Psalm chapter 28. And we'll be
looking at verse 1 this evening. And the title of the message
is, The Silent Rock Speaks. The Silent Rock Speaks. David here in this psalm says,
Unto thee Will I cry, O Lord, my rock? Be not silent to me,
lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down
into the pit. Here we see David in the midst
of anguish and despair. We see his soul cry out to God. and see His determination. We
see His desire not just to offer up words, not just to offer up words into
the air as some do. That's how some men pray, isn't
it? They just throw words into the air. with no object to hear. They just suppose, maybe, it's
a theory they have about prayer, and they think, well, maybe,
if I just throw words, some will stick, and maybe God or somebody
will hear. You remember the Lord Jesus Christ
told us of that Pharisee that went up to the temple to pray,
and the scripture says he prayed thus with himself. This will not and this must not
ever suffice for a child of God. When we come to God in prayer,
it is not just to be heard or seen of men, or to appear pious. But when we come before God,
we approach to the very presence of God. We approach into the
very throne room of the Father, and our prayers ascend to the
person of God. They have a fixed object. I see people walking in the stores
and they got those little things in their ears and they're just
talking. And you don't know, man, they seem like they're just
talking to themselves. That's not how we pray. We're
not just talking to ourselves, but rather we are crying out
unto God. Lord, keep us from such vain
hypocrisy. May God the Holy Spirit never
allow us to be satisfied with nothing less than God hearing
and answering our prayers. We should never be satisfied
with anything less. David said, I will cry unto the
Lord, my rock. I will. And David in every one
of the Psalms, he never expected anything less than to be heard
and to be answered. to be answered. David said, unto
thee, unto thee alone will I cry, O Lord, my rock. And what better
way can the Holy Spirit use to bring us to our knees than trouble? The best avenue to prayer is
always trouble. Isn't it? Isn't that always drive
us to our knees the quickest trouble? You give a man prosperity
and he's not quick to go to God in prayer. You give a believer
trouble and he is quick to prayer. Quick to prayer. Trouble is the
best avenue. What better way than troubles
to fix our hearts and our minds on the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ,
who alone can hear and who alone has the ability to deliver us
from trouble. In Jeremiah 33 and verse 3, the
Lord says, Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show
thee great and mighty things which thou knowest Not. Child of God, are you in any
trouble? Are you cast down with no answers
as to how to find comfort? That's often the case, isn't
it? We're often in trouble. Often in trouble. Then fix your
eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And cry out to Him, and listen,
He will answer you. He will answer you. Cry out to
Him. Cry out to the Lord, not as a
vague theory, asking for vague sympathy. But rather, as one
touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Go to Christ,
who understands you more than you do. He alone knows your trouble
better than you. Cry intensely. Cry instantly. Come boldly and come now to the
throne of grace. Don't wait. Come now. Yet notice David's concern. He says, I will cry unto the
Lord my rock. But notice his concern here.
His concern is this. Be not silent to me. Be not silent to me. There is nothing more troubling
or more terrifying to a believer's heart than the silence of God. There's nothing. I can think
of nothing more terrifying than to cry out to God and not hear
his voice. Silence from heaven is the most
terrifying thing to a believer. David said, if you're silent
to me, I am going to be as like one that is thrown into the pit. This phrase here, he said, I
become like them that go down into the pit. He's talking about
the corpses after a battle. They heap up the corpses into
the ditch. He said, I'm going to be as one
thrown into the ditch. if you're silent to me. I'm as
a dead man. The believer in Christ cannot
endure and will not be satisfied with empty religious ceremony
We're not ever going to be content or satisfied with vain repetition
of prayers or academic theories of God. No, we who have heard
the voice of God in salvation will never be content with anything
less than His voice. I pray that tonight you'll never
be content to sit under the preaching of the gospel without hearing
Him. You should never be content without hearing him. The Scripture said, The kingdom
of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. I must have Christ. This is how we should approach
prayer. This is how we should approach our study. This is how
we should approach our worship. I must hear Him. If I don't hear
Him, then I'm met in vain. It's empty. I must have Him. I must have Him answer my prayer.
