The NXR Podcast - June 26, 2022


SUNDAY SERMON - Why The Wicked Hate Your Children - Psalm 8

Topics
spiritual adoption love and obedience psalms and worship
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
David Jesus Christ Doug Wilson Adam Margaret Sanger Thomas Malthus Kevin DeYoung Martin Luther King Jesus Whoville Hebrews Psalms Seuss Peter Paul
QUESTIONS - Can I Baptize Someone Without Being A Pastor？ DAILY TRUTH - The Hound of Heaven

Episode Stats


Length

59 minutes

Words per minute

142.59

Word count

8,516

Sentence count

411

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

25

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Psalms 8:8-9 In loving you, O God, we are worthy of your grace, because you have revealed to us your love for us through Christ Jesus, and we cannot help but respond with love for you. But the question is: How do we love you?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Hey guys, real quick, before we get started, I have a small request.
00:00:03 If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show,
00:00:06 would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five-star review?
00:00:09 This is quite possibly the most effective thing that you can do
00:00:12 to ensure that this content gets out to as many people as possible.
00:00:17 Thanks.
00:00:18 One final time, our text for this morning is Psalm chapter 8.
00:00:22 The Word of God says this,
00:00:24 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
00:00:30 above the heavens out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength because of
00:00:35 your foes to still the enemy and the avenger when I look at your heavens the work of your fingers
00:00:42 the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him
00:00:48 and the son of man that you should care for him yet you have made him a little lower than the
00:00:54 heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works
00:01:01 of your hands and have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beast of
00:01:07 the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the
00:01:13 seas. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. This is the word of the Lord.
00:01:20 All right, please be seated and join me as I pray.
00:01:50 to be entitled or deserving of a revelation of your truth.
00:01:55 We don't deserve to know you.
00:01:57 It is a grace that you have revealed yourself
00:02:01 to fallen sinful man.
00:02:04 And so God, your word comes to us this morning
00:02:06 as it always does.
00:02:08 It comes to us as grace.
00:02:10 It comes to us as unmerited favor.
00:02:13 It comes to us as an undeserved gift.
00:02:16 And so our prayer is that by the power
00:02:18 that your spirit supplies
00:02:19 and by your grace that you might enable us
00:02:22 to be good stewards of this grace,
00:02:25 the grace of your word,
00:02:27 the grace of your special revelation to your people.
00:02:32 We pray, God, that you would empower us by your spirit,
00:02:35 equip us with spiritual eyes to see,
00:02:38 spiritual ears to hear,
00:02:40 with new hearts that are softened,
00:02:41 malleable and receptive to your truth.
00:02:44 And Father, we pray that indeed
00:02:45 through the preaching of your word,
00:02:47 the exposition of your word, that your people might arrive at a greater, more faithful, more accurate
00:02:53 understanding of who you are, of what you've done, what it is that you require from us as a proper
00:03:02 and obedient response. Father, we pray that we would see who you are and your work, what you
00:03:11 have done, what you have accomplished, your work in creation, that you are the universal creator
00:03:18 of all mankind, even more so your work in redemption, that you are the savior of your
00:03:26 elect people who you have given the gift of faith to trust in the person and the finished work of
00:03:34 your son, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that we would indeed respond to that grace rightly,
00:03:44 properly. We love, according to 1 John 4, 19, because you first loved us. But in our love,
00:03:54 a response, no man initiates. No man cries out to God in and of himself, autonomously saying,
00:04:01 God, I love you. Please love me in return.
00:04:05 No, all of us have fallen.
00:04:07 All of us, like sheep, have gone astray.
00:04:09 Each man does what is right in his own eyes,
00:04:12 and yet you have taken the initiative.
00:04:15 You are the one seeker, the hound of heaven,
00:04:18 who persistently hunts down and seeks for the souls of lost men.
00:04:25 And God, you have initiated, you have revealed to us
00:04:29 your love for us through Christ Jesus.
00:04:31 We now cannot help but respond with love for you.
00:04:36 But the very next natural question is, how?
00:04:40 You've loved us, so we respond with love for you.
00:04:43 But the question is, how should we love you?
00:04:46 And so we are grateful that you have answered this question in many ways and in many texts.
00:04:51 But perhaps most clearly through the words of your son, Jesus Christ,
00:04:55 in the gospel narratives when he says, those who love me will obey me.
00:05:00 and you have given to us through Christ Jesus
00:05:03 a synopsis, a summary of your commands
00:05:07 that we should love you with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength
00:05:12 and the second greatest commandment
00:05:15 that we should love our neighbor as ourself.
00:05:19 In loving you, we seek to have no other gods before you.
00:05:23 In loving you, we are diligent to not make any graven images or idols.
00:05:30 In loving you, we are diligent to esteem and honor your name and to not take it in vain.
00:05:36 In loving you, we are dedicated and diligent by your grace to remember a one day in seven
00:05:42 and to keep it holy as a day of rest and worship.
00:05:49 But in loving our neighbor, we are diligent to honor our father and mother
00:05:54 that you have providentially given us here in this life on this earth.
00:05:58 We're diligent not to murder.
00:06:00 We're diligent not to steal.
00:06:02 We're diligent not to covet.
00:06:04 We're diligent not to commit adultery.
00:06:08 And all these things, Lord, we seek ultimately to love you and to love people.
00:06:16 Loving you and loving people is not left up to our own individual creative license and freedom.
00:06:22 You have told us specifically how to do so.
00:06:25 So humble our hearts, God.
00:06:28 And help us to submit to your word, your precepts, what you have prescribed.
00:06:34 Help us to stick to the script and to trust that you know better than we do.
00:06:41 We pray all these things that you might be glorified in all the earth.
00:06:45 But we also pray these things for the good of those people that you're saving in our city and across the globe.
00:06:52 And we pray these things with confidence, but we pray them in Jesus name. Amen.
00:06:57 All right, by way of introduction in your sermon notes, I've written this morning the following.
