Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 893
Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, SEPTEMBER 26 1869, by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might ha ve a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”- Hebrews 6:17,18.
THE Lord’s transactions with the Patriarch Abraham are frequently used in Scripture as types of His dealings with all the heirs of promise. The Lord found him in an idolatrous household, even as He finds all His people far off from Him and strangers to Him. But the Lord separated him by an effectual call and brought him out from his country and from his father’s house, even as He does unto all His people when He visits them in mercy, and says, “Come out from among them and be you separate and touch not the unclean thing.”
The Lord, then, was pleased to give to His servant a very gracious promise, the likes of which, only yet more clear and bright, He is pleased to give to every heir of salvation. And after awhile, that the Patriarch’s faith in the midst of his increasing trials might come to a fullness of strength, the Lord was pleased to make a Covenant with him and to confirm that Covenant by sacrifice of blood and by solemn oath. Even thus does He reveal Himself to us, unfolding the ancient Covenant of Grace which He has made with us in Christ Jesus and He bids us look upon the solemn seal of the Savior’s sacrifice and of the oath of old which the Lord made unto His Son.
As He led His servant, a stranger in a strange land, but yet surrounded and enriched with innumerable mercies, even so are we sojourners with Him, as all our fathers were, but yet endowed with boundless favor in the blessings of the right hand of the Most High. No doubt, the great end of God in this, so far as Abraham’s life on earth was concerned, was to produce in Abraham a model of unstaggering faith. God takes pleasure in the persons of His servants. He takes a delight in the training and education of His children, in the creating of His own image in their characters. And especially if there is one thing in a saint which delights God more than another, it is the choice Grace of Faith. And therefore Abraham, who is the “friend of God” more than any other, is also the most believing of men and the father of the faithful.
Now, Beloved, the Lord who has dealt with us as he did with Abraham, has the same end which he would answer in us as in the Patriarch. He would have us manifest all the Divine Graces which can adorn our character and make us imitators of God as dear children. Above all, He would have us strong in faith, giving glory to God. O that this end of God might be answered in you and in me—that we may be no more children, carried about with every wind of doctrine, may be no more puny in faith, tossed to and fro with anxieties and suspicions—but may become strong men who are able both to run in the race, to persevere in the pilgrimage, to contend in the fight and to labor in the service, because the sinews of our strength are well knit and the muscles of our faith are firm in reliance upon the living God, who is the strength of our life and will be our portion forever!
How far, dear Brethren, we have as yet reached to anything like the strong consolation and the vigorous faith of the text is for us to enquire. And if on enquiry we find ourselves deficient, let us plead mightily with God that He would continue His gracious work, that He would reveal Himself more fully and that we may have a firm, unstaggering faith in Him. In order that we may have in ourselves the highest degree of assurance and confidence in God, the Lord is pleased to reveal Himself to His servants as a God of Truth and Love in multiplied promises and, in addition to this, in the most solemn oaths.
If we do not believe God, it is not because He has not plainly spoken. If we doubt Him, it is not because He has left room for doubts, or given occasion for mistrust. His words are plain, often repeated, very positive, presented in the most assuring form, and ratified and settled with the most solemn assurances. Why, then, should I doubt? Why should I not,
since God is abundantly willing to show to me the immutability of His counsel, be abundantly willing to rest in that immutability, giving glory to God and enjoying peace in my own soul?
My discourse shall be aimed at the helping of God’s servants to attain to a strong faith in Him. May the Holy Spirit help my infirmities and bless your souls. First, this morning, we shall, by the help of the text, find out the favored people who are the rightful owners of the strong consolations spoken of in the text. Secondly, we shall speak upon the condescending God who is pleased to give such overflowing comfort. And, thirdly, we shall speak upon the strong consolation itself which flows from these immutable things of God.