Now here in Psalm 29, I titled this message, When the
Lord Speaks, Things Happen. When He speaks, things happen. In this psalm, everything is
credited to the Lord speaking. When He speaks, things happen,
whether it is in nature or in spiritual matters. Nothing happens
until He speaks. But when He speaks, nothing can
withstand His voice. If you'll notice how He brings
down the cedars of Lebanon, those big, tall, stately cedars. He shakes the mountains. When
God speaks, things happen. And nothing can withstand His
voice. Now this is a psalm of David, and many have said that
I read and said that David more than likely wrote this psalm
during a thunderstorm. And during that storm, he could
hear the voice of God in it. He was attuned to God's voice.
Now it says here, in verse 1, he says, Give unto the Lord,
O ye mighty, that is, you mighty ones, you leaders, first. He
speaks to the leaders first. You know, if a man is put in
a leadership position, one of the first things he ought to
do is give God the glory. Because it is God who put him
there. No man just has a position. God gives it. And God puts the
man there. Given to the Lord, O ye mighty,
given to the Lord glory and strength. Now we know that we cannot give
God anything. We know that. He is complete. He lacks nothing. But what we
are to do is ascribe. That's what that word means.
Give, it means to ascribe. It means to ascribe to Him all
glory and strength. When the opportunity comes around,
we are to give unto Him the glory that's due unto Him. All men,
especially great men, are to acknowledge Him, to be above
all things, and to be in all things. That's why He says, O
ye mighty, ye sons of the mighty. And He's also speaking here of
the angels. That the angels will give unto Him all glory and honor
and praise. We know that all the glory and
creation belongs to Him. It's written in Colossians 1.16,
For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions,
or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. There is no throne, there is
no principality, there is no power that exists on this earth
and that exists in the unseen world, that spiritual realm,
there's no power that God has not created. And he's speaking
here in Colossians 1 of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who
created it. then all glory in providence
is to be ascribed to God. When you read the newspapers,
which nowadays we don't have much of the newspaper, we've
got the internet so much, but when we read the news, you're
reading the providence of God. When I look upon today, when
I look upon yesterday, you know what I see? I see the will and
purpose of God that was accomplished through His providence. That's
what it is. And then all glory and salvation
belongs to Him. He devised it. It's the Father
who purposed it. It's the Father who chose us.
He's the one who executed it in the person of His Son. He's
the one who applies it by the Holy Spirit. And He's the one
who sustains it. We don't keep ourselves. God
keeps us. We are kept by the power of God
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's the one who
brings it to completion. And then it says again in verse
2, Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. It's really,
when I read this, to me there's a sadness that this has to even
be said. They don't say that in heaven,
I guarantee you right now. In heaven, they're not saying,
give unto Him the glory. They do it. It's automatic. It's
automatic. The fact that you and I have
to be told to love one another, isn't that sad? That we have to be told to do
that. In glory, they don't have to be told to love one another,
they do love one another. They do love one another. But
here he says, "...given to the Lord the glory due unto His name."
The glory of His person, God. For the last few days, I don't
know why, I guess the Lord just put this on my mind, I have been
thinking about the eternality of God. There was no time He
didn't exist. I've just been trying to wrap
my mind a little bit around that, that there's no time that God
Almighty did not exist. He has no beginning of days nor
end of life. We can't even begin to scratch
the surface of the being of God. But what we do know through the
Scriptures and by experience, let's ascribe all glory to Him.
Let's give Him the glory. Let's do His name and worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Let us never give to the creature
what belongs to God. what belongs to the Lord God
Almighty. And note the word here, worship. What is it to worship
God? Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Or first of all, worship is an
act of the heart. It's from the heart. God is not
worshipped with men's hands. He is worshipped from the heart. It starts in the heart. It's
a heart matter. It is the heart that adores Him. You know, the Scripture speaks
in, I think it's Thessalonians, it says, when He comes to be
admired of His saints. To worship Him is to admire Him. It's to absolutely adore Him. It's to stand in awe of Him.
That's what it is to worship Him. We worship Him from the
heart. We worship Him in reverence with
respect. You know, when I was talking
to somebody here just the other day, and I was talking about
when I was just a little fellow, I couldn't have been much more than eight,
nine years old maybe, I can remember going to the church, so-called. I can remember people passing
out. I can remember that they'd go up and down the aisle testifying,
and the guy never got to preach. Rarely did he get 15 minutes
to preach because it was just chaos. It was chaos. Worship is to be done with reverence. It's to be done in awe and with
respect. We worship Him in spirit and
in truth, we worship Him in reverence, and we worship Him in the beauty
of holiness. It says over in Psalm 110, Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauty
of holiness. The beauty of holiness, and I've
been reading on this and thinking about this, Here's the beauty
of holiness. When we worship Him with real,
sincere, hard affection and adoration, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. And it's of God. And if it's
of God, it's holy. It's holy. Now, notice as we
look at the next few verses how the voice of God is speaking
in all the elements of creation. He says here in verse 3, "...the
voice of the Lord is upon the waters." And that means deep
waters. The God of glory thundereth.
The Lord is upon many waters. We see this, first of all, right
in Genesis chapter 1. That the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the water. And what did God say? He spoke. Let there be light. And then
from there on, He created. He created all that we see. But
the first thing He did was the Spirit of God moved upon the
waters, and then He spoke. Then we see the voice of God
upon the waters at the Red Sea. Israel standing there, the enemy
at their back. What are they going to do? And
God speaks, and God parts that water. God parts that water. Then we see the parting of it
at Jordan. But in a spiritual sense, It says here, the voice
of the Lord is upon the waters. I have to think of that water
that came out of that rock when Moses smote it. And I think of the water that
came from the side of Christ when they plunged that spear
into His side. God's voice is in that. And the
God of glory, He says, thundereth. God speaks in the storm. You
know, science, they tell us all the elements that have to come
together to create a thunderstorm and lightning, but David and
all the Old Testament prophets, when they speak of the weather,
they speak of God acting. When you observe the weather,
I put this in the bulletin, when you observe the weather, you
are observing God in action. Turn over to Job chapter 37.
Let me see if that's the right chapter. I didn't write it down,
but I think that's the one I put in the bulletin. You young people, you think about
this next time you see it snow or you hear thunder and lightning,
you think of this. At this also my heart trembles
and is moved out of its place. Hear attentively the noise of
His voice and the sound that goes out of His mouth. He directs
it under the whole heaven and His lightning unto the ends of
the earth. After it a voice roars, that
is the thunder. He thundereth with the voice
of His excellency." That's not just thunder. That's the voice
of God. God's speaking in that thunder.
He has a voice in the thunder. "...Great things doth he which
we cannot comprehend. For he saith to the snow, Be
thou on the earth..." Man looks at snow and he says, all the
right elements came together. The believer looks at it and
says, God said, let it snow tonight. And He brought all the elements
together. Likewise, to the small rain and
to the great rain of his strength, he seals up the hand of every
man that all men may know his work. Then the beasts go into
dens and remain in their places. Out of the south cometh the whirlwind
and cold out of the north. Listen, by the breath of God,
frost is given. Frost is given, and the breath
of the waters is straightened. Also by watering he weareth the
thick clouds, he scattereth his bright cloud, and it turneth
round about by his counsels that they may do whatsoever he commands
them upon the face of the world and the earth. Now that's what
you see. Weather is seeing God in action. That's what you're seeing now.
You're not just seeing elements just coming together. God speaks in the storm. He speaks
in the thunder. He speaks in the rain. He speaks
in the snow. The Lord, it says also here,
is upon many waters. Now let me put this in a spiritual
sense. This represents trials in the
believer's life. Deep waters. In Psalm 144.7,
listen to this, "'Send Thine hand from above, rid me, and
deliver me out of great waters.'" Great trouble. "...from the hand
of strange children." Psalm 18.16, "'He sent from above, He took
me, and drew me out of many waters.'" out of many waters. Psalm 69,
listen to this, verse 1 and 2. "'Save me, O God, save me, O
God, for the waters are coming into my soul. I sink in deep
mire where there's no standing. I am come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me.' But the Lord's upon those trials."
He's upon those deep waters. Turn to Psalm 56. Psalm 56. You know where the deepest waters
are? You know where they are? You know where the deepest waters
are? It's the tears that run down
your face. Those are the deep waters. Look in Psalm 56, look
in verse 8. Thou tellest my wonderings, putt
thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book? The
deepest waters are not the ones of the ocean that God sits upon
and controls. The deep waters are the ones
that run down your face. And He sits upon those, and He
has ordained them, and He controls. He controls the trial that brings
the tears. He controls it from its beginning
to its end. He manages it and He rules over
it. Deep waters. By His Word, trials are commanded. By His Word, they are controlled. When I read this before coming
down here, I thought of Christ walking on
the water. Remember that storm? Our Lord walked on the water
and He commanded the wind and the waves to be still. He is
upon the waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. When the Lord speaks,
power goes forth. None can drown Him out. You know,
you stand at the foot of Niagara Falls, it's loud. It's loud. But I tell you what,
it would sound like a drip from a faucet compared to God's voice. It's powerful. The voice of the
Lord is powerful. Power to condemn, power to save,
all according to His purpose. It is written in Psalm 62 11,
God has spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth
unto God. It doesn't belong to me and you,
it belongs to Him. Pilate said, don't you know I
have the power to condemn? I have the power to release you
or the power to crucify you. I have that power. No, you don't.
He said, Lord, let me straighten you up. What few times our Lord
did speak, When he was in that judgment hall, one of them was
to correct Pilate as to who gave him that power. He said, you
can have no power at all against me except to be given to you
from above. And whatever power someone may be exercising over
us, God gave it to them. And it's given to them for our
good. We may not see it for a long
time, but it's for our good. Power belongs to God. And this
also, listen, this applies to the gospel. When it comes in
power, when God speaks in power to the heart, He's going to be
heard. He's going to be heard. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 1.5,
"'For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in
power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you
know what manner of men we were among you.' But the gospel came
not to you in word only, but in power.'" Paul said this in Romans, "'I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation.'" You know what that word power there
means? Dynamite. It means it's the dynamite of
God. and to salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek." His word is powerful. The voice
of the Lord is full of majesty. Majesty. Your majesty. I love
that. Your majesty. Oh, I'm glad I'm able to say
that cheerfully. I'm glad I'm able to say that
willfully. Your Majesty, He's my King. I have a King. I recognize Him
over all other authority. He's the King. He's the Majesty. And His voice is full of majesty.
It means full of authority. You know, they said over Matthew
after our Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount, they said, He taught
them as one having authority and not as a scribe. You know,
the scribes, they just picked up the book and they read it.
But the Lord stood there and spoke with authority. And I'll
tell you this, His preachers speak with authority. This is
one of the ways I feel like that I can determine and have some
sense that a man is called of God to preach is when he preaches
with authority. and not just like a commentary,
but he preaches with authority. He speaks with authority. His voice is full of majesty.
Scripture says where the word of a king is, there's power.
There's majesty. There's greatness. The Lord never speaks in vain.
When He speaks, He speaks in power, He speaks in authority,
and He speaks with purpose. Our Lord, when He walked on this
earth, never ever uttered an idle word. How can the wisdom
of God utter an idle word? Not even possible. When God speaks the gospel in
power, when He speaks it in authority to the heart of a sinner, a sinner
is saved, Satan is cast out, and the power of sin is broken. Sin is not your master anymore.
If sin is your master, the Lord has never saved you. I'm not
saying we don't sin. I'm not saying we don't sin,
but it's not my master. I don't have to run every time
it whistles, like a dog does. You know, I got my old Gus out
there, my bird dog. I got a whistle. And when I had
him out in the field just the other day, I'd blow that whistle,
he'd turn and come. He'd go on out away from me,
I'd blow a whistle, he'd come. That's what sin does. It just
blows the whistle, and human nature just turns and runs to
it. But God breaks that power. He breaks the power of cancelled
sin. In the sin that we do, God uses
to teach us our dependence upon Him. We need Him. I need Him more now than I did
when I started. At least I realize that I do.
And then he says in verse 6, Well, wait a minute, I missed
a verse. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Yea, the
Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. Those tall cedars. Tall, stately-looking
cedars been there years and years. And when God thunders, and when
God sends lightning, He breaks those cedars. You ever seen a
tree split by lightning? I mean, you could take the biggest
The biggest, most solid oak you can find. An oak that's been
around for hundreds of years. And God hit it with lightning
and split it right in two. And burn it up. Bring it to nothing. When the Lord speaks in power,
He can break even the proudest of men. You know, when I preach
the gospel, I have no reason to despair of anyone who comes
in here. I don't care if a pauper comes
in here or if the president comes in here. If God speaks in power,
He's going to break them. He's going to break them. And
they're going to be broken. Paul is a great example of God
speaking in power. There's never a more proud man
walked on this earth than the Apostle Paul. And God struck
him down right on the road to Damascus. And there was no arguing
going on either, was there? He said, what would you have
me do, Lord? He turned that fast. God turned him that fast. And He maketh them also to skip
like a calf, Lebanon and Saraion like a young unicorn. What He's
saying here, I don't know what I always say, but I know this,
He's saying this, His Word is effectual. He moved the mountains. He moved them like a calf, like
a young calf. You ever see a rock slide? How
them rocks just, when the mountain shakes, if there's an earthquake
and the mountain shakes and it just rolls down, or an avalanche,
when the snow gives way and it goes rolling down the mountain. God's Word is effectual. He says
in Isaiah 55 11, So shall my word be that goeth forth out
of my mouth. It shall not return to me void.
It shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in
the things whereto I sent it. If God sends His Word to a sinner
to save that sinner, that sinner is going to be saved. He's going
to be saved. He or she is going to be saved.
Then the voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. You know when the gospel is preached
in power, it divides. It divides. Listen to Hebrews 4.12, For the
word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints of marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. He divideth the flames of fire."
The Gospel when it's preached can do different things. However
God sends it. It can warm the heart of a saint
and burn the dross off at the same time. It can be sent in
judgment on the wicked and there'll be condemnation. The flames of
fire are directed by the Lord to serve His purpose. He divideth
the flames of fire. And the voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Kadesh." Where was it that John the Baptist preached the
most? In the wilderness. Where was it that God sent Philip
to preach to a eunuch? Where was that at? The desert.
of the desert. His voice is heard in desert
places. And I thought of this, there
is no greater desolate place than the heart of a sinner. When
the Lord spoke to my heart, it was in a wilderness place, empty,
barren, dry, no good whatsoever. When God spoke to me, He spoke
to me in the wilderness. I was empty, dry, dead, useless. I was one useless human being,
a life of vanity. Oh, the voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Kadesh. I tell you what, this doesn't
sound like easy believism, does it? This doesn't sound like,
repeat this prayer after me. No, no, no. This sounds like
some real trouble going on here. This is some real shaking going
on here. A real conviction of sin, now I'm telling you, a real
conviction of sin, there's a real shaking. There's a real disturbance. God disturbs our false peace,
our false hope. He disturbs it. In verse 9, "...the voice of
the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forest,
and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory." I thought
this really jumped out at me, and I read several people, but
this thought came to me in all my readings. In the midst of
all this thunder and lightning and breaking of the cedars and
all this chaos that seems going on, New life is brought forth. New life is brought forth. First,
God takes care of that animal out there on the mountain that
you and I have no knowledge of. There's a deer out there, a hind
or a deer out there that's ready to have a calf. In the midst
of all this tempest and all this storm, God helps her to bring
forth this new life. He enables her to. Now listen. Listen. When the Lord saves a
sinner, there's a thunder of Sinai, there's a lightning of
conviction, there's a bringing down of pride and false hope,
but in the midst of all this, there's a new creation. A new man created in Christ Jesus. When the Lord convicts us of
sin, when you hear the gospel of power and He convicts us of
sin, you believe that He will not save you. You believe that.
