The Promises Inherited 2
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The first is, FAITH. There are two kinds of faith. There is faith natural, and faith spiritual; there is faith temporal, and faith the work of God upon the heart, which lasts all through the pilgrimage of the favored saint, until landed in glory. There is a faith that can move mountains, but may be utterly unconnected with the sister graces of hope and love. There is a faith which can do great things in the eyes of man; and yet only a delusion of Satan, a mere breath of nature. Now, that faith never can put us into possession of the promises. The promises are of a spiritual kind; they must therefore be laid hold of by a spiritual hand. A dead hand cannot handle the word of God so as to bring life and power into the soul. The ancients used to put a piece of money into the hands of their corpses, so that, on coming to the infernal regions, would be able to pay the toll to heaven. But what sensation had that clay, cold hand of the money entrusted to it?
So spiritually. If my hand be dead—if my faith, in other words, be not of divine operation—can I handle the living words of the living God? I need spiritual hands to handle spiritual things, I need spiritual eyes to see spiritual objects, I need spiritual ears to hear spiritual sounds, I need spiritual feet to walk in spiritual paths, I need a spiritual heart to embrace and love the truth as it is in Jesus. Thus, "without faith it is impossible to please God." We cannot realize any one portion of God's truth in our own experience without faith; and if we do not realize it there, it is but a name, but a notion, but a theory. It is the grand province of faith to receive what God gives, to receive it as from God, to receive it with simplicity, sincerity, humility, tenderness, contrition, hope, confidence. Do we not see this set forth and verified in the experience of the saints?
Look at Abraham's faith. He is set forth in Scripture as the pattern of those who believe, as the father of the faithful. Was not Abraham's faith dependent upon the word of God? Did not God say to him, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you be able to number them– so shall your seed be." (Gen. 15:5.) Was not that promise laid hold of in Abraham's soul by the hand of living faith; and was not that imputed to him for righteousness? Now you will observe that Abraham's faith never wandered (shall I used the word?) into generalities. Abraham's faith was not like a bark committed to the wide ocean without sail, rudder, or compass. It had a certain point in view; it looked to one object, and one object only. It was like a well fitted ship upon the sea bound to one destination, sailing there by a good chart, guided according to a certain preordained course. Abraham's faith was not wandering here and there, like a dismasted ship, through loose generalities; but it dwelt upon the word of God dropped into his heart. He trusted it and relied upon that word, and felt in his soul the sweet experience of it. That faith God honored; that faith God crowned by giving him the fulfillment of the promise which he himself had given.
Another mark of Abraham's faith was that it was severely tried. He waited for the promise twenty-four years, amid the unbelief of his carnal heart, and every other obstacle which rose in the way. Now, if I am walking in the footsteps of our father; (and if we walk not in the steps of our father Abraham, we may call ourselves believers, but we call ourselves so in vain)—I say, if we walk in the steps of our father Abraham, our faith will be of precisely the same nature as our father Abraham's was. It will not be as strong. The Lord gave it to him as a pattern. Abraham's faith therefore was exceedingly strong; and Abraham's faith was exceedingly tried, because it was so strong. We shall not, then, have it so strong. I think the offering up of Isaac upon the altar was the greatest act of faith the world has ever seen, or will see, with one exception, and that is, the faith of the Lord of life and glory on the cross—the faith of Jesus Christ in his human nature. That was indeed the greatest faith the world ever saw, or will see. But next to that, the type and figure of it—the offering up of Isaac by his father—seems to be the greatest exploit of faith the world ever witnessed, or ever will witness.
