The Holdfasts of Faith

The Holdfasts of Faith

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 17, 1890,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Who is the father of us all, (as it is written, Ihave made you a
father of many nations,) before Him whom he believed, even God, who
quickens the dead, and calls those things which are not as though they
were." Romans 4:16,17.

The preacher begs the reader, before perusing the sermon, to read the
two portions of Scripture which were used in the public service–
Genesis 15:1-6 and Romans 4.

ABRAHAM had received an assurance from the Lord that he was to be the
father of many nations. His faith in this promise underwent great
trials. Where there is the sweet honey of promise, there the wasps of
doubt will be gathered together. A promise calls for faith, but through
our natural depravity it awakens unbelief and there is a struggle
around the sacred promise such as that represented in the prayer,
"Lord, I believe: help You my unbelief." Satan, with slimy flattery,
decoys men into a belief of his lie, but the God of Truth gives us His
bare promise and bids us believe it–and when questions suggest
themselves He does not relax His claim but bids us still believe.

True faith, as the work of God, is not a thing to be put down–it is a
conquering Grace and makes a brave fight against wicked unbelief. While
doing so, Faith has her eyes open and she, in due season, spies out
grounds of confidence. She looks at God Himself. She considers the days
of old. She remembers her own experience at the right hand of the Host
on High and thus she lifts her eyes to the hills from where comes her
help. When Faith has discovered a helpful Truth of God she makes
immediate use of it as a holdfast, even as Abraham did in the case now
before us.

The great difficulty with Abraham was death. Death was around him on
every side. God had promised him life and life more abundantly, for he
was to be the father of many nations and have a seed as many as the
stars of Heaven for multitude. But as to all possibility of his being a
father, his body was now dead. He was 100 years old and withered with
age–how could he become a father of nations? Sarah, also, as to being
a mother, was practically dead for she was 90 years old. How should she
bear sons unto Abraham?

Further on the Lord bade him, when Isaac was miraculously born, to
offer him as a sacrifice and Abraham was willing to do even that at
God's command. He believed that in Isaac should his seed be called and
therefore he looked that God should "raise him up, even from the dead;
from where also he received him in a figure." The Patriarch's faith
settled down upon God's power to quicken the dead and he found in that
unquestioned Truth a foundation for the firmest confidence. The Truth
of God's power to quicken the dead met all the difficulties of
Abraham's position. He argued– "What if my body is dead? God can
quicken it. What if my wife is, in this matter, as one dead? By God's
power she can receive strength. What if my son, when growing up, should
be dead on the altar? He that made me the promise can raise him up from
the dead, for what He has promised He is able to perform." Abraham's
faith was a nail fastened in a sure place. He knew Jehovah as "God, who
quickens the dead" and that resurrection word was, to his faith, a
shout of victory!

Abraham had a second holdfast in the creating power of God. The Lord
had spoken to him concerning his seed as though it existed and had
said, "I have made you a father of many nations." As though these
nations were already born, He had changed his name from Abram to
Abraham, which means "father of a multitude." Yet, when he entered his
tent, no child fondly climbed his knee, no babe smiled from the arms of
Sarah! "To me You have given no seed," was the humble statement of the
believing Patriarch. He felt that Jehovah could call forth from
non-existence a people as many as the stars of Heaven, for He had said,
"so shall your seed be."

You know what it is to call a servant. You say, "Mary," and there she
is. You have called one who is and she appears at your call. But God
calls the things that are not as though they were, and lo, they appear
at His bidding! He says, "Light be," and light was. He says, "Let there
be a firmament," and the blue sky overarches the whole earth. When He
calls for fish or fowl, for plant or beast, they answer to the call. So
Abraham argues–" If God calls for descendants for me, they will come.
Though there are no signs of my being a father and, speaking after the
flesh, it is impossible, yet God, who calls everything out of nothing,
can call for a numerous progeny for me and that progeny will come."
Thus, you see, in the hour of trial, Abraham's faith fell back upon the
two facts of resurrection and creation and there it rested in peace.

I desire, at this time, without wisdom of words, in great simplicity to
teach this one lesson. It is a very plain lesson, but if it is well
learned it will be a well of strength and solace to you. God raises the
dead, and creates out of nothing– and therefore He can carry out the
promises of His Gospel. Get this worked into your own souls and you
will be strong in faith. Once strong in faith you are strong
everywhere, for as a man's faith is, so is he. If your faith shall
learn to stay herself upon eternal principles and find her rest in the
Omnipotence of God, you will become like Abraham, a prince among
men–and this service will bring you a life-long blessing.

