All right, Psalm 83. We've looked
at this Psalm twice now, and I don't want to apologize, but
I do realize that we have spent some time in it, and there's
only 18 verses, so it seems like a disproportionate focus on this
Psalm, but I think the reason for that is that as I began to
look at it, I didn't know what it was teaching, but the more
I looked at it, the more I realized, and it's very glorious, as you
would expect, and so the notes on this psalm grew, and so it
became larger than I expected, and that's why we're having three
parts to it. But I want to I want to just
assume that we're going to read through the verses which we're
going to cover tonight, and that you can read all of it really
in just one sitting very easily. But I want to remind you of what
we talked about last week in verse four and following. We
covered this, but it's such a comfort to me and so essential that we
understand these things from this psalm. This psalm is talking,
if you look at this psalm in the overview, this psalm is talking
about what is most amazing about God's grace. Number one, the dissension of Christ, that the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, would become man and do so in
order that he might serve his people in bearing their sins
and fulfilling all of the will of God. Now that's amazing grace
beyond all comprehension and it's amazing because of what
God intended by Christ becoming man and serving us in his obedience
to God and serving by that obedience, washing our sins in His own blood,
and by that obedience, establishing our righteousness before God.
So that's amazing. But what's amazing in this psalm
to me is that the Lord, against whom we have sinned, has identified
His people in Christ for their eternal salvation, but at the
same time He has identified their sins and their sinful nature
as His enemy and our enemy. And because of that, this psalm
is glorious because we see in it God's grace. It's amazing,
it's surprising, it's soul-cheering. It's all of what God has done
in Christ to deliver us from our sins. Our sins bring us under
the curse of God. Our sins subject us to eternal
death. Our sins bring us to utter shame
before God. And our sins separate us from
God. Our sins bring us into slavery to our own corrupt nature and
to Satan himself. And they leave us in blindness
and darkness through the sinful ignorance that's in us. And there's
so many things we could say about our sins. But by God's grace,
he's delivered us from all of that. He's delivered us from
our sins. And this is all by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in verse four, it says,
in Psalm 83, verse four, they have said, come and let us cut
them off from being a nation that the name of Israel may be
no more in remembrance. So these enemies, and that's
just a sample from this psalm, these enemies have taken Israel,
There's a coalition of them together. They're all together assembled
in a single purpose, in a single bond of purpose, a covenant bond
against God's people to destroy them. And really it's to destroy
Christ. And that means to destroy him
not only on the cross, but to destroy him in his people, and
thereby to destroy his people, to shame the Lord Jesus Christ
through our destruction because of our sins. But this is the
very thing in this chapter that God is dealing with. And that's
why it seems so glorious to me. And so when he says in Psalm
83, when he says in verse three, they have taken crafty counsel
against, and these two phrases, thy people and consulted against
thy hidden ones. Last week, we looked at that,
that God has a people and he has hid them in Christ. And because
he has hid them in Christ, when he looks upon his people, he
sees them in Christ. And because he sees them in Christ,
then he sees Christ for them and sees them as the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Colossians chapter three
is where we went that your life is hid with Christ in God. And that's the gospel. And that's why these words here
in verse three of Psalm 83, that they are thy people and they
are hidden, his hidden ones. And we see that, we see the wonder
of it and the glory of it. We talked about that last time.
If we are hidden by God in Christ, then we are accepted of God in
Christ. That's comforting, isn't it?
That's cheering. That causes us to sing, doesn't
it, in our hearts? And even with our voices, that
God sees me in the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore he sees
me perfect in him. Could anything be more wonderful
than that? That God would remove the separation
that my sins have brought by putting me in Christ and receiving
his punishment. for my sins in his blood to make
atonement, to take away my sins and to bring satisfaction to
his justice so that it would all be in righteousness that
God would receive me for Christ's sake. And so there were a couple
of verses we read last time and I want to I want to read one
in particular in Psalm 143 verse 9. It says this, So that's what
faith is doing. Faith is running in our hearts to the Lord to
hide us. And we know that he has to hide us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why when we take those
words and those thoughts in our minds, in prayer, we're
taking from God's word. God's word is what suggests this,
and not just suggests it, but it declares it to us, it reveals
it. He makes known to us, this is the way God deals with his
people. He has hidden them in Christ. They run to him. by faith
to be found in Christ, they plead that they would be hidden in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, like the thief on the
cross, they're asking the Lord to remember them and to remember
them for Christ's sake. Now the next verse, in verse
four, it says, they have said, and I read this, come and let
us cut them off from being a nation that the name of Israel may be
no more in remembrance. The name of Israel means the
name of God's people. God's people are called Israel.
