(Continued from page 35.)
IN verse 7, faith, as the energy by which we enter in salvation, is simply and forcibly set before us. And here it is important to note, that faith is no part of man's inheritance as a child of Adam or mere creature; it is the distinct effect of revelation, and only possessed by those who bow to this revelation. "All men have not faith," Paul states; and tells us, in Romans, " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Noah is a striking example of one who bowed his whole soul to the revelation God gave him, and this wrought in him that saving faith which is called in scripture, " the obedience of faith." He was " saved through faith " as the divinely-given energy by which he did what God told him. God had revealed to him that He was going to drown the whole world, and the fear of judgment to come thus produced wrought, doubtless, in him, as in the case of the Philippian jailor, the inquiry, " What must I do to be saved?" and then, when God says, " Build an ark," he unquestioningly does it-he believes, fears, and obeys. Now it was quite different with Enoch; God tells him He will translate him. Enoch, believing, is moved by hope, and lived in all the details of life, with the fact before him, that God was going to translate him. You and I would put fear first; not so God, He speaks of hope first, not fear. It is ever His way.
We must not overlook here, in connection with salvation, the gracious thoughts of God for all those dear to our hearts naturally. God told Noah to build an ark for himself and his house, and his faith took them all in-" Noah did according to all the Lord commanded him." The world might laugh, and think him mad. Very likely they said, " Why, Noah, what are you doing? What a fool you are to be building that immense ship; it will never be wanted. Where will all the water come from to float it; and so far, too, above the level of the sea?" In spite of their unbelieving jeers, he quietly goes on with his work, for an hundred and twenty years by word and act preaching righteousness to them. Every nail Noah put into the ark condemned them; every act of his life, every utterance of his lips, told them he was looking out for judgment for the world and salvation for himself.
Beloved friends, is this what we are doing? It is no use reading the word of God, if we do not take it home to ourselves, it only puffs us up, as head knowledge ever does, in self-conceit. We must come right into the light of God's holiness, and there let His word be sharper than any two-edged sword. What have we been doing to-day? It is vain to be going to the world, and saying, I am saved. We must let them know it by our every word and action. And, we remark again, Noah was not told to build the ark only for himself, it was to be for his,house as well.
I do not believe much in the man who says, I am saved, and then sits down, with folded arms, and says, " If my children are to be saved, they will be." It must be a hard, horrible heart that can leave his children to be saved, or not saved, as a matter in which he has no care or responsibility. What should we think, if Noah had left his sons, while himself building the ark, to make themselves comfortable and prosperous in the world, as if what he was himself doing had no concern for them, and would not affect them? We should think he did not believe the world was going to be drowned. No; we can quite suppose Noah had his sons with him, doing what he was doing-building the ark. Is this what we are doing? Or are we, being saved ourselves, content to see our children, and those dear to us, going on unsaved? Beloved friends, I have my interests in this matter, and you have yours. This is why I speak of it.
In verses 8, 9, faith, as the energy by which the believer follows God in the path of blessing, is depicted.
It is the path of faith, and Abraham its bright exemplar. In Gen. 12 we get the historical fact of Abraham's call. The way Stephen presents it, in Acts 7, throws additional light on the subject. Abram, who comes after the flood when Satan had usurped God's place in the minds of His creatures, was a dark idolater, worshipping stocks and stones. Abel, Noah, and Enoch did know God, but here was a man who did not know a word about God, till He personally revealed Himself and told him to go to the land He would show him. He did not even tell him what land at first; God would have Abram follow without knowing where. This needed confidence in the One who was to lead. Just think, beloved friends, suppose an utter stranger were to ask you to follow him, without telling you where, would it not need great confidence in this person to enable you to do it? Abram's faith was weak and faltering at first, certainly-he stayed till Terah was dead, but, after all, he went simply out with God, he did not know where.
Very likely his neighbors thought him very foolish, and said to him, "Abram, where are you going?" Abram could only tell them he was following God; and then, when they told him they could not see God, Abram's answer must still have been-" I do not know where I am going, but I am following God;" and we may be quite sure the world did not understand him. If the world understands us, depend upon it, it is because we are so much like it. A reviewer of a periodical writes: " Christians! I do not see any difference in them from the rest of the world. They do just the same things, only, perhaps, they are a little more earnest in them."
Oh! beloved friends, we ought to bring faith into our daily life in all its details, and the world then would not have to say such sad things of us. I ask you, as I ask my own soul, Are you an Abel, bringing an acceptable sacrifice to God? Are you an Enoch, walking with God? Are you a Noah, condemning the world? Are you, like Abram, a testimony for God; or like the Thessalonians who (as he did) " turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven"? (Compare Josh. 24:2-142And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. 3And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. 5I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. 6And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea. 7And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season. 8And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you. 9Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: 10But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand. 11And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand. 12And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. 13And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat. 14Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. (Joshua 24:2‑14); 1 Thess. 1:9,109For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:9‑10).)
I do not think we at all sufficiently bear in our hearts what it is to be a Christian. We like to know ourselves saved from hell, and to know of blessing in heaven at the last. But what about our heavenly calling? We have one, as much as Abram had, and God will have reality in us. If we say, " our citizenship is in heaven," He will not let us have one down here. He will have us pilgrims and strangers. We like to make our plans, and have everything very comfortable; God turns everything upside down. When we pray, " Conform us to thyself, 0 God," do we mean, " Strip us of everything, 0 God, that hinders this"? He will have us real in what we pray for. Abram went out, not knowing whither he went—he went with God alone. This is what we have to do, and we need simple faith for it.
