I thought I'd do it Sunday night
and deal with 25th Wednesday. 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. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart. who hath not lifted his soul
up unto vanity, nor swore deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy
face, O Jacob, or O God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in." 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. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory." You know, we can never fully,
fully appreciate the scriptures. until we can
see the Lord Jesus Christ and the message of redemption in
it. Whenever God opens our heart that we actually see the Lord
Jesus and see that this Bible is the message of God's purpose
to redeem a people in His Son in this world, and that He done
it by the God-man, by the Lord Jesus Christ who came into this
world. And then we see this message. You know, we get a little here,
a little there. Isaiah said like this, line upon a little line
here, a little line there, you know, and a line upon a line
here a little, there a little. And we see it just a little at
a time until we see the message. And I believe that we can appreciate
this psalm here as we look at it and we see our Lord Jesus
Christ in it. I believe this psalm is about
the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for His people. I believe
that. I really believe that. And like Gary was talking about,
you know, we live under the hills which come in our help. And I
tell you what, these hills belong to God. And that's the first
thing he says here. The earth is the Lord's. The earth is the Lord's. It's
not man's. It don't belong to him. I know
it. It's not man's. We all live on
this earth, and people do, and they boast of their possessions,
they boast of their power. And then what they do, what we've
done on this earth is we've divided up into countries, into nations,
into kingdoms, divided up among kings and all the rulers of this
world. Then we take these countries,
we divide them up into states, territories, and give them names. We just happened to live in Tennessee,
in Cumberland County, on Lantana Road here right now. And we divide
these states into farms, ranches, lots, and we go give us a title
deed to them. Say, this is mine, but it really
don't belong to you at all. You know, he said, the earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. We're just tenants here.
We're just here for a while. You know, all we're going to
have when we leave this world is a little spot of ground and
a cemetery. That's what we're going to have. And beloved, the
earth is the Lord's and we're just tending. We're subject to
God evicting us any given time on this earth and taking us from
our houses, our ranches, our lands, our parks, because it
belongs to Him. And I tell you, the loaner of
this world sits in the heavens, And he just wonders. I mean,
not all should say wonder, but he looks at us and says, buying and selling and going
here and yonder and everything and talking about what all they
got, what all they're going to do. And he just sits there and
laughs. Sitting these poor little worms here, just whirring around,
just trying to do this and that. My mound's bigger than your mound.
My molehill's bigger than your mound. And they go on about that.
But look over here at Job 41 and 11. Look what it says here
about the Lord. And that's why I say that everything
we have, the Lord gave it to us. And that's why, you know,
He says we're stewards. You know what a steward is? A
steward is over somebody else's property. And God gave us to
be stewards. He gave us to be stewards of
the grace of God. Gave us to be stewards to our
own bodies. Gave us to be stewards over what
He gave us. And that's all we are, we're
stewards. And that's why He says the good and faithful steward
and the weakest steward. We're just stewards. When God
gave us some property, God gave us some things to have in this
life. He gave us children, He gave us homes, He gave us marriages,
He gave us some money, He gave us some property, and He lets
us have these things here, and He provides them for us and gives
them to us. And then He says, you be steward over this and
you take care of this. It belongs to me, but I want
you to take care of it. You take care of the property.
You take care of your bodies. You take care of your families.
You take care of the money I gave. You take care of everything I've
got. Everything you've got, you've got it from me. Now, wouldn't
you agree with that? Now, a lot of folks don't believe
that, and they'll say, boy, I got this through my blood, sweat,
and tears. Well, face God for that if you want to. I'm not
going to. No, no, I know that after everything
I've got. You know, if this is how, if
God says that He numbers the hairs of our head, And that is,
we're much worth more than the sparrows. We understand clearly
that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and
we're just tenants here. And we're just strangers passing
through here. And that's why he says we're
strangers and pilgrims. Look here in Isaiah, excuse me,
Job 41.11. Look at the last part of that
verse. Whatsoever is under the whole
heaven is mine. Whatsoever is under the whole
heaven is mine, and all mine." And then he says here in verse
1 of Psalm 24 again, he says, "...the earth is the Lord's,
and the fullness thereof." The fullness thereof. They keep talking
about, you know, things are just emptying and emptying. Listen,
the earth is as full now as it ever was. The earth and its fullness. He said, "...the fullness of
this earth in its entirety." belongs to the Lord. It's the
Lord's. The fullness of the well, the fullness of His life, the
fullness of His past, the fullness of His present, the fullness
of His future. The Lord has made the earth full,
and He's kept it full all these centuries. He's kept it full. I tell you what, we've been,
y'all ever been on the ocean? Some of y'all been down in the
Gulf? And them shrimp boats go out every single day. And fishing
boats go out every single day. And they always come back with
a boatload of shrimp, always come back with a boatload of
fish. You know why? Because God filled it full of
fish. They've been taking from it all
this time. The air is full. In spite of all who breathe it.
