1828. How “The Unspeakable” Is Spoken Of

No. 1828-31:133. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, October 9, 1884, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, March 15, 1885.

And men shall speak of the might of your terrible acts: and I will declare your greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of your great goodness, and shall sing about your righteousness. {Ps 145:6,7}

For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1468, “Philosophy and Propriety of Abundant Praise, The” 1468}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1828, “How ‘The Unspeakable’ is Spoken Of” 1829}
   Exposition on Ps 145 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2519, “When Should We Pray?” 2520 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Ps 145 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2972, “Forgiveness” 2973 @@ "Exposition"}

1. In this psalm David has reached the Beulah land of his songs, where we hear nothing else but praise. He begins, “I will extol you, my God, oh King; and I will bless your name for ever and ever. Every day I will bless you; and I will praise your name for ever and ever”; and he closes with, “My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.” Happy is our condition when the glory of God fills both heart and tongue! Oh, to swim in a sea of gratitude, to feel waves of praise breaking over one’s joyful head, and then to dive into the ocean of adoration, and lose one’s self in the ever-blessed God!

2. The royal singer strikes a high note as he repeats the stanza, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.” We never reach the height of that great argument until we confess that it is far above us, and altogether unsearchable. We have not apprehended God if we imagine that we have comprehended him.

3. Next David found comfort in the thought that he was not the only worshipper of the Lord, and that the praise of God would not cease when he fell asleep in death. He foresees an endless line of praiseful hearts, and utters this sure prophecy, “One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.” But as if he would not and could not leave the blessed task to others, but must continue his own joyful hallelujahs, he cries, “I will speak of the glorious honour of your majesty, and of your wondrous works.” Whatever happens, each one of us must extol the Lord. Whether the world grows atheistic or devout, our duty and our joy are one and the same, — we are still to magnify the Lord our God. We do not wish to avoid this profound pleasure; indeed, rather we would abound in it more and more.

4. All this leads up to a consideration of the various ways in which men speak of the Lord and his acts when their minds are moved in that direction. All do not see the same points of his greatness, neither do they see with the same eyes, nor speak in the same spirit. It is ours at this time to review the various orders of mankind, and to observe how the revelation of God to them affects their minds and moves their tongues.

5. There is an ascending scale in the four sentences of our text, as the poet-prophet observes and records the ascending forms of human thought and speech.

6. I. We begin at the lowest step of the ladder. “Men shall speak of the might of your terrible acts.” We mingle with the multitude during a great occasion of national calamity, or upon the receipt of dreadful news from a foreign land, and we hear THE AWE-STRUCK TALK of the throng. We join a sobered and thoughtful company: they have come together under a common fear, and they speak to each other about the terrible acts of God because they impress them at the moment. They are of the Athenian kind, desiring continually to say and hear some new thing, and now they have found a novel subject which has the stinging flavour of terror. God has been doing terrible things, and they cannot help speaking of them: they have overlooked his mercies, but they must notice his judgments, as it is written, “Lord, when your hand is lifted up they will not see; but they shall see and be ashamed.” Not only shall they see, but they shall speak too, — “Men shall speak of the might of your terrible acts.”

7. There have been times in human history when this text has been fulfilled with tremendous emphasis. The first men who lived after the flood must have been affected with the solemn memory of the universal deluge; they must have often spoken to each other concerning God’s terrible acts, when he drew up the sluices of the great deep, and burst open the reservoirs of heaven to drown a guilty world. They who lived opposite the five cities of the plain, once so prosperous and rich, as well so luxurious and wicked — those, I say, who lived in the neighbouring cities must have said to each other, “Have you heard what has happened — how God has rained fire out of heaven upon those wicked cities?” Men after all these ages can scarcely go that way, and notice how desolation rules over the Dead Sea, without speaking in bated breath to each other, and saying, “Here vengeance triumphed.”

8. Egypt was full of this talk once, when the plagues followed each other like terrible claps of thunder. One peal had not ceased before another blast astounded them. Its noise went beyond Egypt, and in many a palace monarchs heard how Jehovah had gained for himself honour over Pharaoh. It was as Moses sang, “Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of your arm they shall be as still as a stone; until your people pass over, oh Lord, until the people pass over, whom you have purchased.”

