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The sermon presents God as the sovereign Creator whose voice displays irresistible majesty in creation, Scripture, judgment, comfort, and salvation. Spurgeon identifies Jesus Christ as the divine Word and therefore calls Christians to adore and reverence Him. God’s voice is wholly true and authoritative, especially as heard in Scripture. Savingly spoken to the heart, it breaks pride and resistance; therefore sinners must not rest in hearing, religious talk, experiences, or good works, but must humble themselves and believe in Christ.
Theological center: God’s sovereign and effectual voice is perfectly true and majestic, revealed supremely in Christ and powerful to save sinners through faith.
Applications: Humble Yourself Before God · Believe in Christ · Hear God’s Voice · God’s Voice Is Always Majestic
Primary texts: Psalm 29:4-5 · Job 37:5 · Romans 10:18
“The voice of the LORD is full of majesty.” Psalm 29:4 ALL God’s works praise Him whether they are magnificent or minute. They all discover the wisdom, the power, and the benevolence of their Creator. “All thy works praise thee, O God.” But there are some of His more majestic works which sing the song of praise louder than others. There are some of His doings upon which there seems to be graven in larger letters than usual the name of God. Such are the lofty mountains, which worship God with uncovered heads both night and day. Such are the rolling seas, too mighty to be managed by man, but held in check by God. And such, especially, are the thunders and the lightnings. The lightnings are the glances of the eyes of God and the thunders are the utterings of His voice. The thunder has been usually attributed to God more especially, though philosophers assure us that it is to be accounted for by natural causes. We believe them, but we prefer, ourselves, to look to the first great cause, and we are content with that old and universal belief that the thunder is the voice of God. It is marvelous what effect the thunder has had upon all kinds of men. In reading an ode of Horace the other day, I found him in the first two verses singing like a true Ithurean, that he despised God and intended to live merrily. But by and by, he hears the thunder, and acknowledging that there is a JEHOVAH, who lives on high, he trembles before Him. The most wicked of men have been obliged to acknowledge that there must be a Creator, when they have heard that marvelous voice of His sounding through the sky. Men of the stoutest nerve and the boldest blasphemy have become the weakest of all creatures when God has in some degree manifested Himself in the mighty whirlwind or in the storm. “He breaketh the cedars of Lebanon,” He brings down the stout hearts, He lays down the mighty, and He obliges those who never acknowledged Him to reverence Him when they hear His voice. The Christian will acknowledge the thunder to be the voice of God from the fact, that if he be in the right frame of mind, it always suggests to him holy thoughts. I do not know how it may be with you, but I scarcely ever hear the rolling thunder, but I begin to forget earth and look upwards to my God. I am unconscious of any feeling of terror or pain. It is rather a feeling of delight that I experience, for I like to sing that verse, “The God that rules on high And thunders when He please, That rides upon the stormy sky And manages the seas; This awful God is ours, Our Father and our love, He shall send down His heaven…