Thank you. Let's open our Bibles
to the 19th Psalm. Let's go back to the scripture
that was read to us a few moments ago. Let me speak to you about the
works of God and the of God, His works and His word. This is identified underneath
Psalm 19 as a psalm of David to the chief musician. And as
you look through the psalms, there are 150 psalms, you'll
find 55 psalms were addressed to the chief musician,
that is, to the one who took care of the music in Israel.
This psalm and the 54 others that also have the same title,
they were intended to be used in public worship. It's not just
for David's individual worship, not just for his private worship,
but they were intended, inscribed upon David's own soul, upon his
heart. They were inspired of God to
David so that he would write them and then he gave them to
the chief musician so that they would be used in worship, to
sing. You know, singing, it's such
a vital, vital part of our worship service. Every service consists
of several segments, several parts. We always begin the service
by reading the Word of God. Listen, you can't make too much
of the Word of God. I firmly believe whenever the
people of God gather together for worship, we need to read
God's There needs to be just a special time where without
any human comment, without any explanation, without any preaching,
without any devotional, we just read the Word of God. Now let's
remember this, and I'll really get into this more tonight, but
God has only, He's only promised to honor His Word. Listen, everything
else, every other book is going to be destroyed by fervent heat. Only God's Word lasts forever.
How are we going to learn about God if we don't have His Word?
You see, if God had not spoken, if God had not led these old
prophets and these evangelists and these apostles, if He hadn't
led them to write His Word, we couldn't know about God. It's
His Word. His Word. We set forth the living
Word through the written Word. So we need to make much of the
Word of God. Just have a time to read it and
ask God to bless His Word. There is no power in my words.
I can't resurrect the dead. What my southern accent with
my limited vocabulary There's no real power in my words. I
remember years ago, and this dear lady, she's passed on since,
but I was in a church one time and this lady, she was a professor
of English in college. And after she heard me preach
a couple of times, she said, would you mind if I made a couple
of suggestions about you know, helping you with your grammar
and so forth. And I said, well, I think I'm
pretty much beyond help. But if, you know, if you want
to help me a little bit, that's fine. Well, then the next service
she had a legal pad. And I know she's sitting right
down here and she was just writing. So after the service was over,
she said, I've made some notes on some things. There was about
three pages of notes she had made. She said, you could really
improve your grammar. And I said, well, what was the
message about? Well, I was busy paying attention to your grammar.
I said, well, what was the Word of God? What scripture did I
read in the Word of God? Well, I really don't recall.
I said, well, listen. No offense. You can't help me,
I'm beyond help." But I said, the Word of God, I know my words
have error, I misspeak. You know, every time I get up
to preach, I'm always asking God, Oh God, filter my words. I don't want to speak error.
I don't want to say things that are wrong about God. I don't
want to say things that would in any way mar His majesty or
His glory. I want to say right things about
God. I want to say right things about
Christ Jesus. In setting forth the glorious
person of our Savior and His work of redemption, I want to
say only right things. I want to say it correctly. I
want to say it according to the Word of God. And when we talk
about the work of the Spirit, I want to say that right. I want
to say it correctly. The necessity of the Spirit's
work of regeneration, we must be born again by the Word of
God, by the power of the Spirit. I want to say things correctly.
