THE LIFE, WALK AND TRIUMPH OF FAITH – Charles Spurgeon
The Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith
Introduction: The Greatness of God’s Word
“And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be you perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”
—Genesis 17:1, 2
Beloved, all Scripture is the Word of God, but some Scripture is expressly so. Much of its teaching comes through inspired men, but some of it was spoken by God’s own mouth, directly and without instrumentality; such are the Words now before us, which were of old spoken to Abram by the Almighty God. These sentences ought for this reason to be regarded with peculiar reverence, and considered with double attention. The glow of Divinity is fresh upon the lines, so bend your souls to the understanding of them. If a letter were written to you when you were far from home, you would value every line of it. If your fond mother had asked a friend to write it in her name, and had dictated the expressions which he should employ, but if there were inserted in the body of the letter several sentences with this preface, “And your mother expressly says”—then you would treasure up the exact words, and repeat them to yourself again and again; would you not?
All God’s Words in Scripture are pearls, but this is one of the fairest of them. They are all diamonds, but such Words as God speaks from His own mouth I may call the crown jewels of Scripture! Look, then, at the Text. We will read it again: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be you perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Happy was Abram to have such intimate communion with God! These sacred visits were the grand events of his life, but we need not envy him, for God has appeared to us in a yet more glorious manner, and the appearance is abiding. Behold, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Tabernacle of God is among men, and He does dwell among them! And, in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Believer has obtained an intimacy with God which none of the older dispensation attained. The Lord was to the former saints as a wayfaring man who tarried but for a night—but it is our privilege to pray, “Abide with us,” and our joy to know that wherever two or three are met together in the name of our Lord, He is there and will manifest Himself to them!
Permit me, therefore, to encourage you to pray that the Words of the Lord to Abram may be Words for you, pressed home upon your own spirit, and sounded in your souls with power, as from the lips of the Lord Himself! Then shall our meditations be sweet, indeed, and we shall be blessed with faithful Abraham! O, Spirit Divine, make it so, we entreat You!
I. Sure Reliance on God
The first thing we shall speak about on this occasion is Sure Reliance. The foundation of it is laid before us in the Text. True confidence leans alone upon God, who declares Himself to be Almighty God, or God All-Sufficient—for such is an equally correct rendering of the passage. All true faith hangs upon God, as the vessel upon the nail; strong faith realizes the all-sufficiency of God, and that is the secret of its strength—the hidden manna on which it feeds and becomes vigorous.
The Lord is all-sufficient in Power to accomplish His own purposes; He is all-sufficient in Wisdom to find His own way through difficulties which to us may appear to be like a maze, but which to Him are plain enough. And He is all-sufficient in Love, so that He will never fail us for lack of Mercy in His heart or Pity in His bosom. God is God All-Sufficient! Simple as that Truth is for us to speak, and for you to hear, it is a deep, unfathomable mystery, and did we really grasp its Truth and dwell upon it, it would have a very wonderful effect upon our whole conduct.
Remember that Abram was 99 years old, and as yet had no child by his wife Sarah—yet he had received a Promise from God that there should be a seed which should spring out of his loins. He was long past the natural term of life in which it was likely that he would be the father of a son, and also was it with his wife Sarah. Abram, for a while overcome by unbelief, thought it best to take to himself, at the suggestion of his wife Sarah, her handmaid Hagar, and now, for some few years, Abram had possessed a son named Ishmael, and it is probable that he thought this son would answer God’s Promise, and that somehow or other the blessing would come through him.
But the Lord had not so determined; He took no pleasure in the carnal policy which led to Ishmael’s birth. The Lord meant the language before us to be a gentle but unmistakable rebuke for Abram, for He said in effect, “I am God All-Sufficient—quite sufficient to fulfill My own purposes without your help; quite able to achieve My own designs without such a questionable expedient as that of Hagar and her son Ishmael.”
That is, no doubt, the Divine Intent in the declaration of all-sufficiency. Hear, then, these words if you also have been at any time distrustful, and let them sink into your souls—“I am God All-Sufficient.” If any of you are tempted at this time to do what is questionable because you cannot see how God’s Promise to you will be effected without it, the Lord tells you He needs no help of yours to achieve His own designs! “I am God Almighty,” He says, “Is anything too hard for Me? Do you think I need your wisdom to set Me right, or your puny arm to strengthen Me? Do I need help to achieve My purposes which stand fast as My Eternal Throne?”
