Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 71 and reading for our
text, verse 16. Psalm 71 and verse 16. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine. only. Psalm 71 and verse 16. The people of God are not to
remain ever in one place. They are a pilgrim people, a
people that will be called out of the world and to follow after
the Lord, just like the children of Israel were pilgrims, they
traveled from Egypt to the promised land. They're not to be forced
and caused to go into places or to do things that they are
not made willing to do. We read that thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. But nevertheless they
are to be brought to know and do the will of God. Very often
they feel painfully their own weakness, their inability, and
have rising up within them many obstacles, many objections, to
that which the Lord would have them to walk in. And so it is when we have the
experience of the psalmist here, that the psalmist has made this
resolve that he will go, he says, I will go, I will make this move,
I will do this thing, but it shall not be in my own strength,
it shall be in the strength of the Lord God. And when I go,
I'm going to have something to say and I will mention, I will
mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. He's not
going proclaiming himself, proclaiming his goodness, proclaiming what
he has done, but what the Lord has done and imparted and imputed
to him and there's great teaching in this for a people that the
Lord would have walk in his ways and to go from place to place
and especially where they are to walk in places where they
feel that they have not the ability and strength and help in themselves. The Lord will so order it that
his people are a dependent people, a people that must look to Him
for help in everything. And if you have come, come to
the house of God or hear the Word this evening, and there
are those things that are set before you and your heart fails,
and you know you haven't got the strength, you know you haven't
got the wisdom, may this Word be a help and a strength to you,
the Lord's Word to show you what to do and how to do it. So I
want to look then firstly at the psalmist's resolve, I will
go. And then secondly, how he could
go, and he describes this as in the strength of the Lord God. And then thirdly, what he should
say, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine
only." But firstly we have the psalmist's
resolve, I will go. I want to look at this from several
aspects. I've already mentioned the children
of Israel departing out of Egypt, but we could go back to before
that, And we think of Abraham called by God to go forth out
of the land of the Chaldeans and to go into the place where
God would tell him of. We read that he went, and yes,
that he lingered at Haran until Tira died, and then he was given
the word again to go. And we read in Hebrews that this
was one of the acts of faith of Abraham that when he was called,
he went out not knowing whither he went. And so began the sojourn
of the children of Israel and the promises that the Lord gave
to Abraham and Abraham who saw Christ's day and rejoiced at
it. We think of the children of Israel
then coming out of Egypt, they called out people, the people
that were in the midst of another people, the people that were
under bondage, they were laboring, had taskmasters over them, and
it was the Lord that instigated that they should come out. He foretold it to Abraham, that
in the fourth generation that they should come forth. And here
was then that raised up Moses and then appeared to Moses those
80 years after in the wilderness to send him back to his own people
and to bring them up out of Egypt. Moses was very concerned at first
that the people would not believe him, that they would not hearken,
that they would not want to go. The Lord gave him the signs to
work in their presence and even then Moses was very backward. He made all sorts of excuses
that he was not eloquent, that he was not able to speak well. And the Lord said that I know
thy brother Aaron, he can speak well, he shall be thy mouthpiece. And Moses, he said, I'll send
by whomsoever thou will send. But he did not want to go. But the Lord sent him and did
make him willing to go. And he did go. And in effect,
he said, I will go. And he goes to Egypt and he goes
to his people and he speaks to them and they see the signs and
the wonders and they also believe that God had sent him and made
willing to say I will go to go up out of Egypt. The Lord then
was to work that to bring that about. Sometimes it is when the
Lord gives that willingness there's not the possibility of doing
so, and there's a watching, watching his hand. And especially when
we think of what it sets forth with the children of Israel.