But no matter how careful we are, There are going to be some
things between my mouth and your ears that are just not going
to be exactly right. And so you can find some fault,
probably, with some of the things that I say. But you cannot find
fault with God's Word. That's why we make much of God's
Word. And David wrote this psalm, and
then he sent it to the chief musician, and he said, Sing it! Sing it! Sing this psalm unto
God. And when we gather for worship,
singing is a vital part of our service. We read the Word of
God. We give absolute attention to
the Scriptures. We begin the service and then
a little later in the service we read the Word of God again
without any comment. And then we sing. We sing. You know, that's what we're going
to do in glory. We're going to sing in glory. We're going to
sing praises to God in glory. Well, you know where that singing
begins? It starts down here. We sing for His glory here. Teach
your children to sing. Teach them to open up the hymn
book and read the hymns and sing with the rest of you. You say,
well, I can't carry a tune. I couldn't carry a tune if it
was in a bucket. Well, that may very well be true, but you can
read the words out loud with us. You can enter into the worship
service. The singing is not filler. It's
not filler. It's not something, okay, well,
we need to occupy, you know, about 60 minutes of our time
today, or 65 or 70 minutes, whatever it is, so we're going to fill
some of it with these songs that are really unnecessary, but we're
going to do it anyway. No, it's necessary. It's part
of the worship service. And if you don't sing, you're
not entering into the worship service. David said, this psalm
is for the chief musician. Sing it. Sing God's praise. Isaac Watts wrote, let those
refuse to sing who never knew our God. But children of the
heavenly King may spread their joys abroad. Sing with joy. Sing with joy. Sing with happiness. Sing from your heart. So David
writes this psalm by the leadership of the Spirit of God and he sends
it to the chief musician and he said, sing it. Lead the choirs
of Israel in singing this. Well, what are they singing about?
What are they to sing about? Well, they're to sing about the
works of God. and the Word of God. That's what
this psalm is about. They sing about the works of
God, the greatness of God in His works. We just sang, this
is my Father's world. And we behold the works of God. And all of the works of God,
they shout forth, they sing forth His praises. Every bird that
sings out there sings the praises of God. All of these animals
in their own way, according to God's purpose, they bring glory
to God and fulfill His purpose. Let those of us who are the people
of God, who are the children of the King, who have been washed
in the blood and robed of His righteousness, let us from our
innermost being sing praises unto our God. Let our souls be
filled with joy, with gladness, with happiness, with worship,
Thanksgiving. Isn't that only right? Our God
deserves that. David writes here of the works
of God and the Word of God. And he says this, look as it
begins. He says, the heavens declare
the glory of God. The heavens declare the glory
of God. Have you ever noticed that the
Bible never attempts to prove the existence of God? There's
no effort to prove the existence of God. No writer ever sets forth
to just prove that God is. There's just a declaration of
God. How does the Bible begin? In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's just
a simple declaration. The Bible begins with the announcement
of the fact that God is. And that He is the Creator of
all things. No prophet, no evangelist, no
apostle ever sets out to attest to the existence of God. There's
just the declaration of God and who He is and what He's like.
And here we read, the heavens declared the glory of God, and
the firmament showeth his handiwork. The book of nature, somebody
said it has three pages. The heaven, the earth, and the
seas. Of which the heaven is the first
and the most glorious. And by the aid of heaven, we're
able to see the beauties of the other two pages. Notice he says,
the heavens declared. The heavens. Not singular, but
plural. We read in the Bible, three heavens. What we can see, and then the
starry heavens, and then on beyond that, there's the third heaven.
Which is the residence of the angels. And that's called paradise. That's where the great palace
of the omnipotent King is. That's where our Lord Jesus sits
upon His throne in a glorified body in the third heaven. He
went there on the basis of having satisfied the work, finished
the work that God gave Him to do. He's gone on to heaven. He ascended up into the heavens.
Past the first heaven, past the second heaven, into the third
heaven that the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter
12, he said, that's paradise. There is paradise out there somewhere. And so, well, is it in another
dimension? Where is paradise? It's wherever
the Lord Jesus Christ is. That's where paradise is. And
that's where his people are gonna go. He said to that thief who
believed on him, he said, today you will be with me in paradise. And there in 2 Corinthians chapter
12, Paul says of that third heaven, he said, it's paradise. It's
paradise. That's where Christ is. That's
where Christ is. while all of the heavens declared
the glory of God. This great King, He's the maker
of all things and He's the maintainer of all things. Now four things
are revealed to all men in God's creation and in God's providence. Now what is providence? We know
that God made all things. What is providence? Simply, God
is directing all things to the end that He's already appointed. In other words, God predestinated
everything, and in providence He brings His predestination
to pass. That's kind of a simple definition,
but that's a pretty full definition. God ordained everything, and
then every day He brings His full ordination to pass. And
what he brings to pass, whatever happens in the world, that's
providence. Somebody says, well, you know,
you get ready, you get to a red light, and your light turns green,
and then you get ready to go, and then you just feel the urge
to look this way, and here comes a guy running in a red light.