It was a tender rebuke of Abram’s very gross mistake, and it is to us a hint that we are never to put forth our hand unto iniquity, or to do anything that is doubtful in any shape or form under the notion that we are thus effecting the Purposes of God!
Look at Rebekah—she little understood the All-Sufficiency of God. God had promised her that Jacob would have the Covenant-blessing, but she seems to think that God cannot keep His Word and cause Jacob to inherit the Promises unless she has a finger in it! Father Isaac has sent Esau out to hunt—to bring home savory meat—and has promised that he will give Esau the blessing when he returns. And now Rebekah thinks God will be defeated! The anxious mother imagines the Most High to be in a dilemma, and His Purposes to be likely to fail unless her inherited craftiness can devise a strategy to eke out the Divine Wisdom! Rebekah must tell lies, and Jacob must tell lies, too! And poor old Isaac must be deceived, or else God’s Purposes will not be accomplished! O foolish Rebekah!
But before we speak and condemn that gracious woman, let us make sure that we confess and condemn the same tendency in ourselves! Have we not also dreamed that we might do evil that good might come? Have we not followed policy where we ought to have sternly adhered to principle, and all this because we thought it necessary, and feared that otherwise evil would triumph? Has not our judgment been bewildered by strange Providences, and been led to sanction irregular procedures, or at least to think less severely of them?
Under the influence of blind unbelief have we not been ready, like Uzzah, to lay our hand upon the Ark of the Lord to steady it, for fear it should fall—as if God’s Ark could not take care of itself without our sinful hand being laid on it? That lesson learned by Israel at the Red Sea is still a hard one for us—we cannot stand still and see the Salvation of God! Because we do not believe in the Almighty God, we are eager to make haste! We hurry, worry, fret, fuss and sin! Fear drives us, and self-sufficiency draws us, and the noble quietude of faith in God is lost.
O could we but rest in Omniscient Love! Could we but know the Lord, and wait patiently for Him—how much sin and sorrow we should be spared!
II. Our Right Position: Walking Before God
Here is the fit place to set in contrast the conduct of David. He knew that in God’s Decree it was ordained that he should be king over Israel, yet he took no means to secure the crown; he would not lift his hand to strike Saul. No, he spared him when he was entirely in his power; he did not unbelievingly interfere to make a providence for himself, but left the course of events in the Lord’s hands, and in consequence, when he came to the throne, he had an easy conscience, and no innocent blood upon his hands.
May our faith teach us the same patient waiting and confident repose of soul; may we believe, to see the Glory of the Lord! The Lord All-Sufficient will, in the end, clear the darkest Providences from all questions, and our souls shall know how happy are those who put their trust in the Lord alone!
This blessed Text, “I am God All-Sufficient,” may apply to us in times when we are inclined to shirk any service for God. Have you ever felt, in certain seasons, that God’s choice of you for a special labor could not be a wise one, for you were so unfit for it? Have you ever felt in your own hearts—“I cannot do that; I think the Lord would have me do it, but I cannot; I have not the qualifications. I believe I am called to it, but it is too difficult for me; I shall not be able to achieve it”?
Have you ever had the disposition, like Jonah, to flee to Tarshish, or somewhere else, and to escape from Nineveh and its trials? Have you never pleaded, like Jeremiah, “But I am a child”? Have you never cried, like Moses, “I am slow of speech! Send whomever You will send, but not me”?
Now, at such a time the Lord may well remind us, “I am God All-Sufficient, cannot I strengthen you? Weak as you are, cannot I make you strong? Worm of the dust, cannot I make you thresh the mountains? Why do you fear? You are feeble, but I am not. You are foolish, but I am Wise; give yourself up to My guidance; trust yourself in My hands, and you shall achieve marvels! And exceedingly great wonders shall you accomplish by My Power and Grace.”
It will be sadly sinful if we claim to ourselves the right to arrange our own place, and alter Heaven’s appointments. We are not where we are by chance, or by a freak of fate; as God’s servants, our work is allotted us wisely and authoritatively! Dare we be wiser than the Lord? Are we also of Jehovah’s council? His choice of instruments is wise even when He chooses the weak things of the world to work His Purposes; their insufficiency is of no consequence, for their sufficiency is of God!
For them to attempt to shun their duty because of conscious feebleness would be a daring sin against the prerogatives of the King of kings; an impious censure upon the Infallible Appointments of Infinite Wisdom! May not this be a word in season to some Brother or Sister here that may happen to be under that temptation? If it is, may the Lord speak it home by His Spirit, and a blessing will come of it! Work on, dear Friends, and wait on, for it is no business of yours to correct your Maker’s arrangements; He who placed you where you now are knew what He was doing!
