main part of my
subject will be to try and remove those many DIFFICULTIES which people
newly awakened and quickened are sure to raise. The doctrine is that he
that believes is saved. But men ask a thousand questions about it and
see as many more difficulties–let us, therefore, try to meet and
answer some of them.
1. And, first, how often do we hear it said, "I cannot think that I am
saved. I do not trust in Jesus Christ–I am sure of it, and fear I am
not saved because I feel no worthiness in me." This is a difficulty
which we can slay at once. If you did feel any worthiness in yourself,
then you might rest assured that you were not saved because nothing is
more clear in God's Word than the fact that salvation is not by merit
but by Divine Grace.
The Apostle Paul is very clear upon this point. He says, "It is not by
works, but of grace." And if any say it may be partly of each, he says,
"No, if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no
more grace. But if it is of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise
work is no more work." Salvation is altogether, from first to last, a
gratuitous act of GRACE–hence you do not need to look for any merit in
yourself.
The case is parallel with this–It is sometimes the custom, when a new
king attains to the throne, for a general amnesty to be proclaimed, and
for all the prison doors to be opened. This is done, of course, not on
account of the merit of the prisoners, but to do honor to the great
mercy of the king. Now I think I see you, troubled one, sitting as a
prisoner in a cell and the door is opened to you. You are told that you
are free because the king would honor the day of his coronation.
But you reply, "I cannot believe that I am free, for I do not feel that
I deserve it. The sentence which was passed upon me was one which I
richly merited, and according to justice I cannot, therefore, walk out
of that prison door because I know that I have done nothing to merit my
discharge." But, Man, if the ground of your discharge is not in any
degree your merit, but only to the honor of the king, how simple-minded
you are to sit on that stone slab any longer! Up with you, Man! Walk
abroad! Take your liberty and do honor to the king's bounty! O Sinner,
you have no merit, that is true, but God forgives you to the praise and
glory of His Grace, to the honor of His dear Son, to give Him a
coronation! Come, then, walk out at liberty!
Or it is as though this should happen–Someone who is in a consumption
has applied for admission to enter, say, into Brampton Hospital.
By-and-by this person obtains the order, but no sooner does she get it
than she is afraid to use it. She does not dare go to the hospital. and
why? "Because," she says, "I am not in good health." Now, we answer at
once, "But if you were in good health, you would have no need of an
hospital. It is, in fact, your sickness and your bad health which give
you any sort of congruity in entering there."
So, when you tell me that you have no merit, my reply is, but if you
had any, you would not want a Savior! Your demerit renders yours a
suitable case to be met with by the merit of the Savior. It is your
sinnership which, if there is any fitness, is your fitness. Not your
righteousness, Sinner, but your guilt must be your plea when you wish
to be pardoned. If money is to be given away, men do not urge their
being possessed of riches as a reason why they should receive the
charity, but one cries, "I am exceedingly poor," and another says, "I
am poorer still." It is their poverty, not their substance, which is
their plea with the generous heart.
And so it is between God and you. Not your fullness, but your
emptiness! Not your goodness, but your badness! Not your merit, but
your demerit! These you must plead before God, seeing that salvation is
by Grace. Now, then, what do you say, Sinner? God tells you that if you
believe in Christ you are saved. Is God a liar or not? I must push that
with you. Does God speak truth or not? As for this trumpery objection
of yours, that you have no merit, I have shown you that it is without a
foundation–for if you had any merit, then why should you come to God
for mercy?
But, meritless, worthless, altogether without any goodness, still the
text says, "Blessed is he that works not, but believes in Him that
justifies the ungodly." What do you say–will you take God at His word,
and believe what He says to be true?
2. But I hear another objection, one which is very frequently made,
indeed. Someone says, "But I want to see in myself the evidences of
salvation. I know that when a man is saved there very soon appears in
his character certain signs and tokens which mark the work of the Holy
Spirit. And I cannot believe that I am saved on the mere Word of God. I
want to see the evidences of it." I will tell you a story then.
