Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 733
Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, FEBRUARY 3 1867, by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.”- Romans 4:19-21.
IT was God’s purpose that Abraham should be a surpassingly excellent example of the power of faith. He was to be “the father of the faithful,” the mirror, pattern and paragon of faith. He was ordained to be the supreme Believer of the patriarchal age, the serene and venerable leader of the noble army of Believers in Jehovah, the faithful and true God. In order to produce so eminent a character it was necessary that Abraham’s faith should be exercised in a special and unequalled manner. The power of his faith could not be known except by putting it to the severest tests. To this end, among other trials of his faith, God gave him a promise that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed, and yet for many a year he remained without an heir.
The promise, when originally given, startled Abraham, but he did not doubt it. We read that he laughed—laughed with holy joy at the thought of so great and unexpected a blessing! It startled also his wife Sarah. She did, however, doubt it—when she laughed it was the laugh of incredulity. The fulfillment of the promise was long delayed. Abraham waited with patience, sojourning as a stranger in a strange land, having respect unto the covenant which the Lord had made with him and with his unborn seed.
Not a shadow of doubt crossed the mind of the holy Patriarch. He staggered not at the promise through unbelief and though he came to be 100 years old, and his wife Sarah was almost equally as advanced in years, he did not listen to the voice of carnal reason but maintained his confidence in God. Doubtless he had well weighed the natural impossibilities which laid in the way, but he overlooked the whole and being fully persuaded that if God had promised him a son the son would certainly be born, he entertained a holy confidence and left the matter of time in the hands of the Sovereign Ruler.
His faith triumphed in all its conflicts. Had it not been that Sarah and Abraham were both at such an advanced age there would have been no credit to them in believing the promise of God. But the more difficult, the more impossible the fulfillment of the promise seemed to be, the more wonderful was Abraham’s faith and he still held to it that what God had promised He was able to perform! If I may so say, there was in Abraham’s case a double death to stand in the way of the promise—not one difficulty in itself insuperable, but two—two absolute impossibilities.
And yet, though one impossibility might have been enough to stagger any man, the two together could not cause his faith to waver! He considered not the natural impediments. He allowed them no space in the account—they seemed to be less than nothing in the presence of the truth and power of the Almighty God. The Most High God had given a promise, and that fact overrode 10,000 adverse arguments! His was that noble confidence of which we sing—
“Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And looks to that alone. Laughs at impossibilities And cries, ‘It shall be done!’”
By such unquestioning confidence Abraham brought glory to God. It glorifies God greatly for His servants to trust Him—they then become witnesses to His faithfulness—just as His works in creation are witnesses of His power and wisdom. Abraham was a noble instance of the power which the truthfulness of God exerts over the human mind. When under all discouragements he still “believed God.” His heart said of the living God, “He cannot lie. He will perform His promise.” While glorifying God, Abraham reaped a present consolation to himself and in the end he had the joy of receiving
the promise. His early laugh of joy was remembered and commemorated in his son Isaac, that child of promise, whose name was “laughter.”
The Patriarch himself became one of the most honored of men, for it is written, “Him that honors Me I will honor.” Brothers and Sisters, this is the point to which I want to bring you—that if God intends to make you or me, any one of us, or all of us together to be distinguishing exhibitors of the Divine Grace of faith—we must expect to be passed through very much the same trials as Abraham. With regard to the object upon which our faith is exercised, it is most probable that we shall be made to feel our own weakness and even our personal death. We shall be brought very low, even into an utter self-despair.
We shall be made to see that the mercy we are seeking of God is a thing impossible with man. It is very probable that difficulties will rise before us till they are enough to overwhelm us! Not only one range of mountainous impossibilities, but another will be seen towering up behind the first till we are pressed beyond measure and led to an utter despair of the matter as considered in ourselves. At such a crisis, if God the Holy Spirit is working with mighty power in us, we shall still believe that the Divine promise will be fulfilled. We shall not entertain a doubt concerning the promise! We shall remember that it remains with God to find ways and means—and not with ourselves. We shall cast the burden of fulfilling the promise upon Him with whom it naturally rests.