Faith

“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” — Hebrews, x: 6,

The old Assembly’s Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” and its answer is, “To glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.” The answer is exceedingly correct; but it might have been equally truthful if it had been shorter. The chief end of man is “to please God;” for in so doing — we need not say it, because it is an undoubted fact — in so doing he will jDlease himself The chief end of man, we beUeve, in this life and in the next, is to please God his Maker. If any man pleases God, he does that which conduces most to his own temporal and eternal welfare, Man can not please God without bringing to himself a great amount of happiness; for if any man pleases God, it is because God accepts him as his son, gives him the blessings of adoption, pours upon him the bounties of his grace, makes him a blessed man in this life, and insures him a crown of everlasting life, which he shall wear, and which shall shine with unfading luster, when the wreaths of earth’s glory have all been melted away; while, on the other hand, if a man does not please God, he inevitably brings upon himself sorrow and suffering in this life; he puts a worm and a rottenness in the core of all his joys; he fills his death-pillow with thorns, and he supplies the eternal fire with faggots of flame which shall for ever consume him. He that pleases God is, through divine grace, journeying onward to the ultimate reward of all those that love and fear God; but he who is ill-pleasing to God must, for Scripture has declared it, be banished from the presence of God, and consequently from the enjoyment of liajipiness. If, then, we be right in saying that lo please God is to be happy, the one question is.

o how can I please God? and there is something very solemn in the utterance of our text: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” That is to say, do what you may, strive as earnestly as you can, live as excellently as you please, make what sacrifices you choose, be as eminent as yow can for every ihing that is lovely and of good repute, yet none of these things can be pleasing to God miless they be mixed with liiith. A.S the Lord said to the Jews, “With all your sacrifices yon must offer salt;” so he gays to us, “With all your doings you must bring faith, or else ’ without faith it is impossible to please God.’”

This is an old law; it is as old as the first man. No sooner were Cain and Abel born into this world, and no sooner had they* attained to manhood, than God gave a practical proclamation of this law, that “without faith it is impossible to please him.” Cain and Abel, one bnght day, erected an altai jide by side with each other. Cain fetched of the fruits of the trees and of the abundance of the son, and placed them upon his altar; Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock, and laid it upon his altar. It was to be decided which God would accept. Cain had brought his best, but he brought it without faith; Abel brought his sacrifice, but he brought it with fiitb in Christ. Now, then which shall best succeed? The oflerings arc equal in value; so far as they thamselves are concerned they are alike good. Upon which will the heavenh fire descend? Which will the Lord God consume with the fire of his pleasure? O! I see Abel’s offering burning, and Cain’s countenance has fallen, fur unto Abel wvd unto his oflering the Lord had respect, but unto Cain and his offering the Lord had no respect. It shall bo the same till the last man shall be gathered into heaven. There shall nerer be an acceptable offering which has not been seasoned with faith. Good though it may be, as apparently good in itself as that which has faith, yet unless faith be with it God never caa acd never will accept it, for he here declares, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

I shall endeavor to pack ray thoughts closely ‘his morninj.’, and be as brief as I can, consistently with a full exylanatiou t Xhfi theme. I shall first h.ave an exposition of what is fait fiecoiidly, I shall have an ctigument tlial without faith it is ira possible to be saved; and thirdly, I shall ask a question — Have you that faith which pleases God? We shall have, then, an exposition, an argument, and a question.

