It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda.
The scripture for our sermon today is found in Psalm 35. Listen carefully as I read the
first three verses of that Psalm. Plead my cause, O Lord, with
them that strive against me. Fight against them that fight
against me. Take hold of shield and buckler,
and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear, and
stop the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul,
I am thy salvation. There are three main points that
this psalm makes. First, the Lord must plead against
my enemies for me. Plead my cause, O Lord, with
them that strive against me. Fight against them that fight
against me. Take hold of shield and buckler
and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear and stop
the way against them that persecute me. Second, the Lord must tell
me that He is my salvation. Say it to me. Tell me. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. But there is a third lesson taught
in this psalm. That lesson is this. The one
who must plead against my enemies, and the one who must say to my
soul, I am thy salvation, is none other than Jesus Christ. He is the Lord Jehovah who interposed
himself as substitute for his people. Consider each of these
points in turn. First, to be saved, the Lord
must plead against, defend against, and stop the way against the
enemies of my soul. But who are my enemies? Without
a doubt, my sin is my greatest enemy. The Spirit of God teaches
sinners that He, the God of all grace, treats their sins as their
enemies. David prayed, Iniquities prevail
against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away." Psalm 65, 3. Is this not inconceivable
mercy? He who is holy, whose nature
cannot look upon sin, distinguishes between his people and their
sins. Psalm 35 is a bold prayer we
are given by God to pray. How can God, who is only holy,
make me, who am only unholy, anything but the object of His
wrath? How can He, who is just, justify
me, the ungodly sinner? Because in Christ He devised
a way to magnify His holiness in the salvation of sinners.
He said, Even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine
own sake, and I will not remember thy sins." Isaiah 43, 25. Listen
to God's promise in Micah chapter 7. Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for
ever, Because he delighteth in mercy, he will turn again, he
will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities,
and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. As the Lord overthrew Pharaoh
with his armies in the Red Sea, he subdued the sins and iniquities
of his elect people. He dealt with our sins in justice
by pouring out judgment on his son. God the Father pardoned
the iniquity of His people because Christ, the God-man, our mediator,
buried their sins in the sea of God's judgment when He suffered
God's judgment in their place. Second, not only are my sins
my enemy, but my corrupt sinful nature is my enemy. The Apostle
Paul cried out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, Romans 7, 24 and 25. My corrupt, sinful nature is
so much a part of me that it is me. The Apostle Paul said,
O wretched man that I am, it is my ever-present enemy. Paul
did not say, O wretched man that I was, but O wretched man that
I am. Only the Lord can deliver me
from my sins and from my sin nature. In His holiness and righteousness,
for His own sake, He must plead against and deliver me from my
sins and my sinful self. And thirdly, God's own law is
my enemy. We may recoil in reluctance to
call God's law our enemy, but the Lord Himself says that it
is. Colossians 2.14 says God's ordinances were against us and
contrary to us. God's law is holy, it is just
and good. How then can God's law be my
enemy? Because I am a guilty sinner,
and God's law only curses guilty sinners, and because the law
makes all blessings depend on conditions that I must meet. The law says do and live, fail
to do and suffer God's curse. Yet I am already guilty, and
I have a sinful nature. That nature is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 8.7 Therefore
the law condemns me, and holds me under a debt I cannot pay,
and in a prison from which I cannot escape. The law cannot justify
a sinner. The law cannot enable a sinner
to keep one thing of all that it commands. Under the law, I
lack the heart to obey, and I am confined to the prison of my
sins and my sinful nature without hope. The law actually inflames
my lust for what it forbids and leaves me in my pride to vainly
hope I can do what God commands. But no matter how far I go in
my attempt to please God by what I do, I am never able to do enough. Therefore, God's law is my enemy. And Satan and this world are
my enemies. How is Satan and this world my
enemy? Satan accuses the saints to God,
and slanders God to the saints. He introduces error into the
gospel, so that men believe the lie that their free will and
good works make the difference between them and others before
God. The world is Satan's slave and
mouthpiece. The world worships the works
of their own hands in idolatry. The religion of this world teaches
that man's will, not God's, makes the difference in salvation,
because God wants to save all men, but he can't because man's
free will won't let him. This religious world teaches
that Christ died for the sins of all men, yet some ultimately
perish for their unbelief. But this lie denies Christ his
glorious achievements in salvation, that he actually obtained eternal
redemption for his people, and actually perfected forever those
for whom he offered himself to God. And the world teaches that
the Spirit of God tries to persuade all men to believe Christ, but
only some make a difference by their own will, while others
resist His call. But Scripture plainly declares
God's will alone makes the difference in salvation. John 1.13, James
1.18, and Romans 9.16. Scripture plainly teaches that
God the Father gave His people as sheep to Christ, and He commanded
the Lord Jesus to lay down His life for them. Christ must bring
them. He calls them. They hear Him. They come to Him. He will never
cast out any who come at His call, and He gives them eternal
life, and He will not let one of them perish. But this world,
under the deception of Satan, seeks to rob God's people of
their comfort, to rob them of faith in Christ by making salvation
dependent on man's free will. Therefore, I need Christ to overcome
and plead against this world and the God this world worships. When Joshua the high priest in
Zechariah chapter 3 stood in filthy garments before the Lord,
Satan stood up to accuse him to God. But the Lord said to
Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath
chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? I need the Lord Jesus to plead
against Satan for me, to silence his accusations against me before
God, deliver me from his lies, and keep me from his temptations. and death and hell are my enemies.
