The Vital Force

The Vital Force

A sermon

(No. 891)

Delivered by

C.H.SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

"Now, the just shall live by faith."- Hebrews 10:38.

SEE here the germ of the Christian's life! See, too, how it blooms,
blossoms and bears! But observe it is not said the just shall live for
his faith, or because of the merit of his believing in God. This were
to place the Christian virtually under the Old Covenant of Law. To
confuse faith with works would be, indeed, to bring us back to the old
bondage of the first dispensation. It is no more true that the
righteous man is saved because of the excellency of his faith, than
that any man can be saved because of the excellency of his works.
Neither does it say in the text that the just shall live upon his
faith. Faith would make poor food for his soul! Small consolation may a
man fetch from his faith, itself.

It was said of Esau, "By your sword shall you live," and everyone knows
that the intention of that sentence was– "By that which your sword
shall capture and subdue." He could not feed on the sword itself–that
was mere hard, barren steel. So faith in itself can not feed a soul. It
is that which faith brings, that which faith takes of the things of God
and makes the soul own. I know it is very easy for us to degenerate
into a congratulation of ourselves because of some quality of our
faith. We may as easily make an Antichrist of our faith as of anything
else, but this will never do. The Believer never stays upon his
faith–it is in the Object of his faith that he finds rest!.

It is not the telescope which delights me, but the star which I see
through it. It is not the mere hand of faith which feeds me, but the
heavenly bread which faith's hand uplifts and brings spiritually to my
mouth. The text does say this, however, that the just shall live by his
faith–and it seems to me that, without any straining of the text, we
might find in it, first, a doctrine, secondly, a promise, and, thirdly,
an indication of practice–I might almost have said a precept.

I. First, then, we descry here A DOCTRINE. "The just shall live by
faith." And that doctrine may be drawn out into distinct branches. Does
not the text plainly teach us that faith is the continued act of the
Christian? Some people seem to imagine that there is a kind of finality
in each stage of religious experience, as though we are to repent in
the first dawn of our spiritual life, but afterwards we may leave off
repenting and account henceforth that this bitter cup of gall is
emptied, no more to sting the conscience with remorse, or move the
heart to godly sorrow. Whereas, I suppose we shall pass through the
pearly gates brushing away the last tear of repentance–always, till
then, having need to mourn past sins and grieve for present frailties
in penitential showers of grief.

So it seems to have been the fancy of others that we are to stand as
sinners once and for all at the foot of the Cross, look to Jesus and be
lightened. But after that we are to press to something
higher–something yet beyond, a repose calm and undisturbed, free from
rough wields and rude alarms. Beloved, surely such people do not know
what the Christian's inner life is. Depend upon it, that as much at the
last as at the first, "the just shall live by faith." He that is ripest
and nearest Heaven has no more ground of confidence than he who but
five minutes ago, like the dying thief, received the assurance of his
pardon. The ground of the sinner's acceptance in the first moment of
his faith is the finished work of Christ and, after 50 years of earnest
service, that must still be the sole cause of his acceptance with God
and the only rock upon which his soul must dare to build!

The act of simple faith, looking out of self and looking alone to
Christ, is a thing for your penitent publican when first he beats on
his breast–but it is also for your dying David–when he knows that the
Covenant is ordered in all things and sure. Thus well it becomes the
most mature saint, with his last breath, to express his confidence in
the God that pardons sin through the application of the precious blood.
Never imagine that the publican is to ripen into a Pharisee. Yet such
would be our course were we to get off the rock of Christ's finished
work and rely with a foolish dependence upon our own graces and our
attainments. Faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, then, is the
continual act of the Believer's life. Just as long as he lives here
below, if he does live to God at all, he lives by faith.

We may further learn, therefore, that faith is a great practical
virtue. The text does not say that the just man shall study the
doctrine of faith in his retirement and be able to frame a correct
definition of what faith is. It is true that the just man should be
meditative, contemplative, studious–a man well instructed in the
history of revelation and the mystery of the kingdom of God–but that
is not what the text says. It does not say that the just man shall
converse about faith and make the object of faith the constant theme of
his discourse. It will be so–what is in the heart will be sure to come
out in the tongue. But that is not the Truth of God taught here.

