Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1429
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, August 18, 1878
“He that believes on Him shall not be confounded.” 1 Peter 2:6.
MY sermon last Sabbath morning [#1428, The True Position of the Witness Within] was upon the true position of the witness within and I then tried to show that the guarantee and ground of our believing in Christ unto eternal life is the witness which God Himself has borne concerning His Son. Not our feelings, or experiences, but the testimony of God is to stand to us as the reason for our believing. I tried to set forth that doctrine very clearly and I have been greatly delighted to find that the blessing of God rendered it effectual. I have met with five young men who have each one said, “If this believing in Christ because God has set Him forth and borne witness to Him, is really the way of salvation, then we are saved and we come forward to declare that we are on the Lord’s side.”
When a fisher fills his basket in one place, he is glad to fish there again and, therefore, close to the former spot. Upon a subject near akin to it, I cast in my lines a second time! I do so the more readily in the hope that those who have been brought to Christ may be established in the present faith and may see yet more clearly what is the basis of their salvation. As I tried on last Sabbath morning to show why they should believe, it shall now be my business to explain what they should believe. We will think not so much of the reason for believing as of the Object of our faith, the facts which are to be received and the Person who is to be trusted. We saw the Lord God laying the foundation upon which faith is to rest—we shall now consider the Foundation itself.
The passage before us is a very favorite quotation with the Apostles. If you turn to the Epistle to the Romans you will find Paul quoting it again and again in rapid succession. The last verse of the ninth chapter is, “Whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed.” And in the 11th verse of the 10th chapter he repeats the quotation. It is a quotation from Isaiah 28:16 where we find it written—“Therefore thus says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believes shall not make haste,” which Paul interprets, “shall not be ashamed” and Peter renders, “shall not be confounded.” From the variation of the translations we obtain two or three different shades of meaning but all amounting to the same thing.
That must be a very important part of God’s Word which even the Holy Spirit Himself has quoted so frequently! He is prolific of thought and is always able to create new ideas. He abounds in language and cannot be straitened for expression and yet He quotes Himself in these three instances which I have given you—therefore we may be quite sure it is because no other expression would be more suitable! This sentence seemed, to the Divine Author, to be so full, so complete and so forcible that He repeated it often! The harp is a choice one—let us play upon it and let our ears drink in the melody—“He that believes on Him shall not be confounded.”
I. I shall first of all, this morning, consider THE FOUNDATION OF THE BELIEVER’S FAITH, this being the main subject of our discourse, “He that believes on Him.”” The foundation of the Believer’s faith is Christ Jesus Himself. The Believer receives doctrine because Christ has taught it, but still it is not a doctrine which is the foundation of his confidence—it is a Person—“He that believes on Him.” The Lord Jesus Himself, as the Son of God, is the Object of our faith—it is upon Him that we lean. The Apostle does not say in the Epistle to Timothy, “I know what I have believed,” though that would be true, but, “I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him.” The faith which saves the soul is confidence in a Person, reliance upon One who will certainly effect the salvation of those who trust Him.
But in what sense am I to believe in Jesus Christ? Under what aspects does the Believer rest in Christ? I reply, first, as God’s appointed Savior of men. Mark how the text runs in Isaiah. The Lord says, “Behold I lay in Zion a sure foundation.” We trust in Christ Jesus because God has set Him forth to be the Propitiation for sin. When sin first came
into the world, God, in tender mercy gave our parents the first promise concerning the Seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent’s head—we believe Jesus of Nazareth to be that Seed of the woman and we trust in Him to bruise the serpent’s head on our behalf. Promises were multiplied as the ages went on and Jesus was set forth under various types and figures, but always as the Messiah—one whom God would send, who would undo the mischief of the Fall, remove the guilt of sin, deliver ruined souls—and give them to partake of the mercy of God.