If you have your Bibles this
morning, turn with me to the 71st Psalm. Psalm 71. If you have turned in your Bibles
to Psalm 71, let me read verse 15 and 16. Verse 16 is my text for this
morning. I'll be using a few other verses
out of this chapter, David said, 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 go in the strength of
the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. Pardon me a moment. Now this is a psalm here of David's
in his old age. David as a young man trusted
in God. He depended upon God and he was
blessed of God and there was many great victories won in the
life of David. Well, David has grown old, and
he's come down very near to the end of his life. And these are
the words of David as he prayed unto his God. And one important
feature that we see right off in this psalm is that this psalm
is really not addressed to men concerning God, but it is addressed
to God himself. David is talking to his God. The God that he's worshipped,
the God that he's served, the God that has been faithful to
him. The God, as he says in verse
3, has been his strong habitation. He says, whereunto I may continually
resort. I may continue to resort. David
was resorting, as it were, in his God, who was his strong habitation. It's wonderful to have some experience
as a believer, experience with your God. It's wonderful to travel
with your God, and to learn to trust in the Lord, and to depend
entirely upon Him. David has said that in verse
5, he said, For thou art my hope, O Lord God, thou art my trust
for my youth. I've been depending on you all
these years, I've been trusting you, and you've never failed
me, you've never let me down, and you've been steadfast toward
me. You've been as a rock. and you've
been as a fortress toward me. And then he says, by thee have
I been holding up, in verse 6, from the womb. You've been holding
me up, Lord, from the womb. And we can all testify to that.
That is the truth. We have been held up from the
womb. Thou art he that took us out
of our mother's bowels. My praise, he said, shall continually
shall be continually of thee. And so David is speaking here
of his God. And you know, beloved, our psalms
and hymns are not for men, but for the Lord's acceptance. There is to be a time in our
lives when we are to get alone with our God, when we're to,
as it were, go into our closet, and when we're to talk with our
God, and we're to fellowship and commune with Him, and utter
those feelings of our heart. that have been brought to pass
by the dealings of God with our soul through the many years in
which we've been enabled by His grace to walk with Him. And this
is what we find David doing here in this psalm this morning. And
there are times when we are to do the same. And what we have
to say and what we have to give in regards to adoration and praise,
no man needs to hear it. No man needs to hear it. No other
individual needs to be listening to what we say. This is for our
God. This is for the God who loved
us out of our sin and have loved us unto everlasting life. Now
beloved, the tenor of the psalm is that David has been with his
God and he is now ready for anything that life brings. That's the
tenor of this psalm. And as I said, he was coming
down here to the end of his life. He has enemies the same as he
did when he was young. Look at verse 4. Deliver me,
O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of
the unrighteous and cruel man. He has enemies as he always had
as he walked with God and fought the Lord's battles in this world.
