Unbelief Condemned and Faith Commended
(No. 1784)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 8, 1884,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"They are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith."
Deuteronomy 32:20.
"Blessed is that man that makes the Lord his trust." Psalm 40:4.
THESE two texts will serve to show the different estimate which God has
of unbelief and of faith. He says of unbelievers, in my text taken from
Deuteronomy, "They are a very froward generation, children in whom is
no faith"–as much as to say that the absence of faith proves them to
be froward, presumptuous, willful, disobedient–a people at
cross-purposes with God. He says not only that they are perverse and
froward, but He adds an emphatic word–"they are a very froward
generation, children in whom is no faith." The second text most clearly
shows us that God has a high approbation for faith, for He, Himself, by
the Holy Spirit, says, "Blessed is that man that makes the Lord His
trust." Here, then, we have set before us a great evil to which we are
sadly inclined–and a great Grace which we greatly need. May God the
Holy Spirit work faith in us by His own gracious power! Alas, it is
still true that "all men have not faith." Even when an Apostle
preached, we read of the congregation, that some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. There is that division among
you at this time. Oh, that unbelievers may become Believers before this
service ends!
I will tell you what I shall be driving at this morning–I have a
special character in view and I long to be made useful to persons of
that sort. Outspoken and naked unbelief the most of you abhor. Should
unbelief display itself in its real hideousness, you who have been
brought up religiously would be startled at its approach, would close
the door immediately and bolt it fast lest such a demon of the deep
should gain an entry into your souls! Consequently, unbelief, when it
attacks the regular hearer of the Gospel, takes care to disguise
itself. It pretends to be something other than it is. It does not walk
abroad in all its natural deformity, but it approaches us as the
Gibeonites came near to Israel when "they did work wilily and went and
made as if they had been ambassadors."
There are those here who do not doubt, for a moment, the existence or
goodness of God–neither have they any question about the Inspiration
and Infallible Truth of Holy Scripture–and yet they are entertaining
within their hearts an unbelief which eats as does a canker! A
deadening unbelief is upon them so that they abide in darkness and take
no pains to come into the Light of God. Yet they do not condemn
themselves, but rather look for pity as though it were their infirmity
and not their fault. To them, unbelief acts like Jezebel when she tired
her hair and painted her face. Oh, that my words could strip off the
disguise of this evil thing! Of this most deceitful form of unbelief I
would say, as Jehu said of Jezebel, "Throw her down." And then I would
cry–Go see, now, this cursed thing and bury it, for it is a horrible
evil. That which prevents men from finding salvation by putting their
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ is an enemy so hateful and malicious
that no quarter must be given to it! No excuse must be made for it–it
must be utterly destroyed from under Heaven!
Dear Friend, you tell me that you are by no means an infidel or a
skeptic, and yet you do not believe so as to find peace with God! You
tell me that you cannot believe, which is a confession that you are so
false at heart that you cannot believe the Truth of God! It is well
that you should admit this gross depravity, but I have reason to fear
that you are hardly conscious of the horrible nature of the crime which
you acknowledge! I beg you to lay to heart this fact–that unless you
have faith in Jesus you will perish just as surely as if you were an
open denier of the Word of God and a reviler
of His Son! There are, doubtless, degrees in the terribleness of the
punishment, but there are no degrees in the certainty of the fact that
every unbeliever will be shut out from the blessing of the Gospel of
Christ! "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that
believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on
him."
I want you to remove every flattering unction from your souls and to
know for sure that, "He that believes not is condemned already, because
he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God" (John
3:18). Dream not that because you do not happen to be an avowed
atheist, or deist, or agnostic, that, therefore, your own form of
unbelief is harmless! We read of Israel in the wilderness that, "they
could not enter in because of unbelief–yet they were not atheists! A
passive unbelief will ruin a man as surely as an active infidelity!
Suppose that an enemy is on this side of a river, destroying everybody?
To find safety, the river has to be crossed, and there is but one
bridge. Yonder man declares that he will never go over such a
bridge–he does not believe in it! He asserts that it is a rotten old
thing which would break down under his weight. He hates the structure.
