Turn back with me to Psalm chapter
40. Psalm chapter 40. I want us to look at verse 16. Verse 16. Let all those that
seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee. Let such as love Thy
salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. If you're looking in the 40th
Psalm, we take note of the fact that David says in verse 2, that
he brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and
set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. David had experience
with God. The Lord had dealt with him.
The Lord had been merciful to him. The Lord had raised him
up. He brought me up. I like that
expression. He brought me up. You know, by
nature, we were all in a horrible pit. We were all lost and undone. We were all in need of being
regenerated by the Spirit of God. We needed salvation. We needed the Lord to come and
do a work in our life by His wonderful grace. David said in
verse 3, and he put a new song in my mouth. He put a new song
in my mouth. It's wonderful to have that new
song. That new song. The song that
speaks of the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. That
song that tells out the story of the amazing grace of God. The free grace of our blessed
Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Even praise unto our God. Now, beloved, if we are the children
of God, we certainly have it in our hearts to give praise
and adoration and glory and honor unto our God. If you would, just
hold your finger here and turn back with me to Psalm chapter
34, and I want you to listen as I read to you the first three
verses. Here David says, I will bless
the Lord at all times. I will bless the Lord at all
times. You know, many, many times we
think that the Lord is only to be blessed on the first day of
the week. Maybe the Lord is only to be
blessed when we enter into the sanctuary of the Lord. But the
Lord is to be blessed at all times because He's God everywhere. He's omnipresent. He's always
with us, and we need to learn to bless God at all times. Many people are interested in
only blessing God when everything is going well from their standpoint
or from their estimation. But we're to learn to bless God
at all times. And when we grow up in the Lord
Jesus, we will learn that lesson. And he goes on to say here, His
praise shall continually be in my mouth. Now beloved, if we
were to have the praise of God continually in our mouth, I believe
probably it would be a good blessing because from this standpoint
that there may be a whole lot of other things that wouldn't
be in our mouth. If we were to praise the Lord continually,
have His praise continually in our mouth. It speaks of a heart
that is ready to give glory and honor and praise unto the Lord,
and so it's in the mouth. You know, the Bible says that
out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And so when
your mouth is speaking His praise, it's because your heart is full
of the praise of God. He said, My soul shall make her
boast in the Lord. And why not? Those who are redeemed
of the Lord They know that they're saved by sovereign grace and
sovereign mercy, and they're not ashamed to make their boast
in the Lord. They know their salvation is
true. They know their salvation is a real salvation, a complete
and full salvation, so they make their boast in the Lord. And
it's always wonderful to have people, to hear people talk about
their salvation, their relationship with God, their sins having been
put away, and their having been reconciled unto God, and giving
God the glory for it, bolstering in the Lord. The humble shall
hear thereof, and be glad." And I think of the humble here as
being the dear children of God. Some are afflicted, storm-tossed.
Some have many, many adverse situations in their life, but
they hear about the salvation of God from those who've experienced
it, and they're made to rejoice and be glad in the Lord that
God does indeed that He does indeed visit the poor, that He
does indeed visit those who are cast down, those that are in
humble circumstances. The Lord is their God, and so
they rejoice and are glad. And then in verse 3, listen to
this verse, Oh, He says, magnify the Lord with Me, and let us
exalt His name together. He said, O magnify the Lord with
me. Can you do that this morning?
Now the word magnify is to declare and show forth one's greatness
and glory. It is to show forth one's greatness
and his glory. Declare it. Declare it and show
it forth. O magnify the Lord with me. Now my purpose this morning here
is to magnify the Lord. It's to lift up the Lord. It's
to exalt the Lord. It's to honor the Lord. That's
our purpose for being here this morning. And so he says, O magnify
the Lord with me. David said, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to magnify the Lord. I'm going to give glory to the
God of my salvation. Are you with me? He said, Are
you with me? Will you magnify the Lord with
me? And let us exalt His name together. Together. Let us, one heart,
one mouth, one soul, lift up the praises of our God. And let
us exalt the name of our God together this morning. Now back
in Psalm chapter 40 and verse 16, I want to speak on this part
of the verse, Let such as love thy salvation, say continually,
The Lord be magnified. Now these words occur at least
three times in the book of Psalms, and therefore, I believe we are
to regard these words here as to being especially important. Speak, Lord, for thy servant
heareth. Let God be magnified. Now, beloved,
the more you know of God's salvation, the more that you will love it.
