Psalm 35 tonight, I expect it
will be our last study on this psalm, so next week we will be
in Psalm 36, verse 1. Plead my cause, O Lord, with
them that strive with me. So here's a man under sufferings
by his enemies, they're attacking him. mistreating him, treating
him cruelly, causing him suffering and mocking him, and they're
happy that he seems to be losing the battle. He's going to die.
They're rubbing their hands in glee, as it were. And he cries
out to the Lord. He doesn't pull out a sword. He doesn't throw rocks at them.
He doesn't yell at them. He doesn't talk back to them.
He quietly submits. It's God's will. And so he takes
up his case with the Lord. Plead my cause, O Lord. So that's
the way it opens, and the rest of the psalm is expanding on
this. Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me.
Fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield
and buckler and stand up for my help. A buckler was a smaller
shield that protected the vital organs. Draw out also the spear
and stop the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my
soul, I am thy salvation. Let them be confounded and put
to shame that seek my soul. Let them be turned back and brought
to confusion that devise my hurt. They've designed to hurt him,
they intend to hurt him, they are hurting him, and he asked
that the Lord would throw their intentions and their design and
all their work into confusion, put them to shame, defeat them,
and bring them to nothing. He says in verse five, let them
be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord
chase them. If you have a pile of leaves, and the wind comes
along and blows the leaves, that would be one example. If you
had a pile of feathers in a bag and you opened the bag in the
wind and those feathers went everywhere, that would be like
the wind chasing those things and here the Lord Jesus in this
psalm prays against his enemies that God would chase them like
the wind. Verse six, let their way be dark
and slippery and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. They
persecuted him and now the Lord Jesus is praying against them
that they would be persecuted. For without cause have they hid
for me their net in a pit. which without cause they have
digged for my soul." You can imagine what this is like. Someone
hasn't done anything wrong and his enemies dig a hole and lay
a net in that hole to catch him in their pit so that he doesn't
see it and he falls into it and then they've got him. That's
what they did, he's saying. He says, he asked the Lord to
let them be caught in the very net. He says, let destruction
come upon him at unawares and let his net that he has hid catch
himself into that very destruction, let him fall." Remember Haman
in the book of Esther, he planned to destroy all the Jews, he hated
Mordecai, And so he plotted against them. He thought to get himself
into the queen's favor, into the king's favor, and he thought
he had that favor. And when he least expected it,
the very thing he planned to destroy Mordecai and the Jews
was the way he was destroyed. The gallows and the decree of
the king came up against him. Verse nine, and my soul shall
be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. So
when Christ is delivered from his enemies, that's his salvation,
that's the salvation of his people. And so that's why he prays this
way. He's praying that God would deliver him because he's praying
for the salvation of his people. Verse 10, all my bones shall
say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which delivers the poor from
him that is too strong for him? Yea, the poor and the needy from
him that spoileth him. The Lord Jesus Christ had all
riches. He was the Lord of heaven. But
it says in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might
be made rich. He lowered himself, he made himself
of no reputation, and he did that that we might be made rich,
but he cries out now in the poverty of being made low because of
our sins, taking our nature and making himself a servant to save
us from our sins according to the will of God. He cries out
and he says that the Lord delivers the poor from him that is too
strong for him. And this is a truth in scripture.
All of God's people are poor in spirit. They are all poor
and the Lord has promised to deliver them and it's exemplified
mostly in the deliverance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
11, false witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things
I knew not. They accused me of things he
didn't have any knowledge of. They rewarded me evil for good
to the spoiling of my soul. So they took all the good that
he did and they turned it around and gave him evil for it. God
does the opposite. He rewards us good for our evil
for Christ's sake. That's grace. God giving us what
we do not deserve. He doesn't give us what we deserve,
but He gives us what Christ deserves. We could say it this way. In
our salvation, we did all the sinning, but God did all the
saving. God did all the choosing, Christ
did all the suffering, Christ did all the obedience, and the
Holy Spirit of God made it known to us in His grace, as it says
in Scripture throughout. And so that's what he's talking
about here. The opposite is true of these he's talking about.
