Believe the threat, even though it should chill your blood; believe, though nature shrinks from the overwhelming doom; for, if you do not believe, the act of disbelieving God about one point will drive you to disbelieve him upon the other parts of revealed truth, and you will never come to that true, child-like faith which God will accept and honour. Faith and fear together led Noah to do as God commanded him. Beware of the high places: they are very slippery. Providence is God's business, obedience is ours. His whole life may be thus summed up: "By faith Abraham obeyed." In fact, they are not at an consistent therewith. But I must close with the sweetest part of the text. how often will our imagination paint sin in very glowing colours, and though we loathe the sin and loathe ourselves for thinking of it, yet how many a man might say, "Had it not been for divine grace, my feet had almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped." The proof of faith lies in perseverance. Descend, O sovereign love, descend, And melt that stubborn soul! If, as a decided believer, he takes his stand, and if he is firm and steadfast for his God, he will make a man, and his after years will be bright and useful; but if he begins to give way a little, and if he tries to trim his sail to the wind, he will never attain to a holy character. Without faith thou art out of the kingdom of grace, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel. No, no, she did not. And what know I of the journey? The mountain of safety is Calvary. Do I speak to a youth here who fears God, and who lives in an ungodly family? The bringing up of families is a very great matter. Can you pray, my brother? Be steadfast, unmovable. We see faith dauntless in courage when Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, and equally patient in suffering when he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Beware of the high places: they are very slippery. We desire something better. Faith is the acorn, from which the oak of holiness will grow. Delivered on Thursday Evening, August 21st, 1890, by. John Piper Jun 2, 1996. "Come now and let us reason together," he has said. His great anxiety is to do the will of God, or acceptably to suffer that will; and if he can obey, he will make no terms with God, and stand upon no reservations. Revelation 3:7-13 Philadelphia: The church that was taken! It was easier for Noah to build the ark than to render so complete an obedience; but the Lord wrought in him by his grace. Failure itself would be success as long as we did not fail to obey. There were a number of young men that I had played cards with, that I had sinned with, and transgressed with: the first thing I did was, to go to their houses to see what I could do for their salvation, nor could I rest until I had the pleasure of seeing many of them brought to the Saviour." Has the world ever satisfied you? This land in which you dwell, and all the works thereof, must be burned up. He hath prepared for them, not for all of you, but only for such as he has prepared for the city, has he prepared the city. These matters may be non-essential, shall I keep them back? You will never be able to cut down this huge upas tree except with the axe of Christ's atoning sacrifice. I delight to preach a free gospel, and to preach it to every creature under heaven; but we must never forget the speciality--"he hath prepared for them a city." Therefore assent must go with faith: that is to say, what we know we must also agree unto, as being most certainly the verity of God. By this you shall know whether you are Christ's or not when you have opportunity to return--if you don't return, that shall prove you are his. Because they are strangers, and because they will not go back to their old abode, therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. Let us consider, secondly, THE KIND OF OBEDIENCE WHICH FAITH PRODUCES. We must accept every single word of precept, or prohibition, or instruction, as being what it ought to be, and neither to be diminished nor increased. One reason for this seems to me to be, because he does not judge of them according to their present circumstances, but much rather according to their pleasant prospects. Set this up as your standard, and henceforth be this the epitome of your life "By faith he obeyed." He knows better than we do when to strike for victory. All the other persons mentioned here were doubtless saved by faith; but I do not find it specially remarked concerning any of them that they perished not through their faith; while it is particularly said of this woman, that she was delivered amid the general destruction of Jericho purely and only through her faith. ', "And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. It sees the Trinity; it cannot understand the Trinity in Unity, but it believes it. Or in some cases, perhaps, they have to go to the workhouse, and be far away from all Christian intercourse or anything that could comfort them. These opportunities to return are meant to try your