The Promises Inherited

The Promises Inherited through Faith and Patience

"That you be not slothful, but followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Hebrews 6:12

I shall endeavor to open, as far as the Lord shall enable me, the mind and meaning of the Spirit under two leading heads. I shall not dwell much upon the fist clause of the text, but confine myself almost exclusively to the latter portion, and show first, what the promises are; and secondly, how God's people inherit them—through faith and patience.

I. What the promises are.

But we will look a little first at the precept which the Holy Spirit has here given, "that you be not slothful." The Lord's people are made diligent when he is pleased to work in their hearts with power. When he suspends his operations, when he does not bestow the dew and unction of the Spirit, they relapse into their own fallen, carnal nature. Now the Lord sends trials upon his people in order to stir them up. He knows that "the hand of the diligent makes rich; but the sluggard desires, and has nothing." We cannot ourselves produce diligence. We may attempt it; we may counterfeit it; we may be full of fleshly zeal; but spiritual diligence is as distinct from natural diligence as Christ from Belial. But when the Lord would make his people diligent in every good word and work, it is instrumentally by sending trials, afflictions, and sorrows, so as to stir up his own blessed graces in their heart, and enable them to be fruitful in the exercise of that faith, hope, and love which are the gift of his own Spirit.

And when the Lord is thus pleased to work in our hearts with power, we can no more be slothful than, when the Lord suspends his operations, we can be diligent. We can no more lie in sloth when the Lord is pleased to work in our hearts by his own blessed Spirit, than we can be diligent, earnest, begging, crying, seeking, and pleading with the Lord when his gracious operations are not felt in our heart and conscience.

But to come to the latter clause of the text. There are PROMISES that God has given in his word; in fact, the Scriptures are spangled with them. The stars in the sky are scarcely more abundant, and they scarcely shine with greater luster than the promises scattered up and down God's word; and though the day will come when the sun will hide its light, and star after star will be extinguished, the promises in all their glorious fulfillment shall shine forth in inextinguishable light, for the word of God endures forever.

Now these promises we may class under three heads. There are promises temporal, promises spiritual, and promises of a mixed character—what, if I may compound a word, I may call temporal-spiritual. The Lord has given in his word many TEMPORAL promises; for he knew that his people would ever need them. He has "chosen the poor in this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom;" and having chosen them in the furnace of affliction, to walk for the most part in the path of tribulation, and to be hard and deeply pressed with many providential trials, he has laid up promises suitable to those situations of trial into which his own hand leads them. For instance, such a promise as this is of a temporal nature—"His bread shall be given him, and his waters shall be sure." (Isaiah 33:16.) Now all the Lord's family, so far as they are brought into various providential trials, have an interest in this promise. The Lord, again, has said, "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33.) These are two sweet promises—one absolute, "His bread shall be given." However it may be opposed by nature, sense, and reason; however, the depth of poverty may stare the poor child of God in the face; however unable to say whence the promised help shall come; yet "bread shall he given him, and his waters shall be sure"—"food and clothing," as the apostle interprets it. The other, I will not say is conditional, but founded on the Spirit's work upon the heart; "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." If we are enabled to seek first the salvation of our soul, that we may know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, all temporal things shall be bestowed as an additional gift.

But there are, as I have said, promises of a MIXED character. For instance—"All things work together for good to those who love God." (Rom. 8:28.) That promise is of a mixed character; for "all things" include things providential, as well as things spiritual. If all things are to work together for your good, your temporal trials are included in "all things." Every bodily affliction, every family trouble, everything that tries us in providence, everything that is bitter and cutting to our flesh, as well as everything spiritual and gracious is included in that comprehensive expression.

Another promise of a mixed character, is, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." (Psalm 50:15 ) The day of trouble is not limited to spiritual trouble, but it includes every kind of trouble. Are you in temporal trouble? Is your body afflicted? Are you suffering in circumstances? "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will answer, and deliver you." But also, if it be spiritual trouble, the promise still runs the same—"Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." So that the promise is not merely temporal, not merely spiritual, but of a mixed character, including both trouble temporal and trouble spiritual.

But there are other promises, which are given to the Lord's people, entirely SPIRITUAL, which have respect to their state and case as living souls. For instance—

1. There is the promise of eternal life. "In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began." (Titus 1:2.) What a sweet feeling is raised up in the soul (I have felt it for myself) by the prospect of immortality! What a sweet text is that, 2 Tim. 1:9, 10, "Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." Our nature shrinks from 'annihilation'. I have read of an infidel who on his death-bed even preferred an eternity of woe to actual annihilation—to ceasing to exist. There is a craving in the mind of man after immortality. No longer to be—to cease to exist—is repulsive to the mind of man.