And he pours out his heart before God and pleads with Him in verse
9. Now look at verse 9. He says,
Cast me not off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when
my strength faileth. David has come down now as we've
mentioned. To be an old man. And he asked
God that he not cast him off in the time of old age. He says,
forsake me not when my strength faileth. Now in thinking a little
bit about this, I wondered why that such a blessing as this
would be necessary to David in his old age. And there are some
things that I believe that maybe might help you to understand
why that David would be praying like this as an old man. First
of all, I think there are some peculiar circumstances of old
age which renders this blessing and this favor from God and the
presence of God most necessary to the old. Number one, old age
is a time wherein there is but little natural enjoyment. Think about that. When you get
older, when you become an old person, in the Bible sense of
the word, there's very little natural enjoyment left in your
life. And so you need much more to
have the favor, the presence, faithfulness of God toward you. You need communion and fellowship
with God more than ever before. And then old age is a time of
little, as we said, natural enjoyment. It's a time of life in which
the troubles of life are often known to increase. The troubles
of life increase. David said, and mentioned here,
forsake me not when my strength faileth. Well, when your strength
fails, everybody knows that every task of life becomes more difficult,
and you have to improvise, and there's so many, many things,
I guess, that an individual has to learn in regards to how to
make out with a little less strength. and maybe eventually a whole
lot less strength. And so it's a time when life
and the troubles of life become, they increase. And then old age
is also a time in which the troubles of life not only increase, but
become less tolerable, less tolerable. An individual just, well you
can read the book of Ecclesiastes and it would certainly be eye-opening
to you as to what will happen sooner or later in your situation
and what we might say in everyone's situation as they come down to
the end of their life. Old age is a time that ought
to command respect out of individuals, out of people, and it does so,
I think, among dutiful children and all serious Christians. But neglect is often the norm
for old people. And so if you wonder why David
is praying this way, those may be some of the reasons. He's
saying unto the Lord, cast me not off in the time of old age. I need you, Lord. I need you
as I've needed you all my life, but so much more now. Don't cast
me off in my old age. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth. But as we come here to our text
this morning, I take note of the fact in verse 15, we read
this verse. He says, I know not the numbers
thereof. He says, My mouth shall show
forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I
know not the numbers thereof. David knew that there was a whole
lot less than there was at one time, but he knew not the number
of his days. Incline our hearts to wisdom,
that we might apply our hearts to wisdom, that we might redeem
the time, knowing that the days are evil. Redeem the time. We
know not the numbers thereof. No man knows how many days he
has left. And so David said, beings that
things are uncertain as to how long I'm going to live, my mouth,
he says, will show forth your righteousness and your salvation
all the day. I'm going to be employed. I'm
going to be showing forth your righteousness and your salvation. And then in verse 16, and we
have three things in this text, and I want to talk about these
three things with you this morning. In verse 16, he said, I will
go on the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy
righteousness, even of thine only. Now, the three things that
we want to talk about is, first of all, his resolve, I will go. In other words, I'm not going
to sit still, even though I'm an old man. And even though my
years are passing by swift as a shuttle, he says, I'm not going
to sit still. I will go. His resolve is to
be noticed here. And secondly, his reliance. He
says, I will go in the strength of the Lord God. May we have
our hearts set upon that strength. And thirdly, we'll talk a little
bit about his message, which he says, I'll make mention of
thy righteousness, even of thine only. So let's begin here, first
of all, with his resolve. I will go. It is clear, then,
that he has no intention of just sitting down and saying, let
the world go by. He's an old man, but he has no
intention of doing that. He's come a long way already,
and he's getting weary and faint, no doubt about it, and the flesh
suggests that he's had enough. The old body says, it's time
to hang it up. It's time to give it up. There's
no need to press on any further. You're worn out and you need
just a rest from here on out to the grave. Now the devil says
the best thing that David should do, and certainly the will of
the flesh and the devil are our enemies as well. And the flesh
would say to David, it's time for you now to give up the struggling,
give up the battling, give up contending for what is right. Just sit down and let things
just settle where they will. Just let things go and let them
settle where they will. Now David had a different mind
about this. Someone might say to David, David
in your fix and in your situation at the time of life, you cannot
