Psalm 18, just to remind you that Psalms is 150 individual psalms. The book of Psalms is separated in five different ways, five different books. Psalm 1 through 41 is book one. And as we've seen, the theme of this particular book or section is human suffering and the need for divine deliverance. And certainly we've seen that in the life of David. Psalm 18 is a little bit different because it's a psalm of royal thanksgiving. And we know that David is an older man in the last years of his life when he writes this psalm because Psalm 18 is a perfect parallel with 2 Samuel chapter 22, and we know the chronology there in 2 Samuel. And David seems to be reflecting back on his life and has found God to be faithful. And our text today that we're going to read, if you just read it on its face and separate it from its context, it can seem really confusing because at first glance, it can even make David look like he's being arrogant or even dishonest. But as always, the context is going to clear everything up. And this is such a great text of Scripture and such a great truth of the Bible. And if you'll remember, Over the last couple of weeks, we've seen that, you know, David refers to God with all of these personal pronouns in the first two verses. My strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God. And in the next section, he's reminded of times when he asked the Lord for deliverance and the Lord showed up and he saw God lifted up in his holiness and his righteousness and really, I mean, this is some of the strongest imagery in the whole Bible. for just how righteous and just God is. I mean, if you just read it on its face and you didn't know what it was talking about, I mean, it looks like a fire-breathing dragon is coming down out of the sky. I mean, God in His holiness, hey, listen, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Our God is a consuming fire, but He's also a God of grace and love, and we're gonna see that today. Let's read our text. We'll begin in verse 19. Let's read the Word of God together. Psalm 18, beginning in verse 19. It said, He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because He delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands, and hath recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. With the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful. With an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright. With the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure. And with the frail, thou wilt show thyself frail. And thou wilt save the afflicted people, but wilt bring down high looks. For thou wilt light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all those that trust in him. Who is God save the Lord? Or who is a rock save our God? It is God that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds' feet and setteth me upon high places. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. Thank you so much for your Word. God, thank you for the abundant life that we have in Christ. Thank you for the fruit of the Spirit, Lord, that's borne out in the lives of Christians. It's such a precious thing to behold. I'm thankful for this church family, this body that you put together for such a time as this. Lord, it would be incomplete without those that you put together. And Lord, I pray that you bless each and every individual family, be with those that are going through trials. Lord, I pray that you would just give us an eye for needs, Lord. Lord, I pray that you give us a heart for souls and a heart for people. We ask you to bless the preaching of your word today. I pray that you feel me with your Holy Spirit, enter me as sin itself, that only Christ would be seen and magnified in this place, and that preaching your word would be powerful and clear in a way we can apply to our lives. In Christ's name I pray these things, amen. So I'm gonna preach on the thought of a God who saves completely. A God who saves completely. Now, when we look at this text, I mean, it really seems like David is being not only arrogant, but he's just flat out lying here. You know, in fact, and let me just go ahead and get this out here, and it's a good thing you're seated for what I'm about to say. I only have one point in this sermon today, but do not get excited, because we're going to drop the plow on this one point, okay? But if you look at what he says here, I mean, let's just start scanning through in verse 20. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. for all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. I was also kept upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity." Now, when we read this, you have to understand, as I mentioned, this is later in David's life. This is years after he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and he had Uriah, her husband, killed. He put him on the front lines so he knew he would be killed in order to try to cover up his sins. This is also about the same time that he wrote Psalm 18. This is about the same time that David did the census so he would know exactly how big his armies were so he could trust in the size of his armies instead of trusting in God. And so how could David possibly say these things? I mean, a man that commits adultery with another man's wife and then has that man killed, does that sound like somebody who has never abandoned the statues of God? Does that sound like somebody who has clean hands or who is righteous? How could David possibly say these things? I mean, it sounds insane for anybody that knows the story. Well, I'll tell you how, and this is my one point. This is how David was able to say these things about himself. And that is because it was a righteousness that was given to him. Look at verse 19. And this is everything that we see after verse 19 is in the context of verse 19. Verse 19 says, He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because why? He delighted in me. That is grace, folks. that is unmerited, undeserved favor from God, and proceeding from that grace is that kind of righteousness, that kind of clean hands, and that kind of perfection in obedience to the law positionally. And so, you know, how could David boast of his righteousness and all these things and keeping God's law? Well, it's because God gave it to him. And you know, we have to understand. that when somebody makes the statement that something belongs to me or something is mine, there's really only two ways that that possession became theirs. They either earned it in a way that, you know, maybe they achieved it through an athletic competition or, you know, who knows, or