Boy, let's open our Bibles again
to Psalm 71. I titled the message this evening,
Trust for Both Young and Old. That covers everybody here. Everybody's
one or the other in between. This is trust, both for the young
and the old. Now you'll notice that there
is no title for this psalm. There's titles for many of the
psalms, but not one for this one. But we feel pretty confident
that this is a psalm of David. And it was a psalm written in
his old age. This psalm is the prayer of an old believer. At
this time, David's writing this psalm. He's an old man. But at
one time, he'd been a young man. So he knows something about both
being young and being old. And he's got something to say
about trusting the Lord that will benefit both the young and
the old. He begins in verse one by saying that he trusts in the
Lord. He said, in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never
be put to confusion. Now, you know, everybody trusts
in something. Everybody does. David says he
trusts in the Lord. Some people trust in a God who
cannot save, who can only save them if they make a decision.
Some people hope that God will just ignore their sin, that maybe
God's not as holy and austere, you know, as they've heard these
fanatical preachers say He is. Some people hope maybe somehow
God will grade on the curve. You know, that was my constant
hope all through college. I'd take a test and maybe they'll
grade on the curve. On my own, I didn't do very good.
Maybe God will think somehow I did more good than bad. Maybe
they can't even put into words, but people hope in something.
Maybe they hope somehow there'll be a clerical error. God will
let them in heaven or something. I don't know. But they hope in
something. And I don't want that for us. I don't want that for
you and me. I don't want us to go into eternity
with a hope that's not founded upon this Word. I want us to
trust in the Lord. Because salvation can only be
found in Him. I want to make three simple points
about this trust in the Lord. Number one, I want us to see
its foundation. If somebody's trusting in the
Lord, it's not just a pipe dream. It's got a solid foundation,
the foundation of this trust. Number two, I want us to see
reasons for the young to trust the Lord. And number three, I
want us to see reasons for the old to trust the Lord, to find
comfort and rest in Him. Number one, the foundation of
trust in the Lord is the righteousness of the Lord. It's his righteousness.
Verse two, Davis says, deliver me in thy righteousness and cause
me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and
save me. But Davis says, oh Lord, deliver me. And the word there
means pluck me from the fire. Deliver me from the condemnation
that I deserve. But notice what he says here.
Do it in thy righteousness, in your righteousness. Now, this
is the foundation of our reason to trust in the Lord. It's God's
righteousness. God's salvation is a righteous
salvation. It's always done in righteousness
and justice. You'll notice David doesn't ask
the Lord to, don't punish me because you've just ignored my
sin and my guilt. David knows a holy God cannot
do that. God's holy. God must punish sin. He can't even look upon sin.
And a salvation that's not done in justice, a salvation that's
not a righteous salvation, is not worth trusting anyway, is
it? Suppose the judge would say, you know, since you and me are
cronies, I'm just going to ignore your sin. We're just going to
not mention that, set it aside over here, put it in a folder,
put it away, and I'm just going to let you go. Suppose he'd do
that. Well, a just judge could come along and find that folder,
find your sin, find your guilt, and still punish you for it. See, hope and trust in a salvation
that's not righteous is not a good hope. But you can trust in, you
can rest in, you can have security in a salvation that's done in
righteousness. And this is what I mean when
I say a righteous salvation. It's a salvation that's accomplished
in God's righteousness that makes the sinner not guilty, that makes
him righteous. So that person cannot be condemned
because they've been made not guilty. All you and I are is
sin. Everything we do is sin. Everything
we think is sin. Everything we desire is sin.
