Turn in your Bibles to the fourth Psalm, Psalm 4. You'll forgive me for having to croup up here and all that. My mother used to say, you've got a frog in your throat. I'll get through it somehow. The title of the message is The Sacrifices of Righteousness. screen up there it says sacrifice one, it's actually sacrifices plural. I made the mistake, I put it sacrifice one in the bullet and that's the reason Nathan put it up there. But it's sacrifices plural. One thing about it, if we were just going to talk about one sacrifice of righteousness, you know we would talk about the one sacrifice of Christ himself. bring forth righteousness.

And we're gonna talk about that, that's part of it. But here in the fourth Psalm, this Psalm opens with a prayer. This is a Psalm of David in a time of distress, time of trouble, which all true believers have in some form or another at some time or another in this life. The Lord brings us down. only to bring us to depend upon him more. That's what it's all about. That's what chastisement is about. It's for our learning. It's the loving work of a father to a child because he loves us.

So this psalm opens with a prayer and then a statement showing the foolishness as well as the danger of pursuing vanity. And you know what vanity is. You remember the book of Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities. Somebody asked me, well, what is the theme of Ecclesiastes because it's so negative? And I said, well, most people would say its theme is vanity of vanities. But it's really not. Its theme is stated in the last verses of Ecclesiastes. Here's the conclusion of the whole matter.

Trust God and keep His commandments, all of that. But the book of Ecclesiastes shows the vanity, which means the worthlessness of all things in this world without God, without Christ, without grace, and without truth. If you think about this world, and even what we consider to be the enjoyable things about it, Without God, without a saving knowledge of Christ, without serving the Lord in a way that's honoring to Him, it's all worthless. It's all going to end. It's all going to vanish.

And that's what Ecclesiastes is about. But David mentions that in this psalm. It's dangerous. It's foolish to pursue vanity. And that's vanity in life, in our job, or our marriage, our families, vanity in our religion, especially in our religion. Religion without Christ is deadly.

That's what we need to tell people. And I know today, especially in today's world, what we call this woke generation. I don't know really what that all means. But you think, you know, well, all religions are the same to them. All religions are valid. No, they're not.

Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Christ is the only way. And there's no other. And it must be the true Christ, not a fake, not a counterfeit. Not a false Christ. So it's dangerous to pursue vanity. And then this Psalm closes with a statement showing that the happiness of all people must be alone found in the favor of God. How can I, a sinner, find favor with God?

God who is holy. God who is perfect. God who is just and righteous. Yes, He's merciful. Yes, He's gracious. Yes, He's loving. But not at the expense of His justice. His justice, do you know God's justice demands payment for sin? Satisfaction. Somebody told me one time, he said, your God's a bloodthirsty God.

I said, well, without shedding of blood, There's what? No remission of sins. Why? Because there's a little matter that man has lost sight of ever since the fall. It's justice. Isn't that right? Justice. Justice. Sin deserves death. Well, how can I, a sinner, then have life? Well, righteousness demands life. Isn't that right? How am I gonna find righteousness? What is righteousness? Sacrifice or sacrifices of righteousness.

Realizing that favor with God can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that God freely and fully by his grace provides in and by him We must never lose sight of the Lord Jesus Christ as we read through Psalms like this, as we read through Old Testament passages. Because he is, as Jeremiah said twice, the Lord our righteousness. He is. He is the only way that sinners like us can find favor with God.

And while men of the world from the world are seeking their chief good, let's desire his favor which infinitely transcends what he says here up in verse seven, corn and wine. Thou hast Put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." That's emblematic of their material gain, their prosperity. Have you got enough corn? Have you got enough wine? Have you got enough wheat? Oh, I got more than enough.

I'm set for life. No, you're not. The only way I can be set for life is to be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which is on my own of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. So all the good things which perish in using, the Lord's favor is better than life itself.

