2740. What Is Essential In Coming To God?

No. 2740-47:385. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, December 12, 1880, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, August 18, 1901.

Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. {Heb 11:6}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 107, “Faith” 102}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1307, “Enoch” 1298}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2100, “Faith Essential to Pleasing God” 2101}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2513, “How to Please God” 2514}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2740, “What is Essential in Coming to God?” 2741}
   Exposition on Heb 11:1-13,32-40 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2890, “Unbelievers Upbraided” 2891 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Heb 11:1-21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2292, “Abraham, a Pattern to Believers” 2293 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Heb 11:1-21 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3120, “View of God’s Glory, A” 3121 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Heb 11:1-26 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3478, “Go Back? Never!” 3480 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Heb 11 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2634, “Jesus Only, A Communion Meditation” 2635 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Heb 11 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2740, “What is Essential in Coming to God?” 2741 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Heb 11 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3259, “Faith’s Way of Approach” 3261 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Heb 11 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3348, “Knowing and Doing” 3350 @@ "Exposition"}

1. The apostle had recorded Enoch among the heroes of faith; and, to prove that Enoch was a man of faith, he says, “Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” “Then,” Paul argues, “if he pleased God, he must have been a believing man, for the very lowest form of approach to God needs faith: ‘He who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.’ So, if the very lowest grade of approach to God needs faith, how much more does that highest form of it in which a man walks with God so as to obtain the testimony that he pleases God.” The argument of the apostle is clear and convincing; if any man shall be pleasing to God, as Enoch was, it must be the result of faith; since, even to come to God at all, in the very first steps that we take, we must have a measure of faith in him, we must at least believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

2. I. I am not going into the argument so far as it relates to Enoch, but I want you to join with me in examining Paul’s statement concerning what is essential in coming to God. That will be my first division, THE ESSENTIALS OF FAITH IN OUR COMING TO GOD.

3. The first essential is, that we must believe “that he is,” we must believe that there is a God, — that these things, which we see, do not spring from themselves, or come by chance, or in any way whatever except that there is a personal God, who created all things, and by whom all things consist. If you do not believe that, you certainly will never come to God. How is it possible for a man to come to One whose very existence he doubts? That matter must be settled, or there cannot be any real coming to God.

4. More than that, he who would come to God must believe that there is only one God, that the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, is the only living and true God. If we are to come to God, — to the God of the Old and the New Testament, — we must accept him as he is pleased to reveal himself there. We must not try to create a god such as we would like to have, for that would be idolatry; but we must accept God as he is made known in the Scriptures, and especially as he has revealed himself in Christ Jesus, for it is in him that God has revealed himself to us for the practical purpose of our reconciliation. If we really wish to come to God, it must be by the way in which he has come to us; that is, through his Son, Jesus Christ. Neither, let me add, shall we ever come to God properly unless we ask for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the blessed Trinity in Unity.

5. However to believe that God is, means much more than this. It means that, when I pray, I believe that he is in the place where I am. I do not know whether any of us have yet been able really to get a grip on this first thought, that God is, for there is something amazing about that truth; for, if God is, then God is everywhere; so, with what awe and reverence ought we to spend every moment of our lives! There is no place to sin in, for God is there. There is no place in which to trifle, for God is there. There is no place for blasphemy, for God is there: will you blaspheme him to his face? There is no place for rebellion, for God is there: will you rebel against the King in his own courts? This makes all space most solemn, and all time truly sacred. Concerning every spot of ground where we stand, we may say, with Jacob, “How dreadful is this place!” Though it was a place abounding in stones, which served for his pillows, he said, when he awoke, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it. This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

6. I passed a church, the other day, and I saw on one of its doors the words, “The house of God.” I thought, “Is it?” On the next door, I saw the words, “The gate of heaven”; and I said to myself, “It is not so, any more than any other door is.” Is this Tabernacle God’s house? While we worship him here, it is; but it is not any more holy than our own house is. One place is as sacred as another, for God’s presence has consecrated it all. “The Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands.” Every part of my garden, as I meditate on God in it, is as holy as the aisles of the most venerable cathedral; your bedroom, as you kneel in prayer before you lie down to sleep, is as sacred as the temple of Solomon. Every place, where there is a devout worshipper, is the abode of Deity; it is no more and no less so in one place than in another.

