Now if you'll turn with me to
Psalm 71. It's the Psalm of David. And he prayeth for himself in this
psalm. He makes a petition. unto God
on behalf of himself. Praise unto God. He said in that first verse,
he said, In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. We talk about trusting in Jesus. Trusting in Jesus. Everybody, for the most part,
is familiar with the expression, trusting in Jesus. Well, who
are you trusting in? Trusting in Jesus. Well, sometimes that's true and sometimes
it's not true. Some really are trusting in Him,
whom to know is life eternal. And others are trusting in a
fictitious Jesus who never existed. And to them, they got a lot of
problems. But David, when he said, In thee,
O Lord, do I put my trust, he was trusting Him, body, soul,
mind, and spirit. All that He was, He cast upon
the Lord. I trust in Thee. He had been
taught. Verse 5 says, For thou art my
hope. Every man has a hope. I hope if I die, that I die in
my sleep, that I won't have to suffer. I have that hope. I hope when I die all will be
well with me. I hope things will be all right. Those are false hopes. No hope
is any account that's apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. No hope,
my neighbor, is what it is. For thou art my hope, O Lord
God, my hope. Thou art my trust. from my youth. From the time I was young, thou
hast taught me, thou hast revealed thyself to me. I trust in thee,
thou art my hope." The second verse says, "...deliver me in
thy righteousness." That's the only way a man can be delivered.
The ground of salvation is founded upon the righteousness of God.
that God's character is absolutely immaculate in holiness. God cannot lie. God cannot be unjust. God must be just. God must be
holy. He must be righteous. And because
of what his character is, in regard to holiness and righteousness,
He demands, His requirements of you and I is to be like Him. That's the demands of God, to
love Him. All of our heart and soul strengthen
our mind. And if we don't do that, if we
don't give to God what God demands or requires out of us, then God's
justice must prevail. His character binds him. His character of absolute, immaculate
righteousness and holiness demands of him to punish those who do
not render unto him what he demands. He demands righteousness. Deliver
me, he said. in thy righteousness." Now, the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is the ground, that's
the basis of salvation, that our Lord Jesus honored and magnified
the law of God, that law that says, Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Thou shalt have no other gods
before thee. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt
not commit adultery, on and on and on and on. That law, that
law must be kept. Righteousness must be established.
How can righteousness be established in me, a sinner by nature and
by choice? Far off from God, no desire for
God. Someone must come and do it for
me. That's the reason why we have
said many, many, many times, and most people don't hear what
I'm saying. I'm saying, like I've said always, what God demands,
God provides. What God demands out of me, He
provides for me in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who establishes
my righteousness. A man cannot approach God unless
he has perfection. Perfection cannot be found in
you, cannot be found in me. It can only be found in him whom
God has provided. God become a man and a man Christ
Jesus provided all that our needs to meet, that our needs, that's
necessary to meet the demand of our needs as sinners. He provides
our righteousness, satisfies the law of justice, There's the
penalty that's due us as sinners. Close us in His righteousness.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Blessed
is that man to whom the Lord will not write sin down on his
account. Deliver me in thy righteousness.
Cause me to escape. incline thine ear unto me and
save me. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Be my hiding place, where I live. Shelter me, be a refuge to me. Be the rock that shelters me
from the storm, shelters me from the arrows of justice. Deliver me, thou art my rock
and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of
the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous man
and cruel man, for thou art my hope. O Lord God, thou art my
trust for my youth. By thee have I been holding up
from the womb. He tells God this in his petition,
Thou art He that took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise
shall be continually of Thee. I'm a wonder unto many. Every
believer is a wonder unto many, aren't they? Why do you do what
you do? How is it that you're not You're not part of
this system and this world, and you're kind of in the world,
but you're not of the world. Why is it that you're so, you
exercise yourself in such a way, in such a manner, that you live
decently and respectably among your neighbors? Why is all that? Why is it, then, At church time,
you're always going to church and singing hymns and praising
God. You're a wonder to people, a
wonder, a wonderment, amazement. I am as a wonder to many. They
said, thou art my strong refuge. And that's the reason why he
is a wonder to people, because Christ is his refuge. That's
his hiding place. Christ is his deliverer, his escape. Let my mouth be filled
with thy praise and with thy honor all the day, the object of his affections.
