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037 - The Law Established through Faith Discourse II · Sermons on Several Occasions, First Series

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty six of Sermons on Several Occasions First Series.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Aaron Weber. Sermons on
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  Speaker 1: Several Occasions, First Series by John Wesley. The Law Established
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  Speaker 1: through Faith? Discourse two. Do we then make void the
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  Speaker 1: law through faith? God forbid? Yea we establish the law
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  Speaker 1: Romans three thirty one. It has been shown in the
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  Speaker 1: preceding discourse which are the most usual ways of making
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  Speaker 1: void the law through faith. Namely, first the not preaching
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  Speaker 1: it at all, which eventually makes it all void a stroke,
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  Speaker 1: and this under color of preaching Christ and magnifying the Gospel,
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  Speaker 1: though it be in truth, destroying both the one and
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  Speaker 1: the other. Secondly, the teaching, whether directly or directly, that
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  Speaker 1: faith supersedes the necessity of holiness, that this less necessity now,
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  Speaker 1: or a less degree of it, necessary than before Christ came,
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  Speaker 1: that it is less necessary to us because we believe
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  Speaker 1: than otherwise it would have been, or that the Christian
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  Speaker 1: liberty is a liberty from any kind or degree of holiness,
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  Speaker 1: so perverting those great truths that we are now under
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  Speaker 1: the covenant of grace and not works, that a man
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  Speaker 1: is justified by faith without the works of the law,
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  Speaker 1: and that to him that worketh not, but believeth his
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  Speaker 1: faith is counted for righteousness. Or thirdly, the doing this practically,
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  Speaker 1: the making void the law and practice, though not in principle,
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  Speaker 1: the living or acting as if faith was designed to
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  Speaker 1: excuse us from holiness, the allowing ourselves and sin because
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  Speaker 1: we are not under the law but under grace. It
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  Speaker 1: remains to inquire how we follow a better pattern, how
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  Speaker 1: we may be able to say with the apostle, do
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  Speaker 1: we then make void the law? Through faith? God forbid?
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  Speaker 1: Yea we establish the law. We do not indeed establish
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  Speaker 1: the old ceremonial law. We know this is abolished forever.
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  Speaker 1: Much less do we establish the whole mosaic dispensation. This
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  Speaker 1: we know our Lord has nailed to the cross. Nor
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  Speaker 1: yet do we establish the moral law, which it is
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  Speaker 1: feared too many do, as if the filling it, the
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  Speaker 1: keeping all the commandments were the condition of our justification.
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  Speaker 1: If it were so, surely in his sight should no
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  Speaker 1: man living be justified. But all this being allowed, we
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  Speaker 1: still in the apostle sense establish the law, the moral law.
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  Speaker 1: We establish the law first by our doctrine, by endeavoring
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  Speaker 1: to preach it in its whole extent, to explain and
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  Speaker 1: enforce every part of it, in the same manner as
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  Speaker 1: our great teacher did while upon Earth. Establish it by
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  Speaker 1: following Saint Peter's advice. If any man speak, let him
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  Speaker 1: speak as the oracles of God, as the holy men
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  Speaker 1: of old, moved by the Holy Ghost, spoke and wrote
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  Speaker 1: for our instruction, and as the apostles of our blessed Lord.
