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Thanks, Marlene. If you'll turn,
please, to Psalm 29. And I'm going to actually read
all 11 verses. Psalm 29. Our verse, the title of the lesson
tonight is called The Glory Due His Name, and it's from verse
two, as you'll see when I read it. But I'll also share with
you, if you wanna have a little more extensive, I don't know,
lesson on this, you can look at Spurgeon's August 16th morning
devotion, and that's where this came from, and it was good that
it fit right in, I thought, so I thought we'd take some time
to look at it tonight. Psalm 29 and verse one. Give unto the Lord, O you mighty
ones. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord
the glory due to his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over
the waters. The God of glory thunders. The
Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the
Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars
of Lebanon. He makes them also skip like
a calf. Lebanon and Siron, like a young
wild ox. The voice of the Lord divides
the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes
the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness
of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the
deer give birth and strips the forest bare. And in his temple,
everyone says, glory. The Lord sat enthroned at the
flood, and the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength
to his people. The Lord will bless his people
with peace. And so now just a few observations
from this psalm, and I have tried to start being better myself
at marking certain psalms that I want to go back and look at
and read a little more often. And I mean, certainly you should
read all of the psalms. But the Psalms are very much, and again,
Spurgeon, I think it was just this morning, was talking about
the fact that David was a unique man in the Old Testament, as
far as all that happened in his life, all the things that he
went through, the trials, the good times, the different things
that had happened to him. and that he very much personified
the life of Christ in that Christ came and experienced all things.
And that's why he can say to us, there's no temptation that's
befallen us that he himself didn't understand and wasn't able to
relate to. And so this is one of these psalms
that as I looked, I noticed I'd highlighted a number of things
in it over the years, And I think it's just one of those psalms
that we should come back to at times and meditate on it. So I wanted
to look at it a little bit tonight, maybe give you some thoughts
on it, and then give you the encouragement to go and to study
these things and to meditate on them yourselves. It is interesting
to me, and this is just, it's not trivia per se, but it was
something that struck me, because it made reference to the Lord
sat enthroned at the flood. And I looked, and roughly the
timeline from the time of the flood to the time of David was
about 2,000 years. And from the time of David to
our day, it was about 2000 years. And it's interesting to think
about that as we read a psalm like this, that we measure things
like that in thousands of years. And, you know, that seems like
a long, long time. But We're as far away from David
as David was from the flood, and yet he talks here about the
Lord sitting enthroned at the flood. So these things are timeless
in the sense of, as Christians especially, we look at the world,
we look at history in a way that is different, I think, from most
people who think of, you know, ancient history as like 10 or
20 years ago. And a lot of people have been
joking about lately, you know, about how far the 70s was ago.
I remember the 70s, some of you do, some of you weren't even
born, but the point is that's nothing, that's just a blink
in the things of history, but especially in the things of God. And so we come to this thought
tonight that God is in fact, a glorious God. And His glory,
and this is a quote from Spurgeon, when I kind of tease this out
a little bit, Exodus 15 and verse 11 says, Who is like you, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in
holiness? God's gloriousness is here applied
to the gospel. The good news of salvation It
is glorious. Why? Because it is God working.
It is God overcoming the sin that man has committed. It is
God providing a way for sinful man to be reconciled to that
holy God. So is it not indeed a glorious
gospel? And should we not just marvel
at it sometimes? I mean, there are times I think
as Christians, we should sit and read the Word of God and
think about it in application to ourselves and say, isn't this
glorious? Isn't this unbelievable what
God has done in sending Jesus Christ to die for me? And so
the gospel itself is glorious, and it is because it is of the
blessed God, which committed it to Paul, in this case, to
teach and to preach. And then it goes on from there
in Titus chapter 2 and verse 13, it goes on from there to
talk about looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of
our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. So not only is God glorious
in holiness, not only is He glorious in the gospel, but there is also
a gloriousness of His second coming, of His appearing once
to gather us together and to judge all men and to separate
those who are in Christ from those who are not in Christ.
And so God is a glorious God, one that we would just spend,
I hope, a good amount of time on as we look at these things
and as we study them. But God is also jealous of that
glory. And I think this is important
to look at this as we talk about the glory that is due his name.
God is jealous of that glory. He guards it. And so again, Spurgeon
says, the actions which flow from his character are also glorious. But while he intends that they
should manifest to his creatures his goodness and mercy and justice,
he is equally concerned that the glory associated with them
should be given only to himself. We are never to try to take some
of the glory of God. God's gloriousness is His and
His alone. Deuteronomy 5.9, and there was
a lot of choices here back in Deuteronomy and the early books
of the Old Testament, but Deuteronomy 5.9 summed this up well, wherein
it says, you shall not bow down to them nor serve them, other
gods, foreign gods, idols. For I, the Lord your God, am
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me." Think
about that for a moment. Think about the fact that God
declares Himself to be a jealous God. When we're jealous, it's
a bad thing. It's usually a sinful thing.
But when God declares Himself to be jealous for His glory,
it is a good thing. It is a holy thing. And it's
interesting here that he addresses this idea that the iniquity of
the fathers can descend on the children to the third and fourth
generations. Now, that's not to say that if you sin and you're
wicked, your children are gonna be wicked, and your grandchildren
are gonna be wicked, and your great-grandchildren are gonna be wicked. I think
that's four. Because we know that many people have a testimony
of they grew up in a wicked home, they grew up in a wicked situation
and God saved them. So we know that's possible. But
I think what he is partially pointing out here is you have
an impact on your children. And if you think that you can
just sin and live for yourself and it doesn't impact your children
and their children, you're foolish. And I was watching a clip just
this week, Jordan Peterson, who I get a kick out of. He's got
issues, I know that. But he was talking about not
raising your children and not correcting your children and
how then you're exhausted with your children and you can't stand
your children because you didn't straighten them out an hour ago
and now you're mad at them. And he goes through this, and
he makes some really good points. And then he says, and if you
do that, you're stupid. And that's why some people have issues with
him, but he was not wrong. He's right. You're making it
harder on yourself. And that's just from a worldly
perspective, let alone from a scriptural, biblical perspective. You're
making it harder on yourself. And those children are going
to grow up and they're going to be a handful. And you're going to have the terrible
twos and the, I don't know, the teenage years and the rebellious
this and the rebellious that. Why? Because you didn't deal
with those children. Well, here God says, if you live
a sinful, wicked life, that can impact your children and your
grandchildren and your great-grandchildren. And one thing I've noticed in
the world is that as we get older, we start thinking about our legacy,
if you will. And while I didn't accomplish
much, but hopefully my children are gonna do more. Or my grandchildren,
I'm really proud of them. And there's nothing wrong with
that. But the point is, we recognize that and God says, take heed.
to what you do impacts your children and your children's children
and your children's children's children. And so that's true
also from a positive standpoint. As we live as Christians, we
should seek to influence those that God has blessed us with
and those that come forth after us in the time to come. And then
one more reference here to God being jealous of that glory,
Romans 1, And verse 23 follows along the same lines of not bowing
down and serving the idols that man carves himself. I think it's
a proverb, might be in the Psalms, but a man cuts down a tree and
he cuts half of it up for firewood to heat himself and to cook over,
and the other half he takes and makes an idol out of. And we
all shake our heads and go, well, that's just kind of dumb. But
that's man and his idols. And Romans 1.23 follows on this
idea. And it says, and change the glory
of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
You look at most religions today that are not Christianity, and
they have idols. And if you look at most of the
idols, a lot of the Far Eastern countries and religions especially,
you look at them, and they're either disgusting and gross,
or they're very, you know, lascivious and, you know, you know, immoral,
but they make these things to worship them, and God says, you've
changed the incorruptible God into an image made like yourselves.
And what is it you've done? You've changed the glory of the
incorruptible God. So that's why we should resist
idolatry is because it takes the glory of God and it turns
it into something that it's not. And remember, God is jealous
of that glory. And then finally, in the third
place tonight, there is, I'm sorry, it's not finally, and
it's not, yeah, there's four, sorry. Had another page. There is nothing in us to glory
in, save God alone. This is the third thought. There
is nothing in us to glory in, save God alone. Jeremiah nine
and verse 23 says, thus says the Lord, let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
nor let the rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories
glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord,
exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight, says the Lord." And so Jeremiah is
saying, he's saying, don't look on the things that the world
glories in. you know, men that are wise. We often, you know,
we bow to the experts, which maybe we're not doing that quite
as much right now. But those who are wiser than
us, well, we should listen to them. Those who are mighty, sometimes
you have to, because they're bigger than you, and they can
force you to. But we look at, you know, if you look, I remember
back in the old back of the comic books, you know, I think it was
Charles Atlas. You know, there was a skinny
little guy, got sand kicked in his face, and then there was
the big muscle guy. And I always wanted to be the big muscle guy, but
it turned out I didn't want to put the work in to get there.
And so it is what it is. But why? Because you don't walk
down the street and say, oh, look at that skinny little weak
dude. Oh, I want to be like him. No, you don't. You look at the
big guy who works out and he's got some muscle to him. You say,
oh, look at him, man. He's a tough guy. And so we glory in the might
of ourselves, in men. We glory in riches. You know,
these people that are billionaires and billionaires upon billionaires,
we look at them and we are fascinated by them. We tend to click on
the story about so-and-so has done such and such, like, oh,
what did they do? Why? Who cares? Well, because they're
very rich, and so they're very important. But don't let the
rich man glory in his riches, but glory in this, that you understand
and know God. That's what we should glory in.
That's what we should focus on. He is the Lord, exercising loving
kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I
delight. And again, you meditate on those things. God says, I
exercise loving kindness. And what's the next thing he
says, because everybody, oh, God is love. Don't judge. Don't judge.
There's a verse here that says don't judge. What does God exercise
as soon as he says exercising loving kindness, exercising judgment?
Why? And righteousness. That's why.
Because love with no boundaries isn't love. And so judgment and
righteousness are exercised by God in the earth because he delights
in them. That's the glory of God. And
there is nothing for us to glory and save God alone. First Peter
1. 24 carries this theme into the
New Testament. It says, All flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass
withers and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord
endures forever. Now this is the word which by
the gospel was preached to you. I don't know, you may notice
that I do this a lot. I tend to have some references
in the Old Testament, and I tend to have some references in the
New Testament, because I want to emphasize over and over and
over again, it's one book. Okay? None of this evil, bad
God of the Old Testament, the loving, hubby-dubby, hippy God
of the New Testament, no. This is one God, consistent throughout
the Word of God. You might say, well, Peter's
quoting from the Old Testament there, all flesh is as grass.
Yes, he is. And you know what he's doing? He's saying that
word in the Old Testament, Stamp, it's in the New Testament now.
It's just as important and it carries through. And so, what
is it that the glory of man is? It's the flower, it's as the
flower of the grass. It withers and the flower falls
away. I've been watching, my wife has
flowers literally everywhere at our house. And I was complimenting
her today. There were some that I hadn't
even noticed down around the corner there. But as I was sitting
there eating my lunch on the deck, there was a flower. It's
a big pot with big yellow flowers. They're beautiful. I don't know
what they are. They're yellow. And as I was eating, one of them
just fell off. And I didn't touch it, I didn't really. I was sitting
there three feet away from it. But I noted, I said to myself,
I said, right, because it grew, it bloomed, and now it's dying,
and it fell off. And you see the bottom of the
stem was a little brown looking. Why? Because it was here yesterday
and it's gone today. Well, that's man's glory. And
so, Don't glory in yourself. You're like the grass of the
field. But the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is
the gospel which was preached to you. That's what we glory
in. We glory not in ourselves, but we glory in what God gives
us. Now, fourthly, and this is the last thing this evening,
we must therefore worship God in his glory. First Chronicles
16.29 says, Give to the Lord the glory due
His name. Bring an offering and come before
Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. So what are we to do as we worship? We are to give the Lord the glory
due His name. That's why we come together.