And the more you love it, the more You'll be brought to recognize
the duty and the privilege of saying continually, let God be
magnified. Now, if I can this morning, I
want to stir you up to do exactly what we read that David wanted
us to do in Psalm 34, verses 1 through 3. I want to stir you
up to the obligation if you have enjoyed the benefit. Now as the
people of God, we read in Isaiah 43, 21, that this people have
I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. God said, I have especially fashioned
my people to the end that they will show forth my praise. And the Bible says, let the redeemed
of the Lord, let them say so. Now in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9,
a very interesting verse of Scripture, and let me read it to you this
morning. We read where Peter said, But ye, speaking to the
people of God, he said, Ye are a chosen generation. You are a generation that the
Lord has set his affection upon and his love upon in old time. And He's purposed your salvation. You're saved, and it's because
God purposed that you'd be saved that you are. You're a chosen
generation, chosen by God. He said you're a royal priesthood.
You're a priesthood that are able to offer up sacrifices unto
God. and that is with the fruit of
your mouth, to offer praise and give praise unto God. He said,
you're a holy nation. Holy because, as Paul said in
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4, according as He has chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. And the people of
God are a holy people. They're a holy nation. And he
says further that they're a peculiar people. They have been redeemed
to the end that they would be a different people, changed,
separated from the world, a people that are separated, sanctified
unto God. That, to this end, that you should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness,
into His marvelous light. Now then, the Lord has called
us out of darkness, and it's to the end that we would be able
to show forth these praises unto God, to give glory and honor,
magnify the Lord. So we have received this benefit,
and may we respond to the duty of magnifying the Lord. Now I
want to talk to you briefly about three things I find in this text.
Number one is those spoken of, who are they? Those that love
the Lord's salvation. Their character, they're described
here as they that love thy salvation. And number two, there's a wish
in the text, and that is the wish of David and of David's
God that all who answer to the character shall say continually,
let God be magnified. And then a short word on the
saying itself, let God be magnified. Number one, we'll begin then
with the character or the individuals here spoken of are those who
love God's salvation. They love God's salvation. Now it is, I believe, implied
that there are persons who are saved Because it is not according
to nature to love a salvation in which we have no part. If
we have no part nor lot in the Lord's salvation, then how can
we possibly love it if we have no part in it? So these people
that love the Lord's salvation are those who are saved people. Now, you may admire or covet
the salvation which is talked about and preached about by the
preachers, but we shall only love it if we've experienced
it. So the question is, have I experienced
the Lord's salvation? Has He indeed brought me out
of that horrible pit that I was in by nature? Has He set my feet
upon a rock, a granite rock? Do I have a firm foundation under
me? Now these love God's salvation
because they have experienced it, they possess it, they are
assured of their interest in it. They have an interest in
this salvation. I hope today that before the
God that knows our hearts, the Bible says that all things are
naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And so before the God that knows
our hearts, I hope this morning that there are some of us here
that can truly say we are saved and we can truly say today that
we love God's salvation. Blessed and happy are the people
who have this blessing and know it indeed. Know it indeed. Oh, the blessedness of being
able to read our title clear to mansions in the sky. You remember Fanny Crosby's old
hymn, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste
of glory divine. You're the ones to whom we speak
today. You know. Therefore, you love the salvation
of our God. Now, what is it in God's salvation
that the believer loves? Well, I begin by saying that
he loves best of all the Savior Himself. He loves the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. Often, you know, in the Word
of God, our Lord is called salvation. That is because I believe that
He is the author and the finisher. He's the Alpha and the Omega
of our salvation. He's the beginning and the end
of our salvation. He's the author of our faith. That means it originated with
Him. Paul said in Ephesians 2 that,
By grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Not
of yourselves, It's a gift of God, faith. He's the author of
it. Faith must come and it comes
down from God. We're saved by the gift of God's
faith. He who has Christ has salvation. We've told you many, many times
that salvation is in a person. It is in a person. Don't ever
forget that. Salvation is not in what you
do for God. It's what God has been pleased
to do in sending His own Son, our salvation, down here to represent
us in this world, to live out a perfect life, to establish
a perfect righteousness for us. Salvation is in a person. He that hath the Son, the Bible
says in 1 John 5 and verse 12, hath life, and he that hath not
the Son of God hath not life. So it's clear and obvious then
that Christ is the essence of salvation. So if the believer
loves God's salvation, he must of a necessity love Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ Told the
pharisees in John 8 and verse 42 if God were your father ye
would love me He said I proceed forth and came from God neither
came I of myself But he sent me he sent me into the world
now Jesus told them he said I know someone you love I know someone
you love if God is your father If God were your Father, you
would love Me. You would love Me. And so, I
believe what we love about God's salvation, first of all, is the
Savior. But we love more than the Savior's
person. We delight in the plan of salvation. Well, what is that plan of salvation? I hear people talk about the
Roman road. I hear them talking about various
and sundry plans. But what really is that plan
that endears the hearts of the true people of God unto God? It is spelled out, I believe,
in a single word. And that single word is substitution. Now the poet said he bore, that
is Christ bore, that we might never bear his father's righteous
error. Our sin was transferred from
the guilty to the innocent one. Substitution. Keep that word
ever in your mind when you're thinking about God's salvation. In 2nd Corinthians 5 and verse
21, the Bible says, For ye have made him, that is Jesus, to be
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. So we see then that our sin and
guilt was laid upon Him. We're told in Isaiah 53 and 6,
all we like sheep have gone astray and we turned everyone to our
own way and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. When our iniquity was charged
to the innocent Lamb of God, that Lamb that was without spot
or blemish or any such thing, even Christ, Our Passover, he
was smitten of God and afflicted as if he had been a sinner. And
verse 5 of Isaiah 53 says, But he was wounded for our transgression,
he was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. He was made to
suffer for transgression, not his own, just as if they had
been his own. And we need to learn that. We
need to focus upon that. And if we love God's salvation,
we love Christ, the person of Christ, and we love the plan
that God had in saving us from our sin. Now, many fight against
the truth of substitution, But as for me, I know no other gospel. I know no other gospel. There
is no way between heaven and earth that a man can become righteous
except believing on the Lord Jesus Christ who was made to
be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ must be
imputed to our account before we can stand accepted before
a thrice holy God. We must be clothed in the garment
of salvation. that garment that was worn from
the top to the bottom by the doing and dying of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We must be in Christ and have
a standing in His righteousness or we cannot be saved. Now let
our tongues be dumb rather than it should ever preach any other
gospel, any other doctrine than the doctrine of substitution
when it comes to the plan of salvation. Because as Mr. Spurgeon said, substitution is
the very mera of the whole Bible, the soul of salvation, the essence
of the gospel. And we ought to saturate all
of our sermons with it, for it is the life and blood of a gospel
ministry. Substitution. Now this shows
how God can be just and yet be the justifier of all that believe
in the Lord Jesus. Our plain testimony must be that
He, Jesus, was made a curse for us. That He, His own self, bear
our sins in His own body on the tree that He might bring us to
God. He was once offered to bear the
sins of many. and that he was numbered with
the transgressors, and was obedient unto death, yea, even the death
of the cross. Now the very way and plan of
it is as dear to us as life himself. Let God be magnified. Do you love God's salvation?
Do you love the plan? Do you love it? Oh, my friend,
that's the only way we can stand complete before God. And the
only way we can be accepted is because of the plan of substitution. Another reason we love God's
salvation is the object of it. You know, in Matthew chapter
1 and verse 21, the Bible says, His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Now, beloved,
there are some sinners that love the salvation from hell. They
love a salvation from hell. They talk about salvation as
being a fire insurance against the fires of eternal judgment. But you know the saint of God,
the truly regenerate, those who love God's salvation, love it
because it's a salvation from sin to be saved from every false
way is what a saint loves. They love that deep salvation
that makes them new creatures and old things pass away and
behold, all things become new. They like the object of this,
that they're saved entirely by the free grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ completely. It was to redeem a people unto
himself. that our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world. Without spot, the Bible says,
or wrinkle, or any such thing. We long for perfection, and that
perfection is found in a person in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
nothing short of it will do, and this is guaranteed to believers. in the gospel message, that they
will be saved not in their sin, but from their sin. And also, I believe that we love
the salvation of God because of the love of God. which is
displayed in his salvation. Ephesians 2 and 4 says, But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were sinners, even when we were dead, he raised
us up in the Lord Jesus Christ by grace are you saved. His love. His love. Why should
he set his heart on such nothings such rebellious men and women,
those who have arrogantly broken His holy law. Well, the Bible
says, God commendeth His love toward us, that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us, Romans 5 and 8. He gave His
Son for us while we were sinners. What love! His love is so visible
in the gospel, so let God be magnified because and for His
love. We read in John chapter 4 and
verse 10, herein is love, not that we love God, but that God
loved us and gave His Son to be a satisfaction for our sin. And also I think we love it because
it is indeed complete His salvation is complete. Mitch mentioned
the verses there in Colossians this morning. The work is finished. We are preaching an accomplished
redemption. A redemption that was accomplished
when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross. He cried out and
said, It is finished. The atonement is complete. Gloriously
complete. We read in the Bible, in Hebrews,
of how the priest of the Old Testament continually, standing
at the altar, altered sacrifices year by year, which could never
take away sin. But Christ, after He had offered
one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down about the right hand
of God. Why? Because the work was completed. The work was completed, and so
he sat down at the right hand of God. Somebody said, in Him
something, in me nothing. In me nothing. And so it's glorious. To love the salvation of God
because of the completeness of it. How we love this salvation. My friend, we would have, I believe,
lost our sanity if it were not for His salvation. Oh, how this
salvation has brought us out many a dark place, how it's lifted
us up on many, many sorry occasions, how it has caused our feet, our
oil to be planted, and how we've been able to endure the cause
of this salvation. Surely, we have no standing at
all in the grace of God if we do not love this salvation. A
wonderful verse in 1 Corinthians 16, And 22, it says that if any
man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Let him be anathema maranatha.
Let him go to hell when the Lord comes. If he loves not the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is in essence our salvation? Now then, I come
secondly to the wish. It is only right that God should
be magnified. The wish is that those who love
the salvation of God say continually, the Lord be magnified. It is only right that God should
be magnified in the world which He Himself created. Revelation
4 and 11 says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and
honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy
pleasure they are and were created. Things are out of joint if God,
the Redeemer, be not glorified. They are not as they should be.
Let God be magnified. We wish it because it always
needs saying, God is almighty to save, let God be magnified. Now, beloved, the God of the
Bible is a God worthy, as we said, to be magnified. Now, in
some circles, there's a God preached that I don't see how anybody
could magnify Him. I don't see how you could get
a corporal's guard together to magnify the God that some men
preach. But there are some differences
between the God of the Bible and the God of today's religion. There are many, many religionists
today who do not have any concept of the God of the Bible. The
God of the Bible has revealed Himself to us. Thank God for
a God of revelation. He's made Himself known. He's not hid Himself from those
who seek Him. And the majority of today's religion,
my friend, is man-centered to the core, humanistic. God is
a little old peanut God. Their God is. But the God of
the Bible is all-powerful, all-mighty. He's the sovereign of the universe. Which one is worthy of our worship
and adoration? Is it the God of the religionists?
Or is it the God of the Bible? Which one do you claim as your
God? Which one would you magnify?
Let me tell you the difference. and you tell me which one of
these gods you're going to magnify. David said here, such as love
by salvation, I want them to say continually, the Lord be
magnified. And we're gathered here to magnify
God. Now who is the God of the Bible? Now the God of the Bible has
decrees and purposes, and the God of today's religion has wishes
and wants. Think about it with me. One has
a will which cannot be frustrated, and the other's will is often
defeated and hindered. One is in absolute control, the
other wonders what will happen next. One rules and reigns in
majesty and glory, and the other looks on helplessly at a world
out of control. Which God would you magnify?
Well, one does as he pleases. The Bible says our God is in
the heavens, and he hath done whatsoever he pleased. One does
as he pleases, and the other does what men will let him do. Have you ever heard anybody say,
well, I mean, if we can get people to let God do something, why,
he'll do it? Listen, the God of the Bible,
the Bible says, that He's Lord in heaven and in earth. He does
according to His own will among the armies of heaven and earth.
None can say unto Him, What doest thou? None can grab His hand
and pull it back and say, What doest thou? No, the Lord will
do according to His will. The Bible says He works all things
in Ephesians 1 and 11 after the matter of His own will. One is
always successful Do you believe in a successful God? I do. I believe in a God who is absolutely
successful, and the other is a pathetic failure. The God that
most religionists worship is nothing but a doormat called
Jesus. One is Almighty to save, and
the other requires man's cooperation. One chooses sinners for salvation,
the other leaves salvation up to chance. Well, I don't believe
in a salvation left up to chance. I believe in a salvation that
was determined by God Almighty before the foundation of the
world. He chose his people in Christ in reference to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He doesn't leave salvation by
chance. You're saved. Are you saved this
morning? If you're saved, you're saved on purpose, my friend.
You're saved because God purposed it. It's no accident that you're
saved. You're saved because God loved
you, and Christ died for you, and God means to have you at
home in eternal glory with Him. One deserves our worship, and
I say the other deserves our pity. One is to be reverenced,
the other felt sorry for. One is for real, the other is
a phony. He's a phony. One is the God
you need, and the other is the God who needs you. And you need
to think about what God it is that you're going to magnify.
And so the wish is that those who love the Lord's salvation
will magnify the God of the Bible. the eternal God that sits upon
the circle of the earth and that is sovereign over all His creation. Now the saying of this, I think,
does the soul a whole lot of good, because he who blesses
God indeed blesses himself. Nothing is more for our benefit
than to spend and be spent for the promotion of God's honor
and glory. I believe this is good medicine
to say continually, let God be magnified. Now let us look just
a moment before we close here at the saying itself, let God
be magnified. This, my friend, is our watchword
around here. We believe God indeed. He's such
a God, such a great and holy God, and we want to declare and
show forth His greatness and His glory. You remember in Luke
1 46 where Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord. And so
we magnify the Lord this morning with one voice and with one heart. Let God be magnified. Now this is a saying which is
founded upon truth and upon justice. Would you permit? for me to read
out of Romans chapter 11. If you would turn there quickly,
holding your finger back in our text, if you want to. And then
in Romans 11, I want to read verse 33 through verse 36. I
say this is a saying which is founded upon truth, God's truth
and justice. Listen to these verses. Verse
33 of chapter 11 of Romans. Oh, the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, or who
hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again. For of him, verse 36, For of
him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be
glory for ever. Amen. And so our God, this, listen,
let God be magnified to declare and show forth His greatness
and glory is founded upon the truth and the justice of God. Well, let us let God be magnified
for it is He that saved us and not we ourselves. We trace our
salvation not to our preachers or nor to our denomination. There
ain't a Baptist preacher in America that can give a gnat life, much
less save a sinner. We do not trace our salvation
back to our denomination, nor can we divide the honors of the
grace of God, for the Lord alone hath turned our captivity. God alone, my glory, God said,
I will not give to another. This is my salvation. My salvation. These are the people
of my pasture. They belong to me. I bought them. Jesus said, I paid a price for
them. I laid down my life for them. They belong to me. And God is
their Savior. He decreed our salvation. He
planned it. He arranged it. He executed it. And He applied it. And He secures
our salvation from beginning to end. Salvation is of the Lord. Therefore, let God be magnified. Let God be magnified. You remember
what old Jonah learned in the whale's belly? In Jonah 2.9?
He said, Salvation is of the Lord. That's what he said. I
get out of this fix, I get out of it because God willed it and
because God purposed it. And if I get out of the fix I
was in by nature, an old lost sinner, a dead dog sinner, if
I get out of that, my friend, it'll be because God willed it.
Salvation is by the will of God. Man's damned by his own will,
but salvation is by the will of God. Let God be magnified. It was God's object in salvation.
that he might glorify his own name. That's why he did it. You remember in Isaiah 48 verses
9 through 11, he says basically to the children of Israel, not
for your sakes do I this. Not for your sakes do I this,
O house of Israel. I do it for my own namesake.
I blotted out your sin and your transgression for my own namesake. Well, praise the Lord, let God
be magnified. We want the Lord's end to be
served, and it is well deserved, it is His due, that He be magnified
and He be glorified by the mouths and hearts of His people. Because
you know, beloved, the Lord could have left us to our own will. He could have left us to our
own will to reject Christ and go to hell. He could have just
said, Ephraim is joined, you remember he said, Ephraim is
joined to his idols, let him alone. If God ever says to you,
I'm just going to let you alone, my friend, you're lost. Sure
for hell as if you were already there. If God ever says to you,
just let him alone, let him alone. You better be praying that God
will visit you and that he will draw your soul out of your darkness
into his marvelous grace and light. But since he made us willing
in the day of his power, we're under obligation to him. You
are under obligation to Him. Let us say continually, the Lord
be magnified. Glory be to the Father who gave
His Son, to the Son who gave Himself, and to the Spirit who
revealed all of this to the likes of me and you. I take it that
there is nothing which a believing soul should say continually except
this. Let God be magnified. Would it
bother you if the people around you were saying continually,
let God be magnified? Would that bother you? Would
it bother you if the preacher, every time he got up, that he
preached sincerely and from the heart and told you that God was
to be magnified? Would that offend you? Would
that hurt you? Well, I think this is what the believer is
to do. Let God be magnified. You're a citizen of the U.S.
of A. But you're more than that. You're a child of God. You're
an heir of heaven. And you are many things, but
most of all, we're the servants of God. We've been created by
God to show forth His praise. And the first, the chief, and
the leading, and the lordly, and the master thought within
you must be this. Let God be magnified. When we wake up in the morning,
we want this on our lips. and our end and aim. What can
I do this day to magnify God? If we're well or if we're sick,
if we have or if we have not, let God be magnified. Whether
I live or die, let God be glorified in me. And we're not to turn
to the right hand or to the left. from this. Let God be glorified. I hope this morning that we've
been able to magnify the Lord and that we've been able to do
it together. I hope there's no dissenting hearts. It seems to
me that most of you welcome this truth and that you rejoice in
this verse of Scripture that we have tried to expound this
morning into your hearing ears, and we trust a hearing heart. Now, we're going to ask Brother
Pat if he would come and sing the closing hymn. And I think
Pat means to ask you all to sing the last verse of this hymn with
him this morning. Pat, you sing for us.