9. So it was also when the sword of Joshua was taken from its scabbard in the name of the Most High, and Jehovah began to deal out execution against the nations who had gone into uncleanness and given themselves over to abominable lusts. When Israel went from city to city, as the appointed executioner of the Most High, then men everywhere spoke to each other about the might of Jehovah’s terrible acts “until their hearts melted, neither was there spirit in them any more.”

10. These are only early examples in the grey old past, but they are typical of similar judgments which are scattered throughout history. The terrible acts of the Lord are few, but no age is quite left without them, for the Lord still lives, and he is for evermore the same. He punishes nations in this present life. Since there will be no resurrection for nations as nations, and no judgment day for nations as nations, they are judged in time, and their sins are followed up by national judgments. Have you not heard of the might of his terrible acts that happened to Babylon? Do you not know that he made Nineveh to be such a heap of ruins that for many a century it was altogether hidden away from mortal sight? Have you not heard what God did to the colossal empire of Rome, when it had filled up the measure of its iniquity? Do you not remember how he broke it in pieces as with a rod of iron? No Englishman should ever forget in modern times how the Armada of Spain in 1588 was given as chaff to the wind, and that cruel, persecuting power was degraded from her preeminence. Men have spoken again and again to each other as they have hidden away from the scourge of war, or as they have stood weeping at the graves of their beloved ones slain by the pestilence which walks in darkness, and they have said, “Behold the might of Jehovah’s terrible acts!” Men will speak of that side of the Lord’s dealings if they are dumb concerning his innumerable benefits.

11. When God’s judgments are abroad in the world its inhabitants shall learn righteousness; and this is a consolation in times of disaster and death. None of us would dare to desire these judgments: we are of another spirit from Elijah, who, in holy jealousy for Jehovah his God, could pray that there should be no rain for three years except according to his word. But yet the thought must have crossed the mind of many a faithful follower of God that atheistic nations ought to feel the rod to startle them into thoughts of God, and oppressing peoples ought themselves to taste the bitter cup of tyranny. “By terrible things in righteousness you will answer us, oh God.” “Shall God not avenge his own elect, who cry day and night to him?” Will he not strike the beast and the false prophet, and put down falsehood and wickedness? It shall be even so in due time.

12. The least that we can do, whenever these terrible acts are abroad, is to turn them into special prayer, and cry mightily to God that men may speak of the might of his terrible acts, and may learn to “kiss the Son, lest he is angry, and they perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled only a little.” It behoves us when we see the black clouds overhead to pray that they may break in mercy upon the nations, and that God himself may appear in infinite love, though he should make the clouds his chariot, and ride upon the wings of the wind.

13. “Men shall speak of the might of your terrible acts.” These things leave a mark, and make for a while an obvious impression. Such, however, is the heart of man that often the impression is as when one lashes the water, and no scar remains; for it is natural to fallen man to forget God. Sinners pray in a storm, and curse again in the calm. When the pestilence is abroad, they tremble and adore; but they become atheists when the graves are all filled, and things return to their usual course. When God sends out pestilence (and he has recently scourged cities that are scarcely a day’s ride from us), let us pray that the scourge may not fall upon our own land. Yet I do remember, when I first came to this city, how many days and nights I stood at the bedside of men and women dying of cholera; and though it was a grievous thing, and this neighbourhood felt the scourge very heavily, yet I noticed that infidelity was extremely quiet, and that people who never entered a place of worship before began to attend our services. Bibles were routed out of the dust in those times, and religious talk was tolerated. The minister, who was formerly the subject of their caricatures and jokes, was viewed with reverence for the time being, and his visits were sought for in the hour of sickness. It is wonderful how men laugh on the other side of their mouths when God begins to deal with them — how those who scoffed the loudest are the first to wince when the lash falls on them. The boldest blasphemers are the first to cry out when the Lord binds them with his cords. They cannot bear the touch of God’s finger, and yet they have often dared to challenge his hand to be laid upon them. Oh Lord, men shall speak of the might of your terrible acts, when they are driven in utter dismay to bow their ungodly heads, and admit that the Lord reigns!

14. Dear friends, whenever you find sickness in a house, or death in a darkened room, seize the opportunity to speak for your Lord. Your voice for then truth will likely be heard, for God himself is speaking, and men must hear him whether they wish to or not. Meanwhile, plead earnestly that the hammer of God may only break hard hearts, and that the fire of God may only consume what is evil. Pray that the Holy Spirit may work with the chastisement, to produce health and healing for the souls of men.

