I'd like to read verse 16. Verse 16 of Psalm 71. David here is saying in his old
age, I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make
mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. I wanted
to speak this morning on this verse of scripture. It's a very,
very special and outstanding versus scripture to me the Lord
and my heart and civilly and I trust that what we have to
say today will be of benefit to your own soul now there are
some who believe that David was probably somewhere between 70
and 80 years old when these words were pinned and this is the song
of As someone as well said, of David's old age. Because, as
we said, this man had traveled in the ways of the Lord for a
long time. And he had many varied experiences, many and various
experiences in his walk with the Lord. And he knew something
about what it was to begin to feel the infirmities that come
on at old age. It seems like that everybody
wants to live a long time but nobody wants to get old. Everybody
wants to remain strong and vibrant, strong and able to do all the
things that they'd like to do, but they're not able to do that.
My old mother, when she was about 88, 89 years old, said that if
she knew that she was going to live so long, she would have
took better care of herself when she was younger. And so, beloved,
we're all going to get old. And David was getting old and
getting infirm. And this is a psalm of his old
age. And one important feature of
this psalm is that it is not addressed to men concerning God,
but it is addressed to God himself. David is talking to God in this
psalm. He's having communion with the
Lord. He's talking to his God, that
God that he has traveled with from a young man He is now old
and he's traveled with this God, and he's in communion with this
God. Now, beloved, our psalms and
our hymns and our praises and our meditation are not for the
benefit of men, but they're for the Lord's acceptance. And when
we get along with God in our closets, when we get along in
that room where we are praying and seeking the Lord and having
communion and fellowship with God, that room to us is the closest
place to heaven. And there we're communing with
God out of our soul, and that's private. It's private. It's between
us and the Lord. Now, the Lord was pleased to
give us a view of what went on in David's heart, the words that
came out of his mouth, As he was in communion with God, he
heard this psalm. But there are many, many experiences
that we have in our fellowship with God and in our times of
worship that are just between us and the Lord, our God. Now, this seems to me to be the
tenor of the psalm. He has been with his God, and
he's now ready for whatever life brings to him in his old age. He's ready for whatever. he must
face in his life now. He has enemies, according to
this psalm, as he did when he was a young man. Look at verse
four. Look at what verse four says. He says, deliver me, O
my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the
unrighteous and cruel man. He has many enemies still. He's a servant of God. He's been
an instrument in the hands of God to bring judgment upon many,
and God used him Greatly in his kingdom, and he still has these
enemies lurking around He pours out his heart before God and
he pleads with God as he does in verse 9 He says cast me not
off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength failing
and so he cries to God that God will undertake for him and when
his strength is ebbing out and he's about to ready to lean on
the staff, and as he continues his journey in this world, to
feel his infirmities, he prays and pleads with God not to forsake
him, but to bless him and to give him strength. Now, here
in this psalm, verse 16, I think we have three things here that
we ought to talk about. we all talk about this morning
the first thing that I want to talk about is David's resolve
in old age he says I will go I will go and then he tells us
how he's going to go secondly and that is his resolve his resolve
or his reliance that is his reliance he says I will go in the strength
of the Lord God and then he has a message that he wants to get
out as long as he's in the world. And that message here is, I will
make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. So we have
his resolve, we have his reliance, and we have his message. And
those three things I wish to speak to you on this morning. First of all, here's this old
man, and he has a resolve. He says, I will go. I will go. From this, I think it is clear
that David's telling us that just because he's old and beginning
to feel his imperatives, that he'll not sit still. That he'll
just not sit down and say, let the world go by. I'm not going
to get involved anymore. I'm not going to participate
anymore. I just want to sit down and be still. he's got a long
ways already and he's getting weary and faint of the flesh
suggests that maybe he's traveled enough maybe he's had enough
