Faith’s Firm Resolve

Faith's Firm Resolve

A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 18, 1890,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of Your
righteousness, even of Yours only." Psalm 71:16.

This is a Psalm of David's old age and we will carefully notice the
characteristic feature of it. It is not addressed to men concerning
God, but it is addressed to God Himself, for He was David's dearest
Friend. Our Psalms and hymns are not for man's criticism, but for the
Lord's acceptance. This is the tenor of the Psalm–David has been with
his God and he is now ready for anything. This grand old man, in his
later days, is exposed to enemies quite as fierce as those which he had
to encounter in his earlier times, but instead of gathering his friends
together and conversing with them, and seeking their counsel, he gets
quite alone and begins to cry, "In You, O Lord, do I put my trust: let
me never be put to confusion."

Trusting alone in God makes us grandly independent towards men. The man
of God shuts the door–he realizes that the Lord is in the chamber with
him and he speaks to Him, saying, "Be You my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort: You have given commandments to save
me, for You are my rock and my fortress." He pours out his heart before
God and pleads with Him, "Cast me not off in the time of old age;
forsake me not when my strength fails. O God, be not far from me: O my
God, make haste for my help." It is a delightful sight! There are two
in the room, though you can only see one with the natural eye. The man
whom you see, discerns another, a great and glorious One and he talks
with Him "as a man talks with his friend."

Is this a fancy picture to you, my Brother, my Sister? Is this merely a
sketch of something which happened ages ago? Have you not often been
one in that scene? I know that I have been there and I trust that it
has been so with you. These are the choicest joys we know–these lone
communings with Jehovah, our God! That room where we are alone with God
is the nearest to Heaven of any place between here and Paradise! I wish
that we more often enjoyed communion with closed doors. We might. Why
don't we? Whatever we gain by occupying our time otherwise can, at the
best, be only compared to silver–but this is the golden way of
spending our hours!

When we are with God, we have the All-in-All for company and He fills
our minds better than a thousand finite beings could do. The Lord our
God has filled our heart and filled our room–and filled the universe
for us–and we are overflowing with blessedness! It is good to come
here and mingle with God's people in public worship. As my well-beloved
Brother, Mr. Williams, said in prayer just now–many a Thursday night
have the saints of God come in here burdened and they have gone away
lightened, for God has met with them! Our Thursday nights are little
Sabbaths in the middle of the week–resting places between the
Sundays–oases in the desert of our toil.

But there is something closer and less likely to be a mere form–our
private meetings with God. I pray you, make many secret appointments
with your Lord and keep them! Have many trysting places where you and
your Well-Beloved meet. I am certain that it will be imperative upon
you to meet Him whenever you are in sore trouble–your sense of need
will drive you to it. I do not know that Jacob ever spent a whole night
with God till he was about to meet his brother Esau and was in great
fear that he would smite the mother with the children. Then it was that
he said–

"With You all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day."
I guarantee you Jacob was a greater gainer by that fright than if he
had never heard a whisper of opposition! It was well for him that he
had an Esau, with armed men, to drive him to his God. He could say
afterwards, "It was good for me to have been afflicted." Anything that
brings us into close fellowship with God, however evil in itself, works
for us the grandest form of good.

Now, if there are any here very much like David. If they are growing
old and if, being aged, they are also surrounded by slander,
persecution and reproach, let them see what David did. If they are met
by great difficulties and even by malicious adversaries, let them go
where David went! Go and sit before the Lord and pour out your heart
before Him. I think I see David sitting there, naturally full of
sorrow–an old man, compassed with infirmities and, at the same time,
bowed down with troubles–and there he is rejoicing in the faithful
God, of whom he says, "O God, You have taught me from my youth: and
until this time have I declared Your wondrous works. Now also when I am
old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have showed Your
strength unto this generation and Your power to everyone that is to
come."

He has realized the Presence of his God in secret and his troubles are
laid before God in prayer. Gradually they subside. He began to speak
very hopefully. Now he rises from hope to a joyful confidence. The old
man goes on talking there, as some would say, "to himself." But we know
better–he was conversing with his God–and before that hallowed
interview is over he has reached such a happy state of mind that he
says, "My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto You." His fingers
long to join his lips and he is looking for his psaltery and his harp
that instrumental music may aid his tongue and that so he may praise
God with all his might!

