Defender of the Faith

“ By evangelical sentiments, we understand, among others, a belief in the guilty and lost condition of all men without a Saviour; the Supreme Deity, Incarnation and Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world; the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, repentance, faith and holy obedience in order to salvation; the immortality of the soul; and the retributions of the judgment in the eternal punishment of the wicked, and salvation of the righteous. ”

“ Then said Jesus: "If you would obey me, go then into the lands of the gentiles and proclaim this gospel. The prophets have told you that to obey is better than to sacrifice. By faith have you become a God-knowing kingdom son. There is but one law to obey—that is the command to go forth proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Cease to fear men; be unafraid to preach the good news of eternal life to your fellows who languish in darkness and hunger for the light of truth. ”

“ If you will not be obedient, you cannot have confidence. I challenge any Christian here to tell me that he can go up to the throne of God in faith for any blessing, when his own heart condemns him. He knows he cannot. HE HAS FIRST TO GET THAT STATE OF CONDEMNATION TAKEN AWAY before he can exercise faith for any blessing. Walk in the light, and then you shall have fellowship with Him, and His blood will cleanse you from all sin, and the Spirit will teach you how to pray, and what to pray for, which the great mass of professors know nothing about. ”

“ Because with our outward sight, we can discern only human beings of like sinful inclinations with ourselves, liable to the same temptations and trials. We want to turn away from this picture, from sin to perfect holiness; from rebellion to perfect obedience; from hate, enmity, indifference, to perfect love, compassion, and self-devotion. But we need the eye of faith for this. Faith sees the remedy for sin, the Reconciler of sinners, the sinless Sufferer, the all-sufficient Saviour in Jesus Christ, the God-man, in whose name I come to you to-night, and whose message I bring. ”

“ If the Saviour were to reappear on earth, he would calumniate no minister who preaches salvation by grace—he would break up the peace of no church which holds the unity of the faith—he would show his regard for the law of God by obeying its precepts, and unveil the glory of the gospel by proclaiming it among all people. ”

“ What is saving faith? I dare not say that it is ’believing heartily’ my sins are forgiven me for Christ’s sake; for, if I live in sin, that belief is a destructive conceit, and not saving faith Neither dare I say, that ’saving faith is only a sure trust and confidence that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me;’ for, if I did, I should almost damn all mankind for four thousand years. ”

“ Let us plead for faith alone,
faith which by our works is shown;
God it is who justifies,
only faith the grace applies.
Active faith that lives within,
conquers hell and death and sin,
hallows whom it first made whole,
forms the Savior in the soul. ”

“ Never be induced, therefore, by any artifices, or any threatenings of the enemies of God's truth, to let go your dependance on the Saviour, or to renounce your allegiance to his laws; but, "building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, [Pg 27] looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life;" ”

“ We are commissioned by Christ not only to keep the faith but also to hand it down to others, not only to keep its fire burning in our hearts but to spread it, and to fan it into a conflagration. The gift of faith implies the charitable obligation of weaving our belief into our every day life and, through that life and its influence, into the lives of others. ”

“ A pure evangelical faith embraces all that seems necessary to salvation, namely, the most perfect self-abasement before God, together with a lively sense of human unworthiness, full implicit confidence in the free gift of atoning mercy as the only way to everlasting glory, and an earnest desire, by increasing holiness and obedience, to prove ourselves the children of God. ”

“ The very essence of Christianity is personal loyalty, passionate loyalty to our adorable Chief. We have laid other foundations—regeneration, sacraments, justification, works, faith, the Bible—any one of which, however necessary to salvation in its due place and proportion, may become a religion about Christ and without Christ. ”

“ Well, then, faith is enough; faith saves us, say the Baptists. If this be true, then, are the devils saved since they must have a far more vivid faith—belief in God—than the generality of human beings? ”

“ This mental felicity—this "weight of glory," cannot be enjoyed, but by the exercise of a living faith in Christ. Such a faith begets a sincere obedience in our life and conversation. It is a faith "that works by love, purifies the heart and overcomes the world." The great apostle to the Gentiles exclaims—"the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." We therefore "walk by faith, not by sight." ”

“ We are somewhat bewildered when we discover, by reference to the Gospel, that the Church commands us frequently to do precisely what the founder of our Faith commanded us not to do. And what, we may ask, is the Will of this great Father which is in Heaven? Is it to swear to what our own conscience and reason declare to be false? ”

“ What must we do on our part, in order that the snares of the wicked Angels may serve to our salvation?
We must fight against them full of faith and confidence, making use at the same time of the arms of prayer, and availing ourselves of the blessings sanctioned by the Church; and we must firmly resist all temptationsto evil. ”

“ How many of you will continue faithful—preserve yourselves in your integrity and in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ? You have come here expressly to be assembled with the Saints; your object in gathering was to forsake the wickedness that is in the world and to mingle with those who serve God with an undivided heart, and you expect to be faithful ”

“ Thus it is that these very men who are most opposed to the Church of Christ become the occasions for adding to its strength, for they call forth the protecting power of God, and so increase faith by experience. ”

“ The faith I want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that through the merits of Christ my sins are forgiven and I reconciled to the favour of God. Believe and thou shalt be saved! He that believeth is passed from death to life. ”

“ This sacred right we intend to exercise with that perseverance and self denial which become the disciples of Christ.
"On every hand the enemies of our faith league together to shake the foundations of the church of God. We, devoted children of that church, will put together all our forces to defend it. We wish to strengthen the bonds of charity between us, fortify ourselves against the seductions of the age, enlighten and encourage one another—to seek, in fine, the means of comforting and consoling the little ones and the poor, whom our Lord Jesus Christ loved with such a tender love." ”

