Psalm 71. I just want to read
the first five verses. Psalm 71. If the baby starts giving you
too much trouble, Joe will take him. He won't bother me. I sort of envy him, really. Bless
his heart. Wouldn't you love to be where
you're just so independent? Everything you did, somebody
had to do for you. You whimper a little bit and
somebody grabs you and goes to petting you. I like that, don't
you? Psalm 71, just the first five
verses. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. But let me never be put to confusion,
to shame, disappointed. Deliver me in thy righteousness,
and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me, and
save me. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me,
O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of
the unrighteous and cruel man. For Thou art my hope, Lord God. Thou art my trust from my youth. My text is found in verse 2. Deliver me in Thy righteousness. Deliver me in Thy righteousness.
David uses two words here in this verse, and really they mean
the same. They have the same concept about
them. He says, first of all, deliver me in thy righteousness,
and then he says, save me. Deliver me and save me, which
are the same words, the same concept. And this word, deliver
or save me, means to rescue me, recover me. Snatch me out. Sounds like he's in trouble,
doesn't it? Something's taking him captive. It means to heal
and to make whole, and then it means to preserve. Oh, Lord,
deliver me. Lord, save me. Save me. When we consider these two words
in a Bible sense and what the Bible means by these two words,
We realize that it's not just David praying against his natural
enemies. I'm sure that entered into it
many times when he's having the physical battles, the Philistines,
and the troubles. But when we come to the New Testament,
we realize these words, deliver and save, have a lot to do with
our spiritual enemies, a spiritual condition that we find ourselves
in. Listen to some of these passages
that talks about deliverance. Romans 7, 6. But now, we are
delivered from the law. Oh man, that's something to be
delivered from, isn't it? The curse of the law? The curse
of its demands? Obligations to keep it? We are
delivered from the law. 2 Corinthians 1 and 10, God hath
delivered us from so great a death." Wow, what kind of death was that?
That was spiritual death, wasn't it? Death in a spiritual grave
of trespasses and sins. And being delivered from that
death, we're delivered from that second death, that eternal death.
Oh Lord, deliver me. And then Galatians 1.4, Christ
gave Himself for our sins. that he might deliver us from
this present evil world. Man, that's something to be delivered
from, isn't it? This present world is evil. Brothers
and sisters, this is not a good world we live in. It hasn't been
since the fall and it won't be until Christ makes it new. This
is an evil world. It's on an evil course and headed
for an end that's destruction. Deliver me, Lord, from this evil
world. And 1 Thessalonians 1.10, boy,
here's something to be delivered for them. The apostle was riding
to this church and he said, you're waiting for God's Son from heaven,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Deliver me from the wrath to
come. That's what scared the wise man
and the rich man, wasn't it? We see him seated upon his throne. And it scared them and they cried
for the rocks in the mountains to fall on them. Why? Hide us
from His face. Hide us from Him that sits upon
the throne. Why? Because the great day of
His wrath has come. And who shall be able to stand?
So David prays, Your Lord, deliver me. And then he talked about
being delivered from another bondage. Really from another
enemy. This is what he says in Romans
8.21. The creature itself shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption. Don't you feel it,
dear child of God? Don't you feel it? The bondage
of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the children of God.
So, do you see why David was praying this then? Lord, deliver
me. And when we come to this word
saved, it has the same sense. It's really basically the same
word, the same concept. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from what? Their sins. Save His
people from their sins. In Romans chapter 5 and verse
9, listen to this. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. There it is again. Lord, save
me. from wrath. What does it mean
to be saved from sin and all of its horrible consequences?
What does it mean to be saved from the awful wrath to come?
Wrath now and the wrath to come. That's what David was praying
for. Lord, deliver me. Lord, save me from my enemies. And that's what Luke said there
in Luke chapter 1 when Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost
was speaking of the coming of Christ, and he said, He shall
save us from our enemies, that we may serve Him without fear
all the days of our life. Boy, what greater enemies could
we have than sin, than the curse of the law, than the wrath of
God, than the sting of death, eternal punishment? Those are
huge enemies, aren't they? So we see here why David was
praying, Lord save me. I don't care how well a man may
live in this world, brothers and sisters. We may live in the
lap of luxury. We may never be molested in our
bodies or our souls. Our properties may be safe. But
if we live and die without being saved, without the Lord delivering
us from these things, it would have been better for us never
to have been born. This is why David was praying,
Lord save me. He was a great king. Man, he
had all kinds of possessions. Was probably healthy in his body.
