Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I'm reading from the 24th Psalm. It is what is called by many
the Ascension Psalm. And we read in verse 3, who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? Another way of saying this is,
who will be in heaven? What a question. Who will be
in heaven? I do not like what is called
hellfire and brimstone preaching. You've probably heard a preacher
preach that way. I don't like that. Hell is a terrible thing to think
about. It's in the Scripture. There
is a heaven, and there is a hell. I've heard people argue against
the existence of hell, saying, how could a loving God send a
man to hell? Well, a loving God doesn't send
a man to hell, but a just God does. God is absolutely just. All sin must be punished. And to show you how all sin must
be punished, look at the cross. Christ took the sins of His people,
and He suffered the full equivalent of hell. Now, I can't hardly
stand to think about someone suffering eternally in hell,
but the Scripture does teach that. God is just, and the punishment
will fit the crime if a man's sent to hell. If I'm sent to
hell, I'll be getting exactly what I deserve. But there is
a heaven. a place of indescribable bliss and joy, no tears, no pain,
no sin, perfect conformity to the image of Christ. And there
is a place called hell. Now, who will be in heaven? Let me read the next verse. Here's
who will be in heaven. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath 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." Now, upon the
surface, it says the only people who will be in heaven are people
with clean hands. That means they haven't committed
any sins. And they have pure hearts. They do not have sin
passing through their hearts. They've never lifted up their
soul to vanity. Oh, they've been grounded looking
only to the Lord. And they've never broken a promise.
They've never sworn deceitfully. Those are the only people who
are going to be in heaven. Now, where does that leave me?
Where does that leave you? Now, if I don't understand the
gospel, that passage of Scripture would leave me in despair, no
hope of being saved. But I want to preach the gospel
to you from this passage of Scripture. Now, this has been known as the
Ascension Psalm, and most people think that the of this. David wrote it when the ark was
brought back up the hill to the place where the hill of Zion,
the place where the temple would be one day. The ark had been
staying in some place for like 40 years, and David's bringing
it back. And they put it on an ox cart. And the Scripture says
it was only to be transported by staves put through rings on
the Levite's shoulders, and they were to carry it. Nobody was
to touch the ark. You see, you don't come into God's presence
and touch Him apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from
the gospel. He's holy. They were not allowed to touch
the ark, but these men disregarded what the Scripture said and put
the ark on an ox cart, and they were bringing it back up the
hill, and David was dancing and filled with joy, and it hit a
rut in the road or something, and the ark was about to fall
off, and a man by the name of Uzzah held it up. He touched
it. And the Scripture says the angle
of the Lord was kindled against him, and he smote him. He killed
him right then. And David was displeased by this,
and he was scared. He stopped. He said, we're not
bringing it there. We don't know what to do. And he left the ark at Obededim's
house and didn't try to bring it back to Jerusalem. Three months
later, he finds out that the Lord had blessed Obededom's house
so much because the ark was there, and he sought to bring the ark
back, but this time he did it the right way. He said, we sought
not the Lord according to due order. That's why I made a breach
against us. He brought back the ark without a man touching it
on the shoulders of the Levites with a pole sticking through
it, and they brought it back up the hill. And David's dancing
at this time. The Scripture says every six
steps they would offer sacrifice, six being the number of man and
the continual need of a sacrifice. David had a completely different
attitude now as he brings it back. He's rejoicing, but he's
understanding that God can only be approached through the sacrifice.
And he's bringing the ark back at this time. And most people
think that this is when this psalm was composed, when he was
bringing back the ark up the holy hill. Now, let's look at
this psalm. I'd like to look at the whole
psalm. David says in verse 1, the earth is the Lord's. and the fullness thereof." Now,
in preaching the gospel, we have to begin with the character of
God. The earth is the Lord's. You know, men divide the parcels
of the earth into nations and countries and provinces and states
and cities and our own personal private property. It's my property. No, it's not. It's the Lord's. You see, He is the Lord, and
the earth is the Lord's. That last breath you took, it's
God's air. The food you have eaten, it's
God's. He said the cattle on a thousand
hills are mine. If I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell you about it. The earth is the Lord's. He's
absolutely sovereign. And next it says, and the fullness
thereof. I like that, the fullness thereof. Now, I would not in any way advocate
being irresponsible with pollution, with, you know, people talking
about the greenhouse effect and all that kind of stuff. We should
be responsible. We should not pollute the earth.
We should be careful with the earth. I have no doubt about
that. but I'm not worried about the earth being destroyed by
man. It belongs to the Lord and the fullness thereof. Once again,
I'm not advocating irresponsibility, but this is the Lord's earth,
and He's going to keep it full. He says, the world and they that
dwell therein. Now, everybody belongs to the
Lord. You belong to the Lord, whether
you know it or not. You belong to the Lord. I belong to the
Lord. You see, He is the Lord. He's the Lord of creation. He
created the universe. He's the Lord of providence.
Everything that happens in time is His will being done. He's
most especially the Lord of salvation. That means if you're saved, He
saved you and your salvation is in your, not in your hands,
it's in His. It's up to Him as to whether
or not you'll be in heaven or in hell because He's the Lord.
