Part 17
that it was even so, and that gave her rest. And the Lord seems to draw each weary, sad, disappointed laboring one to Him and say, "Am I not better to you than all the praises of men? Am I not better to you than wealth? Am I not better to you than the health that you have lost? Am I not better to you than all the world?" And what is your answer? Surely it is this, "Whom have I in Heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You." O God, bring us to that blessed position and keep us there! Then shall we have drunk in the meaning of our text, "I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward."
III. My third question is, WHAT THEN? As God is our exceeding great reward, what then?
First, it is quite clear that the rewards which are given to Believers are of Grace and not of debt. Do you not see thatin the text? Look at it again and you will perceive it at once. If God is the reward of His people, it is not possible that any being could ever deserve to have God as his reward. It is very possible that a man should deserve the esteem of his fellow men and I think that most people deserve what they really earn. It would be well if some could have more than they receive–wages are often less than they should be. We may deserve more money than we get, but there is nobody who ever deserved God! To deserve Heaven has never been possible yet, but even if it had been, that would not be so much as deserving God! This is too big a portion to ever come to us on the ground of law, merit and good works, so, when the Lord says, "I am your reward," it must be all of Grace–and there is no possibility of earning this reward. When the men went into the vineyard and agreed with the householder for a penny a day, they earned it. But when the reward is God, Himself, there is nobody who has ever earned that, or who can ever do so. So, my Soul, sing of Free and Sovereign Grace! Letyour life-song be– Free Grace and dying love,"because the portion you have received is such as could have come to you on no other terms than those of free, rich, almighty, covenant, everlasting Grace! And therefore let God be glorified forever and ever.
I want to call your attention, next, to the fact that according to our text, we hold God on a very sure tenure becausewhat a man holds as a reward, he knows to be his own. "Why," he says, "I won this and I may well hold it fast." Now, Brothers and Sisters, you and I have never deserved God. I have told you that is impossible, but He is as surely ours as if we had earned Him, for He is our reward! A man, I say again, feels the utmost assurance that anything that comes to him as a reward is really his. Let us feel the same assurance and brave confidence concerning God and even more than if we stood upon the footing of merits. "I am your reward," says the Lord. Then, "let no man beguile you of your reward." Hold it fast! Let not the devil, himself, take it from you, or rob you of your joy in it! It is yours so surely and so safely that you may at all times rejoice in it as being yours upon the most certain tenure!
Another practical thought may come in here. If God is our reward, let us take care that we really enjoy Him. Let us exult in Him and let us not be pining after any other joy. You have to go and live in a lonely place where you will have few encouragements–but you will still have your God–so how can you feel lonely? You are coming down in earthly circumstances. Your income is decreasing.
But your God is not any less than He was, so you are not really a loser. One dear Friend after another is being taken away from you– there is a great probability that the dearest one you have will soon go to the grave. Yet the Lord lives, so blessed be your Rock!
Rejoice in Him! Possibly you are soon going to the grave yourself.
The years are taking their toll upon you and increasing weakness proves that, before long, you must put off this tabernacle. Well, even if it is so, He who is your All-in-All will not die! This world is not your rest or your portion! You are not, therefore, losing your portion, you are going Home to it, for the Lord, Himself, is "your shield, and your exceeding great reward."
Ge 15:1; Ex 33:14 • Two Choice Assurances
ERMON 3330
Two Choice Assurances
"Fear not, Abram: I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward."
Genesis 15:1
IN the splendid Psalm that sets forth the Divine Glory of the matchless Word of God as compared even with the greatest wonders of God's visible Creation–that is in the 19 th verse, "Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." This is applied to "the judgments of the Lord" which are "true and righteous altogether." Of course, this expression sets forth David's esteem of the Law of God as he knew it–a very small volume compared with our complete Bible–and yet we may surely apply it to the whole of the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments! The Hebrew original has it, "Sweeter than the dropping of honeycombs." Whereupon gracious Thomas Brookes, the Puritan Divine, observes, "it is sweeter than those drops which fall naturally and instantly from the comb without any force or act, and which are counted as being the purest, choicest and richest honey." How true is this! There are some texts of Scripture that may yield their treasures of instruction, comfort, or direction after deep study and holy meditation–but there are others which are marvelously free in the giving forth of their sweetness, calling for little else than a heart that loves and longs to hear God speak!
As little children have their own confections that need no vigorous chewing, but will melt in the mouth, so some passages of Scriptures are prepared as choice morsels for the Lord's children– they have only to receive them by transparent faith and unaffected love–and their enjoyment is great.
I know that some of the words of the Lord are as nuts that need breaking open to secure their nourishment, or as grapes that must be trod in the winepress, for their richest meaning lies not upon the surface and plain to all. But these others of which we speak–as the droppings of the honeycomb–are simple sweetnesses, prepared pleasures. Plain, unmistakable, choice delicacies for God's loved ones!
To enjoy these, one needs not to be a deep theologian, a learned grammarian, or even much less, a profound philosopher or baffling mystic! The honey of the meaning flows easily and sweetly out of the comb of the words as liquid love, pure joy, choice consolation and perfect Truths of God! The student does not require to pore over his books, or the preacher to search his library, or the hearer to gather up all his knowledge to receive and enjoy these. The dainty comfort offers itself at once to the soul's receiving and, without effort, the sweetness and savor pervade the whole inner being.
So as the Holy Spirit shall open up the word to me, I hope to be able to give you, Beloved, some honey out of the Rock by dwelling on one or two choice, plain texts that speak their sweetness direct to the heart. Not so much for intellectual gratifying–though that is included–as for spiritual satisfying and stimulating. Some preachers seem to make their main business to be the leading of people among the thorns, to be torn with perplexities, or into the fog to tantalize with uncertainties. Be it ours on this occasion to run as did Ahimahaz by way of the plain–along the level road of gracious and comforting teaching! We do well, sometimes, to let the heart have undivided play and gain, thereby, the solace and joy that we so much need!
The droppings of the honeycomb are not so much for labor and toil as for renewal and delight–that the mere student and man of affairs may for a while come and sit and indulge in holy pleasures!
Let this suffice for introduction to our first word of sacred assurance as given to Abram.
"Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceedingly great reward."
