let us turn to God's Word in
that 71st Psalm we were reading Psalm 71 and directing you for
our text this morning to the word that we have here in verse
16 Psalm 71 16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only. This last week at Hedge End we
had the funeral of Mr. James Cook, who for many years
of course was the deacon in the chapel there at Swanwick Shore
and on that occasion in speaking I felt I ought to take up the
theme of righteousness and I'll explain the reason for that presently
but since then it has very much been a theme that's continued
with me and of course we see it in this 71st Psalm and we
see very much in the words that I just read for our text. Here the Psalmist David speaks
of strength and righteousness. He says, I will go in the strength
of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness
even of thine only. We see the similarity then between
David and his experience in the psalm and what Paul says also
in the New Testament in that short portion that we read in
Philippians 3. These men have the same sort
of religion. Think of those words we read
there at Philippians 3, 9 and 10. Paul's desire to be found
in him that is in Christ, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Well
there in those verses Paul also speaks of righteousness and power
or strength. The experiences of these men
though they live in different dispensations. David here in
the Old Testament dispensation and Paul in that New Testament
dispensation after the coming of the Lord Jesus and yet with
each all their strength and their righteousness was found only
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the theme I want to address
this morning is that of the righteousness of God in Christ. The righteousness of God in Christ. It is that only righteousness
that will ever prevail before the Almighty God. Now, it was
apparent that Mr. Cook knew something of his sinnership
before a holy and a just God. The words of Isaiah 64, we are
all as an unclean thing, all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags, we do fade as the leaves, and our iniquities like the wind
they carry us away. How those words were true, he
felt them, he felt them. He was under conviction of sin,
He was brought to the points and caused to ask that help and
hope might come from the ministry there at Swanwick Shore. This
is back in the late 1950s when he first came into Hampshire,
shortly after he'd been married to Mary Beavis there at Swanwick
Shore. He was much exercised and he
looked to the Lord to grant that there might be something that
would speak to his case and his condition as he sat in the pew
and heard the ministry of the Word of God. And he didn't pray
in vain. The preacher came and in the
course of his sermon made reference to words that we have in Mark
14. There at verse 51 we read of
that young man, that follower of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
garden in Gethsemane, and we're told, having a linen garden,
or a linen cloth I should say, cast about his naked body. The
young men laid hold on him, and he left the linen cloth and fled
from them naked. They come to arrest the Lord
Jesus Christ, there was this man, and they laid hold of him. And they tore away this linen
cloth that was about him and he ran away from them naked. And the preacher said that's
just the way in which we have to come to the Lord Jesus. That
man was running away from those who had come to arrest the Lord.
But he said that's the way we have to come, we have to come
naked. Think of the words of top lady in the well-known hymn
Rock of Ages, naked, come to thee for dress, helpless, look
to thee for grace, foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, saviour,
or I die. Those words became so real to
Mr. Cook all those years ago and
he therefore came to see that righteousness is found only in
the Lord Jesus. He heeded the word that he heard,
a word that came as the consequence of his prayers to God that he
might have some help and some hope from the preaching and so
he fled to the Lord Jesus Christ naked and was clothed in that
blessed righteousness of the Savior. So, since then I suppose
the thought has been so much on my mind, I trust also upon
my heart, so I want us to consider something more of it this morning. This is David's psalm, and David
is an old man. Many ways we might say that we
have the dying words of of David throughout the psalm because
we have those words in 2nd Samuel 23 and verse 5 he hath made with
me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure this is
all my salvation and all my desire in some ways what he says there
is amplified in what we see throughout this particular psalm. And so
I want us to turn to this psalm for a while this morning and
to observe just two things. First of all, the righteousness
of Christ, and secondly, the faith of David. Firstly, the righteousness, the
righteousness of Christ. And how it is so plain in the
text, what an emphasis there is in the words that we have
at the end of this 16th verse. David says, I will make mention
of thy righteousness, even of thine owner. Observe those words,
he says, thy righteousness, thine owner. It's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's the righteousness of another
person. that is the great theme that runs through this particular
psalm. It's the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In that sense the psalm is clearly
a messianic psalm. It's speaking of Christ. Now
there are two parts to the work of the Lord Jesus. These are
basic truths we've mention them so many times, you're aware of
what the two parts of that work of Christ is. It's his life,
the life that he lived, it's his death, it's the death that
he died. We're told, aren't we, in Galatians, when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman.