That's what he's saying in that verse. Verse seven. So look at this Psalm, he starts out, hear me when I call, O God, verse one. And listen to how he puts it. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. David knew that he had no righteousness but that which is in the promised coming Messiah. Turn over to Romans chapter four with me. How do you know that David knew that? Well, it's the old adage, the Bible tells me so. Look at Romans chapter four. Now David wrote in another Psalm, Psalm 32.

He wrote, blessed, blessed, is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and whose sins are forgiven. Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. He won't charge me with sin. I'm a sinner, but God doesn't charge me with sin.

And why? Because he charged it to Christ. That debt that I gained in Adam's fall, when I fell in Adam, and that I added to by my own sin, that debt, that infinite debt that I ran up, He charged it to the Lord Jesus Christ. He imputed it. He accounted it to Him.

Well, what does that mean? That means this. That means if you're in Christ, then you are justified before God. And to be justified before God is number one, to be forgiven of all your sins on a just ground. And what is that just ground? The blood of Christ. And it also means to be declared righteous in God's sight. on a just ground. What is that just ground? The imputed righteousness of Christ. Look at verse six of Romans four.

He's talking about how God justified Abraham here, is an example of how God justifies the ungodly. And it says in verse six, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Well now, when did David write that? verse 7 when he said, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. The non-imputation of sin to me automatically means the imputation of Christ's righteousness to me. God doesn't leave us out here in some neutral state He saves us by his grace.

So go back to Psalm 4 now. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Now I know what David meant by that. You see, thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. When I got down, when I seemed like I was defeated, God showed me victory, health, wealth, not money, spiritual wealth. have mercy upon me and hear my prayer."

Now he turns in verse two to the enemies of Christ. Oh ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? Now how do men turn God's glory into shame? Well, we won't turn there, but Romans chapter one gives you a good description of that beginning at verse 18.

You remember how Paul starts Romans one talking about the person of Christ, made of the seed of David according to the flesh, that's his humanity, and declared to be the son of God with power, that's his deity, the God man. And then he comes down to verse 16 and 17, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. It's to everyone that believeth Jew and Gentile. And therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Well, why do we need the righteousness of God? Why isn't the righteousness of men good enough? Because the righteousness of men is no righteousness at all.

It falls short. That's why it's called sin and trespass and transgression and debt. And then he begins in verse 18 of chapter 1 to bring the whole human race, Jew and Gentile, in guilty before God because of sin. And one of the things that he says is that man by nature will reject even the revelation of God that he sees all around him in nature. Turns the glory of creation which should lead us to the Creator God into things that you can hew out of stone and wood and ends up worshiping a God like ourselves. We reason from the ground up. God's not like this or God's like that. You've heard people say that in religion. My God wouldn't do that. Old preacher said, I expect your God wouldn't.

And then even His revelation of Himself in the law, man by nature will reject it and turn it into idolatry. The Son, what a great creation from a great God. So what are we gonna do? Well, let's worship the Son, turning His glory into shame. That's what happens. Man worships today Mother Nature. We worship the trees. You've heard of that kind of idolatry. So he says, O ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity, worthlessness, and seek after leasing? That's lying.

But look at verse three. but know that the Lord hath set him apart that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him. You know what that is, folks? That's election. God has a people he has set apart for himself. And he sent his son to redeem them. And He sends His Spirit to give them life, a new heart, a new mind, to worship from the heart that form of doctrine which they were delivered to, the gospel that tells us who Christ is and what He has done and who God is and how He saves sinners and accepts and hears sinners and tells us who we are. A sinful people who have no hope in ourselves. Verse four, stand in awe. Some translations translate that tremble. Tremble.

And sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Stand still. and see the salvation of the Lord, Moses said to the Hebrew children standing on the shore of the Red Sea. Don't be jumping around and worrying and complaining. Stand still and see what God is going to do. And that's what he tells us to do when he brings the gospel to us. Stand still and listen. Stand still and see the salvation which is of the Lord. which he shows you. And he says, Sela.

That means, think about this. And then our text, verse five, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. Sacrifices of righteousness. You think about the Old Testament sacrifices. You remember the sacrifices of lambs and bulls and goats, birds.