He will not even call it a bridge at all! He ridicules all who venture
upon it. It is clear that he will stay on this side of the river and
die by the pursuer's sword. He is the type of the avowed skeptic!
But where are you? You say with unfeigned distress, "I am horrified to
hear that man talk so of that excellent bridge. I believe that it is
well constructed and that it has carried hundreds of thousands over it.
I cannot bear to hear a word said against it, for my dear father and
mother found refuge by crossing it and they are now in the land of
peace." Yet you do not escape by that bridge, yourself, though well
aware of your danger! Do you answer, "Well, I do not feel worthy to go
over it." Why, that is nonsense! It is as if you should say, I cannot
swim and, therefore, will cross over the river by means of the bridge.
Your unworthiness cannot be a reason for refusing to accept a free
salvation! On the contrary, it is a reason why you should accept it at
once. However, it matters little what your excuse may be–you will
perish forever if you do not believe in Jesus!
Take another illustration. A fatal disease is abroad and a remedy has
been discovered of the most effectual kind. One man denounces the
medicine, the physician who invented it and the apothecaries who
distribute it–he can hardly find words enough in the dictionary with
which to express his contempt for what he calls a monstrous quackery.
He will evidently receive no benefit from the medicine. That is not
your case–you are of quite another mind. You esteem the medicine,
reverence the physician and even feel an affection for the apothecaries
who distribute it! No question about the matter has ever crossed your
mind–on the contrary, you are an advocate for the great remedy and
believe firmly that it has healed multitudes of persons. Why do you not
take the wholesome medicine yourself? You tell me that you are trying
to get better and that you do not quite see how the medicine can heal
you.
This shows that you mistrust the power of the medicine to heal you just
as you are. You will derive no more benefit from it than the other man
who rails at it! It is quite impossible that any man should receive the
blessing which comes through the atoning blood of Christ unless he has
faith–and whether he goes to the length of an utter contempt of the
great Sacrifice, or stands off from it because he does not feel as he
could desire–he will surely die without forgiveness. Out of Christ,
the doom of eternal wrath will fall on you whether near to the Kingdom
of God or far off from it.
I want to talk with those unbelieving people who are not avowedly
skeptical. Some of these I have seen and I know that they are a
numerous class. They are very sincere and are really seeking after
salvation, but the one thing which they refuse to do is to believe in
the Lord Jesus. They will not trust their God! They will not believe in
the promise which He has made to us in Christ Jesus! They would suffer
any penance. They would give anything they possess. They would cut off
their right arm–they would consent to lose their eyes–if they might
but be saved! But this one matter of trust in God and accepting His way
of salvation is the point in which they quarrel with the Most High.
Upon this matter, in which the Lord will assuredly never yield to them,
they stand out very obstinately, and so prove that they are "a very
froward generation, children in whom is no faith." If they would obtain
the Lord's blessing, the only way to it is faith. Oh, that they would
hold out no longer, for, "Blessed is that man that makes the Lord his
trust."
I. To begin, then–our first statement is UNBELIEF IS
FROWARDNESS–"they are a very froward generation, children in whom is
no faith." One very frequent disguise of unbelief is that of humility.
"I feel myself such a great sinner. I feel so much evil to be in my
heart, I dare not believe in Jesus!" If you judged by appearances you
might think this unbelief very modest, but, indeed, it is not so. It
imitates the tone of humility, but it cannot catch the accent. This
deceptive vice dares to hint that the sinner's unworthiness is a reason
why Jesus should not be trusted! What? Would any man tell
me that his own wickedness is a reason why he should distrust me? That
would be too absurd! Because you are such a sinner, is God, therefore,
a deceiver and not to be trusted? This is not humility, but audacity!
Our fearing to trust the promise of God because we are evil is a most
perverse piece of wickedness. Surely, God is true, even if we are
liars! Our falsehood does not make Him false, or deprive Him of His
right to be believed! Do we dare to tell Him that He cannot save when
He assuredly promises to save us if we trust Him? Do we deny His
willingness to save when He sends us gracious invitations and entreats
us to turn to Him? This is insolence–not penitence! However great a
sinner you may be, there is forgiveness with God that He may be feared,
for, "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." Do
not deny this. Do not be so profanely bold as to call Jesus a liar!
