Psalm 24. Ben, I'm going to ask you to pray for
us. Remember Doug. Doug's in the hospital. They're
running some tests on him this morning. He's got some bleeding
going on. They're going to find out where
it's at. So remember Doug in your prayers. come before you so thankful that
you divide in mercy, that you are true to our sovereign Lord,
that you are our Jesus. And Lord, we just ask you to
keep us at your feet, resting in the fact that all our work
is done by our life in the city that you're rocking. Lord, give
us this day all the blessings of Christ. Make us look at you
as our only hope, with our own bodies. And what we ask in this
life and trial and circumstances, you put us in, Lord, give us
grace in this time of need. Lord, we remember our brethren
in Christ. Lord, hold us up. Give them hope, comfort them
in Christ. And what we ask for us, that
you look over each of your wills, and all of us, what we ask you,
We know that all things are for our own good and glory, and we
ask that in all things for us. We ask each and every one of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we
ask each and every one of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each and every one
of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each and every one
of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each and every one of our sins and sins for
forgiveness, and we ask each and every one of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each
and every one of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each and every one of our
sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each and every one of our sins and sins
for forgiveness, and we ask each and every one of our sins and sins for
forgiveness, and we ask each and every one of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each
and every one of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each and every one
of our sins and sins for forgiveness, and we ask each and every one It's so comforting to know that
we can go to the throne of grace and find help in time of need,
that we can cast all our cares upon Him. We are told to cast
all our cares upon Him, for He careth for us. This morning I
was thinking, and I was thinking, Sidney went to Italy, didn't
she? I was thinking of Sidney going to Italy And Madison, she's
getting ready to go to Poland. And I prayed, and I prayed, I
said, Lord, keep them safe. You're the only one that can.
I said, you're the only one that can. You're the only one that
can keep them safe. You're the only one that can
bring them back. And our brother Doug, he's the only one who can
comfort and give the doctors wisdom. And we can take all of
that to the throne of grace. That gave me, that gave me such
comfort this morning. And prayer, just thinking that
I can lay all my cares before Him and trust Him. Trust Him. He can take care of us. He can
take care of us. You know, safety's of the Lord.
Safety's of the Lord. You know, if I had my way about
it, my granddaughters wouldn't go nowhere. But we can't do that. But I do know this, the Lord
can keep them safe. He can keep our children safe.
He can keep us safe. And he'll bring us safely home
when it's time. When it's time for his children
to come home, he can bring us safely through this world and
safely to the grave and safely to home. All right, now let's
get to the message. It was just when Ben started
praying, that came back to me this morning of going to the
throne of grace and asking the Lord to even bless this this
morning. I titled this lesson, this message,
Christ the King of Glory. WE HAVE A KING, AND HE'S THE
KING OF GLORY. THAT MEANS HE HAS NO BOUNDARIES. EVERY KING ON THIS EARTH HAS
A BOUNDARY. HE'S KING OF HIS LITTLE DOMAIN,
OF HIS LITTLE COUNTRY. WHATEVER THE BOUNDARY IS, HIS
KINGDOM AUTHORITY DOESN'T GO BEYOND THAT BOUNDARY. BUT OUR KING HAS NO BOUNDARIES,
DOES HE? He knows no boundaries. He's king of kings and he's lord
of lords and there's none can say to him, what are you doing?
They can not put him in check. He negotiates with no one. Our
king is truly sovereign. He truly does as he will, when
he will, with whom he will. That's our king. And we trust
our king. We have a good king. We have
an honest king. Boy, that's hard to find, isn't
it? To find anyone that's honest. There's not a just man on the
earth that does good and sins not, the Lord said, but we have
a king who's just and he does right. He does nothing but right.
He can do no wrong. Our king can do no wrong. He's
a just king. Our king loves righteousness.