Before I plunge into the sermon, let me speak a word to anxious men and
women who are not yet saved, but who long to be partakers of life in
Christ Jesus our Lord. You are in a conflict of soul just now. The Lord
has set before you the promise, "He that believes on the Son has
everlasting life." This you would gladly believe but you are staggered
by the greatness of the mercy. How is God able to justify the ungodly?
How can He have fellowship with you, for you are defiled with sin? You
seem to yourself to have been such a monster of unbelief and enmity
against God that you can never be put among the children.

"How can these things be?" is the inquiry of your trembling spirit. Can
a lion become a lamb? Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can the
leopard lie down with the kid? Can a rebel become a companion of those
who fear the Lord? Can a man who merits the fiercest wrath of God yet
live in His love and delight himself in His favor? Is it not beyond
belief that one steeped in evil should, at last, be found without fault
before the Throne of God? God promises eternal life to all who believe
on His Son Jesus, but how can it be fulfilled? Here is the struggle. I
want you, dear Friend, before I go fully into my subject, to pick up at
once the thread of it and say, "I see where the preacher is driving. He
wants me to believe that God can do anything which He has promised to
do, seeing that He can raise the dead and call the things that are not
as though they were."

Get this one thought into your mind and I hope it will be a help to you
in the hour of conflict between faith and feeling. First, let me try
and show the time for the exercise of such a faith, or, when shall we
rest on resurrection and creation? Secondly, let us look upon the basis
of this faith. And then, thirdly, let us sum up the outcome of such a
faith. If we really get such a faith, it will be fruitful in abundant
blessing.

I. THE TIME FOR SUCH A FAITH AS THIS. To believe God unstaggeringly in
the teeth of appearances–when is the best time for this? This duty is
not at its best when all goes well with us, for when we walk by sight
we scarcely walk by faith! When the soul is full of joy there is wide
space for gratitude, but narrower room for faith. "What a man sees,
what does he yet hope for?" The light of fleeting day is not for
perceptions which deal with eternity–faith's hour of prime is
midnight. Even a horror of great darkness affords her a better
opportunity for communion with the Covenant

God.

Faith beholds her visions in the night–she needs not earthly light. A
blind man loses nothing by the set of sun and faith loses nothing by
the removal of outward evidences. Faith has worked many of her greatest
deeds in hours which seemed least suitable for her undertakings. Like
David's hero, she slays her lion in the pit in the time of snow. Like
Jacob, she wrestles with the angel and wins the victory when night has
fallen on all the world. Sunshine-faith comes and goes– true faith
stands sentry at all hours! Fair-weather faith is poor stuff–give me
winter-faith which has warmth within it when the blasts from the north
freeze flesh and blood even to the bone!

First, as to trusting God on account of the resurrection, we shall find
it greatly in season when our soul is at first made to feel its
spiritual death. I am addressing some who mournfully cry, "How can I be
saved? I am as dead as the earth I stand upon. I feel nothing–

'I hear, but seem to hear in vain, Insensible as steel;

If anything is felt, 'tis only pain To find I cannot feel.'

" My heart is as iron hardened in the forges of Hell. I am without God
and without hope–and yet I do not mourn over my sin, nor feel my awful
position as I ought to do. I fear I am dead in trespasses and sins and
I ask with the Prophet, 'Can these dry bones live?'"

Now is a special time, poor Sinner, for believing in God that quickens
the dead. NOW is your choice opportunity for testing the resurrection
power of the Lord Jesus, who said, "I am the Resurrection and the
Life." God can keep His promise of Grace to you, even to you, if you
believe, for He quickens the dead. You believe that all the dead shall
rise at the last day–can you not believe that, though you are
spiritually dead, God can quicken you? Can you not believe in the power
of the Lord to carry out His Word? If resurrection has been worked by
Him, all things are possible with Him. If you are as a dead man–as
stiff and cold to heavenly things as though you were a corpse–yet God
can quicken you into newness of life.

Is not this plain enough? Do you believe this? If you can believe it,
you are on the way to salvation! If you can trust God in Christ to make
you live, man, you live! The very fact that you trust in Christ Jesus
for eternal life proves that you have eternal life! Jesus said, "He
that believes in Me has everlasting life." Even now, while conscious of
so much death, believe in God who quickens the dead!

