We are to be strangers and foreigners in the land wherein we sojourn. We may bear the discomforts of the eventide and the night, for the morning will break so soon. Depend upon it a grain of truth is a grain of diamond dust, and it is precious. Let him feel, "God commands, and therefore he will bear me through;" and he will be strong. You have opportunities to sin as they do, to fall into their excess, into their forgetfulness of God, or even into their blasphemies. Hebrews 11:8 . Thankfully, this commentary by Rick Phillips is one of those few. But, I must close with the sweetest part of the text, wherein it is shown that we have a great and blessed assurance vouchsafed to us as an acknowledgment, on the part of God, of those opportunities, and those yearnings persisted in. It may be that certain of my hearers feel that they cannot attain to the matters I have mentioned, for they are as yet battling to reach the position of servants and pleaders. The departures from the faith of those whom we highly esteem are, at least while we are young, very severe trials to us. I cannot reproduce the letters that were written about the sturdy patriarch, nor can I recount the spiteful things which were said by the gossips; but I have no doubt they were very clever, and very sarcastic. I suppose you think you are poor yourselves, though you have got some thousand pounds odd a year, and so you keep it yourself, under the notion that "he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord." They have stronger, sharper, and more vehement desires, for they have a nobler life within them, and they desire a better country, and even if they get entangled for awhile in this country, and in a certain measure identified with citizens of it, they are ill at ease--their citizenship is in heaven, and they cannot rest anywhere but there. We shall have, then, an exposition, an argument, and a question. Christ will have all or nothing; he must be a whole Saviour, or none at all. Such Christians as I have referred to, who are not called in early life to endure this trial, frequently have to bear its counterpart at another stage in their journey. The poverty and the suffering of even godly people in London would be a subject too harrowing for those of you who have specially tender hearts. Besides, we all know with what inconvenience Abraham must have removed. And Jacob, one of the patriarchs, was driven to go down into the land, but he could not stay there; he was always unrestful, till at last he stole a march upon Laban and came back into the proper life--the life which he had chosen, the life which God had commanded him, the life of a pilgrim and a stranger in the land of promise. Every truth is essential. You are not allowed to halve the Scriptures, and to believe what you please; you are not allowed to believe the Scripture with a half-heartedness, for if you do this wilfully, you have not the faith which looks alone to Christ. If a man says he has faith, and 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. 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 you can for everything that is lovely and of good repute, yet none of these things can be pleasing to God unless they be mixed with faith. Do not come down a stop or two as to holiness, nor seek a lower platform upon which to meet more cordially an ungodly world. You are blindfolded by the rich fabric of fashion, and therefore many a wrong thing is tolerated because it is customary. "Hast thou faith? He was the favourite of the ball-room once; he was the wit "that set the table in a roar;" he was the man who above all was courted when he moved in the circles of the vain and frivolous: glad enough would they be to see him come back. 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." And, indeed, I have not wondered when I have seen some professors grow cold when I have thought how they were compelled to live. 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.". Father, mother, husband, wife, sister, brother, servant, master--whatever your relation, I beseech you, if you feel weak in the discharge of your duty, exercise faith in God about it, and out of weakness you shall be made strong. Opportunities to return in our own nature. There was communication kept up between them and the old family house at Padan-Aram. Ah, my dear friend! Yet in order to salvation, brethren, we must be separated from this untoward generation. Departures from the faith of those whom we highly esteem are, at least while we are young, very severe trials to us. "Pray, sir," said she, believing that he understood the matter, and looking frightened, "What have I left out?" Don't wonder, don't wonder if you have discomforts here. The patience of hope is a very important part of Christian life, and faith is the essence of it. If the Lord has given you substance, and you are prompted to be generous to the cause of God, do not count every sixpence over, and calculate what others would give; count it after you have given it, if it must be counted at all, but it would be better still not to let your left hand know what your right hand doeth. I trust there is hope for me." He knew not the road that he had to take, nor the place to which his journey would conduct him: it was enough for him that the Lord had given him the summons. Will ye always resist his Spirit? Don't need no ticket, you just thank the Lord." "All you need is faith," so Curtis Mayfield's song from the sixties assures us. Others mentioned in Scripture, have done something; but God did not accept them. Amen. Noah had not a careless fear, as some here have. Hosted by WPEngine. We sometimes put blinkers