Unbelievers Upbraided
(No. 2890)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 8,
1876.
"He.. .upbraided them with their unbelief." Mark 16:14.
I SHALL not dwell so much upon this particular instance of the
disciples' unbelief as upon the fact that the Lord Jesus upbraided them
because of it. This action of His shows us the way in which unbelief is
to be treated by us. As our loving Savior felt it right to upbraid
rather than to console, He taught us that on some occasions unbelief
should be treated with severity rather than with condolence.
Beloved Friends, let us never look upon our own unbelief as an
excusable infirmity, but let us always regard it as a sin–and as a
great sin, too. Whatever excuse you may at any time make for
others–and I pray you to make excuses for them whenever you can
rightly do so–never make any for yourself. In that case, be swift to
condemn. I am not at all afraid that as a general rule we shall err on
the side of harshness to ourselves. No, we are far too ready to
palliate our own wrong-doing, to cover up our own faults and to
belittle our own offenses. I very specially urge every Believer in
Jesus to deal most sternly with himself in this matter of unbelief. If
he turns the back of the judicial knife towards others, let him always
turn the keen edge of it towards himself. In that direction use your
sharpest eye and your most severely critical judgment. If you see any
fault in yourself, you may depend upon it that the fault is far greater
than it appears to be– therefore deal more sternly with it. It is a
very easy thing for us to get into a desponding state of heart and to
mistrust the promises and faithfulness of God and yet, all the while,
to look upon ourselves as the subjects of a disease which we cannot
help–and even to claim pity at the hands of our fellow men–thinking
that they should console us and try to cheer us. Perhaps they should,
but, at any rate, we must not think that they should. It will be far
wiser for each one of us to feel, "This unbelief of mine is a great
wrong in the sight of God. He has never given me any occasion for it
and I am doing Him a cruel injustice by thus doubting Him. I must not
idly sit down and say, 'This has come upon me like a fever, or a
paralysis which I cannot help.' But I must say, 'This is a great sin in
which I must no longer indulge. I must confess my unbelief with shame
and self-abasement, to think that there should be in me this evil heart
of unbelief.'"
Notwithstanding what I said, just now, concerning our dealings with
others, I must give very much the same advice with regard to them as to
ourselves, though in a somewhat mitigated form. When we see any of our
friends falling into sin and unbelief, we must seek to deal wisely with
them–always kindly–never harshly. Let us reserve all our severity for
ourselves as I have already urged you. Still, I am sure that it is
quite possible for us to be doing our fellow Christians serious harm by
excusing their unbelief and by pitying them for it instead of pointing
out to them, tenderly, yet faithfully, the great sin they are
committing by this doubting.
Have you ever seen a "coddled" lad? I have seen one who ought to be in
the open air at play, shut in a room because his parents were fearful
that he was delicate and unable to do as other lads do. He ought to
have been taking part in various healthy exercises that would have
developed and strengthened the muscles in his body, but, instead of
that, he was sitting down, tied to his mother's apron strings and so
was being made weaker than he was before! He was kept in an atmosphere
which was not fit for him to breathe because his foolish parents were
afraid the fresh air might be too trying for him–and long before he
was ill, he was dosed and treated until he really became ill! Many a
child has been murdered by
being thus coddled, or, if he has lived to grow up to manhood, he has
been a poor, feeble, effeminate creature because the abundant love
which had been lavished upon him had been linked with equally abundant
folly.
You can easily treat Christians–and especially young converts–in the
same senseless fashion! If they are unbelieving, you can keep back from
them the stern Truth of God about the sinfulness of such a state of
heart and mind because you fear that they will be discouraged if you
deal faithfully with them. That is quite as wrong as saying to the
unconverted, over and over again, "Only believe," without ever
mentioning the need of repentance and regeneration! There is a way of
misapplying even the promises of God to unbelieving hearts and of
giving the consolations of the Gospel to those who are not in a
condition to receive them as one might give sweetmeats to sick children
and do them harm. People who are thus unwisely treated are apt to
remain in the same sad state until their unbelief becomes chronic–and
their unhap-piness becomes a lifelong burden to them. Sometimes when a
man is in great pain, it is wise to give him something that will afford
him even temporary relief, but the better course is, if possible, to
strike at the root of his disease and eradicate it once and for all.
