17. The Use And Advantage Of Faith In A Time Of Public Calamity
THE USE AND
ADVANTAGE OF FAITH IN
A TIME OF PUBLIC
CALAMITY "The just shall live by his faith."—HAB. 2:4.
T HIS is the first time these words are mentioned in the Scripture, but they are three times quoted by the apostle Paul: he preached, as it were, thrice upon them, Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38; for it is full of heavenly matter, and is made use of by the apostle for several purposes. I know no one text that has been more preached upon, or more written upon by those who have treated of the life of faith;—how the just live the life of justification, and how they live the life of sanctification, the life of consolation, the life of peace, the life of joy, the life of obedience, etc. My design is quite of another nature, and is that which aligns with the design of the prophet in the first use of the words; as we shall presently see.You know that, for many years, on all these occasions, without fail, I have been
warning you continually of an approaching calamitous time, and considering the sins that have been the causes of it. The day is with the Lord,—the year and month I know not: but I have told you that "judgment will begin at the house of God;" that in the latter days of the church,
"perilous times will come;" that God seems to have "hardened our hearts from his fear, and caused us to err from his ways;" and that no one knows what "the power of his wrath" will be. In all these things I have foretold you of perilous, distressing, calamitous times; and in all men's apprehensions they now lie at the door, and are entering in upon us. Now I must change my design; and my present work will be, both upon this and, if I live, upon some other occasions, to show how we ought to behave ourselves in and under the approaches of distressing calamities that are coming upon us, and may reach, it may be, up to the very neck.What this text teaches us is, that in the approaches of overwhelming calamities, and in the view of them, we ought, in a peculiar manner, to live by faith. That is the meaning of the place.
And that this is our duty is evident from this passage and the context. For the prophet had received a vision, a terrifying vision, from God, of the arrival of the Chaldeans, and of the destruction they would inflict upon the church and all the land, in the previous chapter. Having received this vision, he contemplates his own duty, and what is the duty of the church, in the face of this distressing, calamitous season. Why, he says in verse 1, "I will stand upon my watch, and set myself upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved."—"God will reprove me; there will be intense debates between God and my soul: I am aware of my own guilt and sin, and I want to be prepared to have something to answer God when I am reproved,—
something to rely on. The answer," he says, "I will rely on is this, 'The just shall live by his faith.'" Two things are included here:—
First. He says, "I will rely" (as the apostle uses it) "on Jesus Christ for righteousness. I have nothing else to answer God when I am reproved."
Secondly. "I will endure all these terrifying and dreadful acts of providence that are coming upon me, by living a life of faith:" a unique way of living, as we shall soon see. When the flood was coming upon the world,
Noah was "a preacher of righteousness," 2 Pet. 2:5. What righteousness did Noah preach? Well, that righteousness of which he himself was a partaker; for he "became heir of the righteousness which is by faith," Heb. 11:7.
When the flood was approaching, Noah preached the righteousness of faith to the world, so that they might escape, if they would heed it; but it was rejected by them. Therefore, I say, in the approach of a calamitous season, there is, in a special way and manner, a living by faith required of us. But you might ask, "What is a calamitous season?" or, "When do you consider a season calamitous?"
I will give you two characteristics that describe such a season as I judge to be clearly calamitous:— 1. When it surpasses the limits of affliction, or when the manifestations of God's anger in it cannot be categorized under affliction. Ezek. 21:9, 10, 13,
"Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the LORD; say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished: it is sharpened to make a grievous slaughter; it is polished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it despises the rod of my son, like every tree. Because it is a trial, and what if the sword despises even the rod?" The rod encompasses all affliction; but God will bring a sword,—a judgment that shall not be categorized under affliction; it shall despise it. Now, I say, whatever it may be, when a
calamity befalls a people, or the church of God, that cannot be categorized under affliction, but that everyone shall feel there is anger, judgment, wrath in it; then it is a distressing time.
2. When judgments fall indiscriminately on all sorts of people and make no distinction, then I consider it to be a distressing time; for they strip people of the comforts they cherish in their own minds. Job 9:22, 23, "This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroys the perfect and the wicked."