He's the world and them that dwell therein. He controls everybody
and everything and whatever's going through your mind right
now, He's in control of because He's the Lord. the free and uncoerced
actions of men he's in complete sovereign control of, because
he's God. I love saying, the earth is the Lord's, and the
fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein.
Verse 2, for he hath found it upon the seas. and established
it upon the floods." Now, I don't understand this, but in the Genesis
account, the dry land came out of the water. How did that happen?
I don't know. That's the way God did it. And
He founded it upon the seas, established it upon the floods.
All we have is the Genesis account, and I know that God's the Creator,
and if He did it that way, that's the way it was done. Somebody
says, do you believe in six literal days? Well, if there were six
literal days, I do. It could mean something else, and I've
even read things, you know, time can be different in different
spheres, and I don't, I'm not a physicist, I don't understand
it, but if it's six literal days, yeah, I believe that. If it's
metaphors of something else, yeah, I believe that. Whatever,
God created the universe. He is creator. He spake the world into existence. He founded it upon the seas and
established it upon the floods. And then he asked this question,
who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand
in his holy place? Who will be in heaven? Who will
be saved? And then he gives the answer,
he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. who hath not lifted
up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive
the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of
his salvation." Now, the only people who will be in heaven
are the people who fit this description. If this does not describe me,
I will not be in heaven. And if this does not describe
you, you will not be in heaven. Let me read the description again.
Clean hands and a pure heart. You've not lifted up your soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. You've never lied. You've never
broken a promise. Now, You know, I hope as well as I
do, that this describes only one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only He has clean hands. He never sins. Only He has a
pure heart. He loved His Father with all
of His heart, all of His soul, all of His strength, all of His
mind. He never lifted up His soul unto
vanity, and He never broke a promise. I remember some years ago there
was that group, the promise keepers, and not one of them ever kept
their promise. That was just ridiculous. Promise keepers,
there's one who keeps his promise. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the God of glory. Now, where does this leave us? It leaves us with a true understanding
of what the Bible calls justification. What is justification? sinlessness. It means you have nothing to
be condemned for. Now, do you remember the story
of the two men in the temple, the Pharisee and the publican? The Pharisee was the religious
moral man. The publican was the despised
tax collector who had lived very sinfully. One the world would
call a good man, the other the world would call an evil man. Two men went up to the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I'm not
as other men are. I'm giving you the credit for
it, but I'm not as other men are. I fast twice in the week.
I give tithes of all that I possess. I'm not an extortioner or an
indulterer or unjust. I'm not like this pathetic publican
over here. And then the publican, he stood
afar off, beating on his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. And Christ said, I say unto you,
that this man went down to his house justified. That means he went down to his
house. with clean hands and a pure heart, one who had never lifted
up his soul into vanity, one who had never sworn deceitfully. Now, by his own admission, he
was a sinful man. God be merciful to me, the sinner. This man believed himself to
be the worst man alive. And yet the Lord says, I say
unto you, he went down to his house justified. He didn't say
He went down to His house forgiven or pardoned or shown mercy, although
He was all of those things, but He went down to His house justified. Now, how can that be? How can it be said of me that
I have clean hands and a pure heart and I've not lifted up
my soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully when I know the opposite has
been true concerning me, that I have unclean hands and an impure
heart and I constantly lift my soul up to vanity and I never
tell the truth as it ought to be told? Somebody says, well,
how can I listen to you preach if you say that? Well, I'm telling
you the truth. I'm telling you the truth. I
hope you'll continue to listen. You're that way, too, whether
you know it or not. You're a liar. All men are liars. That's just
our nature. Somebody says, well, not everybody
is. Yeah, they are. Yeah, they are. I mean, a baby, the Scripture
says that wicked go as strange as soon as they be born. They
go about speaking lies. Well, how can a baby lie? Well,
he manages it when he's crying and trying to get you to pay
attention to him when, you know, that's what the Bible says. Now,
how can this be? The only way I can understand
this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1 John 3, verse 4, John says
sin is the transgression of the law. Any lack of perfect conformity
to God's holy law is sin. And then verse 5 says, he was
manifested to take away our sin, our sins. He was manifested to
take away my unclean hands, my impure heart, my following after
vanity, and my lying. Now, how did he take that away? He took it upon himself. This is holy ground, but the
Lord Jesus Christ bore my sins in his own body on the tree. The scripture says, for he hath
made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. He took my sin. it became His. That is why He died. God didn't treat Him as if He
were guilty, even though He really wasn't. He was guilty. God is just. He willingly took
my sin and made it His own. And that perfect righteousness
that he worked out, just as he was literally made sin, every
believer is literally made the righteousness of God in him. His clean hands, his pure heart,
his never lifting up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully
becomes mine. That's what it means to be justified. You stand before God without
guilt, having never sinned. That's what justification means,
having never sinned. Now, this describes everybody
for whom Christ died. What's the evidence Christ died
for you? You believe the gospel. You're relying on Jesus Christ
only. You're relying on His clean hands.