I. First, for the ExrosiTiox. What is faith?

The old writers, who are by far the most sensible — for jou ^111 notice that the books that were written about two hundred years ago by the old Puritans have more sense in one line than there is in a page of our new books, and more in a page than there is in a whole volume of our modern divinity — the old writers tell you, that faith is made up of three things: first, knowledge, then assent, and then what they call afliance, or the laying hold of the knowledge to which we give assent and making it our ov.m by trusting in it,

1. Let us begin, then, at the beginning. The first thmg in faith is Tcnoioledge. A man can not believe what he does not know. That is a clear, self-evident axiom. If I have never heard of a thing in all my life, and do not know it, I can not believe it. And yet there are some persons who have a faith like that of the fuller, who when he was asked what he believed, said, “I believe what the church believes.” “What does the church believe?” “The church believes what I believe.” “And pray what do you and the church believe?” “Why we both believe the same thing.” Now this man believed nothing, except that the church was right, but in what he could not tell. It is idle for a man to say, “I am a believer,” and yet not to kjiow what he believes; but yet I have seen some persons in this position. A violent sermon has been preached, which has stirred up their blood; the minister has cried, “Believe! believe! believe!” and the people on a sadden have got it into their heads that they were believers, and Jiave walked out of their place of worship and said, “I am a believer.” And if they were asked, “Pray what do you believe?” they could not give a reason for the hope that was in them. They believe they intend to go to chapel next Sunday; they intend to join that class of people; they intend to be very violent in their singing and very wonderful in their ranc; therefore they believe they shall be saved; but what they be- .ieve they can not tell. N?;w. I hold no man’s faith to bo sure failli, unless he knows what he believes. If he siys, “I believe,” and does not hnow what he believes, how can that be true faith? The apostle has said, “How can they believe on him of whom they have not heard? and how can they heai without a 231’eacher? and how can they preach except they be ?ent?” It is necessary, then, to true faith, that a man should it now something of the Bible. Believe me, this is an ago when the Bible is not so much thought of as it used to be. -^ome himdred years ago the world was covered with bigotry,, 3ruelty, and superstition. We always run to extremes, and we have just gone to the other extreme now. It was then said, “One feith is right, down with all others by the rack and by the sword!” Now it is said, “However contradictory out creeds may be, they are all right.” If we did but use our common sense we should know that it is not so. But some reply, “Such-and-such a doctrine need not be preached, and need not be believed.” Then, sir, if it need not be preached it need not be revealed. You impugn the wisdom of God, when you say a doctrine is unnecessary; for you do as much as say that God has revealed something which was not necessary, and he would be as unwise to do more than was necessary as if he had done less than was necessary. We believe that every doctrine of God’s Word ought to be studied by men, and that their faith should lay hold of the whole matter of the sacred Scriptures, and more especially upon all that part of Scripture which concerns the person of our all-blessed Redeemer. There must be some degree of knowledge before there can be faith. “Search the Scriptures,” then, “for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Christ;” and by searching and reading cometh knowledge, and by knowledge cometh faith, and through faith ccraeth salvation.

2. But a man may know a thing, and yet not have faith. I may know a thing, and yet not believe it. Therefore asseit must go with faith: that is to say, what we know we must also agi’ee luito, as being most certainly the verity of God. Now, m order to faith it is necessary that I should not only read the Scriptures and imderstand them, y)ut that I should receive them in my soul as being the very truth of the living God, find should devoutly with my whole lioart receive llie whola of Scripture as being inspired of the Most High, and the whole of the doctrine which he requires me to believe to my salvation. You are not allowed to halve the Sci’iptures, and to bf» lieve what you please; you are not allowed to believe the Scriptures with a half-heartedness, for if you do this willfully, you have not the faith which looks alone to Christ. Ti“ue fuitb gives its full assent to the Scriptures; it tak’is a page and says, “No matter what is in the page, I believi it;” it turns over the next chapter and says, “Herein are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable da wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their destruction; but, hard though it be, I believe it.” It sees the Trinity; it can not understand the Trinity in Unity, but it believes it. It sees an atoning sacriHce; there is something diflicult in the thought, but it believes it; and whatever it be which it sees in revelation, it devoutly puts its lips to the book, and says, “I love it all; I give my full, free, and hearty assent to every word of it, whether it be the threatening, or the promise, the proverb, the precept, or the blessing. I believe that since it is all the word of God it is all most assuredly true.” Whosoever would be saved must know the Scriptures, and must give full assent unto them.