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law,
that they might receive the adoption of sons. He's made of a woman,
he's a real man. There's the miracle of the virgin
birth, there's the great mystery of the incarnation, because God
was manifest in the flesh, he's a real man. But he's also made
under the law, He comes specifically to stand in the law place of
all those that were given to Him by the Father in the eternal
covenant. And for them He will answer all
the demands of that holy law of God. He will answer the law
both in terms of its precepts, what was required, what must
be done in order to honor the law, but he will also answer
the law in terms of all his dreadful penalties. He will bear the punishment
that is due to those who are the transgressors. And the law
says, the soul that sinneth, it must die, he will die. That
is the penalty, the wages of sin. His death, says the law
of God. He answers then, the law, in
every sense, in terms of precept, in living in terms of penalty
in dying. And Isaiah says the Lord is well
pleased for His righteousness sake He will magnify the law
and make it honorable. How He has magnified it, how
He has honored it. Now think of those two parts
of the work of the Lord Jesus. On the cross He was bearing the
penalty of the broken law of God. He was made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law, to pay that ransom price
that the law demanded. The law must be satisfied. And
so we have those words in the New Testament, in the writings
of the Apostles, Peter, says that he once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. For we're the unjust,
we're the sinners. He's the just one, the sinless
one. And yet he suffers. He suffers
as if he's the unjust one. He bears the sin of many. Paul says, O God made him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." What we have said before us, of course, there
in the Gospel, is that great truth of substitutionary atonement. How Christ dies as a substitute. He dies in the place of others. All their sin is reckoned upon
him, imputed to him, and he pays the price. He suffers and bleeds
and dies as their substitute. Peter says it cost him his lifeblood,
he poured out his soul unto death. not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation. Conversation
received by tradition from your father's box with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
Well, that was the price. That was the price that he had
to pay. That was what the law demanded. All those transgressions, all
those who had broken the law, they must receive the due recompense. They must be punished. When Christ
dies, Christ is punished in their room and in their stead. He bears
the penalty then of that broken law of God. Theologians sometimes
refer to that as his passive obedience. But I don't like the
word passive. Because he was so active in dying. We know that. His death was a
voluntary death. His life was not taken from him.
He gave his life. He says, doesn't it therefore
that my Father loved me because I lay down my life that I might
take it again. No man take of it promptly. I
have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. He was doing the
will of His Father. He was obeying the commandment
of His Father. He literally gave Himself there
upon the cross. and he opened, as it were, that
great fountain. In that day there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David, to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness, says Zachariah the
prophet. That's what the Lord Jesus did.
That precious fountain, filled with blood, shall never lose
its power till all the ransomed church of God is saved to sin
no more. Well, that's the work of Christ.
In a sense, it's wrong, I would say, to speak of that work as
passive obedience. It's active. I know why the theologians
use that term, because they make a distinction between his dying
and his living. They speak of his living in terms
of active obedience, because besides being cleansed from sin,
The sinner also stands in need of clothing. He must be clothed
with righteousness. If the Lord is going to be honoured,
it's not just to be honoured in terms of all its dreadful
penalties. No, it must also be honoured
in terms of all the precepts and the commandments. There must
be a doing of these things. there must be an active obedience
in living and again we see it there at the end of the Deuteronomy
chapter 6 Moses says it shall be our righteousness if we observe
to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he
has commanded us. Oh there must be a doing there must be a practice of holiness. And that's what the Lord Jesus
did. He obeyed every commandment. It's so hard for us to conceive
the manner of His living. He was so miraculously conceived
in the womb of the Virgin Mary that that human nature was free
from every taint of sin. There was no sin in His birth. We know that sin has come down
the generations from Adam and Eve who can bring a clean thing
out of an unclean. Not one, we read in the book
of Job. We're born dead in trespasses and sin. We inherit a sinful
nature. But that human nature that was
conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary was altogether
without sin, though she herself was a sinner. rejoicing in God
her Saviour. That was the miracle of the birth,
the mystery. Here is a man who is sinless
in his birth and he is sinless in every part of his life. He never committed one sinful
deed, he never spoke one sinful word, he never had one sinful
thought. He was holy, he was harmless,
he was undefiled, he was separate from sinners, he was made higher
than the heavens. Well, that's the Lord Jesus.
