Shane Idleman emphasizes in his sermon 'The Heavens Declare the Glory of God' that the vastness and complexity of the universe serve as undeniable evidence of God's existence and glory. He reflects on the incredible scale of creation, from trillions of stars to the intricate laws governing the cosmos, asserting that these wonders reveal God's handiwork and moral absolutes. Idleman challenges the audience to recognize the importance of God's Word, which not only guides and warns but also brings joy and transformation to those who embrace it. He calls for a return to reverence for God's laws, highlighting the need for repentance and a clean heart to experience true joy and strength in the Lord. Ultimately, he encourages believers to acknowledge their sins and seek God's cleansing power to restore their relationship with Him.

We're going to find ourselves in Psalm 19 tonight, and the title is, The Heavens Declare the Glory of God. If you just look outside at night, or you study, you see the planets, I mean, to say all this has just happened, I think that takes a little more faith. Something exploded, right? They teach the Big Bang in schools, and there was a bang, God said, creation, and just an explosion, a mass universe, and we can't comprehend it. It's just, when I looked at the Milky Way, and where we're at, I get a headache. How many stars? Trillions of stars. Galaxies. It's just, it actually, I don't think we're wired to think that big. It's just incredible. And so, the first half of 19 talks about that. The heavens declare the glory of God, verse 1. The heavens declare, meaning it proves there is a God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament show his handiwork. And he's talking here about a dome, or a vault, that they would look out at here in the Hebrew. And of course, we know a lot more now, studying, and how the heavens, and the separation, the atmosphere, and different things, all the stars, the size of our world, and all the stars you can see are only in our galaxy. So, what lies beyond the galaxy? Let's go to the next screen. September 23rd, 2003. You can go ahead and keep going. The Hubble Space Telescope, check out what it found. Let's go to the next screen. The area about a tenth the size of the moon, see up here? It appeared with complete blackness, with no stars visible at all to the naked eye. So, let's go to the next one. And it kept its camera on that spot for four months. And here's what it saw on the next screen. So, this was all in that little square. Next screen. Each dot in this image is an entire galaxy. Headaches yet? See, these are galaxies. Next screen. Each galaxy contains a trillion stars. Oh, see, I was way off. How do you count to a trillion? Next screen. And then each star has a system of planets around those stars. Next screen. There are over 10,000 galaxies in this photo alone. Are you? All right, I think, is there any more here? Most. These are the most distant objects ever photographed, more than 1.3 billion light years away. These are galaxies. It's just amazing how big our God is. And I want to just, as I was going over that, it just hit me. And we let fear worry us. I don't know if God's got this. And if He's got that, I know your problems are big. I know some things are challenging, but that is the God we worship. Maybe we should have watched that before worship. I don't know. But that is a reminder of who He is. And so we can actually put up chapter 19, 1 through 6 or so. But I want to stop on this for a minute. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. Answers in Genesis says this, The moon orbits the earth in a circular path, taking about one month from start to finish. In fact, this is where we get the idea of a month. And according to Scripture, one of the reasons God created the celestial bodies was for signs, seasons, days, and years. We learned that in Genesis 1.14, months back. The sun is about 400 times more distant than the moon. Remarkably, it is also 400 times larger. So it has the same angular size as the moon, meaning it appears the same size as the moon when it's up in the sky. Just so many amazing facts. And I could just keep pouring in all the facts that I found out, but I want to keep reading. So day on today utters speech. Basically, it speaks to us. But you can just look out and God is speaking. His invisible attributes are clearly seen so that man is without excuse. And night into night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. In other words, everyone on the face of the earth sees, has the opportunity to see there is a God. His invisible attributes, it's clearly seen. And that's why I talked about, I believe it was last week, that we are, people are without excuse. Well, what about the person who never heard the gospel in the remote island of such-and-such or the jungle? But they have that internal witness of the Holy Spirit. They have God's handiwork everywhere. God, his invisible attributes, who he is, is clearly revealed. And Romans 1 says that they actually suppress the truth. So they say, clearly there's something out here bigger than me. But I'm still going to worship the God of my hands, the God I want to worship. And they don't bow their knee to the one true and living God. And they actually suppress the truth. And I have this image sometimes of, have you ever pushed a basketball under the water in a pool? Watch out. It's happened a couple of times. But that's what it is. The truth is so obvious. It's just wanting to come out so obvious, they actually have to suppress it underneath the water. Every day proves God's existence and reveals who he is. There is no language where heaven's voice cannot be heard. Then verse four, their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. And