In plain English, it is this–the righteous man will carry his faith
into his ordinary life. He will live by faith. All the actions of his
life, such as have in them any degree of moral or spiritual aspect–all
of these shall be conspicuously ruled by his confidence in God. And
even the lowest and most common affairs in which he takes part shall be
subdued and elevated by the dignity of his trust and the fidelity of
his adherence. He shall live by faith. Not alone in the study and in
the closet. Not alone in the assembly of the saints and at the table of
fellowship, but in the market and on the exchange– in the shop and the
counting house, in the parlor or the drawing room–at the plow-tail or
at the carpenter's bench. He shall live by faith in the senate house or
at the judgment hall–the just man, wherever his life is cast–shall
carry his faith with him. No, his faith shall be in him as part of his
life–he shall live there by faith.

To advance a little farther. Not only is faith the continuous act of
the Christian life, interweaving itself into all the various offices
and exercises of the Christian's existence, but faith has a great
quickening power over all the faculties of the spiritual man. He
lives–how? What is the Divine Grace which, as it were, magnetizes his
entire system? What is that sacred conductor which brings down life
from Him in whom life is? What is that connecting link between the
great I AM, the sole, essential, independent Life and the life that
comes into our dead spirits, even the Divine life? The text tells us,
that faith is that great intermedium. This is the Prometheus that stole
the heavenly flame and brought it down to men made of clay, and made
them live the lives of the immortals.

This it is that brings immortality to us through Jesus who brought life
and immortality to light. Whenever faith rules in a man it quickens all
his Divine Graces. The Believer is the man to love–to love his God,
his neighbor, his enemy. The Believer is the man to hope–to hope for
deliverance out of present affliction. To hope for the eternal outgoing
of the issues of all this life's battle and strife. If there is any
patience, if there is any forgiveness, if there is any generosity, if
there is any loving kindness, if there is any zeal, if there is
anything lovely and of good repute–all these are quickened and brought
out into their life and force according to the life and power and
energy of the faith which a man possesses. So then, the just shall live
by faith. Faith shall, under God, be a means of quickening to the soul,
bringing the Holy Spirit's Divine flame to burn upon the altar of the
heart.

Turning this doctrine over in rather a different form, but still
keeping to it, let me say that the Believer lives only by faith. All
other kinds of living are to him spiritual death. Some, I know, try to
live by experience. What they have felt today, what they felt
yesterday–these are their sorry comforts. Such must be starved. At the
best, what are our own experiences if we come to feed upon them? And at
the worst, do not those who live upon mere feeling dwell in a salt land
that is not inhabited? I am sure if I lived by feeling, I could at one
moment persuade myself that I was on the borders of Heaven and I could
quite as readily, within an hour, be sure that I was in the very jaws
of Hell. Our feelings are fickle as the wind. He that lives by feeling
is very much like the mariner at sea when he mounts up to Heaven and
then comes down again into the deep–he has nothing at all stable to
depend upon.

We may say of the man who lives by feeling, "Unstable as water, you
shall not excel." "Human experience," said a certain philosopher, "like
the stern lights of a ship at sea, illuminates only the path which we
have passed over." But he that believes God and knows that the Almighty
God faints not–is neither weary and changes not, neither does He
forsake His people–he it is who truly lives and he only lives in
proportion as he believes. The Believer lives, I say, only by faith,
for that which we have in present possession, my Brethren, such as this
world's goods and creature comforts, ministers not to spiritual life.
These things ought to be used by us unto God's Glory and they should
excite in us gratitude to Him who gives us them to enjoy, but they are
not our life.