The life of the Lord Jesus is interesting. Because John Gresham Machen so rejoiced
in that active obedience of the Lord Jesus. Gresham Mason was
a theologian in North America in the early part of the 20th
century and he was the principal founder of Westminster Theological
Seminary there in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and it was quite
a remarkable theological seminary Westminster Seminary and the
men who who taught and lectured there, that body of professors. Amongst them was Professor John
Murray. You've probably heard the name
of Professor Murray. Well, when he was a dying man,
Gresham Mason sent, I think it was a telegram to his friend
John Murray, and it simply said in this telegram, I'm so thankful
for the active obedience of Christ, no hope without it." It was a
simple sentence in that telegram that was sent, almost his last
words, sending a message to his friends. I'm so thankful for
the active obedience of Christ, no hope without it. All Christ's obedience, in living
his righteous life it justifies the sinner before God that's
justifying righteousness that's justifying righteousness and
that's the great message that we see being preached in the
in the New Testament when we read through the Acts of the
Apostles and we have the record of the ministry of the Apostles
of Christ and we have the words don't we of of Paul in his preaching
there in Acts 13, he's in Antioch in Pisidia and he preaches and
what does he say concerning Christ? By him all that believe are justified
from all things that they could not be justified from by the
deeds of the law. We can't justify ourselves by
obedience to the commandments of the law, we don't come up
to the measure of the law of God We're transgressors of the
Lord of God. There's no hope in the Lord of
God. What is the Lord? It's a ministration of death
and of condemnation to us. Nor by the Lord is the knowledge
of sin. There's no hope there. And so
the apostles preach, you see, that the only hope of sinners
is in Christ and His righteousness. All that believe in Him are justified. accounted righteous before God,
Christ, the end of the law for righteousness, to everyone that
believeth. That's the message of the gospel.
And we see how David himself glories in this very message. Look at the language that we
have here in the psalm. Verse 15, My mouth shall show
forth Thy righteousness and Thy salvation all the day. For I
know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God. I will make mention of Thy righteousness,
even of Thine own. Again at verse 19, Thy righteousness
also, O God, is very high. Doest on great things, O God,
Who is like unto thee? Oh, what great things God has
done in the life of the Lord Jesus, honoring and magnifying
the law, this righteousness that He wrought
so high. And then again at the end of
the psalm, in verse 24, My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness
all the day long. Notice how he's always speaking
of this righteousness in these verses in the third person. We
have it five times he says, thy, thy, thy, thy, thine. It's the righteousness of God. It's the righteousness of God.