He loves righteousness. and he hates iniquity that's
our king now in psalm 22 we have our substitute i'm thinking
about preaching in the conference this next weekend coming up i'm
thinking about preaching from psalm 22 23 and 24 You know, just one follows the
other. We have Christ our Substitute,
Christ our Shepherd, and Christ our King. Now that's three good
messages if you ask me. That's three good places to preach
from in a conference. Because it all starts at the
cross, Christ crucified. The whole universe, everything
that exists CHRIST IS THE HUB OF IT, CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED
IS THE HUB OF IT. AND BECAUSE WE HAVE CHRIST AND
HIM CRUCIFIED, WE CAN HAVE CHRIST OUR SHEPHERD. AND WE CAN HAVE
CHRIST AS OUR SHEPHERD KING. CHRIST IS OUR SHEPHERD KING.
HE'S OUR SUBSTITUTE KING. HE'S OUR SUBSTITUTE SHEPHERD
KING IS WHAT HE IS TO US. AND RIGHT FROM THE VERY START
OF THIS PSALM, The FOCUS is put on the LORD. Now this is the
Lord Jesus Christ spoken of here in this Psalm. Anywhere we read
the Lord, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah. Jehovah Jesus
is who it is. Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the
Son, and Jehovah the Holy Spirit. All three are but one God. Three distinct persons, but one
God. But the FOCUS is put on HIM. the focus is to be put on
Him every time we meet. Every time we have a service,
the focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the CENTER of our
message. He's the CENTER of it. Now it
says, The EARTH is the LORD'S. It's His. Starts out with His
ownership. You see, our King owns it all.
As I said, he has no boundaries. He owns it all. It's all his. Your house, I'm going to say
my house, but my house is your house. But our house, our cars,
the bank accounts, children, husbands, wives, they're all
his. They're all his. He's loaned
these things to us. You know that? He's loaned them
to us, and if He wants to take them, that's all right. It's going
to hurt, but it's all right. It's His, and we need to understand
it's His. The earth is the Lord and the
fullness. The earth is full, isn't it?
It's full. And he keeps it full. He maintains
it. He keeps everything in order
and he keeps this earth producing. 6,000 years have gone by and 6,000
years of sinfulness, wickedness. And yet the earth keeps producing,
you know, and because he keeps it producing. The air is full. The rivers are full, the land
is full, it's all full, and of His fullness have all we received. What's that? Grace for grace.
We have received all fullness in Christ. We've received all
the fullness we need in this life, and we have received all
fullness of God's grace in Him. We have the fullness of God's
grace. It's not just partial, we have the fullness of it. in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in verse 1, there's no doubt
who owns this. There's no doubt who's the sovereign. It's not me. It's not any man. It's Christ. It's the man Christ
Jesus. He's the sovereign. He's the
King and Lord of Lords and He's running it all. He has the title
DEEDS to all of it. You have a deed to your home?
He has a deed to all of it, every bit of it. It's all His and they, listen,
they that dwell therein. You know what this tells us? Everybody
in this world ought to worship Him. Everyone owes their existence
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We owe our existence to Him. HE OWNS NOT ONLY THE WORLD, BUT
HE OWNS ALL THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN, WHETHER THEY BELIEVE OR NOT. WHETHER THEY BELIEVE OR NOT,
WHETHER YOU BELIEVE OR NOT, WHETHER SOMEONE IN HERE BELIEVES OR NOT,
HE OWNS YOU. HE OWNS YOU. YOU'RE IN HIS HANDS. YOU ARE TURNED OVER TO HIM. THE
BREATH OF EVERY LIVING THING IT SAYS IN THE WORD OF GOD IS
IN HIS HANDS. HE SAYS WHETHER YOU'RE GOING
TO GO OR COME. HE SAYS WHETHER YOU'RE GOING
TO WAKE UP IN THE MORNING OR IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO WAKE UP IN
THE MORNING. HE SAYS THAT. HE SAYS THAT. AND THIS BEING SO, ALL PEOPLE
ARE TO WORSHIP HIM. Charles Spurgeon said this, Jesus
Christ has made an end of the exclusiveness of nationalities. There are no nationalities in
Him. It says, There is neither barbarian,
Scythian, bond, nor free. Christ is all in all, and all
are one in Him whom the Lord saves. There are no nationalities
in Christ. In Christ, everyone in Christ
They are one family, one family. Now the earth is His and He has
founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods.
