Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 21. And we'll read for our text, verse 5. His glory is great in thy salvation. honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. Psalm 21 verse 5. This psalm is a psalm that is all of the Lord Jesus Christ. Robert Hawker points out, he says, and he often makes this comment, If we begin and say, well, this is David's experience, and yes, it then shows us of Christ, we take away something of the glory and the majesty and the whole purpose why this psalm is in the scriptures at all, because it points all of Christ. And may we really be able to see that, I hope we will this morning. And of course it leads on, we think of Psalm 22, and the opening there, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? No doubt through that psalm as it speaks of our Lord and his hands and his feet being pierced and how that they parted his garments among them, cast lots upon my vesture. Very, very clearly setting forth the sufferings and death of our Lord and the very utterance upon the cross. And then, of course, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And we have the blessing of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, set through all these psalms and really in all the scriptures. May always at his eye be, where is Christ? Where is he that is the anointed of the God of Israel? Where is he who is all my salvation? and our soul rejoices where we find Him. If we read the Word of God and never have such an expectation, never looking for Him, we won't see Him. But where our expectation is that we know He is in the Scriptures and that we desire to see Him, so says the Greeks, we would see Jesus and that we look for Him. The Lord on the way to amaze in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And we need to remember that as we come to the scriptures. Just a couple of points before we come to main points in this psalm. I want to note the characters that are spoken of here. Through the psalm, it is speaking of the King. The King shall joy in thy strength. That is how it begins. Verse seven, the King trusted in the Lord, is speaking of the King, who is the King. Well, if we compare it with the other Psalms, if we go to Psalm 2, and in Psalm 2, Verse 6 we read, Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. The King then is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If we go to a couple of psalms on Psalm 24 from our text. We read there in verse 7 and 8, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. And the question then is asked, who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, Now notice, we have the other one that I want to speak of in this psalm, which is the Lord, which is Jehovah, which is God the Father. The King, Jesus, shall join thy strength, O Lord, in the strength of Jehovah. Or our text, His glory, the glory of the King, is great in thy salvation, the salvation of Jehovah, honour and glory has thou, Jehovah, the Father laid upon him. But when we come to Psalm 24, it's very evident as well that the Lord Jesus Christ is also Jehovah, because Jehovah is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and so it is, who is this King of Glory? The Lord, or Jehovah, but here he is coming in. to his glory. The last verse, verse 10, who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory. And it is the Lord risen from the dead, ascending up into heaven, triumphant. King of glory shall come in. And so through this, through this psalm, keep in mind this, when we're speaking of the king, we're speaking of Our Lord Jesus Christ, when we're looking at Jehovah, the Lord in uppercase, I am that I am, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Another word that perhaps need to be explained here, and in verse 3, for thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. That is a word we're not familiar with in our day, but preventist, it means you go before. Divine, providence, God anticipating. He is foreordaining, He knows what is going to happen and He's making provision for it. So, for thou dost go before him with the blessings of goodness, in verse 3. And so we have those points that perhaps then make a little bit clearer what we have in this psalm. His glory is great in thy salvation. It is setting forth the glory and majesty of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. So I want to look first at Thy salvation. Our text says His glory is great in Thy salvation. What is Thy salvation? And then secondly, the greatness of Christ's glory in that salvation, in Thy salvation. And under that heading, not just confine it to salvation as God's salvation, but thinking there personally, because we personally are saved and part of that salvation, and our Lord Jesus Christ must have in that all of the glory. And then lastly, the honour and majesty that is laid upon him. His glory is great in thy salvation, honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. But firstly, thy salvation. Immediately we are reminded this is not man's work or contriving, it is something that belongs unto a triune God. And when we think again of that word preventist, we think of that which is provided for the Lord God before, even from before the foundation of the world. Salvation is a deliverance from hell and a deliverance to heaven. It is the salvation of a people that had been loved with an everlasting love, chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. A people given by the Father to the Son to redeem. And God the Father, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Jehovah, has ordained that salvation in every particular of it. It is not man's work in any way. It was begun before ever man was formed. It was in the mind of God, in the purposes of God, and it is revealed to us, the aspects of it, in the Holy Scriptures. And there is no other repository of truth, there is no other place where we may read and have an insight and know about this salvation of God. It first was spoken of in the Garden of Eden, when there was a promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, a promise given after the fall of man. God instigates salvation. He is the one that has designed it from beginning unto end and appointed every part of it to ensure that the end result is that all of those that the Father gave to the Son will be saved and none shall be lost, all shall be brought safe to heaven, and every part of it is ordered. It is ordered in the form of a covenant, an agreement, agreement between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, of which sinners are the subject of it. David says, although my house be not so with God, Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. This is all my salvation, all my desire, though he make it not to grow." It's a beautiful type