hebrews 11 commentary spurgeon
He that does not run away because his legs are weak, does not prove himself a hero, but he that could run, but won't run, that could desert his Lord, but won't desert him, has within him a principle of grace stronger than any fetter could be--the highest, strongest, noblest bond that unites a man to the Saviour. To be a burgess of the City of London is thought to be a great honour, and upon princes is it sometimes conferred; but we shall have the highest honour that can be given when we shall be citizens of the city which God has prepared. Some allow a presuming fear: "If I am to be saved," say they, "I shall be saved; and if I am to be lost, I shall be lost. Description. Was it gambling? We either curse or bless those around us. You will meet with temptations when you sit gasping on the banks of the last river, waiting for the summons to cross; it may be that your fiercest temptation may come even then. Faith is the acorn, from which the oak of holiness will grow. Hast thou a poor, faint heart in this sacred exercise? 433. A sense of great obligation, an apprehension of the fitness of obedience, and spiritual renewal of heart, work an obedience which becomes essential to the sanctified soul. No, he was commanded to go, and he went without hesitation. Ah! If a man receives a written letter from his father or a friend, does he attach less importance to it than he would have done to a spoken communication? We see by faith what cannot be seen by our eyes; we grasp by faith what cannot be grasped with our hands. Not now do I see them lift up the great iron door, and let loose the monsters that come forth roaring, hungry for their prey. Hebrews 11:11. Upon this simple but most practical matter I am going to speak to you at this time. If they do go out, they must know where they are going, and how much is to be picked up in the new country. Like Noah, we stagger not at the Word of God, because of evident improbability and apparent impossibility. We are saved by faith, because faith leads us to obey. I suppose you think you are poor yourselves, though you have got some thousand pounds odd a year, and so you keep it yourself, under the notion that "he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord." Young woman! God's blessings are blessings with both his hands. A city is a place of genial associations. saith one. To this end may the Spirit of God enable you. But it is written that "all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise." Hebrews 11:39. Sitting here with your brethren in Christ, you look very cheerful; but I may be addressing those whose life is one protracted struggle for existence. If you take the wooden sword of your own reasoning, you may easily be beaten. I leave this word with you. There has never been a revival in the church that has not witnessed to the value of our psalmody. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:8-10). If the Lord be God, he must be infallible; and if he can be described as in error in the little respects of human history and science, he cannot be trusted in the greater matters. But thou, poor sinner, with all thy sin about thee, if the rope is round thy loins, and Christ has hold of it, fear not! Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, June 1st, 1890, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. Hold the truth, if you stand alone. I remember a place in Yorkshire, years ago, where a good man said to me, "We have a real good minister." Therefore, because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed, it is but meet that our desire to reach the better country, and to enter the heavenly city should become more and more vehement, as "we nightly pitch our roving tent a day's march nearer home." you will care, one day, when the earth is reeling, and the world is tossing to and fro; ye will care when God shall summon you to judgment, and when he shall condemn the faithless and the unbelieving. We see faith, again, entering the lists with the infirmities of old age and the pains of the last struggle, as we read, "By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff." Ah! It is sustained by the mind's soberest reasoning and the heart's warmest passion. Let us think of heaven, of Christ, of all the blessings of the covenant, and let us thus keep our desires wide awake. They had news concerning the family house. and if we are called to suffer for him, our weakness, in the case of most of us, is even greater: many who can labor without weariness cannot suffer without impatience. After that fashion faith overcomes temptation. For this a man must have faith in God; and he must be sure that his trials, endured through his office, will have great recompense of reward. Abraham's slips--for he made one or two--were made when he had left the land and gone down among the Philistines. He knew whom he believed, and was persuaded that he had a favour towards him. 3. It makes them say, "Lord, thou hast forgiven me my sins; I will sin no more. Again, it may be that I am speaking to sad ones who suffer under mental depression. Hebrews 11:15-16 ABRAHAM left his country at God's command, and he never went back again. How stern is the conflict to keep under the body, lest corruption should prevail. Oh sirs, some of you do not require more knowledge, you need far more to put in practice what you know. They may not be well apparently while they are going on, but they will end well at last. In him we shall find succor, and by faith out of weakness we shall be made strong. The hour is coming when you and I shall lie low upon our silent beds of languishing, and the message will come "Arise and go forth from the house in which thou hast dwelt, from the city in which thou halt done business, from thy wife, from thy children, from thy bed, and from thy table. If you are what you profess to be, you are strangers. It is only our Lord Jesus Christ who can tell you that, for he is the only one who has ever been the Saviour of sinners. said one who heard it, "the Lord have mercy on your miserable stingy soul, for if you had been saved you would not have been con tent with a cent a year"--a halfpenny per annum! Any husbandman can get a good crop out of good soil; but God is the husbandman who can grow cedars on rocks, who can not only put the hyssop upon the wall, but put the oak there too, and make the greatest faith spring up in the most unlikely position. He must give up all agricultural pursuits, renounce his vine and his fig tree, and go his way, he knew not whither, to a land which to him was as unknown as the valley of the shadow of death. Behold thou, by faith, the heaven prepared for thee, and know of a certainty that thou wilt soon be there among the angels; and thou wilt defy cold, and hunger, and nakedness, and shame, and everything else. and its answer is, "To glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever." In noble independence no man could excel the father of the faithful; his contemporaries look small before him, and no man seems to be his equal, save Melchizedek. You cannot miss your way, for you shall be guided in answer to prayer. The first result was, He was saved and his house. If you will stand firm in Christ Jesus, even in your weakness you will be made strong. "O! In a lonely hamlet one has little company, but in a city much. The answer is exceedingly correct; but it might have been equally truthful if it had been shorter. Acts 9:31 The New King James Version (NKJV) She brought her life, even as that other woman, who was a sinner, brought the alabaster box of precious ointment, and broke it on the head of Christ. The Lord's complaint is "I called and ye refused." By no means. it was a mighty deed which faith accomplished when he bore her off in safety. Make the attempt by faith in God; for it is written, "Out of weakness were made strong." Now, Rahab's faith, sinner as she was, had this glory, this crown about its head, that she stood alone, faithful among the faithless found.". Saul did it. Grasp firmly the words, "and thy house." Abraham asked no question: he was not like Moses: he did not say, "Who am I that thou shouldest send me;" but when he was commanded to go, he went and he followed God without hesitation. What will you do then if you have not faith? Again, it was meet that Noah should follow close upon Enoch, as one of two who are described as having "walked with God." God grant it may be now! I beseech you, have faith in God that he will direct you, and have faith also to follow that direction when you receive it. "He hath prepared for them a city." Not now do I hear the shouts of the mob, as they exult that Christians are given to the lions. These all sprang from plain, humble men, who knew their Bibles, and believed the doctrines of grace. Consciences, tender about the Lord's honour, have not been produced for the last few years in any great number. Remember, "By faith Abraham obeyed." We are strangers and sojourners, as all our fathers were; dwellers in this wilderness, passing through it to reach the Canaan which is to be the land of our perpetual inheritance. Meanwhile, the delayer's case waxes worse and worse, and, if there were difficulties before, they are now far more numerous and severe. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." That is not the faith to which the promise is given. How splendidly he bore himself; no king ever behaved more royally. The obedience that comes of faith is of a noble sort. Yet in order to salvation, brethren, we must be separated from this untoward generation. They are poor now, but God, to whom things to come are things present, sees them in their fair white linen which is the righteousness of the saints. Men come not to their perfect stature except by years of growth. Perhaps you have tried to fill your soul with the daintiest provisions the world can offer; to wit--God has prospered you, and you have said, "Oh, this is well." Sarah's faith was not like Abraham's, yet it was true faith, and therefore her name appears among faith's worthies. Dear brethren, cultivate these desires more and more. Brethren, you desire something better than this world, do you not? I might call some of you hypocrites: you sing. And explaining it more fully to her, he said, "It is Christ, and Christ alone, that can open heaven to you, and not your good works." "Ah!" It is nothing short of Godhead's utmost stretch of might that keeps the feet of the saints, and preserves them from going back to their old unregenerate condition. We have been separated. To pray without faith is formality; nay, it is vanity. Faith always has been the mark of God's servants, from the beginning of the world. I have broken the key of my drawers, and there are some things I must get directly." Perhaps you will say, "Why does the Lord make them so plentiful? And how frequently will even solitude have temptations as severe as publicity could possibly bring! "Ah! Yet most people today have never heard of John Gill. While life lasts hope lasts; and we beseech you not to lie down in sullen hopelessness. In no tent of all the fair can we rest. Dear brethren, let us cultivate these desires more and more. They dwelt in tents--Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob--but he has prepared for them a city. There are perils in company, but there are perils likewise in our loneliness. Yet he devises means, and brings about the purposes of his grace. Trust thou in thy God, in his love to thee, in his care of thee, and then thou shalt be as the lilies, which toil not, and spin not, and yet are clothed; or as the ravens, which have no store, and yet are fed. O young man, can you take up in the warehouse the position of being a Christian though there is no other believer in the louse? 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