Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 766
Delivered by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
” I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”- Psalm 27:13.
I HAVE taken the whole verse for my text, but I am not sure that I shall keep to it. The words in it at which I catch are these, “Unless I had believed to see.” Most people see to believe, but in David’s case the process was reversed and put into Gospel order—he believed to see and this is the keynote of our discourse. The prayer of my heart is that some may be led to believe to see, and that those who have been trying to see in order to believe may now come and trust in Jesus and believe and see the Grace of God. Here we have in the words I select for the text, a doctrine stated, many difficulties removed, and some directions afforded for the Christian life.
I. We have here before us a fundamental truth and DOCTRINE of our faith that the great act by which a man is saved, so far as he is concerned, is the act of faith. That is to say he gives up all other righteousness and casts himself upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment he does that he is saved—his past sins are forgiven him—his future is secure. That one simple act of confidence in Jesus, insignificant as it may appear to be, is the dawn of spiritual life, the evidence of security, the token of eternal salvation!
And here is the reason for this, namely, that faith is God’s appointed mark which He sets upon His favored ones, and by this may a man know whether he is saved or not, whether he is ordained unto eternal life or not—by his answer to this one question—“Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?” Or, in other words, “Do you trust in the Son of God?” The case is ordered in this wise—we have sinned, we have broken God’s Law—God’s Law must be honored. Sin cannot be committed without a penalty being inflicted.
The Lord Jesus Christ determined and stipulated in the Covenant of Grace that He would take upon Himself the form of Man and that He would suffer for the chosen many, even for His people, what they had deserved to suffer themselves on account of their sins, or a punishment that would be equivalent to that suffering. In due time the Lord Jesus Christ appeared. True to His word of promise He went up to Calvary—there He received, at God’s hands, that which was due from His people to the great offended Judge. There He paid their debts.
There, once and for all, He took the handwriting of ordinances that was against them and put it away, nailing it to His Cross. Now, virtually, all for whom Christ died were then saved. Their debts were then paid. Their punishment was then discharged. The debt due to the Sovereign Justice of God was then altogether borne, and Jesus Christ, then and there, “finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness” for His people. This Man, by His one offering, has perfected forever them that were set apart!
Once yielding His soul unto death and giving Himself up a sacrifice for men, He then and there saved His people as before the bar of God. These saved ones are known by their being brought to trust in Him as their once dead but now ever-living Lord. Without faith in Christ, my Hearer, you have no share in His blood. You have no interest in His righteousness. What He did upon the tree will have nothing to do in saving you. All His griefs, and groans, and pangs you will have no share in. Your debts remain unpaid. Your punishment has not been borne for you. You will have to endure the wrath of God forever!
In the prison you will be forever bound in chains of fire. Inasmuch as you have not believed, you have no share in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. But if you have come and trusted yourself with Christ. If, fully convinced that there is salvation nowhere else, you believe in Him, then your debts are paid! The punishment of your sin has been endured. You can never suffer, for God cannot punish two for one offense. You can never be summoned to God’s bar to be tried for your life. You are clear. Through Jesus’ blood you are ransomed. You are justified, accepted, adopted, saved. Who shall lay anything to your charge, seeing that Christ has died for you and made a propitiation for your sin?
Now, the whole of this hinges upon a man’s believing. If he believes then the great Gospel truth is that he is saved. Throughout all the Bible this is the one ray of light that comes out of the darkness to poor troubled man—“He that believes on Him is not condemned.” “He that believes on Him has everlasting life.” “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” These assertions occur over and over and over again so that I may safely say that this is the Gospel—that he that believes is saved, and that the faith by which he lays hold of Christ is to him proof positive that he is saved. He has God’s Word for it that he is redeemed in Christ.