of that covenant in the case of the sparing of Mephibosheth, Saul's son. Because David, no doubt before Mephibosheth was even born, made an agreement with Jonathan, and also with Saul, that he would spare his seed and not destroy his seed. When David became king, he remembered that covenant, that promise, and it was shown forth in the saving of Mephibosheth. And so it is with the people of God. It is not made with them as that they have a part in deciding whether they will be saved or lost, or their role in it at all, but is made in the Godhead with the people of God being the beneficiaries of it. It would be like parents making a will, and they make that will between themselves. They decide what they shall give to children or grandchildren, and the children and grandchildren are not consulted, it's not at all of what they have done or not done, it is by the relationship that they have with their parents. And so the salvation of God, it is God's design and way. And if we desire to be saved, if we realize that we are lost and ruined in the fall, That we have sinned, that we are under the wrath of God. And the fact that there is death in the world, it tells us this, sin entered into the world and death by sin. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We are all under condemnation. There's no man that doeth good, no, not one. And we realize that. And the only way of being saved is by God's way. not devising our own way. One of the most solemn things with the reign of King Saul, the first king of Israel, was that he all the time kept trying to do things his way. When God sent him to kill the Amalekites, to utterly destroy them, then he decided, or blamed the people, that instead of destroying everything that they would say the good to sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel, he says, hath the Lord as great delight in sacrifice as in obeying the word of the Lord. The Lord gave him direction, but he modified it to what he thought would be right. Then there was the time when the Philistines came into the land. And Samuel had appointed a time that he should go and offer the sacrifices, and that was the role of Samuel, not the king. But because Samuel didn't come, we read that the king, he forced himself, as he said, and he offered the sacrifice. Contrary to God's plan and God's way, he decided his way was going to be done. And there are many today that will do that. May the Lord deliver us from having the Word of God before us, but then making it, as the Lord said of the Jews of His day, of none effect because of their traditions. The Word of God said one thing, they said another, and what they said prevailed over the Word of God and solemnly we find it in many professing churches today. that they'll have the Word of God, but they'll go after their own wisdom and their own way. This was, of course, the great sin of the Roman Catholic Church of putting tradition or the dictates of the Pope above the Word of God. But salvation is God's salvation. It is His way. It is His appointment and not of man's. Jonah, when he was in the whale's belly, helpless, not able to deliver himself, cried unto the Lord in that low place, and the Lord heard him and delivered him. He says salvation is of the Lord, and it is from beginning to end. The Lord's plan, the Lord's executing of that plan, the Lord bringing it to pass, All is of the Lord. It is the great plan of God that in the Lord Jesus Christ should be redemption and salvation, that he should accomplish on Calvary the putting away of his people's sin, that he then should ascend up into heaven, being risen from the dead, and that the Holy Spirit should quicken into life all of those for whom he suffered, bled and died, whose sins were put away at Calvary, that that should be made known to them, and every part is all of God's work and God's plan. And we must say this, that God's plan will succeed. It will not fail. It will come to pass. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? And the kingdom of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his. When did they become his? From eternity. Chosen in Christ, loved with an everlasting love. Their names written in the Lamb's book of life. It is God's salvation. It is unique. And it is recorded in the pages of scripture, and wherever we And whenever we want to find out about it, it is to search the scriptures and to find from the Word of God what is God's salvation. And this shall be the comfort of the people of God in death, that they have not chosen the Lord, He has chosen them. That they have not saved their own soul, He has saved them. The Word of the Lord, his name shall be called Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins. In this life, from the power and dominion of them, and in that which is to come, blotting out their transgressions, this salvation is God's salvation. And when we read the word of God, may we always look for it and see how the Lord reveals it to us, gradually through the prophets, through the promises, until the promised seed comes, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then all that is done is all, especially in the sufferings of Christ, again and again we have it written, it is written, it is written. Again, reinforcing to us that The salvation of God and the work of our Lord is all according to a divine plan. Thy salvation. So when we read here in our text, His glory is great in thy salvation, honour and majesty has there laid upon him. That is the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is great in thy salvation. When we're looking at the salvation of God, the salvation of the Bible, we expect to see that the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is great in that salvation. It's one mark of the salvation of God. So I want to look then in our second point, the greatness of Christ's glory in salvation. I want to begin with a bit of a contrast. In the salvation of God, There are other characters, there are men, there is the devil, that are used in God's salvation. We think of the Jewish nation, which was spoken of as that nation, that people, a mother of us all, through whose lineage comes the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the vehicle as such that God used, calling Abraham, and then from the seed of Abraham, and then the seed of David, bring forth the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we think about the picture of Israel, can Israel say, look at my glory in salvation? It was a great honor that God should come through that nation. But they were sinners, and right through their history, there's so much that they needed to be ashamed of, the Lord dealing with them, dealing with their rebellions, their sins. And yet in God's salvation they were used. Even Mary, she said that