A lot of times, just kind of
telling myself a little bit, a lot of times whenever I'm kind
of looking for, looking at the scriptures and looking for something
to preach, whatever the Lord would have me to speak on and
things like that, I'm kind of in the back of my mind always
looking for something, something deep, you know, meaty to give
and to convey and maybe even something from a different angle.
Maybe it's not talked about a lot or something like that. That's
usually kind of sometimes in the back of my mind. That's not
the case today. That's not the case today. This
morning the Lord just really was leading me to just think
about the simplicity of who He is, and I'm not saying by any
way, shape, or form that God is simple. I mean, whenever I say the simplicity
of who God is, and just the fact that God is who He is, and that
everything that there is and everything that ever will be
comes from Him. A very simplistic thought in
the thing that nothing happens apart from Him. And sometimes
we are, like myself, are always looking to dig for those big
giant nuggets of gospel, those big giant nuggets of truth, of
doctrine, But sometimes we fail to just think on the small, detailed
things of our God. And I was thinking about this. We were meeting with Lori's family
the other day, and Avonlea had made a little crocheted, it's
a thing that covers your Kleenex box, little crocheted thing that
covers your Kleenex box. Well, on the top of it, she crocheted
a face and this nose that actually comes out and the toilet paper
or the tissue paper comes up out of the nose. You pull the
tissue out of the nose of this box, you know? Well, anyway,
she made that and we were all sitting around in this group
and I was sitting here and Lori's cousin was sitting next to me
And Lori was sitting beside her. And well, anyway, this Kleenex
box was given to Lori's cousin, Jessica. And it was just sitting
there on the table and everything. Well, while we were all visiting
together and stuff, Lori's sister called who wasn't there, and
Lori's sister's daughter was there. And so anyway, There was
some tears that began to be shed, you know, for the sister that
wasn't there and the daughter who was and misses her mom and
all this kind of stuff. Well, anyway, I was sitting there
thinking because Lori started crying and Jessica took that
tissue box and hands it over for her to pull a couple of tissues
out. And Jessica's husband was sitting right next to me and
I just was kind of watching the whole scenario. And it just so
happened that Lori's sister called right in the middle of while
all of us was together and everything. And I told her husband, I said,
you see how God works? Sometime last week or the week
before, God put it in the mind of my daughter to crochet something
that covers a Kleenex box and put that on a box of Kleenexes.
And then for that, to make its way and to be given to Lori's
cousin, who just so happens to be sitting right beside Lori,
who at the very moment that this come to her possession, God called
and brought forth Lori's sister to call, tears to be shed, and
that there just would be a box of tissue right there to be handed
to. I said, now, some people, they might think, well, that's
just all coincidence. But that's how God works, brethren. And that's kind of got me thinking
about sometimes we just miss the simplicity of admiring and
glorifying and worshiping God for the very simple things like
that. God has created all things. God
has declared all things. Listen, it was declared before
the foundation of the world that that tissue box would be right
there, that that call would be made, that there would be an
exchange of emotion and there would be tears that would be
brought forth and that out of those tears there would be kindness
showed by passing the tissue box over to provide tissue for
somebody who was weeping. And by the way, an opportunity
to put forth to someone who may not necessarily believe the absolute
predestination of God, the very fact that God had predestined
all of this to take place. So, the scripture is replete
with a lot of things that the Bible teaches that sometimes
we think is just filler. That it's just kind of, well,
yeah, let's get to the meaty stuff, let's run to Romans, let's
run to Isaiah, let's try to figure out the revelation. But sometimes
there's passages of Scripture that we can just sit down and
we can just contemplate. Now, I'm going to tell you right now,
in the 104th Psalm, there probably is behind every bit of this the
spiritual look at Christ's relation to His people, of Christ's revelation
of who God is. And I hope that maybe the Lord
will allow us to find that today as we're reading through this.
