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The Bill of Rights
Amendment II
A
well regulated Militia, being necessary to the
security of a free State, the right of the people to
keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The right of the people, is the key to this amendment
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THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
-By George Whitefiel-1714-1770
“In his day Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and
this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”
JE.23: 6
Whosoever is acquainted with the nature of mankind in general or the
propensity of his own heart in particular must acknowledge that
self-righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart.
Being once born under a covenant of works, it is natural for us to have
recourse to a covenant of works for our everlasting salvation. And we
have contracted such a devilish pride by our fall from God that we
would, if not wholly yet in part at least, glory in being the cause of
our own salvation. We cry out against Popery, and that very justly; but
we are all Papists, at least I am sure we are all Armenians by nature;
and. Therefore, no wonder so many natural men embrace that scheme. It is
true we disclaim the doctrine of merit and are ashamed directly to say
we deserve any good at all at the hands of God; therefore, as the
apostle excellently well observes, we do about establishing a
righteousness of our own and, like the Pharisees of old, will not wholly
submit to that righteousness which is God, through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
This is the sorest, though, alas! The most common evil that was ever
seen under the sun, an evil that in any age, especially in these dregs
of times wherein we live, cannot be sufficiently be inveighed against.
For as it is with the people, so it is with the priest; and it is to be
feared even in those places where once the truth as it is in Jesus was
eminently preached, many ministers are so sadly degenerated from their
pious ancestors that the doctrines of grace, especially the personal,
all-sufficient righteousness of Jesus, are but too seldom, too slightly
mentioned. Hence the love of many waxeth cold; and I have often thought,
was it possible that this single consideration would be sufficient to
raise our venerable forefathers again from their graves who would
thunder in their ears their fatal errors.
The righteousness of Jesus Christ is one of the great mystery
which the angels desired to look into and seems to be one of the first
lessons that God taught men after the fall. For what were the coats that
God made to put on our first parents but types of the application of the
merits of righteousness of Jesus Christ to believer’s hearts? We are
told that those coats were made of skins of beast; and as beast were not
then food for men, we may fairly infer that those beast were slain in
sacrifice, in commemoration of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
thereafter to be offered. And these skins of these beast thus slain,
being put on Adam and Eve, they were thereby taught how their nakedness
was to be covered with the righteousness of the Lamb of God.
This is what is meant when we are told that Abraham believed on the
Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness. In short, this is it
if which both the law and all the prophets have spoken, especially
Jeremiah in the words of the Text: “The Lord our righteousness.”
I impose through divine grace:
· To consider who we are
to understand by the word Lord.
· How the Lord is man’s
righteousness.
· I will consider some of
the chief objections that are generally urged against this doctrine.
· I shall show some very
ill consequences that flow naturally from denying this doctrine.
· I shall conclude with an
exhortation to all to come to Christ by faith, that they may be enabled
to say with the prophet in the text, The Lord our righteousness
First I am to consider who we are to determine by the word
Lord—The Lord our righteousness.
And if any Arians or Socinians are drawn by curiosity to hear what
the babbler has to say, let them be ashamed of denying the divinity of
the Lord that has bought poor sinners with His precious blood. For the
person mentioned in the text under the character of Lord, is Jesus
Christ. “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise
up David a righteous branch, a King shall reign and prosper, shall
execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his day,
Judah
shall be saved, and all
Israel
shall dwell in safety; and this is his name he shall be called, The Lord
our Righteousness” Vs’s 5,6. By the righteous Branch, all agree that we
are to understand Jesus Christ. He it is Who is called the Lord in our
text If so, if there were no other text in the Bible to prove the
divinity of Christ, that is sufficient. For, if the word Lord may
properly belong to Jesus Christ, He must be God. For as you have it in
the margins of your Bibles, the word Lord is in the original Jehovah
which is the essential title of God Himself. Come, then, ye Arians, kiss
the Son of God, bow down before Him, and honor Him even as you honor the
Father. Learn of the angels, those morning stars, and worship Him as
truly God. For, otherwise you are as much idolaters as those who worship
the Virgin Mary. And as for you, Socinians, who say Christ was a mere
man and yet profess that He was your Saviour, according to your own
principles, you are accursed. For, if Christ be a mere man, then He is
only an arm of flesh. And it is written, “Cursed is he that trusteth on
an arm of flesh.” But I would hope there are no such monsters here. At
least, that after these considerations, they would be ashamed of
broaching such monstrous absurdities anymore. For it is plain that by
the word of the Lord, we are to understand the Lord Jesus Christ who
here takes to Himself the title Jehovah and therefore must be very God
of very God, or, as the apostle devoutly expresses it, God blessed
forevermore.