That should be our method of dealing with the unbelief of our Brothers
and Sisters in Christ. We must make it clear to them that unbelief is
no trifle and that it is a thing for which its owner is not to be
pitied, but to be blamed–and to be severely blamed–for it is a most
grievous fault and sin. Our Savior dealt thus with the 11 when He
upbraided them because of their unbelief. He did not excuse them, or
comfort them, but He upbraided them! Upbraiding does not seem to be in
harmony with the usual character of Jesus, does it? Yet you may depend
upon it that it was the right thing for Him to do–and the kind thing,
too–otherwise, He would not have done it.
Jesus upbraided these disciples of His because of their unbelief upon a
very special point on which they ought to have been the first to
believe. Many persons had seen their Lord after He had risen from the
dead. And the 11 Apostles who ought, by reason of their greater
spiritual advantages and their more intimate companionship with Christ,
to have been the readiest to believe the good tidings, were not so and,
therefore, Christ "upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of
heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He had
risen." Yet these eyewitnesses– Cleopas and his companion, Mary
Magdalene, Joanna, the other Mary and the rest of the holy women–who
had come to the eleven, were their own Brothers and Sisters in the
faith! So Christ might well say to them–and I daresay He did–"Why did
you doubt their testimony? You did them an injustice by acting in such
a manner. They are honest and truthful and they have told you the
truth. You have not been accustomed to doubt their word, so, as you
have believed their witness concerning other matters, why did you not
believe them in this instance? Moreover," our Lord might well say,
"there were many of them–it was not merely one who might have been
mistaken, but a considerable number saw Me and I spoke with them and
they came and told you that it was even so–yet you did not believe
them. The number of the witnesses and their well-known character are
sure signs that you must have been in a wrong state of heart and mind
not to be able to receive such clear evidence as theirs and, therefore,
you are blameworthy for your unbelief."
In the case of these Apostles, unbelief was peculiarly sinful, for they
had the promise of their Lord to back up the testimony of His
disciples. He had often told them that He would rise again from the
dead–and had even foretold the very day of His Resurrection, so that
the unbelief of the Apostles was altogether inexcusable. Yet this very
fact which was a cause of stumbling to the Apostles appears to me to
give point and power to the appeal which I make to myself and to you
against our unbelief. We all believe that Jesus Christ rose from the
dead. We have no difficulty in accepting that great fundamental
Doctrine of the Christian faith. All of us who are Believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ fully endorse Paul's words to the saints in Rome and
say that our Lord, "was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
for our justification." Well, then, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if
we believe that Jesus rose from the dead, the ground is completely cut
from under the feet of unbelief, for His promise is, "Because I live,
you shall also live." If He lives, then the Gospel is true and the
promises of the Gospel are sure to all who believe in Him! If He lives,
then He lives to intercede for us and, through his intercession, every
Covenant blessing is certain to come to us! Therefore if we harbor
unbelief in our hearts, we are doubly guilty–and if the Savior were
here in bodily Presence, though His face would still beam with Infinite
Love to us, I am quite sure that He would, even in sterner tones than
He used towards those 11 Apostles, upbraid us because of our unbelief!
If Thomas will not believe that Christ is risen until he has put his
finger into the print of the nails in His hands and thrust his hand
into his Savior's wounded side, that is bad enough–but it is worse if
you who do believe that He is risen and who do not doubt any one of the
doctrines that He has taught you–still have unbelief mingled with the
faith which
you possess! Whether that supposed faith is all true, or not, is more
than I can say, but, with so much faith as you profess to have, how can
you still continue to doubt?
I want, in this discourse, to upbraid myself and you, also, for any
unbelief that we may have harbored, by noticing, first, the evil of
unbelief in itselfand then, the evils that surely flow out of unbelief
I. First, then, I have to say to any of God's children who have given
in to unbelief in any degree–YOUR UNBELIEF IS AN EVIL THING IN ITSELF.
