"Righteousness Which Is According To
Faith"
"And the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, when a land sinneth against
Me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out My hand
upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and
send famine upon it, and cut off from it
man and beast; though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and
Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls
by their righteousness, saith the Lord Jehovah.... Or if
I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My wrath
upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast;
though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live,
saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither son
nor daughter; they should but deliver their own souls by
their righteousness" (Eze. 14:12-14,19-20).
"Then said the Lord to me, Though
Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind would not
be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let
them go forth" (Jer. 15:1).
God Takes Account Of Those Who Have
Power With Him
It is a remarkable thing that the Lord is
doing when, in this way, He selects certain names and
brings them to the fore over against such a very dark and
hopeless situation, and says of them: 'Although these men
were there, and although these men stood before Me, it
would make no difference; they alone, by themselves,
would be saved.' In doing this, He has selected from all
the men who had ever prevailed with Him those who, more
than any others, had power with God. If anything could be
done, if God could be influenced, persuaded to intervene,
to change the situation which was so desperate, these men
would do it, and would be the ones who would have power
with God. The very first thing that strikes us is just
that - God taking account of men who had power with Him.
The Lord carries that a very long way. He says, in
effect: 'I take that right to the very limit of
possibility - where possibility ends these men go; if
anything could be done, however desperate the situation,
these are the men who will bring it about.' It is
something to note that God takes account of men who have
power with Him. God knows them; He knows what He has had
to do, what He has been compelled to do because of such
men.
God Puts Himself Into The Hands Of Men
By inference, this carries the truth that
God puts Himself into the hands of men. God is not going
to move unless there are those who prevail with Him, and
the inference is: 'I am your hands, if you will press the
matter far enough, if you will learn how to prevail.' God
will, or will not, move according to knowledge of how to
prevail with Him in a situation or a matter. That is
something to think about. If a situation could be altered
God says: 'Such and such are the men through whom I would
do it.' Of course, I am not dealing with the situations
in the contexts of these two passages in Ezekiel and
Jeremiah. That is not the point. I am not taking up the
situation in Israel, which had become an impossible
situation, and its handling and solution was one which
could only be done through judgment, and the terrible
judgment of the seventy years' captivity. God would deal
with it in that way. But He had reached the point where
no man could ask the Lord to deal with it on the spot,
and it would happen. That is not our concern at the
moment.
It is this: That there are situations
which do go a very long way, as we shall see, which are
still open to be dealt with by heaven, but which never
will be dealt with unless there are those who know how to
prevail with God. God offers Himself to be prevailed
with, to yield Himself in all His sovereign power, in all
His grace, in all His mercy, to men and people who know
the secret of prevailing.
Now let us note at this very point, lest
our hearts begin to lose assurance and hope, that the men
here mentioned as being the most outstanding examples of
prevailing with God were not taken account of for what
they were in themselves. There were two things which made
it possible for the Lord to take account of them.
A Heart Relationship With The Lord
One was their heart relationship to the
Lord. Look at the men: Noah, Daniel, Job, Moses, Samuel.
Well, there are some grand things about those men. The
Lord has not covered up the other side. You are sometimes
a little surprised at what the Lord does say about some
of them. If you read the whole story, you do feel that
there may be some ground of contradiction here in these
men. You know the end of Noah - a very sad picture. You
hear a New Testament Apostle saying: "Ye have heard
of the patience of Job" (James 5:11), but when you
read the Book of Job, you sometimes feel that if ever
there was a man without patience, it is Job. We know
about Moses, and even Samuel seems to have passed out
almost under a cloud. Well, I think it is clear that in
their case, as in the case of so many of the others who
are held up by God as examples of this or that, it was
not because of what they were in themselves that God
singled them out, but in every case you do see this: that
in spite of their humanity, their weaknesses, their
failures, their lapses, there was a heart relationship to
the Lord which cannot be questioned, and when you look at
the context of these very passages, that is the thing
which first of all is impressed upon you - the heart of
these people. God is troubled about the heart of this
people. The prophetic word about Israel at this time was:
'The heart of this people is turned away from Me, and
turned to idols.' "This people draw nigh unto Me,
and with their mouth and with their lips do honour Me,
but have removed their heart far from Me" (Isa.
