Psalms chapter 71. And just the
first two verses I want to read to us. Psalms chapter 71. I like
this passage and I've studied it pretty thoroughly, this whole
71st Psalm. I told some folks the other night,
if I had one message to preach, it would be this message. If
I had one last message to preach, a group of people, this would
be the message I want to preach. And I want to make it as simple
as I possibly can. If you're here and you're educated,
you're very learned, or if you're here and you're a child, I want
to make this message that everyone can hear and understand this
message. That's how important this message is. It's found here
in Psalms chapter 71 and verses 1 and verse 2. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be put to confusion,
to shame. Deliver me in Thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. Incline Your ear unto me and
save me. Now most of you may remember,
I just preached on this text a few weeks ago. But this is
how important this is, I think, to all of us. and to everybody. David was praying here, O Lord,
deliver me. Deliver me. David probably prayed
this prayer for several many reasons. David had physical enemies. When he was just a little boy
out keeping his father's sheep, he lived in the midst of animals.
Wild beasts were in those days. Remember when he fought the bear
and the lion? And there were lepers in those
days. And don't you know that he prayed, Lord, deliver me?
A little child laying down out in the wilderness, guarding a
few of his father's sheep. Oh, Lord, deliver me this night.
I'm sure he prayed that. Everybody would pray that, especially
a child who knew the Lord. But David had other enemies too.
From the time he first got acquainted with Saul, the king of Israel,
Saul sought him. He said, he sought me like a
bird to kill me. And don't you know there was
times when David said, Lord, deliver me. Deliver me from Saul
who is seeking my life. David was afraid of armies. There were armies that turned
on King David. I'm sure he prayed about that.
You remember the time of Achish was a great king and David was
so afraid of him that he pretended to be insane and his slobbers
ran down his beard. He did that because he knew King
Achish would probably kill him. And I imagine in his heart as
he stood there scratching on the wall with spittle running
down his beard, he thought to himself, so Lord deliver me from
this king. Invading armies, the army invaded
the south. The Amalekites are a cruel bunch
of people. They invaded the south and burnt
the last stronghold David had down. Took his wife and his children,
all their belongings, and took off with it. Don't you know David
prayed about things like that? But as we look at this verse,
Lord deliver me, I think that it goes beyond anything physical.
It goes beyond those beasts. It goes beyond those invading
armies and King Saul. I think it goes to the same thing
that you and I have so often prayed to be delivered from,
and that's spiritual enemies. Well, there's something more
dreadful than a roaring lion, ain't there? There's the roaring
of Satan. There's something more dreadful
than facing an invading army, and that's the coming wrath of
God. That's something we pray to escape, isn't it? These spiritual
enemies were David's chief that he desired to be delivered from.
Lord, deliver me. And when we carry these words,
He said, You'll deliver me. And He said, Save me. And you
know when we carry these two words over into the New Testament,
we can see what David was praying to be delivered from. And they're
very serious things. Let me read you some of the passages
in the New Testament that the Scripture says God has delivered
us from. Listen to this. Listen to II
Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 10. God hath delivered us from
so great a death. Man, that's a deliverance, isn't
it? So great a death. What is this great death? It's
spiritual death. It's the second death. It's eternal
death from which there's no remedy. That's what David was prayed
to be delivered from. Listen to Romans chapter 7 and
verse 6. But now we are delivered from
the law. We don't hear much about the
law anymore, do we? But you know something about
the moral law of God? You know something about its
requirements? Know something about its demands? Know something
about its penalty for breaking it? Cursed is everyone who continueth
not? Isn't it essential to be delivered
from the curse of the law? That's what David was praying
for. Free from the law, oh happy condition. Cursed is everyone
who continueth not in all things that's written in the book of
the law to do them. Brothers and sisters, you and
I love the law of God, don't we? It's holy and it's good and
it's just. Paul said, I delight in that
law of God. But we know how essential it
is to be delivered from that covenant of works. Because it
condemns us. It will curse us. Now we are
delivered. Galatians 1.4, listen to this.