You're relying on His pure heart. You're relying on His sacrifice
as putting away sin. You're relying totally on Him.
You're not looking anywhere else. You're not looking to yourself.
You're not looking to your works. You're not looking to your evidences.
You're looking to Him only. That's what faith is. Faith is
faith in Him. It's believing on Him. Now, that
person now who has claimed-that's the person who's going to be
in heaven. Everybody Christ died for, everybody Christ lived for,
everybody Christ represented. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn
deceitfully-that describes every believer. That's the gospel,
my dear friends. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Now, David says in verse 6, this
is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek thy face,
O Jacob. Now, that's interesting, isn't
it? David calls God Jacob. Now, why is that? Most of the
versions, the other translations, you read the God of Jacob, but
God's not in the Hebrew. It's not in the original. He
actually calls God Jacob. How is that? Christ became what I am of Jacob,
a sinful, deceitful worm. That's Jacob. Christ said, I'm
a worm and no man. All that I am, he came to be
on the cross. That's what it means when he
was made sin. Do I understand that? No. I'm just giving what
the Bible teaches. He was made sin. He became what
I am that I might become who He is, the righteousness of God. And that's why He said, this
is the generation of them that seek thy face, O Jacob. And then here is why this is
called the Ascension Psalm. David says, lift up your heads,
O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and
the King of glory shall come in. Now, he's talking about the
ark ascending back up into the hill physically, but more than
that, he's talking about the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ
when He returned back to heaven. Now, here's something that's
amazing. For 33 years, God was on earth. Jesus Christ is eternal. eternally
the object of praise in heaven. Oh, the angels praised Him. He's
the eternal, uncreated, second person of the Trinity. God became man. And for 33 years,
He dwelt here on this earth working out a perfect righteousness. And I like to think of the angels
watching him during that 33-year period. They were amazed when
they saw him become a seed in his mother's womb. They were
saying, what's going on? They didn't understand this, which
things angels desire to look into. When they watched him as
a young man, as a boy, as a young man, perfectly pleasing his father,
I bet when they saw people mistreat him, they were ready to smite,
waiting for God to say, go down and revenge this against my son. Can you imagine how they felt
when they saw Christ nailed to a cross. Oh, I don't think they
understood what was going on, but they were waiting for God
to send Him to smite everybody that was killing His Son. But
they didn't understand that this was all God's purpose. This was
God's will. And now Christ has died, and
he accomplished salvation, and now he's ascending back to glory.
Can you imagine he'd been gone for 33 years? Now, I don't understand
how that works. I mean, that's eternity, and
him being gone for 33 years and coming back, I don't understand
how that works, but he came back. And David says, Lift up your
heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. Speaking of the ascension
of Christ, who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. Now, who is this King of glory?
He's the strong and mighty one, the one mighty in battle. Now,
the only way you're going to see and I'm going to see the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is if we see the accomplishments
of His death. Now, this was a mighty battle.
He was crushing Satan, the serpent's head. He was vanquishing the
sins of His people, making them to be not, and what a bloody,
mighty battle this was. He came into the world for this
purpose, to save His people, and He kept the law for them,
but now He's dying for them. What good would His life do you
if He didn't die? What if He just lived and went
back to heaven? Wouldn't do you any good? But no, he died and
put away those sins. What a battle that was. Satan
destroyed, sin put away. And if you look at the Lord in
any other light as that of a mighty victor, you've not understood
him. You see, he's the mighty one,
mighty in battle. The Lord is a man of war." Now,
that's not talking about human wars that we like, that we practice
and so on, but that's talking about the battle of putting away
sins. Say to Jerusalem, her warfare
is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned. That's what was
taking place. That's who the Lord of glory
is. He achieved glory he would have never had had he not gone
to the cross and won this mighty battle. So David repeats himself
in verse 9. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Talking about his ascension back
into heaven, and he asks this question again. Who is this King
of glory? Now, the first time that he asked
the question, who is this king of glory, he said, the Lord mighty
and strong, the Lord mighty in battle. But now look what he
says, who is this king of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. Now, what is the significance
of that? When the Lord went back into glory, he didn't come by
himself. all of His hosts, all of His
people were in Him. And when He went back to glory,
they did, too, in the person of their substitute, in the person
of their representative. You know, I hear people say,
I'm as sure for heaven as if I'm already there. And, well, I got something better than that.
I am already there. Because if Christ is already
there, I'm already there because I'm in Him. My acceptance is
in the Beloved. And the Scripture actually says
we're seated together, talking about all of God's elect, everybody
for whom Christ died. We're seated together in heaven. in the Beloved. I'm there right
now. He is the Lord of Hosts. That
means when He ascended back, this glorious ascension back
to heaven, after having vanquished His enemies and completed His
work, He came back with every single one of His people, eternally
united to Him. The Lord of Hosts, He is the
King of Glory. Oh, what a name for the One who
is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the King of glory. All the glory of salvation goes
to Him. Now that's the person who's going
to be in heaven, the person in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we
have this message on DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying God
will be pleased to make Himself known to you. To receive a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send a request to todd.nyberg
at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.