At the beginning of our work here I felt and expressed myself thus-That I had no heart whatever to go on in simply an ordinary Bible study. You know that in the study of the Word of God there is life and salvation; but just to take an hour and sit here and study certain words, and then go away again, and think no more of it,-I could not endure that. Just as an ordinary study it seemed as though it would be a waste of time, for we had not very much time to spend, and I knew from the beginning we needed something we did not have. I knew that in the book of Hebrews, in the first few chapters especially, there is life and truth, and that in small compass is the special message for this time. We have passed over a certain portion, but I had no heart to go further until we had taken in the truth of what we had studied. Each day it has seemed as though I could not go on; I did not know what there was for us. But each day, as the time came for the lesson, the Lord gave me the message. Well, I am glad we are where we are,-as far as we are. So this afternoon I thought, "What shall we have? What can we do?" And I said to the Lord, "Tell me what the message is, and whether we shall have anything or not." Then came these words, "I will put my trust in him." This is a part of our lesson in Hebrews, the words of Christ. Yesterday we were brought face to face with the fact that the Spirit of God is to do the work, and not we; face to face with the fact that God is waiting to fill his people with the Spirit, that we may accomplish in the earth the work that he designs us to do. There are so many things that we need to know; but I thank the Lord that it need not take us long. But when we receive the Spirit of God, we must receive it understandingly. We are not in the condition that the disciples were when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. We are a long way from it. But then I thank the Lord that it need not take us long to get there.
The next summer after the Minneapolis meeting, there was a good brother whom I met for the first time, who, at the close of a meeting, said that he had received help and light; that he had been misinformed, he was sure, in regard to the Minneapolis meeting, and the work which had been done, and he was glad to be able to see some things for himself; glad to see and receive justification by faith. Then thinking how it sounded for a preacher to say that he had learned to accept justification by faith, he added, "Of course, we have always believed in justification by faith, but we have not known what it was." Well, brethren, I have seen a good many hundred people since that time who believed in justification by faith but did not know what it was, and that among Seventh-day Adventists. There are a great many who think they believe it, and who do believe it, who have excepted it to a certain extent only, as a theory. They have taken it as a new article of faith. There is no such thing as a "theory" of justification by faith. It is a fact, that is all; and there are wonderfully few people who allow the fact to get into them for all it is worth.
Now these words that came to me here, "I will put my trust in him," cover the whole ground. That text is everything. Justification by faith is not simply one series or line of truth to be presented to the people. It is the whole truth; it is the third angel's message; there is nothing else. Is there anything else in this world we want except righteousness? Does not that include everything? Because righteousness, we understand is not simply to be a streak in a man's life; it is not simply something for Sabbath. What is righteousness?-Doing right; doing the right thing, instead of the wrong thing-that is righteousness. Not only doing a certain thing right instead of doing it wrong, but always doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing. Is not that simple enough, plain enough as to what righteousness is?
Now, of what is a man's life composed?-His actions. A man's life is composed of his actions; of what he does. If he acts right, he is right. We are not now going into the cause of the thing. We are considering the thing itself; we are not now considering how, why, or whence, righteousness comes, but simply considering the fact and how much it includes. If a man's actions be right, he is a man, a righteous man.
Let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous.
That is right. But if he acts wrong, then he is not right, that's all. These are facts; simple, plain, self-evident truths. They do not need any argument. A man's life is composed of the actions he performs. That is all the Lord brings to the judgment,-the things that men have done. Now to how much of a man's life may the adjectives "righteousness and unrighteousness" apply?-To every act of a man's life. Is that clear? Then righteousness by faith, or in the absence of that, unrighteousness without any help whatever, has to do with a man's whole life; with every act, doesn't it?
(A voice) Yes.
Well, that is righteousness. Is a man a righteous man, and can he be a righteous man, and do right things in some particulars, and then in other particulars go wrong?- No. No; the man is composed of his acts, and righteousness or unrighteousness has to do with all the acts of man. "He that doeth righteousness is righteous." The righteous man does the right thing under all circumstances of life, and does it in the right way.