Christ gave Himself for our sins in order to deliver us from this
present evil world. What is it about this world we
need deliverance from? It's fall. It's course. It's end. I tell you, I don't
want to suffer the end. The fate of this world is going
to suffer to you. Deliverance from this present evil world. And listen to Colossians chapter
113. God hath delivered us from the
power of darkness. Boy, that's a power that can
be felt, ain't it? The power of darkness. We wonder
why a lost man can't deliver himself from that power. It holds
a man. It blinds a man. It binds a man
in darkness. He hath delivered us from Satan's
dark kingdom and translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. And boy, listen to this one. Listen to this one. I'm
sure David prayed about this. First Thessalonians chapter 1
and verse 10. Paul said, We are waiting for
God's Son from heaven who delivered us from the wrath to come. I tell you what, there's no invading
armies that I fear lack the wrath of God. Face any of our enemies
rather than facing God if He's our enemy. Not many people are
concerned about that today, are they? You don't hear it preached
on much. You don't hear people talk about
the coming wrath of God. John the Baptist said, whose
word you to flee from the wrath to come. Boy, there's coming a day when
people who have been so busy in this world, so busy with their
cares, so busy with their pleasures, they've had time for nothing
else but this world, you know what they're going to do? They're
going to cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on us and
hide us. A man's desperate to pray that,
isn't he? Hide us from what? The face of
Him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. There
is the wrath of God because of sin and there is the wrath of
the Lamb. Can you imagine Jesus of Nazareth
being filled with wrath? And His is wrath because they
have spurned and hated that redemption that He has accomplished. They
would not seek an interest in it. from the wrath of God and
the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath is come."
You know this world is going to come to a screeching halt,
ain't it? It's going to come to a screeching halt and it's
going to face Him that sits upon that throne. And David said,
Lord deliver me, deliver me from the wrath to come. One more,
listen to this one. This is something too. He hath
delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. Fear of death. Men can get pretty
bold when they're healthy, can't they? There's men who were wealthy
that would have given everything they had if they could escape
death. Everything they had to escape
death. The fear of death, Lord deliver
me from the fear of death. These were things that David
was concerned about and he was praying about these things. Incline
your ear unto me and hear me. If we look at this passage here,
not only does he use this word deliver me, but he said incline
your ear to me and save me. Sometimes these two words in
the scriptures are interchangeable. They just use deliverance and
other times they use save. But this word saved. Cure me
and save me. Save me from what? Well, the
angel, no sooner had he announced the birth of Jesus Christ that
he was in the womb of his mother. And here's what he told. What was his name? The angel
appeared to him. Can't even think of his name.
My whole thought has to development. Mary's husband, Joseph, here's
what he told him. You think it's not difficult
to preach sometimes? That's right. Especially when you get old and
your mind slips. You don't realize it's slipped until it's too late.
Here's what he said to him. Now remember this. His name shall
be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from what? The
sin. Oh Lord! Incline your ear and
save me from what David my sin One place he played deliver me
from my blood guiltiness didn't I? Tell you brothers and sisters.
I'd rather never to been born That to be born and live and
die in my sins There is but one thing God's angry with you don't
find anything else God is angry with and the whole scripture
except sin sins of foolish thoughts Sins of evil motives, sins of
evil words, sins of evil deeds, sins of the heart, the hands,
the eyes, the ears. God is angry with sin. That is why He has threatened
to punish it all through the Scripture. Give us this warning,
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. And when we see sin as God sees
it, we will probably pray as David prayed. Oh Lord, incline
your ear. Save me. Save me from my sin. Serious, isn't it? Serious. Serious. What does David plead now in
our text? Look what he pleads. It's very
telling. He pleads this as the grounds
of his deliverance. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Now I want to know what this
is. Because whatever this man pleaded, that's what I want to
plead. This man was riding on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Deliver me in thy righteousness. He wasn't talking about the essential
righteousness of God. Man, God is holy, isn't He? He's
everlastingly holy. He's so holy He can't look upon
sin. He's too pure of eyes to look
upon any iniquity to justify it. This righteousness would
condemn us rather than save us and deliver us. What is this
righteousness? Well, the Scripture tells us
it's what we call a gospel righteousness. It's a gospel righteousness.
Listen to Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation."
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Paul said, "...I
declare unto you the gospel which is come unto you, which you have
received, by which also you are saved." The gospel saves us,
doesn't it? And it tells us how it saves
us. Listen to this. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It's the power of God to salvation.