Communion with God is a great maker of music so that he who went into
the chamber halting, comes out leaping. He that meets God with tears in
his eyes, comes forth from holy solitude with songs in his mouth. May
it be so with you! When you are far away from any house of prayer where
you are likely to hear what will comfort and bless you, go to God
straightway and tell Him all that is in your heart. Forget minister and
congregation and go straight to Him who is far greater than Churches
and pastors! Pour out your troubles where they will meet with Divine
sympathy. Confess your trust into His ear who is never weary of His
people's voice and you shall have found the greatest strength that is
to be found this side of Heaven! And you shall sing, "You shall
increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side."

Taking as my text this particular verse in David's talk with God, I
want you to notice, first of all, his resolve–"I will go." Secondly,
his reliance–"I will go in the strength of the Lord God." And thirdly,
his message, which he intends to deliver always –"I will make mention
of Your righteousness, even of Yours only."

Now, here is, first, HIS RESOLVE. "/ will go," he says. From this it is
clear that he will not sit still. Look! He has come a long way already
and he is getting weary and faint. The flesh suggests to him that he
has had enough of it, while the devil hints to him that he has done too
much already and that the best thing he can do now is to give up
struggling, battling, warring and contending, and just sit down and let
things go as they will.

Do you not hear the advice of Unbelief, "Let affairs drift. You cannot
help yourself, old man! You have got into a very sad condition. Give up
your confidence in Heaven. Perhaps you have been under a delusion all
these years and trust in this God of yours is sheer fanaticism. Do not
go on with it! Be reasonable, like the many that are round about you
who are criticizing and amusing themselves–and while professing
everything–are believing nothing. Give up the contest and drop the
sword with which you contend for your Master and let things go as they
may." So whispers Satan. So murmurs the flesh. So advises the worldly
friend.

The brave old man gets up, and cries, "No, I will go! I will not sit
still. I will not give it up. I have not finished my lifework. I have
more to do. I have further testimony to bear for my Master. I shall not
idly quit the field, but still bear the battle's brunt. I shall not
quit the pilgrimage–I will go, even now, though it is with tottering
footsteps. Bring me my staff. I will go with the rest of the chosen
company. I have not been behind in the marches of the past, for I have
led the way as a leader of God's people. I have sung unto His name and
taught the host to sing that His mercy endures forever. Shall I now
turn tail? Shall I now linger in the rear? No," he says, "I will go."

Look! He girds himself once again to follow the Lord and he goes
forward as bravely as when he first started on his pilgrim way! That
picture is no imaginary sketch. It has occurred to ourselves. It is a
likeness taken but a few days ago. Dear Friend, it may be a photograph
of you. Some of you of very cheerful spirit, always bright and
jubilant, do not know what it is to get discouraged. But there are
others of another temperament who at times are sorely put to it and
they are tempted to abstain from the Lord's service. Prudence makes the
man say, "Really, I have undertaken more than I can accomplish."

As our dear Friend said in prayer, there are many of the Lord's
servants who have work to do for which they feel quite unfit and, while
they are under such a feeling, the hint comes to them, "Get out of it,
or you will come down with a

run. You are like a man walking on a tightrope–if you once get to the
other end alive, never try it again, or you will regret it. That simple
reliance on God–why, it is like standing on the top of a church
spire–it needs a very cool head and a miraculous nerve. You will make
a slip one of these days and then religion will be laughed at through
you." So says Unbelief! But it is a grand thing if, in the moment of
discouragement, the child of God can gather himself up again, gird up
the loins of his mind and, in holy sobriety, hope to the end and say,
in the language of the text, "I will go in the strength of the Lord
God. I will not be kept back by the world, the flesh, or the devil."

It is my impression that David meant, "/ will go to war." He was a man
of war from his youth up and, of course, after many years of fighting,
which is by no means pleasant work–and after many serious risks, it
might naturally suggest itself to the aged man that he had better quit
the tented field. Yet the old man would go. In fact, he went to battle
so long that, one day, in the midst of the fight, he fainted and then
his people insisted upon it that he should not go any more, for they
saw that it would be out of all character to let the old man expose
himself to certain death. Did they not say to him, "You are worth
10,000 of us"? If he were to fall, the very Light of Israel would be
quenched. But there was "fight" in the old lion till the very last. The
same spirit that made him go as a boy to fight with Goliath still
burned in him when he became an old man and he still said, "I will go."