Unbelief also claims to be timid. It cries, "I am afraid to come to
Christ, afraid to trust Him with my soul." This is not true fear, but
an evil pride! The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the
hands of Esau! The sound is that of an amiable timorousness, but the
spirit is that of frowardness. Friends, if you truly feared God, you
would tremble at the idea of distrusting Him. It is a very daring act
of impiety to question any promise of the Most High–it is the height
of rebellion to deny the power of the death of His dear Son! That kind
of timidity and humility is to be shunned and to be abhorred which
dares to make God's love a dream and His mercy a fiction! Since the
Lord's mercy endures forever; since Jesus has never yet cast out a soul
that has come to Him, it is folly to talk of being afraid to come to
Him! Dread doubting and fear not to trust your God!
Unbelief is a very froward thing. We repeat the statement and go on to
prove it because, in the first place, it calls God a liar. Can anything
be worse than this? God says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
shall be saved," and the unbeliever replies, "I cannot believe that
Jesus will save me." That is to say, translating it into plain
English–You do not think that God speaks the Truth! You do not believe
that God is able to make His promises good to you. You do, in effect,
imagine that He has said a great deal more than He means, or promised
more than He is able to perform! At any rate, you think it unsafe to
trust Him with your soul. I beseech you, if you must transgress, do not
select a sin so presumptuous and so provoking as the sin of denying the
Truth of the Most High! "He that believes not God has made Him a liar
because he believes not the record that God gave of His Son. And this
is the record, that God has given to us eternal life and this life is
in His Son."
Oh, you poor, timorous soul, as some would call you, I will not flatter
you, or excuse you, for I am afraid you must be very proud or you would
not look the great Father in the face, and say, "You will not receive
me if I come back to You like the prodigal child"–when, again and
again, He invites you to return and promises to receive you. O Soul,
can you dare to look up to the Cross of Jesus and say, "There is no
life in a look at the Crucified One for me"? Can you even think of the
Holy Spirit and then say that He has no power to change a heart so
black and hard as yours? Oh that this miserable slander of God and of
His Christ might be stopped!
Again, unbelief is great frowardness because it refuses God's way of
salvation. No man can read the Scriptures without seeing God's way of
salvation is not by works nor by feelings, but by trusting in the Son
of God who has offered a full atonement for sin. Now the sinner says,
"Lord, I would do or suffer anything if I might, thereby, be saved."
God's answer is, "Trust in My Son"–and this is put into a great many
shapes to make it plain! Jesus says, "This is the work of God"–the
highest and noblest work–"that you believe on Him whom He has sent."
But the soul wriggles away from this believing in Jesus. It cries,
"Surely I must feel this, that, and the other!" Oh foolish heart! Stop
all these vain observations and listen to this one thing–"Believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved!" If you will make the
Lord your trust, you shall be blessed–but if you will not, you are
assuredly accursed–seeing you have rejected the blood of the Eternal
Sacrifice, refused the way of mercy which Infinite Love has appointed
and done despite to the Spirit of God. To what a pitch of madness you
have reached! You will sooner destroy your own soul than treat your God
as you would treat an honest man! You can trust your wife, your
husband, your father, or your friend–but you will not trust your
Maker! You will sooner go to Hell than trust yourself with Christ! Ah
me! Ah me!
Unbelief is a very froward thing, again, because it very often makes
unreasonable demands of God. When Thomas said, "Unless I put my finger
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will
not believe," he was speaking very frowardly. I have heard the sinner
say, "Oh, Sir, if I could have a dream! If I could be broken down with
anguish, or if I could enjoy some remarkable revelation–THEN I would
believe God!" This, also, is frowardness. And so you dare look the
Eternal in the face and say, "You shall be a liar to me unless You will
gratify my whims and wishes,
and do this or that to prove what I admit to be true." Will you say to
your fellow man, "Sir, you have offered to help me in this time of
need. I am quite willing to depend upon you for that help, provided you
will do it in my way–the way which you propose for my assistance I
utterly reject"? You will probably turn your friend against you if you
talk so!