00:07:02 Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, who died in 1966, whose driving principles were explicitly racist.
00:07:11 In her book, Women and the New Race, she wrote, quote, 0.98
00:07:16 the most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it. 0.93
00:07:21 She also said in her book, The Pivot of Civilization, that the so-called, quote, inferior races were in fact human weeds and a menace to civilization. 0.71
00:07:34 She was part of the eugenics movement inspired by Thomas Malthus that purged the human race of defectives, delinquents, and dependents through calculated birth control, including abortion. 0.70
00:07:48 This past January 22nd, 2021, the United States celebrated 48 years of legalized abortion for any reason in all 50 states. 0.92
00:08:00 In these last 48 years, there have been an estimated 60 million abortions.
00:08:08 An estimated 21 million of these abortions, which constitutes approximately one-third of all abortions, have occurred within the black population.
00:08:17 The current total population of the United States is approximately 330 million people.
00:08:24 The current living black population makes up approximately 13% of that, approximately 44 million people.
00:08:34 So in the last 48 years, roughly half of the current living black population in our nation was legally murdered in their mother's womb.
00:08:43 43 or 44 million living black people in our nation today and yet we have 21 million murdered
00:08:55 over the last 50 years minus two so in the last 48 years we've seen atrocious crimes and sins
00:09:05 committed in our nation and see contrary to what some may say in our current culture the most
00:09:13 dangerous environment for a black man is not the streets of Chicago or the side of the road while 0.96
00:09:18 being pulled over by a police officer, but rather it is in their own mother's womb. All of these 1.00
00:09:25 statistics do not even begin to account for the number of natural miscarriages and early abortions
00:09:31 caused by several different types of birth control, as well as IVF, in vitro fertilization.
00:09:38 Since the fall of mankind, people have always taken what God made good and perverted it into something evil.
00:09:45 The womb is perhaps one of the most tragic examples of this.
00:09:49 What God designed to be one of the safest places here on earth.
00:09:53 A place of nurturing, a place of security, a place of love has been perverted and twisted into one of the most dangerous environments in our culture today.
00:10:05 My prayer, or my goal this morning, is to profoundly influence our lives through the preaching of God's word for the sake of the unborn.
00:10:13 And this vision comes from Psalm chapter 8, which clearly teaches that the majesty of God is worthy of our complete and eternal worship and allegiance.
00:10:23 And this majesty is expressly manifest here on earth in the glory of God's supreme creation, that is, human beings,
00:10:31 who were each made in the image of God.
00:10:34 Therefore, a person cannot worship
00:10:37 and glorify the majesty of God
00:10:40 while treating the supreme creation with contempt.
00:10:46 Each man has an allegiance.
00:10:49 He is either for Christ or against Him.
00:10:52 To claim to glorify the majesty and supremacy of God
00:10:56 while treating His chief earthly creation with contempt,
00:11:00 namely, mankind, is a contradiction of terms.
00:11:06 It is an oxymoron. 0.98
00:11:08 It is hypocrisy.
00:11:11 You cannot claim to love and cherish your fellow man.
00:11:23 Jesus said that the greatest commandment of the Lord our God
00:11:27 with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,
00:11:29 And the second greatest commandment is like it, Jesus says, that we love our neighbor as ourselves.
00:11:38 Those who are standing by ask Jesus, who is our neighbor?
00:11:43 The answer that he gives is this, everyone.
00:11:47 I've said it before, but again, the Bible clearly teaches the creatorhood of mankind.
00:11:59 Each and every age will promise you.
00:12:04 And the book likewise teaches the universal neighborhood, if you will, of humanity.
00:12:10 That every single human being on this planet, the tall and the small, like Dr. Seuss would have said with the Who's and Whoville,
00:12:19 even those who are so small that they're inside of their mother's womb, just a few weeks old,
00:12:25 every single human being the tall the small the old and the young the black and the white
00:12:30 they are all our neighbor so the bible is the universal creatorhood of god god is the creator
00:12:36 of all mankind and the universal neighborhood of humanity of mankind everyone is our neighbor
00:12:43 the bible is only exclusive when it begins to speak of salvation not common grace god's
00:12:52 universal creatorhood and the fact that the Psalms say he has compassion in his common grace on all
00:12:57 he has made right there is a sense in which God is compassionate even towards the unregenerate
00:13:04 even towards the the unbeliever he causes it to rain on both the wicked and the righteous
00:13:10 Ecclesiastes says and so God has compassion on all he has made as a creator he is a compassionate
00:13:17 and merciful creator in his common grace God has compassion towards all mankind without exception
00:13:23 because he is the creator of all mankind and he is a benevolent creator he is a compassionate
00:13:30 creator and all mankind likewise as I've already said are neighbors of one another to get exclusive
00:13:37 when it speaks special grace when the bible moves from creation to salvation from creation to
00:13:46 redemption then the bible begins to speak in more specific terms god is not as i think in our
00:13:54 culture and sadly even in the church today god is not a universal father the father of those
00:14:01 who have been saved by grace alone through faith alone in the lord jesus christ alone
00:14:06 if god was a universal father if people were physically born
00:14:10 in the world, already with the same children of God, you might hear often in our culture,
00:14:18 no we're not. If we all begin this life as children of God, then there would be no purpose
00:14:26 of the doctrine. I was adopted twice, once by God in salvation, by grace, by my parents
00:14:37 who are here today with us.
00:14:40 Now, if my parents went to the courthouse,
00:14:42 if I was biologically their child,
00:14:44 if I was naturally born,
00:14:46 and they took me to the courthouse
00:14:47 and said, we'd like to adopt our son,
00:14:50 they'd say, that's a bit redundant.
00:14:53 I don't think you understand how adoption works. 0.95
00:14:56 It's a little silly. 0.94
00:14:57 He's already yours.
00:15:00 My parents only adopted me
00:15:02 and only made sense to legally adopt me
00:15:04 because I was at one time not theirs.
