Amen. We turn in the word of God to Psalm 8, the passage read in your hearing. And as we look at this psalm this morning, it's a bit like Moses standing at the burning bush. He turned aside to see a great sight. And essentially that is what we are about to do. to see our great sight, to have this incredible sight of God. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name on all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. Our theme is very simple, the splendor of God, the splendor of God. But before we go further than that, I do need to explain the context. How does Sam 8 fit into this sequence of Sams that we've gone through? We started with Sam 1, we finished Sam 7 last Sabbath, now we're in Sam 8. So how does Sam 8 fit into all of that sequence? Well there is in fact a remarkable connection between Psalms 7, 8, and 9. If you look at Psalm 7, verse 17, I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. Psalm 8, verse 1, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name. And then you get to the last verse. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. And then you come to sound thine. Verse two, I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thy most high. And then again in verse 10. So these three Psalms are linked by the name of God and it is, I think, virtually an exclusive connection in the entire book of Psalms, reminding you and impressing upon you the importance of this one truth, that the Psalms are not a haphazard connection thrown together. but they are uniquely designed and ordered by God that we might learn something of not only himself but of Christ because you recall we started with Psalms 1 and 2 setting the Savior before us and how the Psalms that follow relate to that and we'll see that over the next number of Sabbaths in Psalm 8. Psalm 8 of course is as you know directly quoted in the New Testament in reference to Our Lord. Now in relation to God's splendor, or God's glory, we need to consider a number of texts this morning. I normally, as you know, just stick to the passage, but sometimes we have to go through scripture. So holding the psalm together is the name of God. What does that say to us? Well, the name represents everything that God reveals about himself, which is why we wonder at a range of aspects. So in what sense then is God's name excellent? In what sense do we think of the splendor of God? Well, first of all, there is a splendor. of God's goodness. And here you must turn to Exodus 33, that very well-known passage, verses 18 to 23, where Moses says, show me thy glory. And they said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, thou canst not see my face, where there shall no man see me, and live, and so on. And of course, in verse 23, I shall see my back part. So what does this passage directly tell you about the splendor of God's goodness? Well, in the first place, God's essence is beyond our reach. Verse 20, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. There is God's incomprehensibility. This big word that theologians use to describe this simple truth, but this most incredible truth, no one can see the very essence of God. You can't apprehend but you cannot comprehend, hence the word incomprehensibility. The incomprehensible glory, perfection, and brilliance of God. No creature can see the essence of God. And the second thing you notice is that God's goodness reveals his glory. I will make all my goodness pass before you. This is what Charmick the Puritan calls the captain attribute. As he goes on to explain from Psalm 104, he says, the goodness of God is the river that waters the whole earth. It is God's goodness that runs through scripture, but in particular, the goodness of God runs through the sand. It is a central teaching in the book of Psalms. But in addition, God's goodness is supremely displayed in the exercise of his sovereignty in the world of humanity. So God's goodness reveals or displays something of God's glory, but that goodness is set before you in terms of God's sovereignty exercised in the world of humanity. And so he says, and will be graces to whom I will be gracious, will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. So it is God and God alone who determines, who decides upon whom he will show his grace and his mercy. You cannot deny the sovereignty of God in the matter of salvation, in the matter of grace and mercy, and still think you can retain the goodness of God. The goodness of God is therefore set before you in the exercise of a sovereignty. This is a hallmark of the splendor of God. The splendor of God in his goodness and that goodness is defined for you in the exercise of a sovereignty in grace and mercy. So you begin to see from the very outset, the splendor of God is not something we can talk about lightly, glibly. We are simply to gaze upon. and to simply worship and admire and salivate over the splendor of God in His goodness. But what is the thing, whenever we're in our darkest and gloomiest moment, we are suspicious of? We are suspicious of God's goodness. Sin makes us suspicious of God. We begin to doubt His goodness. And it is interesting that in this glorious revelation of God, God begins with his goodness so that we will not doubt of