Welcome again to Spurgeon on Tape, read by
W.
J.
Moncaro.
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the end of the message.
Today's sermon is entitled Justification by Faith, Illustrated
by Abram's Righteousness.
It is number 844 and was delivered on
Lord's Day morning, December 6, 1868, by the
Reverend Charles H.
Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
Our text is Genesis 15, verse 6.
Genesis 15, verse 6.
And he believed in the Lord and he
counted it to him for righteousness.
May the Lord bless the reading of his
word.
You will remember that last Lord's Day morning
we spoke upon the calling of Abram and
the faith by which he was enabled to
enter upon that separated life at the bidding
of the Most High.
We shall today pass from the consideration of
his calling to that of his justification, that
being most remarkably next in order in his
history, as it is in point of theology
in the New Testament.
For whom he called, them he also justified.
Referring to the chapter before us for a
preface to our subject, note that after Abram's
calling his faith proved to be of the
most practical kind.
Being called to separate himself from his kindred
and from his country, he did not therefore
become a recluse, a man of ascetic habits,
or a sentimentalist, unfit for the battles of
ordinary life.
No, but in the noblest style of true
manliness he showed himself able to endure the
household trouble and the public trial which awaited
him.
Lots herdsmen quarreled with the servants of Abram,
and Abram, with great disinterestedness, gave his younger
and far inferior relative the choice of pasturage,
and gave up the well-watered plain of
Sodom, which was the best of the land.
A little while after, the grand old man
who trusted in his God showed that he
could play the soldier, and fight right gloriously
against terrible odds.
He gathered together his own household servants, and
accepted the help of his neighbors, and pursued
the conquering hosts of the allied kings, and
smote them with as heavy a hand as
if from his youth up he had been
a military man.
Brethren, this everyday life faith is the faith
of God's elect.
There are persons who imagine saving faith to
be a barren conviction of the truth of
certain abstract propositions, leading only to a quiet
contemplation upon certain delightful topics, or separating ourselves
from all sympathy with our fellow creatures.
But it is not so.
Faith, restricted merely to religious exercise, is not
Christian faith.
It must show itself in everything.
A merely religious faith may be the choice
of men whose heads are softer than their
hearts, fitter for cloisters than markets, but the
manly faith which God would have us cultivate
is a grand practical principle adapted for every
day in the week, helping us to rule
our household in the fear of God, and
to enter upon life's rough conflicts in the
warehouse, the farm, or the exchange.
I mention this at the commencement of this
discourse because as this is the faith which
came of Abram's calling, so also does it
shine in his justification, and is indeed that
which God counted unto him for righteousness.
Yet the first verse shows us that even
such a believer as Abram needed comfort.
The Lord said to him, Fear not.
Why did Abram fear?
Partly because of the reaction which is always
caused by excitement when it is over.
He had fought boldly and conquered gloriously, and
now he fears.
Cowards tremble before the fight, and brave men
after the victory.
Elias slew the priests of Baal without fear,
but after all was over, his spirit sank,
and he fled from the face of Jezebel.
Abram's fear also originated in an overwhelming awe
in the presence of God.
The word of Jehovah came to him with
power, and he felt that same prostration of
spirit which made the beloved John fall at
the feet of his Lord in the isle
of Patmos, and made Daniel feel that there
was no strength in him.
Fear not, said the Lord to the patriarch.
His spirit was too deeply bowed.
God would uplift his beloved servant into the
power of exercising sacred familiarity.
Ah, brethren, this is a blessed fear.
Let us cultivate it, for until it shall
be cast out by perfect love, which is
better still, we may be content to let
this good thing rule our hearts.
Should not a man, conscious of great infirmities,
sink low in his own esteem, in proportion
as he is honored with communion with the
glorious Lord?
When he was comforted, Abram received an open
declaration of his justification.
I take it, beloved friends, that our text
does not intend to teach us that Abram
was not justified before this time.
Faith always justifies whenever it exists, and as
soon as it is exercised.
Its result follows immediately, and is not an
aftergrowth needing months of delay.
