We see right here in verse 6 that God sent the snow. He says, verse 6, He saith to the snow, Be thou on earth. He sent it. He sent it. He said, Be thou on earth by His word. Now a northeasterner You always hear the weather report tell you this whenever we have a northeasterner, but the north winds blow the storm one way and then the southern winds meet it and it begins to turn like a tornado or like a cyclone, a vortex, and that's what happens. Well, it's described right here. Let's look at verse nine. Out of the south cometh the whirlwind, and cold out of the north.

Look down at verse 12, and it is turned round about by His counsels that they may do whatsoever He commanded them upon the face of the world and the earth. Now, this passage is telling us that the true God, the true God who is sovereign over all His creation is who sends the snow. by the word, by his word, by his voice, it's by his power.

He sent that blizzard Sunday into Monday and he stopped man in our tracks. He just stopped us in our tracks completely. Look there what he says in In verse 6, he saith to the snow, be thou on the earth, likewise to the small rain and to the great rain of his strength, he sealeth up the hand of every man, that all men may know his work. What did we all do? We all stopped working, couldn't do anything, and we look out the window and we watched the snow coming down. We stopped working. And we saw God's work.

And that's what the Lord has to do for us in salvation. That's exactly what He has to do for us to save us. He doesn't merely observe the weather. He sends it. He creates it. He sends it. And just like He's sovereign to control all providence, the weather, all things that come to pass, He is sovereign in salvation.

And that's what we're gonna look at here. I've titled this The Voice in the Storm. And I'm trying to show us the voice in the storm that we saw this week. All right. Let's begin here. The same as the voice sends the lightning and the thunder. The Lord, just the way that the lightning and the thunder grabs your attention, the Lord speaks through the preaching of the word, and it's his voice that makes you hear the law, and the law thunders, and he grabs your attention. Look how he begins this word now in verse two. You know, what we're gonna see here, you've seen the streak of lightning come across the night sky, and then just a second or two after, that loud, thunder that comes behind it. All right, listen right here. Job 37 verse 2, hear attentively the noise of his voice and the sound that goeth out of his mouth.

He directed it under the whole heaven and his lightning unto the ends of the earth. God directs the lightning. He sends it forth. Then what happens? After it, a voice roareth. He thundereth with the voice of His Excellency, the voice of His Majesty. And He will not stay them. It means He won't hold back. He's going to get your attention is what it means. He will not stay when His voice is heard.

He's going to make you hear His voice without fail. God thunders marvelously with His voice. That word marvelously means beyond our power, with great power. He thunders marvelously with His voice. And it says, great things doeth He which we cannot comprehend.

Now, all of that is to illustrate what the Lord does when He makes a sinner hear the law of God. And we saw this at the Mount Sinai. Now there's a scripture, I'm going to show it to you here in just a moment, that tells us when the Lord makes the lightning go forth and the thunder, He makes the hinds calf, He makes the deer give birth. by the thunder.

He makes the hinds calve. Well, by His voice the Lord creates life. He creates a new heart. He creates life within a sinner. And then He makes you hear the law. He makes you hear what the law says to you. And it thunders, it thunders. We see ourselves as unholy when we see God is holy. And when we hear the law, he declares us guilty. Guilty. And it's thunder. It's thunder.

When he gave the law at Mount Sinai, here's what the Lord said. You can go with me to Exodus 19. I want you to see it. When he gave the law at Sinai, he sent Moses and he told him, he said, now you wash yourself. You wash up. And he said, and then you'd be ready to meet God tomorrow.

And he told them, and they said, all that the Lord commands, we will do. Now that's what sinners think by nature. Whatever God commands in His commandments, we will do it. And we can wash ourselves and sanctify ourselves and make ourselves holy doing what God commands in His law.

Verse 16 says, the next day came, Exodus 19.16, and it says, and it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. Now go look at Exodus 20 and look at verse 18. And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw, they removed and stood afar off.

And they said to Moses, speak thou with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak with us, lest we die. When the Lord makes us hear the law, it's like that. It's the thunder and lightning because you see He's holy, you see you're unholy, you see that none of your works have made you holy, nothing has sanctified you. You are defiled and can't approach a holy God. And that's when you do what they did. They cried out to Moses and said, Moses, you be the mediator for us. You go talk to God and then come talk to us because if God speaks to us, we will die. That's when you hear the law, and you hear you're guilty, and that thundering verdict comes. That's when you know, I have to have Christ the mediator. I have to have Him to go between me and God. Now, you see what Job says here. Go back there to Job 37.

