Let's look in our Bibles again
at Psalm 35, titled the message this evening, Christ
is our salvation. Christ is our salvation. All true preaching is summed
up in this one statement, if you can say such a thing. It's
this, Christ is all. I have no other goal, no other
desire for you who hear me preach than this, that you know Christ. I don't have a program in mind. I don't have any goals in mind
like religion does, you know, building big buildings and all
the different things, whatever it is that they do. I don't know.
I don't got time or inclination for any of it. This is what I
desire for you who hear me preach. that you know Christ, because
Christ is all. All true saving faith is summed
up in this statement, this one statement. Christ is all. I have no other desire of my
heart for me than that I know Christ, that I believe in Him,
because Christ is all. Whatever it is that we think
we need, everything that we believe, is the Lord Jesus Christ. The
believer does not have a thing called righteousness. Righteousness
is not a thing like a jacket I put on or I could take off.
No, Christ is our righteousness. The believer does not have a
thing called sanctification, whereby we keep ourselves holy.
No, Christ is our sanctification. He is our holiness. The believer
does not gain a thing called wisdom. It's not like we gain
knowledge of things throughout the years. Well, I hope we do. But this is where our wisdom
is. Christ is our wisdom. I hope we grow in grace and knowledge,
but we never grow past this. Christ is our wisdom. Everything
we know about God and everything we know about how God saves sinners
is Christ. That's how He is our wisdom.
Everything we know about God is who Christ is and what Christ
has done. The believer does not have what
the world calls a Christian life. I'm not here to teach you how
to walk a better Christian life. I'm here to teach you Christ
because Christ is our life. The believer does not have some
sort of intangible pie-in-the-sky hope. You know, I hope this will
happen, but no, we have sure hope because Christ is our hope. Christ is our comfort. Christ
is our prophet. Christ is our priest. Christ
is our king. Christ is our all. See where
I'm going with this? Christ is our salvation. That's the subject of our text
this evening. The believer does not have, for
lack of a better term, a thing called salvation, a thing that
you can trace out on paper, you can prove to, you know, beyond
anybody's reasonable doubt that you've got all the technical
boxes checked off so that the human mind can somehow comprehend
that the sinner is saved. That's not the salvation God's
people have. Because salvation is not a thing. It's not something
God like that gives you. Salvation is a person. If you look over, hold your finger
there, look at Isaiah chapter 12. I'll show you that. You can
use many scriptures, but here's a very, very clear one. In Isaiah
chapter 12, verse 2. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength. He is my song. He also is become
my salvation. See, that salvation is a person.
He has become my salvation. God is my salvation. And I have
three points from these first three verses of Psalm 35 to show
us that Christ is our salvation. First, Christ is our intercessor. Verse one, David says, plead
my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me. Sinners need
more than a good legal argument. Sinners need an intercessor. We need an intercessor who's
got something to plead before the judge of all the earth. And
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the intercessor of his people.
There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man,
Christ Jesus. And that word mediator means
a reconciler. When Christ pleads for his people
as their mediator, he has something to plead. that is so powerful,
he actually reconciles his people back to God. Christ makes it
so God's not angry with his people anymore. He had no reason to
be angry with them anymore. And Christ, what he has to plead
is so powerful, he reconciles his people back to God. He makes
it so they're not mad at God anymore, so that they love God,
so that they bow to him. Now that's not just being a powerful
orator, is it? That's someone that's got something
very powerful to plead And Christ's powerful plea is Himself. When Christ pleads for His people,
He pleads everything that He is. Christ is righteousness personified. So when He pleads for His people,
He pleads Himself. He pleads Himself as their righteousness. Christ is the sacrifice. So when
He pleads that His people be forgiven, all He does is plead
Himself that He was sacrificed for their sins. And it's always
enough. Always. The Father always says
that's enough. When Christ pleads for His people,
He never pleads for, about them, anything that they've done. Never.
He simply pleads who He is. And the Father always accepts
them. So David here prays, Lord, plead for me. Plead for me against
those who strive with me. Who is it that would strive with
a believer? Well, first of all, our sin.
Our sin strives against us, doesn't it? Our sin is against us. The mere presence of our sin
pleads that we should be separated from God. God said, it's your
sin. It's separated between you and
your God. Our sins against us, strives against us. Our sin cries
out and deserves damnation. Satan, the accuser of the brethren,
constantly accuses us before the father of our sin. And every
accusation is true. He's not making one up. Every
accusation is true. What's our hope? In the face
of all that, what's our hope? Our only hope is that Christ
will take our case and that he will plead against our sin. The
apostle John told us, if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the father. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
Well, what will Jesus Christ plead for the sin of his people?
Very simply, he'll plead himself. He'll plead his blood. It's the
blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. And when Christ
pleads his sacrifice, when he pleads his blood, he just appears
before his father with those scars of his, of his sacrifice. God, the judge says, what sin? Were you accusing them of sin?
I don't see any sin. It's gone under the blood of Christ. And
that's why David is so concerned that Christ plead his cause,
because that's the only way he can be made not guilty. Only
Christ had blood to plead that will actually cleanse from sin.
He can't plead the blood of bulls and goats, can he? He can't plead
the blood that was demanded to be offered under the law. It'll
never do it. And the sacrifices of religion
today won't do it either. You know, most people in our
day don't actually go catch a lamb or a bull or a goat and offer
it as a burnt offering to God, do they? But they still have
sacrifices that they hope will make God happy with them. They
give up something this sinful flesh desires. They call it lamb. They call it the Christian life.
Well, you can't do that, you know. Touch not, taste not, hand
not. He'll never please God. But the
blood of Christ pleases the Father because it takes away the sin
that offends Him. So when Christ pleads against
the sin of His people, He pleads Himself. He pleads His sacrifice.
Then God's justice strives against us. God's justice has got to
be satisfied. God's going to stay God. God's
going to remain holy. His justice must be satisfied. And nothing you and I do will
ever satisfy God's justice, ever. Our motions of religion, it might
impress men. It might impress men that you
come out on a cold, rainy, dark Wednesday night to come to service.
Might impress men, but not gonna impress God. God had no pleasure
in all the sacrifices and all the ceremonies of the Old Testament
law. Don't be deceived into thinking he's gonna be pleased with us.
But there is one person, there's one place where the Father is
well-pleased. He is well-pleased with the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Father is well-pleased with
the obedience of Christ. The Father is satisfied with
the perfect death of Christ. Isaiah said, it pleased the Lord. Do you know why it pleased, why
would it please the Father to sacrifice his son There were
times when my girls were growing up, I had to whip them. And they
needed it every single time they needed it. Never one time, never
one time did it make me happy. Every single time it made me
upset. How could the father be pleased
with sacrificing his son, slaughtering his son this way? The death of Christ satisfied
God's justice. The father looked at that bloody,
awful sacrifice of his son. It's not. Justice is satisfied. So now, when the intercessor
comes to plead for his people, he doesn't plead against justice. He doesn't plead that the father
ignore their sin. No, our intercessor pleads for
justice. He always asked his father to
give his people justice. Christ asked the father, give
my people justice by pleading himself. I satisfy justice for
them. He pleads himself. He pleads
Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. Father, give them
justice. They're righteous in me. He pleads
that his people are not guilty, so justice demands they go free.
Christ made his people not guilty by his obedience that he gave
them. He made his people holy by taking their sin away, putting
it away under the blood of his sacrifice. So when he pleads
for his people, he simply pleads himself. And the father just
smiles, just is well pleased with his beloved son, and he's
satisfied. And that's the only way the Father
can be satisfied. And that's why David is so concerned
that the Lord will plead his cause and be his intercessor.
Because our Savior lives to make intercession for his people,
to always be there to plead his sacrifice for his people. And
that's why David, look over verse 23, that's why he can say this.
He says, this thou hast seen, O Lord, keep not silence, O Lord,
be not far from me. Stir up thyself and awake to
my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge me,
O Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness. Judge me,
judge me, according to thy righteousness. When Christ our Savior makes
intercession for his people, he pleads himself. And we plead
to the Father for ourselves. We've got one belief. by righteousness. We plead Christ too. He is our
intercessor. He is our salvation. So we please
him, plead him. All right. Second, Christ is
our defender. The end of verse one, David says,
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. David's
plea is that the Lord fight against him, those that fight against
him. And I know here he means Saul
and his armies and the Philistines and whoever else is out there.
And the Lord did fight against those enemies, didn't he? But
he's got a more specific enemy in mind here. David's asking
the Lord to defend him, to take up the fight against those that
fight against him. Now, you know, we don't just
need the Lord to give us some weapons that we can go out and
use to defend ourselves. You know, that would mean that,
I don't know, we're taught the art of war or something, you
know, and Bob would be more safe than me because he's better at
using a sword, you know, and Mike would be safer than me,
he's better at using a spear. That's not what we need. We need
Christ to be our defense. When the apostle talked about
putting on the armor of God, I prepared these notes Monday
and yesterday. I don't know. I can't remember
how this happened, but I was channel surfing around. I stopped
on this stupid TV preacher talking about putting on the armor of
God and all the things you can do going on. It's like a, he
made it sound like a video game or something. I thought, could
you even read the Bible before you talk about this? When the
apostle talks about putting on the armor of God, he didn't mean
that we take these different things and you become a ninja
or something. He means put on Christ. It's so simple. Just put on Christ.
Gird your loins with the truth. With Christ who is the truth.
Christ is the truth that we believe. He is the truth of God. Let Him
be your strength. Gird up your loins with Him.
Put on the breastplate of Christ who is our righteousness. Christ
is the one who protects the heart. Jod your feet with the gospel
of Christ. Just look to Christ. Christ is
the one who guides our steps. We take the shield, take the
shield of faith in Christ. It's the faithfulness of Christ
to accomplish all your salvation. It's His faithfulness to keep
us to the end. It's not our faithfulness. It's
His faithfulness. That's the shield of faith. It's
the faithfulness of Christ. Take the helmet of salvation.
It's the helmet of Christ who is our salvation. Christ is the
one who will protect your head from error. Just take Him. Take
the sword of the Word of God, which is Christ. This is our
only weapon. It's the only weapon we use to
Fight against error. It's our only weapon that we
use in the salvation of God's people. It's the only weapon
we have to protect and comfort the hearts of God's people. Take
the sword. You can't separate Christ the
written word from Christ the incarnate word. Just take Christ. He's our weapon. David uses some very descriptive
language here that just utterly thrilled me when I was looking
at this. On Monday, Janet came in to study. Right as I was looking
at this and I was talking to her about it, she said, you're
ready to preach right now, right now. I mean, if I get everybody
together right now, three o'clock on Monday, this is oh, this is
so good. I hope it comes out as good as
it did Monday. David says, stand up, stand up for my health. I've got a vision of a fearful
child of God. They see trouble coming. There's
trouble all around them and they're defenseless against it. Just
crush them. But what comfort there is for
that weak, fearful child of God to see our Heavenly Father stand
up. To see Him rouse Himself up like
that old lion and go out there and meet that trouble for us.
We are always safe if the Lord is the one who stands up to go
out and meet our enemies. Christ is the one who stands
up to meet our enemies. We'll say with David here, verse
four, let them be confounded and put to shame, to seek after
my soul. Let them be turned back and brought
to confusion that defies my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the
wind and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Oh, if he stands
up, he'll chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery.
Let the angel of the Lord persecute them. Let the angel of the Lord
stand up and persecute them Go out to meet them. He'll run off
every enemy. I love to think about our Savior
standing up. Different times that He stood
up for His people. In eternity, when there's only
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Father determined
He's going to save the people. But they can't save themselves.
What's more, they won't save themselves. They won't do anything
to save themselves. There's none of this, well, if
they'll take the first step, I'll go the rest of the way, because
they won't take the first step. Not only they can't take the
first step, they won't take the first step. Well, you know, somebody
without the wisdom of God, that may look like a lost cause. Someone
watching could have won. There wasn't anybody, but somebody
watching could have wondered. Can any sinner be saved then?
I mean, Christ the Savior. stood up. He said, Father, I'll
go. You send me, I'll be sure to
go. I'll bring every one of them
to your feet. You acquired in my hand. And then there was a day when
righteousness must come to the earth. Someone must come to keep
the law, to make God's elect righteous. Christ the Savior,
sitting there on the throne of glory, stood up. He said, Father,
I'll go. Send me. I'll go fight for my
people. I'll go make them righteous by
obeying the law for them. Christ stood up from the throne
of glory so that he could stoop and humble himself to become
a man and be the representative of his people to save them from
their sin. And in time, he appeared, didn't
he? He appeared in Bethlehem's manger. lived a life of perfection,
closely watched by everyone around him, closely watched by his father.
He lived a life of absolute holiness. Nobody's done it before or since.
Nobody ever will. But yet there came a day when
the justice of God against the sin of God's elect had to be
satisfied. The law demands death for sin. There's got to be death for sin.
The songwriter said, I was guilty. Nothing to say. They were coming
to take me away. Then a voice from heaven was
heard and said, let him come. Let him come. Take me instead. That's the time Christ's substitute
stood up and said, take me. Take me to be the sacrifice for
my people. He was there with his disciples
in the garden An angry mob came being led by Judas Iscariot.
The Savior stepped up to me. He didn't hide behind. He didn't
hide somewhere. He didn't try to run off. He stepped out. Who
are you looking for? Who seek you? He said, I am. They said, we're seeking Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, they all fell down. He didn't run off,
did he? He waited till they got up. He
said, who seek you? Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I
am. Take me. It's me you seek. And he allowed himself, he stood
up and allowed himself to be taken to Calvary's tree to pay
the sin debt of his people by suffering and dying in their
place. And that gospel of a successful
Savior, the success of his death, his burial, his resurrection
has been preached all over the world. And it will be until the
end of time. And that day is coming. The day
when time will be no more is coming. There's going to be a
day of resurrection. The day when these bodies will
be raised from the grave. But you know the resurrection
is not an event. In that day of resurrection,
we're not going to be running around looking for our loved
ones that we buried many years ago and looking for them in the
resurrection to see what you know. No, that's not. The resurrection
is not an event. The resurrection is a person. It's a person. Now our Lord told
Martha that. He told her that at the grave
of her brother. She said, I know he'll rise again. He said, Martha. Imagine her heart broken. And
the master tells her, Martha, I am the resurrection. Whoever
believes in me will never die. You believe that? You believe
Christ, you do. Martha said, yeah. Yay, Lord.
Yay, Lord. Our hope of the resurrection
is that Christ is going to come. He's going to come back. And
one more time, he's going to stand upon his sword. See, that's
why the believer is not interested in all the events surrounding
their resurrection. I'm sure it'll be spectacular.
All these bodies, people rising from the dead. It'll be spectacular. I have no doubt about it. But
when all that's going on, There's one thing the believer is going
to care about. Just one. Only one. It's seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Him coming. It's wanting
to see Him and be with Him and be like Him. Look at Job chapter
19. They tell me that Job, the book
of Job, is the oldest recorded writings that there are in Scripture. The book of Job was written before
Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. This is the oldest
writings we have, the oldest statement we have from a believer.
This is what Job was looking for. This is what Job was looking
for before Christ even came the first time. Job was looking for
Christ to return again. Job 19 verse 23. Oh, that my words were now written.
Oh, that they were printed in a book, that they were graven
with an iron pen and led in the rock forever. For I know that
my Redeemer liveth. and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, after I am just returned to dust, yet in
my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine
eyes shall behold him, and not another. He won't be a stranger
to me, though my reins be consumed within me. I'm going to rise
again, and I'm going to rise again on that day that the Savior
stands upon the earth. What a day that'll be to see
the Savior stand upon this earth in absolute victory. Then there'll come a day of judgment.
We must all appear before the mercy seat of Christ. We'll see
many come before our Lord. They're pretty sure about themselves.
They're pretty sure how this thing's going to go. They'll
come before Him pleading all the religious things that they've
done in His name. Lord, we preach in Your name.
We prophesy in Your name. We did miracles and wonders in
Your name. And we'll watch the Lord tell
them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Those are sobering words. I don't
care who you are, those are sobering words. A sinner, knowing our
sin, knowing our guilt, knowing who, what we are, fears. to appear
before the judge of all the earth, who will judge everything in
absolute rightness, holiness. But those who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ have nothing to do with it. Frank Sweeney
had an old song he sang. He said, when it's time for me
in judgment, I'll not be full of fear. Christ will stand. He'll stand where my name is
called and for me, say, I'm here. You see, I'm not going to have
to stand for the bar of God's justice in myself. I'm not going
to have to stand there with my works or my faith or my guilt
because Christ will stand for me. He'll stand and say, I'm
here. And the father's going to smile
and say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Christ stands to defend his people,
and when he does, He defends His people simply by who He is. Just His presence defends His
people. David says in verse 2, take hold
of shield and buckler. For our shield and our buckler
is Christ. Let me show you that. Look back
at Psalm 18. Our buckler is Christ. Psalm
18 verse 30. As for God, His way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler. He is the buckler
to all those that trust him. And look at Psalm 33, verse 20.
Christ is our shield. Our soul waited for the Lord.
He is our help and he is our shield. Everything that that
defends us from Christ, our Savior stands up to defend his people.
Everything that defends us is Christ. He is our defense. And then thirdly, Christ is our
salvation. At the end of verse 3, David
says, Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Oh, what words
to hear the Savior say, I am thy salvation. Now, what is it
that a sinner needs to be saved? What is it he needs to have in
order to be saved? Don't overcomplicate it. People
write great big old thick books on how to be saved. What is it
a sinner needs to be saved? Don't overcomplicate it now.
It's Christ. It's Christ. A sinner needs to
be saved from sin. Christ has made sin for us. That
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ has delivered
His people from the damning power of sin. He already suffered as
our substitute. We're delivered from that. Christ
has delivered His people from the controlling power of sin. Now you say, wait a minute, that's
not very comforting to me because I still sin. Everything I do
is sin. You're absolutely right. Everything we do is sin. But
He hasn't delivered His people from the presence of sin just
yet, has He? But He's delivered His people from the controlling
power of sin. You who believe Christ, I'm sure
you're like me, there was a day that you wanted to believe Him,
and you couldn't. No matter how hard you tried,
you couldn't make yourself believe, could you? There was a day that
you wanted to love Christ. There was a day that you wanted
to bow to Him. There was a day that you wanted
to surrender to Him. No matter how hard you tried,
you couldn't do it. There was a day that you wanted to see
Christ in the Word, and no matter how hard you read, no matter
how hard you looked, no matter how much you squinted, you couldn't
see Him, could you? Now you do. What happened? God caused you to be born again.
He delivered you from the controlling power of sin that stopped you
from being able to believe Christ. Now you cannot believe Him. You just believe Him because
you've been born again. You've been delivered from the
controlling power of sin. So now you believe Christ. You
love Christ. You love to hear Him preached.
You love to rest in Christ who is our salvation. He delivered
us from the controlling power of sin. You just hold on. There's a day coming. He's going
to deliver us from even the presence of sin. He delivered His people. He saved us from our sin. A sinner
needs to be saved from the curse of the law. Justice has got to
be satisfied. For Christ delivered us from
the curse of the world, being made a curse for us. The sinner
needs to be saved from condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. The sinner needs to be saved
from this world, for you be a good chief. Christ has overcome the
world. See, everything we need, everything
we need is found in Just one pinpoint place. Everything we
need is Christ. And that's why I told you at
the beginning of the message, that's my only desire. My only goal
in preaching is that those who hear me preach know Christ. Because if you've got Him, you've
got it all. That's not just good sounding
religious words. If you've got Him, You've got it all. You've got it all. Then what
should we do? If that's true, Christ is our
salvation. If I've got Him, I've got it
all. Then what should I do? Do what
David does right here in seeking, asking. Lord, say unto my soul,
I am thy salvation. Lord, speak comfort to my heart. Reveal yourself to me so that
I know you are my salvation. Well, how does God speak to any
son of Adam? You go home tonight and you're laying down in bed
and you think you heard God say, I am thy salvation. You better
check. Maybe you took the wrong medicine
or something, because that's not how God speaks to his people.
God speaks to any son of Adam. There's only one way he does
it. By his word. This Word is the Lord Jesus Christ. The writer to the Hebrews said,
God in time past did speak audibly to our fathers. He did, by the
prophets. But in these last days, He doesn't
do that anymore. In these last days, He's spoken
unto us by His Son. By the Word made flesh that dwelt
among us. Then let's seek Him. Let's say
with David, Lord, say to my soul, I am thy salvation. You've saved
others, saved me. Lord, you promised mercy to sinners,
be merciful to me. And if we ever hear him speak,
if we ever hear Christ speak to the heart, we hear him with
that ear of faith, this is what we'll know. We'll know this. Christ is all by salvation. If Christ ever speaks to the
heart and he says, I am by salvation, you know what we'll say? We'll
say the same thing sinners say. Lord, let me depart in peace.
Now mine eyes have seen my salvation. Oh, I pray that the Lord enable
us to do that. And if he does, if he reveals
himself to us, we'll say what David says in verse nine. My
soul shall be joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in his salvation. It will rejoice in him who is
our salvation. Christ is our salvation. Let's bow together in prayer. Our God, how we thank you for
such a Savior. How we thank you for salvation
that's sure, that's full, that's free, that's certain because
of the Savior. Lord, I pray that you would reveal
Christ to each heart here this evening. Reveal Christ to us.
Don't let us be taken up with the motions of religion or all
the religious activity that we do. Father, let us be taken up
with Christ. Reveal Christ to the heart. Cause
us to trust him, to rest in him, to depend upon him, to look to
him, to desire him, to look for his coming, to love him and serve
his people, to serve his cause, to serve his gospel faithfully
where you please. Father, bless us, we pray. Bless
us with the sight of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his
precious and great name we pray and give thanks.