These wicked, these evil people returned the good that he showed
them with evil. They traded his good for evil
against him. But as for me, he says in verse
13, but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting,
and my prayer returned into my own bosom. In other words, he
himself bore the burden of their calamities when he prayed, but
what did they do? They brought calamities on him
for all the good that he showed them. Verse 14, I behaved myself
as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily
as one that mourneth for his mother. But in my adversity,
they rejoiced. and gathered themselves together.
Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew
it not. They did tear me and ceased not."
The abjects would correspond to those who, in the crucifixion
of Christ, were the ones in the crowd who shouted out for Jesus
to be crucified. Remember, Pilate said Would you
like me to release Barabbas to you according to the custom that
one should be released on this day, on the Passover?" And they
said, no, not Barabbas, not that murderer, not that thief. We
want, I mean, not Jesus, not him who did no wrong. Release
Barabbas, that murderer and that thief. They wanted a murderer
and they wanted to be released and let go and they wanted Christ
to be crucified, the one who knew no sin and did no sin, who
only spoke the truth and who healed men's souls and raised
from the dead those who were dead. Amazing. So these are the
abjects, those around the cross, the soldiers, the people crying
for his death. And he had only done them good. In all their synagogues, in all
their streets, he had healed their sick and was compassionate
toward those who couldn't do anything. He opened the eyes
of the blind. There was nothing he ever said
that was wrong, and they demanded him to die. Verse 16, with hypocritical
mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. The
hypocritical mockers would have been the Jews who claimed to
know God's law and teach God's law, but they used God's law
unlawfully to put Christ to death. They were hypocrites. Verse 17,
Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Rescue my soul from their
destructions, my darling from the lions. Now, it seems, when
the psalmist prays this, that he's saying, Lord, you look,
but you're not doing anything. And this is a principle throughout
the psalms when he prays like this. He's saying what he feels.
He tells the Lord, this is the way it appears to me. All evidence
is, in the appearance of how things are going, I'm losing
here. It seems like you're watching, but nothing's happening. And
that's not a prayer of unbelief, because at the same time, he
knows the Lord is going to deliver him. But he's confessing the
situation as it really is in his experience. And so out of
his soul, he pours out his distress and his lament. He's not pretending
here. He's not coding it over. He's
just saying, this is the way it is. And it was that way. And
these people who were against him were like lions. You know
what lions are like. There was that pit that King
Darius had in the days of Daniel, and he had this pit of lions,
and when they had someone who was worthy of death, they'd cast
them into the pit, and the lions would eat them up. They didn't
have any mercy, and that's what these people were like. They
were vicious and cruel and merciless to Christ. And so he says, how
long? Will you look on, Lord? Rescue
my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions. He
talks about his soul as the Lord's darling. And when the Lord speaks
about my darling like this, he's really speaking by the Spirit
of God of what God thinks of his soul. God thought Christ
was his darling, so he speaks of himself as God's darling here,
my darling. Verse 18, I will give thee thanks
in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much
people. Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice
over me. They're not enemies lawfully,
they're enemies unlawfully, wrongfully. Don't let them rejoice over me.
Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters
against them that are quiet in the land. The ones who are quiet
in the land correspond to the sheep. These are the wolves. The wolves are the ones who are
howling for the death of the sheep. And those who are quiet
in the land are those who are not stirring up violence against
the Lord. But he says, they speak deceitful
matters against them, against those that are quiet in the land.
Verse 21, yea, they open their mouth wide against me. It's like
the loud, proud mockers now, what do they say? Aha, aha, our
eye has seen it. See what they're saying here?
They look at what's happening. They look upon Christ and his
sufferings and they say, we have won. And so they say, ha, they're
looking at each other. Do you see this? We have won.
We have destroyed him. Aha. And the Lord Jesus in his
prayer, he's bringing this to the attention of God. He said,
this is what these guys are doing. He says in verse 22, This thou
hast seen, O Lord, keep not silence. O Lord, be not far from me. Notice how he trusts God even
though in all appearances, to all those who are around the
cross, he was the one God had forsaken. But though he forsook
him, it was but for a moment. He didn't forsake him for a long
time. His heel was bruised, but not
his head. Satan's head would be bruised
here, but not Christ's. Verse 23, the Lord Jesus is still
praying to his God. He says, stir up thyself and
awake to my judgment. even unto my cause, my God and
my Lord." Notice how he calls God his God and his Lord here.
