Paul said last night that John
need no introduction. I don't know if that's good or
bad. I don't know. I do appreciate
the invite. This is always a highlight for
me to come here and preach the gospel, and you're always so
hospitable to me, and I'm grateful to be here. Last night, I was going to turn
on this little timer up here, and I forgot, and I lost track
of time. But I'm second. I don't need a timer. I got you. It's like I preached at a jail
one time. They weren't going anywhere. I had them. But I had them. It's like that little girl, she
was listening to a preacher, and she looked at her mama. She
said, mama, evidently she's from the South. She said, mama, why does the preacher keep looking
at his watch? She said, what does that mean? She said, absolutely
nothing. So when you see me go like this,
it means absolutely nothing. Turn to Psalm 71. Psalm 71. I actually sat down
two or three weeks ago in Arkansas, and I wrote this out in the motel
room. And I was going to bring it there,
and I decided not to. It came back up again, so I thought
I would bring it here. Pray the Lord bless it. I titled
it A Sermon for Old Saints. A Sermon for Old Saints. Can
I use the word old? Well, if not, you're old enough
to get over it. It's A Sermon for Old Saints.
And it really came to my mind watching my parents age and my
Dad passed away a few weeks ago, and I watched him, and I watched
the confusion that set in on him, you know, those last couple
months, and as well as myself. Now, there are some of you here
that may think, well, you're not old enough yet to preach
from it. But I have reached a place. I think I've learned some things,
and I've watched enough things happen that I have a few things
to say. And I've watched others go through
some tough times, and I realized that I said to someone, and I've
said this several times, actually, I said, this life can be tough.
It can get tough. I mean, the heart can be brought
down in sorrow. And the heart of a believer can
be brought down in sorrow. Growing old, my mother said,
growing old is not for sissies. You can tell she's not a feminist.
She said, it's not for sissies. And she said to me here not long
ago, she said, it's not fun. It's not fun. You know, it can
get tough. And I talked to her night before
last, and I asked her how she's doing. She goes, it's hard. It's hard. And it does get hard. It gets tough. Sin has a way
of breaking us down, both in body and mind. The believer suffers
the same bodily pains as all do. They suffer emotional pain,
just like everyone else does. But the good thing about an old
believer is that this, they have hope. And hope, I'm going to
tell you something now. That's what I came here to do,
to tell you something. Hope will carry you through everything.
I'm talking about a hope in Christ, not a false hope, but a strong
hope in Christ. It'll carry you through any situation
that you ever come up against. It's when you have hope. The
old eye may not see the brightness of the sun, but it's still there. It's still there. The first time
I ever took a plane ride, it was a cloudy day. I mean, it
was cloudy, dark. And I, from my first plane ride,
and we went up, up to the ends of those clouds, and up above
those clouds the sun was shining as bright as it could be. And
my first thought was this, my first thought was that the clouds
are the dust of his feet. But above those clouds, the sun
was shining. It's shining. Christ, who is
above the brightness of the sun, never dims, though my faculties
may. He never dims. And I have learned
that there are certain stages in life where certain scriptures
mean more than at other stages in life. And this psalm is one of them
for me. Going through watching my parents and, you know, I've
just turned 67. I mean, I may live to be old
as my parents, but I may not. And there's no doubt, listen,
no doubt this psalm was written by an old believer. Everyone
I've read on this said this was probably David in his old years,
in his last days. And it's a prayer for help. It's
a prayer for help not to falter. And when I'm confused, you know,
Lord, don't let me, don't let me falter on how you have saved
me by your grace. Don't let me get confused on
that. It's also a confession of faith. So let's look at this.
