We hope to consider these two Psalms, especially Psalm 29. But as we are in the context of what these Psalms have to say regarding the very days in which we live, we learn so much from them. So Psalm 93 first and then Psalm 29. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith He hath girded Himself. The world also is established that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old. Thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure. Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever." And now Psalm 29, beginning in verse 1. Psalm 29, a psalm of David. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due and to 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 Syrian like a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests. 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. Amen. May God bless the reading and the further preaching of His own Word. Open God's Word and have it open, if you may, in both Psalm 93 and 29. We have been putting these two Psalms together as we find from them such eloquent communication to help us understand the world that we're in and what's going on in this world. And these Psalms also help us stay far away from those four dangers. Remember, we looked at the danger of this world's activities and ideas and actions that they can actually influence you and me. There's a danger of being influenced. But then there's a danger of being apart from it all and being indifferent. and standing somewhat aloof to the whole situation. And that's usually one of the greatest ways by which later you're influenced as well. You're not careful about the dangers and you're not really giving heed to the warnings. And before you know it, you're part of the problem. You're influenced. You're in it. The other danger is that of being anxious, looking at the amount of the problem. Messages like these cannot stay on just the side of what all the problems are, where you and I would be riveted to think, yes, things are really so bad, but we never stay there. We never stay just in the acknowledgement that they are so bad. We are assured that God knows of what's going on. It is not a mistake. There is no need, and it's not just that there's no need, it is even a sin for you and I to become anxious or in despair. Those are people who perhaps are looking at all the situation and listening to the news, but that's where they stay. They just listen to the news. By the way, and I've heard this in many other sermons too, pastors are calling their congregations to stop listening so much to the news. Many people read the news or hear the news more than they read the Bible, and that causes the anxiety and it causes the despair. Maybe we hear these news that are distressing, but you saw the Psalms I just read. And if you believe in this God, you believe in the God who is mightier than the noise of many waters. Mighty than the mighty waves of the sea. He sits enthroned. And I love it how Psalm 29 puts Christ, God, enthroned, sitting on top of the water. And in that Psalm, you never hear one noise of the waters. It's all about the voice of God that thunders. So stop seeing and hearing so much news and read the Bible. Know enough news to be informed. But there's a point where we need to stop. And there's a lot of news we do not need to know that is even bad to know because there's so many details and so many things that really won't help. It will only harm. So we can be influenced. There's a danger of being influenced, a danger of being indifferent. a danger of being anxious, and a danger of being proud. And again, going to the Word, the Word will help us realize proud. Why? Because we can look at all that goes on and say, at least I'm not there. At least I'm different. At least my church is protected. We're being holy in this world that's so unholy. And instead of having compassion in our hearts, and even a pity for the reality that those who are in these circumstances, many of whom never heard the Gospel, And our souls should have compassion upon these peoples of the world and acknowledge, this is why we read Romans one last time, that the root of all these sins are in our own hearts. And this is where Hopefully, Lord willing, next Lord's Day, I want to focus on this aspect of our holiness. Because remember, looking at Psalm 93, where we see where God is, that He is in this place of majesty, that He's in this place clothed and enthroned. It says that He's established the world. Yes, we see the world in great chaos, but God has it established. It cannot be moved. In a simple way, it's meaning it is not a mistake. It's not happening while God is losing track or losing control. And then we see that the psalm not only shows God in His position, but it does say in one short verse the commotion of the waters. It says that they have lifted up. They have lifted up their voices. They have lifted up their waves. And it's the noise of many waters. It is the noise of mighty waves of the sea. So it puts in contraposition to the glory and the majesty of God an element. What's going on here is a competition of sorts. The ways are not quiet and still they are raging and they are raising, but then that one verse, verse 4, that puts them in comparison to each other, God is mightier. And then verse 5, His testimonies, remember that's speaking of the Word of God, our very shore. And then the last phrase, holiness becometh thine house. So we saw that this psalm gives us four things, four principles. We saw the four dangers being influenced in different, anxious or proud, but