The moment a man truly trusts his God,
he is justified.
Yet many are justified who do not know
their happy condition, to whom as yet the
blessing of justification has not been opened up
in its excellency and abundance of privilege.
There may be some of you here today
who have been called by grace from darkness
into marvelous light.
You have been led to look to Jesus,
and you believe you have received pardon of
your sin, and yet, for want of knowledge,
you know little of the sweet meaning of
such words as these, accepted in the Beloved,
perfect in Christ Jesus, complete in Him.
You are doubtless justified, though you scarcely understand
what justification means.
And you are accepted, though you have not
realized your acceptance.
And you are complete in Jesus Christ, though
you have today a far deeper sense of
your personal incompleteness than of the all-sufficiency
of Jesus.
A man may be entitled to property, though
he cannot read the title deeds, or has
not as yet heard of their existence.
The law recognizes right and fact, not our
apprehension thereof.
But there will come a time, Beloved, when
you who are called will clearly realize your
justification, and will rejoice in it.
It shall be intelligently understood by you, and
shall become a matter of transporting delight, lifting
you to a higher platform of experience, and
enabling you to walk with a firmer step,
sing with a merrier voice, and triumph with
an enlarged heart.
I intend now, as God may help me,
first to note the means of Abram's justification,
and secondly, the object of the faith which
justified him, and then thirdly, the attendance of
his justification.
First, Brethren, how was Abram justified?
We see in the text the great truth,
which Paul so clearly brings out in the
fourth chapter of his epistle to the Romans,
that Abram was not justified by his works.
Many had been the good works of Abram.
It was a good work to leave his
country and his father's house at God's bidding.
It was a good work to separate from
Lot and so noble a spirit.
It was a good work to follow after
the robber kings with undaunted courage.
It was a grand work to refuse to
take the spoils of Sodom, but to lift
up his hand to God that he would
not take from a thread even to a
shoelatchet.
It was a holy work to give to
Melchizedek tithes of all that he possessed, and
to worship the Most High God.
Yet none of these are mentioned in the
text, nor is there a hint given of
any other sacred duties as the ground, or
cause, or part cause of his justification before
God.
No, it is said, he believed in the
Lord, and he counted it to him for
righteousness.
Surely, Brethren, if Abram, after years of holy
living, is not justified by his works, but
is accepted before God on account of his
faith, much more must this be the case
with the ungodly sinner who, having lived in
unrighteousness, yet believeth on Jesus and is saved.
If there be salvation for the dying thief
and others like him, it cannot be of
debt, but of grace, seeing they have no
good works.
If Abram, when full of good works, is
not justified by them, but by his faith,
how much more we, being full of imperfections,
must come unto the throne of the heavenly
grace, and ask that we may be justified
by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and
saved by the free mercy of God.
Further, this justification came to Abram not by
obedience to the ceremonial law, any more than
by conformity to the moral law.
As the Apostle has so plainly pointed out
to us, Abram was justified before he was
circumcised.
The initiatory step into the outward and visible
covenant, so far as it was ceremonial, had
not yet been taken, and yet the man
was perfectly justified.
All that follows after cannot contribute to a
thing which is already perfect.
Abram, being already justified, cannot owe that justification
to a subsequent circumcision.
This is clear enough, and so, beloved, at
this moment, if you and I are to
be justified, these two things are certain.
It cannot be by the works of the
moral law, it cannot be by obedience to
any ceremonial law, be it what it may,
whether the sacred ritual given to Aaron, or
the superstitious ritual which claims to have been
ordained by gradual tradition in the Christian Church.
If we be indeed the children of faithful
Abraham, and are to be justified in Abraham's
way, it cannot be by submission to rites
or ceremonies of any kind.
Hearken to this carefully, ye who would be
justified before God.
Baptism is in itself an excellent ordinance, but
it cannot justify nor help to justify us.
Confirmation is a mere figment of men, and
could not even if commanded by God assist
us in justification.
And the Lord's Supper, albeit that it is
a divine institution, cannot in any respect whatsoever
minister to your acceptance or to your righteousness
before God.