They really had three purposes. And the number one purpose, turn over to Hebrews chapter 10 with me. The number one purpose of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant was to point sinners to the one great sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the main purpose. Everything about the service of the tabernacle and the priesthood, the sacrifices, had something to do with Christ, the great high priest, the great sacrifice, the Lamb, the mercy seat, the altar, all of that, and the salvation of His people, the elect of God, Jew and Gentile, the church. Every bit of it. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 and verse one. For the law having a shadow of good things to come. Now that's what it was about. Moses told him that. How do you know that? Well, in John chapter five, the Lord said, Moses wrote of me. You wouldn't listen.

And not the very image of the things can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year, continually make the comers thereunto perfect or complete. Now, one of the purposes for those was the atonement, but it was a temporary atonement that lasted only about a year, and there were other sacrifices and offerings and all of that. But it was made clear to those people that those animal sacrifices could never totally, spiritually, eternally take away sin. They were pictures of the Lamb.

Look at verse two. For then would they not have ceased to be offered. If they could have done that, they wouldn't have to been offered over and over and over again, year by year. Because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience, no more legal guilt of sin. You see what it's saying there? In other words, if the animal blood could have washed away my sins perfectly, completely, spiritually, eternally, they would have never had to been offered again.

Didn't the Bible say over in Hebrews 10, 14, by one offering, he hath perfected forever, them that are sanctified. See Christ by his one offering. And then what did he do when he offered himself that one offering, died and was buried and ascended to the, he sat down. Something that the Old Testament Levitical priest never did. Because his work was never done.

But look at verse three. Now, we who look to Christ, we do have a consciousness of sin. We know our sin, but conscience means this. We know that sin cannot condemn us. The law cannot condemn us. because we have a righteousness. All right, verse three.

But in those sacrifices, there's a remembrance again made of sins every year, for it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, when Christ, the Messiah, he saith, sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. His humanity united with his deity. As God-man, he offered himself upon the cross to God for the sins of his people.

We'll go back to the psalm now. Another purpose for those were, there were thank offerings, gratitude offerings, and all of that. And that's okay. And we do that now. We have thanksgiving to God in our obedience, our prayers, our praise, our worship. How do we know it's acceptable unto God? Because it's offered upon the ground of the blood of Jesus Christ. And it's aimed toward God's glory and not our own.

Sacrifices of righteousness, those things that God accepts on the basis of the merits of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me go on to the end and I want to come back and give you one more thing on this. It says, verse six, it says, offer sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. You see that? It doesn't say offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in yourself.

I heard a preacher preach one time, this was years ago, and he was talking about prayer and how God accepts prayer. And he told the story of one day when he and his wife got up that morning and had a fight. And he said he couldn't pray the rest of the day, because he had to make things right with her before God would accept his prayers. And I said, so your worthiness to pray, your acceptance with God is based upon you and your wife and what you do.

Well, that's what he was saying. Now, I hope you all never have fights with your wives or your husbands. I hope that that's the way it is. I don't think it is, but I hope. But whether you fight with your wife or not, or whether you fight with your husband or not, that should not in your mind and conscience be your, getting over that, your worthiness to be accepted with God. Sometimes I pray when I'm in my worst, but I pray on the ground of the merits of Christ. To the glory of God's grace, put your trust in the Lord.

Verse 6 says, there be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. Who's going to show us any good? We all want to hear good things. Well, how does that happen? Lift thou up the light of the countenance, thy light of the countenance upon us.

It's only as we see the glory of God in our salvation. And he says, thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. This is more joyful than if I had a big crop, sold it at market and got a lot of money. And he says in verse eight, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep. For thou, Lord, only make us me to dwell in safety. That's the issue.

Under the Old Covenant, you remember they had the priesthood, the Levitical priesthood. The high priest was to be a descendant of Aaron, who he and his brother Moses were members of the tribe of Levi. And they came down, and the rest of the Levites, they were to be the attending priest. Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies, where the mercy seat was, the Ark of the Covenant.