"What! does God always do so? does he never make a distinction about judgments?" Yes, sometimes; but "if the scourge slays suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent." When God brings a scourge, or a sword that shall slay indiscriminately, that shall seize upon, destroy, and devour the innocent, so that they shall not escape, he will be as one who stands by rejoicing to see how they conduct themselves under their trial.
Now, this is enough to provide clarity as to what I mean by a distressing, calamitous time:—it cannot be categorized as mere affliction; it kills suddenly and indiscriminately the righteous and the wicked; and, it may be,
"the good figs shall go first into captivity." I am not much differently inclined; and God may have mercy for them in that situation. I shall now show you these two things:—I. How we shall live by faith,—how we should behave ourselves; what faith will do in such a season,—what our duty is under the approach of these calamitous, distressing times that are coming upon us. II. I shall show you how faith does and will sustain us under other difficulties that we have upon us, that we either feel or fear:—
I. Faith will guide and direct the soul, under the approach of these distressing calamities, in these following things:—
1. It will instill in the soul a reverential fear of God in his judgments. So it did unto the saints of old, Heb. 11:7, "By faith Noah, being warned of
God;" εὐλαβηθεὶς,—"moved with a reverential fear." There is no man that is not stubborn-hearted and far from righteousness, but is, upon God's warning, moved with a reverential fear of God in his judgments. It was so with David, Ps. 119:120, "My flesh trembles for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments," He was not afraid as to outward judgments, but under them his flesh trembled with a reverential fear of God. And so was it with the prophet Habakkuk, upon the vision he had of the approach of the Chaldeans, chap. 3:16, "When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he comes up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops." He had a reverential fear of God in his judgments working upon him. According to my best observation of things in this state wherein we are, the majority of people may be distributed under these three categories:— (1.) There are some that are, indeed, genuinely afraid of approaching judgments; they do not know how soon they will reach unto themselves, their persons, their families, their relations, their estates,—all that they have labored for, and exerted their utmost care and industry about in the world; the flood is at the door, ready to carry all before it; they fear every day.
Some men die, also, for fear of dying; they are poor for fear of poverty;— they will part with nothing, because they fear they must part with all. A strange contradiction of spirit! Now this is not the work of faith. So far as it prevails upon any of our spirits, God will rebuke us for it, Isa. 51:12, 13,
"Who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forget the LORD your maker, and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor?" (chap. 8:10,) "and have not sanctified the LORD in your heart,
nor made him your fear?" Who are you? God hates this sinful fear; it is an abomination unto him. This is nothing but the fear of self; we will keep all warm around us, while we are in this world, and are afraid of the broom of destruction.
(2.) There are others who utterly despise these things—take no notice of them; who do not believe any such distressing calamity will come upon them: if it does, they will deal well enough with it. Isa. 28:14, 15, "They have made a covenant with death, and with hell are they in agreement;" and say, "When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us." They have a thousand ways to disassociate themselves from anything of the most distressing calamity that is coming over the world.
This engulfs the majority of mankind, and is that which the prophet reflects upon, Isa. 26:11, "When your hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yes, the fire of your enemies shall devour them."
(3.) The other sort is mentioned in Judges 5:6, and may be called way-side men, idle, discursive men, that have nothing else to do but to walk up and down and talk, and are not concerned with a reverence of God and his judgments; they talk of them as if there were no God in heaven to regard them, or as if they had no involvement with him. If we have the least true saving faith in exercise, it will cast this cursed frame out of our hearts, it will be daily working it out of our souls, and will bring us to that which I told you is its proper work "God," says the psalmist, Ps. 9:16, "is known by the judgment which he executes." And what of God is principally known in the judgments which he executes in the world, is but little considered. That which God makes known of himself in a peculiar manner in these dreadful dispensations is, his majesty, his holiness, and his power.
