We will start again in Psalm 57. We'll look at verse number 5, kind of the introduction verse to this study on the names of God. Psalm 57, five. So we'll read this verse and then we'll do a little bit of a review from last week. I know we went over three names in introduction and three names. So Psalm 57 and verse number five. It says, be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, let thy glory be above all the earth. So we're talking about there in that verse exalting God. This is a psalm of David. He wrote this when he fled from Saul and he was hiding in the cave. And he starts off the psalm there, be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. And in that verse number two he says, I will cry unto God most high. Unto God that performeth all things for me. And then here in our text verse, he says, Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above the earth. Even in a time of distress, while he was on the run. William, pay attention. while he was on the run, hiding from someone who was a friend to him, someone who should have been a mentor to him, the person that he would eventually succeed in the kingdom. There, someone that he should not have had to have run from, but in a time of distress, not a great time in David's life, maybe a time where, oh, he could give up, he could forget about God, but no, he asked God to be merciful to him, but then he, there in the middle of the psalm, almost right in the middle, he exalts God's name. So we looked at, we talked about names in the Bible. And we talked about how names always, in the Bible times, names usually had great meaning and significance when they were given. They'd usually talk about a person's character or even their destiny. And we find that we talked about some of those names, but any of the main characters in the Bible, you look at their at their character, at their story, and then look at their name and look up the meaning of their name, whether that's in a dictionary or a Bible concordance or something like that, you'll find that they always fit. And I think one of the greatest examples of that from the Old Testament is Jacob, and we see Jacob's name meant supplanter or deceiver. And we find that Jacob was just that in his story. But you find that Joseph and many of the other characters all throughout the Bible, even the New Testament characters, all had names that either fit their character or fit just who they were, their destiny. But they would usually show their character traits or something they were destined to do by God. And the names of God, I believe, do the same thing. They reveal to us character traits about God. And so we looked at that as we These names were who and what God was to the people of the Bible. And especially the names that we've gone over have all been in the Old Testament. And these are Hebrew names that we've been studying. But they are also who and what he is to us. And you think, well, our Bible just says God. And God, we can talk about all the character traits about God. He's almighty. He's loving, He's caring, He provides our needs. There is a name, and in the English Bible, we just have God, or we have Lord, or there is Jehovah in there, and we talked about Jehovah last week. But we can give new meaning to these names of God, whether it be Lord God, or God Almighty, and all these things, and we can really dive into these. So last week we looked at that first one as an introduction. We looked at I Am. There found in Exodus chapter 3 we looked at the I Am that I Am that as as Moses asked who he should tell the Israelites that had given him the authority. So he's looking for the authority, who he would tell the Israelites had given him that authority. And it was also so that the people would know. But it signifies God's self-existence, his eternal nature, and his independence from creation. It emphasizes God's eternal and unchanging being. highlighting that he is the source of all existence and transcends time. He says, I am that I am. He always was and always is and always will be. It has enormous meaning and is a summary of all that God is. And then we looked at Elohim, and that is the God that we find in creation. As we found that first mentioned in Genesis 1.1, used over 2,600 times there, but it shows that God is the majestic ruler over all the earth. An interesting note is that Elohim, if you remember, is a plural word. And we looked at that, the Trinity in creation. So the first mention of the name God in the Bible found in Genesis 1.1 is plural. It's Elohim, and in our Bible we have God as singular, and the Trinity is singular. The Trinity is singular and plural. And we talked about, you know, time being represented in past, present, future, matter in solid, liquid, and gas, and then space measurements in height, length, and width. I gave the name of this for Elohim as God the Powerful. And then we looked at Yahweh, or also known as Yehovah. Or in English Bible, we have Jehovah, which is a, I think the right term is transliteration. So they just took the Hebrew letters and made them, put them right into English. As you see there, Yehovah, Y turned to J, and so on and so forth. So they went directly from, and if you remember this, so this is, This is God's promised proper name. Just like my name is Jacob, Tim's name is Tim. This is God's actual name. And we talked about some of the importance, the sacredness of this name and how they won't even write it. And if they ever did write it, they would wash their pen and they would wash their body before