The call is given again, will you obey it or not? "Well," said the other, "and you believe that you are God's elect, do you?" As many of us as have believed in Christ have been called out. And I gather it from the fact that there never has been the case of a man recorded in Scripture who did please God without faith. 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. It seems too, in the text, that God looks to what he had prepared for these poor people. And, after death, what cometh? They are often furnished by the example of others. Ah, how frequently will solitude have temptations as severe as publicity could possibly bring. Ah, you dwell in a land where you find some sort of repose; but I have heavy tidings for you. "Well," said he, "my good man, I will offer it, but it's not a bit of use while the wind is in the east, I'm sure." These men were fed on substantial meat, and they became sturdy old fellows, able to cope with the world, and fight their way. Did you never note that those who seem least likely to fall into a sin are the very people who commit it? Set this up as your standard, and henceforth be this the epitome of your life "By faith he obeyed." Let us fly away and find our home in the rock of ages." ABRAHAM'S FAITH was of the most eminent order, for he is called the Father of the Faithful. I. Faith leaves a legacy of benediction to its heirs. The fact is, you do not mean to obey the Lord at all. Faith always has been the mark of God's servants, from the beginning of the world. Now, my good woman, don't you see the absurdity of this thing? If thou wilt trust thy soul with Jesus, thou art saved. Give me thyself, and take these all away if it so please thee, but don't my Lord, don't think I can fill myself with these things." Now, Rahab's faith, sinner as she was, had this glory, this crown about its head, that she stood alone, faithful among the faithless found.". Has the world ever satisfied you? God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him Learn more about Desiring God Perhaps you have tried to fill your soul with worldly things. That our meditation may be profitable, we will first think a little of the kind of faith which produces obedience ; and then, secondly, we will treat of the kind of obedience which faith produces ; and then we will advance another step, and consider the kind of life which comes out of this faith and obedience . Rahab was a sanctified woman. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." Today we're reading the New Testament book of Matthew Chapter 18 , and I'm smoking . God grant it may be now! Amen. 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! It were quite a new thing in warfare to hear of men taking a city by blowing rams' horns." If you are in real earnest, you might possibly do more by a break-down than by anything else. For help and support, please email help@spurgeon.org. Let's read the text ( Hebrews 11:1-3 ): Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The more they draw us to heaven, the more they withdraw us from the world. It is not so. He cannot forget his dear gold. you have a son: he scoffs at Christ. We are not saved by obedience, for obedience is the result of salvation. If you believe first, you may have as many good works as you please; but if you believe, you will never trust in them, for if you trust in them you have spoilt them, and they are not good works any longer. 3. Go to God in prayer and faith. We want the religion of hands and feet. Therefore, in your heart of hearts you feel that you cannot go back. God alone can help you to fill up with roses that grim memory of danger and suffering. Out of weakness you shall be made strong by faith. If they do go out, they must know where they are going, and how much is to be picked up in the new country. There is not all the enjoyment that you may think to be gathered in retirement and in ease, but, on the contrary, luxury often puffeth up, and abundance makes the heart to swell with vanity. He who is not firm at starting is cutting out for himself a poor pattern of life. The things that we have, that we value, are ours today by faith. 14/04/2023 . 433. It is awful work when through disobedience to the command of the gospel it becomes a savor of death unto death instead of life unto life, and instead of a corner-stone it becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. It is smoothing the way to return to your old places. Christ will have all or nothing; he must be a whole Saviour, or none at all. Abraham was prepared for instant obedience to any command from God; his journey was appointed, and he went. You shall hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it." What! I believe, dear friends, that many and many a time you, in your providential journey will have to go forth, not knowing whither you are going. This shall be our last removal, to dwell for ever with him we love, to dwell in the bosom of God. A city is a place of social joy. She became after that a woman eminent for piety walking in the fear of God. Notice how the text puts it, "But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." Possibly I speak to some who are suffering the evils of persecution No cruel tyrant can burn believers now, nor even cast them into prison for Christ's sake; but there are ways enough for the seed of the serpent to show its enmity to the seed of the woman. Why, in this, that they stood as firm in the storm as they stood in the calm--that they were as content to serve God alone as they were to run by fifties. After all, we confess tonight, and rejoice in the confessions, that our best hopes are for things that are out of sight. I don't want any of your thoughts." The Jews in all time have been very different from all other nations, and although other races have become permanently united, the Jewish people have always been a family by themselves. And there is something very solemn in the utterance of our text: "Without faith it is impossible to please God." The timid Israelites would always have been afraid that Pharaoh would follow them and capture them; but when the forces of Egypt and all her chosen captains were drowned beneath the waves, all fear of them was gone for ever. I bid thee still remain; yea, come again and make this thy Sabbath house of prayer. Of Abel, it is said that God testified of his gifts. They say, "The man was born too late; he is behind the age; he fights for a worn-out creed; he is out of place in a world of progress," What then? Even if a man lives to be eighty, and has sixty years of that life spent in the exercise of faith, it is only by almighty grace that he holds out. If we are really Christ's Christians, let us say,"It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." 