[0:00] Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together, Psalm 19.
[0:24] ! Every day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.
[0:38] Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. 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.
[0:52] 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. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
[1:03] The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
[1:15] The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
[1:29] Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.
[1:44] Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.
[1:57] O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Would you please be seated? Before having kids, Danny and I found inexpensive ways to enjoy our Saturday afternoons while I was a student in seminary.
[2:18] We often visited the Nelson Adkins Art Museum in Kansas City. We would park in the museum's garage and enter through the modern art wing, which was filled with a variety of artwork that looked like it was created by kindergartners.
[2:35] I'm not an art expert, but if the art looks like something I could do or recreate, it isn't art to me. We didn't spend much time in that wing. Of greater interest to me were the ancient artifacts, headdresses, sculptures, and sarcophagi that are hundreds and sometimes thousands of years old.
[2:58] The artists were unknown, but their work communicated what their culture believed and valued, which I found interesting and disturbing.
[3:11] The majority of our time, though, was spent viewing oil paintings from the Renaissance period. Many of those paintings depicted scenes from the Bible.
[3:22] Danny's favorite was the sacrifice of Isaac. That's what the painting is titled. In the center of the painting stood the sandaled figure of a bearded man in a crimson robe.
[3:35] In his right hand is a dagger. His left hand is extended toward a youth draped in a white cloth around his loins and over his shoulder, restraining his hands behind him as he leans against a stone platform upon which are brush and logs that have been set ablaze.
[3:54] In the top left hand corner, an angel hovers over Abraham, its right arm restraining Abraham's dagger-clenched fist.
[4:05] In the lower left corner, in the shadows, is a white ram, eyes facing down, horns caught in the thicket.
[4:17] Each time we visited and looked at that painting, we'd notice things that we hadn't seen before. Isaac's head turned away from Abraham, his father's, but his eyes focused on the dagger that was in his dad's right hand, wondering why his father had yet to inflict him, to pierce him with the fatal blow.
[4:40] Abraham's face as he looks up at the angel in relieved terror that his arm has been stayed from killing his beloved son. The ram trapped in the thicket, showing no sign of struggle to free itself as it would become the sacrifice offered to God in Isaac's place.
[5:03] Danny and I stood in front of that painting, gazing at it in silence. Periodically, that silence was broken by our whispers as we were pointing out things to each other that we were seeing for the first time, though we'd seen this painting many times.
[5:19] The more we looked, the more we were rewarded as we disciplined our eyes and our minds to reflect and appreciate that work of art.
[5:29] Now, you'd think a painting capable of capturing our attention like that would lead us to inquire and learn more about the person who painted it.
[5:42] And if you'd thought that, you'd be wrong. I'm sure we read the placard on the side of the painting with the information about the artist, but as soon as we moved on to the next painting, we'd forgotten about the creator.
[5:56] Years later, more than a decade later, Danny and I still talk about that painting, but neither of us knew who painted it until this week when I looked it up because I thought of it in preparation for this sermon.
[6:10] Peter Paul Rubens, just so you know. Psalm 14 is one of several passages in Scripture that talk about how creation is God's handiwork, his artistry.
[6:23] It's seen in the sunsets, in the sunrises, in the mountains, in the valleys, in the forests, in the seas, in the stars, in the moons, in the galaxies, in the black holes.
[6:35] While these things cause us to stop and marvel over their power and their beauty, like that painting in the Nelson Atkins Art Museum, many look at God's creation with interest, captivated even by the details, but soon they turn their attention elsewhere without a thought for the one who made it all.
[6:57] This is what the unregenerate, unsaved person does when they admire God's creation. Paul talks about them in Romans 1, 19 through 20.
[7:08] 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, can be clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.
[7:28] In Psalm 19, David gives credit where credit is due. But instead of being captivated by creation, he is captivated by its maker and how its creator not only speaks through his creation, but reveals himself personally through his word to people that he's created in his image.
[7:53] And so the main idea of this morning's sermon, the main idea of our text is this. God speaks to us through the skies he has made and the scriptures he has inspired.
[8:03] God speaks to us through the skies he has made and the scriptures he has inspired. One of the first things God reveals about himself in the scriptures he's inspired is that he speaks.
[8:17] Genesis 1 tells us that in the beginning, God who has no beginning spoke creation into existence. From that point on, we read about in scripture, God speaking to people.
[8:31] God speaks to Noah. He speaks to Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, and Moses, and others. He speaks through intermediaries like the prophets. All of God's words were recorded and kept to be passed on from generation to generation that people would know who he is, that people would know what he's done and what he commands.
[8:53] Jesus, in the New Testament, the eternal word of God, Jesus Christ, puts on human flesh and he comes to dwell with people on the earth.
[9:08] And his disciple, John, testifies to him in his gospel in John 1.4 and then in John 1.14. In the beginning, speaking of Jesus, was the word. And the word was with God.
[9:20] And the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life.
[9:31] And the life was the light of men. And then in verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth.
[9:45] God has spoken. Jesus Christ, his son, has fully revealed him. And God continues to speak today through the skies above and the scriptures that are in your hands.
[9:59] What does this mean that God speaks? Well, God wants to be heard. He wants us to know him.
[10:10] Because in knowing him, we are able to do what he created us to do. To enjoy him. Having all the longing of our hearts satisfied in him.
[10:24] Receiving his grace and his mercy and his peace. Seeing his beauty and his majesty. Knowing his love for us. To send Jesus, his only son, to die in our place for our sins.
[10:38] That we may enjoy a perfect creation with our perfect creator forever. God speaks. And he wants you to know him.
[10:49] Do you know him? If you do, praise God. What a joy it is to know the one who made everything. Everything.
[11:00] He made you. He saved you. He sanctifies you. He sustains you.
[11:11] The one who made everything knows you, brother or sister in Christ, personally. That's awesome.
[11:25] But maybe you're in a spiritual slump. Maybe today you feel a little spiritually lethargic. Maybe you've allowed the worries of the world to form like clouds over your head, like one of those long winter weeks where the clouds block out the sun's visibility.
[11:44] Then we know that the sun is still there. I pray that today, friend, through his word, God parts those clouds and you will drink up the rays of his sun.
[11:58] Capital S-O-N. That you will rejoice in the reality that God has spoken to you. That God has called out to you.
[12:13] That he has saved you. That he has called you from death to life. That he continues to speak to you through the words of this book that he's inspired.
[12:26] But maybe you're here and you don't know him. Like me in the art museum, you enjoy what God paints in the skies each day, but thus far you've rejected him as its author, the painter, as the creator.
[12:42] God has brought you here today. And he's brought you here today to speak to you. That you would know the truth about him and that you would enjoy him and knowing who he truly is and understanding what he's done to save sinners and to sanctify them and to glorify sinners like you and me.
[13:13] God speaks to us through the skies he's made and the scriptures he's inspired. Psalm 19 contains three revelations about the God, the only God who speaks.
[13:27] The first revelation is that the skies reveal God's glory. The skies reveal God's glory. Again, verse one, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
[13:40] God reveals two ways that he's chosen to speak to us in the Bible. The first is general revelation. Now general revelation is a technical term used to describe how God reveals himself as our creator through his creation.
[13:56] When we observe our world, when we observe the universe, we see order, we see purpose, we see detail and design. I didn't know who the artist was that painted the sacrifice of Isaac but I knew through my senses and my cognitive faculties that someone painted it.
[14:18] It would be ridiculous to believe or to think if Danny asked who painted this. I don't know, maybe it painted itself. David looks up at the sky above.
[14:28] the sun rises, the sun sets, the moon, the sun, the stars, their order and design and he knows instinctively as we all do that someone made this and he knows instinctively that that someone isn't him and it's not anybody like him.
[14:46] There's an orderer behind the order. There is a designer behind the design. There is a power unlike any other power capable of making all that he sees and that we see.
[14:59] Because of God's special revelation, David knows who to attribute his awe and his wonder and his praise to and we'll get to special revelation later but for now, understand general revelation is how God reveals himself to all people at all times in all places through all that he's made.
[15:21] David says, the heavens declare the glory of God the sky above proclaims his handiwork. The Hebrew word translated as declare is sephar.
[15:33] It means to mark or to tally or to inscribe. The Hebrew word translated as proclaim is negad which means to stand out boldly.
