hebrews 11 commentary spurgeon
First, then, he had a call. Nothing in Noah is held up before us as an example, but that which grew out of his faith. He did not know where his way would take him, but he knew that the Lord had bidden him go. 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. "Wife?" May God help you so to do; for Christ's sake! Your children have been about you; you have had many household joys, and you have said, "I could stay here for ever." I can only pray the Lord to give you to believe in him. this is well!" These opportunities to return are meant to try your faith, and they are sent to you to prove that you are a volunteer soldier. Noah was a stranger to this paralyzing fear: he bestirred himself, and built an ark. The Apostle tells us, however, that the people of God were not forced to continue, because they could not return. Although he may not reach the heights of ambition, nor stand upon the giddy crags of presumption, yet he shall know superior joys. 2. His faith in God has become to him the crown of all his believings; the most assured of all his confidences. Perhaps you have tried to fill your soul with the daintiest provisions the world can offer; to wit--God has prospered you, and you have said, "Oh, this is well." How strong is the evil in the best man, how stern is the conflict to keep under the body, lest corruption should prevail! You see, then, they had many opportunities to have returned, to have settled comfortably, and tilled the ground as their fathers did before them; but they continued to follow the uncomfortable shifting life of wanderers of the weary foot, who dwelt in tents, who own no foot of land--they were aliens in the country which God had given them by promise. Does that thought burn within your heart? He climbed a hill on his road. It was by no means a liberal creed which they received, but what they held operated on their lives. Could he not have kept us from temptation?" Thou art no intruder! If we have a faith which is greedy in hearing, severe in judging, and rapid in self-congratulation, but not inclined to obedience, we have the faith of hypocrites. When God began with many of us, he found us very low down beneath the flood of evil. How often does it happen in this land of ours, that a poor earnest Christian has associated with the people of God at all meetings, and felt proud to be there, but he has risen in the world and stood an inch or two above others in common esteem, and he could not go with God's people any longer: he must seek out the world's church and join in to get a share of the respectability and prestige that will always congregate in the domain of fashion. You and I may be very weak at this time, but we can be made strong out of just such weakness. We've been working through the different letters and report cards for the seven churches of Revelation and we saw that for the last two, Thyatira and Sardis, Jesus had some hard hitting warnings. It sees an atoning sacrifice; there is something difficult 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. They simply blow a number of rams' horns; her neighbors say, "Why, Rahab, you do not mean to say you believe now? There be some who could tell you a tale of standing up alone. Some allow a presuming fear: "If I am to be saved," say they, "I shall be saved; and if I am to be lost, I shall be lost. The more they draw us to heaven the more we shall be separated from earth. Woman! Now, Rahab's faith, sinner as she was, had this glory, this crown about its head, that she stood alone, faithful among the faithless found.". Now which man does the dog follow? Howbeit, repent of them never, or woe betide you. In the conflict with evil, we would overcome it early, and put it to the rout at the first attack; but it may be that God will allow error to proceed further, and let it seem to triumph, so that by its own presumption it may place itself where it may be the more effectually crushed, never again to afflict the church. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers. It is nothing short of Godhead's utmost stretch of might that keeps the feet of the saints, and preserves them from going back to their old unregenerate condition. Did not Rebekah come from thence? it may even happen that she that lieth in your bosom does not yet know the Lord. A strong emphasis in Spurgeon's preaching was God's grace and sovereignty over man's helpless state. Why, the most of you are as afraid as you ever can be to go out of the fashions, and you spend more money than you ought because you think you must be respectable. I fear I should never have touched his case if I had not been in the miry clay myself. The obedience of faith creates a form of life which may be safely copied . Well doth Paul say, "They have not all obeyed the gospel": for to many the call comes as a common call, and the common call falls on a sealed ear, but to Abraham and to those who by grace have become the children of faithful Abraham, to whom are the blessings of grace, and with whom God has entered into league and covenant, to touch it comes as a special call, a call attended with a sacred power which subdues their wills and secures their obedience. Is there anything galling to you in all this? What! But one of his neighbors felt forced to go to him very early in the morning, and to say to him, "I beg your pardon for intruding so early, but I lay awake all last night thinking about you; and I cannot rest till I tell you something." Your hopes and delays are just such a mud wall. By no means. Strength to do right at the head of a household must come by divine gift; and that gift will only be placed in the open hand of faith. said he, "my good woman, that is a broken key, for you have broken the commandments, you have not fulfilled all your duties. Download or read book Looking to Christ: The Book of Hebrews written by Marci Ogrosky and published by WestBow Press. He who does not believe that God will punish sin, will not believe that God will pardon it through the atoning blood. Now, my good woman, don't you see the absurdity of this thing? Price Sixpence. You will say, "You want to make proselytes." May God give his blessing, for Jesus sake! Oh, have you not often strong inducements, if it were not for the grace of God, to become as they are? You will soon become a speckled bird among them. This woman said, "If I must die for these men, I will; I am prepared, bad name as I have, to have a worse name still; as a traitor to my country I am prepared to be handed down to infamy, if it be necessary, for having betrayed my country in taking in these spies, for I know it is God's will it should be done, and do it I will at every hazard. There is enough in the world for sinners, but there is not for saints. This will be sure defensive ground; but if you get off that rock, you will soon find yourself sinking or staggering. Delivered on Sabbath Morning, December 14, 1856, by the REV. Certain saints are summoned to active marching duty, and others are ordered to keep watch on the walls. Thy sin was laid on him. There was careful preparation, and not hurried, thoughtless activity. I will withdraw the question as directed to you, and I will ask it of myself: Have I that faith which leads me to obey my God? Well, be it so; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved; and all those that die in faith are gathered with the great cloud of witnesses. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" 649, 653, 650. Assuredly, you will not hold out without true faith, and much of it. 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. You will find, in one case, the thousand battles of a Napoleon recorded, and in another, you find the victories of a Nelson pictured. There is no doubt he could, but it was never the Master's intention that we should all be hothouse plants. and in a mournful degree I felt what I preached, as my own cry. Oh, this flesh, the body of this death--wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from it? This is his infallible revelation, and I believe it against every argument that can possibly be urged against it. It is only our Lord Jesus Christ who can tell you that, for he is the only one who has ever been the Saviour of sinners. Noah obeyed the Lord very carefully. We have faith triumphing over infirmity--Abraham begetteth a son in his old age. The first was this, that he was willing to be separated from his kindred. The apostle tells us, however, that they were not forced so to continue; they did not remain because they could not return. I am not pronouncing any judgement upon their conduct, I am merely pointing out the fact. Faith is weakness clinging to strength, and becoming strong through so doing. Who wants to be a child and do easy things? Not now do I see them lift up the great iron door, and let loose the monsters that come forth roaring, hungry for their prey. As to the scope and design of this epistle, it is very evident that it was clearly to inform the minds, and strongly to confirm the judgment, of the Hebrews in the transcendent excellency of the gospel above the law, and so to take them off from the ceremonies of the law, to which they were so wedded, of which they were so fond, that they even Hebrews 11:12-13. See, then, dear friends, what we must have if we are to be numbered with the seed of Abraham, we must have faith in God and a consequent obedience to his commands. my brethren and sisters, if some of us wished to return, we should have this opportunity to return in a certain sense. Because they are strangers, add because they will not go back to their old abode, "therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God." I delight to preach a free gospel, and to preach it to every creature under heaven; but we must never forget the speciality--"he hath prepared for them a city." Oh! If thou believest not, thou mayest be heard--it is more than I can promise thee; but if thou believest, thou shalt be heard, for God refuses no believing prayer. Let us fear lest we should fall into sin, and perish with the rest of the sinners. The Answer from Hebrews 11 What is faith? Hebrews 11:4 Commentaries: By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. He that trades with God in prayer enters upon a business whereof the merchandise is better than silver or gold. Therefore, because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed, it is but meet that our desire to reach the better country, and to enter the heavenly city should become more and more vehement, as "we nightly pitch our roving tent a day's march nearer home." Some of us are by constitution inclined to that condition. I do not find that he said, "Lord let me tarry till harvest be reaped." Not now do I see, standing in the middle, a man and his wife and children, all unarmed. I. I propose, then, first of all this evening, to speak to you upon the opportunities which we have had, and still have, to return to the old house, if we were mindful of it. When does he forget his gold? Have you an Ishmael? Who shall tell which of the three grand deeds of faith is the greatest? Let no man say, "I shall never fall." You heroic man who, yesterday, when the house was burning, climbed the creaking stair-case, and, almost suffocated by the smoke, entered an upper chamber, snatched a babe from its bed and a woman from the window, bore them both down in his arms, and saved them at the peril of his own life, he can tell you what a great thing it is to save a fellow-creature. Hebrews 11:15-16 ABRAHAM left his country at God's command, and he never went back again. 1. We have many opportunities to return. Believe in his promise, and plead it. What did come of it? Those sons of Heth also were willing to make him a present of a piece of land around the cave of Machpelah; but he did not want a present from Canaanites, and so he said, "No, I will pay you every penny. The apostle Paul undertook to raise the structure, and he erected a most magnificent pillar in the chapter before us. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON Psalms 119:33-40 . He taught us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation," but at the same time he does lead us there, and intends to do it; and this is for the proving of our faith to see whether it be true faith or not. But all these were men of faith. Did Rahab continue a harlot after she had faith? And, indeed, I have not wondered when I have seen some professors grow cold when I have thought how they were compelled to live. Though I delight to preach a free gospel, and to preach it to every creature under heaven, we must never forget to remind you of the speciality. There are many who have that kind of faith: they believe just so far as probabilities go with them, but when the promise and the probability part, then they follow the probability and part with the promise. But note what it is. Notice how the text puts it, "But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." Certain saintly ones are called to bear great physical pain, and I commend to them, from practical experience, the power of faith in God under acute agony. Where Jesus died, there you shall live. They had news concerning the family house. I hazard this assertion, that there is nothing in the faith of that man who does not exercise self-denial. And, after death, what cometh? I sigh to think of how many that appeared very earnest Christians when they were struggling for bread have become very dull and cold now that they have become rich. Revelation, and he erected a most magnificent pillar in the middle, a and! 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hebrews 11 commentary spurgeon