You can no more feed a soul with gold than you could satisfy your
natural hunger for food with the pebbles of the sea. Your soul's life
depends not upon the multitude of things which you may profess. Still
it is faith which, by laying hold upon the promises of God and the
Person of Christ, alone, gives life unto the soul of the just. The
righteous live by faith ordinarily, as I have already said on this
subject. But let me give a point of serious admonition to you. I
believe that

we fail to bring little troubles to God and perhaps on account of their
being so little, we fancy that we must not mention them to the Most
High. This is but the fruit of our pride, for how do we know that our
great things are so great as we think them to be? And are not our
little things, after all, but the fractions of a considerable sum to
such little creatures as ourselves?

These little, little, little things are of momentous concern to such
little ones as we are–and the God that stoops to us at all has already
brought Himself down in condescension so low that we need not fear that
we shall bring Him lower! No, you may go to Him, if you like, about
that lost key. Or about that child's swelling finger, or about that
word that irritated you just now. There is nothing little to a father
in the thing that troubles his little child–and your great God, having
once condescended to observe and care for you, numbering the very hairs
of your head and not suffering a sparrow to fall to the ground without
His purpose and decree–will not think that you intrude upon Him if you
bring your daily troubles to Him. Let the righteous live by faith
ordinarily in the common affairs of life.

So, too, let me add, the righteous live by faith extraordinarily. I
mean that if they are cast upon troubles that are new to them and even
new to others, they will live there by faith, for faith makes the
Believer like the fabled salamander that could live in the midst of
fire. If the furnace is heated like Nebuchadnezzar's, seven times
hotter than it was normally to be heated, faith gets seven times more
power from God and laughs to scorn the heat of the flame. Should you be
called to some great bodily suffering, should weakness long and dreary
ensue and your soul faint, yet underneath you are the everlasting
arms–and if you are enabled to exercise faith upon Him who makes the
beds of His people in their sickness–you shall find it blessed living,
triumphant suffering!

Should the just man be called to banishment, should he be made to
endure persecution, should he lie in prison and be called to die for
his Lord and Master–in every place the just shall live by faith.
Though the edge of the sword threatens him with death, though the jaws
of wild beasts were to tear him to pieces, though he were to be cast
into the fire, yet the life which faith gives is such a life as to
triumph over all these! In ordinary and in extraordinary seasons, then,
the Christian is still to wear his shield upon his arm and never cast
away his confidence, which has great recompense of reward. The
Christian lives by faith essentially. Faith touches the very essence of
his life. Some of the other Graces are like limbs to the body and he
could live, though it were a sorry life, without them.

But faith lives in the heart. It is the heart of the Christian's vital
system. Take away the Christian's faith, and the vitality of his
religion has departed. Oh, many will get to Heaven whose patience was
very maimed and some whose eye of hope were very dim. And there are
some saints, I doubt not, entering into life halt and maimed, destitute
of bright Graces which ought to have adorned them, but not a soul ever
lived to God here or obtained admission into the everlasting kingdom
without faith! This is the sine qua non. Faith must be possessed.
Without this a man is an unbeliever and his end is to be destroyed. So,
Beloved, to live by faith is the very essence of the Christian life.
Because of its deep importance we must watch with the greater care that
we have the faith of God's elect.

To live by faith is to live gloriously and in the very highest degree.
"The just shall live by faith." Oh, as yet we hardly know the meaning
of this resplendent Truth! There is a life and a life and a life and
another life. Life spiritual is all the same as to its essence, but not
as to its degree. There is the life of the soul that feebly hopes–it
is like the life of the man just recovered from the deep–he breathes
and 'tis all. There is the life of the man who sometimes reads his
calling and election and knows them to be clear, but who at other times
is dull of vision and full of doubting. 'Tis the life of the sick man
who sometimes enjoys rest, opens the window and breathes the fresh air,
but soon is ready to faint and die.

But there is a life beyond this–the life of the man who is strong in
the Lord and the power of His might–who staggers not at the promise
through unbelief! There is the life of the man who puts his foot upon
temptation and lays his hand on Christian service, who, with a warm
heart and loins girt about, casting aside every impediment, gives
himself body and soul and spirit to his Master's Glory. This is the
life of the warrior comparable unto the first three in David's band,
the life of the man who will go down and take the lion by the beard in
the pit in the time of snow, or will lift up his spear against 3,000
whom he will slay at one time.