My intent, at least, The steps that I have chose to walk this
morning is just to show the simplicity of what God does. Now, the way God directs me may
be a different story by the end of this thing, but just to look
at some of the simplistic things. So let's look at the 104th Psalm. Let's read a few things here,
and I'll make comment on it, and we'll read down through here
and everything. As the Lord leads, I'll make
some comments on a few things. It says, again, this is a song. These are things that were written
usually by David, King David. A lot of these were actually
songs that David had written and sang as he would sing to
Solomon. Sometimes it was read by other
men. This one here doesn't necessarily
seem to be titled by who actually wrote it, but we know that overall
the Holy Spirit did, so it's God's words that we're reading
here. It says, Bless the Lord, O my
soul. O Lord my God, thou art very
great, thou art clothed with honor and majesty. So right here
at the beginning of this song, we see an extolling or a praise
of who God is. And this psalmist, whoever it
is who wrote this, is calling upon his soul to cry out and
to bless the Lord. Whenever we meet as a congregation,
we meet to bless the Lord, to worship God and to bless his
holy name, to show forth the praises of who he is. That's
what we do. The way that the child of grace
is edified is by contemplating upon who God is and what God
has done. And we build each other up in
the faith by doing that. Whenever we meet together and
we share, whether it's sharing doctrine from the Word of God
or whether it's sharing the experiences that God is bringing us through
and the things that God is teaching, the things that He's putting
on my mind. For instance, the little story that I just told
you of what God did with us in our little family meeting and
everything. Those experiential things on
how God is moving and working in the lives of His people and
that coupled with what is written in His Word. Whenever we come
together as a congregation, that's what we do. We come together
and we praise God for the things that He has shown us of Himself
and of His work. And this is what the psalmist
is doing. He's telling the soul to bless the Lord. Why? Because God is clothed with honor
and majesty. Now, that doesn't mean He has
a coat that looks like honor and a pair of pants that looks
like majesty. Okay? What is He saying there?
That means that God is majestic, that God is honorable, that He
is deserved to be honored, and that He, in His majesty, should
be worshipped and glorified because of who He is. His very essence,
His very being, His very person is honor and majesty, and in
that majesty, He is to be praised. And that's why He's saying, bless
the Lord, bless the Lord, O my soul, O LORD my God, thou art
very great, thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who covereth
thyself with light as with a garment, who stretches out the heavens
like a curtain. Now I got to thinking about this
verse here. Who covereth thyself with light
as with a garment. And brethren, I don't know about
you, but whenever I look at this verse, I can only think of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Number one, the Bible says that
He is life and in Him is no darkness, speaking of Christ. But let's
think of a couple of things before we go any further. The Bible
says that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. It said all things. As a matter
of fact, let's just hold your finger there and turn to John
chapter 1. John chapter 1 and verse 1. It says in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life and the life was the light of men. The light shineth in
darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. So we see here that Christ, or
the Word, was with God and was God, and in Him was life, and
the life was the light of men. You go back to Genesis and you
find that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,
and the earth was without form and was void. And the Bible says,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And what did God
say? All of us should know it's probably
more popular than John 3.16. What did God say? Let there be
light. God said let there be light.
But if you notice something in that Genesis account, God said
let there be light, but He didn't create the sun for a couple more
days. Now the sun is what lights the
earth, right? The sun is what lights our earth, and the moon
is what lights the earth. But God didn't create that at
the very beginning. That was a couple of days later.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and
the earth was at form and void, and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And God said, let there be light,
and there was light. Brethren, I think this is talking
about who covers thyself with light as a garment. This is talking
about the manifestation of God in his manhood as Christ took
on that form or that manhood before the foundation of the
world. And we're not talking about the body that was prepared for
him whenever he was born of Mary. We're talking about that heavenly
manhood that Christ had talked about that he was the man from
heaven, that he was from heaven, that before the foundation of
the world, that he was inhabited by God before the mountains were
laid, before anything was laid, that God inhabited him. We're
talking about God manifesting himself in the face of the man,
Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world. That's how the
Word was with God and was God. He was God in the fact that all
the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily, but He was with God in the fact
that not only was there the divine Godhead, but there was the manhood,
that man that Christ, that God inhabited to display who God
was. See, we don't know anything about
God because God is invisible, God is a spirit, but God has
taken on a form and in that face, in the face of Christ Jesus,
we talked about it, was it last week or the week before last,
that there's only one mediator between God and man. Anything
that we know of God or have seen of God is in the face of Jesus
Christ. It says here that God covered
himself with light as a garment who stretches out the heavens
like a curtain. So God covered himself with light
The light was at the beginning, before anything else was made. God created the light first.