We live, breathe, eat and drink sin. So the only way somebody
like us can be made not guilty is by the Lord Jesus Christ giving
us His righteousness. The righteousness that He earned
as a man. When as a man, made under God's
law, He obeyed the law perfectly. Christ must give us His righteousness. But more than give us His righteousness,
something's still got to be done with our sin. Sin can't be ignored. So Christ must take that sin
away from us. He must be made sin for His people and He's got
to pay for it in justice. He's got to pay the price in
full with His life's blood. The only way sin can be put away,
it's not by animal sacrifices, is it? Blood of bulls and goats
can't take away sin. It can't be by all the endless
ceremonies of religion. That can't put away sin. The
only way sin can be put away is by the Lord Jesus Christ suffering
and dying for that sin as the sinner's substitute, to make
them righteous. That's the only way we can be
made righteous. And that's exactly what Christ has done for His
people. That's what David's asking the Lord to do for him. See,
He has made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made what? Righteous. The righteousness
of God in Him. And that righteous salvation
is just. It's right. And it can never
be taken away. You see, salvation can never
be at the expense of righteousness and justice. If God's going to
save somebody, Gary, it's going to be right. It's going to be
right. Everything God does is right. If God sends a person
to hell, it's going to be right. If God takes them to glory, it's
going to be right. It's going to be right. So you
know what God did? He made it so that it's right
for him to save his people. He made it so that it is right
for Him to have mercy upon His people. He made it so that it's
right for Him to bring His people to glory by sending His Son to
take the sin of His people away and make them what God will accept.
Make them righteous. See, God did that so He made
it right for Him to save His people. And that's what David's
asking the Lord to do for him. In verse 1, he says, In thee,
O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion.
That word confusion means ashamed. Don't ever let me be ashamed
because I'm not guilty. And that prayer is going to be
answered. Nobody who ever trusts in Christ is going to be ashamed
because Christ made him righteous. He made him not guilty so they'll
have nothing to be ashamed of when they stand in God's presence.
Look at what David prays in verse 13. Let them be confounded and
consumed that are adversaries to my soul. Let them be covered
with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt. Don't let me be
confounded. Don't let me be ashamed because
I'm trusting in you. I'm trusting in the Lord, so
don't make me ashamed. But let everybody who won't trust
in the Lord be confounded. Let them be ashamed because they're
still in their guilt. Let them be ashamed because they
don't have any righteousness. And that prayer is going to be
answered too. See, the only place that a true, righteous salvation
can be found is in the Lord Jesus Christ and everything outside
of Him is damnation. So the only salvation a sinner
can trust in is a righteous salvation that's in Christ. That's why
look at verse 14 what David wrote. But I will hope continually and
will yet praise thee more and more. Now how am I going to hope
continually? How am I going to trust continually?
How am I going to continually praise the Lord more and more?
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 only." Now, every saved person, when they read those
verses, know exactly what David's talking about. I've never produced
any righteousness of my own. I've never done one righteous
thing. You haven't either. I tell you this, I am righteous. I'm righteous in Christ. He is
my righteousness. So the only thing I'm going to
talk about is Christ's righteousness. Because there isn't any other
righteousness to talk about. And I'll tell you one thing I
don't ever want to talk about. I don't ever want to talk about
my so-called righteousness, because those are filthy rags. I don't want to be seen in those
filthy rags. I want God to see me only in Christ's spotless,
perfect righteousness. That's the only righteousness
I want to talk about. That's the only righteousness I can
praise. That's the only righteousness to be praised, because that's
the only one that there is. And this is the only salvation.
I'm going to show forth God's salvation. Because this is the
only salvation that there is. You and I are so sinful. The
only way we can be saved is if Almighty God does it. Just let that sink in. We are
so sinful. We are so vile. The only way
we can be saved is in God's salvation. A salvation that God does from
beginning to end. The only way I can be saved is
if God makes me righteous. and if God pays my sin debt.
And David says, I'm going to talk about that, but I know not
the numbers thereof. I'm going to talk about this,
but we haven't scratched the surface. I have no idea how grand
and how glorious this really is. It's too big. It's too glorious
for my finite mind to comprehend, but I can trust Him. I don't
have to be able to reason it all out before I can trust Him.
Not if God did it, I don't. See, righteousness, the righteous
salvation, that is the foundation of the believer's trust. God's
righteousness is at the very heart of salvation. Look at Romans
chapter three. You know why God saved his people?