I'm not looking at all of these. I mean, I don't want you to,
like, whoa, man, that's going to be a long one. You know, the
first time I preached, Henry was preaching that. And this
is one thing about getting old, you can't shut up. All the experiences
come up, and it's just like, good night. I've got to stop
here somewhere. But the first time I preached,
I preached 10 minutes. I preached for several times
before I ever got past 15 minutes. And now I'm struggling to shut
up. But that comes with experience,
I guess. In verse 1. In thee, and I can
just picture this old gray-haired, this old man David, and he's
sitting there and he's saying, in thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. What a blessing to grow old and
to come up to the end of life and be able to say with full
confidence, in thee do I put my trust. After all the years
have gone by, and all the battles have been fought, And you have,
here you are sitting, and you look back over your life, there's
not one thing in your life you grabbed hold of except the same
one you started with, the Lord Jesus Christ. We old believers have found nothing
better to trust in after all those years, 45 years. You know
what thrills my soul? After 45 years, Paul, we're still
here. We're still friends. We're still
preaching the same gospel. I was telling someone the other
day, I said, you know, I was speaking of Henry, and I spoke
of Paul, and some of these other men, Tom, Todd, and myself. I said, the message has never
changed a bit. I mean, not one comma, not one
period has changed. It's the same. That thrills my
soul. The Lord has kept us. You said
it last night, you're steady. Your mother told me that. She
said, Kevin told me, John, that you're steady. I said, that's
one of the highest compliments I've ever had. We're still here. After all the
years gone by, we have found nothing better to trust in than
the Lord. The old saint's confession is the same as when it started.
In thee do I put my trust. We trust the Lord. Now listen.
We trust the Lord for time and eternity. Not just for eternity. I trust Him day by day. Moment
by moment. I trust Him now and I trust Him
for eternity. I trust Him. Let me never be
put into confusion. Old age brings confusion. I saw
this in my dad. I see it in my mother at times. But let me never be confused
as to how God has saved me by His grace. Don't let me grow
old. And I saw this with Dad. He started
listening to a few other people on television. He said, you know,
he said some good things. Well, that's all right. You said
rat poison? Yeah, there's a lot of rat poison
in there. Let me never be confused, God,
how You saved me by Your grace, how You saved me in Your Son,
Christ Jesus alone, and by His blood I'm cleansed, and by His
righteousness I'm accepted. Don't let me ever be confused
about that. I might be confused on how to
get home. That's all right. Somebody will
pick me up and take me there. You know, I've got a billfold
on that's got my name in it. They can just pull my billfold
out and look and say, well, there's where He lives. Just give her
a call. Vicki's got her phone number
on my phone, the face of it. In case I ever lose it, they
can call her. But don't let me ever be confused as to my hope
and my acceptance. And the word actually means this,
let me never be ashamed of trusting you for all I need. Let me never
be put to shame. This verse just stands out to
me all the time. In Job 6.20 it says this, They
were confounded because they had hoped. They came hither and were ashamed.
It was caravans that crossed the desert. They had certain
spots where they would stop in water and they'd come to them
and they'd be dried up. They had hoped to get water to
quench their thirst and there was nothing there. How many people
hoped? How many people hoped to be saved? They did what the preacher said.
I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. I repeated the prayer
only to find out their loss. Don't let me be confounded. They
were confounded because they had hoped. You know one time,
I preached for Maurice Montgomery. And on my way home, I don't know
how I did it, but I took the wrong exit. And I drove, and
I drove, and then I said, it said Bowling Green next exit. Bowling Green ain't toward Ashland.
I was headed toward Ashland. I was so mad, I was mad all the
way. I was mad all the way back home. Every time I got to a certain
spot, I'd say, I could have passed this two hours ago. Those people in hell are mad,
weeping away and gnashing their teeth because they thought they
were going to Ashland and they ended up in Bowling Green. They thought they were going
to heaven and they ended up in hell. Lord, don't let me be confounded. Oh, no. Lord, save me. That's
what it says here in later on when I get to it. Let me never
be shamed. Deliver me in thy righteousness.
Boy, he doesn't mention anything else. You know, in the verse
2, 15, 16, 19, 24, he mentions the Lord's righteousness. It's
the only acceptance we have. It is a perfect righteousness.
It's the righteousness of God because that is God in human
flesh producing it. That is God in human flesh dying
under the penalty of His own law in my place. His righteousness
is mine. And I am made the righteousness
of God in him. What a work of God. What a work
of God. Deliver me in thy righteousness.