"Fear not, Abram." No more necessary or practical word could be spoken to the great Father of the Faithful than this. Fear, alas, is a malaria which haunts all the marshlands of earth! It can beset the king on his throne, the peasant in his cottage, the statesman in his lofty office and the poor old mother who dreads the pauper's lot and fare. It is the shadow that follows us when the sun is shining brightly before–how to escape it is the problem that perplexes thousands of the saints of God. We might be sure that it was so, when so mighty a Believer as Abram was in great peril of it! Does he need a, "fear not," from Jehovah's lips? Then we may be sure that we shall require it, too. I am afraid that wherever there is faith there will also be a measure of fear, though the less of it, the better.
How tenderly the Lord quiets the fears of His children and lulls their forebodings to rest! "Fear not, Abram." As much as if He had said "You are all alone, but fear not, for I am with you. You are in much labor, needing great strength, but fear not, I will help you.
You have no portion, but are a stranger and sojourner in this land, but fear not, for I am your God. Do not fear concerning the past, nor the present, nor the future. Fear neither the fury of foes, nor the worse trial–the failure of friends. Be brave, calm, trustful, hopeful, joyful. Fear not, Abram." "You have just been fighting the kings– you desired to be a man of peace and were not, indeed, accustomed to the deadly strife. But I have given the marauders and plunderers like driven stubble to your bow–and you have brought back Lot and all his train of servants that were taken prisoners. You need not fear even for your relatives! I will bless and keep them for your sake. Besides, since you have borne yourself in a right royal fashion and not touched a thread or a shoe lace of the king of Sodom's goods, do not fear to enjoy your success, for you shall be safe from all attacks and shall command the respect of the great ones around you." This blessed "fear not" was a quietus to every form of alarm and misgiving which might come near and threaten this man of God!
Is not this our Lord's own message to His children everywhere today? He has scattered His, "fear nots," all over His blessed Word as some riverbanks are all spread with sweet forget-me-nots! And these "fear nots," cover every emergency of our life and answer to them with the assurance that His love will never forget or fail us!
And if we will but remember this, we shall have no cause whatever to fear.
But the Lord appears to teach Abram that after his conflict and signal victory he might begin to sink. Such is often the case with the bravest men. The natural reaction, unless special Divine Grace is given, is very great. It was so with Elijah, the Prophet of Fire.
Men have little time or space to dread while the fierce conflict is raging–their spirit of dash and enterprise is awakened and equal to the struggle and the danger! But when all is over and strained body and brain and nerves begin to assert themselves, then they greatly need the Lord's reviving and fortifying, "fear not."
Beloved, have you never felt yourself strangely supported under the direst afflictions, so that they seemed not afflictions at all? And yet when pressure has been removed you have been ready to faint like Samson after he had slain the Philistines! Fear is a strange contradiction, a grim inconsistency, for it is apt to be greatest when the reason for it is least and smallest.
We are often quiet in a storm and distracted in a calm. We are mysteries to ourselves and riddles to our neighbors. Our constitutions and dispositions sometimes appear to be made up of odds and ends and gatherings from all manner of beasts, and birds, and fishes– and none can understand us but the Lord who made us!
But, blessed be His name, He knows us altogether and therefore He can and does bring forth at the right moment the exact consolation and the precise heartening that we need, saying, "Fear not," in the instant wherein we are most likely to fear!
"Fear not, Abram." Were there not mainly two things about which the Patriarch might have feared? First, about his own safety. This was met by the assurance, "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield."
When he had no other guard, Abram was garrisoned in God. He was like a sheep in the midst of wolves, a lone stranger surrounded by hostile nations! But a strange Divine spell had fallen upon the Canaanites, for the Lord had made them hear Him saying, "Touch not My anointed and do My Prophet no harm." The protected of the Lord needed not to wear armor, nor bear a sword, nor have any human panoply, for Jehovah had said, "I am your shield." Abram possessed no fortress, commanded no army but his few servants.
He had not even a permanent house in which to dwell. His tents were frail and undefended and yet so guarded by Heaven, that no one ever broke into them or dared molest or threaten those who dwelt within! No assassin waylaid him, no marauder attacked him– he dwelt at ease, for was he not under the broad shield of the Almighty? He was as safe as if he had been enclosed within walls that reached to the skies! The armor of God covered him from head to foot!
So, dear Friends, when we seem to have nothing, certainly nothing visible, to protect us, what a blessing it is to know that we are nevertheless completely guarded by the Omnipotent though invisible God!
The visible is necessarily the limited and finite, but the invisible
God is Infinite and there is no searching of His understanding, or resistance to His power. You are infinitely safe if you really trust the living God–your beginning and ending, your waking and sleeping, your resting and journeying, your work and suffering, your honor or your reproach, your poverty or wealth, your success or failure, your life or death–your all forever and ever is most secure when the Lord is your Keeper and your Shield upon your right hand. Be it ours in truest wisdom and sincerest trust to give up our hearts to the repose of simple faith in Him!
Come, sing with me that verse of the beloved singer Toplady– "Inquirer and Hearer of prayer,
You Shepherd and Guardian of Thine,
My all to Your Covenant care,
I sleeping and waking resign!
If You are my shield and my sun,
The night is no darkness to me–
And fast as the moments roll on,
They bring me but nearer to Thee!"
We are invulnerable and invincible if God is with us! We may be in the very midst of cruel adversaries, but no weapon that is formed against us can prosper if God is our Shield. Our Lord did not say to Abram, and does not say to us, "I will shield you," but that I, that am the Almighty, I am your Shield: it is not alone My power, My wisdom, My love which will protect you, but I, Myself, will be your Shield!
Then Abram may have thought, "I shall be protected, but shall I not spend my life in vain?" He might have fearedfor his success.
