The Work of Faith, Patience of Hope, and Labour of Love 2
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C. The OPPOSITION which faith has to encounter. Now we have to measure a man's work, not only by what he does, but by the difficulty which he has to encounter in doing it. It is like ploughing two different kinds of land– you must not measure how much work a man does in a day merely by the number of furrows he can plow; you must consider whether he is ploughing stiff rocky soil, or light soil. So we must not measure the work of faith with power by the quantity executed, but by the difficulties to be encountered in doing it. It seems at first sight an easy thing to believe in the Son of God, an easy matter to live a life of faith upon him, an easy task to fight the good fight of faith. But when we come to measure the work of faith by the opposition it has to encounter in doing these things, then we find that it requires the power of God in a man's soul to enable faith to do the work assigned to it. For look at the opposition offered to it.
1. Look, first, at the UNBELIEFof man's heart. O what an opposition is made to every act of faith by the unbelief which is, as it were, the very life-blood of our natural mind! Have you never sighed, cried, and groaned under the unbelief of your heart? Have you never felt it such a heavy load and presenting such a mountain of difficulty, that when you tried with all the power of your soul to believe in the Son of God and to raise up a living faith to apprehend him in his blood and obedience, there was an opposition raised up in your heart to the actings of faith by the weight of unbelief that pressed it down? By this opposition, then, you may know something of the power of faith which is needed and the work of faith as exercised in that power to surmount this unbelief.
2. But there is also the opposition of the reasoning mind; for the reasoning mind of man is thoroughly opposed to all the actings of living faith in the soul. There is not an argument against the truth of God which the reasoning mind of man does not at times raise up and seek to employ against all that God has revealed in his holy word; for well near everything in the word of God, I will not say is contrary to, but is above reason. The mystery of the Trinity; the complex Person of Christ; his work upon the cross; his atoning blood and obedience; his resurrection from the dead; his ascension on high; and his being now in heaven at God's right hand, with the whole work of the Spirit upon the heart– all these truths are not contrary to reason– they would not be truth if they were– but they are above it; as the Lord says, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah. 55:8.) Now our reasoning mind is opposed to these truths, because it cannot bring them down to its own level; and not being able to apprehend them by the exercise of its own faculties, it is opposed to the exercise of faith upon them.
3. But look again at another source of opposition. How Satancan work upon the carnal mind, and what suggestions he can and does make use of to oppose the work of faith with power. How subtle his arguments; how strong his suggestions; how artful his insinuations; and how all are directed against the work of faith to lay hold of and live a life of faith upon the Son of God. Sometimes he insinuates, "How can these things be true?" Sometimes, "How do you know you have any saving interest in them?" Sometimes he magnifies the greatness of our sins before we were called by grace, and sometimes the sins we have committed since conversion, urging from them both, "For you there is no hope, for you have sinned beyond the reach of mercy." Thus there is an opposition to the work of faith with power, not only from the reasoning of our natural mind which falls in with these suggestions of Satan, but also from the strong and subtle temptations of the wicked One, even on the ground that the very things are true which he has just before denied.
4. But there is another source of opposition still, and that is a guilty conscience.Nothing hardly seems more opposed to the work of faith with power than a guilty conscience; for that is closely connected with an unbelieving heart, which made the apostle say, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." (Heb. 3:12.) And why is it "an evil heart of unbelief" but because it is accompanied with "an evil," that is, a guilty "conscience?" Nor can the voice of faith be heard except as this guilty conscience is purged by the application of atoning blood; which made the apostle say, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb. 10:22.) But the conscience, even when it has been once purged, often, through fresh contracted guilt, sinks down into depths out of which it seems as if it could not emerge, and thus loses sight of the Person and work of the Son of God.
D. But we pass on to our next point, which, with God's help and blessing, may give a clearer light still on this work of faith– namely, the EXAMPLES which God has given in his word of the power of faith; and we will take two, which the Lord has especially afforded for our instruction. One is that conspicuous example, the faith of ABRAHAM; for he is set before us as "the father of all those who believe," who are therefore said to "walk in the steps of that faith which he had being yet uncircumcised." (Rom. 4:11, 12.) Now just for a few moments take a glance at Abraham's faith, and see its nature, end, and object. The instance to which the apostle especially refers of Abraham's faith is where the Lord appeared to him in the dead of night and said, "I am your shield and exceeding great reward;" and then took him forth and bade him behold the stars in the sky, saying, "Thus shall your seed be." Now we read that "he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Gen. 15:1, 5, 6.) That was therefore, an act of justifying faith. He believed the promise of God, its coming home to his soul with divine power. But this is the point to which I wish to draw your attention, that his faith, though it was a justifying faith, yet it was of such a nature that it was believing against hope. "Who," he says, "against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall your seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb– he staggered not 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."