God will appear to be awfully majestic and wonderfully glorious in such dispensations. He speaks of himself upon that occasion, Isa. 2:20, 21, "In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake terribly the earth." If we have the light of faith to let it in, we shall see a majesty and glory in God's actions, even in his public and distressing judgments—such a greatness and a glory that the soul will be constrained to bow down before him.
God also manifests his holiness in his judgments; of which we shall speak afterward. So Rev. 15:4, "Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy." How does this appear? "For your judgments are made manifest." When God makes his judgments manifest, his holiness will appear. And so, when Habakkuk came to plead with God about that great judgment of the Chaldeans which gave occasion to my text, he cries out, "O LORD my God, my Holy One, you are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity."
God also glorifies himself in his power in these judgments. He sets up one, and pulls down another, and does whatever he pleases. Herein he manifestly shows his sovereign power.
Now, to live by faith, is to cast out all those cursed frames before mentioned, and to bring this frame into your hearts, as the foundation of all that follows—namely, that you have a reverential fear of the majesty, the holiness, and the power of God, in all his judgments: and without this, we shall not please God in anything we do. These are the true sayings of God.
If there is another frame in us, this dispensation will pierce to the very soul before it is over: that is the first thing.
2. Where faith has filled the soul with a reverential fear of God, its first work will be to prepare and provide an ark for itself: so it was in the great example of our faith previously mentioned. Noah, being moved by fear,
"prepared an ark," wherein he saved himself and his family. Let people pretend what they will, unless they are under a strange, careless indifference and security (which, I fear, is upon the majority of believers), they cannot, in such a season as this, but be preparing some reserve for themselves.
"What shall we do when this comes upon us?" They have some predominant reserve. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city," Prov. 18:11;
—he may lose a great deal, but he will save enough for himself: so the strong man trusts in his strength, the wise man in his wisdom: one thing or other people prepare for themselves, to be an ark against the storm that comes; and those who do not do so, they fluctuate up and down at uncertainties, hoping that by one way or another, that they know not of, they shall be carried above all, have a good outcome,—that it shall not be as this or that prophet or minister foretells, but that somehow they shall escape. This is not to prepare an ark; which is the work of faith to do. And here I shall inquire into two things:—(1.) What is this ark that is to be prepared; (2.) How we ought to enter into it, or how we are to make a special entrance into it, in reference to an approaching calamitous season. I say,— (1.) This ark is Jesus Christ. Faith in him is necessary. In this chapter of my text, where inquiry is made about what shall be answered unto God, and what course shall be taken upon the coming in of the overflowing flood of the Chaldeans; this is the course to be taken, "The just shall live by his faith." What is that? It is to seek for righteousness by Christ; to seek afresh for justification and life by Christ. There is no other way, no other ark; and
he is described as this ark in that well-known place, Isa. 32:2, "And a man"
(that is, Jesus Christ) "shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land:" that is the ark. I know not how to describe better what I intend by securing ourselves in the ark, like the description the prophet here gives, though in metaphorical terms. Likewise in Mic. 5:5, having given a promise of Christ, he adds, "And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land." To betake ourselves to the ark, is to betake ourselves to the source of our peace. And so Ps. 2:12,
"If God's wrath be kindled but a little"—How then? "Blessed are all they that" betake themselves unto him—"trust in him." In whom? In the Son;
—"Kiss the Son." And surely, my brethren, the wrath of God is now kindled, not a little, but a great deal, in all sorts and ways. The indications of the wrath of God are upon the spirits of people of all sorts,—of believers, of the world, in their own persons, in all societies and relations. Where are we, then, to betake ourselves, but unto Christ? "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."
(2.) But now, it would not have benefited either Noah or his sons to have an ark prepared for them, unless they had a door to the ark. "Make a door,"
God said to them, "that you may have entrance." To obtain an interest in Christ is the general work of faith all our days. But how shall we be able now to make a special entrance into this ark, suitable to the state and condition in which we are, and to approach a calamitous season that is hastening upon us? I know of only one way for our making a special entrance into this ark, Jesus Christ, in reference to such a season; which is, the solemn renewal of our covenant with God. This is the way that has been used by the church from the foundation of the world, without any instance
to the contrary;—that, when a storm was coming, if ever they were delivered from it, they entered into the ark, by the renewal of their covenant with God. And since the end is certain, we are thus anew to enter into this ark, Jesus Christ. It is not wise in civil matters to remove a means, unless we have a better one to substitute in its place; and it is so in spiritual matters. I wish all that fear God would stir up their hearts and thoughts, and offer to us (if they can) a better way for this church, or any church, to enter into the ark in the approach of a storm than this, and it shall be embraced.