That's a relationship where God has made himself his God and
he has called him his people. He is the Lord's servant. God
is his God. He worships him. He obeys him. He submits to him in all things.
He acknowledges that he is his creator, that he is his God and
he is his Lord. He likes it that way. and he
calls upon him to stir up his own justice and awake to his
judgment and his cause. What was the cause of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Was it not to do the will of
God? That's why He came into the world. And what was that
will to do? It was to save His people. It
was to save them by offering Himself in sacrifice for their
sins, in answer to God, in satisfaction of His justice and in fulfillment
of His righteousness. That was His cause, to do the
will of God. to save his people, to magnify,
to honor all of God's perfections in his death because of his obedience. in his death. Now that was his
desire. He was willing to give his life
to honor God's perfections and holiness. And the other thing,
the other cause, was to silence and put to shame and defeat the
evil design of the enemies of God's people. That's his cause. So he says, stir up yourself
and awake to my judgment, even to my cause, my Lord and my God. Verse 24, Judge me, O Lord my
God, according to thy righteousness, and let not them rejoice, and
let them not rejoice over me. Judge me, in other words, find
me to be righteous. If the scales of your justice
fall against me, judge me. But if they fall on my side,
then judge my enemies and justify me." That's what he's saying
here. He's not trying to compromise God's truth. He's not trying
to fall short of his righteousness or to give his justice less than
his justice deserves. He's there to answer justice
and fulfill righteousness and to declare the truth. And so
he asks him to judge him in his righteousness. God will not save
us unless it's in his righteousness. So we might as well come to him
and ask him to save us in his righteousness, which for us is
entirely impossible. We can't, the ungodly sinner,
can't ask God to deliver him in righteousness unless God in
his wisdom has a purpose of grace and mercy to find a way to also
not only judge in righteousness, but to save in grace. And that's
exactly what he did in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great
paradox, the great wisdom of God, that he would justify the
ungodly He judged them in righteousness and he justified them, even though
they were ungodly. This is the miracle of God's
grace. And this is what Jesus was doing here. And so he cries
out to them. Daniel did the same thing. In
Daniel chapter nine, when he prayed, he asked the Lord, according
to all your righteousness, forgive us. And David did the same thing
in Psalm 51, 14. He says, How does he put it there? Psalm
51, let me turn this since I'm just a few pages away and I can't
remember it. He said in Psalm 51 and verse
14, actually it's in, yeah. Deliver
me, notice this is David, and after he committed murder and
adultery, covering it up like a hypocrite, he says, deliver
me from blood guiltiness, that's murder, O God, thou God of my
salvation, and what will he do? And my tongue will sing aloud
of thy righteousness. That shows us that in the death
of Christ, all of God's character, his righteousness, truth, justice,
grace, mercy, wisdom, faithfulness, all of it to the highest possible
degree is set forth in honor to God for who he is. And God's
people stand and look at that, having seen it in Christ, and
they worship him for it. That's what he's saying here.
Verse 25 of Psalm 35. He says, let them not say in
their hearts, ah, so would we have it. No, he's asking the
Lord, take that, snatch it out of their heart. As soon as they
begin to say that, you steal it from them, because it's an
unjustified, it's not a just thing that they're doing. They've
twisted, they've perverted justice. They've done it for their own
lust, out of pride, against God, against his throne, his rule,
his will, and his work. They've tried to rob his people
of their salvation, and tried to side with Satan. in order
to murder Christ and his people. And so he says, no, don't let
them do that. Don't let them say in their hearts, ah, so would
we have it? Let them not say, we have swallowed
him up. In other words, raise me up.