This, then, was Abraham's faith. It was a firm credence in the promise of God made to him, and yet a faith that lived under opposition, hoping against hope, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised he would perform. Our faith, then, if it be genuine, must resemble that of Abraham. It must anchor in the truth of God as made life and spirit to our soul. It must meet with every opposition from without and within; from sin, Satan, and the world; from nature, and flesh, and reason all combined against it. But in spite of all, it must hope against hope, and be fully persuaded that what God has promised he is able to perform; and thus by perseverance and patient waiting obtain the victory.
Take one more example, that of MOSES– his faith was of this nature. "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." (Heb. 11:24, 25.) The peculiar character of the faith of Moses was this, that though he was highly exalted and might have enjoyed all the treasures and pleasures of Egypt, yet he deliberately preferred to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy all that wealth could offer or carnal pleasure present; "having respect to the recompense of reward."
E. Now I pass on, having shown these examples, to point out faith's VICTORY; for if we are to be saved, our faith must gain the day; we must have a faith that shall triumph over death and hell and gain a glorious conquest over every internal and external and infernal foe; as John says, "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." This is just the state, then, in which the matter stands– we must either conquer or be conquered; we must either gain the day and be crowned with an immortal crown of glory, or else sink in the strife, defeated by sin and Satan. But none of God's people will be defeated in the fight; and yet they often seem, as it were, to escape defeat by the very skin of their teeth; yet faith will sooner or later gain the day, for Jesus is its finisher as well as its author. He will crown the faith of his own gift with eternal glory. He will never allow his dear family to be overcome in the good fight of faith, for he will give strength to every weak arm and power to every feeble knee, and has engaged to bring them off more than conquerors. Thus as the Lord the Spirit is pleased to work in the soul by his living energy, he strengthens faith more and more to believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God, to receive more continual supplies out of his fullness, to wrestle more earnestly with God for a spiritual blessing; to stand more firmly in the evil day against every assaulting foe; to fight more strenuously the good fight of faith, and never give up until faith gains its glorious end, which is to see Jesus as he is in the realms of eternal day.
Your faith may be weak; it may seem at times to be reduced to its lowest point; but as sure as Jesus has fought the battle, won the day, and is now crowned with honor and glory, so surely he will bring you off more than conqueror, as being the purchase of his atoning blood; for no member of his mystical body shall perish, but all shall be saved in him with an everlasting salvation.
F. Now just one word about the FRUITS of faith. The grand fruit is the salvation of the soul– for this is the end of faith, "receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul." But every spiritual fruit hangs around faith, in rich, ripe clusters– for a faith without fruit is a faith dead before God. A faith that does not live to God's praise, walk in God's fear, delight itself in the Lord, and bring forth to his honor and glory, does not wear the stamp of heaven upon it. It is not accredited as being the faith of God's elect, nor does it bear a single mark of being coined in heaven's mint as bearing Christ's image and superscription.
II. But let me now direct your attention to the second of these three abiding graces, which is another part also of our education for eternity– HOPE and its patience. You will observe that each of these three Christian graces has its peculiar office and operation. Faith has its work, hope has its patience, and love has its labor. To illustrate these different features, we may perhaps avail ourselves of a comparison– Faith is like a young man in the beginning of his strength, with all the activity, and energy, and agility of youth. Hope is like a man past the activity and agility of youth, and yet possessed of a strong power of endurance of hard work, and bodily labor. And love may represent a man still further advanced in life when his constitution being inured to hard work, and he being now a thoroughly skilled workman, is able to go laboring on beneath the burning sun or amid the winter frost without flagging or weariness.