00:15:10 At one time, I belonged to someone else.
00:15:13 At one time, I had another father.
00:15:18 See, in adoption, I never gained my parents' blood,
00:15:21 but I did gain something that we see also a spiritual principle,
00:15:26 something profound, their name.
00:15:31 A name is stronger than blood.
00:15:34 And believing in the name, children of God.
00:15:42 But the beautiful thing about spiritual adoption is that it's even greater than that.
00:15:47 1 John chapter 3 says,
00:15:49 See what God has for us that we should be named, called the children of God.
00:15:55 And yet without even taking a breath, the very next phrase is this,
00:15:59 And so we are.
00:16:01 meaning that when God names someone it changes ontologically their nature
00:16:09 that when God gives to someone his name it changes not only what they're called
00:16:17 but who they are see what love the father has
00:16:21 named the children of God and in being named the children of God by God himself
00:16:29 something in us changed.
00:16:32 God named us his children, and so we became his children.
00:16:37 If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
00:16:41 The old has passed away. 0.73
00:16:44 People are not naturally born into this world as children of God. 0.99
00:16:49 In order for that to take place, a man must be born again.
00:16:54 birth a spiritual birth a supernatural birth where god adopts us as his children
00:17:04 and so the bible clearly teaches in terms and categories theological categories
00:17:10 of special grace in terms of redemption salvation he is not a universal father
00:17:17 live in this mass of humanity in a universal brotherhood or sisterhood see when God adopts
00:17:30 us as his children two things take place at least one we become children of God but secondly we also
00:17:37 become brothers and sisters of one another we not only gain God as a father but we also gain
00:17:43 siblings spiritual siblings so the bible teaches not universal but a specific a special fatherhood
00:17:52 of god for his people and a specific particularized special brotherhood among the people of god
00:17:59 that's but over here we have common grace categories that god is the universal creator
00:18:10 not universal father but universal creator and a universal neighborhood so at the level of god
00:18:16 universal creator common grace at the level of god particular father special grace at the level
00:18:25 of man we have universal neighborhood common grace at the level of man once more within
00:18:33 And we have particular brotherhood.
00:18:38 So everyone is your neighbor.
00:18:41 And the child in the womb is your neighbor.
00:18:44 And the second greatest commandment, which is like, it extends.
00:18:49 It's an extension of the greatest commandment, to love the Lord our God.
00:18:53 The second greatest commandment, which is like it, is to love our neighbor.
00:18:57 Who is our neighbor? Everyone.
00:18:59 And so if those who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ do not love, in biblical terms, the unborn neighbor, then they are not fulfilling the second greatest commandment.
00:19:15 And because the second greatest commandment is like the first greatest commandment, to love God, we can say that by virtue of disobedience to the second greatest commandment, we are disobeying the first as well.
00:19:28 1 John says this again and again and again,
00:19:30 that one of the spiritual tests of genuine conversion,
00:19:35 one of the spiritual tests of authentic love for God
00:19:40 is that we love people.
00:19:44 That we love people.
00:19:47 1 John even says that if someone claims to love God,
00:19:50 yet hates his brother, he is a liar,
00:19:52 and the truth is not in him. 0.97
00:19:54 and christians cannot be complacent in our call and command to love all of our neighbors
00:20:03 by neglecting and failing to love our neighbor we fail to love the lord our god all this is at the
00:20:12 heart of the law of god at the heart of what it means to be obedient to god and all we've seen
00:20:18 this morning to obey God, he is to love God. It is to love God. And if we do not obey his commands,
00:20:28 then what we are proving is to truly love him. And if we truly love him, according to 1 John 4.19,
00:20:35 the reverse logic would be if we don't love God, it's probably because he's never loved us.
00:20:41 See, we often reverse this logical and biblical progression of love.
00:20:49 Often what we'll hear today is this.
00:20:51 This would be the heresy of legalism.
00:20:55 Obey God, step one.
00:20:58 And in obeying God, you may prove, if you're obedient enough, prove to God that you love him, step two.
00:21:04 And if you prove by your obedience you love God, then God in return may love you.
00:21:10 Step one, obey God.
00:21:12 Step two, that'll prove that you love God.
00:21:15 Step three, God will love you.
00:21:17 The Bible teaches precisely the opposite.
00:21:20 The Bible teaches that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us.
00:21:27 Very rarely will anyone die for a good man, a righteous man.
00:21:34 Though possibly for a good man, someone might dare to die.
00:21:37 but Christ showed his love for us in this, that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
00:21:44 And so God first loved us, not because we were looking for him, but he loved us at our worst
00:21:50 point. In the climax of our depravity and rebellion against him, Jesus died for his enemies.
00:21:59 so so the logical and biblical progression of love and salvation is not we obey god that proves
00:22:09 we love god if we prove we love god god in return will love us no it's god first loved us at our
00:22:15 worst point in not our obedience but our rebellion against him and because god has loved us like this
00:22:23 we cannot help but respond and love him in return and if we love him in return
00:22:31 we cannot help but obey see because when you love someone part of loving someone is trusting them
00:22:39 if we have truly seen God's love for us in the gospel of Jesus Christ we cannot help but love
00:22:46 him in return and if we love him we trust him and if we trust him we'll do what he says
00:22:54 because we know that he has not only his eternal glory in mind which is preeminent
00:23:01 but he also has our best interest
00:23:05 and so we are commanded to love God and the second greatest commandment is like it that we should love
00:23:13 our neighbor as ourself. Who is our neighbor? All of humanity. Everyone who bears the image
00:23:21 of God, including the child in the womb. Continuing in your notes, beginning to exposit verse 1
00:23:30 and 9, we'll see one major theme of our text, the global majesty of God. I've written the
00:23:38 following psalm chapter 8 begins and ends with the statement oh lord our lord how majestic is thy
00:23:44 name in all the earth everything else in this psalm is meant to serve this statement our god's
00:23:52 name is majestic in all the lord how majestic is thy name in all the earth the majesty of the name
00:24:04 of God, the glory of our God is not sequestered to one small region of the globe. He is not
00:24:13 limited in his known glory to the city of Jerusalem. God is not merely known and famed
00:24:22 and glorified in one region as opposed to the other. Our Lord, our Lord, how majestic
00:24:29 is by name in all the earth.