This church has done so; though I begin to fear some look upon it as a very dead, sluggish commodity, they know not how to trade with. But do not mistake, you have no such thing lies by you in the sight of God this day. Do not despair, the day is approaching "when others shall come" (as in Zech.
8:23) "and lay hold upon your skirts, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you." Some,—blessed be God, and let his holy name be exalted!—have far outdone us already, both in zeal and warmth and courage, under a sense of commitments that are upon them. I look for no safety, no deliverance, in the trials and afflictions that are coming upon the earth, but what is had in the way of believing. I do not value those that think otherwise. Bless God, who has provided for you this door of entrance before the flood comes and the rain falls; bless God, I say, for it, and make use of it, and be able to plead it with God: and let the Lord know that you have made your choice to be his, and are under his care, and not under the protection of the world. I will not say you shall be saved temporarily, but you shall be saved eternally; I cannot say you shall have peace with men, but you shall have peace with God; I cannot say you shall not lose your lives, but I will say you shall not lose your souls: and these are our principal concerns. Make good your entrance. A door made into the ark will do you
no good, unless you enter in and make good your entrance at the door. How shall we make good our entrance into the ark, that we may have safety therein? If we are not at this work, we have no faith. Why, stand to your commitments,—stand to the performance of those duties God requires at your hands; not only as there is no one thing required but what is a special duty of the new covenant, but stand to them now as those that have been your entrance into the ark, where God will give you all that rest that in this world you can partake of. This is another work of faith in the approach of a calamitous time.
3. If we live by faith in anticipation of a disastrous season, this will prompt us to examine our own hearts, to see what contribution we have made to the sins that have brought about these judgments. This is what faith
(where it is in any measure sincere) will certainly lead us to do; and it is what God is particularly calling for at this time. Now, the sins which do and have brought about these judgments are of two types:—
(1.) The blatant and scandalous sins of the world.
(2.) The sins of churches and believers.
(1.) The blatant and scandalous sins of the world. The apostle lists them together in 1 Cor. 6:9, 10, "Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." He does it again in Eph. 5:5, 6, "For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God; for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." He also lists them in Gal. 5:19, etc., "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these." There is a remarkably large representation of these texts in our nation today: everyone can see an explanation of these things in the behavior of many people.
Some will say they thank God they are free from these things; and so they hope they have had no part in bringing about the judgments of God that are coming upon the nation; let them fall upon those who are guilty of these provoking abominations, such as for which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against their ungodliness. Well, it is good if they are not guilty of any of these sins; but the seed and foundation, even of all these sins, lie in our nature, if not in our persons, and what eruptions they have caused to provoke the eyes of God's glory I do not know. But suppose you have escaped these corruptions that are in the world through lust,—
(2.) There are other sins—sins of churches, and of believers—that, in relation to Christ's mediatory kingdom, have as great influence for the bringing about of judgments as the worst sins of the world have for the bringing about of judgments in his providential kingdom. I remember a time when there was a storm, in which an entire vessel, and all who were in it, were likely to have been lost; but one Jonah, who was on the ship, was the cause of the storm.
I will just mention the judgment-bringing sins of churches and believers, which are reduced in Scripture to these four categories:—
[1.] Lukewarmness; which was the judgment-bringing sin of Laodicea.[2.] Satisfying ourselves with outward order and freedom from scandal; which was the judgment-bringing sin of Sardis, and will prove ruinous to the best churches in the world.[3.] Lack of love among ourselves, and division in
churches.[4.] Worldliness, and love of the world, and conformity to it, that is found among the majority of believers.