Where does a man get this highest life, life gigantic–like the life of
the angels of God, like the life of Christ–no, as the very life of God
itself? Where does he get this power that he does chase a thousand and
that he can put 10,000 to flight? What makes this man so bold, so
strong, so heavenly-minded, so living above the world? It is his faith
that does it for him, for the just shall live in the highest degree of
life and they shall go on thus living until they come to the Glory

life, till they come to the perfect life, the life of bliss, of which
this present spiritual life is but the bud and it shall all be through
faith until they enter into the rest and know even as they are known.

Oh, for a stronger faith! I pant for it as one that pants for
life–more life. We prophecy in part, you believe in part. When shall
that which is perfect come? "I do believe! Help You my unbelief," is
the last great utterance of the soul.

II. Now, secondly, the text appears to me, as I read it, to contain a
PROMISE. "The just shall live by faith." My faith shall ensure my life!
If I do, indeed, believe in Jesus and rest my soul humbly, but simply
and confidingly, upon the promise of God as revealed to me in His dear
Son, I shall not die, but live! And O Brethren, this is great joy,
great joy, indeed, to have a faith that will make us live–that will
make us live while we die, make us live when men say that we are
dead–make us live when they have buried our bodies. A faith that shall
even secure that our bodies shall rise again! A faith that shall be to
us a guarantee today that soul and body united shall live even amidst
the blaze of God's Glory!

Oh, 'tis joy to have faith that makes you immortal! The faith of the
just shall constrain them to live. They cannot die! They must not die.
God Himself shall as soon die as they shall! The just shall live by
faith. This is not true of any other but those who have faith. Observe
the self-righteous well–they live after a sort, but it is always a
timorous life–like the life of the hare that is watching for the
baying of the dogs. They are always afraid. Their conscience is
fluttered and confused with an indistinct sense that, after all, their
righteousness will not suffice for the justice of God. And at last,
when they get into the swellings of Jordan, in most cases those who
have rested upon sacraments and ceremonies and self-righteousness have
found their props all giving way and their refuges of lies all falling
to the ground. They have been daubed with untempered mortar! They have
heard the siren cry, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace and now,
when they most need comfort, they find they cannot live by their
self-righteousness.

They have to die and a dreadful death it is to the soul to die to all
hope–to fall into the sepulcher of despair and there to perish. No man
lives by his self-righteousness. There are some who are not boasting of
what they have done, but whose confidence for time and for eternity
lies in the belief of what they can do. I do not know anything that is
less comfortable than this paltry conceit, if looked at rightly. Some
person who believed much in human ability, once called upon my
distinguished predecessor, Dr. Gill and said to him, "Sir, I heard you
preaching that men were unable to repent and believe and do spiritual
acts of themselves. I do not believe a word of it, I think you are
mistaken." Dr. Gill very properly said, "Sir, do you believe that you
can repent and believe without the Holy Spirit?" "Certainly, I believe
I can."

Said the Doctor, "Have you believed and repented?" "No, I have not,
Sir." And then Dr. Gill said, "Sir, you are condemned already and if
you are not damned eternally, you are in imminent peril, beyond all
others, for on your own confession you are guilty, even if others
should not be equally culpable in this respect." And he sent his friend
away, I hope, not quite so conceited of himself as he was when he
entered the vestry. I do not see any comfort there can be in assuming
that men have a moral power which they, nevertheless, have no
disposition to exert. It seems to me that ability in yourselves becomes
a very solemn argument against any peace of conscience–it should
rather make us bestir ourselves than be used as a pillow for our heads.

Mark you, I know there are thousands who think they will be able to
perform every spiritual act necessary to salvation just when they are
coming to die. And their reliance is that they have within them the
sacred charm that shall bring them faith in their expiring moments. Is
not that the secret belief of many of you? Ah, Sirs, in that day when
you shall look for consolation and look in vain–when you shall even
call upon God and discover to your horror, that, having neglected Him
so long, your prayer comes back without an answer–you shall find,
then, that no man can live by his self-righteousness! But the poor
heart that casts itself upon the power and merit and Divine Grace and
promise of Christ shall find in the darkest hour of life, when heart
and flesh are failing, that Christ is able to help–that the promise
still stands good and that the eternal Father smiles serenely upon him!