After all the years have gone by, the believer still does not
have a righteousness of his or her own to hold on to. I don't
look back over 45 years. Some of you, 50, 60, 70 years.
You don't look back and you say, well, no, you don't say anything. It's still His righteousness.
It's still His and His only. There's a righteousness, and
every believer knows this, there's a righteousness by which God
can deliver me every time. Every time, in every situation. It's the righteousness of His
Son, Jesus Christ. It's that same righteousness.
It's the same righteousness we started the race with. and we'll
end the race with. We don't, as it says over in
Galatians, Paul says in Galatians 3, having begun in the Spirit,
are you made perfect by the flesh? Absolutely not. I add zero, zero
to my acceptance with God. I add zero to it. And salvation
is not a cooperation between me and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's God saving me. It's Him saving me. And I said
this last night, God's grace reigns through the righteousness
of Christ. It reigns. It is R-E-I-G-N. And it also rains, R-A-I-N-S. It also rains down on us, doesn't
it? Showers of blessing day by day. And called me to escape Oh, these... I listened to a message of Henry
on this one. I told Vicki this morning, I said, I'll never preach
it like that. I said, I'm not going to preach it like that.
But caused me to escape. And climbed out here and helped
me. And saved me. Saved me from being cast down. Saved me from being cast down.
Hear me, save me, and I tell you this, I can honestly say
from my heart, and I believe many of you here can say this,
I want to be saved. I want to be saved through and
through. I want to be saved through and through from the top of my
head to the bottom of my feet. I want the Lord to save me. I
want Him to cause me to escape. You know, one day the Lord's
going to enable me to escape this body of sin and death. He's
going to enable me to escape the grave. He's going to enable
me to escape this world and enter into His presence. This world's
like a prison, isn't it? I can say this, this body to
me right now is like a prison. It's like a prison. It's like
dragging around a dead, stinking body. That's what it's like.
But, oh, save me. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. I want
to be saved from the curse of the law, the power of Satan.
Satan is a very real person. Not to be feared. Not to be feared. Our fear is
of God, isn't it? Our fear is of God. It's not
of Satan. But I don't want to deal with him. I don't want to
deal with him. To be saved from my sin nature, to be saved. My soul, what a
word, to be saved. It's a Bible word. And oh Lord,
listen, be this to me, be thou my strong habitation. Habitation
means a place of residence, dwelling, and abode, the act of inhabiting,
occupancy by inhabitants. Let me dwell in, let me inhabit
in you. Be my habitation. Be my strong
dwelling place, a place where I may dwell. Let me hide my soul
in Thee till the storm of life passes by. Wherever I may be. I may be home or in a nursing
home. I don't know where I'm going to be. But I do know where
my dwelling place is. My dwelling place is not in a
house. It's in a person, Jesus Christ.
It doesn't matter where you put His body. It doesn't matter where
He put His body. My dwelling place is in Him.
And I'll never lose that dwelling place, never. Be Thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. When the day is over and darkness
comes, let me dwell with Thee, where I find acceptance and rest. That's where I really find rest.
I don't find rest in a rest home. I find rest in Christ. That's
where I find rest. That's my rest. Old age needs
rest more than youth, especially spiritual rest as
we decline. Now listen, I don't mean to make
this sound mean, but I do know this. My brothers and my sisters
were taking care of Dad, and I mean, Dad really got in a bad
way the last three months, and they were wore out. They wore
out. When no one wants me around,
when I wore them out, when I have wore them out, and life is too
busy, let me resort to Thee. Let me rest in Thee. Oh, let
me continually, continually resort and find my rest in Thee. Let
me remember this, Lord. I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Let that be real to me. I mean
real. And then he gives this good news
here in verse 3. Thou hast given commandment to
save me. Isn't that something? God has
given commandment. When he gives a command, it's
obeyed. When God gives a command to save
you or me, we shall be saved. All that he has to do is speak
the word. The work is already done. Christ did the work. All He needs to do is command.