faith, and they are sent to you to prove that you are a volunteer soldier. To help them, we shall consider, first, what was Abraham's special experience which led to his being what he became? When God began with many of us, he found us very low down beneath the flood of evil. He answered all appeals very coarsely. Are your girls light and trifling? this is well!" God does not need your strength: he has more than enough of power of his own. True, it brought him into a world of trouble, and no wonder: such a noble course as his was not likely to be an easy one. Thy faith out of weakness shall make thee strong. I stammered a good deal, and I said little that I thought to say, and some things which seemed to weaken what I did say. The very meaning of a church is called out--by Christ; we have been separated. And how frequently will even solitude have temptations as severe as publicity could possibly bring! May it be said of everyone here that by faith he obeyed! But we must pass on (for we have a very wealthy text tonight) to notice the second point. no; thy name may yet be written among the mightiest of the mighty, and thou mayest stand as a memorable and triumphant instance of the power of faith. Lay hold on him, touch the hem of his garment, and ye shall be healed. To pray without faith is formality; nay, it is vanity. Here we are in midsummer again, and yet Felix has not found his convenient season. and its answer is, "To glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever." Would to God that such conduct were usual, yea, universal; for with many of our fellow-men, and I fear with some now present, the call alone is not enough to produce obedience. It were quite a new thing in warfare to hear of men taking a city by blowing rams' horns." "Ah!" Add now I conclude this sketch of the Patriarch's call, by observing that Abraham's faith was well rewarded. Possibly he found us plunged in the great deeps of an evil habit. Ah sirs, there will be an end to this ere long, one way or the other, which shall it be? and there you are young man! Another reason why we should follow with simplicity and faith all the commands of God, is this, because we may be quite sure they shall all end well. I shall have some things to say this morning concerning this notable victory of faith over sin, such as I think will lead you to see that this was indeed a supereminent triumph of faith. Biblical Commentary (Bible Study) Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 EXEGESIS: THE CONTEXT: Hebrews 11 is the great faith chapter of the Bible, first defining faith (v. 1) and then using well-known Hebrew people to show faith in action. His faith begat his fear: his faith and his fear produced his obedience. Such a wretched faith has no influence on the man's self, and it will have no influence upon others. They died in faith. Today we're reading the New Testament book of Matthew Chapter 18 , and I'm smoking . "Along the cool, sequestered vale of life they hold the even tenor of their way." "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." Your hope lies there: where Jesus died, where Jesus rose again, where Jesus has gone into the glory. There were no carnal arguments between God and Abraham, for God has not invited his people to reason with him with human arguments. There is an old woman weeping--do you know why? I can only pray the Lord to give you to believe in him. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Thus you see the reason why the Christian cannot go back. Ahab did, and yet his sins were never forgiven. Christ Superior To Angels Moses And Aaron A Comment On The Epistle To The Hebrews. But if you desire to go to heaven, I beg you to remember that "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." Beneath him lay the villages, sleeping in their beauty, with the corn-fields motionless in the sunshine; but he did not look at them, for his attention was arrested by a woman standing at her door, and who, upon seeing him, came up to him with the greatest anxiety, and said, "O sir, have you any keys about you? The poverty and the suffering of even godly people in London would be a subject too harrowing for those of you who have specially tender hearts. Even among the most attentive hearers how many there are to whom the word comes with small practical result in actual obedience. Well, be it what it may, we will go forth, not knowing whither we go, but yet knowing that since he is with us, passing through the gloomy vale, we need fear no evil. Ah! I met with a little incident in company, the other day, after preaching. None of our old friends would refuse to receive us. She stood alone. He intends that the faith which he gives should have its test, and should glorify his name. yes," she said, "I have lived long enough, and I have gone to Church long enough, to know that if we work hard and get our bread by the sweat of our brow, and act well towards our neighbours, and behave, as the catechism says, lowly and reverently to all our betters, and if we do our duty in that