15. II. Be ready with the second part of our subject, which is this — THE BOLD DISCOURSE.

16. Observe how the one follows the other: — “Men shall speak of the might of your terrible acts, and I will declare your greatness.” After the many have spoken in awe, I will deliver my soul with courage. Come in, oh single testifier for God, for now you will be welcomed! When they have advanced so far as to tremble at God because he has begun to strike them, come forward and declare his greatness. The might of his terrible acts has made them see the greatness of his power; they perceive what plagues are in his quiver, and how easily he can draw them out like arrows, and shoot them from his bow, and never miss the mark. They are obliged to confess all this, and so a good foundation is prepared for something more. Tell them about the greatness of his justice, and how he will by no means spare the guilty. Tell them about the greatness of his grace, and how in the person of Jesus Christ he passes by iniquity, transgression, and sin. Tell them about the greatness of his fatherly love, and how he presses returning prodigals to his bosom, and kisses away their tears. Tell them about the greatness of his saving power to lift up men from the dunghill, and set them among princes, even the princes of his people. Speak very bravely concerning the greatness of his sovereignty, how he can create or can destroy. Tell them that “he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion.” Point to the greatness and splendour of his love, how he receives sinners, how he gives grace to the graceless, and how his Son in due time died for the ungodly.

17. I heard it said of a certain preacher by one who was no poor judge, though a simple countryman, “I have heard many preachers, but I never heard one who seemed to make God so great as that man does.” I would like to have such praise, or at least, to deserve it; for I think it should be a main object of the preacher to make God great in men’s esteem. Today, my brethren, the most approved preaching makes much of man. Philanthropy, which is good enough in its place, has supplanted loyalty to Jehovah: the second table of the law is put before the first, and in that position it engenders idolatry — the worship of man, which is only a form of self-adoration. All divinity is now to be moulded according to man, and from man’s point of view; and men are to think out their theology, and not take it from God’s mouth, or from the Book inspired by the Spirit of God. Men are such wonderful beings in this century that we are called upon to tone down the gospel to “the spirit of the age,” — that is, to the fashions and the follies of human thought, as they vary from day to day. This, by God’s help, we will never do, — no, not by one diluting drop, nor by the splitting of a hair. What have I to do with suiting this century any more than any other century? We have to do with the immutable God, and with the fixed verities which he has revealed to us. Having taken our foothold upon the rock, we shall not stir from it, by God’s help, while there is breath in our body. Yet so it is; man has made man his god, and Jehovah is dethroned in his thoughts. I believe in God, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob: if there is another god newly come up, let those worship him who wish to; but the stern God of the Old Testament, the loving God of the New Testament, it is for evermore my resolve to magnify.

18. A time may come yet when men will hear the old gospel once more; but whether they do or not, I will declare Jehovah’s greatness. There are many shifts and changes, but if we stand still, and bide our time, the current which runs this way today will run in an opposite direction tomorrow; and if it should not do so, what is that to us? We are not accountable for popular opinion, but only for our own loyalty to truth. He who is faithful to his God, and declares his greatness in this evil time, shall be accepted as a faithful servant in the day of the last account. Of course, he will today be stigmatized as “behind the times,” and be little esteemed by those who deem themselves cultured and advanced, but of this he may make little account.

19. So I have taken you over two of the sentences. I have shown you an awe-struck people talking together about God’s terrible acts, and then the child of God coming in with his personal testimony, saying, “I will declare your greatness.”

20. III. In the third sentence you see a company of godly people together, and in their talk you notice THE GRATEFUL OUTPOURING of thankful spirits. “They shall abundantly utter the memory of your great goodness.”

21. The Hebrew word has something to do with bubbling up: it means they shall overflow, they shall gush with the memory of your great goodness: and in handling this sentence I should like to dwell only upon that metaphor. A Christian man in reference to the goodness of God to him should resemble a springing well. There should always be fresh matter from him upon that blessed subject — “the memory of your great goodness.” Did you ever tell the story of your life to anyone to the full? Did you ever write it? I am sometimes not a little amused, certainly not surprised, when I get, as I did this week, a letter on foolscap, twelve sheets, twenty-four pages, all filled up with the story of a man I never saw, who lives far away in the backwoods. Nothing will do but he must tell someone or other what God has done for him, and he has selected me to be the receiver of the narrative. He has only followed the example of many others. I regret that so many of these autobiographies come to me, for such good things ought to be a little more evenly distributed. I scarcely have the time to get through that length of writing, and having so many other epistles, it is possible that I am not as grateful for this one as I ought to be; but it is a good theme, of which we cannot weary. I would encourage all believers abundantly to utter what they remember about the Lord’s love; and if they cannot tell it orally they must write it. You need not send me the manuscript; but do not let it be lost. Tell your friends the happy story of Jesus and his love.

