It's good to see each of you
here this evening. Would you go with me to the book
of Psalms? And I want you to go to Psalm
35. That's the scripture we're going
to look at this evening, Psalm 35. I will get back to our studies
in the Gospel of John, but I've kind of taking a journey on the
subject of salvation. And I'd like to stay on that
theme this evening and we'll study the subject rejoicing in
God's salvation. This is a lengthy, fairly lengthy
psalm. I have no intention of going
through it verse by verse. I really just have a couple of
verses that I'd like to draw your attention to. But I will
say this, this psalm has three-fold application. It is, first of
all, David's psalm. It has to do with David, who
is the psalmist of Israel. David wrote this when the Spirit
of God moved him to write this. It was a difficult time for David
because it was when he was persecuted by his enemies who were much
more numerous than David was and much more much more powerful
than David was as well. This is when King Saul is after
David. He sought to end his life. David of course had already been
visited by Samuel and David and his family and many others knew
that he was going to be the next king of Israel and therefore
David was he was beginning to have more and more followers
and this drew the the ire of King Saul. He wasn't happy about
that at all and especially after David had killed Goliath and
people began to acknowledge David's great triumphs, his victories
over the enemies of Israel, and especially when they had kind
of a parade for David. And they said that Saul had killed
his thousands, but David had killed his ten thousands. And
this just provoked King Saul to greater anger against David. And of course, the king, he hounded
and he hunted David He sent his associates after this man who
was a man after God's own heart without any valid reason. There wasn't any reason. David
really wasn't, he didn't do anything to provoke the king to such anger
and such jealousy. He was himself one who was all
behind King Saul. He fought for him. He stood behind
him. He protected him. And even when
the king's life was in danger, it was David who came to his
defense. And yet here King Saul is after
him. And so in this particular psalm,
David goes to the Lord. He seeks comfort from his God. And he finds it. He does find
comfort. The second application then has
to do with us, with the Lord's people, because we have many
enemies that rage against us. We're involved in a warfare that's
far greater than any physical warfare. It is a spiritual warfare. We're in a warfare with Satan,
who's the enemy of our souls. We're in a warfare with all of
his principalities and powers. We're in a warfare with the world
and the lusts of this world. We're in a warfare with our own
corruptions, the corruptions of our own hearts. Thus we read
in Ephesians chapter 6 that we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but rather our warfare is against principalities and
against the rulers of the darkness of this world. against spiritual
wickedness in the high places. And since we're in a spiritual
warfare, then the weapons of our warfare, they must be spiritual. We're not in a fleshly warfare
or a physical warfare, I should say. Since it's a spiritual warfare,
then our weapons are spiritual. We use the Word of God. The Spirit
of God is our protector and He is our keeper. The Lord God Himself
is ahead about us and He is indeed our shelter in the time of storm. We use the sword of the Spirit
against those who are the enemies of our soul. And where do we
find comfort in time of danger when we are being opposed by
all of our enemies? Well, we find comfort in the
Lord just like David did. He's the same God who protected
David. He's no different today than
he was back then. The God of the Old Testament
and the God of the New Testament is the same God. He's the God
of our salvation. He who is the God of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob is our God. To our God belong the issues
of life and all the things of life, and especially spiritual
life, of course. But then there is another application
of this psalm and it's about our dear Redeemer during the
days of His incarnation. Our Lord Jesus Himself was very
much hated by His enemies and He was certainly opposed by Satan
and all of those who believed false religion. The religionists
of His day, those who believed in work salvation, salvation
by man's righteousness. They were against our Lord Jesus
and finally sought His life. There's a certain expression
found in this psalm three times that links it forever with our
Savior. Look at verse 7. See if you don't
recognize these words. Psalm 35 verse 7 and then also
again in verse 19. Here it is, Psalm 35 verse 7,
for without a cause have they hid from me their net in a pit,
which without a cause they have digged for my soul. Look at verse
19. Let not them that are mine enemies
wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that
hate me without a cause. Now hold your place right there
and go to John chapter 15. if you would, John chapter 15. And in this scripture we hear
our Lord speaking to His disciples. This is the night before He would
give His life a ransom for the people that God gave Him in covenant
grace before the world began. Our Lord Jesus has His disciples
before Him to speak to them words of grace and words of encouragement. He has already told them at this
point that he was leaving them. He said he must go away. He said,
don't let your heart be troubled. Don't let your heart be afraid. Yes, I'm going away, but if I
go away, I'm going away to prepare a place for you. That is, I'm
going away to prepare a place for you in heaven before my Father. I'm going away to justify you.
I'm going away to redeem you. I'm going away to reconcile you. I'm going away to save you by
my substitutionary death. And then I'm going to ascend
into heaven. But I am coming back, he said
in John 14, and I will receive you unto Myself. That where I am, there ye may
be also. And then he had other things,
other words of encouragement to speak to his disciples. And
then he gets over in the 15th chapter, and if you will look
at verse 23. John 15, 23. He that hateth me,
hateth my Father also. Make no mistake about it, if
you don't believe the Lord Jesus, you don't believe the Father.
Those who have no confidence in Jesus of Nazareth as being
God of very God, who don't believe that He's the very Son of God,
who don't believe that He's the Savior of sinners, then they
don't believe the Father. Those that hate the Son, hate
the Father. On the other hand, those that
love the Son, love the Father. Those that honor the Son, honor
the Father. He has already said back in chapter
5, He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father that
sent Him into the world. So He says in John 15, 23, He
that hateth Me, hateth My Father also. If I had not done among
them the works which none other man did, they had not sinned. That is, they wouldn't have the
guilt that they have. They've seen so much. He performed
all of these miracles. He did so many mighty things
before the eyes of men and women and young people so as to leave
them without excuse. Nobody could do the things that
he did. Even Nicodemus acknowledged that
back in chapter 3. He said, except God be with him.
Our Lord said in John chapter 5, these are the things that
acknowledge that I'm the Son of God. The works that I do.
The works that I do. And now He says, if I hadn't
done these works, these works that nobody else could do, if
I hadn't done them, they wouldn't have had the degree of guilt
that they had. Make absolutely certain you understand
this, the more knowledge you have, the more opportunities
you have, the more gospel you hear, the greater your responsibility. The scripture says, to whom much
is given, much is required. The Lord has given us His Word,
He's given us His Gospel, He's given us His Spirit, He's given
us ministers of the Word of God, He's people who tell us, men
who tell us about Christ Jesus, who tell us about God, who sit
before us God's Word in its absolute purity, acknowledging the greatness
of God, that salvation is of God, That there's no other Redeemer
but the Lord Jesus? There's no other salvation but
God's salvation? It's a salvation by grace. It's
not of works. It's not what you do for God.
It's what God does for sinners. This is the Word that God has
said before us, and we hear this Word over and over and over again. bloody death of the Lord Jesus,
of the sacrifice of the Son of God, of His substituting in the
stead of poor sinners. We hear of Him satisfying divine
justice in enduring in His own body that which is the great,
great penalty for our sins, which is death. We've heard so much. And if we don't believe, Oh,
how great, how great our responsibility is. Our Lord said over in, was
it Matthew chapter 11? He said if the things, He talked
about Tyre and Sidon. He said, if the things that I've
done in your presence, if they'd been done in Tyrian sight, they'd
have repented years ago. But they weren't. But you've
seen so much. You've seen all of these miracles.
You've seen me raise the dead and heal the sick. You've seen
me give sight to the blind. hearing to the death and the
lame walk. You've seen all of these things.
You know who I am. You hear the things that are
spoke, that come out of my lips, the doctrine that I set forth,
and yet you don't believe me? Oh, how great is your condemnation!
So this is what the Lord is saying right here. If I hadn't done
the works which none other man did, they wouldn't have had sin. That is not to the same degree. Do we understand the greatness
of the responsibility of hearing the gospel of God's grace over
and over and over again? We've heard it so many times
we can almost hear it in our sleep. God, help us if we don't
believe. Oh, God, give me grace to embrace
this message, to believe what I hear, because damnation will
be absolutely awful to those who go out into eternity having
heard the truth, embracing the Word of God literally in our
hands, and die with the Bible in our hands and go to hell.
Oh, how awful that'd be. That's what the Lord is saying. Now, look at verse 25. But this cometh to pass, these
have seen me and hated both me and my father, but this comes
to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written
in their law. They hated me without a cause. That's in Psalm 35 where we just
read. They hated me without a cause.
And you know what that expression, without a cause, you know what
it means? Freely. They hated me freely. In other words, there wasn't
any reason in the Lord Jesus. Listen, there's reason in me
why you ought to hate me. There's a lot of sin in me. I
am sin. I am sin. And so are you. But there wasn't in the Lord
Jesus. So, here this expression, without
a cause, means freely. And I'll just give you just an
additional word study. Look at Romans chapter 3. Romans
chapter 3. This is sort of on the same track. Romans chapter 3. Look at verse 24, Romans 3, 24. Being justified, that is declared
righteous, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Freely. And that word freely
is expressed in John chapter 15 as without a cause. That is,
there is no reason in us, there is no cause to be found in us
why God would justify us. There's no goodness in us. There's
no soundness in us. It isn't that God looks down
from heaven and He looks to see who's living a good life and
who's doing some good deeds, and then He says, well, I'll
save that one because he seems to be doing the best he can do.
He seems to be living a good life. No, you're justified freely
without a cause in you. There is no reason in you or
me why God would justify us. He justifies us freely by His
grace. That's what the Scripture says.
But that doesn't end there. Through the redemption. The redemption. There's the blood. There's the
sacrifice. There's the substitution. through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So go back to Psalm 35
then. So here when David says in verse
7, without a cause they hid from me their net and a pit, which
without a cause they've digged for my soul. And he says in Psalm
35 and verse 19, neither let them wink with the eye and they'd
hate me without a cause. He's saying they hate me freely.
There's no reason. There is no valid reason, he
says, why they should hate me. And I'll tell you, there's no
valid reason why anybody should hate the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, I'll tell you, you either
love Him or you hate Him. And that's right, you either
love Him or you hate Him. Well, you say, well, I don't
hate Him. I wouldn't say I love Him, but
you either love Him or you hate Him. There is no in-between.
There is no third area. The Savior said, He that is not
with Me is against Me. Either with Him or against Him.
Are you on the Lord's side? Or are you on another side? When
Israel worshipped the golden calf, and Moses came down from
the mountain, and he's all upset, and rightfully so, because Israel
had fallen into idolatry, he said, Who is on the Lord's side?
Let him come over here. And he said, now strap on your
swords. Because everybody's still standing
over there. That's the enemy. Friends, enemies. Not a third group. There's not
a third group. You either love him or you hate
him. You're either friend or you're an enemy. You're either
in or you're out. You're either for him or you're
against him. Which is it? Which is it? David said, they hate me without
a cause. And often times, God's people,
we have enemies that we don't deserve their enmity. And I know this, our Lord Jesus
doesn't deserve any enmity against Him. But I'll tell you where David
found his great consolation. But where we find our great consolation
and even where the man Christ Jesus found his great consolation
is in our God. Psalm 35 verses 9 and 10. My soul shall be joyful in the
Lord. It shall rejoice in His salvation. soul shall be joyful." David
said that in the midst of his enemies. Oh, David, you got so
many people against you. There's King Saul, all of his
power, all of the armies at his beck and call. David, how can
you have any joy in this world? You're hiding in caves, They're
hunting you, they're hounding you, like a bunch of dogs after
a deer. He said, my soul is joyful in
the Lord. And I tell you, for God's people
in this world, when it seems like everything's against you,
when you have enemies, Satan and the world, your own corruption, You're not going to find any
joy anywhere else except in the Lord. That's what the book of Philippians,
the apostle Paul, he was in prison in Rome, and he wrote to the
Philippian believers, the Macedonian believers, and they had had some
tough times. Other churches had given to help
them and then they gave out of their own need to help even poorer
churches. And some of the people in Philippi,
the church at Philippi, they were discouraged. You ever get discouraged? You
ever get low in spirits? They were, he said, rejoicing
the Lord. rejoice in the Lord. So I'm in
the midst of this trouble, this trial, this tribulation, this
sickness, this illness, this disease. You may not be able
to rejoice in that which you're going through, but you can rejoice
in the Lord who is with you as you go through it. And you can
rejoice in Him who purposed it. and who ordained it for your
good along with everything else." He said, my soul, my soul, my
inner man is joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in His salvation. And I'll tell you in verse 10,
and I'm going to go back to rejoicing in His salvation, but in verse
10, He said, all my bones shall say, even my bones, the bones
which my enemies would have crushed. The bones which I feel sometimes
are broken. Even my bones, all my bones shall
say, Lord, who is like unto thee? Which delivers, which saves the
poor from him that is too strong for him. Do you have enemies
that are too strong for you? I do. I got enemies that are
too strong for me. I tell you, the devil is way
too strong for me. And I've got news for you, he's
way too strong for you. I hear these preachers, I see
them on television every once in a while rebuking the devil.
Let the Lord take care of him, because I tell you, that roaring
lion, he's too strong for me. I don't want to have anything
to do with him. Somebody said, I don't want to have anything
to do with his third string water boy. I don't want to have anything
to do with him. Anything that has to do with
the devil. And I doubt the devil is even fooled with any of us.
He does send some third-rate demon to deal with us. He doesn't
have any problem with any of us. But I tell you what, too
strong for us. He and all of his cohorts are
too strong for us. Too strong for us. The world
is too strong for me. I'll tell you something else
too strong for me. My own sinfulness, that's too strong for me. I can't
control it. Can you control your thoughts? You can't control your thoughts.
That's the reason sometimes you'll be reading the Word of God, you'll
be seeking God's face in prayer, and all of a sudden your mind
is a million miles away. And you know that's so. Why is
that? It's because sin is too strong
for you. But it wasn't too strong for
our Savior who put it away by His substitutionary death. And
who gives us grace, gives us grace to deal with sin and face
sin and confess sin in our own life. And He says, sin shall
not be the master over you anymore. And I'll tell you something else
too strong for you. God's law and God's justice. You can't deal with that. You
can't deal with God. God's too strong for you. I know
the devil's strong. I know the world's strong. I
know our own sentiments are strong. But I'll tell you, God, He's
way too strong for you to deal with. He's consuming fire. I think I'll just make my peace
with God. Who are you to deal with God?
You can't deal with God. That's the reason Psalm 35 starts
off this way. Watch this. Plead my cause. I need somebody to plead my cause. Don't you? You know you do. Plead my cause, O Lord. O God of my salvation, O Christ
Jesus. I can't deal with God. He's too
strong for me. He's too holy for me. He's a
consuming fire. Plead my cause. I need somebody
to be my mediator. That's what I need. And you do
too. I need somebody that will fight
against those that fight against me. That's what it says in verse
1. But back in verse 9, he says,
my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in His
salvation. It shall rejoice in His salvation. I tell you, David rejoiced in
God's salvation. I think about the Israelites.
Brother Ron read to us the Song of Moses. The Lord has become
my salvation. And when it says back in chapter
14, that's when Israel got to the Red Sea. Oh, they're in a
predicament. Here comes Pharaoh. They see
a big cloud of dust behind them. Here comes Pharaoh and his armies.
And they've led out after Israel. And there's the Red Sea in front
of them. What are we going to do? And
Moses said, just stand still and see the salvation of God.
See the salvation of the Lord. What could they do? You know,
in that passage of scripture, we won't go back and look at
it in Exodus chapter 14, two commands went forth to Israel.
Stand still, and then he said, move. Let's go! Stand still and wait on the Lord. See who saves. You know, that is not, when it
says stand still, that is not an admonition to do nothing or
be indifferent. That's not an admonition to be
indifferent. It's an admonition to wait on
God. Wait on the Lord. Consider your
predicament. What are you going to do? Here's
the sea out here in front of you, and here comes Pharaoh's
army behind you. What are you going to do? Consider
your predicament. Stand still! And watch God work. And I tell
you, in the salvation of our souls, stand still! See God work! See what God has done for the
salvation of sinners! Do you see His electing grace?
Do you see Him choosing the people unto salvation before the foundation
of the world? Do you see Him saving the people
by the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ? Stand still. Look at God. See God work and realize you
can't do anything, but He can. He can. He doesn't have to. There's
Israel out there in that predicament. What can they do? They can't
do anything. They're absolutely helpless.
Isn't that you and me? And the Lord told Moses, He said,
alright, time for you to do something. Make a way through the sea. Moses
is a picture of our Lord Jesus. Make a way! Make a way! Oh, He
is the way who made the way. He made the way between us and
God. And He is the way. He's the living
way. He's the new and living way.
Hebrews chapter 10 says that. How did He make a way between
us and God? By His death. And I'll tell you
what, the way through the Red Sea opened up and it wasn't just
a narrow path. is a broad, broad path through
the Red Sea so that hundreds of thousands of people could
walk through in just a few hours. And then that same way of salvation
closed back up. Tell you the truth, they knew
about this salvation and Moses said, let's sing about it. He
said, let's sing about this salvation. what God did. Jonah knew about this salvation. He rejoiced in this salvation.
He's in an awful tough position. He's in the belly of the whale.
And he can't get out. And he said, salvation's of the
Lord. I'm telling you something, you're in the belly of sin. You're
in there and you're not going to get out. You know, with Jonah,
he made all these vows. He said, I'll vow to the Lord.
He didn't come out. You go ahead and make your vows
and make your promises. I'm going to do better. I'm going
to turn over a new leaf. I'm going to stop doing this.
I'm going to stop doing that. Go ahead and make them all, but
God's going to have to bring you to this point to where you
say, salvation is of the Lord. God brings you to see salvations
of the Lord. That's when you're coming out
of the fish's belly. That's when you're going to experience
the deliverance. The deliverance. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
in the book of Daniel. They wouldn't bow down and worship
Nebuchadnezzar's great monument to himself. And he said, if our God's pleased,
He can rescue it. He can save us if He's pleased
to do it. He may not be pleased to do it,
but He can do it. He can if He wants to. Boy, the king, he just about
as hot as the furnace was. He said, crank up the heat of
that furnace. Threw those three men in there.
And it's so hot that even the guys that threw them in, it burnt
them. He said, I am finished with those
guys. They said, oh, King, wait! Look there, King. He looks inside. Through the flames, he sees four
men walking. He said, didn't I put three in
there? Yeah, you did. You put three. He said, I see
four. And the fourth is like the Son of Man. Is He able to save those men?
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I bet you they rejoiced in God's
salvation. Like Israel rejoiced in God's
salvation. Like Jonah rejoiced in God's
salvation. Daniel, he kept praying to the
Lord even though King Darius said, don't ask anything of any
other king, anybody else. He kept on praying. You'll be
put in the lion's den for that. And the king said, King Darius
said, is that God able to save you, to deliver you, to rescue
you? He went the next morning. He
called on Daniel, and Daniel said, O King, live forever. Lord, save me. Shut the mouths
of the lions. Somebody said, well, they just
wasn't hungry. Well, the guys who saw to it
that Daniel was cast in the lion's den, they got put in the same
lion's den. And I'll tell you, those lions
suddenly got a hearty appetite. and took care of those guys in
short order. We're rejoicing in God's salvation. That's what this is about. That's
what David is saying. We're rejoicing in God's salvation. And this rejoicing is delightful
work. It's wonderful labor. It's a
great employment. Rejoicing in God's salvation. Let others rejoice that they
let God save them. Let others rejoice that they
labor to earn God's salvation. We will rejoice that salvation
is of the Lord. We'll rejoice in what God has
done for us and what God is still doing for us. We join with David
and ascribe salvation to the Lord in its election, in its
redemption, in its regeneration, in its justification. in its
sanctification, in its glorification. He delivered me, He delivered
me, the poor, the poor, from Him who is too strong for me.
He delivered me, He rescued me, He saved me. I know that there
are those who teach salvations in the church, but that's not
according to the Word of God. There are those who teach that
salvation is in the baptismal waters, but that's not in the
Word of God either. There are those who teach that
salvation is by making a decision for Jesus, but that's not in
the Word of God either. There are those who teach that
salvation is in being a good person and surrendering yourself
to Jesus, or salvation is in praying the sinner's prayer,
whatever that is, and that's not in the Word of God either.
There are others who say, well, just exercise your free will
and get saved, but that's not taught in the book either. One
of my favorite writers is Augustus Toplady, who wrote Rock of Ages. He was one powerful, sovereign
grace preacher. And I mean, he would stand up
and he'd tell the truth. It didn't matter who opposed
him. He's talking about free will.
Somebody asked him one time about free will. He said, free will? It can't deliver a man from a
toothache. He said, it can't deliver a man
of a sore finger. He said, but men madly think
that free will It gives them the power to cure their own soul. Their own soul. No, it's not
your will, it's God's will. It's not of Him that will it,
nor of Him that run it, but of God that showeth the mercy. That's
what the Scripture says. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of truth. And you know what? We rejoice
in God's salvation. That's where the joy's at. The
joy's not in rejoicing anything we've done. It's anything you've
ever done really, truly, and honestly. Have you ever done
anything that you can really rejoice in and say, now that
was a perfect work right there? Well, if you say yes, you're
sadly mistaken. The fact is, we've never done
anything good except Christ Jesus makes it good. We rejoice in the Lord's salvation.
We rejoice in His grace. Let's sing 209, our closing song.