help yourself. You're an old man. You're in
a very sad condition. Look at verse 10 through 11 here. He says, For mine enemies speak
against me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel
together. saying, God hath forsaken him. Here's this old man, he's trying
to contend for the things of God, but God has forsaken him. His enemies saved, the Lord has
forsaken him. Now this was a lie. It was not
true. God had not forsaken David. God will never forsake his own. The Bible says it, please the
Lord to make you His people, and He will not forsake His people. He will not. Over and over in
the Bible it teaches that God will never forsake His own. I
will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee. I will bring
the blind by a way in which they know not, and I will not forsake
them. Over and over. So God is true
to His word, and His enemy said, Just take him now, take him for
there is none to deliver him. Well, that's a lie. David is
going to be delivered by his God, and he said earlier, he
said, this God is my God, and he shall be my guide even unto
death. This God belongs, he's my personal
God, and he's not going to forsake me. But his enemy said, there's
none to deliver. Well, every time the devil tells
you that God has forsaken you and that there's none to deliver
you, you just mark it down, my friend, that this is a lie from
the devil. The devil is a liar from the
beginning. And you need to trust God to the last breath you take
in this world, and depend upon Him, and to believe His precious
Word. Now, you've been under a delusion,
somebody would say, to David all these years. And this trusting
in this God of yours is nothing more than fanaticism. None to deliver. You're forsaken. This business of you trusting
God, give it up. Give it up. Do not go on with
it. It's time just to leave off this
business of trying to be a child of God. Well, this brave old
man gets up and cries. No, he says, I will go. I will go. I'm still going. I must go. I will not sit still. I'll not give it up. I've not
yet finished my life's work. I have more to do. Shall I now
turn tail and run to the rear at the time of battle? Why, he
said, I taught the people of God that song, the mercy of the
Lord endureth forever. And shall I now turn tail and
run? Absolutely not. Now beloved,
this is not imaginary. If you don't believe these things
go on in the lives of the older people of God, you're foolish. This is a photograph of ourself
as we begin to age and get weaker and weaker in the flesh. And
we need to understand that there's going to be a battle right up
to the end. It was said to me, have you not
undertaken more than you can accomplish? I was told that a
few years back. I think you've undertaken more
than you can accomplish. That was said to me when I came
to Montana. You should never try anything
like this. This is the wrong thing to do. You've undertaken more than you
can accomplish. Well, not with God's help. Not
with God's help. We can persevere, as David said
later, in the strength of the Lord. Now then, you'd better
get out while you can, the devil says. Get out while you can,
cut and run. David said, I'll go. I will go. He said, I'll go to the warfare. Whatever was worth contending
for when I was a young man is worth contending for now that
I've reached old age. It's worth contending for. The
truth has not changed, brethren. The truth is the same. It makes
no difference how old you are, how young you are. It doesn't
make any difference. The truth abides the same. And we must contend for that
truth which was once delivered unto the saints of God. We must
go forward and make progress in the things of God. And go
on. I'll go on studying the Word
of God as long as I live. Reading, meditating, studying
the Word of God to establish my heart more and more until
that day when the Lord calls us home. Ah yes, we'll go on
praying, seeking the face of God. We're not any more independent
now than we were at the beginning. Thank God we learned long ago
that we're not independent. We're dependent upon God. I've been a beggar all my...
ever since I've come to know the Lord. Begging God. Begging
God. Calling upon the Lord. And beloved,
I don't expect that it will ever be any different. I think I must
and will have to go on praying and seeking the Lord every day.
I must look to Him for wisdom. I find the old man as strong
as ever. in regards to how the old man
tries to deceive and how he tries to confuse the mind. And beloved,
you will learn that you need to pray and to seek God's face
and pray for the overcoming grace of God in your heart to overcome
the old flesh. And I will go on mortifying the
flesh, killing off the deeds of the mind and the flesh, this
body of flesh. That song, nearer, my God, to
thee, nearer to thee, is the cry of a child of God as he gets
closer to the end. Nearer, Lord, nearer, nearer. deeper, deeper into the things
of God and to the truth of our blessed God. I'll go wherever
any service is proposed to us. Wherever any service is proposed,
David said, I'll go. I'll go. I'm willing to go. I'm
willing to go. And then in suffering, with holy
resignation. You know, we come down and we
mentioned how the troubles multiply in old age and how strength is
gone. Well, beloved, we don't know
what we're going to see between now and the grave. You don't
know what you're going to see. I've known people, young and
strong, ended up in a wheelchair while they were still young.