How is the Lord to be mans righteousness comes next to be
considered.
And that is, in one word, by imputation. For it pleased God, after
He had made all things by the word of His power, to create man after His
own image. And so infinite was the condescension of the high and lofty
One, Who inhabiteth eternity, that although He might have insisted on
the everlasting obedience of Him and His posterity yet He was pleased to
oblige Himself by a covenant or agreement made with His creatures upon
condition of an un-sinning obedience, to give them immortality and
eternal life. For when it is said, the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die, we may fairly infer so long as he continued obedient
and did not eat thereof, he should surely live. Genesis three gives a
full but mournful account how our first parents broke this covenant and
thereby stood in need of a better righteousness than their own in order
to procure their future acceptance with God. For what must they do? They
were as much under a covenant of works as ever. And, though after their
disobedience they were without strength, yet they were obliged not to do
but to continue to do all things, and that too in the most perfect
manner which the Lord had required of them, and not only so, but to make
satisfaction to God’s infinitely offended justice for the breach of
which they had already been guilty.
Here then opens the amazing scene of divine philanthropy; I mean,
God’s love to man. For behold, what man could not do, Jesus Christ, the
Son of the Father’s love undertakes to do for him. And that God might be
just in justifying the ungodly though He was in the form of God and
therefore thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet He took upon
Him a form of a servant, even human nature. In that nature He obeyed,
and thereby fulfilled the whole moral law in our stead, and also died a
painful death upon the cross, and thereby became a curse for, or instead
of, those whom the Father had given Him. As God, He satisfied at the
same time He obeyed and suffered as man; and being God and man in one
person, wrought out a full, perfect, and sufficient righteousness for
all to whom it was imputed.
Here then we see the meaning of the word righteousness.
It implies the active as well as the passive obedience of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Generally, when talking of the merits of Christ, we only
mention the latter, i.e., His death; whereas the former, i.e., His life
and active obedience, is equally necessary. Christ is not such a Saviour
as becomes us unless we join both together. Christ not only died but
lived; not only suffered but obeyed, for or instead of poor sinners. And
both these jointly make up that complete righteousness which is to be
imputed to us as the disobedience of our first parents was made ours by
imputation. In this sense and no other are we to understand that
parallel which Paul draws in Romans five between the first and second
Adam. This is what he elsewhere terms our being made the righteousness
of God in Him. This is the sense wherein the prophet would have us
understand the words of the text; therefore, Jeremiah 16, She, i.e., the
Church itself shall be called (having this righteousness imputed to her)
the Lord our righteousness. A passage, I think, worthy of the
profoundest meditation of all the sons and daughters of Adam.
Many are the objections which the proud hearts of fallen men
are continually urging against this wholesome, this divine, this
soul-saving doctrine. I come now, in the third place, to answer some few
of those, which I think the most considerable.
And first, they say, because they would appear friends to morality,
“That doctrine of an imputed righteousness is destructive of good works,
and leads to licentiousness.”
And who, pray, are the persons who generally urge this objection?