Beggars must not be choosers–certainly not with God! If I mistrust a
friend who has been good to me all my life, it is an unjust thing. And
if I tell him that I cannot believe him unless he will do what I choose
to demand of him, I am insulting him. This towards man is evil–but
what is it towards God? What? Must God do according to our mind and
play the lackey to us or else He shall be under this penalty–that we
will not believe His Word nor accept His gracious forgiveness? Shame on
unbelief, that it should be so insulting to the God of Heaven before
whom angels bow with veiled countenances! Surely, the devil, himself,
cannot go further than unbelief–nor so far–for he believes and
trembles!
Unbelief is very froward, next, because it indulges hard thoughts of
God. Why do you not trust your God to save you by the blood of Jesus?
Do you say that, "Salvation by faith is too good to be true"? Is
anything too good to come from God, who is infinitely good? Is He not
Love? Do you say, "If I were to come to Him, He would not receive me"?
How dare you say that when it is written, "Him that comes to Me I will
by no means cast out"! "Oh, I have so offended that if I were to cry,
'Father, I have sinned,' I could not expect Him to forgive my offense."
This is a base slandering of the heavenly Father! What penitent has He
ever repelled? You know not how good He is–He is inconceivably
gracious, He delights in mercy! It is His joy to pass by transgression,
iniquity and sin. Have you never heard that, "as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are His ways higher than your ways, and His thoughts
than your thoughts"? Has He not declared that He will abundantly
pardon? Has He not said, "Come now, and let us reason together, says
the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool"? Why
will you so cruelly defame the Ever-Merciful One? Turn from this
wickedness or you will destroy your own soul!
And yet again, unbelief is a very froward thing because it disparages
the Lord Jesus. It tramples upon the blood of the Son of God! The
unbelieving sinner virtually asserts that he has discovered the limit
of the Savior's power to save and that he stands just over the margin
to which His Grace extends, for he thinks that Jesus may save anyone
except himself! O Soul, do you doubt the infinite virtue of the Divine
Sacrifice? Do you question the power of the intercession of the risen
Lord? Is it not true, as He has said it, that He is, "able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He always lives to
make intercession for them"? "Oh, but I am such a singular person." And
are you so singular that you have a right to limit the Holy One of
Israel? Oh, if you did but know my Lord and Master, you would not talk
so, for He, with a word, can cast out devils, heal the sick and raise
the dead! He has but to say "Son, your sins are forgiven you," and they
are forgiven! He has but to look on you, poor sinner, and you shall
live! Yes, be assured that if you will look on Him, you shall live! Has
He not said, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the
earth"? Has He not also said, "He that believes in Me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live"? If you believe, you shall see the Glory of
God! Trust Him, trust Him! He deserves your trust, for He is a great
Savior for the greatest of sinners.
And do you not think it is another instance of great frowardness that
unbelief casts reflections upon the Holy Spirit? It seems to say, "I
feel sorely afraid and, therefore, there is no peace for me. I am too
hardened and foolish for the Holy Spirit to lead me to faith in Jesus
and, therefore, I will not trust." "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
Change you, man? Why, He has turned millions from darkness to the Light
of God! Look upward–see what hosts surround the Throne of Glory and
"day without night" magnify His saving Grace! Not save you? Who are you
that you should stand out against the witness of the Spirit of Truth?
Will you refuse the three-fold witness of the Spirit, the water and the
blood? Who are you that you should set yourself up as a kind of
vanquisher of Grace, conquering Grace by your sins and saying to the
ocean of God's love, "This far shall you come, but no further"? Your
unbelief is a very froward thing– nothing can be said for it–it
dishonors Father, Son and Holy Spirit! It denies the Inspired Scripture
and keeps your soul in cruel bondage.
This vile unbelief has in it a tendency to destroy the Gospel itself.