station of life in which it has pleased God to place us, and say our prayers regularly, we shall be saved." Christ himself has said it, and so it must be. Now, my good woman, don't you see the absurdity of this thing? Opportunities to return in our own nature. "He hath prepared for them a city." Oh! It is not so. He went out and preached to them; but many would not hear him, for they thought him mad. As parents, we wish so to live that our children may copy us to their lasting profit. For him the promise of the woman's seed, though it was all the Bible that he had, was quite enough. Yet he devises means, and brings about the purposes of his grace. I. Although he may not reach the heights of ambition, nor stand upon the giddy crags of presumption, yet he shall know superior joys. Rahab's house stood alone upon the wall, a solitary fragment amid a universal wreck, and she and her household were all saved. There is no heaven for us hereafter, let us make the best of the present." Now, perhaps, God is beginning some good thing in her heart. Though you should forsake all, and should be by all forsaken, for the truth's sake, with Abraham's trial and Abraham's faith, you shall have Abraham's honor and Abraham's reward. "Yes," says one, "I own that it is an urgent service to make known to others what the Lord has done for me: but, somehow, I cannot discharge my conscience by fully doing as I would. The writer to the Hebrews began this chapter speaking of faith in the present tense: Now faith is. If you are so constituted that you rise and fall; if you are a creature that can be excited, and that can be depressed; and, worse still, if you happen to have been born on a foggy day, and to have swallowed so much of that fog that you have found it shading your spirit many a time ever since; then you can only be strong by faith. The Lord was leading me where I should be taught to know my man, and should be made willing to sit side by side with him in the dark prison-house, and lend him a hand to escape. Who wants to be a child and do easy things? The city of which you, who have never been converted to Christ, are citizens, is the City of Destruction, and as is its name such shall be its end. He might well be ashamed of that. if you start on the voyage of life, by divine grace, with the resolve that you will follow the track; marked down on the chart by the Lord your God, you will find that you have chosen a course to which the Lord's hand alone can keep you true. WE HAVE FOR THIS REASON GREAT BLESSEDNESS. Mark you, the chief of sinners can make the most daring of saints; the worst men in the devil's army, when they are converted, make the truest soldiers for Jesus. If believers could form a secluded settlement where no tempters could intrude, they would perhaps find the separated life far more easy, though I am not very sure about it, for all experiments in that direction have golden down. From an unit they had multiplied into a countless host. The curse has fallen: let us get away to the country that never was cursed, to the city that is for ever blessed, Where Jesus dwells there may we find a home and abide for aye. God alone can help you to fill up with roses that grim memory of danger and suffering. Settle this in your heart: "Whether I am up or down, the Lord Jesus Christ is the same. By "these all" we understand Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. I should do so altogether if I did not know that all the saints are permitted to enjoy the same privileges. At times he has to feel that it were better for him to fight with beasts at Ephesus than to bear the taunts, and threats, and slanders of ungodly kinsfolk. He must have other people feel what he feels. Shall I for charity's sake weaken my testimony. Yes, and Christ did not find fault with them for doing so; what he found fault with them for was this--"When ye have found him ye make him tenfold more the child of hell than yourselves.". What the Lord has spoken he is able to make good; and none of his words shall fall to the ground. I. but here it is that God exercises his great husbandry. IV. As the Lord said to the Jews, "With all your sacrifices you must offer salt;" so he says to us, "With all your doings you must bring faith, or else "without faith it is impossible to please God." Our temptations are pretty equally distributed, I dare say, after all, and all of us might say, that we find in our avocations, from hour to hour, many opportunities to return. 