But boy, he recognized his need of being saved, didn't he? Lord,
save me. Save me. Psalm 71 and verse 2. I want you to notice here what
David pleads for his salvation. This is very important. Look
here what He prays that would deliver Him. Deliver me, in verse
2, in Thy righteousness. Isn't that wonderful? He pleads
the righteousness of another. Deliver me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness,
by Thy righteousness. Now what does that mean? Luther
said when he used to read especially the Old Testament, and he saw
this word, the righteousness of God, the righteousness of
the Lord, that He's righteous, it used to scare him to death.
Because he always looked upon it as being God's essential righteousness. God is righteous. God is holy. In His glorious and eternal person,
He's holy. But listen, that can't save us,
can it? God has this attribute that He's
eternally good and righteous and just and pure. That can't
save us. That will probably be our damnation,
will it? He's of too pure eyes to behold
evil. He cannot look upon sin. Why? Because, Lord, You're righteous.
You're righteous. But this is not the righteousness
David is pleading here. This is gospel righteousness.
This is gospel righteousness. This is the good news that the
gospel tells us about. I am not ashamed of the gospel,
Paul said, for it's the power of God to salvation to everyone
that believes. Now listen, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. What kind of righteousness is
revealed in the gospel? A righteousness that can save
us from our enemies. from sin and from the wrath of
God. And this is what David was pleading.
It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's
His person, His glorious person. It's His works, His own work
that He did in the days of His flesh. The Bible says that when
the Son of God came down from heaven, and joined Himself to
our humanity in the womb of a virgin, He brought something with Him.
Daniel says He brought something with Him. And this is what it
was, everlasting righteousness. He brought it with Him. And He
established it and worked it out in the days of His flesh. He was born of a sinful woman. And listen, he wasn't sinful
himself. Nobody was ever born like the
Son of God. He was born holy. And the Bible
says he not only was born holy, but he went about doing good
and healing all that was oppressed of the devil, and God was with
him. From the time he was conceived
in his mother's womb, he was that holy thing. He was that
good thing. He was like no other man. No
other man at all. He was the God-man, wasn't he?
And he was so holy in everything he did. His motives were holy. He honored the law of God. He
was tempted in all points like you are and I am, but he never
sinned. There was no guile found in his
mouth. He never spoke an evil word.
And when his ministry was finished, God in heaven came over him one
day in this cloud. And he said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. What was he doing living such
a life? He was establishing righteousness. Somebody had to live the good
life. Have you ever heard somebody say, I'm living the good life?
Ain't been but one man ever lived the good life. And that was Jesus
Christ the Son of God. He lived it. He lived it. But
you know it didn't stop just in His life, did it? It didn't
stop with Him magnifying the law and making it honorable.
But boy, He went to the cross. His obedience was so perfect
that it extended even unto death, the death of the cross. And you know how we know that
He was pleasing to God? You know how we know that his
life was one of perfect obedience even to death? Because God raised
him from the dead. And God set him at his own right
hand and says, My son, I'm so well pleased in you, I want you
to sit here on my right hand and I'll make all your enemies
your footstool. And I'll give you the desires
of your heart. What is this righteousness David
was pleading? It was the perfect obedience
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Isn't that a good plea? If David
pleaded to be delivered through this righteousness from his sin
and his enemies, isn't that the perfect plea for every sinner
to approach unto God and say, Lord, save me by this perfect
righteousness? Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
and His perfect obedience in the days of His flesh is exactly
what Jesus Christ was pleading. I tell you what, if it's not
a perfect obedience, it can't save us, can it? Because God
will accept no less. He said it has to be perfect
to be accepted. But if Jesus Christ rendered
perfect obedience in the days of His flesh, not for Himself,
but for poor sinners' sake, And I think when anybody comes pleading
that righteousness, they're apt to be delivered, don't you? What
a plea for any sinner that's drifted off from God and corrupted
their hearts with sin and defiled their conscience. And now they
want to be saved. They want to be delivered. But
I have no plea. I've got to go to court and I
don't have a lawyer. Yes, you do. You've got a lawyer. Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And what will he plead? Well, Lord, he'll never do it
again. Lord, look at his repentance. He's really turned. Lord, you
know how she's really promised she's going to do a lot better
now. He don't plead such things, does he? What does he plead? Himself. My Father, remember
me. My Father, look at my obedience.