of the Bible maybe he's had enough of life's trials and maybe he
should just simply quit and the devil says the best thing that
you could do now David is to give up the struggle the best
thing you could do at your age is give up this contending and
this battling and just sit down and let everything just drift
on by. and get out of the race, get
out of the battle, get out of the storm, and just find you
a little place of refuge and get away from it all. You cannot
help yourself, David. You're an old man, and you're
in a very sad condition, and you're not able to do anything
for yourself anymore, and everybody's looking on you, and you've been
a wonder to many. I'm sure you've been Coming to
me, I'm your refuge, but you've been a wonder to me, to many,
David, out here in the world as you've struggled along and
as you've won many victories and suffered some defeats. But
now the best thing for you to do is when your strength is failing,
just give it up. This is what the devil says,
and this is what the flesh would say, I think, to an old man. You're in a sad condition. You've
been under a delusion all these years. You've been thinking that
you can leap over a bench. You've been thinking. after battle in this world, and
you've been trusting in God, and you know this trusting in
God, the devil says, is sheer fanaticism. And David, you've
been one of the biggest fanatics in regards to religion and trust
in God and believing in God's purpose and power in your life
as any man that ever lived. You've been a fanatic. And it's
time for you just to stop. And don't go off with this. There's
none to deliver you now, David. And God is forsaking you. And this is what they're saying
in verse 11. God has forsaken him. Let's persecute
him and let's take him. For there's none to deliver him. There is none. and we'll stand
up for him now. There's none that's gonna save
him. And the devil just grinds us
in to the old believer. There's none now. You're forsaken. You're abandoned. Your best days
are gone. There's nothing more except just
weariness and trouble and trial and fading and struggling down
the road. And just give it up. Do not go
on with it, David. It's time to leave and go. But
this old brave man, He gets up and he cries, no. He says, I
will go. I will go. I will not sit still. I will 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 of the battle? Shall I now give it up? I've
marched out in front of the army most of my life. I've been in
the thick of the fray. I've been in the thick of the
battle. And now, am I going to turn about? He says, no. He says,
I will go. Now, he had taught the people
the song that the mercy of the Lord endureth forever. Shall
this one who's been the sweet singer of Israel, the psalmist,
Shall he now sing the song of defeat, hanging his harp upon
the willow tree, and murmuring and complaining because of old
age? No, he says, I've taught the
people that the mercy of the Lord endures forever. Beloved,
you may think this morning that this is imaginary. You may think
this is just the imagination of an old man or an old individual
following the Lord. But beloved, this is a photograph
of ourselves. A photograph of ourselves. Now, you may yet be in the strength
of your youth, and you may never have felt this way. I know something
about both sides of the fence, how it is. And I've felt both
ways a few times. But I will tell you this, that
until you get to the place where your verdaven was at this time,
You may say, this is just imagination. It's not really this way. When
you get older and you're a believer. Beloved, we walk by faith and
not by sight. This flesh knows nothing about
faith. We're looking at things that
are eternal. We're not looking at things temporal. We're not able to derive what
we need as believers in God, as followers of Christ, enough
of what we see to sustain us in this world. We must, like
Moses, endure as seeing Him that is invisible. And oh, David,
he was not imagining things. This was real with him. He felt
that his strength was failing, and he recognized that his enemies
were still strong, and they were still all about him. And he knew that they were saying,
there is none to help him. God's forsaken him. He knew all
of this. He wasn't imagining that. The
mercies of God are clean gone. He knew what they were saying,
but beloved, I want you to know this morning that this is a photograph
of ourself, and if it's not a photograph of ourselves immediately, it
will be down the road. It was sent to me recently. I'll
not necessarily distinguish him who sent it, but he said to me,
have you not undertaken more than you can accomplish? If you
are a preacher and you're still going on and on, and it doesn't
look like that you're ever going to have any success, haven't
you really undertaken more than you can accomplish? Well, you'd
better just get out while you can. David said, no! He says, I will go. That's his resolve. I will go.