If it could but have its own way, it would undermine the whole fabric
of salvation. When a man says that God cannot save him, he suggests
that there maybe others in the same case. Where, then, is Christ's
wisdom in bidding us preach the Gospel to every creature? If it would
be vain for one man to believe, each one of us would be afraid that it
would be vain for us, also, and where, then, would be the Gospel
promise? If it could be proven that any one man, if he believed in
Jesus, would not be saved, then the Gospel itself would be disproved!
Who among us would have any ground for believing in Christ if we knew
it were possible to believe in Him
and yet to be cast away? What is this but to rob us all of hope? Why,
man, you are scuttling the ship! I mean that such is the tendency of
your unbelieving talk.
If Jesus is not worthy to be trusted and you seem to say so by your own
refusal to trust Him, then all of us who are resting upon Him for
salvation are under a delusion! Do you mean to say this? If you, as a
sinner, cannot be saved upon believing in Christ, then the whole Gospel
is called into question–you have broken the whole staff of bread for
the souls of men! Oh, wicked unbelief! God-dishonoring, soul-killing
unbelief! Dear Hearer, be warned against it, for it will shut you out
of Heaven unless you shut it out of your heart!
II. And now, secondly, we turn to the better side of our subject and
remark that FAITH HAS THE DIVINE APPROVAL. "Blessed," says God, "is
that man that makes the Lord his trust." We are sure that it so.
Wherever there is faith, God is pleased with it, for faith is the sure
mark of God's elect. We can only know them by their believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. God would never have set that of
which He disapproved to be the mark of His eternal choice, but, as He
makes faith in Jesus to be the token of His covenanted ones, He must
approve of it. Remember that God has been pleased, in His great love,
to make this the main requirement of the Gospel. "He that believes and
is baptized shall be saved." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
shall be saved."
The Lord puts faith into the very forefront because He delights in it.
I find not that the Lord has promised salvation to love, or to
patience, or to courage–admirable as these Graces are–He has put this
crown upon the head of faith. "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
The Lord must certainly approve of that which He makes to be the grand
necessity of salvation! Do you not know that God has made faith to be
the one thing necessary in the matter of prayer? If you come before Him
in prayer, He will not ask you to bring your hands laden with gifts,
nor to drop from your tongue choice words of eloquence! But you "must
believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him," or else you can have nothing at His hands. If, then, God has
made the efficacy of prayer to turn upon faith, He must have a high
estimate of it! He has made faith to be the master key by which all the
chambers of His treasury may be unlocked and, therefore, depend upon
it, He will never cast it out as unwarranted and presumptuous. "Blessed
is that man that makes the Lord His trust," whoever that man may be!
Beside that, He has been pleased to make faith to be the mode and
manner of the spiritual life. "The just shall live"–how? By works?
No–"the just shall live by faith." There is no living except by faith.
Let any child of God try to live by sense or reason, even for a day,
and see how miserable he will be! It comes to this with me–I must
believe my God or else I perish. I can walk the waves by faith–but,
beginning to doubt–I sink. It is only as I trust that my soul can bear
her daily burden and perform her daily duty. If, then, God has made
faith to be the way of His people, rest assured it can never be wrong
for a soul to exercise faith in Him. Why, Brothers and Sisters, look
what God has done to make us believe! He cannot object to our trusting
in Him, seeing He works to that end! For this purpose the Scriptures
are in our hands. John says, "These are written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ" (John 20:31). The Lord multiplies His
exceedingly great and precious promises that we might have strong
consolation and find it easy to put our trust in
Him!
His Holy Spirit comes on purpose to work faith in the soul and the
witness of the Holy Spirit in the Word, and in the hearts of His
people, is intended to create and nourish faith in God. The Lord
rewards faith even in this life! Read the 11th Chapter of Hebrews–see
what men gained, what they enjoyed, what they did by faith! Unbelief
does nothing, gets nothing, rejoices in nothing! But faith wins the
blessing. The Covenant was made with Abraham, who "staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief." Who are Abraham's seed? Why, they
that trust as Abraham trusted, that exhibit a whole-hearted confidence
in God, feeling that what He has promised, He is able, also, to
perform! Oh Souls, you cannot have too much faith in God! You need
never say, "May I believe?" It is altogether another question–How dare
you doubt your God? "But is it true," asks one, "that faith means
trusting in God?" That is it. God bids you trust Jesus and you shall be
saved. Will you accept His testimony and trust Jesus? That is the whole
of it.