29:13). It is a heart question, and it was that state of
heart which at length brought about this impasse - that
God could do nothing. Over against that, men are
mentioned who, despite their human weaknesses, were men
whose hearts were in a very utter place with the Lord.
But that is not all. That is a beginning
point, but there is another reason why the Lord singled
out these men. It was because of certain spiritual
factors which were the great characteristics of their
very life, factors which do count with God. When you look
at each of these men, read their story and sum it all up,
you have to say: That is the thing that marks that man's
life, and that, and that. Each one of them is the
embodiment of something, and it is that thing which
counts with God and which was the basis of their having
power with God. That is what we are after at this time -
that which makes for power with God.
Two Ways Of Estimating Men
May I just stay here, after what I
have just said, to add this. There are two ways in which
we may estimate men, by which we may judge them and their
history and arrive at a conclusion about them. There is
the natural side, the way in which men naturally look at
men. When the world reads the story of some of these men,
such as David, and others, well, they sum it all up with
a sneer and pass it all out as utterly unworthy. It is
the natural way of judging men and appraising their
value, and that was the point upon which the Lord came
down with Job's friends. They judged Job naturally, by
the sight of the eye, by what appeared on the surface,
and summed him up as a bad lot. You can look on men of
God like that, just taking account of the flaws, the
weaknesses and all that human side, which is, after all,
poor stuff in the best. Very few men, if any, have ever
come out of the judgments of men completely free of that
sort of thing. But there is another way, and that is as
to their spiritual values, to judge spiritually. It is
just here that the Lord says: "Touch not Mine
anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm" (I Chron.
16:22). Why should they touch the Lord's anointed?
Only because they have misjudged them and had come to
wrong conclusions about them. The Lord will not let us
touch any one of His, however much they may be at fault
in our judgment. It is a very solemn thing to remember
that: that our hand must not come down upon any of the
Lord's own in judgment; that has to be left with the
Lord. It may be that there is plenty from our point of
view and to our judgment that would justify our taking
such an antagonistic or opposed attitude, but the Lord
will not have it. That comes out in the case of Job.
Moses was a frail human vessel capable of making
mistakes, but see what the Lord will do with those who
assail Moses, and touch his acceptance with God, his
standing before the Lord! I do feel it is necessary for
us to remember that, because who belongs to the Lord is
very precious and must not be touched. There are always
two ways of looking at and judging men and people of God.
There is this natural side which has plenty to criticize,
but the Lord will disapprove if we do it. There is the
spiritual way of judging, and it is necessary to look
further and see how far these count for God, whether
there is not something there that is of the Lord.
Noah Singled Out By God
Having said that - and it is only
introductory - we can come to the first of these men,
Noah. This is not a study of the life of Noah, and
certainly not of the deluge, but just this particular
point - power with God. God singled Noah out from amongst
a great host of men and said: 'If I could be prevailed
upon, if I could be persuaded, Noah would do it; of all
men, he could do it.' Noah is amongst the few. Perhaps
you have not thought of Noah as being so important as
that, and all that you know about him is that he made an
ark. You always associate the ark and the deluge with
Noah, and that is all it amounts to. But here the
dispensation is closing, the whole existing order of
things is passing, the antediluvians, patriarchs, the
Mosaic economy, the whole monarchy, the prophetic
ministry in the old dispensation are coming to a close.
God looks over the whole and sees men who have prevailed
with Him, and brings five out from amongst them. The
first one He mentions is Noah - a man who stands over a
great extent of time. God says: 'If I could be moved,
Noah would move Me. I would have to yield to him.' Well,
that surely forces us to look to see what it is in Noah's
case that represents that which prevails with God.
I think the key is in Hebrews 11:7: "By
faith Noah, being warned of God concerning things not
seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an
ark to the saving of his house; through which he
condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness
which is according to faith." That is the
summary of it, but it wants breaking up.