ended up in a wheelchair. And I've known people that had
to go through an awful lot, suffering and suffering in this life. But there needs to be a holy
resignation in our hearts to whatever a sovereign God brings. The poet said, If but my fainting
heart be blessed with thy sweet spirit for its guest, my God,
to thee I leave the rest. Thy will be done. If God's presence
will go with us, if the Lord will be near us to comfort and
to guide and to strengthen us in our feebleness, then we'll
just say, I'll leave the rest with the Lord. Whatever, whatever,
we'll leave it to Him. Whatever He chooses to do. Now then, in the end, when the
Lord calls us over the river, David would say, I'll go. I will
go. Well, certainly no man can retain
his spirit in that day, but there needs to be a resignation in
our hearts. We need to be willing to go,
not go kicking and screaming, be willing to go, to go. with
the Lord and to be with the Lord. And some people have an awful
time when it comes to dying. An awful time. Nobody knows exactly. You say, well, I won't have.
Well, my friend, listen, let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall. It's a sober thing to die. It's
a serious, solemn thing to die. And when you come down to the
end, and when you know that it's a sure thing, you're leaving
this world, you don't know what you'll do. And so you need just
to begin to think now, will I be willing to resign myself into
the hands of the Lord as the Lord Jesus did? Father, into
Thy hands I commend my spirit. Alright, so then David said,
I'll go. That's his resolve. Just keep on going. There ain't
nowhere to turn back. John Bunyan said, beside the
river of death, there's no place to quit for a child of God. We must keep pressing on. I will
go is the resolve of David. And then secondly, his reliance.
He says, I will go in the strength of the Lord God. He says, I will
go in the strength of the Lord God. So you see, He would go
relying upon strength that would not weaken with years. That strength
in which he would go, that strength would remain the same. He is
the same omnipotent God as he was when David was a young man. And when David had drawn from
his strength as he lived out his days as king in Israel. And isn't it wonderful to know
that he's the same Omnipotent God to us as he was to David. The same Omnipotent God. Now then, our own strength wanes
with the years, but not so with God. And David means that he
would go on in the all-sufficiency and the immutable power of God. David said, I said it once and
I'll say it again, that power belongeth unto God. He can sustain
a man and enable him to go on in strength when he is old and
when he's feeble. We're strong to do what we ought
to do if we have the strength of God. Now there's a lot of
things that we ought not to do if we're strong in body. There's
a lot of places you oughtn't to go. There's a lot of things
you oughtn't to do. But if we go in the strength
of the Lord God, we will do what we ought to do. We can do what
we ought to do in the strength of the Lord. You know, Philippians
4 and 13 says, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens
me. Well, that's what David was saying.
Next, he is confident as to the sufficiency and the adaptation
of God's strength to every trial or work to which he might be
called in this life. In the Hebrew, when he said,
I will go in the strength of the Lord God, it is I will go
in the strengths of the Lord God. If it be mental strength
I need, God can give it. If it's physical strength that's
needed, He can give it. If we need spiritual power, He
is the giver. Because he said, all power is
given to me in heaven and earth. Go ye. So, if we need whatever
power we need, nothing is wanted by a believer but that which
the strength of God supplies when it is needed. Does not the
word of God say, as our days demand, so shall our strength
be? Well, that's a great promise,
my friend. As your day demands, your strength will be. We will
surely find the supply equal to the demand. Now, you say,
my way is very strange, preacher, and it's a very difficult way.
Well, it's not new to God, and it certainly doesn't baffle His
wisdom, and it certainly is not going to drain His resources
to where He cannot give you strength to go on. That is your resolve. Now, it's one of the miracles
of God that each man He is just such a God as He needs to each
man. Isn't that wonderful? I think
that's a miracle of God. You know, there was a Welch woman
one time that said, Christ is not a Jew, she's a Welchman. He is a Welchman. And somebody
said, well, what do you mean by that? And she said, well,
He always talks to me in Welch. And so it is. He always talks
to me in English. But He's a God. Now listen to
this now. He is such a God. Jesus knows how to adapt his
strength not only to each nationality but to each personality and to
each peculiarity of that personality. Now you just think on that a
little bit and that'll meet your need, I believe, in your heart.
