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A Blow at Self-Righteousness!
Spurgeon, "A Blow at Self-Righteousness"
There never was a man yet who was in a state of grace who
did not know himself, in himself, to be in a state of ruin,
a state of depravity and condemnation.
A man may be a true Christian, and may fall into sin, but a man
cannot be a true Christian and boast in his self-righteousness.
A man may be saved, though infirmity may bespatter him with
much mire; but he cannot be saved who does not know that he
has been in the filth, and is not willing to confess that
he is guilty before God.
The besetting sin of the unconverted is to deny their guiltiness,
to plead that they are as good as others, and to indulge still the
vain and foolish hope that they shall enter into heaven from some
doings, sufferings, or weepings of their own.
A deaf man may declare that there is no such thing as music.
A man who has never seen the stars, is very likely to say that
there are no stars. But what does he prove?
Does he prove that there are no stars?
He only proves his own folly and his own ignorance.
That man who can say half a word about his own righteousness has
never been enlightened by the Holy Spirit; for one of the first
signs of a renewed heart is, that it abhors itself in dust and ashes.
The sin of self-righteousness is inherent in us all,
and only divine grace can thoroughly cast it out of us.
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