Noah Stood Alone For God
First of all, we go back to Noah's time.
You read chapters 6 and 7 of Genesis and this whole
situation concerning Noah is introduced. The statement is
that God looked and saw, and what did He see? A whole
race of men, in every imagination of their hearts
corrupt, evil, a universal state of iniquity and
departure from God, of godlessness and of positive
iniquity so utter, so terrible, that God repented that He
had made man on the earth, and He said: "I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the
ground; both man, and beast, and creeping things, and
birds of the heavens; for it repenteth Me that I have
made them." God has said that, and then the next
sentence is: 'But Noah found favour in the eyes of the
Lord.' "But Noah..." - the exception. Then at
the beginning of the seventh chapter you have the reason
why: "... for thee have I seen righteous before Me
in this generation".
Well, the first thing about Noah is that:
that he stood true to God as one solitary, lonely man in
a universe of iniquity, one man amongst all men,
distinguished from them by righteousness over against
utter unrighteousness. One man true to God when all
others had departed. How easy it would have been for Noah
to have been carried away, not only by the sin and the
atmosphere and the general course of things, but by this:
"Well, everything has gone. God has not got
anything, and what is the good of trying to stand true?
What is the use of MY trying to hold on when everything
has gone?" So often the Lord's people have given up,
not because there were no other people of the Lord on the
earth, nor because there were no other righteous people,
nor because there was not another Christian in all the
world, but because things have gone so largely astray,
have departed so extensively from the Lord's revealed
mind, and have got into such an appalling condition that
they say: 'Is it any use trying to stand for what is of
God in any full sense? We may as well accept things as
they are and capitulate, and make the best of a bad job.'
- the kind of argument which is the result of the
seemingly impossible situation, prospect, and outlook.
Death and departure: what is the good of our trying to
stand up to this? Probably you, as an individual
Christian, placed in a setting of so much that is
contrary to God, often ask your heart: Is it any use
trying to hold on, to stand for God? You see, the
question of power with God does immediately arise. It is
a tremendous thing that God is saying: 'Here is one man
in the whole human race, one man in the whole world,
alone who will not capitulate, and that is the basis of
power with Me. If anything can be done, that is the kind
of man who will bring it about.'
May we not be tested by the situation in
which God places us, so difficult, so contrary, as to
whether we are going to stand with God so that we come to
a place where we do know the secret of prevailing with
God and are able to say: 'I have been in very difficult
situations where the whole thing seemed hopeless and
impossible, but I have learned that it is possible to
prevail, to triumph, to bring God in, and I have seen
those hopeless, impossible situations touched by God and
dealt with by Him. I have come to know the Lord over
against a very dark and seemingly impossible background.'
God needs men and women like that. Alone - yes,
desperately alone!
Noah Had No Precedent
"Moved with godly fear, prepared an
ark." He built an ark, as the context shows, without
a precedent. That, I think, is the point here.
"Things not seen as yet." First of all, it is
fairly generally concluded that rain had never been seen
up to this time. "There went up a mist from the
earth, and watered the whole face of the ground"
(Gen. 2:6), but rain was an unknown thing up to Noah's
time. They had never seen it, so he had not a precedent
for this. Probably there are other things covered by that
little statement: "Things not seen as yet." The
point is that nothing in history up to this point gave
any ground of justification for taking the course that he
did. He could never say: 'You see, this happened at such
and such a time; this happened there; we have examples of
this.' We, today, have examples of almost anything and
everything that may come, but Noah had no examples, no
evidence, no precedent, nothing to give point. He was
simply told by God that it was going to happen, and he
could not in the realm of his whole knowledge say: 'Well,
I know what that means!' There was nothing like that at
all. It was going to be something altogether new,
something that had never happened before.
Every individual life with God is
something so much by itself. Ten thousand, or a million,
may have gone that way before, but when it comes to us,
we always feel that no one in all God's universe has ever
had this experience before. We feel that we are the only
one who has ever gone this way. People can say to us: 'I
know all about it. I have been that way.' 'Yes,' we say,
'but you don't understand. You have never really been in
my position.' That is our immediate reaction. It is like
that - the utter loneliness of a personal walk with God.