      Oh, bless the Lord, my soul,
      Nor let his mercies lie
   Forgotten in unthankfulness,
      And without praises die.

I like the instinct (and I think it is always an instinct of a child of God) that makes a man feel, “I must tell what the Lord has done for me.”

22. They shall abundantly utter; they shall gush; they shall overflow with the memory of your great goodness. Now, if someone could give you all his time to listen to you about what God has done for you, could you not keep on for ever? I was about to blunder, and say I could keep on for ever, and then begin again. I feel like David, when he said that he would praise God’s name for ever, and then said “and ever,” as if he could spend two “for evers” in God’s praise. We can never exhaust it. We may tell it for ever, and yet it shall remain untold. It is so fresh, so new, that no fountain can excel it.

23. See, too, how freely a true testimony of holy experience is given out by grateful believers. It is refreshing to you to proclaim it. Fountains never begrudge their streams: they sparkle and they flash, their crystal diamonds glitter in the sunlight; they are things of beauty, and joys for ever. Even so it is a holy recreation to let our gratitude well up and overflow to the praise of God. Is it not a refreshment to those who come within the sound of it? Often you might relieve a brother’s woe if you told him how God relieved you. There may be sitting in your own pew some person with a very heavy heart, whom you could readily relieve if your tongue were not frost-bitten. Oh, that out of the midst of your soul would flow rivers of living water! Child of God, you may be carrying in your bosom that key of Doubting Castle which will open every door, and will not only let you out of it, but your companion in tribulation too, so that the two of you shall come out and quickly escape from the giant, by the use of the key.

24. They shall abundantly utter, they shall overflow with the memory of your great goodness, oh Lord. Does this not imply a measure of continuance? Let us now praise the Lord. Use your memory at this hour. Go over your life story. You have not kept a diary. I suppose not, I almost hope not, for such daily records are apt to grow stilted. People feel that they must put something down every day, and perhaps they write the most when they have the least to say. But, at any rate, in your memory you ought to retain the Lord’s deeds of love and grace to you, and you should utter them as they come fresh to your memory at this moment.

25. Such utterances would help us in reference to the former sentences of the text. When men are speaking of the terrible acts of God with bated breath, then come in and say, “But he is good. These acts of judgment are few and far between. It is not often that we have a thunderstorm. What soft, bright mornings, what clear days, what dewy evenings we have, and only now and then a tempest!” Tell them about God’s great goodness. And when at other times you have declared his greatness, it will be wise to change the strain, and soften down the terror of his grandeur by speaking of the majesty of his love. I do not think you should abundantly utter his terrible acts: you need not abundantly utter his greatness; but you may dwell with particular emphasis, freeness, and fulness upon his goodness — his goodness to you. This third rung of our ladder is a golden one, and I am loathe to leave it, for it is my abundant joy to utter the memory of the Lord’s great goodness to me.

26. IV. And now, you see, all the while it has been talk, but now in the fourth part we rise a stage higher, for we come to singing. Listen to THE SELECT SONG. “They shall abundantly utter the memory of your great goodness, and shall sing about your righteousness.”

27. When good men talk about God they soon find that the tongue leaps with liberty, for the strings that held it are broken. Then they cannot be satisfied with talking to men; they must rise to something better, and talk with God in holy song. “They shall sing.” Singing is the language of joy, the special vehicle of praise, the chosen speech of heaven. Singing is language married to music; words winged with melody. Truly the Lord’s redeemed may well have much of it, for it in every way becomes their state, and their prospects. “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord.”