Show them. Justify me. Let them be ashamed
and brought to confusion together that rejoice at my heart, at
my hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that
magnify themselves against me. Let them shout for joy. This
is in contrast to those. Let them shout for joy and be
glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually,
Here's what they're gonna say, let the Lord be magnified, which
has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue
shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day
long. All right, now look at this here in this Psalm. See
that most of this Psalm is the cry of the Lord Jesus Christ
to God to save him, deliver him, defend him against the enemies
who came against him From their perspective, it was entirely
unjust. But it was God's will, so therefore
it had to be holy. But he knew, the Lord Jesus knew,
that though it was God's will and it was a holy thing God required
of him, these were doing it out of an evil motive. And so in
this prayer, he's crying out to God to save him from his enemies. That's clear, right? That's very,
very clear. He's praying against his enemies,
against his enemies. But notice also that in this
very same Psalm, the Lord Jesus Christ prays for another people. And you see this in, look at
verse 18. I will sing, I will give thee
thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much
people. So he's praying for them, isn't he? Then he said about
those that were quiet in the land. Remember that part? He said they are coming against
those who are quiet in the land. They try to deceive those who
are quiet in the land. I'm looking for the verse, I'm
not seeing it right now. And then he says also in verse 12,
27, let them shout for joy and be
glad that favor my righteous cause. So you see, there's two
kinds of people here. The Lord Jesus Christ is praying
against his enemies, but he's also praying for another people. So this is the way all of scripture.
God is revealing here that in all of history, throughout all
of time, in fact throughout all of eternity, God has enemies. They are the enemies of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's seen first in the Garden,
isn't it? The Garden of Eden. When Satan
tried to kill Adam and Eve, at God's hand by causing them to
sin, because he knew that the soul that sinneth, it must die.
God had said, in the day you eat, you shall surely die. I
know how to murder them. I'll get them to sin against
God. And by sinning against God, he first attacked Eve, because
if he could get the wife to sin, then he knew the husband would
also fall because the husband loved his wife. Somehow he would
get at the husband and he would destroy the entire race. Now
that was just a picture of what happened in the larger scheme
when Satan tried to kill Christ. And the way he would do that
is he would try to get his wife, his people, to sin, and then
the Lord Jesus would be in a pickle. I mean, he would be in this situation
where he had to do something, and he would put his own life
at stake. In fact, that was the intention here. If his people
sinned and they were one with him, then he had to bear their
obligations and he would bring him to death. But what he didn't
realize is that this was God's plan all along from the foundation. Before the foundation of the
world, God ordained that by the death of his son, he would redeem
his people from their sins. So he had to die. But in his
death, what would happen? The enemies of God, the enemies
of Christ, the enemies of his people would be defeated. and
not only defeated, but they would be scattered like feathers in
the wind, if you will, chaff before the wind. Their intentions
and their designs to destroy Him would be turned around. They
had dug a pit with a net in it for Him. That's the very net
that God would trap them in. The very death they designed
for Christ to destroy Him and silence Him with His people forever
is exactly what happened at the cross. the Lord Jesus Christ
overcame Satan and he was cast out of heaven. So when Christ
was going around on the earth in the days of his flesh, he
would command devils to come out of people. And even though
sometimes, oftentimes, those men who were possessed with devils
or women would come crying out against him, He didn't say, well,
you're possessed with the devil. Off with you. No. He would see
that this person was one for whom he had come to deliver from
Satan's kingdom, and he would command that devil to come out.
Now this shows that Christ had absolute authority over Satan
and his kingdom by virtue of his own obedience unto God in
his sacrifice of himself in death. It was his death offered to God
that balanced the scales of God's justice so that the decision
of his court from the high court of heaven was against Satan. And so he says in the book of
Zechariah, the Lord rebuked thee, O Satan. And that's exactly what
God did at the cross. The Lord rebuked him. He was
cast out of heaven. In Luke 10, 17, Jesus said to
his disciples, I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven. So
he had absolute victory over him. He crushed his head. He
defeated him. He destroyed his works. He defeated
him. He bound him, it says in Revelation
chapter 20, for 1,000 years, until the end of time, so that
the Lord Jesus Christ could build his church and gather his people
out of the kingdom of Satan. God would translate them from
that kingdom to his kingdom. God would be the victor through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus would take all the handwriting
of God's law, the ordinances that were against us, and nail
it to his cross, taking it out of the way. And then he would,
having done that, he would spoil, he would rob Satan of all of
his goods, which were the people that God had elected, and he
would bring them out. In Luke 11, 20 through 22, he
says, you can't enter the strong man's castle unless you first
bind the strong man. The Lord Jesus Christ at the
cross bound him. He bound him and he took his
goods from him that he trusted in. Thought he had them, he didn't.