So he could put his righteousness on display. See, it's at the
very heart of salvation. Romans three, verse 26. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Now, here's how God set forth
His righteousness, by being both just and justifier. When we say
He's just and justifier, God made it so that it's right for
Him to save His people, because He made them righteous. He made
them righteous in Him. Now, a sinner can trust that
salvation. That salvation will never fail. It can never be taken away because
God's holy justice demands it be carried out because of God's
righteousness, because he made his people righteous. And the
just judge says the innocent have to go free. So then a righteous
salvation, the righteousness of Christ, it's the foundation
of our trust and it gives a sinner a strong shelter. Look back in
our text in verse three. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me,
O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of
the unrighteous and cruel man. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
shelter in the tide of storm. He is the refuge. He's the only
refuge from God's wrath against our sins. All right, preacher,
you're telling me to run to Christ. You tell me, go to Christ. You
tell me that all to go to Christ, flee to him. How do I know that
I'll be safe hiding in Christ? Can you give me any reason to
know I will be safe hiding in Christ? Yes, I can. The commandment of God. God has
given commandment to save his people. Brother, they're going
to be saved. They're going to be safe and
secure in Christ because that's God's commandment. And God's
will is always done. And we continually resort, we
continually run to Christ and hide in Him. You're the believer. David's an old man here now.
Remember this, he's an old man right now. David hadn't yet got
to the point, and none of us will either, that we've grown
so strong that we quit needing Christ's righteousness, because
we've got some of our own, and at least at some times we can
stand on our own two feet. No. No, we continually run to
Christ. We continually hide in Him. And I'll tell you why we have
to do that. Because this flesh is continually sinful. Even after God saves us, the
flesh doesn't change. The flesh is continually sinful. Who is this wicked? unrighteous
and cruel man that David's talking about. Well, it's not Saul. David's an old man. Saul's long
gone. It's not any of the house of Saul. They're long gone. It's
not the Philistines. It's not the Amalekites. It's
not anybody around there. I tell you exactly who it is. It's this
flesh. It's this flesh. See, men of
the world, I can escape from them. I can find a place to hide.
I can dig a hole and hide from them. But no matter where I go,
I cannot escape the evil that's in my flesh, the evil that's
in my heart. It's always with me. And I tell
you how cruel the flesh is. This flesh is so cruel. You know
what it's always trying to do? Always trying to bring me back
into captivity to the world. Maybe the flesh says you start
acting better. You start thinking better. You
start start. Look up some of the law and obey
those a little more. Do a little better doing those.
And maybe God will be pleased with you and bless you. Maybe
you haven't been blessed because you just haven't been living.
That's the cruelty of this flesh trying to bring us back into
captivity to the law. Nothing can be more wicked than
us trying to please God by what we do. Nothing's more wicked
than that. That's the wicked man that we
must be delivered from. And the only place we can hide
from him, the only place we can get shelter from his accusations,
is to hide in Christ. Is to hide in this righteous
salvation that God's provided in His Son. Now that is a good
foundation to trust in Christ. It's His righteousness. It's
the salvation that He accomplished in righteousness. That's the
foundation of our trust. All right, here's my second point.
Some reasons for the young to trust the Lord. Look what David
says in verse five. For thou art my hope, O Lord
God. Thou art my trust from my youth. From my youth. Now you
know the story of David. David trusted in the Lord from
his youth. You know, no one is ever too young to trust the Lord. David says that God has been
his trust from his youth. Timothy. Paul said the same thing
about Timothy. Timothy, from a child, you've
known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto
salvation. And God's righteous salvation
is a mighty good reason for the young to trust the Lord. Number
one, God's salvation is sovereign. It's sovereign. God's given commandment
to save his people. Well, it can't fail, can it?
That's a mighty good reason to trust him. Number two, God's
salvation is for specific people. And they shall be saved. His
elect. Look here at verse six. By thee have I 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. Here's a good reason to trust
the Lord. God has known his people. whole lot longer than they've
known him. Before they even had any realization
of life, before their mama had any realization of life, before
your mama's mama and her mama and her mama and her mama had
any realization of life, God knew his people and he loved
them. He set his love upon them. He
sent his son to die for them. And in the fullness of time,
they're conceived and they're born. They start learning to roll over.
They start learning to crawl. They start learning to walk.