Abram had no ceremonial in which to rest.
He was righteous through his faith, and righteous
only through his faith.
And so must you and I be, if
we are ever to stand as righteous before
God at all.
Faith in Abram's case was the alone and
unsupported cause of his being accounted righteous.
For note, although in other cases Abram's faith
produced works, and although in every case where
faith is genuine it produces good works, yet
the particular instance of faith recorded in this
chapter was unattended by any works.
For God brought him forth unto the starlit
heavens and bade him look up.
So shall thy seed be, said the sacred
voice.
Abram did what?
Believe the promise.
That was all.
It was before he had offered sacrifice, before
he had said a holy word, or before
he had performed a single action of any
kind, that the word immediately went forth.
He believed in the Lord, and he counted
it to him for righteousness.
Always distinguish between the truth that living faith
always produces works.
Distinguish between that and the lie that faith
and works cooperate to justify the soul.
No.
We are made righteous only by an act
of faith in the work of Jesus Christ.
That faith, if true, always produces holiness of
life, but our being righteous before God is
not because of our holiness in life in
any degree or respect, but simply because of
our faith in the divine promise.
Thus saith the inspired apostle, his faith was
imputed to him for righteousness.
Now it was not written for his sake
alone that it was imputed to him, but
for us also to whom it shall be
imputed, if we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who
was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification.
I would have you note that the faith
which justified Abram was still an imperfect faith,
although it perfectly justified him.
It was imperfect beforehand, for he had prevaricated
as to his wife, and bidden Sarah, say
thou art my sister.
It was imperfect after it had justified him,
for in the next chapter we find him
taking Hagar, his wife's handmaid, in order to
affect the divine purpose, and he is showing
a want of confidence in the working of
the Lord.
It is a blessing for you and me
that we do not need perfect faith to
save us.
If ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, the Lord said, ye shall say
unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place,
and it shall remove.
If thou hast but the faith of a
little child, it shall save thee.
Though thy faith be not always at the
same pitch as the patriarch's when he staggered
not at the promise through unbelief, yet if
it be simple and true, if it confide
alone in the promise of God, it is
an unhappy thing that it is no stronger,
and thou oughtest daily to pray, Lord, increase
my faith, but still it shall justify thee
through Christ Jesus.
A trembling hand may grasp the cup, which
bears a healing drop to the lip.
The weakness of a hand shall not lessen
the power of the medicine.
So far then all is clear.
Abram was not justified by works, nor by
ceremonies, nor partly by works, and partly by
faith, nor by the perfection of his faith.
He is counted righteous simply because of his
faith in the divine promise.
I must confess, looking more closely into it,
this text is too deep for me, and
therefore I decline at this present moment to
enter into the controversy which rages around it.
One thing is clear to me, that if
faith be, as we are told, counted to
us for righteousness, it is not because faith
in itself has merit which may make it
a fitting substitute for a perfect obedience to
the law of God, nor can it be
viewed as a substitute for such obedience.
For, brethren, all good acts are a duty.
To trust God is our duty, and he
that hath believed to his utmost hath done
no more than it was his duty to
have done.
He who should believe without imperfection, if this
were possible, would even then have only given
to God a part of the obedience due,
and if he should have failed in love
or reverence or something beside, his faith as
a virtue and a work could not stand
him in any stead.
In fact, according to the great principle of
the New Testament, even faith as a work
does not justify the soul.
We are not saved by works at all,
or in any sense, but alone by grace.
And the way in which faith saves us
is not by itself as a work, but
in some other way directly opposite thereto.
Faith cannot be its own righteousness, for it
is of the very nature of faith to
look out of self to Christ.
If any man should say, my faith is
my righteousness, then it's evident that he is
confiding in his faith.
But this is just the thing of all
others which would be unsafe to do, for
we must all together look away from ourselves
to Christ alone, or we have no true
faith at all.
Faith must look to the atonement and work
of Jesus, or else she is not the
faith of Scripture.