Your faith, then, will not be as strong as Abraham's was; but still you will walk in the same footsteps as Abraham; and if this be the case, your faith will deal with the word of God just in the same way as Abraham's faith dealt with the word of God. Did not Abraham's faith restrict itself to one certain definite promise, cleave to it, hang upon it, rely upon it, trust in it, venture upon the faithfulness of it? Our faith, if like Abraham's, will be exactly similar. The Lord said, in the days of old to his bitter enemies, the Pharisees, "My word has no place in you." That was the mark of unregeneracy. To use my former illustration—there was no mortice for the tenon—no empty, no broken, no humble, no tender heart for the word of God to come into. And the Apostle, speaking of the Old Testament Hebrews—those of them who were not the Lord's people—says, "The word preached did not profit them;" and he tells us why—because "it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it." In other words, they heard the gospel preached; but not having faith mixed with it, turning it into a living reality, so as to mingle with it, and receive it in all its blessed fullness, it did not profit their souls.
If our faith, then, be like Abraham's it will not be dealing with loose generalities. We shall not read a chapter of God's word, and have faith upon every verse; but we shall believe simply what we receive into our heart and conscience. Does God speak to our soul? Does he whisper a word or two to the conscience? Does he apply a promise with his own divine savor and unction? Does our eye see, our ear hear, our heart feel any portion of God's word? Is it sweet and savory? Does it drop like honey and the honeycomb? Does dew, savor, unction, and power attend it? Immediately that takes place, faith springs up in the soul, embraces it, realizes it, mixes with, enters into the beauty of it, and eventually is honored with the full enjoyment of it.
I will endeavor to illustrate this by a figure. My eye is formed to see objects—my ear is formed to hear objects—my hand is formed to touch objects. Now, as my eye sees, as my ear hears, as my hand touches, certain sensations are produced in me. These sensations produce ideas. If I look out into infinite space, I see nothing—my eye receives into it no object. In the dead season of night, when all is still, my ear hears nothing. In stretching forth my hand into the air, I touch nothing. Must not the eye, must not the ear, must not the hand have an object before each sense can act? So spiritually. Faith is the eye of the soul, faith is the ear of the soul, faith is the hand of the soul; for faith sees, hears and touches. Now if there be no object, faith cannot see any more than the eye can see; faith cannot hear any more than the ear can hear; faith cannot touch any more than the hand can touch. But when an object comes, the eye sees, the ear hears, the hand touches, and sensation is produced. So when faith is raised up in the soul—Christ appears, his blood felt in the conscience, his love is received into the heart, and his righteousness revealed. But if these objects of faith are not revealed, we can no more see them than we can touch the stars. If these objects be hidden or absent, though I may have faith as a grace in my soul, it will lie still and dormant until the object comes before it.
Now all that the Lord drops into your heart with power—all that you see of beauty and glory in Jesus—all that your soul flows out after in tender affection as to the living God—all that your conscience embraces—all that encourages, softens, impresses, revives, humbles, melts out of God's word—faith receives, mixes with, feeds upon, enjoys, turns into nutriment, digests, and issues forth in the fruits and graces of the Spirit. The word of God is, if I may use the illustration, as food; but do we not need a stomach to receive it? You may put the word of God into a spiritually dead stomach, as the ancients put money into the dead man's hand, and it corrupts there with the corrupt corpse. So the word of God, put into a dead man's stomach does but increase his corruption, turning the doctrines of the gospel into licentiousness. Those good doctrines which in a living stomach turn to good food, and nourish the whole frame—in a dead stomach, are like good food in a corpse, which corrupts and rots in the corrupt and rotten body. We need, then, living faith in the soul, in order to receive this spiritual food.
Now, thus it is that we find many of the Lord's people who are doubting, fearing, perplexed, exercised, tempted—have living faith; while many who think they have great faith—who have not a solitary grain. It is this which keeps them down that they dare not say they are what they are not. They dare not lay claim to anything that God does not give. They can only feed upon such things as the Lord puts into their hearts. But presumptuous professors can draw comfort from every promise and every doctrine, without knowing anything of their blessed bestowment by God the Spirit. So that, if we look at what faith is, and what faith does, we shall often find in the heart of a poor trembling sinner, who will perhaps almost cut himself off as not having a grain of faith in his soul, the grace of God in active operation—while others, with high-sounding names, great pretentious, and strong confidence, are dead in unbelief and infidelity.