In common life we exhibit faith in man and no one blames us for a
legitimate trust. A man says that he has received a thousand pounds.
How is that? He has nothing in his hand but a bank-note and that is
merely a bit of paper. Yet he is quite confident that he has the
thousand pounds because he has faith in the Bank of England and in its
promises. That is my own mind as to God's promise–it is to me the
thing which it promises, even as the note for £1,000 is a thousand
pounds. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen." If you believe God as you believe
your friend, you are saved–for faith has brought you into the state of
salvation. But this is what men will not come to. They will stop and
mutter and sputter, and spin all kinds of cobwebs–and invent all sorts
of theories in order to evade the sweet necessity of trusting in the
Lord! Simply and wholly to hang upon the bare arm of God and trust the
merit of His Son–this is what they will not come to–for they are "a
very froward generation, children in whom is no faith."
Furthermore, it is not unreasonable, but it is highly reasonable that
God should take pleasure in faith. Beloved, look at yourselves. Judge
of the Lord from yourselves in this matter–for the Lord Jesus permits
you so to judge of the Father's mind. You who are fathers, what would
you say of your child if he did not believe your promise? If he said
that he could not trust you, what would you think of him? If your boy
had offended, but refused to ask pardon because he could not believe
that you would forgive him, what would be your judgment of his
character? Would you be pleased with him if he would not confess that
he was wrong, but took to sulking because he thinks you are unwilling
to forgive? Would you take pleasure in such a child as that? No, but
one of the beautiful things about your little children is just
this–that they have not a thought or a care–but trust you implicitly!
They never question where Monday's dinner will come from– father has
always found food–father will always do so.
If you make them a promise of a treat on Saturday, look how they will
jump for joy! Though there is still a week to come before that promise
is to be fulfilled, yet they begin to live on the prospect of it and
they enjoy the pleasure a hundred times over by the expectation of it!
They will ask you tomorrow whether it is not already Saturday. You are
pleased that your children should trust you–it would be most
unpleasant for you if they did not. When children have lost confidence
in their parents, farewell to domestic peace! If you, being evil, love
to be trusted, must it not be so with God? If you, a poor sinner, come
and say, "Lord, I have greatly sinned, but I believe You are such a
greatly loving Father that you can blot it all out for Jesus' sake," do
you not think that He will be pleased to hear your confidence? But He
cannot be pleased with you when you say, "Lord, I know all about Your
Gospel and its blessings, but I really cannot trust You!" Oh, naughty
words! Vile words! How can they look for favors who thus throw dirt
into the face of God? How shall He bestow His Grace on men who will not
even believe Him?
God will accept our faith, for it is in conformity with our position
towards Him. What position ought the creature to occupy to its Creator?
Should it not constantly depend upon Him? What position should a sinner
occupy towards His Savior? Should He not rely upon Him most heartily?
What position should a child of God occupy towards the Divine Father
but one of loving confidence? Brothers and Sisters, God loves faith
because faith supplies the missing link between us and Himself! If we
cannot keep His Law perfectly, as, indeed, we cannot, for we have
already broken it–yet if we trust Him, our heart is right before Him!
The complete confidence of the heart is the essence of obedience and
the fountain of it. A servant who thinks evil of his master cannot be
an acceptable servant to any man–he will be looking out for his own
interests and, whenever they come crosswise with those of his master,
we know what will happen! But if, after having acted very crookedly,
the man should have proof of his master's affection for him, and should
come to the belief that his master is a model of goodness, then you
have laid the foundation of another kind of service, such as no wages
can purchase! From a loving trust there will proceed patience,
diligence, zeal, fidelity, obedience and everything which is suitable
in a servant towards a good master.
So, when a soul comes to make the Lord its trust, it has set out upon
the right track, and though it is but at the head of the way, yet it
will make advances and arrive at no mean degree of rightness with God.
