3250. The Growth Of Faith

A Sermon Published On Thursday, May 18, 1911.

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows more and more. {2Th 1:3}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 205, “Lecture for Little Faith, A” 198}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1857, “Necessity of Growing Faith, The” 1858}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3250, “Growth of Faith, The” 3252}

   Exposition on 2Th 1:1-2:4 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2991, “What We Have, and Are to Have” 2992 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on 2Th 1; 2 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3179, “Comprehensive Benediction, A” 3180 @@ "Exposition"}

1. Beware of imagining that you have reached finality in religion. Just as some politicians have said, “We have gone as far in reform as we ever intend to go, so we shall stop here,” certain religious professors say, “We have gone as far in religion as there is any need to go; we are converted, we are saved, so we shall remain here.” Beware, I say, of such a spirit as that, but rather imitate the example of the apostle Paul, who wrote, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching out to those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” We are not content with merely being alive, we wish to be in health as well as in life; and we ought not to be satisfied with just being saved, we should desire to have our faith in full strength, and to have all our graces at the highest degree of development. The men of this world are not usually content with just bread to eat and clothing to put on, they are like those daughters of the horse-leech that cry, “Give, give”; but when spiritual things are concerned, these insatiable cravings are not so obvious. Many are content to be wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked when they might buy from Christ all spiritual blessings without money and without price. Even those who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them are often quite content to lie down just inside the City of Refuge as if they had been sent into this world simply with the selfish end of being saved, and as if there were nothing for them to do in the way of serving God, and reflecting before other men that glory of God which, in his grace, has been made to shine on them. So again I say, beware of that spirit of finality which would permit you to rest content with your present attainments; for if you are, I shall not be able to thank God that your faith grows more and more, and you will miss the joy that comes to the believer who is growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2. I am going to speak to you, first, on how Christians grow in faith; secondly, on the signs of that growth; and then, thirdly, I hope to give you some reasons why we should not be satisfied without this growth in faith.

3. I. First, then, let us consider HOW CHRISTIANS GROW IN FAITH.

4. There are many ways in which the Lord causes faith to grow. One is from the force of life itself; it is natural for life to grow until it has reached its maturity. Here is a living seed; if it is put into the earth under proper conditions, nothing can prevent it from bursting its shell. In due time, the green bade must be seen. You may order that green blade to remain at the same length as at present, but if you pass that way in another month, you will find that it has disobeyed your command; for, because it lives, it must grow; and if you should continue to visit it until it bends its head in the ripeness of autumn, you would see that it must, by the very law of its nature, still keep on growing. It is the same with us; the anatomist will tell you that every part of the infant’s body is so prepared that it can grow, there is provision for the growth of every organ and every limb so that, slowly and without difficulty, the whole body shall be developed into a full-grown man. It is life that grows. Put a bar of iron into the best soil that you can find, water it, and fertilize it, and let the congenial sun shine on it, but never a leaf or a rootlet will you find on it, for it is dead. It is not so with the Christian man; because of the life that is in him, he must grow. You who are the living branches in the living Vine prove it by your growth. You who are the children of God should increase in wisdom and stature, and go on from strength to strength until you appear in Zion before God. If your faith is as feeble now as it was twenty years ago, if you have not made any spiritual advance during the last ten years, you ought very gravely to question whether you have any spiritual life at all. You may not be able to see the growth, but there must be growth if there is life. There are some plants in which the unseen growth is more valuable than what is visible; the gardener prizes the potatoes that are underground more than the tops that everyone can see. But with the Christian there must be both the visible growth in zeal and good works and the hidden growth in his deep humility and communion with his Lord in secret. So the force of life within produces growth.

5. There are certain circumstances under which believers especially grow, and they grow in faith by the exercise of faith. See the blacksmith’s boy when he first tries to swing his father’s big hammer, how soon he gets tired, but, ask the smith whether his arms ache. “Oh, no!” he says, “I have made too many horseshoes for that.” Exercise has developed his muscles and strengthened his sinews to such an extent that the bringing down of that big hammer with a merry ring is only child’s play to him. So the young Christian, when he begins to exercise faith, can perhaps only imitate him who said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief”; but speak to him, some years later, when his faith has been much exercised, and then you will find that he has grown more like Abraham, who “did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” You know that, if you let your arm lie unused, in time you will be unable to use it, like the Indian fakir {a} who holds up his hand in the air until he has lost all power of moving it. So a man may keep his faith unused until it can scarcely be called faith at all; therefore take care that your faith is kept in full exercise for it will only grow by doing this.