The Bible says in Revelation that Jesus Christ was the firstborn
of all creation. So whatever that body, whatever
that life, flesh, and of course we know in the Transfiguration
that whatever Jesus showed to His disciples, that heavenly
body, that heavenly form, that he was, he was transfigured into
what? Light. He was a body of light. Whenever
we see him in the Revelation, every time that he is seen in
the Revelation, he is seen as what? As a bright light, as a
body of light. Whenever Isaiah saw God high
and lifted up, he saw him as bright light. Anytime anybody
ever seen Christ in that type of form, in his heavenly form,
They saw Him as bright light. And so here we see that He covers
them. But notice also in Psalms 36 and verse 9, turn back just
a few chapters to Psalms 36 and verse 9. I think there's another
portion of Scripture here that might give us a little bit more
identification of this. Verse 9, it says, For with thee
is the fountain of life, in thy light shall we see light. For in thy light, in the fountain
of life, who is the fountain of life? Well, God is the fountain
of life. Christ is said to be the fountain of life. In Him
is life. He is the way. He is the truth and He is the
life. God has given Him power over
all flesh to give eternal life. So not only is He the generator
of physical life, He is the generator of spiritual life. He is the
fountainhead of all that lives physically and He is the fountainhead
of all that lives spiritually. Christ is that life. And here
we see this life, this fountainhead of life. In thy light shall we
see life. Who is the light of God? Is He
not Christ? Is it not Christ? In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was made flesh. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and all things were created by Him.
And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And after
that light came, what happened? Everything else came. Everything
else was created. God formed everything. So brethren,
I can't help but see Christ already in this. Bless the Lord, O my
soul. O Lord my God, Thou art great,
Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. When we look at God
and we see God in His divine attributes, when we see God in
His divine character, when we see God in His predestinating
work, His declaring all things, the end from the beginning, when
we see God in all that He is, that honor and majesty is seen
in the face of Jesus Christ. We only know of that through
Jesus Christ. Look at verse 3, he goes on to
say, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who
maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of
the wind, who maketh his angels spirits,
his ministers the flaming fire. We just, we just sang that in
that hymn in the Gadsby just a minute ago. how Christ has
created all things, and He even has the angels that are attending
upon Him and upon His people, who make of His angels' spirits
His ministers of flaming fire. As a matter of fact, if you look
in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14, I think that's the verse that
I'm warning here, Verse 13, it says, but to which
of the, Hebrews 1, 13, it says, but to which of the angels said
he at any time sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstools? Are they not all, speaking of
angels, ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation? So the angels were made to be
angels not only ministering to God, but to ministering to his
people. He maketh His angels spirits,
His ministers a flaming fire. God has made all things. He laid
the beams of His chambers in the waters. The foundations of
the world have been laid, have been set. The Bible says that
the foundations of the earth have been made and that they
shall not be removed. By the way, the earth has foundations,
the Bible says. It's not hung out in the middle
of space by invisible thread. It has foundations. It says,
Who hath laid the foundations of the earth that it should not
be removed forever? Thou cover'st it with the deep
as with a garment. So he says that he laid the foundations
of the earth and then he covered it with water. Is that not what
the Genesis account said? that He created the heavens and
the earth, and the earth was out of form and was void, and
darkness was up on the face of the deep. All that was there
was just water. But look at verse 7. In Genesis,
what happened after that? He began to separate the water
and the dry land, right? At thy rebuke they fled at the
voice of thy thunder, they hasted away." What hasted away? The waters that stood above the
mountains. The mountains were there, but
the waters covered them. And at his voice, the waters
fled from the mountains and went away. It says, verse 8, they
go up by the mountains and they go down by the valleys unto the
place which thou hast founded for them. So we don't even think
about it, but God has determined that everything that was covered
by water at one time that he created, that out of that he
would make dry land and then water, the seas and the land.
And he divided that by the word of his mouth. He just commanded
and the mountains rose up out of the waters and the waters
receded down to the place. And where did he put the waters?
The waters came to the bottom of the mountains. The waters
flowed down through the valleys and they stayed exactly where
they wanted to. But I want you to pay close attention to this
next one. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over,
that they turn not again to cover the earth. God has set the boundaries
for the waters where they can go where they can't flood the
earth anymore. Now whenever he destroyed the
earth with water, he made a promise that he would never destroy it
again by water. Now at that time he brought judgment upon the
earth and he flooded it with water and surely it covered the
whole earth. But brethren, once they receded
back to where God originally had created all things, He has
commanded that He would never flood the earth like that ever
again. And that promise is still true today. Matter of fact, that's
why God gave the rainbow. It was a promise that He would
never flood the earth. So every time you see a rainbow,
always remember that God put the rainbow in the sky to be
a sign to man that He would never flood the earth or destroy the
earth water ever again. It's not about pride, okay? The
rainbow was stolen by the queers, okay? But that's not what the
rainbow is about. The rainbow is the promise of
God. Now, whenever he put that rainbow in the sky and said he'd
never flood it again, he brought those waters back to their boundaries
where he said, These are where these things are going to go,
and they're not going to ever flood the earth again. But look
what he said there. He says, Thou hast set a bound
that they may not pass over. I was kind of curious this morning.