When the Emperor Napoleon the First was one day reviewing his troops on
what is now called the Place de la Concorde, sitting on his horse and
thinking of other things, he let go of the bridle and in a moment his
high spirited charger galloped away with him. A private in the ranks
saw the danger, rushed from his place, seized the bridle, and saved the
life of the emperor, who said to him, "Thank you, Captain," and went
on. "Of what regiment, Sire?" asked the soldier. "Of my guards," was
the reply.
Now it was a strange thing that the emperor should in a moment make him
a captain for so small an act as that, and stranger still that the man
should so simply and fully believe him as not to doubt for a minute,
but ask at once of what regiment he was to be the captain! Now, what do
you suppose the soldier did? Going back to his regiment he put down his
gun, and said, "Whoever likes may take care of that," and walking
across the review ground up to the staff, he joined with them.
A general looking round at him said, "What does that fellow want?"
"That fellow is a captain of the guard," said the man, and gave the
military salute. "You are mad, Friend!" "I am not mad. I am a captain
of the guard." "Who said so?" "He said so," pointing to the emperor
riding along. "I beg your pardon," replied the general, and recognized
him at once in his new office. The man took the emperor at his word. He
wore no shoulder ornaments. He was not adorned with any gold lace. He
had not received any of a captain's pay. He had passed through no
formal ceremony, but the emperor had simply called him "captain," and
that was enough for him.
Now I want to know whether the Lord Jesus Christ's word is not as well
worth taking as the word of the Emperor Napoleon. When he says to you,
"Believe. He that believes has everlasting life," the proper way for
you to act is to feel and say, "That is true! I have everlasting life,
although, as yet, I have not a jot of evidence of any other kind–yet
if He has said it, that is enough for me! Though I may have come in
here an ungodly, unconverted sinner, yet, since I have learned to trust
the Savior this night, and do trust him, then I am saved! I will try to
get these evidences by-and-by."
I have no doubt that that soldier I told you of very soon began to look
after his regimentals. He would not like to continue dressed as a
private after that, but would want an officer's uniform, and to appear
in the army as a captain should appear. And so will it be with you
by-and-by–but at first, my dear Friends, your faith must be grounded
on the word of Jesus Christ, and on nothing else. Perhaps the devil
will say to you, "What is that fellow doing here?" Tell the devil and
all his angels, "HE said it who died on the Cross! HE said it who
reigns in Heaven, that 'Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but
have everlasting life.''
Stand to it that if He said it, that is enough. You have the King's
Word for it! The imperial Word, the Word of the blessed and only
Potentate who cannot lie. So, then, it is sufficient evidence to the
believing heart that it has God's Word to rely upon. Let me point you
to the 36th verse of the third chapter of John: "He that believes on
the Son has everlasting life." And to the 18th verse of the same
chapter, "He that believes on Him is not condemned." Are not these
words quite sufficient, though as yet no other evidence can be seen?
But sometimes I have heard persons saying, "Well, but we must have
evidences. We cannot trust Christ without them." And consequently they
try to manufacture signs of Divine Grace, whereas, be it never
forgotten, that evidences are the product of faith, and not the cause
of faith. You go into a room at winter time, and you say to yourself,
"There is not heat enough in this room. I must try to make more heat."
And you set to work, by some plan or other, to do this. You say there
is no evidence of there being a fire because there is no heat. True,
but you will never make the heat produce the fire. Would it not be much
better to go and look to the fire at once? And then you would get the
heat which is the result of a fire.
So you say, "I am not so earnest, so reverent, so prayerful, so
penitent as I should be, therefore I cannot believe." Now, would it not
be better to say, "If I believed more, I should have more of these
evidences. Therefore let me go to my
faith, which is the cause of the evidences, and not go to my evidences
to get faith out of them"? It is as though you had a piece of ground
and you said to yourself, "Well, now, here are these trees. They
produce very little fruit–if I could secure a large crop, that would
be evidence that the soil is good. I must put fresh fruit on the trees,
and then that will prove that the ground is fertile."
