THE LIFE OF FAITH AND THE DELIVERANCE WHICH ACCOMPANIES IT
[p. 339] THE LIFE OF FAITH AND THE DELIVERANCE WHICH ACCOMPANIES IT
I would like to draw attention to the life of faith down here, and to the deliverance which is connected with this life of faith as its necessary accompaniment. I shall dwell a little upon the various features of this life as presented here, and upon the deliverance accompanying each feature. I am quite sure that the two things which we have already had before us, namely, association with Christ and the hope of the coming of the Lord, are of all moment in the apprehension of the Christian. It has been said that the coming of the Lord is not as much before the minds of saints as in earlier days, but I cannot say that I think so. It is not perhaps before their minds as a prophetic event, and it may not be so much spoken of, but I believe it may have as much or more place in the hearts of the saints in its moral bearings.
I want now to speak of faith as personified, that is, to look at the various features or expressions of faith recorded in this chapter as though they were all recorded of one person; there are many illustrations of faith, but if you can take them up as if they applied to one person they present one life of faith. What should be expressed in the Christian down here is the life of faith. Faith does not come out now in one and another in the way of some particular testimony, but every testimony finds its place in Christ, and thus every trait of faith is to characterise the Christian. I purpose to dwell upon two or three leading points in the chapter.
The first thing which comes out is a rebuke given to materialistic ideas in regard of the creation; the moral element, the word of God, is introduced. This [p. 340] is a day when much is made of physical science, which deals with material things, but the deadly mischief of materialism is that it shuts out the moral element, and thus God. By faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. It is not the consequence of evolution. The faith of God’s word as the first cause delivers from materialism.
The next point presented is the first great principle in connection with man in regard to the world to come. On the ground of sacrifice Abel had acceptance with God, he obtained witness that he was righteous. The first trait of faith which characterises the Christian is in that he has the witness that he is righteous with God, and as a consequence of this there is the acceptance of death here; that is the beginning of deliverance. If we are accepted through death, necessarily we have to accept death. How can we righteously live here if we have acceptance for the world to come through death? We have to accept death in this world — it is the drinking of the bitter waters of Marah. Abel had to experience this in a very bitter way, but if death is in itself bitter, the Son of God has come into it, and the testimony of divine love has made it sweet, and now death has become the way of deliverance.
Enoch prophesied of the coming of the Lord, “the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints”. He believed not only in the existence of God but in His being a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Reward is more than acceptance, and the reward is God Himself. Enoch sought God, and he had the answer to it, that is, he got God Himself. He was not, for God took him, and that is really the portion of the church. There will be a company who seek God, and when the Lord comes they will be with God. Then there is the deliverance that accompanied Enoch’s faith; He was not. He disappeared. I wonder if that applies to us. We accept death when we realise the [p. 341] meaning of being baptised, but if we “are not” we have evidently got out of sight. We are buried.
We now come to Noah, and you need to bear in mind that we are looking at each example as if all were true of one person. In Noah we get the same person coming as it were into the world after having, as in the case of Enoch, gone to God. Consequently he is occupied with God’s work — the building of the ark. When I come to the application of this to us it raises the question, What are we occupied with? Well, what I do is first to look after myself. I am to take heed to myself and to the doctrine. In so doing I save myself and those that hear me. If we go on this line we shall condemn the world. I believe that judgment is coming on the world, and if occupied with saving myself and others, necessarily in so doing I condemn the world, without having any definite intention as to it. We see thus how deliverance comes in: first, we have accepted death; (2) we have got out of sight; and (3) we are apart from the course of things here. I am thankful to be apart from the current of this world, and as I go on I feel more and more that the only man effective for God here is a Nazarite. He does not come at the things of death; he does not give himself up to earthly joys and proprieties, not even to those things to which he might be naturally entitled.
In Abraham another principle is seen; you get a man who has food for his soul. Before the flood faith is seen in regard to what was very personal to the subjects of it; Abel offered sacrifice; Enoch walked with God; Noah built an ark; but Abraham got light from God as to His own counsel. The promises were the occupation of his soul — and he embraced them. It is a wonderful thing to have light about divine counsels. All the promises form part of one complete system; they may be given in detail but they are part of one whole, and all are “yea and amen in Christ”. The [p. 342] revelation of these promises forms the food of the soul, and you can mark the effect of them on the patriarchs, they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They looked for a city and sought a country, and the necessary accompaniment of their faith was deliverance from this present world, they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We have both a city, the Jerusalem above, and a country, the heavenly land. The coming of the Lord will bring all these things into display, but faith is already in the light of their existence.
In Isaac and Jacob and Joseph there is the continuity of the line of faith of the promises, but in Moses there is an advance. It is now not merely that there are promises which belonged to the seed of Abraham, but in Israel we see a poor and afflicted people under oppression by the world power down here. Faith not only feeds now upon the promises of God, but will be identified with His suffering people, simply because they are the people of God; and the practical result of that was that Moses got deliverance from the influence of Egypt. That same people of God come out again in a different light as viewed by Rahab; Moses had to do with them as their leader, and consequently in regard to their discipline, while Rahab regarded them as the people of God entering into the land given to them of God, and she proved in a sense a traitor to her country. The truth is that you cannot make a step in the path of faith without getting deliverance. Rahab got a place with the people of God, and she was delivered from patriotism, which is but a human sentiment.
The light of God may, in a certain condition of things down here, warrant the breaking of bonds which, as in patriotism, many would hold sacred. The iniquity of the Amorites was full, and the terror of God had fallen on the land.
Thus we see the importance not merely of one’s [p. 343] own personal course and experience, but of seeing as did Abraham the range of divine purpose, and on the other hand of being identified with the people of God down here. It is impossible to regard the life of faith in the various traits in which it has come out here in different witnesses without seeing that it is one whole, and that deliverance is the proper accompaniment of each expression of faith.