He took away his accusations, he took away his strength, he
took away everything. Now this is the victory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, so that's the first thing
to see here, is that the cross was the victory. Christ came,
he entered into combat. He himself took on our enemy. Not just Satan, but what else
is on that list of enemies? At the top of it, we find Satan,
who tempted us to sin in Adam, and we fell under the condemnation
of God's justice and law. But what else? Well, obviously
our sins, right? The scripture reveal in mercy
that God sees our very sins as our enemies. He came to save
us from our sins. That's his name, Jesus. He's
going to cast, like he cast Pharaoh with his armies into the Red
Sea, he's going to cast our sins into the depths of the sea. So
here we see in this psalm also, not only did Christ enter into
battle against our enemy, but the enemies of Christ are the
enemies of his people, and he himself overcame them by himself
suffering. And so we see in the suffering
a graphic display and setting forth of the very nature of Christ's
sufferings. He suffered at the most wicked,
at the hands of the most wicked men, and they were unjustly doing
it. They were haters of God, haters
of him. Yet he had to bear all of that
in order to endure what we deserved. The very consequences of our
sin is that we deserve to be received from the hands of wicked
men what we did to God, and that's what Christ received. He received
the consequences of our sin because he bore our sins in his own body
on the tree, so that we, being dead to sins, might live unto
righteousness. So here's the mystery of it all.
In his death, We did die, but not according to Satan's design.
We died according to God's design. We died to sin. We died to sin's
penalty. We died to death. Jesus said,
whoever believes on me has passed from death to life already. So he has raised us from the
dead. He's birthed us into his kingdom. He's delivered us from
this old man. And that gets me to this last
point. When you see this, I think it helps us to see the applicability,
how this is so important to us, even in our everyday life. The prayer here of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the enemies of Christ are the enemies of his people,
and the enemies of his people are his enemies. That's the key
point here. He prays for them. He prays for his people. He does
not pray for his enemies. In fact, he prays against his
enemies, doesn't he? Moses prayed. He said in the
book of Numbers, and let me see if I can find that reference
here, if you're interested in it. In Numbers chapter 10, Moses
said, it came to pass when the ark set forward that Moses said,
here's his prayer, rise up, O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered. Now, the ark was the thing that
had the mercy seat on it. It was where God dwelt. He dwelt
between the cherubims, above the mercy seat, where the blood
was sprinkled. In other words, God dwelt with his people where
the atonement was made, where Christ offered himself to God
for their sins. And so Moses prays. This is Moses.
He says, rise up, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered,
and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee. And when the ark
rested, He said, return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel.
That's in Numbers chapter 10, verse 35 and 36. So notice how
in the Psalm, Psalm 35, Jesus at the cross in Gethsemane and
before the cross and at the cross is praying to God that God would
plead His cause against His enemies. Moses also prayed the same thing
in reference to the ark. Rising up, going forward, defeat
your enemies. When it rests, then return to
the many thousands of Israel. When atonement has been finished,
return to your people. But it wasn't just Moses, it
was also David. Remember in 1 Samuel 17, Goliath
had come, he challenged the entire army of Israel, and in that challenge,
according to David, he defied the armies of Israel, the armies
of the living God. These were God's people and Goliath
defied God's people. Now what is that consistent? What is the essence of defying
God's people? It's defying God. They're his
people. Jesus said, if you've done it
to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. So here
we see in 1 Samuel 17, when David went out against Goliath, the
foundation on which he went out against them is that this enemy
had opposed God, had blasphemed God, had defied God in his people. And he rose up against them.