He led the life of a gypsy, roaming through a land in which he owned no foot of ground. Therefore the Lord added, "I am your Reward." Do you see? He does not say, "I will reward you," but "I am your Reward." If we whowork for Christ see souls saved, how we rejoice, for they are a kind of reward to us–but nevertheless we will not rejoice so much but rather rejoice that our names are written in Heaven! I have in these words quoted an old text, first spoken to chosen men who had healed the sick and cast out devils in Christ's name. And if many receive our word it is a joy to us, but still we may be disappointed even in professed conversions and, at best, our success will not equal our desires. The only reward that a Christian can fully rejoice in–and without any reservation–is this assurance of his Master and Lord, "I am your Reward." Did not the father in the parable say to the elder son, when he growled and grumbled at the reception given to his brother, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours"? That was reward enough, was it not? It is wealth enough to a Believer to possess his God, honor enough to please his God, happiness enough to enjoy his God. My heart's best treasure lies here–"This God is our God forever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death."
"Oh, but," you say, "people have been so ungrateful to me." True, but God is not unfaithful to forget your work of faith and labor of love. "Ah, Sir, but I am dreadfully poor." Yet you have God All-
Sufficient, and all things are yours! "Alas! I am so ill." But Jehovah-Rophi is the Lord that heals you! "Alas! I have no friends left." Yet this best of friends changes not and dies not. Is He not better to you than a host of other friends?
How great is your God? Does He not fill all things? Then what more can you seek? Would you have two persons occupying the same place? If God fills all, what room is there left for another? Is not God's Grace sufficient for you? Do you bemoan a cup of water that has been spilled at your feet? A well is near! Did I hear you cry, "I have not a drop in my bucket?" A river flows hard by–the river of God which is full of water! Oh, mournful Soul, why are you disquieted? What ails you that you should fret your life into rags?
Very fitly does the Lord say to Abram, "I am your exceedingly great reward." He is infinitely more as a reward thanwe could ever have desired, expected, or deserved! There is no measuring such a reward as God Himself. If we were to pine away into poverty or sickness, it would still be joy enough to know that God gives
Himself to be our portion. The tried people of God will always confess that in their sharpest time of sorrow, their joys have reached their floodtide when they knew and felt that the Lord is their Covenant God, their Father, their All! Our cup runs over when faith receives Jehovah, Himself, as the crown of the race, the wages of the service! What more can even God bestow, than Himself?
Now you see what I meant at the beginning by droppings from the honeycomb. I have not strained after novel thoughts or choice words, but have persuaded you to taste the natural sweetness of this fine Scripture promise. Receive it as God gives it and go your way– and let the flavor of it fill your souls all the week! Fear not, Mary!
Fear not, William! Fear not, Sarah! Fear not, John! The Lord says to you, even as to Abram, "I am your shield and exceedingly great reward." No Scripture is of private interpretation–you may take out the name of Abram and put your own name into the promise if you are of Abram's spiritual seed–and do not stagger at the promise by reason of unbelief. "If children, then heirs" applies to all the spiritual family and to the pledging of all the promises to them!
The ground whereon you lie, the Lord your God has given you. If you can rest on this Word of God, it is truly yours to rest upon. The Lord is your Defender and Rewarder and by the double title He designs to shut out all fear and so make your rest and safety to be doubly sure! Therefore, cease you from all anxiety! Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him! This day He bids you dwell at ease and delight yourself in Him!
But we turn from Abram to Moses and we find this sweetly solacing assurance given also to him in time of special need and strain.
"And He said, 'My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.'"
It was not a pleasure trip that Moses was taking–it was a journey through the wilderness on most important business–and with a great pressure of burden on his heart. He took his case to his God and earnestly appealed to Him, "See, You say unto me, Bring up this people, and You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found Grace in My sight. Now, therefore, I pray You, if I have found Grace in your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, that I may find Grace in Your sight: and consider that this nation is Your people."
It is very beautiful to notice the argument that Moses uses. He says, "Lord, You have set me to take care of this people. How can I do it? But they are Your people." Therefore he appeals to Jehovah, Himself, for assistance. "You have not let me know whom You will send with me" is his complaint, but he seems to always have before him the fact that He, whose people they were, who had put him into commission to guide them, and to bear all their provocations, must intend to give him some very superior help! The answer to that is, "My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." What more could Moses need, and what more can we need? We are so foolish that we look about for strength away from God–but there is none except in Him! For all preachers and evangelists, how precious is this promise! They need Divine help in journeying from place to place–and that help lies in the constant fellowship of heart with their Lord–the continual Presence of God consciously enjoyed! They have a great burden of souls lying upon them–their only strength to bear it bravely and triumphantly is that each hears for himself the promise from God's own lips, "My Presence shall go with you." It may not appear to some that the quarter of an hour in the morning spent in looking into the face of God with ecstatic joy can fill us with strength, but we know from blessed experience that there is no strength like it! If the Eternal overshadows us, then Omnipotence comes streaming into us! Jehovah in Infinite, condescending liberality gives forth His might to us!
Notice, Beloved, that Moses was not informed that God would send Hobab, his father-in-law, to go with him. Nor that Joshua, his successor, should accompany him. Nothing either was said about the 70 elders who were, by-and-by, to share the burden of responsibility with him. Moses was, indeed, to have their presence and help, but his true power was to lie in this–"My Presence shall go with you." The journey upon which he was to start was one of great importance foreseen by God to be a journey of great trial and great provocation–a journey that was to last for 40 years–but this is all the provision that he needs and God, Himself, could give him no more.
And then He adds, " And I will give you rest." Little as we sometimes imagine it, yet it is still true, that the most important possession of any Christian worker is rest–deep rest of soul in God–"A heart at leisure from itself." "I do not expect any rest," says one, "while I am here." Do you not? Then you will not do much mighty and effective work for the Lord! Those who work most must learn the holy art of resting in the Lord. Indeed, it cannot be done well at all unless they have plenty of rest. You will notice how people that get greatly excited often talk sad nonsense–and people who are very fretful or fearful do not speak or act as they should. If we are to move others, we must have both feet firmly fixed–there is nothing like having a good grip of the ground if you are to wrestle with and throw your antagonist! My restfulness in God enables me to wrestle and conquer all sorts of difficulty and hard toil that is to be overcome.