Are they men full of faith, and men really concerned for good works? No,
whatever few exceptions there may be if there be any at all, it is
notorious, they are generally men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning
the faith. The best title I can give them is that profane moralists pr
moralists falsely so called. For I appeal to the experience of the
present as well as past ages if iniquity did and does most abound where
the doctrine of Christ’s a whole personal righteousness is most cried
down and most seldom mentioned being anti-Christian principles always
did and always will lead to anti-Christian practices. And never was
there a reformation brought about in the Church but by preaching the
doctrine of Christ’s imputed righteousness. This, as that man of God,
Luther, calls it, is Articullus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesia, the
article upon which the Church stands or falls. And though preachers of
this doctrine are generally branded by those on the other side with the
opprobrious names of Antinomians, deceivers. And what not; yet, I
believe if the truth of the doctrine on both sides were to be judged by
the lives of the preachers and professors of it, those on our side of
the question would have the advantage every way.
It is true, this, as well as every other doctrine of grace, may be
abused. And perhaps the unchristian walk of some who have talked of
Christ’s imputed righteousness, justification by faith, and the life,
and yet never felt it imputed in their own souls has given the enemies
of the Lord just cause to blaspheme. But this is very unsafe as well as
very unfair way of arguing. The only question should be, Whether or not
this doctrine of imputed righteousness does, in itself, cut off the
occasion of good works or lead to licentiousness? No, in, no wise. It
excludes works indeed from being any cause of our justification in the
sight of God. But it requires good works as a proof of our having this
righteousness imputed to us and as a declarative evidence of our
justification in the sight of men. And then how can the doctrine of an
imputed righteousness be a doctrine leading to licentiousness?
It is all calumny. Paul introduces an infidel making this objection
in his epistle to the Romans. And none but infidels, who never felt the
power of Christ’s resurrection upon the souls, will urge it over again.
And therefore, notwithstanding this objection, with the prophet in the
Text we may boldly say, “The Lord our righteousness.”
But Satan (and no wonder that his servants imitate him) Often
transforms himself into an angel of light. And therefore (such perverse
things will infidelity and Arminianism make men speak), in order to
dress their objections in the best colors, some urge “that our Saviour
preached no such doctrine—that in His sermon upon the mount, He mentions
only morality, “and consequently the doctrine of an imputed
righteousness falls wholly to the ground.
But surely the men who urge this objection either never read or
never understood our blessed Lord’s discourse wherein the doctrine of an
imputed righteousness is so plainly taught that he who runs, if he has
eyes that see, may read.
Indeed our Lord does recommend morality and good works (as all
faithful ministers do) and clears the moral law from the corrupt glosses
put upon it by the letter-learned Pharisees. But then, before He comes
to this, it is remarkable, He talks of an inward piety such as poverty
of spirit, meekness, holy mourning, purity of heart, especially
hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and then recommends good
works as an evidence of our having His righteousness imputed to us and
these graces and divine tempers wrought in our hearts. “Let you light
(that is, the divine light I before have been mentioning), shine before
men, in a holy life, that they, seeing your good work, may glorify your
Father which is in Heaven.” And then immediately adds, “Think not that I
am come to destroy the moral law—I came not to destroy, to take away the
force of it as a rule of life, but to fulfill, to obey it.” And then He
gores on to show how exceeding broad the moral law is so that our Lord,
instead of disannulling an imputed righteousness in His sermon upon the
mount, not only confirms it, but also answers the foregoing objection
urged against it by making good works a proof and evidence of its being
imputed to our souls. He, therefore, who has ears to hear, let him hear
what the prophet says in the words of the text—“The Lord our
righteousness.”
But Satan not only quoted Scripture but also backed one temptation
with it after another when he attacked Christ’s person in the
wilderness, so His children generally takes the same method in treating
His doctrine. And therefore they urge another objection against the
doctrine of an imputed righteousness from the example of the young man
in the Gospel.
We may state it thus: ‘The evangelists, Mark,” say they, “chapter
ten, mentions a young man who came to Christ, running and asking Him
what he should do to inherit eternal life? Christ, say they, referred
him to the commandments to know what he must do to inherit eternal life.
It is plain, therefore, works were to be partly, at least, the cause of
his justification; and consequently the doctrine of an imputed
righteousness is unscriptural.” This is the objection in its full
strength; and little strength is in all its fullness. For, were I to
prove the necessity of an imputed righteousness, I scarcely know how I
could bring a better instance to make it good.