Not at all so. Make the soil good, and then the fruit will come
naturally. So with your faith. Faith is the soil in which the fruits of
faith must grow. Do not be thinking about the evidences. Think about
the faith that will grow the evidences! Seek to go to Christ and trust
in Him, and you will get the signs of Divine Grace soon enough. Your
main business is with Jesus, not with evidences. Rest in Him–His
finished work and ascension power–and if you depend there, without
evidences, you will soon have plenty of them! But, if you look to
external or other signs in order to get faith, you look, as I have
already told you, in the wrong quarter, and reverse the order of Divine
Grace.
To use an old proverb you "put the cart before the horse." You do not
go logically and properly to work. Trust in Christ for evidences, and
you will have plenty of them in due time.
3. Commonly enough we hear people say, "I want to have a deeper
repentance and then I could believe that I am saved." Christ says, "He
that believes is saved." You say, "Well, that is what Christ says, but
I am not satisfied with that." Oh, atrocious thing! To make Christ a
liar and suspect His Word! Still, you say you want a deeper repentance.
Now, you are very like a man who is in a high fever, and delirious, and
he cries out, "I want to feel that I am in this fever! I want to know
the top and the bottom of this typhus! I want to know when it goes, and
how it will go."
But the doctor says, "Never mind, my dear Friend. Never mind the
typhus. Just trust to me. Take the medicine." He calms the man's mind
by reminding him that if he had not the typhus, he would not want the
doctor. But now that the fever is there, it is not for him to know the
disease so much as to trust the remedy. And when he gets well, he will
understand about it better. So, poor Sinner, till you have come to
Christ, your repentance is not worth a penny.
If you had a ton weight of it, your repentance would be of no value
till you trusted Jesus. We must get you well first and then you shall
know about the disease. Trust Jesus and believe His Word, and do not,
in your delirium, be looking for those dark experiences which would not
comfort you, though you think they would.
There is a man who has written a very offensive letter to a very kind
friend who has often obliged him. This friend, when he received the
letter, said, "Well, it was very wrong of you to write this letter, but
I freely forgive you." But the other said, "I do not think my friend
has forgiven me, because I do not feel regretful enough. If I felt more
repentant then I should think that he had forgiven me." As if his
friend's forgiveness were not quite well enough assured to him by his
friend's word!
But now, supposing that man should bring himself to believe that his
friend had forgiven him? Why, then he would find it an easy matter to
repent, because he would say to himself, "Has my friend been kind
enough to overlook so great a fault? Then how wrong it was of me to
have written so against him! How grieved, how shocked I am to think
that I should have fallen into such an offense against so generous a
friend!"
My dear Hearers, you cannot get repentance by refusing to believe
Christ's Word. Trust Him! Trust Him and believe that you are saved, and
then the sluices will be drawn up and you will repent! You will see
Jesus Christ dying that you might live and you will say, "Did I
slaughter that blessed Savior? Did I wound Him? Did I scourge Him and
put Him to death? Then, you monstrous sins, away with you! Away with
you!" You must first believe, and then repentance will come–not look
to REPENTANCE as being the evidence, but look to Jesus, and to Jesus
only, and, looking to Him, repentance will follow as a matter of
course.
4. Then, running to the other extreme, we have heard many troubled ones
say, "I cannot think that I am saved because I do not feel great joy.
If I had greater joy then I should know that I was forgiven." Somebody
has left you a large estate, and you say to yourself, "Well, I have
just read the letter in which the lawyer tells me that I am left a
large estate, but, somehow or other I do not believe it, for if it were
true, I should feel greater joy about it." Why, you talk like a fool,
Sir! If you believed it you would feel joy. It is because you do not
believe it that you do not have joy.