For therein, in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed. There's the righteousness David
was pleading. We call it a gospel righteousness. How does this righteousness save
us? Now listen to this. I've jotted a few of these things
down. And listen to this. How does this righteousness deliver
a man? The gospel reveals a righteousness
that will deliver a person. It reveals a righteousness that
will save a person. This righteousness satisfies. I love that, don't you? Here's
the gospel. The gospel is satisfaction. That's the gospel. The gospel
satisfies all the claims and requirements and obligations
and demands of God's moral law. Boy, that's a mouthful for any
man to say. Bruce, are you obligated to keep the law? Everybody is.
The law is so strict it's unbinding. Nobody can be delivered at the
expense of the law. The law has to be fulfilled. Its demands has to be kept. Here
is a righteousness that has met those demands. It has fulfilled
that law. Here is a righteousness that
satisfies the sentence of death that has gone out against a broken
law. You see, we not only have not
fulfilled the law, By not fulfilling the law, now we're subject to
its penalty, which is death. Here's a righteousness that meets
that penalty, that has fulfilled that penalty. It suffered the
penalty. It is a righteousness that has
made reconciliation for sins by atoning for them. It don't overlook sins. This
righteousness never overlooked sin. It atoned for them. It renders
satisfaction for them. It is one that has spanned the
great gulf between the holy God and a sinful man. It is a righteousness
that meets all the just demands and just requirements of God
and meets all that the sinner needs. It is a righteousness
that enables God to be just and yet justify the ungodly. By this righteousness the guilty
sinner is justified from all things by which he cannot be
justified by the law of Moses. But you know something? It's
not just what this gospel takes away as sin and the wrath of
God, but it's what this gospel brings. This righteousness not
only takes away the sin and the curse of the law and the wrath
of God, but it brings all the blessings of God to the soul. Forgiveness of sins, eternal
life, the promise of the Spirit, and heaven at last. Now would
you have ever dreamed there was a righteousness like that? That
could do all of that? No wonder David was pleading
righteousness. That's what I need to deliver
me. Righteousness. That satisfies God's claims and
satisfies my needs. Righteousness. Well, that's good
news, isn't it? That's good news. But notice how David said this.
He just didn't say, deliver me in righteousness. He said, deliver
me in Thy righteousness. Five times he mentions this word
righteousness in Psalm 71 and every time he says it is thy
righteousness. I will make mention of thy righteousness. Thy righteousness
is very high. Thy righteousness. What is this
righteousness then that will deliver a man? It is the personal
righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, David's Lord. The righteousness of another
man. David wasn't merely pleading the doctrine of imputed righteousness,
but that righteousness that resides to this very day in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It has to do with His doing and
His dying. He laid the foundation for our
deliverance in the days of His flesh by what He did, by His
doing and His dying. personal obedience even unto
the death of the cross. That's what this righteousness
is. It's His righteousness. Not His and mine. Not partly
His and partly mine. But it's all His. Thy righteousness. Turn over to Romans with me.
You can let go of Psalm 71 because I'll quote that for you when
we come back there. Look over in Romans chapter 5. If you've
got a pew Bible and you need to look it up, it's on page 1227.
Righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus Christ. I want you to look at this. Look
here in Romans chapter 5 and look in verse 17. Three times
he mentions this word righteousness. And it's always the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Look in verse 17 of Romans 5.
If by one man's offense, That's Adam, isn't it? One man's offense. Death reigned by one man. One man offended God, didn't
he? And what happened? The day you eat thereof, you're
going to die. Death came and death reigned. But look at this. Much more. They which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. Righteousness is a gift. It is
given to you. And those who receive this gift
of righteousness, they shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Adam's offense brought death.