"Oh," says one, "it seems such a small matter to simply trust." It may
seem so, but within the compass of that little thing there lies a force
whose power it would be difficult to measure. Every Grace in embryo
lies within true faith! It is a virtue which contains within it seed
enough to sow all the acreage of life with holiness! O my Hearer, God
blesses faith, therefore, I pray you, render it to Him! God has put His
curse on unbelief–oh, may His Spirit help you to shake yourself free
of it this day!
III. My time has failed me and, therefore, I must close by noticing, in
the last place, this fact–that FAITH IS BLESSEDNESS. "Blessed is that
man that makes the Lord his trust." To believe in God is to be blessed
by God. "Oh, but," says one, "I believe in God and I am in great
trouble." Just so, and within that trouble there dwells a measureless
blessing! Your trial is the veil which covers the face of a loving God.
Faith will make you sing with the author of this Psalm, "I waited
patiently for the Lord." Faith says, "I am in deep trial, but all
things work together for my good. It is, therefore, a great gain to me
to be as I am. All these griefs and woes are but a heavenly surgery to
cure me of the malady of inbred sin." This enables the Believer to
receive correction with patience. He knows that all is right and,
therefore, the
child of God frets not and does not kick against the pricks. As in the
old days of surgery, a brave man laid himself down and gave himself up
to the knife, so does the Believer resign himself to sharp affliction
because he knows that it is necessary for his spiritual life and will
tend to his perfection in Grace. Thus faith distils a potent medicine
from poisonous plants and extracts light out of darkness. Is not this
enough to make a man blessed?
Faith, again, releases the afflicted out of trouble. Turn to the Psalm,
again, and read–"I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto
me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out
of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my
goings. And He has put a new song in my month, even praise unto our
God: many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." If you
are shut in by affliction, like a man in a deep pit and, if instead of
rising out of it by your exertions, you only sink lower, like one who
struggles to rise out of miry clay. If you see no way of escape,
whatever, do not despair or resort to desperate means, or think bad of
God, but just pray and trust– and soon, like David, you shall bear
witness to the blessedness of trusting! "Stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord." The Lord knows how to deliver the righteous
when they cannot guess how He will do it! Jehovah is not limited in
ways and means. Is the Lord's arm waxed short? Trust in the Lord in the
dark and He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your
judgment as the noonday. Thousands of saints who have tried and proved
the faithfulness of the Lord unite in chorus to declare that He has
delivered His people and will deliver them!
The man that makes the Lord his trust is blessed because his faith
creates in him a deep peace. It is responsibility which causes the wear
and tear of life–at least it is so in my case. Now, he who trusts a
matter with the Lord sees that the fulfillment of the promise lies with
God and not with him. When we trust in the Lord, we cease to worry
because it is the Lord's business to answer to our faith–
"Tis mine to obey, 'tis His to provide." He who takes the Lord for his
Guide no longer worries about the way. He who takes Him for his
Watchman rests in perfect peace. He who accepts Him as a Savior looks
for sure salvation at His hands. There is a wonderful calm in the heart
when we can commit our way unto the Lord–then we delight ourselves in
the Lord–and He gives us the desires of our heart. That blessed act of
casting every burden upon the Lord is faith's masterpiece and it gives
a sweet quietus to all care. To rest in perfect peace of mind is the
best blessedness beneath the stars–and we have it, for we hear the
Spirit say concerning all the people of God, "And the Lord shall help
them, and deliver them: He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save
them, because they trust in Him."
Now, suppose you and I were laboring to reach Heaven by our own merits?
Then we might bid farewell to peace, for all the way we would be
terribly afraid that we had not done enough, or suffered enough, or
prayed enough, or repented enough. There is no rest upon that bed, for
it is shorter than a man may stretch himself. But, "we who have
believed, enter into rest." Jesus is our Rest–in Him we have peace
with God. If I could make the Lord Jesus my trust and yet be lost I
should be a great loser, but I should not lose so much as God would!