Conclusion: Walking in God’s Presence
Look at your infirmities with another eye; no longer allow them to distress you, but the rather glory in them because they afford room and space for the Divine Power to rest in you and work by you! Listen no more to the wailings of your trembling flesh, which cries, “Alas, I am weak,” but hear the Voice of Him who says, “I am God Almighty.”
Walk Before a Jealous God: Living in His Presence
Walk before a jealous God, then, with scrupulous regard to His Honor and His Holiness. Oh, it is a great word this—“Walk before Me.” Its brevity is not as notable as its fullness. Surely it means realize My Presence, and then, in general life and ordinary conversation, continue under a sense of it—serious, devout, holy, earnest, trustful, consecrated, Christlike! But He meant more than that. “Walk before Me.” That is, “Delight in My Company.” True Believers find their choicest joy in communion with God, and if we always walked before God in a sense of communing with Him, our peace would be like a river, and our righteousness like the waves of the sea! Would it be possible for us to feel any distress of heart if we always enjoyed the Savior’s Love? I think there are no bitters known that would be able to affect our palate if we always had in our mouth the Love of the Savior in its ineffable, all-conquering sweetness.
“Walk before Me.” Do not interfere with God’s Purposes; do not, unbelievingly, try to help Omnipotence, and supplement Omniscience, but rejoice in the Lord, and find satisfaction in Him only. Be filled with His Fullness, and satisfied with His Favor. Go and do your part, which is to obey and to commune, and leave God’s work to God! Walk before Him and attend to that only. Do not doubt God’s Power to fulfill His own Decrees; do not doubt that He will keep His Word to the letter, and to the minute, but cultivate fellowship with God, for this will ennoble you and help you to give glory to His name.
“Walk before Me.” Does it not mean just this, in a word—“Do not act as seeing anybody else except Me. Walk before Me”? Now, Abram had walked before Sarah; he had listened to her, and much mischief had come of his doing so at different times. The dearest friends we have are often those who will lead us most astray when we take counsel with flesh and blood. She was peculiarly qualified from her fiery excellence of character to influence Abram, and in her unbelieving moods, to lead him away from the glorious absoluteness of his faith; she meant well enough, but she was too political in her suggestion as to her handmaid.
In the present case, the Lord seems to say to him, “Do not allow Sarah to affect you in these things; walk before Me.” Beloved, mind you keep clear of the unbelieving advice of good people, and then you will have less to fear from bad ones! And there was Hagar; Abram had been a great deal distressed about her, and it was but right that he should feel much interest in her welfare; and there was her son, Ishmael, whom he loved, and whom he would have to send away from the household in the future, with deep regret. God says to Abram, “Do not allow your course to be shaped by regarding Hagar, or regarding Ishmael, or regarding Sarah, or anybody else; walk before Me.”
I am persuaded that a regard for God, a sense of duty, and a straightforward following out of convictions is the only true style of living, for if you begin to notice the whims and wishes of one, then you will have to do the same with another; and if your course of conduct is to be shaped to please men, you will become man’s slave, and nothing better; and no child of God ought to come into that condition. If I felt I came into this pulpit to please any of you, I would feel mean, utterly mean and unfit to preach to you! And you would soon know it, and find out that God was not blessing me to your souls; and if any of you, in your course of business, are always trying to catch the eye of this person or cringing and fawning to this other nobleman, or squire, or gentleman, why, you are mean too!
But the man who says, “I try to do right in God’s sight; I have not swerved from a sense of conscious rectitude as before the Living God”—why, Sir, you have got all the freedom of soul that you can desire this side of Heaven! To walk before God, that is the point! To fear the Lord, and no one else—that is the state of mind to aim at! Make this the master passion of your soul, “For me to live is Christ.” Make the honor of God your chief motive, and the Law of God your rule. Walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
III. Our Glorious Aim: Perfection
But we must pass on, for there is another point, and that is, as we have considered our sure reliance, and our right position, we notice next Our Glorious Aim—“Be you perfect.” Now, the context shows us that the only way to be perfect is to walk before the Lord; if any man desires holiness, he must get it through communion; the way to be transformed into the likeness of God is to live in the company of God! That which you look upon, you will soon be like, and if your eyes look on God, your character will become like God; hence the order of our Text is highly suggestive, and should be earnestly noted, and practically carried out.