You know, He called this earth out of the waters. He said, let
the dry land appear. And He speaks of the firmament
above our head, the water above our head, the clouds that He
established it. You know how unstable water is? where the Lord has established.
This earth is two-thirds water. It's covered two-thirds of water.
That's not counting all the water under the ground. There's an
ocean under the ground. And I see the wisdom of God in
that. If not, it couldn't exist because it would explode. It's
like the cooling element. You know, you look at the center
of the earth is so hot and magma, it's just that volcano that comes
up. If it wasn't for the water in
the ground, in the earth, it would melt for sure. Oh, the
wisdom of God, He put its own cooling system in it. You see
God's wisdom in all things. Creation astounds me, it just
astounds me. BUT HE HAS FOUNDED IT, HE HAS
ESTABLISHED IT UPON THE FLOODS, THAT SEEMS LIKE THE MOST UNSTABLE
THING THERE IS, BUT HE ESTABLISHED IT. IT WILL NOT BE MOVED UNTIL
HE IS READY TO REMOVE IT, UNTIL HE IS READY TO FOLD IT UP, AS
IT SAYS IN HEBREWS CHAPTER 1, AND PUT IT ASIDE. AND THEN THIS QUESTION IS ASKED
The earth is the LORD, the fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein.
He's established this earth. But now man lives on this earth,
right? We live on this earth. I haven't lived anywhere else.
I have known nothing but this earth. But then this question
is asked, Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD, or who
shall stand in His holy place? You see, that's the question.
I KNOW I'M LIVING ON THIS EARTH, BUT HOW CAN I GO AND STAND BEFORE
GOD, THE ONE WHO OWNS ALL THIS? HOW CAN I STAND BEFORE THE ONE
WHO OWNS ALL THIS? WE CAN STAND BEFORE EACH OTHER,
BUT NOT BEFORE GOD. GOD'S A CONSUMING FIRE, THE SCRIPTURE
SAYS. GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE, AND
WE ARE BY NATURE WOOD, HAY, AND STUBBLE. WE ARE CONSUMABLE. THAT'S WHAT WE ARE. And the question is WHO SHALL
ASCEND TO THE HILL OF THE LORD OR WHO SHALL STAND IN HIS HOLY
PLACE? ASCEND HAS TO DO WITH WORSHIP.
WHO SHALL ASCEND THERE AND WORSHIP HIM? AND STAND HAS TO DO WITH
STANDING HIS GROUND. CAN YOU STAND YOUR GROUND BEFORE
GOD? CAN YOU STAND YOUR GROUND? I CAN'T AND YOU CAN'T EITHER. YOU KNOW THAT, I KNOW YOU KNOW
THAT. Over in 1st Samuel 6 20 the men
of Bathsheba said this who is able to stand before this? Holy
Lord God who's able to stand? That's the question How can I
a sinful man? Stand before God who is holy
God who will by no means clear the guilty How can I stand before
God? I'm going to meet him Everybody,
you know There's 8 billion people on this earth, I think it's around
8 billion. How many people do you reckon you're going to deal
with? Few, percentage wise, extremely few. I won't even see the vast majority
of humanity, but everybody's going to deal with God. Everybody's
going to deal with God. every soul not just the eight
billion that are living on this earth but the billions who have
already lived and the billions if the time goes on the billions
that are yet to live every soul not one will be missed everyone
will deal with God that's the last thing everyone has to do
is deal with God People think about what they
want to do before they die, it's what you're going to do after
you die, it ain't over! It's not over! That's what I
want to scream to people, it's not over when you die! The person
who's about to commit suicide, it's not over! You're about to
jump into a REAL mess! You think you're trying to get
out of a mess? You're about to jump into a REAL mess! My friend,
you can break a leg and go to the hospital and come back. You
die and go to the grave, you ain't coming back. There's no
coming back from the grave. And you're going to meet God.
And as the tree falls, Solomon said, so shall it lie. There's
no change in that world. There's no change. You die unjust,
you remain unjust. You die just in Christ, you remain
just. People think that they can just
die and end it all. No, you can't. Now it's eternal. now it's eternal this is time
whatever suffering we go through here is for a period of time
that is forever that is forever and ever and ever now the question is this seeing
that he is so great and glorious who's going to stand in his presence
and abide you know the people of AT THE TOWER OF BABEL THEY
BUILT THIS TOWER TRYING TO REACH TO HEAVEN. BUT WHAT DID GOD DO?
HE CONFUSED THEIR LANGUAGE AND STOPPED IT. THEY COULDN'T DO
IT. THEY COULDN'T DO IT. MANY HAVE THOUGHT THEY COULD
STAND IN HIS PRESENCE BY THEIR OWN WORKS. THAT YOUNG MAN SAID,
ALL THESE HAVE I KEPT FROM MY YOUTH UP. HE NEVER KEPT ONE OF
THEM. I DON'T WANT TO DIE BEING FOOLED. I don't want to die being
fooled. He didn't keep one of them. There's
going to be many that the Lord's going to say to them, depart
from me, I never knew you. And you know what? They didn't
know him either. They knew of a Jesus, but one that didn't
exist. The one that the preacher conjured
up and sold them THERE IS ONLY ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST, ALL OTHERS
ARE FAKES. ALL OTHERS ARE JUST POSERS, THAT'S
ALL THEY ARE. CHRIST SAID THERE WILL BE MANY
WHO WILL COME AND SAY HERE'S CHRIST AND THERE'S CHRIST. EVERYBODY
IN THIS COMMUNITY, THROUGHOUT THE... HOW MANY... HOW MANY... I DON'T WANT TO SAY CHURCHES,
I DON'T LIKE TO USE THE WORD CHURCHES, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I
MEAN. HOW MANY ARE THERE IN THIS COMMUNITY?
and they're all saying, Here's Christ, here's Christ, He's here
today! No, He's not, He's not in all
these different places, we wouldn't be so separated if He was. There's only one Christ, there's
only one gospel, there's only one truth, there's not many.
There's many being proclaimed, but there's only one. That's
what Paul said in Galatians chapter 1, he said there's only one gospel,
HOW DO WE KNOW WE HAVE THE ONE GOSPEL? Well, first of all, you've
got to start by studying the Word of God. You can't know that
if you don't study the Word of God. And secondly, if the gospel
we preach at the end of the day, at the end of this service, WHO'S
GETTING THE GLORY? WHO ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT WHEN
YOU LEAVE HERE? It's Christ getting the glory.
And here's the best way I can explain it, is when I heard my
Pastor Henry, when I heard him on television preaching, and
I've been reading the Scriptures a lot, and I said this, I said
this, what he's saying MATCHES what I'm reading. That's the difference. That's the difference. If I hear
someone say Jesus loves you and wants to save you, you can't
find that in the Word of God anywhere. I cannot look at any lost person
and say Jesus Christ loves you. You know what I can say to them?
The wrath of God abides on you. He that believes not is condemned
already. That's the truth. God's love
is in Christ. You're not in Christ. You don't
believe on Christ. You don't love Christ. I can't
say God loves you. I can't say that. But I tell you what, you come
to faith in Christ, you follow Christ, you love Christ, I can
say to you, you love him because he first loved you. That's why.
That's why you love him. It's why I love him because he
first loved me. But if I go in unbelief, You
know as a preacher I can't say that to a person. I can say the
wrath of God abides on you. This is why nobody, this is why
for the most part people don't fear God. Because He just loves
everybody. You don't fear anyone, you do
not fear anyone that loves you. Do you? You have no reason to. You see we don't have an angry
God no more. We don't have a God who's angry
with sin no more. We don't have a God who said,
I hate the workers of iniquities. You don't have that no more.
They've erased Him from their preaching. Not from the Bible,
He's still in the Bible. He's still in His Word. I'm just
being honest. If you want to experience the
love of God, you flee to Christ. You flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now where am I at? How can I
stand here? This is the question, how can
I stand? And He says here, and He gives
the answer, He that hath clean hands, that's outward actions,
a pure heart, that's inward purity, who has not lifted up his soul
to vanity, that's worshiping of idols, nor sworn deceitfully,
that's a dishonest heart. Now this person can stand, this
person can ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His presence. But here's the problem, I'M GUILTY
OF ALL THAT! I'M GUILTY OF ALL OF IT! If you'll notice here, He's not
describing a particular nationality, He's describing a particular
CHARACTER! He's describing the CHARACTER
of the ones who can stand there, and who can ascend and be there.
Religion preaches HOW CAN WE GET TO HEAVEN? THE GOSPEL TELLS
US WHO'S GOING TO GET THERE. WHO'S GOING TO GET THERE? WHO'S
GOING TO BE THERE? NOT HOW I CAN GET TO HEAVEN,
IT'S WHO'S GOING TO BE THERE. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, and hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn
deceitfully. You know anyone like that? I
do. I know one person like that.
The Lord Jesus Christ, he didn't do any of that. He's that blessed man that's
spoken of in Psalm 1. Here's the man who can ascend
the hill of the Lord and did. He arose from the grave and he
ascended on high. And he's seated at God's right
hand. You know why? Because he hath clean hands.
He hath a pure heart. He's not lifted up his soul to
vanity, nor did he ever swear deceitfully. And you know what
the good news of the gospel is? As he is, so are we in this world. Does he have clean hands? So
do I in him. pure heart so do i in him blessed
are those pure in heart there's the kingdom of god blessed are
the pure in heart now you and i've known nothing but sin but
in christ in christ we have we have these things we have these
things you see to understand this more fully we have to understand
our union to christ HE'S DIVINE AND WHAT ARE WE? THE BRANCHES. IS HE HOLY? IS THE VINE HOLY? SO ARE THE BRANCHES. REALLY,
SO ARE THE BRANCHES. WE EXPERIENCE THIS ALSO IN THE
NEW BIRTH. THAT NEW MAN THAT'S BORN OF GOD
HAS CLEAN HANDS AND A PURE HEART, HAS NOT LIFTED UP HIS SOUL TO
VANITY, NOR SWORN DECEITFULLY. THAT'S THE NEW HEART. THAT'S
THE NEW MAN, BORN OF GOD. THAT'S THE NEW MAN. Listen to
1 John 3.9, WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD DOES NOT COMMIT SIN, FOR
HIS SEED REMAINS IN HIM, AND HE CANNOT SIN BECAUSE HE'S BORN
OF GOD. WHAT'S HE TALKING ABOUT? He's
talking about that new creation. Why would God give me another
heart that can sin? Now I've got two hearts that
can sin. The old heart I was born with and a new heart? No,
that doesn't happen. That heart, God said, I'll give
you a new heart and I'll put within you a new spirit. And
that new man, that new man is born of God, that new nature
is born of God, does not sin. He says here, He says there in
1 John, he cannot for his seed remains in him. HE SHALL RECEIVE THE BLESSING
FROM THE LORD, in verse 5, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM THE GOD OF
HIS SALVATION. WHO'S HE? THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. This always begins with Him first.
It always begins with Him first. The first application is to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is this BLESSED MAN WHO
SHALL RECEIVE THE BLESSING FROM THE LORD. WHAT BLESSING? ALL
THE BLESSINGS OF THE COVENANT. Now we call it the covenant of
grace, right? It wasn't a covenant of grace
to Him. Everything in that covenant He earned. He earned it by His
works. He earned it by His obedience.
He was obedient even it says unto death, even the death of
the cross. Jesus Christ kept every jot and tittle of the law. I was reading the law this morning. before coming out here. It's
good to do that, you know, see what he saved us from. There
in Leviticus 20, I mean it was like those who commit
adultery, death. If a man lie with another man,
death. A man lie with a beast, a woman
lie with a beast, death. You go down through there, it's
death, death, death. He put them all in the same category. But boy, when you turn to Christ,
it's life, life, life, forgiveness, grace. All the blessings of the
covenant were given to Him because of His obedience. It's given
to us because of grace. Now it's given to us because
of His obedience, but it's grace to us. It's grace to us. But the God the Father didn't
give it to Him by grace, He gave it to Him because He earned it.
HE EARNED IT! HE WORKED OUT A RIGHTEOUSNESS
FOR YOU AND ME! HE HONORED GOD'S LAW! HE MAGNIFIED
GOD'S LAW AND MADE IT HONORABLE! Boy, I saw that this morning.
I woke up early this morning and I was thinking about this
message, and it just hit me on this covenant of grace, His grace
to us, but He had to work for it. He earned everything in it. He earned every blessing in it,
every blessing. IT WAS ALL GIVEN TO HIM, BUT
HE EARNED IT ALL, AND IT'S ALL GIVEN TO US IN HIM BECAUSE HE
EARNED IT FOR US, AND IT'S GIVEN TO US BY GRACE. WE'RE THE BENEFICIARIES. WHAT'S A BENEFICIARY EARN? THEY'RE
JUST BENEFICIARIES, EARN IT? THEY JUST DON'T EARN IT. THE BLESSINGS OF THIS COVENANT
FOR US IS WISDOM, RIGHTEOUSNESS, SANCTIFICATION, AND REDEMPTION.
IT'S ETERNAL LIFE. ALL THAT WE NEED TO ASCEND THE
HILL OF THE LORD AND STAND IN HIS PRESENCE, WE HAVE IN JESUS
CHRIST. THIS IS THE GENERATION OF THEM
THAT SEEK HIM, THAT SEEK THY FACE, O JACOB. ALL WHOM GOD SAVES,
ALL WHOM HE WILL SAVE, IS ONE GENERATION. HE SAVES THE PEOPLE
OUT OF EVERY GENERATION, BUT ALL TOGETHER THEY'RE WHAT? ONE
GENERATION. THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE, ONE GENERATION.
ONE FAMILY. WE'RE ONE FAMILY. I don't have time to finish the
rest of it, do I? Well, because of what he has
done in Psalm 22, the gates that were closed when Adam sinned,
he was cast out of the Garden, he was not allowed to even touch
that Tree of Life, flaming swords were put around it, he couldn't
touch it. But now the cry goes out, Lift
up your heads, O ye gates! And I thought this morning, and
I never thought this before, but I thought of the 12 gates
of Jerusalem. There's 12 gates in Jerusalem, surrounded that
place. And that place was designed, you know, in AD 70 that place
was leveled. It was leveled. Now He's saying,
Lift up your heads, O ye gates. You gates have been laid low.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. And He's not coming
in empty-handed. He's coming in with a throng.
He's coming in with a host. He's coming in with me and you.
Can you imagine that? We're in that throng that He's
coming in with. Who's this King of Glory? Just
right out from there, Lord Jesus Christ. That's who it is, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who's this King of Glory? The
Lord Jesus Christ. Lift up your heads, all ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting door, and the King of Glory shall
come in. The good news never ceases. It never ceases. Those gates
are open. Anybody have an interest in going
in? Anybody have an interest in Christ?
The gate's open. It's open. Well, hopefully, Lord willing,
I'll bring that message. I'll get to finish it up there.
All right.