7. If you begin to imagine that one place is sacred more than others, you will tread there with superstitious reverence; you will scarcely dare to put your foot down on the chancel pavement, and you will bow to the East, as I have seen some do, as if there were something more holy in that direction than at other points of the compass. Ugh! but this is idolatry, and nothing better. The right thing is to look on the street pavements as too sacred for you to sin there, and to turn to the East or West, to the North or South, and to say concerning every place, “God is before my eyes there, so that is a sacred place; God is everywhere, and therefore I must not dare to offend against him anywhere.”

8. Those who would come to God must believe that he is everywhere, and that he is especially where they are praying to him. When we pray properly, we speak into God’s ear, — into his very heart, for he is wherever there is a praying soul; and when you truly praise him, you are not singing to the wind, for God is there, and he hears you. How solemn would our praise be, and how intense would our prayers be, if we always were aware of God’s presence! Yet, perhaps, when you go to bed, you drop down on your knees, and wearily repeat a few sentences; but you have not really prayed unless you have been conscious that God was there, and you have communed with him. Then, in the morning, if you are late in rising, you hurry over what you call your devotions; but there is no devotion in them unless you believe that God is there, and you really draw near to him in prayer. We should pray, dear friends, in the same spirit as the angels worship before the throne, with covered faces, and in lowly adoration; and so we should pray if we really did believe in God’s presence with us. But for anyone to say, “Yes, I know that there is a God, but I do not believe that he is here; when I am at my work, or at my recreation, I do not feel that he is especially with me”; is a kind of atheism, from which may God, in his great mercy, deliver all of us! If there is a place where God is not, you may go there, and sin; but there is no such place in the whole universe. Remember what David says: “Where shall I go from your spirit? or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”

9. The belief that God is, moreover, seems to me to involve, not only that he exists, and is present everywhere, but that he knows what we are doing, — that he perceives the wishes of our hearts, — that he is aware of all that we say, and all that we think. The Epicureans held the theory that God had a great many things to do of far greater importance than listening to the prayers of men and women, yet that is not the teaching of the Scriptures. He counts the hairs on our head, and notices the falling of a sparrow to the ground; and he is as truly great in looking on the lilies of the field, as in ordering the revolutions of the ponderous orbs of heaven.

10. It is not believing that God is when you say, “Oh, yes, there is a God, and God is everywhere; but, still, he does not concern himself about us, and no practical purpose will be served by prayer, for he will not interfere in our affairs.” Ah, no! you will never come to him in that way, and I do not see any inducement for you to try. I do not want to approach a dead god; there are sufficient dead things in the world to sorrow over without a dead deity. I do not care for the Pantheist’s god; what is he? An insensitive, impalpable, something or nothing. I need a personal God, a living Person, a sympathetic Person, a Divine Person, and I find him in that blessed One who is the Son of God, and who, with the Father and the Spirit, is the one living and true God. I hope, dear friends, that you have come as far as this; even if you have not yet actually come to God, I hope you know, in the senses that I have mentioned, that “he is.”

11. But, according to our text, there is a second thing to be believed before we can come to God, — that is, “that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.” By which I understand the apostle to mean that we must believe that God hears prayer, and answers it, too. You will not pray unless you believe that; at least, you will be very foolish, if you do. I suppose there are people who think that the mere repetition of a certain form of words may do them good, but their intellect must be on a level with that of those who used to think that the word “abracadabra” could cure diseases or keep away ghosts and witches. I am afraid there is a kind of religion which is only on a level with witchcraft; when people think a particular place is sacred, and that a man is holy because he has certain clothes on, and reads out of a holy book, on a holy day, and performs with holy water, and a holy cup to hold it in, and holy this, and holy that, — I do not know what else, — it is all a mass of silly superstition. Let us keep clear of all that nonsense, and feel that, when we speak with God, there is reality in it, and that God hears us just as surely as we hear each other, and that he is prepared to answer our petitions; — I mean, literally to do so, not in some mysterious, unreal way, but actually and truly to give us what is fitting for him to bestow, and right for us to ask for. We cannot pray, as we ought, unless we believe that.

12. If we are to come to God, we must believe also, that he will bless those who endeavour to come to him like this; and, further, that it is a good thing to know God, to love God, to be reconciled to God, to be under the operations of God’s Spirit, to be saved by God’s Son. If we do not really believe all this, if we imagine that it is a mere matter of form, and has no vitality in it, we shall not care to come to God, for sensible men do not wish to deal in counterfeits and shams, they want realities.