But when we can penetrate by the eye of faith into the realms of bliss, into the sanctuary of God, and believe that a glorious immortality awaits us, and when we drop our clay bodies, and become divested of the shell that hides the inner man of grace, our ransomed souls will mount up to be with Jesus, to see him face to face, and bathe in streams of endless bliss through the countless ages of eternity, there is something in the feeling unutterably glorious. There is something in immortality, a glorious immortality, an immortality of eternal bliss—there is something in the thought, when felt, when a confidence is raised up in the soul that we shall be clothed with immortality—there is something that feasts the heart with fat things, satisfies all the desires of the spirit, replenishes the sorrowful soul, and becomes indeed marrow and fatness to the believer, who longs not only to live, but to live forever in the presence of his Lord.

2. Again; there is the promise of pardon of sin. "I will pardon the remnant I preserve." (Jer. 50:20.) And all the Lord's people must have this promise sealed upon their heart in time, if ever they are to see Christ as he is in eternity. They never go out of this world in an unpardoned state; remission of sins is given by the Lord of life and glory, who is "exalted as a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5:31.) And every God-taught soul is in one of these two states—either enjoying, or having enjoyed, the felt application of the atoning blood of Jesus, giving him the pardon of his sins, or else hungering, thirsting, begging, pleading, and desiring to experience the sweet sensations in his soul which the pardon of sin brings.

3. Preservation to the end is another promise in the word of truth. "I will never leave you, nor forsake you" (Heb. 13:5); "He will keep the feet of his saints" (1 Sam. 2:9); "Behold I and the children whom you have given me." (Isa. 8:18.) Bringing the elect through every storm, setting all the ransomed before the throne of the Almighty forever, deliverance from every temptation, escape from every snare, and complete salvation from every foe, are all secured to the heirs of promise in the word of truth. How needful this promise of preservation to the end is for the Lord's people to experience, when they discover what hearts they possess, and how perpetually they are departing from the Lord; when they see what they have to contend with from within and from without; when they know that an ever watchful enemy is perpetually endeavoring to ensnare, or to assail their souls; when they view the depth of nature's corruption; when the hidden evils of their heart are dissected by the keen anatomizing knife of the Spirit; when they feel leprous to the core, and know that they have no power and no strength to keep themselves from falling! How sweet, how precious, how suitable it is then to believe that they are written in the book of life, that their names are cut in Jesus' bosom and worn on Jesus' shoulder, that he will preserve them to the end, and bring them home through every storm.

4. Supplies of grace and strength as they are needed—according to the words, "As your day is, so your strength shall be" (Deut. 33:25)—is another promise most suitable to the Lord's poor, tried, and tempted family. Depend upon it, the Lord's family have to go to heaven through much tribulation. So says the unerring word of truth, and so speaks the experience of every God-taught soul. Now, in these seasons of trouble, in these painful exercises, in these perplexing trials, the Lord's people need strength; and the Lord sends these trials in order to drain and exhaust them of 'creature strength'. Such is the self-righteousness of our heart—such the legality intertwined with every fiber of our natural disposition, that we shall cleave to our own righteousness as long as there is a thread to cleave to; we shall stand in our own strength as long as there is a point to stand upon; we shall lean upon our own wisdom as long as a particle remains. In order, then, to exhaust us, drain us, strip us, and purge us of this pharisaic leaven, the Lord sends trials, temptations, exercises, sorrows, and perplexities. What is their effect? To teach us our weakness, and bring us to that only spot, where God and the sinner meet—the spot of creature helplessness.

Do you not see how this was shown in the experience of the Apostle Paul? how, after he had been caught up into the third heavens, had heard unspeakable words, and had his soul ravished with the most blissful revelations, he had a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him? Why was this? To teach him his weakness; was it not? Therefore, when he had been taught his weakness by it, he found the strength of Christ made perfect in that weakness, according to the Lord's own solution of that most painful enigma of Paul's heart. He then could use those wonderful words, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak then am I strong. (2 Cor. 12:9, 10.) When he felt that just in proportion as all his own strength drained away, decayed, and became utter weakness, the strength of the Lord of life and glory was made perfect in his soul, and he could then glory in his poverty, in his weakness, in his nothingness, from feeling the blessedness and sweetness of the strength of Christ being made perfect in him.

In order, therefore, to bring us to this spot, to know experimentally—and there is no other knowledge worth a straw—to know in our soul (and there is no other knowledge will stand in the day of judgment)—in order to know experimentally the strength of Christ, and feel it to be more than a doctrine, a notion, or a speculation—to know it as an internal reality, tasted by the inward palate of our soul, seen by the eyes of living faith in the conscience, and felt as actually as anything we can palpably touch—in order to have this experience wrought into our hearts with divine power, we must be brought to this spot—to feel our own utter weakness.

