The Bible tells us that when God created
the world, He was daily rejoicing in the habitable parts of the
earth, and His delights were with the sons of men. The Bible tells
us that He was in the world, and the world knew Him not; that all
along, through the dark times of heathendom, the Lord Jesus Christ
was a light shining in darkness, which the darkness could not close
round, and hide and quench.
Not merely to the Jews, but to all heathens who hungered and thirsted
after righteousness, did the Lord Jesus show something of His truth;
as it is written, God is no acceptor of persons; that is, no shower
of partiality, or unjust favour: but in every nation, he that
feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him.
But at the time that the Lord Jesus sent down His Holy Spirit, men
were not working righteousness. There was not one who did good, no
not one. For men had forgotten what righteousness was like, what a
righteous man ought to do and be. Men are ready to forget it every
day. You and I are ready to forget it, and invent some false
righteousness of our own, not like Jesus Christ, but like what we in
our private fancies think is most graceful, or most agreeable, or
most easy; or most grand, and far-fetched, and difficult.
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