Next, there is another notable occasion for faith–when the child of
God is in apprehension of death through soul trouble. He is crying like
David in the 88th Psalm, "My soul is full of troubles and my life draws
near unto the grave." Though not absolutely dead as to spiritual
things, yet the little life which remains is weak, faint, slumbering
and lethargic. I think I hear you cry, "I am counted with them that go
down into the pit: I am as a man that has no strength: free among the
dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom You remember no more:
and they are cut off from Your hand." Now is the season to glorify God
by believing the promise!

You have the sentence of death in yourself so that you may not trust in
yourself but in the Lord alone. Your old sins rise up and accuse
you–your present evil tendencies, like a rotting body of death,
surround you–you find no comfort or joy in life. It seems as though
God has given you up and left you to perish. Though once you rejoiced
before Him, you are forced to sigh as one forsaken of his God, shut up
for destruction. Now, even now, you are on a vantage-ground for
glorifying the Lord by faith. It may be that at this time you enjoy
nothing when you go up to religious services. And in reading or praying
at home the chill of death makes every godly exercise a burden. You are
so harassed with fears, so worried with cares, so tortured with regrets
and so tried with temptations that you are forced to cry, "My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?"

Come, my Brother. Come, my Sister, look to the Strong for strength! You
can do nothing, it is clear–therefore cast yourself on Him who is able
to quicken the dead! Is there not foothold here? To you, even to you,
though you are moaning out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?" to you, I say, comes this
brave hope, "The Lord is risen, indeed," and he that believes in Him,
though he were dead, yet shall he live! Believe that promise, "I will
never leave you, nor forsake you." And that other, "I give unto My
sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of My hand." Surely, if you remember that God quickens
the dead, you can believe that He will preserve your soul when heart
and flesh fail you!

To another character is a like opportunity offered. When death
threatens to reach us through temporal trouble, then may we believe in
Him that quickens the dead. It may be that the arrows of death have
slain your dearest and best and, at the same time, you have suffered
crushing losses in business, sickness of body and crosses in your
family circle. You think you could truly say with David, "All Your
waves and Your billows have gone over me." If God does not soon
interfere, you will either be dead, or worse than dead. You cry, "I am
afflicted and ready to die from my youth up." Listen, my Brothers and
Sisters, listen hopefully!

You believe that the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised!
Surely, He that can raise the myriads of the dead can deliver you out
of your killing troubles. He can bring you through the valley of the
shadow of death and give you beauty for ashes. I know He can, and so do
you! Doubt no longer, but rest in the life-giving God and He will
deliver you. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord
delivers him out of them all"–and so He will deliver you. One more
case occurs to me. This is a very sad one to my own heart. When death
crushes down the Church and there seems

no sign of revival, then should we believe in the God of Resurrection.
The carnal man cares nothing for the condition of the Church of God,
but the spiritual man takes pleasure in her stones and favors the dust
thereof.

Some of us would sooner suffer personal calamity than see the cause of
God and Truth in a low condition. It may be that in the Church of which
you are a member you pine under a blight. Little prayer, no Christian
fellowship, very few conversions, very little desire to win souls–your
heart sinks within you, for death is all around! You look abroad and
there is the same state of things. We are sweltering in false doctrine
and suffocating in worldliness! In many quarters, religion itself seems
dead and buried beneath a mound of rubbishing entertainments. What
then? Where shall we turn for comfort? There are a few good, faithful
men left, but it will be vain to trust in them–what can they do?

We resolve to hold fast by the faith, ourselves, but we dare not trust
to resolves for a witchery is abroad which would fascinate the very
elect. Here is our mainstay–God is able to quicken the dead! Of the
stones of Jordan's river, He is able to raise up children unto Abraham!
The Lord God is able, from the slums and dens of London, to call a
people that shall maintain His Truth! God that quickens the dead can
either work the seven-fold miracle of arousing His dead Church and
making it a power to bless the world or He can set existing Churches on
one side and call them a people that were not a people, and her Beloved
that was not Beloved. Have faith in God that quickens the dead that
none of His promises or purposes will fall to the ground!

I turn now to the other ground of Abraham's hope. He had no child and
yet God tells him that he shall have a seed as numerous as the stars of
Heaven! How is the man of God to believe this? His second holdfast is
the creating power of God–He calls the things which are not as though
they were. He can create as well as quicken. When can we use this fact
as a reason for faith? Friend, look to this when necessary Graces are
lacking in your heart. Though you cannot find one of the saving Graces
within your soul, yet believe in the promise of the Lord. What if
within your bosom at present there seems to be neither repentance, nor
faith, nor hope, nor love?–the Lord can create them all within you! He
can call the things that are not and they will appear.

Those of us who carry about with us a body of flesh and blood are
sometimes horribly cast down. When we look within, even by the candle
of the Word, there are times when we cannot find in our own souls
anything which we would wish to find–peace has fled, love is
languishing, holiness is grieving, joy is banished–we are not
fruitful, nor useful, nor happy. And yet we cannot give up our
faith–we would gladly have it strengthened. Then let us believe in Him
who makes all things new. He will create in us the new heart, the right
spirit and call out Graces which are not ours as yet. "Well," cries a
child of God, "I think I can find faith and a little love, but what
shall I do when joy and peace are gone? I have lost the rest I once
enjoyed. I cannot sing as once I did when I thought I could out-sing
the seraphim because my indebtedness to infinite love was greater than
theirs."

Ah, well, dear Friend! God can create joy and peace and put them in
your soul as new gifts from Heaven, for He "calls those things which
are not as though they were." Believe for faith, believe for hope,
believe for peace, believe for joy! These Graces are set upon lower
Graces–"Grace for Grace." You rise not on stepping stones of your dead
selves, but on the ladder of the creating God who has said, "I create
the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace to him that is far off and to him
that is near, says the Lord, and I will heal him."

I spoke just now in reference to temporal troubles–there is a grand
platform for faith when no help is visible. When you cannot see any
friend who will assist you, nor any way in which you can help yourself,
then trust in the Creator who can make a way. Our friends, like
swallows, soon quit us when our summer is over, but God's promise is
not dependent upon man's faithfulness. We do not see how we can be
delivered, but then the Lord's way is in the sea and His footsteps are
not known. My dear Friend, do you not believe in God, your Maker, who
calls things that are not as though they were? He can deliver you by
means unknown to yourself! Lean hard upon the creating arm. Trust in
God, though the fig trees do not blossom, though there are no cattle in
the stall, nor flock in the fold, nor corn in the barn. Trust in the
promise, "You shall dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed."
The Lord that made Heaven and earth can set bread on your table and put
clothes on your back.

Once again let me speak of the Church in evil days. Let us trust the
Creator concerning His new creation. You bemoan yourself because you
are not clothed with power from on high to bring sinners to Jesus. When
you get into your class you feel yourself to be as a dry tree and not
as Aaron's rod, which budded and brought forth almonds. If you preach,
you feel unfit for the hallowed employ. What is worse, the same
weakness is almost everywhere. Few seem raised

up to preach with power and to lead on the hosts of God to victory.
This is very sad–but suppose death is everywhere– death in the pew,
death in the pulpit, death among the prophets and death among the
people? The Lord, who calls things that are not as though they were,
has but to give the word and great will be the company of them that
publish it! Our royal Leader has hidden forces at His command!

Sir Walter Scott speaks of the highland chieftain, in the lone glen,
who gave his shrill whistle and straightway an army arose where none
had been seen before–

"From shingles gray their lances start, The bracken-bush sends forth
the dart, The rushes and the willow-wand Are bristling into axe and
brand, And every tuft of broom gives life To plaided warriors armed for
strife." Thus can our Lord garrison His Church in a moment! In her
desolation He can people her with such multitudes that she shall ask,
"Who has begotten me these?" The Lord can send martyrs if they are
needed, confessors, preachers, writers and consecrated men and women of
every sort. Let us have no timorous thoughts, but let us glorify God by
firm faith.

Thus have I set before you the fact that our times of deadness and
discontent are grand seasons for believing in Him that quickens the
dead and calls all things into being.

II. Secondly, we will observe upon how these things are manifest to
us–resurrection and creation. We shall speak of THE BASIS OF THIS
FAITH. If our faith is to be based on resurrection, what do we know
about it? Paul seems to pass over every other resurrection and to dwell
only upon the resurrection of our Lord. See the closing verses of this
chapter– "If we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the
dead; who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification."

Brothers and Sisters, you believe that our Lord was crucified, pierced
to the heart, dead and buried. A stone was rolled to the mouth of the
grave and that stone was sealed and guarded lest the body should be
stolen–but yet He rose from the dead. It gladdens my heart to hear a
great multitude sing–

"Death cannot keep his prey–Jesus, my Savior!