When he could not literally go to any physical conflict, you can see
that to the end he fought for God and for truth, by his laws, his
government, his influence, and his prayers. When he could not do one
thing he did another. His enemies that gathered about him to destroy
him found that they had a very difficult task before them, for it was
not true, though they said it, that the Lord was no longer on his side.
They told a lie when they uttered that cruel taunt, "God has forsaken
him." And they proposed more than they could carry out when they said,
"Persecute and take him, for there is none to deliver him." David
turned a bold front towards them to the very last, setting his face
like a flint, resolving that he would administer justice and maintain
the cause of God in Israel as long as he lived.

Well, dear Friends, you are not called to be soldiers in the literal
sense–the most of you, at any rate–but you are called to be soldiers
of the Cross. These are fighting times and no one must back out of the
conflict. Be not cowards! Be not neutrals. Show your colors and fear no
opposition. Every day wear the red Cross on your arm, by avowing your
faith in the atoning blood. Still have a good word for Christ and the
old, old Gospel. Be not ashamed of the doctrines of Grace, nor of those
who make a stand for them. Still "contend earnestly for the faith once
and for all delivered to the saints." And still say–"I will go in the
strength of the Lord God, to make mention of His righteousness, and of
it only."

The text may be used in many senses. "I will go in the strength of the
Lord," may mean that he will go forward and make progress in Divine
things. I will go on studying the Word of God to get a clearer
apprehension of its meaning. I will go forward pleading with the Lord
to prove more effectually the power of prayer. I will go on subduing
evil habits. I will put down, by God's strength, this sin and that. I
will go forth conquering and to conquer against the world, the flesh
and the devil, where ever I am called to encounter. I will not be
content with present attainments. I will not rest in any joy that I
have yet known, nor be content with any measure of holiness which God
has granted me. As the eagle cries, "Superior," and spreads its wings
to meet the sun, so will I rise higher and higher, singing–

"Nearer, my God, to You, Nearer to You."

I know that some think it perilous work to climb into the higher form
of spiritual life and to aim even at perfection, but I will not flinch
from it. If I do not reach it, yet will I aspire to it. I will go. "I
will go in the strength of the Lord." Don't you think that large
numbers of God's people are content with a very poor form of spiritual
life because they do not think it possible to advance further? They
have little joy and little strength because they are content with the
joy and strength they have and do not aspire to more. We make a great
mistake, dear Friends, some of us, as to the whole style of our life! I
met with a story, which seemed to me a rather pretty one.

There was a young woman, fair to look upon, who was seen by a very
wealthy man who determined to make her his wife. She had been brought
up to habits of rigid economy, for the family was straitened in
circumstances. Her father was not of the very poorest, certainly, but
still poor enough. And on her marriage day he gave her all that he
could afford, namely, five pounds, and that was put into the bank. Her
husband, on that day, told her that he had placed money in the bank in
her name and he handed her a checkbook, that she might draw out
whatever money she desired. Well, having been properly brought up, she
spent her money very, very carefully.

Five pounds was an enormous sum to her and she felt frightened at
running through so vast a sum. She found, however, that in the circle
in which she was called to move, her five pounds was at last gone and
so she even ventured to draw a check for 10 pounds. In considerable
fear she went down in the carriage to the bank to see whether they
really would give her 10 pounds all at a time. And when she got it she
was surprised and overjoyed. She drew again, until at last she had
actually spent 50 pounds! One day her husband said to her, "Don't you
know how to manage a checkbook, my dear? I scarcely understand your
account at the bank."

She modestly replied, "I hope I have not been extravagant." "You little
goose," he said, "I put a thousand pounds in the bank for you and I
thought that you would soon spend it. Most women would. But instead of
that, you have only spent 50 pounds. You cannot behave yourself as my
wife on such a pittance. Remember, you may be a poor man's daughter,
but you are a rich man's wife–so just begin to spend according to my
riches and not according to your father's economy." This is our case in
reference to our Lord Jesus. We know we are a poor man's children. My
original father "broke" long ago. There was nothing left of all the
family estate. When father Adam was in business, he became a bankrupt
and he left us nothing but a sea of debt.