I proposed to show you "hope and its patience." But as on a late occasion when preaching upon the gates of the city I spoke at some length on the nature of hope, and how it was raised up in the heart, I shall not now enter on that part of the subject, but shall confine myself chiefly to the description of its work which is here called "patience."
1. Now "patience" in Scripture not only means patience in the ordinary sense of the term– that is, meekness, quietness, and gentleness, submission and resignation to the will of God, without murmuring, fretfulness, or rebellion, but it also signifies, and that more usually, what is generally understood by the term ENDURANCE. This we shall perhaps by and by more clearly see to be the peculiar work of hope, and one more adapted to it than the more familiar meaning of patience, as implying resignation and submission. In religion, we need not only to commence but to go on– to end well, as well as to begin well. Hence the need of endurance.
Now when we examine the passages in Scripture which speak of "patience," we see that in them all this faculty of "endurance" is chiefly intended. The apostle says, for instance, "Let us run with patience the race set before us." (Heb. 12:1.) Now what quality is chiefly needed in running a race? You will perhaps say, "Swiftness of foot." It is true. But suppose the race is a long one– one of some miles. Is not something else needed then? Surely; and what but endurance– staying power, strength of wind and limb, perseverance, and that firm determination not to be beaten which would sooner die than yield? Is not this quality more needed in running a race, especially a race which is to last a whole life, than quiet submission to affliction, or what we generally understand by the word, "patience?"
Take again what is said of Job by the apostle James– "Behold we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." (James. 5:11.) I would just remark that the words translated, "endure" and "patience," are the same in the original, so that we might read it thus– "Behold we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the endurance of Job." Job was not very patient, for he cursed the day of his birth, but was wonderfully enduring. How he bore up under the loss of all his children, the destruction of all his property, the fierce assaults of Satan, the taunts of his wife, the sore boils from the sole of his foot unto the crown, and, worse than all, the arrows of the Almighty drinking up his spirit. How he endured the greatest sufferings of body and mind, and by endurance proved that "the root of the matter" was in him. This "endurance," then, is the peculiar work and province of hope.
We see this sometimes naturally as well as spiritually. Many a man is very active, agile, and alert, but has no power of endurance, no hard muscle, no reserve of strength. He can do a measure of work at first, but when it comes to long toil, hard labor, and unwearied endurance of exertion, his muscles being weak and flaccid, and he possessing no strong stamina of constitution, he breaks down under the load. This, then, is the peculiar office, I might almost say the special beauty and blessedness of hope, that it is an enduring grace; a grace that wears, lasts, and holds out, and, however tried, never gives way.
Have you not often found this, that give up what you may, you never can give up your hope? There you do well; for to give up hope is to fall into despair; and observe that as it is the work of faith to believe against unbelief, so it is the work of hope to hope against despair. Hope in scripture is compared to an anchor, and said to enter within the veil. Now what is the chief virtue and value of an anchor? It is not to do, to do; to work, to work; its duty is to lie still and never move; never to break, never to drag, never to come home. The anchor does its work in the dark; it sinks quite out of sight into the sand, and is so constructed that the stronger the ship pulls, the deeper it buries itself, and the harder it holds. This tenacity, this stiff obstinacy, this hard, unyielding grasp, is the peculiar excellency of an anchor, without which it would be altogether useless. If it be well made, if the iron be tough and well hammered, it will bite the ground and bite hard; and if the cable be equally strong, so as not to part asunder, the ship will safely ride out the heaviest storm. Such an anchor to the soul is hope– power to endure, never to break, never to give way, being its chief excellence as well as its peculiar work.
But now look at the connection between faith and hope. Faith gives to things hoped for a reality, and then hope takes hold of the things that faith thus realizes, and anchors in them with tenacious grasp as if it would not, could not, must not, dare not let them go, for to let them go is to be lost altogether. If ever you have had a promise applied to your mind with divine power; ever had a revelation of Jesus to your soul; a word from his mouth; an application of his atoning blood to your conscience; or any shedding abroad of the love of God in your heart; hope lays firm hold of the blessing thus communicated, and will not let it go. Just as the anchor lays firm hold of the ground, and by firm holding saves the ship; so the grace of hope saves the soul, (for "we are saved by hope." Rom. 7:24), by not letting go any spiritual blessing that ever the Lord has dropped into the heart.