6. Christians also grow in faith by holy walking. Living with Jesus, — and to live with him we must be consistent in holiness, — we get to know him better, and to trust him more. It is said of some men that “the better they are known, the less they are trusted,” but it is not so with the Lord Jesus Christ. Two cannot walk together unless they are agreed, but if there is an agreement between our life and the character of Christ, and we are, by grace, enabled to walk scrupulously in the path of integrity, our faith will grow stronger and stronger as we get to know more about Christ. Sinning is most injurious to faith. I think it is Brookes who says that “either sinning will kill our assurance or our assurance will kill our sinning.” Sin indulged will prevent the full assurance of faith, and even a little sin will do this. Have you ever had a small stone in your shoe? If so, and you have tried to walk, you have found it very uncomfortable going. If you have a tiny splinter of wood beneath your finger-nail, you know how painful it is; you get it extracted as soon as you can, lest you should lose your finger, or even your hand. Beware of little sins, beloved, for they will keep all comfort out of your life, and effectively hinder the growth of your faith.

7. Another way of helping faith to grow is by a diligent use of gospel ordinances. There are some of you who are very lax in this respect; some who come to the Tabernacle twice on the Lord’s day do not come at all during the week. Your bodies would not grow strong if you only fed them once a week, and it is the same with your souls. Prayer meetings are the most soul-fattening ordinances. Many of us can testify that, at such gatherings, we have often been able to say, “This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” I do not expect to see you all at the prayer meetings, for some of you have home and business duties requiring your attention, and these must not be neglected; still, there are many more of you who might come if you wished to. And while I am speaking of ordinances, I must not forget that very precious one of the Lord’s supper, nor its companion, believers’ baptism. Both of these are very helpful to the Christian, and all the means of grace help the growth of faith and every other virtue. Of course I include the private as well as the public means of grace. Private prayer is like a conservatory in which God’s plants grow very rapidly. Christians need a temperature higher than this world can give them; they are rare exotica, plants of heavenly birth, and they need divine warmth before they can bloom and produce fruit to perfection, and this can only be obtained by private prayer, secret fellowship with Christ, and devout meditation on the Scriptures.

8. I will only further say, on this point, that a Christian may expect to grow in faith the more troubles he has. If you have ever been at sea in a storm, and noticed how unconcerned about it the weather-beaten sailors have been, you must have realized that is was because they had been hardened in many a tempest that they could so calmly go on with their duties while you and other land-lubbers were in dread of sinking, or longing for the end of the voyage. Storms help to make the sailors sturdy, and trials help to make Christians strong in faith and in every other grace. Damascus blades have to be annealed, and those who are to be like sharp swords in the Lord’s hand will have to pass through the fire. The more the wind blows, the firmer will the oak’s roots grip the soil.

   March winds and April showers

      Bring forth May flowers; — 

and you, as Christians, must have your stormy times and your rainy days if you are to produce the flowers of grace and the fruit of the Spirit. You will probably grow more in the cloudy and dark day of adversity than you will while the sun of prosperity is shining brightly on you; so be of good courage, beloved, under the most adverse circumstances, for they are working for your lasting good.

9. II. I will not say more about how Christians grow in faith; but, in the second place, I will try to point out SOME OF THE SIGNS AND EVIDENCES OF THAT GROWTH.

10. First, however, let me say that swelling is not necessarily growing. We know some people who seem to imagine that they have grown in grace because they have such big notions concerning their own attainments. They evidently imagine that they are the people, and that wisdom will die with them. We never like to see a child with too big a head, for we fear it is only an indication of disease, and not a sign of health; and we fear that many professors of religion are suffering in a similar way. They know too much, for they are wise more than what is written, and are not content to be teachable, and to sit as little children at the feet of Jesus, the great Teacher.