Now, when we are brought here, we are brought into the very situation that corresponds with the promise. To use a familiar figure, the promise and our condition is as the mortice to the tenon. The mortice is nothing without the tenon—the tenon is nothing without the mortice; but when the mortice and the tenon come together, and fit into each other, then there is a close joint. So spiritually. Here is the promise—that is the tenon; but if I have no place in my heart for that promise to enter into, there is no junction—it is like putting the tenon against a plank or a wall—there is no union. There must be a cut made—something that the tenon can enter into, before there is a junction. So spiritually, I must have such a work of grace upon my conscience, and be brought into that peculiar place in living experience to which the promise is adapted; and when the Holy Spirit puts this promise into my heart, he not merely puts the tenon in, but cements it firm and fast by his own heavenly unction.

But time would fail me to gather even a few more ears of the rich harvest of promise in God's word. I could no more glean up the rich promises in the Bible than I could carry the produce of a whole field of corn upon my head. I must therefore pass on to the second of my discourse, which is to show, how the Lord's people come to inherit the promises.

II. How God's people inherit the promises—through faith and patience. Let us look a little into the word, "INHERIT." I love, if the Lord gives the wisdom, to dive beneath the surface, beneath the letter, into the vein of experience below. Look, then, at the word "inherit." It is a familiar figure taken from heirship, the right and title which the son has to his father's property. Now inheritance without possession is but a name. We sometimes hear of heirs presumptive, and of heirs apparent. But the heir presumptive is a very different thing from being the heir apparent. The heir presumptive may be entirely shut out of the property by the coming in of the heir apparent. Many people have what I call a 'presumptive inheritance'. They are not the children of the heavenly Parent, but they stand in such a relation to God as Eleazar of Damascus stood to Abraham. We hear the complaint of the father of the faithful, "Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward (or rather, 'heir') of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus?" (Gen.15:2.) Who was Eleazar? He was Abraham's servant, a faithful servant—but he had not sprung from Abraham's loins. But when the Lord gave Abraham Isaac, the heir of promise, what became of Eleazar of Damascus? Had he any right, any title, any inheritance when the son came? No! we read, "Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac;" (Gen. 25:5); while Eleazar had nothing but servant's wages, for he had nothing more that he could claim.

Now this is exactly the difference between servants in God's house and sons in God's house. Mere professors, who are not born of the Spirit, are not heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, but mere servants. But the true-born sons are children of the living God, members of the body of Christ, branches of the true vine, sheep of the good Shepherd, the Bridegroom's wife, the Spouse of the Lamb. These are the heirs, the true heirs, because they are inheritors by birth.

But there is a being put into a possession of the inheritance. The Apostle in the Epistle to the Galatians speaks, "Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all." (5:1.) There is such a thing then as a child of God being an heir, and yet being, in his feelings, in no way different from a servant; in other words, not yet put into a feeling enjoyment of the inheritance, not able to call God "Abba Father," not able to feel the Spirit of adoption in his heart, not able to come with holy familiarity to his heavenly feet. This is because the spirit of bondage and servility works in him unto death; perfect love has not been shed abroad in his heart to cast out fear, which has torment.

But the Apostle in the text points out how we come to inherit the promises. Here they are in God's word. But will their being in God's word give me a title to them? Would I not be a madman, if, as I passed through the country at the rapid rate at which travelers now travel, I should lay claim to all the various lands that meet the eye? I remember well, when I was a boy, there used to be a woman who walked up and down in front of the Bank every day—perhaps some of you remember her—dressed in widow's clothing; and she had the delusion in her mind that all the money in the Bank belonged to her. That was her insanity. Are those a whit less mad who think because the promises are in the word of God they have a claim to them? Let a man go into the Bank tomorrow, and lay claim to the money, the claimant would be seized by the police as a madman. Not a whit less mad are those spiritually, whatever verdict might be passed upon them by a commission of lunacy, who, without a title, venture to lay claim to the treasures laid up in God's word of truth.

There are two things, then, necessary to be wrought in a man's conscience by the Spirit of God, before he inherits the promises; one is, the grace of faith—the other is, the grace of patience. "That you be not slothful, but followers of those"—treading in their footsteps, in the good old paths that were cast up by the saints of old, the Old Testament worthies, who fought the battle, gained the victory, and now wear the crown—"that you be not slothful, but followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." These two gifts and graces, then, of the Spirit are absolutely indispensable, that we may, in soul feeling, and in personal experience, come into the possession and enjoyment of the promises of God's word.

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