That was wonderful, one of my favorite tunes. We're glad to hear that, but especially the tune simply delivering the Word of God to us. We come now to the reading and the proclamation of the Word of God. Go with me to Psalm 35. Psalm 35. A little bit of background for those who were not here. I ended my time just preaching through the Psalms. This was a year or so ago, almost a year ago. So I was preaching through the Psalms and then I left off I preach in a number of churches, so I just kept preaching the Psalms, and so I've advanced a little bit. Of course, I didn't advance probably as much as you thought I might, because I've mixed it up and preached on some other things lately as well, as there was need. But Psalm 35, continuing, I at least, to work my way through them. Hopefully this will be a blessing to you. Psalm 35, let's read the whole thing. It is 28 verses, a little bit long. I ask that you pay close attention, listen reverently, for this is the word of God. David says, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 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. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares, and let his net that he had hid catch himself. Into that very destruction let him fall. and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, and shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee? Which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him? Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him. False witnesses did rise up, They laid to me my charge. They laid to my charge things I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good, to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother, but in mine adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear me, and ceased not. With hypocritical mockers and feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it. This thou hast seen, O Lord. Keep not silent, 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, and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, aha, so would we have it. Let them not say, we have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue shall speak of Thy righteousness and of Thy praise all the day long. Amen. Let us pray. Our God and our Heavenly Father, we come to You this day having just read this portion of the Word of God from the songs and prayers of the old and the New Testament, the Psalms. And this is an emotional portion of the Word of God. We ask that you would reach our minds with it, that we would learn many things, that we would know how to live and how to act. But these things also touch our hearts. May we not only know this text, In Jesus' name we pray, amen. It is customary in our day and age, it is customary in our culture, when there is a major conflict, when someone has been wronged, especially in a public way, And they cannot get justice from those who have wronged them. But the saying goes, that person lawyers up. That person lawyers up. Have you ever heard people talk about that or say that? It's time to lawyer up. What we mean by that is, it is time to get a lawyer It is time to get someone who is going to plead my case, who is going to plead my cause, because I have sought to be reconciled with this person. I have been financially destroyed by this person. My reputation has been ruined. We live in a day and age in which you must be very careful. Is it not the case? You could be walking around a tourist area, and someone could say something to you, and you could be caught on film, and then the news media catches wind of it. You may have done nothing wrong. You may have done nothing wrong at all. But what happens is the news media takes the video and edits the video for its own purposes, and then paints you as some horrible person, as some sort of bigot, some sort of racist, and all of the news media will pick it up, and they will seek to ruin you and destroy you. We have been, even in our day and age, recently seen people who've gone through this. Reputations ruined, fired from jobs. And those people say, it's time to lawyer up. And in the grace of God, we have seen some people who have been vindicated in the courts. and the news media that seems not to even learn its lesson. It has to pay a whole lot of money to the victims of these things to lawyer up. I don't know when we began talking like that. To lawyer up. Well, we should be very careful to use the civil courts. We should only use them when necessary. The Christians, the people of God, should not be known as a litigious people. They should not go to court as often as they ought, or as often as they can. They should be very careful about these things. And Paul says they especially should not go against other Christians. You should not do that. These things should be settled by other Christians in the courts of the Church. However, there does come a day in which you need to go to a lawyer and you need to go to a judge. David, in Psalm chapter 35, is one who is lawyering up But he is lawyering up, seeking to have God to be his lawyer. To have God be the one who vindicates him. To have the Lord be the one who speaks on his behalf. Because David has been wronged immensely by people in his lifetime. Now we don't know the exact circumstances because the headline of the psalm, the heading says, A Psalm of David. And I believe that we should trust those headings, but we are not given much information outside of that. So David has composed this psalm, and he has done so under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so we should receive it not as the word of man, but as the word of God. And what I want you to see in the structure of this Psalm is that there are three cycles that David goes through. Three cycles. The first cycle, I'll explain in a moment, the first cycle is one through 10, And the second cycle is 11 through 18. And the third one is 19 through 28. Once again, one through 10, 11 through 18, and 19 through 28. What happens in these three cycles as I read them, I could be wrong here, but I think that the structure goes in this way. He pleads to the Lord, He tells the way that he has been wronged, and then he looks to a future time in which he will praise God and he will be relieved if only God will come to his aid. If only God will come and rescue him. If only the Lord would stand up and be David's lawyer. One needs someone to speak on his behalf when others rise up to speak against you. What is happening here in each of these, and he unpacks for us, is that false accusers are standing up and they are raging against David and they are seeking to destroy him. And so David is saying, as they have risen up, so you must rise up, O Lord. As they accuse me, you must defend me. Look at this structure. Verse one of 35, he says, plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me." And then he uses military language and the language of military equipment, and he says, fight against them that fight against me. Shield and butler and spear. Here's what he's saying. You must go to war with these people. When you plead my cause, you must be at war with these people. And then he asks, David asks, for his accusers to be confounded, for their accusations to be turned back upon them. He says, let the angel of the Lord chase them. What he is calling for, is that the angel who went to each and every Egyptian home in the book of Exodus and smote the firstborn over the houses that did not have the blood of the lamb over the doorpost, David is calling upon that angel to go and smite his enemies now. And he says in verse seven, without cause they have hid for me their net. In other words, they are digging pits for me, they're setting traps for me, and I don't wanna fall into them. Make them Fall into those traps. Let destruction come upon them unawares. That is to say, by surprise. So here's what we see in this cycle. Plead my cause. Vindicate me. This is what they've done against me. And then he says in verses 9 and 10, then I'll rejoice. My soul shall be joyful. I'll rejoice in salvation. My bones, that is, what is inside of me, my bones will have relief. And they will say, who is life unto thee? Which delivereth the poor from him that is too strong for him? Ye, the poor and the needy, What he's saying is, I am just a poor man. I don't have much. And I'm being wronged. Oh, how I would rejoice. How I would be relieved. And how I would praise your name if only you would stand up and plead for me and go to war with them. The same thing goes on in verse 11, briefly, because we don't need to spend as much time, because I want you to see that these cycles take place. 11, false witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things I knew not. What he's saying is, they're charging me with things. They're accusing me. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. And what I want you to see in this cycle is that David actually makes the case to the Lord what he did in contrast to his accusers. These people are rising up to accuse him. Well, what has he done for them? David understands that when others rejoice, he must rejoice with them. And I hope that you understand that as well. When others rejoice, it's not a time for jealousy. When others rejoice, it is a time for rejoicing. You must rejoice in the graces and the gifts and the kindness of God to your fellow creature But also, when they mourn, you must join with them in mourning. We would say this about believing friends and neighbors, our brothers and sisters, but we ought to do this even about our unbelieving friends and neighbors. This is what David says. Verse 13 and 14. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. In other words, when they were sick, I went into mourning. I put on the clothing that is for mourning. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosom. Here's what he's saying. When these people who accused me, when they were having a hard time I fasted and I prayed. I sent my prayers to heaven and they returned to me. Fourteen, I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. David has has treated the hardships of His opponents in a personal way. He has taken them to heart. And what have they done? They accuse Him falsely. They speak against Him. They tell lies about Him. And David even talks about the feasts. Think about that. What's that implying? The national gatherings and the social gatherings of the nation. When people gather to worship the Lord, and to feast, and in a sense, to have a holiday in the name of the Lord. What are they mixing their holiday time with? They're spreading rumors. They're accusing David. They're speaking lies about him. This is life. a picture of life for those who will seek to love the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how it is on this side of the resurrection. Jesus said, the servant is not above the master. They persecuted me and they will persecute you. Let us not fall into the American way of thinking that we are just going to coast through life, and everything's gonna be easy and smooth, and then we will die and go to be what we were. For those who truly love the Lord Jesus and live for Him, we will experience people speaking all sorts of lies against us. They will say hateful things. They will say untrue things. And even when it is a time when they should be honoring the Lord, they will be using that time to wrong us. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must not put our confidence in men. We must trust that he knows best. We should not be surprised when people speak lies against us. We should mourn for it. All error and all lies are wrong. We must stand for the truth. We must seek to protect our own good name. But you cannot do so all the time. People speak behind our backs. And they say awful things. And some of it eventually makes its way to us. But much of it does not. Much of it goes on unbeknownst to us. Maybe you have experienced it. Someone you knew all of a sudden begins to act differently around you. Sometimes that is because rumors have gotten to them. People have said things. that are not true, or maybe are true and should not have been told. People have gone to discredit your name, and they've done so, and you had no opportunity to plead your case. No one gives you a hearing. We must be very careful about the words we speak I often hear people say things, they make vast, wide accusations against people, and I wonder, sometimes I ask, maybe you hear it as well and you have to ask, are you sure about that? Do you know that for sure? Or are you just repeating something that you've said? We must be very careful. We follow the Lord Jesus Christ. who is the way, the truth, and the life, and that truth part matters a lot. And we must be very careful to guard the truth when spoken against us, but also when spoken against others. I remember when I first began reading the Bible, first became a Christian, and I came to these words by the Lord Jesus, where he says, that on that great day, the last day of history, every vain word that we have spoken, we are going to need to give an account. That sent chills down my spine. I don't know how long the Day of Judgment is going to be, but it's going to be extraordinary when you think of the amount of people who have lived in this world and the amount of vain words we have all spoken, many of them against other people. We will give account for these things. May we reform our lives against this and speak the truth and only speak things which we can verify. We must continue to live like David did. When we see people who are harmed or hurting or wronged, we must act as if this is our brother or our mother. We must continue to pray for them, seeking their good. And you must leave your vindication to the Lord. Well, we don't have it so bad, do we? We are in the United States, and in a sense, compared with other nations, we do have it relatively easy. Presently, our nation is not persecuting Christians in such a way that worshiping like we are right here and now is not undercover of darkness for fear of being arrested. Now a day may come in which that is the case if we do not conform to certain agendas, especially sexual agendas that our government is getting behind and opposing Bible-believing Christians. We don't know if the government will join forces with them and lock us up, but we must confess that there are many Christian believers in prison right now because lies were told about them. the voice of the martyrs and other sorts of publications. Our brothers and sisters in Muslim countries and in communist countries are being lied about and many of them are being tortured and jailed and some killed because of the lies of the wicked. This is egregious, but we must not be surprised when these things take place. These are the outworking of history, and these things conform us to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Look at, interesting. I think that verse 20 has a lot of application in our day. Verse 20, For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. I usually talk about memes, but I'm going to. There's a really extraordinary meme that I've seen go around, which has a picture of a man standing up against a wall. And underneath that, it says, me trying to live my life. And then, I don't know, Horms, as well as some of you, as well as Roman, surely does, But there's someone with a horn, and the opening of the horn is placed right over the face of the man who's standing up against the wall. And the caption under that says, the LGBTQ plus F-I-L-T-H agenda. Okay? Well, it doesn't say F-I-L-T-H, but you get the idea. So, here's me trying to live my life. Not trying to hurt anyone. And this is just blasting into my face. Children should not be shown the things that are being shown in libraries and classrooms all throughout our nation. Some teachers who follow the Marxist religion, and it is a religion, the Marxist religion, which is seeking to destroy Christianity, because that is its objective, Some of them are hanging flags of the LGBTQ agenda in the classroom. Do you realize the significance of this? When you plant a flag, that is a declaration of war. That is the proclamation that the one who places the flag has taken over. You imagine if China or Iran or some country were to come to this country, take down an American flag, and put up a Chinese flag. Could you imagine that? This would be an act of war. This would be a way of saying, we've conquered. I don't single out that nation, China, any nation. This is an act of war. Are you advocating some sort of agenda, imposing some sort of Christian agenda on the world? Probably not. I bet you verse 20 probably speaks of you. Quiet in the land. Are you quiet in the land, seeking to live a quiet, peaceful life? Meanwhile, the worldly agenda is blasting in your face every news article, it seems. It's everywhere. We cannot only play defense. That is why Christians lose all the time. We play defense all the time. We need to play offense a little. There is a day of shame and a day of honor coming. Look with me at verse 26, verse 27. David prays under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about all those who are against the people of God. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. What David is ultimately praying for is the day of judgment. A day is coming in which Jesus Christ, who came into this world 2,000 years ago, who was born of a woman, born under law, came into this world, and he suffered for you, for me. He lived the 10 Commandments, and he perfectly fulfilled the 10 Commandments, because you are a sinner, and I am a sinner. We have not kept the law of God. but we were in debt because of our sin, and we were guilty because of our sin, and we were polluted because of our sin, and we had Satan as our father because of our sin. You realize that what I just broke down to you is that sin affects your guilt, outside of you, your heart inside of you, who your father is, and also economically, you're in debt. Isn't it ironic? What kinds of courts are there? Well, see, there are civil courts where debts are taken care of, criminal courts where guilt punishments are taken care of. Also, there are church courts. Talk about whether your holiness or not is up to where it needs to be. But also, there are family courts that deal with these things. Here's what the beauty of our salvation is, that God has justified you. He's declared you righteous in the heavenly court, the heavenly criminal court. And then God has taken you to family court and has adopted you in union with Christ so that Jesus is your Savior and God is your Father and Satan is no longer your father. And God has taken you to the civil court, and he has relieved you of your debt, your debt to God and your debt to the law. And also, God has, in a sense, made you holy. You were unholy and polluted, and you have been washed. This is what our salvation has done for us. And we are united with the Lord Jesus Christ because He is ultimately the one who is vindicated. He is the one who is justified. Very briefly, let us look at 1 Timothy 3.15. What I want you to see is The justification of the Lord Jesus Christ is analogous to our justification. Paul says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, that's his time of humiliation, justified in the spirit. When Jesus rose from the dead, All of the accusers were shown to be wrong. All of the accusers had their accusations turned against them because the Holy Spirit has said that He is righteous. That makes all of the false accusers unrighteous. Look with me in Romans chapter one, three and four. the opening of Romans, it tells us about Jesus Christ who is in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, verse 2, concerning His Son, that is the Father's Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, that's His humiliation, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. In other words, by His resurrection, Jesus is declared to be righteous and by his resurrection, Jesus is declared to be the Son of God. All of the accusations against God and against the Lord Jesus Christ are turned back because the resurrection shows that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The resurrection shows that he was right in everything that he declared. Now going back to Psalm 35, let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. A day is coming when all of the false accusations along with all of the false accusers will be clothed in their shame because they have spoken lies against the people of God. What does that imply? If they will be clothed in shame, then the righteous, those who have been united to Christ, will be clothed in righteousness. and holiness and vindication and sonship. And on that day we will shout for joy, verse 27, and be glad. And so will all of those who favor the righteous cause of David and the righteous cause of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the righteous cause of those who are simply trying to live their life, and love God, and love their neighbors, and fulfill the law of God, which is to love God and neighbor. He says, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servant." These verses will have their ultimate fulfillment and their ultimate application on the day of the Lord, the day of the visitation of Jesus Christ, the day when all of the false accusers will be brought before Him. And Jesus will play the tape of all of the lies that they spoke against Him, all of the lies that they have spoken against you, and all of the lies that they have spoken against the church, against the bride of Christ. And they will have these things turned back on them. Romans 8, 31, has some of the most delightful words for us. You are not only accused by other people and by unbelievers, but you must understand that you are accused by Satan himself. In Job chapter 1, Satan goes with the angels to heaven to appear before the Lord and to accuse Job. And he is called the accuser of the brethren. And if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, gentlemen and ladies, then you are brethren. And he accuses you. But here's what the Bible tells us. Romans 8, 31, what shall we say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Let me paraphrase. If God be the one who pleads for us and speaks for us, then who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, that is, the father, but delivered him up for us all, How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? In other words, if God has given you Jesus, then He's gonna give you everything else. He's gonna give you the Holy Spirit, and He's going to vindicate you. Now and on the last day, He says, 33, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? In other words, Satan rises up, People stand up and they accuse you. They may say things that are false and they may even say things that are true. Against the things that are false, Jesus Christ vindicates you. And against the things that are true, Jesus Christ will say, I have atoned for that sin, I bled for that sin, I have covered over that sin. He says, who is the one who's going to bring a charge against God's elect? It is God that justifies. It is God who declares righteous. He that spared not His own Son but delivered him up for us, it goes on to say, 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. Here's what he's saying. If you have the Father on your side, and if Jesus has gone to the cross for you, and even more than the cross, which we read about in Matthew, but has been raised from the dead for you. And if you have Jesus who intercedes for you, who pleads your case, then who can condemn you? Who can speak against you? Can Satan do it? No, he is not that powerful. Can presidents do it? Or kings do it? Can they speak in such a way that they could overturn the judgment of the Father and the vindication of the Son of God? No, they cannot. Then we are righteous and holy and forgiven by God. Then we are sons and we are daughters. I end with 1 John 2.2. I'm sorry, 1 and 2. My little children, it says, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. If any man sin, we have an advocate, that is a lawyer, with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the world. In other words, not just for the accusations which are not true, but even the sins that you have committed which are true. If you sin, free lawyer, the Lord Jesus, the advocate who speaks on your behalf. If you do not trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you do not have Him as your advocate. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on His name this day. Own Him as your Savior. Love Him as your own. And you will have one who advocates on your behalf, who is always faithful and is always successful. Let us pray. Our God and our Heavenly Father, we thank you that though we do not know what day the Lord Jesus Christ will come, it is a day of wonder and glory and beauty. And we look forward to it, a day of justice, We ask that Christ would shelter us, that He would cover over us. We ask that He would be our safety, that He would be our high tower, that we would hide ourselves in Him, that we might wait for the day of revelation, the day of the revealing of the hearts and thoughts of all men, And though we do not know that day, we do not know that hour, we do know that it is one day closer today than it was yesterday. Help us to be those who watch in prayer and look to that day, the day of the vindication of the sons of God. May we