And where do we find it in the Lord Jesus Christ? What was the incarnation? What
happened with the coming of the Lord Jesus when He was conceived
in Mary's womb, when He was born in Bethlehem? Is it not the fulfillment
of that remarkable word in Isaiah 45, 8? And I've many times referred
to it. It's one of my favorite verses
really. Drop down ye heaven from above let the skies pour down
righteousness, let the earth open, and let them bring forth
salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have made it." Oh,
it's the Lord, you see. Even there in the Incarnation
we see it with the coming of the Lord Jesus, the Righteous
One. Well, if we see that at the beginning
in in His coming, His incarnation. What of the end? What was the
crucifixion? Well, His obedience, Paul says, unto death, even the
death of the cross. In every part of His life, from
the womb right the way through, His obedience. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me and to finish His work. I must be about my
Father's business. He's always doing the will of
God, always doing the works of God. He's obedient, and his obedience
stretches right through his life, obedient unto death. And even
in that cruel death of the cross, even the death of the cross,
we see him as one obedient. What does he say? when he comes
to the end of his life in the great high priestly prayer of
John 17, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. He's done all the Father's
goodwill and pleasure and then when we see him on the cross
and he expires, he says it is finished. Cries with a loud voice,
it is finished and heals up the ghost. offers himself up as it
were, presents his soul as sacrifice for sins. Oh, he came to finish
the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation
for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. That's
what he has done. And this is what David is speaking
of throughout this psalm. It's this righteousness it's
the righteousness of another, it's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus and it was it was that righteousness
I felt that Mr. Cook rejoiced in. It was
interesting because he chose three hymns and amongst those hymns the first
hymn we sang on Thursday was that hymn that we just sang 979 Samuel Medley is him and it struck
me because he was born in Birkenhead was James Cook and he was born
into a godly family and they attended the chapel in Shaw Street
in Liverpool and that was the chapel where Samuel Medley was
the minister back in the 18th century or I should say the forerunner
of what became Shaw Street Chapel. But they had a lovely portrait
of Samuel Medley there in the chapel. But that's where he attended
and of course that 979th hymn is one of Samuel Medley's hymns
and it speaks so much of righteousness. those happy souls that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. They cannot here contented live
on all the dainties earth can give. Their souls can feast on
nothing less than Christ's eternal righteousness. May this my blessed
experience be to hunger, Lord, and thirst for Thee, and on Thy
righteousness to live, which can both food and comfort give.
You can see then why I just felt I just had to really say something
of that righteousness. Because it was meat and drink
to the man that we were remembering there at that funeral service. That was his faith. His faith
was in the righteousness of Christ. And here in the psalm we see
where David's faith was. David's faith was in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Isn't the psalm couched in the
language of faith? How does it open in there? Oh
Lord, do I put my trust? Let me never be put to confusion. All his trust, his faith here
is in the Lord God Himself. God is the object. God is the
object. of his faith. In thee, O Lord,
do I put my trust. But how can we know God? No man
hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Christ is the image of the invisible
God. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now of course, the incarnation
had not yet come in the days of David in the Old Testament,
but David says so much of Christ, always continually speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ. David was a believer. just like
Paul I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I
but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me David lived by the faith of the Son of God
who was to come and so many of his psalms are messianic aren't
they? they speak of Christ I was thinking of those words that
we have back in the second book of Samuel. Remember when David
wanted to build the temple and he makes every provision for
it. Initially the prophet Nathan encourages David but then the
Lord speaks to Nathan and he has to take the message to King
David, that he's not to build the temple, it will be his son,
his son Solomon. But Solomon, a remarkable type
of the Lord Jesus. And I was thinking of those words
in 2 Samuel 7, where the prophet Nathan speaks to David. And he
says this, verse 12, When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt
sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee. which
shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his kingdom
he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the
throne of his kingdom forever I will be his father and he shall
be my son now a greater than Solomon is here a greater than
Solomon this is an everlasting kingdom there is no kingdom in
Israel anymore This is Christ's kingdom, which
is not of this world. And what does the prophet say
as he speaks these words to David? It's David's seed. And Christ is the seed of Abraham.
Christ is the seed of David. But it's more than the seed of
any man. I will be his father. He shall
be my son. Well, that's the one that David
looked to and trusted in. He was a believer. He believed
in the Christ that was to come, the only Savior of sinners. And so he was a justified sinner.
He was a justified sinner. This is why in the psalm he's
so much rejoicing in the righteousness of Christ. What does Paul say concerning
faith in relation to justification? Romans 3.22, even the righteousness
of God, he says, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all
and upon all them that believe. The righteousness of God by faith
of Jesus Christ upon all that believe. Oh, it's that righteousness
that's reckoned to the account of the believing sinner, being
justified. By faith we have peace with God.
