I am glad to be here. If I never preach in another
conference, I'm sure glad I got to do this one. Marvin asked
me about a year ago to do this. And I'm glad I'm glad the Lord
brought it about. Now, now, being the only speaker
makes it a lot more difficult. That added a lot of stress to
it, but preaching the gospel, it's a pleasure, but yet it's
very humbling that God would use me to stand and preach the
gospel of his glory. That's astounding. That's astounding. And that God would allow us to
be here and to hear the gospel. Vicki and I do thank you for
your hospitality. The room over at the Hampton
was very comfortable. And the food that you ladies
have prepared was very good. And we're very thankful for you.
And we're thankful for your pastor. God's given you another Outstanding
pastor. The Lord blessed this congregation
much. He has really blessed you. And
we're very thankful to have fellowship with you. We get to see you for
a little while right now. For eternity, in a little while,
it'll be for eternity. And the meeting won't be broke
up. But we'll worship the Lord together. A new heaven, a new earth. We'll
worship him together, and I don't know what all's gonna go on there.
We're not gonna float on a cloud. We'll be busy. I have no doubt
we'll be busy. You know, when God created the
heavens and the earth and the Garden of Eden, it was perfect,
but you know what he told Adam to do? To dress it and keep it. I have no idea what eternity's
gonna be like, but it's gonna be beyond our imagination, beyond
what we can imagine. Now I want you to turn to Psalm
24. Psalm 24. You know, in this Psalm, we have
the crown rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I am glad to
end this conference preaching, setting forth the King of Glory. Our King. We have a King. We have a king. We are under
his theocracy. I know we live in a democratic
country, but we have a king. We have a king that we follow.
We have a king that we obey. We have a king whose will we
seek. We have a king who's righteous. We have a king who is the king
of love and king of righteousness and king of glory. King of glory. In Psalm 22, we
had Christ our substitute. In Psalm 23, we looked at last
night, or yesterday morning, we had Christ our shepherd, and
now we have Christ our king. He's our king. And these three
psalms go together, not just numerically, but spiritually. Spiritually, they go together.
Now, right from the beginning of this psalm, right from the
beginning of it, The focus, like Psalm 22 and Psalm 23, is on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's gonna end with our focus on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says here in verse one,
the earth, this earth that we walk on, this earth that we live
on, is the Lord's, is the Lord's. I told someone once, I said,
the greatest reason I can give to anyone not to litter This
earth is because it's the Lord's. It's the Lord's. The greatest
reason to take care of my home and make it presentable is because
it's the Lord's. He's given it to me. He's allowed
me to live on a portion of this earth and I'm to take care of
it. We are to take care of what the
Lord's given us. The earth is the Lord's, the fullness thereof
and they who dwell therein. It says in Psalm 89, 11, the
heavens are thine, the earth also is thine, as for the world
and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them. It's his. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
one leaves no doubt as to the ownership of this earth. Man
thinks he's the sovereign over this earth. He's not. He's not. God's the sovereign. The Lord
Jesus Christ, he's the sovereign. He's the real owner of this earth,
whether man acknowledges it or not. The crown rights overall
belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He rules all, and he rules over
all without asking anyone's opinion, doesn't he? He does. You see, our Lord is not a politician.
He's a king. He's a king. And everything on
this earth is His, the fullness of it. And He keeps it full. Man's been on this earth 6,000
years. There's been 6,000 years of just
sin, 6,000 years of abuse by man, but the earth keeps producing. And there's one reason it keeps
producing. The Lord tells it to. He commands this earth to
produce. and he commands this earth to
produce for me and you who believe the gospel. These things are
for us. They're for us. As I was telling
Vicki, we was driving up here, all these cars were going by
us and everything, and I may have already said this, but they
were all going by us, and I said, this is for us. They get to enjoy
it. All the planes, somebody that's
flying on an airplane to preach the gospel, to the Lord's sheep. I drove up here 400 and some
miles to preach the gospel to the sheep. God has given us these
things. These things are for the church,
but the world gets to enjoy these things because of you. It rains
on the just and the unjust. It rains on those who don't believe
God, it rains on their garden just like it does your garden,
but they get the blessing that's meant for you. They get to enjoy
the, I'm gonna call it the overflow. They get to enjoy the overflow
for a little while. We get to enjoy it forever. Forever. He keeps it full. All fullness,
listen, all fullness comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. All fullness
in creation, all fullness in grace comes from Him. Listen
to John 1, 16. And of His fullness have all
we received in grace for grace. All of His fullness we have received.