Let us take a more intimate view of this young man and our Lord’s
behavior towards him. In Mk:
10:17, “That when Christ was gone forth into the way, there
came one running (It should deem it was some nobleman, a rarity, indeed,
to see such a one running to Christ!) and not only so, but he kneeled to
Him (though many of his rank scarcely know the time when they kneeled to
Christ), and asked Him, saying, ‘Good Master what shall I do that I
may inherit eternal life?’ Then Jesus, to see whether or not he believed
Him to be what He really was, truly and properly God, said unto him,
‘Why callest me good? There is none good but one, that is God.’ And that
he might directly answer his question; says He, ‘Thou knowest the
commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not bear false witness, Defraud
not, Honor thy father and thy mother.’” This, I say, was a direct answer
to his question, that eternal life was not to be obtained by his doings.
For our Lord, by referring him to the commandments, did not (as the
objectors insinuate), in the least, hint that his morality would
recommend him to the favor and mercy of God. But He intended thereby to
make the law His schoolmaster to bring him to Himself that the young
man, seeing how he had broken every one of these commandments, might
thereby be convinced of the insufficiency of his own, and consequently
of the absolute necessity of looking out for a better righteousness,
wherein he might depend for eternal life.
This is what our Lord designed. The young man, being self-righteous
and willing to justify himself, said, “All these have I observed from my
youth.” But had he known himself, he would have confessed, “all these
have I broken from my youth.” For supposing he had not actually
committed adultery, had he never lusted after a woman in his heart? What
if he had not really killed another, had he never been angry without a
cause or spoken unadvisedly with his lips? If so, by breaking one of the
least commandments in the least degree, he became liable to the curse of
God: For “cursed is he (saith the law) that continueth not in all things
that are written in this book.” And therefore, as I observed before, our
Lord was so far from speaking against this that He treated the young man
in that manner on purpose to convince him of the necessity of an imputed
righteousness.
But perhaps they will reply, it is said, “Jesus beholding him, loved
him.” And what then? This He might do with a human love, and at the same
time this young man have no interest in His blood. Thus Christ is said
to wonder, to weep over
Jerusalem, and say, “Oh that thou hadst known,”
etc. But such like passages are to be referred only to His human nature.
And there is a great deal of difference between the love wherewith
Christ loved this young man and that wherewith He loved Mary, Lazarus,
and their sister Martha. To illustrate this by a comparison: A minister
of the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing many amiable dispositions such as a
readiness to hear the Word, a decent behavior at public worship, a life
outwardly spotless in many, cannot but so far love them. But then there
is much difference between that love which a minister feels for such and
that divine love, that union and sympathy of soul, which he feels for
those that he is satisfied are really born again of God. Apply this to
our Lord’s case as a faint illustration of it. Consider what has been
said upon this young man’s case in general; and then, if before you were
fond of this objection, instead of triumphing like him, you will go
sorrowful away. Our Saviour’s reply to him more and more convinces us of
the truth of the prophet’s assertion in the text, i.e., that the Lord is
our righteousness.
But there is a fourth and grand objection yet behind, and that is
taken from Matthew 25, “where our Lord is described as rewarding people
with eternal life, because they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and
such like. Their works therefore were a cause of their justification;
consequently, the doctrine of imputed righteousness is not agreeable to
Scripture.”
This, I confess, is the most plausible objection brought against the
doctrine insisting on from the text. And in order that we may answer it
in as clear and as brief a manner as we may, we confess, with the
article of the Church of England, “The albeit good works do not justify
us, yet they will follow their justification, as fruits of it; and
though they can claim no reward in themselves, yet forasmuch as they
spring from faith in Christ, and a renewed soul, they shall receive a
reward of grace, though not of debt; and consequently, the more we
abound in such good works, the greater will be our reward when Jesus
Christ will come to judgment.”