David did, and he says, I'm gonna go out, the Lord is going to
cut, he's gonna put you to death. So he pulls out his sling, throws
a stone, kills him with the stone sinking into his forehead, and
then he goes over, picks up his sword, and chopped his head off,
and holds his head up in triumph. That's exactly what Jesus did
at the cross. So not only did Moses pray to
God against the enemies, and David prayed to God against his
enemy, Goliath and the Philistines there, in that place. But then
also we have the other case where Paul, for example, Paul also
prayed against his enemies. Well, let's look at that one
because that one's the one I wanted to get to. Here we have it in
Romans chapter 7. Look at this. But we're surprised
by Paul's prayer against the enemies because of who the enemy
actually is. Notice this in Romans chapter
7. It starts in verse, well, we
could read a lot of this, but let me just pick it up in verse
14. The Apostle Paul says this, we
know that the law is spiritual, God's law is spiritual, but I
am carnal, sold under sin. Whoa, that's a scary thought. What a confession he's making
here. I'm carnal, sold under sin. He goes on, he said, In
verse 15, for that which I do, he's going to elaborate, he's
going to explain what he means. For that which I do, in verse
15, I allow not. I don't want to do it. I try
to prevent it, but I do it. For what I would, what I want
to do, I don't do. He says, what I would, that I
do not, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Now
this is a big problem, isn't it? This is a very big problem.
If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that
it is good. There's nothing wrong with God's
law. It's good. I agree with it because I hate
it. I hate what I do. Now then, it
is no more I that do it, but what? Sin that dwelleth in me. So here's the thing. This is
the revelation from God. Such a merciful, gracious revelation
this is. Every believer, every believer,
has two natures. In the one nature, he is carnal. And in that nature, he cannot
obey God's law. In Romans 8, verse 7, it says,
the carnal mind is enmity. It's at war with God. It's hostile
to God. It is, in other words, the enemy
of God. Every believer has this nature. We're born with it. It's natural.
We are naturally, all of that is described in Psalm 35, the
enemies of God. In Exodus chapter 20, Exodus
20, at the very beginning of the law, God says, if you put
anything before me, that's idolatry. And the Lord, he describes those
that do that as those who hate him. He's gonna repay them, those
that hate him, idolaters. You know what it would be like
if a man put another woman in preference to his wife? He's
telling his wife in so many words, I hate you, I love this other
woman. That's what God is saying we do with idolatry. That's our
carnal mind. That's our natural self. All
of us have this nature. And this nature can't be changed.
It can't be removed from us until we die. God has to do that. And we can't make it better.
And so we're left with this enemy. And that's what he's describing
here in Romans chapter 7. It's no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. Verse 18, for I know that in
me, that is in my flesh, my body, dwells no good thing. For to
will is present with me. I have a will, but to perform,
how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
I do." This is a problem, isn't it? This is a schizophrenic problem,
it seems like. On the one hand, I'm Dr. Jekyll,
on the other hand, I'm Mr. Hyde, if you will. He says in
verse 20, now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I
that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. So God is telling us,
we have a nature, Jesus said that which is born of the flesh
is flesh. Doesn't get any better. Doesn't rise any higher, it's
always flesh. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil
is present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man." Now we see another nature here. We see
something that's born of God. This is Christ in us. This is
that new life. This is what Jesus said, he that
who believes on me has already passed from death to life. This
is what's born of God. This is the incorruptible seed
of the spirit of God in us. It cannot sin. This nature is
created, according to Ephesians 4, verse 24, in righteousness
and true holiness. And this nature doesn't need
to change. It can go right into heaven in
the presence of God. Because this is born of the Spirit
of God. This is the part of us that's
called the mind of Christ, the new man. There's the old man
and the carnal man, and then there's the new man and the renewed
mind. He says, in verse 23, but I see
another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, there's
that warfare, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which
is in my members. And now notice, this is Paul's
prayer against his enemy. We saw Moses praying to God against
the enemies, David prayed against Goliath and his enemies, Christ
prayed to the cross, and now the believer, Paul, And all of
us join this prayer, oh, wretched man, that I am in my natural
self, what I am apart from Christ, I am wretched. And so he prays
against that. Who shall deliver me from this
enemy, the body of this death? And then he tells us, who will? He tells us with confidence and
assurance and certainty and expectation. He says, I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Now,
when the Lord Jesus enters into prayer here in Psalm 35 against
our enemies, We can observe that. We can see that his prayer was
heard. His prayer was answered. God certainly did defeat the
design of his enemies. Satan lost. Our sin was answered
for. But now, in the experience of
our life, in the experience of our life, we have an enemy that
is inward, and we live with it daily. And that enemy, though
it was put to death, it says in Romans 6, our old man was
crucified with him, yet it's part of this body, this body
of flesh. He says in Romans 8, verse 10,
that the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness. So now we're seeing here that
Moses prayed against the enemies of God, David prayed against
the enemies of God. This is the revelation of God,
that He has enemies, they're the enemies of His people, and
in His revealed will, He has made them our enemies, His enemies,
and then we see Christ in Psalm 35, and we see Paul praying in
Romans 7, where he says, oh, who shall deliver me from the
body of this flesh? He cries out in great distress. And now what we see here is that
We're joining in Psalm 35 with our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
crying out to Him as our God and our Lord, like He prayed
to His God and His Lord to save Him with His people. We're praying
the same prayer. We're following Him. He's the
Master. We're His disciples. He's the
Lord. We're His servants. We're the children. He's our
older brother. And we're being conformed to
His image. So we are crying out against our enemies, which also
are His enemies. We're trusting that He will deliver
us. We're expecting Him to do that. We're expecting it because
all of our salvation depends on God. Because it's God's will
and God's work, it can't fail. God cannot fail. His word cannot
fail. He cannot lie. His purposes will
be done. All of his thoughts he will do.
