Thank you, Pastor. It is so very,
very good to be with you again tonight. I saw Brother Terry
Worthen and his wife drive up when we drove up this evening.
All the years I've been coming down here tonight was the first
time I missed the drive and went way down the road and turned
around and come back. But I've been thinking a good bit about
the first time I recall seeing and hearing Brother Worthen.
You've been such an example of faithfulness for as long as I've
known you. Thank God for you. I sincerely
thank God for you. We were, I believe it was 1972,
I was 22 years old, over Miner Heights, where the Feral Griswold
introduced Terry to preach. And he said he was from Atlanta.
And Terry said, I'm not from Atlanta. He said, Atlanta's where
folks in Georgia think they're going to go when they die. I'm
from Kent. And then I'm confident the best sermon
I ever heard in my life was the 51st psalm. Brother Terry preached
up at Louisville several years ago when Brother Dan Parks was
pastor there. Speaking of that psalm and our Lord Jesus being
represented by David in the psalm when he was made sin for us,
just outstanding. May God be pleased to meet with
us these next few nights, or tonight, tomorrow night, Sunday
morning, and I trust the messages will come from him and be sent
from him to your heart. With that in mind, turn with
me to Psalm 21. Psalm 21. God has graciously
directed my heart in sweet meditation on this psalm for the last couple
of weeks. This psalm about the greatness
of Christ's glory in salvation. In the process, I believe, he's
given me a message for you. It is one of the plainest most
obvious truths of Holy Scripture, that the glory of God is and
must be the first and ultimate end of all things. The glory
of God is and must be the first and ultimate end of all things.
God's glory is himself, the essence of his nature, his very being. Those magnificent attributes
of God, the perfections of his nature, those things that identify
him as God and alone as God are much more than just emanations
and qualities of his nature. Unlike us, God's attributes are
himself, his being, his glory. When we think and speak of God,
the great, almighty, solitary God in the Trinity of his sacred
persons. We must always think of him in
possession of all those marvelous, incommunicable attributes of
his nature that make him God. Take away any attribute from
him, that which is his nature, and you've destroyed his being
as God. Of course, that can't be. But
we must recognize that the attributes of God The glory of God is God
himself. We speak of the attributes of
God, understand we're talking about him who is God. And any God that lacks the attributes
of that God revealed in this book is no God at all, but only
the idolatrous stigma of man's imagination. And yet the glory
of the triune God is revealed to us, manifest to us, and seen
by us only in the person of His dear Son, our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ, in the face of the crucified Christ. Only in Christ is the invisible
God made visible. We see God in the God-man, our
mediator, Christ Jesus the Lord. Beholding his glory, we behold
the fullness and the glory of the triune God. When you behold
the glory of Christ, you behold the glory and the fullness of
God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now that's a statement in Colossians
chapter 2 verse 9 that is I guess impossible for us to get our
minds around. In the body of that man who sits
in glory That man who was crucified in our stead at Calvary 2,000
years ago, in the body of that man who came forth from his mother's
womb saying, lo, I come to do thy will, oh my God, in that
man's body dwells all the fullness of God. What a statement. In him dwelleth. Permanently all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body bodily The glory of God is the glory
of Christ and we're told in Ephesians 2 that we will in eternity be
those in whom God shows forth the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus Not only shall the
glory of God be revealed to us throughout the endless ages of
eternity, if I can use such language, it should be revealed to us and
known to us only in the person of the God-man, our Savior, God
in our nature, our all-glorious Christ. And yet there is a peculiar
preciousness about this everlasting revelation of the glory of God
in Christ. The Holy Spirit tells us that
the glory of God in Jesus Christ is revealed in Him and is directly
and inseparably associated with the salvation of our souls. Somehow
God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost has wrapped up His
glory, the revelation and the knowledge of His glory in the
salvation of the people of His love. so that God's glory is
at stake in our salvation. God's glory is at stake in our
everlasting redemption. The revealed glory of God to
all eternity is connected with the salvation of his elect and
our eternal infallible salvation by Christ. According to Ephesians
1.6 We are now and forever shall be to the praise of the glory
of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Now I recognize that God shows
his glory in many ways in some measure. You step out in the
creation at any place on this earth at any time and you'll
see the glory of God. I have the privilege of traveling
like other folks don't. I've been to a lot of places.
I've seen lots of contrast in creation in our part of the world
where I was raised up in North Carolina. I was raised in Blue
Ridge, Smoky Mountain area. Ah, it's beautiful, beautiful.
You go out west and you start to drive over those mountains
out there, and they ain't pretty at all. They're just not pretty. If you get up above the tree
level, all you see is rocks and some sticks. That's about it.
But they're majestic. They stand in stark contrast.
And here again, you see the greatness of God. You look up into the
heavens and you see the sun. At night, the stars and the moons.
You see the clouds working overhead. You see a tornado working up.
You see the majesty of our God. God's glory he makes known in
some measure in his providence. Day by day in his providence
the Lord God shows himself to be God. We have lots of folks
questioning now the killings in Florida and those are things
that ought to shock and alarm anybody with half sense. But
the sad fact is everybody tries to separate God's judgment from
God. We live in a generation under
the judgment of God, and there's no question about that. And the
warnings given repeatedly is you're going to meet God in judgment
very soon. Life here is just a breath, nothing
more. Soon we must die. Soon we will
stand before God in judgment, and we will meet him in absolute
justice at the bar of divine judgment. He will deal with all
of us in absolute strict justice. God reveals his glory in the
scriptures. You read the word. And I was
talking to Brother Todd Niber and his wife, Lynn, one night
several months ago. We were setting out on a porch
in Nashville after a meeting. And she said, the Bible, it's
unlike any other book. Every time you read it, you read
the same passage, and God shows you something different, shows
you something you haven't seen before. It's a living word. And
God, as he speaks by his word, makes it life to us and thereby
shows us something of his glory. But you see the full revelation
of God in his glory only in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. In him,
in the saving of our souls, we behold the glory of our God. Moses said, Lord, I beseech you.
Show me your glory. You remember what the Lord said
to him? He said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee,
and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
unto whom I will show mercy. So that God says, here's my glory. I am God sovereign, and I am
God saving. God's glory is his sovereign
character in the saving of sinners by Jesus Christ our Lord look
here Psalm 21 Psalm 21 In verse 5 the psalmist says his glory
is great That's my subject his glory is great His glory is great
in thy salvation Now give me your attention for a few minutes
I pray that God the Holy Ghost will speak by me to your heart
by his word. Our text will be verses 5 and
6, but we'll begin in verse 1 and work our way down to verse 5.
As you read the Psalms, don't ever forget as you read them,
you read the words of David or others in the Psalms, you're
reading the words of men inspired by God to write the Word of God
and as they wrote They truthfully spoke of their own experience
and knowledge of God. No question about that. But as
they wrote the Psalms, they wrote concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Some folks have the idea this
is a messianic psalm. Some Bibles have a star by a
psalm. This is a messianic psalm. Let
me tell you a little secret. Are you listening? They're all
messianic. They all speak about the Redeemer.
And in this psalm, David the King is typical of our Lord Jesus
Christ. David's enemies are representative
of the enemies of Christ. David's kingdom is typical of
the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And David's glory is
but a picture of the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who has accomplished our redemption and our salvation. It's on 21
verse 1. The King, the King, Now remember,
he's not just talking about David the king, the king. The Lord
Jesus shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation,
how greatly shall he rejoice. This is a prophecy of our Savior's
great joy as the result of the salvation he, David spoke of,
would come to accomplish for his people. when the Son of God
had assumed our nature as agreed upon in the covenant of grace
once he accomplished our salvation by the strength of Jehovah having
obtained eternal redemption for us with his own blood when he
entered in once into the holy place how greatly did he rejoice
Hebrews chapter 12 tells us This is the joy set before Him, for
which He endured the cross, despising the shame. What joy? The joy
of seeing you and me with Him, one with Him, in Heaven's glory. This is the joy set before Him. After he had redeemed us by his
blood, the Lord God said, I'll give you my people to be yours
forever. Our Lord Jesus, we're told in
verse two, speaks like this, or speaks of him like this. Thou
has given him his heart's desire and has not withholden the request
of his lips. What was his heart's desire?
Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. What was his heart's desire? Father, glorify thy name. What was his heart's desire?
Thy will be done. And the Lord God has given to
the God-man his heart's desire. What was the request of his lips?
Was it not the salvation of his people? Father, I will, that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory. The prayer of our Savior's lips,
the desire of his heart, are things that cannot be withheld
from him. Things he must have because he
earned them. Things he must have because the
Father promised them to him. That's the redemption of his
people by his blood. The regeneration of his elect
by his spirit. The comfort of his saints in
the midst of trouble. Their preservation through every
trial. and their perfect holiness before
the Father, their happiness forever in his presence in heavenly glory. Now look at the last word of
verse 2, Selah. As a general rule, when I read
the Psalms, I don't read that word Selah, and there's a reason
for that. The word really is a punctuation
mark. It's a long period. It's a long period. I don't remember
much I was taught in school, but I learned a few things. When
you're reading audibly or silently, and you read a line, and you
see a comma, you pause briefly. You see a colon, you pause just
a little longer. You see a semicolon, you pause
just a little longer. When you see a period, that's
a full stop, and you pause just a second, and you read on. Here
is a full stop. It is what it means. You stop
and think about that for a while. You stop and roll this over in
your mind a while. These are things before which
we ought to pause with thoughtful adoration. Stop here. Linger
a little while. Meditate on these things. Eternity
itself will be too short to comprehend. I recall Brother Farrell Griswold
sitting in my office at Lookout West Virginia one time, and I
was just a young man, 22, 23 years old, maybe 24. And he said, I don't know, but
I suspect that in eternity we will spend eternity learning
of God our Savior. Learning of His ways of grace.
Learning of His providence. Learning of His goodness. Never
fully comprehending, but then understanding as we learn. Learning
of God look at verse 3 For thou prevent us to him if you don't
mind writing in the margin of your Bible you ought to write
this down that word prevent us means precede our go before thou
Goest before him with the blessings of goodness Thou sent us the
crown of pure gold on his head The Lord God here tells us of
what the old men used to call God's prevenient grace. Grace
that goes before grace and precedes grace and prepares the way for
grace. Now let me tell you about God's
prevenient grace. Are you listening to me, John?
Everything God has ever done up to the day he called you by
his grace, he did for that day. Every event in your life, every
circumstance, every difficulty, every heart-breaking, gut-wrenching
thing you've experienced, this is just God's prevenient grace,
preceding grace by which he prepares you to receive his grace. Read
the 107th Psalm and lay it to heart. This is God's marvelous
grace. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. And when goodness and mercy
have done their work, they will have chased me into the house
of the Lord, where I shall dwell forever. Goodness and mercy are
pursuing God's elect. Goodness and mercy are like hounds
on the trail after God's elect. Goodness and mercy chasing down
God's elect. And goodness and mercy continually
pursuing us into everlasting glory. God's goodness toward
his elect goes out to them even before Christ comes to them in
secret workings of providence. And then the Lord Jesus comes
in his marvelous grace and speaks peace to the soul. Verse 4, he,
the Lord Jesus, asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him,
even length of days forever and ever. This refers to our Savior's
resurrection, his exaltation, his dominion, that which he earned
Ask for and receive from his father as the result of his accomplished
redemption The father said to him in Psalm 2 verse 1 Ask of
me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. In Psalm
16, you have a prophecy of our Lord's resurrection glory. That
which was promised him is life everlasting, length of days. He who suffered and died as our
substitute, that one who was bruised for our iniquities, that
one upon whom the Lord God laid our sins, that one who was made
sin for us, as the result of having accomplished redemption,
he shall prolong his days. He's gonna rise from the dead
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Look
then yonder Seated on the throne of glory is that man who is God
who died in our stead and in his hands are the reigns of Universal
monarchy that he should give eternal life to as many as the
Lord God has given him This he did manifestly in time. When the Lord Jesus ascended
back to the Father and the angels accompanied him up to glory,
the disciples saw him ascend up to heaven. And David spoke
in Acts chapter three and said, this is David seated on his throne.
David's son, the Lord Jesus, he's fulfilled the prophecy.
And now the pleasure of the Lord's prospering in his hands. You
remember how our Lord prayed about that in John 17? He said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son with the glory
which I had with you before the world was. So that this open
manifestation, this open revelation of the glory of God in Christ
Jesus is that which God, the triune Jehovah, gave to him as
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world who was accepted
from eternity as our surety, our savior, and our substitute.
So that the world has always been in the hands of our Redeemer. It's always been in His hands
for Him to do with as He will for the saving of His elect.
Now, let me show you several aspects of our Savior's greatness
in God's salvation. I'll just move as far as I can.
I won't try to tell you everything I've got down here. It won't
take me long to tell you all I know, but I'll tell you a little
bit. First, Christ is great. in Jehovah's salvation, personally,
as God the Son in our nature. His glory is great in thy salvation. When you think about Him as the
Son of God, whose glory is great in the salvation of God's elect,
these three things are certain. First, the salvation revealed
and spoken of in Holy Scripture is God's salvation. Salvation
is the Lord's. It is not only of the Lord, it
is the Lord's. It is God's to give to whom he
will, as he will, when he will. It is not something that is a
privilege that man possesses. It is not a right that God owes
to man. It is not an opportunity God
owes to man. Salvation is God's property. He gives it to whom he will.
It is God's property and God's alone. There's much talk these
days about man's free will. But man's free will has never
done anything yet except ruin it. Until my will is conquered
by God's will, my will is rebellion, unbelief, and sin. That's all
it is. But don't you believe man has
a free will? No. Well, sort of. Brother Scott
Richardson used to say, your will is just as free as a frog
in a snake's belly. You can jump around all you want
to, you just can't get out. And man's will is bound by his
nature. And his nature is depravity,
corruption, sin. Man will never choose the good
and hate the evil. He will always choose the evil
and hate the good. He will never turn toward God
until he is turned of God. He'll never come to God until
God comes to him. Salvation is not by the will
of man, or the works of man, or the worth of man. Salvation
is God's work and God's work alone. In fact, the Apostle speaks
of God's salvation this way, By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works lest any man should boast. Now listen to this, And we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Do you
know what that word workmanship means? Do you know what it means? I remember hearing Brother Darwin
Pruitt talking about going up to Washington visited, his son
was up there and went into one of the museums and saw those
Dutch masters. And he said they were talking
about paintings. I thought they were cheap cigars. But he said,
these are the masters they had, the Dutch masters. That word
workmanship is masterpieces. Masterpieces. What a word. What a word. If you could pick
up a mirror right now and look at it, You who are God's, you're
God's masterpieces. As good as God can do. As good as God can do! That's called perfect salvation.
That's called being complete in Christ. That's called holiness,
righteousness, sanctification. That's called God-like, made
in the image of God. Every believer, speaking of salvation,
ascribes it to the triune God alone. We call our salvation
thy salvation. And when it's finished, when
everyone who ever shall be called has been called, when every one
of the Lord's elect has been regenerated, justified, sanctified,
and glorified, his glory shall be great in our salvation. This means when we speak about
salvation, being by the work of God the Son, salvation comes
from God and belongs to God. And our salvation is for the
glory of God, just his glory. Three times over in the first
chapter of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul tells us, that God chose
us, He predestinated us, He redeemed us, He called us, He sealed us
for His glory. Psalm 106 verse 8, nevertheless
He saved them for His namesake. He did this for His honor, for
His glory. God's glory is the first object
proposed by salvation. God, you see, is more concerned
for the promotion of his glory, then any of his people can't
possibly be for their own eternal happiness. God's glory is wrapped
up in this thing. If salvation is for God's glory
alone and God's work alone, then man contributes nothing to it. Nothing about it is dependent
upon you. Nothing about it is determined
by you. It's altogether God's work. and
Christ's glory as God the Son is great in God's salvation. I don't know how to express what
I want to say, what I know the scriptures teach here. We are
Trinitarians We recognize the scriptures teach that our God
is one God in three persons, not one God manifest in three
persons, one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. But the triune Jehovah, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, has arranged for all the knowledge and glory
and fullness of God to reside in the God-man, our mediator,
Jesus Christ the Lord. So that all you know of God,
all you see of God, all you hear from God is Christ. That's all. In heaven's glory,
when we see God face to face, We will see God in the face of
this song. We will see God in the face of
the God-man, our mediator. Oh, how I love to meditate upon,
read about, and hear about, sing about, and preach about the glory
of the God-man, our Savior. I'm like a dying saint I read
about many years ago. She was sick and dying. She knew
it, and all of her family and friends knew it. And somebody
in the room began to talk about the great glory of the Lord Jesus. And someone kind of whispered
to her and said, shh, let her rest. And she opened her eyes
and she said, no, let him speak. Let him speak. I'm soon going
to see my Savior face to face. But until then, I can't hear
enough about him. Oh, God, teach me. Teach me as a preacher. You can't
preach enough about him. You can't speak enough about
him. Don't miss an opportunity to
speak about him and his glory. Isaac Ambrose, a Puritan, said,
surely I cannot say too much of Jesus Christ. On this blessed
subject, no man can hyperbolize. You just can't say too much about
him. Now, our Savior's great as God
the Son. It's impossible to talk about
salvation in biblical terms without talking about a covenant as well.
I want you to understand that our Lord Jesus, our great God
and Savior, is great as our covenant surety. Our covenant surety. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews
13. In Hebrews 7 verse 22, We're told that by so much Jesus
was made a surety of a better testament. Hebrews 13 verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep. Now watch this. Through the blood
of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work
to do his will. Working in you, that which is
well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Suretyship. We don't know much about that
these days. We hear little about it, especially from the book,
but we ought to hear about it every week. A surety is not just
a guarantor. When I was a boy 15 years old,
I had I make a little bit of money working, and I talked my
dad into signing for me to get a car. It was a mistake on his
part, but I talked him into it. And what that meant was, if Don
can't make the payments, we're coming after you. That's a guarantor. You co-sign a loan, you become
the guarantor. That means if the fellow you
co-signed for can't meet the bills, they're coming after you.
You're the one responsible. You're the one who's got the
money. That's not a surety. A surety is one who assumes total
responsibility for another. Total responsibility. Try to
grasp that. Total responsibility. That means
the one by whom the surety is accepted. Trust Him entirely
for everything committed to Him. And that's what we're told in
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 12 when it speaks of us trusting
in our Savior. God the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost first trusted in the surety. Did you get that? The Lord God
trusted to Him all His will, all His purpose, all His glory,
and all His people. He said, Father, give them to
me, and I'll save them. And I'll bring them and present
them before you, whole and without blame. And the father trusted
the son. And the father and the son struck
hands in the covenant, and the surety was accepted. Now listen
to me. From that point in eternity,
from everlasting, from everlasting, God Almighty ceased to look to
me for anything. He didn't look to me to perform
righteousness. He didn't look to me to satisfy justice. He
didn't look to me to pay for my sins. He looked to the surety. And the surety assumed total
responsibility. If I bring him not back, as Judah
said concerning Benjamin, then let me bear the blame forever.
And he will bring back God's darlings, every one of them.
He's the surety, an everlasting surety. Not one who was compelled
to be a surety, but a voluntary surety. Our accepted surety. The one trusted of God. Our faithful
surety. Our successful surety. And then
turned to Isaiah 42. His glory is great as the sun. His glory is great as our surety. And His glory is great as God's
servant. In order to save us, Our great
covenant surety, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus, became Jehovah's
voluntary servant. His righteous servant and his
glory as Jehovah's servant is great in God's salvation. You remember, I think it's Exodus
25, the law of the bond slave. Man somehow is brought into debt
and he goes into bondage, and he serves a man for six years.
On the seventh year, he's commanded by law to be set free. But if
he chooses not to be set free, saying, I love my master, I love
my wife, and I love my children, then his master was commanded
of God to bring him to the gate of the city, or the tabernacle,
or the temple, and to bore his ear through it all publicly.
And by that bored ear, having his ear pierced publicly, he
said, I am his servant forever. And he was his servant forever. He could go out free anytime
he wanted to, but he wouldn't go out free because he loved
his master, and he loved his wife, and he loved his children.
Hear me. The Son of God set his face like
a flint to go to Jerusalem. unless he would not go out free
because of his love for God and his glory and his love for you,
his child, his love for you, his bride. Thank God he would
not go out free. He came here to accomplish something
and either he accomplished it or he's a miserable failure.
And if he's a failure, he's not worth spit. If he's a failure,
he's not God. Now listen to the scriptures.
Psalm 42, Isaiah 42 verse 1. Behold my servant whom I uphold,
my elect, my chosen servant. Christ be my first elect is said
and then chose us in Christ our head. In whom my soul delighteth. But my chosen one, this is the
one in whom my soul delights, God says. In whom my soul delights. This is my beloved son, in whom
I'm well pleased. I put my spirit upon him. He
shall bring forth judgment, righteousness, and justice to the Gentiles. He shall not cry. He won't be
frustrated. He won't be disappointed. nor
lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised
reed shall it not break. I can't think of anything on
this earth more useless than a bruised reed. You take a bunch
of reeds and strap them together, you can make a post out of them
and build something. You strap them together, you can make a
weapon out of them and beat somebody down. But a bruised reed, you
can't even lean on it to fall over. A bruised reed is worthless.
You can't do anything with it. Maybe the only thing more worthless
is a smoking flax. It's just a stench. That's all. That's a pretty good description
of you and me. Worthless, stinking. But he says,
a bruised reed he'll not break, and a smoking flax shall he not
quench. Rather, he shall bring forth judgment, righteousness,
and justice unto truth. He's going to accomplish salvation.
He shall not fail. What great, great words. He shall
not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth
and the isles, that is the nations of the world, shall wait for
his law. One more thing. His glory is
great as our substitute. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. The greatness of Christ's glory
is seen in the objects of his love, the purpose of his death,
and the efficacy of his atonement. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. He's a new creature. What does
that mean? A whole lot more than you ever imagined. It means old
things are passed away. Old things are passed away. One of the most confusing things
to men who don't know God and one of the most blessed things
to those who do know God is the fact that we can't forget our
sins and God can't remember them. Old things passed away. All the tormenting things for which an old man and old
woman lays in bed at night and they weep. All that you've done. Oh my God, there's so many things
I'd change if I could. But in reality, nothing I change. For in all this, God was working
his prevenient grace to bring me to know his son. Oh, God,
I thank you. You have so thoroughly put away
my sin, the sin I can't forget. So thoroughly put it away that
you have promised never to remember my iniquities against me forever. He beholds no sin in his own. Old things are passed away. Through
the blood of Christ, washed away. Brother John read it a little
bit ago. He purged our sins. He purged our sins. I don't make it a law. I might
if I could, but I don't make it a law. But I wear white shirts
when I'm preaching. I didn't always. I went up to
preach for Brother Scott Richards at one time. I think Larry might
have been with me. And I was just a young man. I dressed a
little different, kind of like a used car salesman in a cheap
car lot. I had a coat that was red, a patched sweater there,
check what he's got on. And it had white and blue piping
on it. And I had some white riches, and a blue and white polka dot
shirt, and a white tie, and white patent leather shoes. And I got
out, and Brother Scott said, look, Don, you're not going to
be preaching that, are you? But now I wear a white shirt,
something I wear when I'm in the pulpit. And sometimes I'll
leave that pin sticking out. And these new roller ball pins,
do you know what a mess they can make on a white shirt? I
mean, I'll have a blob of ink right here. And that dear lady
will scrub those things and scrub them and scrub them. She'll put
them in Clorox and she'll scrub them some more till her knuckles
are bleeding. And look at that. You see the black on that? It's
gone. It's been purged away. Read Jeremiah
15 verse 20, the Lord God says, I'm looking. Where is Don Fortner's iniquity? Where's his transgression? Where
is his sin? Behold, there shall be, what
is that? purged away Old things have passed
away and behold all things have become new a new heart a new
will a new nature a new record How is this done all things are
of God Who hath reconciled us to himself and hath given to
us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself. Our family doctor for 38 years
called me Tuesday, said he and his wife want to take us to lunch.
Said, my wife wants to talk to you about Calvinism. I told her,
if anybody could talk to you about it, you could. And I'm
looking forward to the talk. And I'm sure one of the questions
I'm going to have is, what about where this word world is used
all the time? Well, don't let it bother you
too much. World rarely means everybody
in the world. Rarely means that when you come
across the scripture. We're told in Luke chapter 2
that Caesar Augustus, when our Lord Jesus was about to be born
in this world, sent out a decree that all the world should be
taxed. Anybody here pay taxes then?
Anybody? Well, that means the word world
doesn't mean everybody, does it? It always speaks of folks in a specific
group of people. Our Lord Jesus here tells us
by the Apostle Paul that God was in him reconciling, now let
me tell you exactly what he's saying, the world of his elect
unto himself. His elect wherever they're found
in the world, black, white, Jew, Gentile, male, female, Rich,
poor, educated, illiterate, it doesn't matter. Old, young, it
doesn't matter. He was in Christ reconciling
his people scattered through all the world unto himself. What's
that mean? breaking down the wall that separated
us, tearing down the barriers between us and God, like that
veil that was rented to. He tore it apart. And God says
now to the world, come and welcome. Come and welcome. Come sinners
from everywhere and welcome at the holy place. How is that?
Not imputing their trespasses unto them. What? not imputing the trespasses unto
them? But God does things in justice,
only in justice. He'll never do anything that's
not right. And God said, the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
How can God not impute your trespasses to you? Because God made his
son sin in your stead. And God, by his son, satisfied
his own justice, so that now we sing with David, oh, blessed
is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. Hear me, child
of God. Hear me well. I make no excuse for anything
that comes out of this mouth that ought not to, or any passion
raging in this heart that I ought to subdue, or any evil in this
vile mind that ought to suppress. I make no excuse for it. None
whatever. But it doesn't matter what. God won't charge sin to you who
he is. He won't do it. He won't do it. Now that'd make a fella want
to go out and live like hell. If it does, you didn't hear what
I said. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not ever for
any reason, under any circumstances, impute sin. How is that? Because he made his son sin for
us, and when he made his son sin for us, imputed our sins
to his son. Read on. This is what it says. He's committed to us the word,
the message of reconciliation. Now then, we're ambassadors for
Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. I go everywhere I go preaching
the gospel of God's grace, calling on sinners everywhere to quit
fighting God. Just quit fighting God. Give
up your rebellion. throw down your little slingshot
or your shotgun, whatever you got out, lay your fist down by
your side, open your hand, quit fighting God and bow down and
be reconciled to him. I have made several trips to
Appomattox, Virginia with my friend, Brother Ron Rumberg,
Brother Ernest Lucas, the pastors in that general area, and it's
not a very pleasant place for me to go except for my friends
there. That's where Mr. Lee surrendered to the Union
troops. I have in my mind a picture that
I saw hanging on the wall at that museum. I'd like to take
it down and pretend it didn't exist, but it was there. The
Confederate troops were standing at attention as General Grant
and the Union Army rode between them with their sabers and their
knives and their guns and their powder horns stacked in front
of them, weapons stacked, standing at attention, utterly surrendered. That's what faith in Christ is.
It is the utter surrender of yourself unconditionally to Christ
the Lord. Be reconciled to God. Be at peace
with God. On what grounds can you ask men
to do that? How can you call on men and women
like us to give themselves up in totality to the Lord Jesus? Listen to me. He gave himself up in totality
to redeem you. In the totality of his being.
For he, the Lord God Almighty, hath made him, the Lord Jesus
Christ his Son, to be sin for us who knew no sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He utterly devoted himself
to me. How can I not utterly devote
myself to him? Now, look back at our text in
Psalm 21. On account of all this, verse
6, thou hast made him most blessed forever. Thou hast made him exceedingly
glad with thy countenance. Imagine that. The Lord Jesus
seated yonder in glory with his people at his right
hand as he is seated at his father's right hand. His people accepted
of God as he is accepted of God. His ransomed ones righteous as
he is righteous. Holy as he is holy. Perfect as
he is perfect. One with him in heaven's glory
forever. And he beams with pleasure He
sees of the travail of his soul and is satisfied. Amen.