"Do you think Moses had this rest?" someone will ask. Yes, I am sure he had because of the meekness of his spirit. You remember how the Lord Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest to your souls." It is true that meekness of heart produces rest. And yet it is a still deeper Truth of God that rest produces meekness of heart! You can very well afford to be quiet with your fellows when you, yourself, are perfectly restful in the living God. I remember a man being run over in the street one day. Somebody rushed off, post haste, for the nearest doctor. And when the medical man heard of the accident, he went calmly into his surgery, turned over his case of instruments, selected those he thought he might need and then walked quietly to the spot where the injured man lay. The messenger tried to hurry him, but it was of no use. "Be quick, Doctor," he cried, "the man's leg is broken, every moment is precious." Now the surgeon knew that he was doing the very best thing that he could do, and he was far wiser than he would have been if he had rushed off in wild haste, perhaps forgetting the very instrument he most needed, and arriving out of breath and quite unfit for the delicate duty required of him! The doctor's composure was not the result of coldness of heart, but of the resolve to do the best possible thing in the best possible fashion.
If you are conscious of the Lord's Presence, you will do the best thing possible by being very calm, deliberate and quiet in His service. "He that believes," in that sense, "shall not make haste," but he shall go about the business in a restful spirit.
Mark, too, the kind of rest that is here mentioned. "I will give you rest." All the rest that God gives we may safely take! No man ever rested too long on the bosom of Jesus. I believe many Christian workers would be better if they enjoyed more. I was speaking to a large gathering of preachers the other day upon this very matter, my subject being the Savior asleep during the storm on the Sea of Galilee. He knew there was a storm coming on, but He felt so happy and restful in His Father's love and care that He went into the back part of the boat–the best place for sleep–and taking the steersman's cushion for a pillow, lay down and went to sleep! It was the very best thing He could do. He had been busy all day, teaching and feeding the multitudes, and He felt that it was His duty to go to sleep that He might be ready and fit for the next day's toil. When you get very weary and perhaps worried as well, the best thing you can do is to go tosleep. Go to bed, Brother, and go to sleep!
It is astonishing what a difference a night's rest makes with our troubles. I would say this literally to fidgeting, worrying people like myself, "Go to bed, Brother, go to bed!" But I would also say it spiritually to all sorts of people! When you are feeling weak and disturbed, and you do not know what to do for the best, "Go into the Presence of Lord and there get rest." "My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." I will give you a little bit of worldly wisdom, which is also of Divine inspiring. Whenever you do not know what to do, do not do it! But some people, when they do not know what to do, go and do it, directly, and get themselves into all sorts of trouble. Many of us, like Moses, need to be taught to rest. Moses has to bear two millions of people on his heart–he needs rest. He has to put up with them for 40 years–he needs rest.
Never had another man such a family as that! Never was another so likely to be fluttered and worried! And he was a meek-spirited man, too, who could not make a dash as others might have done. This is his strength–that he dwells in the Divine Presence and is, therefore, restful, calm and strong! It is only now and then that he let the human meekness be for a moment clouded. Thus was he enabled to march along, like a king in Jeshurun, as he was–and his soul dwelt in the eternity of God, ever singing amidst ten thousand graves, for he had 40 of his people dying every day!
Shall not we who love the Savior hear this same gracious promise sounding clear and sweet in our souls and trusting in the abiding
Presence of God find that He gives the unparalleled rest, the rest that endures? And if, on the other hand, we are strangers to that brave, strong peace, shall we not listen as He calls, "Come unto
Me, and I will give you rest"? And answering to it, enter into that rest that always follows true believing! The Lord grant it may be so, with each one, for His name's sake!
Ge 15:6 • Justification by Faith — Illustrated by Abram's Righteousness
ERMON 0844
Justification By Faith—Illustrated By Abram's
Righteousness
"And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness."
Genesis 15:6
You will remember that last Lord's-day morning we spoke upon the calling of Abram, and the faith by which he was enabled to enter upon that separated life at the bidding of the Most High. We shall today pass from the consideration of his calling to that of his justification, that being most remarkably next in order in his history, as it is in point of theology in the New Testament–for, "whom He called, them He also justified."
Referring to the chapter before us for a preface to our subject, note that after Abram's calling his faith proved to be of the most practical kind. Being called to separate himself from his kindred and from his country, he did not, therefore, become a recluse, a man of ascetic habits, or a sentimentalist unfit for the battles of ordinary life. No, but in the noblest style of true manliness he showed himself able to endure the household trouble and the public trial which awaited him.
Lot's herdsmen quarreled with the servants of Abram, and Abram, with great disinterestedness, gave his younger and far inferior relative the choice of pasturage. He gave up the well-watered plain of Sodom, which was the best of the land. A little while after, the grand old man who trusted in his God showed that he could play the soldier, and fight right gloriously against terrible odds. He gathered together his own household servants and accepted the help of his neighbors, and pursued the conquering hosts of the allied kings, and smote them with as heavy a hand as if from his youth up he had been a military man.
Brothers and Sisters, this everyday life faith is the faith of God's elect! There are persons who imagine saving faith to be a barren conviction of the truth of certain abstract propositions, leading only to a quiet contemplation upon certain delightful topics, or separating ourselves from all sympathy with our fellow creatures– but it is not so! Faith, restricted merely to religious exercise, is not Christian faith–it must show itself in everything. A merely religious faith may be the choice of men whose heads are softer than their hearts or more fit for cloisters than markets. But the manly faith which God would have us cultivate is a grand practical principle adapted for every day in the week–helping us to rule our household in the fear of God and to enter upon life's rough conflicts in the warehouse, the farm, or the exchange.
I mention this at the commencement of this discourse because as this is the faith which came of Abram's calling, so also does it shine in his justification, and is, indeed, that which God counted unto him for righteousness. Yet the first verse shows us that even such a Believer as Abram needed comfort. The Lord said to him, "Fear not." Why did Abram fear? Partly because of the reaction which is always caused by excitement when it is over. He had fought boldly and conquered gloriously, and now he fears.
Cowards tremble before the fight, and brave men after the victory.
Elijah slew the priests of Baal without fear, but after all was over his spirit sank and he fled from the face of Jezebel. Abram's fear also originated in an overwhelming awe in the Presence of God.
The word of Jehovah came to him with power and he felt that same prostration of spirit which made the beloved John fall at the feet of his Lord in the Isle of Patmos, and made Daniel feel, on the banks of the Hiddekel, that there was no strength in him. "Fear not," said the Lord to the Patriarch. His spirit was too deeply bowed. God would uplift His beloved servant into the power of exercising sacred familiarity.
