When the Temple Declares the Glory of God — Carter Conlon

The Voice of the Lord in Psalm 29

Psalm 29. Father, I thank you God Almighty. Lord, I am more dependent on you than I think I've ever been in my life. I don't want to speak unless you speak. I don't want to declare anything that you're not declaring.

I want to be animated by the Holy Spirit. I ask you Holy Spirit to take me and expand the borders of this vessel and let me understand and move and flow with the mind of God. Let these scriptures come to life today oh God and move sovereignly in the hearts of the people that you've gathered in this house.

Lord, this is a very late hour and God you are speaking some things Lord that will sustain us for the coming days and we thank you for it. Help us to hear it. Help me to deliver it. I ask it in Jesus name.

Psalm 29 beginning at verse 1. Given to the Lord, oh you mighty. Given to the Lord glory and strength. Given to the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.

The God of glory thunders. The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Syria like a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divided the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve and discovereth the forests and in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory. The Lord sits upon the flood. Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. The Lord will give strength unto his people.

The Lord will bless his people with peace. Now verse 1 in this particular passage of scripture says, Give to the Lord, oh you mighty. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due unto his name.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Now this is a cry and a call to every person who's named today by the name of Jesus Christ. We're not called just to exist. We're not called just to make it through to the end.

We're not called just to come to church and sing a few songs on Sunday morning and then trudge through the week hoping that we're going to survive. The calling that is on your life and on my life is much higher than this.

According to the scriptures and according to this particular psalm of David, we're called, it says, give to the Lord glory. The word is weight and the original text means honor, esteem. Give him strength, which means give him a clear and allowed reputation of might and power.

Let God do something in you that brings him, in other words, to reputation. Let him have access to your heart. Let him have access to your life. Let him create and recreate in you something that can only come from the hand of God.

So much so that people who know you will see this day to day change taking place in you. Will be forced to deal with the fact that there is a God in spite of what their own particular persuasion might be.

They will see in you something of God that causes them to have to at least acknowledge that what is in your life is a reality. Worship him, it says in verse 2, in the beauty of holiness and the word holiness means set apart and dedicated to him.

Do this, God says, be set apart to me. Let your life be dedicated to me. Bring an offering to me. He says in verse 1, oh you mighty. You don't feel very mighty this morning. You say, well, that's wishful thinking.

I know that's what I'm supposed to be, but I feel so empty and incomplete. And so how do I get, yes, I do want everything out of the temple that shouldn't be there. I do want to be clear and clean of all the encumbrances that come in and block the life of Christ.

And I'm sincere in my prayer. And honestly, Wednesday night is probably some of the most sincere praying I've ever heard at any time in the house of God. I've been in some meetings like this, but Wednesday night was a particularly heart rending and heart searching night for all of us.

But there are so many that says, God, I don't want things in my life that shouldn't be there. But how do I get into my life what I know should be there? How do I get from where I am today to where your word says I should be?

I don't feel mighty. My life is not giving God weight and honor and esteem. He's not being necessarily brought to a reputation of might and power. And it's supposed to be a very clear and loud reputation.

Lord, I just live my life trying to survive. How do I get to where I'm supposed to be? Now, we're going to try to explain this. And I want you to follow with me very, very carefully this morning. Just listen to these scriptures.

Christ Foreordained and Believers Chosen

First Peter chapter 1 and verse 20. The apostle Peter tells us that Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world. And in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4, Paul says, we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world.

In other words, before the world was created, you and I were in the mind of God. It was all about you. Creation was about you. It was about me. From before the world was formed, the Lord God knew he was going to have a bride for his son, Jesus Christ.

A bride that could share fellowship with him and share his heart for all of eternity. This is before the world was created. Foreordained in Christ. Christ was foreordained as it is before the foundation of the world.

Now, if you see this, then everything in the scripture, this is what's in God's mind when he even created the world. Everything is a shadow play as it is of the real. Everything God does is pointing to something.

Because what was in the mind of God, even in creating the world, was that you were going to be his bride for all of eternity. And so everything he did, he could have created the world, for example, in one day.

Why six days? Why the seventh day of rest? Why not one hour? Why not one second? Why did God do things the way he did them? If you see, as I do, that everything is pointing to Christ in the church, and that's important.

Then the scriptures begin to unlock. Mysteries start to become known. Everything from the very formation of the universe was pointing to the day when you would come to Christ and subsequently would live and rule and reign with him for all of eternity.

