Dear Father in Heaven, we pray
that you would speak to us from your Word in the Gospel of your
Son. Speak to us in our heart. Cause
us to know that you are our salvation. And help us to understand the
implications of this, that we might join our God and have peace
in our souls and rest and give you glory all the days of our
life. Help us never, never to go anywhere
but to you for our salvation. and help us to come always in
our heart, with our lips, and all that we are. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen. Psalm chapter 35, we'll
pick it up here. It says here that it is a Psalm
of David. Verse 1 says, 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 mine help. draw out also the spear, and
stop the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul,
I am thy salvation." I don't think there is a more precious
gift of the Spirit of God in all of Scripture than that prayer
right there. The Lord himself tells us what
to pray. He tells us where to look. He
tells us what to say. And it's our greatest need, really.
He says, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. In the scripture,
there are often many very short prayers that are given to us,
and they're dear to us because they are short. And I think that
short prayers are the best prayers that God has given sinners to
pray. This is one of them. Lord, say unto my soul, I am
thy salvation. And I want to consider this verse
with you today. This is the title of my message.
The woman who came to Jesus, whose daughter was troubled with
the devil, who was from Tyre and Sidon, that place outside
of Israel, which was also cursed, in Matthew 15, prayed this way,
Lord, help me. She had come to Jesus, and Jesus
had ignored her. The disciples prayed against
her. Jesus said, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, and she prayed, Lord, help me. And then Peter,
when he was sinking on the water, came to Jesus on the water and
saw the waves, instead of seeing his Master. And when he looked
away from the Lord and began to sink, he cried out, Lord,
save me. And the sinner, in Luke 18, chapter
18, verse 13, remember what he prayed? God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. These are very short, succinct
prayers God has given by the Spirit of God to His people to
pray. And then, remember the leper
in Matthew chapter 8? who came to Jesus and said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. Such a simple word, such
a simple prayer. And then remember the thief on
the cross. Aren't these prayers frequently
brought to your mind by the Spirit of God from His word? Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. Just remember me. If you remember
me, all is well. And then another one in Psalm
25 11, it says, For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity,
for it is great, greatly evil, great in number, against a great
God, great because of great light given to me. I have sinned against
God. My iniquity is great. I have
nothing to plea, except that I am a sinner. And then in Hosea
chapter 14 verse 2, the Lord says to pray this way, take away
all iniquity and receive us graciously. These are the prayers God has
given his people. Or here in Psalm 119 verse 133,
he says, order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity
have dominion over me. These are the cries of the new
nature given to us. We wouldn't even know our need
unless God Himself gave to us life in our souls and faith that
we might pray to Him. And then another one in Psalm
119 verse 41. That's the prayer of every believing sinner, isn't
it? Even your salvation according
to your word. Psalm 119 verse 93 says, I will
never forget thy precepts, for with them thou hast quickened
me. You've made me alive in my soul by your word. And so these
are the short prayers God has given to us. And here in Psalm
35 verse 3, we have this wonderful prayer that the Lord has given
to his people. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Now, the context here is a prayer. And it was spoken by the prophet,
who is David. King David speaks as a prophet
in this psalm. And he speaks in prophecy of
what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself would take upon His lips in the
days of His flesh. Remember what it says in Hebrews
chapter 5 and verse 7. He says, you might take a look
at that with me. Hebrews chapter 5. In verse 7,
he says this about our great high priest. He says, the Lord
had made him a high priest. He didn't make himself a high
priest. He says, in verse 5, Christ glorified not himself
to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art
my son, this day have I begotten thee, as he saith also in another
place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
That was Psalm 110, but here he says in verse 7, That is what
this psalm is about. It's a prayer of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He prays, and in verse 1 he says,
The cause of the Lord Jesus Christ is the cause of His Father. He came to do the will of God.
I come to do thy will, O God. Remember Psalm 40 and Hebrews
10? Thy law is within my heart. And what was that will? It was
to lay down his life in sacrifice to satisfy God's justice and
to fulfill all righteousness for his people giving them, bringing
them to God, making them sure to God so that nothing could
take them away. They would be perfected in His
sight. That was the will of God. That was His cause. And so in
John 17, when the Lord Jesus prays His high priestly prayer,
if you're near there, John 17, He says this, our Lord Jesus,
in His prayer to His Father, He says, Father, He spake these
words and lifted up his eyes to heaven. He said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. And so in this psalm, right here,
plead my cause, O Lord. He's praying to His Father. As
our Lord Jesus, in the days of His flesh, was strong, crying
in tears, and He asked Him to plead His cause. His cause was
the cause of His Father. But it was also the cause of
His people. The cause of His people. What
a cause our Lord Jesus Christ had. Remember what He said in
John 6? This is the will of Him that sent me, that of all which
He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. That's the cause. And now here
he is, in the days of his flesh, crying in anguish of soul, because
his enemies were many, and they came against him, even against
him in his body and in his soul. He says, Lord, this is what he
prays. 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 mine help. Draw out also the spear, and
stop the way against them that persecute me. The enemies of
our Lord Jesus Christ were many, and they were mighty, they were
strong. But remember, He who came to save His people from
their sins is the Almighty God. Remember what He says in Revelation
chapter 1? He says, I'm the first and the last, the Alpha and the
Omega. the Alpha and the Omega, God Almighty. God Almighty, that's
who He is. He is the Lord, our Almighty
Savior. In Genesis 3.15, the Lord promised
that the seed of the woman, our Lord Jesus Christ, would bruise
the head of the serpent. That means He was going to destroy
the devil. He was going to take from him
all of those that he had taken in his deception, in his temptation,
and had murdered, he had thought to murder them by bringing them
under the judgment of God. He rescued them. He redeemed
them from death. He redeemed them from the devil.
He saved them by his power. Our Lord Jesus Christ was going
to bruise Satan's head. But how would he do that? How
would he actually put destroy the works of the devil. He didn't
take up spears himself. He didn't take up swords. He
didn't take up physical weapons. He didn't even fight directly
with him in that sense that we think of that you would fight.
He didn't defend himself. He actually looked to his father. He obeyed his father in all things. He laid his cause in his father's
hand. And he asked his father to take
up his cause. And in his obedience, in all
the will of God, he gave himself to his father. And it was in
doing that, in the court of heaven, that the supreme court of heaven
and earth made the decision that God's people were then and there
justified by his work. The Lord Jesus Christ bruised
Satan's head by answering God's justice in satisfaction for his
people that they might be redeemed from death and sin and the law.
And all that they deserved because of their sin, the Lord Jesus
Christ did that. He didn't directly come against
the devil. He gave himself to God as a servant
of God to do his will. And then he pleads, Lord, You
take up the spear. You fight against them. You bring
up the shield and the buckler. And you stand up for mine help.
Because he entrusted himself to his father. Psalm 22.8 says
he rolled himself upon Jehovah. That was the accusation the men
at the cross gave. He trusted in the Lord that He
would deliver him. Let Him deliver him now, seeing
He trusted in Him. That's what Psalm 22 says. And
that's what the men mocked Him with at the cross. But the Lord
Jesus Christ would not deviate. He trusted His God. He laid His
life down. He put Himself into the hands
of God. And like Job says in Job 13.15, Though He slay me,
yet will I trust Him. And this is what our Lord Jesus
Christ did. He committed himself to God. Look at 1 Peter chapter
2. He put himself in the hands of
his God and his Father. And he said, Lord, plead my cause. Verse 23. Actually, backing up
to verse... Verse 20 of 1 Peter chapter 2,
For what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults
you shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
For even here unto were you called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his
steps. Listen to what our Lord Jesus did. "...who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth." In other words, he wasn't
deceitful in any way. "...who when he was reviled,
reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously."
And then listen to this verse in verse 24. "...who his own
self bear our sins in his own body
on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes you were healed." You see, how was it that the
Lord saved us? What enemies did He save us from?
He saved us from the enemies of our sin. He saved us from
Satan. He saved us from death. He saved
us from the world. All these enemies. And how did
He do it? He bore our sins in His own body. He took our sins. Our sins that
we had committed against God, He owned them as His own sins. They became His. God, in His
sovereignty, imputed those sins to our Lord Jesus Christ and
He knew the guilt of them. He did no sin, but He became
a sinner before God by the sins of His people. Put upon Him.
Laid upon Him, as it says in Isaiah 53. Made sin, as it says
in 2 Corinthians 5.21. He was made sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him, He bore our sins
in His own body, and He committed Himself into the hands of His
Father, to Him who judges righteously. He didn't answer. And how many
times do you see us do this as people? We do it, even the President
does it. We have to defend ourselves. But the Lord Jesus Christ did
not defend Himself. He just stood before his God
and he says, Lord, plead my cause with them that strive with me. Fight against them that fight
against me. Take hold of shield and buckler. Stand up for my help. Remember
Josaphat in 2 Chronicles 20? We have no power. We don't know
what to do. And the answer from God was,
you need not fight in this battle. The battle is the Lord's. And
the Lord Jesus Christ entered the battle by making himself
putting himself into the hands of his father, taking our sins,
owning them as his own, taking on the accusations of the devil,
bearing shame, bearing the filth and the shame of our sins in
his own body before God. And then before men, bearing
their accusations and their revilements, he was despised and rejected
of men, like Joseph, thrown in the pit. And his brothers didn't
listen to his cries. He was thrown in the pit by God,
and we didn't hear him. We forsook him. We fled. And
the Lord Jesus took it all on himself, committed himself to
his Father. And so he cries that his father
would hear his cause and plead his cause against his enemies.
And he knew that if heaven's court made a decision on his
behalf, that his enemies would be subdued. They would be subdued. Remember John chapter 8? The
woman was taken in adultery. She was taken rightly. She was
taken because she was guilty. Her accusers brought her to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when they brought her to
the Lord Jesus Christ, there she stood, accused by her accusers. And what did he do? He silenced
her accusers. And then he turns to the woman
and says, Woman, where are your accusers? The judge of all had
stooped twice. One in answer to give the law
against his accusers. And then the second time to fulfill
it. And here he answers in the court of heaven. And this woman
is no longer condemned. She goes out free because he
stands for her. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
does. He's pleading the cause of his people here. He's pleading
their cause. Look at Micah, the book of Micah,
if you would please. Micah chapter 7. Plead my cause,
O Lord. He says in Micah chapter 7, he
says in verse 8, Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy. Micah chapter 7 verse 8. 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. Verse 9. I will bear the indignation
of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my
cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to
the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. That's the
answer, isn't it? Lord, plead my cause against
my enemies. Who are my enemies? Well, here
we are in Micah chapter 7, look at verse 18. Who is a God, like
unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passes by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for
ever, because he delighteth in mercy. And now listen to verse
19. He will turn again. You would
think we are the ones who need to turn. And here the Lord is
turning to us. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. And He will subdue our iniquities. And thou wilt cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth.
to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old." This is God's covenant that He
would take away their sins. Romans 11, 27. That's what He
says here in Micah 7, verses 18 and 19. Our iniquities are
our enemies, but like the Egyptian army, the Lord put them under
the judgment of His wrath in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He
took them away because He bore them Himself in His own body
on the tree. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
He pleads. He pleads His cause. He pleads
His Father's cause. He pleads the cause of His people,
and the Lord hears Him. And the court of heaven answers
in his favor. And God stands against his enemies. And there's two things done here.
First, the Lord stops the way against the enemies. Because
it was Christ's submission to his father's will and his obedience
unto death that was the defeat of all of his enemies. The putting
away of our sin. The silencing of our accuser,
Satan. Casting him out of heaven. All
these things, this was how the Lord Jesus Christ overcame the
world. Galatians 1.4, remember what
it says? Who gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us from this present evil world. He delivered
us from this world by giving Himself for our sins. And what
is the world? Well, there's seduction in the
world. It entices us with the lust of our nature. There's the
deception of the world. There's the false religion of
the world. There's persecutions in the world. There's all these
things that the world does. The philosophies of the world.
This is the world. Everything the world says is
opposed to Christ. And how did our Lord overcome
it? He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from
this present evil world. Titus chapter 2 verse 14 he says,
He came to redeem us from all iniquity. That's when he died. His death not only delivered
us from the world, but from all iniquity. And his death also
destroyed Satan. In John chapter 12, verse 31,
he says, Now is the judgment of this world. Now is the prince
of this world cast out. And I, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw all men to me. Once the prince of this world
was cast out, the spoils, the Lord Jesus Christ took the spoils
of Satan's kingdom, saved his people, brought them out of darkness
into light. And so the Lord here prays, fight,
strive, take hold of shield and buckler, stand up for mine help.
Because when God stood up for the Lord Jesus Christ, when the
Lord Jesus Christ suffered, when he prayed, and when God heard
his prayer and answered him. He was answering our surety.
He was answering the one who stood in our place. He was answering
the one who took upon himself our sins and answered for them
and established for us an everlasting righteousness. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the one praying in this psalm. And sometimes in
our despair, in our own anxiety, in our doubts, in our fears,
we come to the Lord and say, Lord, how do I know How do I
know I'm one of yours? How do I know I'm one of God's
elect? How do I know the Lord Jesus Christ died for me? How
do I know I have a stake in the covenant of God? How do I know
I have any of these things? And we begin to look at ourselves,
and we see our pitiful performance, and the failures of our lives,
and our own distractions, and how easily temptation takes us. And we wonder, how could I even
think to be a child of God? And we go to the Lord and we
ask Him, Lord, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. And what
does He say? He holds up for us the sufferings
and the prayers and the intercessions of our Lord Jesus Christ in our
place. And He says, hear what He says,
see what your sin has done to the Son of God. It brought him
under this guilt and shame and the degradation of sin before
God, and he prays in his lament. Has anyone seen sorrow like my
sorrow, as he says in Lamentations? No one. Because His prayers,
His sufferings, and God's answer to Him was our prayers and our
sufferings and God's answer to us in Him. This is the hope of
every child of God. What the Lord Jesus Christ did,
He didn't do as a private person for Himself. He did for His people. He answered God for them. He
stood in our place. He bore our sins. He fulfilled
our obedience and our righteousness. And He obtained our redemption.
He perfected forever them God has sanctified. And this is our
hope, isn't it? That the Lord Jesus Christ is
our salvation. And that's the prayer here. Say
unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Now when the Lord here says,
say unto my soul, how does the Lord speak to us? Sometimes we
wonder, does he speak to me audibly? Do I hear him? No. Does he speak
to me so that suddenly I'm walking along and snap, I just come to
this realization of something? No. He speaks to us in the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
to salvation. Jesus said in John 6.63, the
words that I speak to you, they are spirit, they are life. The
Word of the Gospel, the Word of God concerning our Lord Jesus
Christ is the Word of God that gives us life. It's the Spirit
that gives life. 2 Corinthians 3.6. And you know
in Ephesians 2.4 that when we were under the wrath of God,
like others, that the Lord Jesus, that God's Spirit... In fact,
just turn to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. I know that you probably have
some of these things so familiar that they're almost memorized.
We refer to them so often, but we need to refer to them often.
Because this is our hope, isn't it? Verse 1, "...you who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world." You actually did! You
practiced it! You walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom we all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That
describes us to a T. Doesn't it? And what did God
do? What did we do? We did nothing. We did nothing. In our minds
were enmity against God. In our nature, the very thing
that is the enemy of God is found in our nature. Out of our heart
proceeds all sorts of wickedness. But when we were in this case,
but God But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love,
not for anything from us, for His great love wherewith He loved
us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ by grace you are saved. That's the answer, isn't
it? That's how the Lord saved us. When the Lord says to our souls,
I am thy salvation, He speaks to us concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. When we're on the course of our
own path, when we're totally without faith, when we have no
knowledge of God, we're not seeking God, we have no righteousness
of our own and we never will of our own, Nothing we can call
ours, but what we have in Christ. Then God speaks to our soul.
And what does He say? He says, hear my son. Hear my
son. See what he's done. Here he is
pleading. Here he is suffering. Here he
is answering God. Saying to my soul, I am thy salvation. When God speaks from the gospel,
what is it that He says? He doesn't say, now do this and
do that. Or, be like this and be like
that. Follow this process. Do this
recipe. He simply says, I am thy salvation. Remember what Jesus said to Martha
in John 11? When Martha was fretting because
Jesus hadn't come. Lazarus was dead. It had been
four days. He's in the grave. He's in the
tomb. He's already stinking. And Martha says, and Jesus said
to her, your brother shall rise again. And Martha said, I know
he'll rise again at the last day. And the Lord Jesus said
this. I am the resurrection and the
life. I am the resurrection. That's
what the Lord is saying here. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. I am the resurrection. If the
Lord Jesus says this to us, If He says this to your soul, I
am thy salvation. I am salvation. I am the resurrection
and the life. What are you going to think?
Are you going to think of what you need to do? Are you going
to think of what you need to become? Are you going to do as
those people did that were being attacked by the Moabites and
the Ammonites in Jehoshaphat's day? Stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord. You have no fight in this battle. The Lord is going to fight for
you. He is my salvation. I find it all in Him. Whatever
I need, I see in Him. It comes from Him. He's promised
it. He provides it. He performs it.
And then He receives what He's done. And He calls it very good.
I am thy salvation. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am thy salvation. Say it to my soul, Lord. Say
it to my soul. You are my salvation. Don't let me look for another."
The Lord Jesus Christ here in this psalm when he prayed, he
didn't look outside of himself for something He didn't look
to somebody else. He didn't look for strength from
anyone but the Lord. He asked the Lord, say it to
my soul. And so he tells us what we are
to say. Say it to my soul. I am thy salvation
against all my enemies. I doubt. I doubt. Lord, am I one of your children? My sins are great, and there
are many. What am I to do? Lord, say to my soul, I am thy
salvation, and stop the way against my sin. Deliver me. Let not any iniquity have dominion
over me. You've promised that by your
grace, sin shall not have dominion. Lord, do as you have said. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
And what about Satan? He's strong. Lord, say to my
soul, I am thy salvation. What about the world? Lord, say
to my soul, I am thy salvation. Cause me to look away from all
that I am and all that is about. When the world fails, cause me
to hear your voice. I am thy salvation. If the Lord speaks to us, is
anything more needed? When God speaks, do we need anything
more than what He said? When God says something, it's
as good as done. Saying and doing with God are
equivalent. In Psalm 33 verse 9 it says, commanded and it stood fast. Look over there, if you're right
there in Psalm 33. For he spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. So if he says to my soul, I am
thy salvation, nothing else is needed. Look at verse 11 of Psalm
33. The counsel of the Lord stands
forever. The thoughts of his heart to all generations. If
he said it, Then he said it from eternity. It can't be undone. There's no repenting with God.
He's not like a man, he says in Numbers 21, that he should
repent. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Lord, say to my soul, I am thy salvation. Say it in the gospel
and speak it to my heart by your spirit from your word. Let your
precepts Quicken me and give me life. Say it to my soul. I
am thy salvation. But how do I know when God speaks
to my soul? I hear and I understand that
when God speaks, He's going to speak of His Son. And I know
that when He speaks of His Son, He's going to tell us what He's
done as our surety in fulfilling God's everlasting covenant to
save me from my sins. But how do I know that it's mine?
We'll turn to Hebrews chapter 10. The answer God gives to us
is always the same answer. To every enemy, to every doubt,
to every fear, and everything that He does, He tells us the
same thing. And I like this in Hebrews chapter
12 verse 2. You know this verse. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. We look to Him, our salvation,
and He's the one who gives us faith, upholds our faith, and
perfects it and brings it to the end, the author and finisher,
even of our faith. We not only look to Him for salvation,
but we look to Him for all grace, faith, to lay hold on that. But
look at Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14. In fact, verse 12 says, But this
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Once he was
done in the court of heaven, what did he do? He just sat down. I'm expecting my father to make
all of my enemies my footstool." He had overcome. He had answered
God. What more could be needed? And God took care of his enemies.
From henceforth, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,
for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Sanctified by God in his eternal
election, giving them to the Lord Jesus Christ as his own.
He perfected them forever. But verse 15, whereof not only
God the Father, is going to subdue his enemies, gave him this will
to do, and he fulfilled it. Listen here, now the Spirit of
God joins in, where of the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
For after that he had said before, he's quoting from Jeremiah and
from chapter 8, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts,
and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. What is God put in our heart?
What is that law? It's the gospel, isn't it? It's
the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law
for us. He's answered the curse of the
law. He's fulfilled all of the obedience
of the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. And that's what God writes on
our heart. And he says, and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. Whenever someone offends us,
it's hard to forgive them at first. And then we're able to
somehow, okay, I forgive you, I forgive you. But it's hard
to forget it because we're sort of wounded in our pride, aren't
we? And so we're slow to forgive. And sometimes it's almost impossible. Only time sometimes causes us
to forget. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
shed his blood because he suffered for our sins and answered in
justice for them to God, God received such an answer that
he says, I will remember their sins and iniquities no more.
It's better than it never happened, because that's the way we would
think. It never happened. It's as if it never happened.
But it's better than that. It did happen. But the Lord,
in His wisdom and His grace, put away our sins. Remember what
David prayed in Psalm 51? He prayed that long prayer after
what he did with Bathsheba and did to Uriah. And the Lord says
through Nathan the prophet, and the Lord has put away your sins. The Lord did it. He answered
for them. And now, verse 18. Where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin. There's no need for a further
offering. The sins are done. They're put
away. Remission. Forgiveness has been made. Redemption
through His blood. That's what remission means.
It's forgiveness. And because the sins are forgiven,
the one who had sinned is set free. God remembers it against
him no more. There's no more penalty. No more
bondage to sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now, when
we doubt, when we say, Lord, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation,
and we look for some foundation to lay hold on, something we
can drive a stake in the ground and say, that's it, that's my
assurance. You'll never find assurance until
you find it in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Until you see that
His answer to God is all of your answer. That He, actually, He
Himself is your salvation. He not only answered with His
blood, but He answers now. He not only answered took away
the condemnation of our sins, but he sits on the right hand
of God, interceding for us. His own person sitting there,
God's right hand, and God remembers His Holy Covenant, remembers
the sufferings of His Son. He remembers our sins no more
and therefore we are given grace by God to be persuaded that God
never could find anything from us. He never looked for anything
from us. He only looked to His Son and
He found full satisfaction in Him and great delight. And therefore
we come by his blood. We don't look for something for
us to get better. We don't wait for an experience.
We come boldly because Christ shed his blood by a new and living
way which he has consecrated for us to the veil, that is to
say his flesh, and having in high priest over the house of
God. A high priest who suffered for sins. Who is better to comfort
a suffering sinner than the one who suffered for sins? And who
is better to bring comfort to that one who feels the loss of
the sins of God's presence than the one who was forsaken by God
because of our sins? Our high priest. He is over the
house of God and let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering. For He is faithful
that promised. There's no part of us here in
this verse. It's all Christ. It's all what
God received from Him. And it's God's faithfulness to
keep His covenant. He's faithful that promised.
Do you see it? Lord, say to my soul, I am thy
salvation. I know that the Lord Jesus Christ
came to save sinners. I know I'm a sinner. I qualify
to bring glory to God in Him saving me by the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I have hope. He says
he justifies the ungodly. I know I'm ungodly in myself.
Therefore, I have hope. He has power to save the sinfulness. He is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. There is nothing impossible with
God. There is nothing too hard for
the Lord. These are the promises of God in Scripture. What do
we need that God can't provide, that Christ hasn't fulfilled
for us? Go to Him. Lord, say it to my
soul. Every time, every day, every
day, I can tell you this honestly, every day of my life, I find
a need for the Lord to say to my soul, I am thy salvation. What a wonderful prayer God has
given us here. What a Savior that He Himself
stood up for us and answered everything for us. When we read
these Psalms that are the prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ in His
agony of soul and suffering, and God's answer to him. Sometimes we're looking for a
prayer that we can pray. But realize this. What better
prayer would you want to have prayed than the one your surety
prayed for you? What more suffering and sorrow
of soul do you need to feel but the sorrow and suffering the
Lord suffered in your place? Take all of your doubts, all
of your fears, all of your sins, and all of your enemies, and
all the trouble in this world, and take it to the Lord and say,
Lord, say to my soul, I am thy salvation. Let's pray. Dear Lord,
we pray, according to your own word, that you would plead our
cause When we come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
you've told us to come, you've commanded us to come. He that
is heavy laden by sin and everything, come and you'll find rest. You've
told us to take, eat, drink, cry, look, believe. And all these things, Lord, we
don't presume to bring our own strength. We come to you for
the grace we need to come. Look to you for the faith we
need to look. We find all of our obedience
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to hear from your word,
by your spirit, in our soul. You, and you alone, are all of
our salvation. And Lord, we pray that you would
take glory to yourself in saving such helpless and undeserving
and worthless people as we are. by such a great and mighty Savior
who is so wonderful and so great that He would save us all by
Himself. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.