This truth will come very closely home to you if you will just think
how you would feel if others disbelieved you. If anyone were to
question your veracity, you would be very vexed and if you made a
promise to any man and he expressed a doubt as to the fulfillment of
it, you would feel hurt. And if those with whom you are most closely
connected were to disbelieve you, you would feel still more grieved,
for you expect absolute confidence from them. If mutual trust were
taken away from any family, how unhappy the members of that family
would be–the children suspecting the sincerity of their parents'
love–the wife doubting the reality of her husband's affection–the
husband dubious of his wife's faithfulness! Try to conceive, if you
can, what it would be if those who now call you friend, or child, or
husband, or wife, or brother, or sister should no longer accept what
you say as being true. Suppose, also, that you were perfectly conscious
that you had never broken your word to them–that you had faithfully
kept every promise that you had made to them and had been in all things
honest, true and sincere–would you not feel their doubts and
suspicions most acutely? I am sure you would–they would touch the very
apple of your eye and cut you to the quick–you could not endure such
treatment from them! Then how can you mete out to the Lord Jesus Christ
such treatment as would be so painful to yourself? And further, how can
you expect your child to trust you when you doubt your Savior? How can
you even look to your wife for confidence in you when, if there is some
little trouble, or things go somewhat awkwardly, you straightway begin
to mistrust your God and Savior?
Remember, too, that the sin of your unbelief may be measured by the
excellence of the person whom you mistrust. I said, just now, that if
you were conscious of your absolute sincerity, you would be the more
deeply wounded by the suspicion of those who doubted you. What do you
think, then, of the sin of doubting Christ, who cannot lie, who is "the
Truth" itself? I know, Beloved, that you have a very high opinion of
your Lord and Savior–do you not worship Him as Divine? Do you not also
feel His truly human sympathy? You know that there is no clause in His
Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure, which He has not
already fulfilled or which He will not fulfill at the appointed time.
His Incarnation, His life here below, His shameful sufferings, His
vicarious death–all these He promised to undergo and all these He
performed in due season. And He will go right through, to the end, with
the great work of your eternal salvation! By the mouth of His servant
Jeremiah, the Lord asked, long ago, "Have I been a wilderness unto
Israel? A land of darkness?" And the Lord Jesus might well say to His
professed followers, "Have I been as the barren fig tree was to Me when
I found on it nothing but leaves?" As He points to the long list of His
favors to us, He may well ask, "For which of them do you thus misjudge
and mistrust Me?"
And when He spreads out the whole roll of His life and work before you,
He may well enquire, "Upon which part of My life or work do you base
your suspicions? What is there in My Nature, as Divine and Human–what
is there in My Character–what is there in My life below, or in My life
above–that should lead you to question My faithfulness to you, My
power to help you, My readiness to sympathize with you, My willingness
to bless you?" Why, you are doubting Him whom the angels adore and
worship! You have felt, sometimes, as if you would like to wash His
feet with your tears. How, then, can you ever insult Him with your
doubts? You have even said that you could die for Him! And it has been
your great ambition to live for Him, yet you cannot trust Him? If you
have run with the footmen in the matter of these minor trials of your
faith–and they have wearied you–what would you do if you had to
contend with horsemen as many others have had to do in the day of
martyrdom? And if, in the favorable circumstances in which you have
been placed, you have doubted your Savior, what are you likely to do
when you are in the swellings of Jordan? Ah, my Brothers and Sisters,
when you think of unbelief as aiming her darts at Jesus Christ, the
Well-Beloved of our soul, surely you will say that it is a shameful sin
and a disgraceful crime against Infinite Love!
Then, remember, Beloved in the Lord, the relationship in which Jesus
Christ stands to you. You know that the more closely we are allied to a
person, the more painful any suspicion on the part of that person
becomes. I have repeatedly used in this connection the figure of a
child's trust in a parent, a husband's trust in his wife and the wife's
trust in her
husband–and you have readily accepted the comparisons because you have
felt that the nearness of the relationship would involve a
corresponding degree of trust. How near–how very near–we are in
kinship to Christ! Are we not married to Him? Has He not espoused us
unto Himself forever? There is a conjugal union between Christ and His
Church of which the marriage bond on earth is but a feeble type. Then
can you who have been renewed in heart by the Holy Spirit and washed in
the blood of the Lamb, doubt Him whom your soul loves? Can you distrust
Him to whom you are so closely allied? Oh, shame, shame, shame, that
lack of confidence should come in to mar such a wondrous union as that!