11. But there is such a thing as true growing, and this can be seen in various ways. First, if you are growing in faith, Christ becomes increasingly precious to you. Perhaps you walked by a park one day, and you said to yourself, “That is a very pretty place.” Possibly, the next time you went that way, someone said to you, “I should not wonder if that estate should belong to you some day”; and that made you take a much more personal interest in it. Eventually, the owner died, and you learned that he had left the estate to you; how greatly your interest in it increased then, and how much more you valued the mansion, the park, the gardens, and everything belonging to the estate! In the same way, Christ was precious to me when I first began to hope that he might one day be mine, he was more precious to me who I first realized that he really was mine, and the more fully I am assured of my interest in him, the more precious does he become to me. This is the best test I can give you, beloved, the most accurate thermometer by which you can ascertain the rise or fall of your spiritual temperature, — Is Christ Jesus more precious to you than he ever was before? If so, then I am bound to thank God always for you, brethren, because your faith grows more and more.

12. Further, if you are growing in faith, you want to be more like Christ, and you are more and more dissatisfied with yourself because you are so little like him. You are longing to be so completely conformed to his image that all the virtues of his character shall be reflected and reproduced in you. It is a sure proof of genuine faith in Christ that it produces likeness to him, and growth in faith is good evidence of growth in likeness to him. Are you more like Christ than you were years ago, or do you desire more than everything else to be more and more like him? If so, my brother or sister, I feel confident that you are growing in faith, and I thank God that it is so.

   Lord, if thou thy grace impart,

   Poor in spirit, meek in heart,

   I shall as my Master be,

   Rooted in humility.

13. Another evidence of growing in faith is that the promises become more consolatory to us, and our heart and mind are kept more restful under their gracious influence. On board ship, though the vessel may rock and reel, and turn whichever way the helmsman may guide, the faithful needle always points to the north pole; and it is the same with the true Christian.

   Let cares like a wild deluge come,

      And storms of sorrow fall, — 

his faith still points to heaven, his trust is fixed on Jesus. Whatever else may move, he remains firm and steadfast, and he cries, as David did when he was hunted by Saul as a partridge on the mountains, “My heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” I do not know whether your experience is similar to mine, but I find myself, on the whole, more equable in spiritual things than I used to be. When one has known the Lord for fourteen years, one can look back over a considerable period; and taking such a survey as that, I can discover certain times when I had great bursts of exhilaration, great heights of holy joy, followed by deep sinking of spirit and utter prostration of soul. I still have both those experiences at times, but not often either of them now. On the whole, I find my soul calmly and quietly resting on the promises of God, neither unduly delighted at the prospect of the joys of heaven nor too much depressed by the cares of the world, the responsibilities of my ministry, or the sin that still troubles me; but just simply resting on the rock Christ Jesus, having few doubts and fears, and comforting assurance of salvation, but not so much of the ecstatic rapture that was one of the characteristics of my early faith. I suppose that this is the condition of many Christians, and I am inclined to regard it as one of the evidences of growth in grace when we become more equable in our spiritual temperament. Children are very much aroused over matters which a full-grown man scarcely notices; and the spiritual child is swayed here and there by many winds which have little or no effect on one who has come to the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus.

14. Love for the saints is another choice and clear proof of the growth of faith. In the verse from which our text is taken, Paul thanks God, “as it is fitting,” for the two graces which he perceives in the church of the Thessalonians: “because your faith grows more and more, and the charity (or, love) of every one of you all towards each other abounds.” So love for the saints is linked with the growth of faith. We want far more true Christian love towards each other, though probably we have less reason for complaint in that respect than most other communities have, for we have learned the blessedness of dwelling together in unity. In some of our churches there is still far too much caste feeling, too much bowing down before rank and fashion. I read, the other day, an interesting story concerning Philip Henry, the father of Matthew Henry, the commentator. He wanted to marry the daughter of a gentleman who was one of his hearers. The father of the young lady said to her, “I have no personal objection to Mr. Henry; he is a good man, a Christian gentleman, but I do not know where he came from, so I cannot consent to your marriage with him.” “Well, father,” said the young lady, “though we do not know where he came from, we do know where he is going, and I would like to go there with him.” When I meet a genuine Christian, I may not know where he came from; he may have sprung, as men say, from the dunghill, his parents may have been the poorest of the poor, but what does that matter? I know where he is going, and that is a much more important consideration; he is going to the upper house where there are many mansions; he is going to the palace of the great King eternal, immortal, invisible, where the princes of the blood-royal are for ever to bask in the sunshine of the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords, and I would like to go with him so that I may form one of the blessed company. Never mind the corduroy or the fustian that the man may wear, or the cotton or calico of the poor woman, I love them as brothers and sisters in Christ, and I want to go to the heaven where they are bound. The real test of a man’s nobility is not, “Where did he come from?” but “Where is he going?” If he is going where the people of God are going, if God is his Father, and Jesus Christ is his Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is his Guide and Counsellor, if heaven is the haven where he is bound, it will be one of the proofs that your faith is growing if you feel an intense love for him, and wish to share with him all the blessings of the covenant of grace in time and throughout eternity.