And that's why we ought to be very careful about how we come
together, and how we approach worship, and how we prepare our
hearts and our minds to worship together. I know there are some
days like, especially on a Wednesday, where many of us have come from
work, or even if you're not coming from work, you've been doing
other things, you've had a lot going on, and we come in and
you sit down and you're like, And some days are like that,
but we should also, as much as possible, prepare ourselves,
even if it's in the car on the way here, to say, time to focus
on the things of God and give the Lord the glory, do His name,
bring an offering to Him, come before Him, worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29 and verse two, Our theme verse, if you will. Give unto the Lord the glory
due to his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. That's what this whole evening,
I hope, is centered around. Giving the glory, giving the
Lord the glory due to his name. to His name. He's due this. We
owe this to God. Not for salvation. We could never
earn our salvation giving anything to God. God has no need of anything.
You want something to meditate and think about for a while.
Think about the fact that God created man, put him in the Garden
of Eden, and then came every afternoon in the cool of the
day to walk and have fellowship with him. Why? God didn't need
that fellowship. didn't last very long. Man quickly
sinned and fell from that fellowship. But God did that and created
man and put him in that situation. In that same context, and one
or two of you might know where I got this from, he also created
woman for the man. That even in the fellowship of
the presence of God, man still had a need for a companion. And
I believe that fellowship was the two of them together with
God. But give those things some thought. Give that some some
thought as to the glory due to the name of God and worshiping
him in the beauty of his holiness. Luke 19 and verse 37. This is
one of these places where there's an interesting lesson buried
in here. If you just stop and look at it for a minute. Luke
19 and verse 37 says, Then as Jesus was drawing near, the descent
of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began
to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty
works they had seen, saying, Blessed is the King who comes
in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in
the highest. And some of the Pharisees called
to him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. They were
pious religious people, weren't they? But Jesus answered and
said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent,
the stones would immediately cry out. Why? Because God is
to be glorified. God is to be praised. And so
there is nothing wrong with the people of God saying, blessed
is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. And so we are
to worship God in His glory. And then finally, and I love
closing with verses like this from Revelation 16 and verse
9. And men were scorched with great
heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over
these plagues. And they did not repent and give
Him glory. That's the sinfulness of men.
We need to be very careful that we are careful and quick to keep
short accounts and to repent as we need to repent and give
God the glory because we see here this glimpse in Revelation
that even as God pours out His judgment on men, they blaspheme
God and don't repent and therefore don't give Him glory. and we
are to worship God in his glory. And so again, Spurgeon to close
here. It is a lesson which God is ever
teaching us, and teaching us sometimes by most painful discipline. Let a Christian begin to boast,
I can do all things, without adding, through Christ, which
strengtheneth me, and before long he will have to groan, I
can do nothing, and bemoan himself in the dust. When we do anything
for the Lord and he is pleased to accept of our doings, let
us lay our crown at his feet and exclaim, not I, but the grace
of God, which was with me. So are we seeking to glorify
God and take none of that glory for ourselves? I think that's
a question we should ask ourselves on a regular basis. And is our
fellowship with Him built on His glory? Is our fellowship
as a congregation built on the glory of God? There are reasons
we worship in the way we do. There are reasons we don't do
the things that are very popular in many churches throughout the
land and draw great crowds in. Why? because they take the glory
from God. And our desire here is to glorify
God as we fellowship together. I hope that will be of some use
to you as we go through life and as we stop and focus on things
like that. I will again recommend, because
I'm back to reading them again, I will highly recommend Spurgeon. Spurgeon has an ability to take
the teachings of scripture and make them very real to us as
you read them, and it doesn't ever get old.
"The Glory Due His Name"
"The Glory Due His Name"
Psalm 29
| Sermon ID | 820252341288170 |
| Duration | 24:26 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Psalm 29 |
| Language | English |
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