2. But there is another way pointed out, and that closely connected with the other, by which we become inheritors of the promise—PATIENCE. What is patience? It means waiting, endurance. Was not this the case with Abraham? "So after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." Now, my friends, wherever the Lord gives faith he tries that faith. What says the Apostle Peter? "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. 1:7.) It is "the trial of faith," not faith itself, that is "precious." The trial of faith is eminently precious. Wherever true faith is in the soul it must be tried. This trial is the trial of patience. It is the trial of faith which proves its reality. It is the fire that burns away the dross; the fan that winnows away the chaff; the water that drowns presumption.
Now patience is necessary in order to prove the genuineness and reality of faith. The Lord generally—I may say invariably—does not accomplish his purposes at once. He usually—I might say almost invariably—works by gradations. Is not this the case in creation? Do we see the oak starting up in all its gigantic proportion in one day? Is not a tiny acorn committed to the ground; and is not the giant oak, whose huge limbs we admire, the growth of a century? Men and women are years growing up to their full stature.
So spiritually, "He who believes shall not make haste." Faith in the soul is of slow growth for the most part; for the Lord takes care that every step in the path shall be tried by the perplexities and difficulties that surround it. And he has appointed this that it may be a means of distinguishing the faith of God's elect from the faith of those who have a name to live while dead. They apostatize and turn away from the faith. Like the stony ground hearers, they believe for a time, but in temptation fall away. The various hindrances of nature, sense, and reason, sin, the devil, and the world get the better of them; thus they turn back, often give up all profession of religion, and die in their sins. But the Lord's people cannot so die. Their faith is of a lasting nature, because what God does he does forever. Thus their faith stands every storm and endures forever.
This, then, is the use, this the end of patience—that it enables the soul not only to plead, to beg, and to cry, but also to wait. Its work is to believe against infidelity, hope against despondency, trust in God in spite of nature, sense, and reason—look to God in the dark—hope in God when hope is well near lost, when the waves and surges of despair beat upon the head. Thus there is need of patience on the one hand, and of faith on the other, to inherit the promises. Faith is necessary as the 'hand of the soul' to lay hold of them; patience is necessary to wait for their fulfillment. Faith is necessary to give us soul possession and soul enjoyment of the glorious realities of God's truth; patience is necessary to prove to ourselves and to others that we are really partakers of the faith of God's elect.
Now this is the way in which we inherit the promises. O how different from the way of man's devising! O how different from what is usually preached up as the way to come into the possession of them! People would gladly try to teach us that all we have to do is to take God's word, read this and that promise, and implicitly believe, and lay claim to, and enjoy it. Was that Abraham's faith? Was that David's faith? Was he not hunted upon the mountains, with his life in his hand? Was that the faith of Jesus, who learned obedience through suffering? Was that the faith of the ancient worthies—"those who subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness"? Was their faith of this easy, slipshod nature—whom John saw with palms in their hands? Did they not wade through seas of tribulation until they came to that blessed land where the palms of victory are in their hands, and the songs of triumph in their mouths?
Are you and I to get to heaven by an easy path, while they went theirs by a rough one? How, if shame could enter heaven, we would blush and hang down our heads with shame, as we stood by the side of the suffering heroes, who had waded there through seas of trouble. There is no getting to heaven without tribulation. I do not define (who can define?) how long the trial, trouble, or temptation shall last. But if we walk not in a path of trial, tribulation, temptation, exercise, and sorrow, what do we know of the promises?—what do we know of the sweet enjoyment of the promises? We have to inherit them through faith and patience; and depend upon it, if you are ever to enjoy them here in their sweetness, and hope to enjoy the blessed fulfillment of them hereafter in the realms of eternal bliss, we must be "followers of those who through faith and patience inherit these glorious promises."
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