Remember I told you that true love, true love bestows its very
best on the object of its affection. True love does that. If you love
your children, if you love your wife, you do your very best upon the
object of your affection. If you are the object of God's
affection, then His true love does His very best for you. That's
a mystery, isn't it? Well, verse 9, this is what I
want to talk to you about for just a few minutes. Cast me not
off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength
fails. Now, if you're young, you may
not be interested in that verse. But if you've got a little time
on your side, you might be interested. Now,
I told you David was the author of this
psalm, and it's a petition of David's unto his Lord. He said,
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all
the day, And then he said, cast me not off in the time of old
age. Don't forsake me when I get old. Don't forsake me when I get old. That's his petition. Now, this
psalm is supposed to have been written about the time of Absalom's
conspiracy. when Absalom conspired against
his father, King David, to overthrow King David and cast him off of
the throne and place himself in King David's place. God had
cast off David's predecessor, who was Saul. You remember Saul? God cast him off of the throne
and gave the throne to David. Now, things looked to David here
as if God meant now to cast him off. And even the people that loved
David and cherished David, and followed after David, even some
of them seemed disposed to cast him off because they joined up
with Absalom and his conspiracy. So it was in this condition and
situation and circumstance that David wrote this 71st Psalm. David was old. And he said, cast me not off
in the time of my old age. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth me. Listen, all old people, all old men and
women, do not always put up this petition. unto God, if the desire
of many of the people who are alive tonight, if their desires
were put in words, old people, would their petition be like
this? Would their petition be, cast
me not off in thy, in the time of my old age, when my strength
faileth? No, their petition would be,
in all probability, their petition would be, somehow help me to keep what
I've gained. Help me to keep my money. Help
me to retain my power. And help me, if you can, to gain
back some of my youth. That probably would be their
petition. Old age is a time when troubles
of life are known to increase. Old age is that way. Many are
poor, old people. The United States is full of
old people, old men. and old women. They say that
because men and women live longer now than what they did back in
1935 and 1940 when Social Security got started, that Social Security
now, because the length of the time that we live, is going to
go broke in about 10 or 15 years. because they hadn't planned on
men and women living up into the seventies and eighties and
nineties like they do now. There's many poor, poor people,
men and women. They're so poor and so old, they
can't struggle no longer under the burden, the weight that they
bear. and they sink under their difficulties,
their grief and their sorrows and their hardships. Others have
families to live, old people. Their families are still living,
their sons and daughters. And oftentimes they live, these
old people, to see the miseries of their children. The miseries
of their children. I'm talking about real things
tonight. I'm not talking about pie in the sky. I'm talking about real life. Old people struggle trying to
maintain some dignity, forsaken by even their children. Others lose their friends by
death. You see, when we're young, that's
the time when we form connections. But when we get old, that's the
time when we dissolve these connections that we formed when we were young.
Old age brings these things on. Old age. How many poor widows
are left in this world to serve and to serve alone, no help. Old age, that's a hard time. It's not
the best time of your life, old age. Most people think it is, I think,
don't they? They say, well, that's the best
time. But it's not the best time. That's when you have a tendency
to have troubles, when you're old. Old age is a time in which the
troubles of life not only increase, but they become harder and harder
to bear. That's true. I know that by experience,
and I think you do too. Young people, they'll weather
the storm, won't they? They'll shake off them troubles,
but you don't shake them off. You don't shake them off. You
have troubles during the day, you can't leave them be. You
take them with you. That's the reason sometimes,
Bob, you wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in
the morning. You still take your troubles
with you. You got troubles. Young people, they go to sleep. They sleep all night. They'll
sleep till 10 o'clock. Sleep till eleven o'clock. You
don't sleep that long. You'll get up, got troubles.
Pains of the mind to old people resemble pains of the body when
you're old. They remain. They remain. Young people will work them out,
but in old people they remain, and they're carried to the grave
with Jacob, you remember, when he
was a young man, he had hardships. He complained, Jacob, about the
heat of the sun during the day and the cold frost at night. But he soon forgot about the
heat of the day and the cold frost at night. He was a young
man. When the darling of his bosom, Rachel, died. When he
was old and Rachel died, the object of his affections. Things
were different then. He couldn't handle it. Too much
for him. Old age, old age. Old age is
a time which ought to command respect, but it doesn't. You
ought to. And it is so among those who
are serious Christians. Those who are serious. You say,
is there any other kind? Well, I knew you was going to
say that. No, there's not any other kind. Serious Christians,
they're concerned. They're concerned and they give
respect. But oft times the aged have no
respect. Old age is a time bordering on
death and eternity. The enjoyments of life are more
than half gone. Here I am, over the 70 miles. The enjoyments of my life are
gone. Do you believe that? If you don't believe it, they're
gone. They're gone. And the remainder that I have
hangs on a thread that's half broken. I wonder, old David said, cast
me not off. Cast me not off in the time of
my old age, when my strength failed. Cast me not off. Well, let me just mention this
and I'll quit. Now, in what case is there ground
to hope that the blessing petitioned by David unto God will be granted? What is the case? For God will
answer the petition and not cast a man off. Now listen, not old
men and old women, not every old man and every old woman enjoy
God's favor and God's presence. Some old people, their tottering
on the grave, and they're wicked, ripe in wickedness, been wicked
all of their life, been mercenary, been oppressive, been deceitful,
been crafty, lived for themselves all of their life. And they come
down to the end of the way, and they find no favor and no
mercy of God. Oh, no. They think that God will
show mercy, but I'm here to tell you there's no mercy outside
of His Son. Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God is a what? a consuming fire outside of Him. That's the reason
why certainly I'm constrained time and time again to beseech
you, if you've got the slightest interest in God and eternity, to cast your all upon God's dear
Son, and trust Him who alone can save you. And in old age,
you can make this petition, and God will hear it, and God
won't cast you off. That'll be some morning, huh? Oh, not all old people enjoy
God's favor and God's presence. Some of these old people, even
those sins which these old people no longer
connect, yet they retain them in their mind and repeat them
to others. Talk about their sins. Wicked,
wicked. Ah, they'll recall them. God'll
cast them off, won't He? He'll cast them off. Age itself
entitles no man to respect just because he's old. Over in the book of Isaiah, there's
a verse of Scripture that goes something like this. It says,
A sinner, the sinner, a hundred years old, shall be accursed."
