2024-08-25 Sermon Notes1
📖Bible Passage
Psalm 104:16
Yahweh's trees are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted,
Points
- In John Calvin's Institutes, Calvin describes creation as the theater of God's glory.
- Bk 1, Ch. 5, § 1: Every time anyone opens their eyes, they are being compelled to behold God (because God's works are across all of creation).
- And thus man is without excuse.
- Calvin: Wherever you turn your eyes, there is no portion of the world that does not exhibit at least some sparks of beauty.
- Hebrews describes the visible world as a mirror of the invisible God.
- Bk 1, Ch. 5, § 1: Every time anyone opens their eyes, they are being compelled to behold God (because God's works are across all of creation).
- In this verse 16, God shows the absence of all human cultivation to grow these magnificent trees and forests
- God planted these trees.
- No farmer planted, watered, or nurtured these trees.
- The same is also true of every child of God.
- If we have been converted, we have not been converted of ourselves.
- We are not self-planted but God-planted.
- It was God, whose fiat said Let there be light and there was light.
- Second, we see these trees are not dependent upon man to water them:
- These trees are Yahweh's trees.
- And they are well watered. God guides the water from Lebanon's snowy peaks, down into large enough rivers to water tall, mighty, trees.
- In the same way, the Christians do not depend on man, but on the LORD.
- Isaiah 33:16: God's people are well supplied and watered by God.
- Third, there is no man who protects the mighty cedars of the Lebanon
- The cedars are high on the mountains. They are struck with many difficulties: storms, winds, lightning, and covering snow.
- Man does not and cannot protect the cedars from these dangers, and yet they still stand because they are God's trees, kept and preserved by Him.
- The same is true of every Christian:
- The Christian is not a sheltered plant in a greenhouse.
- They have no protection nor shelter from the terrifying world except the covering wings of our LORD. And no danger can overcome Him.
- Romans 8:37
- Man does not carefully inspect the cedars the way that God does.
- Moses longed to see the promised land, and yet was unable.
- Man may not see the cedars of Lebanon for hundreds of years, and yet the cedars will continue on, unaffected.
- In the same way, the believer is not dependent upon the flesh or the world.
- They may stand resolutely on the Truth, unmoved by the storms, possessing a deep calm within, because he looks to God.
- The piety of the true Christian does not depend upon the public eye.
- It must be part and parcel of their whole being.
- I only bring my religion into public because I cannot leave it behind.
- Fifth the majesty of those cedars is all for God and not for man:
- When the grapevine yields fruit, they thank the gardener who planted, pruned, and watered them.
- But who planted the cedars of Lebanon? It was the LORD.
- and it is the cedars of Lebanon which were used to build the temple of God.
- Sixth, every cedar of Lebanon, is independent of man's expectations.
- They expect as little from man as they have ever received from man.
- It is the same for every Christian:
- If you live expecting nothing from man, you will never be disappointed.
- If you live expecting everything from God and only God, you will never be disappointed.
- Psalm 23:1
- Do the cedars lack anything? No they are full, saturated, well watered.
- There is no lack for those who fear the LORD.
- Yet those who do not fear God, work in Egypt, making bricks with no straw.
- There is no lack for those who fear the LORD.
- The LORD hears our prayers, and He honors our faith.
- We must have faith in God, in regards to our affairs of family, business, commerce, community and indeed in all the world.
- Seventh, the cedars of Lebanon are always green:
- The man who depends upon Christ alone is not shaken like the other men.
- Habakkuk 3:17-18 : Even if there is no fruit on the field, yet I will rejoice the LORD, the God of my salvation
- The grandeur of the cedar trees are truly amazing:
- They grow to hundreds of feet, and 40 feet in circumference.
- Our riches make us poor and our weakness makes us strong. When we are weak we are strong.
- We must be humble.
- We must rest upon God and God alone.
- Read biographies and you shall find that as men become little in self, they become mighty in the LORD.
- The cedars smell delightful:
- If your piety comes from God, you will have such a sweet fragrance that you shall be acceptable to God and to man.
- No man will yield so delightful a perfume as the man who depends upon Christ.
- A sweet fragrance to our words, our actions, and everything that we do.
- Think about the perpetuity of these cedars:
- man trusts what he can see and touch, but he does not rely only on God.
- Some of the cedars of Lebanon are over 3,500 years old.
- They had no ranger to care for them. Just God.
- These cedars are very venerable. They fill you with awe and respect:
- The same is true of the Christian who depends completely upon God.
- But Christians who only live half by faith and half by works:
- ...do not understand the word to be so wide that it covers every facet of life
- These Christians do not have respect among men. But the truly faith-filled Christians have respect and honor amongst all men.
- What are some ways in which the christians are full like the cedars of Lebanon?
- The cedar is full of sap. Without sap, the tree cannot live.
- Without God, a man is no Christian:
- He may be very kind, may come to church some times, may be generous to the poor, and yet if he has not been made alive by God's grace, he is dead inside.
- God makes His home in a Christian's soul. He is their very life.
- Jesus to Nicodemus: John 3:8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
- Who can possibly explain the work of God within man? We cannot see it at work, but we can see its effects, like the wind.
- What great joy, glory and honor a Christian brings to God!
- ❓: Are you content with yourself? I'm not. I'm ashamed of myself.
- Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
- ❓: Are you content with yourself? I'm not. I'm ashamed of myself.
- Trust in HIm.
2024-08-25 Sermon Notes1
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