Psalm chapter 50. We're looking
at the first six verses of this psalm. The title of the message tonight
is, The Lord Hath Spoken. The Lord Hath Spoken. This psalm
is a psalm of Asaph, and he says, The mighty God Even Jehovah hath
spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the
going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come and shall
not keep silence. A fire shall devour before him. It shall be very tempestuous
round about him. He shall call to the heavens
from above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto
me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the
heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself." Himself. He is the judge. Everyone in religion desires,
they at least claim to desire, that they want to hear a word
from God. They want to hear a word from
God. How many times have you asked that? God, speak to me. Speak to me. And so often the
flesh is involved in this and what we desire is some audible
sound, some feeling within ourselves so as to think we have heard
from God." And I tell you, God does move in our minds and our
hearts at times, and we feel His presence. But you remember
what Peter said concerning the vision that he had seen. The
two prophets had come down and spoke with the Lord, and he saw
the Lord Jesus Christ transfigured before him. The Father from heaven
spoke to him, from heaven, and said, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. What did he say? Hear ye Him. Is that not something wonderful
God bestowed only on His Son? God was speaking, and yet God
said, wait a second. Don't even hear me, hear Him. He's going to speak for me. Hear
Him. If you ever desire to hear what
God said, here it is. You want to hear a word from
God, pick this up and read it. It is God's word. How many times
have you thought to ask God for something, a question that you
have, and then all of a sudden you read and know that the answer
had always been there. It had been there long before
you said it, long before. Isn't that what the word says?
Before that the word would even come to your mouth, I will answer
thee. Isn't that right? Isn't the answer
already here for us when we have questions? Yes, God's Word has
the answer. God here is speaking. That's
what the psalmist said. He said, the mighty God, even
the Lord, what? Hath spoken. Now the psalmist
declares this wonderful truth. That's a good news truth right
there. God spoke. The Almighty, Jehovah, the only
true and omnipotent God has spoken and listen what He has done.
He has called everyone to hear it. He says from the rising of
the sun to the going down. In other words, I call everyone
from the east all the way to the west. I call you to hear
my word. This is not a request. When God
speaks, it is not a request that you hear. It is a command from
the mighty God, Jehovah, the only true and living God. He
has spoken. And so no matter who you are,
no matter what you're doing, God says, hear my word. Hear it. Hear it. This is not a request. God is
demanding you hear his word. So stop what you're doing and
hear what God has spoken. Your creator is demanding you
hear him. He is demanding. He is the very
sustainer of your life. You and I are breathing right
now at his hand. The world moves, the planets
revolve, the seasons come and go at His command. He demands you hear Him. Now, I want you to see that God
has spoken in different ways. When God speaks, He has spoken
in many different ways. I'm going to give you two ways
that God speaks to every man. And then I want to give you the
way that God speaks to His people. It's different. First of all,
God speaks in creation. Listen to what David said in
Psalm 19. He said, The heavens declare
the glory of God, and the firmament show night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard. Isn't that something? I don't
care where you go in the world. No one can not hear this. You can be deaf, you could even
be blind, but yet everyone has some understanding of God speaking
by this one way, creation. Go over to Romans, Romans chapter
1. Apostle Paul speaks on this very
thing. Look at verse 18. Paul says this, for the wrath
of God is revealed. How do people know anything at
all about the wrath of God? It's revealed from heaven. against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and
unrighteousness, here it is, because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them. For God has showed it unto him,
for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly what? Seen. Being understood by the things
that are made, even the eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse. But see that this message of
creation, what does it reveal? It reveals only the wrath of
God. It reveals only the Godhead and
power of God. Isn't that right? Scientists
should be so overwhelmed with the with the discoveries that
we are able to see the order in which all things move and
consist is so amazing that they should shout praises to God by
saying that there is no possible way this just happened. This message reveals something
about God. It reveals His authority, doesn't
it? That God is and that God rules. That's what it reveals. Yet,
what do men do with such knowledge? When they hear that God's speaking
through His creation, what do they do? Look at verse 21. Because
that When they knew God, they knew God by what they saw, they
knew God by the judgments and things in the earth, the ungodliness,
they knew God. They glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain, and their imagination and
their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. And what did they do to God?
They changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image
like to the corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts
and creeping things. I want you to understand by this
speech no one is ever saved. Somebody tell you, well I was
walking in the garden looking at the trees and all of a sudden
I understood. No you didn't. You heard God
speak, but it was not to the saving of your soul. No one is saved by this speech
of creation. They come to a knowledge of God
by looking at it, but because of the depravity and darkness
of their heart, they take what they know of God and they make
him like man and beast. God said that, and he said, Thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such and one. That's what creation
teaches. That's the best that creation
could teach. That's the best that it can do.
Because when men take what they know of God, they'll just corrupt
it. The second way God speaks is
this, by the law. God speaks by the law. There
is a law of God that was from the beginning, which God had
written on the hearts of every person. Look at Romans 2 and
verse 14. Paul deals with this subject
as well. Romans 2 and verse 14. For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, and that's the law of Moses, and I'm going
to deal with that in just a minute. do by nature the things contained
in the law. These, having not the law, are
law unto themselves, which show this, the work of God, the work
of the law, what? Written in their hearts. God speaks to every man by creation
and by the law of God that is written in his own heart. Isn't it strange that you find
in places that never heard of the law of Moses, yet you find
the same things written in their laws? Murder is evil. Theft is evil. Adultery, fornication,
all of these things you find in the laws of men and they know
it is evil to do those things. Why? The law of God It speaks
to them. It speaks to their conscience. The proof of this is the conscience
of man. All men know it is evil to do
these things, and so they either excuse or accuse others of this. Isn't that what they do? They
accuse others. They know it's wrong. They do
it themselves. And yet, what do they do? They
accuse others of it. That's the law of God speaking
in their heart. They know it's wrong. This is
the word of God to the natural man. But what he does with it,
what is the same thing that he does with creation? He corrupts
it. He defiles it. He sears his conscience
so as he will not hear it. The law of God is written in the heart of every
man. But there's another law that God speaks by, and it's
the law of Moses. God gave that law to the nation
of Israel. That law was given to them on
Sinai. And listen, I'll tell you, Paul
says this in chapter 3, verse 1. He says, What advantage hath
the Jew? What profit is there in circumcision, much and every
way? They had the law, the law of God. God came down on that
mountain and actually spoke to them. They heard Him. And He gave His law to them. So they had an advantage above
every other human in the world. And what did they do? The same
thing that the Gentiles did with them. They didn't do anything. They could not be saved by it.
This speech is spoken from the east to the west. Creation and
law are spoken to every creature. God speaks and yet man is not
saved. Man does not hear. He cannot
understand. Why? Because the law and creation
were never intended of God to save anyone. That's not the voice that God
uses to save. Jews thought because they had
the law of Moses that they were somehow better. Look at chapter
two, verse 12. He says, for as many have sinned
without the law shall also perish without the law, and as many
have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. They're
both going to die in their sins. And so what is the conclusion?
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's a
conclusion. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are altogether become unprofitable. Therefore, by the
deeds of the law, though it is spoken of God, though it is God's
spoken word to the heart of every man, yet by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. Therefore, oh man, I want you
to hear what God says. This is very important. Everyone
is without excuse. You ever had those fools try
to think they get you? They got that aha moment when
they say, well, what about the guy out in the jungle? Never
heard of the gospel before. What about him? He'll die in
his sins. That's how simple that is. Answer
that question. Because what he knew of God,
he did not serve God as God. He will die in his sins. God
spoke to him. But that word that God spoke
gave no life. It only condemned him. It only
condemned him. So all men are without excuses.
