Mar 25
3
What is faith? Ebenezer Erskine’s 7 fold definition of faith
Faith in Christ pleases God
Faith in Christ honours God
Faith in Christ is honoured by God
1. Faith is the gift of God.
It is not the product of free will. It is the operation of the Spirit of God by the word of God and is the parent of all other graces.
2. Faith has Christ Jesus as it’s principle object, for it is the faith of Christ Jesus – our Lord, Saviour, Mediator and Hope. Christ is the bread; faith is the mouth which eats. Christ is the brazen serpent; faith is the eye that looks.
3. Faith is receiving Christ, not just hearing about Him or acknowledging Him, but a committal to Him. Is Christ meat? Then eat! Is Christ living water? Then drink! Is Christ the refuge? Then flee to Him! Is Christ Lord? Then worship Him!
4. Faith is to rest upon Christ. ‘Rest in the Lord’ (Psalm 37:7). Faith is not an isolated act based upon an intellectual knowledge of some facts, but is a trusting in and resting upon Christ to perform all that I need.
5. Faith is to rest upon Christ alone. The word alone is most important. Most men, by nature, try to add something to the sacrifice and intercession of Christ. God has established a bridge of communication between heaven and earth by the obedience and blood of Christ, and every other passage is blocked by the holiness and justice of God.
6. Faith rests upon Christ as he is presented in the Gospel. We ask no other sign than the Word of God. Faith is to believe the record that God hath given concerning His Son – “He that hath the Son hath life.”
7. Faith rests upon Christ for salvation, sanctification, righteousness and full redemption! The goal of faith is the salvation of our souls; and this our Lord undertook in the eternal covenant and which He completed on Calvary when He cried “It is finished.”
Nothing, either great or small, nothing sinner, no; Jesus Christ did it all long, long ago.
It is finished! yes indeed finished every jot;
Sinner, this is all you need; tell me, is it not?
Oh may God the Holy Spirit grant you faith in Christ! May He be pleased to perform in you that mighty operation of His grace, without which you will forever perish. O Holy Spirit of God, perform that mighty operation in me continually, ever cause me to trust my Saviour, and thus believing Him to be ever found pleasing and honouring my God.
O gift of gifts. O grace of faith.
My grace is sufficient for you!
(J.C.Philpot, “Strength Made Perfect in Weakness”)
“My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect
in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
Not your strength,
not your wisdom,
not your prayers,
not your experience;
but “My grace”—My free, My matchless grace:
independent of all works and efforts,
independent of everything in the creature,
flowing wholly and solely, fully and freely, out of the bosom of Jesus
to . . .
the needy,
the guilty,
the destitute,
the undone.
You who are tried in worldly circumstances, who have to endure the hard lot
of poverty—”My grace is sufficient for you.”
You who are tempted, day by day, to say or do that which conscience
testifies against—”My grace is sufficient for you.”
You who are harassed with family troubles and afflictions, and
are often drawn aside into peevishness and fretfulness—”My grace is
sufficient for you.”
Our weakness, helplessness, and inability are
the very things which draw forth the power, the strength, and the grace of
Jesus!
Believer, your case is never beyond the reach of the words—”My grace is
sufficient for you!”
The free, the matchless, sovereign grace of God, is sufficient for all His
people—in whatever state, or stage, or trouble, or difficulty they may be in!
“My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect
in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
“THE RIGHTEOUS ALSO SHALL HOLD ON HIS WAY”
Job 17:9
What this scripture is saying is that the believer shall continue to believe, rest in Christ, and die in faith. There are no exceptions. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH” (John 10:27-28). The righteous shall indeed hold his way; for THE WAY is HIS way (the Lord’s way), and it is his way also (the believer’s way). The believer loves and prefers the way of the Lord. He walks this way willingly.
1. He may not always travel with EQUAL SPEED, but he will continue therein. He may hold his pace, but he will hold his way.