And listen, the earth is the Lord and they that dwell therein,
whether a person believes on Christ or not, Christ owns that
person. Jesus Christ, listen, Jesus Christ
is not in our hands. It's not what am I gonna do with
him, it's what's he gonna do with me. We are in his hands. He's not in our hands, never
has been. God has turned everything over,
lock, stock, and barrel to his son, Jesus Christ. And it's what
he's gonna do. It's not what I'm gonna do. You
see, he's the sovereign, not me. I'm the subject. I'm the
subject, he's the sovereign. And all fullness is in him and
everything in this world, he owns it. And he owns every person
in this world. Every knee, every knee is gonna
bow to Jesus Christ someday, willingly or unwillingly. Every
knee is gonna bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. God has promised
that to him. Every knee is gonna bow. And
it says here in verse two, for he hath founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the floods. It's his because he created it. It's his by creation. None of
this evolved. Somebody said man didn't evolute,
he devil-looted. He devil-looted is what he did.
He didn't evolute. You know why evolution ever got
a foothold? Because it's easier to look at
a monkey and say, oh, how far I have come, than to look at
God and say, oh, how far I've fallen. It's easier to look at
a monkey and say, oh, glorious man that I've become, than to
look at God and say, oh, wretched man that I am. That's the only
reason evolution ever got a foothold. Because it's the only way that
man can look at something and say, well, look at me now. But if he looks at God, he says,
oh, what a wretch I am. Oh, how far I've fallen. How
far I have fallen. You see, He established it. It's
His. It's His and He has established
it. This earth is established and it's going to last as long
as He's purposed it to last. It's gonna last as long as it
serves his purpose, his eternal purpose, which he purposed in
Christ before the world began. This is the stage of redemption.
This is the stage where God is gonna put away sin forever. It's
never gonna raise its head again. He's gonna destroy Satan forever
on this earth. It's getting done on this earth.
It's gonna last until he's done with it. And then there's gonna
be a new heaven and a new earth. I'm finally, I'm finally, after
all these years, I'm finally seeing the big picture. Are you
seeing the big picture? I ran a company one time, I was
a plant manager, years ago. And the guy that owned, the man
that owned it, very wealthy, wealthy man, he would say to
me, John, you need to see the big picture. You know, let the
foremans out there run the shop and the men make the parts. You
need to see the big picture. Brethren, I see the big picture
now. God is gonna honor his son. He's gonna have a new heaven,
a new earth, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the king, and he's
gonna get all the glory. That's the big picture. And that's
what's going on right now. Right now you can read over in
1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus Christ is subduing all powers and he's
gonna deliver the kingdom up to the Father. And all this mystery
to me of sin and Satan, it'll never ever happen again. It won't
happen anymore. It'll be eternal peace, eternal
joy, eternal righteousness. That's what it's gonna be, eternal. And Christ is gonna get all the
glory. He hath founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the floods. He created it. He's the one who
set the boundary of the sea. He said, hither shall thou proud
waves come and no more. Has creation ever just astounded
you? You know, since now we got technology,
we can go to outer space and get a shot of the earth hanging
in there, hanging out in space on nothing. No strings attached. You don't see anything attached
to it. There's only one thing that keeps
it spinning in orbit, His Word. It stays there by the command
of His Word, and it produces by the command of His Word, and
it'll do that until He says, time shall be no more. And we
can't even begin to even think of the trillions of stars and
the galaxies There's so much out there we haven't even seen
yet, and yet every one of those things, the sun, the moon, all
these stars, they have their effect on this earth. They're
not just there for ornaments. They're not like ornaments on
a Christmas tree. They have their purpose and effect on this earth
where God has a people that he's redeemed and gonna bring home. Have you seen the big picture
yet? Maybe I should've titled it The Big Picture. But that's
it, that's it. I have no reason to exist except
for Jesus Christ. I have no reason, I exist for
him. I exist for him, and I thank God I know it. I thank God I
know it. This is his. This is his, and
he's the sovereign of it. Someone said this, whenever you
and I create an earth, we'll run it like we will. But this
one's his, and he gonna run it like he will. This was his. Now he says here, after establishing
who owns all of this, the question is asked, who shall ascend to
the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place? The
word ascend has to do with worship. And the word stand has to do
with stand his ground. And here's the question. Who's
gonna ascend into heaven and stand his ground before God?