They start learning to talk. Before long, they go off to school,
and they get out of your sight, and you know what they get into?
Foolishness. Just foolishness that kids get
involved in. It's a wonder any child ever
grows to adulthood. But they do. They do. God's people do because He's
protected them. and the foolishness of their
year. And they think, oh, oh, they
think, why can't my parents be like other parents? Why do they
got to bring me to church? Not only do I got to come to
service, I got to come to Sunday school. I got to come on Wednesday
night. Why can't my parents be like
other parents? Just let me do whatever I want. Oh, that's God. He's got His hand on His people.
Preserving them and protecting them. Just like young Timothy,
God had him born a home. His mother, his grandmother sat
him down and taught him the scriptures. One day, one day, they start
getting ready for their own on Wednesday night. They say, I'm
going to service. God gives them faith to believe.
God gives them life. If God didn't do that, nobody
would be saved. Would they? Nobody would. God
does that for his people. Look at Jeremiah chapter 1. I
know this is what David's talking about here because Jeremiah says
the exact same thing. It's true of David, it's true
of Jeremiah, it's true of everybody God saves. Look here at Jeremiah
1 verse 5. I remember when Janet was pregnant
for the first time with Holly and I was very, very overwhelmed. Excuse me. And I remember reading
this verse with great hope and prayer. Look here, verse five,
Jeremiah one. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified
thee, and Jeremiah, I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
Now that was God's purpose for Jeremiah, before Jeremiah was
ever even conceived. Now do you reckon this is God's
purpose? Do you reckon Jeremiah's going
to be sanctified? This is God's purpose for Jeremiah.
Do you reckon Jeremiah's going to be a prophet? Well now, Jeremiah,
let's Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Let's wait till
you're older. You're too young to be saved.
You're too young to trust the Lord. You're too young to have
anything to say. No, sir. Look at verse six. See,
that was Jeremiah's complaint. Then I said, ha, Lord God, behold,
I cannot speak. I'm a child. I'm too young. But
the Lord said unto me, don't you say that. Say not I'm a child
for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee. And whatsoever
I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces,
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the
Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto
me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have set,
I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms
to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down,
to build and to plant. And that's exactly what Jeremiah
did, because that was God's purpose for Jeremiah. God's purpose,
the salvation of His people, you can trust it. You can depend. It's going to happen. See, this
is a salvation sinners can trust. It's sovereign. It's for a specific
people, even for the young. And thirdly, we can trust this
righteous salvation because it's God who's done all the work.
It's God who's done all the work. Now, I can never trust my sinful,
weak works. Because all my works are failures
every time. Because sin is mixed in all of
them. But I can trust a salvation that's all the work of God. Back
up here in verse 2, David says, deliver me and cause me to escape. Cause me to. Don't just give
me an escape tunnel that I can use if I'll take it. Don't give
me an escape tunnel that will save me if I can just make it
all the way to the end of it. Don't do that. Cause me. to escape. Cause, deliver me. Lord, don't invite me to be saved. Don't invite me to be saved if
I can just take the first step. Let's just do away with all that
because none of that's effectual. Lord, you've got to save me.
You've got to come where I am and you've got to save me. Lord,
be with me like you were with Jeremiah of old. Don't leave
my salvation up to chance. Take me from my mother's womb.
and give me life. Give me physical life. Preserve
me and protect me until you're pleased to reveal Christ to me
and in me. When you give me spiritual life. And Lord, you've got to do all
that for me because I can't do any of it. But the Lord does
it all. All the work that I can trust
Him because it's perfect. You see, salvation is certain
if Christ is doing it all. If Christ is all. If Christ is
your all. Your salvation is perfect. It's
certain. But I'll tell you where certain
damnation is found if I do any part of the work. If my hand
ever touches it, damnation is sure and certain. But Christ
did it all. It's certain. Salvation is certain.
You see, nobody's ever too young to trust Christ doing all the
work of salvation. Now, you can be too young to
be able to go work. You can be too young to go out
in the world and be able to provide for yourself. You can be too
young to understand things of the world. You need your parents.