We just read all that He said, how He directs the lightning and the voice, the thunder, the excellency of it, and He thunders marvelously with His voice. Now look at Psalm 29. Psalm 29. This has given us the same Same thing is taught about the thunder and the lightning, but here's the point of it. Here's where the Lord brings His child.

Look here in the first verse, Psalm 29.1.

This is what He brings you to do. When you hear the law, see your need, and you cry out for mercy, and He makes you behold Christ the mediator, 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, and 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, excellency, power, glory, what we saw in our text. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. That's an illustration of us. He called us the mighty up there. And we think we're mighty. We're the proud cedars of Lebanon. But when he thunders and he makes you hear that law, he breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He brings us down. And it says here, verse 9, the voice of the Lord makes the hounds to calve. He creates life in his child. A new birth happens.

And He says, and He discovereth the forest. That's, you know, when you're out in the forest and the lightning comes in the middle of the night and it lights up the whole forest for a second or two. He discovereth the forest with His lightning. Well, Christ the light shines, and He's your light from then on. And He says, and in His temple does everyone speak of His glory. That is what He accomplishes.

So that first, back in our text now, so the first thing I wanted you to see is when He makes you, when He thunders, and I'm saying He makes you hear the law, and it thunders, it's like the lightning and the thunder. You behold, Christ your light, like lightning.

Just like they saw that thunder on Mount Sinai, and they realized none of our washing ever sanctified us. We have to have Christ. We have to be found in His righteousness with Him as our holiness and our righteousness that we can come to God in Him alone. We have to have Him mediate between us and God.

And when the Lord makes you hear Him and truly hear Him, that's when you give Him the glory. and you worship everybody in His temple gives Him the glory. Because He did this new birth, He made you see your need, He made you see Christ, He worked that by His voice. Just like He sent the snow, just like He sent that snow Sunday through Monday, He sends the voice, the word, the gospel, and works this in the heart. Now go back, let's see the next thing. When the gospel goes forth out of His mouth, He accomplishes what He will. He accomplishes exactly what He purposed when He sends the gospel and He speaks just like He accomplishes what He will with the snow and the rain.

Now look here in verse 6, Job 37.6, For He said to the snow, Be thou on the earth, likewise to the small rain and to the great rain of His strength. God speaks. Just like He created the first creation, He speaks and creates the new creation, a new child within a sinner. He does that. And He knows exactly what amount of rain to send on this earth. He speaks, He sends the snow, He sends the small rain, the great rain, and He knows just what amount to send. In Amos, He said He sent rain to some, and He forbid rain to go to others. and he knows how to water his garden, and he sends just the right amount of rain, just the right amount of snow, in measure to do just what he purposed.

Well, it's the same for his people. You could all be sitting here in this congregation, and with one message, the same message, The Lord can speak to this heart, and this heart, and this heart, and He gives in measure what each of His people need with the same word, but applying it to each heart, and it never fails. Somebody will comment on one word that really spoke to their heart. Somebody will comment on another word that spoke to their heart. He's given us just what we need when we need it. and it's by his voice, it's through the preaching of this gospel.

He said in Psalm 72 6, he shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish in abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. It's the Lord who works this. He said, my doctrines shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass.

Now, Sunday evening and all through Monday, by that blizzard coming, The Lord stopped us from working. He stopped a whole nation. Or at least this eastern part of the nation. He stopped us. And we watched. We looked out our window and we watched the Lord work. We saw what the Lord was doing. Now look what he says here in verse 7.

Job 37.7. He sealeth up the hand of every man. He says to the snow, be thou on earth, and by it he sealeth up the hand of every man that all men may know his work. That's what he did Sunday and Monday. He stopped us from working, and we saw his work.

Well, so long as we're working to get to heaven, trying to make our church attendance be what's going to get us to glory, or our baptism what's going to get us to glory, or our good works, or our abiding by the law. So long as in our heart we're looking to those things to be our righteousness, we'll never see his work.

Because that's not faith. Faith's not involved in keeping the law. The law simply says, do what the law commands, and then you'll have life. Faith's not involved. And as long as we're looking to the law and looking to ourselves, we'll never behold the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't do both. But just like God says, snow, be thou on the earth, and he stops men from working. And He makes you behold His work. That's what He does through the preaching of Christ in Him crucified. He makes you behold how He sent His only Son, and His Son came down, just like that snow came down.

He's the preeminent Word. And He said, My word never returns void. It accomplishes what I sent it to accomplish. And the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Word, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, John said.

We beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father. He came down and He went about serving the Father as the one man God looks to. He doesn't look to His people. He looks to His Son. And His Son, under that law, perfectly served the Father with a perfectly holy heart. And He went to the cross and took the sin of His people and bore the curse of His people and completely, totally put away our sin. Because in Christ, at Calvary's cross, all God's elect died.

The law can't execute a man twice. You take the death penalty. If a man is sentenced to the death penalty and that man is executed by law, they don't bring him back up and do it to him again. The law satisfied. The law executed all he can execute on him, he died.

Well, in Christ, all God's people died. That's all the law has to say to us. We're crucified with Christ. We're crucified with Christ. By the power of His voice, by Him making us behold how Christ fulfilled the law, He shuts our hand. He makes us stop working. And He makes us behold His work. and Christ indeed is our righteousness. It's not simply that you learn a doctrine and that's your righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.

He is our acceptance with God. The son of God at God's right hand is the acceptance we have with God, the only one. You just think, if you sent your only son, God sent His only Son and His Son pleased Him like no man ever could, no sinner ever could do what He did. God's pleased with His Son and He's only going to receive us if we come to Him through faith in His Son, looking to His Son alone.

By the power of His voice, by the snow, He makes the beasts go into their dens. Look here in verse 8. Then the beasts go into dens and they remain in their places. Well, through the preaching of the gospel, he's going to subdue the sin nature in his people.

Our sin nature is more like a beast than a man. and He's going to put down the sin nature in His people so that we can believe. That's the only way we can believe on Him. Repentance, true repentance, is God giving you a change of mind to where you see It's not just your sin you need to repent from, it's everything about you and everything about me. Nothing about us is going to be accepted of God. Everything we are by nature in Adam has to go back to the dust. It will not be in glory with God. Nothing we are by Adam will go to glory. We're going back to the dust.

It's only what Christ created that's going to be with God. The new man in his people, the new spirit in his people is created of the Lord. When you die, nothing has to be done for His people to be with Him immediately, because that new man is made in Christ's righteousness and Christ's holiness. And then He'll raise our bodies one day to be with Him in perfect, spotless humanity, glorified. But it's all going to be the creation of our Lord Jesus.

So He's going to subdue, like the beasts go into their dens, He subdues our sin nature. And He's going to, like they remain in their places, He's going to make us remain in our place. And our place is Christ. to be in Christ, to be found in His righteousness, not having mine on, His righteousness, that's our place. That's our dwelling place.

And He's gonna, through this gospel, He's gonna, just like He makes the beasts go into their dens and remain in their places, He's gonna subdue our beastly sin nature, and He's gonna make us remain in Christ by faith and look to Him only. You know, when we're going through trouble, We blame others, we become critical, we look for every other obstacle or every other reason for why things are the way they are, until the Lord sanctifies the trial to your heart. And then He makes you see what He's doing, and He makes you see is to put that old man down, that old critical Pharisee down in the dust, and bring you to Christ so you remain in your place. Just like He rules the storm, He rules all providence, and through ruling everything in your life, and through the preaching of this word, he's going to sanctify it to your heart to make you see. The whole purpose of it is to bring you to look only to Christ and to remain in Christ and to put down anything fleshly, anything else that's coming between us and the Lord. Listen to David. Look at it with me. It's just a few verses to your right in Psalm 73. I mean, a few chapters. Psalm 73, one book over. Look here, David went through this and here's what he said at the end of it, verse 22. He said, so foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee. We're the beast, and he makes us see that. And he said, nevertheless, I am continually with thee.

I've remained in my place. I'm continually with thee. Thou is holding me by my right hand. It wasn't me holding his hand. It was him holding my hand. Isn't that right? two years old, and you walk along holding her hand, and that baby thinks he's holding on to your hand, but who's holding who, really? If he trips and falls, the reason he don't hit his face is because you're holding his hand.

And it's the Lord. He said, thou hast holden me by my right hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." All the life and all the holiness that you are in your new man is Christ. He's the strength He's the strength of my heart and He's my portion forever.

There's where He brings us through the snowy trial. Now last, go back with me to Job. All this is done in spirit, by the voice, by the word of God. and it's all in spirit. He says now, Job 37.9, out of the south cometh the whirlwind, and cold out of the north, verse 12 said, and it turns round about by his counsels. Back to verse 10, he says, it's by the breath of God that frost is given, and the breath of the waters is straightened, frozen. Now, again, that's what got me initially seeing this verse, because I just, seeing the storm coming, I wanted to go see what the Lord said about the snow, and I started reading scriptures about it.

That is the description of a northeasterner. Out of the south comes the whirlwind, and the cold out of the north, and it turns, and it just sits on you, and it snows and snows and snows. Now, this is the oldest book in the Bible. I don't know how long it took us to learn meteorology to where we could sort of forecast the weather, but God told us this in the oldest book of the Bible. Well, Christ the Word came forth and he accomplished everything. that God determined in His eternal counsel and His determinate counsel. He accomplished it all on Calvary's crowd.

He laid down His life for the sheep. All the Father gave to Him, He laid down His life for. And He thoroughly, completely manifests God's righteousness. He showed us that God will do right. He's just and He justified His people. And the Lord He is the gospel we preach. He did what he did, and we preach what he did. And that's the message through which he saved. And he exalted God's name by that, and he accomplished the purpose of God. The counsel of God was to glorify his name in the salvation of chosen sinners. Christ did that. He accomplished it.

Now he's just calling us to himself and keeping us by this same gospel till he brings us home. And right now he's using us as witnesses to preach him. Just like Christ came forth and accomplished every word of his counsel, every word of the gospel goes forth and accomplishes what's God's predetermined counsel, what he determined before to be done, this gospel's accomplishing it.

He said there, by the breath of God, frost is given and the breath of the water is straightened, frozen. This same word, this same gospel, through this Word, by His Spirit, by the breath of God, He hardens some people just like ice is frozen. He hardens them. And the same Word that's saving His people will harden some and leave them where they are.

But this breath here is the Spirit of God And when the Spirit of God enters in, he creates a new life. You remember what he's told him in the Valley of Dry Bones? He said, you prophesy unto the wind, you prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. The breath of God gives the frost and he hardens some, but he also comes into the heart of others and gives us life.

And that's fruit, a newborn child of God within a sinner. is the fruit that Christ created. And then He comes forth and He has fellowship. He partakes in communion and fellowship with that newborn child within you. And you have fellowship with Him. Look at Song of Solomon and look at chapter 4 and look at verse 16. What I want you to see is the newborn child, you that are born anew, you're the fruit that He created. And then he comes into his garden in spirit, and he brings you in spirit, and you have communion one with another, just like you eat pleasant fruit. Look here, Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse 16. Awake, O north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out. This is spiritual fruit, a spiritual child being born. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.

And that's what Christ does. He created you anew and made you His fruit. Then He comes in and has fellowship and communion with you just like you partake of a pleasant fruit. And then by that same power, the Lord rules every trial we face just like He rules the storm. Look here now, back at our text in Job 37 and verse 13. He calls a bit to come whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.

He ruled in everything for that very reason. That's why he sends the storm, the snow, but that's why he sends the gospel, that's why he's working everything he's working in this world. But he's going to give you just what you need. He's not going to overcorrect and not going to overdo it to where he destroys you, but he's going to give you just what you need to make you see, in my flesh dwells nothing good. and Christ is all my salvation.

Let me support that. Look at Isaiah 27 6. I'm trying to show you that he's not going to over correct. He's going to stay the rough wind. Look here, Isaiah 27 verse 6. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root. That's trees of righteousness that He planted. He's going to make you take root. Israel shall blossom in bud and fill the face of the world with fruit. Let's skip verse 7. It just says, I'm not going to smite you like they smote me. That's what Christ is saying. I'm not going to smite you like the Pharisees smote Him on the cross.

But look in verse 8, but in measure, When it shooteth forth, when you come forth a tender plant, thou wilt debate with it. He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. In other words, when he sends the rough wind of correction, He's going to stay that wind so it won't be too rough on you. By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. He's going to, next word, he says, he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten asunder.

At the groves and images shall I stand up. Whatever it is that is an idol, that has come between us and Christ. And whatever it is, it's making us not hear Him, and not hear His voice, and not look only to Him, but it's stealing our affection, something in this world that we're looking to. That's what He's describing there, idols.