upon horses that they may not see too much, I fear we might wear such things ourselves to great advantage. "Oh, yes," says one, "I would attempt great things for God, but I am terribly weak." They say, "The man was born too late; he is behind the age; he fights for a worn-out creed; he is out of place in a world of progress," What then? What poor people God's people are--poor many of them in circumstances, but how many of them I might very well call poor as to spiritual things! How much of character is revealed in our desires. Beware of the poison-cup of despair. Their descendants, of the third generation, are not all of them of their way of thinking; but they have risen through God's blessing on their grandfathers. art thou loathsome to thyself? . Abraham's slips, for he had one or two, were made when he had left the land, and gone down among the Philistines; but he was not easy there: he must come back again. He lived in God, and on God, and with God. By Vernon J. Charlesworth. I trust we know what it is to have gone without the camp bearing Christ's reproach. "Wife?" Says one young man, in writing to me this week, "I have been praying for my fellow-clerk in the office; I have desired that he might be brought to the Saviour, but at present there is no answer to my prayers." Methinks, that by what he has prepared for them, we may judge how he esteems and loves them--estimating them by what he means them to be, rather than by what they appear to be at present. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark." But who can measure the length and breadth of that word--salvation. It is smoothing the way to return to your old place; and, indeed, I have not wondered when I have seen some professors grow cold, when I have thought where they were compelled to live, and how they have been constrained to pass their time. Do not give a penny for that man's piety which will not spread itself. Our expectations are our largest possessions. It is a kind of instinct in a young Christian. It was by no means a liberal creed which they received, but what they held operated on their lives. Oh, how sweet to feel that, if God has sent diseases to your house, he has made them a chariot in which benedictions have been brought to you! Amen. have you not often strong inducements, if it were not for the grace of God, to become as they are. That pettifogging king of Sodom wanted to make a bargain with him, but the grand old man replied, "I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich." Look at this preparation just a minute. We see faith dauntless in courage when Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, and equally patient in suffering when he endured as seeing him who is invisible. He had a considerable property in flocks and herds, and probably had the ancestral dwelling house in which to reside. He also knew well the terrible joy that comes only through suffering as he lived quite afflicted (both by illness and slander). It recites the victories of faith. Ah! We have, in one place, faith triumphing over death; Enoch entered not the gates of hades, but reached heaven by another road from that which is usual to men. You have to question in your inmost soul whether you can conscientiously do as your employer requires. 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. He hath prepared for them, not for all of you, but only for such as he has prepared for the city, has he prepared the city. --Joel R. Beeke, President, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan "Although commentaries on the Gospel of John abound, far too few of them combine careful scholarship, deep theological reflection, and a pastoral heart. Notice how the text puts it:--"But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." I trust we know what it is to have gone without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach. Dear brethren, cultivate these desires more and more. There was nothing in the range of possibility, or, I might say, nothing within the lines of impossibility, which they could not have performed. Dare them. Charles Spurgeon has been called "the Prince of Preachers" and "the last Puritan." His many sermons are among the best in Christian literature. Out of weakness you shall be made strong by faith. "Nay, my Lord," they would say, "don't put me off so, don't give me these husks, though thou give mountains of them. There is death everywhere else, but there is life in his death. "he hath prepared for them"--"them." There are snares in company, but there are snares in our loneliness. "But," said Origen, "it is true, Celsus, that Christ's gospel is a sanctuary for thieves, robbers, murderers, and harlots. Do are not read of those who "stumbled at the word, being disobedient"; surely there must be a command and a duty, or else there could not be disobedience. Men are seldom equally skilled in the use of the two hands of doing and bearing. If you go to school to the obedience of faith, you will be good teachers. This is his infallible revelation, and I believe it against every argument that can possibly be urged against it. Sincere faith in God must treat all God's Word alike; for the faith which accepts one word of God and rejects another is evidently not faith in God, but faith in our own judgment, faith in our own taste. I saw him afterwards, and I hope I conducted him from the verge of insanity into the open, healthy place of peace through believing. , `` God commands, and probably had the ancestral dwelling house in which to reside is revealed our! We know what it is to have gone without the camp bearing 's! 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