It was perfect from my mother's womb to the death of the cross.
My Father, look at the prince in my hand. My Father, look at
the hole in my side. Look upon me, Father, and save
that poor pleading sinner. Look upon me and forgive that
poor sinful man and woman. Oh, what a plea! No wonder David
was pleading. This righteousness is sometimes
called the righteousness of God, isn't it? You are made the righteousness
of God in Him. God hath made Christ to be sin,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God. Isn't that amazing? In Him. It's called the righteousness
of God because Jesus Christ is God. And God's the author of
this righteousness. And it fulfills all His demands.
Oh, save me. Save me. Save me. How, Lord, in this righteousness? Oh, what a plea. Think of this
thirdly. First of all, he prays to be
saved. And then he pleads this righteousness. And thirdly, why must we be saved
by the righteousness of another? Why wasn't David pleading his
own righteousness? Why did He plead the righteousness
of another for His salvation? I tell you why, because God had
taught Him that. The Holy Spirit had taught Him,
David, if you're going to be saved, it's got to be through
the righteousness of another. Now there was a time, brothers
and sisters, when we wouldn't have needed another man's righteousness. Back yonder in the garden, when
God created us perfect, He created us holy. We didn't need anything,
did we? He made us righteous. But we
sought out all these inventions, you see. And we fell into sin. And we lost that righteousness. When Adam left that garden, brothers
and sisters, he was nothing like he was when he came from the
hands of his Creator. When he came from the hands of
his Creator, he was a holy man. But when he left that garden,
he was a sinner. And having once lost that righteousness,
it can't be restored. Men have tried it, haven't they?
Adam tried it. He got so excited and he got
so frustrated and so fearful when he heard the voice of the
Lord, he said, I've got to do something. So he grabbed these
fig leaves, started sewing them together, and put them around
his neck in this. And he probably thought, boy,
this will do it. Man, it looks pretty good. Until he heard the
voice of the Lord say, Adam, who are you? Who are you? And he said, I was afraid and
I hid myself because I was naked. He's not naked. He has fig leaves
around himself. Eve can't see his nakedness and
he can't see hers. But God can see it. God can see
it. And this is our problem, isn't
it? God sees our nakedness, and there's nothing we can do to
cover ourselves. Men have tried it. That old Pharisee
there in the temple, he was praying. And the Lord spake this whole
parable for those who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous. And this Pharisee was there praying
in the temple, and he said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like
other men are. I don't think he gave thanks
well to you. Some people don't need to be giving thanks to God
because they don't know how. God, I thank You that I'm not
like other men are. Reckon he thought to himself,
God has made me to differ. God has made me different than
everybody else. God didn't do that, did He? He was just like
everybody else. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes
of all that I possess. I don't defraud people. I've
got all these good works I do and all these evil works I frame
from. And what did the Lord tell those fellows? He said, you appear
white outwardly, but within your heart you're full of dead men's
bones and all iniquity. You appear righteous to men,
but he said, in your heart you're abomination, you're filthy. And boy, who ever tried to restore
this righteousness more than Saul of Tarsus? Nobody worked
harder than he did, didn't he? He said, I labored harder than
all of my friends that were Pharisees. And he said, it started all the
way back when I was eight days old. My daddy had something to
do with my righteousness. He took me up to the temple and
had me circumcised. I think if we'd been thinking
about this today, we'd probably say that That, you know, my dad
and mom took me down to the church and had me christened and they
had me sprinkled and they had me dedicated. That's where my
religion started. And he said, all of these ceremonies,
all of these feast days, I've kept them all. These outward
ceremonies of the law, he said, I was blameless. But brothers
and sisters, here's the conclusion that every one of us will have
to come to when we look at our own righteousness. When the Holy
Spirit makes us see ourselves as we are, here is what we are. I counted my own righteousness
done. Filthy rags. Scraps. I thought about one definition
that I read of that filthy rags. All our righteousness is in filthy
rags. It is too stinking really to
even talk much about it. Why did David plead the righteousness
of another? Because his own righteousness
was rags. It was filth. If you took the
obedience of every saint, all the obedience of every saint,
Samuel, Daniel, Noah, and all the saints, piled up all of their
obedience, it wouldn't be enough to save one sinner. Do you know
that? The Catholic have a doctrine.
I forget the name of it. It's a big old long word. It
means laid up merit. They say that some saints have
been so good that when they get up to heaven, they have so much
merit, they store it up and they can give it to a saint on earth
if he needs it. Oh my goodness, what people come
up with. Ain't that amazing? There's only one that has the
merit, brothers and sisters, to save a sinner. There's only
one that has the merit laid up enough to save you, to wash you,
to justify you from all things, and that's the Son of God, Jesus
Christ. He has the merit. He has the
merit to save a poor sinner. Fourthly, consider this. This
righteousness that David was pleading to save him by, it saves. It saves. But listen, it saves
nobody but believers. It saves nobody but believers. This righteousness is not given
to anyone but those who have been enabled by the Holy Spirit
to bring their heart, to put all of their trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Notice how David said it here
in verse 1, And Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust, all the trust
of my heart, is in the righteousness of one, and that's Jesus Christ
our Lord. The old Puritans used to do what
they called fencing a doctrine. They would explain a doctrine
and they would put a fence around it to protect the doctrine, protect
the integrity of that doctrine. If you've got something you don't
want wild animals to get in, like your garden, you'll have
to fence it around. Then you put a door there or
a gate. And that way, only those who
you want in that garden can get in that garden through the door
or the gate. This righteousness is given to
who? You see, God protects us. He
loves this righteousness. He loves this righteousness.
And He just don't throw it out there for everybody. Who has
this righteousness? Those who believe in Christ for
it. Only those who believe in Christ for it. That's why this righteousness
is sometimes called the righteousness of faith because it only comes
by believing. Listen to this. Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to who? To everyone that believeth. With a heart man believeth unto
righteousness. That doctrine's protected, isn't
it? And the one reason it's protected, the one reason God's so jealous
of it, there's always people wanting to mix it up, you see. Larry and Sue was telling me
about the funeral that they just went to, Larry's sister's funeral,
and they're talking about they sang the song, Amazing Grace.
And Sue's going to show me how they revised it. And they took
Amazing Grace and turned it into man's works. Now how in the world
do you do that? But people can mix things up,
can't they? And what I'm saying here is this doctrine is hedged
about and you don't come and say, well, I believe in Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. And now since I believe in Him
and my own works mix with His obedience, then God can save
me. Then God can justify me. It's
not like that at all. Boy, when you get this righteousness,
there's a narrow gate. And you can't get nothing but
just faith alone. It's just faith alone. There's
but one way to be saved. There's but one channel that
this righteousness comes to us and delivers us. And it's through
faith alone. Not the works of righteousness.
Through faith alone. We have believed in Christ. that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the
works of the law, are a mixture. You say, Bruce, that's so simple.
Everybody knows that. Brothers and sisters, hardly
anybody knows that. We're living in a day that we've
almost lost the gospel. We've almost lost how God saves
a sinner. God saves a sinner one way, and
that's by believing in Jesus Christ alone. It's impossible. This seems so
simple, and thank God that it is when He reveals it to us.