they ever wrote it. And they wouldn't even say this name. And that's why all we have in the Hebrew language of this word are those four letters in the Hebrew language that we have written up there, Y-H-W-H. They feel, they believe that this name is so sacred and so holy that they can't even write it all the way out. So all we have today is those four letters. So we don't really actually know how this is pronounced. So we have filled in from history, and we've put things together, and that's how we get Yahweh or Yehovah, Jehovah in English. But it's the sacred name of God who seeks a personal relationship with his own people. And we named this one as his name, gave it that short meaning, so we had God the powerful, and then this one is God the personal. God the personal. And so then today, we will go into one other name, and that one will be found in Genesis chapter number 14. If you remember, we're going through the Bible, and we're going to find these as they first appear in the Bible chronologically. So we started right in the beginning of the Bible. William, why don't you grab one of the Bible, the Bible in the row behind you, OK? So Genesis chapter 14. And we'll read verse number 18. Genesis 14 and verse number 18. It says here, in Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And this is right after Lot's capture and rescue. And then we're introduced to Melchizedek. We've seen Melchizedek early on. But this is before Abraham or Isaac was born and things. But we see here that when Melchizedek, which many will believe, and they can study Melchizedek out, that priest, that this was a Christophany or a Old Testament appearance of Christ. But either way, it's Melchizedek, the King of Salem comes. And we see there that last phrase. who he was, it says he was the priest of the Most High God. So we see this name in Hebrew, the Most High God, all of that together is El Elyon. So we find that this is used, this is one of the more rare used names of God, not to take away from the fact that he is the Most High God, all throughout the Bible he is, but this is only used 53 times. but it calls him the Most High. It is an elevation, or lofty, and as a title, it's the Supreme. So it's putting him in the position as the Most High. There is no other, and we see this in every name of God. We saw this in I Am, we saw this in Jehovah, in his actual name, and we see it here in El Elyon. We find that he is the supreme. He is the most high God above all other gods. And we find that if you go back to Psalm 57 again, where we started, We will, we seek one of the key verses for this name. Same place where we found in verse number five, where we started, be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. In verse number two, he says, I will cry unto God most loudly. unto God that performeth all things for me. So this is the God most high, the most high God as we saw in Genesis chapter 14, but it says he performeth all things for me. This is the most high God. And sometimes, It is used without L, and it's used as simply Elyon, and you'll find that, the difference in the Bible. Sometimes you'll find it with L as El Elyon, and then others as just Elyon. But El means God. That is the word for God in the Hebrew language. That's just your normal, I don't want to say generic because God's not generic, but it's just your normal word for God is El. We find that in many of his names coupled with, like Elyon. Elyon means the most high. When you put it with El, it means the most high God or God the most high. But El likely referred to the name Elohim, and is used in conjunction with other descriptive words to specifically reference a particular characteristic of God. And we see that here with El, and it's coupled with Elyon. Elyon means the most high. And you see that in that word Elyon, you see El. E-L-Y-O-N, so when we say the most high, Elyon, it's specifically referring to God. So when you put it, couple it with God, we have the most high God. But the word El means strength. Hence, anything strong, specifically a chief, it's also talking, refers to a ram, a pilaster, an oak tree, or some other strong tree, it also means the almighty, and we saw that an Elohim also has L in it, and that was God, the powerful, but it is the almighty, but it refers or reveals the characteristic of God that He is above everyone and everything. He is supreme. He is the most high. It reveals His position as sovereign, majestic, the sovereign, majestic, and preeminent God. Again, you find this in all of his names. You'll find some of these similar points about his names as we go through the study. You'll find some of the similar things, that it distinguishes him above all others. He's sovereign, majestic, preeminent, he's supreme above all others. But it points to his awesome majesty, and His supreme position is higher than the highest. So anything, any label that man can put on anything, hey, this is the best of this, this is the best of this, this is the best person in this category, this is the most powerful. You talk about Samson, the strongest man in the Bible. God is over him. He's higher than the highest. Solomon, the wisest man, God is higher than the highest. And we find that revealed that He's higher than us, obviously, as human beings. We looked at that verse, I believe, last week from Isaiah, that His ways are above our ways. His thoughts are above our thoughts. They're higher. They're higher than us. He is higher than the highest. Anything that in our mind we can put, hey, this is supreme, this is the highest, this is the top, God is above that. And that's what this name puts Him as, as Elion, the Most High God. and it gives God, it puts God in a position of honor where He ought to be. I believe there are three ways that human beings, we find it in the Bible, these failures in the Bible, we find them today. But I believe there are three ways that we fail to honor God, to honor God's governing authority, that He is higher than the highest, that He is God the most high. And the first way is when we forget that He is the most high God, who presides over the highest court. There's no other court, no other judgment that's more important and that should mean more or that should convict us more or strike to the innermost part of our heart more than standing before God, the almighty judge, the judge that is higher than all other judges. And one day we will stand before God and we'll answer for the time that he gave us on earth, and how we live for him, and what we did do for him, or what we didn't do for him. But he presides over the highest court. He is the highest judge. He is the judge above all other judges. And by failing to commit our hard cases to Him for judgment in His time and way, we not only miss seeing God's intervention, but we also miss the joy of seeing Him undertake on our behalf. He is higher than the highest. We ought to go to God for all things and with all things and let Him come and deal with our Our hard cases, bring those to Him. Commit them to Him for judgment in His time and His way to be sovereign over every area of your life. The second way is when we forget that He sees every injustice and sin in the world. And we know that the Bible teaches us that His eyes go to and fro throughout the earth, beholding the good and the evil. We're told here, very early on in the Bible, that we're told or warned or reminded, it says, be sure your sin will find you out, because God sees our actions. God sees what we do. But not only does he see our actions and those sometimes are the things that in our mind sometimes we think, think okay if no one else saw me do it, then nobody saw me do it. You know if I am at home and nobody else saw me do whatever I did, whatever sin that is that I've led into my life, then we, as human beings, we kind of forget. We're forgetful people, and that's why I call the Bible God's book of reminders. He reminds us that He's there. And in many ways, He reminds us that He's there in His names, like El Elyon. But we forget that He sees all the sin, but also that He sees our heart. And Jeremiah tells us that our heart is wicked, it's deceitful, who can know it? We're given the teaching and the principle in God's Word that God knows the heart. God searches the heart. He sees our heart. But what He's also looking, He does see our heart, but what He's looking for us is to have an attitude or a spirit like David had, where we come to Him and say, Lord, search me and know me and try me. He said, hey, put some fire to me, put some heat to me, put some pressure on me. He said, my heart is open. Look and see if there's any wicked way in me. anything in my heart that needs to be removed. But we have to remember that God sees all the sin, not just our actions that we do, those things that other people around us can see, our family, our friends, and coworkers, other people that we come in contact with, they see our testimony. Well, God sees that, yes, but He goes beyond just our outward testimony. He sees our heart, something that no other person can see, but when we forget that he sees all this, when we do this, we do not fear his judgment, we do not heed his warnings, and we do not believe that he truly responds to every person according to their ways. So when we do that, when we forget that God sees all, we're saying God's word is not true. Because we're saying that he does not respond to every person according to their ways. And he deals with each person, and he eventually will. God has a time. Sometimes you look, well, hey, how come so-and-so lives like this? Or I have a co-worker. I have friends, or whatever else it may be, that just live in sin. Well, God says vengeance is mine. He has a time, and He has a time that we're going to die. In Hebrews it tells us it's appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. So, God's timing might be that He judges us while we're here on earth, and He'll bring something in, whether we want it or not, whether we ask Him for this judgment, like David asked that God would try him, and to see if there's any wicked way, and to lead him in the way everlasting. So, there's that way. Or, if it's not His time, or His will that He would judge us on earth, It is appointed for every man to die, for once to die, and then the judgment. So the first way that we fail to honor God is we forget that He is the Most High God who presides over the highest court. We forget about His judgment. We forget that. And then secondly, we forget that He sees every injustice and sin. He sees our actions, but also sees the heart of every person. And He's looking for, again, that heart or that spirit that David had, where we're opening our heart, allowing God to search it. Then thirdly, The third way we fail to honor God's governing authority, or to honor God as Elion, the Most High God, is when we forget that everything we have is from Him. And we see that in that key verse that we looked at, I will cry unto God, Most High, unto God that performeth all things for me. Anything that we ever accomplish in our life, is because of