And He sees our sin, Satan, this world, the curse of His law,
death itself, all these things that our sins deserve, He sees
them as our enemies. And in His grace and mercy, He
laid all of our sins on Christ who knew no sin. And when He
bore our sins on the cross, He bore all the enmity, the hostility
of our enemies. And our carnal nature is part
of that, so that now when he rose from the dead, he rose,
we having died with him, 1 Peter 2.24, he died that we being dead
to sins should live unto righteousness. He will give us the victory.
Romans 8.37, we are more than conquerors through him that loved
us. Death itself will be defeated
because the sting of death has been removed, sin. The law, the
strength of the law, has also been dealt with because he answered
the law, both in righteousness and in justice. The law has been
fulfilled. The law is answered. The law
is put away. We're not under the law. We're under grace. All of our salvation is by God's
grace, by His power. So what do we do? Well, we look
to the Lord to deliver us from our enemies, like Christ did.
He was submitting himself to the will of God when he died.
We live our life in faith. We trust that our old man has
been crucified. We see no evidence of it. I can't
point to a corpse. I can't tell you, see, I have
complete power over my sin because my old man is dead. No, I'm like
Paul. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. And I have to cry out, who's
gonna deliver me from the body of this death? and we trust,
we know, we're confident that because our salvation depends
on God and He saves us by what Christ did, this is all God's
work, He gives us the life, He gives us His gospel, He gives
us faith, He upholds us, He prays for our faith, He makes intercession
for us, then we have to be saved because it's all done by Him.
It's all upon Christ. He already won the victory, you
see? And so when we read Psalm 35,
or any other Psalm for that matter, you see in it both the prayer
for God's people and the prayer against his enemies. Jesus said
it this way in John 17, I pray for them, I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou has given me, for they are thine,
and thine are mine, and all mine are thine. So we share the same
people, and that's who I'm praying for. He knew who they were. God
the Father knew who they were. He committed them to his care
and keeping, and he prayed for them. This is the great intercession
of our Savior, because he made intercession for the transgressors.
God is gonna reward him. Notice one more thing here in
verse 27, and I'll close. The Lord, he says, let them shout
for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. We favor
it, don't we? There's nothing I favor more than that Christ
would save me from my sins. He says, yea, let them say continually,
let the Lord be magnified, which has pleasure in the prosperity
of his servant. God takes such delight in the
accomplishment of his will by Jesus Christ. He prospered. He
takes such delight in rewarding him with all of the blessing,
giving all things into his hand because he did his will and magnified
his God and father. He takes great delight in just
lifting up his son and saying, look at my son. You want to see
me? You're going to have to look
at him. because the fullness of the Godhead is in him. You
wanna see, you wanna know the heart of God? See what Christ
did. Hear his prayer for his people,
a prayer of mercy and grace. He stooped from the highest heaven
to the depths of what we are to save us from our sins. What
mercy this is. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your great grace to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Save us
from our sins, Lord. We pray with all your people
that you would plead the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ as our
case to save us from our sins and our enemies of every sort.
You know your will, you have the strength, you have the power,
you have the grace to do it, Lord, and we need it. We need
you to make yourself known to us in our Lord Jesus and save
us from all of our enemies. In his name we pray, amen.