You know the story I have told you sometimes, of the good old soul
whose minister called to see her when she was dying and among other
things he said to her, "My sister, you are very weak. Don't you feel
yourself sinking?" She looked at him and gave no answer, but said, "Did
I understand you, Minister? Please tell me what you said. I hope you
didn't say what I thought I heard." "Why," he said, "my dear Sister, I
said to you, don't you feel yourself sinking?" And then she said, "I
did not think my minister would ever ask me such a question as that!
Sinking? Did you ever know a sinner sink through a Rock? I am believing
in Jesus Christ! If I were resting anywhere else I might sink, but as I
am resting upon Him, did you ever know a sinner sink through a Rock?"

Yes, and that is just the very point. It is so. God does in the very
words of our text seem to assure us that if we believe, we have got on
a Rock–that if we believe, we shall live. We shall live by our faith
under all circumstances and difficulties. This shall be the living
thing–

"When mortal strength shall droop and die, And human vigor cease,"

then the soul, like the eagle, shall stretch its wings and mount higher
and higher and higher, by the dint of its sacred immortality. "The just
shall live by faith." We may expect between this place and Heaven a
fair share of trouble. If we write down for ourselves pleasant things,
it may probably happen that we have written other than the book of the
Divine purpose. Many trials will befall us between this and the fair
haven, but there is no killing one in them all, for the just shall live
through them all by his faith.

We may also reckon upon many temptations. Satan, however old he may be,
has not yet come to years of decay. Our old evil nature, too, though it
may have lost some of its strength, is yet capable of wonderful
outbursts of power and the world outside of us is full of grief. We
must expect to be tempted in many fresh ways between here and the
Celestial City. But there is no killing temptation in them all, for the
just shall live by his faith. Empty your quiver, O enemy of souls, this
Divine shield shall catch every arrow and quench its fire and blunt
those points and save and deliver us from them all! Beloved Friends, we
have to expect, in addition to our trials and to our temptations, that
which seems to me to be the heaviest ordeal of all, namely, the test of
long endurance.

I look with admiration upon Brethren who have remained faithful to God
for 60 or 70 years. It seems to me that the length of the Christian's
life is, in itself, oftentimes a very severe trial. A man might stand
at the stake and burn for a few minutes, but it is the hanging up over
a slow fire–who can bear that? To do one brave and generous action,
this seems simple enough. But to stand on the watch-tower day and
night, always vigilant, watching lest the foe surprise us– watching
lest our hearts betray us–watching unto prayer that we may keep
ourselves in the love of God. Oh, this is a work! This is a labor which
only Divine Grace can help us to perform. But here is the comfort. No
length of days can exhaust the Believer's patience or endanger his
spiritual life because the just shall live by faith!

If he were here so long, that, like Rowland Hill, he was inclined to
send a message up to Heaven, for fear they should forget "Old Rowly"
down below, yet depend upon it–he could not outlive the Divine energy
that vitalized his soul, or lose the spiritual fervor of the
just–still would faith preserve the sacred spark and fan it to a
flame. This is a promise, then, and under shelter of this promise let
us go forward.

Ah, Brothers and Sisters, every now and then we come to a dead stand.
We reach a new era in life, a new trial the likes of which we never
knew before. At such times we almost wish we could go back, or turn to
the right, or to the left. But we are like Israel, there is but one way
open, and that way is not at once apparent. It is only open to faith,
but it is closed to sense. There is that Red Sea. "Ah, my God, what
will become of me? Oh, that Red Sea! You have laid this trial upon me.
You have forced me to bear this burden. You have called me to go
through this suffering. I must pass through, but oh, I shall never be
able to bear it! There will be an end of me now. How shall I be
sustained?"