Ah, Brothers and Sisters, this is a blessed fear–let us cultivate it– for until it shall be cast out by perfect love, which is better still, we may be content to let this good thing rule our hearts. Should not a man, conscious of great infirmities, sink low in his own esteem in proportion as he is honored with communion with the glorious
Lord? When he was comforted, Abram received an open declaration of his justification. I take it, beloved Friends, that our text does not intend to teach us that Abram was not justified before this time. Faith always justifies whenever it exists, and as soon as it
The moment a man truly trusts his God he is justified. Yet many are justified who do not know their happy condition–many to whom, as yet, the blessing of justification has not been opened up in its excellency and abundance of privilege. There may be some of you here today who have been called by Divine Grace from darkness into marvelous light. You have been led to look to Jesus and you believe you have received pardon of your sin, and yet, for lack of knowledge, you know little of the sweet meaning of such words as these, "Accepted in the Beloved." "Perfect in Christ
Jesus." "Complete in Him." You are doubtless justified, though you scarcely understand what justification means. And you are accepted, though you have not realized your acceptance. And you are complete in Jesus Christ, though you have, today, a far deeper sense of your personal incompleteness than of the all-sufficiency of Jesus.
A man may be entitled to property though he cannot read the title deeds or has not, as yet, heard of their existence. The law recognizes right and fact, not our apprehension. But there will come a time, Beloved, when you who are called will clearly realize your justification and will rejoice in it! It shall be intelligently understood by you and shall become a matter of transporting delight–lifting you to a higher platform of experience and enabling you to walk with a firmer step, sing with a merrier voice–and triumph with an enlarged heart!
I intend now, as God may help me, first to note the means of Abram's justification. Then, secondly, the Object of the faith which justified him. And then, thirdly, the attendants of his justification.
First, Brethren, HOW WAS ABRAM JUSTIFIED? We see in the text the great Truth of God which Paul so clearly brings out in the fourth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, that Abram was not justified by his works. Many had been the good works of Abram. It was a good work to leave his country and his father's house at God's bidding. It was a good work to separate from Lot in so noble a spirit. It was a good work to follow after the robber-kings with undaunted courage. It was a grand work to refuse to take the spoils of Sodom and to lift up his hand to God that he would not take a thread even to a shoe lace. It was a holy work to give to Melchisedec tithes of all that he possessed, and to worship the Most High God.
Yet none of these are mentioned in the text, nor is there a hint given of any other sacred duties as the ground or cause, or part cause, of his justification before God. No, it is said, "He believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness." Surely, Brothers and Sisters, if Abram, after years of holy living, is not justified by his works, but is accepted before God on account of his faith, much more must this be the case with the ungodly sinner who, having lived in unrighteousness, yet believes on Jesus and is saved! If there is salvation for the dying thief, and others like he, it cannot be of debt, but of Grace, seeing they have no good works! If Abram, when full of good works, is not justified by them, but by his faith, how much more we, being full of imperfections, must come unto the Throne of the heavenly Grace and ask that we may be justified by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and saved by the free mercy of God!
Further, this justification came to Abram not by obedience to the ceremonial law any more than by conformity to the moral law. As the Apostle has so plainly pointed out to us, Abram was justified before he was circumcised. The initiatory step into the outward and visible Covenant, so far as it was ceremonial, had not yet been taken, and yet the man was perfectly justified! All that follows after cannot contribute to a thing which is already perfect. Abram, being already justified, cannot owe that justification to his subsequent circumcision–this is clear enough. And so, Beloved, at this moment, if you and I are to be justified, these two things are certain–it cannot be by the works of the moral law and it cannot be by obedience to any ceremonial law, be it what it may–whether the sacred ritual given to Aaron, or the superstitious ritual which claims to have been ordained by gradual tradition in the Christian Church.
If we are, indeed, the children of faithful Abraham, and are to be justified in Abraham's way, it cannot be by submission to rites or ceremonies of any kind! Hearken to this carefully, you who would be justified before God–Baptism is, in itself, an excellent ordinance but it cannot justify nor help to justify us! Confirmation is a mere figment of men, and could not, even if commanded by God, assist in justification! And the Lord's Supper, albeit that it is a Divine institution, cannot in any respect whatever minister to your acceptance or to your righteousness before God!
Abram had no ceremonies in which to rest. He was righteous through his faith, and righteous only through his faith. And so must you and I be if we are ever to stand as righteous before God at all.
Faith, in Abram's case, was the only and unsupported cause of his being accounted righteous! Note, although in other cases Abram's faith produced works, and although in every case where faith is genuine it produces good works, yet the particular instance of faith recorded in this chapter was unattended by any works.
God brought him forth under the star-lit heavens and bade him look up. "So shall your seed be," said the sacred voice. Abram did what? Believed the promise–that was all. It was before he had offered sacrifice. Before he had said a holy word or performed a single action of any kind that the words immediately and instantly went forth, "He believed in the Lord and He counted it to him for righteousness." Always distinguish between the Truth of God that living faith always produces works, and the lie that faith and works co-operate to justify the soul. We are made righteous only by an act of faith in the work of Jesus Christ. That faith, if true, always produces holiness of life–but our being righteous before God is not because of our holiness in life in any degree or respect, but simply because of our faith in the Divine promise.
Thus says the inspired Apostle: "His faith was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, 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." I would have you note that the faith which justified
Abram was still an imperfect faith, although it perfectly justified him. It was imperfect beforehand, for he had prevaricated as to his wife, and bid Sarai, "Say you are my sister."
It was imperfect after it had justified him, for in the next chapter we find him taking Hagar, his wife's handmaid, in order to effect the Divine purpose, and so showing a lack of confidence in the working of the Lord. It is a blessing for you and for me that we do not need perfect faith to save us! "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove to yonder place, and it shall remove." If you have but the faith of a little child, it shall save you. Though your faith is not always at the same pitch as the Patriarch's when he staggered not at the promise through unbelief, yet if it is simple and true, if it confides alone in the promise of God–it is an unhappy thing that it is no stronger, and you ought daily to pray, "Lord, increase my faith"–but still it shall justify you through Christ Jesus! A trembling hand may grasp the cup which bears a healing draught to the lip–the weakness of the hand shall not lessen the power of the medicine.