Take considerations along with us, and they will help us much to
answer the objection now before us. For thus does Matthew say: “Then
shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world,--for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and
ye gave me drink, I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Naked, and ye
clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison, and ye came
unto me.” “I will therefore reward you, because you have done
these things out of love for me, and hereby have evidenced yourselves to
be my true disciples.” And that the people did not depend on these good
actions for their justification in the sight of God is evident. “For
when saw we an hungered,” say they, And fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave
thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and
clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto
thee?” language and questions quite improper for persons relying on
their own righteousness for acceptance in the sight of God.
But then they replied against this. In the latter part of the
chapter, say they, it is plain that Jesus Christ rejects and dams the
others for not doing these things. And therefore, if He dams those for
not doing, He saves those for doing; and consequently the doctrine of an
imputed righteousness is good for nothing.
But that is no consequence at all: for God may justly damn any man
for omitting the least duty of the moral law, and yet Himself He is
obliged to give any one any reward, supposing he has done all that he
can. We are unprofitable servants, we have done near so much as it was
our duty to do must be the language of the most holy souls living; and
therefore from or in ourselves, we cannot be justified in the sight of
God. This was the frame of the devout souls just referred to. Sensible
of this, they were far from depending on their own works for
justification in the sight of God that they were filled, as it were with
holy blushing, to think our Lord should condescend to mention, much more
to reward them for their poor works of faith and labors of love. I am
persuaded hearts would rise with a holy indignation against those who
urge this passage as an objection against the assertion of the prophet
in the words of the text, that the “Lord is our righteousness.”
Thus I think we have fairly answered these grand objections, which
are generally urged against the doctrine of an imputed righteousness.
Were I to stop here, I think I might say we are made, more than
conquerors through Him that loved us. But there is a way of arguing
which I have always admired because I have thought it always very
convincing, i.e., by showing the absurdities that will follow from
denying and particular proposition in dispute.
The consequences of denial: This is the fourth thing that was
proposed. “And never did greater or more absurdities flow from the
denying any doctrine, than will flow from denying the doctrine of
Christ’s imputed righteousness.”
And first if we deny this doctrine, we turn the truth, I mean the
Word of God, as much as we can into a lies and utterly subvert all those
places of Scripture which say, That we are saved by grace; that it is
not of works, lest and man should boast. That salvation is God’s free
gift, and that He that glorieth, must glory in the Lord. For, if the
whole personal righteousness of Jesus Christ be not the sole cause of my
acceptance with God, if any work done by or foreseen in me was in the
least to be joined with or looked upon by God as an induced, impulsive
cause of acquitting my soul from guilt, then I have somewhat whereof I
may glory in myself. Now boasting is excluded in the great work of our
redemption. But that cannot be if we are enemies to the doctrine of an
imputed righteousness. It would be endless to enumerate how many texts
of Scripture must be false, if this doctrine be not true. Let it suffice
to affirm in the general that of we deny an imputed righteousness, we
may as well deny a divine revelation all at once. For it is the Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end of the Book of God. We must either
disbelieve that or believe what the prophet has spoken in the text,
“That the Lord is our righteousness.”
But further, I observe at the beginning of this discourse that we
are all Armenians and Papists by nature; for, as one observes,
Arminianism is the way back to Popery. And here I venture further to
affirm, “that if we deny the doctrine of imputed righteousness, whatever
we may style ourselves, we are really Papists in our hearts, and deserve
no other title from men.”
Sirs, what think you? Suppose I were to come and tell you that you
must intercede with saint for them to intercede with God for you. Would
you not say then that I was justly reputed a Popish missionary by some
and deservedly thrust out of the synagogue by others? I suppose you
would. And why? Because you would say the intercession of Jesus Christ
was sufficient of itself without the intercession of saints; and that it
was blasphemous to join theirs with his as though it was not sufficient.
Suppose I went a little more round about and told you that the death
of Christ was not sufficient without our death being added to it; that
you must die as well as Christ, join your death with His, and then it
would be sufficient. Might you not then with a holy indignation throw
dust in the air and justly call me a setter of strange doctrines? And
now then, if it be not only absurd but blasphemous to join the
intercession of saints with the intersession of Christ as though His
intercession was not sufficient, or our death with the death of Christ
as though His death was not sufficient, judge ye, if it be not equally
absurd, equally blasphemous, to join our obedience either wholly or in
part with the obedience of Christ as if that was not sufficient. And if
so, what absurdities will follow the denying that the Lord, both as to
His active and passive obedience, is our righteousness?