Thus Unbelief will talk, but Faith remembers that the just shall still
live by faith and she says within herself, "If my God commands me to go
on the sea, or under the sea, or through the sea, I know that He will
give me the power to do what He bids and He that puts the difficulty in
my path will bear me through it towards the Canaan to which I press."
Let us, then, pluck up courage! Let there be no standing still, no
lingering with chill reluctance, no shivering on the brink with
timorous fear! Your Captain waves His hand and bids you advance! Go on,
Trembler, go on, for there is goodness and there is mercy prepared to
go before you and to follow after you all the days of your life!

Yes, even when you come to the very brink of death, then, even then, it
will be a blessed thing to play the man by faith! To gather up one's
feet in the bed. To compose one's self to deliver the last testimony
and without so much as a sign of trepidation or a thrill of fear, to
pass the iron gate, conscious that Jesus will come to meet and crown
with glory the spirit that has trusted in Him. Thus much, I think, is
in the text clearly enough as a matter of promise.

III. Now, lastly, the text seems to me to be A KIND OF PRECEPT and to
contain much of practical instruction. "The just shall live by faith."
Very well, then, dear Friends, is it not clear that as life is the main
thing for us to look to–Nature, itself, having taught us by its
instincts to guard with all care our life, therefore our faith, upon
which our life

so evidently depends by virtue of our union to Christ–ought to be the
object of our most sedulous care. Anything which comes in the way of
our faith we should strive against, while the promotion of our faith
should be our first endeavor.

I believe, my dear Brethren, that self-examination is a very great
blessing, but I have known self-examination carried on in a most
unbelieving, legal and self-righteous manner. In fact, I have so
carried it on myself. Time was when I used to think a vast deal more of
marks and signs and evidences, for my own comfort, than I do now, for I
find that I cannot be a match for the devil when I begin dealing in
those things. I am obliged to go day by day with this cry–

"I, the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me."

While I can believe the promise of God, because it is His promise and
because He is my God and while I can trust my Savior because He is God,
and therefore mighty to save, all goes well with me. But I do find,
when I begin questioning myself about this and that perplexity, thus
taking my eyes off Christ, that every virtue of my life seems oozing
out at every pore.

I think, Brothers and Sisters, that any practice that detracts from
faith is an evil practice, but especially that kind of self-examination
which would take us away from the foot of the Cross, proceeds in a
wrong direction. Do I want to know what is the condition of my evil
nature? I need not enquire–it is rottenness through and through! Do I
want to know what is the quality of my new-born nature? I scarcely need
enquire, for it is the seed of God, incorruptible and cannot sin. The
main enquiry I ought, at all times, to make is this–am I hanging on
the Cross, alone, and depending on Jesus wholly? If so, there must be a
produce of fruits unto righteousness and I am not always the best judge
of those fruits for myself. Most probably the less fruit I have, the
more I shall think I have and the more I am abounding in every good
word and work, the higher will my standard of perfection be and the
less likely shall I be to be satisfied with myself or my own
attainments.

I do verily believe that those who draw comfort from their own doings
and feelings, are the very people that ought to have no comfort, while
those Christians who abound most in holiness to the praise of God, are
the very people who bemoan everything that comes from themselves and
turn away from themselves utterly, crying, "Christ is my salvation! I
depend alone on Him." It would be as well if we were to give up sorting
over good works and bad works–for they are so wonderfully much
alike–if we threw them all into the sea together and just rested upon
Christ Jesus alone. It would be a consummation of the most desirable
kind! Keep your faith, right, then, Brothers and Sisters, keep your
faith right.

Remember it is by God's Holy Spirit keeping that faith strong and
vigorous you live safe and secure. Rest assured you will be more holy
if you have more faith. You will have more confidence and be more
courageous in your testimony if you have more faith in God. Every Grace
and every virtue will derive progress towards strength and perfection
from the progress and perfection of your faith. But if anything shall
make you doubt whether Christ can save you or not, the Achilles tendon
is cut and you cannot run. If anything makes you mistrust the promise
of God, who justifies the ungodly, it has taken away from you the very
source from which your spiritual life is to be refreshed. I hold it to
be of the very first importance that we never doubt the promises of
God.