He says there at the beginning of Romans 5, I know I always
move the comma there because I think it sits just after the
word justified, being justified. eternal justification in Christ. David could enjoy it in the Old
Testament before ever Christ had come, being justified. By
faith we have peace with God. Nor by faith we come into the
blessed experience of that justification. And it is so evident that David
knew these things. Not only here in Psalm 71, what
about Psalm 32 and when we turn to the New Testament
again Paul there in Romans chapter 4 doesn't he speak of David in terms of what he wrote
in the 32nd Psalm he's speaking of that righteousness that is
counted or imputed to sinners, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without work, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute sin. Well, David understood these
things, David believed these things. He knew what salvation
was, he knew what justification was, all of his sins imputed
to Christ, reckoned to Christ, counted to Christ's account,
and all Christ's righteousness imputed to him, counted to him,
reckoned to his account. That was the exchange, Christ
taking David's sin, nailing it to the cross, and in exchange
giving David, a glorious robe of righteousness. And so he says
here in the psalm, I am as a wonder unto many, but thou art my strong
refuge. Well, isn't the justified sinner
a wonder? What a wonderful thing it is!
God justifies the ungodly. That's remarkable. The judges
in the Old Testament, they were to condemn the ungodly. They were to justify the righteous. But look at what God has done
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, there's hope for sinners,
there's a righteousness for sinners. Those who feel like Mr. Cook
felt he had no righteousness of his own, he had to run naked
to the Lord Jesus Christ for a robe of righteousness. That's
a wonder. I am as a wonder unto men I think of Joseph Hart's sacred
sinner, the justified sinner. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. You remember the language there
in Hymn 89? This faithful saying let us hold,
well worth it is to be believed, that Christ into the world came
down, that sinners might believe in him. Sinners are high in his
esteem. And sinners highly value Him.
Oh, sinners are high in the esteem of our Lord Jesus. He loves sinners.
He receives sinners. He eats with sinners. Oh, the
scribes and Pharisees might ridicule and mock. This man receives sinners
and eats with them. But He esteems sinners. And sinners
love Him. Oh, are we those sacred sinners
who love Christ? You see all our salvation, all
our righteousness in Christ. Now, David was blessed to know
these truths when he was young. When he was a young man, he says,
doesn't he, verse 5, Thou art my hope, O Lord God, Thou art
my trust from my youth. By Thee I have been holding up
from the womb, Thou art He that took me out of my mother's bowels.
my praise shall be continually of thee. Again at verse 17, O
God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I
declared thy wondrous works. What a favour, what a blessing
if you were born into a God-fearing family, Mr Cook was. What a favour,
what a blessing. But here in the psalm, we see
David as an old man really. verse 9 he says cast me not off
in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth again verse 18 now also when
I am old and grey headed O God forsake me not until I have showed
thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that
is to come. At the time when he wrote the
psalm under the inspiration of the Spirit of God he felt his
days were going to be very few, very few. Verse 15 he says, My
mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day
for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only." His determination. Oh, he would make known this
great salvation, this righteousness of the Lord Jesus. How amazing
it is, you see. In the experience of the grace
of God, thy righteousness, even thine only, becomes mine. Isn't that a truth? It becomes my righteousness.
What is the name of the Lord Jesus? He has many names. And
you know one of the names that's given to Christ there in Jeremiah
23, 16. This is the name whereby he shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. That's his name. The Lord's. Our righteousness. Jehovah Sidkenu. There's that lovely hymn, isn't
there, of Robert Murray McShane. I know it's not in Gatsby. It's
a beautiful hymn. I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my burden, I felt not my load, when friends spoke
in raptures of Christ on the tree, Jehovah said, Can you? It meant nothing to me. The Lord, our righteousness,
that's his name. But then, it's remarkable because
we just move on to Jeremiah 33 16 and what do we read this is
the name wherewith she shall be called that's the church that's
every believer that makes up the church this is the name wherewith
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness His righteousness
our righteousness His righteousness my righteousness upon a life I did not live Upon
a death I did not die, another's life, another's death. I hang
my own, my whole eternity. Oh, is that true of us this morning?
Is that true of us this morning? We hang everything upon that
justifying righteousness that is found only in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh God, grant that it might be
so. Amen.