There will not be a day when I will not go forward. and make progress as I am, as
God will bless me in the things of God. I believe that there
is an indication here in the Hebrew that it says I'll go to
warfare. I'll just keep on fighting. I'll
keep on clawing and scratching, and I'll keep on fighting. As
long as God will give me the strength to do it, I'll go forward
and I'll make progress. I'll make progress in the things
of God. I will go on studying the Word
of God that those things that God has taught me might be clearer
and clearer and clearer to me until I get to the place where
I'm not able to think anymore. I heard or read this about an
old man the other day that had got to the place where that he
just, his mind was going and coming and somebody said, well,
he was a very happy man. Somebody said, well, why was
he so happy? He said, well, when I'm able to think, I think about
Jesus. And when I'm not able to think,
I know He's thinking about me. And so He rejoiced and He was
happy in His soul. So, beloved, we just go on and
we keep on studying the Word of God so that those things that
we know already, that they become clearer and clearer and clearer
in our hearts. Not only that, but we'll go on
praying. We'll just go on seeking the
Lord. We'll go on asking God to reveal
Himself. We'll go on praying and seeking
the hand of God to come and empower to undertake for us and for those
of ours to make His hand visible and clear to the generation that
we, to the generation in which we live and those coming generations. He's, also I believe that there's
a hint here that David said, whatever's got to be done, mortification
of the flesh, dealing with my own contrary nature. And I wish I could tell you that
nature gets easier to deal with when you get older. It's not
so. You get more contrary, more hungry,
more confused, and more, I think, desirous of your own will the
older you get. There must be a mortification
of the flesh as long as a believer lives. A believer must be on
top of his situation and must realize what he's dealing with. We got an enemy living in here
and that enemy's not going to die before we do. That enemy's
going to be in there giving us problems and troubles and difficulties
as long as we live in this world. And there needs to be a mortification
of these things. And we need to be praying, hear
my God to thee, near to thee. There was a woman, you know,
there's so many things that we lose sight of. We live beneath
our privilege as God's children. I read about a woman here recently
whose father was very poor. And when she grew up, she was
used to poverty. And when she got older and she
married a man who was well off, her husband had means and had
money. And she never was able, her husband
would put money in her account and she would not spend it. the mentality she grew up with,
that we're poor, we're poor, we're destitute, and we don't
have anything to do anything with. We get that feeling, you
know, and it comes on us. We've grown up with the idea
that we're weak, we're frail, we don't have, we're not able
to do and to go about life, and we don't live up to our privileges.
Now, beloved, her father was a type of the old man and The
old man of our our daddy Adam. You know he didn't sell our inheritance.
You know that you know he didn't lose everything For us he lost
it all but now we're married to another this woman was married
to a man It was well off and he put money in her account and
said well why don't you spend this money? Why don't you spend
it? It's for you. I put it in your
account. It belongs to you. Spend it. And she just could not bring
herself to do it. And you and I are one like that
in this world. We're married to another Paul
said. The old man. We're married to
another. And that is Jesus Christ our
Lord. And we need to live up to our
privileges in Him. That's why we must never say,
I'm quitting. I'm quitting. I will go, David
said, because we're joined to one who is the heir of all things. We're joined to one who is all
wise. We're joined to one who has everything to be turned over
to him. And all is ours in Christ. And we'll not give it up. We
are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, my God, nearer to thee,
nearer to thee, I must be. I will go, David said. Whenever
there's any new opportunity of service proposed to me, I will
go. I will go. I'll not sit back
and say, I can't do it. I can't do it. I'm not able to
do it. I'll go. And this is a word to
all of us. And then in suffering, we are
to suffer with holy resignation. We're not asked to get out of
this world without suffering. Everyone of us here are bound
to suffer to some degree unless God takes us in just a moment. Sudden death. Somebody said sudden
death is a mercy. And I'll tell you what, if you
go to the hospitals and walk the halls of the hospitals and
the nursing homes, you'll agree with that individual. Sudden
death is a mercy. Beloved, when it comes to suffering,
David would say, I'll go, I'll go, and I'll suffer with resignation,
holy resignation to whatever it is that God has for me to
suffer. The poet said, if but my paining heart be blessed with
thy sweet spirit for its guest, my God to thee I leave the rest,
thy will be done. If God will be with us, I will
go. If it involves suffering, I will
go. If the Lord calls us over the
river, we will go. I will go. I will not go kicking
and screaming. I will go when the Lord calls
me home. When the time comes for us to
depart this life, and every one of us unless the Lord Jesus splits
the sky and comes back out, glory for us, and will every one of
us have to pass through the grave. But our Lord Jesus Christ, our
representative authority, died, he went into the grave, and he
went out the other side of the grave, he left the grave clothes
off, folded in the grave. He wants a victory. The grave
is not going to defeat any child of God. The death is not a tragedy. It is triumph for a child of
God. We will have the victory in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there's no need to say,
I'll not go. I will not go. We will go. And David said, I will go. I will go. Now, when that brings
me secondly, I hope then we can get the resolve of this old man
pitched in our heart. I will go. I will not sit down,
sit still, fight this thing all the way to the mouth of the grave.