But we are even more closely knit to Christ than the marriage union
implies, for "we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His
bones." I cannot explain that secret, mystical union of which the
Scripture speaks, but it is a true union, whatever mystery there may be
about it. Then shall there be such disunion among the members of the
body that the eye shall begin to doubt the heart and the hand to
mistrust the foot? It would be pitiful if such a state of things could
prevail in our bodies! Then what must it be if such a state of things
prevails among the members of the mystical body of Christ? Beloved, may
God render this unbelief impossible by sending such life floods of
Grace through all the members of Christ's body that never more shall a
single thought of mistrust of our glorious Covenant Head enter our
minds even for a single instant!
Consider next, I pray you, dear Friends, how many times some of us have
doubted our Lord. The sin of unbelief becomes all the greater because
it is so frequently committed. God be thanked that it is not so with
all Christians–there are some who walk in faith and dwell in faith. I
suppose that as birds fly over everybody's head, doubts fly around all
good men's minds, but our old proverb says, "You need not let birds
build in your hair," although there are some people who let doubts come
and lodge in their minds and even dwell in their hearts! We know some
persons of this kind who seem to be very easily led into despondency,
doubt and mistrust of Christ. Well now, if a man has done this only
once, I think he might well say to himself, "I did once question the
everlasting Truth of God. I did once stain the spotless robe of
Infinite Veracity with a dark blot of suspicion"–and I think that he
might find it difficult to forgive himself for having done so vile a
thing even once! But when it comes to many times and when it comes to
long periods of doubt and mistrust, it is still worse. I want to press
this point home upon all whom it concerns and I want your consciences
to be wide awake so that as you recall the many times in which you have
thus sinned against your Heavenly Father, and against His blessed
Spirit, and against His Divine Son you may recollect that each distinct
act of unbelief is a sin–each act of mistrust is another wounding of
the Lord! God grant that we may truly repent as we think of the many
times in which we have been thus guilty!
Then there is this further point–some of these actions have been
repetitions of former ones. For instance, a man is in trouble and he
has doubts concerning the Providence of God. But he is delivered, God
is gracious to him and helps him out of his difficulty. Well now, if he
falls into a similar trouble and if he is again guilty of harboring
doubt, this is far worse! If a man should doubt your word the first
time you speak to him, you might say, "Well, he does not know me." The
second time you might say, "When he has proved me more, he will trust
me." But what shall I say of those whose hair has a sprinkling of gray
in it and whose Christian experience extends to a score of years or
more–perhaps two score– possibly, three score? Oh, if you doubt the
Lord now, it will be a crying shame! It will not be too surprising if
some of us act thus, for so did Israel for 40 years in the
wilderness–but that does not excuse the evil in our case. It is a
desperately evil thing that God should be mistrusted over and over
again–and that He should have to say, "How long will it be before you
believe Me?"
I scarcely like to linger on such a sad theme, yet it does our hearts
good to be thus upbraided. So, remember that oftentimes our unbelief
has come in the teeth of our own assurance to the contrary. Do you not
sometimes catch yourself saying, after a very great mercy, "Well, I can
never doubt the Lord again"? When you have had an answer to prayer of a
very memorable kind, you have said, "Oh, I must believe in the power of
prayer now! For me to ever think that the Lord will deny me would be
impossible." Yes, in that respect, also, we are just like the
Israelites who promised to keep the Covenant, yet speedily broke it.
There is also this aggravation of your sin–although you do not trust
the Lord as you should, you do trust your fellow creatures. You can
believe that lie of the old serpent–
"The Lord has quite forsaken you– Your God will be gracious no more"–
yet you cannot so readily believe the oath and promise of God! If an
earthly friend were to say to you, "I will help you," how readily you
would jump at his offer! If there is an arm of flesh near, how
cheerfully you lean upon it and, though perhaps there is nothing for
you to rest yourself upon but a broken reed, you think it is a strong
staff and throw all your weight upon it! It is quite true that ungodly
men who have no faith generally have any amount of credulity. They
cannot believe the truth, but they can believe lies to any extent! So
is it, alas, with God's own people when they get off the track of
faith. They seem to become credulous concerning the things seen, which
are temporal, in proportion as they become dubious of the things
unseen, which are eternal! Is not this a sin of the greatest blackness?