First, God must be known as All-Sufficient—thus He helps and enables His servant to walk before Him, and then as a consequence, that favored servant labors to obey the word of command—“BE YOU PERFECT.” There could be no walking before the Lord if All-Sufficient Grace did not work it in us; and the command, “Be you perfect,” would be mere mockery if Almighty Love did not stand engaged to work all our works in us!
To a man who has learned to rest in Almighty Faithfulness, the perfect Law is delightful; and with confidence in the energy of the Holy Spirit, he is not staggered by its commands. I desire you to note this, for the order of Holy Scripture is always full of reason and weight. Whatever ill-taught divines may do, the Holy Spirit never puts the fruit before the root, and never places the pinnacle where the foundation should be. Begin with God’s All-Sufficiency; go on to the holy fellowship and obedience, and then aim at Scriptural perfection, and so you will take everything in due sequence.
But we must pass on. As you are aware, our margin translates the Text thus, “Be you sincere,” or, “Be you upright,” and either translation would not be incorrect. Now, child of God, you have been saying, “I do not see how God is to fulfill His Promise to me.” What have you to do with that? Walk before God and be sincere; He will attend to the due performance of all that He has promised.
Remember—
“Though dark is your way, since He is your Guide,
‘Tis yours to obey, ‘tis His to provide.”
In all things be transparently sincere; never pray a formalistic prayer, or sing a heartless hymn, or prattle out an experience you never felt; shun first and foremost the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy! Be what you would seem to be; be downright, intensely real, thorough, and if you are that, you shall never find God less thorough than you are, nor the Lord less true to His Word than you shall be. If you are wavering and double-minded, you must not expect anything of the Lord; but if you are singlehearted He will abundantly care for you. Mind this, I pray you, every day you live! This is the era of plausible sham, the era of superficiality—therefore be unmistakably true before the God of Truth.
The margin translates the passage by the word “upright,” and it comes to just this: you are fretting about how the Lord will deal with you; Brother, that is no concern of yours! Your concern is that you be upright in business. “My trade falls off,” says one; be upright, Brother! Whatever you do, be upright. “But I have drifted into such difficulties; I am afraid I shall be ruined.” Be upright, Brother! Whatever you do, be upright. “Could I not get away a few of my goods, for instance, which ought to be my creditors’?” Brother, be upright! Be upright. “Ah, but then, surely, I shall hardly have a rag left.” Be upright, Brother, be upright! “Oh, but I must consider my children.” “Walk before Me,” says the Lord, “and be you upright.”
“Oh, but a man must take care of himself and his family.” Be upright, Brother! That is the main thing to take care about; it will not matter how poor you are if you do not lose your character! Lose everything else, and you may yet be happy, but if you lose your peace of mind, who can comfort you? If the worldling can point at you and say, “There is a professor who wronged his creditors,” that will be worse than all! No court is so much to be dreaded as the court of conscience; keep all things clear there!
Better an honest pauper than a rich rogue. I am sure your fellow Christians will respect you none the less, however low you come, if you come there fairly. All those whose love is worth the having, will cling to you in hearty sympathy, and only false friends, the parasites of the hour, will desert you, and a good riddance will their departure turn out to be! But avoid, I implore you, those tricks so common among traders nowadays; those rash speculations; those deceptive accommodations; the lying and duping of others which men fly to as a drowning man catches at a straw—a straw that he ought never to touch! Not losing, but cheating is the mischief—and the Lord says to you, “I am God All-Sufficient: I can take care of you: I can bring you through all this. Do not touch forbidden things in order to escape from trial, or your trials will multiply and crush you! Walk before Me, as under My eye; and be you upright.”
Perfection and Hope in God’s Covenant
But our version says, “Be you perfect,” and for my part, I like it as it stands—“Be you perfect.” “Oh,” says one, “but how can we be perfect?” I will ask you a question: would you have God command you to be less than perfect? If so, He would be the Author of an imperfect Law! “The Law of the Lord is perfect.” How could it be otherwise? I do not find that He bids us partly keep His Law, but wholly keep it! And so the Lord holds up this as the standard of a Christian—“Be you perfect.” And does it not mean let us be perfect in desiring to have all the rounds of Divine Grace? Suppose a man should have faith, and should have love, but no hope? He would not be perfect; he would be like a child that had two arms, but only one foot; it would not be a perfect child. You must have all the Graces if you are to be a perfect man.