Therefore to say that faith in and of
itself becomes our righteousness is, it seems to
me, to tear out the very bowels of
the gospel, and to deny the faith which
has been once delivered to the saints.
Paul declares, contrary to certain sectaries who rail
against imputed righteousness, that we are justified and
made righteous by the righteousness of Christ.
On this he is plain and positive.
He tells us, Romans 519, that as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so
by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous.
The Old Testament verse before us as a
text this morning gives us, but as it
were, the outward aspect of justification.
It is brought to us by faith, and
the fact that a man has faith entitles
him to be set down as a righteous
man.
In this sense, God accounts faith to a
man as righteousness.
But the underlying and secret truth, which the
Old Testament does not so clearly give us,
is found in the New Testament declaration that
we are accepted in the beloved and justified
because of the obedience of Christ.
Faith justifies, but not in and by itself,
but because it grasps the obedience of Christ.
Scripture says, as by the offense of one,
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even
so, by the righteousness of one, the free
gift came upon all men unto the justification
of life.
To the same effect is that verse in
the second epistle general of Peter, first chapter,
first verse, which runs in our version as
follows, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle
of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained
like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Everybody who is at all familiar with the
original knows that the correct translation is through
the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus
Christ.
The righteousness which belongs to the Christian is
the righteousness of our God and Savior who
is, quote, made of God unto us righteousness.
Hence the beauty of the old prophetic title
of the Messiah, which means the Lord our
righteousness.
I do not wish to enter into controversy
as to imputed righteousness this morning.
We may discuss that doctrine another time, but
we feel confident that this text cannot mean
that faith in itself, as a grace or
a virtue, becomes the righteousness of any man.
The fact is that faith is counted to
us for righteousness because she has Christ in
her hand.
She comes to God resting upon what Christ
has done, depending alone upon the propitiation which
God has set forth.
And God, therefore, writes down every believing man
as being a righteous man, not because of
what he is in himself, but for what
he is in Christ.
He may have a thousand sins, yet shall
he be righteous, if he have faith.
He may painfully transgress like Samson, he may
be as much in the dark as Jephthah,
he may fall as David, he may slip
like Noah, but for all that, if he
have a true and living faith, he is
written down among the justified, and God accepts
him.
Now, while there may be some who gloat
over the false of believers, God spies out
the pure gem of faith gleaming on their
breast.
He takes them for what they want to
be, for what they are in heart, for
what they would be if they could.
And covering their sins with the atoning blood,
and adorning their persons with the righteousness of
the beloved, he accepts them, seeing he beholds
in them the faith which is the mark
of the righteous man, wherever it may be.
Let us pass on to consider the promise
upon which his faith relied when Abram was
justified.
Abram's faith, like ours, rested upon a promise
received direct from God, quote, This shall not
be thine heir, but he that shall come
forth out of thine own bowels shall be
thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad, and said,
Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars,
if thou be able to number them.
And he said unto him, So shall thy
seat be.
Had this promise been spoken by any other,
it would have been a subject of ridicule
to the patriarch.
But taking it as from the lips of
God, he accepts it, and relies upon it.
Now, brethren, if you and I have true
faith, we accept the promise, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, as being
altogether divine.
If such a declaration were made to us
by the priest of Rome, or by any
human being on his own authority, we could
not think it true.
But inasmuch as it comes to us written
in the sacred word as having been spoken
by Christ Jesus himself, we lean upon it
as not the word of man, but the
word of God.
Beloved, it may be a very simple remark
to make, but after all it is needful
that we must be careful that our faith
in the truth is fixed upon the fact
that God has declared it to be true,
not upon the oratory or persuasion of any
of our most honored ministers or most respected
acquaintances.
If your faith standeth in the wisdom of
man, it is probably a faith in man.
It is only that faith which believes a
promise because God spoke it which is real
faith in God.
Now note that, and try your faith thereby.
In the next place, Abram's faith was faith
in a promise concerning the seed.
It was told him before that he should
have a seed in whom all the nations
of the earth should be blessed.