I looked up that word bound to see what that word bound is.
In the Hebrew, that word bound is found like 128 times in the
King James Bible. 70 times. That word bound, the word is
translated coast. He has set a coast that they
may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth.
And I got to thinking about that when I read that. All these environmentalists
out there that are saying, oh, the icebergs are melting and
it's going to flood all the world and all the land is going to
be covered up. And we're not going to be able
to live anymore because all the global warming or climate is
now just climate change. Because they first said it was
going to all freeze. Then they was wrong about that. Then they
said it was all going to melt. Then they was wrong about that.
Now they just say climate change. But it says here that God has
set a bound that they may not pass over. Listen, there ain't
no way that this place is ever going or that we by man-made
anything is going to be able to create a way that this earth
is going to be flooded. God has set the bounds of the
coast that the waters will not pass over, that they turn not
again to cover the earth. Verse 10, he says, He sendeth
the springs into the valleys which run among the hills. So every one of those little
springs. Now here in Missouri, we have a lot of springs. We
have a lot of little springs, a lot of little creeks. A lot
of rivers and lakes and everything. One of the places that we really
love to go to is down to Roaring River. And Roaring River comes
up out of the spring. It comes up out of the ground
and deep inside this cave. If you've ever been there, you
know what I'm talking about. And I mean, it is deep. Matter
of fact, the scuba divers, people that go down there, still have
not found the bottom or the source of that spring where Roaring
River comes. They send divers down there,
and they can't get down to the bottom of it. It's so deep, and it's
amazing. When you look at it, it's so clear and so blue, and
they got big old traps swimming around in there. It's just beautiful.
But whenever you're standing and looking there, you see all
these little streams of water that's running down, that's falling
down into this river also. If you look at the map, you see
all these rivers on the map, and you see all these little
tributaries that are running in there, all these little streams.
Listen, that didn't happen by chance. All those bodies of water
come from other places where water has stood and has formed
and worked and eroded its way down to where it works as a channel
where it becomes not only a stream, but a creek, and then maybe a
river. And it opens up these channels.
It may form ponds. It may form lakes. It may form
other tributaries. And we think, well, that's just
natural occurrence. It's just naturally happened. Well, right
here, the Bible tells us that it's God who has done all these
things. God has set the boundary of the waters, and he sent the
springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. I don't
know if any of y'all have been there, but we've been up to Bella
Vista, Colorado. And just north of there is a
place called Leadville. Leadville, Colorado is the springhead
or the fountainhead for the Arkansas River. If you've ever been across
the Arkansas River, whether it's been in Tulsa or down in Arkansas,
you could go across it down in Little Rock. It's a lot bigger
down there than it is in Tulsa. But whenever you go up there,
me and Lori one time, we went up there to Bella Vista, and
of course I've been to Leadville one time when I was singing,
and we saw some up there, but the Arkansas River is about that
wide. up there. You can literally walk right
over without having to jump. I mean, it's just tiny. Just
a little stream that comes out. And by the time it gets down
to Little Rock, Arkansas, that thing is about a half a mile
wide. I mean, it's big. That didn't just happen that
way. The Bible says here that God sent it the springs into
the valleys which run among the hills. Even the tiniest things
is water running and where it runs in the channels that it
runs in. God has set their course. He says they give drink to every
beast in the field. The wild asses quench their thirst. So here we see that God, in all
this water that he has made, and in all the streams that he's
caused to move wherever it is at, he takes them exactly where
he wants them to be because they're there to feed and to water all
the animals and where he has placed them. He says, They give
drink to every beast of the field. The wild asses quench their thirst.
