Yonder dear friend has been praying for the last six months, and the Lord has not heard him, and he begins to doubt whether the Lord does hear prayer at all. and there you are young man! Have you faith? They dwelt in tents--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he has prepared for them a city. The 11th chapter of Hebrews is the chapter of the men who pleased God. He shall dwell in God's house and be still praising him. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If the father of the faithful had to do it, why should the sons murmur? He had no Pentateuch, no Psalms, no Gospels, no Epistles; but he so believed that little Bible of his, that he expected that Christ in him would bruise the serpent in the world. Own them--how can he own them? Certain saints are summoned to active marching duty, and others are ordered to keep watch on the walls. Hare you not been obliged to say, after you have had all that the world could give you, "Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity?" Ah me! The proof of faith lies in perseverance. You don't need no baggage, you just get on board. Teachers should aspire to be what they would have their classes to be. "Yea," he said; "' he is a fellow that preaches with his feet." And is not that word true, I would make one more application of my text, which is capable of being used in a thousand directions. THE OPPORTUNITIES WHICH WE HAVE HAD, AND STILL HAVE, TO RETURN to the old house if we were mindful of it. Where can we fly to escape from these opportunities that haunt us everywhere and peril us in every thing? Trust you in Christ to overcome by his Spirit that which he has put away by his death. In the presence of the great ones of the earth they may call him their God--anywhere--and he is not ashamed to be so called. "Out of weakness were made strong": this will be experienced in bearing witness for the truth of God. I do not believe she was a harlot at the time the men went to her house, though the name still stuck to her, as such ill names will; but I am sure she was not afterward, for Salmon the prince of Judah married her, and her name is put down among the ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ. Henceforth in this world we have no home, no true abiding home for our spirits. Culture there was none in the ministry; but the people were stanch believers. Ere the precept had gone forth, obedience had come forth to meet it with rejoicing. Ah me! That is not the faith to which the promise is given. 'The Call of Abraham'; 'The Obedience of Faith'; 'Abraham's Prompt Obedience to the Call of God'. If they do go out, they must know where they are going, and how much is to be picked up in the new country. There is a sort of faith which does run well, but it is soon hindered, and it doth not obey the truth. They died in faith. Whether I stand on Tabor's summit, or am hidden in the vale of Baca, the covenant standeth fast, and everlasting love abideth." When I went back into the vestry, I learned the secret of my personal distress, for there was an elderly man in a horror of great darkness, who said to me, "I have never before met with any person who has been where I am. If a little flood had happened and moved his ark a little, he would have had some evidence for his faith; but there was no flood at all; and his ark lay high and dry for a century and a quarter! The answer is exceedingly correct; but it might have been equally truthful if it had been shorter. Take heed of rushing to perdition over your mother's prayers! The brother went home weeping; but he was not the only one who felt his heart breaking. THE APOSTLE COULD NOT AVOID mentioning Noah; for in him faith shone forth eminently. God gave his Son, equal with himself, to bear the burden of human sin; and he died, a substitute for sinners,--a real substitute, an efficient substitute, for all who trust in him. how often will our imagination paint sin in very glowing colors, and, though we loathe sin and loathe ourselves for thinking of it, yet how many a man might say, "had it not been for divine grace, where should I have been?--for my feet had almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped." What did come of it? Oh, that we may, through almighty grace, be so pleasing unto the Lord that we may abide in fellowship with him! Even bad men will obey God when they think fit; but good men will obey when they know not what to think of it. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. So the first important thing to see . Could he not have kept us from temptation?" It sees the Trinity; it cannot understand the Trinity in Unity, but it believes it. It is forgiven thee. He suffered the Egyptians to pursue, and overtake, and threaten to divide the spoil; and he allowed them in their pride to go down after Israel into the depths of the sea. No better answer is given in perhaps all the Bible than in the great eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews. Faith in God made the cripple at the temple gate stand, and walk, and leap, and praise God; and even so does faith make our sin-crippled manhood obey the will of the Lord with exultation. 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. To the believer, let a truth be tinctured with the glory of God, and he values it; but if God and eternity be not there, he will leave these trifles to those who choose them. "Without faith it is impossible to please God." If you attempt his conversion apart from heavenly power, you might as well try to take leviathan with a hook! You may be diligent in secret prayer, and, perhaps, the devil may have seemed asleep till you began to pray, and when you were most fervent, then will he also become most rampant. Notice how the text puts it:--"But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." The chief thought in life with the true believer is, "How can I obey God?" Let us think of heaven, of Christ, of all the blessings of the covenant, and let us thus keep our desires wide awake. Some of us are by constitution inclined to that condition. He had to leave behind him those who were exceeding dear to him. As you have glanced over the scroll of history, or