But in our text, I want to go back to the text because There's
hope here. Because God does speak in a way,
in such a way, that men are saved. Now this is the voice, this is
the word of God spoken that I want to know about. This is the voice
that you who are lost should desire in your heart to hear. Because when God speaks this
word to you, Along with this Word comes everything you need
to be accepted with God. Go back to your text and see
the Word of God spoken for all men. God speaks and calls all
men to hear the message of His salvation. Since there is no
hope in hearing God or being accepted of God by creation or
law, God, who is rich in mercy, than the law and creation. Here,
God will speak to us of his perfect and powerful salvation that should
come by one man, by one person, Jesus Christ, his son. And so
this is opposed to all, as opposed to the word of creation, the
word of the law. I'm sorry, I want you to see
this. I want you to see the opposing view of Paul in Romans, real
quickly. Romans, look back over there. Romans chapter one, look at the
opposing thing here, the creation and the law. Paul says in verse
16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the
power of God to what? Salvation. To everyone that believed,
Jew and Greek, Listen, for therein, where? In this gospel spoken
by God to us, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. Hear this, oh man, from the east
to the west, God has spoken to us of righteousness. How? By His Gospel. Gospel. The gospel of Christ. God testifies that he who is
the son of God should become a man and fulfill all righteousness
by his personal obedience. God sent his son into the world
offer himself for the sins of his people. This is the gospel
of Christ. And what was the result? What
was the result of this gospel? It was success. Christ actually
redeemed his people. Christ actually accomplished
redemption for everyone he died for. This is a wonderful message,
a glorious message, a triumphant message. This is the Word of
God concerning His Son. Do you know from front cover
to the back cover of this book, it is all about one person, the
Son of God. The Son of God. God has set His
Son above everyone else and everything else. You remember what he told
those disciples on the road to Emmaus. He said, Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things and entered into his past? And
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them
the word of God, the scriptures, concerning who? Himself. Himself. This word is about Christ. It is about Christ. Tonight,
I want you to hear what God speaks concerning salvation. I don't
like spending time on creation. There's no way to save people.
There's no salvation in creation. There's no salvation in law.
No need to spend much time on it. What I want to spend time
on is this gospel, because this is the means that God speaks
to dead sinners and they live. And so now let us look at verse
two and see where God has placed this word. Where has God placed
this word he spoke? Verse two, out of Zion. This is where the word of God
is spoken. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty, God has shined. Now Zion, if you remember, Zion
was the only place in all the world where God manifested his
presence. It was the only place where the
sacrifices of God were offered, where God accepted sacrifices
for sin so that man and God might have communion together. There
was one place and no place else in the earth. Well, Pastor, that
was narrow. You bet it is. This gospel is
narrow. Now what Christ told us it was,
he said, broad is the gate and wide is the way, and leads unto
destruction. Many go in there, but straight
is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. This is a very narrow gospel.
There was only one place, Zion. It was there. You remember old
Jeroboam. Jeroboam was a king of the 10
tribes of Israel, and he had a sin. This sin of Jeroboam was
so great And you know what it was? He said to those 10 tribes,
we don't need to go to Zion to worship. We can set up our own
temples here. We can make our own gods, our
own sacrifices, just like they do down there in Zion. We can
do it up here. It was a great sin. Why? God set up Zion to be the only
place where he would meet with sinners. Why? Because this is
a picture of something. This was a picture. It's a picture of God's gospel. It was there alone the offerings
were made and accepted, but Zion and all the offerings were only
a type and shadow of God's salvation of his church. It was a time,
it was a picture of God's salvation. These were only to testify of
what? The coming offering of Jesus
Christ. They were just a picture. Paul says this in Hebrews chapter
9, he says, talking about the law, he says, which was a figure
for the time then present, which were offered both gifts and sacrifices
that could not make them that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience. In Hebrews 10, 1, he said the
law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image
of the things. These things, Zion, as it is
in this text, is only a representation of something greater, something
better, and that is the church. God, the elect of God. These Jews only picture God's
chosen people. And as it was in Zion, the only
place where Israel met and the word of God was preached, so
it is today. Only in the church of God is
the gospel of God preached, declared. Where is God going to speak to
me? He's going to speak to them out of his church. He's going
to use the church, those men that he has sent to declare his
word, he is going to tell, he has told us to go forth into
all the world and what? Preach the gospel. That's where
this gospel, this word that God has spoken is going to come from. from his church. Paul said this in 1st Corinthians
1, he said, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish, what? Foolishness. But unto us who
are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer? world. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Isn't that right? Can you not
look at the wisdom of this world and see what fools they are?
They're foolish. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Listen to this very
carefully. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. So where does God speak? My text
says, out of Zion. That's where God speaks. God
shines his light out of his church, where the word of God, where
Christ is preached. See now the true nature of this
generation who say, we don't need preaching. Look around you. Tell me if that's not true. Is
that not what this generation is saying? The church is no longer
necessary. God said this, the Lord has spoken
out of Zion. The Lord has spoken out of only
one place. His church. I don't want to go. That's the only place God speaks. If you want to hear God, you
won't hear Him out there. You'll hear Him where His gospel
is preached. That's the only place in all
the world men will hear the Word of God and be saved. Nowhere
else. Now is that not what our text
is saying? Where does God speak out of?
He speaks out of Zion, out of his church. And people say, well,
that's narrow. I'm sorry, this gospel is narrow. God made it that way. God made
it that way. This generation, I was thinking
about this. They remind me of a teenager that saw a video on
brain surgery and said, well, I don't need that anymore. I
can go and just give me a scalpel. I can go ahead and start. I saw
one video, I'm already good. People say that about the gospel.
I've already heard that. I've already heard all I need
to hear about that. How foolish is that? When we
who have believed have not begun to scratch the surface of this
gospel, we want more of this gospel. We want to hear more.
We want to know more. The world is so foolish as to
say that's all they need. They don't need to hear this
gospel anymore. We need to hear something about
ourselves, something about how to live and how to do well and
how to have a good job. They don't need to hear the gospel.
What God say, those are foolish people. Are you a believer in Christ? Have you been born again in the
spirit of God? That's very important because I want you to know this. You are a citizen of Zion. You're a citizen. Isn't that
what God says about you? You are my witnesses. Where? Everywhere you go, you're
my witnesses. We should ask ourselves, are
we faithful witnesses? If this is the only place God
will speak to men, are we faithful to declare that? Or are we ashamed? We should
not be ashamed. I'm going to tell you why. Look
what God says about Zion. He says, out of Zion, what? What does he call us? The perfection
of beauty. You got that? That's what God
calls Zion. He says, out of my church, which
is the perfection of beauty. Isn't that what Christ made you?
The perfection of beauty. Do you realize that we, with
his holy garments on, we are holy as the Holy One? That's
what God has made us. Therefore, we are the light of
the world. Isn't that what your master said
of you? You are the light of the world. And what light do
we have? It is the light of God's word
that we declare to men. We preach to men. We shine the
light. Expose the darkness. sin, of our nature, of our need
of righteousness, and that the only righteousness is found in
Jesus Christ. There is no righteousness that
is a mixture of your work or will and his. No mixture. We shine a light on that and
we declare the truth. God has made us his ambassadors,
and what Paul said, all things are of God, who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us, what? What
has he given to us? The ministry of reconciliation. To wit, this is the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation, now then,
We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us. We pray you, who? Everyone from
the east to the west. We desire this word to go out
to every creature. We pray you, in Christ's name,
be you reconciled to God, and here's the grounds for your reconciliation,
for God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin. that you and I may the righteousness
of God in. Look back at your text. I want
to see this gospel a little bit, little clear as it goes on, this
gospel that we are to we are to shine out of Zion and God
has shined out of Zion. This is it. Verse three. Our
God shall come. He shall not keep silent. fire
shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous
round about him. He shall call to the heavens
from above, and to the earth that he may judge his people."
Who is this that shall come? It says, Our God shall come. This is Christ, friends. He who
is God shall come. Isn't this the message from the
beginning? The message from the beginning was to Adam and Eve
that the seed of the woman, a man will come, seed of the woman,
and he shall crush the head of the serpent. He shall put away
sin. He shall reconcile you to God
and do away with Satan and all of that sin. He will put it away.
How? by the bruising of his heel.
And you remember, God gave them a picture of what that was going
to look like when he sacrificed those animals to cover their
nakedness. That's what it meant to bruise
his heel. He was going to be offered a sacrifice for sin. By his death, he might clothe
the naked sinner, those who are exposed. Now before His coming, listen,
He was silent. He was silent in this matter.
He used only types and pictures before He came. He used the shadow
of the law and those prophecies that were vague in their declaration,
but now look! He has come. He who was to come
has come. And now all of those tithes are
crystal clear. Can you not see the Passover
lamb now, what it really means? You know, Moses didn't have a
full picture of what that meant. We do. hear the prophecy of those resurrection
of those dead, dry bones. Ezekiel didn't have hardly any
clue what that meant. He knew it meant something about
physical Israel, but I'll tell you this, we know what it really
means. Why? Christ has come, the light
has shined out of darkness. Isaiah said, the people that
walked in darkness have seen a great light. And what is that
light? Here it is, unto us a child is
born. unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulders. Salvation of his church
shall rest upon his shoulders. He shall come. And listen to
this, a fire shall devour before him. What is this fire? It is
his word. You know, see, every time Jesus
spoke, he like a fire, he breathed out fire and removed all of their
covering. But he did. All their attempts
to cover themselves in self-righteousness, every time he spoke, it burned
up all their self-righteousness. They had nowhere to run. He said,
if I had not come, they had not sinned. But now then he came,
exposed their sin. He devoured them, didn't he,
with his words. And this tempestuousness, he
said there should be a tempest about him. What is this? Everywhere
he went was tempestuous, wasn't it? It was always hatred. It was always strife on their
part. It was always on their part.
And they crucified him. God says when He comes, He'll
have fire coming out of His mouth, but it'll be tempestuous around
Him, and He will be crucified. He was crucified. And notice this, when He was
on the cross, verse 4, He shall call to the heavens from above,
and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Is that not
what He did on the cross? God judged His people. in His Son. Is that not a great
gospel? That He judged all of us in Christ. He took our sin and made Him
to be sin for us. And God in justice, He called down justice from above
and earth beneath and God did judge His people in His Son.
And what was the result? Paul said those priests, they
stood daily ministering. Those same sacrifices couldn't
take away sin. But this man. You want to know
what your message is? You want to know what God's word
is? But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down. You notice he didn't say just
sit down forever. Now he did sit down forever.
Well, actually, he's going to stand up one day. He's going
to come back, isn't he? He didn't say he sat down forever. He sacrificed
for sins forever. And then he sat down. His work
is finished. His work is finished for by his
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now then, as he is seated on
the throne of God, accomplished the salvation for all of God's
elect people, what is he going to do with his power that God
has given him? Gather my saints together unto me. What is God
doing right now? With His Word out of Zion, what
is He doing? He is gathering His sanctified
ones to Himself. He's calling you. He called you. You were in darkness. You didn't
see Him. You didn't hear his word of creation
or law. You rebelled against him. And
yet he found you in a wasteland wilderness. He found you. He called you. By what? His gospel. Out of Zion, he called
you. He gathered you to himself. How
do you know you've been gathered? Listen, those that have made
a covenant with me by sacrifice. It's not as though we're making
a covenant with God. What this is, is that covenant
of grace. We identify that as a covenant
for our salvation. My salvation rests totally in
the covenant of Christ that God made with His Son. My whole salvation
rests in that covenant. Kind of like, I liken it to what
the scripture said in Revelation. They made themselves white. in the blood of the lamb. They
made their robes white. It's the same thing. We are partakers of this covenant. We partake of this covenant by
faith. Those are the ones who are gathered
together. In verse 6, and the heavens shall
declare his righteousness, for God is the judge himself. We know that in Christ we are
fully, completely perfect, but what of our old man? What of
our old man? We know he's not. He's not any
better than he was before. We are daily bombarded by sins
and doubts. And so listen, here is our confidence
that this word that God has spoken Is even righteousness declared
from heaven? Now listen, I have confidence
in this. I am saved because it is a word spoken from God. When God says something, can anyone change it? Now God has declared his church
to be righteous. Is that not a word spoken from
heaven concerning righteousness? And listen to this comfort. God
is the judge. You got that? God Christ purchased your righteousness. The Spirit of God applied that
righteousness to you. And so the same God who did all
of this is judged. Now He's spoken in sundry times
and in divers manners, He spake by the prophets in times past,
half in these last days spoken to us by His Son. And how else
are men going to hear of His Son? Out of Zion, the people
He made perfect, they shall shine the light of His Word to the
world. And what will He do? He will
gather them in, And He will make sure that they are secure. Friends, may God help us in this
and be comforted. If you ever want to hear from
God, just read His Word. Read of Christ. That's what God
spoke to you today. I pray God will bless this to
you tonight. Stand and be dismissed and pray.