God's people, come ye out from among them, touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you. Ye shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Almighty. It's a hard thing sometimes When
the people of God have a friendship group round about them, those
who have known them in unregeneracy, those that they've gone to the
pub with and gone to all the pleasures with, and the Lord
begins to work in their hearts and then makes them willing to
wanting to part with that company, to have a different company,
to go to the people of God and to separate from those of the
world. You know what a working it was
to make Lot willing to go out of Sodom. You'd think surely
he would have been very willing, but in that case the angels had
to take hold of him to bring him up out of Sodom. But the I will go, God's people
are to be brought to that to go and separate. go away from
the ungodly and from the world, and to cast in their lot amongst
the people of God. Maybe it can even be like this,
to have the Word of God, to hear of it for the first time, hearing
about the places of worship, we've never been to a place of
worship before, never attended before, and the very thought
of stepping over the threshold, so fearful, so frightened, so
afraid, and then at last resolve the willingness, I will go. I'll
go, I'll go to that place, I'll go and hear the Word, I'll go
and hear the preaching, As our Messiah says, I will go. The Lord's people will have adversaries. David, he was brought to a place
where he heard Goliath coming out, challenging the people of
God. And David, he says to King Saul,
my servant will go, will go and fight with this Philistine. Very different thing than just
running away from the adversary, but to go and to fight. And there will be those times,
and that is very necessary for the people of God. No armour
on their back, as Bunyan points out with his pilgrim, but only
on the front. Our Lord warned about the time
when the people of God will be brought before kings and rulers
for His name's sake, persecuted for the truth's sake. And it
is a path that no doubt many of the martyrs walked, where
they had that before them, that they had to meet with their adversaries,
accusers, And their language was, I will go, and then even
later on, even go to the stake. Maybe as well, because it is
the calling of each one that is called by grace and quickened
into divine life to be part of the family of God, part of the
church of God here below, and to be obedient to the Lord's
commands in baptism and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, that the
exercise of that brought before them, week by week it may be,
and goes over in their minds, many changes, sometimes a willingness,
sometimes not, sometimes think it's right, sometimes feel not,
and then to be brought as the psalmist here, I will go. I believe if you were to speak
to all of us that profess members of the Church of Christ, we can
remember, we can think back where we have felt of going to speak
to the pastor, speak to those in the church, and in essence
it has been this resolve, I will go. But then there are those
that are called to the ministry of the Word. Our Lord spoke of
two that he said, too, go and work in my vineyard. And one
said, I go, Lord, but went not. And the other said, I will not
go. But then afterward repented, and he went. But it is another
place that those of us in the ministry exercise maybe for many
years, 13 years in my case. And amazing thing to think this
year or coming up is this next month. Already it would have
been 30 years preaching in the gospel. And yet we can remember
when there was that being made willing and to be able to say,
I will go. Maybe much hanging back like
Moses, but at last the resolve as the psalmist here, I will
go. And then we have the pastorate
as well. Those of us that have been called
to a pastorate, we can not only look to when the Lord called
us by grace and called us into the ministry, but also when called
to a pastorate and the decision, the knowing what is right and
what is the right path to walk, to again be brought to that,
I will go. In one sense it, It follows on
maybe from much searching, much exercise, much to-ing and fro-ing,
and is the end result of it. I will go. We can think of other situations
as well throughout our lives, and if we are truly exercised
in the things of God, that our steps be ordered by the Lord,
seek to know and do the Lord's will. We think of employment,
we think of moves in Providence and in our houses, we think of
their aged friends that have in their homes and maybe it comes
a time that they cannot cope and they need to go into Bethesda
or Pilgrim Home. Very, very difficult, but to
be brought to a time when they say, I will go. I will make this
move, I'll make this change. And there is that moving to another
step, another place. Then there's that final move,
isn't there? That removing from this earthly
scene. The psalmist here, he seems to
range throughout this psalm, right through his life. He now,
he says, I'm old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not, until
I have showed Thy strength unto this generation, Thy power to
everyone that is to come. And, you know, I witnessed it,
even with those dear Lord's people, with a good hope, a hope beyond
the grave. It's a hard thing to part here,
to part with loved ones, to go from the air we know we breathe,
our food and all that we know about this life into an unknown
way. You have not walked this way
heretofore. It's a great blessing to be made
willing like the Apostle Paul says to depart and be with Christ
which is far better to be loosened from this world and to go to
be with the Lord. As we said at the beginning,
there will be those many times in the life of the people of
God, we like to sometimes settle down in our nest. We like to
