But I'm here finally. Alright,
let's turn to Psalm 24. Rather than read the Psalm, I'm
just going to go through it. I'm going to be pressed for time
to keep this within our time limit anyway, so I want to just
go along and we'll look at it as we go. This is a Psalm of
David, but he's speaking of Christ, and I want to show you here that
the Son of God is Christ the Creator, He's Christ the Head,
and He's Christ the King. The Creator, the Head, and the
King. And that will be our divisions.
We'll divide this into three parts. First of all, Christ is
our Creator. Christ is our Creator. Verse
1 says, The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. The world, and they that dwell
therein. For He hath founded it upon the
seas, and established it upon the floods. Now that's just a
simple statement. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. You and I don't own anything.
Nothing belongs to us. We buy, we sell, we talk about
owning property and real estate and stuff, but we don't own anything.
The earth is the Lord's and everything in it is His. Behold the heaven
And the heavens, the heaven of heavens, is the Lord's, thy God. The earth also, with all that
therein is. Now you think how foolish it
is for you and I, as sinners, to think we're going to offer
something in this earth that's ours, that, you know, some great
sacrifice we're going to make, and somehow that's going to make
God accept us. Well, it already belongs to God.
Would you be impressed if somebody came up and offered you the car
you already own, Art? Wouldn't impress you too much.
He said this, I'll take no bullock out of your house, Nor a he goat
out of your folds." He said, every beast of the forest is
mine. The cattle upon a thousand hills
is mine. All the fowls of the mountains,
the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
would not tell thee. For the earth is mine, the world
is mine in the fullness thereof. You want to offer God something?
He says, offer unto God thanksgiving. Pay thy vows unto the Most High. Bow to Him. Honor Him. Call upon
Me in the day of your trouble. I'll deliver thee and thou shalt
glorify Me. That's what God's pleased with.
That's what He's pleased with. Now the reason all these are
His is because He created them all. He created everything. Verse
2 says, He founded it upon the seas and established it upon
the floods. He founded it He established
it. When we read, in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth, we're talking about our
Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about God, our
Savior. Now that's the point we're looking
at here. Christ is the Creator. Colossians
1, if you want to look there with me, Colossians 1. It says there in verse 15, speaking
of Christ who redeemed us, it says, He's the image of the invisible
God. And we know that's talking of
Christ. He's the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn
of every creature. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before
all things, and by Him all things consist. He only created one
water when He created water. Just one water. He never created
any new water. The rivers are constantly flowing
into the ocean. The ocean is constantly full.
The waters are constantly evaporating back up to the atmosphere. There is constantly rain or snow
coming down. The same waters that flooded
the world in Noah's day is in that glass right there. All our
sin, all our polluting, all our defiling, it consists because
Christ opposes it. All things are that way. Everything
in this world. He opposes all things by the
word of His power. So this means, brethren, first
of all, that lordship belongs to Christ by the fact of creation,
that He's the Creator. He's the Creator. It's His by
decree. God said, I give everything into
His hand. Lordship is His by purchase. He died that He might
be the Lord both of the dead and the living. He's Lord over
all. It's His by sovereign rule. God
said, all things are in your power in heaven and earth. He's
the heir of all things. Everything He is, it belongs
to Him. He's going to inherit all things. What does that mean
all men ought to do? I mean all men. What does that
mean every man on this earth ought to do? Thou art worthy,
O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. Why? For Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are, And we're created. We sit down
to eat and somebody will say, you know, somebody will offer
thanks. And you know what we're doing when we offer thanks? We're
thanking God that He lets us have a piece of His bread. That's what we're doing. Thanking God that He's allowed
us to have a piece of His bread. at a table from a tree that's
His, in a house made out of stuff that He created, sitting on a
piece of ground He created. Everything is His. We owe Him
all honor and glory. And now if we want to complain
about what God's doing in this world, He says, is it not lawful
for me to do with mine own what I will? It's his. It's all his. Can he not do with
it what he will? Sure he can. And he says, is
your eye going to be evil against me? Because I'm good. And everything
he's doing is good. Now here's the advice of the
psalmist. Here's the counsel of God. Kiss
the son. Lest he be angry and you be consumed
by his wrath. Blessed are all they that trust
him. But this heaven, now you look here, this heaven and this
earth was not made to last. It was not created to last. It
wasn't created to be the end all, be all. It was founded on
the seas and on the rivers. It's not very stable. The seas
and the rivers. And there's something about seas
and rivers. Seas and rivers divide. And if
you look at seas and rivers in the scriptures, a lot of times
It's a picture of sin and of judgment. You know, the waters
covered the face of the earth until God said in the beginning,
the Word, by the Word, by Him speaking, He said, let there
be land and there was land. It was by the Word that the land
was saved from the waters. And then in Noah's day, the waters
covered the earth, waters covered the ark, the waters of judgment
that covered because of the sin of the people. And Noah was saved
because he was in that ark. And that ark bore that water
of judgment in his place. Well, it says here, this whole
world and this heaven, this earth, everything was founded on the
seas and on the rivers. And spiritually, if you think
about that, It was founded and created for Christ. Upon this
condition, upon this covenant word was it founded that Christ
would come forth and glorify God in saving His people from
our sins. And saving us from these sins.