Noah had no precedent, nothing to go upon. Faith is
tested like that. Noah, "moved with godly fear"
- and you know what that word means in the Scriptures:
fear of the Lord, that is, just believing God and obeying
Him because He is God; not because of any proofs or
evidence, but because He is God - "prepared an
ark".
A Prolonged Test Of Faith
But then, remember the duration of
it. He did not start this thing, get so far and say:
'Well, I have been at this for a good long time now.
Month passes into month, the months are mounting up and
it is getting into years now and nothing has happened. No
one takes any notice, no one is influenced and I am
making no impression at all. I think there must have been
a mistake. Surely there ought by now to be something that
indicates that I am on the right line and that I have not
taken the wrong course!' One hundred and twenty years! Of
course, that was not much out of his whole life of nine
hundred and fifty, but a hundred and twenty is enough to
test faith. Now the point is that for one hundred and
twenty years he went on with it without anything coming
in. He went the whole of that time of required, demanded
activity with nothing whatever to prove that he was right
or to support him in his way, with nothing that looked
like some effect of his message (because one writer
speaks of Noah as a "preacher of righteousness"
(II Pet. 2:5)), with nothing happening through all his
preaching, whether it was by word or act - but what was
happening really? There was something happening, but it
was one of those things that you and I do not ever feel
happy about. It says that he condemned the world. By his
faith and his works of faith, he put everybody else in
the wrong and prepared them for judgment. In Paul's
words, he was "a savour unto death" (II Cor.
2:16). There is always that effect of faithfulness. It is
not ineffective and neutral. It does have an effect,
although it is a very disheartening kind; nevertheless it
counts, is effective, is tremendous. His work of faith
just prepared the world for judgment. God has to do that
to be justified.
For A Time To Come
But over it all there is this element -
and you see we are getting at the question of faith and
analysing it - this element of the future aspect of
ministry, of service to the Lord. It was for a time to
come, and I think there is nothing so testing as that. If
only we are going to live to see the result of our
ministry! If only it is all going to come about in our
lifetime! If only we are going to know here our
vindication! If only something is coming to us before we
pass from this scene to prove that we have been right,
well, we can go on. But note: This, with all the rest, is
summed up by the writer to the Hebrews in this:
"These all died in faith, not having received the
promises" (Heb. 11:13). Oh yes, Noah saw the flood,
he went through it and came out on the other side, and
made a sorry mess of things afterward. Is that all? No,
not a little bit of it, really, there is something very
much deeper and greater than that about this whole
matter.
But I want to emphasize that it is this
'for a time to come' feature which is so testing to
faith. We are told, and as frankly as Jeremiah was, that
we give our lives, spend our strength and go through all
the travail and sorrow and suffering and see very little.
We go home to the Lord and do not see all that we hoped
for. There is the ultimate test. How far do we come into
the picture? What place do we have in it all? Can we
eliminate ourselves altogether and go right on without
any reservation, and give ourselves for that which we
shall never see, for a time to come?
There is a lot of that in the Old
Testament. You remember that Jeremiah gave his prophecy.
We read in II Chronicles 36:22: "That the word of
the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be
accomplished," but Jeremiah did not live to see it.
His word was fulfilled, and people did go back from
Babylon according to his word, but he did not live to see
it. He worked for a time to come in which he had no
place, so far as this earth is concerned, other than a
spiritual place. The spiritual values of his life and
work were there. It is a test of faith, because we do,
humanly and naturally, crave so much to see something for
it all before we pass hence, just to know that it has
been worth while. "These all died in faith, not
having received the promises." Noah was really
living and working for a time to come.
