Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1418
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, June 9, 1878
“Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is your life.” Proverbs 4:13.
FAITH may be well described as taking hold upon Divine instruction. God has condescended to teach us and it is ours to hear with attention and receive His words. And while we are hearing, faith comes, even that faith which saves the soul. To take “fast hold” is an exhortation which concerns the strength, the reality, the heartiness and the truthfulness of faith—and the more of these the better. If to take hold is good, to take fast hold is better! Even a touch of the hem of Christ’s garment causes healing to come to us, but if we want the full riches which are treasured up in Christ, we must not only touch but take hold. And if we would know from day to day the very uttermost of the fullness of His Grace, we must take fast hold and so maintain a constant and close connection between our souls and the eternal Fountain of Life.
It were well to give such a grip as a man gives to a plank when he seizes hold of it for his very life—that is a fast hold, indeed! We are to take fast hold of instruction and the best of instruction is that which comes from God. The truest wisdom is the Revelation of God in Christ Jesus—of that, therefore, we are to take fast hold. The best understanding is obedience to the will of God and a diligent learning of those saving Truths which God has set before us in His Word so that, in effect, we are exhorted to take hold of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Incarnate Wisdom in whom dwells all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We are not to let Him go, but to keep Him and hold Him, for He is our life.
Does not John, in his Gospel, tell us that the Word is our light or instruction and at the same time our life? “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” The more we abide in the Lord Jesus and the more firmly we take hold upon Him, the better will it be for us in a thousand ways. I intend at this time to speak, as the Holy Spirit shall enable me, upon this fast hold and I reckon that the subject is one of the most important which can occupy your attention at this particular crisis in the history of the Church.
Many there are around us who believe in Christ, but it is with a very trembling faith. Their hold is unsteady! We need to have among us men of tighter grip who really believe what they profess to believe. We need men who know the Truth in its living power and are persuaded of its certainty so that they cannot, by any means, be moved from their steadfastness. Among the vacillating crowd we long to see fast-holders who are pillars in the House of our God, whose grasp of Divine Truth is not that of babies or boys, but of men full grown and vigorous! We shall handle our subject by speaking, first, upon the method by which we may take fast hold. Then upon the difficulties which will lie in our way in so doing. Thirdly, upon the benefits of such a firm grasp. And, lastly, upon the arguments for our holding fast mentioned in the text.
I. First, then, THE METHOD of taking fast hold upon true religion, upon the Gospel—in fact—upon Christ. At the outset, my Brothers and Sisters, much must depend upon the intense decision which a man feels in his soul with regard to eternal things. If he intends trifling, he will trifle, but if he means taking fast hold he will, by God’s Grace, do so. Under God, this, in many cases, depends very much upon a man’s individuality and force of character. Some men are naturally thorough and whole-hearted in all things upon which they enter, whether of this world or the next. When they serve the devil they are among his lifeguards and they rush to the front in all kinds of iniquity. Among sinners they become the chief, for they have no fear and no hesitancy—they are daredevils, defying both God and man—sinning greedily with both hands.
Such men, when converted, often become eminent saints, being just as thorough and resolute in their following after God as they were in the pursuit of evil! They are determined to vindicate His holy cause and spread abroad the knowledge of His love. I must confess an earnest longing that many such may be brought into the Church of Christ at this time to
brace her up and inspire her with new energy. Many in our Churches appear to have no depth of earth. With joy they receive the Word of God, from the very fact that they are so shallow, but as soon as the sun rises with burning heat, it is discovered that they have no root, for they wither away. Others are truly religious and probably will remain so, but they are not zealous. In fact, they are not intense about anything, but are lukewarm, weak and unstable. These are mere chips in the porridge, neither sour nor sweet—they give forth no flavor—they take the flavor of that which surrounds them.