LAST SERMON IN THE OLD SURREY TABERNACLE

A SERMON

Preached on Sunday Evening September 17th, 1865

By Mister JAMES WELLS
Supplementary Number

London: Published by J. Paul, Chapter House Court, St. Paul’s

“I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours only.” Psalm 71:16

IT is natural, under our present circumstances as a church and congregation that my mind should be led to scriptures that seem to be somewhat expressive of our position. But were I to dwell this evening for half-an-hour upon the leadings of Providence even in this matter, I do not think I should do justice to the solemn occasion. I shall therefore treat the text in the ordinary way, and notice, those practical realities essential to our eternal salvation. Nevertheless, it is a text that applies to every circumstance pertaining to the people of God, whether that which they anticipate be pleasure or pain, whether it be that they have to encounter, or that they have to possess and enjoy; in each case it is perfectly scriptural to adopt the language of our text: “I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours only.”

Our text lies before us in a threefold form. Here is, first, the decision, “I will go;” here is, secondly, that strength in which we are to travel; and here is, thirdly, and lastly, that which is to be the theme of the people: “your righteousness, even yours only.”

The question naturally suggests itself: In what direction will these words lead? Well, if we say, “I will go to God,” this will stand good, and I will do so in substance; but I feel disposed to take up the language of the 122nd Psalm to help us out with this resolution, where it is said, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” That is a good feeling, when a person comes and proposes to you some other object, some other pursuit, some amusement, or some ungodliness, and you say, “No; that is the way to death and to hell.” But when the proposition comes, “Let us go into the house of the Lord let us go to the Christ of God; let us go to God our Maker; let us go to God our Savior; let us go into the house of the Lord, where the Great High Priest is, that has compassion on the ignorant, and them that are out of the way; let us go into the house of the Lord, here the mercy-seat is, and where we may go with a prayer than which none can be more suitable, “God be merciful to me a sinner;” let us go where we shall thus find a Friend that will never leave nor forsake us. Now then, can we say that we can adopt this language, “I was glad when they said unto me. Let us go into the house of the Lord.” This, of course, literally refers to the temple that was in Jerusalem; but spiritually it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The temple, by its sacrificial service, and by the mercy-seat, and the high priest, by these three, that temple was the meeting-place of God and man. So, Jesus Christ, by his sacrificial work, by his priestly character, and by that mercy-seat, is the way to God; here it is, his is the house of the Lord, Christ is the meeting-place of God and man. Oh, to meet God in Christ is to meet him with a smiling face; I mean that he there smiles. As one of our hymn’s sings:

“Here he smiles, and smiles forever;

May my soul his grace record.”