this psalm gives us four things to do that will protect us from those dangers. And we've been talking about the two first ones, This psalm is driving our attention back to the greatness of God. We need to be filled with that belief. We need to be infused with the thought and the confession of faith that our God is almighty. He is sovereign. We will deal with this a little more in our second point today, so important it is. Because this is part of the great challenge here and the great competition. The world is competing with the power of God. And we need to believe that the world will never, ever, ever win. That's what gives us comfort, not despair. But then the second thing also, we need to give heed to the Word. It's the Word that teaches all these things. The testimonies are very sure. And what's precious about the concept of the Word is that this is then the voice of God in this turbulent world making a lot of noise. But what goes in contraposition to that noise is the Word of God proclaimed, taught, read. The primacy of reading the Word. See, if you truly are preoccupied with the state of the world, you should go to the Word. And this is where we see a lack of balance. People are seeing the news a lot, but they're not going to the Word. Hence, the despair and the thousands and millions of hours spent in posting and reposting things that really show hearts of people who do not truly believe or know that God is enthroned and clothed with this might. They seem to think that the might of this world is greater. That's heresy because it isn't. And so the Word, the primacy of the Word, we hope to focus on that today. And there's still two things, and this is what we're leaving for next Lord's Day, is this, remember we looked at the prayer. This psalm is not saying, therefore pray, but it is what we see the psalmist doing. He says, even when he proclaims the floods, he says in verse three, the floods have lifted up, oh Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. He's praying to God. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise. Thy testimonies are very sure." It's a prayer. And so, this is one thing we should do, is pray. But then another thing we should do is obey. Because the psalm ends with holiness becoming the house of the Lord. Psalm 29 also speaks of holiness, that we worship God in the beauty of holiness. So we hope to put prayer and obedience, prayer and holiness together. In a sense, these are the things that we do. You could ask, what do we do? We see what's going on in this world. What do we do? Well, God's Word gives us two things for us to do. But before we see those two things that are actually, in a sense, activity, like everything else in God's Word, it has to start in our hearts. It's an activity of the mind and of the heart. So these are still things that you and I should do. We should think great thoughts of God, and we should give heed to the Word of God. And this is where we're focusing. Because if we go and do a lot of things of activity without having this knowledge of how powerful God is, all of our activity will be in lack of balance, or even sinful. And that's a great danger. Oh, what a danger is it, is it? Here we are, sad that there's so much sin in the world, so we're going to sin to counteract that sin. It won't work. When Christian people sin, it's still sin. And a lot of Christian people, to counteract the sin of the world, have been doing activities that are sinful in themselves. And that only adds to the noise of the waves, not the voice of God. And so this is why this is so important, what we're hoping to do. If things are in a chaos in the world, we need to have a few sermons where we look at God's Word to see, Lord, what does Thou have to say about the world we're in right now? Now, what we are going to do today as we look at our first point, the noise of many waters will have a slight difference. In a sense, we're going deeper now because what we did last time was we looked, as it were, to the surface of the waters. And boys and girls, think of it this way. We're talking about floods and where it rains a lot and then these waters start to surge or imagine instead a dam that breaks and so all this massive amount of water breaks into the little valley where there's this little town and now you start seeing at the surface of the waters not just the waves but trees and shrubs that are torn and made to float, and now even rooftops, and cars, and tires. And last time, in essence, we were talking about those things. The effects of the flood. When we talk about the case of abortion, in this world and the millions of deaths, and the physician-assisted suicide, and euthanasia, and the mass shootings in the schools and in other places, and the terrorism and the immorality that is rampant, and how people think they should live or can live transgender rights, and pornography, and embryonic research, doing research with minute, tiny, little people. who have the DNA of a human and they're doing research as if they were lab specimen. Lawsuits and persecution of those who do not comply, the suing of counselors who try to help people out of these sinful patterns, and pastors who are being prosecuted if they preach against this kind of life, and labeling as hate speech anything that the Bible has to say about these sins and patterns of sins. All those things are the floating stuff. There's the water that makes it float. And those are the waters that we hope to look at today. This is why, in a sense, we don't look at the floods. We will look at the noise. What is the noise of the many waters? Because we need to understand that those things don't happen in a vacuum. A society doesn't decide, okay, from now on, someone who is elderly and who says he or she wants to die, we will allow that to happen because it's just where we need to move to. That doesn't happen from one day to the next. There's like a philosophy that goes permeating society in the way that people think for them to finally do something like that. Why is it that in the 50s, there weren't as many mass murders as there are now today? You'll find people explaining, well, the numbers were different. The amount of guns were different. What was different was the philosophy. and the mindset and where people were in their way of thinking. Why was it that even in the 60s, where there were already enough where if we were living in the 60s, maybe I'd be preaching the same sermon with the same sense of need because it was a big revolution for those days, the big sexual revolution of the 60s. And yet, even with all of that immorality, they did not dare in those days jettison the whole idea of people's identities or defying what marriage is. There are forces of evil that are stronger today. And just to give you an idea of how strong, just to bring other people who are testifying to this, Maybe you've heard of Os Guinness, who is an amazing theologian, a defender of the faith, like Ravi Zacharias is his ministry. And he wrote a book called Impossible People, trying to talk about all that we're talking about, but in a lot more technical terms, as he understands a lot of the philosophy behind it. And these are the things that he says there. If anyone were to tell most congregations in the West that the modern church is facing the greatest challenge the church has ever encountered, chances are that he or she would be met with puzzled looks, like an undiagnosed cancer. The nature and source of the danger we face is not on the minds of most Western Christians. This is kind of what we're hoping to do, to be informed so that we acknowledge what's going on. And then he continues, how on earth, is it often asked, could German Christians caved in so weakly to the allure and coercions of national socialism in the 1930s? The answer is plain, all too easily, if you understand the temper of the times in which they lived. Just so, many Western Christians are caving in weakly before the challenges of our own times, whether through the general seductions and distortions of advanced modernity the tempting thinking behind the sexual revolution, or a failure to understand the significance of the hour and appreciate the implacable hostility of some of the forces against us, and so blunting our witness and betraying the lordship and authority of Jesus, and all this at a time when momentous events across the world are running at a flood tide. So he compares All of this, as we've been doing, as a big flood tide. Then he compares our day, basically, with the days of the ancient church, where the Caesars would force Christians to burn incense, to offer incense, to the statues that represented the gods or the Caesars of the day, and they had to call Caesar, Lord. And in this book, Os Guinness is saying this is what's happening. Our society is pressuring Christians to say that secularism, modernity, our philosophy is Lord. And you are bid to decide what you will do. And then he has this also that puts together the seriousness. He says, Christians in the West are living in a grand clarifying moment. The gap between Christians and the wider culture is widening. So this is no time for cowards, for thin sitters, or for those who wish to hedge their bets until they hear the judge's verdict on the contest. Some people wait to see if they're on the side of this or that. What the Supreme Court decides, then they go and sift it. He says, we face a solemn hour for humanity at large and a momentous showdown for the Western church. So I hope we agree that, yes, things are serious. What's going on is not like a normal thing of this is the world being immoral. This is the world arriving, as we read in Romans 1, at the third level of judgment where it loses its mind. It is senseless in terms of depths of depravity. And this is the first, perhaps what we could say is the first noise, what's causing all this noise could be put under this one banner. It was in the quote part of it that we just read. We could call it progressive secularism. Or we could call it also an advanced modernity. Secularism in itself, it is a word, of course, based on the word secular. And the word secular comes from the Latin, seculum, which simply means world. And even in the understanding of the church, there are the saints and there is the secular. There is the church and all of the business that the church does. And there is the world and all the business that the world does and going to war and having government and having to make roads to make it where we can be more accessible to each other. And you know the history of the church where there's always been a great tension as to how that combines, but see, the church, even though there was confusion as to what degree one controls or goes along each other, the church of Christ, and we understand from God's Word that both the church and we could call the state, are under the sovereignty of God. That is the classical Christian understanding. That God is sovereign over the lords of this earth. They are His servants. The powers that be are there by God's appointment. And the church and how it ought to live is there by God's appointment. And when you understand it beautifully that many of these Christians will be part of the state and maybe a president, a vice president, a governor, a teacher, a policeman. And so in a sense, the state is full of people who belong or should belong to the church and all governed by the sovereignty of God. But secularism, progressive secularism negates completely the realm of the sacred. Secularism is like this machine that goes forward saying we care nothing for what is spiritual. The state is what we see, and this is what we need. That which is physical, that which is I'm crying for help, that which is something that I can touch and experience, those are the real things. Maybe the spiritual exists, but that's not our business. See, secularism is different from atheism. Atheism is in this downright battle to prove there is no God. Secularism couldn't care less. And if you're part of the system, You should feel the same. And Ravi Zacharias often speaks of what develops which is called privatization. Like in the secularist mind, you're allowed to have your private religion, just don't bring it to the square. Don't bring it to the business. Don't you dare bring it to the table. That's for you and whoever you want it. Not for us. That's secularism. And it's a great philosophy under which There are other competing philosophies that sometimes they work together, sometimes they are actually antagonists to each other. But you've heard of humanism, sometimes you hear of secular humanism. But humanism in itself is like a little sub-philosophy under the greater secularism philosophy. And humanism is this whole focus on the fact that man is the measure of all things, that he is the final arbiter of what is right and what is wrong. And for this to happen under a society that has so many people, there has to have another philosophy that goes right along with it, which is the philosophy of relativism. Because if you're someone who thinks this is right for you, fine, and you can live that way, but you can't impose this on this other person. Look, he lives in this other place. There's other sets of circumstances. Maybe the truth for him is different. And that's the whole idea that truth is relative, relativism. And then another thing that goes right alongside all of that, sometimes against each other, sometimes together, holding hands, is the philosophy of pragmatism. Pragmatism is the whole idea that for us to decide if this is right or this is right, what will cause the greater good to the greater amount of people? And so it's a very pragmatic decision. They say, well, this will cause greater good, so then let's do this instead of B. It's pragmatic decisions that makes the state decide if they will invest money in somebody who's younger and who could work longer or invest money in somebody who's already sick or about to die. And when it's up to the government to decide where money will go, they use pragmatic decisions. What will give greater good to the society? They don't go to their knees and say, Lord, where should we help first? And help us to help all. And look how amazing God's word goes against all these philosophies. Who's more important in the eyes of God? A 30-year-old man full of health, but yes, given he needs a surgery, or an elderly lady, she's a widow. She has no one to care for her, but she might only live five more years. God's Word says for us to look at the orphan and the widow. That is so non-pragmatic. But this is when we bow to Scripture. God tells us where to go. And really, the way it is, we're going to, in our whole hearts, say, Lord, help us that we may provide for both. And that we rally behind the 30-year-old and the widow, and we write to other churches, Lord, please provide through other brethren that we can serve all these who are needy. We don't just decide, okay, where is it more profitable? That's not the church. It shouldn't even be the state. But see, the state without Christ, they have to go to these philosophies. So all of these things I'm saying, relativism, pragmatism, it is all under the umbrella of secular humanism. And that's one big voice that is, in a way, it's driving. The more you study about this, everything I'll say now, I'll bring a second one. So secularism is the first, and these little philosophies are all part of that in a very clear way. But now the second one that I will speak of is still in a sense part of what secularism has created, but it's enough to speak of because it has created so many inroads even into the church. that we need to be very aware of and be careful. So in all these ways, beloved, the way you and I avoid that pride, oh, that's the problem out there, is say, Lord, in what ways have I been affected in my own heart? Is this how I think? Am I choosing a college based on pragmatism or based on Thy glory? Am I choosing a degree based on what glorifies Thee or based on what gives more money to me? That's pragmatism, you see? And so we need to be careful. We're all being preached this by the world. The second one that I want to talk about is a pervasive individualism. You see, by necessity in a secular society where human reason will be really what drives you, is what man wants, well that by itself creates this pervasive individualism. This is where pragmatism more and more is being thrown away by many people because what matters at the end of the day is not what's better for society or for the majority, but what matters is what's better for me. And if that's not going to be better for the majority, it really doesn't matter. And that's how more and more many people are living. See, if we go back to the 1960s, pragmatism was more on vogue. Community. Let's do it for the community. Oh, but maybe that... Going against God's Word doesn't matter, but it will help a lot of people. See, this is where we've gone into a greater depth. Now people are saying it doesn't matter if it won't help a lot of people. It doesn't matter if it's not according to God's Word, but it is what I want. Pervasive individualism. See, it's pragmatism individualized. I'm being pragmatic. It is what works for me. It's what works for my ends. And it's in this way, beloved, that we see so many people influenced. When you hear people talk, it is not about the burden in my heart is where I can be used for God. Where can I serve? Where can I be busy? Where are people hurting? You don't hear people talk like that very often. But they're just thinking, what is in this for me? How will I be blessed? How can I know if this is where I'll be developed? And how I'll be fed? How I'll be loved? How I'll be cared for? Instead of, how can I love? How can I care? How can I serve? How can I give? Isn't this the essence of Christianity? Jesus said, if you cannot Have My cross upon you. You are not worthy to follow Me. And to have the cross being carried means a preparedness in the heart to die. That's Christianity. But more and more you find people who say they're Christians who are saying, how can you die for me? That's not Christianity. That's not the Christian heart. that pervasive individualism is growing and it's taking the hearts of people. You know where it's being shown in such a sad way is in the self-confidence that people are having. And they feel the more I assert who I am, the more self-confident I'll feel, the happier I'll feel. That is not true. It is the more miserable you'll feel. But you do see in the whole, especially in the whole media world, you know, you know the temptation. You maybe post that picture because you just want to communicate and see there's a degree that's completely normal. We should all communicate. We should all show love. If you have a beautiful picture to share, please share. But then comes the temptation. I want more likes. I want more followers. How can I do it? And then they can get into books to know how it can happen to have millions of followers and millions of likes. And they are lost in this world of self-glorification, of promoting and a publishing of self, of their goals, of their agenda. It's sad. A lot of people are addicted to that. And it's this pervasive individualism that's grown into a worship of self. And we need to be careful. You know what I mean. This is not silent. It's a big noise and part of the secular humanism we're living in. And then thirdly, another thing and the last thing that we could talk about is an obsessive consumerism, also called materialism. It is also so connected to everything. If what matters really is is what man thinks and forget the greater good of everybody, I'll just think of myself and I want this, so I'm gonna have it. And we're living in a day where we've never owned so many things. Society has never been richer and opulent and with so many things. We're bombarded. by images. There are about 2,000 to 20,000 images per day that you see telling you you should purchase something. And have you noticed that there are things that you never knew existed, but all of a sudden you find yourself thinking, I need that. But you've lived 40 years without even knowing that existed, but now you need it. See, that's when the whole advertisement company achieved their goal. That's what they're trying to do, trying to make you think you need what they have to produce. And people are falling prey of that and acquiring one thing after another. And MacArthur, he warns of this great danger. He says this in a sermon, but you know what is revealed? Our incredible affluence, our incredible commodity development has revealed a major problem, and that is that man can't handle what he produces. We can't handle our money. We can't handle our commodities. It is very, the simplest sense, we are in a process of ultimate self-destruction by the things that we are consuming because we're consuming so much. And beloved, what's scary is when you put all of these things together, the secularism with the relativism and the pragmatic way of thinking, the individualism with the consumerism, and you can understand then things like abortion. What is abortion? Why is it legal, literally, to kill a person who's in the safest place? Well, you need secularism because it is comforting to think that it's not a spiritual matter. You need relativism because it makes it right in the case of an unprepared girl. They need individualism because this is a personal matter anyway. It's not your business. They need consumerism because it is an industry. People are being paid. It is a service provided. We need pragmatism because they think it's best for those who survive it. It's never best for the baby. So you see that pragmatism is very selective. Someone always hurts. And they need humanism because man is the measure of all things, but only if you're a viable man or woman. See, beloved, this is the noise. This is what I meant that we would go under. under the things that are floating and see what's making all the noise. But now let's look at our second point, the voice of the Lord upon the waters. And this is as we go to Psalm 29. See, it's Psalm 93 that shows the raging waters with a certain noise to them, but we come to Psalm 29, and it says, the voice of the Lord, verse 3, is upon the waters. See, that Psalm presents the waters, like I said, you never hear of the noise of the waters in this Psalm, because it's like a Psalm asserting, it's not denying they make noise, we saw the noise in Psalm 93, we see the noise in the world, but God is saying in verse 29, it doesn't matter what the noise is, My voice is mightier. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters. Now, the one thing we need to put together, all these things I said, beloved, if you're still in your mind thinking, fine, pastor, but see, I am not a secularist. I am not a humanist by God's grace. I will not be pragmatic. Lord, help me. I will be careful about all those things. And then I'm fine. But see, this is where you need to understand the danger. These two Psalms, we put them together and we realize, see, those floodwaters aren't just there. You see what's happening. Why does Psalm 93 have to say, yes, yes, I'm hearing you, as it were. There is this big noise, but the Lord is mightier. Children, think of ER, young people. Isn't that the comparative? See, the whole idea is that these floodwaters aren't neutral. They are seeking to submerge. That's what water does. If it's let loose, it'll make you drown if you're there. They are saying, sink or swim, we are after you and we hope you sink. And you see that in two Psalms, the Lord is there, the Lord is connected. And here Psalm 29 is in essence showing this is the final battle. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters. But see, this is our glory and this is our comfort, but use this to realize it is not safe in this world. Parents, don't just say, yes, you can be part of all these things, Facebook and Instagram and all these things, and it's alright, it's okay. It is not alright and okay. Your child might be drowning in the floods. There are children today going for counsel because they're under those waters. They've been glorifying and putting themselves out there. And they don't get all the likes that they want. Then they're depressed. Then they start realizing, wait, I'm trying to glorify myself before people. This is all wrong. So they feel guilty. Of course they're guilty. Beloved, we need to protect our children from these floodwaters. Because this secularism that I said, this humanism, all of these isms, they are trying to sink you. Of course they are. Because look at the song. Beloved, the competition is not with David. The competition is with God. Secularism thinks that the world and the system of the world is not in essence trying to drown you. It is trying to drown God Himself if it could. You see, God is the one who is fighting against it, who is sitting there then upon the waters. See, that's the vision of conquest. The waters tried in all of its turbulence to destroy God. That's how proud this world is. When they're wanting you not to pray in the name of Jesus in a public place, it's because they hate Jesus and they don't want Him in the public place. But guess who brings them there? It is you. And this is why Osgin has said, this is the world saying, will you say Jesus is Lord or will you say the secular world is Lord? And beloved, if you've ever in a prayer that is public, gotten embarrassed to say in Jesus' name, that was the moment you bowed to the secular world and not to Jesus. People are asking questions. Do I say he or she if they're saying to say different? And do I bake the cake or not? Do I go to the wedding or not? And I've heard in a Christian magazine, not from a liberal side, but from a more balanced side, saying, you know, about going to the wedding ceremony, of people who are marrying of same gender, clearly a sinful act from God's word. And it said, you know, it's not really so cut and dry. Beloved, it is cut and dry. This is the moment that we're being told to decide if we will say Jesus is Lord or the secular world is Lord. And it's one thing and there are differences if there were to be a situation of a Christian marrying an unbeliever that is sinful, it's not right, but they'd go and get married. I would go to that wedding because it is a man and a woman and very possibly this Christian may not be a true believer. They'd have to get married. They've already made these decisions. It's all happening. If I'm the father especially, I'm not going to stay away from that because I want to start a relationship and win both to the Lord if one isn't or both aren't. It's a whole different world to enter a ceremony where the very God of heaven is being defied in what He has instituted from the very first days of creation. And we have Christians saying, you know, all things are relative. That's basically what that said. And relative is from relativism. But God's word is sure. We do have to be careful. There are places we can show love, but there are places we can't go in. And we need God's word to help us decide, yay or nay. But we need to realize it is the floodwaters trying to submerge you. And we need to decide, no, it won't. Not because of my strength, but because of God's. And see, this is where we don't need to be intimidated. You will feel like you're the worst, and you will feel like you're the last, but you're not. If you do it in love, and you explain biblical reasons, you are on the side of He who wins. So even if it ends up as a Supreme Court case where you see thousands of people with their banners showing that you're the hateful one, you can bow your head and say, Lord God, help me. Give me love even to these protesters. Because thy voice is greater. And there may be many who will see Christ in you. And by God's grace, change camps. Because they see that you're holy. You have love. And you see, and in terms of people who are living these ways, this is how we need to think. Who will be the voice of conscience in this world when there seems to be no more conscience? And when you make those decisions in love, you are, yes, it hurts them because it hurts their conscience, but down deep in their heart, they know it's true. They know it's true because we read in Romans 1, God has shown it to them. God has revealed it to them. They know it. Now let me see if I have time. I do have to, I want to go here through three, looking at Psalm 20, 29, just in closing, we need to see, We saw what this noise is, but we're seeing that it's trying to do something. And it's not just trying to do something against God in a point-blank way. It's trying to do something against God in a very pointed way. And Psalm 29 shows in the basic ways in which the voice of this world, in all the worldliness, in all the rudiments of the world, what it's trying to drown about God. The first thing I would say is the majesty and the sovereignty of God. Why do I say this? Because look how God comes in counter-reaction, as it were, to these waters. In verse 4 of Psalm 29, it says, The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. And then it displays that majesty. But before it does that, just stop right there. See, our God is a sovereign God. And what does this secular world say? You can have your God, just don't make Him so big. Certainly, not so big where I need to bow to Him too. Yes, you bow to Him and all who love you, but I bow to something else. That's why they can't stand a sovereign God. Beloved, it was basically exactly this that was happening in the 1600s with Arminianism. They were promoting a God who saves, only not such a great God who saves. And you see the effects there of humanistic philosophy in the hearts of those people saying men are free to choose God. Yes, He elects them because He saw that they would choose Him. That's theology immersed with humanism and with this secular humanism where God is really not so great. But God is great. He is almighty. He is all-powerful. And what's sad is to see how churches have fallen prey to this. The world thinks of a God that's so little and so tame. And it seems like many churches do too. And even in our hearts, we are tempted to think of God as little. You see it where and how people approach God. They approach God so flippantly, you would think that He is as small as the speaker. They worship God so irreverently, you would think that God is just as they are, another friend. And when they talk about being great, God being great, it's great so He can bless you, so that He can make you rich, so that He can make you healthy and give all that you want. It's all that individualism again, but they go to God for that. He's big in that way. But beloved, let us remember that. The world is trying to make God little or no God at all. And God's word says, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord is powerful. But then the second thing to note is this, the voice. You see that the waters are there, and the whole emphasis is the voice, the voice of the Lord. Verse 5, the voice of the Lord. Verse 6, He maketh them also to skip. What? The voice of the Lord. It divideth the flames. The voice of the Lord shaketh. And here, focus not just on God's power and majesty, but that which we have that specifically tells us that He is who He is, the Word of God. And this is the other thing that the world is seeking to quench and to stop. And so, yes, you can have your God, just don't make Him so big, and don't listen to what He says so much. And so you see, when I gave that little introduction, beloved, I hope you realize the warning and theology in it. If you spend two hours listening to cable news, You are listening to the voice of the world that will say, well done. Less hours listening to the voice that matters most. Have you ever spent two hours reading the Bible? Listening to the voice that breaks the cedars? The voice that divides the fires? Let's listen to God. The world is making so much noise so that you'll listen to the noise. And then it will distract you from the voice of God. And sometimes what you hear, it is even telling you how useless the Word of God is. And slowly you might start to believe it really is an old book. Oh, there are contradictions in it? Is it possible? And that's just like Satan telling Eve to doubt what God has said. That's the voice of the world saying, don't listen to God's word. Don't think of God so great. And then thirdly is Looking especially at verses 5 through 8, what the voice of the world seems to want to drown is not only the greatness of God and the voice of God, but also the just judgment of God. The last thing today's world wants you to think of is that God is a God of wrath and a God who created hell. Look at verse 5 through 8. Look what the powerful voice does. It breaks the cedars, verse 6. It makes them to skip, verse 7. Divides the flames, verse 8. It shakes the wilderness and then it also discovers the forest. These are all vocabulary of judgment. It is God looking upon this world and displeased with this world to break the cedars. And those, of course, who would need it will suffer. If it shakes the wilderness, people will feel that the qualm God has is not with mountains and hills and trees, but with people