By them shall the fowls of the heavens have their habitation,
which sing among the branches." So all these streams that have
made their way down and all the vegetation and the trees that
flourish because of them being beside these tributaries and
these waterways and everything. I mean, you ever go to a lake,
you see there's a lot of trees and things and rivers. There's
always trees and bushes and stuff. All the stuff springs up, well
God put them there. God caused each one of those
to grow so that a bird would have a place to sleep. So a bird
would have a place to sit and to look into that water that
God caused to be there for the fish that God caused to come
through there so that they can go down and grab that fish. You know
a lot of times we go over, matter of fact we just went over there
last weekend to Stella to try to see if there was any eagles
out. And they got a little creek that
runs right there through Stella. And every now and then you'll
see them birds will fly over and they'll try to grab something
out of that water. God put them trees there. God put that waterway
there so that those birds would have something to eat, something
to sit on. You think, well, man, that's
just kind of trivial, Mike. I think you're really kind of over-exaggerating
things. No, it's doing what we said right
here. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Bless
the Lord, thou art great, thou art clothed with honor and majesty,
who has given us Christ, and Christ has created all things.
And the Bible says He's created all things for Himself. There's
a purpose in why God created those things out in those forests
that's going on, all those bugs and animals and reptiles and
whatever else, beasts that are in there, that people don't even
live there. They're just toiling with activity
and life. We don't even know what's happening
in there. But God has put it there for a purpose, and it's
for His purpose. He's put it there for Him. We don't know
what the purpose is, but He's put it there for Him. Because
the Bible says all things were made by Him and for Him. So if it was made by Him, and
it's made for Him, then there is a purpose in which there is
a secluded nowhere that nobody knows about that has all this
life that's in it that is not doing anything for necessarily
mankind maybe that we know of, but is teeming and working and
surviving and living and thriving and dying and raising up again
and dying again and whatever else that life is doing in there, it's
all for him. By then shall the fowls of the
heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.
He watered the hills from his chambers. The earth is satisfied
with the fruit of thy works. He causes the grass to grow for
the cattle and herb for the service of man. And he bring forth food
out of the earth. So see all this stuff that grows
in the ground, comes up out of the ground. He feeds the cattle
with it. That isn't about man. Does a
man farm and plant stuff? Yeah, he does. But naturally
out of the earth, the Bible says, grows the grass that feed the
cattle. And then guess what the cattle feed? The cattle feed
us. I guess some of us, some people
are kind of like the cattle, they just like to eat grass.
Anyway. I like to eat salad by way of
cattle. He says, He causes the grass
to grow for the cattle, the earth for the service of man, that
he may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh
glad the heart of man. Oh, wait a minute, preacher,
you better strike that out of there. God didn't make wine for
us to drink. And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil
to make his face to shine, and bread would strengthen man's
heart. See, God has even given all things that sustain us, not
only for strengthening who we are in our body by food, or by
helping with our appearance and our complexion or whatever with
oil, but even the merriment of our heart by giving us wine.
Now, that's not to say to overindulge. I'm not saying go get drunk.
That's not what God's saying here either. That's the problem.
People don't know how to make a distinction between what the
Bible teaches about wine and strong drink and getting drunk.
God says that we're not to get drunk. But He did make the wine
that makes the heart of man glad. He blessed man by giving him
more wine. Whenever Israel did good, God
gave him more wine. So there can be a merriment that
can be of your heart by wine, and God provides that. How did
He do that? He caused a stream to go, or water to fall, a plant
to grow, produce grapes. Those grapes were then given
by knowledge that somehow somebody was given by God to crush those
grapes and to find out, hey, when you crush those grapes and
bottle them up, they make something that tastes pretty darn good.
And there you go. There's where the wine came from.
But all that came from God. Simple things. Tiny things that
we don't even think about. It says, the trees of the Lord
are full of sap. The cedars of Lebanon, which
he had planted. How many of y'all like maple
syrup on your pancakes? Many of y'all ever sit down in
a waffle house and poured that syrup on your pancake or your
waffle and said, you know what, I thank the Lord for that tree
that grew that maple. I don't. I'll be honest with
you, I give a blanket thank you for the food, but never do I
hardly ever sit down and say, you know what, that maple syrup
came out of a tree and God put the sap in that tree. Right here
he said he put the sap in the tree. Now I don't know about
the cedar tree. I've never had sap out of a cedar tree. That
to me sounds like it might be a little rough, but I don't know. The Lord said it. I guess we
can always give it a try. Says the trees of the Lord are
full of sap. The cedars of Lebanon, which
he had planted. By the way, that sap can be used for other things
like pancakes. Where the birds make their nests
as the stork, the fir trees are her house. He says the high hills,
are a refuge for the wild goats and the rocks for the Coneys.