He recognized in this the selfsame promise which
was made to Eve at the gates of
paradise, I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, between thy seed and her seed.
Abraham saw my day, says our Lord, he
saw it and was glad.
In this promise, Abram saw the one seed,
as saith the Apostle in Galatians 3.16,
he saith not unto seeds as of many,
but as one unto thy seed, which is
Christ.
He saw Christ by the eye of faith,
and then he saw the multitude that should
believe in him, the seed of the father
of the faithful.
The faith which justifies the soul concerns itself
about Christ and not concerning mere abstract truths.
If your faith simply believes this dogma and
that, it does not save you.
When your faith believes that God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
unto them their trespasses, when your faith turns
to God in human flesh and rests in
him with its entire confidence, then it justifies
you, for it is the faith of Abram.
Dear hearer, have you such a faith as
this?
Is it faith in the promise of God?
Is it faith that deals with Christ and
looks alone to him?
Abram had faith in a promise which it
seemed impossible could ever be fulfilled.
A child was to be born of his
own loins, but he was nearly a hundred
years old, and Sarah also was said to
be barren years before.
His own body was now dead, as it
were, and Sarah, so far as childbearing was
concerned, was equally so.
The birth of a son could not happen
unless the laws of nature were reversed.
But he considered not these things.
He put them all aside.
He saw death written on the creature, but
he accepted the power of life in the
Creator, and he believed without hesitation.
Now beloved, the faith that justifies us must
be of the same kind.
It seems impossible that I should ever be
saved.
I cannot save myself.
I see absolute death written upon the best
hopes that spring of my holiest resolutions.
In me, that is, in my flesh, there
dwelleth no good thing.
I can do nothing.
I'm slain under the law.
I'm corrupt through my natural depravity.
But yet, for all this, I believe that
through the life of Jesus, I shall live
and inherit the promised blessing.
It is small faith to believe that God
will save you when grace is flourishing in
your heart and evidence of salvation abound, but
it is a grand faith to trust in
Jesus in the teeth of all your sins
and notwithstanding the accusations of conscience.
To believe in him that justifieth, not merely
the godly, but the ungodly, Romans 4 or
5.
To believe not in the Savior of saints,
but in the Savior of sinners, and to
believe that if any man sinned, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.
This is precious and is counted unto us
for righteousness.
This justifying faith was faith which dealt with
a wonderful promise, vast and sublime.
I imagine a patriarch standing beneath the starry
sky, looking up to those innumerable orbs.
He cannot count them.
To his outward eye, long accustomed in the
land of the Chaldees to midnight observation, the
stars appeared more numerous than they would to
an ordinary observer.
He looked and looked again with an elevated
gaze, and the voice said, So shall thy
seed be.
Now he did not say, Lord, if I
may be the father of a clan, the
progenitor of a tribe, I shall be well
content.
This is not credible that countless hosts can
ever come of my barren body.
No, he believed the promise.
He believed it just as it stood.
I do not hear him saying, it's too
good to be true.
No, God hath said it, and nothing is
too good for God to do.
The greater the grace of the promise, the
more likely it is to have come from
him, for good and perfect gifts come from
the Father of Lights.
Beloved, does your faith take the promise as
it stands in its vastness, in its height
and depth and length and breadth?
Canst thou believe that thou, a sinner, art
nevertheless a child, a son, an heir, an
heir of God, joint heir with Christ Jesus?
Canst thou believe that heaven is thine, with
all its ecstasies of joy, eternity with its
infinity of bliss, God with all his attributes
of glory?
Oh, this is the faith that justifies, far
-reaching, wide- grasping faith that diminishes not
the word of promise, but accepts it as
it stands.
May we have more and more of this
large-handed faith.
Once more, Abram showed faith in the promises
made to himself.
Out of his own bowels a seed should
come, and it was in him and in
his seed that the whole world should be
blessed.
I can believe all the promises in regard
to other people.
I find faith in regard to my dear
friend to be very easy matter, but oh,
when it comes to close grips and to
laying hold for yourself, here's the difficulty.
