If you would go ahead and turn
with me to the book of Psalm chapter 40, Psalm chapter 40. Look at the first three words
found in verse nine. I have preached. Who's the speaker
here? Well, it's a David, but it's
also the Lord Jesus. And this is what we call a messianic
Psalm. David is speaking here from his
own experiences, but David in our text is not only speaking
of himself, but he's also speaking of Christ. All that David is
saying of himself by the Spirit of God, he is also speaking as
a type and a shadow and a picture of Christ. Now hold your place
here in Psalm chapter 40 and turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse seven. And if you can hold your Bible
open in a way that you can see both verses, we see basically
that we have the same words in Hebrews chapter 10 here that
we do in Psalm chapter 40, verse seven of both books. In Hebrews 10, verse seven, Paul
here speaking of Christ writes, then said I, lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. Same words that you find in Psalm
40, verse seven. Now, what Paul is getting at
here in Hebrews 10 is the law could not redeem sinners. I hope
that the Lord has revealed that to you. Christ came to accomplish
the will of God. Here in verse eight of Hebrews
chapter 10, as we read above, when he said, sacrifice and offering
and burn offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest not, neither
hence pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Verse
nine, then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first, that being the Mosaic law, the first covenant
of works, And let me just add there, the Lord Jesus took it
away. It's been done away with. Why was it done away with? That
He, Christ, might establish the second. And the second meaning
the covenant of God's grace in Christ. Christ is the second. That's what verse 10 tells us.
By the witch will, we are sanctified. We're set apart. We're made holy. How? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now, back here in Psalm
chapter 40, David is writing about himself, but he's primarily
writing about Christ and the gospel message that the Lord
Jesus preached. And this is David's message,
and this is Christ's message. It's the message of the gospel.
This is my message. This is the message of every
true called preacher of God. This was the message of Noah.
Did you know that Noah was a preacher of righteousness? Peter wrote
that he was. King Solomon, David's son, was
known for his wisdom and his wealth. While when the queen
of Sheba came to meet Solomon, after she did and saw all that
he had done in the kingdom, she said, the half has not been done.
But did you know that Solomon called himself the preacher?
In Ecclesiastes chapter one, you don't have to turn there,
but Solomon said this, these are the words of the preacher,
the son of David, king in Jerusalem. He said, vanity of vanities,
saith the preacher, all is vanity. In verse 12 of Ecclesiastes one,
that same chapter, Solomon wrote, I the preacher was king over
Israel and Jerusalem. I like how Solomon said that.
You know, if that had been me, you know how I would have said
it? I would have said, I, the king, was a preacher, but not
Solomon. He referred to himself seven
different times as the preacher. And we see here from Psalm chapter
40, that David, his father, was also a preacher. He says, I have
preached. Now, David was many things. He
was a shepherd. He was a psalmist. He was a hymn
writer. He was a musician. He played
the harp. He became a mighty warrior. He became a giant killer. David became the king of Israel,
but David was also a preacher. Preaching is not something that
a man seeks. Preaching is not something a
man has ambition to be. Preaching is a calling from God. Paul told Timothy, he said, I
think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me for that he
counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. We don't
call ourselves into the ministry. Not a true gospel preacher does.
God enables them and he puts them in the ministry. Paul said,
whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher
of the Gentiles. Well, what do you think about
Moses? Moses was 80 years old when God called him preacher.
John the Baptist was a preacher, and the greatest preacher of
all was the Lord Himself. The Lord said, the spirit of
the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. Those were the words of our Lord
himself. The apostles were called and
made of Christ to be preachers, not promoters, but preachers. And here in verse 10 of Psalm
40, we find the message of the gospel. We find the theme of
preaching. And this is a message that is
badly missing today. It's not a complicated message.
It's not an intellectual message that's hard to understand, just
the opposite actually. Paul wrote, don't let your minds
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. You young people
that are here this morning, you should be able without any difficulty
at all to understand this gospel message. Now here in Psalm chapter
40 verses 9 and 10, we have five wondrous things that make up
this gospel message that we are to preach. Again, I'll tell you,
it was the message of David, and it was the message of our
Lord Jesus, and it is the message concerning the Lord Jesus. Verse
nine, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo,
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have
not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared, preached
thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed, meaning
I've preached thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great
congregation. So the first thing that we preach
is God's righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely
essential. David said, and our Lord through
David said, I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo,
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I've not
hid, I've not concealed thy righteousness within my heart. God is a righteous
God. Most of what I heard all my life
was that God is love and He is, but not at the expense of His
holiness. God is holy. The scripture says
holy and reverend is His name. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up and His train filled the temple and the seraphims
about the throne cried, holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hope. We must understand that God's
law is holy and righteous. If we are ever to learn anything
about the righteousness of God, we've got to see that His holy
law is righteous. God's law reveals God's righteousness. God's law reveals God's character. We see through the righteous
law of God that God is holy, that God is just, and that He's
perfectly righteous. We must preach the righteousness
of the law. It reveals God's character. It
reveals God's holiness. And it reveals our inability
to be holy and righteous in and of ourselves. God's kingdom is
righteous. His angels are holy angels. Heaven is called the Holy Heavens.
