All right. Psalm 83. I titled
the message this evening, Speak to My Heart, Speak to My Heart. Verse one, the psalmist says,
Keep not thou silence, O God, hold not thy peace and be not
still, O God. Now the psalmist is asking the
Lord to speak. He says, Don't keep silence. Don't hold your peace. You know,
that is my constant prayer as well. One of my great fears every
time we meet together is that you all only hear what I've got
to say. And I want you and me both to hear the Lord speak,
to hear him speak to our hearts. Well, the psalmist asked the
Lord to speak and made me wonder, well, what does the Lord say
when he speaks to his people? Well, really, it's the whole
word of God, isn't it? This book is everything God has
to say to men. But I don't have time to preach
the whole Bible tonight. As a matter of fact, I don't
have time to preach it all in a lifetime. But I did look at
these two phrases, keep not thou silence and hold not thy peace,
to see what God says in other places in scripture when those
two phrases are used. And I want us to look at three
of them tonight. And then look at three more things the psalmist
asked the Lord to speak to the hearts of his people in this
psalm. But first, look at Psalm 50. Here's the first one, Lord,
speak and call your people out of the world. Psalm 50, verse
one. The mighty God, even the Lord
has spoken and called the earth for the rising of the sun and
to the going down thereof. Now, the Lord will call his people
from all over the earth, from the east to the west, everywhere
the sun rises and sets. God has a people from every corner
of this globe, and he will call them out when he speaks. In verse
7, he says, Here, O my people, and I will speak. Well, what
does the Lord speak when he calls his people? Well, he calls them,
verse 2, by revealing Christ to them. out of Zion, the perfections
of beauty, God hath shined. Now, the perfection of beauty
that has shined is the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His perfection, the perfection of His holiness, the perfection
of His righteousness, the perfection of His love for His people and
His love for the Father. And sinners will come to Christ
when they see Him. If He reveals Himself to us,
you know what we'll see? We'll see His perfection. In His perfection, He's everything
we need, and we'll come to Him. And when God speaks to His people,
He reveals to them their sin has been judged in Christ. Look
at verse 3. Our God shall come, and He shall
not keep silence. A 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. Now, when God calls, He reveals
to us that He will judge all sin with death. He'll not overlook
one sin. But what a comfort to know that
God judges the sin of His people in the person of our substitute
through the sacrifice of Christ. Our Lord said in all, all men,
all His people, all His elect, when He is lifted up will come
unto Him. When a sinner sees Christ crucified
as their substitute, they come running. That's why I always
only preach Christ and Him crucified. Because if God gives His people
eyes to see Him, they'll come. How can they stay away? They'll
find that they can't. Then when God speaks to His people,
He reveals that their salvation is secure in God's covenant of
grace. Verse 5. Gather my saints together
unto me. Those that have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice. Now, God is a covenant God. That
means that God only does what he promised to do before time
began. Before God made the world, he
chose a people out of Adam's fallen race. That's why God sent
his son to die for them, because he promised that he would. That's
why he did it. And the sacrifice of Christ fulfilled
all of God's covenant of grace. And God's covenant of grace is
God's promise that He'll save His people by His grace through
the sacrifice of His Son. Now, if I ever see that my salvation
is secure in God's covenant, His covenant of electing love,
His covenant of sacrifice, a sacrifice for the blood of His Son, I will
come running to Christ. I promise you I will. Then when
God speaks to his people, he reveals to them Christ, their
righteousness for six and the heaven shall declare his righteousness
for God is judge himself. Now the heavens declare that
God is don't the heavens declare God's glory and creation, but
this righteousness, he speaks of here that God's righteousness
is the righteousness of Christ. That righteousness that's not
revealed in creation is. It's revealed in the word. It's
revealed in the gospel. And if God ever shows me Christ,
my righteousness, that my righteousness is not in what I do or what I
don't do, but it's in his perfect obedience. If he ever shows me
Jehovah's Sinkenu, the Lord, my righteousness, I'll come running
to Christ. How could I stay away from him?
God will call all of his people out of the world by revealing
Christ to them. Right second, look in Isaiah
chapter 62. Lord speak, speak to your people through your servants. Isaiah 62 verse five. For as a young man married the
virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoiceth
over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. I have
set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never
hold their peace, day nor night. Ye that make mention of the Lord,
keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, until
he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Now this is the cry
of God's people. Lord, you said you're going to
rejoice over the people that you chose to save. You're going
to rejoice over them because they're redeemed. And you said
you've given watchmen. that you've given preachers upon
the wall in their appointed places, and their job is to preach the
gospel. Their job is to tell sinners
how God saves sinners. Lord, you told those preachers,
don't hold your peace, but preach boldly. Preach Christ always. Now, Lord, our prayer is enable
them to do it. Lord, bless your servants so
your name will be glorified and your people will be saved. Lord,
let your servants keep preaching and let your people keep calling
until you do what you promised to do. So you make your people
the praise in the earth. Now, is that statement too bold
to say we're going to keep doing this till God does what he promises
to do? Is that too bold? Can we make such a statement?
Well, we can. We can be that bold when we're
asking God to do what he promised to do. Look what he says in verse
eight. The Lord has sworn by his right
hand and by the arm of his strength. Surely I will no more give thy
corn to be meat for thine enemies. And the sons of the stranger
shall not drink thy wine for the which thou hast labored,
but they that have gathered it shall eat it and praise the Lord.
And they that have brought it together shall drink it in the
courts of my holiness. See, God promised this is what
I'm going to do for my people. I'm going to do it by my right
hand. I've sworn by my right hand and
by the arm of my strength. Well, who's that? It's his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the right hand of God's
power. And God promised by the right hand of his power to save
and to bless his people. So our prayer is, Lord, save
me. Lord, send your right hand of
power to save me. Lord, save your people through
the preaching of your watchmen. Your servants, Lord, bless your
word here so you save me. Now let me take this opportunity
to one more time ask you. As often as the Lord brings me
to your mind throughout the week, I beg of you that you pray for
me. For me, for Eric, for these other men who preach here, for
men who preach the gospel in other places, pray for them often. What man is sufficient for these
things? Not one of us. And if you find one thinks he
is, don't listen to him. Not one of us. Oh, we beg your
prayers that the Lord would bless his word to the saving of his
people. Right now, look back at Psalm
39. Lord, speak to my heart and bless my heart in times of trouble. Psalm 39 verse 10. Remove thy stroke away from me.
I'm consumed by the blow of thine hand. When thou with rebukest
us correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume
away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Now
hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not thy
peace at my tears, for I'm a stranger with thee and a sojourner as
all my fathers were. O spare me that I may recover
strength before I go hence and be no more. Lord, when I'm in
times of trouble and trial, my heart is broken, I can't help
but just cry out to Thee. Lord, don't hold Your peace with
my tears. Lord, speak comfortably to my
heart. If the Lord would speak comfortably
to our heart, when our heart is broken, I'm not talking about
being sad now, I'm talking about when our heart is broken. What
is it that we're to say that comforts the hearts of God's
people? Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Isn't that what
God told Isaiah? And here's how you speak comfortably
to Jerusalem. Cry unto her, her warfare is accomplished. Tell
her the war is over. Tell her one more time the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, speak to my heart. Let me
hear again. that my sin has been punished
in Christ. Let me hear again that you accept
me in Christ. Not in my circumstances, not
in the strength of my faith during this awful trial, but in Christ. Let me hear again that this is
not a punishment from you. Because you don't punish your
people for their sin, you already punished our substitute for our
sin. But let me hear again this is your correction. God will
correct his children. He corrects the people that he
loves. And isn't that comforting to hear? God only corrects his
children. If you have not chastisement,
you're a bastard and not a son. He only corrects his children.
Then correction is an indication you're a child, isn't it? God only corrects those that
he loves. If God's correction is an indication
God loves us. And when you're weak from the
trial, when you're weak from walking through this desert world,
when you are utterly battered and bruised from fighting this
civil war that goes on inside the believer between the old
man and the new man, you know what is the very best thing you
can do? You know what? I don't know if you're like me,
but this is I think what a lot of people feel like when you're
just so heartbroken, so sad, so You just want to hole up in
your house and lock the door and draw the shades and stay
there and not see anybody, don't you? Afraid to go out in public.
But you know what the very best thing you can do? Come to public
worship service. That's exactly right. God comforts
and strengthens the hearts of his people through the preaching
of the word. Doing what we're doing right now in the public
worship service. God speaks to the hearts of His
people through preaching. He comforts their hearts and
He gives them food to grow upon. I heard this recently, you know,
a pastor told someone, become the services, you know, you need
to be in services. And he said, well, you're just,
I forget, you're being mean to me telling me that. And he said,
Is it mean for me to tell my children, you better come to
the dinner table? There's some good meat and vegetables here.
There's a good glass of milk. There's good vitamin D milk here.
It's going to give you strong bones and give you a healthy
body. Is it wrong for me to tell my children, you better come
eat this dinner your mama fixed for you? No, it's not. It's not
bad for us to encourage one another. Be here when the children's bread
is broken. This is how God feeds and comforts and strengthens
his people. All right, now back in our text, Psalm 83. Lord, speak, speak to my heart
and tell me what really happened to Calvary. Verse two, the psalmist
says, for lo, thine enemies make a tumult and they that hate thee
have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel
against thy people and consulted against thy hidden ones. 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. For they
have consulted together with one consent. They are confederate
against thee. The tabernacles of Edom and the
Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagarines, Geba and Ammon and
Amalek, the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre, Aser
also is joined with them, and they have hopened the children
of Lot. Now all these nations he mentions here, they are natural
enemies of each other. They all fight against each other
all the time. But the one thing they could
agree on is every one of them hated Israel. They all hated
Israel more than they hated their other enemies. And they could
all agree to come together and fight against Israel. Look at
Luke chapter 23. The very same thing happened to Calvary. Up to this point, in history,
Pilate and Herod hated one another. Their political ambition or whatever,
for whatever reason, they hated one another. But look here at
Luke 23, verse 12. You know, Pilate, he didn't want
to have anything to do with this Jesus of Nazareth. He sent him
to Herod. Herod didn't want anything to do with him, sent him back
to Pilate. In verse 12, and the same day, Pilate and Herod were
made friends together, for before they were an enmity between themselves. But when it came to hating this
man Jesus, they could be in agreement. And they were in such agreement,
those enemies became friends. They became friends in the common
bond of hating God's sons. And the same thing that happened
with Herod and Pilate happened with the Jews and the Romans.
Look at Acts chapter 4. You know, the Jews, they're a
lot like Republicans and Democrats today. They wouldn't agree with
the Romans or the Gentiles over any matter ever. If they think
it, I think the opposite. They couldn't agree with one
another. But they sure agreed and joined forces against Christ
of Calvary. Acts 4 verse 25. Who by the mouth of thy servant
David has said, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain
things? The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius
Pilate with the Gentiles and the Jews, the people of Israel
were gathered together. They all gathered together with
this one mission to crucify the Lord of glory, to get rid of
this man. Jesus of Nazareth to put away
this strange doctrine once and for all. Now, I know that's what
they did. But, Lord, speak to my heart.
Don't let me just hear the historical facts of this day. Don't just
let me know your acts. Lord, speak to my heart and show
me your ways. Speak to my heart and tell me
what really happened that day. What was really accomplished
that day When Jesus of Nazareth died on that middle cross, tell
me what you accomplished that day. Here it is, verse 28. They
gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. They gathered together and did
not accomplish their will at all, but they accomplished God's
eternal will. And despite all the despicable
things Men did at Calvary. Do you know the cross was not
an act of men at all? It was an act of God. It was
an act of God's justice. It was an act of God's mercy.
This is the only way you and I are so sinful. The only way
God can be merciful to us is through everything he did to
his son's cross. That's the only way he could be merciful to sinners.
He had to put their sin away through the sacrifice of his
son. The sacrifice of Christ is God's
way of satisfying His justice so He could give His people mercy,
so He could give them everlasting life. Look at Acts chapter 5.
Peter tells us this, Acts 5 verse 30. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. You meant to be done
with Him forever, but the God of our fathers raised Him up.
Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and
a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins." Now, men didn't accomplish their will at all, did they?
No, God did. God raised Him from the dead.
Instead of getting rid of this man Jesus of Nazareth, now the
whole world has heard of Him. Instead of getting rid of Him
and burying Him in the ground out of sight, God's exalted Him
back to glory. And when He comes back, every
eye is going to see Him at once. Instead of getting rid of all
His followers, you know, scaring them to death and torturing them
and doing all these persecutions to them to get them to not preach
this gospel, to get this gospel to where it's not heard in the
world anymore, instead of that, His followers went into all the
world preaching the gospel. And all His followers, all the
followers of this man Jesus, every last one of them, were
saved. Their sin was forgiven. They
were given eternal life. Through this sacrifice, God made
his sinful people to be righteous. They couldn't become righteous
through the law, but they did through this man, the sacrifice
of this man. He had made him sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And God exalted
Christ back to his right hand in glory. You know why? because
Christ accomplished the salvation of His people. The work was done. So instead of the Jews, the Pharisees,
the scribes, instead of them being able to keep all their
form and ceremony of religion, instead of them being able to
keep that all intact, it was all put away. It was all done.
Instead of keeping the law in force and making men try to earn
a righteousness by the law, God's people are given rest from the
law because Christ obeyed it. He honored it, magnified it,
Salvation is accomplished. They severed forever the believers
relationship with the law. Even as a rule of life, the laws
of the believers rule of life. Christ is. They destroyed everything they
held dear by crucifying God's son. Instead of getting rid of
him, they lifted him up so that God's people could obey. Obey
the command of the gospel. The command of the gospel is
look to Christ. Look to Him. Look to that one
lifted up on a tree, crucified for you, and you will be saved. You will be. Just as surely as
someone bitten and dying by those fiery serpents, they're dying
because of that venom, just as surely as they look to that brazen
serpent lifted up on a pole, sure as they were healed, you'll
be saved. if you look to Christ. And I
know someone will say this, because I said it. I had the sense not
to say it out loud, but I thought it. I said it to my own self.
But I can't see. I wanted to tell Brother Henry
so many times, if you just tell me where he is, I'll look. I
thought this is what I thought. If you tell me where he is, I'll
see. But I can't see him. I don't understand. Friend, listen
to me. The commandment from God is not
see. The commandment from God is not
understand. The commandment of God is look.
Look and live. Look to Christ. If you look to
Christ, you'll see. That only makes sense if somebody's
looked to Him. If you look to Christ, you'll see. Looking is
not a physical act. Looking to Christ is believing
Him in the heart. That serpent, brazen serpent,
lifted up on a pole. Why would somebody who's dying,
probably miles away, that couldn't see it, if they did have good
eyesight, but their eyes are swollen shut with the venom coursing
through their... Why would they look to that brazen
serpent? Just one reason. They believe
God. God said, if you look, you'll
believe God. Why would a blind sinner look to Christ? Because
we believe God. God said, look, you look and
you'll see. You look to Christ and you'll
be saved. That's what God accomplished at the cross. For all of His
people, the eternal salvation of all that He chose to save.
Oh, I love to hear about that, don't you? If God gave me ear
to hear it, He won't keep me from Christ. All right, here's
the fifth thing. Lord, speak and assure my heart
that your enemies will not be able to take me away from you
and will not be able to take my salvation from me. Verse 9,
back in our text, Psalm 83. Do unto them as unto the Midianites,
as to Sisera, as to Jabin of the Brook Kisan, which perished
at Endor, they became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles
like Oreb and like Zeb, yea, all their princes as Zeba, and
Zalmanah, who said, let us take to ourselves the houses of God
in possession. Now, these enemies of Israel
were all destroyed in a miraculous way, showing us this is something
only God could do. The Midianites were the strongest
country on the earth, and they were oppressing Israel. I mean,
they were oppressing them so much They took everything from
them. They took all their food. They took everything from them. But there's a man named Gideon.
He was threshing out. He was hiding, threshing out
this little bit of wheat or corn or whatever it was he had. He
had to hide because he was afraid the Midianites would come take it from him.
This man Gideon, who did everything he could not to be a public man,
took his little army, armed with lamps, covered with pitchers
and trumpets, and destroyed that Midianite army. And then Gideon's
men cut the heads off the princess of the Midianites. That's who
Oreb and Zeb are. They went and cut their heads
off. Now, how did a little nation, without any army, without any
weapons, without any training, without any food, how'd they
do that? God did it, didn't He? Miraculously delivered them from
that enemy. And Sisera, he was a mighty general. And his king, Jabin, they were
defeated when a woman, named Jay Eel, nailed Cicero's head
to the ground while he's taking a nap. And he had just come from
a battle that they lost and the battle was raging. And I thought,
what kind of general? I mean, this is a mighty general,
this is a skilled man. What kind of general lays down
and takes a nap while the war's going on, while the battle's
going on? Why would he do that? God miraculously delivered him,
didn't He? See, these enemies all seem too powerful. It seemed
like they could not be defeated. It seemed like they'd be there
forever. They weren't too hard for God
to deal with. And the psalmist is asking the Lord to do the
same thing to our enemies today. He says in verse 13, Oh my God,
make them like a wheel as the stubble before the wind. Lord,
just let them roll away like a wheel. Just put them on the
He'll let them roll away like tumbleweed just blowing across
the prairie. Just let them roll away. And
now what Christ has done with the sin of His people, He rolled
them away, rolled them off of us, rolled them onto His great
shoulder and put them away by the sacrifice of Himself. Verse
14, as the fire burneth the wood and as the flame setteth the
mountains on fire, Lord, burn them up so they don't exist anymore. That's what fire does to wood.
It just burns it up so it doesn't exist anymore. Isn't that what
Christ has done with his people? As he endured the fiery justice
of God, he put away the sin of his people so it doesn't exist
anymore. Lord, speak to my heart and assure
me my sin is not going to separate me from you. Assure me nothing
shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Alright, here's the last thing. Lord, speak to me.
Tell me your name. Verse 15. So persecute them with
thy tempest and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces
with shame that they may seek thy name, O Lord. I say this
often. Believers pray to be delivered
from our enemies. And there's nothing wrong with
that. We ought to do that. But we ought not pray that they be
damned, that they be destroyed. Our prayer should be that the
Lord would reveal Himself to them, that He would make them
afraid of Him, that He would make them fear Him. You know,
that's not just our enemy's problem. By nature, it's our problem,
too. That's the problem of all men. Our nature will not fear
the Lord. The accusation against us in
Romans 3.18 is there's no fear of God before their eyes. Lord, make them fear You. Make
them fear You. Make them ashamed of their works
and make them fear you that now there's a reason that we pray
this, that they may seek thy name or do that for my enemies
and do that for me. Lord, make me fear you. Make
me ashamed of my works. So I seek thy name and the people
who won't seek God's name are described in verse 17. Let them
be confounded and troubled forever. Yea, let them be put to shame
and perish. Everyone who will not seek the
name of the Lord is going to perish. But everybody who seeks
the name of the Lord, everybody who seeks it is going to find
out who he is. That's what his name tells us,
who he is. Everybody that seeks the name
of the Lord will find out who the Lord is. Verse 18, that men
may know that thou whose name alone is Jehovah are the most
high over all the earth. The people who seek the Lord
will find out his name is Jehovah. That name means the self-existent
one. I read that this is God's sacred
name. I look at Exodus chapter 12. What does this name, the name
of the self-existent one, God's sacred name Jehovah, what does
that reveal to my heart? Here's another time this name
is used in scripture. 12 verse 11. And thus say, eat it with your
loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand.
You shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. And
the name translated here, Lord's, is the same name translated Jehovah
back in our test. Now what happened that night?
This is the Lord's Passover. For the Lord Jehovah is a just
This is what the Passover reveals to us. He will punish all sin
with death. He'll punish his enemies, those
who refuse to believe them. He'll punish them justly and
get just exactly what they deserve. And He saves His people in justice.
They get just exactly what they deserve too. When the Lord passed
through Egypt that night, He did it in justice, didn't He? He came to bring death to the
firstborn in every house in Egypt. And when he came to the house
of the Israelites, he passed over them. He passed over every
door, every house where there was blood on the door. If there
wasn't blood on the door, the firstborn died. But if there
was blood on that door, the firstborn lived. You know why? Blood on the door meant there's
already been death in this house tonight. I don't have to go in
there and kill the firstborn. A lamb has died as a substitute.
The firstborn lived because the substitute died in his place.
And that blood had been applied to the door in faith that God
would do what he said he'd do. That's who Jehovah is. He passes
over the sin of his people because he's punished their sin in the
person of their substitute. This is my prayer for you and
me. Lord, speak. Oh, speak through your words,
speak through the gospel and reveal your name, Jehovah, to
my heart. Lord, give me faith in Christ. Apply the blood of Christ to
my heart and I'll be saved. That seems. And what's the right
word, does it seem impossible, does it seem like something I
can't understand, God applying blood to my heart? Well, I know
this. God's able. God's able. Don't ever be afraid to ask God
to save you. He is able. The end of our text tonight says,
that people may know your name alone is Jehovah, that thou art
the most high over all the earth. God's the most high over all
the earth. What's too hard for Him? Never be afraid to ask the
Lord to save you. Lord, speak to my heart in power. Make me live, make me believe
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, speak to my heart.
That's all I hope can say with the young Samuel. Speak Lord,
I serve you. Let's bow together. Our Father,
how we thank you for your word, how we thank you that you've
seen fit to reveal yourself and your word to your people. Lord,
speak to our hearts this evening. Don't just let the preacher speak
to our ears. Don't let us just hear the words
of men. But Father, I beg of you that you'd speak to our heart
and reveal your son to us. Enable us to look to him and
live. It's in his precious name we
pray and give thanks.