13. To put the matter very plainly, he who would truly come to God must believe that a life of godliness will pay, — that it will serve his purpose to come to God, because “he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.” A man with any sense will not follow after what he conceives has no advantage in it; but when a man can honestly say, “The best interests of my highest nature depend on my getting to God, becoming his servant, and having him as my Father and my Friend,” it is then that he diligently seeks him. Dear friends, I believe that, if you would have the best of life, the highest bliss, the supremest, noblest, most divine joys of which our mortal nature is capable, you cannot find all this anywhere but in coming to God, through Jesus Christ his Son, and yielding yourselves up entirely to him, and becoming his faithful followers for ever. We must believe that to diligently seek him is the most profitable thing possible for us, or we shall never properly come to God. Some will say, “To be moderately religious is a good thing, no doubt; but to be overly righteous, would be a very bad thing.” Ah! you will never come to God if that is what you think; for, depend on this, of all the miserable things in the world, a little religion is about the worst of all. I know some men who have just about enough religion not to be able to comfortably sin, but they have no comfort in Christ. The joys of the world, — and it has its delusions which worldlings call joys, — they dare not go after; and for lack of faith they dare not claim the joys of the Spirit of God; so they are wretched. They are like bats, which fly by night, or which, in the twilight, come out, and get a little exercise. They are between-ites, — if there is such a word, — neither servants of God, nor yet out-and-out servants of Satan, — a miserable crew; let none of us belong to them. That man gets the most out of godliness who gives himself most to it. He whom the world calls a fanatic is often just the one who is thorough, sincere, and earnest; and it is he who finds that God is his rewarder, because he diligently seeks him; — not only seeks him, but seeks him with all his heart, and mind, and soul, and strength.

14. II. This brings me to my second division, which is this. COMING TO GOD SHOULD BE THE RESULT OF ANY MAN’S HAVING THESE ESSENTIALS. I thought, as I looked on this large assembly, that there might be a few here who doubted whether there was a God, or whether God was “a rewarder of those who diligently seek him”; but I know that almost everyone here says, “I believe there is a God, I never doubted it; and I believe that it is a good thing, a blessed thing, to serve him.”

15. Very well, then; since you believe that there is a God, seek him. If I am addressing any who have been delivered from infidelity in the head, I want you also to be delivered from practical infidelity of the heart. Reason itself says to you, “If there is a God, and God is all around you, how can you continue to be his enemy?” Now, friend, if you believe that there is a God, can you sit easily on your seat as long as the Omnipotent One is angry with you? Bow your head, and confess your transgression to him; pray to him to forgive you for Christ’s sake, to be reconciled to you, and to reconcile you to himself; for he has promised that he will forgive those who confess their transgressions to him, and who come to him through Christ Jesus his Son. If there is a God, oh you burdened ones, you weary ones, you feeble ones, ask him to help you. You have no helper, perhaps, on earth; then cast yourself at his feet, and see what he can do for you. If you do indeed believe that God is, — that the Ever-Merciful lives, and hears and pities those who trust him, rely on his care now, and come to him with your heart-breaking grief.

16. Since there is a God, I am sure I only reason correctly when I say, then let us serve him. Is it not right that he should be our Master, since he made us, and that his service is so glorious that he makes into kings all those who enter it? Come, my soul, enlist afresh in the army of Emmanuel; and you who have not yet served him, yield yourselves up to him this very hour. Since there is a God, we cannot be happy apart from him; and there is no happiness like that of having him for our Friend and Helper. Come, then, dear hearts, can you refuse this invitation? If you say, “There is no God,” I am not speaking to you just now; but if you say, “Oh, yes! I know that God is, and that he is here, and I believe in Father, Son, and Spirit”; — prove that you really believe in God by yielding to him, by being reconciled to him, by obeying him, by trusting his Son, and so finding eternal life. May God grant you may!

17. Further, if you believe that God is “a rewarder of those who diligently seek him,” come to him. You say, “Oh, yes! I know that a Christian life is a happy life; I believe that the service of God is one that pays, that it is full of rewards, and full of happiness.” Very well, then, will you not enter at once on that service which has such gracious rewards attached to it? Will you not run away from your old master? You need not give him any notice; the prodigal did not. He was sent into the fields to feed swine, but he never gave his master a day’s notice; if he had waited to do that, he would never have come away. He slipped right away, and left the swine to eat all the husks. I advise you to act in the same way. “Steal away to Jesus,” without any delays, or hesitation, or questioning. I do not think that any man gets saved by thinking about it, and saying that it shall happen eventually. No; now is the all-important moment; strike while the iron is hot, and, by God’s grace, that one blow shall break the fetter, and set the captive free.