I'll go. And I'll go with holy resignation. And then he's realized. He says,
he tells us how. He said, I will go. Tells us
how in the strength. of the Lord God. That's how I'm
going to go. I'll go in the strength of the
Lord God. He would go relying upon the
strength that would not weaken with years. He would go relying
upon the omnipotent hand of his God. And I want to point out
this morning that the hand of omnipotence, the hand of God,
is no weaker now than it was when David was drawing from God's
strength. His arm is strong to deliver. Our own strength wanes with the
years, as David did, but not so with God. David means that
he would go in the all-sufficiency and immutable, unchanging power
of God. That's how he would go. He'd
face life back. Beloved, it's no little thing
to be a Christian. It's no small thing to get into
this world and to fight the battles day by day that children of God
must fight in this wilderness, in this land of dryness and deadness,
in this land where there's persecution and trial on every hand. It's
no small thing to tackle the flesh. and to deal with the old
man and attempt to be an overcomer in this world. That's no small
thing. And if you think it is, you've
got another thing coming as you get down the road dealing with
some of the problems that God's children have to deal with. Now
then, David means that a man can be strong in the Lord, the
power of His might. That a man can be strong in God.
That a man can do exploits that knows his God. That a man can
do far beyond and above what a person might think they can
do if they'll trust the arm of the Lord and trust the strength
of God. Philippians 4 and 13 says, I
can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. We're strong,
beloved as believers to do what we ought to do. And it's only
what we ought to do that we want to do in the strength of the
Lord. So whatever it is in this world
that we ought to do, we will be able to do in the strength
of the Lord. Whatever it is that we would
be glorified to God for an old man and old woman to do, He can
do. God's strength will be there. God will give them strength.
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. He's confident of it. He said,
I will go in the strength of the Lord. Now in the Hebrew,
it means I will go in the strengths of the Lord God. In the strengths. of the Lord God. If it's mental
strength you need, God can give. If it's physical strength you
need, He can give that also. If we need spiritual power, He's
the giver of it. He said, all power is given to
me in heaven and in earth. He said, it's all my power belongeth
unto me. It belongs unto God. Whatever it is, is wanted by a believer that
that which strength of God, the strength of God, supplies when
it is needed. As our days, the Old Testament
says, our strength shall be. I'm talking about how David's
going to go. That's what I'm talking about,
in the strength of the Lord God, in the strength of the Lord God. Love will surely find supply
equal to the demands, to the demands, the supply, of god's
free say by way is a very strange way preacher and it's a very
difficult way it's a unique way that I think well I'm sure that
it is if you say so and I think sometimes mine is I think we
all probably do at different times think that our way is a
little bit different everybody else's is different and our situation
is just one that calls for some self pity and that we're not
really, you know, going to ever... The solutions that's been applied
to other people's situations wouldn't work with ours. Ours
is a different situation. Well, love, let me hasten to
say that while your situation may be strange and difficult
to you, your situation... Now, there was an old Welsh woman... I got into an argument with her
about whether Christ was a Jew or not. And she said, Christ
is no Jew. She said, Christ always speaks
to me in Welsh. He's a Welshman, is what he is. Well, beloved, let me tell you
something. I believe the Lord speaks to me in English. That
doesn't necessarily make him an Englishman. But he speaks
to everybody like he did at Pentecost. Remember when he spoke at Pentecost? The brethren got up and preached
and every man that was there. People were there from all over
the world at that time. And they all heard the gospel
in their own language. When it got to them, they heard
it in their own language. And that's the way it is when
God speaks to men in this world. Now there's something that was
interesting to me about this. Jesus Christ knows how to adopt
or to adapt His strength. not only to each nationality,
but to each personality and to each peculiarity of that personality. Is that a good statement? I think
it's a very good statement. I'm telling you, you may say,
well, my situation's different. You can go in the strength of
the Lord, in the strengths of the Lord. You can go. You can
go. God will bless you and give you
strength. is the special God and the special
strength of each individual Christian, each individual believer. Now,
we're talking about how David's going now. So, in service to
your God, you go in the strength of the Lord. So, I said, would
you get up and read today? Well, I don't know that I'm necessarily
prepared to read today, but we don't have anybody that says
that around here, but I'll get up in the strength of the Lord.
