Acting Our Faith On The Almighty Power of God - Application of Faith and Obedience Continued...

1. In agonies of conscience that arise from the greatness of thy sins, fly for refuge into the almighty power of God.  Truly, sirs, when a man's sins are displayed in all their bloody colors, and spread forth in all their killing aggravations, and the eye of conscience awakened to behold them through the multiplying or magnifying glass of a temptation, they must needs surprise the creature with horror and amazement, till the soul can say with the prophet, For all this huge host, there is yet more with me than against me.  One Almighty is more than many mighties.  All these mighty sins and devils, make not one almighty sin, or an almighty devil.  Oppose to all the hideous charges brought against thee by them this only attri­bute.  As the French ambassador once silenced the Spaniard's pride in repeating his master many titles, with one that drowned them all, God himself, when he had aggravated his people's sins to the height, then to show what a God can do, breaks out into a sweet promise: ‘I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger;’ and why not? 'I am God, and not man,’ Hosea 11:9.  I will show the almightiness of my mercy. Something like our usual phrase when a child or a woman strikes us, I am a man, and not a child or a woman, therefore I will not strike again.  The very considering God to be God, supposeth him almighty to pardon as well as to avenge.  And this is some relief.  But then to consider it is almighty power in bond and covenant to pardon, this is more.  As none can bind God but himself, so none can break the bond himself makes: and are they not his own words, that ‘he will abundantly pardon?’ Isa. 55:7.  He will multiply to pardon, as if he had said, ‘I will drop mercy with your sin, and spend all I have, rather than let it be said my good is overcome of your evil.’  It fares with the gracious soul in this case as with a captain, that yields his castle upon gracious terms of having his life spared, and he safely conveyed to his house, there to be settles peaceably in his estate and possessions, for all which he hath the general's hand and seal, on which he marches forth; but the rude soldiers assaulting him, and putting him in fear of his life, he appeals to the general, whose honor is now engaged for him, and is presently relieved, and his enemies punished.  Thou mayest, poor soul, when accused by Satan, molested by his terrors, say, It is God that justifies; I have his hand to it, that I should have my life given me as soon as I laid down my arms and submitted to him, which I desire to do.  Behold, the gates of my heart are open to let the Prince of peace in, and is not the Almighty able to perform his promise?  I commit myself to him as unto a faithful Creator.

             

Acting Our Faith On The Almighty Power of God - Application of Faith and Obedience Continued..

[Use or Application.] Continued....

 Use Second.  This shows the dismal, deplorable condition of all you who are yet in a Christless state.  You have seen a rich mine opened, but not a penny of this treasure comes to your share; a truth laden with incomparable comfort, but it is bound for another coast, it belongs to the saints, into whose bosom this truth unlades all her comfort.  See God shutting the door upon you, when he sets his children to feast themselves with such dainties.  ‘Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty,’ Isa. 65:13.  God hath set his number which he provides for.  He knows how many he hath in his family: these and no more shall sit down.  One chief dish at the saints' board is the almighty power of God.  This was set be­fore Abraham, and stands before all his saints, that they may eat to fullness of comfort on it; but thou shalt be hungry.  He is almighty to pardon, but he will not use it for thee, an impenitent sinner.  Thou hast not a friend on the bench, not an attribute in all God's name, will speak for thee: mercy itself will sit and vote with the rest of its fellow-attributes for thy damnation.  God is able to save and help in a time of need; but upon what acquaintance is it that thou art so bold with God, as to expect his saving arm to be stretched forth for thee?  Though a man will rise at midnight to let in a child that cries and knocks at his door, yet he will not take so much pains for a dog that lies howling there.  This presents thy condition, sinner, sad enough, yet this is to tell thy story fairest; for that almighty power of God which is engaged for the believer's salvation, is as deeply obliged to bring thee to thy execution and damnation.  What greater tie than an oath?  God himself is under an oath to be the destruction of every impenitent soul. 

That oath which God sware in his wrath against the unbelieving Israelites, that they should not enter his rest, concerns every unbeliever to the end of the world.  In the name of God consider, were it but the oath of a man, or a company of men, that like those in the Acts, should swear to be the death of such a one, and thou wert the man, would it not fill thee with fear and trembling night and day, and take away the quiet of thy life, till they were made friends?  What then are their pillows stuffed with, who can sleep so soundly without any horror or amazement, though they be told that the Almighty God is under an oath of damning them, body and soul, without timely repen­tance?  O bethink yourselves, sinners, is it wisdom or valor to refuse terms of mercy from God's hands, whose almighty power, if rejected, will soon bring you into the hands of justice?  And how fearful a thing that is, to fall into the hands of Almighty God, no tongue can express, no, not they who feel the weight of it.

             Use Third.  This speaks to you, who are saints indeed.  Be strong in the faith of this truth, make it an article of your creed; with the same faith you believe that there is a God, believe also this God's almighty power is thy sure friend, and then improve it to thy best and advantage.  As,

              

Acting Our Faith On The Almighty Power of God - Application of Faith and Obedience

[Use or Application.]

             Use First.  Is the almighty power of God engaged for the saints' defence? surely then they will have a hard pull, the saints’ enemies, who meddle with them who are so far above their match.  The devil was so cunning, he would have Job out of his trench, his hedge down before he could fall on.  But so desperate are men, they will try the field with the saints, though encircled with the almighty power of God.  What folly were it to attempt or sit down be­fore such a city, which cannot be blocked up so as no relief can get in? the way to heaven cannot.  In the church's straitest siege, ‘there is a river which shall make glad this city of God,’ with seasonable succours from heaven.  The saints' fresh-springs are all from God, and it is as feasible for sorry man to stop the water-courses of the clouds, as to dam up those streams, which invisibly glide like veins of water in the earth, from the fountain-head of his mercy into the bosom of his people.  The Egyptians thought they had Israel in a trap, when they saw them march into such a nook by the sea-side.  ‘They are entangled, they are entangled;’ and truly so they had been irrecoverably, had not that almighty power which led them on, engaged to bring them off with honor and safety.  

Well, when they are out of this danger; behold they are in a wilderness where nothing is to be had for back and belly, and yet here they shall live for forty years, without trade or tillage, without begging or robbing of any of the neighbor nations; they shall not be beholden to them for a penny in their way. What cannot almighty power do to provide for his people? what can it not do to protect them against the power and wrath of their enemies?  Almighty power stood between the Israelites and the Egyptians, so that, poor creatures, they could not so much as come to see their enemies.  God sets up a dark cloud as a blind before their eyes, and all the while his eye through the cloud is looking them into disorder and confusion.  And is the Almighty grown weaker now-a-days, or his enemies stronger, that they promise themselves better success?  No, neither; but men are blinder than the saints' enemies of old, who sometimes have fled at the appearances of God among his people, crying out, ‘Let us flee, for the Lord fighteth for them.’  Whereas there be many now-a-days will rather give the honor of their discomfitures to Satan himself, than acknowledge God in the business; more ready to say that the devil fought against them, than God.  O you that have not yet worn off the impressions which the almighty power of God hath at any time made upon your spirits, beware of having anything to do with that generation of men, whoever they are.  Come not near their tabernacle, cast not thy lot in amongst them, who are enemies to the saints' of the most High; for they are men devoted to destruction.  He ripped open the very womb of Egypt, to save the life of Israel his child, Isa. 43:3.

Acting Our Faith On The Almighty Power of God - Faith and Obedience Continued...

The Christian's comfort increaseth or wanes, as 2- the aspect of his faith is to the power of God.  Let the soul question that, or his interest in it, and his joy gusheth out, even as blood out of a broken vein.  It is true, a soul may scramble to heaven with much ado, by a faith of recumbency, relying on God as able to save, without this persuasion of its interest in God; but such a soul goes with a scant side-wind, or like a ship whose masts are laid by the board, exposed to wind and weather, if others better appointed did not tow it along with them.  Many fears like waves ever and anon [so] cover such a soul, that it is more under water than above; whereas one that sees itself folded in the arms of almighty power, O how such a soul goes mounting afore the wind, with her sails filled with joy and peace!  Let affliction come, storms arise, this blessed soul knows where it shall land and be welcome.  The name of God is his harbor, where he puts in as boldly, as a man steps into his own house, when taken in a shower.  He hears God calling him into this, and other his attributes, as chambers taken up for him.  ‘Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,’ Isa. 26:20.  God calls them his, and it were foolish modesty not to own what God gives.  ‘Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength,’ Isa. 45:24; that is, I have righteousness in God’s righteousness, strength in his strength, so that in this respect Christ can no more say that his strength is his own, and not the believer's, than the husband can say, My body is my own and not my wife's.  A soul persuaded of this may sing merrily with the sharpest thorn at his breast; so David, ‘My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise,’ Ps. 57:7.  What makes him so merry in so sad a place as the cave where now he was? he will tell you ver. 1, where you have him nestling himself under the shadow of God's wings, and now well may he sing care and fear away.  A soul thus provided may lie at ease on a hard bed.  Do you not think they sleep as soundly who dwell on London-bridge, as they who live at Whitehall or Cheapside, knowing that the waves that roar under them cannot hurt them? even so may the saints rest quietly over the floods of death itself, and fear no ill.