Now then, we say we accept the doctrine of righteousness by faith. What does that mean?-Right doing by faith. I know that that language to some seems the wildest nonsense; because the idea of righteousness by faith, of course, is nonsense to some. But many have said that righteousness by faith is a good thing in itself, but it must not be carried to an extreme. That is to say, righteousness by faith is a good thing, but do not be too righteous; do not be too good. Faith in God is a good thing, but do not carry it too far. Don't trust him too much. Now, does this idea of carrying righteousness by faith to an extreme mean anything else than that righteousness is a good thing and faith is a good thing, but that you may have too much of them, and so get on dangerous ground? I am not imagining anything, but simply repeating what I have heard: "Faith is a good thing, but do not carry it to extremes." Brethren, how many of you have supposed that fanaticism is simply an excess of faith? I won't ask you to hold up your hands, but I am sure that I have seen a good many who have supposed that fanaticism was simply an excess of faith; haven't you? Some of them are in the house now. Let me tell you that as long as a man sticks to this word, "I will put my trust in him," so long as he holds to that, you can't make a fanatic out of him, no matter how much you try. He can't be made fanatical. Fanaticism comes from letting go the Word of God, and substituting one's own ideas; but nobody in the world was ever fanatical because he believed the Word of God too much. We need to be so well acquainted with the Lord that we will not be afraid that he can't manage his own business; that he does not know how to do it.
Is it misstating or overstating the ideas that have obtained in the minds of many people among us, to say that they thought that righteousness by faith was a good thing in its place, but that when you come to the steady practical work of the cause, it did not work? Is not that so? That has been a prevailing idea. Now, in the first place we must consider, Do we accept the facts of righteousness by faith? Do we accept the truth that there is no other way of becoming righteous, except by faith? Is there any other way of being righteous?-No. To every act in a man's life the term righteous or unrighteous may be applied; then if a man would be righteous, to how many acts of his life must faith come in as the source?-All of them. Righteousness by faith, then, does not mean that it is something that we will have at some point of our life, the goody goody part, but when we come to business, we want something better.
Faith is not something to be put to one side and sneered at; faith is not imagination; faith is not fancy; faith is not sentimentalism; faith is not guess work; faith is an eternal fact. Therefore if a man be in business, and he would be a righteous man in business, that business, being an act, must be done by faith. Righteousness by faith therefore means, the life of Christ coming in to direct everything that man does, and especially in the cause of God, because as a matter of fact, if we are Christians we do not do anything that is not in the cause of God. As Christians we do not have two parts to our lives; it is all Christian, and if we say we have given ourselves to the cause of God, then we have no business to be in the cause of God a part of the time, and then a little part of the time do something else. Therefore as we are altogether in the cause, in the work, I say righteousness by faith means nothing less than that by faith everything that is done shall be done. It means that the Lord shall act. It means that we shall trust the Lord so that we shall understand; because, "by faith we understand."
The word of God is true. Man is nothing. When God speaks, we are to take his word. It does not make any difference how it comes, when or by whom it comes, we are to say, That is true. Brethren, God has placed authority in the church. That authority is his word illumined by his Holy Spirit. That is the authority. That is the only authority there is. Christ is the leader of the church. "Behold I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader, and a commander to the people." He is the leader; we will follow him. His word is authority, and it alone is authority. When we take the word of God, it does not make any difference if some man in higher position says, "It does not mean that," or, "We cannot apply it; it would do all right in an ideal state, but God must take us where we are, and it cannot be applied here. It cannot be applied there."
With all respect to that man, I do not believe a word of it. I know that the word of God is not visionary, and fanciful, simply dissolving into blue clouds and then into nothing, but God's word is for us to live upon. Brethren, there is that in that word, in the light which God gives to us,-there is that in that word, which will direct us in every thing which we have to do in this world, no matter in what capacity we act. There is instruction in this word for everything that we should do. Numbers who do not believe the truth do not have one iota of effect upon the truth. If ten thousand men do not believe the truth, that does not make it any less the truth. If somebody else cannot see it, that does not make it any the less true that I can see it.
And so God's blessing is upon us, and God is among us; and things that we ought to have known, every one of us, years ago, and have not known, and have deprived ourselves of, and in consequence have been weak, because of our not taking God by his Holy Spirit,-if we only get the key, if we only get the root, if we only get the thing for all that it is worth, we will have eternity for here and everywhere. Dependence upon God is everything. Righteousness by faith is the key that will unlock all these things. So God in his infinite mercy will teach us in a little while-O, how good he is!-that which we have been holding off for years; he will teach us, and we may go forth from this meeting with the power of God to proclaim the truth to the world. So, brethren, let us put our trust in him.