Turn with me to Psalm chapter
24. I remember years ago meeting in the back room of the
church up in Ashland. We'd have prayer much like we
do back here. Henry had been out traveling. And he was tired. He'd been to
a conference somewhere and had driven most of the night to get
back. And he was talking to Brother
Charlie Payne, and he said, Charlie, he said, I'm just tired. He said,
I hope the Lord will bless me. And Charlie said, well, where
are you preaching from, Henry? Henry said, Hebrews chapter 10. And he said, You don't have to
preach Hebrews chapter 10, just read it. And that, I suppose,
is the way it is with Psalm 24. You don't have to preach it,
just read it. I want to talk to you for a little
while tonight on this subject, and you can find it down in the
latter part in verse 10 of this chapter. Who is the king of glory? And you might want to look up
sometime later on. We don't have to do it right
now. But you might want to go back to 1 Chronicles. I think
it's in chapters 14 and 15, where the ark was back in Obed-Edom. And David went down. Uzzah had
died. God made a breach upon Israel
and killed Uzzah because he touched the ark. And David had taken
it upon himself to handle that ark by his own inventions and
by his own ways in his own time, just like we do. We want to take
off on our own and do this and do that and do something else
and expect that God will bless it. Except this ark. was a picture of Christ. And in this ark, it was typical
of the perfections of God in our Lord. And Uzzah reached up
to stabilize that thing. Number one, it should have never
been on a cart. It should have been borne by the priest of Israel.
David realized that later on. Number two, no matter what, you
don't touch the ark. You don't assist the ark. You
don't assist Christ. But anyway, it came the time
to go get the ark. And so David gathered up those
who were singers in Israel. He gathered up those to dance. And he gathered up those who
were joyous and who ran before the ark and shouted rejoiced. The ark's coming back. The ark's
coming back to Jerusalem, back to the kingdom of God. And I believe with those things
in mind, David penned this 24th Psalm. And surely in this man's
lifetime, the Lord had taught him these things. So let's just
go through here verse by verse and see if the Lord will bless
this chapter to our hearts. He says in verse 1, the earth
is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world, and they
that dwell therein. Now this is where we begin. This
is the beginning. When God teaches, this is where
He begins, right here. He's going to bring you to know
who He is. This is where faith learns to
walk. I was watching my little grandbaby
take her first steps here a few months back. This is where faith
learns to walk, right here. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. He said the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. That's where it's at. Being brought
by a work of grace and the power of God's Spirit to see him in
his lofty grandeur, I'd heard his name all my life, the Lord. Nearly every preacher that ever
got up talked about the Lord. Talked about the Lord opening
up the sea. The Lord causing a great flood
to come upon the earth. Talked about the Lord a lot. But when grace comes and by the
power of God's Spirit in the heart and breaks us and brings
us to see something about Who is the king of glory? Who is
the Lord? And he begins here. The earth
is the Lord's. Now he's talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ here. This is a psalm about Christ.
This is a psalm about the gospel coming back to Jerusalem. This
is a psalm about the glory of God in Christ and what it is
when that glory's departed. No glory in Jerusalem apart from
that ark. No worship of God apart from
that ark. We've got to be made to see him
in his lofty grandeur with all preeminence. Every time Paul
preached Christ, he preached him the preeminent one. Every
time John talked about the—he starts right out in the gospel
according to John. He said, now here's what I saw.
Here's my witness. In the beginning was the Word.
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were created by Him
and without Him was not anything made that was made, Larry. You see, I grew up in religion
believing that there's God and then there's this man, Jesus
Christ, separate from God. And I can't explain how all the
fullness of the Godhead can dwell in this man, but that's how Paul
preached him. He's God. He's every bit man
and every bit God. God over all, Paul said, blessed
forever. And we're going to be brought
to see that with all preeminence, all power, all fullness, complete
and total control. He's not, things are not out
of control. They get out of control with
me. I was over there today on the job and all of a sudden the
concrete crew rolled in with about four or five guys and the
roofing crew showed up and they wanted all the roof stocked out
and the guys are out here to wire up all the lights in the
parking lot. It seemed like everybody was
gonna work on that building all showed up at the same time and
things got out of control. Things never get out of control
with him. He don't even stand up, he's seated at the right
hand of God. You can rest in him because he's
at rest. All wise in his counsels, all
righteous in his ways, all powerful in his being. You see, somehow,
someway, this whole generation They have a concept of God. My two sisters came down to visit.