that's how they give this image of the sun. It's like a bridegroom coming out, the morning sun coming out. And this beautiful image, the psalmist finds. I believe it's actually, I didn't write it down. It could be a Psalm of David. I believe so. It's rising from one end of the heaven and it's circuit to the other hand. And there is nothing hidden from the heat of the sun. And so it's just a reminder that how all these things declare there is a God. And you've heard me say creation screams creator. It literally screams. You have to do a lot of things to avoid that conviction. Excuses, suppressing the truth, feeding into lies, and just being so bitter and hard that you reject that truth. But then there's something interesting happened. Verse seven, I believe it on the next screen. Verse seven, significant transition. He's saying clearly there is a creator. So clearly he established moral absolutes. And that's what he's gonna go into. He says all this about the universe. The vast display of the universe. The incredible heavens and showing God's handiwork. And because of this now, the law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure. Making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the heart. And the commandment of the Lord is pure. Enlightening the eyes. Well, he has a lot to say here about God's word, doesn't he? Look at all of this imagery. The law, God's law, it converts the soul. God's testimony, the statutes of the Lord, and the commandments of the Lord. And they are different. But this is really why many are not converted. See what it says here, verse seven. The law of the Lord is perfect. It converts the soul. But in order to be converted by the perfect word of God, you have to embrace it. A person has to embrace it in order for it to have its effectiveness. And the Lord testifies in His word. The testimony of the Lord is sure. No matter what fails you, no matter what gives away, the testimony of God will never fail. And what really stood out to me is this part about the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. How many people do not rejoice at God's word? That's a lot of the problems we're seeing out there. They do not rejoice in God's word. They hate God's word. You're seeing, I mean, talk about kingdoms colliding from Disney to the school districts to Supreme Court justices. And people don't know what a girl is or a man or a woman. And it's just they hate the light of God's word. Don't show me God's word. But he's saying here that if you obey God's word, your heart will rejoice. I know many of you can testify to that, amen. When you begin to obey God's word, even if you've fallen, even if you've failed, maybe today, but you rejoice and get back into God's will that Lord, your word is my strong tower. Your word is my strength. And I'm miserable right now because I've drifted from that word. And once you begin to obey the commandments of God and lean in on the commandments of God, you can feel that rejoice and that joy come forth again. It's interesting here though, you would think that law and statutes, kind of the same thing. But in the Hebrew, law refers to common rules made that were followed for a long time. You know, God's law, the 10 commandments, they're established. These are not necessarily written, whereas a statute refers to laws which have been passed on by bills in the legislation. If you were to apply it to our current situation. So you've got laws that are clearly written on men's heart. They've been going on forever. And then you also have the statutes, these things that come out godly. That's why we are promoting, we want godly legislation. Amen. We want God's word to be honored. And then hopefully in the weeks to come, you'll hear about a drive we're doing to remove the DA here in Los Angeles County. Gascon, because of what he is allowing in the criminal system and in the judicial system and is getting so weak. And we believe as believers, hey, it's okay to take a stand. It's okay to say, this is not right. If you don't do it, who's gonna do it? If it's not you, who is it? If it's not now, when is it? If it's not here, where is it? I can keep going. I think, maybe not. I might have ran out of the three. But we're called to make that difference. I don't know where we got this idea of, well, let's keep our voice out of legislation. Like God, yeah, He doesn't care about that kind of stuff. I mean, in a perfect world, His commandments, His laws, His statutes, they govern. And for some reason, we think, well, no, God doesn't care. It's no big deal. It's a fallen world. But to say He doesn't want His Word to be elevated makes no sense to me. Or at least respected or honored. And you can go back, and I did a lot of studying maybe 12 years ago, 15 years ago, on when they started to remove prayer from public school and they started to remove the Ten Commandment monuments from courthouses. And that big movement in the 19, I think that was probably 73, 50, 60, 70s. There was a push for a while. And people say to me all the time, well, you can't add prayer back in school. It won't really mean anything. You know, if kids don't want to pray or there are other religions. I get what they're saying. You can't force it down their throat. But see, there's something, I believe the atmosphere changes. When you begin to honor God instead of a false God, when you begin to have the Ten Commandments displayed instead of a transgender person reading to kindergartners, there's something that changes in the atmosphere. So no, you can't push morality on people. You can't change your heart. But you can deter wrongdoing. And you can, again, bring up the commandments of God. Why do they want to get rid of all