Just trying to think where do
you begin to give so much thanks. I don't know if there's a word
past ditto. Time you get to me, there's nothing
left. But Gabe, I appreciate you and
Hannah for having us. I just have enjoyed staying in
their home and spending time with David. That's just been
a blessing. I feel honored just to be asked
to be here. You cannot put a price on this
right here. You can't duplicate it, and you
sure can't counterfeit it. And God's people know the difference.
And I'm glad we do. If we don't, we'd all be deceived. My heart just is overflowing
for God's goodness and his grace. I'm so glad God sent me to Cottingfield. sends you to Madisonville, and
brought you to Kingsmore. He did it. He arranged it. I was talking, I think me and
Paul was talking, and it's like God's lit these little fires. He's got a people, and he's gonna
save every one of them. And he's going to do it by his
ordained means. He's going to do it through the
preaching of his gospel. Not another gospel. His gospel. The gospel that honors him. The
gospel that glorifies him. The gospel that lifts him up.
That gospel. The gospel. The only gospel. Of his darling son. For Jonathan's
sake. for Christ's sake. We've tried
to look, if you want to go ahead and be, turn to 1 Peter chapter
5 first. We're going to look at it just for a minute before
we get to Psalms 24. Psalms 22, we saw our Lord is
our great good shepherd given his life to save his people. We see there him saving his sheep
from the penalty of sin, justifying us from all things. Justification
means that the accused is found to be guiltless. The law has
nothing against him and he is acquitted and exonerated, leaving
the court without a stain upon his character. Why? He died for
his sheep. He gave his life. to save his people. The Son of
God left glory and took upon himself the form of a servant
and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
His people, though elected of God, had to be redeemed. Their sin debt has to be paid,
and he paid it. He satisfied the justice and
the demands of God's holy law. The law said that soul that sinneth
it shall surely die. He had hung over our heads just
like it did Mephibosheth. He was the grandson of King Saul
and were the great, great, great grandchildren of Adam. And he
had hung over our head. And the second Adam, had to come
and take upon himself humanity and die in their place and satisfy
the justice of Almighty God. And it's satisfied. As Mark sung,
it's finished. There's nothing left to be done.
It's not what he does and then what you do. It's done. It is
finished. Finished. And that's what he
did. That ain't what he tried to do.
That's what he did. But that wasn't the end. He didn't
just die. They put him in a grave. He came
out. He came out. He said, I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. The Father
brought him again from the dead. He was delivered for our offenses,
and he was raised again for our justification. Raised. Can you imagine what
Peter and those disciples, those scattered sheep, thought while
he was in the grave? Man, this is it. He told them they didn't
believe. We wouldn't have believed either.
But he came forth as our great shepherd. And you know what he's
doing now? He not only saved us from the
penalty of sin, he saves us from the power of sin. As He leads
you through that valley of the shadow of death, you know what
He does? He is weaning you and weaning me from the things of
this world. He must save you from sin. And that's every day. That's
not something that happened way back there and we got it all
fixed up. No, He fixed it, but He has to save you. I need to be saved right now.
Every morning I get up and I go, I approach him just like I did
yesterday. I come as a needy, helpless sinner, begging for
mercy. God, save me. Don't leave me
to myself. And he's saving us. He'll lead
you beside the still waters. He'll restore your soul. What's he doing? That's him saving
you. You get over in the briar patch
somewhere and you say, how did I get over? What does that sheep
need? It needs to be saved. And he saves them. When he regenerated you and gave
you a new nature, he did not eradicate that old nature. Don't
you wish he did, but he didn't. And he's not improving it either.
I don't care what religion says about the progressive sanctification. It seems like the older you get,
the more the Lord allows you to walk with him, it seems like
the worse you get. But I understand when Paul made
this statement, he'd probably been regenerated 25 years, and
he said, oh, wretched man that I am. That's us. That's us. He didn't just rise from the
dead. He's got to go back to glory.
He told the disciples that the Comforter will not come. He said,
it's expedient that I go away. He was with the disciples, I
think, for 40 days, but then he left this earth, and they
said, the angels said, this same Jesus that you've seen go away
is coming again. But he went back to the Father,
and you know what he did when he went? He led captivity captive,
and he gave gifts unto men. He gave some apostles, some preachers,
some evangelists for the perfecting of God's sheep and work in the
ministry. How can a man preach except to
be sent? I think about Peter. After what he did, God sent him. He said, all power has been given
unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and preach this
gospel. Preach what gospel? You talk about the one that died.
You talk about who he is and what he did and why he did it.
And Peter stood on the day of Pentecost, frail, insignificant, and preached
that gospel. And he said, that same Jesus
that you crucified, it's fresh on their mind, that you crucified,
the same one hid in the corner, that same Jesus, God hath raised
him up and made him Lord. And 3,000 sheep were saved. And you know what God's still
doing? Let's just read 1 Peter 5. The elders which are among
you I exhort who also am an elder and a witness of the suffering
of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof not by constraint but willingly. not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory. Peter writing to young
preachers, and he says, and God's preachers, they don't do it for
filthy lucre. They don't do it by constraint.
They do it willingly. Well yeah, it's hard to explain
the heart of a preacher. He gives you a heart for it,
a desire for it. If he didn't, you wouldn't do
it. You would quit. You know what our Lord told Peter
after he sinned? He said, Peter, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know. And
he asked him again, said, Peter, do you love me? He said, Lord,
you know. And he asked him the third time,
he said, Peter, do you love me? He said, if you love me, feed
my sheep. Think of what he said. Listen to this, Jeremiah 3.15. Our Lord said, I will give you
pastors according to mine own heart, which shall feed you with
knowledge and with understanding. One of the greatest blessings
God can give a community is one of his preachers, sent by him
to preach his gospel, isn't it? We know we're nothings and nobodies,
but he gives them pastors according to his own heart. Which do what,
first thing he says, he feeds them. Feeds them with knowledge
and understanding. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to seek and to save his sheep. He gave his life as
the good shepherd, but he didn't stay dead. He rose from the grave
and now he reigns. Our great shepherd is gone to
glory and now sits upon the throne of the universe as the God-man
mediator. He sits upon the throne of grace. He's sitting there as Lord and
King. As he was talking to the disciples,
he said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. And our great Lord has sent his
servants into the world to preach his gospel. I'm so thankful for
the day that God allowed me to hear his gospel. It's amazing
that we are allowed to live in a generation like this. We're
blessed. Everyone's talking about the
things in the past. I'm glad I live today. I'm glad
I live today. I am. And they go into all this world
and they tell this world who Christ is. They tell this world
where he is and they tell this world why he did what he did. Now let's turn to Psalms 24. It says, the earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.
The earth is the Lord's. We see men, they divide up nations
and they divide it into states and they divide it into counties
and they divide it into towns and then everybody gets them
a little piece and they'll put them up signs and say, no trespassing. They say, this is mine. I pay
the taxes on it and I live here. You don't own it. That car you
rode in, He owns it. The air you breathe, He owns
it. The earth is the Lord's. This world doesn't know that.
They think it's theirs. They think it's mine. No, it's
His. You know why? He bought it. You know what He did to this
world, this earth? He redeemed it. He says it groans
and travails waiting for the day that he'll release the curse. But he redeemed it. He bought
it. Everything that Adam lost, the curse and all that that came
upon this earth, when he died, he rose, he redeemed it. He's
Lord. It's his. And he can do with
it if he sees fit. And he don't ask anybody's permission.
It's his. He don't put up fences. We fence
our sheep or whatever and all said they can't get it. He don't
need fences. It's all his. He not only owns the cattle on
a thousand hills, he owns all the hills. It's his. Don't this
world need to know that? That's his. If there's a hole
in the ozone, big deal. That's his ozone. Right? It's his. And the fullness thereof. That oxygen we just breathed,
who gave it to us? You think of the billions and
trillions of people that's lived on this earth and there's still
oxygen in there? It's what? It's full. The earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Don't just stop there.
Stop there and they that dwell therein. He owns the sheep and
he owns the goats. They're either vessels of mercy
or they're vessels of wrath. They're His. And He can do with
every man as He sees fit. Why? He's Lord. See, when He
rose, He left glory and came to this
earth and suffered death in the place of His people. When He
arose, He's Lord. He bought back everything that
had Him of. He's Lord. And there is a man
in glory. God set him on his throne. Oh,
he committed all judgment into his hands. He bought it. And
he will do with every man as he sees fit. If he wants to show
you mercy, he can. Or he can just leave you alone. Why, he's Lord. The earth is
the Lord's and they that dwell therein, for he hath founded
it. upon the seas and established it upon the floods. Here's the chief reason that
all the earth is His. He created it. He established
it. It all came from His mind, His
will, and His purpose. Revelation 4.11, Thou art worthy,
O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast
created all things. and for thy pleasure they are
and they were created. Colossians 116, 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. All things were made by him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. If He made
it, it's His. It's His. That's pretty plain,
isn't it? But the world doesn't understand
it. Verse 3. He asked these two questions. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord? Or who shall stand? in his holy
place. Having established the fact that
the Lord is sovereign over all the earth by creation, by decree,
and by death, he looks, as it were, above the earth to heaven
and asks, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? What I
can understand, they would sing this song where David wrote this
when he sent for the ark, and they were going to carry the
ark until Mount Zion, the holy hill of God. He said in Psalms
2, he said, I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. What's
the throne that our Lord Jesus Christ sit on? The throne of
David. He's of the line in the lineage of David. He has the
rightful heir to that throne. And he says, who can ascend to
that hill? Or who can dwell in that holy
place? Is there anybody worthy to ascend
that hill? Is anybody worthy to stand in
that place? Read the chapter where it says
David sent after the ark and he put it on a cart. He saw the
Philistines do it. He put it on a cart and Uzzah
reached up his hand and God killed him for just touching it. God's
holy. God is holy. Our God is in the heavens. Ephesians
4.80, as I've already quoted, he said, wherefore he saith,
when he ascended up on high. Who ascended up? The tabernacle and the temple
were only patterns. They were only pictures of a
true temple, of a true ark. Who can ascend into God's presence? Who can ascend to where God's
at? who shall stand in his holy place,
not only ascend, but to dwell there? He answers the question
in verse 4. And he's the only one that can
answer these questions. Who can ascend and who can dwell
there? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not
lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. No fallen son of Adam meets those
requirements. Our hands are still dripping
with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. People say, well if I'd
been there that day, I wouldn't have said crucify him. Oh yes
you would. Clean hands and a pure heart. I try to imagine stuff, that's
just me a lot of times. You know, we have very little
recorded about our Lord when he was a child. Just when he
was 12 years old, from then until he was 30 years old. Can you
imagine him being in Mary and Joseph's house? He's the perfect
son. Never siced him. He's the perfect
son. Pure in heart. Loved his mama
perfectly. Loved his daddy perfectly. Submitted
to him. It said he went and submitted
unto them. Can your children do that? And he asked that question. He
that has clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted his
soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully. He never went after the vain
things of this world. He was truth and never spoke
anything but truth. He was perfect in motive, perfect
in thought, and perfect in deed. And that's the only one who can
ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in his holy place. That's
it. But man has been told that he's
able. Can you get that blood off your
hands? Remember Potsdam, he said, I've washed my hands from this.
You can't get it off. You can't get it off. He is the only one that is worthy. Listen in Revelation chapter
5 verse 1, which is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. John
said, I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne
a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven
seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open or to read the book, neither to look
thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, weep not. Behold, the line of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, he hath prevailed to open the
book and to loose the seals thereof. Who is he? He's of the line of
the tribe of Judah, of the root of David, he hath prevailed. He's worthy. Look what it says
in verse 5. Remember who he's talking about.
He asked the questions, who shall ascend? He that hath clean hands
and a pure heart, he shall receive the blessing. Who does? He does. Our Lord received the blessing.
He is the blessing. Every blessing that God has for
unworthy sinners is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord,
now listen to me, because of his perfect obedience to all
the demands and commands of God's law, he wrought out for his people
a perfect righteousness. He hath received the blessing. He received it. The righteousness
in which we are clothed, to which we must be accepted, and by which
we are made meat to inherit eternal life can be no other than the
work of Jesus Christ our Lord, our surety, and our mediator. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places. That's the blessing. You want
to be blessed? It's in Him. Everybody talks
about blessings. I'm blessed. And everybody thinks
in this day in which we live, they can invoke a blessing on
somebody. They say, have a blessed day. That makes me want to puke. I'm just being plain. Don't you?
Just sickening. Oh, just so sticky, as Spurgeon
called it. You can bless somebody. You can
bless somebody. You can say you have a blessed
day. It may be the worst day in your
life, and that may be a blessed day, right? We got it all reversed. We think, oh, if everything goes
just fine, my job's fine, my family's fine, everybody's healthy,
oh, we're just, we're blessed. Not necessarily. Not necessarily. he shall receive the blessing.
And to be blessed, you must be found in him. He blessed Mephibosheth
and sent for him and brought him to the king's table. Now
that's a blessing, but the reason he did it was not because of
Mephibosheth, he did it because of Jonathan. And the reason God
blesses us is because of the Lord Jesus Christ and because
of what he did, what he is doing, and what he shall do. That's
the blessing. God ever allows you to hear the
gospel one time, that's a blessing. God gives you ears to hear, that's
a blessing. If God forgives you of your sin,
that's the blessing. Try to earn those things. You
can't do it because you don't have clean hands and a pure heart.
You have the wrong motive. You're going to do it just for
you. We've never done, never and never will do anything that's
not from a wrong motive. Never, never. Here's the blessed man. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. How can my sin be put away in
Christ? That's the blessing. He shall
receive the blessing. And listen to me, he wrought,
worked it out as a man. Listen to me, for his people.
What Adam didn't do, he did do. as the perfect man. He is my covenant head. He's
my surety. He's my representative. I am
either represented in Adam or I'm represented in Christ. All
who are in Adam die, and all who are in Christ live. Why?
They're blessed in him. When he died, we died. When he arose, we arose. And
thank God, when he ascended, we went with him. That's the chief shepherd, isn't
it? Verse six, this is the generation
of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Here we have
a change of persons. The two preceding verses spoke
of one person and only one. Here we have a generation of
persons, a remnant according to the election of grace. In
Psalms 22 verse 30, a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted
to the Lord for a generation. What's this? They shall come
and shall declare his righteousness unto a people, a generation that
shall be born. And what did they say? He hath
done this. This is the generation of them,
now watch this, that seek who? They seek Him. They seek Him. This generation
of those who seek Christ, which are the seed of Christ. Someone
said this generation shall by virtue of Christ's righteousness
and their title to that righteousness Because of their union with him
they shall be admitted upon his holy hill of Zion And they shall
enjoy all the privilege privileges of his redeemed Because what
he did I Want you to get this? When He ascended, if you were
His seed and you were in Him, that generation, when He went,
we went. Justified, sanctified, glorified,
all those terms are past tense. That's something that's already
done. The way God looks at it, we're already there, Cody. That's
it. And this is the generation, this
is the regeneration that do what? They seek Him. It's in a person. It's not in
a doctrine. It's not in the five points of
Calvinism. It's in a person. A person. A person. This is a generation of sheep.
This is the people of the generation. A line of grace. Read Matthew chapter one. What's
recorded there? A line of grace. King killed
Abel and God chose Seth. And down through Seth came Abraham. And from Abraham came Jacob. And through Jacob came who? Judah. And through Judah who came? David. And through David who came? The
Lord Jesus Christ. You know what that is? That's
a line of grace. That's the line of grace. And
they are the generation And they are the generation that seek
Him. Sheep seek Him. And the only
reason you seek Him is because He sought you first. But it does say, and I can't
explain this, He said, if you'll seek Me with all your heart,
you'll find Me. And He'll make you willing. whether
it's like the woman with the issue of blood coming crawling
on your face, you'll seek him. This is the generation of them
that seek him. Oh Jacob, oh who? Brother Paul preached at our
church back in the spring and he told this illustration and
I, me and Sandy just rejoiced over it all the whole time. He
said it's just like God reached down and just, he must have said, oh worm, Jacob.
He picked him out. And you know who you are? You're
just the old worm, Jacob. But you know what he said about
Jacob? Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. You're a generation
of them that seeks him. Who? Oh, Jacob. So you picture this. Here he
is. He stands. Here he comes. He's ascending
back to glory. And all his children are with
him. And he comes and he stands before the gate. And they said,
lift up ye heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
door, 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. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Well, who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts. He's the king of glory. These
gates that had been shut for thousands of years, these gates
that said, stay out, it's like they asked the question, well,
they cry, say, open up doors, and then the voice comes back,
well, why should I open the door? Who are you that came from out
there? You want to come in here? Lucifer tried it. He said, for
thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into the heavens.
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit
upon the mound of the congregation in the sides of the north. I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the most high God, and God cast him into hell. Adam tried it. They tried it at the Tower of
Babel. They thought, oh, we'll build us a place up to God. They
all fell. But here's one stands before
the gate. and said, why must we let you
in? Why must we open the door to
you? Because in Hebrews 9 verse 12
it says, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his
own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Who is this King of Glory? Why
should we open to you? He's the King of Glory. It says
He is strong and mighty. He's not some weak, feeble, effeminate
Jesus. He's Lord. He's strong and He's
mighty. Like we looked at the other night,
when they came to take him in the garden, he just said, I am. And they fell on their faces.
He's strong, and he's mighty. He's able to say to the uttermost,
say, well, you don't know my children. You don't know how
bad they are. You don't know this, that, or the other. You
don't know. They just can't come. Oh, he'll bring them. There's
never been a one he couldn't bring. He does them. He breaks
them. He makes them willing and they
come. Why? He's strong and mighty. It says he's mighty in battle.
Listen, Isaiah 63.1, who is this that comes from Edom would died
garments from Basra is that that is glorious and that his apparel
traveling in the greatness of his strength. I that speak in
righteousness mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine
fat. I have trodden the winepress
alone and with the people there was none with me. Mighty and
vital. As I think about this, I can't
help but think about David. When he came up that day and
everybody's scared to death, nobody won't go fight Goliath,
nobody could. He had been mocking him for 40
days. And David said, is there not
a cause? He says, I'll go fight him. He not only went and fought
him, he took Goliath's own sword and cut his head off. And you know what he did with
that head? He brought it to Saul. Our Lord Jesus Christ cut off
the head of the old dragon. He defeated him. Through death,
he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
He's the mighty conqueror. He's the mighty king. What does
it say when he comes back? King of kings and Lord of lords. Then the other thing it says,
who is this Lord of glory? Don't you notice this in verse
10? He's the Lord of hosts. What does that mean, creature?
That means that he's not going in alone. He has many. And I beheld and lo a great multitude
which no man could number. of all nations and kindreds and
people clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. You
picture this, when the chief shepherd, the great shepherd
and the good shepherd goes in those gates, he has every one
of his little lambs with him. Do you see the picture? He goes
in the gates and says, why should we let you in here and why should
we let them in here? Because of what he did. because of what he did. And it's
like you said, because of what he did, God looks at it as though
I did it. As though I did it. This same Jesus that went away
is coming to get all his sheep. Now you picture, when he went
in, we went in. But that same Jesus, that same
Jesus, It's coming back, and in the moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in
the clouds, and so shall we ever be with him. You know what he's
doing? You know what he's gonna literally do? He's gonna come
back and every eye's gonna see him. They're gonna run to the
mountains and cry for the rocks to fall on him, and he's coming
back to get his sheep. And listen to me, the only reason
this world and this earth or anybody on it still exists is
because God has a people that he chose, that he calls his sheep,
and he's going to save every single one of them. And when
he saved the last one, we're all going to the master's house. The chief shepherd stayed at
home, he sent out the under shepherds to get the sheep, and he says,
okay, we're going home. Wouldn't this be nice if we could
just stay here forever? I mean, just rejoicing in His
greatness. One day, we'll be home. He will wipe away every tear
from your eye. You remember Lot? Lot's sin,
Lot's living inside of him. But you know what he said? I
cannot destroy this place as long as you're here. And he's in his angel. And they
almost had to drag him out. But they could not. They could
not destroy that city as long as Lott was there. And when he brought Lott out,
there was no space of a seven-year tribulation when he took Lott
out. Now listen to me. When he took
Lott out, it rained fire and brimstone on that place. I say
this is kind, but I want you to hear what I'm going to say.
When God saves the last of his little sheep, he's taking them
out. And he's going to do away with
this earth. It's going to melt with fervent heat. Is that right? If you're his, you're either
a saved sheep or a lost sheep. If you're his, I pray he brings
you to himself and you look to him and rest in his righteousness
and what he's done for the salvation of your soul. Amen.