Creation as a Pattern of Redemption

Now, with this in mind, I want you to go to Genesis chapter one with me, please, right in the beginning. Now, in the beginning, we see the pattern of God's creation. Genesis chapter one, we see that. Now, we know the Father was there before the world was created, because Jesus and John, in the Gospel of John, I believe it's chapter 17, says, Father, he talks about the fellowship and the glory that they shared together before the foundation of the world, before the world was created.

In Genesis chapter one, we see the Word and the Spirit working together in perfect unity. Now, we know the Word in Genesis one is Jesus Christ. John, the apostle, says the Word was with God, the Word was God, all things were created by him.

Without him was not anything created that was created. And the Word became flesh, and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Before anything was created, we see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moving forward as it is to this point where there's going to be a bride that is going to be redeemed, that is going to be brought home, that is going to share fellowship with God for all of eternity.

Now, God would foreknow that Adam was going to sin, Adam and Eve were going to sin. God would foreknow this. He was not caught by surprise. When Satan came down into the garden of Eden and tempted Adam and Eve, it's not as if now God is relegated to plan B for humanity.

As if he's standing in heaven scratching his head saying, oh no, Adam has sinned, what are we going to do now? The Lord knew, he understood that to create a man in his image and give him a free will, that that free will was going to be corrupted and a redemption would have to be bought.

That's why the covenant in heaven was formed before the creation of the world. God made a covenant with his Son. The covenant was that Jesus Christ would come down, he would die on a cross, he would pay the price for all the wrong that Adam and his descendants would do.

God the Father would raise him from the dead on the third day. And if you read John 15 to 17, you'll see that Jesus said that I will do this. I will believe, Father, that you will raise me on the third day.

That's your part of the covenant. My part is to trust you, but your part is that everyone who believes in me get everything I get. They're to be seated with me in heavenly places. The victory I win is to be their victory.

Everything I get, all the glory is to be theirs. They're to be with me for all of eternity. The Holy Spirit, the third person of God involved in creation, was to come down and give us the power to allow this life of Christ that would become ours to be a reality.

Constantly lifting us out of our fallen condition and bringing our lives in a sense in line with who we are in Christ and the redemption that's been fully bought for us through his blood. And so when you see creation in Genesis, you're now looking at a type of how God moves upon a darkened soul.

What was in his mind? It says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. Now, the Lord knew that you might have been a happy, bouncing baby boy or girl when you were born.

You might have looked up in your crib if you had one and looked at the butterflies and things going around the circle and looked like you were so full of joy. But you were born with a sin nature, and it only takes a certain measure of time and darkness comes onto your face.

And deep, deep, this deep distance from God that you were born with, the sin nature, the sodomic nature starts to take over. And there's an emptiness. And how many of you remember these days before you came to Christ, how you were so empty, how you so lacked form as it is.

You were created in the image of God, but you look like anything but the image of God. Just so far, so distant from the Lord. And then it says in verse 2 of Genesis 1, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, let there be light. And there was light. Now there was a first day in your life when you were made alive by the Spirit of God. Praise God, I remember that day. I remember the day when I pulled my car over on the side of the road.

I remember the date, May 12th. I remember the year, 1978. I remember the time, 2 .40 or 3 .40 in the afternoon. I remember pulling over on the side of the road and praying and asking Jesus Christ to come into my life as Lord and Savior.

The next day, I woke up and sat on the edge of my bed and darkness within me. I had been made alive by the Spirit of God. Darkness had turned to light. I can't explain it. Other than to say it's a supernatural birth.

That's what salvation is. Salvation is not an idea to one day say I'm going to be holy. Salvation is not an idea to say one day I'm going to go to church and I'm going to try to change my ways. No, salvation is a supernatural transaction with the Holy God.

Where the Spirit of God, having acknowledged that Christ died on the cross and paid the price for your sin, having admitted that you're a sinner, opened your heart to this sacrifice that God made and the love of God that sent him to do it in the first place, having received him as Savior or accepted as it is his offer of forgiveness, being received by God, the Spirit of the Lord comes now to make his dwelling within you and you become the physical temple of God on this earth.

And darkness is turned to light. And many of you know what I'm talking about. That first day, you saw differently. You didn't know all truth. You didn't understand all mysteries. And we, ironically, ideally never will until we are in the presence of the Lord.