This book is called the Holy Bible. The place God met with
the priest is called the Holy of Holies. The Lord is in his
holy temple, the scripture said. When the priest came into the
tabernacle, written across his forehead was holiness to the
Lord. That's our message. David said,
I have declared thy righteousness. And I put an emphasis on that
word, thy, because he's the only one that has it. It's God's righteousness
that we preach. However, that lets us know that
we must also preach man's lack of righteousness. We declare
Christ's righteousness and not ours because we don't have any.
We preach man's failure in righteousness. This is a righteousness that
we do not have. All our righteousnesses, plural,
are as filthy rags. Our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away. Salvation is not by works of
righteousness that we have done, but according to His, God's mercy,
He saved us. Oh Lord, that's why we preach
thy righteousness. Paul said in Romans chapter 10,
verse three, that being ignorant of God's righteousness is the
very thing that causes men and women to trust in their own righteousness. We preach the good news of Christ's
righteousness. Why, who shall ascend into the
holy hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? Who has not lifted up his or
her soul into vanity or sworn deceitfully? He tells us, one
who has clean hands, one that has a pure heart, a pure and
holy heart, clean and holy hands, one who has not in vanity lifted
up their hearts in pride, Oh dear friend, salvation is only
for those who possess the very righteousness of God. And that's
found only in Christ. Jesus Christ was made sin for
us. Why? He knew no sin, but He was
made sin for us that we might be made what? The righteousness
of God in Him. That's the righteousness that
David preached. That's the righteousness that the Lord Jesus preached.
That's the righteousness that Paul preached. Paul said, oh,
that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law. Paul said, for Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Oh, that's good news. Our salvation is not in keeping
the law. Our salvation is in that Christ
kept it for us. A righteousness that comes by
the deeds of the law, as my father used to say all the time, is
shot full of holes. He said, that's just shot full
of holes. It won't hold water. God is so unapproachably holy
and righteous that He must provide for His elect people perfect
obedience in the person and the work and in the merit and in
the death of His Son. He has provided for us in Christ
a righteousness, a holy covering, not a fig leaf covering of righteousness
like Adam and Eve sewed together with their own hands. No, sir. a righteous covering that comes
by the shedding of the innocent blood of a substitute. He's provided
for us a righteous cleansing and standing before the law.
He's given us that holiness, which allows us to come boldly
into His very presence, not only now, but in eternity. And we
have to preach this. We have to preach the righteousness
of Christ as the only means of being saved. God's righteousness
is not what we do, but what Christ did. I'm telling you the truth,
I wouldn't give you two cents for your righteousness, nor would
I give a penny for mine. We preach thy righteousness.
David said, I preach thy righteousness. The Lord Jesus said, I preach
thy righteousness, O Holy Father. And secondly, David said, verse
10, I preach, and the Lord himself declared, I have preached thy
faithfulness. God is faithful that promised. God is immutable. He's unchanging. God abideth faithful. He said,
I am the Lord. I change not. Can you say that
about yourself? I can't say that about me. No
human being, no sinner can while we change like the weather. Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not
change. He is faithfully promised. He's
the only one who does not change. I had a religious man say to
me over the holidays, keep the faith. And you know what I said?
Why don't you give me something to do that I can do? I can't
keep the faith. I'm kept by the power of God.
I'm preaching Christ faithfulness, not mine. If my salvation depends
upon my faithfulness, I'm in trouble and so are you. For I
am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. If the Lord changed, we would
be consumed, but He doesn't. He doesn't change. And it's not
my faithfulness why I'm not consumed. God said, I've spoken, I'll bring
it to pass. God said, I've purposed it and
I'll do it. Well, and that's the most comforting
thing you've ever heard. The God in heaven with whom we
have to do, the very God that loved you and gave Himself for
you is faithful. Everything that He's promised
you in this word, you can be certain of. And he's the only
one that can say that. I've purposed it and I'll do
it. You can't say it and I can't say it. And you know, we read
and we quote Romans chapter eight, especially verse 29. And we do
so most of the time to prove the election of God. And when
we do, we really never consider the faithfulness of God in that
verse. It says, whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate. Whom He foreknew, He did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son. He's gonna be conformed
to Christ. It's certain. Why? Because He's
faithful. Whom He did predestinate, He
called. Whom He called, He justified. Whom He justified, He glorified. He spoke, He did. He purposed,
He does. God said, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. He's faithful, the prophet. Thirdly,
David said, I've preached thy salvation. We preach Christ's
righteousness, we preach Christ's faithfulness, and we preach his
salvation. You see, it's his salvation.
Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is not of us. It's
of the Lord. And you know, that's not just
a motto. That's not just a little saying we put on a bumper sticker
or on the front of our bulletins. That's the truth of the gospel.