He would drive up the sea of our sins. and take away that
separation that separated us from God. He'd do that for His
people. That's what this world was founded for. That's why it
was created. This would be the place where
He'd come and do it. And that's what He means over
there in Hebrews 1 when He says, and He upholds it by the word
of His power. It's upheld by that covenant
word. He's not going to lose one until He's called them all
out. And then He says this thing's going to burn up. It's going
to be folded up like a napkin and burn up. everything in it. So this world's not what, you
know, look to the one who made it, but don't look to this world.
This world's not the end. This world and the things in
it, that's not what we're here about. We're here to find out
about Him and worship Him. Now secondly, look here. Because
it's not about us and it's not about the things that are created
and it's not about our belly and what we get, because it is
about eternity, because this thing is about God and His glory
and the salvation that He accomplished for His people, the next thing
we see here is Christ, our Head, the Head of His elect people. Now look here, verse 3. Who shall
ascend into the heel of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy
place? Who's going to ascend into the heavens? Who's going
to ascend to the throne of God? Who's going to be able to stand
and abide forever in the presence of holy God? Well, here's what's required. Verse 4, He that hath clean hands,
that means His hands have never sinned. They've never transgressed
God's righteous law in any way. No deed has ever been unlawful.
Verse 4, and he has a pure heart. That means he's never had a thought
contrary to God's holiness. Never had a thought contrary
to God's will. Alright, here's the next thing.
Verse 4, who's not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn
deceitfully. He's always been humble under
God's mighty hand, in perfect love for God, in perfect reverence
to God as the Lord his God, and his soul has never been lifted
up to any covetousness or any lust of his flesh or any pride
or any such thing. And not only that, he's never
spoken a deceitful word. But whatever He's spoken, He's
honored that word. He's honored His every word.
He's kept His word without fail. In other words, He's perfect
truth. That's who can ascend into God's
holy presence. Now look, this man will ascend. This man will be in God's holy
presence. Verse 5 says, He shall receive
the blessing from the Lord. and righteousness from the God
of His salvation. That's what this man shall...
Now that's not any of us by nature. That's not anybody here as we're
born into this world. Anybody guilty of any of this
just on the ride here this morning? See, it's not us. Isaiah was sent to declare to
Israel, and it's true of us, he said, He said, the whole head
is sick and the whole heart faint from the sole of the foot even
into the head. There's no soundness in it. It's
wounds and it's bruises and it's putrefying sores. It's not been
closed up. It's not been bound. It's not
been mollified with ointment. And the result is this, your
country is desolate. Can you say amen? Who did it? We did. Your cities are burned
with fire. Your land, strangers devour it
in your presence. And it's desolate and it's overthrown
by strangers. We're all as an unclean thing.
And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We fade as a
leaf. Can't be counted on for nothing.
But there is one who that describes. It's Christ Jesus the God-man. the head, the federal head, the
federal representative of his people. See, Christ came into
this earth as a man to represent his people, and he hath clean
hands. He never transgressed God's law,
never did anything that transgressed God's law. He had a pure heart,
formed in the womb of the Virgin, holy, and every thought he ever
had was in perfect agreement with God's holiness. Pure heart. His heart was as pure as God's
heart. The man Christ Jesus. He never
lifted up his soul to vanity. What does Psalm 2 tell us? What
you studied in Psalm 2? He never lifted his soul up to
vanity. He who is equal with God made himself of no reputation,
but took upon him the form of a servant, and being found in
the form of a servant, he humbled himself and became obedient to
God. And he never desired anything
but what God desired. His soul was never lifted up
to have anything contrary to what God would have. He did all
that under the hand of God. And he never swore deceitfully.
Not even when it came to the death of the cross. Not even
when it came to fulfilling that covenant word he entered into
where he promised to go. You think of all the sin of all
God's elect people that could be numbered in these things that
are required to enter into God's presence. And he kept his word in that
he presented himself spotless before God in the Garden of Gethsemane
and he went to that cross and the Lord made him sin for his
people. The Lord laid on him the iniquities
of all his people. And he was made a curse. And
he bore the judgment of God in the place of his people. And
he satisfied God. He is the truth. He finished
the work. He dried up the sea of sin and
judgment and death for His people. And this is He who shall ascend.
I can show you one Scripture that shows you this is talking
about Christ. Who's going to ascend to His holy hill? Turn
over to John 3.13. John 3.13. This is Christ bearing
testimony right here Himself. John 3.13. He says, No man hath
ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even
the Son of Man which is in heaven. He's the only one. He's the only
one. This is He who, verse 5 of our
Psalm says, He'll receive the blessing from the Lord. He'll
be declared righteous from the God of His salvation. What does
that mean to declare he's going to receive righteousness from
the God of his salvation? Wasn't Christ righteous? Yes. He bore our sin and he went under
the judgment of God. And to do that, he had to trust
God. He had to believe God that God was going to vindicate him
when he was satisfied, bring him out. And what did he say
in Isaiah 50? He said, I set my face like a
flint And I know I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth
me." That's what Christ said concerning God. He's near that
justifieth me. God's going to count me righteousness
when this is all said and done, when I've borne this of my people.
And it says here, and He's going to receive the blessing, the
blessing. He prayed in John 17, Father,
glorify Thou me, with the glory I had with you before the world
was. Glorify me with thine own self. Lord, where I am, I pray
my people to be there also." And he received the blessing.
He received the blessing. All the inheritance, all the
blessing, all the honor, he received it all. And if you want to, I'm
going to skip reading this because I'm pressed for time, but go
back and read Psalm 21 and read those first seven verses. And
that's Christ declaring how He received the blessing and the
honor and the glory. All right, now, look at this. Verse 6 says this, This is the
generation of them that seek Him, that seek thy face, O God
of Jacob. O God, it should be added, This
is the generation. The word generation means this
is His seed, this is His children, this is His regeneration. And
what it's saying is, this description that you just heard about, that
describes Christ the God-man only, is also a description of
all His people. It's a description of all His
people who seek Him, who seek His face, who rest in Him, trust
Him, It's a description of them. You remember 1 Peter 2, 9 says,
you're a chosen what? Generation. Generation. You're a chosen generation. You're
a royal priesthood. You're a holy nation. You're
a peculiar people. It shows forth the praises of
Him that called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You
see, when He was here doing those things and being those things,
He was representing His people. He's the last Adam and He had
a people in Him. So that His obedience would be
made our obedience. And His justifying us of our sins would
be our full justification from our sins. He is bearing our sins
away to a land not inhabited. He'd be our scapegoat to bear
those sins away. And He did it all. He did it
all. So that when God causes us to
come to Him and to seek Him and to lay hold of Him, He gives
to us everything Christ is. He makes us inwardly what Christ
is. He creates a new man, created
in His image, in righteousness and true holiness. And He charges
you with the righteousness Christ is because that's what Christ
has made His people. One day when we lay beside this
body of death, we're going to be raised entirely righteous
and holy by Him. So he says here, verse 3, who
shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who's going to stand
in His holy place? Look at Isaiah 57 verse 13. Who's going to inherit that holy
hill? Isaiah 57 verse 13. Christ won't be alone there.
Look at this. Look at the very last phrase
in Isaiah 57, 13. He that putteth his trust in
me, he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land
and shall inherit my holy mountain. So everybody, all his people
that seek him, that believe on him by his grace, they just like
Christ. Just like Him. Everything said
of Him can be said of them. And they can ascend now into
God's holy presence. Clean, pure, righteous, through
and through. Just like Christ is. Now lastly,
I want you to look back at our text. Lastly. Our King. Our triumphant King. Verse 7, Lift up your heads,
O ye gates. Be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. And it's asked,
Who is this King of glory? He's the Lord strong and mighty. This is the Lord strong and mighty
who created everything, the heavens and the earth, that we saw before. Verse 8, He's the Lord mighty
in battle. He's the Lord that came here
and conquered all the enemies of His people by His perfect
obedience to the Father, by laying down His life on the cross. He
is the one who sends forth the Word and says to His people,
your warfare is accomplished. The Lord has accomplished it.
And He has rewarded His people double for all our sins. And
we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And look here
at verse 9, He says, Lift up your heads, O ye gates. He is
talking about the gates of heaven now. He's ascended up now, and
these gates were closed by the first Adam. So we couldn't enter. No man could enter. But Christ
ascended, and He says, open these gates. Open them up! They say, well, who's this? This
is the Lord, strong and mighty. This is the Lord strong in battle.
And He says it again, and He says, this is the King of glory. Who is this King of glory? He's
the Lord of hosts. You see, when Christ created
everything, it was just Him. Him and the triune God. And when
He came into this earth, He had a people in His loins. But He
went back now, not just as the Son of God, He went back as God-man. This is a man, like unto us,
perfect man, saying, Open these gates. And He's going into these
gates now with a host that no man can number. With all His
people, He's entering those gates. With all His people. And He's
going to sit down there with all His people in Him. Look at
that last phrase. I love this. He is the King of
glory. Selah. And I sat and thought
about that. Think about it. The King of glory. He's the King of all glory. He's
the King of the glory of being the Creator over all. He's the
King of the glory of being the only righteousness and holiness
of His people. He's the King of the glory of
receiving the commendation from God. This is my Son in whom I'm
well pleased. Nobody's ever received that glory.
He's the King of that glory. He's the King of the glory of
the generation of them that seek Him. Who do we glory in? Him. He's the King of glory. He's
the King of glory over every king and every lord that's ever
existed. You think about it in time, there's
been some mighty powerful kings and mighty powerful lords in
this earth. Put them all together. Put all their power together.
I was reading about one the other day, I can't remember his name
now. He's just amazing, the wealth this man owned. But put all of them together,
all their wealth together, all their power together, all their
land and dominion together. This is still so. He's the King
of kings and the Lord of lords. That's the glory that belongs
to Him. Now, I pray God will lift up your head and make you
look and see who this King of glory is. And I guarantee you
this, if you ever see Him, you'll see and you'll bow and you'll
confess He's the He's the Creator. He's the Head. He's the King.
And you bow. You bow. Amen. Father, thank You for Your Word. Father, it's just beyond words
really for us to be able to praise You enough like You deserve and
to speak of You in the terms that even come close to saying
what You are. To create a world where You would
come and do all this, save us and manifest Your glory so we
can see it in the very image of Your Son, and see You and
Your glory in His face, and then ascend to heaven. Lord, we can't
even imagine what it's going to be like to be in that new
heaven and that new earth founded on the rock. Not on a sea, not
on a river, but on a rock. Never to be moved. And to see
the King of glory, the King of all glories, and to be with Him,
and to dwell with You, and to worship You, and to praise You,
Lord, it's just overwhelming. But Lord, we thank You. We thank
You that You would do that for little insignificant nobodies
like us. Lord, make one of these other
little people see how big You are, and how big Your salvation
is, and make us bow to You. Make them worship You. for your
glory and honor. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.