maybe they earned the money to pay for it, but somehow they earned it and they could say, well, this is mine. or that possession was given to them. And they can still say that it's mine, but it was given to them. That's the kind of righteousness that David is talking about. When he said, this is mine, what he's saying is, God gave this to me. And I'm here to tell you, you know, there would be some people that try to pluck this out of their context because they want to try to, you know, prove that somehow that, you know, we obtain salvation by our works and righteousness. I'm going to explain something to you. Not only does that ignore the entire context of what Scripture teaches about salvation, but I can promise you this much. If that were true, it wouldn't come in this text. It wouldn't come right after seeing God high and lifted up like a fire-breathing dragon. Listen, when Isaiah saw God like that, high and lifted up, he said, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean... Woe is me! By the way, every time somebody actually saw God high and lifted up, it humbled them. In fact, every time Jesus peeled back the flesh just a little bit, people fell down like dead men. This would not be the place in Scripture where somebody would stand up and beat their chest and say, look at how righteous I am. It wouldn't happen here. It's a complete misunderstanding of what is being taught here. And so, when David said that the Lord awarded me according to my righteousness, Do you think that that was an earned righteousness or that it was given to him by God? The answer is obvious. That it was given to him. This is very important if you're taking notes. This doctrine here, this giving of God's righteousness to somebody, this is known as imputation. I just taught this a little bit to the Sunday school because we were dealing with penal substitutionary atonement. And you really can't separate the two. But imputation means this. It means to charge to somebody else's account. To put onto somebody else's account. Imputation is one of the most important and precious doctrines in the Bible. It's also one of the most neglected and misunderstood doctrines in the Bible. Now, there are three types of imputation in the Bible. Very important. The first type is Adam's sin imputed to us. at the fall. The second kind is our sins imputed to Christ on the cross. The third is Christ's righteousness imputed to us at the moment that a person places their faith in Jesus Christ. And so when Adam sinned, His sin was imputed or put to the account of the whole world. That's why we're born in sin. That's why we're sinners by nature. That's why we inherited the death of Adam and the sin nature of Adam. When Christ died on the cross, our sins were imputed to Him as He reversed what the first Adam enacted. The third kind, Christ's righteousness imputed to us at the moment that a person places their faith in Jesus Christ. This third kind, this righteousness of Christ being imputed to us, this is what David is talking about here in this text. One of the greatest verses on this imputed righteousness has to be 2 Corinthians 5.21. For He, God the Father, made Him, Jesus Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That imputed righteousness. But, you know, this doctrine of imputed righteousness, it's seen all throughout the Bible in both the Old and the New Testament. In fact, we will be back. I want you to put your ribbon in Psalm 18, and then I want you to make your way to Romans chapter 4 there in the New Testament. Romans chapter 4 in the New Testament. Paul is referring back to Abraham, and Abraham was saved the exact same way we are. The Old Testament saints were saved by faith in the coming Messiah that had been prophesied. We're saved by the Messiah that's already come that's fulfilled those prophecies. In Romans chapter 4 it says in verse 1, What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. That word accounted, it literally means imputed. The righteousness of Jesus Christ through faith was put to Abraham's account. It goes on to say in verse 4, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without work. So David has talked about these things, just like he's talking about it in Psalm 18, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. I love that. Our sins imputed to Christ. His righteousness imputed to us. That's the only way that we can be forgiven. It's the only way that we can be made right with God. Listen, no one can be saved from the wrath of God. No one can be forgiven. No one can make it to heaven without the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is why Christ said in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20, He said, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Now, I want you to think about the weight of this statement to the Jews that heard him say this. In their society, the Pharisees were the top of the top. They're the spiritual elite. They're the ones that everybody feels knee-high to a grasshopper when they look up to them. I mean, if anybody is right with God, it's got to be the Pharisees. If anybody is going to heaven when they die, if anybody is going to be near the Lord when they die, it's going to be the Pharisees. And Jesus looks at them and says, no, listen, If your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, you're not going to make it, friend. Can you imagine the shock value of that statement? The immediate question that would have come to their mind is, if they can't make it, how can we? If they're not righteous enough, then how could we ever be righteous? That's the exact effect that Jesus wanted to have. He wanted to rattle their cage. I want you to think about the most sincere, dedicated, religious person that you know. Maybe they seem to have a good job, a clean life, and man, you just think that if anybody's good, they're good. Without Jesus Christ, they're not good. Their righteousness will not be good enough. And that's why we need the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. And Christ's whole point with that statement of the Pharisees is that even the best that mankind has to offer has no hope of earning their way to heaven. Now get this, we have to get this, especially in the area that we live here, that this is one of the key differences between the cults and biblical Christianity. The cults say that you can earn God's favor through your own righteousness. All you've got to do, every system is different. They may give you a different list of boxes to check off, but it's all about you and what you do, and, hey, look, God, look at