28. But is this not a very exceptional text? Do you not wonder about the subject of their song? “They shall sing of your righteousness.” You remember in the fifty-first psalm David says, “My tongue shall sing aloud about your righteousness.” That is a strange theme. Why did he not say, “They shall sing about the memory of your great goodness?” Certainly that is a choice topic for song; but yet the more select, the higher subject for music, is the righteousness of God. Is it not an exceptional choice? Probably a large part of my audience will not understand how it can be regarded as a joyful subject. The righteousness of God is a theme of terror for many: they wish he were not righteous. He will by no means spare the guilty, but will hold his plummet to every bowing wall and tottering fence, and his hail shall sweep away all the refuges of lies; and because of this men dread the Lord, and turn away from him: and yet, you see, there are hearts that can sing about his righteousness, and who, having other themes, having God’s terrible acts, having God’s greatness, having God’s goodness to sing about, still prefer this for their song — “They shall sing about your righteousness.”

29. What is there to sing about in this?

30. Before I answer that question, I want you to notice how this subject of God’s righteousness is expressed, and how it is connected. Let me read the sentence before it, and the sentence afterwards, and you will see how this singing of his righteousness is, so to speak, sandwiched in between two other themes. Look, now: — “They shall abundantly utter the memory of your great goodness, and shall sing about your righteousness. The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.” Here are two cakes of honey, and my text is put between them. Here is a blessed supper for you at this hour if you only know how to feed on it. Between the two testimonies of goodness and of grace comes in this of righteousness; and I greatly delight in the thought that the great subject of song here is a righteousness which is surrounded with goodness — a righteousness which does not hinder compassion. This righteousness is surrounded by mercy, and therefore the mercy is not unrighteous, but is strictly just. Oh, friends, the very glory of the gospel is that righteousness and peace have kissed each other in it, — that the sword of justice is not snapped across the knee of mercy, but it is sheathed in the scabbard of the atonement, there to remain in its majestic rest, never to be brought out again to strike a soul for whom Christ has died! Oh, the joy of getting hold of a righteousness perfectly consistent with the goodness and grace of God!

31. What is there concerning this righteousness that we are able to sing about? Just let me enlarge upon it for a minute or two. I consider it a very great joy for every Christian that God is essentially righteous. What an awful thing it would be to have an unrighteous God! If the heathen who worshipped Jupiter, for example, had sat down and deliberately studied the character of Jupiter, as taught to them by their own priests, they must have felt it a degrading thing to be under the rule of such a detestable being as Jove was said to be. A licentious God, — imagine that! an unrighteous God, who could do what he pleased, and pleased to do iniquity! What a horror! God in his infinite sovereignty is to be admired, because it is not possible for him in the exercise of his sovereignty to do anything that is unrighteous. No creature of his shall ever have just cause to blame the deeds of the Most High. He does as he wills, and he gives no account of what he does, for he has absolute dominion, and no one can call him to his judgment bar; but his will is holiness, and justice, and righteousness, and his being is love. I delight to think that I serve a righteous God. An unrighteous God! That would be to remove the foundations upon which all things must rest; for, after all, the character of God must be the basis of our confidence. If he were not righteous, what reliance could we place upon him? His promises of grace might be broken; his covenant might be a fiction; the atonement itself might turn out to be a sham, and save no one, unless the contract involved in it had been made by a righteous God.

32. He is righteous; let us be sure of it, and sing about it — righteous in all that he reveals. There is no revelation of God in the Bible, or anywhere else that is unrighteous. If man says, “This is revealed to me, but it is not consistent with the perfect righteousness of God.” We know that he does not see the light of God at all, and does not know what he says. There is nothing revealed by God concerning himself and his dealings with men except what is perfectly righteous “The word of the Lord is pure.”

33. Again, there is nothing commanded by him except what is perfectly righteous. He has not commanded sin: he has not in all those ten commandments recorded a single precept which is contrary to integrity. Everything that he tells us to do it is safe to do, for it is right and just. Just as he is a holy Master, so his service is perfect holiness.

34. Neither is God unrighteous in his decrees. We cannot climb to heaven and turn over those folded leaves, in which everything that is, and has been, and is yet to be, will be found written by his prescient pen; but there is nothing in those decrees which savours of injustice. We may be sure of that. Nothing could come out from the heavenly court except what is perfectly right and just. And this makes us sing: we feel very glad that everything can be trusted with our Lord and King. He shall judge the world in righteousness, and the people with his truth. Let him do what he wills, and ordain what he pleases; our spirit bows before him, and cries, “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him”; for “the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works,” and blessed be his name for ever.