have everything comfortable and everything where we feel secure. And the thought of changing is
very, very difficult. And I remember even in one place
of employment, and so very clearly given the next employment, but
to make that move of accepting the new offer and to resign and
to change from the four years that I knew about to an unknown,
which ended up 12 years and then a few more years over here, a
wonderful provision of employment, but I still remember the uncertainty
and the lingering and the need even of the one that had been
the means of getting me the employment saying, if you don't give an
answer, you're gonna miss it, you won't have that job, you
get back and you give them the answer. And looking back, I think,
why ever did I hang back? But in the end it had to be,
I will go. And so it may be, this evening,
there's that hanging back, that uncertainty, and that need to
be brought to. This what the psalmist here says,
I will go. And it's a blessed thing if the
Lord is exercising us, leading us, causing us to be burdened
over those things that we should be walking in, not forced in
it, but actually make the move ourselves. We like to think sometimes
that we won't have to make a decision, that it will be so forced in,
it will be completely taken out of our hands. Well, sometimes
the Lord guides like that. You've only got to look at the
life of Moses, sorry, not Moses, Joseph, where Joseph, he did
his father's bidding. But then when he comes to his
brethren, what say had he in being cast into the pit? What
say had he in being sold? What say had he about being a
servant to Potiphar What said he when he was falsely accused
and cast into prison, what say did he have as being brought
up out of prison and next to Pharaoh? It was all taken out
of his hands. But you might say that is not
often a common thing. There are those times when we
are shown and when we are to know the Lord's will and we have
to make the move, make the decision. and actually act. I will go. Isaiah, he says, when
the question was asked, who shall go for me? Here am I. The willingness
of Isaiah to go. Here am I, send me. I want to look then secondly
at how he could go. He says, I will go in the strength
of the Lord God. And really this is so vital that
we, like the psalmist, be looking at a strength outside of ourselves. There's one aspect in this. It
would be a hard thing for the Lord's dear people to be walking
in a wrong way, a way contrary to the scripture, and to walk in this way saying
I'm going to go in the strength of the Lord God. How can we ask the Lord's blessing
on something that the Lord just says don't do? How can we ask
for the Lord's help and strength when what we're going to use
it for is to be like Jonah and find a ship and run away from
the Lord instead of doing his bidding. So the very text is
a test as to what we have before us. Can you, can I ask the Lord's
blessing upon him? Will he, could he give his strength
to what we are doing? You think of it in a natural
way. So if you were a child and you got your parent and the parent
was willing to give you money, give you help, strength, help
you move as it were, and you decided you were going to make
a move and go into some place where you knew your parent wouldn't
approve of, could you expect their financing that? Could you
expect to have their help in that? It would really show you,
it'll be a warning sign to you. If they're not prepared to do
it, you should start thinking, is this going into something
that I shouldn't be going into at all? And so there is a mindfulness
of God giving approval or blessing upon what we do. There's another
aspect, of course, if we are walking by prayer, can we ask
the Lord's blessing on what we're doing. Are we making it a matter
of prayer or are we just saying that I will go and relying on
our own strength and relying on our own wisdom and our own
help. The psalmist, he says, I will
go in the strength of the Lord God. When we think of the Lord bringing
the children of Israel out of Egypt, He brought them out by
a high hand. Another place it says He brought
them out by strength of hand. They're not a weak thing, it
wasn't a feeble thing, it's a very definite, very clear separating. And then He destroyed their enemies
and separated them with the Red Sea between them and Egypt. The Lord indeed did give that
strength that was so needed. And really those nine signs in
Egypt shown what a great thing it was to separate them. If the
children of Israel had thought beforehand, well, we're not really
in bondage here, we can just walk out. How wrong they were. They were not easy to let go
like that. And you know Satan won't let
go his captives easy. The world will not let go those
that are in its grasp. And it is the almighty power
of God to separate and to draw unto himself. No man cometh unto
me except the Father which sent me, draw him. and I'll raise
him up at the last day, that separating, coming out unto the
Lord, is none other than the power and work of the Lord. Paul,
when he writes to the Ephesians, he tells them that the power
that was wrought in them that believed was the same power that
raised up Christ from the dead. Nothing shorter than that, to
quicken them into life and to separate them from the world. We think of David going out against
Goliath, the adversary. He didn't want Saul's armor. He hadn't proved that, but he
had proved the strength of the Lord in delivering him from the
paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. And you might say,
how can you correlate the two? How can you equate Goliath with
a lion and a bear? You might look in your life and
you say, well, I see the Lord has helped me with strength in
this and that, but they're relatively small things compared with what
I am to go through now. But David didn't think that.