Now let us get right to this thing. By
this kind of faith which, to begin with, would not
capitulate to what was practically universal departure
from God, but, in effect, said: 'Although I may be the
only one left standing for God, and for God's full
rights, and God's full place, I have that faith in God
that it is worth my standing alone for Him. God has
something bound up with my aloneness for Him.' That is
faith, tremendous faith, the faith which would not
surrender, to begin with, a faith which was not passive
in standing in a world which was so contrary, a faith
which was active, and went on, seeing nothing, with no
precedent to work upon, went on building for one hundred
and twenty years, and a faith which believed that,
although he saw no converts or anyone coming over to the
side of righteousness, something was happening. 'This is
not all for nothing. Something is happening even now.
These people are being brought under the effect of my
stand and my ministry and my preaching, even if it is to
take all ground from under their feet and leave them
condemned, without an argument, without an excuse.' That
is something which God must have before He can judge, and
that is why He has sent us to preach. He is going to
judge the world, but He cannot judge those who have never
had an opportunity, those who have had no light and have
had no witness. He must be justified. That was Noah's
faith. It was not a happy side of faith, but again the
faith which believed that this thing related to something
very much more somewhere ahead in the future. That was
the kind of faith that Noah had, and it says: "he...
became heir of the righteousness which is according to
faith".
'He became heir of the righteousness which
is according to faith.' Now we can link up with that
Hebrews 11:39-40: "And these all, having had witness
borne to them through their faith, received not the
promise, God having provided some better thing concerning
us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect
(the word is 'complete')." Here is the great,
future, prospective factor in Noah's faith. He, with the
rest of these men, was not made complete. Why? Because
completeness belongs to our time, to this dispensation.
It is the whole argument of the Letter to the Hebrews:
"nothing perfect" (Heb. 7:19). But now that
which is perfect is come. This is the age of
completeness, perfectness. Noah's faith looked on, and he
had to die in faith, not receiving BECAUSE this
perfectness, this completeness, belongs to OUR
dispensation, the day in which we live.
You come over to Hebrews 12:22-23:
"Ye are come... to the spirits of just men made
perfect" (complete). Noah's spirit is amongst them.
What has happened? The Lord Jesus has perfected the work
of righteousness, the Son has fulfilled all
righteousness. Noah's faith linked him with Christ, with
this dispensation, with us, in perfect righteousness.
Peter talks about Noah and the flood in chapter three of
his first letter: "The longsuffering of God waited
in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through
water: which also after a true likeness doth now save
you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience
toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ." John the Baptist would have refrained from
baptizing the Lord Jesus, but Jesus said: "Suffer it
now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness" (Matt. 3:15). The flood, the deluge,
says Peter, is a figure of baptism in which all
righteousness is fulfilled. But all righteousness stood AGAINST
the men of Noah's day, but all righteousness stood FOR
him through his faith. Baptism was not his doom, but his
way into life, a new creation. "All
righteousness"; "the spirits of just men made
perfect." So Noah in faith came right into this age
of perfect righteousness and inherited it. We are come to
the spirits of these just men, Noah and all the rest,
made complete.
Now what does it amount to in this
particular connection? His life work, after all, was not
just that incident of the flood. It ran right on to
Christ, and on to the Church. "They";
"we"; these are the two words here. 'They
without us.' "They", "us", brought
together in the perfect work of Christ in fulfilling all
righteousness.
Righteousness According To Faith
'Though Noah stood before Me.' What is the
first mighty ground of power with God? It is the ground
of righteousness which is according to faith, and you can
test it any day that you like, because power with God is
not just a matter of somehow persuading God to do
something you think ought to be done. Let us get this
right over. Power with God is not cajoling God into
moving, getting a God, who is reluctant to come in and
help, to change His mind and to be kind and intervene.
That is all wrong, completely wrong. We have a
magnificent picture of this whole thing in Zechariah 3:
"And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing
before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his
right hand to be his adversary." Satan has
established himself there in the place of power, which
the right hand always represents. Christ is now at the
right hand of the Majesty in the heaven (Col. 3:1), the
place of power and honour, but here Satan is getting
honour and has power because Joshua "was clothed
with filthy garments." One who stood by said:
"Take the filthy garments from off him... I will
clothe thee with rich apparel... let them set a clean
mitre upon his head." Now the scene has changed.