So far, then, all is clear–Abram was not justified by works, nor by ceremonies, nor partly by works and partly by faith, nor by the perfection of his faith–he is counted righteous simply because of his faith in the Divine promise. I must confess that looking more closely into it, this text is too deep for me and therefore I decline, at this present moment, to enter into the controversy which rages around it. But one thing is clear to me–if faith is, as we are told, counted to us for righteousness, it is not because faith in itself has merit which may make it a fitting substitute for a perfect obedience to the Law of God. Nor can it be viewed as a substitute for such obedience. For, Brothers and Sisters, all good acts are a duty–to trust God is our duty–and he that has believed to his utmost has done no more than it was his duty to have done!
He who should believe without imperfection, if this were possible, would even, then, have only given to God a part of the obedience due. And if he should have failed in love, or reverence, or anything beside, his faith, as a virtue and a work, could not stand him in any prestige. In fact, according to the great principle of the New Testament, even faith, as a work, does not justify the soul! We are not saved by works at all or in any sense, but by Divine Grace alone, and the way in which faith saves us is not by itself as a work, but in some other way directly opposite. Faith cannot be its own righteousness, for it is of the very nature of faith to look out of self to Christ.
If any man should say, "My faith is my righteousness," then it is evident that he is confiding in his faith and this is just the thing of all others which it would be unsafe to do, for we must look altogether away from ourselves to Christ alone, or we have no true faith at all. Faith must look to the Atonement and work of Jesus, or else she is not the faith of Scripture. Therefore to say that faith in and of itself becomes our righteousness, is, it seems to me, to tear out the very heart of the Gospel and to deny the faith which has been once delivered to the saints.
Paul declares, contrary to certain sectaries who rail against imputed righteousness–that we are justified and made righteous by the righteousness of Christ. On this he is plain and positive. He tells us (Rom. 5:19) that, "as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." The Old Testament verse before us as a text this morning, gives us but, as it were, the outward aspect of justification–it is brought to us by faith, and the fact that a man has faith entitles him to be set down as a righteous man. In this sense
God accounts faith to a man as righteousness. But the underlying and secret Truth of God which the Old Testament does not so clearly give us is found in the New Testament declaration that we are accepted in the Beloved, and justified because of the obedience of Christ.
Faith justifies, but not in and by itself, but because it grasps the obedience of Christ. "As by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." To the same effect is that verse in the second Epistle of Peter (first chapter, first verse), which runs in our version as follows: "Simon Peter, a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Now, everybody who is at all familiar with the original knows that the correct translation is, "through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ."
The righteousness which belongs to the Christian is the righteousness of our God and Savior, who is "made of God unto us righteousness." Hence the beauty of the old prophetic title of the Messiah, "The Lord our Righteousness." I do not wish to enter into controversy as to imputed righteousness this morning. We may discuss that doctrine another time. But we feel confident that this text cannot mean that faith in itself, as a Divine Grace or a virtue, becomes the righteousness of any man. The fact is that faith is counted to us for righteousness because she has Christ in her hand– she comes to God resting upon what Christ has done, depending alone upon the Propitiation which God has set forth–and God, therefore, writes down every believing man as being a righteous man, not because of what he is in himself, but for what he is in Christ.
He may have a thousand sins, yet shall he be righteous if he has faith. He may painfully transgress like Samson. He may be as much in the dark as Jephthae. He may fall as David, he may slip like
Noah–but, for all that, if he has a true and living faith, he is written down among the justified, and God accepts him! While there are some who gloat over the faults of Believers, God spies out the pure gem of faith gleaming on their breast. He takes them for what they want to be, for what they are in heart, for what they would be if they could–and covering their sins with the atoning blood, and adorning their persons with the righteousness of the Beloved, He accepts them, seeing He beholds in them the faith which is the mark of the righteous man wherever it may be.
II. Let us pass on to consider THE PROMISE UPON WHICH HIS FAITH RELIED when Abram was justified. Abram's faith, like ours, rested upon a promise received directly from God. "This shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own body shall be your heir. And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward Heaven, and count the stars, if you are able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall your descendents be."
Had this promise been spoken by any other, it would have been a subject of ridicule to the Patriarch. But, taking it as from the lips of God, he accepts it and relies upon it. Now, Brothers and Sisters, if you and I have true faith we accept the promise, "He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved" as being altogether Divine. If such a declaration were made to us by the priests of Rome, or by any human being on his own authority, we would not think it true. But, inasmuch as it comes to us written in the sacred Word of God as having been spoken by Jesus Christ Himself, we lean upon it as not the word of man, but the Word of God.
Beloved, it may be a very simple remark to make, but after all it is necessary that we must be careful that our faith in the Truth of God is fixed upon the fact that God has declared it to be true, and not upon the oratory or persuasion of any of our most honored ministers or most respected acquaintances. If your faith stands in the wisdom of man, it is probably a faith in man. Remember it is only that faith which believes the promise because God spoke it, which is real faith in God. Note that and test your faith thereby.
In the next place, Abram's faith was faith in a promise concerning the seed. It was told him before that he should have a seed in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed. He recognized in this the same promise which was made to Eve at the gates of Paradise, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her Seed." "Abraham saw My day," says our Lord, "he saw it and was glad." In this promise Abram saw the one Seed, as says the Apostle in Galatians 3:16, "He says not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to your Seed, which is Christ." He saw Christ by the eye of faith, and then he saw the multitude that should believe in Him, the Seed of the father of the faithful.
The faith which justifies the soul concerns itself about Christ and not mere abstract truths. If your faith simply believes this dogma, and that, it saves you not. But when your faith believes that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses. When your faith turns to God in human flesh and rests in Him with its entire confidence, then it justifies you, for it is the faith of Abram.
Dear Hearer, have you such a faith as this? Is it faith in the promise of God? Is it faith that deals with Christ and looks alone to Him? Abram had faith in a promise which it seemed impossible could ever be fulfilled. A child was to be born of his own loins, but he was nearly 100 years old and Sarai, also, was said to be barren years before! His own body was now dead, as it were, and Sarai, so far as childbearing was concerned, was equally so. The birth of a son could not happen unless the laws of Nature were reversed.