00:24:33 He is not merely a tribal god
00:24:35 or a territorial deity.
00:24:37 He is majestic and supreme
00:24:38 over all the earth.
00:24:40 The image of this majesty
00:24:42 and supremacy is clearly displayed
00:24:44 among every tribe, tongue, and nation
00:24:46 through his image bearers,
00:24:48 whether black or white,
00:24:50 man or woman, adult, or female.
00:24:53 In part, not exclusively, but in part because the glory of God is globally seen, manifestly, revealed, or you might say reflected.
00:25:13 In what way?
00:25:16 By virtue of his image-bearing creatures.
00:25:19 In the beginning, in the God that was given to Adam and Eve, multiply and to exercise, to subdue dominion over what?
00:25:33 In Genesis, the judgment of God that came down, in part, it was because of man's arrogance that he thought he could ascend to the heights of God, his majesty and glory, by building a tower.
00:25:47 Well, but also part of what God was judging man for in Genesis chapter 11, the Tower of Babel, was that man was refusing to obey one of the first commands that God gave to the creatures to multiply and fill the earth.
00:26:05 Man said, let us not spread out across the earth, but let us stay here.
00:26:11 let us stay here together because together isolated in this this area we might be able to
00:26:19 do something great we might be able genesis 11 says the narrative to make a name for ourselves
00:26:26 see the the cultural mandate to be fruitful multiply and fill the earth was so that man
00:26:33 as god's image-bearing creatures tasked and endowed with the ability to reflect his glory
00:26:40 that mankind might make a name for God.
00:26:44 In Genesis chapter 11, we see the great perversion,
00:26:48 the great twisting, the great reversal of that.
00:26:51 That man said, instead of spreading ourselves out
00:26:54 over the face of the earth to make a name for God,
00:26:56 we'll stay together and make a name for ourselves.
00:27:02 I like what Kevin DeYoung says.
00:27:03 He says, as tall as the Tower of Babel may have been,
00:27:07 it must not have been very tall
00:27:08 because Genesis 11 tells us that God had to come down
00:27:11 in order to see it, as it were.
00:27:15 He comes down, he condescends,
00:27:19 and he disperses them. 1.00
00:27:20 He confuses their languages and sends them out by force
00:27:24 to do what he had prescribed,
00:27:28 to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth.
00:27:34 That the man who God would cover the whole earth
00:27:37 as the water covers the sea.
00:27:39 God is doing this in the cultural mandate.
00:27:43 By His common, again, common grace.
00:27:47 As the cultural mandate is fulfilled,
00:27:51 as image bearers of the living God,
00:27:53 both the unbeliever and the believer,
00:27:55 as we multiply and fill the earth,
00:27:58 the glory and majesty of God is covering the whole earth.
00:28:01 Because we reflect, as image bearers, His glory, His majesty.
00:28:06 But even more so, God is accomplishing this in terms of his special grace.
00:28:11 Not merely through the cultural mandate, but even more so, not as a substitute,
00:28:16 but alongside it, in addition, through the Great Commission.
00:28:20 It would go, not just mankind at this point,
00:28:24 no longer just mankind, this universal neighborhood,
00:28:27 but the brotherhood, the children of God,
00:28:30 that we would go and disciple the nations.
00:28:33 and as we saw
00:28:36 the nations
00:28:38 are the inheritance of Christ himself
00:28:42 who is seated even now
00:28:43 in spirit
00:28:44 throne
00:28:46 that Jesus has
00:28:48 descended
00:28:50 in his incarnation
00:28:52 the one who did not
00:28:54 count equality with God as something to be
00:28:56 grasped but rather emptied himself
00:28:58 not in literal
00:29:00 terms but emptying that is
00:29:02 subtraction by addition he was always divine but added to himself a second nature
00:29:07 flesh this god the son of god he he condescended he descended but the one who descended in his
00:29:17 incarnation he has ascended to the highest place to the right hand of god where he is now
00:29:23 he is currently not waiting not waiting to
00:29:28 the ruling and reigning and he bears a rod of iron the rod the scepter of righteousness
00:29:36 to the increase of his government there will be no end he is ruling and reigning and even now
00:29:44 systematically one by one eternal decrees of god his enemies are being made a footstool for his
00:29:50 feet and the last of these enemies that he will deal the death blow to his death itself
00:29:55 this is christ and he has promised to build his church to advance his kingdom notice isaiah says
00:30:04 the increase of his kingdom the increase of his government will know no end it is increasing even
00:30:11 now as a mustard seed slowly becomes a great tree that's branches cover the and all the beasts of
00:30:19 the field find refuge and shade and the birds of the air make their nests as a mustard seed that
00:30:25 starts small grows slowly eventually becomes significant or as leaven a little bit of leaven
00:30:31 over time is gradually worked into the whole batch of so is the kingdom of heaven and christ
00:30:39 is the king he is advancing his kingdom and he is doing this through the church in special grace
00:30:48 terms by the great commission as we go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them into the
00:30:55 name of the triune god and teaching them to be obedient to all of christ's commands and yet in
00:31:02 our text today we see that he is also doing this in common not merely through the great commission
00:31:10 which is preeminent it's primary it's foremost but also through the cultural mandate that as
00:31:17 human beings, God in his sovereignty, in his providence, even among the unregenerate, even among
00:31:23 the pagan, God is working and willing in such a way orchestrating that his image-bearing creatures
00:31:28 would be fruitful, and that they would multiply, and that they would disperse and spread out over 0.56
00:31:36 the face of the whole earth, and that by virtue of his image-bearing creatures, mankind growing,
00:31:43 increasing, multiplying, and filling the earth, his majesty would be declared and seen in all
00:31:50 the earth. We see this confirmed even furthermore in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 says that
00:31:58 the majesty of God, the supremacy of God, the glory of God is clearly seen even to the unbeliever.