15. Another sign of the growth of faith is the growth of zeal. I cannot see a man’s faith, but I can see the evidences that it is growing when I perceive how zealous he is in all good works for his Lord. When a train travels at a very high speed, the axles grow hot; and the greater the speed, the greater is the heat that is generated by the friction; and, in the same way, the more rapidly a man travels in the path of a divine life by faith, the greater is the earnestness which he displays in the service of Christ. Do you care very little for the souls of those around you? Are you not doing all that you can to bring glory to God by the extension of the kingdom of Christ among the sons of men? Then we cannot thank God that your faith is growing more and more. Indeed, there is grave reason to fear whether you do possess the faith of God’s elect if this evidence is lacking. Remember that question of the apostle James, “What does it profit, my brethren, though a man says he has faith, and does not have works?” and his very emphatic answer, “Faith, if it does not have works, is dead, being alone.” I find it is good often to adopt those lines of Dr. Watts, and would advise you to do the same, — 

   Awake my zeal, awake my love,

   To serve my Saviour here below,

   In works which perfect saints above,

   And holy angels cannot do.

   Awake my charity, to feed

   The hungry soul, and clothe the poor:

   In heaven are found no sons of need,

   There all these duties are no more.

16. And the more faith you have, the more generosities you will display. I do not wonder that some people give so little to the cause of God; they give only as much (or, as little) as they believe. It is said that Dean Swift, preaching from that text, “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord: and what he has given he will pay him again,” made this distinctive beginning to his sermon, “If you like the security, down with the {gold} dust!” It seems as if there were many people, now-a-days, who do not like the security, for they keep their “sordid dust” to themselves, hoarding it up for those who come after them to scatter as they please. But the more a man believes in the security of godliness, the more he will give to the poor, and to the cause of Christ, and to every worthy object that he can help. After all, the great stimulant to Christian generosities is what Paul used when he wrote to the Corinthians, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might be rich”; or what the Master himself used with his disciples, “Freely you have received, freely give.”

17. If I were to try to tell you all the good which growth in faith will do for us, I would need to keep you here all night. I was much struck with a remark that I read, the other day, to the effect that faith may be compared to the gastric juice in the stomach. When that solvent is in a healthy state, all the food that is eaten is properly dissolved and digested, and then the entire man becomes healthy from head to foot; but if anything should be amiss with this necessary fluid, then everything will go wrong. So a growing faith is essential to a healthy spiritual life. Let faith be in increasingly vigorous exercise, then the whole life will benefit; but let faith become feeble and inactive, then all of your spiritual being will be weakened and impaired. I will dare even to say that faith affects heaven, and earth, and hell. If you have very little faith, you cannot tread the world beneath your feet, nor laugh at its troubles, nor smile at its cares. If you have very little faith, you cannot open the windows of heaven, you cannot bring down a blessing from God. Even hell itself feels the influence of your faith. Satan trembles when he knows that your faith is firm and strong; but if it is tottering and trembling, then he sounds the note of triumph, and seeks to lead on his hosts to make a full end of you because you are beginning to relax your grip on your shield. It was not without good reason that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the wicked”; and to the Hebrews, “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.” May the Lord grant that we may have reason always to thank him because your faith grows more and more!

18. III. I intended, before closing my discourse, to give you SOME REASONS WHY WE SHOULD NOT BE SATISFIED WITHOUT THIS GROWTH IN FAITH; but my time has almost gone, and I hope I have already said sufficient to prove to you the urgent need of an ever-growing faith. For your own soul’s sake, for your own happiness and usefulness, for Christ’s sake, for sinners’ sake, for the Church’s sake, if you would adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things, if you would be a blessing to your day and generation, if you would bring into the fold of the good Shepherd the lost sheep and lambs that are wandering away from him, cry continually to him, “Lord, increase our faith.”