35. It is the same with God’s doings. The Lord has never performed an unrighteous act. I want you people of God, especially, to feel this, so that if you have lost anyone very dear to you, you may hold your peace, like Aaron, even if you cannot go further, and bless the Lord in the midst of your trials. Nothing harsh or unduly severe has come from the divine hand. He has not dealt with you according to your just deserts; for if he had done so, you would now be where his mercy is completely gone for ever. Beloved, let us feel that this is a settled point, concerning which no question can be raised. Let us have no quarrels with God. I would not merely say that he is righteous to you, his dear people; but more, that he is invariably tender and kind. That surgeon’s knife of his only removes a cancer. That bitter medicine only heals you of a disease that otherwise would be your death. Therefore, accept all that comes from God, and kiss the hand that strikes, and honour the lip which upbraids.

36. And here is another matter to sing about. The Lord is righteous in all his judgments. You may not need this fact now, but you may require it in some darker hour, when you lie under a false charge, and your defence is not believed. You have been doing your best in your job, and you are accused of dishonesty, and you cannot clear yourself: perhaps the circumstantial evidence looks against you, though you are as innocent of the deed as the angels of light. If you have enough faith, you may now sing about the righteousness of God. Some of us have sung about it when everyone has misrepresented us; and we have been sustained by it. It little matters what men say, for they are not our judges. To our own Master we stand or fall. The Lord is righteous, and we can afford to leave our case in his hands: he will defend the right, and rectify the wrong. If we have acted with single-eyed honesty and uprightness, we may appeal to his court, and calmly abide by his decision. He will execute judgment for the oppressed, and therefore the children of God sing concerning his righteousness.

37. But the loudest song and the sweetest is concerning the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He would not, even to save his own elect, do an unjust thing. Even so that his mercy might be glorified he would not stain his justice. His Son came, his other self, to take upon himself the nature of man, so that man’s guilt might be imputed to him, and that he might bear the penalty upon the cross. The cross is at once the loudest proclamation of divine righteousness and the plainest proof of divine love. The Lord is able to save to the uttermost, but he is not able to retract his declaration, “The soul that sins it shall die.” He must punish, even though he must pardon. It is necessary that the authority of law should be sustained, and therefore the Lord will not withdraw from the execution of justice upon the ungodly though it is his strange work, and he does not desire it. On his Son he has executed justice for all those who are in him. The man Christ Jesus was the federal Head of his own chosen, and he has borne their grief, and carried their sorrows. He has finished their transgression, and made an end of their sin, and brought in for them an everlasting righteousness.

38. And now at this time I want you to sing about the divine righteousness, because the righteousness of Christ is yours. If you are believers you can joyfully wrap yourselves up in the righteousness of God himself. “This is the name by which she shall be called, ‘The Lord our Righteousness.’ ” {Jer 33:16} Notice the feminine: it is not “by which he shall be called,” but “by which she shall be called.” The wife takes the husband’s name; the church is named after Christ, her Bridegroom. It is a wonderful sentence to be in God’s book — that his church shall bear his name, and Jesus Christ the eternal God shall become the righteousness of poor sinners like ourselves. He is made righteousness to us by God at this hour. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Let us sing in our hearts concerning that glorious wedding dress which adorns us at this very moment, and shall adorn us in the day when we enter into the joy of our Lord.

39. “They shall sing about his righteousness.” If you do not sing about the righteousness which God imputes to you, when will you sing?

   Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
   My beauty are, my glorious dress;
   Midst flaming worlds, in these array’d,
   With joy shall I lift up my head.

