We turn in our Bibles to hear the word read, and we have two New Testament passages and one Old Testament passage. Romans chapter one, and then we turn to 2 Timothy, and then Psalm 19. Let's stand together to hear the word of God read. Again, Romans chapter one. and 2 Timothy chapter 3, and then Psalm 19. Beginning of verse 18 of Romans chapter 1, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image-making corruptible man and birds and four-footed creatures and creeping things. We turn now to our second New Testament reading. To be reminded of God's revelation in the scriptures. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. And then we turn to Psalm 19. To the chief musician, a Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold. Yea, then much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer." This is the word of the living God. Lord our God, we pray again that you would send forth your light and salvation in the preaching of your holy word, for you are the God who speaks. Lord, you spoke in times past to our fathers by the prophets in these last days, you have spoken to us in your son. We pray for grace to hear, and hearing again to have life, or perhaps for the first time, or life renewed, revived, and strengthened on the pilgrimage to glory. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. We turn to Psalm 19 this evening, and in the coming weeks, in the evenings, or willing, next Sunday evening, we'll be preaching from Psalm 98 with looking forward to The end of Psalm 98 speaks of the hope of Israel looking forward to the coming of the King, our Lord Jesus Christ. So with some reference to the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ on the 22nd, the Lord willing, Pastor Mooney will be preaching two sermons on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on the 29th. I hope to be back. Our family will be away for a week and to preach a sermon with a view towards the new year from Philippians chapter three and another psalm in the evening and then pick up our regular patterns on January 5th for morning and evening series preaching. But tonight, Psalm 19. It's not uncommon that a Christian might even wonder, why doesn't God answer me or speak to me? Where is his voice in history? Does God speak? Sometimes this is a question in our distress and sometimes it's a complaint against God. That would be a foolish complaint, we'll see by the end of this psalm, but it's not an uncommon complaint. People clamor for an audible voice. Some special providence that they believe they can interpret as the voice of God. Some divine handwriting in the sky. I remember listening years ago to Pastor Albert Martin's sermons on what it means to be a gospel minister or for somebody, his lectures for somebody on preparing for gospel ministry and he told the story in those sermons of a farmer who went through the field and he saw these letters in the sky. Gee. And he thought to himself, that means go preach Christ so I should leave my farm. And he goes on to say, but it could have meant go plant corn and continue being a farmer. We often are looking for some sort of subjective experience or some way of God communicating to us, which is outside of the ways that he ordinarily communicates to his people. If only God would say something, people say, I would listen. And they want to hear a voice. And they claim even prophecies, though when they fail, the test of Moses, for example, in Deuteronomy 18, would be that that would be a false prophet, and it would be most dangerous to claim that it was a word from God. Or in desperation, looking for a word. But what is the real problem? Here's the question, what's the real problem? Is the problem God's silence or is the problem my listening? There's the big question. Is the problem God's silence or is the problem my listening? You ever seen children argue with each other and when they get too excited in that argument Maybe one will plug their ears and say, I'm not listening anymore. And that's a good picture of our fallen sinful condition. We can be like petulant children when God is speaking plainly to us and the problem isn't with the clarity of his communication or the faithfulness of the same. The problem is with our will. Perhaps this is a better picture of our problem. Psalm 19 answers the question and is on this very subject, the question of God's manner of speaking. It is a personal confession of David. It's a very personal psalm. It's a prayer of David. You see the end of it. He's praying in a very personal way. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless. I shall be innocent. Let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. This tells us that this psalm is a deeply personal psalm of David as he reflects on the ways that God has spoken to him in his life. He sends it to the chief musician or the choir master we know from the inscription in order that the whole church might be instructed in the way that God speaks. In other words, this is David's inspired confession of how God communicates with human beings. There could be no more important subject than this. How does God communicate with human beings? How does He speak? In it, he recounts some very personal things. He recounts seeing the glory of God, seeing and understanding something of the grace of God, seeing the glory of God in creation, the grace of God in His Word. He recounts more than just seeing the glory of God and knowing of the grace of God, but he immediately moves to recount the effects of seeing these things on himself. He recounts the effect of God's revelation. He's faced with the glory of God in God speaking is when he moves to those words in verse 12, who can understand his words cleanse me from secret faults. He comes face to face, not only with the words of God, it's not possible, not the words of God detached from God, but God himself speaking in his word. Now how does God speak? Three things from the psalm we're gonna see. David understands the voice of God in creation. In nature, in the things that he has made, David hears and submits to the voice of God in the written word or the Bible. And then the third thing we'll see is that David humbles himself again before the glory of the Lord God as he speaks to David in a way very much like Moses and Israel humbled themselves as they heard the voice of the Lord speak from Sinai. So first, how does God speak? Number one, God speaks in the things that he has made. This is a category of God speaking that we are losing in our culture. When a culture no longer can look at the plainness of creation and distinguish between a man and a woman, for example, or prior to that, I would say, at least in our culture, looks at the creation and has the temerity, the gall to say, this happened by chance. we have lost our ability to listen for the glory of God, to God speaking in the things that he has made. David understands nature to have a different function in the Christian life. David understands that God speaks in the things that he has made. In verses one through six, he sets that forth very, very clearly. The voice of the Lord is heard in the things that he has made. And he goes on to say that in very plain language. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night utters knowledge. And there's two words to describe the realm that David is looking at here. He is doing something similar to what he was doing in Psalm 8, considering the heavens the work of God's fingers. The handiwork of God, the created order. When you go out tonight and drive home, hopefully when you're driving you don't do this too much, but when you get home and you step out in the yard and you look up to the starry heavens, you are seeing the glory of God in the things that he has made. He uses two words, he uses the word heavens and he uses the word firmament. And they're both to describe the atmosphere and then what you see on a day, day under day, utter speech and night to night knowledge. When you look outside in a blue sky and you see, I was just, when I went up to Canada for Joe Gehrman's ordination service, I was driving across the countryside of Ontario and I came over this hill and I saw the sun streaming through the clouds and the white clouds and the bright blue sky. It was so beautiful, I actually stopped to take a picture of it. Just the sky, just movingly beautiful. This realm above us, the sky, and then the second heaven, which we could call the stars, and then The third heaven, which we could call the abode of God himself, we see Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians, he was caught up to the third heaven, is described in the Bible by the words heavens or firmament, the expanse, the atmosphere, space above. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and then he divided the firmament from the waters. These are realms that God has made. They are above you all the time. And very often we are staring into our devices or the busyness of life and never looking up. However, they were put above you, created to be over you, to communicate something to you. They speak. The entire expanse above speaks. The daily cycle of that glory is described. Day to day utter speech and night to night reveals knowledge. Daytime. We were driving across, we didn't make it to Montana, which I think is called Big Sky Country, but we were in Wyoming, middle of Wyoming in August, and we were driving across this state, and we were in places where as far as the eye could see, there was not a single tree, and it was level, it basically looked like desert, and the sky looked massive above us. It's just so glorious and expansive. This is what David is looking at. And then he's thinking about the nighttime wonder. Night unto night reveals knowledge. When you see the moon and the stars, children above. I was in Sunday school this morning and talking about Miriam, who's able now already to see stars and to look up. And we take her outside at night and we say, look what God has made. There's an act of revelation in this. It's not just looking. We look and they declare. Look at the active language. The heavens declare. The firmament shows. Day unto day utters speech. Night to night reveals knowledge. This is revelatory. A declaration showing, uttering, revealing. David considers this realm to be pouring forth, speaking, revealing. It's like a waterfall of glory from the heavens above you every day. The content of that revelation, look what it is. They declare the glory of God, the handiwork of God. This is the work of God's hands and they pour forth in this way. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. It doesn't matter if you're old or young, if you live in America or if you live in China. It doesn't matter what your native tongue is. There's a universal language unmistakable from God through the things that He has made that is pouring forth to humanity every day and every moment without exception and which is seen and heard by all. It's speech. It's a message about God. It displays knowledge. Look at verse 2. Speech and knowledge. It is not just twinkling stars in the sky that you see, but there is knowledge and revelation of the very glory of God, His invisible attributes, His eternal Godhead, clearly seen in the things that He has made. Romans chapter 1. And the audience again of that revelation is all humanity without distinction. To the very ends of the earth, their words go to the end of the world. This morning we saw that our Savior sent the preachers out, 12 of them, to cover the land of Israel. This is a universal, global declaration of glory from the throne to humanity. Then David narrows down to one central figure. or act of glory in the heavens. First the broadness of the heavens and now the ruler of that realm, the unmistakable champion of the sky is what? The sun. Verse four, picking up the end of verse four, in them he has set a tabernacle for the sun. In other words, they are a tent or an expanse in which a singular act of glory happens every day and night. Something that eclipses all else in the heavens is the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. He's describing the sun here. God made the greater light to rule the day. Why did he make the sun? Why did he make it? If your children are taking any biology, he made the sun, because plants need to photosynthesize in order that we have plants to eat. That's usually what we think of, that it has a function. It does have a function, and that function teaches us something else. We're not thinking very high thoughts. If you go from sun directly to photosynthesis, maybe you might think warmth, That'd be another thing. You're getting something in that, mysteriously, this thing that God has made provides life. But even before it provides life, it rises with glory, verse 6, it covers the sky in a circuit. There is nothing hidden from its heat. And there David is describing the essential glory of the sun. It's radiance like the bridegroom. It's movement like a runner. It is the pinnacle of the glory of God in the heavens. And it is brilliant glory. You can't look at the sun without what? Damaging your eyesight or going blind. Isn't that amazing? You spent your whole life knowing that there's a sun. You've not spent one single day gazing into it. Because if you did, you wouldn't see again. There's a brilliance of glory there in the heavens every day. On a cloudy day, shrouded. But that sun is faithful every day to light the world and warm the world. It's faithful, it comes over the horizon every morning. It's powerful, it's piercing, it has revealing heat. Nothing is hidden from its heat. Years ago, Loralee and I were hiking in California in the desert, Southern California, and we tried to make it down a trail to an oasis. And when that sun came up, even early in the morning, the desert heat was so strong we were forced to turn around. We had been warned to leave on that trail maybe at 5 a.m. when we got there, maybe at 9. We just couldn't make it. The heat, the power drove us back. This radiance of glory and power with its piercing, revealing heat reminds us of something else and we'll jump ahead a little bit that our God is a consuming fire. Yet the Son is a created thing. It's not to be worshipped. but it declares something. It is part of the heavens speech, knowledge, the universal speech or language, the word of God to the ends of the world. The sun declares the higher, greater, purer, brighter glory of the God who made it and who made it as a servant as only one star of the billions of stars and the billions of galaxies of the heavens, not even the biggest star. The summary here, David, is saying the heavens are speaking of the glory of God. What do we call this? We call this general revelation. God's revelation in creation, and this is very important. Now, some of you know this. These are categories you know again and again, but one of the reasons why I'm returning to Psalm 19 is because it is these categories that we are losing as a civilization right now. We're losing them quickly. I said earlier, The difference between a man and a woman, how could it possibly be true that you could look at the world and say that a man and a woman are interchangeable? There is something that has gone wrong in the rebellion of the human heart, which is a refusal, a stubborn refusal, to hear how God speaks in his creation. The so-called trans question. It's not even a question. It doesn't exist. There are categories that don't even exist. I refuse to even use the word transgender without qualifying that that actually is not a thing. It's a word to describe, it's a word actually to introduce a category that doesn't exist. It's a non-thing. Genesis 1, he made them male and female. I'll give you an example. But what does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 11? He says something very important for the Christian. He says, when he's discussing the difference between men and women in 1 Corinthians 11, and in a broader discussion of the same in the life and worship of the church, he says a little phrase, does not even nature itself teach you that for a man of long hair is shameful? Nature itself teaches. You need to understand that the authority and clarity of God's revelation in nature is not less than that in His written Word. The reason why men and women misinterpret or refuse it is because of willful rebellion. And we just read from Romans 1, and what the apostle warns the world is that that kind of rebellion invites the wrath of God against the unrighteousness of men. And it results in idolatry, and following idolatry, it results in sexual perversion. Because at the root, is that God has spoken in his glory and we have plugged our ears like petulant children and said, I will not listen. To the universal language of God that honors speech, every night reveals knowledge, it speaks volumes that pours forth the work of his hands and the glory of God. The heavens are a good place to begin. to think about the glory of God. Psalm 104 tells us that God lays the beams of his throne chamber in the heavens. When you look out over at the stars, and you learn something of the expanse of the universe, years ago we went to the Creation Museum, just outside of Cincinnati, and we sat in the planetarium, those chairs that tip back, and you get that tour of the universe, from the Earth to the planets, to the size of the sun, to the size of the solar system, to the size of the Milky Way. to the galaxies. And there was a point where my mind ran out of an ability to comprehend the glory and dimensions. I was lost. You know how small of a speck we are in the world that God has made? Something about that glory communicates the glory of God. His majesty, the weight of His glory. The brilliance of the sun, another example. God said to Moses, no one shall see me and live. God who dwells in light, unapproachable and full of glory. The picture of the son is proclaiming something of the inherent glory of God in a created thing, so small compared to the majesty of his glory. We are to listen. Every rebellion against the plainness of general revelation is rooted in an unwillingness to hear the clear speech of God. Evolutionary theory is another one. What in the world? I said earlier, what in the world to say that all this that God has made just happened by chance? What an offense to God and what a suppression of His glory. These are His works. made in the original creation to communicate to Adam and Eve his majesty, his care, his kindness, his goodness, his infinity. There's only one of two possible responses to suppress the truth and unrighteousness, to lie about creation, to refuse the revelation. or to succumb to Satan, who I am convinced in our present technological age is intent on distracting us from the directness of that glory, and putting all sorts of other things before our eyes except that which God has made by His own hands, His handiwork, so that we are rarely, if ever, come face to face with the glory of God. Always a twisted counterfeit. That's the unbeliever. The Christian recognizes, and what do you do? You worship. You worship. I think I said this in the class this morning, but one of the ways that you can teach your children to be worshipers is to teach them to have an eye for his glory. The works of the Lord are great, studied by all those who have pleasure in them. Psalm 111 and verse two. Psalm 104. The psalmist is extolling the general revelation of God in creation and in providence. Oh Lord, how manifold are your works. In wisdom you have made them all. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Solomon, consider the ant. How'd he figure that out? Because the king was on his belly studying the glory of God. Or David Murray, not David Murray, John Murray, rather, different person. John Murray, the theologian, famous for being a student of creation, Jonathan Edwards, I've probably told you this before, treat us on spiders. Charles Hodge kept the weather station in Princeton, always looking at the heavens every single day. John Murray, story in his biography, seeing the redwoods of California, and every time he got to another grove, he had to walk out and see them, and the man he was driving with, Murray, had only one good eye, and he said, I saw that John Murray could see more of the glory of God with one eye than I had ever seen with two. So clear, Paul says, that you are without excuse before God. This speech is so clear concerning his eternal power, his invisible attributes, clearly seen so that you are without excuse on the day of judgment for not worshiping, bowing down, and honoring him as God alone. Do you recognize this glory in creation? And do you worship? Now, second part of the psalm brings us to the second way that God speaks. Years ago, Laura Lee and I were in Boston, and we were walking something called the Freedom Trail. And if I remember correctly, there's a painted line around Boston that you can follow. And it goes to all different historic sites in this great American city. And included the Boston Common and Faneuil Hall and Bunker Hill. And you could follow that line around the city and you could see all of the beautiful architecture and open spaces and already then, you would be able to say that the people who made these buildings and built and laid out this city, you would know something about them. But you would only know it in the broadest and general terms. You'd know something about their giftedness and their eye for beauty in the things that they had made. You would know that the city didn't spring up on its own, but that there was some intelligence and planning that produced Boston. But you would also know that at that point, you would know still very little about Boston. So what we did is we picked up a little pamphlet called The Freedom Trail, and I think we still have the little booklet. I think we bought a copy. It's in our house, in our living room on the shelf, I think still. And if you read the book while you walk the trail, everything would change. The Freedom Trail would come alive. The presence and grandeur of the city would be there, with or without the guidebook, but the significance of the city would be unknown to you. And so now we walked the Freedom Trail, and we saw the Boston Common, and we were reminded that George Whitefield preached there in 1740, and we saw Faneuil Hall, understood that the Revolutionary War was birthed in that place, and we saw Bunker Hill, and we learned about an epic Revolutionary War battle, and we started to understand the significance of the city in the history of a nation. And now we had two things, the city itself and the story. And now, for the first time, we understood something about Boston, and even about America. Likewise, to know God, not only the works of his hands, but he gives you the guidebook that explains and interprets his own works, so that when you have them both together, you come to a clarity of the knowledge of God and the knowledge of yourself. That requires both modes of speaking in history God to you. The second part then is the Bible. There's a lot in here. We're going to go over it at a high level. It's an abrupt shift in the text, verse 7, and you might think that that shift being so abrupt means it is an entirely new topic, but it's not. It's the same topic. It's how God speaks, as I said a moment ago. It's from the glory of heaven to what David calls the law of the Lord. And this title over this section is very important. Law, Torah. Any Jew, any Israelite reading this would immediately be thinking about the five books of Moses. and about the principle that we are a people who not only know the glory of God and the things that he has made, but the reason we know that is because he gave us his word, to use Calvin's illustration, the word of God is the lens through which we see the glory of God in all of his works, and that the two go together. They can't be separated. We'll see that a little bit later. But it is by the word that we know that the heavens were made. It is by the Word. Genesis 1, we know that there is a Creator. We know His name, the Lord, the Lord God. It's by the Word that we know that God is triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is by the law of the Lord, the Word of God, the spoken Word inscripturated, put in script, written, and preserved by God in history. The Bible is God's letter to you. and it explains all of reality and it reveals the character of God. It is the law of the Lord. Yahweh, the personal covenant God of Israel. It is His spoken word again captured in the scriptures. And perhaps one of the simplest illustrations we have of this is when God again spoke from Sinai. It was His own word. And then with His own finger, He inscribed His own word on the tablets of stone. And then He gave His word spoken then in written form to the people of God. This is how God communicates with you. He's the author of scripture. And where creation reveals the broad strokes of His glory, infinity, majesty, and power, the Scriptures reveal the details of His character, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the way of salvation, the way of the covenant. This is the second way God speaks in history, then. If David sees the first, now he sees the second. And he can't see the first without the second or the second without the first. They're inseparable. God speaks then, the second way, is through the Old Testament, David hears in the Old Testament, written record of divine communication to his covenant people. Your Bible, here's the question, why doesn't God speak to me? The answer is He does in the glory of the heavens and He does in the Word. His speech here is authoritative, divine communication. It's the law of the Lord. It's the testimony of the Lord. It's the statutes of the Lord. It's the commandments of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, the judgments of the Lord. It has divine authority, divine power, divine goodness. It's divine revelation. Look at all the terms that now David piles up to describe not only the law, but the law in more detail, the Word of God. It's the law, the instruction of God. It's the testimony, the truth attested by God. It's the statutes and commands of God. It's His authoritative command to His people in history. It's the fear of the Lord, which speaks to the effect of the Scriptures that produces respect on all. It's the judgment of the Lord, which means that this Word evaluates your life and conduct right now. It's all the word of God. The law of the Lord, the scroll of Moses, to it added the prophets. This David understands to be the second way in which God speaks in history to Israel. And it's powerful. It pours forth benefits. What does it do? It converts the soul. It brings someone from death to life in Jesus Christ. That's what the Word of God does. It makes wiseness simple. What does simple mean? Simple means not that bright. But Psalm 119 says that if you have the Word, you have more understanding than all your teachers. It instructs you in knowledge in ways that the wisest man without the Holy Spirit and without a Bible could never attain. It's right. righteous, good, which produces joy in our hearts. It rejoices the heart. It gives light to our eyes. Internal joy radiates from those who receive the Word of God. As the sun lights all of creation, so the Word of God, our innermost being, it enlightens the eyes. It is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. And then the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. This is a high theology. of the law of the Lord, which has saving power and permeates your life with benefits of communion with God, and the joy and peace of a heart made right with God through the gospel of Jesus Christ, which stands at the center of the word. Now, here's a question. How do these two things work together? I already said, Calvin's illustration, but let's pull some things together here and we'll go back to that. Before we get to Calvin's illustration, the first thing you need to understand is that you need general revelation to understand special revelation. It's very interesting. When you go to Psalm 1, and David says, that man shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. It bears its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. That would mean nothing to you. And I want you to think about the comprehensive self-revelation of God to you, how he speaks. He made the tree, he made the river, he made the leaves, he made the fruit, he made the sun, and he gave the word. And all of that he places in your heart as he communicates to you what it means to follow him. One united self-revelation of the living God, where the written word and nature come together to communicate one single truth about God. You need to know general revelation, for example, to understand the Incarnation. What does it mean that the Word became flesh, the central mystery in the history of the world? Well, you know what it means to be flesh. You know that God is a spirit. He has no body. The word tells you that. And when the word became flesh, we know that the Christ, the eternal son of God, took to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. And now he is the one person in two natures forever. All of created reality and the written word coming together for you to understand the mediator, Jesus Christ. But on the other hand, you need special revelation to interpret general revelation. They work together. Again, Calvin says, without special revelation, we would not understand the works of God and the things that he has made. And this is why, again, I said earlier, people have invented the idea of evolution, which says it's all by chance, because it's a stubborn refusal to look at general revelation through the lens of special revelation. Third, special revelation is unique and distinct. The Bible. in that it reveals to you more than general revelation. And what is more, the person and work and saving grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Christ, He's the one who stands at the center of your Bible. And He is the one who is proclaimed in the promises of the gospel. and you know him from these pages, and in him you have life. But even with him, I already talked about the incarnation, you cannot separate your knowledge of him from the works of his own hands. Here's the great mystery. Let me give you an example. How about the greatest illustration of general revelation in the psalm, the son, who's described as a bridegroom and a strong man running his race, which are two illustrations that are used directly to describe the glory of Jesus Christ. He, Malachi says, is the Son of Righteousness who rises with healing in His wings. And He's the one, Hebrews 12, who ran the race before us, the strong man, to the right hand of the Father through the cross. He's the one in John 8 and verse 12 who said, and the light of the world. Why? So that every morning when the sun rises, your first thought should be, there is not only the undifferentiated glory of the Triune God represented, but in some mysterious way, the glory of Jesus Christ, which is incidentally what the disciples saw on the Mount of Transfiguration when he was changed before them, and his face shone like the sun in full strength." Or what John saw in the Revelation, when he heard the voice of the Lord come to him, Jesus Christ appearing in his ascended glory, and when he looked, he saw what? His face shining like the sun in full strength, Revelation chapter 1 and verse 16. And now you see, the full panoply of the glory of God is revealed in the totality of His revelation, and that is centered upon the person and work of Jesus Christ, and even the work of salvation involves both of these categories in a perfect concert of harmony. When Paul says what? How did you come to know salvation? God shone in your heart the light of the glory of God, which shines in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what it is to be saved. Now you understand why David can see both of these categories, pull them together in a perfect harmony, and understand that God is speaking in history to the world. This is why it's so valuable. Look at verse 10. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. He says, you could give me a pile of gold, I wouldn't trade it for this. It's sweeter than honey and even the honeycomb. There is a sweetness and richness and glory to the revelation of God. that makes it incomparable to everything that you could have. It is the path of life. Moreover, by them your servant is worn, and keeping them there is great reward. These precepts and commands in the Word show me the way of life. If I go wrong, it's destruction. If I follow the God who reveals Himself, it's life and glory. The psalm here is that the Scriptures reveal the holiness and grace of God together with the things that He has made. God speaks, and he's speaking right now. Matter of fact, Calvin says this, if I only had, in his sermons on Genesis, if he said, if I only could see my hand and have the word, he says, first of all, if I could only see my hand, I would know the glory of God, just the intricacy of that one piece. But you have much more. You have the heavens, you have the sun, and you have your Bible. which interprets it all as God speaks to you. What should this do to you? Verse 12 and 13 and 14. I hope you sensed it already, but this should create in you an awareness of the holiness and majesty of God. Earlier I said that our sinful condition is like a child with your fingers in your ears. The question that this psalm begs is, are you listening? And the evidence that you are listening would be that you would respond like this. If you're catching this, you can't be unmoved. Who can understand his errors? What's happening? The light of the glory of God is shining. ultimately in the face of Jesus Christ, the holy, sinless Son of God, majestic and glorious. The heavens cannot contain his glory, Solomon said. And he's speaking, and as he speaks, David begins, in a sense, to crumble, not in fear, he loves this word, but he recognizes who he is in relation to God. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. He's saying, Lord, against the backdrop of this glory, I see enough. Errors, secret sins, that means the things that you only talk about, but God knows and his word penetrates your heart. Or presumptuous things, things you do in public, you don't even care about. You convince yourself they're fine. David says, let them not have dominion over me. Then I should be blameless and innocent of great transgression. The first thing that the revelation of the glory of God does, it drives David to his knees in repentance. And he says, Lord, I have discovered in the light of that glory that I am not who I should be. Help me, Lord. It's like the lamp that He drops into our hearts, exposing every crack and crevice of our sin-sick being, which should result on us on our faces before the glory of God. This revelation of that glory has power. It has power to penetrate the hardest and deepest heart. The writer of the Hebrews understood this. The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And here's that blazing glory. There is no creature hidden from his sight. All things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Lord, help me. Forgive me. That's what you should pray. Forgive me for Christ's sake. Keep me from sin. And then, Lord, I want to devote myself again to you and your glory. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, and then this beautiful phrase at the end, my rock and my redeemer. See, there's two things that happen in David's heart when he sees the glory of God. One is, like Isaiah, a dissolution of himself according to his sinful nature. And it was apart from the saving help of God. Everything exposed in that light and glory. No argument left for self-righteousness. Prayer for mercy. But at the same time, he sees the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. And he says, oh, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer set me free. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. That's why David loved it. He loved it. I already said something about this, but it would be good to close. To remind you of the glory of Jesus Christ, who himself is. All that is found in Psalm 19 is fulfilled in him. He's the agent of creation. Through him, all things were made. And as the agent of the father. The eternal word. John 1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1 all say, through Him the world was made. You're seeing the handiwork of Jesus Christ when the sun rises. You're seeing the handiwork of Jesus Christ when the stars shine. You're seeing the handiwork of Jesus Christ. You see one of those days when the sun streams through the clouds on that blue sky background, and you see the beams of glory, handiwork of your Savior. Then he's the living word. The word became flesh who dwelled among us. And he's the one who converts the soul by his word and his Holy Spirit. He's the one who gives wisdom. He gives joy. He is the one to be desired more than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. He is the Lord, my strength and my redeemer. And he speaks in the things that he has made and by his Holy Spirit in the word. you commit yourself to him using David's words. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Jesus Christ, O living Word of God. God, who at various times and in various ways spoken time past to the fathers by the prophets, has spoken to us in these last days by his Son, whom he has appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person. Christian, you're being called to make two commitments tonight. Number one, you walk out those doors and you start looking for the glory of God. You wake up tomorrow, you see that sun rise, you praise God for his glory and his faithfulness. You cultivate an eye to read the book of nature. Christian, you take that Bible that perhaps is too dusty on the shelf and you search it for the glory of God in Jesus Christ and to be able to interpret your world and your life and offer yourself back to God. And then if you're here tonight and you were asking the question, how does God speak? Will he speak to me? The answer is here. Every day, wherever you go, you can never avoid the voice of God. The question is, will you listen, submit, and follow Him? Will you receive that revelation? Will you look at the sky and praise His name? Will you open your Bible and read of a Savior? and will you put your trust in Him, the God who speaks light, life, and glory in history. Let's pray. Lord God, we are thankful for your word, your written word, your voice in creation and providence, the gift of your Holy Spirit by whom we alone can understand and see your glory. We pray for grace to trace those lines more carefully, to listen more intentionally, and to praise you and to offer you our lives and repentance and faith again. But we would also pray if there are any here who either because of hard life circumstances sent you to be far away or because of a love of sin have pushed you away. that tonight you would cause such to hear and believe and live by your voice. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace, amen.