I could see my friend in ten troubles
and believe that the Lord would not forsake
him.
I could read a saintly biography, and finding
that the Lord never failed his servant when
he went through fire and through water, I
do not wonder at it.
But when it comes to one's own self,
the wonder begins.
Our heart cries, whence is this to me?
What am I?
And what my father's house that such mercy
should be mine?
I washed in blood and made whiter than
snow today.
Is it so?
Can it be?
I made righteous through my faith in Jesus
Christ, perfectly righteous.
Oh, can it be?
What?
For me, the everlasting love of God streaming
from its perennial fountain?
For me, the protection of a special providence
in this life, and the provision of a
prepared heaven in the life to come?
For me, a harp, a crown, a palm
branch, a throne?
For me, the bliss of forever beholding the
face of Jesus and being made like unto
Him and reigning with Him?
It seems impossible, and yet this is the
faith that we must have, the faith which
lays on Christ Jesus for itself, saying with
the Apostle, He loved me and gave Himself
for me.
This is the faith which justifies.
Let us seek more and more of it,
and God shall have glory through it.
In the third place, let us notice the
attendance of Abram's justification.
With your Bibles open, kindly observe that after
it is written, his faith was counted to
him for righteousness, it is recorded that the
Lord said to him, I am Jehovah that
brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees
to give thee this land to inherit it.
When the soul is graciously enabled to perceive
its complete justification by faith, then it more
distinctly discerns its calling.
Now the believer perceives his privileged separation and
discerns why he was convinced of sin, why
he was led away from self-righteousness and
the pleasures of this world to live the
life of faith.
Now he sees his high calling and the
prize of it, and from the one blessing
of justification he argues the blessedness of all
the inheritance to which he is called.
The more clear a man is about his
justification, the more will he prize his calling,
and the more earnestly will he seek to
make it sure by perfecting his separation from
the world and his conformity to his Lord.
Am I a justified man?
Then I will not go back to that
bondage in which I once was held.
Am I now accepted of God through faith?
Then will I live no longer by sight
as I once did as a carnal man
when I understood not the power of trusting
in the unseen God.
One Christian grace helps another, and one act
of divine grace casts a reflection upon another.
Calling gleams with double glory side by side
with the twin star of justification.
Justifying faith receives more vividly the promises.
I have brought thee, said the Lord, into
this land to inherit it.
He was reminded again of the promise God
made him years before.
Beloved, no man reads the promises of God
with such delight and with such a clear
understanding as the man who is justified by
faith in Christ Jesus.
For now, saith he, this promise is mine
and made to me.
I have the pledge of its fulfillment in
the fact that I walk in the favor
of God.
I am no longer obnoxious to his wrath.
None can lay anything to my charge, for
I am absolved through Jesus Christ.
And therefore, if when I was a sinner
he justified me, much more being justified will
he keep his promise to me.
If when I was a rebel condemned, he
nevertheless in his eternal mercy called me and
brought me into the state of acceptance, much
more will he preserve me from all my
enemies and give me the heritage which he
has promised by his covenant of grace.
A clear view of justification helps you much
in grasping the promise.
Therefore, seek it earnestly for your soul's comfort.
Abram, after being justified by faith, was led
more distinctly to behold the power of sacrifice.
By God's command, he killed three bullocks, three
goats, three sheep with turtle doves and pigeons,
being all the creatures ordained for sacrifice.
The patriarch's hands are stained with blood.
He handles the butcher's knife.
He divides the beasts.
He kills the birds.
He places them in an order revealed to
him by God's Spirit at the time.
There they are.
Abram learns that there is no meeting with
God except through sacrifice.
God has shut every door except that over
which the blood is sprinkled.
All acceptable approaches to God must be through
an atoning sacrifice, and Abram sees this.
While the promise is still in his ears,
while the ink is yet wet in the
pen of the Holy Spirit, writing him down
as justified, he must see a sacrifice and
see it too in emblems which comprehend all
the revelation of sacrifice made to Aaron.