that? If it's no big deal, why do they want to get rid of it? Because it's convicting. You used to walk into courthouses. Did you know that? And there'd be big Ten Commandment monuments. In courthouses. Don't tell me we haven't drifted. What was his name? Justice Moore in Alabama. He was removed from office because he wouldn't remove the Ten Commandment monuments. And I want to ask, you know, if they've been in there for 150 years, what's the big deal? Because some atheists got upset. Those are offensive. Yep, they sure are. But you wanting to remove them offends me. So are we going off who's offended? You can't go off of that. You have to go off of what is right. And so you'll see the declining of society when God's word is removed. They used to have, even in the White House in Washington, D.C., days of prayer and fasting. Days of prayer and fasting. God, you go take a tour of the Capitol. It's amazing how many biblical things are in there. And I understand you can't just put it there. It's not like a, you know, God's seal of approval and now everything we do is good. But you're either going to honor the true and living God or a false God. And I would argue that you could begin to honor God again in the schools and the courthouses and different things. And you would see a change in behavior. What happens when you get the Bible to prisoners? Bible studies in prison. What happens? That's why they try to repress and suppress God's word. Especially North Korea. China. That's why they do it. Because His laws are pure. It changes, it convicts and changes the heart. And you'll see that's why there's such a battle for legislation right now. AB 223. The abortion bill. Or what they try to push and they will again what I taught on Sunday is going to be hate speech. Can you imagine going to jail because you taught on Romans 1? That's where they want to go. What they're trying to do is remove the conviction. That's convicting me. I don't like what that says. And if it wasn't true, why does it bother you? And see, so it's that truth of that conviction. And then 9-11, the fear of the Lord is clean. Now, that word, the fear of the Lord is, what it means is it exonerates. It cleans you in that sense. It exonerates you. So if you have the fear of the Lord, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. See, if we could get a little bit of fear back and the right kind of fear. You know, people have, oh, God's this like abusive stepfather who's going to throw lightning bolts at me. Not that kind of fear. But a reverence and respect. That's very healthy. And when people don't have that, they walk into church as if God is a cosmic ball of love. And we all fear something for good reason. You fear not leaving your stove on while you're here. Cooking something, what could happen? I hope you take the right lane home tonight on the road. Don't hop over on the other side. I fear going around the corners, not knowing what's coming. And so that kind of fear for God, the fear of the Lord, it exonerates the soul. As long as a person repents and believes in it, his fear, the fear of God endures forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together. The judgments, the rights, the laws and the principles of God are true and they are righteous all together. More to be desired are they than gold. What's the most precious thing on the planet, especially back then, to them? So he's saying it's more, you should desire God's law. Isn't that interesting? Desire God's law, God's way more than even gold. Yes, than much fine gold. Boy, he's really wanting to get that point across again. Not just some gold, much fine gold. That love for God's word and it's going to profit you because what it does, what gold can't do, is actually gold can, or let's say money, whatever, can lead you astray. Whoever has the love of the world does not have the love of the Father in him. You can't serve both. And so if a person is loving gold and loving money and loving success, then they can be led astray and damaged. But the word of God here, it says, the fear of the Lord, his judgments are true and they are righteous all together. More to be desired than gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. There's nothing sweeter in that time. Now we've got all kinds of stuff, right? Splenda, sucrose, rucose, normal sugar, cane sugar, this kind of syrup, that kind of syrup, corn syrup, all kinds of different sweeteners. But honey, still honey is the jewel of sweetness. And so getting that word of God and holding it, he gives two great contrasts, on the end of money and then also on the end of appetite. The sweetness of honey, God's word is sweeter than honey. And that's what I tried to explain. I'm gonna be releasing some more videos talking about this whole idea of fasting and why I believe it's so important because what we have going on in America, you know, I've been talking about it for a while. We have stage four spiritual cancer, correct? Stage four spiritual cancer. But it's interesting, we've got a healthcare crisis that's out of control. More sickness than ever before, health-related illnesses than ever before. The healthcare system, if you go and study it, it won't be able to maintain the current load as people get older. Social Security, the baby boomers, if you look at them, they're just like, I don't know what we're gonna do unless you wanna pay $3,000 a month for insurance. And there's two crises. And God's been really showing me that how prayer and fasting could change both. This side fixes the spiritual aspect. This side fixes the physical aspects and getting the appetite under control. And one thing about prayer and fasting is prayer takes on new significance when the flesh loses its strength. Isn't