2. But hope has its OPPOSITIONas well as faith, for as faith is opposed by unbelief, so hope is opposed by despair. Despair is a most dreadful feeling, but it is one by which the family of God are often beset. We must seek relief against it by hope.
"To cause despair's the scope
Of Satan and his powers;
Against hope to believe in hope
My brethren must be ours."
Here, then, we need the anchor. The storms of apprehended wrath that beat upon the soul; the strong current of guilty fear; the tide of unbelief rising higher and higher; the rocks of open perdition that lie in sight, with breakers covering them with surf, and dashing against them so many wrecks; the fears of the mariner lest the cable should part or the anchor should come home– all this well represents what hope has to endure, and how by endurance it overcomes all opposition. So David encouraged his soul still to hope in God when cast down within him, under the sweet assurance that he should still praise him. (Psalm. 42:11.) Hope of salvation is our helmet (1 Thess. 5:8), as faith is our shield, truth our belt, righteousness our breastplate, and the word of God our sword. Let us, then, keep our helmet on, for to put it off is to go bareheaded into the battle.
3. But hope has its ENDas well as faith; and what end is this? all that we need and all that we desire– fruition, or enjoyment; for as faith will be swallowed up in sight, so hope will be lost in fruition.
4. And not only has hope its end, but its FRUITS; for it would indeed be inconsistent with such an eminent grace of the Spirit as hope if it were a barren tree, or, like Ephraim, bore fruit only to itself. John gives no countenance to a barren, unfruitful hope– "And every man who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3:3.) Now the fruits of hope are twofold– inward and outward.
Patient expectationis the chief INWARD fruit of hope, as the apostle speaks– "For we are saved by hope– but hope that is seen is not hope– for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." (Rom. 8:24, 25.) To stand, then, upon its watch-tower, looking out for the Lord's appearing, who is "good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him," is a special fruit of hope, as we read– "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." (Lam. 3:26.)
To submit to God's will; to sit alone and keep silence, humbly confessing sin, and putting the mouth into the dust, is another fruit of hope– "He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it upon him." (Lam. 3:28, 29.)
To take the Lord as our satisfying portion, knowing that in his favor is life, is another inward fruit of hope– "The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him." (Lam. 3:24.)
And to add another berry to the cluster, let me just name one more inward fruit of hope– a humble recollection of past miseries and mercies– "My soul has them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope." (Lam. 3:20, 21.)
And hope has its OUTWARD fruits also, such as separation from the world; a cleaving close to the family of God; a living not to sin and self but to the Lord; and a conduct and conversation becoming such as profess to be waiting for the Lord's appearing.
III. But as time presses, I must hasten on to the last of the three abiding graces, and the greatest of the three, which therefore I have placed last– "Now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE." But love in the words of our text has a "labor" as well as faith a "work," and hope a "patience."
A. But WHAT is love? for as I have defined the nature of faith and hope, so now I must speak a few words upon the nature of love. But how can I describe it, how dissect and anatomize this heavenly grace; how portray her beautiful features, or paint her lovely, engaging form? Love cannot be described; it must be felt to be known; but as a help to understand its nature, you may consider some of the features of earthly love. Love delights to be with the beloved object; to see the face; to hear the voice; to be near the person; to be kindly addressed by; and above all to revel in the delightful consciousness of loving and being loved again. Such is a slight sketch of some marks of earthly love. And heavenly love, in a higher and purer sense, in those points much resembles it. Wherever the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and the Lord makes himself dear, near, and precious, there will be a delight in the Lord's company; in looking upon the Lord's face; in hearing the Lord's voice; in enjoying the Lord's presence; and above all things, in the sweet consciousness that the Lord loves us as we love him.
B. But this love has a "LABOR."It is not a cold, dead, sluggish grace which has no work to do and no heart to do it. It has to labor, and that very hard; for a love that will not work is a love that must not eat. But what is love's labor? Chiefly twofold, inward and outward.
1. The INWARD labor of love is to labor against the coldness, deadness, and hardness, and especially against the enmity of the carnal mind. For as "the work of faith" is to strive against unbelief, and "the patience of hope" to endure and bear up against despair, so "the labor of love" is to toil and struggle against the enmity and opposition of the carnal mind.