You turn the thing upside down and want your joy to help your faith,
whereas your joy must flow from your faith, and cannot possibly
contribute to it. So, Man, if you will come and trust my Lord's Word,
and believe that you are saved because you trust Him, then you will
have joy. You cannot be without joy. If you believed tonight that your
sins were pardoned, would you not be glad? Certainly you would. Well,
then, believe it! If you are trusting Christ, if you are rest-
ing wholly upon Jesus, He tells you that you are saved. Do not begin to
say, "I have not the bliss I hoped to have." You shall have that joy
when you have looked for it, and have looked alone to Christ.
5. Then, I have known others who have said, "I could believe that I am
saved if I had more sanctification." That also is the wrong way to go
to work. In a sweet little book which I have read lately, the writer
well remarks, "Suppose you were in Brazil and you were in some of those
brooks where diamonds are occasionally picked up and you found a large
one unpolished. No matter how rough it might be, if you knew it to be a
diamond, you would get it polished. But if you had any suspicion about
it, you would not be likely to incur the expense and trouble of
polishing it. It is your assurance of its being a diamond that would
set you to work to take it to the lapidary to have it put upon a seal,
and set."
So we find salvation, and when we get it, it is a rough, uncouth thing.
We want to have it, as we say, sanctified. Now, if we believe it is a
diamond, if we believe that it is really and truly salvation, we shall
then be in earnest to get that salvation perfected–to have the
diamond's facets all made to glitter in the light of Heaven. But so
long as we have any doubts about the matter, we shall not think, nor be
troubled, about perfecting our salvation.
The fact is that strong faith is the great sanctifying agent through
the power of the Holy Spirit and the application of the precious blood
of Jesus. You will never overcome your sins by doubting Christ! You
will never get sanctification by putting your holiness into the place
of Christ's righteousness. It is no faith to believe that I am saved
being sanctified. But it is faith to believe that I, being sanctified,
and with all my sins about me, am still saved through the precious
blood of Jesus! O Sinner, do not look to sanctification to back up the
testimony of God's Word. God's Word is enough!
O take it! Rest upon it! Remember, you dishonor God when you want any
other evidence except His naked Word. What would you, dear Friends,
think of this in your own case? You promise your child a present and he
wants evidences! You tell him that you love him and he wants you to
call to him somebody else to bear witness to it. Shame on your naughty
child, or else there must be something ill about yourself.
Now, as we cannot lay the blame on our heavenly Father, who is too wise
to err, too good to be unkind–shame on us that we should be saying we
want something else to make us believe God's Word. O Beloved, let us
believe Him when we cannot see it. And if we do not feel that we are
saved, let us believe the Word which says we are, seeing it is the Word
of Christ. I like that in Martin Luther. He says the devil said to him
once, "Martin, do you feel that you are saved?" "No, I do not," he
said, "but I am quite as sure of it as if I did. Get you behind me,
Satan!"
And that is the true way. Do you feel that you are saved? No, I do not
expect to feel it–it is a matter of belief. I trust my Lord and
Master. It is very sweet to get feelings, but Mr. Liveby-Feeling, as
you well remember, according to John Bunyan, was a Diabolian, and got
hung! I wish he had been hung to better purpose, for he still lives
about these parts. If you live by feeling, it is miserable living. It
is poverty sometimes, and riches at others. But if you live by faith
upon the Son of God who loved you, and gave Himself for you, that is
blessed living!
O for Divine Grace to do this, not to see to believe, but to believe to
see! Put believing first–and repentance, sancti-fication–evidences
and all else–will come afterwards!
6. I shall not weary you, I hope, if I mention that there are some who
say they cannot trust Christ, cannot believe His affirmation that they
are saved because they do not feel more love for Him. They are like a
child who should say, "I do not believe my father's word because I do
not feel so much love for him as I ought to do." Oh, but, my Child, if
you believed your father's word, a true and good love would come as the
consequence!
And, Sinner, while you are saying, "I cannot believe because I cannot
love," you are putting things altogether out of gear. That is neither
God's method nor the way of wisdom at all. Go and believe your Father
and then you shall feel a flame of love within your heart which you
have never known before.