40. But I must close, and I want, therefore, to say to you, dear friends, that I conceive this singing of God’s righteousness to be the best evidence of real conversion and reconciliation to God, and of likeness to God. If we were more sanctified we should be less tempted to criticize the righteousness of God. Here is a man who takes down his Bible, and he reads, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” “Cannot bear it,” he says. It is because you do not know the mind of God fully, or else, terrible as it is, you would say, “It must be right if God determines it.” Instead of that the man assumes to judge God, and dares to weigh the Word of God in his scales, and say, “This does not suit my inner consciousness, and therefore it is wrong.” Is our inner consciousness infallible? Is revelation a nose of wax to be shaped by our inner whimsies? When a man once alters the Word of God a little, within a year he alters it again. I have noticed brethren who began their wanderings from orthodoxy with the life-in-Christ theory, who have now reached the restitution of all things, demons included. Why preachers who believe this last theory keep on preaching, I do not know, for there is no practical reason why they should. If what they say is untrue, they had better hold their tongues; and if what they say is true, their occupation is gone; for clearly it is only a matter of time, and everyone will come right. Let people swear, and live as they like, what difference can it make, if in a short time they will all be restored? As well be wicked as righteous, since in the long run one shall be as the other. I see how it is. God’s Word is nothing: these new notions are everything. The modern men blot out what they like, and tear out what they please from the Book; or they lay the Book aside altogether — for they themselves make their own Bible, and every man is his own inspiration, and will before long proclaim himself to be his own god. But when the soul is brought to know God, it does not question his Word or his doings any longer. It sits down before a great mystery, and cries, “I do not understand this: I cannot measure it. Oh, the depths! But what God says I believe. What God does I accept.” Brethren, do not let me deceive you by pandering to the idle prattle of the times. Men dream, and then assert that their visions are truth. If there is anything of conjecture and of “larger hope,” so be it. I may conjecture, and I may imagine; but for me to preach my conjectures and my imaginations as doctrines would be damnable. It is an atrocious disloyalty to the majesty of revelation to add to it the maunderings of our poor fallible judgments. The better thing is always to feel as a little child at his father’s knee, when we are reading the Scriptures; and to ask to be taught by the Spirit. Whatever the truth may be, I shall never quarrel with God. However terrible his acts, if I am unable to rejoice in the light of his face, yet in the shadow of his wings I will rejoice. When he seems to spread that great wing, and hide the sun, I will go and nestle beneath him, and cry, “It is the Lord, and it must be right.” Paul was accustomed to silence those who had objections to offer concerning the ways of the Lord: he did not argue, but he simply said, “No but, oh man, who are you who replies against God?” “Bad argument,” modern thinkers dare to say. Yet it is the best that such people deserve, and the best that inspiration condescends to offer them. The cricket on the hearth is not to be debated with when it questions the sun for shining, or the thunders for having a voice louder than its own.

41. My brethren, each one of you say to the Lord, “I will sing about your righteousness.” It is an awful truth! It is a truth that makes me tremble as I utter it; but I do read in the Revelation, concerning those who are tormented day and night, that it is “in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Whatever that torment may be, it must be right. Nothing in the presence of the angels of God can be contrary to their joy over repenting sinners, — nothing in the presence of the Lamb can be contrary to his ineffable love. The Lord shall judge the world by that same Jesus who came into the world so that the world by him might be saved. Love will inflict the sentence of justice. Nothing with regard to the future of the impenitent can come from God except what will be supremely righteous. It is not for us to explain to others, or even to understand for ourselves, all that the Lord does or is; but it is our duty as his subjects, our pleasure as his children, to bow before him and adore. Oh, eternal God, I do not understand you! If I could comprehend you, you would not be God, or I would not be a man. The parts of your ways which you have revealed stagger and almost kill me, but, as I fall at your feet as dead, my heart cries, “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him.” For the Lord is good, and righteous are all his ways. Hallelujah, though the world should perish! Hallelujah, though my soul should die with fear! The Lord shall be extolled for ever. My hearer, when you speak like this from your heart, you are a converted man. There is no mistake about it: you are reconciled to God, indeed, when you so honour him. Alas, many are only reconciled to the half of God, or to the tenth part of God! Indeed, I fear that many have formed a god for themselves, and so are not reconciled to the true God at all. We want a conversion which shall make us run in parallel lines with the God who has revealed himself by his prophets and apostles, and by his ever-to-be-adored Son. So may it be with each one of us, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Ps 145]
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “God the Father, Attributes of God — The Perfections As A Whole” 179}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Work of Grace as a Whole — Grace Completing Its Work” 245}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 116” 116 @@ "(Song 1)"}

Letter From Mr. Spurgeon

Dear Friends, — Nothing has happened to set me back, and I judge myself to be restored in bodily health, and to be gradually recovering physical strength. The mind also is renewing its youth, and the spirits are returning to their proper height. For all this I am intensely grateful, and I am most hopefully looking forward to return to labour under the divine blessing. If I could also obtain a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, in answer to your prayers, it would be a far greater blessing than even life itself. This age needs the gospel in its purity and power. Oh for help so to proclaim it that it might conquer all hearts! Jesus is dishonoured by a teaching which evaporates the essential meaning from every doctrine, and leaves nothing except the husks of rationalism. May the Lord glorify his own Son by vindicating the gospel of his grace in the consciences of men! So prays

                      Yours in the eternal truth,
                      C. H. Spurgeon
Mentone, March 8, 1885.

