Psalm 24. You know, sometimes
when some that we desire to meet with are not here, and our numbers
maybe are fewer than we would like to see, we need to remind
ourselves that everyone whom the Lord has appointed to be
here is here. and that we couldn't be anywhere
else, you know. I remember one time some Brother
Don had made that statement and a lady, we were sitting at the
table and she was kind of disputing what he said and she said, well,
I could have been anywhere. And Brother Don said, well, why
weren't you? And so, you know, The Lord does direct the steps
of His people. And you know, you can argue with
that if you want to, but you can't be where you're going to
be. And by the grace of God, He has His people where He would
have them to be. And so we rejoice in that. And
what the problem with that is, is people get to thinking that
if you say that, that means you're saying that everybody's always
going to be doing the right thing. No, they're not always going
to be doing the right thing. I mean, David was right where
he was marked out to be by the hand of God when he walked up
those steps to that roof. But David did the wrong thing,
did he not? I mean, those two things, there's
no clash there. And David couldn't blame anybody
but David for that because David was the one and he said, you
know, against thee I have sinned. So we rejoice that the Lord is
in control of all things, and that is what this psalm begins
with. I mean, this is a glorious psalm. Right following on the heels
of the 23rd psalm is the 24th psalm. And one is about the Lord
as our Shepherd, and the other one is about the Lord as our
King over all things. And he 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. Who shall ascend
into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? And then he gives the answer
to that. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who has not
lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn 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. Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and 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. Selah. Now, it's almost silly for a man to
argue that God is not in control of all things. I mean, would you want to live
in a world wherein God controls some things and left some things
to chance? I mean, if one thing is left
to chance, What could happen? I mean, anything could happen.
If anything is left to chance, could it not? I mean, if anything
is just running around out here without any control on it, I
mean, what could stop it? But you see, God, who is the
Lord, He is the one who orders all things to occur according
to the good pleasure of His will. Not according to the good pleasure
of the will of men, but according to His good pleasure. Now I'll
leave it to the great scholars and what not to explain how all
that works together. I don't really have to have it
explained to me. If I read it and it's in the
book, I would have to believe it. I mean, I can't figure it
all out. I don't know how everything works
together and all of that. I don't have any way to know.
But the Scripture plainly says the earth is the Lord's. Now if you have something, If
you have a car and it's yours, and I come over to your house
one night and hotwire it and drive it off, would you be happy? No, why not? Because it's yours. And the earth is the Lord's.
It's not the people's. You know, people are all in a
worry about pollution and all of that stuff, and well, we should
be. I mean, you know, I used to,
when I was growing up, I mean, when we'd change oil in the tractor,
which wasn't really all that often, we didn't change as much
as we should, we just poured it out there around a fence post
or something. And that's not a good idea. I
mean, common sense tells you that's probably not really a
good idea, and I don't try to do that anymore. But you know,
if a little oil spills on the ground, I'm not going to call
in the hazmat team to come you know, scoop up the dirt and haul
it to Alabama or something like Bobby does. I mean, he doesn't
cause that, but he used to haul that kind of stuff. And, you
know, just silly stuff. I mean, and the reason for that
whole concept of things is that people think that people are
in control of the world. This whole climate change business. Now, I don't have any doubt that
the climate's changed. It wouldn't surprise me a bit
if the polar ice cap completely melted and they had to have tropical
excursions up there. It wouldn't surprise me a bit.
It might happen. The level of the sea might rise
up and cover us over here. It might happen. But I'll guarantee
you one thing, and that is that it won't happen except it occurs
according to the purpose of God. Now, I don't know exactly what
God has in mind for that, and nobody else does. And how foolish
is it for men to say, oh, the climate is changing, we need
to stop that from happening. I mean, really, stop and think
about that. How foolish is that? I mean, when one of these hurricanes
is coming, I mean, men could say, all right, we need to get
out here and turn this thing so it doesn't come in here. What
are you going to do about that? You can't do anything about it.
And it's foolish in my estimation to spend very much time at all
really thinking about that. Now surely we ought to be good
stewards of the thing. But remember, God put oil in
the ground. And He didn't put it there just
for it to be there. He put it in there for the purpose
that it's used for at the present time. I don't have any doubt
about that. The earth is the Lord's. It belongs
to Him. And on that subject, you know
even as a kid I thought this was the dumbest thing I ever
heard of. How did the oil get in the ground?