So, brethren, it is a blessed thing when
your faith justifies you, if it helps you
to obtain more complete and vivid views of
the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The purest and most bracing air for faith
to breed on is Calvary.
I do not wonder that your faith grows
weak when you fail to consider well the
tremendous sacrifice which Jesus made for his people.
Turn to the annals of the Redeemer's sufferings
given us in the Evangelists.
Bow yourself in prayer before the Lamb of
God, blushed to think you should have forgotten
his death, which is the center of all
history.
Contemplate the wondrous transaction of substitution once again,
and you will find your faith revived.
It is not the study of theology.
It is not reading books upon points of
controversy.
It is not searching into mysterious prophecy which
will bless your soul.
It is looking to Jesus crucified.
That is the essential nutriment of the life
of faith and mind that you keep to
it.
As Amanda already justified, Abram looked at the
sacrifice all day long until the sun went
down, chasing away the birds of prey, as
you must drive off all disturbing thoughts.
So must you also study the Lord Jesus
and view him in as all his characters
and offices.
Be not satisfied except you grow in grace
and in the knowledge of your Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
Perhaps even more important was the next lesson
which Abram had to learn.
He was led to behold the covenant.
I suppose that these pieces of the bullock,
the lamb, the ram, and the goat were
so placed that Abram stood in the midst
with a part on this side and a
part on that.
So he stood as a worshiper all through
the day, and towards nightfall, when a horror
of great darkness came over him, he fell
into a deep sleep.
Who would not feel a horror passing over
him as he sees the great sacrifice for
sin and sees himself involved therein?
There, in the midst of the sacrifice, he
saw, moving with solemn motion, a smoking furnace
and a burning lamp, answering to the pillar
of cloud and fire, which manifests to the
presence in later days to Israel in the
wilderness.
In these emblems the Lord passed between the
pieces of the sacrifice to meet his servant
and enter into covenant with him.
This has always been the most solemn of
all modes of covenanting and has even been
adopted in heathen nations on occasions of unusual
solemnity.
The sacrifice is divided and the covenanting parties
meet between the divided pieces.
The profane interpretation was that they imprecated upon
each other the curse that if they broke
the covenant they might be cut in pieces
as these beasts had been.
But this is not the interpretation which our
heart delights in.
It is this.
It is only in the midst of the
sacrifice that God can enter into a covenant
relationship with sinful man.
God comes in his glory like a flame
of fire, but subdued and tempered to us
as with a cloud of smoke in the
person of Jesus Christ.
And he comes through bloody sacrifice which has
been offered once for all through Jesus on
the tree.
Man meets with God in the midst of
the sacrifice of Christ.
Now, beloved, you who are justified try this
morning to reach this privilege which particularly belongs
to you at this juncture of your spiritual
history.
No one understand that God is in covenant
bonds with you.
He has made a covenant of grace with
you which never can be broken.
The sure mercies of David are your portion.
After this sort does that covenant run.
A new heart also will I give them
and a right spirit will I put within
them.
They shall be my people and I will
be their God.
That covenant is made with you over the
slaughtered body of the Son of God.
God and you cross hands over him who
sweat as it were great drops of blood
falling to the ground.
The Lord accepts us and we enter with
him into sacred league and amity over the
victim whose wounds and death ratify the compact.
Can God forget a covenant with such sanctions?
Can such a federal bond so solemnly sealed
be ever broken?
Impossible.
Man is sometimes faithful to his oath but
God is always so.
When that oath is confirmed for the strengthening
of our faith by the blood of the
only begotten to doubt is treason and blasphemy.
God help us being justified to have faith
in the covenant which is sealed and ratified
with blood.
Immediately after God made the Abram and here
the analogy still holds a discovery that all
the blessing that was promised though it was
surely his would not come without an interval
of trouble.
Thy seed shall be a stranger in a
land that is not theirs and shall serve
them and they shall afflict them 400 years.
When a man is first of all brought
to Christ he's often so ignorant as to
think now my troubles are over I've come
to Christ and I'm saved from this day
forward I shall have nothing to do but
to sing the praises of God.
