Faith: Unless these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved.
The work of faith: to draw sap and virtue from the promise.
Joh 3.33. He who has received his testimony, sets His seal that God is true. Sealing, there, means sealing the promise. This is the nature of sealing; when a man has drawn the articles of agreement, and when they have been sealed, the whole matter is done. So faith must make the promise authentic, and put a seal to it that it is true. Faith says, “It is done in heaven, and I am fully resolved, settled, and persuaded that I will have whatever I have believed, and you, Lord, have promised; and I have used the means in the ways of your providence.”
Famous is that saying of Abraham in Gen 22.5. The Lord has bid him to sacrifice his son, and yet He had said before that Isaac would live. And therefore when Abraham came to the place, he said to his servants, Abide here with the donkeys; for I and the lad will go yonder, and sacrifice, and return again to you. He thought to sacrifice him, and yet by faith he believed that he would bring Isaac back. I would have a poor saint of God believe and conclude this. When you find your comfort like Isaac’s in the ashes, and your estate helpless and hopeless — yet even then, set God’s power to work, and wait upon him in the use of the means he has appointed, and there conclude that He will bring patience, power, and deliverance, and do so in every kind, according to all your necessities. Yet remember this, expect no more from the promise, than God will give in the promise.
Only say, “My sins shall be mastered one day, and these temptations shall one day be overthrown, that have so long annoyed the soul of your servant. I have begged succor against these corruptions within, and these temptations without, and yet it is not so; but I know it is done in heaven; it lack nothing but the taking out. You will bestow upon your servant what you see fit.”
But suppose the Lord delays, and doesn’t suddenly accomplish what he intends, and you used the means to receive it — he doesn’t give, grant, or send succor according to your desire, and the tenor of the covenant, as you conceive it. Then faith is to take its stand, and stay till it comes: as you resolve, so it will be. Stay till it is, and stay it out. Here is much work to do. We prevent God’s kindness when we go away before He is willing to bestow a kindness on us. But faith will not do so. He that believes, doesn’t make haste. He makes haste to obey, but then he stays, and resolves that it will be.
Hab 2.3, The vision is for an appointed time; but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; therefore wait for it, because it will surely come.
You are pestered with your sins, and have labored by faith to subdue them; and your estate is low, and you have labored by faith for deliverance: and yet it doesn’t come. Therefore stay till God sees fit, and it will come. Psa 123.2, As the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until he have mercy upon us. It is not, till I will, or till I see fit, or according to my mind; but until the Lord will have mercy. We suddenly slide away from the covenant which the Lord makes with us, because we don’t have it when we want it; and therefore we go away.
So in 1 Sam 13.13. When Samuel tarried long, and the people began to murmur, Saul went and offered a burnt offering to the Lord. And therefore Samuel said to him, You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you; for now the Lord would have established your kingdom upon Israel forever. If Saul had awaited the Lord’s time, He would have established his kingdom upon Israel forever. But he prevented the Lord’s kindness, and offered sacrifice unseasonably and sinfully.
So it is many times with a proud, pettish, rash and distempered heart. If we don’t have what we would, when we would, then we are all amort — i.e. quite dead-hearted. We murmur, and say, Why should we wait any longer? You have done foolishly. Have you prayed and looked to the promise this long, and will you now give up? The Lord would have comforted you, had you gone on. But the Lord has withdrawn himself from you, because you have withdrawn your heart from the promise. When the carriage is heavy, and the way is dead, there are many painful pulls. Often the wagon is at a standstill. And if a man were to then go away and give up, all his work would be lost. Therefore stay till the Lord shows mercy. This long you have called, and sought, and looked up to the promise, and waited upon the Lord, and attended to the freeness of His grace. Once more, perhaps, would have done it. Your heart was almost humbled; your sin was almost conquered. Oh you silly soul, why didn’t you hold out? It would have come at last; my life for yours. Now take heed of this; if the time seems tedious, and your heart begins to sink, and your spirit is weary, take heed of flying off; take heed of shifting for your own comfort, and looking to base ends and aims. No, hold your mind to it, and keep your eye of faith on the promise, and stick it out till God sees the time is fit. And know that it is the best time, when it is God’s time.
In Acts 27.31, Paul says, Unless these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Every man was jumping overboard to save himself, but Paul stayed them. A man would have thought otherwise; but the apostle knew it was not so; for the Lord had revealed it to him. So I say to you, however strong your temptations; and however many your sins; and though you complain and say, “I have cried, Lord, and sought earnestly, and yet my condition is worse, and my soul more sinful, and I am less able to help myself; there is no more succor to be expected;” — take heed of going out of the ship, and away from the use of means. Keep in the ship; for in it you will be safe. Keep in the promise, and still your hearts there. You will have a happy arrival at heaven, though upon a little broken board. It is no matter, stay God’s time.
Lay hold on God in Christ, and wrestle with him, and never let him go. For still, perhaps, the Lord seems not only to delay his poor servants, and to withhold his favor; but he seems to frown and say that He will not hear. And he seems to be angry with the prayer of his servants, and with their importunity; and as if he would not succor and supply them. Thus he dealt with Jacob, Gen 32.26. There the Lord says, Let me go; I don’t care what becomes of you, let me go: but Jacob lays hold upon him, and would not let him go. So the last work of faith is this: in holy humility, labor to contend with God, and by a strong hand overcome the Lord; for the Lord loves to be overcome this way. Don’t be irreverent with the Lord. But in the sense of your own baseness, as it were, lay hold upon the Lord Jesus, and strive with him. Don’t leave till you have those comforts he has promised, and you have begged. This is the glory and the victory of the triumph of faith; this is what gives you the day. The Lord, as it were, lays down the weapons, and yields himself as conquered, as it was with Jacob when God saw he couldn’t prevail. God said to him, verse 28, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have prevailed with God. God is ready to give what he has promised; but he would have us test the mastery with him. God overcomes himself; and we, by faith in God, overcome or prevail with God. As it says in Jas 2.13, Mercy triumphs over justice.
“Lord,” says my soul “why shouldn’t I have that mercy, supply, and succor?” Says Justice, “You are a sinful wretch, and have wronged me.” Says Anger, “You deserved to be plagued; and therefore you shall feel the smart of my displeasure.”
Now faith lays hold upon the riches of the “freeness of God’s mercy in Christ;” and in Him, Justice is satisfied, and Anger appeased for all. And now mercy is purchased for all, and mercy triumphs over justice; and faith takes hold upon and overcomes God himself, if I may say, with a holy, humble baseness of heart. You know what the Lord did to the woman of Canaan, Mat 15.28, when she strived with him a great while, and would take no denial. At last he says, O woman, great is your faith, be it unto you even as you will. “Take what you will; if you will have life for your child, and peace for your own conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, then take it; for it is all yours.” He turns her loose to all his treasury, as it were. If she had gone away at the first or second denial, she would have found no help. But because she held out, she had all her heart’s desire. God would have us wrestle with his majesty, that he may be overcome in mercy and goodness.
Now, therefore, consider what has been said. Lay these things up, and have them ever before you, and practice them — by often writing, learn to write; and by often living, learn to live. Many people live poorly, and make a poor shift to go to heaven. I would not have a Christian live that way, but instead be a master of his art. Know and see your way, and use the means. Labor to get good by it, so that you may have the sap and sweet of the promises — and so, go singing and rejoicing and triumphing up to heaven.
Thomas Hooker. THE POOR DOUBTING CHRISTIAN DRAWN TO CHRIST.