3. But a man may have all this, and yet not possess true faith; for the chief pai’t of faith lies in the last head, namely, in an affiance to the truth; not the believing it merely, but the taking hold of it as being ouis, and in the I’csting on it for salvation. Recumbency on the truth was the word v/hlch the old preachers used. You will understand that word. Leaning on it; saying, “This is truth, I trust my salvation on it. ‘Now, true faith in its very essence rests in this — a leaning upon Christ. It will not save me to know that Christ is a Sa iour; but it will save me to trust him to be 7ny Saviour. I shall not be delivered from the wi-ath to come, by believing that his atonement is sufKcient, but I shall be saved by making that atonement my trust, my refuge, and my all. The pith, the essence of faith lies in this — a casting one’s-self on the promise. It is not the life-buoy on board the ship that saves the man when he is drowning, nor is it his belief that it is an ex< cellenl and successful invontio.i. No! He must liuvo it around his loins, or his h.ind upon it, or else he will sink. To use an old and hackneyed illustration. suppose a fire in the upper room of a house, and the people gathered in the street. A child is in the upper story: how is he to escape? He can not leap down — that were to be dashed to pieces. A strong jian comes beneath, and cries, “Drop into my arms.” It is a part of faith to know that the man is there; it is another part of faith to believe that the man is strong; but the essence of faith lies in the dropping down into the man’s arms. That is the proof of faith, and the real pith and essence of it. So, sinner, thou art to know that Christ died for sin; thou art also to understand that Christ is able to save, and thou art to believe that; but thou art not saved, unless in addition to that thou puttest thy trust’ in him to be thy Saviour, and to be thine for ever. As Hart says in the hymnj which really expresses the gospel,

“Venture on him, venture wholly;
Let no other trust in trade;

None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.”

Tnis is the faith which saves; and however unholy may have been your lives up to this hour, this faith, if given to you at this moment, will blot out all your sins, will change your nature, make you a new man in Christ Jesus, lead you to live a holy life, and make your eternal salvation as secure as if an angel should take you on his bright wings this morning, and carry you immediately to heaven. Have yon that faith ‘? That is the one all-important question; for while with faith men are saved, without it men are damned. As Brookes hath said in ono of his admirable works, ‘“He that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be saved, be his sins never so many; but he that believeth not in the Lord Jesus must be damned, be his sing never so few.” Hast thou faith? For the text declares, “Without fjxitli it is impossible to please God.”

H. And now we come to the argument, why, without faith, we can not be saved.

Now there are some gentlemen present who are sajing, ‘-^62 FAPrH.

“Now we shall see whether Sir, Spurgeon has any logic in him.” No, you Avoii’t, sirs, because I never pretend to exercise it. I hope I have the logic which can aj)peal to men’s hearts; but I ajn not very yrone to use the less powerful logic of the head, when I can win the heart in another maimer. But if it were needful, I should not be afraid to prove that I know more of logic and of many other things than the little men who undertake to censure me. It were well if they knew how to hold their tongues, which is at least a fine part of rhetoric. My argument shall be such as I trust will appeal to the heart and conscience, although it may not exactly please those who are always so fond of syllogistic demonstrivtion,

“Who could a hair divide
Between the west and north-west side.”