And listen, listen to this. This commandment was given to
the Lord Jesus Christ in the covenant of grace when He was
made our surety. Let me give you something that's
been a real help and comfort to me lately as I grow older. Jesus Christ is responsible for
me. Does it get any sweeter than
that? I'm not responsible for myself no more. I was, I never
was, he was before the world began. But he's responsible to
bring me and every one of his children, he's responsible to
bring us home, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. How good is that? He's responsible for me. My whole
person has been laid on Him, and the Father said, bring Him
home. Bring Him home. Bring the prodigal home. And
you know, He's going to bring us home clean, unreprovable,
unblameable. I know some things I'm blameable
about, but there's a lot of things that I'm blameable about that
I don't know. But it's all gone. It's all gone. And he's going to bring me home.
He's responsible for me. Not only that, but he gives his
angels charge over thee. I read here the other day where
one angel slew 185,000 men. What? He's given his angels. Now I know much of this applies
to Christ. It can apply to our Lord Jesus
Christ. But I'm going to apply it to
us to us as we, in our relationship to Christ, as we look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And listen, let me give you this
also. He says this, let me go back.
He says, Thou hast given commandment to save me, for Thou art my rock
and my fortress. We lose our stability when we
get old. That's one of the things I've
gone to the doctor about here. I'm going to go next week. I'm
just, I'm getting this lightheadedness, and I've got it today. It's just
a lightheadedness. You know, I'm losing a little
stability. And we do that. But the rock
on which we stand is very stable. The Lord Jesus Christ, the rock
is very stable. Nancy Parks collects rocks. I gave her one from Kentucky.
She came up to me last night. She said, where's my rock? I said, it's in heaven. I got
her. She thought she was going to
get me last night. She said, where's my rock? I said, it's
in heaven, seated at God's right hand. That's where my rock is.
Now, as I get older, I may slip and slide and fall all over that
rock, but that rock ain't going anywhere. That rock is going
nowhere. It's solid, laid by God. It is
God. It is God. And my fortress, oh,
the fortress in which we hide is impenetrable. Your life is
hid with Christ and God. Satan said, let me at Job. He
said, you can touch everything, but you can't touch his life.
Because to do that, you've got to touch God. You've got to take
the life of God and extinguish it before you can touch my life. And then he says here, deliver
me, oh my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand
of the unrighteous and cruel man. Oh, deliver me from that
cruel man. You know, about several years
ago, several years ago, I met a man. You know, I think this
man was probably the cruelest man I ever met. And I think most
of you know him. His name's John Chapman. That was the cruelest old man
I ever met. Hated God. Wanted nothing to
do with Him. That old man, I tell you what,
that old man that I was born with was a lot older than I was
when I was born. Been around a long time. The cruelest man ever is the
one that would take you away from God. And that old nature
you're born with, it would do it every day. It would do it
every day. Save me from that old nature
I have. save me from it. That's the one
that's the most difficult to deal with. I can see you. I can
see a physical man coming at me, a cruel man. I can hide,
run, or shoot him. I can do one or the other. I
can do something. I probably shouldn't have said
that. But the one I can't see is the
one that's inside of here, that's slipping up on me. Deceitful
as can be. Deceitful as can be. Deliver me from that old man.
And for thou art my hope. Our hope for time and eternity
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that, we don't add to it,
we don't take away from it. We grow in it, but we don't take
from it. But here's a priceless blessing.