You need teachers. You need things like that. But you don't have
to be old enough to trust. Matter of fact, maybe young people
can trust even better. They learn to trust. A baby has
got to trust its mama. Young people, you don't have
to be old enough to work. You don't have to be old enough
Here's the question, do you trust? You're not too young to trust
the Lord. And I tell you, the only reason
anybody, whether young or old, the only reason anybody trusts
the Lord is that God has been merciful to us. A person, whether
of any age, that believes God is a wonder of God's grace. Look at verse seven. I am as
a wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge. Let my
mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day.
Now there's no doubt that this is Christ speaking from the cross.
I'm a wonder unto many. He was a wonder unto many that
stood by watching him because they didn't know what was going
on. They didn't know who was suffering, who was dying. They
didn't know why he was suffering and dying. They didn't know what
he was accomplishing through his death. They had no idea.
This was, this was the, the moment of moments in human history.
This is the moment that all of history pointed to up to now.
And this, that was the moment that all future history was going
to look back upon that moment at the cross. He was as a wonder
into me. They didn't know what was going
on. And the same thing can be said of His people. God's people
are a wonder to the world. They don't understand and they
can't understand because God's people have something the world
doesn't have. They've got grace in the heart. They've got a new
man. They've got understanding to
understand the scriptures, to understand how God saves sinners.
They've got eyes to see Christ because God gave it to them.
They've got something the world doesn't have. And as a result, you know
what God's people do? They don't praise themselves.
They praise the Lord. They talk about God's honor.
They talk about the praise of God's mercy and grace and His
righteousness. And my advice to young people
is this. Pray that the Lord will enable
you to start doing that in your youth. Trust Him. Praise Him. You know, it's a It's human nature. It seems like it's been a hundred
years since I was a child and a teenager. But I think some
things haven't changed. A lot of people think, well,
you know, that sounds good, but tell you what I'd like to do.
I'd like to go out here and sow my wild oats first. And then, then
maybe I'll come back and listen to the gospel. Well, here's my
advice to you. You won't take it unless God's
merciful to you, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. Don't
waste your time with that. Don't waste your time seeking,
overly seeking. Seek the things of this life.
Get you an education, do you? But don't overly seek the things
of this life until you've found Christ, who is that one thing. Sit down and talk to old people.
And almost always, their regrets are what they did when they were
young. Seek the Lord. Seek to serve the Lord now. Lamentations
chapter 3. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations
chapter 3. Verse 27, Lamentations chapter
3. It is good for a man that he
bear the yoke in his youth. Now, what yoke is he talking
about there? He's talking about the yoke of the Lord. Our Lord
said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. That's his yoke,
learn of me. This yoke is the yoke of God's
grace. It's serving the Lord, not serving
the law. That's why the Lord said, take
my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy and my burden
is light. And it's good that you bear that
in your youth. Now, how do you do that? Well,
look up verse 22. It's of the Lord's mercies that
were not consumed. because his compassions fell
not. They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in
him. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for them, to the soul that seeketh him. It's good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. It's good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth. Now bearing that yoke is is seeking
the Lord's mercy, being thankful his compassions fell not. They're
new every morning, seeking his faithfulness, seeking the Lord
to be my portion, hoping in him, waiting in him. That's taking
the yoke of the Lord. And nobody who ever has done
that has ever been disappointed. Now, that's a good reason for
young and old, but we're talking here to the young. That's a good
reason for the young to seek the Lord. and to serve Him, to
worship Him, to trust Him. All right, now thirdly, here's
some reasons for the old, to trust in the Lord. Verse nine,
back in our text, Psalm 71. Cast me not off in the time of
old age. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth. Now here's the thing about young
people. Young people tend to not be afraid of anything. They're just not afraid of it.
Whatever comes, eh, We'll just work it out. I've got the strength
of youth. I'll just outwork it. I feel
like I got some time. In my 20s, I remember thinking,
well, I got time. We bought a house that was hardly
livable. It's all right. We've got time. We've got strength.
We'll just, you know. There's not a chance I'd do that
now. But a young person would. They're just not afraid of anything.
