Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleChrist Teaches Us To Glory
Bible TextPsalm 34:1-4
Synopsis Christ our Prophet teaches all who come to him to give God all the praise for saving us in Christ by his finished work. Listen.
Date01-Feb-2018
Series Psalms 2011
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Christ Teaches Us To Glory (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Christ Teaches Us To Glory (128 kbps)
Length 40 min.
 

Series: Psalm

Title: Christ teaches us to Glory

Text: Psalm 34: 1-4

Date: February 1, 2014

Place: SGBC, New Jersey

 

In the heading of Psalm 34 we are told this is « A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. »

 

It was well-known David was God’s choice king of Israel. So Saul tried to kill David to keep the throne for himself.  When Christ came in the flesh, it was known he is the King of God’s spiritual Israel. Herod sought to kill Christ to keep an earthly throne for himself and sinners by nature do the same.

 

So David went into the land of the Philistines to Achish the king of Gath. Abimelech was the title for their king like Pharaoh was a title for the Egyptian’s king. His name was Achish. So David was in the land of Gath surrounded by his enemies.  Christ our King dwelt in this earth surrounded by his enemies.

 

1 Samuel 21: 11: And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12: And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13: And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14: Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? 15: Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house? 22: 1: David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him.

 

Christ did not feign madness but he appeared a madman to every God-hating rebel so we crucified him. Yet, like David, God delivered Christ our King. We can read 1 Samuel 22: 1-2 this way: [Christ] therefore departed [from this earth], and escaped [to the right hand of the Father]: And when his brethren and all his father’s house hear [the gospel], they [go] thither to [Christ]. And every one that is in distress [over their sin], and every one that [is] in debt [to the law], and every one discontented [bitter of soul], gather themselves unto [Christ through faith]; and he [becomes THE] captain over them: and there are with [Christ a number no man can number.]

 

Proposition: So like as David taught this Psalm to his brethren who came to him, Christ our Prophet teaches all who come to him to give God all the praise for saving us in Christ by his finished work.

 

Subject: Christ teaches us to Glory

 

Divisions: Christ teaches us 1) what it is to glory in the LORD 2) who glories in the LORD 3) how we are made to glory in the LORD.

 

WHAT IT IS TO GLORY

 

Psalm 34: 1: I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2: My soul shall make her boast in the LORD:…

 

In these two statements Christ teaches us four things involved in glorying in the LORD.

 

One, to bless or glory in the LORD is to praise only the LORD—“I will bless the LORD…” Christ, the Son of God, took flesh to glorify the triune God alone in the salvation of God’s elect.  It is in Christ that we behold God’s glory. It is by faith in Christ, trusting him alone to perform every aspect of our salvation, that we glory only in the LORD.

 

Hebrews 1:2: God has in these last days spoken to us by his Son…3: [Christ is] the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

 

John 1:14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

 

When we are born of the Spirit of God we are brought to behold God’s glory in Christ alone,

 

2 Corinthians 4:6: God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

We do not give all glory to the LORD if we give ourselves even a little praise. To bless the LORD is to bless only the LORD. We do so by trusting every aspect of our salvation into Christ’s hands.

 

Two, to bless the LORD is to do so at all times—“I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  That means in happy times or sad. On the cross we our Substitute bearing more sorrow than anyone ever bore. He said, “Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger?” Yet, on the cross, we see Christ glorify God more than any ever has or shall ever glorify God. We see him glorify God in perfection.

 

Every moment Christ sends his preacher and speaks into the hearts of his people through the gospel, Christ glorifies the LORD at all times. 

 

By the Holy Spirit, he brings every believer to glorify God at all times, even in the sad times. When Paul and Silas were cast into prison for preaching Christ, “at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God.” (Acts 16: 25)

 

Brethren, God’s providence may cause us sorrow but it is for our good and his glory. So we are exhorted, “In every thing give thanks: for this [whatever the trial] is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thess 5: 18)  To praise God is to do so at all times continually.

 

Three, to bless the LORD is to do so from the heart—“My soul shall…”  The sinless GodMan glorified God with a perfect heart all his days on this earth, even to the death of the cross. He alone has done so in perfection.

 

In our flesh, as we are born the first time, no sinner can glorify God from the heart. All we are is sin in our flesh. How foolish for vain religion to continually tell poor sinners to clean up the outside! Christ said,

 

Matthew 23:27: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

 

Mark 7: 21 [Christ said] For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22: Thefts,…23: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

 

Therefore, Christ’s redeemed must and shall be born again of the Holy Spirit of God—given a new, pure, holy heart—because pure religion is not merely outward but is from the heart. The outward will follow but true religion begins in the heart.

 

1 Samuel 16: 7…man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

 

John 4: 23 [Christ said] the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24: God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

 

So to glorify God is to praise only God in Christ, it is to do so at all times, and it is to do so from a new God-given spirit.

 

Four, to bless the LORD is to boast in God our Savior—“My soul shall make her boast in the LORD:…”

 

Jeremiah 9: 23: 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: 24: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. 25: Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are [physically] circumcised with the [physically] uncircumcised; 26: Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

 

Physical circumcision was given by God to typify circumcision of the heart whereby God makes his people alive, gives us a pure heart, and makes us cease glorying in ourselves to glory in Christ alone.

 

Romans 2: 28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

 

God destroys the wisdom of the wise and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent, how? He does three things. He saves using the foolishness of preaching, he saves using only the preaching of Christ and him crucified and he uses weak, unimpressive, nobodies to preach Christ. By this means, he

 

1 Corinthians 1: 28:...brings to nought things that are: 29: That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

 

Be sure to get this: only those saved by this means glory in the Lord alone.  All who claim to be saved another way glory in themselves. Whatever point is their different way is the point in which they glory in self. The man who says he was saved hearing of a false jesus glories in his own righteousness and holiness.  The man who demands the preacher have impressive credentials glories in his own outward appearance and intellectualism.  And the man who claims to have been saved by teaching himself, apart from hearing the gospel preached, glories in his own wisdom. To glory in the Lord is to boast that our salvation is all of the Lord alone in God’s ordained way!

 

WHO IT IS THAT WILL GLORY

 

Psalm 34: 2:…the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

 

Christ declares who it is that will hear this and glory only in the LORD—“he humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.”  Only those God makes humble in heart shall be glad when they hear this gospel give God all the glory!

 

The humble hear and are glad that God is pleased to use the foolishness of preaching which declares Christ crucified alone delivered through those who are weak and worthless in themselves because it gives God all the glory and gives us none! God has used this very means to make us glad that God saves this way!  Those who want a part of God’s glory hear and are anything but glad.

 

The humble hear and are glad that God chose whom he would and passed by whom he would because it gives God all the glory! 

 

Those God has humbled hear and are glad that Christ accomplished our redemption from the curse of the law and is our only Righteousness because it gives Christ all the glory! 

 

The humble hear and are glad that Christ is our Sanctifier and our Sanctification because it gives Christ all the glory!  The humble hear and are glad that it is of the Holy Spirit of God that Christ is made all unto us because it gives God all the glory! The humble hear and are glad that we are kept by the power of God unto salvation and none shall be lost because it gives God all the glory. The humble hear and are glad that good works are by God’s grace who ordained them and makes us perform them because it gives God all the glory!

 

The one and only reason men find fault with the gospel is because they want praise that belongs to God alone.

 

HOW IT IS THAT WE GLORY

 

Psalm 34: 3: O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. 4: I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

 

The way in which a sinner is brought to glory only in the LORD is when Christ calls us, teaching us the truth and making the word effectual in our hearts.  This is the only way a sinner will cease boasting in his wisdom, his will, and his works. It is when Christ effectually commands him in heart, “O magnify the LORD with me!”

 

Christ magnified the LORD’s righteousness declaring God just and the Justifier of everyone that believes on Christ.  He makes us magnify the LORD by submitting to Christ our Righteousness

 

Psalm 35:27: Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of [Christ] his servant.

 

Christ calls us, commanding in our hearts, “let us exalt his name together!” Exalting Christ is exalting God’s name. Christ is

 

·        Jehovah-hoseenu — “The Lord our Maker” (Psa. 95:6;1 Sam. 12:22).

·        Jehovah-jireh – “The Lord Will Provide” (Gen. 22:14).

·        Jehovah-nissi —“The Lord our Banner” (Exo. 17:15).

·        Jehovah-rapha – “The Lord that Healeth Thee” (Ex 15:26).

·        Jehovah-shalom —“The Lord Our Peace” (Joel 6:22-24).

·        Jehovah-raah —“The Lord Our Shepherd” (Psa. 23:1).

·        Jehovah-tsidkenu – “The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:6).

·        Jehovah-m’kaddesh — “The Lord that doth sanctify you” (Exo. 31:13).

·        Jehovah-shammah —“The Lord is there” (Ezek. 48:35).

·        Jehovah-Jesus —“The Lord our Savior” (Matt 1:21).

 

2 Samuel 7:13: He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

 

Why do we give God in Christ all the glory? Christ teaches us the gospel. Christ says, “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”  While in darkness, bearing the sins of his people, forsaken of God in justice, Christ sought the LORD. And the LORD heard Christ and delivered him. And doing so, he delivered all his people in him.  Therefore, when he brought us to call on the LORD—for the sake of Christ—he heard us and delivered us.

 

Christ Jesus our risen Prophet, Priest and King is Preeminent in praising Jehovah our triune God. It is only by Christ, through the preaching of the gospel, teaching us through the Spirit of God in our hearts, that we are given life and faith to bless the LORD, giving him all the praise as we rest entirely in Christ our Salvation!

 

Isaiah 45:25: In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

 

Isaiah 43:7: Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

 

Amen!