7. But another one says, "I could believe that I were saved if I had
more of likeness to Christ about me." Here again, you see, Christ has
said, "He that believes has everlasting life," and you say, "No, Lord,
I do not agree with that. I believe that he that is like You has
everlasting life, and I cannot see that I am like You, though I once
hoped I would be, and therefore I cannot think that I am saved."
That is to say Christ and you differ in opinion, and you set your,
"No," up against Christ's, "Yes." Oh, down, down, down with your proud,
"No," and just take this sweet assurance, that "He that believes on Him
is not condemned." Now, here is a man who has been cutting a seal and
making your crest, but when you come to stamp your letters with it, you
find that the impression is very bad, that it is not your crest at all.
You cannot make out what it is!
It may be a crest, but it is not at all like one. Well, what will you
do? Will you try to polish up your wax, and so make the impression like
what you wanted it to be? Would it not be a great deal wiser if you
were to get the seal altered? Would not that set it all right directly?
If you were to send the seal back to the man who cut the die, and get
him to make the seal properly, would not the stamp then be right? Now,
how do we get likeness to Christ?
Why it is faith which puts the stamp there, and instead of saying, "The
impression upon my character is not like Christ, therefore I must try
to alter it," my dear Friend, think about your faith! Go to Christ and
through Him get your faith altered. And when the stamp is set right,
then the impression will be perfect. There is no holiness, no true
holiness apart from faith! It is not by doubting that we come to be
holy. I never could overcome a sin by saying, "I am afraid I am not a
child of God." The devil knows this and consequently, whenever he can
get us alone, he always begins with this, "If you are the son of God."
He did this with our Lord, and if he could have led our Lord to doubt
whether He was God's Son, we know not what might have come of it, for
certainly when he gets us to doubt whether we are children of God then
we very soon glide into other sins. But when we can say to him, "Now,
Satan, I am not ignorant of your devices. I know you are about to tell
me of my unfaithfulness and of my great sin. I know all that, but the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanses me from all sin. You
may paint me as filthy as yourself, and filthier, too, if it so pleases
you, and I will acknowledge that it is true. But then I will remind you
that Christ has said, 'I have blotted out your sins like a cloud, and
like a thick cloud your transgressions.' "
Why, you are more than a match for the devil then! O Brothers and
Sisters, let us take Christ's Word as we find it! I bring you back to
the story I told you about the emperor and the soldier. And seeing He
has said that we are saved, let us believe we are! If we have nothing
else to prove it, let us stand to it before angels and devils, the
assembled courts of Heaven and of Hell, all joined together, and say,
"I have God's Word for it, and I would put God's Word even before an
angel's word. If Christ has said I am saved, then I am saved! If He has
declared that the Believer has eternal life, I do believe! I do trust
in Jesus, and therefore I have eternal life, and I cannot
perish–neither can anyone pluck me out of Christ's hands."
Now, that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I would to God you had Grace
to receive it! I pray that every one of us may be brought to depend
upon the veracity of God and the merit of Jesus, and then, believing to
see, instead of seeing to believe, we shall be sustained, and
comforted, and greatly blessed.
III. And now I have a FEW DIRECTIONS TO GIVE TO MORE ADVANCED BELIEVERS
upon the same subject. Beloved in the Lord, the whole course of the
Christian's life must be believing to see. We walk by faith, and not by
sight. I hope the day may soon come when the noble example which has
been set by our esteemed Brother, Mr. Muller, of Bristol, will be more
constantly followed in all the Lord's work.
Rest assured that if we will but believe to see, we shall see great
things! I cannot forbear mentioning to you tonight what God has enabled
us to see of late as a Church. We met together one Monday night, as you
will remember, for prayer concerning the Orphanage and it was not a
little remarkable that, on the Saturday of that week God should have
moved some friend who knew nothing of our prayers to give 500 pounds to
that cause!