Old people tend to be afraid of everything. And they're afraid
they don't have the physical strength. They can't overcome
it like they used to. If they climb up the ladder and
fall off, they don't got time to heal. Their body just won't
do it. Henry told me this one time.
I was pretty young. He told me, you know, he said,
it is good for a pastor to be an older man. He's got some wisdom. He has some time to learn something.
But he says, it's also, here he is, talking both sides of
his mouth. It's also good, he said, for a young man to be a
pastor. And I looked at him, he said, young man will go whip
a grizzly bear at the switch. He said, no man like me won't
do that. So, old people tend to be afraid of lots of things.
Young people aren't. And David tells us here some
fears that old people have. And he gives us the cure for
them. I'll tell you one thing an old believer is afraid of.
We're afraid that now I've gotten old, My strength and my activity
isn't what it used to be. I'm not as active in the Lord's
service as I used to be, and I'm afraid the Lord's going to
cast me off. I'm not carrying my weight. I'm afraid the Lord's
going to cast me off. Here's the cure for that fear.
We need to remember this. The physical strength of youth
is just a mirage. It's just a mirage. We've always
been dependent on the Lord. Our salvation has never depended
upon the strength of the arm of the flesh. Our acceptance
with God has never been dependent upon the strength of the flesh.
It's always been dependent upon the Lord. David says at the start
of verse 16, I will go in the strength of the Lord. Now, that's
true when I'm young and when I'm old, I'm going to go not
in my strength, but in the strength of the Lord. Back there in verse
3, when David said, I'll continually resort, I'll continually run
to Christ and hide in Thee. Well, that's continually. When
I'm young and when I'm old. Now, when you have this fear,
the Lord's going to cast you off because you're not as active
in His service as you used to be. Remember this. The foundation
of trusting the Lord is His righteousness. Remember that? That's the foundation
of it. Well, it would be unrighteous for God to save you by His grace
and then cast you out because you don't have the physical strength
to serve him anymore. That would be unrighteous. In
the old time, kings and earls, you know, they used to have those
great houses full of butlers and maids and footmen and all
those things. I forget the names. Watch Downton
Abbey. You see all the names of those things. Well, you know
what that earl would do when the butler got too old? Out you
go. In with the new. Not the king of kings. Now he's
righteous. He'll never cast off his people,
which he foreknew. Their salvation has always been
dependent on God's strength, not theirs. Then old believers
tend to be more afraid. The closer they think they're
getting to the judgment, the more they become afraid. The
sins of their youth start to haunt them. I used to have a
dear friend, as he got well up in years, The sins of his youth
just haunted him, just haunted him. And I would remind him now,
now the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. He'd say, yeah,
I know, but I'm so ashamed of him. I'm so ashamed. See, this
is an old person thinking they're close to the judgment and their
conscience bothers them. They know. I could have done
more. in God's surface, when I had
the strength of you. When I look back, knowing what
I know now, I see, oh, how much time I wasted on this flesh. And I become fearful. That's
exactly what David's saying in verse 10. For my enemies speak
against me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel
together, saying, God hath forsaken him. Persecute him and take him,
for there's none to deliver him. Now, this enemy speaking is the
same as that wicked cruel, unrighteous man earlier. It's this flesh. And you know how the flesh does.
Always whisper it in your ear. And the flesh is a strong, mighty,
unrelenting enemy. Always trying to bring us back
into captivity to the law. And maybe you hear more as you
get older. I don't know. It gets quieter. You hear that
flesh more. Whisper it in your ear. You know
you could have done more. You could have done better. You
know you haven't done good enough. You better start trying to prop
that up and do better now. Well, of course that's true.
Our works are never good enough. But look at Galatians chapter
3. Here's the cure to the fear of judgment. It's looking away
from our works and looking to Christ, looking to His righteous
salvation. Galatians 3. Verse 1. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you?