1. “AVithout faith it is impossible to please God.” And I gather it from the flict, that there never has been the case of a man recorded in Scripture who did please God without faith. The 11th chapter of the Hebrews is the chapter of the men who pleased God. Listen to their names: “by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice;” “bj faith Enoch was translated;” “by faith Noah built an ark;” “by iPaith Abraham went out into a place that he should afterward receive;” “by faith he sojourned in the land of promise;” ’ by faith Sarah bore Isaac;” “by faith Abraham oflfered up Isaac;” “by faith Moses gave up the wealth of Egypt;” “by fiiith Isaac blessed Jacob;” “by faith Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph;” “by faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel;” “by faith the Red Sea was dried up;” “by faith the walls of Jericho fell down;” “by fiiith the harlot Rahab was saved;” “and what shall f more say? for the time would fiiil me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jeplitha, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.” But all these were men of faith. Others mentioned in Scriptin-e Imve done something but God did not accept them. Men have humbled themselves, and yet God has not saved them. Abab did, ana yet his sins were never forgiven. Men have repented, and yet have nni been saved, because theirs was the wrong repentance. Judas repented, and went <iik hari-ed liiin:Je]f, urd was not saved. Men have confessed their sins, and have nv::>t been saved. Saul did it. He said to David, “I have sinrcd against thee, my son David;” and yet he went on as he did before. Multitudes have confessed the name of Christ, and ha’ve done manv marvelous things, and yet they have never been pleasing to God, from this simple reason, that they had not faith. Anc if there be not one mentioned in Scripture, which is the history of some thousand yeiirs, it is not likely that in the othet two thousand years of the world’s history there would liavv been one, when there was not one during the first four thou sand.

2. But the next argument i?.^ faith is the stooping grace and nothing can make a man stoop without faith, Now, unless man does stoop, his sacrifice can not be accepted. The angels know this. When they praise God, they do it vailing their faces with their wings. The redeemed know it. When diey praise God, they cast their crowns before his feet. Now, a man that has not faith proves that he can not stoop; for ho lias not faith for this reason, because lie is too proud to believe. He declares he will not yield his intellect, he will not become a child and believe meekly what God tells hinr to believe. He is too proud, and he can not enter heaven, because the door of heaven is so low that no one can enter in by it unless they will bow their heads. There never was a mar who could walk into salvation erect. We must GfO to Christ on our bended knees; for though he is a door big enough foi the greatest sinner to come in, he is a door so low that men must stoop if they would be saved. Therefore, it is that faith is necessai-y, because a want of faith is certain evidence of absence of humility.

3. But now for other reasons. Faith is necessary to salvation, because we are told in Scripture that loorhs can not sa’^e,. To tell a very familiar story, that even the poorest may not misunderstand what I say. A minister was one day going to preach. He climbed a hill on his road. Beneath him lay the villages, sleeping in their beauty, with the corn fields motionless in the sunshine; but he did not look at them, for his atuention was airested by a woman staudiiig at ]:ev door, and who, upon seeing him, came up to him wlth Uie greatest anv iety, and said, “O, sir, have you any keys about you? I have broken the key of my drawers, and there are some things that I must get directly.” Said he, “I have no keys,” She was disappointed, expecting that every one would have keys. “But suppose,” lie said, “I had some keys, they might not fit your lock, and therefore you could not get the articles you want. But do not distress yourself, wait till some one else comes up. But,” said he, wishing to improve the occasion, “have you never heard of the key of heaven?” “Ali! yes,” she said, “I have lived long enough and have gone to church long enough to know that if we work hard and get our bread by the sweat of our brov,% and act well toward our neighbors, and behave, as the catechism says, lowly and reverenly to ali our betters, and if we do our duty in that station of life in which it has pleased God to place us, and say oar prayers regularly, Ave shall be saved.” “Ah!” said he, “my good woman, that is a broken key, for you have broken the commandments, you have not fulfilled all your duties. It is a good key, but you have broken it.” “Pray, sir,” said she, believing that he understood the matter, and looking frightened, “What have I left out?” “Why,” said he, “the all-important thing, the blood of Jesus Christ. Don’t you know it is said, the key of heaven is at his girdle; he openeth, and no man shutteth; he shutteth, and no man openeth?” And explaining it more fully to her, he said, “It is Christ, and Christ alone, that can open heaven to you, and not your good works.” “What, minister,” said she, “are our good works useless then?” “No,” said he, “not after faith. If you believe first, you may have as many good works as you please; but if you belicA’e you will never trust in them, for if you trust in them you have spoiled them, and they are not good works any longer. Have ag many good works as you please; still, put your trust wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ, for if you do not, your key will never unlock heaven’s gate.” So, then, my hearers, we must have true faith, because the old key of works is so broken by us all that Ave never shall enter Paradise by it. If any of you iprbtend that you have no sins, to be A-ery plain Avitli you, you deceive yourselves, liud the truth is not in you. If you conceive ihat by your good works you shall enter he:iven, never was there a mere fell delusion, and you shall find at the last great day that your hopes are worthless, and that like sere leaves from the autumn trees your noblest doings shall be blown away, or kindled into a flame wherein you yourselves must sufler for ever. Take heed of your good works; get thera after fiiith, but remember, the way to be saved is simply to believe in Jesus Christ.

