I have told you several times
in the past, when I was a boy, we used to go visit my dad's
family up in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Driving up from Winston-Salem
to Spruce Pine, going up what is now Interstate 40, you'd pass
by a place way off in the distance between Hickory and Spruce Pine
called Grandfather Mountain. And as a boy, I used to ask Dad,
why do they call that Grandfather Mountain? And he would tell me,
well, son, if you look real careful, you can see the outline of an
old man's face, his forehead, his brow, his nose, his lips,
his chin, and his flowing beard laying down on that mountain.
And we'd drive by there, and I'd look, and I'd look, and I'd
look, and I'd look, and I couldn't see it. The problem wasn't looking
just right. I thought if I just hold my eyes
right, I'd see all right. That wasn't the problem. The
problem was I was looking from the wrong place. One day, I'll
never forget it as long as I live. Well, I might, but I don't think
I will. I recall we drove around the
backside. It was in the spring of the year.
We drove around the backside of the mountain. Rather than
taking the interstate, we drove up through the mountains. And
we got on the other side of Hickory and got up close to Spruce Pine. And as we did, I just took another
glance. And I mean just one look. I could
see it plain as nose on your face. There's that old man. His
forehead, eyebrows, nose, lips. His chin, that flowing beard,
just laying down on that mountain. I thought, man, that's it. That's
why they call it Grandfather Mountain. Because I was standing
in the right place, I was able to see what I couldn't see before. Now I want you, oh I want you,
to see the glory of God. I want you to know the glory
of God. And I'm telling you that the
only place anybody will ever see the glory of God is in the
face of his crucified son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
the Lord God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has made
him head over all things to the church who is the beginning,
the first begotten from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. May God bring you now as he did
Moses of old when Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. May God bring you and put you
into the cleft of the rock, Christ Jesus, and pass by you this day,
and make known in your heart the very glory of God. It's as
plain as the most obvious thing in scripture, that the glory
of God is and must be the ultimate end of all things. The reason
you live is because God intends to get glory in and by you one
way or another. The reason God created this world
is for the glory of His being. The reason God brings to pass
everything He brings to pass, or if you prefer to use the term,
He lets things happen the way they do. The reason is because
God's determined to get glory out of things that come to pass
as they do, and He will. Brother Scott Richardson back
in 1997 brought a tremendous message here. I looked at some
of the notes the other day. This is one of the statements
he made. He said, God's glory is himself, his essence, his
nature, his very being. Those magnificent attributes
and perfections of his nature, which identify him and him alone
as God, are much more than mere emanations from and qualities
of his nature. Brother Scott said, unlike us,
God's attributes are himself. God's attributes, all of them,
are himself. That's who he is. His being is
his glory. When we think and speak of the
great, almighty, solitary God in the trinity of his sacred
persons, we must always think of him in possession of all those
incommunicable attributes and perfections of his being which
distinguish him alone as God. Now that's a mouthful, but let
me summarize it this way. Take away any essential character
of God from your thoughts about God, and all you have is a false
God. God Almighty must be viewed and
known as He is in the totality of His being as He is revealed
in the scriptures. There we see the glory of God. And yet the glory of the triune
God is revealed, manifest to and seen by us only in the person
and work of His dear Son, our Savior. the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ alone, the invisible
God is visible. Beholding his glory, we behold
the fullness of the glory of the triune God. So great is that
glory that the Lord God has prepared and appointed a whole eternity. If I could use that kind of language.
He's prepared and appointed a whole eternity to display his glory
to his creatures. Listen to this. It is written
in the ages to come, he will show forth the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Now you'll be turning, if you
will, to Psalm 21. And I want to talk to you this morning about
Christ's preeminent in God's salvation. We're working from
this statement in Colossians 1.18, that in all things, He
might have the preeminence. Not only shall the glory of God
be revealed to us throughout the endless ages of eternity,
But it shall be revealed and made known to us in the person
of the God-man, our mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
glory is seen only in the face of that man who is himself God. God is seen, God is known. I'm talking now about a saving
knowledge of God, about a saving revelation of God. God is seen
and known only in the person of the God-man, Jesus Christ. Now you see a little bit of God
in your conscience. You see a little bit of his nature.
You see a little bit of God in creation. You see his power and
his wisdom. You see a little bit of God in providence. You
see a little bit of God in everything he does. But you don't see him
and you don't know him until you see him and know him in the
person of that man who set Chandra on the throne of glory who died
in our stead at Calvary. There is a peculiar preciousness
about the everlasting revelation of God's glory in Christ Jesus. Listen carefully. The Holy Spirit
tells us that the glory of the triune God is inseparably, inseparably
connected with His grace toward us. The glory of God, Lindsay. Listen to me. The glory of God
is inseparably connected with His grace to you. Inseparably connected. Inseparably
connected. The revealed glory of God to
all eternity, is connected to the salvation of his elect, to
our infallible and eternal union with Christ. According to what
the apostle tells us in Ephesians 1, we are now and shall be forever
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
us accepted in the beloved. the glory of the triune God,
the glory of our most glorious Christ, that one designated by
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as the one in whom
all fullness should dwell, is seen in creation and providence
and in Scripture. And yet the glory of our God
is seen most fully in the face of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And that glory is the great and
most greatly revealed glory of God. Here in Psalm 21, the psalmist
declares in verse 5, His glory, do you see it? His glory is great
in thy salvation. His glory is great in thy salvation. Well, who is he talking about
when he says his? Back up to verse 1 and you'll see. This
psalm is a psalm of David. It is, we're told in the title,
is written by David. And the title, I think, is accurate.
David wrote the psalm and it has a particular proper historical
application to him. But understand that David existed
for the purpose of being a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
kingdom was typical of Christ's kingdom. His deliverances of
the kingdom were typical of Christ delivering his people by the
hand of his mercy and grace. His deliverances of Israel from
one enemy to another, from one captivity to another, his deliverances
were pictures of our salvation by Christ Jesus. And David's
glory as the king of Israel was only a typical glory. It was
the glory of Christ Jesus pictured. The glory of Christ represented. The glory of Christ typified.
So the king in Psalm 21 is Christ our king. The salvation spoken
of is Christ's salvation. And the glory described is Christ's
glory. Here in verse 21, verse 1 rather,
the king shall joy in thy strength, O
Lord. And in thy salvation, how greatly
shall he rejoice. Do you remember in Hebrews chapter
12, we're told that the Lord Jesus, for the joy set before
Him, endured the cross, despising the shame. What? What joy was
there in Him being made sin? Was it for joy that he wept in
Gethsemane and cried, Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me? Was it joy that caused his body
to burn with fever, his soul to be wracked with pain, his
heart to be broken as he hung upon the tree? Oh no, no, no,
no. It's talking about the joy that
comes as a result of all that he endured as our substitute.
The joy set before him is the salvation of his people. Here
the psalmist writes, the King shall joy in thy strength, O
Lord. The strength of the Lord is our
salvation. And in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice
when God the Son had assumed our nature as agreed upon in
the covenant of grace, and has accomplished our salvation by
the strength of Jehovah, having in at once entered the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us, how greatly did he rejoice. Oh, what bliss, what joy, what
rejoicing there is in Emmanuel's heart as he sits yonder on the
throne. He sits there possessing this
joy of which the psalmist speaks. His work is finished. His father
is glorified. His people are redeemed. Their
salvation is certain. And he rejoices in God's salvation. Look at verse 2. Thou hast given
him his heart's desire. His heart's desire. His heart's desire. What's his
heart's desire? Lo, I come to do thy will, O
my God. What's his heart's desire? Father,
glorify thy name. What's his heart's desire? Thy
will be done. Thou hast given him his heart's
desire. and has not withholden the request
of his lips. Well, what was that? Read John
17 and find out. What was the request of his lips?
Whatever his heart's desire is, God's given it him. Whatever
the request of his lips is, God's given it him. What is it? Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory. Every soul for whom the Son of
God came into this world and accomplished redemption, every
soul for whom He gave Himself as their salvation, every soul
for whom He makes intercession, shall be with Him in glory! For Thou hast given Him the request
of His lips. Look at this first quote again.
Selah. Selah. Every time I read the
Psalms publicly, I try to decide should I read that or just pause.
What it is, that word Selah, is really like putting a great
big period at the end of the sentence. It's just a punctuation
mark, but it's a punctuation mark with meaning. Here's what
it means. Now stop a minute and roll that
over. Stop and think about that. Thou
hast given the key, the key. The king who rejoices in your
salvation. Thou has given the king the desire
of his heart. Thou has given him the request
of his lips. Linger a while now. Eternity
will be too short for us to fully comprehend that. This King, this Savior, this
God, our Savior, who is the revelation of the glory of God, Jesus Christ,
Emmanuel, the God-man, is that One who ever possesses all that
He desires and saves all for whom He intercedes. Verse 3,
Thou preventest Him. Now that word, preventest, That's
an interesting word. It's an old English word. We
use it differently today than we used to. The word originally
means this. It means to go before. To precede. It doesn't mean to stop or stand
in the way. It means to precede. Thou preventest him with the
blessings of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. The meaning of the verse is this.
The Lord God bestowed all the bountiful blessings of goodness
and grace upon us in Christ even before Christ came. Indeed, he
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus before
the world began. But I think there's a little
more there. Thou preventest him with blessings
of goodness. Thou goest before Him with blessings
of goodness. Let me see if I can get this
thing some shoe leather. That's Brother David Burge. I will tell you how old he is.
He's a little older than I am. And God saved him, what, five,
six years ago. What's he been doing that other
50 years? What's he been doing? Another
50 years? Huh? Goodness. That's what he's been
doing. Goodness. The blessing of goodness
went before him all the days of your life preparing the path
by which he would come to you. That's what it means. It's that
old thing of God's prevenient grace, that grace that goes before
grace, making the way for grace. So that God's Son comes to us
at the appointed time of mercy in His saving power and grace.
But everything that precedes that is God's Son coming to us. Everything. Everything. Nothing
happened by accident. Oh no. Well boss, you brought
a lot on me. Yes sir. Yes sir, you did. But
God's still walking the path right to your heart. Yes, sir. Goodness and mercy precede Christ
coming with, and goodness and mercy come with Him. And goodness
and mercy follow Him. Then, exaltation and glory are
given to Him. The Lord God, the triune Jehovah,
has set upon His head the crown of pure gold. Pure, everlasting,
precious, indescribably glorious is this crown. He's given Him
the crown as the reward and result of His obedience set Him on the
throne. And He's given Him, when He makes
Himself known in the hearts of His people,
a crown of pure gold. You see, believers are men and
women. subdued to King Jesus willingly. I said in one of the radio broadcasts
I did last night, I forgot which it was. Listen to all of them,
you'll catch it. But churches these days, they spend lots of
time having discipleship classes, and discipleship revivals, and
discipleship meetings. And I'll tell you why. Because
they knew full well they've got churches plumbed full of ungodly,
unregenerate rebels whom they've tried to convince that they're
saved, and now they want to start acting like they're saved. I
want to tell you something. All of God's people are disciples.
All of them are. Every believer follows Christ. Every believer willingly sets
on his head a crown of pure gold, because he sets as king in the
hearts of his people. We're delighted for him to be
king. Look at verse 4. He asked life of thee, and thou
gavest it him. Look at it now. So how can that
be talking about Christ? Watch carefully. Even length
of days forever and ever. Hold your hands here and turn
back to Psalm 16. Now we know this is talking about Christ
because here in Psalm 16, we're told in the New Testament, I
think it's Peter that tells us plainly this is talking about
Christ. Psalm 16 verse 8. Here He is, the God-man, our
mediator, our substitute. He says, I have set the Lord
always before me, because He is at my right hand. I shall
not be moved. Our Lord Jesus lived on this
earth in perfect faith, in perfect faith. Therefore, my heart is
glad and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. I'm going to the grave. Yes,
sir. Yes, sir, I'm going to the grave because I came here. But
I'll go to the grave with hope, for thou shalt not leave my soul
in hell. That word is grave. Neither wilt
thou suffer, look at it, thine only one, to see corruption. I'm going to the grave, but I
want to be raised up before this body starts to rot. Three days.
And thou wilt show me the path of life in thy presence's fullness
of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. He asked life of thee. When did
he do it? Listen to this. These words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. He asked life of thee and thou
gavest it him, even length of days forever and ever. Alright,
now look at verse 5. Let me show you 4 or 5 things
here in verses 5 and 6. About the greatness of Christ's
glory in God's salvation. His glory is great in thy salvation. Number 1, as the Son of God. As the Son. Christ's glory is
great in Jehovah's salvation personally as the son. Now there are three things in
this opening statement that I want you to understand. Number one,
as it is revealed in scripture, God's salvation is just that. It is God's salvation. It is
God's work. It is God's possession. It is
for God's glory and God will have the praise of it. It is
God's salvation. There is no aspect of salvation. Not one particle of salvation. It doesn't matter whether you're
talking about justification, election, redemption, regeneration,
conversion, faith, perseverance, sanctification, glorification,
resurrection. It doesn't matter. There is absolutely
not so much as one particle of salvation that's to be attributed
to you. Not to your works, not to your
religion, not to your baptism, not to your experience, much
less to your free will. Salvation is God's salvation.
He possesses it and he gives it to whom he will. If you get
it, you'll get it because God gives it to you. If you possess
it, you'll possess it because God from eternity set his heart
upon you and in time has come to you and it comes down to you
directly and invades your privacy and opens your heart and sets
his throne in you. God's salvation is his salvation.
When it is finished, Mr. Spurgeon said, when every one
who ever shall be called has been called, when every one of
the Lord's elect has been regenerated, justified, sanctified, and glorified,
when the whole of the blood-washed family of God shall surround
the throne above, all the glory shall be given to the Lord alone.
Spurgeon goes on to say, there will be no jarring note in heaven,
no whisper of human merit or free will, no claim of a reward
for good intentions, but every crown shall be cast at Jesus'
feet, and every voice shall join in the ascription, not unto us,
not unto us, but unto thy name be all glory of the salvation
which thou hast wrought out for us. And from us, Lord out for
us, from first to last. Alright, first thing then, salvation
is God's. Number two, this salvation which
is God's, comes from God and belongs to God. It's for the
glory of God. Why on earth did God save sinners? Psalm 108 verse 6. I want to
6 rather verse 8, nevertheless he saved them for his name's
sake. For his name's sake. For the
glory of his name. He said I do this for my sake.
For my sake. Never lose sight of this fact.
It is God's glory not ours which is great in salvation. We who
are made partakers of the unsearchable riches of his grace are only
receivers, not contributors. We're all alike receivers. We're
all equal receivers. The grace we have is that which
God gives. He gives it to the little and
he gives it to those who men consider great. We have nothing
to bring, nothing to give, nothing to offer. We receive everything
from Him like empty handed bakers. And we all receive it the same. Now I want to stress that a little
bit. That means if God saves you,
right now, right now, by His almighty grace, And you drop
dead before I get done preaching. You possess the same salvation
I possess, and I've been possessing it for 35 years nearly. Same
possession. You possess the same salvation
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peter, Paul, James, and John possess.
Well how can that be? It's called grace. Grace. God's people just receive it. We contribute nothing to it.
Now somehow we contributed something to it, then it would not be something
possessed equally by all. But this is what God gives. Robert
Hawker put it this way, concerning God's glory being the end of
salvation. He said God's glory is the first object proposed
by salvation. God is more concerned for the
promotion of His glory than any of His people can be for their
everlasting happiness. His salvation is for the glory
of God. Now stop and think about it for
a minute. You say, well, why is this so important? His salvation
is just for God's glory. For God's, just purely for God's
glory. It's the kind of salvation that
will meet the needs of every sinner. God might just glorify himself
in saving me. If salvation is for his glory,
I can't think of a better candidate, can you? If salvation is for
his glory, than sinners, desperate, poor, needy, naked, helpless,
vile, doomed, damned, lost sinners, with nothing at all for God,
have every reason to expect His grace. Salvation for His glory. For His glory. All right. First, the Lord Jesus Christ's
glory is great in salvation as the Son of God. But secondly,
it is great as our surety. I'm coming back to this deliberately.
Hebrews 7.22 says Christ is surety of a bare covenant. Hebrews 13.20
speaks of the blood of the everlasting covenant by which he was brought
forth from the dead once the price had been paid and justice
had been satisfied. And I lay stress to the fact
of our Lord's suretyship because it is impossible, it is impossible
to talk about salvation in Bible terms without talking about a
covenant and a surety. You can't do it. Salvation in
Bible terms comes as a result of an agreement made by God Almighty,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before the world was for the
saving of His people in which all things were resolved upon,
determined, and accomplished in God's purpose when Christ
stood as our surety and said, I'll take all responsibility
for it. And the father trusted him. He trusted him. If I took Ricky Dale right there,
and I put something in his hand and said, Ricky, I'd like for
you to take this and keep it for me. You keep it for an hour,
or let's say I give it to him and say, you keep it until you're
a grown man. And when you're 21 years old,
I'm going to come back and get it from you. Will you take care
of it? And he said, I'll do the best I can. I'll do the best
I can. And he's as sincere as he can
be. Well, forgive me, my little friend, but I wouldn't trust
you with much because you ain't very big. I might give him a dollar or
two just to make him feel good, but I wouldn't trust him with
much. And I wouldn't really trust him with that because he ain't
very big. Most anybody would come and tap
him on the shoulder and take it away from him before the world was. God Almighty trusted his glory
and his people to the hands of his darling son who said I'll
bring them home and not want to be lost. That's charityship. That's charityship. And that's
how Christ came to save His people and that's how He achieved His
glory great in God's salvation. Because He fulfilled everything
committed to His trust as our surety before the world began. Turn to Isaiah 42 for a moment.
His glory is great in God's salvation as Jehovah's servant. You see,
in order to save us, he who is God the Son became the servant
of God, willingly, voluntarily subjecting himself to the will
of God. The Lord God says concerning
him, behold my servant. Look him over real good. This
is that one of whom the bond slave law back in Exodus was
given as a type and picture. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon him, he
shall bring forth judgment, justice, and righteousness to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. He's not a frustrated,
defeated fellow. He's not in desperate need of
you pretty please helping him. But rather a bruised reed shall
he not break. He's tender, caring. Smoking
flats shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment,
justice to truth. And he shall not fail. Bless
his name. He'll not fail. He'll not fail. Nor be discouraged till He has
set judgment in the earth. Till He's come here and by His
obedience and by His death He's satisfied the justice of God
and He's brought in an everlasting righteousness for the removing
of transgression and for the saving of His people. He's established
judgment in the earth. And the Isles, the Gentiles shall
wait. Not wait with open arms looking
for Jesus. No, no, nobody does. But wait. Wait. All the nations of the
earth will continue to wait. Because God is long-suffering
to us. We're not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so the earth
continues to wait. And wait. Until what? Until God
comes with His law. with His law, not mosaic law,
with His law fulfilled, established, magnified, and made honorable
by Christ revealed in the gospel. Will you give me just a few minutes
more, and then I'll ask you to turn one more time to perhaps
the most wondrous of all statements in Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5. His glory in salvation is great
as our substitute. Oh, the great glory of Christ
as our Savior and our substitute in God's salvation is seen in
the objects of His love. He chose to say such things as
we are. Oh, my, my, my, my, my. I was flipping through the channels
last night, late. I'd been studying, so my mind
was wired a little. Somebody on one of those educational
channels, boy, they're scraping hard to get education, too. They
had an interview with old carnival folks they used to call freaks.
This gal, I remembered, I remember going to see her at a carnival.
She was called the monkey girl. Just covered with hair. Ugly. Ugly. Uglier than a mud fence. Just ugly. Ugly. Seemed to be such a sweet lady.
She's old now. And when she was 20 years old,
something happened nobody ever expected. Somebody fell in love
with her and married her. But then they showed a picture
of him. He's ugly too. I didn't remember him. He was
called the snake or the reptile man. Had skin like a snake. Let me tell you something. The Prince of Glory came down here to wed Himself
to sinners far more hideous than any monkey girl ever looked to
be. He who is beauty came down here
and made Himself what we are to make us the beauty of God
in Him. Look at this. 2 Corinthians 5.21
For he, God the Father, hath made him,
his darling son, to be sin. be sin. For me. For me. And this is why I did it. So
that I, by almighty grace, could be made
the righteousness of God. Now, if you ever learn the gospel,
if you ever learn the gospel, if you ever learn the gospel,
you'll discover that sinners are made righteous in exactly
the same way Christ was made sin. That means, Skip Gladfelter,
you and I don't do, think, feel, imagine, will anything to make
ourselves righteous. How was Christ made righteous?
By a work totally, totally wrought upon Him. Our sins were taken
by the hand of God's justice and made to be His sins, though
He never knew sin, He was made to be sin. And Bobby Estes, you
and I who don't have the slightest idea what righteous is by nature. Men talk about their righteousness
and their uprightness and their goodness. A maggot no more knows what it
is for an angel to sit at the throne of God. and behold His
face, then we know what righteousness is by nature, much less perform
it. But God Almighty has taken His
righteousness, the perfect righteousness of His darling Son in the perfection
of His obedience in the infinite union with His infinite being
as God and made it to be ours so that now Here stands a sinner
before God Almighty, righteous, righteous, righteous as God Himself. No wonder David said, His glory
is great in thy salvation. Amen. I pray that His glory this day
will be great in your salvation.