Huh? That's what it says. Oh, listen,
if we're certain, by the certainty of the Word of God, that God's on our side and we're
on His side. If we have a certainty that the
Lord Jesus Christ is our shepherd, if we have a certainty that the
Lord Jesus died in our stead, in our place, in our room, bore
the penalty due to us against our sins, clothed us in his righteousness,
made us accepted, if there's a certainty about that, then
we'd be the servants of God. God will not cast us off in our
old age. You know why he won't cast us
off? Because he cast him off. That's the reason why he won't
cast one of those little ones who has little faith. He won't
cast him off because he cast him off. He cast him off. Why did he cast
him off? Because he made him to be sin,
who knew no sin. He whom God sent, the Savior
of sinners, God forsook him. God left him to himself when he needed. Someone to help
him. All men hath forsaken me. No
one there. When he trod the winepress of
God's wrath alone, there was no one there to assist him, to
help him, to comfort him. No one shouted from the crowd,
hang in there, hang on. Help is at hand. No one said
a word. Alone. And he cried out there in the
Book of Mark, chapter 15, Psalm 22. He said, My God, my God,
not my father. Him being a man, God made him. He didn't call him father. God
was his judge. He said, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why hast Thou forsaken me?" Everybody
forsook Him, even God forsook Him, because He's the Redeemer. He's the Sin Buyer. He's the
One made atonement. He's our Deliverer. He's our
Rock of Ages. And the wrath of God fell on
Him when it should have fallen on me. And I won't be forsaken now because
God forsook him, my substitute. I ought to love him, oughtn't
I? I ought to love him. I ought to serve him. He did
this for me. For me. For me. Me. I'm only a sinner and nothing
at all. But Jesus Christ is my all in
all. He did it for me. I'm a debtor
to Him. His love for me constrains me
to live for Him, to tell the story of who He is and what He's
done and why He's done it and where He's at and what He's doing. Oh, if it's certain we're God's
servants, He'll never cast us off in old age. Listen to this,
over in the book of 2 Timothy. Let me read a couple passages
here. 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 10, the apostle says
this, chapter 4 and verse 10, he said, have forsaken me." Men will forsake you. Your best
friends will forsake you. If the situation and the circumstances
demands, when you need help, they won't
be there. They'll forsake you. They'll forsake you if it's going
to cost them something. They don't know you. They'll
forsake you. hath forsaken me." He loved this
present evil world. He hath forsaken me. Having loved
this present evil world, he's departed. Then turn over there, verse 16 of the same chapter.
This is what Paul says. At my first answer, no man stood
with me. No man stood with the Lord Jesus.
Paul said, No man stood with me. You mean Peter, James, John,
Barth, all of you and all the disciples, the eleven disciples,
weren't they there? No, they weren't there. Oh, no,
they ran into the darkness of the night and hid for fear of
the Jews. He stood by himself. At my first
answer, Paul says, no man stood with me, and all men forsook
me. Why did they forsake old Paul?
Because Paul wouldn't forsake the gospel. He wouldn't forsake
it. He wouldn't compromise. He wouldn't
do it. He said, I pray God that it may
not be laid to their charge. But listen to this, notwithstanding,
The Lord stood with me." That's what I like, don't you? Notwithstanding,
He'll be there. "'The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want. Yea, though I pass through the
valley of the shadow of death.'" Out there, huh? He'll be there. "'Notwithstanding,
the Lord stood with me, and He strengthened me, that by me the
preaching might be fully known, that the Gentiles might hear,
and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lie. The Lord shall
deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom." And
Paul just couldn't contain himself. After he thought about that,
God standing with me, strengthening strengthened me, delivered me
from every evil work, and preserved me." He'll preserve me. You know what that means. Preserve
me. He'll keep me intact unto His
heavenly kingdom. And he got so overcome and overwhelmed
with praise unto God, he immediately got off of the subject and he
said, to whom be glory. forever and ever. And then he
said, Amen, so be it. Hmm? Oh, that's true. Let me read something else to
you. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Listen to what it says. Verse 5. He said, Let your conversation
Be without covetousness, and be content with such things as
you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee." Boy, that's something, isn't
it? That's something. God won't leave His people. He
won't leave His people. His people! There's lots of people
in this world, but he's talking about his people,
those people who have been quickened from their dead state and given
life and light, those people that have been chosen, those
people that have been called those people that He justified,
those people that He glorified, His people. I'll never forsake
them. He won't forsake them. He can't. His character binds Him to keep
His Word, the immutability. It's not that He won't lie. It's
that He can't lie. He can't lie. What He said is
true. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you." That's our petition. Lord, in my old age, don't forsake
me. Don't leave me. Don't leave me
to myself. Don't leave me. God help us.