narrowly scanned the records of men's lives, the pomp of Pharaoh has not dazzled you, but the purity of Joseph has charmed you; the choice of Moses was to your taste, though it did involve leaving a court where he was flattered, for fellowship with enslaved kinsmen by whom he was suspected; and, you would rather have been with Daniel in the lions' den than with Darius on the throne of empire. Practice by obedience now the song which you will sing for ever in glory. When does he forget his gold? More than that, if ever the child of God gets entangled for awhile, he is uneasy by reason of it. "We know that this earthly house of our" tent "shall be dissolved, but we have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." One goes to the right, and other goes to the left. And then, as though the greatest victory should be recorded last, we have faith entering the lists with sin, holding a tournament with iniquity, and coming off more than a conqueror. My brethren, Jehovah never errs in deed, or in word; and when you find his law written either in the ten commandments, or anywhere else, you believe that there is not a precept too many, or too few. Whose of you who have had to part from those you loved, who have had your hearts rent when loved ones have been torn away, can sympathize somewhat with Abraham's trial when he left home and family, and country, and all, to go forth into an unknown land. Many have heard, but they have not believed; the sound of the gospel has entered into their ears, but its inner sense and sacred power have not been felt in their hearts. We may bear the annoyances of the eventide and the night, for the morning will break so soon. Possibly I speak to some who are suffering the evils of persecution No cruel tyrant can burn believers now, nor even cast them into prison for Christ's sake; but there are ways enough for the seed of the serpent to show its enmity to the seed of the woman. Click to Sign Up Now! We may as well let things take their course." The proof of faith lies in perseverance. And how frequently will even solitude have temptations as severe as publicity could possibly bring! He has locked it up tonight, and he goes to bed, but he is afraid he heard a footstep downstairs, and he goes to see. We shall have to speak about his fear being "moved by fear"; we shall also remember his obedience, for he "prepared an ark to the saving of his house." That was the first day; probably the next day Rahab thought they would come with scaling-ladders and mount the walls; but no, rams' horns again, up to the seventh day; and this woman kept the scarlet thread in the window all the time, kept her father and mother, and brothers and sisters in the house, and would not let them go out; and on the seventh day, when the people made a great shout, the wall of the city fell flat to the ground; but her faith overcame her womanly timidity, and she remained within, although the wall was tumbling to the ground. Where can we go to escape from these opportunities to return? "My Father is the husbandman," said Christ. I may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, and so I will have my fling, and go into sin even as I please." Depend upon it, faith that is never tried is not true faith. It makes them say, "Lord, thou hast forgiven me my sins; I will sin no more. And the same things that are the object of our hope, are the . I might call some of you hypocrites: you sing. I fear some of you will miss eternal life, for you trifle about it! If they had been, they would not have required faith in God; but being men of like passions with ourselves, they needed to trust in the Lord, and they did so. I wish we all had such a fear. Dost thou believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all thy heart? "Along the cool, sequestered vale of life they hold the even tenor of their way." Let God be true, but every man a liar." Opportunities to return in our own nature. You may be diligent in secret prayer, and perhaps the devil may have been asleep till you begin to pray, and when you are most fervent then will he also become most rampant. You have a sort of hereditary religion in the same way as you have a display of family plate; pretty battered it is, no doubt, and rather light in weight by this time, but still you cling to it. Said the dear little lad, very prettily, "Because I'm a good boy." The Promise: A Redeemer In Hebrews 11 there is a constant reference to the promise that God had given to various people. Was it gambling? Do I speak to a youth here who fears God, and who lives in an ungodly family? The curse has fallen. His feet would have been willing to attempt a miracle, and the stormy billows would have been dry before his march. I do not bargain for comfort, and peace, and joy, if I can be more helpful to thy poor, weary children without them. It is hard for those to rise to the surface who have been plunged in the deeps. I knew a little humble Dissenting chapel, of the straitest sect of our religion. If you take the wooden sword of your own reasoning, you may easily be beaten. Consciences, tender about the Lord's honour, have not been produced for the last few years in any great number. Let's read the text ( Hebrews 11:1-3 ): Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. He needed no forcing and driving, "God drew him and he followed on, Charmed to confess the voice divine.". Now what shall be said to those who are not strangers and foreigners? III. Notice, next, that there is this about a Christian, that even when he does not enjoy something better, he desires it. You feel that you have little to show for your faith. If you are never mirthful, and seldom able to call yourself joyful--the only cure for depression is faith. I would rather be Master of the Art of prayer than M.A. I may know a thing, and yet not believe it. You read the newspaper you read the book; you hear the lecturer; you sit and listen to the pretty essayist; but where is the preacher? Meanwhile, the delayer's case waxes worse and worse, and, if there were difficulties before, they are now far more numerous and severe. 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