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Welcome to our series Looking Unto Jesus. I want to remind you that that title, it didn’t originate with me, but it comes from Isaac Ambrose’s work on the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I strongly recommend the work. He spent a great portion of his life simply studying and meditating upon the person and work of Christ, and you will greatly benefit from what he has written.
Now today, I have a work from Edward Payson. It comes out of the Complete Works of Edward Payson, Volume 3, Pages 42 and 43. And so what Payson is going to be talking about here today is that the greatest explanation of God, the greatest exposition of His attributes, is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ and, primarily, in the cross event where Jesus acted as our substitute, bore our sin, and suffered our penalty, the penalty of the law. And so let’s look at what Payson has written, and I am sure you will benefit from it.
“The gospel contains a grand display of the moral excellencies and perfections of Jehovah. Suffice it to say that here the moral character of Jehovah shines full-orbed and complete. Here, all the fullness of the Godhead, all the insufferable splendors of deity, burst at once upon our aching sight. Here, the manifold perfections of God, holiness and goodness, justice and mercy, truth and grace, majesty and condescension, hatred of sin and compassion for sinners, are harmoniously blended with the multicolored rays of solar light in one pure blaze of dazzling whiteness. Here, rather than on any of His other works, He founds His claims to the highest admiration, gratitude, and love of His creatures. Here is the work which ever has called forth, and which through eternity will continue to call forth, the most rapturous praises of the celestial choirs and feed the ever-glowing fires of devotion in their breasts. For the glory which shines in the gospel is the glory which illuminates Heaven, and the Lamb that was slain is the light thereof.”
Let’s go to the LORD in prayer.
Father, thank You. Thank You for who You are. A lesser God could have never saved us. A lesser God could have never contrived such a plan to redeem us from our sin through the sacrifice of His son. LORD, we thank You for Christ. And LORD, we pray that what is done here today, what is said here, will bring glory and honor to Your Son. And LORD, to even say that causes us to doubt, LORD, because the theme is so high. Christ is so preeminent, LORD, that even if we had the tongue, the mind of an archangel, we could not comprehend, we could not explain His glory. Oh dear God, help us today to explain some of the things that Your servant, Edward Payson, has written, and to understand them, LORD. Not so that we might simply grab it with the mind, but oh God, that it would lead to devotion, pure devotion in the one who is reading the text and the one who is listening to this recording. Oh dear God, cause Your people to love Your Son. LORD, did You not promise Him in Isaiah 53 that He would be satisfied? Oh, dear God, work in us and work in this world, that Your Son would receive the full reward for His suffering. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. In Jesus’ name, amen.
If you haven’t met Edward Payson, if you haven’t read some of his works, I recommend them. They are deep. They are profound. And yet the same time, he writes in a simple prose. He’s easy to understand. And his works have been a great blessing to my life. So let’s begin. Let’s read. “The gospel contains a grand display of the moral excellencies and perfections of Jehovah.”
Sometimes I hear preachers talk about, “When you read the Bible, the first thing you need to ask yourself is what does it say about you?” Please don’t do that. The Bible does say a lot about you, and all of it is very important, but that’s never the first thing you should ask. The Bible, everything that God has ever done has been for our benefit, but our great benefit comes from not so much gazing upon ourselves or our need. The great benefit comes from the fact that through His works, through the scriptures, and especially through the gospel, God displays Himself. What you need to pull you out of your self-absorption is a greater vision of who God is, and that vision is revealed to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So if you want to know who God is, where do you go? The cross. Because there God is revealed in all His glory.
Now, he says, “Suffice it to say that here the moral character of Jehovah shines full-orbed and complete. Here, all the fullness of the Godhead...”
Now, why is he using the word that in the gospel, we see a complete view of God? And we’re going to see this repeated over and over in what he says. You need to understand that one of the greatest questions prior to the coming of Christ is, how do we reconcile the attributes of God that seem to oppose one another, to be contrary to one another? For example, God’s perfect justice that demands the death of the sinner, and yet God’s great mercy that throughout all the Old Testament we see actively pardoning sinners. How can God, as Paul says in Romans 3:26, how can God be both just and the justifier of wicked men? How can he maintain His justice, honor His holiness, while at the same time showing mercy to those who, under justice, ought to die? Well, what all the old writers talked about much, and you don’t hear much today, is that those attributes of God are fully revealed in the cross. And they’re revealed in such a way that we see that they are in perfect harmony. Is God just? Look at the cross. Is God holy? Look at the cross. Does God forgive sinners? Look at the cross. And Edward Payson is going to go on and explain this for us.
Now he says, “Suffice it to say that here the moral character of Jehovah shines full-orbed and complete. Here, all the fullness of the Godhead, all the insufferable splendors, of deity burst at once upon our aching sight.”
Insufferable splendors? I mean, why would you put those two words together? They seem to be contrary to one another, don’t they? Have you ever seen something so beautiful, so majestic, that you were inclined to say, “It took my breath away”? Now, what does that mean? Well, literally, it was so beautiful. that it had such an impact upon me that my life itself was in danger. Like, you go out in the morning and you see a beautiful sunset over the ocean, and you gasp. Well, here’s what you need to see. The beauty of God — and I’m using that as a synonym for all the attributes of God — the beauty of God, the majesty of God– His beauty is so great, His majesty is so infinite that if it were to burst forth upon us, if we were to see it and the way we are now, it would be insufferable. We wouldn’t be able to bear it. I would say it would be something of a disintegration of the mind, that we would simply collapse upon ourselves. The beauty, the splendor, the majesty, the glory, the perfections, the power, too great to bear. Now, do not do this, but it would be better to look full-faced into the midday sun than try to look upon God in all His glory, although because of Christ, one day we will.
Now let’s go on. He says, “Here the manifold perfections of God, holiness and goodness, justice and mercy, truth and grace, majesty and condescension, hatred of sin and compassion of sinners, are harmoniously blended.”
You see, now this is what he’s getting at. The harmonizing of the seemingly, not really, but seemingly contrary attributes of God, that happens in the cross of Christ. Now let’s look at this for a moment. His holiness. The sinner cannot approach Him. Our sins have made a separation between us and our God. So He is holy. Who can stand in His presence? Who can ascend to His hill? The Bible is clear that no sinner can. And yet this One who is so holy is also good, and good even to sinners. So how can He maintain or honor His holiness and at the same time be good to those who are contrary to His holiness? And then His justice and His mercy. If a man committed a terrible crime against you, against your family, and was brought before the judge, and was thoroughly guilty, and the judge looked at the man and said, “I am compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding and loving kindness. I pardon you.” You wouldn’t delight in that. You would say that justice has not been done. So the question is how can God show mercy and at the same time maintain His justice in judgment? Truth and grace. The truth is you and I deserve to die. The truth is we belong under a curse. The truth is we should be separated from God throughout all of eternity.
So how does God, who should give us nothing but justice, show us unmerited favor? We don’t want to lose the edge on that word. That’s favor that we do not merit. We merit the opposite. How does God demonstrate His majesty and yet His condescension, His humility? How does God show His hatred of sin and at the same time His compassion for sinners? How does He do that? Well, He does it on the cross. In what way? Well, let’s ask ourselves: does God hate sin? You could see that, I guess, in the judgments of Sodom and Gomorrah. You could see that in the flooding of the earth in the time of Noah. You could see it in His judgment upon Israel and His judgment upon the nations. But if you really want to see how much God hates sin, go to Calvary, where His only Son is bearing our sin.
And Isaiah 53:10 says, “And it pleased the LORD to crush Him.” How much does He hate sin? When His own Son was our substitute, our sin bearer, God hated sin so much He crushed Him. How much does God love the sinner? He loves the sinner in this way: “For God so love the world that He gave His Son to that crushing, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” There we see both harmonized. Oftentimes I hear preachers say something like this: “In the gospel, God, instead of being just, was merciful.” That’s not true because that would make His mercy unjust. In the gospel, God maintains His justice. He honors His holiness in the judgment of His own Son upon the cross. And God displays His mercy and His grace in that His Son is the one who carries our penalty and our punishment.
Now, he goes on, he says this, he goes, “All these attributes of God are harmonized like the multi-colored rays of solar light in one pure blaze of dazzling whiteness.”
There in the cross, there in the cross of Calvary, I won’t say that everything you need to know about God is found there because in order to understand the cross event, you need to know the totality of the scriptures, Old and New Testaments. But what I’m saying is at that point in history, that is the greatest revelation of who God is. Yes, it’s the thing that leads to our salvation, but there’s something greater than us and even something greater than our salvation. The display of God’s glory not only to men, but to angels, to heaven itself.
He goes on and he says this, “Here, rather than on any of His other works, He founds His claim to the highest admiration, gratitude, and love of His creatures.”
Now, think about this. Are not all the works of God great? Try to wrap your mind around the universe. You cannot. The creation of the universe was great. Try to wrap your mind around God’s providence. Try to wrap your mind around His ability to not only create, but maintain what He has created. His knowledge, His wisdom, and how they manifest themselves in all His works. You can’t comprehend that. But all those things, even creation itself, stands in the shadow of Calvary. There is no greater work. There is no greater theme in all the scriptures than that one theme that answers the greatest of all questions, “Who is God?”
Now, he says this, “Here, rather than on any of His other works, He founds His claim to the highest admiration.” You want your ability to praise God to increase? You want to cultivate it? Then cultivate your knowledge of the gospel. Gratitude, you want your gratitude to grow? Come to understand these simple words from the viewpoint of Scripture: “For God so loved the world He gave His only Son.
He goes on and he says, “Here is the work which ever has called forth and which through eternity will continue to call forth the most rapturous praises of the celestial choirs.” Let me ask you this question if you’re a preacher, if you’re a minister. What is your main theme? What do you preach to the people that they might obey God? What do you preach to the people that they might esteem Him and obey Him? What do you tell them? Do you give them all sorts of ideas about self-help strategies that come from the world? Do you coax them, manipulate them with emotions and expert worship team? There’s only one thing that can provoke regenerated hearts to truly appreciate God, be devoted to Him, love Him. And that is a greater understanding of the greatest manifestation of God, which is the cross of Calvary, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Preacher, put your mind there, put your heart there, and put your people there.
And he goes on and he says, “Call forth the praises of celestial choirs and feed the ever glowing fires of devotion in their breasts.“
Paul’s ambition, whether in the body or out of the body, what was it? To be pleasing to God. Why? Why? Because he was convinced that one died for all. The love of Christ – not his love for Christ, but Christ’s love for him – is what motivated him.
He says, “For the glory which shines in the gospel is the glory which illuminates heaven.”
Do you have the same heart as those in heaven? Do you share their same focus? Are your eyes in the same place? Because in heaven, it is the Lamb that was slain. He’s the light thereof. What is the greatest thing we can do? What is the only thing that we can do to be saved? Look unto Jesus. What is the greatest thing that we can do to grow in piety, to grow in holiness, to cultivate sanctification? Look unto Jesus. Look unto Jesus. And after every one of these, I just feel like I want to apologize. When all that has been said, nothing has been said, because Christ is too great a theme. But that is the burden. That is the tension of the true preacher, of the true minister of Christ, to spend his life searching out the gems of the gospel, to present them to the bride of Christ, that she grow in her love for her Spouse, that she not be discouraged. And this is why we read old books. God bless you. I hope this has been a help.
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