But he considered not these things, he put them all aside. He saw death written on the creature, but he accepted the power of life in the Creator, and he believed without hesitation. Now, Beloved, the faith that justifies us must be of the same kind. It seems impossible that I should ever be saved. I cannot save myself. I see absolute death written upon the best hopes that spring of my holiest resolutions–"In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing." I can do nothing. I am slain under the Law. I am corrupt through my natural depravity–yet for all this I believe that through the life of Jesus I shall live and inherit the promised blessing!
It is small faith to believe that God will save you when Divine
Graces flourish in your heart and evidences of salvation abound.
But it is a grand faith to trust in Jesus in the teeth of all your sins– notwithstanding the accusations of conscience–to believe in Him that justifies not merely the godly but the ungodly (Rom. 4:5). To believe not in the Savior of saints, but in the Savior of sinners, and to believe that if any man sins we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous–this is precious, and is counted unto us for righteousness.
This justifying faith was faith which dealt with a wonderful promise, base and sublime. I imagine the Patriarch, standing beneath the starry sky, looking up to those innumerable orbs realizing he cannot count them! To his outward eye, long accustomed in the land of the Chaldeans to midnight observation, the stars appeared more numerous than they would to an ordinary observer. He looked and looked again with elevated gaze, and the voice said, "So shall your seed be." Now he did not say, "Lord, if I may be the father of a clan, the progenitor of a tribe, I shall be well content. But it is not credible that countless hosts can ever come of my barren body."
No, he believed the promise! He believed it just as it stood. I do not hear him saying, "It is too good to be true." No. God has said it–and nothing is too good for God to do. The greater the Grace of the promise, the more likely it is to have come from Him, for good and perfect gifts come from the Father of Lights. Beloved, does your faith take the promise as it stands in its vastness, in its height and depth and length and breadth? Can you believe that you, a sinner, are nevertheless a child, a son, an heir, an heir of God, jointheir with Christ Jesus? Can you believe that Heaven is yours, with all its ecstasies of joy? Eternity with its infinity of bliss? God with all His attributes of Glory? Oh, this is the faith that justifies–farreaching, wide-grasping faith that diminishes not the word of promise–but accepts it as it stands! May we have more and more of this large-handed faith!
Once more, Abram showed faith in the promise as made to him.
Out of his own body a Seed should come, and it was in him and in his Seed that the whole world should be blessed! I can believe all the promises in regard to other people. I find faith in regard to my dear friends to be a very easy matter. But oh, when it comes to close grips, and to laying hold for yourself, here is the difficulty! I could see a friend in 10 troubles, and believe that the Lord would not forsake him. I could read a saintly biography, and finding that the Lord never failed His servant when he went through fire and through water, I do not wonder at it. But when it comes to one's own self, the wonder begins!
Our heart cries, "What is this to me? What am I, and what is my father's house, that such mercy should be mine? I washed in blood and made whiter than snow today! Is it so? Can it be? I made righteous through my faith in Jesus Christ–perfectly righteous! O can it be? What? For me the everlasting love of God, streaming from its perennial fountain? For me the protection of a special
Providence in this life, and the provision of a prepared Heaven in the life to come? For me a harp, a crown, a palm branch, a throne!
For me the bliss of forever beholding the face of Jesus, and being made like He is, and reigning with Him! It seems impossible!
And yet this is the faith that we must have, the faith which lays on Christ Jesus for itself, saying with the Apostle, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." This is the faith which justifies! Let us seek more and more of it, and God shall have glory through it.
III. In the third place, let us notice THE ATTENDANTS OF ABRAM'S JUSTIFICATION. With your Bibles open, kindly observe that after it is written his faith was counted to him for righteousness, it is recorded that the Lord said to him, "I am Jehovah that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it." When the soul is graciously enabled to perceive its complete justification by faith, then it more distinctly discerns its calling.
Then the Believer perceives his privileged separation and discerns why he was convicted of sin, why he was led away from selfrighteousness and the pleasures of this world to live the life of faith. Now he sees his high calling and the prize of it, and from the one blessing of justification he argues the blessedness of all the inheritance to which he is called. The more clear a man is about his justification the more will he prize his calling, and the more earnestly will he seek to make it sure by perfecting his separation from the world and his conformity to his Lord.
Am I a justified man? Then I will not go back to that bondage in which I once was held. Am I now accepted of God through faith?
Then I will live no longer by sight, as I once did as a carnal man– when I understood not the power of trusting in the unseen God.
One Christian Grace helps another, and one act of Divine Grace casts a reflection upon another. Calling gleams with double glory side by side with the twin star of justification. Justifying faith receives more vividly the promises. "I have brought you," said the Lord, "into this land to inherit it." He was reminded again of the promise God made to him years before.
Beloved, no man reads the promises of God with such delight and with such a clear understanding as the man who is justified by faith in Christ Jesus. "For now," he says, "this promise is mine, and made to me. I have the pledge of its fulfillment in the fact that I walk in the favor of God. I am no longer obnoxious to His wrath.
None can lay anything to my charge, for I am absolved through Jesus Christ, and, therefore, if when I was a sinner He justified me, much more, being justified, will He keep His promise to me. If when I was a condemned rebel, He nevertheless in His eternal mercy called me and brought me into this state of acceptance, much more will He preserve me from all my enemies and give me the heritage which He has promised by His Covenant of Grace. A clear view of justification helps you much in grasping the promises of God, therefore seek it earnestly for your soul's comfort.
Abram, after being justified by faith, was led more distinctly to behold the power of sacrifice. By God's command he killed three bullocks, three goats, three sheep, with turtle doves and pigeons, being all the creatures ordained for sacrifice. The Patriarch's hands are stained with blood. He handles the butcher's knife–he divides the beasts, he kills the birds–he places them in an order revealed to him by God's Spirit at the time. There they are. Abram learns that there is no meeting with God except through sacrifice. God has shut every door except that over which the blood is sprinkled. All acceptable approaches to God must be through an atoning sacrifice–and Abram understood this.