What if we are unworthy? Do we break our promises because the persons
to whom they are made turn out to be unworthy? Are we mean enough to
take such advantages? Is not the word of a man, good or bad, according
to the character of him who utters it? And is it not so with God's
Word? He is faithful and true and therefore His Word is faithful and
true, not because I am faithful and true, but because He is such! "If
we believe not, God abides faithful." It does not alter the promise!
The promise still stands in all its integrity. Brethren, we ought to
pray more for faith. "Lord, increase our faith," ought to be our daily,
our hourly prayer. We ought to think more of those Truths of God which
are the pillars of faith, such as the Covenant of Grace. Such as the
fullness and freeness of the mercy of God. Such as the efficacy of the
Atonement, the power of the Resurrection, the prevalence of Jesus'
plea.

If we dwelt upon the promises more often, instead of looking at the
Providences, or consulting our changeful feelings, our faith would grow
stronger and then the whole of our life would receive vigorous tone and
impulse. I do not know how to speak as I would desire upon this point,
but still let me press it upon every Christian here not to listen to
that insinuation of the devil–that when he has sinned he ought, then,
to give up the belief that he is a child of God. Oh, if the devil can
persuade you to do that, then he has obtained an advantage over you!
But if you feel that you have been

walking contrary to God, of late, yet still come to Jesus! Cast
yourselves on Him! Do not let the adversary say to you, "You must not
come because you have walked contrary to God."

O poor Backslider, although sin may hide God from you and take away
your comfortable sense of His love, yet if you believe in Him, His love
is towards you. He has not cast you away! You shall live as long as
there is faith in you–and if there is so little faith that we have to
rake up the ashes and have to go down on our knees and blow that little
spark, yet the Lord knows how to fan it and to put the match to it and
to make a great blaze very speedily so that before you hardly know it,
you that were crawling along the road shall be like the chariots of
Amminadab, flying along as on mighty wings!

Never doubt God's power to lift you out of the ditch into which you
have fallen. Still hold to it–"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in
Him. Though I am black with sin and ashamed of myself and dare not look
up. Though I feel that I deserve to be cast into the lowest Hell," yet
still do not doubt but that the precious blood can wash you and make
you whiter than snow! Is there a grander verse in the whole Bible? Is
there anything in the compass of Scripture that ever glorified God more
than that notable expression of David when he had been sinning with
Bathsheba and made himself as foul and as filthy as the very swine of
Hell?

And yet he cries, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving
kindness. According unto the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out
my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me
from my sin." Ah, "Wash me," that is the cry, "wash me, the most
scarlet and the blackest of Hell-deserving sinners. If You but wash me
I shall be whiter than snow." Believe in the Omnipotent power of the
Atonement! Still believe and hold fast to Christ! Cling to Him and if
He even seems to frown upon you, hold to Him like the woman whom He
called a dog and yet she said, "The dogs eat of the crumbs."

Do not believe that which you think you hear Him say, for He cannot say
otherwise than this–that whoever believes in Him is not condemned! And
he that believes in Him, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Out of
your very death believe Him! From your very Hell of sin believe Him!
Wherever you may be, still believe Him! Never doubt Him, for the just
shall live by faith. Oh, it is such a mercy that when we have nothing
else to live by, we can, by God's Grace, live by

faith!

When I cannot find anything in myself wherein I can find comfort, much
less anything whereof I can glory, yet I do believe that Jesus died for
me! Does not this doctrine suit some poor trembling sinner here? I wish
that one here would say, "Why, if that is so, then I, too, would come
and believe in Jesus." Ah Heart, you have been asking, "What shall I do
to be saved?" This is the work of God! The God-like work, the greatest
of all doings–that you believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent! Close
in with Christ and you shall live! You cannot die. The eternal
protection of the everlasting promise covers the head of every soul
that has learned to trust in Christ. May God bless you with this faith
and with more of it. Amen.