But then we are married to King Jesus, who is heir of all things and He
puts the checkbook of the promises into our hands that we may draw from
the riches of Divine Grace! Do not let us live according to our natural
quality, but let us live according to our supernatural elevation and
begin to spend according to the wealth of our Husband! Very few women
need encouragement to spend money–but very many Christian women and
Christian men need very great encouragement to draw upon the goodness
of God–and to live at that high and noble rate of Divine Grace to
which they are entitled by the election of God, by the call of the Holy
Spirit and by their heavenly union with the Lord Jesus

Christ!

I wish that we could pluck up courage and say, "I will go in for great
Grace, eminent holiness and close conformity to Christ. I will draw
upon His riches in Glory and spend at a royal rate. Why should I not
show forth all that Grace can do? Is there any reason why I should be
weak and wavering? I would be as David, yes, as my Lord. Yes, I will
rouse myself, the Holy Spirit helping me, and I will seek the highest
and best things that a Christian man can know. I will go."

Let us cheerfully use this text whenever any service is proposed to us.
A young man has been asked to preach at a small cottage meeting. He has
been hesitating during the last two or three days whether he shall or
not. I want him to feel that if this is a work in which he can glorify
God he should say, "I will go in the strength of the Lord God." There
is a Sister, here, who has been invited to take a class of young women.
She thinks that she is hardly fitted for the Bible class proposed to
her and yet she is the only person available and evidently the finger
of God points to her. I want her to say, with David, "I will go in the
strength of the Lord."

Have you rendered no service to your Savior? Have I the unhappiness to
be addressing some member of a Church who has really done nothing for
the Redeemer? Do you understand what the Gospel is? Do you know what
its effect upon the heart is? If so, how can you remain idle? I do not
understand you or your religion! A man who is saved–who is saved–who
has no longer to live with a view to his own salvation but is
saved–what can he do but feel, "Bought with Your blood, my gracious
Lord, I belong to You and now I must spend all my days in serving You"?
It is an instinct of the Christian life to wish to be doing something
to glorify God and to save the souls of others! If you have not that
instinct, I should question whether you are really born of God at all.

Can hard hearts have been renewed? Will the Lord own sluggards as His
children? Did the heavenly Husbandman really plant an utterly barren
tree? Be it so, that, up to now you have done nothing. May the Holy
Spirit at once awaken you and may you say, before you leave this
Tabernacle–"I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make
mention of Your righteousness"!

We have also before us a man who will go to suffering with holy
resignation. A sister, just now, sent a letter asking us to pray for
her while she undergoes an operation. May the Lord sustain her! It is a
prayer we often have to put up in this large congregation for some of
the very dearest and best among us. Dear Friends, the text is for you
with regard to the suffering you have to encounter–may you go forward
to it without fear! Some of us have to take turns at the two forms of
appointed exercise–we are sometimes serving, sometimes suffering–and
occasionally we carry a pair of baskets and both work and suffer.

The Lord will be with us under every form of trial–He will sustain us
under personal pain, or bereavement, or business care, or cruel
persecution. Therefore, Believer, do not linger, but say, "I will go, I
will go"–

"If but my fainting heart be blest With Your sweet Spirit for its
guest, My God, to You I leave the rest; 'Your will be done!'"

Grand words were those of our Lord when, the supper being ended and the
next thing was the bloody sweat, He said, "Arise, let us go from here"!
He does not merely wait for the trial to come, but He advances to take
up His Cross and to bear the grief which was laid upon Him by His
Father. So let us say tonight, "I do not know how dark the rest of my
way may be. I see that it is covered with thorns and briars, but in the
Lord's name, solemnly, in syllables spoken each one of them in deep
determination, I declare that I will go in the strength of the Lord."

Beloved, may it be so when we come to die! In a short time, unless the
Lord shall come, you and I will have to go upstairs and gather up our
feet in the bed and die to meet our fathers' God. Well, if it should
happen to be some disease which gives us warning and opportunity to
think beforehand–we will go onward, with death in full view–without
any trepidation in the strength of the Lord! Some of us know what it is
to lie for days and weeks, looking into eternity, till our eyes have
been able to gaze steadily on death and all the future. We have grown
so used to the prospect and so peaceful in reference to it that we have
almost been sorry to come back again to life and its trials and sins!
When we are so prepared and even so jubilant at the prospect of passing
into the world of spirits, we almost reluctantly turn our face
earthward again.