4. Again: without faith it is impossible to be saved, and to please God, because without faith there is no loiion to Christ. Now, union to Christ is indispensable to our salvation. If I come beibre God’s throne with my prayers, I shall never get them answered unless I bring Christ with me. The Molossians of old, when they could not get a flivor from their king, adopted a singular expedient; they took the king’s only son m their arms, and falling on their knees, cried, “O king, for thy son’s sake grant our request.” He smiled and said, “I deny nothing to those who plead my son’s name.” It is so with God, He will deny nothing to the man who comes, having Christ at his elbow; but if he comes alone he must be cast away. Union to Christ is, after all, the great point in salvation. Let me tell you a story to illustrate this. The stupendous falls of Niagara have been spoken of in every part of the world; but while they are marvelous to hear of, and wonderful as a spectacle, they have been very destructive to human life, when by accident any have been carried down the cataract. Some years ago two men, a bargeman and a collier, were in a boat, and found themselves unable to manage it, it beinoc carried ho ssviftly down the current that they must both inevitably pc borne down and dashed to pieces. Persons on the shore saw them, but were unable to do much for their rescue. At last, however, one man was saved by floati?”’g a rope to him, which he grasped. The same instant that the rope came ii.to his hand a log floated by the other man. The thoughtless f.nd confused bargeman instead of seizing the rope laid hold on the log. It was a fatal mistake; they were both in imminent Dpril, but the one was drawn to shore because he had a onnection with the people on the land, whilst the other, clinguig to the lug, was borr.r irresistibly along and never heard of

266 FAnn.

afterward. Do you not see tlmt here is a practical illustration? Faith is a connection with Christ. Christ is on the shore, so to speak, holding the rope of faith, and if we lay hold of it with the hand of our confidence he pulls us to shore; but our good works, having no connection with Cln-ist, are drifted along down the gulf of fell despair. Grapple them as tightly as we may, even with hooks of steel, they can not avail us in the least degree. You will see, I am sure, what I wish to show you. Some object to anecdotes; I shall use them till they have done objecting to them. The truth is never more powerfully set forth to men than by telling them, as Christ did, a story of a certain man with two sons, or a certain householder who went a journey, divided his substance, and gave to some ten talents, to another one.

Faith, then, is a union with Christ. Take care you have it; for if not, cling to your works, and there you go floating down the stream! Cling to your works, and there you go dashing down the gulf! Lost because your li orks have no hold on Christ and no connection with the blessed Redeemer! But thou, poor sinner, with all thy sin about thee, if the rope is round thy loins, and Christ has a hold of it, fear not!

“TTis honor is engaged to save
The meanest of his sheep;
All that Ills hca-^-enly Pa,thf-.r gave,
His hands securely keep.”