Thou art my trust from my youth. tell you how thankful I am that
the Lord saved me as a young man. A life, you know what a life
worth living is? A life that's been given to you
by God. It's the life of Christ. That's
a life worth living. There's a program I've seen on,
usually I think on the news or something, they'll have a life
worth living and they'll have some guy that's died and he's
been, you know, he's done some humanitarian thing or given some,
that's not a life worth living. A life worth living is a life
lived under the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. The power
of His resurrected life in me. Paul said, Oh, that I might know
the power of His resurrection. That's the power of His resurrected
life in me. To know that all the way to the
end. How priceless. Remember now thy Creator in the
days of thy youth, while the evil days come not. It doesn't
say while the golden days, before the golden years come on. My
mom's still looking for those golden years. Ninety years old
and she hasn't found them yet. You know what Solomon calls them
here? He calls them evil days. Then he goes to describe the
decline of the body. It's not evil as far as your
relationship to Christ, but to this body it is. It is. It's tough. It's tough. It's not for sissies, as my mother
would say. Oh, he says, In verse 6, By thee
have I been holding up from the womb. We know this applies to
Christ. He was born of a virgin and created
of God in the womb of a virgin. But this also applies to us.
God said to Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the belly, I
know thee, but I formed you in the belly. Our Lord has watched over us
even before we were born. Remember last night I read out
of Hosea, she thought her lovers left her her corn and her wine.
But it wasn't, it was her husband. God has taken care of us even
before we were born. He took care of us in that covenant
of grace. He gave us all, it says over
in Ephesians, He has given us all heavenly blessings when and
where. Where and when? In Christ before
the foundation of the world. I lack nothing. Thou art he that
took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall continually be
of me. Who really delivered you into this world? Well, Dr. So-and-so. Well, he might be a means that
God uses. God has got a means. God delivered me into this world.
And God delivered me into that heavenly world, His kingdom.
His kingdom. I realize it. I live in another
kingdom. I live in the kingdom of God.
I'm not overly concerned about the kingdom of men. My concern
is the kingdom of God. That's what I'm concerned about. He delivered me into this world.
The same one who delivered Jesus Christ into this world is the
same one who delivered me. And He's the same one who will
deliver me into glory. We owe our existence to Him.
It says over Psalm 100, we didn't create ourselves. I'll mark that. Listen to this. Know ye that
the Lord, He is God. It is He that has made us and
not we ourselves. We are His people, sheep of His
pasture. He made me a believer. I didn't. I did not make myself
a believer. I believe the gospel because
I can't help it. I can't help it. I'd have to lie and say I
don't believe it because I do. And that's of God. That's of
God. And listen, my prayer shall be
continually, it shall be continually of thee. I was thinking of this
this morning. You know, I have children. I
have two sons. I have grandchildren. And it
may be that I may have great-grandchildren. You know what one of the greatest
blessings will be? Is that one day my great-grandchildren,
or maybe great-great-great-great-grandchildren, if the world stands that long,
they'll turn on the internet and they'll say, that's my great-great-great-grandpa
preaching the gospel. Isn't that something? Somebody
asked me one time, what kind of legacy do you want to leave?
First I said, are you serious? You know me. But here's what
I want to leave. The gospel. The gospel. That's my legacy. He preached the gospel. Now I'm
a wonder to many, there in verse 7, I'm a wonder to many. You know, believers are. The
world doesn't know you. They don't know you. And then
they see the old believer who's went through some trials, some
heartaches, and some Some very difficult losses, you know, they
buried your children, they've gone through these things and
yet they're happy? They're still happy? They're still praising
God? You're still praising God? Job? God took your ten children
and you're still giving Him the glory and the praise? I can't
figure you out. I can't figure you out. You're
a wonder to me. Christ was a wonder to me. I saw Him hanging on the cross.
He's the Son of God. You're the Son of God. Save yourself.
But he couldn't do that to save me. Oh, you're a wonder of his grace. You are a wonder of God's grace. Oh, I'm a wonder to many, but
you're my strong refuge, my refuge of strength. I continually draw
my strength from you, Lord. From you. Let my mouth be filled
with thy praise and with thy honor all the day, every day,
not with complaints, not with the complaints of old age. You
know, I have a lot more aches and pains now, but tell them,
you're about to make them go away. You're not a doctor. What are you going to do? But I tell you what, my mouth
can be filled with his praises, that in this body of pain and
ache, I know the Lord. And in a little while, I'm going
to have a new one. I'm really going to have a new body. This
one you see decaying before you is going to be gone. I'm going
to have a body as powerful as my Lord's body. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honor all day. All day. When I get up... I recognize this more and more.