He traced it that it was the hand of the Lord that delivered
him. That's the main thing. Great or small, it was the Lord
that delivered him. And the Lord did not lack in
strength or power. He could deliver, and he did,
out of Goliath's hand, the same as he did out of the lion and
out of the bear. Many of the dear martyrs knew
what it was, the same as the three Hebrews, children that
were brought before Nebuchadnezzar. The great might of Babylon and
a king enraged, yet they stood before him and said, Be it known
unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thine idols, we will
not bow down to thine image. Our God, whom we serve, is able
to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, but if not, be
it known unto thee, we will not bow down unto thine image. They left it to the Lord, whether
he delivered their bodies or not, but they knew that he was
able to keep them from bowing down to that idol. And the Lord
delivered their bodies and delivered them from worshipping that idol
and turned the king so that he marvelled, he said, the form
of the fourth is like unto the Son of God. There in the fire,
the fire having no power upon those three Hebrew children,
and not even the smell of fire was upon them. And yet those
that cast them into the fire, they were slain with the heat
of it. What a difference when the Lord's
strength is with one and not with another. And that strength
is, of course, in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I will go in the strength of
the Lord, the Lord God. And it is in the Lord Jesus Christ
that is the strength of his people. It is the right hand of his power. It is how he can do anything
for sinners under condemnation and still be just and righteous
and holy still. It is because it is Christ that
died and rose again. It is because he has borne the
wrath of God. He has taken away the sentence
of death, and he has given it so that God is able to save sinners
and to appear for their help. We think of going before the
church. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God. What a difference than just saying
I will go. Again, it is a committing. to
the Lord, a path, a path of the Lord's directing. Where the Lord
directs, then he will give strength and help so to do. We have that, of course, with
Moses and many of the people of God, feeling so weak, so insufficient,
whether it is for going to the church of God or entering upon
the ministry or taking a pastorate not feeling to have that strength
and ability themselves, but to be able to add this, I will go
in the strength of the Lord God. He will give me grace. He will
give me strength. He will give me help. It won't
come from myself. Many times when one is prepared
to make such a A declaration is this. They've been brought
to know by personal experience their weakness, their inability,
their lack of wisdom, their lack of strength. And the devil may
shine upon that and say, look, you look at this and he point
to real things that you've done or that you've said. You say,
how can you ever be a church member? How can you ever be one
of God's people when when you've done this or said that or thought
this. And he puts it as a mark against
us when the Lord could put it as a mark for us by saying, I've
shown you what you are. I've shown you how weak you are,
but now you go in my strength. It's not a way for the pride
of man. It is for the humble and for
the lowly and for those that come with nothing in their hand,
simply clinging to the cross of Christ and resting on Christ. We forget sometimes that the
spirit and frame of the people of God, they don't come at it
easy. Sometimes it is like the disciples
with the the Lord, and they're with Him, and they're walking
with Him, and do you think they're going to do everything right,
say everything right, think everything right? They're the Samaritans,
and they don't receive the Lord, so they say, I think they've
got the warrant of Scripture too, shall we call down fire
from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did? And the Lord
reproves them and says, you know not what spirit you are. What? Disciples of the Lord? Those
they're going to preach? Those are going to be the apostles?
They don't know what spirit they're of? They should have the love
of souls and they hear the commanding fire to come down from heaven.
These are the last people I'd send into my vineyard. How humbling
that must have been for them. And you read many things that
the disciples did and said. and they weren't anything to
be proud of. Paul Peter would never forget
the three times he denied his Lord and Master, but it didn't
mean the Lord said, just because you've done that, you'll never
ever be of use. No, when they are converted,
when they are restored, strengthen thy brethren. And he strengthened
them, not in himself, not saying, look how good I was and look
at my resolutions. but pointing them to the Lord,
because he painfully felt his own weakness and ability. And
you can see that the words of the psalmist here are not easy
to come at, but it is vital for the people of God, if they are
to put the crown on his head, and be successful, and be used,
and be blessed, that they are looking where their strength
really is, and there's not just reading it and understanding
it by the word as to where that is, but feeling it really in
themselves. Really to know that if left to
their own strength, as sometimes the Lord has, that it will lead
them, and they don't have that ability at all. And so when we
think of that last parting, that last going from this world, of
the Lord's people we read in Hebrews of those who through
fear of death have all their lifetime be subject to bondage,
fearing that time that shall come. And when it has come, the
Lord has given dying grace in a dying hour. It is grace to
help in time of need. We are not to expect that we