18. Since there is a God, and he is “a rewarder of those who diligently seek him,” it behoves us, who do seek him, to seek him with the utmost diligence. David said, “Truly there is a reward for the righteous”; and though it is not of debt, but of grace, yet there is a reward, and we find it to be so even now. Let us, therefore, give ourselves more than ever to prayer and to Christian service, and more than ever let us devote ourselves to his glory whose we are, and whom we serve.

19. Let me tug you by the sleeve, my brother, — you who say, “I am a Christian.” You believe that God is “a rewarder of those who diligently seek him”; do you seek him diligently? How much of the Scriptures have you read during the last week? How many hours have you spent in prayer? “Hours?” you say; “say minutes.” How much have you lived for God during the past month? What have you done distinctly with a view to his glory? What souls have you tried to win? What truths have you tried to teach? What virtues have you tried to exhibit? You say that he is “a rewarder of those who diligently seek him”; do you despise the reward? Are you content with having made a profession of religion? Some professors remind me of the reply of the child, who was asked at the Sunday School about her father, who never went to any place of worship. “Is your father a Christian, Jane?” “Yes,” she replied, “but he has not worked much at it recently.” There are many professors of that kind; they are like certain tradesmen, who have a notice on their door to say that they have gone out for a fortnight. They will not make a fortune in that way, I am persuaded; such a method of doing business generally ends in bankruptcy. What can I say of some professedly Christian people? They have no stock, they are doing no business for their Master, and their chief employment is that of asking, —

    “Do I love the Lord, or no?”

Just so, brother; that is what I was thinking about you.

    “Am I his, or am I not?”

Just so, sister; it is quite right of you to ask that question, and there are a good many more who are asking it concerning you; but why should you and I live in such a way that we are obliged to ask these questions? He who is, by God’s grace, producing fruit for God’s glory does not need to sing that sorrowful tune; so may God grant to all his professing people grace to be thorough, to give themselves up to the utmost diligence in his holy service, for it can only be by his grace that we shall do this!

20. III. Now I close by bearing testimony to the fact that THE RESULT OF COMING TO GOD WILL JUSTIFY THE ACT OF COMING, AND THE FAITH WHICH WAS ESSENTIAL TO THE COMING.

21. First, many have come to God, so they must have had faith in him, for no man can come to God without believing “that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.” There have been men, who have believed this, who have not come to God; but there have been others who have come to God because they believed in him. In the olden times, Abraham rose up early in the morning, and went to a certain place where he prayed, and where God met him, and spoke with him in words which Abraham could hear. God does not now utter words which our ears can hear; yet there are men — and they are honest, upright, truthful men, — who will tell you solemnly that they have often met God, and have been as certain of his special presence as of their own existence. There have been times when our fellowship with the Father, and with the Son, has been as real to us as the air which we cannot see, but which we breathe. We cannot see God; yet “in him we live, and move, and have our being”; and we have been conscious of it. There is a mystical touch that does not come from any angelic hand; there is a sacred breathing on the heart which does not come from mere wind; there is a whisper within the soul — a movement, a stirring, a brooding, an overshadowing, — I cannot describe it, but I have often felt it, and so have many of you, and you have been sure that God has come to you, and that you have come to God. I am bearing witness to what is as certain a fact for me as that I am speaking to you now; and it is not a fact for me only, but for hundreds and thousands of living men and women to whom this life is made happy because they dwell with God, and reside in Christ Jesus.

