Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3017
“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13.
WE were favored with very much of God’s goodness last Sabbath evening, when we considered the rule of Grace in guiding a Believer’s life, namely, that instead of seeing in order to believe, he has learned to believe in order to see. [Sermon
No. 766, Volume 13—BELIEVING TO SEE] “Unless I had believed to see,”
says the Psalmist, “I had fainted.” And we should never have known true refreshment, nor enjoyed the comforts of the Lord, but should have been full of doubts and distracted with fears if we had not learned the sacred art of believing although we did not see, or even believing in spite of what we did see, or believing in order that we might see—fully expecting that sight would inevitably follow if our faith were but simple and true!
Those of you who were present last Sabbath evening will remember that I restricted my remarks, for the most part, to the one matter of our salvation. I tried to show to seekers that instead of first looking for evidences of salvation and then believing in Christ, they were to believe in Christ in order to obtain those evidences—that, instead of looking to their repentance and then having confidence in Christ, their repentance sprang from their confidence in Christ—that instead of saying, “We are not fully sanctified and, therefore, we fear we are not saved,” they were to remember that the certainty of their being saved by Grace, through faith, would be to their minds and hearts, the great motive power by which they would be enabled to obtain that sanctification which cannot be theirs as long as they remain in legal bondage and have doubts about being “accepted in the Beloved.” There were some set at liberty last Sabbath evening who had really known the Lord for years but were afraid to say definitely that they had trusted in Christ and that, therefore, they were saved. May God grant that all of us may not only come to Christ, but may we also exercise a simple, childlike faith which takes God’s Word as it stands in this blessed Book, believes it, receives it, lives upon it, asks no questions concerning it and will allow none to be asked by others!
On this occasion I propose to make a particular application of the general principle of our text. David was a man of many troubles. Especially in the latter part of his life, he was incessantly in the furnace and he says that he would have “fainted” under those many troubles if he had not “believed to see,” in the particular matter of his trials, “the goodness of the Lord” in that land which is the special sphere of trouble. David believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not only in the Glory Land yonder, but also in this land here below. He believed to see the goodness of the Lord, not merely when he emerged from the furnace, but also while he was in it! As a pilgrim and a stranger, he believed to see the goodness of the Lord during the days of his pilgrimage. He did not always see it, but he believed to see it—he believed in it and anticipated it and, by believing in it—he did actually come to see it with the eyes of his mind and to rejoice in it!
We all know that this world is a very unpromising field for faith. According to our varied experiences, we must all subscribe to the declaration that this earth is, more or less, a valley of tears, that it is not our rest, for it is polluted. There are too many thorns in this nest for us to abide comfortably in it. This world is under the curse, so it still brings forth thorns and thistles and, in the sweat of our brows do we eat our bread until we return to the earth out of which man was at first taken. Were this world really to be our home, it would be a terrible fate for us! If we were always to live in this huge penal settlement, it would be sad, indeed, for us to know that we had continually to dwell where the shadow of the curse always lingers and where we have only the shadow of the Cross to sustain us under it. But faith comes into this unpromising field and believes that she shall see the goodness of the Lord even here! She rushes into the fiercest fight
that ever rages, fully believing that she shall see the banner of the Lord’s mercy and Truth waving even there. She bears the burden and heat of the earthly toil and expects to experience the loving kindness of the Lord beneath it all. She knows that she will see more of her God in the land beyond the flood, but still, she believes to see the goodness of the Lord even in this land of the living which is so distracted and disturbed with sorrows, cares and trials and tribulations!
I want to show you, first, that faith is infallibly persuaded of God’s goodness here. Secondly, that she expects clearly to see that goodness here. And thirdly, that it is this expectation and belief which sustain the soul of the tried Believer.