Meeting God in this wonderful meeting-place, in Christ Jesus, you will be met (if you are going to God that way, you will be met) just as the prodigal was. And can anything be more pleasing than to be met as he was, with the best robe, and with the ring of adoption, and to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? In a word, you will be met as everyone was met literally when the Savior was in this world. When a poor leper, or a blind man, or whatever the affliction, came to him, and met God there, they were met with mercy, they were met with a kind answer. So, I will go into the house of the Lord. Oh, if we have that will, that decision, that determination, then the work of grace is begun in the heart: according to the 110th Psalm, “Your people shall be willing in the day of your power.” Another idea to take notice of: is your soul willing to go into the house of the Lord? Then, when we get into the house of the Lord, there is presented the city of the Lord. Our feet shall stand “within your gates, O Jerusalem.” Now, the gates of Jerusalem, of course, you must understand spiritually to mean the truths of the gospel; and the feet standing within those gates mean that by faith we are, by these truths, let in to where the Lord is. Hence, in the latter part of the Bible, these gates are spoken of as being of pearl: “every of the gates was of one pearl,” to denote its preciousness. And so, the truth of God’s everlasting love, the truth of eternal election, the truth of predestination, all these are gates of pearl as it were; truths that let us in to where the Lord is. Now, if there be any strangers here, and predestination sounds rather unpleasant to your ears, just listen for one moment while I say, we are not the kind of predestinarians that we are generally represented and supposed to be. We are generally represented as holding that God predestinates everything, and that everything therefore comes to pass by a kind of fatal necessity. This would turn us into fatalists; but that is not the kind of predestinarians we are. We believe everything that is good God decreed; we believe everything that is evil is of the devil; and we believe that all the good that every saved soul will obtain is by the great decree of heaven. “He has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is the kind of predestinarians we are. Now, the gates of Jerusalem, then, let us into these glorious things. I will go in at the gate of everlasting love, and there rejoice in God, who is love; I will go in at the gate of election, and there rejoice that my name is written in heaven; I will go in at the gate of predestination, and rejoice in the immutability of God’s counsel, that, having once decreed us to eternal life, he will not withdraw the choice, he will not alter the decree; but his counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure. I will go in at the gate of the dear Savior’s obedient life; the great doctrine of imputed righteousness lets us into fellowship with God. I will go in at the gate of his atoning death, “having boldness by the blood of Jesus to enter into the holy of holies.” Now, thus “our feet shall stand within your gates, O Jerusalem,” that is, we enter, by these truths of the gospel into the Lord’s presence. That is one meaning there. But mark how it begins: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Now, if you have that feeling towards God, if you have that feeling towards Christ, if you have that feeling towards the gospel, then the confidence that follows upon that is well founded, namely, that “our feet shall stand within your gates, O Jerusalem.” And then, for the feet to stand within the gates of Jerusalem, means not only for you to take your stand within these truths, but it also, of course, means the Jerusalem which is above; and what that is we must die to know where God dwells, and where there is no death, where there is no sorrow where there is no pain where every tear shall be wiped away, where joy shall roll in full tide through the countless ages of eternity, and where pleasures of every variety suited to the saved soul shall surround them, pleasures at God’s right hand for evermore. The apostle might well tell us that he knew not whether he was in the body or not when he was caught up only for a few moments into this paradise of God. John might well declare when he saw its glory, that it needed not the light of the sun, nor the light of the moon, for the Lord God does give it light, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

And then, it is also said of this new Jerusalem, that it is built compactly together. The city being built compact together, denotes that the new Jerusalem shall never come to nothing. There is a river that is represented as flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb; that river shall never, never run dry. Hence the 46th Psalm gives a very solemn and yet beautiful representation of this, when it speaks of the earth being removed, the mountains carried into the midst of the sea; and you lay your head, as you all must do by and by, upon your dying pillow, and there is no skill on earth can retain your spirit in the body; all is dark, all is desolate, all is wild, all is void, all is gone; the last vestige of your earthly hope is blasted, and blasted forever; and worse than this, infinitely worse than this, if you are not a believer in, and lover of Jesus, your soul itself is blasted forever. But if, on the other hand, you are a lover of God’s Christ, a lover of God’s house, and can say, “I love the habitation of your house, and the place where yours honor dwells,” then, while the outward man is perishing, the soul is drinking in at the same time draughts of bliss, the soul at the same time is drinking in immortality, drinking in the love of God, drinking in the mercy of God, and drinking in the glory of God. I do not for a moment think that I am superstitious when I say that many a dying Christian realizes to a greater extent, and in a deeper way, the river of God’s pleasures, consolation springing up in the soul in a dying hour, than he has ever experienced it before. Then, if we are thus lovers of God’s house and of God’s Christ, and can say, “I will thus go in the strength of the Lord, go into the house of the Lord,” we may then say, “Our feet shall stand within your gates, O Jerusalem.” That Jerusalem, being built compact together, can never come to nothing. You may examine every part of the mystic city; and if you do so in detail, as well as look at it generally, you will see how clear it is that it is a city that can never come to nothing. If you take her foundations, her foundations are the truths of the gospel, they can never come to nothing; if you take her walls, her walls are salvation, and can never come to nothing; and if you take her light, then God himself is her light, and that can never turn to darkness. If you take her river to mean God’s everlasting love, that can never run dry; and if you take the tree to mean Christ, the tree of life, bearing fruit every month, and the leaves for the healing of the nations, that can never fail. And then, if you take the strength of the city, God himself is the strength of the city, hence the song of the citizens in the Old Testament, and the song of the citizens in the New Testament. The New Testament song is, “The Lord God omnipotent reigns and the Old Testament song is, “Go you round about this city, mark well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, tell the towers thereof, that you may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God, for ever and ever; he will be our guide, even unto death.” This city, then, this new Jerusalem, is indeed the city of refuge, the way of escape from the wrath to come, and the way of possession of that inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away.

Again, there are said to be set thrones of judgment in this heavenly Jerusalem. The idea is this, the Lord had given the land to the Israelites, and a righteous king always maintained the Israelites in their liberty This you find David was so much prized of the people for; he worked out their liberty, and so judged the people as to maintain them in this liberty. His language was, “God has given that man the land, and it is my business to see that he possesses it; God has given that man freedom, and it is my business to see that he possesses it; God has that man happiness, and it is my business, as the king, to see that he has that happiness.” This would be the business of David literally as the king of Israel. Now David was in this, as well as in many other things, a type of Jesus Christ. “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” God the Father has given us this city, and Christ will take care we shall have it; God has given us this kingdom, and Jesus Christ will take care we have it; God has given us this inheritance, this land, and Jesus Christ will take care we have shall have it. Hence, when He speaks as a shepherd He says, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also must I bring and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one-fold and one shepherd.” What say you to this then? Would you like to be a citizen of this, order of things, this heavenly city? And if you would know more about this city, read the 2d of Ephesians, which would occupy too much of your time to refer to now, but you will there see how the citizens of this world were turned into citizens of a better world; how they were quickened by the grace of God; how they were raised up to sit together in heavenly places by Christ Jesus; how they knew that it was by grace they were saved; and how they knew that Jesus Christ had slain the enmity; that Jesus Christ had broken down the middle wall of partition; that Jesus Christ had established eternal peace with God, and that now these persons, made acquainted with God by Christ Jesus, were no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. “Pray,” then, and you have been praying for years, “for the peace of Jerusalem,” and you have been praying practically too: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love you.” Oh, if you are a lover of this new Jerusalem, that is, a lover of God in this saving order of things, that is the meaning, you shall prosper. The very curses that may be heaped upon you shall be turned into blessings; the very hindrances that you may meet with shall be turned into helps, and the very losses of which you may be the subject shall be turned into gains, and your pains shall be turned into pleasures, and your trials shall be turned into triumphs. “They shall prosper that love you!” If, therefore, you are a true citizen, you will be glad to find it thus recorded: “Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her; for thus says the Lord, As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem,” this new Jerusalem, after this living, gospel order of things. Can you say, then, I see Jesus as the way; I see now the city that Abraham looked to; I see now the country from which the ancients had opportunity to return, but they desired this better country; and, God helping me,

“My feet shall travel all the path

Of this celestial road;

And move, with courage in his strength.

To see my Father God.” “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” We can’t pray against the people of God; we may get sometimes a little put out, but we can’t pray against them. The best way is to walk in as much humility, and as much love, as much brotherly kindness as possible; for after all, there is nothing under the heavens so powerful as kindness. The Lord breaks us down, and melts us down, and unites us indissolubly to himself by his lovingkindness; it is his love that does it; the Lord Jesus Christ overcomes us by his lovingkindness; and the Holy Spirit, as a peaceful dove, revealing to us the mercy of God, overcomes us by his lovingkindness. Oh, but it is wonderful what it will do! It is lovingkindness that gave us the Savior; it was lovingkindness that laid down its life for us; it was lovingkindness it quickened us when dead: “God, who is rich in mercy, and for his great love wherewith he loved you, even when dead in trespasses and sins.” Again, the Savior concerning the state of things, this order of things, says, “Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.” Christ has been seeking the good of Jerusalem ever since the foundation of the world. All He did in His life was seeking her good; all He underwent in His death was seeking her good; and all He does in heaven now by His intercession, and by His government, is seeking her good. And think you that He will be disappointed? I have sometimes thought, when the soul arrives home, that the dear Savior might turn round and say, Well now, you often doubted me when you were on the road, and you were often afraid of me, and you often thought you should never reach the blessed abode; you often thought and feared that Jordan would carry you away; you often thought I was as weak towards you in my love as you were towards me. Now I have brought you into all the good; what say you now? Has one good thing failed? Not one; all has certainly, eternally, and gloriously come to pass. “Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good.”