How is that? I should lose my salvation, but the Lord would lose His
Glory, His truthfulness, His goodness! His Gospel would be dishonored
and His Son robbed of His reward. That cannot be! When a man trusts his
money with a firmly established bank, he does not sit up all night to
protect his cashbox and iron safe. No, his money is out of his own
keeping and he feels at ease about it. Thus we commit our body, soul
and spirit into the pierced hands of Jesus who has redeemed us, and we
know and are confident that He is able to keep that which we have
committed unto Him until that day. None can know perfect rest of heart
but those whose minds are stayed on God by a sincere trust in Him.
Faith, in addition to bringing peace, creates a holy elevation of
character, and that is blessedness. The man who lives by sight and
walks according to the judgment of the flesh is confined within a range
too narrow for blessedness. He is not much above the brute that
perishes! His provender and stall are the main dependence of his joy!
But the man that lives by faith ranges among eternal things and drinks
from celestial fountains! His is a high, sublime, mysterious life. Is
it not the life of God in man? I have compared the ascent of faith to
climbing a succession of lofty stairways. Up from the depths we have
already risen by no other means than faith in the Invisible! Not a
single step before us can we see. Beneath and around, clouds and
darkness roll in enormous masses–the mist hangs thick over our
pathway. Like the world, which the Lord hangs upon nothing, so our life
has no visible dependence! We put down our foot on what seems thin as
air and behold–it is firm as a rock beneath us! Rising, ever rising,
we tread from stair to stair and are safe as the Throne of the
Eternal–but we never see more than one step at a time and at times
scarcely so much as that. Sight brings us no comfort, but Faith fills
us with delight, for above her head shines out as clear as the sun, the
Words of the Immutable Jehovah!
"Ah," cries one, "I could not live with nothing to depend upon!" Oh, my
Brother, is God nothing? Elijah had nothing to depend upon, for Cherith
dried up and the ravens came no more with bread and meat. And the widow
woman had only flour enough for one more meal–yet the little meal in
the barrel wasted not and the cruse of oil never failed! Isaiah had
nothing to depend upon but God, you know–that is to say, he had only
everything. The Believer has nothing to depend upon except his God, but
what more does he need? What more could he have? Mark how yon heavens
stand without a pillar! See how the round world floats in space without
a stay! What more does the universe require than the power of the
Eternal? O Believer, get out into these deep waters where there is sea
room for faith and no weak creatures to interfere with unmingled
reliance upon God–for blessed is that man whose life is rendered
sublime by an undivided confidence in the living God!
Lastly, blessed is the believing man when he thinks of dying, for he is
sure and certain that he cannot truly die. Faith has so linked him with
the one living God that he feels immortality pulsing through his entire
nature! When he comes to lie on the bed of sickness and gradually
decays, he has no fear of his departure! On the contrary, he looks
forward with expectation to be delivered from the bondage and
sinfulness of this mortal life and to be admitted into the liberty and
perfection of the life eternal! Look at him as he quits the shores of
earth–he is not torn away by violence, forced unwillingly into an
unknown hereafter–no, he undresses for his last rest solemnly but
expectantly! A song is on his lips and glory is in his heart! He has
finished his work; he has been washed from his sin; he has embraced the
promise and now he falls asleep upon the breast of his
Redeemer–assured that he shall wake up in the likeness of his Lord!
"Mark the perfect man and behold the upright: for the end of that man
is peace."
Oh, Souls, if you will believe, you shall have both Heaven on earth and
Heaven in Heaven! But if you will not believe your God–your
Savior–many sorrows shall be to you and, in the end, you will destroy
yourselves forever! It matters not what excuses you make about this, or
that, or the other–if you will not trust your God, He will have
nothing to do with you! If you cannot believe Him. If you will make His
Son to be false. He must say at the last, "Depart from Me, you cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." It
cannot be otherwise! This shall make the great division between you and
the righteous–that you believe not in Him–while they have made the
Lord their trust. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you shall be
numbered with His chosen! And all His promises shall be fulfilled to
you, for with you has He made an everlasting covenant which shall stand
fast forever and ever when all visible things have melted away! May God
uplift you from the miry clay of unbelief to the rock of confidence in
Him, for Christ's sake! Amen.