The faith-condition.
"If ye have no faith, verily ye shall not have continuance" (Cheyne's translation). "If ye hold not fast, verily ye shall not stand fast." See the expression illustrated in Jehoshaphat, when going out to meet the army of the Moabites and Ammonites (2 Chronicles 20:20). Habakkuk gives the same sentiment in his familiar expression, "The just shall live by his faith." Faith in him and in his Word is the one universal condition that God demands, and righteously demands, in view
God's law for creatures dependent on him is, "Trust me." God's grace for his creatures is, "Response to trust." He unfolds his best blessings to those who can both trust and hope in him. The demand for faith, as the condition of receiving Divine blessings, may be traced in the Divine dealings with men through all the ages and dispensations.
I. GOD REQUIRED FAITH IN THE PATRIARCHS. Enoch was translated as a response to a life of faith; Noah was saved from the flood because he believed; Abraham's faith was "counted for righteousness." They all "died in faith." The glory on their lives is the shining of God's acceptance given to men of faith.
II. GOD REQUIRED FAITH IN THE ISRAELITES. For forty years he was teaching them the trust-lesson. And if the Divine reproaches and reprovals and chastisements could be gathered up into a sentence, they would read thus: "You will not trust me wholly." "The Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe, for all the signs which I have showed among them?" (Numbers 14:11). Those Israelites "could not enter in because of their unbelief" (Hebrews 3:19).
III. GOD REQUIRED FAITH IN THE TIME OF THE KINGS. This was the one demand made in God's Name by the prophets; and striking illustrative incidents may be found in the mission of Elijah, and in the reigns of Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah.
IV. GOD REQUIRED FAITH WHEN SPEAKING TO MEN THROUGH CHRIST. Illustrate
"How is it that ye have no faith. Impress that this is God s necessary condition still, and for us. Whence proceed sterility and unfruitfulness in the knowledge of Christ, and inefficiency to good works, and the life of righteousness? The answer is—We have not "faith, even as a grain of mustard seed."—R.T.