Well, now, I come to a very difficult part of our subject, very difficult; there is no subject to my mind more difficult than that on which I now enter, and on which I will not dwell long, namely, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God.” How much there is said in our day about going in the strength of the Lord; and whatever you do they tell you, do not go in your own strength, go in the Lord’s strength. But, friends, how are we to get that strength? There is the great question. I know how it is obtained, and so do hundreds of you. Yes, say you, I do. It is obtained this way, by believing in Jesus Christ. And when the Holy Ghost gives, this is the idea we want to convey when the Holy Ghost gives you unbounded confidence in Christ as to His ability to save, then you have got all that confidence that the almighty power of God warrants and authorizes. Hence Job, wishing to come to God’s mercy seat, took comfort in this: he had such confidence in the Redeemer, knowing that his Redeemer lived; he says, “Will He plead against me with His great power? No, but He will put strength in me.” So that we get hold of God’s strength by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, it is amazing what that will enable us to do; it is indeed the secret of all that described from the beginning to the end of the 11th of Hebrews; all the exploits and achievements of faith there recorded are all in this secret, the strength of the Lord. “I will go in the strength of the Lord God.” But most solemn, most solemn, are those experiences by which we are to get hold of the strength of the Lord. What humbling’s, what trembling’s, what weakness! You shall come to the house of God as weak as water, helpless, wretched, miserable; presently the word takes hold of you, and you begin to gain a little confidence in the Christ of God, and a little confidence in the grace of God by Jesus Christ; and sometimes, as the sermon goes on, sentence after sentence takes hold of you, you begin to rejoice, and presently you get so strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, that you say, “Now I know all is well; Lord, you have strengthened me; I can now believe that this God is mine; I can now believe that Christ died for me; I can now cry, Abba, Father; I can now say, I have received, not the spirit of fear, but the spirit of love, of prayer, and of a sound mind.” It is thus, by being stripped of our own supposed strength, and made to feel our utter weakness, and entire wretchedness; it is this that drives us to believe in Christ, and to lay hold of him as the only hope. And when we can lay hold thus of his strength, and feel strengthened, it matters but little then what lies before us, we can then rejoice and say that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

But there is one more point here, and that is this; He is such a Master, for Jesus Christ is spoken of as a Master, that He does what no other master does, He gives strength to His servants. If He wants one of His servants to do a great work, and that servant says, “I cannot do it, Lord, for I am a child:” and the Lord will say, “Say not that I am a child, for I am with you; and I will make you, worm as you are, poor worm as you are in and of yourself, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument;” and that is the glorious gospel of the new covenant; “and you shall so plead my promise, that your difficulties shall become as chaff, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them.” So, He employs His servants, and strengthens them for the work. The Bible is full of this: I need not remind you of Noah’s holding out till the ark was completed; I need not remind you of Moses, the wonders he wrought; I need not remind you of Joshua, of David, and of others; time would fail me to remind you of the three in the fiery furnace. Daniel in the lion’s den, the apostles in the Philippian jail, and under various circumstances; here it was God so strengthen them as to reconcile them to their troubles, and enable them to bear them; yes, says one, and to be more than conquerors at last through the love wherewith he loved has loved us. Here, then, is the blessedness of having the strength of the Lord on our side. We have had nothing else here, no. I do not believe there is any power in a parliamentary commanded prayer or creed to do the souls of the people any good; I do not believe there is any power in s college education that can do the souls of men any good; I do not believe there is any power in human authority, they may assume it to be divine authority, that can do the souls of the people any good. No, says the apostle, “we are but earthen vessels.” The apostles went forth in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling, “and we have this treasure,” namely the gospel, “in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” They despised the apostle in his personal appearance, because he was so celebrated; they said, “well, we will go and see this extraordinary man.” And when they came to see him, they found a man rather under the middle size, very thin, very pale, and not much hair upon his head, and an insignificant looking man in the eyes of the flesh, though, as a learned man well observes, in the eyes of a physiognomist, of course, the face would look very intellectual, but anything but what is called attractive, and so they despised his bodily presence Why, there is nothing in him to command the admiration of any one, there is not anything in him to command respect; why, he is a mere skin and grief, a poor weak thing like that, rude in speech and mean in bodily presence, what can he do? Stop, hear him speak, man, first. And this little weak, skin, and grief man begins to speak, and the devil begins to fly, sinners begin to cry out, saints begin to rejoice, souls begin to live, grace begins to reign, the Holy Spirit begins to move, the heavens begin to be opened, hell is conquered, death swallowed up, sin pardoned, souls delivered, God glorified, the wonders of a vast eternity thrown open, illustrating the declaration of Watts, that:

“The mind’s the standard of the man.”