22. Besides that, having come to God, we have found that God is. It has not been a dream, but a blessed reality. We have struggled to get to God; we have prayed to him; we have cried to him; we have longed for him; and we deliberately declare that God has come to us. When he has come to us, has there been any reality about it? Reality? Why, he has sometimes lifted us up out of the horrible pit of despair into unutterable ecstasies of joy. At times, when we have cried out to him in our distress, he has walked over the waters, and they have been like marble beneath his feet; and very soon, all has been calm and peaceful within our spirit. Tell us that God is not real, when we have been almost on the verge of sin, — one more step, and we should have been over the precipice, — but we have seen him, and we have turned back; or, on the other hand, we were shirking a duty which seemed too hard for us, but we sensed his presence, and then we shouldered the load; and though it seemed as heavy as the world, we became like Atlas, by God’s strength, and so we were able to bear the burden. Do you think I talk too boldly? Perhaps you are a bigger man than I am; if so, talk according to your size; but, to me, it has been enough to have been helped by God in my little world; and it has been the same with many a poor widow with half-a-dozen children around her. You may say, “Her case is a very little affair.” It is not little to her; and when she has gone before the living God, with that heavy load which to her is like a world, God has helped her, and has been the Advocate of the widow, and the Father of the fatherless; and it has not been in a dream, or in sentimental fiction, but in sober reality. I could find you many who would bear witness to such deliverances as this, and they would declare that God is.

23. They have also found that God rewards them. Does he? I will answer in the name of them all, — Yes, he does. How does he reward them? Well, sometimes, in a measure, in this life. He gives to his children, as he did to Abraham and to Isaac, happiness and prosperity, so that, even in this life, they feel that his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace. But this is not the greatest reward he gives. He gives himself to his children, he becomes their portion. They are poor, and sick, and heavy-hearted; but he comes to them, as he did to Abraham, and says, “Do not fear; I am your shield, and your very great reward.” He himself is their reward; and, possessing him as their God, they are happier without the riches of this world than the wealthiest man can be without God. Ask the Lord’s servants how they get along with their Master. There are so many of them that, if he were not faithful, some one or other would tell the story. It is a thing that ought to be noticed, that, out of the millions of Christians who have died, — and death-beds are places where people usually speak the truth, — there has never been a case of one person sitting up in his bed, and saying, “I am sorry I ever served the Lord. I regret that I was so diligent in seeking him, for I found no reward in it. My life would have been a great deal happier if I had served myself, or lived for the world; but I made a mistake, and I lived for God.” Now, surely, if this were the fact, there would have been one or two somewhere who would have said it; but the universal testimony — there is no exception — of all dying children of God has been this, “We wish we had sought him earlier, and loved him more, and served him better; we wish we had been more consecrated to him, and had practised more self-denial, and given more generously to his cause; for, after all, the reality of our life lies in what he did for us, and in what he enabled us to do for him. All the rest was only the chaff of life; the best of our life is what we lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us.” They all say so; and, therefore, we must accept their testimony. If a mistress has a large number of maids, someone might ask them, “What kind of mistress do you have?” and they might all say, “Oh, she is a most delightful person,” and so on, because they were afraid to speak the truth; but if there should be a dozen of them, eventually one would be found in the street, who would say, “You heard what those maids said, but it was not true, for she is so overbearing.” The truth would ooze out somehow; and if our God were not faithful, one or other of his servants would be sure to tell it; but none of us has anything to complain about.

24. “But,” you say, “there are many of God’s people, who serve him faithfully, and they do not get any reward; they are very poor and needy.” Yet they will tell you that they are more than satisfied with the way their Lord has treated them; and, moreover, they will tell you that they are strangers and pilgrims here, and that their chief reward is yet to come. They are looking, by faith, for the everlasting remunerations that will follow the life of holiness, when this poor world and all its joys shall have melted like the morning mist, and be gone for ever. Eternity, eternity, eternity, — we shall soon know, brothers and sisters, what it will be like to be in eternity. There is not one of us who can live here for ever. When a very few years have gone, we shall all have departed. Imagine yourselves in the future state; if you have not lived for God, but have lived for the world, for yourself, what is your portion? Endless darkness; infinite despair; unutterable woe. But if you have lived for God; if, by his grace, you have put your trust in Jesus Christ, what is your portion? On those glittering hills you stand, in the midst of the white-robed host, and Christ is with you, and you are looking back on what you suffered for his sake on earth, and you say, “Oh, it was nothing at all; I wish I had suffered far more for him who suffered so much for me!” As for what you did for him, you will say, “That is not worth mentioning; oh, that I had lived more intensely for him!” As for what you gave for him, “Oh!” you will say, “I never gave a thousandth part of what I would give now if I had it. I think that I wasted what was not spent on his Kingdom; I think that I lost the time that I did not use for glorifying him; and only when I lived as I ought to have lived, and as in heaven I now wish I had lived, then I lived entirely for him.” Then you will see, from before the throne of God, that “he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.”

