The Tongue Speaking of Righteousness

“And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.”—Psalms 35:28

With God’s people there is night as well as day; and when night comes on, darkness appears, and the beasts of prey begin to show themselves. Unbelief, carnal reason, and unhallowed feelings rise up, thick and foul; and when in this state, we see very little in the soul to talk about God’s righteousness, or of his praise; and if we say anything at all, it appears nothing but a little moving of self-pity; we want to be pitied, and for others to think our case a pitiable one; and if we meet with any of our brethren and tell our case to them and they do not pity us, we think them very hard and very unkind towards us. But as soon as the Sun of Righteousness arises and shines on our souls; as soon as day breaks and we are brought sweetly and spiritually to see light in God’s light and to enter unctuously into the mysteries of his grace, we then know a little what it is for the mouth of the dumb to speak, and the tongue of the stammerer to be unloosed and to speak plainly, so that, while it is day in our souls, we are blessedly employed in speaking forth God’s righteousness and praise.

- excerpt from a sermon preached by William Gadsby at Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London, June 1, 1843

 

But of the righteousness of God, what can I say, or where shall I begin?
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First, that righteousness which God, in the riches of his grace, imputes unto and puts upon his people, and wherein he justifies them fully and freely. Secondly, the solemn (and solemn they are) righteous acts of God in executing his judgments upon his foes and his people’s foes. And thirdly, the solemn acts of God in communicating special mercies unto his people, in supplying their needs, and in defending them in the midst of all the trials and difficulties they have to encounter.

- excerpt from a sermon preached by William Gadsby at Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London, June 1, 1843

 

Now you and I, at least I know for myself it is so, are naturally prone to bring a righteousness of our own. We want some pretty work of our own to recommend us to God; but when we have done all that we can do, what does it produce? A clothing of filthy rags, put upon an unclean thing! Poor polluted wretches, we want to come before God as an unclean thing covered with these filthy rags, and for God to be pleased with us on this account; but he will not!
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And thus the poor sinner before the Lord is ready to conclude there is no hope left; till God, in the riches of his grace, is pleased to come forth and show him that he is clothed in his righteousness; and when he applies it to the conscience, gives us unctuously to know that we have on the Lord’s righteousness, are arrayed in the Lord’s strength, and that it is the Lord himself that justifies us.
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But the soul whom God is teaching and whom he clothes in this righteousness is brought really to feel what a lost and ruined sinner he is, what a weak and guilty sinner he is, what a vile, loathsome, and polluted sinner he is, and to say, “Do you think there ever was such a sinner as I?”

- excerpt from a sermon preached by William Gadsby at Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London, June 1, 1843