it harder to pray when you're full and caving into things and the prayer life diminishes? And that's because this fleshly desire, the desire of the flesh is being constantly satisfied if there's no governor on it, if there's no self-control on it, that's when you can really run into trouble. So He's comparing the two great contrasts here between the honeycomb and gold. Moreover by them, your servant is warned. Moreover by them, your servant is warned and in keeping them, there is great reward. So He's saying here, it's okay to warn people, your servant, people are warned by your word and in keeping God's word, there is great reward. And I don't know why people get bent out of shape when you talk about God does reward people. Oh, they shouldn't do it for that. Right, but the Bible says reward's in heaven. God rewards and for some reason, God gives an incentive. I don't know why we can't encourage people, hey, God does reward your diligence. God does reward your hard work. But it's interesting, moreover by them, your servant is warned. So see, God's word is also used to warn us. And you've heard me talk before that churches that never warn, all they do is cuddle and comfort. You won't see people change at a very deep level. Because we're supposed to, as Spurgeon said, feed the saint and warn the sinner. But also warn the saint from time to time, not to get off track. And so he reminds us that God's warning, that God's word, it is keeping us on the right path. Why do we hide from warning people? I mean, granted, we don't want to go around, you know, sky's falling, you're going to hell. Do you know Jesus? But there's, you know, we just kind of, maybe it's lost its popularity. Maybe it doesn't, you know, feel right or we get kind of nervous. But if God prompts a person and they're filled with God's Spirit, it's okay to say, listen, this lifestyle, it's not going in a good direction. This lifestyle is taking you in a very dangerous direction. And we warn them. We want to tell them, hey, turn back, get back on the right path. And then in doing so, there is a great reward. And that's something about churches. What they used to do is, if you're led of the Spirit of God, you're not always going to stay stuck on one subject. It's not always going to be warning, warning, warning, warning, warning, Bible thumping every week. It's all we do is warn, you leave here. But it can't always be mushy and only encouraging and no confrontation because the Word of God warns and it confronts. Who can understand His errors? Verse 12, who can understand His errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Have you ever prayed that? Cleanse me from secret faults. What is a secret fault? Have you ever heard of the words blind spot? Does everyone recognize they have a blind spot? If not, I know what your blind spot is. A blind spot is, hey, I think I'm doing pretty good. And somebody goes, man, there's a lot of arrogance coming out. Or you know how you're treating people. Or I mean, the list is pretty long. But we often, and God knows it, sometimes we don't know what we're doing that's wrong. That we really, you know how we talk to someone maybe or critical spirit or being judgmental. Anybody ever get like that? You're judgmental and man, 90% of your text messages are negative. And somebody brings it up. There's a blind spot. I don't realize I'm doing that. And so it's good to go before God and say, Lord, if there's anything in me, examine me that doesn't please You. Pride, we can all spot it except the person who has it. Have you ever noticed that before? Any of you know really, really prideful people? They think they are pretty humble. Pretty gracious, broken. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can get within range. And you sense that pride. It's a boastful pride of life. It's boasting. And it's really when a person talks about themselves and their accomplishments and what they've done. It's always, there's that boasting. Or maybe they've injured someone. Have you ever injured someone and you didn't really know? Maybe by your words, by your actions. They know, God knows, but you don't know. And so Lord, cleanse me of secret faults. These blind spots that I don't know. And I don't know, I've hurt people or offended people. Or maybe God, maybe the secret fault could be where God really wants you to press in, spend time with Him. Get into the Word, get into prayer. But no, you've been too busy all month. And you know what happens when you're too busy all month? You start to, I mean, when I get too busy after a few days or even a day, I can tell a difference. If I don't get grounded in God's Word, you can drift. Just like jumping into a river that's flowing. You just drift in the current of the world. And then He says, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. So He's saying, help me with sins I don't know about. And then please help me with sins I do know about. Let them not have dominion over me. Isn't that a wonderful prayer? Lord, this is my crack in the armor. Anybody have a crack in the armor? Okay. Crack in the armor means there's a place where the enemy can get in. And He knows you're different than I am. All of us are a little bit different. There's common things a lot of times. But there's areas where we know the enemy's gonna come and maybe in your life plant seeds in your mind of fear and anxiety and you just can't function. You just go lock the door in your room for a couple hours. Or someone else, just really judgmental, really prideful, really just critical and just putting people down all the time. That's a crack in their armor. Others with lusts and addictions and different things. And these are the areas you don't wanna leave that. A crack