2. He may not always travel with EQUAL ENTHUSIASM and zeal, but he will hold his way.
3. He may not always travel with EQUAL SUCCESS, but he will hold his way; for he knows even his weakness magnifies the Lord’s strength. Pastor Henry T. Mahan
Such exceedingly religious people
J.C.Philpot
Until the Blessed Spirit quickens the soul into spiritual life, we know nothing really or rightly of the truth as it is in Jesus. We may be strictly orthodox in doctrine—may abhor infidelity and error—may be shocked at profanity and irreverence—may be scrupulously attentive to every relative duty—may repeat, with undeviating regularity, our prayers and devotions—may seem to ourselves and to others exceedingly religious—when, in the sight of a heart-searching God, we are still dead in trespasses and sins!
The world is full of such exceedingly religious people! Every church and every chapel can produce samples in abundance of such “devout and honourable” men and women. We may have a form of godliness in a profession of truth—may have been suckled and bred up from childhood in a sound creed—may have learned the doctrines of grace in theory and as a religious system—may be convinced in our conscience of their substantial agreement with the Word of God—may contend for them in argument, and prove them by texts—may sit under the sound of the gospel with pleasure—or even preach it with eloquence and fervour; and yet know nothing of the truth savingly and experimentally, by divine teaching and divine testimony!
Does the Scripture afford us no example of these characters? Who more religious, more strict, scrupulous, and orthodox than the ‘Pharisee’ of old? He sat in Moses’ seat, as the teacher of the people—he tithed his mint, anise, and cummin with the most scrupulous care—he strained his drinks, that no unclean gnat might unawares pollute him—he prayed and fasted rigidly and regularly—and seemed to himself and to others the prime favourite of heaven. But what was he really and truly? What was he in the sight of God? According to the Lord’s own testimony—a hypocrite—a viper—a whited sepulcher, ripening himself for the damnation of hell!
Who were those against whom holy John, fervent Jude, and earnest Peter warned the churches so strongly? Who were those spots in their feasts of charity, feeding themselves without fear? Who were those clouds without water, carried about with winds—those trees whose fruit withered, twice dead, plucked up by the roots? Who else but graceless professors of the truth! It is not then, the form, the letter, the mere outside, the bare shell and husk of truth, that makes or manifests the Christian—but the vital possession of it as a divinely bestowed gift and treasure!
“And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord.” Luke 22:61.
His Lord’s solemn prediction of his sin he seemed quite to have forgotten. But when that look met his eye, it summoned back to memory the faded recollections of the faithful and tender admonitions that had forewarned him of his fall. There is a tendency, in our fallen minds to forget our sinful departures from God. David’s threefold backsliding seemed to have been lost in deep oblivion, until the Lord sent His prophet to recall it to his memory. Christ will bring our forgotten departures to view, not to upbraid or to condemn, but to humble us, and to bring us afresh to the blood of sprinkling. The heart searching look from Christ turns over each leaf in the book of memory; and sins and follies, inconsistencies and departures, there inscribed, but long forgotten, are read and re-read, to the deep sin-loathing and self-abasement of our souls. Ah! let a look of forgiving love penetrate your soul, illuminating memory’s dark cell, and how many things, and circumstances, and steps in your past life will you recollect to your deepest humiliation before God. And oh! how much do we need thus to be reminded of our admonitions, our warnings, and our falls, that we may in all our future spirit and conduct “walk humbly with God.”
Octavius Winslow
“The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad!” Psalm 126:3
Some Christians are sadly prone to look on the dark side of everything, and to dwell more upon what they have gone through, than upon what God has done for them. Ask for their impression of the Christian life, and they will describe their continual conflicts, their deep afflictions, their sad adversities, and the sinfulness of their hearts—yet with scarcely any allusion to the mercy and help which God has vouchsafed them. But a Christian whose soul is in a healthy state, will come forward joyously, and say, “I will speak, not about myself—but to the honour of my God. He has brought me up out of an horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings—and He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. The Lord has done great things for me, whereof I am glad!”
Such an abstract of experience as this, is the very best that any child of God can present. It is true that we endure trials—but it is just as true that we are delivered out of them. It is true that we have our corruptions, and mournfully do we know this—but it is quite as true that we have an all-sufficient Saviour, who overcomes these corruptions, and delivers us from their dominion.