1368. "Nay, my Lord," they would reply, "do not put me off with these biding presents; feed me not upon these husks. May I pass the question round these galleries, and put it to you also in this vast area? Acts 9:31 The New King James Version (NKJV) "Why, it is ridiculous. By-and-by, they march through the Jordan dry shod, and then Faith gets firmer confidence. Shall God's longsuffering mercy only afford you opportunities for multiplying transgressions. But there is life arising from his death. In the parlour--in conversation, perhaps, in the kitchen about the day's work--or in the field, or on the mart, on land, and on sea. Do are not read of those who "stumbled at the word, being disobedient"; surely there must be a command and a duty, or else there could not be disobedience. The will of the Lord is to be done by his servants, whether on earth or in heaven. there hath no sorrow befallen thee but what thy noble ancestors have celebrated in cheery tones, and set to music in cheerful strains. Consciences, tender about the Lord's honour, have not been produced for the last few years in any great number. Perfect obedience to God would mean love among men, justice to all classes, and peace in every land. Howbeit, repent of them never, or woe betide you. Then they talk to you like that, do not begin bristling up, and declaring that, after all, you are as wise and as strong as your opponents, though that may readily be the case; but accept all their remarks upon your folly and weakness, and say to yourself, "Out of weakness were made strong." When Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and chose to be identified with God's people, he chose to suffer in at least four ways. Not now do I see them lift up the great iron door, and let loose the monsters that come forth roaring, hungry for their prey. He had to leave behind him those who were exceeding dear to him. Some years ago, I preached a sermon to you from the text, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" ( Hebrews 11:1) A definition of faith. That was the first day; probably the next day Rahab thought they would come with scaling-ladders and mount the walls; but no, rams' horns again, up to the seventh day; and this woman kept the scarlet thread in the window all the time, kept her father and mother, and brothers and sisters in the house, and would not let them go out; and on the seventh day, when the people made a great shout, the wall of the city fell flat to the ground; but her faith overcame her womanly timidity, and she remained within, although the wall was tumbling to the ground. Ay, my friends--young people like myself--we little know what we owe to the prayers of our parents. "Yea," says faith, "I did encounter this abomination of iniquity; I delivered this woman from the loathsome chambers of vice, the wily snares of enchantment, and the fearful penalty of transgression; yea, I brought her off saved and rescued, gave her purity of heart, and renewed in her the beauty of holiness; and now her name shall be recorded in the roll of my triumphs as a woman full of sin, yet saved by faith.". Faith is the father of holiness, and he has not the parent who loves not the child. That is the one business of your life; and I believe that if you have faith in the Lord as to your family, your beloved ones shall be given you as a prey. You can not have faith, and yet live in sin. WE CANNOT TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO GO BACK BECAUSE WE DESIRE SOMETHING BETTER than we could get by going back. Sarah's faith was not like Abraham's, yet it was true faith, and therefore her name appears among faith's worthies. Now is the hour for faith in the great Lord, who holds even lonely seas in the hollow of his hand. Alas for those who dare to talk in that fashion! That faith is a dead faith, a corrupt faith, which lives in sin that grace may abound. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him Learn more about Desiring God May God make us all so, and unto his name shall be the glory through Jesus Christ our Lord! saith one--"Where can I find comfort then and security?" I knew a patient once--I know her still--who, when the lancets had been used upon her, caused the doctor's case of instruments to be filled up with roses! "He hath prepared for them"--not "for all of you"--only for such of you as answer the description on which we have been meditating has he prepared "a city.". says one, "I have prayed for my husband these twenty years!" We are not saved by obedience, for obedience is the result of salvation. "Is there a heart that will not bend To thy divine control? I do not know to whom that dog belongs, but I'll tell you directly. Abraham "went out, not knowing whither he went," but the moderns must have every information with regard to the way, and then they will not go. Not so Noah: he was precise in his obedience, and careful to remain so. "Well, but," said he, "don't you try to get her to go, and the children?" Let us rest assured that nothing but repeated and fiery trials could have trained his faith to so great a strength as that which it exhibited in his preparation to slay his son at the command of God. But it is written that "all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise." Hebrews 11:39. Fix it in your mind, "This is God's Book. does she not come with you?" You are not allowed to halve the Scriptures, and to believe what you please; you are not allowed to believe the Scripture with a half-heartedness, for if you do this wilfully, you have not the faith which looks alone to Christ. I. 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