19. I only have time for just a word or two with you who have no faith at all. Sad must be the reflections of those of you here who are not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. What can you mean by such sinful folly? The Son of God has come from heaven to earth seeking the lost, and yet you do not believe in him though you are among the lost! A proclamation of liberty is made to you who are slaves to sin and Satan, yet you will not accept the emancipation which would be so great a blessing for you! Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; and you have been told, over and over again, that if you will only trust him, you shall be saved even though you are among the chief of sinners; yet you will not believe in him! Oh soul, why will you not trust in Jesus? Is he not worthy of your confidence? Where will you find anyone else in all the world who so richly deserves to be trusted? No happy or miserable feelings are needed to prepare you for believing in him; no meritorious deeds, no gifts of alms are required as a preparation for faith in him. Jesus Christ can save you just as you are if you will only trust him, so trust him now with your whole heart, and you shall be saved. Trust in him as completely as the drowning man trusts in the life-boat or the life-jacket; if he tried to swim to land, he would be lost, his only hope of being saved is in trusting in a power greater than his own. It is just so with you, sinner; you are powerless to save yourself, but all power in heaven and on earth has been committed to Christ, he is mighty to save, therefore trust him to save you. Rest entirely on what he is as the Christ of God, the anointed and appointed Saviour, and on what he has done on Calvary’s cross to save all who believe in him, and you shall be saved this very hour. Trust Jesus here and now, and you shall be saved here and now, and to God shall be all the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

{a} Fakir: Hindu devotees and naked ascetics. OED

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Ge 22:1-19}

1. And it came to pass after these things, that God tempted —  {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2223, “Abraham’s Trial: A Lesson for Believers” 2224}

That is, “God tested or tried” — 

1, 2. Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham”: and he said, “Behold, here I am.” And he said, “Take now your son,

“But, Lord, I have two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.”

2. Your only son,

“But, Lord, both Ishmael and Isaac are my sons, and each of them is the only son of his mother.”

2. Isaac, whom you love,

See how definitely God points out to Abraham the son who is to be the means of the great trial of his father’s faith: “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,” — 

2. And go into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you about.

It was usually the way, in God’s commands to Abraham, to make him sail under sealed orders. When he was first told to leave his country, and his kindred, and his father’s house, he had to go to a land that God would show him. They have true faith who can go out at God’s command, not knowing where they are going. So Abraham did, and now the Lord says to him, “Take Isaac, and offer him for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you about.”

3. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, — 

Obedience should be prompt, we should show our willingness to obey the Lord’s command by not delaying: “Abraham rose up early in the morning,” — 

3. And saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him.

All the details are mentioned, for true obedience is very careful concerning detail. Those who would serve God properly must serve him faithfully in little things as well as in great ones. There must be a saddling of the donkey, a calling of the two young men as well as Isaac, and a splitting of the wood for the burnt offering. We must do everything that is included in the bounds of the divine command, and do it all with scrupulous exactness and care. Indifferent obedience to God’s command is practically disobedience, careless obedience is dead obedience, the heart is gone out of it. Let us learn from Abraham how to obey.

4. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

His was deliberate obedience; he could bear suspense, thinking over the whole matter for three days, and setting his face like a flint to obey his Lord’s command.

5. And Abraham said to his young men, “Remain here with the donkey; and I and the lad will go up there and worship, and come again to you.”

Abraham did not deceive the young men, he believed that he and Isaac would come to them again. He believed that, though he might be compelled to kill his son, “God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from which he also received him in a figurative sense.” Abraham told the young men to stay where they were, they must not see all that he was to do before the Lord. Often, our highest obedience must be a solitary one; friends cannot help us in such emergencies, and it is better for them and better for us that they should not be with us.

6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife;

That knife was cutting into his own heart all the while, yet he took it. Unbelief would have left the knife at home, but genuine faith takes it.

6-8. And both of them went together. And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, “My father”: and he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering”: so both of them went together.