This only will I learn of you. Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? When God saved
you, could He save you because of your works of the law or was
it by faith? Now, which one was it? Well,
you know it's a faith. Then verse three, are you so
foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect
by the flesh? See, the cure to this fear is
remembering this. God saved me by His grace. It's by His free grace. It's
all of His grace without any of my works. And God kept me
by His grace. By His free, sovereign grace
alone without any of my works being added to it. If I get to
the end like the Apostle Paul and can say, I finished my course,
I'm going to be able to say that by God's grace. I'm going to
finish this thing by His grace, by His grace alone, without any
of my works being added to it. That's the cure for that fear
of facing the judgment where the sins of our youth come back
to our mind. And then lastly, an old believer
fears not being useful to God's people anymore. Verse 17, back
in our text, Psalm 71. O God, thou hast taught me from
my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also
I'm old and gray-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. Now this is David's prayer, and
I know it's the prayer of many old believers. I've been able
to serve the Lord for my youth. And it was a blessing. It's always
been a blessing to serve the Lord and serve his people. Maybe
I was enabled by God's grace to go preach. Maybe God gave
me a good job. I was able to support financially
the ministry. Maybe the Lord enabled me to
be faithful, to attend the services. Gave me a heart to pray for the
pastor, the preacher ahead of time for the services. God gave
me the ability to do things, to go help people that they couldn't
do for themselves. And this is the prayer. Lord,
now I'm old. I'm gray headed. I can't do physically
like I used to do. So don't cast me off. Don't cast
me off. Don't put me on a shelf. Don't
silence me. Don't put me off in the corner
silent until Let me do this before you put me on shelf. Let me tell
the next generation about God's saving strength. Let me tell
folks about the right hand of the power of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who's accomplished a righteous salvation for his people. God,
if you let me do anything, let me show Christ to the next generation,
to the next generation. And all who are younger ought
to listen. It's a sad, sad commentary that my generation, that we tend
to ignore the older folks and think that, you know, they don't
know as much, they're weak, they're whatever. But I'm telling you
younger folks ought to listen. Because these old believers can
tell us some things by experience. By experience. Now listen to
their message. Listen to their experience. And
this, let me give you this quickly, these last verses. Three things
they'll always tell us. They'll tell us this. Nobody
can perform this righteous salvation but God. Don't you trust your
soul to anybody but God, because there's nobody like Him. Verse
19. Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high. Who has done great
things. O God, who is like unto thee?
There's none like unto thee. Who are you going to liken Him
to? Can't make an idol like him. There's nobody like him. There's
nobody like him. Don't you trust your soul to
anybody but him. He'll never let you down. Then they'll tell
us this. God's going to try his people.
He's going to try them with great and sore trials. But he will
always give grace sufficient for you. Verse 20. Thou which
has showed me great and sore troubles shall quicken me again.
You're going to give me troubles. but you're gonna quicken me again.
You'll bring me up again from the depths of the earth. You're
gonna put me down in them, but you're gonna bring me up out
of them. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and you're gonna
comfort me on every side. He's gonna give us great and
sore troubles, but his grace is gonna be sufficient for everyone
to comfort us on every side. Now trust him, trust him. And
then last, they'll tell us this. God's to be praised for his salvation,
which is done in truth. Nobody who trusts Christ is ever
going to be found guilty. But everybody outside of him
will. So trust him. Verse 22. I will praise thee
with the psaltery, even thy truth. The truth, oh my God. That's
his truth where he made it right to save his people. He truly
made them righteous. Unto thee will I sing with the
harp, O thou holy one of Israel. My lips are greatly rejoiced
when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed.
See, that's the redeemed, how I love to proclaim it. That's
the thing we talk about. My tongue also shall talk of
thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded,
for they are brought into shame that seek my hurt. God has redeemed
his people with the righteous salvation. He's given commandment
for it, and he shall not fail. And he won't quit. He's not going
to quit on you. He's going to bring you all the
way to the end. That's a good reason, isn't it, for both young
and old to trust the Lord. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for these words of comfort, these words of instruction that point
us to Christ our Savior. Father, I pray that you would
tonight give each one of us here a heart that would trust Christ
the Savior, that we'd look to Him in righteous salvation. accomplished by him, through
him, for his people, and cause us, both young and old, to trust
him. You're worthy of our trust. You're
worthy of our praise and our adoration. Father, cause us to
do it. It's in the precious name of
Christ our Savior we pray and give thanks.