God's strength is adaptable. Jehovah is the special God and
the special strength of each individual Christian. So in service,
regardless of how difficult it is, regardless of how much stress and pressure there
is, my soul, it gets more and more difficult as we get down
the road. And I've talked to several pastors
who tell me that it's not the same as it used to be. Well,
I'm not so sure about that, whether it's different than it used to
be or not. But there's a lot of pressure upon those men who
are trying to preach the gospel in our day and time. A lot of
things happening. Men are resigning churches, stepping
back because of the pressure and because of the stress. I
was thinking about old brother Mahan. And he would go down to
Florida and get a few days of relaxation and rest. And he would
come back to Ashland, Kentucky. And he said that when he got
on the outskirts of the city, the stress and the pressure would
become so great that finally he just said, I can't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore. Of course,
he's 77 years old, had a couple of light strokes, and just couldn't
handle it anymore. Well, in service, we must go
in the strength of the Lord our God. And there will come a time
even when these old bodies will not support us any longer. And
then in the difficult spots on the road to glory, Have you ever
come across any places where like on a trail, it's just absolute
slick and downhill, you just cannot, you just can't go any
further. I mean a difficult spot, and
there are difficult spots on the way to glory, friend. You
say, well I haven't had any of them yet, preacher. Well you
may not, but you hang around, you'll have some of them. Difficult
spots on the way to glory. And you'll have to say, well
I'll go. but I'll only go in the strength of the Lord God.
Only in His strength will I attempt to go on and to deal with the
things that I have to deal with. And then in the time of saying
goodbye to those on earth. It's a trying time. It's a trying
time even if we believe that in the kindness and goodness
and mercy of God that we'll see them again even here in the world.
It's trying to the soul to leave the people that we love and then
whenever we know that we're not going to see them ever again
in this world as far as being in a body of flesh we know the
time is coming when we shall go the way that we shall not
return and nothing will ever be the same again for us in this
world and we must leave our loved ones and go on to be with the
Lord well we shall say I think like David, I will go in the
strength of the Lord my God. I'll lay down my life at His
feet and trust Him. Now, so then, when afflictions
come, I'll go in the strength of the Lord God. Remember these
things. I must hurry. Thirdly, to His
message. His message. He says, I will
make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. Four times
In this particular chapter, he mentions the righteousness of
God. In verse 15, of course, in verse
16, 19, and verse 24, he mentions the righteousness of God. Now, this is his message. This
is his message. And the only testimony that he
was going to bear for the rest of his life would be a testimony
to the righteousness of the Lord. This was what he was going to
be talking about the rest of his life. And here is enough,
beloved, for a lifetime of work. A lifetime of work. I will make
mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. We are to
bear testimony, listen to this now, we are to bear testimony
to the righteousness of God in Providence. Now, you think with
me a little bit. We're going to close early. But
you listen to what I'm saying. We need to bear, as God's people,
especially the older we get, we need to bear testimony to
the righteousness of God in Now the providence of God is the
outworking of God's will and decree. The Bible says, Do all
things without murmuring and disputing, for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Providence is God working out
His will in your life. And we need to testify to the
rightness of God's will. Providence. We must sanctify
God, stand to it, that the Lord never does wrong. He never does
wrong. He is never mistaken. Do you
believe that? He is never mistaken. But whatever
He ordains is and must be unquestionably right. Now can you bear testimony
to that today and say, well, this is true. This is true. I
bear testimony to the righteousness of His providence. What God does
is right. The ways of the Lord are right,
regardless of what I think about them. Alright, now the next thing
is that we're to bear witness to His righteousness in salvation. That He, God, does not save without
an atonement. The Lord Jesus Christ died and
shed His blood to make an atonement. And His blood is the propitiation,
it's the satisfaction to God for our sins. That He does not
say without an atonement, that He does not put away sin without
being strictly just. that he does by no means spare
the guilty, but has laid on Christ that which was due our sin, that
he might be just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus."
Romans 3.26. And we're to go on and tell everybody
that the righteousness which saves you is the righteousness
of God and not your own righteousness. Beloved, listen to me this morning.