00:32:05 By what? By virtue of what he has made.
00:32:09 Creation itself testifies to at least two attributes of our triune God,
00:32:15 namely his divine power and eternal majesty.
00:32:22 This is seen by all people, even the unbeliever, by virtue of what God has made,
00:32:28 by virtue of his physical, material, earthly creation.
00:32:32 And the pinnacle of this earthly creation that displays his majesty, his divine power and eternal glory the clearest is what?
00:32:42 Human beings, image bearers of the living God.
00:32:48 In other words, what we see in Psalm chapter 8 is this.
00:32:52 wherever a human being can be found
00:32:56 even for the pagan, according to Romans chapter 1
00:32:59 the glory and majesty of God can be seen.
00:33:03 Wherever a human being made in the image of God can be found
00:33:07 black, white, old, young, infant, adult
00:33:11 rich, poor, wherever a human being can be found
00:33:16 the glory and majesty of God is clearly seen.
00:33:19 even among those who are lying and suppressing the truth and deeds of unrighteousness.
00:33:25 Even those who don't want to see the glory of God.
00:33:29 They cannot help but see it when they see you and me.
00:33:38 Looking at verses 3 through 8 of our text.
00:33:42 We'll finish with verse 2 in a moment.
00:33:45 But verses three through eight of our text
00:33:47 will be the dignity of all mankind.
00:33:51 In your notes, I've written the following.
00:33:52 Verses three through eight of our text
00:33:54 show that the majesty of God is undeniable.
00:33:57 It has been clearly displayed in all of creation,
00:34:01 but chiefly in the creation of mankind.
00:34:03 Therefore, a person cannot worship and glorify
00:34:06 the majesty of God while treating creation with contempt.
00:34:10 When this text speaks to the glory and dignity of humanity,
00:34:13 What is man that God is mindful of him?
00:34:17 Or the son of man that God should care for him, be benevolent towards him?
00:34:20 When the Bible, when our text today speaks of that dignity of image-bearing creatures,
00:34:25 that intrinsic and inherent dignity of mankind, notice,
00:34:32 it refuses to discriminate between color, gender, or age that creation might be.
00:34:40 The implicit implication, rather, from this text is clear.
00:34:45 You cannot assist.
00:34:47 Good preaching has application, not just exegesis, not just interpretation, application.
00:34:52 So I'm going to get real specific here. 1.00
00:34:53 You cannot assist the elderly human being in their attempts at suicide 1.00
00:34:57 and glorify the majesty of God at the same time.
00:35:01 You cannot dismember the unborn being
00:35:03 and suck them out of their mother's womb with a vacuum cleaner
00:35:07 and glorify the majesty of God at the same time. 1.00
00:35:10 You cannot enslave the black human being
00:35:13 merely on the basis of race 0.66
00:35:15 and glorify the majesty of God at the same time. 0.50
00:35:18 And you cannot unjustly convict the white police officer
00:35:22 out of fearful compliance to the woke mob
00:35:25 and glorify the majesty of God at the same time.
00:35:28 Can't do any of it.
00:35:32 On both sides of the aisle,
00:35:34 Now, the way we treat our neighbor, the way we love our neighbor reflects the way we glorify, love, and honor our God.
00:35:45 See, Psalm chapter 8, it doesn't give any contingencies, no conditions, no hindrances, no pauses, no fine print.
00:35:56 Psalm chapter 8 doesn't say that the majesty and glory of God can be seen
00:36:00 in the intrinsic and inherent dignity of his image-bearing creatures, dot, dot, dot,
00:36:05 if or once they reach a certain age, or if they have a certain melanin pigment in their skin,
00:36:12 or if they achieve a certain economic status, or, no.
00:36:18 Our text does not discriminate.
00:36:20 the majesty and glory of God is seen clearly revealed by what he has made and chiefly in
00:36:30 the pinnacle of his creation namely his image bearing creatures at whatever stage of life
00:36:36 or whatever category whatever whatever economic class whatever ethnicity they might be wherever
00:36:44 a human being is found the glory and majesty of God is seen. Romans chapter 1 verse 18 through 25
00:36:51 we've already dealt with it but just for us to to hear it from the text the word of God
00:36:56 verbatim says this for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
00:37:03 who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth for what can be known about God is plain to them
00:37:11 because God has shown it to them
00:37:13 for his invisible attributes,
00:37:15 namely his eternal power and divine nature
00:37:17 have been clearly perceived,
00:37:20 not just displayed, right?
00:37:22 It's not that God is simply saying
00:37:23 these attributes, my existence,
00:37:25 my eternal power, my divine nature
00:37:27 have been revealed.
00:37:29 No, it goes further and says perceived, right?
00:37:33 You can reveal something, right?
00:37:35 Right now, as some of you are looking at your notes,
00:37:37 I could take my cell phone out of my pocket,
00:37:38 hold up a picture and put it back real quick
00:37:40 can say, I clearly manifest, revealed, showed this picture on my phone. But many of you would,
00:37:49 with a clear conscience, have the excuse to say, but I didn't perceive it. I didn't see it.
00:37:56 But see, notice Romans chapter one, it doesn't just say that these things have been clearly
00:37:59 revealed, clearly shown. They've been clearly perceived. So that what? Well, the call of
00:38:08 Romans chapter 1 is this, so that all men are without an apologetic, an excuse.
00:38:19 All men are without an excuse.
00:38:23 They are without excuse.
00:38:25 Verse 21, picking back up, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him,
00:38:30 but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 0.55
00:38:34 Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 0.98
00:38:43 Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. 0.95
00:38:55 How's God really said?
00:38:58 The lie that the serpent said to Eve in the garden, you can be like God.