Somebody said, would you take a little part in the service
today? Well, I'll do it in the strength of God. I'll get up
in the strength of God. If God will bless me, if God
will give me help, I'll do it in the strength of the Lord.
Now, beloved, in difficult spots on the road to glory, we desperately
need to remember this. There are some real tough roads
to travel in this world. I mean, there are some places
where you've got just a little place to walk. You get off of
that road, the night is dark, and I'll tell you, there's a
slippery on that old road, and you can be gone just like that. You can just trip and you can
fall in a very, very, just a moment of time. Difficult roads to travel. Some of us have traversed. some
difficult roads in our lifetimes. And we know what we're talking
about. But beloved, listen, on these difficult roads that we
must travel, the strength of God is sufficient. David said,
I'll go in the strength of God, wherever I'm led, I'll go. I'll
go, but I'll go in the strength of the Lord. Now, not only that,
but I think there's some other times whenever we need to remember
this. not only in times when we're
getting up to serve the Lord, and times when we've got difficult
roads to travel in this world, but also, I think, when we come
to that time in our life when afflictions come, and we have
to face, maybe, operations. Maybe we've got to go, God forbid,
but be a miracle. If some of us in the next year
don't notice a serious operation, and some don't have to have heart
bypass surgery, or some don't have to just come right to this
stage for some other battle, cancer, or some other problem,
health problem, be a mercy. And, you know, there's great
action in leaving your home going off to the hospital, and sometimes
they come and get you in the ambulance, great stress, distress,
and you've got to go knowing, knowing very little, so much
unknowable. And that's the time, brother,
when you say, I will go in the strength of the Lord. I'll go
in God's strength. God going with me. I'll be able
to go through this operation if God wills it. If the Lord,
with his strength, his mind, I'll be able to go through it. And then there are times also
of saying goodbye in this world. Well, we need to remember this.
We need to remember, times when we must say goodbye, leave our
families, family leave us, four way, miles away. Times when we
must renew. I will go in the strength of
the Lord. I'll give up this child in the
strength of the Lord to go on about his business or her business
in the world. Go on out to do the things that
they feel the Lord would have them to do. I'll give up in the
strength of the Lord. It's a great trial for the believer. Believers cherish their parents. Believers love their families
and their children. And they love the relationship
that they have with their children. True believers, they enjoy their
families. And their families to them are
no burden. Their families to them are precious. And when it comes time for one
of them to leave, it's like tearing the flesh off of a bone. It's
tough. It's difficult. And you must
say, I'll do it in the strength of the Lord. I'll go in the strength
of the Lord. This boy must go. I'll approach this, not with
whining and not with contrariness, but I will approach it in the
strength of God. I will go in God's strength.
Well, now that brings me then to the third thing, That is His
message. His message. We talked about
His resolve. We talked about His reliance.