Salvation is of the Lord. This is God's salvation because
it's the gift of God. It's God's gift to sinners. Salvation
is not what we've done for God. I'm going to say it again. It's
not what we've done for ourselves either. Salvation is not what
we've done with God for ourselves. It's none of those things. Salvation
is what God has done for us in Christ. David said, I've preached
thy salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. I heard
Brother Mahan use this in an outline many times. And he said
that he got it from an old preacher that preached it years before.
And it's so good. He said, salvation is of the
Lord in its beginning. in its origin. The Lord Jesus
said, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. Salvation begins
with God. Salvation is of the Lord in its
execution. God sent His Son into the world.
God sent Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased God to bruise His Son that His elect people
might live. Salvation is of the Lord in its
application. While we're born spiritually,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. Salvation is of the Lord in its
sustaining power. We're kept by the power of God. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." Salvation
is of the Lord and it's perfection. He's going to change our vile
bodies to be fashioned under His glorious body. Now, you know,
we can get a sinner into church and we can even get a sinner
down an aisle and we can get him in the baptismal waters and
we can get him on the membership row. but we cannot bring a sinner
out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
son. We can't do it. We can't get
them or ourselves there. When a man or a woman dies, we
can't get them out of the ground and out of the grave, but God
certainly can. The Lord Jesus said, verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. And he shall not come into
condemnation, but it's passed from death unto life. And then
the fourth thing that David preached and the Lord preached and all
gospel preachers preach is God's loving kindness. Do you see that
there in verse 10? And that loving kindness, let
me make this perfectly clear. It's only in Christ. David said,
I've not concealed. In other words, I've preached
by loving kindness. If the Lord loves a sinner, it's
always going to be in Christ. God's wrath is against sin, but
his love is in Christ. The Lord said in John chapter
five, verse 20, he said, for the father loveth the son. In John 14, 21, the Lord said,
he that loveth me shall be loved to my father and I will love
him. In John chapter 16, verse 27,
Christ said, for the Father himself loveth you because you've loved
me. John said in his epistle, 1 John 4, 19, and we love him
because he first loved us. In John 17, 23, the Lord Jesus
said, I am them and thou and me, that they may be made perfect
in one and that the world may know that thou has sent me and
has loved them as thou has loved me. God commended his love toward
us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God loves you only because Christ died for you. Paul said, who
shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. It's nowhere else. You won't
find it anywhere else. In Psalm 51.1, David says, Lord
have mercy on me according to thy loving kindness. According
to thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. John the beloved
said, here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved
us. And then the fifth and the final thing David said is, I
have not concealed thy truth. Friends, Christ is the truth.
He's the way, he's the truth, and he's the life. And no man,
no woman, nobody comes to the father, but by him. That's the only way. He is that
narrow road that leads to life. He's the way, he's the truth,
he's the life. Time and time again, the Lord
Jesus said, but I tell you of a truth. Time and time again,
he'd say, of a truth I say unto you. Paul said, I've kept nothing
back profitable unto you. I've not shunned to declare unto
you the whole counsel of God, the whole truth of God. What
is true? Christ is true. All scriptural
truth is related to Him. If we preach the truth, we preach
Christ. If we preach Christ, we preach
the truth. Now there are many who are ever learning and never
coming to the knowledge of the truth. It's just so. It's always been that way. And
there'll always be some that that very well describes. Well,
how can that be? Why is this? The reason is that
they never come to Christ. The reason is because Christ
is the truth and they will not have Him to rule over them. I'm
gonna tell you something, a child of God that God has revealed
the truth to is glad to have Him to rule over them. That's
my only hope of eternal life. Well, what do you folks out at
Bible Baptist believe? You ever been asked that? Well,
now you can tell them. Tell them that those folks out
there, the sinners that they are, the desperate, needy, ungodly
sinners that they are, believe in the righteousness of God that's
found only in the Lord Jesus Christ by the shedding of His
precious blood in their room and stand. You tell them that. You tell them that the folks
out there at Bible Baptist, that they believe in God's faithfulness,
the faith of Christ, His faithfulness that did for them what they couldn't
do for themselves. How many times do we read the
faith of Christ, the faith of Christ? Oh, we've got to have
faith in Him, but we'll never have faith in Him until we see
His faithfulness to us. The faith of Christ. What do
those folks out there believe? They believe the salvation's
of the Lord. They preach His salvation, God's salvation, that
salvation that's found only in Christ. It's the Lord's salvation,
not theirs. They believe that God chose them
before the foundation of the world, before they had ever done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth. Tell them
that they believe in God's loving kindness. That love that is found
in Christ Jesus alone. We believe that we love Him because
He first loved us. And tell them that they out there,
the sinners that they are, believe in the truth. And that truth
being God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved
them and gave Himself for them. May God enable you and me to
believe this glorious gospel that we preach. Paul said he
had great concern about preaching the gospel to the others and
himself being a castaway. So do I. If I look to Him and
don't look within and keep looking to Him and keep trusting in Him
and see that it's Christ that died for me, man, I'm full of
hope, full of assurance, full of confidence, not in me, but
in Him. Oh, if you believe this gospel,
confess publicly the Lord Jesus. Let the whole world know that
you're putting all your hope and your salvation in Him.