Now the scientists tell us that all these dinosaurs and stuff
died and the jungle rotted and all that stuff went down and
it went down two miles into the ground. And it all formed up
down there and made oil and now we have it. That's how it got
there. Now even as a kid, I thought, you know, that does not make
any sense at all. But it is the earth, it is the
Lord. How did the oil get there? I will tell you how the oil got
there. God made the oil in the ground. I mean, why is it that men think
that they are the ones that are going to determine how all this
occurred when God plainly says that He made it according to
the good pleasure of His will? The earth is the Lord's. It belongs
to Him. And He made it to be inhabited. And it will be inhabited as long
as He has purposed for it to be inhabited. Until the day comes
when He shall burn it up with a fire of unheathed, the Scripture
says. And the elements shall melt. I mean, everything that
you see is going to be consumed. And what can a man say about
that? Not a thing in the world. Why? because it belongs to the
Lord. You know, if you make something,
you can make the most beautiful work of art that has ever been.
And people could come from miles around and they view that thing
and say, that's beautiful. And then when you've got it ready,
you can stick a stick of dynamite in it and blow it all to pieces.
And what can anybody say about it? It doesn't mean it was how
beautiful it was. It's yours. It belongs to you.
The earth is the Lord's. We must never forget that. You
know, that one thing, I mean, really Paul says over there to
the Romans, you know, when he says that the things that we
see, I mean, these things testify to the glory of God. A man doesn't
have to know a whole lot to know that the earth is the Lord's.
It belongs to Him. And if we understand that, then
it will humble us before Him. And it ought to cause us to have
no reliance at all on the ways of men, or the philosophies of
men, because it belongs to Him. And the fullness thereof, everything
in it, not just the flowers, and the bees, and the birds,
and the clouds, and the ocean, but the people. See, every person belongs to
the Lord. Everyone. He said He made some
vessels unto honor and some unto dishonor. Now, the natural man
says, well, wait a minute. That's not right. That's not
fair for God to make one vessel unto honor and one unto dishonor. What did Paul say? He said, Nay,
but O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall not
He? That former thing, is it not
His right to do what He wills with His own? Every one of us
believe that for ourselves. Why would we not say it so with
God? The earth is the Lord. The fullness
thereof, everything about it. The Scriptures say, David says
in one place that the cattle are on a thousand hills. belonged
to him. Now, the Bible literalists, they
would come up with the exact number that that could be because
they would calculate how big a hill was and then how many
cows could fit on the hill and they would multiply that times
a thousand and they would say, well that is how many cows God
has. Now did David mean that the Lord owned Just the cattle
on a thousand hills. He didn't own the cattle on the
thousand and oneth hill. That belonged to somebody else.
No, he just meant he owned all the cattle. Far as you could
see, every cow you could imagine was his. And the fullness thereof
belongs to him, the world. And they that dwell therein,
everyone belongs to the Lord. And He has the right to do with
you exactly as He sees fit. If He wants to kill you tomorrow,
you can't say a thing about it. If He wants to cause a lion to
come up out of the jungle and chew your leg off, you can't
say a thing about it because you belong to Him. Now, people
don't like that, do they? We don't like thinking that somebody
has control over us. Especially, you know, people
that, well, we're free men. I mean, the Jews said that, didn't
they? They said, well, we've never been servants to anybody.
They didn't know they were the servants of their own wicked
heart. Not to mention that they belonged
to God. They that dwell therein, they
belong to him. But men don't like it. And that's
why the rebellion of man rises up. See, Adam didn't like it. Now the Scripture says that Eve
was deceived. She got carried in. The devil came and he hoodwinked
her and he tricked her. But it doesn't say that Adam
was deceived. Adam wasn't deceived. He wasn't
tricked. He said, yeah, that's probably right. That's why God
didn't want me to have that, so I'm going to eat it because
I'm going to be in control. And thus it is. But they that
dwell therein belong to the Lord. Now if you start at that place,
you can't find one thing that you can argue with against God's
divine purpose in doing as He sees fit with every individual
that's in the world and create some vessels unto destruction
and some unto redemption. Now people don't like that. Oh,
buddy, that's just terrible to even think of such a thing as
that. But I don't know how else it can be. if the world belongs
to Him. You know? Now that doesn't change
what men are. You see, men say, well, what
about man's accountability? Well, what about man's accountability?
God made man accountable. He could have made man not accountable
if it had pleased Him. But He made man accountable.
He made him that way. He said to Adam, I'm making you
accountable, and in the day you eat thereof, you are going to
die. Now, He didn't say to Adam, if
you eat this, you're going to die. He said, in the day that
you eat this, you're going to die. People don't like that. You know, they want it to be
like, oh, well, wait. You know, we've got to have a
choice. Well, the Scripture says that my people shall be willing
in the day of our power. They make a choice, do they not?
I mean, everything you do in life, you choose to do it. You
came down here this morning because you chose to come. There's not
anybody in here is here because you didn't choose to come. You came because you chose to
come. But you can't choose to do anything,
can you? I mean, you can't choose to find
a cure for cancer. You know, if free will is such
a strong and powerful thing, why don't men just choose to
find the cure to cancer? Why don't they just do it? Because
they can't. You see, men can do what they
are ordained to do. They can do what God is pleased
for them to do. And when the day comes, if the
day comes that the Lord is pleased to give men an understanding
of a way to cure the disease of cancer, then somebody We'll
come up with that and they'll say, oh, well, here's what we
need to do. And that's going to be how it will be. But until
that occurs, it won't occur. Because the Lord is the One who
owns the earth, the world, and they that dwell therein. He has
founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. That is, He has surrounded it
with water. I don't know how all of that
happened. But I know that the earth is
just like it's supposed to be. Now I've had some fellows here
lately trying to convince me that the earth is flat, and it
might be flat. Okay? I don't know if it's flat
or not. Do you really know if the earth is flat? I mean, have
you ever Do you really know if the earth is flat, or if it's
spherical, or if it's a cube, or if it's a triangle, or a pyramid,
or what? Do you really know? But does
it really matter? I mean, would you spend a lot
of time arguing with somebody over that, or would you get mad
at somebody over that? I personally wouldn't, because
the earth is exactly like the Lord made it. And I don't know
a lot of things. Now, personally, at this point
in time, nobody has convinced me that the earth is flat. But
then, as I think about it, why do I think that it is a globe? I mean, that's just what I've
always been told it was, so I don't really know. I mean, if I'd always
been told it was flat, I'd probably think it was flat, wouldn't I?
I mean, that's just the way men are. But you see, that doesn't
have any bang on it. But one thing is sure, and that is that
the Lord has founded the world. He founded it upon the seas.
Now, I don't know all the implications of this, but I've always thought
it quite interesting. And I don't really know why this
came into my mind. But over here in the book of
Genesis, when it says here, It says, In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. Now, He moved upon
the face of the waters, but it doesn't tell us right there that
He created the waters. And I don't know that it's talking
upon the waters of the earth here, see? But he did upon the
water. Now, I'm sure that whatever waters
it's talking about, he did create that. Okay? But listen to what
it says. He says, darkness was upon the
face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the water. So you've got this expanse of
water the Lord moved upon according to what the Scripture says here,
does it not? And God said, let there be light, and there was
light. Now there's several things that
really I'm amazed, you know, as I read the creation account
and I think of it from the terms of men, and we don't know anything
about this. God said, let there be light.
Now keep in mind, it's three days later before He created
the sun and the moon, but He made the light. You see, there
was light before there was the sun. He made the light, and there
was water before He made the rest of the creation here, or
this creation He is talking about here. Now, keep this in mind.
Now, when you think about the glory and majesty of God, and
we think about that God created the heavens and the earth, which
He did as far as we see it, but it is foolish for men to think
that God is limited to this creation. I don't know what God has created,
you see. I'm not saying He has created
anything. I don't know. But I know one
thing, He's bigger than the creation of the heavens and the earth.
This is just one possession that He has. And it says here, that
the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God
said, Let there be light. There was light. God saw the
light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day
and the darkness He called night. The evening and the morning were
the first day before the sun ever went into the sky. There
was an evening and a morning according to the purpose of God.
It sure was. And God said, Let there be a
firmament. in the midst of the waters. Now, he said over here, he hath
founded it upon the seas, or upon the waters. And he said
here, God made a firmament. Now, I'm not sure what a firmament
means. It's a space, I believe, is what
it means. And God said, let there be a
firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the
waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and
He divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament. Now, in my little pea brain,
I'm thinking about that here's this water, and God made a space
in the water, and He divided the waters that was above the
firmament from the waters that's below the firmament. Now that's
just what it says. And it was so. And God called
the firmament heaven. He made the firmament. He called
that heaven. And the evening and the morning
were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the
heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land
appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth,
and the gathering together of the waters called He seas. And
God saw that it was good. Now that sounds so simple, doesn't
it? When you get to analyzing that,
I guarantee you can spend some time thinking about that. But
it doesn't matter about how it will come to be, does it? Because
here is what matters. For He hath founded it upon the
seas and established it upon the floor. We don't have to know
the intricacies of what God did in the creation, but it is important. And it is vital that we understand
that He's the One that made it according to the good pleasure
of His will. That is the lesson that we learn. And then He asked
a question. And, you know, this seems in
some ways, I mean, here He is talking about this belongs to
the Lord. He made the earth. And then he
says, now here is this God that did this. This belongs to Him.
He did this. And then the psalmist asked this
question, Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Or who
shall stand in the holy place? Now here is this God that has
done this. Now here of all these people that are down here running
around like rats looking for a piece of cheese, Who is going to ascend unto the
hill of the Lord? Do you want me to give you the
short answer? There's nobody. That's the answer. But there is somebody. See, that's
the glorious thing. That's what we came to preach
in the Gospel, is to tell you that there is someone who has
done this. You know, I've often heard preached
from this, that this is like, who shall
ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Do you want to go to the hill
of the Lord? All right, well, here's how you've got to do it. All right,
and here it is. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. Well, that's simple enough, isn't
it? I mean, there's plenty of moralistic
preachers today telling folks, look, you can do this. You can
do this. He didn't have clean hands. Don't
go to the picture show. Don't shoot a bagger. Don't do
all these things. I mean, clean hands and a pure
heart. You need to get a pure heart. What did David pray? Cleanse
me, O God. Because why? He knew that he
didn't have a clean heart. He didn't have a pure heart.
Well, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand
in the holy place? And the answer is, he that hath
clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul
into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Now, I know for a fact that that
disqualifies every one of us in here, most especially me.
Paul said that it definitely disqualified him. He had no means
whereby that he could come into the presence of the Lord. He
that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up
his soul into vanity and is sworn deceitfully, he shall receive
the blessing from the Lord and the righteousness from the God
of his salvation." Who is that? Dear brethren, it can only be
speaking about one man that ever lived. It can't be speaking about
you. It can't be speaking about me.
It can't be speaking about anybody you've ever met. It cannot be. And anybody who would expect
that somehow or other they are going to enter into the presence
of the Lord on the basis of what they have done will surely perish. For there is One that has done
this. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? He has, the
Lord Jesus Christ. For He has clean hands and a
pure heart. And he has not lifted up his
soul unto vanity, emptiness. He has lifted up his soul unto
the Lord. And the Scripture says, he shall receive blessing from
the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. He
has been blessed of God. He was blessed of God when he
came into the world. Even Satan recognized his blessing. He said, you know, it is written
of you. that he will not let you dash your foot against a
stone. Even he recognized the blessing
of God upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Even a thief on the cross, by
the grace of God, after a season, when his compatriot cast into
the teeth of the Lord Jesus Christ, even he, by the grace of God,
recognized the blessing of God upon this one. And he said, O
Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. Because you
see, he knew, he understood the fact that he was hanging on that
cross. He said, you know, this man has
done nothing but we are guilty. We're getting just exactly what
we deserve for what we've done. He said, Lord, I have not had
clean hands and a pure heart. Lord, I have sworn deceitfully.
I have lifted up my soul unto vanity. But Lord, when Thou comest
into Thy kingdom, because Lord, I believe that You have not lifted
up Your soul unto vanity. You are that One who is pure
heart, pure hands. Remember me when Thou comest
into Thy kingdom. Oh, what a glorious thing when
the Lord gives a man that understanding. When the Lord brings a man to
the place of seeing Jesus Christ high and lifted up as the Savior
of sinners, as the One who is the righteousness of the people
of God. He is the One who has not sworn deceitfully or lifted
up His soul into vanity. He is that One in whom the Lord
delights. And dear brethren, apart from
the imputation of His righteousness to us, we would have no hope
whatsoever of entering into the presence of the Lord, of ascending
into the hill of the Lord. But because He has received the
blessing of God, and as that One who has received the blessing
of God is the God of salvation, and He gives it to His people,
And it causes them to be known by faith. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. No man shall ever perish who
has come to Christ by the grace of God. No man who has ever wept
over his sin, seeing Jesus Christ as the Savior, shall ever be
ashamed or confounded. For broken in a contrite heart
he will not despise. For Christ has received the blessing
from the Lord." You see, the only place that the people of
God ever receive any blessing... Have you ever been blessed? Have you ever been blessed? Well,
sure you have. We've all received blessings.
But where did those blessings come from? They came because
Jesus Christ purchased those blessings for us. He is the one
who has had the blessing of God put upon Him and He has transferred
those blessings to us. He has made His blessing our
blessing. And we are received into the presence of Almighty
God because of the fact that He is received into the presence
of Almighty God. He has entered in once into the
holy place. Why? So that we might enter in
to that holy place. 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. Oh, Jacob, say lie. This is the generation. You see,
he said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. This is
the generation of them that seek thy face. Esau was not one that
sought the Lord's grace. Jacob, by the grace of God. Jacob,
the supplanter. Jacob was that one who was chosen
of God and blessed in Christ. and became the father of a great
nation. Why? Because the earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. And who can say anything? I mean,
what can we do but fall down on our faces before God? I mean,
Job said, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Now, you
know, sometimes a fellow says, well, how do you know you're
one of the elect? Sometimes you don't. That probably meant most
of the time you might wander around wondering whether or not
you are. You see yourself for what you are and you wonder how
on earth could you possibly be one of God's children? How could
it be? And can it be that I should gain
an interest in His Holy Blood? Died He for me who caused such
pain? But the glorious thing is that he will not break the bruised
reed or quench the smoking flax until he has brought forth judgment
unto victory. For he said, I will lose none
that the Father gave me, every one. Him that cometh to me will
no wise cast out. Now that's a pretty popular verse,
that part of a verse, isn't it? Him that cometh to me, I'll in
no wise cast out." You hear a lot of people quote that part of
the verse, but they leave off the first part where it says,
"...all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I'll
in no wise cast out." All the blessings of God's people found
in Christ. Dear brethren, we can't do anything
but fall on our faces and give Him glory. And you know, I believe
this is a true thing. That is that God's people actually
can attest with what Job said. Even if I find out that I'm not
one of the elect, I'll worship Him. Why? Because He calls me
to. Now, dear brethren, that song
we sing sometimes, but if I should die with mercy sought when I,
the King, have tried, This word to die, delightful thought, as
sinner never died. There's never been a sinner that
sought the Lord who's ever been turned away. Never happens. Can't
happen. Because you see, a man won't
seek the Lord unless the Lord seeks him, unless the Lord opens
his eyes and shows him who this one is. And he says, with the
psalmist, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and the King of Glory shall come
in." He is the King of Glory. Who is the King of Glory? The
Lord Strong and Mighty. The Lord Mighty in battle. Who
is this that cometh from Eden with thy garments from Basra?
He who has tread the winepress of God's wrath alone. He who
has satisfied the law in every jot and tittle. He who is the
Savior of those that call upon Him. Oh, what a glorious thing,
brethren, is the salvation of God, that He has visited this
upon the earth that belongs to Him. He could have created the
world and just destroyed the whole thing and never been such
a thing as salvation. I mean, He could have created
Adam and just put him in a garden and he could have piddled around
there and spent his whole life growing strawberries and blackberries
and that kind of stuff, and then just died one day and that would
have been the end of him. What can anybody have said? Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. But the glorious
thing is that He has created the world to manifest the glory
of His grace in the redemption of sinners. And dear brethren,
He has shown that to us. What if He had done that and
never told anybody? Could He not have done that?
Could He not have redeemed His people and never told anybody? And just the redeemed one day
wake up in heaven? He could have, but he didn't. He sent the Gospel into the world
and he said, declare it from the housetops. Declare that the
Kingdom of God is with men. Peace on earth and good will
toward men. You see, the Lord has shown mercy.