25. So may it be with every one of us, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Heb 11}

These men, of whom we are now briefly to read, are a company of God’s witnesses; and the apostle calls them, in the next chapter, “a cloud of witnesses,” who, from their lofty seats above, are watching us who are now running the Christian race.

1, 2. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.

Those of the olden times, who were men of noble character, won that character by their faith.

3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made from things which are visible.

Things that we see were not made out of things that we see. They were brought out of the unseen by the word of God; so that, really, the word of God is the foundation of everything that has been formed by him; and, after all, things material — created and seen — are not truly substantial. They are only shadows; the real substance is what never can be seen, even the ever-blessed God, whose voice — whose word — created the heavens and the earth.

4. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks.

All down through the ages, the faith of Abel has continued bearing witness to God. Oh, that we might have Abel’s faith, and offer to God the Lamb, — even Christ Jesus, — so that we may also be accepted for his sake!

5, 6. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Note that this holiest of men, whose walk with God was so close and unbroken that he was permitted to escape the pangs of death, nevertheless did not attain to this high position by his own works, but by faith.

7. By faith Noah, being warned by God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

See how faith within a man masters all his emotions. Noah, in preparing the ark, was “moved with fear”; but that fear, instead of hampering him, was yoked with his faith, and so was turned to practical account. Oh, for an overcoming faith, which shall hold our entire nature in check, or which shall employ every part of our being for its own high and noble purposes!

8. By faith Abraham, —

To whom Paul devotes a long passage, because he is the father of the faithful, the greatest exponent of faith that we have ever met: “By faith Abraham,” —

8, 9. When he was called to go out into a place which he should later receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles —

That is, in tents —

9, 10. With Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.

And he was content to be a pilgrim and wanderer until he should reach that city; he was quite willing to dispense with all present comfort for the sake of that glorious future which God set before the eyes of his faith.

11-13. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and delivered a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, sprang so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

What a sweet word that is, “embraced them!” First, they were sure the promises were true; they “were persuaded of them.” But, next, they laid hold of them, pressed them to their hearts, they “embraced them.” And then, further, they practically showed the fruit of their faith by confessing that “they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

14-15. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from where they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

But, now, faith has no thought of going back; her face is set like a flint to go towards the heavenly city, forsaking every earthly joy for the sake of the eternal future.

16. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared a city for them.

For they are not ashamed to look forward to the future for their chief joy; and God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared that chief joy for them.

17-19. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he who had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac your seed shall be called: considering that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

See how Abraham trusted in the great doctrine of the resurrection. Though almost driven to desperation, he would not give up his faith in God. He was told to believe two apparently opposite things; — first, that in Isaac his seed should be called; and, secondly, that he must offer up Isaac; — but he bridged the two by believing another grand truth, that God was able to raise up Isaac, “even from the dead.” Whenever there are two things, revealed to you in Scripture, which you cannot quite reconcile, you may always believe that, between them, there lies something even more glorious, which your dim eyes as yet are scarcely able to perceive.

20. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

It was blundering faith, for Jacob deceived his father, and Isaac himself made mistakes in giving his blessing; yet even his mistakes were all right in God’s sight. It was by faith that he blessed both his sons, and therefore I gather that a faith which blunders, if it is faith in God, is an acceptable faith.

21. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff.

Grasping that memorable staff with which he “passed over this Jordan,” — that staff on which he leaned so heavily when the wrestling angel made him go limping over Penuel, — that staff which was a memorial of the breaking down which he had suffered when he gained the name of Israel by prevailing with his God, — on that staff he leaned as he “blessed both the sons of Joseph.”

22. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

The best proof that he believed they would come out of Egypt, for he would not be buried among the Pharaohs, though a prominent place would have been assigned to him there; but he would have his bones lie with those of his ancestors, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.

23-33. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect for the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea on dry land: which the Egyptians attempting to do so, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, —

Which is quite as great a thing as subduing kingdoms.

33. Obtained promises, —

Which, by being put in this context, seems to be as blessed a thing as working righteousness.

33-35. Stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, —

Is this also a feat of faith? Yes; instead of showing their faith by putting their enemies to flight, they prove it by enduring all kinds of tortures without recanting.

35-39. Not accepting deliverance; so that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yes, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered around in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise:

Christ did not come in their day; the hour for the fulfilment of the great promise had not then struck.