Death is the payback for sin." Romans 6.23. Hell is reserved
for the devil and his angels. But all who disobey the gospel
in unbelief, who do not receive the love of the truth, will be
damned with the devil and his angels. 2 Thessalonians 2.10-12.
Now, all enemies of my soul are the result of my own sin. The law only curses the guilty. Satan only deceives those who
fail to believe God's word. Death and hell are the payback
for sin. Therefore, to be delivered from
my enemies, I must be delivered from my sin. How does the Lord
plead for me against my sin, in agreement with His law? against this world, against the
devil, and against death and hell. He pleads in Christ, and
Him crucified." David understood this. He cried out, Iniquities
prevail against me. And then he added, As for our
transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. By Himself, the Lord
Jesus Christ purged the sins of His people at the cross. Hebrews
1.3 Do you see how the Spirit of God comforts His people against
their sin enemy? The prophet Micah said this,
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy! When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of
the Lord because I have sinned against Him until He plead my
cause and execute judgment for me. Though Micah sinned, he trusted
the Lord to plead his cause and justify him in the cross of Christ. It is at the cross that God executed
judgment for me and all of his people. Paul told Titus, The
Lord Jesus gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous
of good works. Titus 2.14 Christ, our Savior,
judged the sins of His people at the cross. Christ also overcame
my sin nature at the cross, and He daily subdues it by His grace
because of that cross victory. Sin shall not have dominion over
those Christ justified by His blood. God has promised it. Christ now subdues my sin nature
by His Spirit because of His victory at the cross. The Apostle
Paul said, Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through Him. And then he added this, For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. When Paul cried out, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
He immediately answered, I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Therefore Christ overcame my
sin and now daily subdues it by his victory at the cross.
And Christ overcame this world at the cross. Galatians 1.4 says,
Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from
this present evil world. Jesus told his disciples, In
the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. John 16.33 Our Lord Jesus did
the will of God by His obedience unto death, and He condemned
the world because they received not the love of the truth. Christ
overcomes the world daily. This world is the mouthpiece
for Satan, but no matter what persecution or trouble we experience
in this world, we always triumph in Christ. Romans 8,35-37 Even
under God's chastening hand, David prayed, Help us, O God
of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name, and deliver us and
purge away our sins for Thy name's sake. Psalm 79.9 Therefore we
overcome the world in Christ crucified, risen, reigning, and
interceding. Romans 8.34 The Lord pleads against
our enemies by turning their curse into a blessing. When King
David fled from his son Absalom, the Lord sent Shimei to curse
David. One of David's men wanted to
kill Shimei, but David would not allow him to do so. David
said, It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction,
and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this
day. 2 Samuel 16.12 God always orders
all things and makes all things work together for the good of
His people. He even turns the curse we deserve
into a blessing in Christ. He orders and designs and uses
all things for the eternal good of His people to conform us to
the image of His dear Son, Romans 8, 28-29. He stops the way against
them. He turns the evil intent and
persecutions of the enemy into a blessing in Christ according
to His rich grace. The Lord stopped the way against
all enemies at the cross when He pleaded the righteousness
of His own law in the satisfaction of Christ. Colossians 2.14 says,
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. In the Gospel of John, chapter
8, verses 1-11, the Lord paints a beautiful picture of our salvation
from our enemies. A woman was guilty of adultery,
caught in the very act. She was publicly set before Jesus
by her accusers. Her accusers tried to defeat
Christ and condemn her. They said, Moses in the law commanded
us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? They tried
to entangle Jesus with an irresolvable problem. How could this woman
escape God's law and justice? How could Christ be both just
and merciful to sinners? How can God, who is only holy,
accept sinners who in themselves are only unholy? How can God
be just and justify the ungodly? How can Christ defend this woman
against the law, against her sin, against the death she deserved? These haters of Christ thought
they had cornered Jesus. But in response to their questions,
Jesus stooped in silence and wrote with his finger on the
ground. As God wrote the law with his finger on two tables
of stone, Christ wrote with his finger on the ground. He established
the law as being just and good. But as God spoke to sinful Israel
through Moses alone, Christ spoke to these accusers through the
law alone. Sinners cannot judge sinners
without condemning themselves. There is only one lawgiver who
is able to save and to destroy, James 4.12. Only the lawgiver
against whom all sin is committed can judge sinners. This woman's
accusers knew the law. After his first stoop, Jesus
lifted himself up and silenced the woman's accusers. He said,
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone
at her. Those who accused the woman to
Jesus saw his writing and heard his judgment. And when Jesus
said, He that is without sin among you, they were convicted
by their own conscience and went out one by one, beginning at
the eldest, even to the last. The longer we live in this world,
the more sin we commit. The greater our sins, the greater
our guilt. Therefore, the oldest left first
because they were the most guilty. Now, having silenced the guilty
accusers, Jesus stooped again and wrote on the ground. Do you
remember when God gave Moses the first writing of his law?
He wrote with his finger on two tables of stone. Moses came down
from the mountain with those tables. But when Moses saw Israel
committing idolatry, he threw down those first tables, smashing
them in pieces. Exodus 32 verse 19. That act
signified the universal sinfulness of God's own people. all have
broken his law. Therefore, when Jesus stooped
to write on the ground the second time, it spoke of the fulfillment
of that second writing which God wrote on the two tables of
stone. When God wrote the law the second
time, he commanded Moses to put that second writing into the
Ark of the Covenant. Now, the Ark had a lid, and that
lid was called the Mercy Seat. And on that Mercy Seat, the High
Priest sprinkled the blood of the atoning sacrifice once every
year. That Mercy Seat and the blood
sprinkled on it were given to show that Christ would propitiate
God by His offering of Himself for the sins of His people who
had broken His law, that law which was put into the Ark. The
blood of Christ made satisfaction for all those for whom He offered
Himself. Christ's blood appeased God's
wrath because He suffered the penalty of God's holy law against
sin. And in His second stoop, the
Lord Jesus, who is Himself the lawgiver, showed that He would
satisfy God's justice and fulfill God's law with His own blood
for the true Israel of God. He would answer justice for chosen
sinners to whom eternal life was promised before the foundation
of the world. 1 Peter 1 verses 18-20 says,
You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb,
without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. To be made under the law and
answer God for it, Christ had to stoop. He who is equal with
God made himself a servant. He who is God in every way that
God is God took to himself all that makes man, man. And in his
second stoop, our Lord Jesus Christ stooped to fulfill his
own law which his people broke. He took the sins of His people
and He made them His own. He offered Himself in satisfaction
to God for them. He obeyed that law. His obedience
cost Him His own death on the cross. He established everlasting
righteousness for His people. He honored and magnified God's
holy law. In so doing, He took away all
the sins of all of His people, making them clean before the
Lord. Leviticus 16 verse 30. Having
thus stooped in voluntary humiliation, Jesus rose from the dead, which
he signified when he lifted himself up the second time before this
woman. He looked around. The silenced accusers were now
gone. The woman now stood alone before
him. In his first stoop, he upheld
the righteousness of the law by riding it on the ground and
leveling it against her accusers. But in his second stoop, he pleaded
himself as the atoning sacrifice to God and as the justifying
righteousness of God's elect, those he purchased with his own
blood. This woman signifies all of God's
elect. They are all guilty, like her,
and condemned by God's law. They are accused to God by Satan
and hated by the world. But by His death, the Lord Jesus
nailed the handwriting of God's law that was against His people
to His cross and answered God for every charge with Himself.