When I get up in the morning, Let my mouth be filled with your
praise and honor to you as I go throughout the day. As I go throughout
the day. What this shows here is how his
heart was affected by the mercy and goodness of God to him. Let
my mouth be used for thy glory and not mine. You know, I don't
want to talk, and I know this, and we do it, and I do it. I
do it. What I used to do. Let's talk more about what He
is and who He is and what He's done for me, more than what I
used to be and what I used to do. And I can't do anymore, so
what? Oh my. Let my mouth be used for
thy glory and not mine, until the end of my days. And listen
to this request in verse 9. Cash me not off in the time of
old age. I can see him standing there
or sitting there. I can just see him sitting there
with his hand shaking like this. You know, shaking. And you're
feeling useless. You know, I'm 67. Nobody wants
to hire a 67-year-old man. There was a time they wanted
to hire me. Now it's like I'm an insurance problem. They just see dollar signs at
the hospital on me. But cast me not off in time of
old age. Don't put me on the shelf. That's
what he's asking. Don't put me on the shelf. When
I'm old, let me be useful until I die. Many companies force their
employees to retire at a certain age because they are a liability
and not an asset. But when I'm old and seemingly
useless, cast me not off. Don't shelve me. If you ever get to the point
where you think you're useless, remember this, especially as
you get to be old. Remember this, you are an epistle
known and read of all men. Somebody's reading you like a
book every day. And especially the younger believers,
how they are encouraged. When you show up here in all
your aches and pains, does it not encourage the rest of you?
Does it not encourage you? I'm going too long, aren't I?
But I'm second. Cast me not off. Don't put me
on the shelf. You know, I want to live, I want
to live, I want to live a little longer, and I'm going to tell
you why. I can save you. You know, when I was your age, Kevin,
I wanted to live to, one of the reasons was to raise my boys.
You've got young kids, don't you? You want to raise those
kids, don't you? I want to live now, I want to live to proclaim
the gospel. Because when it's over, it's
over. I'll be taken off the battlefield. I'm on the battlefield right
now, and I don't want to fight. I want to stand at the front, and I
want to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to this
generation and to my grandchildren, their generation. I want to do
that. Other than that, there's no reason
to lay here. Other than Vicki. I mean, she's a reason. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth, when my mind begins to fail. When my body finally
gives way to decay, cast me not away. Look at it in verse 18. Now also when I am old and gray-headed,
O God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this
generation and thy power to everyone that's to come. That's the reason
to keep on living, Paul. That's the reason. We might show
the Lord's strength, the gospel, Christ, the power of God unto
salvation. to this generation. There are
not many of us here, are there? Not many of us. John Trapp said
this, this is good, on this verse. He said, now that the plum tree
is full of blooms, the map of age is figured in my forehead.
The calendar of death appears in the furrows of my face. Let
me do nothing to spot my white head. Let me with the sun give
greatest glimpse at the going down. And with the rose retain
my sweetness, though I have lost my color. Isn't that beautiful? Oh, let me grow old graciously,
gracefully and graciously. Let me grow old. Don't let me
grow old and be impatient. You know, a lot of times we get
old, we get impatient with teenagers. We do. We forget. Lord God has helped me to be
patient and to be kind and not irritable. I'm going to close. Isaiah 46,
3 and 4. Listen to this. Hearken unto
me, O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel.
That's you. Okay? You're the house of Israel. Which are born by me from the
belly which are carried from the womb. God's been carrying
us since we were born. And even to your old age I am
He. And even to whore hairs will
I carry you. I made, I made, I made you. And
I will bear, even I will carry, and will deliver you. That's
a promise. That's a promise. There's nothing
better to take before the throne of grace than His own Word. in
His own Word, His own promise. Let us, as we grow old, lean
hard on the everlasting arm, and by God's grace we will end
just like we began, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Old age may not be fun, but by God's grace it
can be full of hope. It can be full of hope and it
can be graceful.