who disown Him. And there's judgment. There's severe judgment, and the world makes a lot of noise so that we don't listen to the judgment of God. It is trying to make us think of God as a God who doesn't judge, as He says in His Word, He does. But then, I said three, but there's really four. One more thing, and I'll end with this one. It's a very precious one. You would think the world wants you to know this about God, but it doesn't, because it's dangerous to know this. to know the fatherly, loving care of God. Have you wondered when we read all of these expressions of majesty, the power? The voice of the Lord is powerful and it is full of majesty. What does it do? It breaks the cedars, it breaks the cedars of Lebanon, etc. Shake at the wilderness and all of a sudden, verse 9, the voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve. Now, there's some who interpret this in the line of all of the tumult, but if you stop to think, there's a sense here of immediate calm to make the hind to calve. If it were the effect of the power, it would make that hind to die. But all of a sudden, there's a change here, and it's connected with the very last phrase, that they are in His temple, speaking of His glory. but he maketh the hind to calve." Have you ever been in the maternity, not the maternity, but the rooms where babies are to be born, as it is in hospital generally, is to be very quiet. Joseph Carroll seems to have caught this very essence, and he said this, he said, The care and tenderness of God towards beasts turns to His praise, as well as the care which He hath of, and the tenderness He shows to believers. As it doeth exceedingly advance the glory of God that He takes care of wild beasts, so it may exceedingly strengthen the faith of man that He will take care of him. Doth the Lord take care of Hines? then certainly He takes care of those that particularly belong to Him. It seems here that in a majestic way, the psalm pauses from all the thundering and the crash of that voice and speaks silently and gently for the hind to calve. And the hind is known, the deer is known to have a lot of difficulties with the birth of its babies. But God wanted to put a little comment on what He does. And he's saying, I'm a loving God too. And the noise of the world doesn't only wanna make you feel like God is not powerful and have no time for his word, to think he's not a judging God, but the world also doesn't want you to believe he is such a loving, fatherly God. Why? Because in many ways, this is the thing that makes us most guilty. God is so gracious, and I don't even worship Him. I'm not even going to church. I don't even talk about Him. He helps the deer to have a baby, and I don't even care about Him. The world doesn't want you to believe God is loving. Do you believe God is loving? Do you believe that He is sovereign? Do you believe that He is just? and will judge this world and all who are in their sins. Do you believe in His Word and spend time in it, beloved? These are the things that we need to go to because of the noise of the world, but the noise of the world is trying to keep those things from you. But let the view of this hind having a difficulty to have birth and the voice of God helping it send you forth into this very noisy world and see that even the whispers of God are more powerful than the noises out there. It adds to how you should be full of comfort. For God to act, he doesn't even need to speak loudly. He just speaks in love. And it is, two words in closing, it is precisely what saves us, isn't it? On the cross, the Lord Jesus heard, but in silence, the very wrath of God because of our sins upon Him. And yet it's from the Lord Jesus that we hear the words, it is finished. And then silence because He died. He didn't speak in the grave. He was silent in death. And even when our God dies, He is all powerful because when He rises from the grave, He says this to His apostles, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Can you imagine this? Have you stopped to think? This is a man who was dead a few days ago. And now he's alive and he's saying, all power was given to me. Beloved, we can safely bow to the Lord Jesus. Even if you will bow alone and people will take your job or take your popularity or take your reputation, whatever it is that you may lose, that's nothing. compared to losing your soul and your life. Bow to King Jesus, for He stands upon the flood enthroned. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious and glorious God, how we thank Thee, Lord, for Thy Word, how we thank Thee for The reality that even though this world indeed has its flood tides and its noise and its activity, and it is growing by the minute, and people are suffering, they are confused, they don't realize many of which are part of the whole system. But Lord, how we thank Thee that Thou art God and Thou alone. Lord, we pray that Thou would so speak in our hearts with this gentle, loving, and certain speech that we would desire to live as we ought to live in this world that needs, Lord, the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for forgiveness for our own sins. Help us, Lord, to hate sin, for every sin is, in essence, part of the noise of the waters. And what have we to do, Lord, with that which even causes all this havoc if we are those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Help us, Lord, to live as belonging to King Jesus and that we would bow only to Thee and not to the dictates of this world. Help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.