It astonished some of you that, on the following Monday, God should
have moved another to give 600 pounds! When I told you of that at the
next Prayer Meeting, you did not think, perhaps, that God had something
else in store, and the following Tuesday another friend came with 500
pounds! It was just the same in the building of this House. We were a
few and poor people when we commenced, but still we moved on by faith,
and never went into debt. We trusted in God, and the Tabernacle was
built, to the eternal honor of the God who hears and answers prayer.
And, mark you, it will be so in the erection of this Orphan House. We
shall see greater things than these if only our faith will precede our
sight. But if we go upon the old custom of our general societies and
first look out for regular income, and get our subscribers, and send
round our collectors, and pay our percentages–that is, do not trust
God, but trust our subscribers–if we go on that rule, we shall see
very little, and have no room for believing.
But if we shall just trust God and believe that God never did leave a
work that He put us upon, and never sets us to do a thing without
meaning to help us through with it, we shall soon see that the God of
Israel lives and that His arm is not shortened that He cannot save,
neither is His ear heavy that He cannot hear! Brethren, let us remember
Israel when they came to the Red Sea. There it was, a roaring, billowy
sea–and they were bid to march through it! And they did
march! And though the waters roared before them fiercely, yet so soon
as the priests' feet touched the flood, the depths stood upright on a
heap and the waters were congealed in the heart of the sea!
And so shall it be with you, Brothers and Sisters, and with your faith.
Believe in God and face your difficulties and they shall flee before
you. Then, remember the Egyptians. They decided to do the same thing.
They thought, "Oh, that is all right. We will do as these have done
before us." But notice, they said this because all their difficulties
had been cleared away. There was the Red Sea all dry before them. Any
fool could march through there! But, unfortunately, while faith can
march through a sea dry-shod, unbelief only begins to march when it is
all-dry–and presently, unbelief gets drowned.
Unbelief wants to see and God strikes it blind. Faith does not want to
see, and God opens its eyes, and it sees God, ever present to help and
deliver it. Now, you who are working for Christ, and you who are
troubled in your business, you who are in any way exercised–remember
the life of faith. Remember that you are not called to walk by sight,
but by faith! Like David, believe to see, and great shall be your joy.
Now, beloved Christian Brothers and Sisters, the same thing must happen
in our inward conflicts. If we want to grow in Divine Grace, we shall
not do so by humbling ourselves, as we call it. The way to make
advances in Divine life is to believe that you can only grow in Grace
by God's Spirit. To believe that since Jesus Christ is yours, all
things are yours. My Brother, have you a bad temper? You will never
overcome that temper by saying, "I cannot overcome it." But if, by
faith, you are able to say, "I can do all things through Christ that
strengthens me," you will overcome it yet.
No sin is ever slain by your saying, "Oh, it is my disposition. It is
natural to me." I know it is, and all manner of wickedness is natural
to us. You have to rest upon a supernatural arm–you are a twice-born
man. You are a new creature and you must not sit down in peace in any
form of sin, but believe that you can overcome it by the power of your
faith and of the Holy Spirit that is in you! Believe in order to see
yourselves growing in Grace! Believe to see yourselves conquering sin
in the name of Christ, and you shall do so!
And again, with regard to our perplexities in doctrines and matters of
faith you must apply the same rule. Believe first and then you will see
the Truth as it is in Jesus. How often the Christian comes across a
passage of Scripture which seems to be dark and mysterious. He cannot,
for a time, understand its preciousness, nor behold its beauty. But
though he cannot see the golden ore, he knows that it is there, and,
like one that searches for gold amidst the nuggets of quartz where it
is embedded, in due time he will be enriched. It will not do to cast it
away because nothing at present is seen– for before long the full
value of it shall be known.
The Christian drinks water from a well which is deep, and by nothing
but Faith's long arm can he reach down so as to draw the living water.