00:39:04 That is the quintessential lie
00:39:06 that you can be like God.
00:39:09 And so we begin to worship ourselves,
00:39:12 the creation rather than the creator
00:39:13 who is to be praised, blessed forever.
00:39:17 Amen.
00:39:19 See, both Psalm chapter eight and Romans one here,
00:39:22 the literal revelation,
00:39:24 and with natural revelation
00:39:27 for the law.
00:39:31 That's why all people, 0.98
00:39:33 even the unbeliever is ultimately standing condemned a dead man walking in this life 0.62
00:39:39 underneath the just condemnation of God because because God has displayed himself
00:39:44 by what he has made chief in all of creation but chiefly in the creation of his image buried
00:39:50 creatures and not only has God displayed this but they have in fact perceived this this is
00:39:55 the doctrine of natural revelation or general revelation and from natural revelation that
00:40:00 doctrine we have natural law that on the hearts of men we have the moral law of god even the
00:40:09 unbeliever knows that murder is wrong why because they perceive that there is a god in heaven who
00:40:16 will judge both the quick and the dead and that he is righteous and holy and worthy of our obedience
00:40:23 and our worship they know this because of what god has made and they know this because they
00:40:28 themselves were made in the image of God with a moral compass, with a conscience. They are sinning
00:40:35 against their own conscience. The law of God, brothers and sisters, know this. The law of God
00:40:40 did not come in, it was not merely introduced into humanity, into human history at Mount Sinai.
00:40:48 This is the first time that the law of God was written on tablets of stone, but the law of God
00:40:52 is eternal as God himself is eternal. The law of God has always been, there has always been a moral
00:41:00 law of God as eternal as the counsels of eternity, the mind of God, as long as the mind of our
00:41:08 triune God has existed, so his law has existed. And long before Mount Sinai, long before tablets
00:41:14 of stone, long before the prophet Moses, the law of God, although it was not yet written on tablets
00:41:19 of stone, it was perceived in the heart of man. It was. This is natural law stemming from natural
00:41:27 revelation. People made in the image of God have a conscience. They know the difference between
00:41:33 right and wrong. But notice what's interesting is this, that the law of God, because of natural
00:41:38 revelation and natural law, every single human being from the beginning of human history,
00:41:43 starting with Adam and Eve, had the law of God written on their hearts. But through the fall of
00:41:48 man, as sin was introduced, as the image of God was then not utterly lost, but tarnished,
00:41:55 a vestige of the image of God still remains, but as the image of God was tarnished by sin,
00:42:01 the law of God written on the hearts of man was still there, so that Romans 1 rings true,
00:42:07 it was still there, but the conscience became weaker. The law of God became, we could argue,
00:42:14 still there and still clear enough to condemn man and his sin if he does not turn in faith
00:42:19 to Jesus Christ. So still clear enough on the hearts of men, even unregenerate men,
00:42:25 clear enough to justify God when he judges, but blurred because of sin. And so what we see is
00:42:31 this, the law of God comes to the hearts of men in the beginning of creation through sin. The image
00:42:37 of God is tarnished and the law of God is in a sense blurred, not entirely, but in a sense blurred.
00:42:44 Then the law of God comes, not on tablets of human hearts, as it did in the very beginning, but now on tablets of stone.
00:42:52 And then with the new covenant, the law of God comes back to the tablet of the heart, but now with clarity.
00:43:00 Now no longer blurred by sin.
00:43:04 Now ringing loud and clear, so that the unbeliever is without excuse, and the Christian far more.
00:43:12 This is what Hebrews, the author speaks of when he says 0.95
00:43:16 that those who disobeyed Moses and the law,
00:43:19 if they will be justly punished, justly condemned,
00:43:22 how much even more those who do not obey the gospel.
00:43:27 So both Psalm 8 and Romans chapter 1, they are clear.
00:43:31 God's general revelation, natural revelation through creation
00:43:34 leaves all people, unbeliever and believer alike,
00:43:37 without an excuse.
00:43:39 God's creation especially his creation of mankind speaks not only to his existence but also his
00:43:45 majesty and glory that he is worthy of obedience and worship in the same way that a person cannot
00:43:51 worship and glorify the majesty of God while treating God's supreme earthly creation with
00:43:57 contempt a person also cannot worship and glorify the majesty of God while treating God's supreme
00:44:02 creation with idolatrous affection see romans 1 it introduces a another category the psalm 8 says
00:44:11 you you cannot show contempt for god's image bearing creatures you cannot show contempt for
00:44:17 your neighbor and claim to be loving god at the very same time romans 1 says you also cannot with
00:44:24 idolatrous affection worship your name to worship god at the same time you cannot dismiss your
00:44:33 neighbor in complacency in apathy in absence of affection you cannot be silent evil persists
00:44:42 because good men do nothing and even further evil persists because good men say nothing
00:44:49 you cannot be complicit you cannot be complacent you cannot neglect to love your neighbor
00:44:57 and glorify the supreme majesty of God at the same time and you cannot exalt in an idolatrous
00:45:05 fashion have idolatrous affection for your neighbor and claim to worship and magnify
00:45:10 the glory of God at the same time over under both jail we were talking about that last night
00:45:18 parks and recreation uh there's there's a episode where um there's someone from venezuela and he's
00:45:24 you know of course being comical when he says you know if you overcook fish right away in venezuela
00:45:30 jail if you undercook fish believe it or not jail overcook undercook all right so same same kind of
00:45:36 thing using some comedy as as an illustration same thing if you undervalue the dignity of man
00:45:43 You cannot exalt the glory and majesty of God
00:45:47 if you idolatrously overvalue the dignity of man.
00:45:54 Exchanging the truth of God for a lie
00:45:56 and worshiping the creation instead of the creator himself
00:45:59 who is forever to be blessed, amen,
00:46:02 you cannot esteem and glorify the majesty of God.
00:46:06 Finally, verse 2 of our text,
00:46:08 we see the infinite wisdom of God,
00:46:10 not just from mankind in general,
00:46:13 but now we get specific.