While the promise is still in his ears. While the ink is yet wet in the pen of the Holy Spirit, writing him down as justified–he must see a sacrifice, and see it, too, in emblems which comprehend all the Revelation of sacrifice made to Aaron. So, Brothers and Sisters, it is a blessed thing when your faith justifies you if it helps you to obtain more complete and vivid views of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ! The purest and most bracing air for faith to breathe is on Calvary. I do not wonder that your faith grows weak when you fail to consider well the tremendous sacrifice which Jesus made for His people! Turn to the annals of the Redeemer's sufferings given us in the Evangelists. Bow yourself in prayer before the Lamb of God–blush to think you should have forgotten His death which is the center of all history!
Contemplate the wondrous transaction of Substitution once again, and you will find your faith revived! It is not the study of theology.
It is not reading books upon points of controversy. It is not searching into mysterious prophecy which will bless your soul–it is looking to Jesus Crucified! That is the essential nutrition of the life of faith, and mind that you keep to it. As a man already justified, Abram looked at the sacrifice all day long and till the sun went down, chasing away the birds of prey as you must drive off all disturbing thoughts. So must you also study the Lord Jesus, and view Him in all His Characters and offices. Be not satisfied unless you grow in Divine Grace and in the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Perhaps even more important was the next lesson which Abram had to learn. He was led to behold the Covenant. I suppose that these pieces of the bullock, the lamb, the ram, and the goat were so placed that Abram stood in the midst with a part on this side and a part on that. So he stood as a worshipper all through the day, and towards nightfall, when a horror of great darkness came over him, he fell into a deep sleep. Who would not feel a horror passing over him as he sees the great sacrifice for sin and sees himself involved?
There, in the midst of the sacrifice he saw, moving with solemn motion, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp answering to the pillar of cloud and fire which manifested the Presence of God in later days to Israel in the wilderness.
In these emblems the Lord passed between the pieces of the sacrifice to meet His servant and enter into Covenant with him.
This has always been the most solemn of all modes of covenanting–and has even been adopted in heathen nations on occasions of unusual solemnity. The sacrifice is divided and the covenanting parties meet between the divided pieces. The profane interpretation was that they imprecated upon each other the curse that if they broke the covenant they might be cut in pieces as these beasts had been. But this is not the interpretation which our hearts delight in! It is this–it is only in the midst of the sacrifice that God can enter into a Covenant relationship with sinful man. God comes in His glory like a flame of fire, but subdued and tempered to us as with a cloud of smoke in the Person of Jesus Christ. And He comes through the bloody Sacrifice which has been offered once and for all through Jesus Christ on the tree. Man meets with God in the midst of the Sacrifice of Christ!
Now, Beloved, you who are justified, try this morning to reach this privilege which particularly belongs to you at this juncture of your spiritual history. Know and understand that God is in Covenant bonds with you. He has made a Covenant of Grace with you which never can be broken. The sure mercies of David are your portion. After this sort does that Covenant run, "A new heart also will I give them, and a right spirit will I put within them. They shall be My people, and I will be their God." That Covenant is made with you over the slaughtered body of the Son of God!
God and you cross hands over Him who sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. The Lord accepts us and we enter with Him into sacred league and amity over the Victim whose wounds and death ratify the compact. Can God forget a Covenant with such sanctions? Can such a federal bond so solemnly sealed be ever broken? Impossible! Man is sometimes faithful to his oath, but God is always so–and when that oath is confirmed for the strengthening of our faith by the blood of the Only-Begotten–to doubt is treason and blasphemy! Godhelpus,being justified, to have faith in the Covenant which is sealed and ratified with blood!
Immediately after, God made to Abram (and here the analogy still holds) a discovery, that all the blessing that was promised, though it was surely his, would not come without an interval of trouble.
"Your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them 400 years." When a man is first of all brought to Christ he often is so ignorant as to think, "Now my troubles are all over. I have come to Christ and I am saved–from this day forward I shall have nothing to do but to sing the praises of God."
Alas, a conflict remains! We must understand, for sure, that the battle now begins! How often does it happen that the Lord, in order to educate His child for future trouble, makes the occasion when his justification is most clear to him the season of informing him that he may expect to meet with trouble? I was struck with that fact when I was reading for my own comfort, the other night, the fifth chapter of Romans. It runs thus–"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
See how softly it flows–a justification sheds the oil of joy upon the Believer's head. But what is the next verse–"and not only so, but we glory in tribulation also: knowing that tribulation works patience," and so on. Justification ensures tribulation. Oh, yes, the Covenant is yours–you shall possess the goodly land and Lebanon– but, like all the seed of Abraham, you must go down into Egypt and groan, being burdened. All the saints must smart before they sing.
They must carry the cross before they wear the crown. You are justified men and women but you are not freed from trouble! Your sins were laid on Christ, but you still have Christ's Cross to carry.
The Lord has exempted you from the curse, but He has not exempted you from the chastisement. Learn that you enter on the children's discipline on the very day in which you enter upon their accepted condition.
To close the whole, the Lord gave to Abram an assurance of ultimate success. He would bring his seed into the promised land, and the people who had oppressed them He would judge. So let it come as a sweet revelation to every believing man this morning, that at the end he shall triumph and those evils which now oppress him shall be cast beneath his feet! The Lord shall bruise Satan under our feet shortly. We may be slaves in Egypt for awhile, but we shall come up out of it with great abundance of true riches– better than silver or gold! We shall be prospered by our tribulations and enriched by our trials!
Therefore let us be of good cheer. If sin is pardoned, we may well bear affliction. "Strike, Lord," said Luther, "now my sins are gone.
Strike as hard as You will if transgression is covered." These light afflictions which are but for a moment are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us. Let us make it the first point of our care to be justified with Abraham's seed, and then whether we sojourn in Egypt or enjoy the peace of Canaan it little matters–we are all safe if we are only justified by faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Dear Friends, this last word, and I send you home. Have you believed in God? Have you trusted Christ? O that you would do so today! To believe that God speaks truth ought not to be difficult, and if we were not very wicked this would never need to be urged upon us–we should do it naturally. To believe that Christ is able to save us seems to me to be easy enough, and it would be if our hearts were not so hard. Believe your God, and think it no little thing to do so!
May the Holy Spirit lead you to a true trust. This is the work of God–that you believe on Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Believe that the Son of God can save, and confide yourself alone in Him,