what I've done. That's exactly what they teach. But the biblical gospel says that we can never please God in our sinful flesh and through our own merit, but through the finished work of Christ on the cross. We can be forgiven and reconciled to God. That's the promise that God will give us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And look, we're close enough. Let's go to Romans 3 real quick. I want you to see this. Romans 3. Now, in the context of Romans, the first three chapters, Paul has been condemning the whole world. He goes after the Jews and then, well, he goes after the Gentiles, and then just so the Jews don't get a lot off the hook, he said, hold on now. He said, what makes us better than them? How are we better? We're not better than them. He said, yeah, God gave us the law. We broke the law. You know, we made idols. We've done all these things. We turn our back on God. And so the whole first three chapters of Romans is talking about how the whole world is guilty before a holy God. And the transition comes in verse 21 of chapter 3 when it says, But now the righteousness of God, there it is, that imputed righteousness, the righteousness of God without the law is manifest or made clear, 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, that's that imputation, that belief. For there's no difference, talking about between the Jew and the Greek. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. I want to pause right there. There's some good Bible words here. That word justified, it means to be declared legally righteous. I've heard it said that justification is like, you know, just as if I had never sinned. That's halfway right, but it doesn't go the whole way. You know, being innocent and not doing something wrong is not exactly the same as doing everything right and being perfectly righteous. To be justified is to be declared perfectly righteous. Listen, I'm going to ask you a question. It's a silly question, but that's my point. How many of you have lived a perfectly righteous life. How far away do you think you are on a scale, percentage wise? Please don't say it out loud. Please don't say it out loud. I mean, think about that. How silly is it for us to be declared perfectly righteous? I'm going to say like David did. You know, it's just us here and everybody's watching a live stream. I'm going to make a bold statement, but let me clarify. I am perfectly righteous this morning. Did you know that? You have a perfectly righteous pastor. Does that make you feel good? I have perfectly clean hands this morning. I'm perfectly clean. And it's not because I actually am, but because He's made me that way. He's clothed me in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. And, you know, we receive this righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ alone. We come to Christ and say, Oh Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And so, you know, I could continue reading Romans, it just continues with this thought, how He saves us, redeems us, forgives us, puts us in remission of sin, all these things, but it's all by Jesus Christ and His righteousness. One writer said, that when Jesus was on the cross, wearing our sin and shame, that God the Father treated Him as if He lived my life. But because of the righteousness that comes by grace through faith, God is able to treat me as if I had lived the perfect life of Christ. Wow. Now, whenever someone preaches, I've got to address this and we'll close. Whenever someone preaches about the imputed righteousness of Christ, It's such an overwhelming truth that, at least in my experience, it tends to raise questions, especially for people that were raised in a system of works for salvation. And so I want to try to deal with these questions that come up briefly. The first question that usually gets brought up about imputed righteousness is that, doesn't the imputed righteousness of Christ, doesn't that make God scandalous? I mean, doesn't it mean that God is actually winking at sin? That, oh, somebody messes up or somebody sins and God's just going to turn a blind eye and wink at it and He just, you know, it's just cheap grace, He's going to let them get away with that. That is emphatically not true. And I'm going to tell you why. Because God brutally punished Jesus Christ for our sins. He did punish our sin. Not a one of my sins will go unpunished, but I'm so thankful today they were punished in Jesus Christ. And there is such a thing for, you know, some theologians have called it double jeopardy, but if you think about it, if God the Father poured His wrath out on Jesus Christ for all of my sin, past, present, and future, how can I then be judged for those same sins that were judged already? How can I be beaten for the things He was already beaten for? How can I be charged with the things that Christ was already charged for? That's the whole point of what we're talking about. Isaiah 53 and verse 5, it says, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. And so, it's not that God turned a blind eye to our sin. is that He punished our sins in the brutal death of Jesus Christ. This is why God can pardon sinners without Himself becoming an unrighteous judge. Isn't that a beautiful truth? The second question that always gets raised when this is preached or taught about is what happens when a Christian sins after they're saved? Well, number one, I'll say it like one of the old British preachers said, Dr. Ironside. He said, when Christ died for our sins, at that time when he was crucified, how many of our sins were yet future? All of them, all of them. But I would also say, man, this is so important. This is where we have to understand the difference between our standing before God and our state before God. Now, our standing is who we are in Jesus Christ. That is our position in Jesus Christ. And in Christ, we are forgiven, saved, born again children of God, and we're the bride of Christ. And listen, because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, and because of that standing before God, that standing never changes. Listen, when I came to Christ, In the summer, late June, early July of 1999, when God saved me, He clothed me in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and that's never changed. Not one second since that moment that I put my faith in Jesus Christ, not one second, has my standing before God changed. I've always been perfectly righteous. I've always been clothed, in fact, I don't do this much, but I'm gonna do it today, because I remember somebody else doing it, and I never forgot it, so I'm gonna do it. Let me get, Madeline, if you come up here, I'm not gonna embarrass you too bad. So, Madeline, she is a sinner. Did y'all know that? Doesn't she just look like she's ready to sin right now? But she represents a sinner lost before God. And when somebody puts their faith in Jesus Christ, their clothes, you can put that on, their clothes, think about this jacket as the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now, I got a small person for a reason, okay? Now, obviously this jacket is much too big for her. It completely consumes her. That is exactly what the righteousness of Christ does to our sin. Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. And so when God sees us, He doesn't see Madeline, He sees the righteousness of Christ that covers Madeline. And that is our salvation in Jesus Christ, friend. He doesn't see me. Isn't that wonderful? I died in Jesus Christ. We're crucified with Christ, and yet we live. And so when God sees us, He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And when we die, the reason that we go to heaven is because we're clothed in that perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name." This is why we're perfect. And this is why, look, David was clothed in that same righteousness. This is how he was able to say, look at me, look how righteous I am. Look at how clean, you can't even see her hands. Look how clean my hands are. That's the picture, that is our standing before God. And even though she might mess up, and even though I might mess up, this is what God sees. Isn't that wonderful? That's one of the greatest truths in the whole Bible. That's what the cults miss. I'm sorry, I'm not going to embarrass you anymore. You can sit down. Thank you, Madeline. But that's what they miss. Listen, God's standard to be right with Him, God's standard to be reconciled to Him, God's standard to make it to heaven is absolute, sinless perfection. That's why we can't stand in our own righteousness. That's why we can never achieve it. That's also the blessing of the Gospel that He has. Jesus is enough. The imputed righteousness of Christ. So what happens to a saved person when they sin after they're saved? Well, their standing never changes. That's why we cannot lose our salvation. But you have to understand, on the other hand, While our standing before God is who we are in Jesus Christ and never changes, our state is how we are living our lives at that moment. And let's just be honest, as children of God, although our righteous standing before God never changes, sometimes our state doesn't match our standing, does it? Sometimes we haven't always lived our profession. Hey, if we're just being honest, there's been times in every one of our life that we just flat out stained the name of Jesus Christ with the way that we lived, or talked, or our attitudes. Listen, I'm preaching to myself this morning. But aren't you glad that even though our state can get messed up, our standing with God never changes? And if you're truly His child, He doesn't, listen, He doesn't even sweep that under the rug. As His child, He will come after us like a loving father. He will chasten those whom He loves. He promises that in Hebrews 12. He's going to deal with it because He wants us to yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness. And so He will get our attention. But here's the difference here. As a child of God, He will never condemn us as a judge. He will discipline us as a father. That's a huge distinction. And so that's the difference between our standing and our state. And in that case, a Christian needs to make things right with our Heavenly Father. Not to get re-saved, but to just make that relationship right as we would with somebody we love here, our Earthly Father. I don't want my parents to be disappointed in me. I don't want there to be a rift where there doesn't have to be a rift. And so that's how that works. But then the third question that always comes up when somebody preaches on this subject, and then I'll be done, and that is this, if salvation is all by grace, and salvation can't be lost, then why would anyone want to live for God? I mean, in other words, if we're not being motivated by the fear of hell, if we're not being motivated by the condemnation of God every step that we take through this life, why would anybody want to live for God? I mean, if somebody doesn't look behind them and see the flames of hell, then why do they have any motivation to do anything for God? Well, as I've said before, if you just think about the Gospel, the fact that the Creator entered into His creation, lived a perfect life as the God-man, healed the sick, raised the dead, preached truth, died on the cross, rose from the dead Himself, victorious over death, hell, and the grave, ascended to the Father where He is seated in power and coming again. Friend, if you need more motivation than that, I got nothing. I got nothing to offer you. That's the greatest story ever been told and it's true. He's coming back. And from the freedom of forgiveness, and in the new nature that God has given us, and a heart of gratefulness, we can serve God without fear of condemnation. That's such a powerful thing. We're not endlessly fighting for the victory, we're fighting from the victory. No wonder David was able to say, let's go back to Psalm 18 and I'm done. I know I told you I was done earlier, but... Thank God for our standing, right? Psalm 18, no wonder David was able to say in verse 35, Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation. You see that gift? Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation. Thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great. Notice how he tied that in to who God is, His greatness, His gift of salvation, His righteousness, who He is. He does that all throughout verse 28 through 35. And so I want to just close with this question. Are you clothed this morning in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ through faith in His death, burial, and resurrection? And if not, I want to ask you this question. Do you want to be? Do you want to have the righteousness that only comes through Jesus Christ? If you want it, you can have it by faith. He said, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ephesians 2 and verse 8 and 9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You can have it if you want it. And you can receive it by faith. But you have to be willing to forsake the illusion of your own righteousness because you have none. Jesus does and He's enough. Do you have the imputed righteousness of Christ? And if not, you can have it.