his goodness and not be suspicious of his goodness. So when providence turns all your plans upside down and beats you around the head and humbles you and troubles you, Let us turn to God's goodness. The Lord is good. Whatever he does is always good. And he is good in the exercise of his sovereignty. But then secondly, the splendor of God's creation. And here we turn to a passage you all know very well. Psalm 19, the heavens declare their glory of God. Calvin famously said, creation is the theater of God's glory. Now that may seem surprising that he would use that phrase, a theater. What he means is that the whole universe is like a grand stage where God displays for you his splendor, his glory, and his majesty. In other words, this arena in which we live is like a grand stage and we can see for ourselves in this world a little of that glory. And how is that possible? Well, he says, day unto day I will speak, night unto night shall I acknowledge. So the whole ordering of creation. So you have the ordering of the planets. You know, there's millions of planets out there, but they're all in perfect order. I know the prognosticators every few years tell us, oh, there's a planet getting very close to ours. Let's all panic. We'll turn off the heating or whatever to try and make us survive. All this kind of nonsense goes on. But we're Christians, aren't we? We profess that we know God, that we know the word of God. So it's an ordered universe in which we live. And then there's the whole ordering of the seasons. And again, You know, people worry about seasons. Oh, the winter's far worse this year than it's ever been before. Next year, we haven't had winter for a long time. We needed to kill all the germs. We change every winter. But there's an ordering of the seasons. Seed time and harvest, going to be here until the end. Isn't that what we're told? The Lord has filled the earth for our sustenance. And he's ordered these seasons. so that we might be sustained. And there's the ordering of the days, night and day. Of course, in our wonderful and rich cleverness, we have limited the day to a few hours because we've got all this electric light, and we stay out later and later, and some of us have tried to burn the candle at both ends. It doesn't work, of course, but nonetheless, the Lord has ordered days, day and night. Thy sin may have brought ruin, as it has, and death and judgment. Yet the original purpose stands. The original purpose stands. The heavens declare the glory of God. And why and how does that original purpose remain? Because God himself is immutable. God doesn't change. So God then is immutable. has ensured that we can still sing the heavens declare the glory of God. So what do we see in this grand theatre? Well, we see the whole history of redemption being worked out before your eyes. Creation. Fall. Flood. We have all of the types and shadows, the promises in the Old Testament, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension, and the grand conclusion is yet to be the return of Christ into this very world in which we live. So on this great stage, we see, as it were, the whole history of redemption being unfolded before your very eyes. And then within all of that, of course, is providence. That most comforting of doctrine for all miserable Christians. That most comforting of doctrine. The providence of God. The arrangement of all things, how all things do indeed work together for good. We don't think that at the time when everything goes against us, when everything is shattered, and the Lord has broken everything, and we are troubled and perturbed. But I trust, as a Christian, you have lived long enough to be able to look back and say, the Lord's way was best. The Lord's way was best. My way would have been a disaster. Our own individual plans are always a disaster. But the Lord's way is good, and perfect, and right. So that we might be able to say, without problem of old, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. We've only gotten to this day because of the Lord. Because we're fools, and we're foolish. We think wrong things, we plan wrong things, we do wrong things, it is astonishing that we're here in body, soul, mind, rational, clothed, and sitting before the word of God. That is amazing in itself. The sheer providence of God. And that providence sets before you. It's goodness, power, wisdom, and justice. These are the things that God shows to you in providence. They are evidence of his splendor in this world in which we live. But how you might say is that accomplished? Well, God gives to you a taste of his goodness, power, wisdom, and justice. We see it in providence. We experience it in salvation, which means we can truly say The Earth is full of its glory. But here's the question. Have you seen that for yourself? You know, as we go about our daily routines every day, so many demands are made of us. So many tasks to do, places to go, people to see, all kinds of deadlines and targets and priorities. we can become so involved in our own little lives, in our own little world, we begin to ignore and overlook as children of the king, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, these things that we're involved in so directly should not take over our lives, but rather they're but a part of Both all of our lives as children of God, we are but pilgrims passing through. But sometimes in that pilgrimage, we are so involved and so taken up, and our calendars are so full and our days are so full, that we neglect our souls. So I say to you, to your parents, what about their family worship? What about yourselves? What is your walk with the Lord like? How is your communion with the Lord? Are you, as it were, gazing upon the splendor of God in the world in which we live, seeing His hand in things? We should be thankful for the Lord's day so that we can hear these things afresh, repent of our sins, but also have that sense of a renewed walk before the Lord, that this week that we've entered, we will indeed take time to study God's splendor in creation. So that you'll not be whinging about the weather, like everybody else. And you'll not whinge if it's too hot, you'll not whinge if it's too wet, not whinge if the wind blows too hard, and all of the things that people can play along. This is a grand theater. And we are to gaze as we are upon it all, the works of the Lord. What a transformation of our outfit. But then thirdly, the splendor of God's holiness. Here we turn to another familiar passage, Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6, verses 1 to 3. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His tree and filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim, each one had six wings, with twain He covered His face, with twain He covered His feet, and with twain He did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Now immediately you might ask, well, why is the word holy repeated three times? I think the tear in this commentary gets it right for us. Holiness is supremely, the truth about God, holiness of God's hidden glory. Glory is God's all-present holiness. So he's saying the same thing three different ways just to reinforce for you how incredibly important the holiness of God is. Edward Lee, who was a member of the Westminster Assembly wrote, holiness is the incommunicable eminence of the divine majesty. Thomas Ridley, one of the old seceders, holiness is the harmony of all God's perfections. What makes all the perfections of God, as it were, Work together. Holiness. Without holiness, God's justice would be mere vindictiveness. And you could take that idea and go through all the attributes of God and see how they would be changed without holiness. We deal with a holy God. And Isaiah 6 is placed in an interesting context. It's the year King Uzziah died. So that time marker is very important. Remember, Uzziah died 11. Uzziah is in the temple. He sees the splendor of an infinite eternal unchanging King. The splendor, the glory, the Lord sitting upon his throne. Here, in other words, is Israel's true and supreme King. This is Israel's King. I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne. in all his glory and majesty and splendor. And so he responds, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Yahweh of Hosts, the God of all power, who is all powerful, we're hosts, tells you that. In other words, Isaiah is saying, no one can compare with this king, because God is king. Isaiah also adds, the whole earth is full of his glory. Again, reminding you that it's like a grand theater. There's no part of this whole universe where the glory of God is expressed. because he owns every blade of grass, every square inch. There's not one square yard that can say, God is not here. He owns it all. So his glory fills the earth. Then Isaiah responds in verse five, woe is me. Before omnipotence, Immensity, unsurpassed glory, before this infinite, eternal, unchanging, immutable God. He, but a worm, the dust of the earth is immediately shocked as it were. He realizes his own sinfulness. So he gives expression to our reality, but the reality of everybody else. Look at verse five. It's woe is me. The next clause essentially says woe is everyone. We're all in the same position. I dwell in the midst of a people of uncleanness. Woe is all of us. We are all unclean before the absolute, eternal, immutable, infinite holiness of God. We are all unclean. What is wrong with our world? What is wrong with our culture? The absence of a sense of sin. Why is that absent? Because there's an absence of the sense of God's holiness. You might say, what is wrong with the church? Can we say the same? An absence of the sense of sin because there's an absence of the sense of God's incomprehensible, immutable holiness. We have lost the war with me. And if we do not get back to that pretty soon, providence is sure to send us even worse. The splendor of God's holiness. But then fourthly, the splendor of God's Son. I'll reach a point where I will have to stop and you can finish the rest yourself. But the splendor of God's Son. You cannot speak of the splendor of God without also coming to this particular truth. In John 1, 14, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Well, what exactly does that mean? Well, to assist you in understanding the full significance of what John has written, we must turn to 2 Corinthians 4. We shall read from verse 3. It is said to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus of old, and ourselves your servants, for it is you see. For 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 and the face of Jesus Christ. For we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. So let's break this down into constituent parts. Firstly, the gospel is glorious because it speaks of Jesus Christ. Remember, everything about Christianity is marked with the word glory. Everything is glorious. So the gospel is glorious because of its content. It speaks to you of Jesus Christ, the glory that came down, the glory as of the only begotten of the father came down to earth. And second, Christ is glorious because the glory of God is revealed to us by Christ. I repeat that, Christ is glorious because the glory of God is revealed to us by Jesus. Verse four, the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God. God commanded the light to shine out of darkness. This is a world of darkness. The light has come in. How did the light come into the darkness? Jesus came. What is the significance of that light? It's to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You cannot know God. You cannot see God. But God chose to reveal himself, the Father has revealed himself in the face of Jesus Christ. Which brings the third aspect. The preaching. The preaching of the word is glorious. because it has a particular design. What is the design? To reveal the power of God, the majesty of God. So the preaching of the word, I mean, Paul talks about the foolishness of preaching. You know, we were tasked with trying to make the church attractive, trying to make It's acceptable. First thing we'd do is get rid of preaching. That's the first thing we'd do, get rid of preaching. The second thing we'd want to do is, well, why don't we bring in, what's it, Parliament pictures or whatever, and we'll show a movie on the wall? We'll bring the whole country in to see a movie. That's what we would do. But God throws a whole job lot out the door. He says, this. It's what must be done. Why? Not for the benefit of the preacher. But by this seemingly foolish and strange method, the impact of the word upon the heart lies with him so that he gets the glory. It's spine tingling, isn't it? Because everything to do with Christianity is about glory. and the glory must always go to God. So when John tells you, in John 1.14, we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father in the face of Jesus Christ, the Father, in all his splendor and beauty and majesty, has revealed himself. You want to know what God is like? Want to know what God as a Father is like? We turn to the Son. We can only know God through Jesus Christ. And this is explicitly Christian. As I've said to you many times before, because we live in this world in which we live and people think all the religions are the same and one confession of God is the same as another, let's make it absolutely clear, we are not heroes. and we can never be purists. The claims we make are entirely exclusive, and the exclusive claim is this, you can only know the true God by knowing the Son of God, Jesus Christ. You are not a Christian if you deny that. How can God be known through Jesus Christ. Remember what it says in Colossians 1, that wonderful passage that lifts your gaze and stretches your brain. Colossians 1, 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by Him, that is, by the Savior, were all things created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things. By him all things consist, and he is the head of the body of the church. Who owns the church? Jesus Christ. It is not up to you and I to decide what the church will be like or do. You don't own the church. You are a member of the church, but you don't own it. Christ owns it. So when the country says the church has got to change, We say the church better not change because Christ hasn't given us that power or authority to change the church. Belongs to Him. The church is out of date. So what? It belongs to Jesus Christ. Whatever the fads and fashions are in the world, it belongs to Him. And we better not change one iota of His mission and its shape in this world. In John 17, the Savior tells you, and this is life eternal. What does that eternal life rest on? To know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, and that's it. You can't know God unless you know the Savior. And then, of course, we are reminded in John 1, You run your eye down further, come to verse 18, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Now, you know, of course, the word declared has its own significance. It's the idea of exegesis. The Son has exegeted. The Son has taught us, revealed to us, shown us, explained to us, enabled us by the Spirit to understand. So John Owen rightly says, beholding Christ is one of the greatest privileges believers are capable of. The greatest privilege. Of all the things we may be capable of, the supreme is being made capable of beholding Christ. Fifthly, the splendour of God's word. Again we turn, I've tried to pick all the familiar texts this morning for the benefit of younger ones and children. Psalm 138 and in verse 2, Thus magnify thy word above all thy name. This is an incredible statement. I'll illustrate the importance of it this way. When Jonathan Edwards was sacked and he went to live amongst the Indians, and his immediate problem that he faced, how can I show to these illiterate, uneducated Indians The Bible is the word of God. It exercised him for a long time. He read Westminster Confession of Faith I, paragraph five, and it speaks of the efficacy of doctrine, the majesty of style, the consent of the parts. But for all of these Indians, that's a complete mystery. They were uneducated, couldn't read and write, illiterate. The consent of the parts meant nothing to him. But as he read that part, there is a part in brackets that enables him to do something wonderful. The scoop of the hole, the word scoop, by the way, is a very important word, the scoop of the hole, which is, They give all glory to God. And suddenly he realized, these may be illiterate people, but I can show them the glory of God. The splendor of God's word. What is the splendor of God's word? It is here you read for yourself the glory of God. Now think of those texts that we have gone through from Exodus. Show me thy glory, the glory of God's goodness as it is defined and set out for you in the display of a sovereignty exercised in the world of humanity. The glory of God in creation, the heavens declare the glory of God. The glory that came down in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You see why he got excited. as they started to go through that series of sermons with these Indians, showing to them in these simple terms, the majesty and the beauty and the wonder of this exclusive God that there's no like it. And so they became Christians, they were converted under that preaching of the word. So here then is, This golden thread that runs through all of scripture, the glory of God. Of course, we are such wretchedly subjective beings. We turn to the word of God and we think it's all about us, don't we? What's my favorite verse? What's my favorite? What do I make of this passage? What does it mean for you? My dear friends, I don't care what your favorite passage is. I don't care what it means to you. This is what comes first, the glory of God. Do you see that glory? When you look at the mighty works of God, do you see his glory? Remember the Israelites? A wonderful moment they came to the water. And the Lord says, now, I want the whole camp of Israel to take a few steps back. And he gives them the discipline. You are to take yourselves away from it. And then I want the Levites, who fairly are, I want them to come forward, and I want them to walk into that water. And all Israel, he says, shall see You shall see with your own eyes my glory and my power and my mighty acts. And nobody is to move until they walk into that water. And so they walk into the water and the water is part. But then he commands Israel, now you walk. And they walk through the midst of the sea. They saw, hence the distance, they were to see for themselves the power of God. But what do we see? Oh, there's another verse for me. I like that. Is that the height of your spirit of thinking? Do you think it's all about you? No, I'm not saying that God does not speak to us through his word. He certainly does, because his word is alive, it's living and powerful. It's like a two-edged sword. But shouldn't we begin with God? Isn't that how the Ten Commandments begin? Isn't that how the Lord's Prayer begins? Isn't that how the Bible begins, in the beginning, God created? It all starts with God. Where do we come in? Well, we're further down the line. You know, like the Ten Commandments, you've got four, and then eventually you get to us. And the Lord's Prayer, it starts with God, God's name and God's kingdom and God's power and God's will. And then it gets to us. If we were to write the Lord's Prayer, we would reverse it. But when you get to the end of the Lord's Prayer, you're back to the beginning. In other words, you travel through scripture. Starting with God will eventually come to yourself, but will then take you all the way back to God. God has exalted his word. That's staggering. He has exalted his word above his name, indicating the beauty, the splendor, and the sheer magnificence of the word of God. So we have this treasure. That's not why we pray for the lack of TBS and the printing and publishing of the word of God and other languages. We want everybody to learn what? The glory of God. That's the mission. We want sinners to learn about the glory of God. In the light of that glory, like I said, they will see their utter sinfulness. And in that misery and sinfulness, the gospel will point them to the glory in God's Son, and the glorious work of the glorious Son, and the glory of redemption and salvation, and the glory of the world to come. Heaven is a world of glory, the glory to come. Well, there are other things that I have listed. The glory of his church, well, you can look at that when you go home. The glory of his people, you can look at that when you go home. And there are other topics, but I'll finish it there because next Lord's Day, God willing, will be in verse two. We'll not do every single verse because these verses are not all grouped together. Well, my dear friends, I do want you to go home with this, the sheer splendor of God. May the Lord bless His word.