In looking back, it would be wrong to deny that we have been in the Slough of Despond, and have crept along the Valley of Humiliation—but it would be equally wicked to forget that we have been through them safely and profitably; we have not remained in them, thanks to our Almighty Helper and Leader, who has brought us “out into a wealthy place.” (Psalm 66:12) The deeper our troubles—the louder our thanks to God, who has led us through all, and preserved us until now. Our griefs cannot mar the melody of our praise, we reckon them to be the bass part of our life’s song, “He has done great things for us, whereof we are glad!
C.H.Spurgeon
Our strength…
-Spurgeon, “Salvation Altogether by Grace”
The vine being weak twists about the elm to support it.
A good Christian, being conscious of his own imbecility,
twists by faith about Christ.
Samson’s strength lay in his hair.
Ours strength in our head, Christ.
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Philippians 4:13
Lean hard!
Octavius Winslow, “The Burden Cast upon God”
“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain
thee.” Psalm 55:22
It is by an act of simple prayerful faith, that we transfer our cares and anxieties,
our sorrows and needs—to the Lord.
Jesus invites you to come and lean upon Him, and to lean with all your might
upon that arm that balances the universe, and upon that bosom that bled for you
upon the soldier’s spear!
But you doubtingly ask, “Is the Lord able to do this thing for me?”
And thus, while you are debating a matter about which there is not the shadow
of a shade of doubt—the burden is crushing your gentle spirit to the dust!
And all the while Jesus stands at your side and lovingly says:
“Cast your burden upon Me, and I will sustain you. I am God Almighty. I
bore the load of your sin and condemnation up the steep of Calvary, and the
same power of omnipotence, and the same strength of love that
bore it all for you then—is prepared to bear your need and sorrow now. Roll it
all upon Me!
“Child of My Love! Lean hard! Let Me feel the pressure of
your care. I know your burden, child! I shaped and formed it in My own hand,
and made no proportion of its weight to your unaided strength. For even as I
laid it on, I said ‘I shall be near;’ and while you lean on Me, this burden
shall be Mine, not yours. So shall I keep My child within the circling arms of
My own love. Here, lay it down! Do not fear to impose it on a shoulder which
upholds the government of worlds! Yet closer come—you are not near enough! I
would embrace your burden, so I might feel My child reposing on My bosom. You
love Me! I know it. Doubt not, then. But, loving Me, lean hard!“
I am a perverse and unruly patient!
John Newton
I am bound to speak well of my Physician; He treats me with great
tenderness, and bids me in due time to expect a perfect cure. I know too much
of Him (though I know but little) to doubt either His skill or His promise.
It is true, I have suffered sad relapses since I have been
under His care. Yet I confess that the fault has not been His, but my
own! I am a perverse and unruly patient! I have too often
neglected His prescriptions, and broken the regimen He appoints me to observe.
This perverseness, joined to the exceeding obstinacy
of my disorders, would have caused me to be turned out as an
incurable long ago-had I been under any other hand but His!
Indeed, there is none like Him! When I have brought myself very
low, He has still helped me. Blessed be His name, I am yet kept alive only by
means of His perfect care.
Though His medicines are all beneficial, they are not all pleasant.
Now and then He gives me a pleasant cordial; but I have many
severe disorders, in which there is a needs-be for my
frequently taking His bitter and unpalatable medicines!
We sometimes see published in the newspapers, acknowledgments of cures
received. Methinks, if I were to publish my own case, that it would run
something like this:
“I, John Newton, have long laboured under a multitude of grievous
disorders:
a fever of ungoverned passions,
a cancer of pride,
a frenzy of wild imaginations,
a severe lethargy, and
a deadly stroke!
In this deplorable situation, I suffered many things from many physicians,
spent every penny I had – yet only grew worse and worse!
In this condition, Jesus, the Physician of souls, found me when I sought Him
not. He undertook my recovery freely, without money and without
price-these are His terms with all His patients! My fever is
now abated, my senses are restored, my faculties are
enlivened! In a word, I am a new man! And from His ability,
His promise, and the experience of what He has already done – I have the
fullest assurance that He will infallibly and perfectly heal me; and that I
shall live forever as a monument of His power and grace!”