00:46:15 And again, this is not God discriminating.
00:46:17 There's no point in Psalm chapter eight
00:46:19 where God says that one portion of humanity
00:46:25 has this inherent intrinsic dignity
00:46:28 as an image bearer of the living God
00:46:30 and therefore reflects his majesty and glory
00:46:32 in all the earth.
00:46:33 And some other portion of humanity does not.
00:46:37 That is not in our text.
00:46:39 That concept is not there.
00:46:41 There's no discrimination in our text that says one portion of humanity reflects the glory of God and another portion does not.
00:46:48 Our text does not say that one ethnicity reflects the glory of God and another one doesn't.
00:46:54 Our text doesn't say that the rich reflect the glory of God and the poor do not.
00:46:58 Our text doesn't say that men do in a way that women don't.
00:47:01 Male and female, he created them in his image.
00:47:03 He created them.
00:47:06 So our text doesn't say that.
00:47:07 But the closest our text gets to discrimination, if you will, is verse 2.
00:47:14 Now, it's not discrimination, as I've already labored to say.
00:47:17 It's not discrimination in the sense of saying this portion reflects the glory and majesty of God, and other portions don't.
00:47:24 But what it does seem to imply is that perhaps this portion of humanity, if anything,
00:47:29 If there's any specific portion of the mass of humanity that does not exclusively reflect the glory and majesty of God, but perhaps reflects the glory and majesty of God the clearest, it's the infant.
00:47:47 Verse 2 of our text says,
00:47:49 Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have established strength because of your foes.
00:47:55 To still, that is to silence, to shut the mouths of the enemy and the avenger.
00:48:03 This verse says that God has adversaries and enemies.
00:48:07 That's why we're preaching through the Psalms.
00:48:09 That's why we want to sing Psalms.
00:48:11 A lot of times this kind of preaching, this kind of doctrine, this kind of Christianity and theology,
00:48:17 in the American evangelical church today.
00:48:22 It's too militant.
00:48:24 But there was a time in the church,
00:48:26 the Puritans, they would sing of the church
00:48:28 as militant and triumphant.
00:48:32 Soldiers, Christian soldiers marching forward.
00:48:35 This kind of language was not rare.
00:48:38 It wasn't foreign among the people of God.
00:48:41 But today it is.
00:48:44 I like what Doug Wilson says.
00:48:45 He says, you know, if you only sing hymns in the church, one of the problems that you'll experience is this.
00:48:52 When you preach the word of God, there is militant language.
00:48:56 There is warfare.
00:48:59 It inspires and charges Christians to be courageous and to fight. 0.91
00:49:08 And if you only sing hymns, you don't really prepare the people for the sermon.
00:49:15 for the preaching and Doug says this he says because hymn writers weren't fighters with the
00:49:23 exception of maybe a couple Martin Luther being one of them on the run for his life
00:49:26 a mighty fortress is our God very few hymns have that kind of language most of the hymns are are
00:49:33 sweet they're beautiful they're biblical they have rich theology but there's there's a whole
00:49:41 theological category, if you will, that tends to be missing.
00:49:46 That militant, triumphant,
00:49:49 Christian warfare, battle, the church 0.99
00:49:52 as the battering ram. That's what Christ is saying. I will build my church. 0.99
00:49:56 It will advance. It will increase. And the gates of hell will not prevail against
00:50:00 it. Remember, the gates, I've said it before, the gates are
00:50:04 defense. So when Jesus says, I will build
00:50:08 my church. He doesn't say, I will sustain my church and the offensive weapons of hell won't
00:50:14 prevail, right? That would be a picture. If we were to imagine, that would be a picture of the church
00:50:19 on the ropes. But Jesus is in the corner, encouraging us, giving us tips along the way.
00:50:25 And he said, you're going to make it all 10 rounds. That's not what Jesus says. He doesn't
00:50:31 say, I will sustain my church and hell's blows ultimately won't knock the church all the way
00:50:37 down. No, he says, I will build my church. Hell, its gates, its defense. Hell is on the ropes,
00:50:44 and the church is the battering of Christ, the king, that's going to ultimately break
00:50:50 the gates of hell down. Now, that kind of language is foreign to us. And again, going back to Doug
00:50:56 Wilson, part of the reason why is because we sing hymns as we worship the Lord through song,
00:51:02 or in many churches today, we don't even sing hymns.
00:51:05 We sing, you know, basically any kind of pop song
00:51:09 on the radio that doesn't have curse words in it.
00:51:11 You just replace the word boyfriend with Jesus
00:51:13 and that becomes your worship.
00:51:14 And if that's the way that you're singing,
00:51:18 then sermons like this,
00:51:20 they make people in the pews or the chairs
00:51:23 or the couch cringe.
00:51:26 But when you sing the songs,
00:51:29 you're singing songs that were written
00:51:31 by warriors, by fighters, by soldiers, by generals.
00:51:38 When you sing the Psalms,
00:51:40 of course, the biggest advocacy for singing the Psalms
00:51:44 is that you're singing the Holy Spirit-inspired songbook for worship.
00:51:50 But beyond that, you're singing songs
00:51:55 that were inspired by the third member of the Trinity.
00:51:58 That's first and foremost.
00:51:59 But in the secondary sense, in terms of their human authorship, right?
00:52:03 Because inspiration of the Holy Spirit does not eradicate human authorship.
00:52:10 Writings of Paul, although fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, differ from Peter.
00:52:14 You can see the human author, his personality, those aspects coming out in the text,
00:52:20 but without fallibility, without flaw.
00:52:23 Well, so it is with the Psalms.
00:52:24 You see the Holy Spirit, his hand, his inspiration, in the sense that they're infallible and eternal and immutable.
00:52:33 But you also see David.
00:52:36 You see David the poet.
00:52:39 David the lover, the romantic.
00:52:42 David the sinner, the failure.
00:52:46 David the man after God's own heart, the repenter.