Now that's not Chili Cheese Coneys there, by the way. Hey, I am thankful that the Lord
has made Chili Cheese Coneys there. Especially Coney Islander,
I am thankful that the Lord has made that. My wife She does not glorify the Lord
in Coney Islanders, but I do. I think you said it would make
people's mouth water. No, the Coneys here, these are
rabbits. The word Coneys here in the King
James Bible is talking about a wild rabbit. He says, the high
hills are a refuge for the wild goats and the rocks for the Coneys.
He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun, Noah, is going down. So the Lord has given the moon
for seasons. You know, we've completely obliterated
the whole way that God has set up the sun and the moon. The
Bible says in Genesis that He gave the sun and the moon for
times and for seasons. The sun is for times, is what
time it is a day. And the moon was given for us
to know what seasons are. And for a long time, people knew
what time it was and knew the season that it was. because of
the sun and the moon. But then somehow, somewhere along
the way, somebody wanted to change the calendar to form some, to
meet some sort of pagan thing and got all these dates and times
and month and seasons and all that kind of stuff all squirreled
around and everything. And while, yes, we look at the
moon, we see, well, it's a half moon, it's a crescent moon, it's
a new moon, it's a full moon or whatever. You know, we do
that. Well, God had that actually designed the moon to shine like
that to be for seasons. Now, I want to put forth to you
guys, you guys kind of know my thoughts about this. I think
Brother Larry agrees with me on this and his family. But the Bible says that he put
two lights in the sky. One to govern the day and one
to govern the night. He said two lights, not one light.
He put two lights. He didn't put one light in the
sky and the other reflects that light. He said he put two lights
in the sky, one to govern the day and one to govern the night. Then of course there's several
places in the scripture that the Bible says that the moon
puts off its own light. It says that the moon, that God
caused the moon to cease to give off its own light. It ceased
to give its light. So I believe that that God give
two lights, one to tell the time, one to tell the season. The purposes
that God put on there was for that, and He set them in their
courses. They follow that course year
after year, month after month, day after day. It follows the
course that God has done because that is God's timepiece. God
has showed forth time to man, and He has put those two great
lights there, not only to give us light that we can see and
function and operate, but He's given it there so that we might
know the time and the seasons. And every intricate aspect of
that is governed by God and given by God. But most of us, we just
wake up and we know, oh, it's daylight. Okay, now it's dark.
We look at our watch. Time to go to work. Oh, it's
time to go home. It's time for bed. But yet God has provided
all that for us in this earth that He's created. It says, Thou
makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the
forest do creep forth. Thou makest darkness. I thought
darkness was just absence of life. I've heard people say, He only created light and darkness
is just absence of light. The Bible says it right here
that He maketh darkness and it is night. But it also says that
He has created all things for Himself. And it says that He
created the light and He created the darkness. Wherein all the beasts of the
forest do creep. The young lions roar after their
prey and seek their meat from God. Every time you hear a lion
roar, guess what? It came from God. The sun ariseth. They gather themselves together
and lay them down in their dens. So these lions, they gather themselves
together. During the heat of the day, they'll
go lay in the den to keep cool. Why? Because God's given them
a den to go lay in. It says, man goeth forth unto
his work and to his labor until the evening. Oh Lord, how manifold
are thy works. And that's all I can say whenever
reading through all these things, especially these little tiny,
seemingly insignificant things. Whenever you begin to ponder
them, that's the thing that comes to my mind is, oh Lord, how manifold. That word manifold there means
how many or how great, how numerous. How numerous are thy works! God has provided everything.
Did you know that God has created the very light that we're looking
at here? Even though this is artificial light, it's not light
like from the sky or from Christ. This is artificial light that
comes from energy. And that energy was derived from
some sort of a river somewhere, causing a turbine to spin. It
causes electricity in a motor. That motor stored up in battery
packs that is distributed out to places? Well, all that came
from God causing the mountains to rise and the waters to fall
and those rivers to flow and giving man knowledge to be able
to make a motor to even turn and a battery to store it in
and how to lay lines to do it in and how to wire those things
without killing themselves. out, but God give that wisdom. It says, in wisdom has thou made
them all, the earth is full of thy riches. So is the great and
wide sea, wherein all things creeping innumerable, both small
and great beasts. And you think about it, me and
the boys was talking about this the other day, how scary the ocean
is really. I mean, the ocean really is scary. You've ever
been out on the ocean or if you've ever been out on a large body
of water, especially whenever the sea is pretty tumultuous.