Christ's righteousness brings life. Look in verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Adam offended,
and God said, You disobeyed Me. And condemnation and guilt went
out. He was guilty. Even so, by the
righteousness of one, the free gift come upon all men unto justification
of life. Through Adam's offense, all were
condemned through Christ's righteousness. All who believe in Him are justified. A justifying righteousness. Now
look in verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous." What was David pleading? He was pleading
the very obedience of another. Jesus Christ, the righteous. The law demands and expects and
deserves perfect obedience. And what did Jesus say when He
came into this world? Lo, I come to do thy will. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Why was it in His heart? To love
it, and to keep it, and obey it, and to honor it, and to satisfy
its demand. And justice said, I can't save
these men. I can't deliver these men. It
don't matter how much they call upon me. I cannot deliver a sinner
except Emmanuel give me His blood. Except Emmanuel atone for sin. And what did Jesus do? He poured
out His blood and satisfied justice. Law has been satisfied. Justice
has been satisfied. by somebody else, Shannon, apart
from you, by the obedience of Jesus Christ. And this is the
very righteousness David pleaded. And brothers and sisters, listen,
to this very day, this righteousness resides in one person, and one
person only, and that's Jesus sitting there at the right hand
of God. He's the righteousness that you
and I plead to be delivered. from all of these awful enemies
that we looked at when we started this message. God hath made Christ
to be sin for us who knew no sin, listen, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. You read the old Puritans and
our forefathers as they preached, all of them talked about this
righteousness. of Jesus Christ. Bunyan says it's a marvelous
thing that I, a poor sinner, upon this earth, could have the
righteousness of one who is in heaven. And having that righteousness,
I'm delivered from all my enemies, and I'm blessed with the blessings
of God, the smile of God. Lord, deliver me in thy righteousness. As you read the Scriptures, you're
often confronted with beautiful pictures of this righteousness. And it sometimes goes under the
name of some kind of a covering, cloth, or robes. You go back
all the way to the beginning, and where do we first read about
God covering somebody's nakedness? Remember that? In Genesis chapter
3? when our first parents had sinned
and they put those fig leaves to cover their nakedness? And
they thought sure their shame was covered until God come close
and He began to call them out. Where are you Adam? Come out
into the open. And He come out there and He
stood and those fig leaves just melted away. They withered away. And here is what the Lord God
did. He made coats of skin and He covered their nakedness. That's this righteousness. He
pictures it for us so that we can see it, and imagine it, and
believe in it. It's clothing that God put upon
our first parents. You come over to Ezekiel chapter
16, and that little infant that was cast out into the field,
and it was naked, and it was polluted in its blood, and I
guess it was on the verge of death. And the Lord said this,
I passed by you, and I washed you from your blood, I sat unto
you and lived, and then He said, I spread my skirt over you, and
I covered your nakedness. That is this righteousness pictured
for us. Then He went right on to make
this statement, Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy
beauty, for it was perfect Through my comeliness which I have put
upon thee, saith the Lord." My comeliness is your beauty. We sing about that in our songs,
don't we? We often sing that in our songs.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found, Dressed in His righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. Jesus, Thy blood
and righteousness, My beauty are, My glorious dress." Isn't
that wonderful? They wrote songs about this beautiful
garment, this glorious dress. And Mr. Wesley said, In flaming
worlds and these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.
And you go yonder to the last day. John told us about the last
day when everything had consummated and all the children of God stood
around about the throne. He said a number that no man
could number of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
And you remember what they had on? They were all clothed in
fine linen clean and white. That fine linen is the righteousness
of saints. That's this righteousness, Shannon,
we're talking about. And it said they all stood before
the throne. This righteousness, brothers
and sisters, will deliver us from the wrath of God, from the
curse of the law, the fear of death, all our enemies, and it
will bring the smile of God upon our souls. And at last it will
present us there in heaven without fault or wrinkle or any such
thing. This is the righteousness that
you and I must have. It's the personal righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Well, I tell you, I commend this
plea to anybody. God commends it to us. This is
a righteousness for poor sin. I plead it, don't you? Aren't
you still concerned about these things? Well, I am. I am. I don't want to face the
wrath of God. I don't want to. And this is
my plea to this very day, Lord Jesus, deliver me in your righteousness. That's my plea. But He says something
else here also in our text. He says, deliver me in thy righteousness,
in verse 2, and cause me to escape. There's not only a deliverance
in this righteousness, but it's also our escape. Our escape. While I'm telling
you that this righteousness is altogether outside of us, I'm
also telling you that there's an escape. For us, we must escape,
and our escape is this righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let
me give you an example or two of it. Look yonder when the world
is about 1,500 years old, and God is angry with men because
of their sin and corruption. He said, I'm going to bring a
flood upon the world and destroy all flesh. And there stands that
ark. A huge ark. I was coming up 75
and just off of 75, if you look close now, all the leaves are
gone, you can see a humongous ark. Wanda was over there. A
humongous ark. Sitting out there. It's supposed
to be built to scale. A humongous ark. And it was 120
years in building. Don't you think it become rather
famous? for 120 years now by saying,
man, if you want to see a piece of architecture, make a trip
over there to where this man called Noah is building this
ark. And people started taking their vacations to go see the
ark. It become famous. These architects
came there and said, man, look at this. Where did this man get
such building techniques? How's he doing this? They were
making drawings of it. Some man come and was peeping
inside to see what was in there. And then he turns and leaves.