Jacob's name was changed to Israel. And when God saves us, He gives
us a new name. He gives us a new name. And what
name does He give us? Well, He gives us His own name.
He calls us His people. He put His name upon us, Christ's
name. The name Christian was coined
in the New Testament times to describe those who were believers
in Christ. And that name is still used to
refer to those who believe on Christ, but it's been so watered
down throughout history. that it really has lost the effectiveness
of the name Christian. But it's still a name, and God
has put his name on his true people, and he knows them, they're
his, and because his name is on them, therefore, if anything
of theirs fails, then God's name suffers loss. That's how important
it is to have the name of God put on us, and that's why In
the New Covenant, God says, I will be a God to them, and they shall
be my people. And it carries that strength
that God has called them his own. He says in Romans 9, I will
call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved,
which was not beloved. No one knew that the Lord's people
were his until he was pleased to reveal Christ in them. And
so that's also very endearing. Also here in verse four, though
the enemy wants to put out the name, the remembrance of God's
people, because they hate Christ and hate them, they pray that
the Lord would remember them. And so the thief on the cross
is what we looked at last time. He said, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. You're the Lord. You're the sovereign.
You're the one God has sent into the world. You're the Christ.
you will die, but you will rise again, you will be triumphant,
your kingdom will come, you will be exalted, and you will resume
your open sovereign rule over all things in glory, because
you not only are God, but you are man, the one God appointed
and anointed to save his people, and you've finished that work.
And that's fantastic. So this is what the thief on
the cross prayed. He's really asking the Lord to
remember his son. And so this is consistent with
what he said. He's hidden us in Christ. Remember
Christ for me. Remember me for Christ's sake.
God has forgiven us for Christ's sake. Everything God does for
us, therefore, is for Christ's sake. And for that reason, we
can have the utmost confidence. It's for Christ's sake. Our salvation
is for Christ's sake. Our forgiveness, the forgiveness
of our sins is for Christ's sake. Our being clothed in his righteousness,
that righteousness put on us is for Christ's sake. He worked
it out. And our life is given us for Christ's sake. The spirit
of God is given us for Christ's sake. We are brought into the
presence of God in the blood and the righteousness of Christ
to the glory of Christ for Christ's sake. And so all these things
remind us of that. Then I want to go on to verse
six. This is really where we left
off last time, if you want to look at verse six. And this is
why the psalm was puzzling to me when I first read this, is
who are all these people? Well, he says in verse six, these
who have taken covenant together and have a coalition of wickedness
against Christ and his people. He says in verse six, the tabernacles
of Edom, That would be the people of Esau, Edom is Esau. And the
Ishmaelites, that was the first son to Abraham by Hagar, the
slave woman. And Moab, Moab was the oldest
son born to Lot through his daughter, his oldest daughter. So he was
a son of incest and the Hagarins or Hagarins, as you probably
should pronounce it, but it's easier to identify if we could
call it the Hagarins. They were the ones who were children
of Hagar, probably not through Ishmael, perhaps through Ishmael,
but perhaps she had a husband. Whoever they are, they were born
not to Abraham and they were not children of promise. And
then there were these people called Gebel. And now Giebel
is a name that doesn't appear often in scripture, but it does
appear some. And we learn from those references
that these people, the Giblites, or the people of Giebel, were
probably shipbuilders and also masons. And they were associated
with the people of Tyre and Sidon, in that sense. And then also
it says here, Ammon, which is the second son of Lot by his
youngest daughter, another son of incest. So both Moab and Ammon
were children of Lot. And they were children of Lot
by this incestuous relationship. And therefore, they were illegitimate
children born of the flesh. And then there's Amalek. Now,
Amalek was the son of Esau through, well, I can't remember right
now. It's written in the notes. So go back and look at it. So
the point here is Amalek was a son of Esau, and then there's
the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre. Tyre was a coastal city. Asser is the man who was associated
with the Assyrians. If you remember, the Assyrians
were those wicked, cruel people who took the ten tribes of Israel
captive. And they were captive to them
until Christ came, really. The people of Samaria were repopulated
by the king of Assyria. They were not true Jews, but
they were a mixture of people from other lands. And so the
Assyrians were bad people. And it says, Asher, or the Assyrians,
also is joined with them, and they have helped the children
of Lot. That's in verse eight. Okay,
so in verse nine, do unto them as unto the Midianites, as to
Sisera, as to Jabin, as at the brook Kishon. So the Midianites,
they descended from a man named Midian. And Midian was born to
Abraham through his wife Keturah, who he married after Sarah died. But anyway, the Midianites were
of the, they were confederate with the people of the Canaanites.