It's scary, man. The water can do a massive damage. You see these tidal waves, these
tsunamis destroying cities as they come in, and everything
to the coast. Whenever you're in the ocean,
I mean, it's just scary. And then you get down into the
ocean, and there are so many things. I was watching a video
the other day with some guy taking a camera, and threw it off and
it sank down and went down like 5,000 feet or something like
that in the ocean. And he was getting footage of
what was down there. And I mean, listen, there's all kinds of
little things that was swimming around in there that was spooky
looking, man, that we don't ever see because it's not up where
we're at in the water where we see. But it's down there. And
just think of how big the world is and how much ocean is out
there and how deep the depths are and how we probably have
never seen some of the things that are out there. But they're
there. The Bible says they are. It says, We're in all things
creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the
ships out on the sea. God has made the sea so that
ships could sail upon them. How is man going to get over
here to the United States from over there in Europe? God made
the sea and he made man to be able to build boats and boats
were able to sail over here and get us to here. It says, there
is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein, the Leviathan,
that's the sea creature, Cthulhu. It's the sea creature, the great
sea monster. It says, these wait all upon
thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. Every
one of them things eat and are fed by God. You say, well, no,
they aren't. They just swim around in the
ocean and they just gobble up whatever fish they come across. Well, who put that fish there
that they came across? Who give them the appetite for
that kind of fish? It just so happens that that
kind of fish is what this fish eats, and it just so happens
that that fish is found in the same body of water as this fish. that thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest thine hand, they
are filled with good. So God provides everything for
them. Don't we also read that the Bible
talks about the birds? He said, you know, the hairs
on our head are numbered. He says he knows all the birds
and he feeds every one of them and not one of the birds falls
to the ground and he doesn't know about that as well. He says,
thou hidest thy face, they are troubled. Whenever thou removes,
whenever he removes his hand of giving good, they're troubled. If God removes that, there's
famine, there's drought. They can't eat, they can't drink,
they die. That's not what happens, not
even with animals, but with men. And we read about it all the
time in the Bible, especially with Israel. There were times
of famine. They didn't have food to eat.
They had to travel to other countries to get food because they didn't
have no food. Why? Because there was also a
drought. Whenever there's a drought, nothing can grow. See, it started
off with the very simple things. Water flowing down, vegetation
rising up. Very simple things that we don't
even think about. But whenever God removes His hand, where there
is no water and there is no vegetation, what happens? Look at the next
verse. He says, Thou hidest thy face, and they are troubled.
Thou takest away their breath. They die and return to their
dust. All of life is sustained by God's
hand. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit.
They are created. And thou renewest the face of
the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure
forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his
works. He looketh on the earth and it
trembleth. He toucheth the hills and they
smoke. And what does the psalmist, whenever he has seen all these
things and took a glimpse of just the simple things, the intricate
things, what would, to me, for most of us, the minute things,
he says, I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live. I will
sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of Him
shall be sweet. I will be glad in the Lord. Let
the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked
be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord. Now, I started off with this
talking about Christ and how we may see Christ in all this.
And we saw that Christ was there at the beginning, and the beginning
was the Word, and all things were created by Him. And He is
the light of men. And God is the One who created
the light before He ever created the sun and the moon. He created
the light and the light was there and the Spirit of God hovered
upon the face of the waters and everything began to be formed
by His Word. By His Word. Who is the Word? Christ was the Word. In Colossians
chapter 1 and verse 15. Speaking of Jesus, it says, Who
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature? For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. That's kind of weird. He created
even the things that are invisible. When you think of things that
are invisible, how do you create something that you don't see?
What are the things that are invisible that He created? Wind. Air. Wind is invisible. Air is invisible. But we also
learned that he created the ministering spirits, the angels. They are
invisible. So all things that are in the
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things are created by him
and for Him, and here it is, and He, Christ Jesus, the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, is before
all things, and by Him all things consist, are as held together. In 1 Timothy, if you look in
1 Timothy, I don't know if God can see the
invisible things or not or if they're still invisible even
to him but he knows them and he knows where they're at he
knows what they're doing and they do do everything that he
says. Ghosts are invisible. until they decide. The Holy Ghost
is invisible? Yeah, ghosts are invisible unless
they want you to see them, then they will appear in front of
you. I don't know about all that stuff.
I can only say what I know by experience and what the Bible
says, but I don't know. Yeah, I've experienced a few
things. The Bible says that a poor man
once died after judgment. and that whenever we are absent
from the body, we're present with the Lord, or we're somewhere
else. But I don't know. There's a lot
of mystery in that. But back to what I was saying.
In 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, the Bible says, and without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in this flesh justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up
into glory." Christ is God manifested in the flesh. Anything that is seen of God,
it is Christ who is being seen. Because anything that is manifest
of God, revealed of God, He is the revelation of who God is. There are three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. That invisible Godhead finds its fullness, or pours
its fullness, has its fullness manifested in Christ Jesus. And
so Christ Jesus is the one who has displayed all the things
of God. And all these things that we talked about in the creation
of the world and the governing of all the things, even down
to the very minute, intricate details, is by Christ Himself. All things were created by Him
and for Him and by Him. They consist. That word consist
not only means just held together, but that word consist means they
have their being. They have their purpose. They
are held together and put together and kept together and continue
to function in the purpose in which God created them and put
them in the places that He put them for His purposes. And they're
all there. As a matter of fact, one more
scripture I want to read and then we'll be done is in Romans. Romans 11 and verse 36. Speaking of Christ Jesus, it
says this, For of Him, that means from Him,
out of who He is, out of His being, and through Him, by His
working, and to Him for His purpose or for His glory, are all things
to whom be glory forever. For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. So brethren,
I encourage you this morning to look at even the very simplistic
things of life, the very minute things of life, everything that
happens, that has ever happened, that ever will happen to the
very smallest detail. It's all been done because of
Christ Jesus and for Christ Jesus, and it'll be for His glory. And
so we as His people ought to bless the Lord and give glory
to His name. Amen? All right, anybody got
anything you'd like to add? Any comments or corrections? You don't know, but you think
that God I can't see what he has created. He knows. I'm saying I don't know because
the Bible doesn't tell me whether he can see those things. It just
says they're invisible. Now whether he can see them,
we don't know that because he hasn't revealed that to us. He
hasn't given us that information. But whether or not he can see
them or not, he knows they're there because he knows every
angel that he created. He definitely knows the wind
because he controls it. The Bible says that out of his
storehouse comes the whirlwind. So the wind is controlled by
him, the winds and the waves. You remember that time when Jesus
came walking on the water, and there was a storm at the sea,
and he comes walking out on the water, and he said, peace be
still. And the winds and the waves,
they all went silent and still. The storm stopped. And God said,
man, who is this man that even the winds and the waves obey
his commands? He commands even the wind, so that's invisible.
He commands all the spirits, the angels. It's impossible for us to see,
but we can feel it. And we can see the branches and
the leaves moving around. Yeah, we can see the effects
of the wind. whenever he's talking about how
one's born again. He said the wind blows wherever
it goes, and you can't see it, but you can see the effects of
it. When the wind blows out there, I can't see the wind, but I can
see that the wind has caused that leaf to move, or that branch
to move, or that piece of trash to blow down the street or whatever.
So it is with the With being born again, you never know where
the spirit is going to go and who's going to be born, but you
can see the textbook. Maybe it's just air, pretty much. It's air and a bunch of, like,
mashed up together. Anybody else got anything? Any questions? Why don't you hold that in your lap?
Yeah. Nothing, nothing just wants to
be for a long day. All right. Nobody has any more
comments or questions. Father, we thank you again for
this day and thank you for your word and thank you for the grace
that you give us in Christ Jesus. We thank you, Father, for all
that you are and all that you do for your people. We thank
you, Father, that you've given us a mind to even think upon
these things today and their minutest details, that you've
given all things for your people. You've created, you say in your
word, you've created the habitation and placed us in the habitation
that we live. So even the place where we live,
the people that we are surrounded by, the people that we know,
the jobs that we have, everything in our life has been governed
by you and it's for your purpose. And so Lord, may you give us
the mind to praise you and to glorify you and to give honor
to you in what you are doing and as you are drawing all things
to its conclusion, may we trust you to be ever wise and ever
great to accomplish all the things that you have purposed. For it's
in Christ's name that we pray, amen.