When the time does actually arrive, our God will give us Grace to say,
"I will go. I will go. My Lord has called me over the river and I will
go. I hear His sweet and mighty voice saying, 'Arise, My Love, My fair
one and come away'! I answer to it gladly, My Master, I will come." I
will go in the strength of the Lord God. Perhaps I have said enough
upon this point. May we be ready to march when the trumpet sounds!
Without fear or question may we say at once, "Where He leads me I will
follow."

II. Now, secondly, notice HIS RELIANCE. He is ready to go, but he tells
us how–"/ will go in the strength of the Lord God." He would go
glorying in strength already received. Deep down in the middle of the
words (I cannot give you the critical way in which we come at it, but
it is so), David means that while others put on their garments and
array themselves in beauty, he will put on the strengths of Jehovah (it
is in the plural), and they shall make garments for him. It is a
wonderful picture to me. While others glory in another strength, he
takes God's might as it has been displayed in his past career and he
puts it on as his armor.

He would not wear Saul's armor, nor any fabric of carnal wisdom,
neither now nor when he went against Goliath. He said to the giant, "I
come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts." He put on as a coat of
mail the secret strength of God which he had verified and demonstrated
in his own past career when he slew the lion and the bear. What a
wonderful thing it is for a child of God to stand clothed with those
garments of Glory and beauty which are made up of what God has worked
in him and worked for him! How happy is he to be renewed in might by
remembering the strength of God which he has up to now experienced!
These are a fit marching dress for his soul to wear! He may go forward
to his future without fearing–who has such a past to reflect upon!

David means that he would go relying upon a strength which did not
alter. The Source from which we draw our strength, dear Friends, is as
full of Omnipotence as when David drew from it–certainly as full as
when we went to it in our younger days! Our own strength is much less
as our years increase, but it is not so with the Lord strong and
mighty! Where we could have traversed a county, we now weary with a
mile. Old men find that they cannot do what they once did, but God can
do all things evermore. Our own strength is a cistern soon drained dry,
but we need not thirst for we can tap the great "deep that lies under."
Our faith knows how to bore an Artesian well when surface water fails.
Let us bore deep and then the stream will flow in summer and in winter,
never frozen, never parched–and we may be always "strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might."

So David means that he would go in the all-sufficiency and the
immutable power of the Most High. He felt that he would go, also, in a
power which sanctified his going. "I will go in the strength of the
Lord God." Where will a man go in that strength? To the theater?
Verily, it is a sort of constructive blasphemy to imagine a Christian's
going there in the strength of the Lord! Will he enter upon a
speculation in which he will, in all probability, rob other people if
he succeeds

and injure others if he is disappointed? No, not in the strength of the
Lord God! There are a thousand things that a man could not think of
doing in the strength of the Lord God and yet professing men venture
upon them, to their sin and shame. In the strength of the devil a man
might attempt many of the doubtful enterprises and amusements of modern
professors–but in the strength of the Lord God–no. It were profanity
to talk of it.

Do you see what a limit this puts upon a Christian's action? And yet it
is no limit which in the least restricts his gracious liberty. It is
such a boundary as he himself would set up. You are strong to do what
you ought to do and it is only what you ought to do that you would wish
to attempt in the strength of the Lord God. You are weak if you
transgress, for the strength is gone from you when you attempt to do
what would dishonor God. And is not this as it should be? Is it not
just as you wish it to be? Come, Beloved, you see that not only did
David get strength, but he obtained holiness, also, from the Lord his
God for, if he would go in the holy strength of the most holy God, he
could not go amiss.

Again, in this text I notice that he is confident as to the sufficiency
and adaptation of God's strength to every trial or work to which he
might be called. The Hebrew, being plural, hints at this. "I will go in
the strengths of the Lord God." If I shall require mental vigor, God
can give it to me. If I shall need physical strength, He can give it to
me. If I shall need spiritual power, He can give it to me. If the
particular demand is a clear sight that I may detect and baffle the
cunning of the enemy, He can give it to me. If I require courage and
quick resolve, He can give them to me. If my special need is firmness
of mind in the day of temptation, He can give it to me. If it is a
patient temper, He can give it to me. Nothing is needed by a Believer
but that which the strength of God supplies when it is needed!

