Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1897
“Let us holdfast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful who promised).” Hebrews 10:23.
THE Apostle is drawing certain inferences from the Covenant of Grace upon which he has been enlarging. He shows that God has made a Covenant with His people by which they are effectually preserved. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put My Laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” He shows that by this Covenant the fear of returning to our old sin is removed and the guilt of our sin is forever put away. He bids us, therefore, be bold in our approaches to God. As pardoned men, upon whom there is no sin, he bids us exercise the freedom of near access to God, who has accepted us in Christ. Then he tells us that since we are put in such a blessed position—a position which is altogether unique—it becomes us to hold fast to what we have received. Since the glorious Gospel has done so much for us, let us never quit it. Since it has brought us into a condition which angels might envy, let us never think of leaving it. Let us not dream of giving up that Divine principle which has worked us such blessedness, but, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.”
I pray God the Holy Spirit to bless these words as we shall think them over. May He make this evening’s meditation a means of establishment to us that, while we hold fast the profession of our faith, the blessed Truths of that faith may also hold us fast as an anchor holds a ship! Never was there a time in which this was more necessary. That exhortation, “Let us hold fast,” might well be written on the cover of every Christian’s Bible. We live in such a changing age that we need all to be exhorted to be rooted and grounded, confirmed and established in the Truth of God. I shall call your attention, first, to this point—what we have. We have faith and, according to the second rendering, which is adopted by the revisers, we have hope. Then, secondly, what we have done. We have made a profession of that faith—a confession of that hope. Then, thirdly, what we are now to do—to hold fast that profession of faith and hope. And if you ask me, in the fourth place, why we are to do if!
I shall, in closing, give you this reason—because “He is faithful who promised.” If God is faithful, let us be faithful, too. Since until now He has proven Himself most true, let us pray that we may also be true.
I. First, then, dear Brothers and Sisters, let us think of WHAT WE ALREADY HAVE by the Grace of God.
If we read the text according to our present authorized translation, we have faith. We have made a public avowal of our faith. We can lay our hands upon our hearts and say, “Lord, You know all things. You know that we have faith in Jesus Christ Your Son.” Yes, we have obtained what the Apostle calls “like precious faith”—it is a rare jewel and he is rich that possesses it.
If we have not this faith in possession, let us pause, here, and ask for it and let us confess to God the great sin of unbelief in not believing in such a one as the Son of God who cannot lie—whose life is so transparently true that to doubt Him is a superfluity of naughtiness—an awful insult to the majesty of His faithfulness. Yet it would not be true for us to say—some of us—that we do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for we do. We have no other confidence. Where could we find any other! He is the rock of our salvation! We could not invent another trust, however hard we were put to it, or however much we wished to do so. If Jesus were to say, “Will you, also, go away?” we would be compelled to answer, “Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.” If the question is whether we have perfect holiness, we must answer it in the negative, to our great sorrow. If the question is whether we are highly advanced in Divine Grace, we would not dare say that we are. It would be immodest if we put forth such a pretension! But if the enquiry is, “Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?” then without hesitation we reply, “Lord, we trust You with undivided faith.”
Trembling though it is, our faith is true. And though it does not always work in us all the fruit we would desire, yet it does operate in a very blessed way upon our walk and conversation. We believe that Jesus is the Christ and our trust for eternal life is in Him alone!
It is not a matter of question with you, dear Friend, is it, as to whether you know Jesus to be the Son of God, very God of very God? It is past all question with you that Jesus bore your sins in His own body on the tree. You have no doubt about His wondrous death and His marvelous Resurrection from among the dead. You believe that He has offered a Sacrifice, once, which once offered has ended the sin of His people and that He has gone into His Glory and is now sitting at the right hand of God, expecting till His foes are made His footstool. You have no more doubt about that than you have about your own existence! You also believe that He will shortly come to be our Judge—that He will gather the nations before Him and that He will reign King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Your faith, then, in the Lord Jesus Christ is not a matter of “if,” and, “but”—you stake your salvation on it! I can truly say that if what I preach is not true, I am a lost man. I have invested all that I have in Christ. If this boat sinks, I drown, for I cannot swim and I know no other lifeboat. Christ is All in All to me—without Him I can do nothing, I have nothing, I am nothing! Jesus, in the matter of salvation, is everything from beginning to end for me! And you can say the same, I know.