“ But we have a certain promise, that come what may, Christ will never forsake His chosen flock; and those who try to hold fast the faith once delivered to the Saints, and to keep the law of love, clinging to their own true branch of the Church, may be sure that He Who has redeemed them, will guard them from all evil, and that they will share in His glory when He shall come with all His holy angels to put all enemies under His feet. ”

“ Such trust in our Heavenly Father, we infer, must be a quite fundamental element in the righteousness of the kingdom. Do the evangelic texts bear out this inference? They do. In the synoptic records of our Lord's words, faith holds a prominent place. "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." "Thy faith hath made thee whole." "O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee as thou wilt," and so on. We may say that faith was Christ's watchword, as repentance was John's. ”

“ Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect, unpardoned, unatoned for? Who will contend with me? let us stand together: Who is mine adversary? let him come near to me! This is Christ’s universal challenge to all accusers of his children: he has done the work, nothing can be added to it, or taken from it, and the adorable Father imputes this work to his Church; faith is given them to receive this atonement and righteousness, and power is given them to enjoy it as their own; and this believing and receiving the work the Lord Jesus has accomplished, is called, obeying Christ’s voice ”

“ Those who exercise that “patience” in these long-continued persecutions and trials, will show that they belong to those who keep the commandments of God, and are his true children. Or perhaps the meaning may be, “Here is a disclosure respecting the final destiny of these persecutors, which is adapted to comfort and sustain the saints in the trials which they will endure; an encouragement to constancy in obeying the commands of God, and in evincing the meek faith of the gospel.” ¶ And the faith of Jesus. To encourage persevering faith in the Saviour. ”

“ They are not to be set free as a reward for their faith, love and obedience. They have great peace and joy in believing that promise. They are in the happy enjoyment of a salvation by faith, and that is all the reward they deserve, or have reason to expect. We here perceive that these three men are made to establish the law of their king by faith in the good news he sent them by his son, which is to them a gospel. We now see the propriety of the apostle's language—"We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. ”

“ And that we may not be moved by their rejection and terrified by persecution or death, the Saviour presently adds: But a hair of your head shall not perish: in your patience you shall possess your souls. [5] If then a single hair shall not perish, how then can the faithful perish? Therefore, dear friends, study to keep the true faith and the sure hope. Stand firmly in the love of God’s word and cleave to it with earnest desire, listening to those whom the Saviour hath sent, that they may preach His gospel to you with fearless constancy, and withstand ravening wolves and false prophets. ”

“ We need a wholesome obstinacy in the right that will neither be bribed nor coaxed nor bullied, nor anyhow persuaded out of the road in which we know that we should walk. 'Add to your faith manly vigour.' Learn that an indispensable requisite of holiness is prescribed in that command, 'Whom resist, steadfast in the faith.' And remember that the ground of all successful resistance and the need for it are alike taught in that series of petitions, which makes a holy spirit the foundation of a constant spirit, and a constant spirit the guard of a holy spirit. ”

“ The very end of the commandment is love, out of a sincere heart. And this is acquired by faith in Christ Jesus, as the apostle observes in the following words. Faith uniteth us to him, whereby we sacrifice our souls and bodies, thro’ his spirit; which conducteth us to the compleat end of the law, to deliver us up to God and bring him down to us in charity, and a gracious inexplicable union; to whom be praise for ever! ”

“ The final perseverance of the saint depends on the Divine perseverance; his faithfulness on the Divine faithfulness. If we had no living Saviour to pilot our ship, no promise on which to rely, we might have cause to fear. The Divine faithfulness is unquestionable; our faithfulness is maintained only by obedience.
Lessons.—1. The faithfulness of God is the guarantee of the believer’s safety. 2. The faithfulness of God should encourage the exercise of implicit faith in Him. 3. The faithfulness of God demands undeviating obedience to His laws. ”

“ Get firmly to believe that "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin"; that His sacrifice is complete and fully accepted of God on man's behalf, so that he that believeth on Jesus is not condemned. Believe these truths as you believe any other statements; for the difference between common faith and saving faith lies mainly in the subjects upon which it is exercised. Believe the witness of God just as you believe the testimony of your own father or friend. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." ”

“ The second source of courage is faith.—We use the word in the Christian sense of trust in God. When a man feels that God is with him he can stand up against all the powers of earth and hell. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" The heroes of the past, who subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness, have all been men of faith. Recall Hebrews xi., the Covenanters, the Ironsides of Cromwell, the Huguenots, Luther, Knox. Their faith may not have been so enlightened as it might have been had their knowledge been wider. ”

“ Thirdly, our souls realize that for the glory of God, and for the benefit of the church at large it is that we have these trials of faith, and that leads again to God, to ask him for fresh supplies of grace, to be enabled to be faithful in this service. ”

“ By faith in God, as not only our Father, our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Protector: but the Father, Saviour, Redeemer, Protector, and if need be, Avenger, of every human being. By faith in God, which believes that His infinite heart yearns over every human soul, even the basest and the worst; that He wills that not one little one should perish, but that all should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. ”

“ It has been demonstrated that the teaching and atonement of God the Saviour would draw to him, by faith, the affections of the human heart. We will now inquire what particular effect that faith in Christ which works by love has upon the moral disposition, the conscience, the imagination, and the life of believers. Would faith in Christ, as a Divine, suffering Saviour, quicken, and regulate, and harmonize the moral powers of the soul? ”

“ From this faith no one can move us, neither angels nor men, neither sword nor fire, nor water nor any deadly punishment. If you allow us our faith we will accept no other lord in place of you, but we will accept no God in place of Jesus Christ; there is no other God beside him. ”