Colossians 2.13 says this, having forgiven you all trespasses,
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. He who is the lawgiver and judge
of all stooped this second time to answer his own justice and
fulfill his own law as the one mediator between God and men. He, who is our mediator, did
for God all that God required, and he did all that God required
to save his people from their sins and from every enemy. He
pleaded himself for his people to God's justice. He said, take
me instead of the lad, and if you seek me, then let these go
their way. He satisfied God for them. He
obtained their eternal salvation. His plea then is the same as
it is now. Receive him, the condemned one,
as myself." Philemon 1, verse 17. Christ bruised, crushed Satan's
head. He overcame the world. He put
death to death. He delivered his elect, his sinful
people, from the lowest hell. Psalm 86 verse 13 says, Great
is thy mercy toward me, thou hast delivered my soul from the
lowest hell. The law is honored. All accusers
are silenced. The guilty is justified. The light of the world, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is revealed in the brightness of His grace to
sinners. He is the revelation of the invisible
God, Jesus said in John 14.9, If you have seen me, you have
seen the Father. God is known in how He saves
sinners by the stoop of His Son, to bear their sins, to answer
and fulfill His law, to plead Himself for them, to silence
their accusers by the decision of heaven's court. God Himself
rebukes our every enemy. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Romans 8, 33-34. 1 John
2 says, Our advocate with the Father is Jesus Christ, the righteous. He himself is the propitiation
for our sins. He is Emmanuel, God with us. In Jeremiah 23 verses 5-6 it
says that the Lord Jesus would be called Jehovah, our righteousness. He is the one mediator between
God and men. Having carefully considered who
my enemies are and how the Lord pleads and stops the way against
them in Christ, crucified, risen and reigning, consider now the
second part of Psalm 35, verse 3. It is a short and most precious
prayer given by God Himself to His people. Considering all that
Christ did to defeat and silence the enemies of my soul, the psalmist
now asks the Lord to do one more thing, speak to my soul. How does the Lord tell me that
He is my salvation? He declares to me the gospel
of Christ. He persuades me that Christ who
died, rose, now reigns and intercedes is all my salvation. If the Lord
is my salvation, I need not fear what any enemy can do for me. Psalm 27 says, The Lord is my
light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? We may mistakenly
think of salvation as a time when we exercised our will or
made a decision for Jesus, and many other false notions. But
if we let this psalm speak for itself, we will understand the
blessed truth of what salvation truly is. The Lord Himself says
that He is my salvation. This is the psalmist prayer. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. If the Lord is my salvation,
I will go to the Lord to save me. If the Lord is my salvation,
I will look to the Lord. If the Lord saves me, and if
He saves you, He will make us know that He Himself is our salvation. Jesus asked the woman in John
8, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus
said to her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more. The psalmist asked the Lord to
say this to his soul, Tell me that you are my salvation. Jesus
said, I do not condemn thee. The judge of all substituted
himself for his people. He judged against their enemies. He advocated for them before
God and now he tells them who he is. He is the Lord God. He tells them what he is to them,
I am thy salvation, and he tells them what he did in his two stoops,
first taking our nature and second, bearing our sins and rising in
glorious triumph over our sins and death and all our enemies.
And He tells them what He obtained by so doing, our justification
before God, our eternal salvation. He Himself is everything in our
salvation. He obtained it. It is in Him. It is therefore eternally sure.
If the Spirit of God convinces me and you that Christ is all,
we will worship Him. We will love Him. We will trust
Him. We will glorify Him. When Jesus
rose from the dead, many of his disciples did not believe him
until he appeared to them. When he did, they were terrified.
Do you know what he said to quiet their fears? He said, Behold
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. This makes me pray with the psalmist,
O almighty, precious, savior of sinners, tell me that you
are my salvation, that you are my Lord and my God. John 20,
verse 28. We are saved in Christ alone. He said, behold me, look unto
me, come to me, believe me. Let us therefore ask Him to do
what He has said, to deliver us from our enemies, to bring
us to Himself and tell us in our souls that He is all of our
salvation. Isaiah 12 says, Behold, God is
my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become
my salvation. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Romans 8, 33-34. And finally, realize that this
psalm is prophetic. David prayed as a prophet. His
experience and his words would become the experience and words
of Christ in fulfillment. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
prayed this psalm as substitute for his people at the hands of
their enemies. See Isaiah 53. He suffered the
contradiction of sinners against himself. He suffered the curse
of God's law. He was forsaken by God. Zechariah
13.7 says that God plunged the sword of His justice into Christ,
His fellow, our Great Shepherd. He suffered. He paid with himself,
he prayed, and thanks be to God he was heard. God justified him
when he raised him from the dead, and God's answer to him is the
salvation of all for whom he died." Romans 4.25. The Gospel
declares God's answer to Christ as his answer to his people.
He is the salvation of His people. Are you persuaded that Christ
is your only hope from every enemy? Is He your answer to God,
an answer in your conscience, an answer at the day of judgment?
We need God to speak to us daily from His word. Therefore pray
that He would say to your soul, I am thy salvation. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at YSGraceChurch.com.