Isn't it? Okay then, Psalm 70. I'm entitling the message from
the words that are found in verse 4. Let's read verse 4, then I'll
give you the title. Let all those that seek Thee,
that is, seek the Lord, rejoice and be glad. Be glad in Thee,
those who seek Thee, do rejoice in Thee, they are glad in Thee,
let such as love Thy salvation say, say this continually, let
God be magnified. Let God, let God be honored. Let God be glorified. And here's
a title that I'm gonna use for this message, Believers Love
God's Salvation. All people don't. Believers do
because they're in love with the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We love, we love God's salvation. We love it. Wouldn't have it
any other way. In Psalm 74, don't turn, let
me just read it to you. Psalm 74, verse 12, for God is
my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. He
is working our salvation. He has accomplished our salvation.
And He does that among us. Thou art my King. Another Psalm
44, verse 4, Thou art my King, O God. He's King of kings and
Lord of lords. But David said, He's my King.
Oh God, command deliverances for Jacob, and He has. He's the
God of Jacob, the God of Jacob. Now believers truly do love God's
salvation because they love who God's salvation is. The Lord
Jesus Christ is God, our Savior. Call His name Jesus, Savior.
He shall save his people from their sin. The Lord Jesus Christ
alone is all of God's salvation. He's all of it. Not some of it.
He's everything. He's everything. Christ, the
old Reformation, remember those five points of the Reformation?
One of them was Christ alone. Christ alone. I was thinking
about that thought. And the theme of the Reformation,
those five things, the old reformers stood for and died for back in
the 1600s, starting with Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Swingley,
John Huss. Many of those men were burned
to the stake for believing Christ alone, everything is salvation. I asked my phone today. How many
reformers were burned to the stake? And they gave a list of
reformers that were burned to the stake. And I read down through
there, and I read one name of a man that was burned to the
stake in 1532, May 30th, 1532, and his name was Thomas Harding. I thought, well, that's interesting. because I've done the genealogy
on the Harding side of the family, and my great-great-grandfather
immigrated in 1848 from London, England. So I'm probably somehow
related to Thomas Harding, the reformer, who they burned to
the stake, but someone in great pity to him when he was tied
and burned Someone in great pity to him ran toward him and took
something and hit him over the head and killed him instantly.
So when they lit the fire, he didn't suffer. So that was a
blessing, wasn't it? But remember those five points
of the Reformation. The first one was the scriptures
alone. The scriptures alone. That was
a Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church. Because
the Catholic Church said it's the Scripture plus what the Pope
says, what the tradition says, and the Reformers said, no, it's
Christ alone. The Scriptures alone. Excuse
me. Goodness. The word, the Scriptures alone,
not plus. The second thing that they stood
for and died for. I mean, they not only said these
things, they died for these things. Faith alone. Faith alone. Not faith plus something. Faith alone. Faith alone. The just shall live by faith.
Remember? That was the scripture that's
mentioned four times in scripture that lit a fire under Martin
Luther. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by
faith. And of course, the Catholic Church
taught faith plus my deeds, my works, my goodness, my morality.
And the third thing that they stood for and died for, grace
alone. Salvation by the grace of God
alone. It wasn't grace plus my merit or grace plus anything
else. It was grace alone. We know that
the scriptures teach that salvation is by the sovereign grace of
God. And that's the only kind of grace there is, is sovereign
grace. And then the fourth thing that
they taught and they stood for, as Martin Luther said before
that council, here I stand, I can do no other. Christ alone. Not Christ plus the sacrament. Not Christ plus the mass. Christ alone. Christ alone. And we know that salvation is
in Christ alone. And the fifth thing was, that
they stood for, and they preached, and they died for this. They
died for this. They said to these men, if you
don't recant, you're going to die. And they said, we're willing
to die. Now that's believing something,
isn't it? They're willing to die for it.
The fifth one was to the glory, to the glory of God alone, alone. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name do we give glory for thy mercy and for thy
truth's sake. When my father passed away, who
was raised He was raised in religion but converted to what we call
Mormonism when he was in Okinawa during the war in 1945. And when he passed away, my family
asked me if I would speak some words at my dad's funeral. And of course I did. I said,
yeah, I'll speak some words. And what I spoke was those five
solos. Those five solos. Faith alone,
the word alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of
God alone. That didn't go over well. My mother's sister came up to me afterward with
her finger in my face. And she said, you're going straight
to hell. I said, well, I appreciate that. I appreciate your loving
kindness to me. And the thing about that, Mormons
don't even really believe. They have three degrees of what
they call heaven. And only the worst of the worst,
the outcast that the outcast cast out. are condemned to outer
darkness. And that's where she was quickly
going to put me. Because I didn't agree with their
holy prophet. You see, with the Mormons, it's
not the Scripture alone. They use their version of the
Bible, but they also have the Book of Mormon. They also have
the Pearl of Great Price. They also have the Doctrine of
Covenants. They have all these writings
that they say other testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ? No,
it's the Word, the Scripture alone is all our authority. And the reason, the foundation
of our faith is thus saith the Lord. Now I said much more on
that than I wanted to, but We'll just have to say this is
the Lord's good providence. Remember the words of Simeon
that we read in Luke 2, where he said, Lord, now let us, thy
servant, depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have
seen, I've seen the Savior, the Messiah, I've seen thy salvation. Surely there is salvation in
no one else and in nothing else. Salvation is in a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. You remember Peter and John before
that religious Pharisee, that Pharisee council, the Sanhedrin
council, when they healed that cripple and the religious Jews got all
upset about it. And they said, in whose name
and in what authority have you healed this man? I mean, you
would think that they would be glad that this man was healed.
No, no. Whose name did you act in? They
said, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. But Peter and John said this,
neither is there salvation in any other. There's no other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It's only in Christ. Now this
psalm is called the Psalm of Remembrance, as it says there
in the title, the Psalm of David. And it is the Psalm of David.
And he had a lot to remember. He had a lot to remember. He
had a lot to give thanks for. It's called the Psalm of Remembrance
to bring to our remembrance. The Psalm of David, but it's
also the Psalm of the greater David. the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's also a psalm for every
believer to remember God's mercy toward us, to bring our remembrance.
Oftentimes, we remember things we should forget, and we forget
things we should remember. Isn't that true? All the scriptures
were given to us to remind us of all that God has promised
and all that God has performed will be done, will be accomplished. And God has promised a lot. He's promised a lot. If you want
to turn with me, you can, but this is one of my favorite scriptures,
talking about all that God has promised He will accomplish.
Look at Psalm 57 verse 2, I will cry unto God most high, unto
God that performeth all things for me. You see that? He performed
all things for me. He shall send from heaven and
save me from the approach of him that will swallow me up.
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. Mercy and truth
are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other in the Lord. in the Lord Jesus Christ. What
sort of things were written aforetime were written for our learning
that we, through comfort and patience of the Scripture, might
have hope. I like the last words of Joshua
when he was getting ready to pass over to the other side.
He said, Of all that God had promised, not one word has failed. And we can say that, like Abraham
said, all that God had promised, He will perform. He will perform.
Because of our sinfulness, because of our infirmities, because of
the frailties of our flesh, we need to be reminded, don't we?
We need a constant reminder. We need a constant reminder of
who we are, sinners, chief of sinners. Wretched man that I
am, as the Apostle Paul said, we need to be reminded of who
God is. He's absolutely holy, holy, holy,
holy in all things. And we need a constant reminder
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. God Almighty manifest in
the flesh. The Lord gave us the Lord's table
to observe the Lord's table and to do this in What? Remembrance
of Him. We're so forgetful because we're
so weak and we're so frail. Aren't you glad He's given us
His Word that we might read these promises over and over? If I
had to commit them all to memory, I would soon forget. But thank God He's given us His
Word. That's why we take the Word because we believe in this
total sovereign authority of the Word of God We believe the
things we believe because these things are taught in the Word
of God, don't we? We take the Word, book by book, verse by
verse, line by line, word by word. Here's what God says in
His Word. Believe it because it's His Word.
When Paul preached to those In the early church, He gave thanks
for those people who, when they heard the Word of God, that they
received it, not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth,
the Word of God, that effectually works in you who believe it and
receive it. And we believe, what do we believe
in the Word? Everything that is written, believing all things
that are written in the Word of God. Now, look at verse 1
and verse 5. And they're kind of a repeat
of each other, an echo, verse 5 echoes what verse 1 says, Make
haste, O God. Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. Who needs deliverance? Sinners need deliverance, don't
they? From what? Their sin. Make haste to help
me. No one else can. He is our help. Oh Lord. Look at verse 5. Here's why I need deliverance.
Here's why I need the Lord to help me. I'm poor and needy.
I'm poor and needy. You see that? I'm spiritual,
spiritually bankrupt, and I'm a needy sinner. Make haste, oh,
make haste unto me, oh God. He says it again. Thou art my
help. My help cometh from the Lord.
Thou art my deliverer, O Lord. Make no, don't delay. I need help right now. I need
help right now. Here is our crucial, vital need
and our urgent plea and our cry and prayer before God. Lord,
deliver me. Have mercy upon me, thee sinner. O God, make haste. Hurry to deliver
me. Help me. without fail. Pluck up, preserve,
recover, rescue, save me for thy name's sake. Remember what
we had last week? Let me just read it to you. Psalm
46, God is our refuge and strength. Of every present help in trouble.
Ever been in trouble? Believers are either in trouble,
coming out of trouble, or going into trouble. But He's our very
present help in trouble. He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. I am your help. Make haste. Hurry up to deliver me that I
might escape, that you might preserve me and rescue me and
save me by your grace. Who else? Who else is able? Who else is able to save? Remember
Psalm 146, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the Lord his God. Who else is able to help? He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by him. Who else is willing? Well, there's
none willing but our Deliverer. He's called our Deliverer who
shall deliver all Israel from their sin. Who else is pleased
to do so? None but our Lord Jesus Christ.
He delights to show mercy. None but our kinsman-redeemer,
who is our near kin. Remember the story of the kinsman-redeemer
in the Book of Ruth? He had to have certain qualification
before he could redeem. Who is near kin, who has the
right to redeem, who is able to redeem, who is willing to
redeem. Christ is our Boaz. Christ is
our kinsman-redeemer. What Boaz was to Ruth, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he is to us. He's our deliverer. We also see
the reason why we need deliverance, why we need salvation from our
sin. Down in verse 5, it says, because
I'm poor and I'm needy. I'm needy. I'm poor. I'm poor
and needy. You remember Psalm 40? Where
David said, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. We are poor, that is, we're spiritually
bankrupt. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
remember? The Sermon on the Mount. Blessed
are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God. We are
poor, spiritually bankrupt. We have nothing, know nothing,
and are nothing before God. Man, his best aid is altogether
a zero. Vanity! And we are not only poor,
but we're needy. We're needy, sinful creatures.
What do we need? Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything God has for sinners
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of
his grace. What has the Lord delivered us from? Our sin. He appeared once in the end of
the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. From the
penalty of sin, He redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us. He has redeemed us from the power
of sin, no longer under the law but under grace. And one day
soon, He will remove us from the very presence of sin. When
we'll have a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
There won't be any more death, no more sin, no more crying,
no more tears. No more sin, no more death. Now
look at verse 2 and 3. Let them be ashamed and confounded
that seek after my soul. David had many enemies. His own
father-in-law sought to kill him. His own wife despised him. His own son turned on him. But how about the greater David,
the Lord Jesus Christ? How many enemies did he have?
Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Let
them be turned backward and put to confusion that desire my heart.
Let them be turned back for reward of their shame and say, ah, aha. Let them be ashamed. Let them
be confounded. Let them be confused. Let them
be turned back. Didn't they say that to the Lord
Jesus Christ when they arrested him in the garden and they brought
him before Pilate? You remember how they ridiculed
him? They plaited a crown of thorns
and pushed it down on his brow and put a reed in his hand and
said, hail, hail, king of the Jews. And smote him and spit
on him. They mocked him, didn't they?
They said, aha, you thought you were somebody They said, we have no king but
Caesar. They make fun, they ridicule,
they scorn, and our enemies, the enemies of the gospel do
as well. They ridicule and scorn the gospel
of the sovereign savior, God having mercy on whom he will.
Now let them be ashamed, let them be turned back, let them
be put to confusion, let them full of shame that say and mock
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, here's another
crowd. Verse 4, let those, you see the
difference? Let those that seek thee rejoice
and be glad in thee. And let such as love thy salvation. Say continually, let God be magnified. To God be the glory. great things
he has done. And here's the crowd that believers
desire to be found among, those seeking the Lord, those rejoicing
in the Lord, those that love God's salvation, those that say,
let God be magnified, to God be the glory. Who are these people? Poor and needy sinners that have
been delivered and saved by his grace. Believers are seekers
of the Lord, are they not? They seek to know the Lord Jesus
Christ, more of His person, more of His work. Remember our Lord
said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Believers do rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we? We have no confidence in
the flesh, but we are the true Israel, which worship God in
the spirit, that rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have
no confidence in this flesh. So believers do seek the Lord,
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and
all these things will be added unto you. Believers do rejoice
in the Lord, and believers do love God's salvation. I love
every part of God's salvation, because I know that Christ is
our salvation. And we love him, as John said,
we love him because he first, he first loved us. That's the
only reason we love him. Here is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us, and that he sent his son to be the
sacrifice for our sin. Now, let me give you five reasons
why believers love salvation found in Christ alone, Christ
alone. Can you stay with me for five
points? I'll go through them quickly. Believers love God's
salvation because we have experienced it in our heart. For salvation
is a heart work. It's a revelation of the glory
of God, of God's grace. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. We love God's salvation because
we've experienced his mercy in our heart. Now, I gotta say this. A mere religious experience is
not salvation. You can have a religious experience
and miss Christ. But the salvation that we know
of that's taught in the Word of God is something that we do
certainly as believers experience in our heart. Christ in you,
that's an experience of grace. Christ in you, when he enthrones
himself in us, he's hid these things from the wise and prudent
and revealed them unto babes. We've heard that recently, haven't
we? He's revealed them unto us. Secondly, I told you I'd move
quickly. Believers love God's salvation because of the method
of it, because of the power of it. The power of it. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation
of everyone that believes. Jew or Gentile, there in that
gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. We love God's salvation
because of the mighty, sovereign, saving power of it, and the method
of it. The method of it is all of God's
grace, isn't it? The method and means of this
salvation was devised, purposed by God in eternity, and accomplished
in time when the Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill all things for
us. You see, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is older than Bethlehem's baby being born. The gospel is
the eternal gospel. It's the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. But the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God had always purposed to save sinners
in Christ. That's His means and method of
doing so. Before Adam ever sinned, the
Lord Jesus Christ stood, didn't He, at the surety of the covenant.
Thirdly, we love God's salvation because of the sureness of it,
the certainty of it. All the promises of God in Him
are yes. and in him, and amen, and to
the glory of God. David said on his deathbed, this
is the psalm of remembrance of David. David remembered this
on his deathbed. He said, although it be not so
with my house, God hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and it's sure, this is all my hope and
all my salvation. The sure mercies of David, we
read about, in Isaiah 55 and other places, the sure mercies
of David. We run no risk trusting the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of our salvation. It's not a risky business to
trust Christ. for all of our salvation. His
covenant is sure. You remember in our study in
the book of Hebrews, Christ is called the surety of the everlasting
covenant. We read in 2 Peter chapter one,
that we have the sure word of prophecy. His word is sure. He said, heaven and earth is
gonna pass away. My word will never pass away. And we know
that his work is sure. It's all of faith that it might
be by grace that the promise might be sure certain to all
the seed, all the elect of God. Number four, we love the freeness
of it, don't we? Believers love God's salvation
because of the completeness of it. because of the perfection
of it, because of the freeness of it. We're justified freely
by His grace. In Him dwells all the fullness
of a Godhead bodily, and in the Lord Jesus Christ we stand... What's that word? Complete! Complete
in Him. Complete. Complete. He said in
His prayer, Father, I've glorified Thee on the earth. I've finished
the work You gave Me to do. And then on Calvary 3, what did
he say? It's finished. It's finished. Don't bring anything. Don't try to add anything. Salvation's
finished. The blessed Savior did not die
to make salvation a possibility. He died to secure and finish
the salvation for all of God's elect. He didn't die to make
salvation a possibility. You think God Almighty, who decreed
all things, has left the the whole of salvation based
upon the condition of some frail, sinful man making it effective
only by what he does? Well, how foolish! How foolish! Salvation is certain assured
because God has from the beginning decreed it to be so. Redemption is accomplished. through
His blood. Righteousness established by
His faithful obedience unto death. Reconciliation is perfected.
God was in Christ, reconciling us unto Himself. Regeneration
is final and complete. When He raises us from the dead,
you had the wicked who were dead. We don't die again. We live forever. We live forever with Him. Number
five is this. We love God's salvation because
of the Redeemer and the Savior himself. He is altogether lovely. We've studied in the Song of
Solomon. He's altogether lovely to you
who believe he is precious. Salvation is not in a profession
then, is it? Salvation is not in a pool, is
it? Salvation is not in a place, is it? Salvation is not in a
position, is it? Salvation is in a person. Christ. He that hath the Son. This is
the record that God has given to us. This is eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son has life. He that hath not the Son doesn't
have life. Now, how do we have the Son? By union
of faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. The foundation of faith is His
Word. The object of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
know that faith is the gift of God. Now, the last part of verse 4,
Psalm 70, let God be magnified. Now, here's the bottom line.
And this is the bottom line of all that God does is His glory. His glory. That last point in
that five-point thing of the Reformation, to God be the glory
alone. Who gets the glory and salvation?
Christ. All the glory. The grand design
of redemption. Jonathan Edwards. The old preacher
in this country in the 1700s. The grand design of redemption
is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn to Psalm 34. Let's look
at this together. Psalm 34. I will bless thee, Lord, at all
times. His praise, verse 1, Psalm 34,
shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us Let us exalt His name together. It's all about His
glory, isn't it? You remember we studied in Galatians
chapter 6, God forbid I should glory save in the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jeremiah, we read in Jeremiah
9, thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich
man glory in his riches, but let him glory in this, that he
understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, which exercise
loving kindness in judgment and righteousness in the earth, for
in these things I delight, sayeth the Lord. Let God be magnified. Let us
honor and glorify. And that's what saving faith
does. Saving faith gives God all the glory for salvation that
is of the Lord.