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  Speaker 1: By the direction of the same spirit. We establish it
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  Speaker 1: whenever we speak in His name, by keeping back nothing
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  Speaker 1: from them that here by declaring to them without any
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  Speaker 1: limitation or reserve the whole counsel of God. And in
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  Speaker 1: order the more effectually to establish it we use herein
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  Speaker 1: great plainness of speech. We are not as many that
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  Speaker 1: corrupt the word of God Capeleontes, as artful men their
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  Speaker 1: bad wines. We do not compondie, mix, adulterate, or soften
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  Speaker 1: it to make it suit the taste of the hearers,
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  Speaker 1: but as of sincerity, not as of God. In the
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  Speaker 1: sight of God speak we in Christ, as having no
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  Speaker 1: other aim than by manifest station of the truth, to
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  Speaker 1: commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
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  Speaker 1: We then, by our doctrine, establish the Law when we
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  Speaker 1: thus openly declare it to all men, and that in
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  Speaker 1: the fullness wherein it is delivered by our blessed Lord
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  Speaker 1: and his apostles, when we publish it in the height
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  Speaker 1: and depth, and length and breath thereof. We then establish
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  Speaker 1: the Law when we declare every part of it, every
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  Speaker 1: commandment contained therein, not only in its full literal sense,
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  Speaker 1: but likewise in its spiritual meaning, not only with regard
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  Speaker 1: to the outward actions which it either forbids or enjoins,
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  Speaker 1: but also with respect to the inward principle, to the thoughts, desires,
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  Speaker 1: and intents of the heart. And indeed this we do
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  Speaker 1: more diligently, not only because it is of the deepest importance,
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  Speaker 1: inasmuch as all the fruit, every word, and work must
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  Speaker 1: not only be evil continually if the tree be evil,
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  Speaker 1: if the dispositions and tempers of the heart are not
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  Speaker 1: right before God, but likewise, because as important as these
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  Speaker 1: things are, they are little considered or understood, so little
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  Speaker 1: that we may truly say of the Law too, when
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  Speaker 1: taken in its full spiritual meaning. It is a mystery
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  Speaker 1: which was hid from ages and generations since the world began.
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  Speaker 1: It was utterly hid from the heathen world. They, with
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  Speaker 1: all their boasted wisdom, neither found out God nor the
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  Speaker 1: Law of God, not in the letter, much less in
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of it. Their foolish hearts were more and
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  Speaker 1: more darkened. While professing themselves wise, they became fools. And
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  Speaker 1: it was almost equally hid as to its spiritual meaning,
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  Speaker 1: from the bulk of the Jewish nation. Even these who
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  Speaker 1: were so ready to declare concerning others this, people that
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  Speaker 1: know not the law are cursed, pronounce their own sentence
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  Speaker 1: therein as being under the same curse, the same dreadful ignorance.
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  Speaker 1: Witness Our Lord's continual reproof of the wisest among them
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  Speaker 1: for their gross misinterpretations of it. Witness the supposition almost
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  Speaker 1: universally received among them that they needed only to make
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  Speaker 1: clean the outside of the cup, that the paying tithe
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  Speaker 1: of meant anness and common outward exactness would atone for
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  Speaker 1: inward unholiness, for the total neglect both of justice and mercy,
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  Speaker 1: of faith and love of God. Yea, so absolutely was
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  Speaker 1: the spiritual meaning of the Law hidden from the wisest
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  Speaker 1: of them, that one of their most eminent rabbis comments
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  Speaker 1: thus on those words of the Psalmist. If I incline
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  Speaker 1: into iniquity with my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
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  Speaker 1: That is saith he if it be only in my heart,
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  Speaker 1: If I do not commit outward wickedness, the Lord will
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  Speaker 1: not regard it. He will not punish me unless I
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  Speaker 1: proceed to the outward act. But alas the Law of God,
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  Speaker 1: as to its inward spiritual meaning, is not hid from
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  Speaker 1: the Jews or Heathens only, but even from what is
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  Speaker 1: called the Christian world, at least from a vast majority
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  Speaker 1: of them, the spiritual sense the commandments of God is
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  Speaker 1: still a mystery to these also, Nor is this observation
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  Speaker 1: only in those lands which are overspread with Romish darkness
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  Speaker 1: and ignorance. But this is too sure that the greater part,
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  Speaker 1: even of those who are called reformed Christians, are utter
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  Speaker 1: strangers at this day to the Law of Christ, in
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  Speaker 1: the purity and spirituality of it. Hence it is that
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  Speaker 1: to this day the scribes and Pharisees, the men who
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  Speaker 1: have the form but not the power of religion and
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  Speaker 1: who are generally wise in their eyes and righteous in
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  Speaker 1: their conceits. Hearing these things are offended, are deeply offended
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  Speaker 1: when we speak of the religion of the heart, and
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  Speaker 1: particularly when we show that without this, were we to
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  Speaker 1: give all our goods to feed the poor, it would
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  Speaker 1: profit us nothing. But offended they must be, for we
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  Speaker 1: cannot but speak the truth as it is in Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: It is our part whether they will hear, or whether
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  Speaker 1: they will forbear to deliver our own soul. All that
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  Speaker 1: is written in the Book of God we are to declare,
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  Speaker 1: not as pleasing men, but the Lord. We are to
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  Speaker 1: declare not only all the promises, but all the threatenings too,
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  Speaker 1: which we find therein. At the same time that we
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  Speaker 1: proclaim all the blessings and privileges which God hath prepared
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  Speaker 1: for his children, we are likewise to teach all the
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  Speaker 1: things whatsoever He hath commanded. And we know that all
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  Speaker 1: these have their use, either for the awakening those that sleep,
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  Speaker 1: the constructing of the ignorant, the comforting of the feeble minded,
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  Speaker 1: or the building up and perfecting of the saints. We
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  Speaker 1: know that all scripture given by inspiration of God is
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  Speaker 1: profitable either for doctrine or for reproof, either for correction
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  Speaker 1: or instruction in righteousness, And that the man of God,
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  Speaker 1: in the process of the work of God in his soul,
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  Speaker 1: has need of every part thereof that he may at
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  Speaker 1: length be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It
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  Speaker 1: is our part thus to preach Christ. By preaching all
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  Speaker 1: things whatsoever He hath revealed. We may, indeed without blame,
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  Speaker 1: and yea with a peculiar blessing from God, declare the
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  Speaker 1: love of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We may speak in
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  Speaker 1: a more especial manner of the Lord our righteousness. We
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  Speaker 1: may expatiate upon the grace of God in Christ, reconciling
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  Speaker 1: the world unto himself. We may, at proper opportunities dwell
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  Speaker 1: upon His praise as bearing the iniquities of us, all
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  Speaker 1: as wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities,
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  Speaker 1: that by His stripes we may be healed. But still
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  Speaker 1: we should not preach Christ to or into His word.
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  Speaker 1: If we were holy to confine ourselves to this, we
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  Speaker 1: are not ourselves clear before God unless we proclaim Him
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  Speaker 1: in all his offices. To preach Christ as a workman,
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  Speaker 1: that needeth not to be ashamed, is to preach him
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  Speaker 1: not only as our great high Priest, taken from among
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  Speaker 1: men and ordained for men in things pertaining to God,
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  Speaker 1: as such reconciling us to God by his blood and
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  Speaker 1: ever living to make intercession for us, but likewise as
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  Speaker 1: the prophet of the Lord, who of God is made
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  Speaker 1: unto us wisdom, who by his word and his spirit
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  Speaker 1: is with us, always guiding us into all truth yea,
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  Speaker 1: and as remaining a king forever, as by giving laws
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  Speaker 1: to all whom he is bought with his blood, by
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  Speaker 1: restoring those to the image of God, whom he had
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  Speaker 1: first reinstated in his favor, as reigning in all believing hearts,
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  Speaker 1: until he has subdued all things to himself, until he
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  Speaker 1: hath utterly cast out all sin and brought in everlasting righteousness.
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  Speaker 1: We establish the law. Secondly, when we so preach faith
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  Speaker 1: in Christ, as not to supersede, but to produce holiness,
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  Speaker 1: to produce all manner of holiness, negative and positive of
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  Speaker 1: the heart and of the life. In order to this
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  Speaker 1: we continually declare what should be frequently and deeply considered
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  Speaker 1: by all who would not make void the law through faith,
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  Speaker 1: that faith itself, even Christian faith, the faith of God's elect,
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  Speaker 1: the faith of the operation of God, still is only
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  Speaker 1: the handmaid of Love. As glorious and honorable as it is,
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  Speaker 1: it is not the end of the commandment. God hath
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  Speaker 1: given this honor to Love alone. Love is the end
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  Speaker 1: of all the commandments of God. Love is the end,
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  Speaker 1: the sole end of every dispensation of God, from the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the world world to the consummation of all things.
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  Speaker 1: And it will endure when heaven and earth flee away.
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  Speaker 1: For Love alone never faileth. Faith will totally fail, It
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  Speaker 1: will be swallowed up in sight in the everlasting vision
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  Speaker 1: of God. But even then, Love, its nature and its
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  Speaker 1: office still the same, lasting its lamp and unconsumed, its
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  Speaker 1: flame and deathless triumph. Shall it ever live and endless good,
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  Speaker 1: diffuse and endless praise receive very excellent things are spoken
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  Speaker 1: of Faith, and whosoever as a partaker thereof may well say,
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  Speaker 1: with the apostle, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.
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  Speaker 1: Yet still it loses all its excellence when brought into
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  Speaker 1: a comparison with Love. When Saint Paul observes concerning the
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  Speaker 1: superior glory of the gospel above that of the Law,
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  Speaker 1: may with great propriety be spoken of the superior glory
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  Speaker 1: of love above that of faith. Even that which was
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  Speaker 1: made glorious hath no glory in this respect, by reason
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  Speaker 1: of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is
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  Speaker 1: done away is glorious, much more doth that which remaineth
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  Speaker 1: exceed in glory. Yea, all the glory of faith, before
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  Speaker 1: it is done away arises. Hence that it ministers to love.
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  Speaker 1: It is the great temporary means which God has ordained
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  Speaker 1: to promote that eternal end. Let those who magnify faith
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  Speaker 1: beyond all proportion, so as to swallow up all things else,
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  Speaker 1: and who so totally misapprehend the nature of it as
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  Speaker 1: to imagine it stands in the place of love, consider
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  Speaker 1: further that as love will exist after faith, so it
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  Speaker 1: did exist long before it. The angels, who, from the
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  Speaker 1: moment of their creation beheld the face of their Father,
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  Speaker 1: that is in Heaven, had no occasion for faith in
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  Speaker 1: its general notion, as it is the evidence of things
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  Speaker 1: not seen. Neither had the need of faith in its
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  Speaker 1: more per particular acceptation faith in the blood of Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: for he took not upon him the nature of angels,
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  Speaker 1: but only the seed of Abraham. There was therefore no
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  Speaker 1: place before the foundation of the world for faith, either
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  Speaker 1: in the general or particular sense. But there was for love.
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  Speaker 1: Love existed from eternity in God, the great ocean of love.
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  Speaker 1: Love had a place in all the children of God
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  Speaker 1: from the moment of their creation. They received at once
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  Speaker 1: from their gracious creator to exist and to love. Nor
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  Speaker 1: is it certain, as ingeniously and plausibly as many have
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  Speaker 1: discanted upon this, that faith, even in the general sense
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  Speaker 1: of the word, had any place in Paradise. It is
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  Speaker 1: highly probable, from that short and uncircumstantial account which we
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  Speaker 1: have in holy writ, that Adam, before he rebelled against God,
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  Speaker 1: walked with him by sight and not by faith. For
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  Speaker 1: when his reason's eye was strong and clear, and as
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  Speaker 1: an eagle can behold the sun might have beheld his
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  Speaker 1: maker's face as near as the intellectual angels could have done,
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  Speaker 1: he was then able to talk with him face to face,
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  Speaker 1: whose face we cannot now see and live, and consequently
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  Speaker 1: had no need of that faith, whose office it is
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  Speaker 1: to supply the want of sight. On the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: it is absolutely certain faith in its particular sense, had
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  Speaker 1: then no place, for in that sense it necessarily presupposes
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  Speaker 1: sin and the wrath of God declared against the sinner,
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  Speaker 1: without which there is no need of an atonement for
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  Speaker 1: sin in order to the sinner's reconciliation with God. Consequently,
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  Speaker 1: as there was no need for an atonement before the fall,
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  Speaker 1: so there is no place for faith in that atonement. Man,
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  Speaker 1: being then pure from every stain of sin, holy as
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  Speaker 1: God is holy. But love even then filled his heart.
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  Speaker 1: It reigned in him without rival. And it was only
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  Speaker 1: when love was lost by sin that faith was added,
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  Speaker 1: not for its own sake, nor with any design that
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  Speaker 1: it should exist any longer than until it had answered
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  Speaker 1: the end for which it was ordained, namely to restore
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  Speaker 1: man to the love from which he had fallen at
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  Speaker 1: the fall. Therefore was added this evidence of things unseen,
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  Speaker 1: which before was utterly useless, this confidence of redeeming love,
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  Speaker 1: which could not possibly have any place till the promise
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  Speaker 1: was made that the seed of the woman should bruise
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  Speaker 1: the serpent's head. Faith, then, was originally designed of God
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  Speaker 1: to re establish the law of love. Therefore, in speaking
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  Speaker 1: thus we are not undervaluing it or robbing it of
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  Speaker 1: its due praise, but on the contrary, showing its real worth,
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  Speaker 1: exalting it in its just proportion, and giving it that
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  Speaker 1: very place which the wisdom of God assigned it from
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  Speaker 1: the beginning. It is the grand means of restoring the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Love wherein man was originally created. It follows that
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  Speaker 1: although faith is of no value in itself, as neither
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  Speaker 1: any other means whatsoever, yet as it leads to that end,
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  Speaker 1: the establishing anew of the Law of Love in our hearts,
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  Speaker 1: and as in the present state of things, it is
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  Speaker 1: the only means under Heaven of affecting it. It is
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  Speaker 1: on that account an unspeakable blessing to man, and of
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  Speaker 1: unspeakable value before God. And this naturally brings us to observe. Thirdly,
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  Speaker 1: the most important way of establishing the law, namely the
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  Speaker 1: establishing it in our hearts and lives. Indeed, without this,
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  Speaker 1: what would all the rest avail. We might establish it
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  Speaker 1: by our doctrine. We might preach it in its whole extent.
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  Speaker 1: We might explain and enforce every part of it. We
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  Speaker 1: might open it in its most spiritual meaning and declare
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  Speaker 1: the mysteries of the Kingdom. We might preach Christ in
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  Speaker 1: all his offices, and faith in Christ as opening all
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  Speaker 1: the treasures of His love. And yet all this time,
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  Speaker 1: if the law we preached were not established in our hearts,
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  Speaker 1: we should be of no more account before God than
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  Speaker 1: sounding brass or tinkling symbols. All our preaching would be
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  Speaker 1: so far from profiting ourselves that it would only increase
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  Speaker 1: our damnation. That is, wherefore the main point to be considered,
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  Speaker 1: How may we establish the law in our own hearts
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  Speaker 1: so that it may have its full influence on our lives?
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  Speaker 1: And this can only be done by faith. Faith alone
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  Speaker 1: it is which effectually answers this end, as we learn
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  Speaker 1: from daily experience. For so long as we walk by faith,
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  Speaker 1: not by sight, we go swiftly on in the way
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  Speaker 1: of holiness. While we steadily look not at the things
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  Speaker 1: which are seen, but at those things which are not seen,
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  Speaker 1: we are more and more crucified to the world, and
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  Speaker 1: the world crucified to us. Let but the eye of
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  Speaker 1: the soul be constantly fixed not on the things which
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  Speaker 1: are temporal, but on the things which are eternal. And
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  Speaker 1: our affections are more and more loosed from the earth
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  Speaker 1: and fixed on things above, so that faith in general,
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  Speaker 1: is the most direct and effectual means of promoting all
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  Speaker 1: righteousness and true holiness, of establishing the holy and spiritual
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  Speaker 1: law in the hearts of them that believe, and by
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  Speaker 1: faith taken in its more particular meaning, for a confidence
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  Speaker 1: in a pardoning God, we establish the law in our
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  Speaker 1: own hearts in a still more effectual manner. For there
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  Speaker 1: is no motive which so powerfully inclines us to love
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  Speaker 1: God as the sense of the love of God in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing enables us, like a piercing conviction of this, to
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  Speaker 1: give our hearts to Him who was given for us.
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  Speaker 1: And from this principle of grateful love to God arises
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  Speaker 1: love to our brother. Also, neither can we avoid loving
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  Speaker 1: our neighbor, if we truly believe the love wherewith God
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  Speaker 1: has loved us. But this love to man, grounded on
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  Speaker 1: faith and love to God, worketh no ill to our neighbor. Consequently,
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  Speaker 1: it is as the apostle observes the felling of the
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  Speaker 1: whole negative law. For this thou should not commit adultery.
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  Speaker 1: Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt
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  Speaker 1: not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet, And if
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  Speaker 1: there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in this saying,
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  Speaker 1: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Neither is love
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  Speaker 1: content with barely working no evil to his neighbor. It
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  Speaker 1: continually excites us to do good, as we have time
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  Speaker 1: and opportunity to do good in every possible kind and
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  Speaker 1: every possible degree to all men. It is therefore the
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  Speaker 1: fulfilling of the positive likewise as well as the negative
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  Speaker 1: law of God. Nor does this faith fulfill either the
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  Speaker 1: negative or positive law as to the external part only.
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  Speaker 1: But it works inwardly by love to the purifying of
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  Speaker 1: the heart, the cleansing it from all vile affections. Every
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  Speaker 1: One that hath this faith in himself purifieth himself, even
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  Speaker 1: as he is pure, purifieth himself from every earthly sensual desire,
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  Speaker 1: from all vile and inordinate affections, yea, from the whole
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: of that carnal mind which is enmity against God. At
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the same time, if it have its perfect work, it
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: fills him with all goodness, righteousness, and truth. It brings
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  Speaker 1: all heaven into his soul and causes him to walk
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  Speaker 1: and the light, even as God is in delight. Let
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  Speaker 1: us thus endeavor to establish the law, and ourselves not
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  Speaker 1: sinning because we are under grace, but rather using all
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  Speaker 1: the power we received thereby to fulfill all righteousness. Calling
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  Speaker 1: to mind what light we received from God while his
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: spirit was convincing us of sin, let us beware, we
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  Speaker 1: do not put out that light what we had then attained.
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  Speaker 1: Let us hold fast. Let nothing induce us to build
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  Speaker 1: again what we have destroyed, to assume anything great or
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: small which we then clearly saw was not for the
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: glory of God or the profit of our own soul,
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  Speaker 1: Or to neglect anything small or great which we could
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: not then neglect without a check from our own conscience.
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  Speaker 1: To increase and perfect the light which we had before,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: let us now add the light of faith, confirm we
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  Speaker 1: the former gift of God by a deeper sense of
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: whatever he had then shown us, by a greater tenderness
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: of conscience, and a more exquisite sensibility of sin. Walking
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: now with joy and not with fear, in a clear,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: steady light of things eternal, we shall look on pleasure well,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: praise all the things of earth, as on bubbles upon
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the water, counting nothing important, nothing desirable, nothing worth a
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: deliberate thought, but only what is within the veil, where
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Jesus siteth at the right hand of God. Can you say,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: thou art merciful to my unrighteousness, my sins. Thou rememberest
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: no more? Then for the time to come, see that
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: you fly from sin as from the face of a serpent.
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  Speaker 1: For how exceeding sinful does it appear to you? Now,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: how heinous above all expression. On the other hand, and
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: how aimable a light do you now see? The holy
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: and perfect will of God. Now therefore labor that it
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: be fulfilled both in you, by you and upon you.
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  Speaker 1: Now watch and pray that you may sin no more,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: that you may see and the least transgression of His law.
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  Speaker 1: You see the motes which you have not seen before.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: When the sun shines into a dark place. In like manner,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: you see the sins which you cannot see before. Now
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: that the sun of righteousness shines in your heart. Now
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: then do all diligence to walk in every respect according
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: to the light you have received. Now be zealous and
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: receive more light daily, more of the knowledge and love
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: of God, more of the Spirit of Christ, more of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: His life, and of the power of his resurrection. Now
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: use all the knowledge and love, and life and power
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: you have already attained. So shall you continually go on
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: from faith to faith. So shall you daily increase in
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: holy love till faith is followed up in sight and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the law of Love established in all eternity. This is
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the end of section thirty six. Recording by Aaron Webber.