And they got in a conversation. I won't repeat what the conversation
was about, but it was about one of the churches. And she said,
well, what is it they believe? What is it they believe? And I said, well, or what is
it that they don't believe? And I said, well, they don't
believe that Christ was made sin. Now, boy, she looked at
me like I was from another planet. Made sin? Yeah. Yeah. You see, if he wasn't made
sin, then God violated his perfect character when He sent Him to
the cross. He must be made sin. He can't just have sin on a law
book somewhere charged to His name. Because God would be unjust
to punish an innocent man. He has to be made sin. And we have to be made righteous
in order for God to accept us. Or the same thing's true. He
violates his character. God can't violate his character.
He cannot save at the expense of his justice. He cannot justify
at the expense of his mercy and his grace and his love. His perfections must be maintained. He's all righteous in his ways,
all powerful in his being. It's not just some concept of
men, some idea of some ancient culture. And he's not the culmination. I've got another sister, I hope
she gets this tape, that's always telling me about how religion
is kind of a evolution of deity. It's kind of a culmination of
ideas that started way back younger before we knew anything about
it. and they took all the good things that were said and then
they added a little bit and then they took all the good things
from that and then they added a little bit and eventually it
just kind of evolved into what we call religion today. What
a crock. That's what it is. Appearing to Moses in a bush
that burned but was not consumed, God simply said, I am. I am. We make it so difficult. When God wants to make himself
known, he can make himself known. He can make you to understand.
When we try to understand by our own concept, that's when
it gets complicated. God just says, I am. I am merciful. You don't have to explain it,
just believe it, just take it. I'm merciful, but my mercy is
sovereign because I'm God. I am, he said, in the sense that
he always was, always is, always will be. I am in the sense that
he cannot change. I'm the Lord, I change not. That's
not hard to understand. constant in character, constant
in power, constant in purpose, constant in all that he is and
all that he's doing. I am the Lord. I declare the
end from the beginning, from ancient times, the things that
are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. Why is it going
to stand? Because it's all his. You see
what he's saying in this song? The earth is the Lord's. We've got thousands upon thousands
and growing daily worried about acid rain and worried about this
and that and something else and we're going to destroy the earth.
The earth's not yours. It's his. It's his. You would destroy it if he'd
let you. You sure would. You'd destroy yourself if he'd
let you. But the earth is the Lord. Turn with me over to Isaiah
chapter 4. If we don't get any further than
verse 1, I want this to come home. This has been on my mind
ever since those folks asked me to go down there and pastor
and I started wrestling with all these things. I was over
here one day and I read this psalm. It's been on my mind ever
since. The earth is the Lord's. It's His. It's His. You know, we live in the days
of that great falling away I talked about Sunday, and that Paul prophesied
about over in 2 Thessalonians 2. And we live among, are surrounded
by, and must do business with a people that are blind to the
person and the purpose and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Listen to this in Psalm 40, verse 9. He said, O Zion, who's that? That's the church. That's God's
elect, that's the true Jews, O Zion, that bring us good tidings. That's what's going on tonight.
That's what I'm attempting to do, preach the gospel. The angel said to the shepherds,
fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings. What was the
good tidings? There's born in the city of David
a Savior, Christ the Lord. That's the good tidings, the
gospel. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain. We talked about that Sunday.
O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with
strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say
unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God
will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for it. Behold, his reward is with him,
and his work before him. He'll feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those
that are with young. Who is this God who is also a
shepherd? Who is this deity who rules as
God, yet so calm to sins as to gather up his lambs in his arms?
Who is this God? Who is this Lord of glory? It's
he, verse 12, who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his
hand. Did you see that? That's the shepherd. Meted out
heaven with a span, comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him? With whom took
he counsel? Who instructed him, and taught
him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and
showed to him the way of understanding? Behold the nations, and we're
talking about Russia, we're talking about China, we're talking about
the United States, we're talking about Great Britain, the nations. or as the drop of a bucket. And
some of you in here old enough to know what a drop of a bucket
was. That's when you pulled that bucket up out of the well, Bobby,
and you poured that water in your bucket, and you looked in
there, and there's a little bit, and you throw it back in the
well. It wasn't worth waiting on. And the small dust of the
balance, that's that little fine dust that you see on the scale,
they don't even wipe it off, because it won't affect the measurement.
He said, that's what the nations are before me. Lebanon, it's
not sufficient to burn, not the whole outfit, nor all the beasts
thereof sufficient for a burn off. All nations, verse 17, before
him are as nothing, and they're counted to him less than nothing
and vanity. This is he that sitteth, verse
22, upon the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants are as
grasshoppers. The earth is the Lord. Verse 26, Lift up your eyes on
high, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out
their host by number? He calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power,
and not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment
It's passed over from my God. Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, paineth not, neither is weary? There
is no searching of his understanding. The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein.
It's his. It's his. The earth had no form,
no comeliness. Nothing about it. It was just
a void is the word he uses. You know what a void is? It's
a nothing. That's what a void is. We have to be careful with
concrete. We have to put a vibrator in
there because it'll have air pockets in there and it'll leave
a void. A void is just nothing. There's nothing there. Darkness was upon the face of
the deep, and the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. He said,
Let there be plants, and there's plants. He said, Let the day
be separated from the night, and it was. He said, Let's make
man and iron. The earth is the Lord's. You see what David's saying?
It's His. He made it. He purposed it. He planned it. It's His. It belongs
to Him. He can do what He will with it.
Do what He will with it. It's the Lord's and the fullness
thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. In all of its
vast expanses, in all of its oceans and deserts and mountains
and valleys, in all of its turnings and seasons and plantings and
harvests and winter and summer, in all of its history from the
beginning of creation to date, in all of its political powers
and progress and wars and catastrophes, with all of its diversities of
language and people and nations and tribes and male and female
and all this kind of thing, old and young and wise and ignorant
and famous and unknown, civilized, heathen, healthy and sick, the
whole outfit belongs to him. It's his. by the right of his
deity. And I'll tell you something else. It's his by right of purpose. He's got a purpose in this earth
and a purpose in the inhabitants of this earth. And it's his by appointment. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And to that God-man, Larry, he
committed all. All. The whole outfit. By appointment. God gave to the
one mediator between God and men power over all flesh, he
said, that he should give eternal life to as many as God had given
him. Everything in the earth, about
the earth, concerning the earth is in his hands. I read Jeremiah,
I think it was chapter 18 back in the men's study the other
night, just the first six verses. And that's where Paul quotes
from over in Romans 9 when he talks about the potter. And he
told Jeremiah, he said, let's go down to the potter's house.
And he said, there is where I'm going to teach you something
about my word, down at the potter's house. And he took him down there.
And Jeremiah saw the great potter with a vessel in his hand. And
this master, this master potter marred the vessel. He marred the vessel. And he
said, and he made it again. He made it again in his hands. I can remember the first time
I read that. And it was, I just began to hear
a few things about God's sovereignty and I'd read about them and they
were so clear and so plain and so vivid and so all-encompassing
that I just sat there in awe and tremble. How much power God
has in His hands. How much power that God had given
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Power over all flesh, power over
the world, creation, providence. I can't get through a day at
work. I cannot hold a schedule through one single day at work.
Larry, he's handled all providence from the beginning without a
flaw, without a flaw. And I hear this comment a lot.
Heard it again this week. If God is absolutely solemn,
has all power, none can resist his will, how can he hold you
accountable? I don't see how man can be held
accountable if God can't be resisted. How do you mesh them two things?
Turn with me to Romans chapter 9. Brethren, it's in the absolute
sovereignty that the responsibility of man is established. Take away the sovereignty, where's
the responsibility? I know parents. who just let
their kids go, just let their kids do anything they want to.