He's going to send the wind of correction, the gospel, and orchestrate His providence to correct you. But not overdo it, He's just going to turn you from whatever that is, make you see it's an idol, and turn you back, and keep you remaining in your place in Christ, and keep you. That's what He's going to accomplish through this Word. That's what He's going to accomplish. Now go back with Job 37, and I'll finish up here. He does this through the gospel.

He said in verse 11, also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud. His preachers called a cloud with rain. False preachers are called clouds without rain. He watereth. And by watering, he wearieth the thick cloud. He's going to fill his minister with the word, just like he fills the cloud with the rain. And the cloud gets weary, it rains so much. He's going to make his minister willing to spend and be spent to preach the gospel to his people.

And then it says, verse 11, and he scattereth his bright cloud. Now I looked at this for a while and I thought, what in the world? I thought he was talking about a false preacher as a cloud without rain. But I found there's only one other place in all of scripture where the Lord calls it a bright cloud. And it fits right here in the context. That first use of the, by watering he weareth the thick cloud, that's his preacher preaching like rain pouring out of the cloud.

Alright, go to Matthew 17, 5. And as that word's going forth, here's what the Lord does through his voice in the heart of his child. It's the only other place that word bright cloud's used. when they were in that Mount of Transfiguration. And Peter spoke up, said, let's build an altar to the Law and to the Prophets and to Christ. It says, Matthew 17, 5, it says, while he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear Him.

That's how he does this whole work. He sends his preacher like a cloud with water, and he wears him out, pouring out the gospel to you. And then the Lord speaks from the bright cloud and says, this is my son. You hear him. You look to him. You follow him and to none else. And that's when the son of righteousness arises with healing in his wings. That's when the rainbow is shown. And you know what I love about the rainbow?

When he gave that to Moses, He told Noah, you look at that cloud, and he said, I promise you, I'll never destroy the earth again with water, but this is what I love about it. He said, the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it. The Lord said, God said, I'll look on the bow. and I'll remember my everlasting covenant.

That I may remember my everlasting covenant. When John saw the Lord Jesus in the book of Revelation, when he saw the Lord Jesus, he had a rainbow about his head. He is the one in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen. And God's looking to his son and remembering his everlasting covenant to you and me. That's what he makes you see through the preaching of this word.

Go with me to Isaiah 55. This sums up everything I'm saying. This is what he said. You think of that snowstorm that came. Man couldn't stop it. Man couldn't move it, make it go somewhere else. It came and no man could change it. It did just what God sent it to do. It stopped us from working.

It made us see God's work. It made me go into these scriptures and look where all God talked about using the weather as a picture of His saving grace and His gospel and His word. Well, the Spirit is going to come irresistibly and Christ is going to speak irresistibly and God shall accomplish what He purposed for His child to make you bow and give Christ the glory and He's going to keep you all your days the same way through the preaching of this Word.

Look at Isaiah 55.10. He said, As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth before you in a singing, and all the trees will feel the clap of their hand.

Just like we're looking at nature and we're seeing what God says in His Word, and it rejoices your heart to see God glorified and Christ honored and salvation in Him. is sure and certain because of His work. Just like we do that, you start seeing Christ in ways you didn't even see Him before. He made this whole creation to glorify Him, and it all glorifies Him.

You know, how often does the snow come, or rain, or whatever, and we talk about the weather probably more than anything else. I mean, as my grandfather used to say, when the conversation turns toward the weather, we've run out of things to talk about. But we ought to use that as an opportunity to say, isn't it amazing how the Lord accomplishes just what He purposed through sending that rain? You know what I'm saying? Turn it to Him and speak about the Lord and what He does and what He tells us in this book that He does by His Word, by His voice.

That's all our salvation, brethren. I hope that's a blessing to you. It was a blessing to me. Let's go to the Lord. We're going to be dismissed in prayer. Adam's working the video, so we'll just be dismissed in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for this Word.

Thank You, Lord, for sending that storm. Thank You for giving us Scripture to show us what You're doing in it, and how You're glorifying Your name, and how You're showing us how You save Your people. Lord, we pray that you bless it to our hearts just as you've promised you shall. Keep us by this gospel and by your sovereign hand, Lord, and keep us looking only to Christ. Be with our brethren that were not able to be with us tonight. And Lord, we thank you for your tender mercies every day. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, brethren, you're dismissed.