But it has also to labor under and against the suspicions, the jealousies, the disappointments, the denials of the smiles and presence of the beloved Object. Often, too, has it to labor in the dark, without one cheering word or encouraging look; often to sigh, mourn, and endure sharp pangs, cruel fears, and tormenting suspicions through the delay of the coming of the Beloved. "Why," it cries, "is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariot?" Truly this love has to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things; for love never fails. Like the fire from heaven on the bronze altar, love once kindled is never allowed to go out. Thus love has to labor and sometimes very hard, in order to secure the promised blessing, and reap its choicest fruit– the sweet consciousness and enjoyment of the Lord's love.
But as in the case of faith and hope, love has its peculiar OPPOSITION; and the labor of love is made manifest in proportion to the opposition it encounters and the triumph it obtains over it. If there were no enmity of the carnal mind, no doubts and fears, no coldness, jealousy, suspicion, or disappointment, there would be no labor of love to work against them. But by this very labor it becomes manifested as an operative grace– as "a loving, not in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
Another inward labor of love is to please the Object of its love, by submission to his will, by patient suffering under the weighty cross, by obedience to his precepts, and a fixed determination to make his word its rule, his glory its supreme object, and his favor its highest and only reward.
2. But love has its EXTERNAL labor as well as its inward, as we read– "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed towards his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister." (Heb. 6:10.) "The love of Christ," says the apostle, "constrains us;" and to what? "That we should not henceforth live unto ourselves but to him who died for us and rose again." (2 Cor. 5:14, 15.) Separation from the world; living to the praise and glory of God; walking in his fear; a desire to please, a dread to offend our best, our only Friend; a seeking to do good to the souls and bodies of men; a godly obedience to every precept and every ordinance for the Lord's sake; adorning the doctrine with a consistent, unblameable walk, conduct, and conversation– all this will be the outward labor of love; for all these fruits show the reality, the earnestness, and the depth of that love to Christ, which is the peculiar feature of one born of God.
And as love will thus labor for the Lord, so will it labor for the Lord's people; for wherever this love is there will be a desire for their good, carrying them warmly upon the heart, sympathizing with them in trouble and joy; bearing and forbearing with them in tender affection, and seeking their spiritual benefit and profit. Love will not encourage a spirit of strife and division, but rather will desire to walk in sweet union with all the family of God in a spirit of meekness, avoiding all that may grieve or stumble. This is love's labor; for all this will meet with every kind of opposition from without and within; yet love, true love, can and will conquer all.
But to draw to a conclusion, these three graces of the Spirit have each their separate work in order to keep them alive and healthy. It is in grace as in nature– with the soul as with the body; it must have air and exercise. What is our body without these two things?
Can health be maintained without them? A man may lie upon his bed or sleep in his chair until he can scarcely walk from indolence and indigestion. It is air and exercise that keeps the body healthy. So it is spiritually. The graces of the Spirit need to be often exercised and well aired to keep them healthy– aired with the pure breath of heaven, and exercised with the operations of the Holy Spirit drawing them forth into activity and energy. And just as in nature a man gains health and strength by using his limbs and working his muscles, so in spiritual things these graces of the Spirit gains strength by use and exercise. Faith by working hard; hope by enduring much; and love by laboring long in the face of difficulties, become each more strengthened, more confirmed, more active, healthy, and energetic.
It is a false faith to sleep all day in the sluggard's arm-chair; it is the hypocrite's hope who endures nothing for Christ's sake; it is love in lip and tongue and name that undergoes no labor to please the beloved Object. Look at these things in the light of your own experience. See whether you can find not only faith in your heart, but its work; not only hope, but its patience; not only love, but its labor. The apostle remembered without ceasing their work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope. His eye was fixed not so much upon their Christian graces as their exercise of them. As, then, he looked upon them and saw their faith working diligently, their hope suffering patiently, and their love laboring unweariedly for the glory of God and the good of his people, he was satisfied they were the graces of the Spirit wrought in their heart by a divine power.
And well may I add in the spirit of the apostle, that there is nothing more satisfying to a minister's eye or comforting to his heart than to look round among his people and see not only their faith, but their work of faith; not only their hope, but their patience of hope; not only their love, but their labor of love. I leave those things to your conscience, that you may examine for yourselves how far you know them by a vital experience of their truth, their reality, and their power.
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