There is no such thing as human righteousness. Get that well
fixed in your mind. There is no such thing as human
righteousness until, somebody said, until pigs can fly, and
dirty linen, and dirty clothes, Righteousness will be something
other than sin. Our righteousness is as filthy
racked, God said. It's as filthy racked. There
is no such thing as human righteousness. And the Bible says in Titus 3
and 5, it says, Not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to His mercy He saved us. His mercy doesn't
have anything to do with our works. Mr. Spurgeon made this
statement one time. He said, it is easier to save
us from our sins than from our righteousness. Our self-righteousness
is that hideous, bold constrictor which seems to coil itself round
and round our spirit and to crush out of us all the life that would
receive the gospel of the grace of God. I think that's a good
statement. It's a good statement. And when
I say there's no human righteousness, I'm not saying that your neighbor
don't think you're righteous. Oh, no. I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't dare say that. I wouldn't
dare say that your children don't think you're righteous. But I
am telling you that God says your righteousness stinks in
His nostrils and that you don't have any as far as He is concerned. And until filthy rags become
righteousness, we don't have any. We have no personal merit. that were justified by imputed
righteousness. That's why David was talking
about this. Now, because I believe that a
seed or a word of the gospel dropped into the soul of a man
can spring up into everlasting life, I invite you to turn with
me to the book of Romans chapter 3 And I want to read here just
a few verses of gospel truth. Romans chapter 3, David said,
Of thy righteousness I will speak all the day long. But now, we
read in verse 21, But now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested. The righteousness of God that
a man can have without law keeping is manifested being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe for there is no difference. Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith. We become righteous by believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ that we become righteous. Now I invite you to turn over
also to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30. This is so
important. You say, I don't know why David
would have went off like this and said that's all he's going
to talk about the rest of his life. Well, I'm showing you why. Because there is a righteousness
that is worth talking about. Not ours, but his. Now notice
here in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made. Is made. Is made. Now that is
a very important word. Is made. If we're in Christ Jesus,
Jesus Christ has been made. That word is legally constituted. unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. In other words, Christ is looked at by the Father as
being our righteousness. He is the Lord, our righteousness. Again, to show the importance
of this, in the 5th chapter of 2 Corinthians, verse 21, For
he hath made him, For He hath made Him. God the Father has
made Him Christ, legally constituted Christ. Legally, before God,
Christ became the sinner that I was. He became the sinner that
I am. He hath made Him to be just exactly
what all of His people are. Just as if He had committed the
sin Himself. God looked upon Christ just as
if He had committed the sin Himself. And then look at this. He says,
that we might be made. There's the word again. legally
constituted the righteousness of God in Him. In other words,
God looked at Jesus, saw His perfect life. He looked at us,
and saw our sin. Our sin, He said, He would lay
on Christ, and then He would take the perfect life of Christ,
and give it unto me. And that perfect life of the
Lord Jesus Christ is my righteousness, which I ought to talk about every
day. Talk about all the time. It's
His righteousness that should be extolled, should be lifted
up, and should be impressed upon the people. Now, go and tell
everybody that the righteousness which saves you is the righteousness
of God and not your own righteousness. Make mention of the righteousness
of Christ which covers you from head to foot. Listen to what
the poet said, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty
are, my glorious dress, midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head. That's the only reason why I
lift up my head. The righteousness of God which
is in Christ Jesus. Now his boast is in the righteousness
of Christ and he mentions this To God as the ground of his confidence,
to himself as the spring of his comforts, and to others as the
hope of salvation. No salvation apart from the righteousness
of God imputed to the soul. No salvation. You cannot stand
before Christ, holy God, clothed in any of the garments except
the white linen of the Lord Jesus Christ, His perfect righteousness. And that's what we must have
to stand before God. And lastly, we must declare the
righteousness of God as to a future state, heaven or hell. Now, I
don't know whether you're prepared to do this or not, But I do believe that God will
do what's right about all men. There's people in this world
who find all kinds of faults with God, fall with God because
He chooses some and passes by others. Well now, if you want
to impugn a righteous God, an all-wise God, a holy God, a God
who's never done wrong, and if you want to say that God is not
wise enough to know what He's doing, then you go ahead and
say it. But my friend, you be contented
with God. I'm saying to you today that
God is righteous and we need to speak of the righteousness
of God and say, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. God has brought down
his wrath and judgment. And in the end, as we get to
heaven, we look around. By the grace of God, we'll be
there. We look around and others are not there that we thought
ought to have been there. And we may, we won't in that
day criticize God because then we'll have a glorified body and
we'll have a mind like the mind of Christ who said, who said,
you know that, who rejoiced in spirit and said that even so
far there's seen good in your sight. Oh, I'd like to see every
one of you saved. I pray for you. I pray for you
before I preach to you. God, save these people. Save
every one of them. Save these people and hear the
gospel. But I know that God's will must be done in the matter.