from henceforth all shall call me blessed. But she was still a sinner, the sword shall pierce thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed. She said, I rejoice in God, my Saviour. And though she was used in the bringing forth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in that sense, there is a glory and a blessedness that is put upon her. But it can never, never come anywhere near What is said of the Lord Jesus Christ, again with the Roman Catholic Church, venerating Mary as if she wasn't a sinner, as if she had a great glory. But the scriptures are not full of her glory, they're full of Christ's glory. Though she was used in salvation. We think of the Jews, they were used. Peter and the Romans as well, Peter on the day of Pentecost. He that was delivered by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain. They were used in the part of God's salvation. Their wickedness was used. But is there any glory in what they did? When Peter preached, they were pricked in their hearts. It was something that they were greatly grieved in. Not to glory in what they'd done, but the glory was that he was delivered by God's determinate counsel. He used, used wicked, sinful men, even Satan. The Lord used him, allowed him to vent his malice and hatred. The original promise that he shall bruise thine heel, thou shalt bruise his head. The serpent was used in that way. We think of Judas. He was foretold. He was appointed to go unto his place, part, as it were, of the salvation that was traced out in a typical line with a hedeful. And he went to his own place. But is there any glory in what Judas did? None at all. The solemn thing to be used may be scaffolding in God's plan of salvation. but not in any way that brings glory to us, really in all the people of God. It is what is set forth in Psalm 115, the way that psalm begins. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and thy true sake. And so in coming to look at the glory of the Lord, His glory is great in thy salvation. We would put it as contrasted to those who have a part in that salvation, but have no glory in it. But the glory is all of the Lord Jesus Christ. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth. When our Lord was baptised, the voice from heaven pronounced that this is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased. On the Mount of Transfiguration also, he was exalted. They saw no man but Jesus only. Not Moses, not the prophets, but the Lord Jesus Christ and the voice from heaven. Again, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. But I want to turn and draw your attention to the Gospel according to John, the very first chapter. Here is John introducing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, introducing salvation to us. Inspired Word of God through John. And what do we expect and what do we see? We see God's glory, the greatness of Christ's glory in salvation. And if we trace through, as this chapter begins, chapter one, we find in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Lord's glory as the Word. We have said that the only place in which this salvation is revealed is in the Word of God. Our Lord said, heaven and earth shall pass away, my word shall not pass away. He is the Incarnate Word, the written Incarnate Word, the same. And this title, this glory is set forth upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have the glory that He was with God and the Word was God. He is exalted as God. And we said in Psalm 24 that when it comes to the end and the Lord is ascended up into heaven, Then He is given His ascribed Jehovah as the Lord, the true God. This is the true God and eternal life. We have Him set forth as the Creator. Verse 3. Verse 10. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made. In verse 10, He was in the world and the world was made by Him. and the world knew him not. Here is the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in salvation. Without this world, there would be no salvation. Without man created, there would be no salvation. And may we remember this, sometimes when a child is born, then there's shaking of heads and tutting amongst the people of God that they're brought into such a wicked and evil world. Well, that is true. Without them being brought into this world, they'll never be saved. Without being born first, they'll never be born again. And we should always remember that. We tremble sometimes into what our children will see, but may we bless the fact that they are born, that they are in this world, that they have been appointed in this world, and our prayer that they be appointed unto salvation in this glorious plan. and parents, native place and time, all appointed were by Him. It is the Lord that fixes our first and our second birth. We have in verse 9 that He is the true light, that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And this glory, this greatness of glory, is put upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Light is coming to the world, he says, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. We have grace, verse 17. The law was given by Moses. Again, there is Moses. The law has a part in salvation. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. If we get one Corinthians chapter three, we get right through that, a contrast between the glory of Moses and the glory of the Lord and the glory of Christ. And how much more superior is the glory of Christ than the glory of Moses. Lauren Terrace Jubert Hardin says to him, writer, although while I work alone, but a sense of blood-bought pardon soon dissolves a heart of stone. By the law is the knowledge of sin, The law can only condemn, but the gospel, it sets free. It speaks of peace, of pardon, forgiveness. It speaks of life, not death. The ministration of death, says Paul, written upon tables of stone. And that's not the gospel. The gospel is life through the Lord Jesus Christ, through the blood that was shed at Calvary. We have in verse 18, going back to chapter 1, John 1, that he is the only begotten of the Father, the only begotten Son, and that he is given this glory as being the one that has seen God and that he had declared Him. What man is there? No man has seen God at any time. But the Son, He has declared Him. This glory is given to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He declares Him. We have in verse 29, John seeing Jesus coming unto him, saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Again, John was used. John was used. The Lord said that there's no greater prophet than that of John, but the least in the kingdom of heaven, or those that are brought forth after Christ has died and risen again is greater than he, because John still was in the prophets looking forward to Christ's coming and suffering and death and rising again. Though great John was, his glory was nothing. like what that of the Lord Jesus Christ in his own words. He says that in verse 26, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. And he it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latched I am not worthy to unloose. How highly John is speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, how exalted He is. Again, to read that beautiful word in John 1.14, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We read together in the Revelation, Revelation chapter 5, of the first begotten from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ, the first, the only one by his own power and might to rise from the dead. He's spoken of as the grain a seed that is put in the ground and it dies and then there springs up that fruit, that hundredfold from that death. The glory of redemption, the plan of salvation, it was central in this, especially in the setting forth of Him being the Lamb of God. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. He was made flesh. He was made flesh that He might die, suffer, shed His blood, under the wrath of God, rise again, putting away His people's sin, redeeming them, setting them free by the payment of a price. And that glory is all Christ's. How clearly we have this set before us in this beautiful psalm. His glory is great in thy salvation, honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. Verse two, he hath given him his heart's desire, the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. His desire, his prayer. I want to just look, before we pass on to our last point, thinking of not only the greatness of Christ's glory and salvation as a whole, but think of it in our salvation as individuals, as those saved by grace. This surely must be the mark of having the true salvation of God. Everyone in his temple does speak of his glory. Unto you which believe, says Peter, he is precious. If we are saved by Christ, then the Holy Spirit, he receives the things of Jesus and shows them unto us, and the Lord Jesus Christ is precious. Again the Hymn writer says, I could from all things parted be, but never, never Lord from thee. The Lord himself says, if you believe not that I am he, you shall perish in your sins. There is none other name given among men, whereby we must be saved. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, in those that are saved, those that partake of his salvation, The one mark will be that they see a beauty in him. They are attracted to him. No man can come unto me except the Father which sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. Is the Lord precious to you? Is he to me? Do we see his glory in our salvation? Do we see it a plan that he has wrought out his part in it? And though there may be things God has used, He may have used a minister, He may have used ungodly men to bring us into concern, maybe in providential things, but we're not lifting up those things. We're not seeing the glory in those things, but the glory is of the Lord. And He is the one that is precious. We see Him ordering all things. And we see that glory that the Father has put upon him. Salvation must be a personal thing. There's no use to be talking about in general terms of others being saved or just a general salvation. You and I need to be saved. We need that the fruits and effects of Christ's death and rising again are realised in our life, that we are quickened, we are made alive, that we who were dead in trespasses and sins might be quickened again and made alive. And if that is so, then the Lord will be precious. We'll extol Him, we'll worship Him, we'll serve Him, we'll obey Him, we'll want to lift him up upon the pole of the gospel in preaching, and want to say, come and hear all ye that fear God, and I tell what he hath done for my soul. And all the glory will be the Lord's, the Lord's desire in John, John 17. Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory. We see it but veiled here, but what that glory must be in Emmanuel's land, to really see how great his glory is in thy salvation. On to look then lastly at the honour and majesty laid upon him. On to Look at this primarily from the words of scripture. How beautifully the scriptures of truth set forth that honour and majesty is laid upon our Lord. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 20, 23, we read of that great power that was put forth to us that would believe, which is the same power that brought the Lord from the dead, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. and hath put all things unto his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Our text, what does it say? His glory is great in thy salvation, honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. And it is, it is laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did we read that in Philippians chapter 2? Because we read this, verse 9. Many after he'd been humbled, himself became obedient unto death, the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of things in heaven and things in earth, things under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him. And it is glory and honour to the Father as well. He that glories the Son, glorifies the Father, that he has pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell. And in the portion that we read, In Revelation 5, verse 9, they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, to open the seals thereof, for Thou hast been, Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. You have going down to verse 12, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. You think of it in verse 14, the four beasts said amen and the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and forever. The scriptures speak of the honour and majesty that is laid upon him. That which we said already in Psalm 24, who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory, Selah. We think of the types in scripture. We think of Joseph brought from prison and the glory he says to his brothers, go and tell my father of my glory in Egypt. right next to the King. You think of Mordecai, and he was next to the King, speaking peace to all his seed, but in the highest position in the land. And these are just little types of the Lord. May we see, then, the glory of the Lord and his majesty, and may we also see it in our salvation. Be able to say, this God is our God. This God is my God. He will be my guide, even unto death. He is my Saviour, my Redeemer, and I will exalt Him. I'll do all that is set forth in any way the Lord prescribes in His salvation, that I can glorify Him and worship Him and extol His name. I will do that. His glory is great in thy salvation, honour and majesty, as they are laid upon him. May the Lord at his blessing. Amen.