5. Just one more argument, and then I have done with it “Without faith it is impossible to please God,” because it i« impossible to preserve holiness without faith. What a multitude of fair-weather Christians we have in this age! Manj Christians resemble the nautilus, which in fine smooth weathei swims on the surface of the sea, in a splendid little squadron, like the mighty ships; but the moment the first breath of wind-ruffles the waves, they take in their sails and sink into the depths. Many Christians are the same. In good company, in evangelical drawing-rooms, in pious parlors, in chapel@ and vestries, they are tremendously religious; but if they are exposed to a little ridicule, if some shouid smile at them and call them Methodist or Presbyterian, or some name of reproaoli, it is all over with religion till the next fine day. Then when it is fine weather, and religion will answer their purpose, tip go the sails again, and they are as pious as before. Believe me, that kind of reliojion is worse than irreligion. I do like a man to be thoroughly what he is — a downright man; and if a man does not love God, do not let him say he does; but if Le be a true Christian, a follower of Jesus, let him say it and stand up for it; there is nothing to be ashamed of :t in it; the only thing to be ashamed of is to be hypocritical. Let us be honest to our profession, and it will be our glory. Ah! What would you do without faith in times of peisecution? You good and pious people that have no faith, what would you do if the stake were again erected in Smithfield, and if once more the fires consumed the saints to ashes — if the Lollard’s tower were again opened, if the rack were .again plied, or even if the ^^tocks were used, as they have been used by a Protestant church, as witness the persecution of my predecessor, Benja- »nin Keach, who was once set in the stocks at Aylesbury for writing a book ag.ainst infant baptism. If even the mildest form of persecution were revived, how would the people be scattered abroad! And some of the shepherds would be .eaving their flocks.

III. And now, in conclusion, the questiojt, the vital question. Dear hearer, have you faith? Dost thou believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all thy heart? If so, thou mayest hope to be saved. Ay, thou mayest conclude with absolute certainty that thou sh.alt never see perdition. Have you faith? Hiiall I help you to answer that question? I will give you three tests, as briefly as ever I can, not to weary you, and then farewell this morning. He that has faith has renounced his own righteousness. If thou puttest one atom of trust in thyself thou hast no faith; if thou dost place even a particle of relianoe upon any thing else but what Christ did, thou hast no faith. If thou dost trust in thy works, then thy works are antichrist, and Christ and antichi-ist can never go togethei Christ will have all or nothing; he must be a whole Saviour or no Saviour at all. If then, you have faith, you can say,

“Nothing in my hands T bring,
Simply to the cross I cUng”

2G8 FAITH.

Then true failh may bo known by this, that it begets :» oTcat esteem for the person of Christ. Dost thou love Christ? Couldst thou die for him? Dost thou seek to serve him? Dost thou love his people? Canst thou say

“Jesus, I love thy charming name,
‘Tis music to my ear.”

0 i if thou dost not love Christ thou dost not believe in him; for to believe in Christ, begets love. And yet more: he that has true faith will have true obedience. If a man says he has faith aild has no works, he lies; if any man declares that he believes on Christ, and yet does not lead a holy life, he makes a mistake; for while we do not trust in good works, we know that faith always begets good works. Faith is the father oi holiness, and he has not the parent who loves not the child. God’s blessings are blessings with both his hands. In the one hand he gives pardon: but In the other hand he always gives holiness; and no man can have the one, unless he has the other.

And now, dear hearers, shall I down upon my knees, and entreat you for Christ’s sake to answer this question in your own silent chamber: Have you faith? O! answer it. Yes — or No. Leave off saying, “I do not know,” or “I do not care.” Ah! ye tcill care one day, when the earth is reeling, and the world is tossing to and fro; ye will care when God shall summon you to judgment, and when he shall condemn the faithless and the unbelieving. O! that ye were wise — that ye would care now, and if any of you feel your need of Christ, let me beg of you, for Christ’s sake, now to seek futh in him who is exalted on high to give repentance and remission, and who, if he has given you repentance, will give you remission too, O sinners, who know your sins! “believe on the Lord Jesus, and ye shall be saved.” Cast yourselves upon his love and blood, his doing and his dying, his miseries and his merits; and if you do this you shall never fall, but you shall be saved now, and saved in that great day, when not to be saved will be horrible indeed. “Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Lay hold on him, touch the hem of his garment, and ye shall be healed. May God heljs you so to do; for Christ’s sake! Amen and Amen.