Come on in. Come on in, one fellow said.
Come on in the ark. No, thank you. No, thank you.
What was that ark for, brothers and sisters? What was it for? Well, all the people were drawing
it. While all the people were marveling, some were mocking,
what was that art for? It was for one thing, to save
men and women from the coming wrath of God. That's it, ain't
it? Inside that ark, on the outside
of that ark as you walked around it, it was solid until you come
to this one door. Genesis chapter 6 verse 16 says,
There was THE door, not A door, THE door. The door. There is one way to get inside
that ark of refuge and that was through that door. Through that door. There was
Noah's escape. There was the seven members of
his family's means of escape through that door. They had to leave where they
were and go through that door and get in the ark. What am I
saying? I'm saying that's just a picture
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the door. Listen, by me,
if any man enter in, he shall be saved. And there's but one
way to get to Christ. And that's by faith in Him. That's
by faith in Him. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, what must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's our escape. Your promises
won't do it. Your reformation won't do it.
Oh, I'm so resolved. That won't do it. Here's the
only means of escape. That's faith in Jesus Christ. Looking unto Jesus, the Arthur
and the Finisher. No other thing, no other way
to get inside that ark but faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is our
escape. Men try to escape every way they
can. Can you see them? Can you see them hanging on that
ark as it begins to rise? Oh, I'll escape it. I'm going
to hang on this ark. They were swept away, swept away. It's by faith in Christ. Boy,
Christ has gotten real famous in our day, hasn't He? You hear
Him talked about everywhere. He's famous, especially this
time of year. Jesus, Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? He's a Savior
from the wrath to come. Flee to Him, and the only way
to flee is by faith. Caused me to escape. Caused me
to believe in Him. Caused me to look to Him. One
more example. Remember the city of refuge?
When a man had slain someone by accident and the avenger of
blood said, I'm going to kill you. You slain my brother, I'm
going to kill you. You slain my uncle, I'm going
to kill you. And the only place of refuge was to flee to that
city that had been set aside, designated to flee through. And
he wasn't safe until he went through the gates of that city.
Then he was safe. Can you imagine a fellow sitting
down and say, well, I've run a good ways. I think I'll stop
and rest. And he feels this air take him in the back. The avenger
blood has got him. Escape. Escape. Paul says you fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope for you. And how do we get inside
this city? It's by faith. I keep emphasizing
that. That's the way of our escape. Because we've got people all
over trying to make Christ their escape, plus what they can do.
It's Jesus plus me. But here's this righteousness.
And David said it delivers a man. He calls me to be delivered by
Him. And how does He deliver? By believing. By believing with a heart. Men believe unto righteousness
with a heart. Boy, let a man stand outside
the city of refuge and admire those gates. Man, let him admire
the walls. Man, what a safe place! What
beautiful gates! And stand there and talk about
it and admire it until you feel the knife in your back. It's
not just to be admired. Christ is not just to be admired.
He's to be entered. He's a Savior. Get in Him. And
how do we get in Him? By believing on Him with all
our hearts. Cause me to escape. And when a man has, oh, when
a man finds himself accepted in Christ, complete in Christ,
You'll not only thank God that He's delivered him, but you know
what He'll say? You caused me. You caused me. You was the cause. You know,
when Noah and his family entered that ark, don't you say they
sat down in there when the rain started coming and they heard
the screams outside? They said, what's the difference
between them and me? Why did I come through that door?
Well, they despised the door. The door was wide open. Why did
I come in and they didn't? And you know what they said?
He caused me. He caused me. If you've been awakened up from
wrath to flee, who will walk you? Somebody had to come and
shake the dickens out of you, didn't they? Wake up man, you're
perishing in this house. Your house is going to fall down
around you. Who did that? Who caused you to flee? He did.
Lord, cause me! We'll just sit and sleep until
the wrath comes, won't we? If He don't cause us to flee.
Oh, thank God when any sinner finds it in his heart to flee
to Christ. And nothing's going to stop me.
I've got Him. I've got to have Him. Lord, cause
me. Cause me to escape. May God help us today. No matter
what our age or standing in life, young or old, rich or poor, ignorant
or educated. Oh, let us pray David's prayer.
Deliver me in thy righteousness and cause me to escape.