God's Glory Revealed

[0:00] So y'all know that we are in Psalm 19, so you should be there already. So just a few minutes ago, I did one of the greatest pastor faux pas that anybody could ever do.

[0:16] I called our missionaries by the wrong names. I actually did that on purpose to be an example to Dave, so he would know not to do and make this mistake.

[0:29] So please forgive me, dubbers, not drubbers. You guys are gracious. Thank you for your forgiveness, but I had to let you know about that.

[0:43] All right, are we all in Psalm 19 okay? You know, one of the things, if you don't know me a little bit before I got into full-time Christian ministry, I actually spent time with the government as a counter-terrorist, intelligent agent.

[0:57] And my whole job was to recruit double agents. Those are spies working for other countries to like us better and come work for us, right?

[1:08] It was a really easy job because we live in Canada. Who doesn't want to live in Canada, right? So anyways, so one of the ways that I would do that is I'd set up my target or my mark, and I would observe them.

[1:21] Sometimes it was a him, sometimes it was a her, sometimes it was a group of people. And I would bring other experts in on the investigation.

[1:33] I would bring in cultural experts. Like cultural experts would be able to tell me more about the clothes they wore. Or I'd bring in linguistics experts, even though they can tell by different dialects where they were from.

[1:50] What my whole job was to gather as much information that I could. Sometimes it would be psychiatrists or other human behaviorists. Because I absolutely had to get down to the truth before I made my approach.

[2:06] And I wanted to have as much information that I could. And it was largely made from simple observations.

[2:18] The reality is we do this all the time. We are always making observations. We are always making assessments. Whether it be the simple five, you know, observation.

[2:30] We see, smell, taste, touch, and hear. It's the way that God has created us. And one of the things that we do is we compare. Comparison is a way that we make value judgments.

[2:45] Wow, so and so is a really good mother. We make this observation. Then there's this second step. I'm not near as a good mother as she is.

[2:56] Right? We might ask, hey, I know that guy. He is a good father. But I am a better father. Look at how well my kids are behaving.

[3:08] Right? We make this observation. Then we make this judgment assessment. Now, most of the time when we look around and we make these observations, we conclude one of three things.

[3:23] The first ones, we look at people who are doing not as good and we think better of ourselves. Right? Hey, I'm doing a better job with my kids. I'm doing a better job with my career.

[3:34] Look, I drive a much nicer car. I have a much nicer home. Or you might be the person who looks around. You see someone, man, I could never be like that.

[3:47] Oh, that depresses me. That makes me feel bad. And then you just kind of live in this state of frustration, depression. Look what we don't have. Oh, my life will never be happy or complete.

[4:01] Then there's this third way. And the third way is when we see something that is better. We understand this person is, say, a better father, a better mother.

[4:13] The person's a better mother. And what we say is, you know what? I want to emulate that. I want to better myself. I want to make a point to learn why because I recognize they are.

[4:23] And I want to do something in my life. Sadly, most people compare themselves and feel lesser.

[4:33] Now, observation and comparison is actually a very useful instrument about truth. Sometimes we think we are really well off or doing something. I'll use an example.

[4:45] I'm in college and I played baseball in college. And one of the things is I was able to throw a baseball really hard. And that was why I made the college baseball team, just by a gift of God given me to throw this little white sphere around 90 miles an hour, right?

[5:02] That just sets me apart from a lot of people. But as most athletes, I thought I could be better. So when they were having infielder tryouts, I decided, you know, back home, I play second base and I play center field and I can hit pretty well.

[5:17] I'm going to get in those lineups. And I remember getting in the lineup for second baseman. And as these guys were fielding the balls, I actually walked away because I saw how good they were. And it was something that I knew I could never attain.

[5:30] I'm down in Southern California and everybody knows either surf or play baseball down there, right? And there was just a level I saw of talent that was so beyond me, it revealed the truth that I'm a really bad second baseman, right?

[5:44] And that's a good thing. I don't have to go out and embarrass myself, right? So, but we're always making these comparisons, which begs the question, does God want us making comparisons?

[5:56] We know that making comparisons can lead to envy, can lead to uncontentedness.

[6:08] But I do believe that those are the wrong forms of comparison that result when we compare ourselves to each other. I believe in order to compare ourselves to God.

[6:23] We need to compare ourselves to God. Because why? By knowing God, we get to know ourselves. And this is the high point of what it is to be a human being.

[6:36] So please turn with me to Psalm 19. We're going to know some things about God. C.S. Lewis called this Psalm the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.

[6:48] Today, we're going to look at the first third of Psalm 19 and see what God has to say about himself. Why?

[6:59] Because in so doing, I believe we're not only going to learn something about him, we're going to learn something about ourselves. And as we learn more about our Lord, it leads to greater worship.

[7:09] Amen? So I'm just going to reread the first six verses for you in Psalm 19. So this is written by David. It says to the choir master, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

[7:28] Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.

[7:43] In them, he has sent a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

[8:00] I'm going to follow a very straightforward outline. We're going to go verse by verse through this because I want you to understand and see the imagery that David has loaded into this section so that you might know him better.

[8:17] So we just start off with verse one. The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

[8:27] We are getting into this section which has largely used to describe what is called as natural revelation. It's getting to see God with our eyes what we are able to observe in this world.

[8:44] Now the first thing I want to call you to, your attention to, is the word God. Take a look at God there. If you look down to verse seven, he uses another reference for himself, which is Lord.

[8:58] Okay? And there's the God that he's using here is the word Elohim in Hebrew. The other word is Yahweh in verse seven. And it's a very clear distinction in how he uses this word.

[9:10] When God, when in scriptures, when we see God referring to himself as God, we are talking about the God Almighty, creator of the universe.

[9:21] He's the God who stands apart from creation because he's the one who created it. You get that? That is the word that describes his manifest power, his manifest glory over all of creation.

[9:35] He is God Elohim. When we talk about Yahweh, we're talking about the relational God. The God who revealed himself to Moses.

[9:47] I am. But here, the psalmist is talking about this God who stands out big. He stands out strong. He stands out with his creative power.

[10:01] So what David is calling our attention to here is these heavens declare. These heavens proclaim. These heavens call out his glory.

[10:13] This is yelling as yelling as loud as it can be. This is not a whisper. This is not a secret about God. Come look.

[10:25] You might know something about him. It's not. This is God. What you see in my creation yells about me. C.H. Spurgeon believed that this word, the heavens, were plural for three reasons.

[10:48] And these were observations that man could make at that time. First, it's the watery heavens with clouds and other forms. Evaporation, seeing just that the gases.

[11:02] You know, we see this here. As soon as there's the rain and the sun gets hot. You know, beautiful. We got these like, looks like clouds in the forest, right? Everything's turning to steam.

[11:13] That's the first part of heaven. Then you have the aerial heavens with the tempests and storms and the tornadoes. Also revealing God's glory. Then at night, we see the solar heavens.

[11:27] We know that there's something greater beyond us. And with all their glories of the day and the starry heavens, with all their marvels of the night. All of these, we believe, or it's stated here, display God's attribute, which show God's glory.

[11:46] So I decided to put, a long time ago, I put together some of my favorite pictures. I have actually a lot more now. But this is an older manual that I put together.

[11:58] And we got a little bit of a slide show that Ryan's going to put on. I'll just explain to you what these are. And these were just some of the things that I saw. So you can switch to the next slide. This is one of my favorite places that I used to come and meditate, looking over the storm, coming in, beating on the Pacific coast down in California.

[12:15] The second picture is just a time. And I'm going to explain to it later. But the sun came up one day. And it was like, it was sun at night, actually.

[12:26] It was setting. And even all the cars in the street stopped to observe the sunset. It was quite amazing. I was coming out of a mall. And everything, like, just stopped.

[12:37] That no one had seen the sunset like we had seen. The next picture is not God's creation of me, although that's beautiful. My wife will detest. Go back.

[12:48] Thank you. But it's the first time I was ever in the desert. I'd never seen the desert before. I was driving to seminary and I came across the desert. The next slide is when I lived in Illinois.

[13:03] Just the, it was pretty cool. You know, you see all the tornadoes. And what you really see is these systems coming together. And you actually see these clouds coming three points. And they just start to turn.

[13:14] And the sirens are going, warning us to get inside our basements. But me and a couple of fools decided to stay up and get as many pictures as we could.

[13:26] The next picture is just a friend of mine on a river rafting trip to the Grand Canyon, which the Wind Stanleys will be enjoying. And they send me all these pictures that it's actually quite amazing how big it is.

[13:41] The next picture is just me and the Grand Canyon with my youth group. We went for a visit and we snapped some shots. I asked the kids to send me some of their favorite pictures. Next picture is just Yosemite.

[13:53] Then we get another picture of the Canadian Rockies. Which are always great. And then when I was doing college ministry, I had a friend who was an astrophysicist. And she used to send pictures out to us about, you can turn to the next picture.

[14:09] And the next. Just different creations of what's going on in the stars. And she would send us these different filters that we're going through. And she said, you know, this is a star being created 25,000 million years ago or something like that.

[14:23] How they measure it. And the next one we read is, this is called the Horsehead Nebula. That's the next one. Next one.

[14:37] What's that? You know, this is a famous one, but they used to show different angles. Or I guess it would be filters that they were using. The next one we see is called the Orion and Horsehead Nebula.

[14:50] This is supposed to be 1,500 years or 1,500 light years away from us. And I would say the next picture is probably the most beautiful picture in all of creation.

[15:02] You know, what God has created for us. So, you know, Spurgeon made this comment. He said that man, you can shut it off now.

[15:13] Because I know just the idea of baseball is going to distract you from this whole sermon. He said, man walking erect was evidently made to scan the skies. And he who begins to read creation by studying the stars begins the book at the right place.

[15:31] So if you were reading a book and you have your first page, God is writing this book. This is the first page that you see called Knowing God.

[15:44] Spurgeon wrote that God's divine attributes were displayed in these skies. They showed his divine sublimity. They showed the imagined infinity.

[15:59] We were looking far, far away. There was an interesting show on Netflix about, it took 20 years just for one of our capsules to reach Saturn to take pictures of it.

[16:11] That's how far it is. Have you guys ever seen Saturn? If you have a telescope, you can actually see it in your telescope. It's pretty cool. It has to be at a certain time and a certain date.

[16:21] But it took 20 years to get there. But we also see this thing called divine wisdom of how everything is so perfectly balanced in the universe.

[16:37] Do you know our moon is perfect? That it's able to form a perfect eclipse. And the reason why that is in God's creation, it actually creates a gravitational protection for the earth.

[16:52] Like, you know, you read all those, there's always these movies, this asteroid is going to strike the earth and kill it. But the moon is actually made there as a defense to pull any things that would hit the earth.

[17:03] Isn't that incredible? This earth was created with design and purpose. Just how the moon perfectly advances the tides.

[17:18] The axis is perfect. One degree off or one degree the other way means death for us. But God in his wisdom created this entirely perfect world.

[17:32] He says, When the heavens declare every moment of God's existence, power, wisdom, and goodness, are being surrounded abroad by the heavenly heralds which shine upon us from above.

[17:46] God's glory is revealed to us in the heavens to such an extent that they deliver to us such unanswerable arguments for one conscience. Intelligence.

[17:59] That this universe needs to be planned. It's not an accident. And it's not chaos. There is a presiding creator that no unprejudiced person can remain unconvinced by them.

[18:16] One author called it, The heavens are God's flag, which lets us know that he is here. The testimony given by the heavens is not a hint.

[18:28] It's not a clue. But these are unmistakable declarations. And it is a declaration of the most constant and abiding kind. It never goes away.

[18:39] Spurgeon wrote, He who looks up at the sky and then writes himself down as an atheist brands himself at the same moment as an idiot or a liar. So that's what that first verse tells us.

[18:54] Then the second verse we have, Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. The word picture being used here is literally like a gushing spring that continues to forcefully bring its fresh water out.

[19:12] It's just constant. So the display that God gives us is a constant display as it goes out. It's just constantly pouring out as a continuous action.

[19:23] Day, night, day, night. And it reveals the knowledge of God. It pours out. Tells us it is a continuous action of revealing the knowledge of God.

[19:36] This isn't something that we have to say, hey, let's get together once a month, look up the skies, and we see the knowledge of God. This is all the time, everywhere, 24-7, there is a revealing of who God is.

[19:53] This is incredible. But sometimes, and I was just, yesterday my wife and I decided to take a ride to Lillouette. We just wanted to get out, took the top off the Jeep.

[20:05] I'd never been, you know. And I remember coming back, the view backs a lot prettier, right? You get to see the other side of the mountains with the snow. And I just said, let us never tire of this beauty.

[20:17] It's incredible. Then you kind of get to Pemberton, and then you see, there's even more mountains that way, Rich. You know there's some more incredible beauty. Beauty. And it's so easy to forget.

[20:28] It's like, you know, when we wear clothes, we don't always feel the fabric on it. You know, we kind of get used to it. Our body gets used to wearing clothes.

[20:39] I remember when I was in university, and a buddy of mine went to this discount place in the States, and they were selling cashmere track pants. Okay?

[20:49] They were worth like 500 bucks, and they were getting rid of them for $25. So, you know we had to buy them, right? And you'd see us like this all the time.

[21:00] Like it. Because we wanted to feel that. Because we even got, or even our bodies got used to it, but you could always see us kind of wiggling. We wanted to feel that soft beautifulness on us.

