Power With God # 4

Power With God # 4

For A Time To Come, continued

You come over to Hebrews 12:22 and 23: "Ye are come ... to the spirits of just men made perfect" (completed). Noah's spirit is among 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 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 fulfill 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 three: "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 heavens (Heb. 8:1; Col. 3:1), the place of power and honor, but here satan is getting honor 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 (Isa. 64:6) has been put away; righteousness which is power has been placed upon Him, and: "The Lord rebuke thee, O 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 honor 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 paralyzed so often and satan is so often getting the glory, the honor 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" (1 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 got 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 paralyzed, 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, behavior, and "walk", which is the expression of righteousness. If there is practical unrighteousness in behavior we shall be in weakness with God.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 5 - Exemplified In Daniel