CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
‘For we know.’
St. Paul was no mean man. If ever a strong man lived, that man was St. Paul. And, more than that, he was a man who had sacrificed a great deal for what he had believed. Brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; Pharisee of the Pharisees; he lost all for the sake of Christ. Nor was he a mere enthusiast. For thirty years that man lived suffering all kinds of persecutions for his faith. And he was a man of no mean experience. He was converted by Christ Himself—the only one after the thief. He was caught up into the seventh heaven, and heard unspeakable things. And he could raise the dead. That is the man he was—sure about his faith.
I. He knew Whom he had believed.—It is not enough that a man should know of his salvation, but you should know the grounds of your salvation. They do not rest upon us. You need not go searching within you to find the grounds upon which you believe your salvation. They are in Christ. We know of our salvation, and we know that our salvation rests simply and merely upon Christ. This is the grace of God given to us through faith in Jesus Christ—the first thread which makes up the cord. St. Paul knew, not only of his salvation, but he knew upon what his salvation rested—upon Christ.
II. He knew that all things work together for good to them that love God.—That amid all the provisions of life, however strange they may be, however unintelligible, through all the darkness and difficulty, and trouble, and pain, and through the tears He sees all. There is a certainty for you! ‘I know that all things work together for good to them that love God.’ Go out into the world with that amid all the uncertainties of your life. You know not what a day may bring forth. What does it matter, if behind it all there is God and His love?
III. He knew that ‘if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands.’—Here is something grand, seeing right beyond into death. Do you know that if you die you have a habitation with God in the heavens, not made with hands? Did not the Lord Jesus say, ‘I go to prepare a place for you’? And do you think that at the end of your life there awaits you annihilation, or that because, as they tell us nowadays, the brain ceases to act, the soul exists not—the modern philosophy? Listen to St. Paul: ‘We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands.’ There is a threefold cord to bind you by faith to God!
—Rev. A. H. Stanton.