But I'm telling you what, brothers and sisters, it's impossible
to bring your soul to trust somebody else for your salvation, except
you obtain grace to do it. You won't do it. You just won't
do it. You ever put one of your little children up on the corner
of the housetop? I did this when my children were
smaller. They'd be up on a ladder and I'd move the ladder and I'd
say, jump and I'll catch you. Man, they'd just wiggle and put
the ladder back, Daddy, put the ladder back. Jump, I've got you. It took some convincing for them
to jump. Why? You just don't jump off
of a building and expect somebody else to catch you, do you? And
when your soul is at stake, and you think you're going to lose
your soul to say, trust Christ, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you say, I can't, I can't. You've got to know that He's
able to catch you. You've got to be convinced that
His righteousness is able to save you. And there's where the
work of the Holy Spirit comes into it. You know why we don't
have an altar up here to get sinners up here to talk to them?
and try to reason with them and things like that. You know why
we don't do that? It takes the Holy Spirit to lead a man to
Christ. It takes the Holy Spirit for
a man to bring his heart to trust in somebody else as his salvation. Save me, Lord. Save me in Thy
righteousness. Oh, I believe it, don't you?
I believe Jesus Christ is in heaven. And that righteousness
which we have to have to save us resides in Him, resides in
this glorious person there in heaven. Even to this very day,
that hasn't changed. And everyone who comes to Him,
believing upon Him, will be saved in this righteousness. This righteousness
of His becomes ours. It becomes ours. And that's my
fifth and last point. When the Lord saves us in His
righteousness, the instant we believe in Him, immediately,
this righteousness becomes ours for all eternity. Before God,
before angels, before men, and even before devils, this righteousness
is ours. This is why the church calls
Jesus Christ the Lord are righteousness. That's my righteousness. It's
mine. If He's mine, then all He has
is mine. His life is mine. His righteousness
is mine. He didn't work out this righteousness
for Himself. He did it for believing sinners.
And when He gives you this righteousness, He says it's yours because I'm
yours. Remember that old song Wesley
wrote, I'm not even for sure blessed his heart if he believed
it or not. But this is what he said, Jesus
thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. It's my dress. It's my beauty. Bold shall I stand in that great
day. Who ought to my charge shall
lay. Fully absorbed through thee I
am from sin and fear and guilt and shame. It's yours. It's yours. You didn't work it
out, but it was given to you and now it's yours. And you'll
stand boldly in that great day. Remember that was when the Lord
Jesus talked to us about that day the bride and the bridegroom
would come together there at the wedding and supper. And they saw this one fellow
in there didn't have a wedding garment on. I don't know how
he got in there, how all that happened. But the bridegroom
come to him and said, What are you doing? Where's your wedding
garment? And he didn't have one. Everybody
else had a wedding garment on. You've got to have a wedding
garment. And it's the groom himself that clothes the bride, isn't
it? I have covered thee with the
garments of salvation. I have put on thee the robe of
righteousness. And that's what we'll have to
stand before God in on the Day of Judgment. You see, this righteousness
does more than justifies here, save you here. Boy, it will do
to stand in heaven with misflaming worlds. In these arrayed, with
joy shall I lift up my hand. Will it do in that day? It will,
brothers and sisters. It will do to save you from your
sins. Reconcile you to God. Make you
a new creature. Wash you clean. And it will be
the plea the rest of your days as you live in this world. I
have a righteousness that's perfect. I have a righteousness that when
I die will take me up to heaven. Oh, what a righteousness that
is. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Nobody. Why? Because they have
a perfect righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus Christ,
God's Son. Look at two or three places here
in closing. Look in Psalm 71 and look in verse 15. Boy, when David saw this, he
just couldn't quit talking about it. Look in verse 15. Psalm 71,
15, My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness, in thy salvation
all the day. You can't quit talking about
it, can you? And he said in verse 16, I will go in the strength
of the Lord, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only. There is no other righteousness
that can save us. Don't talk about the righteousness
of man. There's only one righteousness.
Don't you love that? That's the gospel, isn't it?
Verse 19, the righteous also, thy righteousness also is very
high. Who has done great? How high
is it? Well, it's seated there in heaven, isn't it? That's how
high it is. Verse 24, my tongue also shall
talk of thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded. They are brought to shame that
seek my hurt. Oh, Lord, save me. Oh, what's
your plea this morning? Do you have one before the court
of heaven? Oh, do you plea what God can never turn away from?
The righteousness of His Son. If that's your plea, then that's
a good one. That's a good one. Lord bless
His Word. Let's pray.