You know how many free people are breathing on this earth right
now? Billions upon billions upon billions, and the air still has
oxygen in it for us all. The soil. It's full, and it's
got everything in it that makes a multitude of trees, plants,
billions of them all over the earth. Trees and flowers and
billions of them live out of this earth. Crops, food, corn,
wheat, barley, everything we need to eat comes up out of this
earth, and there's always enough in it to give us food out of
it. Oh, the earth is the Lord's. And you take the rivers, forests, everything about it
remains full to feed, clothed and housed generations of people.
I don't know. I've seen trees whiz out west
that they could have cut them down. I don't know if Bruce has
seen them. You cut out some of them trees, and you could frame
two or three houses out of one tree. You reckon God's going to run
out something to build houses with? You know how many houses
have been built over the years? And the food that comes out of
it, the clothing of the clothes that comes out of it? They're
all, He says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
and they that dwell therein. That means me and you. Everything
that dwells in it belongs to Him. And you know they're full
and held together by one thing. He, Colossians 1 says, you know,
that by Him all things that were made were made, and He's before,
you know, everything, whether it be dominions or principalities,
whether they're visible, invisible, and by Him all things consist. And He said it over in Hebrews
1, 3, He upholds all things by the word of His power. And that's
why I have no use for this idea, you know, this It's the Green
Movement and all that rigmarole. That's just a money-making scheme,
I'm telling you. The earth is the Lord's and the
fool's earth, and we ain't never going to run out of nothing in
this world. There's going to always be food
for everybody. There's going to always be clothes
for everybody. There's always going to be timber to cut. There's
always going to be food to eat. There's always going to be corn.
There's always going to be fish in the sea. There's always going
to be enough oxygen there to feed everybody that's ever been
on this planet. And I tell you, the only reason
he's going to do away with this one is so he can have a new one where
there ain't nothing but righteousness dwells therein. And I tell you,
in Ephesians 3, talking about the fullness of the earth, it
says, we're filled with His fullness. And of His fullness, of Christ's
fullness have we received. And then it says, and they that
dwell therein. I'm going to tell you something, beloved. The world
and they that dwell therein, everybody that lives in this
world and on this earth belongs to one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that a multitude don't
know that. There's people that's never heard His name. But this
world and everybody that dwells in it belongs to the Lord Jesus
Christ. I believe I can prove that from
Scripture. Don't you think they can? Where He is my creation. It's He that made us, God created
us. God gave us life. It's by Him
we live, move, and have our being. He said everything that has breath,
God gave it to Him. I mean, dogs, everything, we're
His. Everything in this, we're His
by creation. And with all of everything on
this earth is His by the decree of the Father, says the love
of the Son, and hath given all things into His hands. What is
all things? I believe it's everything on
this earth is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's
given Him power over all flesh. And I tell you, that means Chinese
flesh, that means black flesh, that means Muslim flesh, that
means Baptist flesh, that means all flesh is under the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He'll give life to whom He
will. And I tell you, after He by Himself purged our sins, and
He's the brightness of God's glory, the express image of His
person, and now, beloved, after He purged our sins, He sent us
the right hand of God, and He's going to rule there until God
makes all of His enemies His crystal. And in this world, and
I'm going to tell you something else, and I believe I can prove
this, that this world, and especially His people, are His by purchase.
By His, He bought us and paid for us. Look in Romans 14, 9.
Let's look at this just a minute. Romans 14, 9. I heard a story
one time that a preacher got up and preached from this years
and years and years ago. And the other preacher got up right
behind him. They was in a conference and
he says, He stole my message. You know that's exactly what
I was going to preach. I told you what I was going to preach.