Acting Our Faith On The Almighty Power of God - Faith and Obedience

 

Acting Our Faith On The Almighty Power of God...continued

 Fifth Tie.  Christ's presence and employment in heaven lays a strong engagement on God to bring his whole force and power into the field upon all occasions for his saints' defence.  One special end of his journey to heaven, and abode there, is that he might, as the saints' solicitor, be ever interceding for such supplies and succours of his Father as their exigencies call for; and the more to assure us of the same before he went, he did, as it were, tell us what heads he meant to go upon his intercession when he should come there; one of which was this, that his Father should keep his children while they were to stay in the world from the evil thereof, John 17:15.  Neither doth Christ take upon him this work of his own head, but hath the same appointment of his Father for what he now prays in heaven, as he did for what he suffered on earth.  

He that ordained him a Priest to die for sinners, did not then strip him of his priestly gar­ments, as Aaron, but appoints him to ascend in them to heaven, where he sits a Priest forever by God's oath.  And this office of intercession was erected purely in mercy to believers, that they might have full content given them for the performance of all that God had promised; so that Jesus Christ lies lieger at court as our ambassador, to see all carried fairly between God and us according to agreement; and if Christ follows his business close, and be faithful in his place to believers, all is well.  And doth it not behove him to be so, who intercedes for such dear relations?  Suppose a king's son should get out of a besieged city, where he hath left his wife and children, whom he loves as his own soul, and these all ready to die by sword or famine; if supply come not sooner, could this prince, when arrived at his father's house, please himself with the delights of the court, and forget the distress of his family?  

Or rather would he not come post to his father, having their cries and groans always in his ears, and before he eat or drink, do his errand to his father, and entreat him if ever he loved him, that he would send all the force of his kingdom to raise the siege, rather than any of his dear relations should perish?  Surely, sirs, though Christ be in the top of his preferment, and out of the storm in regard of his own person, yet his children left behind in the midst of sins, Satan, and the world's batteries, are in his heart, and shall not be forgotten a moment by him.  The care he takes in our business appeared in the speedy despatch he made of his Spirit to his apostles' supply, when he ascended, which as soon almost as he was warm in his seat, at his Father's right hand, he sent, to the incomparable comfort of his apostles and us, that to this day, yea, to the end of the world, do or shall believe on him.

 Second.  [I shall prove why the Christian should strongly act his faith on this almighty power as engaged for his help.] —The second branch of the point follows [namely], that saints should eye this power of God as engaged for them, and press it home upon their souls till they silence all doubts and fears about the matter; which is the importance of this ex­hortation, ‘Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.’  Fortify and entrench your souls within the breastwork of this attribute of God's mighty power made over to you by God himself.

Acting Our Faith On The Almighty Power of God...Continued

             Second Tie.  The dear love he beareth to his saints engageth his power.  He that hath God's heart cannot want his arm.  Love in the creature commands all the other affections, sets all the powers of the whole man on work; thus in God, love sets all his other attributes on work.  When once God pitched his thoughts of doing good to lost man, then wisdom fell on projecting the way, almighty power that undertook to raise the fabric according to wisdom's model.  All are ready to effect what God saith he likes.  Now the believing soul is an object of God's choicest love, even the same with which he loves his Son, John 17:26.

1. God loves the believer as the birth of his everlasting counsel.  When a soul believes, then God's eternal purpose and counsel concerning him, whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, and with whom his thoughts went so long big, brings forth.  And how must God needs love that creature whom he carried so long in the womb of his eternal purpose?  This goodly fabric of heaven and earth had not been built, but as a stage whereon he would in time act what he decreed in heaven of old, concerning the saving of thee, and a few more his elect.  And therefore according to the same rate of delight, with which God pleased and entertained him­self in the thoughts of this before the world was, must he needs rejoice over the soul now believing, with love and complacency inconceivable; and God having brought his counsel thus far towards its issue, surely will raise all the power he hath, rather than be disappointed of his glory within a few steps of home; I mean, his whole design in the believer's salvation. The Lord who hath chosen his saints Zech. 3, as Christ prays for Joshua their representative, will rebuke Satan and all their enemies.
2. God loves the saints as the purchase of his Son's blood.  They cost him dear, and that which is so hardly got shall not be easily lost.  He that was willing to expend his Son's blood to gain them, will not deny his power to keep them.
3. God loves the saints for their likeness to himself, so that if he loves himself, he cannot but love himself appearing in them; and as he loves him­self in them, so he defends himself in defending them.  What is it in a saint that enrageth hell but the image of God, without which the war would soon be at an end?  It is the hatred that the panther hath to man that makes him fly at his picture.  ‘For thy sake we are slain all the day long:’ and if the quarrel be God's, surely the saint will not go forth to war at his own cost.

             Third Tie.  The covenant engageth God's al­mighty power, ‘I am the Almighty God; walk before me,’ Gen.17:1.  There is a league offensive and defensive between God and his saints; he gives it under his hand that he will put forth the whole power of his godhead for them, ‘The Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel,’ I Chron. 17:24.  God doth not parcel himself out by retail, but gives his saints leave to challenge whatever a God hath, as theirs; and let him, whoever he is, sit in God's throne and take away his crown, that can fasten any untruth on the Holy One; as his name is, so is his nature, a God keeping covenant for ever.  The promises stand as the mountains about Jerusalem, never to be removed; the weak as well as the strong Christian is within this line of communication.  Were saints to fight it out in open field by the strength of their own grace, then the strong were more likely to stand, and the weak to fall in battle; but both castled in the covenant, are alike safe.

 

Acting Our Faith on The Almighty power of God

[Of acting our faith on the almighty power of God.]

             Doctrine First.  It should be the Christian's great care in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith on the almighty power of God.  When God holds forth himself as an object of the soul's trust and confidence in any great strait or undertaking, commonly this attribute of his almighty power is presented in the promise, as the surest holdfast for faith to lay hold on.  As a father in rugged way gives his child his arm to lay hold by, so doth God usually reach forth his almighty power for his saints to ex­ercise their faith on, [as He did for] Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose faith God tried above most of his saints before or since, for not one of those great things which were promised to them did they live to see performed in their days.  And how doth God make known himself to them for their support, but by displaying this attribute?  'I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty,’  Ex. 6:3.  This was all they had to keep house with all their days: with which they lived comfortably, and died triumphantly, bequeathing the promise to their children, not doubting, because God Almighty had promised, of the performance. 

Thus, Isa. 26, where great mercies are promised to Judah, and a song penned beforehand to be sung on that gaudy day of their salvation; yet because there was a sharp winter of captivity to come between the promise and the spring-time of the promise, therefore, to keep their faith alive in this space, the prophet calls them up to act their faith on God Almighty.  ‘Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength,’ ver. 4.  So when his saints are going to the furnace of persecution, what now doth he direct their faith to carry to prison, to stake, with them but this almighty power?  ‘Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator,’ I Pet. 4:19.  Creator is a name of almighty power; we shall now give some reasons of the point.

             Reason First. Because it is no easy work to make use of this truth, how plain and clear soever it now appears, in great plunges of temptation, that God is almighty.  To vindicate this name of God from those evil reports which Satan and carnal reason raise against it, requires a strong faith indeed.  I confess this principle is a piece of natural divinity.  That light which finds out a Deity will evince, if followed close, this God to be almighty; yet in a carnal heart, it is like a rusty sword, hardly drawn out of the scabbard, and so of little or no use.  Such truths are so imprisoned in natural conscience, that they seldom get a fair hearing in the sinner's bosom, till God gives them a jail-delivery, and brings them out of their house of bondage, where they are shut up in unrighteousness with a high hand of his convincing Spirit.  Then, and not till then, the soul will believe [that] God is holy, merciful, almighty; nay, some of God's peculiar people, and not the meanest for grace amongst them, have had their faith for a time set in this slough, [and] much ado to get over these difficulties and improbabilities which sense and reason have objected, so as to rely on the almighty power of God, with a notwithstanding.  Moses himself [was] a star of the first magnitude for grace, yet see how his faith blinks and twinkles till he wades out the temptation: ‘The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.  

Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them?’ Num. 11:21, 22.  This holy man had lost the sight for a time of the almighty power of God, and now he projecting how this should be done; as if he had said in plain terms, How can this be accom­plished?  For so God interprets his rea­soning: ‘And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short?’ ver. 23. So Mary, 'Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,’ John 11:32.  And her sister Martha, 'Lord, by this time he stinketh,’ ver. 39.  Both [were] gracious women, yet both betrayed the weakness of their faith on the almighty power of Christ; one limiting him to place—‘f thou hadst been here,’ he had not died; as if Christ could not have saved his life absent as well as present—sent his health to him as well as brought it with him;—the other to time —‘now he stinketh;’ as if Christ had brought his physic too late, and the grave would not deliver up its prisoner at Christ's command.  And thou hast such a high opinion of thyself, Christian, that thy faith needs not thy utmost care and endeavour for further establishment on the almighty power of God, when thou seest such as these dash their foot against this kind of temptation?