FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." —Hebrews 11:1 [KJV]

Happiness, that inestimable jewel, every man is in search after. But to seek it from objects unseen and invisible to our natural senses, is a downright paradox, and will be ever condemned as the greatest absurdity in the judgment of depraved sense and carnal reason. In the knowledge, love, and enjoyment of God, true happiness alone consists. The only living and true God hath revealed himself in Christ Jesus. This is the Christian's God. 

He knows no other. It is a blessed truth built upon and supported by the word of God. By faith this subsists in his mind, and is clear and evident to his newborn soul. From this inward believing, "That God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself," O what an extensive prospect for hope ariseth! God in Christ; the promises all in Christ; he that believeth is in Christ. Christ dwelleth in his heart by faith: all the blessings of time; all the glories of eternity are sure. They are settled by the yea and amen of God, upon such believing souls. Shall any bold emissary from Satan, demand of such a soul, "What right hast thou to the inheritance of this good land? Abraham's sons have Abraham's plea. It is mine by promise; by faith I sojourn in it. 

God's promise is faith's claim. What He has spoken is the ground or subsistence of hope. But may not other witnesses stand up and declare against the Christian? Yea, doubtless, many; from the old man, the flesh, Satan, and the law. But the first is under sentence of death, his witness is invalid. Satan is a known liar from the beginning, therefore no credit is to be given to him; the evidence of few is out of date; it is superseded by the promise; "for the law which was four hundred and thirty years after the covenant, which was confirmed by God in Christ, cannot disannul it, that it should make the promise of none effect."—Galatians 3:17. But blessed be our Lord, though He suffers His children to be attacked by many adversaries, He doth not leave Himself without a witness and an evidence in their hearts. 

Though each one of them cannot say, I know I am a child of God; yet the weakest believer in Jesus hath the evidence of truth; the witness in himself, of the reality and certainty of invisible objects, "things not seen;" of things past in the eternal covenant of grace and peace; of things in time, the finished work of Jesus; of things to come, the glories of an eternal world; and amidst opposition from every quarter, here is a proof of the inward subsistence and evidence of spiritual and invisible objects, in their longing for stronger faith in them, and clearer knowledge and enjoyment of them. "To every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance."—Matthew 25:29.

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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