And you got up there and stole it. Now what am I going to do? Two preachers that you all know. Now what am I going to do? Oh, but he said here in Romans
14 and 9, For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived
again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Now whether a man's dead, all
things in heaven and earth are in his hands. He has the gates
of hell and of death. Is that not right? And I say
those that are dead, dead spiritually and those that are living. Whether
a man's already in the ground or whether he's still living,
Christ is Lord over that man. He died to do that. Let me show
you another scripture over in 2 Peter 2, verse 1. Now this is, a lot of people
have a lot of trouble with this verse of scripture, but I believe
I can explain this, talking about Christ owns everything and everybody
in this world, 2 Peter 2.1. And I said that we're His by
purchase, this world and everybody is His by purchase. He says, but there were false
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you. who privately shall bring in
damnable heresies, even denying," now listen to this, "...the Lord
that bought them." Now, how do you deny the Lord that bought
you? "...and bring upon themselves destruction." So here they are,
the Lord bought them. And they deny His blood, they
deny His power, they deny His authority. Now, what does that
mean, that they deny the Lord that bought them? He bought them.
Well, I think it means this. You remember that the pearl of
great price and then that treasure that is in the field? You see,
there was a treasure in the field over in Matthew 13, and he bought
the whole field to get the treasure out of the field. The church
is the treasure. He paid for everything on this
earth to get the treasure out of it, and he can do whatever
he wants with the rest of it. He calls them vessels of mercy,
vessels of wrath. Objects of grace, objects of
wrath. Salvation? Reprobation. It's always been that way. But
I know this much, that Christ is as much offer of salvation
as He is damnation. I mean, He's got everything in
His hands to do as He pleases. And that's why we tell people
when we preach the gospel, that we preach the Lord Jesus Christ
having all things in His hands. I mean, they're all in His. My
children's in His hands. My grandchildren's in His hands.
And he's going to do with them just exactly right. These Muslims
that despise and hate everything, it's like they're in the hands
of God. They're in the hands of Christ. And oh, beloved, oh,
He bought us. And then He actually administers. He reigns in this world. He says
the government should be upon His shoulder. He said all power
in heaven and earth is given unto Him. All creatures are His,
whether they're sons of service, sheep or goats, vessels of mercy
or vessels of wrath, all of it belongs to Him. He does with
it as He pleases. And I find great comfort in that.
I find great, for this I do know Jesus is Lord. And listen, He
was Lord before He come into this world. He's Lord while He's
in Him. He's Lord on His throne, and He'll always be the Lord.
And one of these days, everybody that ever drew a breath, that
ever lived on this earth, is going to bow a knee and confess
to the glory of God that Jesus Christ is Lord. Everybody's going
to do that. Everybody from Adam to the last
man on this earth is going to come out of the grave and they're
going to bow down and say, Jesus Christ is Lord. They may choke on it, they may
despise it, but God's going to say, you're going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. You're going to tell the world
that. You're going to bow your knees. And boy, what a day that'll
be. I do it now gladly, don't you?
Oh, bow my knee right now. And then look what else they
said. I'm taking too long on that verse. But He hath founded
it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Oh my, this
is the reason that all is His. He created it all. It was God
who said, let there be light. It was God who said, let us make
man in our own image. It was God who separated the
heavens from the earth. It was God who said, cause the
water and the fish to be in the sea. And that's what He said.
He established it upon the seas. Founded it upon the seas and
established it upon the floods. I mean, He says, look here, these
seas, These floods, He said, I established the earth on that.
But He also tells us this, that that's a very insecure foundation,
seas and the floods. God's telling us that this earth
shall not remain. Just like the first flood, the
flood that came and destroyed the earth, that thing was, He
said, He's founded upon the flood. God's telling us that the earth
shall not remain, and we're looking for a city, a new heaven and
a new earth, founded and established upon Christ, the rock of ages,
and this shall remain forever. Look over at Psalm 50, just a
minute. Oh, my. Look what He said here
in Psalm 50, in verse 10. Oh, my. That's, you know, he
said, established upon the floods. I'm going to destroy it. And
what he's telling us is that this earth as it is will not
remain. He said, that's what he said, you know, the first
earth was destroyed. He said, I won't do that no more.