But there was a change. You began to see things from the perspective of God and you didn't know how it happened. But the Spirit of the Lord moved upon you and a change began to come in to your heart. Verses 6 to 8 says,.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.

And it was so. God spoke and divided the things above from those things that are below. That's the easiest way to explain this. Light came into your mind. Light came into your soul on day one. Then all of a sudden, you began to know that there is a difference between the knowledge of heaven and the knowledge of the earth.

Between that which is heavenly and that which is earthly. And the Lord began to draw you now towards that which is above instead of that which is below. Verse 9 said,. And let the dry land appear, or let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear.

And it was so. And as you began to seek those things as the Bible says which are above, dry land began to appear. In other words, a pathway that you could walk on. The Lord says this is the way, walk in it.

Psalm 119 verse 105 says,. Thy word is a lamp for my feet and a light unto my path. You were quickened by the Spirit. God divided the knowledge of the flesh from the knowledge of the heavenly. And then he opened up a pathway for you and I to walk on.

And you began to walk on that pathway. You remember how fearful it was in the beginning? When that pathway led you to forgive somebody that you'd hated all your life. When that pathway led you to give back something you'd taken.

And even if it was years ago, that pathway was beginning to lead you. When that pathway brought you to a place of speaking truth even if it cost you. And you began to walk on it. Because that's where light will take you.

Bearing Fruit Through Death to Self

In verse 11 it says,. And God said, now this is every time God speaks something begins to happen. Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth and it was so.

This new land began to bear fruit. John says in 1 John chapter 3 verse 9,. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. That means can't continue in the life of sin. For his seed, that is the seed of God, remains in him.

And he cannot sin because he is born of God. Amazing. You began to bear fruit. And the fruit you began to bear had nothing to do with you. There was this new life within you. There's this seed of God's life that begins to bear fruit in your own sight.

You just felt rotten. You felt worthless. The closer you seem that you got to God, the more unworthy you begin to feel. If you're anything like I was. And you draw to the Lord and you say, Lord, I'm supposed to be bringing glory to your name.

I'm supposed to be this undeniable testimony. I'm I'm supposed to be part of a tree that has leaves and fruit for the healing of the nations. And yet I feel like I feel like a rotten apple as it is laying on the ground that people are just walking by there.

There's no apparent nourishment in me, folks. This is the interesting thing about the Christian life, that in order to bear fruit, we must first die. We must die to everything we think we are. We must die to reputation.

We must die to our own desires. We must die to our own abilities to make things of God happen. We must die. But you look at a rotten apple in the field and you think, well, that thing is good for nothing.

Not even the cows will eat it if it's out in the country. But you see, there's something different now. This seed is in itself. There is a seed in that apple. And even though that apple is rotten in the field, you pass by that same spot where that apple seems to have died.

And years later, there will be a magnificent tree in that same place. And people will be gathering underneath it and they will be picking the fruit from that because it will not die. There's a seed of life within it.

We have the seed of the life of God within us in Christ Jesus. You cannot be overcome by the powers of darkness. Your own fallen nature does not have the power to dictate your future. You have the life of God within you.

And when you feel the deadest you are, in reality, the closer to bearing life that will truly bring honor to God. Praise be to God. The prophet Micah, in chapter 7, in verse 8, he said, When I fall, I shall arise.

Don't rejoice over me, my enemy. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me. Praise be to God. You and I will not be overcome. The worse you feel, the better it's getting. The more that seed that is inside of you is going to go down deep.

And a great tree which bears honor and glory to the life of God. Jesus said, unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it will bear much fruit. Thanks be to God. That God asks us to put away the frailty of our thinking and the frailty of our ambitions and the frailty of our efforts.

All of these things that come from the fallen nature. The Lord says, none of these things can bring glory to my name. You best just let them die. You best just let them fall to the ground sooner than later.

And just give them up and let them die. And let the root of my life in you now begin to grow something. Something so far beyond anything you can even think or imagine will begin to grow in and through your life.

Light, Abundant Life, and the Image of God

Now, in Genesis 1 again, verses 14 and 15. God said, now keep in mind God is speaking. These are days of creation. I see the pattern of the Christian life. God said, let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night.

And let them be for signs and seasons and days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. God said, I'm going to put lights in the heaven.

And those people who are traveling are going to be able to find their journey because of these lights. Mariners, of course, for thousands of years have been able to sail the seas because of the way that the stars are fixed in heaven.

And Jesus said, Matthew 5, 14, you are the light of the world. I've set you in the world so that men can begin to know what season they're in. Folks, through the church of Jesus Christ, I tell you, with everything in me, men have got to come to the knowledge that we're living in the last hours of time now.

As the Apostle Paul, you and I have got to have the courage to stand on the deck of a perishing ship in the midst of a terrible storm. Having been with God, standing and saying, no, this is the way. I've heard from God and I know exactly how we're going to make it to the other side.

If you will follow what God's been speaking to my heart, you'll make it through these difficult days. Verse 20. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life and the foul, et cetera, et cetera.

In other words, let abundant life begin to flow. John 10, 10, Jesus said, I have come that my sheep might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Let abundant life begin to flow. There's a season where we are just learning.

We're just starting to walk on dry land. We're starting to understand that we've got to die in order to live. There's a season where our light is beginning to shine or the light of Christ as it is beginning to shine through us to people around us.

But then there's a season of abundance, a season where you and I finally get to the place that says, Lord, if you came to give me abundant life. God almighty, I want abundant life. I want everything you've got for me.

I don't want just a portion of this salvation and get to heaven and find out everything that I missed, all that you could have done to my life. I want this abundance that you promised that you would give to me.

And then which brings us to verse 26 in Genesis one. And God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. This is the final act as it is of God in Genesis in creation. All of these things come into place.

And finally, after all of this creation is happening, you have a man, you have a woman created in the image of God. Now, folks, that was lost in the Garden of Eden. But through Christ, we are being recreated as it is refurbished, refinished into the image of God made daily more and more like Christ.

And it brings us back to Psalm 29 again, verses one and two. He says, Oh, give to the Lord, you might give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The Heavens Declare God's Glory

Now, how we say that do I worship God like this? What must I do? Surely I must have a part in all of this. What is my part? How do I get to this place? Folks, if ever you've heard me, I'm doing all that I know how to convey this clearly today, because you're going to have to know this to get through the coming days.

The coming days are going to be very difficult. You're going to have to understand some things. Go with me to Psalm 19 for a minute. I'm going to show you your part. What must I do to give glory to God?

Psalm 19, verse one. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech and night unto night shows knowledge. There's no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom, verse five, coming out of his chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.

Now, David says this. The heavens declare the glory of God. Everything in the sky as it is shows his handiwork. If it's possible in New York City to see a starry night, I don't know if it is or not. But if it is possible in New York City, when you look up, the very heavens declare God's glory.

Every day the heavens are speaking and every night there is knowledge. The knowledge of the Holy is there for all men to read. There's no speech, there's no language where the voice of God through the heavens is not heard.

It's gone throughout all the earth and the words there to the ends of the world. And it's like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. And actually, that's not a very good translation, the second part of verse five.

Because really what it means, that verse is, the heavens declare, now listen carefully. The heavens give a declaration that a bridegroom has come out of the gate as it is and is running full speed towards life.

Towards something. The heavens are declaring the glory of God. No wonder the apostle Paul says, every man one day will stand before God and be without excuse. It will not be an excuse to say, I never heard.

Because nature and the heavens are declaring the glory of God constantly. Praise God as a bridegroom coming out as it is and running with all of his might to get his bride. That's really what the scripture is saying.

That's what David saw. Oh folks, it's amazing. I've never done a study of the stars. I think I'm going to after this. And say, what are the stars speaking? What did you write in the heavens? I was just thinking as I was praying this morning.

I don't know very much about constellations and stars. But I do know there's a big dipper and a little dipper. And I was thinking about this like a little pot being poured out. And I was thinking the Old Testament is kind of the little dipper.

Where the Holy Spirit is poured out. Right from the Old Testament perhaps to John 21. Where Jesus came into that room where the disciples were. Breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Ghost. And this is where the Holy Spirit is poured out in smaller measure.

Into a select few throughout history. And then you come to the big dipper. Where God says, there's a day coming I'm going to pour out of my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters are going to prophesy.

Your handmaidens. Oh folks, the heavens declare the glory of God. Everything is there. It's a story of God's heart that is written in the universe. Everything in creation has been pointing to this day of you and me.

Agreeing With What God Has Spoken

Now what do I do? How do I declare this glory? How does my life speak like the heavens? Folks, it's simple. Do what the heavens did. When God speaks to you, don't resist Him. That's the whole point. I'll say it again.