when the armor will come together, there are spots where the arrows could still penetrate often. And so what you have to do is you have to double those up, double that area up. For example, if you know, hey, this is an area the enemy can take me out, you have to make special effort to guard that area, to put extra iron in that area. So you wouldn't willingly walk into the enemy's camp. And I just taught the addiction class, the recovery group Sunday. And part of what I was talking about is if you have a struggle in an area, you flee temptation, right? You don't contemplate it. And how temptation works is let's say, what is this? Blessings iPad looks pretty interesting, right? It's tempting me. Oh no, wait, that's my temptation. See, oh gosh, I just, if I could just turn it on, see how it's, see? That didn't turn on. And you're playing games with the temptation. What does the Bible say to do? See guys, see if this works all the way over here. Sorry, camera guys, we're in trouble now. And I just go out the door. I might do that. And then see that temptation then loses its pull. It loses its pull. It's when you play with it, consider it, contemplate it, and that struggle goes on in your mind and you don't get far enough away. You see the door of temptation swings both ways. You can enter or you can exit. And also that crack in the armor is where he's going to, if he was successful before, he's going to be successful again. Do you ever just beat yourself up sometimes like, why do I keep falling in this area? Lord, this is a stronghold. And those are the opportunities the devil looks for. So he says, keep back your servant from the sins that I know I'm committing. And they have dominion over me. They are controlling me. And as we know as a believer though, that sin doesn't control us. We crucify it. Whatever we choose to obey becomes our master. We can reject it and we can turn back to God. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgressions. So what he's actually doing here is he's repenting. He's repenting. He's getting his heart clean before God. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. This is the last verse in the chapter. Let the words of my mouth. How many of us have failed in this area? The words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart. You know what that means? I'm saying these things, but people don't know what I'm thinking. Where my mind is going. So let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Basically, it's a heart check. You know, critical, grumbling, complaining. This is where he's getting his heart back into the right mindset. This is what we need to do, I believe, even tonight. Get our hearts back on worshiping God. And like Paul said to the church in Philippi, finally, brethren, whatever things are pure and honest and noble and upright, meditate on these things. See, do you want joy back in your life? Meditate on the right things. Start making the right decisions and the right choices. And then he reminds himself, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. He reminds himself, strength and redemption is only found in the Lord. Oh Lord, it's, I don't think he was writing it with the soft tone, it was, you know, he's saying, Lord, you are my strength and you are my redeemer. You will strengthen me, you will encourage me, and you have redeemed me, you have bought me at a price, you have saved me, so now I have a relationship with you. And he brought everything back around full circle. So that was Psalm 19. 19, if you want to really get challenged in this area, if you've been dealing with a critical heart, a judgmental heart, maybe sins, presumptuous sins, maybe God's been dealing with you on the area of repentance and getting some areas right. That's how he left it off. He said, Lord, show me the sins I'm not aware of and show me the sins I am aware of. And then he used that, he didn't boast in his sin, he used that to repent and restore his relationship with God. You guys, that's why I talk about repentance so much. It's because it's the first word in the gospel, just about, and the last word in the New Testament. Repent, repent, repent, change your mind, go back to God, repent, repent. It's a very beautiful, healthy word. There's no other word that gets you back on track with God. There's no other word that cleanses us. Not even as saints, we need cleansing. Cleanse me, clean me, oh God. Create in me a clean heart. And it's a time of refreshing where the presence of the Lord can come in and really refresh our heart if we repent of something that is pulling us down. So many people are struggling in the church, things we don't talk about anymore. You know, we don't talk about gluttony much. And I can relate, because boy, man, I've always struggled with wanting to eat too much and never just satisfied, and that would be a stronghold in my life. Or some people want to go back to alcohol, or marijuana, or opiates, or pain meds, or this bitterness and critical spirit, or pornography. And there's so many things working against us. And what repentance does, it cleans our heart. We say, Lord, I don't want that in my life anymore. I don't want to deal with that. God, would you please take it? And as we're worshiping and repenting, God, the cleansing aspect of repentance comes in and brings the joy back again. Because that's what sin does. Does it not just kill the strength in your life, kill the passion in your heart? I don't want to read the Bible tomorrow. I don't want to go to church. And I'm convinced that is the reason most people are not at church, not really in prayer meetings, or worship mornings, or worship nights, or really just wanting more and seeking in because sin has them bound and miserable.