God. We look at even the unsaved, even the people out in the world who have no relationship with God. You think of some of the smartest people in the world that have invented some of the greatest inventions. Well, who performed that? Who gave that person the wisdom? Who gave the person that ability? Well, that was God. Elion, the Most High God. But we forget that everything we have is from Him. As human beings, we are prideful beings. We find that that's part, much of the first sins we see recorded in the Bible is pride. We see that with Adam and Eve. We see that with Cain. We can fast forward a little bit. We see that with Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, building that. But it was, you know, we look at that tower, it was them not viewing God as El Elyon, as the Most High God. They said, hey, we can build a tower and we can get as high as God. You know, they could have kept going with that tower. They could have had it above the clouds. And we don't know how tall their tower ended up getting before it was destroyed. But no matter how high they would have gone, God still would have been higher because he is El Elyon, the most high God. But any of our mental or physical abilities are blessings from God. They come from God. He is the one that performeth these things for us, as David said in Psalm 57. Any of our spiritual understanding comes from God. any blessings that we enjoy, and some of that is the mental or physical abilities or the spiritual understanding, but any blessings that we enjoy, family, friends, our church, but anything in our life, anything that we say, hey, I accomplished this, I did this, I built this, I did this for myself. What we're doing is we're failing to honor God as the Most High God. We're failing to honor God and keep God in His sovereign position as the God who is above everyone and everything. We fail to acknowledge or put Him in His position as sovereign and majestic and preeminent God. And then we see that what this The name for this one is what the name means. El Elyon is God the Most High. So we had God the Powerful, God the Personal, and God the Most High in El Elyon. And then the last one that we'll do for tonight is the name Adonai. And we'll go to Genesis 15, so just one chapter over. from where we were in the last name, but Genesis chapter 15, and then we will be going back to Psalm 80, 86 for our key verse here in a few moments, but Genesis chapter 15, In verse number two, so this is Abram's vision. Let's start in verse number one, it says, And after these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, behold, to me, thou has given no seed and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And then we find here after this, that God promises the heir to, to Abraham, which would be Isaac. But we see there that phrase, Lord God, and that in Hebrew, which is our name that we're going to look at here, is Adonai. So we find that this is used 434 times. It means Lord or Master, and we find that in the verse, Lord God. But it's an emphatic form of Adon, which is a Hebrew word, which means the Lord. It's used as a proper name of God only. And Adon is from an unused root, meaning to rule, or sovereign, or controller. And that's controller either human or divine. So we see that here. is Lord and Master. And Abraham called him Lord God. That's how he responded to God. So God comes to Abram in a vision. And Abraham's first response, the first thing that he thinks of to call God, is he says, Lord God. He says, and in the Hebrew language, in his language that he would have said, Abram would have said, Adonai. And that's what he would have, that's what he referred to God here as. And our key verse is Psalm 86. And we'll find that this name is used here and put into some context here. But Psalm 86 and verse, oh, I think I have the wrong verse there. I think that might be verse 12. Yeah, 12. I wrote 112. There's not 112 verses in Psalm 86. Forgive me for that. But Psalm 86 and the verse number 12. Well, let's start in verse number 11. So this is introducing God as the God of mercy. But he says, teach me thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. I will, and then verse number 12, I will praise thee, O Lord my God. So that's Adonai. And he puts here a personal pronoun with it. He says, O Lord my God. And he says, I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name forever. He's glorifying the Lord his God. And we ought to glorify the name of the Lord our God, just like we find in this But this name Adonai was often, or it was used with Yehovah or Jehovah, which it's a variation of Jehovah as we've looked at, as we looked at that word. And Jehovah would have been used after Adonai. So it would have been Adonai Jehovah or Adonai Yehovah or Yeshua as we looked at with that name. So it would be put together with that promised personal name for God. So you'd find it often at Adonai, Jehovah. We find that it's pronounced as Elohim by Jews. And it just goes, because Adonai was used with Jehovah or Yeshua, their proper name, that name that they felt was too holy to ever use, what they would replace Adonai with or that they would replace this Jehovah Adonai or Adonai Jehovah. They would just call it Elohim as we've looked at already that name, but it was pronounced as Elohim by Jews in order to prevent the repetition of the same sound, since they elsewhere pronounced Yehovah as Adonai." Again, replacing Yehovah, replacing Jehovah with Adonai. So what they did, because they wouldn't say, they don't want to say Jehovah, they don't want to say Yeshua, They would replace it with Adonai. So then what they would find, what you'll find in the Bible is because they replaced Jehovah with Adonai, you would find places in the Bible where God's name would be Adonai Adonai because they replaced Jehovah with it and you'd find that you'd have Adonai Lord Jehovah or Lord God using his proper name. So they replaced Adonai with Elohim, so you'd have Jehovah or Elohim Jehovah, or Elohim Jehovah. So they often used Adonai instead of Yahweh, or YHWH, but this name also emphasizes that God is owner of everything, and he is in charge of everything, in charge of all of His creation, including people. And we find that a name, I believe, that gives more meaning to this, and it's fitting and uses this, is all the way in Revelation. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Lord, the capital L-O-R-D, of Lords. lowercase l-o-r-d, so any lord, anything that's in the world, anything that is put together by God's hand, his creation, any human being, whether that human being acknowledges God as their lord, or whether they acknowledge God as their master or as their creator, so even, he is even Lord and master or he is lord of lords. He's lord of the Atheist he is lord of the person who believes in evolution evolutionists. He is lord of lord it emphasizes the fact that he is Lord of Lords. Knowing this about Adonai, the name Adonai should cause us to examine the way we use the word Lord. So when we say Lord in our prayer, O Lord God, we when we ever we hear or read or see that name and again, we talked about that the difference how they were in our English Bible, you'll find that you'll find Lord with L and then lower capital L and then lowercase or And you'll also find it in with capital L, a large capital L, and then smaller capital letters for O-R-D. And you see that verse number six in Psalm 96, give ear, O Lord. And we talked about that distinguishes God's personal name. If you remember, I already said they would replace YHWH or Yahweh, Jehovah, they would replace it with Adonai. So we find that here, verse number 6 of Psalm 86, we see, Give ear, O Lord. Well, we would call that Adonai, but what that is, is it is Adonai, because that's what the Jews replaced it with in their Hebrew language, but that is God's personal name, just replaced with Adonai. So that is Jehovah there in verse number 6 of 86. So you'll find that differences in your Bible, because you'll find in other places, when I believe Sarah called Abraham Lord, that was not with a capital L. And then you find other places, even in this Psalm 86, you'll see that you have O Lord. Well, that O Lord, like in verse number 9, you find all nations who now has made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord. Well, that is Adonai. The Lord God. So you say that capital L and then O-R-D, but in other places you have capital L and capital O-R-D, but a little smaller. That is God's personal name that the Jews would have replaced with Adonai. But it should, knowing this about Adonai and Jehovah, those two names, and even Elohim, when we put these names that we've learned so far together, and even Elion, you'll find that it should cause us to examine how we use that word Lord, that title. And not just a title, but often that name Lord that we find in the Bible, just like in verse number six that we saw, the capital letters, that is God's personal name. So we should examine how we use that name Lord. And as the Jews were afraid of breaking the fourth commandment, not taking the Lord's name in vain, that's why they would replace it with Jehovah with Adonai. We ought to be careful how we use Lord and how we use these names of God to not take God's name in vain as well. It should never become a flippant name used out of habit or even formality. It's a sacred name. Every name of God is sacred and we ought to use it that way. When we say, Lord, We're calling God by, in some cases, His personal name, and putting Him in the position of Lord of lords, putting Him again in His supreme position as ruler over all things and all people. And God knows our heart, and also knows what we mean when we call Him Lord. And that's what it comes down to. We may say Lord, and someone else may hear us say Lord, but they may not know what, when I say Lord, or I pray Lord, whether I'm praying out loud, or talk about God as Lord, or God sees my heart and He knows what I mean when I say that, why I'm using and how I'm using that word. may we always use this name Adonai and the other names of God like Jehovah but may we always use it and mean it in the truest sense of the word to the delight of God the delight of Jesus the Lord our God and the Lord Also, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You find that term, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We're to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But, we have to use that name to bring honor and glory to God. So, tonight we looked at El Elyon. The God, the most high God, and then this name goes right along with that meaning Lord. But what the name that we give this one is God the Lord. So we saw God the powerful and Elohim. And we see, I think, in I Am, I don't know if I gave one, but that's God, maybe it could be the all-existent, who was and is and will be. And then we saw God the powerful in Elohim, God the personal in Jehovah or Yehovah. And then we saw God the most high in El Elyon. And here in Adonai, we see God, the Lord, which puts him in the position as Lord of Lords.