I think I have known some Christians who have had all the Graces except patience, and they could never be patient. “Walk before Me,” says the Lord, “and be you perfect in patience.” I have known some others who seemed to have almost every Grace except the Grace of forgiveness; they could not very readily forget any injury that had been done to them. Dear Brothers and Sisters, get that Grace, the Grace of forgiveness, and walk before the Lord with that, or you will remain a mutilated character! A Christian’s character is spoilt by the omission of any one virtue, and you must labor in the Presence of God to have all these things, that they be in you and abound! Be you in this sense perfect.
And as we have all the Graces, so we should seek to have exhibited in our lives all the virtues in the fulfillment of all our duties. It is a very sad thing when you hear of a Christian, that he is a very excellent deacon, that he is a very admirable local preacher, or Sunday school teacher, but he is a very unkind father. That “but” spoils it all! A saint abroad is no saint if he is a devil at home! We have known men of whom it has been said that out of doors they were all that could be desired, but they were bad husbands. That “but”—how it mars the tale! It is the dead fly which has got into a very good pot of ointment, and made the whole of it stink! Keep the dead flies out, Brethren! By God’s Grace may your character be full-orbed! May God grant you Grace to be at home, and to be abroad, to be in the shop, and in the chamber, and to be in every department of life—just that which a man should be who walks before the All-Sufficient God!
Now, I think I hear somebody saying, “How shall we ever reach such a height?” My dear Brother, you never will do so unless you remember the first part of the text—“I am the Almighty God.” He can help you! If there is any sin that you cannot overcome yourself, He can overcome it for you! If there is any virtue you have not yet reached, He can lead you up to it! Never despair of the highest degree of Divine Grace. What the best of men have been, you also may; there is no reason why you should not yet be elevated beyond all the sin into which you may have fallen from inadvertence or temptation. Have hope, my Brothers and Sisters! Have hope for a higher platform of character; have hope yet to be conformed unto the Image of God’s dear Son! Aim at nothing less than perfection.
But I will not detain you longer except to notice that last word. It is a very sweet word—“I will make My covenant between Me and you.” How run the words? “I will make My covenant between Me and you.” Oh, it is the man who knows an All-Sufficient God, and that lives in the Presence of God, and that endeavors to be perfect in his life—it is that man who enjoys communion with God such as no one else knows, for, “The secret of the Lord is with them who fear Him.” “There shall be a covenant between Me and you.” It sounds so sweet to me, as if He had said, “I will say nothing to the outside world; neither will you tell them; it shall be between you and Me. We will shake hands together, Abram; you shall be My friend, and I will be your Friend forever. You will say, ‘My Father,’ and I will say, ‘My son.’ You will put yourself into My hands, and I will carry you; you will ask to see My Glory, and I will make My Glory pass before you. I will tell you what I mean to do; if I am going to destroy Sodom, I will come and tell Abram my friend. I will let you speak to Me, and I will hear you. Time after time I will stay while you do plead for 50, and for 45, and 30, 20, and ten. ‘There shall be a covenant between Me and you.’ And I will make it; it shall not be such a one as your timorous faith would make! I will make it after the manner of My Bounty, My Eternity, and My All-Sufficiency.”
When the Lord makes a covenant, it will stand! It will be sure! It will be rich! It will be full! And, O, I pray that every one of you may know that covenant, and live upon its incomparable blessings! “The secret of the Lord is with them who fear Him,” and He will show them His covenant. But many a child of God walks obstinately, and the Lord will not fully reveal the covenant to such. Some of His Peters follow afar off, and they get into trouble—they do not enjoy the sweets of Divine Fellowship and peculiar manifestation. But this careful walking, this close walking, this keeping near to an All-Sufficient God, this resting solely in Him—O, this it is that brings the sweetness and the joy which are the foretaste of Heaven; which are, indeed, a young Heaven begun this side the tomb!
I pray the Lord will bring all my dear friends into holy fellowship with Himself! And if any of you have not come to the border of the happy land, I pray you may be led there at once! The way of Salvation is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith is both the road to the highest happiness, and the way to the first safety; faith is both the highest rung of the ladder and its first step—“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” Have done with self-righteous works, and come to the trusting! Have done with seeking to save self, and accept Jesus alone as your Redeemer! The Lord grant you Grace to do so, and His shall be the praise forever and ever! Amen.
Charles Spurgeon