It's just amazing when the Lord
is pleased to give a man eyes to see Christ in all that which
the Lord has done. It's a glorious thing. And you
know, there are many people that study the Scriptures, spend their
whole lives studying the Scriptures and are never able to see that. They see things, but they can't
see Christ. It doesn't make a difference
what you see in the Scriptures if you don't see Christ, you've
missed it. I mean, you've missed the message of the Scriptures.
Because everything from the beginning until the very end speaks from
Him. And He's worthy of our praise.
And this is what the psalmist in Psalm 29, as we'll be looking
there, Psalm 29, this is what he speaks of. Psalm 29, I'm going
to read it. It says, Give unto the Lord,
O ye mighty. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters. The God of glory thundereth.
The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the
Lord breaketh the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars
of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like
a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn or wild ox perhaps. The voice of the Lord divideth
the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Cadiz. 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. The Lord sitteth upon the flood,
yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. The Lord will give strength unto
his people. The Lord will bless his people
with peace. Now, the purpose of the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world was to do His Father's
will. And His purpose in doing His
Father's will was to glorify His Father. He didn't think of
Himself. But he thought of doing that
which his father sent him to do. And the father sent him into
the world to redeem that people which he had given him to redeem. Now, I don't see how anybody
can really not say that that's what the Scripture says. But
there are people that get kind of angry and mad if you start
talking about that. But the Lord said, Father, I
pray not for the world, but for those which Thou hast given Me."
And he speaks of those who were given to him. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll know
why is cast out. Those are one and the same people.
Now some people kind of think of it as like he's talking about
two different things. He's kind of like changing gears.
But he is talking about the same thing, all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. Now that is just a fact, that
is the truth. God's people are going to be called and they are
going to come. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
I know them and they follow me. Now how can you know who the
children of God are? Those that follow Him. I mean,
that's simple enough. It's not people that say, I'm
a Christian. A lot of people say that. I mean, practically
everybody in the country does, or at least a lot of people do. A vast preponderance of people
would say they're a Christian. A vast preponderance of people
would say, well, this is a Christian nation. I'd take issue with that. Nations can't be Christian. But
there are Christians in nations. But because a man says he is
a follower of Christ, it doesn't make it so. But it's those who
are called. And those who are called are
those who are given to Christ from the fourth foundation of
the world. And so he says here, Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,
give unto the Lord glory and strength. Now the sons of God
are not mighty in their mind, are they? I mean, we don't feel
ourselves mighty. I mean, especially when we come
before the Lord and we recognize His glory and power, we find
ourselves in great weakness. But the point of the psalmist
here is that to give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, is that even
the mightiest of men must bow down before the Lord. Now the
mightiest of men that has ever lived, walked on the face of
the earth, bowed down before the Lord and gave Him glory,
did he not? The Lord Jesus Christ. He worshipped His Father. He
loved His Father. He did His Father's will. So when it speaks of the mighty
giving unto the Lord glory and strength, where does that leave
those that are in places of weakness? If the mighty must bow down before
Him, where must those who are the weak and beggarly elements
of the earth, those for whom Christ came, give unto the Lord
glory and strength? Why? Because He is worthy of
it. See, He is worthy of praise. Now men like to look out and
find men who are worthy of praise. And of course that's true of
movie stars. People get all worked up about
the first one and then the other and then athletes and all these
things. Politicians and people raise
them up in praise and what not and they give them glory. But
what a waste. I mean, really nobody in this
world is worthy of praise. Now, former President Bush just
died, and surely we have respect unto him as a man of stature
among men, but in reality, he's not a mighty man, he's not a
glorious man, he's just a man. He was a man that the Lord called
and sent to do the things that He did. He's lived His life,
that's it. But who ought we to praise when
someone passes from this earth? Who's to be praised? Not the
person, but the One that sent them into the world to do whatever
it was He sent them into the world to do. He's worthy of praise.
You know, that's one of the things about funerals that really bothers
me, is it usually turns into a festival of praise to the person. And it's alright to remember
a person in a nice way, but dear brethren, we ought to always
give praise to God, because He's the one. If somebody does something
good, who's the author of it? Who's the one that caused it
to occur? but the grace and mercy of Almighty God. So we give unto
the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Now what glory is due unto His
name? Some of it? All of it. All of it. All of the glory is due unto
His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Now, men believe that they can
worship God as they see fit. You often hear that. You know,
well, people have freedom to worship. And thank God we live
in a land where the government hopefully doesn't gain this power,
but they can't tell you who to worship and what to worship.