His resolve was, I will go. His reliance was in the strength
of the Holy Spirit. And then His message is here. He says, I will make mention
of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only. Now four times in
this one song, David speaks of the Lord's righteousness. And
let me just make mention of them to you. In verse 15, he said,
My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation
all the day. My mouth is going to get involved. David said, well I got some days. You're going to hear me talking
about thy righteousness and thy salvation. That's what I'm going
to be talking about. Okay, and then let's look here
in verse 16. We're talking about that verse,
so let's skip on to verse 19, where it says, Thy righteousness
also, O God, is very high, who has done great things. O God,
who is like unto thee. And then verse 24, my tongue
also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long. Now then, the
only testimony that David is going to bear, seems that he
wants to bear, that he's going to bear for the rest of his life,
would be the testimony of the righteousness of the Lord. He
said, that's what I'm going to talk about. Now, here's enough
work for a lifetime, for instance. You understand something about
God's righteousness, you make it your business to talk about
it. It would be wonderful to hear
old people talking about His righteousness. Not interested
in what they've done. They're not talking about what
they've done. They've lived a long time. They've come and gone.
They've did this, they've did that. But we're not interested,
and they ought not be, about what they've done. We're talking
about the Lord's righteousness. And He established how righteous
God is. Now there's something here that
we need to see. Here's what it means. When a man says, I'm going
to talk about thy righteousness, even thine only, then what he
means is that we're to bear testimony to the righteousness of God in
Providence. Now, did you notice what he said
there in verse 19? He said, thy righteousness also,
O God is very high, who has done great things. O God, who is a
God like unto thee? Now what that means is that we
must sanctify God, set Him apart. God does right. He does right. He's right. We must dare to it, but the Lord
never does wrong. You say, I don't understand all
that's going on, Preacher. Well, just get in line. Get in line. I don't understand
it either. But we must stand to it. David
said, I'm going to talk about the rightness of God. I'm going
to talk about the righteousness of God. And the Lord never does
wrong. He is never mistaken. Never mistaken. Whatever He ordains is and must
be unquestionably right. David said, that's what I'm going
to stand to. I'm an old man. And that's what I'm going to
talk about every day. that God does right. And whatever happens
is unquestionably right. God did it. He is God Almighty. All wise God who cannot err is
too holy not to do right. And we must bear witness to that.
Stand to it. God is righteous in everything
He ever does in my life. What He does in your life is
right. whether we understand it or not. Next, what does it
mean? It means to bear witness to His
righteousness in salvation. That He does not save without
an atonement. Somebody said, I cannot believe
this business of God hanging His own Son on a cross and then
allowing Him to be crucified. I can't understand it. Well,
some people say, I don't appreciate this religion. I don't like it, and I don't
want to hear anything about it. Well, I'm sorry, my friend, but
God was not saved without, I told somebody, a righteous son of
God must suffer and die. He must experience death. The devil said, And Jesus died
the death of sin. And He died to put away sin. And God cannot save without an
atonement. And He cannot save without being
strictly just. And in order for God to save
me, somebody has to save me. Somebody had to die. Somebody
had to go to hell in order for God to save me. Somebody had to answer for all
of my sin, and Jesus answered to God for my sin. I testify
to the rightness of God in His salvation, that He does by no
means bear the guilty. but has laid on Christ that which
was new our sin, that he might be the just and the justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus Christ, Romans 3 and 26. And
David would say, go on and tell everybody. Go on and tell everybody
that the righteousness which saves you is the righteousness
of God, not your own righteousness. Go on and tell me instead. I'll
go with the strength of the Lord God, and I've got a message. That message is the righteousness
of God. That Jesus Christ bore our sin
in his own body, and that God imputes all that Jesus did to
the account of those that believe. We have been made the righteousness
of God in Him. Now I want you to listen to a
couple of statements. Number one, there's no such thing
as human righteousness. There is no such thing as human
righteousness. Until filth and rags become righteousness,
we don't have it. We don't have it. Remember that. We have no personal merit, but
we're justified by imputed righteousness. You know what it is to reckon
something to somebody's account? That's how God saved us. That's
how he saved David. He reckoned the righteousness
of Christ to David's account. You know what David was. David
was a sinner. That's what he was. David was
a murderer. David was an adulterer. David
was a sinner from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. But his sin was reckoned to be
Christ's sin and Jesus was punished like he was David. And now all
that Jesus was is imputed to David and David is saved. That's why he says, I'm going
to talk about thy righteousness all the day long. I'm going to
talk about it. I'm going to talk about it. I
don't know everything else to talk about. I'm a sinner saved
by the righteousness of God in Christ. And I'm going to talk
about it. That's my message. And I'm going
to talk about it the rest of my life. I'm going to study it.