It's the will of God. I don't worship a God who can
will something that He can't bring to pass. God will bring
to pass that which pleases and glorifies Him. And you remember
that. You remember that. We can't worship
a God who can will one thing and then is not able to make
it happen. I mean, what kind of a God would
that be? The God we worship is a God who will to save a people. He is saving them, and he will
save up to the very last one of them for reasons known to
himself. And we must declare the rightness
of God as to the future state of men. And then, I think we
need to talk about the righteousness of God to convince men of their
unrighteousness. You know, when I begin to talk
about the Lord Jesus and His righteousness, while the unrighteous
surely will be convicted. Oh, mine don't come up to His.
That's the point. That's the point of the verses
that Mitch quoted this morning out of Galatians. The very point
of them is that the law is our schoolmaster to bring us Where? To Christ. To Christ. We talk
of it to win admiration for the Lord Jesus. You say, well, you
mean that you're trying to stir up us to admire Christ? That's
right. That's right. And if you ever
see this clearly, that Christ and Christ only, and there's
a good point that I found on that, and I don't want to take
too much more time because I said I was going to close early, Listen
to what this says. Salvation is all in Christ, and
unless you feel yourself shut up to Christ with everything
else having failed, you're not a Christian. What do you think
about that? I believe that's right. I believe
that's right. Unless you feel yourself shut
up to Christ with everything else having failed, Do you honestly
believe there's something else that can save you besides Christ?
His righteousness? No. We talk about His righteousness
to excite admiration and to win admiration for the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then to comfort believers.
Is it any comfort for you to know that your dress and your
beauty is not yours, but it's His? It's a comfort to me to
know that. I'm blessed, I'm blessed. I'm
dressed in righteousness, not my own. His beauty, the beauty
of the Lord Jesus Christ we wear as saints of God, accepted of
God in the Beloved because of who He is and because of His
righteousness. Well, this is a very happy vocation,
I think, a very happy vocation to speak of His righteousness
all the day long. Glory to God. Hallelujah. for His righteousness. Mr. Spurgeon one time was preaching
from the text of Mark 2.17 where Jesus said, I came not to call
the righteous but sinners to repentance. And he said this,
he said, some of you may say, you seem to think us a bad lot. And so do I, he says. Others
explain, well, how can you talk to us in this way? We're honest,
moral, and upright people. If so then, he says, I have no
gospel to preach to you. You may go elsewhere if you will,
for you may get moral sermons in scores of chapels if you want
them. But I've come in my Master's
name to preach to sinners, and so I will not say a word to you
Pharisees except this. By so much as you think yourself
righteous and holy, by so much shall you be cast out of God's
presence at last. Well, I believe that's true.
So I'm here to win admiration for the righteousness of God.
That was David's message, his sermon. His resolve, his reliance,
and his message. that the Lord will use this.
He's used it in my heart. He's helped me with it. I needed
it, desperately needed it, and the Lord's helped me. All right,
now we'll hurry on here to some matters which we need to