You cannot trust your husband, but you can trust a flatterer who
deceives you! You cannot trust your God, but you make idol gods unto
yourself and trust them! You cannot rest yourself on Jehovah, but you
can on Egypt! You can rest yourself on the promise of man who is but as
a moth which is soon crushed, but as for Him who made the heavens and
the earth and all things that are, you cannot rely upon Him! I feel as
if I could sit down and cover my face for shame when I think of those
occasions wherein I have been guilty of this sin. Perhaps the best
thing we could all do would be to go home, fall on our knees and ask
our blessed Savior to wash away all this unbelief–and not to believe
us when we talk about doubting–but only to believe that as He knows
all things, He knows that, after all, we do trust Him.
II. Now, with great brevity I have to speak upon the second point which
is THE MANY EVILS WHICH COME OUT OF UNBELIEF TO THOSE OF US WHO LOVE
THE LORD.
Brothers and Sisters, it is enough of evil–if there were no more–that
unbelief is so cruel to Christ and grieves His Holy Spirit so much. I
should but repeat myself if I reminded you how mistrust grieves you
and, speaking after the manner of men, in the same fashion it grieves
the Holy Spirit. He dwells in you–shall He dwell in you to be grieved
by you? He relieves your grief–will you cause Him grief? Your
vexations vanish because He is the Comforter–will you vex the
Comforter? And what can vex Him more than suspecting the ever-faithful
heart of Christ? That is evil enough–to wound Christ and the Holy
Spirit!
Next, remember–though this is a more selfish argument–how much unrest
and misery unbelief has caused to yourself. You have never had half as
many trials from God as you have manufactured for yourself. Death,
which you so much dread, is nothing compared with the thousand deaths
that you have died through the fear of death. You make a whip for
yourself and you mix bitter cups for yourself by your unbelief. That is
quite enough trial for you to bear and God will help you to bear it,
but you put away the helping hand when you are unbelieving and then you
increase your own burden! Oh, you can sing, even by the rivers of
Babylon, if you have but faith! You may lie on your sick bed and feel
great pain, yet your spirit shall not smart, but shall dance away your
pain if your heart is but looking in simple confidence to Christ. And
you shall die, as the Negro said his master died–"full of life"–if
you have true faith in Jesus. But if faith shall fail you, oh then you
are distressed when there is no cause for distress–and full of fear
where there is no fear!
And then, how much you lose in other things besides happiness! A
thousand promises are missed because there is not the faith to claim
them. There are the cases and you have the keys–yet you do not put the
keys into the locks to open them. There are Joseph's granaries and you
are hungry–but you do not go to Joseph and show your confidence in him
by asking for what you need. You are not straitened in God, but in
yourselves! If you believe not, you shall not be estab-lished–neither
shall your prayers prevail, nor shall you grow in Grace. If you believe
not, your experience shall not be of that high and lofty kind that
otherwise it might have been. We live down here in the marsh and the
mist when, had we faith, we might live in the everlasting sunshine! We
are down below in the dungeons, fretting under imaginary chains when
the key of promise, which will open every door in Doubting Castle, is
in our bosom! If we will but use it, we may get away to the tops of the
mountains and see the New Jerusalem and the land which is very far off.
Further, unbelief weakens us for all practical purposes. What can the
man who is unbelieving do? O Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is a
terrible thing to think how much work there is that falls flat because
it is not done in faith! You saw the trees when they were covered with
blooms–there seemed to be a promise of much fruit–but there were
chilling winds, sharp frosts and so, perhaps, only one in a hundred of
the blossoms ever turned to fruit. The tree of the Church seems, at
times, covered with beautiful blossoms–what can be more lovely to the
eyes? But the blossoms do not knit– faith is the bee that carries the
pollen–it is faith that fructifies the whole and makes it truly
fruitful unto God. What might my sermons not have done had I believed
my Master more? You Sunday school teachers may say, "Had I taught in
greater faith, I might have won my scholars." Or you may say, "Had I
gone to my visiting of the poor and the sick in the strength of the
Lord, who knows what I might have done for Him?"
Faith is the Nazarite lock of Samson–if it is shorn away, Samson is
weak as other men. Then, as to suffering, wonderful is the power of
faith there. If you are trusting your Heavenly Father, believing that
all is right that seems most wrong, that everything that happens is
ordered or permitted by Him and that His Grace will sweeten every
bitter cup, you can suffer patiently and, as your tribulations abound,
so will your consolations abound in Christ Jesus! Like the Ark of Noah,
as the waters deepen you will rise upon them and get nearer to Heaven
in proportion as the great floods increase.