When God speaks to you, don't resist Him. When God created in the beginning and said, let there be light. Light was. In just a fraction of a moment of time. Perhaps when He looked at the stars, He said, okay, you here.

I want you to go 10 billion light years over. And you're going to be kind of on the right hand side over here. Do you hear that star saying, well, you know, I'm just a ball of incandescent gas. And that's a long journey over there.

Don't you think maybe halfway might be good enough? And you think I might do a little better over here in this side? You see, we're the only thing in God's creation that were created with the ability to resist God.

And this is the problem of humanity. This is the problem that you face and that I face every day. This is why we're always struggling. God is always speaking. God is always saying, let there be light.

Here's the pathway. Walk in it. The Lord is always saying, I've come to give you an abundant life. The Lord is always, always, always speaking. Everything that's been in his heart is already here for us to see and understand.

But the problem we face is that we're created with the ability to resist God. Amazing. And so we choose, as it is, to resist Him instead of simply believing Him. As the universe did, and allow Him to begin to speak into our lives the things which He has promised.

The greatest dilemma of humanity is that we're always having to figure everything out. We can't just trust God. When He says, I'll make a way for you, that's not good enough for us. We have to say, how?

What kind of way? How are you going to get me there? What kind of a vehicle are you going to use to transport me to where I need to get? I need a little more than just you saying you're going to do it for me.

I need some methodology here, Lord. I need to understand how I'm going to get there. John 16. Jesus was speaking to His disciples in John 16 and verse 12. And He said to them, I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

Amazing. I've got many things to say to you, but you can't receive them now. You're too limited in your thinking. You've got too many limitations. Now, this is His own disciples. Now, this is pre-Calvary and pre-Pentecost.

He said, but you don't have the ability as it is to receive what I want to speak to you. But when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, verse 13, He will guide you unto all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself.

But whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. Praise be to God. If you have the Holy Spirit today, if you have truly come to Christ, if light has come into the temple, God says, I've sent the Holy Spirit to show you things to come.

Not things in the world, necessarily, in you. I've sent the Holy Spirit to show you things that I'm about to do in you and about to do through you. Your part is to believe me. Look at Psalm 29 again with me.

God's Voice Overcomes Storms and Strongholds

This is how we give glory to the Lord. This is where our might comes from. This is how we bring God to honor. This is how the weightiness of God comes into these physical temples. When God speaks and we choose to believe Him.

This is how we give the Lord the glory that's due to His name. The voice of the Lord, verse 3, is upon many waters. These places of confusion. All of the arguments for and against truth. All of the so-called theories about the future.

The voice of the Lord stands above all of them. The God of glory thunders. The voice is upon many waters. In other words, it's not hard to hear the voice of God. God's voice is above every other voice that will ever come against your heart.

God says, no, I'm telling you today, my voice is upon all of the waters. All of your troubles, all of your trials, all of your storms. Everything you'll ever have to go through, my voice thunders. I am able to be heard.

Nothing of this world can drown out my voice. I'm always speaking to you. I'm always guiding you. I'm always leading you. I will not leave you. I will not forsake you. Your enemies will not overpower you.

I am always there and I'm always with you. The voice of the Lord, verse 4, is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Praise God. The power in the words of God. Remember when he stood in the boat in the midst of the storm and said, peace, be still.

And immediately the scripture says, the wind stopped and the waves as it has ceased their roaring. The voice of the Lord is powerful. It's full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars in verse 5.

Yea, the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them all sort of skip like a calf. Lebanon and Syria are like a young unicorn. That means all these difficult places. All these issues of your heart that have been formed in you where the devil is trying to say, you'll never change.

Your uncle was like this. Your grandfather was like this. Your father was like this. Your mother was like this. You're always going to be this way. It's never going to change. This is a cedar as it is.

This is a tall, old, very unbendable place in your life. But God says, no, my voice breaks the cedars. I break these things and I bring brand new life forward. These old, entrenched views. These old, entrenched fears.

These DNA characteristics that are in you that everyone around you says will never change. God says, no, that's not what I say. I have the power to cause there to be life and light. I have the power to bring you into impossible places.

The voice of the Lord, verse 7, divides the flames of fire. God says, I will take you through even the most difficult of trials. The places where people all around you who don't know God and those who marginally know Him are saying there's no possibility of getting through this trial.

The Lord says, no, my voice will divide these flames of fire right before you. No matter what happens. No matter how difficult the day is, I'm going to divide these flames and you're going to see clearly how to come through to the other side.