Okay, this evening now, Psalm
21. We're looking at Psalm 21. I'm
taking the title from the words found in verse five. His glory. His glory is great. And you could
stop right there and say a whole lot, but that's gonna be the
title of the message. His glory is great in salvation. His glory is great in salvation. Honor and majesty. hast thou
laid upon him, the Eternal Father, Jehovah God Almighty, hast laid
upon the Lord Jesus Christ all honor, glory, and blessings. The Son, God, the Father said
unto the Son, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter
of righteousness is a scepter of thy kingdom. See if I can
find that and read it to you. But unto the Son, he said, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. There's God the Father
calling God the Son. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
a scepter of thy kingdom. So he is the mighty king, isn't
he? He's not king by anything we do. As I've said over the
years, he's not king by or lord by a democratic process. We don't
make Jesus Lord, as some people say. Well, just make Jesus your
Lord. My soul, you can't do that. That's impossible. God beats
you to it from eternity. He is the King. He is the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. So His glory is great in salvation. Everything around the gospel
of Christ has to do with His glory. That's how you identify
who's preaching the gospel and who's not. Those who are preaching
the gospel of God concerning Christ, give him all the honor
and glory in salvation. It's called the blessed gospel
of the glory of God. We read that in 1 Timothy 11.
Not unto us, David said in Psalm 115, not unto us, but unto thy
name do we give glory, both now and forever. When Moses asked
the Lord, it's recorded Exodus 33, and Moses said, I beseech
thee, show me your glory. Remember what the Lord said?
He said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. I'll show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. I've often said from that, God's
greatest glory, showing mercy, is my greatest need. His greatest
glory is my greatest need. I need mercy. I need mercy. Mercy, mercy. We come before
the throne of grace as mercy beggars. We don't demand any
kind of blessing based upon merit, but we come as mercy beggars
asking God, be merciful to me, the sinner. So our Lord said
in Hebrews chapter four, when he talks about the great high
priest that we have, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace. We can come boldly with liberty
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, not earn it,
obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. And
I find that need all the time. The good news of the gospel is
God's able to supply our need, singular, according to his riches
in glory through the Lord Jesus Christ. So we come as needy beggars. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. And you know what I found from
reading the Bible? I guess I've been looking at
this book pretty seriously for the last 40 years and I've never
seen or read one time when God turned a mercy beggar away. Everybody
who came to him in need, their need was met. Now he had some
sharp words against the Pharisees who thought they deserved some
kind of blessing. He called them some very very
true names, you of your father, the devil, you or they would
justify yourself before men. But he said, that is, won't go
anywhere with God, that which you highly esteem, God despises.
So let's take a look at this psalm. This psalm is a gospel
psalm, as all 150 psalms are. It's all about the king of kings. Who is the king of kings? The
King of Kings is the Lord Jesus Christ, is he not? It's his glory,
for his glory is great in accomplishing our salvation, for our salvation
is called in the scripture, how shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? Our risen Lord in Luke 24, told
his disciples, all things must be fulfilled, which are written
in the law of Moses, in the prophet, and in the Psalms, what? Concerning
me. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ, isn't it? It doesn't matter what Psalm
you look at. Psalm 2 said, God said, I've set my king upon my
holy hill Zion. That's Christ. God said, another
Psalm, set down my right hand till I make all thy enemies to
bow at your footstool. So here's a prophecy concerning
our Savior's joy as a result of salvation that he would accomplish
for his covenant people as a God-man mediator. Make no mistake, the
Lord Jesus Christ operates and represents us as God's King,
as our God and Savior. Look at verse one. The king shall
joy in thy strength, O Lord, Jehovah. And in thy salvation,
how greatly shall he rejoice. The Lord Jesus Christ rejoices
in the salvation that he's accomplished for his people. Pilate asked,
you remember Pilate asked when the Lord was arrested and they
arraigned him before Pilate. And Pilate said, are you a king? Remember what the Lord said,
to this end was I born, for this purpose came I into the world,
that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of
the truth, hear my voice. Yes, I am the king. When he was
manifested in the flesh, as the God-man mediator, he never stopped
being the king of all the earth. The wise men came and asked him,
where is he, they asked, Herod, where is he that's born king?