Alas a conflict remains we must know of
a surety that now the battle begins.
How often does it happen that the Lord
in order to educate his child for future
trouble makes the occasion when his justification is
most clear to him the season of informing
him that he may expect to meet with
trouble.
I was struck with that fact when I
was reading for my own comfort the other
night the fifth chapter of Romans.
It runs thus, therefore being justified by faith
we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom also we have access
by faith into this grace wherein we stand
and rejoice in hope of the glory of
God.
See how softly it flows a justification sheds
the oil of joy upon the believers head.
But what is the next verse?
And not only so but we glory in
tribulation also knowing that tribulation work is patience
and so on.
Justification ensures tribulation.
Oh yes the covenant is yours you shall
possess the goodly land in Lebanon but like
all the seed of Abraham you must go
down into Egypt and groan being burdened.
All the Saints must smart before they sing
they must carry the cross before they wear
the crown.
You are a justified man but you're not
free from trouble.
Your sins were laid on Christ but you
still have Christ's cross to carry.
The Lord has exempted you from the curse
but he's not exempted you from the chastisement.
Learn that you enter on the children's discipline
on the very day in which you enter
upon their accepted condition.
To close the whole the Lord gave to
Abraham assurance of ultimate success.
He would bring his seed into the promised
land and the people who would oppress them
he would judge.
So let it come as a sweet revelation
to every believing man this morning that at
the end he shall triumph and those evils
which now oppress him shall be cast beneath
his feet.
The Lord shall bruise Satan under our feet
shortly.
We may be slaves in Egypt for a
while but we shall come up out of
it with great abundance of true riches better
than silver or gold.
We shall be prospered by our tribulations and
enriched by our trials.
Therefore let us be of good cheer.
If sin be pardoned we may well bear
affliction.
Strike Lord said Luther now my sins are
gone strike as hard as thou wilt if
transgression be covered.
These light afflictions which are but for a
moment are not worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Let us make it the first point of
our care to be justified with Abram's seed
and then whether we sojourn in Egypt or
enjoy the peace of Canaan it little matters.
We are all safe if we are only
justified by faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Dear friends this last word and I send
you home.
Have you believed in God?
Have you trusted Christ?
Oh that you would do so today.
To believe that God speaks truth ought not
to be hard and if we were not
very wicked this would never need to be
urged upon us.
We should do it naturally.
To believe that Christ is able to save
us seems to me to be easy enough
and it would be if our hearts were
not so hard.
Believe thy God man and think it no
little thing to do so.
May the Holy Ghost lead thee to a
true trust.
This is the work of God that you
believe on Jesus Christ whom he has sent.
Believe that the Son of God can save
and confide thyself alone in him and he
will save thee.
He asks nothing but faith and even this
he gives thee and if thou hast it
all thy doubts and sins thy trials and
troubles put together shall not shut thee out
of heaven.
God shall fulfill his promise and surely bring
thee in to possess the land which floweth
with milk and honey.
Amen.
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And remember that John Kelvin in defending the
Reformation's regulative principle of worship or what is
sometimes called the scriptural law of worship commenting
on the words of God which I commanded
them not either came into my heart from
his commentary on Jeremiah 731 writes God here
cuts off for men every occasion for making
evasions since he condemns by this one phrase
I have not commanded them whatever the Jews
devised there is then no other argument needed
to condemn superstitions and that they are not
commanded by God for when men allow themselves
to worship God according to their own fancies
and attend not to his commands they pervert
true religion and if this principle was adopted
by the papists all those fictitious modes of
worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would
fall to the ground it is indeed a
horrible thing for the papists to seek to
discharge their duties towards God by performing their
own superstitions there is an immense number of
them as it is well known and as
it manifestly appears were they to admit this
principle that we cannot rightly worship God except
by obeying his word they would be delivered
from their deep abyss of air the prophets
words that are very important when he says
that God had commanded no such thing and
that it never came to his mind as
though he had said that men assume too
much wisdom when they devise what he never
required nay what he never knew