One more absurdity I shall mention that will follow from the denying
this doctrine, and I have done.
I remember a story of a certain prelate, who, after many arguments
in vain urged to convince the Earl of Rochester of the invisible
realities of another world, took his leave of his lordship with some
such words as these: ”Well my lord,” says he, “if there be no Hell, I am
safe; but if there be such a thing, my lord, as Hell, what will become
of you?” I apply this to those who oppose the doctrine not insisted on.
If there be no such thing as the doctrine of an imputed righteousness,
those who hold it, and bring forth fruit unto holiness, are safe. But if
there be such a thing (as there certainly is), what will become of you
who deny it? It is no difficult matter to determine. Your portion
must be in the Lake
of Fire and
brimstone forever and ever; since you will rely upon your works, by your
works you shall be judged. They shall be weighed in the balance of the
sanctuary. They will be found wanting. By your works, therefore, shall
you be condemned; and you, being out of Christ, shall find God, to your
poor wretched souls, a consuming fire.
The great Stoddard, of
Northampton, in New England,
has therefore well entitled a book, which he wrote (and which I would
take this opportunity to recommend), “The Safety of Appearing in the
Righteousness of Christ.” Forwhy should I lean upon a broken reed when I
can have the Rock of Ages to stand upon that can never be moved?
And now, before I come to a more particular application, give me
leave to, in the apostle’s language, triumphantly to cry out, Where is
the scribe? Where is the disputer? Where is the reasoning infidel of
this generation? Can anything appear more reasonable, even according to
your own way of arguing, than the doctrine here laid down? Have you not
felt a convincing power go along with the word? Why then will you not
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so that He may become the Lord your
righteousness?
But it is time to come a little closer to your consciences.
Brethren, though some may be offended at this doctrine and may
account it foolishness, yet to many of you I doubt not but it is
precious, it being agreeable to the form of sound words which from your
infancy has been delivered to you; and coming from a quarter you would
least have expected, may be received with more pleasure and
satisfaction. But give me leave to ask you one question, Can you say,
the Lord our righteousness? I say, the Lord our righteousness. For
entertaining this doctrine in your heads, without receiving the Lord
Jesus Christ savingly by a lively faith in your hearts, will but
increase your hearts, will but increase your damnation. As I have often
told you, so I tell you again, an unapplied Christ is no Christ at all.
Can you then, with believing Thomas, cry out, “My Lord, and my God?”
Is Christ your sanctification, as well as your outward righteousness?
For the word righteousness in the text not only implies Christ’s
personal righteousness imputed to us but also holiness of heart wrought
in us. These two God has joined together. He never did, He never does,
He never will put them asunder. If you are justified by the blood you
are also sanctified by the Spirit of the Lord our righteousness? Were
you never made to abhor yourselves for your actual sins and to loath
your own righteousness (or, as the prophet expresses it, your
righteousness), as filthy rags? Were you never made to see and admire
the all-sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness and excited by the SPIRIT
of God be athrist for Christ. Yes, even for righteousness of Christ?
O when shall I come to appear before the presence of my God in the
righteousness of Christ? O nothing but Christ! Nothing but Christ! Give
me Christ, O God, and I am satisfied! My soul shall praise thee forever.
Was this, I say, ever the language of your heart? And after these inward
conflicts, were you ever enabled to reach out the arm of faith and
embrace the blessed Jesus in your souls so that you could say, My
beloved is mine, and I am His? If so, fear not, whoever you are. Hail,
all hail, you happy souls! The Lord, the Lord Christ, the everlasting
God is your righteousness. Christ has justified you, who is he that
condemneth you?
Christ has died for you, nay rather is risen again, and ever liveth
to make intercession for you. Being now justified by His grace, you have
peace with God and shall before long be with Jesus in glory, reaping
everlasting and unspeakable redemption both in body and soul for there
is no condemnation to those who are really in Christ Jesus. Whether Paul
or Apollos, or life or death, all is yours if you are Christ’s, for
Christ is God! O my brethren, my heart is enlarged towards you! O, think
on the love of God dying for you! If the Lord be your righteousness, let
the righteousness, let the righteousness of your Lord be continually in
your mouth. Talk of, oh talk of and recommend the righteousness of
Christ when you lie down and when you rise up, at your going out and
coming in! Think of the greatness of the gift as well as the giver! Show
to all the world in whom you have believed! Let all, by your fruits;
know that the Lord is your righteousness and that you are waiting for
your Lord from Heaven!
O study to be holy, even as He Who has called you and washed you in
His own blood is holy! Let not the righteousness of the Lord be evil
spoken of through you. Let not Jesus be wounded in the house of His
friends; but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ day-by-day. O, think of His dying love! Let that love
constrain you to obedience. Having much forgiven, love much. Be always
asking, What shall I do to express my gratitude to the Lord for giving
me His righteousness? Let that self-abasing, God-exalting question be
always in your mouths. O be always lisping out, Why me, Lord? Why Me?
Why am I taken and others left? Why is the Lord my righteousness? Why is
He become my salvation, who has so often deserved damnation at His
hands?
O, my friends, I trust I feel somewhat of a sense of God’s
distinguishing love upon my heart! Therefore I must divert a little from
congratulating you, to invite poor Christ-less sinners to come to Him
and accept of His righteousness that they may have life.
Alas, my heart almost bleeds! What a multitude of precious souls are
now before me! How shortly must all be ushered into eternity; and yet, O
cutting thought! Was God now to require all your souls, how few,
comparatively speaking, could really say, the Lord our righteousness?
And think you, O sinners, that you will be able to stand in the day
of judgment if Christ be not your righteousness? No, that alone is the
wedding garment in which you must appear. O, Christ-less sinners, I am
distressed for you! The desires of my soul are enlarged! O, that this
may be an accepted time! O, that the Lord may be your righteousness! For
whither would you flee: if death should find you naked? Indeed there is
no hiding yourself from His presence. The pitiful fig leaves of your won
righteousness will not cover your nakedness when God shall call you to
stand before Him. Adam found them ineffectual, and so will you.
O, think of death! O, think of judgment! Yet a little while and time
shall be no more; and then what will become of you if the Lord be not
your righteousness? Think you that Christ will spare you? No, He Who
formed you will have no mercy on you. If you are out of Christ, if
Christ be not your righteousness, Christ Himself will pronounce you
damned. And can you bear to think of being damned by Christ? Can you
bear to hear the lord Jesus say unto you, “Depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared fort the devil and his angels”? Can you
live, think you, in everlasting burnings? Is your flesh brass and your
bones iron? What if they are? Hell fire, that fire prepared for the
devil and his angels, will heat them through and through.
And can you bear to depart from Christ? O, that heart-piercing
thought! Ask those holy souls who are at any time bewailing absent God,
who walk in darkness and see no light though but a few days or hours;
ask them, what it is to lose a sight and presence of Christ? See how
they seek Him sorrowing and go mourning after Him all the daylong! And
if it be so dreadful to lose the sensible presence of Christ only for a
day, what must it be to be banished from Him to all eternity? But thus
it must be if Christ be not your righteousness. For God’s justice must
be satisfied; and unless Christ righteousness is imputed and applied to
you here, you must be satisfying the divine justice in Hell torments
eternally, hereafter.
Nay, as I said before, Christ Himself, the God of love shall condemn
you to that place of torment. And O, how cutting is that thought!
Methinks I see poor, trembling, Christ-less wretches, standing before
the bar of God, crying out, “Lord, if we must be damned, let some angel,
or some archangel, pronounce the damnatory sentence.” But all in vain.
Christ Himself shall pronounce the irrevocable sentence. Knowing,
therefore, the terrors of the Lord, let me persuade you to close with
Christ and never rest, till you can say, “The Lord our righteousness.”
Who knows but the Lord may have mercy on, nay, abundantly pardon you?
Beg of God to give you faith; and if the Lord give you that, you will by
it receive Christ with His righteousness and His all.
You need not fear the greatness or number of your sins. For are you
sinners? So am I. Are you the chief of sinners? So am I. Are you
backsliding sinners? S o am I. And yet the Lord (forever adored be His
rich, free, and sovereign grace), the Lord is my righteousness. Come,
then O young men, who (as I acted once myself) are playing the prodigal
and wandering away off from your swine’s trough, feed no longer on the
husks of sensual delights. For Christ’s sake, arise and come home! Your
Heavenly father now calls you. See it, view it again and again. Consider
at how dear a rate it was purchased, even by the blood of God. Consider
what great need you have of it. You are lost, undone, damned forever,
without it.
Come then, poor, guilty, prodigals, come home. Indeed I will not,
like the elder brother, be angry. No, I will rejoice with the angels of
Heaven. And, that God would bow the heavens and come down! “Descend, O
Son of God, descend; and as thou hast shown in me such mercy, O let the
blessed Spirit apply the righteousness to some prodigals now before Thee
and cloth their naked souls with Thy best robe.”
But I must speak a word to you, young maidens, as well as young men.
I see many of you adorned as to your bodies; but are your souls naked!
Which of you can say, the Lord is my righteousness? Which of you was
ever solicitous to be dressed in this robe of invaluable price, and
without which you are no better than whited sepulchers in the sight of
God? Let not then so many of you young maidens, any longer forget your
only ornament: Oh, seek for the Lord to be your righteousness or
otherwise burning will soon be upon you instead of beauty!
And what shall I say to you of middle age, you busy merchants, you
cumbered Marthas, who with all your gettings, have not yet gotten the
Lord to be your righteousness? Alas! What profit will there be in your
labor under the sun to secure this pearl of invaluable price? This one
thing, so absolutely needful, that it can only stand you instead when
all other things shall betaken from you. Labor therefore no longer so
anxiously for the meat that perisheth, but henceforth seek for the Lord
to be your righteousness, a righteousness that will entitle you to
everlasting life.
I see also many gray heads here, and perhaps the most of them cannot
say, the Lord is my righteousness. O gray-headed sinners, I could weep
over you! Your gray hairs which ought to be your crown, and in which
perhaps you glory, are now your shame. You know not that the Lord is
your righteousness. Oh, haste then, haste, ye aged sinners, and seek an
interest in redeeming love!
Alas, you have one foot already in the grave. Your glass is just run
out. Your sun is just going down, and it will set and leave you in
eternal darkness unless the Lord be your righteousness! Flee then, oh,
flee for your lives! Be not afraid. All things are possible with God. If
you come, though it be the eleventh hour, Christ Jesus will in nowise
cast you out. Oh, seek then for the Lord to be your righteousness, and
beseech Him to let you know how it is that a man may be born again when
he is old!
But I must not forget the lambs of the flock. To feed them was my
Lord’s last commands; I know He will be angry with me if I do not tell
them that the Lord may be their righteousness and that of such is the kingdom of Heaven.
Come then, you little children, come to Christ; the Lord Christ shall be
your righteousness. Do not think that you are to young to be converted.
Perhaps many of you might be nine or ten years old and yet cannot say
the lord is your righteousness which many have said, though younger than
you. Come then, while you are young. Perhaps you may not live to be old.
Do not wait for other people. If your fathers and mothers will not come
to Christ, do you come without them? Let children lead them and show
them how the Lord may be their righteousness. Our Lord Jesus loved
little children. You are lambs. He bids me feed you. I pray God make you
willing betimes to take the Lord for your righteousness.
Did you never read of the Eunuch belonging to the queen of Candace?
He believed The Lord was his righteousness; he was baptized. Do you also
believe, and you shall be saved. Christ Jesus is the same now as He was
yesterday and will wash you in His own blood. Go home then, turn the
words of the text into a prayer, and entreat the Lord to be your
righteousness. Even so, come Lord Jesus; come quickly, into all our
souls! Amen, Lord Jesus Amen and Amen.
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