He must. I cannot endure anything less
than that. We must hear His voice. All who
believe on Jesus Christ, we've heard His voice. Now, we've not heard His voice
audibly. When I say hear His voice, we're
not talking about a fleshly hearing. We're talking about a spiritual
hearing. We're talking about speaking
to our hearts. When we hear Him, we heard Him
say to our souls, live. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, the day is, the hour is coming, and now is. when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." The
Word of God comes in power, and it is preached to sinners, and
in free grace the Holy Spirit says to dead sinners, live. Isn't that your experience? You
who believe, that's our experience. He said to our hearts, live! And we lived. How do I know that
I'm living now? How do I know that I'm alive
now? I'm breathing. That's how you know. How does
a person know if they are alive? They believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's how I know I live is because
I believe, I rest, I totally put everything, all of the weight
of my soul rests on Jesus Christ alone. And He is the absolute
object of my affection and love and desire is Him. That's how
we know we live. We've heard His voice. He's given
us a heart of flesh. Isn't that part of the covenant
of grace? He said, I'll take out that stony heart and I'll
give you a heart of flesh. In other words, we didn't have
any affection to God and now we do. That's how I know I heard
His voice. Because now I love Him. I desire
to serve Him. And I cannot live without hearing
Him. I cannot live without it. We heard His voice. We heard
the voice of Christ that exposed our sin. When you hear His voice
and He gives you a new heart, the first thing He does is He
strips us. In Deuteronomy 4.32 it says,
Out of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might
instruct thee, and upon the earth He showed thee the great fire. And thou heardest his words out
of the midst of the fire. This has reference to the law.
This has reference to those on Mount Sinai. Consider this, that
every one of those people heard his voice. That whole nation. Two million people or plus heard
the audible voice of God. And yet not all of them were
saved. You see, it's that voice that
he speaks to the heart in conviction of sin. This is a picture of
the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law. What
is the purpose of the law? In Galatians 3, Paul expresses
this. He said, the promise was given,
the promise of Christ was given before the law. And then he asked the question,
wherefore then serveth the law? What is the purpose of the law
that was given after the promise? He said the law was given for
transgression, to expose guilt. That's what it's there for. The
law has one purpose, expose guilt, expose guilt, expose the guilt. That's all it does. In Romans 3, Paul said the law
was meant to shut us up. Shut us up to our guilt. Have
you been convinced of your sins? I'm convinced. I'm convinced. I'm convinced of my hopeless
condition to earn salvation. I'm convinced of that. Are you?
Has the Spirit of God spoken to you and told you of your inability
to save yourself? Then behold, Jesus Christ, whose
righteousness and blood has quenched the fires of God's justice. That fire on Sinai is put out
by the blood of Jesus Christ for all his people, for all who
believe. Oh, hear his voice. Hear the
voice of his blood. that speaketh better things than
the blood of Abel. Isn't that something that the
blood of Abel spoke? God said, the blood of Abel crieth
out from the ground. What did the blood of Abel cry?
What did it speak? What was its voice? Vengeance. That's what Abel's blood said.
I want vengeance. I want justice. Oh, but the blood
of Jesus Christ speaks much better things than that. The blood of
Jesus Christ says forgiveness. Mercy, mercy, forgiveness, pardon,
peace. That's what the blood speaks.
Oh, sinner, hear the voice of Christ. For to hear his voice
is to believe the word that is preached. Isn't that how you
heard his voice? Back over in 1 Peter, it says
this. concerning those who have been
purified by obeying the truth of unfeigned love of the brethren.
See that you love one another, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. That's how we heard His voice,
isn't it? By the preaching of the gospel. Tonight I am declaring
to you the voice of God. I'm declaring to you the Word
of God. And it is by this Word that men
believe and are saved. This is the power of God unto
salvation. To everyone that believeth. Sinner,
you should hear His voice now. It was by the gospel we heard
our Shepherd's voice, and we heard Him call us by name. By name. Even so, He will call
all those sheep that were given to Him of the Father, and those
He has bought by His blood. He will call every one of them.
He said, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them I
also must bring. Must bring. Therefore, when we
cry unto God, when we cry out to God in our trouble, the only
thing that will ever soothe our troubles and calm our fears is
the voice of our Savior. That's it. His answer alone will
calm us. His voice alone will soothe our
doubts and calm our fears, and we will only hear it by the immutable
and infallible Word of God. That's it. How many in this evil
generation are like those the Lord Jesus Christ said in Luke
11? He said, an evil generation seeketh
what? A sign. How many people are out
there trying to seek signs and wonders and visions and feelings
and emotions and all kinds of things? They're trying to hear
God's voice through these signs and visions. They won't hear
Him. They won't hear Him. Jesus said, an evil generation
seeketh after a sign. And there shall no sign be given
it but the sign of Jonah the prophet, for as Jonah was a sign
to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man to this generation."