In verse 9 Abraham's faith shines out very touchingly, and in a way that often rebukes ourselves, for we are very apt to leave our children out of the blessing. Heb. 11 gives us two very good examples of their being brought into the same place as their parents. Noah builds for himself and his house; Abram dwells in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs 'with him; and note, it speaks here, not only of the son, but of the grandson also. What we want is, to take God at His word. Then what should we not have? Blessings, dear friends, for ourselves and others without number.
It was the consciousness of God's presence and leading that enabled Abraham to go out to a land he knew not, and to take all his family with him. Are we more conscious of God's presence than of anything else? Are we more conscious of His being with us than of the ground on which we stand, or of the sun that throws his rays around us? Alas! we know it is often not so; at least, I can speak for myself. Let me ask you: Has there been one hour, half-an-hour-say five minutes-this day that you have been lost to all consciousness but that of the presence of God? Surely, what we all want, more and more, beloved, is to cultivate the sense of God's presence always, and in all things.
We shall find increasingly, as we go through this chapter, how faith takes everything from the hand of God, even the simplest and most natural things. Neither man nor Satan ever originated anything. It is well to bear this in mind in reading verse 10. But you may say, Did God originate such-and-such a thing, that is now so contrary to Him? Yes, He did. The thing becomes bad in its use; it is abused and made contrary to Him by man. Now God was the Originator of cities. It was a 'divine idea that planned cities, and not a human one, and so Abram could look for a city, but it was one " which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." When men began to build a city, they did it, so to speak, in defiance of God. It was against His express command to do the contrary. It was to make themselves a name, and not be scattered over the earth to replenish it, as God had told them they were to. God's time to build a city had not then come, and He confounded their Ianguacre, and they were not able to finish.
God had no city then, so Abram would have none, and he dwelt in tents; he would wait for God's city. It would have been very wrong for Abram to have taken part in the concerns of a city. This I feel to be very practical. Are we willing to be city] ess and citizenshipless; or do we want to have a name down here? The world always records in its chronicles men who have made themselves great in its eyes; but God has a chronicle too, and He records in it all we do, good or bad. He has given us, in the four Gospels, a sample of what His chronicles are composed of. We have there the record of the Lord Jesus, as far as God has been pleased to give it to us for our blessing and present joy. The rest we shall know by-and-by in heaven-nothing has been lost or overlooked; God knows, and has treasured up, all His beloved Son ever did or said; how full is that treasury we may imagine from John 21:2525And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. (John 21:25). And God, beloved
friends, keeps, too, a record of all our acts, and words, and thoughts, and according to what is found in His book will be our place of dignity in heaven.
Do not misunderstand me, it is not here a matter of salvation, but of reward. To illustrate what I mean: Mr. Gladstone is not prime minister because he is an Englishman, but because he has earned the place by service. All who are saved will be in heaven, but all will not have the same place there. I believe Abram will have a very distinguished one. The Lord Jesus, of course, will have the highest of all, and that, not only as Son of God, but because He ever took the lowest place here, and served God perfectly. It is not the greatest here that will be highest there; and some that have been poorest here, will be richest there. I do not mean we are, as it were, to buy a place in heaven by our works here, but it is certain " we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in the body;" and as " one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." Those who, for Christ's sake, have had least here, will have most there. The Spanish martyr, Matamoros, when cast into prison, and bereft of wife, child, everything, could take it all joyfully, and say, " They cannot take away Christ? I am happier than ever," and his reward will be great.
In verse 11 we have faith as the true spring of domestic life. Sarah is found in God's record, for what we should call the most natural thing, her faith takes only from God, and God lets it be seen that it is from Him, for He waits to act, till all hope from natural power is gone. He had promised them a seed-promised Abram that he should become a great nation-and as yet they had no son. How could it be? Faith takes the answer from God, and, in a sense, Sarah becomes the mother of Christ, for from Isaac springs Judah, and out of Judah arises Christ. And it is beautiful to notice how God, in His record, passes by the many blots and failures we know were to be found with Abram and Sarah; passes by even Sarah's laugh, and records only her faith.
Then (ver. 13) " these all died in faith." Natural death
even was the act of faith. It is not, in the faith, or according to faith, but in faith. Their faith laid hold of things distant and unseen, and in the certainty of possessing these things they died. Their death was not "the debt of nature" paid, but an energy of divine life that acted in death.
It is one thing to see afar off; it is another to be per'suaded about anything; and quite another to embrace it. A kiss speaks of peace, but embracing is much more; it is throwing one's arms round a person, even as the father did to the prodigal. It was Abram's embracing the promises that made him a pilgrim, and it is not till we can truly say, as that beautiful hymn has it, "'Tis the treasure I've found in His love
Which has made me a pilgrim below."
that we can be such. It is not that it is wrong to have a house, and dwell in a city; it may be all right for us in one way, but it is the hold these things have on our hearts that is the trouble. I do not mean we are to be " transcendental," or " unnatural," but are we confessing, in all our ways down here, that we are strangers? Are we declaring plainly that we seek a country? One can tell directly one enters a house, where the heart of the one to whom it belongs is. In fact, it is shown in the dress, in the bonnet or cloak, and in ten thousand little ways. Ofcourse, we must have earthly things, but are our hearts occupied with them? Yet very little things have power to upset us, and draw the soul out of communion with the Lord, for the placing of a spoon on the table, the way chairs are put, ever such little things, have power to make us angry, and speak hastily. When Lot wanted to go the way Abram might have preferred, Abram could give it up. He simply says, " Well! you go one way, and I will go the other, only do not let us have strife." The thing had no lold upon his heart, and he could say, he would rather anything than contention.
We ought to be declaring plainly, in every little detail Hof life, that we seek a country. Dear friends, are we 'doing so? Does the world see a difference in us to themselves in everything? It ought to be so. c.w.