And he'd go in one time a year, the Day of Atonement, with the blood that was brought off the brazen altar, And he'd sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat and on all the vessels. And then he would come out accepted because of the blood. It's kind of like when God said to Moses and the children, the Hebrew children in Egypt, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. When I see righteousness, that's another way of putting that. When I see the debt paid, all of that. Well, under the new covenant, which we're under, every believer in Jesus Christ is a holy priest.

You, me. No, we don't wear robes and funny hats. Don't have to. A priest, they offer spiritual sacrifices through Jesus Christ. Peter spoke of that. Spiritual sacrifices. And these spiritual sacrifices, which has to do with our praise, and our thanksgiving, and our prayers, and all of that. Replace the material sacrifices of the old covenant. No longer are priests a separate class, and no longer do they offer bulls, and goats, and lambs on the altar. No longer do they bring grain offerings, and peace offerings, and all of that.

Not only do believers constitute that new priesthood, but they're living stones, Peter said. forming the spiritual temple of God. That's what we are. Our worship today involves the offering of spiritual sacrifices. And here's two things that needs to be there. Number one, they have to be offered on the right ground. Now turn to Luke 18 with me. This is a story that you're very familiar with in Luke 18.

It's the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. They're both standing outside the temple. You know what a Pharisee was? A Pharisee was a very strict religious person. They were the class that people looked up to and followed in religion, who knew the scriptures, they thought. And you know what a publican was? A publican was a dirty, rotten scoundrel, collected taxes for the Roman government, against his own people. And usually they were thieves. They skimmed off the top or the bottom or wherever they could get.

So Christ tells the story. And here's an example of spiritual sacrifices. Look, he says in verse nine of Luke 18, and he spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Self-righteous people. who claim they were better than other people. This Pharisee, I'm better than that publican. I'm more accepted of God. In verse 10 he says, two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Now we're going to see an example of the vanity, the leasing, of unrighteous sacrifices, right here. Look at it. God, I thank thee. Now notice how he starts his prayer. He starts off thanking God. I thank God for this. Now a lot of people do that today.

I thank God that I'm not like this one or that one. That I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this publican. Well, people shouldn't be extortioners and unjust and adulterers. They should not be that way. But is that the basis of your acceptance with God? When you come to God and say, Lord, hear my prayer, for what reason should God hear your prayer? Well, I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not adulterers. I'm not like that publican. And I'll go further. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Is that the basis upon which you desire God to receive you, accept you, and hear your prayer?

That's unrighteous sacrifices. Verse 13, the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Now, you know that phrase, be merciful, is often translated propitiation, which is a sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction. And it refers to the work of Christ. It refers to the mercy seat. This man, this publican, this dirty rotten publican, is seeking God to hear his prayers and be merciful to him on the basis of satisfaction made. And who made it?

The Lord Jesus Christ. Sacrifices of righteousness. So the number one thing about this sacrifice of righteousness, it must be offered on a right ground. And the only right ground is the merits of Christ. His blood, His righteousness imputed, that's the only right ground. We pray, that's what it means to pray in the name of Jesus, because His name is His glory. And his glory is his mediatorial glory as the redeemer of his people. And then secondly, it must be offered with a right heart.

Not like the Pharisee who's lifted up in his pride, but like the publican who is brought down David wrote in Psalm 51 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, thou will not despise. Praying, Lord, I have no, I have no claim on you in myself, in my works, I have no claim on God. I'm a mercy beggar, as one old man said.

I need mercy. And you know what? I need it today. And you know what? I'll need it tomorrow. And I'll need it the next day. And I'll need it every day. You see, we're a needy people, aren't we? And we need what God gives. We need His mercy. So we come to Him at the mercy seat, pleading the merits of Christ, the sacrifices of right when we pray, when we praise, when we seek to obey Him.

I'm not, I'm not in the realm of Those who are leasing, I know I can tell a lie. That's not what I'm saying, but I'm talking about when my relationship with God and salvation, I have one hope, one plea. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Okay.