Can you do that? I can't do that, not by myself.
I can't do that. The men of Bathsheba said this
in 1 Samuel 6 20. And the men of Bathsheba said,
who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall
we go up? And to whom shall he go up from
us? Who can stand before God? That's
one of the first things you realize when God saves you. So God saved
me. How can I stand before God? You
know, I didn't know I was lost till God saved me. I didn't know
I was blind till he gave me sight. I didn't know I was dead till
he gave me life. God has to save me in order for me to even ask
him for mercy. Dead people don't ask for anything.
Have you ever seen anybody in a casket ask for anything at
a funeral? No. You ever gone to a cemetery and
someone asked? No. Dead people don't ask, they're
not interested. It's the living who ask. It's
the living who are hungry. It's the living who are thirsty.
Blessed are you who are hungry and thirsty after righteousness.
God's given you life, that's why you're blessed. He's given
you life. The question is this, seeing
that he's so great and glorious, who shall enter into his presence
and abide You know, the people at the Tower of Babel, they started
building that tower. They thought they was gonna reach
to heaven, they was gonna reach God by their works, and God shut
them down. He shut them down. Many have thought and think even
now that they can stand before God by their works. We've preached
in your name, we've cast out devils in your name, we've done
many mighty works in your name, and he's gonna say, depart from
me, I never knew you. I never knew you. Not one of
them, we don't read, any one of them said, Lord, didn't you
die for me? Was your blood not shed for me? Is your righteousness
not for me? If they had said that, they wouldn't
be in that line, first of all. But he sure would not have told
them to depart because anybody who trusts the Lord and the Lord
only will not have to depart. Someone said this, many consider
heaven but not the one who reigns there. The astrologers are always
looking into heaven to see this, study this star, this star, see
that, see that, but none of them looking for God. None are seeking
after the Lord. The only ones who seek the Lord
is the one whom the Lord gives a heart to seek Him. He has to
give us a heart to seek Him. But the question is this, how
can I, a sinful man, stand before God who's holy? Boy, when I heard
the gospel, this is what really came home to me. How can I stand
before God? I was told for years, the Lord,
God wants to save you. The Lord wants to save you if
you'll let him. Then I heard my pastor Henry preach, and here's
what I heard. He'll have mercy on whom he'll
have mercy and whom he will harden. For the first time in my life,
I realized and I understood God didn't have to save me. He could leave me alone and be
a just God. He doesn't have to save me. He can leave me alone. That scared me to death. And
there was one scripture that the Lord gave me over in, I think
it's in John, I think it's in John chapter six. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will no wise cast out. I hung on to that promise. I
took that promise so many times to the Lord. The first part,
which deals with election, I didn't even think about it. That part
didn't, for some reason I didn't think about that. Here's the
part I thought about. Lord, you said he that comes, you won't
cast him out. You said that. Lord, you said that. And God'll
keep his promise. And that kept me coming for a
long time. I was so distraught, but it kept me coming. And finally
I started really understanding the gospel. But the Lord did
that. Now I want you to notice something
here. Who can stand? How can a sinful man stand before
a holy God? And he gives us the answer, who
can stand? You interested in the answer? In verse four, he
that hath clean hands, that's outward actions, and a pure heart,
that's inward purity, who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity,
that's idols, nor sworn deceitfully, that's a dishonest heart. That's
the one who can stand there. That's the one who can stand.
And if you'll notice, he did not describe a particular race
of people. That does not describe a particular
race of people. It describes a particular Character. It's a particular character.
A moral condition. It's not how can I get from here
to there, from here to heaven, how can I stand? That's what
it's about, how can I stand? Religion, I want you to get this.
Religion preaches how can I get there, while the gospel tells
us who may get there. That's the difference. It's not
how I get there, it's who may get there. He that has clean
hands and a pure heart, the person who can ascend the hill of the
Lord and stand in his presence must have clean hands, a pure
heart, has not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Do you know anybody like that?
I do. His name is Jesus Christ. His name is Jesus Christ. You and I know we were born in
sin and shaped in iniquity. And as I read this, I know I'm
guilty. Here comes the good news of the gospel. Here's the good
news of the gospel. There is one that fits this description. There's one. Jesus Christ, my
mediator, my representative, knew no sin. He did none of these
things. He is this person. He is this
person. And you know how this good news
fits me? Now listen. You know what listening
means? It means paying attention. You
know, when I was younger, I heard a lot of things. Hearing is just
hearing sound. Listening is paying attention.
It's paying attention. Christ is this man. Now listen. First John 4, 17. As he is, so
are we in this world. As he is, So are we in this world. To understand this answer more
fully, as it relates to us, we have to understand our union
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm the vine, you are the branches. Christ is the head, we are the
body. All those who believe, we are
the body. And as he is, so are we in this
world. Is he holy? So are we. Righteous? So are we. Accepted, so are we,
in Him. And when do we get these, listen,
when do we get, we know how, we have these things in Christ. But we have to experience these
things also. We have to experience these things.
You see, this is not something we receive when we get there.
It's something we receive here. We have them in Christ, And we
receive this also in the new birth, in the new birth. Listen here in 1 John 3, 9, whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin for his seed remains in him. He's cannot sin because he's
born of God. What's he talking about? He's
talking about that new nature, that new man that's born of God,
that's created, that new man, it says in the word of God, is
created in righteousness and true holiness. This is where
the warfare comes in. It's that struggle between the
spirit, that which is born of the spirit is what? It's not
just spiritual. It's spirit, it's of the same
nature it's born of. That nature, that new nature
does not sin. I want you to look over in Ezekiel
36. Over in Ezekiel 36. Over here in Ezekiel 36, I want
you to look in verse 24. For I will take you from among
the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring
you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you. You shall be clean from all your
filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. Now
listen, a new heart. A new heart also will I give
you. And a new spirit will I put within you. And I'll take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I'll give you a heart of
flesh and I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them.
But I'm gonna give you a new heart. A new heart. You see, that old
heart I received from Adam could do no good. It can do no good. It never does any good. It'll
never love God. God has to give me a new heart
to love him and to follow after him. God has to give that to
me. And he says, I'll give you a
new heart. I'm not gonna offer you one, I'm gonna give it to
you. Salvation's not an offer, it's a gift. Jesus Christ, the
gift of God's eternal life is not an offer. God's not offering
anybody eternal life. It's a gift. It's given to you. And that eternal life is Jesus
Christ himself. Himself. And we get this in that
new nature, that clean hands and a pure heart, is that new
man born of God. He's born of God, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works. That's what the scripture says.
And it says here in verse five, he shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Jesus Christ is this blessed man who shall receive the blessing
from the Lord. What blessing? all the blessings
of the covenant that the Father promised him. That covenant between
the Father and the Son. And this new man in Christ, this
one that's born of God, which every one of you whom the Lord
has saved, you're born of God, you know that? You're born of
God. You're not born by a decision,
you're born by the Spirit of God. You're born of God. And this new man, In Christ,
he too receives the blessing from the Lord. What's that? The blessings of the covenant.
Now for you and me, it's wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, eternal life. Everything we need, everything
we need, every blessing we need to stand but to ascend the hill
of the Lord, to stand in his presence, we have in Jesus Christ. We have it. And he says, this
is the generation of them that seek him and seek thy face, O
Lord. I read to you in Psalm 2230,
a seed shall serve him, it shall be accounted to the Lord for
a generation. All the host of heaven, all the
host of the redeemed is accounted as one generation to God. Now, now we come to the victory. We looked at Psalm 22, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In Psalm 23, the Lord's my
shepherd, I shall not want. And now we have the King of glory. All of this in one person. All
of it. And it says, lift up your heads,
O ye gates, be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of glory shall come in. When Adam fell, the way was shut.
He was driven out of the garden, wasn't he? He was driven out
of the garden. All looked hopeless. until the
second Adam, the Lord from heaven came. He came into this world
and he redeemed his people from their sins. Now it's open. The way is open. And Christ said,
I'm the way. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man comes to the Father but by me. But the way is now
open. The gates are commanded to open.
Open the gates. You know, Jerusalem had 12 gates
in it. He said, open the gates. Open the gates. The king of glory
shall come in. He shall come in. Listen, when our Lord arose from
the grave and ascended on high, the call went out, open the gates. Open the gates. They're not shut
now. He opened the gates. The king of glory's gonna come
in. Well, where has he been? The king of glory shall come
in. Where has he been? saving his people from their
sins. That's where he's been. And we'll see that in verse eight.
It says here in verse eight, who is this king of glory that
the gates are commanded to open to? Who is this king of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Who is
this king that the gates are to open to? Jesus Christ. He's the one. Jesus Christ, the
God-man mediator. Everything's been turned over
to him, and the gates of glory are commanded to open up to him. And open up to us in him. Because
when he went in, we went in. When he ascended, we ascended.
When he sat down at the right hand of the Father, we sat down
at the right hand of the Father. In a little while, we're gonna
experience that in reality. But it's so. It's no less so
right now. I'm there in Christ. I'm there
in Christ right now. Lift up your heads, all ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? Ask
again. The Lord of hosts. He is the
King of Glory, Jesus Christ. They thought they got rid of
him. When he was hanging on the tree, the Jews thought, we're
done with him, we're done with him. He died, they saw that,
he died on Calvary Street. They buried him, they witnessed
him being buried. But he's not dead, he's not dead,
he's risen, he's risen. Who is this king of glory? Jehovah
Jesus, that's who he is. He's the Lord of hosts, he's
the king of glory. And the reason he's called the
king of glory is because he has no small kingdom. I mean, a multitude
of sinners are saved. He's called the king of glory
because he's a king without boundaries. You know, this earth has had
its kings and they all just, you know, there's a king of England,
You know, all these different kings they had, but they've had
their boundaries. He has no boundaries. He rules
over all, over all. He's lord over the universe,
the sun, the moon, the stars. He's lord over all angels, good
and bad. He's lord, he's king. This gives me so much comfort.
I don't go to bed worried at night what's gonna happen. You
know, whether somebody's gonna push the button in the morning, Ain't nobody gonna do anything
until he lets them do it. When he says to one, go, he goes.
And when he says to one, come, he comes. He's ruling this world
right now. And he's ruling it for your good,
the good of his elect, and his glory. He's ruling it. It's his. He has a great host following
him through the gates of glory. I read to you last night, we
have a good future. Our king has it all, and he has
it all under control. And you and I need to see the
big picture. We need to see the big picture. I thank God that
he's allowed me to be here and preach to glorify his son and
to feed the church, to feed God's sheep. And I've learned, as I
said in the beginning, the way you feed the Lord's sheep is
you just exalt The Lord Jesus Christ, you exalt the King of
glory, and the sheep are fed. All right, thank you.