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." There are seas of suffering which the sufferer must navigate alone. Dogs don't bark when a man goes by that they know--they bark at strangers. If God be God to-morrow he is God to-day; if Christ be worth having next week he is worth having to-day. I wished to clear myself if any sin remained upon me, but I could not discover any evil which I was tolerating. Ask your friends afterwards rather than beforehand, for it is ill consulting with flesh and blood when duty is plain. (1). Christ himself has said it, and so it must be. Friend, I am not careful in that matter, nor need you be. And explaining it more fully to her, he said, "It is Christ, and Christ alone, that can open heaven to you, and not your good works." I cannot reproduce the letters that were written about the sturdy patriarch, nor can I recount the spiteful things which were said by the gossips; but I have no doubt they were very clever, and very sarcastic. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." You have confessed as occasion served before the world, you have professed as duty called before the church, you have accepted the consequences as honesty demanded before angels and men. "Prepare to meet thy God" was the motto you started with. If you trust the living God, you will do the right, and bear the loss or the shame; but if your faith fail you, self-love will create such respect for your own good name, such fear of ridicule, such unwillingness to be singular, that you will slide from your integrity, and choose a smooth and pleasing road. Hebrews 11:8 . We have to rise superior to it. Hebrews 11:11. Obedience what a blessing it would be if we were all trained to it by the Holy Spirit! There is death everywhere else but there. "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and ye shall be saved." Suppose the right course should expose you to ridicule, cause you to be spoken of as a fanatic, or mocked at as a hypocrite, or despised as a fool, what can you do without faith? As for you that believe not in God, may you be led to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as in your Redeemer, and afterwards to trust your God, and leave al your concerns in his hands. Amen and Amen. Separation from the world shall endear you to the Saviour, and bring you conscious enjoyment of his presence; but opportunities to return I have shown you now are plentiful enough. To begin with, we must look well to our faith. How strong is the evil in the best man, how stern is the conflict to keep under the body, lest corruption should prevail! He received the righteousness which God gives through Jesus Christ to all them that believe. How long shall unbelief lodge within you and grieve the Holy Spirit? Who that knows himself does not find strong, incentives to return. We are to be strangers and foreigners in the land wherein we sojourn. But yet it must be done; and only faith can do it, by calling in the aid of the Almighty One. You may be diligent in secret prayer, and, perhaps, the devil may have seemed asleep till you began to pray, and when you were most fervent, then will he also become most rampant. It seems, therefore, but right, that faith, which is the mightiest of the mighty, should have a pillar raised to its honor, upon which its valiant deeds should be recorded. a. the gutta-percha backbone is common among Dissenters, and they take to politics, and the new philosophy, and therefore we are losing the force of our testimony, and are, I fear, decreasing in numbers too. For instance, how often have professors, when they have prospered, found opportunities to return? But if thou hast even a trembling faith, thou hast the root of the matter within thee. If we had been in Egypt at the time when Pharaoh started out to follow the Israelites to the Red Sea, if we had been clothed with all power, we should have stopped Pharaoh's chariots and horses before they quitted Egypt, and thus we should have nipped his enterprise in the bud. 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. Had they been mindful of the place from whence they came out, they might have found opportunities to return. Abraham was the hero of Israel, so his inclusion in the Hebrews 11 chapter on faith was vital to the original Hebrew readers. Faith is the great force which is needed by those whose principal work is to overcome sin. Do not try to answer cavillers; but if you do, mind that faith is your weapon. Besides, we all know with what inconvenience Abraham must have removed. To be a burgess of the City of London is thought to be a great honour, and upon princes is it sometimes conferred; but we shall have the highest honour that can be given when we shall be citizens of the city which God has prepared. 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." I feel much the same myself, and would do nothing of which God would not approve." You may resolve to overcome a sin, and, perhaps, any one sin you may conquer for a time; but sin itself, as a force, in all its armies, is never to be overcome, save through the blood of the Lamb. Have you faith? [ d] Read full chapter Footnotes Give thyself up to him, and thou shalt yet sing of his lovingkindness and tender mercies. Believe in Christ, and thou, like Rahab, shalt not perish with the disobedient, but even thou shalt be saved. God be praised for our psalms and spiritual songs. He lived when the rest perished; he was secure in his ark when the myriads were sinking in the deluge: he became "heir of the righteousness which is by faith" when others were condemned. Picking and choosing are great enemies to submission. Opportunities to return in our own nature. "Many are called, but few are chosen." Even when he does not realize as yet, or actually enjoy, that infinite good, which is something better than creature comfort or worldly ambition, the desires themselves become mighty bonds that keep him from returning to his former state. By this shall you know whether you are Christ's or not. We shall have to speak about his fear being "moved by fear"; we shall also remember his obedience, for he "prepared an ark to the saving of his house." PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON Genesis 6:5-22 ; Hebrews 11:1-7 . Why, the people of Israel are on the other side of Jordan, and there is no bridge: how are they to get over? Is there anything galling to you in all this? He feared his own wisdom: for he knew that man is like to vanity, and no more to be relied upon than the mist of the morning. THE APOSTLE COULD NOT AVOID mentioning Noah; for in him faith shone forth eminently. And Jacob--he had found a wife--nay, two--in Laban's land, but he was not content there. To the very edge of Jordan you will meet with temptations. Here is one that can never be diminished, much less exhausted. By faith alone can you bear persecution, and turn it to account for the good of others. But now they desire a better country, that is an heavenlycity." those are the most likely to slip. The call as given by the book of inspiration ought to have over your minds a masterly power, and if your hearts were right before God the word spoken in the Scriptures by the Holy Ghost would be at once obeyed. Of your secret martyrdom angels will be spectators, and Christ will suffer in you--wherefore, fear not. Here is the list of names mentioned in Hebrews 11 which make up the Hall of Faith: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, David, Samuel and the prophets. 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