He tore the bars away–Jesus, my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o'er His foes He arose a

Victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!" Realize that
Resurrection more and more, for there lies your hope. Hear this! Our
Lord "was delivered for our offenses." God gave Him up to justice as if
He had said, "Take Him away: I have laid on Him the transgressions of
My people– take Him to the place of chastisement. Condemn Him, scourge
Him, crucify Him, for He is made a curse for My people. I have
delivered Him up, I have left Him and forsaken Him."

See the soldiers lead Him through the streets of Jerusalem! Look, they
fasten His hands and feet with nails to the cruel Cross! Behold Him
lifted up to die in extreme agony! He dies–they take down those
precious limbs, wrap them in white linen and place them in the
sepulcher. He is delivered unto the grave for our offenses. There went
all my sin and the sins of all Believers–He made an end of sin in His
death. The wrath of God was spent upon Him for those sins which were
made to meet in the Person of the Well-Beloved and now those sins are
gone forever. How do we know? We know that it is so because our Surety
is set free! To meet our debt He was put in prison. When He paid the
debt, He would be liberated, but not till then. When He was raised
again it was because our justification was accomplished. A public
declaration was given that the debt was discharged and the everlasting
righteousness was brought in. Right well do we sing–

"He bore on the tree the sentence for me,

And now both the Surety and sinner are free." If Christ is raised from
the dead, Believers are no more guilty before God for their guilt must
have been put away, or else their Representative would not have risen!
If God has let our Representative and Substitute go, we are free! What
a

glorious Rock this is! Cannot you get upon it–the Resurrection of your
blessed Lord? This is a fact proved beyond any other fact in history
and means this to us–He has completed the work by which His people are
saved. Hallelujah!–

"If Jesus had not paid the debt He ne'er had been at freedom set" but
in the prison of the grave He would have been incarcerated to this
hour. God, who has raised His Son and thereby set free His people, may
well be trusted to fulfill every promise.

To this I add that we know that all the dead will rise and surely on
this ground we may rest in the Almighty God. We have seen others
spiritually quickened and made to live unto God, yes, more, in the case
of many of us, we, who were dead in trespasses and sins, have been
quickened and therefore, knowing of a surety that God quickens the
dead, we are persuaded that what He has promised He is able to perform.
We are eternally secure in a risen Savior because all the promises are
in Him are yes and amen–and the fact of His rising proves that He can
do all things for us.

If you desire another basis for your faith–and we hardly think you
do–there is Creation. If you wish to strengthen your faith, behold
Creation and you have not far to go–your own body is full of wonders.
See the fields with their ripe harvest! Wander in the woods and
forests–mark the hills and valleys, the rippling brooks and flowing
streams and the wide expansive ocean. Look up to the sun, the clouds,
the sky. Go out at night and watch the moon and stars. Who made all
these? Who leads them out in their order? Who built the pillarless arch
which covers all things? Who created everything, from the tiniest atom
up to the greatest world? Who but God?

Surely He that made all these can make me a new creature in Christ
Jesus! He that made all these things can make me meet to be a partaker
with the saints in light! If He chooses to be a Potter, as He does, He
can make me revolve upon His wheel and with every touch of His finger
He can impart beauty to me till He has made me symmetrical in holiness
and fit for the Master's use. We, seeing the works of His hand all
around us, ought to believe in Him without a doubt. Mungo Park, the
African traveler, lost his way in the wilds and then and there was
cheered by viewing a tiny moss and marking its singular beauty. He saw
the finger of God in that small object and felt sure that the great God
would take care of him.

So may we be taught faith by every created thing–the Creator can do
all things. When you have looked at creation, remember Providence,
which is a prolongation of the creative act. The power which made all
things upholds them. The Lord keeps them in their places or they could
not remain. They tell us nowadays that the universe stands because of
law. Is there any power about a mere law? No, my Friends–law requires
the almighty power of the living God! Nowadays, philosophers are quick
to claim for men freedom of action–and the Lord, who made man, is
spoken of as if He were no free agent but the mere slave of laws.
Everybody is now to be a free agent except the living God! Is this
philosophy? Is this reason? Is God the captive of His own laws? I know
no such God!

