Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2740
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.
THE Apostle had put Enoch down among the heroes of faith and, to prove that Enoch was a man of faith, he says, “Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” “Then,” argues Paul, “if he pleased God, he must have been a believing man, for the very lowest form of approach to God needs faith—‘He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.’ So, if the very lowest grade of approach to God needs faith, much more does that highest form of it in which a man walks with God so as to obtain the testimony that he pleases God.” The argument of the Apostle is clear and convincing. If any man shall be pleasing to God, as Enoch was, it must be the result of faith, since, even to come to God at all, in the very first steps that we take, we must have a measure of faith in Him, we must at least believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
I. I am not going into the argument so far as it relates to Enoch, but I want you to join with me in examining Paul’s statement concerning what is essential in coming to God. That will be my first division, THE ESSENTIALS OF FAITH IN OUR COMING TO GOD.
The first essential is that we must believe “that He is,“we must believe that there is a God—that these things, which we see, do not spring of themselves, or come by chance, or in any way whatever except that there is a personal God who created all things and by whom all things consist. If you do not believe that, you certainly will never come to God. How is it possible for a man to come to One whose very existence he doubts? That matter must be settled or there cannot be any real coming to God. More than that, he that would come to God must believe that there is but one God—that the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob is the only living and true God. If we are to come to God—to the God of the Old and the New Testament—we must accept Him as He is there pleased to reveal Himself. We must not try to fashion a god such as we would like to have, for that would be idolatry—but we must accept God as He is made known in the Scriptures— and especially as He has manifested Himself in Christ Jesus, for it is in Him that God has revealed Himself to us for the practical purpose of our reconciliation. If we really wish to come to God it must be by the way in which He has come to us—that is, through His Son, Jesus Christ. Neither, let me add, shall we ever come to God aright unless we ask for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the blessed Trinity in Unity.
To believe that God is, means, however, much more than this. It means that when I pray, I believe that He is where I am. I do not know whether any of us have yet been able to really get a grip of this first thought, that God is, for there is something wonderful about that Truth of God, for, if God is, then God is everywhere! So, with what awe and reverence ought we to spend every moment of our lives! There is no place to sin in, for God is there. There is no place in which to trifle, for God is there. There is no place for blasphemy, for God is there—will you blaspheme Him to His face? There is no place for rebellion, for God is there—will you rebel against the King in His own courts? This makes all space most solemn and all time truly sacred. Of every spot of ground whereon we stand, we may say, with Jacob, “How dreadful is this place!” Though it was a place abounding in stones, which served for his pillows, he said, when he awoke, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven.”
I passed a church, the other day, and I saw on one of its doors the words, “The House of God.” I thought, “Is it?” On the next door, I saw the words, “The Gate of Heaven.” And I said to myself, “It is not so, any more than any other door is.” Is this Tabernacle God’s House? While we worship Him here, it is—but it is not any more holy than our own house is. One place is as sacred as another, for God’s Presence has consecrated it all. “The Most High dwells not in temples made with hands.” Every part of my garden, as I meditate upon God in it, is as holy as the aisles of the most venerable cathedral. Your bedchamber, as you kneel in prayer before you lie down to sleep, is as sacred as the temple of Solomon. Every spot where there is a devout worshipper, is the abode of Deity—it is no more and no less so in one place than in another.
If you begin to fancy that one place is sacred above others, you will tread there with superstitious reverence. You will scarcely dare to put your feet upon the chancel pavement, and you will bow to the East, as I have seen some do, as if there were something more holy in that direction than at other points of the compass. Ugh! This is idolatry and nothing more! The right thing is to look upon the street pavements as too sacred for you to sin there, and to turn to the East or West, to the North or South, and to say concerning every place, “God is before my eyes there, so that is a sacred spot. God is everywhere and, therefore, I must not dare to offend Him anywhere.”