And thus “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of man.” It is that that does the work, the power that the Lord puts into the word. Hence Christians generally, they like their minister to be an intelligent man, and like him to be a learned man, and like him to be a masterly speaker, a distinct and elegant speaker. It is all very well in its place, suits the outward ear; but I will say this of Christians, they would sacrifice all this, and more too, for the sake of vitality, rather than they would sacrifice vitality to the mere gifts of the man; that is to say, if there be two men, the one wonderfully gifted naturally, but at the same time destitute of vitality, though they may be as sound as a bell in doctrine, yet at the same time is dead, and consequently destitute of vitality they would rather go and hear that rams horn, ugly as the sound may seem, where life is breathed into the soul, the walls of Jericho were thrown down, victory obtained, good done, the soul saved, and God glorified. “I will know,” says the apostle, “not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.” Let us see what we know of the power of these things to bring you down, make you feel your own weakness, and feel that if you get to heaven, it must be after that order described by the apostle Peter, when he says, “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” Well then, “I,” weak as I am, poor and needy as I am, poor trembling creature as I am, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God.” And I shall look back at the old Surrey Tabernacle, for the 32 years we have been here, with the feeling very different from any other person in the place, for though I have immeasurable mercies my sorrows have exceeded my joys, my agonies have exceeded my triumphs. I look back, and I see a long season of hard labor; many, many times have I suffered in this pulpit a martyrdom, and yet these very sermons have been wonderfully owned and wonderfully blessed. Many have been the cares, the labors, and were it not for the infinite value of the souls of men, and a hope of being useful, not all the New Surrey Tabernacles in the world would make me prefer staying in this world. I have lived long enough to know its emptiness, its deceptiveness, its vanity, its cruelty, its wretchedness altogether; it may well be called a waste howling wilderness, and if we attempt to lay our heads down, and think we have found all we need, then I say, we shall soon find out that we are dreadfully deceived. Nevertheless, while I thus speak, I rejoice in the thought of abiding in the flesh, I rejoice abiding in the flesh, I rejoice in the thought of going on a few years longer, I care not how much I am afflicted, if it be for your consolation; I care not how darkness works in me if light but works in you, and if I may see at the last great day that God has granted, which he has already, some seals to my labor, to prove that I did not assume the office of the ministry, that I did not come into it by human authority, but I was thrust into it, and I preached the gospel for a long time without the slightest idea of ever being a minister. Ah, it is a solemn position in which to stand! Some people would think it a nice thing to be a minister: a large congregation, a great many followers, I do not know what all. Oh, friends, if that were the feeling the minister had, “I have got a large congregation, wonderful man I am,” he would really soon lose them all. No, no, no; the feeling that a minister must have is this, just the same that you fathers must have whose families are coming on very fast, so that whether you are going to have a dozen or twenty you do not know. What is your feeling? “Ah,” you say, “I must be careful, I must be industrious, my responsibilities are tremendous. I love all my dear children with all my heart and all my soul, but I must not spend my time in going about and saying, Dear me, what a nice little family I have got, what a number I have got, and we are so happy.” No, that will not do. So the apostle says to the saints of God, “You have ten thousand instructors,” wonderfully wise people, “yet not many fathers.” Ah, the way to keep the people, then, is to feel the responsibility of your position, never to aim at popularity, never to aim to please nor to offend neither of it, but go straight on, in all love to the souls of men, preaching those deeply solemn vitalities by which sinners shall be converted to God, and by which the poor, murmuring, trembling hearts of the saints shall at times be made to rejoice. None but the man that occupies this position knows the solemnity thereof. “The strength of the Lord,” then, there is the secret of it all.