Why? Well, they're not accountable.
Why? Because the parent's not sovereign in their eyes. A friend of mine was teaching child rearing and child caring,
and I can remember this one statement that he made. He said, it's not
the severity of the punishment, it's the certainty of it. It's the certainty of it. It's
in the absolute sovereignty of God that the responsibility of
man is established. If God was not God, responsibility
would be an option. But if God is God, the beginning,
the firstborn of every creature, creator, sustainer, and the end
of all creation, then man is responsible to God. In Romans
9 verse 19, having established the free and sovereign will of
God in election, having declared the sovereign grace and mercy
of God in redemption, having declared that it's not of him
that willeth, throw that out the window. No sense arguing
about that anymore. The Holy Ghost said it's not
of him that willeth. Just get rid of that. Check that
off. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. Throw that out the window. I
don't want to hear nothing about the race that you run. It's not
of him that run, but of God that shall with mercy. Now watch Romans
9, 19. Paul heard the same thing. Everybody
that's ever preached the gospel or witnessed the gospel, Bob,
hears the same thing. Thou wilt say unto me, why doth
he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? And here's the answer. Nay, but
old man. Oh. Oh, we're talking about God. We're talking about God. Now
I remember, I'm just a man. Nay, but old man. Who art thou? How many worlds do you create? How much providence do you have
control over? Who art thou that replyest against
God? Shall the thing formed say unto
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Had not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour, another unto dishonour? What if God willing to show his
wrath, and make his power known, endured with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, marred by sin and
unrighteousness, and that he might make known the riches of
His glory on the vessels of mercy which He hath forward prepared
unto glory, even us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles. The earth is the Lord's, it's
His, it's in His hands, and the fullness thereof, the world,
and they that dwell therein. Now watch this, verse 2, for
He hath founded it. Uh-oh. Oh, this ain't speculation here. That's not a what if, Lindsey. He had founded it. Where'd he
do that? He founded it on the seas and
established it in the floods. He said, this is my world and
every imagination of man is only evil continually. I think I'll
destroy them. And he did. He did. The earth is the Lord's. You
come out and see that rainbow up there? That's what that rainbow
is all about. That's what it's all about. He founded it upon the seas and
established it upon the floods, both the vessels of wrath and
the vessels of mercy. both the grace of God in election
and the wrath of God in judgment, both the absolute sovereignty
of God in redemption and the responsibility of man for his
sins. He established it upon the seas. He founded it. It's his by right
of deity and it's his by right of appointment. The government
shall be upon his shoulders. And it's his by right of redemption
because he bought it. He bought it. He bought the field
that he might obtain the treasure. He bought it. It's established. It's established in the garden
at the fall and at the altar of Abel, in the ark by the flood,
in the tabernacle beyond the veil, in Egypt by the hand of
the deliverer, in the sea by burial and a divine union, in
the wilderness by great preservation, in the promised land by a strong
arm of Joshua, in the throne as the king of Israel ascended
over the house of God. Verse 3. Who's going to ascend unto the
hill of the Lord? It's His hill. Who's going up
there? Who's going up there? Who's going
to climb up? And if you get up, which you're
not, but if you do, If you make it all the way to the top, who's
going to stand in his holy place? He that hath pure hands. Now leave me out. Pure hands. Who can by his own
merit stand in his holy place, ruling, reigning, honoring God? holding all things together,
allowing both the darkness of sin and the light of holiness,
both the rebellion of man and the faith of God's elect, evil
and good, righteousness and ungodliness. He holds all these things together,
right here on earth, every day, in the same place, at the same
time. and yet arranges it in such a
way that they don't destroy each other, and that the evil works
together for good to them that love God, who are the called
according to His purpose. Who's going to stand there? Who
can stand there? What's the requirement? Clean
hands, a pure heart, and listen, who have not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceit. There's not a single son of Adam
who ever breathed a breath of air on this earth who could say
to the God of glory, my hands are clean. I had a fellow sit
down with me yesterday, and he's the one fellow at work that I
thought wasn't religious. And he's just kind of a cowboy
redneck. And he came over and sat down,
and I hadn't seen him in a while. And we were sitting there eating
lunch. He said, you still preaching? I said, yes, sir. He said, well, I joined the church. He said, I ain't bad as I used
to be. I said, I am. Vanity. There's not a man among
men born of flesh, born in sin, who not lifted up his soul to
vanity, lifted up his soul to earthly pleasures, lifted up
his soul to the praise of men, lifted up his soul to the ignorance
of religion, lifted up his soul to the things of this world.