Righteousness like filthy rags (Isaiah 64.6) have been
put away; righteousness which is power has been placed
upon him, and: "The Lord rebuke thee, 0 Satan; yea,
the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee."
Satan's rebuke, his dethronement, and his removal from
the place of power and getting the honour is related to a
change of condition from unrighteousness to
righteousness. It is only this that can move God.
That is the background of those passages
in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Why did there come deadlock and
impasse? God said it was because unrighteousness had
become so universal and absolute that 'I cannot do
anything. I just cannot. Even though these men stepped
in, it is only righteousness that would save THEM. If
there was righteousness here, they would be saved, but
there are none righteous and I can do nothing. Remove
unrighteousness and I am released. I can repent and come
in. You who want to prevail with Me must provide Me with
a ground of righteousness.'
That is very practical. We are paralysed
so often and Satan is so often getting the glory, the
honour and the power, because he gets us to move off this
ground of the righteousness which is according to faith,
bringing us under condemnation, bringing us back to that
old ground outside of Christ, nullifying all this
wonderful work of perfect righteousness fulfilled by
Christ and our appropriation of it by faith. So often it
just heads up to a situation like this. The enemy has got
possession, he has fastened upon us and has made all
kinds of suggestions and accusations. 'I do not know
whether I am right or wrong, whether I have grieved the
Lord, or not. I do not know whether the Lord is for me or
against me. I do not know where I am.' Satan holds us
there until we take positively a position of
righteousness in Christ by faith, and put that to the
enemy. 'I do not know in what I am' - and neither did
Noah, nor Job, nor Daniel, nor Moses, nor any of them.
Their faith was counted unto them for righteousness. 'I
do not stand on the ground of what I am; I stand on the
ground of Christ's perfect righteousness.' It is the only
way to begin to have power with God, and we are nullified
while we have a question on that matter. Oh, for a
beginning, a foundation of a mighty settled faith in the
righteousness of Christ as ours through faith in Him to
put us in a place of power with God! Because it is not
just persuading God, it is moral power with God. He must
have a moral ground for all He does. If there is a
question of unrighteousness, He cannot do it. That
unrighteousness is dealt with in the Blood of the Lord
Jesus: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth
us from all sin" (I John 1:7). Therein is our power
with God. It is moral power. He is not a reluctant,
unwilling God. He is a God who is only too ready, but He
is bound by His own nature of righteousness. Have you
that ground? Show Him on the ground of righteousness that
He should do this, and on the ground of His Son why He
should do it. "Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the Lord" (Isa. 1:18). How are you going to
reason? Not like Job in the transition stage, reasoning
about your own righteousness and why God should do it for
YOU. No, let us reason together - on what ground? What is
the issue? "Though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." How? On what ground
are you reasoning? In what way are your sins made as
white as snow? We know it is by the precious Blood. That
is the reasoning ground with God. It speaks, it works
with God. Oh, plead the Blood and you have the greatest
argument with God and against Satan, the adversary and
accuser. I know this is elementary. It is the beginning
of things, but, dear friends, it is a thing that follows
us through to the end. What is the fear in your own heart
that arises so often as to whether right at the end you
will be able to hold out and get through triumphantly?
Yes, it is the battle right through to the end. The enemy
will never leave us alone, but are we just going to be
under this condemnation of Satan, with the hand of God
paralysed, because we have taken Satan's ground instead
of God's? God's ground is righteousness through faith in
Jesus Christ. Satan's ground is unrighteousness through
doubt, through unbelief.
Well, if Noah begins the great line
of examples of power with God, it is that: righteousness
which is according to faith, but what a faith! - tested,
tried, proved, but faith. I feel that we are in the great
test of faith in this day as much as ever the Lord's
people were.
As we close this first chapter, let us be
reminded that, for power with God, there must be conduct,
behaviour, and "walk", which is the EXPRESSION
of righteousness. If there is practical
unrighteousness in behaviour we shall be in weakness with
God.