Sisera was a captain to King Jabin. Jabin was a captain of
a Canaanite people. And if you remember, Sisera was
killed by a woman. And she drove a tent stake through
his head when he was sleeping in her tent. And that was under
the direction of Deborah. And so Cicero was a captain,
a very mighty captain. He had 900 chariots of iron,
and he was the captain for this man named Jabin. And Gideon killed
Jabin at the brook Kaishan. All right. You can see here,
verse 10, so do unto them, in verse 9, as unto the Midianites,
as to Sisera, as to Jabin. These people were all destroyed
by either Barak and Deborah's army that followed Barak, or
this woman whose name was Jael, who drove a tent stake through
his head. And Jabin was killed by Gideon.
And then, so the prayer here is to do unto the enemies of
God's people as he did to the Midianites, which perished at
Endor. They became as dung for the earth.
Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeb. Oreb and Zeb were princes
of the Midianites. They were killed during that
battle. Gideon fought. They were not killed by Gideon,
but they were killed by the men of Ephraim who helped. And all
their princes as Ziba and Zalmana. Ziba and Zalmana were... I said
earlier that Gideon killed Jabin. That's not true. It was actually...
I think it was Beric. But Ziba and Zalmana were kings
of the Midianites and Gideon did kill those two men. And they
said, verse 12, who said, let us take to ourselves the houses
of God in possession. So clearly they were after, these
people were all trying to take away the houses of God for their
own possession. Now, I went ahead and read all
those people. I don't expect you to remember
all their names, but I do want to consider them. There was many
of them. That's the first thing to observe
here. There were many enemies. And also they had a large number. Remember the number of the Midianites
in the battle that Gideon and his 300 men, when the 300 men
blew their trumpets, they broke their pitchers and blew their
trumpets and they shined the light that Gideon had given to
them. And they cried the sword of the
Lord and of Gideon. And God put every man in that
army, the Midianite army, against one another, and 120,000 men
died in that battle. And then later Gideon chased
down these two men, Ziba and Zalmanah, and they had 15,000
with them, and these 300 with Gideon also killed them, so a
total of 135,000. That's a large number. So the
point is, many enemies, large in number, and the people of
God didn't have any strength against them, Thank you. And
the people of God were idolaters, just like their enemies. So God
had to save them himself by grace. And he had to do it when they
had no help other than the Lord. So they had to look to the Lord
only. And this was all repeated over and over again in the Old
Testament. Now, I want to touch on these different names here
because they are used by God. They're mentioned here, obviously,
historical nations and kings and captains. and princes, but
these people represent our enemies. And I think that if we look at
them briefly, we'll see that. First of all, if you remember
when Noah, after the waters of the flood dried up, Noah planted
a vineyard and he drank the wine from his grapes and he got drunk
and he was in his tent uncovered and his son Ham saw him in the
tent and rather than covering his father's sin, Ham went out
and told his brothers, Shem and Japheth about that.
Now, that's contrary to what the Lord has taught us in Scripture.
Love covers all sin. That's what Scripture says. Ham
was out to expose his own father and his sin. And for that, when
Noah awoke out of his wine, Noah cursed Canaan. Canaan was a son
of Ham. It was in that curse, therefore,
that God, through a prophetic curse by Noah, was cursing the
land of the Canaanites, who were children of Ham. descendants
of Ham. So, first of all, they were a
cursed people. The people that Israel... Israel's
enemies were a cursed people. And isn't that true of our sins?
Isn't it true of our sinful nature that our sins and our sinful
nature are going to perish? They died, didn't they? Didn't
our sins... Weren't our sins crucified with
the Lord Jesus Christ? Weren't they crucified on the
cross? And isn't the cross The sign of being under the curse
of God, that's what Galatians 3.13 says. That Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us because
it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And the
apostle Paul said in Galatians 2, I'm crucified with Christ.
So we know that his old man was crucified with Christ. That's
clear from Romans chapter 6 and Galatians 2 and elsewhere. So
these people were cursed from God. It represents the fact that
God has cursed our sins in Christ and his death. All right, so
that's the first thing. All these people mentioned here
were cursed people, because in prophecy, Noah cursed Canaan,
and Canaan represents our sins, which God cursed in Christ. Second, because God had commanded
Israel to overthrow the inhabitants of Canaan. Remember, God told
Joshua, you go in and you kill them all. You kill them all,
really. Don't save any of them. They didn't, but that's what
God told them to do. So these people were not only
under the curse, but they were under the sentence of death.
And God commanded Israel to overthrow them. They were idolaters. The people of Canaan were complete
idolaters. And it was through their idolatry
that Israel was always tempted and actually fell into idolatry
throughout their entire history. Okay, so that's the second thing.
They were accursed people. This is why they're mentioned
here in connection with Psalm 83. Because they were accursed
people, because God cursed them in the scripture through Noah.
And secondly, because God commanded Israel to overthrow these people.
They were idolaters. They were opposed to God. And
third, And all these people were joined together against God's
people. Remember when David heard what
Goliath said against the army of Saul and Israel? He said,
how can this man defy the armies of the living God? David was
appalled, he was amazed that this man would be so impudent,
so brazen as to defy the armies of the living God. And that's
what emboldened David. And that's what emboldened the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David. That these people, our
sins and our sinful nature and all the consequences of our sins,
death and hell, and our separation from God, all these things that
would separate us from the love of God which is in Christ, were
in the target, they were in the bullseye. because they defied
the armies of Israel. And so, these people here, with
one intent, are joined together to destroy the Lord's people. His hidden ones, who are called
thy people, and if they destroy them, then what does that say
about God's name? He was not able to save his own people?
that he's actually weaker than the gods, the idol gods of these
enemies? That can't be. So they were trying
to do that. And yet, historically now, how
many people have you met who are Canaanites, Philistines,
Gebelites, who can trace their heritage back to these? I don't
know if you can. They wanted to put out the remembrance
of Israel, but Actually, the very thing they intended to do
to Israel came upon them, didn't it? There's no memory. There's
no people today to remember them. Have you met any children of
Goliath? No. No more of these giants remain. And so you can see here that
that's the way God works. He brought upon them the very
thing they intended to do to his people. And fourth, all these
nations intended to destroy God's inheritance. God's inheritance
is his people. And God destroyed them and cast,
destroyed the Canaanites and cast them out of their own lands
because they wanted to destroy God's inheritance, his people. Christ's own people, which he
purchased with his own blood from eternity. And so that couldn't
happen, could it? No, they were trying to take
God's treasure from him. So these enemies, as I said before,
represent enemies within and enemies without, enemies innumerable
and enemies unconquerable by our own natural strength of wisdom,
enemies that occupy our own bodies. The promised land that God has
told us we will be, we will inherit eternal glory in these bodies
that will be changed to be like Christ's body. And so these are
the enemies that are without number and God's word Even though
when Israel was in the war against these enemies, and when this
psalm was written, it seemed like, it seemed to all appearances,
that these enemies had the dominance. They seemed to have the victory. And yet God's word stood unflinchingly
certain of victory and his throne remained unshaken. The Lord himself
gave us this psalm to show us that he was going to destroy
all of our sins and all of our enemies by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, so the Lord is going to save us against all appearances
to the contrary. You see, and God's people pray
to him, according to his word, to do what he has said, to overcome
our sinful enemies, which are against us. Now, I want to go
through these names real quickly with you. First, Ishmael. I already
mentioned Ishmael. Ishmael is mentioned in Galatians
4 as an allegory of the children of the flesh, the children who
live by their own works. He was the son of a bondwoman.
He was produced by the relationship between Abraham and Hagar because
Sarah suggested to Abraham, we have to make God's promise come
to pass. We have to do something to make
God's promise come to pass. That's the very definition of
works. We have to do something to make
God's promise come to pass. But that's not grace. And that's
what Ishmael is given to teach us. He's born of the flesh. He
was born of that motive to bring about God's promise through the
works of the flesh. And God holds him up and says,
that's the doctrine of Jerusalem on earth. That's the doctrine
of the Jews' religion and all who hold the same false religion
in all of man's religion throughout all the world, whether it be
Roman Catholics or Armenian free will works religion. It doesn't
matter what it is. Everyone who believes another
gospel other than the gospel of Christ, another Christ other
than the true and living God, who is the Lord Jesus Christ,
then they are like Ishmael. They're children of the flesh,
they persecute those who are born of the Spirit, and they
live upon and delight in their own works, they trust their works,
and this is a very wicked thing. And I mentioned this on Sunday,
I got this from Todd Nybert. Todd says, Christ plus anything
equals nothing. That's what Ishmael teaches us.
Anything added to Christ nullifies everything Christ is and has
done for me. If I add something to it in an
attempt to make God's promises come to pass, it's either Christ
alone or It's me alone. There's no mixture of grace and
works. So if we add anything to Christ, we make nothing of
everything Christ has done and all that he is to ourselves.
But on the other hand, Christ plus nothing, if I have nothing
and I look to Christ only for all of my salvation, then that's
everything. That's enough. It's all sufficient.
And so that's what Ishmael is about. All right, Esau. What
about Esau? Well, remember Esau is mentioned
in Romans chapter nine. Esau, Jacob have I loved, God
said. When Esau and Jacob were still
in the womb of their mother, Rebekah, God said, Esau, have
I hated. Before they were born, before
the children had done any good works, either good or evil, God
said, Jacob have I loved, Esau, have I hated. What does that
mean? Well, Romans 9.13 explains it. He says, that the purpose of
God, according to election, might stand, which is this, not of
works, but of him that calleth. So Esau represents the natural
heart of man that opposes sovereign salvation in Christ alone. And in that way, he's the same
as Ishmael, isn't he? But he's a little bit different
because he was actually a twin to Jacob. And he was older than
Jacob because he was born first. But even before they were born,
God promised to Rebekah, the elder shall serve the younger. So in that we see that Esau not
only represents those who oppose God's sovereign salvation, God's
sovereignty and salvation. But they also are representative
of the flesh, because it's the old man, our natural man, that
was born first. And it's the new man, created
in Christ Jesus, that's born second. And the elder, the old
man, is going to serve the younger. So Esau had to serve Jacob. So you can see that Esau represents
both those things from scripture. All right, so let me go down
the list here, keep going. And if you read the notes that
I sent out, they're more explanatory than this. One of the things
you see about Esau is that in Hebrews chapter 12, it says that
Esau was a fornicator and a profane person. Profane means he was
an idolater. He didn't worship God. And fornicator
means he served his own flesh in a perverse manner. But that's
what we do by nature. We serve ourselves. We hate God.
We set up idols in our own minds. And we live for ourselves, not
for the glory of Christ. All right, so think more about
Esau and his role as God has set him up to teach us these
things. Let's see. I'm going to go on
to the next one. And I'm turning the page here. The next one is... Moab, as I mentioned, was born
to Lot's oldest daughter. Moab was the son of Lot's oldest
daughter by incest with her dad, Lot. He got drunk, or they got
him drunk for that purpose. And it's a shameful story in
Genesis 19, I think. You can read about it there.
But it has a spiritual significance. the Moabites were constantly
at war with Israel. And they were strong in many
ways. But the point is that Moab really
represents the inbred son, the son who is born out of inbreeding. It is not legitimate. Totally
born of the flesh. Ammon was the second son, born
to Lot by his youngest daughter. And so he also is the same thing,
a twofold witness against the works of the flesh in order to
produce children. it can't be done. So the Ammonites
and the Moabites were always enemies of Israel because the
children of the flesh are always persecuting the children of God,
the children of the Spirit. The Hagareens are descendants
of Hagar and therefore they also are those, like Ishmael, who
will not submit to Christ's righteousness. They prefer their own works and
they build idols in their own minds just like Ishmaelites.
Gebel and Amalek. Amalek is interesting because,
as I said a bit ago, Amalek was the son of Esau through one of
his other boys. He was a descendant of Esau,
but his father was Eliphaz. You can read about that in Genesis
36. And just like Esau represents the old man, the old nature,
the flesh, that has to be subdued by the new man. The spirit wars,
or how does it say it in Galatians 5.17, the flesh lusteth against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that you cannot
do the things that you would. And this is Amalek. In the Old Testament, it's interesting
to follow Amalek throughout. King Saul was told to destroy
Amalek. Amalek came out against Israel
right after God opened the rock by Moses smiting the rock. And
he brought water out of the rock to Israel in Exodus 17, and there
was Amalek to fight against Israel right then. As soon as they received
the water of life, pictured by that water coming out of Christ,
smitten by God's law, then they had to face the battle of the
old nature. that was Amalek. And in that
fight, if you remember, Moses held up his hands, both of them,
but he got tired because Moses couldn't bring Israel into the
land of Canaan. He was weak because the law is
weak through our flesh. And so on one side of him Aaron
stood, and Aaron was a high priest, and on the other side her, H-U-R,
stood and held up, each of them held up one arm, As Aaron means
the high priest, so he signifies Christ who offered himself for
our sins and makes intercession for us. And her, his name means
light, and so he signifies the light of the gospel that teaches
us that Joshua, who was fighting in that battle against Amalek,
is going to prevail. and so he directs us always to
the Lord Jesus Christ. The uplifted hands that Moses
had were a confession that my salvation and my all is in the
Almighty God, as Abraham did when he'd lift up his hands In
Genesis 14, he swore, I've lift up my hands to the Lord. I will
not take from you, king of Sodom, not a thread to a shoe latchet.
And so that incident in Exodus 17 was also to teach us that
Amalek represents the flesh and God is going to have war with
Amalek throughout all generations. And Amalek will be destroyed. God said he's going to put out
the memory of Amalek forever. which means that God is going
to bring his people to glory and their flesh and their sins
will be utterly destroyed. And so that's consistent with
what's prayed for in this psalm. All right, so I've given you
kind of a very quick look at these different people. And if
you want to read more about this, you can read it from the notes.
All right, so let's go. Let's go skipping down now where
we've read so far. Let's go down to verse 13. Verse 13 says, Oh my God, make
them like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind. Both of these
pictures, the wheel and the stubble before the wind, are meant to
complement each other. To be a wheel means to have no
rest, no stability. Stubble before the wind means
you just scattered them. They're absolutely scattered. And so that's what God is going
to do before to his enemies, to our enemies. And this is the
grace of God, isn't it? Our enemies are the enemies of
God. God has made it so because he chose us in Christ and he
put his name upon us. He made us his own by adoption
and he's going to save us from our sins. So he says this, God
make them like a wheel as a stubble before the wind. And then in
verse 14, as the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth
the mountains on fire. So again, this is referring to
destruction, isn't it? He says, verse 15, so persecute
them with thy tempest and make them afraid with thy storm. Tempest,
the word means, is like a whirlwind, like a tornado. And a storm is
a very strong wind, maybe like the wind that divided the Red
Sea. And the Lord is saying to them in verse 15, persecute them
with your tempest, with your tornado, the whirlwind, and make
them afraid with your storm, like you divided the Red Sea.
Make them afraid. The word of the Lord shall take
away our enemies, won't he? None shall be left. There shall
not even be a trace of them. And this is what this is teaching.
And then in verse 16 it says, fill their faces with shame that
they may seek thy name, O Lord. Now this is an amazing verse
and don't miss this. This verse is amazing because
what do you see here? Unexpected, an unexpected and
surprising reference to mercy. Do you see this? Fill their faces
with shame, put them to shame, that they might seek thy face,
thy name, O Lord. Do you see that? That they may
seek, that's the purpose, that these people who were under the
curse would seek the name of the Lord. And of course we know
the name of the Lord is just another way of saying the Lord
himself. All that he is in all of his
goodness and it's known in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's
goodness is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, What the Lord
is saying here is that out of all of this destruction pronounced
on all of these enemies represented by these different descendants
of these sinful men, Esau, Ishmael, Amalekites, and so on, Philistines,
the Lord is saying that He's going to save some of them. Out of all men, the Lord is going
to save some people. Isn't that what he's saying here?
He's going to cause them to seek his name. And you can see the
mercy here, can't you? In Habakkuk 3.2, I mentioned
this last time, in wrath, remember mercy. Habakkuk 3.2. And we join this prayer, don't
we? Especially for ourselves. We say to the Lord in our prayer,
as we read this alman throughout scripture, save me from myself
and save me from my flesh. Save me from my sins, from this
evil world, from Satan, and his kingdom, the consequences of
my sins. Save me from death and the grave,
more consequences. Save me from the wrath of God,
which is against me because of my sins. Save me from the curse
of God's holy law. Save me from all I deserve because
I offended my God. Oh, save me for Christ's sake.
Do it for his name's sake. Do it for the Lord's sake, his
great name. And so that's what the Lord's promise is here. He's
going to save a remnant out of all people. He uses unconquerable
enemies and overwhelming trouble as the context from which he
exercises his great power in grace to save even his enemies,
doesn't he? This context is great enemies,
great in number, unconquerable by us. And yet God, in his mercy,
according to his own choice of his people in Christ, has delivered
them and shall deliver them to the uttermost, shall save them
to the uttermost from all their enemies. Not one of their enemies
shall stand. They'll all be put out of remembrance. All of them, all of our sins,
put out of remembrance. Isn't that the promise of the
New Covenant? He shall remember their sins no more. Those are
our enemies. And he's going to not remember
our sinful flesh anymore. When we get to glory, it's all
going to be done with. And that's what he's promising
us here. Romans chapter 8 is a great summary
of this chapter. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? The love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Shall persecution, all the things
he lists there, death? No. Life? No. Present things? No. Future? No. Nothing. There's nothing. Nothing in heaven,
nothing on earth because the Lord has delivered us from our
sins. And that's what Romans 8 and the whole gospel is teaching
us. So he uses these unconquerable
enemies, great in number, with this overwhelming trouble as
the very context to show to us how he saves us from our sins
in the same only worse, greater trouble, greater enemies. If
God has so saved us when we were his enemies, when we were idolaters,
when we were God's enemies, in our hearts, shall he not much
more now save us? by the life of Christ to the
uttermost. That's what the New Testament
says in Romans 5, verse 10. If when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. He's able to save to the uttermost
all who come to God by him. The Lord will be glorified in
our salvation. His name is staked to it. All
right, and then in verse 17, he says in verse 17, let them
be confounded and troubled forever, yea, let them be put to shame
and perish. Now this word perish can be,
according to the Blue Letter Bible online, you can look it
up, can also mean lost. lost and Jesus said he came to
seek and to save who that which was lost so that if we're lost
we qualify for his saving mercy here that he speaks of and then
in verse 18 here's the here's the intention of all of this
that men may know that men may know, see the salvation of his
people, that men may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah
art the most high over all the earth. All people will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. to the glory of God the Father.
That's what he's saying here. All people, we're going to bow
the knee. We're either going to bow the knee by grace in looking
only to Christ, trusting Him only and from our hearts being
thankful to God and calling upon the Lord to save us continuously
until the Lord takes us to glory at the end of our lives in death.
Or we're going to oppose him the whole way through and like
Esau be left to stand before God in our own person without
a mediator. And that's what all those who
trust in their works want. They want to receive what they
deserve from God. They stood upon it. Remember
Esau when he was hungry and he made that agreement with Jacob
for a bowl of pottage After he ate, he got up, he left, he didn't
even have a second thought. He didn't have a second thought
about that inheritance that he gave up by selling his birthright. He did not care about Christ. He had no need. He was content
to trust His works. And that's the way it is. We
are either going to face God in Christ, or we're going to
face Him in our own person. But the name of Jehovah is a
unique name in Scripture. There's only one whose name is
Jehovah. There's only one who can fulfill that name. Jehovah
means God's absolute sovereign rule over all things. Remember,
it was Jehovah who delivered Israel from Egypt in the opposition
of Pharaoh, the strongest king in the earth in those days. And
the Lord did it. Jehovah did it. And Pharaoh went
whimpering to his death, giving up. He struggled against him.
He could never win. He finally realized the Lord
was God. Just like Nebuchadnezzar, remember?
Nebuchadnezzar confessed the Lord alone is God and he does
all his will. But Jehovah is also a name that
means not only sovereign rule, but means a sovereign savior. And that's why we love this name.
Now, I could show you that by going through all the names,
but there's eight times in scripture where God adds an appendage to
the name Jehovah to emphasize what his name means to his people. Jehovah-Jireh, That's one of
them, the Lord sees, and he'll see to it. He'll see to, he himself
will provide for himself a lamb. That's in Genesis 22, 14. Or
Jehovah, who healeth thee. That was in Exodus 15, after
God destroyed Israel. Egypt in the Red Sea, and then
brought him to the waters of Merah and had the tree cut down
and thrown into the bitter waters of Merah. And God healed the
waters because the Lord heals his people. And Jesus healed
his people by bearing their iniquities himself. He bore the curse and
the plague of their sins. In Exodus 17 verse 15, Jehovah
Nisi, when Joshua discomfited, when he weakened Amalek in that
battle I was referring to earlier in Exodus 17, they built an altar
there and called it Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah our banner. In other
words, we preach Christ. Our victor, our king and our
victor, the one who has conquered our enemies for us. That's our
message. That's our banner. It's him and
him alone. And then there's Jehovah, which
is Jehovah the Lord who sanctifies thee in Exodus 31, 13. Jehovah
Kadosh, or however you say it, the Lord that sanctifies. We
know that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who sanctifies.
He who sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are all of
one from Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11. And then there's Jehovah
Shalom, our peace. Gideon said this is this altar
Jehovah Shalom. He said peace be unto you because
the Lord made peace in the blood of his son. And there's Jehovah
my shepherd, Psalm 23. There's Jehovah our righteousness,
the Lord our righteousness. And there's the Lord who is with
us, the Lord is there. Wherever the Lord's people are,
he's with us. Jesus will never leave us nor
forsake us. And finally, Jesus is, that name
means Jehovah is salvation. Jehovah our salvation. And in
Psalm 21 verse 5 it says, His glory is great in His salvation,
honor and majesty hast thou laid upon Him. So you see this Psalm
is preaching Christ, it's preaching God's salvation of His people.
from their sins, their great enemies, and all the consequences
of their sins. How many times have you sinned
against God and you thought, Lord, save me from not only my
sins, but the things that my sins would bring upon me, if
you brought upon me what my sins deserve? And that's why we go
to Him, is to deliver us from our enemies. And His name is
great because that's exactly what He does. In His goodness,
God saves His people from their sins. The Lord Jesus Christ,
Jehovah, our salvation. What a wonderful name it is. And it says in the last verse,
that men may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah art the
most high over all the earth. Christ rules over everything. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for the Lord Jesus. Thank you for your goodness that
we see in him. He is the express image of your
person, the brightness of your glory, the outshining of all
of your magnificence. And he reigns over all things
and it will be to your glory. He will glorify you in all that
he does as you have glorified him for all that he did. and
you will glorify his people with him and in him and this is grace
beyond all comprehension. We can't even begin to understand
how this could be that you would give us to and place us in and
hide us in the Lord Jesus Christ and so save us to the uttermost
by him. But we know that because it is
by him alone and it is to his glory alone Therefore, we can
trust Him without any degree of doubt, because since all depends
upon Him and He cannot fail and all goes to His glory, then we
know He will be glorified. Thank you that you've given us
this name to be called by the Lord Jesus, called His people,
and saved by Him from our sins. In His name we pray, amen.