[21:12] But it's sometimes what happens with our eyes and understanding, we forget, we lose track of. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of how good and great creation is, and I think that is on us, probably more than most people.

[21:30] Just the incredible views that God has blessed us here in Squamish. Day to day takes over from the story of the previous day.

[21:43] There is no ending to the story of God declaring themselves. Verse 3. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.

[21:57] Notice it's the sound of the unheard. It's not a language. But yet every person, no matter what language they speak, can understand what God is revealing.

[22:10] It's quite interesting. I've got a friend, anthropologist, who, you know, studies primitive tribes, and she's always trying to talk about, you know, every tribe has a God, you know, no matter where they are.

[22:24] And it fits in perfectly. And a lot of their minds is, well, the reason is they all had these gods was they're primitive. And they just hadn't understood science and whatever. And I said, you are so stupid.

[22:37] Even the primitive mind can understand that there is a creator beyond themselves. No amount of science helps you understand the great and mighty power that tides are or what mountains create or the stars that we see in the sky.

[22:56] They're a heck of a lot smarter than we are. The fact that you're trying to come up with some other way outside of it. No, they perfectly understood that there was something more powerful than they.

[23:08] As one author states, the sun, moon, and stars are God's wandering preachers. One can stay away from Bible preachers all their lives, but they can't stay away from God's preachers who speak this language all the time.

[23:27] The pictorial is directed to the eye and to our hearts, not to the ear. And we're going to understand that why later. But I remember, and I have a picture of it, but it does not bring justice.

[23:41] I was able to go spend some time with my friend up in Switzerland and there's a certain valley cutting through and I couldn't understand it. I had to pull over and cry.

[23:53] It was tears. It was just the most incredible, beautiful picture that my mind could ever imagine. And I was able just to sit and worship God as I looked at the snowy Alps with these farms set up on the side of these mountains with these old traditional Swiss chalets, not the kind that I wish we had here in Squamish, but, you know, these housings.

[24:20] It cried out to me and it moved me. And then we learn in verse four, their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.

[24:37] In them he has set a tent for the sun. This voice that he's talking about is revelation. It is information that is being transmitted.

[24:48] It conveys actual information. One, it conveys that God exists. The glories of heaven declare that God exists.

[25:00] Two, it declares that God is eternal. Day to day, forever and ever, it is gone. Three, it tells us that God is all powerful to create such a wonderful place.

[25:14] And the fourth thing that we will learn is that because there is someone that is so mighty and so great, we will at one time have to answer to him.

[25:26] In some versions, you might have your Bible, it says line. And I said, this was actually in response to judgment. In Isaiah, the term is used for those who sneered at the prophet's words.

[25:40] They rejected the knowledge that he had brought them. In the same way, those who reject God as creator. It is no accident that David now uses the illustration of the sun.

[25:54] And when we look at this, in the canopy, so to speak, of the heavens, he places the sun. Now we have to understand the people who are at this time would be worshiping the sun, thinking the sun was the pinnacle or the creator of all.

[26:10] David is saying, no, no, no, no, no. My God created that sun. That thing that you worship is actually the created.

[26:20] There's someone even greater behind him or it. It is created by him and it does what God wants it to do.

[26:34] How much more subtle do the words to the ends of the world mean? God's preaching does not stop.

[26:45] One of the, at a former church in Ottawa who was a missionary and she actually came from Cambodia and checkily lived through the Pol Pot massacre, Khmer Rouge, if you're not familiar with that time in history, in the 70s, after the Vietnam War crumbled, they took over Cambodia and they basically wanted to kill anybody that was educated.

[27:09] They wanted to destroy families. They wanted to reduce society to a primitive level so that they can control it. And her father and her brothers were killed and she was forced to work in the rice fields.

[27:22] And it was interesting because you'd think someone who lived through such horrible wickedness wickedness of man would hate God. But it put her on a trail to know that there would be a God because she says they used to have to sleep out in the rice fields.

[27:38] They didn't even have places. But at night, just imagine, there's no lights everywhere. Like these guys killed electricity, everything. But there was these other lights that came on at night and she would observe them and she says, I know there's something greater and there's a God who's got more purposefulness.

[27:55] So what's interesting, some missionaries showed up and as soon as they mentioned that name Jesus, she knew that's exactly who they were talking about. That only someone with much love and power and grace could have created.

[28:10] And now, she became a believer and now works, doing missions, back home in Cambodia. How great is that? Just by seeing God up in the skies at night.

[28:20] You notice the Bible has men that warn others. David was warned by Nathanael.

[28:34] The city of Nineveh had a man named Jonah going to warn them. And Elijah the prophet, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, many of these men warned Israel.

[28:47] But the biggest warning of God comes from God himself. Take a look at verse 4 and verse 5 and 6. This is actually a warning.

[29:00] It said, In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

[29:12] Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end, and there is nothing hidden from our heat. In our culture, when we do weddings, the bride is at the center of attention.

[29:23] But in a Hebrew understanding of how they did weddings, the bridegroom was at the center of attention. And the sun is like him. All attention is focused on him.

[29:35] When he leaves his chamber, he explodes onto the scene. He's excited. He's bright. He's exuberant. There's radiance. There's vigor.

[29:48] Like I said, there's just, it becomes such a presence that you cannot ignore. So now that we understand creation is explained to us by David, we know, one, that God exists.

[30:06] Two, that God is eternal. Three, that God is all-powerful. And four, we know that God will judge those who reject him.

[30:18] We see this in the story of the flood. We see this in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. We see this in the punishment of Israel. So when we see and understand these things, what is supposed to be our reaction?

[30:36] Well, if we really understand that God exists, then he is eternal and all-powerful. we can only do what Isaiah did when he was in this throne room. Isaiah 6, 5 says, And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

[30:57] For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Paul writes to us in Romans 1, 18, he says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

[31:18] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

[31:42] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

[31:53] Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things.

[32:06] Does that mean anything today? Does that not perfectly describe our world? People here aren't stupid. They see God. They just create themselves as God, clay images, nature, like I mentioned to you a couple weeks ago, I knew a man who worships plants.

[32:28] It's interesting, and later in Acts, Paul runs into these men who did not know, and he says, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you, and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

[32:45] I said, in past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heavens and fruitful seasons, satisfying hearts with your food and gladness.

[33:03] So we know that there is a God, and by knowing there is a God, what are we to see? What are we to react? I go back to my earlier analogy.

[33:14] When you compare yourselves to others, you compare yourself to God in the same way. The reality is, it is useless to compare ourselves to one another.

[33:28] Pointless. John Piper says, no one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase their self-esteem. There is greater healing for the soul in beholding the splendor than there is in beholding self.

[33:43] What does scripture tell us? Maybe we need, we're smart enough to figure out God. Maybe I can get there on my own. So a lot of people ask, can someone know about Jesus Christ if they haven't heard Jesus Christ?

[33:56] Or heard the gospel? Well, I'm going to tell you what scripture says about our intellectual capacity. Alright? Romans 1, 28 says, we are debased.

[34:09] 2 Corinthians 3, 14 says, we are hardened. 2 Corinthians 4, 14 says, we are blinded. Ephesians 4, 7 says, we are futile.

[34:20] Ephesians 4, 8 says, we were darkened. Colossians 1, 21 says, we are hostile. Colossians 2, 4 says, we are deluded. Colossians 2, 8 says, we are deceived.

[34:35] 1 Timothy 6, 5 describes us as depraved. 2 Timothy 3, 8 says, we are corrupted. And Timothy 1, 15 says, we are defiled.

[34:48] So how can debased, hardened, blinded, futile, darkened, hostile, deluded, deceived, depraved, corrupted, defiled men ever come to a conclusion that God is good?

[35:04] Romans 3, 10 says, that is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one.

[35:23] What a verdict. No one understands, no one is righteous, no, no, not that other guy who does a great job on his lawn down the street is righteous, no one is righteous, no one seeks God.

[35:38] We use that term a lot, they're a seeker, but scripture says there is no one who seeks God in his righteousness. It says, all have turned aside, all have become worthless, and no one does good.

[35:53] So when we compare ourselves to others, you know what, some of us can feel pretty good, but when we compare ourselves to God, I think we understand where we stand.

[36:06] I think we need to have a sense of hopelessness. But that's the great thing about the Bible. it doesn't leave us with a sense of hopelessness. It leaves us with a sense of hope.

[36:20] And this is where the God Lord comes in. Not the Elohim, but the Yahweh. The God, Yahweh, who enters into our world.

[36:33] He enters into our lives, and he shows himself real to us. God, and this is exactly what the next section of Psalm is going to teach us.

[36:48] But for this morning, I want us to dwell on God, the almighty creator, who created it all to understand where we are.

[36:59] And I pray as you read the next section of Psalm 19 before coming to worship with us, it will give you a greater, deeper appreciation of who he is and what he does as God, Yahweh.

[37:13] Pray with me. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have not left us blind. You have not left us not.