Solomon said it's vanity, all vanity, every bit of it. and who has not sworn deceitfully,
has not made agreements with God without the means to keep
the covenant, has not made lies his refuge and hid himself in
falsehood, lied to himself and lied to God, has not sworn by
the strong delusion of the God of this world a deceitful oath,
has not struck hands with God but failed to keep his end of
the bargain. lifted up his soul to vanity, sworn deceitfully. Well, if you can find a man that
fits the bill, this man shall receive, David said, the blessings
of the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the blessed man he talks about over and over and over
in the psalm, the man of God's eternal anointing. the man of
God's appointment, that man in whom he vested all the fullness
of his purpose and his glory and his power, that man to whom
he committed all spiritual blessing in heavenly places. He's the
God-man, he's the Lord Jesus Christ, and he and he alone can
ascend to the top of the hill and stand in that holy place
and has an ease. Now watch this, verse 6. This is the generation of them. Now we've been talking about
one man up to now. Now watch this. This changes. Now we're going to talk about
a multitude. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek
thy face. What's what he calls them? Old
Jacob. Not Israel. Jacob. There is in the blessed man a
generation of men given him in love by the Father. A people
given in an eternal and spiritual union, counted as one, considered
as one, cast off as one, received as one, treated as one. David, he never sees just you.
He sees Christ. He sees Christ. What we are he became that what
he is we might become. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. One in Christ. He said, I pray
for them who shall believe on me through their word. Talking
about his apostles that he just finished praying for. that they
all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us." Was it Philip that said, show
us the Father? He said, Philip, have you been
so long time with me? Have you not seen the Father?
I and the Father are one. We're one. How can that be? I don't know. I'm not God. I
just know that we're one with him. He sees us in Him. And all the blessings are in
Christ. To have the blessings is to have the Son. He that hath
the Son hath life. It's not He that goes down and
joins the church and He that walks the aisle and shakes the
hand and gets baptized and makes all kind of foolish commitments
and all these things. It's not in things. It's in Him.
It's in the Son. It's in the blessed man. and being admitted to stand before
God in the purity of his heart and soul, being brought up by
divine justice, having honored God's law and cleared his name,
he now calls his faithful to see themselves in him." Can you see yourself in him? In him. That's what faith does. If you can, he said, lift up
your heads, O ye gates. I know that's just an ark coming
down the road, but it wasn't to David. It wasn't to him. It was the King of Glory. He
saw him in time coming down the road. Lift up your heads, O ye
gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King
of Glory. That's the only one that can
do you any good. The King of Glory. He's got to be Lord. You're in too big of a mess for
a preacher to get you out of it. You're in too big a mess
to get yourself out of it. And your dad and mom can't get
you out of it. Nobody can get you out of it except the King
of Glory. Who is this King of Glory? It's
the Lord. Who's He? The earth is the Lord's. Do you see what He's saying?
The King of Glory. The Lord strong and mighty. The
Lord mighty in battle. Who is the King of Glory? Well,
I tell you this. This is the question that will
be answered. Over in, is it Philippians chapter
2 where He tells, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus. At the end of that, he said he
was raised up and given a name above every name. That at that
name, every knee is going to bow. What are they going to confess? That he's Lord to the glory of
God. That's the question that will
be answered by all in due time on bended knee and confessed
by every tongue It's the Lord of Hosts. He is the King of Glory. Our Father, take these words and show us in our hearts the
Potter and make us to see his love and
his beauty and his glory and his greatness. as he molds those
vessels of clay, and that he does so to his own name's honor
and glory. Give us hearts to glorify Christ. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen.