seeing everybody. If you will,
please turn to Psalm 29. Psalm 29. Want to have this message first, because
I know it's gonna be long. I'm gonna do my best not to scream
and yell real loud. Because I get excited. It's like
Daniel four, I can't keep from reading out without just Oh,
stand on my high legs and yell it to the treetops. I hope the Lord will yell in
somebody's heart today. Psalm 29. Many believe that David wrote
this during a thunderstorm. I think so. Been a long time
since I saw a thunderstorm. And I can, good for us, I can
attest to it. The proportions in this psalm
are good. That needs said. That needs said. I know what's been heard this
week and last week around this state. Let me tell you something.
The Lord's proportions in this psalm are good. How he laid it
out is just right. It'll be fine. We preach Christ
and we preach him crucified. We preach the person and the
work of Christ. And it's so comforting to know
that that warfare is accomplished. To speak comfort to the heart
to his people, but it's necessary. It's necessary and it's comforting
to behold your God. Behold your God. Behold the lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Behold him. We like to focus on that part
that's taken away our sins. We need that. Don't you forget
that first part, who it was that did it. How can you separate
the two? Who is it? Behold him. Oh, he's
worth to be beheld. The proportions are good here.
It's the right amount for today. God gave us this day. He didn't
give us last week. He didn't give us somebody else
in another state. He gave me and you right now. That's what
he gave us. And it's just right for right
now. Wonderful. In the first two verses,
we're gonna see this call to worship. Do y'all know what a
call to worship is? We got that in our bulletin,
a call to worship. Used to people didn't have clocks. And nobody
knew when it was time to come to church. And so they'd hear
the music playing. And that music, that song, we
play them on the speakers, don't we? What was happening when I
was sitting right there? These speakers are going. And what people could
hear, they used to be real loud and have windows open. Eric used
to have windows open. And ring a bell or play a music,
play a song that people knew to come. It's time. The Lord
gives us the first two verses here. This is his call to worship,
he tells us. Then in verses three through
eight, we see the power and the might of a holy God. That's a
must. That's a must. Talk about the
forgiveness of sins. What if I forgave your sins?
What if it was my blood that was shed? I ain't gonna do you
no good. What if it was of a goat? That ain't gonna do you no good.
We must see Him. That's verses 3 through 8. In
verse 9, life's given. Verse 10, we see judgment is
satisfied. And you ain't gonna see that.
You'll see it in a textbook. You'll see it in a seminary until
God speaks to your heart. Then you'll see He's satisfied
judgment. Then you're convicted of it.
And all that, verse 11, is because of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
people are blessed with peace because of him. Right now and
eternally. Peace. You never had peace until
you knew him. You might not have been pulling your hair out in
a loony bin, but you didn't have peace until you saw him. Until
he revealed himself. We'll see that next hour. Jacob
was 77 years old and didn't know God. You think he's a teenager
from coloring books, don't you? He's an old fella, he's plum
grown. And then he saw God, and he saw. If you know the Lord, hearing
of his might, of his power, of his strong hand, who this is,
boy, that's comforting. That is comforting. And if you
don't know him, it's absolutely terrifying, and if it ain't,
it ought to be. Look here in verse one. Give
unto the Lord, oh ye mighty. given to the Lord, glory and
strength. Who's this? Well, there's God
the Father, there's God the Son, there's God the Holy Spirit.
And this is capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the
self-existent one. And all three of those are one.
All three of those were manifest on this earth in a body. came
as the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But he says, give unto the Lord.
Give unto the Lord. How can you give glory, truly,
and how can we give strength? How are you going to give strength
to the Lord? How are you going to do that?
Turn over to Psalm 50. Psalm 50. Here in Psalm 50, verse 7, Begins
here, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify
against thee. I am God, even thy God. I will
not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have
been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of
thy house. nor hay goats out of thy folds.
I don't want your sacrifices of goats and of bullocks. Why?
For every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a
thousand hills. I know all the fowl of the mountains
and the wild beast of the field. They're mine. They're mine. If
I were hungry, I would not tell you. For the world's mine and
the fullness thereof. Will I eat flesh of bulls? Will
I drink the blood of goats? Is that my meat and drink? Offer
unto God thanksgiving. You pay vows unto the most high,
and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I'll deliver you,
and thou shalt glorify me. That's what, well how am I gonna
do that? He's gotta give lungs and air. It's his air, it's his
lungs, isn't it? And it's his heart that cries
to him. But that's what we're to do. Cry unto him with our
voice. That word give, You can write it in your margin. It's
okay, because it'll help us down the road, won't it? That word
give is the word that means ascribe. Ascribe. I can't give the Lord
anything. Everything's his. It's his already. How am I going to give him strength?
That's his strength. But I can ascribe glory to him. I can ascribe
strength to him. What's that mean? Credit. People
say give credit where credit's due. Well, credit's his. In what? Everything. Everything. What
about strength? That. Glory? Yep. Credit. The word also means impute. We've
talked about it before. What is that? Remember? I know
you remember. That's an accounting term. You're declaring what is
already there. You are ascribing. We ascribe
to the Lord. We impute to the Lord. Him. His glory and his strength. Now
back to our text. It says they're given to the
Lord, O ye mighty. Ye mighty, given to the Lord,
glory and strength. Who's the mighty? There's three levels
to that. who he's speaking to, he's speaking to his people.
The first one's those mighty hosts of heaven, all the angels,
all his armies of heaven. You give him glory and you give
him his strength, you ascribe that to him. You declare that
that's his, and they do, don't they? They ascribe that to him.
And the mighty ones of this earth, rulers, those in power, those
all the way up that we can think of from the king of England all
the way down to the small business owner. to a mommy and a daddy
in a home. You count all glory to God. You
count all power, all strength. It's his. It's his. Everything. How you treat your children,
how you treat your employees, how you treat your co-workers, how
you treat the other constituents in this county ought to declare
who you believe. Remember who you are and whose
you are. We're his. And those made strong. That's the unbelievers. They
ought to. Who made you king? Who made you to differ? Who made
you a pauper? Who made you a hard worker, a
coal miner? It don't make a difference. The Lord made you that way. But
those that are made strong, they're made mighty in Christ. He says
we're kings and priests. And we will ascribe glory. We
will ascribe strength to him because we've experienced it.
Those angels haven't. They know it. They've seen it.
They can tell you more about it than I can. But we've experienced
it. We have experienced it. You will. Watch this. Verse two. Give unto
the Lord the glory due to his name. Can you do that? What's due to him? We can't in
this body. We can ascribe what's due to
him, everything. We can't enter into that, though.
And it says, worship the Lord in beauty of holiness. Worship
him, worship him. There have been books without
end. That's what scriptures say, isn't
it? To the end of the writing of
books, there's no end. They just keep going on and on,
commentaries and commentaries and commentaries and commentaries
and commentaries. The Lord condemns that. He's clear about it. There's been so much written
in pamphlets and everything else on what is worship. What is worship? People say it so often in this
nation, we're going to worship. Oh, are ya? What is that? We
better define our terms before we use them, shouldn't we? What's
worship? I'll tell you a few things about worship. Worship's
equal to reverence. It's a sacrifice is what it is.
Abraham said, Isaac, we're going up this hill, we're gonna worship
God, we're gonna sacrifice to God. It's a sacrifice for our
lips, our praise that we give up. and the sacrifice of Christ
alone is the only thing we can bring. And if you understand
that, not in a theological standpoint, if you know him, God revealed
his strength and power to you, now you worship in reverence. What did he tell us in Psalms?
Fear and trembling, fear and trembling. Not we're afraid,
in reverence. Oh, we know who, who we're worshiping. A deep appreciation of thankfulness. That's what worship is. You know
what it also is? Adoration. Hannah just had a
baby. People wanna go visit a baby,
and you say, oh, look at the baby. I'll give you good advice
my pastor gave me. Next time you go find somebody
that just had a baby, don't go looking at that baby. You go
look at that mother's eyes. You go look at that mother's
eyes, and you're gonna see in her eyes adoration. That's what I look people in
the eye when I preach to them. Do you know that? I've told you
that 400 times. I look people in the eye when
I preach to them. There's adoration to the one who only deserves
glory, to the one who only is strength, if you know him. Well,
there's love there. There's contentment and commitment,
hand in hand. And it's beautiful. So worship
him. of beauty. It's beautiful, too.
It's lovely when believers gather together and they truly adore
the Lord. I mean love. Not cold, dead letter,
stiff facts that gives me the heebie-jeebies. Yeah, that's
true. Somebody told me something true one time. I said, yeah,
it's true. Ugh. That ain't right, man. Ain't no love in it. and
no mercy and no grace in it. When we gather in his grace and
his mercy and he's gathered us together, that's precious. It's
beautiful. It's beautiful. We truly adore him, his person,
who he is, his strength, his work, what he's done, what's
accomplished in it. That's our call to worship. Body
folks, come, credit the Lord for who he is and what he's done.
That's what we're gonna do. Someone might ask, well, who
is he then? He tells us. He tells us, verse 3, the voice,
we see that all through here, isn't it? The voice of the Lord,
the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord. It's what he declares of
himself. We ought to take notice. We ought
to pay attention to what he says he is, isn't it? The voice of
the Lord is upon the waters. His voice is upon the waters.
What? Is he fishing? How could a man
understand that unless somebody tells you what that is? We read
in Genesis 1, the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,
and the earth was without form, it was void, and darkness was
upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God, that wind,
that's what comes with a voice, isn't it? When you say something,
you can feel it. Moved upon the face of the waters,
and God said, let there be light, and there was light. What's that
voice on the waters? It's the life and the light of
this world. That's where it starts. It's also in the destruction,
isn't it? There in Genesis 7, those waters increased, the Lord
spoke to the waters. They come up out of the springs,
they come out of the heavens, and it bear up the ark, who is
life. Set that ark above everything
that's in this world, the highest point. He was exalted, he was
lifted up, and this world was destroyed. We died in him, in
that ark. In instruction, David told us
in Psalm 107, those that go down in the seas and ships, they do
business in great waters. These see the works of the Lord.
They see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep,
for he commandeth. His voice is on those waters.
They know it. A commercial fisherman, we know
any of those? There's a couple of them that wrote us some letters,
ain't they? Open letters, general epistles. Those commercial fishermen,
they see the works of the Lord, for he commandeth and he raises
stormy winds and he lifts the waves thereof. His voice is on
those waters. That's an instruction to us.
Now, do you have to be a sailor or a commercial fisherman to
see the works of the Lord? What if you ain't never been
on a boat? I don't own a boat. What am I gonna do? You know
what those deep waters are? I also speak to the Lord's people.
You know what those deep waters are? Your tears. Your tears, that's how deep they
are. And Phil Buckets, ain't they? Oh, when he gives the tears. His voice is the one that makes
those tears come. Not sadness, because you ain't
getting your way. Everybody's sad if they don't get their way.
I'd like to hit that $2 billion lottery and have a nice car and
air conditioning and all that. No, not those things. The tears
that he gives for the trials that he gives, that he commands.
That's what his voice does. It's on the waters. What does
he say about our tears? One, he sends them. Two, he puts
them in a vial. He keeps them in a vial. It's his tears, ain't
it? His voice is on the waters. His
voice is something else, too. It's not just in life. It's not
just in destruction. Not just in instruction. It's
also in the justification and sanctification of his people.
We read in John 19, when they came to Jesus, they saw he was
dead already, and they break not his legs, so the scriptures
will be fulfilled. He died according to the scriptures.
Not a bone's gonna be broken in him. And they said, well,
let's not break his legs, he's already dead. And so they pierced
his side with a spear. And forthwith came out there
blood and water and water. There's a young fella. Them young
fellas don't know much, do they? This one did. His name was Augustus
Toplady. He died at 38 years old. We had
a good handle on this. He had a good understanding on
that. He said, rock of ages cleft for me. That was the call to
worship that was going right before I stood up, wasn't it?
Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the
water and the blood from thy wounded side, which flow, be
of sin the double cure. We've received double for our
sins, save from wrath. All the sin that you have committed
or are committing right now and shall commit, save from it. He
bore it and make me pure. He's given you a holy nature,
born of God, of His seed, incorruptible seed. That's what it means. It
can't be corrupted. It can't sin. Right now. I'll get a dirty email
about that one. I just had to get it. So? He
said so. Save from wrath and make me pure.
God's voice was on the water, too. When he heard, when we hear
his voice command the waters of judgment and the waters of
cleansing, we say with David, in that water of peace, he maketh
me lie down in green pastures and he leadeth me beside the
still waters. He brought me there. I ain't
scared of them waters no more. Not those waters of destruction,
not those waters of wrath, that's waters of cleansing now, because
Christ bore it all. His voice is on those waters.
Verse three, Psalm 29, verse three. The voice of the Lord
is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is
upon many waters. Turn over to Job 37. Job 37. I'm going to the right,
to the left. One book to the left. We'll begin verse 1, Job 37,
1. At this also my heart trembleth, and is moved out of his place.
Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that
goeth out of his mouth. He directeth it under the whole
heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth. Whose
lightning is that? His lightning. After it, a voice roareth, we
see the light, and we hear the thunder. He thundereth with the
voice of his excellency, and he will not stay then when his
voice is heard. God thundereth marvelously with
his voice. Great things doeth he which we
cannot comprehend. When the voice of the Lord speaks,
it thunders in a marvelous way. The blind, they can't see lightning,
but they can hear the thunder of his voice. The deaf, they
can't hear the thunder of his voice, can they? But you can
feel it. They can feel the vibrations. He thundereth marvelously. I
was thinking of Brother Bill Silva. I pray and rescue, like
to ride motorcycles. Them things get loud. They go
by here, they're loud, ain't they? You can be on loud as Harley-Davidson,
you want that thunder. rumbles, that lightning cracks
next to you, you can't hear it motorcycle. It thunders, it thunders. A strong thunderstorm comes sometimes
and that is good because it reminds us of the voice of our Lord. I've lived in a couple of places
where it don't rain much and it don't thunder much. And that
would be good for the places I've lived that didn't get many
thunderstorms to get more thunderstorms. Something when you're sitting
there and all of a sudden that whole house starts shaking and
the China starts rattling in the cabinets because it's thundering.
God speaking. His voice. Her sister Hannah
was real little. She took a look to Paul. She's
like three years old. It's thunder and lightning and the whole sky's
just lit up and it ain't gonna stop for days. And she went to
the window and said, Daddy, God's talking. She'd heard that in
church that morning. You may as well let them little
ones learn. The Lord spoke. Christ Jesus
said, Father, you glorify your name. He told us that in John
12. He said, Father, glorify your name. And a voice came from
heaven. said, I have both glorified it
and I will again glorify it. And some people said, you know
what? It thundered. It thundered. They may not know
what God said, but they know there was a God. Well, it'd be
good for us to know that. What comes with thunder? Lightning.
Lightning comes with thunder. As a child, Lord says there through
Eli, he does things we don't understand. His ways aren't our
ways. His thoughts aren't our thoughts.
We can't enter into things of God like that unless he reveals
himself. And I remember when I was a kid, they come out with
high-speed cameras. And they said, you know what? I was a
little bitty fella in science class. And they said, lightning
comes from the sky. Actually, lightning comes from
the ground. Did you know that? The electronic charge and all
this stuff, and it grounds out there, and the lightning moves
its way up. And they found this out. Well, if they'd have just
read Job, they'd have known that. Spectrum analysis. There's sound
waves emitted from light. Well, he said the stars sang
to me. It's the oldest book ever. Look here in verse 30 or chapter
38, Job 38 verse 35. Job 38, 35. Canst thou send lightnings
that they may go and say unto thee, here we are. God's asking
Job, can you do that? The Lord says, be thou on the
ground, to the snow, doesn't he? Says the lightning, go! And
the lightning stands up from the ground and says, here I am.
Yes, Lord. It obeys him. That's powerful,
isn't it? Isn't that powerful? People say,
that's natural things. You can't do it. You can't do
it. Can't save yourself either. I
was a little tiny fellow at a funeral one time, old primitive Baptist
said, a man said, I can stick my bony hand in God's face and
stop him. And I went to, I was taking a
shower at night, and I seen if the water was warm. I said, I
can't even stop, I was five years old. I said, I can't even stop this
water. How in the world are you gonna stop God? That's his thundering
lot. That's power. Back in our text,
Psalm 29, verse four. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. It's powerful. When he speaks,
I can talk all day long and it ain't gonna do diddly. I can
scream and people sleep through it. It can happen. I ain't been loud. I ain't screamed
as loud as I could in four years, but I can get pretty loud. It
don't matter. When God speaks, his voice is
powerful. There's power in it when he's
pleased to speak to somebody. Paul said that, he said, knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God. I know your God's elect. Paul knew it, why? For our gospel
came not to you in word only. This ain't some dead letter doctrine
that you learn at some seminary. What kind of hogwash is that?
No, it came in power. Dynamis, that's where we get
the word dynamite. I hope I can just light it and
throw it and get out the way. If he sees fit, he'll blow San
Diego County wide open. It came to you in power and in
the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, you knew it. You knew it. Do you know when it thunders?
Yeah, you do. Deaf people know it. Take a feel it. Do you know when
it lightens? Yeah. You can smell it. You can smell ozone right
after, can't you? You know it. The voice of the Lord is powerful
and majestic. What does that thunder and His
voice and His power do? Verse 5. The voice of the Lord
breaketh the cedars, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. Those great, mighty, 100-foot-tall,
old, big, strong trees, they're shattered to toothpicks. Shattered
to toothpicks, like in big sequoias. Just poof, it's nothing. You
ever seen a tree hit by lightning? One of two things happen when
a tree is hit by lightning in power. 500 million bolts go through
that thing. Either it bows down and it's
just ground to dust and destroyed, and oh, it's in a heap. It's
either in a heap on the ground or it's burnt to death. There's
deadness. There's either bowing or deadness. That's it. There ain't no indifference.
Like, well, I guess I'll handle that lot in the next week. No,
all the water in you has been vaporized instantaneously. I know there's a still small
voice, we'll look at that in a minute, but that still small voice when
God speaks in power is like thunder and lightning. And there's going
to be evidence that it's there. Just like Paul said, I know that
power has come to you. I know it. The power of the voice of
the Lord thundering, those that hear it will either bow or burn.
What happens to those that are burnt? Pharaoh did that. That's
still the Lord's power. Do you know that? Said, even
for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my
power in thee, is what he told Pharaoh. He said, you ain't gonna
bow to me yet. But for this purpose, for you
to defy me over and over in all these places, I've done that
so my people see my power, and you're gonna know it too. That
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Every knee will
bow. It's only a matter of when. Either
he'll make you bow on this earth, or you're gonna bow on that final
day of judgment. It's going to happen. It's going to happen.
Behold your God. This is who we come to worship,
to ascribe. It's his glory and his strength.
Understand that now. Live, dry bones. Live. Verse six, he maketh them also
to skip like a calf, these big old trees. Lebanon and Syria
like a young unicorn. What's that, Lebanon, Syria?
Is that the trees? Well, Syria is Mount Hermon in
Lebanon. We can read that back in Deuteronomy
3, you can take my word for it. So that's a mountain. He says
he makes them big old cedars and the mountains skip like little
tiny unicorns, like little gazelles bouncing around. When the voice
of the Lord, his word, his will, Makes the mighty trees and mountains
skip like little calves, bounce around with joy. How? Because
of his faithfulness. Because of Christ's faith. God gave him a people, and he
said, you're gonna save them. Father said, you're gonna save
them. He said, I will. He believed the Father. He was faithful,
wasn't he? He said in Matthew 20, he said, for a fellow to
heal, that boy that stoned himself in the fire, the disciples couldn't
heal him. And they said, Lord, why couldn't we heal this fella?
You healed him. He said, it's going to take more
than prayer and fasting. Handle what this is. That's something
you can't enter into. You can't handle what I can.
And he said, you couldn't do this because you're unbelief.
He said, verily I say unto you, if you have the faith as a grain
of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Orpheus Harpon, that's close
to it. Maybe it's pointing over the
ridge, huh? He said, you'll save this mountain, remove hence to
yonder place, and it shall move, and nothing shall be impossible
to you. You tell these mountains to get up and go jump in that
ocean, they're gonna do it. By his faith, by the faith of Christ,
cedar trees, mountains, they dance like little calves. They
dance like unicorns, just bouncing around. Real light and ginger,
ain't they? That's impossible with man, that's right. Good,
might start learning something. His voice makes a bunch of old,
stiff trees and a bunch of dead rocks jump for joy. And it came to pass that when
Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leapt in her
womb. That's what happened to John
the Baptist, wasn't it? He was in the womb. Mary came with the
Lord Jesus Christ in her belly and he started kicking. It was
joy. What's making me happy? Why?
His faith. Well, what about my faith? I
don't want to hear about mine, I want to hear about his. That'll
make you happy. Your heads are nodding, I know
it. Back in her text, Psalm 29, verse
7. The voice of the Lord divideth
the flames of fire. Boy, that's a whole lot of A
whole lot of commentary on that. A whole lot of writing of books
says, well, it's forked lightning. Lightning's always forked. He
divides the lightning. That's true. Sodom and Gomorrah, he'll
make it burn on his, where he wants it to burn and not burn
where he don't want it. That's true. That's right. But you know, all
those commentaries, that's just the thought of one day of one
sinner's mind for that hour. That's all it is. That's just
what happens to be laid on their heart at that time. And it ain't
the holy inspired word of God. We got that complete right here.
You know what come to my mind in one hour, one day while studying
this? Those three Hebrew children.
They were cast in that furnaces, heated up seven times, and the
ones that cast them in was burn up. Nebuchadnezzar before the
Lord saved him, boy he declared something. I'd love that too.
He said, there's three, I think I see four of them. And that
one looks like the son of God. Well, they come out of that fire. They didn't even smell like smoke.
Who can control fire like that? The Holy God can. What was the
only thing they was missing? And I hope somebody get this.
What was the only thing they was missing when they come out
of that big old blast furnace? The things that bound them. You're
free. God's fire did that. His wrath
did that. But not on you, on your substitute. Does that make you leap for joy? Does that turn your frown upside
down and perk you up a little bit? Something, man. Do we ascribe
to Him glory? Do we ascribe to Him strength?
He rent that wall of partition the same as He divided that flame.
in that fiery furnace from top to bottom. That holy law that
separated us that we couldn't satisfy, Christ tore it down,
divided it in two, didn't he? Psalm 29, verse eight, the voice
of the Lord shaketh the wilderness, the Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Kadesh. Earthquake out there in the wilderness
where nobody feels it. He does that too. We read in 1 Kings, About Elijah,
he went into a cave and he thought the people were going to kill
him. And the Lord spoke to him and said, Go forth and stand
upon a mountain before the Lord. And the Lord passed by in a great
strong wind, rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks
before the Lord. The voice went, the wind went,
it shook those mountains, ripped all the trees off of them and
made them crumble. And the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind and the earthquake, he shook the wilderness. But
the Lord wasn't in an earthquake. And after the earthquake, fire
that he divides. But the Lord wasn't in a fire.
And after that, a still, small voice. These are facts, ain't
they? He said his voice does everything
I just read to you. But the earthquake and the experience,
the thunder and knowing it's his thunder, that's not the Lord. That's just an attribute of his.
His voice speaks, and it can whisper to the heart of his people,
to the ear that he gives. And Elijah heard it, and you
know what happened when he did that? Then he wrapped his face
in the mantle. They hide their faces, hide their
faces. Everybody now they got selfies
sticking, look like a fish that got punched in the mouth. That's
all, Facebook, Facebook, we'll look at this, the women of Canaan.
What does the Lord's people do? They want to hide their faces.
Don't they? What did the holy ones do? What
did the cherubims do? They had wings, two wings, just
for hiding their face, wasn't it? Elijah hid his face and he went
in that cave because the voice came to him. Verse 9, Psalm 29,
verse 9, after that declaration of his display, after all these
things, this is who we're going to call to worship, this is who
we're going to worship. Verse 9, the voice of the Lord maketh
the hinds to calve. God makes deers have babies.
What in the world has that got to do with what he's just talking
about? After all this destruction and power and majesty and might
and glory and strength is displayed, a little, tiny, scared deer that'll
run off a cliff because a twig snapped, they drop first. You gotta aim low if you bowhunt.
They're scared to death. Henry said, he goes, Lord's our
midwife. He teaches them how to bear children. He gives life
in the midst of all this chaos that the world sees as how could
a God do that? How could a God that's loved
send a tsunami? We see his power and life's given. Life's given. He makes the hinds to calve,
the deer to calve, to a fearful deer. He discovers the forest. Once we have life, the Lord gives
us something. We're convicted of a few things.
Sin, isn't that right? Isn't that what he said? What's
discovering the forest? That word is he makes bare. All
the leaves fall. Your fig leaves are going to
come off. God's going to show you what you are. You ain't nothing
but a naked forest, naked wilderness with no covering. And you need
his covering because there's life. If you ain't got life,
you don't know that. He discovers the forest and His
temple, doth everyone speak of His glory. We're given life,
we're convicted of sin, we're convicted of righteousness. Everyone
in His temple, I don't care about the other temples. His temple,
they declare His glory. Is that this physical building?
We're the only ones that say no, it's in His people, where
He dwells. If he was alone on a deserted
island, would you ascribe to him glory and strength? You would,
wouldn't you? Well, we're convicted to sin.
All of our leaves fell off. We know it. We have life. That's
why that happened. We're convicted of righteousness. We're going
to declare his glory, not our glory, not our sanctification,
not our good works and our cleaning up the outside of the cup, his.
Well, what about convicted of judgment? They know what the
Holy Spirit is going to do. Look here in verse 10, the Lord
said upon the flood, that's singular. Can you sit on water? You can't, he can, it's his water. He sits on the flood. He sits
on the judgment. Yay. The Lord said King forever. That judgment's accomplished.
Prince's world's been destroyed. His head's been crushed. How's
all this done? Verse 11, the Lord will give
strength unto his people. He'll give Christ himself to
his people. and the Lord will bless his people
with peace. When we're given life and we're
shown what sin we are, we're convicted of Christ's righteousness,
all judgment's been settled. The Lord's set on that flood.
It ain't bouncing around. Flood's washed everything away.
He's set on it. It's accomplished. It's done.
Christ is our strength. He's the one that's done all
this. He's the strong man. He's given to us. We couldn't
take him. He wasn't offered. He's given.
We receive him. We receive Christ. And in our
weakness, his strength is just expounded in it. Oh, it's just
on display. And the Lord will bless his people
with peace. If we have all these things,
we see who it is and what he did, and it's plumbed on. Ain't
nothing you can add to it. I, to the ends of the earth,
strongly caution you not to. There's peace. There's peace. This is oversimplified, too.
What's the only way you can have peace when there ain't no war?
You can't have a battle and call it peace. That's lying. The warfare
must be accomplished. There can't be a battle going
on. We have peace. Peace. David said back in Psalm
28, the Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusting
in him, and I am helped, therefore my heart greatly rejoices. Because
of all that, just like John the Baptist, leaping like a little
deer. In my song, I'll praise him, the Lord is their strength,
he's their people, his people's strengths, and the saving strength
of his anointed. Those that he's made holy for
his use, sanctified, set for his part. Christ laid down his
life, For his people, the good shepherd,
he laid down his life for the sheep, but we need to know and
be often reminded of who it was that our substitute, that is
our substitute, whose blood was shed. That's Almighty God's blood. Who was that lamb? Him. He provided
himself a lamb. And he's our strength, and that
gives us peace. Habakkuk says this. The Lord
God is my strength, and he will make my feet like a deer's feet,
a hind's feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. That's a mountaintop moment,
isn't it? We have a lot of waters. We have
deep waters, tears, so often times, but we see him. That's
when we look at ourselves and the trials that happens to be
for that day. A whole lot of waterworks, ain't
there? But when we see Him, my heart's
strengthened because He's my strength. And we're made just
like a little tiny deer. Well, I'm like a little goat. You can
climb way up high on the mountains, can't you? We can delve into
those high and lofty things while on this earth. Isn't that a blessing?
Isn't that something? That's amazing. Now, who gets
the glory and all that? Did you do something? Was God
sitting there wringing His hands, hoping you'd do something for
Him? Did He save you, now you gotta make yourself holy? You
gotta strengthen yourself. I heard a man preach one time,
said that, we're gonna look next to our ladder, Jacob. He said,
that ladder's there, you just gotta climb if you want to, climb
it one rung at a time. What? If you ain't got no strength,
you ain't got no ability, if you're dead, like an old burn
up tree or a mountain, you can't climb, can you? He gets all the
glory, it's his strength. We ascribe those to him, don't
we? Amen, let's pray together. Father, thank you for this hour.
Thank you for this moment, Lord. Thank you for the souls you brought
here. We pray you're with us. Bless your people, Lord. Call
out those that haven't heard you yet. Speak majestically in
their hearts. Thunder with your voice in them
in power. Lord, make them skip like a unicorn. what joy we have. Allow us to
scribe. Make us scribe all glory and
strength and power to our Savior. Lord, thank you for this day.
Thank you for him. Forgive us for what we are. It's in Christ's
name that we ask him. Amen.