That's providential. Yeah. And if he had hit you,
that's still been providential. I'm just thankful that He didn't
hit you. But all things are providence. God is directing everything,
the major things, the minor things, the big things, the little things,
the things that are great and the things that to us are insignificant. He's directing all things to
the end, to the goal that He Himself ordained to bring it
to before the foundation of the world. He ordained all things
and in providence He's bringing it all to the end that He ordained. God. God. He's seen in creation. He's seen as being the maintainer
of all things. He's seen in His providence.
And there are four things that cannot be denied as we look at
God's creation and God's providence. There are four things that just
cannot be denied. Number one, that God is. You
just can't deny that. God is. Number two, God is great. Whoever this God is, and I know
by nature we don't know who He is. Due to the fall, we don't
know who God is. But we do know this, we still
have this much light. This God, He's great. And we
know this about God, He's wise. We know this from creation and
providence. We know that God is, we know
that God is great, we know that God is wise, and we know fourthly
God is powerful. Ever since God made a man, and
from that one man multitudes have come forth, even though
we've fallen into sin, still there remains in every soul,
in every man, in every woman, and in every boy, and in every
girl, an awareness that God is. And no matter how much you try
to erase that from your mind and from your conscience and
from your soul, you're still aware of it. God is. And that
God is great. God is great. And God is wise. And God is powerful. Now, I know
that as a result of our sinfulness, This knowledge is inadequate. It is inadequate to bring men
to a true knowledge of God. I know that, but it leaves us
without excuse. It does. You can read chapter
1 of Romans on that. I know all men don't have a right
understanding of God. We don't have a right concept
of who God is. We don't have a knowledge of
God. But all men know that God is by virtue of His creation
and His providence. They all attest to His existence. The voice of God goes forth through
creation and providence every day. Here's the problem, we're
deaf to the voices. We're deaf. Men aren't listening
due to the fall. In these few verses of scripture,
we have learned, we've seen, as we've read that God, through
creation and providence, these things, they speak out the glory
of God. And in these first few verses,
they tell us the glory of God is seen continually
and universally. The glory of God is spoken continually
all the time. There are voices all around you.
You see, we are just not listening. But there are voices all around
us through nature that tell us that God is. God is great. God is wise. God is all powerful. The voice of creation, the voice
of providence speaks the greatness, the glory of God. We know that all things are of
God. We know that from his word. Ephesians 1 verse 11 says, in
whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the power of
his own will. He's working all things after
the power of his own will. Let me show you this. Creation
and providence speak of God's glory continually. Look at verses
1 and 2 again. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament showeth, demonstrates. It keeps on demonstrating. That
word E-T-H, that's something that just keeps on going. It
keeps on showing, manifesting His handiwork. Day in the day,
utter His speech. His speech just keeps on going. All of nature, all of creation,
all of providence just keeps on speaking that God is, God
is great, God is wise, God is powerful. They just keep on preaching
that same message over and over and over again. God sends His
preachers. The heavens are full of preachers.
And they're all preaching the glory of God. What's our problem?
Our ears are stopped up. We're deaf. Day unto day uttereth
speech. Every day. And they're not silent
at night either. Night unto night showeth knowledge. This is non-ending. Non-ending. Now people may not be listening
as I said, we've lost the ability to hear, but all of creation
and all of providence just keeps on declaring the glory of God. the perfections of God, the glory
of His being, the glory of His greatness, the glory of His wisdom,
the glory of His power. And you may not hear the message
and I may not hear the message, but all of the heavens just keep
on preaching to us, God is, God is great, God is wise, God is
all powerful. They just keep on preaching.
Every day, all through the day, and all through the night. They're
never silent. They're never silent. In creation
and providence, they speak of the glory of God universally. Not only continually, but universally. Look at verses 3 and 4. There
is no speech, there is no language where their voice is not heard.
This is everywhere. They preach everywhere. Their
line, like lines of a page, is gone through all the earth. Their
words to the end of the world, they just keep on preaching.
The glory of the Lord is declared and manifested everywhere because
God causes His Son to rise upon the just and the unjust. He sends
His reign upon the just and the unjust. He sends all of these
daily mercies to people who despise Him, to people who hate Him,
to people who blaspheme His name. He sends these things to Him,
as well He sends them to people who love Him and who adore Him
and who worship Him. They just keep on coming. The
mercies just keep on coming. They keep on telling us that
God is. God is great. And God is wise. And God is powerful. After all,
who but a great, wise, all-powerful God could keep things in this
universe moving so orderly, so precisely, so faithfully. Men marvel at the orderliness
of the heavens. For years and years and years,
Navigators on the sea, they've used the stars to find their
way. And it's utter foolishness to
think they just accidentally came into being. And you know,
by some fate, they stay in this orderly arrangement so we can
find our way around. Wow, that's absurd. They all
testify that God is. that God is great, that God is
wise, that God is powerful. After all, who but a great, all-wise
and all-powerful God could keep things in such a predictable
and orderly way? There is no fluctuation. You
can always depend upon Him. I suppose you know that this
evening, there'll be a total lunar eclipse. You know that? That's tonight. Let me tell you
how precise the Lord is in the way He does things. That, the beginning of the eclipse
tonight. Men don't only know that it's
going to happen about, it's going to start about 8 o'clock. But it's more precise than that. You can look it up. It's going
to begin at 22 minutes past 8. Oh, it's more precise than that. 22 minutes and 9 seconds past
8 tonight, that's when it will begin. That's pretty precise. That's how great our God is.
and the full eclipse, it will be at 47 minutes and 9 seconds
past 10 p.m. And it will be all over at 22
minutes and 31 seconds past 1 a.m. That's how great our God is.
He keeps things in exact precision so that men can know ahead of
time exactly when these things are going to happen. You can
go down here to ACTC this evening after the service. There will
be a gathering of amateur astronomers. They are going to watch this.
Oh, but wait, if you miss this one, if you miss this one, we
already know there is going to be another one on January 31,
2018. But if you want to see a total
eclipse, you better see the one tonight, because the one on January
31, 2018, it begins at 51 minutes and 13 seconds past 5 a.m., and
the total eclipse will be at 29 minutes and 51 seconds past
8 a.m., but it will be too late to see it. That's how precise
God is. Of course, if you miss that one,
There is another one on July the 27th, 2018, but you got to
go to the other side of the world to see that. And you can look
it up on the internet just like I can and it will tell you precisely
the exact second it begins in the fullness of its eclipse and
the last second when it ends. Now how do they know all of that?
Because the God who put these stars, who put the sun, who put
the moon in the sky, who put the earth and the planets in
the sky and holds them in their revolutions around the sun, our
God is, He's great, He's wise, and He's powerful. And all of
these things fulfill His will and you can depend upon their
faithfulness. God by His greatness, by His
wisdom, by His power, He keeps the earth from getting too far
away from the sun lest we freeze to death. And God who is, who
is great and wise and powerful, He keeps the earth from getting
too close to the sun lest we all burn up. No wonder David
says in the Psalm, When a man denies the existence of God,
David says, the fool has said in his heart, no God for me. A man who says God doesn't exist,
he's a fool. Because deep in his innermost
being, he knows that God is, God's great, God's wise, God's
powerful. It's like they used to say, there
are no atheists in the foxhole. No atheists. How could someone
watch all of this and deny that God is? You know it in your soul. And there may be some skeptics
who are watching this morning or maybe some skeptics who are
listening, who are in this congregation this morning, but deep in your
heart, You know God is. And I'll tell you something else,
deep in your heart you also know there's going to be a day of
reckoning. There's going to be a day of reckoning. Now I know
the natural mind, the natural man, he doesn't understand the
standard of judgment. The standard of judgment is righteousness. God's going to judge the world
by that man, that man whom He raised from the dead, that man
who was crucified and slain, that man Christ Jesus who was
raised again because of our justification. God's going to judge the world
by that man according to the standard of righteousness. And
the natural man doesn't understand that, but the natural man and
you deep down in your soul, deep down in your heart, deep down
in your innermost being, you cannot quiet the fact that your
conscience says, I know I've got to meet this great being
someday. I've got to stand before him.
You know that. Everybody knows that. But we
don't know how we can be right with this God. That's what we
don't know. That's what creation doesn't teach us. Providence
doesn't teach us that. Creation and providence leave
us without excuse. Because they show us much about
this God, but we've got to have the Word of God. Because it's
the Word of God that tells us about the holiness of God, and
the justice of God, and the righteousness of God, and the purity of God.
That He charges His angels with folly, that's how pure He is. That the heavens aren't impure
in His sight. It's the Word of God that tells
us about our fall in Adam. That we've been ruined. We've
been ruined. We're totally depraved. We cannot do one good thing toward
God. Before each other we're good
people and we do good things, but we're not good before God.
God who is absolute goodness. God who is absolute purity. We're
not equal with that purity. We're defiled. We're deformed. We're defaced. We're the very
blight of the earth. We're worms. We're the off-scouring
of the world. Choose any word and the Bible
says before several words to set forth our depravity, you
can never paint the picture too black. The Word of God tells
us that. And it's only the Word of God,
not the works of God, but the Word of God that tells us the
remedy to the disease. That's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the grace of God. Oh my
soul, the Scriptures tell us there is a way. Not many ways,
but one way. Bless the name of God, there's
one way. whereby a just and holy God can
justify a doomed, rightfully damned sinner through Jesus Christ
and His work of redemption. The Bible tells us that. The
Bible tells us of God's grace, of God's mercy, of God's salvation
for the vilest of sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said, of whom
I am chief. We learn this from the Word of
God. We learn who He is that He's God in man. We learned what
He did. He died. He lived a life of righteousness
and I'd never take away from His obedience, His obedience
to the law of God, but His obedience to the law of God during His
life never put one sin away. It was His death. His bloody
death. His sacrifice on the cross. That's
how God can make vile sin as pure through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I was thinking about that song
we sang a while ago and you know you always want to, well not
always, but a lot of these songs you kind of want to tweak them
a little bit. It says the battle is not done. Yes it is. The battle is done. The battle
is won. It is won at the cross. And we sang Jesus who died shall
be satisfied. He is satisfied. He is satisfied. Read again Isaiah chapter 53. By His knowledge shall thy righteous
servant justify many. He shall be satisfied. He was
satisfied in His death. God's satisfied. Christ is satisfied. He redeemed His people from the
curse of the law. See, creation and nature don't
teach you that. The Word of God teaches us that
and the Word of God teaches us that this gospel's got to go
forth. We preach the gospel. God takes the message. He takes His Word. Something
miraculous happens. You're sitting there and you
listen. Maybe you've listened many times before and then all
of a sudden you find yourself really listening. And you're
hearing with understanding and with interest. Before you were
just kind of biding your time. At least we get out early. We
get out early and the other churches do because we don't give an officer
call or anything. So we can get to the restaurant
early. That's what you were thinking beforehand. But now you don't
look at your watch, you just listen to the Gospel. You listen
to God glorified, Christ glorified. You listen to yourself being
put down low and you don't mind it. A preacher tells you you're
a dead dog sinner and you say, that's the truth preacher, you
don't know the half of it. I'm glad you don't really know
me, preacher. I'm glad you don't know me. But
really, we're all in the pig slot together, aren't we? We're
all down in the pig pen together. That's the way we are. We're
all a bunch of prodigal sons and daughters. feeding on husks
with the rest of the swine of the world. And then God by His
grace comes down, He plucks us up and washes us in the blood
of the Lord Jesus and robes us in His righteousness. He puts
the garments of eternal salvation around us and we're just fragrant
to God. We smell of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, and when we get
to glory, he says, well done thou good and faithful servant.
How can he say that about me? Because he's looking at you through
Jesus Christ his son. That's the message of the gospel
I'm telling you. Look what it says here. Let me
just give you a couple more things and I'm going to go back into
this tonight. He talks about the son. Look at the last statement
of verse 4. In them hath He set a tabernacle
for the sun. In other words, in our universe,
everything is like the tabernacle for the sun. Which is as a bridegroom
cometh out of his chamber. He came out of his chamber this
morning, come out east. He's marching His way across
the sky. And all the time, the sun bright
in the sky. And it's kind of cloudy today,
kind of overcast, but back behind the clouds we used to sing, the
sun is always shining. And that sun is still proclaiming,
God is. God is great. God is wise. God is powerful. Like a bridegroom
coming forth, He's marching across the sky all day long. Go into his chamber. Like a strong
man running a race. You watch the sun come up. It's
beautiful. You get out, some of these folks
out on the ocean, on the east coast, and you see that ball
of fire come out of the Atlantic Ocean. Just breathtaking. People get up early to go see
it. Well, you saw it yesterday. I know, but I'm going to see
it again today. I'm going to watch it again today. And then
if you live like up in Michigan, you can go to You can go to one
side of Lake Huron and see the water come up out of the east.
And then go to the other side of Lake Huron or go to the other
side of the state to Lake Michigan and see it set in the water over
there. Marching across the sky. And all along the march, the
sun in the sky is declaring the greatness of God, the wisdom
of God, the power of God. Like a strong man running a race.
Boy, he just bursts out of the water. Here it comes. Going across. He never slows down. He never
speeds up. He just keeps on going. Same
pace. Runs that race every single day. Look at verse 6. His going forth
is from the end of the heaven. His circuit under the ends of
it. There is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Now, let me
give you this. Send you home with this. The
sun going across the sky. I tell you, you got to think
of another son, the Son of God, the Son of Righteousness who
is arisen with healing in His wings. And go back to verse 5,
which is as a bridegroom coming out of His chambers. Oh, and
I tell you, 2,000 years ago, the Son of Righteousness, the
bridegroom, He came out of His chambers. He came out of glory. Where did He come? He came down
here. to run the race that was set before Him. You know, in
Hebrews chapter 12, it says there is a race set before all of us,
and there is. There is a path set before us,
there is a course set before us, and you are on the course
God put you on. It's a cross-country course.
Well, our Lord Jesus, when He came into this world, He had
a race to run. And He began that race, and He
ran faithfully, that led him right to the cross. Right to
the cross. Where he met all the foes of
his holy soul. Where all of the indebtedness
of his people was laid upon him, charged to him, imputed to him. All biblical language. And where
he put sin away and brought in everlasting righteousness. It's
the bright ground. Who did He come out of His chambers
into this world for? The Bride. The Bride. He came for the Bride. And why
did He run this race? To win the prize. And the reward
is the salvation of all of His people. They'll all be gathered
with Him someday. The trophies of His grace. You
know, I used to run track. And I had you win these little
trophies, you know. Boy, I set them up in the bedroom,
you know. Those accomplishments. And your
children, your grandchildren, they win those trophies, they
win those medals. You know, you adorn the mantelpiece
or whatever, you put them up there. Trophies of their efforts.
We're trophies of Christ's grace. We're trophies of His work. We're
trophies of His victory, of His victory at the cross. We're not
earning trophies. We are the trophies. We're the
trophies of His grace. This One who came down from heaven
to accomplish His Father's will. Do you know it? Now this God
who is, this God who's great, this God who's wise, this God
who's powerful, you can't know Him except in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He can't be known. It can't be
known any other way. And He'll only be known by revelation. Did you know that? He can only
be known by revelation. And you can go ahead and get
your telescope out tonight. We got one on the back porch.
Maybe we can figure out how to use it. If that big oak tree
doesn't block the view back there. And maybe we'll see. You can
learn a lot about that God is, and God's great, and God's wise,
and God's powerful. But it's in the word of the gospel
that you learn how God saves sinners like you and me. Oh, the Word of Truth. No wonder
Solomon said, write your Word upon my forehead. Just burn it
into my mind. No wonder David said, thy Word
have I hid in my heart. I hid it in my heart. Oh God,
drive it into my heart. That man, he's preached loud
enough this morning, he can get it in my ears. I can't get it
in your heart, but I know who can. I know who can give you
the spiritual ear to hear. The Lord God of glory. And that's
when you'll flee to Jesus Christ the Savior. And you'll see the
glory of God, not just in creation, not in the heavens only, but
you'll see the greatest glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
the Savior. All right, let's sing the closing.