What did Jonah, how was he assigned to the Ninevites? Now they had
no clue about his being in the well of the belly, that's not
it. Jesus said that in another place, but what Jesus here was
talking about was preaching. Jonah was assigned by preaching
the Word of God. How was the Son of Man assigned?
He was assigned by preaching the Word of God. How is it that
we are assigned? It is that by the preaching of
the Gospel, by the foolishness of preaching, God has chosen
to save His people. That's how we hear His voice. Have you heard His voice? then you'll never be satisfied
with anything else. Once you hear Him, you won't
want anything else. I don't care about signs and
visions. I don't care if people rise from the dead. I don't care
if people do miracles or not. That doesn't affect me. The only
thing that gives me any peace is this book right here, the
Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. That's it. That's the only voice
I want to hear. I want to hear His voice. I want
to hear what he says. Now then, we also know this. We who have heard his voice,
we also know that there are times he is silent. We are all too familiar with
these times of silence from heaven. Because we are still entangled
in this body of death, our fleshly nature, because sin still abides
in us, we are easily prone to sin. Is that not true of you?
Are you easily prone to sin? Many times we are lulled into
a spiritual slumber. We become like the Shulamite
bride. You remember how she was asleep, and the Lord came knocking
at her door in the night, and He said, Open to me, my love,
my dove, my undefiled. And she says, Oh, I can't. I've
already put off my shoes. How can I get up and dirty my
feet again? We become like her. We hear His
voice, but we put off our communion with Him. Worship becomes inconvenient. Prayer becomes a task and a burden. Study of the word of God becomes
cold in its exercise. But then does our Lord at times
put his hand to the whole of our hearts and move us. He draws us into His presence. That's what He did. He put His
hand to the hole of the door, and the perfume flowed into the
room. And the Scripture says her bowels
were moved within her. Her heart was moved for the Lord.
And she rushed to the door and opened it. And what'd she find?
He was gone. He was gone. What'd she find? Silence. Silence. It's then our hearts fail within
us and our strength melts into weakness. Child of God, are you
in such a sad state of silence? When you read this, does it,
is it cold to you? When you read this book, is it
cold to you? When you pray, does it seem as
though your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling rather than going
to the heart of God? That's silence. That's silence from God. It's
deafening silence. then let us learn, learn from
the Word of God as what to do in silence. When God is silent,
when He has hid His face from us, what should we do? David
said, I will cry unto the Lord my rock. I will cry unto the
Lord my rock. We should fall instantly and
cry as David did. Please, my rock, don't be silent. Don't be silent. Speak to me. And what better
name does the Holy Spirit here give our Lord to describe our
Lord Jesus Christ than the Lord our rock? I'll tell you, when your heart
melts within you, there's nothing better than a solid rock. There's nothing better. When
your foundations begin to crumble, is it not good to have a foundation
that will not move? That's who He is. He is the Lord
our rock. Now I want to mention four things
about the Lord our rock. About the Lord our rock, the
rock of our salvation. that should give every child
of God assurance, even when the Lord is silent. This should give you much assurance.
First of all, the Lord Jesus Christ is our rock and foundation
stone. Believer, as we fall to our knees
seeking an answer from the Lord, let us fall then upon a rock,
even the foundation of God, upon which all the church is built. Go over to Isaiah chapter 28.
Isaiah chapter 28, verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. I do love what Robert Hawker
wrote concerning this passage of Scripture. He said this, Oh
God, cause our souls here to build, and on this rock to bottom
all our hopes of heaven and happiness. Oh for grace to try thee, blessed
Jesus, as the Father hath tried thee and found thee faithful.
Never, never shall I be ashamed or confounded while I trust in
thee, and rest upon thee in life, in death, in time, and all eternity. O my soul, rest upon the foundation
of Jesus Christ. This foundation was laid of God
for all my salvation. Think how firm and how immovable
and immutable and eternal is this foundation upon which we
are built. You who are believers, you are
built on this foundation by God Himself. This foundation was
laid of God from eternity, and upon the foundation of Jesus
Christ rests the salvation of all the church of all time. Upon
Him. Jesus said of Himself upon this
rock, I will build my church. and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Now to those who are lost in
sin, Jesus is not a foundation but a rock of stumbling and offense. But to us, to us who have heard
his voice, he is a sure foundation. A sure foundation. And we will not make haste from
Him. Do you desire to go away from
Christ? You who found Him, you who know
Him to be your foundation, is there any desire of yours to
leave Him? No! No! He's all my foundation. He's all my security. He's all
my hope. You remember the song that says,
here we have a sure foundation? Hear the refuge for the lost,
Christ the rock of our salvation, his the name of which we boast. Lamb of God for sinners wounded,
sacrifice to cancel guilt. None shall ever be confounded
on him their hope has built. You know what? You who've heard
his voice, you will never be ashamed. You will never be confounded. And because of that, we will
never make haste to get off this rock. He is my salvation. He is my rock. If God be silent
to you this night, then pray to thy rock, who is the foundation
of your souls. He's a sure foundation. Second
of all, the rock. Jesus is a rock of refuge. Believer, is thy sins heavy upon
thee? Is your sin the seeming cause
of God's silence? Then cry out to your rock, because
He's not only the foundation underneath, He is also the refuge
above. He's also your shelter above. Consider that Jesus, who is the
only God-man mediator, that He willingly became the surety of
all His people. Surety, what does that mean a
surety means a guarantee? guarantee The Lord Jesus Christ
as though it were he raised his hand and swore to his father
I will be responsible for all of thine elect I'll be responsible
for all their salvation you remember when Judah and said to Jacob
his father concerning Benjamin, he said, I'll be a surety for
the lad, and if he does not return to thee, I will bear the blame
forever. Dear child of God, consider this. Even in the midst of God's silence,
you should consider this. that Jesus Christ, our rock in
the covenant of grace, agreed to be responsible to fulfill
all our salvation, and listen, He left none of it to you. He left none of the responsibility
to us. That's good, because I tell you
what, we've messed that up, you, countless times. We could not
possibly have anything to do with this. Jesus is all our righteousness,
having obtained it by his own obedience. Jesus, our rock, has
reconciled us to God by his one blood offering for sin. Behold
our rock above our heads, that he has as our surety quenched
the holy vengeance of God against our sin. Now, tonight, as you
rest upon the foundation of Christ, look up and see the refuge. See
that the justice of God fell on Him so that it would not fall
on you. It would not fall on you. Consider that if our sins remained
unpunished, if one sin remained unpunished for one of God's elect,
Do you realize that Christ would bear the blame for that? And the glory of God would be
forever marred if Christ failed to be the refuge for one of his
people. Yet we are surely safe who have
fled to Jesus Christ for refuge. For God who is holy cannot demand
twice payment at the hands of my surety and
then again at mine. He can't. In my surety I am free. His dear hands were pierced for
me With his spotless garments on, I am holy as God's Son. Believer, though the Lord may
be silent to you, we may find great comfort in that Christ
is our refuge. That behind a frowning providence,
there always hides a smiling face. Friends, God is not angry with
you, believer. God has already dealt with his
vengeance on his son, and he will not come again on you. Thirdly,
we can cry unto Jesus Christ our rock, because he's a rock
of refreshment. A rock of refreshment. Remember
when Israel wandered in the desert and there was no water? How that
Moses struck the rock and out flowed the water to those millions
of people. In the time of God's silence
and in our sadness, consider that Jesus Christ was smitten
of God for our sins. Therefore, from His wounds flowed
all the love, all the affection, all the pardon, all the peace
of God to us. For he is the fountain of living
water. The fountain of living water.
Over in Psalm chapter 36, Psalm chapter 36 in verse 7, it says
this, How excellent is thy lovingkindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make
them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the
fountain of life. The fountain of life. O sinner, listen, you should
be wise to depart from the snares of death and drink of the fountain
of life. What is that? It is to believe
on Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah tells us in that day
there shall be a fountain open for the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. O believer, come now and drink
of the fountain of Christ Drink of His never-ceasing grace. Do you realize that when He was
smitten, out flowed all of the blessings of God? And it's not
stopped. It's not stopped. I'll tell you,
if we think the graces of God are scarce, it's because you've
not drank of the water. The water's not scarce. But because
we refuse to drink, we've not been refreshed. Come now and
drink of the fountain of never-ceasing grace. Come and confess thy sins. Repent of thy sins. And God is
faithful and just to forgive our sins. And this rock we may drink and
drink and drink and drink and drink And you know you'll never
diminish it. You can have more forgiveness
than you've ever sinned. More pardon, more peace than
you could ever imagine. All of this flows from our Savior. All of this flows from Him to
His people. O weary, wandering one, consider
that there is no more need to strike the rock for this. Remember,
that's what Moses got in trouble for and couldn't go into the
promised land. He smote the rock twice. You see, the law of God,
the justice of God has smitten Christ once. Once. And now, there's no more
need for the law. Do you desire anything of your
Lord? Then speak to the rock. Cry out
to the rock, and out will flow the rivers of grace, more than
you could take in. Someone once said, have you ever
tried to put the ocean in a thimble? Oh, God's grace is more than
sufficient to fill all your needs, all your heart. Cry out to him. Listen, if you need something,
you should cry out for it. You shouldn't hesitate. His ear
is never heavy to hear you. And I promise you, he'll give
you better than you ask. You ask for something, I promise
you, he'll give you better. Now, you ask for a new car, if
that's not good for you, he ain't giving it to you. You can ask, but I promise this,
he'll give you better than that. You know what I want? I want
him. And you know what he's going
to give me? Himself. The law of God is done away with,
Christ was smitten once and now we should speak to the rock and
cry out to him and he will pour all the blessings of God on you. Fourth, cry out to Christ our
rock because he is the rock of protection. The rock of protection. David, in our text, was fearful
of God's silence. Look at this. Go back to your
text here in Psalm 28. He was fearful. He said, verse
3, "...draw me not away with the wicked, with the workers
of iniquity which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief
is in their hearts." I don't want to be a hypocrite. Do you? I don't want to be a pretender. The world is satisfied with pretending. I'm not satisfied with pretending.
I must have him. I must hear him. And if he doesn't
speak to me, I'm nothing better than the rest of the wicked.
If he doesn't speak to me, I'm doomed. But consider, believer
in Christ, that God will destroy his enemies. He said that, he
said, in verse 4, David said, give them according to their
deeds. Why? Because, in verse 5, because
they regard not the works of God. What is the works of God? It's
salvation. They regard not that salvation
is completely of grace. Yet, we do regard the works of
God in salvation. We do confess that salvation
is of the free grace of God. We confess that grace, it was
by grace we were chosen of the Father from before the foundation
of the world. It was by grace we were redeemed
by the blood of Christ. And it was by grace that we were
called of the Holy Spirit to life and faith in Christ. And
listen, it'll be by grace that we are kept until heaven. Do
you not see that all of our salvation is by what? By the grace of God.
It is God who alone does everything. But this religious world is completely
opposed to the gospel. This religious world believe
that free will works religion is the gospel. They preach a
defeated Savior, and they preach that salvation rests upon the
will of man. And listen to me, when you reject
that, you will have some major enemies. Tell them, when they tell you
that garbage, tell them exactly what it is. A false gospel. And see how quick you win friends
and influence people. See how fast they come in and
want to beat down your door to talk to you. If they want to
beat down your door, it's probably to get to you. This gospel that
we preach brings us under the pressure and oppression of enemies
in this world. It gives us great enemies. We
have enemies without the world. We have enemies of Satan, and
even enemies inside of our own selves, which is our own flesh.
We are surrounded by enemies. We are oppressed on every side.
We are accused of our own fleshly conscience of men and of the
devil. And surely, it is not that amplified when God is silent. I mean, doesn't that just amplify
everything when we don't hear from Him? Consider how Christ,
our rock then, is our protection. Go over to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. O LORD, Thou hast searched me
and known me. That word search means digged
like a mine. In other words, He's found out
every intricate detail about you. He knows you. Thou knowest
my down-sitting and my uprising. Thou understandest my thoughts
afar off. Thou compassed my path and my
lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue but lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Listen. Thou hast beset, thou
hast enclosed me behind and before, and has laid thine hand upon
me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's too high that I cannot attain
unto it. Now, do you see this? He's your
foundation below. He's your refuge above. And He
has beset you on this side and that side. He is your protection. He is
your complete protection. Believer, Do you know how many
times you got up and sat down today? Have you counted? He has. Do you know what you would say
this morning when you woke up? Do you know what you would say
during the day? He already knew. He already knew. Before you even
said it. Our Lord knows us thoroughly,
and there is no place we can go to escape His presence. Therefore,
when we are blind to our foes and their snares, our Lord Jesus
is not blind. For the darkness is as the noonday
unto Him. Therefore, not one thing shall
befall us, not one arrow of the foe shall fly over him and strike
your soul. Not one. Not one. Yes, He can and does allow our
foes to trouble us. He allows us sickness and all
sorts of trouble. But let us take heart, for none
of these devices shall prevail over us, because He is our protector. God says in Zechariah 2, 5, He
said, I will be unto her a wall of fire round about. A wall of fire round about and
the glory in the midst of her. He says in that same chapter,
He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. What will a man do to protect
his eye? Have you ever thought of that?
You ever seen somebody weed eating and all of a sudden, whoo, they
throw everything down and they grab their face and they protect
their eye. If something flies up in their
eye, every part of their body goes nuts to protect it. God, my friend, sees you as the
apple of his eye, and he will use all of his power and honor
and glory and majesty to protect you. You who are in Christ, you are
more safe than you can possibly know. You're safe. No one can get to you except
God allow it. Believer, if Jesus Christ is
our rock, our supporting rock, our foundation, He is the rock
of refuge that quenches the fire and justice of God for our sins. If He is the rock of protection
before and behind us, If He is the rock of refreshment that
provides a fountain of never-ceasing grace, love, and forgiveness,
then what have we to fear? What's reasonable? Can you think
of anything reasonable that you should fear? He's below you, sustaining you. He's above you, protecting you.
He's all around you. What should you fear? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now, is He silent to you? Then speak to Him. cry to him and don't stop until
he speaks to you. I'll close with this. Go over
to Matthew fifteen. This is this is amazing. I think this perfectly pictures. Matthew chapter fifteen Verse 21, Then Jesus went thence
and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Behold, a woman
of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying,
Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is
grievously vexed with the devil. Now what do you suppose was the
normal response of the Lord Jesus? I can go to many places and I
can tell you Concerning the blind man blind Bartimaeus. Oh George
Jesus have mercy on me. What do you want me to do? He
turns to him and said what would you have me do? I want to see
with my sight But this woman was very different
our Lord treated her very differently than he treated anyone else listen
what he did but he answered her Not a word He was silent Did this silence hinder her? No. Matter of fact, it only caused her to increase in her
cries. He answered her not a word. And
his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. In other words, she didn't stop.
He was silent. But in his silence, she was not
silent. She kept crying. And she got
to where the disciples were so angry. Lord, please tell her
to shut up. Tell her to shut up. She's crying
after us. She wasn't crying after them.
She was crying only after Christ. And so Jesus does answer her,
and listen how he answers. He says, I'm not sent but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What did he say? I'm
not here but for the elect. Why are you crying after me?
I'm here for the elect, the house of Israel. And notice, that didn't stop
her. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help. I tell you, if you ain't got
anything else to say, that's a good thing to say, Lord, help. Now,
she didn't understand much, but she knew this. I need him, and
I need him alone. And look what he answered again.
Another discouraging remark. He said, It is not good for them
to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. He called
her a dog. Well, did she now get offended
and leave? Did that stop her from crying
out? No! She said, Truth, Lord! Truth! Yet the dogs eat the crumbs
from the master's table. He said, Get away, dog! Shew! She said, I got nowhere else
to go. What a good place to be! At his
feet with no place else to go. And Jesus My friend was always
going to heal her daughter. He knew he would heal her from
the beginning. She didn't, but he did. He was always going to save this
woman, but he used his silence not to repel her, but to draw
her. Now consider that. That Jesus
Christ is using his silence to do what? to draw us. Knock and keep on knocking. Ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. You see, the silence of God is
an answer. What does it answer? Keep on
asking. Don't stop. Don't stop. Keep crying out, and I'll tell
you this, He will answer you. And this is what David found.
He said, the Lord is my strength and shield, my heart trusted
in Him, and I am helped. That'll be the result of everyone
who cries out to this rock. Everyone who suffers silence
from heaven, who cries and keeps on crying, you will receive an
answer. Our rock is our fortress, our
refuge. He will hear you and he will
speak to you who cry unto him. Even now consider this. Consider
this. He's already spoken. That's His word. To you. You who believe. He is my foundation. He is my
refuge. He is my refreshment and He is
my protection. May God ever use that to speak
to us. and give us comfort even in the midst of silence.
I pray that God bless this. We'll stand and be dismissed
in prayer.