40. God having provided some better thing for us, that they —

Even they, great as they are, —

40. Without us should not be made perfect.

There is something for us, whose lot is cast in these latter days, to bring, which shall complete the circle and choir of the Church of Christ, for they could not be made perfect without us. May the Lord grant us grace to be ready for our share in that glorious consummation, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “God the Father, Attributes of God — The Truth Of God The Promiser” 191}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Public Worship, Prayer Meetings — ‘I Said Not, Seek Ye Me In Vain’ ” 997}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Public Worship, Prayer Meetings — Divine Sympathy” 993}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Aspirations for Heaven — ‘For Ever With The Lord’ ” 846}

God the Father, Attributes of God
191 — The Truth Of God The Promiser
1 Praise, everlasting praise, be paid
   To him that earth’s foundation laid;
   Praise to the God, whose strong decrees,
   Sway the creation as he please.
2 Praise to the goodness of the Lord,
   Who rules his people by his word;
   And there, as strong as his decrees,
   He sets his kindest promises.
3 Firm are the words his prophets give,
   Sweet words, on which his children live:
   Each of them is the voice of God,
   Who spoke, and spread the skies abroad.
4 Each of them powerful as that sound
   That bid the new made world go round;
   And stronger than the solid poles
   On which the wheel of nature rolls.
5 Oh, for a strong, a lasting faith,
   To credit what th’ Almighty saith!
   T’ embrace the message of his Son,
   And call the joys of heaven our own.
6 Then should the earth’s old pillars shake,
   And all the wheels of nature break,
   Our steady souls should fear no more
   Than solid rocks when billows roar.
7 Our everlasting hopes arise
   Above the ruinable skies,
   Where th’ eternal Builder reigns,
   And his own courts his power sustains.
                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

Public Worship, Prayer Meetings
997 — “I Said Not, Seek Ye Me In Vain”
1 We come, blest Jesus, to thy throne,
      To open all our grief;
   Now send thy promised mercy down,
      And grant us quick relief.
2 Ne’er didst thou say to Jacob’s seed,
      “Seek ye my face in vain”;
   And canst thou now deny thine aid,
      When burden’d souls complain?
3 The same thy power, thy love the same,
      Unmoved the promise shines;
   Eternal truth surrounds thy name,
      And guards the precious lines.
4 Though Satan rage, and flesh rebel,
      And unbelief arise,
   We’ll wait around his footstool still,
      For Jesus hears our cries.
                        James Boden, 1777.

Public Worship, Prayer Meetings
993 — Divine Sympathy
1 There is no sorrow, Lord, too light
      To bring in prayer to thee;
   There is no anxious care too slight
      To wake thy sympathy.
2 Thou who hast trod the thorny road
      Wilt share each small distress:
   The love which bore the greater load
      Will not refuse the less.
3 There is no secret sigh we breathe
      But meets thine ear divine;
   And every cross grows light beneath
      The shadow, Lord, of thine.
4 Life’s ills without, sin’s strife within,
      The heart would overflow,
   But for that love which died for sin,
      That love which wept with woe.
               Jane Crewdson, 1860;
               Benjamin Hall Kennedy, 1863.

The Christian, Aspirations for Heaven
846 — “For Ever With The Lord”
1 “For ever with the Lord!”
      Amen! so let it be!
   Life from the dead is in that word,
      ‘Tis immortality!
2 Here in the body pent,
      Absent from him I roam,
   Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
      A day’s march nearer home.
3 My Father’s house on high,
      Home of my soul! how near,
   At times, to faith’s foreseeing eye,
      Thy golden gates appear!
4 Ah! then my spirit faints
      To reach the land I love,
   The bright inheritance of saints,
      Jerusalem above!
5 “For ever with the Lord!”
      Father, if ‘tis thy will,
   The promise of that faithful word,
      Even here to me fulfil.
6 Be thou at my fight hand,
      Then can I never fail,
   Uphold thou me, and I shall stand,
      Fight, and I must prevail.
7 So when my latest breath
      Shall rend the veil in twain,
   By death I shall escape from death,
      And life eternal gain.
8 Knowing as I am known,
      How shall I love that word,
   And oft repeat before the throne,
      “For ever with the Lord!”
9 Then, though the soul enjoy
      Communion high and sweet,
   While worms this body must destroy,
      Both shall in glory meet.
10 That resurrection word,
      That shout of victory,
   Once more, “For ever with the Lord!”
      Amen — so let it be!
                  James Montgomery, 1835.