00:52:49 But you also see David, the conquering king, the warrior, the one who, in one-on-one combat, single-handedly slayed a giant.
00:53:05 That's what we get in the Psalms.
00:53:07 We get warfare.
00:53:09 We get repentance, yes.
00:53:11 We get beauty, yes.
00:53:12 But we also get blood and guts and tears.
00:53:15 and the psalms are just as relevant for today
00:53:20 in this church age as they were
00:53:22 on the day that they were written. 0.97
00:53:27 Out of the mouth of babes and infants,
00:53:29 you have established strength because of your foes
00:53:32 to crush the enemy,
00:53:35 to close his jaws, 0.99
00:53:39 to break his teeth.
00:53:40 That's another psalm.
00:53:41 We'll get there.
00:53:42 Breaking the teeth of the enemy.
00:53:45 I mean, there's a psalm, precatory psalms that talk about bashing the heads of the babies of the enemy against the rocks.
00:53:54 You preach that sermon in the church today, you better have sang that psalm that morning or people are going to, you're going to be in trouble.
00:54:02 You got to make clear that's scripture.
00:54:04 This is not my idea.
00:54:06 Otherwise, you're going to get thrown off, thrown out, get the hook.
00:54:12 So all that being said, it's this warfare language, but notice the weapon.
00:54:17 See, that's what I want us to see right here at the very end.
00:54:19 I want us to see, notice the weapon.
00:54:22 It's going to silence the mouth of the avenger, of the foe, of the enemy of God.
00:54:27 The enemies of God are going to be silenced, stilled, rendered completely impotent.
00:54:36 What is God's infinitely wise strategy in accomplishing this task?
00:54:41 How is God in one foul swoop going through the violence and still the attacks of all his enemies?
00:54:49 Only the infinitely wise God would come up with such a plan.
00:54:53 You and I would never think of it.
00:54:55 If I pose this, if we didn't have, if you didn't already know the answer that I'm getting to here in just a moment.
00:55:01 If I just started today and I didn't tell you what text I was preaching.
00:55:04 And I just asked a trick question.
00:55:06 And I said, church, what is one of the chief strategies that God says he's going to employ in order to render all of his adversaries impotent?
00:55:19 I mean, be honest, who would answer the mouth of babes?
00:55:25 But that's what our text says.
00:55:29 There's something that's going to come out. 0.53
00:55:31 There's something that does come out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes 0.86
00:55:36 that silences the acute, that silences God. 0.89
00:55:41 So that what comes out of the mouth of these little human beings
00:55:45 has such strength that it establishes the strength of God.
00:55:49 God establishes His own strength by the mouth of babes.
00:55:53 And it is so strong, so pervasive that it overcomes the enemies of God.
00:55:58 The answer is provided by verse 5 of our text,
00:56:00 which shows that these little ones are made by God like no other being.
00:56:06 Mankind is made only a little lower than the angels.
00:56:10 They are fashioned in the womb by God and crowned with glory and majesty,
00:56:14 according to Job chapter 31 verse 15.
00:56:16 In other words, their supreme place in creation is so profound
00:56:20 that when they open their mouth to cry or coo,
00:56:23 they are bearing witness to the incomparable dignity in creation,
00:56:26 and therefore they are bearing witness to the majesty of God in all the earth.
00:56:32 God does not wait until an infant is rational and independent
00:56:36 in order to ascribe to them the glory of God.
00:56:39 God is praised and strength is established by the mere truth
00:56:47 that a human being who has been made in the image and majesty of God is here.
00:56:52 Let all the adversaries of God hear the crying of the infant and tremble.
00:56:57 If they treat God's supreme creation with contempt, apart from repentance and forgiveness of sins,
00:57:03 they will be silenced in the fire of hell for eternity in the same way that they have sought to silence 60 million people in their mother's wombs.
00:57:11 Let's pray.
00:57:13 Father, we thank you for your word.
00:57:15 We thank you that, Christ, you are a conquering king.
00:57:19 You came to this earth once already.
00:57:22 as the lamb who was slain
00:57:25 for the sins of your people.
00:57:28 But you will return as the lion.
00:57:33 And even now, as you wait to return,
00:57:36 you are not waiting to rule and reign.
00:57:41 You are reigning with glory and splendor,
00:57:45 majesty and power.
00:57:48 And one of the chief agencies
00:57:50 that you use in your kingship
00:57:53 to extend further and further
00:57:56 your sovereign rule over all the earth
00:57:59 is your church.
00:58:03 Not just the cultural mandate
00:58:04 with all of humanity being fruitful
00:58:06 and multiplying and image bearers
00:58:08 being seen all over the globe,
00:58:11 but even more so
00:58:12 through your church multiplying.
00:58:17 By both the cultural mandate,
00:58:19 Christians having children and raising them in the
00:58:21 fear and admonition of the Lord and also the
00:58:23 great commandment. As we
00:58:25 go and make disciples
00:58:27 of all nations, baptizing
00:58:29 them into the name of the Father, the Son
00:58:31 and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey
00:58:33 all of your commands.
00:58:35 Lord, we love your kingdom.
00:58:38 We love your kingdom
00:58:39 because we love the King.
00:58:43 We love you, King Jesus.
00:58:46 Long live
00:58:47 the King.
00:58:49 May the increase of your government never cease.
00:58:53 You rule the nations in equity, justice, fairness, wonder and beauty.
00:59:02 Oh, what grace it is to us, the church, to belong to such a kingdom.
00:59:07 And that we, with trembling and appropriate fear, would be able to say we love the king.
00:59:15 and this king has also called us his friend.
00:59:22 We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
00:59:26 Thanks so much for listening,
00:59:28 but real quick, before you go,
00:59:30 do us a small favor, take a moment,
00:59:32 and leave us a five-star review if you enjoyed the show.
00:59:35 This is undoubtedly the best way
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00:59:40 to as many people as possible.
00:59:42 Thanks so much.