This message will not do this text justice, certain
of that. No message would, nor ever does. But you will get some good things
out of it if you ask the Lord to just let you watch for a little
while. This is a marvelous portion of
Scripture here, Psalm 29. Men and women and young people—are
you with me? All right. Men and women and
young people need to do more meditating and contemplating
of God. Men and women and young people
need to just do a little, just stop and be quiet. Scripture says, Be still and
know that I am God. Contemplate God. Consider God's works, God's person. Stop and think about it a little
bit. The old saying is, stop and just smell His roses. They're His roses that He made. Just stop. Our generation, oh my, it's too much noise in
our generation. It's too much noise. Too many
things going on amid the clamor of things. People can't seem
to stop what they're doing for five minutes just to meditate,
to think, to think. We have things that occupy our
every moment. amid the clamor of TV sets and
music and so on and so forth and voices. We need to just shut
it all down for a little bit and just think. Just ponder. Contemplate. Ponder the person
and the power of our Lord God. The psalmist did. David was a
man who did that. would you like to have about
a fourth of david's would you like to have just an ounce of
of david's uh... relationship that was from sitting
on the hillside communion with his god while with the the books
of moses on his lap He must have written this psalm
while he was outside on a balmy evening, perhaps, maybe overlooking
the ocean or the mountains in the distance. He must have written
this at a time such as that when maybe a storm was approaching
out to sea and contemplating his Christ, the sweet psalmist
of Israel, had his guitar out. This is how he wrote the psalms.
Psalms are poetry written to music. That's what it means.
And he had his lute out, or whatever it was, his harp out on the hillside,
his Bible beside him, and he offered up sacrifice of his lips,
sacrifice of praise unto his God while considering the majesty
of his God and his surroundings. And that's what this is about.
Look at verse 1 with me. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, ye sons of the mighty,
sons of God, daughters of God. They're the only ones that will.
They're the only ones that will give unto the Lord this glory. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. And the word there, give, is
not add to or we can't give God anything. The word is ascribe
to Him or render to His account or give Him all the credit. That's what the word there means.
Give Him all the credit for all glory and all strength, the glory
of all things. Give it unto Him. Attribute it
unto Him. The glory of His mercy, His grace, His providence. Paul
said it. Paul summed it up in just one
sentence. By the grace of God, I am what I am. He is the I am
that He is. And therefore, I am what I am
by His grace. The glory of all things and all
strength. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Don't ascribe any glory to yourself or to anyone or anything. Don't ascribe any strength to
your own self, not to your own mental capacities or physical
strength. None of it. It's all of God. Every ounce of physical energy,
health, is of the Lord. Every bit of knowledge attained
is of the Lord. Ascribe unto Him all glory for
all things. The first thing the Lord hates
is a proud look. Anybody's proud of anything. Why does He hate it? Because
all things are a gift from Him. Ascribe unto Him all glory and
strength for all things. Verse 2, Give unto the Lord Ascribe
unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. And I'm to preach right
now of that verse. Oh my, it can't be done. But
try it anyway. The glory due unto His name. His name. What is His name? Call
His name Wonderful. Wonderful. But Bob Coffey preached
a message one time, and on that passage in Isaiah 9, he said
that maybe we should, from here on out, quit calling anything
or anyone wonderful, because that's his name. Call his name
wonderful, full of wonder, full of amazement, wonderful, counselor,
the mighty God, everlasting God, a scribe under his name. the glory due unto His name.
God, that's the reason taking His name on our lips without
glory unto it is blasphemy. It's taking His name in vain.
Any use of it, any use of His name, any light, flippant, careless
use of that name that does not ascribe the glory due unto it
is taking His name in vain. And God says, I will not hold
them guiltless who do that. His name is His glory. God. Jesus. Oh, I hear that precious name,
which means Savior. And I hear it used so lightly
and so carelessly and so blasphemously. Give unto that name the glory
due unto it. Jesus. Jesus means Savior. I am the Lord that is my name,
he said. Don't say Lordy, Lordy now. Don't say that. Don't ever use
that name. Accepting glory to it. Oh Lord
my God, when I in all some wonder. That's how you use that name.
Glory. Let's do unto it. Verse 2. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The only ones that will worship
Him, the only ones that will truly worship Him in spirit and
in truth are those who know something of His holiness. The only ones
that will truly worship Him in spirit and in truth are those
who know something of this holiness. This holiness. Only those who have seen Him
as holy, holy, holy. I contend, without apology, that
no one worships God who doesn't know Him first as holy. No one knows God who doesn't
know Him primarily standing as holy. Because that's how the
Scriptures describe Him more than anything. We are holy. Holy, holy. That's why what we
do here and the way we do it, this is solemn. This is serious. This is holy. It is. This is
holy worship. We're for a holy God. It's a
holy thing. We're a holy people. Offer up
holy. lips and hearts and eyes. It's a serious thing. The beauty
of holiness, holiness. Take off your shoes because we're
on holy ground. Take off your spiritual shoes. Wear your real ones out of respect. Let the beauty of holiness worship
Him in that way. Now, it begins in verse three
to talk about the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord. And it says this seven times
through this song, seven times, the number of perfection. It's
alluded to more than that, but the voice of the Lord is spoken
seven times, the voice, the voice, my voice you hear now, my speech. This is the spoken word. This is word. The word that you're
hearing. Well, the scripture says, My
sheep shall hear my voice. My voice. Now, we're going to
look at several things on down through here. And they all have
reference to Christ. Glorious references of Christ. glorious, ascribing glory to God. Bear
with me. If you're uncomfortable, I'm
more. Bear with me. This is glorious, okay? The voice
of the Lord. Give me your attention. Verse
3. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The voice of the
Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory, the Lord is
upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters, upon many waters. God's voice is heard in the elements. I jotted down a few things. They're
in this. But God's voice is heard in the
elements. It's heard in the water. It's
heard in the wind. It's heard in fire. It's heard
in the fire. And God's voice is heard in these
elements. And it says here, the voice of
the Lord is in the waters, upon the waters, upon many waters. Have you ever heard God's voice
in a bubbling book? Well, not too long ago, the Parks
and my family camped out along the shores, the pearly white
beaches. and of those crystal blue waters
of that ever-flowing oasis called the Pig River. We camped along
that, and as small as that is and as polluted as it may be,
yet, you know, we sat there and listened to that water bubbling
over that brook. It says something about that,
doesn't it? Something about it. You know, it speaks to me. Christ
is all and in all. He's to be heard and seen and
all things. And naturally, when you say water,
every time you look at water, the minute that word is mentioned,
you ought to think of Christ. Ascribe unto Him the glory due
unto Him. He said the water of life. That
water, oh, it can go on and on about a flowing body of water,
couldn't you? It's ever the same, yet it's
always different. It's always new and fresh. That's
the mercies of God in Christ. Oh, that's the voice of God that's
heard in the bubbling brook, the raging sea. I had the opportunity
of going out to sea one time for ten days. I was on a sailing
vessel with six other young men. And we went out to sea for 10
days, 150 miles out to sea on this sailing vessel. And we got
into some, not gales, but I thought they were. I thought they were
hurricane stand. It's landlubber, you know. I
thought this is it, this is the end. And there was some experienced
sailor on board who says it's just a little squabble, just
a little squall. But to look out over that vast
ocean, huge roaring waves, never-ending, never-ending. And the power,
the literal power of that thing called the ocean of God, the
voice of God is heard in the water. I am that I am. The Lord walked out there one
day, Joe, and said, Now, y'all hush up. I'm talking. He couldn't be heard over the
waters. He said, You hush. I'm going to do the talking. A raging sea, even still waters. Can you hear when he leads you
beside, have you ever been beside a farm pond? Some of you have
been fishing on a farm pond where the narrowest sound is to be
heard. There is a sound to be heard in that still water, even
in the still water, a sound of peace, peace. It speaks of Christ
and upon the waters. His voice is upon the waters.
That says the voice, the Word of God is upon the water. It
made me think of an incident some nineteen hundred years ago.
One stormy evening on the Sea of Galilee. some fishermen were
riding in a boat, and they said, Who's that? There's somebody
walking on the water. Who is that? That's the voice
of the Lord upon the water. That's Christ out there. Look
at verse three. The Lord is upon many waters.
The Lord God, the voice of the God, the voice of the Lord, verse
three, in the middle, thundereth. The God of glory thundereth.
Do you not experience and hear the voice of our great God in
the thunder? Huh? Do you not hear His voice in
the thunder? One night in that little trailer,
big trailer, we were all fast asleep. My father was visiting
with us. For all practical purposes, he's
deaf. He really is. Some of you found
that out by trying to talk to him, even with hearing aids in
both ears. His dad was that way, and his
sister is that way now, and his brother was that way. At any
rate, when he takes those out, you can forget about talking
to him then. He says, you've heard him say it, he says to
my mother before he goes to bed, he says, now you got anything
else to say to me? Anything? No? Okay. And that's it, because
he's not going to hear it. I'm going to hear a thing. Well,
one night when he was here, it commenced a thunderstorm like
I've never experienced since I've been living in my few short
years, 29 years. I've never heard the likes of
it. And it woke him up. And it woke
me up. And it woke Hannah up, and it
woke me up. We were all up. We were all up
at the sound of that. Do you not hear the voice of
our great God in the thunder? It's as if He's saying, now that's
a still, small voice for Him. Now, that's a still, small voice
for him. He who could obliterate the universe
with a word. That mighty thunder at times,
that's a still, small voice. But don't you hear it? He's saying,
I am. I am God. Listen to me, mankind. I am God. I remember when our
daughter was about three or four years old, There was another
thunderstorm going on. She was standing at the window. I remember just like yesterday,
seeing her little silhouette looking out that little window.
Makes me want to cry. Three or four little silhouettes
looking out our back window. It was thundering and lightning.
She was standing there. She wasn't afraid. We've always
tried not to make her afraid of anything. Don't be afraid of it. But that's God's thunder and
lightning. And she was standing there looking
out at the thunder and lightning. And she said, Dad, I see Him. I said, who, honey? She said, God. Well, she might
not have, but then again, she did. The heavens declare His
glory. See, His eternal power and Godhead
are clearly seen by these things, clearly seen. And His voice is
heard in that thunder. There was a time when the Lord
actually audibly spoke from heaven. He said, This is My Son. When
His Son was anointed, He said, This is My Son in whom I am well
pleased. And what did the people say that
were standing around that didn't know the Son, didn't know the
God? They said it thundered. The next
time you hear thunder, Barbara Ross, that's God saying, this
is my son. Period. Hey, you think about
that. The people didn't know him. They
thought, well, it is thunder. Right? Detributed to natural
causes. No, that was God speaking. Verse
4, the voice of the Lord is powerful. He created things by just saying,
Be. Let there be. Try that. About anything. God Almighty created all things
by His Word. He said, Let there be the Son. hanging in that vast ball of
fire that sustains life. Be. Let there be then, let there
be this voice of the Lord, just by His Word He created all things,
the voice of the Lord. He upholds all things by this
same Word. By this same voice of authority
and Word He sustains. That sun is at a large hydrogen
bomb, and I believe that's the thing that's going to do it all.
I believe that's what's going to burn this earth up. That thing
which is as a huge bomb ready to explode, it does explode. That's what makes it do what
it does. It's explosions taking place.
How many miles did they say that fire shoots off of the face of
the sun? Well, God holds that ball from
exploding by saying, by the same word, stay. Stay. Not yet. Not yet. The angels. Not yet. Not yet. There's a few more sheep. Not yet. That same Word holds
these things in store, the Scripture said. And the same Word, the
voice of His authority, the voice of the Lord, that powerful voice,
provides us with all things. It provides us with all things.
That same voice, though men can't hear it, He's speaking. He's speaking to a fellow and
he says, give that fellow a job. And the fellow says, I don't
know why I feel compelled to do this, but we're going to hire
you. Something just told me. I tell
you who told him. It's powerful. It's the same
voice of authority that says, the hunter is out there, the
hunter is out there and he's needy. Those hunters, those fellas
down in Mexico, they don't go hunting for fun. They go hunting
because they need the meat. And they're sitting out there
looking, waiting, and God says, run in front of their gun. Run,
little deer, in front of his gun. The voice of authority. The voice of power. It's the
providing voice, the saving power. That same voice—oh, I love that
portion of Scripture that says that God, who caused the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ—saving power in these old dark hearts of ours. These dark, sin-filled hearts
of ours, when the gospel light comes, when God turns on the
gospel light, like no less than He did the Apostle Paul on his
road, God Almighty, a voice of God, a voice of power says, Hear
this. Hear, my son. Hear of His work. Hear of His blood. shed for the
remission of your sin. Hear of His righteousness impeded
to your account. Hear. Repent of your sin. Repent. Come to Christ. Follow
me. Follow me. Believe Christ. Trust
Christ. That voice of authority, power,
says, Come. And all those that hear it, as
the shepherd's voice, all who hear it, they come, because He
has all power. Look back at Genesis 3 very quickly. Genesis chapter 3, and I'll try
to hurry, but this is all we have today. Genesis 3. Is it warm in here to you? Anyone? Genesis 3, it is to me. But the gospel is His voice,
and Christ is the gospel, and Christ is the voice. And I'll
never forget when I first read this. In verse 8 of Genesis 3,
it says, Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in their garden. The voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden. That's Christ. That is Christ,
isn't it? In the garden, the voice of the
Lord come walking. The Word came walking. And that
same Word walked this planet, didn't it? That same Christ who
has all power, all authority. Verse 4, it says, The voice of
the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. The voice of the Lord Jesus Christ
is full of majesty. There were some fellows that
went to get him one day, sent by the Sanhedrin. Go apprehend this fellow. Go
apprehend this false prophet. Go get him. Bring him to us.
We want to try. And they went. These fellows
went confident of their mission, these professional soldiers went,
or servants, went to get Christ, and he was merely preaching,
standing up or sitting before a crowd of people preaching.
And the fellows came in, barged in, and before you know it, they
were sitting on the back row. They dropped their swords and
shields and were enwrapped in what he was saying. And they
walked out of there in a stupor and walked back dumbfounded.
And when they got back to where they were, the Sanhedrin said,
Where is he? They said, Who? The Lord Jesus. Oh, we couldn't get him. Why? No man spake like this man. No man spake like this man. In another place they said, Why,
he spake. Not as the Pharisees. Not as those pretender, pious
people. Not as the Pharisees, in a fake
tone of voice or whatever, in an attempt at power, that said,
he spoke as one having authority. Why, he spoke as if his word
was law. He spoke like he was somebody. Well, it was like you're in a
king talk. It was. Listen to this verse
in Ecclesiastes 8, where the word of a king is their power. Their power. They say Solomon,
when he used to issue one of his edicts or commands, everybody
used to Be of attention. What about the
king of kings? The Lord Himself, huh? And he
goes on to say, Who may say unto him, What doest thou? Verse 5,
the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Breaketh the cedars
of Lebanon even. Cedars of Lebanon are considered
some of the oldest of trees on our planet, some of the oldest.
The hardest. They're not like cedars here.
They're hardwood. Hardwood. The Gospel. God's Word can break the hardest
heart. God's Gospel, God's Word can
save the oldest. Doesn't matter how old. You remember
old brother Herman Pruitt, didn't you? There was a dear old fella
years ago. 75 years old. And he was an old, hard-working
fellow. Oh, just a stern-looking face
and calloused hands. Hard-working. That's all he'd
ever known. A full, thick head. A bush of
gray, solid gray hair. But his son was a preacher. And one day, at 75 years old,
he heard the gospel. And it saved him, and it broke
him like a puppy. And you'd sign him on the sack
of raw and never forget it. And you know, Lord, he preached
through time. I'll never forget those. He sat
in on that preacher's class. A bunch of quipper snappers in
there in their twenties, and here's a 75-year-old man, like
a kindergarten student. He just said, I don't know anything.
He said, I want to learn. He'd find him on the second row
of every service. Those old arthritic knees, he
can make them bow. Make them bow. They're sick.
He makes those trees skip like a cat. He can make the heart
flutter. Man, by nature, has a hard heart. I look into the
faces of some of you, and you've got a little of that sternness
in you. Yeah, you're that way. I'm that way. I'm that way. Well, I tell you, when the Lord
speaks, he'll break that facade. He'll cause the sternest of sinners
to be the tenderest. Verse 7 says, Make that heart
skip. And verse 7 says, The voice of
the Lord divided into flames of fire. God's voice is heard
in the fire, heard in the roaring flames. The Scripture even says
God is a consuming fire. We were looking into that campfire,
weren't we? And then the sister said, You
know something about fire? You're just drawn to it, aren't
you? I said, Yep. No wonder the Lord
ascribes unto himself attributes such as that. Fire. God is a consuming fire. Fire would consume you if out
of control, wouldn't it? If you were put into it without
protection. It's a roaring flame. To most
people, God is going to be just that, a consuming fire. They're going to be consumed
in his presence one day. But to some, they're merely warned. They're merely warned. I've consumed
a warming. Oh, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Oh, Shad, Meshach, and Abed. I heard one fellow was preaching. One guy, Careyway, said he talked
about my shack, your shack, and the bungalow. Shad, Shad, Meshack, and the
Bed and the Goat. They were in that fiery furnace.
When I said that thing was burning so hot like a blast furnace. Any of you men ever been in a
steel mill around a blast furnace? I have. One of the largest in
the states down in Armco, isn't it? And it would consume you
if you get near it. Well, it did. Some men. The men that threw Shadmeesh
and Obed in that thing, it consumed them. Can you imagine the sound
of that fire? Well, it consumed them, those
men that threw them. But to Oshadrak, Meshach, and
Obednego, they were in it, but they were consumed. They were
consumed by it, the wonder of it. Can you imagine the roar
of it? But do you know what they heard
above that roar? They heard a voice in the midst
of the fire, saying, Fear not, I am with thee, O be not afraid. I am thy God, I will still give
thee aid. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only design the dross to consume, the gold to rely. They heard
the bulls as of the son of man walking in the fire with them.
And then when they came out of that fire, you know the only
thing that was burning about them? Their hearts. I bet you they said it long before
Peter and the boys did not. Our hearts burned within us while
we were within the flames. with him." Huh? Who's that with
you, Shad? Verse 8, The voice of the Lord
shaketh the wilderness. This earth is as a vast wilderness
of sin, and God's voice has been heard upon it. As by a John the
Baptist who said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Oh, that voice shook this earth
and shook this planet. And then when he said, there
cometh one mightier than I, hear his voice. And then when that
voice spoke, come unto me, it is I. Oh my, this wilderness shook. Huh? It shook. And when he hung
on that cross and said that actually the world shook, The earth did
shake. The earth on an earthquake. The earth did shake. The whole
thing. And someday, the Scripture says,
once more, do I shake not only the earth, but the heavens. How? His voice is going to be heard.
I'm going to shake this thing. Lo, I come. I come, the Bridegroom
coming. Behold, the Bridegroom coming.
Verse 9, the voice of the Lord makes hens to calf, cows to calf. The voice of the Lord gives new
birth to them. We're born again by His voice,
by His Word. It says it gives, it discovers
the forest. You looking at that? Just a couple
more minutes, would you? A couple more minutes? It says
in verse 9, the voice of the Lord discovered the forest. You
ever heard the old saying, they can't see the forest with trees?
Well, that's true about man concerning himself, seeing himself. Barbara, men, when they talk
about their sins, They talk about them in these terms, my faults,
my mistakes. You know, yeah, I've got, I said
a white lie. You know, they can't see the
forest through trees. You know, this thing, man's heart
by nature is more than a few faults. It's a vast wilderness
of sin. And the voice of the Lord, John,
when the Gospel comes, when the Word of God comes, it opens that
up to you. It discovers to you your sin. My sin is ever before me. It also says, discovers unto
you, my sin, O the bliss of this glorious cross, is nailed to
the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, it is well with
my soul. It discovers this forest of iniquity. And in his temple,
in closing, verse 9, in his temple, this is his temple, this is his
church, which is his temple, in his church, does everyone
speak of his glory. That's what we're doing here.
That's what this is all about. That's my subject this morning.
That's why we're here. That's what we're to be doing,
worshiping him, all to his glory. Ain't nobody else worth talking
about. Ain't no other name worth mentioning.
Ain't no other thing worth doing. The glory of the emperor. All
things. Verse 10. The Lord sitteth upon
the flood. What's yonder boat floating out
there on that overflowing scourge of God's wrath against this earth?
See a little boat floating. What is that? That's God's voice. That's God's ark. That's God's
Christ. And there's some folks in it.
And they're safe. Who's that walking on the water
out there? That's God's voice. Walking on the water. The voice
of the Lord sitteth on the flood. Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever,
sitteth on the circle of the earth. And all of this, contemplating
these things. You know, we just looked at natural
things and natural illustrations. Everything. Some everyday things,
everyday occurrences, common occurrences. Things all about
us. Things we experience all the
time. And in it, we ought to hear the
glory of the Lord. We ought to hear the voice of
the Lord. We ought to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
in all these things. God grant it. End these things. That's the reason I started out
this message. If I say men and women and children ought to just
stop and contemplate God. Just stop and think of Him. Just turn off that radio for
just one moment. Travel along in your car. Get
the sounds of Nirvana out of your ears for whoever it may be. And just
think about your God. He might speak to you. He just
might speak to you. And all of this contemplation
ought to cause us, verse 11, to say then, the Lord will give
strength unto His people. The Lord, who has all strength,
will strengthen me to the task. The Lord will bless His people. with peace. All of this ought
to give you strength and peace of mind and heart and life. But wash the Lord. All right,
Brother Joe, you have a song picked out? What is it?