As you know, we've been talking
about the fact that our Lord Jesus as mediator holds three
offices, that of prophet and priest, and then this evening
we want to talk about Him being the King. He is indeed the prophet. God has spoken unto us in, through,
and by His Son. Over in Deuteronomy chapter 18,
the Lord told Moses, I will raise them up a prophet from among
their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his
mouth. He shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto
my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it
of him. God would raise up a prophet,
the mouthpiece of God. That's who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. He's the one who stands between sinful men and a holy God, and
He delivers to us, He reveals to us the mind of God, the redemptive
will of God. Indeed, He is the Word of God. When our Lord Jesus was in this
world, When He walked on this earth, He instructed men in the
knowledge of divine things. His spake is never a man's spake. He preached the gospel fully.
He preached the gospel faithfully. So that as the law came by Moses,
grace and truth came by our Lord Jesus Christ. He was raised up
of God. God sent Him. God commissioned
Him. God gave him the office of a
prophet. Indeed, the prophet. And God
raised him up in another way. God raised him up to die. He
was lifted up to die for our sins that God might be a just
God and a Savior. And God lifted him up another
way. God raised him up another way.
He raised him from the dead as confirmation. Salvation has been
accomplished. Salvation has been finalized. The victory is His. Our Lord
Jesus has accomplished salvation. He faithfully spoke the doctrines
of the gospel, which doctrines came from God. He spoke words
of truth, words of faith, words of righteousness. Words of peace,
words of pardon, words of life, words of salvation. He faithfully
declared those words to chosen sinners. He said in his high
priestly prayer in John 17 and verse 8, I have given unto them
the words which thou gavest me. and they have received them,
and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me." They believed the word that
he delivered, the word that he got from God as our mediator. And He is not only the one who
sets forth the truth of God, He is the one who reveals the
truth of God. And in that, He is different
from every prophet in the Old Testament. All of the prophets
in the Old Testament, they delivered the Word of God faithfully. God
inspired several of them to write the Scriptures. And they spoke
of the One who would come into the world and redeem His people. Their message was the message
of the Messiah. But though they delivered the
word of truth, they could not make the word of truth effectual
to the hearts of those to whom they spake. But this prophet,
he not only spake the word of God, but he revealed the word
of God. The son revealed the father and
revealed the father's word to whomsoever he will. He was that
prophet of God who faithfully set forth the Word of God which
He received from the Father. Those words that the Father put
into His mouth. He is the prophet. And then last
week, of course we'd considered our Lord's prophet a couple of
weeks ago. Last week we considered Him as
being the perfect priest. He offered to God the only sacrifice
that could ever put away sin. Because we know from Hebrews
chapter 10, it states very clearly, the blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sin. Therefore, the consciences of
the worshippers were never satisfied. They knew they were sinners.
And they knew these sacrifices had to be offered over and over
and over again. Because they couldn't do anything
about the real issue, the issue of sin. But the Lord Jesus came,
and He actually settled the issue, didn't He? He actually put our
sins away. He really did. You see, sin is
a real thing. And deliverance from sin is a
real thing as well. And our Lord Jesus, having been
commissioned by the Father, sent into this world on a mission
of mercy to save the objects of God's electing grace, He did
just exactly what He came to do. He saved His people from
their sins. By one sacrifice, He hath perfected
forever. By one offering, He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Our Savior did that. He laid down His life for the
sheep. He said in John chapter 10, No man taketh my life from
me. The Jews couldn't take His life.
Satan couldn't take His life. The Roman soldiers couldn't take
his life. Neither Herod nor Pilate could
take his life. Why, listen, he is life. He is life. The only way his
life could be given was if he laid it down. He said, I have the power to
lay it down and I have the power to take it again. This commandment
have I received from my Father. He is the priest. He is our great
high priest who offered to God the sin offering that actually
got the job of redemption and reconciliation done. We read
in Ephesians chapter 5, walk in love as Christ hath also loved
us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. The death of our Lord Jesus was
a sweet-smelling savor to the Father. because it was the just
dying for the unjust in order to bring us to God. He is the perfect priest. And
as the priest who ministered to God on the behalf of sinners,
he not only offered the sacrifice to God that actually put away
our sins, but he is our intercessor. Because as we know, in the Old
Testament, that was the job of the priest. It was to offer sacrifices
and burn incense. And that burning of incense pictured
the mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. His high priestly
work. He makes intercession for His
people. You remember in 1 John, John
said, my little children, these things write I unto you that
you sin not. These things write I unto you.
Well, what things, John? What things? Well, the things
concerning the purity of God, the holiness of God, who is light
itself. God is light. In Him is no darkness
at all. Those things concerning fellowship
with God, which no one who denies the reality of sin can ever have. You can't have any fellowship
with God. You can't have any communion
with God if you don't acknowledge that God has spoken the truth
about you being a sinner. The things concerning the pardon
of sin by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. These things concerning
dealing with sin honestly, confessing our sin, these things concerning
sin being in us, that we're guilty of not only having a sinful nature,
but of daily sinning, hourly sinning. We're just a mess of
sin, aren't we? Everything we do is contaminated
by sin. These things write I unto you,
John says, watch this, that ye sin not. Now he's not saying
that anybody can live above sin. We can't live above sin. We know
that. That's impossible. But what he's
saying, I write these things to you that you don't indulge
sin, you don't excuse sin, and that you might not lose hope
when you do sin, that you don't be filled with despair due to
sin. If any man sin, listen, we have
an advocate. We have an advocate. Well, who
is that? The advocate with the Father
is Jesus Christ the righteous. Would none of us condone sin? We don't make excuses for sin.
We don't promote sin. But I'll tell you this. You cannot out-sin grace. You cannot out-sin grace. That's
an absolute impossibility. Because the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. We read in Romans chapter
5, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. I speak
to those of you who are the children of God. You know yourself, whenever
you look within, you see no good thing. Do you see any good thing
in you? Whenever I look into the mirror
of God's Word, it shows me my guilt. And when I examine myself,
when I examine what I know about myself, my mind, my thoughts,
my motives, I'm driven to despair because
I know I'm such a sinner. And you know that. If you're
born of the Spirit of God, you know that. No man has to tell
you that. The Spirit of God has dealt with
you and does deal with you concerning sin. But listen, don't despair. And I
say, after you have looked within and you see your sin, look away
from yourself. Look to Christ Jesus. See your
Savior sitting at the right hand of God on high. Your righteousness. There's your righteousness. There's
your fitness for glory. There's your worthiness for heaven.
Jesus Christ the Lord. I fear that some of God's people,
we get so miserable looking at ourselves. I had somebody tell
me not too long ago, up in Michigan. They said, you know, I did some
awful things when I was younger, and they still make me blush.
And I'm so ashamed. And I just weep over them. And
I said, listen, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Get out of
your misery. Look to Christ. Why would you want to be miserable?
Why would you want to be sad? Rejoice! Your sins have been
put away. Shouldn't we rejoice in this
salvation? Shouldn't we enjoy the grace
of God and full forgiveness of all of our sins? Absolutely we
should. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Rejoice. God doesn't hold anything
against you. So why do you hold things against
you? Why do you keep revisiting what you did years ago and say,
oh, I'm so miserable, I did this, that or something. Listen, it's
not only what you have done, what you've done now. You're
still a miserable sinner. I've got news for you. You haven't
got any better. You know, growing in grace is
not growing better. It's not growing in holiness. You either are holy or you're
not holy. Christ is our holiness. Stop feeling miserable and sorry
for yourself and look away. Look away to Jesus Christ. Did
you hear what Jesus said to me? They are all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They are all taken away. That ought to put some wind in
our sails. And we ought to just kind of
click up our heels and enjoy the Lord and what the Lord has
done for us. It's not a silly, phony grin
that we put on ourselves. It's a joy in the heart. Isn't
it? It's a joy in the soul. He's
my Lord and Savior. He's my prophet. He has taught
me. He continues to teach me. He
continues to speak for me or to speak to me. And He's my advocate. And when the enemy of my soul
says, look at James Ferguson Byrd down there. He's such a
wicked scoundrel. The Savior will say, He's my
child. I redeemed him. I put away his
sins. And your accusations mean nothing. He's our advocate. He's our antecessor. What did the Lord say to the
man? You remember his friends brought him in. He was lame. And the Savior said this, He
said, Son, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. Thy sins be
forgiven thee. Be of good cheer. And I say to
each of you who are God's people tonight, be of good cheer. Be
of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. God doesn't
hold anything against you. And He never will. Because your
sins have been buried in the depths of the deepest sea. They
have been put behind God's back. He says, I don't even remember
them. Oh, I remember them, preacher. Yes, we acknowledge what we are. But then we acknowledge what
we are by nature. But let's acknowledge what we
are by grace too. Don't you think it would be a
good idea? Acknowledge what we are by grace. He's our prophet. He's our priest. Night and night,
He's the King of Glory. He's the King of Glory. Here's
Psalm 24. One old writer said, in Psalm
22, which is the psalm of the suffering Savior, it's like David,
he strums on his harp and he sings solemn notes. solemn words
of the Savior's suffering. In Psalm 23, he strums on his
harp and he sings gentle notes, gentle words of encouragement
to the people of God. But then we get to Psalm 24,
and he rises to the joyful notes of majesty, the joyful notes
of praise to the exalted King. Let's just read through. Let
me just make a few comments as we go through this. Look at verse
1. The earth is the Lord's. Whose
is it? Well, it's the Lord's. I know men take great pride in
the property that they possess. You see, God made the world,
and then God, by the flood, divided it into continents. And then
men began to divide the continents and the nations, the nations
and the states and regions, and within those states and regions,
farms and ranches and lots and so forth. And men have fought
and died over a few feet of ground, haven't they? This is my land. You stay off of it. Man, I had
a dream last night. Let me tell you about my dream.
I had the weirdest dream. Do you have dreams? It must be,
probably that fish sandwich I ate last night. I dreamed I went
to visit this man up in Almonte. And he said, get off my property. I'm telling you the truth. I told Nancy, I said I had the
weirdest dream, night before last. I said I had the weirdest
dream. He said, get off my property.
And he went and got his shotgun and shot me in the back. You ever have weird dreams like
that? I can't eat that McDonald's fish sandwich anymore like you
can, brother. Oh, we got to put no trespassing
signs up on our property. But you know what? We don't own
anything. We just pay taxes. Because when
we leave, we give it all up. The earth is the Lord's. And He doesn't have to fence
anything in because He owns the whole thing. And He does what
He wants to with all that He's got. Because all things were
made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
The earth is the Lord's. We think we own something. It
all belongs to God. For David said, Lord, I am just
given to you from what you have given to me. Job said, The Lord gave. And the Lord had taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. The earth is the Lord's. We're
just tenants in the world. We live on God's earth. We breathe
God's air. We drink God's water. We eat
God's food. We wear God's clothes made from
God's cotton, or from God's sheep, or goats, or from God's silkworms,
or from other animals, or from materials that men have made
that God gave them the wisdom to make. The earth is of the Lord's. And
since it's the Lord's, He can evict us at any time without
notice. Without you even having time
to pack a suitcase for your final journey, He can evict you. And He often does. There's one
great landowner. He owns it all. And the fullness
thereof, too. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. You know, when God created all
things, He got everything ready for Adam and Eve. And they didn't
have to supply anything. It was ready. All things were
ready. Then He made the man and He made
the woman. There is an amazing fullness about this earth. And the earth is still full.
It's still full. Think about it. Men have used
and consumed food and water and minerals for 6,000 years, and
yet there's still just as much food and water and minerals as
there was when it started out. Don't worry about using up everything
on earth. You're not going to do that.
I'm not saying we should be irresponsible with the way we handle the things
that God puts into our hands. But listen, it's the Lord's. He made it. There's a fullness
in what He's made. There'll be ample provision for
us as long as this earth shall stand. Because as long as the
earth, the earth will stand just as long as God's elect are in
the world. That's how long the earth is
going to stand. I'm not a prognosticator. I'm not one who can foretell
when the second coming of our Lord will be. But I do know and
believe this, when all of the sheep have been gathered into
the fold by the sovereign seeking shepherd, then the end will come.
When we're all safe in Jesus, then He'll come. And until then,
No matter how much water men may consume, there'll still be
an abundance of water in the world. The seas are still full of fish,
though billions and billions of fish have been extracted from
it. You can still go fishing, can't
you? Still go fishing, still catch fish. Our atmosphere is
still full of air to breathe. And men and animals have been
breathing God's air for 6,000 years, and there's still just
as much air to breathe now as there ever was. The earth is
the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Many planted crops for thousands
of years, yet crops remain to be planted. The soil is full
of life. Minerals, all the plants, and
I don't understand all about plants growing and all that kind
of stuff, but I know that they pull out minerals from the ground.
We've still been planting. You plant your garden this past
year, pulled out minerals out of the ground. Somehow or another,
God just keeps on supplying the earth with minerals. Because
there's a fullness in what God's made. And watch this last phrase, and
they that dwell therein. He not only owns everything,
he owns everybody. That means he owns the sheep
and he owns the goats as well. Yeah. He says all souls are mine. Isn't that what he said? All
souls are mine. He's the creator, the sustainer,
and the provider of all mankind. Everyone is either His son or
His servant. He not only can do what He wills
with His own, He does do what He wills with His own. Because they all belong to Him.
He made you. He has dominion over you. He
has power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to
as many as the Father has given Him. He has all authority. So he said,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. I've got all
authority. I'll use that word you preach. You feeble, weak men who preach
the gospel, go forth with boldness. I'll make it effectual, God says. They that dwell therein, He owns
us all. For to this sin Christ both died
and arose and revived. He might be the Lord of the dead
and the living. Somebody says, is that the spiritually
dead and the living or the physically dead and the living? What difference
does it make? Both saying the same thing. Right? Both saying the same. He's everybody's
Lord. He is not waiting on you to make
Him Lord. He is already the Lord. Look
at verse 2. For He hath founded upon the seas and established
it upon the floods. Let's go quickly. Look at verse
3. Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Oh, that's
a good question. That's a good question. Who shall
ascend to the hill of God? Or who shall stand in His holy
place? I know everybody's got to make
an appearance before Him, but who can stand there? What man can stand in the presence
of God? There's only one man I know of.
That's the God-man. He entered into the presence
of God and He remains there. He remains there. Look at verse 4. Now He describes
those who can ascend into the hill of the Lord, or those that
shall stand in His holy place, he that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. Hey, is that you? You got clean
hands? Our hands are dirty. Our hands
are defiled. What about your heart? Your heart
pure before God? Do you love God with all your
heart, mind, soul, and strength? This is who can stand in His
holy place. He does have clean hands, got
a pure heart, never lifted up his soul into vanity. Is that
you? You've never set your heart on
anything that's vain and empty. Is that you? And you never sworn
deceitfully, you never exaggerated, never told a lie. Is that you? I'll tell you who this is. This
is the God-man. He's the spotless one. He's the
sinless one. Watch at verse 5. He shall receive
the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of
His salvation. He shall receive it. He shall
receive the blessing. He will receive it because He
has earned it. He will receive it as the reward
for His faithfulness. Who was He faithful for unto
death? Who was He obedient for unto
death? Well, verse 6, the generation
of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob, literally,
O God of Jacob. Our Lord Jesus, He was obedient
unto the Father, obedient all the way unto death, even the
death of the cross. Wherefore God highly exalted
Him. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Which
brings me to verse 7. Here is His ascension. Lift up
your heads, O ye gates. Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Well, who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. He
went to battle. He went to war for us. And He
conquered all of our enemies. He's the victor. He won. He won. Verse 9, Lift up your heads,
O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of glory shall come in. He's coming in, and look! Back
behind Him. Who is this coming in? It's a
thief. It's a thief. Saved by the grace
of God. Redeemed from the curse of the
law. And who are all those others
coming? Look at the train of people. The gates have been raised
for them too. They're following in behind the
king. He says, Behold I and the children that thou hast given.
Here they come. Here they come. One by one they
are coming in. Coming in. You know why? Because
the King has conquered. The King is triumphant. He is
the victor. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law. He was our substitute. He is
our sacrifice. God is satisfied and God said
lift up the gates. He is coming back. And all of
the angels turned out and said, He's coming back! He's coming
back! And look at yonder! Look at all
those folks following Him. Can you describe those people?
Oh yeah, look! They're washed in His blood and
they're robed in His righteousness. And here they come! Make way! Here they come! And I tell you,
when God calls one of His children home, that's what's happening. The Lord says, The gates are
open! Come on in! Come on. I tell you, plenty of
room in heaven, but no empty seats. That's the way it will
be at the end, won't it? Everybody who's supposed to be
there is going to wind up there. We're going in on his coattails,
if I could say it that way. We go in there by His merits,
not ours. By His work, not ours. By His
righteousness, not ours. By His blood, by His labor, by
His sweat, by His tears, not ours. Isn't that right? I tell
you, the gate is lifted up for Him and lifted up still. Lifted up still. Who is this
King of glory? I tell you who He is. He is the
Lord of hosts. He's the king of glory. He says,
Selah, you go home and think about that. You go home and meditate
upon that for a while. See if that won't float your
boat. Get you out of the doldrums. Lift you up from your misery.
Oh, what a great Savior. He's our prophet. He's our priest. He's our king. He's our mediator. I'm happy in the Lord Jesus,
aren't you? Yes, indeed. Glorious.