Christian Life

What is Your Righteousness?

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation Leave a comment

“Your righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” – Isaiah 54:17

What is your righteousness? O, I am as good as my neighbors. Go along with you; you are not my comrade. What is your righteousness? Well, I am rather better than my neighbors, for I go to chapel regularly. Off with you, sir; you do not know the watchword. And you next; what is your righteousness? I have been baptized, and am a member of the church. Yes, and so you may be; and if that is your hope, you are in the gall of bitterness. Now, you next; what is your hope? O, I do all I can, and Christ makes up the rest. Rubbish! You are a Babylonian, you are no Israelite: Christ is no make-weight-away with you. Here comes the last. What is your righteousness? My righteousness is filthy rags, except one righteousness which I have, which Christ wrought out for me on Calvary, imputed to me by God Himself, which makes me pure and spotless as an angel. Ah, brother, you and I are fellow-soldiers: I have found you out; that is the watchword. “Your righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” I do not ask whether you are Churchmen, or whether you are Methodists, or Independents, or Baptists, if you do but know this watchword-“Your righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” I can forgive all those other minor things, if you can sing-

“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress.”

Tell me you have got any other trust, and I will have nothing to do with you. Tell me you can work out your own salvation, and I will not acknowledge you for a brother. But if you tell me that from first to last you rely on Jesus, then I acknowledge you as a fellow-soldier; and I am glad to see you wherever I meet you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

The Saint’s Watchword

Sherry Christian Life Leave a comment

The saint’s watchword. What is that?

“This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” – Isaiah 54:17

In ancient times, if not at present, armies used to have their watchwords, by which they might recognize one another in the dark. We want a watchword now. It is very difficult to tell the children of God unless we have certain signs. God Himself gives us the watchword. “Your righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” You can always tell a saint of God by this watchword. If he says, “My righteousness is of God,” you may safely believe that he is a disciple of Jesus Christ. If he does not understand our shibboleth, he may not have lived in that country where they speak the pure language of Canaan, and that may excuse defects in his language. He may differ from us in some points, but if he sincerely says, “My righteousness is of God,” you may safely conclude that he is not an enemy of truth. I mean “THE TRUTH as it is in Jesus.”

O, there is to be a time when God’s children shall come out clear of all slander, when falsehood shall be swept away, and they shall stand forth justified even by their enemies. Their slanderers shall have nothing to say against them. They shall share in the admiration which an assembled universe shall be constrained to give to Him who doeth all things well. But this vindication will not be brought about by their own efforts. They have not been anxious to avoid reproach for Christ’s sake. They have not wept and bemoaned themselves because they were counted the offscouring of all things. No; their righteousness, their entire clearing from the aspersions of malice and the calumnies of envy will come from Jehovah…The character of the saints God Himself shall vindicate, and all liars shall have their portion in the lake of fire and brimstone. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

In the Court of King’s Bench Above

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. – Romans 16:20

Satan is always rising in judgment against us. Whenever we get into a little trouble, he comes and says, “You are no saint.” If we commit a sin-“You should not sin like that, if you had been a child of God; you have no interest in the covenant; you are an enthusiast, you have deceived yourself.” How many times Satan has risen against me in judgment-so risen that I have been fool enough to heed what he said. I have told him sometimes, “You are a liar, and the father of lies;” but at other times I have believed his malicious accusation. O, it is no easy thing to stand against the insinuations of the evil one. You, my brethren, are not strangers to his devices. He has set conscience at you, the hell-hounds of legal convictions howled upon you, and the drum of terrible doom thundered in you ears; then up stood the fiend himself and denied your union with Jesus, claiming you as his own prey and portion. Ah, how glorious the moment when our Advocate entered the forum of conscience, and assured us that He had pleaded our cause in the court of King’s Bench above. And, oh, when He showed us the adversary’s brief, spoiled by the nails of the cross, we felt that the tongue of Satan was condemned, and his calumnies hushed. Glorious Councillor, all praise to Thine adorable name.

Let the saints know also that they shall soon have a yet more public triumph over their cruel enemy. At the day of judgment, the foe of God and man shall be dragged from his cell, shall lift his brazen front with thunder scarred, receive his sentence, and begin a hell more terrible than all he has endured before. O saint, dost thou know that thou shalt judge him? Know you not that you shall judge angels? You, sons of God, shall sit as assessors with the firstborn Son, and when He shall pronounce the doom of the dragon, you shall solemnly say “Amen” to the sentence. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

Lying Tongues We Shall Condemn

Sherry Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. – Isaiah 54:17

Where are the various systems of infidelity which have arisen one after another? They are gone quite out of sight. Now and then we felt rather alarmed; because we heard that some great people were going to prove that the Bible was not true, and our creed was not sound. I remember talking with an old man once: “Ah,” said he, “sir, this geology will quite ruin man’s belief in the Bible.” But where is geology now? Instead of opposing the gospel, it furnishes many powerful confirmations of the facts of revelation. Each one of the sciences has, in its imperfect condition, been used as a battering-ram against the truth of God; but as soon as it has been understood it has been made a pillar in Zion’s outworks. Fear not, O son of God, that the perversions of men of science can damage our cause. Lying tongues we shall condemn. O infidelity! abortion of the night! thou hast been condemned a thousand times. Thou art a Protean creature, changing thy shape as ages change. Once thou wast a laughing idiotic plaything for Voltaire; then a bullying blasphemer with Tom Paine; then a cruel, blood-drinking fiend, fit mate for Robespierre; anon, a speculating theorist with Owen; and now a worldly, gross, secularizing thing for impious lecturers and profane admirers. I fear thee not, infidelity; thou art an asp, biting at iron, spending thy spleen, and breaking thy fangs.

My friends, did you ever walk the centuries, and mark the rise and fall of various empires of unbelief? If so, you will seem to be on a battle-field, and you see corpses; you ask the name of the dead, and some one replies, that is the corpse of such a system, and that the carcase of such a theory; and, mark you, as surely as time rolls on, the now rampant style of infidelity will perish, and, in fifty years, we shall see the skeleton of an exploded scheme, and of its admirers the epitaph will be, “Here lies a fool, called of old, a secularist.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

Mark Thee, Persecutor

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. – Isaiah 54:17

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” “Fear not them that kill the body, and afterward have no more that they can do, but fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Why should you fear? God is on your side. Remember, Christ has said, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad when they say all manner of evil against you falsely for My name’s sake; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Rejoice, and leap for joy, for great shall be your reward in heaven.” Hold on, young man; hold on, young woman; still continue in the fear of God, and you shall find that persecution shall work for your good. But mark thee, persecutor, there is a chain in hell of hot iron that shall be bound around thy waist; there are fiends that have whips of fire, and they shall scourge thy soul throughout eternity, because thou darest to put a stumbling-block in the way of God’s children. Remember what Scripture saith: “Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were cast into the sea.”

“Every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.” Here is a protection from the tongue of men. Satan leaves no stone unturned against the church of God. He uses not simply the hand, but, what is oftener a harder weapon, the tongue. We can bear a blow sometimes, but we can not endure an insult. There is great power in the tongue. We can rise from a blow which laid us low on the ground; but we can not so easily recover from slander that lays the character low.

“No weapon hath prospered, the foe is o’ercome;
No tongue hath succeeded, the wise ones are dumb;
The Lord is our glory, and each of the host
Shall yet shout hosannah on Canaan’s fair coast.”

Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, world without end. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

God’s Doctrines are Triumphant

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

…and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. – Isaiah 54:17

I wish to make this a personal heritage of each child of God-“every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall condemn.” O! what a sweet thought that is for me, for there are many tongues busy about me. Some say, “He is a good man;” others say, “He is deceiving the people.” Well, if God will convert more sinners, and bring more to His church, they may decide which way they like. I am not careful to answer any of the self-taught infallible in this matter. You never knew of a preacher who gathers a crowd, or who is doing any good, but he is sure to be slandered, and vilified, and so on; but here is a promise-“Every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn.” We can afford a little slander, because we know we shall have all the more to condemn. The more accusers, the more acquittals; the more slander, so much the more honor of God: so the enemy may just slander still for what we care; for “every tongue that shall rise against us in judgment we shall condemn.”

Do not be afraid to argue for the truth… Stand up for the truth; and there is so much solid learning and real truth to be found in the doctrines that we uphold, that none of you need be ashamed of them. They are mighty and must prevail. The mighty God of Jacob, by the demonstration of the Holy Ghost, makes them triumphant! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

The Church is Strengthened by Persecution

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? – Romans 8:35

Sometimes God has suffered the enemy to exact upon us, and the sword has been used with terrible effect. O, there have been dark and gloomy days for the chosen church of Christ! When persecution has cried, “Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war,” blood has flowed like water over the land! Our enemies have triumphed. the martyr was bound to the stake, or was crucified upon the tree; the pastor was cut off, and the flocks were scattered. Cruel torture-awful suffering was endured by the saints of God. The elect cried, and said, “O Lord, how long? let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.” The enemy laughed, and said, “Ah, ah! so would we have it.” …Persecution shook the land, and sent forth its burning lava of cruelty, devastating the fair fields of the church of God. But did the enemy prosper? Did he succeed? Did persecution destroy His church? Did the weapon formed against us prosper? No! Each time that the church had a wave pass over her she rose out of it, and lifted her fair countenance, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners. She was all the more glorious for it all. Every time her blood was shed each drop became a man, and each man thus converted stood prepared to pour out the vital current from his veins to defend the cause. Ah! those were times when, instead of the church being diminished and brought low, God did multiply her, and persecution worked for her good instead of causing her evil. The persecutor did not destroy the church. Christ’s church never sails so well as when she is rocked from side to side by the winds of persecution; when the spray of her blood dashes in the front, and when at every lurch she is well-nigh overwhelmed. Nothing has helped God’s church so much as persecution; it has increased, and been strengthened by it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm