Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1367
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, July 15, 1877
“But was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” Romans 4:20.
ABRAHAM is the father of the faithful. When children have a noble father it is a good thing for them to be fully conversant with his character and, therefore, we shall do well to consider the life of the great Patriarch, especially marking that grand excellence which makes him the father of Believers, namely, his faith. Nor should we fail to observe the strength of his faith, for in him it reached a very high degree. He was not only a Believer, but he was an unstaggering Believer. He did not only trust God, but he trusted God most firmly in the teeth of all contradiction—not so much as considering the difficulties—but believing in God without questioning.
Oftentimes I have exhorted unbelievers to faith, but now my word is directed to those who have faith already, bidding them manifest more faith. Where there is the root of faith, we plead for the growth of faith. Where there is life, our desire is that it may be found more abundantly. If you have not believed at all, then the Gospel cries to you, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved!” But if you have believed, its voice is, “Grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
We cannot talk to unbelievers upon the subject of strong faith because they have none to begin with—if they had even the weakest faith, it would save them and become the germ of the highest assurance—but without a beginning, how can they be exhorted to increase? There must, first of all, be the seed of faith in the heart and then it will be wise to water it, but to water barren ground is lost labor. Have you given glory to God by believing in the Lord Jesus? Then you may glorify Him more by a stronger confidence, but not till then! Those who have faith in God are constantly to be exhorted to grow in all Graces and especially in the most important and fundamental Grace of faith. They are permitted to pray, “Lord, increase our faith,” with the assurance that, “He gives more Grace.”
My present address will have strong faith for its subject. Let those who have believed strive after it. Is it necessary for me to remind you that as faith, at first, is the work of the Holy Spirit, so must any real growth in it be of Divine operation? Any addition to faith which could come to you by or from the flesh, if such a thing were supposable, would be an adulteration of faith and not an increase of it! That which is born of the flesh is flesh and only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Even if an increase of faith could come to us by the will of man and not by Divine working, it would not be worth having, for it would be a counterfeit.
Only the sap of the trunk can make the branch grow. He who gave you faith at the first must give you more faith if you are to become strong in it. Yet there is the parallel Truth of God never to be forgotten—that while faith is the gift of God—it is, also, our own act! The Holy Spirit works faith in us, but we, ourselves, believe. The Holy Spirit does not believe for us—what has He to believe? It would be altogether absurd to conceive of the Holy Spirit as believing or repenting! Nor, if such a thing were possible, could it be of any benefit to us, for the faith which saves the soul must be personal and cannot be performed by proxy. Faith is both God’s gift and man’s act. The Lord is the Author of our faith, but we, ourselves, believe.
In the same manner, though the strengthening of our faith will come through the Spirit of God, yet must it be our own act and deed—we must, ourselves, believe more firmly, and our own heart must be exercised to attain to the highest privilege. As unbelief is a sin for which the unbeliever must be held responsible, even so is the feebleness of faith a fault for which we are blameworthy. We are duty bound to believe in God without wavering and if we neglect the matter we shall be held guilty concerning it. It is our duty to believe and to believe in the highest degree—and though some professors can never see the consistency of the two statements that faith is the gift of God and yet the duty of man—we are sure that the one is as true as the other.
And so, while I shall earnestly refer you to the Spirit of God for strength in order to obtain more faith, yet I shall not apologize for unbelief, or treat strong faith as a work of our own, for which God has no claim upon us. I most earnestly declare the responsibility of each Believer and claim from him, as the righteous due of a faithful God, that he, from now on, believe in Him more fully than he has ever done. May the remarks I offer be used by the Holy Spirit to the increase and establishment of your confidence in God!
I. Our first point is this—STRONG FAITH, WHEREVER IT EXISTS, IS SUPPORTED BY ABUNDANT REASONS. It is never chargeable with being unreasonable fanaticism or blind credence. It is a sound, prudent, justifiable thing. For, first, all the reasons which justify our believing in God at all, justify our believing in Him most firmly and continually. You do not need that I dwell upon this, because it is self-evident. It can never be right to believe unless the statements are true—and if true they deserve undivided faith. If you have trusted your soul with your Redeemer because of the efficacy of His atoning blood, that argument pleads with you to trust Him yet more steadfastly and confidently.