Unbelief in any Christian, no doubt, has a very injurious effect upon
other Christians. There are some who are like sickly sheep which–
"Infect the flock, And poison all the rest."
Especially is it so, dear Brothers, if you happen to be in office in
the church, or to be doing any prominent work for Christ. If the
commander-in-chief trembles, the army is already conquered! If the
captain begins to fear, fear will take possession of every soldier's
heart in his company. Was it not grand of Paul, in the shipwreck, when
all others were dismayed and thought they would go to the bottom, when
he said, "Have no fear, Sirs," and he bade them eat, as he ate–calmly
giving thanks to God before them all? Why, Paul saved them all by his
calm confidence in God! If we have but faith, we shall strengthen our
Brothers and Sisters! But if we have it not, we shall weaken them.
I am sure, too, that the influence of unbelief in Christians upon the
unconverted is very serious, indeed. If we do not play the man in times
of trial–if we do not show them what faith in God can do–they will
think that there is nothing in it. And suppose, Brothers and Sisters,
you should make anyone think there is nothing in religion? How sad that
would be! When the devil needs a friend, surely he could not find one
more able to do him service than a child of God who is full of
mistrust. The children say, "Our father only trusts God for bread when
there is plenty in the cupboard." And the servants say, "The master is
only happy in the Lord when he is in good health." And those who know
our business affairs say, "Oh, yes! So-and-So is a great believer, but
he has a big balance at his banker's–you should see him when trade is
bad! You should see him when there are bad debts! Then you will find
that he is not a bit more a believer in Jesus Christ than any of the
rest of us! He is a fair-weather Christian–he is like the flowers that
open when the sun shines. But take away the summer prosperity and you
will see but little of his religion!" Let it not be so with any of us,
but may God deliver us from this tremendous evil of unbelief!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 11:1-13;32-40.
Verses 1, 2. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good
report So it was written, in the olden time, that Believers "obtained a
good report." And this second verse shows that they obtained it by
their faith. The best part of the report about them is that they
believed their God and believed all that was revealed to them by His
Word and His Spirit.
3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word
of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear The facts about Creation must be the subject of faith. It is
true that they can be substantiated by the argument from design and in
other ways, but still, for a wise purpose as I believe, God has not
made even that matter of the creation of the universe perfectly clear
to human reason–so there is room for the exercise of faith. Men like
to have everything laid down according to the rules of mathematical
precision, but God desires them to exercise faith and, therefore, He
has not acted according to their wishes.
4. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts: and by it, he being dead, yet speaks. The first of the long
line of martyrs triumphed by faith! And if you are to be strong to bear
witness for God, you must be made strong by the same power which worked
so effectually in Abel. If, like his, your life is to be a speaking
life–a life which shall speak even out of the grave–its voice must be
the voice of faith.
5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was
not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation
he had this testimony, that he pleased God. It is faith that muzzles
the mouth of death and takes away the power of the sepulcher. If any
man who had not been a Believer had been translated as Enoch was, we
should have been able to point to a great feat accomplished apart from
faith. It has never been so, for this which was one of the greatest
things that was ever done–to leap from this life into another and to
overleap the grave altogether–was only achieved "by faith."
6. 7. But without faith it is impossible toplease Him: for he that
comes to Godmust believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things
not as yet seen. These are the things with which faith always
deals–not with the things that are seen or are apprehensible by the
senses or the feelings.
7. Moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by
which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which
is by faith. So you see that faith has a condemning power towards an
ungodly world. You do not need to be constantly telling worldlings that
they are doing wrong–let them see clearly the evidence of your faith,
for that will bear the strongest conceivable witness against their
unbelief and sin, even as Noah, by his faith, "condemned the world and
became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
8. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not
knowing where he went That is, surely, the very masterpiece of faith!
God bade Abraham go forth from his native land. He believed that God
knew where he was to go though he did not himself know. So he left the
direction of his wanderings entirely in the Lord's hands and
obeyed–and "went out, not knowing where he went." We are not to ask
for full knowledge before we will be obedient to the will of the Lord,
but we are to obey God in the dark, even as Abraham did.