Thankfully of that. Okay, we are thankful of that. Because of that, sometimes men
think, well, it's my right to worship God however I want to.
Well, you can't worship God. See, you can't just decide one
day, I'm going to worship God. Because He'll only be worshipped
one way, and that is in the beauty of holiness. Holiness is being set apart unto
him. Remember, he told Moses to take
his shoes off his feet. He said, Moses, the ground you
stand on is holy ground. That is, Moses, you don't even
have the right to come into my presence. You know, unless the
Lord allows a man into His presence, he can't come in there. And the
only way that men are allowed into the presence of God is to
come in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Who shall enter
into the presence of the Lord. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart is not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn
deceitfully. There is only one man that has
ever been that, and that is Christ. And the only way that men can
worship God is to worship Him in and through Jesus Christ.
Now, am I going to go out and fight against other religions
and what not? No, not at all. I mean, men can
do whatever they want to, but dear brethren, we must declare
without any equivocation that there is only one way that a
man can worship the true and living God, and that is through
the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way it can happen. How convinced somebody may be
of something else, or how magnanimous somebody may want to be towards
somebody. We must tell men that there is
one way. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man. He didn't say some
men. He said, no man comes to the
Father but by Me. And so the only way that a man
can worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, that is, that which
is set apart, that which is sanctified, is in Jesus Christ. The voice
of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth.
The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the
Lord is upon the waters. Remember the Scripture says in
the beginning that He separated the waters that were above the
firmament from the waters that were below the firmament. And
we talked a little bit about that. That's a mystery. When
you go reading that, that's not really just as clear as you might
like for it to be. It's exactly what it is. But
it doesn't make any difference whether you understand that or
not. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. And He divides
the waters and He calls them to come. You know, they're talking
so much nowadays about this climate change deal and how the oceans
are rising and everything is going to be flooded. The Scripture
says the Lord has set the bounds of the seas that they cannot
pass. Now, that doesn't mean that they
can't pass where they're at right now, but it means they can't
go any higher than He's going to determine for it to be. And
there's not a thing in the world that a man's going to do of what
he's going to burn or what he's going to put in the earth or
whatever that's going to change that one iota. Men like to think
they can do that kind of stuff, don't they? Because it gives
them glory. We're men, you know, we can control
the climate. No, you can't control the climate.
Now, should you be a good steward of those things God has given
you? Of course you shouldn't. Should you do stupid things?
Of course not. But dear brethren, the world
is going to go on exactly according to the ordained purpose of God,
and the seas cannot go beyond the very place that He has sent
for them to go. And we rejoice in that. The voice of the Lord is upon
the world as the God of glory thundereth. He speaks in the
thunders. And he speaks in the quietness.
The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Now, you know, people
often look at the lightning and all of these things, and this
is a display of God's power, no doubt about it. You know,
if that's the only concept that you have of the power of God,
you have a very weak concept because that's just the thing
you can see. You see, the Lord, His power
extends beyond the things that you can see or that I can see.
He is that One whose voice is full of majesty. You know, the
majesty of God, that's something I believe that's missing by and
large. from the average concept that
people have of God. They think of God, really, as
like a faithful servant. You know, when they think of
God, they think, oh, well, God's faithful. You know, well, your
dog's faithful. I mean, there's nobody that's
happier to see you when you get home than your dog. He's faithful,
but you see, God is faithful, but He is full of majesty and
glory. And that's the thing that makes
us happy. You've probably heard this story, thing about, it says if you,
to know whether your wife loves you more or your dog loves you,
it says lock your wife and your dog up in the trunk of the car
and see which one is glad to see you when you get back. So dogs, they are faithful, but
you see, God's faithful, but He's not like a dog. He's not
like one that's always there. See, that's how people think
of Him, is it not? Well, God's always there. I mean,
you know, we can go and do all kinds of things, but God's always
there. Dear brethren, God's not always there in the sense that
He's just waiting at your beck and call. He's full of majesty,
full of glory. That's the thing, you see, that
moves God's people to cry out to Him, O Lord. Help us. I mean, we're in trouble. We
don't see Thy hand. It's the thing that moved the
prophet to say, O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the
years. In the midst of the years, remember mercy. In wrath, remember
mercy. Help us. He's full of majesty. And He
comes and He goes according to the good pleasure of His will.
None can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? The
voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh
the cedars of Lebanon." Now, the cedars of Lebanon are mentioned
several times in the Scriptures. And you remember that Hiram,
when Solomon built the temple, he sent many of these cedars to Solomon in order for the temple
to be built. The cedars of Lebanon. Now they
were a mighty forest, I guess maybe akin to the redwood forest
over in the west as they have, of course a lot of that is gone
now. But it would be amazing to be
able to have seen that. in its pristine condition before
men got the idea that man is to make good houses and things.
The Lord ordained all of that. And there was never a tree cut
down. It wasn't cut down according to the purpose of God. whether to our benefit or whether
to our hurt, it was nonetheless true. But the voice of the Lord
breaketh the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars
of Lebanon. Even the strongest of strongholds
that men see are not outside of the realm of the power of
Almighty God to control. Men think they can hide from
God in many ways in their own intellect, is the biggest place
that men seek to hide from God. They say, well, as David said,
the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Well, what he
is actually saying there is not that there is no God, but that
there is no God for me. That is, I am not going to worship
God. I am going to say there is no
God. I am going to just go on and do what I want to do. So
when men are atheists, or they say they are atheists, they are
basically rebelling, they are basically describing what man
is by nature, because he would not have the Lord to rule over
him. But the voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like
a calf. Lebanon and Syria, like a young
unicorn, even the very land in which they dwell in, He is able
to cause that upheaval. Now, did He not do that in Alaska?
Cause the very land, the place, the trees, He caused them to
skip like a calf, did He not? I mean, I saw some pictures of
some of that, it's just incredible. To think that here you've got,
you know, Ed, of course, being in the building business, and
me, you know, sometimes you build something and it's just, I mean,
just pull concrete maybe four or five foot thick and you say,
man, it couldn't nothing hurt this. And yet, the Lord just
can take it in a moment and just crush it, even as He did all
these roads and what not that's there. The voice of the Lord
divided the flames of fire. Now, I was thinking about that,
divided the flames of fire. We see various illustrations
in the Scripture. The first one that comes to mind
is when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the fiery furnace.
And the Scripture says, The Lord divided the flames of fire. Now, they weren't even singed. They didn't even have the smell
of fire on them. And the people that went up there
to throw them in, the fire was so hot that they died. It burned
them up before they ever even got them in there. And yet, the
Lord divided the flames of the fire. And they were just as cool. I don't know how that was, you
know. That would have been an amazing thing to have been able
to see it. to be able to look into that fire, and Nebuchadnezzar
was allowed to see the Son of Man walking in the midst of the
fire because he divided the flames, that he separated those flames
so that they could not hurt. But then I also thought about
when the prophet Elijah, when the Lord came to
him, The Scripture says that He came
and a mighty wind came. And then an earthquake came.
And then a fire came. And all these things were just
destroying and burning. But the Lord was not in the fire.
He wasn't in the earthquake. He wasn't in the wind. But it
spoke to Him in a still, small voice. Because He divided the
flames. He uses the flames, but He doesn't
have to use the flames. use the antithesis of the flames. He spoke to him in a still, small
voice, even as the Lord does speak to His people in the same
fashion. The voice of the Lord. I thought
of something else. You remember when, well, thinking about Elijah again
on Mount Carmel when the Lord sent down the fire. I don't know
if Elijah expected that to happen just like it happened or not.
He was probably as surprised as everybody else was at the
extent to which the Lord did that. But also, when Solomon
dedicated the temple, and maybe he was looking for
a match, you know, he said, well, we're going to have to light
this thing up here pretty shortly. But he never got to strike it,
did he? Because the Scripture says that the Lord sent down
fire from heaven and it consumed that offering off of the altar. Even as the Lord sent His only
begotten Son and put Him upon the altar and the fire of God
came down upon Him. And He said, My God, My God,
why shall I forsake Thee? Because the wrath of God was
poured out. in flames of fire upon him. Oh,
what a glorious thing! The voice of the Lord divided
the flames of fire, and none of those who were at the cross
were affected at all when the wrath of Almighty God was poured
out in their midst, because Jesus Christ bore it all completely. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Kadesh. Now, Kadesh is used in the Scripture
numerous times as indicative of the wilderness. It was through
Kadesh that when the spies were sent into the land of Eshkol,
the promised land, and they found that pot of grapes, That was
so big that it had to have carried between two men on a stick. And
they brought it back, but it says they came through Kadesh,
through the wilderness. See, the Lord, He gives to His
people great blessing, but He takes them through the wilderness
to get it. And we always, we want to go the short cut, don't
we? You know, we see, just like in
Pilgrim's Progress, and you know, the road was rough and they were
traveling along and some of them, they said, well, here's a little
path that goes off to the side. That path looks a lot easier
over there. Let's go over there and get on
that. But they wound up in Doubting Castle. Because there is no way,
the Lord said, that it is through the sufferings that the Lord
will bring His people unto Himself. And it is through trials and
troubles. I mean, how would you know if
the Lord is faithful if He doesn't bring you through troubles and
trials to show you His faithfulness? We'd like to avoid them. And
I'm certainly not looking forward to any that I may yet have to
go through. But nonetheless, we know for
certainty that He does lead His people through the wilderness.
But He does not leave them in the wilderness. Never one of
God's children ever perished in the wilderness. He led the
children of Israel 40 years in the wilderness, did He not? And
some of those who were not given to go in to the land of promise,
they did die in the wilderness. But all of those who were ordained
to go in went in there at. And the Lord didn't leave them
there, but He brought them out and He brought them through the
wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Kadesh. 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. Make it the hinds to calve, that
is to have offspring, and he sets forth the forest, he discovers
the forest, that is he strips the forest bare so that there
is nothing growing there when it pleases him. I know here a
few years ago there was like a blight or something that got
on oak trees around and about, and you just had vast areas where
oak trees had been there for years, they just died. You know,
men think of things like that, and they think that things are
going to last forever. Brethren, there is nothing that
you see in this world that is going to last. Everything. It
doesn't make a difference what it is. It is going to pass away.
The Lord discovereth for us. That is, He cuts the tops out
of the trees, and in His temple does everyone speak of His glory. In His temple. Now that is the
place where the Lord meets with His people. Now David thought
to build a house unto the Lord, did he not? And the Lord didn't
let him do it. He said, you've got too much
blood on your hands. You can't do it, but I've appointed
Solomon to build it. But guess what happened to the
temple of Solomon? Nebuchadnezzar came along and
he stripped it bare, did he not, and he took it away. And later
on, Nehemiah, they built another temple. Many years they restored
Jerusalem, built the temple, and it went for a long time.
But if you go over to Jerusalem right now, there is not one over
there. Why is that? Because the Lord would demonstrate
that He does not dwell in temples made with hands. And how foolish
is it to think that somehow or other prophetically speaking,
that He is going to now build another one and come down and
dwell in it. He is not going to dwell in an earthly temple.
He has proven that over and over and over again. But the Lord's
people will dwell and inhabit the temple of the Lord. And He
will bring them into His temple and He will dwell with them.
He said, I will be your God and you shall be My people. Now what
did they have to do with that? I mean, when the Lord made that
promise through the prophet, did He say to him, well, I'm
hoping maybe somebody will let me come in to them? Maybe some
folks will believe. I hope they do. What will I do
if they don't? I just want them to so bad, but
maybe they will. No, He said, I will come. And I will write my laws upon
their hearts, and I will be unto them a God, and they shall be
to me a people." That's the promise of God, dear brethren. You see,
that which we believe is built upon the promise of God, not
the hopes of God. Not the plan of God that might
go one way or it might go another way, all dependent on the free
will of men. No, it's dependent on the sovereign
will of Almighty God. He will call His people. He said, I will call My sheep
and they shall hear My voice. Why? Because I know them. That's
one of mine, he said, and I'm going to call him. And the Lord
does call him. From the highways and byways
and this one and that one, and you don't know where they're
at. I don't either. I just want to declare His truth.
I want to magnify the name of Christ. He said, if I be lifted
up, I will draw men unto me. I will draw my people unto me.
Because you see, it is in the preaching of the gospel that
life and immortality is brought to light. Now the gospel does
not bring light. God alone is able to give men
light. But the gospel is that which
the Lord uses to give men who He has given life, to give them
the light. of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And He would have us to declare
to the captives. That's who we're preaching to,
is the captives. Now the Pharisees said, well,
we're not captives. We don't serve anybody. We're
free men. You see, the man who thinks himself
to be free will never know and understand what it is that we
are talking about here. But the man that knows himself
to be a captive to sin, the man that sees himself to be what
he is and without any help or hope and cries out, he manifests
the fact that the Lord is calling him. And who can overturn it? The Lord said, In His temple does everyone speak
of His glory, because the people of God, you see, that's what
we desire, is it not? I mean, did you come down here
today hoping to say, man, I hope they'll talk about me today? I hope that they'll give me some
kind of an award. Now, there's plenty of people
that do. They come to church thinking somebody is going to
pat them on the back or do something that is going to lift them up.
Well, dear brethren, God's people are not interested in whether
or not they get something. The Lord said, Don't let your
left hand know what your right hand is doing. Don't do things
for people to see. The people of God desire the
glory of God. He said, Here in my temple does
everyone speak of His glory. The Lord sitteth upon the flood.
Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. When the enemy shall come in
like a flood, the Lord shall lift up a standard against them.
The Lord sitteth upon the flood. He rides upon the flood. I mean,
it doesn't make any difference what the situation is. Now think
about the disciples when they were in that ship. And he was
asleep in the vessel. He was riding on the flood, was
he not? And they said, Lord, don't you care if we perish?
Doesn't it matter to you? He said, what's wrong with y'all?
He says, I'm invoked. And he spoke. And the wind ceased. And his disciples said, what
manner of man Oh, today, when we look at the glories of Him
who is full of majesty, are we not moved to say, as we think
of Him, what manner of man is this? Oh, what a great and glorious
man who has come down, who thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but took upon himself flesh and blood and walked among us
and satisfied the claims of justice in our behalf. What manner of
man is this? Yea, the Lord sitteth upon the
flood. Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. And is that not
what the prophet said concerning him? He says, that a virgin shall
conceive and shall bring forth a son, and he shall be called
the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. and of the increase
of His government there shall be no end." Now some people are
waiting for Christ to become the King rather than they are
too late. They are too late. The coronation
has already happened. He is already reigning in full
state and power. And He will continue to reign
forever because He sitteth King forever. The Lord said in Psalm
2, He said, Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. He rules and reigns, dear brethren.
The Lord will give strength unto His people. The Lord will bless
His people with peace. He is our strength, is He not?
But the only way that a man can really know that the Lord is
his strength is when he is in a place of weakness. Paul said,
When I am weak, then am I strong. What does he mean? Well, he simply
meant that as long as you are going along and you think you
are doing a pretty good job and everything is going great, he
says you are in a place of great weakness then, but whenever you
are just brought down to the place where all you can do is
look up and say, Oh God, have mercy upon me. That's the place
where you're the strongest, because He is your strength. If He's
not, then you don't have any. There's nothing that you can
do to impress the Lord. The Lord will give strength unto
His people. He will do that. He'll call His
people out of darkness and into the light. He'll give them strength.
The Lord will bless His people with peace. Now, there's a lot
of talk about that, always is, about peace on earth. And people
talk about how in these peace talks with this nation and that,
and they make a big deal out of it. We've got this treaty
signed and we're going to have peace. We don't have to worry
about war. And then next week you read, well, there's going
to be war. I mean, because that's not the
kind of peace. He said, I didn't come to send peace in the earth
in a general sense. He said, I came to send Set brother
against brother. I came to send a sword. Mother against father. Because
that's not the peace that He came to bring. But He came to
bring that peace which passeth understanding. He said, My peace
give I unto you, not as the world giveth peace. See, men think
if they've got plenty of money in the bank and nobody's bothering
them, and everything's going along great, they're at peace.
No, not so. There can be no peace outside
of Jesus Christ. He is our peace. He is our peace
who has broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew
and Gentile and made us all one. And we are made the people of
God according to His purpose. And He gives peace to His people
as He sees fit and to the degree that He will. Now why is it that
some people don't seem to have the same troubles that you do?
Well, that's probably because you're not walking in their shoes
because they're probably looking at you thinking the same thing.
You know, sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. And
I wouldn't trade my troubles for anybody's. I wouldn't want
to because I'd probably get something far worse than what I've done.
I'm pretty weak. I can't take much. And the Lord,
unfortunately, hasn't put much on me. But He has given us what
we need. And He's faithful. And whatever
it is that He would bring to us, He will bring peace to us
in the midst of it because He will cause us to cry out to Him. And there's no greater place
of peace than that. You know, I believe the Lord.
In His final words on the cross, He was at peace with God, was
He not? Because He said, Lord, into Thy
hands I commend my spirit. Now brethren, that's total surrender,
is it not? There's nothing left to say or
do. That's it. We have His mercy. And He's full of mercy. What
a glorious thought.