It is no surface supply which will do for us. Down deep in the depths
of God's spiritual Truths where no hand of reason can reach, we can let
down our faith and the clear, fresh water will be drawn up to refresh
our thirsty souls. If ever you are in a difficulty, bring faith to bear
upon the Truth of God first, and you will understand and see
afterwards. It depends upon which end of the telescope you use first
and put to your eye how much you will see of the landscape–and the
lengths and breadths of the Truth of God are only discovered when faith
is first of all brought into exercise.
Remember, moreover, my beloved Brethren, that our only safeguard in
times of prosperity is to exercise faith beforehand. Our text says, "I
had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in
the land of the living." Expect great things from God–work for
them–and believe that God intends to do good to you. David was not
taken by surprise when he saw God's goodness. He had always believed in
it–and when the full tide of Divine beneficence met his view he was
not overcome, for he always, by faith, comprehended it.
You, my Brothers and Sisters, now high up in the mount, still let your
faith lead your eye upwards, and you will not grow giddy and fall. Walk
by faith and you will find yourself safe alike in trouble and in joy.
In the night of adversity it will be as a pillar of fire to give you
light, and in the daytime it will refresh you with its sheltering shade
all through the wilderness. Believe, and you shall see without
fainting, "the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."
And once more, Beloved, we are on our journey to the skies. We are on
our way to Heaven and if we want to have a foretaste of it, how shall
we get it? We must not believe in Heaven only because we have had
enjoyments on the road–we must believe that there is a Heaven because
God has promised it, and we must go after it because the Word declares
there
is a great reward. And there, if we believe to see, we shall, even in
this life, soon see something of that which we have believed.
Brothers and Sisters, we are tonight like Columbus in search of the New
World. Eye has not seen it, ear has not heard it–but we believe in it
and in our frail vessels we have launched, leaving the world behind us.
Unbelief sometimes tells us that there is no goodly country, no land of
life-unending, no city of the blessed, no haven of peace, no "Jerusalem
the golden." We have never seen it, but we believe in it. God has said
it in His Word–"There remains, therefore a rest for the people of
God."
Therefore, up with all sail! Steersman, hold to the wheel! We are bound
for another and a better land! We have no abiding city on that shore
which we have left. If we were mindful of it, we might return to it.
But we have left it once and for all, and we are now steering for the
land which eye has not seen. And you know what happened to Columbus! It
is happening to some here–to some of my gray-headed Brothers and
Sisters. Ah, and young as I am, I, also, know something of that which I
am about to describe.
When Columbus was drawing near to the shores of America, though he
could not see the land, yet he marked the land birds flying round and
round the masts, and lighting upon the cordage of the vessels, and he
pointed up and said, "That is a bird that is not seen far out at sea.
There is land somewhere!" His companions had been ready to throw him
overboard and make back for Spain. But they thought better of it now.
And by-and-by there came floating along weeds and branches of land
produce, and they said, "Ah, after all, the old-fashioned navigator is
right. We shall come to the land of gold!"
Now, sometimes God gives us blessed foretastes, happy earnests,
delightful tokens that there is a better land till some of us, having
believed to see, are almost come to see! I envy some of my dear friends
who have been long in the Divine life, and are getting gray because I
know that the angels often bring them bundles from the hills of myrrh
and make glad their spirits with tastes of the wines on the lees well
refined which are reserved for the feasts of the immortals when they
sit down in the banqueting halls of the Eternal, and see the King in
His beauty, and bask in the vision of His glory!
Oh, let us go on, we who are younger, who have scarcely begun the
voyage, knowing that all is well! Storms may toss us about. Waves may
dash against our hull. The billows may seem as if about to swallow us
up. But our fathers have gained the beach. Their ships, like those of
Columbus, are drawn up on yonder shore. They are safe and blessed.
Hark! We can almost hear their song. Their, "Hallelujah, hallelujah,
hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!" might almost be heard
even here, were not this earth so full of noise–were not the whirl of
the wheels of business so incessant. Let us, then, O let us believe to
see, and we shall soon see it and glorify Him who taught us so to
believe!
May God bless you, dear Friends, very richly in this believing to see,
for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
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The Echo
A sermon