have a stock in hand first that we'll have that, and then we'll
go forth. And that applies to all the way
along the way as well. We need that help. And in the
ministry, though we study the Word, though we prepare ourselves
in prayer for the Word and for preaching, yet it is in the hour
that it is needed. I taught a painful lesson of
that years ago, driving to Black Boys, and I remember the parts
of the road I prayed to the Lord I might have sweet meditation
on my text and what I was going to preach. And I did, all the
way there. When I got up to preach, I felt
this hard and dead and cold and wooden. Yes, I preached, but
I would much rather have had the sweetness I had on the journey
there than the hardness I felt in the pulpit then. And we asked
for that help. It is vital, it is when we need
it, not to have that stock in hand and then say, now I've got
it, now I can see it, now I'll go forth. No, don't expect that,
wherever it is, whether it's to go before the church and ministry
or pastorate, whatever the move is, that strength is given when
it is needed and it is as our eyes are upon the Lord. And so
when death comes as well, The Lord gives that help and strength
as needed. We believe it will be so as it
has been through our lives in various times and various situations. And may we by faith cleave to
that and believe that that is the case and will be so. And
the more times we have proved it through life's journey, the
more assurance and comfort we will have that in death's cold
flood, The Lord will be our strength and stay. On to look then furtherly at what
he should say. The psalmist says, I will go
in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. Now what this is implying, that
this one that says, I will go, is not just going to be silent. There's going to be something
said. Something has to be said. Now, sometimes I smiled at the
perplexity of the centurion that was sending Paul to Caesar. Paul had appealed to Caesar,
but he didn't know what to write. He didn't know what to explain.
Why was he sending? And so he's asking King Agrippa,
what do I write? What do I say? And how it's very evident with the
text here. There is something to say. When
one comes before the church, it's expected something is said.
When one preaches, something must be said. When one takes
a pastorate, something must be said of the leadings to it and
then throughout that pastorate. I always remember a dear sister
in faith. I took her funeral over in Australia.
She was mother in Israel to me. But my father, who baptized her,
and he said when she came before the church, she couldn't say
a thing. And The church was wondering
what they should do. They'd seen the change. They knew the work. My father
knew it was there. And then she just blurted out,
she says, I know I'm a sinner. But she was accepted. And the
hours, the days, the times, I have sweet fellowship with her. One
of those characters, no doubt whatsoever. of the grace and
the work of God in her heart, seeing her so blessed and favoured,
and then when I think of that where she seemed to hardly be
able to say a thing before the church, and yet enough, and in
one sense her life a witness, but we may feel very much we
have not much to say. With the two on the way to Emmaus,
When they came back, they told the two things, what was done
in the way and how Jesus was made known unto them in the breaking
of bread. I often think that's a beautiful
testimony that any could give. What has happened in my life?
What's been done in the way? Those real things that have happened
and then How the Lord has been shown to us. If we can say that,
we can come in with those two. And we read later, Then were
the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. It is a blessed
thing where the Lord opens the mouths of his people. Open thy
mouth wide and I will fill it. When he blesses them, there's
nothing like a blessing from the Lord. to open the mouths
of the people of God. When the Lord came into Jerusalem,
they were casting the palm trees before him, singing hosannas
to him that cometh in the name of the Lord. And there were those
that said to him, Master, forbid thy disciples. And the Lord said
that if these should hold their peace, the very stones would
cry out. They had to speak, and the blessing
of the Lord will make that, it will lose the tongue. And so
I will make mention, not of our righteousness, not of our good
works, not of what we have done, but what the Lord has done. His
life, His sufferings, His death, His righteousness, even of thine
only, is not to be a mixture with the people of God, is not
to be half of works and half by grace, half of speaking of
our good works and half of the Lord's, but of thy righteousness
only. This is not the righteousness
of God outside of Christ, but that righteousness which he has
wrought out for his people. This is the name wherewith he
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And this is the
name wherewith she, the Church of God, shall be called the Lord
our righteousness. I'll point to thy redeeming blood
and say, behold the way to God. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. This is a lesson, this
is a verse that is taught by experience that brings the sin
alone, and lifts up a precious Christ, that takes our weakness
and exalts Christ, Christ's strength and His mind, and puts a right
testimony upon our lips, a humble testimony that exalts a precious
Saviour. Well, may we be given this resolve
and in whatever case and way that you have come to the house
of God, whether here or listening online, or shall listen later
to hear the word here. May the Lord give you that willingness,
that resolve, I will go, but not on its own. The whole verse,
I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention
of thy righteousness, even of thine only. Amen.