Lastly, the theme. “I will make mention of your righteousness.” That is to be our theme in the new chapel, and I have a goodly number of witnesses, and able witnesses too, that this has been our theme ever since we have been here. It is all embodied in this, “I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours only.” Ah, do you say, Perhaps you will change your mind then? No, it is not possible. Perhaps you will not think so much of that righteousness then. I ought to think more of it, for I shall want it more. Perhaps you will not think so much of that grace then. I ought to think more of it, for I shall want it more. Perhaps you will not think so much of these high doctrines then. I ought to think more of them, for I shall want them more. I shall want to go up high enough to be out of my own way, and to be out of your way sometimes too, and out of the devil’s way, And, therefore, so far from my thinking less of any one of these blessed truths, if I am right minded I shall take, grace enabling me, the suggestion of the apostle when he said, “We ought to give the more,” not the less, but “the more earnest heed to these things, lest at any time we should let them slip.” Let us then define in conclusion, keep you a very few moments longer, what this righteousness is. I think here is a fourfold righteousness that we are to name. The first is the substitutional work of Christ. The word righteousness sometimes including both his life and his death, including his whole work, as where it is said, “As by the disobedience of one many became sinners, so by the obedience of one,” Christ’s obedience and death, “many are made righteous.” Now, then, this substitutional righteousness, you think of it, Christian: he took your sins, he took your poverty, he took your wants, he took your infirmities, he took your hell, he took the curse that belonged to you; and now there is no more curse, precious faith uniting you to the blessed God by the substitutional work of the dear Savior. Second, it means also God’s right to do as he pleases. “Your righteousness,” your right, the sovereignty of God, that must be proved in order to show that salvation is entirely of grace; for if you take away the Lord’s right to do as he pleases, why, then you must bring in something to be done by the creature; but admit that the Lord does as he pleases, then you will not attempt to quarrel with him for choosing one and leaving another, for passing by one and taking another. Third, this righteousness also means the justification of our prospects, prospective righteousness. Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, our justification. Now the Christian should distinguish between the different justifications spoken of in the word of God. And if that friend be present that wrote a letter to me the other day to instruct me, and to tell me that Rahab was justified, as this friend does, by faith without works, I should think he was a little fellow that wrote that letter, they are generally pretty big in their words. He says, “All the world cannot move me from the fact that Rahab was justified by faith without works.” Well, now, my good friend, it is said, Rahab was justified by works; yes, she was exempted from perishing by faith, and she was justified by works. So, then, equitable justification, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, by faith in that, by which justification we get to heaven, that is one justification. And for you to live that kind of life and do those kind of works for the cause of God, and the poor of God’s people, that proves your profession to be real, that justifies your profession; that is evidential justification, your works will either justify or condemn your profession, either one or the other of it. Well, then, Rahab’s works justified her profession, don’t you see? So, she was justified not equitably by works, for she was justified by faith in Christ equitably, in the way of acceptance with God, her evidential justification laid in her personal works. Thus, she was justified by works; that is, God justified her in what she did, the same as he does now, justifies his people in all their practical decision for his name. So that my good friend, before he writes to me again, had better just convince himself, by reading the word of the Lord, that there are several different justifications, he must not blend those together that so differ one from the other. Thus, then, we make mention of the Lord’s righteousness; and even the works of the saints, evidential justification, may be said to be his as well, “Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you also have wrought all our works in us.” Thus, then, our justification before God to eternal glory, for whom he justified he glorified, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, is one justification; justifying God by admitting his sovereignty, is another justification; looking for eternal life by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ’s resurrection justifies us in looking for eternal life by him. If he had not risen from the dead, we should not be justified in looking for eternal life by him, that is another justification; that is the justification of our prospects. Then evidential justification is another justification. It is important to note those things that thus differ.

Thus, then, I hope there are many of us here this evening that can say in relation to life and in relation to death, in relation to providence and in relation to what lies before us, that “I will go in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours only.” Let everything else come to nothing, let an extinguisher be put upon everything else, we be nothing, and the Lord our God all and in all. Amen and Amen.