Abraham here spoke like a prophet; in fact, throughout this whole incident, he never opened his mouth without a prophetic utterance; and I believe that, when men walk with God, and live near to God, they will, possibly even without being aware of it, speak very weighty words which will have much more in them than they themselves apprehend. Is it not written, concerning the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, “his leaf also shall not wither?” Not only shall his fruit be abundant, but his casual word, “his leaf also shall not wither.” So it was with Abraham. He spoke like a prophet of God when he was really speaking to his son in the anguish of his spirit, and in his prophetic utterance we find the sum and substance of the gospel: “My son, God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” He is the great Provider, and he provides the offering, not only for us, but for himself, for the sacrifice was necessary for God as well as for man. And it is a burnt offering, not only a sin offering but an offering of a sweet savour to him.

“So both of them went together.” Twice we are told this, for this incident is a type of the Father going with the Son and the Son going with the Father up to the great sacrifice on Calvary. It was not Christ alone who willingly died, or the Father alone who gave his Son, but “both of them went together,” even as Abraham and Isaac did here.

9. And they came to the place which God had told him about; and Abraham built an altar there,

See him pulling out the large, rough, unhewn stones that lay all around the place, and then piling them up into an altar.

9, 10. And laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar on the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.

So that, in intent and purpose, he had consummated the sacrifice, and therefore we read in Hebrews, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he who had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son.” {Heb 11:17} He had virtually done so in the esteem of God, though no trace of a wound could be found on Isaac. How often God takes the will for the deed with his people! When he finds them willing to make the sacrifice that he demands, he often does not require it from them. If you are willing to suffer for Christ’s sake, it may be that you shall not be caused to suffer; and if you are willing to be a martyr for the truth, you may be permitted to wear the martyr’s crown even though you are never called to stand at the stake, the scaffold, or the block.

11. And the angel of the LORD called to him out of heaven, and said Abraham, “Abraham”: and he said, “Here I am.”

Abraham always gives the same answer to the Lord’s call, “Here I am.”

12. And he said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, neither do anything to him: for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.”

The necessary test had been applied, and Abraham’s faith had endured the trial. God knows all things by his divine omniscience, but now he knew, by this severe test and trial which he had applied, that Abraham really loved him best of all.

Notice that the angel says, “Now I know that you fear God.” I do not think that the gracious use of godly fear has ever been sufficiently estimated by most of us; here, the stress is not laid on the faith, but on the filial fear of Abraham. That holy awe, that sacred reverence of God is the very essence of our acceptance with him. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him.” This is a very different thing from slavish fear; it is a right kind of fear, the kind of fear that love does not cast out, but which love lives with in happy fellowship.

13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

Here is another type of our Saviour’s great sacrifice on Calvary, — the ram offered in the place of Isaac. How often do you and I have our great Substitute very near to us, yet we do not see him because we do not lift up our eyes and look. “Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.” So, if you lift up your eyes, and look the right way, you will see the great sacrifice close by you held firm for you, even as this ram was caught to die instead of Isaac. Oh, that you may have grace to turn your head in the right direction, and look to Christ and live!

14. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh: as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1803, “Jehovah-Jireh” 1804}

God will foresee; “God will” — as we usually say, — “provide,” which is being interpreted, fore-see. He will have everything ready before the time when it will be needed. He who provided the ram for a burnt offering in the place of Isaac will provide everything else that is required; and you may depend on it that he who, in the greatest emergency that could ever happen, provided his only-begotten and well-beloved Son to die as the Substitute for sinners, will have foreseen every other emergency that can occur, and will have fore-provided all that is necessary to handle it. Blessed be the name of Jehovah-Jireh!

15, 16. And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, “‘By myself I have sworn,’ says the LORD,

“Because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself.”

16-18. ‘For because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son: that in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea-shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.’”

There stands the old covenant, the covenant of grace made with Abraham concerning his seed. Paul writes to the Galatians, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many; but as of one, ‘And to your seed,’ who is Christ.” It is in Christ that all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. If there is a nation that has not yet heard the gospel, it must hear it, for so the promise stands, “In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” We may look for a glorious future from the preaching of Christ throughout every land, for so the covenant was made with Abraham because he had obeyed God’s voice. God had been good to Abraham before that time, for he was his beloved friend; but now he lifts him up to a higher platform altogether, and makes him a greater blessing than ever. It may be that God is about to test and try some of you in order that he may afterwards make you to be greater and more useful than you have ever been before.

19. So Abraham returned to his young men,

As he said he would.

19. And they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba.

So the Lord bore his servant through this great trial, and blessed him more than he had ever blessed him before.