I'm going to study it until I can fluently talk about it. And I'm
going to be able to talk about the Lord's righteousness. And
wherever I am, I'm going to be able to get up and tell you about
the impudent righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going
to talk about it. I'm going to talk about it until
it convinces men of their unrighteousness. I'm going to tell you about how
righteous Jesus was until you say, well, I'm not that way.
I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. And then I'm going
to talk about it until it makes the believer rejoice. David said,
I'm going to talk about it all the time until it comforts believers. Some old writer said this. He
said, David was boasting in the righteousness of God and righteousness
of Christ. And this was the ground of his
confidence before God, the righteousness of Christ. And is not that the
truth? That's the ground of my confidence.
If it was not for imputed righteousness, I would have nothing to say to
you this morning. And I would not come before you
if it was not for imputed righteousness. There ain't no sinner got anything
to say that's of any interest to me unless he talks to me about
God's righteousness. And how I can give, how I can
be had through faith in Christ. You can read it in Romans 4,
and you can read it all throughout the Word of God. 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. You can read about the righteousness of God in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. You
can read it. It's in the Bible, throughout
the word of God. Study it until you talk about
it to make men feel their unrighteousness. And another thing I want to talk
about, why we want to talk about it, is to win the admiration,
the due respect for the Lord Jesus Christ that you ought to
have. Admiration. Now I'm just, I think
most people would agree with me that Jesus ought to be admired. Ought to be admired. He's righteous.
I'm not righteous, you're not. But he was. And we ought to admire
him. The Lord said, Jesus, thy blood
and righteousness, my view ye are. address from head to foot
his righteousness. We ought to admire him. My blood
and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress. Amidst flaming worlds, in these
arraigned with joy shall I lift up my hand. I've got some admiration
for the Lord Jesus Christ. If I ever get out of this place,
if I ever get past the judgment, because of him and because of
his righteousness. And I admire him. And I'll talk
about it the rest of my life, as long as I've got strength.
I'll talk about it all the day long. When I have opportunity,
I'll talk about it. The righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, somebody said this is a
happy vocation. And I believe it is. Lastly,
the poet said, his only righteousness I show. His only righteousness
I show. His saving truth proclaim. Tis
all my business here below to cry the whole night. That's my business. That's what it's all about. I don't
know about you, but I really like this text. I really like
it. It just fit me. I mean it just
fit me. It really was good to me. Good
for me. Blessed me. I'll go. That's my resolve. In the strength
of the Lord God. That's my reliance. And my message
is righteousness. Not only, only is righteousness. So you'd be out of company, and
I sure would be, and I know I would be. And anybody would be coming
to this place and start talking about any other righteousness
except the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He'd be out
of company with me. We'd run him out of here. Wouldn't
take long, or we'd be holding him like a bunch of bees on a
feller who got wandered around and got into a bunch of bees
and stirred them up. They got all over him. We just
wait we'd be on fellow come here talking about his righteousness
what he did what he picked up for Jesus Somebody said well, don't you
want Jesus to be seen in you? And I thought well Jesus was
here the men that lived around him heard him preaching They
never even saw Jesus in Jesus, did they? No, they didn't. They didn't
see Jesus in Jesus. But what we want to do is talk
about his righteousness. We're sinners. All of us are
sinners. All that sin that comes short of the glory of God, that's
the verse next week. And so therefore, we're anxious.
We admire somebody that was. Not only that was, but he was
willing to die for me and give me his righteousness. That's
my hope for eternity. That's what's going to get me
through the graveyard. That's what's going to get me past the
bar of God, his righteousness. Father, in the name of Jesus,
Jesus name I