He was king when he got here. When he, Mary, brought forth
that virgin-born son, a body hath thou prepared him, that
little babe lying in the manger is God Almighty manifest in the
flesh. Yes, he is the eternal king that
was manifested in time in the flesh. He never stopped being
God, our King. He lived as King upon the earth.
Didn't he demonstrate that? That he lived as King? He raised the dead. He gave sight
to the blind. He healed the cripple. He forgave sinners their sins. Yes, he acted as God. He acted
as the Almighty God. He was born, he came as king,
born as king, lived as king, and upon the cross, you remember
what they wrote? His accusation that Pilate wrote? Jesus of Nazareth, king, the
king of the Jews. And he wrote it down, not only
in those, languages of the Latin, Hebrew, and the Greek. So everyone
could see he's the king. Remember the Pharisees got upset
and said, don't put that he is the king. It's okay maybe if
you're right. He said he was the king. And
old Pilate said, what I've written I've written. The king of the
Jews. Even Pilate recognized him as
the king. As the king, as the man Christ
Jesus. He looked to his father and to
his father Jehovah for strength to accomplish the work the father
gave him to do. We studied in Psalm 89 where
it said that God had laid help upon one that is mighty. The
angels came and strengthened him as he prayed in the garden
and sweating out great drops of blood. How greatly did he
rejoice. He shall rejoice. The king shall
joy in the strength, O Lord, in thy strength. How, oh Lord,
and in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice? Jehovah Almighty
planned salvation, he worked salvation, and he crowned the
Lord Jesus Christ with the crown of glory, therefore it is his
salvation, and he gives it to whom he will. Notice he says,
in thy salvation. We know that salvation is of
the Lord, don't we? How many times have we studied
that? Salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. It says that
in Psalm 37 and Psalm 2, or Psalm 3, that salvation is of the Lord.
The risen Lord Jesus Christ greatly rejoices in the salvation that
He has accomplished for us. It says just across the page,
if you look at Psalm 20 verse 5, Psalm 20 verse 5, we will
rejoice in thy salvation. You see, it's His salvation.
He planned it. He executed it. He accomplished
it. And in thy name, our God, in
the name of our God, we will set up banners. The Lord fulfill
all thy petitions. We do rejoice in the salvation
of the Lord. But more importantly, He did. The Lord Jesus Christ rejoiced
in the salvation that He accomplished. Don't you get some kind of satisfaction
when you start a project, whatever it might be, to build this or
to build that, and then you plan, and you buy material, and then
you work on it, you saw, you measure, you cut, you hammer,
you nail, and you do all those things, and then when it's finally
finished, you sit back and say, There's nothing wrong with pride
in workmanship. There's something a whole lot
wrong with pride in religion. But pride in workmanship, I fixed up an old, broke down,
not lawn mower, but wheelbarrow. Wheelbarrow I've had for a long
time. So old that the wood started to rot away. And I had to drill
some holes in some pieces of angle and put that angle in there
and bolted it all together. And I looked back, painted that
steel up, and I looked back and said, I bought a new tire for
it and everything. I said, that's going to be some
kind of wheelbarrow. I hit it with my lawnmower the
other day and broke it all apart. I guess that's what I get for
taking pride in workmanship. I have to go back and put it
all back together again. But the point I'm making, when
the Lord Jesus Christ finished our salvation, he had great joy. Now listen to this scripture. You're familiar with it, because
I quote it all the time. But I wrote it down so I wouldn't
misquote it. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12 verse 2, who for the
joy that was set before him, had joy, the joy that sat before
him. He endured the cross. He despised
the shame, but he sat down at the right hand of God. What's
he doing right now? The Lord Jesus Christ, as he's
seated on the throne of glory, he's rejoicing in the salvation
that he accomplished and purchasing his people and putting away their
sin and establishing righteousness for them. The Lord does rejoice
in what he has accomplished for us. Thank God. His work is finished. His father is glorified. His
people are redeemed. Their salvation is complete.
In Him goes all the fullness of a God that is bodily and in
Christ we stand complete, don't we? Complete. He finished the
job. He got it done. He said it is
finished. Now look at verse 2. The Lord
rejoices in salvation accomplished that he accomplished for his
bride. He bought us with his own church.
He bought his church with his own blood. He bought us. He bought
us. He's gonna have what he bought
and enjoy it forever. Enjoy his bride forever. Verse
two, thou has given him his heart's desire. What was the heart desire
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Father, I will that all that
you have given me will come to me, and those who come to me
I'll never cast out. Father, I came down from heaven
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. Thou
hast given Him His heart's desire. Thou hast not withholding the
request of His lips. Amen. Selah. Selah. What was our Savior's heart's
desire? Remember Psalm 40, it says, I
delight to do Thy will, O my God. He prayed in the garden
of Gethsemane, He prayed, not my will, but thy will be done. His heart's desire was the salvation
of the people that was given to him in that eternal covenant
of grace. And he ever lives to intercede
for us to enforce his will. You know, oftentimes people will
make their last will and testament, and then when they die, Maybe
that will will be enforced and maybe it won't. Sometimes people
will take a will to court and contest it and have it changed
because the person who made out the will is not living to enforce
it. That's not so with the Lord Jesus
Christ. His last will and testament will
be carried out to the last jot and tittle because he ever lives
to intercede for us right now. Everyone for whom he accomplished
salvation, they will receive it. They will receive it and
he will get the glory in doing so because he ever lives to intercede
for us. Look at verse 3. For thou preventest
him with the blessings of goodness. And that word, as I said before,
is to me, it means to put before. Put before. Thou preventest him with blessings
that have been of old, with the blessings of goodness. Now set
us the crown of pure gold on his head. The word prevent me
to precede or go before. For example, this scripture 1
Thessalonians 4 verse 15. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain shall not
prevent or precede them which are asleep. So, before the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, to actually accomplish
our salvation in the fullness of time, the Father purposed,
decreed, and preceded His coming with blessings of goodness to
His elect, given to them before the foundation of the world.
He blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, in
the Lord Jesus Christ, according as He had chosen us in Him, before
the foundation of the world that we should be to the praise and
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. He is indeed the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. You see these preceding blessings,
God provided the Savior for us. God provided salvation for us
before Adam ever sinned. You think about that. The sin
was all part of Adam's sin and fall and ruin was all part of
God's eternal purpose. It wasn't an accident. Adam fell
on purpose, God's purpose, because the lamb was slain before Adam
ever sinned. The sacrifice of Christ was not
the cause of the father loving us. He loved his own with an
everlasting love. His sacrifice was a result of
that eternal love. Because God loves, He gave His
only begotten Son. Here is love. Not that we love
God, but He loved us. And He sent His Son to be the
sacrifice for our sin. His choice of us preceded our
believing Him. We only love Him because He first
loved us. He said, you didn't choose me,
I've chosen you. He chose us in that eternal covenant
of grace. And because He did in the fullness
of time, He sends us the gospel, raises us from the dead, and
grants and gives us faith. Whosoever believes that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. His calling to us precedes our
calling upon Him, doesn't it? The old theologians had a term
for that, and I've used this term before. You remember the
term pervenient grace? Pervenient grace. And that means
grace preceding grace. Grace that goes before and prepares
the way for saving mercy. Of His fullness have we all received
pervenient grace. Grace for grace. The law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by our Lord Jesus
Christ. The second part of that verse,
verse three, thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. Now this is not fool's gold or
counterfeit gold. This is pure gold. And what that speaks of, it speaks
of his deity. The Lord Jesus Christ is crowned
with all glory and honor. The Lord Jesus Christ once crowned
with the crown of thorns, now he wears a crown of pure gold,
pure grace as God Almighty. Jehovah has set his, Jehovah
has set upon his head an everlasting crown, precious, indescribable,
and it's a glorious crown. He crowned him, we're gonna sing
that in a minute or two. Psalm from number 62 in our hymn
book, crowned him with many crowns. He is the Lord of lords, but
God crowned him long before we ever sang about giving him all
the honor and glory. His crown here represents his
holy nature, his imperial power, his deserved honor, his glorious
conquest, his divine government. His divine government, you remember,
Unto us a child is born, a son is given, and the government
is on his shoulders. He wears the crown. His name
shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, and the Everlasting
Father. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. Remember that verse we had in
Exodus 15 on Sunday. And we ended with verse 18, Exodus
15 verse 18. The Lord shall reign forever. And He does reign, doesn't He?
Has there been any time when our God has not reigned? He reigns
over all things. He reigns forever. In creation,
He reigns. He created all things by the
word of His power. In providence, He reigns. We
were talking earlier about that earthquake that hit Russia and
how that, you know, they measured that earthquake in Russia here
in Kentucky. And it sent out the tsunami,
those waves that went all the way to the coast of California. How'd that happen? God ordered
it. God ordained it. It's no problem
for him to shake this earth and wake everybody up. I told you
a story before when I was a little boy. I was probably in fourth
grade. Out where I lived on the mountains
there in northern Utah, there was a mountain range there called
the Wasatch Front. You can look it up. Wasatch Front. I lived right on the bank, what
they called the bank of the Wasatch. And then I lived right on the
fault line. a fault line. One morning I was laying in bed.
It was about time to get up for school and my bed started shaking
back and forth. And I woke up and I thought my
dad was shaking my bed and I woke up and there's nobody there.
I thought, oh no. But there was an earthquake.
The Lord can shake this earth. Don't you just marvel that he
can shake this earth and one day he'll shake it to nothing.
It'll just completely come apart in a moment and twinkling of
eye when the Lord comes back. He reigns in creation. He reigns
in providence. He reigns in salvation. He'll
have mercy on whom he will and he reigns in damnation as well. We're going to see here in a
minute, he talks about his wrath. His wrath. Look at verse 4. He asked, life of thee, and thou
gavest it him even length of days forever and ever and ever. David had a King David. His reign was 40 years. How long does the Lord Jesus
Christ going to reign? For eternity. For eternity He
reigns and rules over all things. The Son of God, as God, is one
with the Father in His essential power and Godhead, can neither
ask nor receive, for all things are His, as God, but He's the
God-Man. But when we see the Son asking
the Father, Jehovah, the Father giving it, as a representative
man and head and mediator of the covenant of grace. For example,
in John chapter three, the father loveth the son and
given all things into his hand. Now as God, he has all things,
but as a God-man mediator, all things have been given into his
hand. Our salvation is given into his hand. The glory of God is concerned
in the death of Christ and his glorious resurrection. Thou gavest
him length of days, he was delivered for our offenses, raised again
for our justification. He asked of thee, life of thee,
and thou gavest it him, even length of days forever and ever. The glory of God is concerned
in Christ's death and His glorious resurrection. The glory of His
fullness, the glory of His justice being satisfied. Death can never
have dominion over Him, seeing that He put away sin. Remember
in Psalm 6, I believe it is, that He saw no corruption when
He died. When we die, we're going to see
corruption. This body decays almost immediately. But when
He died, He saw no corruption. You know why? He put away sin. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. Death can never have dominion
over Him, seeing He put sin away. Death cannot have dominion over
us, because the Lord Jesus Christ has put our sin away. His glory
is great in salvation. It says there in verse 5. God
raised him from the dead. He ever lived to intercede for
us. Look at verse five. His glory, his glory is great
in thy salvation, honor and majesty has God laid upon him. Here's the bottom line. Here's
the bottom line. In salvation, who is deserving
of all the honor and glory? Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the grand design of redemption, the old timers used to say, the
grand design of redemption is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul put it this
way, God forbid us the glory saved in the cross. of our blessed
Savior. The bottom line in salvation
is the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of all honor, glory, and blessing. Is that the song of the redeemed?
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive all honor, glory,
blessing, and power, both now and forever. God's grand design
in all things is His glory. Even in creation, it's all about
His glory. In providence, it's all about
His glory. Look at Psalm, right across the
page, Psalm 19, verse one. The heaven declared the glory
of God. Firmament showeth his handiwork.
What's all creation about? His glory. What's the providence
about? Of him, through him, and to him
are all things. To him be all the honor and glory,
right? And in salvation, who gets the
glory? Well, we know who gets the glory
and salvation. When God brought Israel through
the Red Sea, we studied that Sunday, Exodus chapter 15, when
Moses and Mariam and Aaron and all those millions of people
were rejoicing in the mighty deliverance. What did they sing
about? He had delivered us by His strength and by His power,
to Him be the glory now and forever. Nothing relating to salvation
is of man. Nothing relating to our salvation
is of us. Nothing. This is a universal
testimony of scripture that in salvation, salvation is all of
the Lord. He's called the God of all grace. He's the God of all grace. He's
the God of our salvation, from election to glorification. Everything in between. He's the
Alpha, and He's the Omega, and He's everything in between. Christ
is all in all, isn't He? And it's all to the praise of
the glory of His grace. Salvation is always determined,
dependent, and accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ. It's unto
Him that loved us and washed us from our sin in His own blood. When the redeemed sing that new
song, They'll sing about the blood that has redeemed God's
people out of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue under heaven,
and made us kings and priests unto our God, and we sing worthy
is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. Every blessing
that God has given to His people is upon the merit, the blood,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 6. Thou hast made Him most blessed
forever, or set him to be a blessing forever. Thou hast made him exceeding
glad with thy countenance. The Father has set or decreed
that the Lord Jesus Christ is blessed forever and that his
people are forever blessed in him. were complete in Him. Christ is all. Every blessing
God has for His people is given upon the merit, blood, and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by His sovereign will. He's able to keep us from falling
and to present us faultless before the presence of God's glory with
exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be all the honor
and glory Dominion and power both now and forever. Let me
read the whole section here Jude verse 24 and 25 now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling and To present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only
wise God our Savior be glory majesty Dominion and power both
now and forever He gets all the glory and rightly so doesn't
he? Look at verse 7 For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through
the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. The Lord
Jesus Christ went about his minatorial work with unwavering confidence,
trusting his Father to enable him to accomplish his purpose.
Remember he said in Psalm Isaiah 50, my face is set like a flint. He was not moved from his purpose.
to accomplish our salvation by his friends over his foes. Remember
he told those disciples, his apostles, that I must go to Jerusalem. I must be betrayed. I must be
crucified. I must lay down my life. I must
be raised again. Those were his friends. And Peter
said, well, wait a minute. No, no, no, no. That's got to
be some other way. And the Lord said, get out of
my way. Thou savorest not the things that be of God. The Lord Jesus Christ had unwavering
confidence because he trusted in the Lord. And through the
mercy of the Most High, he said, I'm not moved. He wasn't moved
from his purpose, was he? Even though he is whipped, mutilated,
beaten, nailed, stabbed, They couldn't move him from his purpose
to lay down his life. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down. If I lay it down, I'll take it
again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. No one could turn him from his
purpose to establish righteousness for us and to put away our sin. May the Lord grant us confidence
like that. You remember that verse over
in Philippians chapter 3? We talked about the true Israel
which worship God in the Spirit, that rejoice in Christ Jesus,
we have no confidence in the flesh. We have no confidence
in us, but our confidence is where? In Him. We trust Him and
Him alone for all things in salvation. Now in verses 8-12, and I'm almost
through here, I'm not going to look at verses 8 through 12 in
detail, but we see in verses 8 down through verse 12, we see
the righteous judgment of the Lord will find those who hate
Him, and He will deal with them in strict justice and holy wrath
without mercy. He mentions that those that hate
Him, He'll deal with them in His anger and His wrath. and
He'll do so justly. The wages of sin is death. Now
that's what all of us deserve, but He is a merciful God unto
His people. The enemies of the gospel may
and will oppose the way of salvation in Christ alone, but it will
not change His eternal decree nor alter His purpose. They will
be swallowed up to the praise of the glory of His grace, the
glory of His, excuse me, the glory of His justice, not grace,
but they'll be swallowed up with the glory of His justice. And
you know what we read in Revelation 19? When it talks about those, the
smoke of their torment will send forever, and the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ will say, Amen. Amen. The man loved not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be cursed when the Lord come. What does
John 3, 36 say? He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life. But, uh-oh, the wrath of God
abides on him. The wrath of God, God is holy. God must punish sin in me or
in my substitute, one or the other. He makes determination. He makes that determination.
But let's close with verse 13. Here's a sweet concluding doxology
of praise. And this is our desire, His exaltation. Be thou exalted. Who gets to
glory? Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine
own strength. So will we sing. Be thou exalted,
Lord, in thine own strength, in thine own power. So will we
sing and pray thy power, His power, His strength. It's always
right to praise the Lord and to give Him all the honor and
glory for the salvation He planned and purposed and accomplished.
We will sing of His power. We do that now, don't we? We
preach salvation is of the Lord by His power. We will worship
Him as He's revealed in the Word of God, in spirit and in truth.
And we'll sing and praise thy power. Thy power. Exodus 15, you remember? The
Lord is my strength and song. He's become my salvation. He
is my God. I'll prepare Him habitation,
my Father's God. I will exalt Him. It's all about
Him, isn't it? Be thou exalted, O Lord, in thine
own strength. So will we sing and praise thy
power. Salvation by His power, His doing.