[15:47] So what David is saying here is that the heavens, the celestial bodies, the sun, the moon and the stars, the sky, the visible arc above containing clouds, rainbows, lightning and other things like that.
[16:01] They stand out boldly, David says, as God's inscription that he is the one who made all of this. Similar to how a painter or an artist inscribes their name leaving their mark somewhere on their artwork, on their creation so people know who made it.
[16:23] So God has inscribed his name in bold letters and all that we see saying I made this. You don't have to go to a museum.
[16:38] All you have to do is look up and see the power of God and what he's made. David continues in verse 2. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.
[16:53] When the beauty of the day ends, the beauty of the night takes over. Sunrises are preceded by sunsets every day, every night. The God who designed creation obeys the order of he who created it.
[17:10] In verses 3-5, David marvels at how God speaks through the heavens and the skies though those things have no audible voice. He says again, there is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard.
[17:23] Their voices go out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. 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.
[17:37] I doubt any of you have gone to bed or will even go to bed tonight worried that the sun won't rise. We sort of take it for granted don't we?
[17:49] That the sun will rise the next day. David doesn't take it for granted. He's in awe of God over it. When I was in fifth or sixth grade in the summertime I went to my friend's house to spend the night and when I got inside we got back to his room he asked me what's the latest you've ever stayed up?
[18:14] And I said midnight you know maybe one o'clock I don't know and he said to me well tonight we're not going to sleep.
[18:28] This was a journey into uncharted territory for me. I'd never stayed up late all night my parents had never let me. I don't know that I ever wanted to but I was all in.
[18:42] I was like absolutely that is a wonderful idea and so we stayed up all night and the night was longer than I'd ever experienced night before.
[18:54] I remember sometime around four o'clock thinking when is the sun going to rise? I want to go to sleep plus like it's been a really long time. Is it going to rise?
[19:06] I was tired I was delirious so was my friend we were ready to sleep and just as I began to think the sun wouldn't rise struggling to keep my eyes open the sun came up and gradually filled the room that we were in with light.
[19:26] I'd never seen this before and suddenly me and my friend were wide awake. We got up we ran outside I think we played basketball we were so thrilled by what was for me the first time I'd ever seen the sun rise as a miracle.
[19:47] I'd witnessed a miracle of God's creation that I'd never seen before. It sticks with me today. It was awesome and I love how David takes time to just reflect on what we take for granted and how he describes the sun rising.
[20:01] He uses the imagery of a bridegroom emerging from his chamber with the enthusiasm and anticipation of seeing his bride. As a pastor I've stood beside a lot of grooms as they waited to receive their bride.
[20:17] They're full of nervous energy and excitement and honestly there's a lot of things that I don't like doing when it comes to performing a wedding but the thing I love one of the things I love is seeing the groom's face when he sees his wife coming towards him for the first time.
[20:44] David also compares the sun to a strong man running his race with joy. The strong man has trained for this. He's equipped for this. He's like an Olympic sprinter. You know before they get up to stand on the blocks they shake out their powerful arms and their powerful legs.
[21:00] They are eager to line up. They're eager to race the race that is set before them to show off their grace, their stamina, their strength to those who are watching.
[21:13] And so the sun David said leaps into action each day in obedience to its creator eager to achieve what God's created it to do. In verse six David adds its rising is from the heavens and its circuit to the end of them and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
[21:30] David's point here is that the sun which shines on everything and radiates its heat to all things with immense power reflects the greater power and the splendor of the one who created the powerful sun.
[21:49] There is no architectural achievement that compares with the heavens and the skies. There is no engineering feat ever created by man or that man could ever create that outshines God's design which is evidenced to us all by the circuit of the sun, the moon, and the stars above as they obey God's commands for them.
[22:12] The skies reveal God's glory. David looks up, he looks out, and he sees the glory of God's creation. But this is important. He doesn't give what he sees, he doesn't give God's creation praise, he gives praise to the one who communicates his glory through the glorious things that he has made.
[22:36] If you've ever seen something in nature that took your breath away, and I'm sure that you have, have you ever stopped to think about how much more glorious the one who made it must be?
[22:51] If you haven't, you need to. And if you have, you need to do it more. Look at the world God created. And as you look at it, think about what you see.
[23:04] Give praise to the designer of designers, the architect of architects, the engineer of engineers, the artist of artists. The God who spoke all things into existence and who continues to speak through them.
[23:19] Go outside. outside. Go outside. I'm glad my wife's not here because she would be, and she'll hear it later, but she'll be reminding me because I like to stay inside.
[23:32] But go outside. And here's another thing, go to awesome places. Go to awesome places where you can observe the beauty of God's creation and just delight in him as creator who has created you and who saves you.
[23:50] But God doesn't just want us to have a general idea of who he is. He wants us to know who he is specifically and personally.
[24:02] And thus we come to the second revelation in Psalm 19. The scriptures reveal God's grace. The scriptures reveal God's grace. The reason why David is able to see God's glory in creation is because he's first experienced God's glory in scripture.
[24:19] scripture. Every statement in verses 7 through 9 follow the same formula in Hebrew. The first three words state what God's word is and the following two words state what it does.
[24:34] In verse 1 God used the general name for God, El. But now as he begins verse 7 he uses the covenant name, the name God revealed to Moses, his name, Yahweh.
[24:48] this is important. David is saying that while God speaks through the heavens to show us there is a glorious creator in scripture, he speaks to us as our gracious redeemer.
[25:03] The God who is is a God who speaks and who wants to be known by people created in his image. And so he's given us special revelation.
[25:15] God supernaturally gifted human writers to compose scripture over some 1600 years, over vast expanses of time and places, over 40 different authors.
[25:29] He's used to tell this one story and it's amazing that it all just fits together and you know that truly he is the one who inspired it and who gave it. He's given this special revelation.
[25:41] God supernaturally gifted these human writers to accurately record his divine message using their unique personalities and writing styles. Though they were flawed, God's word is not.
[25:52] As David says in verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. David testifies that God's word is perfect. And God's word is perfect because God gave it and God is perfect.
[26:07] perfect. He knows the scriptures are inspired by God because of what God's word has done for him to revive his soul. The Hebrew word translated as revive is shub, which means to turn back or to convert.
[26:29] the word of God gave life to all things. Adam and Eve sinned. And when they sinned, the perfect world God created fell under the curse of sin.
[26:44] And as a result of their sin, people are born sinful. They are born physically alive, but spiritually dead. And so you can go all of your life thinking or with knowledge of a creator, but God has given us his word, his scripture to give us knowledge of him as the creator.
[27:09] That our dead souls would be revived. That our dead hearts would be converted through a turning back to him, which we call repentance.
[27:19] repentance, turning away from our sin and turning to God in faith. This is why God sent Jesus. God the father sent God the son. Not to teach us how to live better.
[27:33] Not merely to set an example of selflessness for us to follow. He sent his son to redeem us from our sins. Galatians 4, 4 through 5.
[27:47] But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoptions as sons.
[28:03] God sent his son to redeem sinners from their sins. And then when Jesus begins his public ministry, Matthew tells us what the key theme or the main idea of his preaching was in Matthew 4, 17.
[28:18] From that time on, Jesus began to preach saying, repent, turn back, convert, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
[28:29] Jesus didn't begin preaching with words like, be nicer, be better, or try harder. He didn't begin preaching with words like, be true to yourself, or be what you want to be, or do what makes you happy.
[28:46] No, he said, repent. Repent of your sins. Through the law of God, Jesus, the word of God revealed our sin and our need to repent, to convert, to turn back, to be revived by faith in him, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world by giving his life as a sacrifice on the cross to redeem us, to atone for our sins.
[29:18] This is the gospel, and it's communicated all throughout this book that God has inspired. And if God's been gracious to save you, to revive you, it's a truth that keeps reviving you.
[29:31] Doesn't it? If God has been gracious to save you, to revive you, it's a truth that keeps reviving you, meaning it's a truth that doesn't get old. Last week, four of us, me and Jeremy and Evan and Reed, we went to the For the Church Conference at Midwestern in Kansas City.
[29:50] And sermon after sermon, song after song, all of them testifying to the same truth that we had heard time after time, but it never gets old.
[30:02] It keeps getting better. And the revived soul just keeps getting revved up by the perfect law of God, which reveals the perfect gift and grace of God and Jesus Christ, his son.
[30:22] The Holy Spirit is at work today, friends. The third person of the Trinity, God, the Spirit inspired these words and continues to revive dead hearts and quicken lost souls.
[30:37] We've already seen an example of that, praise God, this morning in our worship. And you know, I've known a lot of people whose souls were revived, who were saved by God simply by picking up this book and reading it.
[30:55] And let me tell you, no other book is capable of doing that. Because no other book is inspired by God, the creator of all things.
[31:09] David continues in verse 7, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. This is awesome. The simplest person can be wise.
[31:20] You don't need a college degree, you don't need a seminary degree or a pedigree. If you obey God's word, God will make you wise.
[31:30] If you just do what he says, you'll be a wise person. Think of how much stronger and healthier our churches would be if we just obeyed what God's word says.
[31:42] David continues in verse 8, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. Notice the progression here. God's word brings us new life. Its instructions make us wise and as a result of that, it makes us glad.
[31:55] Additionally, in verse 8, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. God's commandments are pure. They are unmixed. They are undefiled, uncontaminated by sin. They enlighten us.
[32:06] They keep us from being deceived by those who exchange the truth of God's word for a lie. And if you think about it, Christian, why would you be deceived by them when you've experienced what God's word has done through and for you?
[32:23] And so we would all do well to obey Paul's instruction to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, 14 through 17. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
[32:49] All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
[33:03] God's word enlightens us. It completes the general knowledge that God gives to us in creation. And it equips us to live a life worthy of the one who is worthy.
[33:15] David continues in verse 9. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. Here David departs for a second from talking about the word of the Lord to the fear of the Lord, and it makes sense.
[33:28] David says the fear of the Lord is clean. That connotes purity. God's special revelation, his word through which he speaks, prompts us to have an appropriate amount of fear towards God, which stimulates us then to give more careful attention to the scriptures he's inspired.
[33:52] You know, it makes me think about my father who's a godly man back when I was a young man living in his house. I knew that my father loved me, and as a result of his love for me, he would discipline me when I needed it.
[34:07] And that discipline created within me a healthy fear of my father. I love him. I don't want to disobey him. I don't want to be disciplined by him again.
[34:17] I don't want to put him through that either because I know that he loves me. The same is true here. David says in the rest of verse 9, the rules of the Lord are true and righteous all together.
[34:30] The truth of the scriptures enables David to see God's glory in creation, and the truth of the scriptures also enable him to see his need for God's grace and forgiveness, which he generously gives, and which leads us to the third revelation in Psalm 19.
[34:50] The servant of God is glad. Verse 10, David says, more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold. To the servant whom God has been gracious to save, they desire God's word more than gold.
[35:07] It's better to them than the purest quality of gold. The idea is that of treasure or money, and that it can't give to us, it can't buy us what God freely supplies to us, the knowledge that he extends to us about him in his word.
[35:24] David is glad, and he delights in God's words and God speaking to him because he says they are sweeter also than honey dripping from the honeycomb.
[35:40] Honey is sweet, so sweet that I can't stand it. I don't like honey. I prefer chocolate. But the idea here is that if you are eating honey, you know you're eating honey, don't you?
[35:58] Like, there's no doubt, because honey stimulates the taste buds. Sweets are good. They fill us with joy. But while those things aren't good for us, God's word is.
[36:10] God's word stimulates, in a sense, the taste buds of our souls. It warms our hearts. Through it, God communicates his love to save us, to save people who have rejected him and who are lost without him.
[36:26] They teach us to trust him, and they prevent us from straying from him, as David says in verse 11. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and keeping them is their great reward.
[36:37] And then in verse 12, he adds, who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.
[36:48] Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. David knows that God is holy. And David knows that he is not holy.
[37:03] He knows that despite what God has revealed to him about himself, that he is prone to wonder, that he is prone to sin.
[37:16] He knows that he sins even when he doesn't realize that he's sinning. And so David sees all of this sin in himself, and he turns to God asking for his help.
[37:31] And he ends Psalm 19 with a prayer. Verse 14, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
[37:49] We know David, don't we? We know David sinned, and we know David sinned a lot. David sinned big. But he had a hope.
[38:03] And he had a prayer. That God would make him blameless, innocent, and acceptable in his sight. And though David sinned a lot and in big ways, the good news for us is that God's grace is bigger, it's greater than David's sins.
[38:27] It's bigger, it's greater than your sins. David's hope has been realized in Jesus Christ.
[38:39] Let's look at Romans 3, 21 through 26. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law and the prophets.
[38:51] Or excuse me, apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For all who believe.
[39:02] For there is no distinction. For all, all of us, everyone, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
[39:25] This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
[39:43] If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are clean. You are forgiven. You are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
[39:56] The perfect sinless life that he lived that you and I could never live by faith in Jesus. God has attributed Christ's righteousness to us who was innocent, who was blameless, who was holy and who was pure.
[40:12] That's pretty good news, is it not? God has spoken and God still speaks in these last days.
[40:24] Hebrews 1, 1 through 4. Long ago and at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
[40:43] He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
[41:03] God has spoken. God continues to speak. And if you're here this morning, I hope that you've heard God speak.
[41:17] You've heard the gospel. You understand that you are a sinner like me, like all of us. We've all fallen short of God's glory. There's nothing we could do to put ourselves in right standing with God. And he's holy, which means he's just.
[41:32] And he'd be justified to say, you know what? You all, you've rejected me. You don't want me. Every time I've revealed, I've put my name, I've inscribed it in all of creation and you don't care to know who I am.
[41:47] But in his love, instead of rejecting those who rejected him, he sent Jesus' son to do what we could not do, that by faith in him, we're saved and we have eternal life.
[42:02] We are made heirs with Christ and we are forgiven. And we have a future to look forward to. I had a friend who once told a story about a dream that he had and in this dream, he was in jail for doing something bad.
[42:21] I didn't, you know, pry too deep, too deep to know, what did you do that was so bad? He was in jail. He had stood before the court. All of his family was there. The prosecution presented the evidence. He was guilty.
[42:32] It was clear. He got sentenced to life in prison and he was in his prison cell in this dream. And then he said, I woke up. I woke up a law-abiding citizen.
[42:45] I woke up innocent and free. And that's what God does for us in salvation. We're declared innocent. We're set free by our faith in Jesus Christ.
[43:00] And if you haven't trusted in him today, he's calling you to trust in him today. For the rest of us, how should we adjust to what we've heard? I think it's to understand this. God speaks through those who hear and obey his word.
[43:16] God speaks through those who hear and obey his word. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 14 through 17, speaking of his people, speaking of his followers, his church, you are the light of the world.
[43:31] A city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
[43:46] Believer, God has given us his creation. He has given us his word. He has commanded us to go and to be a light to a dark world. Go and do that and give God the glory for what results.
[44:01] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for who you are, for who you've done.
[44:15] Lord, we confess, I confess that so often our lives get busy with different things and our minds get clouded with concerns and worries and fears, things that you command us not to be worried about or fearful about or concerned about and Lord, we just don't even reflect over just how amazing the creation that you've created is.
[44:37] We don't take time like David to just sit in awe of what you've made and then to think more deeply about how you've revealed to yourself to us specially and supernaturally giving us your word, saving us from our sins and giving you the praise and the glory for that.
[44:55] God, I pray that for each of us you would change our perspectives from this point forward, that we would live our lives for you as living sacrifices like you command us, that we would just be set on fire for you to worship you, to see your goodness in everything and desire to give you glory no matter what our circumstances are.
[45:16] Lord, that we would be a light to a world in desperate need of good news and that we would use the resources that you've given us to be that light and to communicate that truth through all that you've made and through the word that you've inspired.
[45:29] God, help us to make much of the name of Jesus Christ in the time that we have in this world, in this life. Lord, for anybody here who has not been saved, I pray that you have opened their eyes and their ears to see and to hear what they've rejected.
[45:44] Lord, that they would turn to you, that their heart would be revived by you, that they would place their faith in you and that they would know the joy of knowing or being known by their creator and being set free from sin and its consequences.
[45:58] Lord, we pray for them that you would be gracious to save them and that you would get the glory for that. We love you, Lord. Thank you for who you are. We praise you for what you've done.
[46:10] We look forward to what you still have yet to do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.