He does all things. Natural laws are but the summary of God's usual way
of working–but the laws neither hinder God in anything, nor perform
anything as of themselves. He Himself causes everything to abide, or to
change, as seems good to Him. As you see everything upheld by the word
of His power, surely you have good ground for believing in His power to
keep His promise to you! Meanwhile, a creation work of Grace is going
on around you. If you do not feel it in yourself, my Brothers and
Sisters, you can soon see it in others. Speak to the people of God and
they will tell you–and to new converts and they will show you. The
story of what Free Grace has done is ever telling, yet untold.

One will tell you, "I was a drunkard and the Lord converted me."
Another will confess, "My feet had almost gone, but the Lord preserved
me." Another will declare, "I was in the furnace and the Son of Man
walked in the fire with me." Another will testify, "I was brought low
and He helped me." You will have abundant evidence that Grace-Creation
is going on continually and that God is working great wonders in the
midst of His people! Be of good courage and put your trust in the God
of the new Creation. I wish the Grace of God would bring every one of
you as far as we have now come, namely, to believe that He who raises
the dead and creates out of nothing, can do for us what we need. We
have an Almighty God to deal with–and His Grace is linked with His
Omnipotence–and His love is as large as His power.

I want you to trust Him. Oh, if you have never done so, do it now! God
help you! If you are holding on to anything but God in Christ Jesus,
let it go–let it go at once! You will not get hurt by falling into the
unseen arms. I have heard of one who, wandering in the night, came to
what he thought to be an awful precipice, and as he was about to fall,
in sheer desperation he caught the root of a tree and held there for
dear life. His arms were weary. His hands were ready to fail him, but
he held on with a death-grip. At last he was obliged to give up his
hold and when he had done so, down he

fell–and you expect me to add that he was dashed to pieces. No, he
only fell a few inches upon a soft bed of moss, for he was not near a
precipice after all!

When you let go all other trusts, you think it an awful thing to fall
into your Savior's arms, but it is not so–it is not a dangerous
venture, but a wise reliance. If faith falls, she falls upon the bosom
of her God. If you trust Him who loved you unto death, you are safe and
happy. Give up all earthly confidence, all human hope–and repose in
Jesus Crucified and you shall find rest unto your souls.

III. But now, let us review THE OUTCOME OF THIS FAITH. May we all see
the same results in ourselves through the Holy Spirit! Abraham believed
and looked at things from God's standpoint. "As it is written, I have
made you a father of many nations, before Him whom he believed, even
God." Abraham looked at the promise as Abraham and he could not see how
it could be. He had no child and his wife was old. But God calls him by
the name which signified "Father of a multitude," because He viewed him
as such. And the Lord talked to him about his household after
him–about their number–and about their being strangers in a strange
land. To God's foreseeing eye, Abraham was what he was to become–He
calls the things that are not as though they were.

Now, faith has the wonderful property of becoming like the God in whom
it trusts and of looking at things as God sees them. How I wish, my
dear, tried Brothers and Sisters, you could see your troubles as God
sees them–namely, as means to your advancement in Divine Grace! Look
at affliction today as a process that is enriching you! Sinner, when
you believe in Jesus, God looks at you as saved, justified, forgiven
and quickened into eternal life! If you believe in Jesus, see yourself
as God sees you. It is a great thing for a sinner, dead in himself, to
say, "And yet I live." But assuredly he may say it! It is a great thing
for one consciously guilty to say, "And yet I am justified." Still, it
is true and it is no presumption to believe it! Oh, this is a grand
art, to look at things from God's point of view!

Faith takes the Omnipotence of God and girds herself with His almighty
power–and then she takes the foresight of God and though it does not
yet appear what we shall be–Faith perceives that in Christ, the poor,
trembling and guilty soul is made pure, spotless and glorious before
God! Believer in Jesus, know yourself to be what the Gospel says you
are and hold on to that knowledge! However desperate the tug may be,
never let go your conviction that God's view of you in Christ is the
true one. God sees the truth of things and teaches faith to see the
same. Justification by faith is no fiction–it is a fact that the
Believer is just, is saved, is complete in Christ Jesus! God give us to
see this fact even as He sees it, and then, being justified by faith,
we may have peace with God.

Next, you see that Abraham considered his body now dead. Our Authorized
Version runs thus–"He considered not his own body now dead." The
Revised Version has–"He considered his own body now as good as dead."
It is a curious fact that among the ancient manuscripts there are two
readings of almost equal value–one with the "not," and one without it.
I think both mean the same thing. You say, "How is that?" He considered
his own body to be dead, but he did not make any consideration of that
fact, but believed in God all the same. He considered it so far as to
be fully aware of it, but he did not consider it so as to raise a
question about the fulfillment of the promise. He considered it to be
true that he was past having a son in the strength of Nature, but he
considered that he should have a son through the power of the promise.
God could work out His purpose as well with Abraham and Sarah in old
age as in their youth.

O poor seeking Soul, listen to this! Know yourself to be spiritually
dead! Think as badly of yourself as ever you like, for you are worse
than you think you are, but after you have considered the fearful fact
of your lost estate, do not go on to consider it as any hindrance to
God in the work of His Grace. Jesus is able to save you over the head
of all your death, guilt and corruption. If you have been a thief, a
Sabbath-breaker, a liar, a swearer, a murderer–He can forgive you! And
if today you feel so dead that you can do nothing towards your own
salvation, yet if you will believe His promise, He that can raise the
dead can save you from the guilt and power of sin! Do not consider your
helpless state to be any barrier to Free Grace, for the love of God
will triumph over all your loathsomeness and death!

Abraham, as the outcome of his faith, obeyed God in all things–a very
essential point, this. Believing God, he left his estates in Ur of the
Chaldees and came to Canaan to live in tents and wander about like a
gypsy, that he might dwell where the Lord had called him to sojourn
alone–a stranger in a strange land. If you believe the promise of the
Gospel, you will come out from the world. You will come out from sin
and you will become one of those strangers who follow Jesus where ever
He goes. God will be your Leader. Christ will be your Commander. And
though in the world, you will not be of the world. All true Believers,
like Abraham, obey. Obedience is faith in action. You are to walk in
the steps of

the faith of father Abraham. His faith did not sit still–it took
steps–and you must take these steps, also, by obeying God because you
believe Him. That faith which has no works with it is a dead faith and
will justify no one. How should a dead thing justify? Faith, knowing a
thing to be true, acts upon that truth and is thus itself justified, or
proved to be justly called faith.

And then the result was that Abraham enjoyed the promise. I have often
thought of the old man laughing at the thought of the birth of a son to
him in his 100th year. Two people may do the same thing and in the one
it may be right, and in the other it may be wrong. Sarah laughed
because she thought it absurd and could not believe it. But Abraham
laughed because he did believe it and realized it. He knew it would be
so and he began to laugh with joy and gladness! Oh, for more of such
laughing! He believed himself to be the father of many nations and the
old man laughed, and laughed again! It seemed such a fountain of
happiness to him. If you believe, you will laugh, too.

We have too much crying among us. Oh, for a little more filling of the
mouth with laughter and the tongue with singing, for the Lord has done
great things for us, whereof we are glad! It is not a fiction, it is a
fact. The Lord has given us eternal life in His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. Let us laugh and laugh again, for an unutterable joy of heart
floods our spirit! Bunyan pictures Christiana as saying to Mercy, "What
was the matter that you did laugh in your sleep tonight?" And Mercy
said, "But are you sure I laughed?" When she told her dream, Christiana
said, "Laugh, yes, well you might to see yourself so well." She laughed
because she dreamed she had been welcomed into Glory. To faith this is
no dream. We have had many dreams of this sort and we know that we are
saved by Grace, adopted of the Father, united to the Son, indwelt by
the Holy Spirit–visions most true–and these have made us laugh with
an inward, inexpressible delight! The more steadfastly we believe, the
more of this rapturous joy we shall experience.

Best of all, because of this, Abraham was accounted righteous. And who
accounted him righteous? Well, not the sons of men–they knew him as
righteous only by his outward character. God accounted him righteous
because he had faith! The moment you believe in his risen Son, God
counts you righteous and as you keep on believing, God accounts you
righteous. "Oh, but I am a poor, imperfect creature!" God counts you
righteous. "I strive after holiness, but I am not what I want to be."
God counts you righteous. God never makes mistakes. He never miscounts.
If He counts a man righteous, that man is righteous, depend upon
it–righteous in such a way that he may stand before the Judgment Seat
of God at the last and none shall be able to lay anything to his
charge–

"Bold shall I stand in that great day For who anything to my charge
shall lay? While through Your blood absolved I am From sin's tremendous
curse and shame." Believe, and you shall be accounted righteous! The
Lord help you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Genesis 15:1-6; Romans 4.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–122 (SONG I), 621, 193.