9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange
country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise. I t is one of the great evidences of true
faith for her to keep on, to continue, to abide without any visible
signs or tokens of what she knows is hers. The life of faith is
wonderful, but so, also, is the walk of faith. Her walk has much about
it that is mysterious. She knows that the land she treads on belongs to
her and yet, in another sense, she cannot claim a solitary foot of it.
She knows that she is at home, even as Abraham was in his own land–yet
like he, she knows herself to be a sojourner in a strange land, but is
quite content to be so.
10. For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and
Maker is God. What a depth of meaning there is in those five words, "a
city which has foundations"–as if all other cities had none! They come
and they go as if they were molehills raised on the surface of the
earth, or little mounds of sand made by the children's wooden spades
upon the seashore which the next tide will wash away! What vast numbers
of cities have already been destroyed! We are constantly picking up the
relics of them, but there is, blessed be the name of the Lord, "a city
which has foundations," a city founded on eternal power–and we are, I
hope, on our way to that city.
11. 12. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive
seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she
judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him
as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in
multitude, andas the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Perhaps the reference is to Abraham who was as good as dead, being so
old–or to Isaac, who was as good as dead, for he was laid upon the
altar and was practically "offered up" as a sacrifice unto the Lord.
There were many deaths to work against the life of faith, yet life
triumphed over death after all.
13. These all died in faith. That is the epitaph which God has carved
over the resting place of His faithful ones– "These all died in
faith." Will this be the record concerning all of us, "These all died
in faith"?
13. Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. The chapter is a very long one so
I must condense it, as the Apostle, himself, did when he came to the
32nd verse. There was so much to be said that he added–
32. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of
Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also,
and Samuel, and of the Prophets. There are some names in this chapter
which we would hardly have expected to see there–the characters
mentioned having been so disfigured by serious faults, flaws and
failings–but the distinguishing feature of faith was there in every
instance–and especially in the case of Samson. Perhaps there was no
more childlike faith in any man than there was in him. Who but a man
full of faith would have hurled himself upon a
thousand men with no weapon in his hand but the jawbone of an ass?
There was a wondrous confidence in God in that weak, strong man, which
though it does not excuse his faults, yet nevertheless puts him in the
ranks of the Believers. Happy is the man or woman who believes in God!
There were multitudes of others beside those whom the Apostle named–
33. Who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness. Is that
as great an exploit as subduing kingdoms? Yes, that it is–to have, by
faith, preserved a holy character in such a world of temptation as this
is a far grander achievement than to have conquered any number of
kingdoms by force of arms!
33, 34. Obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were
made strong, Do you notice how, every now and then, there is the
mention of a feat which seems altogether beyond you, but then there
follows one in which you can be a partaker with these heroes and
heroines of faith? It may be that you have never "quenched the violence
of fire" yet, often enough, it has been true of you that, by faith,
"out of weakness" you have been "made strong." Others–
34, 30. Waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were
tortured, not accepting deliverance: that they might obtain a better
resurrection. What wondrous faith it was which sustained the saints
under the awful tortures to which they were subjected! The story
flusters one's heart to even read it–what must it have been actually
to endure?
36-39. And others had trial of cruel mocking and scourging, yes,
moreover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about
in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented, (of
whom the world was not worthy): they wandered in deserts, and in
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having
obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. These
worthies lived before Christ came, but, since then, equally noble
exploits have been performed by the heroes and heroines of faith. The
Christian martyrs have shown the extremity of human endurance when they
have been sustained by faith and the roll of Christian heroes, since
their Lord ascended to Heaven, is longer and even brighter than that of
the faithful ones who came before them in the earlier dispensation!
40. God having provided some better thing for us, that they, without
us, should not be made perfect The new dispensation is necessary to
complete the old–the New Testament is the complement of the Old
Testament–and New Testament saints join hands with Old Testament
elders. Let us all be worthy of our high pedigree and may God grant
that if the saints of these latter days are to perfect the history of
the Church of Christ, the end may not be less heroic than the beginning
was! A true poem should gather force as it grows and its waves of
thought should roll in with greater power as it nears its climax. So
should the mighty poem of faith's glorious history increase in depth
and power as it gets nearer to its grand consummation–that God may be
glorified yet more and more through all His believing children. So may
it be! Amen.