You feel and believe that there's no way He'll save me. There's
no way He's going to have anything to do with me. No way. And yet in the midst of all that
conviction and thundering and the law thundering on your conscience,
He's bringing forth a new creation, a new life. And in His temple
does everyone speak of His glory in heaven, not one preacher. Not one preacher is saying, well,
there's my convert, that's a convert out there. No, no, no. They all
speak of His glory. And in His church, in His church,
everyone speaks of His glory, His person, He's God incarnate.
Everyone speaks of His redemptive glory. Everyone speaks of the
glory of His grace and the glory of His righteousness. We are
not here to identify the flesh. We are not here to recognize
one another. We are here to give unto Him
the glory due unto His name. And if we would use all of creation
as His temple, It all speaks of His glory. Not all can hear
it, but you can. You can hear it. You hear it
in the thunder. You see it in the lightning. You see it. You hear it. And you know it's
of God. The Lord sitteth upon the flood.
Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. He sitteth. That's rest, isn't
it? That's rest. That's rest. You know, a flood sweeps away
everything in its path, but it does not sweep God away. It doesn't
sweep Him away. But you know what I thought of
just after I sat, and I've looked at this for a few days. The Lord
sitteth upon the flood. It doesn't say floods here, it
says flood. Remember the ark? sat upon God's flood. God flooded
this earth. God flooded this earth above
the highest, I think it was 20 feet above the highest mountain.
This is what the waters were. But on top of that water, on
top of God's wrath, there was an ark. That ark represents Jesus Christ.
This is a good picture of our Lord sitting upon the flood of
God's wrath against sin. It didn't drown him. He said
this, I lay down my life and I take it up again. He knew he wasn't going to be
destroyed. He knew he was going to get the victory. He knew that. My servant shall fail. Oh, the
Lord sitteth upon the flood, and he sitteth king forever,
he sitteth victorious, and he sitteth at rest." He won the
victory. The battle's over. You know that
really, truly. The battle is over. It's done. Someone was talking to me about
a problem, a trouble, not too long ago. And they want me to
pray and pray about it. It mentioned it to me. And one
of the things that I said to them, I said, well, I said, let's
seek, you know, we seek the Lord and pray about it. And I said,
I do know this, the outcome's already determined. It's already
determined. I'm not going to change God.
God will change me. But I said, the outcome is already
determined. We'll just have to wait until
we get there to see what it is. But God gave us grace to get
there, graciously, in a manner that doesn't bring reproach on
His name. But the Lord said to the king forever, His rule, His
power shall never change. How many kings have come and
gone on this earth? Thousands upon thousands, not
millions, but thousands upon thousands. But there's one King
that sitteth forever. There's one King that was born
King. He was King, came into this world,
born King. He left as King. He sitteth as
King. He's King forever. King Jesus,
no change. Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday,
today, and forever. We have a forever King. And then I'll close. The Lord will give strength unto
His people. The Lord will bless His people
with peace. Now listen, out of all this thunder and lightning
and the breaking and the shaking, He says, the Lord will give His
people strength to go through this life, to go through your
troubles. He says, I'll give them strength
and I'll give them peace. Those are two things He promises
He'll do. I'll give them strength to endure, strength to continue,
and peace along the way. By His great power He will give
strength to His people, and He will give them peace of heart,
because they've been reconciled to God by the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ, and He'll give them peace in time of trouble.
He will calm their fears. The Lord's people will be blessed
with peace. In John 14, 27, the Lord said
this, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. Not
as the world giveth false peace, false hope. Not as the world
giveth, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid." Spurgeon gave this. He gives this peace
in three ways. Internal, external, and eternal. We have an internal. We have
the peace of God in our hearts. We have an external. We have
peace with God. We have eternal. We have the peace of God forever.
Forever.