As our days our strength shall be. We shall find the supply always
equal to the demand. "Oh," says one, "my way is very strange. I could
not tell you the singular difficulty of my case." Dear Friend, I do not
wish to know the particulars, but I am sure that however strange the
case is to me and to you, it is not new to God! If you go in the
strength of the Lord God, you have exactly that which is suited for
your perplexing path of pilgrimage. It is one of the miracles of God
that to each man He is just such a God as he needs. It is like the
Welsh woman that I spoke to you about on Monday night. She would have
it that Jesus Christ was not a Jew–she was certain that He was a
Welshman!

But how was that? How could the Lord Jesus Christ be a Welshman? She
answered, "He always speaks to my heart in Welsh." Truly, good Woman,
He always speaks to my heart in English and he speaks to the heart of
each man in his own mother tongue so that the miracle of Pentecost is
repeated in our fellowship with Jesus and every man hears in his own
language the wonderful Grace of God! Jesus knows how to adapt His
Truth, not only to each nationality, but to each personality and to
each peculiarity of that personality. Jehovah is the special God and
the special Strength of each individual Christian. He is my God and my
father's God, as well as your God–and no other could be so expressly
suitable to me as I find the Lord my God to be. It is a wonderful thing
and we ought to render personal thanksgiving for it.

Now I will dwell for just a minute practically upon this. This text, "I
will go in the strength of the Lord God," should rise to the lips of
everybody here who is engaging in new service. You are attempting what
you have never tried before. Come, now, see to every buckle of your
harness and every portion of your armor. You can see to it all at once
by saying, "I will go in the strength of the Lord God." Possibly you
are in great weariness tonight. "I cannot do any more," you say. "The
fact is, I am beginning to feel that I am an old man." Yes, but perhaps
you are feeling this in two ways– there is another old man besides old
age–and when you begin to feel weary in well doing, may not the old
nature have a finger in it as well as the old body? Now is the time to
rouse yourself out of lethargy, shake off sinful sloth and declare with
determination, "I will go in the strength of the Lord God."

Or, possibly, you have come to a fresh peril. You have reached a very
hard bit of the road where real danger lurks. I remember that, in going
over the Grimsel, we came to a place which was called "Hell Place." It
was a narrow road by the side of a precipitous gorge. The way was very
slippery and the horses began to slip about. We soon dismounted and
then we had to walk over a bit of rock which was as smooth as ice. You
come to such a place now and then in the road of life and you feel more
than half inclined to go back. But you must not go back. Believers may
not go back. It is written, "If any man draw back, My soul shall have
no pleasure in him." You must, tonight, put down your foot and resolve
that you will never turn to the right hand nor to the left, but keep
your face forever Zion-ward. Say, "I will go in the strength of the
Lord God."

Or perhaps you are going away from us altogether, dear Friend. You have
come in here for the last time tonight, for you are going to live far
away in the country. Or you have already taken your passage to New
Zealand, or Australia, or Canada. Very well, go in the strength of the
Lord God. That is the way to go to unknown lands! I do not think that a
Christian man ought to go downstairs in his own house in any other
strength and, certainly, he should not take a journey on which the rest
of his life may depend without having sought guidance, or without
fixing his reliance upon God! "But," says one, "there is no journey for
me. I fear that I am going to suffer a long illness. /feel that great
afflictions are coming upon me." Very well, go in the strength of the
Lord God. When my deacon behind me here, whom you all know and love so
well–my dear Brother Mr. William Olney–had to undergo operation after
operation, we prayed for him and it is wonderful how the Lord sustained
him by giving him calm faith.

He was not half so troubled about himself as we were. I know that he
said in his heart, "I will go in the strength of the Lord God," and he
was enabled to go on from one operation to another without fear. And
here he is among us, still, to serve his Lord and Master! Be you also
calm, dear Brothers and Sisters, when your trial hour comes. "Oh, it is
not that!" says one, "but mine is a miserable family trouble. There is
a lot in it that is wrong–mischief I cannot tell to anybody. I seem to
get no help." Well, go in the strength of the Lord God. That is the
right way to go. If you have nobody else to help you, go in His
strength.

I told you of a good woman who was speaking about Mr. Hudson Taylor
years ago. She said, "Poor Mr. Hudson Taylor! I do not think that he
can depend upon any of the missionary societies to help him. He has
nobody to trust to but God." She said it in that kind of style,
too–"nobody to trust to but God." And whom do you want to trust to but
God? It is a glorious thing to get all the dog shores knocked away so
that the ship may be launched from the stocks and may float upon the
great ocean! We are apt to be hampered by friends. They stand between
us and the Lord. I know I have been so hampered, but I am finding
deliverance from these poor creature confidences in a very painful but
effective manner. I have lost a great many on whose fidelity I thought
I could depend. But since I depend on the Lord all the more, I am a
gainer by ungrateful desertions.

"Oh!" you say, "do not talk like that." I speak the words of soberness.
It is a mercy to be saved from our friends. I believe that oftentimes
our trust in friends makes us live like frequenters of lodging houses
who herd together in a miserable old shanty. When our friends are gone
and thus the old shanty comes down, what then? Why, we go off to a
palace! We live at once in the palace of assurance with God, resting in
Him along. Oh, it is a poor life–the life that depends upon things! It
is a poor life that is buttressed and shored up by this and that– but
that is the best life which dwells under God's sky and has no fear that
the sky-blue arch will fall! As the heavens stand without shores and
unsupported, except by the word of God, so stands the man of God!

Remember how Luther realized this? When they said that Duke George
would oppose him, he said, "If it rained Duke Georges, I would not
care, so long as God is with me!"–

"Fear Him, you saints, and you will then Have nothing else to fear.
Make you His service your delight, He'll make your needs His care." "I
will go in the strength of the Lord God."

III. Now I have only a minute to speak upon the last point. I will save
that for another time, I think. David informs us as to HIS MESSAGE–"/
will make mention of Your righteousness, even of Yours only." The only
testimony that he was going to bear for the rest of his life would be a
testimony to the righteousness of the Lord God. Here was enough work
for a lifetime and here was the man who was at home in the work! I
cannot go into it. Therefore I say this–Bear your testimony to the
righteousness of God in Providence. Stand to it that the Lord never
does wrong. He is never mistaken, but whatever He ordains is, and must
be, unquestionably right.

Bear witness, next, to His righteousness in salvation, that He does not
save without an Atonement. That He does not put away sin without being
strictly just. That He does by no means spare the guilty, but has laid
on Christ that which was due to human sin that He might be "just and
the Justifier of him that believes." Go on, then, to tell everybody
that the righteousness which saves you is the righteousness of God, not
your own righteousness. There is no such thing as human
righteousness–the two words make up a contradiction. Any righteousness
that you could gain by your own works

would be filthy rags at the best–and filthy rags are not
righteousness. We have no personal merit. We are justified by imputed
righteousness. Make mention of the righteousness of Christ which covers
you from head to foot–

" Jesus, Your blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress.

'Midst flaming worlds, in You arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head." Declare the righteousness of God as
to a future state. Declare that whatever Scripture speaks of the
ungodly is true and that God is righteous in it. Never mind the
quibbles and the inventions of this present age–God's Character can
never be harmed by these dreamers. Stand by your God and you may rest
assured that time shall never change the essential Truth that He is a
holy and a righteous God and will justify His ways to men.

But the time has gone, so I have only to say this–there is no other
righteousness worth talking about–if you will mention the
righteousness of God you will do much good. Make mention of the
righteousness of God to convince men of their unrighteousness. Talk of
it to win their admiration for the Lord Jesus. Oh, that everybody in
this place knew how righteous the Lord Jesus was, not only in life, but
in Nature! Talk of the righteousness of God to show men the way of
salvation. Tell them how the Lord laid our sins upon Christ and that,
while He is infinitely gracious, He is infinitely just. Then go on to
point convicted sinners to where righteousness is to be had. He that
believes in the Lord Jesus shall find himself made of God's wisdom and
righteousness.

Talk of that perfect righteousness, also, for the comfort of Believers.
Nothing will give them greater joy than to see how they are accounted
righteous in the righteousness of Christ and, "accepted in the
Beloved."–

"His only righteousness I sho w,

His saving truth proclaim;

'Tis all my business here below

To cry, 'Behold the Lamb!'"

Here is a happy vocation for the remainder of our sojourn here below!
Forever and only make mention of God's righteousness. To him be glory
forever. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Psalm 71. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–136, 681, 674.