God the Father, Attributes of God
179 — The Perfections As A Whole
1 How shall I praise th’ eternal God,
   That infinite Unknown?
   Who can ascend his high abode,
   Or venture near his throne?
2 The great Invisible! He dwells
   Conceal’d in dazzling light;
   But his all searching eye reveals
   The secrets of the night.
3 Those watchful eyes, that never sleep,
   Survey the world around;
   His wisdom is a boundless deep,
   Where all our thoughts are drown’d.
4 He knows no shadow of a change,
   Nor alters his decrees;
   Firm as a rock his truth remains,
   To guard his promises.
5 Justice upon a dreadful throne
   Maintains the rights of God;
   While mercy sends her pardons down,
   Bought with a Saviour’s blood.
6 Now to my soul, immortal King!
   Speak some forgiving word;
   Then ‘twill be double joy to sing
   The glories of my Lord.
                     Isaac Watts, 1709.

The Work of Grace as a Whole
245 — Grace Completing Its Work
1 To God the only wise,
   Our Saviour and our King.
   Let all the saints below the skies
   Their humble praises bring.
2 His tried almighty love,
   His counsel and his care,
   Preserve us safe from sin and death,
   And every hurtful snare.
3 He will present our souls
   Unblemish’d and complete
   Before the glory of his face,
   With joys divinely great.
4 Then all the chosen seed
   Shall meet around the throne,
   Shall bless the conduct of his grace,
   And make his wonders known.
5 To our Redeemer God
   Wisdom and power belong,
   Immortal crowns of majesty,
   And everlasting song.
                     Isaac Watts, 1709, a.

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 116 (Song 1)
1 I Love the Lord: he heard my cries,
   And pitied every groan:
   Long as I live, when troubles rise,
   I’ll hasten to his throne.
2 I love the Lord: be bow’d his ear,
   And chased by griefs away;
   Oh let my heart no more despair,
   While I have breath to pray!
3 My flesh declined, my spirits fell,
   And I drew near the dead;
   While inward pangs, and fears of hell,
   Perplex’d my wakeful head.
4 “My God,” I cried, “Thy servant save
   Thou ever good and just;
   Thy power can rescue from the grave,
   Thy power is all my trust.”
5 The Lord beheld me sore distress’d,
   He bid my pains remove:
   Return, my soul, to God thy rest,
   For thou hast known his love.
6 My God hath saved my soul from death,
   And dried my falling tears;
   Now to his praise I’ll spend my breath,
   And my remaining years.
                        Isaac Watts, 1719.

Psalm 116 (Song 2)
1 What shall I render to my God,
   For all his kindness shown?
   My feet shall visit thine abode,
   My songs address thy throne.
2 Among the saints that fill thine house,
   My offerings shall be paid:
   There shall my zeal perform the vows
   My soul in anguish made.
3 How much is mercy thy delight,
   Thou ever blessed God!
   How dear thy servants in thy sight!
   How precious is their blood!
4 How happy all thy servants are!
   How great thy grace to me!
   My life, which thou hast made thy care,
   Lord, I devote to thee.
5 Now I am thine, for ever thine,
   Nor shall my purpose move!
   Thy hand hath loosed my bands of pain,
   And bound me with thy love.
6 Here in thy courts I leave my vow,
   And thy rich grace record:
   Witness, ye saints, who hear me now,
   If I forsake the Lord.
                           Isaac Watts, 1719.

Psalm 116 (Song 3)
1 Redeem’d from guilt, redeem’d from fears,
   My soul enlarged, and dried my tears,
   What can I do, oh love divine,
   What, to repay such gifts as thine?
2 What can I do, so poor, so weak,
   But from thy hands new blessings seek?
   A heart to feel my mercies more,
   A soul to know thee and adore.
3 Oh! teach me at thy feet to fall,
   And yield thee up myself, my all;
   Before thy saints my debt to own,
   And live and die to thee alone!
4 Thy Spirit, Lord, at large impart!
   Expand, and raise, and fill my heart;
   So may I hope my life shall be
   Some faint return, oh Lord, to thee.
                  Henry Francis Lyte, 1834.