Do something else. For every beast, Psalm 15, verse
10, every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a
thousand hills. He gave me just two or three
of them. Look at this now. And I know
all the fowls of the mountains. I know where every bird's at.
And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
wouldn't tell thee, for the world is mine in the fullness thereof.
Oh, my. I don't want nothing. You got
it. It's all belongs to me anyway. down here what he says now in
verse 3. Now he's going to talk about it. And this is sad. There's people who can read this
verse and honestly think, back in Psalm 24, verse 3, there's
people that honestly think that they are good enough and righteous
enough in themselves to take an ascend and dwell in the presence
of the Lord. Ain't you grateful that God in His mercy taught
you different than that? Who shall ascend into the Heal
of the Lord, for who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath
clean," this is who's going to do it, "...he that hath clean
hands, and a pure heart, who hath not lifted his soul up unto
vanity, nor swore deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing
from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of him that seeketh thy face, O God
of Jacob." You see, God, he shall dwell in the ascending of the
hill of the Lord. God dwells in the heavens. God dwells in
the heavens. That's what he said. He says,
God's in the heavens. Therefore, let your words be
few. Don't come into his presence
and offer the sacrifice of fools. Canst thou by searching find
out God? Canst thou go into heaven? He's
in the heavens and you're on earth. Canst thou by searching
find him out? And God dwells in a light which no man can approach
unto. So then, who shall stand in His
holy place? If somebody could ascend to where
God dwells, who could stand there and abide there when you got
there? If you could get there, how could you stand and abide
there? That's what he's asking. Who shall ascend into the lived
hill of the Lord? And when he gets there, who can stand right
there? Huh? He tells us who can. He that hath clean hands, who
has never sinned. Proverbs 20 and verse 9, who
can say that he has clean hands and has never
sinned? Proverbs 20 and verse 9. Who can say that my hands
are clean, are pure, and I've never sinned with my hands? I'm
pure from sin. Who can say that? And a pure
heart. Never imagine a thought, an evil
thought, a pure, pure heart. They say pure is the whitest
snow. And listen to this, not lifting
up his soul on the vanity. Oh my, how many times have we
said, we slept the night over there, Friday night. Most of
us lift our soul up to vanity. It's a sign. No. Oh, we lift
our soul up to vanity. Brag and boast about ourselves
and tell our stories and laugh, and nothing wrong with that,
but, oh, my, it says, you can go there if you're not lifting
up your soul unto them. And listen to this, nor swore
deceitfully, nor ever, whatever swore, everything you've ever
swore to was absolutely true. No exaggeration. Oh, my. one who is and has spoken
perfect truth." Broken truth. You know what? You know what
it said here? That man shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Oh, my. Who has met these conditions?
I'll tell you who's met these conditions. The Lord Jesus Christ
has met these conditions. Let me show you, as you keep
Psalm 23, look in John 3.13. This is one of the most amazing
verses of Scripture that I've ever seen in all the Word of
God. John 3.13. Who is and has, who has ever
met these conditions? There's one man that's ever met
those conditions. There's one man. who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord to hasten. He hath clean hands and a pure
heart, not lifted up his soul under bandage, but swore deceitfully."
Who is that man standing up? There's only one, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look what he said in John 3.13,
talking about ascending up now. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven. Now, do you hear what I've just
said? Nobody's went up there but me, which came down from
heaven, and even me which now is in heaven. My, my. I'd like one of these doctors
of divinity to explain that to me. Masters of divinity. Oh, my. I'll tell you who done that.
Only the Lord Jesus Christ ascended and dwells in the presence of
the Lord. And we only do it as we stand accepted in the Beloved.
That's how we do it. We stand in Christ, stand in
the Beloved, accepted in the Beloved. That's the only way
we can. You know, He's the one who shall
present us hopeless before His glory, at His coming, at the
presence of Him. And look what happens. He says,
and He shall receive the blessing. from the Lord and righteousness
from the God of His salvation. You know it's only in Him that
we receive the blessing. The blessing of what? Righteousness
from Christ. Righteousness and salvation from
Him. He's the one that obtained it.
He's the one that got it. And if we ever get a blessing,
it comes through Him. It comes through Him and Him
alone. And then look what it says here
in verse six, ìThis is the generation of them that seek him, that seek
thy face, O God of Jacob.î You know what? Old Ralph Barnard
used to say this. He said, ìPut this on my tombstone.î
This is what I want put on my tombstone. ìAlive here lies a
lifelong seeker after the Lord.î And I tell you what, thatís what
heís talking about here. There is a generation. a generation
of people, that all they do, they started seeking the Lord,
they started seeking His face, they started seeking the God
of Jacob, and beloved, heaven's going to be plumbed full of people
who were seekers all the days of their lives. And you know,
if you're seekers, ain't no sense seeking unless you find. And
he said, seek my face, and oh Lord, thy face I will seek. And
by His grace, we seek the Lord. By His grace, we seek His pleasure. By His grace, we seek His mercy. By His grace, we seek the righteousness
in Christ. In His grace, by His grace, we
find in Him everything that we need, and everything that we
have to have to stand in the presence of God right now. And
I say what we, that's what I read, we done it with this morning.
Let us come boldly into the holiest. How can you come boldly into
the holiest? Right behind where the veil was,
because there ain't no veil anymore. We come right into the very presence
of God through Christ, and because of Christ. He made a hill and
a living way for us. And I tell you what, we started
seeking Him, and we never, ever stopped seeking Him. And you
know when you get to glory, that's all it'll be there. People that
sought Him found Him. And then look what it said here
about our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. Lift up your heads, O
ye gates, and be ye locked up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. That's how He ascended into glory.
That's how He went there for us. The Lord Jesus has met all
the conditions laid down for those who would ascend to the
hill of the Lord and stand in His presence. By His own righteousness,
and righteousness and right, and He has entered in and sat
down at the right hand of God. His hands are clean. His heart
is pure. His soul loves God perfectly.
He is the truth, not only tells it, but He is. And I tell you
what, and that's why I said, therefore, since this is the
character that he is, therefore, since everything about him is
pure, holy, and righteous, therefore, oh, lift up your head, ye gates,
be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors. You know, the gates and
doors of eternal glory has always been closed to man. I mean, you
can't get in. And here he says, open up. There's too many things that
keep us from entering. But the Lord of glory, the Son
of God who came to this earth, and His perfect redemption is
done, it's finished. And now you gates, doors open
to the King of glory and open to His church. And look what
it said. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord, mighty, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. You
know, I talk about the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts. A host means an army. A whole
host behind Him. And I tell you, the whole host.
He says He's the host. The Lord, strong and mighty in
battle. He's the Lord of hosts. He's
the Lord over all the armies. He alone came to redeem us. But
he's not alone when he ascends back to glory. No, he takes people
with him. Lift up your gates, even lift
them up, the everlasting doors, and the king of glory's coming
in. Well, who is he? He's the Lord of hosts. He's
the Lord of all the armies. He's the Lord of every... And
you know who he takes in there with him? A multitude that no
man can number. Huh? Oh, my. The earth is the
Lord's, and it ends up with us all, and then He talks about
heaven, the earth, and then He talks about heaven, and then
He talks about going into glory, and we all get to go with Him.
Because when He fought the battle, ain't that what it says, strong
and mighty in battle? He fought the battle. And so,
as Mike Barton sings here, it's finished. The victory's won. The battle's won. The victory's
over. I mean, it's won. It's finished.
So, Lord, open up. The way's open now. Let's go
in. And we're dwelling there in the
presence of God Himself, right now, in Christ. Amen. Oh, Lord Jesus. Blessed Savior. Oh, how wondrously gracious and
kind you are to let us hear the gospel, to know the gospel, to
know how we go into the presence of God, to know how we abide
in His presence, to know where our righteousness and salvation
come from, to see the Lord of glory, after He's defeated every
foe, after He's defeated every enemy, ascend into glory. And Lord, He takes with Him a
multitude that no man can number. And there's that many there already,
with a multitude more to come. Lord, thank You. Thank You for
the day. Thank You for the grace. Thank
You for the gospel. Thank You for the saints here. Thank You for this witness of
the grace of God. The things that's been said and
done, that's all that's been sung, God bless the saints as
they go. Preserve them and keep them.
And Lord, do make us good servants, good stewards, good stewards
of the things You've given us. We ask these in Christ's name.
Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus, He's the Savior
of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul.